Chapter 16
Mammoth felt humiliated. For years he'd managed to hide his squeamishness from his team, and by now he was sure his little "episode" was on every internet feed in the country.
He had to save face somehow.
He frantically wiped his face for the nth time that day since the blood had fallen on him, cleaning off yet another stray drop of blue blood.
He suppressed a shiver, but forced himself to stare at the blue streak on his hand.
He smirked as an idea took hold.
Saya was having a hard time reeling Yuu in this time.
"We have to stay here Yuu!"
"But if Shooter's eye was cut-!"
"I KNOW!" snapped the teacher, "But we can't do anything like this. You're not Strength anymore and I don't have any of Black Gold Saw's offensive powers. The best thing- hell, the only thing we can do, is wait."
Yuu sighed in defeat. Helpless again. She honestly missed being Strength sometimes.
"Which part? The constant death matches or the psychological torture I had to apply?"
"Did I say that out loud?" was Yuu's sheepish question.
"Yep," Saya was not pleased, "listen Yuu, we had to work hard to get you out of there- I had to work hard."
"I know." Muttered Yuu.
"So please don't say things like-," a low rumbling cut off the teacher's rant, "What was that?"
She closed her right eye and looked downward.
"Ah shit," she cursed, "it's worse than I thought."
"Saya?"
"We need to get to Robin," she replied, "if we don't take down Kuroi-kun now, we'll find ourselves short a city!"
"Would you sit still already!?"
As it turns out, it's quite difficult to pin down a subconscious mental construct, even when they're mortally wounded. One arm down, and Raven still had to use five tendrils emanating from her cloak to keep Chariot from committing suicide via attempted murder while she worked on reattaching the severed limb.
After dodging a claw for the tenth time in the past minute, Raven finally managed to pin down enough of the trashing construct to attempt her spell once more.
"Kagari, hear me," she whispered, "regain control."
The struggling stopped, letting the blonde girl stare blankly at her.
Raven sighed in relief.
"Robin, Chariot's down, I'm taking her back to the tower," she said into her comm.
"Hurry back!" he snapped, "We can't hold Rock back much longer without killing her!"
"I'll be back as soon as I-."
"MAMMOTH WILL HAVE HIS REVENGE!"
As surprising as it was to have Mammoth pop up out of nowhere, through the ceiling of all places, it was just as shocking for Raven to find herself flying involuntarily into a brick wall via Flying Fist Airlines.
"I've been getting knocked out a lot lately," was Raven's last thought before she blacked out.
6 swords, ten bo-staves, twenty birdarangs, several dozen bombs, smoke grenades, freeze disks, and an innumerable number of improvised weapons had so far been used to take down Black Rock Shooter, all of which had met the same untimely fate.
A pile of scrap on the floor surrounding them.
It had gotten to the point that he'd tossed Starfire a sword to keep her from getting nicked as she tried in vain to capture the mad otherself. He'd just managed to fend off a close shave to his neck with a lateral block when yet another surprise ran past what had to be the most chaotic battle they'd suffered through in months.
"Heeeeelp!" Screamed Mamoth as he fled from the murderous blonde rolling after him.
Robin's eye twitched, the stress and craziness from the last two hours caught up with him, piling more stress on the already high-strung Boy Teen Wonder.
He snapped.
With an enraged yell, he thrust his sword downwards, pinning the Black Blade into the asphalt. Mato, who had not expected this, was further surprised when her opponent fell back half a meter and lunged, running her right arm through behind the wrist and nailing it through her left shoulder.
"STARFIRE!" he yelled, "Grab Mammoth before Chariot kills him! I'll take care of Rock!"
"But-!"
"NOW!"
Starfire winced as Mato landed a powerful punch into Robin's ribcage with her broken arm, splintered bone pushing against the pale skin.
"GO!"
He landed a knee into her solar plexus, hoping to finally knock her out. When that didn't work, he leaned back and landed a right hook into the weakest part of the skull behind the eye and above the cheekbones.
That worked a lot better, although he'd probably get an earful for fracturing the girl's skull.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Mary shoved him out of the way to swipe at Mato.
"Didn't I tell you two to keep clear!?" Yelled Cyborg as he spotted Yuu and Saya running towards him. He'd damaged his leg when Mary crashed into the T-Car, meaning that there was little he could do and had settled for taking potshots at Mato, and now Mary, whenever he could.
"I know, but we need to take Rock down NOW!" snapped Yuu.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK WE'RE DOING!?"
"You're not getting it!" snapped Saya, "a Field is being summoned here!"
"So!?"
"A Battlefield can be hundreds of miles wide. What else is hundreds of miles wide!?"
"I'll give you a hint, it's a city with a stupid name that it somehow shares with a manga magazine!" yelled Yuu.
Raven crashed into a wall behind them.
Rock's head turned towards the sound.
Saya's blood froze.
"Whi-!"
Cyborg yanked her away from the Black Blade's path, taking a slice to the armored shoulder.
"WOULD YOU MOVE IT!?" he yelled as he blasted Mato away.
This time, however, Death had found a new target.
