Volume 2 Chapter 11: BattleBots

AN: So… yeah. Not much going on here at the moment. Summer class is hilariously easy. Writing's coming along well. RWBY Chibi is hilarious. Still waiting on the RWBY V4 OST.

Yeah. You guys want it. I want it. No more delays. It's… robot fightin' time!

(Perspective: Kassidy)

The powered up Paladin began stalking forward. One thunderous step. Then another. Each step shook the ground they were standing on. Despite all the bravado, all the fancy tricks, all the monstrous sniper scythes they had… it still didn't change the fact that they were facing down a walking tank that reached their height five times over, and their weight many dozens of times over. If they wanted this fight to be on favorable terms, they needed to kick things off now. It shouldn't be me, though. Out of all four of us, I'm the only one that's probably completely incapable of even inconveniencing it. But if nobody does anything soon, then –

"Freezerburn!" Ruby cried.

Well, there's that, I guess. Kassidy backpedaled as quickly as she could, Ruby in hot pursuit, while Yang leapt into the air even as Weiss twirled and manifested a great sheet of frost on the ground. Kassidy's partner came crashing down an instant later, throwing up an instant smokescreen that bought them time. The fact that this was steam – not smoke – meant that even infrared sensors would be fooled, at least for a while. A sensor beam popped up right next to Kassidy's head, making her flinch and panic, until she realized that it was a simple proximity beam. As long as the beam itself didn't hit her, the Paladin was currently blind.

Kassidy stayed hot on Ruby's heels as the four girls circled around, each trying to find an opening as Roman continued to search for them. He even had the gall to goad them over the Paladin's speaker systems. "Come out, come out, wherever you are. Old Uncle Roman's got some presents for you girlies."

"Any luck getting into that creep's systems yet, Bob?" Kassidy whispered.

"No can do, that's a closed system the Paladin unit is operating on. I'd need a direct link to do anything."

Ruby came to a stop, peeking around a pillar before ducking her head back. Silver eyes glanced towards her, and their owner asked, "What does Bob need from us?"

Kassidy shook her head. "He can't get in. We need to do this the hard way. Actually… Bob, don't we have that armor piercing shell we made for Crescent Rose in my locker?"

"That's an affirmative," her computer confirmed.

"Get my locker over here, then; that ammo's the best chance we have of taking this thing down fast." A blur of motion across the way caught Kassidy's eye, which happened to be Yang sprinting to the next pillar that served as their only cover. Kassidy's heart leapt into her throat when the Paladin stopped, turned, and aimed right at where Yang was hiding, but fortunately Roman made no attempt to be the aggressor in this instance. Trying to will her erratic pulse back to some faint semblance of normalcy, Kassidy turned back to Ruby, who seemed to be tensing up. "So, in the meantime… what am I supposed to do, again? Even with my explosive ammo, I can't do shit to that thing."

Something skidded to a stop right behind her; Kassidy jumped and had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep a yelp from alerting Roman to where she was, almost giving herself a new scar with Baton in the process. Weiss seemingly materialized next to her, and tensed again before speaking over her shoulder, "I took the time to study the schematics a few days ago. Those sensors it has aren't sturdy at all and should come apart easily enough if you hit them. Plus, now that you're stronger than you used to be, you should be able to shear through any external hydraulic lines if you put your weight behind it."

"If you get its attention, I can go in and get this party started," Ruby mentioned almost off-handedly. Kassidy was caught off guard; usually, whenever they fought, Ruby was without any shadow of a doubt their leader, but she was still Ruby. Now, though, with so much on the line, there was no trace of the awkward little girl with far too much fondness for cookies and strawberries than was healthy. There wasn't a trace of fear. Of doubt. Of anything other than conviction and iron will. Ruby's face was nearly blank, her eyes sharpened in focus, her tongue even poking out of her mouth a bit as she thought. It didn't matter that she was the youngest person to ever attend Beacon Academy. It didn't matter that she was staring at the closest thing Remnant's ever come to a tank. She was in control of the situation, not Roman – and she all but dared anyone to challenge her on that.

