Rwby's workshop inside the cavern had become a labyrinth of failed attempts. Parts and prototypes lay scattered about. Big Bear's howl came too early, yet coincided with the finish of her latest creation: a saddle fashioned from an amalgamation of insulating materials and metal framework. A far cry from a work of art, but appearance didn't matter anyway, only if it could withstand the overwhelming charge of a Thunderhoof or not.
Countless calculations and theories scribbled in her notebook, distinct scent of ozone and burnt rubber still lingered in the air from previous trials. Rwby adjusted her googles while Klein walked one Thunderhoof into the encircled track in the cave.
Geared with the saddle, the Thunderhoof began from slow run to speeding round around. The harness came alive with a gentle hum muffled by thundering gallop of the beast.
Both of them holding their breath, anticipating the saddle to go bust like previous contraptions.
That didn't happen.
It worked.
"We have to hurry now. Adonna, Pebbleton and Bear could be in trouble!" Klein urged.
"No, wait." Said Rwby. "The batteries seem to contain the charge but this is confined testing. They generate more charge the faster they run so we have to test how it works at full sprint in open space."
Klein took on the test.
He rode the Astrid out the cave. Fleeting moments dragged on like minutes for Rwby with anxiety gnawing at her nerves. In actuality, Klein returned in mere seconds. His hair raised stiff as the loose strands of his clothing, all of which quickly relaxed after the Thunderhoof stopped.
Burnt circuits and sizzling wires greeted Rwby upon examination. "This is bad. Why can't anything contain the charge? 2–3 more seconds would've killed you."
"Wait what?"
She fiddled her zipper knob, pacing around in desperation. "Why won't anything work? Burns every insulating and semiconducting materials. Too powerful to be contained."
"If only it was possible to step down the charge." Said Klein.
That gave her abrupt pause of realisation. "It is! Like magnets!" She gasped. "Magnetic fields, I mean." She rushed back to her worktable.
Klein argued they didn't have enough time for another trial. Not while the others were in trouble.
She turned a deaf ear, mumbling calculations over the circuits of another prototype saddle as she slid her goggle on.
"Rube!"
"It's utterly impractical. Bear is with them, so what can the two of us possibly do to help if not this?"
Klein was left pacing up and down the cavern.
Outside in the forest,
Marblemen search party, who have been tracking the escaped Thunderhoofs for day came upon the waterfall. Unknowingly, one stepped past a pressure plate in the foliage around that waterfall. That triggered a contraption which chimed a bell within the cavern.
A prosthetic owl in a groove up the cascade was actually a periscope. Through it, Klein watched the enemy outside examining fresh tracks from his test ride. His heart skipped a beat when the tracker pointed towards the waterfall.
"Now we really have to go!" He alerted Rwby.
She wasn't done. But almost, she claimed.
Slashed the gear. Connected something like a long baton by insulated wires.
When she finally strapped the completed harness on a Thunderhoof, the enemy had discovered their hideout.
"It will work!" No timbre of doubt in Rwby's voice.
As Marblemen entered the cave, Thunderhoofs came rumbling onwards, they had to make way. One after another the pack blazed by. The Marblemen were left in an otherwise empty cave. What's left across Rwby's workshop already set on deliberate fire.
Klein rode but Rwby was simply taken along the ride as she just hugged his back, eyes pinched shut shrieking in fear of the tremendous velocity.
The other Astrids followed in pack.
It took only seconds for them to cross out the woods back into the city. Then onwards unto the structure where Marblemen were gathered, troops flooding into the entrance.
They rode indoors, the Hoofs' tall shoulders bulldozed men out of the way. Metal beams and trusses reinforcing the spiral steps squealed from their heavy hoofs. They rammed into the uppermost chamber under the observatory's dome.
Bear was little and unconscious.
Their arrival a breeze of hope to Adonna.
Davy left slack-jawed to the sight of the impossible. Traumatised by the ride, first thing Rwby said after hopping off was never again, which evoked in his ears an echo of her voice when she declared that she would ride a Thunderhoof back at the Rail Station. Davy watched her examining the mechanical saddle 'til Klein snapped his attention away after noticing him gripping a side of his torso.
