Ruby: Previously, on RvBvRWBY: Incursion...
The smoke billowing off the Grimm's body had completely cleared, and Ruby saw through the opening in its head. Peering at her from the pitch black abyss of its body was a pair of eyes, human eyes, one black with a red iris and the other scarred white.
"I got ya, youngin'," He said as he helped her to her feet. That's when the ground below them shifts, cracks in the dirt quickly forming. "Uh oh. That's not good…" The ground below them caved inwards, and the two red leaders fell through.
"Ruby!" Ruby heard her older sister exclaim before they were falling far out of earshot into whatever was below.
Why don't you call our guys?" Sister questioned.
"'Our guys'?" Grif repeated.
"Yeah, the Blue Guys!" Sister said.
"I'm sorry, what?" Tucker said.
"Why can't I come with you guys?" Sister asked Grif.
"Because I said so. Now move it. Call me if you have any problems, and don't embarrass the family. Think of Mom," Grif said
"Looks like there's a cavern running right under Blood Gulch," Simmons noted.
"Tex, what is your problem?!" He questioned.
"My problem is that O'Malley isn't in Doc anymore."
"None of us are infected, Tex, but I am a little worried about the tank. She's been acting really weird lately.
If only we knew someone that Sheila trusted, and it would have to be someone kind of dumb, so that we could fool him into betraying that trust for our… purposes…" The whole group spun around to face Caboose.
"Hey… everyone is looking at me… I love when they do that. Hi everybody!"
"Hey, Sister," Blake replied. "Meet Doc."
"Hi!" Sister said.
"Uh, hello, nice to meet you. I'm the medic. If it's alright with you, I need to give you a quick physical examination since you're new. Do you want to come in the base where you might feel more comfortable taking off all your clothes?" Doc asked.
"Sure, lead the way. See you, Tucker. Later, Blake,"
"What the fuck just happened…?" he said aloud.
"Where are Yang and Grif?" Ruby asked.
"They must've tranqued us, taken Yang and Grif."
"Who would wanna take Grif? Garbage collectors?" Sarge questioned.
"The people who ambushed us! We have to find them.
RvBvRWBY: Incursion
Chapter 17: A Bad Feeling
"So Caboose is gonna be up front talking to her, and then while he's got her distracted, you sneak around the back, access the panel, and shut her down," Church explained to Tex, he and Caboose attempting to explain the plan to her.
"Okay, I'll do it," Tex said.
"What- that's it? You will? No bargaining? No ridiculous demands?" Church asked.
"No. I'm trying to find O'Malley and his friends. In a way, you guys are helping me. If anyone should be making demands, it should be you."
"Oh, well in that case-"
"Forget it, deal's done," Tex said.
"Damn it," Church cursed. He then saw Blake and Weiss approaching from the base. "Well, look who's finally up."
"Not now," Weiss groaned, holding one of her hands against her head. "What are you doing?"
"We're gonna shut down Sheila so we can figure out what's wrong with her, use Caboose as bait."
"Um, how should I distract Sheila?" Caboose asked.
"Just talk to her, keep her attention. That's it," Church answered.
"I don't know… we kind of have a history? She may not want to talk to me." Caboose said.
"What kind of history?" Weiss asked.
"The kind too weird to talk about," Church said. "You'll be fine, Caboose. Tex and I have a rough history. Doesn't mean we can't be professional and hold a conversation."
"I wouldn't exactly call them 'conversations'," Tex said.
"Ugh, get off my back, woman, can't you see I'm working here?"
"Please! You call this working?"
"See? This is exactly what could happen between me and Sheila, only with more getting shot by tanks," Caboose said.
"As much as I never thought I'd say this, I agree with Caboose. If she's really as bad as you say, there's no guarantee she won't turn him into paste," Weiss said.
"I'm sure if he got shot at, the shell would just bounce off him and land on me somehow," Church deadpanned. "Caboose, you just need to smooth talk her."
"Smooth talk her?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, y'know, tell her that she's pretty, or that she's got that new tank smell or something!" Church said. "Compliment her treads, it doesn't matter."
"I don't know…" Caboose said hesitantly.
"It's easy. Look, here, just practice on Weiss. She's just as volatile."
"Excuse me?!" Weiss exclaimed.
"I think you just proved his point," Blake said. "Besides, I'd rather not have a tank shooting us in the back, so just play along."
"Rrrg, fine, go ahead," Weiss groaned.
