Hi everyone, welcome back! Before I begin, let me just say that Volume 9 of RWBY was incredible! Though I personally hoped we got a moment where Ruby turned to the dark side for a brief time, but that's just me. The Volume may have been short, but it was very impactful with lots of interesting moments, especially with the origins of the Brother Gods as well as a certain scene in the beginning of the last episode. In regards to the Ever After in my story, it may be a while, but I think I have a plan for it. Don't expect it to appear right away, however.
And I'm sure many of you were surprised with the introduction of a certain character, but I do have an explanation which will be revealed in this chapter as well as the author's notes in the end.
Please! Read the Author's Notes at the end! They're important!
Oh, and yes, I did watch the RWBY/Justice League crossover movie, which was a ton of fun. But don't expect anything from there as that movie is non-canon to the main series.
Now, with that being said, let's get started.
Merlot Island
The door to a cargo container had been opened as Rouge peeked outside to see if there was anybody outside to spring an ambush of some kind, it did not appear to be the case as there was nobody outside. She waved her hand to signal those behind her to follow as she stepped outside, followed by Nora, Omega, and Ren, the two students having their weapons handy.
Once they stepped outside, the group got a good look at their new environment. It appeared to be on the shore of an island of some sort. There didn't appear to be any form of vegetation, simply a rocky terrain with man-made structures barely seen in the distance.
"Where are we?" Nora asked.
"It appears to be some sort of island." Omega observed.
"I don't see the ship we were on." Ren looked out towards the water and didn't see any sign of the vessel they had stowed away on, just the crane that was used to unload their own container.
"No other shipping containers either." Rouge noted before trying to access the comms. "Shadow? Blue? Does anyone read me?" All she got on the other end was static.
Nora tried to do the same thing with her scroll. "Hello? Jaune? Pyrrha?" Just like with Rouge, all she got was static, which caused her to look toward Ren with concern.
"Omega? Can you contact any of the others?" Rouge asked.
"Negative. There is some form of radio interference that is jamming all communications." Omega replied.
"We need to find a way to regroup with the others." Ren deduced. "I have suspicion we were separated on purpose."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Nora asked.
"I can locate the source of the interference." Omega said as he took a brief moment to scan the general area. "There appear to be three signals. I will attempt to send the coordinates to the others via other forms of communication including morse code or binary. We should attempt to reach the closest one."
"Good idea. Where is it?" Rouge asked.
"It appears to be that tower, approximately two-point-seven kilometers northeast from our current location." Omega pointed toward a large cellular tower in the distance.
"Let's get going." Rouge instructed.
However, before they had a chance to move deeper into the island, a group of humanoid-shape robots leapt down from the cliffside on the group's left to block their path. Another group did the same behind them to surround them, making up a total of ten all together. These robots all had the same design to them. They had a sleek humanoid build, clad in crimson armor with neon blue highlights across their bodies as well as their eyes. Each of them also wielded a double-ended glaive.
"We got robots!" Nora already had Magnhild drawn, as did Ren with StormFlower.
"Badniks?" Ren questioned.
"Negative." Omega deduced. "They do not match any past or current Eggman design."
Rouge noticed the emblem of the M at the center of their chests. "Merlot Industries. Take em down!" She flew upward as the group dispersed with the robots going on the attack. She shot herself down with her heels towards one robot, who blocked it with the staff of its weapon before trying to swing the blades at her, but she had flown over and behind it before driving one of her Purple Hearts blades into the back of its neck to disable it.
She landed on her hands and stuck out her feet to block the glaive strikes of two robots that came at her from both sides before spinning her feet to kick their weapons back, followed by a leap into the air. She threw out both Purple Hearts to the arm-joints of one robot to literally disarm it before shooting herself downward with a powerful double-kick to obliterate it's chest unit. She picked up the downed glaive from the robot she had just killed and used it to block the strike from the third robot, before pulling the weapon back to bring the robot in closer and deliver a flip-kick to its jaw-area and knock it back before throwing her glaive like a javelin through its neck to decapitate it as she landed with her usual style and smirk.
Ren and Nora came to back-to-back as four robots surrounded them. Ren fired StormFlower at the two he faced, both charged in response and attacked with their glaives, which Ren tried to parry with the blades of his own weapons but found himself on the defensive. Nora likewise tried to swing Magnhild's hammer mode at the two robots that charged her, but they were quick enough to move backwards and avoid her strikes. She converted Magnhild into its grenade launcher mode and fired at one robot, the heavy artillery was enough to completely obliterate it, but it also left her open for the second robot to slice at her with its glaive and knock her down.
"Nora!" Ren broke off his standoff with the two robots he was facing and fell backwards to land on his hands and deliver a double kick to the robot that stood over his childhood friend to knock it down, and he proceeded quickly to slice at its neck with StormFlower. Nora also followed through by grabbing one of the robots that Ren had previously faced by the shoulder and slam it onto the ground, momentarily disabling it as she blocked the glaive strike of the other robot with Magnhild before punching the robot in the face to knock it down. While it was down, Nora had converted her weapon into its hammer mode again to slam it down hard and fire the mallet to smash the machine even further into pieces. The one that she had knocked down was already back on its feet and tried to attack her from behind, only to get shot in the back by Ren with one StormFlower as he used the other to fire its grappler, which hooked onto the robot's shoulder to pull it down before he fired pierced its neck with his other weapon.
"Thanks." She smiled at him, causing Ren to nod in return with a smile of his own.
The remaining three robots attempted to strike at Omega from all directions, bringing their glaives down on him. But Omega was able to block the multi-directional strike with his heavily armored arms before using his jet boosters to propel himself up in the air and break off their attack. He fired an explosive round of Fire Dust while airborne to destroy one android before falling back down to crush the second under his own weight. When the third tried to swing its glaive at him, Omega caught the blade in his own hands and pulled the robot in to grab it by the head.
"Inferior models." He crushed the enemy unit's head with little issue, while unceremoniously dropping its remains on the ground.
"Ah yeah! Have I mentioned how much I love smashing robots?" Nora said with a grin as they regrouped.
"But those were different from the ones we've fought before." Ren observed as he lightly kicked the remains of one down machine.
"Meh, you see one horde of killer robots, you've seen them all." Rouge shrugged. "But you're right. Those weren't Badniks."
"The emblem they carried was identical to the other forms of equipment utilized by Merlot Industries." Omega said. "One possibility is that someone has repurposed them for their own ends."
"And another possibility?" Ren asked, thinking that Omega had another idea in mind.
"Someone from the former company survived its initial fall and is preparing to return." The former Badnik said.
Nora gave a gasp of realization. "Guys… if those robots were sent here to ambush us… then maybe the others are walking into a trap!?"
"They can handle themselves, but you might be right kiddo." Rouge agreed. "We need to get to that tower now!"
With that said, the group tried to get to the tower they had spotted as quickly as they could. It seems like this whole thing may have been a trap.
The Cyclone had also made its way toward the island, having broken off its following of the ship in order to avoid being detected and arrived at an area some distance from the port.
"What is this place?" Jaune questioned as he and Yang sat in the seat behind Tails.
"Looks like some kind of island." Yang guessed.
"We should try and reach others and find a way to regroup." Blake suggested as she and Pyrrha continued to remain perched on the wings.
"Good idea." Tails tried to access the Cyclone's comms. "Sonic, are you there?" However, all he got was static, which had also appeared on the screen of his plugged in Miles Electric. "Sonic? Knuckles? Amy?"
"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked.
"We're being jammed." Tails said as he tried to adjust communications. "Something's blocking the comms."
Yang even tried to pull out her scroll. "Ruby? Weiss?" Just like with Tails, all she got was static.
"But how? Why?" Jaune questioned. "I don't understand."
Blake was the first to figure it out as her eyes widened in surprise. "They know we're here! We're being drawn in!"
