A/N: Greetings, all! I'm back, and like I said in the last chapter, this update comes to you on the rare Saturday! Granted, it was originally supposed to go up this afternoon, but I decided that an early morning upload couldn't hurt… especially when plans keep changing for me. In any case, apologies for the delay, but I had a lot going on this week and I knew I'd need more time to finish a chapter this long. But, moving on, it's finally time for our heroes to come face to face with their longtime enemies, so let's not waste anymore time and jump right in! This is…
Chapter 17: Confronting the Enemy
…..
"So says… the Ministry of Darkness."
The team could only stare in horror as Cinder Fall made her proclamation, their stomachs all churning uncomfortably as the fire surrounding her and her team cast a foreboding shadow over them. There was only one question going through all of their heads; How? How could they all be in Bellwood? How could they be on Earth for that matter? It made absolutely no sense to any of the teens there, and Sun was quick to vocalize all of their thoughts.
"Dudes… what the hell is going on here?" the monkey boy muttered.
Ben shook his head, still coming to grasp with the whole situation. "I… I-I don't know, Sun. This seriously makes NO sense! WE were the only ones who were supposed to be able to jump between dimensions, not them!"
"HA! Well, seems like YOU were wrong, Tennyson." Ben's scowl deepened as his head snapped toward Harangue, who was wearing one of the biggest shit-eating grins he had ever seen. "Then again, you've been wrong about plenty of things in the past, so that's not surprising."
Before Ben could retaliate, Yang stomped her way toward the edge of the stage. "Yeah?! Well from what Ben's told us, you've been wrong TONS of times, too!"
Harangue straightened out his tie a bit. "Well, at least me being wrong never got anyone's life put in danger."
"Uh, the giant killer robot that you sent after me would like to say hello!" Ben jumped in.
"Er… okay, ONE time." Harangue conceded. "But still, that pales in comparison to this." The reporter set his gaze to the crowd and raised his arms. "People of Bellwood, that man just assured all of you that there was no way that this "Ministry of Darkness" could jump over to this dimension. If he was wrong about that, what's to say that these so-called "Grimm" wouldn't be able to make the jump too, eh?!" The audience merely glared at Harangue, who fired back; "Come now, you KNOW I have a point!"
The crowd was silent for a few moments before one reporter woman spoke up. "Ben…" the hero's eyes trailed over to her as she continued. "You said that there wasn't any way these villains could come to this dimension without use of a portal. If that's so, then… why are they here?"
Ben's brows furrowed, his fists clenching in both frustration and anger. Between Harangue and the Ministry, things had NOT been going as he had anticipated today. "I don't know, ma'am… but I'll be damned if I'm not going to get to the bottom of this."
"Uh, hello?!" The team all turned their attention up to the big screen, where Rojo was knocking her hand against the camera lens. She placed her hands on her hips and called out; "If ya didn't hear us call you assholes out, we're STILL WAITING here! Ya gonna leave us hanging or are we gonna do this?"
"Ugh, we're COMING!" Ben said with an eyeroll before making his way toward the end of stage, beckoning his team to come follow him. "C'mon guys, we've got a job to do." He faced the mayor and pointed to her. "Mayor Strong, make sure that these people are evacuated to a safe distance!"
Mayor Strong nodded back to him and reached for her walkie talkie, ready to call up her security. "Already on it, Ben. Good luck."
With that, the newly named Omni-Hunters all filed off the stage, grouping up in their respective teams and proceeding toward Ben and Kevin's cars. But, before they all left, Yang made a sudden detour over to Harangue, who raised a brow as she approached. "Young lady, don't you have somewhere important to—" CRACK! "GYAAAAH!"
With a swift kick, Yang struck Harangue right in the shin, forcing him to clutch it and fall to his side in pain. Yang spun around on her heel and stormed off, calling back to him; "And THAT is for being the biggest dick on Earth!"
Ben stood with his mouth agape until Yang came over and closed it for him, leading the hero to smile at her. "Have I expressed just how much I love you?"
"Several times." Yang gave Ben a kiss on the cheek. "But we can talk about that later. Right now, we've got a job to do."
"THAT'S ASSAULT!" Harangue hollered. "I can sue you!"
"Good luck! My friend's a good lawyer!"
"She's right, you know!" Rex piped up as he activated his ride, with Weiss hopping on as well. "I can dismiss your case in a heartbeat, cabrón!"
Yang, Ruby, Blake and Ilia all piled into Ben's car while Sun, Neptune and Penny went into Kevin's car, with Team JNPR following Max to the Rustbucket. Before the boys and Gwen went to their respective vehicles, however, they had a small meeting with one another. "So, what do you think we're dealing with here?" Ben asked. "Think Cinder's group could've secretly hitched a ride here on Tetrax's ship?"
Kevin shook his head. "There's no way those guys could've bummed a ride with us. Tetrax's security systems would've caught 'em."
"And I would've been able to sense their life force." Gwen added. "Something else is up here, and we're going to have to get to the bottom of it." Her lips curled down into a frown. "Unfortunately, I think that means we'll have to ask THEM personally."
"Gah, you're right." Ben grumbled. "Man, how is it that the past three days have been just nonstop with all the crap going on?" A sigh escaped his lips and he continued to his car. "Alright, guess it's Hero Time once again." With that, Ben, Gwen Kevin got in their cars and they drove off, with Rex, Weiss and the Rustbucket right on their tails
…..
Maniacal laughter and cries of sheer panic and fear echoed through Bellwood not too far away, the fire along the streets growing and spreading more and more as the chaos ensued. Cinder and Rojo both kept attacking the city around them, either burning the buildings or outright blasting holes clean through them respectively. All the while, Emerald and Mercury kept firing at the citizens with their respective weapons. They weren't actually killing anybody—no, that would have to be saved for later later—but they were making sure that they were so frightened that the fear would embed itself into their minds and make them remember this event, and thus make them remember the villains themselves.
Neo, meanwhile, was sitting with her legs crossed on the back of poor Willis O'Grady, making sure that he didn't go anywhere. The man was not in any good shape, either, with blood dripping from his lips as his jaw was clenched shut. It took all that he could to hold back the sobs as he wept, his cameraman helpless to do anything as he was held back by the blade that Neo was pointing at him.
"AHAHAHA! RUN! Run cowards!" Rojo shouted as she shot Bloodstrike again, blasting a huge swath through a tall office building while sending glass everywhere, which melted instantly from the heat that Cinder was generating. "Ah man, I've MISSED this!"
"As have I…" Cinder concurred before stomping her foot and sending another line of fire down the street, forcing one group of people to separate. "It's a shame that there's no Grimm here. If they were, I think this would've been a bloodbath by now."
Mercury was quick to shrug that off. "Ah, who cares?! I just like making all these dumb people run for their pathetic lives!" He strode over to O'Grady and grabbed him by his hair, pulling on it hard. The man had to resist a cry of pain to keep his jaw clenched, all while Mercury lowered his face to his. "Yo, old man! Check it out! Your home town's burning to ashes! How does that make you feel?" O'Grady gave Mercury a tearful glare, a growl escaping his throat. "Huh? What's that? You can't say anything because I broke your jaw? WONDERFUL!" With that, Mercury slammed O'Grady's head into the pavement, forcing out a muffled cry from the man as he let out a laugh. "HAHA! MAN, I love being a bad guy."
Emerald was slightly taken aback by the action, though she did admit that part of her found it a little amusing. 'Man, Mercury's been wanting to let off some steam, I guess.' Just then, at the sound of approaching engines, the green-haired thief perked her head up to see two cars and a certain RV come barreling down the street, pulling to a stop several yards away. "Oh boy. Guys! Our company has arrived!"
"Excellent." Cinder smirked, the group of villains forming up around O'Grady as the cameraman stumbled away, crying all the while. "I've been waiting for this…" She instantly recognizes Levin's car and the Rustbucket, but the sight of the sleek black and green sports car took her by surprise… that is until Ben himself came out of the front. "Hmph, of course HE gets a fancy car."
"Damn, that is a fine set of wheels." Mercury commented as he cracked his knuckles. "I can't wait to wreck it!" He nudged his head toward Ben as Yang and the others girls all emerged from the car as well. "Hey, Tennyson! How many RPMs does that baby run?" He got no response other than a glare from the hero. "Okay, how about miles to the gallon? I wanna know while I'm doing donuts around your corpse!"
Once again, Ben said nothing, his team all emerging from their respective vehicles before turning toward his grandfather. "Grandpa Max, I suggest you get away and go get reinforcements from Plumber HQ. This probably isn't gonna be pretty." Max gave him a nod before backing up and going back down the street as fast as he could, leaving the team to themselves.
Jaune walked up to Ben as he drew his sword and shield, with the others pulling out their own weapons as well. "So Ben, how do you want us to go about this?"
"Give it just a second, Jaune." Ben encouraged before eyeing the villains… along with O'Grady. "Remember, they've got a hostage with them, so we gotta be smart about this. But first…" Ben reached for the Omnitrix and searched for one of his most reliable aliens, finding the icon before pressing down on it. In a flash of light, Ben was transformed into… "HEATBLAST!"