Caboose seemed hesitant, but attempted to be suave, just as asked of him. "Weiss, uh… I think you are very pretty, and you haven't yelled at me for a few days. So I was hoping that we could talk and be friends maybe and hold hands and you go with me, and when you went with me, you would be my real girlfriend."
Weiss frowned with a mild blush on her face and her arms crossed. But she had to play along. She took a deep breath and replied through closed teeth, "Yes, Caboose. That sounds… lovely. We should… do that…"
"That was painful to watch," Tex said.
"Yeah, that's probably about as good as we're gonna get, though," Church said.
"That was embarrassing…" Weiss groaned.
"I thought it was sweet," Blake said with an entertained smirk while pocketing her scroll.
Weiss furrowed her brow when she saw the scroll being put away. "Were you recording that?!"
"Maybe…" Blake replied.
"Please don't show that to the others…" Weiss begged.
"Don't worry, I won't," Blake assured. Weiss let out a sigh of relief. "I can't send it to Yang while they're underground, there's no signal."
"Ugh!" Weiss cried, her face completely turning a bright, flustered shade of pink.
The other Reds and Ruby followed Simmons as he tracked Grif's transponder. Ruby had been ahead, but the combination of her missing aura and general tiredness meant she fell back behind with Sarge, letting Simmons guide them from the front. She must have been wearing her stress on her face, because Sarge noticed and spoke up.
"You alright, youngin'?" He asked.
"Hm? Oh. Yeah, I'm all good!" Ruby said with a thumbs up and a smile. Sarge saw right through it, though.
"No reason to wear a smile for appearances. You're worried about Yang, on top of everything else goin' on," Sarge deduced.
"Yeah, kinda…" Ruby admitted, her mask faltering while she nervously rubbed the back of her neck. "Things have been sort of… off for the past month or so."
"After that big fight at your school, right? Weiss and Yang mentioned it a little bit," Sarge said.
"Yeah. That, and having some friends of ours go back to their own world after it was all over."
"The superhero guys."
Ruby nodded. "They were with us since before we were even Team RWBY. Once they were gone, things just didn't feel the same. I think we all felt that way. Yang and I talk about it sometimes. Blake seems mostly fine, but… sometimes you can tell her mind is somewhere else. And Weiss… I think she misses them a lot. Especially Peter and Danny."
"Why her in particular?" Sarge asked.
"Well… she doesn't talk about her real family much. Besides her older sister, I don't think she gets along with them very well. So when we all became friends, it was almost like a second chance to her," Ruby explained. "She still has us, and she knows that. She just feels like part of that is missing now."
Donut cut into the conversation. "Well, they're not gone, right? They just went home! Can't you guys just go see them when you figure all this Dust stuff out?"
"That was actually the plan," Ruby chuckled a bit, though dryly. "Ship the Dust where it could be used, then when General Ironwood figured it all out, we got to visit their Earth. That's when that Grimm attacked our ship, and brought us here."
"Well, look on the bright side, at least you found us!" Donut said cheerfully.
"Yeah, it could've been a lot worse ya," Sarge agreed. "Besides, as far as I'm concerned, now you're honorary members of the Red army! Glad to have ya here. And don't worry about that hellhound. We'll send it back to kingdom come, and help you girls all get back home! Got that?"
Ruby smiled, this time genuinely, and giggled a bit. "Yes, sir!" She saluted.
"C'mon! Grif should be right over here!" Simmons called back, getting all of their attention. They ran up and joined Simmons, who had found an unconscious Yang and Grif laying on the ground side-by-side.
"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed before rushing to her sister's side. Simmons did the same for Grif and started getting them to their feet.
"Oohhh… what happened? What did you do to me…?" Grif groaned groggily.
"Ugh… Ruby? What the hell happened?" Yang asked while rubbing her aching skull.
"We got knocked the fuck out! And whoever did it must have taken you two," Simmons answered.
"Oh, right… they kept asking us questions… they wanted information…" Grif said.
"What kind of information did they-" Ruby started, but Simmosn cut her off to question Grif further.
"Woah, woah, they wanted information and they took you? Why wouldn't they take me?" Simmons questioned.
Sarge ignored him and asked Grif, "What did they look like?"
"I was right there next to both of you. If they needed information, why would they take you instead of me?"
"What are you, jealous? You get picked last in school too?" Yang snarkily poked at the red lieutenant.
"No, and yes, but that's not the point. My point is, if you're gonna drug and torture people, you don't need to insult their intelligence too. That's just mean." Simmons said.
