Hi-Dilly-Doh guys and welcome back to RWBY STAMPEDE! I know it's been so soon for an update, but since so far it seems you're liking this story (I know it has small numbers, but still-) I decided to release the second chapter of the 1st arc of this story, an arc that includes Volume 3 as whole. To be honest, everytime I open this story's docs I always like writing it, so I guess you can expect that I'll end this first arc in a matter of months if everything goes well. Also the third chapter is already done and boy it has a lot of drama*.
But now, before we start the chapter, let's reply to the first reviews of this story!
Guest (Can you pick a nickname for facilitate replies in future Author Notes?): Thank you for your words of encouragement pal! Yeah, to be honest I had the same feeling when STAMPEDE was airing. Remnant is like the perfect home for Trigun excluding No Man's Land/Gunsmoke of course.
Spiral-Voltron-Zero0Q1: Here it is pal, and I hope you will continue to love this fic as the story goes.
CriticaofRandomness: Well, maybe or not maybe there's already a rivality? Ehehe.
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN BOTH TRIGUN (And all its versions) NOR RWBY
*I am aware that the AN of the first chapter is a bit incomplete and I have noticed it now. I will try to fix it in a next release
Vash slowly opened his eyes before he groaned painfully when the cut over his forehead painful stings. "This is…" With a glance, he noticed that he was stranded over the river's shore where Rem brought him and Nai during the hotter days. But the night sky, instead of being the beautiful starry one he is used to, is covered with smoke.
"AHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Slowly rising from the ground, Vash looked at his side to notice Nai laughing like a maniac. Confused and creeped about his brother's action, it took a mere second to Vash to see that, up in the mountains, the immense castle he lived until this day had completely fallen and burned down.
"Finally I did it! What a success! HAHAHAH!" Nai said between the laughs, worrying Vash as he walked towards him.
"W-What did you do, Nai?" Vash asked, worried and creeped of his brother.
"Oh don't worry Vash!" Nai turned his head to his brother. "I made sure that even the girls would not survive!"
"But how could you even kill Rem?!" Vash shouted back without holding back his tears.
"Oh don't be angry…you are my accomplice, after all" Nai said calmly, yet his tone of voice was still filled with the craziness of before as he gave him a creepy smile before he concluded the sentence and laughed. "Isn't it right, Vaaaaaaaaash? HAHAHAHAH!"
"Julai…?" Ruby muttered as Torchwick was holding her down with his foot.
"It's how people began to call us survivors of July after Vash the Stampede destroyed our city: JUst LAI (lay) down. A moniker of 'shut up and die with the city' essentially" The criminal explained with his soave tone of voice to Ruby, pointing the cane at her face. "Like I let that monster kill me!"
"You're wrong!" Ruby snapped. "Mister Vash is not a monster!"
"Mister Vash….? Wait, you met him? Ohohohoh" With a laugh, Torchwick shakes his head. "Girl, you don't know what that monster truly is. You weren't there! You know Red, you remind me a lot of myself at one point... Young, wide-eyed and hopeful." He prodded her with his cane, making her roll over onto her back. "But then reality struck me hard and I realized that no, the world isn't full of hope. It's a cesspool full of scum and it's eat or be eaten!"
"Why can't it be full of hope?" Ruby asked. "The world is only full of as much bad as we allow to let happen." Ruby tried to sit herself up as she continued to speak. "I feel sorry for you, Torchwick. You've let yourself become this? And for what? Some money?"
"Kid, when you grow to my age you'll see things that'll change that happy-go-lucky attitude of yours and you'll realize that I was right this whole time."
"I'd sooner die than agree with that!" Ruby glared, sitting herself up now.
"Very well. I didn't want to kill you. I'd have let you go if you talked, but if it's death you're after..." Then a small explosion was heard some ways away. Torchwick turned towards the White Fang cronies with a mildly annoyed expression, "Perry, could you and the boys check that? I'm kinda in the middle of something, y'know"
Perry rolled his eyes behind his mask before moving with two others to do just that. Until another explosion was heard.
"Ok, hang on— WHAT is going on in here!?" Roman was getting annoyed as he once again looked to the direction the explosion came from. From between two of the ruined buildings, several White Fang members were running away from something while one of them turned and opened fire at whatever was approaching while a lieutenant approached Torchwick. "The hell is happening?!"
"It seems that an intruder is leading a group of hunters right to us." He stated. "We're going to start up the train now."
"Hey, I'm supposed to be well into the city when this train gets moving!" Roman argued.
"You don't like this?" The Lieutenant laughed. "Well why don't you stay behind and get yourself caught by the huntsmen then."
Roman grit his teeth. "Fine... Neo." he looked over to her. "Make sure our guest doesn't go anywhere." Neo nodded gleefully as she then went back into the train and walked over to the dazed Ruby who now managed to stand herself up. Neo however would kick her back into the chair and close the door to the wagon.
And then, rushing in the middle of the shots, a blonde haired man wearing a red knee-length jacket reached the riflemen. With a black revolver with a thick and big barrel wielded like a tonfa instead of a proper gun, he began to slam it like a club against the riflemen. "That man is…him!" Torchwick cursed his own luck, of course of all people, he was the one who was spreading mayhem among those animals. "Humanoid Typhoon!"
Bullet 2: The Ⱡ20,000,000,000 Man, Vash the Stampede
A few minutes ago, the three members of team RWBY, along with Oobleck, Zwei and Vash rappelled down a rope onto the same roof Ruby had landed on as they were greeted by more guards that Yang landed onto and promptly knocked out.
Dr. Oobleck proceeded to contact Professor Ozpin on his scroll. "Professor Ozpin, we have a situation!"
