Chapter 24: Something like BIG METAL FIST?!

"Soo... How far are we?" I said awkwardly as we walked in silence to our destination.

Mercy sighed and shook her head after hearing my question. Lena seemed to have the same question because she began to look expectantly around our formation for the answer.

"We are almost there, after this bend we will be coming on a straight shot to the factory." Torbjorn voiced out as he casually rode on the drifting bomb.

Looking around I checked the areas around us to look for any hidden enemies. All I could see were destroyed shops and restaurants that still had some of their British architecture left standing. Frowning deeply I shook my head and looked for enemies.

Seeing as there were none I smiled slightly and said "I am going to do a quick scouting run, make sure no enemies are up ahead. Just in case, can I bring Lena because she is just as speedy as I am?"

Mercy spoke up for the first time and voiced her worry. "I don't think that is a wise decision considering how many enemies we have faced so far."

Shrugging off her worry I tried to reason with her so I could have some more action. "Yeahhhh but that might also mean that they ran out of enemies, besides I will only scout." I said as I waved my hand around.

Taking a moment Mercy looked like she was going to say no until Reinhardt chuckled slightly. With everyone looking towards him he said "Oh Mercy let them go, it's only around this bend. Besides they are quick enough to escape if something is there."

Faltering slightly Mercy glared as I took this chance to grab the unexpecting hand of Lena and jog off in front of the group.

After a few moments of running with Lena we were up on the bend to the next street. Pulling out Crescent Rose in her sniper form I went on guard. "Alright Lena, let's both hope that when we walk past this corner there are no enemy bastions, because if there is I am going be seriously mad!"

Remembering back to the Orisa and Bastion combo that chunked my aura I began to seriously get upset.

"Hah, don't worry so much Ruby. I am sure that we took care most of them by now, I betcha they are all fleeing somewhere as we speak." Lena sighed out as we slowed our pace.

Frowning slightly I shrugged my shoulders and slowly rounded the corner. Looking around using Crescent Roses sniper scope I sighed out in relief. "Hoh, ohmygosh I would've been mad if we came face to face... With bastions... F***! Why!" suddenly I scoped in on the Factory's doors and watched as Bastions flooded outside into the street.

"Damn! All the way down at the end of the road there's a whole squadron of Bastions and some OR14's! You have to be kidding me!" Masons personality showed for a moment and overshadowed Ruby's cheerful demeanor.

Using the scope on my gun I looked closer to see they were just standing there, as more and more units exited the factory. Shaking in anger I began to silently murmur curses without even knowing.

Lena put her hand on my shoulder and slowly dragged me back to the team and tried relaxing me. "Come on love, we can't get so mad in a battle. Let's get this info to the team and quick!"

Shaking my head I released a breath of air I didn't realize I was holding in. Nodding seriously Lena and I quickly sped back to the team to announce our findings.

"Bastions! Lot's of them, like a whole squadron. I am pretty sure that I saw other units like OR14's and other Nulltroopers at the end of the road near the factory. It seemed they were grouping together to meet us." I exasperatedly said aloud as quickly as I could.

"That's not good... We might need Anna's help if there is a whole squadron..." Torbjorn muttered lightly as a massive scowl formed on his face.

Reinhardt seemed to falter after hearing my information until he stood strong again, but this time with a serious look on his face. "I can take care of a few bastions and OR14's, but a whole squadron is a death sentence. We also have to be careful of the other units that are grouping up as well."

"Don't forget about the little ones and others that will rush us from the sides." Lena piped up as we slowed our pace.

"What should we do? I saw a lot of them, and I mean sure we are super awesome and could take care of them but..." I trailed off as I pointed to the bomb.

Everyone looked towards where I was pointing as realization dawned on them. Torbjorn quickly stopped the bomb from moving forward as we halted in our positions.

"You are right Ruby, we can't protect the bomb and ourselves if there is that many. We are going to need Anna to help, I will call her in. Everyone else be on guard, I doubt they will allow us just to call in help like this." Torbjorn voiced out in a serious voice as everyone nodded and went on guard.

Torbjorn pulled out something from his pocket and pressed a couple buttons on it. Suddenly we heard a voice coming out of the small phone like object in his hand.

"Anna here, what's the matter?" a staticky voice echoed out from the device.

Torbjorn coughed lightly and scratched his head as he came up with what to say. "We need help, currently the enemy is setting up a whole army to face us, and sadly we cant keep the payload safe while fighting a number that larger."

Silence rung out as Anna didn't talk for a second. "Hah." Sighing out Anna called out to the rest of us.

