AN: Once again, took me a while to finish this. Still... once again longer than I thought.
Boat Trips and Evil Islands
Team RWBY and their Blades followed the tracks which indeed joined the ones they had been following. However, the tracks soon ended, and they found the train that they saw earlier at the end of these tracks. Naturally the team investigated the train.
"There's nothing in here," Yang said, sounding very disappointed, as she exited the train car she chose to check.
"This one's empty too," Blake also said as she exited the other car.
Finally, Roze and Ruby appeared from the train itself. "No one's here," Ruby said while pointing at the train.
"If someone drove this, they're not here anymore," Roze said as he had also checked for anything Ruby might have missed.
"So is anything they might have transported," Weiss said as she contacted Oobleck and quickly explained their discoveries.
"Hmm. That is disconcerting. Is there any kind of path nearby?" Oobleck queried from the students.
"If that's not a path, I don't know what is," Dragunov commented as he pointed towards a patch of grassless ground. The draconic Blade had pressed his ear close to Yang's to hear what was being said from the other end. Everyone looked at the grassless pathway that must have formed from multiple people walking along that spot for who knows how many times.
"Doctor, there's a path leading away from here. Should we follow it?" Blake spoke up into her own earpiece.
"Yes, but do be careful. There's no telling who or what awaits at the end of that road." Oobleck said, remaining... relatively calm.
With that the Drivers and Blades moved on, taking out a small cluster of Grimm on the way until...
"Another set of stone doors," Yang commented at the sight of three stone doors with different symbols.
"I suppose we need another key," Weiss said with a small sigh.
"I say we just break 'em down," Dragunov said, not wanting to go through the hassle.
Roze gave the fire Blade a meaningful look, "Do you want to get an earful out of Oobleck or Adenine…or both?" That last one was added as an afterthought. Luckily the earpieces weren't active right now, so the said duo wasn't hearing this.
"That's only if someone tells them," Dragunov retorted while cracking his knuckles.
"I'm not sure that plan's a good idea," Dahlia added her two lien into the mix.
"Guys," Blake said as she looked around as if searching for something.
But she wasn't heard. "I say we risk it. I mean, we never have to tell Adenine or Oobleck that it was us who broke them down," Yang said, wanting to get through the fast way.
"Guys," Blake said again, but was once again ignored.
"But what if the resulting debris blocks our way," Ruby added into the conversation, showing how smart she can be when the situation calls for it.
"Thank you!" Weiss exclaimed, being glad that at least her partner agreed with not trying to smash the doors.
"GUYS!" Blake has had enough of being ignored.
"What?" Everyone asked in unison, feeling a tad annoyed.
"Where's Nox?" Blake was finally able to ask.
At that moment everyone looked around, and sure enough, Nox had vanished. They weren't even sure where, because last they checked he was walking alongside them.
"I really hate it when he does this," Dragunov sighed. These words were followed by the middle door suddenly opening on its own. Which revealed Nox who was just about done tying his black bandage around his right arm back. "Okay, how did you get there?" Dragunov asked, referring to the dark ninja somehow getting to the other side.
Nox fished out his scroll with his left hand while testing his right arm's movement. "I used my scythes to get onto the roof before jumping down here." The ninja Blade wasn't even looking at the team as he was far more interested in whether his bandages were tied just right for them to not open up or restrict his movement.
Looking behind Nox, they noticed that there was indeed a hole on the roof which Nox no doubt used to get inside.
"But how did you get up there?" Weiss asked again.
Nox turned his gaze to Weiss before rolling his lone eye. "I just told you."
Weiss' palm impacted her face, "No! I meant, how did you climb? There are no indentions that would indicate you using your scythes as climbing axes."
Instead of Nox, it was Blake who answered, "He tied his bandages around one scythe and used it as a grappling hoop on the railings." The team followed, the faunus' gaze to the top of the gateway to see that indeed there was a railing for whatever reason.
"Smart," Roze commented with an impressed nod.
"And so cool!" Ruby added with stars in her eyes.
Nox rolled his eye at Ruby's antics, before the air around him turned more serious as he rerolled the scroll. "You should come inside. There is something you might find interesting." With that, Nox put the scroll back into his sash before moving further inside.
The rest of the team gave each other brief looks before following, with Roze taking note of a lever that the dark Blade no doubt used to open the door from the other side. Sure enough, what they found inside, were several cages with Merlot symbols containing Grimm.
"What is all this!?" Ruby exclaimed in disbelief as she looked at the Creeps and Beowolves staring or snarling at them.
Blake had taken out her scroll and started sending video to Oobleck, "Doctor Oobleck are you seeing this?"
"Yes. It appears they're using this old temple as a temporary storage for the Grimm. Oh, this is not good." Oobleck said from his end of the line.
"And there are more mutated Grimm just up ahead," Dahlia said, sensing the monstrosities further inside. And she wasn't looking forward to facing these creatures that seem to destroy ether.
"We go in hard and fast," Roze said, sharing the ice Blade's thoughts.
"Agreed." Came out of Dragunov who prepared his talons.
