Happy New Year everyone!
I must say that 2022 has been a great year for Sonic the Hedgehog! We've had many great issues with the IDW comic series, the movie was spectacular with not only a sequel but even a series in the works, "Sonic Prime" also premiered on Netflix in early December and is off to a great start! And the recently released "Sonic Frontiers" was beyond exceptional. Though there were some flaws in the game itself, notably how disappointing the final boss was (and yes, I defeated the true final boss on hard mode), but all-and-all, I felt the game was great, a vast improvement over the past few games between "Colors" and "Forces".
Again, I can't say whether or not I'm going to bring Sage into this story, don't misunderstand, I do like her, it's just hard to find a place to bring her. That's not to say I won't include her, I just don't have a solid answer yet, and probably won't until after I finish the Volume 3 arc. That being said, if I do bring in Sage, she'll have her own unique origin that is original to this story.
Now, with that, let us begin the exciting conclusion to the Volume 2 arc!
Rumble in the Urban Jungle
Ironwood paced back-and-forth in Ozpin's office, the headmaster looking rather uncomfortably as he saw his friend continue his pacing before he finally spoke up.
"James, must you be so impatient?"
"We haven't heard a single word from them." Ironwood stated as he stopped his pacing. "Don't you find that a bit odd?"
"Perhaps it may be a sign that they do not need our assistance." Ozpin replied. "I would think that you would actually be relieved at such a thought."
"I'd feel more relieved if they at least let us know of their progress." Ironwood said. "I don't like that we could be facing a potential crisis, and we are essentially sitting on our hands and doing nothing!"
"I understand how you feel, James. Believe me, I do." Ozpin told him. "But until we hear back from them, all we can do is wait." Almost on cue, the scroll built into Ozpin's desk gave an alert, which the headmaster was quick to answer. "Yes?"
"Hey Oz, it's Sonic. We got a problem."
"What's wrong?" He asked as Ironwood looked seriously.
"We found Eggman at Mount Glenn, but he's shown up in the main city!" Sonic stated. "He used a train to get here from underground to try and lure Grimm here. We took out most of them, but several are still coming! He's also set lose four giant robots! We need back-up! Like, now!"
Ozpin pressed a few buttons on his display to track the location of the other end of the line. "I have your coordinates. Do what you can, I'll send back up immediately."
"Thanks, Prof." Sonic signed off.
Ironwood then proceeded to walk out of the office and toward the elevator, no doubt to assemble his forces and move to deal with the threat. While Ozpin admired how quick Ironwood was to address the situation, he was worried about the aftermath as well. But that could wait, it was time to focus on the now.
"Glynda." Ozpin contacted his right-hand. "Robotnik has made his move. James is already mobilizing the military, but I need you to assemble what teachers and student teams are available and send them to the coordinates I am sending you immediately."
"Understood, sir."
At the same time, Team JNPR was already at the landing pad that had a ship docked, ready to set out for their chosen mission. That is until a siren sounded across the Beacon campus, as well as the sight of multiple Atlesian military airships departing from the academy.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Jaune asked. Suddenly, all their Scrolls sounded as each of them was quick to address their own device.
"It's an alert from Professor Goodwitch." Pyrrha stated. "There's a breach in the main city."
"Yeah, I could have guessed that from all the smoke coming from there!" Nora pointed toward the city across from the large body of water where a large plume of smoke was spotted.
"All available teams are to be deployed to the city immediately." Pyrrha read the alert on her scroll.
"Looks like the military is on their way too." Ren noted.
Jaune received another alert on his scroll, this one in the form of a text from his fellow student-leader. "It's from Ruby!" He skimmed over the text and got the message. "Eggman's attacking the city."
"So, what do we do?" Pyrrha asked. As the leader, the final decision fell to Jaune, and he knew it.
"We're going to Vale." Jaune said before looking to his teammate that chose the mission they were about to go on. "I'm sorry Ren, we'll make it out to that village another time."
"I understand." Ren nodded as Team JNPR boarded their airship, which quickly took off and made its way into the city, along with the rest of the Atlas military vessels, one of which happened to have a certain robot girl inside.
Meanwhile, the unfolding situation was being witnessed by Cinder and her group. "You don't think…?" Emerald asked.
"Sure, looks like it." Mercury noted.
"That's still days away!" Emerald stated.
"Maybe the Doc jumped the gun, got tired of waiting." Mercury assumed.
"Or more likely, the rodents forced his hand." Cinder narrowed her eyes.
"So, what's the plan?" Emerald asked her leader.
"We stay behind." Cinder answered. "I can't go, or else they might recognize me. Best we draw as little attention to ourselves as possible."
The plaza of Vale was in a state of chaos. Though many people had cleared out from the streets and got into all the buildings, it didn't change the fact that four giant robots were rampaging throughout the streets. The White Fang lieutenant piloted the Egg Breaker as it smashed it's mace hand into one building, the Egg-Rex roared as it charged through the streets, the Death Crab leapt from rooftop-to-rooftop to cause all sorts of damage, while Torchwick's Egg Centaur sliced it's fire sword at whatever was in front of it before shooting a beam of lightning into the sky from its horns for dramatic purposes.
"Ah yeah! Look at Vale, your new King Torchwick is here to cause some chaos!" Torchwick laughed but felt something impact his mech's side, causing the Egg-Centaur to fall over. The pilot inside grunted as he looked on the screen, the Egg-Centaur standing up, to see the black Hedgehog who had attacked him. "You looking to die, rodent-boy?"
"No. Are you?" Shadow challenged before leaping into the air to throw a hail of chaos spears at the mech.
Meanwhile, the Death Crab was pelted by shots along its upper side. It's round-headed shifted its view as its optics zoomed in on the incoming Cyclone's plane-mode, with Tails at the controls. Ruby and Weiss were standing on the wings as the former fired her Crescent Rose's rifle-mode and the latter swung Myrtenaster to send out waves of elemental Dust as Tails fired the Cyclone's lightning-dust beams. However, the Death Crab leapt from that one spot to avoid the majority of the shots before perching itself on the rooftops of several buildings. Its head opened up to reveal several missiles on its sides, which it fired at the Cyclone.
"Incoming!" Ruby alerted.
"Hang on!" Tails steered the Cyclone out of the way as Ruby and Weiss struggled to hang on. Even as the missiles missed, they turned around and chased after the fleeing Tornado as it flew over the Death Crab. Weiss quickly noticed the missiles would hit them soon before conjuring a large Glyph at the rear of the plane and fire a series of icicles to intercept the missiles and blow them up before they could hit their intended target.
The Egg-Rex soon spotted Yang, Blake, and Knuckles standing on the other side of the street. The robotic dinosaur gave a roar as it charged at the trio. Blake and Yang quickly opened fire with their respective weapons, but the Egg-Rex lowered its head to tank the attacks as it's charge never stopped. Knuckles responded with a charge of his own, glaring at the approaching Super Badnik before they finally met. Knuckles leapt into the air and pulled back his fist to smash it into the armored head. The impact halted the Egg-Rex's charge, but it was barely even damaged as Knuckles landed on the ground with Blake and Yang grouping by him.
"Its armor is too thick!" Knuckles stated. "If I can get a few more hits in, I can crack it! But it's too fast to catch!"
"How does something that big move so fast?" Yang questioned as the Egg-Rex charged again at the trio.
"Move!" Blake yelled as she threw out Gambol Shroud to grapple onto a nearby building on her left side with Knuckles leaping after her, and Yang propelling herself upward with shots from her gauntlets. They made it to the rooftop and continued to run and get some distance from the Egg-Rex as it tried to bash its way through the buildings to chase after them.
Sonic ran as fast as he could to reach the Egg Breaker in record time, where he literally decided to run circles around it and make the White Fang lieutenant at the top dizzy from trying to track him.
