Chapter 35
Author's Note: Sorry about having a short chapter. This week has been unnecessarily difficult. I made it through and will be back on schedule in the following weeks. Let me know what you think of the chapter and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
"Ugh…anything Weiss?" Blake muttered.
"That's putting it mildly…" Weiss responded as she held her head in pain.
"So, it is in here?" Yang asked while standing up.
"Most definitely. I don't even need the DES to tell you that much." Weiss said in amazement as she examined her surroundings.
"What's up?" Yang asked as she saw the large cargo boxes lined up in the warehouse.
Weiss walked up to one of the boxes and dug Myrtenaster's blade into the slight space between the lid and the box. Using her blade as leverage, she pulled downward with all of her weight. The lid seemed to pop off with a loud clank before the rest of her team walked over to examine its contents. "That's a lot of dust…" Yang said.
"It's all Omni-dust. I've never seen so much…" Weiss said is pure astonishment.
"Wait, this is all Omni-dust?! I thought it was really rare?!" Ruby said as she looked at all of the boxes, reading off its' contents. She quickly took the moments to load Omni-dust into her bullets. She managed to fill two whole magazines with Omni-dust rounds.
"It is! How did they get so much!?" Weiss asked in annoyance. She pulled her scroll out and began to take pictures as evidence.
"What're you doing?" Yang asked as she began shoving Omni-dust into one of the pouches she brought with her.
"There's no way everyone back home will believe us without proof. And they need to be fully aware of how dangerous the White Fang has become!" Weiss exclaimed while continuing to take pictures. "Clark, you damned fool!" Weiss yelled after finishing taking her pictures.
"You're still mad at him?" Blake asked as she loaded one magazine with Omni-dust rounds.
"What if that massive door hadn't been there?! That explosion would have ignited all of this Omni-dust and…and…" Weiss was in a pure rage even as her voice trailed off.
"I knew it was there." Clark said as he was filling small vials of liquid with the Omni-dust.
"Oh, it's really easy to say that after the fact; brilliant excuse." Weiss complained as she filled Myrtenaster's empty dust chamber with Omni-dust.
"Believe what you want. The point is: we're here. Right?" Clark asked with a smirk.
Weiss was livid at this point. "How can you be so calm? What if–"
"What if you're glyph didn't hold up when we were in the closet?" Clark asked.
Weiss scoffed. "What do you–"
"Don't think I didn't notice. You poured all of your remaining dust into that glyph and it was so spontaneous, that you didn't have time to throttle the explosion. Any part of that could have gone wrong and killed us all." Clark stated.
"But she saved us all." Ruby said.
"Exactly. When on a mission this important, the ends do justify the means. You four are amazing at fighting and working together, but you still have much to learn." Clark said as he finished filling each of his vials with Omni-dust. "Weiss. You are NOT perfect; that includes your fighting techniques and powers. Yang, you are not invincible. You'd be surprised at how much more you can accomplish if you stick back and be part of your teammates' fight. I've seen the potential. Blake, you're the opposite. Get out of your comfort zone; trust me, you have more strength than you give yourself credit for. And Ruby…stop being so timid. Trust in our teammates' strength and make some more assertive commands." Clark explained.
"Let me guess. Ozpin and Lion are about to pop out and give us a grade are how this mission went. Then the Alpha is gonna pull his mask off and it'll be Qrow, right? From the way you're talking, this is sounding a lot like some kind of training session." Yang joked.
"I wish it were that easy." Clark said as he continued to examine the boxes.
"Guys!" Blake said as she readied herself for a fight.
Everyone else followed suit as they jumped into cover. The slight clank of metal began to appear all across the room before a dark yellow gas began to fill the room. Several White Fang began to pour into the room, gas masks on and weapons at the ready. "What now?" Yang whispered over the scroll while using cloth as a makeshift gas mask. She quickly tied the cloth around her head to keep it in place.
"Can we get out from the other side of the room?" Ruby asked Blake as they both did the same as Yang. Ruby ripped part of her cloak off to in order to keep the gas from entering her lungs. She then ripped another piece of her Cloak to hand it to Weiss, the red of her cloak matching the red blood on Weiss' clothes.
"No. They're coming in from both sides." Blake stated as she used her bow as a gas mask.
"Well, leader? What's your command?" Clark asked as he stared at Ruby. He had, without anyone noticing, taken down one of the White Fang soldiers and was wearing his gas mask.
Ruby opened her mouth but stopped as she noticed everyone looking at her. She closed her mouth and paused for a few seconds. "Yang, cover our six o'clock. Blake, you have the front. Weiss, cover us and I'll pick off any stragglers." Ruby stated as she loaded Crescent Rose with flame rounds. "On three, we all pick off as many as we can and head for the other side of the room. Ready?" She asked.
"You got it!" Yang said as she loaded her right Gauntlet with pulse slugs.
"Just say the word." Blake said as she pulled Shroud from her back and checked Gambol's bolt.
"I'm ready." Weiss said as she activated the White Dust chamber of Myrtenaster. Before they could make their move, each of their scrolls vibrated.
"Hey! It's Lion!" Yang said as she read through the text. "He said he's going to head for the Central Intelligence Room and for us to meet him there." She explained.
