Volume I: Episode 9: Confrontations
Hmm, fascinating, Air Commander Starscream mused with interest as he studied the readings.
"Trouble, sir?" asked Skywarp.
"Not at all, Skywarp," Starscream assured him. "Just something… fascinating. Consider, if you will, these spatial distortion sensor readings?"
Skywarp's optics squinted as he looked at the data. "Is that… a space bridge?"
"A ground bridge," Starscream corrected. "A very small one at that, judging from the strength of the readings, opening multiple times over the last two weeks. I've reviewed the perimeter security footage, and while I've been unable to acquire any footage of the ground bridge itself…" He gestured at the screens.
"...birds, sir?"
"Indeed," Starscream confirmed. He pointed at one black avian in particular. "That bird, to be precise. It is always present before the ground bridge readings register and never after."
The other Seeker stared at him, unsure what to say. "Are you saying… the local avians… have ground bridge technology?" he asked hesitantly.
"Don't be ridiculous," Starscream scoffed. "I'm saying that someone on this wretched planet is experimenting with ground bridge technology, and that bird is likely their test subject. Or spy, some local equivalent to Laserbeak, perhaps."
Skywarp seemed to be considering his words carefully. "Do you want me to go and... shoo it away... or something?"
"No, this avian has trespassed on Decepticon property too many times for that. It's time I deal with it personally."
And with that, Starscream got up from his chair and left the bunker, Skywarp's optics darting from the screen to his superior the whole time.
Starscream scared him. To be fair, that was pretty typical among the Decepticon ranks, but this was different. Fear seemed the only logical reaction to his commander going out to personally yell at a bird.
Lunch had become a strained affair for Teams RWBY and JNPR, and it was indeed two teams by that point. Yang's rage and fury at Jaune had not abated, and thus, a four-table demilitarized zone now existed between them during lunch. Now, teams only sat there due to a lack of space, for the sweep of the blonde's gaze was long and terrible. It was annoying, stressful, and no one seemed able to fix it.
"Yaaang," pleaded Ruby, "can't this come to an end?"
Yang turned back to look at her sister. "After what he did to you, Rubes? Are you kidding me? Not a chance."
"But it wasn't like that!" protested Ruby.
"Then what was it like?" asked Yang pointedly. "What really happened that night?"
Ruby made to respond, but then held her tongue and blushed furiously, looking down as she tapped her index fingers together. "I- I can't..." she trailed off.
Yang's frown deepened. "You do know that just makes me assume the worst, right?"
"I don't get you, Yang," interjected Weiss. "I mean, I never expected you of all people to have such an old-fashioned view on relationships."
Yang huffed. "What do you mean, 'me of all people,' Weiss? Just what exactly are you implying?"
Weiss froze, wide-eyed. "Umm…"
"I think she's referring to how… free-spirited you typically are," Blake interjected, not even looking up from her book to see Weiss's grateful look. "It doesn't exactly fit with such conservative rules."
Yang's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms, biting back sharper words of reprisal. "Those rules exist for a reason, Blake. Otherwise, some woman would just be able to waltz on in, have a wild fling, and leave the guy holding the baby. I don't want Ruby to have the same horrible experience as our dad did."
Blake paused, finally looking up. "Wait a second, isn't it the guy who usually leaves the girl with the baby?"
"Our family was special," whispered Ruby.
Yang ignored her sister's comment. "All the more reason to protect Ruby's virtue until she's married and her spouse is proven to be loyal. I'd expect her to do the same for me."
"It's true," Ruby admitted. "I've provided overwatch on her dates before."
"I hope you don't mean with Crescent Rose," said Weiss.
"I loaded tranquilizers!"
"And I was very thankful for her," said Yang before turning back to her task. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Ruby, and I will make Jaune pay for… whatever he did to you."
She'd thought Ruby would be fine - it was Jaune, after all, goofy, dorky Jaune - but apparently, she'd been wrong. She'd let her duties slip to go pal around with the White Fang, of all people, just to feel like she was doing something, and her sister paid the price. The shame of it - that she'd let 'never again' turn into 'why not?' - drove her forward, and it would continue to do so until he'd been made to pay in full.
Five tables over, Jaune reflexively ducked down as Yang resumed glaring at him from across the cafeteria.
