Hi everyone, welcome back! I'm glad everyone enjoyed the previous chapter and now we kick off into the action again and this is gonna be one hell of a ride for our heroes, literally.
Things will be similar while other things will be different.
Before we get started, I just wanted to say that I am currently playing "Sonic Frontiers" and it is awesome! The gameplay and the story-mode so far are both incredible, not to mention the lore. Though I still have not finished the game so please, no spoilers, thank you. Seems like the Sonic games are getting back on track. Finally. :)
However, let me say right here and now that I currently have no plans to include any elements from "Frontiers" into this story, so the odds of us seeing Sage are almost zero. Not that I don't like her, she's great, I just don't see a way I can add her. Though that may change later on, depending on how my story goes in the future, I'm not making any promises. So, for the time being, don't expect Sage to make an appearance here.
With that said, let's get this party started.
Freight Train Fight
"Underground?" Tails questioned as Teams Sonic and RWBY, along with Oobleck, were approached by Team Dark. The black Hedgehog and his comrades reported what they found to their allies the second they located Eggman's base.
"Yep." Rouge confirmed. "Being that deep below ground made it harder for pick up any of Eggman's signals. Gotta give the Doc points for thinking this thing through."
"That explains why we haven't found anything on top." Sonic said.
Shadow heard a bark and glanced in Ruby's direction to see Zwei by her side. "You brought a dog to a battlefield?"
"Hey, dogs can make excellent hunters and trackers! They're great companions for Huntresses!" Ruby pointed out, repeating Oobleck's words, while Shadow simply rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Of course…. Of course! Of course! Of course!" Oobleck paced back and forth. "How can I be so stupid?!" He zoomed in to Yang's face first. "Mountain Glenn! Yes!" He was then in Knuckles' face. "An expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by Creatures of Grimm!" He went into Blake's face next. "Previously home to thousands of people!" He was then in Amy's face. "Working people! Commuting to the city! The main city!" He then went into Weiss' face. "Developed a subway system to the inner city!" Then he was in Tails' face. "Grimm's attack increase! Population endangered now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into metro tunnels and what do they find…?!" He kneeled down to Zwei's level, speaking with the dog. "The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"
"Doc, what are you saying?!" Yang questioned, not understanding at all what he was going on about.
"The Kingdom of Vale has natural barriers such as mountains that keep the people safe from the Grimm, but Mountain Glenn lacked that protection, so the city was quickly overrun." Shadow summed up. "They developed a subway system that would enable them to travel between the settlement into the main kingdom, one that would also serve as shelter once the city was overrun. Is that right?"
"Yes! Correct! One hundred percent correct!" Oobleck exclaimed. "We're not just looking for an underground crime network! We're looking for an underground crime network!"
"Apparently literally." Sonic added.
"Eggman's been hiding in caves this whole time?" Blake questioned.
"The space and structures constructed below suggest that the subway system was likely converted into a settlement for the colony's populace upon Mountain Glenn's fall." Omega suggested.
"So, what happened to all the people who lived down there?" Ruby asked. "Were they evacuated?"
"Unfortunately, no…" Oobleck answered. "An explosion opened the mouth of another cavern… filled with subterranean Grimm." It didn't take long for everyone else to figure out what came next. "After that… the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels…. Creating the world's largest tomb."
"So Eggman didn't even have to dig to establish a base. The people already did that for him. He just moved in." Weiss commented. "Heh, it's actually clever."
"If you don't count the borderline desecration." Knuckles said as he clenched his fists in anger.
"How many bad guys we got down there?" Amy asked.
"Mostly Badniks, number around over a hundred." Rouge answered. "A couple White Fang agents, but not that many. Mostly watchmen in towers."
"Then why don't we liven things up a bit?" Sonic suggested. "Eggman doesn't know we're here yet, so we can take him by surprise. What do you think, Doc?" He asked Oobleck. "Full frontal assault? My pals and I got more than enough experience trashing Eggman's robots."
Oobleck drew his thermos, which opened up and converted into a two-handed weapon. "Sounds like a plan."
Sonic grinned. "Knuckles, why don't you knock?"
"Everyone, stay back…" Knuckles motioned for everyone to step backwards, which they did. Pounding his fists together briefly, Knuckles raised his right fist before giving a yell as he slammed it down into the street with enough force to shatter the ground beneath him completely.
Meanwhile, within the caves beneath Mountain Glenn, which also currently served as Eggman's primary base, the mad doctor in question was currently stationed within a metallic train of his own design that rested on the tracks just in front of the dark subway tunnels. The train was huge and had a black and red color scheme to it, along with a face with eyes and horns, very much like the ones built for his canyon-like bases. He sat in the wide and open controls of the front car as he overlooked a holographic map of the City of Vale.
"Heh, heh, this is so mean I almost feel bad for those dopes." Eggman snickered to himself. "Almost."
Torchwick then entered car. "Yo Doc, I got a bone to pick with you!"
"Yes, Torchy?" Eggman turned around as the gangster looked more than a little angry for some reason.
"We've been held up in this cave for weeks, eating nothing but this weird protein stuff you're lacky-robots are making, with nothing but a few animals to keep me company and make decent conversation with!" Torchwick pointed his finger at Eggman.
"You got the kid Neo, don't you?" Eggman asked. "Even though I insisted she'd remain at Beacon with Cinder." He muttered that last part.
"The point is, I'm not some hired goon you can just boss around!" Torchwick said. "You told me that I'd be running Vale when this is all over, but you're not telling me how that's gonna happen! I just want to know what the plan is, is that so hard?!"
"You don't have to worry." Eggman told him. "The plan's already set, and I've taken care of all the little details. Just do what I say and you'll get what you deserve real soon."
Before Torchwick could offer a reply, the sound of a muffled crash could be heard from outside the train, getting their attention. "What was that?"
"Boss! We got trouble!" Cubot exclaimed as he and Orbot stumbled into the car.
"Sonic, Shadow, and all their teams have found us! They even brought some of those Huntsmen students too!" Orbot reported. "Our forces are currently holding them back as we speak!"
Rather than be upset or angered by this, Eggman actually looked excited. "What impeccable timing!" He sat down in the command chair that ascended from the ground at the controls. "Get the train ready to depart! We're moving to Vale now!"
"You got it, Boss!" Cubot saluted as he and Orbot began to work at the control systems on the side.
"How are you so calm right now?!" Torchwick exclaimed. "The rodents found us! Those alien freaks are like one-man armies! You can't just…"
"Torchwick, you need to learn to enjoy these dramatic sudden deadlines." Eggman said casually as he brought up a holographic screen to see the fight that was ensuing outside.
Explosions rocked the caverns as the Badnik horde opened fire on the incoming Blue Blur that was Sonic the Hedgehog. He blasted his way through a group of Egg Fighters and Egg Pawns, sending them all flying before spotting a series of Egg Gunners hovering in the air as they aimed their guns at him and opened fire. Sonic then leapt up to deliver a homing attack, zooming to each individual robot and destroy them all in one hit.