Pyrrha then happened to spot something coming toward them from some low-hanging clouds. Several somethings. She had taken out Milo in its rifle-mode and looked through the scope to get a closer look. She spotted flying patches of black and green coming closer.
"We have Mutant Grimm incoming!" She warned.
True to her word, eight mutated Griffons had flown out from the clouds. They appeared to be much larger and bulkier than the normal Griffons, their bodies having similar builds to that of Ursas, complete with massive claws. They had several green glowing spikes coming from their backs and shoulders. Their wings were also incredibly large, having twice the span of their whole bodies, with their heads being just as big. But what stood out the most were their elongated tails, which also appeared to have another Griffon's head to them. The one at the head roared as they flew at high speeds towards the Cyclone.
"Hang on!" Tails caused the Cyclone to dive with Jaune giving a startled scream. The Mutant Griffons flew in pursuit as they flailed their wings to send a series of razor-sharp feathers in the direction of the descending plane. Their attacks did graze the vessel, causing Blake and Pyrrha to return fire with their respective weapons' gun-modes, though this only seemed to irritate them further.
"Tails, we can't fight them like this!" Yang told him.
"I know! That's why we're going to ground!" The young Fox already directed his plane toward the nearest form of solid ground, which happened to be a large rocky hillside before quickly slowing his descent. "Everyone off! Now!" He ordered, causing the four students to get off the plane before Tails quickly converted the Cyclone to its walker mode just as the Mutant Griffons surrounded them, four in the air with four on the ground. With a series of roars, the mutated Grimm went on the attack, the heroes dispersing to avoid being ganged up on.
Yang fired off Ember Celica at one charging Mutant Griffon, but it barely even slowed it down before it was already on her, headbutting her to send her up before she fell back down and was pinned to the ground by its massive claws. It was about to bite down on her, but Blake had dashed past its face, slicing at it with Gambol Shroud to try and draw it's attention. But all she did was get the attention of the secondary head attached to its tail as it lashed at her, she dispersed a shadow-clone, lined with Ice Dust, just as it made contact, causing the head to get stuck. Blake then quickly moved in to slice with her weapon to sever that one head at the tail, causing it to cry out in pain.
Using this to her advantage, Yang had punched and fired Ember Celica into its neck to try and get it off her. It was pushed back before Yang tried to go on the offensive, slamming her gauntlet-fists into its face, only to get pushed back with a headbutt. When it was about to come at her again, Blake fired at its face to get its attention.
"Yang, you have to hold it by its neck! I'll go for the head!" She called to her partner.
Deciding to trust Blake, Yang moved in to grab the Mutant Griffon by its neck. "Hold still, you lousy piece of…!" It tried to shake her off, but Yang used all the strength she could muster to keep herself steady as Blake used her Semblance to provide an extra boost of speed and slice past its neck before repeating the process several times to completely cut its head off. The pair moved back just before it exploded in a flash of green. They didn't get much chance to celebrate as a second one landed behind them.
"Damn it…" Yang muttered in frustration.
"Just like the others, we have to cut off its heads." Blake told her.
"Which ones?" Yang questioned.
"Both. Just to be sure." Blake replied before they charged at the Mutant Griffon.
Tails' Cyclone backed away to gain some distance in its battle-mode as he fired a round of Ice Dust at the ground of an approaching Mutant Griffon, causing it to explode in a flurry of ice spikes which pierced the altered Grimm every which way and trapping it. Locking onto its head, Tails then fired a condensed beam of Lightning Dust that seemed to blast away its front head and most of its body. Though the tail-head remained, the body was too damaged to regenerate itself before it exploded.
"Whoa!" Tails yelped as he ducked to avoid a razor feather shot in his direction. Three Mutant Griffons hovered above him and flailed their wings to throw multiple razor feathers at him, prompting Tails to activate the Cyclone's Hardlight Dust Shields to protect himself from the onslaught. "Can't stay in one place too long…" The second the shields went done, Tails kept the Cyclone on the move as he fired what weapons he could to keep the Grimm at bay from the Fire Dust bombs to even his Vulcan mini gun, but any injuries they received were quickly healed due to their regenerative abilities. "This won't be easy." He muttered in annoyance.
Jaune had brought up the shield of Crocea Mors to block an incoming charge from one Mutant Griffon, though it had knocked him flat on his back. When the beast attempted to bite down on him, Pyrrha had already thrown Akouo out like a frisbee to slice at the upper area of its neck. With the Mutant Griffon disoriented from the attack, Pyrrha pressed forward as she charged, using her Polarity Semblance to call back her shield and wield Milo in its sword-form to slice down at the damaged neck before it could regenerate. Using her Semblance on her own weapon to enhance her strikes, Pyrrha was able to cut off the main head.
She walked towards Jaune with a smile and offered him her hand, and he would have taken it… except he noticed the tail-head about to lunge at her from behind.
"Pyrrha, watch out!" His warning came just in time as she instinctively brought out her shield to block the lunge of the tail-head, the force did push her back somewhat as she looked in shock to see the body of the Mutant Griffon stand up completely, despite its main head being cut off, the tail-head now appearing in control.
When it tried to lunge at her again, Jaune this time rushed in-between and used his shield to block it. But rather than just take it like before, he angled the shield and himself to slide underneath the strike so that not only did it avoid hitting Pyrrha, it had let itself open for him to give a mighty swing with Crocea Mors to slice off the tail-head. With both heads gone, the mutant fell to the ground before it died and exploded.
However, they wound soon found themselves facing against another Mutant Griffon as it landed in the place of its fallen brethren to roar at them.
"We cut off its main head, but it was still alive!" Pyrrha recalled.
"Looks like we gotta cut off both this time." Jaune observed before calling out to the rest of their comrades. "Everyone! You have to cut off both heads! Just one won't be enough!"
"Yeah, we noticed!" Yang exclaimed as she wrestled a Mutant Griffon by the neck, only for it to stand up on its hind legs and slam her body into the ground once. When that didn't shake her off, she was slammed down a second time and then a third before being forced to let go at the fourth.
Blake then landed on the Mutant Griffon's back, which drew the attention of the tail-head as it tried to lunge at her. But using another shadow-clone lined Ice Dust, the head got stuck, just like before and gave her the means to cut off the head at the tail-joint.
Yang had managed to push herself up as she glared angrily at the single-headed mutant. Her eyes burning red as her hair lit on fire. She gave a yell as she charged forward, using all the gathered energy she got from being slammed onto the ground multiple times, and all the other attacks she took, she pulled her fist back and slammed it hard on the Mutant Griffon's skull to completely shatter it and obliterate the head in one explosive strike. Though she fell to her knees in exhaustion, prompting Blake to come and help her to her feet.
"Come on, we're not done yet." Blake told her as they had to stay on the move.
Jaune and Pyrrha backed away as another Mutant Griffon approached them. It leapt into the air to flap its wings and send a hail of razor-feathers in their direction, prompting them to run as they tried to protect themselves with their respective shields. But that's when Jaune got an idea.
"Pyrrha, try and frisbee its wings off with your shield!"
"On it!" Stopping her run, Pyrrha threw out Akouo in a similar manner, making sure she aimed for the joint of the right wing and was able to slice it off. The Mutant Griffon then fell to the ground but Pyrrha used her Semblance to call back her shield and made sure to aim it properly to slice off its other wing before it returned to her hand.
"It may not be down for long! It could regenerate its wings!" Pyrrha stated.
"Then we're finishing it now!" Jaune replied. "You go for the main head; I'll get the one on the tail!"
"Understood!" She nodded before they ran towards the grounded mutant. Pyrrha went straight for the front, prompting the Mutant Griffon to charge at her before standing on its hind legs like an Ursa to swipe its right claw at her, which she blocked with Akouo before jumping into the air and impaling Milo in its javelin form through its throat. She pulled it down to pull the mutant down with her before twisting and heaving upward to slice off that head. At the same time, Jaune used the same method as before as he used his shield to block the lunging tail-head and push up to knock it upwards and exposing the appendage, which he cut down with a slice of Crocea Mors. The monster fell dead before it exploded in green light like the others.