"Do you suppose it's possible for someone to unlock a second semblance?" asked Nora curiously. "'Cause it sure looks like Yang's trying really hard for laser eyes."
"This can't go on," observed Ren.
"Indeed," concurred Pyrrha. "We need to come up with a solution to this issue."
"Single combat on a rooftop?" suggested Nora.
"I have considered it," admitted Pyrrha.
Jaune let out a heavy sigh, a sigh of inevitability. "I need to talk to Yang," he said simply.
"Oh, come on, fearless leader!" Nora said cheerfully, offering him an encouraging slap on the back. "Life isn't that bad! And even if it were, there are better ways to end it."
"Wha-?" Jaune blinked as her words registered. "I'm not trying to commit suicide, Nora! I just... I can't keep running and hiding from her forever. Pyrrha, back me up."
"Well, this is a situation that needs to be dealt with," the redhead reluctantly agreed, "but... I'm not sure this is the right way to approach it."
Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, Pyr, I mean, literally, back me up. When I go talk to her, follow me, stay out of sight, and be ready to save me from her if it all goes horribly wrong."
"Oh. Oh! Of course."
"Any sign of the Decepticon base?" asked Silverbolt as he flew through the cloudy sky in his vehicle mode.
"None yet," said Skydive as he came up to fly alongside his squadron leader. "Think we'll find it today?"
"No," admitted Silverbolt. "The 'Cons have been lying unusually low, and they've got plenty of empty space to hide in."
"And we don't have the energon to stay in the air forever," observed Skydive.
Silverbolt chuckled. "You know, usually, I'd consider that a good day, but now…"
"Now, we've got so many ticking clocks that it's making you more anxious than the flying," finished Skydive.
"Unfortunately," confirmed Silverbolt. "How goes the road mapping? Any anomalies?"
Skydive paused as he performed a comparison. "No, everything we're seeing matches what we got off the local datanet."
Of course, the datanet didn't include a lot of trails they could see, but they'd leave it to the ground teams to follow up on those.
Weiss looked up as three sharp knocks sounded on the door to Team RWBY's dormitory. She glanced around. Blake didn't seem interested in even looking up from her book, Yang was immersed in some game on her scroll, and Weiss would be damned if she allowed anything short of the building being on fire to pull Ruby from her homework. Which left her.
Ugh.
Annoyed, the heiress rose to her feet and walked to the door, opening it. At the sight of the tall blond on the other side, she slammed it shut again and shook her head, turning and leaning against the door.
She was not in the mood to deal with this.
"Weiss?" Jaune's voice was muffled by the door. "Weiss, please. Is Yang there? I need to talk to her."
Weiss looked over to Yang, who still seemed to not have noticed.
She turned her head and hissed through the door. "Listen, Jaune, I know we've had our differences, and you've been a complete oaf at times, but I don't want you to die!"
"Weiss, please, open the door."
"Hey, Weiss, who's at the door?"
Weiss whipped her head and jumped in surprise to see Yang reaching for the doorknob. A mistake, as it meant nothing was stopping the blonde from opening the door…
"No, wait, don't-"
...which she did.
"Oh." Yang's eyes flared red and narrowed at Jaune. "You."
Jaune gave a little wave. "Uh, hey, Ya- err, Miss Xiao Long. Can we, uh, can we... talk for a bit? In private?"
"Fine," she agreed. "Roof. This better be good."
It was the longest walk of Jaune's life. There was a reason it had taken him this long to work up the courage to actually talk to her, despite having concluded he had to hours earlier. He could feel Yang's gaze burning into his back, but at least he could trust her not to sucker punch him before they reached the roof.
After? Well, that was another story. At least she hadn't put on Ember Celica.
He turned as he heard the roof access door click shut behind her with an ominous finality. Actually, considering what he'd thought when Pyrrha had brought him up here, maybe Nora was right. Maybe suicide had been on his mind.
It certainly was now.
Yang crossed her arms and leaned against the door, cutting off his only escape if he didn't want to practice his landing strategy.
"So," she said. "Talk. You've got thirty seconds before my fists start talking."
Jaune took a deep breath and said, "Look, the thing with Ruby... it- it's complicated."
"Then uncomplicate it." As if it were that easy. "Twenty seconds."
"It's kind of… hard to explain."
