Chapter 20: Who Ordered the Extra Large Mech?


-Earlier with Ruby-

"WAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Ruby's screams of terror echoed throughout the chasm like an air horn at a funeral, waking up everyone and everything within the cavern. Her descent was eventually slowed whens he began using the recoil from Crescent Rose to offset some of the down acceleration due to gravity. She landed harshly in a heap of rubble, her head took some damage on impact and her left shoulder was throbbing in pain. She was barely able to register her surroundings before the sound of several guns clicking as their barrels were aimed down at her.

She guessed there were at least nine of them, "Pfft only this many guys? You might wanna call for backup!" She chirped as she reached for Crescent Rose only for her hand to meet empty air. Blinking in surprise she glanced around to see a smug-looking Neopolitan twirling the deadly scythe like a toy. "HEY GIVE THAT BACK!" She yelled and made a move to launch herself at Neo only for her to wince sharply in pain as her right leg was hurt, multiple guns, accompanied by angry-looking White Fang soldiers stopped her from pushing forward.

"We might've gotten off on the wrong foot just now... Can we talk about this like self-respecting people?" She said sheepishly, an embarrassed smile gracing her face. Their response was just an angry grunt and began prodding her with the gun forcing her to stand. "I'll take that as a no..."


The underground base was enormous, to say the least. Multiple buildings and construction going on, perhaps hundreds of White Fang soldiers roaming in packs, adhering to several tasks. The massive size of the underground cavity made one question the logistics of the concrete and steel mass that sat just a few feet above the thin shell that was the surface.

Roman Torchwick sat reading what appeared to be construction plans laid out on a table. "Curse this cubicle, we have all the space in the world but I have to work under these conditions!" he yelled gesturing to the small shack-like area situated in a remote corner of the vast expanse of city.

"Honestly, these Faunus aren't worth the time. Good thing the pay for this job is good…" he muttered as Neopolitan swung in through the door, her umbrella in tow.

"Ah Neo, what brings you in?" he asked.

The mute girl gestured her umbrella the door, forcing Roman to look up from his work. He met her displeased gaze and followed it to see a few soldiers lined up just outside.

"Ah Boss, we found this intruder crashing through the ceiling a few minutes ago, we tied her up but we don't know what to do with her." One of the white fang members surrounding a bound, gagged and quite unconscious Ruby. Roman flinched visibly at the sight of the familiar red reaper, an existence he was hoping he wouldn't have to see again.

"This… is bad… where there is Red, there is the posse. Throw her in the holding cells, we are terrorists but I'd rather not kill a kid. Her friends will come looking for her so bolster security stat." Roman instructed


It was a few minutes before Ruby awoke, in pain and nauseous. Her aura had protected her fall mostly but she suffered a minor concussion. She was depleted on reserves hence why her head still hurt like crazy, upon attempting to move she found her left shoulder was sprained.
"Great… just great." She said out loud wincing in pain as she tried to sit up in her jail cell. A dim light cascading through the grates casting a shadow on the back wall of her blue barred prison.

"You shouldn't move too much, you took quite a nasty fall, plus Roman's men weren't exactly gentle when they tossed you in here," came a mature womanly voice.

"Who's there?" Ruby croaked out peering through the poorly lit area. The silhouette of a relatively tall woman with wild-looking hair came from the shadows and approached the cage.

Ruby instantly backed away like a scared animal and the woman just chuckled in amusement, she was expecting that type of reaction.

"Now now, don't be afraid, I'm not like those savages. I'm a doctor, you can call me Ellie." She said coming into the light. Her hair was a wild mix of blue and orange in alternating streaks, she had two, what appeared to be, wolf-like ears popping out of the top of her head. She wore a long white lab coat over a black undershirt and pants. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of ocean blue and Ruby felt as though she had seen this person before.

"How do I know I can trust you," Ruby spoke hesitantly.