Weiss nodded, and shot back, "Get ready." Her legs coiled, eyes narrowed, and her breathing remained easy. Shoulders back, left foot forward, hands steady. Whether through pride, ego, a desire to prove herself to her father, a desire to prove herself to her friends… call it what you will, but Weiss Schnee would never back down from a challenge of any kind. Especially not a challenge like this. Countless hours spent in the training arenas, hitting the books, and experimenting with both Dust and her Semblance ensured that the Schnee heiress was ready for anything. A desire for perfection that bordered on fanaticism ensured that her accuracy was peerless. Myrtenaster was as precise and sharp as a surgeon's scalpel. Backed by her team, Weiss' reaction to this situation was obvious; in her mind's eye, they'd already won. Now, it was simply a matter of breaking through the Paladin's defenses, and tearing Roman apart piece by screaming piece with surgical precision.

Before Weiss could launch herself into the fray, however, Kassidy spied a golden shock of hair peek around the pillar opposite her, and locked eyes with the lilac orbs of her girlfriend. Yang Xiao Long was a veritable force of nature on the battlefield: relentless, irresistible, unstoppable. There was no quarter given, no room for error. If you were at anything less than your absolute best, then Yang would beat you into a pulp, drag you kicking and screaming out of any fantasies or delusions of superiority, and leave your broken body on display as a warning to any that would attack that which she held dear. The woman that Kassidy had grown to care about like none before her – in one or two ways, not even like her old family – was all but a goddess of war, destruction incarnate. And when faced with thirty seven tons of the densest package of violence the eggheads in Atlas could come up with, it was surely little more than just another obstacle to clobber into the ground, kindling to fuel her flames.

It was from their strength, their conviction, that Kassidy drew her own. There was no question; she was the least of them. The weakest by far. But in other ways, she was so much more. She was Special Weapons Project 31187 Model 2: a weaponized human. Forged on the anvil of mad science and tempered through the fires of war, she was the greatest biological weapon ever conceived. Dozens – nay, hundreds – of times prior, she had stared her death in the face and laughed at it. Her world had sought to kill her, and had certainly done its best to do so. But not even the end of reality itself could destroy her; she'd just gone to a new universe and continued to live there. What she lacked in power, she would make up in intelligence, precision, and experience. Even after having fought her twice previously, Roman had no idea what he was going up against.

By the time this night was over, she'd gut him like a fish and stick his head on a fucking pike. After, of course, he lived exactly as long as it took to regret endangering those whom she cared about.

This is why, when Weiss dashed out of cover to draw Roman's attention, he had already lost; he was fighting Team Rookie, after all. The Paladin swiveled, and twin bursts from its plasma cannons atomized the concrete that Weiss standing on mere moments prior. Of course, in that time, Weiss had already stopped, reversed course, and returned to Ruby and Kassidy. Like the Huntress finally getting bored with simply watching its prey, Ruby struck. The recoil of Crescent Rose, combined with Ruby's Semblance, quickly accelerated her to supersonic speeds. Merely half a second later, the girl that could literally outrun bullets swung her scythe; the impact carried so much force that a long, large scar was torn into the front plate just by that first blow. Bouncing back and staring down her foe, Ruby called out, "Checkmate!"

Kassidy dashed forward with Weiss, keeping up with her white-haired teammate despite having run for her life for so long previously, and despite not having an Aura to help her in the speed department. Two explosive bullets thundered from Rogue, detonating against the armored hide and blinding Roman from launching a counterattack. Having closed the distance, the two swordswomen got to work, expertly slicing through sensor after sensor. Kassidy had gotten through three before the Paladin had steadied itself; Weiss was balanced on a glyph and in the middle of removing her rapier from the mech's primary sensor cluster under the cockpit.

