WARNING: If you haven't read the first volume of my fanfiction ,"A Special Semblance", I 100% recommend that you read that story first. This story stays close to canon with RWBY, but there are significant differences, which will not make sense if you haven't read since the start. Both future references and events will be to do with Volume 1, so you won't understand if you haven't read it. If this doesn't make sense without reading Volume 1, sorry, but you should read Volume 1 first. You've been warned.
Hey everyone, it's finally here, Volume 2, 'Almost One of a Kind'! So, it's been a few months since the end of Volume 1, with David Xiao Long and the rest of Team DARK having left for Vacuo to remove all the Grimm-Hybrids. Now in Beacon, Epsilon Xiao Long, the world's second synthetic person capable of generating an aura, is now a member of Team RWBY with the orders to protect them and to become one of the greatest hunters of their time.
However, this is one story. A second story follows another perspective, not from Beacon and not with Cinder, but a third faction. Ultramega, a rogue AI accidentally split from Epsilon, has gone loose with his own intentions with nobody knowing where he is or what he is planning to do. Locked away in Reginald's care are two Inhuman siblings, Peter and Willow Anderson, who are Ultramega's current focus.
Unlike the previous volume, which basically stayed 95% on David, this story will be like the Halo 2 campaign, where it swaps perspectives every few chapters. It will be about a 65% Epsilon and Team RWBY to 35% Ultramega and The Inhumans, due to the set up for future events (The Tournament).
So, without-further-ado, let's get onto the first chapter of Volume 2!
Chapter One - Prologue
The cells in Reginald's facility are rough, to say the least. Prison cells. The cells are small, contained and barely have enough room for a single person. Dozens of cells are contained in a corridor, and several floors are within the facility, leading to hundreds of cells inside this vast facility. It was empty. Hundreds upon hundreds of cells empty, colourless and devoid of life. However, one particular prison cell, has two inhabitants, who refused to be separated. This cell was fully functional, unbreakable bars, perfectly lit and the only unique addition inside the cell was a crack in the wall, which progressively got bigger.
A woman standing 5' 8" tall, with long, black hair with a streak of dark red stood in the centre of the cell, both her hands raised at the walls. From her hands, crimson coloured energy flowed from her finger tips to the wall, which slowly mined away at the wall. Her eyes glowed red as she angrily stared at the wall, determined to break it to escape. After a few more minutes and little progress made, she lowered her hands dejectedly and her eyes stopped glowing, now just red.
"You tried your best, Willow, not much else you could do." A younger man spoke up, who was lying down on his bed looking up at the ceiling. He was 5' 7", his hair was a stark contrast to Willows, white hair with a light blue streak and blue eyes. They both wore a set of grey T-shirts and trousers and black shoes. The bottom of the man's shoes were deeply worn, due to excessive running. Both of them had a pendant around their neck, Willow a white Yin and his a black Yang.
"But I should be able to do more. A simple brick wall? I should be able to destroy this without thinking about it. That's what Reginald promised. Remember Peter?" Willow responded, crossing her arms as she sat at the end of his bed.
"I do, but I don't remember 'When I'm busy with that slut Cinder, you two get locked away in a cell until I return', and that was weeks ago. If it weren't for the staff here, feeding us and making sure we were okay, we'd be dead on the ground." Peter told his sister, annoyed.
"Well, this wall is our way out, and as the older sibling, it's my job to get us out." Willow stated, getting up from the bed and held her hands out again, her eyes glowing red again. Before she could do anything, Peter shot up and grabbed her arms, preventing her from mining at the wall.
"Willow, even we have limits. You're clearly exhausted and you haven't trained enough. Once Reginald get's back, and he let's us out, we'll get away then. But for now, no use losing your strength." Peter explained to her, holding her wrists. She glared at him, annoyed at his intervention, but sighed and looked at the floor. Peter released her and she sat on her bed, still looking at the floor. He looked at her sympathetically as she started sobbing quietly, and sat down next to her, pulling her into a one armed hug. She turned to him and wrapped her arms around her younger brother, crying on his shoulder as he patted her back.
