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Chapter 31: Bot Fight! - Part 1

White Fang Rally

Blake had felt her scroll buzz against her leg earlier, but didn't have the will to check it. All she could do was stare in shock, amber eyes wide behind her borrowed mask.

Roman Torchwick. Here, at a White Fang rally, of all places.

She knew there was some connection between the career criminal and the White Fang, but this… this was unbelievable. Roman Torchwick, a human, center stage in front of nearly a hundred Faunus, by all appearances running the rally himself. Speaking about how he wasn't any different than them, having to put up with the same abuse that the Faunus people did.

And they were buying it.

"Is this guy for real?" Sun whispered next to her, low enough that no one around them would hear.

Blake could only shake her head in disbelief. This… this was worse than anything she'd thought of. All these people, most of them her own age, were hanging onto Torchwick's every word. Worse, when he mentioned fighting against the government, purposefully hurting humans, they cheered.

Adam… she thought, her heart breaking as she watched all of her father's work circle the drain. What have you done?

Just when she thought it couldn't get worse, Torchwick cut off his own speech with a snap of his fingers. The curtain behind him dropped to the ground.

"That… is a big robot," Sun stated dumbly, a hint of fear in his voice.

Blake couldn't blame him. She'd seen pictures of the Atlas Paladin before, mostly on news sites she'd read when keeping tabs on the SDC and Atlas in general. The White Fang getting their hands on one would be bad enough, but this…

At one point it had been a gleaming example of Atlas' military strength, a brand new prototype so shiny you could see yourself in it. Now, the Paladin was something straight out of a nightmare. Solid plates of steel covered every gap in the original design, giving off the look of a tank turret with legs. There were obvious welding marks across the new armor, but they were buried under the war machine's new paint job: solid black highlighted with red and orange, with Adam's White Fang symbol painted proudly on its shoulder.

The crowd cheered at the sight of it, and Blake felt sick. Before she could even fully process everything, Torchwick started talking again.

"Now, I'm sure you've all at least heard about Atlas building a line of my new friend here." He banged the side of his cane off the Paladin's leg for emphasis, sending a deep, dull echo throughout the warehouse. "Well, thanks to my, um, 'employer', I was able to nab a few of these before they hit the shelves. You heard that right! The White Fang gets to use these bad boys before the Atlassian military does."

"Now, as you may have noticed, this big guy is not exactly 'factory standard.' This is my personal unit, which the White Fang so graciously helped me to enhance. As for the others, I've already sent them down to help your brothers and sisters at our new operation in the southeast. If you want to toil away here in the city, that's fine. But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you." He flashed a smug smile. "Any questions?"

Blake's cat ears folded down against the roaring applause that answered Torchwick.

This… this is worse than I thought. Adam isn't just turning the White Fang into terrorists. He's making them into an army.

Blake couldn't take it anymore. She turned to Sun, finding him already staring at her behind his mask.

"We should get out of here," she said, unable to hide the tremor in her voice. Sun just nodded, holding onto her arm as he took a step back.

Suddenly, a voice sounded from the stage, coming from the full-masked Faunus beside Torchwick. "Will all new recruits, please come forward!"

Blake and Sun were suddenly pushed forward by the mass of people behind them. Unable to fight against the wave of excited Faunus, they had no choice but to move with the crowd towards the stage, where a pair of White Fang members had opened a box full of full-faced masks.

"What are we going to do?!" Sun hissed to Blake, panic edging into his voice.

Blake's eyes darted all around the warehouse, trying to find something, anything that would aid their escape. With so many White Fang surrounding them, simply running wouldn't work. They needed a distraction. Her eyes trailed over the warehouse walls, at the cracked cement, windows brittle with age. There was an old junction box on the wall, likely powering the lights. Maybe…

"Aw, crap."

Blake felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, Sun's quiet curse alerting her to the all-too-familiar sense that she was being watched. With dread, she followed Sun's gaze, back towards the stage.

Her heart stopped.

Roman Torchwick was staring right at her. And he was smiling.

Well, that couldn't have gone better if I'd tried.

Roman smirked to himself as nearly every Faunus in the room rushed the stage, each one still hooting and hollering in excitement. He even heard a few of them chanting his name. That was new. Yes, Cinder would be pleased. Hell, maybe the old matchstick would actually crack a smile for once.

