Weiss: Previously, on RvBvRWBY: Incursion...
"We picked up new friends!" Caboose proclaimed.
"New friends?" Tex questioned.
"Um, hi!" Ruby greeted with a small wave. "I'm Ruby, and that's Yang and Blake."
"What'd ya find, Tex?" The gruff red asked.
"Well, O'Malley's holed up in this fortress. He's been fortifying his defenses for a few days now,"
"We have to get past the gun turrets and get into the building."
"Then we attack O'Malley," Sarge said, gripping his shotgun extra firmly.
"No," Tex corrected, "That's where we plant this." Tex gestured to a large basketball-sized metal orb sitting in the sand next to the group.
"We're planting a volleyball…" Caboose said.
"It's not a ball, it's a bomb," Tex corrected.
"I scouted a location inside the base where we can set it off and take the whole place down," Tex said. "I marked the spot with a big X."
There's someone else in there too, and I don't think she's helping them. Girl in white clothes, maybe a hostage of some kind," Tex said.
"What? That must be Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Hire her to help you save your friend and get Lopez back," He elaborated. "She'll do anything for money."
"How are we supposed to pay her without money?" Blake asked.
"Why don't you trade her a favor? Have her do this for you, and you guys owe her a favor," Tucker suggested. "That's how these freelancers get stuff done, right?"
"That'll work," Tex agreed. "I'll help you, and the four of you have to do something for me."
"Ok, we'll do it," Ruby agreed.
"Duck!" Donut and Yang called in unison. Yang grabbed Sarge and pulled him to the ground and Donut leapt to the floor just before a storm of bullets rained down on their position.
"Yang, Caboose, we'll hold 'em off from up here. You two take the bomb and try to sneak in the front of the base."
"Sounds better than sitting here doing nothing," Yang said.
"I'm pinned down, I need assistance!" She called over the comms.
Oh, she better thank me for this, Tucker thought. He rushed up to the red and held the object in his hand firmly. "Hey asshole!" The zealot stopped firing and turned his attention to Tucker. Tucker smirked under his helmet and pressed the activation switch on the small hilt he had in hand. From the hilt came two four-foot long blue energy blades that curved out in parallel.
"Huh?" Was the only thing the zealot uttered before Tucker rushed up and struck him with the weapon.
"Yang?!" A voice said. A familiar one to Yang. She turned her head to see Weiss just down the hall. Her eyes lit up and she immediately dropped the bomb right onto Caboose's foot.
"Weiss!" Yang exclaimed.
"Whatever you do, Don't. Touch. Anything. Apparently you're this culture's version of the apocalypse. You're gonna destroy this building, and somehow bring about doom for their entire race."
"Uh… Caboose, where's the bomb?" Yang asked the blue soldier.
"Oooh, I put it on the X, like I was supposed to," Caboose answered.
"Uh oh…"
"And whatever you do, don't touch the glowing weapon thing they have stored there. And if you do, definitely don't bring it into the main building, otherwise the whole place is gonna lock down and you're gonna be trapped."
"Whassup, dogs?" They heard Tucker call out from the entrance before a harsh metal grinding signified the main gat into the facility closing and locking.
"Aah, the door closed!" Ruby exclaimed.
RvBvRWBY: Incursion
Chapter 4: Grimm Tidings
Everyone had rushed to the front entryway of the facility where the large gates had just closed and locked down, preventing anyone from getting out. Yang and Caboose together had attempted to tear the gates open, but despite their strength and the dusty, rusty and aged appearance, the metal doors were tougher than they looked. Everyone had quickly begun to search around for a way out of the facility, but every door, including the ones that used to lead out to the catwalks outside, had also closed and locked. They didn't budge any easier either. Now the Reds, Blues and Team RWBY were panicked, anxious to get outside before the moms went off, which on it's timer only left two minutes until a fiery demise.
"Just two minutes left," Grif sighed.
"Men, I don't want this to sound pessimistic," Sarge said, "But I'm absolutely certain we're all gonna die!"
"I think that's a totally objective assessment of the situation, sir," Simmons agreed.
"That is not objective!" Weiss exclaimed. "Maybe if you three helped instead of sitting around, we'd have found a way out by now!"