The Pyronite scowled over to the villains and approached them, only to stop when Neo put her blade down close to O'Grady's neck. Rojo wagged her finger and scolded; "Ah-ah-ah! Not sure if you've noticed, Tennyson, but you're not exactly in a good position here…" As Rojo went on, Heatblast gave a nod over to Gwen, who's eyes began to glow pinkish purple. "So, before ya get all "Hero Time" on us, allow us to make our demands—"
FLASH! All of a sudden, a bright pink light shined in the villain's eyes, causing them to recoil in surprise. "Gah, what was—huh?!" Emerald stood aghast as O'Grady was suddenly nowhere to be see, with Neo now sitting on the ground instead. "W-Where'd the old man go?"
"And the camera boy's gone, too!" Mercury snarled. "What gives?!"
"I sent them both to the nearest hospital." Gwen snapped as her eyes went back to normal. She crossed her arms and sent a glare at the quintet. "Mr. O'Grady's going to need it after what YOU did to him."
"Exactly." Heatblast concurred. "And now that he's outta the way…" The Pyronite lifted his hands up and, in an instant, the walls of fire began to gravitate toward him. The high flames were being sucked right into the alien's hands, forcing the villains to duck and cover while streams of fire rushed by their heads. However, Cinder reached out and caused one of the fire streams to be changed into obsidian, taking Heatblast off guard. "Whoa!"
The huge spear of black glass was about to hit Heatblast when Weiss created a huge wall of ice in front of him, causing the obsidian to shatter and embed itself into the wall. "Hmph, what a dirty move. Wouldn't expect anything less from them."
"You okay, Green Boy?" Yang asked in concern.
"I'm good, just didn't expect that." Heatblast assured. "Been a little bit since I had to DEAL with Cinder's tricks." The Pyronite leapt up onto the ice wall and scowled down to the laughing villains, meeting Cinder's eyes as she smirked back at him. "Okay, I'm gonna keep this question short, sweet and to the point… HOW?!"
"We LEFT you all back in Remnant!" Pyrrha proclaimed as she and the others stepped around the ice wall, the Invincible Girl keeping her focus directly on Cinder. "There is absolutely no way you could have gotten here!"
Cinder shifted her eyes down to Pyrrha with a condescending smile. "Oh Pyrrha, dear, always a pleasure to see Ozpin's… "chosen" Fall Maiden." Pyrrha immediately became red in the face, a growl escaping her throat. "Ah, did I strike a nerve?"
Pyrrha went to stomp right up to Cinder with her weapon drawn, but Penny held her back. "Wait, Pyrrha, we both know just what Cinder is capable of!"
The redheaded warrior shrugged Penny off. "I know…" She transformed Milo into its javelin form and reared it back. "And I am NOT frightened of her!" With a mighty throw and a shot from its handle, Pyrrha launched her spear directly at Cinder's head, only for the Fall Maiden to deflect it with a created shield just in time.
"Hmph, is that all you—GAH!" Cinder was taken aback by the sight of a fist headed straight for her, which she dodged at the last second. To her surprise, Pyrrha had sprinted right up to them and began a very fast paced assault, delivering a strong boot to Cinder's side and making her stagger back.
Heatblast couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Pyrrha! Wait, I didn't—" Much to his surprise, though, Pyrrha began to fend off pretty much every single one of the Ministry members, using her weapons to her advantage. She stopped a kick from Mercury and used her Semblance to send him flying back, before then using Milo's handle to block a strike from Emerald's sickles and sweeping her legs out from under her. Rojo had went to hit her with Bloodstrike, but Pyrrha avoided it, jumping up and over her head only to be met with Neo. The silent villainess went to stab Pyrrha with Hush, only for her to shift Milo into xiphos mode and parry the strike, bashing the girl back with her shield soon after. "…You know what, never mind, it looks like you got it." Heatblast concluded.
At that moment, Cinder summoned two blades and rushed forward, slamming into Pyrrha at full force. The Invincible Girl had brought up her weapon in time to block the strike, but it still pushed her back several feet. "Doesn't mean she doesn't need help!" Jaune added as he pointed toward the action. "C'mon guys, let's get in there!"
"On it, fearless leader!" Nora shouted as she and Ren followed him in.
Rojo let out a breath as she shifted Bloodstrike into its gun mode. "Woah! She's fast!" Rojo took aim with Bloodstrike, and once she was sure her aim was locked on to Pyrrha, she took the shot… only for her gun to be smacked upward, the blast shooting harmlessly into the sky. "Hey! What the—" CLANG! "OOF!"
Rojo was knocked away, though she landed in a crouch successfully. She glared up at her attacker and saw Nora standing there, holding Magnhild up high. "And THAT is what you get for messing with my friend!"
Not too far away, the rest of Team JNPR had engaged with the other villains as well, with Ren rushing up to Emerald with Stormflower drawn. The two clashed their blades together multiple times before getting up close and personal as they struggled against one another. "Care to explain just how you got to this world?" Ren asked.
"Well, we were ABOUT to dive into that subject." Emerald grunted as she sought to be the dominant one in this struggle. "But… your "Invincible" team mate decided to let her anger get the best of her—GYAH!"
Without warning, Ren jumped back and allowed Emerald to stumble forward, allowing him to take aim with Stormflower. "Considering what she did to Amber, she has every right to be that angry." The green ninja unleashed a barrage of Dust rounds onto Emerald, forcing the thief to dive off to the side and take cover behind a wrecked car.
"Oh, please." Emerald rolled her eyes. "After what Cinder did to her in the first place, she probably wouldn't have survived anyway!" She changed her Thief's Respite into their gun modes and began to fire back at Ren, who masterfully avoided the blasts.
Meanwhile, Jaune and Mercury were in a battle of both strength and wits as they clashed, the assassin bashing his boot into Jaune's shield. "Gotta say, your little girlfriend hasn't missed a beat, Jauney boy!"
"I should know!" Jaune pushed back and swung his sword, only for Mercury to dodge out of the way. "I train with her pretty much exclusively."
"Heh, bet that's your idea of a date. You guys are SO boring." Mercury let off multiple shots from his boots, which Jaune either rolled away from or blocked with his shield.
The blonde knight peeked out from behind his shield. "H-Hey! We do NOT just train together. We do things outside of training, too, ya know." Jaune pressed a button on his shield and its tip opened up, revealing the hidden barrel inside it. He fired a blast of Fire Dust at Mercury, which he avoided with a big leap.
"Yeah?" Mercury shot off more rounds from his boots, which Jaune continued to either get out of the way from or block. "Name one."
"Oh, ya know, we do video games, hang out, tell stories, make out…"
"Okay, props for that. But have you actually HAD a real date?" Mercury's question made Jaune's eyes widen in realization, giving him a slight pause. "Heh, thought not. Ah well, won't matter anyway since you're about to get run through."
Jaune blinked and uttered; "H-Huh?!" He spun around and brought his shield up just in time to avoid getting pierced by Neo's sword, the pink and brown-haired girl smirking at her surprise attack. "Gah, jeez, romance later, Jaune! Focus!" He bashed Neo away with his shield before rolling out of the way, successfully predicting Mercury's next kick. "I don't have time for your mind games, Mercury!"
Mercury raised his fists in anticipation. "Huh, funny, because I got all day—HUH?!" Just then, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped themselves around Mercury's arms, putting him into a headlock. And the moment he saw the yellow gauntlets, he knew who they belonged to. "Oh, you bitch—"
"Ophiuchus Suplex!" Yang lurched backwards, bridging her back as far as it could go as she slammed Mercury head first into the pavement, making him shout painfully and tumble away.
"Hah, thanks for the assist, Yang—GAH!" Jaune was interrupted and barely got his shield up in time to block another of Neo's thrusts, before then using Crocea Mors to knock her blade away.
Neo then took notice of Yang, giving her a condescending wave. "Oh, you and I have unfinished business, missy!" Yang said as she unloaded two Fire Dust rounds from her gauntlets, only for Neo to shatter upon their impact. "Ugh, not that stupid trick again!" The Blonde Brawler suddenly heard quick footsteps approaching from behind, to which she raised her gauntlets in time to block another swipe from Neo's sword.
The duo's fight began to escalate from there, with punches, kicks, strikes and dodges being used left and right. Whenever Yang managed to get a hit in, though, Neo would often use her Semblance to get away, leading her to reappear at a different angle. A snarl came to Yang's lips as she punched the ground with all her might, causing a huge wave of earthen stone to barrel toward Neo. However, Neo gracefully jumped high into the air and opened up her umbrella, allowing her to float gently down onto the large mound of stone and rock with ease.
"Grah! Are you kidding me?!" Yang sprinted up the stone structure and went to hit Neo again, only for the heterochromatic girl to leap over her and fall gracefully to the ground… or at least she WOULD have if she hadn't been blindsided by a blizzard of petals.