As Sonic dealt with the many Badniks in front of him, a White Fang agent on one of the guard towers pulled out a rocket launcher and was about to open fire…
*SLICE!*
He looked in shock to see his weapon sliced in half, courtesy of Crescent Rose as Ruby spun around to deliver a kick to his face and knock him off the tower. She took up that same position and converted her trusty weapon into its sniper-configuration. Ruby looked through her scope to spot a group of five Egg Gunners and quickly sniped them all with perfect headshots.
Yang gave a yell as she threw her fist at an Egg Fighter who wielded a shield to protect itself, but the added force from Ember Celica's shotgun, she not only broke through the shield, but followed through with another punch to obliterate the robot in front of her. She then threw herself into a group of Egg Pawns before turning them all into scrap metal with a flurry of punches and shotgun blasts.
The blonde gave a slight laugh. "Man, these guys are actually fun to fight. I can see why you guys do this." She said to Knuckles beside her.
"Don't let your guard down, though." The red Echidna advised but still smiled as well as he drew Galatine upon spotting some Badniks himself and rushed them. Three Egg Gunners tried to shoot him, but Knuckles dashed past each gun shot before quickly closing the gap and spun himself around, holding his axe-blades outward to slice through the three mechs and facing off with the lumbering Egg Walker that was behind them. It tried to stomp down on him, but Knuckles delivered an uppercut with his fist to shatter its whole right leg and caused it to trip down and fall back before he finished it off with a jab to its central eye-unit.
As Ruby continued to snipe some of the Badniks from her commandeered spot on the tower, she gave a yelp as she felt a gunshot skin her arm, though her aura did protect her, she was forced to take cover from the White Fang goon that fired his rifle from the tower across from her.
"I got a bad guy on the tower across from me!" She reported over their shared comns. "Can anyone take care of that?"
Less than a second later, she heard the sounds of slicing metal and glanced out from her spot to see said tower tumbling downward like a fallen tree, the White Fang agent screaming as he and the tower fell down to crush a group of twenty Badniks.
Ruby looked down to see Shadow standing at the base of the former tower, Arondight held out, as he glanced up at her. "Will that suffice?" He asked her over their comns.
"Um… a little overkill but… yeah. Thanks Shadow." She said, and he nodded in response before going on the attack once more.
Weiss thrusted Myrtenaster forward and into the neck of an Egg Gunner to swiftly decapitate it before bringing her sword to her side to swiftly block the sword slice of an Egg Fighter before conjuring a glyph in front of her and infusing some Gravity Dust into it to propel the Egg Fighter into a group of two other Egg Fighters and three Egg Pawns to knock them back. Six Egg Flappers descended toward her and opened fire on her, but she plunged Myrtenaster into the ground to create an ice-barrier to act as a makeshift shield to protect herself from all the gunfire. Fortunately, Weiss would receive support in the form of Tails as he flew in his Cyclone's plane mode and fired his Volkan mini gun to shred all six Flappers like tissue paper. Tails then converted his Cyclone into its walker-mode to land in front of Weiss as he turned around to give the heiress a smile and a thumbs up, to which she smiled in gratitude.
Blake used the extendable grappler from Gambol Shroud to swing her way up to the third guard tower and was able to use her Semblance to give herself an extra boost to make her way to the top of the tower and kick off the armed White Fang goon to knock him down. She quickly switched Gambol Shroud to its gun more and fired at the airborne Badniks that were nearby. The Faunus girl was however forced to duck as the White Fang goon from the final tower shot at her with his machine gun.
"Now that's not nice." The smirking Rouge suddenly appeared behind him. "Shooting at a lady like that." He tried to turn around and punch her, but she ducked and simply swiped her feet to trip him up and send him falling off the tower. Rouge got up and gave a finger salute to Blake, who nodded in thanks.
Oobleck proved that while he was an intellectual, he was also a Huntsman as his thermos/weapon, also known as Antiquity's Roast, acted like a flamethrower to incinerate an Egg Fighter in front of him. Though that Badnik was quickly destroyed, two more appeared behind that with their shields to protect themselves. Fortunately, Oobleck was able to duck and turn his flame-thrower backwards, adding extra boost with his swing as he swung at their legs to trip up both robots and leave them vulnerable for him to swing his weapon like a croquette, again with extra boost from the flamethrower attachment to send both robots crashing into four Egg Gunners and obliterate all six.
Omega fired a volley of missiles to blow away at least ten Badniks in his usual style. One Egg Fighter with a sword and a shield tried to rush Omega from behind, the defected robot turned around and was ready to obliterate the inferior model…
Only for a small and tough creature to bash the Egg Fighter in the side to knock it down. Zwei then leapt up into the air while the Egg Fighter was down and curled itself up into a ball, not too dissimilar from the anthropomorphic Hedgehogs also in these caves, and slammed down to destroy its head. Zwei then looked up to Omega with a happy bark.
"Small canine, you possess an ability for destruction far superior to any pets from my world." Omega said to Zwei. "You will make an excellent addition in the ongoing war against Eggman."
Zwei barked again and wagged his tail at Omega's praise.
As she was surrounded by four Egg Pawns and three Egg Fighters, all armed with shields and swords, Amy spun her Piko-Piko to create a tornado-like effect that forced them to lose their shields and send them flying into the air. As they tried to lunge their weapons at her, Amy had leapt into the air and slammed her hammer down to obliterate one Egg Pawn before lunging the pole into the Egg Pawn behind her and slammed the mallet into the side of the Egg Fighter in front of her to knock it down. She then rushed the remaining four with an uppercut swing with enough force to knock them into the air; allowing Sonic to obliterate and finish them with a powerful homing attack before landing in front of the pink Hedgehog.
"I think that's the last of them." Amy said.
"Ruby, Blake, can you guys see anything from up there?" Sonic asked the girls stationed on the towers.
"Nothing here." Blake reported while Ruby looked through her scope down one particular tunnel.
"Hold on, I see something…!" She said as the others regrouped in the middle of the battlefield. "It looks like… a giant metal train."
"That's ridiculous. These tunnels are sealed, the tracks lead to a dead end." Oobleck said.
"Negative." Omega's optics zoomed down the tunnel that Ruby pointed out. "Heavily armored vehicle detected, multiple enemy unit signals, heavy ordinance." He then noticed the train itself was beginning to move, already picking up speed as it started to go down the tunnel. "It has begun moving, already reaching maximum speeds."
"Eggman's going somewhere, and I'm willing to bet my bike he's got some big weapons on board!" Yang stated.
"Then let's get going." Sonic declared. "We got a train to catch."
Already the armored train was reaching incredible speeds, but Sonic and Shadow were easily able to catch up, carrying Ruby and Blake respectively before tossing them to the top of the caboose as the two hedgehogs grabbed on. Tails flew the Cyclone with Knuckles sitting behind him, Yang and Oobleck, who carried Zwei in his arms, on the wings before they jumped off and landed on the car with everyone else, Tails then converted the Cyclone to its walker mode and landed on the car as well. Fortunately, the tunnels were plenty tall to allow Tails' Cyclone to stand up fully and not crash into a wall or something. Omega boosted forward with Amy and Weiss holding on tight just as he leapt to the top of the car as well while Rouge flew with her own natural ability.