Tails in the Cyclone was forced to back up as the last three Mutant Griffons approached him with snarling and vicious growls. "Nothing I do seems to have any lasting effect." Tails said as he tried to think of a way to get past this. "No choice… I need use maximum fire power!" He patted the side of his battle-mech. "Sorry about this old girl. I promise to fix you up and make you all better when this is all over." Tails then made a break for it in one direction, prompting the Mutant Griffons to rush after him before he fired a Gravity Dust missile, making sure to aim it precisely above the flying monsters, he needed to get them all in one go.
The young Fox then fired a precise shot from his mini-gun, causing the Gravity Dust missile to explode in mid-air and create a purple-colored explosion that emitted a powerful gravity pulse to press all three Mutant Griffons to the ground and keep them pinned.
"That won't hold them long!" Tails moved the Cyclone to the point where all three of the monsters were in a semi-perfect line in front of him. He pressed the appropriate commands on his controls. "Diverting all power to the central weapon! Need to make sure auxiliary power will be directed to motor-control once it's all down." The display on the plugged-in Miles Electric showed all the energy, including Dust munitions, being transferred to one function that was labeled 'Power Laser' on the screen.
"Power Laser at maximum power! FIRE!" Tails slammed his fist onto the button.
A massive, multi-colored laser was shot out from the front of the Cyclone's mech-mode, one so large that it dwarfed even the Mech itself. The laser engulfed all three of the grounded Mutant Griffons, and was also lined with all kinds of Dust, creating explosions and flashes of fire, ice, lightning, gravity, and other elemental forms of power.
Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, and Jaune all looked in absolute shock at the size and power of the laser before the attack stopped. When the light vanished, all three of the mutant monsters were completely gone, leaving only a scorched trail that was carved into the ground.
The Cyclone, which was now venting lots of smoke, crouched down as nearly all its power had been drained. Tails coughed as he tried to wave the smoke away before using his dual tails like a propeller to blow the smoke away.
"Tails… Are you okay?" Blake asked as the four students regrouped with him. "What was that?"
"The Power Laser." Tails explained. "The Cyclone's most powerful weapon. It takes nearly all the energy the Cyclone has stored up and unleashes it all in one deadly blast. That one just happened to be more powerful because that also used up all the Dust I had inside."
"Maybe you should lead with something like that." Yang said.
"I can't." Tails shook his head. "Like I said, it uses up all the Cyclone's power. It'll take a while for it to recharge, and the motor-functions still work thanks to auxiliary power, but my weapons will be offline until then."
"I understand. A weapon of last resort." Pyrrha nodded.
"No kidding… that was… that was something else…!" Jaune was still in awe.
However, Yang couldn't help but look away as Tails' description of the Power Laser, as well as her own performance against those mutants in trying to overpower them brought to mind some of the words Knuckles had said to her before this whole mess started.
"You have an impressive ability, and it can be a good fallback too. But you don't have to use it with every fight."
"You can't become so dependent on your power."
"You have to learn to fight smarter, not harder."
Yang clenched her fists as she tried to push those memories back. Now as not the time to be thinking about that! Focus on the mission! Everything else can wait!
Blake noticed the turmoil her partner appeared to be in and felt some sympathy for her as she had a good idea what she was thinking. So, she decided to change the subject to get Yang's mind off all that.
"Did you guys notice the way those mutants were?" Blake asked. "They were bigger, their bodies… they had the same kind of build as Ursas."
"I kinda focused more on the wings that could shoot bladed feathers!" Jaune pointed out. "I thought was a Nevermore's trick!"
"It is." Pyrrha confirmed. "Normal Griffons can't do that. And that additional head attached to their tails… I read about a Grimm that had a similar feature. A Sphinx, but those are native to Solitas and Anima, not Sanus."
"Yeah, I get what you're saying." Tails said as the Cyclone's auxiliary power kicked in, allowing the Battle Mech to stand up, but the weapons were still offline. "Beowolves with three heads, Ursas with two heads and four arms, Nevermores with four wings and explosive projectiles…"
"Plus there was that nightmare fuel Deathstalker-Beowolf hybrid a while back!" Jaune reminded. "Yeah, definitely not getting any sleep over that."
"These aren't just random mutations." Tails continued. "These Grimm aren't just stronger. Some of these features are able to help eliminate any potential weaknesses the original species have. Someone is specifically designing these mutants so that they're improved over the original."
"That's… really terrifying to think about." Blake said with a shudder.
"So let's go find whoever's doing this and pound them into the ground!" Yang said angrily, directing her frustrations toward the objective.
"No. We should regroup with the others first before we come up with a plan of attack." Pyrrha contradicted.
"How are we supposed to do that if all our comms are down?!" Yang argued.
"By finding the source." Tails had detached the Miles Electric, which could function independently from the Cyclone and he begun to work his magic. "There is some kind of radio interference that's blocking communications. I can't get an exact location of the source, but I can still get a rough estimate… and it seems the source is coming from three key locations."
"What about that tower over there?" Jaune pointed to something that looked akin to a cellphone tower. "Maybe we can use it to call everyone?"
"And if they're also getting interference, maybe they're thinking of the same thing." Blake suggested. "We might run into them on the way."
"That is a good suggestion and a strong possibility. I think we should do it." Pyrrha agreed.
"Fine." Yang said with reluctance as she looked away with crossed arms.
"Alright, let's go. But keep your guard up. There might be more mutants on the way, too." Tails instructed as he directed the Cyclone's mech toward the tower with the four students right alongside him.
"Yo? Is anyone there? Hello?" Sonic questioned over the comms himself as he tried to contact the rest of their team, he and Shadow having also arrived on the island. Shadow had said it would be best to reach one of the shores that was around a bend and away from the docking ship to avoid being spotted. But the second they reached land, they were just as much radio dead as everyone else.
"We're being jammed. Which means Eggman or whoever is working with him knows we're here." Shadow stated.
"So maybe splitting up wasn't such a good idea." Sonic said. "Think we can scour the island? With how fast we are…"
"No. We know nothing of this terrain and we're just as liable to walk right into a trap." The Ultimate Lifeform replied. "We search the immediate perimeter and find everyone else."
"No time for stealth." Sonic said. "If the bad guys know we're here, let's smash some monsters until we…"
A loud scream caught both their attention as they looked toward top of a nearby cliff to see a familiar girl running from a squadron of robots. It was a girl they recognized right away.
"Ruby!" Sonic immediately dashed off with Shadow right behind him.
The red-clad girl was knocked down by a glaive-strike from one of the ten Merlot androids that appeared to be attacking her. She backed on her rear, but stopped just shy of the edge of the cliff she was on, glancing down to see a sheer hundred-foot drop that would certainly be fatal should she fall. She looked up in terror as the android at the lead raised its glaive with killing intent.
Fortunately, a blue blur shot up from the cliff behind Ruby, delivering a Homing Attack to destroy the robot. Sonic gave his titular grin as he drew Caliburn and went on the offensive, slicing at the legs of one robot before striking with a Spin Dash to knock the legless robot into a third. A fourth tried to strike but he had already leapt over it and dashed downward with a slice of Caliburn to slice and destroy that robot before zooming with another Homing Attack to take down the fifth. The last five tried to get the drop on Sonic, only for Shadow to teleport in the middle of the pack and unleash his Black Tornado to send them all up and flying in multiple directions. Three were thrown over the cliff while two were sent crashing and breaking along the rocky ground.
"Sonic! Shadow!" Ruby exclaimed in relief as Sonic offered her his hand.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he helped her up.
"I'm fine. But I got separated from the rest of my group." Ruby explained, sounding like she was panicking a bit. "Those robots jumped us the second we got off the ship, and I can't call anybody else!"
"Our comms are jammed. Yeah, it's a pain we both share." Sonic said in minor annoyance.
