14 Hunters
Chapter 3
The train shook underneath Weiss's feet as she walked about the car. At both ends of the car were large jumbles of small yellow crates that all bore the Hyperion logo. Maybe it's just the ammunition Jack is giving to these "Vault Hunters." He was saying something about how they were going to need it to complete their adventures. she sighed heavily and sat down on a small ledge and rested her head in her hands. Shouldn't be too long now that they start getting on. She started thinking back to that morning and her conversation with Jack.
"Alright princess, my men just finished loading the crates onto the train. Do you remember what you are supposed to do now?" Jack looked almost bored as he surveyed the long Hyperion train in front of him.
"Yes sir. I am to make them feel comfortable and serve as a waitress until they get off outside of Sanctuary. Umm, may I ask why you are sending those Vault Hunters to that city that you despise and try to destroy on a dai-" but Jack cut her off suddenly.
"Absolutely not Ice Queen. You are to make them comfortable and then you will be able to return here to Opportunity and continue your work. Mind you, you are getting a good many fans now. Half the women in Opportunity are also wearing your outfits, although all the men are wearing mine." Jack let out laugh, which Weiss merely imitated as she thought about the rules Jack enforced.
"Of course sir. I will return as soon as I can. I must be off however, our reports say that the Vault Hunters will begin arriving at the stops soon." With that Weiss boarded the train and slid the door closed behind her. What she didn't realize was Jack's sneer and comment after she got on.
"I actually kinda liked you, you little bitch. But your personality reflects in every thing you do you fucking icicle. Hope you like the heat you will be catching on this trip, cause it may finally warm that stone cold heart of yours before you die." Jack turned on his heel and walked away from the train as it departed.
In the desert
Nora walked in front of Krieg with her arms out to the side trying to maintain balance as she walked on the train tracks. Meanwhile, Krieg tossed his buzzaxe into the air and caught it. This he continued to do while his inner voice tried to talk to him. "Well, we should be arriving at the station anytime now. I think Nora might be getting hungry." His inner voice pointed out. No sooner had his voice finished then Nora dropped to her knees.
"I'm hungry!" she started whining. Krieg looked at her and his head twitched.
"THERE'S NO BARBECUE TIL I SAY THERE'S A BARBECUE!" Krieg bellowed in response. "Just hurry up and get to the station, there should be food there. Wait…something is happening." Krieg's inner voice exclaimed. Krieg looked around and realized what his thoughts meant. The tracks were rumbling and he could hear something. Looking behind him he saw a massive train car hurtling towards him. "Help Nora, get her off the tracks!" His inner voice barked. Krieg reached for Nora and threw her off the tracks before getting hit in the right shoulder. "TRAIN WON'T STOP!"
Nora looked around in shock as the train rocketed past where she had just been. She also saw Krieg lying on his face beside her. "NO! Krieg, are you okay?!" Krieg moaned in response and slowly started to turn over. "Please be okay Krieg! I want you to be okay!" Krieg positioned himself on his left side and looked over Nora's orange head.
"Oh my god." Krieg's inner voice gasped. Krieg saw a young woman in a yellow suit and blue leggings. She stood next to a young boy that looked to be about Nora's age. But what interested him most was that her left arm was bare and seemed to be covered in wavy blue tattoos. "My god, she is a Siren. Probably a Vault Hunter too. She is beautiful, tell her to help you. Tell her you need her care and protection, and to take care of Nora too. But whatever you say…do not shout the word poop at the top of your lungs." Krieg's inner voice advised. Unfortunately, Krieg decided to say just that and bellowed at the top of his lungs. "I AM THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN."
Both people spun around with guns trained on the new comers. Maya glanced at Jaune who looked a little confused. Looking back she made up her mind. "Looks like we have a couple of psychos to deal with. Come on Jaune, let's take them out before we get on the train." Jaune nodded and both of them shouldered their guns and began firing. Krieg and Nora both ran forward and dove behind a wall of rock.
"God dammit. You just fucking had to say the word poop didn't you. Now both of you are going to die and it's all your fault." Krieg's inner voice proclaimed. Krieg looked over his shoulder between a couple of rocks, and saw movement on the roof of the buildings. "Great, now the rats have arrived. Get them to turn around, you have to save them and Nora too. Warn them!" His inner voice ordered. Krieg straightened himself up and raised his axe above his head, "STRIP THE FLESH!" Krieg's inner voice snapped "No! Warn them!" Krieg ignored his inner voice and bellowed "SALT THE WOUND!" His inner voice barked "What the hell are you doing! Someone is going to die and it will be on your hands." However, before Krieg was able to say anything else, Nora seemed to have realized what was happening.
