Chapter 87: Kill Bill
Weiss wasn't having a great time. It all started well with a well-placed shot to the head of the swimming Leviathan. Now, Bill had time to know that it wasn't a good move to charge from the ice.
They had resolved to try moving away as the last Leviathan kept trying to poke holes under them rather than attack directly.
Weiss kept her head over the commander's hatch. She slowly saw the black mass following them around. "Drive faster!"
"What do you mean drive faster?! What am I going to do?! Hoist the sails?! Give this thing a pep talk?! Nitro?! It's a tank!"
Without Ruby, it had been harder to move faster. Another crack forms in front as Blake activates her semblance to dodge. "Woah! Warn us, Blakey!" Yang shouts in surprise.
"Sorry, I heard the ice breaking and I thought to preemptively move us. Weiss, is Hanns moving already? We're getting closer to getting hit already."
She nods and looks over at Hanns idling in the distance. "He's not ready yet, his semblance wore off already. Judging by how long his last transmission was, we might need to keep this thing on us for 2 minutes."
"This is going to be the longest 2 minutes of driving in my life."
They were slower but Weiss tried her best to make the tank faster with her Glyphs. Her magic was focused on making themselves light so they wouldn't sink to the depths and she didn't know if she could risk multi-tasking.
Another section of ice had been broken and the Leviathan was slowly reaching closer and closer toward them but Blake could get them out. Still, they had a limit with Aura-powered semblances, so it would be dangerous if they kept using Blake's semblance, Shadow.
"Right!"
The ice cracks from their left and Yang quickly moves them to the right in response.
"The front!"
Yang catches her partner's attention. "Blake, I can't make the tank switch directions that fast!"
"On it." Blake wills her semblance through the tank. A clone made of ice dust get's left behind before the tank propels itself in another orientation.
Weiss spots something in the distance, ice that had already broken and sunken came into view as she quickly relays the news to the others. "Yang, I think we made a mistake. It's been leading us into a large circle the whole time."
"What does that mean?"
Blake immediately said, "We're trapped in this circle of floating ice until Hanns can bail us out."
"So we're stuck?"
"Not necessarily, I can always use my magic to make our gravity stronger but the control might be off and I could send us sky-high."
"Let's hope Hanns can make it quick then. How is he going to catch a Leviathan staying underwater anyways? It only dips in and out with the tip of its head."
"Don't worry. I believe he has an idea of what he's doing."
-
"I have no idea what I'm doing."
"But you said you have a plan!" Ruby was keeping an eye on the distant team while Hanns counted down from his drawback reaching a critical level. He would reset it so there'd be no chance of him losing it at an important moment.
"I do, but I don't know if you're up for it. I just came up with this at the start. I know it will work but there's always uncertainty."
"What do we need to do?"
Hanns felt his tank being able to move again as he revved his engine and started moving to the rest of the team.
"Hold your breath and prepare to fly."
Bill started to target the Weiss' tank directly, the ice he planned to cut the thing off was stuck in a smaller area. Now would be a good time, he thinks.
From the peripherals, he saw the other man-made vehicle and decided what to do. Bill would target the thing that killed its friend first rather than turns its attention when he was so close to sinking them.
Miraculously, Hanns made it quick to assume he wasn't getting targeted. The last few minutes were only with team WYRBN and not him, he knew Grimm was smart but maybe he could use that against it.
Telepathically tapping into Weiss' mind he put forward a suggestion. "Weiss, when I give the word Neo will use her illusions to throw that thing off." The radio suddenly blares alive inside as Ruby picks up the receiver.
"Do you need us to get out?"
"No, you have to get me in."
Yang's voice got picked up. "That's what he said-"
The radio suddenly gets cut off as Hanns assumed it got shut manually on the other side. "Right, aside from Yang's poor attempt at humor, let's get to them."
A gap was present but without much effort on Hanns' side, he could easily make use of a small second of Overclock to reach over with a small extension of his tracks.
"Ruby, keep talking to me about its location. I'm rushing to them as fast as I can. Overclock isn't going to wear off for long since I reset it but we might need to bail your team out."
"Alright, I can't see well over the ice that keeps getting covered in snow but I can use some fire to quickly check over and over."