"Ozpin…" Vash muttered the headmaster's name, his eyes widened.
"Do tell, Dr. Oobleck." Professor Ozpin stated from the other end, though there was notably some chatter on his scroll from the signal being weaker underground.
"We've found the White Fang's location in Mountain Glenn, but Ruby seems to have found this by herself and is likely in trouble. With your permission we're going to rescue her." Dr. Oobleck explained. "For our plan of rescue, we are receiving the help of the criminal Vash the Stampede—"
"Vash…? Vash the Stampede is there?" Ozpin asked from the other side of the call.
"Yes, we made contact with him early, although he does not resemble how people describe him at all, If I must say" Oobleck commented on his quick report, yet Ozpin surprised him with the next words.
"Can I speak with him?" Were Ozpin's words. Oobleck gave a quick glance to Vash, who pointed at himself. Then, he held the Scroll to the blonde man who took it.
"Huuh, hi? This is the fearsome Humanoid Typhoon, Vash the Stampede! Can I know who I am talking to?" Vash stated to the headmaster in the call— making the girls sigh at the same time for such silliness— before he became suddenly serious. Muttering something for a minute or two, Vash then tossed back the Scroll to Oobleck who caught it.
"Headmaster Ozpin?" He started.
"Doctor Oobleck, I can confirm to you that the man you had sought help from is indeed the real Vash the Stampede" Ozpin began to explain. "However, I can guarantee you that he truly wants to help rescue Miss Rose. Collaborating with him is the key, understood?"
"I see. Then we will proceed with the rescue"
"Please do." Professor Ozpin agreed from the other end. "But do know that your mission is mainly supposed to be a scouting and assistance mission. I'd prefer it that you retrieve her and then return and wait for backup to arrive. I will contact as many local huntsmen as I can and arrange for them to convene in that area in order to assist in this operation, for now, just focus on retrieving Ruby." He ordered before the call ended. The three members of Team RWBY all nodded among each other and started off ahead of Dr. Oobleck and Vash down the building which thankfully was mostly emptied out of guards.
However just outside of the building's exterior on the ground were a group of guards congregating. Dr. Oobleck signaled for Blake to move to a higher position to better their odds of flanking the enemy, yet Vash raised a hand calling the attention to him. "I just have a request, if you don't mind"
"Oh, the great Vash the Stampede has a request?" Yang flapped with one hand. "Fine, let's hear this"
"No one will die" Vash said in a serious tone, looking at everyone, who were surprised.
"Hold on a second" Weiss almost stammered. "The Humanoid Typhoon himself is asking that no one has to die?"
"Please…I'm begging you" Vash looked at them with strange sorrowful eyes. The huntresses and their professor looked at each other before nodding, making Vash smile a little. "Thank you…"
With the promise swore, Blake then complied to Oobleck's previous order by throwing her weapon across the way and letting it wrap around a lamp post before she pulled herself to it, landing atop it and waiting for the signal.
"Everyone, stay in position." Oobleck ordered before looking over to Zwei who panted. As everyone were prepared, Yang and Weiss noticed that Vash pulled out a literal hand-cannon under the form of a black revolver with a thick and huge barrel…yet he was wielding it in a reverse grip like it was a tonfa in his right hand.
"Isn't that…a wrong way to use a gun?" Weiss asked, tilting her head. "How could you aim and shoot in that way?"
"Oh, this? Because I don't want to shot anyone" Vash moved the gun a bit before chuckling. Ignoring everyone's glances, the Humanoid Typhoon raised his left robotic index and middle fingers. "You know that you can buy two dozens of donuts for the same price of a bullet? Why do I have to waste donuts for buy a single bullet?"
"Yeeaaaah, right" Yang rolled her eyes. Is this guy really the infamous criminal wanted in the entire world? It was then that Zwei walked out into the open and barked, alerting the guards to his presence.
"Who would abandon a dog down here?!" One of the grunts asked as Zwei barked, looking up at him with his best take of puppy eyes. "Oh dang it, If I had known there'd be strays down here I'd have gotten some extra jerky or something." As he felt around his pockets for something he could give the dog, Yang, now amplified with a time dilation glyph from Weiss charged forward at a breakneck speed, punching the guard right in the face and turning to face the others that were now surrounding her, each reaching for their weapons. However, still amplified by the time Dilation, Yang threw punch after punch out at the White Fang grunts before they could even ready themselves to fight.
However, the effects of the time dilation would suddenly slow her down for that second now as she tried to move out of the way, finding herself moving too slow when Blake's weapon wrapped around the grunt's arm and she landed right onto him, knocking him out as Weiss, Vash and Oobleck stepped out, Yang returning to normal speed.
"Wh-What was that about?" Yang asked, holding her head.
"Sorry, I haven't perfected time dilation yet. It's a bit of a gamble for me to use as there's a chance the effects of the Glyph can invert and slow the user down instead of speed them up." Weiss explained.
"Well it's a good thing to note." Yang nodded before the team proceeded forward. Before he followed the others, Vash kneeled down to the knockout grunts and checked them, letting out a sigh of relief.
"You will have a bad headache tomorrow, but you'll be fine…"
"Vash!"
"I'm coming!" The blonde haired man said as he followed the others, only to see that they were charging fire dust into their weapons. "Woah woah! Why with that dust?"
"Huuh, to surprise them with an explosion?" Yang said with an obvious tone.
"We said no killing!" The criminal stated, but the Doctor had another idea.
