Re: Megaman Z(x) RWBY

[QuantumPizza]

The whistle caused Ashe's mind to snap back to reality, looking down the tunnel before she groaned. "Gah, dang it! That Torchwick guy's probably getting away on that train! And after all the trouble we went through to get down here, too!"

Meanwhile, the massive hulking beast had either trashed or frightened off nearly every White Fang member present. Soon, Grey morphed back down, panting from the exertion of having wrecked... well, virtually everything in range of his rampaging. Several buildings were left even worse for wear than they were previously, one of them having even collapsed outright from the damage. Ha HA! Now that felt good! Shaking his head to try and refocus, Grey sat down on the ground and let loose a heaving sigh, exhaling in an almost comical fashion. "I sure hope we don't have to do that again for a while, that was... exhausting."

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

The whistle blew again, this time much closer. Ruby hurriedly explained that there was a crazy amount of weaponry loaded up onto the train, along with stores of Dust.

"Ah, that's ridiculous! These tunnels are sealed. The tracks lead to a dead end." Oobleck was dismissive. Weiss gave him a look as the intercom rang out.

""Get to your places, we are leaving now!'"

There was a hiss of steam and the sound of train wheels chugging along, accompanied by a loud horn.

Yang held her arms out. "Well it sounds like they're going somewhere!"

"We need backup! Let me call Jaune." Ruby knelt, pulling out a little tablet-like device. It gave a dejected-sounding beep. "I can't get through!"

"So what do we do?!"

Yang helped Grey move off the tracks as they looked at the engine slowly moving their way. It hadn't picked up much speed yet, so maybe...

[QuantumPizza]

Yelping as Yang plucked him clear of the oncoming transport train, Grey watched as the steam powered engine chugged by them. Before anyone else could utter a word, Ashe was on the move. "Last one on's a moldy bagel!" she shouted, hopping aboard one of the cars being pulled along behind the engine.

Hey! Head starts aren't fair! Don't let her get away with that, Grey! Rolling his eyes, the Mega Man followed suit, dash-jumping onto the third-from-last car. "C'mon guys, lets go! We can still finish them off!" he shouted to the RWBY team, before bolting inside of the train car itself.

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

"We're STOPPING this train!" Ruby yelled, eager to go. She made a dashing leap of her own, in a blur of motion. Seemed like she was basically capable of the same ability, probably?

Yang grabbed Zwei and put him on her shoulder before using Ember Celica to propel herself onto the roof of the car, while Weiss created a set of glyphs to get herself and Blake moving fast enough to keep up. The girl in black nimbly scaled the back of the train, pulling Weiss up with the ribbon of her Gambol Shroud.

Oobleck was standing there as they came over the edge. One of them opened their mouth to ask how, but he pointed his weapon forwards, up the line of train cars. "Hurry, children! They'll know we're on board, so just move as fast as you can! We must hurry to the front and stop this train!"

Weiss, standing to the side a little, got his attention. "Uh, professor-"

"Doctor."

"Doctor, what's that?!" She pointed to an open panel, through which was a heavy-looking device full of wires, with a little black screen.

The man knelt and pointed to it, thinking. "That, my dear... appears to be a bomb." The four of them immediately took a step away from it.

Ruby looked up, pointing ahead on the train. "We've got company!"

Grunts appeared to be climbing out of the cars onto the top of the train, lining up to get in their way...

"Well, I didn't expect them to go easy on us-" As he spoke, the screen on the explosive device lit up red. He straightened up quickly. "...Time to go!"

While the rest of them ran ahead, Ooblect grabbed Blake's shoulder. "Blake! Detach the caboose, it will kill us all!"

"On it!"

[QuantumPizza]

Joining her eager-to-brawl comrade atop the roof of the train, Ashe leveled her Buster Cannon with a grin, legs bracing themselves for the recoil. "I am SO glad I bought this thing!" she said with the most cocky grin she could muster, her weapon opening up with a piercing shriek, firing a massive laser down the train's length. It easily cleaved numerous White Fang grunts clean off the train, leaving them to tumble into the tunnel's darkness. "Gonna take a moment to recharge after that blast. Yang, push on ahead! I'll cover you!"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

"On it!" Yang shouted, launching herself forward at the enemies. She made a point of decking anyone who dared try and take aim at the others. While this kept enemies off of them, it was kind of really reckless and caused her to take a few hits. She seemed to shrug them off and keep moving, though.

Ruby moved onto the second car, using her scythe to swing down into it, crashing through the side window. She looked around for Grey. "Heeeey~! We're letting the rear car go, make sure you're not on it!" She looked back into the first car, which Grey had presumably already vacated. It was likely that the Reploid boy was far ahead, somewhere ahead of Yang and Ashe already, unless the resistance inside of the cars was even heavier. That seemed doubtful, though. The warning delivered, she slipped back onto the roof to stand with the others.

As Blake dropped down to decouple the rearmost car, the mechanism snapped open, releasing it before she could swing at it. The car slowed down, now that it wasn't being pulled along by the engine, soon after exploding, lighting up the darkness of the tunnel for a brief moment before bringing rock and rubble down, shrouding the area behind the train in a cloud of dust.

"It decoupled itself!" She yelled up to the Prof, hopping back onto the roof.

"What?!" He exclaimed. Looking back at the damage caused by the explosion, he actually lost the manic tone in his voice for a moment. "That's not good..."

