Wow. So, uh, its been a while hasn't it?
I wanted to get back to this story sooner but life and other stories got in the way. I'm sorry if i made you guys think this was dead but hopefully I can bring back my fans and introduce some new readers.
Volume 6 has been stunning and mind blowing from beginning to end! It brought a fantastic ending to the Mistral trilogy and cannot wait for Atlas. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the revelations in episode 3 threw the entirety of the RWBY fandom in for a loop. Though I had to do some major rewrites, it thankfully wasn't enough to completely derail this story and I can still proceed along without any roadblocks.
With that being said, welcome back to the world of RWBY: Gun Sonata!
Review Time!
Guest #1: It'll happen soon.
Requester: It's already up!
GXY-2013: That will definitely happen near the end and you'll just have to wait and see what the reactions are.
Elusive Prey: Thank you for the positive review and im glad to have you back. I haven't thought about the Brother Gods yet as of this writing so it'll let me ruminate on some ideas.
SilentXD7: Well I'm back and they will stay as violent and foul mouthed as ever!
Kerrowe: Bulletstorm is insanely fun and you can pick it up for PS4! Grayson will go full blown lethal on the Grimm.
Ronmr: Thank you!
Hyde: Glad you like it!
Big Smoke: Maybe. You'll have to let me think on that for a while.
StormMarine: Could be possible! Need to do some major thinking about what I want to do with the Brother Gods.
Guest #2: I'll admit, they could've handled it better.
Bulletstorm and RWBY belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.
Chapter 8
Supplies and Betrayals
PLATEAU-MINING FACILITY
1 HOUR LATER
"And there you have it!" Ruby happily finished explaining.
"That's…uh…wow." Grayson replied in stunned amazement.
For the last hour Grayson and Ishi listened to the team's information on Remnant after they had finished their explanation of Earth and the Confederacy to them as the elevator continued to go down. The two of them were quite intrigued by this world. Remnant was almost similar to Earth in many ways. It had its own technology, mythology, history, culture, society, even its own religion. The only glaring differences were The Four Kingdoms, Auras/Semblances, Dust, the Huntsman Academies, the Faunus and the Grimm.
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around these Grimm things." Grayson said as he scratched his head. Those creatures were by far the most confusing aspect about this planet. From what he and Ishi had learned, these monsters had been around on Remnant longer than anyone could remember, had forms based around animals and they were solely attracted to negative emotions. "I mean, there's gotta be some kinda rational explanation for em'."
"I do not think there is, Gray. There's something supernatural about these creatures." Ishi said, remembering how he was unable to get a scan of their blood and their corpses dissipating after death.
"Their existence continues to be a mystery and there's still no concrete evidence of their origins or how they came to be." Ren stated.
"But as long as there are Huntsman and Huntresses out in the world, the Grimm don't stand a chance!" Ruby declared.
"I'll hold you to that, seeing how skilled your teammates are." Grayson agreed. "Still wondering how you're able to fight in skirts."
Ruby and Weiss looked at each other before looking at Grayson. "They're combat skirts." They said together. Nora instantly popped up between the two. "Yeah!" She said as she high fived them.
Grayson could only let out a chuckle at their enthusiasm but Ishi felt very uncomfortable with the idea of these Academies training students at such a young age to fight inhuman monsters, especially since Ruby was only 15 years old. It felt too much like they were recruiting child solders.
"So does everyone on this planet have an Aura and Semblances?" Grayson inquired.
"Any living thing with a soul can generate an Aura but Semblances are a rare case." Pyrrha explained. "They only manifest either through rigorous training, intense stress or by other means."
"Like getting hit by lighting!" Nora piped in. "That's how I got mine!"
Grayson couldn't help but feel amazed that these kids (sans Jaune) had superpowers. Whether it was super peed, shadow clones or magnetism, the little fanboy inside of him was spazzing out. Though he did have one question on his mind. "So are you kids sure it's not…you know…magic?"
The teams looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing. Ishi gave Grayson an odd look, prompting him to look embarrassed.
"Gray, I understand this all seems fantastical to you but everybody knows that magic is purely fictional." Pyrrha lectured after she stopped laughing.
'Kinda redundant seeing as how almost everything about this planet should be fictional.' Grayson thought to himself. "Yeah, I kinda walked into that one. Anyway, thanks for tellin' us about your planet. The info's really helpful."
"No sweat! Thanks for telling us about…" Yang said as she started to trail off as she became worried. "…about the Confederacy."
Grayson nodded as he watched everyone's expressions turn grim as they looked at the floor. For the youngsters of Remnant, the Confederacy was WORSE than they thought. Corruption, abuse of power, slavery, subjugation, human experimentation, mass executions, genocide, the Confederacy was absolutely monstrous. Compared to Atlas, they were on a whole nother technological level but solely used it for destruction and enslavement. But the scariest thing about them was that they had discovered Remnant. As soon as they finished helping Grayson and Ishi get off the planet, they were going straight to Ozpin and warn him about the threat the Confederacy posed ASAP.
"Isn't there anybody that's opposing the Confederacy? Anybody at all?" Blake asked desperately.