Still, he couldn't help the disappointment lingering at the back of his mind. No sign of his elusive black cat. He'd tried to scan the entire crowd during his speech, but no luck. Either Kitty Cat hadn't showed, or she'd slipped in and out without him noticing.

Plan B it is, then, he thought begrudgingly. Though, how the hell I'm going to get into Beacon without Ozzy or Cinder noticing, I have no idea. Hmm… maybe I could get Neo to lure Little Red off campus? Longshot, but if I plan it right… if I'm right about this, maybe Neo snags her cape? Yeah… that could-

Bzzt.

Roman was broken from his musings by the buzzing of his scroll. Neo had messaged him.

N- Black cat at 10

Roman arched an eyebrow, his head snapping to the left. His eyes trailed ver the Faunus youths, looking for…

A wide grin spread across his face. Right there, near the back, was that same pair of cat ears he'd been waiting for, perched atop a head of long black hair. The outfit was new, but there was no mistake: Blake Belladonna, in the flesh. And as a bonus, Monkey Boy was with her! Even better!

Roman held back a chuckle as he watched the two draw closer, seeing the panic they were both in. They weren't getting a choice in coming towards him. They'd been swept up in the crowd, pushed forward by the excited wave of Faunus he'd smooth-talked.

Now, there were two ways he could go about his plan. One, simply talk to the Cat. Not as exciting as the other option, but it might be worth it just to see the look on her face. Or, two: wait for Kitty Cat to make the first move. Depending on how violent said move may be, he'd get the opportunity to get the answers he wanted, and to give his new toy a test run.

His choice was made for him when Monkey Boy suddenly looked up at the stage, and he could feel their gazes lock even through the boy's mask. Seconds later, Kitty Cat did the same. Roman was half tempted to give a little wave to them both, just to see their reaction.

Okay, your move, kiddies. Watcha gonna do no-

In a flash, the Cat pulled out her weapon, and Roman found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol. He instinctively lifted his cane when he heard the gunfire, ready to block the shot, only to hear the bullet whiz past his head.

The warehouse went dark.

Faunus screamed in shock at the sound of the gun going off, but Roman was too busy being blind to care. Unlike everyone else in the building, he was just a 'lowly human', as Bull Boy had called him once, and had none of the fabled night vision every Faunus so helpfully just had. He fumbled with his scroll, trying to bring up the flashlight feature in it, when he heard a voice sound over the panicky crowd.

"Sun, the window!"

Immediately after, he heard a window shatter to his right.

"Oh, no you don't!" he yelled out, stumbling back to where he knew the Paladin stood. He found it, banging his head off on one of its arms, before fumbling over the mech's surface in search of the cockpit door. Once his hand grasped around the handle, he pulled it open, being blinded by the red light spilling out.

He blinked away the stars in his eyes, pulling himself into the mech's seat. He hit a few keys on the console beside him, and the Paladin shuddered to life. The cockpit door lowered shut, and a screen lit up in front of him, showing him what the Paladin saw. A flick of a switch, and the video switched to night vision, showing him a crowd of confused, panicked Faunus, several White Fang soldiers storming the warehouse floor, Neo smirking down at him from up in the rafters…

And one completely broken window on the far wall.

A manic grin spread over Roman's face. He didn't even hesitate, just grasping the Paladin's controls and pushing them forward. Fifty tons of mech shot across the stage, slamming into the warehouse wall, blasting through it like tissue paper. In the distance, he could see Monkey Boy and Kitty Cat running towards the highway.

Roman pushed the Paladin forward, hitting a few buttons to prime the mech's main weapons. His eyes briefly darted to his left, where a second console had been haphazardly installed, exposed wires dangling out the bottom. He was tempted to hit a few of those buttons as well, but held off. There'd be time to put Neo's hard work to good use soon enough.

Okay, Kitty Cat. Run back home. Lead me to Little Red.

Junior's Nightclub

Yang's glass shattered in her fist.

Neptune jumped at the sudden sound, nearly spilling his cola. "Geez! What was that for?" he asked in surprise, desperately ignoring the threatening glare Junior was now shooting them. When he saw the look on her face, his expression turned worried. "Yang?"