"Um, and neither is this!" Weiss called out. She stood in the middle of this second car, holding open a hatch to reveal another bomb just like the first one.

"No, no, no..." Oobleck muttered, dashing up to the next car and checking it. "They all have bombs!"

As if on cue, the lights on the now-rearmost car's bomb blinked to life, and the car began to detach, sliding away. The group quickly skipped onto the next car. Weiss threw up her hands. "This is insane! Why even bother with any of this?! It cannot be just to get rid of us!"

"Uh, guys!? Could you come help me out now? They're getting hard to push through!" Yang requested, very loudly. It looked like more and more grunts were pouring out of the lead cars. At the very least, they had to be running out of henchmen sometime. The train could only conceivably hold so many of them.

The rest of Team RWBY ran off to back up their friend, while the professor stayed back, watching the train cars slide off and explode with a dour expression.


Meanwhile, inside the cars, Grey got to see White Fang members climbing ladders and out windows to get up onto the roof and fight the others. They didn't seem to notice him.

[QuantumPizza]

"Aagh!" Ashe gave a startled yelp as the train car she was on lurched violently, having been decoupled of its own accord. "Oh snap," she muttered while gunning it towards the next car. It exploded no less than five feet behind her, sending her tumbling onto the next one's roof. Grunting from the impact, she regained her senses just in time to hear the Professor exclaim how every car was armed with explosives. Taking a moment to swear under her breath, the Bounty Hunter picked herself up and leveled her cannon once more. "I gotcha, Yang, now duck!" Another blast roared out from the cannon, sending numerous grunts flying off the speeding train carriage.

Having entered the next car and narrowly escaped the previous explosion, Grey and Model A decided to cause some havoc down below. You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Model A inquired. The Biometal would've smiled if he could have as his Chosen One did just as he predicted, selecting a very familiar morph to the both of them. Following yet another brief flash of light and standing at roughly twice his previous height, Grey now had the appearance of a flaming red and orange bipedal stag. Combining the crossbow like appendages on his forearms, Buckfire!Grey unleashed a rapid volley of flaming arrows, catching several White Fang goons ablaze. In the ensuing pandemonium, the Pseudoroid charged forward, delivering several powerful kicks.

Back outside, Ashe was preparing to vacate the car she was upon, when several glass windows along the sides below shattered, followed by the shouts of pain and surprise of the grunts being violently ejected out of said windows. "What in the..." Yang wasn't down below, and none of the other girls had such... dramatic ways of dispatching their foes. Before she could question it any further, the entire front part of the roof was ejected into the ceiling of the tunnel, along with three other grunts and a very familiar looking Pseudoroid. Practically falling backwards over herself in shock, Ashe watched as what appeared to be Buckfire land atop the roof in front of her, tossing the White Fang goon stuck in between his horns into the tunnel wall. "Buckfire unimpressed by puny people! Buckfire look for real challenge!"

It took her jarred mind a second or two to put things together, but by the time Ashe mentally caught onto Grey's prank, the morphed Reploid was already laughing uproarously. "Man Ashe, you should see your own face!" he exclaimed, voice tinged and deepened a bit due to his transformation. "It was like you saw a ghost or-"

CLANK

It took a considerable amount of reach, but in one rising motion Ashe was able to connect the butt of her cannon to Buckfire!Grey's head, resulting in a loud clanging noise and a headache for her Reploid friend. "Ow! What was that for?" he complained, doing his best to try and rub his metal forehead. It was more reflexive than anything. Really, the motion had no soothing effect for the dull pain whatsoever. "We're on an exploding train, bolts for brains!" Ashe scolded, reshouldering her cannon and jumping over the hole Grey had created in his dramatic entrance, before making her way over to the next car. "Exploding? But I thought it was just that last one we were on that-"

Once more cut off, this time by a detonation of the car just behind his, it was now Grey's turn to jump. "Gah!" Out of surprise, the Reploid plowed on forward, his morph's powerful legs easily vaulting him over the gap, Ashe and Yang, landing with a considerable amount of force in the midst of several grunts.

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

Far behind them, as the next car fell back and detonated, sunlight made its way into the tunnel. And creatures began to skitter in through the hole, chasing after the train. The professor looked on in palpable horror before turning and sprinting after the others. "They're making holes and leading the Grimm into the city!"

Ruby looked back in shock. "WHAT!?" Thankfully Weiss covered her while she wasn't paying attention. The thugs seemed to be thinning out at this point; there couldn't be that many more. Still, a chorus of mechanical hums filled the tunnel from up ahead...

"We need to stop this train!"

"Yeah, like I said when we jumped on!"

They made short work of the remaining White Fang opposition, sending them flying off the cars. Thankfully, the Grimm weren't fast enough to catch up to a speeding train, but if they managed to slam on the brakes, that meant another difficult battle and a long trek back.

The group further back huddled briefly. "We need to split up. One team will attempt to disable the bombs; there might be a control mechanism further up. Trying to manually disable them is too risky, and I don't believe all of us have bomb disposal training. The second team will make for the engines and try to stop our locomotion before we reach the end of the line. Understood?"

They nodded in sync, then turned to look forward.

[QuantumPizza]

By this point in the fight, Grey was starting to feel a touch more fatigued than normal. Unlike back home, the world of Remnant lacked a near-global power grid, meaning the Reploid was very much out of his element. Morphing back down to his base form, he took a moment to catch his breath as the others covered for him, hands on his knees as he tried to settle the power imbalance. Jeez, just how many more of these goons are there?! Model A exclaimed, disbelief in his voice. This is like Ouroboros all over again!