The woman leaned toward the cage and looked her in the eyes, "The White Fang ruined my life many years ago… I'm only working for them now because I have no other choice. It's either I work for them or they kill my husband." She said, the anger trembling her voice.

Ruby could see in her eyes that she meant no harm, the hatred for her superiors was clear as day. The woman herself gave off a soothing feeling, as if she was the embodiment of kindness.

"Tell me, what is a cute young lady such as yourself doing out here?" she asked concerned.

"My friends and I are here on a mission from Beacon Academy. We were sent along with two professional huntsmen for a recon operation, but... this might be more than just observing now. They should come looking for me soon." Ruby said, the doctor nodded but her face was riddled with concern.

"This place is heavily fortified there's no way they can…" Ellie started but the look in Ruby's eyes shut her up. The sheer unwavering confidence they held was absurd.

"Don't underestimate my friends, they're a lot stronger than you think." Ruby smiled proudly, though she still hurt when she did.

The woman just chuckled, "Alright then, I'll see if I can help you outta here," she said analysing the lock on the cage. It was no mere deadbolt, it was keypad encrypted. Normally that would be a problem for most... but for Ellie it just made it easier to crack it open.

"Are you sure you should be helping me out like this? What if they find out?" Ruby asked concerned

"I'm glad for your concern my child but you needn't worry. They can't fault me for helping you and I'm too valuable to them to let go. You're fine." she said as she helped Ruby out of the cage. "Besides, a few of the people here aren't all bad... like that Neopolitan girl, she's mute but she is such a helpful child, bringing me snacks and helping me out occasionally."

Ruby just looked up at her curiously, the only Neo she knew was Roman's ice-cream haired partner. She couldn't possibly be talking about the same person right? Then again... how many Neopolitans working for Roman Torchwick were there?

Once she cracked the cage and helped Ruby out, Ellie took a proper gauge at the young lass before her. "You remind me of my daughter, she'd be about your age right now." she said looking over the reaper.

"You have a daughter?" Ruby asked surprised at the unexpected revelation.

"Oh yes, and a son, though he'd be a year older than you now. I haven't seen them in well over nine years, since I was captured." she replied solemnly, the look of sadness donning her features and Ruby couldn't help but want to hug the older woman.

"They're…" she was interrupted when a massive tremor shook the cave and the sounds of gunshots and explosions could be heard.

"Looks like my friends are here!" Ruby said enthusiastically as she jumped only for her to yelp in pain.

"Don't be so hasty child, here let me." Ellie said kneeling down and holding onto Ruby's shoulder and leg.

"What are you…" Ruby started but stopped when a warm aquamarine glow enveloped her, soothing her pain and healing her external and internal injuries. It took a few seconds but once done Ellie looked rather exhausted.

"That's my semblance, I can use my aura to detect internal injuries and completely heal them almost instantly... once it's not fatal. It also works on diseases to, though using it drains me greatly." she explained through ragged breaths, having to focus on multiple types of wounds located on multiple parts of the body was especially taxing.

"Go on now, your weapons are stowed in the trailer behind me, I snagged them off the guards before, saying I needed to research them." she gestured to a metal crate similar to one used for shipping.

Ruby nodded, "Thank you... you said you're being held here... you should come with me." Ruby said taking the woman by the hand. Ellie smiled and patted Ruby's hand. "I've been working to delay the progress of the work here for a long time... maybe you kids can tear this place a new one and get me out..."

"That's great-" Ruby was cut off by Ellie holding up her hand, "But... first I need to take care of something... I'll find you when this is over... so go help your friends." She smiled cheerily, knowing fully well this was a long shot in the dark... but if she could make it look like she was taken/killed and slip out with this girl and her friends, her husband would be safe and she could be free of this place.

Ruby nodded in understanding, "...Okay... just promise me you'll find us..."

"I'll look for the explosions." She chuckled in response. Ruby waved a goodbye before disappearing in a flurry of rose petals.