Grayson scratched his chin in thought. "Well…there has been a resistance faction fighting against them for pretty long time but they've been really quiet as of late."
"I suppose it's difficult for them to fight seeing as how the Confederacy operates on a million planets." Jaune awkwardly guessed.
"Not exactly. The Confederacy has bases stationed on a scant few worlds. A vast majority of the planets in our galaxy are either dangerously inhospitable or are Gas Giants." Ishi told him.
Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Gas Giants? What are those?"
"They're large planets of relatively low density consisting predominantly of hydrogen and helium. Nothing can survive on them." Ishi informed. Everybody took this information in with great interest. They didn't know there were planets like that in space or how complicated they were.
Grayson impatiently looked at the elevator controls and began banging his fist against it. "Cant this fuckin' thing go any faster?!" He angrily complained.
Yang quickly covered Ruby's ears. "Dude! What did I just say?!"
"You really need to stop with the constant swearing." Weiss scolded.
"And you need to seriously ease up on the bedazzling, Snowflake. It's a dress, not a chandelier." Grayson shot back as he jabbed a finger at her clothing.
Weiss let out a quiet gasp as she grew angry and marched up to Grayson just as the elevator stopped and the doors began to open. "Now see here you-"
The elevator was suddenly bathed in a red and yellow glow as everyone looked towards the source of the light. Before them was a massive cavern filled to the brim with fire and lightning Dust crystals everywhere. It covered ground, walls and ceiling; casting a majestic glow all over the cavern. Mesmerized, the group stepped out of the elevator, taking in the sight of Dust as far as the eye could see.
"Dear diary: JACKPOT!" Nora exclaimed as she pumped her fists. Ruby looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"So this is the reason the White Fang made their encampment here." Ishi observed. Blake looked around the area in amazement. Ishi brought up an accurate point; this mine provided the insurgents with all the Dust they needed.
"No kidding. This whole mine is wall to wall Dust!" Yang agreed as she looked over dozens of crates containing vials of Dust.
Grayson plucked off one of the crystalline outcroppings of lightning Dust and inspected the shard. It slightly tingled in his palm and made some of the hairs on his arm stand up. "I don't get why you kids call this Dust. I mean, wouldn't it be easier just to call them Power Crystals?"
"That sounds utterly ridiculous. As for the reason why we call it Dust; it's because it has far more usage when it's in a refined, broken down state." Weiss explained.
"But it started out as a crystal and when you call it Dust, you get it confused with the kind that collects around your house." Grayson countered.
"Well, I kind of see your point but-"
"See? See? I just drilled a huge hole in your logic!"
"It's always been called Dust, okay?!" Weiss exasperated as she stomped her foot.
Grayson rolled his eyes. "Look, you call em' whatever you want, I'm stickin' to calling them Power Crystals. It sound better and it's a helluva lot less confusing than Dust." He said as he walked away to join Ishi.
Weiss fumed as her eye twitched in annoyance. Ruby walked up next to her. "Kinda brings you back to when we first met, huh?"
Weiss calmed herself down and sighed. "You were willing to learn about Dust back then. He's doing this on purpose."
The two rejoined the group as they walked along the rocky pathway. As they headed deeper into the mine, they saw dozens of mining equipment, excavation vehicles and Dust processing machinery, no doubt repurposed for the White Fang. "Why would anybody just abandon this mine and leave all of their stuff behind?" Jaune wondered.
"There are a number of factors for that. Poisonous gasses, cave-ins, usually subterranean species of Grimm are the leading cause." Ren stated.
"Well whoever co-opted this joint certainly ain't gettin' their deposit money back." Grayson commented.
"For once, I agree with you." Weiss said. "Leaving all of this equipment here would cost the company in charge of this place millions of Lien. I mean, who would be so irresponsible to just recklessly abandon-"
"Um…Weiss?" Blake tapped her shoulder to garner her attention. Blake then pointed to the side of one of the excavators. Emblazoned on it was a stylized snowflake symbol with large captions underneath it that said, PROPERTY OF SCHNEE DUST COMPANY.
Weiss visibly deflated. "Oh." So that explained that one time her father was livid.
Ishi inspected the label. "Schnee? You own this company?"
"Technically my father owns it." Weiss corrected. "The Schnee family is the largest producers and exporters of Dust in the world."
"Now I know where the snobby attitude came from." Grayson whispered to Yang.
"She's actually gotten better." She reassured him.
Nora noticed Pyrrha had a serious look on her face. "What's up?" She asked her friend.
"Does anybody else here that?" Pyrrha asked those present and she put a hand up to her ear. "Listen."
Everyone stayed quiet and listened closely. Just around the corner, they could hear beeping noises. "That sounds familiar…"Ruby remembered.
Grayson instantly recognized what it was. "Sweet! Another Dropkit!" He ran over to the source of the beeping and disappeared around the corner as everyone followed him. Rounding the corner, the inhabitants of Remnant saw one of the strange lockers with tools scatters around it.
"Those came from the sky earlier! It almost crushed me!" Ruby exclaimed as she pointed at it.