Neo went tumbling along the street, but came up in a crouch, her confident smile replaced with a rage-filled snarl at the girl before her. Ruby emerged from the petals and hefted Crescent Rose up, narrowing her eyes back at Neo. "I will thank you to stop messing with my sister." Without hesitation, Neo leapt at Ruby and began swinging Hush at her, which the Hooded Huntress avoided before swinging Crescent Rose. The two blades collided and the girls were standing eye to eye. "Listen, I know that you and Torchwick were close, but I'm not the reason why he was eaten!"
Neo's eyes seemed to flare up at that and she leapt back, causing Crescent Rose to come all the way down and have its tip slam into the ground. Neo then came running back up and slid right under the massive scythe, delivering a swift kick to Ruby's shin. "GYAH!" Ruby's leg buckled and then Neo kneed her in the face, making Ruby stumble back and let go of her scythe. But, in an unexpected move, Neo discarded her umbrella and began to just wail on Ruby with her fists, taking her aback. "Agh! Oof! Stop!" Ruby raised her arms to stop the hits from coming and went to punch Neo herself, only for the smaller girl to grab a hold of her arm and swing her over her shoulder, slamming her into the pavement.
Pyrrha was quick to take notice of the onslaught and called out; "Ruby! Hold on!" She attempted to disengage with Cinder, only for the Fall Maiden to come back around and strike her with her sword. Pyrrha was able to raise her shield in time, but it was evident that Cinder wouldn't let her leave.
"Ah-ah-ah! Your fight is with ME, remember?" Cinder teased. "Besides, Neo's been wanting to get her little hands on Ruby for a LONG time."
"Making short jokes at your own team's expense?" Pyrrha quipped as she continued her fight with Cinder, their blades clashing several times. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Cinder. You must think you're so high and mighty simply because you killed a girl in cold blood to get her powers."
"Oh no, that's not the reason why." Cinder clarified before creating a blazing hot spear, jabbing it right at Pyrrha's head. The Invincible Girl tuck and rolled out of the way, only for Cinder to throw the spear at her. Once again, Pyrrha dodged… but only barely, the spear having grazed her upper arm where some skin was left exposed. Pyrrha hissed and clutched her arm, glaring up at Cinder as she approached. "Though that WAS a good confidence booster. No, I'm simply reveling in the fact that we now get to cause as much chaos on this planet as we please…" She created another spear as Pyrrha raised her shield, though the redhead had a feeling that wouldn't help her much. "And there's nothing that you can do to stop—AAAH!"
Pyrrha's eyebrows snapped up in shock, seeing Cinder floating high in the air in front of her, a pink mana tether surrounding her. The warrior turned her head to see none other than Gwen come strolling up next to her, with Blake right by her side. Blake helped her up to her feet, inspecting the burn all the while. "You alright, Pyrrha?"
"I will be, thank you." Pyrrha smiled as she saw the rest of the team begin to engage the villains. Sun and Neptune went over to Ruby to help fend off Neo while Kevin absorbed Lightning Dust to help Nora with Rojo. Ilia and Weiss were giving Ren a hand with Emerald while Rex was giving Jaune a hand with Mercury, much to her relief. She glanced to the Anodite next to her and gave her a nod. "Hah, thanks, Gwen."
"No problem." Gwen returned. "…Though I have to admit, I never took YOU as someone to instigate a fight."
"Oh, and why would that be?" Cinder taunted, the three girls craning their heads up to the Fall Maiden. "Ah, yes, because of her little vendetta against me. Which reminds me…" Her eyes began to flare up once again and a huge burst of energy exploded from out of her body, forcing the three girls away as she broke free from Gwen's bindings. She grit her teeth and glared down at the Anodite who had trapped her. "We have unfinished business, Gwen."
Gwen rolled her eyes at that. "Of course, we do." In a flash of light, Gwen transformed into her Anodite form, facing Pyrrha and Blake with a nod. "You two go help the others. I'll take her from here."Pyrrha seemed hesitant, though she knew it was what needed to be done. She and Blake both turned and went toward the fight, leaving the two powerful girls to themselves.
Cinder scoffed as Gwen floated up to her level. "Hmph, making it even MORE unfair for my team?" The energy surrounding her began to intensify, with a large, burning sword forming in her hands. "I can tell you right now that you besting us in the numbers game is NOT appreciated.
"Does it look like I care?" Gwen asked as she created a blade of solid mana. "You guys made a big mistake coming here, and I'm going to make sure that you regret coming to our world!" The two combatants flew right toward one another and their blades crashed together, causing a huge wave of energy to pulse out across the whole city, shattering windows and setting off all of the alarms of every car nearby.
Cinder merely smirked at the threat. "Hmph, bring it on, then."
…..
As the two powerful girls dueled overhead, the team had successfully managed to take advantage of their higher numbers, their groups cornering the individual villains successfully until they had them all surrounding in one large circle. Rojo, Neo, Mercury and Emerald stood back-to-back as they kept their weapons trained on the heroes, though they knew the moment they shot someone, one of the heroes would quickly retaliate.
"Ha! Seems like you guys have nowhere to run now!" Sun proclaimed, keeping Ruyi and Jinju Bang trained right onto them.
"One false move and you guys are fried." Neptune warned.
"Oh please." Rojo rolled her eyes, shouldering Bloodstrike in the process. "We can get outta this situation anytime we want." She set her gaze onto Heatblast and pursed her lips. "We just don't wanna." Rojo glanced over to her compatriots with a grin. "After all, I think you guys at least deserve an explanation for why we got here, right?"
Heatblast saw Mercury, Emerald and Neo all grin knowingly at one another, to which he raised a blazing hand. "You've got sixty seconds. Now put down your weapons and explain!"
"Gladly." Rojo put Bloodstrike down and raised her hands, with Emerald and Neo following suit with their weapons. "Now, I'm sure you remember our little going away gift…"
"You mean your last attack on Vale?" Weiss' lips curled in disgust. "Of course, how can we forget?"
Emerald gave a shrug. "Well, as you can imagine, we weren't exactly in the best of spots after that. Our forces were down, two of our biggest assets were destroyed…" She eyed Ruby with a nervous expression. "And little miss hoodie's eyes exploded and took our Tyrian. So yeah, wasn't exactly a good time."
Ruby blinked as she recalled the incident with her Silver Eyes activating. "Oh yeah, that DID happen… by the way, he's not dead, is he?"
"Tyrian? Nah." Mercury denied. "He's alive… kinda."
Rojo deadpanned at that. "Ya put him into a coma with your eyebeams, Little Red. Might wanna find a way to make sure ya don't take someone's head off with those." She waved the topic off before going back to Ben. "Anyways, yeah, not good. But, right when things seemed to be at their worst… a new asset presented itself to the Boss Lady." She smirked knowingly at what she said next. "Turns out one of your old enemies paid us a visit that night, Tennyson."
Heatblast's eyes widened. "Wait, what?! I thought we got all of the escaped prisoners! Well… the ones that weren't YOU guys, anyway."
"Oh no, ya did." Rojo assured. "No, THIS guy crossed a couple dimensions to come to US. And he's pretty keen on takin' you down after you pretty much stopped him from ever entering this world again." She took a moment to pause before adding; "Tell me, Tennyson… does the name "Eon" ring any bells?"
Heatblast and Kevin both froze at that, with the others all sending confused gazes toward the two. "…No, no way is that possible!" Heatblast argued.
"We saw him explode when the Hands were destroyed!" Kevin added. "How the hell is he back?!"
"Heh, well that's not exactly what happened." Rojo wagged her finger as she explained. "Turns out, he was just flung out of our universe and barred from entering it again. And guess what? He offered to help us with our little problem by sending US here to continue our little vendetta against you twerps."
Yang craned her head to her boyfriend, hoping for an explanation. "Ben, I don't get it. What is she talking about?"
"And who's this "Eon" person?" Blake furthered. "He sounds pretty important."
Heatblast let out a sigh and explained as best as he could. "Long story short… Eon's kind of an evil future of me from an alternate timeline." This caused the whole team to stare at Heatblast in shock. "Yeah, and the reason I say "kind of" is because he's also an interdimensional alien called a "Chronian". He used his own DNA to infect the Omnitrix of that timeline's Ben Tennyson and then forced him to transform, meaning that he managed to possess a new body for himself. His goal was to get an ancient alien artifact known as "The Hands of Armeggedon", which would've brought his species through an interdimensional wormhole to take over planet Earth." From the incredulous stares that he was getting, he could tell that the team weren't exactly on the same page as him. "…Not getting it?"
"I kinda checked out after "possessed the Omnitrix of that timeline's Ben Tennyson"." Ilia stated.
"Yeah, this is why I don't mess with alternate timelines." Heatblast concurred. "Main point is; he's an evil time and space jumping version of me and he wants to kill me." He narrowed his eyes at the villains. "And it seems he's allied with Salem to do it."
Rojo pointed at him. "Right you are, Tennyson, and lemme tell ya… he shared some pretty interesting info with us when he first arrived." Neo gave a cheeky smile and nodded, all while giving a knowing wink to Emerald.
Heatblast's eyeridges furrowed. "I don't like that wink you gave her, Neo. What're you guys talking about?"