-With Team ASHNWBY-

Everyone landed through the same hole Ruby did, except with a bit more grace. Nova could see around him the sheer size of the cavern, the numerous buildings and White Fang outposts, if Ruby was somewhere in here then it sure as hell would take time to find her.

"We need to remain as covert as possible, try not to draw too much attention to ourselves. There's no telling how many enemies are between us and Ruby, so for maximum efficiency we'll split into team," Winter said garnering everyone's attention. It was strange, there were no guards investigating the giant hole suggesting that either Ruby had managed to hide herself or something was amiss.

"Nova, Weiss and Blake, you three start covering the higher ground since you have the best mobility out of us. Hex, Yang and I will do radar sweeps and scout the eastern area. Dr. Oobleck you will stay here with Luna and Nitro and hang around the crater and see if Ruby makes an appearance." Winter commanded, Zwei barked in protest, "And you to Zwei, you stay here with them!"

Everyone nodded and wordless moved to their positions, no one dared argue because they were just focused on getting their friend back. Figuring out whatever the hell was going on here came secondary at this point.


Five minutes passed, then ten, and promptly on the twelfth minute did Nitro finally snap. "This is the most boring post in existence!" he said with a twitching eye.

"Calm down meathead, be glad we haven't encountered anyone yet…" Luna berated but was interrupted by the sound of tapping shoes and metal against stone from the darkness, her eyes went wide and everyone went on guard, even Zwei hopped down from his perch on Oobleck's backpack, ready to attack.

"Well, well, well. Nice to see Red's party decided to drop by, it would have been even nicer had you decided not to show up in the first place but when life gives you lemons…" Roman said appearing from seemingly nowhere.

"Red? What have you done with Ruby?!" Luna seethed. Zwei let out a shrill bark and began growling at Roman who visibly flinched.

"Has the fuzzball had its shots?" He asked pointing at Zwei. "As for Red...she's taking a nap in one of our holding cells, don't worry, she's more or less alive, after all I did need a contingency plan." He said twirling his cane and aiming it at the girl in blue.

"So you're Roman Torchwick, the infamous criminal mastermind." Oobleck said pushing up his glasses.

"Ah so you've heard of me...should I know you?" Roman raised his eyebrow, well as much as one could garner from the hat on his head.

"Who I am is unimportant. What is important however, is why you've decided to work with the White Fang." Oobleck inquired, he was determined to play both objective and rescuer simultaneously.

"Why else does anyone do anything dangerous?" Roman asked while flicking his hair. They all just stared back blankly causing him to groan in exasperation. "MONEY! The green! Mula, the meat and potatoes... argh forget it, I'm wasting my time. You either surrender or get bagged, your choice." He held his cane up like a gun, ready to fire.

"Well, considering there are three..." *BARK* "... Four of us and one of you I'd say you're in no position for non-compliance." Nitro said flexing his armoured fists.

"And, I'd say your counting skills need work." Roman smirked, snapping his fingers, as he did a mass of soldiers came out of the shadows encircling the trio.

"You bastard, how long have you been…" Luna spat.

"Since you entered, Red fell for the same trap, it's like you people have zero common sense. I was just waiting for the moment your posse decided to split. Three I can handle, but even with a squadron, taking on a specialist and that firebreather puts my odds at a low." He said grinning. "I'll need you to come quietly or we put a bullet or three in your brains."

Luna bit her lip and weighed her options. There were at least twelve guards, she could remotely disarm three of them with her powers but that'd leave her drained, Nitro could take down a few but he won't be fast enough to get all of them, and Oobleck isn't exactly equipped to deal with combat. She heaved a heavy sigh and dropped Galaxia, causing Nitro's eyes to widen.

"Luna what are you…" he asked in panic but she shot him a glare.

"We're outnumbered and outgunned, we either die here or we don't, do as I say and drop your weapon." Luna commanded, she held a surprising amount of authority when her brother wasn't around, as if she was a completely different person. They all complied and began dropping their weapons, even Zwei shrinked back.