"If we ever get out of here, I'm gonna rip out Reginald heart while he's still breathing and show him his still beating heart. That's how he makes us feel." Willow promised.
"How do you know I want to?" Peter asked.
"I felt your brain's chemistry change, you agreed with me." Willow answered, letting go of her brother. "Now, it's late, better get to sleep." Peter agreed and zoomed over to his own bed instantly, and they both lay down on their respective beds, falling into a light sleep.
Suddenly, a large explosion went off, instantly waking the siblings as they both turned to the source of the explosion. A nearby wall had a huge, 10 foot in diameter hole with a large amount of sawdust in the air from the broken wall. They both watched as a shadowed figure entered through the hole, seemingly hovering from the ground. The figure raised it's right arm and a red blast came from the palm of his hand, hitting the lock on the door in a small explosion, making Willow scream in fear.
A large, metal hand grabbed onto one of the metal bars, and slowly pulled open the cell door, Peter and Willow watching in complete shock. Once the door was fully opened, the figure moved away and carved something on the wall, and left through the hole. They both slowly got up and walked out of their cell for the first time in weeks, and slowly looked through the hole in the wall, spotting something in the distance flying away. Willow turned away and looked at the wall first, widening her eyes.
"Peter, come look at this." She said, catching his attention. Peter approached her and also looked at the wall, a message left behind by the figure.
"Peter and Willow, I've set you free. You want to return the favour? Come and meet me. Go to the abandoned expansion of Vale, Mountain Glenn. When you get there, you must kill me men. - Ultramega." Peter quoted, reading the message on the wall. He turned to his older sister. "Should we go?"
"What choice do we have? We have nowhere else to go, and he did set us free. But, we should be wary." Willow warned.
"Why?" Peter asked.
"Because I sensed no brain activity from this person. And this message? Whoever this person is, they are a madman."
Mountain Glenn...
Peter and Willow staggered through the ruined expansion of Vale, after days of travelling from the facility they were held to where they were now, with little to eat and drink due to a lack of lien. They looked around for any signs of the figure who told them to go to Mountain Glenn, but the area was completely devoid of life, even the Grimm that occupied the lost city were missing. After many minutes more of walking through the area, they believed that they wouldn't find what they were looking for.
Then, from behind the empty buildings, a dozen robots emerged from the buildings and walked onto the street, surrounding the two siblings. The robots all turned to each other, and their arms morphed into heavy machine guns, and they started shooting. Willow immediately raised her arms, eyes glowing bright red, as a shield wall surrounded herself and Peter from the barrage of bullets. Peter looked at her sister and she nodded. She dropped the shield for a fraction of a second, and Peter was gone.
Peter sped out of the shield and ran directly into the nearest robot, punching it in the chest with the force of the speed he was running. The robot fell apart, and he ran to the next robot, punching it a couple of times as it fell to the ground, destroyed. In the span of 0.5 seconds, Peter had destroyed the robots and Willow dropped her shield, now sure they were safe.
From the side of another building, three more robots ran out and charged at them. Willow turned and gritted her teeth angrily, eyes glowing red again. She raised her arm and caught one of the robots, lifting it from the air. She ripped the robots in half, separating it from the waist and threw the two halves into the two remaining robots, destroying them. Willow breathed heavily as she lowered her arms, eyes returning to normal red, and she collapsed. Before she hit the ground, Peter ran forwards and caught her.
"Willow? Willow!?" He yelled, shaking her a little. He held his head close to her face and heard her still breathing, but she was exhausted. They couldn't stay where they were, the threat of Grimm still a possibility, and Peter himself was barely awake, his semblance keeping him awake. He was so distracted he failed to notice the figure land several feet behind them, landing hard onto the ground.
