Hello again, folks!

The reason why this chapter took so long is because I was marathoning the Borderlands series in anticipation for Borderlands 3. Unfortunately that backfired as playing the previous entries made me want BL3 even more so that sort of hampered my writing schedule. This was going to be longer but had to cut it in half for said reasons above.

Review time!

37: Thank you and don't worry, he will be featured in this!

Guest #1: The RWBY crew won't be leaving Remnant.

Kerrow: Yeah, that's for sure.

Elusive Prey: Your ideas are fantastic and as much as I want a sequel, I don't think we'll be getting one. Other than that, thanks for the review!

BartGirl: Just wait until Trishka joins the group!

Evolution-500: I'm a slow updater.

Guest #2: I know, right?! Can't freakin wait!

RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.

Chapter 10

Shock and Awe

SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

Navigating through the base after mowing through the hacked Knights, everyone kept their eyes peeled for any White Fang that had their crosshairs on them. Luckily, most of the insurgents were in the process of evacuating the base. But that didn't stop them from hurrying as fast as they could. There was no telling when reinforcements would swarm the base.

They came to a large bridge that was currently raised up but Ishi found the controls and pressed a button that made it slowly descend. As they waited, Ruby noticed another warehouse on the left side of the base that had bright lights coming from the windows and a pneumatic drill installed at the bottom which descended deep into the chasm.

"Hey! I found where they're keeping the energy Dust! It's not far!" Ruby announced as she pointed to the warehouse.

"Good eye, Rubes." Grayson patted her back. "Once we snag it, we'll be outta here lickety fuckin' split."

"But we still haven't found suitable transportation to the Ulysses yet." Weiss reminded him. "What if we can't find any?"

"Don't get your panties in a wad, snowflake." Grayson brushed her off. "I always come up with a plan on the go. I'll get one soon enough."

Weiss folded her arms. "I honestly don't think you will." She dismissed with a huff.

"Oh okay then, Ms. Bringnopoly! Do you have a better-"

BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA BRUDDA

A team of White fang, one of them armed with a heavy machinegun, opened fire upon them from an alcove in the cliff wall. Weiss immediately summoned a large Glyph that shielded the group but the terrorists were using electric Dust ammunition that slowly began to chip away at the Glyph. The others with ranged weapons were about to lay down covering fire when suddenly the White Fang started screaming.

"GAAAAAAAAAAH! SPIDERS!"

"OH GODS THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

"GET THEM OFF ME!"

To everyone's confusion, the White Fang were failing their arms around or trying to swat away the spiders…but there were none whatsoever. The terrorists dropped their weapons and ran screaming back into the cave leaving the group monumentally confused.

"Ooooookaaaaaay…..what the fuck was that all about?" Grayson wondered. Nobody had an answer, they were just as puzzled as he was. Mercury cast a curious gaze to Emerald who winked at him with a mischievous smile. A series of loud screeching noises could be heard out in the distance and everyone turned to their right to see a murder of bird-like Grimm, each of them the size of a small house!

"Fuck me in the ass! These things can fuckin' fly now!" Grayson exclaimed.

"They're called Nevermore and can you PLEASE stop saying the F-Word all the time?!" Ruby begged. Her poor ears couldn't stand it any longer.

"Grow up, Rubes. You're in my world now." Grayson dismissed.

Flapping their massive wings, the flock unleashed a torrent of razor sharp feathers at the group. They dodged out of the way and brought up their weapons, though most of them were worried that they would be overwhelmed by the large number of Nevermore.

Ishi took aim at the closest one nearing them and fired an ice Dust bullet that instantly railed straight through it, the effect and strength of the Dust instantly congealed it into an ice statue. The bullet zipped around and penetrated the other Nevermore, each of them flash frozen like oversized popsicles. By then the whole flock was frozen and plummeted into the forest below where they shattered into pieces.

Ruby couldn't stop herself from smiling. She loved weapons and all of their inner workings but HeadHunter was something special. Ruby cherished Crescent Rose very much but Ishi's weapon was, hands down, the greatest sniper rifle she had ever seen.