"What happened to your weapon?" Shadow questioned upon seeing that Ruby didn't have Crescent Rose with her.
"I-it got lost in the scuffle. Sorry if I'm useless…" Ruby looked down in shame.
"You're not useless." Sonic assured with his smile. "Stuff happens. But we're here and we're gonna find everyone."
"Right." Ruby nodded before smiling. "So how do we do that?"
Shadow then glanced in the opposite direction and noticed three towers that were relatively close to the shoreline, one being closer than the others. "Those towers appear to have cellular technology, likely the source of the radio interreference. If any of the others have spotted them, they are probably heading in that direction as well."
"So, we'll either meet them there or on the way, or we'll get comms working and be able to call them. I'd say that's a win-win." Sonic said.
"Alright, I'll follow you guys." Ruby said.
"Let's go." Sonic said as he and Shadow ran at a normal pace as opposed to their usual high-speed ones in order to allow Ruby to keep close to them.
However, as they ran, neither of the Hedgehogs seemed to notice that 'Ruby' had a slight sinister on her face.
Meanwhile, the real Ruby gave a groan of frustration as she continued to hear static through her scroll. "Awww, dang it! It's still all scrambled!"
"Any luck?" Knuckles asked Weiss as they and Amy all stood at the base of one of the cellular towers while Weiss herself was working at a console that seemed to connect to the tower's systems.
"I think I almost…." The Schnee heiress said as she continued to type away before the screen turned dark. "Got it! The tower is deactivated!"
"Let's see if that helped." Amy opened the comms channel. "Hey, is anybody there? Does anyone read me?"
"Amy… *BUZZ*…. Signal's not quite…. *BUZZ*… Another tower. We'll get to... *BUZZ*" That was all she could get from Tails before it went down again.
"It's still on the fritz." Amy said. "But I think Tails might be on his way to another tower. We did see two others."
"What about Sonic or anyone else?" Ruby asked.
"I don't think we're going to get any more information until those other towers are down." Weiss replied. "We should try and shut them down too. Maybe we'll run into some of our friends along the way."
"Good idea. But I don't think they're going to let us." Knuckles pointed downward, where the group looked to see ten more Merlot androids having arrived, all their glaives drawn.
"Great. More robots." Weiss sighed in annoyance as she drew Myrtenaster.
"Let's show these buckets of bolts whose boss!" Ruby declared as she had Crescent Rose out and ready before firing at the robots below. She was able to headshot one of them while the others were forced to scatter, to which Knuckles and Amy pressed on as they leapt off the ramp and toward the ground.
Knuckles had pulled out one Galatine blade to cut down the staff of one of the androids before following with a punch through its chest. A second tried to get him from behind, but he used his second blade to block the glaive-strike before leaping with another punch to obliterate the head. He then charged for a third that thrusted its glaive at him, but Knuckles crossed his Galatine blades to block before slicing in an x-formation with enough strength to shatter the blade and lunged to pierce and destroy that very robot.
Three of the robots tried to gang up at Amy, coming at her from all sides. However, she was able to spin her body around while holding out the Piko-Piko to knock away all their weapons before spinning even faster to unleash her Tornado Hammer technique to blow back all three robots and knock them flat on their back. While they were down, Amy acted quickly to slam her hammer down onto the head of one and crush it. As the second tried to stand up, Amy was already there to smash it's head off with a mighty swing. The third was already back on its feet, but Amy moved quickly and swung her hammer upwards to knock away the glaive before smashing the robot in the side to cripple it and then destroy it with a slamming of hammer to head.
The last three robots had made it up the ramp and charged to where Weiss and Ruby were waiting. The latter used her own speed to close the distance and swung Crescent Rose to try and trip them up while Weiss lunged forward to impale one android from behind and pulled it back to kick it off the ramp and onto the ground. The two came back-to-back as they used their respective weapons to block and parry the glaives of the last two robots. Exchanging quick looks and nods, Ruby ducked and swung her scythe at the legs of the robot that Weiss had been facing while Weiss lunged her sword into the neck area of the machine her own partner had faced before swinging outward to decapitate the robot just as Ruby had leapt over the legless android and swung Crescent Rose to decapitate that was well while it was down.
"Yeah! Good job, team!" Ruby cheered.
"Let's not celebrate until after we meet up with the others." Weiss said.
"Good idea. Let's go." Amy said as she motioned for the two students to come down the ramp where she and Knuckles were waiting before they went on ahead to whichever tower was closest to their current location.
Meanwhile, Omega, Nora, and Ren had just finished taking out a squadron of androids that had been guarding the base of the second tower as Rouge worked at the console before it finally shut down.
"Done." The anthropomorphic bat dusted her hands in pride. "Let's see if we got a better signal." She opened the comms. "Shadow? You read me?"
"Rouge, I read you… *BUZZ* barely. The signal's still *BUZZ*… Can't pick up your exact location. *BUZZ* interference needs to be cleared… *BUZZ*. Keep it up."
"So not quite there yet?" Nora asked.
"Close but no cigar." Rouge replied.
"There is far less radio interference now." Omega said. "In addition to this tower, our allies have likely deactivated another. This leaves only one remaining."
"We'll probably meet up with everyone else there." Ren deduced. "Where's the last tower?"
"Approximately three kilometers north-west from our current location." Omega answered.
"Then let's not keep everyone else waiting. Come on." Rouge motioned for everyone else to follow as Omega led them in the direction of the final radio tower.
"Okay, I can see the tower." Sonic said as he, Shadow and 'Ruby' quickly approached one of the towers. He then noticed something odd about the supposed girl next to him. "Hey, Ruby are you feeling alright?"
"Eh, yeah. Why?" She asked, while Shadow paid a slight suspicious glance.
"You just seem a little quiet." Sonic replied. "You really haven't said much of anything the whole time we were here."
"I guess I just don't have anything to say." 'Ruby' said with a shrug.
"You don't even seem interested in looking for Crescent Rose." Sonic pointed out. "I mean, you love that thing like it was your dog."
"Well, maybe I'm just more eager to find the rest of our friends. Aren't you?" She replied, sounding a bit more accusatory, something that caused Sonic to look in shock.
"Y-Yeah, of course I am. But we all know they can handle themselves, right?" Sonic held his hands up defensively, caught off guard by her tone while Shadow narrowed his eyes further.
'Ruby' also happened to notice the way Shadow was looking at her and then spotted five of their friends at the base of the tower and decided to divert their attention. "Hey, speaking of which… hey guys! Over here!" She called out with a wave before making her way closer to them. Sonic was right behind her, while Shadow passed for a second before following them.
Hearing her sister's voice, Yang turned in the direction of the source of the sound and found what appeared to be her sister.
"Ruby!" Yang wasted no time in rushing towards her with a hug while Blake, Pyrrha, and Jaune all followed. The older blonde scooped up her supposed sister in a hug. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry." She assured as Yang set her down.
"But what about Weiss? Or Knuckles or Amy? Weren't you with them?" Blake asked.
"We were ambushed by a bunch of robots when we got on the island." 'Ruby' explained. "I got separated from everyone else. But Sonic and Shadow bailed me out." She gestured to the two Hedgehogs that were now alongside her.
"What happened to your weapon?" Jaune asked.
"Lost it." 'Ruby' shrugged.
"So, you've found a radio tower." Shadow observed.
"Yes. Tails should have it deactivated in a moment." Pyrrha answered.
"Just done!" Tails said with a clap as he stood at the console that had just turned dark, the Cyclone's Battle Mech parked right next to him. "The interference should be cleared."
"Great work, buddy." Sonic congratulated with a point of his finger.
"Glad to know we were all on the same page." They all turned up towards the sky to see Rouge flying in with Omega, Ren, and Nora coming down a nearby rocky hill just below her. "Hate to keep bouncing from tower to tower, not knowing which was still running or not. I hate running around in circles."
"You're all here." Pyrrha smiled as she saw her teammates, though was caught off guard as Nora leapt at her in a hug.