A small alarm got Eggman's attention as he looked on the screen to see the video feed of Teams Sonic, RWBY, Dark, and Oobleck on the rear-most car of his train.
"Oh ho, ho, we got ourselves some hitchhikers." Eggman grinned as he pressed a few command keys on the console in front of him. "Well, why don't we liven things up a bit?"
"We must get to the front and stop this train!" Oobleck ordered as Weiss opened the hatch on the caboose, thinking they can get their way inside, but she saw something that made her look more than a little nervous.
"Um… guys…?" She pointed inside, getting most of their attention as they looked in the car to see a large explosive with the Eggman logo flashing on and off.
"It is an incendiary Dust device." Omega reported. "Fire Dust most likely. Estimated blast radius to be twenty meters."
"That's one big bomb…" Tails gulped as the girls in RWBY backed away in a startle.
Shadow noticed the Eggman logo flashing. "It's active! Everyone onto the next car! Now!" The large group quickly leapt to the top of the next car as Shadow was prepared to throw a Chaos Spear and decouple the car… only to look in surprise as the car decoupled itself. "What…?"
Everyone looked to see the detached caboose already slowing before the bomb inside exploded, blowing a huge hole in the top of the tunnel.
"That can't be good." Knuckles observed, having a good feeling what was about to come next.
"Um… neither is this!" Ruby called out, having opened the hatch to the car they were on, where she spotted another explosive inside.
"Another bomb?!" Blake questioned.
Getting serious, Sonic zoomed over to the car past Ruby and opened that as well to find yet another bomb inside. "They all have bombs!"
Right on cue, the one in the car behind was remotely activated just like the last one, right as the car detached itself from the rest of the train, prompting the group to leap over to the next car. Not taking any chances, they moved past the car that Sonic was on as well.
"This doesn't make any sense! What does he get from all of this?!" Yang questioned as the third car also decoupled itself, just moments after the second bomb exploded.
Right when the third explosion went off, Tails focused the screen on his Cyclone's cockpit, zooming in on where the bombs went off to see all the holes made on the surface as well as the walls; where dozens, even hundreds of Grimm started to appear. Most of them were all from the surface of the forested area that was likely above them such as Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, more than a few Death Stalkers, and even a large King Taijtu. There were also quite a few subterranean Grimm known as Creeps. They all roared with deadly intent as they ran down the tunnel, following the active train car.
"He's leading Grimm to the city!" Tails exclaimed. "The bombs create holes in the outskirts and the tunnels provide a way for them to get past the natural barriers!"
"Oh dear…" Oobleck looked in great worry.
"That's insane!" Weiss exclaimed.
"And totally something Eggman would do." Sonic stated.
"Um… it's not just Grimm though." Ruby turned toward the front of the car. "We got more robots!"
Everyone's attention turned toward the front of the moving train, where several large hatches opened as a Super Badnik, specifically an Egg Hammer unit, leapt up and proceeded to march forward. That unit was followed by a second Egg Hammer, along with a third, and a fourth.
"Those are Egg Hammers!" Amy revealed. "They're not like the robots we fought before, they're way stronger! They're Super Badniks!"
"Well, that's just great." Yang scowled.
Shadow glared at the Egg Hammers before turning around to the direction where the Grimm horde was likely coming from. This train was moving faster than the Grimm and would breach through the city soon, and the dark creatures wouldn't be far behind. Unless somebody stopped them in their tracks.
"Listen up, all of you." Shadow got their attention. "Find a way to stop this train. Capture Eggman or destroy the train itself but do what you can to keep it from the main city."
"Us? What are you going to do?" Blake asked.
"Thin the herd." Shadow answered before zooming off the car and gunning straight for the Grimm horde before anyone could protest.
With his speed it didn't take long for Shadow to reach the swarm of beasts before leaping into the air and swinging his arm to throw a volley of Chaos Spears to create an explosion that obliterated and blew away the front most Grimm. Those behind stopped for a moment to gaze at the resulting fire as they saw the silhouette of the Ultimate Lifeform standing a top of a pile of debris, Arondight drawn in one hand and Chaos Energy flashing in the other, as he glared with his equally soul-piercing red eyes at the monsters that dared to face him.
The Creatures of Grimm all roared in fury, drawn by the anger that their foe was exuding and charged straight for him. Shadow maintained his confident composure as he leapt at them in response.
The group all briefly saw flashes of light and explosions before they lost sight due to the growing distance between them.
"Well he's certainly confident." Oobleck observed.
"Is he seriously taking on a whole horde of Grimm by himself?!" Weiss questioned in shock.
"Shouldn't we help him?!" Ruby looked more than a little worried.
"Don't worry about him, girls." Rouge assured with a confident grin, having complete and unwavering faith in her friend and teammate. "He's not called the Ultimate Lifeform for nothing."
"Ultimate Lifeform?" Yang wondered.
"We still got robots!" Blake got their attention back on the approaching Egg Hammers. Sonic quickly noticed how the car they were on wasn't detaching. He opened the hatch to find there was no bomb inside, that's when he came up with a plan.
"Alright everyone, here's the plan." Sonic began. "We're splitting up. Tails, you and I are gonna try to get to the front of this train and cut Eggman off: I'll take the left side, you take the right."
"Got it." Tails nodded.
"Amy, you take Rouge, Blake, and Weiss inside the train and see if you can get to Eggman there." Sonic continued. "Ruby, Knuckles, Omega, Yang, you guys and Oobleck stay up here and take care of the big bots."
"Understood." Knuckles agreed.
"You got it." Amy was on board. Everyone else seemed to agree with this plan as they all nodded.
"Trying to divide and conquer, surround and entrap the enemy… a well thought out strategy indeed." Oobleck complemented. "Let's do it!"
With that, everyone split off into their respective groups. Sonic leapt to the left side of the train and sped up with his own natural ability while Tails converted his Cyclone into its cart-mode and drove it alongside the right side of the armored vehicle. Amy opened the hatch and leapt into the train itself first before being followed by Weiss, Rouge, and Blake. Once the hatch closed, the remainder of the group found themselves face-to-face with the Egg Hammers as they finally approached them, Zwei barking and growling at the large robots.
"So… any advice on how to take these guys down?" Ruby asked as she drew Crescent Rose.
"Their armor is tough and hard to break through." Knuckles replied. "Try and knock em off the train."
"Let's do this." Yang loaded up Ember Celica.
The Cyclone moved along the right side of the armored train and was about to catch up with the front. "Almost…"
However, a compartment on the side near the cockpit opened up to produce three identical robots. They had small bodies with sphere shaped torsos and heads with three glowing optics. But what stood out the most were the larger jetpacks, about twice the size of the torsos, which allowed them to move at a speed equal to the train and Cyclone. The two robots on the left and right sides shot dual lasers from their jetpacks, forcing Tails to steer the Cyclone to the middle where the central robot fired its set of lasers, which Tails quickly protected himself from by activating his vehicle's Headlight Dust shield.
