Disclaimer: See last chapter.

The Mech

Ruby glanced down at her scroll again. These numbers were right, by both her mental calculations and the scroll. But... where would she put it all? Her workshop was too small for all this. It was certainly almost too big for her scroll.

It was big enough that she'd decided to push it all to the bigger screen if only to help see it all. On one side of the table was her spreadsheet, with usual sales for the month and how much she projected to make during the Vytal Festival. She was making another dust order. Or at least attempting to. She still had a few weeks to go before the next big supply of dust was expected to come in, but she needed that time for sorting, shipping, the whole shebang that comes with ordering more dust.

And with the SDC currently choking her out for every lien that she has, she had to make sure that she didn't buy so much that she would never run out, and that she didn't buy so little that she would run out and then people would get angry.

It was like living on the knife's edge, except she wasn't in a forest hunting Grimm for years and years. And if she was wrong then it was people that didn't like her, versus the unthinking Grimm.

She could do the math out loud, but the spreadsheet was doing most of the work for her. If she needed a sixty five percent increase in most dust, because she expected an eighty percent increase in traffic within the shop...she was good at math; she had to be in order to make Crescent Rose. But doing percentages on a physical spreadsheet was another thing entirely.

She had to her order on the SDC site up at the same time, and that wasn't helping because having that up slowed the scroll down to a crawl. So she'd put in a number, wait four seconds for it to show up, and then she'd have to glance over to the spreadsheet to make sure it was the right number...

It was almost like it was this bothersome on purpose. "Okay, if I had two scrolls this would be easy..." she muttered under her breath. Two hundred units of red dust of various purities, and some specific ones too. Three hundred of white dust, one hundred fifty of yellow...

It took her nearly from dusk until midnight to get the order ready. "Right, save quote..." she muttered as her scroll finally started to speed up. It'd require nearly six months rent to buy as much as she thought she'd need. Of course, if she sold it all or at least most of it, she could stand to make nearly eleven months rent and expenses, so it was risk versus reward.

And since dust expired within a year of it being mined and purified or whatever it was the SDC did while processing it...

An explosion outside cut through her thoughts. "What on Remnant...?" she said as she looked out the window. She saw a few others doing the exact same thing. "Dr. White, you know what's going on?" she asked one of her neighbors, an elderly doctor who walked to his clinic each morning.

"Not a one..." he answered. "But it's...oh my!" he said, pointing towards another explosion.

The Atlas warships above them immediately had sent in dozens of bullheads and other soldiers, trying to stem the...whatever it was that was going on. Another explosion wracked the surrounding areas, this time getting closer.

"Get back inside, preferably somewhere safe, I think it's getting closer!" Ruby called out. Most of her neighbors did exactly that; they knew that she was being Huntress trained, if not a full huntress yet for reasons unknown.

An explosion like those...Ruby stared at them. She'd seen them before, that type of explosive pattern. Her eyes narrowed. Every nation used explosives of some kind, and when she'd planned the...celebration of Yang graduating Signal, she'd studied up on all of them. Missiles. That's what it reminded her of, Atlesian missiles! Atlas alone had the tell tale trail of white dust in it's rear, showing the pilot exactly where the missiles had gone and what the pathway had been. Most of the others had other tell-tale signs of who they were made by. By why were Atlesian missiles going off in seemingly the edge of Vale?

Her scroll rang, and the sound made Ruby get back to the present moment. The explosions had stopped, but there were still rumblings coming from that direction. She glanced down at it; Dr. White?

"Dr. White?" she asked as she answered it.

"Turn on the news! Quick, channel six!" The doctor's voice rang out before he hung up. That was unusual, Ruby knew. He at least liked to pretend the niceties. The fact he hadn't said any made her worry a lot more.

She did go and turn on the news as he'd said though. Immediately a red alert with a 'breaking news!' came in on the bottom, and Ruby hurriedly turned it down.

A big part of the screen showed the nearby highway, and several cars had already been pushed to the side. The rumblings outside hadn't stopped but were coming from...the direction of the highway.

There was a large white robot, seemingly painted with the symbol of the White Fang, fighting a few dozen of the Atlas infantry robots, and more being dropped down onto it all the time. The highway had effectively been shut down.

