Sorry for such a late release, school and sickness and bears and tigers, oh my! By the way, yes, I saw the V7 premiere. And I also met Yuri Lowenthal, he signed a Gemstones thing and called me Ben because I was wearing my OV hoodie! I am in heaven

Btw the theme for this "season" is Inferno by Mrs. Green Apple! Please enjoy


Roman took a long drag of his cigar and contemplated robbery.

He was tired of banks. He was tired of house breaking. He needed something exciting, more blood-thumping. So nearby Dust store it was! If he was lucky, Roman could get some clean cut Dust without the hassle of that thing idiot civilians called "paying". No one wanted to do it, but it was encouraged; a true travesty in Roman's books. He just wanted to break away from the concept and the fear of becoming a faceless husk of society. Why else was he normally dressed so dapper?

Roman took a look at the dumb muscle he hired from Junior. They weren't the brightest bananas in the bunch, but they would do. And so they walked down the streets, as brazen as they could be- or more like Roman swaggered down the streets, the others just kind of shambled like thugs. They were quite the odd bunch of criminals; people stared at them as they passed by, but Roman soaked in the attention. The everyday criminals, however, questioned why they were doing this in public. ("A sneak attack would be better!" "Where's the fun in that?")

So, no shock when the police car rolled up close to the sidewalk. A window rolled down, and an upset cop poked his head out. "Headed somewhere, sir?"

Roman perked up and halted his crew. "Why yes, actually! Do you know where the Dust store is?"

The cop was confused for a second. Dust? Was he talking about PCP? "The what?"

"You know, Dust! Most powerful mineral known to man?" Roman twirled his cane as he talked.

"I….I'm lost. I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." The cop was reaching for his radio already.

"You don't need to do that," Roman told him, his voice like honey. The cop's hand went back to the steering wheel, and he looked at Roman with the biggest smile on his face.

"How can I help you?" the cop asked pleasantly.

"I want you to cause a diversion," Roman ordered. "Say that you got a weird tip about a murder or something and need most of the police force on the east side of town. The farther the better."

"You got it, chief," the cop said. He rolled up the window and drove away.

Roman smirked at his slack-jawed henchmen. "Gentlemen, to the docks." He pointed his cane in the opposite direction, and on they went.

Ben waited in the transport dock for his and Ruby's team to arrive. He scrolled through the Omnitrix to see what types of aliens he could use in combat for this operation, speaking softly to himself about what plan of attack he could use. "I could use Eatle to ram the entire operation down, but then that leaves me open to attacks. Then again, with Eatle's increased dermal armor, maybe I could take a few hits and shift into a faster form, like XLR8 or something..."

"I heard the speedy alien and I came running," Ruby's panting voice sounded from behind him. Ben turned around with a smile.

"You fucking meme," he said affectionately. And then he practically inhaled his tongue.

Because Ruby Rose? Had changed into her combat uniform and Ben suddenly needed an inhaler.

Her outfit was predominantly black, with a skirt that ended at her thighs- there was a red tulle underskirt, making that section look like a rose. Underneath the dress was a white high-neck blouse that was sliced apart at the bust, showing a good amount of décolletage, and brown studded wristbands on her arms. She was wearing tights that went from dark gray to a red gradient and that hid into black and red accented combat boots. An overbust corset with a red stripe held her outfit in place. A black belt with a silver rose emblem and ammunition attached was at her waist. Crescent Rose was strapped to her back. And finally, there was a long red hood that covered her face when up, accompanied by a ripped up hem that trailed down to her feet.

She looked calm and badass and utterly adorable. And Ben realized he was royally fucked. And Ruby knew it, judging from the size of her smirk.

"You like it? I designed this little number myself," Ruby explained, twirling around. "I drew influence from my mom, my uncle and a few animes I watched."

"You get all dressed up for hunting?"

"You know that phrase, 'dressed to kill'?" Ruby joked.

"That is a terrible joke, why did you say it?" Ben groaned.

She crossed her arms. "Why not? It fits."

Ben had to tear himself away from Ruby's combat outfit, because who in their right mind let this girl wear a corset and a sliced up top, there went his fucking sanity, goddamn.

And then he turned to the rest of her team, and, well. Clearly they were all better dressed than Zeta Squad.

"Hey, Ben!" A familiar blonde grinned, waving at him. "Long time no see!" Yang was wearing a tan jacket with orange lining and gold edging, unzipped halfway to show an orange crop top. The coat had darker brown short sleeves, a thick collar that completely encircled her neck, and two long gold-trimmed rectangular tails. Around her hips and under the tails of her coat was a brown belt, which had two pieces of dark brown material trimmed in gold attached to it. She tucked her dark brown pants into knee high brown boots with gold caps on the heel and toe, with the heel cap attaching to a gold strap across the front of her ankle, and a gold zipper on the upper half of the front of the boots.

"Yang Xiao Long?" Ben said happily. The two hugged, and Ben could feel the warm metal of her prosthetic arm through his hoodie. "Long time no see. How ya been?"