Falling back to Grey's side, Ashe grabbed her friend by the wrist and took off back towards where the group was rallying, the Reploid barely managing to catch his footing as he followed behind. In fact, he fell flat on his stomach as soon as they came to a stop. Only now noticing his exhaustion, Ashe knelt down and shook him by the shoulder. "Grey! You're not hurt, are you?!" He shook his head, panting. "Just... just a bit winded..." A flash of light briefly enveloped him as Model A demerged, floating in the air above his Chosen Ones. Looking up, Ashe pinched her lips, clearly not pleased with this turn of events. He should stick with the first team, Ashe. His energy is really low, he isn't in any shape to keep on sluggin' it out right now.

"...alright. You heard that, right Grey?" she asked, helping the Reploid to his feet. It was more or less a rhetorical question - even near death, the Biometal's voice would have reached his mind. As he nodded in the affirmative, taking a moment to chug more of his dwindling Sub-Tank reserves, Ashe turned to the group. "Model A and I will tag along with you and Ruby, Professor. Yang, you and the girls keep Grey safe, yeah? He's good with tech, shouldn't be too hard for a gearhead like him to disable a few firecrackers, right?" she finished off with a wink in his direction.

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

They all nodded.

"Alright, let's move!" Yang said, punching right through a closed roof-access hatch on their train car. Blake hopped down first, gesturing for the others to follow.

Inside, it looked like the previous cars; old ones designed for an underground commute, rigged to explode. There were no thugs to be found here, just eerie silence. ...Aside from all the racket outside, anyway. Yang stretched a little, looking more tense than before. Probably from the threat of being blown up if anything went wrong. "I guess this is what we trained for." She marched ahead to the end of the car, waving Grey forward. Blake rolled her eyes at Yang's pun.

Before they advanced to the door that led to the next car, Weiss stopped her black-haired friend. "Hold on; take these." She pushed the revolver barrel out of her rapier, emptying the rounds stored within. The differently-colored, clearly-not-normal rounds.

She handed them off to Blake, who loaded them into a gun clip, then into her Gambol Shroud. Nodding, Weiss clicked the barrel back into its normal place in Myrtenaster. Either it was just really lucky that they used the same caliber bullets, they made sure their weapons took the same types for greater team efficiency, or they weren't even bullets. They looked mineral, so it might've just been cartridges of dust styled to look like bullets.

Yang tried to kick in the door ahead while they did this, but found that wasn't how it opened. Rolling her eyes at having her dramatic moment ruined, she just slid it open instead of wasting energy (and potentially lots of time if it resisted all that hard) trying to do it her way. "Door's open, let's go! Grey, stay behind me."



Topside, the remaining three fighters plug dog moved on, crossing the top of the train. Only three or four cars ahead, however, they found their path barred, as the mechanical sounds grew louder, signaling the approach of several war-machines. They had a logo crudely painted on, but side from that, they looked like they were barely finished. Whoever built them either hadn't the time, or the patience to cover up the industrial steel with a decent chassis, or even a paint job.

The hulking machines stood towering over them, all bipedal mecha, loaded with weapons. It seemed like they were uniform in design and payload. The torso was elongated and protected with thick armor; that had to be the cockpit. The joints were the most likely weak point, but even those were thick and protected, strong enough that it wouldn't be easy to break one of these down even with that knowledge.

The train was only so wide, however; two of them couldn't really stand side-to-side, so they moved in an uneven single-file. There was enough room for them to keep their footing easily enough, despite being about the same size as Bifrost. (...In gameplay.) There were at least five of them lined up ahead of the group; and one of them made a mighty leap over the rest of the group, crashing down on Car 8. The train bounced a little and the machines all froze up for a moment. They could almost hear the pilot being chewed out over the radio for nearly derailing the plan and killing everyone.

With that settled, though, they squared off. Ruby faced the one behind them, while Oobleck prepared to deal with the numerous ones in front. Zwei excitedly ran up to join him. "Are these the new Atlas machines I've heard rumblings about? Well, a seasoned Hunter is more than a match for a few stolen robots! Stand aside or we will go through you!"

They seemed unmoved by the threat, the one nearest him lowering one of its giant, gatling-loaded arms to aim at him. Oobleck calmly knocked back his thermos, then swung it, extending it back to its weapon configuration. Then he swung it, batting Zwei at the hulking thing. The tiny dog proved to be an extremely effective projectile, ripping straight through the mech's arm and tending it tumbling onto the other track, Zwei landing unharmed behind the now-lopsided mobile suit. The professor caught up, swinging his fire rod in a burning circular arc and leaping right through the first mech-suit, smashing it aside and melting a good portion of the second as it tried to aim a gun at the dog.

[QuantumPizza]

It was all Grey could do to keep up with the trio of fighters. Without his Biometal and low on energy, the Reploid was at a distinct disadvantage if they got into any more scuffles. Thankfully, it seemed that most of the White Fang goons had either dissipated or moved further up the train. Still, he kept a tight grip on his Buster Pistol. The weapon was advanced, but only in so far as its internal projectile fabrication abilities. So long as it was given sufficient time to cool down, it would, quite literally, never expire its ammo reserves. As a result, however, it lacked in fire power compared to even the more archaic firearms his companions wielded. Needless to say, he felt rather ill equipped for any close encounters. "Alright, I'm right behind you!"