"We tried hitting those metal window shutters open, but they won't budge past a certain point," Yang said. "Plus, they're as heavy as the bomb was. Seriously, what is it with metal being so heavy in this place?"
"Guess you're not as strong as you thought, huh?" Grif remarked.
"Is now really the time?" Blake frowned at the comment.
Ruby turned to her white-clad teammate. "Do you think your glyphs and ice Dust could shield us? Like they did at the train crash back during the Grimm attack on Vale?"
"Not if the bomb's as powerful as they say," Weiss shook her head.
"Guys, that counter's getting real low!" Grif exclaimed, seeing the timer drop below a minute.
"Tucker, Caboose, let's try those windows again!" Yang exclaimed.
"We're all gonna die, starting with Grif!" Sarge cried. "Everyone, get ready to kiss your ass goodbye! Simmons, you can have the honor of kissing mine."
"Unbelievable! Your lives could be about to end, and you'd rather sit there and panic than do anything about it! What kind of soldiers are you?!" Weiss exclaimed.
"The kind that don't do well under pressure," Simmons answered the rhetorical question.
"Hey, everybody. What's up?" A new voice asked. Everyone looked between the bars of the front gate to see a new soldier standing there outside, wearing a shade of blue slightly darker than Tucker's, but significantly brighter than Caboose's. He held a sniper rifle in his hands.
Caboose wheeled around to face him. "I am so happy you made it in time to die with me. We will get to be smithereens together!"
"That won't be necessary, Caboose. Hey, Gary, how you doin?" The man said.
"Not bad," A robotic voice played through the facility's PA system, echoing throughout the stone and metal halls, "Although my static ion sub-matrix is a little itchy."
"The computer can talk?" Simmons questioned.
"The computer's name is Gary?" Yang followed up.
"How have you been, Church?" Gary asked.
"Good, thanks for asking," Church replied nonchalantly. "Listen, could you do me a favor? Could you shut off the bomb, please?"
"No problem."
The bomb, which had still been counting down at this point, ticked down to a single second left on the counter, before the beeping stopped and the timer, as well as the bomb itself, was deactivated.
"That could've been done the whole time?!" Ruby cried out. "And you didn't say anything?!"
"You didn't ask," Gary simply replied.
"Oh, unbelievable!" Weiss snarled in pure anger.
"Welcome to this world," Blake deadpanned.
"Gotta say, it's really great to see you guys, but, uh, what's with the new entourage? You didn't turn into post-apocalypse bandits and kidnap little girls while I was gone, did ya?" Church asked.
"It's a long story," Sarge answered.
"You seem like you're in a good mood, Church," Tucker noted.
"I learned a very valuable lesson in my travels, Tucker. No matter how bad things might seem-"
"They could be worse," Caboose finished.
"Nope," Church shook his head. "No matter how bad they seem, they can't be any better, they can't be any worse. Cause that's the way things fuckin' are, and you better get used to it, Nancy. Quit your bitchin'."
"Where have you been?" Caboose asked.
"You want the long version or the short version?" Church asked.
"How about the version that gets us outside faster?" Weiss suggested impatiently.
"Fair point," Church relented. "Hey, Gary, go ahead and take the place off lockdown. I think you've scared 'em enough." Momentarily, the gates swung back open, and everyone was more than happy to exit the facility and enter the courtyard, far enough away from the main facility to feel safe again.
"Finally, we're out of there," Grif sighed in relief.
"Was waiting until the last moment really necessary?" Blake asked.
"Ah well, I like to make an entrance. And hey, hell of a first impression, right?" Church replied.
"Something like that," Weiss said.
Church turned to all four huntresses. "So, uh, hi. I'm Church, leader of the Blue Team. You mind telling me who you guys are before Caboose tries to explain it?"
"Well, you see-" Caboose started.
"That wasn't a request, moron," Church cut him off coldly.
"Well," Ruby started, "I'm Ruby, and this is my sister Yang, and our teammates Weiss and Blake."
"We've heard a lot about you, Church," Yang said.
"Yeah, well, there's one bonus to Caboose: at least when he doesn't shut up, he'll talk about me like I'm God or something," Church chuckled. "So how did you come across our merry band of idiots?"
"Their ship crashed where we woke up," Simmons answered for them. "We helped them out, and they needed help finding Weiss. They were initially gonna help us find you too, but, well, look how that turned out."
