63"Uhh, it's a girl?" A faint voice next to her.
"Wha-?" A pause. "OH, FUCK ALL KINDS OF DUCK! Um... Uh... Alright. Put her somewhere comfortable, and very, very far away. We absolutely do not want her waking up in a bad mood." At this, Chess suddenly backflipped and landed on her feet with a bow, ignoring the sudden clicks of guns as they were aimed her way.
"Too late, Jack!" She chimed in with a nickname. After all, he kinda reminded her of the knave. Chess watched as Roman Torchwick visibly paled, and started slowly backing away. Before he could take another step, she evaporated so she was back to back with him, smirking as she leaned against his now-frozen form.
"Say, Jack, when I came here on a little mission, I never expected to run into a handsome ginger devil and his thugs! Wanna tell me why?" As Roman opened his mouth, what came out surprised Chess, and to some extent himself.
"Would a pretty little girl like yourself believe I was out on a midnight stroll?" At this, Chess was taken aback, but still replied.
"I would... If it was the truth. Come on, Jack! Out with it..." Still with the playful demeanour, Chess giggled, and backflipped over Roman so she was staring into his eyes. Then, dropping the happy-go-lucky attitude for a second, she continued. "And don't even think about lying this time." The look in her eyes stopped the mastermind dead as he sweat-dropped. However, he got an idea, and as he opened his mouth he slowly shifted his arm.
"Well, you see... I, uh... NOW!" With this, he shot the round in his cane directly in front of him, hitting the concrete and causing dust and smoke to fly everywhere; he knew better than to aim at her, he'd learned from the incident at the docks. At the same time, dozens of White Fang that had surrounded the pair all fired at the cloud of dust and smoke as Roman dashed towards the train. Ducking inside, he quickly raced toward the front. As he came to the carriage third from the front, he paused. Turning, he spoke.
"Neo, she's here; we're launching the train now. You might have to fight her. Will you be okay?" At this, Neo nodded and mimed a reverse explosion with one hand. He knew what she was trying to say. "Just make sure you save enough Aura, alright?" At this she rolled her eyes, but still smiled and nodded all the same. Continuing, Roman reached the front and started the train. Hearing more explosions, he assumed (correctly, as it would turn out) that Lady Luck's team had arrived to help her out.
"My day just keeeeps getting better, doesn't it?"
The rest of team RWBYC raced around the corner to see quite a few White Fang bodies, surrounding a faintly smiling Chess. For a moment they feared the worst, but thankfully they were all still breathing. However, they could all see the extent of injuries on the poor faunus, and it was doubtful they would ever have the same amount of mobility again.
Regardless, the team and Doctor Oobleck quickly boarded the now-moving train. Moving across the top, they stopped upon discovering something.
"Doctor Oobleck, what is that?" Asked Ruby, ever the innocent soul. However, it was not the Doctor that answered, but Chess.
"That, little Rose, is a bomb." Before she could continue, they felt the train car disconnect, and quickly moved to the next one. Upon seeing the car explode and create a hole in the tunnel roof, Chess scowled, and began speaking again. "I know what they're doing. Grimm are going to come through the holes, and 20 points to whichever house guesses where this tunnel leads."
At this Oobleck paled, and whispered the answer under his breath.
"Central Vale..."
Upon hearing this, everyone else on team RWBYC paled, and turned to rush to the front of the train. Whatever happened, they had to stop this train.
As RWBYC moved across the top of the train, they came across swarms of White Fang members moving to stop them. Some even started boarding the Paladins being transported, and moved to intercept the teenagers and their teacher. Suddenly Oobleck started yelling over the wind.
"Miss Chessur! Take Miss Belladonna and Miss Schnee, and go down below! We can handle things up here! Get to the front, and stop this train!" At this, Chess smiled her Cheshire grin, did an informal salute using two fingers, and backflipped into the hatch leading to the interior of the train car. Nodding at their teacher, Weiss and Blake followed suit.
