OathToOblivion: So, you may be wondering why we're going to the trouble of rewriting this, when we had barely begun the last one. ...Suffice to say, it's Joker's fault. Zero, you want to explain?

Variable Zero: Well, to make a long story short, Joker wanted to change his character from Sasuke to Decade, which eventually caused me to change my character up (and reference Jacob Pendra-huth), and CRP and Conceptualist became too busy with RL, which resulted in me making OCs to fill up my own team...so yeah, I blame Joker for this as well.

OathToOblivion: That's true too, but that's not what I was referring to. As you may or may not know, I was posting Remnants on Spacebattles too, and one of the commenters in the thread had a criticism that there was too much stuff going on at once. Upon reexamination, I was forced to agree. The main reason for redoing it was to tighten it up and not overload you guys, the readers. ...That, and I kinda wanted to change my character too. Only ones who haven't are Stranger and CB, come to think of it. Zero's a borderline case in that he's still Kirito, just another version of the guy. ...Am I rambling again?

Variable Zero: Yes, yes you are. And if we truly are compacting things, then we'll have to worry about pacing and other such things. Though I'm sure we can handle this.

OathToOblivion: Which is a bit weird coming from you since you were the one saying this was doomed to fail the first time. But enough about that, let's leap in!

RWBY: The Scattered Remnants

Episode 01 - It Begins Again! The Keyblader and the White Kamen Rider!

A figure fell down from the sky, though it seemed more like he had crashed through water into the ocean. This was a young man who appeared to be around 18 years old, with ear-length black hair, brown eyes, and semi-tanned skin. He was dressed in a grey and dark brown high collared shirt, brown slacks, covered by a silver-lined black, knee length, short-sleeved coat, with golden shoulder guards, a red hood, and a pocket over his heart. He was also wearing custom gold, black and brown ankle boots with a metal guard on the shin, elbow length fingerless black gloves and golden wrist guards, and a brown and gold piece of armor over his right forearm. To finish his appearance, he wore two dark red intersect straps over his chest, and a crown shaped pendant around his neck. This young man had a tendency to call himself 'Shirou'.

As Shirou slowly came to, he idly noticed that his fall had become a slow decent, as if he were drifting underwater. In fact, it was almost as if he were underwater, yet he was somehow able to breathe. As his groggy mind started to fully awaken, he noted that he was finally came to a stop, feet first on what seemed to be the ocean floor. Once he had landed, he suddenly began to look around in confusion.

"W-what the-?!" the youth exclaimed. "Where am I?!" Shirou then took a single step forward, causing the floor to seemingly broke apart and nearly blinded him with light. Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed that what used to be the seafloor had somehow turned into an uncountable amount of white doves flying up into the darkness, giving the youth a great sense of deja vu.

Once he couldn't see the birds anymore, he looked down to behold an alarming sight. He beheld what appeared to be a giant glowing platform in a great expanse of darkness. The platform was a dark grey, several circles near the edge, each one containing a Fleur-de-lis, while there was a much larger circle at the upper center, containing seven circles within, the four visible ones containing faces of three girls, and a familiar boy with spiky hair. Underneath the large circle was what appeared to be a large floating steel structure, surrounded by clouds.

But what caught the youth's attention the most was the warrior resting as if asleep on the right side of the platform (and subsequently covering up the remaining three circles). Dressed in a long black coat, wielding a sword as black as midnight, with black hair and fair skin, was the unforgettable appearance of Kirito, the self-proclaimed Death Beater.

"Kirito," Shirou breathed out in shock. He then looked towards the structure. "Then that structure must be Aincrad!" The youth then looked towards the four familiar faces. "And those four are Sora, Asuna, Yui, and Leafa!" Shirou didn't know how to take this all in. He didn't think that this sort of place even existed, that maybe he was just hallucinating due to the fall! "What the hell is going on here?"

So much to do, so little time...

"Huh! Who's there?!" the youth demanded as he looked around for a source for the voice. After a few seconds, Shirou couldn't find a source, leaving him frustrated. Though when he thought about, the voice tinged a bit of familiarity.

Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?

"What do you mean? Where am I, and what's going on?!" Shirou demanded. He got no answer in return. "Answer me! Stop being mysterious and send me home!" Again he got no answer.

Shirou was understandably angry, but after a few tense moments he came to realize that it wouldn't do any good to remain in this position. He had two options, comply with the voice and do as it said, or he could remain standing in that one spot for eternity, getting no answers to his questions. "OK, fine," Shirou conceded. "I'll play your game until I get some answers."

As he complied with the voice and stepped forward, three trapezoid stones grew out of the ground around him, each one carrying a sword, staff, or shield respectively.

Power sleeps within you...if you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well.

"I have to choose to continue?" Shirou exclaimed. "Why does this all seem so familiar?" After contemplating this for a moment, he decided to just walk up onto the pedestal with the sword and inspect it. He idly noticed that the weapon looked identical to Dark Repulser from Sword Art Online. Shirou attempted to move the blade, but for some reason he could not remove it from its floating position over the trapezoid stone.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Shirou yelled out before he plopped onto his rear and muttered angrily. After he calmed down again, he idly pointed his index finger towards the sword and seemingly felt a surface that wasn't there before. When he paid attention to that spot, he noticed what appeared to be a round circle with the icon for a magnifying glass. "What the heck?" He then pressed it, causing it to change into what appeared to be a floating screen. This obviously surprised him to the point of standing up and nearly falling off the pedestal.