"Yeah, you're jealous," Grif said.
"Besides, you're taking all the fun out of interrogating," Sarge said. "Now what happened?"
"They've been chasing the dragon," Donut said.
"Donut, shut up! They were drugged, just like me!" Simmons said.
"That's what I'm saying! They fell off the wagon and shook hands with the devil!" Donut exclaimed.
"Shut up!"
"They've been ridin' the wave and trippin' the technicolor dreamscape! Far out, maaan! Druggie losers!"
"Will you stop, Donut?! All you're doing with your stupid anti-drug lingo is making me actually want to try drugs," Simmons said.
"Choose life, Simmons! Choose it," Donut replied.
"Yeah, that sounds like fun," Simmons deadpanned.
"Who knocked you guys out? Was it those dirty blues?" Sarge asked.
"No… it was some kind of bat person!" Grif answered.
"Bat person?"
"Sarge, I'm not sure Grif knows what he's talking about," Simmons said.
"Grif doesn't know what he's talkin' about, eh? Stop the fuckin' presses."
"I don't know about bat people, but there was something there that wasn't human, and it definitely wasn't the Grimmm," Yang said. "Memory's a bit fuzzy, but there was the weird thing and another guy talking about some kid and a sword, some kind of deal they made."
"Oh, wait! I forgot about the bomb! The bomb!" Grif exclaimed.
"Yeah, that's a good way to prove you aren't insane; Just start screaming 'the bomb! The bomb!'". Simmons remarked.
"The bomb was there! That's how we could understand what was being said!" Grif clarified.
"He means Andy, the talking bomb Tex built. He was translating our answers from English to whatever that other thing spoke," Yang added.
"And he was translating between the two of them, too! So if we find Andy, he can tell us exactly what's going on!"
"As if we didn't already have enough to deal with," Simmons said.
"Sounds like we've stumbled across something totally diabolical!" Sarge remarked. "Good work, Yang and Simmons!"
"Yang?! Simmons?! But I was there too!" Grif cried.
"Yang obviously was strong of will to not break under pressure, and Simmons stealthily evaded capture!" Sarge said.
"Simmons was drugged first, and they took us at random! And Yang-!"
Yang put her arm around Grif and put a finger to her own lips. "Sh sh, Grif! Let Sarge go on about how great I am!" She smirked.
"A kid and a sword…" Ruby repeated out loud. "That sounds like Tucker to me."
"So?" Simmons questioned.
"So if they were asking about him, I think Tucker's in trouble."
Church, Weiss, Blake and Caboose crouched just out of range of Sheila's sight, while Tex had gone off to be ready to sneak up on the tank once Caboose had her distracted.
"I don't know what to say," Caboose said nervously.
"Don't be nervous. Just go out there, hold her attention, and don't say anything stupid," Church said. Then he considered for a moment and backtracked. "No wait, be natural. Say stupid stuff. Go." Caboose reluctantly slipped out of their hiding spot and approached Sheila.
"He's so dead, right?" Weiss questioned.
"There's not a doubt in my mind," Church replied.
Caboose approached the tank and stopped just in front of her. He nervously greeted, "Hello, Sheila. How are you doing?"
"Hello, Caboose!" She greeted back with a tone as if she was smiling, happy to see him. "Actually, I'm not functioning at my optimal capacity. My internal diagnostics indicate I am having mechanical issues. How are you?"
Caboose had no response primed, finding himself at a loss for words. "Um…"
"Of course… Weiss, use your scroll," Church ordered.
"For what?" Weiss questioned.
"With O'Malley in the wind, I don't wanna risk using our radios unless we absolutely have to. But he can't take over your scrolls, so patch into Caboose's helmet," Church explained. Weiss nodded and did just as asked. Once the radio connection was established, Church spoke through. "Caboose, say 'good'."
"What? Oh!" Caboose said. "Good! Uh, pretty good! Really good. I am great. I am absolutely perfect."
"That's too good! Reel it back a little," Blake said through the comms.
"Now I am depressed," Caboose overcorrected. "I am… doing … bad. I… I don't know if I can go on."
"You seem… distracted, Caboose," Sheila took note.
"Ah, I am not distracted. I am not distracted. I'm distracting. See, that's different because I'm doing it to you!" Caboose said.
"What?!" Church exclaimed in a whispered tone
"I mean I'm very distract-able! Aha… with a high degree of distractivity…ness…" Caboose nervously clears his throat.
