The forest of Forever Fall was a sea of vibrant red, overlaid against the sunset sky to produce a warm sight. Normally serene as a landscape painting, a small section of the forest shook & rattled across the vista, leaves flying, trees falling, ruining the serene, static image.
"RATATATATATATAT" In the center of the forest's action, the barrel of Gianduja rotated, expelling high-velocity Dust bullets that exploded on impact against the trunks of the forest trees, causing them to fall to pieces, a black phantom darting from each wooden corpse as it fell to tatters. Coco rotated in place at a steady pace, matching the Geist as it tried to flee, firing into whatever it tried to possess until it was left with no options to run. Tree by tree burst at the combination of Coco's Semblance & her bullets, sending a haze of wooden dust & dirt particles everywhere, creating a coffee-colored fog of war befitting of her team name; the Geist would eventually have nowhere to go, and her gun would impact against its bony mask, sending the Grimm to the great beyond - mission complete.
"We're done with the stragglers. Have you finished the Geist yet, Coco?" The thoughts of her teammate, Fox, rang in Coco's mind - a telepathy channel used to keep the team together, even when separated, constantly updating one another on their Grimm quarry.
"Not yet," she replied, "Little sucker's really moving around fast. Start coming towards the cloud of dust, guys, one of you might be able to get it on its next round." The Geist kept making circles around Coco, trying to move from tree to tree for some form of a body to strike back, but the fashionista wasn't having it, she put all of her Hype into each & every round to turn the mighty oaks to mere woodchips upon immediate impact - she was almost toying with it in a sense. "Ah, ah, ah," she mocked, "Those suits are far out of your value, stud." Coco was having fun messing with the Geist on some level, taking joy in blowing up the wilderness, but it had to come to an end at some point, else her professors would be mad at her for defacing one of Remnant's most beautiful forests.
The Geist couldn't agree more, this had to end. It changed its trajectory, coming in closer towards Coco, risking the bullet hailstorm - it darted towards a couple mid-sized rocks, ones that could do some damage if possessed, but failed to dash quickly enough as it exploded into a gray mist of particles. The Geist wasn't deterred, it dashed towards more stones, closer and closer to Coco, which she quickly destroyed with her gun. The visibility was getting poor at this point, Coco could barely see through the haze as is with her sunglasses, it didn't help the cloud was getting larger & closer to her the more she fired. "What's it doing? Is it trying to make a tornado or something to possess? I can't see with this- wait a second..." Coco slowed her firing rate for a moment, taking a moment to think - a wry smile formed on her lips as she figured out the Geist's gambit. She slowly released her finger from the trigger and begun to back up, letting her gun change back to its basic purse form, feigning huffing in a panic - if her intuition was right, the Geist would be coming for her any moment now. As if on cue, a bright yellow light came from behind Coco's field of view - the Geist charged at her with its claws, ready to slice her in two...
The Geist felt the weight of Gianduja's purse format press directly into its mask, cracking it in multiple places. The phantasm shrieked in pain and fumbled against the dirt floor, its body dissipating into a black mist. Coco swung her purse over her shoulder and chuckled - those meditation & sensory exercises Yatsuhashi & Fox taught her really paid off. Coco backed up towards where the Geist disappeared, her upper body feeling sore from all the twisting & arm-movement to chase the Geist; she moved her back against a soft, tall forest mushroom, one strange oddity of nature in Forever Fall, and leaned back into it, letting the coziness soothe her muscles. "The Geist is down." Coco shot out through Fox's channel. "Mission complete." Coco sunk to the ground and sat down, she was really going to need a hot bath & nap when she got back to Beacon; CFVY's team leader was quite thankful for the therapeutic shifting the mushroom was doing on her back, almost like a massage chair...
"Wait, why's this moving so much?" Coco tilted her head upwards, and from behind the hem of her shades, she came eye-to-eye with a few surviving sections of the Geist's mask, eye glowing gold in rage. Coco tried to dart upwards, but in an act of revenge, the Geist shook, spraying an orange pollen around its new body, making a new cloud of particles where the old one just began to disperse. Coco coughed in a panic, swinging Gianduja around as she backed up - her eyes teared up and she couldn't see through the stinging sensation, the Geist could've been primed to attack for all she knew. Indeed, it was - a root of the mushroom tore from the ground, and was primed to strike Coco across the face...
"Coco!" a female voice with a heavy accent cried from above. The Geist tried to turn and react, but was powerless as a brown-haired girl with rabbit ears fell from the sky, splitting the mushroom & mask in half with a translucent scythe. The Geist let out one final, pathetic cry as the bunny-girl swung the scythe around, spinning on her toes in a kneeling position - the Grimm's black mist & orange pollen dissipated, and as the sky cleared, so did the girl's weapon, disappearing into shining particles of Dust. The girl, the rabbit Faunus Velvet, leapt to her feet and ran towards her team leader, wrapping her arms around the beret-wearing girl for support. "Coco! Are you okay?! What was that orange stuff it shot?"
"I'm fine, V." Coco coughed out, "It was just mushroom spores, it stings a bit, but it's nothing that the medical room at Beacon can't deal with." As Coco spoke, she continued to cough and clear her throat mid-sentence, rubbing her eyes with her free hand to clear the tears. Coco was putting on a brave front, but Velvet was still concerned for her leader - she looked at the remains of the mushroom the Geist once possessed.
"I dunno," she replied, "I've never seen a mushroom that large before, let alone that shape or color. It might be poisonous for all we know..."
"I'm fine, Velvet, really." Coco tried to stand up straight, but found herself fidgeting a little bit, rubbing her hands across her upper body, a chilly sensation pulsing through her muscles. Despite the internal struggle, Coco continued to proclaim she was fine, standing erect and fixing her sunglasses on her face. "Let's just get in contact with Fox & Yatsu, I want to get home before whatever that was sets into my clothes..." Velvet looked down her team leader one more time, feeling a little concerned as she watched Coco keep rubbing her hands against her shoulders, like something was a matter with her.
"Fox? Yatsu? It's Velvet, I've retrieved Coco. The Geist is dead, and all other Grimm should be exterminated here for now."
"Is Coco alright?" Fox's voice rang back.
"She says she is, but she was exposed to these spores from a strange mushroom the Geist possessed. We need to get her back to Beacon immediately."
"Got it. Head north to the forest clearing, we'll rendezvous there while Yatsu & I hail a helicopter."
"Roger." With the communication line ceased, Velvet got under Coco's left arm and wrapped it around her neck, carrying Coco against her back as the fashionable young woman shuddered. "Come on now, Coco, let's get you back in bed."
"T-Thanks, V. But slow down a bit, I have a headache, and- ack!"
"Ack?"
"It's my boots, something's up with them. Damn, I thought these things would've at least lasted me until the end of my time here. I'll have to go get a new pair made..." Coco shivered as if she was chilly, or her body was fighting off some sort of infection, but to the leader of Team CFVY, Coco was blissfully unaware of the reaction the frenzied spores were having on her body...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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