Sarge: Previously, on RvBvRWBY: Incursion...
"S-So… where to start… We're kind of… from another universe?"
"We're from a world called Remnant. We're huntresses, warriors trained to protect people and fight monsters."
"You got this thing where?" Church asked Tucker, in reference to his new energy blade weapon that he now held ignited in his hands.
I don't know if it's a good idea if you keep that thing," Blake said cautiously. "Isn't it part of some kind of apocalyptic prophecy?"
"I'm with Blake on this, I don't trust that thing, let alone you," Church added.
"You're just pissed because you don't have one," Tucker replied.
"No. You must have me confused with Tex. She's been staring at you non-stop since you found that thing."
"Simmons and I were in the middle of fixing the radio as well as our scrolls when we picked up a distress signal."
"Distress! Distress! We don't need any more distress. Distress! Woah man, it's a lot of distress!"
"That's all it says, it doesn't even say where or who," Simmons said.
"We know who it is," Sarge said, "It's on the Red Army open channel.
"Can you figure out where the signal's coming from?" Ruby asked Simmons.
"All I can tell is the direction. I have no idea how far it is," he answered.
"So, what, are you guys gonna go chase this red signal?" Tex questioned.
"That's the idea," Sarge said. "And the little rosebud and the snowflake offered to come with us."
"Hey, I could also use your help with Caboose," Church added.
"Me? Why my help?" Ruby asked.
"For some reason, Caboose seems weirdly comfortable with you in particular, and he listens to you."
"Well, it's settled then," Sarge said. "The snowflake and the spitfire come with us."
Caboose, what are you doing in here? We thought you were with us, you missed the entire plan!" Church said.
"Oh, don't worry. Andy was listening and told me everything," Caboose replied.
"Andy? Who's Andy?"
"This is Andy," Caboose said before gesturing to the defused bomb sitting in its marked spot on the floor near his feet.
"Andy's the bomb?" Ruby raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Did Gary say anything about the bomb being able to talk?" Blake asked the blue leader.
"Uhh.. just that this whole place is gonna be destroyed by us, and that Andy here is probably the thing that does it," Church replied.
"As long as everyone is calm and peaceful and there is nothing to make us excited, I don't care," Church said evenly.
BOOM!
"I could almost feel that coming right as I finished the sentence," Church sighed.
RvBvRWBY: Incursion
Chapter 6: Knock Knock
The shattered moon illuminated the sky over the Atlesian port city of Argus, a city built around a military outpost along the shore. A peaceful city, even by the standards of Remnant. It was fairly rare for Grimm to get anywhere close, let alone attack. And even if they did, the defense systems were more than enough to deal with the monsters. It was an important town, and so the peace was kept, on that front at the very least.
Jaune Arc sure didn't feel the peace as his infant nephew was crying in his arms, letting out a harsh wail that made his eardrums pulse in pain. The house was filled with the aromas of several dishes from the kitchen, as was the rushed clanging of dishes. In that particular room were Jaune's teammates Ren and Nora, his older sister Saphron, and Saphron's wife Terra. This left Jaune to care for his nephew Adrian, who he just couldn't get to calm down, his tears running down his tanned face and his tuft of black hair almost entirely hidden by the blanket he was wrapped in.
"Sh sh sh, Adrian! It's alright, buddy!" Jaune tried to assure the infant, but the wails continued. "Terra, any chance for help?"
"One second, Jaune!" Terra's voice replied. After a few moments, Terra stepped out from the kitchen and swiftly took her son into her arms. Terra Cotta-Arc was a woman with a light brown complexion and short dark brown hair and eyes, with a single smooth bang that went down her forehead and between her eyes. She wore a dark navy collar shirt with a light-blue cardigan, dark-gray jeans and red sneakers. Placed on her face were a pair of red glasses, and on her finger was a shining wedding ring. She also had slight bags under her eyes. Terra was a working woman, and she worked so hard and so often, she rarely got to be home, let alone rest. "Sh sh, it's okay, Adrian. Mommy's here." Adrian's cries soon fell silent, and he even began to fall asleep in Terra's arms.