"Oh no, Mister Vash. We're not going to kill anybody" Oobleck said before touching a wall with his thermos. "See, it's hollow. We'll use it to perform an ambush and surprise them for have the upper hand"
"..." With a sigh, the Humanoid Typhoon just tightened more his grip to the revolver. "Alright, let's do this"
Back to the present, the sound of an alarm was heard as the group of students, huntsman and supposed wanted criminal approached the train. "Ok, where's Ruby?" Yang asked worriedly as Blake caught a glimpse of Roman boarding the train.
"It's likely she's in there!" Blake stated as Roman glared at them for a second, especially at Vash, who widened his eyes.
The blonde man turned his head and glanced at his allies. "But why would he be moving the train? There's nothing but a thick wall at the end of that tunnel not to mention several other walls before that!"
"We don't have time to ask questions." Weiss argued. "We either get on the train or we try to stick around here to find Ruby. But knowing her, she's likely gotten herself into a ton of trouble and is on that train."
"Are those Paladins?!" Yang noted, looking into the distance as the train's engine was starting up.
"We don't have time to examine every detail! Just go!" Weiss called out as she used a glyph to jump right onto the train with the others following.
The train was now fully moving as a grunt was looking behind the train to see if they had lost the trail of the hunters when Oobleck's torch smacked him right in the back of the head before Vash followed up with a smack on the face with his revolver akin to a tonfa, knocking him out.
As the team stood atop the train, several White Fang Grunts also climbed atop of them. "They know we're here!" Blake readied her weapon.
"GET THE HUMANS!" One White Fang Grunt called out.
"Really? Get the humans? Could you just order 'get them' or 'get the gorgeous one'? Man, that's the usual cliché…" Vash commented with a joke, before assuming a battle stance and ran towards a few sword-wielding grunts. Their blades already slicing through the air to reach Vash, the blonde haired man began to spin his revolver and followed the course of the blades, parring the swords in a burst of sparks and steel. Then, with a step forward, Vash wielded his revolver correctly before slamming its barrel against the mask of one grunt before pivoting and smashing the other behind the neck of the second one, sending them KOs.
Weiss charged forward first, leaving a trail of icicles that knocked all the members of the White Fang before her, off the train. Yang sprinted forward next and blocked a sword swipe, the sword shattering on her gauntlet as she punched a white Fang grunt into the roof of the tunnel and then swept the leg out from under another grunt and slammed them into the wagon below as Blake ran ahead of Yang now and started disarming the White Fang members before they could attack her with their guns and swords before smacking one member off of the train with her sheath.
Doctor Oobleck, who charged forward now with his torch in hand, launched fire at the several soldiers before him, incidentally blowing open the roof of one of the wagons, revealing something that worried everyone.
"Um... What's that?" Weiss asked.
"That my dear, appears to be a bomb." Dr. Oobleck stated as Weiss reeled back a bit.
"Decouple the Caboose, it'll kill us all!" Yang looked to Blake, who nodded and leaped down, readying to detach the train's wagons when it detached on its own before she could even do anything.
"Oh no! He did it on its own!" Blake stated.
"Why would they-" Dr. Oobleck's question was answered before he could even say it for once as the train's wagon exploded and it created an opening in the tunnel that several Grimm fell into.
"Oh no..." At the sight of it, Vash ran ahead and checked the next set of wagons to find they all had bombs. "THEY ALL HAVE BOMBS!"
"WHAT?!" Weiss was surprised.
"They're blowing holes into these tunnels creating openings for Grimm! But why would they…?" Dr. Oobleck tried to reason until Vash came up with the question.
"This speed…oh no— The front of this train!" Vash glanced at the others, clearly worried. "They must have attached some kind of battering ram onto the front of the train!"
"They're going to let the Grimm into the city?!" Blake asked.
"Not if we can stop this train!" Weiss then leaped down between the wagons and tried to freeze the wheels but the friction kept the train moving too fast. At that moment, Yang raised her arms up to try and stop the train with some shots from her weapon from atop it but Oobleck stopped her.
"Be careful Miss Xiao Long! A brash move like that could send us hurtling into the tunnels and that would be no good for us." Oobleck then looked forward as paladins were starting to be powered on now.
"We're stopping this train." Vash glared forward as the Paladin ran towards them. Pressing a bottom on the left side of the revolver, Vash opened the cylinder, revealing a capacity of 8-bullets at once. As he reloaded his weapon, Vash launched himself forward, and fired out the entire cylinder from his gun against the Paladin. Each impacted the Paladin against its join as the last bullet hit the power source, which exploded and sent it hurtling off the train for the shockwave. Unfortunately, there was no room to breathe as another one rushed at him. Glancing over to his side, Vash widened his eyes in surprise as he saw Zwei bark and jump up into the air before Oobleck, who hit Zwei with his thermos.
What followed was the strangest thing Vash saw as the dog became a literal flaming projectile that knocked the remaining Paladin off the train. "Go and see if you can stop the train from the inside, Vash! Miss Xiao Long, Miss Schnee, Miss Blake: go and find Miss Rose!" Oobleck ordered before he prepared his thermos. "I'll keep the ones up here at bay!"
Landing on his knees inside the wagon, Vash resumed to wield his revolver as a tonfa as he began to walk slowly towards the door of the next one. "I can't believe they really planned all of this…what's your aim with this?" Talking to himself, Vash couldn't hide the surprise in his voice.
With his free hand over the door, Vash suddenly jumped back when it exploded, landing right next to him as he looked towards the hole. Standing there, Roman was pointing his Melodic Cudgel to him before lowering it. "Tch, figures it would've be easy to kill the great Vash the Stampede"
"So you're the guy who came out with this scheme?" Vash asked, slowly assuming his battle stance. "
"Do I really need to answer this?" Roman asked with a smirk. "I'm just trying to earn money for dinner, y'know?"
