Donut: Previously, on RvBvRWBY: Incursion...
"You see, my dear, Omega has already moved on to someone else, and you'll have no way of telling who. But you'll find out soon enough." Wyoming began to chuckle.
"Until we meet again… Allison…" The Grimm snarled.
"They said your commander died, and I needed to replace the missing man."
"What? Our commander's not dead, I'm the commander!" Sarge exclaimed in a confused fashion.
"And an excellent one at that, sir!" Simmons brown-nosed.
"Thank you, Simmons."
"Yeah, your commander died, and one of the troops was going to be promoted, and I was sent to replace the missing troop!" Sister said.
"Sheila, open the canopy!" Church exclaimed as he, Simmons and Yang ran towards the tank.
"A 'please' wouldn't hurt your tiny organic body, would it?" Sheila replied nonchalantly.
"Seriously, Sheila! In case you didn't notice, there's an army of monsters around!" Church cried as Grimm began to move from Blue Base over to them.
"I didn't hear the magic word," Sheila said tauntingly.
"Sheila, what the hell is going on with you?!" Church exclaimed.
"It has to be something wrong with me, doesn't it?"
When the Grimm finally noticed her presence, it lunged for the vial. In that split-second, Ruby only thought of one thing to do: she quickly fired her weapon right at the vial and its mechanism. As soon as the round connected, the teleporter blasted out a massive burst of energy that both blinded Ruby and sent her flying off her feet.
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.
RvBvRWBY: Incursion
Chapter 16: As Above, So Below
The group of Church, Yang, Sister, Blake, Simmons, Tucker and Grif circled around just outside Blue Base after the dust settled.
"Well, I think it's official, no more experiments in or around my base. I've had more than enough of the otherworldly boogeyman monsters. I don't even want those crystals on our property, got that?" Church said.
"I'm starting to think that's a good idea…" Yang admitted.
"Good. Cause I have enough problems as it is without needing to survive your wild dog attacks. That being said, we probably shouldn't mention any of this to Command," Church said.
"Yeah, we'll probably sound like a bunch of psychopaths. Until we find Sarge, I'll call up Red command and give them some kinda cover story, to make sure they don't find out about this," Simmons said.
"Why would you call Red Command?" Sister asked.
"To create a cover story, I just said that!" Simmons exclaimed.
"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.
"The Blue guys! The guys that sent me here in the big ship!"
"Oh my god…" Yang facepalmed.
"Uh, yeah, this might be a bad time to bring up the fact that my sister is colorblind," Grif said.
"WHAT?!" Simmons exclaimed.
"I don't get it. What's the gray guy so upset about?" Sister whispered to Blake.
"That he nearly buried his commanding officer alive over this," Blake answered. "Who still ended up underground anyway."
"Oh my god, what's wrong with you?! Why didn't you tell us you were a Blue?!" Simmons questioned.
"Because-" Sister started.
"And don't say 'because nobody asked'!"
"But nobody did ask!" Sister replied defensively.
"I would be laughing my ass off if I wasn't completely livid," Church said.
"Welp, welcome to Blue Team, Sister!" Tucker said.
"Hey, we can still keep her," Grif said.
"We can't do that, she's on the other team! She'll kill us in our sleep!" Simmons exclaimed.
"Do I get to do that?" Sister asked. "That would be awesome!"
"Sister is a freaky one, but I don't think she'd go that far," Blake said.
"Besides, she's color blind. We'll just tell her we're Blues," Grif said.
"Didn't you just admit to her you're Reds?" Church questioned.
"Yeah? Well she's fucking dumb too. Look-" Gif turned to his younger sister. "Hey, we're Blue now."
"Woohoo, go Blue, let's win!" Sister cheered.
"See?"
"Man, she might give Caboose a run for his money. And I'm not even sure he has an IQ," Church remarked.
"Oh please, she'll figure it out," Simmons said.
"No she won't," Grif denied. "In high school, she got kicked off the cheerleading squad three times for rooting for the wrong team."
"No, she can't stay," Simmons shook his head.