Nox just gave a thumbs up, not feeling the need to verbalize his thoughts.
"We should still be careful," Weiss pointed out. Who knows what kind of monstrosities these ones might be. Besides, they really shouldn't go in without a plan.
"I agree with Weiss, let's move slowly," Ruby said, lowering her voice just a little bit.
And so, the team moved further inside. Soon enough, they saw a larger hall which contained more cages of Grimm.
Ruby was looking in worry as Roze kept eyeing every nook and cranny of the place. The mutated Grimm must be very close. With Blake, she was a little weirded out by the way Nox's cross-pupil eye was shifting in its socket as it searched for the monstrosities. With Weiss, she was worried that Dahlia might throw her bitball at her own shadow with the way the ice bunny was trembling. But none was more worried than Yang, because to her, it looked like Dragunov was just about ready to burn the whole place down. Collateral be damned…that means her and the others.
"Nothing seems to be here," Ruby whispered as she jumped down the small ledge and into the hall. And then several cages opened, releasing Beowolves at her. Ruby let out a loud "eep" before opening fire. Which also served as the cue for the others to swoop in.
"Nice going, leader," Weiss said in annoyance as she landed on the ground, impaling a Beowolf on Myrtenaster.
"Sorry!" Ruby said as she prepared to bisect another approaching Beowolf, only for Roze to beat her to it. Truth is, Ruby had nothing to be sorry about, because between eight deadly fighters these Beowolves were taken out faster than they realized. Except from the doorway that led through the back, two mutated Beowolves emerged. Accompanied by a mutated Ursa.
This Ursa had the same characteristics as the other mutated Grimm they had seen so far. Except its claws were seeping the green substance.
"Okay, that is the ugliest Ursa I've ever seen," Yang commented at the sickly green colored creature.
"Scatter!" Roze shouted as the two mutant Beowolves dashed at them, while the Ursa stomped towards them.
"Dragunov! Can you hold that Ursa off?" Ruby shouted. Seeing as they weren't sure if that beast had any new abilities and they needed teamwork to take out the Beowolves, Dragunov was the only one the red leader felt could beat that thing alone. Or at least buy time.
"I don't want to," Dragunov said as he took a fighting stance.
"But you have to-" "I said I don't want to, but I'll do it anyway," Dragunov interrupted as he made two large flames appear in his palms. As Dragunov unleashed a gout of flame from both palms upon the beast, Weiss and Blake were taking pot-shots at one of the Beowolves.
"Checkmate?" Weiss asked as she took a stance.
"Checkmate!" Blake confirmed, and the two moved in, avoiding the monstrosity's claws and stabbed and sliced at it, before taking distance.
Just as the mutated Beowolf recovered, Weiss quickly used a time dilation glyph beneath Blake. With that, Blake was able to zip around the beast, slicing away at it with Gambol Shroud as she did. The poor beast was unable to catch the now buffed faunus, as it felt itself getting sliced. And when the buff finally wore off, Nox appeared in front of the beast and hooked both scythes around the beast's neck before kicking himself off of its chest, effectively decapitating it.
With the other Beowolf, Yang gave a series of punches on the beast's face, before finishing it with a powerful double-jab into its gut. As the blonde fell back for the moment, Ruby opened fire upon the monster's back to gain its attention. And it worked enough for Roze to move next to it un-noticed, until he swiped the Beowolf's legs from under it. Sadly, he was unable to actually cut them, but that would've just been a bonus. The Beowolf then tried to get up, but unfortunately for it, Dahlia chose to jump-spike her bitball into its back, forcing it back onto its stomach. Long enough for Yang to propel herself up above the monster, before firing both gauntlets straight up, essentially, performing a meteor smash on its back. Somehow avoiding the spikes on it's back.
As this was happening, Dragunov had tried to keep the mutated Ursa at bay, but it seemed like his flames didn't burn hot enough. As much as Dragunov wanted to pummel the freak's face in, he wasn't sure what it could do so instead he put up a barrier to block it. But to Dragunov's surprise, the claws that were oozing the green stuff were slowly eating through the barrier. "Screw this!" Dragunov thought as he switched to offensive with an uppercut to send the monstrosity reeling. Unfortunately, the Ursa recovered faster than the fire Blade thought and swiped him across the head. Fortunately, it was only the paw and not the claws that hit, because Dragunov did not want to test if the green substance was harmful. More importantly, Dragunov was able to recover fast enough to block the next strike against his forearm. Thankfully, it seemed as though the claws couldn't pierce the stone of the draconic Blade's body. "I've had enough of you," Dragunov growled, before deciding to spend a little ether on this next strike. "Blazing Talon!" and the fiery explosion flung the beast back, but it strangely didn't kill it. Frowning at his inability to muster more power without Yang, Dragunov drove his talon into the monster's gut, actually piercing the Ursa's body. But all that did was anger the monstrosity, which manifested as a powerful swipe across the fire Blade's chest which was too fast for him to react to this time.
As Dragunov staggered away from the mutated Ursa, team RWBY and most of the Blades moved in to attack. The only one staying behind being Nox, because decapitating the mutated Beowolf left some of the green stuff on his sickles. Once again corroding the ether blades. Which was why it was up to the others to take down the monster that seemed to withstand anything Dragunov could throw at it on his own.
