Teleportation.
Perhaps the most magical piece of technology that existed in the Commonwealth. Capable of sending fully grown humans all across the vast expanse of the wasteland in a fraction of a second.
Or…
It could drop you off in the middle of a sparkling green forest surrounded by pitch black wolf things with a taste for human flesh.
Such a predicament was exactly what Nolan Jade found himself in. Currently fighting off his sixth wave of the ferocious beasties, Nolan thanked his lucky stars that he had chosen today of all days to transfer all of his equipment from his home in Sanctuary Hills to his office inside the Institute. Meaning he was more than fully equipped to handle the dire situation that was so graciously thrust upon him by the universe.
"When I get back we're installing a fucking door to the surface. I knew I couldn't trust that damn relay." He grumbled to himself as he reloaded his Gauss Rifle, nicknamed 'Augustus', for the umpteenth time and prepared for what was no doubt another soon to be incoming wave. He ran a diagnostics check on his experimental X-111 Power Armor. Only minor damages in various places, as there should be considering the resources that went into making it.
What made the X-111 special was it's increased agility and more durable design. Being made entirely out of Nanobots allows the entire suit to fold up into a small box the size of a Rubik's Cube, at the press of a button it will expand around him and encase him in the giant metal armor. Optimized and overdriven hydraulic systems allow for much faster running and dodging as well as detecting the more subtle movements in the body to decrease the stiffness of older models. The X-111 has all of the perks of the X-01 and X-02 but very few of their shortcomings. He still looked like a giant robot of death and destruction when he wore it but he certainly didn't move like one.
It took years to create and required him to set up connections between Institute scientists, Brotherhood engineers and an old pre-war team of scientists out West. That was quite the adventure, he never thought he'd have the opportunity to speak to a literal brain in a jar before but hey, anything's possible at the end of the world. He just felt sorry for the poor schmuck who the brain used to belong to, seemed like it really hated them.
Once the connection was made work finally picked up and in no time Nolan had the most advanced suit of Power Armor the world had ever seen. Couple that with his Pip-Boy's ability to almost instantly scan, break down and then materialize weapons and armor and he was basically a one man army. Of course he could only store so much in the Pip-Boy and he used a vast majority of that space for his ungodly reserves of ammunition and medical supplies, but what he couldn't store he was more than capable of lugging around.
Normally he could anyway, this time however, since he had planned on relaying straight to the Institute he had packed several bags worth of armor, weaponry, and scrap so he would no longer have to make several trips between The Institute, Castle, Prydwen, Railroad HQ and Sanctuary whenever he wanted to use a specific weapon or armor set for a mission. In hindsight attempting to transport all of that matter at once was probably what caused the relay to fuck up in the first place.
So, thanks to his self destructive laziness he was currently lugging around too much weight to carry even for his advanced armor. Which was really saying something about his hoarding obsession. Like seriously, why did he need so many guns that he rarely ever used?
"Don't question me, Self. It was your idea." He accused… himself? He shifted his mind back to the action just in time to smack a diving wolf thing out of the air using his rifle as a bat. He contemplated dropping the bags until the fight was over but what if these things were being controlled and were only sent to rob him… a stupid idea, yes, but he had to justify the even dumber decision to not drop them out of pure stubbornness.
He switched out Augustus for 'Final Judgement,' the massive Gatling Laser he pried off the corpse of Elder Maxson when he beat the young warmonger for his spot as Elder of The Brotherhood of Steel. The kid put up a good fight, perhaps the best fight he'd had since Kellogg, but just like the grizzled merc he just wasn't a match for the Sole Survivor of Vault 111. Defeating Maxson was the last step to solidify his place as the undisputed leader of the Commonwealth. He was the leader of three of the major factions in the area and held a high ranking in the forth. And with so much power in his hands he was free to do whatever he pleased… but more on that later.
Back to the action once again, he charged up the barrels of the Gatling Laser, a dull hum signifying they were at max charge, and once the eighth wave of the creatures of darkness came into sight he proceeded to lay his judgement down upon them with the burning heat and magnificent fury of the sun. Dozens of the beasts were burned to cinders by the mighty weapon, their charred carcasses blowing away like dust into the blue sky.