"EEEEKKK! RATS! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" With that, she took her blacksmith hammer from her belt and threw it over Jaune's head. With a sickeningly loud "CRACK' the rat's face caved in and fell over backwards. Both Nora and Krieg took the opportunity in the lull of gunfire to sprint the distance between their hiding spot and the station before leaping both startled gunners. Nora wrenched her hammer from the contorted skull and both psychos got to work.
Krieg took point and slashed two rats who stood on the stairs. Nora leapt over him and crushed the head of one standing in front of Krieg. Krieg threw his axe at a stunned rat that looked down from a ledge and Nora swung her hammer in the temple of the final rat. Krieg jumped up to the lodge and grabbed his axe before dropping back down and walking over to Nora.
"DOUBLE THE MEAT SLAUGHTER!" Krieg bellowed as Nora hugged his middle.
"Hell yeah! That was awesome! You are the greatest bloody buddy I have ever had!" Their merriment was cut short however when a yell sounded above them. A rat wearing what appeared to be a tricorne hat jumped at them, only to be suspended in a strange orb. Krieg looked down at Nora who simply nodded. With a roar, Krieg jumped up and brought his axe down through the ribcage of the suspended rat.
Maya and Jaune both walked up behind the psychos but their weapons were pointed at the ground. "Umm. I've seen you before. You aren't from around here are you?" Jaune nudged Nora in the shoulder, causing her to turn around.
"Nope! I am from Remnant! I was supposed to be doing initiation at Beacon before I found myself in this desert." Nora seemed a little confused as she looked into the boy's face. "WAIT! You were there too! You feel out of that tree!" Jaune blushed furiously and kicked the ground, not looking at anyone.
"Looks like you aren't the only one who was sent here." Maya nudged Jaune in the shoulder and turned to Krieg. "My name is Maya, and this is Jaune. We are waiting for a train to begin our journey to the Vault. I am doing this to try and learn a bit more bout my Siren heritage, but blonde boy over here is trying to get back to his world. Want to come with us? I'm sure that we could help you guys too, plus it never hurts to have a few more guns pointing at our enemies. What do you say? Deal?" Maya held out her hand waiting for someone to take it. Nora looked almost pitiful as she looked into Krieg's single brown eye. Krieg's head twitched twice but he didn't need to listen to his inner voice this time.
"I POWDERED MY COCKATIEL FOR THE RIBCAGE SLAUGHTER!" Maya shot a confused look at Nora who had started dancing on the spot.
"We are in!" she continued repeating this single line over and over again as she danced about Krieg.
"Waiting for the Vault Hunters!" A female sounded behind the entire group and everybody looked at the train. A beautiful girl stood in the doorway, dressed all in white with her hair drawn back in a ponytail.
"WEISS?!" Jaune shouted as he could not believe his eyes. "You ended up here too princess?"
"I am not a princess!" Weiss stomped her boot on the floor of the train in anger. "Look, I am supposed to be picking up a bunch of Vault Hunters, are you guys Vault Hunters or not?" She stood back as the four filed past her and took up places on the different benches or crates with Jaune siting below the sign reading 'Welcome Vault Hunters!' "Okay, sorry about that but we have a schedule to keep. We will be picking up more people soon, so hold on. And with that the train sped away from the station.
Next station
"Michael, sweetheart, it's been too long." A sweet seductive voice sounded behind Blake and she turned around before she could stop herself. Walking toward her were two beautiful women, dressed mainly in red but on had golden greaves that went up most of her legs. Blake recognized this woman at once, because the last time she had seen that outfit, was when the woman had been chased by a Deathstalker. The other woman seemed quite sure of herself to put it simply. Michael groaned slightly and walked toward the busty woman. Blake meanwhile, walked up to the gladiator.
"Well, at least it's good to see a friendly face around here. How are you Pyrrha? The last time we saw each other was what? Two years ago?" Blake asked the young woman who smiled at her.
"Yeah, something like that. I came to try and figure out a way back. I take it that's why you are here? Who's the scruffy looking boy by the way? You find someone special out all this way?" Pyrrha giggled lightly as Blake scowled.
