A/N: You have all been patient and stuck by me as I continued Ptabs0101's wonderful series. Now your patience has been rewarded.
Enjoy!
Guardian Summer Rose was not in a pleasant mood at the moment. Which was weird since she was in the middle of the Prison of Elders, putting down any prisoners that either tried to pick a fight with her or escape alongside Petra Venj and her mentor and fellow Hunter, Cayde-6. She should be thrilled. But that all changed when she and her daughters took their first step into the prison and an explosion happened right in front of them. She instantly recovered when the blast faded and turned to expectantly see her daughters also doing well. Instead, she saw a gaping hole in the floor where they should be. Instantly seeing it, she was going to jump head-first into the hole to recover them, but Cayde-6 behind her asked for her help. She turned and saw that the whole floor below her was packed with prisoners from across the system, all from various factions that the Guardians had encountered and fought against.
Fallen with cloaks of House Dusk, Wolves, Devils and other house colors she couldn't identify were fighting against Hive Thralls, Cabal fighting Vex units, cabal against fallen, the list went on. It was an all-out battle royale with Cayde-6 in the midst of it going every which way, shooting them down with the help of his signature hand-cannon, Ace of Spades.
She was torn, but that was until her Ghost, Drei popped up and gave her the news. Both Ruby and Yang were still alive and down fifty floors from where she was now standing. He had sent out a pulse for their scrolls and found them. Granted, their Auras took a toll, but they were alright.
Sighing in relief, she drew her own hand-cannon Dire Promise and jumped down. That was when things got fun!
00000
Her sight was a blur. She blinked her eyes trying to focus. She saw flashing lights, sirens and the howls of inmates all around them. Ruby opened her eyes and looked around herself as she slowly rose up. The last thing she remembered was running alongside her mom and Yang, then the explosion…
The explosion!
She rose up and bonked her head on a pole sticking out. She grabbed her head and moaned. She looked around and saw that she was in the middle of a tunnel with cells lining the walls. She looked up and saw hole where they fell down from. Gazing up she saw more tunnels similar to her own up and up and up, honeycombed throughout the place. She turned when she heard metal move, her beloved crescent Rose at the ready in its sniper form. She lowered it when it was revealed to be Yang who used her strength to lift the rubble and bits metal off of her.
"Ow!" She said rubbing her head. "That explosion did a number on us." She said gazing at her scroll. Ruby did the same and saw that both hers and Yangs were now in the yellow. Yang gazed upwards. "Looks like that explosion damaged the structure were on and sent us tumbling down. Ruby, can you see if there is any writing anywhere?"
Ruby cocked her head. "Writing?"
"Well, this is a prison, it stands to reason that the guards would label what level they were on, like a directory or something." Yang said stretching out the sore muscles. A series of cackles and howls echoed around them. "And possibly far from here." She said,
Ruby agreed and they set off away along with her sister. If it wasn't for the echoes of who knows how many prisoners, she and her sister would have just waited for their mother to come get them.
Going down the tunnel, they passed numerous cells that once held whatever kind of prisoners. Some were large cells that contained numerous prisoners, while some were larger cryo pods for larger prisoners. In the category of the latter, they passed some which were missing. Wondering what happened to them, they got their answer when they saw a cryopod shake and move of its own accord and move further into the wall before a rocket popped out from the bottom shoot away. The two looked and saw that it led to outside the prison where the cryopod shot away and joined other similar pods floating in the void of space around the complex. Figuring it was some sort prison program at work, they continued their journey deeper into the prison. They passed bodies of Awoken who held the line along with prisoners that had attempted to escape. Most fallen, some Hive, and surprisingly, some human and faunus.
When cooperation between Remnant and the Last City on Earth formed, one of the things that had happened was the transfer of several high-threat prisoners from Remnant. Murderers, rogue Huntsemn, the irredeemable, to name a few. They were sent here far away to the Prison of Elders to rot away.
Coming to a door, it opened and they found themselves on a circular pit dominated by a series of catwalks that went across, up, or down. Dominating them high above was a large central hub.
Looking around, they found a computer panel. Yang brought out her scroll and used her camera function scan the computer terminal. Thanks to Drei, he modified all of Team RWBY's scrolls to access any computer network in the field. That last bit was to put Weiss at ease due to her thinking it could be used for exploitive purposes.
As Yang was doing that, Ruby saw lettering on a wall nearby in fallen script. One of the new curriculums added to Beacon recently was teaching languages, with Eliksni being taught by a representative of House Light that was to be their teacher; Chroniclekel. To prepare for the class, they learned a bit of the language.
Reading the script. "Looks like we are on level fifty-two."
"Right in the ballpark, Ruby. Level fifty-two Cellblock B-15." Yang said reading the results on her scroll.
They both heard explosions high above, turrets popping up and shooting escapees. Some were destroyed.
Ruby loaded a magazine into her weapon. "We should go up and assist."
A Hive Ogre and a Vex Hydra dropped from below gripping one another as they fought and fell onto one of the few catwalks leading up, destroying it as they fell deeper down below. Seeing the destruction, both hesitated. "Or, we can just stay right here and keep any prisoners from escaping."
