The group wandered through the metal corridor, quickly leaving the hangar quickly behind them. Small white lights were spread in wide distances on the ceiling, barely illuminating the place. The further the group went, the bigger and wider their surroundings got.
Ruby took notice of it. She thought to herself, I wonder why…
The clanks from metallic footsteps on metallic floor echoed trough the hall. The group saw Egg Hammers approach their location, having enough space to do so.
Oh, that is why everything got bigger. Ruby drew Crescent Rose while everyone else also readied themselves for the incoming horde of massive Badniks.
"Omega, can you destroy them like you did with Death Egg laser eye earlier?" Silver asked.
"NEGATIVE. REPEATED OF HIGH LEVEL FIREPOWER AFTER RECENT USAGE WILL LEAD MASSIVE AMOUNT OF SELF HARM," the last of the E-Series replied.
"I guess we have no choice then but to face them head on!" Sonic dashed ahead, followed by Shadow. The hedgehog duo reached the first Egg Hammers and bombarded them with homing attacks and strong kicks and punches. Ruby and Tails gave them support from afar by shooting the massive robots at the eyes or joints. Some of the Badniks took quick notice and walked around the Egg Hammers getting scraped by the speedster hedgehogs, stomping toward the rest of the group.
Tails and Ruby jumped aside and a hammer buried itself deep into the place where they had been standing just a few second before. The Egg Hammer tore its weapon out from the ground and raised it high above its head, aiming at Tails. Before it could smash its weapon down however, it was shocked by several electrical shocks.
"DESTROY ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS!"
Omega retracted his guns and, with charged and crackling claws, jumped onto the Egg Hammer. While the combat robot got busy tearing his fellow machine apart, Rouge flew into the air and threw bombs at additional Egg Hammers. She managed to easily fly between all their swings when a shoot grazed her head.
Round holes opened on the walls and ceiling to reveal laser canon aiming at the intruders and aiding the Egg Hammers. Several focused on the bat mobian but Ruby, Tails and Silver helped her out.
The former two of the trio destroyed the canons with shots of their own. Silver used his telekinesis to rip them out and toss them at other laser canons.
The machines re-aimed and fired wildly at them. Tails started rotating his namesakes for a burst of speed and Ruby wanted to activate her Semblance. Before the duo needed to dodge the attacks, Silver already tore of metal panels from the walls. He raised his hands and the turquoise energy of his telekinesis rotated the plates around him and his friends to act as a barrier of moving shields around them.
Rouge managed to dodge some laser projectiles aimed toward her and used an opening Silver gave her to land beside the three of them.
"What now?" she asked. "We can´t wait like this forever."
The bat pointed at an Egg Hammer that managed to escape the mechanical massacre Shadow, Sonic and Omega were causing among its brethren. The huge Badnik was approaching them with a menacing glow in its eyes.
Ruby looked around. They were still bombarded by the canons. If they were taken out…
"Silver," the huntress-in-training began. He, alongside the other two mobians close by, turned to her. "Could you maybe use the metal panels as projectiles to destroy the laser canons and halt the Egg Hammer for a bit?"
"If Rouge add some bombs then I think it should be possible," answered the hedgehog. "Good. This would give me and Tails an opening to damage it. Rouge could then finish it off."
Ruby looked at the bat.
"Shadow told me during our training how skilled and strong you are. So I think you could pull this off… right?"
Rouge just smirked. "Can I?"
The silver eyed girl tilted er head questionably. "Can y-"
"Yes, I can. And I don't think we should wait any longer if we don't want the Big Guy over there to turn us into pancakes."
Wasting no more time, Tails and Ruby took out their weapons and got in position. Rouge pulled out several bombs and threw them into the orbit of the flying metal panels. Silver drew his hands in, making his improvised shield rotate around them tighter, before lashing out and sending a storm of metal and explosives outward.
The laser canons were torn or blown apart and the Egg Hammer staggered a few steps back. It gave Tails and Ruby enough time to get proper aim and fire. Lighting and lasers hit joints, destroyed the eyes and overall weakened the mechanism of the Badnik. Rouge spread her wings and, giving herself a boost with a jump, flew high into the air. As soon as she reached her altitude, the bat let herself fall on the robot, gaining momentum, and crashed its head and part of the upper body under her heels. The Egg Hammer collapsed in on itself.
After its fall it became quiet in the hall, the constant shooting and metallic clanging echoing trough the hall having drowned the organics hearings with a choir of noise. Without it the almost silence was deafening.