"I wish I knew how to do that," Jaune sighed.
"He's still getting to know you," Terra smiled. "He'll get used to Uncle Jaune soon enough."
"I hope so. I don't wanna have my first nephew grow up hating me for some reason," Jaune chuckled.
"Who could hate you, little bro?" Saphron said as she suddenly headlocked her brother and ruffled his hair.
"Hey, stop it," Jaune whined before his sister let go of him. Jaune straightened his hair and groaned.
Saphron was about the same age as Terra. She had wavy dirty-blonde hair and blue eyes, and wore an orange sleeveless top with a beige sleeveless vest, light brown trousers with orange stitches on each side, and dark brown boots. Draped from her neck was also a bootlace necklace, and she wore her own wedding band as well.
"Don't worry about Adrian, he's still just a baby," Saphron smiled. "So, when does the girlfriend get here?"
Jaune's face quickly flushed red, and he nervously rubbed his neck while glancing. "C-C'mon, don't say girlfriend. We're still… y'know, figuring things out," He stammered.
"Ok, fine, but when does she get here? The rest of the food is almost done," Saphron repeated.
"Pyrrha will be here soon. She's spent the day with her mom, but texted me a little while ago saying she was on her way."
"Can't wait to meet her. Oh, my little brother's all grown up!" Saphron giggled. "A trained Huntsman leading his own team, a girlfriend. Mom would freak out!"
"Yeah, makes me glad the rest of the family doesn't live in Argus," Jaune replied.
A rhythmic knocking came at the front door, and Jaune wheeled around. "That must be her," he said. As soon as he stepped for it, though, Saphron rushed past him and swung the door open. Standing in the doorway on the porch was Pyrrha Nikos, her red hair still tied back in a ponytail like normal, but instead of her huntress armor, she was dressed in a burgundy sweater, black leggings and knee-high heeled brown boots with golden buckles. In her hands she held a few small full tupperware containers.
"Oh, hello! You must be Pyrrha! I'm Saphron, Jaune's older sister! We've heard so much about you!" Saphron greeted with a smile while pushing Jaune away from the door.
"Saphron, no-! Let me through!" Jaune exclaimed, but his sister kept him away.
"It's nice to meet you," Pyrrha chuckled.
Jaune eventually shoved his sister aside, then gave a nervous glance to his teammate. "H-Hey, Pyrrha."
"I see your sister has heard of me," Pyrrha smiled.
"Eh, it won't be long before everyone else in the family does too. I almost wanna get rid of my scroll now," Jaune sighed exasperatedly. "What's all that?"
"Well, my mother was regretful that she couldn't join us, so she sent some of her food with me as a gift."
"Sounds great! If you'll bring it to the kitchen, Ren and Nora will help you get it all sorted out," Saphron said.
"Thank you." Pyrrha nodded gratefully and entered Saphron's home, brushing past both of the Arc siblings to enter the kitchen. As soon as she was out of earshot, Saphron gripped her younger brother by the shoulders and shook him back and forth.
"Oh my gosh, she's so gorgeous! You landed that?" She squealed.
"Yeah yeah, don't go screeching it, or I'm sure Mom will somehow hear you."
"Oh, Mom will hear about it alright," Saphron smirked deviously.
"Don't you dare!" Jaune replied. Saphron just kept giggling and slinked away into the kitchen just as Pyrrha was exiting. Pyrrha approached her leader with a smile.
"Sibling trouble?" She said.
"You have no idea. Imagine having to grow up with seven of them."
Pyrrha giggled, placing a hand over her mouth. Her melodic laugh immediately put a smile on his face. Pyrrha kept smiling before wrapping her arms around Jaune and pulling him into a hug. Jaune gladly returned the embrace, wrapping his own arms around her waist. They squeezed each other firmly but tenderly for a few moments before pulling apart, though not quite letting go, their hands still remaining on Jaune's shoulders and Pyrrha's waist respectively. They gave each other a warm smile, then suddenly Saphron peaked out of the kitchen and snapped pictures with her scroll.
"Mom will never leave you alone now!" She snickered before sliding back out of view.
