I'm not especially active in the fanfiction community, at least in talking to people, but from browsing Reddit, apparently a lot of people don't feel comfortable leaving constructive criticism if it isn't asked for/explicitly allowed. So I'm saying it. Please feel free to give me concrit- I want to improve as a writer, and feedback is very helpful for that goal.
A Battle Fantasy in Remnant
Chapter Seven
Canon plots are boring, except when they aren't, and giant robots aren't boring. Except when they are.
-]l[-
"Alright!" Ruby shouted, hopping off her bunk and falling, just barely missing Weiss as she landed on the ground. "Today is the day! The investigation begins now!"
"Indeed," Weiss muttered in agreement, strapping Myrtenaster to her new dress. "Though I feel we could take it a bit more seriously."
"To be fair…" Yang spoke up, from where she was tightening her boot laces. "With how bad Blake was hurt, this is way more of a plan then we'd normally have."
Blake glanced toward the group. "You mean you were going to do this with even less of a plan? Somehow that doesn't inspire confidence."
"Ehhhhhhh," Ruby cried out. "It would've been fiiiiiiine."
Blake gave her team leader a deadpan stare.
"Anyways," Ruby whistled innocently. "Let's go over the plan once more!"
And so they did. Each of the girls had their assignment. Ruby and Weiss would head to the CCT Tower to search for any discrepancies in the Schnee files, Yang would find Junior at his bar and see if he knew anything about Torchwick, and finally Blake would find and sneak into a White Fang meeting to see what their plans were.
"So what am I going to do?"
"Ehhh!?" Ruby and Weiss yelled out in sync, as Sun flipped in through the window, followed moments later by Neptune, who introduced himself to the team.
"What are you two doing here?" asked Blake.
"We're here to help get back at that Torchwick guy! Blake and I couldn't beat him, but I bet with all of us working together he'll stand no chance," Sun answered. "Besides, what kind of friends would we be if we let you investigate a criminal organization all on your own?"
"Ones in less danger," Blake deadpanned.
"Eh, no fun in life without a little danger. So how about it?"
Team RWBY exchanged a glance, before Ruby responded to the two boys. "Sure, I guess. One of you can go with Blake, the other with Yang."
"I'll take Sun," Blake commented. "We've worked together before, so it'll be better that way."
Neptune sighed. "I guess I'm with Weiss then."
"Shall we get going?" Yang asked.
Everyone nodded, until it got to Sun who said, "Yeah—wait actually, if you're looking for a White Fang meeting I might know a guy who could help with that. You guys know Lance?"
"The super strong guy who uses guns and wears an irritating amount of black?" Yang asked.
"That's him," Ruby confirmed in place of Sun. "I worked with him to help Jaune forge his new weapon."
Sun nodded at the sisters. "That's guy. I met him a couple days ago, and if I remember correctly he was trying to set up a spy network. Right, Neptune?"
"Uh-huh, it was really weird, and kinda creepy, to be honest. Not cool at all."
"Yeah anyways, I was thinking we could ask him if his robots have any idea where to find a White Fang rally."
"That's a great idea!" Ruby announced. "How about you two go do that, while the rest of us head out on our own missions?"
With that, the four non-Faunus exited the room, leaving Blake and Sun alone.
"So… any idea where to find this guy?"
Blake stared at him for a moment, before sighing. "Follow me."
-]l[-
"Ah, no, you just missed him. Lance is out doing something-or-other. No clue when he'll get back," Anna answered, from where she stood in the dormroom doorway. "Did you need him for something?"
Sun and Blake exchanged a glance. "Mmm, just let him know that we have something to ask him, if you could? Here's my Scroll number."
Anna nodded. "Gotcha, I'll message him now. Good luck with whatever it is you're doing, and feel free to call if you need any help."
"Thanks, Anna."
-]l[-
It had taken quite a few days to finally catch one of the Atlesian robots out of formation, but it had finally happened; a bot had been caught along with a crowd while following Ironwood and gradually separated from the rest of its kind, until it was meandering through alleyways a good hundred feet behind the convoy.
Lance had grabbed the robot right as Ironwood had turned the next corner, dragging it behind a dumpster and shooting it twice with Thunder Core to disable its systems. Taking it then into an abandoned building he had found nearby, he began to dismantle it.
Ripping apart the shell had been easy, and mostly useless. Nothing in the armor plating was especially impressive compared to the robots Lance had made. But once he made it to the core of the robot, he found the real jackpot as he inserted the chip into one of his many devices and pulled up the code
The programming of the robot was remarkable. Not in complexity, necessarily, given how simple the robot's actions were, but the way the code was simplified. Fitting the variables and instructions in so few lines, was quite impressive to Lance… though given how he had learned to code his robots through copying video game code, maybe he wasn't the best person to judge.