"Yang? I know what I want for my birthday." She said to her sister with stars in her eyes.

"I'll see if I can talk Ishi into it." Yang nudged her with a smile.

"We should hurry." Ren advised. "We've no doubt garnered the attention of the Grimm and there will be more on their way."

"Uh, guys? We've got a problem." Jaune called out. "One half of the bridge is down but I think the other's stuck and the controls don't seem to work."

Weiss looked up and hummed in thought. "Shouldn't be too much trouble." She remarked as she prepared Myrtenaster. "I'll use my Glyphs to make another bri-"

KATHWAAAAM

Ishi impatiently strode past her and swiftly kicked the bridge down with his bionic foot!

"O-or that. We could do that." Weiss muttered, startled from the sudden loud noise.

"Nice footwork, Ishi." Grayson joked. But then he noticed Ishi standing still while listing a little. He began to slump forward and fell down, his rifle clattering to the ground.

"Ishi!" Grayson exclaimed as he and everyone ran over to him. Yang and Nora gently flipped Ishi over onto his back and were treated with the sight of a visibly pale man, his cybernetic eye flickering on and off.

"Guys…I'm not well! I can feel myself slowing down….don't know how much longer I can last…" He rasped in deep, ragged breaths.

"Hold it together, buddy. We're almost there." Grayson assured him. "You guys hang back and watch over Ishi. I'm gonna head over, grab the energy Power Crystal and be back in a jiff." He said to everyone as he began to walk off.

"By yourself? Gray that's crazy!" Ruby exclaimed as she got in front of him.

"You've got no Aura and there's probably dozens of Fang guarding that Dust!" Nora reminded him. "You'll be ripped to shreds!"

Mercury and Emerald looked at each other. "He has no Aura?" She whispered.

"Hey, I've been doin' just fine! I can handle myself!" Grayson rebuked.

"You got lucky. Right now, Ishi needs your help." Blake countered. "All of us can get you to that Dust. It'll be quicker than you going off on your own."

"Guys, I really appreciate everythin' you're doing but-"

"Grayson, we were born on this planet and have been trained for situations like this. You've only been here for a scant few hours and even though you're skilled, you can't take on that many trained insurgents without an Aura." Pyrrha lectured.

Grayson's patience was starting to wear thin. "Look-"

"Gray. Do you believe in us?" Ruby asked him while giving him a stern glare.

That was enough to silence him. Looking at Ruby, he did not see a 15 year old girl but rather a leader and fighter. They were right about knowing more about the planet than he did. Even though Grayson admitted to them earlier that he and Ishi had no clue how to survive Remnant, he let his overconfidence and bravado forget that. Truth be told, the reason he wanted to go on by himself was that so they wouldn't be forced to make the hard decision of taking a life out of self-defense. That would be his burden to bear as he had done so countless times. He also knew he couldn't keep his word about non-killing to them forever.

But they were behaving and thinking like rational adults. Looking at the others, Grayson still couldn't believe that they were willing to help him after seeing what they did to those White Fang from before and after all the chaos they put their world through. Anyone else would've had them arrested or killed on the spot. But they still offered to help him.

Looking back to Ruby, Grayson decided that maybe it was time to widen his circle of trust a little more. "I do."

Nodding, Ruby got out Crescent Rose and loaded a fresh clip into it. "Then we've got your back."

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Landing gracefully onto the ground, Penny Polendina surveyed the area as her weapon, Hephaestus, disengaged its jetpack function and retracted itself into her backpack. She walked over to the edge of the plateau and looked down at the burning wreckage of the first unknown ship all the way at the bottom. The magnification function within her cybernetic eyes zoomed in as she scanned the ship.

The scan was complete and the results came back inconclusive: the ship did not originate from any of The Four Kingdoms. The same thing could be said about the other ship that partially destroyed the moon. This was beginning to trouble the android in disguise.

If those ships weren't from the Kingdoms then where did they originate? As she thought, she turned her attention to the sky. If they truly did come from the farthest reaches of space then the implications that extraterrestrial life existed were massive and very, very scary.

