Hey guys!

Well, I just watched a Halo 2 anniversary game movie someone had put up, and it's pretty incredible. The quality of the cutscenes, the details in said cutscenes... it was glorious, lol. I think I may finally get an Xbox just so I can play the Halo games. Thank goodness the Master Chief collection was released recently.

I also saw the first episode of Sonic Boom. Pretty funny, but I was kinda expecting more of the one-sided love Amy is famous for. I think it'll probably be in the later episodes. Also bought and watched all three hours of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Now THAT's a frickin' awesome movie.

I don't own Sonic or RWBY. Enjoy!

Digital Realm, 1:30 p.m.

"So, let me get this straight. You three are users?"

Ruby faced Sentinel, the head of the security programs. "Well, we are made of squishy guts instead of a bunch of numbers, but that's right. I'm a student at Beacon Academy."

Ruby, Sonic, Shadow, and Chief were making their way towards the communications hub in the Digital Realm with Sentinel and his unit of security programs with Chief in the lead. Sentinel, despite his rough exterior, couldn't help but be curious about these newcomers to cyberspace.

"And what about you two?" He pointed at Sonic and Shadow. "I may not be totally up to date with happenings in the real world, but you guys don't look like humans or Faunus'.

"Shadow and I are actually from another world entirely. We were sent here due to an accident caused by Eggman, and we've pretty much made a temporary home in Remnant," explained Sonic.

"I'll be glad to leave, though," grumbled Shadow.

Sonic and Ruby looked at the black hedgehog in mock horror. "Do you really mean that?" they asked.

Shadow paused in thought, then shrugged. "Actually, not really, but I have a reputation to keep, so don't take offense."

Before they could turn a corner, Chief held up a fist, signalling them to stop. He pulled out another rod, but this one looked slightly different than the rods that turned into the lightcycles. A button pressing later, the rod transformed into a rifle that had two gun barrels, with a large barrel under a small one. He pulled out a screen on the gun similar to a camcorder and pushed a lever, bending the gun on a hinge. Poking the gun around the corner, he studied the screen intently. "We've got a problem," he said as he adjusted his rifle back to its default position.

"What is it?" asked Sonic, not bothering to ask what the gun was, figuring that Chief would tell them when it was necessary.

Chief looked at the hedgehog. "It's a situation where things go wrong, but that's not important right now. There are many Pawns behind this corner, and they seem to be guarding the entrance to the hub."

"So why don't we just take them?" asked a program with long blonde hair. She raised her rifle in anticipation.

Sentinel sighed. "Listen, Mayde, we may have the element of surprise, but if we do things your way, we'll lose it pretty fast. If they can spare a large amount of robots to guard the door, how many do you think will be inside?"

Mayde stepped back, chastised. "Sorry, sir."

"Don't sweat it. I actually have an idea of how to destroy them all without tipping them off."

"You do?"

Sentinel nodded. "Chief, do you have any EMP grenades in that belt of tricks of yours? I wouldn't ask, but we used ours before your timely arrival."

The armored figure pulled out two black spheres and passed one to the security program. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Sentinel grinned. "Don't worry, we do this thing all the time with stubborn viruses. Axis, you ready?"

The program that Shadow had scared earlier pulled out a small helicopter and placed the grenade on it. Using his S-tool, Axis typed in a few commands and launched the drone, sending it above the thickest concentration of Dark Pawns. Meanwhile, Mayde activated her S-tool and typed a string of commands.

"What are you doing?" asked Ruby.

Mayde smiled. "I'm making sure we don't disturb the neighbors." A soft *ding* could be heard from the female program's tool. "Okay, boss, we're ready to rock n' roll."

The head security program nodded. "Alright. Axis, let's turn out the lights."

Axis clicked a button on his S-tool with glee. The grenade that was attached to the drone suddenly detached, the action priming it. Oddly enough, it landed on an unfortunate Pawn's head, and the built-in adhesive glued the grenade onto the Pawn.