Emerald's eyes closed while her iris' flashed green for a split second, a chuckle escaping her lips as she opened them again. "Oh, nothing much… but you MUST be wondering what we've been doing for the past three days, right?"
"I would just assume you guys were trying to find someplace to hide out or something." Weiss figured.
"And perhaps make money for food and other commodities." Penny added. "I mean, at least we had shelter and income, you all must have come here with nothing."
The four villains lowered their heads in shame briefly, all of them hurt slightly from the two girls' words. "Well… you're half right." Rojo waved off. "But what we were MAINLY working on was helping Doc Animo out… with Operation P."
"…Operation P?" Jaune echoed. "Okay, you guys gotta come up with better plan names."
Nora snickered a bit and covered her mouth with her hand. "Hehe, it sounds like you made a plan on how to go to the bathroom! Hahaha!"
Once again, the villains grumbled before Mercury stomped his foot. "Would you take this seriously?! Operation P is probably one of the most ingenious plans we've had… and we owe it all to Eon for sharing his secrets on Ben Tennyson with us!"
"Oh please." Ilia rolled her eyes. "Whatever this "Operation P" is, I'm sure we can—"
"Wait!" Heatblast raised his hand and his head snapped up, focusing down the street. "Did you guys hear that?"
Rex raised a brow to his friend. "Uh, no? Ben, what're you—"
"Shshsh… listen…" The team all began to concentrate down the street, keeping their ears open for whatever Ben was hearing. However, they couldn't hear anything.
"Ben, I don't know what you're hearing." Blake piped up. "But even I can't hear it, so—"
"W-Wait! There!" Heatblast pointed to a nearby corner… and again, there was nothing there. But from the ever-increasing fear on his face, it was evident that he was seeing something. "N-No! No, i-it can't be!" Heatblast took a step back and, in a flash of light, transformed back into Ben, allowing everyone to see just how frightened the hero was. "It CAN'T be!"
Yang went to try and calm her boyfriend down, but to no avail. "B-Ben, don't worry, I'm here! Just tell me what's—"
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
…..
Gwen stopped her fight with Cinder briefly the moment she heard her cousin scream in panic. …That was something he never normally did, so it was a just cause for concern. She snapped her head down and saw Ben screaming his lungs out and making a mad sprint down the street, much to everyone's bafflement. The only ones who seemed not to be confused were the villains, who were just grinning at the sight. "W-What the—GAH!"
The Anodite was caught off-guard when a lightning bolt struck her in the chest, causing her to fly back a few feet. It didn't hurt as much as it would've in her human form, but it still wasn't too pleasant. Cinder floated over and set her eyes upon the ground, her own nefarious smile forming. "Ah, I see Emerald has put Operation P into motion."
Gwen sneered at the villainess and pointed her mana blade at her. "What's Operation P? What's going on here, Cinder?"
"Hm, well, if you must know, the whole reason we're here is because an old time-traveling enemy of yours decided to pay us a visit." Cinder explained. "I believe his name was… Eon." She saw Gwen's jaw drop and her eyes widen, making her chuckle further. "Hmhm, yes, you must be surprised by his involvement. But, all the same, being an alternate version of Tennyson himself, Eon was VERY generous with this new partnership, even told us a few things that only Ben knows…" Her smirk increased sinisterly as her hands lit aflame. "Including our brave hero's one true fear…"
If Gwen could become pale at the moment, she would have. She saw Emerald keeping her sights on Ben… and she quickly put two and two together. "No… Operation P…"
"That's right!" Cinder rushed forward and slammed into Gwen with her blade, forcing the Anodite to block as the Fall Maiden got nose-to-nose with her. "The "P" stands for "PEACOCK"! AHAHAHA!"
…..
Ben couldn't believe what was chasing him. He'd always thought that Animo had made some sick and twisted creations in the past, but THIS? This took the biggest piece of the "Unholy Sin Against Nature" cake. He was being chased down… by a peacock that was the size of a T-Rex, complete with the legs AND arms of a theropod, claws and all. Hell, it even had HUGE teeth inside of its beak, and it roared with the ferocity of something that had just found its next meal. Unfortunately, that mean was HIM!
"Shit, shit, SHIT!" Ben screamed as he sprinted as fast as he could, not daring to look back as the peacock roared at him once again. "ANIMO! Where ever you are, I am going to PUMMEL you the next time we meet, I SWEAR to God! AAAAAAGH!"
Meanwhile, back up the street, the rest of the team stared on, completely perplexed as to what was going on. "Uh… I'm not blind, am I?" Rex questioned as he crossed his arms. "Or has Ben just gone completely nuts? Because I can't see anything right now."
"I-I'm not sure what's going on here, Rex." Ruby admitted. "One minute, Ben's completely fine, the next he's acting like he's out of his mind—" The Hooded Huntress cut herself as she replayed the words in her head 'Out of his mind! Hold on a second!' She spun herself around and furrowed her brow at Emerald, who had on a proud and cocky smile, just as the other villains had. "It's YOU! You're making Ben freak out like this!"
There was no response from the villains, however, leading Kevin to step up to them. "Rojo! What the hell's going on here?!" Again, no response, leading Kevin to get angrier. "ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!" He rushed up and went to grab Rojo by the face, who didn't even flinch at the action… and they all soon found out why. The moment Kevin grabbed her, Rojo shattered like glass, along with Mercury, Emerald and Neo all at once. The team's jaws all went slack as Kevin roared in anger. "GRAH! Those BITCHES!"
"And Mercury." Nora noted.
"He's a bitch too!" Kevin waved off. "Either way, they all high-tailed it while we were distracted!"
Yang shook her head and sighed. "We'll have to deal with THEM later. Right now, we need to break Ben out of… whatever the heck Emerald's got on him."
"Okay, but how do we do that?" Sun questioned. "We don't even know what he's so scared of."
"That's an easy one!" The team snapped their heads up to see Gwen come flying down toward them, with Cinder not too far behind. The Anodite stopped just above them and flipped herself around to parry Cinder's following strike, dodging a close-range fireball in the process. "Gah… guys, Cinder and her team are here because of—"
"Because of Eon, yeah, we got that part." Blake affirmed. "But do you know what's got Ben so scared, Gwen?"
The young mage pursed her lips in frustration, seeing Cinder's malicious smile widen. "Go ahead! Tell them! Reveal the Great Ben Tennyson's one true fear!"
A sigh escaped Gwen's throat, closing her eyes in defeat. "Emerald knows Ben's greatest fear because of Eon, and she's using that against him." She lowered her head with a sullen expression. "And that fear… is peacocks. Ben is afraid… of peacocks."
The Omni-Hunters expressions could only be described as utterly dumbfounded, the team completely floored by what they just heard. Suddenly, however, uproarious laughter began to ring out through the streets again, causing everyone to set their sights over to Rojo, Emerald, Neo and Mercury on top of a nearby building. All of them, aside from Emerald who was still concentrating, were in stitches at the undisputed fact. "BAHAHA! After ALL these years, who woulda thought I'd just have to throw a stupid BIRD at Tennyson to beat him?!" Rojo hollered.
"Granted, the one I'm making him see is a LOT bigger than your standard peacock." Emerald added. "But it's still getting the job done."
The team once again were left stunned by the revelation, leading Neptune to say; "Wow… and I thought MY worst fear was kinda dumb."
"It IS." Weiss asserted, leading Neptune to lower his head shamefully. "But this… this ranks up pretty high."
Ilia pinched the bridge of her nose, screwing her eyes shut. "So you mean to tell me that the Wielder of the Omnitrix, the Savior of the Universe, the greatest hero on planet Earth… is scared… of a TROPICAL BIRD?!"
"…It's a long and very ugly story." Gwen admitted.
"And I wanna hear it." Yang said as her concentration went directly to her frantically running boyfriend. "Just as soon as I deal with this problem." With a pump of her arms, Yang propelled herself forward and shot herself down the street, catching up with Ben in no time. When she saw her boyfriend's terrified expression… she felt sympathy, but she also couldn't believe what was the cause of him being so frightened. 'Green Boy, I'm going to help you get over this… one way or the other.' Yang tackled Ben to the ground, making him scream in shock before she pinned him beneath her. "BEN! Get a HOLD of yourself!"
Ben took in several deep breaths, his anxiety acting up. "Y-Yang! You've gotta get outta here! It's right behind—" SMACK! "YOWCH!" Without hesitation, Yang smacked Ben upside the head, his eyes rolling a bit before they came back into focus. And when they did… the giant Peacock-osaurus Rex was gone. "W-What the… where did…"
"It was never there, Ben." Yang assured as she gently stroked the cheek that she smacked. "It was just one of Emerald's hallucinations. It wouldn't have been able to hurt you in the first place."
The hero blinked a couple times, letting the realization sink in as he realized what he had just gone through. "Oh… I must've looked pretty ridiculous, didn't I?"