"Fifteen seconds," she reminded him. "Is Ruby just not good enough for you? Is that it?"
"No!" he shot back. "No, it's nothing like that at all!"
"Mm hmm," Yang said, nodding skeptically. "Ten seconds."
"I'm not good enough for her!" he blurted out, wincing back and closing his eyes. He had a few seconds more, but what else was there to say?
Seconds ticked by, and he was sure he'd run out of time. Finally, he slowly cracked an eye open and peeked.
"Okay," Yang said. She hadn't moved, and her eyes had reverted to their normal lilac. Definitely good signs. "Keep talking."
I'm gonna live! Jaune thought as he finally opened both eyes and met her gaze. He slumped his shoulders as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say.
Might as well speak from the heart.
"Well," he started, "I mean... she's sweet and funny and wonderful, always willing to help everyone, even when they don't want it. Ruby is…" he looked away, "...something special. She can practically light up a room just by walking into it, and... she deserves better than someone like me. That date... it was more just a couple of friends" - or a couple of teams - "hanging out" - chasing down a dead end while looking for another SDC slave factory - "than anything else, and that's how it felt, to both of us." He shook his head, then looked back up to meet her gaze. "She deserves someone who can really make her happy, and… that's not me."
Yang's expression softened for a bit, before creasing again in suspicion as she pressed her lips thin skeptically. "That didn't stop you from battering yourself against Weiss with enough dogged persistence to match a Beowolf."
Jaune stared down at the roof they stood on, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. How to get out of this one? "Weiss is... different," he said finally.
"How so?"
He looked up at Yang again and shrugged. "Ruby gave me a chance; Weiss never did. And... I think that's kind of important to really see how things might go. That's what dating is, isn't it? Getting to know someone in a different environment, see how compatible you really are before making any commitments? I mean, it's not like I was asking Weiss to marry me or anything, just... to give me a chance."
A chance she never gave. That still hurt, that she hated him so much she didn't even want to try to get to know him better.
"Yeah..." Yang relented. "Yeah, I can sorta see that, I guess. So, just friends, huh?"
"Yeah, Friendzone Jaune, that's me."
He really should have remembered how Cardin learned about his faked transcripts, because from an open window below, the rest of Yang's team was listening in.
But… we never actually went on a date, Ruby thought, blushing furiously as she poked her the tips of her index fingers together awkwardly. Does he... really think of me like that?
Hmph, Weiss mused. Surprisingly mature of Arc. I wonder… does this mean if I actually give him that date, he might start leaving me alone?
Blake looked at her two teammates, cocking an eyebrow. Jaune, you have just dug your own grave. You will be missed.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha - armed and ready to break down the door and intervene - was also listening in. She smiled fondly. Oh, Jaune, if only more women saw this side of you, you'd be beating them off with a stick.
Yang sighed. "Very well. I forgive you, Jaune."
"Thank you, Yang," the blond boy said, internally breathing a huge sigh of relief. "Ruby's my best friend, and I'm sorry I ever risked that."
"Some risks are worth taking," Yang assured him. "They don't always pan out, but that doesn't make them any less worth it."
"Yeah," he said, turning to look out on the view. "I suppose you're right."
After all, he was here at Beacon, wasn't he?
Yang opened the door and stepped back into the building, then blinked as she saw Pyrrha leaning against the wall next to the door, doing a very poor job of hiding Miló and Akoúo̱ behind her back. Watching out for Jaune, obviously. Yang's eyes darted back out to where Jaune still stood, back to them, as a smirk grew on her face.
"Go get 'im, girl," she whispered encouragingly.
"Wha-?" Pyrrha blushed, startled as Yang grabbed her and shoved her out onto the roof, slamming the door behind her.
"Hmm?" Jaune looked over his shoulder at the sound of the door closing. "Oh, hey, Pyrrha. Thanks for watching my back."
"A-anytime, Jaune," she said, her gaze involuntarily dropping slightly. Her cheeks flushed.
"Where are you, little birdy?" asked Starscream menacingly as he stalked through the woods while holding a scaled-up version of what the humans called a "butterfly net."
"I don't want to hurt you," he assured the empty forest. "I just want to find out all of your secrets. And then! The null ray."
He patted one of the guns on his upper arm while chuckling manically.
