Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
CHAPTER 4
"I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an aura…" Penny said.
Pale had to take a second to process what he was hearing and seeing, covering his mouth with his hand, rubbing into the stubble that had accumulated over the day. Penny couldn't have been built, she was so… Lifelike. Outside of the odd speech patterns and mannerism, she easily passed as human. Wasn't violating orders something robots couldn't do? There had to be more than simple coding going on in her head. Atlas wasn't that advanced… Or stupid enough to make an A.I as smart as a human.
"I'm not real…" Penny said, looking at her feet. Pale grabbed her arm again, and the two looked at each other.
"Don't you ever tell yourself that." Pale said. Penny looked confused. "Penny, you are as real as I am. Whoever put it in your head that you aren't a person should be dragged out into the street and beaten." Pale said, shaking her arm in front of her.
"You are taking this very well." Penny pulled her arm away from Pale. "I… I was under the impression you would no longer want to be my boyfriend if you knew I was created and not born, but felt you should know." Penny said, as Pale pulled up his left pant leg.
"Flesh or metal, it doesn't matter, in your mind you are real. I should know." Pale said, looking down at his wooden leg. "Think I'm not real just because I wasn't born with this?" Pale asked, only to be swept up into a hug by Penny, cracking his back.
"Oh, thank you so much for being so understanding. You are the best boyfriend I could ever have." Penny said, before releasing him. "Oh, I am sorry. You need air." Penny said, before letting Pale go.
"It's alright, I'll… I'll allow the hugs… Just tone it back a little." Pale said, spreading his arms out so she could hug him again, this time without being crushed.
"This is nice." Penny said, with a smile.
Halcyone totally did not commit grand theft auto to get everyone a ride into Vale… No seriously She didn't. Halcyone pulled a 73 Caltrop truck-car out of the Vale scrap yard after initiation and had in just barely drivable condition. It wasn't street legal, but it did enough to get 6 people including herself around, while Yang led the way to Juniors on her motorcycle. Ruby and Siniy were dropped off at around 2200, and the Caltrop groaned in relief as over a ton of weight was taken off her axles. Next came Blake, Clayton and Sun, dropped off in the general vicinity of the White Fang Meeting. Finally, Halcyone doubled back to a midway point between the two and parked the Caltrop in an empty lot. Reclining the seat back a little, Halcyone took off her jacket, tucked it under her head, and tried to relax.
"Soooooo." Neptune said, leaning back and draping an arm across the top of the seat. Halcyone rolled her eyes, pulled her shemagh down to her neck showing off her face scars. Neptune's jaw actually dropped.
"Look, I ain't stupid, you don't have to do the whole wooing song and dance. If you're trying to get in my pants just ask." She said. Neptune closed his mouth, and turned away from her. Halcyone smiled, and sat back in her seat.
"I mean… I'm down for it." Neptune muttered. Halcyone's smile grew wider. She was just joking, but all things considered... Tossing her jacket into the back, Halcyone set the seat back all the way.
"Guess who's back?" Yang said after kicking in the door with Ruby. Well over 30 guns were pointed in her face, and Ruby just chuckled.
"I see how it is. Siniy!" Ruby said, and answering the call, the polar bear man stepped into view behind the girls almost half his height. He held one of Junior's door guards by the face in one hand, and another upside down by the leg. Junior and all of the Black Shirt Gang took a second to assess how exactly this was going to play out, before Junior stepped in.
"NOBODY SHOOT!" He shouted, holding his hands up.
"Awesome, thanks big guy, you can put them down now." Yang said, and with a shrug, Siniy dropped the two men in his hands.
"Man alive Blondie, where do you find these guys?" Junior asked.
"I have my ways." She smirked before the trio came into the club. "Now then. I need some information." Yang said with a grin. Junion swallowed a lump in his throat.
In the industrial district the three infiltrators moved through an ally, finding 3 vertical chalk markings in the wall. "This is it." Blake said. With a nod, Sun and Clayton followed the cat girl into the facility.
"I don't get it. If you believe what you are doing is right, why wear a mask?" Sun asked, having been handed a set by the door guard.
"They're a symbol. Humanity chose to make monsters out of us, and so we chose to dawn the faces of monsters." Blake said.
Clayton scoffed quietly, and made sure they were out of earshot of the door guard. "Yeah because that was going to make humanity believe we should be considered equal. The reality of the situation is that the people who wear these masks are just afraid they'd get punished if they got caught… They're all cowards. Like Sun said, why wear a mask if you're doing the right thing?" Clayton said, as they put on the face of the enemy.