"That doesn't make sense at all! Why are you trying to destroy Vale?!" Vash asked one more question, stepping once forward before Roman reloaded his weapon with several dust shrapnel and pointed the weapon at Vash.
"Such hypocrisy! Are you forgetting you are the Humanoid Typhoon?" Roman glared at Vash. "You destroyed July in one night! Do you know how many lives you took? How many lives have you ruined?! Tell me!"
"I…"
"Don't act as a hero, Vash the Stampede! Because you are no hero, but a monster" Roman smirked. "Besides, as long I am alive, then I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat and survive!" The criminal then twirled the cane before shooting the handle of Melodic Cudgel against Vash, taking advantage of the moment of hesitation and distraction that the latter had sported. Realizing it too late, Vash tried to move sideways to avoid the direct hit, unfortunately the handle hit Vash's hand, disarming him of the revolver which landed a couple of meters away from him.
"Damnit!" The blonde haired man turned towards the revolver and began to run towards it, yet Torchwick jumped between Vash and the revolver and began to spin his weapon against Vash in a flurry of attacks as he took advantage of the disarmed man.
While it was a little more problematic for him, Vash did show that he could keep up with Torchwick fairly well as he began to block and parrying several of the criminal's attacks, while trying to hit back with his prosthetic arm, showing a proficiency in martial arts, something that Torchwick would never believe Vash possessed. Not that Vash really seemed to have much luck with the latter, considering that Torchwick was unleashing the secret weapons of his cane too fast, forcing Vash to stay on the defense too much.
"You're pretty good, Humanoid Typhoon, I'll admit, but now get a load of this!" Torchwick then suddenly bended Melodic Cudgel into a U shape before firing a flurry of dust shrapnel towards Vash.
"Are you serious for real?!" Vash shouted with a comical expression over his face as he bent down to dodge the first, then he rolled to the left to dodge the second until he performed a windmill followed by a jump as he suddenly pirouetted like a classic dancer to dodge the last three, clearly enraging his foe. Eventually though, he did end up slipping for this little showing, and that granted Torchwick his chance to finally land a hit on the Humanoid Typhoon, along with several follow-ups that brought him to the ground. Before he could've tried to get up, Vash released a groan of pain when Torchwick smashed his left foot against Vash's back, pinning him to the ground.
"Ha! This is truly something spectacular!" Torchwick began to speak, his cane returned to its original shape, as he slowly pushed his foot harder against Vash's back. Pointing Melodic Cudgel against the back of the blonde haired man's head, the criminal smiled. "I, Roman Torchwick, have beaten the one and only Vash the Stampede! Y'know, this day has improved my health so much. And now…the 20 billion will be mine too!"
"Gah…" Vash gritted his teeth, yet this was nothing for him to be honest as he glanced at Roman, his shades covering his eyes. "Sorry man, but there's only one flaw with that"
"And what is?"
"I'll not die here today!" Vash stated with determination before a pshh could be heard. From the prosthetic arm's wrist, a small wire was shot to the side, confusing Roman before Vash grabbed the wire and used it as a whip, pulling a certain black object that was suddenly smashed against Roman's face. The criminal released a groan of pain as he pulled his cane's trigger and fired the shrapnel. Unfortunately, the smash was strong enough that, upon impact, made Roman slightly move his cane from Vash's face, meaning the red shrapnel went to the other edge of the wagon before exploding, raising a cloud of dust. Raising from the ground, Vash retreated the wire before grabbing back his revolver and dashing outside the cloud…yet Roman was not there. "Where is he-Ah!" Vash looked at the door for the next wagon before he ran towards it.
"Well I guess this is what we trained for!" Yang remarked, looking around the wagon when she noticed Ruby tied up on a chair right next to some crates.
"Yang!" Ruby called out as Blake went over and cut the ropes off of her team leader, she then handed Ruby Crescent Rose. "Guys, they've got paladins and bombs on this train! We must—"
"We know that Ruby. Vash is already going to stop the train, so we must follow him" Weiss nodded before Yang pulled Ruby into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay." Yang noticed Ruby was still hung up on something as she glanced over to see what when Neo suddenly appeared before them, smiling her usual playful, yet devious smirk. Yang could tell by Ruby's frightened expression that Neo had something to do with what happened to her.
"You guys go ahead. I've got a little score to settle with this girl," Yang told them, not letting her eyes move away from the smaller girl for even a second.
"But—" Ruby tried to reason with her sister.
"Go!" Yang insisted, and that seemed to settle the argument, and the others all took off, leaving Yang with her opponent. Not that it stopped Neo from attempting to impede their path, but a few rounds of Fire Dust from Ember Celica certainly helped to discourage Neo from trying.
For a brief time, the two sides just silently stared each other down as if silently daring the other to make the first move. It was hard to tell if Neo found it awkward to do so, given that she was eye-level with Yang's chest, but Yang was not concerned with that, as she took the initiative by throwing the first punch.
Yang was not sure what had happened after that, but somehow, in the blink of an eye, Neo managed to deflect her attack and push her back with her umbrella. The only thing that made Yang more upset was that the girl just spun said parasol up onto her shoulder after opening it, still smiling playfully like she was toying with Yang.
The blonde brawler was not going to let that stand, and immediately charged with fists swinging.