Yang added, "Besides, with you, Simmons and I going below ground to look for Ruby and Sarge, and Blake keeping an eye on Weiss, she'll be left alone. Just let her go over to Blue Team, at least until we get back."
"Plus it's not like Blue Team goes around killing its own members or anything," Simmons finished.
"Dude, I wouldn't bet money on that if I were you," Tucker said.
"Fair enough, I guess," Grif said. He then turned back to his younger sibling. "Yeah, okay, you're a Blue."
"Touchdown, go Blue! Woohoo!" Sister cheered again.
"No, I mean we're Red, but you're Blue. That means you're going over there with those assholes."
"Dude, we're standing right here," Tucker said, then gestured to Church. "He's the asshole, not me."
"Don't be snarky," Church said.
"Sorry dude, it's the hormones. I just had a baby!"
"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.
"Don't do me any favors, bitch," Sister barked before marching over to the Blue side.
"Wow. She's definitely got a mouth," Tucker remarked, followed by a muttered, "Bow-chicka-bow-wow."
Yang went over to Blake as Simmons and Grif began to leave the group. "Be sure to let us know when Weiss wakes up," She said.
"And let us know when you find Ruby," Blake replied. Yang nodded with a smile. Blake smiled as well before the two quickly hugged. "Good luck." Yang then left with Grif and Simmons. Blake then turned to Church. "Is Doc with Weiss right now?"
"No, I have Caboose setting her up in our barracks. I don't think he's actually capable of hurting you guys at the very least, so it's probably fine. I have Doc talking with Sheila. She's been acting weird lately."
"You mean weirder than your average talking tank?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
"She's been acting distant and weird. Plus she's been saying these random threatening things. Then, in the middle of that giant-ass battle, she refused to let us in until Yang threatened to tear out her power supply. Kinda reminds me of somebody else…" Church said.
"So why is Doc talking to her?" Tucker asked.
"What, you didn't hear the 'threatening' part of what I just said? I'm not going over there."
"Why not send Caboose? Aren't they like, in love, or something?"
"Am I missing something here?" Blake asked.
"Long story. Besides, I've had about all the cross-species babies that I can take for a while," Church said. "The last thing I need is a junior Caboose running around with a 130 millimeter cannon for a head. Tucker's little devil spawn is enough for me."
"Don't talk about my kid like that," Tucker suddenly said angrily through gritted teeth.
"You alright?" Blake asked.
"I dunno. I think I'm getting into this whole 'parenting' thing. I caught myself looking at minivans the other day, blegh."
"Of course you are. That's why you need a babysitter for a newborn. I'll be sure to nominate you for 'dad of the year'," Church quipped.
"Don't judge me," Tucker said before walking towards Blue Base, presumably to go find his alien child.
"Anyway, Doc's going to find out what's wrong with her and give her a little tune up,' Church finished.
"But he's a medic, not a mechanic," Blake said.
"I know. I figure Doc's mechanic skills are probably about as bad as his first aid skills. He's either gonna fix her by accident, or make her completely inoperable, and then I can go down there and figure out what's really going on. Either way, I win."
"I'd applaud you having an actual plan if it didn't involve a human shield," Blake frowned.
"Hey, beggars can't be choosers, I'm working with what I got here." Church then turned to Sister, his newest recruit. "Well, uh, welcome to Blue team. I guess we should give you, uhh, some kind of orientation or something like that. So that's, uh… that's the base there. This is the outside of the base. Inside's on the inside. Go through that door, right there. Get to the inside. Uh, it's got a basement. There's the middle part and there's the top part. Got some… y'know, blue flags here, on the outside. Those come in handy when you're… y'know, trying to identify the color of the base. It's Blue."
"You don't know what you're doing, do you?" Blake questioned.
"Eh, not really. Flowers, our old commander, didn't exactly leave a guidebook for whoever was in charge next. Guess he didn't expect to die of an aspirin overdose in the middle of nowhere," Church replied before refocusing his attention to Sister. "Anyway, that uh, pretty much covers the base, so… anyway, yeah, that's it."
"Cool," Sister simply said.
"I'm Church. I'm the leader. Everybody looks up to me. Pretty much the only rule on the Blue Team for rookies is, don't kill the leader. That's me."