Down the hall, they'd gathered with the rest of the faunus in the warehouse, and stuck to the mid crowd of new recruits. Clayton was picking out the biggest threats in the room just in case things went south. There were 7 Fang on watch. 1 on door duty, and 6 on the catwalk above. Then there was the literal company of Fang in the room next to the new guys. The Lt. on stage was big, he could be a threat, but seemed occupied by his speech. "Thank you all for coming. For those of you joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce you to a very special comrade of ours." The Lt. said, and from out behind the curtain on stage, Roman Torchwick made himself known. There was a small uproar of jeers and insults thrown.
"What's a human doing here?" A woman asked.
"I'm glad you asked Deerie." Roman said, swaggering around the stage. "Now I'll be the first to admit, humans are the worst. Case in point." He gestured to himself. "And I get that you would like nothing more than to see us all locked up or better yet, killed. But before the claws come out, I would like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy. The ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty rotten humans that run our kingdoms." The crowd started returning his words with enthused replies. "Government, military, even the schools, they're all to blame for your lot in life. They're all pests that need to be dealt with, fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around… No offence to any rodents in the room." Roman quickly added. With a snap, the curtain fell, and in it's place stood a metal giant.
"Big robot." Sun said awestruck by the mech.
"How did he even get that?" Blake asked. Clayton just swallowed, and dug his hand into his messenger bag.
"As you may have heard, this is Atlas's newest defense against all the scary things in the world. The Atlesian Paladin... Thanks to an associate of mine, we managed to snag a few before they hit the shelves." Roman said, spotting his friend appearing on the far end of the room. Pausing for a moment, Roman looked up at him, and saw that the black clad cowboy was pointing into the center of the crowd. Roman glanced at the center, and drew a deep breath. The ape man was there in the crowd. This was a good chance to… Tip the balance as it were. Cinder wanted a war? Well it wouldn't be much of a war if there was no fighting. "Now many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the south east. If you want to stay in the city, that's fine… But if you're willing to step up your game. This is the arsenal I can provide you." Roman said with a smirk.
"We've been spotted." Clayton said. Blake panicked for a moment.
"Then why hasn't he called us out yet?" Blake asked in a whisper.
"And cause a scene? They've got the place locked down, all he has to do is have people wait for us at the entrance." Clayton said.
"We need to leave then." Sun said quietly.
Back at Junior's club, things were hardly going any better for the two sisters and the giant bear man. "I don't know." Junior said, pouring himself a glass of vodka.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Yang asked.
"I haven't talked to him, I haven't even seen him since you trashed the place with your sister. He paid up front, I lent him my men, and all of them ended up on the VNN as suspects caught in a dust robbery." Junior said.
Ruby chuckled. "Sorry about that." She said. Junior rolled his eyes.
Siniy turned to leave. "Come my friends, he has nothing to offer us." Siniy said, as the girls turned to follow.
"Let's call Halcyone and get out of here." Ruby said, pulling out her scroll. "I hope the others are having better luck than we are." Yang said.
Meanwhile across town in an empty lot... Steamed car glass... That is all... And back to our regularly scheduled violent program.
"This is bad." Sun said, as he, Clayton and Blake backed up.
"Got a plan?" Clayton asked.
"Toss that flashbang you've been fingering for the past 2 minutes, and I'll take care of the lights. Head for the window." Blake said. And without warning, Clayton violently unpinned and tossed a stun grenade into the middle of the crowded room, concussing and blinding well over half of the Fang there. With the cover of the flash, Blake shot the circuit breaker, and killed the lights. With limited visibility, Clayton followed Sun and Blake up and out the warehouse window.
Scampering away like mad, the three took to the rooftops, and having needed the extra mobility, Clayton was running on all fours. That was when the mech, piloted by Roman, burst through the warehouse wall and gave chase. The only reason the faunus had managed to outpace the metal giant thus far was due to redlining their aura to squeeze out as much speed as they could.
Without much hesitation, Clayton called everyone on a group chat. "Need back up, like right now!" Clayton said. Pale's scroll was on vibrate and he ignored the call since he was out getting dinner with Penny. Surprisingly she could consume food. Weiss, upon hearing she was needed, took off to find a transport to Vale.
"It's a giant Robot, Torchwick's controlling it or something." Sun said. Neptune and Halcyone paused, eyes wide, rapidly got dressed, and started the car.
"Where are you?" Yang asked, before the group in question rushed past her, Ruby, and Siniy.
"We're keeping it away from the resedental areas!" Blake said loudly over the call.