"Aero-Chasers." Tails recognized this Badnik model with a grimace. "Great."
At the same time, Sonic was on the other side of the train and had already caught up with the central vehicle. "Knock, knock, Egghead." He was ready to bust his way in via a Homing Attack. "Here I co…"
Something rammed into him and pinned him to the side of the moving vehicle. The blue Hedgehog looked with a wince as he felt the metallic grip of his robotic doppelgänger that had a hand around his throat.
"Right… Should have guessed you'd be here too…" Sonic said in a slight wheeze as Metal Sonic glared at him.
Meanwhile, Weiss, Blake, Rouge, and Amy had entered the inside of the armored train and appeared to be alone for the moment, but all four had their weapons out and at the ready.
"Welcome aboard the Eggman Express, ladies!" They heard Eggman's voice through the surrounding speakers, instantly alerting them. "It is our hope to make your trip as smooth and comfortable as possible. But if you have any complaints on our service, please come deliver them to me in person. If you can that is." He laughed before the speakers cut off.
"Oh, I've got more than just complaints on your 'service'." Weiss scowled.
"Stay on edge, you two." Amy advised the young Huntresses-in-training. "We don't know what's in here."
Weiss reached into her pocket and pulled out a series of Dust rounds. "Blake, here. You might need this." She offered them to her teammate, which she took and loaded into Gambol Shroud.
"Thanks." Blake nodded as the four ran to get to the next car. However, right when they got to the door… Rouge's hearing picked up something. The sound of a weapon being primed and ready to fire.
"Get down!" She tackled all three to the ground just as a powerful laser beam shot through the door and the back of the train car they were at, creating a gaping hole that led outside.
Blake and Weiss in particular looked in shock as they got up, turning their round and circular eyes from the hole behind them to the in the car in front of them to see a plane-like machine hovering in place before it converted to take the form of a red and yellow humanoid/avian robot with a canon for its right arm and a shield on its left.
"Oh no…" Amy winced. "It's an E-2000! That's one of Eggman's more deadlier robots!"
"How deadly, exactly?" Weiss asked.
"Just one of them needs the combined strength of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles to take down!" Amy replied, much to their shock.
"Yeah, Eggman's not pulling any punches here." Rouge winced. "Amy, you think you and Weiss can handle it?"
"Yeah, we got this." Amy nodded as even Weiss readied herself. "You and Blake go on ahead."
"Be careful." Blake advised as they quickly entered the car where the E-2000 was waiting for them. Weiss went on the attack first as she shot herself forward, lunging Myrtenaster, which the E-2000 blocked with its shield while Amy came at it from its side to swing its hammer and knock it toward the wall. With the robot briefly distracted, it allowed Blake and Rouge to enter the next car.
Though the E-2000 did get knocked down, it was barely damaged as it got back up and faced off with Amy and Weiss once more, who readied their respective weapons before it primed and fired its energy cannon at them.
Upon entering the next car, Blake and Rouge found their path blocked by the smirking Neopolitan as she dropped from the ceiling.
"I got this." Rouge told the Faunus girl. "Watch yourself going on ahead."
Blake nodded before running forward, Neopolitan making no attempt to stop her as she faced Rouge alone.
"Aren't you a little young to be a domestic terrorist?" Rouge asked. "Don't suppose I could convince you to switch sides and not waste your life for something so stupid?"
Neo drew her weapon, Hush, in response and thrusted it at her opponent, who limboed under the hidden blade before sweeping her feet, which Neo avoided as she flipped back a few times before getting back up to face Rouge again.
"Dramatic silent type. This should be fun." The former thief said eagerly.
Blake ran to try and get to the next car and to Eggman, eager to put him in his place once and for all. But she found somebody waiting for her in the car. Someone that caused her to stop in her tracks as her eyes widened in complete and absolute shock.
She was clearly a White Fang agent, evident by the Grimm mask on her face, one that had horns on it as opposed to the typical masks most of the goons would ear. She wore a black and grey sleeveless stealth suit with short legs, along with black shoes and gloves as she wielded a short blade-like weapon. She had brown hair tied back in a ponytail with tan skin and darker spots along her arms and legs, almost resembling chameleon scales.
"Hello Blake." She greeted coldly.
"Ilia…"
A black tornado had formed to suck in a dozen different Grimm before it stopped to send all of them flying in every direction, slamming into the walls, ground, and even their own brethren. One particular Beowolf was quickly impaled by the blade of Shadow before the black Hedgehog burst himself forward to slam the impaled Beowolf into two Ursai before Shadow leapt back and threw a Chaos Spear to destroy them in one single shot. He saw the more incoming Grimm and performed a homing attack to blast through a Creep before teleporting behind a Beowolf to decapitate it and then shot at a roaring Ursa, detaching the gun part from Arondight and shoving it down its throat before firing to break through the back of its skull and kill it.
He noticed a Boarbatusk rolling up for an attack similar to a spin dash and shot itself at Shadow. The Ultimate Lifeform simply scoffed before throwing a Chaos Spear at the ground where it would soon be, causing the Boarbatusk to fly up into the air, where Shadow leapt at it to deliver a kick to send the creature slamming into a group of other Grimm before Shadow followed through with a slamming stomp, channeling some Chaos Energy into his smash to create a shockwave to blast many of the smaller Grimm back.
Shadow was just barely able to dodge the stinger-strike from a roaring Death Stalker. As he backed up slightly, the Death Stalker advanced forward to try and lunge its tail at him again, but Shadow quickly teleported behind an incoming Ursa and delivered a double kick to knock the Ursa into the path of the stinger where it got impaled by the Death Stalker's strike. Using this brief opening, Shadow leapt over the disintegrating Ursa to slice Arondight and completely sever the stinger, which Shadow swiftly grabbed with his free hand and leapt above the Death Stalker before throwing the severed stinger right into its face before Shadow finished it off with a stomping homing attack to shatter the entire skull and most of the Death Stalker's body in one swoop.
As he landed, Shadow noticed the King Taijtu, the largest of the Grimm, coming his way. The black head lunged itself at Shadow, but he delivered a kick to its lower jaw to knock it back before firing the gun portion of Arondight, shooting precise shots at both its eyes to blind it. With the black head disoriented, Shadow leapt to the top and slid down it's whole body, using his rocket skates to help grind and boost himself, while driving Arondight into its body as he slid, slicing through the whole King Taijtu before making it to the white head that tried to lunge at Shadow, but he performed a spin dash and homing attack into its mouth and out the back of its head, the massive snake-like Grimm now dead and disintegrating just like that.
Even despite that, Shadow noticed there were still plenty of Grimm around that attempted to surround him, even a few Death Stalkers, but he wasn't the least bit intimidated or exhausted.
"Stubborn and resilient." Shadow noted before a small smirk graced his face. "But so am I."