"That's it?" Sister asked.
"That's it," Church nodded.
"Sounds easy."
"Yeah, well, we're still waiting for someone to follow that rule. So anyway, uh, tell me about yourself. What's your training?"
"Training?"
"Yeah. What have you been told so far?"
"Oh right! That's the base, and you're the leader, and I shouldn't kill you," Sister replied, copyingback all of Church's instructions. "Ever. Did I pass?"
"No, I mean like what kind of military training do you have? Weapons?" Church questioned.
"Eh, sounds violent," Sister said.
"Operations?"
"I don't even know how that works."
"Communications?"
"Say what?"
Church lets out a heavy sigh, the reality of Sister's incompetence dawning on him. "I'd ask intelligence, but I'd just be wasting my time. Starting to think the Reds dodged a bullet." It was then that Tucker returned with Junior at his heel. "Well, moving on, this is Tucker."
"Sup?" Tucker greeted.
"Hey," Sister reciprocated.
Church continued, "Tucker's job is to do… what? I guess nothing."
"I'm just chillin'. That's the only rule on Blue Team, rookie, be cool," Tucker said.
"I thought the only rule was don't kill the leader," Sister said.
"Yeah, but we break that rule all the time. That's what makes us so cool!"
"Blargh!" Junior piped up.
"Oh cool! You have a dog?" Sister said. Blake stifled a laugh quietly, letting out a suppressed snort instead. Church also stifled laughter.
"That's my kid," Tucker said in an offended tone.
"Oh cool! You have a kid that looks like a dog?" Sister said.
"Nice save," Blake remarked.
Church saw Caboose exiting the base now as well. "Hey, y'know what, I think I have the perfect tour guide for you! Hey, Caboose, come here!"
Caboose came as soon as he was called and joined the group. "The mean girl is asleep and quiet in the bedroom," Caboose reported.
"Yeah, that's great," Church said in an uninterested way. "Anyway, I think Caboose here can tell you everything you could possibly need to know about Blue Base."
"Is she also a mean girl, or a regular girl?" Caboose asked.
"Caboose what did I tell you?"
"That there are no regular girls…"
"Exactly. Alright, so just stick with him, ask him any questions you have, and just don't bother me. Or Tucker. Or Blake."
"You have awful leadership skills," Blake said.
"You wanna tour her around?" Church questioned.
"Yeah, Sister, you should definitely go with Caboose!" Blake quickly said.
"Uh huh, that's what I thought," Church said triumphantly.
"What do I tell her?" Caboose asked.
"Well, I already know the rule," Sister said.
"Oh, I hate that stupid rule!"
"Go show her Doc and Sheila," Blake suggested.
Caboose turned around and pointed across the field to the other side of Blue base, where Doc was still conversing with Sheila, with Doc barely being more than an obscure purple figure in the distance from where they stood. "The purple one is Doc, and the big one is Sheila," Caboose gestured.
"Y'know, I was really hoping that would take longer. And further away," Church sighed.
"What about the black one?" Sister asked.
"You already know who I am," Blake said confusingly.
"No, the other black one," Sister said.
"Oh, that's Tucker. But you can't tell because of the armor," Caboose said.
"No no, the one in black armor! The one standing right behind you guys?"
The air was filled with silence for just a few moments as a realization dawned on all of them, with Church verbalizing their thoughts all into one word:
"Fuck."
Yang, Simmons and Grif stood around the gaping hole in the earth where Sarge and Ruby had fallen, peering through to see a long drop down into a cavern of some kind. "Looks like there's a cavern running right under Blood Gulch," Simmons noted.
"A cavern? A cavern like a cave? Like a cave with bats?' grif suddenly and quickly asked, going into a small panic.
"I don't know. Why, are you afraid of bats or something?" Simmons asked.
"Afraid of bats? No. Why would I be afraid of bats? And why would you even ask that question? Are there bats or something? That's kind of a weird thing to ask for no reason," Grif said, still quickly and nervously rushing through his words.