After he managed to regain his balance, Shirou took a closer look at the screen and noticed a description:

The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?

-Yes/Let me think about it-

"O-kay," Shirou commented. "Is this supposed to be some sort of game? Because so far I'm not enjoying it." After a bit more thought, Shirou chose the second option. He then decided to inspect the staff and shield (which looked like the Wavemaster Staff from .hack and Wolzard's Shield from Mahou Sentai Magiranger respectively) and noticed a similar pop up screen on each one.

The power of the mystic. Inner Strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. Is this the power you seek?

The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?

"Yikes, this is overwhelming," Shirou admitted before reaching a conclusion. "From the looks of things, I choose one of these and it'll affect my future. And going by the 'choose well' comment, I won't be able to change this." He then looked back to the sword. "...I could really use some courage right now." With that thought in mind, the youth went up to the sword and pressed the yes option, causing it to disappear in a flash of light.

Your path is set. Now, what will you give up in exchange?

"What would I give up?" Shirou repeated. He then looked towards the other two items and thought upon the voice's words. Obviously, this decision would be just a decisive as the previous one, and just like that one he had no idea how the choice would effect him. Eventually, he decided to walk towards his choice and open its screen.

The power of the mystic. Inner Strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You give up this power?

"I think that I'm wise enough to know what will harm me and what won't, so yes," the youth answered. As he clicked the option, the staff disappeared just as the sword did. He then heard the voice once more.

You've chosen the power of the warrior. You've given up the power of the mystic. Is this the form you choose?

"Yes, now let's hurry this up!" Shirou answered impatiently as he jumped off of the pedestal. But just as he did, said pedestal along with the other two disappeared. Just as he noticed this, he heard a shattering sound beneath him. Before he could fully comprehend it, the floor shattered beneath him!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH-huh?!" The reason for his confusion was that he landed softly on his feet yet again, with no damage done. "Oi! Next time you send me to another platform, do it without me falling from the sky!" Once he calmed down, Shirou noticed that this platform's appearance was different(such as the blue shading instead of grey). Instead of Aincrad, he saw a futuristic city, and in the circles he beheld the faces of several different people. But more importantly, in the place of Kirito, this platform held the appearance of a boy with spiky blond hair in a long braid dressed in a strange blue outfit, wielding a gun in his left hand. This was the Azure Striker, Gunvolt!

"What the heck?" Shirou commented incredulously. "First Kirito, now Gunvolt? What's next, a Kamen Rider?" His attention was then taken by a flash of lights coming from his right hand, which then became a heavy weight that he was surprisingly able to hold. What was now in his hand was the weapon he picked out earlier, the Dark Repulser.

You have gained the power to fight.

"So, this is my weapon?" Shirou questioned. "How am I even able to hold this in one hand?" As he thought of taking an experimental swing with it, he unknowingly got into a fighting stance with his left foot forward, his sword arm back, and his left hand in front. He then took a sword swing, that lead into a second, then a third swing, with expert skill at that. "Huh?! Since when could I move like that?" After calming down, he proceeded to test out swinging again, this time paying attention so that his mind could catch up with his body.

The results were phenomenal. As he swung more and more, Shirou gradually began to bring his body's movements under his control, making the foreign fighting style his own. "Whoa. Now this could come in handy."

All right! You've got it. Use this power to protect yourself and others.

As the voice finished saying this, something strange happened in the upper-left corner of Shirou's vision. He noticed what appeared to be a black circle appearing and then suddenly rotating before producing a heart in the center of the circle and two short colored bars in the right direction of his vision, one blue and the other green. The heart was mostly blue, though with a small amount of a dark violet. He was surprised by this, to say the least, before the voice spoke up again.

To answer any questions regarding the bars in your vision, the green bar is your Health Meter and the blue bar is your Magic Meter. Whenever you take great damage, you lose HP. And you don't want to know what will happen if it reaches zero. As for the Magic Meter, you will find out in due time.

"Hey! Don't try to sound mysterious again after saying something like that!" Shirou reprimanded, before suddenly feeling a cold chill as he noticed a black, bug-like creature with golden eyes that reached up to about his knee height appear from the ground. This creature was then followed by two more. "Heartless?!"

There will be times that you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong.

Shirou could not fire up any quips at the voice for he was too busy focusing on the Shadow Heartless in front of him. He then quickly cut down one of the Heartless with three slashed before it faded into darkness. When he faced the other two, they dissipated into the ground instead of attacking him. At the end of this little encounter, another screen appeared in front of him with the following messages:

You have gained 30 Lien.

You have recovered 20 HP.

"Okay, now I know I've seen this somewhere before," Shirou quipped before the screen disappeared again. But just as it did, he felt the chill again and looked behind him to see another Shadow. In fact, he was now surrounded by at least ten Shadows!

Keep a keen eye on your surroundings and defend yourself!