Sonic, Omega and Shadow had taken care of the rest of the Egg Hammers and looked at the rest of their group.
"So much trouble with just one Egg Hammer?" Sonic asked with a smirk.
"Hey, we had to take care of the laser cannons!" Ruby replied.
"Everyone, stay focused and let us continue. There will be enough enemies to take care of in the future." Shadow gave a slight wave to signal everyone to move ahead.
After the Egg Hammer welcoming committee, they all arrived at a circular room that contrasted with the angular design of the corridor they had just come from...and the three others it crossed. Shadow narrowed his eyes as he gave every single of the new corridors a scrutinizing look, suspicious what kind of surprises the Eggman Empire could have hidden there for them. The lights were flickering, creating shadows and illusions of movement. When nothing appeared Shadow turned to Tails.
"Where should we go next?"
"Let me think. Maybe we-"
Hrrrrriisssssss!
The fox went silent and still, like everyone else, as the growling hiss was heard. He group looked around but nothing appeared from the corridors.
HHHHHRRRIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS!
Again it was heard, louder and nearer this time. Accompanied by a heavy scratching noise like something big was crawling around…
No, not just crawling around but… downwards. Descending toward the group. Which meant…
They all looked up. The 'room' they were in was more of a shaft. Above them, the shaft stretched upwards, out of reach of the lighting from the corridors, so it was shrouded in darkness. And from it something moved, no, fell directly toward the group.
Instincts, or in Omega´s case programming, took over and everyone scattered. The heavy… thing slammed into the place where the group had been standing just a few seconds ago. Since the surface of the Death Egg's interior was fairly clean, no cloud of dust rose from the impact, allowing everyone to take in the details of their new opponent.
A heavy exoskeleton, blacker than the deepest night.
A cluster of red eyes burning with a hatred for all things living, thinking and feeling.
A glowing stinger swishing and stabbing around the air.
Ruby blinked as she saw these familiar things in the unfamiliar setting. Then her eyes widened when her brain managed to put all these details into one picture.
It was a Grimm, a Death Stalker, standing there! It was nearly as big as the one Team JNPR had defeated during the Initiation. Yet there were also differences. The bone armor of the creature had been modified by metal covering. The one on the mask had holes for the mandibles and the eyes, in between them was a red Eggman symbol. The inner ridges of the claws possessed steel thorns. And there were also three canons, similar in design to the ones from the Egg Tanks, mounted on the topside of the creature, one on the flat piece of the neck and two on each side of the back. Said canons rotated around and aimed at the scattered heroes, firing different kind of attacks.
Tails and Ruby threw themselves on the ground to avoid a laser projectile. The mobian of the duo then needed to grab his friend and use his rotating tails to fly around, a laser beam directly behind them.
Rouge hid behind Omega, who used his massive body to shield her from the hot flames.
The hedgehogs dodged explosive rockets, Silver catching some of them with his mental grip and throwing them back at the Death Stalker. The metal outer hull of the armor managing to withstand the explosions, the modified Grimm just hissed in anger and ran toward the silvery hedgehog. With its many legs the soulless being was way faster then Silver anticipated for a creature this size and it rammed into him. He flew trough the air and crashed into the wall before sliding dazed onto the ground. The Death Stalker scuttled a few steps closer but then halted when Shadow fired Chaos Spears on it, destroying the canon with the rockets. It exploded and the modified Grimm growled. It changed direction and came storming toward Shadow. However, its flamethrower was aimed back at Silver and would have reduced him to ash if Sonic didn't quickly run past and pick him up in the process.
The Death Stalker was almost onto Shadow, claws raised. The Ultimate Lifeform just stood there, looking stoically at this new type of enemy and not moving an inch as this massive monstrosity of darkness and metal came barreling toward him. The reason was revealed when Omega slid between the two black and red colored beings. He took hold of the snapping pincers and used his strength to halt the Grimm. The two beings stared into each others red glowing eyes while they wrestled against their opponent, both filled with blood lust, the Grimm able to draw strength from the negative emotion radiating from the machine.
Ironic that the robot had more life in him than the creature resembling an animal. Life the Grimm wanted to extinguish and smother with its darkness. It raised its stinger over its head. Before it could stab downward, Rouge grabbed it from behind and held it in place, her wings flapping wildly to counter the monster's power.