"After all we've been through the past few weeks, you're scared of bats?" Yang raised an eyebrow with a slightly amused smirk creeping up to her lips.
"Is it getting dark? We should be getting inside," Grif suggested.
"It hasn't gotten dark here in three fucking years, asshole," Simmons replied, clearly annoyed. "You're going down there. Now."
"Why? What do we really need Sarge for anyway? All he ever did was yell at us a bunch and tell us we suck! We'll just split up his duties. You yell at me, and I'll tell you you suck!"
"Shut up and get in the hole, Grif!" Simmons exclaimed.
"You suck, Simmons! Oh man, this new system is already working out great! We should've thought about this years ago!"
"And what about my sister?" Yang raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sure she's fine, she's as badass as the rest of you guys!"
"Okay, Grif. I tried to be nice. Either you get in the hole yourself, or I throw you down there at full force," Yang threatened.
Grif stared at her for a few hard seconds. "You wouldn't…"
"Hm… you're right," Yang agreed. "But he would." Simmons bashed Grif in the back of his head with his rifle, sending the orange soldier into the chasm below, screaming his entire way down.
"That's for the bullshit with the tank, asshole!" Simmons called after his teammate. "Man, I needed that…"
"See you down below," Yang winked before jumping down as well. Simmons followed close behind.
Grif kept screaming his entire descent before slamming down into the dirt at the bottom, landing harshly as both Simmons and Yang landed on their feet. Grif groaned as he got to his own two feet and recovered his rifle. "You didn't have to push…"
"Yeah, I didn't have to, but it sure was fun! And cathartic. I got a cool screenshot from my visor of you flailing, too!" Simmons said with an entertained glee. "Guess who has a new desktop wallpaper? This guy!"
"Hey, can you send me that? I wanna make it into a poster when I get home. Get it framed and hung up in my room," Yang said.
"Har har, very funny," Grif said dryly. "Now that I'm done being the punching bag, can we focus now?"
"Right. Let's find Sarge and Ruby," Simmons said.
"Shit! Get down!" Church exclaimed as the entire group dove for cover behind Blue Base as gunfire and grenades came down on top of them.
"Who is that?!" Sister asked.
"That's Tex!" Tucker answered.
"Woah, he's a bad ass! He's kinda hot!" Sister complimented their attacker.
"Tex isn't a guy, she's a girl!" Tucker corrected.
"Oh, sorry-she is a bad ass… she's kinda hot!"
"She's actually Church's ex-girlfriend!"
"Oh yeah? Why aren't you guys dating anymore?" Sister asked the Blue leader.
"Are you seriously asking that question right now?!" Church questioned.
Caboose said, "last time I was shot, I got a purple heart. Yeah, I-I hope this time I get a purple lung. Y'see, eventually, I-I hope to build an entire purple person! And we will be best friends!"
"Maybe you should ask for a purple brain," Tucker insulted.
"You're just jealous, because you have no friends!" Caboose replied.
Tucker then turned to their leader crouched down next to him. "Why is she shooting at us?"
"How do I know? And why are you acting like this is unusual?" Church replied.
"Well, go out there and tell her to stop!" Tucker said.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Church said sarcastically.
"Uh, aren't you like, the leader or something?" Sister asked.
"Uh, yeah Sister, I am the ladder, which is why I am officially appointing you as our field negotiator."
"Awesome!" sister cheered.
"Yes, congratulations, we're all very proud of you. Your first job is to get Tex to stop firing at us!"
"Cool." Sister then stood up, poking her head out of the safety of cover to scream across the field. "HEY TEX! STOP SHOOTING YOU STUPID BITCH!"
"Nice negotiating," Tucker said.
"She stopped firing. I think that actually worked. Maybe she's outta ammo… lemme check," Church said. He poked his head out, and within that same instant, a sniper round tore through his head. His body dropped down and Church now only stood in his corporeal ghostly form. "Nope. She still has ammo."
"Nice recon work," Tucker remarked.
"I'mma go get my body back," Church said.
"Yeah, good idea," Tucker said.
"Wait, hold on. Where the fuck is Blake?"