"Yeah, nice save, red. Looked like you were about to piss your pants thirty seconds ago."
Ruby leaned close to Yang and whispered, "Does he sound like Dad at all to you?"
"Hm… a little, I guess," Yang answered.
Church's voice caught their attention again. "Hey, so, if you have your teammate, does that mean you're gonna skedaddle? We kinda got our own thing going here. Kids just make things more complicated."
"For one thing, we're not kids," Blake replied.
"And even if we could go, it looks like you guys need help with this O'Malley guy, right?" Ruby added.
"No offense- Ruby, was it?- But we have things under control here," Church said.
"Like hell we do," Grif cut in. "Besides, we're fighting an evil AI who wants to destroy the world, and you're saying 'no' to more help?"
"Yeah, I am. I'd say we're doing a pretty stand-up job."
"We got hit by a bomb that sent us into the future!" Tucker exclaimed.
"So? We dropped the ball once. You guys took his base, didn't ya? Even stevens," Church said.
"The same base we were about to die in?" Sarge added.
"Hey, they woulda died with ya. What did they do so far that shows they're worth keeping around?"
"Yang's strong enough to lift a car," Simmons pointed.
"So can Tex if you pay her enough. Hey, speaking of which, where is she?" Church asked.
"She's supposed to be up in the sniper position we left her in," Blake answered.
"I'll call her up," Sarge said before getting on the comms. "Tex, do you read? We're in the clear and the bomb's been deactivated. And your little blue boyfriend showed up."
"Oh, come on, dude," Church groaned.
"I repeat, do you read, Tex?" Sarge continued. No response came from the other end of the transmission. "I said, are you there, Tex?" Again, nothing. "That's weird. She's radio silent."
"Hold on a second," Church said before hopping on comms as well. "Hey, you rotten bitch! Get your ass down here!" Everyone was left stunned by Church's non-hesitant vulgar display towards Tex, who everyone else feared in some way or form. At least the Reds and Blues did. But again, no response came. "Huh, she really isn't there. In that case, something really isn't right."
"I suppose that's one way of going about things," Weiss sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"Ruby, the Dust!" Blake said.
"Hm?" Ruby swung the backpack down off her shoulder and held it in front of her before opening it. Inside, the crystals of Cosmic Dust were faintly pulsing with a pale glow, the star-like dots inside the crystal shining with the pulse's rhythm.
"What's going on? What is that stuff?" Donut asked.
A black armored body was then sent flying through the air above them, catching their eyes. Tex's body slammed into the side of the facility before dropping down to the dirt below. The large group of soldiers and huntresses turned around to see a black-furred canine creature perched atop the large turbine across the courtyard. It snarled before letting out an earth-shaking howl.
"It's the Grimm that attacked the ship…" Ruby muttered.
"It must have been lured here by our panic over the bomb," Blake deduced.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Simmons exclaimed.
"Who cares? It's obviously not friendly, so just shoot it!" Church ordered. All of the colored soldiers immediately took aim and fired at the Grimm. The storm of bullets began to put the Grimm off balance. It howled before leaping off the turbine, aiming straight for the group. "Move!" Everyone cleared out just before the Grimm smashed down, cracking the very ground beneath it. As soon as Team RWBY had recovered, they all drew their weapons. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into it's full scythe form, Weiss pulled Myrtenaster from her waist and aimed the point of it's rapier-like blade forward, Blake drew gambol shroud in one hand and held the sheathe like a weapon of its own in her off hand, and both parts of Ember Celica formed over Yang's forearms.
"Woah! Kick-ass!" Tucker remarked before he was swatted away by the Grimm. The creature roared again, and started for Church when a series of Dust rounds hit its side. It snapped around to see Yang and Blake as the culprits. It snarled and started to sprint for them. Both of them had hold of part of Blake's long ribbon, and Yang used her weapon to launch herself further away from Blake. The two stretched out the ribbon until it tightened and blocked the Grimm's path. Its lunge brought it right to the ribbon, clotheslining it and sending it flat on its back. Yang leapt onto the beast's torso and quickly began to punch the Grimm in the head, firing a shot from her gauntlets with each strike. It was at first caught off guard and fell victim to the repeated attacks, and Yang wasn't letting up. But after a few more moments of suffering the force of the strikes and the burns left by the fire Dust in Yang's gauntlets, suddenly Yang's fist was caught in the black paw of the creature, which then suddenly began to shift.