"Oh, you know, busy and what not," she joked. "But look at you! All...tall and stuff."

Ben narrowed his eyes and his smile grew sharp. "I am five feet and five and a half inches tall. I will destroy you."

"And I am six feet and two inches taller. I own your ass," Yang said, lowering her aviator glasses to reveal her threatening red eyes.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty," Weiss sighed, having to be the voice of reason (again). She was dressed in a short, glittering dress with a color gradation of blue to pale blue, a sweetheart neckline, and a white, tulle petticoat. A white ribbon was wrapped multiple times around her waist, and over the outfit was a slightly sheer, long-sleeved blue shrug fastened at the collar with a large sapphire broach that had three pendants dangling from it.

"And you're still the shortest person in the room," Yang taunted.

"YOU WANNA DO THIS AGAIN, XIAO LONG?!"

Ben took one look at the furious look on Weiss's face and wisely backed away. As the two got into a verbal spar, Ben turned to the last member of team RWBY. She was a tall, pretty girl with silky black hair and amber eyes. The girl was dressed in long white tailcoat with dark gray lining and a sleeveless black crop top. She wore a white belt over black fitted pants, with thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top.

"Who's this?" Ben asked. "I don't remember seeing you at the camp back when we were kids."

"I was raised outside of conventional Hunter programs," the girl said. She gave a small smile. "I'm Blake Belladonna. Ignore Yang and Weiss; arguments are their life blood."

"I can tell," Ben laughed, reminded of the many infamous arguments he had with Kevin.

"Don't suppose we could meet the rest of your team?" Blake asked hopefully. By then Yang and Weiss had winded down considerably.

"Uh, yeah. They're just suiting up right now," Ben said. "They should be out any minute now."

"Shouldn't you be too, then?" Yang teased.

"Shit, you're right!" Ben hurried down the hall. "Wait here, I'll get 'em!"

Ruby snickered as she watched him run off to wherever his team was. "Same old Ben," she said fondly as she rejoined her team.

"Ruby!" She turned to see Ceres, all prepped up for battle. "I wanna have a quick leader to leader talk."

Ceres' outfit was nothing to write home about: black Converse sneakers; form-fitting jeans that flared out a bit at the ankle; a black V-neck t-shirt with a white circuit board design; a blue phoenix pendant paired with a dark blue choker at her neck, a silver clasp gleaming against the left side of her throat; a slightly cropped tan leather jacket with multiple zippers, and finally a black personalized tool belt with numerous compartments. Black fingerless gloves were tucked into jeans pockets, and the movement revealed black and blue gauntlets similar to Yang's.

No, her outfit was nothing to write home about, but her aura was. And it wasn't the forcefield Huntsmen used. No, there was something about this girl that radiated power and confidence and danger. She was the calm in the hurricane, forcing men to their knees in utter shock and awe. There was just something about her that forced people to look at her, to fear her and love her all the same. Her glacial blue eyes looked into Ruby's own, nailing her to the spot with a calculating gaze. And then Ceres gave a beatific smile, revealing white shark-like teeth. "Heard you got a badass sniper-scythe. Can I see?"

Ruby let out the breath she had been holding and grinned back. "Yep! Here's my baby!" She unleashed Crescent Rose's full form, and she took in the sight of this intimidating young woman loudly squealing over Ruby's weapon like Ruby did with, well, any other weapon.

"I love it," Ceres gushed, trailing her fingers gently against the cool metal. "And you made this yourself? Jealous~"

"Didn't you make your own weapon?" Ruby asked curiously, still smiling gleefully.

Ceres huffed. "They're actually a heavily modified, modern version of my grandmother's gauntlets. I mean, they suit me, but sniper-scythe," she whined, holding the weapon close to her chest like a mother holding a baby.

"At least you didn't call it a scyther-rifle," Ruby muttered.

Ceres gave a glare that could have melted concrete. "Whoever told that pun gets a fiery punch to the crotch."

(Ben coughed elsewhere.)

"Hey, sis, who's your friend?" Ruby looked over to see Yang and the others walking over.

"Oh, you know, just having some leader to leader chat," Ruby said with a smile. "Sharing strategies and what not?"

"This is Ben's leader?" Weiss asked, scanning Ceres' well-built body and blushing lightly. "I can see why."

"You must be the rest of team RWBY," Ceres said with a nice smile. "Pleasure to be working with you."

"Same to you," Yang returned in kind. "It's nice to be back in town, to be honest. Haven't been back here since I was a kid."

"How was Bellwood back then?"

"...quiet, I guess? Kind of small?"

"If the rumors I heard were true, than any place with you involved would be loud and noticeable," a kind voice joked from close by. They all turned to see Zeta squad walking towards them- well, most of them, anyway.

From the look of things, the group had tried to create some sort of uniform among them, but hadn't tried hard enough to implement it. Ceres was dressed casually, as was Kevin and Kylie; Kevin was dressed head to toe in black, an old leather jacket completing the look, while Kylie wore a flattering green shirt and black pants, a plague doctor mask and other holsters strapped to her waist. Rook was the only one wearing his armor- Ruby got the feeling he rarely took it off, something she respected him for.