As the first mech took an impressive blow from Oobleck and Zwei, Ashe took advantage of the singular victory. Dash jumping her way up the descending war machine's chassis, the Mega Man descended on the other side after taking a flying leap off its summit. "A-Trans, Aile morph!" A surge of light similar to that of Grey's transformation sequence occurred, and as Ashe landed, she seemed a touch... taller. Her normal silver ponytail had been replaced with a golden, flowing one instead, and her armor sported a bright red coloration. A shimmering energy saber appeared in her right hand as she sprinted forward. Dodging left, right, then left again, she evaded the next mech's brutal onslaught of rapid bullet firing. A few precise swings of her blade were all it took, and suddenly the massive combat walker found itself unable to move, its legs cleanly sliced away from its body. Leaping up onto its back as it began to fall, she plunged the saber into its rear, slicing through the power conduits leading to its massive guns. Leaping off just in time as its power core overloaded, she performed a flip and landed gracefully back by Oobleck's side. "Well, that's two down. How are you holding up, Rubes?"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

Inside the cars below, the group charged ahead, into another simple car, just like the previous one. It didn't appear to be rigged to blow, either, and it looked slightly newer. It was also devoid of people, as everyone had either fled or come after the others, only to be sent flying. It was a straight shot to the next car, but they could see through the window that it was a different kind entirely up ahead.

When they got there, they slid open the door, only to be faced with a windowless metal hatch. It looked sturdy, and an electronic panel was located on the outside of the car, right next to it. Yang advanced on it, growling. "I'll just have to smash it!"

As the hot-blooded young woman got close, though, the light above the door blinked from red to green, the door sliding up and out of the way on its own. She shrugged, trying to hide her embarrassment as they advanced to the next car.

This one was completely different on the inside; the walls were further apart, with no seats taking up the space, so there was plenty of room. Crates and cases lay stacked along the walls, presumably packed with Dust and bomb components. As the door shut behind them, the sound of the fighting above and the rattling of the tracks below was severely muffled. This car was clearly made more durable than the previous ones. They continued to advance until there was a strange glint in the air before them.

Yang held out an arm, the group stopping as a diminutive girl with two-tone pink and black hair stepped forward, seemingly appearing from midair. In fact, it looked like she was just stepping out from behind something that wasn't there. She wore a white suit and carried a flowery parasol, having a very ladylike posture and bearing. She didn't make a sound, but she came across as haughty.

"Change of plans; you guys go on ahead. This one's mine."

She took up a fighting stance, giving the others a little wave. Blake and Weiss dashed past the strange girl as Yang fired a couple of shots, forcing her opponent to focus on her and not interfere with the others. The blonde member of Team RWBY glared daggers at her tiny challenger, practically livid at the sight of her.




"Pretty good!" Ruby yelled back. She was taking a little longer to deal with hers, but only because she was taking pains to keep it from getting a clean shot at anyone while it had them flanked. She swung off of one of its heavily-equipped arms with her scythe, cutting it free with a tug and a pull of the trigger. As the chunk of metal fell down beside the tracks, she slid along the top of the car, coming to a stop.

The massive machine tried to turn and face her, firing a couple of small rockets at the walls of the tunnel in desperation. The team's leader dashed up to its heels, then turned sharply to fly at the wall they weren't looking at, running along it for only a second before shooting across the width of the tunnel again, slashing across the mech's legs and bringing it tumbling down to earth. She jumped back onto the train in a hurry. "Okay, done with that one! How about you guys?!"

Oobleck and Zwei seemed to be having fun with their tag-team act. One had to wonder if the professor had taken a small dog into battle before. He aimed his swings to send his burning attacks - which, as a reminder, consisted of lighting this dog on fire and batting him at things - towards any guns that looked like they might be aimed at the Hunters. It was a goofy way of fighting, but the man was systematically eliminating their weapons as he went, then dropping the machines to get them out of the way and focus on the next target. "Zwei and myself are doing well! Ashe, how are you doing?"

[QuantumPizza]

As they were approached by an exceedingly odd figure, Grey found himself taking a moment to just process what he was bearing witness to. She hardly looked threatening in any way. In fact, compared to the foes they had faced up till now, she looked positively tiny! And was that an... umbrella? For the first time in quite a while, the Reploid found himself completely unable to comprehend something, and it came as a bit of a shock. Granted, it was another world entirely, or even possibly another reality altogether, so of course things would be a touch different. Nevertheless, he certainly hadn't expected what looked like the local salon's fashionista to be their next opponent.

Or more specifically Yang's, as she remained behind as Weiss and Blake dashed on ahead. "Yeah, have fun with this one," Grey muttered as Yang leaped forward to engage the newcomer, trying to find a way past. Without Model A, his ability to dash at high speed was negated entirely, limiting him to regular movement. Of course, he could still sprint or jump as any normal human or Reploid could, but not having that safety net of extra speed was unnerving, to say the least. First attempting to follow behind the other RWBY fighters, he was cut off as the two currently fighting exchanged fire, backpedaling to avoid being peppered. Clambering onto one of the lower stacks of crates, the Reploid made a jump over the action to the other side. He considered a few parting shots in the direction of Yang's opponent, but that would probably amount to nothing. Instead, he continued onward, trying to keep Weiss and Blake from getting too far ahead of him.


