a/n: So... This is a concept I figured I'd explore. Connected to A Girl and Her Bike but kinda divorced from it for now.

Glass Shatters

"… Well, this is just great," the man sighed as smoked poured out from under his car's hood. He was primarily dressed in black, but a red shirt was visible from under his vest.

"Wait…" a dark-skinned, green-haired girl poked her head out from the left backseat window, "Why is smoke coming out of the engine good?" She was primarily dressed in white, but dark green boots and a light green hoodie.

"… He meant 'great' in an ironic sense, Emerald," the young woman in the passenger's seat remarked as she molded a glass trinket in her hands, "It was only a matter of time before this old rustbucket broke down." Her shirt was primarily black, but turned red in a gradient at the collar, hem, and the edges of the sleeves.

"… I knew that," Emerald lied as she sank into her seat.

"You're not fooling anyone," the young woman stated as she twisted the glass trinket into a spiral shape.

"Shut up, Cinder," Emerald grumbled as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head.

The woman, Cinder, simply chuckled as she peeled apart the top of the spiral into a flowering blossom.

"Rhodes! Cinder's being mean!"

"Cinder, you know Emerald's new to a lot of this," the man, Rhodes, said as he got out his Scroll, "But I need both of you to be quiet while I call a tow-truck. I'd rather we not have to deal with Grimm on top of whatever's wrong with the car."


Rhodes cupped his face in his hands as the trio stood outside the mechanic's shop.

"I mean, the car was older than Emerald," Cinder stated, "It was bound to give out eventually."

"I know."

"Not to mention that the engine basically exploded," Emerald added, "That's kinda hard to fix."

"I know!"

"Maybe one of the hunks of junk in this scrapyard is still salvageable?" Cinder suggested, "If we can't fix up your car, maybe we could sell it for scrap and patch up one of the less damaged cars here?"

"Maybe…" Rhodes sighed, "It's just… I've had that car since before I found you."

"And if it hadn't broken down, you'd have never been forced to stay at her hotel, and…" Cinder's hand went up to her neck, "Look, maybe it's a blessing in disguise?"

Rhodes sighed.

"Maybe," he conceded, "But I am going to miss-"

"Hey! What brings you lot here?"

Rhodes and Cinder whirled around as Emerald perked up.

"Marcus! It's been ages!" Rhodes greeted as he shook his old friend's hand, "We need to replace our car, but what brings you here?"

"Merc wanted to build replacements for his cybernetic legs," Marcus answered.

"Why would he need replacements?" Emerald asked as she zipped up in front of Marcus, "Is he okay? He didn't have an allergic reaction to the fabric components again, did he?"

"Nonono! Relax Em, he's fine!" Marcus clarified, allowing Emerald to let out the breath she hadn't realized he was holding, "The company we were renting the prosthetics from just hiked up their prices, so Merc figured he might as well try and make his own legs. I'm trying to find cheaper alternatives, but…"

"… Rhodes?"

"Hm?"

"Can I go help Mr. Black?" Emerald requested, "If Mercury's in trouble…"

"Go ahead," Rhodes answered, "The last thing we need is for your worrying to attract Grimm while we're on the road."

"THANK YOU!" Emerald replied as she hugged Rhodes, before zipping over to Marcus and grabbing his wrist, "Come on! I think I saw some old rifle parts that Mercury might be able to use!"

Marcus was pulled away from the group by his arm as Emerald took off.

"I'll send you some pictures of what we find to see if you like it!" Cinder called after her.

"Okay!" Emerald replied.

"Remember to drop her off at our place after she's had the chance to visit Mercury!" Rhodes added.

"I will!" Marcus promised.


Cinder followed behind Rhodes as they walked between the mounds of scrapmetal, both hands on Midnight's hilts as she scanned the piles for suspicious movement.

"Is there any reason you passed up that perfectly good van?" she asked.

"Do you know how much we'd spend on Dust?" Rhodes asked, "There's only three of us, and sometimes Mercury! We do not need an eight-seater."

"Yet," Cinder remarked with a smirk.

"Do not take that as a challenge to adopt a gaggle of orphans just to justify the van," Rhodes remarked.

"I would never!" Cinder scoffed, "Honestly, I'm offended! You're the one who decided Emerald could stay!"
"And who paid for her lunch and smuggled her in through their bedroom window?"

"She was eating out of a trashcan!" Cinder protested, "What was I supposed to do, buy her lunch and send her on her way?"

"Considering that she stole my lunch…"

"So, just keep adopting everyone who robs you, and we'll need a van in no time!" Cinder replied.

"… No."

