Crash Course
Tyrian lunged forward, but Yang quickly fired a shot off, boosting her to the side of his attack and attempting to bring her leg down on him, only for it to be caught by Tyrian's tail.
Glaring, Yang slammed her fists onto Tyrian's tail, forcing him to let go while she caught herself as he tried to slash at her with his pincer blades, but his attacks were met by her gauntlets while she tried to counter back with some punches of her own.
Smirking, Tyrian let one punch connect with his stomach, only to grasp tightly onto Yang's arm with a hand and activate his semblance, which disabled the aura around her arm.
As she caught this Yang quickly pulled her left gauntlet back, detonating some explosives she had planted on his tail with her punches, which in turn blasted the pair away from each other.
Pulling herself up, Yang barely had any time to react as his pincer blade struck her under the chin and knocked her right into the train ceiling. She fell to her back and tried to stand up but Tyrian landed on her chest and smiled.
"End of the road for you." he laughed while raising his stinger up as Yang closed her eyes, her hair starting to brighten with her semblance before suddenly out of a portal, emerged a masked Raven Branwen, who slashed out with her katana, knocking Tyrian back several feet.
"Oh joy! Looks like the mother's arrived!" Tyrian laughed joyfully while the masked Raven said nothing and began to walk towards him with her katana drawn. "I was hoping for a better fight than that." he readied his stance, but the door on the other side of the train opening up caught his attention.
Sure enough, it was Qrow Branwen who entered the train car and noticed the slowly waking up Ruby before he did Raven. "Raven?"
"Qrow." The woman spoke now, looking back at her daughter who pulled herself to her feet, leaning on a crate now.
"Didn't think I'd ever get to see you." Yang remarked.
"This is the one save I'm giving you." she insisted.
"I don't need your charity." the blonde spat back.
Raven simply scoffed. "Normally I'd leave after a statement like that. But how could I resist finishing a fight I started? Especially with a numbers advantage like this."
A smile formed on Qrow's face now as he readied his sword while circling Tyrian with his sister. "Just like old times, eh?"
"Don't get used to this, brother." Raven's expression was hidden by her mask, but her tone made it all too clear that she wasn't enjoying this in the slightest.
"Oh goodie." Tyrian's gaze fell towards Ruby who was sitting up on the ground now while he smiled.
Weiss's summoned boarbatusk rolled at Roman, forcing the man to dodge to the side of it while Weiss sped forward with Myrtenaster pointed forward.
The lunge was parried as Roman then struck the side of her head with Melodic Cudgel, but not before the boarbatusk circled back around and slammed right into his back, sending Roman flying to the front of the train car.
Roman pulled himself up and reached for his cane, but that was quickly blocked by a row of icicles that shot out in his direction. "No more fighting." Weiss glared. "My team already knows what it is you're planning and you still have an out for it all." she explained.
"You know our plan?" Roman feigned ignorance.
"Of course, why do you think we took care of all the bombs before this train took off?" Weiss smirked now as Roman slowly started moving towards where he could see his weapon, it wasn't completely buried under the ice. He could see the handle sticking out of it.
"Stop." Weiss threatened as the Boarbatusk snarled.
"I gotta say, that's a really interesting guard dog ya got there." Roman snarked, glancing over at Melodic Cudgel's handle and thinking. "Well I guess you caught me red handed." he chuckled as Weiss began to walk over to him, the boarbatusk kept watch of him as Weiss's gaze also remained focused on the man.
"How'd you know about the bombs anyways? Not like you've got someone with foresight among your ranks, right?" Roman tried to joke.
Weiss stopped in her tracks now, her eyes avoiding contact with him. How'd he… It was a guess right? No… Neo was with him, it made too much sense.
That moment of distraction was all Roman needed as he successfully grabbed Melodic Cudgel's handle and pressed the button for it's grapple wire function. The result was the base of the cane shattering the ice and becoming almost a flail that Roman swung widely, striking the momentarily stunned Weiss directly in the gut, knocking her into the wall.
The Boarbatusk began to charge for Roman again, but this time he was ready as he reeled the other part of his weapon back and fired a flare shot from it, destroying the summon completely. Before Weiss could get up, Roman jabbed her in the gut with Melodic Cudgel and smirked confidently.
"You really had me worried there for a moment, Ice Queen."
Grunting, Weiss held her fingers out, but Roman moved one finger over the trigger to his weapon, which made her stop. "Amazing, how this one finger right now has more power than all of your so-called abilities."
"So what now? Gonna kill me?"