"No complaints here!" came Ashe's voice, altered slightly by her transformation from before, from atop another mech. The pilot inside was frantically trying to shake his tiny assailant, while his comrades could only take very brief potshots for fear of causing friendly fire. Taking a small leap into the air, Ashe plunged her cyan saber into the top of the war machine, sparks and molten metal flying every which way. Within the span of a second, the Mega Man had sliced her way clean through the mech from top to bottom, both halves falling off to the side as she landed. A smile crested on her face as the machine exploded, blonde hair waving in the wind. ...she was definitely enjoying herself, perhaps a bit too much at this point.

Hey uh, Ashe? Not to interrupt your moment here, but- Ashe was already on the move, backflipping into the air and reversing her direction at the same time. "Sheesh, can't a girl have some fun, Model A?" She retorted, bringing her blade down in an arc in front of her, cleaving an incoming missile in two. The explosion's blast seemed to peel off to each side, the heat and shrapnel easily deflected by her armor. Landing, she made another dash towards the remaining mechs, their pilots understandably panicked by the oncoming fighters. "C'mon you two, hurry it up or I'll win this fight myself!"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

Behind them, Yang fought furiously against this strange ice cream-colored criminal, but she found it impossible to connect with her attacks. It wasn't any special ability or anything; her opponent just seemed to have faster reflexes than her. Or she was able to predict Yang's moves easily; hard to tell when she didn't talk, or even grunt. She even had time to take her eyes off of Yang, watching Grey leave. As the hot-headed Huntress aimed a powerful swing for the back of the girl's head, she evaded, catching her opponent's arm with the handle of her parasol and swinging her around before kicking her away.

The doors connecting the cars slid open in tandem, Blake and Weiss jumping through them ahead of Grey. Within the next car stood someone wearing a uniform similar to the White Fang grunts, but with a high collar and no sleeves. It was clear from his massive frame that this one was physically strong, and had a bit of a hunch to him as he dragged a massive weapon with a chainsaw blade along behind him. His mask was different, and he had a tattoo along his left arm. This one was a rough customer. He gave a low, gravelly laugh as they approached, hefting his long-bladed chainsaw weapon to grip it with both hands, his gaze fixed squarely on Weiss.

They exchanged a look before looking back to make sure Grey was still with them. Weiss pulled ahead, dashing up to the Lieutenant and stopping short as he swung down with his loud, heavy chainsaw-sword, dodging backwards to avoid being cleaved in two as Blake caught up, clashing weapons with the man and breaking his stance before zipping past. Weiss immediately followed up by leaping forward to deliver a kick to the face, flipping back to the proper range to use her rapier.

She exchanged blows with the heavier combatant, somehow repelling the much-larger blade with hers and putting the Faunus on the defensive, quickly knocking him down. Taking her chance while her opponent was down, she gestured for Grey to move on ahead with Blake.



A Ruby-sized crimson arrow shot through the lower torso of the mech behind Ashe, tearing its control mechanisms apart and dropping the pilot's seat awkwardly into the gap, leaving a very confused and terrified White Fang grunt scrambling to escape it before it fell with him still in it. Ruby landed behind Ashe, taking up a stance to guard her back. Then she remembered that there were no more enemies behind them, and it was probably pointless to do so.

Far behind their train, however, a light appeared in the tunnel. Oobleck turned around, his expression falling as he caught up to Ashe and Ruby. "...I suppose that's their contingency plan for us trying to stop the train!" He shouted over the noise.

A train whistle sounded from the darkness, echoing through the tunnel.

[QuantumPizza]

Grey felt worse than useless. Without the power of Model A with him, he just couldn't keep pace with the other fighters present. Even Ashe, just as she was, could match any of these fighters with her agility and natural fighting talent. Even so, his self pitying wasn't enough to cause him to feel regret at being unable to assist Weiss in taking down this opponent. He looked like something straight out of a cheesy horror flick, the kind that some of the Bounty Hunters back at hunter's camp enjoyed watching. Nodding to Weiss' silent gesture, the Reploid ran off once again, following behind the much more agile Blake as they both made their exit. "They're gonna be okay, right?" he shouted out to his solitary remaining comrade, voice artificially raising its volume to be heard over the clattering roar of the train.


"Dammit," Ashe muttered. "This Torchwick guy is pretty damn thorough, I'll give him that. But smashing his own ride with another train?" This guy sounded like he was close to Prometheus levels of crazy. Not quite on that same level, but near enough that a comparison wasn't too far off. Dodging another missile, the munition blowing a huge hole in the metal of the flatbed's surface, the Mega Man dashed underneath the remaining mechs. "Rubes! Oobleck! I'm going on ahead - we've gotta move, or we're all goin' up in flames! Catch up when you can!" As the giant war machines attempted to clumsily turn around, trying to gain a bead on their tiny target, Ashe had Model A initiate another transformation as she leaped into the air behind them. The bullets flew by a tiny, yellow target that emerged from the blinding light, rolling onto the roof of the next car at blinding speed, dashing this way and that like lightning to avoid the incoming fire.

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

From behind them, the chainsaw-hefting Lieutenant gave a gravelly-sounding laugh. "Finally, I get to kill a Schnee..."

"...She'll be fine." Blake said, slightly unconvincingly. Probably just tension from the situation, though. "That guy's too slow to keep up with her, and Weiss knows her own range very well. He can't win if he can't land a hit."

