Chapter 9
Ruby was quietly observing the area before her, trying hard not to fall asleep. While she was eager for a break from all the fighting, she was bored out of her mind. Guard duty was probably the most boring assignment in existence. She was about to look through her scope to see if any Grimm were coming a bit too close to the building that her team and professor Oobleck were using when Zwei suddenly barked out loud. Turning toward her family dog, she widened her eyes when she saw him take off. Panicking a bit, she sprinted off after him. Unbeknownst to her, a figure spotted this and sprinted off after her. Rushing after her dog, she soon spotted him going to the bathroom on an unfinished building. Giggling to herself, she walked to the dog.
"Seriously?" Asked Ruby as she eyed her dog with amusement. "You could have done that anywhere else." She was about to urge her dog back to camp, when she heard voices. Curious, she peeped around a corner. To her shock, she saw two White Fang goons walking away from her. Silently praising herself and her team for the luck of the century guess, she stealthily followed the two grunts to wherever their base was. After several close calls, that were totally not her fault, she managed to find the entrance to the White Fang hideout. Bringing out her scroll in order to call her team and professor Oobleck, she groaned at seeing that she didn't have a strong enough signal. Grabbing Zwei and her weapon, the two proceeded to go back to base camp to tell the others. Unfortunately, during their walk back, the floor suddenly collapsed. Ruby managed to grab onto the ledge on time, but unfortunately had to toss her weapon to safety to do so as well as grabbing Zwei. Seeing that she couldn't hold on for much longer, Ruby threw Zwei to safety before falling into the abyss. Whining in concern for his master, Zwei rushed to the camp to alert the others. Unbeknownst to him, a particular bird woman saw the whole thing.
"*Sighs* I knew that Ozpin was crazy." Said Xayah as she went down the hole to find Ruby. After free falling for a few minutes, Xayah landed safely on a raised platform. Upon looking at her surroundings, she let out a whistle. "An underground city underneath a city." Commented Xayah as she looked at the ruined buildings before her. She knew the reason for this. Initially, the people that lived in mountain Glenn built it as a subway to transport people from the main kingdom to the city here. Unfortunately, due to the absence of natural borders the main kingdom of Vale had including some experiments caused by some organization she couldn't care about, the Grimm attacks continued to rise until eventually they overwhelmed the cities defenses, forcing the survivors to build a underground city safe from the Grimm. At least those on the surface. Eventually, an explosion happened that caused subterranean Grimm to attack and kill any survivors that didn't escape to the kingdom. It was tragic day that even Xayah felt sympathy for the people trapped down here. The fact that no one tried to rescue them aggravated her. Though she suppose it was understandable. Based on reports on that day, Grimm numbers were far too numerous for any huntsman team can take on. Sighing to herself, she then tried to spy Ruby among the ruined remains of this forsaken city. She soon spotted her being taken away by two White Fang grunts, unconscious. Sighing to herself, she contacted her team about the situation before taking off to rescue the girl. She stealthily made her way to the goons, watching as they took Ruby to whatever base they have. Knowing that she had to rescue her now, Xayah brought out two feathers and threw them at the goon's heads. Surprisingly, the feathers punctured their helmets and heads clean through and impeded themselves in a wall, going in a few inches. As the two grunts fell down, Xayah grabbed Ruby and dragged her to safety. As soon as she found a hiding spot in a ruined building, Xayah roughly shook the young girl awake, which soon resulting in her waking.
"*Groans* What happened?" Asked Ruby as she held her head. Last thing she remembered was a White Fang grunt kicking her in the face, knocking her unconscious. She then saw Xayah and widened her eyes in shock. Thinking she was a White Fang soldier, Ruby attempted to throw a punch at her, which Xayah grabbed effortlessly.
"This is the thanks I get for rescuing you?" Whispered Xayah, rolling her eyes in annoyance, before staring Ruby down. "Look, I'm not a White Fang member. I'm just an ordinary girl, trying to help someone out. So just, calm down and let's start over." Hearing this, Ruby calmed down and looked at the woman before her with slight suspicion.