Yang just stared down at the shattered glass in front of her, her breath becoming choppy. "Something… something's wrong."

She just couldn't catch a break. First Ruby starts freaking out over something, then Weiss just up and disappears for a few seconds, then they both start freaking out, and just when they start calming down, something happened that scared Blake stiff. Freaking out didn't even come close to what Blake was feeling at that moment.

And what was Yang doing?

Sitting at a bar.

Screw. That.

Yang jumped out of her seat, startling Neptune so much that he did drop his drink this time. Yang didn't notice, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him out of his seat.

"C'mon!" she yelled before he could protest, dragging him towards the door. "Something's wrong with Blake. We need to get over there, now!"

Neptune blinked, his eyes growing wide. "What-"

Whatever he was going to ask was cut off when the whole building shook. A loud bang sounded from outside the nightclub, causing the patrons inside to flinch in surprise. Yang and Neptune froze. They shared a look, before rushing to the door. They ran down the hall, passed the bewildered bouncer at the entrance, bursting out into the street. The few people outside were facing towards where the sound had come from.

"What was that?" Neptune asked, not really expecting an answer.

Yang's scroll suddenly came to life, buzzing with a new call. Yang didn't waste any time, practically ripping it open. Before she could even start to answer, Blake's voice sounded from the scroll.

"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need-!"

"HEEEELLLLP!"

Sun's sudden scream made them both flinch. Yang ran to her motorcycle, it roaring to life the moment she sat down. "Get on!" she yelled to Neptune.

He did so, his fear of the thing being overridden by his fear for his friends. "Do we even know where they-"

"...aaaaaaAAAAHHH!"

Yang and Neptune snapped their heads around at the nearing scream. Just down the street, Blake and Sun ran through an intersection, followed seconds later by what could only be described as a giant robot.

"...never mind," Neptune squeaked out, face paling at the size of the mech.

Yang's eyes narrowed. "Hang on!" she yelled out, hitting the throttle.

Neptune barely had time to wrap his arms around Yang's middle, nearly being thrown off as the bike squealed into a one-eighty. Within seconds, they'd screamed around the corner, Yang pushing the motorcycle hard to catch up with the mech.

"Blake, we're right behind you!" Yang yelled into her scroll. "Just try to stay ahead of it!"

Would if I could! Blake thought desperately, not bothering to say it out loud. Her feet pounded against the pavement as she ran, the sound of the mech's wheels getting closer.

Sun had commandeered her scroll, yelling panicked gibberish into it as they ran. The fact that Yang was so close gave her some comfort, but it paled to the fear she had of the mechanical monster bearing down on them. They needed to come up with something fast, before Torchwick caught up to them.

Blake could already feel her body wearing out, being fueled by fear and adrenaline. Her lungs burned, her heart hammered painfully in her chest.

Her legs were starting to tingle.

They ran around a corner, putting them right next to the freeway. Cars honked at them, only to swerve out of the way once people noticed the Paladin hot on their heels. Blake desperately tried to think of a plan, but she couldn't.

Then, as they neared an on-ramp, Sun yelled out beside her. "Hey! I have an idea!" She glanced back, seeing him pointing towards the on-ramp.

Blake understood what he was getting at. Normally, she'd call him crazy, but when she heard the Paladin's wheels just a few feet behind her, she didn't hesitate. With Sun at her side, she took a large leap to the left, her feet landing on the roof of a car.

Freeway

As their cab drove down the elevated freeway, Ruby and Penny huddled over Weiss' scroll, the heiress sandwiched between them. They all had looks of disbelief as Sun's voice screamed out from the scroll.

"Robot! Big robot! Very big! Help!"

Weiss stared at her scroll in complete bafflement. Blake and Sun were spying on a White Fang rally. How did a giant robot figure into that?

Penny apparently had the same thought, her green eyes wide. Ruby and Weiss had filled her in on their team's information gathering, and she'd agreed to help them if she could. She had been hesitant at the thought of keeping it a secret from the General, but had agreed nonetheless, at least for the time being. "The White Fang hasn't been reported to have weapons of that scale."