"Every one of you do understand that I can probably only help once, right? As soon as they notice an enemy ship flying by I will be the target, so I will only be able to get one run in before I get shot down." Anna slowly said to the whole team.

"We understand Anna, let us hope that your one run pass will be enough." Reinhardt said solemnly.

"Very well, I will be there in 3 minutes, in the mean time prepare to attack as soon as I finish." Anna signed off the radio like device after giving her final parting.

Looking around the whole team seemed very solemn as they finally understood the difficulty of this battle. 'What do I say? Uhh come on Ruby! Say something to help them out.' I reprimanded myself as I came up with something to cheer up the team with.

"Come on guys there is no need to be so upset. I am sure Anna will take care of the heavy hitters. It might be a tough fight, but we can handle it. We have each others backs, and as long as we are careful we will be able to send this bomb to the factory and go home!" I exclaimed to the team as I cheered them up.

This seemed to ever so slightly raise the mood. Mercy quickly hopped in and said her piece as well. "Exactly as Ruby said, I have your backs, you have mine. We can push through this so long as we are careful."

Reinhardt's eyes grew determined as Torbjorn simply stopped slouching and smiled slightly. The biggest change of all though was Lena who was actively bopping up and down by the heels of her feet.

"Ha! I might be new to all this, but I promise to try my best to help out. And I'm sure that with all of our amazing abilities that we can slap these tin cans away." Lena loudly motivated the team as she raised her fist to the sky.

Smirking slightly I began to go into my inner thoughts about what happened earlier. 'Why was I so mad? I never curse... Well except that one time, but that was an exception!' I thought back to a memory with Yang but shook myself out of it.

'Anyways I need to get a hold on these emotions. I am already beat up enough, I can't get distracted and let my aura break from getting shot too much.' Slapping my cheeks slightly I grew determined.

Pulling out some magazines from my magical pocket on my skirt, I felt my aura drain. Eyes scrunching up slightly, I kept pulling out more and more Fire Dust magazines. Having a solid handful by the time I was finished I walked up to Torbjorn.

"Heya Torb, I know that your turret takes a bullet about this size, so I want to use these for a little while. It might not be much but they are well... Very explosive." I handed off around 8 magazines to Torbjorn who looked questioningly towards me.

"How did you know that? And what kind of Ammo is this, I never seen this kind before?" Torbjorn asked as he took out the bullet from my magazine and put them into his turret.

Scratching my head I said "Heheh, well I kind of looked at the blueprints when you weren't looking? Also the ammo is self made!" I smiled to myself after announcing the bullets were self made.

Torbjorn kept loading the ammo but looked surprised. "Good work on them then, we will talk more later but now we have to fight."

I nodded and checked my pocket for a moment. Pulling out my scroll I checked the time and saw we had about 1 minute left. With my scroll still out I opened a photo of team RWBY. 'No matter what, I will make my way back to you guys.' I thought as I just as quickly pocketed the scroll.

Reinhardt made a noise and I looked over to see him stretching. "Hah, we best get ready. Anna will be here any second, and as soon as she is done we must attack them while blinded."

Lena nodded seriously and double checked to see if her guns were fully loaded. "Let's do this loves." She simply said to the team.

Suddenly a figurative lightbulb appears over my head as I remembered what I did with my aura the previous day. 'It will drain a lot, but if it determines us winning then I will use it.' I quickly announced my findings to the team.

"If we really need cover, I can possibly cause a storm of petals. It drains me a lot though so if we really need it then it will pretty much drain me." I told the team as we all turned our heads after hearing a noise.

*Bang, Bang!* Turrets on nearby houses began opening fire into the clouds above. The team looked serious for a second as we all readied up. "Let us hope we don't need it Ruby, but if push comes to shove use everything you have." Reinhardt told me grimly.

Nodding I readied Crescent Rose behind my back as everyone else readied up. Hearing the turrets pick up pace in shooting speed we watched as they shot into the clouds above in droves.

Suddenly a cloud dipped down and out came Anna. A Orca flying as fast as it could quickly closed in on our position while dodging anti-air flak. Lena gasped at the sight and looked on in wonder as Anna dodged all the flak. Traveling at quick speeds we watched as the Orca leveled out and began to release dozens of missiles from its beak into the enemy line.

"That was our trumpet! Let us go!" Reinhardt our leader shouted as all the members quickly pushed into the street. Torbjorn activated the bomb on over drive, as it was much quicker now at a jogging pace.