*What the heck?* said a nearby robot that witnessed the black sphere sticking to it's partner's head.

*What?*

*You've got something on your head.*

*What, like a spider? Get it off!*

*Dude, we're in the digital realm of Vale, how can spiders even exist in here? More to the point, it's not a spider, it's some sort of black sphere.*

*What, like a black spider? Get it off!*

The drone that originally ejected the grenade was currently observing the interaction of the two Pawns, and the built-in translator made for great entertainment for the group. Axis checked his instruments. "Whoops, looks like I forgot to set it on a timer. I can still remote detonate, thankfully."

"Quiet!" whispered Ruby. "I wanna see how long this will go."

Chief was trying very hard not to laugh at the sight of the Pawns, but he steeled himself. "As much as I would like this to continue, we still don't have communications back up in Vale."

"Oh, fine," said Ruby, pouting a bit.

*Alright, so it's not a spider, I get it. But a black sphere doesn't sound much better than a spider,* the Pawn with the grenade said, completely oblivious.

*Does it hurt?*

*No, but it might be bad in the long run. Who knows what it'll do?*

Axis pushed the detonation button on his S-tool with a sad look on his face. Lights started flashing rapidly on the grenade.

*What's going on?* asked the Pawn with the grenade stuck to his head. *That beeping sounds like…* Understanding suddenly flashed through the Dark Pawn's processor. *Oh, son of a b-*

BANG!

The EMP grenade finally went off, and while the explosion itself was pretty small, it wasn't really designed to release lots of fiery gases and shrapnel. Rather, it sent out an electromagnetic pulse that fried all electronics within the vicinity. The whole upshot of it all was that all the Dark Pawns shut down, and it even killed all the Creatures of Grimm that were inside them as an added bonus, taking them offline permanently.

The group rushed forward, with Chief leading. "Good, no alert was sent, and the security on the inside isn't aware of us."

"Hey, Chief? I think the door's locked," said Sonic, pointed at the entrance to the hub.

The armored A.I. pulled out his rifle again, and manipulated it so it took the form of a large key-shaped sword.

"Uh, I don't know how to put this, but I don't think that key of yours isn't going to get through this door," said a dubious Sentinel.

"Hey, don't doubt the Master Key," said Chief.

"Okay, let me be the one to ask, why is your weapon called the Master Key?" asked Shadow.

In response, Chief aimed it at the door like a shotgun and pulled out a handle. He pulled the trigger on said handle, and the slug that exited the shaft completely destroyed the lock.

The A.I. pushed the door open easily, then posed with the giant key on his shoulder. "Because this baby will open any lock," said Chief smugly.

Shadow gaped at the weapon, regained his composure, and shrugged. "Yeah, that makes sense to me."

"Did Tails code that weapon in addition to the modified lightcycles?" asked Sonic.

Chief shook his head. "Captain Shepard wrote this based on his own Master Key."

"Where does he carry it?" wondered Ruby. "I think we would have noticed something like that before."

"Let's just say that fake leg isn't just made for walking. Let's move."

Mountain Ruins, same time

Because the ruins in the mountains were still trying to recover from the unknown Elysium Knight uprising, there really was no resistance against anything besides Grimm, and the White Fang airship landed unopposed. A few members jumped out in front of the large pyramid, securing the area while the ship landed, and a ramp extended from the side.

The clack of heels could be heard as a woman slowly walked down. She had white boots, brown pants, white coat, and black gloves, but the really interesting features she had were on her head. One half of the woman's long hair was pink, while the other was brown. She observed the site, a keen intelligence seen in her brown eyes.

Apparently satisfied with the results, Neo calmly opened her parasol and gestured to the White Fang members inside. They quickly got out, some armed with guns, while others were carrying large tanks. All were escorted by Dark Pawns. The one leading them was very distinctive due to his attire: it was all black, had a rose on the back of his shirt, and he had no hood, which showed off his red hair and brown horns. He was also carrying a rifle-shaped sheath in his hand.