"Ladies. Thank you for the help and I wish you the best." Clark said to which the girls looked his way. He was nowhere to be found. Team RWBY looked at the White Fang, who were still searching the area, expecting them to open fire. Nothing happened, he had simply vanished.
"Did he use his semblance?" Yang asked.
"Ugh, what a nuisance." Weiss said with a scoff as each of their scrolls vibrated.
"It doesn't matter, we have a goal this time. We HAVE to make it to the Central Intelligence Room now." Ruby said, changing the subject back to the mission at hand. "Ready?" she asked to which she received three head nods in unison. "Let's go!" Ruby yelled as she and the rest of her team jumped up and began firing into the group of White Fang! The gas had filled the room almost completely, so Yang and Weiss were having trouble seeing through the thick haze.
Ruby had attached an infrared scope to her rifle and seemed to be unhindered by the smoke. She did her best to help Yang by pointing out enemies that she was unable to take out. Blake's hearing made it quite simple for her to remain uninterrupted by the smoke while Weiss simply focused on not allowing any explosions or heavy weaponry to attack them; she had complete trust that her team could handle anything else they sent.
They ran as fast as the group formation would allow. Almost no damage was taken as they continued to pursue their one goal. "Are they even trying?" Yang yelled as the door came into view. Weiss was the first to use the Omni-dust she had taken by activating an Omni-dust glyph. She used it to fire a single projectile, which resulted in a massive explosion where the door was. All of the White Fang were blown back as the group ran through the door into the hall. Weiss fired another projectile, from the Omni-dust glyph, at the ceiling, causing it to crumble upon contact.
"That should hold them back for while!" Weiss yelled as an Atlesian Paladin emerged from a corner far down the hall. Weiss quickly fired another projectile, but the Paladin's chest armor shifted revealing a cannon. It fired a projectile almost identical to Weiss', which made contact with Weiss' projectile in mid-air. It took about three seconds of releasing steam from the Paladin to remove the heat that the Omni-dust energy cannon generated. The cannon began to light up once again. "Stop!" Weiss yelled.
They each ran into the adjacent hall to escape from the Paladin's attack. Weiss expanded the size of her Omni-dust glyph to encompass the entire hall. As they ran down the hall, an explosion could be heard from behind them; they looked back and were awestruck by the sheer amount of destruction by the collision of the Paladin's attack with Weiss' glyph.
"They've somehow managed to create a cannon that is powered by Omni-dust. No wonder they have so much stocked up…" Weiss commented as they each stopped running. She made note of Ruby pulling out her scroll while noticing Yang's discomfort.
"Guess we're not going back that way." Yang said as she rubbed her shoulder.
"How're you holding up?" Blake asked.
"For some reason, my shoulder's hurting really bad…" Yang stated in annoyance.
"I thought your semblance nullified pain for a while." Weiss inquired as she checked the Omni-dust cartridge in Myrtenaster.
"I shouldn't feel any pain…that's why this is weird." Yang stated.
"I can help you dress the wound if you'd like." Blake stated as she reached for her pouch.
"No. Don't worry about me, I can get through this. Anyway, what's the game plan?" Yang asked Ruby who was still studying her scroll.
"Since we can't go back that way, we'll have to make our way down this hall, make a left, stay straight until we reach a dead end, and take another left. That should take us to the Central Intelligence room." Ruby stated.
"Then what're we waiting for?!" Yang exclaimed.
"A plan." Weiss stated. "I doubt that we should just pop in the front door for a fight." She finished.
"I'm inclined to agree. What do you think our best course of action in?" Blake asked the young leader.
"It would be a lot easier for me if Lionel could somehow communicate more." Ruby complained.
"I'm sure he's just waiting on us to get close so he can jump out and tell us all about his badass plan!" Yang stated.
"Okay…well, on the off chance that he doesn't jump out and say that, we should have a plan." Weiss said sarcastically.
"What did you have in mind?" Blake asked in annoyance. "I'm not trying to say Yang's right, but there aren't any other ways into that room beside an alleged emergency exit. We kind of have no choice but to attack head-first." She explained.
"Then I guess we should start to head there." Yang said as she was the first to look down the adjacent hall to check for hostiles. "All clear." She said as she waved her hand.
"What about the Paladins? I doubt they have just one lurking around." Blake asked.
"Well, we've dealt with it twice now…so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Yang said with confidence.
"I'd hardly say running and hiding is 'dealing with them' as you put it." Weiss stated as they each made their way into the hall.
"Guys, where have all the White Fang gone?" Ruby asked.
"What'd you mean?" Yang asked.
"All of them couldn't have poured into that cargo room. And since we made such a ruckus, more of them should be on their way…but we haven't seen anyone on their way there." Ruby stated.
"I haven't seen anyone either. Take a left here!" Blake stated as they each turned the first corner.
"We're getting close to the Central Intelligence Room." Weiss stated.
"Stop, hide!" Blake yelled as they each dived into the closest room. Sudden and powerful explosions began to ring throughout the room. As they each looked back, the entrance to the room was completely destroyed.
"Well…what now?" Yang asked.