Hall of Steel and Flame
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Team WA Vol. 2! This week we got Wayne and Aegis dealing with Dr. Watts! Also, a quick announcement about the next few chapters. I might have to break the next chapter into two if the length starts getting a bit much, and also the alternate ending or two I have planned out. This means that the last episode of volume 8 for RWBY will not be the last chapter for volume 8 of this fic. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. As for DCDGojira's question, keep reading and find out. Now then, onto the story!
Atlas: The Vault of the Relic
'Alright,' thought Weiss as she walked towards the entrance of the vault and the newly created portal, 'we got everything we need from the staff. Now we just need to get the people to Vacuo.' With that thought in mind, she clutched a little more tightly to the Staff of Creation as she and the rest of her team, plus Penny, all headed for the portal. Behind her was a blue, floating man with golden chains adorning his body and long white hair that he had tied into a ponytail. He was the spirit of the staff, Ambrosius, the one with the power to create anything so long as you told him how.
The first time he'd used his abilities, the spirit had returned to the staff shortly afterwards. Though for some reason, this time he was hanging around in the air with his hands behind his head. Weiss was about to ask about this possible development until something mildly surprising happened: someone stepped out fo the portal. "Oh good, looks like you're all doing okay," he said.
"Wayne?!" Said Team RWBY before Blake picked up for the rest of them, "what are you doing here? We've still got the evacuation to take care of."
"We've got a mild-," the huntsman started to say before Penny suddenly ran into him with a hug.
"Wow, you're warm too Wayne," said Penny happily while standing on her, toes?
"Hey Penny," said Wayne as he quickly hugged her back while noting a few differences, "You smell, different. Is that flesh and blood I smell?"
"Yep," said Penny as she hopped back with her hands behind her, "I'm a real girl now!"
"Guess the staff did it's job after all," said Wayne as he crossed his arms while doing a quick look over the former android, "even got rid of the virus I see."
"It was a little tricky," said Ambrosius suddenly as he floated closer to Wayne and the others, "but thanks to the creative wiles of yours truly, another masterpiece was created without fail."
"And you must be Ambrosius," surmised Wayne, "Oz wasn't kidding when he said you were a character."
"I am a creator, an architect, an artiste," said Ambrosius while making different poses with his muscular body, "so long as you can dream it, and explain it, I can make it. Since you're here, is there anything I might could make for you, huntsman?"
"Not unless you can make something capable of sealing away Salem, or keeping her body permanently separated," said Wayne, "but I wouldn't even begin to know where to start the explanation on that."
"I could fashion a prison or containment weapon of any kind," said Ambrosius, "but you need to be specific on what exactly it is that you want. Do you want her trapped in a hardlight prison, a crystal prison, contained within a machine generating a living mist. Do you desire a weapon that cuts through her and endlessly eats away at her wounds or something that creates permanent gaps through the use of the void in space? The possibilities are endless, but you still need a blueprint."
"Well as said I wouldn't even know where to begin," said Wayne, "so for now, thanks for making the doorways. I'm sure we'll call upon you again at some point."
"Guess we'll see if you have something good for me next time," said Ambrosius before holding up a finger, "just one last point of clarification about this central location you requested." He crossed his arms and straightened himself to his full height while looking at Ruby, "Do not fall." No one was quite sure how to answer that, so the spirit of creation took the lead. "Okay, and with that dire warning, I bid you all farewell for now."
His body turned into blue mist then as the group turned back towards the portal. "I'm missing Jin already," quipped Wayne.
"I heard that!" Said the voie of Ambrosius from the staff, startling everyone for a couple of moments.
"Uh, right, anyway," Wayne continued, "I came to let you all know that kingdom-wide communication just went down."
"You're assuming Watts," said Weiss, already certain where her boyfriend was going with this.
"With Ironwood and the Ace Ops out of the picture, he's the only one I know who'd be capable and willing to do something like this now of all times," said Wayne, "Aegis, Jaune and Nora are out spreading the word while my parents and the others are working on the defense of the evacuees. Once we're sure the word is more or less out, Aegis and I will work on hunting down Watts."
"If Watts is running around, I doubt Cinder and Neo will be far behind," said Yang, "you two had best be careful."
"Watch your backs as well," said Wayne, "knowing Cinder, she's most likely to strike where she'll do the most damage. Keep an eye out during the evacuation."
"We will," said Weiss as she hugged her boyfriend and quickly pecked him on the lips, "you and your brother just try and deal with that mustached prick as fast as you can. We're on a time limit now that the city is falling."
