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Chapter 24: Breach
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Ruby woke to find the two soldiers that captured her were now dragging her along by the arms. She couldn't see where they were taking her, they were dragging her backward, but she could see where they'd been. To her right, she saw several crates being unloaded by the same robots she and the rest of her team had fought on the highway. On the other side, she saw two people in what looked to be a train car setting up a device that she couldn't quite identify in her current state.
She felt her captors stop.
"Hey, Boss!" the one holding her right arm shouted, "Found something you might wanna see!"
She heard an angry snarl come from behind her.
"What is it?!" she heard the voice say, "I only have about a thousand things to do here since Torchwick got arrested!"
"Uh... It's a little girl?"
The noises of shuffling boxes and containers that Ruby had been hearing abruptly stopped. She craned her neck to see behind her. When she did, she caught sight of the one who had been yelling. He was obviously a Faunus, though she could not tell what kind. She couldn't even see his face since he was wearing a full-face mask. But she felt like she recognized him somehow.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," the masked man said in his deep voice.
Immediately Ruby's memory snapped into place.
"I remember you," she said, "You were the guy at the White Fang rally!"
The leader froze, then looked angrily at his subordinates.
"Secure the perimeter!" he shouted, "There's probably going to be more of them!"
Ruby watched as her captors ran off.
"Well, I guess that explains how you found us," the leader said, turning his attention back to Ruby.
He pulled out a wicked looking knife.
"So, how many of you are there?"
Ruby growled at him, then activated her Semblance and blasted off in a burst of rose petals. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough. The leader caught her with his free hand before she even made it all the way behind him. He picked her up and threw her to the ground.
"Did I say we were done?!" he shouted, putting his knife against her throat.
Ruby stared at him defiantly and said nothing, even as the steel of the blade pressed against her.
Just then, an explosion resounded throughout the area.
"What was that?" he asked aloud.
Before he could say anything else, another explosion, much stronger than the first, shook the area. The leader looked down at his captive and caught her grinning. He took his free hand and grabbed the radio strapped to his belt.
"Incoming hostiles!" he shouted over the radio, "Patrols 1, 2, and 4, engage the enemy, everybody else, fall back to my position! We're starting the train."
"But sir! We're not finished loading the weapons!" a voice said over the radio.
The leader growled into the receiver.
"Did I ask you a question? Just do it!"
"Yes, sir!"
The leader turned back to Ruby, just in time to see her running away towards the sounds of explosions. He mentally kicked himself; when he started yelling at his subordinate, he inadvertently took the knife away from her neck.
"Somebody kill her!" he shouted as he ran into the train.
Several of the other troops opened fire, but Ruby managed to dodge them all. It wasn't hard actually, as most of the people aiming at her evidently couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. When the guns behind her stopped firing, Ruby turned her attention back to the path in front of her. Four White Fang Soldiers stood in her path and readied their weapons. Ruby tried to stop and cover her face as they took aim.
But, as luck would have it, she didn't need to.
"Heeeeellooooooooo!" she heard a voice say from above.
Alex dove in and raised a hand to stop the bullets with his telekinesis.
Delsin jumped in behind them.
"Didn't anyone ever teach you not to pick on little kids?" he asked.
With that, he took the two central goons and slammed their heads together. The two remaining ones jumped away and turned to fire on Delsin. Delsin managed to fire off a quick Neon blast at one of them, taking him down hard. Alex swept a wave of iron dust at the other one, knocking him out of the air and out like a light.
"Delsin! Alex!" she shouted, pulling both of them into a massive hug.
"Hey little red, you ok?" Delsin asked.
"I'm fine," she said.
"We found something of yours," Alex said, holding out her weapon.
"Crescent Rose!" she gasped.
She scooped up her weapon and placed it gingerly back in its holster on her side.
"I'm never leaving you again," she whispered to it. Delsin and Alex pretended not to hear her.
"Ruby!" Yang called.
"Yang!" Ruby said, jumping into her sister's arms.
"Are you alright Ruby?" Doctor Oobleck asked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, but listen," she said, "The White Fang's got all sorts of weapons and robots down there."
"What?" Blake asked.
Out of nowhere, Eugene dropped into the middle of them.
"She's right, I saw them loading them up. I managed to destroy a few but their guns were too big," he said. Delsin noticed he had a few open wounds on his arms. His Aura was broken.
"Well that's just wonderful," Alex said.
"What do they have?" Weiss asked.
"Androids, mechs, all loaded up on the train cars," Ruby said.
"Ah, that's ridiculous. These tunnels are sealed, those tracks lead to a dead end," Oobleck said.
Alex's eyes widened in horror.
"The tracks might, but the tunnels don't," Alex explained, "They lead directly under the city, straight past the border defenses!"
As realization dawned, the eyes of his friends widened as well.