"What exactly do these things do?" Blake asked.
Grayson smiled. "Prepare to have your minds blown…" His leash hooked up to the Dropkit an after a few seconds, it began to shine a light onto the ground and 3D printed a pile of ammo! Everyone's jaws fell to the ground.
"What and how?!" Yang shouted in disbelief.
"COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" Ruby and Nora squealed.
"That's unbelievable!" Jaune gasped.
"Astounding!" Weiss whispered in amazement.
Ren, Pyrrha and Blake were stunned silent. This was a technological marvel that Atlas could only dream of creating.
"Yup! Thanks to this little beauty, we can rearm ourselves lickety-split." Grayson proudly explained as he pocketed the shotgun shells.
"Provided you find more of these in the field." Ishi reminded him as he collected more mags for HeadHunter. Grayson shrugged in response.
Ren continued to be gob smacked just as the others were, until a thought entered his mind. "Gray, is there a possibility that this Dropkit might create supplies for us as well? We might be in for a long journey."
"Huh….sounds like it's worth a try. Hand me one of your guns." Grayson said as he held out his hand. Ren gave him one of his StormFlower handguns and Grayson began to scan it with his leash. He smiled.
"Good news, guys! The scan checks out; looks like you're all gettin' a big pile of ammo! Just let me give Ren his share and I'll do the rest of y'all." Grayson gleefully informed them. Ruby and Nora could barely contain themselves. Everyone else eagerly awaited to have their weapons scanned and get resupplied while Jaune felt left out due to the fact that he had no firearms. Grayson pressed the rearm button but an error message popped up, causing him to frown.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.
"Dunno." Grayson shrugged as he looked at the screen on his leash. "Apparently it says, 'Invalid ammunition.'"
"It can't create our planet's ammo? Why do you think is the reason for that?" Jaune wondered.
"I have a theory." Ishi announced. "The Dropkit can only create ammo that's been manufactured by the Confederacy. Remnant obviously uses its own unique form of munitions, something an invention of Confederate design cant replicate."
Grayson nodded in agreement and handed Ren his weapon back. "Sorry, guys. Looks like you're gonna have to find another way to get yourselves resupplied."
"Don't sweat it. I'm sure we'll find more ammo. Besides, I doubt that thing can create Dust bullets." Ruby assured him.
"You use Power Crystals in your ammo?" Grayson inquired, ignoring the irritated look Weiss was giving him.
"Yeah! Regular bullets works fine on Grimm but Dust-infused rounds works much better against them. We also use dust for our homes, cars and just about everything else!" Ruby explained.
"So that leash lets you rearm whenever you find those Dropkit things?" Yang inquired.
"Yeah but you gotta earn Skillpoints first. The Instinct Leash utilizes a Skillshot System based on how efficiently you eliminate your enemies. If you dispatch your foe in a unique or stylish way, you get Skillpoints that will let you resupply your weapon." Grayson informed them.
Team RWBY and Team JNPR weren't sure what to make of it. It sounded like something out of an awesome videogame but when applied to real life, it sounded very…disturbing.
"That's sounds…" A mortified Pyrrha began before Grayson cut her off.
"Pretty kickass, right?"
"What?! No, it's horrific!" She exclaimed. "What kind of twisted madman would implement a system that encourages sadism and dehumanizes enemies?!"
"I think you just answered your own question." Ishi said rhetorically.
Pyrrha and the others weren't sure what he meant by that but it soon began to dawn upon them what he meant: Sarrano. So far Grayson and Ishi were making him out to be as every bit as immoral as they described. Remnant would never invent such a grisly weapon.
"Yeah, that actually does sound pretty fucked up now that I think about it." Grayson admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.
"But like we said, you can do whatever you want to the Grimm." Nora reminded him, though even she began to doubt her own words.
Grayson nodded but then he and Ishi noticed the hard glare Blake was giving them. They avoided her gaze. An hour earlier, they learned about the Faunus from her and the daily injustices her kind went through. Many years ago, following a war between Humankind and the Faunus, they were allowed to live within the Four Kingdoms but were still heavily discriminated against. Thus the White Fang was formed and functioned as an activist organization that strived for improved relations between Humans and Faunus, as well as fought for civil rights.
But unfortunately, after a number of years, the once peaceful organization transformed into a violent terrorist cell chillingly reminiscent of the Taliban and Irish Republican Army. They began to employ radical, ruthless and deadly methods in a bid to show the world that the Faunus were superior. Because of this, the White Fang gained much notoriety and infamy Remnant. But Blake professed that they were not evil, but rather misguided as she revealed that she too was once a member but left after the group had gone astray.
Now they understood why she was so angry at them for killing those White Fang members earlier. She wanted to avoid any more Faunus deaths and she had no doubt done the math and knew that Grayson previously attained Skillpoints for killing them so horribly.
Grayson swallowed. "We should get a move on."
They all entered a tunnel ahead of them but before leaving, Pyrrha noticed the numerous claw marks all over the Dropkit before rejoining the others. The group traveled through the tunnel for a while until they came upon the exit which had been blocked off by a cave in. Luckily; there was a gate next to it that offered an alternate route.