The voice's advice was appreciated, but unnecessary, as the youth was already in a flurry of motion. While he wasn't used to so much physical activity at once, his survival instincts had taken over and made him attack the Shadows in a frenzy of slashes. Before he knew it, he had managed to slay all but one of the Shadows, which was just standing idly in front of him. But before Shirou could renew his attack, the Shadow melted into the ground and started to turn the entire platform into a black pool of darkness. Shirou tried to get out of it, but he was quickly pulled in as if he were in quicksand.

Shirou was struggling and squirming, holding in his breath so as to avoid breathing in the dark murky substance, but eventually had to open his mouth and take a deep breath. With this he realized that he was no longer sinking and opened his eyes to find himself lying down on another platform.

"When I said that I wanted a different transition, I didn't mean falling through a pit of darkness," he snarked. Shirou quickly noticed that this platform was different from the previous ones, for instead of one person laying in front of seven circles containing those close to them, the image was that of several icons, symbols, and crests of different beings from all sorts of stories. But the crest that stood out the most was one that he couldn't forget, even if he tried.

The crest would at first appear like a bar-code, until the viewer payed closer attention to the details. For one, unlike regular bar-codes, this one looked a bit like a mask with bug-eyed lenses. Underneath the bar-code were six numbers: 4, 5, 3, 1, 4, 3; from left to right in that order. There could only be one being that this crest could belong to. A certain passing-through Kamen Rider...

"Decade," Shirou gasped. He was not expecting to see this, though at this point it wasn't as surprising as it should have been. He then noticed rays of light all leading towards what looked like a transparent double door. The youth walked up to the door and obviously noticed that he couldn't open it, which lead him to an impasse. He then decided to search around for something that could help him out, and turned around to behold a chest that wasn't there before.

"Okay, I take it that this has something to do with the door?" Shirou commented. He then tried to open it up, but found that the lid would not budge. Just as he was about to give up, Dark Repulser appeared in his hand again. As he was not one to kick a gift horse in the mouth, the youth tapped the sword against the chest, causing it to open. At first it appeared to be empty, but then another screen appeared in his vision with the following message:

You have gained 1x potions.

Right after this message cleared, the door seemed to shine, grabbing Shirou's attention. When the glow faded, the youth beheld a now solid door made of what appeared to be mahogany. "Well, I guess this means that to open things, I just need to tap it with my sword," Shirou remarked. "Now I know that I've seen this before!" Just as he finished this sentence, the double doors opened up to reveal a bright light, causing Shirou to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the light. Once they had done so, he looked at the apparent exit out of this domain in trepidation before making a decision.

"I sure hope that this leads back to normality," he stated before walking into the light.

Elsewhere...

The world of Remnant. Only four bastions of civilization exist in this world, the rest being untamed wilderness owned by the creatures without souls, the Grimm. In one of these four bastions, the Kingdom of Vale, there existed an Academy where young men and women were trained to Hunt the Grimm, in the hopes of one day wiping them out for good. This was Beacon Academy, run by one of the most famous people in the world, Professor Ozpin.

Tonight, however, a bright pillar of light shone near Beacon Academy. Confused and wary, Ozpin watched as it appeared and died down, and immediately headed outside to see what had happened.

Meanwhile, at the location the light had shone, a figure was left unconscious in a small crater. Trembling, he awoke and tried to pick himself up. "W-What?" he asked in shock, stumbling as he got to his feet. He was dressed in a white hoodie with red stripes, a green shirt with white horizontal stripes under that, and beige pants. He had black hair, brownish skin, wore glasses over his brown eyes, and was carrying a backpack on his, well, back.

Who was he? Why, he was me. OathToOblivion. ...And that's enough Fourth Wall breaking for right now, so I'll return to just being the Narrator.

"Just, what was that?" he muttered with slight fear. 'I just...fell through some kind of hole. Now where am I?' He looked around tepidly, and noticed something lying in the crater.

"The Mach Driver. Whatever else happened, at least it survived. I-Okay, 'Ma and 'Pa paid good money for this," he said, picking the roleplay toy based on the latest series of Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Drive, up off the ground. As he did so, he couldn't help but noticed that it felt...weird. But that soon left his mind when something else horrible occurred to him.

"If I ended up here, what happened to everyone else at the convention?!" he realized in horror.

"They probably ended up here too," a voice interjected.

"GAH!" Oath yelled in fright, before whipping around, hands up as if to block an attack. But then, when he saw who it was, he let his arms hang back down to his side. His stare became blank, for he couldn't believe who was speaking.

"Are you alright? Whatever happened to you, it must have been quite a shock," the voice continued.

Oath gulped a bit, before saying his piece. "Yeah...it really was, Professor Ozpin," he agreed. For it was indeed the green-garbed Headmaster of Beacon Academy. He was even clutching a coffee cup, as per usual.

"But, if you're Professor Ozpin, then I'm at Beacon. In Vale. In Remnant." That last part, he muttered to himself. How had he ended up here?

"Hmmm. I bet you're curious how I knew you'd be here," Ozpin stated, walking forward to inspect the crater. "You weren't exactly hard to miss. Yet again, a strange light touches down, and deposits something. Except, this time I've been able to find out what," he murmured.

"I...came down in a light? ...Wait, there have been others?!" Oath realized.