Ruby was conflicted. Part of her was excited at the thought of seeing a weapon of that size in action, but it was being drowned out by her feeling Blake's fear and Yang's panic. "Sun, where are you?"

"We're-"

"Holy-!" The cab suddenly swerved out of its lane, the driver cursing as he pulled hard on the wheel. The three girls in the back seat were thrown to the left side of the cab as it spun, Weiss landing on top of Penny as Ruby landed on top of her. The cab jerked onto the shoulder, slamming against the bridge barricade, before squealing to a stop.

Pushing a dazed Ruby off of her, Weiss sat up, glaring daggers at the cabbie. "What on Remnant-" Her indignant words cut off when she saw the man gaping out his windshield, gripping the steering wheel in a knuckle-whitening grip. She followed his gaze…

Her blue eyes widened in shock. "Oh, Dust…"

Theirs was not the only car that had pulled over. Nearly every other motorist had pulled over to the shoulder, and the few that hadn't were quickly accelerating away in the far right lane, as far away from the opposite road as they could get. Further up the road, a pickup truck lay upside down, smoke pouring from its engine block as its panicked driver scrambled away from it. Weiss briefly wondered how it got there, when a minivan suddenly sailed over the median, crashing near their cab. Weiss followed its path, and immediately stiffened.

On the opposite road, Blake and Sun were leaping from car roof to car roof, trying to put as much distance between them and the monster of a mech bearing down on them as they could. Within seconds, it had closed the distance between it and Blake's current platform. The giant machine drew back its left arm, and swatted at the car. For a heart-stopping moment, Weiss thought Blake was done for. Beside her, Ruby let out a panicked, "Blake!"

To their relief, Blake jumped at the last possible second, landing on the same car Sun was on as the mech sent the car flying across the road, the young woman behind the wheel screaming in terror.

As the mech charged past them, Weiss heard the buzzing sound of a high-performance engine. A flash of yellow and blue zipped by, Yang's motorcycle roaring as she and Neptune tried to keep up with the speeding mech.

Weiss spared their terrified cabbie a glance, before scrambling out of the cab, Ruby and Penny right behind her. Weiss watched in dismay as the mech sped off into the distance, smashing aside cars as it flailed at Blake and Sun. "We need to catch up to them," she said, a hint of desperation in her voice as she watched another car go airborne.

Ruby watched the car soar across the median, torn between her amazement a the hulking machine and the fear of her sister and her girlfriend being attacked by it. When she registered Weiss' words, however, she grinned widely. "I have an idea!"

Weiss had all of a second to wonder what Ruby's idea was before she was suddenly swept off her feet, Ruby having slipped an arm under her knees and the other behind her back. Weiss pinked a little at finding herself held in Ruby's surprisingly strong grip, her indignant retort cut off when Ruby turned to their new companion. "Penny, do you think you can catch up with them somehow?" Weiss could feel her worry and guilt, likely at the thought of having to abandon Penny on the freeway after just having reunited with her.

To both of their surprise, Penny just smiled, her eyes flashing with determination. "Indeed I do!"

There was a sharp sound of metal scraping on metal, and a number of silver and green swords slid out of Penny's back and hovered in the air behind her, each one unfolding from a rectangle of metal into a four-foot blade. Ruby gaped at the sight, while Weiss blinked rapidly. Before either could respond, two of the swords met in mid-air, crossing blades across Penny's back. There was a strange clicking sound as the blades seemed to split apart in places, then merged together into a single piece. There was an echoing clang as the merged swords slammed into Penny's back, the hilt of each blade turning and folding, until one side was pointed and the other was flat. The overall effect made it look like Penny had grown mechanical wings.

Just when Weiss was able to string together a coherent thought, she heard a high-pitched noise, the tips of Penny's 'wings' glowing green. A jet of green fire shot out the underside of each wingtip, and Penny was lifted into the air, hovering a few feet off the ground as her remaining swords circled her like a bladed halo.

As the partners stared up at her in shock, Penny sent them a determined smile. "Let's go assist our friends!" Shifting her weight, Penny angled herself forward, green fire roaring as she blasted off in the direction of the mech.

Weiss and Ruby stared after her, eyes wide and mouths agape.

"...Ruby?" Weiss asked faintly.