"Little Red? Is that you?!"
Both Ruby and yang looked up and saw on a destroyed catwalkleading upwards, with the bottom portioned destroyed, leaning on the railing was an individual Ruby recognized from what seems like a lifetime ago. She would never forget her first criminal that set her on the path to attending Beacon.
"Roman Torchwick?!" Her silver eyes wide.
"You remember me! I thought my time here would have made you forget all about me."
Indeed Roman Torchwick stood above them, though he looked much different. His signature white suit was a bit worn in places and stained here and there. His bowler hat had seen better days along with his hair which was a bit wild. In his worn gloves was his signature cane, clean as if new. But the most striking feature was the hand-print scar on his face courtesy of their mother after interrogating him.
Ruby looked around at the destruction around them and came to a likely conclusion. "It was you. You did all of this! The riot, us coming here! You set this all up just to take revenge on us?!" Instead of a confirmation, she got a laugh to the face.
"Ha-ha! I'll take that as a compliment that you think I could pull all of this off, just to get you here! But alas no. I can't take credit for someone else's work! Though, I can't deny that this isn't a bad thing. My time in this…lovely prison has helped me make connections. Connections that will change the landscape of the criminal underworld. Now if you will excuse me…" He said leaning away from the railing to leave.
Bang!
Bang-Bang!
Three shots ran out in front of him, impacting the wall and stopping him in his tracks. Both Ruby and Yang had used their weapons to stop him in his tracks.
"What makes you think we'll just let you leave?" Yang asked.
"Yeah! We came here to stop a prison riot, now turned prison break. And you know that we can kick your butt back into a cell." Ruby finished.
Roman simply smiled and walked back to the railing and looked down at them, ignoring the weapons pointed up at him. "What makes you think that you have the time to take care of little old me, while there are much worse beings trying to escape. For example; him." He said pointing behind him.
They turned and saw from an open doorway a large Vex Minotaur. And by large, Grimm Goliath-sized.
The gigantic Vex minotaur starred at them with his three red eyes, body covered in a combination of silver and rust.
"From what the other prisoners told me, the Vex that were in here came from numerous Collectives that now banded together under the rulership of that one. I believe his name was Apaktos Oxidizing Mind. So, you got a choice, try and recapture me, or face off against the Vex Mind and its cronies to prevent it and those under it from escaping to Remnant or Earth. Your choice. I hope you make the right one." He said as he walked away from the railing and into another tunnel. He didn't turn around as the sound of cocking weaponry sounded behind him along with gunshots. After walking some time, he found his cellmate/business partner Siviks. "Let's get going. We got a weapons cache to recover." The large fallen said. Roman smiled for he was back in business.
00000
Ruby and Yang faced off against the Oxidizing Mind. Years back, they and their teammates were ill-equipped and unprepared to face off against the vex Invasion of Remnant. But after over a year of study, training and facing off against the members of the Red Legion, they could handle it now.
Ruby propelled herself forward using the recoil of Crescent Rose. When she got close to the vex mind, she sliced across in front of her to damage the legs. The scythe's blade cut a deep gash into the leg, sending bits of rust away. She then used her semblance to move to the side as it tried to slam its fist down at her. Yang sent herself flying upwards using Ember Celica. When she reached the head, she sent several shots at its face. The shots impacted the head, making huge dents. It lifted its leg up to stomp on Yang, but when it raised it up, it froze for a moment, lowering slowly before stomping down. By then, yang ahd already moved far enough away.
Ruby realized that the reason they dealt so much damage to it and the reason it was so slow was because it was exposed to something in the prison that made its body lose some of its toughness. Seeing how limited it was, Ruby switched out her usual ammo and loaded up ice rounds. Signaling Yang to fire when she did, Ruby fired a few ice rounds at the arm, head and leg. As the bullets impacted, ice formed in those places. Yang then fired at those locations which rapidly melted the ice, which damaged the Vex Mind further.
As they were about to congratulate themselves, an explosion high above sounded. They looked up and to their shock, was the hub, disconnected with the rest of the place high above and falling towards them. Ruby grabbed Yang and with her semblance, raced away back to where they entered, just in time. The central hub landed on top of the vex Mind, destroying it and the walkway further damaging it. As they watched it fall, both Yang and Ruby saw Cayde-6 riding it, one arm grabbing a bunch of cables and waving up at them with the other arm.
Both were silent watching him pass, stars in their eyes.
"That…was…the most…bad-ass thing I have ever seen!" Yang said in awe.
"Agreed." Ruby replied.
00000
Several minutes earlier…
Summer rose fired another round into a screaming Hive Wizard to shut her up! The body barely burned to ashes before she fired several rounds into the face of an Ogre, sending it down before moving on.
It took a few minutes of her gunning down several dozen inmates at the gen-pop portion of the prison before it sent the message to all there to get back in their cells. Seeing her aflame using her Golden Gun on a Cabal Colossus of the Dust Giants kind of did that. As she continued within the prison, gunning down uncooperative inmates, Drei did a bit of commentary on those she did away with. Some not surprising, others kind of new to her.