"Count on it," said Wayne as he put his helmet back on and hurried through the portal.
Some Time Later: Atlas Central Military Command
'Okay, everything else seems to be proceeding at least fairly close to plan,' thought Wayne as he and Aegis stepped out from one of the many portals into the halls of the main Atlas military stronghold. "Seems a lot less crowded here than what you told me," commented Aegis with his weapon resting on his shoulder as the two began walking.
"Give you three guesses as to why," said Wayne, his own weapons at the ready as he sniffed the air a bit. Sure enough, there was a faint odor of flames and blood further up the hallway. They'd managed to guess right, it seemed, and wound up on the correct floor.
"We can handle Watts and even Neo if she happens to be here too," said Aegis, "the real issue will be what we do if we run into Cinder."
"That'll be ironically lucky if we do happen to run into her here," said Wayne, "at least we'll know where she is then." 'And we might even be able to buy some time that way too.' The rest of their conversation came to a halt as the sound of the intercom cutting on got their attention.
"Ah, it seems we have some guests," said the voice of Watts from the speakers, "the Ursario brothers if I'm not mistaken. Cinder's mentioned you a time or two as a threat that shouldn't be ignored, though at first glance I'm not entirely sure why."
"I could say come down here and find out," replied Aegis, "but we all know you're too chickenshit for that."
"Namecalling, how quaint," said Watts, "I shouldn't be surprised. Given the recordings I've seen the only use you seem to have for your head, Aegis Ursario, is bashing it into other things. Sorry to tell you, but that won't get you far here."
"It's worked out the last seventeen years," said Aegis as they turned a corner, "so why quit now?"
"Oh yes, this all seems to be working out quite well," said Watts in a mocking tone, "given the tremor I felt not too long ago, it seems you managed to acquire the staff and have used it for your little plan. It's a surprisingly ingenious one given that you came up with it in an hour, well, not you specifically but Miss Rose, Ozpin and the Schnee girl. But even still, the city is now falling."
"How in the wo-," Aegis started to say before being cut off by the Doctor.
"Did I know that," said Watts, "I have my ways, as you'll find out-."
"If I'm right we've already found out that you're an idiot," said Wayne, deciding now was the best time to speak up.
"Beg pardon?" Said Watts, "It sounds like you just doubted my intelligence."
"The lamp was missing from Monstra," said Wayne as they passed a few bodies with precise cuts and burns on them, "and while you're a good hacker, the damage here is recent and definitely not just your work, meaning you haven't been in operation long or were here alone. I imagine you coordinated your attack at about the same time we took down Ironwood, that's the only time both he and the Ace Ops would be occupied."
"Not bad so far," said Watts, "but you still haven't explained to me where the flaw in my thinking is?"
"If I'm guessing right, you're just now in a position where you can actually make use of your computing ability, meaning there's little chance you hacked the cameras at the Schnee manor," continued Wayne, "and if that's on track, then there's only one other way you and Cinder could know our plan: you used the last question in the lamp, didn't you?"
"Bravo," said Watts, "it seems we've determined which one of you is the brains out of the two. Yes, we did indeed use the last question in the lamp to hear what you and those other little children were planning. I'd like to take credit for the idea, but it was actually Cinder who suggested it after remembering that she had a functioning brain. Though after this I might find far fewer reasons to get a laugh at her expense."
"She found her brain, and you lost some of yours," said Aegis before glancing at Wayne, "should I do the explanation?" His older brother nodded. "You let her use the relic of knowledge, which is capable of answering virtually any question about the past and present, and agreed that the big question you should ask, is what we're planning?"
"You make it sound like you know of a better question that could've been asked," said Watts mockingly, "your green horn huntsmen and huntress friends have caused more than enough trouble for Salem and the rest of us. The sooner you're dealt with, the sooner her grace can give us the new world we desire." The Ursario brothers looked at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing.
"I thought this guy was supposed to be smart," laughed Aegis as he put his hand against the wall for support, "you'd think he'd know a bold-faced lie when he heard one after faking his own death."
"If exceptionally practiced liars like Cinder and Emerald didn't know it, I guess this guy had no hope," said Wayne while holding his sides.
"I fail to see what you find so funny given your current situation," said Watts, "I am the most brilliant mind Atlas has ever produced, which is why I know that Salem is capable of delivering on the promises she's made."
"That honor belongs to Pietro from what I hear," said Aegis as he and Wayne began walking again, "and given that I haven't seen any peppy and cute androids calling you dad, it's probably right on the money."