"Well… I won't dignify that with an answer." Yang brushed off. "Emerald and Cinder both said that they were scaring you with what you feared most. And… after Gwen told us what it was…"
"…Oh god." Ben's face grew pale and he covered his eyes in shame. "You… you guys were never supposed to—"
"Ben, we'll talk about it later." Yang stood up and helped the embarrassed hero to his feet. "Right now, we've got bigger problems to worry about." She nudged her head up to the nearby building, where Rojo and the others were still laughing up a storm while Gwen and Cinder were still duking it out in the air. To make matters worse, the four were all pointing at him as they guffawed in amusement, which made the hero both even MORE embarrassed… and mad as hell.
"…How did they even find out about it in the first place?" Ben asked, his face red with rage.
Yang was reluctant to answer, but she figured that a mad Ben was better than an embarrassed Ben at the moment. "That Eon guy did. Makes sense since he's technically you."
The hero reached for the Omnitrix and dialed in an alien. "Good, now I'll know who to THROTTLE the next time I see him. But for now…" Ben pressed down on the Omnitrix the moment he saw which transformation he wanted, and without even calling out his name, Feedback stood before Yang with a determined expression. "I've got a job to do."
With that, Feedback began a mad sprint back up the street, running straight to the building that Rojo and her crew were on. The Conductoid went right for the catwalk in a nearby alley way and began swinging up via his tail and head tendrils, with everyone else surprised at how quickly he had gone for it.
"Uh… I think Ben just went into "serious mode"." Nora commented.
"Can't blame him after what just happened." Rex said before activating his Boogie Pack. "C'mon, let's give him a hand!" With that, the EVO, along with Weiss, and Ruby all began to make their way up the building themselves, with Weiss and Ruby used their respective Semblances to do so. Blake had also gone to the catwalk as well, with Yang catching up to her right as she did.
Still, Feedback made it to the top first, where Rojo, Emerald, Mercury and Neo were all waiting for him with rather cocky smiles. "You guys are SO going to pay for that! That info you have on me is personal and private!"
Mercury shook his head with a chuckle. "Ah, c'mon Benji! It's all in good fun! Besides, not EVERYONE can have the STUPIDEST fear in the world! BAHAHAHA!"
"And to think a ton of people are scared of you." Emerald taunted while Neo silently giggled beside her, keeping her hand over her mouth. "While you're over here being scared of one of the prettiest birds in the goddamn world! I can only imagine what your reaction would've been if Animo HAD created a giant peacock! Haha!"
"Face it, Tennyson." Rojo pointed at Feedback before giving a thumbs down. "You've just lost a ton of street cred after this. And now that your confidence has taken a hit…" She took aim with Bloodstrike, the gun charging up. "It's time for you to take ANOTHER big fall." Rojo shot right at the Conductoid… who surprisingly didn't even attempt to move out of the way. Instead, his head tendrils came up and the plugs on it actually absorbed the laser, taking the group by surprise. "…Uh, what does this alien do again?"
"This." Feedback's finger plugs lit up as the energy from the laser was sent through his body and into his hands, allowing it to surge back out and shoot toward the group of villains.
"Hit the dirt!" Emerald shouted, which the others were quick to follow suit. …Unfortunately, the thief had leapt right into Yang's incoming fist, knocking her right back into the energy's path and shocking her severely. "GYAAAAH!"
Everyone watched as Emerald fell limply to the ground, leaving her comrades stunned. Yang simply cracked her knuckles and sneered down to her. "And THAT is for what you did to my Green Boy."
Mercury's fists clenched, as did his teeth at the sight of his partner falling to that blast. With a pump of his legs, he blasted himself right toward the Blonde Brawler. "YAAAAANG!" The assassin spun around in the air and went to deliver a strong rolling kick at Yang's head, which she actually managed to catch. But just as she did, Mercury kicked up and struck her in the side with his other foot, freeing him in the process. "You're gonna PAY for that!"
Just as the two fighters got into a brawl, the other heroes made it to the roof as well, with Rex plowing right into Rojo as soon as he made it. He sent both himself and her over the edge and down to the ground below, making sure that Rojo crashed right beneath him. He leapt back and exchanged his Boogie Pack for his Bad Axes, ready to do battle with the bounty hunter. "Ready for Round 2, Rojo?!"
Rojo smirked and converted Bloodstrike into its dual blades form, ready to engage the EVO. "Heh, thought you'd never ask, kid!"
Back on the roof, Ruby had slammed into Neo again, only for her to shatter once more and reappear directly next to her as she came to a stop. Neo then went for a strike with Hush, only for Ruby to jump back and pull out Crescent Rose, taking a swing of her own. However, Neo quickly hopped up and landed on the scythe's head, running up its handle to deliver a kick to Ruby's head. But, without missing a beat, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose's trigger and it let off a shot, which propelled her back several feet and made Neo lose her balance, making her tumble away before landing in a crouch.
Ruby twirled her scythe around and shifted it into sniper rifle mode, pointing it right at Neo. "So, back to this old song and dance, huh?" Neo smirked in response, pulling out the blade in her umbrella to combat the Hooded Huntress.
As that was happening, Emerald shook the daze out of her head and let out a groan, sitting up slowly in the process. But just as she was about to get her bearings, she felt a pair of blades suddenly crisscross over her throat, making her let out a gasp. Her eyes shot up to see both Blake and Weiss glaring down at her in contempt, which made her roll her eyes. "Oh, great, JUST what I wanna wake up to."
"After what you did to Ben?" Blake questioned. "Trust me, you could've woken up to FAR worse."
"Just imagine having to experience YOUR worst fear come to life." Weiss snapped as well. "Would you like being put through that kind of torture?"
Emerald shook her head and groaned. "Hey, at least MY worst fear is something rational. I don't think there's anything dumber than being scared of peac—" Just as she was about to finish, Weiss and Blake pushed their swords closer to Emerald's neck, cutting her off. Both of them scowled at the thief, silently daring her to finish her sentence. "…I'll be quiet."
"Good girl." Blake said before glancing over to Feedback. "Ben! We've got things handled here!" She pointed up to Gwen and Cinder still duking it out in the sky, the duo projecting waves of energy with every strike they landed on one another. "You go and help Gwen bring Cinder down!"
Feedback gave her a nod. "On it!" He reached for the Omnitrix on his chest and slammed it down, transforming himself yet again into… "CHROMASTONE!"
…..
Cinder's ears perked up instantly at the familiar name. With a powerful thrust, she pushed Gwen away and her eyes snapped down to see the Crystalsapien standing down on top of a building where a big brawl had broken out among the heroes and her team. But all she could focus on was the tall purple and pink crystalline alien that was glaring up at her with his single green eye. 'Ah… my old nemesis.' She channeled a blast of freezing energy into her hand and shot it directly at Gwen, who was then partially covered in a large hunk of ice. "Sorry, Gwenny, but I have bigger fish to fry!" With that, she flew right toward the hero, leaving Gwen stunned. "Chromastone!"
"H-Hey!" The Anodite broke out of the ice immediately and went chasing after Cinder, who was already closing in on Chromastone quite quickly. "Cinder! I will NOT be disrespected like this!"
As she said that, Chromastone shot off the top of the building like a bullet and collided with Cinder, forming an X with his arms to block her strike. "My cousin's right, Cinder. It's pretty rude to leave right in the middle of a fight. Besides…" The Crystalsapien's hands lit up and he blasted a prismatic beam of light at Cinder, who was sent flying back a few feet. "I would've happily joined that little tango."
Cinder grumbled as Gwen was now directly behind her, the Tennyson cousins effectively sandwiching her in. Thankfully, she still had options; up, down, left or right. She smirked to herself as a plan formulated in her head. "Hmhm, you two want to dance with me? Very well… I'll lead!"
In a burst of flame, Cinder suddenly flew straight up, leading Chromastone and Gwen to give chase. As they flew up, however, Cinder made a sharp turn without any warning, the Fall Maiden making her way down to the ground instead. She then twisted around in midair and thrust her hands out, sending both a ball of fire and a bolt of lightning at the duo. Before either of them could react, the two attacks collided in midair and exploded right in their faces. "Hmhm, so gulli—" CLANG! "GRAH!"
Much to the surprise of many, Penny had suddenly zoomed up to Cinder with her jetpack and crashed into her head on, making the Fall Maiden crash into the side of a building. The android transformed her arms into her Floating Array blades, glowering at Cinder as she pulled herself free from the wall. "Salutations, Cinder. I suppose you remember me?"
"Grr… how can I forget?" Cinder retorted as she retaliated with her own blades, the two engaging in midair combat.
Up above them, Gwen and Chromastone watched, though the Anodite was quick to come up with a plan of her own. "Ben, heads up!" Chromastone perked his head up at his cousin's call, her hand lighting up with energy. She sent a powerful pink blast at the alien, which he absorbed without any problem, immediately making him feel much stronger and more energized. "Okay, now that Penny's got her distracted, we've got a chance to bring her down."
"Right, so how do ya wanna go about that?" Chromastone asked.
Gwen smiled at him and nudged her head downward. "Just follow my lead. I've got a plan…"
Meanwhile, Cinder was ferociously striking blow after blow against Penny, though the robot girl was able to keep up with the Fall Maiden fairly well. Her reflexes and her powerful processer were both valuable assets to her, after all, and she was quick to take advantage of both in battle. "Try as you might, Cinder, but you are never going to win!" Penny proclaimed. "As the saviors of this world, we will make certain of it!"
