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.
Going forward I ask that reviews be as spoiler free as can be managed. Please and thank you, sirs and ma'ams.
CHAPTER 11
The team gathered around the Caltrop, prepared to leave through the forest, where potential attacks might come from. "Lighten the load, half ammo, the car ain't made to carry this much." Halcyone said, as they fixed the maxim gun to the car's bed on a swivel mount.
"Traveling at night with the Fang on our ass is a terrible idea." Pale said, mounting up on the maxim.
"You got any other way to go home?" Clayton asked.
"Could have left on the airship." Siniy pointed out, as he ripped the armored plates off the truck.
"I'm not trying to ditch the Caltrop if I don't have too." Halcyone said in irritation, starting her car, as Clayton got into the passenger side.
"You ready back there Sir?" Pale shouted up to Antonio who was in the cab of the truck. The huntsman gave a thumbs up, and started the vehicle as Siniy climbed into the back. They hadn't even cleared the burning field before a green light shot up into the sky to the east. Clayton gave one look to Halcyone, who just nodded. Kicking up dirt and loose grass, Halcyone spun the Caltrop around and took off towards the flare, as Clayton shouted at Antonio in passing. "FOLLOW US!" Without much of an option to argue Antonio tried to turn the truck around as best he could to go after the muscle car.
Roman was not having a good day. Most of his day's weren't good days anymore, but today was worse. He got moved to this shitty cave the mutts were working out of, and his shitty employer had plans to crash a train car into Vale in a few weeks, under the pretense he was expected to survive, get captured, then take over an Atlesian Airship with Neo. He rolled his eyes at the prospect. It wasn't impossible, just very dependent on him figuring out how to live through a fucking train crash in less than three weeks. Granted, it might have been a task he wasn't supposed to be able to compleat. In either case, a few of the surface patrol guys found a scout lurking around up top. She fell through an unstable section of ground, and happened upon the operation. Apparently she gave a real good shiner to one of the animals that tried subduing her. Four White Fang grunts later, and they'd got her hands tied together. Roman was on his way to see who they'd captured.
The second Roman laid eyes on her, he knew his day got worse than it already was. It was Little Red. And if Little Red was here it meant her friends would be nearby… Roman had a small moment of remembrance… The bulletproof ape, and his giant bear. He swallowed a lump in his throat, then approached Ruby as the two guards shoved her to her knees in front of him. "Well well, if it isn't Little Red. Look kid, I don't expect you to be here alone, so I'm going to speed this along, what are you doing here?" Roman asked, only for Ruby to spit on his shoe, and look up at him.
"Name: Ruby, Tuesday, Rose. Professional Huntress Rank: Student Huntress. Date of birth: October 31st, 63 AGW." Roman pinched the bridge of his nose at her answer.
"Right. Of course you're going to be like that." Roman said, turning away. He had no plans to interrogate her. Her friends were already likely looking for her which meant he'd need to come up with a contingency to get rid of her and not die running away from the giant hulking bear man.
"Hey boss, since she's being stubborn, do you want us to, hehe, loosen her up?" There was a short chuckle, and Roman understood the man's meaning. Roman rounded on the otter faunus that asked the question, and pointed his cane at him.
"Listen you horn dog. If you want to fuck her, fine, go ahead, but I'll let her 7 foot tall boy toy, and his 9 foot tall buddy, know you were the little shit that came up with the idea." Roman said, before leaving the few guards with Ruby.
The otter faunus turned when he heard Ruby snort in short laughter. "What's so funny?" He asked through grit teeth.
"Loosen me up. Yeah, as if, Baby Dick." Ruby said with a grin. The otter faunus sneered at her, as his buddies laughed at his expense.
The caltrop splashed through the shallowest point of a river before peeling off down a narrow cart worn path, the two and a half ton truck chugging along behind. In the distance the flare began to fade, as Mountain Glenn came closer. "Ah fuck." Clayton said, pumping his shotgun as the Caltrop busted through the two layers of chain link gate between the forest and the city. Halcyone rounded a corner, and slammed on the breaks, stalling the car while nearly running over Team RWBY… Minus Ruby.
"What happened?" Pale asked, jumping out of the back, as Clayton and Halcyone got out of the vehicle.
"Ruby fell into the hole!" Yang pointed out, rushing everyone over to the almost ramp-like detent in the asphalt. Antonio and Siniy showed up a minute later, and everyone looked between each other.