"That's one tough, bastard," Yang said as she punched the monster beneath its jaw and it was barely phased by it.
"Language!" Ruby shouted even as she took a slice on the Ursa's back.
"Ruby, this isn't the time!" Weiss shouted as she tried to stab the Ursa into its neck. But it seemed like Myrtenaster couldn't pierce it. The white-haired girl was then back-handed away by the beast.
"Weiss!" Blake shouted out in concern even as she jumped on the Ursa's back and fired Gambol point blank at the back of the neck. But all that did was annoy the beast, which was why Blake had to get off before she was shaken off. "It's hide is tough," Blake informed everyone.
"Okay, how about this," Weiss said in annoyance as she channeled fire dust from the barrel into the blade, before trying again. This time the blade sunk a little into the neck, but that was enough for Weiss to unload the rest of the fire dust into the monster's head. This effectively burned the Ursa from inside out.
"We did it!" Ruby cheered as the monster keeled over and started disintegrating.
"That thing should not have been that tough," Roze said as he was worried about what other kinds of mutated Grimm they could face. Seeing as this Ursa was able to hold its own against Dragunov.
"You're telling me," Dragunov complained before falling on one knee.
This made Yang get to her Blade's side with a concerned look, "You okay, Drag?"
Dragunov rubbed his chest a little before checking his palm. "No…I'm not." and with those words, the mighty fire Blade collapsed on his front.
"Dragunov!" Yang cried out as she tried to rouse her Blade. "Someone help me turn him over!" Yang shouted as she was trying in vain to move him herself. Which considering Yang's own strength was quite a feat. The rest of the team and Blades immediately moved to help their blonde team mate to turn the heavy Blade over.
"Is that...?" Weiss said in shock as they saw the glowing green wound across the fleshy part of Dragunov's chest. This meant that some of the green stuff was now in Dragunov's system.
"These symptoms...," Dahlia said as she kneeled down to look over Dragunov's body, including the Core Crystal on Dragunov's forehead which was now glowing dimmer. "Dragunov is suffering from ether deficiency," the ice Blade finished her quick analysis. She wasn't a healer for nothing after all.
"You mean, he's running out of ether?" Ruby asked in worry, "How bad is that?"
Dahlia raised her head. "It's the equivalent of blood loss for a Blade," Dahlia said as she then glared at the green lines that the Ursa caused with its last strike. "We need to remove as much of that stuff as we can," the ice bunny declared as she looked at everyone.
"My lady, please let me borrow Gambol Shroud." Nox showed on his scroll while putting his hand out.
Blake nodded, understanding what her Blade wanted to do, before handing over the katana part of her weapon. With that, Nox kneeled over the now unconscious fire Blade before digging the weapon into the wounds and started scraping the goo out of it as carefully as he possibly could.
"Should we feed him Dust," Roze then asked as he patted Ruby's back comfortingly. The red cloaked Driver had covered her face, thinking something would spurt out and not wanting to see it.
"In small doses," Dahlia said as she moved to take one of Dragunov's fire Dust vials from the fire proof belt bag. "That way we can keep him active until Nox gets that poison out of him," Dahlia then said as she forced Dragunov's mouth open and started pouring small doses of the fire Dust into his mouth. The Core Crystal shined brighter ever so slightly.
As Nox and Dahlia busied themselves with saving Dragunov, Yang glared at the last wisps of darkness that used to be the mutated Ursa which now had completely evaporated. "Whoever made that thing, better watch themselves," the blonde brawler swore under her breath.
Weiss didn't catch that part, so instead chose to ask something, "Dahlia…If Dragunov loses all ether in his body, what happens?"
Dahlia didn't look up from pouring another small dose of the purified powder Dust into Dragunov's gullet as she answered, "Truthfully, I'm not sure…But if I considered the worst possible outcome…Dragunov's Core might shut down permanently."
"Permanently?" Ruby parroted as she felt a small pit in her stomach, "As in…" She couldn't finish that thought.
"As in he can never be awakened again," Roze finished it, no matter how much he didn't want to. If this was Alrest, something like running out of ether would be impossible. But this is Remnant, and the only source of ether for Blades is Dust, which they have to consume regularly unless they use their abilities.
With that, a heavy silence was cast upon the team, which was only broken by Nox scraping and probing at Dragunov's wounds in his quest to get that poison out of the fire Blade's system. Until the dark Blade finally handed Gambol back to his Driver hilt first. "I have done what I can." Nox showed on his scroll and sure enough, Dragunov's wounds were finally closing on their own.
"In that case," Dahlia said with relief as she poured the remaining Dust down Dragunov's throat, causing the unconcious dragon to wake up with a start.
"What happened?" Dragunov asked, right before remembering the last thing he saw. Which prompted the fire Blade to look down on his now healed chest. "…You guys helped me." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Of course," Dahlia said with a smile as she rose back to her feet.
"I owed you that much." Nox showed on his scroll to Dragunov.