All things considered, this was the most fun he'd had in a very long time. See, the thing about being in absolute control was that there was nobody to challenge him, nobody to challenge him meant nobody to fight, nobody to fight meant serious fucking boredom in the post apocalypse. It had gotten so bad that he started to take regular trips into the Glowing Sea just to find some excitement in life. Raiders were shit scared of him and after a while they had made possibly the only wise decision they'd ever made in their lives to avoid the Commonwealth altogether, doubly so after he wiped out Nuka World. Which he only did to try and quell his boredom once again.
The Gunners had long since been wiped out, once the Minutemen and Brotherhood began working together they stood absolutely no chance. They tried to pull all their resources back into Quincy and make their last stand, hoping to at least go out with a bang but it was more of a hard cough and a slight wheeze. They were decimated. One of Nolan's proudest moments was watching the normally calm and collected Preston Garvey beat the ever-loving piss out of the pussy ass leader Captain Wes. Until that moment he didn't think Preston had a sadistic bone in his body but fuckin' A was he wrong.
Now the Commonwealth was devoid of challenges, even Deathclaws become boring after you fight a few dozen of them. Yes, Nolan Jade had become such a powerful force of nature that not even the almighty Deathclaw was a threat to him anymore. He'd long since given up hope that he'd ever be challenged again but now? With the endless waves of monsters he could feel it, that burst of adrenaline that he'd been missing for so long, the spark behind his eyes began to burn brilliantly once again and he finally could let loose his true strength upon these vile vermin…
Or he could if he wasn't so fucking over-encumbered!
Just when he had finally made the difficult decision to momentarily drop the unnecessary baggage did he hear a loud and powerful screech from up high, craning his neck up to the air he laid witness to the Biggest Fuck All Bird he done did ever saw. A wingspan as big as a skyscraper and talons longer than a Corvega. It was just flying up there and majestically menacing like the dog-bird-snake thing in 'The Neverending Story.'
"Holy mother of shit, you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He whispered lovingly. "Will you be mine?"
He was so enamored by it that he didn't even notice when it reared up and flapped its wings sending massive deadly feathers screaming down at his dumbstruck face.
He came back to reality when one of said feathers crashed into his midsection and sent him skidding across the ground like a motorcycle crash victim. Alarm signs began blaring in his helmet and his HUD showed that the abdominal plating of the armor had taken significant damage. His feelings toward the bastard bitch bird then took a dramatic change, "You fucking cocksucker, how could you do this to me? I loved you! Now you'll die like the rest of them!"
He clicked his heels together twice and activated the rockets in his boots, he squatted low and then shot off high into the air, Gatling Laser charging up. The bird took notice of his actions and sent another volley of feathers flying at Nolan, but he ducked, dipped, and dodged the deadly daggers and drew even closer to his enemy. "My first time really getting to use this armor and you just had to fuck it up! We could've had something special, you and me, you could've been the Jangles to my Captain Cosmo, now? Now you're the Mechanist and I… am the Siiillllver Shroooooud! Bask in my might, evil-doer!
The lasers lit the bird up like a disco ball, and it screamed in agony while shifting its trajectory to try and avoid the burning streaks of light. It reared up again but this time it loosed a powerful screech that slammed into Nolan and sent him flying end over end in the air struggling to straighten back up. When he regained his composure he looked ahead just in time to get smacked in the face by a giant black wing. He was sent careening down to the forest floor creating a deep crater in the ground upon impact. "Aaaaahhhh, that's gonna leave a bruise in the morning, no doubt. Fucking bastard bitch bird."
He rolled over and pulled himself back to his feet and looked up to see the giant bird circling overhead like a buzzard scoping out a fresh corpse. "I'm not dead yet, it ain't over till the fat lady sings." He then called forth another weapon from his Pip-Boy, a massive bitch of a weapon, capable of unrivaled destruction. "Or in this case until the Fat Man rips you a new one!"