"Alright, let's make this quick," ordered Adam Taurus. "Are the charges set?"

In response, one White Fang soldier gave him a black remote. Adam looked at Neo, and she nodded. He pressed the button, which sent a signal to some explosives that were placed on a clean portion of the floor in the pyramid. There was a loud bang, and when the dust settled, the tunnel that led to King Mogar's tomb was exposed.

"Alright, I need to someone to go down there and disarm any traps. Any volunteers?" A few members stepped up, but Adam pointed at a woman with a distinctive squirrel tail. "Congratulations, rookie, you get to be scout. Go down there and secure the area."

"Yes, sir!"

The Faunus launched a clawshot from her wrist and gently used it to lower herself into the hole.

"Whew, finally I've gotten away from them," Tali said to herself. "I may not be able to stop them from taking Dralux, but I won't let them get rich off of the treasure trove."

Tali quickly ran down the dark hallways, using her night vision to navigate. "King Mogar?" she whispered.

On cue, a ghostly form appeared. "Oh, for Pete's sake, can't a guy get any sleep around here?" he grumbled. He then noticed the Faunus, and was about to take a deep breath to scare her, when she put a finger to her lips, signalling silence. She took off her mask, revealing her red eyes.

"I'm friends with Silver and the others from Mobius," whispered Tali. "I don't know how up to date you are with current events, but the White Fang are here to retrieve the energy of Dralux."

If it was possible for a ghost to get even more pale, that was what Mogar did. "How can I trust you?"

"Silver is a hedgehog from Mobius' future, and he is known to be somewhat naive," said Tali

"Yeah, that's Silver, all right. So why are you here, Faunus?" asked the ghost.

"I'm currently infiltrating the White Fang, and I am so sorry for this, but I cannot stop them. The best I can do is sabotage them when I can, and I'll have to block the entrance to the treasure room. I may not be able to stop them, but they won't get any richer from you."

Mogar was silent for a while, still reeling from the implications of what Tali said. He led the Faunus to the treasure room.

"Brave Faunus, I want you to take my sword," he said reverently, pointing at the diamond sword on the pedestal. "My spirit is tied to the sword, the result of a curse by Dralux. As long as the sword exists, so do I. Please send it to Silver and his friends. It seems that whatever will happen, they will be the key to ending all of this."

Tali nodded and carefully lifted the sword, putting it in it's sheath. She then attached a device to the hilt of the sword. This changed the appearance of the sword and sheath to something that looked rusty and worn.

The squirrel Faunus reached into her gauntlets and pulled out some explosive charges. She placed them on the doorway and ran like heck before pushing the detonation button. The charges blew, and completely sealed the doorway.

'Perfect,' thought Tali. 'If they had more time, the White Fang could have dug through this, but they won't have time to dig through the debris. Well, better get back before they get suspicious.'

Back on the surface, Neo felt a rumble, her left eye turning pink reflexively before turning back to its usual brown. Adam was pacing impatiently. He then heard a crackle on his radio, and answered it. "Report."

"Site is secure, sir."

"Excellent. What was that explosion we felt earlier?"

"The treasure room was booby-trapped. I managed to get out of there before the doorway collapsed. I was able to grab one thing, but to be perfectly honest, it really wasn't worth it."

Adam gripped the radio harder. "What did you grab, rookie?" he snarled. "If it's gold-"

"Just an old, rusty sword. I'll still keep it, though. Maybe I'll sell it someday."

Adam rolled his eyes behind his mask. "Very well. You can keep it as a souvenir. Is the entrance to the treasure room completely blocked?"