It was here that Kassidy got greedy, and her first mistake was made. Believing Roman to have not yet compensated for their blistering assault, she tried for the final remaining sensor node on its left arm. The colossal steel limb, however, was pulled out of her range with far more dexterity than its size belied. Kassidy stumbled, caught off balance; when she regained her footing, it was to see the Paladin's right foot above her head. Roman obviously had every intention to squash her like the insignificant bug she had felt like just moments prior. But, unlike all those previous times they'd fought, Kassidy was not alone. A glyph spun up below her, Weiss pulling her to safety and out from under the steel shoe that slammed down where she had stood not a second ago.

Roman would not be denied so easily, however; this much was obvious when the Paladin's rocket pods opened and the first salvo fired. Kassidy's eyes bulged for a moment before they turned to Weiss. She was out of her depths in this fight, and Weiss knew it. Her white-haired teammate quickly tossed her head over her shoulder, beckoning her backwards, before she started performing backflips and leveraging her glyphs to both create distance and confound the rockets' targeting systems. Kassidy followed suit, and while she had no penchant for acrobatics she was able to achieve much of the same effect.

An audible growl came from the Paladin's speakers, no doubt as a result of Roman's frustrations from being able to do anything even remotely effective so far. That changed quickly when the twin plasma cannons aimed up at an airborne and presently helpless Weiss Schnee. Kassidy did not fear for her teammate's health, though, since Weiss' glyphs were both versatile and powerful enough to save her from such an attack.

Instead of doing anything to block the attack, however, Weiss elected instead to eat the plasma shots head on. Blue clouds of particles detonated, throwing her back. Before she disappeared, Weiss gave Kassidy one final gift, in the form of a golden ribbon racing to the ground. Its aim was off, but Kassidy recognized the haste glyph for what it was and rolled to its target location. Another series of rocket pods opened on the Paladin, and Kassidy knew what was expected of her. She would not let her teammates down. The magazine of explosive ammo slid out, to be replaced by regular ammo, just as the glyph's effect took hold. Between whatever biological nonsense was done to her, and the effects of Weiss' most powerful use of her Semblance thus far, the rockets were no longer traveling faster than her eye could track. In fact, they were quite trackable.

It was here that Kassidy shone, amongst all that her team could do. Two brains calculated individual trajectories; years of experience guided her aim; the twitchiest muscles to have ever twitched spat out bullets at a rate one might expect to find in a fully automatic weapon. One, two, four, eight rockets exploded before they had fully emerged from their pods. Slide magazine out, slam new one in, plot new trajectories, resume firing. Even before the final bullet had reached its target, Rogue was slid into its holster and Baton was drawn from its sheath. Kassidy's experience told her exactly what would happen next, and her reactions – coupled with the fading effects of the haste glyph – ensured that she would be able to perform accordingly.

Thus, even before Ruby had cried, "Ladybug," Kassidy was already moving. Ruby herself had already blown past her and was righting herself for another pass, while Kassidy decided upon a route of attack – an exposed line on the left leg. Unlike Checkmate, a series of precision strikes aimed at crippling their opponent, Ladybug was a frenzied flurry of sweeping steel, too random to predict and counter and too quick to react properly to. Tendons and ligaments started flaring in complaint as Kassidy pushed herself to limits she'd never pushed to prior, but she grit her teeth and forced her body to comply with her demands. With every pass, Baton would find some critical point in the armor to weaken or pry loose, prompting Crescent Rose to violently exploit the new weakness on the next attack. Hydraulic fluid leaked on the pavement and one of the legs' movements became noticeably choppier, but their attack was finally halted when Roman found some targeting solution and blasted apart the road right in front of Kassidy, forcing her from her path.

