RWBY and it's characters are owned by RoosterTeeth and was created by Monty Oum
Mega Man and it's characters are owned by Capcom
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"Speech" = Thoughts or robotic speaking
"Speech" = Demonic speaking
Speech = Narration or description
Volume 4 Chapter 3: A mean ol' acid
"...And that's how it happened, Professor." Said Ruby, as she finished explaining to Professor Ozpin what had happened in Vacuo the previous day. Team R_WBY, except for Rock, were currently in the office of Professor Ozpin to give him a quick run down of what had happened while they were going up against Block Man.
"I see." Said Professor Ozpin, who was sitting behind his desk and was finishing typing up the report on his computer. All the while thinking to himself "Grimm that can fuse with each other, very concerning. I should probably have Oobleck look into that."
After he finished typing there was a bit of silence, feeling uncomfortable with the silence Weiss decided to speak up and asked "Are we in any trouble, sir?"
The question snapped Ozpin out of his thoughts, so he replied "Not at all, I'm just thinking about how I should explain what happened to Professor Theodore. The explosion seemed to have upset some of the desert dwelling Grimm, but other than that no one was injured. So that's good."
"Is that the only reason why you called us to your office?" Asked Weiss.
"It is, I just needed to hear your account on what happened yesterday, that is all." Replied Ozpin.
"Does that mean we can leave, I don't want to miss breakfast." Said Yang, as her stomach let out a loud grumble.
Ozpin smiled, and replied "You four can leave, after all breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But before you go, I must ask how is Rock doing after yesterday?"
"He's still resting, yesterday took a lot out of him. So we let him stay in bed, while we told you what happened. We told him that when he felt up for it, that we would go after Acid Man." Said Ruby.
"Very well then, I'm glad to hear that he is doing better. I can only wish you all the best of luck in taking down that robot, you're all dismissed." Said Ozpin.
"Thank you professor." Said Blake, as she and her teammates made their way to the elevator and took it down. Once they reached ground level they quickly made their way over to the dining hall of Beacon. Once they got there they saw that Team JNPR had saved them some seats, as well as some food trays so they wouldn't go hungry for getting to breakfast late.
Later
After finishing their breakfast Team R_WBY made their way back to their dorm with a tray of food for Rock. And whilst they were making their way through the stairwell of the dorm building, the group was talking amongst themselves.
"You think Rock is feeling better?" Asked Ruby.
"He did say that he was feeling better than he was yesterday after we took out that robot, so I'm sure it will be fine." Said Weiss.
"I'm sure he'll be fine, he is one tough egg or rock." Joked Yang, causing some groans from her teammates.
"Someone should give you a rock." Muttered Weiss in annoyance.
"Easy there, I don't see myself missing a kick to a football because my partner pulled it away from me at the last moment." Replied Yang in a joking manner.
"I'm sure that giving him some food might help him feel better, it always made us feel better whenever we were feeling sick or low on energy." Said Ruby.
"Didn't you guys have medicine?" Asked Weiss.
"We did, but having a meal usually helped better. We only used it when we really needed to." Said Ruby.
"It was the same when I still lived at home." Said Blake, with small lie hidden within the statement.
"But why?" Asked Weiss.
"Cause unlike you, we don't need medicine for every scrape that we get." Said Yang, causing Weiss to get slightly flustered.
"I... see..." Muttered Weiss, after which an awkward silence filled the halls.
"So what do you guys think the base of acid man will be like, I mean the one from yesterday looked like some ancient temple." Said Ruby, trying to break the silence.
"I got a good look at all the robots before Wily invaded, maybe a chemical plant where they work with acid." Said Weiss.
"So you mean a laboratory." Said Yang.
"No, a chemical plant."
"Yeah, that's what I said. A laboratory."
"No, you dunce a chemical plant!"
"Same thing." Replied Yang, as she waved Weiss's outburst off.
"No, it's not. A chemical plant works exclusively with chemicals, anything can happen in laboratories. Analysing blood samples, looking into diseases, working on medicine..."
"...Doing tests on animals." Said Blake, as she interrupted Weiss.
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, sighed and replied "Yes, that too. But that's besides the point Blake, the point is the two aren't mutually exclusive."
"Alright, but it's still a laboratory." Joked Yang, trying to annoy Weiss.
Weiss sighed and replied "If it wasn't for the fact that each hit you take makes you stronger, I would have loved to punch you in the face for being so obnoxious."
"Oh come on Weiss, don't be so Weiss hot with anger." Joked Yang, causing her three teammates to let out a massive groan out of annoyance. The group then continued making their way to their dorms in silence, once they got there they opened the door and Yang exclaimed "Wake up sleeping beauty, we got you some food!"
When the group didn't hear a response they quickly went into the room, Ruby put the tray on a drawer and the group looked over at the bed. Only to find that it is empty and that Rock was nowhere to be found in the room.
Yang got an annoyed look on her face, and the team quickly began to look through the room. Weiss looked through Rock's drawers, and said "He took all of his energy tanks."
"All of his weapons are still here, including the one he got yesterday." Said Blake, as she looked through the storage disk in which Rock kept his weapons data.
They kept looking through the room, until they found a small note that read:
"I'm going after acid man
I don't expect you to understand
I'll see you when I get back
Don't follow me
-Rock"
Upon reading the note, Yang's eyes turned from lilac to red and her hair flared up in anger. Who then punched a wall and exclaimed "That... IDIOT!"
"Whoa, Yang calm down." Said Ruby, trying to calm her sister down.
"Calm down? He just up and left to go be a hero! Like Blake did when we found out about her being a faunus!" Yelled Yang.
"Yang, I get that you're upset. But don't go dragging up things from the past!" Yelled Blake, trying to calm Yang down.
"Both of you calm down, now!" Yelled Weiss.