"I don't know who your masters are, but I will have their secrets," he continued. "I must commend them. Given the primitive technological base of this world, grasping even the very basics of ground bridge technology is a feat worthy of praise."
His optics swept across the forest. "Indeed, I suspect they are listening through you even now. If you are, consider what could be achieved if we combined our genius intellects together with truly advanced tools, instead of whatever you've managed to cobble together."
He took a few steps further in. Birds flew off, but none of them matched the one he was looking for.
"Any takers?" he asked the woods. He got silence for a reply.
With a shrug, he shifted again, startling more birds, and- there!
He swung the net at the black avian. Against reflexes swift enough to respond while traveling at hypersonic speeds, the bird didn't stand a chance. He brought the net up to his optics and peered into the tiny creature's terrified eyes.
"Hmm," he hmmed. "Something's not right here..."
Jaune looked at the combined teams strangely. Something had come over them, and it seemed to be affecting the way they were interacting with him. That just wouldn't do. They were right in the middle of a mission!
"Any idea what's going on, Ren?" Jaune asked, a little bit louder than usual to be heard over the howl of the Bullhead's engines.
Ren looked at Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha. He shrugged his shoulders. "Women are a mystery wrapped inside an enigma," he said sagely.
"Yeah, tell me about it," agreed Jaune.
"Head's up, we're five minutes out from the LZ," reported Blake through their earpieces.
"Got it," Jaune replied, and he set about making sure the combined team was ready.
They were indeed ready when they hit the ground in a secluded clearing in the forest. Each member of the group had their weapons prepared, but more importantly for this operation, each carried a set of camouflage netting. Still, while they might be on a mission they found time to converse.
"So, Blake," began Pyrrha as she entered the cockpit and saw the black-haired woman going through the procedure to shut the aircraft down. "How did you learn to fly a VTOL?"
"It's not that hard," said Blake simply, not taking her eyes off her work. "These old Bullheads are a breeze to fly; probably why there's so many of them. In my case, I had a tutor. No idea where he is now, but he taught me everything I know when it comes to flying."
"Well, you are very lucky," observed Pyrrha. "I've always wanted to learn how to fly, but with all the training for the tournaments and now training to be a Huntress, I never got the opportunity to learn."
"Are you asking me to teach you?" inquired Blake.
"What?!" Pyrrha said, startled. "No, I couldn't possibly impose!"
"Too bad, because I'm going to be teaching you now," Blake ordered without the slightest chance for argument. "Beacon has a simulator room. We can get you some hours there, and then when you're ready, I'll take you up in a Bullhead and get you some real stick time."
"You… you're serious, aren't you?" Pyrrha asked, aghast.
"Just paying it forward," Blake replied as she finished the shut down procedure, and picked up her weapon and pack. "Come on, let's meet up with the others before they get too far ahead."
That said, the pair linked up with the rest of the group, and as one, they traveled to a very specific spot alongside a railroad, near a curve in the track. There, they unburderned themselves of their camouflage netting and did their best to hide under them. Unless one was right on top of them, they would have seen nothing but grass.
After about an hour of waiting, a train pulling ten cars could be seen in the distance. They rolled along until they passed by where the students laid in wait. Seven nets fluttered in the breeze, and the train gained seven passengers.
"And just like that, we're in like Flynn," commented Ruby as the two teams began to lower themselves down between two of the cars.
"What?" asked Nora dumbly.
"You know, in like Flynn," Ruby repeated.
"It's just something she and Yang say," explained Weiss. "Now, let's find the car with the energon, and if we run into any androids, I'll use my override code on them."
"Override code?" asked Blake curiously.
"Of course," Weiss said, before launching into a brief lecture. "Every robot used by the SDC has an override code embedded into its firmware in case of possession by Grimm, mass rebellion following gaining sentience, theft and attempted reprogramming, or some combination of the three. Every member of the Schnee family has one of these codes that we're made to memorize since birth."
The rest of the group stared at Weiss in wonder and no small bit of horror.
"Weiss," began Blake. "The more I hear about your family, the more thankful I am that I wasn't born in your stead." Though I can certainly think of quite a few times when that would have been useful to have.
The heiress bristled at that. "Hey!"