Realizing what the dark Blade was talking about, Dragunov scoffed as he stood up. "We should get going," Dragunov said as he glanced at the back entrance.
"Yeah…we should," Ruby said, having let out the breath she didn't know she was holding.
The team wasn't entirely over by what was possibly Dragunov's near-death, but they still tried to focus on their current mission. Which was to find out who is behind all of this.
Outside, they found a dock with a ship and containers spread around.
"Why is a ship here?" Blake sounded out. Well, aside from the obvious of loading whatever was in those cargo containers into the ship.
Ruby quickly opened her scroll and started sending video to Oobleck, "Doctor Oobleck, are you seeing this?"
"It appears to be a fully operational Merlot Industries ship." Oobleck said noting the Merlot symbol on the ship's prow. "This is worse than I imagined. I must inform Ozpin at once." And that was the end of the transmission.
"I believe you students should investigate this area, see if you can find anything worthwhile." Except Adenine took over, "But do be careful. It would make a bad parent-teacher conference if anything happened to you." And now the transmission was over for real.
"...That's what she's worried about," Weiss said in disbelief. It sounded like Adenine was more worried about their parents being angry than about their lives.
"She does have a point though," Ruby said, referring to investigating, "Let's check what's in here."
With that, the team and their Blades snuck between the containers. Although at the back of their minds, they were wondering where is everyone. Because surely someone would be loading or unloading the ship, and the said ship didn't come here by itself.
"Guys," Roze called out looking into one open container, "I found something."
The gang moved in front of the container that Roze pointed out, and what they found made them have a single question...
"Why is a Schnee Dust Company crate here," Weiss was the one to voice it, since sure enough, there was a large crate that belonged to the SDC, judging by the Schnee family logo. Weiss then moved into the container to check the box. With the others following suit.
Except at that moment, the world went dark with a loud slam.
"Hey! Who turned off the lights!?" Yang cried out in the darkness.
"Someone shut the doors," Dahlia exclaimed as she looked what she assumed was behind her.
"This was a trap!" Blake shouted out as she managed to fish out her scroll and activate the light.
"Thanks," Roze said right before taking out his scythe and prepared to swing. Only problem was, "The heck! The blade won't form." Indeed, while the baton extended into a pole-arm, the scythe blade refused to come out.
"Step aside," Dragunov said as he moved Roze behind him.
Everyone's eyes widened as they had an idea of what the draconic Blade would attempt. "NO! DON'T!" Everyone screamed in unison just as Dragunov flung his palm to unleash his fiery wrath upon the door. But nothing happened, "The f****! What's going on!?" Dragunov swore as he stared at his palm in disbelief.
"Swear!" Ruby shouted out, earning an annoyed look from her team mates.
"Ruby this isn't the time," Yang said in mild annoyance.
As this happened, Dahlia extended her own palm, her eyes widening in shock at what didn't happen. "I can't use my ice either," Dahlia informed everyone in worry.
Weiss' attention snapped to Dahlia's statement. Well, more like the way it was worded, "You guys can't use your power?"
"Looks that way," Roze said as he also tried to make a small gust, but nothing happened.
Blake quickly opened her app that monitors her aura. "My aura seems to be okay," the black-haired girl informed everyone.
"So is mine," Ruby said, checking her own scroll, just in case.
"Likewise," Yang said, checking her own scroll.
"And I can still use my semblance," Weiss said as she made a small glyph appear on her palm.
"RRAAGH!" Dragunov roared as he punched the shut doors as hard as he could muster. But for once he didn't even make a dent. "I can't even harness my strength," Dragunov said as he glared at the door with an expression of pure hatred.
"Sooo…Whatever's going on is only affecting Blades," Yang theorized, just as the whole crate shook, "Okay, what's going on this time?"
"We're moving," Blake said as she felt the ever so slight pressure you feel when an elevator goes up.
"Well, that's just great," Weiss sighed, "So what do we do now?"
"Last I checked, Weissy, you were supposed to be the smart one," Dragunov grumbled. Not being able to use his flames was annoying enough, but his strength too? That's a serious blow to his ego.
Weiss looked just about ready to blow up on the insufferable fire Blade.
"Everyone, STOP!" That shout came out of Ruby of all people. "Thank you. Fighting isn't doing any good. We should focus on how to get out of here," the little red reaper said, surprising everyone a little.
"...And how do you propose we do that," Weiss finally said, crossing her arms against her chest.
"Let's go over what we know first," Ruby said, before glancing at the Blades," You guys said that you can't use any of your abilities right?"
"Looks that way," Roze replied for everyone, unable to keep the smile off of his face at seeing Ruby take charge, like a leader. The other three gave voices of confirmation, except Nox who nodded instead.
"But our Auras and semblances work," Ruby said as she glanced at her team mates.
"If our scrolls are right, then yeah," Yang replied, feeling a strange mixture of awkwardness and pride at Ruby being a leader.
Blake decided to take over, "And Weiss can use her semblance, so I don't see why we can't." The only reason she hasn't bothered confirming was because using the clones consumes aura.
