Off the Rails
The sounds of metal clashing and gunshots fired echoed through the underground city of Mountain Glenn just as Roman Torchwick stepped outside of a train car with a lit cigar in his mouth. "What's the noise?" he glanced over at Neo who shrugged her shoulders before trodding along the train.
She was expecting company, but she wasn't sure if that noise was them, or if their grunts had another encounter with some Grimm.
"Could be some Grimm giving one of our scouting parties trouble." The soldier with glasses over his mask reasoned.
"Well then, make yourself useful and help them out, Perry. The noise is driving me mad." Roman glared while resting on his cane now.
"Y-Yes sir!" With that, Perry was gone with a couple of other soldiers to sort out what they suspected was a Grimm problem.
The source of the noise was not that at all.
Yang yelled as she threw punch after punch at Tyrian, clashing gauntlets with him before a red blur sped around him and fired a sniper round at the back of his head that was deflected by his tail.
"Surprise surprise!" he laughed while Blake and Weiss ran in next.
His stinger came down towards Yang who pulled herself away just in time to avoid it.
Checkmate. The two briefly glanced at each other before they reached their target.
The attacks were nothing to the man who weaved between Myrtenaster's stabs and blocked Gambol Shroud's strikes.
He finally caught Myrtenaster between two his fingers and blocked both of Gambol Shroud's blades with his tail.
"A Belladonna and a Schnee. Never thought I'd see the day where you'd be so chummy." Tyrian taunted as he threw the pair of them back while turning his attention back to his target, Ruby and attempting to stab her with his stinger as he ran forward.
Remembering this attack, Ruby spun Crescent Rose around to deflect it while he reeled both of his pincer blades back to slash at her, only to find himself hitting a scythe blade that had just rotated around.
Ruby smirked confidently at this while Crescent Rose's barrel was right in front of Tyrian's face and she fired off a shot that not only backed herself away, but directly hit Tyrian, who pulled himself up, laughing.
"I might actually have to start taking you girls seriously!" Tyrian bent his wrists forward and the gun barrels in his weapon protruded out.
He ran for his target again, this time firing shots off that Ruby strafed to the right of while returning fire with Crescent Rose's sniper form.
Yang, seeing a chance to get a hit in, fired a shot from Ember Celica where he was going, striking the ground right under his feet and making him tumble away.
Snarling with the grin still on his face, Tyrian was ready for more when a crow suddenly flew in from above and shapeshifted right into Qrow Branwen, who slashed down with his sword, creating a shockwave on the ground that launched Tyrian back right into the wall he originally emerged out of.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby smiled upon his arrival.
"Looks to me like we found our way down here." Qrow commented.
"All this fighting has probably alerted the White Fang." Blake crossed her arms.
"Then it looks like we're doing more than scouting this time." the huntsman nodded. "Who was that guy anyways?"
Ruby paused for a moment, she wanted so hard to tell Qrow everything she knew, but she couldn't yet, not here… Not like this. "Someone bad. He was after me specifically." she explained.
"After you?" Qrow paused for a moment in thought. "Looks like I'll be sticking a little closer till we resolve this mess."
"So what we were able to learn was that the White Fang's plan here is to use a train loaded with explosives to create openings in the tunnels for subterranean Grimm to get into Vale.." Blake explained, glancing at her teammates who seemed a little confused by Blake's sudden explanation of something they had yet to officially 'learn'.
Weiss glared more firmly at Ruby who was about to speak up, which promptly shut her up about the matter.
"Sounds bad. We've got to act fast then. Scroll signal down here is dead so it's gonna just have to be us."
"Right." The four girls all nodded before venturing ahead. Ruby stopped and glanced back at the building. She knew this wasn't the last they'd be seeing Tyrian.
With the cover of stealth still on their side, Qrow and RWBY were able to get a good vantage point over the train.
"One of us is gonna need to go to the engine room. If we can stop this thing from going off we can avoid a whole lot of potential other problems." Qrow instructed.
"I'll go." Blake stood up. "I shouldn't have a problem slipping by undetected."
"Next is the bombs." Ruby spoke up. "We need to disable them all, or at least get them away from anywhere they can cause damage fast enough."
"Sounds like a job for you and me then." Weiss insisted.
"Paladins?" Ruby asked.
"I'll turn em into scrap no problem." Qrow chuckled.
"We will." Yang spoke up as well, returning a grin. "And remember to keep a watch out for that guy who attacked us."