There was a tone of annoyance in Tali's voice. "Yeah, it is. If we had more time, we could probably dig through it, but-"

"We're on a tight schedule," came the voice of Neo. She walked up to Adam and took the radio from his hand. "Our little distraction in Vale won't last forever. Come back to the entrance to the tomb, we'll send some reinforcements and start acquiring Dralux's energy. We'll deal with the treasure trove another time."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Miss Williams," said Mogar's voice in the back of Tali's head.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone has questioned my decisions, myself included. I mean, I'm engaged to a human, for crying out loud. Who knows what kind of remarks we'll get when we have the rings on our fingers."

Mogar was quite shocked. "Do you regret falling in love with him?" he asked quitely.

Tali looked on her back at the hidden sword. "Don't even think about arguing with me on that. I love Shepard, and he loves me. He doesn't even mind that I have the tail of a squirrel. In fact, he thinks it's an endearing feature.

"Point is, you've gotta take a chance on some things. Like I'm taking a chance smuggling you out, and you're taking a chance in trusting me."

Mogar chuckled. "This is very true. However, seeing as you're friends with Silver, and are engaged to a human, I don't think I'm taking that big of a risk."

Their conversation was cut short as the energy containers were lowered into the hole. As she caught them, she placed paper-thin plates from her gauntlets onto the containers, which blended with the material, making them invisible to anyone except those who knew where they were.

"What are those?" Mogar asked.

Tali grinned. "Let's just say they're a kind of trump card."

They stopped talking as additional White Fang members entered the tomb.

Outside, a black metal hedgehog watched the operation with interest. Metal Sonic was finally repaired, though it took longer than he expected it to.

In hindsight, it wasn't too surprising. The Creatures of Grimm often gather towards sources of negative emotion, and the robot wasn't in the best of moods after his defeat. Ergo, he often had to use precious energy to blast Grimm that got too close instead of using it to repair himself.

Pretty soon, the only Grimm that were left were ones that had lived for hundreds of years and knew better than to aggravate humans, let alone a pretty cranky robot. Still, they couldn't help but be drawn to him, and Metal Sonic allowed them to live, especially after observing the Dark Pawns.

"Hm… Those pawns aren't the same as the ones I reprogrammed all those years ago…" he murmured. He did a quick scan of one.

"Well, 'Master'," Metal Sonic said mockingly, "it seems you've been able to harness the powers of the Creatures of Grimm like I have, but in a different way. You're playing with fire, old man, and I'll love to watch you get burned... after I kill Sonic, of course."

He eyed his small gathering of Grimm. "Still, that does give me an idea..." he chuckled evilly.

Okay, a couple closing notes:

1. Chief's weapon, the Master Key, functions like an assault rifle, but it also includes a "Cornershot" mode, which is an actual kind of weapon attachment. Its alternate mode looks like the Kingdom Key from Kingdom Hearts, minus the Mickey Mouse head keychain.

2. The ghost of Mogar is pretty much like Fi from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, in the way that his spirit is tied to his diamond sword.

3. Originally, this chapter was just going to give Neo more of a role, but after seeing the end of RWBY volume 2, I thought, why not add in Adam? Speaking of Neo, I did a lot of research, and it seems that both of her eyes can change colors, given the circumstances. In "Painting the Town", Neo's eyes were both brown in the White Fang meeting, while her left eye was pink when she blocked Yang's shot near the end of the episode. In "No Brakes", her right eye was pink when she was attacking. Therefore, I (and many other people) came to the conclusion that both of Neo's eyes are brown, but her left eye turns pink when she is on the defensive, while attacking causes her right eye to change color. Hope that makes sense.

4. I inserted a Red vs. Blue reference in this chapter. I tried to make it fairly obvious, but still funny.

Anyway, as always, leave a review and tell me what you think! And since it's been a few months, I'd like a request: story art. I would like a nice story cover, as my avatar picture of Shadow the Hedgehog may be a bit misleading. So, send me a private message if you have any already, or have any ideas you would like to swing by me. I would do it myself, but TBH, I can't draw to save my life, lol.

See you next chapter!