"Enough! All of you!" Exclaimed Ruby, with a look of worry and concern on her face. "We need to go after him, standing around here and pointing fingers isn't going to do anything! He is putting himself in danger by doing this, we need to go after him. The longer we stand around doing nothing, the more likely he is to perish against that robot. We need to go to the lab, find his location and go after him."
"She's right, we need to grab our weapons and go to the lab. Maybe we can still help him." Said Weiss.
"Fine." Grumbled Yang, after which the group quickly left the room. Hoping that they could still help their teammate before it was too late.
Elsewhere
Rock had been making his way through the chemical plant for a while now with some relative ease and was getting through the robots that were being thrown his way. Currently he dropped down a hatch that let him exit a water filled area. He then took out a sniper joe with his charged up buster using the power gear which took away its shield and managed to pierce through the robot. He then walked up some steps and dropping down to the next floor. All the while he was thinking to himself "I hope they understand why I did this."
In the next room he moved past some pools of substances that were slightly acidic, all the while quickly taking out the spider robots that were dropping from the ceiling. While also taking out a pipetto, but unfortunately missing another one that shot it's needle into the pool below him making it more acidic. Rock saw this and tried to jump over the pits, but was halted by one of the robot spiders dropping from the ceiling. Hitting Rock, and causing him to fall into the pool of acid, luckily he used the speed gear to jump out of the pool as fast as possible.
He didn't take too much damage, but saw the robot spider dissolve completely when it fell into the acid. Making Rock think to himself "I need to be careful with those acid pools and with the speed gear." As he felt the strain of having used the speed gear.
After a few seconds the effect of the speed gear wore off, and Rock continued moving. This time being very careful with the pools of acid, and making sure to take out the spider and pipetto robots in his way. After a while he quickly jumped onto a ledge and took out a sniper joe, he then continued on as he took a ladder to get to a lower floor. On the next floor he took out the spider robots that were dropping from the ceiling, after which a hatch opened into which Rock jumped and he found himself in a large submerged room with ventilators that were pushing him forwards with water currents.
He made sure to be very careful with his jumps, as the walls and ceilings were filled with spikes. While he was doing that, he made sure to take out the shield attackers that were in the narrow passageways by sliding underneath them and shooting at their backs. Rock then jumped over a tall wall with spikes on the side, all the while dodging the trash robots that were being shot his way by the strong water urrents.
In the next area he jumped down a ledge and managed to narrowly avoid the spikes that were floating in the air. He then made it to the bottom, and jumped down what seemed to a boss door. And in the room below him he was met with a giant machine that was floating through the water. Rock fired several blasts at it with his charged up buster while using the power gear, which stunned the machine for a while allowing Rock to take time to allow the pain to go away.
But then he had to quickly jump out of the way, as the machine charged at him into a wall. The crash released several robots that had brushes on the bottom from a hatch at the top of the machine, which began to move across the walls and ceilings and began to fire some small bullets at Rock. He dodged them, but then the machine began to spin around rapidly throughout the water. Rock had to use the speed gear to avoid the brush robots, and the appendages of the the Cyclone W robot. Unfortunately he got hit a few times by its arms, causing him to take damage.
The machine retracted its arms, and sucked the robots that hadn't been taken out by Rock back into it. Giving Rock the chance to fire a charge shot powered by the power gear, which caused the machine to explode. This opened up the door at the bottom of the room, which Rock quickly went through. In the next room he used his slide to go through some narrow passages, and on the next floor he had to cross several pits of spikes all the while taking out scrap metal robots.
At the end of the room he made it to a hatch, which opened and let him drop down to another floor. In that room he made sure to take out the robots that were firing their shots at him, all the while avoiding the pools of acid. It wasn't until he made it to the last pool of acid that one of the pipetto's managed to hit Rock with a drop of acid. Causing him to get hurt, so he quickly took out the robot and then used one of the two energy tanks that he had on him.
After which he exclaimed out in pain "Gah! Oh my... Gah! That hurts!" He took a few seconds to catch his breath, and allowed himself to heal with the help of the energy tank. A few seconds later he felt better, and then decided to continue moving. While thinking to himself "I need to be more careful, I only have one energy tank left. I can't believe that the screws I collected yesterday went missing."
Rock kept moving and jumped down another hatch, there he was met with a room filled brushing robots hovering above some pits filled with spikes. He fired a charged shot that passed through the robots, and this allowed him to jump over the pits and jump down another hole to the next floor. Here he saw that both the floor and ceiling were filled with spikes, and that a single platform was present.
"Seriously Wily! You want me dead that badly! Then come do it yourself you coward!" Yelled Rock out in frustration. Rock sighed to himself, activated the speed gear, took a running start and jumped over the entire row of spikes all the while managing to avoid the spikes on the ceiling. He jumped down to the next floor and took out some of the floating shield enemies, after which he went into the next room which was tall, had rotating platforms and several pits of spikes.
Rock, with great pain, activated the speed gear and rushed through the room. Jumping upwards to reach the platforms, taking out some of the brush enemies in the area and then making it to a nearby ladder. After which he deactivated the speed gear while climbing the ladder to make sure that he wouldn't damage himself too much. But in the next room he saw that he once again had to activate the speed gear, as he had to move quickly to get past several narrow hallways filled with spikes. He activated the speed gear, and quickly rushed through the narrow passages while taking out he floating brush robots.
He then went down a hatch, and in the next room he saw that he got dropped into a vat of acid. Which he quickly jumped out of with the speed gear to avoid getting hurt too much, but it still hurt him. In pain he looked at the nearest robots, which where pipetto's and so he took out his anger on the robots by firing the charged shot at them. Which took them all out and allowed him to continue, while still feeling the pain of the acid burning him.