"They're planning to attack the city by tunneling an army straight through the ground," Delsin said.
"And they have the firepower to kill hundreds of people, easily," Eugene continued.
"And with the Kingdom as low on Dust as it is," Weiss began, "There's almost nothing they police and military can do to stop it."
A sharp tone rang through the cave.
"All troops to battle stations!" the voice of the leader said through the train's PA system, "We're rolling out!"
The train started up and began to roll out.
"What do we do?" Yang asked.
Delsin turned and faced the train.
"The only thing we can do," he said.
Ruby stepped up next to him and readied her weapon.
"We're stopping that train."
O00000O00000O
The leader made his way to the front of the train, his mood exceptionally foul. He arrived quickly but his foul mood only got worse when he arrived.
"Sir! The intruders have boarded the train!" one of his subordinates said.
The leader growled.
"Did I or did I not say 'battle stations'?!" he shouted, "Grab a weapon and kill them all!"
"Yes, sir!"
The leader sat down, eyeing his own weapon that was sitting a few feet away. He would go out to fight soon, but he had something he needed to do first.
He pulled out a Scroll and booted up the messaging utility. Normally, he wouldn't be getting a signal this far from a CCT tower, let alone underground, but the black Scroll he held was from Torchwick's employer. They had given it to Torchwick for communication, and luckily he had dropped it in pursuit of those kids before he got arrested.
There was only one contact programmed in. The leader selected it and began typing.
"Look, I don't know who you are, but this is the guy in charge of your southeastern operation. We've moved up the plan due to some... unexpected company. Whatever it is you were going to do, get ready to do it."
There was no response. He began to put the Scroll away when he felt it buzz in his hand. Whoever was on the other end of the line sent back a photo, accompanied by a question mark.
He opened the photo. It was a picture of the red-haired little girl his men had captured along with one of the guys who had come to her rescue, the tall dark-haired one.
"Yeah, that's them," he replied.
What followed was only one word.
"Understood."
O00000O00000O
Teams RWBY and CNDT boarded the train easily enough. This far back, there was only one guard, and Doctor Oobleck took care of him easily.
"Hurry children!" the doctor said, "We must get to the front and stop this train!"
"Uh, professor?" Weiss asked, standing over an open hatch in the roof of the car they were on.
"Doctor," he corrected her.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing through the opening.
Dr. Oobleck looked down and knelt by the opening. The others approached and looked as well.
"That my dear," he said, "Appears to be a bomb."
Eugene looked down at the bomb and felt something stirring inside it.
"Delsin, you feel that?" he asked.
Delsin closed his eyes. He remembered the feeling.
"Yeah," he said, "Blast shards."
"What?!" Blake shouted.
"They've been used to strengthen bombs before," Eugene said.
"Well great! You can drain the shard and defuse the bomb at the same time!" Ruby said.
"Not that simple Rubes," Delsin said, "I need to be able to see the shard to drain it."
"And even if we tried to crack it open to get at it, there are enough regular explosives in there to blow us up before we finished," Eugene said.
"We got baddies!" Ruby shouted, pointing further down the train.
A not-so-small army of White Fang soldiers approached over the train cars.
"Well, so much for the element of surprise," Eugene said.
"Well I certainly didn't expect them to go-" Oobleck started.
The bomb beneath them started beeping. Oobleck sighed.
"-easy on us."
He stood up.
"They must really not want us on this train," Delsin said.
"Time to go," he said.
As the students began to run and jump to the roof of the next car, Oobleck grabbed Blake by the arm.
"Blake! Detach the caboose! It'll kill us all!" he said.
Blake nodded.
She jumped down between the cars and drew Gambol Shroud, but as she drew her weapon back to strike, the car detached.
"It decoupled itself!" she called.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
The detached car rolled back down the track, and the bomb it held went off. The resulting explosion blew a huge hole in the roof of the tunnel, letting outside sunlight pour in. The force of the blast knocked the eight of them off their feet.
"That's not good," the Doctor said.
"Uh, neither is this!" Ruby said.
They bounded over to Ruby and looked where she was pointing.
"Another bomb?" Alex asked.
"Blast shards in this one too," Delsin said.
Doctor Oobleck ran past them.
"No, no, no!" he said as he jumped to the next car.
He opened the top of the car and looked down to find another bomb.
"They all have bombs!" he shouted back to them.
The bomb in the car beneath the students whirred to life. In a bit of a panic, they ran to the next car, making it over just as the car they were running from disconnected.
"Alex, does this make any sense to you?" Yang asked.
There was no response.
"Alex?"
"Sorry, I'm a little distracted," he said, pointing at the approaching army.
Faunus of every stripe were closing in on them from atop the train cars.
"That's not food either," Delsin said.
"Indeed," Doctor Oobleck agreed.