Shadow ran from behind Omega and at the side of the Death Stalker. He raised his hand, Chaos Energy crackling between the fingers, but both the laser and fire canon forced him backwards. But Ruby and Tails, the latter still holding the human and flying in the air, saw Team Dark's dilemma. The silver-eyed girl took special note of Rouge and how she held back the sting, remembering how an excited Nora was boasting after initiation day on how her and the rest of Team JNPR had defeated their Death Stalker. It gave her an idea.
"Tails," she begun and activated Crescent Roses´ scythe mode, the blade sharper and full of thorns along its edges thanks to Kurtis energy. "Spin me around and then throw me."
The fox didn't need much time to realize what his friend was planning and did what she said. He turned as fast as he could around his own axis and then let go of Ruby. She was flying straight toward the Death Stalker with a raised scythe. In a flash of pink and red she flew past its tail and severed it from the main body, momentum and hyper-go-on enhanced metal cutting trough the Grimm´s armor, both natural and modification. Ruby tried to slow herself and land on her feet but her momentum made her stumble and she would have hit the floor if Silver hadn't cached her.
Once Rouge felt the stinger go limp in her grip and the stump of the tail flail under her, she reacted quickly.
Just like in the fight with the Egg Hammer previously she flew high up and then descended with rapid speed. The stinger in her hand pierced the canon and armory on the neck of the Death Stalker and burrowed into the dark and twisted matter the Grimm had for flesh. The Death Stalker´s response was to roar with hatred. It yanked itself free from Omega and wanted to tear Rouge apart with its claws. But Omega just gripped the stinger and pushed it deeper while also sending trough it electrical charges. The Death Stalker once again roared in anger and hatred but this time the sound was more weakly. The damage done to its body was too great and it began to disintegrate into smoke and ash, leaving behind only the modifications, which fell to the ground with a loud clang.
Everyone gathered around the damaged metal and the few plumes of smoke.
"Okay, what kind of demonic/eldritch stuff is Eggman messing with this time?" said Rouge. "Like it's not enough that he has the Phantom Ruby, now we also have to deal with...dark, creepy crawlies?"
"Grimm." Everyone turned to Ruby. She gave the last wisps of black smoke some concerned looks and then raised her head to meet the eyes of the others.
In a serious voice she continued, "That was a Creature of Grimm. A soulless embodiment of Death and Destruction from Remnant. But apparently… improved by Eggman´s technology."
Tails put a finger on his chin. "So THAT is what a Grimm is like."
Ruby nodded. "Yes, but there are more variations then just the Death Stalkers, err… with that I mean giant scorpions. There are a lot more. And I don't know how-"
"Heh heh heh."
Everyone spun around, weapons and abilities ready. They recognized the distorted laughter immediately.
"Infinite, show yourself," growled Shadow. The reality bender´s laughter continued to echo from nowhere until he manifested himself in a red glitch. The masked fined was hovering above the group, looking down on them figuratively and literally.
"What´s the matter, Shadow?" he coed with false confusion and sympathy. "Don´t you like this surprise the Eggman Empire has prepared for the Resistance? Well, that´s to bad. That was just an appetizer…"
With a serious voice the jackal warned: "There will be so much more."
"Pff. It wouldn't be our first rodeo with dark creatures unleashed by Eggman." Sonic tried to look unconcerned, but in reality he was keeping a close eye on what his and his friends adversary was saying. Especially since this was something Remnant-related and therefore may be of help for Ruby.
"Maybe it wont be for you but there are so many in the Resistance that are new to the life of a hero. That have no experience in combat or…" The masked head tilted toward Ruby. "… had the destiny of visiting a school designed in training child soldiers wrung around their necks."
Ignoring the jab at Beacon, surely nothing more than an empty insult, Ruby asked:
"So… did you use that purple void to transport Grimm from Remnant and have Eggman use them as weapons for this war?"
Infinite remained silent. His visible eye looked intently at Ruby, studying her face. Seeing the desperate curiosity inside the eyes. The entity smirked under his mask.
"I see what you are trying to do. Probing me for answers. Hoping to find a way home, be it just a sliver of confirmed information. But why should I say anything regarding this matter. Especially since it can spoil further surprises."
Ruby´s eyes narrowed. She turned Crescent Rose into a sniper rifle and aimed at Infinite, alongside Tails, Omega and Silver, who had readied some of the Grimm modification as projectiles. Sonic and Rouge were ready to lounge at the entity. Shadow stepped forward with Chaos Energy crackling and surging around him.
"Fine, if you don't want to cooperate, then have it your way."