"I hope no one's getting hurt by that..." Ruby muttered as she sat down to watch. Her leg was bouncing up and down almost faster than she could think, and a large part of her, most of her rather, wanted to go out there and help.

This was the biggest move the White Fang had made in Vale...pretty much ever. But why were they here? Just terrorizing Atlas? But why?

Her hands found her scroll and typed in Yang's number. The highway was nowhere close to Beacon, but she should at least her sister know that something was going on. Hopefully she'd have some amount of sense. And who knows, maybe Blake would know something? Probably not, but at least this way she was aware.

"Rubes...? It's right before midnight..." Yang's voice said sleepily. "What's going on...?"

"Turn on the news, channel six. The White Fang is attacking Atlas soldiers on the highway," Ruby summarized. There was a moment of silence before the sound of bedsheets hitting the floor, the door opening just as fast.

"Blake no!" Yang's voice shouted suddenly. "Darn it! She's probably going after them, Pyrrha, Jaune, wake up!" she was saying.

Ruby blinked down at her scroll, a sense of impending doom traveling down her mind. Had she just screwed a lot of things up by announcing that to Yang? Shoot. That wasn't what she'd meant to do at all! "Yang, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay Ruby. I know you didn't mean to. The White Fang and Blake are a...sensitive subject."

One that Ruby knew all too well. Blake had confided in her that she'd been part of the organization at one point, and to run if she ever saw a man named 'Adam'. "I know, she told me," Ruby answered. "Think she'll stay safe?"

"Probably not," Yang admitted. "Jaune's got his armor on, come on, we'll take Bumblebee, it'll be faster!" she said. "Ruby, I'm staying on the line, just let me know if the Atlas robots take a different path!"

"You can't go fighting that thing!" Ruby shouted. The fact she heard the start up sound of a motorcycle revving its engine said that Yang had probably heard her, and just hadn't cared. "Fine, but I'm going to help," Ruby scowled as she barreled for Crescent Rose. It had a scope on it, maybe she could keep them in sight that way and try to take a few potshots.

There was only one highway in Vale, and it essentially did a small lap of the city before going down and becoming the main streets. If anyone ever needed to know how to get somewhere, the easiest way was to navigate from the highway and to either Main street or First street, the two major thoroughfares that dictated most of Vale's development.

At the center of all of that was the large Plaza. Ruby's shop was only around three blocks down from there. Originally it'd been made as an underground subway station to the Mt. Glenn expansion, before being sealed up after the Grimm got to it. Ruby had originally only found out because Ozpin mentioned it, and then she did some research on her spare time.

The easiest way to the highway from her place was to head to the Plaza, and from there follow First street all the way to the onramp. From where she could hear the explosions and rumblings, and more missiles had apparently been fired, it was about halfway between her and Beacon, which had its own dedicated offramp.

Vehicles weren't often used in Vale, so the fact they had a highway at all had gotten a lot of scrutiny during it's construction. "Everyone comfortable?" Yang's voice asked through the scroll. Ruby could imagine all three of them, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Yang all on the tiny motorcycle she'd called Bumblebee.

Honestly most people used either motorcycles, walking, or the few times that they could afford it, the flying bulky Bullheads. Also sometimes boats, if they needed to cross the water.

There were dozens of sirens hovering out the air as Ruby ducked out of her shop, making sure it was locked. She grabbed Crescent Rose on her way, making sure that Zwei was safe back inside, holding down the fort.

Her Semblance was almost in overdrive, worried about her sister as she was. She was nervous, beyond nervous, and it showed as the rose petals scattered around her. More rumblings and explosions from the highway. Ruby paused as she got to the Plaza. There were a few police cars with their sirens and lights going.

The highway entrance was on the far side, and Ruby brought up the scope of Crescent Rose, trying to see something, anything, that could let her know to ensure Yang was going to be backing off. The rumbles and explosions were getting closer now, and just around the bend-

It was some kind of Atlas mech, definitely, but she didn't what it was. That was an unfamiliar feeling. She thought that she knew everything that Atlas had put out in terms of robotics and weaponry. Good to know they had some stuff hidden away, except for when they get stolen by some madman chasing what looked like a small blonde haired...wait a second she recognized those abs.