Anyways, the important part of the core was a transmitter that would lead anyone to Lance's location… as well as allowing him to track it back to a receiver, hopefully leading him to the controller for these robots.
Cleaning up his mess, and exiting the building, Lance caught sight of a pair of men in black suits turning the corner toward him. Ducking around the corner, Lance pulled out another machine—this time, one he could use to track the signal. Clicking open a small box, he placed the transmitter within, before snapping it closed.
Time to track the signal… and ideally without getting caught by those obvious super-spies behind him. Lance had never been a spy before, but it would suck for his first outing to be marred by being caught and forced into a firefight.
No… Lance wasn't going to win the day via superior firepower, at least not yet. Today was a day for experimentation.
-]l[-
Lance had almost succeeded in his mission when it all went wrong.
He had been crouching on the roof of a warehouse, tracker turned off, as he peered across the gap caused by the alleyway beneath him, and through the windows of the building—another large warehouse—he had found and discovered as the hideaway of Atlas' robots.
He had dropped to the ground and was sneaking his way inside, following in the shadows of a pair of Atlesian soldiers leading a girl with hair just a few shades darker than Natalies. They had made in inside, and through a set of doors, before arriving in a room, furnished only by a clean white medical table, and a series of metal cabinets.
Taking note of how the girl and her guards seemed to be distracted as the girl sat down on the table, Lance prepared to ghost his way across the room the moment they turned away from the hallway in which he hid.
He was about to go for it, when the girl raised her hands and showed them to the guards, revealing metal inlaid beneath a lay of fake skin. Lance could recognize fakes like that easily—given the number he and his friends had run into over their journeys.
Nonetheless, he still had places to be and robots to investigate. Alas, the distraction of discovering a robot girl had cost him his chance, and a chime from his Scroll had the Atlesian guards dashing out into the hallway, rifles leveled at where he was hiding.
Glancing up from his Scroll, Lance attempted a calming smile, before muttering, "Screw it," and diving out of the nearest window. Shots rang out from behind him, but Lance was moving faster than the soldiers could track, and within moments was gone from their sightlines.
Once he was a couple blocks away and on a roof, Lance pulled up the call menu on his Scroll, and after tapping in a number, sat down to wait.
"Yes?" Blake's voice answered the call.
"Yo, this is Lance. Apparently y'all needed my help with something?"
Silence for a moment, before Blake spoke again. "About that… I can't believe I'm being pressured into asking for help for this… do you have any idea where to find a White Fang meeting place?"
Lance thought about it, before tapping to a different window on his scroll, this one displaying the various different Spy Bots he had throughout Vale.
"White Fang hideout… White Fang hideout…" Lance repeated as he searched. "They're the ones wearing black with white masks? Natalie mentioned them. I think I've found a place."
"Really? Where?"
She didn't have to sound so surprised about it… Lance had been running a small army for a time—if he wasn't even able to find a single terrorist hideout, then he was a real shitty terrorist himself. Disregarding the thought, he relayed the address to Blake and said, "I'll see you there."
He would have to return to the warehouse and investigate the robots later. Right now, it was time for Super-Spy Lance to destroy a terrorist organization.
Well, Blake hadn't explicitly said that was what they were doing, but what else could it be?
-]l[-
At the sound of his personal Scroll chiming, James Ironwood raised an eyebrow to Ozpin, silently asking permission to check the message during their meeting. At the returned nod, he slipped the device out of his pocket and raised it to his eyes. Interesting, it was a message from the guards he had assigned to watch Pietro's artificial daughter. What could have happened to warrant this message?
After a rather lengthy unlocking sequence, James pulled up the message, and, after a couple re-reads and a minute spent staring at the included picture, returned his gaze to Ozpin.
"Oz," he began. "You were just telling me about this team MALN, yes?"
Oz raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. They are most remarkable students, and I do believe you've seen that yourself with Miss Natalie, given how she is singlehandedly responsible for Amber's current state."
James nodded absentmindedly, reviewing the message once again. "And, just to be sure, you described one of them—Lance, I believe—as wearing black clothes, a black overcoat, and a black hat?"
"That is what I have seen him wearing most commonly, though I don't pay exclusive attention to him, so he may have changed his outfit."
"Then," James growled, holding his Scroll out for Ozpin to see. "Tell me why he's sneaking into my military installations in Vale and discovering state secrets if he's supposed to be a student?"
Ozpin's eyes widened at the picture, one from above of Lance within a darkened hallway, while a pair of Atlas' finest held him at gunpoint. "...As you already know with Natalie, they aren't exactly normal students."
"By which you mean they claim to have magic."
"Indeed."
"And what does this have to do with Lance breaking and entering my facilities?"