"Never mind that," said Ruby decisively. "Let's spread out. We've got seven people and ten cars. Ren, Nora, Weiss; you work your way front. Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha; you work your way back. I'll stay in the middle and provide overwatch. All right? Go!"
The team split in two as ordered, and immediately, they ran into issues. No sooner had they entered the car, than Weiss, Ren, and Nora realized just what it was, precisely. The boxcar was filled with AK-130s, who all activated and turned to face them.
One in particular spoke up. "Intruder, identify yourself," it demanded, but not in the familiar, standardized AK-130 voice.
"Override previous commands and transfer control to me. Authority: Weiss Schnee. Identification code: Hapspir, Barrini, Corbolan, Triaxis," Weiss said to the combat robot in a clear, cold voice.
"Authority not recognized. Identification code not accepted," replied the android.
"You dare!" exclaimed Weiss, outraged.
"Hail Lord Megatron!" the androids all declared as one before their internal weapons unfolded.
"Hail this!" Nora shouted back, even as she pulled the trigger of Magnhild and a sextet of grenades flew forth from the opened cylinder of the grenade launcher.
The car was rocked by a cacophony of explosions as the grenades flew forth to detonate in a cluster of pink explosions that triggered a series of chain lightning bolts that leapt from Knight to Knight, detonating their dust cores as they went. Ren had flung both Weiss and Nora to the ground as soon as Magnhild had fired. This no doubt saved them when the explosions tore the train car open and apart.
"Wow!" yelled Nora, struggling to be heard over the ringing in her ears and howl of the wind. "These guys blow up real good!"
Weiss and Ren both looked up and found the rest of the group staring at them. Nora waved back at them. Ruby waved as well.
"Right, so our car is full of spare parts, so are we good now?" asked Jaune.
As if in reply, a squad of AK-130s entered through the opposite door of the car, weapons drawn. Likewise, more started to enter through the car ahead of the now skeletal boxcar Weiss, Ren, Nora were now in. The battle was joined anew.
For Weiss, though, she just turned back to look at the destroyed Atlesian Knights with an expression of confusion and one question on her lips: "Why didn't it work? It should have worked!"
"I don't know, probably has something to do with this Megatron guy," Nora said. "Less thinking, more shooting!"
"What kind of name is 'Megatron,' anyway?" asked Ruby.
"An Atlas Academy codename, most likely," Ren speculated.
It went without saying that they were all firing their weapons at that point. Well, except Jaune, obviously.
Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, a stream of tracer rounds came down from above, cutting a swathe through the Atlesian Knights in the forward of the train.
"Who are they?" asked Ruby, looking up.
Like a flock of predatory birds, a series of four oddly-shaded green and grey VTOLs descended, flanking the train. Instead of the rounded hulls of Bullheads, though, these were the angled and almost fish-like Atlesian AC-38 Skygraspers. In the open back of one, several figures could be seen, all dressed in a similarly colored full body uniforms, complete with eye and face concealment.
"Friend, or foe?" asked Pyrrha as she used Miló's rifle form to shoot an AK-130's eye out.
Some of the covered figures dropped down onto the train to smash apart the Knights they landed upon, while those still in the Skygrasper opened fire on the group of Huntsmen (in training).
"Foe! Definitely foe!" Jaune reported as he ducked his head behind his shield, bullets pinging off of it.
"This just got a lot more complicated," Blake shouted. "Let's grab the energon and get out!"
"We don't even know if this train is actually carrying any energon!" Ruby pointed out.
"Then we better search quickly," Blake said resolutely.
Ruby nodded and rocketed away towards the front of the train in a burst of rose petals. Behind her, Jaune barked out, "Pyrrha, move up into overwatch! Weiss, take Pyrrha's place!"
Ruby wrapped around the strange suited attackers, sliced between the androids on her way through the cars. She did not have to go far, though, before she ran into a solid looking boxcar filled with iridescent pink cubes.
Firing a lightning dust round from Crescent Rose at the lead android, she sent the AK-130 into a spasmodic seizure that left it falling into its fellows. Ruby then followed it up by shifting her rifle into a war scythe that came down on top of their heads like the axe of a headsman. As she struck, she leapt up upwards, her weapon shifting back into a carbine to destroy those who stood in the doorway. She did not come out entirely unscathed, however, as she took several shots, and though her aura absorbed it, it did nothing to stop the pain.