All in all, Zeta squad looked...casual. Relaxed. Little like all the other uniformed Plumbers and completely unlike how bombastic RWBY liked to look. For the most part, Zeta squad could blend in anywhere in Bellwood- and now that Ruby thought about it, that might have been the point.

She then noticed Kylie give someone a shy smile and wave, her face starting to pink.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you." Weiss grinned, waltzing over and- to everyone's utter shock- wrapping Kylie in a hug. ("She's never given me a hug," Ruby pouted softly.) "Sorry I haven't been able to text you for a while, the semester has been utter hell."

"It's cool, I've just been doing some crazy missions with Zeta squad. I almost died a few times!" Kylie gave an enthusiastic smile.

"Do you know her from your stint as a huntress?" Ceres asked curiously.

"Yeah, we went to the same camp," Kylie explained. "Technically I know her, Yang and Ruby, but I've always been closer to Weiss."

"Okay, but why'd you switch over to being a Plumber?" Ruby questioned the girl.

Kylie gave a half hearted shrug before answering, "Aliens."

Ceres rolled her eyes. "Viable answer, I suppose."

"I'M HERE! I'm here!" Everyone looked over to see Ben running over to the group. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized, quickly skidding to a stop. "So, let's talk strategy real quick."

Ruby had to stop herself from staring at Ben in his uniform. It wasn't anything too special- black cargo pants, green belts with black holsters, and a dark green shirt with some armor on it, not unlike Rook's torso armor. He fit in with the rest of his team relatively well... except now Ruby knew just how well Ben had grown over the years. His baggier clothes from earlier had hid it well, but puberty had been kind to him: he was still slender, but he had a broader chest and larger biceps and his ass looked fantastic in those pants-

"Ruby, were you listening?" Weiss demanded to know.

"Ah! What?" Ruby spluttered, snapping back to reality. "Ah, sorry! Was busy thinking about...tactics." She had to stop her eyes from straying towards Ben after that.

Weiss glared, clearly not believing her, but she let it go for now. "Anyway, we should consider splitting up. We don't know Bellwood that well, and quite frankly I want us to go in small groups so we attract less attention."

"Yeah, you guys stand out no matter what," Kylie admitted, "and Zeta uniforms can be sort of militaristic. Well, depending on what the mission is, anyway."

"Yeah, you guys don't look as cohesive as most other teams," Yang noted. "Like, are you trying to blend in with a crowd? Are you still figuring out uniform ideas? It doesn't seem like it meshes well, is what I'm saying."

"Well, we couldn't really agree on any proper design, and none of us wanted to wear the Plumber armor," Ceres pointed out. "I've developed some uniforms we can wear, but those are more of a case by case basis. In the end, we just went with what was most comfortable."

"Well, it all looks individualized," Blake noted. "As long as it works, I don't see any problems."

"Before we go, though, can I see that supposed Dust crystal you found in that handgun?" Weiss asked. Ceres took it from one of her many pockets and handed it over.

"Thank you," Weiss smiled...before her face contorted in disgust. "Ugh."

"What, what's wrong with it?" Kevin said, concerned. "It looks like it's in good condition?"

"It absolutely is not." Weiss frowned. "Judging by the cut, it was done by some punk with improper tools. Probably points to some shady business in town. Noting that, they probably don't have aura either. Aura is required to use dust; a cut like this could've blown up in their face. And something tells me the robbers weren't able to use it either."

"So why have the dust in the weapons, then?" Ben wondered.

"Illegal trading system, probably," Blake hypothesized.

"So I guess that means we should look into Undertown while we can," Kevin noted.

Rook gave him some serious side-eye. "Are you sure you simply do not want to look for more auto parts?"

"Like you wouldn't?"

"Back to the details on the Dust job," Ceres interjected, "is there any way of knowing what was used to cut the crystal?"

Weiss shook her head. "It's so sloppy I can't identify it. It's like the punk who did this just wanted to bring in new materials to the field and used this as a demo."

The word 'punk' echoed around in Ben's head. This all sounded a bit too familiar: sloppy work, shoving tech unfamiliar to him in other weapons, and just how 'Earthly' the crime sounded…

"I think searching Undertown is unnecessary," Ben said with a grimace. "The culprit may not be clear to you guys, but for me? It seems obvious."

He walked over and typed a few things up on one of the bigger computers, bringing up some old case files. "A few months ago, we squared off with this tech thief who would steal alien weaponry and sell them for double the price to normal humans," Ben explained. "He was an idiot, but still managed to pull off a majority of heists under our nose."

"Sounds like someone we know," Ruby chuckled.

"For the past few months, he has been laying low," Rook carried on, "until apparently this morning, where security cameras at a nearby bar captured this footage."