"Get the humans!" they heard one of the Faunus say.
Team RWBY and Zwei rushed forward to meet the incoming army. Oobleck and Team CNDT stayed at the back.
"You should join them," Oobleck said, his eyes locked on the train car that was rolling away, "They're going to need your help."
Delsin placed a hand on his wrist and switched to his Neon power. Eugene cracked his knuckles and Alex swallowed a Fire Crystal.
"We know," Delsin said.
The three of them walked forward. Unfortunately, the roof of the train car wasn't wide enough for both teams to fight side by side, but that didn't really pose much of a challenge to Team CNDT.
Yang, of course, charged in first. One of the soldiers tried to kick her, but she met the kick with one of her own, knocking him off balance. Then, she made a leg sweep that threw him into the air. Finally, with a cheeky wink, she punched him through the roof hatch of the train car.
Meanwhile, Delsin Neon Dashed through the enemy ranks. His light form was very distracting, and in the case of some Faunus it was almost blinding, or so he saw behind him. Every few seconds though, he would drop out of the dash and open fire into the crowd. Every shot was aimed at the soldier's legs, and with the help of his Laser Focus, he rarely missed.
Blake followed her partner into the fray and let loose with a controlled flurry of quick slices. She easily took down six of them in less than ten seconds. Weiss followed behind her and charged through the enemy forces, her Glyphs leaving a trail of ice behind her. When she reached the end of her charge, she didn't let up. She began to almost dance through the White Fang troops, taking down several more.
Eugene and Alex took to the air, each of them picking off stragglers or people who'd managed to dodge the rest of the team's attacks. With Alex's fireballs and Eugene's swarms of Bloodthirsty Blades, they soon had disposed of all but the last handful of troops.
Ruby got excited from watching, a goofy smile on her face. She held Crescent Rose aloft and readied one of her sniper rounds. When she pulled the trigger, the force of the blast sent her surging forward, and she sliced through the last of the White Fang forces.
At the rear, Oobleck's eyes were still on the decoupled train car. He watched as it exploded further back from them, and his eyes widened in horror at what he saw next.
A huge horde of Grimm cascaded into the tunnel from the opening the blast created. Beowolves, Creeps, Boarbatusks, and more than a few Deathstalkers. There was even a King Taijitu, sitting above the rest. The horde started running at them down the tunnel, a cacophony of roars accompanying them.
"Oooooh dear," Professor Oobleck said.
He turned to face his students.
"He's leading Grimm to the city!" he exclaimed.
"What?!" Weiss gasped.
"It's the cars!" Alex said as realization dawned.
"They detach and explode creating openings for the Grimm!" Oobleck explained
"That's insane!" Blake said.
"And a very effective way to destroy a Kingdom and kill its inhabitants," Eugene said.
"We have to hurry!" Oobleck said, running to them.
Delsin nodded.
"Alex, think you can stop the train?" he asked.
"Are you joking?!" Alex asked in exasperation, "No, I can't stop a train!"
"Can you slow it down?" Doctor Oobleck asked.
Alex shook his head and knelt down, his hands on the roof of the car.
"Maybe?" he said, "Even if I could I'd need help to be effective in any way."
Weiss knelt next to him.
"I'll help you," she said.
Alex nodded. The two of them placed their hands on the roof of the train car and opened the biggest Black Glyph they could manage, just beneath the train car. It was a monumental effort, but it worked. As suspected, the train didn't stop, but they felt it jerk as it abruptly lost roughly twenty percent of its speed.
"Go," Alex grunted.
"We can't hold this for very long," Weiss added, her voice strained.
"Indeed," Oobleck said, pointing further up the train.
A new wave of troops was forming up, this one accompanied by several of the Atlesian Paladins the train was carrying.
"We need to stop this train!" Oobleck said, "Ruby! You and I will stay and protect those two. The rest of you, take the inside route and get to the front!"
"Understood!" Ruby said.
Yang and Blake jumped into the opening in the roof as Oobleck and Ruby readied their weapons. Delsin turned to Ruby.
"Hey, Rubes," he called.
"Hm?" she said.
Delsin grabbed her hand and activated his Semblance.
"You're gonna need help," he said as trails of Neon wrapped around Ruby's arm, "Just be careful with it."
Ruby smiled giddily as her body lit up with Neon energy from the power Delsin had loaned her, but she managed to nod between her excited hops. Delsin smiled and jumped down after Yang and Blake. Eugene started to climb down.
"I'll leave you some backup too. They'll make a good distraction if nothing else," he said.
He snapped his fingers and six of his Wingmen appeared in the air above them. Doctor Oobleck nodded and Eugene slipped below.
Dr. Oobleck and Ruby stood a few steps forward from Alex and Weiss. The good Doctor held out his thermos/mace and the end lit up with flame.