"No, I actually appeared right outside his house and he has been helping me try to find a way back. This is probably our best bet to get home anyway. I wonder who else got dropped here as well." Blake's bow twitched slightly as a distant rumbling reached her cat ears. "Sounds like the train is almost here."
"Hey Blake?" Michael called to Blake as both huntresses looked down the tracks. "I'm heading off with Moxxi to talk for a bit. You two will be fine, I promise. I heard chatter that there are supposed to be about a dozen of you guys all together anyway and the train will be picking you up. But still, be careful. Hyperion and especially Handsome Jack are not to be underestimated."
"That's what you have told me for the past three weeks Mike. I will be fine. Plus I have four time Mistral champion here to protect me." Blake snuck a wink to Pyrrha who giggled again. The two turned around again to see a mass of cars come to a halt before them. A door opened and Blake's eyes clouded over as she recognized the young woman standing before them.
"Pyrrha! You are here too? Come on in, we have several more to pick up and I want to be home by tonight. We have two others who came from Remnant as well on board." Weiss stood back and gestured toward the four people milling about the cabin. Nora looked up from her large jar of candy, no doubt scavenged from a crate in another car and Jaune stood awkwardly next to Maya.
"Jaune! I'm so glad to see you again. It's good to see that you are still in one piece and breathing. Oh, but where are my manners, I am Pyrrha Nikos. Currently the greatest gladiator on Pandora. I go by the name of Achilles during matches." Jaune and Maya looked rather impressed at the news, as that name had reached them before while they were still on Athenas.
"Hello heiress." Blake leaned close to Weiss and talked to her. "Long time no see, what have you been doing?"
"I have been fashion designing and singing here on Pandora. City called Opportunity." Weiss glowed as she thought of the admiration people gave her, but paled slightly when she remembered the same adoration she would receive at home. Blake nodded quietly as the two talked about their experiences before the train reached the next stop.
Final Stop
Yang sat next to Axton on a bench while the two worked on their weapons. Yang had one of Axton's screwdrivers and was carefully tightening the bindings on her hands' exoskeletons. The covering was comprised of thin sturdy metal platelets that covering the entire back of her hands and fingers. Tightening up the last binding, Yang walked to a nearby post and promptly put her fist straight through it.
"Damn, that looks like it would hurt like hell." Axton watched her stretch her fingers before returning to his maintenance. He had been busy tweaking the barrels on one of his 'ladies' by adding a new liquid cooling system. As he finished, the turret spun around once and proceeded to shoot out the rest of the broken post Yang had punched.
"And that thing packs it's own punch. Looks like we are set for this then." Yang sat back down and took a long swig from a yellow hip flask she had bought before leaving town. Passing it to Axton, she sighed and leaned her head forward until she started snoring lightly. Axton laughed and began to settle in before hearing a familiar gruff voice behind him.
"Hola amigo. Que pasa?" A short man in with spiky blue hair and beard walked over to him and punched him in the shoulder.
"Not a lot Sal. Little lady is tired and I am getting pretty bored." Axton replied, glaring at the dwarf. Salvador laughed heartily, causing Yang to wake with a rather loud yelp.
"Sonrie, hijo de…" Salvador laughed and took off running with Yang in hot pursuit hair beginning to glow. Salvador made a couple laps of the station before tripping over Axton's outstretched leg. "Pandejo!" was the last thing he was able to shout before Yang jumped him and they began to brawl. Axton took another swig from Yang's hip flask.
"That's for ruining my beauty sleep!" Screamed Yang after she got her fill of pummeling a laughing Salvador. She stood up and brushed herself off before returning to Axton. Unbeknownst to her, two pairs of people were approaching the station from either side. Salvador rolled over and jumped to his feet and saw two young looking girls walking side-by-side. One girl had a robotic arm that was exposed and stuffed into a pocket of her denim jacket. The other reminded Sal of an old story his abuela used to tell him about before bedtime.
"BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGAS!" Sal jumped to his feet and laughed. Both Axton and Yang cricked their necks as they saw the approaching teens. They had been focused on a pair of people walking silently along the tracks. Yang thought she recognized the long black hair and pink streak, but she couldn't think of where she had seen it before. Axton, however received a shock to see the blank faceplate of a black helmet from the many wanted posters he had seen. At Salvador's yell, both saw the young women walking toward them and Yang leapt to her feet, happier than Axton had ever seen her, drunk or sober.
