RWBY: Team CRML

Chapter 63

Liam

Inside a flying Manta, Robyn, Liam and Qrow are looking at Clover, who is sitting beside a restrained Tyrian.

"Declaring martial law?" Robyn said, shocked.

"He can't do this!" Liam stared at his scroll.

"Ms. Hill, I'm sure the General understands the enormity of his-" Clover's Scroll makes a noise, and he brings it out to check it. The screen shows mugshots of Teams RWBY and CRML, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Oscar and Qrow. The text above the mugshots, read:

"!WANTED!

Detain on sight"

Clover puts his Scroll away, stands up with a sigh, and begins approaching Qrow and Liam, who grip the hilt of their weapons.

"Clover…"

Robyn's Scroll vibrates, and she brings it out to see the same Wanted notification.

"Qrow, you should know that I've been asked to bring you and Liam in." Clover told them.

"A free ride and a show!" Tyrian said while laughing.

"There's also an alert out for Team RWBY and CRML's arrest."

"What? Has James lost his mind!?" Liam shouted.

"He's trying to stop anybody who might get in the way of this inhumane plan." Robyn stands up from her seat and deploys her crossbow. "Looks like he underestimated me." she took aim at Clover. "Again."

"Only Qrow and his son are under arrest." Clover told Robyn. "After everything we've been through tonight please don't make me arrest you too."

Robyn clenches her teeth and glares at Clover, the bolt on her crossbow being pulled back against the string. In response, Clover draws his fishing rod.

"Cut it out! Both of you. We're almost back to Atlas. Let's talk to James personally and-"

"It's taking a very long time for this show to get to the good part." Tyrian growled.

"Shut up." Liam growled at him.

"He's right. Let's get this over with."

"Robyn!"

Robyn fires the bolt, but Clover casually blocks it with his fishing rod. She shifts her crossbow into bladed shield form and charges at Clover, who blocks and then immediately shortens the rod, hooks the crossbow and pulls on it, knocking Robyn to the floor.

"Fine." Qrow sighed.

Qrow gets up, drawing his sword and swinging it at Clover, who jumps out of the way.

"Guys, we can't fight here!" Liam shouted, trying to get their attention. Qrow swings again, and Clover blocks with his rod, locking weapons with him.

"I wish it hadn't come to this." Clover told Qrow.

"It doesn't have to!"

Robyn hops back into the fight, swinging her shield down on Clover's rod. Clover jumped backward away from the two.

"You can hug it out once we've taken him down!" Robyn said.

Clover sends his fishing hook at Robyn, who deflects it with her shield, accidentally sending it toward Tyrian. Tyrian lifts his leg out of the way, allowing the hook to break a bar beneath his seat, which the Gravity Bolas securing his wrists is hooked onto with a metal ring. Qrow and Robyn swing their weapons at Clover, who blocks with his rod, and Tyrian slides the ring on his bolas off of the broken bar and hurries toward the pilots, excitedly snickering to himself. Seeing this, Liam tried to stop him but Tyrian kicked him back. Falling, Liam hit his head against the seat. Dazed, Liam slowly sat up as Clover continues blocking strikes and crossbow bolts from Qrow and Robyn.

Suddenly, the ship shakes, causing the four of them to fall over. Hearing maniacal laughter, Qrow looks up to see Tyrian crouched on the ship's console, wearing the pilot's hat. The pilot is slumped over and is not moving. Qrow hurries to his feet, grabs onto Tyrian's upper arms and shakes him.

"What are you doing!?"

"The will of our goddess!" Tyrian laughed.

Tyrian kicks off of Qrow, landing in the lap of an Atlas soldier, who appears unconscious or dead. He then grabs onto the co-pilot control stick and jerks it to the side, causing the ship to veer toward the ground. Clover opens the airship's side door and jumps out. Liam quickly followed, hitting the snow covered ground and rolling to a stop as, soon after, the ship crashes into the ground.

Chrome

In a hallway in the research facility, Winter is looking at the Wanted notice on her Scroll. Penny is standing behind her, looking concerned.

"Weiss. What did you do?"

"What's going on?" Chrome asked. He and Nicci were behind the two.

"The General has put out an arrest on Oscar, Qrow, Team RWBY, Team JNPR and..." Winter glanced at Chrome. "Your team." Nicci and Chrome glanced at each other. "Nicole Redwood, Chrome Belladonna, you two are under arrest."

Marek

"Please, think about what you're doing." Blake said.

Team RWBY and the Ace Operatives are standing in Ironwood's office.

"You heard the general. Until this is sorted out, you're under arrest." Harriet growled.

Harriet brings out her Scroll and hits a button. The blue lights throughout the room turn red, and metal covers the windows. Yang looks at the windows, then at Harriet.