Hanns' tracks gripped the ice, its modified tracks by Overclock kept a decent hold as he saw Weiss commanding her tank and using Glyphs to keep them from spinning out.
Ruby yelled, "Hanns! It's getting close for another attack!"
Hanns once again reached over to Weiss' mind and enacted his plan. "Weiss! Send out an illusion of your tank in our direction!"
Weiss' tank immediately looked like it turned and was going front-first toward Hanns. He knew it was an illusion but it was scary when it looked like he was about to crash into one another.
"Hanns! Eyes! Red! It's getting closer!"
Hanns echoed his thoughts to the Grimm below. "You think going in the water with only a tap at us is going to be enough?" He turned his attention back to Ruby. "Ruby shut the hatch and hold your breath! We're going in!"
"Wait, you didn't tell me what to do!"
"Up!"
The ice cracks from below, and a glimmer of red is what Hanns sees before unleashing his own counterattack.
Anything not holding down Ruby would get manipulated towards the bottom. His links snap, turning it from a loop to a single line. Using his Overclock to rip his tracks apart, he yanks the last of his sprocket and with the other end, he attaches and wraps the remains of the track line around the front.
As the Leviathan broke the ice and Hanns falls to the surface of the water he launches his makeshift weapon and forces the sprockets on the end of the line to break apart and imbed themselves into the Leviathan's neck.
"Woah! Holy shit! No wonder Nora liked riding Ursas!"
The rush of the water around him makes him slip his grip but he compensates by slowly retracting his detached tracks to let him reach mere inches from the Leviathan.
"This isn't going to hold. Ruby, keep yourself to the turret's insides. Water is going to rush in. I'm breaking my body apart to attach myself to this thing!"
"Okay!"
"As he got closer and went deeper his hull splinters and manipulates itself into outreaching limbs that he could control. With a single thrust from 4 extended limbs made out of metal from his body and the remnants of his tracks, he digs deep into the aquatic Grimm as it screeches from the metal slowly stabbing it in multiple places.
"Huh, is this what a face hugger would act?" Looking from an outside perspective. Only the turret and part of his upper hull were still intact while most of his other tank parts were reaching around like a claw gripping the neck of said Leviathan.
How this would be possible without him tearing himself to death he didn't know, yet it somehow could work as long as the thing he tore off would still be connected somewhat to the entire structure.
So the sprockets being used as anchors to the Leviathan would still be manipulatable because the tracks despite being removed were still technically connected to Hanns' other sprocket still left in his hull.
"Anyways! Ruby, I'm ready!"
"Co-co-cold!" she was submerged because of Hanns' stunt. "Here I go!"
Bill felt himself going up, the case of how is still not known to him. He kept dragging himself down but something yanked his head. The surface grew more visible as Hanns felt the metal inside him start groaning.
"Uh oh."
A part of his legs snapped and sinks to the bottom while he kept his parts as connected but as tightly held as possible.
When Ruby can make 100 tons post-Overclock feel like nothing to ice, then what she had done before to effortlessly flip him around made Hanns get an idea. Why not apply that here?
~
"Ruby!"
"They're not gone are they?"
"Wait for it. Hanns must have something planned. He didn't tell us... again but we need to wait." Weiss told them sternly, she held him in high regard.
"Uhh... Is it just me or is the Leviathan coming back up?" Yang pointed out.
The ice suddenly burst as the Leviathan was seen with its head being dragged to the sky while the rest of its body was flailing trying to escape.
Hanns was doing a chokehold as a goddamn tank while raising the thing in the air. Overclock made him get denser, which is the reason why he hadn't collapsed into himself.
"Oh. My. Brothers." Yang gaped at the image of a floating Leviathan. They saw magic around Hanns and assumed Ruby was doing it. "I'm proud of you sis. Never had I thought I'd see the day a fish fly."
"They're swaying from the wind and towards the shore."
"Should we go help?" Blake asked.
Yang chuckled. "Nah. I think letting Ruby slam that thing to the ground with a 100-ton Overclock weight over its head would be something memorable for her."
Just in time, the gravity gets off and the Leviathan plummets to the ground. In the distance, they swore they could hear Ruby howling in excitement.
