Sliding down the hill, Steve witnessed the girl in red fall onto a tree branch, shouting something about a bad landing, before somehow dashing off of the branch in a red blur as the rock monster swung at the tree, breaking it effortlessly.

"What the hell was that? Barca, tell me how fast that kid can go. I'm starting to think that they'd actually be able to handle themselves and I can start running."

"I will try, Staff Sergeant, please try to keep your helmet focused on the female in red so I would be able to calculate her miles per hour quicker."

"Can't you just- Alright, scratch that, just keep me and these kids alive. See if you can find a weakness on that rock monster, alright?"

"Affirmative, Staff Sergeant, I will provide tactical suggestions while analyzing the hostile for any weaknesses."

"Thanks Barca." Watching the trio split off into different directions after being commanded by the blonde, the leaping into the trees with incredible acrobatics and Nora yelling "Don't forget me!", before grabbing her grenade launcher off of her back and… using it to propel herself up into the tree? Ruby quickly sped past the two, leaving behind a trail of roses while asking for help.

Ruby had her gun transform into a scythe, slicing at the rock monster but not damaging it, and then transformed her scythe back into a rifle, firing a shot at the monster, her gun not having much of an effect on the monster but still sped away after it focused on her.

Seriously? Multi function weapons? Also, how could that girl even handle shooting that thing? It looked like it fired something at least of the .50 BMG caliber.

Nora fired a volley of grenades at the rock monster, each of them hitting their mark and leaving some kind of pink smoke behind. Was she shooting smoke bombs, or were those actually explosives and just didn't affect the monster at all? If it was the latter… hoo boy, Steve would probably have to convince these guys to run if Barca couldn't find a weakness on it.

Ren performed some more acrobatic tricks, leaping from tree to tree while firing his automatic pistols at the rock monster, the bullets also not having much of an effect, but getting the rock monster to focus on him.

The rock monster swung at the tree Ren was on, but he proved to be too fast for the lumbering giant, getting it to punch into tree and flipping onto its arm, running on it towards the giant's head. As the man ran up the giant's arm, he leapt into the air and spun with his bladed guns out. Was he going to perform a god damn beyblade maneuver?

Spinning fast enough for his gun blades to act as a sort of propeller, he flew into the giant, cutting across its head with no effect as it attempted to protect its face.

It's face, why would it only protect its face and carelessly smash around with its other body parts?

"Staff Sergeant, I believe that the hostile's main weakness would be its face, specifically the amber colored gem in the middle of its white, almost bone-like face, seeing as it attempted to shield its face from the green male's attack."

That made sense, if a grenade launcher couldn't take chunks out of this thing, why not try destroying what very well could be the control center? "Anything else, Barca? I don't think my gun would be much help here."

"Your M7S Submachine Gun fires 5x23mm caseless ammunition, while your allies fighting the hostile use a dust-like substance, perhaps the sheer impact of a projectile would eliminate it, or at least damage it?"

Bullets made out of dust? This day was getting weirder and weirder by the second. Steve checked his VISR, pleased to see that he had 192 rounds for his M7S, at least four magazines worth of ammo. He had some extra ammo in his rucksack, but now wasn't the time to resupply.

Steve pushed his immense surprise away for the moment, he'd ask the group what kind of performance enhancing drugs they were on after they take care of the rock monster.

Ren landed on the ground in a crouched pose next to Jaune, who held his hands to his head, "We gotta get in closer!"

"Barca, watch my back. I'm heading in."

"Affirmative, Staff Sergeant, follow my instructions and I assure you that you and the others will come out of this battle victorious and uninjured."

"How about this!" Loading a magazine marked with a lightning bolt, Steve expected for her to strike down the monster with the might of Zeus judging by the marking, with all of the crazy stuff he's seen today.

Ruby sped forwards, fast enough to be pretty blurry in Steve's eyes, leaving rose petals in her path again. Was she hiding a bag of rose petals in her cloak or something? Getting in front of the monster, she pulled the trigger and fired a shot of pure electricity, managing to hit its arm before landing again.

Kind of a let down, but you have to be realistic, even in these kinds of scenarios.

Landing on the ground, Ruby gasped, the electricity she fired at the monster did not seem to injure it, only push it backwards a bit. The electricity dissipated shortly after, and paused for a slight second.

"Staff Sergeant, brace for impact induced shock wave."

Tensing his body and making sure both of his feet were planted on the ground the best he could, Steve dove behind a tree ¾ of the way to the group and latched onto it to the best of his ability.