"Don't worry, she'll live. If you want to keep her safe, follow me." The figure told him, catching his attention. He turned to the figure and looked in shock at what he saw. There stood a humanoid looking robot, standing a massive 7' 5" tall with a muscular figure, completely comprised of metal. The robot had glowing red inside his chest and up his arms and legs, as well as glowing red eyes.
"Are you Ultramega?" Peter asked cautiously, still holding onto his sister.
"That depends. Are you Peter Anderson, and is she Willow?" The figure asked.
"If you are Ultramega, you know who we are." Peter answered simply.
"Hmm... good point. Grab your sister and follow me, it'll be safer for the two of you. And yes, I am Ultramega, your saviour." Ultramega finished, and turned away. "You'd best keep up." Ultramega added, and flew off. Peter picked up his sister and ran through the abandoned city, easily keeping up with Ultramega.
One Hour Later...
Willow groaned in pain as she turned onto her back, opening her eyes. It took her a few moments to realise, but she didn't know where she was. She slowly got up and looked around, finding more abandoned buildings, but noticed that the sky was gone, replaced with a roof. Willow looked down the road and saw her brother talking to someone, or something. Peter turned and noticed her getting up, so he ran along the road until he was next to her, and pulled her into a hug.
"Thank god you're okay." Peter said to her happily.
"What happened?" Willow asked her little brother.
"You passed out, your aura must have ran out when you used your semblance. That person that broke us out of that facility found us and led me here, which happens to be an abandoned White Fang base underneath the city." Peter explained to her, as they walked back down the road he came.
"So you've talked to this person? Is he safe?" Willow asked cautiously.
"No, I wouldn't consider myself safe, in fact, probably the opposite if you were my enemy." Ultramega spoke up, appearing behind the siblings as he hovered off the ground, small engines in his back and shins keeping him above the ground. He dropped to the ground and approached them.
"What are you?" Willow questioned, slightly backing away in fear.
"I'm the second artificial intelligence in Remnant capable of generating my own thoughts and feelings, the first one being my brother, Epsilon. I was created when Epsilon was tortured into releasing his 'angry side' by a mad scientist named Reginald. I was sent to Beacon Academy to strike fear in the hearts of Team RWBY and Team DARK, but I was killed. My programming got out of Reginald's reach, and using the CCT, I activated the AK-130's in this area and built a new body, as you can see, as well as dozens more. That enough?"
"Epsilon created an enemy?" Willow asked.
"Everybody creates the things they dread. Governments create Terrorists. Grimm create Hunters. Good AI's create Evil AI's. Though I'm definitely not evil, not from your perspective, I hope." Ultramega explained and she just nodded slowly. "Good, now your stories." He led them into a building and they both took a seat on a recently cleaned sofa, Ultramega leaning against the wall opposite them.
"I'm Willow, he's Peter. When we were younger, our village was attacked by the White Fang because the faunus were mistreated in the area. Us two barely escaped while everyone else in the village that wasn't a faunus perished. We were weak, we couldn't defend ourselves, we wanted to be stronger. This scientist, who is apparently the same man who made you, told us he could make us stronger, better, but that it was risky, as nobody else had survived." Willow explained.
"We survived and we have vastly enhanced auras and semblances, but we haven't been able to use them to a great extent. Reginald left us in a prison cell a few weeks ago, when he went to work with some chick called 'Cinder Fall', to help her get rid of some hunter in training, who had been causing her trouble. He never came back, and you were the one who set us free." Peter continued.
"Now that we're here, what do you want with us?" Willow asked the machine.
"When I escaped through the CCT, I found files belonging to Reginald about enhancing humans beyond their normal capabilities. Humans and Faunus are weak, they are too dependant on technology and think that they are safe in this world. You two, you aren't weak. You're stronger than any hunter or huntress ever will, and I couldn't let that go to waste, so I decided to set you free and have you as my... associates. I can train you to use your powers to a much greater extent to a point where nobody will be able to lock you up in some cell." Ultramega offered, and the two looked at each other.
"We will work with you, under one condition." Willow informed him.