Neo did not seem to show any concern, as she easily leaned this way and that, dodging every attack that Yang threw, until she finally closed the umbrella again to block the blonde's next kick and a few other attacks that followed after, wrapping it up with a quick spin kick that knocked Yang to the floor. Neo then took her chance to strike back and threw out a drop kick that Yang just barely spun away from, but that did not deter her, as she easily caught Yang's next punch, and landed another pair of kicks that pushed Yang back again.
Getting her butt handed to her so easily was already enough to get Yang annoyed, but the fact that this tiny girl was doing so with that annoying smile still on her face was really starting to tick her off.
So, it was no surprise that the next time Neo attacked, Yang made it a point to fire her gauntlets with every punch she threw at the smaller girl. It did not make much difference, since Neo blocked every blast with her umbrella, opening and closing it in quick succession so that she could better attack and defend at any moment.
Despite the haze her annoyance at the girl's tactics was putting her in, Yang was still able to see at least one opening in Neo's defense, and quickly fired another blast at the girl's feet the next time she found the umbrella in her face, yet Neo still managed to back flip away before the blast could hit, and continued to do so until she was sitting back on a crate in a confident pose with her legs crossed and her umbrella open again, still smiling all the while.
Between the train's wagons, Ruby took her Scroll out and attempted to call for backup, but the signal wasn't strong enough to reach anyone. "Hey! We need some help! Jaune! Guys!" She grunted as she then closed her Scroll. "There's no signal!"
The three entered and were greeted by the White Fang lieutenant who was dragging his chainsaw along the floor. Two grunts were accompanying him but the pair made quick work of them with a couple of attacks as the Lieutenant attempted to strike Weiss with his chainsaw but Blake jumped in front of him and parried with Gambol Shroud and Ruby made an attempt to hit him but she was deflected by a headbutt that knocked her back.
"You three aren't going anywhere." He taunted as the three members of team RWBY all looked at each other.
"Checkmate!" Ruby ordered as Weiss and Blake ran forward and started attacking the Lieutenant, but one swing of his chainsaw forced them to back off. Ruby looked between the three of them as Weiss made a glyph and Ruby then fired off an ice amplified dust round at the Lieutenant that hit his shoulder and froze it before Blake fired off a shot at it and shattered the ice, causing him to stagger back as Weiss then used time Dilation to amplify her leader.
The red reaper sped forward now, fully charged with Weiss's time Dilation Glyph and swung her scythe down on the Lieutenant when suddenly she felt her whole body almost freeze in place as the Lieutenant saw his opening and swung his chainsaw forward at Ruby, slamming her into the ceiling and shattering her aura.
"Ruby!" Weiss called out as Blake then glared at the Lieutenant.
"This is what you choose over your own kind?!" he yelled at Blake who took a step back. "You're going to regret abandoning Adam for these humans!"
"Blake, go on ahead! I'll handle this!" Weiss insisted as the Lieutenant made the move to attack Blake, but Weiss quickly rushed in front of her and repelled the attack with a glyph that launched the Lieutenant backwards while she firmly stood her ground now, Blake exiting the car and making her way into the last car before the control room.
Yang's fight against Neo did not get better with time. Instead, the smaller girl ended up completely owning Yang right to the point where the blonde eventually ended up knocked out on the floor and completely vulnerable for Neo to finish her off. Drawing the sword that was hidden in the handle of her umbrella, Neo had every intention of ending things right then and there with a satisfied, wicked grin etched onto her face, but just as she was drawing her blade back, something came in and slashed at her, forcing her to back off. With a glare, Neo turned to see who was responsible, and let out a silent scared gasp at what she saw.
The one in question was a tall, imposing woman, with long black hair, and a sword held at her waist, the scabbard it was stored in appearing to have a rotary chamber loaded with multiple kinds of Dust, while her outfit was mainly colored black and dark crimson. As if to make her appear even more intimidating, the mystery woman also wore a helmet that not only hid her entire face from view, but looked a lot like a Grimm mask, but somehow, Yang knew that she was definitely not with the White Fang, as her mask seemed far more elaborate than those of the Faunus group. The thing that really drove home was just how long her sword appeared to be when she drew it once again, and how the blade had appeared to have turned a deep, blood red color after she seemed to infuse it with some Fire Dust.
Seeing how pale Neo's face had become, and how her eyes even changed color to match that paleness, anyone would say that was a very solid guess. Not only that, but Neo turned out to be so scared of this woman that she actually made ran away, disappearing in a flash of light via her Semblance, similar to how she and Torchwick had on the night when the Team RWBY first encountered her.
When the woman turned to face Yang, she did not say or do anything for a time other than simply staring at the blonde girl. Finally, after several more tense seconds, the woman did swing her sword at the air next to her as a black and red portal of some kind opened as a result. The woman then sheathed her sword with a simple flourish of her blade, and proceeded to back away from Yang, not taking her hidden gaze off of her for a little longer until she seemed to finally spoke in a voice that could sent chills up anyone's spines, yet still seemed to hold a very tiny bit of sweetness to it.
"I look forward to the moment when I next cross paths with you, Yang" The woman told to the knocked out Yang, until a certain man shouted from a nearby wagon.
"I'll not die here today!"
The woman seemed to gasp for surprise when she recognized the voice, her hand already over the handle of the sword...yet she hesitated for some reason, and such hesitation gave enough time to Yang to finally regain consciousness. With her eyes slowly opening, Yang couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Y-You..." She nervously called out, making the woman glance at her again. "Are…Are you…Raven?"
Once again, the woman kept silent, but only for a brief period, after which she let out what sounded like a short laugh and said. "I give you a warning. Do not trust the Humanoid Typhoon, Yang. He brings only destruction and despair" The woman warned, confusing Yang as she finally stepped inside the portal which vanished, leaving Yang alone.