"Yang! It's chasing Sun! It's at the Plaza, heading down towards First!" Ruby shouted out as the mech suddenly turned. Sun had done...something, he was too far away for her to tell what, but it was still chasing him and now it was getting closer. Sun was leading it directly into the Plaza! "Never mind, it's heading into the Plaza, I'm going to try to keep it here!" she said through her scroll. There was some other kind of flying aircar or something with 'Channel News Six' written on the side.

"Be right there in a few, Ruby! Hang on all!" Yang's voice shouted out. Ruby put her scroll into her hood that she usually used only if she had music going, as she rushed to head to the entrance. Sun was doing a good job of dodging, acting like the monkey faunus knew what he was doing.

Ruby pulled up Crescent Rose and fired a few shots into what she hoped was the screen. The first one didn't do anything, but the second managed to hit something and make it spark. The mech stopped after it slammed one of its guns into the ground. Sun took the moment to disappear, heading straight towards her.

"Well!" Torchwick's voice called out from the mech as it stood up tall. It was nearly fifteen feet tall, with almost as many parts as Crescent Rose herself did. "It's Little Red, out from her shop and into a stroll of the park! Are you here to buy some cookies for grandma?" Torchwick mocked. The mech walked slowly onto the platform in the center of the Plaza, each step accompanied by a subtle crunch.

"Oh hey Ruby glad to see you we should probably be running now!" Sun said quickly as he ran for the street. Ruby grabbed his arm, keeping him there for a moment. He was surprisingly strong, actually.

"What's all this about?" Ruby asked, her eyes carefully kept on Torchwick's mech. It looked like a much heavier, bulkier version of an Atlas M-390, but with far more modifications. She hadn't heard any rumors of them building a new one, but her eyes went to the guns and servos on the thing. If there was anyone who could beat this thing, it was...probably Ozpin actually. Ms. Goodwitch was also a good substitute!

Guns, it looked like five or six. Two shoulder mounted missile packs, backwards facing turrets, and several forward facing ones. Fired what appeared to be nearly .50 caliber, rotating at a rate of...she'd need to let it fire before she could figure that out. Hand mounted guns had a bore size of nearly .75, absolutely massive for a gun that size. If Atlas had built this thing, what were the thinking of attacking with this thing?

It was an absolute death machine. "So...basically I heard from Blake that the White Fang have been stepping up problems in the area so I came on down to check it out and I heard about this rally thing they were having at some point. That's when Torchwick over there saw me and remembered me from the docks fight, so I fired at some of the lights to cause them to crash down and then he got into that thing, he called it a paladin mech, and then he started chasing me and I don't think I've been able to do anything to it!" Sun explained in a massive hurry.

Ruby almost wondered why. Was it the extremely thick armor plating that most Grimm wouldn't care about, was it the fact that Sun mostly uses nunchucks which are mostly bludgeoning or blasting weapons, or was it the fact that it was piloted by Torchwick who for some reason knew how to pilot this thing well?

She turned her eyes to the police cars on the side, each of them firing small potshots at the mech, their bullets doing less than nothing. Unless they scored a good hit on the servos, they weren't going to be doing much damage. "So...any ideas?" Sun asked, his voice high. He was probably thinking of running, not that Ruby blamed him.

The mech stepped closer and closer. "Oh Little Red, are you frozen? Come on, you were so quick to take me on only a few months ago? Where did all that bravery go?" Torchwick mocked again. He stopped, and Ruby saw small levers being engaged to keep it on the ground.

Top heavy. The thing was top heavy, and she had no doubt that extra ammunition weighed it down. "Hit it from the side, focus on the legs. We buy time, Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha are coming," Ruby whispered as she bolted forward. The mech fired, its bullets digging up dirt and concrete right where she'd been even if she wasn't using her Semblance.

Petals flowed over and around her as she webbed and weaved through the shots. She should conserve her aura, but she could bow out once the others show up. Until then, she had to keep Torchwick right where he was. Crescent Rose's scythe blade slashed and weaved through and around the legs armor, doing less than minimal. "Is that everything, Little Red?" Torchwick asked before he fired the shoulder blades.

