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(Yang PoV)
"Hey Weiss, it's your... Ruby? Hey, where's Ruby?" I started and stopped.
"What?" Oobleck wondered.
Zwei came bouncing into the room barking.
"Zwei?" I asked bewildered.
"What's going on?" Blake demanded.
"Grab your weapons!" Oobleck ordered. "Your leader may be in trouble."
Zwei led us and Oobleck to a hole in the ground. I spotted Crescent Rose laying next to it.
"Ruby's scythe!" I shouted in recognition.
"Oh no," Blake murmured.
"Do you think she fell?" Weiss stared at the hole.
"Fell?" Oobleck questioned.
"Down there," Weiss clarified pointing.
"Oh my. Of course! Of course!" Oobleck articulated.
"What is it?" Blake pressed.
"How could I be so stupid?!" Oobleck demanded of himself.
"Dr. Oobleck, what's wrong?" I wanted to know.
"Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to thousands of people! Working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"
"Doc, what are you saying?" I wanted clarification.
"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an underground crime network!"
"They've been working in caves?" Blake wondered.
"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: They took up shelter beneath the city! In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface!" Oobleck elaborated.
"An underground village," I realized.
"In a matter of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until... an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb. If Ruby is down there, we must find her…"
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"Ruby!" I shouted. We made our way into the caves. I cleared a handful of white fang members with a blast from my shotgun. There were long train track with a train on it with some buildings. We moved quickly along.
Ruby was moving at high speed in the cave away from her captures. She bounced into my arms.
"Are you okay?" Weiss asked her.
"I'm fine, I'm fine! But listen! Torchwick's got all kinds of weapons and robots down there," Ruby pointed.
"What?!" Blake handed Ruby her weapon.
"Androids, mechs, they're all loaded up on the train cars!" Ruby explained nodding.
"Ah, that's ridiculous. These tunnels are sealed, the tracks lead to a dead-end," Oobleck interjected.
"Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Roman's voice came booming through a sound system.
The train began rolling on heavy wheels into the tunnels.
"Well, it sounds like they're going somewhere," I pointed out to Oobleck.
"We need backup. Let me call Jaune," Ruby tried.
Her scroll flashed 'low signal'.
"I can't get through!" She cried.
"So, what do we do?" Weiss asked our leader and Oobleck.
"I believe we only have one option…" Oobleck trailed off.
"We're stopping that train!" Ruby declared. We leapt aboard the train. I did a rolling landing. Oobleck knocked a white fang member from his perch where he had been shouting and alerting his fellows that we were onboard.
"Hurry, children! We must get to the front and stop this train!"
"Err... Professor?" Weiss started.
"Doctor…" Oobleck corrected.
"What's that?" Weiss pointed at a hatch in the train car.
"That my dear... appears to be a bomb," Oobleck knelt down to examine it.
We all jumped back. Ruby pointed forward. "We've got baddies!"
Dozens of white fang members were climbing onto the back of the train.
"Well, I didn't expect them to go-"
The bomb underneath us charged up and started beeping.
"-easy on us. Time to go!" Oobleck finished.
We ran away. Oobleck stopped Blake. "Blake! Detach the caboose! It will kill us all!"
"On it." Blake answered. She jumped down and got ready to cut the connection but before she did the connection came loose on its own.
"Huh?! It decoupled itself!" Blake shouted.
"What?!" Oobleck demanded.
"I guess he really doesn't want us on this train," I observed. We looked back and the detached car exploded in the tunnel.
"That's not good…" Oobleck trailed.
"Uh, neither is this!" RUby pointed down into the car we were on to reveal another bomb.
"No. No. No." Oobleck repeated as he ran up to the next car. "They all have bombs!" He realized as he looked down. The bomb at our feet started beeping. We ran to the next car as the previous one decoupled itself and exploded in the tunnel.
"This doesn't make sense!" I shouted over the wind.
The white fang members were all over us. "Get the humans!" One yelled.
We jumped forward to attack them and dispatch them.
"Oh, dear…" Murmured Oobleck as he watched the car explode in the tunnel. A horde of Grimm came crawling through the cracks in the ceiling it made. They started dashing after the runaway train. "He's leading Grimm to the city!" Oobleck realized.
"What?" Weiss made herself heard over the din.
"It's the cars! They detach and explode, creating openings for the Grimm!" Oobleck elaborated.
"That's insane!" Blake realized.
Another train car detached itself.
"We have to hurry!" He nodded to Weiss, Blake, and I. "You three, go below and try to stop those bombs!"
"What about us?" Ruby wondered.
"We're going to stop this train," Oobleck decreed.
"Yeah, I know. I said that earlier." Ruby rolled her eyes.
The train continued to its destination. We leapt forward and into the lower part. We descended. The three of us entered the train car.
"I guess this is what we trained for," I murmured.
Weiss reached into a pocket and handed Blake a magazine filled with Dust vials. "Here, this should help you."
We charged forward and the multicolored girl Roman called Neapolitan blocked our path.
"You two go on ahead. This one's mine!" I fired a blast to distract her and allowed Weiss and Blake to continue.
I stepped up to the short woman. I was taller than her by about a foot but she didn't seem intimidated by me. She just smiled up at me. I fired a punch at her backed by my gauntlet. I didn't even see her retaliate. All of a sudden I was stumbling away from her. I'd been hit in the face. She just smirked and opened her umbrella.
I dashed forward and launched a barrage of punches and even a round kick. She dodged them all expertly. When I kicked at her head she crescent kicked me in the head and dodged my attack at the same time and knocked me down. I growled and got back to my feet. When I got up I fronted on her once more. She got her umbrella involved to block my attacks this time. She blocked each one and swept her umbrella into my gut. She pranced back and sat on a box daintily.
She cocked her head at me when I approached next. She danced on the box to dodge my attacks and block with her legs. Then she got to her feet and swept her umbrella into my face. Then blocked a bunch and hit me once more. I grabbed her leg and tried to throw her but she just landed neatly. She approached me next. She dodged my punch and landed on my shoulders. She used my momentum against me and tossed me into the ceiling. I sagged on the ground, my aura depleted.
She never activated my semblance! SHe just used my own force against me. She fronted on me pulling a sword from her umbrella. She was met by a swiftly moving black and red blur which knocked her back. Her eyes went wide and in a flash she was gone. I craned my head. A black haired woman was stepping into a swirling red and black portal.
I sagged into the ground.
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-WG