"Shoot."
"You will help us kill Reginald, for all the pain and suffering he has put us through." Willow demanded.
"That's easy enough, I never liked him anyway. I promise you both that I will do everything in my power to help you, but we can't, not yet anyway. You are both strong, but you're also weak. Willow, you couldn't even break down a wall, you should be able to shatter it like glass. Peter, you're fast, but you should be faster than a bullet. I will train you to your maximum potential, then the real work begins." Ultramega explained, and opened a cupboard door, retrieving two bags. "Before I broke you out, I found these two bags that had your names on. I believe these are rightfully yours." He handed them the bags. "Get ready, and meet me as the railway tracks when you're done." Ultramega started to leave the room, but stopped. "Why those emblems?"
"Our parents gave us them, when I was eleven and he was seven. It's so we will never be separated." Willow explained, holding her pendant, as Peter did the same. "Yin and Yang." Ultramega chuckled a little at that. "What?"
"I knew a young huntress called Yang. We didn't get to talk for long though." Ultramega explained.
"Why not, she break up with you?" Peter joked.
"No, she fired a dust round from a shotgun gauntlet into my chest and killed me. Bitch." Ultramega said to himself, and left, leaving the two siblings with their own thoughts.
"He seems... alright?" Peter asked himself.
"I agree, but we should be careful. He may have good intentions, but if he is the literal embodiment of an 'angry side', he's evil. He obviously has other plans, getting Reginald seems to be an odd job to him." Willow explained.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm sick of this dull, grey outfit. I'll go get changed somewhere else, be back soon." Peter finished, and sped out the room. Willow opened the bag Ultramega gave her, surprised to find her outfit inside. She smirked.
20 Minutes Later...
Peter and Willow walked down the empty road towards the rail tracks, now in their 'combat' outfits.
Peter had a set of Dark blue goggles with light blue polarised lenses on his forehead, a light blue long sleeved shirt with white patched scattered on the front and back and a pair of white fingerless gloves. As well as a set of dark blue running trousers and light blue and white trainers, his emblem printed on the side of the trainers. Around his neck was his Yang necklace.
Willow had a pair of crimson coloured ear rings, a black tank top with a red leather jacket, her emblem printed on the front of the collar. She also wore a red knee-length skirt with black stockings and black high heeled shoes. Around her neck were a variation of necklaces, along with the Yin necklace. They both approached Ultramega, who was busy wielding metal together.
"Ah, good, you're all ready." Ultramega stated, stopping his wielding and looking at the two. "What weapons do you have?"
"Weapons?" Peter asked.
"Yes, weapons. You two are dressed like you're hunters, have the fighting skill of hunters and you're smart enough to be hunters. How have you gotten around without weapons?" Ultramega asked, slightly amused.
"We've been locked in Reginald's facility for years. We haven't needed weapons." Willow informed him. "Besides, we don't need them. But what we do need are some answers." Ultramega raised a metallic eyebrow.
"Answers? Let me guess, 'what is your plan'?" He asked, and they both nodded. "In the entire of Remnant, there are three threats to me: Beacon Academy, a combat school to train hunters and huntresses, The White Fang, a Faunus terrorist organisation, and The Schnee Dust Company, the worlds largest distributor of dust. Now, who can tell me what they all have in common?"
"They all have mistreated and misguided Faunus?" Willow asked.
"Well... yes... but not that. Since you've been locked away, you probably don't know that the White Fang has been stockpiling dust crystals since the start of Beacon's semester. This means that all three of them have a very large amount of dust. Now, as I've previously stated, humans and faunus are weak, rely too much on technology, if they want to be stronger and smarter, they need to see the real threat of Grimm." Ultramega explained.
"Alright, so how do you plan to get rid of a global resource that is distributed everywhere?" Peter asked the android.
"What you see here, is a machine that will react with oxygenated dust, causing them to spontaneously combust. When it's reacted, all the mined dust will become useless." Ultramega finished.