"That little windup toy is a joke," spat Watts, with the brothers almost audibly hearing him slamming his fist on the console, "the Atlesian Paladins I was producing along with my other line of weapons were far superior to some little machine made by a crippled old man wanting a daughter!"
"Based on what I've seen she could kick the nuts and bolts off any one of your paladins," Wayne pointed out, "and we would know, we've broken plenty ourselves. They're big and heavily armed, but at the end of the day that's part of the problem. They're clumsy, can't fit in narrow spaces, too heavy to fly and have little defense against a swarm if it manages to get up close. Penny, on the other hand is way more versatile and capable of wreaking just as much havok on the enemy."
"You sound exactly like Ironwood!" Growled Watts, "they're designed for fighting Grimm, not for blending into public. They can easily be mass produced to counter their weakness to numbers and the possibility of flight could come with just a little more time! But no, the General wasn't ready to wait any longer and chose that doll over my warmachines!"
"So you faked your death and joined Salem in order to get your revenge," surmised Wayne, "gotta be honest, pretty pathetic. Your whole reason for wanting to bring Atlas down can basically be summed up as 'Wah, Principal Ironwood didn't pick my science project for the school fair, it's not right Mama Salem, it's just not right!'"
"Gah, now I know why Exo hates you both so much," seethed Watts, "to think I'd actually agree with that mongrel on anything is more infuriating than you know! But it's to be expected that a couple of small town country half breeds wouldn't know what true genius is, so I'll demonstrate it now!" The sound of all the hallway doors opening was heard then as multiple mechanical footsteps pounded an uneven rhythm on the floor. Before long, android after android began entering the hallway carrying whatever firearm they happened to acquire along the way.
"Wow, how original," quipped Aegis as he spun the cylinder on his weapon and formed a stone kite shield around it, "I was expecting at least a slightly better challenge!" The younger Ursario brother charged forward and smashed through several of the androids, his shield only chipped away little by little from the fire directed at him. Wayne followed close behind while firing his Crescent Fangs into the heads or torsos of any android lucky enough to survive Aegis's initial onslaught. 'Most of the security for this part of the compound was flesh and blood soldiers,' recalled Wayne as he sliced the head off an android before shooting another one with his other weapon, 'Watts has to know that, so there must be some other reason he's sending out the androids in such a standard pattern.'
The Older Ursario brother got his answer to this when they arrived at a part of the hallway which split off into three other hallways. As the two got to the middle, more of the doors opened to reveal a firing squad of androids with a couple of rocket launchers mounted on their shoulders. "Incoming," called Wayne as he noticed other doors were opening with several more androids coming out, cutting off any escape they might've had. Just as the rocket launcher androids were about to fire, Wayne and Aegis went back to back before switching positions so that Wayne was facing the main android force.
He unleased his semblance in the form of two large shuriken which cut through the rockets almost as soon as they were launched and into the androids with the launchers, resulting in an explosion which cleared out much of that hallway. The other androids took this as their cue to fire on the two brothers, but Aegis quickly raised a couple of glass walls while also blocking shots with his shield. Wayne used this time to open fire on the androids as the brothers rotated their position again and again so that Aegis was covering against the barrage of bullets while Wayne returned fire. It went on like this for a solid minute before the androids numbers finally dwindled down to practically none. "You might be in control of military command, Watts," said Wayne as he and Aegis continued down the hall to where the Older Brother remembered the main control room was, "but don't think that means you completely have the upper hand."
"I'll admit your coordination is impressive," said Watts over the speakers, "I knew those androids wouldn't hold you but I expected they'd last at least a little longer. Perhaps this next batch will have an easier time." As before, more androids stepped into the hall from side passages and doors to block their way, but something was off about them. The red visor they had indicating that they were being hacked was blinking, almost like.
"Ah shit," said Aegis as he spun the cylinder on his weapon again to reinforce his stone shield. As he did this, a couple more androids approached them from the back. They were unarmed, but despite that they charged at them anyway. "They're gonna blow!" And only a couple seconds after Aegis's warning, the androids did just that as the hallway was almost blasted apart by the numerous consecutive explosions from the handful of androids.
"Well that wasn't too terribly difficult," said Watts as he looked at the static on one of his screens, "those androids might not be capable of defeating you in combat, but they make spectacular walking explosives when all else fails. Shame all those blasts knocked out the cameras in that part of the hallway, a little more gore might've made my day that much better." He proceeded to go back to monitoring the screen which had the Atlesian science vessel carrying both Harriet and the bomb meant for Mantle. He smiled to himself as he recalled the havoc he wreaked on Qrow, Robyn and Marrow with a single exploding android taking out the dog Faunus's aura and releasing the Ace Ops from his semblance.