Grayson kicked the gate down and followed another tunnel which ended at a shallow stream leading deeper into the mine. He checked his leash and showed the energy reading leading downwards. "Only way down." He said to himself as he cracked his neck in preparation.
"Wait, you can't be serious!" Weiss said, pointing to the stream.
"What's the matter? Afraid of getting a little wet?" Grayson teased.
"No but there's a better alternative to than just going down a precarious stream without even knowing what's-"
"Times up!" Grayson blurted as he hopped into the stream and slid all the way down! "WAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!" He hollered.
Everyone stared in dumbfounded confusion as Grayson disappeared from view.
"Did he really just…?" Jaune blinked.
"Well that just burns me up." Nora pouted.
"Why? That he didn't listen to my advice?" Weiss pointed out.
"No. Cause he got to go first!" Nora chirped and she jumped in after him! "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Ishi shook his head. "Brilliant. It's like having two Graysons now." He lamented as he walked towards the stream.
"I wouldn't exactly say it like that. Nora's just being herself." Ren stated as he and Ishi went down.
"Well, being a Huntress was never going to be a clean job." Ruby shrugged as she went after them. The others followed suit with Jaune and Pyrrha using their shields as makeshift boards. This left Weiss by herself. Sighing in resignation, Weiss summoned a row of Glyphs upon the stream and used them to skate her way down instead.
A lone White Fang soldier yawned as he leaned against a crate of Dust vials. The bear Faunus checked his watched and sighed in boredom. Why did he have to get stuck on guard duty? He should've been helping out the rest of his comrades outside the base, not getting stuck with probably the dumbest job on Remnant.
His mind began to wander off as he recounted the loud rumblings that shook the entire base topside. He heard chatter over the radio that a giant spaceship crashed through the moon but he shrugged it off as an earthquake and his buddies were just overacting.
Feeling the urge to bleed the lizard, he set his weapon down on the crate and went over to the stream next to him. He began to unzip his fly-
"RISE AND SHINE, BIRTHDAY BEAR!"
The bear Faunus barely had enough time to snap his head over to the left to see a burly-looking man slide down the stream, spring forth and shoulder ram him into the cave wall, knocking him unconscious.
"Heh, man really sinks into work." Grayson chuckled as he picked himself up. He checked the goon's pulse and was relieved that he was still breathing. So far he was doing well on swearing not to kill any more White Fang. Spotting a crate nearby, he emptied its contents onto the ground, picked up the mook and dumped him into the crate where he shut it closed. He looked at the vials of fire Power Crystals and knelt down to pick one up. He noticed that these all had labels on them that said, WARNING: VOLATILE WITH A TENDENCY TO EXPLODE.
Looking down at his empty grenade belt (he forgot to grab some when he left his ship), Grayson got an idea and began slotting the vials into the holders. He heard the sounds of hyperactive laughter and turned around to see Nora come into view and splashed to a halt in the stream.
"Let's do that again!" She excitedly giggled, not caring that she was soaking wet. Ishi and Ren soon came down with her, followed by Ruby, Yang and Blake. Jaune and Pyrrha came down riding on their shields.
"I knew it!" Yang laughed as she wrung the water out of her hair. "I totally knew you guys were gonna use those as boogie boards!"
Pyrrha and Jaune blushed with embarrassment as Ishi noticed something. "We are short one person."
A row of glyphs appeared before the group and they saw Weiss gracefully skate down and hop off with a dignified posture.
Grayson scoffed. "You are such a wuss."
"Do not start with-wait. What are you doing with those Dust vials?" Weiss began before she noticed what Grayson had slung along his belt.
"Glad you asked! Since me and Ishi and gonna be on Remnant for a while, I might as well put your Power Crystals to good use." Grayson answered gleefully. "Like say, use them as makeshift firebombs!"
Weiss groaned as she rubbed her temples. At this point, this overly muscled buffoon was going to drive her insane and some of her friends were taking some form of amusement from all this. Checking his Leash again, Grayson looked to the long tunnel before the group, lined with dimly lit lightbulbs and several crates along the walls.
"So is that energy reading pointing us in the right direction?" Ren inquired.
"Yup. With any luck, that energy Power Crystal we're looking for should be just up ahead." Grayson affirmed.
"Then let us be on our guard. We are not safe down here." Ishi cautioned as he and the others went down the tunnel.
PLATEAU-SECRET WHITE FANG BASE
"I think I'm going to be sick…" Emerald gagged.
"If you're gonna puke, don't do it all over me." Mercury said as he stepped away from her.
Earlier the two of them had arrived at the site of the first crashed ship but it was now at the bottom of the plateau in a flaming heap, which left exploring it out of the question. They did, however, notice the multitude of footprints that led away from the crash site and followed them to one of the White Fang's weapons caches and were greeted with the bloody sight of dozens of mutilated White Fang soldiers.
"Do you think the Grimm did this?" Mercury asked her.
"No." Emerald confirmed after composing herself. "I've seen victims of Grimm attacks before. None of these bodies have any bite marks or claw marks."