It didn't take long for her to secure the car and the cubes inside. She began scanning for any labels, occasionally firing off a shot when a target presented itself. It felt like it took longer than it did to find a label for the strange containers. The symbol from before was there, and so was the alien script, but printed just beneath them in letters familiar to her was the information she sought.
ENERGON CUBE PALLET
TRANSFER TO SITE 10
ALL HAIL LORD MEGATRON, SLAYER OF PRIMES, RIGHTFUL RULER OF ALL
Ruby activated her earpiece even as she snapped a picture of the sign with her scroll. "Guys, I've found the energon. It looks like a liquid stored in these big pink cubes. There's a lot."
"Should we alert command?" asked Skywarp as he watched his commander interrogate a small bird on the security cameras.
Counterpunch looked down at the Seeker, then back up to the screens. "I mean, on the one hand, command would probably want to know about this. On the other hand, he's going to come back in eventually, and he might find out what we did."
Skywarp looked up at Counterpunch, then at the image of Starscream, then back to Counterpunch. Reluctantly, he switched the camera feed off. "I didn't see anything if you didn't."
"My optics have been acting up lately," Counterpunch noted. "We really need to bring another medic out of stasis."
"No argument there," agreed Skywarp. "So… Praxis Fold 'Em?"
"I'll deal."
"Cubes?!" asked Nora as she fired off another grenade. "Who stores liquids in a cube?!"
"Avant garde artists," replied Ren as he fired off another burst from StormFlower to keep the unknown assailants pinned behind cover.
"Oh, I hate those city slickin' yellowbellies," said the short redhead before shifting Magnhild into a hammer. "Let's wrap this up quick."
"How?" asked Ren.
Nora's eyes darted between her weapon and her partner. "Shoot me."
Ren had the decency to act at least mildly surprised. "Very well. Let me get the dust."
Before he could even so much as exchange his magazines, one of the unknown assailants drew forth their bulky rifle and fired forth a shot from the side-barrel attachment. The yellow, cone-shaped projectile flew through the air to impact the cover that the two friends were hiding behind, and it began emitting coursing waves of electricity. Ren let out a cry of pain and dropped to the floor, while Nora stood firm and moved to catch him.
"Ren!" the redhead called out as the long-haired boy settled into her arms. No sooner had she laid him gently on the floor, than her emotions shifted. Outrage, fury, and anticipation warred within her like the clashing of thunder in an anvil cloud, and over it all was the sky tearing flash of a million lightning bolts in destructive harmony.
"Big mistake," she whispered before leaping over her cover with the strength of twenty men.
She brought up her hammer to smite them low, and they fired their pitiful weapons at her. It did not matter if they breached her guard, nor did it matter if her dress was stained with red that day. All that mattered was the next blow.
It came down with the force of forty men to strike the group diagonally. Auras broke and shattered, bodies were compressed, and the rabble were swept off the train entirely. Her swing had missed some, though, so even as her body flowed with wondrous electricity, she swung around again to break them.
"Who are you?" one of the masked men demanded in a voice far too confident for his situation.
"We're the Magnificent Seven!" Nora declared with righteous fury. "And your ticket has been punched!"
Her right arm, without a weapon and with palm flat, came to crash into the masked man's solar plexus, sending him against a nearby wall with a screeching smash. She quickly regained her grip on Magnhild and swung the hammer around to smash a heavy looking container off its moorings. The piece of metal flew forth to hit another green and grey suited assailant in the back, bending him over double before taking the head clean off the Atlesian Knight he was firing at.
"Nora!" called out a familiar voice, breaking the young Huntress out of her combat haze.
"Ren! Oh, you're okay!" she cheered as she turned to see him coming up behind her.
"I wouldn't be able to be around you if I couldn't take a few thousand volts," Ren answered cheekily as he ran up to her. The two shared a smile, soft and wholesome, born from near enough a decade of time spent together. Suddenly, something caught the long-haired boy's eye and he looked behind Nora.
"Excuse me," he said before unleashing a hail of fire from his twin submachine guns that pinned down another pair of masked attackers, who in turn opened fire on a group of AK-130s, who ducked down only to begin bombarding the Huntsmen's position in a storm of projectiles.
"This is getting really complicated," complained Nora as she reloaded her grenades. "Wonder if the others are having this problem."