"Wha-! Saphron!" Jaune exclaimed with red cheeks. Pyrrha giggled and kissed Jaune on the cheek.
"C'mon, let's help set the table," She said before pulling away and going to help everyone else.
Together, Team JNPR as well as Terra set the full dinner table while Saphron set Adrian in his high chair and began to feed him. After every dish was set, the six of them took their seats and dug into their dinner.
After a time of simply enjoying the food, Saphron turned to Pyrrha, who sat between her and Jaune. "So, Pyrrha, you're from Argus?"
"Indeed," Pyrrha nodded. "I trained at Sanctum, then transferred to Beacon once I was done with combat school."
"I thought your name sounded familiar, but I'm always too busy with work to focus too much on the community side of things," Terra said.
"So how did you and Jaune meet? Was it when the teams were made, or before?" Saphron asked, excitedly trying to pry.
"Saphron…" Jaune groaned.
"It's quite alright, Jaune," Pyrrha smiled. "We first met right before teams were made, actually."
"Yeah, when he crashed and burned with Weiss Schnee," Nora added.
"Nora, come on!" Jaune whined.
"You hit on a Schnee?" Terra raised an eyebrow.
"Repeatedly," Ren smirked.
Jaune groaned and slammed his head on the table. "You guys suck…"
"Um, I'd also prefer it if we didn't discuss that particular topic," Pyrrha nervously said. "Anyways, after our first meeting, we paired up during initiation, and once Professor Ozpin made teams, he was made our leader. It was kind of no going back from there."
"What won you over? Was it his dancing? Our sisters and I made him learn how to dance with us growing up," Saphron giggled.
"Did he dance in a dress back then too?" Nora questioned with a smirk.
"Sometimes. Wait, did he do it at the Vytal Dance too?" Saphron asked.
"Yang got pictures. Wanna see?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Saphron chuckled.
"This is my hell…" Jaune sighed, his head still face-down. Pyrrha gently patted his back.
"Well… Jaune was genuine. Brave," Pyrrha smiled. "But I think the biggest thing of all was that, while I was renowned worldwide for my prodigal skill, he had never even heard of me. He didn't identify me by my reputation like everyone else did, because he didn't know it. He could only know me for who I was, not what I was." Jaune's head lifted up as Pyrrha explained what brought her to him.
"It was nice to be treated just like anyone else and not as something greater. To be treated like any other girl." Pyrrha bashfully twirled a loose lock of her hair with a tint of blush on her cheeks. Jaune had a small smile of his own on his face. Pyrrha met his gaze and only blushed more.
Click!
Jaune looked over to see Saphron with her scroll out. "More pictures for mom!" She smirked.
"Oh, come on!" Jaune groaned, forcing laughs from everyone else's lips while the teenage couple were left with red faces and unwanted teasing.
The rest of dinner was spent on similar "getting to know you conversations" between the other members of Team JNPR and the Cotta-Arc family. Once dinner was done, Terra and Saphron started the cleanup, with Ren and Nora opting to help them. Jaune was about to do the same when Pyrrha grabbed his attention.
"Jaune?" She said. Jaune turned to her. "You mind going out for a walk?"
"Oh, I was gonna help them in the kitchen-" Jaune started, but then suddenly his sister was ushering him to the door, pushing him forward almost with an urgency.
"Nope, we got this, Jaune! You and Pyrrha go have fun, and we'll have the place cleaned and dessert set up when you get back! Go get 'em, tiger!" Saphron rushed, getting both her brother and Pyrrha out the door before closing it behind them.
"Heh… sorry about, y'know… all that. My family members can get a bit… much," Jaune apologized.
"It's quite alright. It seems to me that's just Saphron's way of showing how proud she is," Pyrrha said as the two of them walked down the front steps onto the Argus sidewalk, then began a stroll down their street.
"Yeah. So, how's your mom? I mean, we came to Argus so you could visit her too. You guys meeting my sister is just an… unfortunate addition," Jaune chuckled.
"She's not that bad."
"Again, imagine seven of them."