Fluttering rose petals told the story of Ruby's departure as the girl headed straight for a certain locker that had slammed into the pavement. In the next breath, Yang was at her side. Their eyes locked, and they shared a nod – then they descended again upon their foe. Yang stood her ground, ducking around any attempts to take her out of the fight but ultimately holding her ground as she fired a mix of steel slugs and explosive shot at the critical joints on the Paladin's legs. Kassidy, meanwhile, continued to flit about as quickly as she could, defying Roman's attempts to lock either of them down and finding some crucial exploit or another that her girlfriend could take advantage of. Still, Kassidy had to bite back a groan as she dodged around a flailing metal arm and struck for the fourth time a particular line, finally severing it and further hampering the mech's mobility. Even for her second to none stamina, this was too much – sprinting for a mile and a half across rooftops and the freeway, then pushing her body like it's never been pushed before in this fight. This attack wasn't sustainable; she needed a break. When Yang's eyes met hers again, comprehension dawned on her partner's face.

"Now!" Ruby cried, signaling at the same time Kassidy's break, and something far sweeter. Dug in sixty feet away was Crescent Rose. Ruby manned the gun, stabilizing the gun in the concrete and taking aim through the scope while also slamming into the breech the largest round the cannon could accept. Weiss stood next to her, a series of acceleration glyphs materializing in front of the muzzle. Yang and Kassidy dove out of the firing line, while Roman had no choice but to stand and eat the hell that was about to come his way.

When Crescent Rose fired, it was not one of those paradoxically quiet sounds that came from Ruby's usual ammunition. The crack sounded like it had cracked the very fabric of space. Out of the gun, emerged what had to be Kassidy's greatest – and most expensive – creation so far. A lead core, surrounded by Dust-reinforced titanium, propelled by none other than the ridiculously energetic thermite-fire Dust mix previously relegated to high explosives. On its own, it had punched through a Deathstalker's shell on its first field test. Out here, propelled by Weiss' glyphs, Crescent Rose was effectively transformed into a railgun. It was, by far, the strongest attack Team Rookie could muster, and it was aimed right at Roman Torchwick. After the crack, there was an ear-bleeding scream as it flew so quickly the air ignited around it. Then, there was a horrendous groan that seemed to tear the heavens apart. When the displaced air calmed enough for everyone to return their sight to their foe, it was in time to watch the Paladin's left arm fall to the ground next to the mech. Those arms were designed to take thousands of tons of force, and repeatedly stand up to anything up to and including a Beringel, Bullhead assault, and other Paladins.

They had torn that arm off in one shot.

It was here, when it had seemed to Kassidy that they were on the cusp of victory, that things went wrong. To begin with, she knew from experience that large and powerful a shell had damaged Crescent Rose's firing mechanism; Ruby knew that, too, and yet had fired anyway, so she must have had deemed her last shot to have been worth it. It was when Ruby and Weiss were still trying to reengage in the fight, however, that Yang leapt onto the Paladin itself and began firing into the armor plate protecting the cockpit. Rather than be slow to react after such a devastating blow, like Kassidy had thought, Roman had even seemed to predict that Yang would attack him in such a fashion. Utilizing a mobility that they had thought they had severely hampered, the Paladin smashed through concrete columns, Yang-first, before rotating around, bringing a giant mechanical fist over its remaining cannon, and punched her through another.

Kassidy didn't hear Yang's name tear through her own lips in an agonized scream. She barely saw Weiss dash forward to distract Roman from pressing his advantage. She hardly even felt Ruby tugging on her shoulder. All she saw was bloodied golden hair, laying in the pavement. Then, for the briefest of instances that Kassidy couldn't have been sure it had even happened, it wasn't pavement – it was the forest floor, with an Alpha Hunter-Killer stalking forth to finish the job. Kassidy was about to run to her; to throw down her sword, throw down her pistol, ignore everything except her girlfriend lying face-down in crumpled concrete. She would have, too, if Yang hadn't gotten back up.