The footage showed Fistrick, drinking in a booth, occasionally scrolling through his phone. He then looked up to see a rather fanciful man dressed in a bowler hat and pure white waistcoat. Team RWBY gasped in recognition.

Blake snarled. "Roman Torchwick."

Ben repeated the name in his head. "Who?"

"I feel like I know enough about him to explain," Ruby cut in. "Roman's a criminal involved in stealing expensive tech and Dust. I've crossed paths with him a few times. But what's he doing in Bellwood?"

"No idea," Rook said. "But what could Fistrick gain from this 'Dust'?"

"The ability to create more powerful weapons, a more efficient battery, weapons of mass destruction..." Weiss listed, "and selling it for double really isn't an option. I just can't get a read on this guy. He can't use it, so what's to gain?"

"Then why not just find out for ourselves?" Kylie grinned mischievously.

The Airbirds softly hovered above the water as the group quietly snuck out onto the wooden dock. Ceres signaled to the team to stay put before carefully tiptoeing up the stairs to the cargo area. No one was present, thankfully. Ceres motioned for the group to follow her, and with that they ran across the place and towards the warehouse.

The Zeta Squad headed to the right side of the warehouse, and Team RWBY went the opposite. Ben carefully fiddled with the Omnitrix, scrolling through a few icons. Ceres nudged him on the shoulder before pointing to a vent on the side. Ben smirked as he twisted the dial to a bipedal frog-like creature.

He slapped down the dial, and instantly, his stature began to shrink to the size of a mouse. His eyes bulged out, changing from regular pupils to horizontal lines with green sclera, and his skin turned grayish blue. He donned a green jumpsuit, with the Omnitrix locating itself on his back. "Grey Matter!" the little alien yelled, loud enough for the four to hear. His voice was high pitched and oddly adorable.

"You really think you can intimidate anyone with the little guy?" Kevin asked Ben.

Ben gave an unconfident shrug. "It worked for Echo Echo!"

"Echo Echo has better offensive tactics, my guy," Ceres told him as she pried the vent cover off. She motioned Ben inside. "Though this is perfect for sneaking around. Just don't get caught."

"We'll continue this nonsense when I find out what our so called criminal masterminds are up to!" Ben frowned thoughtfully before he jumped in.

Ben quietly crawled around in the vents, using the voices to guide him. No cameras to be seen in this ventilation system, Ben thought to himself, nor are there any heat or motion detecting alarms going off. For a tech genius he doesn't really care about security. Ben finally turned down a corner with some light at the end.

Bingo, he thought, his frog feet flopping on the metal as he ran to the end. He put his ear up to the vent and listened carefully.

"Listen, bro," a tough voice berated someone. Ben peered through the half-closed vent and frowned.

"I can smell his body odor from here." He tried to stifle his gag reflex as he stared at the leader.

The gruff voice had a 'douchebag' vibe to him, straight down to his muscular appearance; he had an orange mohawk black and white face paint. He wore a black sleeveless shirt with a skull on it, and purple tattoos all over his body. He looked like he was in the middle of a midlife crisis.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull. Junior said you were gonna give me the Dust, and I'd give you some of my tech." Fistrick towered over Roman menacingly.

"Hey, hey, hey…." Roman's voice sounded nervous, but still had an underlying sense of confidence to it. "Sir, please. I often forget that my persuasive powers don't really work on stubborn people like you."

Powers? Ben thought, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't care. Why is this stuff not working for me?" Fistrick snarled. "When you used it earlier, I saw you use it to create tornadoes and lightning strikes, bro!"

Roman slapped his forehead. "Oh, of course! You need an aura for it work. I must've forgotten to mention that in the trade description. Oh well, you can just pawn them off to some other idiot. Tell you what, I'll make it up to you right now!"

"And what are you gonna do?" Fistrick said, crossing his arms.

"By sweetening up the deal." Roman smiled as he waltzed on over to some of the crates. "I had a feeling our agreement would either not work out all that well, or just fall apart due to some nosy people," he said with gritted teeth. "So, I had my men bring in some of the big guns to better appease you."

Roman clapped his hands; the crates suddenly opened up to reveal a lot of heavy machinery, some of which Ben had never seen before. Two things caught his eye; a mini militia of drones and a few larger robots. The drones were humanoid in shape and were metallic dark-gray in color, with red highlights on certain parts of its body, particularly its 'face' and chestplate. They looked menacing, but pretty weak. But maybe that was the point.

The larger robots resembled the smaller drones, but they had more spider like features to them, with four legs on its abdomen, two arms and an upright oriented body. It possessed four cannons, one at the end of each arm, and two larger ones mounted on its shoulders.

"Atlesian Knights," Roman crowed. "Served as the standard security model of Remnant for a few years. Then they upgraded and threw them out. Another friend of mine saw this as an opportunity to fix them up and put them to new use."

"Impressive, bro." Fistrick grinned, admiring his new toys. "I feel I should give you what you came for as well…" Fistrick led Roman over to a strange charging station. Ben couldn't see it all that well, so he climbed out from under the vent and stuck himself to the wall, observing Roman and Torchwick much more closely.