Tails continued to ride the Cyclone, doing his best to steer it away from the laser blasts of the Aero-Chasers in front of him. Any laser he couldn't dodge, he tried his best to shield himself from with the Hard light shields. However, he noticed an alarm sounding on his controls, indicating the shields would soon fail.
"I can't keep playing defense. Time to go on the attack." Tails deactivated the Hardlght shield and fired a beam of Lightning Dust at the middle Aero-Chaser to destroy it instantly. The one on the right moved over in its place before it and the remaining Aero-Chaser both fired their respective weapons, prompting Tails to steer the Cyclone onto the far right to avoid both laser blasts. The second the one in the middle moved back on the right, Tails fired the Volkan mini-gun and tore the Aero-Chaser apart, leaving only one left.
Having timed the pattern of the change between placing and how long it takes to fire its laser, Tails steered the Cyclone into the middle as the final Aero-Chaser moved to the same spot. Tails immediately fired another electric beam before the Aero-Chaser even had a chance to fire, destroying it. With that, all three Aero-Chasers have been dealt with.
"Sonic, I took care of the robots on this end. How are you doing?" Tails asked over the comns.
"Got my hands full with Metal…!" He heard Sonic grunting over the other end. "I'll take care of him… you go on ahead… try and find out where the end of this tunnel is… ugh! Go!"
Despite being worried and wanting to help him against Metal Sonic, Tails knew that Sonic was right. At the rate of speed that they were moving, it wouldn't be long before they reached the end of this tunnel and Eggman's train showed no signs of stopping or even slowing down.
"Alright. Be careful, Sonic." Tails said before kicking the Cyclone up to maximum speed, trying to get ahead of the armored train and find the sealed end of the tunnel.
'Careful, he says.' Sonic muttered as he ran backwards, moving at equal speed with the train beside him as he used Caliburn defensively to block all the relentless slashes of Metal Sonic's arm-blade. Metal used his jet-booster to increase his own speed and put further pressure on Sonic, pushing him back as he tried to keep up the pace while still running backwards, no easy feat even for the Blue Blur.
"So that's how you wanna play it, huh?" Sonic decided to turn the tables as he stopped running backwards and, in a mere millisecond, sped straight forward, ramming himself into Metal with his shoulder and leaping over him before landing on the ground and immediately kicked his speed back up as to not loose the train before unleashing his boost attack straight at Metal. He did manage to land a direct hit and knock Metal back, but the robotic doppelganger quickly activated his Black Shield, halting Sonic and forcing him to jump back.
While making sure to stay close to the speeding train, Metal deactivated his Black Shield and hovered higher into the air before firing his palm gun at Sonic, who also ran at the same speed, forcing Sonic to bat and parry each blast with Caliburn as he tried to close the gap before leaping up to deliver a bladed homing-attack with his sword, forcing Metal to block it with another use of the Black Shield.
Meanwhile, at the top of the train, Ruby and Omega fired their respective weapons at the Egg Hammers that continued to march towards them. The Super Badniks could only walk in single-file due to their enormous size, so when this barrage of ranged attacks forced the one up front to stop, the three behind it were forced to stop as well. This allowed Knuckles, Yang, and Oobleck, along with Zwei, to move in close with Knuckles sliding under the front one to engage the second one with his fists as opposed to his axes while Yang pounded Ember Cecilia in the face of the third as Oobleck zipped around to engage the fourth and final one with Zwei running up beside him.
The Egg Hammer Oobleck faced swung its massive hammer at him, but he proved quick enough to dodge most of the attacks before taking Antiquity's Roast and firing its flamethrower at its face. Though Oobleck was certain this wouldn't damage it, it did blind the large robot briefly and leave it open for Oobleck to spin around with extra propulsion from his weapon and slam it into the Egg Hammer's chest. Though the Egg Hammer received no damage from it, it was forced back a few steps.
Zwei barked to Oobleck and pointed his nose towards the Egg Hammer's feet.
"Ah yes. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, as they say." Oobleck got the corgi's message as said dog curled himself up into a ball while Oobleck swung Antiquity's Roast, the flame thrower once again providing an added boost, like a croquette to send the rolled up Zwei into the right foot of the Egg Hammer. This caused it to lose its balance before it tipped off the right side of the train and crashed on the tracks below.
The frontmost Egg Hammer continued to advance towards Ruby and Omega as the girl shot herself forward with Petal Burst and sliced Crescent Rose all over the front of its body. But she looked in surprise to see it wasn't even scratched. She was forced to leap back and avoid the smash of the weapon of the titular robot.
"Your weapon is ineffective against its outer armor." Omega told Ruby.
"Can't you break through it?" She asked.
"Affirmative, but it will require more time and power." The former Badnik replied.
Ruby thought for a moment before she got an idea. "Hang on, I think I got something. Think you can hold its hammer back and keep it still?"
"I can." Omega confirmed.
"Then do it. I'll knock it off the train!" Ruby told him.
"Acknowledged." Omega then rushed the Egg Hammer, prompting the giant mech to swing its mallet at Omega, but the last of the E-100 series quickly caught the mallet with his metallic grip, wrapping his right arm around the mallet itself while reaching out with his left hand to hold the pole. The Egg Hammer tried to pull back, but Omega proved strong enough to not budge. "I have it immobilized."
"Keep it there!" Ruby used her speed to boost forward and straight towards the Egg Hammer. She held out Crescent Rose so that the scythe-blade would hook around its leg-joints before using her speed to spin around and around the Egg Hammer multiple times, using her own weapon to keep her steady and avoid slipping off the train while also gathering more and more momentum with each circle. She would soon generate a tornado-like phenomena, not as strong as one Sonic could easily create, but one that caused the Egg Hammer to briefly loose its footing. With a battle cry, Ruby pulled her scythe outward and used the momentum she gathered to slice through its leg joints and send it tumbling off the moving train and onto the left side.
"Got em…" Ruby took a second to catch her breath.
"Observation. Your technique is similar to the Black and Blue Tornado attacks used by Shadow and Sonic respectively." Omega noted.
"Kinda modeled it after them." Ruby explained. "I know I'm not as fast as either of them, so it's not as powerful, but I'd still say it did the job." She smiled enthusiastically. "I call it... the Red Tornado!"
"Name and effectiveness both approved." Omega acknowledged.
Knuckles ducked under the swing of the Egg Hammer that he faced before he noticed it coming around again for another strike, with Knuckles pulling back his fist and throwing it out right as the Egg Hammer struck. Both the fist and mallet hit, and Knuckles had just a bit more force behind his attack as the hammer itself was sent flying from its hands and off the train. Knuckles then rushed the Egg Hammer underneath to grab it by its joints and use his own strength to trip it up and land on its back.
"It might be harder for me to crack you open by myself… but I'll have the ground do that instead!" Knuckles grabbed the Egg Hammer's feet again and threw it as hard as he could off the train, where it crashed into the wall and broke apart from the continuous impact and that of the ground.