Under the guise of smoke and debris, we all pushed whatever remained of the enemies. Almost immediately we were shot at and were hailed by bullets. "Everyone behind me!" Reinhardt shouted as we jogged forward to the remainder of the Nulltroopers.

Everyone followed behind Reinhardt and opened fire on random Nulltroopers or Destroyers. Shooting through smoke, dust, and debris we pushed onwards almost unseen.

However the remaining Bastions and OR-14s occasionally opened fire on us when their view wasn't blocked by floating dust and debris. "Duck!" Reinhardt suddenly shouted.

Everyone doing what Reinhardt was told dropped. Suddenly he dropped his shield and lifted his hammer above his head. "Hammer, Down!" Shouting at the top of his lungs, Reinhardt slammed the ground under him causing the very ground to shake. Fissures flew forward launching enemies up into the sky.

Lena and Torbjorn began to open fire on base Nulltroopers while I aimed for the Bastions who were knocked over in their turret form. Shooting the knocked down bastions I moved on and shot whatever moved.

The sound of gunfire rung out as we all began to jog forward and shoot at enemies under the remaining smoke.

"Enemies left!" Torbjorn shouted as he positioned his turret into a nearby alleyway full of Nulltroopers. Opening fire the turret with its new found bullets began to destroy the robots like no tomorrow.

Torbjorns eyes opened widely as he watched the whole squadron of Nulltroppers get reduced to smithereens in a matter of seconds. Sobering up he aimed his turret back at the remaining OR14s and Bastions that stood in front of us occasionally shooting us.

Looking around the battlefield for a second I saw a much, much smaller number of Bastions and Orisa's remaining. '5 Bastions, 3 Orisa's.' I counted off in my head as I began to open fire on the OR14s.

Our team already past whatever smoke was left covering us, began to get shot at even more. Basic Nulltroopers began to push us with a couple destroyers. "Torb take care of them!" Mercy shouted as Torbjorn began to hammer his turret. His turret kicking into overdrive began to spew bullets out like a machine gun as its barrels began to turn red.

Ignoring his turrets spectacular feet of destruction, I reigned in my attention on the OR14's that were trying to hit our bomb. Taking aim I shot at one of the OR14's dead in the head doing little damage to hits metal chassis.

Suddenly the purple horse shaped robots orange eyes turned black and all 3 began to focus fire on me. Each of them placed down shields that formed a wall of sorts, as the remaining 5 Bastion units stood up abruptly and hid behind them.

"That's bad!" Lena shouted as we all took cover under Reinhardts shield, which was slowly falling under the pressure of innumerous amounts of bullets.

"Turret is down!" Torbjorn shouted as the barrel of the turret was glowing red as steam rose from it. Everyone seemed to crack under pressure as we watched Reinhardts shield begin to slowly break under the enemies bullets.

"Ruby! Do the thing!" Reinhardt shouted as he hoped to blind the enemies from shooting us. Gritting my teeth I ignored my already low reserves of aura as I focused back to the feeling I had in the training room.

'Peace, Peace, Pea- I can't focus!' I thought as I glared at the OR14s that wouldn't stop shooting at us. Trying to find inner peace to replicated what I felt I was pulled from my thoughts as I watched Reinhardts shield flicker slightly.

'No! No! I can do this!' I thought as I tried my best to power my aura into a rose storm. Sadly fate wouldn't allow it as I was broken from my thoughts by Reinhardt. "Ruby we need you NOW!"

Time seemed to slow down as I watched Reinhardt's shield break apart bit by bit. Through the gaps, bullets flew through and hit Lena in the leg. Falling down Lena cried out. And a oh so familiar glow was felt behind my eyes but suddenly faded.

'Fine! If you can't do it! I WILL!' Mason's voice echoed loudly through my head as the world began to turn dark for myself. Tears running down my face I watched as the world slowly tuned itself out.

(Author Note: Now Mason is in control for a short while.)

'Heh, took awhile to be back in control.' I thought lazily until I saw the state that everything and everyone was in. An uncharacteristic scowl that could never fit on Ruby's face appeared as I began to fuel Aura like no tomorrow into my semblance.

Scrunching up my eyebrows and nose I did the one thing that Ruby was taught not to in her memories, and that was let emotions control our aura.

"Rrrggh!" I grit my teeth as an anger I rarely felt showed itself. Grunting I let my aura drain as rose petals drifted off of me. Like a desert sand storm, rose petals flew around us in a Tornado, blocking all vision and bullet from us.