The hedgehog focused the energy into a Chaos Spear. But before he, or any of his friends and allies could attack, the Phantom Ruby pulsated heavily. Infinite laughed and spread his arms. Reality itself started to shake and rumble, distort under a red veil, as a heavy and buzzing sound vibrated trough everything.
...
When the intense redness and noise lifted, Ruby stumbled around disoriented and in slight confusion. She was still clutching Crescent Rose. Tails was nearby but nobody else. Some glitches flickered around them as after effects from the massive use of the Phantom Ruby doing… what exactly?
The duo found themselves in a square room. No visible exit out from this place. Illumination came from a single light on the ceiling. The glitches faded away as reality managed to completely recover from Infinite´s move.
But there was not a single trace of the masked foe or any of Tails´ and Ruby's friends.
"W-what happened?" Tails immediately took out the Miles-Electric, trying to both scan the surrounding and make contact with the others. But on the screen of his gadget only appeared glitchy static. He and Ruby then tried to reach anyone through their comms. All they heard was garbage noises like a broken phone.
"Something seems to be blocking our communication, either something built into the Death Egg or maybe it's Infinite itself," Ruby suspected.
"Possible. But I don't understand-"
Their musings were interrupted by the groaning of metal being moved. Two of the rooms walls started to close in on the duo. Ruby and Tails inched toward the middle.
"A trap? But if they've always been able to do something like that, why didn't Infinite and the Empire dispose of us like that long ago?"
Tails didn't know what to say. His mind was buzzing with thoughts. From the sudden appearance of monsters from Ruby's world, to the fact that Infinite had caught them off guard and that they were now separated from Sonic and the others.
He shook his head slightly to stay focused.
"Whatever happened, we should focus on getting out of here first."
"But how?" Ruby asked as she nervously watched the approaching walls.
Tails was watching them too. An idea came to him. He took turns stepping towards both of them and knocking on them. A muffled noise told him that they were massive. The fox then knocked on the unmoving walls. One produced a hollow echo, showing that it was thin. Tails immediately knew what to do.
"Ruby, step back. I can get us out of here but it will be a bit extreme."
"I… okay, I trust you."
The human girl moved backwards and watched how the fox took aim at the thin wall. He told to the Wisps inside his weapon, "Strom. Flare. Give it your all. I think it is time that we test the Double-Wispons upgrade."
The aliens made affirmative noises. Tails pressed a new button on the Wispon's handle. Both cores for the Wisps within the weapon rotated while massively pumping their energy into the mechanisms. An electric and fiery energy gathered at the barrel, merging into something orange and glowing.
Tails fired a piece of plasma from the Double-Wispon.
BOOM!
Ruby suddenly dashed ahead and covered Tails with her body, protecting him and herself with her Aura.
The thin wall was blown away, revealing a long corridor that curved to the right.
Nearby sensors reacted to the destruction and sent a signal. The moving walls immediately shot forward and would have crushed the duo if Ruby hadn't had Tails right there with her. So she was able to use her semblance on both of them and shoot out of the room while the walls crashed into each other behind them.
Mobian and human manifested themselves in the corridor with wobbly legs. Adrenalin was coursing through her veins due to the close call that had just happened. But that wasn't just due to the trap alone.
"Tails, maybe you could´ve have been a little more clear that you wanted to use the new combination feature we built into your Wispon in close quarters? I´m all for experimenting with awesome new weapons. Or new abilities for them. So it should really mean something when I am the one saying this."
The fox chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Heh… sorry. There was barely any time so I acted more than I thought ahead properly."
"True." Ruby sighed. Despite the circumstances, she couldn't help but smile.
"At the very least we know we can combine different kinds of hyper-go-on-energy. Wonder what else we could do with different Double-Wispons?"
She became quickly serious. "But that is something for another time. Can you contact anyone now?"
"I doubt it. Let me just check... yeah, still no signal."
"Where could the others be? Where are WE anyway?"
"From the architecture of the corridor, I would say it's still in the Death Egg."
Ruby looked around carefully, expecting an attack at any time. "So did Infinite teleport us all and scatter us around the Death Egg or completely change the environment around us?"
"It could be both… The question remains: Where are the others? And how do we find them?"
"We also should try to make somehow contact with the people on the spaceships. They need to be informed about the change in circumstances. They also need to be warned about the Grimm. If they are surprised by them, panic could break out. Negative feelings not only attract them and make them more aggressive, like blood with piranhas. It also makes Grimm stronger and harder to kill."