As soon as Roman lowered his cane and stepped forward to receive his new captives, a flurry of rose petals sped past the group knocking down all the White Fang members. Luna and Nitro saw this as their chance and re-equipped their weapons and layered the assault on the troops. Ruby veered to a halt when she almost crashed into Dr. Oobleck.

"Nice to see you again Miss Rose" he pointed out stiffly, Ruby just rubbed the back of her head.

"Ehehe… good to be back?" She said embarrassed. Luna tackled her with a hug, practically squeezing the life out of her.

"RUBY! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Luna asked checking the taller girl for any signs of damage Zwei jumped into Ruby's awaiting arms and began licking her. Ruby tussled the dragon's hair and smiled, "I'm fine, I got help from a friend..."

"A friend?" Nitro asked curiously.

"Don't think on it now. What's going on, where's our team?" Ruby looked around for them but came up with nothing.

"My brother and the rest of the guys went off to look for you, seems we'll be busy for a while until they regroup." Luna said readying Galaxia in its battle axe form. Hoards of White Fang soldiers came spewing out of the wood works.

Roman got up off the floor, dusting himself.

"Red, you are really starting to irritate me…" He said angrily as he launched his attack.

Ruby parried his cane and swung Crescent Rose in a vertical arc aimed at his head but Torchwick easily sidestepped. The two exchanged back and forth with neither giving an edge, surprisingly for a criminal mastermind, Torchwick was a good fighter.

"Neo..." Torchwick said talking into an earpiece attached just under his hat. "Call in our plan B. We might as well put Adam's pets to work."


-With Winter, Yang and Hex-

"Hex, you find anything?" Yang radioed to her girlfriend over the comms. The three had scoped out the eastern wing only to meet with next to nothing, just shipments and shipments of crates and supplies for god knows what.

"It's all quiet on my end, what about you Winter?" Hex relayed, she scanned the area with her infrared goggles trying to detect enemy threats.

"Same here… wait..." Winter responded glazing over the area before her. The shipment containers lay lined and neatly packed forming a narrow corridor to what appeared to be two large solid metal gates. Yellow and black caution stripes lined the outside of the tall structure, as if it were some sort of loading dock.

"Hex scan my area, two hundred meters from your position, north east. Big painted gate." Winter relayed and Hex complied and turned her equipment on the large doors.

Strangely upon scanning the gate, there was a mass of red behind it, as if there was… "WINTER GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Hex yelled in panic.

"Why what's behind that…" Winter stopped mid sentence when a loud alarm blared, red lights flashing as the gate cranked open. A tremor shook the entire cavern as if whatever was behind that gate was massive.

A great Atlesian paladin nearly three times bigger than the one team RWBY fought, thundered out. Its metallic appendages extending far beyond that of its regular version, the cockpit was no longer the standard glass window but a more armoured chest piece with small, near untargetable optical sensors. It looked like its main purpose was to lift heavy objects and fend off larger Grimm yet still pack enough firing power to level a small town.

"That's Atlas tech…but modified.." Winter gaped at the sheer size. How did they manage to acquire this? Whoever upgraded it must have been a genius, they seemed to have ironed out all the flaws in the mech.

"Nice timing, Roman signalled me to power up this thing, so glad you saved me the trouble of actually looking for you!" A shrill female voice boomed from inside the paladin, it sounded familiar to Hex.

"Hey doesn't that sound like that one chick from our first operation?" Hex radioed over.

"You know this person?" Winter asked confused as she stared down the titan sized machine, her body like a toy soldier in the wake of the motorized chunk of metal.

Yang and Hex followed in, coming out of their positions and moving swiftly to stand by Winter, who was getting into battle stance, fully prepared to tangle with whatever that thing was.

"Oh hi girls, long time no see!" The voice cheered and Hex felt her eye twitch at the memory of one very annoying blonde.