At the end of the train wagon, Roman was smirking confidently. Sure, his left hand was holding the left side of his aching jawbone, a nice gift from Vash a few moments ago, but he was smirking confidently. His right hand took the lever before, applying a bit of strength, he pulled it with enough force to shatter it. "And with this, I won" He said to himself when he heard footsteps smashing against the steel floor of the wagon. Turning his head, the criminal smiled at Blake before he began to talk.
"Hey there kitty cat! I'm aware I've been on your mind lately." With a soave tone of voice, Torchwick taunted Blake, enraging her enough to charge forward without any kind of plan in mind, not realizing Roman had rigged the wagon with traps. And when she made a few steps, Blake settled off a laser sensor mine while Roman fired off a shot at her, taking advantage of the current situation.
Yet, Blake loaded a new cartridge of ammunition into her weapon and then she activated her Semblance, creating a stone clone that took the brunt of the explosion and the shrapnel. Cursing, Roman made his way forward and swung his weapon at Blake as she rolled out of the way and unsheathed Gambol Shroud, parrying the attack with the main blade before she struck him with the sheath-blade, sending him against the console, which made a loud crack.
With a painful groan, Torchwick tried to get himself up until he noticed that Blake stood over him, Gambol Shroud pointed at his forehead in its handgun form.
"You know, kitty cat..." Roman chuckled as he raised his arms in sign of possible surrender. Each word he spoke, Blake was narrowing her eyes as her finger was slowly adding more pressure to the trigger, ready to fire. "Do I have the right to request a lawyer in court?"
Weiss stood her ground near the exit of the train as the Lieutenant was clearly trying to bypass her now to get his hands on Blake. "You're not going anywhere!" Weiss insisted as she created a wall of ice behind her, blocking off the open train car door.
"Fine then, Schnee. You'll die first then!" He yelled as Weiss charged forward and slashed at him with Myrtenaster, yet he managed to read the attack and parry her attacks before swinging once at her.
Weiss back flipped right under the swipe of his chainsaw as she then hit him with the side of her weapon's blade and flipped again, this time hitting him with the hilt of Myrtenaster and causing him to stagger back a few steps.
Closing her eyes, Weiss began to focus, remembering how time Dilation had nearly failed her these last couple of times. But she had to risk it again.
Opening her eyes, she then activated the time dilation glyph under herself and launched herself forward off of another glyph, creating several around the Lieutenant as she then lunged forward again.
Her first attack was blocked, but Weiss's determination did not wave as she bounded off the next glyph, surprising the Lieutenant and hit him before bouncing off the next several glyphs and hitting him, knocking him into the air before she then launched off a glyph on the roof and knocked him onto the ground. Then, she leaped up and reeling back for another strike with Myrtenaster when her body suddenly felt her being slowed down at that moment.
'Dammit!' She mentally cursed as the toll came earlier than she expected, gasping before the Lieutenant slammed her into the ground and threw her into the air, swinging his chainsaw at her with murderous intent, clearly trying to finish her off when suddenly the blade of Crescent Rose protected Weiss, who glanced at her side to see several petals around Ruby who stood, gritting her teeth as she began a clash with their weapons.
"Ruby!" Weiss said with worry when her leader began to step back once, clearly she was being outmatched in strength by the Lieutenant.
"I'm fine!" Ruby shouted to Weiss, yet her foe was clearly chuckling.
"Is this your peak, kid? This isn't a playground; you know?" The lieutenant said before he finally outmatched Ruby, sending her away before swinging his chainsaw at her. Ruby's eyes widened as the blade was soon at her. She thought that the end was now…yet the miracle happened when the roof of the wagon exploded, a red stain suddenly busted inside from the hole and a crystal-like arm met the chainsaw. Sparks flew as the blonde man's jacket moved thanks to the wind while he gave a quick smile to Ruby and Weiss.
"Mister Vash…?" Ruby and Weiss said at the same time.
"Told you if you needed a hand, didn't I?" Then, Vash clenched his prosthetic hand into a fist, shattering the chainsaw's blade in countless pieces and shocking the lieutenant.
"Vash…the Stampede?!" He said before his face "kissed" the barrel of Vash's revolver a few times before falling to the ground. This time, he was down for good.
Twirling his revolver, Vash holstered it back before he turned to Ruby and Weiss, her eyes widened for the action they witnessed. "Are you two okay?" Vash asked with a worried tone of voice, holding his hands to them to help them get up, with Weiss accepting the flesh one and Ruby the mechanical one, much for her weapon dork side when she noticed something.
"We're fine, but your arm is damaged!" Ruby pointed out to Vash, who looked at the mechanical arm. Indeed, the middle of the arm was cracked, surely because he used it to clash with the chainsaw.
"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry" Vash waved with said arm. "Besides, we have to reach the control room. I don't think we have enough time" The Humanoid Typhoon stated, receiving a nod from the two huntresses as they ran to the last wagon.
"Blake!"
In a matter of seconds, Blake's cat ears twitched as she quickly glanced behind, noticing that everyone managed to reach her. "Guys!" She said, still aiming at a seemingly surrendered Torchwick.
"Are you okay?" Yang said, although she seemed a bit more beated than her partner.
"I'm fine, but I don't know how to stop this" Blake revealed, biting her lower lip. "During our fight, we destroyed the control panel"
"What?!" Everyone shouted at the same time as Vash and Oobleck quickly moved to the control panel. The professor tried to press a few buttons, but nothing happened but sparks flew.
"It's useless!" Oobleck slammed his hands against the panel.
