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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 25: Paladins are the Worst
Now, when Ruby and Yang made it to Vale's central highway, they could easily see how augmented the Atlesian Paladin was. The giant mech was tricked out with a few more weapons than what was considered standard. It had what appeared to be a few added guns on each arm, shoulder mounted rpgs, and presumably a few more goodies. They only got a glimpse of it as it chased Blake past them at speeds that you would think it couldn't reach. Blake appeared to be struggling to stay ahead of the machine.
Ruby and Yang didn't hesitate. They immediately ran off after the giant robot, not that they could really catch up. Blake was only managing to stay ahead by leaping from car to car. Granted, she couldn't keep doing that. Traffic was incredibly light at night, and she was rapidly running out of cars. The paladin just plowed through cars as it chased after Blake. Seemingly with no care as to the state of the passengers within. More confusing was the fact that the machine wasn't firing at Blake. Ruby also noticed that none of the people in the cars were ever in any life-threatening states. Shook and injured? Yes. Fatally wounded? No.
Weiss soon joined, speeding along with the help of her glyphs. She used them to help Ruby and Yang as well.
"We need to get it off the highway!" Ruby shouted. "Weiss, you think you can get ahead of it and freeze the road?"
Weiss nodded and forced more aura into speed and time dilation glyphs. The raised highway curved around the city's primary shopping district. The curve ahead of them had a disused parking lot below it. Ruby could only hope that the building was empty. It should be considering it had been abandoned months ago, but you never know.
The three girls rocketed past cars, Blake and the paladin thanks to Weiss's help. The car Blake was on, the last car still on the highway for the moment was approaching at a rapid pace.
"Weiss, freeze the road. Yang, catch that car!" Ruby ordered.
Weiss stabbed her rapier into the asphalt. A sheen of slick, shiny ice spread across the highway. The car Blake was on hit the ice and lost all traction. So did the Paladin. Yang braced herself and poured aura into her arms and legs. The side of the car slammed into her and she slid into the guard wall. Fortunately, Yang managed to stop the car.
The same couldn't be said for the paladin. It lost traction on the ice and went through the guard wall, and onto the ground below. The girls quickly followed after it. They landed in the parking lot as the mech stood back up.
"Weiss, blind it. Yang, keep whatever focus it has. Blake and I will remove its missiles." Ruby ordered.
Yang was the first to start moving. Ruby and Blake each began flanking the Paladin. She pulled out her shotgun and began firing at the mech. Now, if there was ever any more evidence that Yang Branwen was the daughter of War, Ruby just found it. Yang wore the same smile that War always has when she enters conflict. A rather manic smile that delights in battle.
Yang's shotgun had been highly modified. It still fired a blast of pellets as you would expect it too, but its range was far greater than normal shotguns and it had an added kick. The strange pins that ran along the length of the barrel were incredibly powerful electromagnets. I suspect War had a hand in helping design the weapon. She may prefer melee, but railguns were always a favorite of hers. And Yang's shotgun had been modified to function like a railgun.
Each blast, while not puncturing through the armored mech, was still denting the metal. Each time the Paladin would shift focus, Yang would shoot at some of the various red sensors and lights. Every so often she would dodge away from one of the Paladins attacks. A metal fist slamming into the ground in front of her. One of the machine guns firing a spray of bullets in her direction. One of the missiles. Slowly but surely, the Paladin was taking damage. But Yang was running out of ammo.
Weiss, meanwhile, was expending much of the dust in her sword to blind the mech, as Ruby commanded. Layers of frost began spreading along the parking lot, coating the asphalt in frozen water. Weiss gave a silent prayer that her plan would as she ran out of ice Dust. Switching to fire, Weiss once more stabbed the ground and forced the fire Dust to burn just under the ice. The sudden introduction of heat to the ground forced the ice to undergo rapid sublimation. As a result, a nice thick fog blanketed their battleground.
Weiss smiled as her plan worked. The person piloting the mech could still relatively see, but the sensors couldn't.
Ruby ran around the side of the mech while Yang drew its fire. Blake was on the other side, drawing close. Ruby could see her dodging the mech's attacks with her semblance several times. Ruby had to roll under a missile that was aimed right at her. She scowled, whistled and summoned Death's Thorn. She could see a somewhat familiar soul piloting the Paladin.