"Such heroic NONSENSE!" Cinder spat as she delivered a kick to Penny's midsection from out of nowhere, causing the redhead to double over and allowing Cinder to drive one of her blades into Penny's shoulder. She cried out in pain as Cinder pulled it back out… but then she saw that the living metal that Penny was now made out of quickly reformed itself, her skin growing back instantly as well. "W-What in the—WOAH!"
Without warning, another mana tether wrapped around Cinder's waist and pulled her away from Penny, jerking her down further toward the ground. Cinder glanced down and saw that Gwen had managed to recover and was now pulling her to the street below, which she instantly tried to stop by forming her bow and firing her obsidian arrows at the Anodite. However, with a quick flick of her energy hair, Gwen flung them away with ease.
"Sorry Cinder! Next stop…" Gwen wrenched her arm forward and whipped Cinder forward, sending her straight into the sidewalk. "ROCK BOTTOM!"
"I get it!" Sun shouted off in the distance.
Cinder quickly emerged from the crater she was put in and glared up at Gwen… only to see a bright rainbow-colored light shine brightly in her eyes. "…God damn—IIIIIIT!" With a powerful blast, Chromastone sent Cinder plowing through the street, with pavement being kicked up as her body created a huge rut in it. By the time the blast stopped, a thirty-foot crevice was now burning in the middle of Bellwood, and Cinder was lying right in the middle of it. She attempted to get up, but was met immediately by Chromastone, who held her down and raised a fist. The rest of the team had made their way over as well, all except for Rex and Team RWBY, who were still handling the other villains.
"Alright, I'm only going to say this once; grab your friends, grab your shit, and GO HOME, Cinder!" Chromastone growled.
"The last thing that Earth needs is you all causing trouble." Gwen added before transforming back into her human form. "Least of all Salem attempting to take over the whole place."
A soft chuckle escaped Cinder's lips and she shook her head. "Ah, Gwen, Ben, I don't think you fully understand…" She opened her eyes and raised a brow at the cousins. "We can't leave. We only return to Remnant when Salem SAYS we can return. Until then, you're stuck with us…" At that moment, a loud engine suddenly could be heard roaring in the distance… accompanied by, oddly enough… high-paced polka music. Cinder smirked as she said; "All EIGHT of us, might I add."
"W-Wait, eight?!" Chromastone shouted, all while the odd music continued to get louder and louder. "What do you mean?! Who else did you bring here?! …And what the HELL is that music—"
CRASH!In a huge, explosive entrance, a large military Hummer suddenly exploded out from one of the buildings, its subwoofers blasting the off-kilter polka music at full blast as it rammed straight for the heroes. "AGH! Scatter!" Jaune yelled, with everyone doing just that. The scene was enough to garner the attention of Team RWBY and the other villains as well, who all paused their fight to look at the scene below.
"Huh… our backup's FINALLY arrived." Emerald noted, taking advantage of the distraction to reach for her sickles and shove Weiss and Blake's blades away.
"Wha—HEY!" Weiss shouted as Emerald immediately sprinted away. "Get back here!"
"Merc, Neo, Rojo, come on!" Emerald called out as she began to scale down the building. "This fight's not over yet!" Mercury and Neo immediately disengaged with their own fights as well, making the whole of Team RWBY give chase after them.
Down below on the ground, Rojo gave a shrug and aimed Bloodstrike right at the pavement. "Eh, better late than never, I guess." She pulled the trigger and blasted the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust and rubble to cover her escape.
"Oh no you don't, Rojo!" Rex exchanged his Bad Axes for his Boogie Pack, flying up out of the cloud to pursue the fleeing villains. "You guys ain't getting away that… huh?" Rex trailed off as a new noise graced his ears, one that came from the same subwoofers that were blasting loud polka music just a second ago. Even stranger, though, it was a slow-building guitar riff with an accompanying drum, making it a complete one-eighty from the music they had just heard. And then… they began to hear lyrics.
Are you ready?
Think you can tell us what to do?
Think you can tell us what to wear?
"…Wait a minute." Kevin's head snapped up as he recognized the song being played. "Ben, are you hearing what I'm hearing?!"
You think that you're better?
Well you'd better get ready…
Bow to the masters…
Chromastone's attention was immediately drawn to the military hummer, which was beginning to shake and rumble as the lyrics continued to build. "…Oh, I think we're in for a LOTTA trouble."
BREAK IT DOWN!
All at once, the beat dropped and the guitar riff and drums kicked into full throttle… followed by the roof off the Humvee being torn open from the inside out. And there, right in front of everyone, emerged the ones who were actually inside of said Humvee… and the team were left slack-jawed. Standing before them while rocking the Humvee with their sheer size were a couple of large mutants; one being a large armored rhino man with a long laser horn while the other was a pot-bellied warthog man with a black mohawk, a silver visor with a glowing purple lens
With hearty laughs and rebellious yells, before the team stood none other than the animalistic duo of Thunderhog and Exo-Skull, the former mutant speaking up first. "Ahahaha! WHAT UP, BELLWOOD?! Guess who's back BAY-BEE?!"
"…You've gotta be kidding me." Weiss muttered as she and the rest of Team RWBY rushed over to the team, checking on them as they slowly got back to their feet.
"Thunderhog?! Exo-Skull?!" Jaune exclaimed in disbelief.
"That's right!" Exo-Skull jumped right up out of the Humvee as he tossed its roof aside, the rhino man grinning maliciously at the heroes. "And would ya look what we have here, Hog! It's the teens who think they're all that!" Skull shifted his attention to the Humvee's driver's seat, nudging his head to it. "Hey, honey! Why don't ya say hi, too?"
At that moment, another familiar face suddenly jumped up, peeking her head out from behind the Humvee's windshield. A certain Merlinisapien donned in white with a matching barrette sent the group a condescending wave. "Buongiorno, everyone!" Subdora greeted, draping herself over the now roofless vehicle. "It has been FAR too long, miei cari! I am sure that you all must have been DYING to see us! Ahaha!"
"Not particularly!" Neptune snapped back… only to be shot at by Subdora with her golden sidearm, the Queen's Ransom. "Gah!"
Hog snorted at the group and turned his nose up to them. "Well, TOO BAD! Because guess what? We're back an' we're badder than ever! SKULL!" Exo-Skull let out snort of his own as he padded the ground with his hand, getting onto all fours. "Give Tennyson a little ride!" The rhino man roared before charging directly at Chromastone, who had only just gotten up. The Crystalsapien reached up and grabbed onto Skull's horn to try and stop him… but was met by an unexpected blast in the face, which sent the hero back a bit and allowed Exo-Skull to finish his charge successfully. With a huge, ramming force, Skull smashed Chromastone into another building, embedding him it its wall.
"BEN!" Yang exclaimed before rushing over to help. But then… FWOOSH! A huge wall of flame suddenly cut her off, leading her to snap her head over to see Cinder once again.
Cinder wagged her finger and shook her head as her team came over to back her up. "Ah-ah, we are not finished with you, yet. Why not let the boys have a little fun, hm?"
Rojo's attention shifted over to Hog with a questioning gaze. "And just where the heck were YOU guys? We expected you all here 'bout half an hour ago."
"Mie scuse, Rojo." Subdora apologized. "I have never had to drive around Bellwood before and I lost my sense of direction."
"But hey, we're here now!" Hog said before pulling out his own weapon; the Thunder Mace… along with a microphone from the Humvee. "An' now, we can REALLY get the party started!" The music from the subwoofers suddenly got louder as Subdora pumped up the volume, and Hog began swinging his mace around while bobbing his head to the beat. "An' lemme tell ya, I'm gonna drop some facts on these heroes!" With that, Hog began strolling up to the heroes, who were all on their guard, but at the same time utterly confused as to what Hog meant. "Hey, heroes! Listen up!"
With every swing of his mace, Hog began generating more and more electricity, and as he did… he began rapping to the beat. "~I gotta come to your rings, cause I'm so high/That even you and Miss Salem believe pigs can fly!~" With a powerful swing, Hog slung his Thunder Mace directly to the ground, sending out a powerful wave of lightning toward the heroes. Many of them tried to dive out of the way, but unfortunately, Jaune, Sun, Neptune and Kevin weren't fast enough, resulting in them getting shocked to their core. "~Selling jammies when them Grammy rappers chanting and cheering/Selling more than all of y'all without a record in years!~" The others attempted to charge at Thunderhog but only Ilia, Nora and Penny managed to make it, while the others were immediately surrounded by Rojo, Neo, Mercury and Emerald.
"~My catalog got a long list of hits in the stores/Because me an' my groupies here are out there breaking the laws!~" Hog spun around and swung his mace at Penny, who actually did manage to catch it. She was about to pull Hog right toward her to punch him, but Hog shot out a laser blast from his visor, making her fly back with a yell. Ilia whipped her Lightning Lash at Hog, only for him to catch it with his shock gauntlets, allowing him to absorb the electricity and then redirect it back at her, shocking her instantly. "~Rather hit you where it gets you, bring you up on a charge/You'd be better just to let a lawyer know from the start!~"
Hog turned right around and raised his hand up, catching Nora's hammer by its head before shouting; "The King of Rock, WHO?!"