"Hey! Stand still!" He tried to bring the mace down on Sonic, but only hit the concrete as Sonic ran underneath before leaping up to perform a homing attack and try and strike the seemingly exposed pilot, only to hit an energy barrier that suddenly appeared. Sonic landed on his feet in front of the mech as the lieutenant gave a mocking laugh. "Nice try, alien!"
"Heh, well at least try and make it fun for me." Sonic grinned.
Meanwhile, the group consisting of Amy, Omega, Rouge, Oobleck, and Zwei found themselves looking toward the opening where Eggman's train had emerged from the subway tunnels into the open city. They heard the sounds of growls and knew exactly what was coming.
Multiple Creatures of Grimm had begun to pour into the city, Omega immediately opened fire with his machine-guns with Oobleck adding to it with his flamethrower. Several of the frontmost Grimm were obliterated rather quickly, but a few were still able to push through, notably an Ursa and a pair of Beowolves.
Rouge flew upward and threw out Purple Hearts in their boomerang forms to slice at the necks of the two Beowolves before they came back and circles around to finish the job and decapitate them completely and return to Rogue's hands. Zwei barked at the approaching Ursa before Amy came up and slammed her Piko-Piko into its chest with enough force to send it crashing into a nearby car. Zwei rolled up into a ball as Amy struck him with her hammer like a croquet to send the curled-up dog into the Ursa's skull and shatter it in one strike.
However, despite their best efforts, several Grimm were already making their way into the city from the other side of the hole.
"We cannot fend them all off! We're spread too thin!" Oobleck stated.
"Agreed. Reinforcements required." Omega stated.
Suddenly, a rain of bullets shot down from the sky and obliterated several of the Grimm in the surrounding area. The group looked up to see a small fleet of Atlas dropships, along with flagship, had arrived. The dropships all began to fly around the city, establishing a permitter as the drop doors opened, and the AK-200s dropped down, landing all across the city to deal with not only the Grimm, but also the rampaging robots.
Twenty AKs encircled around the Egg-Rex and opened fire with their guns while a pair of dropships fired upon it from above. This allowed Yang, Knuckles, and Blake a chance at escape. The Death Crab was also attacked by three dropships that circled around it from the air to fire their machine guns at it.
"Now that's a calvary." Ruby smiled as she and Weiss continued to ride on the Cyclone.
"It'll certainly make our job easier." Weiss smiled as well.
"Don't let your guard down until the fight is done." Tails said as he accessed the comms. "This just gives a chance to get better organized." He said before contacting his friend. "Sonic, you seeing this?"
"Yeah, I see it." Sonic leapt backwards to avoid the crushing mace of the Egg Breaker while ten AK-200s entered the fray and fired their rifles at the larger mech. "Points to the Ironwood, he's about as quick as I am."
"Professors Goodwitch and Port just showed up too." Amy replied over the comms. "They said they'll try and seal up the breach so we can focus on Eggman's robots."
"Team JNPR just showed up too. I see them and two other teams being dropped off." Rouge added. "I think one of them is Monkey Boy's team."
"Got it." Sonic nodded. "Shadow, how are you doing?"
"I'm managing." The black Hedgehog responded. "Torchwick is piloting this mech."
"Alright, but let's try and get this done quick." Sonic said. "Rouge, you and Omega try and help Shadow. Team RWBY, get to where I am and see if you can handle the robot here. The guy piloting it is protected by a shield."
"Got it, Sonic." Ruby responded.
"We're on our way." Blake added.
"I think I see Jaune and his team going after that robo-crab!" Yang reported.
"Got it. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, try and help them out, just in case." Sonic said. "I'll swing by and take care of the dinosaur."
"Be careful. That thing's hide is tough." Knuckles advised.
"Alright, time to…" Sonic was about to run off, but he spotted a streak of dark blue in the air heading directly toward the plaza's location. He grimaced as he had a good feeling who that was and what he intended to do.
After dropping off Glynda and Port, the dropship flew off as the two teachers met up with Oobleck and his group.
"We'll seal off the breach and help you as quickly as we can." Glynda told Amy, Rouge, and Omega.
"Sonic already told us where to go. Thanks, and watch your back." Amy nodded. She looked to her side at the sound of a bark and saw that Zwei was wagging his tail and looking at her with a knowing expression. "You wanna come too? Alright, come on boy!" Amy encouraged as she and Zwei ran off in one direction, while Rouge and Omega soared in the other.
Port and Oobleck drew their respective weapons as they dealt with a few of the Grimm that emerged from the hole in the ground. Oobleck incinerated any Grimm in his way with Antiquity Roast, while Port used the axe of Blowhard to cut down those that got too close. While they took care of that, Glynda drew her crop, the Disciplinarian, and channeled her Telekinesis through it to gather up all the debris around the area, as well as parts of the Armored Train nearby, and used it all to seal up the tunnel below.
"The breach has been sealed." Glynda said, getting the attention of her colleagues. "Let's help the others and…"
Suddenly, an electric blast struck the ground near them, sending all three teachers flying and skidding across the ground before they looked up to see what had attacked them. Standing in the middle of a smoking crater, residual yellow electricity surging around him, and gazing at all three of them with his blood red optics was Metal Sonic.
Immediately, the metallic doppelganger shot itself toward the group. Port and Oobleck were quick to draw their weapons and fire at the incoming Metal, providing Glynda a chance to flip backwards and gain some distance as she used her telekinesis to gather up what she could around her as she saw Metal maneuver around Port and Oobleck's long-ranged attacks and quickly close the distance between them. Metal drew his arm-blade to parry Port's axe, before quickly spinning around to form a twister-like attack to slash at both Port and Oobleck and knock them back.
With them out of the way, Metal focused on Glynda as she sent all the gathered objects his way, precisely aiming each of them at Metal to try and halt his path, or at least slow them down. However, Metal's sensors were simply faster as he quickly pinpointed all the gaps between Glynda's projectiles and maneuvered around them to get in close. He grabbed her by the throat with one hand and used the other to seize the wrist of the hand that held her crop.
Metal would have likely begun to squeeze and crush her throat, but a blue blur shot from across the streets before bursting to ram at Metal in the side, forcing him to release Glynda as he was sent crashing into a nearby building. Glynda fell on her knees, coughing slightly as she looked to see a gloved hand extending toward her.
"Need a hand?" Sonic offered with a smile.
Glynda smiled back as she accepted his hand. "Yes, thank you."
Oobleck and Port quickly joined them. "For a little robot, he packs quite the wallop." Port pointed out.
"And he does not appear to be done yet." Oobleck observed as they saw Metal emerge from the building, without so much as a scratch on him.
"Yeah, Metal's a toughie. This could take a while." Sonic said as he drew Caliburn. Metal flew straight towards the group, and Sonic was ready to meet him half-way…
Only for Penny to suddenly appear in-between them, her Floating Array blades circled around her as she blacked Metal's incoming attack. He tried to find an opening to strike back, but Penny concentrated all her blades and thrusted them at Metal directly before he could counter and managed to push him back.
"May I provide assistance?" Penny offered.
"Penny?" Sonic looked in surprise with the teachers behind him looking confused. "What are you doing here?"
"I came here to help General Ironwood and everyone else fend off the attack." Penny reported. "You looked as if you needed help, so I am here to offer it."
"Who is that girl?" Oobleck asked.
"She's from Atlas, and she's a friend." Sonic gave a quick explanation without avoiding any sensitive information, earning a smile from Penny. They looked to see Metal was back on his feet and ready to attack once more.
"Young Hedgehog, this is your adversary." Oobleck told Sonic. "How would you recommend we go about this?"
"Penny, you and I are gonna get in close. Keep Metal from flying out too far." The blue Hedgehog instructed. "Teach-squad, you keep your distance but shoot at him with everything you got. Limit his movements."
"Understood." Glynda accepted as she shared knowing glances and nods with her colleagues. As they moved to circle around their robotic adversary, Sonic and Penny readied their respective weapons and were the first to go on the attack.