"What? Why would a gentleman like me do that? You're worth far more to me alive than dead!" Roman began. "Why, I could have your precious Daddy buy you back and I'd get more money than I could possibly need."
Weiss simply scoffed. "You're not the first person I've encountered with that idea. I'll tell you a little spoiler. It didn't work out for them either."
"Then that's where I differ from them. I'm a businessman myself, you know."
How'd Blake make short work of this guy originally? Weiss internally groaned while rolling her eyes, there'd have to be some way she could make herself an opening...
Blake ran more aggressively at Neo, both of her blades gliding across the surface of Hush as Blake quickly reversed the grip of her katana to try and hit Neo from behind her umbrella, only for the umbrella to close quickly and repel the attack.
The shorter woman was able to match Blake's attacks blow for blow, swinging her umbrella widely to parry Gambol Shroud's blades.
Gunshots were what Neo was dodging next as Blake had transformed her weapon into its glock form and opened fire. The simple opening of Hush was all Neo needed to do to block Blake's gunfire, but that's what she counted on now while loading another clip of ammunition into her weapon, this one fired a single shot out that tore a perfect hole through Hush, much to Neo's surprise as a sharp rock was left embedded into the wall behind her..
The shot barely grazed past the shorter woman's shoulder as Blake smirked now. "What? You're not the only one's that's been studying their opponents."
Gritting her teeth, Neo closed Hush up while running at Blake who was now purposefully keeping herself at a distance from her while opening fire. Clever brat mixed earth dust into her ammo.
As she finally had Blake backed into a wall she quickly made an illusion of herself appear right beside Blake that rammed right into her, shattering into glass.
Thinking fast, Blake jumped over Neo's next attack and threw Gambol Shroud out, Neo merely moved to the side of this attack and glanced back at Blake confidently while the girl landed a few feet away from her.
Neo firmly set her foot down on Gambol Shroud and shook her head, producing her weapon's rapier now, with the intent on severing it.
But before she could do that, Blake pulled back, Neo's weight held the body of the weapon down, but it didn't hold the ribbon back as it whipped out tightly, flinging Neo off of it and right into the ceiling of the train car.
This also allowed Blake to retrieve her weapon, pulling it back to her hand and approaching Neo with it drawn in its glock form. "This is over." the faunus affirmed as Neo didn't move at all, it seemed as though she were knocked out cold.
But that couldn't be further from the truth as a slight smirk formed on her face before she shattered into glass and Blake's ears quickly turned as did her body.
But Blake wasn't quick enough as right as she turned around, Hush's blade jabbed her shoulder directly, knocking her backwards and shattering her aura.
Ruby's head was still ringing from that heavy hit she took from Tyrian's tail when she turned to see him rushing for her again, only to be intercepted by Qrow.
"You're fighting us pal!" Qrow called out as Tyrian growled now and glanced around in confusion, Raven had just vanished.
That was until a small raven flying around the room caught his eye.
Aiming his wrist bracers in her direction, he opened fire, the bird dodged around the gunshots before flying behind a crate and turning back into Raven who deflected the gunfire with a few well-timed swings of her katana.
Qrow returned fire to Tyrian while running towards him, quickly turning his weapon back into its sword form before swinging widely at Tyrian again while he jumped backwards and landed on his tail, smirking at the twins.
Raven came for him next, this time with a yellow blade of dust, the electricity from it crackling against Tyrian's weapons as he blocked her strikes, only to be blind-sided by Qrow who came up on his right and jabbed him in the side of the head with Harbinger's handle.
Fighting these two was getting him no closer to his target, he had to think fast, and thankfully he had the perfect weakness to exploit.
Yang leaned on a crate, having been watching the fight going on this whole time while recovering more of her aura, just waiting for her chance to enter the fray.
The weakest link was her, and Tyrian knew this so he rushed at her full force, his tail lunging forward as Yang's eyes widened and she pulled herself back.
She fell right through a dark red portal, landing on her back in confusion as Raven jumped through the portal and kicked Tyrian in the chest with both of her feet, sending the man right into a metal crate, leaving a sizable dent.
"Give up already pal, you're outnumbered." Qrow affirmed while Yang stood up now, priming her weapons and glaring at him with red eyes.
This didn't seem to bother him in the slightest, in fact he broke out into a more hilarious fit of laughter than anything.
"What's so funny, punk?!" Yang asked as Tyrian grinned, now sitting himself up, revealing Ruby to be in his tail's grasp by her neck.
"Ruby!" Qrow was about to run forward.
"Ah, ah, ah… One false move and this little rose wilts." he threatened.
Ruby struggled with her hands grasping onto his tail, gasping for air and glaring at the others.