Inspecting the bodies, Mercury could see that she was right. He noticed several spent rounds around the area and picked them up. They were shotgun shells and sniper rounds but were certainly unlike anything produced by any Kingdom. They were almost as big as his hands!
"I think it's safe to say our extraterrestrials visitors had a little run in with our pals." Mercury mused as he looked at the footsteps leading into the encampment.
"Please tell me you don't seriously think its aliens." Emerald shook her head.
"Emerald, we just saw a spaceship the size of a freakin' city rip straight through the moon. What part of that doesn't sound like aliens to you?" Mercury astutely pointed out.
"Look, all I'm saying is-" Emerald saw a Bullhead quickly nearing towards them out in the distance. "Damn, we've got company."
"Woah, easy there. It's one of ours." Mercury calmed her as he noticed the White Fang insignia spray-painted on its side. The bullhead landed near them as several White Fang stepped out.
"Did Adam send you guys?" Mercury asked them as he and Emerald walked over.
"Yeah. We're here to check up on one of our hidden bases." A rabbit Faunus explained. "Didn't expect to see you two here, though."
"We're investigating those ships that fell from the sky earlier. Orders from Cinder." Emerald informed. "What's been going on back in Vale?"
"The whole city's still a wreck. Adam told us to head over here to see if this place is still in one piece and bring back any supplies we can use." A pig Faunus told her.
"OH MY GODS! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!" A gecko Faunus shouted as he saw the mutilated corpses of their comrades.
"You got whoever came out of the ships to blame. Apparently they razed this base long before we came here." Emerald answered.
The gecko Faunus gritted his teeth in anger. "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up our brothers and sisters!"
"I can't believe it. We're actually being invaded by aliens!" A lamb Faunus gasped as she shook with fright.
"I know, right? Totally pulled the wool over my eyes! No pun intended." Mercury agreed, earning an unamused look from her.
"Hey guys! I got Adam on short wave communications!" A mouse Faunus announced as the others hurried back to the Bullhead. This left Mercury and Emerald to discuss their next course of action.
"So what's the plan now? I mean, where exactly do we go from here?" Mercury pondered. There wasn't anything eft for them to search out and the White Fang could take it from here.
"Orders are orders." Emerald firmly stated as she folded his arms. "Cinder told us to investigate the crash sites, learn anything important and then report back to her. Do you have enough Dust in those boosters for the trip to that other ship?"
Mercury knelt down and checked his prosthetics. "Got enough fuel in the tank for another trip but then that's it; I'll be tapped out. Might make the trip back to Vale a long one."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Emerald assured. She looked at the dead bodies and felt uneasy once again. "What do you think should we do if we run into anybody from the ships?"
"You mean the aliens." Mercury corrected.
"I'm not dignifying that." Emerald shot him down.
Mercury gave it some thought. "She did say the choice was up to us…" He and Emerald saw the squad of White Fang walking back over to them. "That was quick. What did Adam have to say?"
The White Fang said nothing and began aiming their weapons at them!
Emerald and Mercury jumped back with shocked expressions! "What the hell are you doing?!" Mercury demanded.
"Sorry kids." The rabbit spoke as an evil smile spread across his face. "New orders."
BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA
The two barely managed to doge the gunfire and ran towards a dismantled car for cover! Ducking behind it, Mercury and Emerald hunkered down to avoid the hail of bullets as it began to chip away at the vehicle. Emerald carefully peered out of one side of the car and saw one of them reach for a grenade around his belt!
Gripping the explosive in his hand, the mouse Faunus was just about to pull the pin when a guttural shriek came from behind the White Fang. They turned around and saw to their horror was a Deathstalker crawling right towards them! They fired wildly at the Grimm but its shots passed right through it! Its stinger shot towards the lamb Faunus and she shrieked in terror as it went through her abdomen! But there was no pain and no blood. It just went through her body like it was a hologram!
The Deathstalker vanished into thin air, confirming that is was indeed an illusion. As the White Fang stood in flabbergasted silence, one of them noticed that their targets were no longer behind the car…
Running through the steel corridors of the base, Mercury and Emerald stopped to catch their breaths. The use of Emerald's Semblance had bought them enough time to flee and locate a hidden door that led them into the repurposed mining facility. The two of them felt a rush of emotion as the situation began to weigh down on them.
"He betrayed us….Adam…" Emerald whispered in shock, still rattled from the experience.
"Fuckin' horned emo asshole!" Mercury raged as he slammed his fist on the wall. "If I ever see him again, I'm ramming that sword of his FAR up his ass!"
Emerald was beginning to wonder if this was payback for brutalizing everyone at Adam's camp after their somewhat successful ambush on the Fall Maiden. Then, she realized something that brought fear to her heart and great concern over the woman she looked up to.
"We have to go back!" Emerald urgently told her partner.
"Go back? We can probably take on a few of them but those guys are armed to the-"
"No! We have to get back to Vale and help Cinder! If Taurus sent these guys after us, then he's going to go after Cinder as well!"
Mercury seemed oddly unconcerned. "So? I ain't worried."