"Why are you the one always getting hurt, Pebbleton?"
"Bad luck is a kick in the ribs." He replied.
Rwby's device was intact. It worked. What's more, she's pack along another prototype and tools to fix and finish it there.
Little Bear awoke with a low bark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaff finally returned to that row where Bella sat awaiting her answer. He'd brought along with him her prepayment in a bag.
She stood up finally.
Marblemen tanks, guns and cannons had all surrounded the observatory when Thunderhoofs emerged. Charged antlers bulled their way past the blockade and they ran the streets of Ana.
Long batons attached to the saddles conducted electricity. Klein and Davy rode, flooring Marblemen with each swing of these supercharged batons. They ran uncatchable, unstoppable that evening.
The huntress, Bella, watched them streak around from a safe distance away.
The enemy terrified. One moment a Hoof would breeze by and knock one of them away, next thing knew, same rider would've circled back another lap. They couldn't lock aim at any. They'd fire bullets and cannonballs but only the dust of the Thunderhoof remained. Before tanks could drive a meter in pursuit, a Thunderhoof had ran circles around it.
Adonna on big Bear appeared.
She targeted the mobile cannons with each swipe of big Bear's paw.
"SANDWICH STRATEGY!!" Shouted Davy as he and Klein shared a glance, both riding in breakneck velocity towards incoming tanks. They understood each other needless for more words. So they forked into opposite rows before those tanks began bursting shots at random.
Both re-emerged from other opposite rows to ram one tank from either side. Their mounts' charged antlers so powerful they smashed the tank's armour on both sides, leaving it decommissioned as they fled from more shells.
Left alone with the other two Thunderhoofs up inside the observatory,
Rwby watched Klein and Davy as streaks of sparks coursing through the maze of streets. They'd once every often converge on the Main Street to ram a tank – if not in the same breath then in quick succession. It startled her stiff when one of the two spare Thunderhoofs snorted suddenly.
All cannons destroyed,
Adonna rode big Bear towards the Mines. The last two tanks steered towards her.
Davy rammed a tank from behind, knocked it off balance then raced off. A glance backwards, he caught Klein following up with a harder ram that broke that tank's armour. In that moment's distraction, he winded up point-blank in the sight of the other tank's muzzle. His mount's hooves shaved pavement as he tugged its chain reins hard.
Another shell wasted.
The barrel still leaking wisps of smoke when big Bear lashed so ferociously and sent the whole vehicle tumbling. He had grown now taller than some houses.
Fleeing Marblemen were locked out the gate of their fortress. Then came Klein and Davy. One would ram the brazen battlement gate, then switch for the other to do same and again and again.
Every thud shook the walls like a threatening earthquake, raising hairs of Marblemen cowering within.
Then,
Big Bear broke the gates.
The Thunderhoof riders ran riot inside the compound, while Adonna went straight for the prisoners.
The Mines was in a bowled ditch accessible up and down by a crane… for people at least. Big Bear however had no business with neither the crane nor its control, but instead hopped off rocky outcrops along the sides down into the Mines.
There, Adonna freed Miners, who in turn freed other miners.
Seeing Marblemen in fear inspired a riot.
Tom and Adonna recognised each other after big Bear climbed out the ditch following the miners.
He pointed her to the direction of Marblemen's armoury.
Davy and Klein had freed prisoners from the other wing of the compound.
Three of them regrouped. The air thick with chaotic roars. Klein raised his goggles while Adonna pointed their next target: the last structure within the fortress, where Marblemen were now fleeing into.
Klein's Thunderhoof rammed a hole into the building.
Then and there,
The huntress, Bella, awaited them.
The air almost stilled in that moment of confrontation, except for Bear's vengeful snarl.
"Wait!" Davy warned too late as Adonna rode on ahead to attack Bella.
