A blow sent Cinder sliding on her back before glaring at Torchwick as he laughed. "You are much more manageable without those oversized toothpicks of yours." He said to her.
She growled and kicked him in the stomach before smirking. "Might want to rethink that, Roman."
He growled and hit her with his cane, sending her back to the ground. "Cherry, I actually did need this." He said to the human woman, who smirked and gave a thumbs up. "But, in all seriousness, how'd you get here, Crimson?"
She just heated up the ground behind her with her Semblance, causing an explosion. The result was Roman letting her go and she ran past him. She didn't get far as he flipped his cane around and the hand rest pulled her back to him. "Got some tricks up your sleeve, I see. But allow me to make things clear." He told her as she glared at him. "We're not done yet." He finished before an explosion went off around a corner. "Cherry, can you and some of the White Fang look into that? I'm kinda busy here."
Cherry nodded then she turned to the two Faunus with her, and they went to investigate, only for another explosion to take place.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Roman shouted. He then saw members of the Black Rose and of the White Fang engaging Cinder's team and Dr. Oobleck. Cinder smirked then kicked him in the shin and took off towards her teammates. He growled and raised his cane. "Will someone kill her already!" He said then he and his allies fired at Cinder, but she was able to dodge the gunfire. Roman got angry and bent his cane a little before looking at a fellow Black Rose. "Attach this car then get the word out that we're starting the train!"
"We're not done, Boss!" The guy said but gasped when Roman held the bottom of his cane to the guy's throat.
"Do it or you're done." Roman said then walked to the lead car.
Cinder almost reached her team, but two Faunus and two humans blocked her path, their guns aimed at her, but they were blasted in all directions by Mercury before they could fire, and they slammed into the walls around them.
"Cin! Are you okay?" Mercury asked.
"Yeah, but Torchwick's down there with all sorts of weapons and robots." Cinder replied.
"What?!" Emerald said as she handed Cinder her swords and arrows.
"Androids and mechs are all loaded up on those train cars. He may have something planned for the city."
"These tunnels are sealed so they lead to a dead end." Oobleck said before they heard the train start up.
"Well, they're headed somewhere." Neo's Scroll said for her.
"Let me call Simin! We need backup!" Cinder said then called him but there was no signal. "Not good! I can't reach him!"
"So, what now?" Emerald asked.
"We have one solution." Oobleck said.
"Stop that train!" Cinder said as she drew her swords. They got onboard then got to the roof of the caboose.
"We must get to the front car to stop this train!"
"Professor?" Emerald said.
"Doctor."
"What is that?" She asked, pointing to a device in the car.
"That...appears to be a bomb, my dear." He replied.
"Baddies up ahead!" Cinder said, pointing at the Black Rose and White Fang members making their appearance known.
"Well, it wasn't expected to be..." Oobleck started before the bomb armed itself. "...easy. Time to go! Emerald, detach the caboose so it doesn't kill us!"
"Right!" Emerald replied then landed where the cars were attached. Before she could detach it, however, the car decoupled from the train. "It decoupled itself, Doc!"
"He must not want us on the train!" Mercury said as he helped Emerald up to the roof.
Oobleck saw the car explode. "Not good."
"This isn't either!" Cinder said.
"We've got another bomb in this one too!" Neo's Scroll said.
Suddenly worried, Oobleck checked the car ahead of them. "All of them have bombs!" He said before the bomb below Team CMSN armed. The four and Alpha made it to Oobleck just as the car detached.
"This makes no sense!" Mercury said before the students saw the human criminals and Faunus terrorists.
The four students moved to fight with their weapons drawn. Mercury did a leg sweep on a Black Rose member and a White fang member before kicking them both through the train car's hatch on the roof. Emerald used her sickles to fight off a slightly larger number of opponents before smirking when they were beaten. Some of the Black Rose fired at Neo, who used her parasol as a shield before getting within striking distance then she dodged or blocked many of the blows before kicking them off the train. Cinder combined her swords then charged forward and slashed at her opponents.
Oobleck saw a car behind them detach and explode, creating a hole...and Grimm fell through the hole then followed the train.
"The Grimm! He's leading them to the city!" He told his students.
"Of course! The cars! When they detach and explode, they're making openings for the Grimm to follow the train!" Cinder said.
"That's crazy!" Emerald said as the car behind them detached.
"We need to hurry!" He said then ran to his students. "Mercury, Emerald, Neo, you three go below and diffuse those bombs!"
"What about you, me, and Alpha?" Cinder asked.
"We're stopping this train." He said.
"I said that earlier!" Cinder said, sounding a bit annoyed.
The six split up to do their assigned tasks. Cinder, Oobleck, and Alpha saw Paladins headed their way. Oobleck changed his thermos into its flamethrower mode then Alpha jumped up and Oobleck swung his weapon like a bat and Alpha flew towards the first Paladin like a bullet, taking it out. Oobleck shot fireballs from his flamethrower at the second one before jumping into the air and swinging at the mech, taking it down.