"Yeah! Team JNPR's back together!" Nora exclaimed in child-like glee.
"But we're still missing Weiss, Knuckles, and Amy." Ren pointed out.
"It shouldn't be that hard to find them now." Tails answered. "With the last of the towers down, and the interference gone, we should be able to call them up with no problem."
"I don't think we have to. I think I see them over there." Blake said as he pointed toward a crevice in-between some rocks and a few SDC shipping containers where they saw the rest of their friends heading their way.
"Hey! Guys! Over here!" Jaune called to them.
Amy, Weiss, and Knuckles had ran out as they heard Jaune calling to them. "Looks like everyone's regrouped." Weiss said as they all came out into the open.
"Great, now we can…" However Sonic and everyone else looked in surprise to see the fourth person that was with the newly arrived group.
It was Ruby! In the flesh! She was with them!
"Hey everyone!" She waved to her friends. "What are all of you…?"
The second she stepped forward, the rest of the group cleared away to reveal the other Ruby that Sonic and Shadow had both found upon their arrival to the island. This reveal, caused Knuckles, Amy, and Weiss to look in just as much shock as the rest of their friends, save for Shadow who simply glared at the Ruby he and Sonic had found.
But none were more surprised than Ruby herself, who only tilted her head in confusion.
"Um… who's your… friend?"
"I… It's… it's an imposter!" 'Ruby' pointed to the genuine article. "It must be one of Eggman's robots disguised as me!"
"What?! No! I'm the real Ruby!"
"What in the world is going on here?!" Weiss questioned, looking back towards her partner.
"Two Rubies?!" Nora exclaimed.
"Can Eggman make an android like that?" Ren questioned towards Rouge. "A near-identical copy of someone else? Or even a clone?"
"No, nothing like this." She said seriously. "Omega, is one of them a robot?" Rouge asked her teammate, who quickly scanned both of them.
"Negative. Both are organic." The former Badnik reported.
"So, which is the real Ruby?!" Jaune questioned.
"I… I can't tell. They both look identical!" Pyrrha said as she looked in-between them.
"Yang, you know me! I'm your sister! We grew up together!" The fake Ruby tried to appeal to the blonde, who only backed away in confusion, not sure what to make from this.
"Stay back!" Blake put herself in-between the fake Ruby and her partner. She wasn't sure which Ruby was real, so until they found out, she was on the defensive with both.
"Hey! Don't talk to Yang, you fake-me!" The real Ruby looked ready to join in, but Amy held out her hand to stop her from advancing any closer.
"Sonic, where did you find that Ruby?" She asked.
"We ran into her the second we got to shore and…" That's when Sonic got an idea as he looked seriously to the Ruby with Knuckles, Amy, and Weiss. "Ruby, do you have Crescent Rose with you?"
"Of course, I do!" She pulled out her weapon and showed its scythe configuration. "I never forget my baby!"
"Oh, come on! She stole it from me!" The fake Ruby still tried to play the act.
"Was your Ruby ever separated from you?" Shadow questioned Knuckles' group seriously. "Was she ever apart from you for even a moment?"
"No. She's been with us the entire time." Knuckles confirmed.
That was all Shadow needed to hear as he delivered a punch to the fake Ruby's gut, appearing to knock the wind out of her and grab her by the throat before using his speed to slam and pin her into metal pillar at the base of the radio tower.
"Your mannerisms were different from hers." Shadow began as everyone else came behind the Black Hedgehog and had their weapons at the draw, more than ready for a fight if this imposter were to give one. "You weren't as talkative. That aside, you made no attempt to use your Semblance when those androids were attacking you. And just now, your Aura didn't activate when I struck you. If you even have Aura. So…" He squeezed harder. "Who are you?"
Despite being pinned and a firm grip around her own throat, the fake Ruby chuckled. "Ah damn it. Here I was hoping I could get at least one of you. You Hedgehogs are too fast for me to get the drop on, but it seems like your pals are just as quick. So, no point in hiding anymore."
The imposter's body shifted and changed to reveal his true form. He was little more than three feet in height, and had the appearance of an anthropomorphic octopus with blueish-violet skin. He had four long tentacles on his head that dangled like dreadlocks, with a white muzzle for a mouth and wrinkles on his beak. He wore a black cloak around his body with black boots and had suction cups on his hands. But what stood out the most were his black sclera and white eyes. It gave the impression of his face being almost akin to a skull.
"Well, kids? What do you think?" He questioned in a shrill and sinister voice, his appearance and the ability to shapeshift taking all the Huntsmen students by surprise, as were Amy, Tails, and even Sonic, while Knuckles and Rouge narrowed their eyes and Omega's optics flared red. "Yeah, I do look pretty scary, don't I?"
"Mimic, I presume?" Shadow kept his grip firm around his neck.
"Oh? The big bad Ultimate Lifeform knows me? I guess I should be honored." The imposter, whose name was revealed to be Mimic, said mockingly.
"You will tell me everything you know, or else this will be a very painful experience for you." The Black hedgehog threatened.
"Yeah, I could help you." Mimic mused. "Or you could help my friend with a little experiment of his. They're all yours, Doc! Release the beasts!" He called out to seemingly nobody else.
In that moment, the rocky hill on the other side of the flat ground at the base of the tower began to shift, revealing a large, man-made, metallic doorway as the whole hill itself appeared to be artificial. The door pulled open like a garage as four large figures stepped out to reveal themselves to the heroes, who looked in shock at their appearance.
They appeared to be Ursas, clearly mutants, but they were different from those found in the Forever Fall Forest. They were the size as natural Ursa Majors and had the normal number of heads and arms, but they were also completely covered in bone-white armor from head-to-toe. They all had long and glowing green spikes sticking out from their spines that stretched down from the tips of their heads to their own rears. These monsters roared at the surprised heroes.
Even Shadow as briefly caught off-guard by this, which caused him to lose his grip on Mimic, who used the distraction to kick the arm that held him by the throat, forcing him to let him go. Before Shadow could even make an attempt to recapture him, Mimic threw something to the ground, a flash grenade that emitted a bright light and forced many of the heroes to cover their eyes.
"Omega! Shoot him!" Shadow ordered.
The flash had no effect on Omega's optics as he switched to infrared and spotted Mimic leaping above them and moving closer to where the Mutant Ursas emerged. The former Badnik opened fire with his machine guns, but Mimic slid under the legs of one Mutant Ursa and used its armor body for cover as he ran into the doorway, which closed behind him with a chuckle as the flare vanished.
"What happened…? Where is he…?!" Yang questioned.
"Gone. But we have bigger problems right now!" Amy pointed to the charging quartet of Mutant Ursa.
"Split up!" Ruby told everyone. "Teams Sonic, RWBY, Dark, and JNPR! One team per mutant!"
Deciding to follow her lead, the four teams had split into four separate directions throughout the immediate area, prompting each of the mutants to do the same in pursuit of the teams.
Team Sonic faced off against one Mutant Ursa as it charged at them. Sonic sped right up to it and dealt a series of Homing Attacks across its body, all while slashing with Caliburn, but the beast's armor seemed to protect it as Sonic zipped behind it to look in surprise as there was barely even a scratch from all that. When the Mutant Ursa turned around to face Sonic, Knuckles had leapt onto its shoulders to try and bring Galatine down on its right shoulder near the neck, though his axe blades did penetrate the armor somewhat, it did little to stop the mutant as it threw itself back to a wall in an attempt to shake the Knuckles off. Tails was able to quickly fly forward and pull Knuckles off just as Amy slammed the Piko-Piko onto its right leg to try and trip it up. Only for the monster to lift its arms to try and smash her, but Amy was able to quickly move back and avoid the crushing strike that shook up much of the ground.
"That thing's armor is thick!" Amy noticed. "Not sure we can cut through!"
"I might be able to, but it's not gonna hold still long enough for me to do any lasting damage!" Knuckles stated.