"You're here to help me?" Asked Ruby, wondering why this woman was helping her. "Why are you here?"
"First off, yes. I'm here to help." Said Xayah, keeping her voice down so no White Fang can hear them. "Second question is something I can't say. Just know that Ironwood sent me."
"The general?" Asked Ruby as she tilted her head in confusion. "He sent you." Xayah just nodded her head before showing her an Atlesian scroll. She then activated it to show her credentials for being a huntress. Thinking it was enough, Ruby nodded her head in understanding. "So, you're a spy?" After Xayah nodded, Ruby widen her eyes in amazement. "That's so cool. So, what are the White Fang doing?"
"No idea." Said Xayah as she looked around in case any White Fang grunts show up. "Honestly, they've just been hauling a whole lot of dust here. For what I got no idea. I suspect its all the dust that they've been taking, right?"
"Has to be." Said Ruby before getting up. "We should investigate."
"Can you handle yourself in a fight? Without your weapon? Cause I saw you being taken down by White Fang grunts with ease." Said Xayah, causing Ruby to rub her head sheepishly at the embarrassing defeat. Rolling her eyes, knowing that the girl will follow her in regardless of what she said, motioned her to follow her. "Just do what I say and nothing else. Do that and we'll get out of this in one piece. Got it?" Happy that the huntress was giving her a chance, Ruby did a poor man's excuse of a salute before following Xayah, who wondered how much trouble she'll be in with her superior. Meanwhile Torchwick was smiling to himself as the machine the White Fang dug up finished loading the train with everything they needed to pull off the plan. He sighed in content as it walked toward him.
"Train is all loaded and armed, sir." Said the machine as it saluted. "What is our next objective?"
"*laughs* Man, normally I'm annoyed by the gun-ho military types, but you're the exception green." Said Torchwick, calling the machine by his nickname because of how green he was. "Now, our job is to wait until the time is right, which will take a while. So, we can cut back and relax. You want some oil?" Offered Torchwick as Green tilted his head in confusion. Before he could retort, his radar immediately detected two groups of unknown hostiles coming closer. "Commander Torchwick, multiple boogies are approaching. Two are approaching from there." Green then pointed somewhere in the ruins. Raising an eyebrow, Torchwick nevertheless complies and sent some White Fang grunts to investigate. Meanwhile, Xayah and Ruby were hiding behind a ruined building when Xayah heard a mechanical voice. Once safe, she brought out a small drone that she brought along and had it scout the large open area. To her frustration, she saw a large robot that she knew all too well.
"This job just got a whole lot harder." Thought Xayah as she watched the machine advising Torchwick on what to do. Ruby meanwhile was both amazed at the giant robot and the cool tech that Xayah had on her.
"How'd we get that?" Asked Ruby in amazement. She then pointed to the device on Xayah's wrist that she was using to see what the drone was seeing. A holographic device that appeared out of nowhere. "And when can I get one of those?"
"To answer both questions. 2nd question, never. First…I have honestly no idea. It wasn't in the intel." Said Xayah, wondering what to do. Biting her lip in exasperation, she turned to Ruby. "Are your friends okay with the chance to fight a giant robot?" Ruby just donned a smug look in reply.
"Yeah we are." Said Ruby, tone full of pride. "We took down a giant robot before. Doing it again, will be a piece of cake." Raising an eyebrow at the girl's borderline arrogances, Xayah was nevertheless amused at her. She was…adorable in trying to act all tough. Still, she highly doubted any of them can fight this mech and win.
"Well, then you're all out of luck because we're not fighting it." Said Xayah. She then spoke before Ruby can protest. "Listen, it's not a priority now. Right now, we have to take out whatever's on that train." Her drone then zoomed in on a large cylinder-like object from an open boxcar. "It's just a guess, but I think those are bombs filled with dust. And what how much dust the White Fang stole over the past few months, there's no doubt there's a lot more inside that train. So, to do our duty to defend the kingdoms, we have to take out that train and arrest Torchwick and whatever bosses he has. You get me?" Though she was disappointed at not proving her skill in fighting a giant robot, Ruby nonetheless nodded.