"The highway, I-9. It'll be empty this time of night!" Clayton Yelled. Perfectly coordinated, Siniy kicked off his shoes, and simply ripped off the suit top he was in, and started running as fast as his legs would carry him, being so big and strong meant that he was deceptively faster than you would think. Ruby hopped on the back of Yang's motorcycle, and the two sped off after their friends.
Catching it on the specefied highway, Yang and Halcyone made eye contact, and sped up to try slowing down the mech. Thank the gods there were next to no cars on the road compared to several hours ago, as it seemed Clayton's intuition was correct. Ruby tried taking shots at it's legs, and Neptune did what he could with his gun, but nothing was working. So the blue haired boy got out of the Caltrop, jumped off the roof, and tried to rodeo the mech, to no avail. Sun, in an attempt to save him, hopped off of the lone box truck on the road he was using as a platform, and went to catch his friend, which led to the two colliding into each other, and being sent into the windshield of the truck. The driver slammed the brakes, leaving them to tail behind as the mech kept chasing Clayton and Blake down the empty road.
"I'm in position." Weiss said, having set herself up in the center of the lane about a quarter mile out, the flat empty overpass being the only thing before her, and behind her was a curve in the road. Waiting until the perfect moment, she gazed down the mech, and then using ice dust, spread a layer of supercooled liquid across the surface of the asphalt. Roman was unable to stop in time, and hit the ice, skidding upright for a time, before something big struck the mech from behind.
Siniy had tackled the machine that stood nearly twice his height and around 50 times his weight, sending it flying over the highway barrier, down into the under street below. Having been sent flying himself, Siniy ended up separated from the Mech. His friends all jumped down, or in Halcyone's case, rappelled down a length of chain hooked to the Caltrop, to stand by him. Shaking off his injury, Siniy stood up, and spit some gravel out of his mouth. Clayton assembled his shotgun and cocked it, just before Ruby shouted out an order. "Weiss, Yang, fog cover!" And with a vial of ice dust thrown from Weiss, and one good explosive shell from Yang, the Mech was blinded by a dense layer of mist.
Weiss and Blake shot forward delivering a swift series of slashes and stabs to try damaging the laser optics of the mech, as Halcyone and Ruby picked at it from afar with rifel fire. When Torchwick started using missiles to counter them and blow away the fog layer, Clayton Shoved himself in front of the two, and took the beating for his friend with his semblance, the first missile dropped his aura to about half, and the subsequent high pressure explosives did less and less, until Clayton was teetering at around 20%... And then the last missile did nothing. Charging in with Siniy, the gorilla and the bear went high and low. Yang entered the fray too, jumping on top of the mech with her sister's boyfriend, and with axe and gauntlet, the two beat on the machine, as Siniy attempted to shove the thing over, getting punched in the back all the while.
Finally giving up on the shove match, Siniy pushed away, and for his trouble's caught a kick in the stomach that sent him flying backwards toward's Weiss and Blake. With the ton of flesh and bone hurling right for them, Blake dove out of the way, as Weiss put a glyph between her and Siniy, preventing him from crushing her, and saving him the tumble into the wall of an apartment behind her. Dropping gently to his feet, Siniy looked back at Weiss. "Thank you." He said with a nod, before turning back towards the mech, then with eye's wide, spun on his heels, and balled himself around Weiss, as cluster of high explosive rockets screamed towards the two. The blast rocked the ground around them, and a cloud of smoke and dirt was flung into the air.
"WEISS!" Ruby yelled out to her partner, fearing that the weaker of the two hit by the blast would be hurt. Rushing over, she stopped as she saw the smoke clear. Siniy uncurled himself from around the young heiress, who'd attempted to make herself small. Looking at her surroundings with ringing in her ears, Weiss first saw the massive, hairy bicep of the polar bear faunus who'd saved her from the blast, then trailed upwards, until she saw the pained snarl he wore.
"Siniy?" She asked in a whisper. The giant quickly pulled away from her, and rounded on the mech.
Siniy, caught the incoming left hook Roman threw, and then planted his foot against the machine's knee. Kicking inward, and pulling away, he was able to tear the arm from it's socket, and bring it back in a heavy swing into the torso of the walker. The mech spun around, and crashed into the concrete support pillar of the highway.