He walked through a hallway, and saw that several sniper joe's had been turned into platinum. "That's odd." Rock thought to himself, as he continued moving through the hallway. That was until he he reached a large empty room, he walked into it and was startled when a large robot dropped from the ceiling. The robot was green, large, round and seemed to resemble a chemistry teacher. With some white parts on the robot resembling a lab coat, and was wearing safety goggles. On the back of the robot was a large cannon, the right hand was a canon and the left hand seemed to be some sort of claw.
"What... no who are you? You aren't acid man." Said Rock.
"Correct. I. Am. Chemistry. Man." Said the robot, with a boring tone in his voice.
"Well, we certainly don't seem to be having any chemistry." Replied Rock, who then thought to himself "Dammit, I have been around Yang for too long."
"Doesn't. Matter. You. Will. Be. Stopped. You. Stand. No. Chance. Against. The. Might. Of. Chemistry. Man. I'am. Unstoppable. You. Can't. Hurt. The. Mighty. Chemistry. Man. Wily. Build. Me. To. Stop. You." Said Chemistry man, who immediately fired the canon on his back at Rock to trap him a bubble. However the bubble had acidic properties, and was beginning to damage Rock.
Seeing his opponent trapped, Chemistry man continued monologuing, which gave Rock room to try and free himself from the acidic bubble. But seeing as moving around to free himself wasn't working Rock had to think fast, the clock was ticking and each second a bit of his energy was getting depleted. Then he got the idea to use his speed gear, so activated it and rushed towards Chemistry man. Rushing forwards popped the bubble, and allowed him to shoot Chemistry man in the face.
This knocked the robot backwards, but enraged him enough for him to start firing blasts from the canon on his back. Rock quickly dodged out of the way with the speed gear, and the blasts hit the walls and turned parts of it into platinum. Seeing this happen, Rock got a look of shock on his face but had to keep moving to avoid getting turned to platinum. He kept moving around the room, until he found a blind spot and used his buster to fire a charged shot with the power gear at Chemistry Man.
The powerful blast hit the robot, which caused smoke to start coming from Chemistry Man who slumped forward. Rock approached his opponent, with his buster aimed at him and said "Ready to give up?"
"You. Haven't. Seen. The. Last. Of. Me." Replied Chemistry Man, who then turned into a beam of energy and teleported away. Leaving Rock alone in the room, and allowing him to look at the energy gauge on his arm canon. There he saw that he was on his last bit of energy.
"Those bubbles took a lot out of me." Said Rock to himself, he then summoned the last energy tank that he had from his internal storage system and added "I have no choice but to use this, I hope that I can still beat him."
Rock then used the energy tank and felt that his energy was returning to him, he looked at his arm canon and saw that all his energy had returned. Seeing this he decided to continue going through the large room, which was relatively easy as it was mostly a long path filled with sniper joe's that had all been turned into platinum statues. He made it to the end of he room and saw a large door, indicating that he had made it to Acid Man's room.
He entered the door and was met with a large room, a large platform made up off drainage grates that seemed to be able to spin around and all of this was being suspended over a large pool of acid. "Acid Man, show yourself!" Yelled Rock.
It was then that the acid underneath the platform started to bubble, after which Acid Man jumped out of the pool of acid through the spinning grates and landed on the platforms. "Good to see you Mega Man, I'm impressed that you managed to make it this far. A shame that Chemistry Man couldn't take you out, then again they do always say that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself."
"I'm here to stop you Acid Man, you and your twisted experiments!" Yelled Rock.
Acid Man chuckled and replied "We'll see about that, but speaking off experiments..." He said as he shot a massive ball of acid towards Rock, who managed to dodge it but still got hit by some drops of acid that splashed of the walls. "...Let's see which one of us dies first."
Rock got ready to fight, and instantly used the power gear to charge up his buster and after which he shot out a charged shot. But the shot got blocked by Acid Man who covered himself in acid, who then began to rush towards Rock while shooting several acid shots into the air. This caused acid to start raining from the sky, which Rock tried to dodge by using the speed gear. Unfortunately he still got hit by a few of the acidic rain drops, but he was able to lay down a few shots on Acid Man and even popped his bubble.
So he quickly used the power gear to fire a charged shot, the shot hit Acid Man who became enraged, jumped into the acidic pool and yelled "Speed Gear!" After which he turned his feet into propellors and began to rapidly swim through the acid pool. The change in current led to large waves of acid reaching the level of the platform that Rock was standing on, leading him to have to push the speed gear to the limits to make sure he could avoid the acid waves by jumping over them.
And while he was doing this Acid Man jumped out of the acid pool on different sides of the room, and kept firing acid shots at Rock which he had to dodge as well. Leading to Rock getting hit a few times by the acid, and feeling himself becoming weaker and weaker with each hit that he took. Especially since the use of the speed gear had been taking its toll on Rock, who felt like he wouldn't last much longer. It was then that Acid Man jumped back onto the platform and immediately got hit by a charged shot from Rock who had used the power gear to do so, making him feel even more exhausted.
Acid Man saw that Rock was beginning to grow tired and taunted "Had enough, Mega Man?"
Rock smirked and replied "Not even close, you acidic merman."
Acid Man chuckled and replied "You know, I really hate it when I'm called that. My own employees called me that, and you know what I did to them? The same thing I'm about to do to you." He then formed another acid bubble around himself, rushed to a nearby wall and launched himself at Rock, who had no time to react due to the exhaustion he felt from using the double gear and from the damage he had already taken, which led to him getting slammed into another wall at the other end of the room. He then fell to the ground, looked at his arm canon and saw that he was on his last bit of energy.
He tried to get up, but he couldn't and with each second that passed he felt that internal systems were getting closer and closer to falling on him. He heard some footsteps getting closer to him, he struggled to look up and saw that Acid Man had aimed his arm canon at him. "Looks like you've lost, Mega Man. A shame that those teammates of yours weren't here to help you."