The White Fang lieutenant was able to use his Egg Breaker to easily smash all the AKs that had surrounded him, leaving only piles of scarp metal.
"Ha! Atlas thinks they're so high and mighty!" The lieutenant boasted. "But this bad boy crushed em like tin cans! I'm gonna enjoy knocking those high-strung bastards off their high horse for good!"
Suddenly, a car was thrown in his direction, which smashed against the barrier protecting the cockpit. He turned to see Team RWBY assemble to face him.
"Okay, you guys gotta admit that is one cool looking robot." Ruby pointed out.
"Are we really looking at the same robot, then? Cause its face is about as ugly as the guy who made it." Yang pointed out.
"Awe, little girls wanna play with the big boys?" The lieutenant mocked as he readied his robot, the four Huntresses-in-training drawing their weapons. It was then he noticed the white-haired girl among them and recognize her face in an instant. "Ha! Would you look at that? I finally get a chance to kill a Schnee!"
"Take your best shot." Weiss challenged.
The Egg Breaker jumped into the air and fell back down, Team RWBY leaping backwards to avoid the devastating impact that shook up most of the street.
"Freezerburn for cover! Ladybug gets in close!" Ruby ordered.
Following their leader's instructions, Weiss plunged her sword into the ground to create a patch of ice, which Yang promptly smashed with firing Ember Celica to create a misty smokescreen to obscure the lieutenant's point of view. Ruby and Blake used this to zoom in close and slash along the Egg Breaker's haul, moving up and across with their respective Semblances before landing on the left and right shoulders respectively. Ruby and Blake fired their weapons' gun modes on the cockpit, the barrier protecting the lieutenant inside, though it was their hope they could wear down the shield with their combined assault. But they didn't have the time to do so as the Egg Breaker began to spin around rapidly, while also creating a tornado that encircled around the whole mech, sending Ruby and Blake flying off as Yang and Weiss sped off to try and catch them.
But the lieutenant wasn't done yet. Even as he spun in the artificially generated tornado, the Egg-Breaker's mace began to glow before it launched a series of holographic mace-balls in a certain pattern with half of them being lit on fire and the other half being lined with electricity.
Right as Yang shot her gauntlets to leap into the air and grab a hold of Ruby and Blake's hands, they and Weiss noticed the incoming mace-projectiles being shot out in all directions, several already converging on them. Weiss thrusted Myrtenaster into the ground once again to create a wall of ice to act as a shield, but the shield was easily blasted away by an explosion mixing fire and lightning, knocking all four girls back even further.
They pushed themselves up to see the Egg Breaker stop it's spinning, the tornado around it vanishing as its piloted gazed at them with his intimidating mask.
"That thing has Dust in it!" Yang pointed out.
"From what I can tell at first glance… it has Wind, Hardlight, Fire, and Lightning Dust." Weiss observed. "But that's just at first glance, it could have more."
"This is not going to be easy." Blake commented as they all stood up, Ruby looking with a serious expression as she locked and loaded Crescent Rose, unwilling to give up.
The Egg-Centaur swung its club toward Shadow, sending a series of rocks it's way, but Shadow sliced his way through each boulder with Arondight as he made his way closer towards Torchwick's mech. When he was close, the Egg-Centaur tried to slice its fire sword at Shadow, which he limboed underneath, the flames barely grazing him before Shadow made a vertical spin dash up the Egg-Centaur's body and face, causing it stagger back. While airborne, the Egg-Centaur fired a beam of electricity from its horns, which Shadow countered with a Chaos Spear, creating an explosion upon the attacks colliding.
When Shadow landed, he saw the Egg-Centaur leaping through the smoke and above him before landing and galloping through the streets, prompting the Ultimate Lifeform to give pursuit. Torchwick attempted to gain some distance but saw in his cockpit's screens that Shadow was quickly catching up. Even though it still ran forward, the Egg-Centaur spun its upper body around a full one-hundred and eighty degrees to blast more lightning from its horns, which Shadow swerved from side-to-side to avoid.
However, with Torchwick focused solely on Shadow, it made him vulnerable for Rouge to fly in and deliver a spinning kick to the mech's face, causing it to stop as Torchwick tried to straighten it out. He glared as he saw the smirking bat standing right in front of him. The Egg-Centaur raised its front legs in an attempt to crush her, but Omega had appeared to catch both hooves with his arms, easily matching his own strength against the mech's. Using his rear-boosters, Omega shot himself upward and was able to send the Egg-Centaur flying and flipping through the air, right over Shadow, and crashing hard on the street behind him.
"Did you really think we were gonna let you have all the fun?" Rouge asked with a smirk.
"Total destruction of Eggman allies must be achieved." Omega declared.
Shadow gave a slight smirk of his own in response as he and the rest of Team Dark faced the recovering Egg-Centaur.
"Its lower body appears to provide it with a boost of speed." Shadow explained. "Both its weapons utilize Fire and Earth Dust respectively for short and mid-ranged attacks, while the horns on its had shoots Lightning Dust for long-ranged."
"Huh, not bad." Rouge commented.
"Yes, but it's pilot is inexperienced." Shadow added. "He doesn't know how to handle it properly."
"The imperfection every weapon has no matter it's configuration is its user." Omega said. "A strong weapon in the hand of a poor user makes a poor weapon."
"Ya hear that, Torchy?" Rouge taunted as she knew the pilot inside the Egg-Centaur could hear her. "You got a cool toy, but you suck at using it. In fact, you just suck. Period."
Growling and grabbing his controls, Torchwick shot the Egg-Centaur forward, prompting Team Dark to scatter and avoid the crushing blows of the front hooves. As they moved around it, Shadow opened fire with Arondight's gun-component while Omega unleashed a volley of Ice Dust bullets to freeze its side, allowing Rouge to fly up high and gain some distance before coming back down and gather enough momentum right before she spun herself like a corkscrew and slammed both her feet into the Egg-Centaur's chest with enough force to knock it off its feet and sending it skidding and crashing along the street.
Team JNPR ran on the road and found themselves facing the Death Crab that leapt from the buildings into the streets below. The sight of the multi-legged Super Badnik that stood tall over the others made Jaune more than a little nervous.
"That's… one big robot." The blonde gulped. They saw the Death Crab set its sights on the team. "Run!" Jaune ordered as the four of them turned around and ran with the multi-legged robot giving pursuit. It would catch up before long, but as it did, the Death Crab kicked up several abandoned cars and tried to smash the fleeing students or cut off their path. Nora turned around and ran backwards as she converted Magnhild into its grenade launcher mode and fired, blowing up several of the incoming cars.
However, a bus was then sent flying toward them. When Nora shot it, it may have only made the problem worse as it broke the bus in half and the two separate halves were now about to land on the fleeing students. Fortunately, Knuckles and Amy both came to the rescue as the pink Hedgehog used her hammer to bat away one part of the bus while Knuckles obliterated the other with his fists. The Death Crab was then struck on its head by a series of missiles, courtesy of the Cyclone as it fired another volley of missiles filled with Gravity Dust, this gave the missiles an extra force that when they exploded on the Death Crab's haul, it was sent crashing into an empty building.
"Thanks guys." Jaune said as he and his team regrouped with Knuckles and Amy, as well as Zwei, while Tails continued to fly in the Cyclone. They saw the Death Crab get back up and focus on the Cyclone again, before firing a set of missiles from its own sides, prompting Tails to pull up and avoid the bombardment.
"That thing's hide is tough." Knuckles commented.
"We have to get to higher ground. We can't beat it from down here." Pyrrha said.
"You're right. Let's get up top." Jaune said as they made their way to the nearest building. Pyrrha held onto Nora as the latter pounded Magnhild in its hammer mode to the ground, giving extra force with an explosion from the mallet to propel both to the top of a nearby building. Ren used the grapplers from StormFlower as Jaune held onto him as Knuckles used his fists to climb up the wall while Amy picked up Zwei and leapt up to the fire escape of the next-door building and them up to the rooftop with everyone else.