Finally Yang was in the face of the last Egg Hammer and fired repeated shotgun punches at its face. Though she was able to crack and dent it from her onslaught, the Egg Hammer brushed her off with a swipe of its free hand before pounding her down with a vertical strike from its hammer, cracking and denting the armor of the vehicle they were standing on. She tired to push herself up, but the Egg Hammer struck again with a horizontal swing, sending Yang flying. Fortunately, she was caught by Knuckles, though the momentum caused them to slide back towards Ruby and Omega.
Knuckles helped Yang down as he glared at the approaching Super Badnik. "I got em."
"No." Yang held out her hand to stop him as she stood up fully, her hair lighting on fire as her eyes glowed red. "He's mine." She stepped forward to meet the approaching Egg Hammer hand-on.
"Yang, you shouldn't…" Knuckle tried to stop her.
"It's okay." Ruby told the red Echidna. "It's her Semblance, Burn. With each hit, she gets stronger. And she uses that energy to fight back. That's what makes her special."
Yang had met the Egg Hammer face-to-face, the larger mech pulling back its titular weapon to swing at Yang. But she caught the weapon with both her hands before pulling her fist upward and smashing it down onto the hammer to embed it into the roof of the moving vehicle, leaving the Egg Hammer wide open for Yang to channel all the power she could muster into one strike, where she leapt and delivered a punch right to its already-damaged face; causing the entire head to shatter like an egg, the force from her attack knocking the decapitated robot off the train.
"Yeah! Go Yang!" Ruby cheered for her older sister, who turned around with a confident smirk.
"A power capable of redirecting your opponent's attack power. Most impressive." Omega approved.
However, Knuckles only observed with a serious and concerned expression. There was no doubt that Yang's Semblance was impressive, but from what he was seeing, she was purposely allowing herself to take damage just so she can fight back harder. The Semblance itself could be useful, but the manner in which she was using it… left Knuckles more than a little concerned.
Back inside, Weiss and Amy were both quick to dodge the energy spheres shot by the E-2000's cannon. Weiss leapt to the side and propelled herself straight toward the advanced robot, her sword pointed outward, but it quickly blocked her with its shield before throwing its arm to knock her away. Amy then tried to rush it and swing her Piko-Piko, but it hovered backwards to avoid her swing before aiming its cannon again to fire a more condensed beam of energy all around the car, forcing the two on the defensive as Weiss spun the revolver on Myrtenaster before swinging the sword to send a wave of flames at the E-2000, which it blocked with its shield. This gave Amy a chance to speed up and leap up to land a successful hammer-strike on its head.
However, the E-2000 wasn't that much damaged and aimed its cannon and fired point-blank at Amy, forcing her to swing the Piko-Piko defensively and blast her back toward Weiss.
"Told you this thing was tough!" The pink Hedgehog said to the heiress.
"Yes… but it can't counter both of us at once." Weiss thought of something. "Let's see if we can follow Sonic's example of speed. Follow my lead."
Weiss summoned a Glyph at her feet, one that bore the resemblance of a clock-face, which caused her speed to double as she shot at the E-2000, right before she conjured a series of Glyphs all around the robot. She dashed past it and leapt at the one behind it before zooming from Glyph to Glyph, striking the robot in all directions.
Amy saw what Weiss was doing and did just as she was told to and followed the lead of the heiress. She leapt toward a Glyph herself and was propelled off it to zoom past the E-2000 and strike it in the side before bouncing to another Glyph and repeating the same process. Both Weiss and Amy moved at incredible speeds, creating something akin to blurs of pink and white all around the E-2000 as it was struck with precises thrusts and blunt force, creating extensive damage to the advanced Badnik.
The pair finished it off with a speeding thrust of Myrtenaster right into the back of the neck of the E-2000 from Weiss just as Amy pulled back her Piko-Piko so that the back of it touched the Glyph behind her instead of herself, propelling the hammer with enough force that it doubled the strength of Amy's own strike to shatter the front torso of the E-2000.
The destroyed Badnik fell to pieces in front of them as the two smiled with each other, before sharing a high-five.
Meanwhile, Rouge held out both pieces of Purple Hearts in their boomerang-formations, using the short blades to parry the thrusts and strikes from Neo's Hush. As she thrusted her weapon at her, Rouge caught the blade in-between her own weapons before pulling forward, pulling in Neopolitan to a roundhouse kick to the face and knock her back. Rouge then threw out her dual boomerangs, which Neo blocked by extending her weapon's parasol like a shield, causing the boomerangs to return to their bat-owner.
"Hmm, not bad, kid." Rouge complemented. "You got some skill. Too bad it's being wasted in the service of Eggman." She caught Neo's glare as the girl ran up to her and swung her blade, before Rouge leapt over her and looked as if she was about to strike at Neo.
However… Rouge's hearing caught something from behind, and with an aerial spin, her heels batted away the thrust of the blade of Hush that came at her from behind before the humanoid bat delivered a powerful enough kick to what had attacked her. This revealed that the Neo in front of her was an illusion, while the real one tried to attack from behind; both the fake Neo, and the illusion of emptiness shattered as the real Neopolitan rolled back before slamming into the wall of the train.
She looked up to Rouge in complete and utter surprise. Overactive Imagination never once failed her. Ever. She was able to use it to help herself and Roman out of tight jams and even ambush her opponents. So how could it have failed?
"My ears do more than frame my face, sweetie." Rouge pointed to her bat-ears. "You might not talk much, but I can hear you breathe." Neopolitan got up and glared at the smirking bat who dared to make a fool out of her. "Hey, just wondering… are you silent by choice, the dramatic silent type? Or are you a mute? It's cool if you are, not judging. Just hold up one finger for dramatic silence and two if you're a mute. Come on."
Neopolitan threw up her middle finger in response to that.
"Now that's just rude." Rouge commented, though she still maintained her teasing smirk. "Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"
That last comment really made Neo's blood boil. In a heated rage, she rushed Rouge and slashed Hush relentlessly at her, but the secret agent was able to dodge and parry most of her strikes with either Purple Hearts or her own heels, even standing on her hands to perform a spinning kick to push Neo back even as she shielded herself with Hush's parasol, but it left her open for Rouge to throw one of the Purple Hearts up at her ankles to trip up Neo. Rouge then leapt upward and looked like she was about to deliver a flying stomp to finish it.
But, her enhanced hearing kicking in again, Rouge simply smirked as she flew upward to avoid another attempted thrust from the real Neo on the side, the one below being another illusion as Rouge was able to thrust another kick in the area that was revealed to be the real Neo's face as the illusions shattered again.
As if she wasn't angry enough, not only did this bat-Faunus-wannabe manage to see past her near-invincible Semblance, Neopolitan hadn't landed even a single hit on her! Nobody makes a chump out of her! Nobody! She tried to thrust Hush forward again, but Rouge was able to leap into the air again and stomp her right foot down onto Hush itself and pin the weapon to the ground. As Neo tried to pull back, Rouge firmly grabbed her wrist.
"You're good, kid. I admit, you got real talent." Rouge commented. "I'm just better, but don't take it personally." The angry Neo tried to punch Rouge, but she easily caught her fist. "But when you spend most of your time training and fighting alongside a super robot and a one-hedgehog-army… I'd say I just got a bit more experience than you."