"You won't win... I won't... I won't let you..." Rock struggled to say.
"You're all alone now, and there is no one here who could help you. Time to die Mega Man." Said Acid Man as he got ready to fire an acid blast from his arm canon to take out Rock. Only for him to get interrupted by him getting shot by several gunshots and several icicles. "Who hit me!" He exclaimed as he turned around and was met with Team R_WBY in the room and with Ruby and Weiss having used their weapons to get his attention.
"Ah, his teammates. Here to save that weakling, well you're too late." Taunted Acid Man.
Yang smirked and replied "No, he's not weak. Just an idiot." as her eyes then turned red, she used Ember Celica to launch herself forwards at Acid Man and then delivered a punch to launch the robot into the air.
Blake took this opportunity and used the rope on Gambol Shroud to grab onto the robot after which she used a glyph from Weiss to launch herself towards him and used the blades on Gambol Shroud to slice the robot into two pieces. Blake landed on the ground, and as Acid Man was beginning to explode he yelled "You were a fool to challenge me Mega Man! Next time I will melt you to the bone!" After which he exploded, leaving his memory chip behind which Blake quickly picked up.
Unfortunately there was no time for celebration, as Rock was feeling his injuries getting worse ands was struggling to stay awake. His teammates quickly rushed towards him, but unfortunately everything went dark and the last thing he heard was Ruby yelling "Rock! ROCK! Stay awake! Stay with us!" as he completely lost consciousness.
At the mansion
Within the laboratory of the Smash Mansion, Mewtwo was seen hard at work on a remote like device all the while there were several sheets of papers scattered around the room. On the table next to him was a container with a ball of energy that was acting strange, he was working in silence until Snake walked into the room and asked "Mewtwo, you send me a psychic message that you wanted to speak with me. Is everything alright?"
"Yes Snake, I need your help with a project I have been working on." Said Mewtwo, as he pointed towards the container.
Snake looked at it and said in confusion "It's giving off some strange energy, what is this?"
"It's a bit of energy that leaked into this world when the void was opened by Doctor Merlot. As you know I have been trying to locate the other worlds, specifically my world. I believe that if I find it that we would be able to find the other worlds." Said Mewtwo. "Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything, so instead I have been searching this world for possible traces of the other worlds. That was when I found this ball of energy, I found it where Merlot's base used to be."
"So why do you need my help?" Asked Snake.
"I have build a device that would allow us to travel between worlds, but it needs an energy source. I plan on using that ball of energy to power the device, and I need you to hold onto it while I put the ball of energy into the device." Said Mewtwo.
"But you have psychic powers, can't you just do that by yourself?" Asked Snake.
"I can't, it's very unstable. I need to have calm mind to be able to do this properly, the consequences could be catastrophic if this goes wrong in any way." Said Mewtwo.
"Can't you just add calm mind to your move set?" Asked Snake in a joking manner.
"Just help me with this." Grumbled Mewtwo in annoyance, to which Snake nodded, grabbed the device and held it in front of Mewtwo who then used his powers to grab the container and opened it. Immediately Snake felt the energy of the object spread through the room, luckily Mewtwo kept it in place with his powers and moved it towards the device. After several seconds of moving it as safely as possible the ball of energy reached the device and got absorbed by it with neither of them noticing a purple ball falling on the ground and rolling under a table. The device then moved around for a bit and seemed like it was going to explode.
But then nothing happened, and instead of it exploding the device turned on. Mewtwo got a pleased look on his face and Snake let out sigh of relief at seeing that nothing had gone wrong. "Now what do we do?" Asked Snake.
"I can go find my own world, and I want you to come with me." Replied Mewtwo.
"Why?" Asked Snake.
"You always managed to remain calm in tense situations, so I think that have you join me on this would help a lot." Said Mewtwo, as he began to push several buttons on the device to get it ready for their departure.
"You're not wrong, but who would we have watch over the mansion while we're gone?" Asked Snake.
"I took care of that." Said Mewtwo, after which Olimar walked into the laboratory. Snake gave Mewtwo a look of confusion, so he added "I explained everything to Olimar, he'll watch over everything unless someone with more authority shows up."
"Don't worry you two, I'll make sure nothing happens. Good luck finding all of the other worlds." Said Olimar.
"Luck? Where we are going we don't need luck." Replied Mewtwo, who pressed the button on the device which caused him and Snake to enveloped by a bright light. Once that had died down the two were gone and Olimar was the only one in the room.
Olimar then decided to leave the room, but then saw that there was a purple ball underneath the table. He grabbed it from the floor, and said to himself "That's odd, where did this master ball come from? Might as well leave it in the main office for when Mewtwo and Snake return." After which he left the room, and made his way to the main office of the mansion. Once he got there he put the master ball in the drawer, and the left the room to go do his own thing.
That was until he heard a knock coming from the front door, so he quickly made his way there and opened the door. To his surprise he was met with Fox McCloud and his team, Samus and Captain Falcon standing in front of the door. Olimar blinked his eyes in shock and asked "How did you guys get here?"
"We followed the signal that came from the mansion." Replied Samus.
"Must have been Mewtwo's doing." Said Olimar.
"Can we come in, I'm sure that there is a lot to talk about." Said Captain Falcon.
"Off course, come in." Said Olimar as he let the group into the mansion, after which he closed the door and while following them into the main hall he wondered if more people would show up.
Elsewhere
When Rock opened his eyes he found himself floating around in a dark void, filled with nothingness only him. That was until a vision came to him, in that vision he saw himself. But he was having a verbal argument with the rest of his team, which ended with him leaving the dorm room in a fit of anger while the rest of his team looked at him in anger. It then cut to him facing off against the remaining robot masters, and with each battle he kept being pushed further and further to his limits.