With harsh cracking and tearing like broken bones and cutting flesh, the Grimm's hand transformed, changing from the hand of a canine to a more human-like one with longer, thin, spindly fingers and white claws of bone at its fingertips. "What the hell-?!" Yang was then thrown off the Grimm. The creature then flipped over and its other arm transformed exactly as the first one did. Even the other huntresses were left in both horror and confusion.
"That's not supposed to happen…" Weiss noted.
"What's not supposed to happen? What is this thing?!" Simmons asked.
"It's what brought our ship down," Ruby answered, partially telling the truth.
"How do we stop it?" Church asked. Ruby thought for a moment, then turned to her pale teammate.
"Weiss, we box it in, then use your glyphs to keep it still long enough for us to kill it," Ruby ordered. Weiss nodded, then Ruby turned to the rest. "We keep it contained. If we can keep it in one place long enough, we can trap it."
"Well, it's better than no plan at all," Tucker said.
"Tucker, you, Grif and Simmons loop around the turbine, block that path off," Church commanded.
"You're not our boss," Grif scoffed.
"You wanna survive the scary monster to trash talk later, or do you wanna keep being a dickhead?" Church replied.
"F-Fair point," Grif stammered before he, Tucker and Simmons left to take the long way around the turbine.
"I'll watch Weiss, keep her guarded for whatever it is you're planning," Church volunteered.
"And the rest of us?" Tex asked as she joined the others, recovering from the attack from the Grimm.
"We close in, and block any of its escapes," Ruby answered. "If we push it towards Tucker and the others, we can trap it."
"You have a lot of explaining to do after this, kid," Tex said.
"Uh, why is it just standing there?" Blake asked. Ruby looked forward, and saw that the hound-like grimm was just standing there, ears perked up like a curious dog.
"It can't understand us, can it?" Sarge asked.
"It shouldn't be able to," Yang said, though a sense of unease was in her voice.
"We know the plan. Let's go," Ruby said. The group then split up quickly, and all simultaneously began to fire at the Grimm. It recoiled and snarled, and attempted to escape their direct line of sight on all fours. "Guide it to the turbine!" Everyone began to form a semi-circle around the creature, never letting up their gunfire. The hound kept running forward, towards the exit of the facility, when suddenly Tucker, Simmons and Grif came onto the path and blocked its way. The Hound didn't stop though and instead launched itself upwards on its two front human-like hands, and midair it began to change again. By the time it landed on its feet, the feet and legs had shifted and changed to make the creature bipedal. It rose back up and stood tall before looking down at the soldiers, standing well above their height. Drool dripped from the creature's snout, and started to dive forward for Simmons when suddenly a black glyph with a snowflake appeared below it. It glanced down at it, then back up as everyone surrounded it again. It was then pulled flat onto the ground with extreme force and pinned there by the glyph.
"Fire!" Sarge commanded, and everyone laid into the Grimm with their firearms. The bullet storm eventually kicked up a dust cloud, but everyone kept shooting until they had emptied their mags, and only when things quieted down did Weiss release the glyph. The cloud was so thick, they couldn't see through it, and the Huntresses couldn't feel anything with their aura.
"Is that it? Did we get it?" Yang questioned. Blake listened intently. Not just with her normal ears, but her faunus ears as well, hidden under the bow atop her head. She didn't hear anything in there at first, but then-
Her eyes widened. "Everyone, move!" She exclaimed. She, Tex and Ruby leapt out of the way instantly, but everyone else was caught off guard as the Hound's arms stretched out from the dust cloud in a sweeping motion, reaching out impossibly far as it swatted the rest away. Ruby, Tex and Blake landed on their feet as the dust cleared, and the hound was still standing tall.
"What does it take to kill this thing if not that?!" Tex yelled. The Hound perked up and sniffed the air, before its head slowly turned and swapped glances between Blake and Ruby, as if picking a target next. "What's it doing?"
Ruby was confused at first as well, then it hit her. She and Blake were both carrying backpacks full of the Cosmic Dust. "It wants the Dust!"
"The what?" Tex questioned.