"… It was worth a shot…" she sighed as the duo came up on two muscle cars.

One was rusted, the paint peeling, and looked to be on the verge of falling apart.

The other had a shiny, purple, scratched up paint job, a dented chassis, but was otherwise intact. Save for the missing tires, but that was probably less to do with the condition of the vehicle, and more to do with the owner of the scrapyard not wanting anyone to drive away without paying for the car.

"… Who'd throw out a perfectly good car like that?" Rhodes asked.

"If there's one thing that damned hotel taught me, it's that if it looks like it's too good to be true, it probably is," Cinder remarked with a quirked eyebrow, "Make sure it won't blow up in our faces before I send a pic to Emerald. I'd rather not get her hyped up for a freaking bomb."

"… Why me?"

"You can turn your skin into metal," Cinder replied, "Getting blown up by a shitty car is too lame a way to die for me to even risk!"

Rhodes sighed.

"I'll see if the mechanic has the keys…"

As it turned out, the mechanic did.

"Cinder, you're not exactly filling me with confidence at the moment!" Rhodes called.

"I'm not made of metal!" Cinder shot back from behind her makeshift garbage bunker, made of the sturdiest metal sheets she could find, "Just turn the key and I'll fetch the first aid kit if you blow up!"

Rhodes activated his Semblance and turned the key.

The car hummed to life, and the dashboard lit up.

"It's… Completely functional…" Rhodes remarked as he deactivated his Semblance, "We'll have to buff out the dents and fix up the paint job, but I honestly don't get why someone would throw out this car when it's perfectly fine?"

"… Damned rich people…" Cinder grumbled as she took out her Scroll and opened its camera, "Time to see what Emerald thinks."

Emerald loved it.


"So do you think Mercury was able to see the meteor shower last night?" Cinder asked as she burned a clump of sand into a blob of glass.

"Given that the only reason we saw it is because I happened to look out the window at the right time, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't," Rhodes replied as Cinder shaped the glass with her hands, "And what are you doing?"

"I've spent the past few months working on figurines of Vale's past rulers," Cinder explained as she rolled the blob of molten glass between her hands, "Now that I've gotten all of the Kings finished, I just need to do the emperors. Starting with the one who won the Great War and united all of Remnant under a single banner."

"Sounds like it'll make for a great Day of Unity display," Rhodes remarked.

"That was the idea," Cinder stated, as she got to work on one of the arms, "Of course, first I have to-"

DING DONG!

The arm she had been working on snapped off as Cinder jolted in her seat, the glass cooling and hardening in it's current state.

"… Shit."

"Vale wasn't built in a day!" Rhodes reminded her as he walked to the front door. When he opened the door, nobody was there, but he could see Marcus' car driving away, and hear Cinder's chuckling.

"Hiya!" Emerald chimed in from behind him.

The Imperial Knight jolted. "Why do you keep doing that?"

"Why do you keep falling for it?" Emerald asked with a grin, "All I had to do was figure out which of the three minds I could sense in the house was yours, which was child's play when I saw Cinder talking to someone in the window, the rest was child's play."

"Honestly, it's good you're still practicing your Semblance," Cinder remarked with a grin, "In time, I'm sure you'll make a great Imperial Knight once you've mastered your…" Her grin faded. "I'm sorry, did you say three minds?"

"Yeah," Emerald answered, "Why? Don't you have someone working on the car in the garage?"

Cinder's face paled as Rhodes' blood ran cold.

"Emerald, the car was already running when we picked it up," Rhodes replied, "Can you hit whoever's in the garage with your Semblance and keep them from noticing us?"

"S-sure thing!" Emerald remarked, "It'll be easier if we all get close first. The farther away they are, the more effort it'll take to maintain the hallucination."

"Just wait for my signal," Rhodes replied, "Let's teach this intruder not to mess with a family of Imperial Knights."


Rhodes opened the door and stepped into the garage, followed close behind him, Cinder holding Midnight in bow form while Emerald had her fingers on Thief's Respite's triggers and her Semblance obscuring the trio from the intruder's mind. The Imperial Knight unholstered his maces, swapped them to firearm mode, and pointed his own weapon at the car, waiting for the intruder to make their move.

Rhodes and Emerald turned off the safety on their weapons as Cinder pulled back her bowstring, forming a glass arrow with her Semblance.

"We know you're in here," Rhodes stated, "Show yourself, keep your hands where we can see them, and we won't hurt you."

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then, the car's engine roared to life, its headlights flickered, and the vehicle's chassis loosened.

And then, it changed, unfolded.