"Well now, Ruby," he said, smiling confidently, "Why don't we have some fun?"
Ruby knelt into a runner's pose, holding Crescent Rose behind her. The Neon energy from the power Delsin had loaned her sparked around her form, giving the impression she was charging up for something.
"Professor," she said, "I couldn't have said it better myself."
Ruby surged forward in a flash of Neon.
"That's DOCTOR!"
O00000O00000O
Eugene, Blake, Delsin, and Yang ran through the first train car just in time for Ruby's light trail to pass overhead. As they saw it, Delsin smirked.
"Way to go, red," he thought to himself.
The next two were unguarded. Evidently, the terrorists' initial assault had drained most of the troops in this area of the train. The four of them were about to jump to the next car, but Eugene caught sight of something. When he looked closer at it, he facepalmed himself for his stupidity. He grabbed Delsin's arm.
"Delsin," he shouted, pointing at something near the coupling mechanism, "Shoot that thing!"
Delsin looked closer where Eugene was pointing. He saw a small metal box bolted to the undercarriage of the train with several blinking lights on the front and a bunch of wires leading to the coupling mechanism.
"What is it?!" Delsin shouted.
"It's the thing that lets the train conductor remotely disconnect the train cars!" Eugene replied.
"How can you tell?!"
Eugene sighed impatiently.
"It's an electronic box wired into the train car connector! There's not a lot of things it could be!" Eugene shouted, "Will you just blast it already?!"
"Alright, alright, I'm blasting it!"
With his Concrete power active, Delsin fired several rounds of Concrete Shrapnel into the box, tearing the box to shreds.
"What are you waiting for?!" Blake shouted back at them, "We need to keep moving!"
Delsin and Eugene nodded and ran forward. The four of them barreled through the train cars, only stopping long enough for Delsin to destroy the remote decouplers on the back end of each car. Their good luck didn't hold out though, as once they reached the sixth car, they finally started running into trouble.
Four guards were waiting for them in the middle of the car with their weapons ready. Yang, unsurprisingly charged in first, propelling herself forward with her Ember Celica and landed right in front of one of the guards. With a single punch and the accompanying shotgun blast, she dropped him like a sack of bricks.
Delsin came next, running close on Yang's heels. He picked up a Boulder Dash halfway through the car and crashed into one of the other guards. Blake distracted the third with a few shots from Gambol Shroud, then snuck up to him and took him down with a single well-placed strike to the knees.
Eugene decided to abandon all subtlety and just fired a volley of Bloodthirsty Blades at the last remaining guard. The guard, ironically a Fox Faunus, ran away with his tail literally between his legs. The blades quickly caught up to him and when they exploded into his back, he went sailing into the wall at the back of the car.
Once the guards were dealt with, they pressed on. The closer they got to the front of the train, the more guards they found. Each one was dealt with similar speed as the first, each left in similar states of injury. After another five cars filled with guards, they came to two platform cars where the Paladins they saw had been stored.
"We're almost there," Blake said, "I can hear the engine."
"Good," Delsin said.
They were about to start moving again when they heard a very loud BOOM.
"What the f-" Delsin said.
"Look!" Yang interrupted, pointing back down the train.
The four of them looked back onto the battle that was raging behind them.
No one expected what they saw.
Oobleck was whirling like a flaming tornado of death. Swarms of fireballs rained down on his enemies with each of his turns and there were several melted holes in the Paladins he was facing. Delsin couldn't be sure but he could have sworn that on one of Oobleck's turns, he hit an airborne Zwei like a baseball and sent him flying into one of the Paladins. The Paladin then immediately exploded and fell off the train.
Behind him, Ruby was practically dancing around the battlefield as a mass of light. With Delsin's Neon power amplifying her speed, she was knocking out the soldiers in some cases literally before they knew what hit them. No one could touch her.
Delsin held up a finger, pointing at the two of them.
"Y'know," he said, "I think they've got this."
The other three nodded. Without another look, they kept moving. They entered the next car and found it devoid of resistance.
It didn't stay that way.
Out of nowhere, a little girl with soft pink and chocolate brown hair dropped into the car. Everyone immediately recognized her as the girl who protected Torchwick that night at the highway a few days ago.
Yang was about to charge in again, but Eugene held out a hand in front of her.
"She's mine," he said.
"But-"
"I'm better equipped to deal with her and you need to keep going," he said.
He looked her in the eye.
"She won't get past me."
Yang looked into his eyes and saw the determination there. She nodded.
Eugene summoned a Digital Longsword and took a step forward. The girl smiled creepily. Eugene rushed her and his friends charged alongside him. The girl smiled and readied herself to engage the four of them. She swept her umbrella in what would have been a wide arc, but it was intercepted by one of Eugene's Wingmen that now surrounded her. The other three ran straight past her.
Then, Eugene did something strange.