"That Vandal was a member of House Rat. A bit obscure in the Vanguard database. From a member of house Light saying, House Rat feeds off the refuse of other houses. Cowards all."
"Cabal from the Blind Legion. Surprised that it didn't merge with the other cabal war bands into the Red legion."
On and on he gave her commentary as she kept on fighting. Drei only stopped to help out Cayde-6 when she and him came to a security room and helped him out with some button. That was after Cayde attempted to do that himself by pressing all of the buttons. After Summer fought off a bunch of Hive Thralls that somehow clogged up the servers with their chitinous gunk, Cayde solved the problem by shooting the machinery which activated the turrets.
"Don't worry kiddo, your kids had faced off against tougher enemies than these boys." Cayde-6 said through the radio to her as they left.
"While I am worried about them, it's not just their safety I'm worried about. I'm more concerned about them encountering anyone that has a grudge against me, and focusing their vengeance on them."
And the number of enemies was a really long one.
"Then you do what you do best. Fuck them up!" He said cheering her up. And he was right, anyone trying to do any harm to them would send her into a violent campaign that would make the Red War, Taken War and SIVA Crisis combined look like a slap-fight.
As Summer went one way, and Cayde another via hitching a ride on a passing Fallen Shank, Summer came to a stand-off between a bunch of Psions and a large group of hive with an Ogre.
The Ogre and the Hive were different from the many sects that Summer had encountered in her tenure as a Guardian, having more armor to their bodies. And they fought more aggressively against the dwindling Psions. As a Hive was sent flying towards Summer to their death, the Guardian side-stepped and watched as it hit the wall and died. Drei came out and did a quick scan on the remains.
"Done scanning. From what data I've gathered, this sect belongs to the Hive God of war, Xivu Arath."
Summer recalled that Oryx had siblings, two sisters that shared his title as a God among the hive. Savathun the Witch Queen and Xivu Arath. She heard that her fellow Titan, Prometheus had encountered Oryx's son Nokris and his Hive on Mars, along with their abilities, and wondered how Xivu Arath's Hive measured up.
Channeling her Super into a Golden Gun in her hand, she took aim at the Hive Ogre.
Blam!
Blam-Blam!
Three shots from her Golden Gun at the Ogre's head. Three shots that would have killed it three times over.
Barely made a dent in its armored hide.
Finishing off the last of the Psions, the Hive of Xivu Arath turned to Summer Rose, emeral eyes shining with sadistic glee as they raised their weapons.
"Alright." She said, as she took out of her inventory her newest weapon, a void-class sword by the name of Honor's edge. Recently purchased from Banshee-44 after a surplus of New Monarchy weapons came to the market. "Plan-B." She said as she charged at them.
00000
Down below near the super-max series of cells containing the absolute worst of the Prison of Elders, Queen's Wrath and acting regent of the Awoken people, Petra Venj finished off the last of the Vex placed down here. She lowered her knife and wiped it clean of the remaining radiolaria.
"Looks like we're almost done here. After this, Ramen's on me." Cayde-6 said over the radio.
Petra then walked to a series of doors. "A little early for celebration's Cayde." She said imputing a series of numbers in the console.
"A few stragglers here and there, collecting the floating cells out in the Reef, I'd say the jobs 3/4ths done."
"Perhaps, just have to check one last thing." She said before turning the radio off and stepping through the open doorway.
She stepped through the doorway, steam hissing as she passed by the single-occupant cells on the walls. She passed four on each side, eight in total. She sighed in relief that they were still there in their cells. She then approached the last cell, smaller than the rest, yet much more dangerous. Peeking through the small window, she sighed in relief. He was still there.
She keyed the radio. "Everything looks good down here…" She stopped when she noticed something out of place.
When he was brought in, there was a dark substance on his neck, always shifting in the light. But when she saw him, his markings were on the opposite side. She keyed the computer by the pod and opened it quickly. As the pod opened, she saw the occupant vanish before her eyes!
She looked in the pod and saw a tablet on the seat within. Picking up she read it. The message was in fallen script.
SURPRISE!
-Courtesy of the Mad Bomber and the Trickster.
She quickly turned and saw the other pod doors opening, beeping coming from all of them. The occupants in the pods vanished replaced with spinning bombs!
She barely got the radio to her lips before they exploded, blinding her and slowing her movements!
Web Mines!
Sluggishly, she brought the radio to her mouth, but even that much movement slowed her down along with her words.
"Cayde…he's escaped…they've escaped! It's…not a prison…riot…it's an escape!"
The mines finally dissipated allowing her to see. She raced to the doorway, but more mines popped out of the pods closer to the doorway, exploding and preventing her from escaping for the time being.
"They're going to escape, and I can't get to them in time! Deck zero is the closest exit from where I am!"
"Not if I get there first." Cayde replied on the other end.
She heard gunshots and when the mines finally dissipated, she ran out the door before more of them went off.
She finally got back outside just as she saw Cayde-6 riding the destroyed remnants of the security hub that was high above previously as it fell down below and out of sight.
She could only stare at his most idiotic means of getting down there.