"Really?"

Vine steps forward, raising a hand. "Please. Don't make this difficult."

"Don't make us have to get out of here by force." Marek growled as he pulled out his weapon, immediately pulling it in half.

Yang deploys her weapons, and Blake and Weiss draw theirs. On the other side of the room, Vine activates his Semblance while Harriet and Elm draw their weapons. Marrow waves his hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not actually going to slug this out, are we?" Marrow asked.

"We're not doing anything. They decide what happens next." Harriet said.

Ruby walks over from Ironwood's desk to stand with her teammates and transforms Crescent Rose into scythe form. Marrow sighs and draws his gun.

"You think you're going to stop us?" Harriet scoffed. "We're the best Huntsmen in Atlas."

"Let's see."

Ruby uses her Semblance to rush past the Ace-Ops, smashing straight through the door, and Harriet angrily chases after her with her own Semblance. The remaining members of RWBY and Ace-Ops charge forward and attack; Yang fights Elm, Blake fights Marrow, and Weiss fights Vine. As for Marek, he ran out to help Ruby.

Ruby zooms across the foyer and up the stairs, stopping in front of the elevators. Before she has a chance to do anything, Harriet catches up, rushes around her, and kicks her in the head, knocking her against a pair of elevator doors hard enough to dent them. She then begins walking toward Ruby.

"Come on Harriet! We're playing right into Salem's hands! You know we need to be working together." Ruby said.

"Oh don't give me that crap!" Harriet growled. "I had you kids pegged right from the start."

Harriet zooms forward with her Semblance again just as Marek caught up tk them.

Chrome

"Winter, let's take a second to think about this." Chrome said. "We have more important matters right now. Let's go help the Winter Maiden, then we can figure out what to do next."

"I have orders." Winter replied softly.

"What's more important?" Nicci asked, stepping forward. "Arresting us or getting to the Maiden?"

"Winter, I know you don't want to arrest me. We're family." Chrome said. "Even though we don't really know each other, I know you truly care about your family."

Winter sighed before walking ahead. "My personal feelings don't matter. We have orders. I'm to retrieve the power of the Winter Maiden so we can access the Relic. You're here to ensure my safety. You can't exactly do that in cuffs. Now come on. We've already lost enough time."

Chrome and Nicci sighed in relief.

Liam

In the tundra outside Mantle, Liam slowly got to his feet as Clover walked over to him. Grabbing Liam's arm, Clover pulled him up. "I'm truly sorry about this Liam." pulling out a bolas, Clover went to put it on Liam on for a shot to ring out. The bolas was knocked out of Clover's hand.

Looking over, Qrow approached the two. "Robyn needs help." Clover said. "Surrender and we can take her to Atlas, get her patched up."

"Never pegged you for the manipulative type. But I've learned a lot of things tonight." Qrow said. "Now, get your hands off my son."

Qrow and Clover begin walking in a circle around each other with Clover still holding Liam's arm.

"I enjoyed working with you, you know. Even with that endless cynicism of yours."

"I'm usually proven right." Qrow replied.

"We don't have to fight, friend." Clover told him.

Qrow scoffed. "You don't know my friends. That's how it always goes."

Qrow smiles bitterly, and Clover sighs, letting Liam go. The two of them charge toward each other and swing their weapons.

Qrow and Clover spin and swing their weapons, blocking and dodging each other's strikes. As for Liam, he was still pretty dazed from the crash.

Clover hooks Qrow's scythe with his rod, pulls Qrow toward him, and punches him in the cheek. Qrow spins his scythe to slash at Clover multiple times, but Clover blocks with his rod. He then places the blade of his scythe behind Clover's legs and pulls, and Clover jumps over it, only for Qrow to then kick him. Clover lands on his feet, sliding backward, as Tyrian approaches the fight from behind Qrow.

"Oh, don't stop on my account."

"Wasn't planning on it." Qrow charges toward Tyrian and swings his scythe at him three times, with Tyrian blocking the first two strikes and leaping into a backflip to dodge the third. When Qrow attempts to go after him, the hook from Clover's rod latches onto Qrow's scythe, and Clover pulls back, causing Qrow to turn toward him, lose balance and fall to one knee. Clover then charges forward and swings his weapon at him, but Qrow blocks. Qrow swings his scythe at Clover, who leaps into the air above him, swinging his rod, which Qrow blocks. Tyrian watches this and then grins, subtly nodding.

Shaking his head, Liam got to his feet. Seeing Qrow and Clover fighting, he looked around, spotting his sword lying in the snow. Walking over, Liam picked it up before turning back to the fight.