Nolan dropped to one knee, pointing the Fat Man up into the sky and lining a shot, he activated VATS and time slowed to a crawl. The bird's body was outlined in green, 75% scrawled out over top. It was a gamble for sure, if he missed, who knows how far the miniature apocalypse would travel, who knows where it might land… is it worth the risk?
Before he could even make the decision, however, a white Vertibird looking aircraft swooped in from on high and began to bombard the giant bird with missiles and machine gun fire. In seconds the bird was slain and began to fall from the sky, turning to dust before it could impact the ground. "Well that was anticlimactic."
"Hello down there," a smooth, proper speaking voice called out from the speakers on board the Vertibird. "My name is Professor Ozpin, you seem as though you could use some assistance." Nolan could just hear the smug smirk on this guy's face and had already decided that he would punch him in the face some day.
A ladder was dropped down from above, "Grab on and we'll pull you to safety!" The smug professor called out.
"Yeah, yeah. Just give me a second!" He yelled back. "Where the fuck did I put that bag?" He located the bag sitting on the edge of the impact crater his corpulent body made. With no small amount of effort he heaved the massive bags onto his shoulder and slowly dragged himself over to the ladder.
Unfortunately, the moment he tried to pull himself up his fat metal body nearly dragged the damn aircraft to the dirt. "Fuck! No, I'm not dropping my stuff!"
"I'm afraid it seems you'll have to. The weight of your armor coupled with your baggage is too much for the Bullhead to handle." Ozpin explained to the stubborn hoarder.
Nolan was at a loss. He couldn't just leave years worth of scavenging out in the middle of the forest for some random pleb to find, however, he wasn't too keen on slowly dragging it to the nearest civilization either. "Fuck it." With a great effort he dragged the aircraft down to his level with several mighty tugs of the rope ladder.
"What are you doing!? We are trying to help you!" Ozpin yelled in bewilderment as the metal man dragged the several ton Bullhead down to the forest floor.
"Take the bag!" He yelled of the thunderous sound of the propellers. "Which way should I go to catch up?"
"Are you mad?" Ozpin shouted back incredulously. "Are the contents of these bags worth more than your own life?"
"I'm not trading my life, this ain't where I die old man! Now which way do I go?" Nolan said firmly, he'd be damned if he never saw his salvage again.
Ozpin stared into the bug-like eyes of the X-111 in contemplation over the sanity of this strange man. After a short moment he breathed a heavy sigh, "For your sake I hope you're right! Just continue South, you'll soon come across a clearing with dilapidated ruins strewn about. We should be on our way back by the time you make it there so do your best to survive until we return. The Grimm are especially angry at the moment for some reason so expect heavy resistance." And with that the aircraft took off into the sky in the direction of what Nolan assumed was civilization.
"Alright Universe, what have you got for me this time?" Selecting his weapons from the Pip-Boy's inventory. He called for his Assaultron Blade and Plasma Scatter Pistol named 'Green Goo.' "You haven't taken me out yet, let's see if you get lucky.
Then the Leader of the Commonwealth charged forward into the forest, ready to strike down all that tried to stop him.
25 Minutes Later
Bullshit.
The predominant thought going through Nolan's mind as he fought for his life in the clearing of the forest.
"What the fuck is this place!?" Nolan yelled to no one as he slayed yet another giant bear thing. "Fucking bears and wolves and snakes! What's next? A fucking mega Deathclaw?!" He dove out of the way of another wolf, twisted around and divided its head from its neck. He brought Green Goo around and blasted another wolf in the chest, the scattered balls of plasma rendering the beast into a puddle of… well, green goo.
He activated his rocket boots and shot like a rocket toward one of the bears, his fist connected with the bone mask on its face and shattered it into tiny pieces. He brought his knee up, still being assisted by the rockets, and connected with its chin, shattering the bone underneath. The bear dropped like a sack of rocks onto the ground where Nolan finished it off with a jab of his sword into its heart. "Bastards better not have gone through my stuff." He grumbled to himself.