Big Bear, who towered over some houses outside was now only a shadow of that size. He was barely taller than a Thunderhoof now. Whether it's exhaustion or some trait of his ability, Bella looked to take advantage of it from the way she shifted grip of her bow from her right hand to her left without pulling an arrow.
Swift reflexes and fluid movement, she sidestepped from big Bear's assault in a whirl. In so doing, reached high, snatched Adonna and threw her off his back onto concrete tiles. Only then did she draw an arrow from her quiver.
Bear took it deep in a thigh. Another shot crippled his shoulder. Two impaired limbs were enough to fall him.
Bella couldn't even bother with Klein as he charged his Thunderhoof onwards, notwithstanding Davy's warning. She didn't even turn a glance at him when the Thunderhoof displayed sudden aversion towards her that it threw him off its back and fled out the hole they busted for entrance.
Bella pointed another drawn arrow at Adonna on the floor. Her voice so gentle it frightened them all to the bone. Even her clients, the Marblemen held tensely quiet when she spoke. "Thunderhoofs have sensitive sense of smell and too many fragrances they are averse to. Attacking me with them is meaningless. But impressive. Commendable. You people are most likely the first to ride them. A feat. You should be proud. But I have been hunting Astrids for longer than you have been alive. So please give up. Fighting me with Astrids is futile."
"How about negotiating an accommodation with you then?" Davy raised his goggles. "Given your reaction earlier, guessing I won't be so far-fetched assuming nothing but bad blood between you and Sela? Whatever figure Marblemen offered, you stand to earn a lot more by simply not doing their dirty work. You stand to gain more by not doing anything at all in fact. Simply stand aside, let us win this fight. And their treasury is all yours for the taking. All of it. Of course, if that family reunion is still enticing to you as it seemed earlier, then you should know we left Sela last at the port of Ona some days ago."
Without another word, Bella retracted her arrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The men of Ana took guns and blades. They took their streets and soon sent Marblemen running down the port to whatever boat they could easily hop on to escape the island.
Others taken prisoners.
The city was won.
The atmosphere that night was more than alive; it was charged with a magical element as families got reunited. Fireworks lit up the skies. Outdoor banquet and songs of celebration followed. It would be a night that would be entered into the history of Ana.
But not everyone was all smiles.
The treasure hunter's wife never found her husband amongst the jubilant crowd. Only news about him came from one of the older prisoners, which led her into the dim atmosphere of their prison, now occupied by the Marblemen left behind.
Adonna and the others went with her to question their Marblemen prisoners.
They came to understand that Marblemen took a batch of valuable prisoners along when they departed, leaving behind the minor group to keep Ana's Mines operational and their supply chain intact.
"Where did they take them?" Adonna demanded.
None of the prisoners would answer such question.
"Doesn't even matter." Elsa already knew where and knew it's a hopeless endeavour now.
She left. She left far away from the prison, far away from the celebration… to go cry.
"You're the commanding officer, right?" Davy called out same man who broke Elsa the news. "The boats at the port… they were hardly enough for all of you. Why did the rest of your forces leave you back here without enough ships to escape if things went south?"
The man just laughed. A kind of laughter that began quietly, growing more and more unsettling the louder he laughed. "You fools have just made the greatest mistakes of your lives." He said finally. "You interfered with Zack Marblehead's operation."
None of the Marblemen would answer another question after that.
Meanwhile,
Bella was gone. The Marblemen's treasury cleared out… expectedly.
Though they did not find the treasure hunter, their client, Elsa, gave them due information that would change what they believed about the Sagittarius Legend. Accompanied with her explanation were maps and journal of her husband she presented to them.
The Sagittarius Legend wasn't a treasure. They instead came to learn the existence of rarer creatures. More special, more powerful than Astrids and largely believed to be myths. These were called Majestics. The treasure hunter's materials noted two:
Majestic of the sky, which the notes left no description of it whatsoever. Only its name.
And Majestic of the sea: said to be as old as the seas have been around. It had dominion over water and existed to record every event to have ever transpired across every water body in the world. However, the Sea Majestic only ever existed once a year during Sagittarius season. That is, between November 22nd to December 22nd. From its vast knowledge, one could learn anything. Any historical event. Any lost knowledge. The location of anything or any lost treasure throughout history. That was the secret behind the Sagittarius Legend.