"The crystals in our backpacks, it must be drawn to them," Blake clarified. The Hound's eyes stuck to Blake as she spoke, sending a shiver up her spine. It snarled and shot one of its hands forward, stretching again right towards the faunus. Blake called upon her semblance, leaving a shadow clone in her place as she flipped away. She fueled the clone with Ice Dust to entrap the Hound's hand once it struck, but right before it would've connected, the Hound suddenly stopped, then pulled its arm back. The clone shattered on its own. "Wait, why did it stop?"
The Hound's neck then began to snap back and forth with harsh breaks of bone, before it re-centered, and it let out a low growl. "Bella… donna…" The name came from its snout in a rumbly voice. Ruby and Blake's eyes rounded.
"Did… Did that Grimm just talk…?" Ruby questioned aloud.
"H-How does it know my name?" Blake added.
"Let me guess, it's not supposed to do that either," Tex deadpanned. "You have a lot of explaining to do after this." Tex then drew her pistol from her side and emptied the mag quickly into the Hound's fur, forcing a pained growl from its mouth. Tex rushed forward as she loaded in another mag and began firing again. The Hound took a swipe as she got close, but she leapt over the attack and brought all her strength into a kick down onto the Hound's armored skull. The bone armor cracked, but Tex's foot bent the opposite direction as well, breaking with a screech of metal. She fell to the ground awkwardly, and the Hound used its other hand to slam down onto Tex, then grabbed her and threw her away. Tex's body collided with Blake, flooring both of them.
A burst of rose petals suddenly appeared before him. Ruby shot from the cloud and brought the blade of Crescent Rose downward. The Hound moved to counter the attack, but Ruby used her semblance again to speed around behind the Grimm. As soon as she was out of the petal cloud again, she went for a horizontal swipe with her scythe, only for the Hound to suddenly turn around and catch the weapon by the handle. Ruby's eyes shot wide open. "W-What?!" The Hound's free hand formed a fist and struck Ruby in the gut, launching upwards, then caught her foot mid-air and slammed her back down, shattering the ground upon impact. Ruby tried to get up, but the Hound brought both fists down on top of her again with a powerful ground smash, blowing all the air out of her lungs and breaking her aura.
Ruby groaned in pain and held her ribs, unable to stop the creature as it wrapped its spindly fingers around her throat with one hand and held her skull with the other. She looked up at it in fear, feeling her heart race and recovering breath catch in her throat. It brought it's snout as close as possible and gave her a few strong whiffs, as if memorizing her scent. It pulled its snout away after a few moments and stared down at her menacingly, then let out a low growl. "Ruby… Rose…"
"H-How do you know my name…?" Ruby rasped, feeling the Hound's fingers slowly tighten on her throat. The Hound didn't say more, and instead took its hand off her skull and pulled it all the way back. Its claws sharpened, and it seemed to be priming to strike down on her.
"Hey, creature!" The Hound paused and turned its head to see Church taking aim with his sniper rifle. "Leave that kid alone!" Church then pulled the trigger. The sniper round zoomed across the battlefield-
-And missed the Grimm entirely, not even skimming it. "Ah, what the fuck?! I swear, someone's fucking with this thing when I'm not looking!" While the Hound was distracted, Ruby saw Crescent Rose laying on the ground next to her. She quickly grabbed her weapon, transformed it into its firearm form, aimed upwards, then pulled the trigger. The shot blew a hole right through the Grimm's jaw and sent it stumbling back, off of Ruby, who soon dropped her weapon to the ground and laid her head back, her strength feeling drained.
As the Hound stumbled back and turned, Yang's fist connected with the still-attached side of his jaw, then Ember Celica fired again and blew a new hole in the side of its head. It stumbled into a different direction, colliding with part of a shipwreck. Tucker stood atop the wreck, his energy sword in hand, before leaping off of it and landing on top of the canine creature, driving the sword into the Hound's back. The Hound screeched, then slammed its back into the wreckage, flattening out Tucker and taking him out of the battle. More bullets struck its neck. It wheeled its head around to see all the Reds charging for it, firing their rifles at it, then saw Weiss, Church, Caboose and Blake approaching from another direction. The Hound now realized it was at a disadvantage. It screeched harshly, hurting the ears of all who heard it, as another bone-crunching transformation took place in its body. After a few moments, bursting from its back came a pair of pitch black wings with blood red membranes. With one powerful movement, the Hound blasted off into the air, then began to flap its wings, flying away from the facility and far out of sight.