The second the door closed and his friends were gone, Eugene dismissed his Digital Longsword and most of his Wingmen, all but the one now guarding the door. Then, he sat down in the middle of the car.
The girl looked at him quizzically but stayed ready to strike.
"I'm not going to fight you," he said.
The girl cocked an eyebrow.
"I don't like to hit girls," he said with a shrug.
The girl growled at him. He held up his hands.
"I know, I know, it's really chauvinistic of me and all the other things I'm sure you want to say, but I can't help it, both my parents taught me not to. They may have been colossal pieces of shit, but that was one of the few things they taught me that stuck."
Angrily, the girl turned to leave, only to find herself face to face with the glaring faces of three of Eugene's Wingmen.
"Now make no mistake, I'm not going to let you leave, and if you attack me I'll protect myself. But past that, I am not going to attack you," Eugene said, his hand pointing straight at her.
The girl was confused and it showed on her face. Evidently, this is not something she was used to.
Eugene shrugged again.
"I figured we could just talk," he said.
The girl just stared at him. Eugene suddenly noticed she hadn't said anything the entire time he'd been sitting there. An idea formed in his head.
"How about this?" he said in International Sign Language, "Does this work?"
The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and her hands started moving.
"How do you know sign language?" she asked.
Eugene had to stop for a moment. His ISL lessons were a distant memory and he was reaching pretty far back to find the right hand-signs.
"A good friend of mine was deaf, but he could read lips and talk. I learned it from him so we could talk in secret."
"Oh."
Eugene smiled warmly.
"So what's your name?" he asked.
The girl hesitated a moment before responding, but eventually, she relented.
"Call me Neo."
O00000O00000O
The White Fang Leader's mood had only gotten sourer as the reports of major losses flooded in. When he heard how close they were over the radio, he snapped. He reached over, grabbed his weapon and went to intercept them himself.
He smiled when he found them, only three cars away from the engine room. Finally, he was going to get to kill something. He dragged his giant chainsaw along the floor of the car as the three intruders ran right towards him. As they closed in, he brought his weapon back for his first strike. The one at the front, one he recognized from the photo his benefactor sent, smiled. With a furious roar, the Faunus brought his saw down, aiming for the young man's head.
It didn't work.
"Is that...concrete?" he thought.
His weapon made contact, but his target had raised an arm to defend himself and somehow surrounded that arm in concrete. He tried to overpower the young man, but somehow the human's strength was a match for his, even though he was a Bear Faunus.
"You girls go on ahead," he heard the young man say from behind his concrete covered arm.
The young man looked over his arm and smirked at his attacker.
"I got big ugly here," he said.
The White Fang Leader's face contorted in rage, not that anyone could see that behind his mask. He watched as the traitor and the blonde ran right past him as he struggled to free his weapon from the young man's grip. He heard the door open and close behind him and he roared again as he finally managed to rip his weapon free from its concrete confines.
"Hey dude, you really need to chill out," the young man said.
The White Fang Leader growled.
"You know, I've been wanting to kill someone," he said, "You'll do."
He whipped his chainsaw forward to try and cut his opponent in two but the kid just stepped back out of the way.
"Hey! Watch where you swing that thing!" his opponent mocked, "You could've really hurt someone."
"That's the idea," the Faunus growled.
He made several more swipes with his chainsaw but his opponent dodged them over and over again.
"Dude, why are you so mad? Did someone piss in your oatmeal this morning?" the young man asked innocently.
The Faunus roared even louder as he pressed the attack.
"Wait," his opponent said, "I know what it is."
The Faunus tried to calm himself down and approach the battle more controlled.
"It even explains that giant gardening tool you're fighting with!" the young man said, "You're compensating for something!"
The Faunus stopped dead.
"Hey, man, don't feel bad, micropenis is a medical condition, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
The White Fang Leader lost it and started swinging wildly.
Delsin smiled to himself.
"This is just too easy," he thought.
O00000O00000O
As the last of the White Fang troops approached, Dr. Oobleck looked past them as far as he could. Faintly, he saw his other students approaching the front car.
"Ms. Rose!" he shouted.
Ruby appeared next to him in a flash of Neon.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Gather your friends," he said, pointing at the very strained Weiss and Alex, "They've bought enough time and you may be needed further ahead."
Ruby looked back to her friends.
"But what about-" she started.
"Don't worry about me. Besides", he said, hefting his thermos, "It's time I taught them a lesson."
Ruby nodded. With a flash, she went over to her friends' sides and grabbed their shoulders.
"Come on," she said, "Dr. Oobleck said we need to move."
Alex and Weiss took a moment to process what she'd said. They'd been working very hard to slow the train and the effort was getting to them, so understandably they were slow to respond. But, they got the message. With a gasp of effort, the two of them dropped the Glyph and fell over as the train began to pick up speed.