"...yeah, Weiss?" Ruby answered, silver eyes trained on the green dot that was the flying Penny.

"Did Penny just… grow a jetpack?"

Ruby gave a tiny nod. "Yes. Yes, she did." Her shocked expression slowly morphed into an almost manic grin. "That… is… AWESOME! How did she do that? How did she merge her swords like that? How does she make them hover? How does she fit all those swords inside herself? How-?"

"Ruby…" Weiss scolded in an annoyed tone. While she did find Ruby's enthusiastic gushing rather cute, and it did help pull her out of her shocked stupor at… whatever the hell she just witnessed, they had more important things to deal with. Once Ruby's eyes met her own, she bobbed her head towards the distant sounds of destruction and mayhem. "The giant robot?"

Ruby blinked at her, then jolted at the reminder. "Right! Sorry." Ruby bent her knees, and Weiss had to throw her arms around Ruby's neck so as not to fall out of her grip. Ruby gave her a brief smile when she did, before focusing on the road in front of them. "Hold on tight," she told Weiss, increasing her own grip on the heiress. When she felt Weiss' arms tighten, she moved.

The world turned red around them, and Weiss was vaguely aware that the tingling sensation playing over her skin as Ruby's semblance took hold felt… familiar.

Within seconds, a red blur jumped the median, and blasted down the freeway towards the ever-increasing carnage.

"So, do we actually have a plan here?"

Yang ignored Neptune's yell for the moment, too busy pushing her motorcycle to its limit. How was that mech so fast? The thing was massive, but it was somehow staying at high speed, swatting at every car in its path.

Yang scoured the mech with her eyes, trying to find something, anything about it she could use to her advantage. It wasn't easy, as every few seconds, she had to swerve hard to the side out of the way of whatever vehicle the mech had smashed aside and not sent over the median.

C'mon, she thought to herself as they barely missed a spinning truck. Give me something, anything! A crack, a dent, loose wires, just… wait. Maybe… there!

Yang's eyes zeroed in on a line of small loops along the mech's back, almost invisible against its black paint. Some kind of handholds, for maintenance, maybe? She didn't really care, so long as they were there. If one of them could actually get onto the thing…

"Neptune!" She yelled out.

"What?"

"When I get closer to it, try to climb on."

There was a pause, followed by a panicked, "That's the plan?!"

Yang shot a glare over her shoulder, making him flinch slightly. "It's either that, or I ram it!" She'd do it, too. She doubted it would do much, that armor looked thick, but if she could get one good punch to one of its legs, maybe she could slow it down.

Neptune swallowed, the glare making him wonder which was safer: climbing a thirty-foot death machine, or keep clinging to a stressed and quickly angering Yang.

"Go for it!" he yelled.

Sun, you owe me big time for this!

Yang just nodded. She faced forward, hitting the throttle hard. The bike lurched in a sudden burst of speed, quickly gaining ground on the mech.

Inside the Paladin, Roman was having a blast, his lips pulled back in a feral grin.

It was better than he'd hoped. Thanks to all the extra bells and whistles he'd had slapped onto it, the mech was bigger, stronger, and a hell of a lot faster than he'd thought. He'd reached freeway speeds in seconds, and the mech's upper body moved so much more fluidly than it had in his brief test run earlier. With the controls in hand, all he had to do was flick his wrist and, boom!, another car went flying.

He did vaguely wonder if he was actually killing anyone with all the vehicular mayhem he was causing. None of the cars had exploded (at least, he hadn't seen any of them explode), but still, getting hit with a five-ton robo arm… eh, he'd find out when he watched the news later.

He was getting a bit frustrated with just how nimble Kitty Cat and Monkey Boy were. Dodging his strikes, managing to land on a new car every, freaking, time. It was impressive. Completely annoying, but impressive. At this rate, he'd have to start putting the Paladin's firearms to the test. He had been wondering just how effective those missiles were.

A red blinking light on the display panel drew his attention. Along the side of the screen, a small box had popped up, bright red text spelling out Proximity Alert. Another screen popped up below it, showing video from a camera on the back of the mech.

The Paladin's wild flailing ceased for a moment as he stared at the blonde girl driving a motorcycle right up behind the mech, a blue-haired boy reaching out to grab onto it. His eyes narrowed in recognition, remembering the information Neo had stolen for him.