With Yang and Clayton both tumbling off the top of the armored robot, Roman took the chance to punch the two into the support with his good arm. The concrete started to give way, and looking up, Ruby called out to Siniy. "Siniy the highway!" Ruby shouted, trying to warn him that the concrete above him was cracking. Rather than attempt to get out from under the gravity hazard, Siniy, moved forward, tossed Clayton and Yang out from under the coulomb, and then dug his hands into the pillar before the highway could collapse. With a grunt, Siniy shifted the support back up onto the base of the pillar, trying to keep the road above in place. "HALCYONE CLEAR THE ROAD!" Siniy shouted to his partner, as Yang got back up. Clayton groaned, and cocked his shotgun before standing. "15% aura, and a shit load of resistance built up." He thought.
Halcyone took off for the chain connected to her car above, and started climbing to ensure nobody would be on that section of highway when the big guy ultimately had to let go of the pillar. Breaking open her emergency kit in the bed of the Caltrop, Halc started lighting the bright red road flares stored within, spreading them out into the lanes in the event a car came close.
Back down below, Yang and Clayton looked at each other. "I'm pissed, but I think I need another hit before I can output quad damage." Yang said, red eyed and angry. Clayton smirked, then obliged her by socking her in the face. Smiling, Yang looked up at the mech, and took off, her hair catching fire. Clayton followed closely behind on all fours, his shotgun abandoned. Yang jumped into the air, assisted by a recoil blast, and once she landed, began beating on the machine, denting it now with her punches, as Clayton began hammering it with his own fists.
Blake, Weiss, and Ruby watched in awe, as Siniy was repeatedly punched in the back by Roman while attempting to hold up the highway. He just wouldn't give in… And that meant eventually his aura would break. Roman got one final punch in, and Siniy's aura shimmered as he dipped below 10%, his undershirt being torn with the beating, as he moved his aura closer to cover his body rather than his clothing. Still not giving in, Siniy held strong, until he knew nobody would be hurt by his reckless attack that threw the mech into the pillar in the first place.
Ruby looked up, and Halcyone shouted down. "DROP IT!"
Siniy turned his head as he heard the order, and waited until the right moment. As Roman threw another punch, Siniy dove out of the way of the mech, letting it slam into the support coulomb. Looking up, Roman was soon met with chunks of falling concrete bouncing off of the hull, and amidst all that, Yang and Clayton had decided to finish with a bang. The two unleashed a flurry of hits heavier than Roman was expecting. In retaliation, Roman smacked the two off the top of the mech in one swing, sending the two flying. Clayton grabbed Yang by her leg with his own, and reached out to Siniy, who caught the two, swinging them around, Siniy chucked the two brawlers back at Roman, and Clayton, mid spin, threw Yang, sending her soaring into the Mech at supersonic speed, the collision lead to the machine being punched straight through the support pillar, which finally gave way.
Clayton, Siniy, and Yang, realizing they were in danger of being crushed, hauled ass to get out from under the highway, and as below, so above. Halcyone had sped off to avoid wrecking her car. Roman was not so lucky. The entire roadway above him came crashing down in two big sections, and completely covered the machine in debris, preventing it from moving, squishing most of the chassis. Once the dust had cleared, the torso of the mech appeared to have been opened, and it's pilot missing.
The gang looked around for all of two seconds before Weiss spoke up. "Well it looks like our plans fell apart." Weiss said, commenting on the destroyed section of highway in front of them. Ruby snickered, but everyone else signed or groaned out of a combination of pain or a better developed sense of humor.
"Just no." Yang said.
"But you do it." Weiss shot back.
"Time and a place Weiss, people might be hurt." Ruby said, only to tense up when the sirens in the distance got closer.
"On second thought we should probably be getting back to school before classes start in oh 8 hours." Clayton said, checking his scroll for the time.
"Yeah, let's cheese it before the blue heelers show up." Halcyone said from above them, tossing the chain down so everyone could climb up. Weiss got a single look at Siniy's back before she passed him to climb the chain, and although she couldn't see all of what Blake had weeks prior due to his undershirt blocking the view, her mortified curiosity was piqued. It looked as if he'd been clawed at the shoulders.
"Hey, where are Sun and Neptune?" Ruby asked as she held onto Clayton's shoulder while he carried her up to the Caltrop.
"Better yet, where's Pale?" The gorilla faunus asked.
A few blocks over, Sun and Neptune, sat at a noodle stand. "They're probably fine." Neptune said with a shrug.
"What took you and Halc so long to find us?" Sun asked, only for Neptune to go silent.
"Some things man was never meant to see, Sun." Was all Neptune said.
Pale meanwhile was already back at Beacon with Penny. He had been so nice as to escort Penny to her temporary dorm room, and in return Penny gave Pale a kiss on the nose… And curiosity led her to do what would statistically be done on the third date. She kissed him on the lips, and held his shoulders firmly in place, before pulling him into her room.