"Well… they all have their own unique personality quirks. Perhaps Lance was just feeling adventurous?"
"Bullshit. Nobody has quirks that strange."
"You'd be surprised, James. You would be surprised. Take a look at Amber in her counseling right now. Would you consider arson to be a positive coping trait?"
"...Touché. But you mean to make me believe that all of team MALN is insane?"
"There was this one time…"
-]l[-
One Day Earlier.
"Miss Natalie!" called out Professor Port, as he stood at the front of the classroom, hands clasped behind his back. "I see that you are shirking your duties as a foremost Hunter of Grimm in favor of playing time-wasting games on your Scroll."
The young woman in question briefly raised her eyes from the game she was indeed playing—some kind of platformer starring a hero who used a nail of all things as a sword—and took in Port's mildly irritated visage, before ignoring it and returning to her game. "Yep."
"I expected better of a model student such as you—especially given your performance in previous classes of mine," Port continued, making his way to one end of the classroom and releasing one of several latches on a cage that contained today's breed of Grimm—a long and sinewy snake-like Grimm with a pair of wings on its back.
"For example, what would you do, if, when distracted by playing a game such as that on your scroll, you were attacked by a winged serpent Grimm such as this one!?" Port flung open the cage, releasing the Grimm toward Natalie, though, in the interest of safety, grabbed onto his blunderbuss and prepared to shoot down the Grimm should it begin rampaging.
"Simple, Professor," Natalie responded, calmly placing her Scroll on her desk, and rising to her feet in the same motion as she readied her staff, bringing it to bear against the incoming Grimm.
"I'd kill it."
Light coalesced at the tip of her stone staff for a moment, before solidifying into a bright golden star that shot straight at the Grimm, easily pierced through its body, disintegrating it almost immediately, and then continued through the wall of the classroom… and the next wall after that… and the one after that too, before it was not longer visible.
The ceiling shook slightly, and dust rained, and Natalie looked on with a blush forming.
"Oh, I am so sorry about this, Professor. I don't know what got into me, I must've gotten distracted by the new game, and I wasn't paying attention in class, and I forgot to limit the power of my spells, and…" she trailed off, realizing the rest of the class was watching her closely.
"She was limiting the power of her spells?" Jaune asked no one in particular. If Natalie, the girl who had taken a Nevermore from the sky in a single attack had been limiting her spells, what did that mean for Matt, Jaune's teacher? Could he release attacks so easily that they would pierce through several school walls?
As these thoughts went through his mind, a distant explosion sounded from outside the classroom. Rushing over to the hole in the wall, the class was just barely able to see, through what should have been several intervening walls, a small explosion had erupted on one of the cliffs upon which Beacon stood… over a kilometer away.
"Note to self: do not get on Natalie's bad side," Jaune muttered, making his way back to his seat, and passing the seemingly bubbly student as she continued apologizing to Professor Port about her lack of attention.
'Not when she can blow up a house from over a kilometer away.'
-]l[-
Present
Blake stood outside of the large warehouse, Sun by her side, as she took in the place where the White Fang would supposedly be meeting.
To the side of the two Faunus, clad in his dark black overcoat, stood Lance, rifle slung over his back, revolver held in one hand, and cigarette held to his mouth with the other, the tip glowing faintly in the evening dusk, providing the only light around.
"Remind me how you found this place?" Sun asked, leaning on his extended staff, tail curled around it to help balance.
"Well, after you and blue-haired-kid left me to my business, I released a few more of my drones, and sent them around Vale. Since they fly super quickly, they were able to scope out the city and find the 'bad neighborhoods'," Lance said, doing his best to make air quotes while awkwardly holding his cigarette between two fingers.
"So they find these neighborhoods, and while I was infiltr—doing other things, I sent them to scope out the bad neighborhoods, since I know from experience that's where the criminals gather."
"Were you planning on taking them out too?" Blake asked.
"Uhh," Lance began uncertainly. "Sure, let's go with that."
Blake stared at him suspiciously, her amber eyes narrowed into slits. "Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you had this information. It saved us a lot of time, and Yang a trip to Junior's bar."
Lance coughed, and not because of his cancer-stick. "That's probably a good thing, since I'm not sure the bar is done rebuilding from when I last visited."
"Anyways," Blake changed the subjectvery subtly. "Yang and Neptune should be here in ten minutes, so instead of waiting let's get headed inside so we get something done."
She handed out two white masks in the style of the masks Grimm wore to her companions, before laying two on the ground. "For Yang," she said. "I'm not sure how you plan to look like a Faunus, Lance, but now's the time." She reached up and undid her bow, releasing her Faunus ears to the cold evening wind.
"Yeah, yeah," Lance muttered, snuffing out his cigarette and reaching into his bag. He rummaged around for a couple moments, before stilling his arm and waiting a moment. He then removed his arm, revealing an empty hand, and turned to Blake and Sun. "What?"
