Ch. 48 Mecha-Disaster

Blake traces her fingers along three scratch marks on a wall before peaking around the corner. She can see a pair of horned Faunus as they are ushered into a building by a bearded man.

Blake turns to Sun next to her. "This is it"

"You sure?" Sun asks.

Blake just glares at him before going around the corner as she takes her bow off her head.

Sun shrugs his shoulders. "Y'know, I'm just gonna take your word for it"

Blake walks into the building with Sun behind her. The hallway is filled with boxes and cases strewn about seemingly random.

Sun buttons his shirt. "I don't get it" He holds the half-mask in his right hand out. "If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?"

"The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters" Blake looks down at the white mask that only cavers the top half of a persons face.

Sun realizes what the mask represents. "Grimm masks... That's kind of dark"

"So was the guy who started it" Blake holds her own half-mask in both hands and begins walking.

"Always sunshine and rainbows with you..." Sun follows behind Blake.

As the walk further in they can hear a man. "New recruits stick to the right!" He commands.

Blake and Sun follow the pair of Faunus they saw enter before them until they get to a big room. The new recruits are in the dozens as they line up on the side of the stage. But their number pales in comparison to the hundreds of white-vested, black-hooded soldiers to their left and up above in the balconies.

Sun and Blake look around the barely lit room. But it's enough since everyone inside has some form or variation of night vision. They don't get to take a good look at anything before a fully masked man with tattoos takes the center stage at the front and begins talking. The man is a White Fang Lieutenant. And behind him is a big emblem of the bloody wolf and claw marks.

"Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!" The lieutenant confidently and loudly says.

From the right side of the stage a man with brown boots and pants steps forward from the shadows. The man taps the tip of his cane on the stage. His white coat and red tie stand out, but his orange hair beneath the bowler hat catches more eyes. It's Roman Torchwick and he charismatically walks further onto the stage even as the crowd protests.

Roman mockingly waves at the crowd. "Thank you, thank you!"

Neopolitan then walks out from behind the sheet with the White Fang emblem. She moves to the right side of the stage as Roman continues talking.

"Please, hold your applause!" Roman holds his palm out towards the crowd.

A Faunus with antlers points at Roman. "What's a 'human' doing here?!"

"I'm glad you asked, 'Deerie'!" Roman gives a big smile and turns towards the Faunus, who is right infront of Blake and Sun.

"Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans... are the worst" Roman salutes as to make an example of himself. "Case in point" He then lowers his hand and walks slowly along the stage. "So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!"

Blake glares at not only Roman but Neopolitan. She hasn't forgotten that Neo is the one who stabbed Alabast.

"So, is he going somewhere with this?" Sun leans and whispers to Blake.

"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy" Roman holds his arms open and gestures towards all the Faunus.

"The ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms!" Roman states.

The crowd of Faunus stop complaining and some even start agreeing with him. Point is, Roman is quickly swaying the Faunus to his side easily.

"Government, military, even the schools: they're all to blame for your lot in life!" He lists and then pauses to let the crowd digest his words.

The crowd cheers loudly.

Blake and Sun look at eachother but can't really discern the others look. But both of them know that this is big and it's bad.

"And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room" He jokes and then snaps his fingers.

The sheet that was behind him falls like a curtain and the whole mass of Faunus applaud at the sight of the Atlesian Paladin-290 behind it, the mark of the White Fang painted on its shoulder.

"Whoa, that's a big robot..." Sun comments.

Blake looks wide eyed at the giant robot. "How did he get that?"

"As some of you may have heard, this right here..." Roman taps the humongous mech. "...is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer', we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves'. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within 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. Any questions?"

The crowd erupts into applause and cheers. Roman confidently smiles as he gets his answer from the crowd of Faunus.

"We have to get out of here" Blake whispers to Sun.

The White Fang lieutenant steps forward. "Will all new recruits, please come forward!"

The line of new recruits surge forward and block Blake and Sun in the crowd of new recruits.

"Whelp" Sun helplessly says as they follow the crowd.

——————

Back at Junior's Club

Junior sits behind the bar and sets his empty drinking glass down.

Yang and Pyrrha stand on the other side of the bar.

"I don't know!" Junior states.

"How can you not know?" Yang unpleasantly asks and folds her arms under her chest.

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here" Junior leans over the bar to point in Yang's face. "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back"

Pyrrha forces Juniors finger away from Yangs face.

Before she can ask a question Junior takes his finger away and looks at the red head. "And you. I've seen you before. I just don't know where. But since you're here with Blondie, you can't be good news. Who are you?"