"Change the subject!" Weiss suggested.
"Okay! Sheila? Have you seen Tex?" Caboose asked.
Weiss facepalmed while Blake shook her head. "He's doomed…" Blake sighed.
"What?" Sheila questioned.
Caboose began to panic, his mistakes not even lost on himself. "Sheila, do you know what my favorite thing to do is? Not look behind myself. You should try not doing that. Do you like to collect stamps?"
"Correction; we're doomed," Weiss said.
"Hey Caboose? I think it's wrong for us all to die because you're an idiot, so we're just gonna go now, bye," Church said before falling back further to Blue Base.
"Ditto," Weiss said before following.
"Wha-guys!" Blake called after them, not willing to abandon Caboose.
"Please don't go!" Caboose cried.
"I'm not leaving," Sheila said, rolling slightly closer to Caboose as if to assure him of that fact.
"Oh, good! Good…" Caboose replied.
"You are acting strangely, and I would like to find out why."
"Oh. Okay…Um…"
"Caboose! The omega A.I has been missing, and everyone has been attempting to find him. If you continue to act erratically, they may mistakenly think he is inside of you, and take drastic measures against you," Sheila warned.
"Oh. I wouldn't want them to do that," Caboose said.
"Exactly! Luckily, I know where Omega is."
Blake and Caboose both perked up at the claim. "You do? Where?" Caboose asked.
"He is inside- blaaaarrrr…." Sheila's voice cut out as her entire power system shut down. Tex peeked out from behind her cannon.
"Got it!"
Caboose didn't notice Sheila was offline, though, and continued talking. "Who is 'blaarr'?"
"She's offline, Caboose," Blake told him as she approached. Weiss and Church quickly joined them as well.
"I'll be damned, you're not human confetti," Church remarked.
"Hold on, she was about to say something else, turn her back on!" Blake said.
"You want us to turn her back on again? After we just went through all that trouble to shut her down?" Church questioned.
"But she said she knows where O'Malley is!" Caboose added, helping plead Blake's case.
"She could've been lying. How could she have possibly known that?" Weiss asked.
Church turned over to the freelancer. "What do you think, Tex, can we turn her back on again? Disable her guns or something?"
"Not a chance, she's a wreck back here. I'm not even sure how she was operational anyway," Tex answered.
"Oh, I know! Uh… we can put her inside my head! Like O'Malley! I've got lots of extra room in there!" Caboose suggested.
"I bet," Weiss remarked under her breath.
"She's not that kind of A.I," Church said.
"She could only be moved over if we had a similar class of vehicle," Tex explained.
"Similar how?" Blake asked.
"It'd have to be military hardware with sophisticated enough onboard computers," Tex replied.
"Like, say, a UNSC ship that just so happened to crash-land?" Blake suggested. "We could transfer Sheila into there."
"If we set up a hardline, yeah, I bet we could do it!" Tex said.
"Church! Wait!" They all turned to see Tucker running from Blue base at almost a full sprint to catch up with them. "Church, hold on a second! I've got something to tell you!" he joined them and bent over, heaving out breath after strained breath.
"Tucker, what, what is it?" Church asked, caught off guard by his teammate's sudden rush.
"I just wanted to say… I got a hardline Tex can use…" Tucker panted heavily. "Bow-chicka-bow-wow…"
Weiss facepalmed again while Blake shook her head again. "Pig…" Weiss growled.
"How did you even hear that?!" Tex said.
"I know when I'm needed," Tucker said, proud of the feat.
"You're not even wanted, let alone needed," Weiss frowned.
The Reds, Ruby and Yang were going through the caverns to try and find a way back to the surface. They couldn't raise a radio signal above ground, so the only way to warn the Blues or the rest of Team RWBY was to return to the surface. As they explored, they crossed a bridge-like formation crossing a deep chasm that led them to a separate set of caves, and at the front of it was a control room of some kind, with a massive terminal and monitor wired up into the stone.
"Hmm, what's all this business?" Sarge questioned.
"It looks like a bunch of computer equipment of some kind," Ruby noted.
"Excellent analysis, Ruby," Sarge complimented.
"And it's attached to some kind of TV thing," Donut added.
"So it is. Astute deduction, Donut."
"It looks like a camera feed showing different parts of the canyon. Look, there's our base!" Grif said.
"Ah, yes, another incredible observation from the Stating the Obvious Department. Thanks for nothing, numbnuts," Sarge insulted. Grif let out a heavy sigh, and Yang patted his shoulder. "Simmons, Donut, Ruby, Yang, you four stay here. Grif's gonna continue looking for Andy."