"Uh… did you actually do anything to disguise yourself?" Sun asked, skeptical.
"Of course. I'm not like some people who just waltz into a terrorist headquarters while wearing whatever shitty pirate cosplay they happen to have lying around," Lance ranted, before turning away from the two Faunus to reveal a black tail with a white tip poking out from under his jacket.
"You… have a tail now." Sun reached out to touch it, only to have it flick his hand, and dodge his attempts at grabbing it. "How the hell?"
"Don't ask. I don't entirely understand it myself," Lance admitted, before slipping on his mask, and gesturing toward the door. "Shall we?"
The trio stepped inside, Blake taking the lead, Sun in the middle, and Lance following up at the end. As they entered, they heard a voice yelling, "New recruits, keep to the right!"
Following the instructions, the trio continued their way inside, following the line until they found themselves standing amongst a few dozen Faunus, all also wearing the same white mask. The other new recruits.
Above them, and around them, on the balconies, were many times more, probably a few hundred White Fang soldiers.
On the stage a few feet in front of the trio, stepped a tall, large, and well-built Faunus, his arms exposed and covered with tattoos. He stood in front of a large white sheet, the claw marks of the White Fang adorning it.
"Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"
Out from behind the curtain limped someone both Blake and Sun recognized well: Roman Torchwick. His cane tapped against the stage, and their eyes were drawn to the bandages wrapped around his stomach.
The crowd went wild… with jeers and shouts of rage.
He came to a stop in the center of the stage, and tapped his cane twice for silence. When it didn't come, he cleared his throat. After that second failure, he frowned, before flipping his cane up, pointing it at the ceiling, and pulling the trigger, causing a blast to ring out through the room.
"Blessed silence, finally," he muttered. "I'm glad to see my current sorry state is so funny to all you beasts, but I've finally learned. You Faunus aren't the real monster here, the real monster is the damned cat who did this to me—the cat working with Beacon and the police."
"But fear no more, for nothing can stand up to the might I have with me tonight." Roman waved his arm down, and the curtain behind him fell to the stage, revealing behind it a dark grey robot.
It stood three times as tall as Roman, almost reaching to the top of the warehouse ceiling, and had a pair of massive grey arms, each covered with all kinds of armaments—from missiles, to guns. A massive White Fang logo was spray painted on one of the guns.
"I want that," Lance announced, from where he stood off to the side of the stage.
The room had already been silent from the stunning reveal of the robot, but at Lance's words, it quieted even further. Roman limped closer, staring at Lance, before his eyes widened at the sight of Blake and Sun. Despite their masks, he must've recognized their clothes… as, for some reason, Blake had yet to don her mask, and Sun was still wearing the same clothes as their last confrontation with Roman.
"I was going to have this whole speech about how powerful this was, but given our uninvited guests, I'll make it a demonstration instead. Get them!" Roman shouted, pointing his cane at the trio, before turning and limp-dashing toward the robot.
"Damnit, Lance!" Sun shouted, immediately pulling his weapon out of a pocket and extending it to its full length as a staff to knock a nearby White Fang recruit onto their back. "You couldn't have stayed silent for just a minute longer?"
"Why?" Lance asked, seemingly unconcerned with the turn of events as he calmly took potshots at the crowd, his grey revolver spitting out blasts of lightning. "My mom told me to always tell the truth, to state my mind, and always declare my intentions to steal something. Did it with Natalie, now I'm doing it here."
"...With Natalie? What!?" Blake was distracted from her own fight by Lance's words, and paid for it by taking a kick to the chest that sent her flying against a wall.
"I'll tell you guys later," Lance shouted, before ripping a radio off one of his many bandoliers and shouting into it, "Poison gas, now!"
On queue, a dozen silvery-gray bottle-shaped containers were launched into the building from somewhere outside, crashing through the walls and windows, and landing amongst the crowd of White Fang soldiers. Immediately after landing, they erupted into a noxious green gas, flowing up to the crowd of white-vested soldiers, around their masks, and into their bodies.
Dozens upon dozens of White Fang soldiers collapsed in coughing fits, and many others chose to back off, giving Lance and his companions time to rest. Sun took advantage of this by clearing out the remaining few soldiers on their side of the gas wall via judicious use of his staff and semblance, bouncing around between them like a gymnast.
Blake pushed herself to her feet, and stepped up next to the other two. "We need get out of here!"
"Well, we might have a problem. The door is way over there!" Sun shouted back, pointing across the warehouse and over the surging crowd of enemies to the small door they had come in through.
"That won't be a problem much longer," Blake announced, pointing across the room to the stage upon which the giant robot stood. It was moving, and one of its weapons, seemingly a large laser gun, was pointed at the group and charging. "Not if that gets to us first!"