It was a slow thing. Her arms shook, weak at first. Her breath was choppy before she spat out a glob of blood. When she had fought to her hands and knees, however, Yang's head rose – and eyes of the deepest red glared at the Paladin, a terrifyingly feral growl on her lips. Flames danced in her treasured mane, and she rose to her feet just in time for Weiss to dodge out of the way of a titanic punch that tore through another concrete pillar; Kassidy idly wondered how the freeway above them hadn't collapsed yet. With the heiress out of the way, Roman seemed to have happened to spy the just-rising form of Yang, and obviously decided to finish her off. The mech reared back and threw a punch that could shatter buildings. As it sailed towards its target, there really was only one obvious outcome.

Almost casually, Yang threw out an arm and caught the Paladin's punch one-handed. Kassidy wasn't sure how much kinetic energy her girlfriend had absorbed, but 'a lot' seemed like an understatement. Yang's right hand balled up, and with a flaming fist the Paladin's other arm practically disintegrated. A white glyph appeared under Yang and dragged her away from a kick; even with a grand total of zero intact offensive systems, Roman evidently wasn't ready to give up just yet. Fine, then. If you aren't smart enough to figure out when to quit, I'm more than willing to put you down the hard way.

"Yang, catch!" she cried. Her grapple bracer fired out, but before Yang had caught it Kassidy slammed a magazine of ice ammunition home into Rogue. Handing her gun to Ruby, Kassidy said, "Make sure he can't see what's coming." As Ruby all but flew off to deposit a load of ice on Roman's windshield, Yang had taken a step back and stared at her, silently asking if she was ready. With a nod, Kassidy braced herself, and willed her body to obey her commands just one more time.

Like a giant ball-and-chain, Kassidy started spinning in a circle, dragging her grapple bracer and, ultimately, Yang around as she gathered momentum. Without exchanging words, they quickly reached their top speeds while grounded, but that was insufficient. To solve this, Yang fired Ember Celica directly beneath her. Kassidy's arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets – she almost felt one of them dislocate before it somehow resisted the massive forces in play and remained in place – and with a strength only possible through her chemical rushes, caused Yang to fly. Seeing that Ruby had sufficiently blinded the Paladin, Kassidy brought her partner to bear.

And like a burning star, Yang fell upon the Paladin.

Her fist found the original gash that Ruby had carved upon its armor with her first strike. The metal screamed as it tore, tons of steel ripping off the cockpit. Unable to compensate for the immense load suddenly placed upon it, the mech started to fall. Except, with the precise, almost surgical damage they had suffered, the legs were not capable of supporting the new center of gravity. It was the right leg that gave first, snapping and shearing at the knee. From there, it was only a matter of time until the Paladin had fallen, never to get back up.

Ruby sped to in front of it; they all fell in step behind their leader, waiting to see if Roman had any other tricks up his sleeve. A faint click sounded, barely audible over the diminishing sounds of chaos, before the far more audible sounds of their foe cursing up a storm rose above. Roman stumbled out from the wreckage, hand clutching at a bloody wound in his stomach. He turned around to and fro, eyes widening as they came upon the four teenage girls that trounced him.

"Give it up, Torchwick," Kassidy shouted, stepping forward with Rogue aimed at the man. "It's over. Come quietly, or I'm gonna have to get angry." Letting her snarl grow teeth, she added, "And believe me, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Despite everything, Roman sneered at them. "I think I'll take my chances," he answered.

"So be it," Yang muttered. Cocking Ember Celica, she let fly an explosive round at the crook that promised to end him then and there.

A blurred shape dropped in front of the round. When the explosion died down, it seemed as though it was blocked… by a parasol?! The woman – or, really, girl – wielding it glared at them with heterochromatic eyes. From the corset, to the thigh-high boots, to the jacket, to the thick collar on her neck, the half-pint obviously had a peculiar taste in fashion. A taste in fashion absolutely nobody cared about at the moment.

"Ah, thank you, Neo. Perfect timing, as per usual." Roman found his cane on the ground next to him, glared at the four of them, and then mentioned, "If you would."