"Tails, anything on the Cyclone that can bust through?" Sonic asked.
"I had to go into overdrive earlier so it's systems are down!" Tails replied.
"Alright, we'll think of something else." Sonic said.
"Incoming!" Amy warned as the Mutant Ursa curled itself up into a ball, similar to that of a Boarbatusk and spun itself like a Spindash to shoot itself at the team, the four splitting into separate directions to barley avoid it.
"Whoa!" Sonic exclaimed as the mutant's attack slammed hard into a stone wall to completely obliterate the stone before it stood back up with a roar.
Team RWBY attempted to move around the second Mutant Ursa at all sides, while attacking in every way they could, trying to avoid staying in one place too long to keep the monster from attacking. Though Yang tried to get up in its face and slam her gauntlets into said face with multiple punches, only for the mutant to swipe her off.
"Weiss, you try and pin it down! Blake and I will go for the head!" Ruby ordered.
"I'm on it!" Weiss conjured a Glyph below the Mutant Ursa and channeled the Gravity Dust form her rapier into it to force the monster down on all fours.
"Blake!" Ruby called to her teammate.
"Ladybug. Right." She nodded in understanding as the pair ran on opposite sides of the pinned and struggling monster before dashing right at it with their blades hanging out. Using their respective Semblances to boost their speed, they had hoped to slice at the neck and dash past each other to repeat the process until its head was completely cut off…
Only for their blades to get stuck in the armor that surrounded its neck, much to their shock.
"What?!" Blake exclaimed while Ruby's eyes widened in surprise.
The Mutant Ursa raised its head slightly, still pinned under Weiss' glyph as it saw the girl responsible for this predicament. It then opened its mouth to spit a corrosive liquid right at her. Weiss was forced to move and avoid the deadly acid that melted the ground she was previously standing on, but this forced her to release the Glyph that kept the Mutant Ursa pinned, who rose and shook its body fiercely to successfully shake off Ruby and Blake.
It felt multiple explosions along its back as Yang tried to charge from behind, throwing out multiple blasts as she punched with Ember Celica until she closed the gap and leapt upward to wrap her legs around its neck and tried to punch its face again. Only for the mutant to bite down onto her left arm and catch her before throwing her away.
"That thing can spit acid?!" Weiss exclaimed as she, Ruby and Blake tried to regroup with Yang.
"Not only that, but its neck is protected! We can't decapitate it!" The Faunus girl added.
Ruby gulped as she desperately tried to figure out a plan to stop this monster.
The third Mutant Ursa curled itself up for a Spindash attack as it shot itself right toward Team Dark, the trio dispersing to avoid the crashing impact that obliterated a series of shipping containers. When it stopped, Omega unleashed a volley of missiles from behind as Shadow leapt above to throw out a series of Chaos Spears, even Rouge added to it as she threw out one of her heart-shaped bombs, resulting in a large explosion that appeared to engulf the creature.
Team Dark had gathered together to look as the smoke cleared and saw the Mutant Ursa stand back up. Though their combined assault did appear to break off much of its armor, it was quickly replaced by newer armor thanks to its regenerative powers.
"It's armor is not indestructible. It can be broken." Omega observed.
"Only to grow back." Rouge scoffed in annoyance. "This won't be easy."
Shadow kept his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out a way to overcome this monster. There had to be way. Nothing was ever truly invincible.
At the same time, Team JNPR found itself stuck against the last Mutant Ursa as it charged at them. Nora ran towards its side as she fired Magnhild's grenade-launcher mode. Though that did seem to damage it a bit, any damage was quickly healed as it turned to face her before spitting some acid in her direction, forcing her to jump back and avoid the attack.
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Jaune stated as he, Pyrrha, and Ren backed up slightly.
"I don't think we have anything powerful enough to break off its armor." Ren said.
That's when Jaune ended up backing into one of the support beams of the radio tower that he, Tails, and the others were previously working on, and that's when an idea came to him.
"Pyrrha, you said back at the Forever Fall that you could bring down that train-track, right?" Jaune recalled.
"Yes, with enough concentration." Pyrrha confirmed.
"Well, what about this tower?" Jaune asked, refereeing to the tower behind them. "Can you maybe bring it down onto that thing?"
Pyrrha looked up at the tower and saw what Jaune was hoping to accomplish. "Yes, I can do it. If you keep that monster underneath, I can handle the rest."
"Perfect." Jaune smiled. "Nora! Let's get that thing under the tower!"
"On it!" Nora nodded as she rolled to the side and avoided the crushing blow of the mutant. "Hey big boy! Follow me!" Nora called to it, prompting the Mutant Ursa to rush after her as she brought it directly underneath the radio tower, where Jaune and Ren joined her and kept moving all around its sides.
With the monster appearing distracted, Pyrrha came behind one of the support legs of the tower and focused her Semblance directly on it. While she would normally go for a more subtle approach, she went on a rather larger scale here as she began to bend and twist the metal of the leg, causing the tower to begin to creak and bend.
Jaune used his shield to block a claw strike from the mutant, though the force of the impact still pushed him back toward one of the support structures. Ren then diverted the monster's attention toward himself as he fired StormFlower towards its right side, while Nora came in from the other and slammed Magnhild in its hammer-configuration on the left rear leg, causing the beast to topple over, though it did spit some acid on her in retaliation.
As they kept it distracted, Pyrrha had appeared to finish her job as the tower's support was so thoroughly twisted that the metal began to crack and break under the pressure, until it snapped completely. For good measure, she also sent a pulse of Polarity up through the rest of the structure to try and break off some of its connecting points.
"Run! Now!" Pyrrha called to her teammates as the tower began to break apart.
Not needing to be told twice, Team JNPR ran as far away from the collapsing radio tower as they could. The entire structure broke and fell apart as the Mutant Ursa roared and tried to curl up to shield itself, but the force and pressure of the collapsing tower was far too much as it broke through its armor, and many of the falling beams of metal were able to pierce through its body every which way. One pole happened to break through its neck as the monster was completely skewered and buried.
When they saw a flash of green underneath the rubble, Team JNPR knew that they were finished and the monster was dead, much to their relief.
"G-good… good work everyone." Jaune took a moment to catch his breath, while Pyrrha and Ren smiled as Nora punched his arm in a friendly fashion.
"Not bad, team leader." She congratulated, causing her to smile.
The collapsing tower drew the attention of everyone else and even the remaining three Mutant Ursas. Yang had hoped to use this to her advantage as she rushed the one she and her team were fighting and slammed into its side to knock it back, though it quickly got back up and swiped its massive claw at her to send her flying and crashing into a shipping container.
"We're not getting anywhere like this!" Blake stated.
"Its armor is too strong!" Weiss added.
"Then let's try and make it softer." Ruby suggested.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"Weiss, can you use a Glyph to reflect its acid spit back at it? So that we can melt off some of its armor and try to cut its head off?" Ruby asked her partner.
"That's…" Weiss took a moment to think. "I… never thought of that. My Glyphs can't exactly reflect per say… but if I used Wind Dust, I can send it back…"
"Then let's do it." Ruby said as she used Petal Burst to move in as the monster had her sister cornered. Yang tried to pull herself up, but Ruby fired Crescent Rose at its back to draw its attention to her. "Hey ugly! Give me a loggie! The biggest and grossest one you got!" The Mutant Ursa roared at her as it moved closer to try and swipe its claws, but Ruby used her speed to avoid all the slashes before taunting it again. "Come on! I said a loggie! Spit on me! Spit on me like I called your mom ugly!"
That seemed to do the trick as the Mutant Ursa sent a stream of acid from its mouth right at her, only for Weiss to appear in-between them and thrust Myrtenaster and conjure a Glyph that not only acted as a shield against the acid, but when she infused Wind Dust into it, it created a vertical whirlwind that blew it right back, covering the monster in its own corrosive spit. The Mutant Ursa roared in agony as it felt its armor being melted off with the acid even going deeper inside. Though its regenerative powers tried to push it back, the outer armor was significantly weakened.