"You guys ok?" she asked worriedly.
Alex wheezed.
"We'll be fine," he said, "We just need a second."
Weiss nodded and held up a thumbs up.
After a moment, the two of them managed to get their feet under them and they started walking. They managed to get past the enemies approaching Dr. Oobleck but before they could get too far, Ruby stopped. The Rose Reaper looked down to see Zwei standing next to her looking back at Dr. Oobleck.
"Go," Ruby said.
Zwei looked at her and did a doggy grin. Then he ran off to help the good Doctor.
"Are you sure he's gonna be ok?" Alex asked.
Ruby smiled as she turned to run to the front of the train.
"He'll be fine. C'mon, let's go."
O00000O00000O
Blake and Yang managed to get to the front car of the train. The door was to it the interior was heavily reinforced, but with a bit of work, Yang managed to break it down. Blake rushed in and pointed Gambol Shroud's gun right at the conductor's head. The conductor, with one hand still on the throttle, buried his other hand in his pocket.
"Don't move!" Blake shouted, her finger on the trigger.
The conductor froze.
"Turn around slowly," Blake said, "I don't want to shoot a fellow Faunus if I don't have to."
The conductor turned around slowly, keeping a grip on the throttle.
"Show me your hands," she said.
The conductor, an elephant Faunus, smiled evilly. He took his hand out of his pocket to reveal his hand was on a wireless dead-man's switch.
"Oh, shit," Yang said.
"There's a bomb on the bottom of this car. If I drop this thing or the train slows down too much, this whole thing goes up in smoke. And before you try anything clever, let me remind you, we may not be at the end of the line, but this train is well into the city by now. If I blow this here, I still take out a big chunk of the city and Grimm will overrun what's left. Not to mention, all three of us will be dead," he said.
Blake and Yang felt their blood run ice cold.
"You have three seconds to run away before I blow us all to smithereens."
The two of them didn't even hesitate. They ran out of the room and as far away as they could get. They managed to get back three cars before Ruby, Weiss, and Alex caught up with them.
"Guys, what's wrong?" Ruby asked.
"There's a bomb on the front car!" Yang said.
"If we try and stop it, it'll blow!" Blake said.
Alex's eyes widened in horror.
"That's not really gonna be a problem," he said, pointing forward.
"What?" Ruby asked, following his finger.
At first, they couldn't see anything, but soon the end of the tunnel came into view.
"Oh, crap," Yang said.
Weiss pulled out Myrtenaster and set it to ice.
"Alex, a little help?" she asked.
Alex nodded, pulling out an Ice Crystal.
Weiss jabbed Myrtenaster into the roof of the car and covered the five of them in an icy shell.
O00000O00000O
Back in the front of the train, the conductor watched as the two intruders ran away. When he turned back to the train controls, he smiled when he saw the end of the line approaching. He ran out of the room and got back by two cars before he completed his last order.
"Let's teach those damn humans a lesson," he said aloud.
With that, he dropped the dead-man's switch.
O00000O00000O
Delsin stood over the unconscious form of the White Fang leader. He'd just managed to knock him out a few seconds ago.
"You know, for the record, I support you guy's goals," he said to the unconscious body beneath him, "But your methods are just plain wrong."
Then he felt it coming.
"Fuck!" he shouted, "Where's the bomb?!"
He spread out his hands and surrounded the both of them in a concrete shell.
O00000O00000O
Neo didn't know why, but she felt oddly comfortable around this stranger named Eugene. The two of them had been sitting and having a pleasant conversation in sign language for a while now, and she hadn't felt the urge to kill him yet.
He'd been in the middle of a word when he suddenly stopped. She looked at him in confusion as his eyes widened in horror. Granted she wasn't a stranger to those looks but so far she hadn't done anything to cause it.
Eugene snapped out his blue wings and surged at Neo, screaming "Get down!"
He tackled her to the ground and held her close. Neo found herself blushing, though she had no idea why.
Eugene closed his eyes. His powers weren't great for defense, most of his constructs were way too brittle to stand up to the kind of blast he felt coming, but he tried either way. Pouring as much power as he could into it he covered them both in a solid blue shell.
O00000O00000O
Back at Beacon, Team JNPR was on their way to the airship docks to go to their assignment.
"I'm sure they're fine," Pyrrha said.
"Y'think?" Jaune asked.
"Probably a just nerves," Nora said as she happily along
"Team RWBY has always performed exceptionally in the field," Ren said reassuringly, "We should be focusing on our own mission."
"Not to mention they have Team CNDT with them," Nora added, "Those guys could handle anything."
"I just got this... feeling. I... I don't know," Jaune said.
"Jaune-" Pyrrha started.
She was interrupted by the sound of the emergency sirens going off in the distance. The four of them looked over to Vale and saw a huge plume of smoke rising from the city. Jaune snapped to attention.