The group of six faced the Death Crab, now on more of an equal level with its head. Despite Tails flying around it, its optics narrowed in on Team JNPR, Knuckles, Amy, and Zwei. Its shorter claws began to charge with electricity before shooting spheres of it at the group, while most of them leapt out of the way, Nora grinned as she took the blasts head on.
"Nora!" Amy exclaimed in shock.
"It's alright." Ren quickly told her. "Her Semblance lets her absorb electricity to increase her strength."
They saw all the electricity being absorbed directly into Nora's body as an aura of pink lightning manifested around her, including it surging out of her eyes as her hair stood up. She grinned like a madwoman at the Death Crab.
"Mama's craving some crab legs!" She shot herself across the rooftop, moving at twice her normal speed as she pulled back Magnhild and slammed it across the haul with enough force that it not only sent the Death Crab tumbling back into the same building it crashed into, even causing the entire structure to collapse, it even created a massive dent in its body.
"Whoa…!" Tails looked in surprise as he saw the whole thing with everyone else. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Amy looked in amazement as they saw the pink lightning fade from Nora as she took the moment to catch her breath. However, Knuckles looked with a serious expression.
'Her Semblance is almost just like Yang's.' The red Echidna thought. 'Meaning, she might have the same sort of problem.'
However, his thoughts were interrupted as the Death Crab pushed itself back up to face the group again. Despite the large dent on its side, it was still fully functional. Team JNPR, Knuckles, and Amy drew their respective weapons again, Zwei growled and barked at the robot, while Tails flew back down in the Cyclone before all seven engaged the giant killer robot.
Meanwhile, the Egg-Rex had stomped and crushed pretty much all the AKs that had surrounded it, but the two dropships were still pelting it with gunfire. The Egg-Rex appeared to have had enough as it roared before lunging upward to catch one of the dropships in its mouth before crushing it with the strength of its mechanical jaw, and then quickly whipped its tail into the remaining dropship, sending it spiraling and crashing into one of the dropships that was owned by Beacon.
Fortunately, the pilot was able to eject in time, while the four students onboard, Team SSSN, had managed to escape as well, making a rough landing on the street, and directly in front of the Egg-Rex as it set its gaze upon them.
"Uh oh… he looks mad." Neptune winced.
"So, what's the plan?" Sage asked their leader.
"Go around and hit it from all sides!" Sun stated as he was the first to charge forward, with Sage right behind him. Scarlet grabbed Neptune and used his Semblance to fly him to the top of a building on the side where they saw their teammates run underneath the robotic dinosaur.
"You take the left leg; I'll take the right!" Sun told Sage as they drew their respective weapons. Sun's weapon, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, had converted into its nunchucku form as the monkey Faunus spun and slammed them into the Egg-Rex's right leg, giving shotgun blasts with each impact. At the same time, Sage had drawn his massive broadsword, Pilgrim, to cut down at the left leg. But they seemed to leave only scratches at most, nothing serious.
From his vantage point, Neptune converted his trident, Tri-Hard, into its gun-mode and fired electric bullets at the Egg-Rex's face, hoping to take out its eyes, but it thrashed its head around rather quickly, making it difficult for Neptune to get a good shot in. Scarlet had flew forward to land on the Egg Rex's back, drawing his sword, Darling, in one hand, and flintlock pistol, Hook, in the other and made his way toward the neck area of the Egg-Rex and attempted to slash and shoot.
The Egg-Rex roared once more as it thrashed it's whole body to the side, smashing into the building that Neptune was on top of, causing him to tumble and lose his balance while also thrashing into the building across the street, all to shake Scarlet off. It also stomped its legs down hard to create shockwaves that knocked Sage and Sun back. Sage was kicked off to the side, and it seemed that Sun was about to be stomped on by the Egg-Rex's right foot…
Only for someone to quickly move in and grab him, pulling him toward the side next to Sage and avoiding the deadly stomp. That person was none other than the rabbit Faunus, Velvet.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, thanks." Sun nodded.
Velvet looked to see her teammates walking down the street to confront the Egg-Rex. This line up consisted of Coco Adel, who stood at the center, with Fox Alistair on her left and Yatsuhashi Daichi on her right. They, along with Velvet, together made Team CFVY.
The Egg Rex roared at them, but while Velvet looked nervous from the side, the rest of her team seemed rather unimpressed, particularly their leader.
"You just destroyed my favorite clothing store." Coco spat to the side. "Prepare to die."
She drew her suitcase, which opened up to reveal a massive rotary cannon, which she dubbed Gianduja. She immediately opened fire, and despite her Semblance enhancing the Dust in her gun to add some extra firepower, the Egg-Rex was only forced back as its outer armor was still taking little damaged, something Velvet noticed.
Yatsuhashi and Fox ran forward, splitting to the right and left sides respectively as Coco kept the Egg-Rex's attention focused on her. Fox leapt up on the right side and used his dual arm-blades Sharp Retribution, to climb his way up, while Yatsuhashi did the same with his own large sword, Fulcrum, to pull himself upward. Once on top, Fox ran along it's spine and toward the Egg-Rex's tail, slashing rapidly with his blades while Yatsuhashi made his way toward the neck, where he lifted Fulcrum up to slam it down on the neck, bending and cracking it's armor, but not dealing enough damage. The Egg-Rex roared again and thrashed itself along the buildings to shake off Fox and Yatsuhashi before swinging its tail toward Coco, but Scarlet flew in to grab her and pull her out of the way.
All eight of the Huntsmen students regrouped together in a nearby alleyway to address their current situations.
"Those were our best attacks. And they did nothing!" Yatsuhashi stated.
"I agree. Its armor is too thick. What is that thing even made of anyway?" Scarlet stated.
"Then maybe we can try a different angle?" Velvet suggested. "If it's armor is too strong, that must mean it must be protecting something, right?"
"Hey, yeah!" Sun followed her logic. "I bet its insides aren't nearly as strong!" He said with a smile.
Coco thought for a moment before coming to the same conclusion. "That could work. Alright…" She turned towards Team SSSN. "Which of you is the physically strongest of your team?"
"I am." Sage raised his hand.
"Alright. Yatsuhashi, you and this guy try and force open it's mouth. I'll take it from there." Coco instructed.
"I can help with that." Sun volunteered as he showed off his Semblance to create two glowing yellow clones of himself before causing them to vanish.
"Alright, you three do that." Coco went on. "Everyone else, keep it distracted and make sure it stays in one spot." She told the conjoined team. "Velvet…" She got the rabbit Faunus' attention. "Do what I do."
Getting her leader's message, Velvet nodded as she held her camera-like weapon close to her body before all eight of them ran back out into the street to face off against the Egg-Rex again. Just like before, the group split up and ran around its sides to engage it from all directions and split the giant robotic dinosaur's focus. Fox and Scarlet took the left side as they slashed at its left leg, doing their best to avoid the resulting tail strikes. On the right side, Neptune pulled out Tri-Hard again in its gun mode and fired, while Velvet did something that completely took Neptune by surprise.
Her camera, Anesidora, opened up to produce a bright blue light construct. Using Hardlight Dust, Velvet had quipped a blue construct that looked exactly like her leader's gatling gun, Gianduja, and opened fire on the Egg-Rex's side, causing it to roar at the devastating impact. Neptune could only look at Velvet with a dreamy smile.
"What a woman."
With the Egg-Rex distracted, Coco, Sun, Sage, and Yatsuhashi were able to leap up to its massive tail and run up along its back, closer toward the head. When it roared again, Sage and Yatsuhashi were on the left side of its open mouth and pressed their feet against its lower jaw and their hands against its upper one. Sun followed their lead as he created three glowing copies of himself to force open the right side. Their combined strength seemed enough to keep the mouth from closing.