"You're right." Said Ruby. "We need to focus on the mission." Xayah then nodded her head in respect, making Ruby happy.
"Look, I know you're not happy with not fighting the giant robot." Said Xayah. She then let a small smile grace her features. "So how about proving to me your skills in kicking White Fang butt." Upon hearing the proposal, Ruby nodded excitedly. Happy that she was going to prove her skills to an experienced huntress. Huffing in amusement at seeing the girl's enthusiasm, she was about to tell her what to do when suddenly a large explosion was made.
"What the…" Said Roman as he too heard that explosion. Soon several more were made. "What's going on!" Demanded Roman as the White Fang grunts looked at each other in confusion as well. Green then suddenly spoke.
"Commander Torchwick, boogies are now entering optical range." Said Green. Just then, Ruby's whole team arrived with a huntsman and dog of all things. "Sir, I recommend carrying this portion of the plan now in order to gain something out of this." As much as he didn't want to agree, Green was right. With their hidden base now compromised, something must be done to salvage the plan. Sighing to himself, Torchwick walked to the train. Neo was there inside now, so he probably has to tell her what's going on. As soon as he entered the train, Torchwick looked at Green, standing at attention.
"Delay them. Give me as much time as you can." Ordered Roman as the train started to move. As soon as the last cart left the area, Green blocked the entrance with one of his feet. He then brought out his rifle as he stared down at the huntress-in training team, their dog, and a lanky green haired man, all of which are shocked at his incredible size. He then used this shock to open fire on them. He was about to fire when his weapon suddenly malfunctioned. Looking at it in confusion and alarm, the robot then soon saw Xayah and Ruby rushing themselves toward the recently arrived group. Yang, upon seeing her sister, embraced her. After that, Ruby then grabbed Crescent rose, which was recovered by her team, and ordered everyone to fall back to the ruins, which they did after Xayah pushed them to the ruins. Just in time too as the robot's weapon restored itself and the robot instantly pointed its weapon at the group the moment it did. It fired a large blast just when the group rushed inside the ruins. The large energy blast, taking out a large portion of the ruined city, shocking all parties with the destructive power of the weapon. Upon seeing no casualties from the enemy, the robot turned to his accomplices.
"All units stay here. Our object is to delay them, not destroy them." Said Green as the White Fang grunts looked at him in shock and fear. "Stay here and block the entrance." Though wanting to get at the huntress and huntsman group, they nevertheless obeyed the robot and stood position. Meanwhile, the gang of 4 huntresses-in-training, a teacher, a huntress, and a dog were recovering from the experience. After recovering, Yang looked at Weiss.
"Uhh…. Weiss?" Said Yang as she looked at the heiress. "Did the missing military tech include a giant robot that's about the size of a six-story building?" Weiss just slowly shook her head as she tried to process what she saw.
"No." Said Weiss. "The only things missing that even remotely resemble mechs is the Atlesian paladins, but they're not even close to the size of that giant!" She then began to break down. "How did they get that!? How does it even exist!? How does…" Xayah rolled her eyes as the heiress started rambling on. Oobleck, meanwhile, stared at her in suspicion.
"Who are you?" Asked Oobleck as he eyed the faunas woman, more particularly her features. She had more animal qualities than the typical faunas.
"A huntress." Said Xayah as she held her scroll, which showed her credentials and everything. "Ironwood sent me undercover to spy on the White Fang."
"Really?" Asked Oobleck, his suspicion raised. Despite being genuine credentials, they could also have been forged. "Then why didn't he inform Ozpin of such an operative?"
"Classified." Said Xayah with a shrug before entering a staring competition with Oobleck "Look, I get it, You don't trust me and don't have any reason too. So, just trust your gut instincts and trust me."
"My gut instincts are telling me not to trust you." Said Oobleck before changing the topic. "I suppose you helped miss Rose escape?"
"You get that right." Said Xayah before activating her holographic device again to spy on the enemy with her drone.