"What's your name again? Ball? Bowl? Bee? OH IT WAS BITCH!" Hex taunted, her face turned up in mild irritation.

Yang high fived her girlfriend and Winter imagined that whoever was inside was fuming. It almost looked like the machine had a stroke given how violently the arms began trembling.

"IT'S BELL FYI! AND YOU JUST MADE YOUR FIRST MISTAKE!" She roared, the rage thick in her voice. Without so much as a warning the paladin launched a robotic arm at them. The three dodged instantaneously and began combat.

"Doesn't this feel like déjà vu?" Hex as she gracefully evaded the arm swipe as if the machine was moving in slow motion. In reality it was very slow.

"Feels like just a few weeks ago we were fighting one of these...oh wait we were." Yang pointed out as she ducked under the mech and shot a few blasts of Ember Celia at it only for the shells to harmlessly bounce off.

"Focus girls, this thing is different from what I've seen," Winter called as she thrust her sabre at the mech only for it to bounce her right back, the shields flickering on it.

"You like that? Amped up dust shields, it could probably tank a goliath class Grimm... and a nuke or three" Bell said from inside the Paladin, Winter didn't know why, but she somehow felt the girl's smug look through the armoured machine.

"We don't have a lot of time on our hands, if what she said is right then the enemy definitely knows there's more of us, we need to warn the others..." Winter said trying to figure out how to take this thing down while simultaneously calling for backup.


-On the opposite side of the cavern-

Nova, Weiss and Blake were perched on the various roof tops of the abandoned buildings scouting for any signs of Ruby. Nova scanned the dimly light grey cityscape only to come up dry.

"Nova, what do your dragon eyes see?" Weiss called over the comms, not knowing the wrath she'd incur with that wording.

"They're taking the Ruby to Izengrad" Nova joked in response, he laughed at his reference.

"What? You've found Ruby?!" Weiss asked in confusion only for Blake to groan over the radio.

"He's referencing Lord of the Bracelets, I swear he's worse than Yang sometimes... Now is not the time to be a nerd!" Blake yelled in anger, though she herself found it funny.

"Well you set yourself up for that one, but seriously though, nothing I can tell. My sense of smell is clogged down here, too much dust, gunpowder and rock to discern anything. Most of the activity is just White Fang transporting crates through the various alleys to ah…" He paused as his eyes drifted toward a large metal machine on railroad.

"What's up?" Weiss asked confused at his sudden pause.

"Is that a train?!" Nova finally said causing the others to become confused.

"There's a train down here, the White Fang look like they're loading stuff onto it? Crates of something, and dust fuses?" Nova described the scene before him. A long train with multiple cars attached, being loaded with god knows what. "We really need to find Ruby and fast, I don't know what they're planning but it can't possibly be good." He said.

"Yeah we need to-" Blake was interrupted when the entire cavern shook violently causing her to almost fall off her perch.

"What the hell?!" she radioed over. Loud alarms blared, flashing in the distance, a glaring yellow light. "That's where Winter and the others are!"

"We need to get to them quickly!" Weiss exclaimed.

"But the train?" Blake asked concerned for the mission.

"Fuck the train our friends might be in danger!" Nova yelled so harshly Blake shook a little.

"Not that I don't care about our friends but I thought you were an objectives first type of leader?" Weiss asked as she regrouped, Blake falling in behind her. She held a lot of respect for the ASHN leader as he seemed very reliable and professional, especially from what she witnessed.

"My achievements say that, but my personal reports say otherwise, the mission can bite my ass for all I care, my friends come first." Nova said taking Asura out in its sniper form. If he was being honest with himself, he had no idea how his record looked as good as it did. Sure it wasn't spotless but he was a leader who moved at his own pace, how exactly did he become one of Haven's top first years was beyond him.


-Back at the hole-

Ruby was engaged with Roman in heated combat, her speed and his matched even and that puzzled her beyond all reason. The fight would have been over quickly had it not been a one on one, due to an intervention by a third party.