The team promptly split up to deal with this efficiently. It definitely helped to know what was already on board and who they'd likely have to contend with.
The Scouting party that Roman had sent out finally arrived at the scene where RWBY and Tyrian had their encounter and looked around in confusion. "Nothing?" Perry asked
"Not a single sign of anyone here." another man with bear ears sighed.
"Oh I wouldn't say there's no one here." Tyrian's voice spoke up.
The soldiers screamed as gunfire that was quickly silenced soon followed.
Only one White Fang soldier seemed to walk away from that scene alive, although this one wore a familiar deranged smile on his face.
It was surprisingly a fairly direct path for Blake to reach the train's engine room. One thing she made sure to grab was one of the bombs, so she could destroy the engine thoroughly.
Upon entering it, Blake remembered her previous encounter with Roman on this train, which he thankfully wasn't here.
All she had to do was destroy the engine before it could go off and their mission would be a resounding success.
Reaching into her pocket, Blake produced the bomb and planted it on the front of the engine.
However, before she could arm it, a sharp rapier blade cut right through one of the bomb's wires, disarming it. Hush opened up and Blake was able to pull herself away from that attack in time as Neo glared at her, standing between her and the train's engine.
"I should have guessed you'd be here waiting for us." Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud now. "We're stopping this train before it leaves."
The White Fang soldiers were surprised to see the majority of the bombs they had just finished preparing just suddenly disappear into thin air. They could have swore they had seen some kind of red blur moments earlier as well.
Sighing in relief, Ruby leaned on a wall as Weiss started counting. "This was way more than they needed for that train."
"No kidding." Ruby grunted. "Thanks for the time dilation. Helped me get that out quicker."
"No problem, partner." Weiss nodded while Ruby peered back through the scope of her sniper.
"Say, Weiss… I think we missed one. Looks like a bigger one than the rest too."
"Want me to boost you?" she asked.
"No, I think I got this-" Ruby was about to run out when the White Fang Lieutenant rounded the corner, to retrieve the explosives.
"So that's where they went." he glared down at the small girl that stood before him.
Before Ruby could properly do anything, she found herself grabbed by the cloak and thrown right into the middle of the busy train yard.
"Well I guess that takes subtly out." Weiss sighed, rounding the corner herself and rushing past the Lieutenant and to Ruby's side.
Taking apart the paladins wasn't gonna be an easy job for Yang or Qrow, but with Qrow's semblance in effect, subtle things started going wrong with the flatbed loading up the paladins, namely that a wheel came off and forced them to stop their progress on moving it.
After which, those soldiers were easy pickings for the pair who did so with some level of stealth.
At least as stealthy as Yang could be while slamming her fist into someone's gut.
"Now then, how are we gonna destroy these?" Yang asked with her arms crossed.
Qrow then glanced around their scenery before a smile formed on his face. "You might wanna take a step back, firecracker."
As the pair backed away, Yang could exactly see what he was referring to. The foundations of a nearby building were beginning to give out finally and with the collapse of that building, all of the paladins would be buried under rubble and rendered useless, at least if that process hurried along with his semblance.
As the pair were about to stand back and watch, an alarm went off.
"Looks like a stealthy approach is out." Yang groaned while Qrow cursed under his breath.
"Go help the others out, Yang." Qrow prepared Harbinger now. "I'll take out these hunks of scrap myself."
"On it." Yang ran off ahead now.
Ruby and Weiss stood amidst White Fang soldiers that were starting to gather around them, aiming their guns at the pair.
"What do we do, Ruby? We're completely surrounded." Weiss glanced at her.
"I'm thinking, give me a second!" Ruby searched for any way out of this situation.
"You'd probably be best giving up if you know what's good for you, runts." Roman taunted while stepping out onto the train.
"Torchwick…" Ruby grit her teeth.
"Well if it isn't Little Red. You must be surprised to see me here." Roman spun his cane around. "Someone get the train moving!" he commanded.
"But we're not-"
"Do what I say!" Roman demanded more thoroughly as the soldiers started to run up to the front of the train.
A single flare shot flew right in Roman's direction that was quickly destroyed with another that Roman countered with as he glanced downward, noticing the approaching Yang.
"More kids… Of course there's more kids." Roman climbed down inside of the train.
"While they're distracted!" Ruby insisted now as her and Weiss began to fend off the surrounding soldiers who were starting to divert their attention to Yang.