Through the next door, Blake skidded to a halt, facing off with the gangster behind all of this, Roman Torchwick. Slightly skinny build, redhead, bowler hat and cane, the white-suited criminal swung in his hand before tapping it on his shoulder. "Hello, kitty-cat! You miss me? You know, we really should stop meeting like this. People are gonna talk."

He glanced at Grey, looking a little confused. "...Uh, wait, who's your new friend? I thought what we had was special."

"Grey, you go on ahead. I'll catch up when I'm done with him." Blake said, pulling Gambol Shroud out and walking towards Torchwick.



Unable to even keep track of Ashe's yellow blur of motion, the mobile suits focused back on the professor, Ruby, and her dog. "What's our plan, Doctor Oobleck?"

"With such a reckless and dangerous plan, there has to be some manner of contingency to ensure the safety of the mastermind behind it. If we cannot stop this train and the one behind us, we need to figure out how to survive the inevitable crash! I suspect that one of the lead cars will be reinforced to withstand the combined force of the explosions and a head-on collision, so all of our targets will be in roughly the same area!"

"So keep going forward?"

"Absolutely! But I believe you'll have to do it without me."

The train shook again as three more massive robot-suits jumped from the train behind them, beginning to catch up.

"Ruby! Go on ahead already!" Oobleck shouted.

"But-"

"Don't worry, Ruby. It's time I teach them a lesson." He said in an uncharacteristically serious growl before turning back and charging at the oncoming war machines.

As they watched him go, Zwei whimpered to Ruby. She looked back at her dog. "...Go."

His ears perked up as he dashed off after the professor. Smiling, Ruby turned back to face the giant killer robot suits ahead, her grin vanishing. "...Oh, right, those."


At the end of the flatbeds was one last mecha, one that hadn't moved. It seemed to have the same loadout as the others, but as Ashe came close, it suddenly whirred into action, aiming to bat the hedgehog-shaped Ashe back with its arm, bringing to bear the heavier gun on its other arm.

[QuantumPizza]

Grey hesitated, both hands on his Buster Pistol. Unlike the previous opposition he, Yang, Weiss and Blake had faced down, this guy seemed... not all that dangerous. In fact, he felt he could even take him on, actually help out one of the RWBY team members for once, instead of being a liability. The urge to assist was strong for this reason, but the Reploid knew that he had tagged along with them to ensure that the bombs would be defused. As Blake approached this oddly attired individual, Grey made a dash to get by him. For a moment, he saw his attention shift ever so slightly. To cover for himself, the Reploid raised his pistol and fired off a three-shot burst of hot plasma from his pistol, doing so in the blink of an eye. Upon Blake engaging, he then turned his own attention to the interior of the car. "Okay, gotta find something to interface with those bombs... like a kill switch or something..." Grabbing what looked like a loose panel off one of the walls, he yanked it off and tossed it to the side, only to find piping and structural support beams. "No good, gotta keep looking..."


A swing and a miss! Model A taunted as Ashe easily dodged the incoming melee attack. Two more and you're out, buddy! Popping clear into the air from the forward momentum, Ashe once more shapeshifted, this time into the same Model F morph that Grey had used earlier. "Eat this!" Delivering a titanium-crushing blow to the mech's center of mass, Ashe landed and back-dashed to avoid the retaliatory barrage of chaingun fire, her own Knuckle Busters blazing away at her large opponent. Surprisingly, the hulking mech managed to sidestep a good portion of the incoming fire, cutting Ashe's retreat off with a volley of swift missiles. The explosions caught the Mega Man, sending her flat onto her face. With skill honed from years of fighting, Ashe flipped backward and upright once more, barely avoiding the crushing stomp her opponent intended to finish her off with. Wiping a small sliver of blood away from her mouth, the girl couldn't help but grin. "Heh, seems someone here actually has something in his noggin besides pray'n'spray!" Morphing back into her Model ZX form, Ashe twirled her Saber around before assuming a fighting stance. "Bring it!"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

As Grey searched, Roman was sent flying over his head by an explosion. The fight seemed kind of one-sided, as she knocked him around, slipping away from his every attack and snaring him with... afterimages? Strange doubles that managed to not only let her escape an attack, but usually counter by trapping him or blowing him away.

The fight went on, allowing Grey the freedom to search the car unimpeded. Hidden among the panels, there was a cable snaked through an otherwise-inconspicuous part of the interior wall.



The machine fired a volley of missiles past Ashe, impacting the flatbeds behind her as it charged forward to slam its fist into her while the explosions went on behind her. Well, it was a gun, but it was the closest thing it had to a fist. As it tried to plow right through her with the appendage, the gun spun up, preparing to not only catch her on its barrels, but open fire immediately.

[QuantumPizza]

"Aah!" Grey shouted as Blake's victim careened overhead, the boy pausing to watch with awe as the agile Huntress easily laid into Roman. Any guilt he had about not aiding in the fight was completely erased at this point, allowing him to fully focus on the task at hand. Empty boxes were tossed aside, odd looking tools were discarded and more panels were torn off, one of the carelessly tossed lids managing to bonk Roman square on the head as Grey continued his search. "C'mon, there's gotta be something around here- ...wait, what's this?" Discovering the clearly out-of-place cable, Grey traced it back towards a section of wall he hadn't suspected till now. There was no visible panel, so the Reploid decided to take a more direct approach. Balling up one of his hands into a fist, he reeled back his arm before delivering a powerful punch, puncturing the metal and creating a hole just large enough to peer inside.