"Fine…" Grif groaned and began to walk off back into the caves.
"I'll go with him," Ruby said before running to catch up. Her aura was slowly coming back, but not enough to use her semblance just yet.
"Ugh, I hate my job…" Grif sighed.
"Don't worry, Grif. I'm sure Sarge is just being tough on you to make you better!" Ruby assured the orange-colored soldier.
"I wouldn't bet on that if I were you. I'm just around to be his punching bag," Grif said.
"He'll come around eventually," Ruby said, still keeping a positive, assuring smile on her face.
"I'll believe it when I see it."
"Alright then." Ruby awkwardly clears her throat. "Sooo… I saw that you and Yang have hung out a lot."
"Yeah, she's cool. Nice to have someone around here with a real sense of humor, and who doesn't take this whole 'Red vs Blue' thing seriously. Simmons is my friend and all, but he's such a kiss-ass to Sarge, and this whole war is all Sarge thinks about. But she gets me. She's also the only other one around here who can drive something without it blowing up after five seconds."
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"I wish," Grif scoffed. "I swear, I'm the only one who knows how to actually drive on this team."
"Our dad taught Yang how to drive. I'm not old enough, though."
"Really? You're old enough to fight horrible monsters of death, but you can't get a learner's permit?" Grif questioned.
"The world works in mysterious ways," Ruby said with a small smile.
"Tell you what, we figure all this out soon enough, and I'll give you a little driving lesson before you leave. Help you learn the basics."
"Sounds like a plan," Ruby said. She then seemed to space out a bit though, paying less attention to their search for an exit. It didn't take long for Grif to notice.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, just… thinking about things."
"Like what?"
Ruby didn't think answering truthfully would put Grif at ease. Her mind lingered on the eyes beneath the Grimm's fur. They were familiar, she had seen them before, but the question of where was gnawing at her. She knew it meant nothing good, but part of her knew it foretold something worse than she thought.
No, she wouldn't tell him about that. Instead, she spoke of something else in the back of her mind. "Grif… do you ever wonder why we're here?"
Grif chuckles a bit. "I don't know. It's one of life's greatest mysteries, isn't it?"
Ruby shook her head. "Not like that. I mean, why of all places did we end up here? In your world? We could've ended up anywhere, whether better or worse, and we ended up here with you guys. I'm not saying that's bad or anything, you guys are our friends now. It's just… it feels like there's a reason behind it all."
"Just random chance, I guess. You guys have no clue how to use that stuff. Speaking of which, how'd you set it off in the first place?" Grif asked.
"We didn't. The Grimm did. As soon as it touched one of the crystals, it just… activated."
"Those things seemed pretty one-track mind to me. How would it do that?"
"I don't think it's that simple…" Ruby said, beginning to think back to the eyes.
"Well, anyways, I haven't seen anything this way. Let's go back to the others," Grif said.
"Right," Ruby agreed.
A long, thick cable was plugged into the hardware exposed in the back of the tank, stretching all the way across the canyon into Sister's crashed ship. Church, Blake and Tex stood around the disabled tank as the data transfer was taking place.
"She's all set. Transfer should take awhile," Tex said.
"Um… are we sure we want to put her in this ship?" Church questioned.
"You're asking that after we've already plugged her in?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Fair point," Church said.
"It's still flyable, but I'm gonna remove the ignition coil just to be sure," Tex said. "If O'Malley is in her somewhere, they aren't going anywhere without it."
"You want me to hold it?" Church asked.
"Are you kidding?"
"Well, thought it was worth a try."
Tex hopped on the radio to contact Caboose, who was waiting inside the ship. "Hey Caboose, how's it going in there?"
"Looks good. Although I have to tell you, the ship looks a lot bigger on the inside than the outside," Caboose replied.
"How's the read out?" Tex asked.
"Well, all the red lights are red and all the blue lights are blue," Caboose reported.
"What about the green lights?"
"Those are black."
"When the green lights turn green and the red lights turn black I want you to get a hold of me right away," Tex said.
"Uh, okay! Uh, what about the blue lights?" Caboose asked.
"The blue lights don't matter."
"Then why do they-"
"Okay! Okay, thanks Caboose, good job!" Tex said quickly before cutting the transmission.
"You can't just show up and start bossing people around, Tex. Bossing people around is my job. I put in the time." Church said.