She saw a Bullhead emerge from the plateau some distance away. She initially thought that a contingent of Atlesian troops had just been dispatched but then she saw the insignia of the White Fang painted on its side. She ducked out of site behind a rock and saw the Bullhead depart north.

Penny began to wonder where it could be off to but then spotted a multitude of footprints across the ground. As she began to follow them, her audio sensors began to pick of the sounds of gunfire not too far off…

SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

KAPOW

A left hook from Yang sent the terrorist's teeth flying in the other direction just as Nora sent one flying with her hammer. Some tried to shoot back but were easily knocked aside by Mercury and Ruby; the former using sweeping kicks and kickboxing while the latter used the blunt end of her scythe to safely knock them out unharmed.

Moving through the winding pathways of the facility, the group carved a path to the stockpile of energy Dust as they fought their way through the White Fang. However, it was mostly the inhabitants of Remnant doing most of the work. Grayson had to carry the incapacitated Ishi and couldn't help the others so they decided to form a tight perimeter around the two to safeguard them on their way to the Dust stockpile.

Ruby, Yang , Nora and Mercury covered the front, blazing a path to where they needed to go. Pyrrha and Jaune stood beside Grayson and Ishi with their shields raised, ready to defend them. Weiss, Blake, Ren and Emerald covered the rear in case someone tried to flank them.

They cleared a path to a large bridge where they were fired upon by more insurgents hiding behind another heavily defended position. They ducked behind a makeshift barricade as a stream of ammunition streaked over their heads. Peeking out of a safe spot, Grayson could see the warehouse just up ahead behind the barricades the White Fang set up. Grayson hissed in frustration. It was just one roadblock after another!

Weiss was formulating a strategy for this when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to Pyrrha and the Champion of Mistral motioned her head over to a large slab of metal nearby. Knowing what they were implying, the two of them nodded and Pyrrha used her Polarity semblance to lift the slab with some added help from the Schnee's Glyphs. The slab went over the group's head and landed in front of them with a thud. Guessing what Pyrrha was going to do, everyone got their weapons ready.

"Gray, you hang back." Ruby told him. "We'll give you the okay when it's all clear."

As much as Grayson hated to miss out on some quality ass kicking, his friend's life came first. He nodded. The others prepared themselves and Pyrrha pushed the slab with all her strength via her Semblance. The slab surged across the bridge like a snowplow, knocking over crates and debris in its way. Ruby, Emerald, Ren and Blake hopped up on top of the moving bulwark and laid down suppressing fire with their weapons.

The White Fang began to panic and returned fire at them only for Weiss to join alongside her friends and summoned a row of gravity infused Glyphs to reflect the bullets back at them. She then switched to fire Dust and her Glyphs fired a torrent of fireballs at them! The slab finally collided into the barricade, scattering the White Fang and giving everyone else enough time to swarm the remaining terrorists and disarm, pummel and knock out the rest.

"Okay, we're all good!" Yang called out to Grayson. He got ahold of Ishi and carried him over to the group as they slid open the large doors of the warehouse. Once inside, they found what they were looking for and boy was it a sight to see. On the right side of the wall were two translucent tanks the size of 18-wheelers that each contained the much sought-after energy Dust. The Dust itself was not smooth or elegant looking like the other Dust crystals.

It was spiky, jagged and somewhat brittle in appearance. It was also a turquoise color and glowed brightly as arcs of energy crackled around it. Numerous cables were attached to the tanks and were fed up through the roof to provide energy for the entire base. Next to the tanks were large racks lined with vials filled with electric Dust.

"Welp, it's definitely what we're lookin' for." Grayson confirmed as he looked at the readings on his Leash.

"So this is what energy Dust looks like?" Jaune remarked, gazing at its enticing glow.

"Yes. This is where Hard-Light Dust originates from and mostly sees usage in neighborhoods and cities but in its unrefined state, energy Dust is extremely unstable." Weiss explained.

"But other than that, this is what we need to charge your friend up with, right?" Mercury guessed, looking at Grayson.

"I really friggin' hope so." Grayson swallowed as he set carefully set Ishi down onto the floor. "Hey, buddy. We're here! Is there any way we can administer this stuff to you?"