"RUBY!" caused Ruby to jerk her head up suddenly. Her hood fell back as she sprinted forward to embrace her sister. "Oh my god, I never thought I would see you again." sobbed Yang into Ruby's cloak.
"Me neither. I was so worried when I found myself all alone, but Gaige here promised she would help me get back to you." Ruby bounced with excitement, causing tears of joy to bounce off her cheeks and onto the ground around her. "Okay, come with me!" Ruby seized Yang's arm and drug her over to her companion. "Gaige, this is my sister I have been telling you about, Yang. Yang, this is Gaige, the greatest engineer in the universe, apart from me." Ruby began giggling madly after he last comment and received a punch from both girls. "Oh, and check out what Gaige helped me build! I wasn't going to show it off right now, but you really need to see this." With a flick of her wrist, Ruby summoned a robot from nowhere. Yang's jaw dropped at the sight.
"Ruby…is that…mom?" Yang gazed open mouthed at the tall slender robot before her. The robot was about Yang's height though it looked exactly like Ruby. Ruby must have used a mask of some sort to get it to look like her, complete with silver glowing eyes. About the shoulders of the robot draped a white cloak with red lining, complete with a hood exactly like Ruby's. As the wind blew the cloak, small white rose petals drifted from the hem of the cloak…exactly like Ruby's did now. "Holy shit. Ruby you are amazing! What is its name?"
"Her name is SM3R-R053. Or just Summer for short. Though I wouldn't be opposed to calling her Rose either. Gaige helped me build her while she build her own robot. But I will let her show him off when she wants." Ruby looked nervously at her feet, not knowing if it was the right thing to do. Making her mom was something that Ruby was very excited to do, and Ruby was glad to have completed her. But was it the right thing to do?
Yang led both girls back over to Salvador and Axton, who stood talking to the man in the black suit and the kid with the pink streak. Suddenly, Yang remembered where she had seen the boy before. "You are from Beacon! You were in our initiation and got sent here with us right?" Ren smiled and nodded.
"Oh, yeah. Gaige and I met these two on the shuttle that brought us here. Apparently, these two are well-known assassins on Eden-5. Clearing out a bunch of the corrupt police force before they heard about the Vault and decided to get a real challenge."
"Our masterpiece/Our teamwork has led us here/It is our challenge." Zer0 stated simply, looking down the tracks for the train.
"He is the haiku hit man. Just don't ask him anything too personal. He will either try to gut you, blast your head off, or simply ignore you. He was the first one I met after I appeared here. I helped him with an assassination, we became partners. Then we end up here." Ren stated. Everyone looked around as they felt a rumbling begin to grow under their feet. Within seconds, the train had appeared around a corner and began to slow. As the train stopped in the station, the door opened, and both Ruby and Yang yelled in surprise.
"Oh for Dust's sake! You two ended up here too?! And the ninja kid? Well at least I like you." A loud shriek sounded behind Weiss as she said the last line. A blur shot out of the train and collided with Ren, knocking him backwards and onto the ground.
"Ren, Ren, Ren! Oh my god it is so good to see you! I have missed you, and there is so much to tell you! Will you first make me some pancakes?! Please oh please oh please oh please Ren! I will be your besets friend forever in the whole wide world if you would!" Nora stopped and drew a huge breath before dancing around. Ren laughed quietly and helped himself up.
"Of course I will make pancakes Nora, when I get the ingredients. I have a lot to tell you too, but we should get on the train first." Nora tugged Ren into the car to introduce him to Krieg before he could say another word. Everyone else on the platform cast an eye over the rest of the group before Sal spoke up.
"VAMANOS, PUTAS!" With that, everyone hurried into the car before it set off. After a few minutes of muttered conversations between various groups that all partook in except Zer0, who was stretched out in the luggage racks, Axton spoke up.
"Okay, so we are all here, apparently. I thought there would be a few others, but hell not 14." At this Weiss spoke up quickly.
"No, just 13. I am here to help you guys get on your way and then I head back home."
"Okay then, just 13 Vault Hunters. I think we should all get to know each other a little bit better. Names, little bit of back ground and how we ended up in this train car together. Who would like to start? How about you two?" Axton gestured to Maya and Jaune who stood up.