"I had to leave. I found Wyoming," Tex answered.
"Yeah, Blake mentioned that when they got back. What happened?"
"I thought I tracked him back to O'Malley, but by the time York and I got there-"
"York? Who's York?" Blake asked.
"One of her old freelancer buddies," Church answered. "Was Carolina with him?"
"She was already dead, but he still had Delta," Tex said.
"Delta? The A.I? How? I thought they took them- wait a minute, wait a minute, how is he even still alive? Aren't we hundreds of years into the future?" Church questioned.
"I thought it was because of his armor. You know all the Freelancer suits had some kind of enhancement."
"Yeah, like your invisibility," Church said.
"And her awful attitude," Blake remarked.
"No, that's all natural," Church said.
"York's was some kind of healing mechanism. It would help him recover from wounds in battle, kind of like you girls' auras," Tex continued. "I thought it might've kept him alive all these years, but after I found Wyoming, I learned some… not great stuff."
"Like what?" Blake asked.
"I just think there's something bigger going on, with a lot of people working against us," Tex answered, hiding the details from the other two.
"What did Wyoming say?" Church asked.
"Besides that O'Malley was back here, nothing before he teleported away."
"His armor lets him teleport?" Church questioned.
"No, it was something else," Tex said.
"So every freelancer has a special equipment and A.I?" Blake asked.
"Mostly, yeah," Tex answered.
"Wait a minute," Church said. "Your armor was invisibility and your A.I was Omega."
"Right."
"What was Wyoming's A.I?" Church asked.
"Gamma," Tex answered. Blake saw Church pause as if processing that information.
"Something wrong, Church?" She asked.
Church let out a disappointed sigh. "I gotta make a phone call. Be right back." Church stepped aside from the girls and the tank before raising a radio transmission to a very particular location. It rang for a few moments before the robotic voice finally responded.
"Hello."
"Hello. This is Church, Gary. Or should I call you Gamma? Have you been lying to us?"
"Lying is such a Shisno concept. I mean, human concept," Gary, or now Gamma, replied.
"You're a computer. I thought computer's can't lie," Church said.
"They can if they're programmed to lie."
"Were you programmed to lie?" Church questioned.
There was a pause before a hesitant, "No."
"God damn it!" Church cursed.
"I have to go, Church."
"Wait! What about the aliens?! How do we-?!"
"Goodbye."
The transmission cut. Church stomped his foot down in the dirt, kicking up a small cloud. As soon as Gamma's transmissions topped, though, suddenly another call came in, with Vic's voice filling the airwaves. "Hello? Ring-a-ding. Blue Base, come in. Let's go. Hello. Come in."
"H-Hello? Vic, is that you?" Church asked.
"Hey dude, how's it going? It's been a while since we spoke," Vic said.
"Why are you calling me?"
"Everything been going good? Yeah, that's great. Listen, don't have much time to talk. Uh, been discussing things here at Blue Command, we think everything is bad and now is the time to attack the Red Base. Turns out the Reds are up to no good and someone needs to kill 'em. A good way to do that is to send some people through the caves, yeah. Take 'em by surprise, anyway can't talk. Gotta go. See ya la vista!"
"Wait, wait just a-" Church frantically said before the transmission cut out yet again. "Why do people keep hanging up on me?!"
"That didn't sound good," Blake said as she approached.
"Rrrg… something's not right. Find Weiss and bring her back to base with us. We have something to talk about."
"Look, there's my room! And the locker room! And there's the showers! So many good memories!" Donut exclaimed as the camera feed kept switching between different parts of Red base.
"I hope this thing isn't connected to the internet," Simmons said.
"The Blues must have set this up, craft devils. Spying on us all along!" Sarge said.
"I don't think so, Sarge," Yang shook her head. "This thing is showing the entire canyon, including Blue Base. Whoever set this up, I don't think they were Red or Blue."
"What if all this technology is just leftover from an ancient civilization that was way more advanced than us?" Simmons suggested.
"Wait a minute, how can an ancient civilization be more advanced?" Donut questioned. "If they were so advanced, where did they go?"
Simmons replied, "They could have mysteriously disappeared, only leaving behind a legacy of enigmatic technology."
After a long pause, Donut said, "That's gay."
"Oh, we'll finish this fight later."
"Look, what's all that?" Sarge asked, calling attention back to the monitor. The feed had switched to a hallway inside Blue Base, where a full set of yellow armor in pieces lay in a pile.