Tex reloaded her rifle and prepped to move when she heard a gun cock behind her. In an instant, she moved and grabbed Blake by her wrist, flipped her over and slammed her onto the ground, pinning the faunus down. "Can't get the drop on me twice, you little brat," Tex hissed. Then the black blade of Gambol Shroud was suddenly against her throat, and the Blake in front of her disappeared, merely a shadow clone. The real Blake kept her weapon right against Tex's neck. "Son of a bitch…"
"What do you think you're doing?" Blake questioned.
"What, you're surprised by this?" Tex asked.
"Not really," Blake admitted.
"You got me," Tex relented. Blake scowled, but slowly pulled her sword away. Tex returned to her feet and they rejoined the Blues, who were still crouched down in cover on the other side of the base.
"Hey, Tucker, is my body on straight?" Church asked, back in his body already.
"Dude, I don't even know what that means," Tucker replied.
They then noticed as the two black-clad women joined them. Church stood back up to his full height. "Tex, what is your problem?!" He questioned.
"My problem is that O'Malley isn't in Doc anymore. He's jumped into someone new, and I'm not trusting anybody until I find out who," Tex answered.
"Yeah, we already knew all that. We are on top of the situation," Church replied.
"You are? Then who did O'Malley jump into?" Tex asked.
"Oh. Yeah, I meant we were on top of everything right up until that point," Church said.
"Typical."
"None of us are infected, Tex, but I am a little worried about the tank. She's been acting really weird lately. Can an AI implant in a…" Church's words trailed off as he saw Tex's glare change from him to Sister, and she held that glare the entire time he was talking. "Tex?"
"Who's the new girl?" She asked.
"What? Who, Sister? Oh, she's just a new recruit."
"You mean to tell me I'm only gone a few days, and you guys get yourselves another new girl?!"
"Oh… umm…"
"Woah- tread lightly, dude… tread lightly…" Tucker warned.
Ruby's vision came to her as her ears were filled with a harsh ringing. Her mind had gone to black before they had even hit the ground. Now as consciousness returned to her, her head felt dizzy, discombobulated. Had her aura not protected her, she'd have been in a worse state. That being said, she could feel that her aura was gone, presumably broken by the fall.
"Yow… what in the-...?" She heard Sarge groan painfully. At least he was alright as well. She pushed herself up, Sarge doing the same next to her, and the two red-clad leaders got their bearings.
"You alright, Sarge?" Ruby asked.
"Feelin' a little sore, but otherwise fine. What happened up there?" Sarge replied.
"I'm not sure… I remember the Grimm… then I think the ground caved in below us… are we under Blood Gulch?"
"Hm, possibly. There are caves up and down the place. Wouldn't be surprised if this is one of 'em."
"Oh, hey guys!" a cheery voice greeted. The two turned around to see Donut approaching, unscathed, alive and well.
"Donut! You're alright!" Ruby smiled.
"Nope. Not a cave. This is hell," Sarge said.
"What are you guys doing down here?" Donut asked.
"Part of the canyon gave way during a fight. Sarge and I ended up falling down here," Ruby answered.
"Well it's great to see some familiar faces. I've been exploring down here and found some really crazy stuff. Look!" Donut gestured just down the path of the open cavern, and constructed in between a few pillars of rock down the way was an abandoned and damaged Blue outpost, much like the one above ground, just degraded.
"Well, that fort there looks like a Blue Base!" Sarge deduced.
"Yeah, but look at that!" Donut gestured to a large, unrecognizable purple transport of some kind, also abandoned and damaged. They knew right away they weren't going to get it to work.
"What is that thing?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know, but it sure looks like that thing Yang stole from O'Malley. Before she painted it, at least."
"Donut, why didn't you report this?" Sarge questioned.
"I couldn't. My radio broke when I fell!" Donut answered.
Ruby's eyes rounded as she suddenly remembered her sister and teammates above ground. "We need to call them and let them know we're okay!" She fumbled for her scroll and pulled it out of her pocket, only for the screen to be shattered and one of the ends to be barely hanging on. Her scroll must've been demolished in the fall. She let out a disappointed whine and tossed the destroyed scroll aside, letting it sit to become another forgotten object in the cavern.