"What the FUCK is that thing!?" It was at this moment that he laid witness to the Biggest Fuck All Scorpion he doth did ever done saw. It was covered in the same bony exoskeleton as all the other creatures he killed. This thing put Radscorpions to shame, even the ones he'd come across on his trek to Big MT didn't come close to the grandiose scale of this monstrosity.
It crawled forward on it's creepy ass legs, pincers clicking, stinger swinging, it looked ready to rip Nolan a new one. He only laughed in its ugly face, "I think it's finally time for the Fat Man to sing." He said with a manic grin. A moment later the famed launcher materialized in his hands and he once again dropped to one knee, finger brushing over the trigger as VATS lined up the shot.
"And in 3… 2… 1- oh come the fuck on!" Once again he was denied the sweet sweet sight of a giant mushroom cloud as the Vertibird from earlier swooped back in and laid waste to his assailant. "Yea it's official, I hate that guy." Nolan deadpanned.
However, this time the voice that called out to him was significantly younger and much more female, "Hello Mr. Robot Dude, my name is Ruby Rose and you're about to be rescued by Teeeeaaam RWBY!" The girl, 'Ruby,' called out over the speaker.
"Are you about to rescue me or start a rock concert?" Nolan mumbled to himself. "Welp, I guess the fun had to stop at some point." He clicked his heels to activate his rocket boots once more and flew up to the waiting aircraft. The side door slid open and he managed to squeeze his massive armored frame inside.
"Go, go, go." Another slightly less high pitched voice called out to the pilot and the aircraft immediately took off towards safety. A thick silence permeated the air of the Vertibird's cabin, all occupants equally unsure of what to say.
Teenagers, Nolan had been rescued by tiny teenage girls. A new low, the first low he'd hit in a long while in fact. 'Kids. They're kids. Of course they are, I don't know what else I expected from the universe.' Nolan thought to himself.
The four girls staring dumbly at him were a strange sight to behold. They were color coded, red, white, black, yellow. Everything from their hair to their clothes matched the aesthetic. The shortest and perhaps youngest, or at least the most innocent one, was Red. Next to her was White, she looked at him with barely hidden contempt, not sure why considering he'd done jack shit but she was probably just stuck up.
Black was next to her, Nolan could practically feel her fight or flight instincts kicking in as he stared into her eyes through the glowing white lenses of his helmet. She was leaning closer to fight however so that was a good thing, meant she wasn't a total coward.
And finally, to her left was Yellow, the only other person he'd seen so battle ready was Cait after a hit of Psycho. This girl was a fighter, through and through, he could respect that.
"Soooo, are you actually a robot?" Red was the first to speak up, and her choice of question confirmed his earlier suspicion that she was far too young for this.
"That's hardly an appropriate question, Ruby." The white one spoke up next, her voice sounding just as annoying as he thought it would.
"Hello, I am H.A.L 9000, short for Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer. You may call me Hal for short." He replied robotically, the speaker of his helmet helped his voice really sell the joke.
The red one's eyes seemed to grow an extra 5 inches as she stared back at him with stars twinkling in her eyes, "Woooooah, that's so cool!"
It was yellow who dashed the red one's dreams. "I'm pretty sure he's just messing with you Ruby."
"Aww phooey." The girl, 'Ruby,' deflated like a balloon.
"Hi there," the yellow one continued, stepping up in front of him. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, nice to meet ya." She held her hand out for a shake, to which Nolan stared dumbly at before taking. He was then absolutely floored by the girl's grip strength. 'What the fuck is she?' Was his stunned mental response, she shook his arm hard enough to pull him forward ever so slightly. Which really shouldn't have been possible. "How about you tell us your real name, mister?"
After that display of strength he wasn't sure if it was a request or a demand, either way he saw no reason to lie. "Names Nolan, kid, and no I'm not a robot, this is just armor." He could see why they didn't think he was human, after all, he was already a giant of a man, standing at 6 '10 without the armor. With the armor he was close to 9 feet tall. Wrap that massive frame in mechanized armor made from the strongest metals on Earth and well, it made for quite a sight to behold.
"I've never seen armor like that, looks even more high tech than Atlesian armor, especially when you factor in the rocket boots." This time it was Black who spoke up, she was a very perceptive one.