Yang Xiao-Long. He frowned briefly at the name, but ignored it. Time for that later… maybe. Though, that face… there's definitely a resemblance. He shook his head to clear it. He smiled smugly. Okay, Sunshine. Let's see how tough you are.

He jerked hard on the controls.

"Just a little closer!" Neptune yelled to Yang, his fingers just grazing the handholds.

Yang let out a groan of frustration, hitting the throttle again.

Neptune stretched his arm out as far as he could. With a groan of effort, he pushed forward.

"Got it!" he yelled in triumph, wrapping his hand around the ladder rung. He managed to grab with his other hand, and started to pull himself off the bike-

"I don't think so!"

Yang didn't even have time to question where the loud voice came from before she had to veer sharply to the right as the entire mech did a full one-eighty. Neptune screamed as he was ripped off the bike, hanging off the back of the mech by his fingertips.

Yang had no chance. Her every instinct told her to move, but there was nowhere to go, trapped on her bike between the freeway guardrail and the massive robot. She threw her arm up uselessly, blocking as much as she could as the mech's massive arm came towards her.

THA-WRASH!

"AUGH!"

Pain filled her body as she was smacked right off her bike, the motorcycle itself tumbling through the air beside her. She forced her eyes open, cold realization hitting her when she saw, not the freeway pavement, but the distant city streets below her. The mech had sent her flying right off the road, out into the open air.

She could feel Panic, Fear, Denial, Hopelessness, all tinged with frost and shadow and an electric tingle. She thought she heard Blake call her name, her voice louder and more panicky than she'd ever heard, but she wasn't sure. She could feel them, her Mates, her sister, each desperate to help her, each terrified that they couldn't.

Stop panicking! she thought, both at them and to herself as she felt gravity take hold. I'm tough! I can survive a fall like this!

She eyed the streets several stories below.

...right?

Suddenly, Yang felt something slam into her from behind. Her fall came to an abrupt stop, her sides protesting as something wrapped around her underarms painfully tight. She clenched her eyes in pain, as a high pitch whine filled the air around her.

"Are you uninjured, Yang?"

Yang's eyes snapped open at the voice behind her. She twisted her head around to meet green eyes.

"Penny?!"

Sure enough, the odd, orange-haired girl was holding Yang up by the armpits, obviously having caught her in midair. She gave Yang a concerned look as she hovered above the city streets.

Wait…

"Y-you…! You can fly?!" Yang stuttered out in shock. "How are you- do you have wings?!"

"Um…" Penny ducked her head awkwardly, looking uncertain. "It's… a long story. Are you okay?"

The subject change was obvious, but Yang ignored it for the moment, looking down at herself as she wiggled slightly in Penny's grip. "Uh… I think so! Nothing feels broken."

Penny frowned. "Are you certain? Your eyes seem very red compared to our last encounter."

Yang blinked at that. Her eyes were red? But…

...oh, now she felt it. The tingling feeling behind her eyes, the way her whole body seemed to burn with newfound energy. Her Semblance must have activated on instinct, all the power behind the mech's blow having been absorbed into herself. She was practically shaking as the stolen energy bounced around inside her, seeking an outlet.

Yang looked back at the freeway. The mech had already spun itself back around and was tearing off down the road after Blake and Sun, who had managed to gain some ground thanks to her impromptu distraction. Neptune, somehow, was still clinging to the back of the mech, trying to climb up its back. A red blur shot down the road behind it, quickly catching up to the metal monstrosity. Already, they were all moving down the freeway, away from where Yang and Penny hovered.

Through the Link, Yang felt overwhelming relief from Ruby and Weiss. They must have seen Penny catch me, she thought to herself.

As she watched the bizarre entourage race off into the distance, Yang thought hard. She had questions, so many questions, mostly about the girl holding her while they freaking hovered five stories up, but she pushed them all aside. She hadn't felt any relief from Blake, meaning that the cat Faunus probably hadn't seen her get saved, plus she still had a few tons of angry robot chasing her. They needed to end this, now.

And the fire burning in her muscles gave her a great idea on how to do it.