"We're changing our mission," he said as he ran to the airship, "Everyone onboard."
His teammates quickly followed him.
"Ren," he said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, "We'll make it to that village another time."
Ren nodded. Jaune looked to the pilot.
"Take us into the city!"
O00000O00000O
None of them remembered the impact, but they remembered what it looked like when they woke up.
Alex and the entirety of Team RWBY found themselves on their backs a few feet away from a crater in the middle of downtown Vale. Emergency sirens were blaring in the distance and they saw civilians lining the plaza. Their ears were ringing and their heads were spinning.
Unfortunately, they didn't have time to deal with that.
Grimm poured into the city from the crater behind them. Beowolves, a King Taijitu, and whole flocks of Nevermore along with just about every other kind of Grimm there was emerged and started chasing the civilians.
Alex forced himself to shake off the disorientation and stand. Just as he got to his feet, he felt pain rip through his chest. He checked it over. Apparently, the force of the blast had been enough to break a couple of his ribs. The others would likely be fine, but in order for Bird Faunus to fly, they had to have hollow bones just as regular birds did. For once in his life, Alex actually cursed the fact that he could fly.
Either way, he forced the pain aside and forced himself up. Just in time too, as a Beowolf was bearing down on him. It took all of his willpower, but he managed a telekinetic blast strong enough to break its neck. He did a quick once-over of his injuries.
In addition to two or three of his ribs, he could feel that the bones in his left wing were broken.
"Well, there goes our aerial advantage," he said, grateful to feel his Aura stitching itself back together.
He reached into his pocket to find a crystal, preferably a Water one so he would heal faster, but he found his pockets empty.
"Well that's just great," he whispered.
He limped into battle, magnetically grabbing the remnants of a broken lamppost to use as a weapon. He saw Yang walk up alongside him.
"How ya doin' Blondie?" he asked.
"I'm ok," she said, "You?"
"I've been better," he replied, rubbing his left shoulder.
"Well, I hope you can still fight," he heard Blake say on his other side.
"Yeah, I can," he said.
All of Team RWBY was standing around him now, each of them holding combat stances in the middle of the plaza.
"Weiss, toss me a Water Crystal?" Alex shouted.
Weiss nodded and removed the Water Crystal loaded in Myrtenaster. She threw it to him and he swallowed it immediately. His hair turned blue as he felt the power flow through him.
"Ok, guys," Ruby said, "Let's do this."
O00000O00000O
Cinder watched the scene unfold from a nearby rooftop. She didn't think much of the kids she watched, in fact, they were all but insignificant to her, but she had to admit they had tenacity.
She ignored them and got back to work. She placed the case Salem had sent her down in front of her. She wasn't quite sure what the round object was, but Salem had told her to trust Bertrand's device. She began the setup procedure for it. Normally she would have had Emerald or Mercury handle this kind of manual labor, but she made them stay back at Beacon.
After all, she needed them alive.
O00000O00000O
Just outside the battlefield, Johnathan and George Halbridge watched the scene unfold from their apartment which was on the floor above their store.
"My god," Johnathan said.
"Johnathan, I love you but there is no god up there that can help those people right now," George said.
Johnathan turned to see his husband standing in his old combat gear, which was basically his normal attire of dark green t-shirt and light brown pants plus a pair of leather gloves for his hands. At first glance, they looked like everyday clothes, but in truth, they had Earth Dust woven into the fabric which made them and the person wearing them highly damage resistant.
"Wait, you're going out there?" Johnathan asked.
George grabbed his old sword, a huge beast of a weapon that was just over five feet long and placed it on his back. He turned around and kissed his husband on the forehead.
"I have to. Those kids need help," he said.
Johnathan nodded.
"Go get 'em."
George smiled as he ran down the stairs.
"Get to the panic room!" he shouted as he reached the bottom.
Johnathan shook his head, a small smile on his face.
"Normally I don't like this kind of language," he said to himself, "but no shit."
O00000O00000O
Back on the ground, the battle raged on.
With the speed from the Neon power she was borrowing in conjunction with her own, Ruby had managed to corral most of the Grimm into the plaza. Unfortunately, that left Alex and the rest of Team RWBY to deal with everything else, and with more Grimm still pouring in, there was a lot to deal with.
Blake stabbed a Beowolf in the throat
"Anyone know where Delsin or Eugene are?" Blake asked as she pulled her blade out, "We could use their help."
"Haven't seen 'em," Alex said as he impaled three more Grimm on his lamppost.
"They must still be underground," Yang said.
"Along with the professor," Weiss added.
"I take it you kids could use a hand?" they heard a voice say.
George Halbridge made a swept his sword wide and cut through four Beowolves in one strike. Over his shoulder, Yang saw a trail of decomposing Grimm corpses.