Coco then positioned herself at the very center of its lower jaw, produced Gianduja again, and aimed it don the robot's throat.
"Say ah." She opened fire. Using her Semblance and enhancing the firepower of her weapon, the bullets tore through all its inner components, already creating small explosions and internal fires. Within a matter of seconds, nearly everything inside was torn to shreds before multiple explosions erupted from the inside. Seeing this as their cue, both Teams CFVY and SSSN leapt back and moved away as fast as they could before one large explosion tore up the insides, leaving only its outer armor as it fell to pieces on the ground.
The eight Huntsmen-in-training took a moment to observe their handiwork before smiles and smirks were shared all around.
"Not bad. We actually make a really great team, huh?" Sun offered his hand to Coco for a high-five with a wide smile.
"I suppose." Coco shrugged nonchalantly but smirked back before returning said high-five.
The Egg Breaker continued to launch multiple projectiles, all in the shape of giant spiked balls made from Hardlight Dust and charged with other forms of Dust, notably Fire and Lightning. The rapid bombardment and resulting explosions have completely torn up most of the street and kept Team RWBY from advancing any closer, all the while the White Fang lieutenant was laughing.
"Seriously, how much Dust does that thing have?!" Yang exclaimed in frustration.
"We can't get any closer!" Blake stated. "And even if we do, its weapon is too strong for us!"
Ruby tried to think. They had to take out that mace in order to gain any sort of advantage. She was certain that her own Semblance could let her get in close, but she couldn't take the robot down all on her own. But how? She spotted the side of a building on the Egg Breaker's right side, across from where its mace hand was. That gave her an idea.
"I'm going to move in close." Ruby told her team before turning to her partner. "Weiss, I need some Ice Dust ammo. When that mace-arm hits that building, I need you to form a circle of Glyphs on the wall all around it, kinda like what we did with the Nevermore in the Emerald Forest."
"Ruby, what are you…?" Weiss questioned.
"No time! Just trust me!" Ruby exclaimed. Seeing how she didn't have any other ideas, Weiss took out a cartridge of Dust ammo, which happened to have only Ice Dust and gave it to Ruby, who loaded it in her Crescent Rose.
"When it's open, you guys trip that thing up! Knock it flat on its back!" Ruby told them.
"You got it." Yang nodded.
"We'll follow your lead." Blake replied.
Ruby then used her Petal Burst to move in closer to the Egg Breaker. When the lieutenant fired another volley of projectiles, Ruby's Semblance provided her with the speed and agility to avoid all of them well before they exploded and quickly closed the gap. She moved toward the right side of the mech and waved her hands to get his attention.
"Hey! Is that all you got?!" Ruby tried to taunt like how Sonic would. "My dog has better aim than you!"
"Why you…!" The enraged lieutenant went on the attack. Using her Semblance, Ruby ran up the side of the building just as the Egg Breaker lunged its mace-arm forward. Using an added boost with a shot from Crescent Rose, Ruby was able to avoid the impact as the mace broke through the side of the building, with only its joint sticking out. Ruby then leapt off the wall and configured her scythe to its rifle-mode and fired the Ice Dust rounds at the impact zone, creating a large cluster of ice that trapped the joint in the wall itself. "What the hell…?!" The White Fang lieutenant tried to pull the arm out, but it seemed pretty stuck.
"Weiss! Go!" Ruby called out to her partner.
The Schnee heiress aimed her sword and channeled her Semblance to create a ring of Glyphs along the wall and around the frozen joint. Ruby hooked the curved blade of Crescent Rose underneath the joint as she placed her feet on the Glyph up top and used her own speed, combined with the added boost from the Glyph ring to run in literal circles. Before long, she unleashed her Red Tornado attack, now at a horizontal angle, and made even faster and more powerful with the Glyph's own boost. All the gathered momentum was enough for Ruby to pull Crescent Rose outward and completely sever the entire limb from the Egg Breaker, the force causing it to stagger back.
"Ugh! No! No freaking way!" The White Fang lieutenant was more than a little shocked.
"He's open! Go!" Yang exclaimed as she and Blake ran forward as fast as they could. Blake was the first to move in by throwing out the tethered end of Gambol Shroud to hook around the joint of the Egg Breaker's left leg before leaping behind it to pull on the other end and hook it up to the right leg, binding its legs together as Weiss created a large Glyph underneath and channeled some Gravity Dust from Myrtenaster into it to create a strong propulsion to shoot the whole mech upward. While it was airborne, Yang used the bursts from Ember Celica to blast herself upward and above the Egg Breaker as it began to fall. Loading up all her shells, Yang gave a yell as she pulled back both her arms and blasted forward to deliver a punch that unleashed all her shotgun shells in one strike. This attack was enough to send the Egg Breaker crashing down to the ground hard.
It was greatly damaged upon impact, but the thing that really broke was the Hardlight Dust barrier around the cockpit, finally knocking the White Fang lieutenant out and sending him rolling across the street.
He tried to pull himself up, his own natural Aura having been weakened from the crash, as he faced Yang, who landed alongside Blake and Weiss.
"I'm not… about to be outdone… by a bunch of brats!"
He heard a high-pitched yell from above and looked in surprise to see Ruby shooting herself down straight toward him and sliced Crescent Rose as she zipped past him. That one attack was enough to finally break his aura, causing him to fall over to the ground in unconsciousness.
"Nice!" Yang gave a thumbs up at her sister's finishing move. Blake nodded as she shared a smile with Weiss.
Ruby, with a proud smile, raised her fist in the air in victory. "Go Team RWBY!"
Moving from rooftop-to-rooftop, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren fired the gun configurations of their respective weapons at the Death Crab, while Knuckles, Amy along with Zwei, and Jaune stayed with each of them to provide cover should the Death Crab retaliate. It tried to do so as it swiped one of its claws toward Pyrrha, but Knuckles punched it out of the way before it shot one of its other claws towards Ren, forcing Jaune to move up and produce his shield to protect them both, but the impact still knocked them both across the rooftop they were on.
Tails came around again in the Cyclone to fire bullets of Ice Dust at the Death Crab's top, but it's armor was still too thick to penetrate as icicles formed at the top before it's top opened up again, albeit more slowly and crooked as the damage from Nora's previous attack could be seen from the large dent on its side, and launched several more missiles at the Cyclone, which Tails tried to shake loose and shoot down like before.
Jaune noticed how the top was closing more slowly than before and this gave him an idea. He was quick to access the comms he and his team shared with their allies. "Knuckles! Get in there and keep the top from closing! Don't ask me why, just trust me! Nora, help him out!"
No time to question it, Knuckles responded. "Alright."
"You got it." Nora nodded as well as they both ran forward and leapt onto the Death Crab itself. Knuckles pressed his feet down on the bottom and pushed up to keep the top from closing back down, using his own strength, he kept the inner components of the machine exposed while Nora went on the other side and used Magnhild as a stilt to keep the top from closing on her end. The Death Crab struggled to shake them off and close its lid, but Jaune wasn't about to give it a chance to do so.
"Tails, I need you to come back down and pick up Pyrrha!" Jaune began. "Fire that Ice-stuff at the ground! Pyrrha, use your Semblance on its legs and get it to trip up! Ren, Amy, we're going to hit that thing's insides with everything we got while Knuckles and Nora keep it open!"
"Understood." Pyrrha accepted.
"Coming in now!" Tails flew the Cyclone back down to meet up with Pyrrha, who leapt onto he right wing and held on as Tails flew down. She and the young fox shared smiles, happy to see Jaune coming along as a leader.
