Chapter 1: Meeting the New Neighbors

Mato awoke to find himself on fire.

A few seconds of frantic flailing later, he realized it was only his clothes and quickly ripped off the burning sections. He dropped the smoldering fabric into the loose dirt he was standing in. Looking around, he was in a crater, freshly dug by the smoking wreckage of his pod. Mato tsked at the remains of the space ship. It had shattered to pieces upon the impact of landing. Of course it did. He had been given a piece of junk, after all.

Come to think of it, it might have been lucky that he had begun to burn. A space pod's hibernation system ought to wake its occupant a little before landing, but Mato's pod hadn't. He had heard that sometimes pods would fail to break the induced slumber and leave its hapless passenger sleeping until they starved. Catching fire like that might very well have saved his life.

The realization that his life had reached a point where being on fire was a good thing made Mato's mouth curl into a scowl. To distract himself, he surveyed the area around him. There were trees lining the crater, he must have landed in a forest. The stench of the smoldering space pod was preventing him from getting a good smell of this new world's air, so he hoped to the lip of the crater to get clear of the smoke.

At least, that had been what he intended. Instead, he went soaring through the air, easily clearing the treeline. He jerked to a stop in midair, confused. He hadn't jumped with nearly that much force, was there something wrong with his body? But even if there was, from everything Mato had heard prolonged hibernation would only make the body weaker. To be stronger didn't make any sense. Unless… Mato folded his arms and thought deeply. He vaguely recalled some mention of gravity being weaker on other planets, but to this extent?

He drifted back to the crater, having to check his speed to keep from crashing. He landed lightly in a patch of open ground between the gouged out earth and the trees. His first course of action was clear. Whatever the reason for it, he had to correct the abnormalities in his movements before he could do anything else. He took a stance and began a set of strikes. It was ugly. His kicks flew off course from the unexpected speed they had, his punches left him off balance and stumbling. Mato grit his teeth and repeated the set. And again, and again, until his pace began to restore itself. Enheartened by his progress, Mato expanded his variety of techniques and pursued his hypothetical enemy into the air.

Mato "killed" his imaginary foe with a particularly powerful punch and hovered for a moment, grinning widely. His body felt so unbelievably light, it was like he had shed chains that had been binding him all his life. He was reaching speeds he'd never thought he could, not without years upon years of training. And, he inhaled deeply through his nose, this world's air smelled good. It wasn't like he had a world other than Planet Vegeta to compare it to, but he liked the smell of it. It smelled of untamed wildlands and fertile soil and deep water. There was a faint stench of something unpleasant, but what it was he couldn't quite determine.

That aside, he liked the smell of this place. He felt like it smelled like home, although now that he thought of it, he couldn't quite recall what Vegeta smelled like. And I can never go back to check.

His previous good mood withered into bitterness. As if to reinforce his poor situation, his stomach began to growl. Right, Mato had heard of this, hibernation-hunger. Though the forced slumber slowed your metabolism to a crawl, it didn't stop outright like in genuine stasis. That was one reason proper hibernation systems woke the occupants before they arrived, to give them time to eat and regain their strength before landing.

Speaking of which… Mato descended back to the wreckage of his craft. There should have been some rations packed in with him. They'd taste like crap, but would have all the nutrients he needed to tide him over until he could get some real food. He rooted through the twisted, scarred metal, seeking the rations and anything else useful that might have been in the pod. He found a single ration bar, the rest ruined by dirt and fire, and nothing else of value. It's not like there'd be a scouter or anything, he told himself.

The bar was a good start, but three bites of food didn't come anywhere close to filling his empty belly. Luckily, he sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose, it seemed a meal was coming to him. Assuming he wanted to eat it, that is. The approaching stench was unmistakably the source of that foul undercurrent he had picked up earlier. He hopped back to the lip of the crater, landing where he intended to this time, to greet whatever it was.

They emerged from the shadows of the trees slowly, the pack fanning out to encircle him, though they didn't descend into the crater to fully surround him. They were unusual creatures, that was for sure. With their size and long limbs ending in claws they almost resembled vran, but with black fur instead of scales and odd bone protrusions jutting from their bodies. And the mask-like structures, which were oddest of all. However, like vran the biggest seemed to be in charge, standing at the back of the pack and growling what sounded like orders.

The growls stopped when Mato beheaded it with a kick. The not-vran's head went tumbling into the underbrush as the rest of the pack turned, oh so slowly. They hadn't even followed his movements at all, confirming Mato's tentative theory. A planet with weak gravity had weak inhabitants. Still, he couldn't fault their courage. Even with the alpha easily slain in front of them, they came on to devour him or die trying. As a reward, Mato decided to use a little extra power on them. He swept his hand out, raking the ground in front of him a wave of ki and obliterating both the beasts and trees in a wide crescent.

Mato sat down on the fallen corpse of the alpha and deliberated. Up close, the creature smelled even worse than it had from a distance, though strangely Mato still couldn't sniff out why other than that it was just plain foul. He couldn't decide to eat it regardless or to see if he could hunt down something more palatable. Another growl from his stomach decided it for him. He could always hunt down something else after he was more fed.