"I do hope that maybe one day I could meet the rest of your family," Pyrrha said.
"Same here. Sorry your mom couldn't make it over here," Jaune replied.
"I got to see her, and check in. I suppose that's what matters. We hadn't met in person since the Battle of Beacon, just talked over the phone so we could help with initial repairs. She seemed so relieved to see me in one piece after that ordeal," Pyrrha said.
"Yeah. It was definitely a mess. It could've come out so much worse," Jaune said. "I mean, people still died, and it was horrible, but in the grand scheme of things, we stopped the bad guys, right? Things won't get back to how they were in Vale, but the worst is behind us, right?"
Pyrrha frowned, recalling the days leading up to the Battle of Beacon. What Ozpin had revealed to her about the maidens, and that she subsequently revealed to not only Team JNPR, but Team RWBY as well. She remembered the feeling of her life coming down around her as the duty of becoming the Fall Maiden dropped in front of her, then was quickly taken away by Cinder Fall.
"I hope so, but… I'm worried it's not, and that something else is still out there," She said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well… if Cinder is really dead, then where did the powers of the Fall Maiden go? Before Professor Ozpin died, he explained that Maiden powers transfer in two ways naturally: they go to the last person in a maiden's thoughts, unless that person is too old or a man, then the selection is random. Ruby and Peter were in the tower with her, so if the powers couldn't go to Peter and Ruby doesn't have them, where did they go when Cinder died?" Pyrrha questioned.
"Hopefully to someone worthy of it, someone who will use it for good," Jaune said.
"I hope you're right," Pyrrha replied. "All I know is I never want to be involved with it again. I don't envy whoever is forced into that mantle next."
Jaune's look softened and he gently took her hand in his. She looked up at him. No words needed to be said. He just gave her a reassuring smile, and that was all she needed for her own smile to return. She gripped his hand firmly as the two walked along the streets of Argus.
"I wonder what Team RWBY's up to about now," Jaune said after a few moments of silence.
"More than likely, our comrades are doing just as we are; enjoying this peace while it still lasts."
BOOOM!
"What the hell was that?!" Sarge exclaimed.
"An explosion of some kind, obviously!" Weiss remarked from her seat.
"O'Malley must've come back already," Simmons said, still hanging off the side of the Warthog turret.
"Hm…" Sarge rounded the corner, looking out into the rest of the courtyard, to see the robots heading for the main door of the facility, away from them. "Looks like they're distracted. Let's use this chance to slip away."
"What? But Ruby's in there! We need to help them!" Yang exclaimed.
"You guys split up for a reason, so we could play double duty. If we stay here and fight, not only will we be helping the dirty Blue's survive, but we'll have no clue if we'll be to that distress signal on time!"
"But-!"
"He's right, Yang," Weiss interrupted. "Ruby and Blake are big girls, they can handle themselves. We have somewhere to be."
"I have a lock on the distress signal, so we can head right for it!" Simmons added.
Yang let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, fine."
"Alright! Everybody in the jeep!" Sarge ordered.
"Shotgun!" Grif and Simmons called, with Grif slightly behind. "Fuck…" Grif cursed.
"Shotgun's lap!" Donut called cheerfully.
"Fuck!" Simmons cursed.
"We have the cart, Donut," Sarge deadpanned. "No one's letting you sit in their lap again. Now everyone hop in." Grif hopped into the driver's seat, Sarge in the front passenger, and Simmons fully situated himself at the turret. Meanwhile, Donut, Yang and Weiss pulled themselves into the cart. Grif hit the gas, and the warthog sped right past the small army of robots back out to the shoreline from once they came. Yang then saw something out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey Grif, stop the jeep!" She called out. Grif hit the brakes and Yang hopped right back out of the cart and went towards a nearby clear area of grass.
"Yang, what are you doing? There are enemies chasing us!" Sarge exclaimed.
"Yeah, at a snail's pace," Weiss replied. Yang approached what seemed to be a purple vehicle of some kind, with one seat and two twin guns at the front.
"I think I found O'Malley's ride," She said. "I wanna take this baby for a spin."