"What?!"
"Cinder can handle herself just fine. She may only have half of the Maiden's power but she's no pushover. Remember how she wiped out all those White Fang goons when we went back to Adam's camp? Or how she held her own against Ruby when she caught her at the CCT tower? She's gonna be just fine! I'm sure that once we wrap this mission up and come back to Vale, Cinder's gonna have Adam on his knees begging for forgiveness." Mercury assured.
"You've got a point…" Emerald said as she looked at the ground, absorbing the facts that Mercury gave her. She then shook her head. "But we could at least warn her! I still think we should head back over to Vale and-"
"Emerald, do you remember the last time we didn't listen to Cinder?"
The pickpocket paled as she remembered Cinder's words…
"Don't think, obey."
"Look, if it makes you feel any better, she's got Neo to back her up. Plus, we might find something on that ship that'll help with our plans." Mercury offered.
Thinking long and hard, Emerald heavily sighed. "…Okay. But I hope you're right about this."
"Hey, I got faith in her." Mercury replied with a confident smile. "Now let's focus on getting to that ship and finding a way out of here."
Emerald noticed an empty elevator shaft. "There. We can find an exit at the bottom."
They two of them leapt towards the cables, grabbed a hold of them and began to rappel down deeper into the facility.
Traversing through the tunnels, the group of Huntsmen/Huntresses and Space Pirates finally reached the end after what seemed like forever. Before them stood a large, heavy steel door that hadn't been used in a while. The controls to open it were beside the door but had been dismantled a long time ago.
"Yang, give me a hand." Ishi requested, earning a nod from the blonde brawler. Gripping one side of the door, Yang and Ishi began to slide it open with all their might. Everyone went through the door once it was open and their eyes widened in surprise. The room they were in was a massive hanger with over a dozen Bullheads lined up in rows! Not only that, but the saw dozens of crates filled with Dust and heavy weaponry lining both sides of the walls!
"Glorious mother of shit! There's enough heavy ordinance here to take over a small lunar colony!" Grayson gawked.
"Soooooo….is this anything like what you guys saw on that trip with Professor Oobleck?" Nora asked Team RWBY.
Grayson raised an eyebrow. 'Oobleck? Like that Dr. Seuss book?'
"Yes, but….it looks like Mountain Glenn wasn't the only hidden base the White Fang had." Blake replied.
"What do you mean by that-URGH!" Grayson asked before suddenly hissing in pain and clutching the wound on his thigh. He slumped against a railing as the others hurried over to him. "Dammit, starting to act up again."
"That needs to be stitched up immediately! You can't go on like this!" Pyrrha pointed out with great concern.
"My friend's life matters more." Grayson gruffly replied.
Ruby was becoming very worried about Grayson's condition. She wasn't a doctor but she knew that if his wound wasn't treated, he wouldn't last the rest of the trip. She frantically looked around for something that could help him and as luck would have it, she spotted a metal crate with a medical symbol stamped onto the side.
"Guys! There's some first aid stuff we can use!" She said, pointing to the crate. Ishi went over, pried it open with his bare hands and fished out several boxes of medical supplies. Pyrrha grabbed some and rushed back to Grayson.
"Don't worry; I'll get that closed up before you know it." Pyrrha assured him.
"Actually, let me do the stitches." Blake offered. "I've done it several times before when I was with the White Fang."
Pyrrha nodded and moved aside a little to let Blake work. While this was going on, the rest of the group marveled at the collection of firepower before them.
"Where do you think they got all this? Most of this is Atlesian technology." Weiss observed.
"I'm more concerned about what they were planning on doing with all of this stuff." Yang remarked as she looked over a rack of riot shields.
"It's strange…" Ruby narrowed her eyes at the Bullheads. "This is different from what we saw at Mountain Glenn. They were using that train to transport supplies but this looks like they were hoarding all of this. But why?"
"I think we should focus on bigger matters here. We can tell General Ironwood about this base after we get done helping…hold on. That's it!" Jaune realized, snapping his finger.
"What?"
"You said earlier that we would find another way to resupply during the mission. Well, we just so happen to be standing in a room chock full of ammo, Dust and other helpful gear we need for the trip!" He answered, gesturing to the hanger. "Plus, I don't think the White Fang will mind if some of their stuff went missing, know what I mean?"
Nora began bouncing up and down. "I like where this is heading!"
"A sound tactical decision, Jaune." Ishi complimented.
"Alrighty then!" Ruby clapped her hands. "Grab everything that isn't nailed down!"
"Way ahead of ya, sis!" Yang eagerly replied.
As the others went with Yang, Ishi stopped Ren and Weiss. "I need your assistance with something."
"What do you need help with?" Ren asked.
Ishi pointed to the Bullheads. "Disabling their air support. We must leave the White Fang with no means of pursuit."
"I like the way your new brain thinks!" Grayson called out as Pyrrha began to apply disinfectant.
Jaune, Ruby, Yang and Nora grabbed several army-style backpacks and began stuffing them full of ammo for each respective weapon the group had, Dust, first aid, water and MREs (Nora thought they were chocolate bars).
