Chapter Thirteen: Mech Fight
"Sorry about our previous interruption," Phoenix said to Junior, having returned to his club. "Oh, and you might want to have your friends stop pointing their guns at me. Don't want this place blown up a third time."
"Fine," Junior mumbled. "Stand do-"
However he could finish his order, one of the thugs came running through the door and held it closed, yelling, "She's back!"
"What are you two idiots doing?" he demanded to know. Before he could get an answer the door was blown open.
"Guess who's back?" Yang shouted as she walked through the door. Before she could do anything else every gun in the club pointed at her.
"So much for this place not blowing up again," Phoenix groaned. Upon hearing this Junior ran off to intervene before anything happened.
"Stop, stop. Nobody shoot. Blonde, you're here. Why?"
"You still owe me a drink," she replied as she dragged him off, giving Phoenix an unobstructed view of the person behind her, Neptune.
Having learned his lesson from the incident with Blake, Phoenix had added a machine in his mask that changed his voice so that he wouldn't slip up again.
"Hey, you're that Shadowy Flame guy my sister won't stop talking about," Yang said. He was grateful his mask was on, otherwise Yang would see him blushing, and he'd never hear the end of it.
"Damn it! Why does this happen! Unless Yang was-" His train of thought was cut off when Yang started waving her hand in front of him.
"Remnant to Shadowy Flame."
"It's The Flaming Shadow! Seriously, how hard is that to remember?" He sighed. "Whatever. At least you've heard about me. Who're you?" He inquired, knowing he'd never met her as the vigilante.
"I'm Yang. You helped my little sister Ruby at the docks. And this guy is Neptune."
"Might I ask what you two are doing at a place like this?"
"We're looking for any clues about Torchwick," Yang answered.
"Then we're here for the same reason."
"Sorry to disappoint both of you but I don't know anything about him. He came in, hired my guys, and I haven't seen them since," Junior interrupted.
"So where did they go?" Neptune asked, coming out of nowhere.
"What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back. Who is this guy?" Junior asked.
"Don't worry about him, worry about us if we don't get answers," Yang said.
"Now," Phoenix added.
"I already told you everything. Torchwick hired my boys and I guess he wasn't happy with them. Which is something I can relate to!" Junior yelled, looking over at his men.
"We're wasting our time. Let's get out of here," Phoenix ordered.
"Agreed, come on Neptune," Yang said as she dragged Neptune out with her.
As they were on their way out, Yang got a call on her scroll. "Everyone, from you can hear me we need backu-," Blake said but was interrupted by Sun yelling.
"Help! They've got a robot and that Torchwick guy is in it!"
"Jenkins, fly by my location, asap!" Phoenix commanded. Just as the ship was overhead the robot, which looked like a Paladin, ran by. As Phoenix grappled up he ordered Jenkins to follow the mech.
"In hindsight, this was a terrible idea," Phoenix thought as he clung to the back of the Paladin using his claw gauntlets. He crawled up onto the mech's back and ripped a panel off it. "This looks important," he said as he ripped out the wires inside.
"Weapon safety systems offline," an automated voice said.
"Oh you've got to be f-!" Before he could finish his thought Neptune landed on the robot, his trident barely missing Phoenix's face.
"Hang on you two," Sun yelled. The next thing Phoenix knew, Neptune had been thrown into Sun, knocking both of them off the highway the mech was on. After that, the mech slipped on ice that Weiss created, causing it to slide off the highway with him on it. When the mech crashed into the ground he fell off and slid a bit before landing at Ruby's feet.
"Hi there," Phoenix said as he got up.
"Ohmygoshyourhere!" Ruby cried out when she saw him. When he regained focus the first thing he saw was Ruby's outfit, something he thought looked good on her. Quickly pushing those thoughts out of his mind Phoenix looked around. The second thing was the mech getting back up. As the rest of team RWBY landed Ruby shouted out "Freezer Burn!" With that Weiss froze the ground around her, and Yang hit it, creating a mist which obscured the robot's sensors. "Checkmate!" Ruby called out from the mist. Blake and Weiss charged at the mech and unleashed a series of attacks that damaged one of the leg joints. Torchwick tried to stomp on them, but Weiss used a glyph to get her and Blake out of the way. This didn't stop him from sending a barrage of missiles at them. Phoenix was able to shoot a couple of the missiles just as they were fired. The explosion damaged the launching mechanism and prevented any more missiles from being fired. All the other ones were taken out by Blake and Weiss.
Ruby's next order was a combo called "Ladybug". She and Blake dashed back and forth while slashing the mech's legs before jumping up into the air. They managed to cut off one of its arms as they fell, but it was able to respond with its other one. It quickly twisted around and batted them away. Ruby hit one of the columns, and a shoulder charge from the mech sent her flying through it.
The mech raised its foot above Ruby, who was trying to get up. Just before it could bring it down on her she was pulled out of the way by one of Phoenix's grapnel guns. He used the other to quickly pull himself towards Torchwick. "I'll end you!" Phoenix snarled. He continued his earlier attack on the mech's interior systems with his claws. Torchwick tried to swat him off of his back but couldn't reach him. Yang, Weiss, and Blake tried to keep attacking it but weren't able to keep up.
"Damn it!" Phoenix thought, "You'd think Weiss stabbing its leg would slow it down a- That's It!" He moved further up the Mech's back. His doing this put him into an area that the mech could reach. It grabbed him and began to crush him. However, this was exactly what Phoenix wanted to happen. This gave him the opportunity to get a good look at the mech and find the spot Weiss had damaged. The second he found it he flipped open his lighter and created an explosion right where the damage had occurred. This sent the leg flying off. The mech started to fall over. However, as it fell it flung him through multiple columns.
The first thing Phoenix saw when he regained consciousness was Ruby standing over him. "Come on, get up! You can't die!" she commanded.
Still dazed from the attack he groaned, "If that was all it took to kill me I'd have died a long time ago."
"Thank God you're alright!" she exclaimed as she hugged him. He was once again grateful for the mask due to how intensely he was blushing.
"Where's Torchwick?" he asked, hoping to change the subject before Yang could say anything.
"He got away with the help of some lady with an umbrella," Weiss answered.
"Blast! I guess she's his sidekick or something." Police sirens could be heard in the distance. "Once again, that's my cue to leave. Jenkins, pickup," Phoenix ordered as the airship flew overhead. "I trust we'll be meeting again," he said as he grappled up to the ship.
"Why is it that whenever I'm around Ruby I feel like this. Was Yang right? Am I falling for Ruby?" Phoenix asked himself on the flight back to Beacon.
Suddenly his scroll vibrated, alerting him to a message from Blake that read, "We need to talk. The same place as before."
So Phoenix is finally realizing how he feels about Ruby. I wonder what Blake wants to talk about. As always, thanks for reading!
