Metroid: Lost Daughter of Remnant.

Chapter 7

It wasn't long before the students started to get overwhelmed. Not by the Knights or the new Griffin Grimm that just arrived. No, the people in charge of taking those down are holding their own against the staggering numbers, if barely. It was two massive robots; Paladins the students called them. Their torsos can turn 360 degrees, no weak spots she can plainly see, deceptively fast, and they pack a hell of a punch to boot. Really an impressive feat of engineering.
If it wasn't trying to kill them, that is. She hasn't even had time to read the Logbook entry, ADAM barely had enough time to give her a synopsis: the joints connecting their arms and the connection of the 'head' to the body are structural weak points. Sure, the weak joints are a given, but the students with the ability to capitalize on it are being pushed on the defensive. And Samus is unable to take on the mechs either. She's been too busy splitting their attention between eliminating Grimm and Knights and making sure the students avoid the worst of the hits. She's lost five energy tanks so far, protecting the kids. These Paladins are a much bigger threat than she initially expected. Not even Coco's minigun is doing any damage, the only effect it's having is keeping it in place. Seriously, just what are these things made of? Samus might have to order a retreat. If she were on her own, she could take out one of them. Though, fighting both at once could prove to be a challenge. Just as she was about to issue the command, a girl with bunny ears, Velvet, if she remembers correctly, walks past her.
"What are you doing? She's going to get hurt!" Weiss exclaims to Coco as she returns to her feet, having been knocked down moments ago. Samus would be inclined to agree if it weren't for the absolute confidence radiating from Velvet, and the look on Coco's face.
"Just watch." Came Coco's reply.

