Lone Wanderer
"Lone, what are we doing here following them, shouldn't we be reporting back to Salem?" Emerald asked as she sat down next to Mercury, the roaring sound of the train running on the gravity dust tracks.
"Well my beautiful Emerald," Lone said as Neo plopped into her lap with a malicious smile on her face as she cleaned her weapon. "That man, the one who's seduced Cinder, is the one who's in the way of Salem's plans."
"But don't you have a dog in this fight?" Mercurey asked as he ate an energy bar.
"Of course I do! Because I'm going to kill Courier Six, it just so happens that Salem's plans aline with mine, well… that, and I love you guys so much!" Lone squealed with joy as she hugged all three of them as one, Neo, Emerald, and even Mercury hugged her back.
"Thanks, Lone," Emerald said with small blush on her face.
"Don't mention it. I always protect my own, I wouldn't be a good team leader if I didn't care for you all," Lone said with a wholesome smile. Just as the four of them were finished with their embrace, there was a knock on the cargo door.
"Alright, lets finish this up, Dudley," one man said to the other.
"Come on Dee, we already checked this one," Dudley complained.
"Yea, but I heard some voices coming from inside," Dee reminded his partner as team LEMN scurried behind a pile of boxes.
"Emerald," Lone whispered. "Do you think you could use your semblance on them both?"
"Yup! I've been practicing since the Vytal Festival," Emerald said with enthusiasm as she began to activate her semblance, the illusion enveloping Dee and Dudley as they finished surveying the cargo compartment.
"You feeling stupid now, Dee?" Dudley asked as they finished up the search and exited the car back to the passenger cars.
Neo looked up to Lone as if to say "Wow, that was a close one!"
"It sure was my little assassin! Now you three get some rest, I'll take watch," Lone said with enthusiasm as the three outlaws opened a crate of silk pillows and laid down to rest. She opened up her scroll, looking through some new information she received from Wattz while she was in Salem's castle. "Oh, now this is something juicy!" she said as her eyes sharpened and she began to breathe heavily.
Sun Wukong
The earnest monkey faunus was sitting next to Yang as she watched over her little sister, Ruby Rose. "Hey Yang, where'd Blake go?" he asked.
"Oh, she went over to hang out with Ilia. Why, do you wanna talk to her?" the blonde brawler asked.
"No, I just want to make sure she's doing ok, but since she's with Ilia, she should be fine," Sun said as he wrapped his arm around Yang's shoulders, Yang returning the favor as she leaned her head on him.
"Hey Sun…" Yang said, as she turned her head up to face him. "Do you like me?" she asked.
"Well of course I like you! You're so positive and a great workout-partener to boot!"
"Do you… love me?" Yang asked with a quizzical look aimed at Sun.
"Yes. I don't know how, but I feel so at ease when I'm around you, its like all the troubles and worries I have washed away like the ocean at low tide when I'm around you. You make me feel so… calm," Sun explained as he leaned his head on hers, their blonde hair intermingling a bit. "Hey Yang."
"Yea Sun, what is it?"
"I'm worried for Blake."
"Why?"
"Because I think she hasn't forgiven herself. For abandoning you. I mean, you two are partners after all," Sun pointed out as Yang nodded in agreement.
"Yea, I've noticed it too, but I don't know what to do," Yang said, a disappointed frown growing on her face.
"Well have you ever just sat her down face to face, one on one, and just said you forgave her?"
"No… I haven't… Once we reach Argus, I'll do that. Thanks Sun!" Yang said as she got comfortable in Sun's arms and fell asleep.
In the adjacent room Amatus and Cinder were cuddling up in a bed. "Hey Cinder, which town are we going to?" Six asked as he spooned with his partner, her warm hands covering his own.
"It's not a town, Six, it's a city, and its name is Argus. It's a big port that connects the continents of Anima and Solitas. Atlas has a military base at the port, but due to the dust embargo its been hard to get a ship going to Atlas," Cinder explained as she enjoyed the warmth of her significant other. After lying there in blissful silence for a few moments, Cinder pulled a pair of black gloves with red lines leading from the palm, wrapping around the fingers and converging on the back of the hand.