"Then you have my gratitude for doing so." Said Oobleck with sincerity. Xayah just scoffed before focusing on the situation on hand. "Since you're undercover, I assume you know what's going on."
"Not really." Said Xayah. "Torchwick and his bosses kept everyone in the dark. Nearly everyone doesn't know what's the real plan is. But I suspect it's occurring now since Torchwick left with a train filled with potential explosives."
"Explosives?" Asked Oobleck in alarm.
"Yeah." Said Xayah. "Don't know why though. Do the tracks here lead anywhere?"
"They used to lead back to Vale, but they've been since sealed off in case the Grimm use them." Explained Oobleck. "There's no reason to use them."
"Or the explosives." Said Xayah before thinking of possible scenarios. Scenario after scenario pass through her head as she tried to figure out what Torchwick could possibly do with all the dust he had and what gains he could get. Soon, Oobleck gasped in alarm.
"Oh dear." Said Oobleck with alarm. "I suspect that he's trying to unleash the Grimm to the city of Vale."
"What?" Asked Xayah in confusion and disbelief. "Why do that? He's a business man. That doesn't seem remotely profitable."
"True, but it's the only logical explanation I have considering what we have to go on." Said Oobleck. "We have to stop that train. Otherwise, thousands may die."
"But we can't do that with that giant robot in the way." Said Blake as she looked at Xayah's holographic screen, amazed with such technology. "It's not budging and I suspect that it'll stay that way."
"It doesn't matter where it came from. Right now, it's standing in our way against stopping the train." Said Ruby as she went into a fighting stance with weapon.
"Ruby is correct." Said Oobleck as he got out his weapon. A thermos of all things. "Even if the probabilities of victory are very miniscule, we'll fight on! Because that's what huntresses and huntsman do!"
"That's correct, but how do we beat that thing?" Asked Weiss pointing to the large machine. "He's blocking the entrance and it doesn't look like it'll move anytime soon. Even if we beat it, it'll be too late." As the group looked at each other in desperation, Xayah sighed to herself, knowing that something had to be done.
"I have an idea. One that requires my…semblance." Said Xayah as the group turned toward her. "I have the ability to teleport past that bucket of bolts and possibly get on that train, but in order for us not to get turned to mush from the train, I need to know how fast that thing can go and how long the tunnel is. Do either of you know how either to those?" Oobleck just hummed to himself as he calculated the mathematics in his head. After several moments he spoke.
"Well, judging by the model of the train and if there's no obstacles obstructing it, I estimate that you can safely teleport us on top of the train in around forty seconds. That is if you can teleport that far in a several miles long tunnel." Said Oobleck. "Anything beyond that will result in having no time in stopping the train from entering Vale."
"Good enough. You all ready?" Asked Xayah as she looked at the huntress group. They all just nodded before they all grouped up on Xayah. "Alright, just hold onto me and I'll take care of the rest." With that, Xayah placed her hands on Zwei and Oobleck. The girls looked at each other before joining in. Seeing she had everyone, Xayah then teleported everyone on the top of the train, surprising everyone at how fast she did so. So much so, that Oobleck nearly fell off the speeding train, but Xayah managed to grab him and pull him back. She then looked around and saw that they're all on the front end of the train. "Alright, looks like we still got time. I don't think that they'll suspect that we made it here, so we have the element of surprise. We just got to deal with those inside the locomotive and we'll have saved the day. Ready to fight?"
"Oh yeah!" said Yang as she cracked her knuckles. Xayah just rolled her eyes with some amusement before getting ready herself. They were about to get in and fight when suddenly a large beam was fired on them, barely missing. Ordering everyone to get down, Xayah looked up to see beam after beam of energy coming at them, far way enough to not damage the train.
"Do they have another one of those?" Asked Blake in disbelief as the beams kept firing.
"No, it must have predicted us trying to teleport past it!" Yelled Xayah with gritted teeth. This really complicated matters.
"What do we do?" Asked Ruby, despair crawling inside her. "It's gonna call Torchwick and tell him we're here."
"And since we're pinned down, we can't escape or fight!" Yelled Weiss as she slammed her fist on the train in frustration.