Mato reached down and easily ripped a limb free from the creature. He brought it to his mouth and after a moment of trepidation sank his teeth into the leg. He immediately spat it back out, almost gagging. That tasted awful, almost like it had rotted even as he bit into it. Looking closer, that might not be hyperbole. Around where he had bitten the limb was dissolving into thin air. A quick glance at the stumps of the severed leg and head confirmed this to be related to injury, though even the undamaged parts of the corpse were beginning to go.

So animals on this world dissolved when killed. That was going to make hunting difficult. It raised a number of questions too, like how could anyone eat meat here. Those not-vran had been clearing hunting him and had the teeth of carnivores, so there had to be some creatures here that could be consumed. Perhaps it was only that particular species that faded away, or maybe there was some special method of killing prey required to prevent the immediate decay.

Well, there was only one thing for it. He would have to find the natives. They would have food and, he glanced down at himself and grimaced, a change of clothes.

Mato rocketed from the ground, leaving his pod far behind. High in the sky, he spotted water in the distance. From its size, it looked to be a sea or ocean. Perfect. Mato flew towards it, the miles vanishing beneath him. Living beings required water and subsequently cities tended to be built on coasts. If he followed it long enough, chances were good he could spot some habitation below him.

After some time in the air, his hunch was confirmed. Below him was a sizable city, with plenty of people scurrying around like bugs from his vantage point in the sky. So there were sentient life forms on this mudball after all. Ones with at least some technology, he mused eyeing the buildings that reached into the sky with glittering facades of glass and metal. There were several enticing smells wafting up to him even this far up, so at least finding something to eat wouldn't be hard. He didn't have anything to buy food with, but he suspected that wasn't going to matter. With a feral grin he wondered if anyone down there could really stop him.

Velvet was enjoying a rare day off lounging and watching the passersby on the streets of Vale while waiting for her teammates. The four of them had agreed to all do their own thing, though Fox and Yatsu went off together somewhere, and meet back here in the square before going to see the new Spruce Willis movie together. Unlike Coco, Velvet's shopping had been rather brief, so for lack of anything better to do she decided to just go to the meeting point ahead of time and enjoy the fine weather. If she had any complaints, it would be that she had forgotten to bring her camera with her today.

All of the sudden her scroll buzzed, it was a message from Coco. Probably a change of plans or some new style she had just found that Velvet just needed to come check out.

It wasn't. "Meet me outside of Stevenson's, urgent." The curtness of the message more than anything else indicated its seriousness. If Velvet recalled correctly, Stevenson's was one of Coco's favorite clothing stores and not too far from where Velvet was now.

As she neared her destination, her path was obstructed by a police barricade. They were blocking off the road and a small crowd had gathered to see what was going on. Velvet could see that past the blockade was another one facing the other direction, with the two of them creating and open stretch of ground clear of bystanders. With a sinking feeling, she realized this blocked off area was centered on the entrance to Stevenson's.

Yatsu, towering over the officers manning the blockade, got her waved through with some murmured words in the man's ear. He led the way to Coco and Fox waiting on the opposite side of the street from Stevenson's. "What's going on?"

"There's been a robbery." Coco explained. "A Faunus with 'wild black hair and a tail coiled around his waist' stole some food from a nearby restaurant."

The rest of Team CFVY exchanged looks. That seemed a bit underwhelming for this sort of situation. "Is that really all that happened?" Yatsu asked.

Coco shook her head, her brow furrowing behind her shades. "It's more of how he did it. He walked into the place, shoved someone aside, ate from their plate, and repeated that five times. Anyone who tried to stop him got thrown aside or knocked out. Some police arrived on the scene and he beat them into unconsciousness with one blow each."

"Why would he do such a thing?" Yatsu asked in that slightly scary tone of voice he got when he was angry.

Coco shrugged. "Who knows? He wanted to eat without paying and didn't mind hurting people to do it. Anyway, the police have been following him from a distance and he went in there." Coco nodded at Stevenson's. "They were planning on calling in Huntsmen from Beacon, so I volunteered us."

"Then let's go." Yatsu concluded. His hand was already on the hilt of his sword as he began to walk forward. Coco bade him stop with an upraised hand.

"Hold it. There are still shoppers inside that could get dragged in if we start a fight carelessly. Whoever he is, his strength is clearly not ordinary; no doubt he has at least some huntsman training. We need to handle this carefully." Coco delivered orders quickly and concisely. "Yatsu, you and Fox will go in and confront him. Try to get him outside without alerting the other shoppers and getting them involved then Velvet and I will bring him down." It was only after the male duo departed that that Coco noticed. "Velvet, where's your case?"

"I left it at Beacon." Velvet admitted sheepishly. Yet another situation where she was found wanting. Those seemed to be happening more often than not lately.

Coco sighed. "Well, it shouldn't matter. Honestly, Yatsu and Fox ought to be able to handle this thief on their own. I'm just being a little overly cautious, I think."

Seeing Yatsuhashi flying backwards through the storefront, Velvet had to disagree.