It was all the chance Harriet needed to board the ship with her superspeed and fly away with the bomb towards Mantle. And now that the others were pursuing her in another ship they managed to grab, all he had to do was….wait a minute, what was that? The Atlesian scientist noted movement in one of the other monitors, and it was in the next hallway! The sound of a roar reached his ears from the monitor then as Aegis came barreling out with his stone glass shield now reshaped into a large, round tower shield while his body was adorned with extra glass armor.
Wayne was close behind him, brushing some of the excess glass off his coat as the two ran down the hallway. 'That half Faunus formed a protective layer of black glass around them while also reshaping his shield,' realized Watts, 'then he formed that armor for this charge.' Watts thought quickly and sent an order to all remaining units to charge the bear brothers using the self-destruct functions in their bodies. "More coming this way Wayne," announced Aegis as both their ears picked up the sound of mechanical feet in front of them.
"Got it covered," said Wayne as he signaled his brother to raise his shielf for a moment and allow him in front, "javelin arrowhead formation!" He released several small, arrowhead projectiles with his semblance, each of them slamming into the oncoming androids and blasting them back with surprising force despite their size. This also caused their self destruct functions to go off prematurely, destroying both them and the other runners who got caught in the blast, creating a chain of explosions through the hallway.
The Older brother quickly retreated behind his younger brother's large frame and shield as they barreled through any stragglers too quickly for the self destruct to catch them in the blast. Those few that did manage to explode in time weren't able to do enough damage to Aegis or the stone shield he created to slow them down. As for Wayne, he fired behind them whenever he saw an android giving chase, blasting out their legs or head when he could and blasting them away with his semblance if they happened to get too close. It was like trying to stop an overequipped armored car, what obstacles they couldn't roll over where blasted or shot out of the way until the door finally came into sight.
"That's it," confirmed Wayne as he hopped out from behind Aegis and went for the door controls. Unsurprisingly, it turned red before his hand even pressed it as Watts voice came over the comms again.
"I must commend you on getting through so many obstacles so quickly," said Watts, "I'll admit it's not the first time I've underestimated someone's durability but even Ironwood himself would've been hardpressed to get through that alone."
"I doubt it'd take him long to get through this door either," said Aegis, "so why not make it easy on yourself. Open up, and I promise not to outright kill you or completely kick your ass."
"You say that as if you'll have time to even worry about opening the door," said Watts, "but your present company would like to have a word with you first." The two brothers looked back to see what must've been the rest of the androids in the base running right for them, all with flashing red lights in their heads.
"Well this just keeps getting more irritating," said Wayne with a groan before he and his brother faced the oncoming threat, "guess we're gonna have to go with the big one."
"Makes me glad I've been working on my semblance since coming to Atlas," said Aegis as he dissolved the tower shield around his weapon before holding one end out and spinning hardlight dust on his cylinder. Wayne grabbed the weapon as well and channeled some of the energy of his own semblance as a glass wall reinforced with highly energized hardlight appeared in front of them. No sooner had they managed to create it than the first android impacted against it and exploded, creating yet another chain reaction of explosions which shook the hall and disrupted the feed on nearly every camera in the area.
Even behind the reinforced doors of the command center Watts could hear the explosion and felt the room shake from the force of the blasts. He viewed the monitor for a moment as he tried to get a feed of the door back up. 'It's possible I overdid that one a bit, but it's best I not take any chances after getting captured by Ironwood.' His thoughts were interrupted by an electrical noise coming from the door.
Watts looked behind him and noted the sliding entryway had short-circuited. "Bah, it seems it's not as reinforced as they said it is," grumbled Watts as he got up and approached the door, "that explosion was large, but this door is supposed to be able to take bombs hitting it. Well either way, I don't want to end up locked in here with a door that can only be opened by brute for-CRAAAAAAAAANK!" The Atlesian scientist stopped for a moment at the sudden creaking of the door, or rather loud metal scraping against metal.
'It couldn't be,' he thought while stepping back to pick up the rifle he'd taken from one of the Atlesian soldiers during his, Cinder and Neo's break in. His answer came in the form of an eargrating screech as the doors suddenly started opening. "You can't be serious," said Watts as he pulled a white Atlesian grenade from his suit, "how are you not dead?" The response to that was roaring and a lot of groaning as the door continued to be forced open, revealing a pair of red eyes on the other side.