Ishi was barely cognizant. His eyes struggled to open as he tried to speak. "Ac…access…port…." He managed to croak out.

"Access port?" Ruby repeated in confusion.

"Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!" Grayson swore in panic. How the hell were they going to help him now?! He didn't see anything that he could plug into Ishi and he still had no clue how Power Crystals work!

"Uh, okay, uhhhh…how do we do this?!" Ruby frantically asked, her heartrate beginning to accelerate. But nobody had an answer they all looked at Ruby with increasingly distressed looks, unable to formulate a solution.

"Yang, help me crack open one of these things open, we'll jab him with a shard like it's an adrenaline shot." Grayson quickly said to her as he walked over to one of the tubes.

"Wait, jab him?" Yang balked.

"Are you insane?!" Weiss gasped, the very notion of that idea shocking her. "You can't just stab him with an energy Dust crystal! The resulting surge of energy could kill him!"

Grayson angrily whirled around. "WELL DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?!" He rounded on her!

"Gray, calm down!" Yang said as she held him back. "We can solve this!" She said as she went over to Ishi and knelt down. "Ishi, is there any other way we can recharge you?"

Ishi said nothing. In fact, he was practically motionless. A cold chill washed over the group.

"I-ishi?" Yang gently shook him. Nothing. A small gasp escaped her throat as she backed away. Everyone's eyes widened.

Grayson was instantly at Ishi's side, trying to shake him awake. "Hey, c'mon. We need you, man. No time to be sleeping on the job. You can stop playing around!" Grayson's voice was beginning to waver and sound desperate. Some of the teams looked away in sadness. Ruby covered her mouth, tears threatening to spill out from her eyes.

"No…NO!" Grayson shouted in panic as he tried to shake him awake again in denial. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DIE ON ME! I'M NOT LOSING THE ONLY FRIEND I HAVE LEFT! FIGHT, GODDAMN YOU, FIGHT!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The far wall to their right exploded in a ball of fire, knocking the group off their feet while Grayson threw himself onto Ishi to shield him from the blast. The smoke cleared and the group saw a bridge adjacent to the warehouse but their gazes were solely focused on the large tank rolling into view! It was an abnormally large war machine covered in black and white plating and sporting a double barreled main cannon!

"They have a tank?!" Emerald shouted. Just how much did Torchwick and Adam keep from Cinder?!

'An Atlesian Imperator Tank!' Blake mentally identified. She remembered seeing an unfished prototype of it during a White Fang raid back when she was still enlisted. Apparently, Atlas managed to complete it and it had somehow found its way into the hand of the Fang. The cannon slowly began to rotate towards the group whose eyes widened in fear!

"RUN!"Jaune screamed as everyone dove for cover!

POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The shell traveled in a parabolic arc and it the floor of the warehouse in another explosion, scattering most of the teams. Their Auras held but Grayson was flung into the far wall while Ishi was propelled into the Energy Dust container! The glass container shattered as Ishi body impacted with it; the energy cascading out of it and directly into his body! Ishi's eyes shot open, now glowing radiantly, as more energy flowed into him.

"NYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" He yelled in agony as jolts of energy wreathing around him as the others watched on in open-mouthed horror.

POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The tank fired again and hit the furthest wall in a thundering blast that shook the warehouse. Nora was caught in the blast though her Aura protected her from most of the damage but it was now heavily depleted. As she lay on the floor, she struggled to get up but one of the racks fell on top her! The vials of electric Dust shattered all over her body and was now being horribly electrocuted; screaming out in pain!

"NORA!" Ren exclaimed as he reached out for her but the errant bolts of electricity made it impossible for him to get close. The pain was almost unbearable for her but then her eyes shot open and threw the rack off of her in a burst of superhuman strength!

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Nora roared as electricity danced around her, jolts of lighting arcing from her! Whipping her head over to the remaining tank of energy Dust, Nora stomped over in a fit of rage and grabbed it by it's sides. She then began to lift up the container with all her might as sparks fell around the popped out cables.

