RWBY Distortion: Volume 3
Chapter 9: Battle in the Sky
The massive Wyvern flew past the Resolute, screeching as a crowd of Griffons followed it towards Beacon.
Ruby gasped as she saw it, only to then turn her attention to three griffins landing in front of her. For now, the massive Grimm would have to wait.
After slashing the Griffons, Ruby caught a breath only to hear a snapping sound behind her. The silver-eyed girl turned to see Neapolitan, now changing into her standard attire with a wave of light washing over her from bottom to top, as she winks after taking a picture of Ruby. Before Neo could send the picture to her boss, however, a green bolt of energy struck her hand, throwing her scroll over the side of the ship.
Neo and Ruby both turned to see Erick Moss standing on the side of the ship with Slicer in sword form. There was a hauntingly cold look in his red eyes, not one of rage, sadness, or fear, but pure controlled focus.
"Get to the bridge Ruby, I'll handle this" Erick ordered.
Ruby hesitated, with how skilled and deadly Neo was, she hesitated to leave Erick. She had begun to consider Team STEL as friends after the cafe, and she hesitated to leave anyone, let alone a new friend with Neo. The look in Erick's eyes was absolute though, so she nodded and ran off.
Neo gave an angry look and tried to go after Ruby as she sprinted towards the aft of the ship where the service door was, only for Erick to scorch the area in front of her with a blast of fire.
"I will be your opponent girl, and you would be wise not to waste aura on illusions!" Erick threatened.
The mute girl shook her head and spawned an illusion to run after Ruby, only for Erick to knock her down with a telekinetic blast.
Neo shook her head and popped the blade out of her umbrella, going for the throat with a lightning-fast slash. Erick nonchalantly ducked and traded blows with Neo, praying every slash with minimal effort.
A Griffon landed between them, causing Erich to grunt and decapitate it with Slicer. Neo saw this as her change and rushed forward, landing multiple kicks and even managing to stagger the green-clad teen.
Neo kicked him as hard as she could muster, knocking him over the edge and to the mercy of the winds and flying Grimm.
Neo smirked, so much for him! Unfortunately, her celebration was cut short when a voice behind her said "Might want to turn around"
The ice cream-colored girl turned in shock to see Erick summoning a ball of energy in his free hand, afterwards, he unleashed Slicer's whip pieces in a tornado of electricity and spinning metal.
Neo was far too shocked and gasped as she was boxed in. Erick held out his hand causing a beam to erupt from the ball of energy, completely consuming Neo who was helpless to move. With a boom, the light cleared, Neo was on the roof of the airship with her pink aura sparking.
As her aura broke Erick kicked her off the ship, but unlike Roman and the others who served Cinder, mercy was not optional. As she flew over the side, Erick spawned a portal behind her, depositing her safely on the ground 10 miles away. He had removed her as a threat, and that was enough.
Roman groaned as the doors to the bridge were sliced in half with Crescent Rose. He saw the intruder and sighed with "Little Red, Little Red...you are just DETERMINED to be the hero of Vale aren't ya?"
"What do you think you doing?! Without these ships, the grim will destroy everything!" Ruby reminded him.
"That's the plan!" Roman clarified as he blasted ruby with his cane, knocking the silver-eyed girl down.
Ruby got on her feet and rushed forward with Crescent rose, only for Roman to dodge and use his cane's grappling hook to tear Crescent Rose from Ruby's hands.
As the massive sniper scythe fell to the ground, Roman hit Ruby upside the head before continuing to pound on the defenseless girl. After Mountain Glen, he had figured out her weakness.
"As I said before, you are much more manageable without that oversized gardening tool!" Roman joked, only for Ruby to kick him in the shin.
"ENOUGH!" Roman yelled before firing his cane point blake at ruby, causing her aura to flicker as it shattered from the hit. He then held his cane to Ruby's neck, preparing to blow her head clean off.
"Like it or not! The people who hired me are going to change the world! You can't stop them, I can't stop them! And you know the old saying! If you can't beat em…" Roman's monologue was interrupted by a cold voice from the slashed open door.
"Oh shut the hell up," Erick said as he landed a massive combo of slashes and gave Roman a massive blast to the chest with telekinesis just like he had with Weiss and Mercury, only this time he hadn't limited the power of it for the sake of safety. Roman was thrown back into the steel was of the bridge, causing a dent in the metal wall as his orange aura shattered.