As they flew, Ren and Jaune leapt to one side of the Death Crab, specifically the one with the eyes, while Amy and Zwei went to the other as Knuckles and Nora kept its top from closing. Jaune drew his sword and used Crocea Mors to literally poke out one of its eyes while Ren used StormFlower to shoot out the other. Amy brought down the Piko-Piko to crack open more of its insides and expose the wires, prompting Zwei to leap in and grab its cables with his mouth before pulling back to tear them out, causing many of its internal systems to short circuit.
Already, the Death Crab was smoking and sparking up as it struggled to maintain its balance. The Cyclone flew down toward the street as Tails fired the Ice Dust rounds towards the street underneath the Death Crab, freezing up most of the area as Pyrrha extended her hand to focus her Polarity on its left two legs, pushing them toward the ice, which further destabilized it as it began to lose its traction.
"It's coming down!" Tails warned as the Cyclone flew up. "Get out of there! Now!"
No need to be told twice, Jaune, Knuckles, Nora, Ren, Amy, and Zwei leapt off the tumbling Death Crab and to a rooftop. It fell on its already-damaged head, and upon impact, the weight of the legs from up top caused it all to be crushed before tumbling over on its sides, leaving only the smoking remains of the now-inoperable Death Crab.
Tails brought the Cyclone back toward his friends as Pyrrha joined the rest of them before the group shared smiles and high-fives at their victory.
Sonic and Penny zoomed throughout the plaza, clashing their blades against Metal as the two together were able to keep up with even his speed. Sonic delivered a homing attack to close the gap between him and Metal, knocking him back before zooming forward with his sword to strike Metal. However, Metal was able to grab the sword with his metallic hand, before converting his other into his blaster and shot at Sonic, who ducked underneath the blast and tried to pull away, but Metal kept a firm grip on Caliburn and wouldn't let go. That is until Penny shot at Metal from behind, her Floating Array rotating around her body like a spinning top and struck Metal, forcing him to let go of Sonic.
Though he quickly recovered and tried to attack Penny, Metal was struck on his left and right side respectively by shots from Port's Blowhard and flames from Oobleck's Antiquity Roast. As they kept him pinned in that one spot, Glynda used her telekinesis to pull up several rocks around her and quickly molded them into a makeshift rotating spear about the size of her body and lunged it at Metal.
However, Metal unleashed his V. Maximum Overdrive, creating a powerful surge of energy that completely vaporized Glynda's attack, as well as blew her and her colleagues back. But once it was done, Metal was now vulnerable as his systems had to reboot, exactly what Sonic was hoping for.
"He's open! Penny! Hit him now!" Sonic told her.
Penny aimed all her blades straight at the vulnerable Metal and thrusted her fists forward to unleash a massive energy beam right at him. All Metal could do to protect himself was to cross his arms and take the hit, which sent him crashing into a nearby building. Right as he impacted however, Metal's systems had fully rebooted as he quickly activated his Black Shield to protect himself from the rest of the attack. When Penny's beam halted, Metal's shield dropped as well, but his body was smoking and suffering some minor damage from the blast, something Sonic took advantage of as he zoomed at Metal and crashed into the building.
Penny and the Beacon Teachers looked towards the building as they heard the sounds of crashing and seeing flashes of blue light through the windows, right before Sonic and Metal blasted out from the wall, grappling on each other before Sonic delivered a spin-dash, Caliburn held outward to deal some extra damage and knock Metal onto the streets. Though Metal quickly recovered as Sonic landed, he was forced to contend with Penny and her Floating Array again as his arm-blade popped up to parry her strikes, allowing Sonic to slash at him in the side and knock him to the ground, where he was then pelted by repeated shots from Port and Oobleck's weapons, forcing himself to activate his Black Shield once again.
With Metal now stationary, Glynda took full advantage as she gathered up more debris with her telekinesis and directed it all around the shielded Metal, forcing it all to weld and stick together to create a makeshift prison to entomb Metal before throwing it high into the air to send it flying.
Though Metal was able to escape from his prison, he remained hovering in the air for a moment. He happened to spot the Atlas military flagship before he got a call from his maker.
"Metal, time to fall back." Eggman told him.
His optics zoomed down toward the ground to see Sonic and the Beacon Teachers as well as Penny before flying away.
"He's retreating." Glynda noted.
"Eggman must have called him back." Sonic assumed.
"That is a rather… unique machine." Penny noted. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Metal's one-of-a-kind and believe me, that's a good thing." The blue Hedgehog told her.
The Egg Centaur waved both its weapons to send waves of flame and boulders outward along with bolts of electricity from its horns at Team Dark, all three of them expertly maneuvering around each strike as if it were child's play. Between Shadow's own natural speed, Rouge's agility and flight, and even Omega's own jet boosters and surprise nimbleness from his bulking metal frame, the three were quickly able to close the distance as they engaged the Egg Centaur in combat.
Shadow attacked first by delivering a homing attack to the Egg Centaur's face, knocking it back while Rouge flew up and around it's chest before throwing a heart-shaped grenade at its back, causing it to topple over toward Omega who delivered an uppercut with enough force to send it flying up and onto the ground hard. Torchwick shook from inside and growled with frustration at how his foes were easily able to overpower him. He tried to shoot a point-blank lightning bolt from its head, but not only was Team Dark able to easily evade it, Rouge threw out Purple Hearts to slice off the horns on top, causing the beam to fade as electric sparks surged out from its head.
She landed in front of the Egg Centaur as it stood up and gave a mocking grin and a wave, making Torchwick's blood boil as he tried to bring down his club onto her, but Omega was able to move in and catch the large weapon with one hand, while using his other to shoot multiple Ice Dust bullets at the joint of the left arm before blasting a rocket that shattered the whole joint, broke off the left arm and allowed Omega to claim the club for himself. Using his strength, Omega smashed the club into the left legs of the Egg-Centaur, breaking them beyond repair and causing it to topple over.
While it was down, for the umpteenth time, Shadow came in with a Chaos Spear to sever the right arm holding the left sword before drawing Arondight as he fell to decapitate the Egg Centaur and finish it off.
With Shadow's back turned, it seemed like he didn't notice the cockpit in the chest open up as Torchwick pulled himself out and quickly drew a gun, ready to shoot Shadow in the back…
Only for Rouge to fly in and deliver a kick to his own back, knocking him off his mech and onto the ground. Rouge made sure he was down for the count as she landed on top of him, pulled back on his left arm and pinned it behind his back while wrapping her free arm around his neck in a choke hold.
"You lose, Torchy." Rouge grinned.
"Get off of me! You Faunus wannabe!" Torchwick complained as he futilely struggled in Rouge's grip even as Omega and Shadow loomed over him.
"Roman Torchwick." Omega identified. "Age thirty-two. An average fighter and lacking a Semblance. Small time criminal…"
"Who you calling 'small time', tin-man?!" Torchwick exclaimed.
"…Threat level, minimal." Omega continued. "It is unlikely that he is Eggman's closest ally, and merely a pawn in his scheme and that of his theorized partner."
"Perhaps, but still…" Shadow stepped forward and looked directly at Torchwick. "Who else is involved in this? It's not just Eggman or the White Fang, you will tell me who your associates are."
"You didn't say please." Roman said with a supposedly sincere and innocent yet mocking smile. Shadow then stomped hard on Roman's free hand, causing him to scream in pain. If it weren't for his Aura, Shadow's stomp would have honestly broken every bone in that hand. He winced as he slowly gazed up at Shadow's soul-piercing red eyes bearing down on him.
"Dodge the question again, and that will be the least painful event of your day." The black Hedgehog threatened.
"You'd better listen to him, pal." Rouge advised. "You'd be lucky to even walk again."
"…You have any idea what they would do to me if I squealed?" Torchwick replied.
"Threat of termination? Such as the adolescent Faunus named Fifer?" Omega assumed as the guns in his right arm cocked for emphasis. "What makes you assume you don't suffer an identical threat at this very moment?"
