13. Plan of Attack (1/2)

i do not own rvb or rwby

"god dammit," church muttered as gamma hung up.

"i'm guessing things didn't go well with your call," weiss said.

"what gave you that idea?" church said sarcastically.

"so what now?" weiss asked.

"we'll need to-" church was cut off when he began to receive another radio transmission.

"hello, ringading, blue base, come in, let's go hello, come in."

"hello?" church said, turning away from weiss. "vic is that you?"

"are you talking with someone else right now?" weiss asked.

"yeah, i am, shut up," church said.

"well," weiss said, still irritated by church's rudeness. she then pulled out her scroll. before simmons began working on the teleporter, he had already fixed both her's and ruby's scrolls, so now they would be able to contact each other in this universe. another feature he added was that their scrolls could also connect with the helmet radios. so it didn't take long for weiss to tap into church's radio and began to hear what he was talking about with this vic person.

"hey dude," vic's voice said. "how's it goin', been a while since we spoke."

"vic, why're you calling me?" weiss heard church ask.

"everything been goin' good, yeah, that's great listen don't have much time to talk," vic said. weiss could tell that there was a nervous tone in the man's voice. "uh been discussing things here at blue command, we think everything is bad, and now is the time to go attack the red base. turns out the reds are up to no good, and somebody needs to kill 'em. a good way to do that might be to send some people through the caves, yeah, take 'em by surprise, anyway, can't talk, gotta go, seeya la vista."

"wait a second-" church said, but the call ended before he could say anything else. "why do people keep hanging up on me!?"

"well then" weiss said as she went to church. "what are you going to do?"

"i'll get tex and caboose, you get tucker and the others," church said. "we got some stuff to talk about."

ruby, yang, sarge, grif, simmons, and donut continued to make their way through the cave path, which eventually lead them to a

idge. once they crossed it, they entered the structure and saw a giant viewscreen in the center, showing images of blood gulch.

"huh, what's all this business?" sarge wondered.

"it looks like a bunch of computer equipment, sir," simmons said.

"excellent analysis simmons," sarge said.

"and it's attached to some kinda t.v. thing.," donut pointed out.

"so it is," sarge said. "astute deduction donut."

"this thing must be getting power from another location," ruby said, seeing cables that lead to another area of caves.

"yeah, wherever this leads, it's probably being run by someone," yang said.

"superb observation ruby and yang," sarge said.

"it's also showing different parts of the canyon," grif said. "look, there's our base." the screen was showing an image of red base.

"ah yes, another incredible observation from the stating the obvious department," sarge said sarcastically. "thanks for nothing, numbnuts."

grif just groaned at sarge's words.

"simmons, donut, you two stay here," sarge said. "grif's gonna continue to look for andy."

"what? why do i have to do it?" grif asked.

"you're right," sarge said. "this is too important of a job to leave you to handle it by yourself. ruby, yang, you two take point on this. grif's gonna go with you for grunt work. also, feel free to use him as a human shield if need be."

"okay," yang said, grinning. ruby elbowed her sister as to not put grif in danger. "yeah, yeah, i got it. alright, grif, let's go."

"fine," grif said unenthusiastically. "i hate my job."

the three of them made their way out of the structure, leaving sarge, simmons, and donut to examine the computer.

"alrighty," yang said. "so grif, how does this 'us telling you what to do' thing suppose to work?"

"i'll give you a hint," grif said. "you to stay here and look around, and i'll go over there and look around."

"but, the only thing that's there is a wall," ruby said as she looked to the direction grif was pointing.

"really? i hadn't noticed," grif said sarcastically as he walked towards that direction. "maybe i can bang my head in that wall, then i don't have to deal with this shit."

"okay, good luck with that," yang said. "so, ruby where do you wanna look-"

yang stopped speaking when she saw ruby staring blankly around the cave.

"ruby," yang called her sister.

this snapped ruby out of whatever she was thinking as she faced yang. "huh, yeah?"

"are you okay?" yang asked, concerned with the expression that ruby was making earlier.

"i'm fine," ruby said, though her words weren't exactly convincing. "why would you ask that question?"

"oh i don't know. maybe it has something to do with the face that says gloom and doom," yang said pointedly. "what's going on ruby?"

ruby just sighed, unable to hide her feelings from her sister. "it's just... what're we doing here, yang?"

"what do you mean? we're looking for this talking bomb with the reds," yang said.

"no, i mean, what are we still doing here?" ruby said. "shouldn't we be finding a way to get home?"

"we are," yang said. "it's just we've become a little... sidetracked."

"that's an understatement," ruby sighed. "we should be doing everything we can to get back to our universe. instead, we've been getting dragged into all this stuff with the reds and blues. now, we're underground looking for a bomb and bat-people. what if we don't find a way back? what if we're stuck here for the rest of our lives!? we'll never see dad, or uncle qrow, or any of our friends in beacon again! they won't know what really happened to us and, and, and, and..."

ruby continued to ramble on without pause, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, until yang finally stopped her sister by pulling her into a hug.