Fistrick pulled out a canister containing neon yellow electricity. "And here we go," he declared. "The batteries you guys need."

"I still don't understand what's so special about these batteries," Roman said, frowning. "They look normal to me."

"Well, bro," Fistrick grinned, "that's the thing: they're alive."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Keep talking."

"Well, a couple guys decided to take me on a trip to this backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Joke trip, you get me? Me and one of my bros were fooling around with this rubber band ball, and this thing came out. We were able to capture it and find out all about it. When we tried to dissect it, it just cloned itself, so that's when decided to turn it into a profit," Fistrick explained, tapping on the glass.

"How...interesting," Roman breathed, as the energy suddenly gained a cohesive form. The thing was small, with plus and minus symbols on their back similar to a battery, and it had a lightning bolt-shaped marking on their chest. They stood roughly a foot tall, had pointy legs, and had three fingers on each hand. It was rather cute, in an odd sort of way. "What can these things do for me, though?"

"I was just about to show you that!" Fistrick crowed. He quickly put on an upper torso power armor and equipped two of the batteries to his shoulders. He went over and picked up one of the heavier crates with ease. Roman was somewhat impressed, but not bought over.

"So?"

"Watch this." Fistrick threw the crate up in the air and shot a blast of energy from out of his hands. It caught the crate in midair and kept it up there. "This thing manipulates the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may have. For example, I can immobilize targets with ease."

Roman blinked. "Now that's something I did not expect to come out of your mouth."

"I get that a lot," Fistrick said as he set the crate down.

Ben was caught off guard; Fistrick's weapon was actually impressive, too impressive for a human to construct. He either stole some blueprints from one his more genius friends, or he actually learned how to read.

"One word of advice, though," Fistrick warned, picking up one of the batteries. "If you really want to make a good getaway, give this thing a good shake." He shook the canister savagely, and the battery let out a horrifying scream. It caused sparks to fly and suddenly, the room went dark… just as the Omnitrix started to beep loudly. Ben swore quietly and, in a flash of green light, he was human again, at the worst time too. He fell to the floor just as the lights came back on.

"What was that?" Roman demanded to know.

"Oh, just an EMP, short range, should shut off weapons for a few seconds or s-"

"No, not that," Roman interrupted him. "I heard a beeping sound."

"I ain't got anything that beeps in here," Fistrick growled. "I hate the sound of that shit."

"Well, then." Roman glowered as he twirled his cane around. He scanned the room, looking for something. "Something tells me we aren't exactly alone."

"Seriously?" Fistrick sighed. "Probably those brats from the Plumbers."

"...you fight kids who fix toilets?" Roman asked incredulously.

"I wish," the punk chuckled as he pressed a button on a remote. A few crates burst open, revealing an army of robots, ready to fight. "Search the area! And raze the docks! If that kid is here, then his friends also have to be nearby."

The robots blew a hole in the side of the warehouse and stormed onto the docks, dead-set on taking down Zeta Squad and Team RWBY. The two teams watched from their vantage points and knew they were in for a fight.

Ceres sighed and threw off her jacket. "It's gonna be another one of those days, isn't it." And then she leaped onto the first robot, kicking it in the face so hard it caved in. The robot careened into another robot and both exploded on impact, sending shrapnel and fire everywhere.

"COME ON, YOU NOVICES!" Ceres shouted over the explosions. "LET ME SHOW YOU HOW OUTCLASSED YOU REALLY ARE!"

Ruby grinned as she loaded her weapon and rushed into the action. She slashed through a robot's torso effortlessly; this was the strength of Atlas robotics? Seemed pretty weak if you asked her.

Weiss drew her blade and ran into battle. Carefully, she slashed through the robots weak points, disarming them with well-trained grace, but quickly retreated; while fast, she wasn't exactly durable, an issue she would work on at a later date.

Kevin turned into his version of Swampfire (Smashing Pumpkins) and started barrelling through robots, using vine whips and fireballs for long and short range attacks. Rook ran up to him and leaped onto Kevin's back, using him as a platform. Rook jumped into the air and started shooting at robots from above, flying through the air as an arc before landing gracefully away from the action. His sniper rifle was already in hand.

Kylie whipped out her pistol and aimed it at some of the approaching robots. She quickly lined the shot and fired out a strong concussive bullet that put a hefty dent into the robot's head. She fired off a few more, watching them curve and hit more of her targets with ease.

Blake and Yang were in the back, fighting off hordes of robots together. Blake was the distraction, using her clones to jump around and make dents into metal, while Yang punched and kicked at their weak points, dismantling them into parts.

Yang smirked and started to play dirty: she unraveled the 'skin' around her robotic arm and shot it out like a harpoon; it ensnared a few robots, and she started tossing them around, hitting more robots and doing some notable damage to the field.

As well as disrupting some other battles. Ceres had melted a robot down with bright blue flames when another robot crashed into her work. "Hey, I was wrecking that!" she barked out.