"Relax," Lance muttered. "This is normally Natalie's skill, but I've seen her use it enough to understand the idea…" He reached up, placing a nondescript and fair-use item shaped suspiciously suspiciously like a scouter from Drag*n Ball over his eye, before lowering it.
"Was that supposed to help?" Sun asked, eyes wide as the laser finished charging, and was aimed at the group.
"Give it a second, I'm not the best," Lance retorted. A moment later, a massive shield of interlocking blue hexagons, shaped the same as your average gem design appeared in the air between the trio and the now-firing laser. It flashed bright white, and then split up, forming around the three, before disappearing into their skin.
"Again," Sun asked, eyeing the laser that was now in the process of being fired, and beginning to spin his staff around in an attempt to block in. "Was that supposed to help?"
Then the laser hit the three of them, sending them flying through the air to smash against the wall of the warehouse. Said wall quickly gave way under the force of the laser, and the three went soaring through the cold night air, tumbling above the street for a good dozen meters before they hit the asphalt ground with a set of groans.
"To answer your question, yes, it was supposed to help. It increased our defense against 'magic,' which, for some reason, lasers count as."
"That explains why you guys look like you only took a hard fall right now, as opposed to, I guess, a giant laser?" a new voice commented on the situation.
Lance propped himself up to catch sight of the new speaker, and nodded in greeting to Yang and Neptune, both standing next to Yang's yellow-styled motorcycle.
"Glad you two could make it," Blake said, drawing herself to her feet and offering Sun a hand up. "Might be good to call for Ruby and Weiss too, given what we're facing."
At her words, the doors to the warehouse burst open, and through them streamed the remaining White Fang forces, weapons in hand, and all pointed at the group of Huntsman students across the lot from them. Not bothering to use the door—and likely too large to do so anyways, the robot that Roman was piloting simply forced its way through the wall it had thrown Blake, Lance, and Sun through, settling into stance a few meters behind the cannon fodder troops. It shook its arms out, servos whirring as the weapons attached to the chassis of the robot powered to life.
Yang took one look at it, before pulling out her Scroll to call her sister. As she began dialing, she looked to Lance and Blake. "Reckon I should call MALN or JNPR too?"
Lance considered it for a moment. "Nah. JNPR still needs a bit of time to get working as a cohesive unit. As for MALN… I'm here, and if that's not enough, then we're in some big trouble."
"Dude, do you see how big that robot is?" Neptune asked. "If you think that you can take that, just how strong are you?"
Lance considered it. "Matt and Natalie are stronger, but I hold my own pretty well. Besides, that robot is nice and all, but mine is nicer."
WIth those words, Lance took a step back, retrieving his radio and muttering a few commands into it. "Speaking of… Neon Valkyrie will be here in five minutes, so let's try to not end this fight too fast. I want to see how well it stands up."
"This guy's insane, you know that, right?" Sun whispered to Blake, as he split his staff apart and prepared for the oncoming fight.
"Yeah," Blake answered. "That's been apparent for a while… though I'll admit I'm only just now realizing how crazy that entire team is."
Roman didn't bother giving a speech—though it was unclear to Blake if such a thing was even possible, given the robot he was currently inhabiting—and the White Fang didn't want one. The moment the first rocket spiraled across the lot, only to be shot out of the air by a shot from Yang's gauntlets, the White Fang began their charge.
Yelling as they ran, the force of terrorists split in two, half staying in the back with their guns, rifles, and other various weapons to pester from afar, while the other half drew swords, clubs, and more to engage in a melee.
"I'll take the big guy," Yang said, before she kicked forward, and, with a shot from Ember Celica, launched herself flying over the White Fang forces, easily clearing the gap and landing a high-velocity punch on Roman's mech.
Sun took a step forward, putting himself slightly in front of Blake, and said, "Same as last time?"
Blake considered it, before nodding in agreement. They had worked well against Roman and the… other boy, last time they had fought together, even disregarding the result, so it would be good to stick with someone she already worked well with.
Neptune and Lance were left alone, so Neptune took up a position in between Blake and Lance, crouched behind a car, and taking potshots with his rifle at the oncoming forces.
And then the White Fang were there, and Blake had no more time to think of her teammates and friends, instead having to focus entirely on keeping herself and Sun safe and alive.
-]l[-
Lance frowned as he knocked away the next in a long line of White Fang soldiers, firing a bolt of lightning at their chest as he did so, setting the eyesore of a white vest on fire and sending them screaming back as they were launched away.
Honestly, he had expected better from the White Fang.