'Neo' bowed, and then both her and Roman seemed to freeze. Acting on a sneaking suspicion, she held Yang back from charging in on them, then used the last round in Rogue's current magazine to blow away the glass their forms had been replaced with. The four of them looked around, only to find a Bullhead flying away with both villains on board. Kassidy considered reloading and sending shots after it, but decided not to waste the ammo.

"Well. That was… brutal," Yang mentioned. "Looks like he got a new henchman, too."

"Yeah," Weiss muttered. "She really made our plans… fall apart?"

Ruby might have snickered a bit at it, but Kassidy and Yang glanced at each other for the briefest of moments before simultaneously deadpanning, "No."

"What?" Weiss shrieked. "You two do it all the time!"

"The difference is," Kassidy reminded, "we're actually good at it."

"Ahem," a voice cleared behind them, causing all of them to freeze. In synch, the four girls turned around, finding none other than Glynda Goodwitch glaring at them. "Would any of you care to explain yourselves?"

Ruby nervously giggled and Weiss paled, but once again Kassidy and Yang acted in synch. After trading glances and shrugging, Kassidy turned to the other half of the team and asked, "You two mind fielding this? I'm pretty damn beat, and Yang was actually beaten. I think we could both do with a good night's sleep after this."

"Ahem," Glynda repeated.

Well, shit.

AN 2: For those of you wondering why I left out basically all of the banter after the fight, keep in mind this is RWKY, not RWBY.

Alright, let me explain that cheap excuse: Kassidy is more willing than Blake to go to any length to stop the White Fang. I've shown that already: while Blake reads news reports, Kassidy sneaks out at night and has gunfights to try and break up robberies. Both sides are far more willing to use far more force to stop the other at this point in the story, compared to RWBY proper. Hence, while in the canon show there was a bit of amicability that lead to a bit of trash talking, here in RWKY, both sides (to some extent – looking at you, Ruby) are more than willing and are absolutely trying to outright kill the other side. Sounds like an atmosphere less conducive to shit talking, if you ask me. There's a lot more at stake here than in canon.

Now, with that ray of freakin' sunshine out of the way, let's get to Reviewer Responses.

Coming up next: A bit of time for relaxation. Trust me… we're gonna need it. And on that note, I apologize in advance for the two chapters after that.

EWR115: IMO, it depends on what you're doing. I'll kinda explain more as part of the story next chapter, but an Abrams would pretty much wipe the floor with a Paladin… but they're also designed for different jobs. I'd pick a Paladin over an Abram for fighting Grimm, for example, because that was what it was designed to do. An Abram's main gun is horrendous overkill for anything smaller than a Deathstalker, and probably even then. After that… you're just left with a giant metal box that can't get out of its own way.

AgentDraakis: I wouldn't bet on it. Or maybe. Your pick, I suppose. Really, Ruby would tell her dad – who else? To be fair to Kassidy, Roman didn't recognize her at first. Damnit, Sun. People's reactions are something I'm trying to put more focus on as the story goes on. This isn't a case of "oh no, I'm being chased by a robot, how terrible"; this is a case of "HOLY FUCKING SHIT I'M GETTING CHASED BY A WALKING TANK THAT'S FASTER THAN I AM RUN FASTER DAMNIT"

What happened in dodgeball? Well… have you ever stood in front of a pitching machine, and got hit by it? Yeah. In all honesty, I just laughed way too hard at that Chibi skit and felt it necessary to include some passing reference to it. Of course, that being said, Penny's block (or head, in this case) getting knocked off is not RWKYcanon.

Also, speaking of which, did I do well with reactions/feelings/etc. this chapter? Kinda sorta felt like I was too heavy-handed in this chapter, and if I messed up… well, this is probably a big enough chapter to require an outright replacement if I done screwed up with that stuff. Not to mention changing my writing style accordingly.