Ishi, Ren and Weiss were taking care of the Bullheads. Ren severed the wires underneath the controls, Weiss used electrify infused Glyphs to short out the electronics while Ishi settled for ripping off the controls and smashing his bionic fist through the consoles.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Blake were hard at work fixing up Grayson's wound. Pyrrha finished washing off the blood and disinfecting the wound; moving aside to let Blake properly stich it up. Thankfully, the wound inflicted by the Boarbatusk wasn't as bad as originally thought out to be but it still needed to be closed.
"Are you absolutely sure you don't want me to bring any Painkillers or Morphine along for the trip?" Pyrrha pressed.
"It's only gonna make me wonky, Pyrrha. I don't wanna get addicted to that shit." Grayson remarked. "I'll just tough it out."
"Okay, I'm going to add on another layer. Hopefully that'll fully close it up." Blake said as she started to apply more stitches to the wound.
"Thanks for everything yer doin. Means a lot." Grayson thanked her.
Blake gave him a stoic look and resumed stitching. "Don't mention it." She replied, though her tone of voice sounded like she wanted to say, "Don't mention it ever."
Grayson sighed. "Look, I know you're still mad about what happened earlier but I was only defending myself. I didn't know that things worked differently here or how much your people meant to you. I'm sorry. I really am." He apologized.
Blake looked at him with that same expression again for a few seconds before focusing on her job. "I want to believe you."
Pyrrha was unsure of how to approach this but knew that this was between Grayson and Blake so she decided to stay out of it.
"If you don't forgive me, I fully accept that. But you gotta know that something like this was bound to happen with you. When you're forced into defending yourself, you can't pull your punches."
Blake shut her eyes as hard as she could. "I know…" she then opened them, her amber orbs now filled with sadness and reluctant acceptance. "I've just seen it happen too many times to too many Faunus."
"About that, I kinda understand what you're all going through. It's the same where I come from." Grayson glumly revealed.
Blake stopped stitching and blinked in surprise. "It is?"
"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, there's no Faunus where I come from but there's all sorts of people on Earth that are of different races, nationalities, beliefs, views…for a time, we had moved past all the bigotry for those differences and there was peace." His eyes drifted to the ground. "But then the Confederacy rose to power and they hatefucked decades of progress into oblivion."
Pyrrha and Blake listened to this with unwavering attention.
"The thing is that I've never held any sort of discrimination against those kinds of people. They were just like everyone else in my eyes." He gaze shifted to Blake. "The same goes for you and the Faunus. It doesn't matter if you have animal traits; you're just as equal as everyone else and deserve the same respect and treatment just like humans. I sympathize with you because your story about leaving the White Fang reminds me of how I left the Confederacy."
Blake was left utterly amazed by what she heard. There were few people on Remnant who shared such views about the Faunus and hearing something like this from someone who came from another planet was, to say the least, surprising. More surprising was the fact that he was right, his desertion from the Confederacy was exactly like how she left the White Fang. It was oddly uplifting to meet someone so much like her.
For Pyrrha, it comforting to see that despite Grayson's foul mouth and attitude, he was right-minded and honest.
"So….yeah. Just wanted to get that off my chest." He said as Blake finished up with the stitches and began to apply bandages to his thigh. He felt Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder and looked at her to see her warm, proud smile. Smiling back, Grayson felt a tiny prick in his thigh and looked down to see Blake jab a needle near the wound and depress the plunger.
"Hey! I said don't need any painki-"
"I only gave you a little bit just to ease the pain. It won't impede you in any way." Blake countered.
"Oh! Uh, thanks."
"Youre welcome." Blake replied. But this time she sounded sincere as opposed to before. Grayson felt relived. It would a long way before the two of them could mend bridges, but a least it was a start. They walked over to the rest of the gang who had just finished up their jobs.
"Are you feeling better?" Yang asked.
"Way better." Grayson responded. "Didja grab anything useful?"
"You bet we did!" Ruby exclaimed. "We got backpacks for all of us filled with ammo, Dust, and other essentials!" She, Yang and Jaune wore hefty backpacks packed with said items and they held extra backpacks for the rest of the group.
"Guys? I think we're gonna have to make a second trip." Nora grunted as pulled along about 20 heavy bags across the ground.
"I didn't say take all of it." Jaune corrected her.
"Are the ships scrapped?" Grayson then asked Ishi's group.
"They've all been rendered inoperable." Weiss confirmed.
"This way, the White Fang will be unable to- AAARGGGH!" Ishi suddenly collapsed to the ground in pain, Ren quickly grabbing him and setting him down next to a Bullhead as everyone crowded around.
"What's wrong!?" Ren urgently asked.
"Battery's low…nearly out of power!" Ishi groaned.
"Shit. Alright, we've stayed here long enough let's find-"
"THERE! INTRUDERS!"
Everyone looked upwards to the right to see multiple White Fang on a walkway above them, all of them armed and having no doubt heard the commotion topside.
"Ah, piss!" Grayson snarled.
Everyone ran and ducked behind the crates just as the White Fang opened fire!