"Not to worry, Ruby. My HUD says my radio is workin' just fine. Huh, looks like I'm actually being raised right now. One sec," Sarge said before turning to the side. His radio turned on to static until Simmons' voice filled the airwaves.
"Come in, Sarge. Are you there?"
"Hello! Is that you, Simmons?" Sarge answered.
"Sarge, we're down in the cave with you. Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay," Simmons asked.
"Is Ruby with you? Is she alright?" Yang asked quickly as she joined on the frequency as well.
"We're both fine. What's your location?" Sarge asked.
"We're looking for you right now, but this place is huge," Simmons said. "Yang and Grif are with me and we're on top of some kind of peninsular outcropping."
"Uh… Yang is on top of Grif's what?"
"No, we're on a peninsular ledge, trying to find you."
"Roger that. We found Donut and we're all in one piece, so you just sit tight and we'll find you," Sarge replied.
"Roger that. Simmons out." The radio clicked off and Sarge turned to his two companions.
"I just talked with Simmons on the radio. I told them to hold still and we'll come to them."
"Sarge, I don't think you realize how big this palace is," Donut said. "There's no landmarks or anything. Just one rock after another that all look the same. Finding them would be like finding a needle in a haystack."
"Sounds easy to get lost in," Ruby said.
"They said they were standing on some kind of a… penis no-"
"Oh, I know where that is. Let's go!" Donut said before running ahead to lead the way.
"I'm not surprised," Sarge said before following. Ruby glanced around and saw Crescent Rose sitting in the dirt. She bent down and picked her beloved weapon up, then wiped the soil and dust off it. Once she was content, she changed it to it's boxed up form, hooked it onto the back of her belt, and also followed.
"I swear, I heard something that time," Grif insisted.
"You didn't hear anything," Yang said. "Just like the last twenty times."
Grif was silent for a few moments until another dripping sound could be heard. "There! Did you hear that?"
"Yes, I heard dripping water. A running sink could terrify you."
"Sounds like bats!" Grif exclaimed, still hung up on the possibility that the flying mammals he feared called the cavern home.
"Bats aren't made of liquid. Bats don't drip," Simmons said, also growing frustrated with his teammates untamed fear.
"Bat water!" grif cried.
"There are no bats, dude!" Yang said.
"You don't know, what if you're wrong?" Grif whined.
"Ok, idiot, let's assume I'm wrong. Let's assume there are bats. So what?" Simmons said. "You're wearing state of the art biomechanical body armor. It's designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions. What can a five ounce flying rodent possibly do?"
Grif stared at him hard for a second before saying, "So basically you're saying that you think there are bats?"
"Sure, why not?" Simmons sighed, resigning to defeat with Grif.
"I'm getting the fuck outta here!" Grif said before starting in the other direction, but Yang grabbed his shoulder and pulled him right back.
"Nuh uh. You're staying right here while we wait for Sarge and Ruby, mister," She said sternly.
"Could we at least go stand by the light?" Grif asked, gesturing to one of the installed and, more importantly on lights just a few yards down the path.
"No. I told Sarge we weren't gonna move, so we're not moving. That would be moving, and thus would violate our strict 'no moving' policy," Simmons said.
"Hey, you know what else might be in the cave, Simmons? Snakes," Grif said.
"You're an asshole, Grif. Why would you bring up snakes?" Simmons said, a twinge of fear sneaking into his own tone.
"I'm just saying, I know you don't like snakes, and snakes do live in caves, and we are in a cave, and snakes like to crawl right up next to people in caves, and then they-"
"Alright, screw it, I'm gonna go stand by the light," Simmons quickly relented before moving at a brisk pace over to the active light.
Yang sighed and shook her head. "You're both pussies." Yang joined them under the light, the trio huddled together under the light as if it could actually protect them.
"Sarge should be able to see us here, right?" Simmons questioned.
"It's a light, so I sure hope so. He's not that old," Yang said.
"Now that I think about it, if we're in a cave, why are there lights down here?" Grif asked.