"I doubt you'll ever see anything like the X-111 again. She's one of a kind. Made by the finest minds in the Wastes." He said smugly, his grin hidden behind his helmet.
"The Waste- '' Weiss started to question but was suddenly cut off by an object on the side of the Bullhead, throwing its occupants off balance, except for Nolan who's armor kept him steadfast in place.
"We got a big problem," the pilot called from the cockpit, "There's a Lancer swarm surrounding us, along with the mother of all Lancer Queens. What are we gonna do?" Nolan had no fucking clue what a Lancer is but it seemed like a big deal.
"Lancers?! They're not native to Vale, how'd they get all the way over here?!" Black asked, her befuddlement palpable on her features.
Immediately 3 of the 4 girls looked towards Red, er, 'Ruby' as if expecting her to know the answer to the pilot's question. 'Are these girls soldiers? Eh, I suppose stranger things have happened in the post-apocalypse. Hell, MacCready said he used to live in a settlement run entirely by kids. I guess I'll just have to see them in action.' Nolan thought to himself. 'Wait a minute, where are their guns?'
"Alright team, here's the plan," The high-pitched voice of Ruby Rose spoke up, "Weiss, you stay here and use your glyphs to keep us in the air and protect the ship. Blake and Yang, you two take out as many of the smaller ones as you can, meanwhile, me and Nolan will handle the Queen. Hopefully the young ones will back off once she goes down."
It was then that Nolan witnessed what was easily the most ridiculous thing he'd seen since he woke up from cryosleep; this tiny little girl reached behind her back and pulled a red contraption out of a holster, said contraption then unfolded and turned into a MASSIVE scythe. The thing was big, nearly as tall as Nolan in his armor, and she was carrying it like a toy. 'What the fuck are these kids eating?'
"Open the cargo door, pilot… please." Ruby commanded, sorta. Immediately the back of the Bullhead began to open causing wind to rush into the cabin. Nolan watched as each girl readied their individual weapons. Weiss held her Rapier sword in front of her and pointed up in the air. 'No gun? Weird.'
Yang flicked her arms downwards, the yellow bracelets on her wrists activated, forming gauntlets that covered her forearms. Nolan also noted the tell tale sound of a shotgun being racked. 'Shotgun gauntlets? Sure why not?'
Blake's weapon completely confused Nolan, 'Is that a pistol with a ribbon on it? How is that even remotely practical?'
'Welp, I guess the fight isn't over yet. What should I use?' Nolan perused through his weapon selection on the Pip-Boy screen integrated to the HUD of his power armor. 'Ooooh, I haven't used Ashmaker in awhile.' Ashmaker was a grimy looking minigun that fired incendiary rounds, he got it off Hancock's creepy bodyguard after he sided with old Bobbie No-nose to raid Hancock's storehouse. 'I wonder if Hancock knows what really happened, always had to be careful not to use it when he was around.'
Ashmaker appeared in Nolan's armored hands with a flash of green light, and immediately after he was swarmed by Little Red with stars in her eyes once again.
"Woah, that's so cool! Where did it come from? Does it have a name? How did you make it?" She asked in rapid succession, apparently having forgotten about the dire situation they were in.
Nolan decided just to answer her questions in order. "It came from my Pip-Boy, it's called Ashmaker, and I didn't make it, it's last owner didn't need it anymore."
The girl looked confused at the last answer, "Why wouldn't they need it any-"
"Could we maybe focus on the giant wasp Grimm trying to kill us?" Weiss said as another thud against the side of the aircraft rocked the cabin.
"Right! Let's go, team." Ruby yelled, readying her weapon.
"So do you guys have like Jetpacks hidden away or something? How are you getting out there?" Nolan found his answer in the form of a giant, white, magical looking snowflake… thing appeared in the cabin. It seemed to be created by Weiss who was holding her sword forward like a wand. 'What the fu… y'know what? Screw it. I'm sure I'll figure out what's going on eventually. I'll just stick to what I know, killing shit.'