"Penny?" Yang asked, a smirk growing on her face.

"Yes, Yang?" Penny responded, still waiting on her for an answer to her earlier question.

"How fast can you fly?"

Well, that didn't take long, Roman thought to himself as he watched the blonde girl go flying off the freeway. Bummer. Well, I doubt it'll kill her, especially if I'm right about… yeah, she'll be a pain in my neck later. He shrugged to himself, focusing at the task at hand, namely, smashing those hopscotching little ingrates!

Roman let out a growl of frustration as he saw how much distance the two Faunus had made while he'd taken a swing at the blonde. He jammed the controls forward, the mech lurching back up to top speed. To his utter irritation, he was making very little ground. Apparently, whoever was behind the wheel of Kitty Cat and Monkey Boy's current ride decided that having a multi-ton Paladin on their back bumper was reason enough to throw traffic laws out the window.

Roman fumed for a moment, before smirking. Reaching over to the console on his right, he flipped a set of switches. The mech gave a small shudder, the sound of metal against metal filling the air as a digital reticle appeared onscreen. He tapped his pointer finger over the screen in front of him, and the reticle box moved over Kitty Cat's car. Two red lines formed an 'X' right over her back.

Time to see what these things can do. Roman placed his thumb over a small red button on his controls, as bold red text formed under the reticle.

MISSILE LOCKED.

His smirk turned into a manic smile as he pressed-

"Neptune, jump!"

Roman jolted, the loud voice blasting out of the internal speaker at the same time another proximity alert popped up on screen. His eyes snapped to it, this one showing the view from the left-side camera.

"Heads up, buckethead!"

...What.

For the briefest moment, Roman thought he'd lost his mind. There was Sunshine, her lips spread into a wide grin as she was held in the arms of, of all people, Laser Lass, flying towards him at high speed.

However, it wasn't the impossibility of them both flying at him that made his eyes widen. No, it was the blonde's eyes that did that.

Her bright, angry, painfully familiar red eyes.

The next second, Laser Lass let go of her passenger, and the blonde was sent hurtling straight at the mech, fists out, hair glowing, red eyes burning. It was then that Roman fully remembered what he'd read about her in those Beacon records.

This is gonna hurt.

If he hadn't seen the girl's divebomb himself, Roman would have thought he'd been hit by a tank. The entire mech jolted to the side, the left side wheels coming off the ground. A half-dozen warnings popped up on screen, not that Roman could read them as he was thrown against the wall of the cockpit.

The mech shook, metal groaned. He heard the sound of concrete breaking, and there was a sickening moment of weightlessness, followed seconds later by a stop so violent and sudden that the cockpit went dark.

Roman blinked the stars out of his vision, holding a hand to his aching head. One by one, the lights in the cockpit came back to life. Roman groaned as the screen flickered back on, seeing the brats leap down from the broken freeway guardrail, jumping onto inexplicably appearing snowflakes. He took hold of the mech's controls, making it climb back to its wheeled feet as he looked around. The Paladin had fallen into a construction yard underneath the freeway, where one road passed over the other, support pillars surrounding the area.

Big open space. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to really run.

Roman watched as the kids reached the ground. The last to do so was the Schnee brat… and Little Red herself.

Perfect.

Roman pulled hard on the controls, spinning the Paladin to face the seven would-be heroes. Grinning ferociously, he reached over to the left, his hand slamming down on the custom console.

There was a groan of metal. On the screen, seven reticles popped into existence, each one targeting a different brat. Seven red text messages popped up.

MISSILE LOCKED.

Okay, kiddos. Let's see what you got.

Roman hit the red button.

Betaed by Covert Weapon

Old A/n: Yeah, its two parter. Sorry, but if I'm going to do this fight, I want to do it right and take my time. Hope this'll tide you over for now.

Writing Roman is surprisingly fun. Giving an outside-looking-in perspective from an antagonist is kind of freeing, making me be creative in a way I've done before. I hope I'm doing him justice.

For those wondering about Penny's jetpack, it's from the RWBY manga. She had one there and I just thought "Why wouldn't I use that?"

One-thousand followers! Holy hell, I never thought this story would be this popular. Thank you! Thank you all! All of you, keep being awesome!

See you all soon!