Qrow slides backward, and Clover charges toward him, only for Tyrian's tail to suddenly come up and block his fishing rod. Qrow, who was ready to block, looks surprised as he realizes that Tyrian is standing between him and Clover. Tyrian swings his weapon at Clover, who dodges the first attack and blocks the second. Tyrian then blocks an attack from Qrow and then swings his leg to kick Clover, who dodges. Qrow and Clover both swing their weapons at Tyrian, who blocks with both of his own. He then stands on his hands and deflects Clover's rod with his foot before swinging his foot down in an attempt to kick Clover in the head. Immediately after, he brings his arm up to block another attack from Qrow. Clover leaps over Tyrian's attempt to slash at his ankles, and Tyrian kicks him hard enough to send him flying.

Clover flips in mid-air, landing on his feet and sliding backward. Qrow swings his scythe down at Tyrian, who jumps forward and stands on his hands to dodge it. Qrow pushes his scythe forward toward him, but Tyrian leaps into the air, flips over, lands on his feet and blocks another attack with his tail. He turns to face Qrow and leans back to dodge as Qrow swings his scythe upward at him.

"Me and you have a score to settle." Qrow growled.

Qrow continues swinging his scythe at Tyrian, who continually leans out of the way of each swing.

"Oh I agree." Tyrian leaps over a couple more of Qrow's attacks. "So what's say we put the kid to bed and then finish it."

Liam rushes to Clover's side, but stops as he sees Tyrian and his father both rushing towards them.

Tyrian glances over at Clover and Liam. Qrow charges in the direction of Tyrian and Clover, so Clover charges forward, sends out his fishing line, and hooks Qrow's scythe. Focusing mainly on Tyrian, Liam went to strike but Tyrian knocked him away like a fly. Clover leaps over Qrow and pulls on the line, making Qrow fall to his knees. Qrow stands up and jerks on his scythe, pulling it free of the fishing hook, and Clover throws a horseshoe, which Qrow blocks. Clover dashes forward, catches the horseshoe, pushes Qrow's scythe aside with his rod and jabs him in the chest with the horseshoe.

Clover then swings his rod at Qrow a couple more times, and Qrow blocks both strikes. Tyrian suddenly kicks Clover in the side of the head, knocking him aside and landing next to Qrow. Liam was standing beside Clover. Tyrian looks at Qrow with a grin, while Qrow looks back at him with a serious expression. Qrow charges toward Clover, and Tyrian laughs maniacally before following suit. The two then leap into the air.

Marek

Harriet uses her Semblance to repeatedly rush around the room, up and down walls, passing Ruby and Marek and attacking them both each time. Finally, she stops behind Ruby, leaps into the air, and punches her in the back of the head, knocking her down with enough force to crack the floor. As Marek tried to attack, Harriet used her semblance to get behind him. Looking back, Harriet jumped and kicked him in the side of the head.

She grabs her bolas, ready to put it on Marek but Ruby quickly took it from her and placed it around Harriet instead before kicking her away. Ruby then punches Harriet in the back of the head with a confident smile and lands on one knee over Harriet's back. Harriet swings her head back, headbutting Ruby in the face, then gets to her feet and begins sprinting with her Semblance.

Ruby shoots at Harriet who continues to speed around the room. Harriet then leaps forward, wraps her legs around Ruby's neck, spins around and slams Ruby onto the floor. She and Ruby get up, as Marek swung his chains at Harriet. She easily dodged it using her semblance and Ruby dodges as Harriet flips through the air toward her. Ruby backs away while Harriet speeds toward her and then uses her Semblance to flee as Harriet attempts to kick her. Harriet stops and pants, and Ruby readies her scythe. Harriet charges her Semblance and screams, her eyes flashing yellow. She makes a mad dash toward Ruby, only to slam her head against an ice wall that suddenly sprouts up from the floor.

Harriet falls over, and her Aura breaks. Ruby and Marek looks over to Weiss, who is standing in the doorway with her rapier pointed toward the ice wall. Ruby and Weiss watch as Harriet stands up, panting with her eyes heavily dilated. Her eyes roll back, and she collapses, unconscious.

"Thanks, Weiss."

Chrome

As the four walked down the hall they hear the sound of an explosion.

"What was that?"

There is another explosion, and the four share glances. There is a third explosion, and an alarm starts going off.

Looking down the hall, Cinder, using her Maiden powers, is charging at them. "Get to the Maiden!" Chrome told Winter. "Me and Nicci will hold her off."

Without arguing, Winter turned around and she and Penny ran.

As Cinder got close, she was going to pass Chrome and Nicci, but Chrome used one of his black glyphs to slow Cinder down enough for Nicci to knock her onto her back. Growling in frustration, Cinder quickly got back up. "Out of my way!"

"You gotta go through us first." Nicci told her as she and Chrome took their stances.

"Fine by me."

End of chapter 63