They were an internationally feared terrorist organization, with, as best as Lance could tell, large cells in at least two of the four continents of Remnant. To add to that, Blake had been a member of the White Fang, and she was incredibly well-trained for her age, easily one of the stronger students her year at Beacon, yet none of the other soldiers held even a candle to her.
And Yang had had the audacity to challenge Roman's robot, taking the most fun fight to herself, and leaving Lance and the rest with nothing to but fight mooks. Damn her!
Sighing, Lance ducked a trio of bullets, and reached into his jacket, retrieving a cigarette even as he returned fire. Whipping a mook who took his choice of slow-death to be a sign of distraction, Lance took in the battlefield. Eyeing the battlefield, Lance found his target—a bear Faunus wielding some kind of fire Dust-firing (heh) weapon. Taking a few potshots at him, but making sure to miss, Lance was able to draw the attention of his target, and watched carefully as he settled into a firing stance.
Any second now… and now!
As the gunner pulled the trigger, sending a blast of flame ripping through the air toward Lance, he placed the cigarette in his mouth, stared straight at the bullet, and then tilted his head just slightly.
Leaning back in the bullet's wake, Lance took a moment to breath, and exhaled smoke. He had lit his cigarette on the bullet.
Smirking at the terrorist responsible, Lance unslung his heavy rifle from his back, pointed it at the man, and pulled the trigger.
Darkness—a blast of pure lack-of-light—streaked through the night air, almost invisible against the backdrop of shadows and old buildings, until it impacted the terrorist on the chest, sending him flying back several feet, before expanding into a large explosion, launching the next several closest White Fang members to it.
Not a bad shot, if he did say so himself. Still… he would've preferred to have been fighting Roman. At least there would've been good banter.
Well, all he could hope was that there was some robot left over for Neon Valkyrie to blow up, in… four minutes.
-]l[-
Yang was having the time of her life. Screw beating up Junior and his goons, now she was fighting an actual giant robot!
Flipping over a wide swing from one of its arms, she took a few shots at its elbow joint, Ember Celica clicking back and forth as she punched. Seeing it ready up to launch a missile—the same motion it had been making every previous time it tried—she took a few steps backward and waited for it to come. A moment later, it was launched, and Yang shot herself off of the ground, leaping straight toward the missile. She landed on it, her new boots holding firm for a moment, before she once again kicked off, sending herself flying toward the center of the robot's mass, fist first.
The hit echoed through the lot, stilling the fighters for a moment as they took in the picture: Yang, perched on the cockpot of the robot, one fist cocked back, and the other in place against its gunmetal grey armor, cracks extending around it like a cookie whenever Ruby squeezed too hard.
Then the robot fell. Slowly, at first, but then picking up speed as its center of gravity changed, and the world began working against it.
"Ah hell yeah! I'd never be able to punch someone this hard at Beacon!" Yang yelled, a manic grin forming on her face, right before she launched a flurry of punches at the same spot, Ember Celica spitting fire with each attack.
-]l[-
Neptune… wasn't having the best day of his life, right now. First, he got dragged along by Sun to help out a bunch of girls he'd never even met before, then, despite getting sent with the hottest of them all, spends his time riding along a bike at terrifyingly high speeds, making him unable to appreciate the girl he was riding with. Then, when everyone was getting ready to fight, not only did he not get a partner to work with, with Sun abandoning him, he also was stuck in the back, forced to watch as everyone else did cool moves and shit while he played it safe in the back with his rifle.
Like, just fifteen feet to his left, Sun and… uh, Blake? Were fighting like they'd known each other for years, as opposed to the couple of weeks he thought it had been. When Blake danced back, being overwhelmed, Sun was immediately there, his nunchucks and staff serving as a deterrent for any oncoming White Fang...ers. That worked. Sure.
And again, there Neptune was, ducking in and out of cover like a good little Huntsman, taking the safe shots, and not risking anything.
And there, to his right, was… Lance, who… did he just light a cigarette on a Dust bullet? What the hell man!
That wasn't even drawing attention to Yang, the girl who had nearly driven Neptune to have an affair with the ground after her driving, who, nearly one hundred feet away, was still easily the most noticeable person on the battlefield. Well, her and the giant robot that she was practically manhandling, every impact causing a shockwave that Neptune could feel through the door of the car he was knelt against.
Suffice it to say, Neptune felt that the folks he was fighting alongside did not respect the rules of engagement as he had learned them back in Vacuo.
-]l[-
Ruby ran along the highway, her cloak scattering into rose petals behind her as she used her Semblance in bursts, careful not to wear herself out, but still doing her best to make a good time.
She had almost panicked, when she received the call from Yang, but timely intervention from Weiss had calmed her. Speaking of Weiss… Ruby had no idea where she was, having left her in the dust before rocketing off to go help her sister.