"Yes, actually. One touched down in the forest a few minutes before you arrived. I-"

Ozpin was immediately cut off by Oath's panicking. "If I arrived in a light, then who's to say someone else from the convention didn't too? I gotta find them!" he declared, rushing into the forest, much to Ozpin's shock.

"Wait, come back!" he yelled. But it was too late. The dimensionally-displaced adult vanished into the trees. Ozpin frowned, and immediately headed to his office to see if he could pick up on his movements with his Scroll.

When the light faded, Shirou found himself upon yet another platform, which was again different from the previous ones. The outer ring's circles contained what looked to be anchors, while the rest of the platform contained the image of a man dressed in a silver bodysuit and golden armor. What got the youth's attention was that the armor possessed fifteen helmet-like faces on it, each one unique, but all too familiar to the youth.

"The Armor of the Fifteen Warriors. Combined with that mask, this guy must be Gokai Silver: Gold Mode," he realized, recognizing the Sixth Ranger of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. "Seriously, what's with these platforms that look like dedicated paintings to different heroes?" Then the youth realized something.

"How did I get to this platform? And why do I feel like I just answered some difficult and heart-wrenching questions?" Just as the youth said this aloud, the chilling sensation returned and he soon found himself surrounded by at least nine Shadows. "Oh come on! Can't you guys give me a break?!" Knowing that they wouldn't, Shirou brought out Dark Repulser to do battle once again.

One could not just say that it was as easy as it looked. Despite how it appeared, Shirou was struggling to keep his eyes on every Shadow. The only thing that made this battle his was that for some reason his mind's reaction time seemed to have sped up enough to barely dodge or parry in time. Nonetheless, he managed to slay every Heartless on the platform.

Once Shirou confirmed that all of the Heartless had been slain, he relaxed and took several slow deep breathes. After he recovered, he looked to the side to behold what appeared to be a staircase made out of floating stain glass tiles. Behind the floating staircase, he could see just what the platforms looked like from the side, a big black pillar with beautiful stain glass artwork. "I guess I'll just get up there the old fashioned way, huh?" At this point Shirou was fully willing to accept the strangeness of this unknown dimension, so he just ran up the staircase, though not without caution.

Once he reached the top, he found himself on a red platform, which was quite more different from the rest for it showed two people in the image instead of just one. On the left was a girl with long orange-red hair tied in pigtails, dressed in a black gothic outfit, while on the right was a girl with long chestnut hair, dressed in a flashy women's knight outfit. The girl in black had a large black sword carried in her arms, while the other carried a white one-handed rapier in hers. The youth recognized these girls as Asuna Kagurazaka and Asuna Yuuki respectively, the Imperial Twilight Princess of Mundus Magicus and the White Flash of the Knights of the Blood Oath.

While the image confused him, Shirou's attention was drawn to a warm light that was above in the darkness. He was then caught by surprise when he heard the mysterious voice again, for it had not spoken for a while. Though this time, the message unnerved him.

The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.

Startled by this, Shirou looked behind him to find that his shadow had indeed grown much larger as he got closer to the light. He was then taken by surprise when he noticed that the shadow seemed to come off the ground and become three-dimensional, while retaining its current large size.

"No problem," Shirou stuttered nervously. "I could take on those Heartless, I can take on a giant shado-!" He cut himself off due to the fact that the shadow's form seemed to twist and turn until it took on a different shape.

A familiar shape.

A hauntingly familiar shape. One that filled him up with fear. Of course, anyone who watched Markiplier's Let's Play Videos would be traumatized by the image of an animatronic bear. It didn't help that this one was size of a two-story house!

"Shadow...Freddy...Fazbear," the young man gasped out in horror. As the giant shadow bear slowly raised to it's full height, Shirou barely heard the mysterious voice call out to him.

But don't be afraid. And don't forget...

Whatever the voice was going to say, Shirou didn't hear, as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him away from the giant Shadow Freddy. Unfortunately for the youth, the platform ended in a circle, and there was no sign of the very staircase that brought him there in the first place. Out of sheer survival instinct he brought up his sword in his fighting stance, though his knees were wobbling greatly.

Shadow Freddy made the first move, striking it's right fist at Shirou, who barely managed to get out of the way, raising up his sword out of instinct. He would have gone to strike the giant bear, but his fear was overpowering his logic. The giant bear managed to move its hand out of the ground and then turned towards the youth with the intent to attack once more. The youth managed to muster enough of his courage to prepare his sword to slash the fist just as it came at him.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. As blade and fist met, Dark Repulser shattered to pieces, as the knock-back sent Shirou towards the other side of the platform, still gripping the sword's handle in his right rand. As he lay there on the floor, he idly looked at the remains of Dark Repulser, looking at it with gloom and despair. "Invincible courage? That's a laugh. It couldn't even stand up to my fear," he lamented. He then looked towards the giant Shadow Freddy that slowly came towards him.

"I'm going to die. I'm going to die by the hands of a giant cartoon character. With no idea of where I am, why I'm here, or even if there was ever a way out of here." Shirou closed his eyes for a mere few seconds before they opened with renewed determination. "Like hell!" he declared as he slowly got to his feet, his right hand still grasping the broken sword. "I'm not going to die here! Not when I haven't truly live yet!" He didn't even notice as the broken sword seemed to shine in his hand, while surrounded by several little octagonal lights.