Upon landing, Chess immediately spun in a circle on one foot, with a small whirlwind of cards surrounding her. When she stopped, she giggled uncontrollably at the mangled and groaning White Fang members. When Weiss and Blake joined her, they shared a look of concern for this casual brutality, but shrugged it off and kept moving. As the group moved forward, they came across a familiar figure in one of the cars.
"Go ahead. I got this." Chess kept her words clipped and concise. Nodding, the monochrome duo moved to the next car, and left Chess to face her opponent. Speaking once more, she greeted the figure.
"Hello Alys."
"So... This doesn't seem like your typical thief's operation. No, this seems like something a monster would do." Neo flinched at the word 'monster', but said nothing, so Chess continued. "So what monster is behind this, hm? What sort of mastermind has you chained like a dog on a leash? It's not Torchwick, he's as much a prisoner as you. But he's Huntsman trained... Which means the mastermind would need to be stronger than a Huntsm-" Chess suddenly stopped. Paling rapidly, she stared at Neo, who refused to meet her eyes.
"No..." Chess staggered backward a step. "Alys, you're not... Not her...? Please. Please, for the love of everything you hold dear, tell me you are not working for HER!" At Neo's silence, Chess stood in shock, as tears began trailing down her cheeks. Pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts, she stood resolute as she began speaking once more. "Alys, if you ever cared for me, if I was ever your friend, please. Don't do this, don't make me fight you. I don't want to fight you... Anyone but you..."
Neo's resolve wavered. As she looked at Chess' tear-streaked face, all she could see was the little girl she had set free so long ago. Beginning to cry herself, she stepped slowly forward, then ran and hugged Chess as hard as she could.
Chess stood there and hugged her dearest friend, knowing what she would have to do. With a resigned voice, she began to whisper into Neo's ear.
"If we're really friends... You won't come back." With this, she pushed Neo away slightly. Seeing the confused look on her face, Chess smiled...
Then she span and kicked Neo through the wall of the train car, and into the tunnel.
Author's Note:
geeetttttt dunked on!
No but in all seriousness, some explaining. Chess kicked her out of the train, because she had no choice. She couldn't keep moving forward without beating Neo, otherwise she would've had to bring her in for her crimes. She wanted her best friend to remain free, so she kicked her off the train. Chess had faith that Neo would be able to survive, having seen her semblance and knowing that one kick wouldn't deplete her Aura by much.
The Undertale reference is simply because I've been watching and reading a shitload of Undertale stuff recently, so I kinda felt like it.
By the way, when I mention 'flows', 'streams' or 'limbs' of cards, please know that what I'm thinking of, is something similar to how Pyrrha controls the soda cans with her polarity in the Volume 2 food fight, how they seem to form tentacle-like appendages, or a flow of cans that seems very fluid, despite being made up of many solids. That's pretty much what I mean. I didn't actually put any of those phrases in this chapter, but keep it in mind for future reference. (And past reference I suppose, there's been a few moments where I've pictured that sort of thing with the cards.)
Forgive me if I ramble, it's 7:30am and I haven't slept in 2 days.
Adios, I need to sleep.
EDIT: So I'm making this edit about 6 weeks after I actually wrote this chapter, and literally right as I'm about to publish it. I have decided that I will probably write a fic involving the Dante/Nero inspired OC I mentioned, as well as another OC I've actually thought up in the week since I published the last chapter. This one will take a fair chunk of inspiration from Jinx out of League of Legends. I gotta admit, I'm not really a fan of the game, but I've always loved Jinx as a character, so I made an OC heavily inspired by her. So yeah, my next fic will probably involve both OC's, given the fact that I've written them into each other's backstories as longtime friends and partners.
I don't know when I'll be writing this, let alone publishing it, so don't get too excited, but yeah, I'll probably get around to it. Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say for now, and I'll reveal more about the characters when I publish the fic.
Welp, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did feel free to leave a review and/or PM any questions.
Sm0key out.