"What?!" Nora shouted
"WRONG!" Hog sent yet another laser blast at Nora, making her fly backwards and into another building.
Gwen couldn't believe what was happening. Thunderhog was rapping while fending off the team… and it was working. "Okay, THIS has to end!" Gwen created another mana tether and was about to grab for Hog's mace herself, but then Cinder came back and kicked hard, sending her sprawling to the ground.
"Apologies, Gwen, but I think it'd be best if we let Hog have a good time." Cinder said with a shrug. "Besides, if I'm right, your cousin should be joining us any—" CRASH! Through the fire and the flames, Chromastone came flying back into the picture, with Exo-Skull jumping after him to deliver a strong body slam onto him. "Ah, yes, there he is."
Chromastone wrenched one of his arms free and blasted Skull right in the face, freeing him instantly. "Get OFF of me!" With a strong leap, Chromastone went to punch Exo-Skull with all the force he had… but once again, Hog sent his mace back around and hit the hero square in the chest, giving his partner room to breathe.
"Hah, thanks Hog!" the rhino man said, giving a fist bump to his friend.
"No prob, you wanna verse while I get up close an' personal with these losers?" Hog offered the mic.
"Oh, you KNOW it!" Exo-Skull took the microphone and began walking with Thunderhog over to the battle, the warthog mutant continuing with his attacks as he took up rapping duties. "~Well rock a rhyme for me, then a rhyme for you/And everybody catch the Boogaloo Blues!~" Skull saw Rex coming his way and caught one of the EVO's Smack Hands with his arm, twisting him around so that he came crashing down on top of the hero's body. "~So now the heroes get wrecked, and you know what's next/The vibration flexed up upon your set!~"
"Rex!" Weiss cried out as she attempted to go over and help him, only for Emerald to use her Thief's Respite to trap her, the chains wrapping around the former heiress.
"Don't you know it's RUDE to step on a guy's verse, princess?!" Emerald snapped.
Skull rolled off of Rex and grabbed him by the head, continuing the rap while he slammed his opponent into the pavement. "~This is my steez, MCs, and these are my days/I bring my homeys, suckers know me from back in the day!~" Skull tossed Rex aside once he was finished and proclaimed; "~It's DJ Skull, y'all, and this is how I get down!~" Hog then joined him for the final lyric; "~The Ministry of Darkness is coming to your town!~" And then, from the subwoofers, the chorus kicked in;
The King of Rock, who! Can be my hobby and job!
And when I come and bring the ruckus, suckas duck and then dodge!
The King of Rock, what! Can be my hobby and job!
And when I come and bring the ruckus, suckas duck and then dodge!
After several minutes of brawling, scraping and clawing their way out of the scuffle, the Omni-Hunters had finally managed to regroup… and they appeared to have been run quite ragged. They were all breathing quite hard and many of them even had some of their clothes torn as well. Jaune, Sun, Neptune and Kevin were particularly disheveled after being electrocuted, their hair sticking up on end in some places while their faces were covered in soot and burns. The entire block now looked like a warzone, with cars, trucks and SUV's all burning while the music was still blaring.
Ilia, after having caught her breath, decided to speak the question on everyone's mind; "Okay… so at what point… did we LOSE CONTROL here?!"
"The moment that the Attitude Era over there decided to pay us a visit!" Kevin spat, thrusting his hand toward Hog and Skull as Subdora joined them.
The villains all grouped up and were now staring down the Omni-Hunters, though the heroes were quick to glare back. Chromastone balled up his crystal fists and raised one to the sky. "…But we're not done yet! We're not gonna let freaking Hog and Skull beat us, are we?!"
"No way!" Ruby concurred. "This is just a… little setback."
Blake eyed the burning, semi-destroyed street around her. "Looks a LOT more than just a little setback if you ask me…"
"We need to get them out of the city somehow." Pyrrha noted. "Before even more of it's destroyed… or worse, people actually get hurt."
Gwen furrowed her brow and spoke up. "I think I might be able to do that… but I need time to set up a spell that powerful."
"How long do you figure?" Ren asked.
"About three minutes, at most."
Yang nodded in understanding. "I think we can make that happen." She reloaded Ember Celica as everyone else got their own weapons set, ready to reengage the enemy. "Now get away and get started, 'kay?"
Kevin backed up toward his girlfriend, with Ren and Penny joining him. "We'll keep you safe, okay?" the Osmosian reassured. "Just do your thing." Gwen nodded back up to him and backed off with them, moving to an isolated position to meditate as her eyes began to glow.
Rex activated his Blast Caster, which began glowing with energy right off the bat. "Alright guys, the Ministry is ACTUALLY meaning business here, so let's give it everything we got!"
Rojo let out a small laugh at the EVO's words, placing her hands on her hips. "Well, if you guys REALLY want to see us go all out, then we'd be happy to oblige. But first…" Rojo began bopping her head to the music that was still going and held out her hand to Exo-Skull, hoping he'd get the message. "May I?"
Skull grinned and set the mic in her hand. "Ha! Go for it!"
The heroes could collectively feel their jaws dropping as they watched Rojo bring the mic up near her lips. "No… you can't be serious." Sun uttered.
"Please, SPARE US!" Neptune pleaded.
Unfortunately for them, Rojo was already in the groove. "Too bad, Blueberry! It's my turn to teach you something'." However, just as Rojo was about to let loose… the Earth began to shake beneath everyone's feet, which was actually enough to jostle the Humvee and stop the music, much to Sun and Neptune's relief. "…Gah, man!" Rojo pouted. "And I knew the last verse and every—"
"GYAAAAAHH!" Without warning, Blake let out a bloodcurdling scream and her hands reached up to her cat ears, being brought down to her knees as she desperately tried to cover them. "That sound!"
At that moment as well, Hog and Skull began to grab their own ears in pain, too. "GAH! Oh dear god, make it stop, whatever it is!" Hog pleaded.
"It hurts! It hurts so much!" Skull slammed his fist to the ground before it went right back up to his ears.
Subdora rushed over to the rhino man, setting a gentle hand to his face. "Farkas?! Farkas, what is wrong?!"
"B-Blake!" Sun rushed over and held her by the shoulders, bringing her head close to his chest for comfort. "W-What's going—wait…" Sun trailed off as he set his sights onto Chromastone. "Didn't you guys mention something about a high-pitched whistle that Velvet heard yesterday?"
Almost immediately, Chromastone, Yang, and everyone else who had been in Undertown the day before were all on high alert again. "Ah, crap. Everybody, get ready!" the Crystalsapien warned. "I think we're in for something—"
GRRUUUAAAAAAOOOORGHH!
That single roar was enough to send chills through everyone there, both hero and villain alike. Everyone began searching for whatever had made that sound, but unfortunately, it seemed as if there was nothing to be found. "Uh, I really wouldn't worry too much 'bout the music right now, Rojo." Emerald said warily as the bounty hunter dropped the microphone. "Cause by the sounds of things, I'm thinking we succeeded in getting the attention you wanted."
"Whatever that was… it sounded huge." Pyrrha added.
GRRUUUAAAAAAOOOORGHH!
The roar came again… and it was MUCH closer this time. "…And it is coming this way." the Invincible Girl concluded.
…..
Minutes earlier, and not too far away, a certain hunter was watching the chaos unfold. He had initially been attracted to the scene the moment that Ben had activated the Omnitrix, and he had intended to send in his hunting dog to take care of the hero. However… the moment he saw WHY Ben and his team had come to this location in the first place… he couldn't help but be completely taken by surprise.
Rojo, his star pupil who he had taken on all those years ago… was the one causing the destruction. And what's more, she appeared to have a team of her own as well, and they were doing a fairly effective job of tearing the town up. He had no idea who the other young women and the young man were, but the sight of his former student was enough to give him pause.
'I see that you've continued to hone your skills, Rojo.' He thought to himself as he peered down to the chaos via his binoculars. 'Excellent. Shows that you haven't been slacking off…' He continued to watch as the other members of her squad went on the attack, with the raven-haired one taking to the skies to battle the Anodite. It was there that Khyber noted the innate ferocity that the young girl had within her, the fire literally burning in her eyes. Still, her fighting technique was all force, no thought. 'Hm… she is tenacious, but her technique with a blade is sloppy. She could do well to learn a thing or two…'
His attention shifted down to the girl with the two-toned hair and bowler hat, taking note of her ability to leave illusions of herself and then come back up in a different position, taking her opponent off guard. 'Very intriguing. She has quite the talent. Perhaps there is even more that she can do with it as well…' Khyber then went to the silver-haired one, seeing the young man pull no punches with his kicks, though the hunter could also see the overconfident smirk on his lips and the inner anger behind his eyes as well. 'Your mind is clouded, boy. By your anger AND your brashness…' And finally, his eyes landed on Emerald, who was definitely quite skillful in combat, but he could also see a bit of hesitancy in her strikes. 'And you require far MORE confidence by contrast.'