"So what if I'm afraid. Everybody has to face their fears eventually, and I'm no exception!" Shirou got into his battle stance once more, just as the monster raised its fist to punch him again. "I'm going to survive this, and I'm going to find my sister. And then, we're going to go home!" He then screamed as he ran up towards the fist and swung his weapon at the bear's fist. What neither of them realized at the time, much to Shadow Freddy's misfortune, was that the broken sword had been entirely enveloped by a bright light.

Once the light faded, the youth noticed that the giant bear was much closer to the edge of the platform, holding it's right hand in pain. "I, wounded it? How?" He then looked towards his weapon, to his shock was no longer the broken Dark Repulser, but a new, much more powerful weapon.

The weapon in his hand was obviously a sword, which had a black blade with a silver edge. The two parts were separated by a neon blue light trailing the whole blade. The tip of the blade was strange, as it had an odd silver crown protruding from it. The sword's rain guard was neon-blue as well, but had a golden grille on it for some reason. Its cross guard was also gold, and had been shaped to cover its black handle from both the front and backside's of the sword. Protruding from the pommel of the sword, which identified just what it was for the youth, was a silver chain that ended with a key-chain in the shape of a certain cartoon mouse's signature head symbol, but with the addition of a neon blue crown on top.

"A Keyblade?" He didn't know how it was possible for him of all people to be a Keyblade Wielder, but just looking at the other-worldly weapon gave him a new sense of hope. That he could, and would, defeat this monster!

"Okay, time for round two!" Shirou then let out a battle cry as he charged towards Shadow Freddy, who had recovered from the shock of taking pain and tried to harm Shirou again. Keyword being try, as the young Keyblade Wielder managed to easily dodge all of the giant shadow's attacks and retaliated rather efficiently. Unfortunately, Shirou started to grow tired due to all of the activity he had been doing without rest, and was slowly losing his edge. And the giant shadow knew that as well.

As Shirou managed to get away long enough for a breather, he looked towards the monster that was slowly walking back towards him in a confident stride. The young Keyblade Wielder knew that if he didn't manage to slay this monster soon, it would be over for him. But it seemed that it's only major weakness was its face, and he couldn't get up there as it had wizened up to him climbing on its arm to reach it. Shirou then did something that he, shamefully, didn't do often. He prayed. He prayed that some kind of miracle to end the battle would occur.

His prayer was answered.

Just as the giant shadow looked like it would have victory, a huge bust of spiraling black and red flames impacted with it, causing it to fall onto its rear end. Shirou looked towards the source of the attack, but only found slowly fading hetero-chromatic eyes, the left red, while the right was green. He filed this information for later and focused on the monster, which was now stuck on the ground and struggling to get up, with its face wide open for an attack!

"Now's my chance!" Shirou cried as he ran with Keyblade in hand to deliver the final blow. As he did so, he heard the mysterious voice from before.

You hold the mightiest weapon of all.

He grew ever closer to the monster, which seemed to not move as if in resignation.

So don't forget:

"YAAAAAAAGH!" The young Keyblade warrior slashed down on the monster's face, causing it to bust into darkness and release a bright light.

You are the one who will open the door.

It was a short while later, in the Emerald Forest, that OathToOblivion came to a stop. This was primarily to catch his breath, but also so he could berate himself. So, business as usual there...

"What am I thinking?! Just running off into a forest on a wild goose chase, who does that?!" he said to himself. After all, he was somehow in the world of RWBY, Remnant. He'd even met Professor Ozpin of all people! And here he was, defenseless, running off into a forest no doubt filled with Grimm, all over the hopes that somebody else was here and that they possibly knew what was going on.

"But...if whoever that is is as lost as I am, then they need somebody to help them. What else can I do?" he asked himself. He was just about to steel his resolve and rush off, strange noises started going off from within his backpack.

"Woah, what the-?!" he said in shock, before quickly holding his backpack out in front of him, like it was some kind of disgusting piece of trash. "I...did turn my laptop off before I stuck it in there, didn't I? No, that can't be it, I would have felt it if it was still on. What's causing this?" he asked himself in confusion. But something about the noises sounded familiar. He quickly recognized that the only way he was going to find out what was going on was to open the backpack.

Hesitantly, he put it down on the ground, and reached for the zipper. It wasn't even halfway open, when blurs of motion escaped from it and flew up in his face!

"Woah!" he yelled, falling over and onto his back. After grumbling a little in pain, he quickly sat up again. To his surprise, what had caused the noises and had flown into his face was-!

"The Signal Bikes and Shift Cars?! But...Wha...But...HOW?!" he spluttered in shock. For indeed, hovering in front of him were the Signal Bikes and Shift Cars he had bought before the convention he had been at before arriving in Remnant.

Flashback...

"Let's see," he mused as he browsed the online store known as Amazon. "If I'm going to be Mach, I need his gear." Self-explanatory there. How can you cosplay as someone without their stuff?

"Which means I should get the stuff he's used on-screen," he continued. So that meant the Driver, of course, along with the Zenrin Shooter, which came with Signal Kaksarn. To get the rest of the Signal Bikes, Magarl, Tomarle, and Kikern, he'd need the DX Signal Bike and Dead Heat Sets, which also came with the Dead Heat Shift Car, Mach's other transformation Bike/Car, as Signal Mach came with the Driver.