Rouge then grabbed Neo and spun around her before tossing her toward the door that led to the car ahead, the one that Blake was currently inside.
"I get you're a little frustrated, but at least take some advice from a veteran." Rouge smirked towards the glaring Neo. "Pay a little less attention to the mouth… and a bit more to the hands."
Neopolitan looked confused at that comment before she heard a beeping noise on her side. Her eyes widened in alarm as she caught sight of a small, heart-shaped, bomb, which she tried to pry off and throw away… just as it exploded.
Ilia's weapon converted from a short blade to an electric whip, which she snapped at Blake, who used a Shadow Clone to dodge and take the hit and allowed her to move in closer, slicing Gambol Shroud at Ilia, who parried it with her weapon as it quickly converted back into a blade, the two locking weapons with one another.
"Ilia, please stop!" Blake pleaded.
"Too late, Blake!" She kicked her former friend back before snaping her electric whip at her again, to which Blake allowed another Shadow Clone to take the hit before flipping back as she fired some Fire Dust rounds at Ilia, who rolled to avoid the small explosions, to which she retaliated by shooting electrical blasts from the tip of her own blade.
"This isn't going to help us!" Blake continued as she dodged Ilia's shots. "Eggman doesn't care about the Faunus, he's just using you!"
"Like how you're letting that Schnee use you?!" Ilia angrily rushed Blake, slashing her blade at her, who dodged and blocked the strikes as best as she could. "Have you forgotten what they did to me?! To us?! All of us?!"
"It's not that simple!" Blake still tried, but Ilia kicked her down and flung her whip again to ensnare Blake by the wrist and send an electrical charge through her body. She created another Shadow Clone, this time infused with Fire Dust to create an explosion to knock Ilia down. She tried to get up, but Blake pinned her down with her hands to her wrists and feet to ankles, but not before she removed the mask from her face, exposing Ilia's tan skin, grey eyes, and small spots over her eyes.
"Ilia, just listen to me! I left because I didn't want anything more to do with all this hate and bloodshed! And you can leave too! You don't have to do this!"
The chameleon girl's eyes wavered slightly, but she tried to put on her best angered expression. "Yes, I do! If we just roll over, humanity will kick us down all over again! Nothing's going to change if I just give up!"
"Yes, it can…" Blake still pleaded. "Please… come with me. You can start over, start a new life without all this hate. I can help you. My friends can help you."
"I… I…"
Suddenly, two explosions rocked the entire car, one from the door behind that sent Neopolitan crashing and rolling along the floor; the other from the left side as Sonic was slammed into the wall on the right side by Metal Sonic, having blasted them through the train's armored haul. Metal quickly noticed Blake's presence and threw Sonic into her, sending them both tumbling toward the hole where the door to the car behind once was and into Rouge, all three down.
Metal Sonic gazed at Ilia, the chameleon girl looking incredibly nervous at his red and murderous optics before he glanced at the downed Neo, who barley looked like she could stand. Metal's internal clock registered the time till arrival was soon, so now it was time to leave.
Sonic, Blake, and Rouge pulled themselves up in time to see Metal grabbing both Ilia and Neo by their arms and flying out through the hole in the side of the train. Blake and Ilia briefly made eye-contact one last time before the latter vanished.
"You okay, Blue?" Rouge asked.
"I'll live." Sonic brushed off before he noticed the sorrowful expression on Blake's face. "Was that a friend of yours?"
"Yeah…I… At least I think so…" That was really all Blake could say at this point, which caused Sonic and even Rouge to share concerned expressions.
Tails drove the Cyclone's cart-mode as fast as he could and was already well ahead of the train. However, the young Fox would have to pull his vehicle to a stop soon as his on-board computers detected the sealed gate that was just up ahead. After doing a quick mental calculation to determine the distance between here and Mount Glenn, Tails was able to determine that they were directly under the main City of Vale at this point, likely around the plaza area.
And given the speed that Eggman's armored train was currently going, it would breach through these gates in less than five minutes.
"Oh no…" Tails quickly turned the Cyclone around and drove it back the way he came.
Eggman saw the timer count down on his computer and laughed. "Good news, Torchy. We'll be arriving in about four minutes. You want a chance at causing some real damage, then take a seat." The mad scientist stood up and gestured to the seat at the front of the cockpit.
Cautiously, Torchwick sat down in the seat. "So… what happens next?"
"Oh, you'll see." Eggman said cryptically as the floor behind him opened up and he casually and masterfully stepped backwards into the open cockpit of the rising Egg-Mobile with Orbot and Cubot's bodies installed at the front. "I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised."
Grabbing a Beowulf by the throat, Shadow threw it into an Ursa before dashing through both with Arondight pointing outward, piercing through both Grimm as he continued to face the horde all around them. He already destroyed more than half of the initial swarm that had been drawn into the tunnels, but there was still a concerning number.
"Shadow! Pick up! Do you read me?!" He heard Tails over the comns as he jumped to avoid the lunge of a Creep before destroying it with a Chaos Spear.
"What is it?" He responded as he sliced the sword part of Arondight to cut the head off an Ursa before shooting the detached gun component at another Creep.
"The train's gonna breach the seal in just four minutes! We need to get everyone out of here now!" Tails warned.
"Understood." Getting the message, Shadow retreated from the remainder of the Grimm, speeding down the tunnel as fast as he could, leaving a trail of red behind.
Everyone else had also gotten Tails' alert as Weiss and Amy were the first ones to meet up with Ruby, Knuckles, Yang, Omega, Oobleck, and Zwei back at the top of the train, followed by Sonic, Rouge, and Blake. Tails was able to catch up to them as well, converting the Cyclone back into its walker mode as it jumped up to land on the roof.
"How long till we hit?" Sonic asked.
"Three minutes. At most." Tails warned.
"How are we supposed to stop it!?" Weiss questioned.
"We can't." Tails shook his head. "We just need to get out of here."
"How!?" Yang questioned.
She would soon get a response as Shadow had already caught up with the train and leapt up to the top where everyone else was. He quickly produced the green Chaos Emerald and said the two magic words…
"Chaos Control!"
In a flash of light, Teams Sonic, RWBY, Dark, Oobleck, and Zwei all vanished completely.
With another sudden burst of light, everyone from the subway tunnels had just reappeared on the surface, on the rooftop of one of the buildings surrounding the plaza in the City of Vale. RWBY and Oobleck all looked around in shock.
"Wha-what?! What just… happened…?" Ruby stuttered.
"My goodness!" Oobleck zoomed over to one edge of the roof. "We're back in the main city!" He zoomed over to the edge on the other side. "While we were heading in that direction by riding the train through the subway…" He zoomed back to the main group. "We were still able to reach it first!"
"But how are we up here?" Weiss questioned.
"Chaos Control." Shadow explained as he showed the green Chaos Emerald. "With the power of a Chaos Emerald, I can bend time and space. I teleported us out of the tunnels."