Luna, Nitro and Professor Oobleck had their hands full dealing with their own enemies, apparently when Roman called for backup, he didn't mean regular White Fang soldiers.

While Oobleck fended off White Fang troops, Luna was currently fighting none other than Dune, the four mechanical arm wielding mountain of a man they'd met previously. His brown button-down trench coat fitting around his arms like it was custom made, you had to wonder who tailored it. Unfortunately, Luna had no breathing room to muse over this as the rapid-fire barrage of fists came crashing into her proximity, she spun Galaxia in its staff form to deflect and parry the blows while rearing the axe head to counter-attack... her damage however was minuscule.

"The fuck is this guy made of?!" Luna practically screamed in frustration as Galaxia harmlessly bounced off Dune's shoulder, a shock reverberating through the weapon causing a chilling vibration that numbed her arms.

"Special metal alloy dearie, you should really get with the timesss!" The overly cheerful high pitched voice of Lyme came through from across her left, corrosive slime spreading around his sword as he chuckled madly, prepared to blindside the unsuspecting Luna. The laughter was stopped when a fist came crashing into the floor where he stood, unfortunately, it didn't connect.

The toxic green-haired drag queen, gracefully backflipped out of the way.

"Do you really have time to be gauging others? Or have your forgotten I'm your opponent!" Nitro seethed. He really hated this guy, after what he did to Ruby and Hex, those burns never healed right.

Lyme just laughed again, "Oh pleasssse, your too young to handle thissss," he said gesturing to his figure, his snake tongue flicking out at every pronunciation of the 's'. Nitro just spat on the ground, "Call me when you're a not gross and evil."

"Oh, darn, and here I thought you were cute." Lyme said almost as if he was truly disappointed.

Nitro launched his rocket-propelled fist directly at him but he easily evaded the brawler's sonic speed movements, as though he were reading his every motion. Lyme again backflipped but this time swept his blade in a horizontal pattern launching a wave of corrosive venom at the boy. His first instinct was to block it but the logical part of his brain remembered that coming into contact with that stuff was a death warrant, thus, at the last second, mere millimeters before it collided with him, he used his semblance on the soles of his feet, reducing their friction to a near zero. A genius idea no doubt, but all it really looked like from an outside perspective was him slipping on nothing causing the attack to miss.

"Not bad kid, ssseemsss you're pretty lucky," Lyme said with a giddy look on his features as if he were making fun of him. Lyme sailed gracefully through the air, aiming to land on one of the metal shipping crates. Nitro had another stroke of genius as his brain worked overtime, coming up with a brilliant method of defeating his foe.

Lying flat on his back, smirked, "It's not luck," just as Lyme landed onto the nearby shipment crate, he slipped, horrendously. His shoes weren't designed to fight on slippery environments and Nitro had just controlled his semblance to reduce the friction on the crate.

A resounding snap was heard when his feet came into contact with the metal, an uncharacteristically comical slip followed by a sickeningly loud crack of bone.

"ARGH! FUCK!" The drag screamed out in pain as he clutched his legs, face bright red with pain while his ankles were black and blue and clearly swollen.

"That's what you get for fighting in heels." Nitro said getting himself up off the floor with a smug look.

"YOU BASSSTARD!" He screamed again, clearly having both ankles broken was a much more painful experience than he'd have expected. Lyme's only option now was to stall for time until his aura healed him.

"Pleassse wait! You wouldn't hurt a lady would you?" He pleaded hoping to buy into his chivalry, only to receive a swift punch to the face knocking him out, and a few teeth as well.

"I don't care what you identify as." The red-haired teen cracked his knuckles, "Gender equality bitch," he said finishing, he was careful not to use too much force to avoid killing. Right now the snake's aura was focused on healing the wounds that it wouldn't do anything to protect him, the only reason the legs were broken was because he was so disoriented and confused by the slip that his brain had aura still focused on priming his semblance.