Arms and legs emerged from within the vehicle, the doors becoming like wings (even if they were too small to lift their owner off the ground), as the hood and grill of the car became something akin to a chestplate.

A head emerged from between the shoulders of the immense being, two yellow lights flickering to life where their eyes should be.

"I…" the mechanical being rose their arms, "I come in pea- Rgh."

One of their hands went down to a gash on their side, a pink liquid gushing from the opening.

"You're…" Cinder lowered Midnight, letting the arrow shatter against the flower, "You're hurt."

The strange being turned their sight on Cinder as the others kept their weapons trained on them.

"Who are you?" Cinder asked.

"My… My name is…"


~28 Hours Earlier~


"Shatter? Shatter! Respond!"

"Ugh…" Shatter groaned as her optic sensors rebooted, smoke filling the corridors of the Nemesis as the bridge shook, "Dropkick? What's going on?"

"We're under attack!" the medic answered, "The Autobots found us! Megatron's ordered all hands on deck, but the Nemesis was built for speed, not durability!" The entire ship shook.

"Was that-"

"We've been breached!" Starscream's voice echoed over the comms, "Cover me while I take care of the cables! Everyone else, repel the Autobot intruders! We cannot afford to let this be our last stand! If we fall here, everything we've fought for will have been for nothing!"

"Which way is Megatron right now?" Shatter asked as she forced herself to her feet.
Dropkick wordlessly pointed behind himself.

"Thank you," Shatter stated, before speeding down the hall.


Megatron sliced through an Autotrooper's gun with his Energon blade.

"Surrender, and I'll do what I can to ensure your safety," Megatron promised, "We Ascenticons are not in the business of executing prisoners."

The Autotrooper merely growled and pulled out a knife.

"DIE CRIMINAL SCRAPHEAP!" he yelled as he charged Megatron, only to get bisected vertically, the fury and life fading from his optics as his two halves landed on either side of the Ascenticon leader.

"Why do they so rarely accept mercy?" Megatron mourned.

An Energon blast to the back of his right shoulder took him back into the moment as more Autotroopers poured into the hall, guns blazing.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The Autotroopers fell to the ground, smoke rising from the blastmarks on their backs, revealing-
"Soundwave! Skywarp!" Megatron greeted, "What's the damage report?"

"The initial breach damaged half our guns," Skywarp explained as she and Soundwave walked up to Megatron, "The Autobots have managed to disable the remaining half."

"Thankfully, those posers haven't been able to get to our escape pods," Soundwave replied, "If we sac the Nemesis, we can evac to the nearest planet and rain down to safety."

"But can we be certain that the Autobots won't follow us down to the surface?" Megatron asked, "I'd rather we not drag more innocents into our war."

"If we turn the engines up to eleven, we could rig this ship to blow," Soundwave answered, "Since the Ark is being real clingy, the blast would make their ship wipe-out too! They'll be trapped in orbit while we regroup!"

"But we'll still be at a disadvantage…" Megatron noted, "We'll need to take something down to the surface with us if we're to have any chance of survi-"

The sound of roaring engines interrupted him as more Autotrooper's sped towards the trio in vehicle mode.
"Open fire!" Megatron ordered as he primed his own canon.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Smoke filled the hallway.

Followed swiftly by the sound of shifting metal.

The lights of the Autotroopers' optics blinked on two by two.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Soundwave and Skywarp opened fire into the smoke, a few of the optic lights blinking out as the sound of roaring engines came in from the opposite end of the corridor.

"Damn it!" Skywarp shouted as Megatron turned to face the new arrivals, "We've got no cover in this blasted hallway!"

"Panic is the enemy of survival!" Megatron shouted as he opened fire on the incoming Autotroopers, "Can you teleport us to safety?"

"This whole ship is getting ripped apart at the seams!" Skywarp replied as she fired into the smoke, "I don't know what parts of the ship are still intact!"

Amn Energon blast struck Megatron's shoulder, and the sound of another roaring engine got louder, no, closer!

And then an Autotrooper's head exploded, another was bisected diagonally, and a third was decapitated when he turned to face their mysterious assailant.

"Are you alright, sir?" Shatter asked as she sliced and shot through the Autotroopers.

"That depends on whether or not you have a safe destination for Skywarp to take us!" Megatron answered as he blasted an Autotrooper who was closing in on Shatter, "These Autotroopers are willing to die in droves to wear us down!"

"Fortunately, the Autobots can't have reached where I booted up yet," Shatter replied, before folding into vehicle mode, driving up to the trio, unfolding into robot mode, and producing a data drive, "Skywarp!"