"We're going in." Clayton said firmly, as he, Pale and Halcyone got back into the Caltrop, Halcyone sliding over the hood. Siniy dropped off of the two and a half ton truck, as Antonio abandoned the vehicle.
"Underground?" Siniy asked, sounding worried, as Halcyone re-started the Caltrop.
"Who cares." She said before slamming an AC/DC CD into the stereo.
"Now let's get down there." Pale said, as Siniy jumped into the back, straining the vehicle's suspension, while Halcyone drove the Caltrop's front end into the naturally formed ramp, beginning their descent as what remained of Team RWBY and the two huntsmen chased after them on foot.
"Are they insane?!" Blake asked as the vehicle sped up, before coming off the ramp and falling nearly 20 feet, crashing to the ground rear wheels first.
"Yup, insane." Yang concluded.
Having heard a loud crash down the cavern, Roman turned to look at what was causing the commotion. First Little Red shows up, and now something else. "What is going on here?!" He shouted, before a team of White Fang soldiers came running around a corner, bullets flying past them. All the sudden a horribly beat up and rusty muscle car came sliding around the same corner crashing into a few of the animals, blasting hard rock and letting off a steady string of gunfire. Right behind the car was the rest of Red's friends… Speaking of the little devil, she got up and ran off. "Somebody get her!" Roman shouted, ordering the grunts he was in charge of to chase after the girl, only for the car at the end of the cavern to start speeding toward her, whip-round to give her cover, while one of the riders pointed a mounted machine gun at him and his men.
"Get some, you filthy animals!" Pale shouted.
"Ah fuck." The otter faunus muttered.
Pale opened up with the Maxim gun, as the rest of Team RWBY grouped up with their lost leader. "Ruby, are you ok?!" Both Yang and Clayton shouted in two separate volumes, as Ruby hugged the two once Clayton rushed out of the vehicle. "Did they hurt you?" Yang asked, breaking the ropes off her sister.
"They didn't try to… To defile you, did they?" Clayton asked, more than willing to kill anyone who would try to touch her in such a way.
"I'm fine, Roman actually said he'd point you guys to anyone who tried, but listen, Torchwick has a whole bunch of weapons, and robots, and stuff loaded on the train and we have to stop him before he gets away!" Ruby said quickly, as Blake gave the Red Reaper her weapon back.
"That's ridiculous, these tunnels have been sealed for years." Dr. Oobleck said with a dismissive hand wave.
"Ladies and germ get to your stations we are leaving!" Roman shouted over the camp's PA system.
Antonio shook his head. "That was a jinx and you know it."
"Clearly they're going somewhere." Weiss said, as Siniy hopped out of the Caltrop.
"Then there is no other option." He said calmly.
"We're stopping that train." Ruby said cocking the bolt on Crescent Rose. Clayton got back into the Caltrop wuth Pale, and Halcyone, as the Vacuo driver J hooked it to face the tunnel. The rest of the group took off as fast as they could on foot. Attempting to catch it and board before it built up speed. Siniy saw Weiss lagging behind in her heeled boots, and grabbed her around the waist with one hand, lifting her onto his ammo pack. Each member of the group climbed aboard, as Clayton jumped off the Caltrop at about a quarter the length of the train. Pale swiveled the MG to take shots at the train engine but the entire compartment was armored.
"Fuckin' shit!" Pale cussed, as the train started to out pace the Caltrop. Halcyone shed a single tear, before she jammed the accelerator in place and slid over to the passenger door.
"Jump on!" She shouted to Pale, who didn't need much persuasion. Now on the same car as Clayton, they looked back to see that 6 cars down team RWBY, Siniy, Antonio, and Dr. Oobleck had boarded the train, as the Caltrop glided off into the wall of the tunnel, being lost forever.
"Professor?" Weiss asked, opening the roof hatch so they could enter the train. "Doctor." Dr. Oobleck corrected quickly. "What's that?" She asked, pointing out the device wired to the crates of dust in the train car.
Siniy huffed. "That is a big bomb." He said in Cyrillic.
"That my dear… Appears to be a bomb." Dr. Oobleck said in Vytal. Everyone but Dr. Oobleck and Siniy stepped away a pace as if that would prevent them from being killed in the potential blast. Ruby looked up, and 6 cars ahead, 10 White Fang members were climbing on top of the train to come stop them.
