The air barely vibrated, even miles away from the stadium suspended in air, voices being reduced to whispers at the outer rim of Vale.
A young man, whole body encased in standard issue armor and garb with blue highlights, everything but the mouth, nose and chin not covered. Designed to look intimidating, less human and more like another reason to follow the rules.
No one was around though, no civvie's to stare at him while they went about their business. He was alone, and eyes peering through the visor at the airships floating about the giant mass of metal and machinery in the sky.
The morning air was cool, and rested onto any exposed skin, small bumps forming as the hair follicles themselves were shivering.
The soldier, or guard more like it, slouched against the outer wall, rifle sat next to him on the edge. His breath created small spouts of condensed moisture, every now and again bring balled hands up to exhale on.
Recruitment ads were displayed on some virtual signs and even some posters pasted to walls. Tall, imposing men with chiseled jaws and abs that looked more like two boulders taped to their rib-cage. All of them standing over piles of dead Grimm, sometimes arresting White Fang.
The guard's eyes were vacant, his jaw and lips hanging open half an inch or so. His shoulders were perpetually shrugged up, arms wrapping around his torso, stuffing two articulated gauntlets into his armpits. His form slightly quivered.

Clink, clonk, clink, clonk.

Two pairs of steel boots announced the arrival of a captain in yellow and lieutenant in red. The reaction of the guard was instant, snatching up his assault rifle from the ledge, gripping just past the trigger guard and letting the front end hang slightly in front of his stomach, his left hand snapping up to the forehead in a crisp salute.
The two three men looked like they had steel rods shoved up their spines as they acknowledged each other, melting away almost instantly as soon as the two higher ranking soldiers were out of sight.
The guard let out a sigh, returning his weapon to its seat.

KRAK

His body suddenly jolted upward about a foot into the air, coming about face to locate the source of the sudden noise. A tree lay splintered and broken, shards of wood littering the ground and ricocheting off the wall, leaves and twigs scattered everywhere. What caused the guard's breath to draw short, however, was the fact that the tree's roots were exposed, dirt staining the underside and clumps of earth hanging to many tendrils. There was no hole visible, no point of origin from the tree line... the tree line that was on the edge of a wall of fog.

The guard's eyes widened, "When did that come in...?"

Thump.

"What the-"

Thump.

The guard reached to his helmet, pressing a finger against a small round button, "This is Manibus reporting in, we've got something going down at sector 811B, be advised."

There was a moment of quiet, only the thunder growing louder and sending tremors through the guard's feet. Then suddenly whitenoise crackled into the earpiece, "Understood Manibus we're getting it too all over the north wall, standby."

"Solid copy." The guard watched and waited, the thumping getting closer. There was another noise, however, something that he was having trouble zeroing in on.

Rattle.

Rattle.

Manibus looked down to see that his rifle was now just halfway off the edge, inching forward with each shake. "Oh fu-!" The whole thing clattered over, bouncing against the concrete twice before finally slamming into the grass mound below.

"....well there goes my military care-"

Suddenly every solid object in the remote vicinity began vibrating, shaking, moving with a roar sounding out from the fog. It lasted for a small moment, a single call, and then it all went still. Manibus went still, watching the fog.

A mass of black and white made its way out of the wall, easily two stories tall, towering over the single man. Its tusks and body were had griffons and other species riding along, making their way to him, to Vale.

"We've got Grimm in sector 811B! Multiple contacts! Too many to count! I need back up no-WAAHH!" There was a sudden pressure in the guard's chest, and next thing he knew he was falling down. His back hit the pavement first, then his skull. The helmet prevented his brains from splattering all over the ground, but the whiplash made his ears ring and his eyes see two of everything.

Black ravens soared over him, flooding into the city, flooding into his home. There was not a thing he could do about it.

Everything went dark.