Pyrrha puts her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "I am…. A friend of 'Blondie'"

"No shit" Junior pours some alcohol into his glass and takes a sip. The hand holding the glass moves towards Pyrrha. "But I can swear that I've seen you somewhere. What's your name?"

Neptune comes rushing in and stands between Yang and Pyrrha. He leans on the bar and asks his own question. "So where did they go?"

Junior looks at the blue haired guy and doesn't respond right away. "What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back!" He turns to Yang. "Who is this guy?"

Yang pushes Neptune out of the way. "Don't worry about him; worry about me…." Neptune moves back and stands at attention. "…. if I don't find out what I want!"

"I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is something I can relate to!" He shouts out into the room at his men who slump their shoulders and grumble as they continue to work.

Yang turns away from the bar. "Come on, Neptune. Pyrrha"

Neptune and Pyrrha follow behind Yang as they begin walking away.

"We get everything we need?" Neptune asks.

Yang continues walking forward with a slight frown. "Well, we got everything we 'can'. Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck"

"Pyrrha…." Junior whispers to himself. Then he looks at Pyrrha's back and sees her weapons. Sweat drops down his face. "The Invincible Girl…. Why do scary ladies always find their way here…" He grumbles to himself as he downs the rest of his glass.

——————

The White Fang cheers as the new recruits make their way onto the stage.

"What are we going to do?!" Sun whispers.

Blake furrows her brows. "I'm thinking…" She tries to think of a way. If Alabast was here they could just use his semblance to get outside. But since he isn't here they can't do that. And the fact that they are on the stage now puts them at the center of attention. Kinda makes it hard to discreetly get away.

Sun watches Roman lean on the leg of the mech and smoke his cigar as he talks to the pink and brown haired girl. Roman laughs as he continues to smoke but then he zeros in on Sun and Blake and frowns.

"He sees us…." Sun informs Blake.

Blake spots the junction box on the wall behind them and the paladin. "He can't see in the dark"

Blake unsheathes Gambol Shroud and transforms it into its pistol form and shoots the box.

The lights in the place shut off and the room is cast into darkness.

"Don't let them get away!" Torchwick shouts.

"Sun! The window!" Blake yells to Sun.

"Stop them!" Roman commands.

*vvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRR!*

The sound of something coming online can be heard just before Blake and Sun crash through the window.

*Ksh!* *thmp* *thmp*

Blake and Sun both land outside and immediately start running away.

*BAM!* *Crumble*

The Paladin hits the wall and easily crashes through it. It then begins chasing Sun and Blake who run down the alley until they get to a car and leap off of it and get to the roofs of the buildings.

Sun twirls mid air and looks at Blake. "So you wouldn't happen to have... oh, I don't know... some form of BACKUP?!"

Blake takes her scroll from her pocket and puts it to her ear. "Already on it!"

——————

Weiss and Alabast exit a store with Alabast carrying lots of bags. Both receive a call from Blake.

They look at eachother and answer it.

Weiss holds it to her ear with her left hand and Alabast holds it to his ear with a tendril of Darkness.

Blake begins talking loudly and quickly. "Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-"

"HEEEELLLLLLLLLP!!!" Sun shouts in the background of the call.

Weiss and Alabast look at eachother. Weiss rolls her eyes as she takes off running. Alabast shrugs and drops all the bags into his shadow that expands beneath him before he starts running behind Weiss.

As they run Weiss gains a slight smile on her face and Alabast catches up to her.

——————

Ruby stands next to the dumpster that is now boarded up by wood planks to keep the rat imprisoned inside. She stares at her scroll as she listens in.

"Big robot! And it's big! Really big!" Sun exclaims on the scroll call.

Ruby's eyes sparkle. "Oh, I am not missing this!"

Ruby then takes off down the street as she runs towards where the action is.

——————

Yang is on her bike looking down at her scroll. Pyrrha is sitting behind her looking at Yangs scroll over her shoulder. And Neptune is in the sidecart looking at his own scroll.

"That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!" Sun shouts in panic.

"Where are you guys?" Yang asks. She's ready to punch something.

Just then, down the street, Blake and Sun run past with a giant mech chasing after them and right on their heels.

"HURRRRRRYY!!!!" Sun shouts, he can be heard in person and on the scroll.

"I think that was them" Neptune points out.

"Yeah" Yang puts her scroll away. "I got it"

Yang starts her bike and drives in a sharp circle before taking off towards the action.

Neptune clutches onto the sides of his cart while Pyrrha holds onto Yang tightly.