The vision then changed and he saw himself facing off against Doctor Wily, only to see himself to perish in the fight against the mad doctor. The vision then cut to Rock seeing his friends and family all perish while fighting off a Grimm invasion of Beacon being led by Doctor Wily and several shadowy figures. The vision ended as Rock saw Remnant burning, and as Rock began to question what he had just witnessed he saw the version of himself from that vision appear in front of him.
"What is this! Why did you show me this!" Yelled Rock.
"You caused this." Was all that the alternate version of Rock said.
"How! How did I cause this?" Asked Rock.
"Why did you leave your team behind?" Asked the alternate Rock.
"Wh-what?" Asked Rock in disbelief.
"Why did you do it?" Asked the alternate Rock.
"I... I wanted to protect them... I didn't want them to get hurt!" Yelled Rock.
"And in doing so you pushed them away." Replied the alternate Rock.
"NO! You did that, what I saw was your future, not mine!" Yelled Rock.
"It can still become your future, but you are still at the point where you can change your fate." Said the alternate Rock before vanishing into nothingness, leaving Rock on his own.
"What do I do? What do I do!" Yelled Rock, who then violently jolted awake and found himself in the same repair station that he found himself in several months ago before he had even joined Beacon, which was located in the lab of his father. He began to look around the room frantically in a panicked state trying to find something familiar to him. That was until he saw his own father looking at him with concern in his eyes. "Dad..." Rock began.
Doctor Light didn't say anything, instead he opened the repair station and pulled Rock into a hug while saying "I'm glad you're ok, I don't know what I would have done if you had perished in your fight against Acid Man."
"What happened?" Asked Rock, feeling like his memory was being clouded.
"After you had passed out, Roll and your teammates brought you here. I have spend the last couple of hours fixing you, and even making additions to the double gear system to ensure that it wouldn't put as much of a strain on you." Said Doctor Light, as he let go of his son.
"Dad, I'm sorry." Replied Rock.
"It's not me who you should be apologising to." Said Doctor Light.
"Ah, look who finally decided to grace us with his presence." Said an annoyed sounding voice, Rock looked for the source of the voice and saw that Qrow and Tai were standing in the lab. Both of whom had looks of disappointment on their faces.
"Guys, can this wait?" Asked Doctor Light, adding "He just woke up, can't this wait until later?"
"Thomas, what he did was stupid and he needs to hear this." Said Tai.
"Yeah, so how about it kid..." Said Qrow, who had turned to Rock with an angry expression in his eyes "...care to explain why you decided to run off, break the promise you made to your team and nearly got yourself killed!"
"I wanted to protect them." Mumbled Rock.
"Sorry, what was that. I couldn't quite hear what you were saying." Said Qrow.
"I said that I wanted to protect them!" Yelled Rock.
Qrow smirked at the outburst and replied "Well would you look at that, looks like someone got guts. Lemme tell ya somethin' kid, your teammates don't need to be protected. They are more than capable of taking care of themselves, they are enrolled in a school that teaches them to be huntresses and you think that they need to be protected and kept safe from the dangers are out there in the world. Don't make me laugh, they are more than capable of taking care of themselves. Let's not forget that me and Tai trained two of your teammates."
"Yeah, when neither of you were too busy with wallowing in your own sadness or getting drunk." Muttered Rock.
"What was that?" Asked Qrow as he hadn't heard what was said, to which Rock didn't respond so he added "That's what I thought."
"Let's not forget, you made Yang very angry, Ruby was quite upset over what you did, Weiss was annoyed and Blake was racked with worry. So tell me something Rock, why did you do it? Cause we still don't know why you left." Said Tai.
"You want to know why? You really want to know why!" Yelled Rock.
"That's what I'm asking you." Replied Tai, trying to hold in his own anger.
"Fine, cause I won't lie when I say that my teammates are more than capable of taking care of themselves. I have fought alongside them, but guess what you old farts? The robots I go up against, aren't Grimm. They aren't mindless monsters whose only thoughts revolve around destruction. They are robots with the ability to think for themselves, all of whom were build around the idea of having independent thought just like me. And with that they'll try and use every dirty and underhanded trick in the book to take out who they are fighting."
"And I'm not saying that none of them can fight for themselves, or wouldn't be able to take on the robot masters. I'm not saying that, I just didn't want to them to hurt themselves to help me. They already got hurt yesterday in the fight against Block Man, and it made me lose all control. I couldn't think of anything other than wanting to kill Block Man for what he had done. So when I heard them say that we were going after Acid Man next I became worried." Said Rock.
Tai scoffed, and Qrow rolled his eyes after which he replied "And why was that, scared that one measly robot would hurt them?"
"No, I was scared that something would happen while we were making our way to Acid Man. Scared that with one wrong move one of them would fall into a vat of acid, one misstep and it would be over for them. I kept worrying about it all night, and so I decided to go at it alone. Only for my fears to be confirmed, there were pools of acid in that chemical plant. And even robots that made some of the liquids more acidic."
"You think I would have wanted one of my teammates to die, for one of them to be low on aura and make a wrong move that would end with them falling into those acid pools and being reduced to nothing but bones. You think I wanted to have to return to Beacon, face both of you and say that one of your daughters and nieces wouldn't be coming back? Cause I saw the grave of Summer Rose, you think I would have wanted there to be a second gravestone on that cliff. Well, do you!" Exclaimed Rock, whose breathing became shaky from the outburst.
Tai and Qrow looked at Rock with shocked looks on their faces, with Qrow trying to reply while tripping over his words "That... wow... that cuts... pretty deep..." As both remembered the demise of Summer Rose.