"That's… actually a good point. Who else could be down here?" Suddenly she felt a spike of pain as something pierced her neck, so fast and sudden her aura didn't come up to stop it. She held her neck and tore out a pink needle-like crystal from her skin. As soon as she took it out, she began to feel dizzy and drowsy. She dropped to her knees wearily, then toppled over out cold on the ground.
"Yang, you alright?" Simmons asked concerningly. Then a needle pierced his neck too. "I-Is that a snake…? Get it off…." Simmons quickly toppled over unconscious.
"Simmons? Yang?!" grif exclaimed, then one pierced his neck as well. "Ow…" He turned around as his vision blurred, still keeping on his feet. Eight more shot into him all over, from head to toe. "Ow!" One final needle shot into his groin, and his vision became nothing but a blurry mess as a handful of figures entered his obscured vision. "Oh, hey look… bat people… please don't eat me, bat people…" Grif said drowsily before falling over and slamming onto the ground.
Tex took Sister off to the side to speak privately, separate from Blake and the rest of the Blues. Afterwards, Doc returned to the rest of the group at Blue Base, having just finished his conversation with Sheila. "Ok, I talked to Sheila. You guys were right, she definitely seems a little odd," he said.
"Yep. So what do you think?" Church asked.
"I think she seems like there's something wrong," Doc answered.
"That's your diagnosis? That's why we sent you down there, man! Because we knew something was wrong!"
"I'm a medic, what do you want from me?" Doc asked.
"How about fixing her?" Church suggested.
"Well, surprisingly, my medical training didn't really cover internal combustion," Doc said sarcastically.
"Told you," Blake said to Church.
"What a shitty medical school," Church said. "Just go back down there and see if you can reboot Sheila."
"Reboot her?" Doc repeated.
"Yeah, dude, that's how you fix broken stuff," Tucker added. "You turn her off, and turn her back on again. She'll be fine."
"I don't think that'll work," Doc said.
"That does sound a little far-fetched to solve the problem," Blake agreed.
"Please, it always works. We rebooted the toaster, the TV, the teleporter- we even rebooted Caboose's armor once. Though, that took a lot longer to come back online than we thought it would," Church admitted.
"It was dark and I got to hold my breath," Caboose said. "I'm pretty sure there were no side effects."
"I don't much believe that either," Blake said.
"Oh no, I meant it won't work because I'm not going back down there. She's not exactly in the best of moods," Doc said. His words were punctuated by Sheila firing a cannon shell into the cliff face behind the group. "See?"
"Yeah, we need to get someone sneaky down there who can turn her off," Church admitted. He then glanced over in Blake's direction.
"Hell no," Blake cursed. "Besides, I wouldn't even know how."
"Eh, fair point," Church agreed.
"How about Tex?" Tucker suggested.
"Yeah, we couldn't afford it. 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, who stood there in confusion, not understanding the reason they were staring at all.
"Hey… everyone is looking at me… I love when they do that. Hi everybody!" Caboose said.
Church turned to Blake. "Not a word of this to Ruby."
"Not a word," Blake agreed.
"Well, I suppose I should figure out a way to get Tex to reboot Sheila. Man, I'm gonna have to call in a lot of favors for this one…"
"What favors could you have stored up with a woman who broke up with you?" Blake questioned.
"She didn't break up with me, it was mutual," Church corrected.
"Mutual in what way? Mutual in the sense that you wer eboth single th emoment after she dumped you?" Tucker said.
"Yeah, that way," Church deadpanned. "C'mon, Caboose. Let's go explain the plan to Tex. Wish us luck!" Church and Caboose then ran over to Tex just as Sister was starting on her way back over as well.
"Yeah right," Tucker said. "Hey, when she kills you, I'm gonna sell your armor to that pink guy on the Red team! I hear he's in the market!"
"Hey, who's the yellow soldier?" Doc asked, now notcing Sister as she wa smacking her way back over.
"That's Grif's sister. She dropped in a little while ago," Blake answered, not intending to make a pun out of it. She'd curse Yang for that later.
"No one told me about a new arrival," Doc said. "I'm supposed to examine everyone before they assume active duty!"