"We've got bad guys." She pointed out, drawing Crescent Rose. From the side of the train, Clayton flung himself over the top, kicked a guy off the roof as he cleared the far side of the car, and grabbed the edge of the train with his arm to swing into the car that all of the Fang were coming from. Meanwhile Pale and Halcyone came topside, unloading with revolver and rifle alike.
"Time to go." Dr. Oobleck said, as he began running towards the remaining fang.
Clayton swung into the train car, and shoved two Fang members into the wall, before backhanding two more out of the train car. Drawing Kingslayer, he pumped off all 6 shotgun shells, used the crow's neck grip to crack someone's face mask, then swung his axe into another two. Halcyone dropped into the car, and landed on a Fang member, before whipping around and taking someone's legs out from under them with her machete. "Nice of you to drop in." Clayton said, before hooking Kingslyer's axe head around a man's neck, pulling him into a punch.
"Ruby just told me there's bombs on every cart after this one. Fang's dropping them on a timer and blowin' holes into the cave ceiling to drop grimm into the tunnels." Halcyone said, jumping up to the hatch and climbing through.
"That's fucking nuts!" Clayton said.
"That's what Blake thinks too." Halcyone said, from the hatch as she offered Clayton a hand back topside.
"Separate. Above and below, we need to stop this train and disarm the bombs." Dr. Oobleck said, as Antonio pointed out the three prototype Paladins that had come up to their level.
"We've got bigger problems." The rifleman said, before Siniy growled, and stepped forward.
"Weiss, Pale, Ruby, Doctor and Mr. Alamo on me." Siniy said, shouldering Two Theaters. Weiss knew exactly what his game plan was, and conjured a glyph to provide him with a small circle where time was dilated faster. Clayton gave Ruby a good luck kiss, before he, Halcyone, Yang and Blake went down into the next train car.
From an outside perspective the dilation of time makes one appear to be moving faster, and with a gun that already has a rate of fire of 1,300 RPM, increased by a factor of 2, equates to a very particular BRRRRRRRRRRRRT sound that nearly gave Pale a flashback to the bell tower overlooking the Vale docks. Luckily the sound only lasted for about 10 seconds because Siniy had spent his current belt of ammo. Coming out of the dilation bubble, Siniy watched the first paladin he had lit up fall over the side of the train, riddled with so many bullet holes it couldn't possibly have survived. Converting Two Theaters to it's axe form, Siniy charged down the next one in line with Ruby, as Pale and Antonio picked off any strays that had decided to stay topside.
In the train car, the four mismatched team members readied their weapons and went forward. Halcyone tossed Blake a few of Pale's assorted "farmer's trick" dust rounds, and Clayton pumped the lightning dust shot shells he had loaded in Kingslayer out for Yang to spice up Ember Celica with. Before the rag tag team could enter the next car, Roman's little ice cream themed assistant appeared in front of them. "You guys go on ahead. This one's mine." Yang said, only for Halcyone to laugh.
"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Halcyone said, while converted Road Rage into it's machete form, and striking a pose, as Blake and Clayton moved ahead.
Yang led with a flurry of punches, all of which Neo avoided, or directed away with her parasol. Unfortunately, with Halcyone having shuffled her way around the duel, Neo was no longer in an optimal position to be fighting. Having to divert her attention to both dodge Yang and Halcyone's attacks meant her chances of being struck were much higher. The fight went from her just playing around, to actually having to keep on her toes. In one particular instance Neo played ultimate limbo with Halcyon's machete and a strand of her hair got taken off, proving the chopping weapon was razor sharp. Neo used her momentum to kick up into Halcyone's chin, then lock Yang's arm and spin the blond away. She afforded herself a smirk, only for the black clad scrapper to dig in her cheek with her tongue, and spit out a tooth accompanied by a large glob of blood. Neo looked up at the recovering Yang, and the now blood smeared Halcyone and her smirk disappeared. "Oh what a day." Halcyone chuckled, running back into the fight.
Clayton and Blake got about 3 cars in before they ran into resistance. It was the Fang's local Lieutenant. Blake slid right under him as Clayton threw a swing high forcing the man to block. The Lieutenant took one look at Clayton's feet and growled. "Traitor!" He yelled, before Clayton fired his shotgun forcing the locked weapons to be dragged down, now locked low. Clayton smirked.