Upon the groups arrival to Beacon well past midnght, they found Glynda Goodwitch waiting for them at the storage garage. With heads hung low, Team RWBY, Sun, Neptune, and the SGL of team SPGL followed the dean to a small meeting room, and one by one they were given a stern talking to from both her and Headmaster Ozpin. Blake was the first one to go into the room, as the rest sat or stood outside waiting their turn. Amid the thoughts going through everyone's minds, the only one of the group who wasn't thinking of their potential punishment was Weiss. She stood transfixed, on the giant that sat across the hall from her. Aside from the lightly torn undershirt, he looked as if he hadn't been fighting all night. Idley, Siniy picked a bit of asphalt out from between his teeth, and dropped it to the floor, unbothered.
The fight was replaying in her head. She knew Yang and Clayton had semblances that dealt with damadge in their own ways, but Siniy had been crushed by the mech, took a beating from it, and was struck by several rockets, yet he didn't even look tired compared to the rest of the group, and he'd nearly exhausted all of his aura. True, Weiss knew he had a massive amount, but there was only so far a human, or faunus, could go. Her mind wandered to how he'd kept the highway overpass's support pillar in place, and how he was unmoved even when his aura had shimmered, and nearly failed. Glancing at his exposed arms, nearly as thick around as Jaune's chest, (an astonashing 40 inches,) Weiss supposed that his own natural strength might play a part in it.
"See something you like?" Weiss was snapped out of her gazing by an elbow and a teasing question from Yang. Going red with both embarresment and a hint of irritation, she turned her nose away from Yang. "I was mearly contemplating how that battle could have gone better." Weiss said.
Clayton chuckled. "Way I see it, we did the best we could."
Siniy grunted. "No we didn't." He said. Yang looked at the giant.
"You might not have, but I nearly passed out after I got sent into that hay maker throw." Yang said, crossing her arms.
"True, I was holding back a little." Siniy said. that drew everyone's attention.
"What do you mean holding back, you ripped that that thing's arm off!" Ruby said in excitment.
"I could have destroyed that mech and Roman with it... But that would have ended badly for everyone else." The giant mused. Sun looked at Siniy and raised an eyebrow.
"That lava wave thing right?" The monkey faunus asked.
"Heat expanding very quickly generates lots of pressure and energy. I can turn my punches into explosions made to level buildings, and boiling concrete is a side effect. If I didn't destroy the entire block, my strength alone would have meant that Roman's mech would have been sent through a few buildings at the least." Siniy said, rubbing his head.
Neptune whistled before he spoke. "Man, I wish I was that strong."
"No you don't." Siniy said, looking at the blue haired boy, causing him to flinch as the giant stood up. "Do you know what it's like? To live in a world made of glass? Ever day, measured and controled, trying not to break everything you touch? Holding back so you don't accidentally hurt people? Crush their hand when you shake it? Snap their spine with a slap? Rip their arm out of their socket holding them in place? It's Hell, keeping everything in. I don't even know how strong I am becasue I've never had a chance to test my own limits. And every fight I've gotten into I've restrained myself so I'm not the reason bystanders become collateral damage." Siniy said, before sighing. "It makes for a boring life."
"It's... Lonly." Weiss thought.
Author's note
If it hasn't been made clear. With how overpowered the current roster of character are, I have to get a little creative as to how they can't instantly win ever fight. Mostly I play the numbers game, and give the bad guys a little more "umpf."
The ruins fight at initiation, saw a third "super heavy" grimm, and an army of fodder with them to keep everyone occupied. Had siniy not destroyed the bridge, they'd have been overrun.
In the dock fight the number of Fang was bumped up, and there were more bullheads to deal with. Had everyone not played their roles exactly as they had, things would have dragged on until the VPD showed up with a swat team, and then there'd be a small war in the streets.
The same with this prototype paladin fight. Even though they've got the giant bear and the bullet proof gorilla, they're students facing a war machine, and it's too big, heavy, armored, and armed. (Nobody got nerfed, the mech just got buffed.)
If it was just team RWBY, they would not have been able to destroy it, and if it was just SGL, they'd have gotten hurt trying. Siniy being the only one capable of trashing it, is always holding back. In short, it took nearly two teams to "blind" it's targeting, outlast all of it's ammo, cripple, weaken, and then finally drop an entire section of highway overpass on it.
This is going to be a thing I do with every fight going forward for the most part, because there are just some fights that really needed it in cannon too... and others that just needed a reality check... Ever watched Inglourious Basterds?