"Sorry!" Yang yelled, as she threw them at some robots Kevin and Rook were destroying.

Kylie rushed through the battlefield, mainly acting as support to Weiss. She left a trail of thick smoke in her wake, not from running too fast, but to create a wall so her teammates could take a few quick shots at the robots. However, the robots quickly surrounded them. They were close to being overwhelmed, so Kylie released a quick smokescreen to hide them.

"Ok," Kylie huffed. "Now what?"

"Already on it," Weiss declared. Kylie looked under her feet; an intricate glyph had formed beneath them, and suddenly both of them were propelled into the air. Kylie took the chance to switch out her ammo for some scarlet bullets that were filled with strong fire Dust. She grinned as she fired it into the smog below-

And watched it all blow up. Kylie and Weiss landed on the ground, proud of their work.

"We still got it." Kylie grinned at her friend as she ran off to go help her team.

Ruby and Rook kept gunning down robots. Kevin, Weiss, and Ceres kept strategically breaking other robots. And Blake and Yang just did what they always did best:

Take names and kick ass.

And Ben...awkwardly waited for the Omnitrix to recharge.

"Come on, come on!" he said frantically, shaking the thing. It was probably still acting up due to that EMP, but he just felt so helpless watching all this go down.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a snarky voice said. Ben turned to see the orange haired bastard himself, smoking a fat cigar and looking like the biggest pimp in town.

"Jesus, dude, do you go around picking up young girls to sell?" Ben taunted him.

"Not my style," Roman laughed. "Girls are a bit too feisty nowadays." He twirled his cane around and aimed it at Ben; a tiny reticle popped up as he grinned. "You, on the other hand..."

A shot rang out, and smoke appeared where Ben stood. But then a creature loomed over Roman, and a figure stepped out-

"Sup," Big Chill said, smirking. The form was unnaturally thin, Roman noted. Like a skeleton, but...mainly because it was.

"Just because you can presto change-o doesn't mean I still can't hurt you, kid," Roman snarled as he fired another shot at the alien...only for the bullet to pass right through him and shatter like an icicle when it hit a crate behind him.

"I'll give you a five second head start," Big Chill deadpanned.

Roman nodded before he ran off. Ben grinned as he decided to offer some 'aerial' support to the team. He flew off, leaving behind a wintery trail of air. Ben took in a deep breath, and he steadily exhaled; his ice breath ran across the field, freezing most of the robots that were in his range. The teams quickly got out of the way, especially Ceres; any cold temperature could potentially take her out of the fight.

But to be honest, that was the least of her concerns.

"YOU BITCH!" Ceres roared. "I WAS GONNA SCRAP ALL THIS!"

"WAIT, I CAN FIX THIS!" Kevin shouted. There were multiple explosions. "I FIXED IT!"

"THANK YOU, KEVIN!"

Suddenly, the warehouse started shaking rapidly. The front doors blew off, a cloud of smoke drifting out to the bay. Metallic stomps were heard before a giant robot stepped out; it was orange, extremely spiky, and had a multitude of weapons strapped to its body.

"GET READY TO RUMBLE, BROS!" Fistrick yelled from the cockpit, looking around the docking area.

"Oh, joy," Ben groaned. "These things."

"What exactly are they?" Weiss asked, lost. "I've never seen tech like that before."

"Class 12 Battle Suit. Illegal on Earth," Kevin stated matter of factly, "They're typically used by alien armies and require an electrical host to power it."

Ben's eyes focused on the back of the suit before pointing to it. "See those batteries? They have these little aliens inside of them. That's what Roman came for."

"So, how are we gonna take it down?" Blake asked, readying her weapon.

"I'll handle that part. You guys fire when I say so." Ben flew off, passing through the legs of the robot to freeze up its movements. Ben passed through him a few more times as the group below prepared to fire and-

Ben suddenly couldn't move. A bright blue light surrounded his body, immobilizing him in midair. Ben struggled to get free as Fistrick laughed from his cockpit.

Ceres scowled heavily. "I really need to get my hands on that tech. Or scrap it, so this bastard can't use it again."

"Big reason why I invested in this tech, Benny Boy!" Fistrick started to swing his arm around, sending Ben flying around like he was on a wayward rollercoaster.

"I THINK- I'M GONNA- HURL!" Ben yelled as Fistrick finally released him.

"BEN!" Ruby yelled as she watched Ben go flying through the air and into the water.

"He'll be fine," Kevin declared, shifting into a newer form Ruby didn't exactly recognize; this one looked like a strange, skinny Diamondhead.

"...the fuck kind of alien-"

"This is Rainbow in the Dark," Kevin grinned. "And believe me, I'm perfect for the job."

Ruby smiled softly. "Kick ass then." And then she ran as fast as she could to the water.

Ceres took a look at Kevin's form and smirked evilly. "Everyone, stand clear! Kevin, get ready!"