The source of all pain.
The source of her pain.
"YOU!"
Cyborg was forced to turn his sonic cannon back against the shorter girl in an attempt to ward her off, only for her to weave and dodge between the blasts.
"Get back!" he yelled as he deflected Mato's strikes the best he could.
He was saved by Mary, who was apparently not done with Black Rock Shooter, when she headbutted the smaller girl away.
As Mary delivered an eight-legged curb stomp on the small thirteen-year-old girl, Yuu and Saya took advantage of the distraction to run into a nearby furniture store. Cyborg followed after, with Raven's unconscious form draped over his shoulders.
"Y'all have been here for three days! THREE DAYS! And wrecked more buildings that most villains do in a month!"
"Like that's our fault!" snapped Yuu back.
A bluur sped past them and into the store as Mammoth tackled Cyborg to the ground.
"Ya gotta help me man! She's trying to kill me!"
Cyborg rolled them over, taking the brunt of Chariot's attack to his armored back.
"I'll hold her off! RUN!"
He twisted again, breaking Chariot's jaw with an elbow before a green starbolt blasted her away.
"I shall retrieve friend Chariot!" called Starfire, "Please take our friends and not-friend Mammoth to safety!"
"Thanks Star!" called the robotic man before his eye and optic widened, "Watch out!"
Starfire had just enough time to turn around before she was taken down by a gigantic, yellow starbolt. Mary did not appreciate it when her master was attacked, and decided to kick Mato away to focus on a new target.
As Starfire was attacked with her own power, Robin made it a point to secure the weakened blueblood. Before he could get to her, however, Chariot managed to tackle him off-course.
As he extracted a new blade, he assessed the situation. Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy were all out or the count, Chariot and Black Rock Shooter alone were kicking their asses up the wall, Terra was somehow back, Beast Machine was unaccounted for, and he had three broken ribs. The Otherselves had an advantage over them he could neither ignore nor surpass. They could ignore pain in a way they couldn't.
He had no choice.
He dodged a sword to the head before he grabbed Chariot's forearm and kicked her right wheel out from under her. Using the entirety of his weight and he momentum from the fall, he slammed her elbow against his knee, resulting in a sickening snap as it bent backwards. Chariot bent over and swung her legs at his head in retaliation, only for them to be pinned when Robin drove her own sword through her thighs.
The now crippled otherself tried to struggle again, a futile effort when one's limbs are pinned as they were. Robin, exhausted as he was, couldn't risk letting her bleed to death and froze her in place with one of his freeze pellets.
With the blonde bombshell finally taken care of, he turned back to Mato…
Only to find her gone, replaced by a trail of blue blood headed towards the remains of a furniture store.
Cyborg wasn't sure where Black Rock Shooter had come from or why she looked like a block of Swiss cheese that had gone ten rounds against a machine gun. All that mattered was that he needed to get her out before she lunged for Yuu again.
He heard a crash right outside as Starfire tried to keep Mary from lunging at Robin, who he guessed was still battling Mato. If Mary's first instinct was to protect Chariot, like he suspected, then taking her down would take priority.
A chore that would be a lot easier if Mato's mangled body wasn't getting in the way. She was wounded in ways that would've downed a super-soldier, yet she was still fighting. He raised up an arm to catch her blade before lunging and grabbing her left arm.
"GO!" he cried out as Mato broke her kneecaps on his titanium-coated torso.
Mato managed to loosen herself enough to slice her sword out of his hands, and turned to run after her teacher and friend.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Cyborg as he shifted his arm back to its sonic cannon mode, only for the blast to be deflected into the apartment above by a high kick.
Shifting his weapon back into a hand, he quickly grabbed onto the girl's slender calf, threw her down onto the floor and pinned her left arm behind her. She dropped her sword, shooting a small shower of sparks across the marble-floor, focusing on elbowing Cyborg in the face with all her strength.
"Friend Cyborg!" cried Starfire as she floated in, "Mary and Chariot have been-."
She cut herself off, sniffing the air.
"I smell the gas."
Cyborg's eyes grew wide and turned his gaze upwards, noticing for the first time the remains of a gas stove in the upstairs apartment.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Mato elbowed him in the eye, finally shaking him off, and lunged for her sword. She turned towards the tamaranean warrior.
"Star! DON'T!" Cried Cyborg.
Mato lunged, and her blade clashed with Starfire's manacles, producing a single spark.
It was all that was needed.
One? We were never Two.
Author's Notes: Been a while hasn't it? Sorry about the wait. I'm at a bit of a crossroads in life, so there's not much time to write.
I've thought long and hard about this story for some time now, figuring out how it would actually fit into this mess of a crossover. I noticed an unexpected pattern that I'll be taking advantage of. You'll find out what I mean in CH18.
Ch17 is done, I'm just fine tuning it a bit at this point. There's one part that feels a bit short to me, but other than that it's actually done. You'll probably notice what I mean in a week or so.
To anyone reading Prejudice, it's done. The rewrite will be posted within the week.
To anyone reading A Question Of Ethics, it's on hold until RWBY finishes.