"Surrender!" Erick barked as he held Slicer to Roman's throat, pinning him against the wall with his free hand.
"Um no..." Roman scoffed before clicking the trigger on the detonator in his coat pocket, causing the charges Neo had sent earlier to detonate across the ship.
Erick was staggered for a moment by the explosions, allowing Roman to kick him in the gut and make a run for it, grabbing his cane on the way out.
Erick helped Ruby to her feat as an Atlas dropship flew by the window, Roman had made it to his escape plane in record time.
As the ship began to pitch downward Ruby looked around in fear and said "What are we gonna do"
Erick looked around frantically, trying to find a way out, but there was nothing. Shattering the glass would be useless, as the upper deck was in flames, and it was likely Roman had planned for the charges to cut off exits.
"I guess there's no choice," Erick conceded.
"What do you mean…" Ruby was cut off as Erick vanished in a flash of green light, in his place was a creature, unlike Ruby had ever seen.
It had no legs, simply floating instead. Most of its body was green, with white areas near its arms and a white stripe on its back that extended up to its head. Jet-plane-like wings sat on top of its back, while two tall-like, jagged fins pointed out from behind it from its rear. A yellow triangle marked the center of its chest, while a green mask partially covered its face. Long, ear-like fins extended from its jaws to over its head, and its eyes were red. It had three-fingered, clawed arms with a green covering on the outer side of the lower arms.
Ruby's silver eyes were wide, but she was snapped back to reality by another round of explosions.
"I'll explain later, for now, hop on" Erick's voice echoed in her mind as the creature motioned to get on his back.
Ruby slowly nodded and climbed on, the creature's green hide was apparently feathers, but they were smooth and rigid to the touch.
"Arms around my neck" Erick ordered as a forcefield of green energy formed around them.
As soon as Ruby grabbed his neck, the Latios amped up his forcefield, causing sparks of energy to shoot off it.
"Hang on tight!" Erick warned as he smashed through the bridge, avoiding the nearby grim, he immediately flew down to Vale, dropping Ruby off within sight of Qrow who had just sliced a griffon in half.
Erick cloaked and flew off as Ruby ran up to her uncle. Ruby didn't even notice him leave.
Qrow scoffed and said "You idiot. I know you didn't do this" with a look to General Ironwood, who had survived the ambush from the rogue robotics, but not unscathed.
Ironwood relaxed and sighs, lowering his head and putting his hand to his forehead, while Glynda placed her hand on his shoulder. The general's clothes were torn revealing the robotic half of his torso and cybernetic arm.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby shouted as she ran up and hugged her uncle.
"Good to see your ok kid, give me a sec" Qrow requested before turning to Ironwood and asking "So what now, General?:
Ironwood took a formal stance and said "Someone's done the impossible and gained control of my machines. And that enormous Grimm seems to be fixated on the school. Glynda, form up the local Huntsmen and establish a safe zone here in Vale. We need to evacuate Beacon. Qrow, I'm leaving that to you and my men. I still need to get to my ship."
On cue, all four of them heard a loud noise and turned to see its source: Ironwood's ship slowly nose-diving into the ground. Ruby gave a nervous smile, deciding to leave out the fact that she had just been there trying to save it.
"Well, it won't be much of a walk" Qrow joked.
The Atlesian Knights that were still functioning attempt one last time to harm the Huntsmen, before powering down. The crash had finally severed their connection to the virus...
In the Beacon courtyard, the students stood firm prepared to fight an Atlesian Paladin that was charging toward them. However, electricity arced across it and it suddenly powered down, collapsing and sliding to a stop in front of them.
"Hm. That went better than expected" Sun admitted.
Weiss doubled over, exhausted, leaning on Myrtenaster to keep herself standing.
"Weiss! You're okay! Have you heard from Ruby?" Yang questioned as she ran up
Weiss shook her head.
"What about Blake?" Yang asked
Weiss spoke in an exhausted voice with She went after an Alpha..and some members of the White Fang" pointing in the direction the cat Faunus had run off in
"You look for Ruby. I'll meet up with Blake" Yang stated calmly before hurrying off in the direction that Weiss pointed, while the heiress gave a thumbs up.