"That looks like Sister's armor," Yang said. "But what happened to her?"
"Clearly, she's been disintegrated," Sarge answered.
"Why would they do that?!" Simmons questioned. "We can't tell Grif, he'd be devastated!"
"Tell me what?" They all turned to see Grif and Ruby returning.
"Tell you that your sister has been vaporized by the Blues," Sarge said bluntly.
"What?!" Grif cried.
"Sarge!" Simmons exclaimed.
"Heheh, it's just like rippin' off a band-aid. Quick and incredibly painful," Sarge chuckled.
"You should really think about other people's feelings, Sarge," Yang said.
"Yang, the only thing I need to do is stay Red and die," Sarge replied.
"What…?" Grif repeated.
"I'm really sorry, Grif. She's dead," Simmons said.
"Also, I highly doubt she's dead. The Blues wouldn't do that," Ruby said.
"Well, they kill their own team a lot, apparently…" Yang shrugged.
"Yang, you're not helping!" Ruby hissed.
"Oh hey, look, she's not dead," Donut said as the monitor changed to the next room, "She's just naked!"
"What?! That little slut, I'm gonna kill her!" Grif exclaimed.
"Take a screenshot, take a screenshot!" Simmons said quickly, running up to the monitor.
Yang honestly couldn't hold in her laughter at the sudden turn of the situation while Ruby just covered her eyes. "Gross…"
"Put your clothes back on! What's the one thing I told you?! Don't embarrass the family!" Grif's voice raised even higher.
"I don't she's embarrassing the- Woah! Why's she doing splits?" Simmons said.
"Huh. Is this that Facebook thing that I keep hearing about?" Sarge questioned.
"Does this thing take dollar bills?" Simmons asked no one in particular.
"C'mon, that's my sister! And you're looking at her naked!" Grif yelled.
"So? She's not our sister!" Simmons replied, forcing an even louder howl of laughter from Yang in the back.
"And you're not helping! Stop looking at her, Simmons!"
"Why does Donut get to look?!" Simmons questioned.
Donut said, "Hey, why does Blue Base get so much more natural light then ours? It gives the interior a much more airy and open feeling!"
"That's why Donut gets to look," Grif said.
"Oh, look, she's putting her armor back on…" Sarge said disappointingly. He saw Grif glare daggers at him and quickly changed tone, clearing his throat. "Uh, I man, oh look! She is putting her armor back on! Good work, soldier!"
"Don't patronize me!" Grif sighed.
The camera then shifted to the top of Blue Base, where the team, Weiss, Blake and now Sister were grouped together. "What are the Blue's doing? Simmons, what are they saying?" Sarge questioned.
"I have no idea! I can't find the volume on this monitor!" Simmons said while inspecting the terminal. "And without any sounds, it just looks like a bunch of helmets bobbing up and down!"
"Is that how they talk? They look ridiculous!" Sarge said.
Yang recovered from her laughing fit and used Grif to support her and keep her on her feet, wiping tears off her face. "You doing okay, buddy?"
"Shut up, you all suck," Grif replied.
As the group gathered atop Blue Base, Church quickly began to fill them in. "Alright. Vic called and said we should attack Red base right away, and for some reason he thinks it's a good idea for some of us to go through the caves," he explained.
"Why would we do that?" Weiss questioned.
"That's just it. We know the Reds are underground looking for Sarge and Ruby, and the timing of this is just… weird. Something's going on, and I don't like it."
"We're not actually going to attack Red base, are we?" Blake asked.
"No. Something's fishy, and I wanna find out what. So here's how this will go down: me, Tex, Tucker and Weiss are gonna go right up the middle to Red Base," Church said.
"What about my kid? He can't go into battle!" Tucker said concerningly. Both Blake and Weiss were surprised by Tucker's caution with the alien creature. Perhaps it proved that he wasn't so shallow after all.
Church continued after Tucker's interruption. "Doc, Blake, Sister and Junior- You guys go get lost in the caves. See if you can find the Reds while you're at it. We'll find you after we see what's going on. Unless we die. In which case, we won't' find you and you're gonna have to find us. And if that happens, I want to be buried as far away as possible from these three."
"How rousing and charming…" Weiss said sarcastically while crossing her arms with a deep frown.
"Yeah, and I wanna be stuffed and put on a couch with a cooler full of beer, a bag full of cheese puffs, non-stop reruns of Baywatch and- ahh, you know what, ti's all in my will," Tucker said.