With Death's Thorn in hand, as Ruby ran towards the back of the Paladin, she saw ice creeping along the ground. Before one of the sensors could lock onto her, the ice exploded upwards into a thick fog, completely enshrouding them from the Paladin. Ruby smiled and leapt onto the Paladin's back. With a swing, she cleaved her scythe right through the missile launcher and sundered the weapon from the Paladin. She quickly leapt off. A small explosion from the other side of the Paladin told Ruby that Blake had done her part.
Yang grinned as the explosion occurred. She had succeeded in keeping the Paladin's focus on her. The sound of gunfire approaching convinced her to dodge to the side. Right into the oncoming path of a massive metallic fist. Yang was thrown into one of the pillars supporting the highway. The girls could do nothing to stop the mech as it rushed forward and shoulder slammed Yang through the concrete pillar.
Ruby winced as Yang landed some distance away. Groaning and cracking could be heard from the road above as it lost one of its supporting beams. She turned and began firing her own pistol at the mech. Some of the metal plating had been destroyed by Yang, exposing some of the machine's inner workings. Weiss was throwing various Dust types at the Paladin, while Blake focused on keeping the machine distracted.
The Paladin was starting to struggle. The damage it had sustained was quickly destroying it. But it still fought on. Its fire was mostly focused on Weiss, while it tried to hit Blake and Ruby with its fists.
Yang pulled herself to her feet. She growled at the Paladin and slammed her fists together. Her hair appeared to catch fire and her eyes changed from lilac to their natural crimson.
Yep, Yang didn't die from that, though there were some bruises and a chunk of rebar in her shoulder. You see, while Blake has her shadow clones and Weiss has her glyphs, Yang has kinetic redistribution as her semblance. Any damage she sustains, her soul takes the kinetic energy and stores it as potential energy, which she can then spread throughout her body as needed to boost her strength, speed, durability, etc.
As such, her aura is rather large. Her soul is incredibly durable. It still sustains the damage that you would deal to it, but that energy is redirected into her attacks mostly. There is an upper limit, but she will break you before you ever reach it. Word of advice that you'll probably never need, but if you fight Yang Branwen, you need to take her out in the first few hits or be prepared to take a beating.
She shot forward, using some of the energy from being slammed through a concrete pillar to boost her speed. The Paladin reared back and threw a punch at Yang. Yang responded in kind and slammed her own semblance boosted fist into the Paladin's. A shockwave erupted from the collision as the Paladin's arm was completely destroyed. Yang had hit the Paladin's fist with enough force to break it completely off the machine. Metal crumpled, wires sparked and Paladin was thrown off balance. The force of the blow also pushed Yang back, and she could feel an intense pain in her arm. She'd be incredibly surprised if she hadn't broken any bones with that punch.
Weiss, Blake and Ruby regrouped with Yang and helped her up. They turned to the downed Paladin. Sparks were flying from where the arm once was, smoke was rising from the machine's body. Overall, it was a mess.
The cockpit opened and more smoke poured from the machine. A bang resounded through the area and a glowing red projectile flew towards them. Ruby's eyes widened. She whistled and brought her arms in front of her face. Silver light formed in her eyes as she braced herself.
Two translucent glowing red claws clasped around the projectile. The girls were the first to notice that the claws seemed to extend and warp into Ruby's shoulder. Blake was the first to realize that it was Ruby's own aura that was holding the projectile in place.
"Impressive moves, Red." A suave male voice said.
Roman Torchwick walked through the smoke, pointing his weapon at the girls.
"Torchwick!" Yang exclaimed.
"The one and only." He bowed.
"DON'T MOVE!" Ruby commanded as her teammates made to rush at the thief. "I barely have control of my aura as it is! I don't want it to attack you!"
"You best listen to the Reaperling." Torchwick taunted, as the girls stepped back. "But, fact of the matter is, the boss doesn't want to be your enemy."
"Why should we believe you?" Weiss asked. "You were just trying to kill us!"
"Well, considering who her father is, I don't really want to be her enemy. As for trying to kill you?" Torchwick paused. "That was a show for one of our clients, besides no one was seriously hurt."