*BOOM!*
The ground shakes and the exposed water began to wave around. The tank had gone to the earth and the team looks worryingly at the event but they saw the Grimm slowly dissolving.
The team approached the remnants of the Grimm, its head was thoroughly crushed underneath the weight of 100 tons impacting the top of its head. Underneath the snow was Hanns with most of his lower half being destroyed and sprawled all around the area.
"Hanns?! Are you okay?!" Blake immediately rushed to the turret and the remaining hull. The impact was harsh and it was reckless.
"No. I'm missing my tracks, my suspensions, some of the driver's section, and finally, the Hard-light shield generator. This should be considered a hull break but somehow it's not. I think to Overclock changes the way I die."
"Please don't talk about the ways you can die. How do you even know if you're right?"
'Well, I know for a fact the ways I can die in Warthunder but without a crew, I think it's based on how real anatomy would work. If most of my compartments for the crews are destroyed, then I guess I'm dead.'
Ruby got up, dazed from the sudden impact but still exhilarated. "Okay, now I get why Nora enjoys that stuff! That was awesome!"
"No, that was reckless." Weiss snapped back. "Do you know how much we worried? We could've done something else you know."
Hanns responded. "It's not going to risk getting shot from the surface. If it didn't want to come to us, then the only way is to come to it. Ruby, I assume the army can work around the lake without risk from the Leviathans?"
"Yep! No risk of interruption without those two swimming around with their death lasers. Speaking of which, we should really upgrade you soon. More weapon options and such."
"Right, I guess all we need to do now is wait." Hanns suddenly saw the notifications pop up. 'Hmmm... only about 489k SL and only 50k RP. Wait a minute... is that a 178k Repair cost?! What the absolute hell?! Moderator!'
[Don't scream at me like that. Didn't you have a commandment in not saying my name in vain?]
'I'm not religious and you don't deserve a ruleset for me to follow.'
[Fine. I'll increase your repair tenfold-]
'Woah, Woah, Woah! Please don't do that. I'd have to keep grinding and nothing else. You don't want to watch that do you?'
[Fair. Ok so, friend. The reason why it's so high is that your Hard-light shield's kaput. Remember that foreign modifications are 10x the normal rate.]
'Oh, right. I never got destroyed or used my Overclock by opening myself up. By the way, how do I die?'
[Well, either all of your important modules get destroyed, especially your engine, or all your compartments are rendered destroyed. An example would be your turret getting ripped off, it's fine until your driver compartment gets set on fire.]
'So I have good survivability. So Overclock would change that right?'
[The only condition that changes is the crew compartments since it wouldn't matter, I can still change it in an update so be nice.]
'This is abusing your power.'
[At least I'm not a Reddit moderator.]
'Ok, I might have treated you poorly. Thanks for being somewhat normal.'
Hanns turns back to his team. "Let's head back-"
*RING!*
Suddenly, Ruby's scroll starts playing a ringtone. "Sorry guys, someone is calling." her scroll opens and Ruby paused as she read the name.
"Who is it?" Hanns asked.
"It's... uncle Qrow."
"Qrow... what does he want?"
"Want me to put it on speaker?"
"Yeah."
Ruby did as told as she accepted the call. Qrow's voice sounds from the scroll. "Hey kiddo, are you having fun? No, don't answer that I know you always do. Anyways, I know Hanns is listening to this so don't even bother not responding."
"Well damn."
"It's not that hard to guess. Ozpin called me earlier, he says he wants to accept the offer."
Hanns had to replay that moment again. "What?"
"You'll know more but he wants some changes so he's heading over there in the next few days."
"Wait what?!"
"You're surprised? Isn't this what you hoped for?"
"To be honest no," Hanns admits.
"Well, I guess you're pretty convincing. I'm heading there too so keep the little rascals occupied kay?"
The call ended with a beep and everyone was confused and curious as to what the headmaster would say. Their offer was being accepted, was Vale already getting brought into the fold?
"So what do we do?" Weiss asked.
"Well... Make Torchwick set up a welcoming party."
Meanwhile...
"Achoo! Damn it! Atlas is cold as hell! I need to buy a bigger scarf in this frozen hell hole. Why couldn't Lunchbox keep his damn army in Vale? Achoo!"
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