"No! No wait-" But the pleas of Weiss went unheard as Nora finally ripped the tank out of the ground and held it above her head with a mighty war cry! She lumbered over to the large hole in the wall and threw the container at the White Fang tank with a mighty heave! The goons within the tank saw the container sailing towards and scrambled out of the vehicle in a panic and ran for their lives before the container made impact.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

In a massive, turquoise colored explosion, the tank and half of the bridge was decimated in an instant. As the flaming remains of the tank and a chunk of the bridge plummeted into the chasm, Nora finally collapsed unconscious. Everyone was at her side in an instant, helping her up and trying to awaken her.

"Nora, are you okay?!" Pyrrha carefully took Nora's hand as she checked for a pulse.

"Nora, please speak to me! Nora!" Ren pleaded in desperation. Nora had never absorbed that much electric before and fretted that her Semblance wouldn't be able to handle such a massive surge.

Suddenly, Nora's eyes shot wide open and let out a loud gasp! "PANCACKES! I'M ALIVE!"

Everyone (sans Emerald and Mercury) felt relieved that Nora was okay, but none more so than Ren. "Please don't scare me like that again." He told her, albeit softly.

"Boop." Nora giggled as she "booped" Ren on the nose.

Gray hobbled over, his legs shaking from a combination of repeated explosions near him and the sight of seeing Nora go full-blown Electro/She-Hulk. "Jesus, you were like a meth head on a fucking cocaine binge! I swear, you kids are gonna scare the dick offa me!"

The groups had uncomfortable looks on their faces while Nora wasn't even fazed. "I would actually like to see that happen!"

"Nora." Ren scolded.

"Eeeeeeew!" Ruby's nose wrinkled.

"Hold on, what's meth and cocaine?" Emerald questioned.

Grayson looked at her genuinely surprised. Drugs didn't exist on this world? "You don't wanna know. Trust me." He didn't want Remnant getting any ideas.

"Where's Ishi?" Blake looked around. "What happened to him?"

The sound of approaching footsteps was her answer as everyone turned to see him walking towards them, miraculously alive! He didn't have a deathly pale complexion anymore and instead looked fully rejuvenated.

"I-ishi?" Grayson gasped in amazement. "Are you…?"

Ishi cracked his neck and smiled. "I feel much better."

In that instant, Ruby rushed towards Ishi and hugged him as tight as she could, much to his surprise. Ishi was almost temped to gently pry her off him and calm her down, but then he heard Ruby let out a sniffle as she hugged him harder. Seeing that Ruby really did care for his safety, Ishi relaxed and gently patted her back. Grayson walked over and handed Ishi his sniper rifle back. "Great to have you back, man."

Ishi nodded and took HeadHunter as Ruby finally let go of him. She wiped a tear from her eye, happy that Ishi didn't die.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLL

A loud rumble echoed throughout the valley, shaking the warehouse and much of the complex. It continued to shake as explosions could be heard in the distance, sparks erupted from the lights and chunks of the ceiling fell off.

"Can somebody tell me what the heck's going on!?" Jaune asked no one in particular as he frantically looked around the room that was steadily coming apart at the seams.

"This whole place is going to explode." Weiss gravely assessed, causing everybody to look at her with frightened expressions.

"WHAT?! WHY?!" Nora panicked.

"Because those generators were supplying a majority of power to this base and because you ripped them out, it's caused a chain reaction! You just destabilized this whole mining complex, you dolt!" Weiss shrilled.

"But we saved Ishi so that's gotta be a win-win, right?!" Nora reasoned. Another rumble shook the warehouse, followed by another loud explosion that destroyed a section of the base!

"Pretty sure this is one of those times where it doesn't count." Mercury quipped.

"I predict an imminent detonation of the entire facility!" Ishi warningly announced.

"Then I predict an imminent getting the fuck out of here! LET'S ROLL!" Grayson barked.

To be continued…

Can our heroes escape the base before it blows up with them on it? Find out next time!

Though short, I did enjoy making the action scenes for this chapter. The Imperator Tank was based on the Mammoth Tank from the Command & Conquer series. And yes, that was a Jojo Abridged reference in the beginning.

Don't forget to review but please don't flame.