"I am Maya, and this is Jaune. I was raised in an Abbey of The Order of the Impending Storm, and Jaune appeared one day during a walk. We talked a lot about how he might have ended up here and we figured the Vault would be a good place to find some answers. We made this decision soon after I realized the motives of The Order. They were using me to blackmail and threaten the populace of Athenas into serving them, and extorting money. I killed the head brother, and Jaune and I fled. Simple as that. We both came to find answers, but I ju-" but Maya stopped suddenly when an alarm started going off. Looking around, they saw the sign welcoming them fall, to reveal another sign underneath: 'To your Doom (Nothing Personal).' At both ends of the car the crates started shifting and loaders popped up on all sides.
"Hit 'em sweetheart!" Axton tossed a turret to the roof of the car where the mag locks held it in place before firing at the robots. Yang ran straight into the middle of the crowd and began punching off whatever limbs she could. Gaige and Ruby, both summoned their robots at the same time before launching themselves into battle, Gaige using her robot arm and Ruby a small mechanical sickle she had made herself. Ren and Zer0 both jumped through hatches in the roof and found a small platoon of engineers running at them. Zer0 began slicing away with his katana while Ren pulled out a small handle that digistructed into a wind and fire wheel. Both ninjas fought side-by-side trying their best to stem the tide of men.
Back down below, both Nora and Krieg had leapt into battle the same way with the rats. Nora repeatedly crushed loaders with her hammer while Krieg hacked through metal with his axe. Salvador jumped into the fight and pulled two small pistols from nowhere and began mowing through the crowd. Pyrrha held a collapsible eridium shield and tempered eridium sword in her hands and began slicing through the loaders. Jaune pulled out a short sword and leapt into battle as well. Blake pulled a large cleaver from her belt and started hacking away at the robots. Maya grabbed Weiss's shoulders and yelled at her.
"What the hell?! You were to lead us into a trap? Is that what Handsome Jack wants to do with us? Kill us?" Weiss stood frozen staring into Maya's furious face, trying to comprehend what was happening around her.
"I swear I had nothing to do with this. I was told to provide you with comfort until you got off and to not ask questions. That was it! I swear!" As she finished her words, a bullet grazed across her cheek and Maya believed her. Noticing something on her chest, she saw blue tattoos of what appeared to be snowflakes slowly grow more prominent and spread up her neck. Checking Weiss's left arm, she saw the tattoos end at her hand and begin to glow.
"You are a Siren! Did you know? We have to help the rest of the Vault Hunters. I will vouch for you but we need to get out of here alive!" Weiss nodded and turned to the loaders. A massive white glyph suddenly appeared on the ground beneath the loaders and froze them solid in ice blocks. Maya turned the other way and used her phase lock to seize on and throw it from the train. Soon, the rest of the loaders were polished off by the hunters and they regrouped under the sign. "Let's go, we need to find out what to do now!" yelled Maya and Axton kicked down the door.
Weiss inhaled sharply, just like the rest of the people around her. A massive pile of dynamite was heaped around a chair with a dummy in it. The chair spun slowly around and everyone saw the face of Handsome Jack, with drill bits and all manner of items stuck in him.
"It's cute that y'all think you're the heroes of this little adventure, but your not. Welcome to Pandora kiddos. Oh and Weiss, you're a total bitch." The train lurched and everybody was thrown backward as the dynamite detonated. As the train car flew through the snowy air, Weiss's head was spinning. Suddenly, the car hit solid ground and ripped apart. People flew in all directions as the wreckage spread across the frozen tundra. Weiss could barely keep herself conscious as she heard the rails fall behind her. The bitter cold finally won out however, and Weiss's eyes closed.
AN:The gang's all here, now they can die together. Nope, this marks the beginning of the actual story. For a bit of reference, everyone of the Vault Hunters are the same age as the game at this point, but everyone from Remnant is two years older. These two years comprised of lots of different events for our heroes, but that would take way to long to recite. Also, for clarification, Ruby is a Mechromancer along with Gaige. Her robot is based off of "White Cloak" from the Volume 1 trailer, which I chose to also be her mother's ghost. As for Weiss, she didn't realize she was a Siren in this universe until Maya confronted her. Her ability is called Phasemark, and works exactly like her glyphs in RWBY though just under a different name.
Thanks again for reading this! Hope you enjoy it!