They were indeed, for it was that on the other end of the train that Blake was darting between androids to deliver devastating blow after devastating blow against them. Jaune was alongside her, guarding her left flank with shield and sword. On her right was Weiss, sending forth ice and other forms of dust while using her glyphs to boost the abilities of her friends and herself.
Pyrrha shot over their heads when the opportunity presented itself, and then rapidly shifted to fire at the front, covering both ends of the train at once.
Suddenly, more of the masked assailants dropped down onto the rear of the train. Half of them began looking for something, while the other half started firing upon both the androids and the Huntsmen. The battle surged with renewed energy.
Jaune deflected the incoming bullets with his shield and tried to close to melee range, even as some of the masked men advanced as well. A pair of Atlesian Knights between them split their attention, and Jaune bashed its armblade aside, stabbing Crocea Mors into its dust core. As he wrenched it out, he felt more than saw another the other AK-130 approach, and he caught the incoming attack on his shield with a high guard, thrusting Crocea Mors under the shield.
He blinked as he felt the blade sink into soft flesh rather than hard metal. That wasn't an Atlesian Knight. He shook his head as he braced his shield to take another blow from another opponent. Not now. Later.
Weiss fired off a stream of ice pillars that shot along the floor like the dorsal fin of a shark to encase one of the masked men up to his neck. She started in surprise as a low-hanging sign slammed into the ice encasing him, snapping the ice pillar at its base and sending both ice and the man trapped inside tumbling off the train. Even as she hoped his aura was still up, she knew it was an empty hope.
Blake kept her focus on the androids rather than the men. Even as Gambol Shroud spoke or slashed, she kept her attention focused on her targets. Not again, she thought. Never again. Those were lines she'd crossed before, and she'd be damned if she crossed them again.
Pyrrha rained down fire from Milo's rifle form on both sides with equal aplomb, while ducking to dodge low-hanging branches and signs. Not all the competitions she'd participated in involved dueling, and some marksmanship contests were remarkably similar to the current situation: sight the target, pull the trigger, sight the target, pull the trigger. That the target was sometimes flesh and blood… well, she could worry about that later. Right now, she had more immediate concerns, like the odds they were facing.
"Come on, Ruby," Pyrrha muttered under her breath. "I know you can do it."
Ruby, for her part, was feeling serious doubts about that. She was darting this way and that, trying to fend off attacks by the two enemy sides while defending the car full of energon cubes. Then, suddenly, with a spike of dread, she saw one of the masked men tampering with the coupling at the front of the car. To be precise, he was burning it in two with a cutting laser beam mounted on top of his rifle.
"Oh no, you don't!" cried Ruby as she fired a lightning dust round from Crescent Rose.
It happened in the blink of an eye, but she saw every moment of it. First, the laser finished cutting through the coupling; second, her lightning round hit, doing little damage but sending him into something akin to a muscle spasm; thirdly, he slipped and fell through the gap between cars. Ruby barely had time to register what she had done before the whole car shuddered, and then it began to shift.
She looked back and saw that the coupling behind her had already been cut, with the man who had cut it ducking back into cover. Ruby dismissed him from her mind and ran over to the open door at the front. Purposefully ignoring the dead man's rifle laying on the floor, she looked up and saw the massive green and grey form of one of the Skygraspers using a series of cables to grasp the car and hoist it into the sky.
Then, with a jerk, the car separated from the rest of its fellows and began to rise up above the train.
"Ruby!" called out Weiss over the earpiece. "Get off that thing!"
"Not without the energon!" was Ruby's reply.
Blake then entered the conversation. "Ruby, I just activated my beckon call. The Bullhead will be here in a minute. Grab what you can and get off. The last thing we need right now is to have to chase you all over the place like this in a civilian aircraft."
Ruby's eyes darted around the room and saw one of the cubes that seemed slightly less secure than the others. With a deft hand, she swung Crescent Rose to slice apart the bindings holding it in place. Then, with a strength few would expect from such a tiny frame, she took the cube that was as big as she was and awkwardly carried it over to the edge.
The train was beneath and behind her now, with all her friends on it, falling ever steadily behind. It was at least a thousand feet from where she was to her destination, and the gap was widening. An impossible feat, but...