"Ruby... Ruby already died once, because she and the others wanted to save me and stop Doctor Merlot. I didn't... I didn't want that to happen again... Not to any of them." Added Rock.
"Why didn't you tell them that?" Asked Tai.
"I got scared, I let the fear of what could happen to them get the better of me." Replied Rock, as tears were flowing down his face.
Tai saw this, put a hand on Rock's shoulder and said "I'm happy that you and your other teammates are looking out for my daughters, and that all of you are looking out for each other. But still, you need to know that you can't do this alone. You're part of a team, and you need to be able to work together. Take it from me, our team during our time at Beacon didn't work well together. Especially our early years, and we all paid for that. We got injured during missions, our communication was horrible. So don't do what we did, don't push your friends away."
"You know kid, I'm not one to apologise. Mainly because I'm not usually in the wrong, but I will admit that I might have been a bit too harsh on you." Said Qrow.
"And..." Said Tai.
"That's all he's getting out of me." Replied Qrow.
"I understand." Said Rock.
"Good, now go talk to your teammates and sort this mess out." Said Qrow, as he began to leave the lab.
"Where are you going?" Asked Doctor Light.
"This whole thing reminded me of what happened to our team, so I'm gonna drink my sorrows away!" Yelled Qrow, after which he left the lab.
Rock then turned to Doctor Light and asked "Dad, do I still need repairs?"
"You don't, in these last couple of hours I managed to fully repair all the damages you had. Your energy was also fully restored, you are free to leave." Said Doctor Light.
"Glad to hear that." Said Rock who was about to leave the room, but then turned around to face his father and added "I'm sorry that I make you worry so much dad."
"Don't worry about it, sure I worry about you. But you have also been doing this for fifteen years, so deep down I also know that you'll always come back to me." Said Doctor Light.
"Thanks dad." Said Rock, who then left the lab to go to his dorm room. This left both Tai and Doctor Light alone in the lab.
"Say Thomas, you've had a pretty long and rough day. How about I make you some dinner." Said Tai, breaking the silence that had fallen over the lab.
"I wouldn't mind that, but I also wouldn't want to impose." Replied Doctor Light.
"Don't worry about it, I still have plenty of food in the fridge. Besides, it will be just like our time at Beacon. Instead this time I would be cooking for you, instead of you cooking for us it will be me cooking for you." Said Tai.
"I remember that, I also remember Summer cooking for a lot of people." Said Doctor Light. "You sure you won't burn down the kitchen this time?"
Tai chuckled and replied "I wouldn't worry about that, I have gotten a lot better." The two then left the lab as well, and made their way over the teachers dorms where Tai was staying to get dinner started.
Later
Rock had made his way back to the dorm room, with him thinking about what he had done. When he reached the door he sighed to himself, took a few seconds to calm his nerves and then entered the room. Where he was immediately tackled to the ground by Ruby who exclaimed "Rock! I'm so glad you're ok!"
"Thanks... Ruby, can you please get off me?" Asked Rock, who was then helped back onto his feet by Ruby who then smacked him on top of his head. Causing Rock to exclaim "Oww, Ruby what the hell!"
"That was for leaving." Replied Ruby.
"But you said that you were glad I was ok!" Exclaimed Rock.
"Just because I'm glad that you're okay doesn't mean I'm not mad at you. What were you thinking!" Yelled Ruby.
"I..." Rock started only to be interrupted by Weiss.
"Honestly, how reckless can you be? Going at it alone like that, after you had so much difficulty yesterday with Block Man. Even with our help." Said Weiss, with an annoyed look on her face.
"Anything you would like to add, Blake?" Asked Rock with a hint of annoyance in his voice, as he turned to his third teammate and noticed that Yang wasn't there.
"No, I just want to know why you did that." Replied Blake.
"Fine, I didn't want you guys to get hurt." Said Rock, who noticed that his teammates were giving him strange looks. So he immediately added "And I know what you're going to say, that you can take care of yourselves and that you don't need my protection. I don't want to hear it, I already had a lecture from Tai and Qrow about that. But guess what, I didn't want you guys to get killed just so that you could help me. Especially when Ruby already got herself killed once before. Look, that entire chemical plant was filled to the brim with acid and I didn't want any of you to fall into the acid and die as a result."
"Why didn't you tell us that?" Asked Weiss.
"Because I let my fears and anxiety get the better of me, all of last night I spend tossing and turning in bed thinking about what could happen. And I allowed my fear to get the better of me, and I know that I should have talked to you guys. But I didn't, and I'm sorry for that." Said Rock.
"I understand." Said Blake, who was then met with surprised looks from Weiss and Ruby. So she added "I get where he is coming from, because I felt the same when I told you all about my heritage. I felt scared, and without thinking I ran away because I wasn't thinking properly."
Weiss sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, turned to Rock and replied "Ok, so I get why you left. But that doesn't excuse you leaving us behind like that, and breaking the promise you made to us. So I'm just going to say it and it doesn't matter if you don't agree with this, but the next time either you or Blake feel scared or need our help, talk to us. We're your teammates, and just like Blake when we were looking into the White Fang, you should also be able to come to us with your issues. Because we want to help."
"I get it, and I promise I'll do that next time." Said Rock, as he nodded in understanding.
"As do I." Said Blake.
"Good, that's all I wanted to say about it." Replied Weiss.
Rock then turned to Ruby, who had remained silent throughout the conversation and said "Ruby... I..." Only for him to be surprised when Ruby simply hugged him.
"You know how worried I was about you? When you were gone for several weeks, I worried about you. But you know how worried I was at the idea of you being gone for good because of your recklessness?" Said Ruby, as tears were flowing down her face.
"I don't, and I'm sorry. I just didn't want anyone to get hurt." Replied Rock, as Ruby released him from the hug.
"Well we didn't, we made it through that chemical plant and none of us got hurt." Said Weiss.