"Yaaah!" I shouted as I dropped Crescent Rose and waved my hands angrily at the enemies that I couldn't see. "This will teach you bunch of bolts!" I yelled out as I watched the Tornado fly towards the enemies while harmlessly letting us pass through.

The rose tornado took up the entire road. Red seemed to be the new color, as everything was dashed in beautiful red petals. Car, street, lamps, everything had at least a clump of red on it as the Tornado passed by them.

'Now!' I scrunched my eyebrows up and grit my teeth as I used more aura on the Tornado willing the Roses to harden and sharpen themselves.

*Screech!* The sound of metal, buildings, and the ground alike being ripped apart echoed through the street. Giant gashes appeared as the roses seemed to cut whatever was in there path. Ripping a car on the side of street to shreds, the tornado ran through the remaining enemies.

With slight resistance, the OR14's and Bastions succumbed to the tornado of destruction. Watching as parts of the enemies fly out of the Tornado I felt victorious until an extreme drain on my energy showed itself. Suddenly the steady funnel cloud of red began to shake and disperse into the wind.

Nearly collapsing, I caught myself on my knee as I felt whatever vestige of Aura I had left disperse with the Tornado. A red shell that was once around me shattered and slowly drifted away.

"Heah, haeh." panting on the ground I smirked.

'That is how it's done.' I happily thought as I slowly stood up. Weakly I looked over to check if everyone was okay while I still panted. Scrunching up my eyebrows I could only wonder what was going through everyone's heads due to the looks on their faces.

Lena was back up and standing already with a worried look on her face. Reinhardt and Torbjorn stared on in disbelief while Mercy stood aghast at my display. "Told... You... I am... amazing." I panted out to the members of team as I slowly walked to Crescent Rose.

With a pain in my leg I haven't noticed early, I limped over to Crescent Rose. Gritting my teeth I thought 'Where did this pain come from...' only to remember that my Aura was probably blocking out most of the pain from my sprained leg. Scowling I continued onwards.

Standing over Crescent Rose I heaved it up and made it back to Reinhardt. Patting him on the shoulder seemed to shake him out of whatever his thoughts were as he rallied the team.

"Good work Ruby! We must push now before they rally up again!" Reinhardt shouted out as everyone nodded and marched on down the remainder of the road.

"Are you okay love?" Lena approached me while still on guard as I walked behind everyone. Looking over a small smile appeared on my face.

"Yeah, no worries. Just dead tired... and also in pain." I murmured the last part to myself, which somehow Mercy heard as she did a small jog over to me.

She frowned as she simply held her medical staff in front of me. Out of the top of the staff came a yellow stream which soon hit my person. Feeling something like ants crawling under my skin I gave a small frown as well until the pain in my body seemed to vanish.

"Good work Ruby, we would have been shoot to pieces if it wasn't for you. Thank you." Mercy said a short thank you to me.

"Heh, no prob-" I was cut off as Reinhardt interrupted us and shouted "Enemies!"

*Thunk.*

Hearing Reinhardt's shout and a thunk I turned away from Mercy. Suddenly I heard Lena shout out a "Watch out!" as I felt a fist impact my back.

"Gyah!" I cried out as I went flying across the street. Flying at speeds that seemed to cause my vision to black out and blur slightly, I suddenly felt another sharp pain as I landed on the ground.

Skidding across the ground I felt my skin tare and rip at the already jagged ground covered in debris. Blood leaked from my wounds slightly as I coughed and tried to suck in air that was knocked out of me.

"Ruby!" Lena and Mercy shouted out in unison as I slowly lost my vision. Trying my all to get up I listened and heard the distinct noise of Lena's pistol open fire on whatever thing I was hit by.

'Come on, get up!' I put whatever vestiges of strength I had left into weakly getting on my knees to look up at my attacker.

"Thats... bad." were the only words I could murmur as I watched a robotic fist fly towards my face.

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Ayy it's your author! I am back, and I wanted to apologize for the unannounced break I took. Most Authors would have a good reason or bullsht something, but sadly I have nothing. I just simply lost motivation to write this fic for a while due to not having any good ideas for it. But... now I do!

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will try to release some more chapters this week. I finished this last night, but it was too late to post it as it was 3am. Update schedule will still be slightly scuffed as I don't really know how I will feel later (Inspiration Wise) to write.

Once more feel free to comment if you want to see anything or maybe even a informative chapter on what I plan on doing and the basic direction this fic will travel. Cya later, and if I see enough comments wanting to see the informative chap then I will post one.

^-^ Au Revoir.