"So, whatever is dampening our powers is only affecting us," Dahlia concluded, "But the question is, what?".
Nox opened his scroll to everyone to add his opinion into the mix, but all they saw was blank. At the questioning looks everyone had, Nox took a look at his scroll. His eye widened as he closed and re-opened it several times. Only to get the same result, no text. Whatever was dampening Blade powers apparently stopped Nox's only means of communication from working. Which seemed to plunge the dark Blade into the abyss known as depression.
"I'll handle him," Blake sighed. She feels for her Blade, really she does, but this was neither the time nor place for this.
Just as the others were planning to brainstorm more, they felt themselves land on something. Or the box they were trapped in anyway.
"Okay, where are we now," Yang said in mild annoyance.
"Probably loaded on the ship now," Roze guessed.
"Well that's just all ferry good," Dragunov said with a slight grumble.
Which earned several groans, and Yang trying to hold her laughter. "I wrecken we'll still get through somehow," Yang fired back.
The corners of the fire Blade's lips twitched, "Mast amusing lassie." And now he was using pirate accent to go with it.
"Seriously!?" Weiss screeched at the punners. She did NOT need this.
"Just stop it, both of you!" Dahlia wasn't any more impressed.
"Uh-oh, Drag, sounds like Dahlia over there wants to keel us," Yang said, finally getting a laugh out of her Blade.
"We got nofin better to do, so why must she be a rudder killjoy," Dragunov replied. Judging by Dahlia's expression, she would love to freeze the two or shove her bitball down their throats right now if she could…probably both.
As the bombshell and the crazy firestorm were having their pun-off, Ruby decided to do the desperate thing that hopefully would cover this horrible torture. Calling Oobleck, which in hindsight, probably should have been the first thing they did. "Doctor Oobleck can you hear me?" Ruby sounded like she was practically begging the teacher to answer. But her answer was static. "Oh, fudge!" Ruby said in distress. Being trapped in a boat with two people who love puns for who knows how long did not sit well with her.
As the ship left the harbor hidden in Forever Fall, one could faintly hear the screams of those who were being tortured with puns.
After who knows how long of a boat trip, the ship had landed on an island. And unloaded all the containers. This included the one team RWBY spent the last few hours in. Not to say they haven't tried to escape, but as it turned out the container had proven to be built like a prison cell. Sadly, it made sense, considering that the other containers probably contained caged Grimm. Which meant that should they somehow get out of their cage, they would have a hard time getting out of the container itself. The only thing the girls haven't tried was creating a makeshift bomb to bust them out of there. Unfortunately, an explosion in a confined space wasn't a good idea. Especially when they found out that the Schnee Company crate inside had some workable Dust, which they were able to use to give the Blades some extra fuel, should they need it.
Now, the team was ready to rumble when they felt their container being moved. And It should probably be noted that Dragunov and Yang ran out of puns before someone snapped, namely Nox, or Weiss, and murdered the blonde which would have reverted Dragunov into a Core Crystal.
Anyway, as soon as the container opened on its own, Ruby and Blake were launched out by Weiss with their weapons ready.
"Clear!" Blake called out, checking the surroundings, for anyone that might have opened the container.
"Why is no one here?" Ruby wondered as the rest of the gang came outside.
Blake quickly felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. Knowing it to be Nox, the black-haired girl turned towards her Blade. Which was soon followed by him pointing at the upper corner of the container. "Guys. What are those?" Blake then asked, pointing towards the things that caught the dark one's attention.
On the corners of the container, there were four devices attached to them.
"Those weren't there before," Roze noted, remembering that the corners were clean.
Dragunov glared at the machines before making a flame appear on his palm and moving his hand inside the container. Sure enough, the flame was snuffed out. "It seems like these things stopped us from using ether," Dragunov growled before ripping one of the machines off and crushing it in his palm.
"But how can that be?" Weiss said in disbelief, "There is no way someone could figure out how a Blade works well enough to create effective ways of restraining them.". The Blades haven't been in Remnant long enough for someone to understand ether, let alone find ways to counter it. And that's assuming that whoever made these was aware of Blades being from another world.
"It's still odd that Dust worked," Ruby then pointed out, seeing as one of the Dusts in the Schnee crate was usable for lighting, which allowed them to save some the power on Scrolls.
"The Dust is similar to ether, but not quite," Roze explained as he looked thoughtful, "I can't even put a finger on it, but whenever I consume Dust I somehow get the instinctual feeling that it isn't really ether."
"Same goes for me," Dahlia informed.
"Likewise," Dragunov also confirmed. And of course, Nox nodded.
"I'm calling Oobleck," Ruby then said as she attempted to contact the teacher. Unfortunately, she could only hear a syllable of about every fifth word before it gets devoured by static. "I still can't get a contact," Ruby informed.
"Paging for doctor Oobleck! Repeat, paging for doctor Oobleck!" Yang also tried, "Urgh, is this thing on?"
"It's on, but we aren't getting a signal out here," Weiss said, having checked her Scroll, "Although it's far more likely that something is jamming it."
"Great," Yang said throwing her hands in the air for the moment, "So what do we do now?"