"Not entirely, we did get a few burns here and there from the acid." Said Ruby.
"Thankfully our aura took care of that, and Jaune who used his semblance to heal the burns that took longer for our aura to heal." Said Blake.
"OK fine, other than a few burns, nothing too major happened while we went through the chemical plant." Said Weiss.
"Glad to hear that, so where is Yang? I noticed that she isn't here." Said Rock.
"She... uhm..." Stammered Ruby.
"Yang's..." Added Blake.
"She is really pissed at you for leaving like that, so she left to get some fresh air." Said Weiss.
Rock sighed and replied "I'll go find her, which training room is she using?"
"She left Beacon and went to Vale." Said Blake.
"Off course, don't worry I'll go and find her and talk things out with her." Said Rock.
"You better, or I'll take this team on another Canoeing trip as a bonding exercise." Said Ruby, causing the rest of the team to gasp in shock.
"You wouldn't..." Stammered Weiss.
"All that water..." Said Blake, as she shuddered at the memory of the waterfall.
"I will, so sort it out Rock." Said Ruby.
"Don't worry, I will." Said Rock, who then turned into blue energy and teleported out of the room and away from Beacon.
"You know, I think he could have just taken the bullhead to Vale." Remarked Weiss.
"He must really not want to go on another canoeing trip." Joked Ruby, as both Weiss and Blake shuddered at the memory of the canoeing trip.
Later in Vale
After spending the last hour teleporting throughout Vale because he kept ending up in the wrong place, and due to him being unable to find Yang, Rock finally managed to find the place where Yang was staying at which was Junior's club. When he got to the entrance he saw that the guards were nowhere to be seen, "Must have given them the night off." Rock thought to himself.
He made his way into the club, and when he got to the main area he saw Yang sitting at the bar looking at her drink with a serious look on her face. Rock decided to go over to her, and once he got there he sat down on the chair next to her. Yang barely acknowledged his arrival other than with a quick look, and the two sat at the bar in silence.
After several minutes of silence between the two, Rock decided to speak up "Yang, I get that you're mad and I know that I made a promise. But I didn't want to see any of you getting hurt for me again. So I'm sorry that I broke the promise I made, and I'm sorry that I ran away."
Instead of replying, Rock was met with silence from Yang. So he added "Yang, I'm truly sorry and I understand that you're mad. But don't just sit there staying silent, say something."
Once again there was no response, so Rock started growing annoyed and yelled "Yang! Say something! Anything! Yell at me! Don't just sit there!"
With no response Rock got up from his seat ready to leave and said "You know what, fine. I don't even know why I tried. I'm going back to Beacon and I'll ask professor Ozpin to transfer me to another team. Maybe I'll end up with Team JNPR." After which he was about to leave, only for his arm to be grabbed. He turned around and saw Yang holding onto his arm, with him looking into her red eyes filled with anger. He also saw that Yang was getting ready to punch him, only for both of their attentions to be caught by a gun firing into the air.
The two turned to the bar, saw that Junior had fired his weapon into the air and was looking at them with a stern look on his face. Junior then said "If you two are going to fight, do it outside. I'm not remodelling my bar a fourth time because of you hooligans."
"Fine, I'll leave. I already paid for my drink anyways." Said Yang, who then left the room and signed for Rock to follow her. Once they got outside she led him to her motorcycle, and said "Get on."
Rock complied, and the two drove away in silence. The two didn't speak with each other throughout the drive, so Rock decided to look at the sky and noted that some dark storm clouds were beginning to form over Vale. But he was snapped out his thoughts several minutes later, when Yang's motorcycle stopped and Rock found himself in an open grassy area.
He got off the motorcycle, and asked "Yang, why are we..." Only for him to get interrupted by Yang punching him in the face and knocking him to the ground.
Rock looked up at Yang, who still had angry red eyes, and she said to Rock "Get up, and fight me."
"Alright, I see how it is." Said Rock, as he stood up, got his arm canon ready, created as much distance as possible between him and Yang, and then added "Bring it on you dumb blonde. Bring it on!"
Rock and Yang then rushed towards each other, with Rock charging his buster as he rushed towards Yang and delivered several punches to her. Which Yang blocked with her arms, only for Rock to create an opening that allowed him to shoot a charged shot right into Yang's face. Causing her to be launched backwards, but also allowed her to use her gauntlets to fire several blasts at Rock. Some of which hit him, while he was able to avoid getting hit by some of the other rounds that Yang fired at him.
Yang then used Ember Celica to launch herself at Rock, and then she used the gauntlets to deliver several punches to Rock which hurt a lot more than usual due to Yang being powered up from the blast from Rock's arm canon. So Rock got knocked to the ground, and Yang was about to punch downwards when he was able to avoid the attack by sliding underneath her. After which he used the opportunity to deliver several punches to Yang's back, who then turned around and delivered a crescent moon kick to Rock causing him to be knocked backwards.
Rock landed on his feet, and quickly rushed towards Yang who shot out another barrage of rounds from her gauntlets at Rock. Who managed to dodge most of them, and when he got to Yang he delivered an upper cut to her jaw. Which knocked Yang to the ground, but not for long as she got up again and punched her fists together to make her hair flare up. Rock saw this, and switched to the power gear and began to charge up his arm canon. And with Yang at full power, and Rock having charged up his most powerful version of the charged shot the two rushed towards each other.
When the two got to each other Yang delivered a massive punch towards Rock, while Rock fired the charged shot towards Yang. Both attacks landed, and both were knocked to the ground. With neither of them getting up or moving for a few seconds, that was until Yang sat up first and asked with a small hint of regret in her voice "Rock, are you alright. I'm sorry about that."