Letting go of the tree, Steve could see the four go flying. Nora and Ren managed to land by holding onto each other's shoulders, Ruby tumbling before bringing out her scythe to dig into the ground, while Jaune was not so lucky as he rolled and hit his jewels straight on a rock. "You'll be fine without a weapon, you're the strategist." came out of Jaune's mouth in a sarcastic tone. Poor guy.

Steve grimaced, "Ouch..."

"That's it!" Nora started to run towards the rock monster, a lot more serious than what seemed to be her usual self. Tossing her grenade launcher, it transformed into a large hammer, of course.

Quickening her long strides, she leaped into the air and smashed the rock monster's swinging hand, breaking it apart and off from the body. A piece of the boulder was thrown at Nora by the giant using the momentum of spinning around, but the piece was intercepted by the girl in red with her scythe, cutting it apart.

"Staff Sergeant, I believe that now would be the time to engage the enemy."

Nodding, Steve strode out of his cover behind the three, opening fire with his M7S and shooting three round bursts aimed at the giant's face, the long range causing most of his shots to hit the area around the giant's face and causing it to move an arm to protect itself. His sudden entrance surprised Ren and Jaune, who took cover as Steve shot past them, also causing the shrapnel from the rock that was broken apart by the girl in red to fly over them.

Jaune dove to the ground as if he was trying to avoid a grenade, "Whoa whoa, who's the guy with the gun?"

"Jaune, we all have guns here." Ren paused for a second, looking over his Jaune, "Except for you."

"Noted, logging blonde individual as "Jaune". Threat level designated 2 instead of 1, as I detect some sort of energy surrounding each of these individuals."

Jaune looked flustered, "Well yeah, I'm the strategist! I can't even swing a sword straight! I- can't we just focus on this other guy?"

"Hey!" Jaune looked for any defining features on the figure, looked like a guy, but looks could be deceiving, he was dressed head to toe in armor, Atlas? No, unless this guy was some kind of special forces he didn't have the polished armor of an Atlesian soldier.

Jaune figured that he would have to learn the guy's name later, as Steve looked at the blonde that was calling him over, lessening his rate of fire to maintain accuracy, "I'm here to help, aim for that thing's face! That's it's weak point!"

The face? Oh of course, the Geist didn't care for the rest of its body at all, and only tried to protect itself when its face was aimed at, as demonstrated by Ren earlier!

"Relay the info to the front, I'll provide suppressing fire!" Firing some more bursts at the giant, Steve moved to the front alongside Jaune and Ren.

Nora stared at the new addition to their party for a second, not exactly colorful, semed pretty tactical, yep, definitely some kinda military! "Who's that, Jaune?"

"Aim for it's fa- Oh what the hell!?" Steve watched as a monstrous arm grew out of a rune that appeared in the missing arm's place.

Ruby recoiled slightly at the swear, "That's a Geist! Ghosty thingies that can control other things!"

"Noted, logging "Geist" as a new kind of enemy. It appears that the rocks are merely a vessel for the actual hostile. I predict that if you damage the base enough, it will eject and attempt to find something else to control."

Nodding, Steve watched as the Geist stuck its monstrous arm into a tree trunk, which also happened to be the tree Jaune was leaning on to catch his breath. Pulling the tree upwards, the Geist ripped the tree out from the ground to use as a new arm.

"His arm is a tree, HIS ARM IS A TREE!" Jaune tucked tail and tried to run away while screaming.

"Big mistake!" Loading her scythe rifle with a magazine marked with a flame symbol, Ruby fired her gun at the Geist, setting its newly acquired tree arm on fire and staggering it slightly.

Big mistake indeed, as the Geist didn't seem to care much about its arm being on fire. Due to this, a loud "Big mistake!" was elicited from Jaune.

"Staff Sergeant, I would recommend firing at the hostile now, Jaune cannot possibly run fast enough to elude it."

Nodding, Steve fired a quick spray of his M7S at the giant in hopes of distracting it, but it seemed dead set on Jaune.

The giant swung its fire arm at a running and panicking Jaune, who fell to the floor after turning around to look at the Geist, and it took advantage of this and swung down at him.

Firing a few more bursts with his M7S at the giant in an attempt to distract it, Steve mentally swore, a kid was about to die under his watch! He wouldn't be able to make it in time, but before Steve could chide himself more, he saw the Geist fall backwards, having took a serious cut to the face from one of the man in green's gun blades.