"Blake! Ladybug repeat!" Ruby told the cat girl.
"Understood." She joined Ruby as they once again came at the beast from opposite sides with their respective speed, boosted by their Semblances and natural abilities, drawing their blades to cut at the neck as they dashed past each other. The first strike was enough to break off the weakened and partially melted armor around its neck before coming in again with a dual slice to completely sever its head. What was left of the mutant exploded shortly after.
"We did it… right?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, we did it." Blake confirmed with a nod and a smile, causing Ruby to smile back.
As Yang struggled to push herself up, Weiss had come to her and offered her a hand, which she accepted as she was pulled back on her feet.
"Are you okay?" Weiss asked.
"I'm fine." Yang brushed off. Though at the same time, she couldn't help but be frustrated. She was of no help at all in taking that monster down. While she was proud of Ruby for doing it, the fact that she was basically useless in the final execution only added to the frustrations she was already feeling.
Knuckles stood his ground as he caught the spindash of the Mutant Ursa he was facing. He dug his feet into the ground and pushed back as hard as he could.
"Knuckles, flip it over!" Sonic told him. "We'll handle the rest!"
Deciding to trust his friend's judgement, Knuckles used his strength to haul up the rotating form of the mutant and haul it over his head, sending the monster flying up and over before it landed on the ground in a large boom that shook up most of the surrounding area.
"While it's down! Double-Crocket in the air! Tails with me! Knuckles, you send Amy up!"
"On it!" Knuckles nodded.
"Let's do it!" Amy responded.
"Ready when you are!" Tails offered his hand to Sonic, who took it as the two performed a double-spin dash attack with their own bodies and went up into the air.
At the same time, Knuckles allowed Amy to step onto his hands before he threw her straight up as well, angling herself so that not only did she meet the conjoined blue and yellow blur, but even aimed her intended strike where it was meant to be. With a mighty swing of her Piko-Piko, Amy had sent Sonic and Tails together back towards the ground. The Mutant Ursa didn't have time to get back up as the blue-and-yellow double spindash struck its head with enough force that it completely shattered the armor around it and obliterated the head.
The pair slid to a halt just as the Mutant Ursa exploded behind them for dramatic purposes. The duo exchanged a high-five when it was all done and over with.
Team Dark faced off against the final mutant as Omega caught its clawed strike and hauled it over himself to send it flying and crashing to the ground belly-up. Omega then shot himself in the air via his boosters and concentrated his heavy artillery, from missiles to Fire Dust bombs, in an attempt to break through the armor on its chest.
"If it's outer hide is protected, it's insides are likely more vulnerable." Omega deduced as he landed, only to watch as the Mutant Ursa stood back up and all its injuries were quickly healed. "Heavier ordinance would be required." Omega said as he backed away to avoid the acid spit.
"He may be onto something. If we can get past its armor, we can destroy it." Rouge said to Shadow.
"I'll do it." The black Hedgehog appeared to have an idea in mind. "When you see an opening, use one of your bombs."
"After you." She teasingly bowed and allowed Shadow to step forward. She didn't need to ask, she trusted Shadow's judgement and would move in when the time was right.
The Mutant Ursa then looked towards the approaching Shadow as he had drawn Arondight in his right hand. He then used his left hand to wave toward himself, taunting the mutant into coming for him. The monster roared in response as it charged at him and tried to crush him underneath its front claws, only for Shadow to teleport above it. It gazed upward as Shadow came down. When it looked like it was about to spit acid at him, Shadow had thrown another Chaos Spear to blast away the acid and allow the way to be cleared for him to close the gap and lunge Arondight into its open mouth, the sword breaking through the back of its skull.
"Rouge!" Shadow kept a firm grip as the mutant gagged and tried to shake him off, but he wouldn't budge.
Now as her chance. The bat flew directly to the monster's behind and had one of her bombs drawn. Right as Shadow pulled his sword out and leapt back, Rouge shoved her bomb through the opening he had made in the back of its skull and flew backwards. The Mutant Ursa felt something in its head, but it wasn't able to properly process it until it heard a few beeps before the bomb exploded, obliterating the head and most of its neck and shoulder area.
Team Dark had gathered together as they saw the headless beast fall down before it exploded in a green flurry.
"All mutant targets have been destroyed." Omega reported as Teams Sonic, RWBY, and JNPR all met back up with Team Dark again.
"But that…. those were different than the other mutants we've seen." Yang said.
"They could spit a corrosive substance and even attack like Boarbatusks." Pyrrha noted.
"Their armor was also stronger, especially around the neck." Weiss added. "We found out we could kill them if we decapitated them but…"
"It's like they adapted to counter that." Tails finished. "Or rather, whoever is behind this, adapted them."
"Yeah, that's scary… but I'm also worried about that fake-Ruby that came out of nowhere!" Sonic pointed out, with Ruby herself looking a little nervous. "She… or he… looked and sounded just like her! I couldn't tell the difference!"
"His name is Mimic, he's a shapeshifter." Shadow revealed. "And he's from our world."
"You know him?" Jaune asked.
"This was the first time I've meet him personally, but I know of him." Shadow began. "You recall our time in the Twilight Cage?"
"Ugh, don't remind me." Knuckles groaned.
"Twilight Cage?" Ruby asked, looking towards Sonic for an answer.
"Long story short, we had to go to another dimension to fight a world-dominating psychopath and his little army. But it also had this freaky time-space thing going on around it. We were in there for a couple days at most, only for a few years to pass by on our world." The blue Hedgehog explained. "While we were in there, Eggman almost completely took over the whole planet."
"Days in another dimension… but years go by in your world…?" Weiss tried to wrap her head around the idea. "That sounds somewhat far-fetched."
"As far-fetched as a blue talking Hedgehog that can run at speed of sound in his sneakers?" Yang responded dryly.
Weiss blinked a few times before conceding. "Fair point."
"While we were gone, there were two major factions that stood against Eggman." Shadow continued. "One was the Guardians Unit of Nations, which is essentially all our world's military. The other was a small, but powerful, mercenary team known as the Diamond Cutters."
"Now that's a cool name." Nora grinned.
"We don't know the exact circumstances, but at one point, one of their members betrayed them and helped Eggman to wipe them out." Shadow went on. "And you just met him."
"Mimic." Amy's eyes narrowed as everyone else had their own reactions to that revelation, be it either shock or anger.
"I already don't like him." Knuckles growled.
"He betrayed his own team?!" Ruby exclaimed. "Why?!"
"Don't know." Rouge shrugged. "Maybe blackmail or trying to save his own skin. We only found out about him in the first place after we got back and helped push Eggman back. What was left of G.U.N. gave Team Dark the rundown. We were going to hunt the guy down ourselves but…"
"But Eggman woke up Dark Gaia not long after." Tails recalled.
"Affirmative." Omega confirmed. "The chaos unleashed from that incident was catastrophic. There were many civilian casualties. Even with the crisis abated, Mimic was never spotted. He was presumed deceased."
"It would seem that presumption was wrong." Ren pointed out.
"But if he's from your world, how did he get here to Remnant?" Blake asked.
"He was probably on the Ark or one of Eggman's ships when we were transported here." Rouge assumed.
"Okay, so he's here now." Jaune said. "What exactly can this guy do besides shapeshift?"
"He's a specialist at infiltration, as far as we've been told." Shadow answered. "But in our encounter, I saw that while he was able to copy Ruby's physical appearance, he couldn't copy her abilities. He didn't have Aura, and by extension, no Semblance."
"So, if he were to copy my look, he couldn't use my speed?" Sonic asked.
"Most likely." Shadow confirmed.
"So, we find this guy and shut him down." Yang stated, pounding her fist into her palm.
"But Mimic isn't our only problem. We still haven't figured out who's behind all these Mutant Grimm." Ruby pointed out.
"Then perhaps it is time for my introduction."