She ducked underneath the cockpit, the only probably safe place to be near this thing. "Not there!" Sun said as his weapon blasted the feet. "He has another gun underneath his cockpit!" he announced.

Because of course he did. "He's not wrong!" Torchwick said as the gun started warming up. Same as the other guns on the shoulders, Ruby could tell, which meant most of its ammunition was probably stored in the highly shielded part right underneath.

A simple slash wouldn't do anything, and she fired Crescent Rose to duck out of the way, burying the blade in the concrete to whip around. "Yang, how close are you?" Ruby asked, hoping the scroll would pick it up. She didn't get an answer, and the mech turned to face her, ignoring the negligible damage that Sun was doing on its other foot. The thing was surprisingly mobile...

But mobility was a weakness. She would know...the hardest part of mechashift was keeping the parts mobile. "I have an idea!" Ruby shouted as she fired once, whipping around the mech again. The cockpit followed her, shots buried in the ground right where she'd been. Only a second slower, she would have died for sure. She needed to be fast for this.

Faster.

Her Semblance kicked on again, and she focused everything she had in simply going faster. Crescent Rose was firing shots constantly, but all of them backwards. Momentum, momentum, going faster. The mech could turn with her surprisingly easy, but she wasn't focused on that. "Do something!" Sun shouted as his shotgun blasts accidentally hit a vulnerable part; one of the servos on its legs. Ruby grinned.

The Plaza was filled petals by now, and she could barely see where she was going but the mech hadn't moved, and in fact probably couldn't. It brought up one of its arms to fire the turrets on its side and hands, and Ruby went in for the kill. She pulled back early, and used all of her momentum on the things elbow.

Joints were weaknesses, especially when they held so much weight. She activated some lightning dust right before hitting it, causing the shock to occur straight through the rest of it as the arm came falling off, crashing into the ground with a thunderous clash. She landed on the other side of it, rolling onto the dirt to get rid of the extra momentum.

Her aura flared as the back guns fired on her. "Clever, Red!" Torchwick admonished. "But you're not going to be able to do that again. And for you-" he said, smashing the ground where Sun was with the other hand...gun...thing. Pieces flew into the air as Sun was smacked away, landing on a tree. Ruby's eyes quickly checked her scroll. With the extra bullets she'd just taken, she was down to forty five percent aura. He was right, that move had taken far too much aura for that. Even as much as she was training, she still couldn't beat Torchwick!?

Then again, she was just a humble weaponsmith. Was she actually trying to beat Torchwick...no. No she wasn't. She smirked, staring at the cockpit. "I don't need to do it again," Ruby announced, her cape fluttering in the wind as a familiar growl came from behind her. "Because I have help now," she grinned as Bumblebee flew through the air, Yang jumping off at the last second to punch the cockpit, her hair burning.

The motorcycle landed and Pyrrha leapt off, firing a few shots at some of the servos that Ruby had noticed. They plinked off, barely doing anything more than Sun's did, and she landed right next to Ruby. Jaune was running down from the highway. "Anything?" Pyrrha asked.

"No Blake yet, but servos are weak point. Not sure on how much force yet, it took me half my aura to get rid of the one arm," Ruby answered quickly. Pyrrha nodded. "Jaune, Yang, go from the front. Dragon Slayer!" she commanded. Ruby gave her an odd glance, but Yang and Jaune seemed to know what that meant, even if she didn't. Pyrrha pulled back Mio, firing a more shots into the remaining arm before she bolted on in, changing it to a spear and shield.

Ruby had to admit, Mio was amazing.

She followed the red hair, as Jaune and Yang started to bounce off each other. Jaune would fire one shot at Yang, who would block it with Ember Celica, using the shot's power to use her Semblance, before she'd punch Jaune's shield, Ruby had to hide her wince, before he spun it around and shoved Yang towards the mech.

Each bullet plinked off Yang's aura as she delivered another rocket punch to the cockpit. "Grr..." Torchwick growled as he fired everything the mech had. Missiles bounced into the air, the guns all started firing. He turned one gun towards Jaune, who was hiding behind his shield as he charged on through. Jaune probably couldn't see it...