Overall, the four young evil-doers he saw definitely had promise… they only needed a guiding hand to show them the proper way. Several minutes into the fight, however, he spotted an Earth military vehicle come plowing through one of the buildings, blaring loud, obnoxious music. The moment he saw two large mutants resembling a rhino and warthog come popping out of it, he knew that it was time to intervene.
"This madness has gone on far enough. Time to begin the hunt." Khyber lowered his binoculars and his attention went down to his hunting dog, the scaley alien canine letting out a low growl in anticipation. "Your target is Ben Tennyson. But keep in mind; we may have potential allies in the mix. Now, go." Khyber lifted his head up and whistled, giving the command for his dog to subconsciously activate the device around its neck and transform.
Within seconds, the alien dog had transformed into a large, octopus-like creature that was a deep, burgundy red with brown splotches all over its body. However, unlike a normal octopus, it had a long body and it stood like a mammal on its eight tentacles, with its large head sticking straight forward. It had a large, serrated black beak as well, from which it let out a loud, blaring roar. GRRUUUAAAAAAOOOORGHH! And with that, the creature began barreling its way toward town, making the earth shake as it went along. It let out another roar before jumping up over a tall building and into the street below, where the Omni-Hunters and the Ministry of Darkness were both standing off on one another.
However, the moment the creature entered the scene, all eyes were directly on IT instead of one another. "What the HELL is THAT?!" Neptune cried out.
"How the heck should I know, dude?!" Sun retorted.
"I-It's like some sort of octopus with a vice for a mouth!" Weiss shrieked. "Ew! It's so gross!"
Rex raised a brow to his girlfriend. "So… a Vicetopus?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever floats your boat, Robo-dolt." Weiss hid behind Rex while pointing Myrtenaster over his shoulder at said Vicetopus. "Just make sure it doesn't come over here!"
Blake, having recovered from hearing the whistle, stared up that the octopus-like predator in with a furrowed brow. "Well, whatever it is… it's horrific."
"Ah! Ben!" Ruby gasped before pointing up to the creature. "Look! It's the collar!"
Chromastone grit his teeth at that. "Gah, of COURSE it had to be that same thing that attacked us yesterday." The hero began to fly up into the air so that he was level with the giant octopus alien's eyes, his hands glowing with power. "Stay clear, guys, I'll handle this."
Back over near Gwen, Kevin knelt down next to her and whispered; "Gwen, I don't wanna rush ya, but if you have that spell ready, now might be a good time to use it."
"One more minute." Gwen said simply as her eyes began to glow ever more intense. "I suggest you brace yourselves."
Meanwhile, Chromastone was flying up toward the Vicetopus, intending to put it out of commission before it could even start going on any sort of rampage. "I don't know what you're here for, ya big sushi platter, but I am SO not in the mood for you right no—" BLAM! "WOAAH!" Once again, an unexpected attack hit Chromastone right in his side, sending him down to the ground. Fortunately, he was able to get his bearings quickly and took aim at whoever fired at him… and saw Rojo stepping toward the beast with absolutely no fear at all. "Rojo! What the hell are you—"
"QUIET, Tennyson!" Rojo snapped, giving him a sneer before focusing back onto the Vicetopus, which was staring back at her with a low growl escaping its throat. "I know what I'm doing."
"What you're DOING is approaching a giant alien predator!" Chromastone raised his fists and began charging an attack. "Now back away before I MAKE you back a—whaaa…?" Chromastone trailed off as, much to everyone's shock, Rojo raised her hand up to the Vicetopus… and it made a small chirping sound.
"Hey there, buddy… been a while." The Vicetopus chirped again before lowering its beak down to Rojo's hand, a small trill escaping its maw. "Yeah, that's right, you remember me, don't you?"
"Uh… anyone mind explainin' what the HELL I'm watchin'?" Hog asked.
Exo-Skull shook his head, trying to make sense of things himself. "I think we're all wondering that, Hog."
Penny continued to observe as the Vicetopus nuzzled her hand with its beak, trusting Rojo as if it knew her. "This… is quite surreal, I must admit. Especially after that same creature attacked us only yesterday." Just then, the Vicetopus proceeded to cuddle its head up to Rojo as well, the redheaded bounty hunter giving a jovial laugh. "Did I say surreal? I mean completely baffling."
"So… Rojo is FRIENDS with that thing?!" Nora exclaimed. "…Is this some sort of cruel joke?"
"If it is, I'm not laughing." Ren shook his head.
On the other hand, Cinder and the others were quite pleased with this outcome. "Ah-ha! Excellent!" the Fall Maiden went over to her partner as the Vicetopus licked her with its slimy tongue. "Rojo, your theory proved correct! It seems this creature knows you quite well." However, the moment she came too close, the Vicetopus roared at her, which made Emerald, Mercury and Neo all flinch by proxy. But Cinder, even with her hair blown back by the predator's breath, took it in stride. "Ah, and so fierce as well!"
Rojo pat the predator's beak, comforting it a bit. "Hey, it's okay, big guy." She gestured to the four in front of her, along with Hog, Skull and Subdora as well. "These guys here are all my teammates. You have nothin' to worry about with them." The Vicetopus then began to sniff every single villain there, which left some of them rather miffed…
"H-Hey! Watch the jacket!" Mercury waved off.
"Ah! Dios mio!" Subdora shouted as she tried to keep her hat on. "Keep your nostrils away, per favore!"
The creature went over to Emerald, Neo and Cinder and began nudging them with its beak, to which the green haired thief laugh and pet it gently. "Ah, hey there, big fella…" Neo joined in on the pets as Emerald smirked over to the heroes and added; "Glad to know you're on OUR side…"
"Oh, this is not good." Pyrrha muttered. "…Also completely unfair."
"Nothing's fair in love and war, little miss prodigy." Rojo shook her head. "I suggest you remember that. Now…" She set her hand onto the Vicetopus as its red-eyed gaze shifted over to the heroes, the beast letting out a low growl. "What do you say, old pal? You wanna help us take down these jokers?" GRRUAAOORGHH! "That's what I thought. Get 'em!"
The Vicetopus was about to charge, the Omni-Hunters already brandishing their weapons against it in preparation. However, the creature was suddenly brought to a halt when a bright, pink light suddenly shined throughout the area, drowning out even the flames surrounding the group with its brilliance. "Gah! What in the world?!" Cinder shouted before everyone turned around to see Gwen, the redhead rising above all of them as she shifted back into her Anodite form. The pink light that was projecting off of her began to form into a large sphere of energy, one that encapsulated them all as it expanded out from her. Before they knew it, a large dome was now formed around all of them. "Gwendolyn! What is this?!"
The energy being didn't respond to her, saying nothing until her head snapped back and she yelled to the heavens; "UTNOS AUFERATOS!"
The pink dome started to glow more intensely, blinding everyone for a split second… before disappearing all together, taking them all with it. In the blink of an eye, the destroyed street of Bellwood was left with nary a soul in sight, the heroes and villains having been whisked away to parts unknown. Several minutes later, a cavalry of Plumbers pulled up on the vacant street, though they were all instantly confused as to where exactly everyone had gone. Among them were Team CFVY, Cooper, and Winter, with Six in the lead.
The team took one look at the place, saw that no one was there, and the only response came from Coco. "…Where the HELL did everybody go?!"
…..
A/N: Well, that was… certainly something. Seems like the fight isn't over yet! For indeed, Gwen has thankfully taken the fight away from Bellwood and to a secluded area where the two forces can fight one another without risking further damages to the town. But man, what a rowdy chapter nonetheless! We got a ton of action between both the heroes and villains, the Ministry themselves actually explained HOW they got to Earth… and they also gave Ben the worst scare of his life thanks to Eon telling him his worst fear. Not gonna lie, I too would run for my life if there was a peacock the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing after me, but thankfully Yang snapped him out of it pretty quick and got him back on track. Plus, she also kicked Harangue in the shin, so there's that.
But of course, we also had the return of Thunderhog, Exo-Skull, and Subdora… with a rather humorous yet very familiar entrance. If you've seen Red vs Blue, you probably know what I'm referring to when I mean "polka music". Hehehe… But what about that rocking rap that our favorite goofy mutant duo did seemingly on the fly while putting the smackdown on the heroes? Well, simply search up "D-Generation X/Run DMC The Kings" on YouTube, and then thank me later. Hail to the Attitude Era!
But of course, near the end, we got to see a little bit of Khyber, and it seems he's become wise to his old student's presence. Seems like he's also taken an interest in Cinder and her team as well. And of course, he sent his dog in when the opportunity struck. Just how will the bounty hunter proceed with this strange set of circumstances? Well, we'll just have to find out…
NEXT TIME! The heroes and villains reemerge from Gwen's teleportation spell, finding themselves out in the middle of nowhere so that they may do battle. However, in the middle of things, they're also paid a visit by an unexpected guest… one that Ruby and Penny are particularly stunned to see. How will things play out? Well, tune in next time to find out. Thanks for reading everyone, and I'll see you all next time! And as always, stay safe out there!