"You really don't know when to die do you," said Watts as he went to prime the grenade, only to be stopped by a grate from the ceiling breaking loose and falling towards him. The Doctor was able to roll out of the way of the grate but couldn't raise his rifle in time as it was knocked aside before he suffered a painful kick in the chest which sent him into one of the nearby terminals. Watts recognized the form of Wayne Ursario in an instant as he managed to move out of the way in time to avoid one of his sickles digging into the console. He moved to pull out a soldier's pistol he'd also taken but was too slow as Wayne slashed his arm with his other weapon, causing him to drop both it and the grenade as he stumbled back.
Watts attempted to dive for one of the dropped weapons, only for a strong grip to seize him by his collar and yank him back. "'Sup Watts, we haven't been formally introduced," said Aegis before rushing him forward and slamming his face into the nearest terminal screen, "Name's Aegis Ursario. It's nice," he slammed his head into the next console, "to meet you!" He then yanked him into the air with both hands and slammed him down onto the ground before pulling him back up and repeating the process again, and again, and again, and then a few more times before slamming him down into the person-shaped crater he'd created. "How you feelin' today?"
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," groaned Watts weakly from his embedded position in the floor. Not only had his aura broke with that assault, he was pretty sure something was broken internally as well.
"Keep an eye on him," said Wayne who'd already rushed over to the main terminal and began pulling up functions, "looks like we're in luck, he didn't have time lock everything behind a firewall or password protection."
"Can we restore communications then?" Asked Aegis while picking up and unloading the weapons near Watts.
"Should just need too, there," said Wayne as he found and reactivated the system, "our communicators and scrolls should now be back up if nothing else."
"Hey Winter," said Aegis over his earpiece, "can you hear me?"
"I can now," replied Weiss's sister, "guess we were right in assuming it was Watts who was responsible for this." Aegis was about to respond when he heard a weak laugh from the scientist.
"Well, at least I'll get a consulation prize," coughed Watts.
"Hey Wayne, you might want to check and make sure he didn't do anything else," said Aegis as he silenced the man's chuckling with a press of his foot on his stomach.
"Already on it," replied Wayne as he kept moving through the feeds, "I haven't been able to find Cinder or Neo yet but with just a little more-shit!"
"What is it?" Questioned Aegis, half-tempted to run over and see the problem for himself.
"The bastard pulled a fast one and has the bomb on a ship towards Mantle," said Wayne, "which wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that Qrow and Robyn are both on or in range of the ship with the bomb on it. And the timer's counting down from thirty seconds!"
"I had just started loading the program after detonating the androids at the door," coughed Watts, "hopefully Miss Rose and the Happy Huntresses will forgive the two of you for not quite making it in time." Aegis increased the pressure on his abdomen to quiet him down.
"Wayne, what've you got?" Asked Aegis, trying to keep the potential panic out of his voice.
"Just a second, just a second," said Wayne as he put a finger to his earpiece, "Winter, what's the bomb defusal code?" He listened for a moment as the information was relayed to him before quickly typing it into the terminal. Aegis did his best not to notice how the timer was already at ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six-. "Got it!" And indeed the timer had stopped in between counting down from six to five.
"Hey Qrow," said Aegis over his earpiece, "you guys alright out there?"
"What, Aegis," said Qrow, "finally, communication was cut off, what's going on?"
"We just happened to find a lost scientist in Central Command," answered Wayne, "he cut off communications, messed with that ship and nearly detonated the bomb. So feel free to dump that thing wherever."
"Thanks for the help you two," said Robyn Hill, "we'll get to that and head back to Atlas as soon as we can."
"And we'll wrap things up here," said Aegis as he picked Watts up out of the crater and began dragging him towards Wayne.
"You think you've won," groaned Watts, "but by now, Cinder and Neo have already cornered your friends in that dimensional space. And I might have let one of the barriers on Ironwood's cell, flicker out just a bit."
"That will give us some trouble," said Wayne as he grabbed ahold of one of Watt's arms, "but whatever outcome you're hoping for, you were never gonna get it anyway. Because Salem intends to destroy the world, not change it."
"You lie, she promised-," Watts tried to say but was cut off by Aegis.
"A new world, probably something about your genius being recognized, revenge, yadda yadda," said Aegis, "we actually asked Jin a good question, one that told us everything about Ozpin and Salem. You could've done the same and you wasted it just to go after us. Hope it was worth it." They both increased their grip on Watts's arms then before running forward, the scientist's scream of terror abruptly cut off by his whole head being smashed into the secondary main console all the way up to his neck.