——————

Blake and Sun make it to the highways and jump down into the bush streets and hop from car to car as they continue running away.

The Paladin follows them by pushing vehicles out of its way like they're little Hot Wheels toys.

"Whoa!" Sun looks back at the path of destruction left behind the Paladin. He then continues running and hopping from car roof to car roof.

"Sit still so I can crush you!" Roman shouts as he frustratedly maneuvers the Paladin with lots of blue holographic screens around his face.

Yang drives up next to the mech. "We've gotta stop it!"

"On it!" Neptune shouts from the side cart.

But before Neptune can grab his gun on his back Roman notices them and sends some cars flying through the air towards them.

"Uh-oh!" Neptune shouts.

"Yang, keep driving and I'll help!" Pyrrha says as she takes her right hand off of Yangs waist and holds it up towards the incoming cars.

"Hold on!" Yang shouts as she maneuvers between the cars on the road and the falling cars.

Neptune flinches but as he realizes he's alright he takes his rifle off his back and aims it at the Paladin. Blue bolts of electricity fires out and hit the mech.

Roman grimaces from inside the Paladin due to the force of the attacks.

Neptune then shifts his rifle into a spear where the top starts crack lying with blue electricity. He stands up from the side cart and leaps into the air towards the Paladin. Just as he is about to drive the spear in, it's tip splits into three and forms a trident as it stabs into the top of the mech.

"Neptune, hold on!" Sun shouts as he and Blake turn around and pause their car hopping.

Neptune tries his best but the mech continues running and trying to buck him off. After some seconds he loses his footing and only holds on by his weapon.

Sun is on top of a semi-truck. He closes his eyes and slams his palms together. A golden aura surround him, and from that aura he creates two clones of himself.

The clones of Sun run back over the cars until they both collide into the front of the Paladin. And immediately upon impact they explode into a blinding light. And Sun appears with his staff high in the air and prepares to strike down on the Paladin. But just then Neptune gets thrown through the air and collides midair with Sun.

Both guys end up falling off the highway down the ground below.

Blake watches the pair go off the highway, but then she hears a voice from her scroll.

"Blake! We're in position!" Weiss appears twirling in the air as she holds Myrtenaster and lands in the middle of the highway.

Alabast is also next to her but he is much less graceful with his twirling. He ends up doing frantic somersaults and flips through the air until he lands next to Weiss surprisingly on his feet.

Weiss points Myrtenaster at the Paladin.

Roman smirks as he continues charging forward towards the pair on the road.

Weiss spins around once and plunges her weapon into the road and summons a circle of ice across the surface of the pavement.

The Paladin ends up slipping on the ice and flips over Weiss.

Alabast doesn't let this chance go. "Oh no you don't. You aren't slipping by me again!"

He jumps into the air and kicks the giant robot in its torso. The mech is slightly lifted into the air. But before it can continue Alabast lands on the ground and holds his hands towards it.

"I really hate mechs!" He shouts as his arms get coated in Darkness and then extend towards the mech and grab a hold of it. Alabast then throws it to the left, off of the highway.

Roman is sent off the highway and falls all the way down to the ground below. It was quite a fall since there were 4 other highways below the one he fell off of.

Ruby sees the giant machine fall in front of her as she has Crescen Rose ready.

The mech stands back up as Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, and Weiss land next to Ruby.

*THUD!*

Alabast lands on his stomach in front of the four girls but quickly jumps to his feet and dusts his clothes off.

"Y'know, I was surprised when you landed perfectly back there" Weiss comments.

"Alabast landed on his feet?" Yang is surprised to hear this, all of them are.

"Sorry~" Pyrrha apologizes. "I thought you had this one"

Alabast takes Nights Fall off his back with a slight blush on his face. "Let's focus up"

"Right!" Ruby points forward. "Freezer Burn!"

Alabast watches Yang and Weiss run past him. "Great, code words….. that I wasn't told about"

Pyrrha walks up to Alabast with Milo and Akouo in hand. "They are technically our enemies in the upcoming tournament"

"Haaah" Alabast shifts Nights Fall into its great sword-railgun form. "Still…."

Weiss spins in a circle and stabs her weapon into the ground to do the same ice trick as last time.

Yang launches herself into the air with a shotgun shot from her Ember Celica. And as she falls down towards the ice Weiss backs away. Yang fires another shot down at the ice and the ice turns into a mist that surrounds Roman and the Paladin.

*Bzzzzt!*

Roman activates the Paladin's laser sensors to make up for the lost sight. He moves through the most but misses the running girls around it and only catches a glimpse of Yang that he fires at but misses.