A glyph formed right behind one soldier where Weiss's Arma Gigas summon emerged through, landing right onto that soldier before it began to assist in the ensuing battle.
Ruby was easily able to deflect gunfire while running towards some soldiers that were on top of a truck before raising her scythe up.
A rocket was launched her way, but she split into four blurs of rose petals, reappearing behind the soldier that fired the rocket and slamming the blunt end of her scythe into the back of his head.
The next two soldiers didn't fare any better as they were now within her scythe's range. Spinning around her scythe she was able to disarm the soldier to her right while striking the soldier to her left's gut.
Gritting his teeth, the soldier to her right tried throwing a punch at her only to be jabbed under the chin by Crescent Rose, knocking his mask off and making him land right at the Lieutenant's feet.
"Enough games little girl." the larger man slung his chainsaw over his shoulder as Ruby smirked, reeling Crescent Rose back.
The fight in the engine room was going back and forth as Blake kept trying to rearm the bomb by reconnecting the wire, but Neo kept shoving her back and parrying her attempts at attacking her.
Neo's direct strikes for Blake also had trouble finding their way to their target as Blake's semblance kept her away from Hush's blade.
A pair of soldiers entered the engine room, noticing the fighting pair. Neo tilted her head in confusion at their arrival.
"We're here to get the train started." the tusked man explained.
"No you're not!" Blake ran forward, but found herself shoved back by an opened Hush while Neo smiled, holding it over her shoulder.
"Neo, if this train takes off, Roman's going to get arrested again!" she insisted while pulling herself up in time to dodge a downward swing from an again closed Hush.
Thinking fast, Blake threw Gambol Shroud in it's Kusarigama form one of the soldiers attempting to start the train. It wrapped around his wrist and she pulled back as hard as she could, making him punch his fellow soldier accidentally while Blake started to reel him in and make him stumble forward.
Swinging upwards with Hush's blade out again, Neo was annoyed to find her weapon caught in the hole that Gambol Shroud's sheath had for Blake to grip it while Blake held the blunt end of the sheath.
The soldier fell to his back and Blake pulled Gambol Shroud's main katana back to her hand before using her semblance to create an ice clone and conveniently trap Hush's blade right inside of it.
She then landed right atop the soldier's chest and sighed in relief before turning back to Neo.
She was gone, yet part of Hush, the umbrella was still stabbed into her icy statue.
That was when she was caught off guard. Just as she turned around, Neo swung her rapier at Blake and struck the side of her head, knocking her right onto the lever that activated the train.
Standing back up, Blake rubbed her head as she heard the sound of the train's engine fully activated.
Neo merely waved a finger in front of the faunus now with a smug smile on her face as she walked over to the ice clone and smashed it with her rapier, retrieving her umbrella from the rubble and shaking it off before sheathing Hush again and simply goading the girl to make the first move.
The White Fang Lieutenant charged for Ruby, attempting to bring his weapon down on the girl, who split herself into two blurs of rose petals and appeared floating in the air right above him as he sliced clean through the truck.
Aiming Crescent Rose in it's rifle form, Ruby fired a shot out at the lieutenant that knocked him right into the destroyed truck before she landed on the ground with Weiss quickly to catch up with her.
"Need a hand?"
"Of course." Ruby agreed while watching the Lieutenant pull himself up.
"A Schnee as well? Must be my lucky day." The man ran forward, holding the chainsaw with both of his hands and attempting to slash horizontally at the pair.
Ruby jumped right over the blade while Weiss ducked under it, holding out her hand and forming a glyph for Ruby to land on right behind the man.
Turning around he swung upwards at Ruby, but found himself blasted back by another glyph Weiss formed right under him, launching him into the air just as Ruby backflipped out of the way of his attack and landed on top of her scythe.
Focusing herself now, Weiss used time dilation on herself and Ruby. "Ready?"
"You know it." Ruby grinned before the pair sped right through the still disoriented Lieutenant, multiple times, hitting him with each and every strike of their weapons.
As the time dilation began to wear off Ruby hopped onto the man's shoulders and hooked Crescent Rose around the upper handle of the chainsaw. "You won't be needing this behind bars." She jumped up and pulled her scythe's trigger.
The chainsaw flew out of the Lieutenant's hands and left him open for a direct strike from Weiss who slashed upwards with Myrtenaster, hitting him directly and also encasing him partially in a wave of ice that left him trapped.