"Man, why did they have to split everything up like that?" he grumbled. He knew why, of course. Money, dear boy. Still aggravating.

"That leaves the Shift Cars he's used," he mused. The Shift Cars Mach had used so far in-show were Max Flare, Spin Mixer, Rumble Dump, and Mad Doctor. Dump and Doctor were fine, as they were the DX Shift Car Set 03. But Mixer was in Set 01, along with Massive Monster and Justice Hunter, Shift Cars that Mach never used.

Oath sighed. "Guess I don't have a choice," he shrugged, adding Set 01. But now came the hard part. DX Max Flare only came with the DX Drive Driver, and he didn't want to get that. Too expensive since he was getting everything else.

"I'm going to have to get the Gashapon verison, aren't I?" he grumbled, searching it up. Being fair, he admitted, the only thing the Gashapon Shift Cars didn't do was twist their backs around with a flick. No, it was a ratchet joint instead. And since the Shift Cars only had to be inserted into the Driver and didn't do anything on their own, it wasn't that bad.

He was still going to grumble, though. But as he looked for Gashapon Max Flare, he came across Gashapon Amazing Circus. Mach had never used Circus, but it had come back to Japan from America with him, so...

"Eh, why not?" he shrugged, adding it in impulsively.

End Flashback...

"But...I bought you guys as toys! How did-?!" He had no way to explain what had happened. But in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but notice the resemblance this had to a bad Self-Insert. Too lazy to come up with a reasonable way of getting the powerset, they resort to just having the toys come to life. Mostly with unreasonable BS like using the Void as an excuse in the ZnT ones.

Gradually, he calmed down. After all that had happened, his capacity to be surprised had been overloaded. He looked at the lot of them. Max Flare and Amazing Circus were lazily flying in circles with the Signal Bikes, but the rest of the Shift Cars were looking straight at him.

As he did, Massive Monster growled belligerently at him. Oath frowned. "I have no idea what you just said, Monster, but I'm getting the distinct feeling you blame me for you guys being here," he said in an annoyed tone.

At an affirmative growl, he continued. "Seriously? I'm a bog-standard human. I'm no genius like Harley Hendrickson or Krim Steinbert. I couldn't have brought you here. More to the point, why would I panic as much as I did if I was responsible?!" Monster went quiet at that. Justice Hunter, his best friend and trusted partner, pulled up next to him and started...honking to him through his siren. Oath still couldn't tell what they were saying, but he got the feeling Hunter was trying to point out the rationale.

While they were focused on that, Rumble Dump had turned to look at where Flare, Circus, and the Signal Bikes were. He made an inquiring honk of his horn, drawing the other Shift Cars and well as Oath's attention.

"What is it, Dump?" he asked, before noticing where Dump's attention had been drawn. "Oh yeah, what's up with Flare and Circus anyway? They've just been messing about with the Signal Bikes. Hey, Flare! Circus!" he called out to them. But the two Shift Cars ignored him, continuing to...almost play with the Signal Bikes.

Oath furrowed his eyebrows and scratched the back of his neck. "Okay, seriously? What's up with them? The only thing I can think of is that...they were Gashapon Shift Cars," he realized.

'Come to think of it, Joker was going to do something with that one Marvel/Drive crossover thing he wanted to do. The OC would have bought a Gashapon Midnight Shadow because he didn't buy the DX Tridoron, so when Shadow came to life, his AI would have been as...quirky as the Signal Bikes',' he thought to himself, thinking of his online friend Symbolic Joker, who he had met at the convention before this all happened.

"Okay, I think I can explain it," he said to the formerly-DX Shift Cars. "Basically, for some reason, Flare and Circus's AIs have regressed into something resembling that of the Signal Bikes. No, I don't know why, although I have a few suspicions." At that, the Shift Cars all slumped in the air and let off sad sounds. Oath then realized that while this meant to him that Flare and Circus were simply idiots, to them it was seeing trusted comrades and friends that they had been built with having undergone the Shift Car equivalent of a lobotomy. To them, Flare and Circus were only shells of their former selves.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you guys," he whispered. Although it was a bit bizarre treating them as real people when they looked like toy cars, he had to admit.

He then turned to Mad Doctor. He knew what the Shift Car could do for people, so... "Doctor, can't you do anything? Your healing prowess-" He was cut off by Doctor's sad wail. Doctor could heal injuries, but something like this that went right to the programming was beyond it. At least, that was what he thought. So as his mind frantically sought out something to take their processors off the subject, he realized something he had forgotten.

"AH!" he cried out in alarm, distracting both the Shift Cars in front of him and the group of Signal Bikes, Flare, and Circus. "I forgot! I was trying to find someone in here! They might have been attacked by the monsters that live in here!" he yelled. At that, he pulled out the Mach Driver from where he had unconsciously put it. Which, come to think of it, he didn't really know where that was...

"If you guys turned real, then this must have!" he declared, putting on the front of his waist. As he suspected (okay, desperately hoped so he didn't get killed), the silver belt strap zoomed out around him and fastened to the other side, securing it to his waist. As he went to raise up the Shift Landing Panel though, he hesitated.