"Seems like a legit plan. What are we to do?" Peter asked.
"Actually, there is a flaw with your plan." Willow pointed out.
"Really? And what is that?" Ultramega asked.
"You're a robot that is powered by dust. If all the dust is gone, how do you plan on not running out of power?" She asked.
"To answer both of your questions, you will be infiltrating Beacon. My brother, Epsilon, got a synthetic body capable of generating aura, and without the need of dust to power it. I want you to find out who built him the body, so I can get that person to make me a more enhanced body. I may be a programming of intelligence, but I can't figure it out, but this person can. He creates a perfect body, and he wastes it on a slave." Ultramega finished.
"Alright, since this is all cleared up, when are we going?" Peter asked enthusiastically.
"Depends. How fast can you learn?" The android asked.
"Apparently, not fast enough." A male voice said, making the siblings widen their eyes in fear, and Ultramega angrily turned to one of the computer screens. The three of them found Reginald smiling cockily at them. "What, you think I'd let my three greatest creations get away?"
"How did he find us?" Willow asked Ultramega, who couldn't answer. He didn't know.
"I can answer, sweetheart. You see, you and Peter are my property, and I couldn't let you get away if you escaped. Tracking implants inside your skull, I knew where you were the whole time, and you led me straight to Ultramega. Now, I can show him this." Reginald lifted a small computer ship to the screen.
"Is that a computer chip?" Peter asked.
"Real perspective, kid. This isn't just a computer chip, this is Ultramega's computer chip. He can transfer from body to body, but this is his real body. Now, you three work for me, or I'll destroy the chip and detonate your implants, splatting your brains all over the walls." The three remained silent. "Great! Now, as Ultramega has said, you two kids are untrained. Ultramega, you are to train them until they are as good as I hope they can be, then I will give you further orders at a later date. Now, I have work to do, so I'll leave you to do you business. Remember, no funny business, or you'll regret it!" Reginald finished, and the screen shut off. Ultramega, in his anger, smashed his fist into the screen, exploding it and making it fall to the ground. He sighed and turned to the siblings.
"I apologize for this, but we have no choice. He may not kill me, I'm too rare, but he won't hesitate to kill you. I may be a robot, but I still have feelings, and I refuse to have your blood on my hands. Now, go get something to eat and get some sleep, training starts tomorrow." Ultramega finished, and walked off. Peter started heading back to their room, but Willow stopped Ultramega. "What?"
"Is the plan the same, or are we abandoning it?" She asked, still a bit scared of possible death.
"It's not the same, more like... expanded. I will train you, you will go to Beacon, you will find out who created Epsilon, I will pay him a visit, and then we kill Reginald, one way or another." He declared, clenching his fist. Willow, satisfied with the answer, started heading back to her room, a small smirk on her face. Ultramega sighed and continued with his wielding. "I bet Epsilon doesn't have to put up with this."
End of Chapter One
Well... that was a thing... it feels good to be back to this story, even if my main protagonist wasn't in it. Now, unlike Volume 1 where it would be about 10 chapters of canon than about 10 chapters of my own story, this will mix the two. So, Ultramega will interfere with the canon to an extent, but the end result of RWBY Volume 3 will (hopefully) be the same. Don't worry, Ultramega's plan is already planned out, so I know what I'm doing. Next chapter will be similar to the first episode of RWBY Volume 3, but with Epsilon in it. I've missed him, he's cool.
Now for the story recommendation:
Name: Grand Theft Auto: Vale
Author: DeadAliveManiac
General Synopsis: What happens when a semi-retired bank robber, a disgruntled heiress, a criminal rising through the ranks of the underworld, and a psychopathic kingpin cross paths? The results vary, including robbery, murder, corruption and conspiracy. But as the team works from one job to the next, tensions begin to mount and odds become even more insurmountable to rob dust shops and banks.
And as always, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review, any and all reviews are read and replied too. Thank you all for reading and keep an eye out for chapter two, in a few months time.
(sigh)