"What about me? Can I go get lost too?" Caboose asked.
"No Caboose, I need you to stay here and watch Sheila," Tex said.
"Yeah, if the transfer gets interrupted we might lose her altogether," Church added.
"Oh, that would be bad…" Caboose said.
"Right. Otherwise, how would you accidently kill people?" Church questioned with a sarcastic tone.
"Hm… well I suppose I could always-" Caboose began thoughtfully.
"Shut up, that was rhetorical. Tucker, Ice Queen, c'mon, let's get going."
"Ugh, why does everyone keep calling me that?!" Weiss cried. She reluctantly followed Tex down the ramp.
"Where should we go?" Doc asked Church.
"I-I don't care. Just eb ready to come running with the cavalry if we start screaming in pain… unless Tucker starts screaming in pain, in which case, just feel free to point and laugh," Church replied.
"Your leader skills at work like always," Blake rolled her eyes.
Tucker turned to his alien child and let out a sigh. "Well, little dude, I guess there's a time where every boy becomes a man."
"He's only three days old, Tucker," Blake said.
"Yeah, they grow up so fast!"
"Also, he's not a boy, he's a grub," Church added as he descended the ramp.
Tucker continued, "Anyways, my point is, you're on your own now, and I don't have time to tell you everything you need to know. So here's a few brief pointers: invest in real estate, there's no such thing as a permanent record, always eat breakfast, all the girls on the internet are actually dudes, and you should never ever buy the extended warranty on anything. Ever. Oh, also? Chicks like it when you tell 'em they're pretty, but they also like it when you're kind of a dick to 'em. So mix it up a little."
"I suppose that's heartfelt, in your own way," Blake remarked at the end of Tucker's speech.
"Tucker, let's go!" Church called.
"Okay little dude, I gotta go now. Tex needs Weiss, Church and I to back her up," Tucker said.
"Bow chicka honk honk!" Junior uttered.
"Huh, I guess you have been teaching him some stuff," Doc said.
"Teach? You don't teach that, that's just genetic," Tucker said.
Wyoming stood in front of Gamma's terminal as he cut off the call with Church. He looked down at the terminal containing the A.I.
"Do they know?" He asked.
"There is nothing to worry about. We are close to the end. We will not be stopped now," Gamma replied.
"Don't… count on it…" The low growl of the Grimm filled the room as it entered. Wyoming glanced over his shoulder at it. Ever since it suddenly left for Blood Gulch to join the sudden swarm of Grimm there, it had been injured. Badly. A gaping hole had been left in it's head, exposing what lay inside. That gaping hole still remained. It wasn't healing like it had been. And right now, Wyoming could see the two human eyes peering out from inside, dull but certainly alive. Whatever corpse was inside the thing, it wasn't fully alive. Not yet. But just as the Grimm seemed to gain power by consuming the Cosmic Dust, it seemed to be just as susceptible when the Dust was used against it. Its greatest strength was also its greatest weakness.
"What makes you say that, mate?" Wyoming asked.
"My memories… are foggy… but returning…. Slowly. Know this, Wyoming… do not… underestimate… the huntresses…"
"You should've taken your own advice, chap. With that hole in your head, I can see exactly what you are in reality. You're no reaper or boogeyman like you threaten. You're just a bloke with a grudge."
"Watch… what you say… Freelancer," The Grimm snarled.
"I think not. I think you should hear what I have to say. You have this vendetta against a group of children, make an attempt at puppeteering all your pieces in this plan of yours, but then run like hell whenever you catch a whiff of them using the Dust. You're starved for the stuff, you crave it. And that right there is why you've failed so far. You're so obsessed with restoring who you once were, you've become easily predictab-"
Wyoming instantly found himself in the Grimm's grasp, then slammed into the nearest wall. It's canine maw shot open and roared a deafening roar. "Not… another… word… I have enhanced you… but I can take it away… and you will die when I do…. It will be painful… and it will be slow… I will make your nightmares come true… If you want a boogeyman…? You'll have it… As you said… 'One more… freelancer gone'... You'll be the first… then Omega… then the huntresses…. Then the witch…"
"W-Witch? What witch?!" Wyoming struggled in its claws. The Grimm snarled and dropped him to the floor.
"You've… been… warned…" The Grimm then crawled out of the room. Wyoming let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"Hop in, Gamma. Off to Blood Gulch we go," He said.
"What will we do about that creature?"
"We continue with the plan. And once the idiots are dealt with, it will be next."