"I think they're none too happy about your plan, Jaune!" Nora remarked as she readied Magnhild. Ishi quickly recovered and took aim with HeadHunter but to everyone's confusion, he just stood there looked through the scope!
"Ishi? It works best when you pull the trigger!" Yang shouted impatiently.
SKAPOW
Ishi fired his weapon but instead of killing the insurgents, Ishi guided the bullet to destroy their weapons, the bullets knocking them out of their hands and shattering them to pieces! The terrorists frantically got out their side arms but the bullet circled around and shot them straight out of their hands before finally hitting the wall. Terrified, the White Fang fled back into the entrance they came from in an effort to get as far away as they could from whatever ungodly weapon that man was using.
Everyone stared at Ishi, completely awestruck.
"Thatgunisamazing." Ruby whispered.
Ishi turned to Blake. "As per our agreement, I will use nonlethal force against the White Fang."
"Thank you." She sighed in relief. A another steel door from across the hanger opened to reveal a contingent of White Fang soldiers armed with melee weapons charge right at them. Readying themselves for a close quarters brawl, the teams charged forward while Grayson and Ishi cracked their knuckles.
Reaching the bottom of the shaft, Emerald and Mercury climbed up to the open elevator door and entered a large hallway with several scattered crates of ammo and Dust. Venturing through the corridors, their ears began to pick up the sounds of shouting and fighting at the other end of the hall. Motioning Emerald to stay back and let him investigate, Mercury carefully sneaked through the open door which led out to a walkway and looked down.
"Well? What do you see?" Emerald asked.
"See for yourself. Our 'friends' are fighting the White Fang." Mercury said, pointing down.
Emerald walked over to where Mercury was. "What do you mean by friends? Who-" Emerald nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Team RWBY and Team JNPR engaged in a brawl with the White Fang alongside two men she didn't recognize.
"What-how-when-what they hell are they doing here?!" Emerald stumbled over her words, keeping her voice down as to not garner anyone's attention.
"Guess Ozpin had the same idea." Mercury shrugged.
"Well as long as their keeping them busy, that's perfectly fine by me. Now let's get going." Emerald responded with an eye roll.
"Hold up." Mercury stopped her with a sly grin. "This just gave me an idea."
Emerald instantly knew where this was heading. "Oh no. No. No no no no no no no no no no. NO."
"Think about it. This'll make our trip a lot easier and they might even do the heavy lifting for us." Mercury suggested.
Emerald buried her face into her hands and moaned in frustration.
"Look, I think there a bunch of pain in the asses too but they'll make this mission go faster and the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we can get back to Cinder."
Emerald removed her hands from her face and glared at Mercury. "I am going to get you for this."
Slugging another one across the face, Grayson sidestepped the thrust of a bladed polearm and uppercutted his assailant Ishi meanwhile was knocking aside White Fang left and right. The others were easily taking care of the others, using non-fatal strikes to knock them out. Hearing the sounds of guns being loaded, Grayson whizzed around to see two White Fang aiming automatic rifles at him and would've perforated him if a pair of chains with blades on the end of them suddenly wrapped around the guns and yanked them away!
A green blur suddenly dived down from a walkway and kicked one of them in the face just as another blur, this time colored silver, did an axe kick to the other's noggin. They were out like a light. Grayson shook off the surprise and studied the two teens that were roughly the same age as the others.
One was a girl with brown skin, dark red eyes and mint colored short hair. Her attire was…'risqué' at best, consisting of a revealing olive green tank top, an intricate white top, white pants with brown chaps and high-heeled pumps. Her weapons appeared to be a bizarre combination of revolvers and sickles.
The other was a boy with gray eyes as well as gray hair which was both slicked back and unkempt. He wore a gray and black two-tone jacket with black pants and dark-colored shoes. He also had metal shoulder and arms guards protecting a majority of his limbs and he didn't seem to be packing any kind of weapons.
"Emerald?! Mercury?!" Ruby gasped in surprise.
"Hi, Ruby!" Emerald greeted with a playful smile. "Looks like you guys could use some extra hands."
Though Emerald was smiling on the outside, she was practically writhing on the inside.
To be continued…
For those of you who are wondering, no. Emerald and Mercury will not have a change of heart; they are still the same deceitful little cunts in canon. Although they may be acting all goody-goody, their façade will soon start to crack as the adventure gets crazier as it goes on and the more observant members of Team RWBY and Team JNPR will start to notice that those two aren't what they appear to be.
If the backstabbing wasn't exactly proof enough, there will be massive deviations from canon and you guys can expect to see Adam vs Cinder sometime in the future! I was originally going to have the Dropkits print out ammo for the teams but I decided against it as that would make the adventure a little too easy.
Probably the hardest part of this chapter was the interaction between Grayson and Blake. I knew that those two had to come to an understanding with each other and better to have it happen early than too late. I just hope I got it right with Blake and I did enjoy giving Grayson an extra layer of personality. His interaction with the others was fun to do, especially having him drive Weiss up the wall.
Hope the wait was worth it!
Don't forget to review but please don't flame.