Torchwick was honestly quite scared. He really had no idea what they would do to him. But then again, he was certain that he would be killed if he said anything. That Cinder girl was certainly dangerous, and there was the Doc's robo-hog that almost ripped his arm off. He was already sweating just thinking about all that.
"That is enough! Stand down!"
They turned around to see an Atlas dropship already land on the street behind him, with various other ships landing across the area and dropping off Atlas soldiers, a group of soldiers quickly approaching Team Dark and their captive.
"By order of General Ironwood, all prisoners are to be brought in for questioning." One soldier stated.
"We already got that covered, boys." Rouge said.
"I'm sorry, but this is a direct order from the General." The soldier replied. "Please hand over the prisoner."
Shadow grimaced in annoyance. They could have gotten answers now, but that fool Ironwood seemed more interested in handling things his own way. As much as he wanted to say no, he knew it would already cause further tension between their respective groups. Shadow and his allies, even Sonic, were suspecting that Ozpin and his inner circle, Ironwood among them, had a hidden agenda and if Shadow refused, this would make them further suspicious. If they were to learn more about what it was that Ozpin was hiding, they had to cooperate, at least for now.
With reluctance, the black Hedgehog looked to Omega and nodded, both stepped away as Rouge let go of Torchwick, allowing the soldiers to apprehend him as they pulled him up and cuffed his hands behind his back. Shadow could see the relief on the criminal's face…
"Don't look so relieved." Shadow got his attention. "What makes you think Atlas will keep you secure from the Doctor or any assassins he may employ? Perhaps one undercover?"
That alone caused Torchwick to look more than a little frightened as the soldiers hauled him away onto the dropship.
Not long after the battles finished, the Atlas military began to clean up all the wreckage of the Badniks in the city, with Glynda and the rest of the Beacon Professors providing assistance. Penny had already returned to the flagship as soon as the battle was over. Surprisingly, there were no casualties, a few people reporting injuries, most of which were minor. Guess it was fortunate this incident was contained, but the property damage still looked pretty nasty.
The whole event was being watched at the top of a building by the conjoined group of Teams Sonic, RWBY, Dark, and JNPR.
"Well… that was fun." Sonic commented. Half of the group either smiled or laughed, including Ruby who had Zwei snuggle up to her side, while the others groaned in annoyance.
"If we don't get extra credit for any of that, I am going to be seriously disappointed!" Weiss stated.
"You see all that collateral damage, kid?" Rouge pointed to the broken parts of the city around them. "I wouldn't count on it."
"Plus, we didn't solve everything." Ruby said. "We didn't catch Eggman, we still don't know who infiltrated Beacon, or else he might be working with."
"And Eggman still has the other six Chaos Emeralds, which he didn't even use this time." Tails added.
"He's probably saving them for his main event." Knuckles assumed.
"The White Fang is still an active threat." Omega added. "There were very few of their agents at Mountain Glenn."
"And out of that whole mess, only two people were arrested." Blake pointed out. She thought back to Ilia once more, and while she was glad that the girl wasn't among those arrested, she was also worried because she was still with Eggman, and likely Adam. But there wasn't anything she could do about that now.
"So… what's next?" Jaune asked.
"We still think Eggman is planning on attacking the Vytal Festival." Amy replied. "We'll try and find him before that happens, but we should be ready for that attack if it comes."
"The Vytal Festival is a little over a month away." Pyrrha said. "Is there any chance we can find something within that time?"
"Possibly." Shadow answered. "But there is a lot to consider. This is still far from over."
"Hey guys, listen." Sonic got everyone's attention. "Yeah, we don't have all the answers yet and Eggman might still be out there, but look at the good we just did here. Maybe it got a bit out of hand, but it could have been way worse. Nobody died, thankfully, and we may have just saved the whole city. Even if it's not over yet, you all did a very good job." He said more so to the eight students around them.
"Yeah… we did, didn't we?" Blake said with a slight smile.
"We smashed a whole bunch of killer robots!" Nora pumped her fist.
"I suppose we should look at the bright side more often." Ren nodded.
"Maybe not everything worked out… but all things considered… we did do a good job." Weiss agreed.
"Yeah, Sonic's right." Ruby smiled. "And when Eggman rears his bald mustached face again, we'll be there to stop him."
"Just don't get complacent." Shadow advised.
"Yeah… but we should at least get some rest, right?" Jaune suggested.
"Oh yes. Definitely." Rouge nodded with words of agreement from everyone else as well as they all stood up and prepared to walk away.
However, Yang spotted something out of the corner of her eye. It was a bird, a black bird with red eyes perched on a smokestack on the opposite side of the roof. Upon closer inspection, it looked a lot like a raven. The bird turned to glance at Yang briefly before flying away.
"Yang?" Ruby called to her older sister, getting her attention. "Something wrong?"
"N-nothing." She shook her head before catching up with everyone else. "I'm coming."
But she wasn't the only one who noticed the presence of that bird. Shadow had seen it to, many times throughout the fight in the city. He watched it fly away into the sky with a serious expression. That bird had seen the whole fiasco that took place here. Though it looked ordinary, the black Hedgehog's instincts told him that was no ordinary raven.
Meanwhile, Ozpin had remained sitting in his office after getting the report from Glynda on the outcome of the battle. It was unfortunate that Eggman had managed to escape, but he was relieved with the damage contained and kept to a minimum.
"Ozpin? Ozpin!"
And of course, there was now the political aftermath to contend with. Probably his least favorite part of this job.
"Yes, Councilman?" He swerved his chair around to address the Council of Vale that had contacted him through the scroll built into his desk.
"You've left us with no choice! The Vytal Festival tournament cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens!"
"Therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council, and together have decided that best option is to appoint General Ironwood as head of security for the event."
"Thank you, Councilman." Ironwood himself replied over their three-way call, his face on the corner of the screen. "Our kingdom is happy to lend as many of our best troops, so this event runs as smoothly and safely as possible."
"And we thank you, General."
"Will that be all?" Ozpin asked.
"For now." The Councilman replied. "But after this festival comes to a close, we are going to have a serious discussion regarding your position at Beacon Academy. General Ironwood's reports of these last few weeks have left us somewhat… concerned. I'm sure you understand."
With that, the Council hung up on their end of the line, leaving only Ozpin and Ironwood to continue their own conversation.
"It's the right move, Ozpin." Ironwood told him. "I will keep our people safe; you have to trust me."
"What exactly did you tell the Council, James?" Ozpin asked.
"That Remnant faces a very serious threat in the form of Doctor Robotnik." Ironwood answered.
"Did you tell them of Sonic or his companions?" Ozpin asked again.
"No." Ironwood responded. "We can at least come up with the believable explanation that Eggman has been a scientific recluse, isolating himself from society until he made his move. The fact that he's human makes it seem more realistic. But the idea of aliens, just as the existence of magic, could cause his more problems."
Ozpin was at least glad that Ironwood had the foresight to keep that a secret. But there was one thing that was still concerning. "Glynda reports that your forces are gathering up the remains of Eggman's robotic forces from the battle."
"If we have a better understanding of how his technology works, we'll be better able to counter it." Ironwood said.
"But what of the infiltrators? You haven't said anything about them, have you?" Ozpin asked.
"No. I'll let you handle the internal threats, while I deal with the external ones. Doesn't it make sense to use the resources we have at our disposal to handle this situation?" Ironwood questioned.
"Of course, it does." Ozpin stated. "But we must be careful as to not play into either of their hands." He made sure to put extra emphasis on the 'their' part, reminding the general that Eggman wasn't their only threat.
"This is the best we can do. If you have any other ideas, I'm open to them. But we can't remain passive forever." With that, Ironwood ended their conversation as he hung up, leaving Ozpin alone in his office as he rubbed his hand down his face in mental exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Ironwood was on the bridge of his flagship as he looked through the window to see Beacon Academy itself.
"You brought this on yourself." He muttered before the door opened and Penny walked in.
"You called for me, Mr. Ironwood?" Penny asked.