He then sees Yang and Blake run past eachother and fires at them.

Blake makes it through but Yang gets hit and goes flying back.

*thump*

Yang softly lands into Alabast's arms as he catches her.

"I gotcha. Now go get 'em" Alabast sets Yang down.

"Already gone" Yang says as she runs back into the mist.

After the explosion that knocked Yang away Ruby comes running through the blast towards the Paladin. She hits the Paladin with Crescent Rose but it only collides with the metal and doesn't do any severe damage.

Ruby lands behind the stumbling Paladin and looks at it. "Checkmate!"

——————

"And they're using all the good code words too" Alabast complains.

"Are you going to come up with some combination moves?" Pyrrha asks as she appears next to him again.

"Meh. I don't think that's my style of leading" Alabast charges Nights Fall and darkness surrounds the dust in its center. And inside the darkness at its center looks like there is white light that breaks through the wisps every now and then.

"That's true. And you're in a good mood" Pyrrha comments.

Alabast aims at the Paladin. "Had a date with Weiss before we got here"

Pyrrha kicks a small rock. "Must be nice"

Alabast looks at Pyrrha. "Are you actually pouting?" He hasn't seen Pyrrha do that before. She normally isn't like this and not selfish.

"Is it wrong to want to go on a date with your boyfriend?" She asks an looks up at Alabast.

"No. It's just unusual for you. Sorry I didn't notice before" Alabast forgot a little that Pyrrha will put others before herself whenever possible. Even his other girlfriends, Pyrrha will hold back so the others don't have to. "How about later?"

"We can plan it after this" Pyrrha moves her shield forward and blocks a stray bullet. "When we aren't at risk of getting shot"

"Fair enough" Alabast can feel the energy of Nights Fall ramp up as it charges more.

——————

"Checkmate!"

Blake and Weiss run in towards the Paladins feet and attack them. But their strikes don't even scratch the metal, however, they do manage to punch it back.

Weiss jumps into the air and stabs a sensor before summoning a white glyph to jump off of.

Roman brings the Paladins left foot up to crush Blake. But Weiss summons a glyph that launches her teammate backwards just before the foot comes down and destroys the pavement beneath it.

"Grrrr~" Roman lightly growls as he sends missiles towards the pair.

Blake and Weiss backflip out of the way as the missiles hit where they were previously.

Unfortunately, Weiss jumps a little too high this time.

Roman fires an energy blast at Weiss, who blocks it with Myrtenaster but is sent back through the air.

As Weiss is sent back through the air she points Myrtenaster at Blake. A yellow clockwork circle appears beneath Blake and gets absorbed into her. Now Blake easily slices through more incoming missiles in super fast succession.

Ruby now charges forward into the fray. "Ladybug!"

——————

"Are we just going to let them have all the fun?" Pyrrha asks.

"They seem to be handling it. We can assist if throngs get dicey for them" Alabast says as he keeps the rail gun charging and pointed at the Paladin.

Pyrrha nods and looks back at the fight.

——————

"Ladybug!"

Ruby runs and begins attacking the legs of the mech. Blake soon joins her and the girls attack the legs together.

After a few strikes both Ruby and Blake jump into the air and both swing down on the left shoulder of the Paladin. The left arm crashes down onto the ground below.

"Haaaaaaaaa!" Yang shouts as she jumps onto the back of the mech and begins punching it with fiery shotgun blasts.

Roman gets alerts on the screens around him as he is knocked around inside the cabin. He realizes he can't reach Yang even if he had both arms so he moves backwards through two columns and collides into a third. He moves forward and leaves Yang embedded in the third.

He backs away from Yang and then punches her through the third column as it collapses.

"Yang!" Blake shouts in worry.

"Don't worry" Ruby says as she lands next Blake. "With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special"

"Yes, but actually no" Alabast says as he walks up next to Ruby. "That isn't what makes her special. It's her stubborn and hotheaded personality paired with her semblance that makes her special"

Yang slowly rises to her feet, her hair starts glowing brighter.

Roman goes to punch Yang again but is surprised when the girl matches the mechs strength without even budging.

Yang looks up at the mech with red eyes as her hair turns glows a bright yellow.

"Haaaaah!" She punches with her other hand and completely shatters the remaining arm of the Paladin.

Roman is knocked back and ignores the alerts and blinking lights around him. "Hargh!"

The Paladin steps forwards and punts Yang past Ruby and Blake.

Alabast watches her go by. "Didn't have that one"

"Bumblebee!" Ruby screams.