In fact, Ruby was almost at the address Yang had given, just half-a-minute away, any moment now and the highway would be ending—was that a giant tank driving along the highway and forcing all other vehicles to yield to it? So cool!
-]l[-
Her fight had taken a turn for the worse, once, instead of focusing on trying to outfight her in his robot, Roman had commanded the nearby White Fang forces to focus their fire on her, and used his greater mass and size to keep her in one general place, as well as prevent her from taking down her ranged assailants.
Sure, she had gotten a few of them, and eventually her friends would deal with the rest, but until that happened, she was out of luck, and pinned down.
Glancing out from behind the car she had been using as cover—one that Roman had thrown at her in the first place—she saw a massive metal fist flying through the air toward her. Her eyes widened, and then it hit her.
And not a new pun idea, but the fist.
She spiraled through the air for a solid three seconds, before smashing into a concrete support pillar, cracking it beneath her body. She lay there for a moment, before peeling off and falling to the ground below, facefirst.
Then her hair erupted, and she rose, leveling a glare at the robot with now glowing-red eyes.
"Alright dude, you wanna brawl? Let's brawl!"
-]l[-
Roman Torchwick… was regretting his decision to partner with Cinder, especially with the current circumstances involving fights with trained and powerful Huntsmen. Roman was a thief, not a fighter—well he could swing a punch or shoot a kneecap, but it just didn't feel right.
Case in point, the blonde teenage girl currently beating up on the absolute pinnacle of Atlesian military technology. Granted, it had been a much closer fight earlier, one that could have even been called in his favor, but then she just had to go and use her Semblance, at least tripling her striking power.
A schoolgirl was matching a mech that walked around with enough firepower to level a city block—or more. Again, Roman felt that he should've stayed a small-time thief, and to have not been sucked into this whole secret war.
Well, it's not like he had the greatest of choice in the matter. One day he and Neo had been resting in one of their many safehouses, chilling and counting lien, and then, melting straight through the heavily-armored and secured door, walked Cinder freaking Fall. She stepped up to the two of them, conjured a flame in one hand, and then declared that he would do.
At the time, Roman was more indignant that he would only do. He was Roman Torchwick for God's sake! He would more than do. But, now, a few months into their 'partnership', Roman was realizing that perhaps he didn't actually want to prove just how good he was at murder and treason.
It's not like he overly cared about the deaths he caused in the past—it was part of the business—but as he heard more and more of the plans that Cinder and her mysterious benefactor had for Vale and Beacon, he became more concerned that he should oppose them just out of a basic human instinct to survive.
Because people who plotted to leave the world to the Grimm clearly weren't working with humanity's best interests at heart.
Roman let out a grunt as the seat he sat in shook from the force of one of the blonde's blows, the entire chassis of the Paladin shuddering around him. He worked the controls, taking the Paladin back a step, before stepping in with a punch strong enough to throw a car clean across a motorway—an attack that had worked previously in this fight—and she caught it. What the ffff—!
It wasn't just the crimes against humanity that were being planned that gave Roman pause, but also the idea that he would need to fight people like this girl, or that damned cat from last month. Normal people weren't this strong! In fact, if his old pal Junior wasn't spinning bullshit, that guy in the black coat in the back—just standing there and picking off the White Fang soldiers like he was in a shooting range, not the most dangerous shootout in eight years—was the one who had destroyed Junior's entire club not too long ago. Sure, Junior's goons weren't especially skilled, but there were still more of them then the average Huntsman student could handle. And to think that Black Coat wasn't even bothering with Roman. The nerve!
Oh wait, now Black Coat was looking at him. Then he shouted something, inaudible to Roman's ears, which was followed a moment later by another, more irritated shout, and then by the girl attacking him backing off. She took a stance between the White Fang soldiers and Black Coat, seemingly in the middle of an argument even as she waded into combat.
Roman took the chance at a respite, pulling his guard back up and reloading all his weapons as he waited for whatever his opponents were planning. A quarter of a minute passed, with Roman calling for Neo in preparation for a quick escape. He doubted he was going to win the fight even if nothing changed, not with the blonde's Semblance, and whatever Black Coat was waiting for could not be a good sign.
Just then, Roman heard a sound, increasing in volume, and coming from the small backstreet that led to the lot where they had been fighting. Pulling on a stick, he rotated the body of the mech to get a view of whatever was coming, and was met with sight of a… vehicle of some sort.
It was black with red style lines, with a large number of blades sticking out of the front where a radiator or grill would be on a normal vehicle. Directly above those sat a pair of barrels, and to the outside of those, a pair of high-powered lights that illuminated the battlefield. The body of the vehicle was mostly a matte black, with a single barely visible line cutting across the middle, and at the back of each side, behind the lights, were a pair of… thrusters?
Whoever had made this thing was madder than Atlas' top scientists.