"If you wouldn't mind," Alex said.
George smiled.
"Not at all."
When George stepped into the fray, the battle turned immensely in favor of the students. He cut down so many Grimm it was almost funny. And things only got better when Nora came riding in on a flying hammer.
The energetic redhead damn near flew over the rest of them and bitch-slapped the black head of the King Taijitu with her Magnhild. She did a flip and landed on the far end of the plaza where the rest of Team JNPR soon joined her.
"Ok," Alex thought happily, "Now we're getting somewhere!"
Alex kept fighting. He picked up a piece of rebar and started using it as a makeshift sword as he joined Ruby in running across the battlefield. Briefly, he saw Sun and Neptune on the outskirts of the battle. He ran towards them.
"I thought you said you wanted to see Vale when stuff wasn't being blown up," he asked the duo.
"Well, you make do with what you got," Sun said with a shrug.
"Ok, well could you make do with a bit of help? Because we're a little outnumbered here," Alex said.
Neptune nodded.
"We're on it."
The two of them pulled out their weapons and started in on the Grimm. As they started, more and more reinforcements rolled in. Team CFVY. Professors Goodwitch, Port, and Oobleck. Zwei even proved useful. When the Atlesian fleet and accompanying mechs rolled in, Alex smiled.
"Ok, now this is just too easy."
He would not see the irony of that statement until it was too late.
O00000O00000O
Eugene woke up when Neo slapped him in the face.
"What the-" he sputtered.
He sat up abruptly and saw Neo sitting next to him.
"About time," she signed.
"What happened," he asked, a bit disoriented.
Neo simply gestured to the area around them
Eugene looked around. The train car they had been in was wrecked and resting at a very odd angle. Rubble from the collapsed train tunnel was strewn about all over the car.
"Oh, right," he said as it all came back to him, "Bomb."
Neo nodded.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Neo blushed ever so slightly and looked away.
"I'm fine."
Eugene suddenly remembered how he'd managed to protect her.
"Oh, sorry about that," he said, a little embarrassed, "First thing I could think of on short notice."
"It's ok." she signed.
"Good," he sighed.
He stood up.
"I need to check on my friends," he said, "Can you get out on your own?"
Neo nodded.
Eugene smiled and turned to leave but Neo tapped him on the shoulder before he could.
"Hm? What is it?" he asked.
Neo looked at him quizzically.
"Why did you save me?" she asked.
Eugene smiled.
"Because it was the right thing to do. And because I wanted to." he signed.
Neo didn't know how to respond to that. Eugene turned to leave again, and this time Neo didn't stop him.
Eugene left the train car and moved on to the next. The next car was much worse than the one he had found himself in. Most of its front end was gone, and shrapnel was everywhere, even embedded in the side of the train car. What Eugene noticed first, however, was the large concrete sphere taking up the center of the room.
The fractal pattern of its structure told him it was one of Delsin's constructs. He walked around it to try and find a hole and found one in the back. Evidently, Delsin hadn't had time to build a layer thick enough to absorb the blast, as shrapnel had obliterated the part of the sphere that faced the explosion. Eugene gasped when he saw Delsin still standing in the opening, his back covered in puncture wounds.
"Delsin!" he shouted, shaking his friend's shoulder, "Delsin, are you ok?!"
Delsin roused slowly, coughing as he woke up.
"Damn," he said, "That was a big boom."
Eugene sighed in relief. Delsin reached behind him and cut himself on one of the pieces of shrapnel protruding from his back.
"OW!" he said, holding his finger, "Eugene, can you help me get these out?" he asked.
"Sure," Eugene said.
They managed to get the pieces out over the next minute, and Delsin mourned the loss of yet another faithful jacket.
"Dammit," he whined, "I just got this one!"
Eugene laughed.
Their jovial mood was cut short in a split second. A feeling, much like the one that had warned them of the bomb in the train, fell over them. It was exponentially stronger than the one they had felt only a few minutes ago, and it was growing with each passing second.
"Oh dear God, no," Eugene said, a look of abject terror on his face.
"Is that what I think it is?" Delsin said, his face the same.
Eugene nodded.
"We need to get up there! Now!" Eugene shouted.
Delsin nodded and picked up a Boulder Dash. He barreled through the doors and bad terrain, Eugene flying behind them. They moved faster than they ever had, the adrenaline of pure terror pumping through them.
They had to warn them. That was the only coherent thought the two of them could form. An entirely different kind of Blast was coming, one they needed to escape at all costs.
The two of them reached the top in seconds. Delsin placed a hand on something and the two of them screamed.
"EVERYBODY RUN!"
But, the warning came too late. On the rooftop, Cinder smiled and pressed a button, and the light of a Ray-Sphere Blast swept over Vale.
CHAPTER END