Inside the train, Mercury turned to his teammates. "We trained for this."
They nodded.
"Torchwick's mine!" Neo signed and her teammates nodded then they headed off. Cherry cut them off with a sneer.
"I've got this one." Mercury said then charged forward with a flurry of kicks while Neo and Emerald ran onward.
"Your friends won't reach the Boss, pretty boy." The woman told him.
He just smirked. "Don't underestimate me or my teammates."
The White Fang Lieutenant cut off the girls. Emerald turned to Neo. "I've got business with this guy! Go after Torchwick!" She said.
The shorter girl nodded then blocked the Lieutenant's initial strike and ran ahead while Emerald spun around with her sickles before kicking him in his mask, sending him to his back.
"Whatever you think you'll gain by this, I'll make sure you don't get it." He said as he stood up.
"I'll gain justice for my family." She sneered, pointing her guns at him.
Neo glared at her opponent...Torchwick himself.
"Miss me, little girl?" He taunted. "You know, people are gonna talk if we keep meeting like this."
"All people will talk about after today, Torchwick, is how you got your ass handed to you by a 4'10" 17 year old!" Neo's Scroll said for her then she charged forward.
He swung at her, but she shattered like glass then Neo kicked him into the air before jumping into a spinning backflip and kicking him to the floor. She landed gracefully on her feet and extended her blade from her parasol. He fired at her, but she shattered like glass again before jumping up from behind her and striking at him, forcing him to block her strikes before she shattered again. He looked around for her but when he saw her flying at him, he couldn't stop her from kicking him in the chest and sending him flying to the door and landing on his back. She pressed a boot to his chest and pointed her blade at him.
"Why are we fighting, kid? Come on. You don't want to do this, and you know it." He said.
Emerald fired at the Lieutenant, resulting in him blocking the shots, but also leaving him open to an attack from her with her sickles. He moved to strike, but she redirected his chainsaw sword to the floor before kicking him in the side, sending him stumbling back. She jumped to avoid his weapon then struck him multiple times. He spun around with his weapon, but she dodged the attack. When she kicked him to his back, she used her left gun as a kusarigama and swung back and forth, kicking him four times. She went for another attack, but he dodged it and got to his feet. She jumped up into the air, but he smirked under his mask.
"Not so fast, 'hero'." He taunted then grabbed her and slammed her into the floor before tossing her up and moving to attack.
Mercury was holding his own while fighting Cherry. While she had no apparent weapon, she countered some of his kicks with a few punches before she grabbed one of his legs.
"You and your little friends have been a greater headache than imaginable." She said.
"Then I'd say we're doing a damn good job!" He said.
She growled then spun around and threw him a few feet away before charging at him again and doing a handspin on his head before throwing him to the ceiling and knocking him out. She turned to him with a smirk as she walked to him.
Neo pointed her blade a little bit from Roman's throat. "Feisty. So, what to do now? Does your little hero really think her mommy's helmet is gonna make people forget what she is or what she's done?" He taunted.
Neo heard the door open and saw Emerald out cold and the Lieutenant walking in.
"What'll it be, Neo?" Roman asked before Neo kicked him and knocked him out.
The Lieutenant charged at them and struck the girls, but they shattered like glass, but the Lieutenant couldn't find them, leading him to believe they'd escaped.
Cherry sighed as she looked at Mercury. "Shame to end the life of such a handsome boy." She thought aloud then moved to make a final blow when out of nowhere, a strange woman appeared and slashed at Cherry twice, causing the criminal to back away before her eyes widened when she saw her new opponent. "You!"
The unnamed combatant readied a blade of red Dust, but Cherry turned invisible and disappeared. The remaining woman looked at Mercury before creating a portal and walked through it while Mercury came to.
On top of the train, Oobleck and Cinder were fighting a Paladin before shooting at its feet, knocking it off the train. More Paladins were approaching them.
"Cinder, catch up with your teammates!" He said.
"But-" Cinder started.
"I'm going to teach them a lesson, Cinder. Don't worry." He said then ran to fight off the Paladins.
Cinder looked at Alpha and smiled softly. "Go with him."
Alpha barked then ran to Oobleck while Cinder ran to her teammates.
"We're running out of road, ladies!" Mercury said.
"Brace for impact!" Cinder said then they did just that as the train crashed through a pair of steel doors and out of the town square in Vale. The students saw confused civilians before they started running from the Grimm.
In Weiss's office of the Vale branch HQ of the SDC, the alarm was heard outside by Team RWBY and Team JNPR.
"Tell me he didn't!" Weiss frowned.
"He did! That idiot!" Yang growled.
"He started the train ahead of schedule!" Blake said.
"...Then we improvise! We go to help fight the Grimm! All of us! I'll say it's merely to protect my home, Blake will say it's merely to stop the Grimm!" Ruby said.
The seven others nodded then they headed down to protect the city.
That's chapter twenty
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