Ch 2. The Underland Train. Pt 1.
Roman Torchwick was many things, his rap sheet was testament to that. He was a scoundrel and a liar but he was first and foremost a thief, a gentleman thief he would insist, but he wasn't stupid. So when faced with the reality of an entire team of huntresses and Bart the bruiser? Hell yeah he ran. He ran towards the only means of escape that didn't send him fumbling through a Grimm infested forest, the train.
Slapping Melodic Cudgel against the brake release, he boarded the already moving platform with a quick hop. Gradually the repurposed transport began its weighted decline far beneath the surface to its destination. Sure it was probably a dick move to leave those animals to fend for themselves but they were all martyrs to the cause or whatever. Really, what did they expect? Little red he could handle, the banana man cosplayer? Definitely. Red's entire team and a fully trained veteran huntsman? That was well above his pay grade, if he was getting paid for this that is.
Plus he'd hardly bet that those mask wearing freaks had enough fighting power to turn on a radio much less fight off a huntsman. It really was a travesty having to work alongside these useless idiots. Wasting his time with a bunch of college dropouts more willing to die in a pointless gunfight than bear the indignities of everyday life. He was a thief for God's sake! "ThE cAuSe" meant nothing to him unless it had a fat paycheck.
'The animals do have one thing going for them though.' he thought to himself as he made his way up to the front of the train, waking every semi-descent fighter he passed along the way. 'Having a bunch of gullible idiots to die for you is pretty convenient.'
When the maelstrom came to a relative quiet, Kitten found himself feeling very impressed. The children alone had most of the masked mutants corralled or knocked out of the fight within minutes of the opening shots. Though the techniques of the youth lacked the temperance of experience the sheer power of their psyker abilities, for they had to be psykers that was the only sensible explanation, was captivating in itself. However, none of the flashy and powerful attacks they dealt were quite as notable when compared to the man with the thermos who, despite his rather scholarly appearance, needed only but a glare to subdue his opponents into immediate surrender.
So captivating was the fight in totality that it distracted the custodes from a rather important factor of the battle. For an entire second no less!
"Uh, ladies," he said tentatively. "Aren't we forgetting something?" his spear directing their attention to the already descending vehicle that the gang's leader had climbed aboard. Its image slowly fading into the distance along with the steady rhythm of its travel.
"Torchwick is getting away!" Ruby cried. In an instant every warrior in the room, that wasn't a cowering terrorist, turned their eyes on the fleeing transport each in hot pursuit.
The explosive blonde and the professor used their ordinance to blast themselves ahead and catch up to her. The courtesan showed a truly masterful use of her whip, hoisting herself aboard, while the dancer did straight up emperor damned magic right in front of his eyes.
'Thank goodness the inquisition isn't here.' he thought grimly, only to shake his head and realize he was falling behind. Racing after the speeding underland train, he realized something that should have been obvious.
"I'm not going to fit on that." he said, still running behind the speeding locomotive.
"You could always run along the top?" the blonde suggested.
"That's a terrible idea! It would never work." the ballerina sniped.
"Why not?" Yang asked incredulously.
"The outside of a train is dangerous, you could get blown off by the sheer wind force alone, plus we're underground. Who knows what kind of obstacles he might splatter against?"
"But they always do it in the movies. Plusitwouldbesuperawsomeandcool?" Ruby cut in.
"Reality isn't like the movie's Ruby! Look, there is just absolutely no good reason in any scenario on Remnant that going on top of a moving train would make sense! Plus I hate that trope." the white one said, crossing her arms as if to show how immovable she was in her position.
"Uh, we might not have a choice ladies, the doors are electronically locked." the bespectacled man cut in, ending the debate.
"Very well." Kitten said, bracing his legs below him to carry his golden armored body up and over the velocity of the train and onto its hood. Someone whistled in apparent appreciation of his mighty feat before the rest of the motley crew joined him.
As the great and proud warrior stood to his full height amongst them- Ting Ting Ting Ting Ting Ting Ting Ting Ting, his golden helm clanged against the rough ceiling of the underground passageway accompanied by the vocal response of the ancient custodes: "ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow."
Several precious seconds passed before the courtesan spoke: "Why don't you just duck?" To which the proud custodes did so and noticed a substantial improvement to his cranial health.
"Uh oh, looks like we've got company!"
His relief proved short lived as Yang's announcement signaled the arrival of several more terrorists and a rather crude if intimidating mimic of an imperator dreadnought flooding out of the train cars ahead to subdue them. This revelation was then followed by the sound of a disquieting beeping coming from just below the group's feet. In a flash the professor ripped a small metal panel off the train's roof, revealing a brick sized pack of explosives with a remote detonator device slapped onto it.
"Everyone move to the next car! Ruby! Yang! Hold off those Assailants! Miss Belladonna decouple this car before it blows, Miss Schnee please provide some cover for our enlarged friend here and provide support!"