"Oh. Well excellent work, Yang! Sneaking behind enemy lines and stealing valuable assets from right under their noses!" Sarge congratulated.
"I wouldn't call driving right past an army that moves slower than the economy 'sneaking', Sarge," Grif said.
"Hmmm…" Yang began to press everything on the vehicle's dash until one finally brought it whirring to life, as well as off the ground, hovering a foot or so above it as it emanated a violet light from the underbelly. "Woah! I like this thing already!"
"Think you can get it moving?" Simmons asked.
"Only one way to find out." Yang gripped two handles that had to be the control yokes, and gave them a few test movements. Indeed, they made the purple vehicle move around almost completely freely, without the ground to hinder its mobility at all. "Alright, I think I got this! Lead the way, Grif!"
Grif nodded then hit the warthog's gas pedal, speeding off down the beach, with Yang shooting forward in her new ride, following close behind.
Tex peaked out one of the shutters to examine the slowly approaching robotic soldiers marching up the beach, then slipped back in, turning to face Tucker behind her. "Alright, I think I can take 'em. I just need a better weapon," She said.
"Want me to help you find one?" Tucker offered.
"Hmmm, why don't you just give me your sword?" Tex suggested, gesturing to the energy sword he still held in his hand.
"No way! I can see right through your little ploy. You just want me to give you the sword!"
"That's what I just said."
"Yeah, but it's the way you said it," Tucker said.
"Y'know, it's a good thing that sword doesn't run on brain power," Tex remarked. She then quickly glanced over his shoulder and began to act surprised. "Oh my god, Tucker look! Hot chicks!"
"Nice try. You just want me to turn around so you can knock me out and take the sword," Tucker said.
"Now the hot girls are makin' out!" Tex said in an intrigued tone, still staring right past him as if she really was watching something.
"Ok, that's worth the risk," Tucker relented before turning his back to her, only to see absolutely nothing but empty space behind him. "Ah, crap…" Tex smacked the back of Tucker's head, knocking him out cold and sending him flying off the walkway the two occupied onto the floor below. Tex leapt down and quickly snagged the de-ignited sword for herself. She then left Tucker's unconscious body laying on the floor and rushed away.
Ruby and Caboose meanwhile were left with Andy to ensure the assault on the facility wouldn't trigger him to explode and kill them all.
"Just stay calm, Andy. Everything will be alright," Ruby assured the explosive.
"I'm okay. Really, I like explosions. You guys on the other hand look a little nervous," Andy said.
"Well, we're kind of stuck between a rock and hard place right now," Ruby pointed out.
"You know, I always get a little nervous during battles," Caboose said. "I think it's because we never win."
"Eh, don't sweat it. If they get in the base, I'll just explode and kill everybody," Andy said.
"Well, see, that's kind of the opposite of what we want. Besides, what does that solve if you kill the robots and us?" Ruby asked.
"Hey, you can't make an omelet without blowing up a few eggs."
"I like eggs," Caboose said.
"Me too."
Church and Blake stood in front of Gary's terminal in the generator room, where the sounds of the blasts outside were muted only by the running machinery around them.
"Gary, is it possible that the Great Destroyer can be an entire army of people?" Church asked the computer.
"No. The Great Destroyer is a single person who will come to claim the Great Weapon," Gary answered.
"Yeah, that's great," Church said sarcastically.
"Prepare, one and all. The fulfillment of the Great Prophecy is at hand."
"So you have no good news for me today?" Church evenly asked.
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"
"Is there something wrong with this program?" Blake questioned.
"Considering most of his storage consists of bad jokes and disgusting terms, I'd say yes," Church answered. "C'mon, let's go see how everyone else is doing." Church led Blake back into the front of the facility down to the ground floor, where they would see Tucker sprawled out on the floor.
"Tucker!" Blake called out. Both she and Church rushed over and helped him to his feet. "Are you alright?"
"Ah, damn…" Tucker groaned, a harsh ringing still filling his ears as consciousness returned to him. "Okay, new rule: We start rotating knockouts. Next time, it's someone else's turn."