"Thank god, it's gone…" Grif sighed in relief.
"Ruby!" Yang cried as she rushed to her little sister's side, helping her to her feet. Ruby felt tired and weak. Weiss and Blake soon took her side as well. "Ruby, are you alright?!"
"I'm fine, Yang…" Ruby groaned, holding her own head gently. "I-I've never seen a Grimm like that before… what was that?"
"I have no idea," Weiss shook her head. While Ruby was kept standing by her teammates, the Reds and Blues all rushed to them, and in front of them all, Tex aimed her pistol right at the Huntresses. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I don't know what the hell that thing was, but it seemed like you four had some idea," Tex snapped. "That creature, those crystals, your weapons and abilities; you four have a lot to explain, and you're going to answer all of my questions. Right now."
"Can't you see that she's hurt?!" Yang snapped back.
"I don't care. Consider this the favor you owe me if you have to, but you're going to spill!"
"As much as I hate to admit it, she's right, youngin's," Sarge agreed. "We've tried to let you take time and help you save your friend. Now we have, and then we get attacked by a monster straight outta hell. To put it bluntly, you're far beyond owing us an explanation."
"But-!" Weiss started.
"No, they're right, guys," Ruby groaned. "We need to tell them." Her teammates didn't seem to agree, but as leader, they had to follow Ruby's call. "S-So… where to start… We're kind of… from another universe?"
A moment of silence passed, then Tex fired a bullet into the dirt at their feet. "Strike one. There won't be a two if you lie to me again."
"Hey! Believe us or not, it's the truth!" Weiss snapped. Tex aimed her pistol at Weiss, but Church pushed her weapon down.
"Hey, maybe let them finish talking before putting a bullet between their eyes," He said.
"Oh come on, Church, you really believe this crap?" Tex questioned.
"I know to let someone get more than one sentence in before deciding if they're crazy or not. I know killing is kinda your thing, but maybe humor me for, like, five minutes?" Tex growled in frustration, but lowered her pistol anyway. "Great. Now you keep talking before I can't convince her not to blow your brains out."
"Okay… well…" Ruby started, "We're from a world called Remnant. We're huntresses, warriors trained to protect people and fight monsters like the one you just saw called Grimm. We were escorting a shipment of valuable cargo when that hound thing attacked us. What we were protecting was this…" Ruby slung the bag off her back and showed the Cosmic Dust to the multi-colored soldiers.
"And what is that stuff exactly?" Sarge asked.
Weiss was the next to elaborate. "On Remnant, everything we use is powered by a natural crystal substance called Dust. This is an artificial variant we were protecting that was supposedly able to open rifts into other worlds."
"Guess it worked a little too well," Yang commented.
Blake continued, "When that Grimm attacked our ship, it somehow activated the Dust's properties and sent us here. That's when we met all of you."
"I think you guys know the rest," Ruby finished. "So… do you believe us?"
"See, I'd like to tell Tex to shoot you now, but considering the weird shit I've been through the past few weeks on top of the nightmare monster, I think I'm just gonna believe you," Church said.
"What?! Church, you can't be serious!" Tex exclaimed.
"Well, think about it," Simmons cut in, "It explains everything we were wondering about. Plus, everything they did tell us was true. They were attacked, had very important cargo to protect, and they really did need to find their friend. Why tell the truth about all that then lie to us about this? Plus, multiversal theory has existed for decades to help explain-"
"Dude, we do not care," Grif interrupted.
Caboose added, "Plus, they are new friends! And friends trust and help one another." Ruby smiled wide at Caboose's sentiment.
Tex sighed. "Y'know what, fine. I'll let it slide. But know this, brats: you step out of line once, I'll kill all of you for the fun of it."
"O-kay, how about you go back up to the facility and make sure that bomb of yours really doesn't go off?" Church suggested.
"Hmph," Tex grumbled before doing just that, walking back up the path towards the main building.
Church turned back to the young huntresses. "Sorry about her. She's kinda… y'know, a rotten bitch."