Luna was a little pressed in the fight. She was barely holding on by deflecting the attacks from Dune. If she had to compare, it was like someone decided to attach four tanks to a rotating machine and use them to beat someone as a blunt instrument. She wished more than anything to have her brother swoop in and blast this guy to smithereens but that wasn't happening, at least not anytime soon.

Dune let out a mad grunt as he changed his style from a direct barrage to rotating his body left and right, disorienting Luna. She tried desperately to parry the differing angles but she only had one staff and he had four arms. Barely managing to parry the two low blows that she was blindsided from above by his upper two arms, the sheer force of impact sent her crashing into one of the nearby metal crates, thankfully her aura and semblance lessened the impact. She may be small but her semblance also made her a tank. Dune let out a disgruntled noise as though he were disappointed she was alive.

She bit down on her thumb as she raised herself out of the wreckage. How the hell do I get out of this? My attacks do nothing to him, I might be physically resistant but he still hits like a truck. Think... what would Nova do?

She didn't have much time to ponder as she was again rushed by the mountain-sized man. Blow by blow she was taking damage, she would avoid half the attacks only to get smacked by the other two fists, it was a one on one but she was outnumbered. A swift punch to the gut had her coughing out blood, her aura was depleting fast as the amount of punches being set out at once barely left room to even breathe. A normal person would have already been dead had it not been for her semblance's ability to dramatically bolster defence. It didn't stop her aura from completely breaking soon after.

Through the barrage of fists, the pain gradually turned numb, black and blue bruises were beginning to form on her body and she could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness. A single sound kept her awake though, oh how she wanted to rest. A distinct creak, like metal struggling to keep up with its work. The mere thought roused her consciousness as an idea formed.

This is a longshot, Oum help me. She thought as she purposely took on four punches at once, using Galaxia to block two in place. Her arms were struggling to keep up with the sheer force he was applying. She glanced at the arm joints on him, and sure enough her hunch was right. While the metal was strong it wasn't perfect, consistent use for this long was burning through the mechanisms, all it needed was a little push.

She closed her eyes and felt the machine joints operate around his arms, finding the right flow of motion she reversed it while reflecting the change on the other arms. She jumped back letting Dune surge forward, her arms, and legs ached to stand but she did anyway. Plastered on her face was what one would refer to as a shit-eating grin.

Dune grunted in confusion unsure as to why she was smiling. Deciding not to think, as he usually did, he lunged his fists forward only for them to not?

"Hey dimwit, you ever hear about Newton's third law of motion?" Luna said the grin still on her face.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So what happens when I reverse those the flow of motion being propelled toward me?" She rhetorically asked.

Sure enough, instead of moving forward, Dune's fists ricocheted back toward him, the metal morphing inward and groaning as the force of the impact instead went back to him rather than to her. Instead of an opposite force being sent outward, the four mechanical arms blew off as phantom impacts made dents in his abdomen, breaking his aura and possibly all of his ribs in the process. The massive man was slumped down in a crater of his own creation, his coat torn off from the impact and Luna could see the armed mechanism on his back. The four arms were connected by what looked to be steam and hydraulic shafts. The most interesting thing however was that his back was encased in a hard shell, like an exoskeleton, resembling that of a Rhinoceros beetle. So he WAS a Faunus... makes more sense now as to why he's in Adam's circle.

"Checkmate," she finished, her right eye swollen over, blood leaking from her mouth, she clutched her sides and tried to limp back to her friends, caring to step over the half corpse she just created. The only reason she didn't use this strategy earlier was due to the fact that metal was still holding, had she reversed them earlier, all he would have suffered was a minor feeling of vertigo as the force was just absorbed back into the metal. Using her powers left her drained and exhausted so she would have just been a sitting duck. She had to focus on letting her aura slowly heal her as it had been broken earlier. Whatever little that had regenerated anyway.