Peeking in, a smile appeared on Grey's face for the briefest of moments, only to vanish when he happened to notice the hinges. On the small door he had just punched through. Silently grateful that Model A wasn't around to see that, the Reploid pried open the now useless hatch cover and set to work. "...I don't understand any of this," he said aloud, having swiftly realized that the language used to code whatever program the system used was downright archaic. A tight frown formed as he cracked his fingers. "Nothing a little base coding can't fix, though!" Going off the assumption that binary worked the same way here as it did back home, Grey began rapid-typing at a near manic pace, writing a brute-force shutdown program from the most basic level imaginable. For a human, this was a feat only possible with hours of time to work with. But for a Reploid, especially one of Grey's caliber, such a thing was simple. Not easy, but straightforward enough. Within a minute's time, the program was complete and set to run. With a small sigh of satisfaction, Grey keyed in the execute command, forcing the system on all levels to shut off any detonators that remained active.


Given the narrow space on which they fought, the decision by the mech's pilot was a wise one. Ashe was caught between a gun and an explosive wave of fire, effectively sandwiching her between two different types of death. But this was far from the first time the Bounty Hunter had been pinned down. Mega Man or no, she had scraped her way out of worse situations before, and she'd find her way out of this one too. As the massive gun was jammed towards her, the barrels opening fire with a lethal spray of lead, Ashe leaped forward and upward, soaring over the deadly weapon with a bold dash jump. As she predicted, the pilot saw this coming, his mech's shoulder rising up to catch her off guard in a powerful body slam. Driving her Saber forward, she instead ended up impaling the joint with the burning plasma of her blade, slicing the arm clean off of her opponent's ride. "Halfway to one of the best overused puns in the book!"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

Roman went sent skidding across the floor, landing not far from Grey. As he tried to get back up, he found Blake's heel pinning him down, and the tip of her blade close to his face. Glancing over at Grey, she did a quick double-take as she noticed what he was up to. "...Wait, did you just disarm the bombs from right there? All of them? That fast? ...You're incredible, Grey."

Realizing he wasn't gonna pull out a win - in this fight, or possibly in the plan at large with the bombs disabled - he coughed a little, sounding apologetic and sad. "Why are we fighting? I saw you at the rally. We're on the same side and you know it." His voice slid into a more low, accusatory tone.



The machine stopped moving for a second as its arm - and a significant amount of its weight - dropped onto the flatbed as the ground sped by right off the edge nearby. Maybe the pilot was in shock from the sudden loss of one of his suit's arms after what seemed like a coup de grace.

But as Ashe landed behind the hulking robot, it didn't try turning around; instead, it extended a pair of machine guns from compartments in the rear to open fire on her. As it did this, it moved its remaining arm down to the flatbed's body for stability, propping itself up to keep the sudden imbalance from toppling it over like some of the others had.

Expecting her to dodge backwards, the machine lumbered back, pivoting on one leg and swinging around. Gaining this little bit of extra distance, it raised its arm back up and opened fire, trying to keep its aim trained carefully on the much-nimbler Mega Man. The idea being that some bullets would likely hit their mark before she could close the gap.

[QuantumPizza]

Grey was about to announce his success, but was once more interrupted by Roman being sent flying through the air nearby. How the man hadn't caved yet was beyond Grey. From his experience, no human could take a pounding that intense and survive, let alone continue to resist. As he watched Blake pin down her victim at swordpoint, before complimenting his defusing actions, the Reploid felt his cheeks heat a little in embarrassment. "A-ah, well, it... it was just a simple group shutdown, nothing really that special..." He did however take note of Roman's words. Rally? Same side? These two knew each other? He would have asked questions of his own, but both of his other allies still remained behind. "I'm gonna head back and check on the others!" Grabbing his pistol, the Reploid ran back to the second armored car, weapon raised. Just in case.


"This guy knows what he's doing!" Ashe exclaimed, clearly pleased to have an enemy who wasn't a complete pushover. Dodging the incoming dual stream of machine gun fire was simple enough, but the distraction served its purpose. By the time the barrage ceased, her opponent had already repositioned himself, this time with significantly more distance than before. On the open, flat ground of the train car's surface, Ashe had no cover or height advantage to play in her favor. We're gonna have to tank some hits, Model A stated, the annoyance in his voice evident. This is gonna smart - brace yourself, Ashe! Gritting her teeth, the Mega Man charged forward. She weaved as best she could, but several of the rounds managed to impact her armor, causing small spurts of blood to fly out backwards. It wasn't enough to stop Ashe, though, and soon enough she had closed the distance. Two flashes was all it took, and this mech found itself completely legless, like the others before it. Clutching her gut, Ashe turned to face the now-fallen cockpit of the war machine. "You sure put up a good fight - now get outta here, or I'll end up having to initiate a round two!"

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

She sharply pushed her weapon closer to Roman’s throat, keeping him from trying anything. His cane lay meters away, near the crates on the wall, far out of reach.

“Ooh, still feisty. So, what are we gonna do now?” He asked. “Do you really think a little bow on top is gonna make people forget what you were?”

She grimaced at the smug criminal.

He finished speaking with a calm look on his face. “What you’ve done?”

Suddenly, the door to the previous car shot open, and Weiss was sent flying through it, narrowly missing Grey as she collapsed onto the floor. Blake turned to look as the Lieutenant stalked through, revving his chainsaw-sword. He chuckled at the nearby Grey, brandishing the large weapon at him.

Blake looked back to Roman with a hard face. He was just a coolly smug as ever.