"

eathe," yang said.

ruby took a deep

eath.

once she exhaled, yang gently stroked the back of ruby's hair. "it's okay to be homesick. i know we haven't exactly been doing well in finding a way back, but we will. you just need to keep believing that. we will get home."

ruby hugged yang back, finally calming down and glad for the comforting words. "thanks yang."

"that's what big sisters are for," yang said.

"what!?"

ruby and yang

oke their hug once they heard the sharp yell.

"that sounded like grif," yang said.

"come on," ruby said. the two of them then made their way back inside the computer room. once they entered again, they saw grif back inside as well.

"what going on?" ruby asked.

"sarge thought it would be a good idea to tell grif that his sister is dead," simmons informed them.

"wait, what?" yang said, confused.

the two of them then turned to the computer screen. the image being shown was that of sister's empty armor on the floor of blue base.

"it's true," sarge said. "as you can see, grif sister was horribly vaporized by the blues."

"a fact that we were trying not tell him," simmons said, stressing his words.

"oh quit being a baby," sarge said. "it's just like rippin' off a band-aid. quick and incredibly painful."

"what?" grif said again, apparently still in shock over the news.

"that's just mean," ruby said.

"yeah sarge," yang agreed. "not cool."

"you really need to start thinking about other people's feelings, sarge," donut said.

"son, the only thing i need to do is stay red and die," sarge said, completely unapologetic.

"what?" grif repeated, apparently stuck with the word.

"i'm sorry grif. she's dead," simmons said.

"how could this have happened?" grif cried. "oh man, that was my little sister. i mean, i know we don't always see eye to eye, but i still loved her."

ruby and yang looked at each other and felt a pang of pain and sympathy for grif. they immediately understood the pain one would feel if they lost a sibling. both sisters knew what they would feel if they lost the other.

"this has got to be hard grif," simmons said, trying to be comforting. "i... don't know what to say."

yang put her hand on grif's shoulder. "really sorry grif."

"you don't have to go through this alone," ruby said, also giving her support.

"i-i just, i had no idea the last i saw her was gonna be the last time ever," grif said, his voice full of sorrow. "i'd give anything to see her again and just to talk to her one last time, and i'm never gonna get that chance. it's the most empty feeling in the whole world."

"oh hey, look!" donut said as he looked back to the screen. "she's not dead, she's just naked."

"what!" grif shouted, his voice now filled with anger, making a complete 180 from his previous state. "that little slut, i'm gonna kill her!"

"take a screenshot!" simmons shouted quickly. "take a screenshot!"

tucker, tex, caboose, doc, and junior gathered around church, who was about to discuss the instructions that vic told him. weiss and blake were on the side, listening to church's words as well.

"alright," church began. "vic called and said we should attack the red base right away. i don't know why but, i guess we're gonna do it."

"attack? shouldn't we call soldiers or the military for something like that?" tucker asked.

"so, you're saying that trained soldiers like yourselves aren't capable of doing this," blake clarified.

"uh, yeah, that's what i meant," tucker said. "i don't wanna risk my life, i got a kid."

"i wouldn't call that creature a kid," weiss said.

"as i was saying," church continued. "for some reason vic thinks it's a good idea for some of us to go through the caves."

"why?" tex asked.

"i don't know, who cares?" church said. "so me, tex, and tucker are gonna go right up the middle."

"what about my kid?" tucker asked. "he can't go into battle."

church turned to doc. "doc, you take sister and junior and go get lost in the caves."

"oh," tucker said in understanding.

"next time, let me finish talking," church said before he continued speaking to doc. "we'll find you after the battle's over. unless we die, in which case we won't find you, and you're gonna have to find us. and if that happens, i want to be buried as far away as possible from these two."

"yeah," tucker spoke up again. "and i wanna be stuffed and put on a couch with a cooler full o' beer, a bag full of cheese puffs, non-stop reruns of baywatch and- ah, you know what, it's all in my will."

at tucker's second interruption, weiss pulled out myrtenaster and hit tucker from behind with its hilt.

"ow!" tucker yelled in pain as he collapsed to the ground.

"thank you for that," church said.

"my pleasure," weiss said smirking. blake just shook her head disapprovingly.

"what about me?" caboose asked. "can i get lost too?"

"no caboose," tex said. "i need you to stay here and watch sheila."

"yeah," church agreed. "the transfer gets interrupted we might lose her altogether."

"oh that would be bad," caboose agreed.

"right," church said. "otherwise how would you accidentally kill people?"

"hmm," caboose pondered. "well i suppose i could always-"

"shut up that was rhetorical," church clarified.

"was he actually thinking of a way to kill people?" blake asked.

"unfortunately, i'd probably say yes," tex said.

"tucker come on," church said. "get up and let's go."