No more words were spoken as one after the other Ruby, Blake, and Yang stepped into the snowflake thing and were propelled out the back of the Bullhead, toward whatever violent creature these "Lancers" were.
Nolan stepped up to the snowflake next and paused in hesitation.
"Are you going or not?" Weiss asked, her vexation clear in her tone.
"Nah, I think I'll just handle this my own way."
"Suit yourself." Weiss responded and dropped the glyph. Nolan then activated his rocket boots and took off into the air. He was then met with the sight of a few dozen giant bugs being dispatched by three small girls being kept afloat by more magic snowflake things.
"... Don't question it Nolan, just go with the flow." Nolan once again shrugged off the absurdity of the situation and focused on the situation at hand. He found Ruby in the midst of menacing monsters and shot his way over to her to help enact her plan. He did have to land on (and subsequently exterminate) a few of the bugs since his rocket boots weren't exactly a full on flight mode, he had to land and recharge every minute or so, only for a few seconds.
He finally caught up to Ruby who was zipping through the air as a literal red tornado with... 'are those rose petals?' Once again Nolan had to force himself to ignore the absurdity of the current events. "Ruby!" He called out to the girl who had just sliced a bug creature in half before firing what sounded like a .50 BMG round from her scythe and used the recoil to propel herself toward another target. "Where's the Queen and how do we take her out?!" He had to dodge out of the way of a flanking Lancer bringing Ashmaker around and buffeting the bug with burning bullets.
"The Queen is all the way at the back… I'm not actually sure how to take her down though, I've never fought Lancers before. I'm actually surprised I'm taking so many down this quickly." Ruby admitted as she took the head off another of the smaller ones.
"What?! I assumed you had some kind of training for this, how can you not know what to do?"
"We're still IN training! Besides Lancers aren't native to Vale, these things seriously shouldn't be here!"
"Fuck! So what? We just shoot it till it dies?"
"...Pretty much, yeah."
"I can work with that." And with those words Nolan and Ruby headed off towards the Queen. Ruby, using her tornado thing as well as the snowflakes made by Weiss and Nolan alternating between using his rocket boots and jumping from bug to bug. The Queen Lancer was even bigger up close than it looked from afar. Easily as big as, if not slightly bigger than some of the Queen Mirelurks that Nolan had taken down. As the two warriors approached the Queen launched her attack, shooting deadly spikes out from the side of its mandible. Nolan managed to dodge most of the spikes but he didn't see one and it struck him in the helmet, sending him flipping backwards through the air. This worked in his favor, however, as he had to rest his rockets to allow for continued flight.
"5...4...3...2… let's go!" He shouted as he rocketed back up into the fight. Ruby was currently perched on the Queen's back, the hook of her blade inserted firmly into the flesh between the ridges of armor as she fired shot after shot into the soft flesh. The Queen writhed in pain, trying to shake the girl off but she held tight.
Nolan flew like a missile into the Queen's abdomen where he shoved Ashmaker forward and squeezed the trigger, the three barrels of his weapon spun up and let loose burning led into the things bone covered abdomen, chipping away at the armor and causing a great deal of pain. But unfortunately he knew it wouldn't be enough, bullets just weren't strong enough for this monster. "Ruby, get everyone back to the ship and go as far back as possible! I've got an idea and it involves a lot of explosives. Don't want you getting caught in the blast."
"What are you gonna do?!" She asked.
"Something stupid."
"Please don't die Mr. Nolan." Ruby pleaded, her voice somehow timid and frail even though she was yelling.
"Nothing's killed me yet, girly, I doubt it'll happen today."
Ruby relinquished her perch on the Queen's rear and flew(?) back towards her teammates and instructed them on Nolan's new plan.
"Alright, Queen Cunt it's high time you lost your crown." And so Nolan began the arduous process of jumping from Lancer to Lancer, placing mines of all kinds upon each of their bodies. Frag Mines, Plasma Mines, Cryo Mines, even a few Nuke Mines. He didn't activate them however as that would've caused them to explode right in his face, instead he would have to make a well placed shot that explodes one and starts a chain reaction.