"I'll tell you all what we're going to do." Said Xayah as she brought out a device from her person and attached it to the train. She then beckoned everyone to get ready. She then pressed a button and the device ejected several appendages from itself. The appendages then pointed to the roof of the train and lasered out a hole for them to go through. Not waiting for anyone to respond, Xayah rushed inside and threw some feathers to the front of the train. With either pure luck or skills, Xayah managed to impale the arms of the driver without killing him. She then spotted Torchwick, who was shocked at the sudden appearance, resulting in her throwing some of her feather like daggers, impaling in his coat, sticking him to the wall. As he complained about his coat, the huntress team soon entered, Xayah walked to the grunt and knocked him out with a chop to the neck. She then pulled him out, careful not to splatter more blood on the control, before taking the controls for herself.
"Can you stop this train?" Asked Oobleck as he took a position defending the door along with everyone else.
"I should." Said Xayah as she tried to find the proper controls to stop this train. "Should stop it before this reaches Vale."
"That's all great and all, but what about that giant robot from before?" Asked Ruby. "What are we gonna do about that?"
"More than likely, Ironwood would send a team to either acquire or destroy it." Said Xayah as she narrowed her eyes at the condition for the control brakes. "Great. Looks like they thought ahead of time and sabotaged the controls. I can't stop the train from here." She then looked to Torchwick, who had a smug grin in his face, as if telling them he won.
"They never planned on stopping the train." Whispered Oobleck as this information came to light.
"Does that mean we lost?" Asked Yang in frustration and disbelief. Good guys never lose.
"Not yet." Said Ruby with determination. "We can still stop the whatever they're planning. Can we seal the tunnels ahead?"
"No." Said Xayah. "By now, we're probably so close to Vale that by the time we can figure out a way to seal the tunnel ahead of the train, it'll we too late."
"What about destroying the tracks?" Asked Ruby, still not giving up.
"Same problem as before, miss Rose." Said Oobleck with a sigh. "Not enough time."
"What about…" Ruby started to say another suggestion, not prepared to give up hope, though cracks in her voice were evident, when Xayah grabbed her gently and looked at her.
"Look. There's nothing we can do to stop this train." Said Xayah. "The best we can do is helping the people with whatever Torchwick is planning." Upon seeing the disbelief on Ruby's face, Xayah sighed. "I know it's hard to accept defeat, but sometimes life's just cruel like that. C'mon, prove to me you're a huntress and get past this defeat. Huntress are fearless and stoic warriors, right? Then show me you're one now." Hearing those words, Ruby just shook her head before showing Xayah a determined expression on her face, making Xayah smirk in respect. Before any of them could do anything, the train suddenly slammed into the end of the tunnel, knocking them all out. A few minutes later, Xayah groaned as she got up. She watched as the huntress team got up as well. Upon getting out, she saw Grimm killing and destroying buildings. She looked at the huntress team as they all looked on in shock at the carnage before getting their weapons ready. Sighing to herself, she got out several daggers on her person before jumping into the fray with the huntress team, Oobleck, and their dog.
Meanwhile
"Where's Xayah?" Asked the man in green and black armor as he looked at Irelia, who also wondered where she was. She was about to respond when suddenly their comlinks came to life.
"Hey guys, need some help back in Vale." Said Xayah as sounds of roars and gunfire became evident on her side.
"What did you do?" Asked the man, having little emotions in his voice, but was internally annoyed.
"Tried to stop a local problem. Didn't work. I need help." Said Xayah.
"You know what our orders are Xayah. No unnecessary contact with local forces." Said the man.
"I know, but I couldn't help it." Said Xayah, annoyed. "Just come and help as best you can." Sighing to himself, the man summoned a rifle out of nowhere before motioning Irelia to follow him.
"You intend to disobey orders? From admiral Xorah?" Asked Irelia, amusement in her voice. The man just stayed silent as they walked to a ruined building.
"Contact everyone. Tell them to continue their assignments." Said the man as they made their way to the top. "We can handle this ourselves." Irelia nodded as they made it to the roof.