"Then how can we stop this?" Weiss asked, clearly worried for the situation. While they were thinking of a plan to save the situation, Vash was thinking in a different way.
"A thick wall at the end…." Vash muttered before his eyes widened under the big orange sunglasses. "That's it!" Then, he grabbed Roman from the shirt and lifted him up.
"Vash?" Everyone was quietly surprised.
"Woah, easy there: I'm not into that, y'know?" Roman mocked until Vash pulled out one of his Melodic Cudgel's Dust shrapnel, yet this one was glowing, signaling that it was very unstable. Widening his eyes, Torchwick barked. "Hey, that's mine!"
"Not anymore!" The Humanoid Typhoon said as he dropped Roman against the ground before glancing at Weiss. "Weiss, can you use your ice glyphs again?"
"Huh?" Weiss raised an eyebrow. "I think yes, but only once"
"It'll be enough! Follow me!" Vash stated as he approached the previous wagon where he made the hole before.
"Wait what?! Vash, what's your plan?" Yang asked as everyone followed Vash to the wagon.
"I'm going to destroy the tunnel by blowing up all the bombs the train is carrying before we reach the wall!" Vash revealed. "In this way, even if the train breach through the tunnel and reach the city, the Grimm cannot escape from here and slip in the city!"
"That's crazy, Mister Vash! Do you want to die?!" Oobleck said with surprise.
"Don't worry, I did something craziest years ago" Vash stated as he jumped up through the wall and landed over the wagon's top. The girls looked at Weiss, all of them worried.
"Weiss, are you sure?" Her leader asked.
"I.." Weiss looked at her hands, then she clenched her hands for then look at her teammates. "Look, just trust me, okay?"
Ruby, Blake and Yang looked at each other before they nodded. A few seconds later, and Vash managed to pull up Weiss through the hole to the top of the wagon, facing towards all the wagons filled with bombs.
"Go go Weiss!" Ruby cheered as she and the others were observing everything from the hole.
Looking at the heiress, the Humanoid Typhoon nodded at her before he raised the dust shrapnel. "At my mark, okay?"
"Very well" Weiss acknowledged as she thrusted her rapier through the wagon to have a better grip. "I'm ready here!"
"Alright…ready…steady…" Vash began to count as, before the go, he threw the dust shrapnel before them. "Go!" At Vash's signal, Weiss focused as a single glyph appeared under the train's wagon they are currently in. Ice formed around the trails and the wagon's walls, screeching as the metal began to break the ice.
"It can't hold it—" Weiss shouted when she saw Vash drawing his revolver and aiming at the shrapnel, assuming a one hand aiming stance. The way he was standing before her with his jacket moving for the wind made Weiss's heart skip a beat for how, well, awesome he was in that moment. Then, he pressed the trigger—
Click
Click
Click
Click
"Huh?" From his serious face, Vash made a comically confused one until he started to look around his body, nervously babbling. "Wait, impossible! They must be there! Where—"
"What's going on now?" Weiss asked, her glyph draining the last bits of Aura she had.
"Don't tell me…" Blake widened her eyes.
"Huuh…I…" Vash chuckled nervously, turning to Weiss. "Maybe I'm out of ammo"
"I can't believe it" Yang face palmed when the mighty Humanoid Typhoon literally cried, sporting a comical crying expression while, from the other wagon, Torchwick laughed.
"What a moron!"
"Anyone has some bullets?! I really need some ammo!" Vash began to cry, seeing that the KOed White Fangs still present on the train were slowly regaining consciousness. "A few 22 calibers would be dandy! Please! A-ny-oneee!"
"Does anyone have it?!" Ruby turned to the others, bearing the same crying expression Vash has.
"Wait, did he said .22?" Blake asked, using her Faunus hearing to check confirmation from Vash's begs.
"A .22, anyoneeeee?!" This time, Weiss joined Vash's begs.
"I guess we have the answer" Yang joked when Blake pulled out a clip of her Gambol Shroud. "Wait, did you seriously have a .22 caliber?"
"It's actually strange that a revolver like his is a .22 caliber" Blake pointed out before she handed a bullet to Ruby. "Here"
"Huh, why me?"
Blake gave her a flat look, until Ruby realized. "Ooooh…"
Back to Vash, the Humanoid Typhoon was moving around, still crying. "Pleaaase! I need ammo! Wuaaaaah—"
"Special delivery!"
"Huh?" Vash and Weiss turned their heads to the hole when a burst of red petals came out revealing Ruby.
"Mister Vaaash! Take this!" The red reaper then threw the bullet towards Vash, which catch it easily as she landed close to Weiss.
"Thank you Ruby!" Opening the cylinder of his revolver, Vash inserted the bullet inside it before closing it. Taking the aim, Vash suddenly stepped aside when a bullet hit his revolver. Turning his head towards the shot, the lieutenant from before was running towards Vash with a handgun in his hand.
"I'll not let you do it!" The terrorist said before he was a few inches from Vash's chest, aiming at the Humanoid Typhoon before opening the fire.
"Vash!" Ruby and Weiss shouted, yet the blonde haired man dodged every single shot the lieutenant fired before he performed a grab which threw the handgun away from the lieutenant before he slammed his revolver against his neck.
"You're so persistent!" Vash shouted before he grabbed a fire dust grenade from the terrorist and threw it towards the shrapnel, then he took the aim with both hands. Calculating the exact moment with his mere instinct, Vash pulled the trigger and shot the bullet. In a matter of mere tenths of a second, the bullet pierced the grenade and the shrapnel, which exploded in several smaller pieces that pierced all the wagons. The flames of the fire dust grenade then completed the mix, causing an explosion all through the wagons before everything was devoured by explosions, fire and steel.