Yang stopped for a moment. "You can't kill her though, can you? I'm calling your bluff." The blonde readied her stance, but Qrow stepped out in front of her and held a hand out.
"We don't know that he wasn't ordered to kill her." Qrow's eyes narrowed.
"Oh what to do, what to do?! So little time before this train reaches the end of its tracks!" Tyrian laughed maniacally.
"Dammit he's right." Yang grit her teeth now, lowering her weapons.
"I must say… Wanting to call a bluff like that? You most certainly are my daughter." Raven spoke up now from behind Tyrian, the man barely had any time to turn around as a dark purple katana blade swung downwards, severing his tail from where it was grasping onto Ruby's neck.
Ruby was only starting to catch her breath now as Tyrian howled out in pain, barely raising a pincer blade in time to block the next swing that slammed him into a wall, shattering his aura.
Yang's semblance activated now as she reeled her fists back while running for him. "End of the line!"
Tyrian ducked back from Yang's punch, which tore a clean hole into the wall of the train car. "She'll forgive you…" he muttered under his breath before jumping out of the hole Yang tore through the train car.
"Dammit!" Yang slammed her fist into the train wall, but calmed herself down.
"You make a good distraction, brother. Maybe that softness is useful for something." Raven spoke up with a chuckle now as she then sheathed her katana before quickly unsheathing it to create another portal. "I'll be on my way now."
"Yeah, nice catching up with you too, sis." Qrow scoffed.
"Wait!" Yang called out to her, which made her stop suddenly.
"Now you want to talk?" Raven asked.
"Yes. I'd like to meet you alone some time." Yang glared at her. "I'm certain there's some information I have that you might want to know."
The woman nodded. "Fine… Look for the bird at midnight. That's the only hint I'll give you. And come alone."
With that, she departed through the portal and Yang let out a sigh while Ruby stood up now.
"Yang, what did you mean by-" Qrow was interrupted when Ruby walked over to Yang.
"We still gotta stop the train." Ruby held her hand out and Yang placed Crescent Rose onto it and nodded.
"And my dear Ice Queen, is why I'm-" Roman's monologue to Weiss was cut short by a red blur slamming right into him, knocking him onto his back and disarming him.
"Roman Torchwick, you're under arrest." Ruby glared while Weiss grunted.
"He's trickier than I gave him credit for." Weiss sighed, noticing Yang running ahead of Qrow now.
"You kids can go on ahead, I'll hold this creep down." he insisted.
"On it." Ruby and Weiss followed after Yang.
Neo raised her weapon to stab Blake, who was only starting to pull herself up when a blast from Ember Celica flew in her direction and caused her to duck. The blast collided with the front windshield of the train, letting the wind from the tunnel blow inside of it now.
"Ruby, the engine!" Weiss insisted as Ruby ran for the lever.
Weiss and Yang placed themselves between Ruby and Neo who had turned her attention back towards her.
Blake was already back on her feet as well and was aiming Gambol Shroud at her. "You're outnumbered."
"And Roman's been dealt with already." Yang added.
That made Neo freeze up entirely. Before the others would know it, she had vanished completely from sight.
Ruby pulled back as hard as she could on the break. "A LITTLE HELP HERE!"
The end of the tunnel was starting to approach now.
The rest of her team now ran over and helped Ruby pull the lever back completely, their combined strength was enough to pull the lever all the way back and sure enough, the train came to a complete halt, only lightly touching the tunnel wall.
"So… Those kids are a real handful, huh?" Roman joked to Qrow who just shrugged. "Not one for small talk?"
Still silence. "You know, you remind me an awful lot of my partner…" A smile formed on Roman's face now as he saw Neo from the corner of his eye across the room.
Qrow quickly aimed Harbinger at Neo and fired a shot, shattering a glass illusion while turning around now in confusion.
The moment he spun back around to check on Roman Torchwick, he was already gone. "Dammit…"
The sound of the engine stopping echoed through the tunnels now and Qrow sighed. "Good job girls."
Sitting himself down, Qrow took a swig of his flask.
Commentary: And thus we've finally reached the end of the Mountain Glenn arc. A lot certainly did happen here, with Raven showing up like she did originally, not to mention Tyrian's unexpected arrival nearly throwing a wrench into everything. But he once again lost his stinger here. This time to the Branwen twins, well more specifically Raven.
There is an obvious reason Qrow didn't accompany the team in stopping the train, just to address that little point.
There's definitely some questions lurking around the air now. What does Yang want to talk to Raven about? Where's Roman Torchwick? How will this affect Cinder's plan? Well you'll have to read next chapter to find out.