"Hey, good idea," Church said. "And next time Caboose decides he wants to go around team killing, you can take that one."
"Maybe we should stick to what we know best…"
"Hey, can we focus? What happened?" Blake asked.
"And where's your weapon?" Church added.
"You think she knocked me out for fun? This isn't Tuesday dude. She took it," Tucker answered.
"Your team seems to have a bad habit of trying to kill each other," Blake said.
"Yeah, no kidding. We should make a tally chart for every time it happens, start a money pool like it's a swear jar. We better find Tex before she does something completely insane," Church said.
O'Malley and Lopez were overlooking the entire yard before the facility, watching as the robotic soldiers slowly continued their assault. "Ugh, this is as painful for me as it'll be for those buffoons when they die," O'Malley groaned. "How much longer is this going to take?"
Then suddenly, explosions burst from groups of his troops, obliterating the machines in plasma blasts one by one. "What the devil?!" Explosions kept rumbling within the squads of troops, until there was not a single drone left standing, and the yard was filled with nothing but scrap metal and scorched earth. "What the hell just happened here?!" O'Malley scanned the yard, seeing nothing, then hopped down from his elevated position to look at the closest group of destroyed robots closely. He gripped his gun firmly and glanced back up to the head of Lopez. "Lopez, do you see anything?"
"[No, just dead robots everywhere]", Lopez replied. "[My beautiful robot army destroyed]."
"I'm going to sneak around the side. Lemme know if you see anything." O'Malley crouched down and snuck towards the center of the small clearing before them, where three stone pillars stood in a circle formation. He took cover between two of them and attempted to peek further into the yard. "Lopez? Do you see anything?" No response came, immediately concerning O'Malley. "Lopez? Lopez!" The Spanish robot's voice wasn't heard, and just as O'Malley was about to get up to go check on him, he saw the shadow of a figure behind him casted on the ground next to him. "No…" He wheeled around and fired his weapon immediately, his yelling cries drowned out by the gunfire, until that too was silenced.
The Warthog containing the Reds and Weiss, as well as Yang driving the purple vehicle, the Ghost, next to them, were approaching the coordinates at a decent pace. Weiss sat quietly in the cart opposite Donut, gently holding onto the snowflake necklace draped from her neck, gently running her thumb over its surface, while Yang wore a smile on her face, handling the new vehicle well enough for never having seen anything like it before. "I could really get used to this thing!" She said. "Might even take it back home with me."
"It is a pretty sweet ride," Grif agreed.
"Do you guys even have a way home?" Simmons asked. "I mean, you were brought here by accident, right?"
"Partially. But we know the Cosmic Dust was involved somehow," Weiss answered, letting go of the jewelry and taking her attention away from it. "If we could find a way to properly harness its energy, we might be able to get back to Remnant."
"I still can't believe it. The multiverse is real! The amount of scientific theories proven by its existence! The possibilities! It must have been a lot to take in for you too, right?" Simmons said, clearly excited and intrigued by the very idea of alternate universes.
"Not everyone can be as nerdy as you, Simmons," Grif remarked.
"Actually, it was unbelievable when we found out. We've just never actually been to another universe before."
"So wait, if this wasn't when you guys found out, what was?" Donut asked.
"Friends of ours dropped in on Remnant from their world," Yang answered. "Believe it or not, they were a bunch of superheroes."
"You're kidding," Grif said, glancing over to face Yang.
"Eye's on the road, numb-nuts," Sarge ordered, making Grif snap his vision back forward.
"Yeah, we didn't believe that at first either. But it was real," Yang said. "Some bad guys came with 'em, and we helped them take them all down."
"Not at the cost of nothing, though," Weiss clarified, somewhat sadly. Yang glanced at her teammate with a concerned look.
"What do you mean?" Sarge questioned.
"Over a month ago now, that conflict escalated into an invasion of Grimm and terrorists into our kingdom. In the end, we won the battle, but a lot of people still got hurt, or worse. Citizens, soldiers, even huntsmen and huntresses like us." Weiss replied. "The kingdom as a whole still hasn't recovered. Not to mention our school is still bordered off from everyone, even us. Our world was in an era of peace that just ended. Sure, this multiverse stuff is fantastical and all, but if a small group of ne'er-do-wells was able to achieve such chaos, what else is out there that can do far worse?"