Ruby finally landed softly on the ground in front of Weiss and shot her a thumbs up before the sound of the train's engine got her attention. "Uh oh…"
"I'll go see what's going on with Blake." Weiss assured.
"I'll get the others." Ruby agreed and ran to meet with the others after Weiss jumped aboard the train.
Yang slammed another White Fang soldier harshly into the ground. Before closing her fists and pulling them back, detonating some explosives she had set around the battlefield which took out another approaching wave of soldiers.
"Yang!" Ruby's voice called out from a distance as the sound of the train starting up caught her attention.
Turning to look at her sister, Yang's eyes went wide when a White Fang soldier had managed to seemingly get the drop on her and went at her from behind, striking her with a very familiar pincer blade that shattered her aura. "RUBY!"
She called out as the White Fang soldier scooped the unconscious girl up and ran towards the train with her.
Narrowing her eyes, Yang ran after them, picking up Crescent Rose along the way and clipping it to her belt
As Weiss finally entered the train's interior, she began to make way for the front when a familiar voice called out to her. "Hey Ice Queen!" Roman shouted as she neared the door, which made her pause.
"Why do people keep calling me that?!" she grunted in annoyance.
"Hey, I'm just calling it like I see it." Roman chuckled as he approached her. "I'm sure you're probably mad about all the heists…"
"Just shut up." Weiss pointed her rapier at him.
"Cutting to the chase? Well, if you insist." Roman fired off a flare shot in her direction that she deflected with a shield of hard light in front of her.
"It's gonna take more than a few party tricks to-" Weiss was cut off when Roman flipped Melodic Cudgel around and launched the grapple hook at her.
It narrowly missed her while she ran for him and swung her rapier at him with some fire dust on it that nearly hit him. "Hey, watch the coat!"
"And you're calling me the uptight one?" Weiss commented as he patted the flames off his coat.
"This was a gift!" he explained. "I don't often get those."
"From Neo?" Weiss inquired.
"Well yea- Wait how do you know who Neo is?!" Roman was confused.
"Oh we have our ways." Weiss switched the dust to electricity dust and grunted in annoyance when Roman blocked her next swing.
"The Schnees must have some real shady connections then." Roman headbutted her, which made her stumble back a little.
He caught his hat as it nearly fell off his head.
"No, my Team and I are just really sick of your nonsense." Weiss shook her head. "You can still surrender if you want."
"You and I both know there's no way in hell that's happening." Roman finished fixing his hat.
"Have it your way then." Weiss formed a summoning glyph behind her and Roman's visible eye narrowed when a boarbatusk emerged from it.
The sound of rhythmic humming along with the train moving was what Ruby awoke to as she was being carried by the disguised Tyrian.
She shook herself and kicked out as much as she could while being carried on the man's shoulder before finally one kick finally connected with his back, and caused him to drop her to the ground.
"Thorny little flower." Tyrian turned while Ruby pulled herself up and turned to run, but found herself struck by Tyrian swinging his tail around and flung into a wall.
His stinger raised up once again to stab her, but before it could come down, Yang's fist punched it off course and into a wall. "Don't you dare." the blonde threatened with red eyes.
"Oh but I will dare." the man laughed. "My Goddess demands the girl, so I will get her."
"Then you'll have to go through me first." Yang raised her fists up while she watched Tyrian prepare his stance, leaning forward with his tail raised at the ready.
As Qrow finished scrapping the last of the stolen Atlesian Paladins, he noticed the train departing and sighed, breaking into a sprint to catch up with it now.
Commentary: And here we have another longer chapter! At least compared to most of the ones you've gotten for this story up to this point anyways. A very action-oriented chapter.
This Tyrian fight was something I was looking forward to doing, which he only got hit as much as he did is because he underestimated the girls and was merely toying with them. Next chapter you're really gonna see him start to take things more seriously.
To address some of the recent reviews, I do feel like Cinder would at least be aware of the fact that Silver eyes are a threat to Salem's plans, and while she didn't think Ruby was a threat in canon, it might have been more from the fact she didn't know how to use them seemingly, which later on would clearly be proven wrong. As for the broadcast... I have my doubts about that, since Ruby doesn't have access to the virus... Which that is provided that Cinder's broadcast even has a chance to happen.
As for how Tyrian's arrival changes things? Well, you're seeing more on that now, and you'll see next chapter too.