"Yes, Penny." The general turned to face her directly. "I know you took part in the battle in the city."
"I saw the citizens were in danger and I chose to lend my abilities to help protect them." Penny explained.
"For which, I'm grateful. You acted exactly like a professional Huntress. You recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the best you could." Ironwood granted.
"Thank you, sir." Penny smiled.
"But that's not what I called you in for." Ironwood told her. "You made contact with Sonic during the battle."
"I did." Penny confirmed. "We worked together along with three Beacon instructors to deal with the enemy unit he called Metal Sonic."
"Did you talk with Sonic at all after the battle? Did he notice anything suspicious about you?" Ironwood asked. "Something that would possibly lead him to discovering your secret?"
"No, sir." Penny didn't like lying to Ironwood, as Sonic, Ruby, and a few others knew she was an android, but she didn't want to cause any more trouble. "Once the threat was dealt with, I promptly left."
"Good." Ironwood nodded. "Your father will be here within a week's time. We'll be studying some of the wreckage of Eggman's machines as well as working on a special Dust project that could lead to promising results. He'll be working along with Sonic's companions during that time."
"May I provide assistance as well?" Penny asked. "I've been studying my father's research around Dust and I believe I could be of great value."
Ironwood thought for a moment. There was clear risk in her interacting with Sonic's friends, but he knew she was studying her father's research very well and having additional hands with this project would certainly help. It would also keep Penny within eyesight and out of reach from Eggman or anyone else he was working with who would use her for their own ends.
"Alright." Ironwood nodded, causing Penny to smile. "But be certain they do not find out your secret."
"I understand. Thank you, sir!" Penny saluted before leaving.
Meanwhile, Eggman sat at the bridge of his own newly built battleship that remained hidden in the ocean off the coast of Vale, not that far from Beacon Academy, with Metal Sonic off to the side as the mad scientist watched footage of the fight in the city where all his mechs went up against Sonic and all his allies, new and old.
"Adam Taurus is here for you, Boss." Orbot contacted him.
"Send him in." Eggman allowed.
The door opened as Orbot and Cubot escorted the young leader of the White Fang's Vale branch. He was a Faunus with bull shaped horns on his head along with his red hair. He wore primarily black with red underlines and emblems along his side. He also had the image of a red rose stitched onto the back of his jacket over the image of a withering white rose. He carried a sheathed sword on his side, and, just like every member in his organization, wore a Grimm mask, one that had red linings.
"Ah, Adam my boy!" Eggman greeted as he swerved his chair around to face him directly. "Tell me, did you enjoy my little show?"
"It was certainly over the top." Adam replied. "Your machines are… how should I say… extravagant."
"What's extravagant mean?" Cubot asked Orbot.
"It means absurd. Exceeding what one could consider reasonable or appropriate." Orbot answered.
"So… pretty much everything the Boss does?" Cubot assumed.
"Despite that, they've more than exceeded my expectations in terms of effectiveness." Adam said with a smile. "It shouldn't be too hard to get the whole Vale branch onboard."
"Only Vale? What about Mistral?" Eggman asked.
"Sienna is in charge there, but she is too spineless for any of this." Adam shook his head. "I used to look up to her, but she would rather have us stand as humanity's equal when we're clearly far superior."
"That's the problem with people like her. They hold us back." Eggman said. "Limit our true potential. I might not have any special powers, but you can't hold a genius like mine back. She won't be a problem going forward though, will she?"
"Not for what we have planned for Beacon." Adam answered. "As for afterwards, I'll handle that. But when it's all said and done, the entirety of the White Fang will be in your service, Doctor."
"Excellent." Eggman grinned.
"On one condition." Adam spoke up. "I know you have a partner in on this, I haven't yet met them, but I know you're not alone. There is something out there bigger than any of us, something that pulls the strings of this whole world. And I want to be a part of that."
"Well, aren't you ambitious?" Eggman teased. "I can put in a good word for ya, but I can't make the final decision, that's up to them. If you deliver results, help reduce Beacon to rubble, I'm sure you'll be welcomed with open arms. But if you fail…"
"I won't." Adam stated firmly.
"Don't get cocky." Eggman warned. "Your little cat-friend Blake has been getting very close with Sonic and his friends. Believe me when I say, you wouldn't last ten seconds if you went up against him right now. You're quick, but he's quicker."
"I'll be sure to keep my distance then." Adam replied.
"Well at least you're willing to listen to reason, unlike Cinder." Eggman said before turning his chair back around. "I'll put in the word for ya with my partner. In the meantime, make sure the entirety of the Vale branch goes underground for the time being. They won't make an even single move anywhere unless I say so. Is that understood?"
"Understood." Adam nodded.
"Good. Thanks for all your help Adam, and keep up the good work. You are going places, son." Eggman complemented.
Adam only grinned as he turned around to leave, with Orbot and Cubot escorting him out. Once the door shut, Eggman spoke up to said partner who had been listening the entire time.
"Well, what do you think? He's ambitious, he's strong, I'd say he make a worthy addition to your little club." The mad doctor said as the Seer Grimm emerged from the shadows of a nearby corner.
"He has the potential, but as you said, he'll have to prove himself." Salem replied. "Let us see how well he performs for Beacon before I make a final decision, but I will consider it. But, speaking of your foe, I understand that Sonic came rather close to catching Cinder, twice. He may be getting closer to learning of our plan, even if Ozpin does try to hinder his efforts."
"Which could lead to in-fighting between the two as you guessed." Eggman answered. "Sonic's already got a number of Beacon students following him around like love-sick puppies, but we already have our little distraction planned. A contact of mine has already met up with Merlot on his island, so everything's just about ready on that end. That being said, how do you feel about Merlot joining us? I imagine he and Watts would get along quite well."
"Just like with young Adam, he has potential, but he most prove himself." Salem responded. "I have to be careful with whom I allow in my inner circle, I can't afford anyone who would prove to be a hinderance."
"Another reason why I prefer machines and making my own company, but point taken." Eggman said. "Either way, everything's set for the Vytal Festival. Assuming Cinder doesn't screw up, it should perform without a hitch."
"Indeed, Doctor. Our time is coming." Salem said. "And nobody, not Ozpin, not even Sonic, is prepared for what is coming to their doorstep."
As the two conversed further, Metal Sonic seemed to be lost in his own thoughts and not paying attention. But truth-be-told, he was focusing on the data recorded from his fight in Vale against Sonic and a group of his allies, specifically that Penny girl. The way she moved, as well as how she controlled those blades that were connected by wires that no normal person could see…. In fact, as he froze a frame to get a good look in her eyes, he could tell that she was not an organic individual despite her appearance. She was either an android or a cyborg, Metal didn't have enough data to determine whether she was one or the other, but if he encountered her again when the attack on Beacon came, he'll find out. Perhaps it was best to keep this discovery to himself for now, this Penny could be useful. Very useful.
Done.
And with that, the Volume 2 arc has now come to an end.
And it ended with quite the bang, wouldn't you say? Nearly everyone got to show off their skills with not only Teams Sonic, RWBY, Dark, and JNPR, we even had Penny and the teachers join in on the fun, as well as a nice little team up between Teams SSSN and CFVY (some possible foreshadowing, huh? ;)).
We even got a small glimpse at a... certain bird that had been watching the whole fight. I'm sure we all know exactly who that was.
Torchwick and the White Fang lieutenant may have been arrested, but this is still far from over. Eggman and Salem are still planning on attacking the Vytal Festival, but before that, we will be getting into an arc centered around the Grimm Eclipse game, which is something I've been looking forward to writing for some time as I've got some special plans for that arc. Sorry to have you wait a little bit longer for Volume 3, but I promise that this arc is important for not only the whole story, but some development for a few characters and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
But first, expect a Chibi/Classic chapter to pop up real soon. As in, a couple days soon.
Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. Love you guys.