Yang started to become concerned for her teammate. "Weiss…"
"That was, uh… intense," Sarge said. "But it can't be all bad. You had your little buddies with ya, plus you found us. I'd say you've hit lucky numbers so far."
"I suppose so," Weiss said, becoming a little less dreary about it. She also began to rub the gems of her necklace again, something Yang took note of. She would need to talk to Weiss alone the first chance they got.
"Hey, looks like we're coming up on the distress signal. Let's find somewhere to park," Simmons said, breaking the tension. Both vehicles drove into and through a tunnel of rock and dirt and, just as they came around the bend to an exit, came to a stop. Grif turned off the Warthog, and the others hopped out, while Yang did the same for her strange vehicle, it's hovering shutting down slowly, allowing the vehicle to set down on the ground easily. Yang made sure the bag of Dust was tied firmly to her back before reconvening with the others.
"I need to stretch my legs," Grif groaned, walking forward immediately and out of the tunnel. Simmons grabbed his rifle as well as a small scanner before leading the others forward out of the tunnel after Grif.
"Okay, the source of the distress signal is right outside this-Crap…" Simmons cut himself off, stopping next to Grif, who was already outside and stopped, staring out at the view before them from the outcrop they were upon. When the others caught up, they were treated to a view of a long, dirt-covered box canyon with two small outpost buildings at either end.
"NoooooOOooooOoooOooOOoOOoooooooooooOoOo!" Grif cried out in sorrow.
"I don't get it… what's going on?" Weiss questioned.
"Welp, welcome to hell. I'm walking back to suffer the robot army," Simmons said, immediately turning on his heel and walking back up the tunnel.
"Sarge, are we missing something here?" Yang asked.
"Girls… I can't even begin to explain it…" Sarge said hollowly.
"This sucks," Grif sighed.
Tucker, Church and Blake looked out at the courtyard full of destroyed robots, their parts and bodies scorched and dismantled all over the place, as if they'd been slaughtered all at once.
"Wow. She really did a lot of damage," Church remarked.
"Which we could've done if you let us fight," Blake commented.
"Heyh, I get you're supposed to be kick-ass warriors and all that, but I think I'd take hiding inside and not getting nuked off the face of the planet over the flashy ninja versus robot show, alright? I got enough shit on my plate as it is. Besides, it looks like Tex did all the work already, so chill out a bit." Blake frowned at Church, then her faunus ear twitched under her bow as she heard footsteps from behind.
"I'll tell you what, it's days like today I'm really glad she's on our side," Tucker said.
"Who's on our side?" Tex asked as she approached from the landing above them. Then she got a good view of the courtyard. "Woah! Who killed all the robots? Was it the emo girl?"
"We assumed you did," Blake replied, frowning a bit at the emo jab.
"I didn't do it," Tex shook her head. "I've been downstairs trying to figure out how to turn this sword on."
"Wait a second…" Church muttered to himself before hopping up to the other landing and running back inside the facility.
"Just push the power button," Tucker deadpanned to Tex.
"I did. That didn't' work," Tex replied.
"Yeah, that's surprising," Tucker replied, unconvinced. As Blake got annoyed by Tex and Tucker's bickering, she figured she'd go check on Ruby, Caboose and Andy.
Church arrived in the terminal room to hear Gary rapidly repeating the same message over and over. "The Great Destroyer has arrived. The end is near. The Great Destroyer has arrived, the end is near. The Great Destroyer has arrived. The end is near."
"Woah, come on! Gary Gary Gary, stop stop stop stop!" Church quickly said to shut him up. "Hey, if Tex is not the destroyer from the prophecy, then who is?"
Suddenly, Gary went completely silent, not even answering the prompted question. "Gary?"
"Knock knock."
Church immediately felt something was off, and hesitantly asked, "Who's there?" He then heard an animalistic growl and slowly turned to his right.
Wham!