Rock, while still lying down on the ground, replied "Yeah, I'm sorry about that as well. Are you alright?" When he didn't hear a response, he got up and saw Yang with her back turned to him. He walked over to her, and saw that she was holding onto a necklace with a picture frame attached to it. And looking at it closer, he saw a picture of a woman resembling Ruby but older holding a much younger Yang.
"Yang, are you alright?" Asked Rock, with concern in his voice.
"Do you know about the parentage of me and Ruby?" Asked Yang, while trying to hold in her tears as she looked at the locket on the necklace.
"Bits and pieces, you two told us that you both had different moms with the same father. That your mom left, that Ruby's mom perished on a mission and the gravestone we saw several weeks ago belonged to her. But that's it." Said Rock.
"Her name was Summer Rose, and she took care of us after my mother, Raven Branwen left several months after I was born. And then one day she perished on a mission, and she left not just me but also Ruby behind. This locket is one of the few things I have left off her that remind me of what she looked like, remind me of what she was like as a mom." Said Yang, as she showed Rock the picture of her with Summer Rose from several years ago.
Rock then sat down next to Yang, as she continued to tell her story "Then I found out about Raven and, this is something that I only told Blake about, loaded Ruby up in a cart and decided to look at an abandoned house in the forest. It was full of Grimm, and I nearly got Ruby and I killed if it wasn't for Qrow showing up to save us. All because I did something without thinking."
Yang sighed and added "I'm sorry for how I reacted Rock, I sometimes get scared of getting close to people only for them to abandon me. It's why I was worried that you were going to leave us, right after we had gotten you back. It's why I got so mad that you broke your promise and left us earlier today. I know it doesn't excuse what I just did, but I'm truly sorry Rock."
"It's fine, I... I got scared and worried that something bad would happen to you guys in that chemical plant. Scared that you would fall into the acid and get killed, I didn't want any of you to get hurt just to help me. So I let fear get the better of me, and I left without you guys. I'm... I'm sorry for that, for making you all worry like that." Said Rock.
"I understand what you mean, honestly sometimes I feel like I'm being selfish." Said Yang.
"Selfish, you? Yang, you're one of the most selfless people on our team." Replied Rock. "You take care of us, you help set us straight whenever we need it. Sure it's a bit of tough love, but it helps. Honestly, I feel like I needed this. So tell me, how are you being selfish?" Asked Rock.
"Because I only became a huntress to travel the world, and find Raven so I can get answers. That's it, Ruby wants to follow in her mom's footsteps, you were forced to attend but your heroic spirit and sense of justice makes you want to help people, Weiss wants to make the SDC better and Blake wants to fix the White Fang. Now look at me, all I ever want to do is travel, fight and find answers. There is nothing else that I want." Said Yang.
"Yang, you're not selfish. You're allowed to want things for yourself, I'm sure that if you told Ruby about what you wanted to do that she'd understand. Maybe she'll even help you." Said Rock.
"You really think so?" Asked Yang.
"I do, I mean she looks up to you Yang. I doubt that she'll think of you as selfish for wanting to look for your mom. But I do wonder, did you ever ask your dad about Raven?" Asked Rock.
"I did a few times, but each time I did he would just shut down and lock up. So after a few tries, and some verbal arguments, I gave up." Said Yang.
"Maybe you should talk to him again, maybe with the therapy he got he'll be able to talk about her again. Maybe he knows why she left, or he might even tell you what she was like." Said Rock.
"Thank you Rock, that made me feel a lot better. Sorry for hurting you like that." Said Yang.
"It's fine Yang, we both had something to work through and I'm not mad at you." Said Rock.
"Promise you won't run off like that again?" Asked Yang.
"I already promised that to the others, so sure it won't happen again." Replied Rock.
It was then that Yang felt her scroll going off in her pockets, so she picked it up and saw that Weiss was calling her. "Speak of the Grimm, look who is calling us." Said Yang as she accepted the call and put the call on speaker. "Weiss, you are on speaker so no need to speak up."
"Where are you two!" Yelled Weiss through the scroll.
"We're somewhere in Vale." Replied Yang.
"The weather forecast has predicted that there will be a massive thunder and rain storm tonight, and all the bullheads will stop flying to Beacon in an hour. So get back here, now!" Yelled Weiss, as she ended the call.
"Sounded serious." Said Rock.
"Yeah, we should be going back." Said Yang, as they both walked back to the motorcycle and got on.
"You think we'll make it back to Beacon in time?" Asked Rock.
"With my driving, definitely." Replied Yang, as she drove off with her motorcycle as fast as she could. With Rock being heard screaming "Yang, slow down!" as the two drove off into the night.
Elsewhere
The pools of Grimm within Salem's kingdom were quiet, as not a single Grimm was being spawned from it. That was until the black goo started to bubble, which kept getting louder and louder until finally a metallic hand reached out from the Grimm pool and pulled itself out of the liquid. The figure then looked into the reflection of the Grimm pool, and upon seeing itself it began to chuckle. Which evolved into loud laughter, which became louder and louder until the metallic figure grabbed its head and let out a maddening laughter.
A/N: And there you have it, another chapter. Not much else to say here, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and the conversation about Raven between Tai and Yang will be happening next chapter. The chapter already was long, so it will be happening at the start of next chapter. Also, sorry it took so long I would have wanted this to come out earlier but I had a lot of stuff going on which made this chapter come out later than I had wanted it to.
And a quick thanks to the following person for supporting this story
doesn'tMtter
And now to the reviews from last chapter
Jacob9594: Glad that you liked it, if you're worried about Rock with what happened last chapter then you'll probably also be worried for him in the future of this arc.
BlueSkies: Hope you liked this chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy the future of this arc.
Simonsaid: I'll explain it at a future point in time, don't worry it will be explained when it makes sense to do so.
Anyways, with that being said. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next chapter.