"Unless one of you knows how to sail this ship, explore the island," Roze suggested.
"Okay, but let's be careful, who knows what we will find here," Ruby said as she cocked Crescent Rose.
With that, the team moved further into this unknown island. But they didn't get far...
"Robots?" Blake sounded out at the sight of what looked like robots appearing from behind rocks. They were red, humanoid in shape and carried polearms.
"These don't look like Atlesian Knights," Ruby pointed out.
"Well no shit," Dragunov said as he took a fighting stance along with everyone else.
"Language!"
"Ruby, not now!" Weiss was really getting irritated by her partner.
"Incoming!" Yang shouted as the robots charged at them.
Dragunov was the first to get in on the action. He blocked the first swipe from the polearm, which he noted had an electrical tip, before responding with a swift kick in where ribs would be on a human. Another one tried to lunge, but Dragunov avoided the attack before grabbing the pole and used it to throw it, and by extension the robot towards Yang, "Yang, catch!"
Yang heard the warning just in time to deliver a strong enough punch to tear the machine's head off. Sadly, the blonde didn't have time to celebrate, because she had to block another hit from the pole-arm. Unfortunately, her gauntlets hit the tip, which sent an electric shock into her gauntlets, and by extension, herself. As Yang let out a shriek in surprise and slight pain, she backed off before ducking under another attack to swipe it's legs off. With the robot toppled, Yang jumped on its chest and started pummeling the machine with vengeance.
Meanwhile, Weiss had used ice Dust to trap three machines in place, "Ruby, do it!" And as if commanded, the little red reaper appeared and beheaded one machine, another being taken down by Roze. And the two reapers brought their respective scythes together in a scissor move to cut the head off of the last one.
As this happened, Blake and Nox decided to try something new. Blake was dual wielding Gambol Shroud's katana in one hand, while wielding Nox's scythe in her left. While the dark Blade was wielding his other scythe in right hand, and Gambol's sheath in the left. Each of them had just stabbed their respective scythe into one robot's torso, before yanking at them. Tearing the machine's plating and whatever mechanisms was inside into shreds. But then they turned their eyes upon a different looking robot. This one was white, and it carried some kind of cannon in its arms. The thing fired what looked like an energy net at the black duo in an attempt to capture them. But it was not to be, because the net was intercepted by Dahlia's bitball, wrapping the net around it instead. Blake and Nox did not waste their chance as they dashed towards the robot that was preparing to fire another one. But it would never get the chance because of Gambol Shroud's katana and sheath embedding themselves to its arms, courtesy of Nox and Blake throwing them. With its arms malfunctioning, the robot couldn't fire anymore, which meant that Nox and Blake were free to close in and slice it's head off in a scissor motion.
With that, the fight was finished. "First mutated Grimm, now robots," Weiss said in mild annoyance, "What's next, a cannibalistic weapon?" This earned some disturbed looks from others.
"Weiss." Dahlia sounded out, looking worried about her Driver.
"Just ignore me," the white-haired girl sighed. "Anyway, these things look more... sophisticated than Atlesian Knights." The Schnee heiress sounded a little sour at the last part.
"You jealous that Atlas can't make better princess," Yang teased with a grin.
"No, you brute! It's just... I can't think of anyone with technology to do this, other than Atlesian military," Weiss retorted.
"That is a little worrisome," Roze pointed out, "Did you guys notice that their movements seemed more fluid than the Knights."
"Now that you mention it," Blake piped up, "They seemed to be capable of more complex movement than normal robots."
"Still not very tough," Dragunov added in, before taking a look at one of the weapons, "I think these things were used to stun Grimm so they could be captured."
"Like stun batons," Yang concluded as she rubbed her arms a little. They still tingled a little bit from the sudden electro-shock.
"They probably weren't designed to take down someone with aura," Ruby added in, seeing as Grimm didn't have a soul and therefore no aura.
"Probably," Dahlia piped up as she moved to unwrap the energy net off of her weapon. Except the net dissipated on its own. "Odd," Dahlia mused as she picked up her weapon, finding it devoid of ether. But that wasn't a problem for long.
"We should probably get going," Ruby then said.
Weiss then looked around a little and saw something peeking from the cliffs, "We could try and get to that radio tower to try and boost the signal."
"Sounds like a plan," Dragunov said. And with that, the gang moved onto the only way they saw.
Though it didn't take long for them to find a tall wire-fence blocking their way.
"Locked up tight," Blake said after trying to open the gate on it.
Except it was then kicked away by Dragunov, along with the whole fence, "Not anymore." the draconic Blade had a smirk on his face.
"You do realize that you just announced our presence to our enemies." An annoyed looking Nox showed on his scroll to Dragunov.
"You're assuming that they don't already know about us," Dragunov retorted, "Someone very stupid if you ask me."
"Why is that?" Ruby asked, getting a little interested.
Dragunov started raising fingers as he started listing his reasons, "One, we were in the middle of the sea and they didn't drop our container overboard. Two, instead of having the robots wait for us further down, they could've stabbed us the moment they opened the container. Three, if they were so smart, couldn't they have done something to make the security system in Emerald Forest feed false data or something?"