"I was never on your side." With a headbutt Clayton cracked the mask the Lieutenant wore, revealing beady black eyes and slits for nostrils. Pulling Kingslayer loose, Clayton swung the grip into the man's face, then backed up to fire off a shot. Reinvigorated by the report of the gunshot, The Lieutenant charged again with the chainsaw overhead. Swiftly sidestepping the attack, Clayton dug the head of his axe into the shark faunus's gut, causing him to double over, then wildly slash out at Clayton.
Using his semblance to the best of his ability Clayton let the teeth of the chainsaw knick away at about 7% of his aura, before the damage was blocked completely. Having stood up straight again, the Lieutenant used both hands to strike at Clayton again, and again, the chainsaw hardly hurting him. "Why! Won't! You! DIE!?" He shouted, before Clayton simply dropped his shotgun to catch the chainsaw blade with both hands, stopping the teeth from spinning, stalling the weapon.
With a smirk Clayton picked up Kingslayer with his right foot, and used the axe head to hook the Lieutenant's ankle, then fired off a round, the recoil tripping the man, allowing Clayton to pry the power tool from his reach. Flipping the tree chewer around, and tossing Kingslayer up into his free hand, Clayton gave his answer. "Because I don't have permission." Tossing the chainsaw away, Clayton reared his foot back and balled his toes into a fist, punch-punting the lieutenant in the face, sending several teeth flying as he broke the man's aura.
Neo was having a markedly harder time now that Halcyone had gotten a screw knocked loose. Yang had to be dealt with, and that was actually easy by comparison. By tossing her into the roof, and putting her in a rarely used choke hold, Neo was able to knock Yang out and use her as a human shield, smirking as she held a knife to Yang's back. Halcyone sneered at Neo's dirty move, as blood leaked out of the scrappers' clenched teeth, one of her chocolate brown eyes having gone bloodshot from her head injury.
"That's dishonest… Low… I'mma rip that smile off your face!" Halcyone shouted, before throwing Road Rage at Neo, who shattered like glass as the blade hit her. Halcyone ran over to Yang as she collapsed without any support. Picking up her machete, and holding her fellow blond, Halcyone took a second to see if Yang had any injuries, and breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing that Neo had seemingly reappeared behind the two, hidden sword poised to strike.
There was a dull hum, and out of nowhere, a ghastly pale woman covered in black and red, kicked Neo away from the two. Halcyone spun around to react to the new potential threat, as Neo used her semblance to take the opportunity to run while the woman in red was distracted by the short haired blond. Halcyone swung Road Rage one time, which her opponent saw coming from a mile away, and swiftly drew one of the dust blades in her sword to block the strike. Not expecting the following feral door kick, the masked maiden was forced to back up a step. Looking between the two blonds, the woman in red recognized one as her daughter, and the other as an unknown. "You stay the bloody Hell away from her." Halcyone said, pointing her machete at the woman, just as Yang roused from her state of unconsciousness. "If you hurt her, I swear I'll rip out your guts!" Halcyone shouted. Without a word, the woman cut a red rift in space, and disappeared from the train car.
Clayton climbed up to the roof, where he found the topside team, Weiss, and Blake, with Roman Torchwick held unconscious in her arms. Shortly following was Yang and Halcyone. Siniy stood atop the destroyed chassis of a paladin, as he held the pilot in his hand. Tossing the Fang grunt over his shoulder, Siniy pointed at the end of the tunnel. "END OF THE LINE!" He shouted, before sweeping all of his friends up into a hug, keeping his back to the incoming wall. Weiss was fast to act, using all of the ice dust she had on hand to create a massive impact absorbing cocoon for her and her friends. Then there was pain.
Siniy, found himself buried below the remains of a shop, the hole from the train having taken out an entire clothing store. Siniy grunted as he felt around for his friends. Finding an appropriate amount of heads and torsos practically squished to his massive chest, some responding to his gentle touches, he made the decision to pull them out of the mess they'd found themselves in. Shoving away the slab of concrete he found them all under, Siniy grabbed the heaviest thing he could in the direction of daylight, and pulled everyone out along with him. Coming free of the rubble, the remains of the building they were under finally gave way, opening up a hole to the tunnel, and from the tunnel came a flood of grimm. "Shit." Siniy whispered.