"Soundwave! Do the thing!" Skywarp shouted, before muting her audio receptors.

"Engaging, the Thing!" Soundwave replied as he deployed loudspeakers from his shoulders, "This is gonna to fragging hurt."

BWAMP!

Shatter dropped the data drive as everyone who heard the Thing recoiled and temporarily went deaf, Skywarp snatching up and interfacing with the data drive.

The Autobots regained their bearings and raised their weapons as Skywarp pulled the other three Ascenticons into a hug and activated her Distinction.

Plink!


Plink!

The four Ascenticons materialized miles behind the Autotroopers.

"It won't take them long to find us," Skywarp noted.

"We won't need much time for this," Megatron remarked as he deployed a golden disk from his right arm, "This Data Con holds instructions on what you should do upon reaching the surface, Shatter. Destroy it as soon as you've downloaded its contents."

"Sir?" Shatter replied, "What do you mean?"

"Get to an escape pod, and download the data off of this," Megatron answered as he handed her the golden disk, "I don't know how much longer this ship has."

"I-" A the blaring of a horn echoed down a hall, and the shining headlights of a black truck with purple flame decals sped towards them.

"I've found you, Megatron!" the truck shouted, before unfolding into robot mode, "I'll make bullets out of you for your betrayal!"

His crimson optics struck terror into Shatter's spark.

"Optimus Prime…"

A chill passed through Shatter's Neuro Net when the cruel Autobot leader turned his sight onto her.

"That Data Con…" the tyrant let out a cold laugh, "Hand it over, or else death will be a mercy you will yearn for."

"Run! Now!" Megatron ordered as he drew his sword and charged his opposite number.

CLANG!

His blade locked with Optimus' jagged saber.

"We could have brought peace, unity, and enlightenment to the whole universe, if you had just done your part and obeyed!" Optimus screamed.

"Peace through tyranny?" Megatron replied, "Don't make me laugh."

Optimus roared in response as he sliced through Megatron's blade, discarded his own weapon, and pounced on the Ascenticon leader.

"GIVE ME YOUR FACE!" the Autobot tyrant shrieked as he grabbed onto Megatron's head, "LET'S SEE HOW MUCH FIGHT YOU HAVE IN YOU WHEN YOU'VE BEEN STRIPPED OF YOUR VERY IDENTITY!"

Soundwave and Skywarp charged the Autobot leader, trying to pry him off of Megatron.

Shatter, meanwhile, folded into vehicle mode and drove off to find the escape pods.


Shatter rolled into Escape Pod room as the evacuation order echoed throughout the halls of the ship, Ascenticons piling into the escape pods and launching into the nearby planet's gravitational pull.

"Oh I hate this part," Shatter groaned as she moved to the nearest pod and took her seat, "Hopefully, whoever I won't end up with an unpleasant escape partner."

No sooner had she said this, than gunfire broke out outside the pod, and an Autotrooper barged into the pod, shooting the eject button.

"Me and my big mouth," Shatter grumbled as she rose to her feet and deployed her sabers.

The door to the escape pod, meanwhile, closed, and the pod shot out of the ship and into space, sending both Shatter and the Autotrooper tumbling into one another.


The last escape pod ejected, and the Nemesis erupted into light and burning shrapnel, the force of the blast splitting the Ark in two, smaller explosions tearing through the hull of the Autobot vessel.


Shatter's own escape pod tumbled through the atmosphere as its occupants brawled.

There were punches, stabs, gunshots, and the occasional fistful of wires.

None of this did the escape pod's structural integrity any favors as its controls and wiring were damaged in the tussle.

It shattered on impact with the ground.


Shatter stumbled away from the remnants of her escape pod, dragging her right foot along the ground, the broken body of the Autotrooper laying in a pool of his own blood.

The remnants of the Nemesis burned brilliantly in the skies above her as she scanned her surroundings for an appropriate Alt Mode.

When she found one, she stepped onto the road, folded into a muscle car, and drove down the road, in the direction it looked like the debris would be landing.


Warning!

Critical damage to all systems!

Initiating emergency shutdown!

"No!" Shatter exclaimed, "I… Need… More… Ti…"

Stasis lock: Engaged.

Shatter shut down, and her momentum carried her off the road and into the fence of a scrapyard.


a/n: So... This will probably be updated somewhat infrequently, as in, whenever I get an idea for a new oneshot as I explore more of this world.

I have a handful of ideas for the Shattered Glass versions of various RWBY characters.

Credit where credit is due, though, most ideas for the Shattered Glass RWBY characters come from Convoy914, while Master Chief Spartan 117 came up with the title.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.