As Dragunov listed what he thought made whoever was behind this stupid, the team and the other Blades found themselves agreeing with him.
"When you put it that way…," Weiss started with a weirded-out look, "I'm starting to feel stupid for us falling for that open container." If they fell for a trap laid by a stupid person, then what does that say about her and the team?
"I wanna pummel this…A-hole's face," Yang added in, feeling highly offended for some reason. Yet she still found it in herself to self-censor her words so that Ruby wouldn't start pointing it out.
"Agreed," Blake added her lien into the mix with a scowl.
"Let's just go," Ruby said, looking noticeably embarrassed at the thought of being bested by an apparent idiot.
The Blades apparently took this in stride, seeing that Dragunov had an amused look. Dahlia just shook her head lightly, Roze didn't show any reaction. Nox looked passive, but his pupil was now cross-shaped.
With that the gang moved on, destroying a small pack of Grimm that their mystery person probably released into the mostly rocky island. They almost felt insulted at not getting any challenge out of them, still if the person is as stupid as Dragunov made him out to be, then this would be easy. After taking a small pathway that led into the tower that they saw earlier, Blake tried to contact Oobleck again. The doctor's words were still unintelligible.
"Still can't hear him," Blake sighed.
"Maybe he can hear us, but we can't hear him," Dahlia suggested.
"Unlikely," Weiss shot the theory down before looking towards the tower again, "We should check the tower more closely." As she said that, Weiss pointed towards what looked like controls from the distance.
The team moved towards the controls to find a little extra on it," It looks like one of those machines we extracted from the security nodes." Roze pointed out.
"Can you get it off?" Ruby asked.
Instead of responding, Roze grabbed the object, and tugged lightly. Which strangely pulled the jammer off.
"Seriously?" Weiss wasn't sure if she felt insulted or exasperated about it being this easy.
"Apparently." And neither was Roze.
Any further comments were stopped as their ear-pieces came to life, "Whatever you did just keep doing that! The…is still…You must…another…" Oobleck's words were still jumbled in the static.
That made everyone perk up a little. "I guess we're on the right track," Ruby said visibly cheered up.
"If what I heard was right, then there might be another tower we can bring back online," Blake said, looking around, but not immediately seeing anything that could be that.
"Then we better get to it," Dragunov said as he looked towards the horizon.
Once again, the team moved on, ending up on the area they got into where Dragunov kicked down the fence. The gate that they saw previously closed was open.
"I am starting to believe that whoever released us upon this island does not want us dead." Nox showed on his scroll to everyone as they moved on.
"What makes you say that?" Blake was the first to ask her Blade.
"That gate was closed and much harder to break yet it was open when we returned. It feels as if they are guiding us somewhere." Nox showed as he looked around what looked like a small shipyard.
"But where to?" Ruby asked as they passed the shipyard and into a dirt path that led somewhere.
"A trap most likely," Weiss said strangely unconvinced about the possible danger they might face, "Still, what's the point of a convoluted scheme like this?"
"As I said, maybe their goal is not to kill us." Nox showed on his scroll again.
"Then what could it be?" Dahlia asked as they reached a small bridge that forked to two directions. At one end of it, was the second tower.
The gang moved towards it and removed the jammer as easily as the last one.
And then the earpieces came to life again, "It's working! We're working on pin-pointing your location…Try not to…" And Oobleck's voice disappeared into the static.
"...Did he just tell us not to die?" Blake asked, being sure she heard something like that.
"I'm not sure," Ruby responded, "But I think we should still follow that advice."
"No kidding," Yang added in, more serious than usual.
Not feeling like dwelling on it, the Blades and Drivers took the other way with the intent on finding the third tower. After all, if the signal was still staticky, there might very well be a third one.
Thankfully this one was even less difficult to find. Almost around the corner actually. Although the team took note of the weird pipelines.
"I got it," Roze spoke up as he took the slope to get the final tower operational. And when he did...
"Ahh. Much better." That wasn't Oobleck or Adenine talking through the ear-pieces, "The reception's just awful around these parts you see. So, I am most grateful to you for this."
"Umm…You're not doctor Oobleck." At Ruby's words, the Blades looked to be on guard and look around frantically.
"Oh, where are my manners. My name is doctor Merlot. You don't know me, but I most certainly know who you are. And I believe you could offer some valuable assistance in an…experiment. You and your Blades that is." The person now revealed to be doctor Merlot said, which prompted the Drivers to look at their Blades in worry.
"Doctor Merlot?" Weiss said in disbelief," As in, Merlot industries doctor Merlot?"
"He knows about Blades?" Was the more important question from Blake.
"But of course," Merlot responded, "As much as this island is isolated, I do try to keep up with what is happening in the world. And I must say, the appearance of Blades has cleared up much of the confusion I had previously about certain…discoveries I have made. But enough about that, time for the experiment." With those final words, a small army of robots appeared. And unlike the previous ones, the red ones were armed with what looked like beam naginatas.
"You have got to be…effing kidding me," Dragunov dead-panned at the sight of the army charging at them. Still finding it in himself to keep his words PG just for Ruby.