"Now would be the time to attack, Staff Sergeant."

"Right." Running towards the toppled Geist, Steve fired some more shots at it before having to dive to the side to avoid its swinging flame arm.

"That didn't work, Barca!" Reloading his M7S, Steve backed away from the giant that was in the process of getting up.

"Request the aid of the group behind you, their general speed and weapons should be able to distract it enough, though what I've seen from the female in pink points towards her having the strength to rival or possibly exceed a Spartan's, although unlikely."

"Christ, I can't be on Earth anymore, unless the UNSC recently decided to dole out some experimental augments to the general populace."

"You would be correct, Staff Sergeant. I have scanned the geography of the land around you and nothing in my database matches anything that we have seen here, apart from the humans and general plant life."

Steve sweat dropped, he wasn't even on Earth anymore! Did that explosion send him flying into some backwater planet with things to rival his greatest nightmares and people agile and strong enough to leap among trees and chop apart stone?

Pushing these thoughts away yet again, Steve made it to the group, who just finished talking out their plan.

"You kids gonna help out or what? I can't exactly take this thing down with a peashooter!"

"Don't worry, we've got it all planned out, we're going to hit it harder!" Jaune exclaimed to the soldier, who slouched in slight disappointment and disbelief.

"Well..." Looking back at the Geist, he realized it was upright again. "Alright, anything to get rid of that thing!"

Jaune grinned, before turning back to the rest of his group, "Ren, left. Ruby, right." The two sped off in their designated directions, their speed still surprising Steve who turned back to the Geist and started to fire again to try to suppress it.

"Nora… ready to try out the new upgrade?"

"Noted, logging individual as "Nora". Nora seems to demonstrate immense strength and speed, as noted before, although not as fast as her red companion, who seems to be able to go at speeds exceeding that of a Spartan's. These factors have earned her a threat level of 5 to you."

"Sheesh..." Steve felt inadequate, these people could perform and do things even a Spartan wouldn't be able to match. At least, he'd never seen Master Chief do some wacky tree jumping tricks or a beyblade maneuver. Also, new upgrade?

"Watch out, Staff Sergeant!"

Nora nodded before taking off, leaving Jaune and a diving Steve to themselves.

"Right, then I will- Aah!" Steve dove into Jaune, moving him out of the way of a flaming tree arm being slammed down near them.

"Do not falter, Staff Sergeant, keep moving!"

Yanking Jaune up, Steve pushed him forwards, "Start running, kid! We'll take care o- OOF!"

The Geist slammed its remaining rock arm into Steve's back, making him feel like he was hit by the Chief himself, except many times harder. His rucksack absorbed some of the impact to an extent, but he could still feel something crack.

"Staff Sergeant, prepare for another collisio-"

Before Steve could process what just broke in his body, he collided with a tree, the force of the hit yanking the M7S out of his hands and throwing it into a bush. The impact didn't knock him out, but Steve could feel something else crack, probably a few ribs. His chestplate and bodysuit reduced some of the impact, thank god for Titanium-A armor and padding, but he could still feel the shock setting in slowly.

Jaune was shocked. First a mysterious guy dressed in armor that would make an Atlesian soldier double take pops out of a bush and says that he's "here to help" by nearly shooting him and Ren, and then he goes and gets his back done in?! What kind of insane person would run into battle without an aura?

Granted, Jaune also didn't have his aura unlocked until he was thrown into initiation at Beacon, but that was justified. The guy carried himself like a seasoned soldier, which made you expect for him to have an aura until the part where he got smashed in the back, Jaune cringed a bit as he swore he could hear bones cracking at the impact, and then fly into a tree.

Was this his fault? Jaune was too busy figuring out something for himself that he nearly got crushed by the Geist and had to be saved by the soldier, and ended up getting him severely hurt!

No time to think more though, as Jaune had to focus on evading and running away from the Geist that was now focused on him. Jaune let out a manly scream and took off in a random direction.

Ruby witnessed the strange man get hit saving Jaune, slightly recoiling at the noise made when the Geist made contact, but expecting for his aura to take the brunt of it. Her eyes widened when she realized that the man didn't have an aura, and cringed at the cracking of bone once more when he collided with a nearby tree.

Could she have warned him? She was fairly close and saw it coming, although she was more focused on the Geist than him. Ruby put it to the side for a second, she'd have to go check on him once they got rid of this Geist.