Ruby exhaled. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
She ran back, and then ran forward. She jumped and activated her semblance so that both she and the cube disappeared in a blur of glowing pink and red rose petals. In the span of a few seconds, she had cleared the distance and dropped back down into the wreck of the car that Nora had destroyed at the start of the fight.
The Bullhead could be seen rapidly approaching, but it was not the only thing above. One of the four Skygraspers had held back, hanging in the air like some predatory bird. It hovered there ominously for a moment, but then flew off to some unknown destination.
The destination seemed something worth contemplating. Their airship had arrived though, and both RWB and JNPR rushed onboard the craft. Blake took over the pilot's seat, beckoned Pyrrha to sit in the copilot's seat, then switched off the autopilot. Ruby took the energon cube and placed it in the back, sweat upon her brow as she made sure the side doors were closed.
She looked upon the faces of her team, and Ruby felt an emptiness in her chest, sympathetic for what she saw. She didn't let it show, though; they couldn't lose heart. Jaune, luckily, gave voice to what they were feeling.
"Who were those guys?"
"Maybe they're the ones that hit that facility we saw?" Blake suggested from up front.
"I don't know," Ruby said, "but I don't think we've seen the last of them. Everyone, keep an eye on the skies in case they come back."
Silas, real name classified, reviewed the footage of the battle with a clinical eye.
It seemed to him that it had been a very good day. Yes, they had lost men in the battle, some in particularly gruesome ways. However, they had also gained quite a bit of energon, and some very useful data.
"'Magnificent Seven,'" the scarred man mused. "If that wasn't a quip, then these children's skill was matched only by their arrogance."
They had learned the name when two of the Skygraspers that circled around to pick up survivors. They weren't many, but they were enough. Enough to train the replacements of those who died, and enough to continue other operations as normal.
"Still," he said as his eyes drifted over the footage of the red-haired woman with the hammer seeming to grow stronger from the electricity coursing through her body, "maybe they'll have a use after all, should MECH meet them again."
"You think you can deceive me? Air Commander Starscream of the Decepticon Seeker Corps?"
From within the Cybertronian's hands, the black bird let out a caw in reply.
"So, a joker, are we?" Starscream chuckled darkly. "Very well, we have ways of making you talk. You might not like them though."
The bird cawed again, and Starscream's optics narrowed.
"I will not suffer such mockery from the likes of you, bird!"
The avian tilted its head, and suddenly Starscream turned to see a female human with pale skin and voluminous black hair, clad in red and black garments perched upon the branch of a tree at optics level with him. Upon her hip was a large, scabbarded sword, while her expression was concealed behind a faceplate that made her look like a Grimm. Despite her hidden expression, though, she still came off as relaxed, at ease, and in complete control of the situation.
"This is without a doubt the saddest thing I've ever seen," the human said.
"Well, hello," he said before gently placing the bird on his shoulder. "So you've finally decided to show yourself."
He tapped his fingertips together, and a smile came upon his lips. "We have much to discuss."
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
First, you can blame me for the obvious impending romantic shenanigans. I find it amusing, and a story needs more than just action/adventure and secrets and lies. Hopefully, it won't take up too much screen time and will provide a bit of light-hearted contrast to this iteration of the eternal war between the Autobots and Decepticons.
We think we've come up with a unique and interesting take on Starscream. Here's hoping he won't disappoint as we explore this incarnation of him further in future chapters.
Also, apparently, Nora watches westerns. I'm going to assume westerns on Remnant are set in Vacuo. And Blake and trains. She's like a jinx for them. Has she ever boarded one without something horrible happening to it? At least this one didn't get derailed or blown up. Much.
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
Going into this, we had no plans at all for Ren and Nora. This did not stop them from annexing basically every scene they've been in. I was not expecting that, but that's the way of writing.
Also, the name for the Atlesian Dropship used in this chapter is pretty directly taken from SAPR by ScipioSmith, though there it's called the AF-38 Skygrasper not the AC-38 Skygrasper. The designation change was made because, well, they're cargo craft with attack capabilities, not fighter-bombers. Though given some of the other elements in here, maybe it should have had an X designation?
Here we also see the introduction of MECH to the grand game. Will they be a recurring enemy? Yes. Will they be significant to the plot? Yes, but not as much as some others.