With an authority born of years of experience the professor shouted his orders to the young warriors and the still bewildered gilded warrior. Even as each body moved to its given task in this highly unusual situation, Kitten's mind remained a whirlwind of questions. But he was still a soldier, so despite the fact that his curiosity wanted to hound the young sorceress with a flurry of questions as to how her powers worked even as he took up a firing position behind the magical ice shield she had conjured, he focused himself on the current situation.
"Professor," he cried above the rushing wind, "what is this tunnel? Where does it lead? What is all this for?"
"Doctor." the old man mumbled, "and my name is Oobleck, Doctor Oobleck, and these are the old Mountain Glen tunnels. Really young man, don't you know even the faintest bit of recent history?."
"No I don't." he answered curtly even as his lazer shots felled two more mutants trying to sneak a hit on Ruby, this really wasn't the time for a history lecture. "Enlighten me."
"It was a city," the little ballerina clarified, "a joint expansion project between Atlas and Vale but it failed when the defenses became overrun by mutated Grimm."
"Oh." kitten said, as if that explained everything. "What's a Grimm?"
"Succinctly put Miss Schnee as for the Creatures of Grimm-" a loud click and the screech of fading train wheels caught the trio's attention, pulling the professor to the edge of the second car to yell down at the courtesan. "Stellar work Miss Belladonna! I thought that would take you at least a few more minutes to hack through."
"I-it wasn't me, it decoupled itself!" she cried gesturing to the bomb rigged car already sever meters away by now.
"What?" the prof- Doctor said. The clear confusion and worry in his tone turning all four heads back to the fading mysterious bomb-car, just in time to watch it-
KABOOM!
A thunderous explosion of fire erupted out of the doomed train car, racing to the ceiling and collapsing the aged rockcrete above, sending it tumbling down onto the caboose's twisted remains.
Silence reigned for a moment, the four watching in stunned silence as the dust cleared to reveal a terrifying scene. Several creatures with pitch black scales and fur emerged, each wearing a vicious white mask burning with hateful and hungering beady crimson eyes, and each one looking directly at them.
"That Mr Kitten," the Doctor said hauntingly, "That is the Grimm. And this train… no." he said, running to the hatch on their current car and peering inside, then sprinting past cover to peer into the next car's as well. "They all have bombs!" he shouted back to them.
"And you said this train goes to a populated area right?" the custodes asked.
"Right into the middle of downtown Vale." the Doctor replied hauntingly.
"W-what does that mean?" the girl in white, Schnee she had been called, asked in shocked disbelief.
It was at this moment a certain Blonde boxer interjected herself from behind the good Doctor, making him jump slightly. "Wait, you mean these guys are going to bring a horde of Grimm into the city?"
"Miss Xiao-long shouldn't you and your sister be clearing out the assailants?"
"Oh yeah," Ruby interjected, "the explosion already took care of that." she gestured to the piles of groaning or unconscious terrorists lying accross the top of the train. "Turns out enhanced hearing isn't really a good thing to have when detonating explosives in a confined space."
Indeed only the dreadnoughts seemed unaffected, though they were halted by their unwillingness to stride upon their much squishier brothers in arms.
"WHAT?!" the Belladonna girl called from her place on the train car's edge, finger trying to clear the ringing in her ear.
"We need to stop this train!" Ruby declared.
"Okay, how?" the custodes asked dryly.
"Uh…" she faltered and stammered for a bit even as the device below their feet began to beep. The group wordlessly jumped onto the next car where miss Schnee spotted something.
"There, just a couple car's up, those cars are different. They must be for the passengers."
"Alright we'll use that to go after the main controls and hit the brakes on this thing. But those mechs are gonna be a problem." Ruby said, easily taking back control now that there was a clear course of action.
"I will handle the dreadnoughts." the custodes offered quickly.
"Alone? Are you sure?" the girl asked, concern showing in her eyes.
"Yes." he answered, "I have stood guard over the emperor of mankind for well over ten thousand years, these xeno rebels have nothing I have not faced a thousand times before. Go on, I'll take it from here."
With a nod the rest of the group made for the carriage to face the foes within, while the Custodes stood staring down his mech suited opponents. His cape flew through the air behind him with wild abandon, his eyes narrowed, and somewhere deep within the gilded recesses of his advanced imperial war gear a small smile spread across his face. Without the children in the way he would finally get to stretch his ancient muscles and really let loose. Besides, he still remembered how he'd gone out back on mars and he really wanted to bust some medal heads in.
"This is going to be fun."
AN: And here we go, sorry this took so long. Writer's block is not a joke. This chapter was actually supposed to be longer and go all the way to the train crash but I've had a struggle just getting it to this point, so I'm splitting it into two parts.
I've been trying to get a good garden going this year with tons of tomatoes and peppers and carrots and stuff, but they just announced another frost warning for tonight! Ugh. last year my plants died because of the heat, this year they'll die cus of the cold.
To all the people who think nature is kind: frick you and your nature with an industrial smoke stack.