This revelation left the adventurers with a new destination to travel. They raced up the observatory for a lofty view of sea and the port busy with engineers working on their ship.
"Guess no one's sleeping tonight." Said Klein.
By noon, 13th of December,
The Hangpole had underwent an overnight transformation, now equipped with a powerful steam engine to navigate the ocean faster without the need for cumbersome sails. While the engineers enthusiastically explained the workings of this new mechanism, only Ruby paid close attention.
Meanwhile, the others were showered with more farewell gifts from the people of Ana, who had gathered to bid them a safe voyage.
Suddenly, Tom arrived, leading a Thunderhoof.
Klein was the first to recognise that wild Astrid, the same one they had initially attempted to capture with its fore hooves replaced by metal.
People were quick to point fingers at this Thunderhoof as murmurs rose.
Rowan and Arlo approached Tom with reprimand. "Why would you bring her here?"
Tom looked the accusing crowd, his face flushed with embarrassment. He took a deep breath and began. "I know what everyone's thinking." The Thunderhoof stood calm beside him as he petted its fur. "She's the Hoof that went missing. We found her when the Mayor's men couldn't. I kept her because she didn't want to go back, I'm sorry for my selfishness." He bowed his head.
Tom had a lot more explaining to do as his confession opened door for barrage of questions.
"What happened to it hooves?"
"So it was you boys who stole it?"
Tom's voice trembled. "No! I didn't steal her or anything like that." He swore. "We found her in pitiable state. Her hooves had been removed. She was terrified, injured and hungry. She gave up running from humans. We couldn't just leave her. And after we helped her get a little better… I couldn't leave her."
Glances exchanged amongst the townsfolk, their buzz softened upon absorbing Tom's explanation.
"It was that pirate girl the Mayor employed. We saw it!" Arlo chimed in.
Adonna and the others neither understood the situation nor the history in question. Tom advanced closer to the Hangpole, bowed his head to them unexpectedly. "Please allow me to join your crew. I know a bit about operating and servicing coal engines. I'm willing to work as your engineer… or any role. Please consider me." He requested.
"Moping the deck?" Rwby gasped.
"Fishing?" Came Klein.
"Watch duty?" Said Adonna.
"More members, less work for me. I vote yes!"
"Like you do anything else aside from steering the helm?" Adonna turned Davy the side eye.
"I'm an energy-conserving creature, my dear." He replied in his defence.
To join their crew, Tom would accept all those tasks whether or not they were joking. He turned to the townsfolk once again, head bowed again, he made an earnest request for the possession of the metal-hoofed Thunderhoof he's named Llama. "She is like family to me… and she can't work in the railways anymore because of her impairment. So please…"
The herd of six Thunderhoofs have been property of Ana for up to 30 years. It was unheard of and unacceptable for someone to claim possession of any one of them.
"Please." Tom begged more earnestly.
Rowan, Arlo and Carla moved to his side. "Please!" They chorused and bowed their heads too. This inspired Adonna to do the same. Followed by Klein. Then the others too.
Murmurs became deafening silence amongst folks of Ana. That gesture made the air so light as if so the tender noon breezes would sway their support. One named Oldman Griggs cut through the silence with deep voice. "You lads take good care of Ana's jewel then."
Now time to say goodbye to his friends, Tom left them with welled up tears. He rubbed away his own before turning to his new crew.
"Umm so… where is she?" He showed a poster of the girl on a big, brown dog. He was asking Adonna.
Davy and Klein snickered from behind.
"He might recognise you better when you're angry." Rwby suggested.
Adonna reminded him of both times they've met: at the diner and in the Mines.
"Wait, they were the same person? And both you?"
Carla had to jump to his defence seeing Adonna's eyebrow starting to twitch. "I'm sorry, Tom's bad with faces." She explained though couldn't help but get infected by Klein and Davy's cackling.
And off they went.