Blake turns around and thows half of Gambol Shroud to Yang as the ribbon connect to the other half still in Yangs hand.

Yang grabs onto the weapon as Blake swings Yang around, using the momentum to bring Yang back around towards Roman.

"Hah!" Yang fires a blast to increase her speed as she is swung around to speed her up even more.

Alabast and Pyrrha jump up into the air to avoid getting close lined by the ribbon.

Just as Yang is about to get the final hit Roman steps back and avoids it.

"We have to slow it down" Ruby states.

Weiss moves up next to her leader. "And how do you propose we do that?"

"Ice Flower!"

Both Ruby and Weiss twirl their weapons around to they aim at Roman. Weiss creates a series of glyphs in front of the scythes sniper barrel.

*BANG*

Ruby pulls the trigger. As the sniper shot travels through the glyphs it creates a dazzling spiral of energy. And when it hits the Paladin it explodes into large icicles.

Ruby then fires more shots until the robot is completely frozen.

Blake swings Yang around again. This time, since Roman can't move, Yang directly hits the Paladin and it explodes into hundreds of metal pieces and ice. Roman falls to the ground among the wreckage.

Roman slowly gets up, a little dazed. He dusts himself off and inspects the damage. "Just got this thing cleaned..."

Roman looks up and sees the still glowing Yang fire a blast at him.

But just before it hit him a girl with pink and brown hair drops in front of him and opens her umbrella and deflects the blast.

Neo then rests the umbrella over her shoulder and smiles at team RWBY.

Roman tips his hat "Ladies, Mutt, Ice Queen..."

"Hey!" Weiss complains.

"Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would..." Roman turns around.

Neo curtsies towards the teenagers.

Yang doesn't want to let this chance get away and runs forward. She punches the outlaws, but only manages to shatter their image as they appear further away already in a Bullhead.

The rest of team RWBY run up next to Yang and they watch as the Bullhead flies away.

"Pyrrha" Alabast flatly says.

"On it" Pyrrha stows her weapons and moves to Alabast's left side.

She holds her left thumb out towards the bullhead and brings her right hand over the railgun as it slightly shifts. "Ready"

*Vsst!* *Kra-KOOM*

A Black beam of light shoots out from Noghts Fall and tears through the sky instantaneously and destroys the entire left wing of the Bullhead and it goes crashing down.

"You didn't need much help" Pyrrha stands up and grabs her weapons.

"No. But better safe than sorry" Alabast shifts Nights Fall back into its compressed great sword form. He places a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder and they sink into his shadow.

"Uhhmmm….." Yang points at where Alabast was. "Since when did his sword do that? Last time I checked it just sent a blast of dust out"

"Hehehe" Ruby giggles. "I kinda got carried away when I helped him upgrade it. And that's mostly his semblance. The light part specifically"

——————

Alabast and Pyrrha appear from the shadows next to the burning wreckage of the Bullhead. They both look around but don't find anyone.

"It appears that they got away. Again" Pyrrha says. She puts her weapons away and turns towards Alabast.

"Yeah, again" Alabast puts Nights Fall on his back. "At least we know something big is happening and who's behind it"

"Yes. But he will be much more careful now, won't he?" Pyrrha asks.

"Maybe, maybe not. Roman likes to put on a good show and get results. He might slip up in the future" Alabast holds out his hand. "Wanna go back to the others?"

Pyrrha takes his hand. "Please"

Alabast and Pyrrha appear in front of the others.

"They're already gone" Alabast says and walks forward.

Everyone puts their weapons away and shifts them into their compressed form.

"That girl…. she really made our plans 'fall apart'" Weiss jokes. She smiles, happy at her pun.

Ruby Giggles next to Weiss while Blake just rolls her eyes and turns around as she walks away.

"No. Just…. no" Yang flatly says.

"What- But, you do it! And Alabast made a pun up on the bridge!" Weiss complains and puts her fists on her hips sassily.

"There's a time and a place for jokes" Yang shakes her head as she turns around.

"Was this not it?" Weiss asks, not understanding the issue.

Yang turns around and walks away, following Blake. "No, it just wasn't very good"

Ruby also begins walking away after shrugging.

Weiss pouts and throws her arms in the air. "Well at least I'm trying!"

"And it's adorable" Alabast walks past Weiss and runs his hand through her ponytail.

"Hey!" Weiss grabs her hair. "Wait! Where did my bags go?"

Alabast keeps walking but points down at his shadow.

——————

When they all arrive back art Beacon they enter team RWBY's room and see the bags on the floor.

Weiss looks at them. "Oh"