She stumbled her way back to the hole they came in to find a knocked out Lyme and a bunch of what she hoped were passed out White Fang soldiers, she hoped the red spots on the floor were a result of her blurry vision and mild concussion. Nitro instantly rushed to support the collapsing girl.

"Dear god, what the fuck happened to you?!" Nitro asked concerned, trying to assess the damage only to come up with it being, 'extensive'.

"That four armed monster was like getting tossed into a rodeo naked against a nuclear bull. But he's in a worse shape than I am right now." She chuckled only to clutch her sides in pain.

"I should hope so, Nova is going to kill me for letting you get hurt," Nitro conveyed trying to cheer her up.

"I'm a big girl now, he will understand that sometimes I gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do." She said triumphantly.

"Where's Ruby and Oobleck?" she asked looking around confused, spotting Oobleck and Zwei on a pile of downed soldiers lying flat on his back groaning from exhaustion with Zwei resting atop him.

"Well that answers one question but what about…" at that moment Ruby came spiraling through the air like a missile with Roman in hot pursuit.

The red reaper ducked and dodged several cane bullets but the fight was just dragging on and it felt like he was just trying to stall for time but she couldn't figure out why.… then it hit her... literally, a giant robot came crashing through the area at breakneck speeds, turning over cargo crates and smashing through old buildings.

"Ah, it seems my backup is here," Roman said as he zipped passed Ruby and used his cane to swing onto the large mech.

"Hey sis long time no see," Yang said as she, Winter and Hex came barrelling in behind it layering the machine with shots only for the bullets to bounce right off the shields.

Oobleck and Zwei got up from their resting position and fell in line with the students. SHNRY and Winter with Oobleck were standing, squaring off against the mech.

"Damn Luna you look like shit," Yang said looking at the smaller blue girl, who in question gave her a lopsided grin. "You should see the other guy." She responded to which Yang gave her a thumbs up.

"Dune lost to you? I knew that dimwit couldn't handle himself, that's why Edan sent Lyme in with him," Bell said from inside the mech looking around for the drag queen, and groaned when she saw a knocked out green man.

"Of course, he failed. Looks like I have to do everything myself. Adam is going to be so pissed when he finds out," She spat.

"You won't be telling him because you're going to be in jail, give it up Roman," Ruby yelled up at him. He laughed maniacally, placing his hand over his head and tilting it back.

"Oh dear, Red you seem to misunderstand, I've already won," he said, snapping his fingers. As if it was all planned out, area lit up, the dark shadowy cavern was now alive with spotlights and the team could see clearly to the east, a train preparing to leave.

"What's on that train Roman, what're you up to?!" Winter yelled, as Nova, Blake and Weiss swung in and came up beside them. The first thing the dragon leader spotted was Ruby, which gave him an immense feeling of relief. The feeling was short lived when he noticed the massive mech squaring off against his friends.

"Of course you brought a giant robot. This is Remnant, where every other day we have rampaging war machines, great vacation destination." Nova said lining up beside his friends, his hands waving in exaggeration. He turned to Ruby, "Are you alright? I was... we were scared shitless when I... we couldn't find you..." he said amending his speech.

Ruby blushed faintly at his concern, "I'm alright... but we can save the pleasantries for later. We have to deal with him."

"Ah Red's not-boyfriend. Nice of you to finally drop in, you saved me the trouble tracking you down. I gotta say, you'll love what's on the train it's quite the explosive surprise," Roman said pointing his cane at them.


THERE'S JUST SO MUCH GOING ON AT ONCE. WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS ELLIE (As if you probably didn't figure it out) AND WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO OUR HEROES? Will Nova finally stop being a dense brick? Will Nitro ever find a boyfriend? Will they all explode? Find out next time on Dragon's Rise Z...

In all seriousness, I'm mad hyped for the next few chapters, this is arguably my favourite portion of anything I've written so far and you'll eventually find out why.

Stay awesome everyone (^_^)