'Do I really want to do this? If I do this, become Kamen Rider Mach, then this is something I'll never be able to turn back from. Am I really worthy of becoming a Kamen Rider?' he thought to himself.

"Who cares about any of that?! Just rush forward at Mach Speed!" a familiar voice rang out faintly in the back of his head. Oath took no conscious notice of it, but he did noticeably grow more determined.

"This is no time for hesitation!" he declared, raising the Panel up. The generic Standby Tune of the Driver played. As it did, Signal Mach rushed to his hand, and he slotted the Signal Bike in.

-SIGNAL BIKE!-

As the Standby changed to Mach's circus-themed one, Oath breathed in heavily, before saying the words that would change his life forever. "Let's...Henshin!" he declared, pushing down the Panel.

-RIDER: MACH!-

With that, the transformation started, a final riff playing from the Driver. A ring of energy formed around him, resembling a tire. Two panels appeared and spun around him, even as the tire ring started separating into a cylinder, creating the main suit. The panels positioned themselves on his right side, front and back. They split apart into their components, before slamming into the forming armor to finish the transformation!

A mainly white and black bodysuit resembling a motorcyclist's, with blue panels on the legs. Red stripes like the ones on the hoodie going up the middle-left of his armor, and on the center of his Innovate Visor faceplate for his V-Helm. His right arm resembled a motorcycle, while the blank Kourin Signal rested on his right shoulder. A gold stamp that contained the Drive System logo in black was stamped on top of his stripes. This was Kamen Rider Mach!

Mach held up his hands to look at them, trembling slightly. "I'm...actually Mach," he whispered. He wasn't sure whether to feel utter dread at the prospect of having to do the fighting he knew was coming, or utter glee at the fact that he was a Kamen Rider.

While doing that, the Signal Bikes all fell into line, and went...somewhere. It seemed to be the same place that he had stashed the Driver. Somehow, he knew that just by thinking about them, he could pull them out whenever he needed. "This is all..." He then shook his head to clear it. Right now, he needed to find whoever had landed here. But at the same time...

"Hey, can I ask you guys a favor?" Mach said, turning to the Shift Cars. Mixer made a sound of inquiry, so he continued. "Can you watch my bag while I go take care of this? I'll call you if I need you," he promised. His response was affirmative honks, and a reluctant growl from Monster. With that done, Mach reached into the bag, and pulled out the Zenrin Shooter, now perfectly sized for his hands.

"Time to go forward at Mach Speed!" he declared, unconsciously hitting the Boost Igniter four times. Well, until he heard it activate as he tried to run forward.

-ZUTTO MACH!-

"Wait, wha-WOOOOAH!" he yelled as he blurred forward in a rush of speed. But even as he did so, something about the Shift Cars had been niggling him in the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite tell what.

Ah well, it probably wasn't important if he forgot.

A few minutes earlier...

At the very top of Beacon Academy lies the office of its headmaster, Professor Ozpin. After the younger man had left in a panic, he took an elevator up to said office. As he reached the floor, someone was already there.

"Glynda, have you got eyes on him?"

Glynda Goodwitch, one of the faculty members of the academy and one of Ozpin's trusted allies, showed him her Scroll, which was playing a live feed. "Since the moment you brought him in."

"Good. It's unfortunate that his impulse took over his reasoning, but it can't be helped."

As the older man sat down at his desk, watching the younger man running further into the forest, Glynda spoke. "Ozpin... So this is the result of those beams of light? People somehow appearing in random locations throughout Vale?"

Ozpin nodded in agreement. "Indeed. But while I was waiting for the young man to regain consciousness, I got a message from General Ironwood."

Turning his head over to her, Ozpin continued. "Atlas has been experiencing the same beams of light as well, also appearing in random locations."

Glynda frowned at the information. "This does not bode well. If there really are people coming out of those lights... who and why were they sent here? What will the appearances of these new arrivals mean for not just our kingdom, but for Remnant?"

Ozpin was about to answer, when he saw the young man opening his backpack and the strange things that flew out. "Whatever the answer is, I believe it is more complicated than we thought... But I think we're about to find out what capabilities these... Arrivals have."

"WOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA-!"

*THUD*

"...Ow."

Mach pulled for a bit, and managed to extricate his head from the tree it had gotten stuck in. "What was I thinking doing that?!" he complained to himself, glaring at the Mach Driver as if it had been the cause. He was about to rush off again - without hitting the Boost Igniter! - when the sound of car horns filled his ears. Flying up to him were Flare and Circus. For whatever reason, they had to decided to accompany him.

"Guys, what are you doing? I told you to watch my bag," he said, slightly irked. All the two did was tilt slightly in the air. If they were human, Mach would have said that they were tilting their heads in puzzlement.

He sighed. He couldn't really get angry with them, not after figuring out that they had had some kind of lobotomy happen to them. He could only hope there was some way to return them to normal. "All right, you can come with," he said wearily, holding his hand out. The two Shift Cars immediately leapt to his hand, and he stashed them away with the Signal Bikes.

"...Where am I even putting them anyway?" Mach wondered. It boggled the mind where they went, especially since the suit didn't have pockets. But after a second of pondering, he hit himself over the head with the Zenrin Shooter to get himself to stop.