“So what’s it gonna be, Blake?”

She put Gambol Shroud away, still glaring down at him. She took her foot off of his chest… then kicked him in the head with the other one, leaving him knocked out cold on the door, mouth slightly open as his hat flew off.

With the apparent mastermind of this plot out of the equation for now, Blake dashed over to Weiss, ready to jump in to either help her or Grey if either one were attacked. Weiss, however, appeared to be unconscious, so that was a bit worrying. There were no bloodstains, and she was still in one piece, so presumably her aura had held out, but...



Thankfully, the detached stubs just sparked uselessly before the remaining arm's weight pulled the unevenly-resting mecha off the side of the train, bouncing along near the tunnel wall before coming to a rest. Ashe could see its arm move a little, so the pilot was alive, but the machine was basically totaled. And now hundreds of feet behind them.

Meanwhile, Ruby was busy with the ones on the train cars, a good distance back. Catching sight of Ashe, she waved her ahead, barely dodging fire from one of her opponents.

Ahead of Ashe, there were only three more cars; one of them being the engine at the very front. There was a door leading into the car ahead, but from this angle she couldn't see whether there were hatches on the roof.

[QuantumPizza]

"Weiss!"

As the rapier wielding huntress was sent careening to the floor, Grey found himself the next target of the incredibly oversized Lieutenant's animosity. Grimacing worriedly at the sight of that particularly nasty looking chainsaw weapon, his mind raced, trying to think of something - anything - that he could pull off to even slow the hulking White Fang member down. However, as Blake dashed over to him less than a second later, an idea formulated itself in his mind. "Weiss, hold him off!" Grabbing the unconscious Weiss and slinging her over his shoulder, he made a dash for the far end of the car - ducking as he ran as the chainsaw blade roared over his head in a wide swinging arc. Setting his wounded ally down with all the gentleness his urgency could afford, Grey re-accessed the control panel, attempting to reboot a specific portion of the system. "Just buy me time, I've got a plan!"

As the mech fell to the side, Ashe was already on the move, yanking the door to the next car open and dashing through. It didn't take long before the Mega Man had burst through all three of the remaining cars, all of which possessed a rather copious amount of personnel restraining devices. Paying that fact no mind, Ashe jumped clear into the cabin of the runaway engine... only to find it completely unmanned. They just let it go haywire without someone running it?! Model A's voice was incredulous, as well as a touch on the panicked side. Ashe, we gotta stop this thing! We're gonna run headlong into something, and I don't feel like testing just how indestructible I am right now! Frantically, Ashe looked about the cabin at the myriad control surfaces. "I... I dunno how to drive a train! Let alone stop one!" Out of growing desperation, the girl began yanking every large lever she could find, accidentally discharging the engine's steam in the process. This caused an ear-piercing whistle to resound down the tunnel's length, impossible for anyone to miss.

[NebulaGregarZXAdmin]

"I'm counting on you, Grey!" Blake shouted, flitting in and out of the massive Faunus's range to keep him occupied. She was extremely careful to avoid him; if this guy was able to take out Weiss, there had to be more to him than dumb muscle and raw power.

After a good ten seconds of not being attacked by Blake, the Lieutenant charged at Grey, forcing her to take more aggressive steps. Slipping ahead of him, she twirled in place, repeatedly slashing him with her two-edged weapon and making him stagger back.

Zooming in for a decisive blow, however, Blake found herself stopped dead in her tracks as the guy simply reached out and grabbed her face. Chuckling, the massive opponent tried to slam her head-first into the floor, but she slipped away, leaving a shadowy image of herself in her place. "So that's how you managed to catch Weiss. That trick won't work on me."

Dancing around his strikes and slipping past his attempts to pin her down, Blake continued to land hits, but the guy wouldn't go down. Taking him on in a fight with the intent of knocking him down - that was going to be a waste of their precious time.



In her panic, Ashe also managed to cut the throttle and slam on the brakes, but the end of the tunnel rapidly approached. There definitely wasn't enough time to come to a stop. As the horn whistled, the brakes squealed and sparks flew from the tracks.

[QuantumPizza]

Mere moments later, Grey finished typing up some new commands - a countdown began to flicker onto the screen, indicating that one bomb was set to detonate in less than fifteen seconds. Grabbing Weiss, Grey made a run for the door. "Blake, let's go! Hurry!" Pausing for a fraction of a second, Grey reached down with his spare hand to grab the collar of the unconscious Torchwick, before running out the open front door of the car.

Shrieking in surprise, Ashe found herself being flung into the solid metal construction of the train's cabin by the force of the brakes being applied. Stunned for a few seconds, she cleared her head with a few shakes before standing back up, just as Model A began to yell in a full blown panicked voice. Ashe, there's a wall all the way down at the end of the tunnel! We're gonna pancake this giant boiler right into it! Glancing out the window, Ashe's face immediately reflected her Biometal's panic. "Crap!" Out of options, she booked it back into the first car, desperately looking around for some form of decoupling and emergency braking system.

Just as soon as Blake and Grey made their mad dash out of the last car, the reverse lurching of the engine and the explosion from the bomb occurred simultaneously. The two - plus Weiss and Torchwick - were caught in the blast as the entire car behind them went up in dull red flames, flinging them through the air and onto the most forward of the flatbeds. Grey cried out as Weiss landed on top of him, only further worsening his own injuries, while Blake landed nimbly next to him on both feet and a singular hand.

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