"Enjoy your resting place with the technology you love so much," said Wayne as he and Aegis turned to leave. Aegis armed the grenade Watt's had earlier and threw it behind them once they got a safe distance away, not even bothering to turn around as the explosion completed the bloody work of ending the career of one disgraced Atlesian scientist.
"So where to now," asked Aegis, "Ironwood could be anywhere and Cinder and Neo have probably crossed into that weird realm already."
"You go and help Yang and the others," said Wayne, "like Jaune said the evacuation is priority one and your semblance can help prevent collateral damage way better than mine. I'll go find Winter and see to putting Ironwood back in the hole he's dug for himself."
"Splitting up again, and after we were finally able to hang out for a bit," said Aegis with a sigh before holding out his hand. The two brothers clasped hands and gave each other a quick hug before heading in opposite directions. "Kick that tin man in the balls for me!"
"Just so long as you bitchslap Cinder," Wayne called back. Aegis nodded at that before entering into the nearest portal, and came upon a scene of absolute chaos.
Atlas: The Vault of the Relic
Winter wasn't the type to wear her emotions on her sleeves, that's not something a professional does when they're on the job. But anyone capable of paying attention would note the slightly hurried gait with each step she took and the occasional tremor in her hand as she looked through the camera feeds on her scroll. With Ironwood loose, there were a lot of ways this plan could go wrong. She was just about to check in with the others when a pair of running footsteps caught her attention.
"Winter," said Wayne as he came running into view. His helmet was on at the moment so it was hard to see his face, but the body language he was displaying as he ran towards her looked urgent and…..what was that? A red dot had suddenly appeared on the floor and was moving towards her. It was the same type of red dot, used to help aim a weapon! "BEHIND YOU!"
She drew her saber and produced a defensive glyph as quickly as she could. And not a second too soon as a powerful, green laser slammed into it with force that easily rivaled Penny's strongest laser, which was unsurprising given that it was meant to imitate it. By this point, Wayne had managed to reach Winter and tackled her out of the way just as her glyph broke under the strain of the blast. The huntsman and huntress could feel the heat on their ankles and feet as the laser scorched the floor where they'd just been before crashing down a moment later onto the hard, geometrically lined stone.
"I've chased a lot os shadows over the years," said Ironwood as he descended on the ramp-like elevator, his new cannon now smoking from its first use, "I was always expecting some kind of betrayal around the corner." He stepped off the platform and walked forward as Wayne and Winter got to their feet, noting that the General was now sporting grey, metallic armor which covered his shoulders and torso and had wired gauntlets on his arms similar to Harriet's own weapons. "But never once did I think that betrayal would ever come from you, Winter?" He stopped then, standing among some of the green flames his weapon had created while prepping to fire another shot.
"I know what's best for Atlas," he continued, "that's why I'm going to do whatever it takes to get that staff. So consider this my last order: help me deal with Ursario and his friends, or step aside."
"Are you seriously still on about that damn staff," said Wayne as he took a fighting stance with his weapons raised, "it's already gone and soon the rest of the people of Atlas will be somewhere safe along with it. You've lost this battle General but the war can still be won if you just stand down and actually try to think without the fear for five minutes."
"I haven't lost yet," said Ironwood, "not so long as I'm still breathing. Perhaps in another life if you'd chosen a better path, you could've led people and better understood the burden I've had to carry. But you know, Winter, you've known for years I've only ever done what's best for Atlas. So what's it gonna be?"
"As you said you've known me for years," said Winter, "I've never wavered in fighting the enemies of this kingdom." She dropped her smaller saber into her left hand while taking a dual wielding stance. "And I won't start now."
"Then, I'm sorry," said Ironwood as he pressed a button on one of his armored gauntlets. The whole room began to shake as every geometric pattern in the vault lit up with blue light. Wayne and Winter nearly lost their balance as the path separated out into several floating chunks which spread out into the air encircling the entire space of the vault. "You'll recall this separation protocol for the vault was meant to stave off a large invasion party, but it'll work just as well for this."
He charged up his cannon then as Wayne and Winter leapt into action, jumping from one newly formed stone platform to the next. With the roar of a soldier, a general and a beast, one of the last battles for Atlas began.
And so the beginning of the end is at hand. As mentioned, I'll be putting in one or two more extra chapters at the end due to length and multiple endings, so hopefully you'll all enjoy those. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as the Ursario brothers fight desperately against the final threats to Atlas. 'Til then.