"Fuck yeah, let's light 'em up!" Kevin crowed. Rook sighed heavily as he and the others ran for cover. Dodging cover fire, Ceres ran behind Kevin and sent streams of blue fire towards his back. Kevin quickly absorbed the energy, his body flashing a vibrant array of colors. He grinned as he shot out a massive blast of energy that knocked Fistrick back, but barely left a notable dent in his stupid mech. Kylie and Rook quickly loaded their weapons and started firing at the thing, but yet again, no damage.

Ceres grimaced. "We either need a heavy hitter or a way to dismantle him piece by piece. Where's Ben?"

"He's kinda busy," Kevin said. "So, now what?"

"Let us handle that!"

Ceres looked over her shoulder to see Yang and Blake, standing on some strange black platforms Weiss had made with her semblance. Weiss carefully moved her glyph around, and the two went flying through the air...And together they beat back Fistrick's mecha with a brightly colored explosion.

Ceres blinked, and then raised an eyebrow. "I can work with that." She raised her voice. "Give me cover fire! I'm gonna dismantle this bastard up close and personal!"

Might I suggest...going for the big guy up top first? A nice, calm British voice whispered in the back of her head.

Ceres looked around, caught off guard.

"Uh, what was that?" Weiss' voice echoed in her head.

"Wait, Weiss? What are you doing in my thoughts?!" Kylie's voice suddenly chimed in.

"My thoughts? You two are in MY head!" Ceres shouted.

"You sure about that?" Blake's voice added.

Kevin gave a long, mental sigh. "It's Ben, obviously."

"Ben, we have talked about this. Team RWBY is still unused to aliens, you cannot just spring telepathy on them," Rook chided, shaking his head like a disappointed older brother.

Well, considering the schematics on this thing, Ben said mentally as a strange crab-like creature crawled out of the sea. The alien was a light brown crab, with pincers for hands and six legs. He wore a belt/back brace (alien anatomy was weird, Ruby thought) with the Omnitrix on it. And, most importantly, no visible mouth. Taking out the driver makes this thing ten times easier to take down.

Ceres hummed out loud. "True, but that's also most likely going to heavily guarded. I was going to take out one of its legs and then go for the head while he's freaking out."

I think it's best to utilize all assets. Take out the head and the leg at the same time...with a little something special, Ben said cheerfully as he looked over at Kylie.

"...I don't like the look you're giving me, Ben."

Ceres gave a little half smile. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Most likely! Ben chirped.

"I always did like a man who could use his brain."

You flatterer~

Ruby slapped the back of his head. "Focus! What are we doing, exactly?"

Ceres quickly relayed the plan, and everyone grinned sharply.

And then Yang ran at Fistrick, screaming like a valkyrie as her hair was lit aflame. She punched a leg and made a noticeable dent, but she still had to run when the giant foot moved to squash her.

Ceres took her place and merely lifted her hands up, stopping the metal from crushing her. She sent brilliant blue flames into the exhaust pipes of the foot, melting the wires and metal inside. And then she ran for cover as the mecha went lopsided, its left leg wobbling as metallic blood leaked out onto the pavement.

"Hey! Do you have any idea how much that'll cost to repair?" Fistrick cursed at her. And then something landed on the windshield of his robot. He turned to see Kylie, latched onto his ride tightly.

"And what are you gonna do, kid?" he taunted.

Kylie reared her head back and broke through the glass with her mask, her beak coming dangerously close to taking out one of Fistrick's eyes. Smoke rapidly leaked out of the sides of her mask, blinding Fistrick in a purple haze.

"Have fun, fucker," she snickered over the sounds of gunfire. She flipped him off as she jumped off and dissolved into thin air.

"The fuck was that?" Fistrick growled, unable to see anything. "Was this just a part of their plan to take me out? Pretty fuckin lame, actually!"

Kevin sent a few spears of light at the mecha's one good leg. One spear jammed into a joint, and one gunshot from Rook sent it further into the leg. Weiss formed a massive glyph as she twirled her hand a few times, forming an equally massive ice crystal behind her. She grinned as the iceberg went flying through the air, piercing one of the arms of the mech. Blake and Yang jumped onto the other arm, sending punches and gunshots into the joints, making it twitch erratically.

"Oh, you're...asking for..." Fistrick suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy as this vision started to blur. "You...kids...need...naps..." With that, he fell asleep at the wheel.

Ben grinned from the ground. Perfection. The plan went off without a hitch!

"How'd you even figure that out?" Weiss asked, studying Ben's odd form.

"Aliens, obviously," Ruby said impishly.

"Brainstorm has an IQ of 10 to the 36th power," Ceres explained. "He can basically verbally destroy anyone with a single glance. He's very intuitive and good to have around so we can figure out how to take down newer enemies with ease."

Though, I'm sure our illustrious leader would have figured it out relatively quickly, Brainstorm conceded.

Ceres smiled beatifically. "You charmer." And then she looked at the downed mecha. "So! Who wants to help me scavenge for parts? Mama needs new weapons."

Ruby grinned as she flashed her scythe. "Thankfully, I can help with that."