"WEISS USE EVERYTHING YOU GOT AND CREATE A BIGGER BARRIER!" Vash shouted to Weiss, who did not wait for anyone to dispute the idea, and instead just created as big of an ice barrier around them as she could. The only thing anyone on Team RWBY could see after that was the ice barrier surrounding them, until their vision went white at the moment when the train finally crashed with a loud boom.
It was hard to know for sure just how long they were out, but judging by the orange tint of the sky, it was obvious that it was somewhere around or during sunrise. Not that anyone on Team RWBY was able to really enjoy the colors that always came with the beginning of the day, because at the moment, they were busy taking stock of their injuries from the recent crash while glancing about to try to check on each other.
"Is…Is everyone okay?" Ruby groaned as she tried to sit up and crawl over to where she thought her teammates were. "Weiss…Weiss are you alright?"
"I think so Ruby…" Weiss muttered.
"I'm okay," Blake confirmed while shaking her head to rid herself of any cobwebs.
"Same here," Yang nodded, then grunted soon after and amended. "...Well, my side and arms kind of hurt a little, but I don't think it's anything serious. Just a little bruise or flesh wound."
"Aside from the ringing in my ears, I'm okay too," Oobleck reported while checking on Yang, who was still coughing from all the dust in the air.
Ruby was about to ask Vash how he was doing, even as she winced in her attempts to sit up, until she picked up on a certain fact about that ringing the professor was talking about: it was not going away, and the actual sound of it was far more worrying. "I don't think that's just your ears ringing, Doctor"
When the fives started taking in their surroundings, it became clear that the ringing Oobleck and Ruby were talking about was actually a literal army of Atlesian soldiers aiming at the only one who was standing over the destroyed wagon…
"Vash the Stampede, you are completely surrounded! Surrender, raise your hands slowly and walk towards us!"
"Ups…." Vash chuckled a bit before a droll of sweat rolled through his forehead. "I think I exaggerated this time…?"
Cinder was on the verge of having a huge headache when, two hours ago, she turned the TV on, receiving the worst news of all: The train which had to create a breach in Vale for let Grimm invade the city actually made a breach, but the tunnel was completely destroyed killing all the Grimm in one single move thanks to the infamous Humanoid Typhoon. Of course, of all people possible, the legendary Vash the Stampede had to completely ruin their plans. Without the breach, the citizens of the kingdom will not develop enough negative emotions to draw the Grimm for their planned assault on Beacon.
But then, Cinder had an epiphany. How could she be so blind? This sudden derailment of plans—no puns intended— actually helped them a lot. The infamous Humanoid Typhoon is in Vale, and if comparing the breach with the culprit of Lost July, then people will fear the man more than the monster. That's why she was observing the plaza were the train breached from the roofs of a building together with her allies.
"Drawbacks aside, I'd call today a success" The ashen-haired woman declared.
"You're kidding right? Torchwick launched his part of the plan days early, and those stupid kids made a huge mess of things" Emerald reminded her.
"Yeah, and that's ignoring all the stuff we saw the Humanoid Typhoon doing here," Mercury pointed out. "Vash the Stampede ruined our plans. Again."
"Funny, because I don't remember ever saying that he ruined our plans. But I do remember saying to be careful of him, didn't I?" A man's voice echoed around them, just seconds before the owner of the voice in question seemed to appear from nowhere. He was a tall white man with a muscular build. He has blue hair swept down, blue eyebrows and brown eyes, while sporting a black shirt, black arm-length fingerless gloves, brown trousers and black combat boots. Over the shirt, he has a knee-length white jacket with several belts around. On the right shoulder of the jacket there are a pair of six metal spikes while on the left shoulder there is a human skull held by a belt. "We gave you complete decision-making power for this operation, and this is the result? You are fortunate that our Master has some usage for you, brat"
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that just yet," Cinder waved off the blue haired man's words. "After all, sometimes, it pays to lose a pawn to the enemy."
"Well what about the White Fang? A lot of their guys didn't make it out of those tunnels, so I doubt that they'll still be willing to listen to us" Mercury pointed out.
"Of course they won't. But they'll listen to me," A new individual said as he stepped up to the group.
The person in question was a young man with auburn hair that almost seemed to be a blood red color in the current light, and a pair of bull horns on his head, with the signature Grimm mask of the White Fang hiding half of his face from view. The rest of his attire was nearly all black, save for the red shirt he wore underneath his blazer, and the red thorn sigils on the bottom left hem of said coat. The only other deviations from his all-black attire were the blood red omega symbols on his gloves, and the white and red, wilting rose emblem on the back of his blazer. Rounding out his dangerous look, was the sword in a black sheath that he currently held in his left hand. In short, the man spelled danger to anyone who saw him.
"Is he…Adam Taurus?" Cinder asked, clearly surprised by Faunus's presence. Before she could say something, the blue haired man seemed to smile.
"While you took your time to make a deal with the head of the organization, me and Mister Adam managed to create an alliance of sorts" The blue haired man explained.
"Spare me the empty compliments. All I care about is whether or not you intend to aid my people to rebel against our oppressors" Adam brushed off.
"Do not worry about that, Mister Adam, because this time…I will take control of the operation" The blue haired man revealed, sporting a sinister grin as he walked over the edge of the building. "And you all will listen to me and only me. We are all members of the Eye of Michael, after all, and our Master eagerly awaits excellent results"
"We will not fail you, Lord Legato" Cinder said, bowing her head a bit to the leader of the Eye of Michael, Legato Bluesummers.
Turn to the next Bullet: LOONEY TUNES