But Pyrrha could. There was a tell-tale shing as Ruby saw the shield being pulled upwards to deflect the bullets that he couldn't have seen. He didn't fight it, from what Ruby could tell. Her own strikes were on the things missing side, trying to cleave off the guns and turrets on its back and shoulders. "Thanks Pyr!" Jaune shouted as he struck the mech's side with Mors.

Unlike Sun, Jaune was doing some damage.

"Ha, well, this is all fun and good, but I think I'm done here," Torchwick said, his grin easy to hear. Ruby saw all of the guns started to turn towards Pyrrha and Jaune...including the ones on the severed arm.

Ruby bolted forward. "Watch out!" she tried to yell as the shots fired on them from every angle. Yang was coming in from behind, and was nowhere close either.

A black shape, bigger than Ruby and seemingly a giant, pounced on the severed arm and breaking it instantly. Every bit, every bolt was shattered as the blur lay into it. "Oh that's not good," Torchwick muttered.

The blur let out a roar, lighting up the area a bit as the purple aura flared. It wasn't Blake, but he seemed close to her. Purple coat, large chest patch of black hair, definitely a faunus if the eyes and claws were any indication. "Roman Torchwick!" he yelled, his voice deep.

"Oh, that's a Kitty Cat senior...well, that's my time up," Torchwick said, talking to himself as he released the grips on the feets, allowing easy movement again. Yang kept going on the legs, not seemingly doing anything...until Sun came back and fired at the same spot he'd sparked earlier. A large grin told Ruby exactly where he'd been. Getting help.

The sparks got worse. "Right there, everyone!" Ruby shouted out, and everyone fired every shot they had. The faunus leapt on top of the mech, attracting all of Torchwick's attention as the cockpit started to crack and break. The sparks got worse, small flames emitted as it suddenly stopped working, leaving Torchwick in its track.

The loud roar of a Bullhead above them blocked all sound. The door opened, and the mech just...stopped. Ms. Goodwitch stood there, an unhappy scowl on her face as the mech was lifted up and smashed back into the ground. The faunus leapt off, and Ruby had to check it was the same guy as he suddenly changed demeanor, from basically a berserker to standing tall and diplomatic. It was as if a switch had suddenly been flipped.

Over and over, the mech's guns started jamming, seemingly randomly. A single slash took off its other arm, and Ruby heard a small crow as Qrow landed in front of them, just as Ms. Goodwitch landed. The psychokineticist, as who else could it be by this point, slammed the mech backwards into the stairs. "Roman Torchwick, you are under arrest," she said easily. Ruby grinned. Is this why they said that Hunter were the real hope-bringers?

"That's nice...Neo!" Torchwick shouted, just as a small girl leapt down from...somewhere, a parasol in one hand with pink and brown hair and mismatched eyes. The same girl that Ruby had fought earlier. And lost to. That she was Torchwick's apprentice was...well, Ruby had a lot more training to do. Suddenly, it was much less amusing to have lost as badly as she did.

Ms. Goodwitch's eyes narrowed, and she raised her riding crop only to have her eyes widen. Neo and Torchwick, who had been slowly climbing out of the cockpit, vanished in a visual shattering, shards like glass falling on the ground. "Where'd they go?" Qrow asked, his eyes sharp as he looked around.

"Off, it seems," the faunus said. "Thank you for the assistance, Glynda, Qrow," he continued.

"Hey, can't have a diplomatic incident when I'm on watch. It'd make me look bad!" Qrow answered with a grin.

Yang came up to Pyrrha and Jaune, and casually punched Pyrrha's shield with a minor blow, grinning all the meanwhile. Ms. Goodwitch turned to them. "And just what, pray tell, were you four doing? Five, yes Sun, I'm including you in this," she said, her voice brooking no favors as the monkey faunus tried to start running.

Ruby started to feel sweat down her back. And she had to look forward to having Ms. Goodwitch as a teacher in a few years...hopefully she wouldn't remember this. Although Qrow, too, was glaring at her now. "That's a good question..." he said, and Ruby felt a shudder run down her spine. She was not going to be enjoying the next few days.

Waves within waves. Also, first single chapter segment since chapter 1!

Until Next Time.