"What do you want, Torchwick?" Ruby grunted.
The strain of holding her aura back was starting to get to her. I had taught her much, but she was still a novice. And no, I will not expand on our training. That is for her and her alone.
"I have a message for you from The Acquirer." Torchwick said. "The Devil in the Darkness partners with The Black Queen. Don't know what it means, but we must be off. NEO!"
A girl with pink and brown hair seemed to show up from nowhere. She smiled and gave a cheeky wave at Ruby and her team, before grabbing Torchwick's hand. Ruby could see when it happened. They started walking off, but their images stayed behind. She felt herself losing her grip on the projectile.
"DUCK!" Ruby yelled.
Her team looked at her briefly, only to see the strain she was under. They quickly complied. Ruby whistled and let go of the power she was channeling. Ruby dove out of the way. The projectile resumed its previous course and blew up the wall behind them.
Ruby sat up in time to see the image of Roman and Neo shatter like glass. She sighed and stood up. Soreness echoed throughout her body. The rest of her team got back up as well. A loud groaning could be heard again before a mighty crack. Ruby and her team cringed as a large section of the highway above began crumbling. Much of it still stood, there was just a large hole in the road around the previous location of the pillar that Yang was slammed through.
The sounds of sirens and a bullhead engine closed in around them. Ruby tiredly walked towards the wall. She sat down and leaned against it. Using her soul like she had taken a lot out of her.
She actually named that move Death's Embrace. It was originally meant to be a tangible shield, but, apparently, I gave her a bit more with that. Freezing a projectile but still preserving its momentum like she had is incredibly draining. Honestly, I would have just used a shield and let it blow up against that. I can understand why Ruby didn't though. For obvious reasons, she has more control when she temporarily freezes momentum than when she blocks attacks.
Anyway, police arrived on scene at about the same time as Professor Goodwitch. Ruby greeted her with a halfhearted wave. Glynda sighed and focused on getting the story from her teammates as Ruby nodded off.
Ruby woke up the next day in their dorm, her body still sore from the previous night.
"What happened?" Ruby asked no one in particular.
"The police and Goodwitch showed up. They took our story, video evidence from some of the civilians on the highway backed up our claims, and the Paladin was taken by Atlesian forces." Yang answered. "To keep our names out of the news, Professor Goodwitch decided that we would be put on probation until it's time for us to go on our first mission."
Ruby sat up. She noted that Blake and Weiss were absent. She also noted that it was about one in the afternoon.
"Where's Blake and Weiss?" Ruby asked.
"Library." Yang replied.
"Also, why didn't anyone wake me for classes?" Ruby asked.
"Not allowed to." Yang replied. "According to the nurse, you are suffering from severe aura exhaustion. Professor Goodwitch says you need to focus on getting full control of your aura. We can't have you knocking yourself out in the battlefield like you did."
"Anything important that I missed?" Ruby asked.
"There's a dance this weekend, and we have been volunteered to set it up." Yang replied. "Anyone you think you want to go with?"
"No." Ruby replied. "Not right now."
"Not right now?" Yang asked.
"Yeah. I have more important things to do." Ruby said.
"Like?" Yang asked.
"The Devil in the Darkness." Ruby replied. "If I'm not mistaken, that's probably Grimshaw."
"Do you know who the Black Queen is?" Yang asked.
"Nope." Ruby replied. "But if anyone does, it's-"
"Your dad?" Yang interrupted.
"Yep." Ruby answered. "I'll be back tonight."
"Where are you going?" Yang asked.
"To tell dad what we learned." Ruby said, opening a portal.
Yang couldn't say anything more as Ruby stepped through the portal into the Necropolis.
"Uh… ok, I guess." Yang said to the wall.
She got up and turned to leave. As she left, she got a notification on her scroll. A message from Weiss. As she turned off the screen, Yang noticed that the slight reflection on her scroll showed that her eyes were still crimson. She ran back into the dorm. The mirror in the bathroom confirmed that her eyes were indeed still crimson, not lilac. They hadn't turned back like they usually did after she used her semblance.
She opened up her scroll again and made a call.
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Data Log DoD-025
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Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
End Log S.T.K.