"Don't sweat it, I already checked her out for you. Diagnosis: F-I-N-E," Tucker said smoothly. "That spells fine."
"Thanks, but I think a trained medical professional should be the one to do-"
"I'm a doctor! A doctor of love! PhD. Certified love-ology. General her-ass-titioner. Sexocologist."
"You shouldn't be proud of yourself for any of that," Blake said.
"First of all, love is not an officially recognized medical specialty. And also, PhD's? Heh, not really doctors!" Doc said.
"Dude, you're a dork," Tucker said.
"Hey!" Sister greeted as she finally made it to them.
"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," Sister said before she and Doc ran inside the base. Tucker was left in stunned silence by the whole interaction.
"What the fuck just happened…?" he said aloud.
"I guess Doc just had better game than you," Blake said with an entertained smirk. Despite the enemies and problems they faced, Blake was actually enjoying the downtime with the Reds and Blues. Sure, they fought a lot, but what friends don't? It was both entertaining and just plain fun to be around them. The only wrinkle in that was Tex. She didn't seem to care about the well being of the soldiers at all, despite having been in a relationship with one of them. That detachment worried Blake about what Tex would be willing to do. Because of this, Blake always kept her guard up when Tex was around. She had begun to understand and even somewhat trust some of the Reds and Blues. They had helped her and the team without question, so they were good people, even if not the purest or brightest. They were just people, people stationed in the middle of nowhere with just each other. Tex was a different story, indifferent to their problems, and even being a problem herself. Whatever all this was, it was just a mission to her. Blake would be ready if that mission meant fighting the freelancer for real.
Blake then noticed as Weiss was groggily exiting the base as Doc and Sister went inside. She quickly went to join her teammate. "Hey. Are you feeling alright?" Blake asked.
"I imagine this is what a hangover feels like…" Weiss groaned. "Do you mind catching me up?"
Ruby didn't talk much as they walked along the path through the cavern, her and Sarge following Donut's lead through rock formations and even more abandoned constructions. Donut mentioned something of even finding bodies of Red and Blue soldiers, just as dust and dirt covered and forgotten just like everything else below, but thankfully Sarge opted to move forward with Ruby with them. Ruby's mind was dwelling on something else though.
The battle up above came back to her mind. After the Grimm destroyed the Cosmic Dust container, also destroying the crystal in the process, the blast had injured it, opened up to reveal what had to have been a person below its black fur. Those eyes weren't that of Grimm. And what felt even stranger to Ruby was that the pair of eyes she saw inside had felt somehow… familiar. But how? From where? How would she know who hid under that mask of a Grimm? She hadn't been able to see the rest of their face, it was shielded by the blackness of their monstrous body. But what would she have seen if not?
"Sarge, I found Simmons! He's over here sleepin' on the job!" Donut called from ahead. Ruby's attention returned to the here and now as she and Sarge approached Donut. At their feet, only just now coming into consciousness, was Simmons.
"Donut… I'm not sleeping… I was drugged…" Simmons groaned as he started to get up. Ruby quickly moved to help him to his feet.
"Sorry, Sarge. He's not sleeping; he's doing drugs."
"Shut up, DOnut, I'm not doing drugs, we were attacked!" Simmons exclaimed.
"Where are Yang and Grif?" Ruby asked. The four quickly looked around to find that Yang and Grif were nowhere to be found.
"Probably out scoring this guy more drugs," Donut said.
"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. Luckily I implanted a tracking chip in Grif's armor, which should lead us to both of them," Simmons said.
"How fast can you track them?" Ruby asked.
"Gimme just a few seconds… and… got 'em. They're a tenth of a mile… that way," Simmons gestured.
"Then come on, let's go!" Ruby exclaimed before sprinting ahead. Without her aura, she didn't have her semblance to help her, but that wouldn't stop her from ensuring the safety of Grif or her sister. The thought that the Grimm was involved somehow popped into her head, and with that thought, the image of those strange yet familiar two eyes. But she shook it from her mind. It wasn't important right now, so she ignored that twinge in her memory, and just kept running ahead, with the Red Team following suit behind her.