"I have got to stop distracting myself like that!" he groaned.

Suddenly, he heard some kind of noise. And it seemed to be close by.

"That can't be good!" he gulped in fear. But he had some confidence that as long as he had the Next System, he'd be fine. So he rushed towards the source of the sound, and burst through bushes into a clearing, finding what looked to be a teenager passed out on the ground! And above him stood a Grimm, about to skewer him with its claws!

"Get away from him!" Mach yelled in panic, shooting the Zenrin Shooter straight at the Grimm. The soulless monstrosity recoiled in pain, even as Mach stared at his arm.

"Damn...didn't think I was that good a shot. Must have gotten lucky," he guessed, before returning his attention to the Grimm. It had recovered from its pain, and rushed forward at him. Mach gritted his teeth in anxiety, and rolled the wheel on the Zenrin Shooter, known as the Zenrin Striker.

-ZENRIN!-

The Grimm roared as it pounced at the Rider. Mach countered that with a mighty punch, the Zenrin Shooter used as a knuckle. The force of the punch sent the Grimm flying back...but also did the exact same to Mach.

"Yikes!" he yelped. He flew backwards until he hit a tree, and fell to the ground. Groaning in pain, he hoisted himself back up to his feet. The Grimm roared, causing him to tense up for what it may or may not do. The Grimm feinted at him, but just as he got his guard up, it changed direction and went right at the unconscious person.

"NOOOOO!" Mach yelled in horror. And at that point, some kind of instinct took over. Almost faster than one could think, he raised the Signal Landing Panel, removed Signal Mach, brought out Amazing Circus from wherever-it-was, slotted the Shift Car in, then closed the Panel.

-SHIFT CAR! TIRE KOUKAN: BIKKURI!-

Even as the blend of Circus's sounds and the Mach Driver's own played and the Kourin Signal changed into the Kourin Signal Bikkuri, complete with Circus's clown face symbol, Mach was already placing Signal Mach into the Zenrin Shooter's own Signal Landing Panel.

-HISSATSU! FULL THROTTLE!-

"HA!" Mach roared, firing off a massive shot at the Grimm. But he wasn't done yet. He quickly hit the Boost Igniter four times.

-KANARI BIKKURI!-

As the shot flew at the Grimm, it suddenly split apart into a barrage of explosive fireworks! The fireworks impacted the Grimm one after another causing it to fly away from the unconscious teen in a trail of explosions. The Grimm roared in pain as it impacted a group of trees and laid there prone. Mach coldly walked up to it. Sure, he probably could have left it alone, grabbed the guy, and left. But this was a Grimm. They had no souls, they were just simply monsters.

And Riders destroyed monsters. "You'll get no sympathy from me, you soulless monstrosity. Time to finish this!" he declared. He raised up the Driver's Signal Landing Panel, hit the Boost Igniter, then pressed the Panel back down in one solid block of motion.

-HISSATSU! FULL THROTTLE: BIKKURI!-

Mach leaped up into the sky, twin fireworks shooting up beside him. A theatrical aura surrounded him; lights surrounding him, fireworks going off, the works. As he leaped up, he spun in a vertical circle, suspended in mid-air for a few seconds. But then he fell down, his right foot extended in front of him into a flying side kick.

"Rideeeerrr KICK!" he declared, impacting the Grimm with a showy and fireworks-laden kick. Like most things hit by a Rider, the Grimm exploded and Mach leaped out in front of the explosion. Of course, most explosions didn't result in fireworks.

"Booyah!" Mach cheered, holding up the Zenrin Shooter in success. As he did so, he suddenly felt incredibly tired. And slightly sick from all the spinning. How did Gou stand it?

So, with no other enemies around, he raised the Landing Panel, removed Circus, then shut the panel. A powering-down noise was heard from the Driver, and the Next System armor disappeared in a flash of blue light.

-OTSUKARE!-

"Phew! That was close," he muttered, before turning his attention to the unconscious guy. He was just about to go pick him up and lug him to Beacon, when a wave of exhaustion overwhelmed him. His vision started blurring, and he knew immediately what was going on. Just like Gou, he couldn't handle the strain of the Next System for that long at first.

"N-No...I need...to get...him...out," he murmured. He inched forward barely a foot, before it became too much and all he saw was black. He too fell unconscious, dropping to the forest's floor.

OathToOblivion: CLIFFHANGER! ...Sorry about that, by the way. But honestly, isn't it more interesting this way? Obviously, you guys who have read the first version know where this is going, but...well, stay tuned! I'd put a next time banner, but we haven't decided fully on what to call the next one, so...bye!

...I'm still wondering why RWBY is in the Anime section of the site though...

Writer Credit (AKA who actually wrote stuff in this chapter): OathToOblivion, Variable Zero, StrangerDenB4

Translation Notes

Kamen - "Mask"

Mahou - "Magic"

Kaizoku - "Pirate"

Henshin - "Transform"

Zutto - "Much"

Zenrin - "Front Wheel"

Kourin - "Rear Wheel"

Koukan - "Exchange"

Bikkuri - "To surprise"

Hissatsu - "The Finish"/"Finisher"

Kanari - "Very"

Otsukare - "Good Work"