And then the panel that made up the top slid open, and out of it appeared ||| a veritable treasure trove of weapons—ranging from smaller anti-personnel missiles, more machine guns than you could shake a bowler hat at, some kind of grenade launcher, smoking faintly green, and a single, absolutely massive missile, which Roman eyeballed to be longer than he was tall, and could likely fit him inside of it.
And then all of it was fired, and the sky lit up with a beautiful aurora of explosions.
The last thing Roman heard was his own yell.
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Lance picked his way through the wreckage, a regretful look upon his face, a fact that Yang quickly picked up on.
"Why so sad, gun boy?" she asked, keeping up with him easily, her eyes having returned to their natural lilac.
"I wish I didn't have to destroy the robot," Lance admitted. "I've always wanted to pilot a robot before, but every time it ends up getting blown up…"
"Oh. I, uh, thought you would regret attacking with such overwhelming force."
"Nah. Only kill is overkill," Lance answered. "That said, I may have overkilled a bit too much, given that I cannot find any remains of this guy. Like sure, I hit him with everything short of my nuke, but there still should be something left over. Guts, blood, ashes, his corpse still choking on poison gas… something!"
Yang suddenly looked queasy, which Lance ignored. If someone couldn't handle being in a fight that ended in obliteration of the nearby surrounding country and all its inhabitants, they shouldn't be in a fight at all.
"Have you considered… that he escaped the blast somehow?"
"Without help? Unlikely. With help…" Lance reached into his coat, retrieving his Scroll and dialing Matt. "Yo, can you ask NoLegs how Roman got away from him last time? ...The guy with a hat and cane, yeah… Oh, really? That's good to know. Thanks, man."
Folding the device back up, Lance turned back to Yang, and behind her, the rest of the combatants. "Apparently he was working with some kind of illusionist or hypnotist who kept messing with NoLegs' hits and Roman's position. Everyone spread out and search—the illusions break after a single hit!"
With those words, Lance kicked off of the ground, launching himself up to a rooftop which overlooked the area. It had only been around a minute since he had destroyed Roman's mech, and, given the state the man likely was in, he and any compatriots wouldn't have been able to get very far.
Scanning the area, Lance had just identified a possible target, and had raised his scoped rifle to his eye in preparation to shoot when he was interrupted by the crack of a high caliber sniper rifle discharging. Ruby had beat him to the shot. Not bad.
The spot that Lance had been eyeing turned out to be nothing more than a normal wall, as were the next three that Ruby shot, but by the fifth of her shots, a shattering sound was heard—and, given how the bullet had hit a brick wall, it was the sign of a Semblance.
Immediately, everyone converged onto the spot and began looking for more illusions, all headed in a trail to escape the area. Lance frowned. He couldn't be having that now, could he.
So, to discourage any possible escape, Lance quickly hurried to where he estimated the escapees to be, and then, started speaking.
"I just had Neon Valkyrie—my tank—arm an attack aimed at this area. It will fire in ten seconds, and has enough power to disintegrate a 5 block radius. I know you're within that area, and you should know that I'm not bluffing. If you don't want to be turned into nuclear ash in, oh, three seconds, then I recommend surrendering now."
Exactly two seconds later, as Lance pulled out his radio to trigger the launch, a nearby patch of wall faded away, revealing a young woman with brown and pink split hair, holding, in one hand Roman's burnt, yet still breathing body, and in the other, an umbrella? Her clothes might have been white at some point in the past, but as of that moment of surrender, they were too covered with soot, dust, and burns for Lance to tell.
He raised his pistol, sighting down at the woman for a moment, as she quickly dropped her parasol on the ground, and raised her free hand in surrender.
Then Lance shot her, the crackle from his gun deafening in the silent night.
-]l[-
Was gonna try and get this one out in February, to get two out, but I failed. Maybe we'll get one this month, but I doubt it.
First off, some quick thanks to Minaly22 for some inspiration regarding this chapter, and possibly ones in the future.
Anyways, onto the quick (and long) chapter. In February, for some reason, I had more inspiration to write than ever before, and managed 40,000 words. That said, most of that was for a different project that may-or-may-not reach fruition (probably won't lmao) but we'll see.
This chapter in general was pretty fun to write, the fight at the end was enjoyable, and Ironwood is fun. However, I'm worried I'm getting too caught up in the stations of canon, and won't be able to throw any changes into this story without them being terrible. I suppose we'll find out in a couple chapters, once I do my best to mess with the next arc.
Next time on BFR, this cliffhanger gets resolved, and we get started on the buildup for, uh, Mountain Glenn? Is that what it's called? Iunno. Guess it's time to browse the wiki a bit more.
Let me know how much this chapter sucked with a comment or PM, and I'll see you guys next time.