"Let's show these buckets of bolts what we're made of!" Ruby said as she already opened fire upon the robots.
With that, team RWBY and their Blades went at the evil robots.
As the fight started, a new voice stepped into the conversation, "So, we meet again, doctor Merlot." A voice that the girls would know if they cared to listen right now.
"Ozpin?" Merlot said sounding surprised, before sounding amused, "Or should I call you Oz, like the old times chum."
As this conversation happened, several things have already happened. First off, team RWBY had switched to their Blade weapons, seeing as they felt like they needed more power. Secondly, Weiss had used her glyphs to gain higher ground to use Snowfall, as well as Dust shots on a cluster of androids. Yang was already covered with Damage Armor as several energy blades were unable to pierce her back. Which led to the blonde brawler to counter the culprits with Fever Rush, knocking them all back into a slash from Ruby, who's attacks were already sped up from Thorny Bloom. As for Blake, it seemed like the androids had her cornered, until they looked confused for an instant, which was all Blake needed to get in the middle of them and use Shadowspin, cutting the androids too close to her like a buzzsaw. As for the Blades themselves, it wasn't like they were defenseless against the androids. Least of all Roze and Nox who were allowed to wield their Driver's weapons, even as they supplied power to them.
Then the conversation with Ozpin and Merlot picked up again, "I heard you perished in the Mountain Glenn. A tragedy you played no small part in with your foolishness." Ozpin didn't sound pleased at the last part.
"You call me the foolish one!?" Merlot shouted through the ear-pieces, which the students were able to tune out miraculously, "Sending your own students on an excursion like this? But no matter, while Mountain Glenn was a set-back, I have made quite a bit of new discoveries. Some of which you couldn't even dream about."
"My students are more than a match for your androids. And what madness could you possibly spout about this time?" Ozpin said, sounding mildly annoyed.
The headmaster of Beacon was right though. The robots, while more maneuverable than the Atlesian Knights, were no match for team RWBY and their Blades. This was evident, when Dahlia rose up on her icy pedestal before using Frost Queen to rain icicles upon mechanical menaces. The gunner type bots did try to shoot the ice Blade, but all they hit were barrier glyphs Weiss managed to set up, before being mowed down by Nox's Swirling Shadow. Next, we see Ruby and Roze, still wielding each other's weapons before the two suddenly jumped away. You see, the two had herded the remaining bots together, so that they would all get caught up in Dragunov's Burning Rage.
"Yeeaaah, we win!" Ruby cheered, bouncing in place as Dragunov's fiery wrath slowly extinguished.
"Well, that was a thing," Yang said, wiping some sweat off her forehead.
"Sure was if that's what it takes for you to get winded," Dragunov said playfully.
"Oh, shut it asshole," Yang said almost laughing, while playfully punching her Blade's arm on the fleshy part.
"You guys okay?" Weiss asked, referring to how much ether their Blades probably used up.
"We'll be fine Weiss," Dahlia said as she dug into her pouch to take a raw ice Dust crystal to nibble on. And it wasn't just her, all Blades took out Dust crystals of varying sizes to snack on and restore their strength. The powdered kind would be more effective, but since the crate back in the container they were locked in was practically given to them…They weren't going to pass that up.
"Like I said, Merlot. My students are more than a match for your machines." They all heard Ozpin pipe up through their ear-pieces, "The world was a much safer place without you. What you did was wrong."
"Trying to make the world a better place is wrong? Hmph. I see that my androids do need some adjustments if they should face huntsmen or huntresses with these Blades." Merlot sounded a little miffed at the carnage his machines suffered.
"The miracles of Atlesian technology." Ozpin said, like he was attempting to get a rise out of the doctor.
"Atlesian technology? Oh, please Oz, you don't seriously believe that these things were created by Atlas." Merlot sounded most amused, "At least, not according to the blueprints that suddenly appeared into my island."
"What blueprints," Weiss exclaimed, sounding worried. Especially if it had something to do with Blades. A worry that was shared by the other girls.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Merlot responded jovially.
"You will botch this somehow, Merlot." Ozpin said firmly, "You always do."
"Let's just agree to disagree." With those words, Merlot stopped talking.
With that, Ozpin was able to talk to the team freely for now, "Team, we have been trying to pin-point the location of Merlot's hideout, but we still need the coordinates. I need you to find a way to gain those coordinates so that we can send in reinforcements."
"Understood, professor." Ruby said, practically radiating determination. "Let's do this team!" That last one was directed to the red leader's team. Which was responded by varying kinds of confirmation. With that, the team moved on as the sun was already setting. Though the Drivers were still wondering what Merlot could have found out about the Blades that might give him an edge. For as far as they knew, the mutated Grimm were the only real threat to them as of now. And then there's that machine that created a containment field that prevented Blades from using their abilities. Hopefully there are not better versions of Trips and Evil Islands
AN: And there we go!
Merlot has appeared! He knows about the Blades! And their place of origin! But if you're wondering what discovery he's made. Whelp, I believe you may have seen one of them briefly.