"Teleportation? Warping time and space?" Blake looked more than a little astounded. Though they did hear that was how Sonic and everyone else came to Remnant in the first place, to actually experience the phenomenon firsthand was an entirely different experience.
"What about the train?" Yang asked.
"We couldn't stop it." Tails told them. "At best, we could only get to the surface before impact."
"How long till it gets here?" Knuckles asked.
*CRASH!*
His answer came in the form of the ground in the plaza bursting open as the front car of the armored train shot out and straight up before stopping. It's nose pointed straight upward and the gaping hole beneath it led to the tunnels below. Already the people were more than a little shocked as they screamed briefly and stepped backwards.
"We were you able to stop the Grimm?" Amy asked Shadow.
"Most, but not all. They'll be here soon." The black Hedgehog answered.
"Alert. Movement detected in Eggman's vehicle." Omega reported, directing their attention to the front car that continued to point straight up.
The Egg-Mobile emerged from the back and hovered in the air with the mad scientist himself still inside, along with his lacky bots, but that wasn't what got their attention. The underbelly of the armored train's front car, which was now at a complete vertical angle, opened to reveal a brand new, customized battle-mech of Eggman's own design that stepped out into the city.
It was at least twenty feet tall and had a primarily bronze metallic color scheme to it. It had the lower body akin to a horse with the upper body of a humanoid. In its right hand, it held a sword which was then lit on fire courtesy of the Fire Dust installed in it, while in its left hand was a club-like weapon with rotating rocks around it, as this weapon likely utilized Rock Dust. It's head was near identical to that of the Egg Hammer, save for the long horns that had lightning surging around it. And the one in the cockpit, within its armored chest, was none other than Roman Torchwick.
"Egg-Centaur, huh?" Torchwick read the name of the mech on the screen as it showed it's battle specifications. He smirked as he grabbed the controls. "Let's see what this baby can do."
"Torchwick looks pretty comfortable in there, Boss. I think he's enjoying this." Orbot reported.
"Well let's not have him hog all the fun. Wake the sleepers!" Eggman ordered.
"Wakey-wakey, guys!" Cubot said as he pressed a button on the side.
From three abandoned warehouses all around the plaza, three hidden robots suddenly sprang to life as they were powered on before breaking out of the buildings they were hidden inside. The sudden appearance of all these robots started to throw the citizens in a panic as they saw these massive mechs.
Stomping through the wall of one large warehouse was a colossal robot resembling a tyrannosaurus rex. It had primarily red armor plating down it's back with a pale underbelly. Like the king of the dinosaurs that it was based off of, it had short arms, but massive metallic legs with giant talons and an enormous tail as well as razor sharp metal teeth on its head as its eyes shined to life and it gave a roar that sounded like a robotized version of the dinosaur. This was the Egg-Rex.
Breaking through another building and out onto the streets was another robot that looked even larger and bulkier than the likes of the Egg Hammers. It had a blue and red color scheme with hits of yellow and green eyes. It also had a giant spiked ball for its right hand. This unit was known as the Egg Breaker. However, this robot wasn't autonomous, as the top of its head was open to reveal a cockpit, and the pilot of this mech was a male, high-ranking, lieutenant in the White Fang.
"Ha, let's see if Eggman's weapons are as deadly as he made them out to be." The White Fang lieutenant gripped the Egg Breaker's controls and was ready to go on a rampage.
The third and final robot was probably the most intimidating of them all. It destroyed the entire building that it emerged from by jumping straight out of it and landing in the middle of the plaza, dwarfing even the Egg-Centaur that Torchwick piloted. Its basic appearance was similar to that of a crab with a disk-shaped body that had a massive and dark gray spiked shell on the top and a pale gray underbelly. It had a set of small claws on its face that showed the glowing red optics; but what stood out as its most frightening feature were its set of eight massively long and armored robotic legs that seemed to mix that of a spider and crustacean with spiked sections along its lower areas. This unit was called the Death Crab.
"Everyone's wide awake, Boss." Cubot said to Eggman. "And that lieutenant guy from the White Fang is piloting the Egg Breaker. What's his name again?"
"Don't know. Nobody asked, I guess." Orbot brushed off.
Eggman then broadcasted his voice over the speakers. "Attention my metallic garrison…! Do what you were made to do! Be fruitful and terrorize! MWA-HA-HA!" He laughed as the robots and mechs begun their attack.
The Egg-Rex roared again before bashing its way down the street, slamming its sides and tail into the buildings around it. The Death Crab swung its large legs into buildings around it as well, causing them to break apart. The Egg Breaker threw its spiked ball onto the street to shatter the pavement. The Egg-Centaur rushed forward, its quadrupled design gave it a boost in speed as the fire sword easily sliced through whatever building that was near it while the rock-club smashed just as easily. Already, the people were screaming and panicking as they ran to get as far away from the ensuing chaos as quickly as they could.
"Oh dear…" Oobleck said gravely while Zwei barked aggressively at the rampaging robots.
Team RWBY looked in complete and total shock at the destruction that was already being unleashed in front of their eyes while Teams Sonic and Dark both glared. Sonic glanced towards Ruby, her look of shock and concern quickly became determined as she drew Crescent Rose again, locking and loading her barrel. Sonic nodded with the same expression as he drew out Caliburn as well.
Done.
So, we had our high-speed train battle, but more intense than in the canon. And yes, the design of the armored train is directly based off that seen in "Sonic Heroes". And despite the best efforts of the heroes, they were unable to stop the breach into Vale as Eggman now just unleashed a quadruple robotic terror onto the city.
We have the Egg Breaker piloted by the unnamed White Fang lieutenant (the one most known for using a chainsaw) that was first seen in "Shadow the Hedgehog", a chronically early appearance of the Death Crab from "Sonic Forces", the Egg-Rex which was introduced in the IDW comics, specifically the four-part "Bad Guys" mini-series, and my own original creation known as the Egg-Centaur, piloted by Roman Torchwick.
Though, I'm sure you'll have noticed that a certain character who first appeared in the canon episode here was absent. Don't worry, I still have plans for that particular individual who will appear later on, and I'm sure you'll like what I have planned. We did manage to get an earlier appearance of Ilia though, and I hope you enjoyed that.
One thing I'd like to point out in how Rouge was able to overcome Neo's Semblance: Overactive Imagination is not like Emerald's power. Emerald's Hallucinations (that's literally the name of her power) can mess with people's heads and make them see and hear things that aren't really there. However, Neo's Semblance (based on what I've seen in the canon) only seems to affect a person's sight, in that she changes the physical appearance of herself and a small radius around her, but that's it. So, when we have someone with really good hearing like Rouge (because she is a bat and their hearing is quite sharp), not to mention her own experience as a master thief and secret agent, she is not so easily fooled by Neo's tricks.
We have now entered the final battle for Volume 2, and it is gonna be huge. The heroes are going to need some major back up here as they not only have to deal with four large mechs, but also the remaining Grimm that'll soon arrive, being drawn by the panic by Vale's citizens. I'm really looking forward to writing that major battle.
So until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there.