Eventually Nolan made it back to the Queen. For her he had the biggest present, a Mini Nuke. The only problem was how to get it to stick to her. The armor that covered her was far too thick to stab through like he did for the others, he would have to come up with something else. As he flew around the giant matriarch, swiftly dodging her attacks, he failed to notice the group of Lancers coming to flank him. The bug Grimm lashed out with their extendable stingers, hooking their bony daggers into the rear of his suit.
Alarms sounded inside of Nolan's helmet, informing him that his armor had been breached. He cursed out loud at his stupidity. One of the few shortcomings of the X-111 was that the back of the suit was less armored than the front, it was still strong enough to block most guns and even a few explosives but the powerful stingers of the Lancers that could pierce the hull of an airship? They got through just fine. Not deep enough
To injure his actual body, but enough to gain purchase and keep him from moving.
Slowly, they dragged him back towards the center of the swarm and bombarded him with fly-by attacks, and charged straight into him with the weight of their bodies. His armor was actually starting to give, more cracks forming on the surface, if they kept this up the armor would collapse into its cube form to perform self repairs and he would be left defenseless save for the heavy leather armor he wore over his Vault Suit.
It was then that the Queen floated into frame, staring into the bug-like eyes of his helmet with her own bug eyes. Nolan could've swore she was smirking at his helpless situation. "Yea, fuck you too!" He yelled back at her in defiance.
She didn't take too kindly to that. Once again she reared back and shot a barrage of spikes at his body, causing more and more cracks to form in his armor, the sirens blaring in his helmet became more frantic and desperate. The little display in the bottom left of his vision that showed the integrity of his armor had long since turned red, indicating that his time was almost up.
Nolan tried to think of a way out of this, something he could do to save himself from being pincushioned by the Queen Lancer. It was the feeling of the first spike penetrating his armor and sinking itself into his right pectoral that jogged his mind and made him realize that there was only one way out of this. A solution that could just as easily kill him as it would save him, but there was no other way.
Nolan, praying to the universe to do him right just once, brought his left arm toward his chest and placed the Mini Nuke he had been carrying right in the directin of an incoming spike…
The explosion that followed was like nothing that Remnant had ever seen.
XXXXXXXXXX
(5 minutes earlier)
(Team RWBY)
Horrified.
Team RWBY watched as the man they had been sent to rescue was now trapped and defenseless as the Lancers assaulted his armored form.
"We have to help him!" Yang roared as the assault continued. "Turn back!" She ordered the pilot who continued flying toward the school.
"Listen, girl, Ozpin's orders were clear, save the stranger but not at the cost of the lives of his students. If we go back now there's no guarantee that you'll all make it back. You've known him for like five whole minutes, you'll get over it."
"It's not about sentimentality! It is our duty as Huntresses to save whoever we can, regardless of the risks!" Weiss stated in her usual noble tone.
"Professor Ozpin trusted us to complete this task, we have to see it through! Please turn back! What if it was you?" Ruby tried to reason.
"If it was me I wouldn't have tried to take on a swarm of Lancers by myself. Trust me, kid, this is just natural selection at work." The pilot responded, rather heartlessly.
Blake was the only quiet one, she had chosen to stay toward the cargo bay door and use the camera on her scroll to zoom in and see what was happening. It was hard to watch. Sure, she had barely known the guy but nobody deserved to be strung up and beaten to death by Grimm. She then noticed him begin to bring his arm forward and toward his chest. She had watched as he jumped between the Grimm, placing devices on their bodies. Judging from what Ruby told them she surmised that they were explosives of some kind, mines if she had to guess but unlike any she'd ever seen, at least what little she could see from this distance.
The device he held in his left hand however, she had absolutely no idea, but it was most likely an explosive. A BIG ONE. "Guys!" She yelled back to her team. "I think we should brace for impact!"
The next few moments after that were a blur of noise and motion. First the sound of the explosion collided with the Bullheads occupants, threatening to rupture their eardrums if it weren't for their Aura protecting them. It was a Herculean bellow, akin to the almighty voice of God and the unholy belch of a demon. It washed over them, rattling their bones and shaking them to their core.