"How that?"
"You saw how, with good cooperation, we were all able to defeat the Death Stalker relatively easily. Despite the modifications. I know about Grimm, and you and the others have enough experience to remain composed in the face of an unknown monster. But the other troops… Infinite had been right about that. You see, Tails, if there had been a panicked crowd, all that fear and terror might have kept the Death Stalker going, even if Omega had still pierced its head and electrified the entire body."
Shuddering, Ruby remembered the fall of Beacon and the Breach. With all the panic and other negativity pulsing freely through the air, it had been difficult to destroy the Grimm. She had seen some of the creatures still trying to kill despite gaping holes in their bodies or missing limbs, including heads!
Tails was shuddering as well when he heard that. "That does sound quite… problematic."
"Yeah. And I'm not sure how many Infinite could have brought here. Or at least I assume he brought them here because-"
Her mussing were interrupted. Growling and metallic clanging sounded from beyond the bend in the corridor. Badniks and Grimm came around the corner. This time there were only a few Beowolves and Ursai Minor, but they had similar modifications to the Death Stalker.
Their bone masks and plates were also covered by nailed and screwed in metal plating. There were no cannons mounted on their backs, probably because their frames were too nimble and small compared to the Death Stalker's tank-like built. But their forelimbs and bone spikes were covered by barbed wire.
The Grimm, being more aggressive, charged ahead towards the human and mobian. The Badniks moved out of the way, having been programmed to do so in order as to not direct the dark creatures' hatred towards them.
Tails and Ruby readied their weapons. Although they were still concerned about the fate of their allies, for now they had to focus on themselves and surviving the hordes that had been housing within the Death Egg´s shell.
Ruby: Okay, with Cinder here, my situation cant get any worse.
The Creatures of Grimm: WE´RE HERE! Gonna tear you apart across these new Frontiers!
Ruby: … *Sigh*
So yeah, the heroes got quite the grim surprise. Jokes aside, the Resistance now has some new enemies to face. As described in chapter, my version of the Grimm have the ability to drain power from negative emotions as opposed to just being drawn by them. I´m a huge fan of monsters and the Grimm have some of the coolest designs and potential I´ve had ever seen in fiction. So I wanted to give them something to make them a bit more than just canon fodder. Just like changing the traits of the Fall Maiden Magic this is one of the more heavy changes I made to RWBY lore/canon in this story. Therefore, just like it had been shown by Ruby´s memories, some fights against the Grimm had been much more difficult then in canon. Throw in the fact that Eggman seemed fit in giving the soulless creatures some upgrades and you have a recipe for disaster.
To Grand Chaos Master: Son ic does actually give Ruby some additional training from the sides.
There is a sequel planned. But it wont continue immediatly after this story.
To Guest: Oh right, Ruby has her birthday on Halloween. Hm, maybe I should try to make a mention of it in story.
To Guest: You're not wrong in your statement about Summer and Ruby. But you're ignoring the fact that Ruby is so taken aback BECAUSE she's made peace with her mother's fate. Suddenly some villains start dropping hints about what happened to Summer or that she might even be alive. But it's not just about Summer but also about Ruby's mentality in general. During some information searches on the RWBY Wiki I found a mention from Ruby´s voice actress on how her mentality is basically: `I don't have time for my emotional crap, I need to make sure everyone else is okay.´ I for one found that something very interesting and decided to explore that a bit more with my story. This is why I have the Sonic cast help Ruby to open up more and stuff: To overcome that mentality. And you say she could have opened up during the time skips, but her mental state and acts in Volume 9 speak for the opposite.
But… you know… all of this is not important. What is important is how I mentioned several times how tired I am of you making these drawn out discussions over several chapters. You apologized yet still kept going, making your apologies look far from genuine. I offered a compromise on my response during Chapter 27. But you still keep going with the whole Ruby´s mentality-shtick. At first I turned a blind eye because Ch. 29 had that as a focus just like Ch. 28 so maybe you just commented on that. But no, and you also have started to clutter each chapter with several reviews. I´m just done with this and wont be replying anymore.
To ArguableReader: Long time no see buddy. Yeah, there seem to be some significant troubles arising with the site. People with accounts, like me, don't get any email notifications about chapter/story/review alerts etc.
But I am very happy that you still follow and like my story.
To Guest: You´re right, I didn't really thought about it. Fixed it by writing a little mention on how Tails explained the dangers of space to Ruby.
To Guest: Okay.
To Monster King: Thank you. I will.