Tesa saw this and this ran after Yang, only to be stopped by a Beowolf. After a few slices of Raikiri, it was dead and evaporating. Tesa proceeded after Yang. with so many Grimm around, she shouldn't be alone.
Back in the burning dining hall, Blake was on her knees, Adam was just too strong for her.
Adam yelled at Blake with "This could've been our day! Can't you see that!?"
"I never wanted this! I wanted equality! I wanted peace!" Blake replied on the verge of tears.
She raised her sword, its blade folding into sickle mode, and shot at Adam. The bull faunus effortlessly blocked both bullets with his sword, his hair and sword glowing as he absorbed the energy.
"What you want is impossible!" Adam shouted as he sheathed his sword and backhanded Blake across her face, knocking her over.
Adam's voice calmed as he admitted "But I understand because all I want is you, Blake"
The cat Faunus begins to raise her sickle again, only for Adam to kick it out of her hand, knocking her over once again.
Adam kneeled down, face to face with his former love as he said "And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love"
A familiar voice rang out in the distance as Yang called out her partner's name with "Blake!"
Yang's voice drew both their attention to one of the broken windows. Yang came into view and blasted away a White Fang member with her gauntlet, before looking around for her teammate.
"Blake! Where are you!?" Yang called out again.
Adam looked at Blake to see her terrified expression, he then returned his gaze to Yang saying "Starting with her"
Adam drew his sword and stabbed it into Blake's abdomen near her left hip, causing her to shriek in pain. The cry caught Yang's attention.
"Huh?" Yang questioned as she turned to the sound of the shriek.
Adam stood upright, pulling his sword from Blake's flesh and turning to face Yang.
Yang's eyes were filled with rage as she said "Get away from her!"
Blake reached out her hand helplessly, pleading for Yang to run, but her whisper fell of deaf ears "No... please…"
Adam sheathed his sword, smiling. Yang screamed, her eyes turning red and a burst of flame erupting from her. She leaped at Adam, drawing her fist back with tears in her eyes. Adam swiftly drew his sword, swinging it through the air at Yang as his Semblance activated. Yang flew past, the Moonslice slicing right through her aura without shattering it and severing the lower half of her right arm from her body.
Yang flew through the air, beginning to lose consciousness, with glowing yellow Aura splattering out from her wound before pooling over the stump of her arm, her aura doing what it could to minimize the damage and stop the bleeding
The blond brawler landed on the floor and laid there on her side, completely still.
Adam slowly walked toward Yang's unconscious body and swung his sword out to the side, flicking her blood from its blade. Before he could reach her, Blake threw herself between them, giving him a determined stare.
Adam frowned and asked, "Why must you hurt me, Blake?"
He swung Wilt and Blake's head detached from her neck. However, both her body and her head suddenly vanished, relieving she had substituted in a shadow clone at the perfect time. Adam turned to watch the real Blake fleeing, dragging Yang with her. He began slowly walking after her, not even bothering to look at the Creep that attempted to ambush him as he cut it down. He then leveled the sheath in his hand, firing a single bullet from Blush, shooting Blake in the thigh to prevent her from escaping.
"There is no running from me" Adam said coldly as he came over Blake and the unconscious Yang.
Just before he could he could draw his sword, a bolt of lightning hit him from off to the right, blasting him through a flaming table and knocking him down. It wasn't a few arcs of electricty like the Ohm Twin's had demostated in the tournament or a bolt of energy like electricty dust could cause. It was a yellow bolt of pure plasma, amid the pain of her stab wound Blake could feel the hair on her arm rising from the sheer power of the electricity in the air.
Both Faunus turned to see a terrifying creature entering the dining hall, one that even Adam could not help but be scared of….
Author's note- Last change to guess Tesa's Pokemon form.
1. I Know the fight with Neo was a little short, but I tried to make it clear Erick is not messing around at all in terms of using his power.
2. Oh, look Death change #1. Roman's motivation that was revealed in this episode was such a masterful piece of character development that I couldn't possibly kill him.
3. Yang losing her arm is an important part of her character journey so I kept it in
4. It made no sense to me why Adam let Blake run away since the shadow clone fake out proved he was perfectly fine with killing her. Did anyone else almost have a heart attack watching that? I mean yea they probably wouldn't kill the main character but with that episode going from zero to 100 on the dark and serious meter so fast with the main character getting maimed, I didn't know what to expect at that moment.