Velvet halts before the two paladins, a wireframe scythe the size of the girl materializing out of nowhere. Samus has never seen anything like it.
A Paladin charges up a shot. Velvet leaps into the air, avoiding it as the electric grenade leaves a crater in its wake. At the peach of her jump, Velvet holds the scythe perpendicular behind her back, twisting her body to spin upon her descent, leaving deep scratches across the paladin's armor.
Upon landing, the large scythe disintegrates, fading away. It is immediately replaced by a wireframe replica of Weiss's rapier. The Paladin swivels its torso to face Velvet, and throws a haymaker, using the momentum from it. It is parried by a field of some sort, staggering it just long enough for Velvet to hop back for some distance, before rocketing towards it, slashing the mech three times as two gauntlets manifest around her wrists. She pushes herself towards the ground from the last slash to reorient herself, jumping right back up to feed two shotgun enhanced punches to its "face". Using the momentum to backflip off the Paladin, she twists around mid-air to land on the ground, pumping her fists, now facing the other Paladin. She fires two shots, neither doing anything as she ducks under a wide swing from the Paladin. The gauntlets dissipate, and in their place, Blake's weapon appears. As the Paladin swings the other way, Velvet hops onto its hand and sticks the blade into its hand, and rides it, hopping off right before it begins to turn the other way, riding the momentum to soar through the air in circles, a ribbon attached to the blade wrapping itself around the mech's legs as she goes, restricting its movement. Velvet lands a few feet away, the other end of the ribbon wrapped around her hand as she pulls with a grunt of effort, tightening the rope around its legs, causing it to topple over, landing on its side with a ground shaking thud.
The first paladin charges at Velvet, who rewards its actions with a severed left hand and throwing the other half of Blake's weapon into its face, showers of sparks emitting from both places. Blake's weapon dematerializes, freeing the second Paladin, as Coco's minigun is recreated in Velvet's hands, spraying the damaged Paladin with ineffective bullets. The Paladin reacts to her provocation the same way it did to Coco: Going in for a close-range punch. Hoping it would do just that, Velvet materializes the orange-haired lady's hammer, meeting the sweeping blow head-on and winning, sending its arm reeling to the side. Before it can recover, Velvet once more rockets into the air, raising the hammer far behind her, and upon descent, slams the hammer down upon the right arm, setting off an explosion point-blank that tears arm from shoulder. The arm falls to the ground while velvet uses the recoil to land gracefully atop the Paladin. She stands still for a moment before a knife floats behind her back before splitting into ten, hovering behind her like boney wings. Velvet hops off the Paladin and lands on the ground with a thud before using all ten blades to tear through the thin, but heavily armored legs, sending the heavily damaged Paladin to the ground.
Velvet gathers the ten blades in front of her. They begin to spin, gaining speed quickly as blue particles begin to accumulate in the center, coalescing into a large blue ball before the blades instantly stop and the blue light vanishes. Suddenly something that Samus can only recognize as a Hyperbeam erupts from the center of the blades, striking the incapacitated Paladin head-on. It didn't stand a chance. Its armor glows red hot, melting and shredding away from the force of the laser. After seconds of sustained fire, the beam fades, leaving a smoking, glowing, charred heap where a Paladin once stood.
"God damn." Samus mutters in awe. "And you guys are just students?" She asks Coco.
"Yup." Coco proclaims proudly. "Beacon Acad- Velvet!"
Samus looks over just in time to see velvet skidding across the ground.
Coco spools her gun and starts unloading on the Paladin, hoping to draw its attention away from Velvet. The other students not occupied with the Knights and Grimm follow suit. As does Samus. However, the Paladin is undeterred, continuing its path towards Velvet. This isn't working, it's going straight for her. Samus starts running towards Velvet, but before she can get anywhere, a white blur whizzes past far to her left. Recognizing it as Weiss, everyone stops shooting to avoid friendly fire.
As Weiss dashes around the Paladin, a glyph starts to form behind her. Unlike the one that held the Ursai in place, this one is much larger, and a pure white. And this one has a small snowflake, surrounded by four swords orbiting it, crossing through two rings, all surrounded by what look like spearheads. Judging by the look on her face, she wasn't expecting it either. That does not inspire confidence in Samus, a notion that is quickly justified when Weiss places herself between the Paladin's overhead and Velvet, just bracing herself for the hit.
With a sigh, Samus starts running to Weiss's aid, only to stop in her tracks for the second time as an arm larger than Weiss herself, wielding a great sword just as huge, blocks the blow, holding it in place before deflecting the arm into the ground. It winds up an overhead slash, bringing its blade down, effortlessly cleaving the Paladin in two.
Not a grim or robot in sight, everybody finally starts to relax. These kids are looking really rough. about half of them are in no shape to fight. bruised and battered, unconscious, more than a few even have a broken limb or two. Thankfully, there are no fatalities. Samus honestly doesn't know what she would have done if any of these people lost their lives under her watch. The ground starts to rumble again as another Paladin, this one seemingly much more advanced and dangerous, skids to a stop a few meters in front of them.
"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" groans the man with gunchuks. Samus is of the same mind. She may not be tired in any way, but the same isn't true of the others.
"Don't worry" Samus says, patting his back as she walks past him. "I'll take this one. I can't have some kids showing me up, now, can I?"
"IT WOULD BE VERY EMBARRASING."
"Shut it Adam," Samus says softly so as to not be overheard. As the massive mech starts running in their direction, Samus returns the gesture, already building up speed for a shine spark. "Think it'll work Adam?"
"IT WILL DEAL SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO THE CHASIS, BUT IT WILL NOT BE DESTROYED" Adam replies as Samus is engulfed in a slightly blue glow. "Good enough."
The two combatants rapidly approach each other, closing the distance in mere seconds, Samus sliding between the Paladin's legs as she instantly comes to a stop, storing the energy from her speed booster, and prepares to Shinespark into its back when it suddenly stops moving and begins sparking.
"Adam?"
The Paladin falls forward, unmoving.
"Adam??" she asks once more for an explanation.
"THE HOSTILE HAS SHUT DOWN. MAYBE IT STOPPED RECEIVING COMMANDS?"
"Hm."
"Huh, that was surprisingly easy," The blond fellow with the open shirt says.
"You're telling me." Samus says as she walks over to the fallen Paladin. No need for this energy to go to waste. She thinks as she gets to work on absorbing the power of the deactivated Paladin, replenishing her dangerously low missile stocks and a few energy tanks to boot.
"Weiss!" A woman with Long flowing yellow hair runs towards the group, stopping next to an out of breath Weiss. "You're okay! Have you heard from Ruby?"
Weiss shakes her head.
"What about Blake?"
"She went looking for you. I think she started at the cafeteria. I'll call her, tell her to find you there." Hearing this, the blond runs off in search for her partner. Samus deduces that was Yang.
Now fully topped off on energy thanks to the Paladin, Samus turns to the students present. "Alright everyone, it seems the Atlas robots are no longer an issue: their control center has been brought down. So, let's go to the airdocks, meet with FNKY and prep for Evac. Grab the wounded and overtaxed, and move out."
"Wait!" a voice rings out.
"What?" Samus scans the crowd for the source when the hammer-wielding girl comes up to her. Seeing the concern on her face, she doubles back, her tone softening considerably. "What is it?"
"Our friends, Jaune and Pyrrha are still in the tower."
Samus looks at the Grimm dragon perched near the top floor. "In there?"
"Yes! I don't know why they're there, but they went with Ozpin or something, and we haven't seen them since. I'm really worried about them. You're a professional, right? Could you just make sure they're OK?"
"Please." Her partner, the man in green pleads. Samus gets the feeling he's not usually one to so openly express his emotions. "We can't lose another family."
Any objections she had, few as they were, are instantly crushed. She knows all too well what it feels like to lose a family. More times than anyone should. "Alright. I'll check..."
"I- I'm sure they'll be fine." Samus adds. "I'll find them for you."
The two lighten up instantly. The orange haired one goes in for a bear hug but stops when she realizes she doesn't know her name. "Thanks- Uh..."
"Samus. Samus Aran. Now just go to the docks, OK? Do me a favor and help Weiss over there. She clearly can't walk on her own."
"You got it Samus!" the orange one shouts as she marches over to Weiss.
"What- hey what are you doing!" she cries indignantly as she is picked up like a sack of potatoes.
"Helping you out dummy!"
"I can walk on my own perfectly fine!"
"Yeah, the way you were leaning on Myrtenaster kiiiinda tells me otherwise."
The argument continues in a similar fashion as the strong girl moves to join the rest of the students, leaving the Asian-looking man alone with a now-smiling Samus.
"Mind telling me what they look like?"
"Right. Pyrrha has red-hair and green eyes. Jaune has scruffy blond hair and blue eyes, with a metal breastplate." Ren explains. "Thank you. For helping us." Ren's tone is somber.
"It's fine." Samus replies, the smile melting from her face. "I know how it feels to lose your found family." Samus says in a rare moment of vulnerability. The many people she's lost over her many decades of experience flash through her mind before settling on three individuals. "So don't worry. I have no intention of letting you go through that." Samus says as she puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'll find your friends, and bring them back to you." Samus promises as she sprints off to Beacon Tower.

"YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE A WORD OF THAT, DID YOU?" ADAM asks, seeing right though her comforting words.
"... No." Samus says after a heavy pause.
"YOU SHOULD BE MORE OPTIMISTIC, LADY. THIS HAS BECOME A CONCERNING TREND AS OF LATE."
"I know... I know."