Using her semblance, Ruby sped forward and slashed at the Geist's flaming tree arm to no avail, realizing this, she quickly backed off as the Geist started to focus on her.

Ren leapt out of the trees, Stormflower blazing, he took a quick glance at their mysterious ally, who was now unconscious by the side of a tree. He grimaced, most of the tasks he did with the group ended pretty ok, their aura and combined skill proving more than enough for what they typically encountered, it was saddening to see that someone that was trying to help was injured that badly.

Flying over the Geist, Ren evaded its swinging arm. Ruby tried to get in a slice or two but was promptly knocked away by the Geist's arm, the hit causing her to cry out.

Nora held Magnhild, crouching slightly as a pink electricity generated and charged from it. She then looked at Jaune, signaling that she still needed some time.

Jaune ran towards the Geist in an attempt to distract it by yelling, coupled with waving his hands around, and getting close to it, "Uh, hey! Over here!" Successfully grabbing the Geist's attention, it slammed it's flaming arm at Jaune, who dove, rolled and slid, managing to dodge its attack.

Ren took this opportunity to jump onto the Geist's arm, firing at it before leaping back off and flipping onto the ground. Ruby activated her semblance, speeding forward in her cloak while leaving behind a trail of roses and slashed at the Geist, it using its arm to block the hits and swinging with its flaming arm, which was evaded by Ruby using her semblance to move to the side of it.

Firing four shots with her Crescent Rose, Ruby flew up into the sky with her semblance to evade another strike from the Geist, and entered a T-pose. Firing Crescent Rose once more, she used the immense recoil to launch herself towards the Geist, slashing at it once before backing off.

Nora dug the dirt up from under her with the heel of her boot, Magnhild having generated enough power to start shaking. "Ready!"

Knocking away the Geist's arm with her scythe, Ruby pointed Crescent Rose at it and fired, using the recoil to throw herself back near Jaune and Nora. She turned to Jaune for the signal.

Jaune cupped his hands around his mouth to make sure his message was loud enough for both Ruby and Nora to hear, "Use everything you've got!"

On cue, Ruby used her semblance to move forward, enveloping Nora and taking her along towards the Geist, the two forming a pink and red double helix, sparking with pink electricity and leaving rose petals in its wake.

The Geist moved its flaming tree arm in front of its face to protect itself from the approaching threat, but Ruby chopped through the weakened trunk as the two got closer, giving Nora the chance to directly hit the Geist with her charged Magnhild. The Geist immediately broke apart into pieces, and the actual Geist popped out of the main rock, attempting to escape before Ruby aimed and fired at the escaping Geist, ending it with ease.

Running up to the rest of the group obviously out of breath, Jaune took a breather before assuming a heroic pose, "Another victory for team Junior!"

A few seconds passed and Jaune gave up on the pose, having thought about the name for a bit, "Alright, y'know, okay… Ren, I think you're onto something." and started to walk away in the direction of the village they had just killed this Geist to help out.

"Umm, Jaune?" Ruby twiddled with her hands.

Jaune stopped and turned to look back at the rest of the group, who seemed pretty worried. "Yeah Ruby?"

"Aren't we going to help that man? He tried to help us..." Pointing towards the slumped figure of Steve, now unconscious from the shock of being hit by a moving boulder into a tree at speeds that would make General Ironwood cringe.

Jaune immediately remembered and sheepishly chuckled, "Right, Almost forgot about him! Ren, Nora, do you think you'd be able to carry him to the village with us? His gear looks pretty heavy..."

"No problem at all, Jaune!" Nora's bubbly and energetic personality quickly returned, bolting towards the unconscious individual.

"Yep, we have it handled." Ren nodded to Jaune before taking after Nora, who had already made it to Steve and struggled a bit before lifting him up completely.

Jaune turned to Ruby, another sheepish grin on his face. "Ruby?"

Ruby turned to Jaune and became worried at his tone and the look on his face, "What's wrong, Jaune?"

"Would you happen to know where I dropped my backpack before the whole fight with the Geist? The map's in there, alongside some ammo and food..."

Ruby sighed, a smile appearing on her face, "Oh, you almost had me worried there! I think you dropped it near Ren's."

Jaune sighed with relief, before turning to Ren who had just carried over the heavier than expected ODST, "Ren, you know where I put my backpack, right?"

Ren's face contorted into a confused one, "No, did you lose yours?"

Ruby and Nora groaned, staring daggers at Jaune, who was recoiling in justified fear, "… I'm sorry?"