Yang snorted hard. "That's one way to put it for sure. And you dated that?"
"Oh, they told you that, huh? Yeah, I was the only one who could talk to her like that. In some ways, I guess I still am."
"So, you explained most of the stuff we were wondering, but what about those weird powers you guys have?" Simmons asked inquisitively.
"Those are our semblances, abilities powered by our Auras, which is an energy itself powered by our souls," Weiss answered.
"Interesting. Any chance I could pick your brain about this stuff for a little while?" Simmons asked.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt," Weiss replied before she and Simmons broke off from the rest of the group.
"So what do we do now?" Ruby asked the blue leader.
"I guess just hang out for now. At least until we get a lead on O'Malley or that thing comes back. Besides, looks like you could use a break," Church answered.
"I really could," Ruby agreed.
"Take the chance while you have it. Who knows what else could get thrown at us next." Church then walked off as well, while the Reds went off towards where the warthog was parked.
"Y'know, I kinda hear it now. He does sound like Dad," Yang said.
"Speaking of which, I hope he's doing okay. Who knows how long we've been gone over there…?" Ruby said, looking down at her feet.
Yang put her arm around her sister and hugged her from the side. "Don't worry, sis. I'm sure Dad's doing just fine."
"What do you mean 'you've lost the ship'?!" Tai exclaimed. Ben could hear him from outside the house. He had never heard Tai yell before. He was always gentle, mellowed out. He hadn't known Tai to be an angry man in his month's time living in the Xiao Long household. But whatever had pushed him over the edge, it had done so quickly. Ben stayed where he was though, reading while sitting on the living room couch.
Meanwhile, Tai had Ironwood on the other end of the call. "It means that the ship's transponder went silent as soon as it crossed Vale's borders. This could just be a simple tech problem, Tai," He responded.
"Or it could be exactly what I was afraid of, James! I didn't want them going on a mission so soon to begin with! It's only been a month since the Battle of Beacon!"
"Exactly why we needed to do more and do so soon. This mission was of the utmost importance. If I had other options, do you think I would've endangered your daughters unnecessarily?"
"I should've known better than to let them do this…" Tai frowned.
"They are trained and skilled. They fought well at the Battle of Beacon, and your youngest single-handedly turned the tide of the battle. Even when those warriors from the other world came to our aid, we were still fighting a losing battle. Vale would've been wiped off the map had Ruby Rose not petrified the Wyvern and killed Cinder Fall."
"She's fifteen!"
"She's a Huntress, Tai. She knew the risks and signed on of her own accord. I promise you, we will find that ship and they will return home, but don't put this weight on yourself. They made a choice that would help the world. It's what warriors do. I thought you would remember that. Don't turn this into another Summer situation."
"Say her name again, and I will come up there and show you what I remember about being a warrior," Tai threatened.
Ironwood sighed. "I'll let you know when we have something. Goodbye, Tai." The line cut off, and Tai pulled his scroll away from his ear and growled, before letting out another heavy sigh.
"Dammit…" He pocketed his scroll and tried to calm himself before opening the front door and re-entering the house. Ben looked up from his book.
"What was that about?" He asked.
Tai sighed again. "They lost track of Ruby and Yang's ship. They're looking for it now. This is exactly why I didn't want them going."
"If something really happened, I know Ruby and Yang can handle themselves. Plus they have Blake and Weiss with them, right? I'm sure they're fine."
"You sound like Ironwood…" Tai remarked.
Ben set the book aside. "When they first saved me, they did everything they could to make sure I was protected and unharmed. They wouldn't let me become the slave of someone else ever again. They stood up to their allies and friends to ensure my freedom. Nothing can keep them down. Even if they are in danger, I genuinely believe nothing can stop them from coming home."
"I hope you're right, and that I'm just overthinking things. It really could just be a tech problem…" Tai said.
"You should take it easy. I'll make some tea to help calm your nerves, Ben said before getting up and heading for the kitchen.
"When did you learn how to make tea?" Tai questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"When you're stuck in a room with Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee for weeks on end during the Vytal Festival, not much to do but talk and learn new things. At least what you can in a dorm room or an Atlas lab," Ben replied.
"Well, I wouldn't mind a cup then," Tai smiled a bit. "Dose mine with aspirin, though, I'm starting to get a migraine."