The group was instantly on alert, the Huntsmen students having had their weapons drawn as they circled up, while Sonic and the others looked around for the source of the voice.
"Who said that?!" Weiss questioned.
"I don't see anybody!" Pyrrha looked around.
Tails happened to pull out his personal scroll and saw that it had been activated remotely with an unknown caller on the other line.
"Our comms have been hacked!"
"Actually, you helped me to do that." The voice revealed. "The reception is always so bad all the way out here. I hope you're all enjoying your stay on the island. Aside from Mimic, you're the first visitors I've had in… well… you are among the first."
"What… who are you?! How'd you hack our phones?!" Sonic questioned.
Shadow however narrowed his eyes as he had come to the conclusion faster than anybody else. "Doctor Merlot, I presume?"
"Yes. A pleasure to finally meet you, Sonic the Hedgehog, and friends. I've heard so much about you from our mutual colleague, Doctor Eggman." Merlot greeted in a seemingly polite tone. "As for how I was able to access your communications, when you deactivated my radio towers, you also triggered a radio signal of my own design that would allow me to patch directly into whatever communications happen to be on my island. It's been so long since I've talked to another person, so I do apologize for the rudeness."
"He played us…" Rouge said in a low growl, realizing that radio inference that kept them from communicating was also bait for Merlot to hack into their own communications.
"Merlot?! He's supposed to be dead!" Yang stated.
"Not quite, my dear. I won't bore you with details, but I was able to survive that little… incident at Mountain Glenn, such a tragedy." Merlot explained. "Afterwards, I relocated here to continue to my experiments with the utmost of privacy."
"You're the one who's been experimenting with the Grimm! You made all those mutants!" Knuckles pointed out.
"Yes, some of my finest work, wouldn't you agree?" Merlot replied. "Though I can't take all the credit. Some of the initial designs were based off mythological creatures from your world that Doctor Eggman had provided for me."
"Why are you experimenting with Grimm?! That is madness!" Weiss stated.
"I would be more than happy to explain this to all of you, but I would prefer to do it in person. So please, I invite you to join me at my main facility." Merlot offered. "It is on the other side of the island; you can't miss it. I will leave the door unlocked. Farewell."
With that, the call came to an end, leaving the group in a deathly silence.
"Omega?" Shadow looked towards his robotic companion.
"With the radio interference cleared, I can detect a signal coming from the other side of the island. It is likely Merlot's main facility." The former Badnik reported.
"Can we trace the call, pick up his exact location?" Amy asked Tails.
"Maybe with a little more time… but I think Merlot has control of the communications right now." The young Fox replied. "We really did play right into his hands.
Blake looked towards Sonic who had a serious expression on his face. "We're going to his facility, aren't we?"
"Yep." The Blue Blur confirmed.
"Even though it's obviously a trap?" Weiss questioned.
"When isn't it?" Sonic responded.
"What about Mimic? He's still out there." Yang pointed out.
"We'll just have to be extra careful." Pyrrha said. "It may be best for all of us to stick together."
"Yeah… and if we get separated and run into him disguised as one of us… we'll ask him questions." Jaune came up with an idea. "Questions only we would know about."
"Come on everyone." Ruby declared as she cocked the rifle mode of Crescent Rose. "We got some bad guys to catch."
Meanwhile, Mimic walked through a long, underground, hallway as he pulled out a hand-held device that shined to life to reveal Merlot in hologram form.
"They're on their way to the base now."
"Good to hear. So, you got everything ready, Doc?" Mimic asked as he continued to walk. "That last batch of mutants really gave them a challenge."
"Oh, most certainly. While that quartet of mutants were certainly powerful, I've devised quite the batch that'll be more than challenging for Sonic and his companions." Merlot replied. "I can't wait to see these battles. Even if my mutants fail, it'll be worth it. I'll have more data to use to further improve my research."
Mimic chuckled. "You're the pretty much the opposite of a sore loser."
"Speaking of, don't you think you were a bit reckless?" Merlot asked. "They know about you now and will be on guard. It'll be more difficult for a shapeshifter to surprise them if they know a shapeshifter is up and about."
"You've seen Eggman's reports on the Hedgehogs, right?" Mimic questioned somewhat irritably. "Just one of them can take out a whole army and I got stuck with both. If I ended up with one of those brats, that be another story. But I'm not stupid enough to think I can take on Sonic or Shadow in a fair fight."
"I suppose that is a far point." Merlot replied.
Mimic's grin returned as he came to the end of the hall. "But don't worry. Even if they know about me, I can still get inside their heads. I'll let you and your experiments take care of Sonic and his buddies from my world, you leave the kids to me."
At the end of the hall stood five androids that had think skeleton-like frames with their heads being blank spheres with no faces whatsoever. Mimic then looked to his right wrist where a watch-like device was located. He pressed a few buttons as the screen came on with a bright red text that read…
'Bioids online. Mimic bio data copied and transferred. Activating now.'
Thanks to some Hardlight Dust installed, the androids, known as bioids, activated as a holographic-like projection overshadowed all of them and they all bore an identical appearance to Mimic himself. It now appeared there were six Mimics in total.
The true Mimic's grin only grew. "I think it's time for RWBY and JNPR to learn a harsh lesson on reality. The younger and more inexperienced you are, the easier it is to get inside your head."
Done.
The heroes have now met Doctor Merlot as well as Mimic, who seems to be ready for them as he has five androids with his own bio data, which not grants them the same ability to shapeshift, but they also act exactly like how the real one would. He basically has five other copies of himself. (But he only has five. Don't expect an army of Mimic robots to show up. No way Eggman is going to give him something like that).
This may seem somewhat similar to how Neo's Semblance evolved in the Ever After, but it is very different. I had this planned out long before Volume 9 aired so I apologize if there seems to be a lack of creativity.
Merlot plans to sick more of his mutants on Teams Sonic and Dark, while Mimic plans to do what he does best on Teams RWBY and JNPR, this won't be an easy fight for any of them. (But don't forget that somebody else had followed them to this island, a certain little bird)
So, I'm sure many of you have noticed how I changed up the backstory of the Diamond Cutters here. Canon-wise, they showed up during the six-month time skip of "Forces" when Sonic was imprisoned on the Death Egg and Eggman took over the world. I decided to change it up because Sonic and Co's time in the Twilight Cage during the events of "Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood" is essentially the same thing with Eggman taking advantage of the heroes' absence and used it to conquer the whole word. And just like the canon IDW comics, Mimic betrayed his fellow Diamond Cutters to save his own skin.
And yes, Whisper (as well as Tangle) will appear later on in this story. I've got plans for her. And of course, she will have her Wisps.
And yes, I am aware that chronologically speaking, "Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood" takes place before "Colors" where the Wisps made their first canonical appearance, and the Diamond Cutters with their Wisp partners made their own debut after the events of "Colors". It will be explained later on as to how they were able to find the Wisps, which will actually lead to the events of "Colors". There is no continuity snarl or reorganized timeline or anything of the sort here.
Let me explain the timeline starting from "Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood" to where we are now…
*Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood
*Unleashed
*Black Knight
*Colors
*A Red Rose in the Blue Wind
I hope that all makes sense.
Oh, and while this isn't too important to the plot of the current story, I want to explain how I feel the reason why GUN hasn't made another big appearance in the Sonic video game series yet since. Eggman took over the world during the events of "Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood" and had almost completely defeated GUN. Even though Sonic and all his friends were able to beat back Eggman, not long after that, he unleashed Dark Gaia which set the events of "Unleashed" into motion. The world literally breaking apart really made things bad for what was left of GUN. All that would be more than enough to put the organization out of commission for a while. That's at least how I would see it.
And don't expect GUN to make an appearance here in this story. That would just make it overly complicated. They will be talked about and mentioned at various points, but they won't make a physical appearance.
Now, what horrors await our heroes now that they are venturing deeper into this island of doom? Find out in the next chapter coming soon!
Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there.