As the two girls went to the giant robot, Ben shifted back to human, rubbing his jaw. It was always so weird not having a mouth, how did Cerebrocrustaceans even eat? As he mused, he noticed the other members of Team RWBY walk up to him, and- was that Blake checking him out? Ben had worn the uniform because he wanted to get Ruby as flustered as she had made him, but he didn't think anyone else from her team would have noticed.

Rook was right, Ben thought. I need to think these things through.

But Blake didn't say anything about that. Instead she asked, "So, is this normal for you guys? Fighting giant robots all the time?"

Ben scratched. "Well, yeah. Alien business is weird all around. I'm guessing you mainly deal with Grimm?"

Weiss, you had been smiling at a nearby Kylie, shook her head. "Well, we have dealt with wayward Atlesian tech, but that was on a busy highway."

Ben blinked. "I-seriously? You could have been killed?"

"Yeah, it was fun," Yang said cheerfully.

"I-I don't think-"

They heard the screeching sounds of metal being ripped apart. They all turned to see Ceres neatly gutting the giant mech, a manic gleam in her eyes. Kevin was right beside her, taking an entire engine block from the robot.

"...something tells me we're gonna see some of this on the black market," Blake said stoically.

Rook, walking past them, stopped and shook his head. "Ceres will reuse anything she can, and any scraps will be melted down. Kevin… well. He just needs stuff for his car."

And then they heard them both laughing maniacally, and Ben quickly darted after them. "No! We are NOT recreating the birth of Frankenstein's monster again! We're still paying off the last of the damages!"

As he ran off, team RWBY slowly turned to Kylie and Rook. The girl and the alien just looked at each other and smiled sheepishly. "I doubt you wanna know the full story," Kylie told them.

"I kinda do…" Ruby sheepishly whispered.

Servantis didn't like one thing about Max Tennyson's grandson. The irresponsible little brat was a quip-making, brash rookie that was only revered for the fact a boy his age could control the most powerful device in the universe.

Servantis especially didn't like when he didn't see results from a mission, something that was very common with the squad Ben had joined. Each assignment of theirs cost the Plumbers millions (thousands on a good day) to repay, or missed the goal entirely. It was absolutely insane that this boy was still kept around, and he was absolutely frustrated that his team was more concerned with 'scrapping the robot' than finding the culprit Torchwick-

"You ok, Servantis?" Max snapped Servantis out of his inner meltdown.

"Of course," Servantis said coldly as he looked over at Ben and the others. "I just need to speak with them." He walked over, and the group quieted down. Ben rolled his eyes as he stood up.

"Magister Servantis," Ben said with forced politeness. "How did we upset you now?"

Servantis scowled. "You failed to catch the mastermind of this operation."

Ceres raised an eyebrow. "So? Not a big deal. We took care of the robot army Fistrick whipped up, captured Fistrick, got blueprints-"

"But he got away," Servantis repeated, this time through gritted teeth. "I thought you brought in extra help. How could you NOT have captured him?"

"Um, Magister?" Weiss spoke up. "In all honesty, we were focused on taking down the mech. Roman just slipped through our fingers, that's all-"

"I didn't ask for an excuse," Servantis snapped.

"Hey, she was just explaining the situation! No need to be so rude," Yang shot back.

"And yet, I have to," Servantis countered. "You kids should not even be on these types of missions if I don't receive the best results. You just irk and disappoint me each time, especially you," Proctor pointed his finger at Ben. "As the grandson of Max Tennyson, I expected more from you."

Ben gave him a blank stare. "Uh huh," he said. "You done?" Servantis didn't say anything. He simply stalked off, knowing his words would fall on deaf ears.

"What's his problem?" Blake asked, annoyed.

"Proctor's a perfectionist," Max explained as he walked over. "Everything has to go according to plan, or he'll bust a gasket. I suppose being a higher up does that to you. You kids did good. Don't let him tell you otherwise. Besides," Max motioned over to a truck carrying some of the aliens that were trapped inside the batteries. They were jumping all around, happy to be free. "I think we found a new energy source for Undertown."

As they all prepared to leave the docks, Ben surreptitiously looked at Ruby and started to think. Honestly, I don't expect anything to go on plan for a while. Especially with her back in town. He paused as he looked up to the darkening sky. Still, the fact that our enemies are collaborating...what the hell does that mean for the future?

Servantis looked behind him to make sure no one was following him. In all honesty, he was mad about two things going wrong tonight. And now that he had chewed out Tennyson and his gang...

"Why the hell did you not get captured?!" Servantis snarled into his communicator. "We had a deal!"

"Sorry, boss," Roman drawled from the other side. "You said I was fighting against a shapeshifter. I expected a kid that would, I dunno, go from large to small or something. Not a fuckin' skeleton that's a living freezer."

"Perhaps if you paid attention to the debriefing, you would know about how truly dangerous Ben Tennyson was," Servantis snarled.

"Look, we can plan something out," Roman offered. "I'm still in town."

"Not now," Servantis said, as he looked back over at Ben. "We still have much to do..."