Barely a second later the shockwave hit the Bullhead forcing it into a wild spin. The girls all screamed in fright as the pilot fought to regain control. Blake, who was right by the open cargo door, was very nearly thrown loose into the open air. Had it not been for her own quick reflexes and Yang's iron grip on Gambol Shroud the young huntress would've been sent flying to an uncertain fate.
"I got you Blake, I won't let go!" The blonde brawler yelled to her teammate as she held onto Gambol Shroud's ribbon with every ounce of strength she had. Ruby and Weiss had managed to sink their blades into the floor of the cabin and were doing their best to hang on as the Bullhead continued to spin out of control.
"The controls aren't responding! We're gonna crash!" The pilot yelled over the sounds of warning sirens.
"Weiss!" Ruby yelled to her partner. "Can you use your glyphs to slow us down?!"
"I don't know, possibly!" The heiress yelled back.
Ruby reached her arm over to the girl and wrapped it around her waist to hold her steady, "I've got you! See what you can do!"
Weiss pulled Myrtenaster from the floor and tried to focus her semblance outwards in the direction they were falling. She missed the mark several times, the giant black, snowflake-esque glyph appearing too far in any given direction to help them. She managed to connect with the ship only twice before they impacted but that was enough, if only barely.
The girls inside the Bullhead, as well as the pilot, while not unscathed were much better off than Blake. She had made the admittedly wise decision to release her hold on her weapon before impact, unfortunately due to the gut wrenching clockwise spin that the ship was in she was sent flying into the distance.
She crashed hard into the topmost branches of a tree and managed to hit nearly every single branch down. Her Aura protected her for the most part, absorbing the worst of the damage, it still hurt like a sonuvabitch though and she was knocked nearly unconscious when her head connected with a particularly strong branch but she'd survive. For now.
Her fall was cut short when her leg got caught in between the crook of a branch and the trunk of the tree, unfortunately such an abrupt deceleration caused the joint in her left knee to dislocate, which forced an agonizing scream from the girl's mouth. However, that scream may have been to her benefit as it allowed a nearby stranger to hone in on her location.
As Blake hung upside down from the tree, slipping into unconsciousness, she managed to make out the form of a man rushing toward her, worry plastered on his face for a woman he'd never met. She couldn't make out many of her features in her haze but, for whatever reason, her eyes did manage to lock onto the bright golden 101 that adorned the right arm of his duster-like lab coat.
That was the last thing she saw before darkness engulfed her.
A/N: I've been sitting on this story for awhile now and contemplating if I should release it. Mainly because I suck at finishing stories (a product of ADHD I suppose.) I have a second chapter already written up and it'll be released as soon as I touch up on it and make sure everything is as polished as I can make it. In the meantime please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think. I can't promise to be especially diligent with updates and such because, as I said, ADHD really makes sitting down and writing for a few hours difficult especially when you also have to work and pay bills.
Side Note: I'm also working on a few other stories but those are much more grandiose tasks than this one I feel. Some of those stories include:
Mass Effect: inFAMOUS - A retelling of the Mass Effect story set after the "Evil" ending of inFAMOUS 2 where all of humanity has been evolved to become Conduits. Currently I'm working on a comprehensive timeline as well as providing more context to the way Conduit abilities work and their limitations.
RWBY: Unstoppable - A sequel of sorts to my first ever story, "inFAMOUS: Unstoppable." It follows Aiden once again after he gives his body over to the sadistic voice in his head and his consciousness is cast away to another dimension. It takes a few liberties with Aiden's original powers that I'm fighting so desperately to rationalize beyond "I thought it would be cool."
The Normandy's Nomad: A crossover between Cyberpunk 2077 and Mass Effect that sees V and Johnny find their place in a galaxy full of strange aliens while helping to save their new home from the looming threat of the Reapers.
Let me know if any of these stories sound interesting and I'll try and put a little more effort into them.
Until next time, I'm illFatedSuccess and you're watching... nothing I suppose. You're reading! Good for you!