"Hm? What are those?" Six asked as he peaked above her shoulder, getting a look at the gloves.
"They're some gloves I've created for when we arrive in Argus. The climate there is far colder than a desert, and it will get even colder in Atlas, so I imbued some low-grade fire dust into the gloves to act as hand warmers. I wasn't able to get enough dust for a full outfit, but once we reach Atlas, I can upgrade your apparel. Until then, you need to keep your stuff in good condition, ok?" Cinder asked as she looked over her shoulder at Six who had buried his face in her back, half asleep.
Just as The Courier was about to get some sleep, the dust rail began to shake as if something had landed on top of it. Just as it did, the roof above the couple was ripped open by a large, winged beast. Six grabbed Ionized Flame and his grenade launcher as Cinder grabbed Maria, loading in some modified hollow point rounds and activating the flamethrower attachment to her robotic limb.
"So that's what a grimm looks like…" Six said with a bored look on his face. "Doesn't seem so bad compared to a deathclaw or cazador," he continued as he fired a few grenades at the winged grimm. "But that just begs question: what drew them here?" Six whispered to himself as he jumped up, charging the grimm with Ionized Flame. Cinder scouted out the rest of the train as even more grimm descended upon the train. "Cinder! Get to the others! I'll hold these guys off!" Six shouted as Cinder nodded, running over to the other rooms, rallying the huntsmen and huntresses.
The winged grimm charged Amatus, who slid under it, cutting through its belly, a black gaseous fog leaking from the wound. It swiped at his arm, only to be stabbed by ionized flame, which expelled both flames and electricity as Six pulled the throttle on the grip. The creature burst into small ash-like dust particles. Three more of the winged beasts landed on the train and fired some fireballs his way. Six ducked, avoiding the first too, but took the third one blasted him off of the train. "Shit! At a speed like this, I'll probably due on impact," Six thought as he threw a line of his sand to hook onto the back of the train. The manticores started to burrow into the train, only for them to be dealt a swift death by the hand of team RWBY as they emerged from the train car.
"You're looking a bit rusty there, old timer! Need any help?" Yang asked as she fought off a chimera.
"Naw, I'm good," Six said with a childish smirk as he charged the chimeras, firing a cluster of grenades in their direction. Suddenly, another winged creature, but larger and with a different appearance diving out of the clouds, trying to snatch the group up.
"The fuck is that?!" Six asked, pointing at the sphinx.
"Deathclaws don't seem so bad now, do they?" Cinder quipped as she shot a few fireballs at the airborne enemies.
"Deathclaws? Those sound scary!" Ruby said before beheading a chimera.
"Yea, real scary fuckers," Six said as he fired the flamethrower at an incoming nethermore, scaring it off as it flew up, sending a flurry of feathers at the group, Six creating a few sand shields to block the feathers that posed a threat. The nethermore swooped down picking up Ilia and Amnia. Ilia wrapped Lover's Scorn around its neck, as Amnia cut off the legs of the nethermore, dragging it down back to the ground, where Ilia finished it off.
"We can't keep fighting these things off! They just keep coming!" Six said as he shot down another chimera. "We need to gather all of the civilians at the front of the train so we can get the civilians out of here. Once they're gathered in the front car, we'll detach and be a decoy. That way the rest of the passengers should be able to escape!" Six said as team JNR all nodded, going back into the passenger car, gathering the civilians to the front of the train.
"Keep fighting!" Ruby shouted as she cut through an incoming chimera. They did just that, keeping the creatures' attention.
"Cutting the clamp!" Six shouted as he slashed through the metal clamp, watching as the lead car slowly got farther and farther away. Just as he was about to rejoin the group, a sword broke through the window of the car, a few shards of glass stabbing into Six's back. He turned around to face Lone, her two swords pointed at Six.
"It's been a while, my little Courier!"