Mato examined his new clothes in the shop's mirror. The people of this world may be weak, but they could make some good clothing. And the food, gods, he had never tasted such a variety of flavors in a single dish. And when he'd finished and resisted the urge to lick the plate clean the next plate he'd grabbed had been even more delicious. Really, not killing the idiots who'd tried to interrupt his meal was an amazing exercise in self-control.

Mato shook his head and returned to the task at hand. His new clothes. They weren't bad, certainly, it's just they weren't what he was looking for. This was the second shop he'd entered and neither of them had had clothing made for fighting. There weren't any training gi or jumpsuits, much less armor. Sure, he could still fight in what he was wearing, but they weren't ideal for that. The pants were made of some odd blueish material and the long shirt he has found seemed rather flimsy. Still, they would keep him warm when it was cold and not overheat him when it was hot, so he couldn't really complain.

"It's time you were leaving." A voice said. Unlike for the food, the people within this shop hadn't been harassing him. Most of them had been content to ignore him. This newcomer was different than the rest of the shoppers in a number of ways beyond just that. He stood tall and with the muscular build of a seasoned fighter, the man beside him with the unusual eyes having the same build. The large bladed weapons they carried were even more proof that these two were accustomed to battle. Still, they were irrelevant. Mato could tell even just by sight that they were vastly inferior to him.

Mato folded his arms as he regarded his reflection. The main problem with his new outfit was that it was just a little too large. Not so large that it was a big issue, but it was definitely noticeable. Well, it couldn't be helped really. The next smallest size started to impede his mobility, so he'd just have to make do with the poor fit for now. Later he could find something better.

"I said-" The big man put his hand on Mato's shoulder. This time, Mato's reaction was immediate. He spun and drove his foot into the man's stomach, sending him flying through the large window next to the shop's entrance. The man's companion swung his odd swords, but so slowly. Mato causally leaned out of their path and, arms still folded, knocked his legs out from underneath him with one kick and with another sent him flying to join his friend. As a kindness to the shop owner, Mato made a point of flinging him through the same hole that the larger man had made. Mato doubted that would be sufficient to put the two of them down, so he lightly hopped out of the shop to settle things. A fight would be just the thing to break his new clothes in.

Outside, the bustling city street was no longer bustling. A quick glance down the road showed the local law enforcement was keeping people from entering this area. They had been preparing for this encounter, it seemed. Mato wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, them taking special precautions showed they respected his power. On the other hand, them only sending these two chumps showed they didn't respect his power nearly enough. There were two women helping their, presumably, comrades off the ground but they were as weak as the two men.

Mato suddenly had an idea. It was a neat way to reinforce his superiority to the locals and it would make a fight as one sided as this actually somewhat interesting for him. He wouldn't unfold his arms, he'd defeat all four with just his legs. That should prove a reasonable handicap, not that it would do them any good.

The woman wearing the shaded lenses gave some quick orders and the team sprang into action. The big man approached from the front while the other man and the woman with the unusual ears split up to flank Mato's sides. The leader stayed in the back. Only three on one? They're still underestimating me. Mato let some ki trickle through his body, flowing out of his arms and down into his legs.

The big man struck first, with a sudden burst of speed to close and a massive overhand attack with his sword. Mato neatly sidestepped the blow and simply weathered the shockwave it created when it impacted the ground. The big man then slashed sideways, which Mato easily leapt over. Mato floated instead of falling and used the extra height to land a kick on the big man's head. There was something that felt off about the hit, however.

The other two rushed Mato at the same time. Their attacks were good, arranged so that evading them while remaining in the same spot would be impossible. So Mato didn't even try, and instead blocked the man's movements by stopping his wrist with one leg and kicking the woman away with the other. He brought his free leg around and caught the man under the chin, sending him flying as well. Again, his blows didn't feel like they were really connecting.

The big man was up again and charged with his sword. Losing interest in playing around, Mato simply concentrated more ki into his leg and stopped the weapon mid swing with his shin. He rose on the stunned fighter and hammered him into the ground with a kick that caught him between the shoulder and neck. Something flickered right as he connected. It almost looked like some kind of barrier. Perhaps that was why his attacks weren't feeling like they were landing properly, if the inhabitants of this world were using energy barriers. That would also explain why they were so weak, barriers could take a lot out of you depending on how strong they were.

When the other two tried to rush to their companion's side Mato was able to confirm his hypothesis with the kicks that dropped the two of them as well. They did indeed have some kind of invisible barrier that was shielding them from the bulk of the damage they took. However, that reduction had its limits and enough force could break the barrier itself into pieces. It would be a fairly safe assumption to believe all fighters on this world used that ability.

The three that had challenged him were staying down. Mato tsked, he hadn't hit that hard. The sound of whirring metal caught his attention and he turned to see the last fighter's handbag transforming into a weapon roughly four times its size. Mato took a second to try to wrap his head around the violation of the laws of physics he had just witnessed while the barrel of the weapon slowly began to spin. Mato felt no danger; it was just another one of this world's weak projectile weapons.

The hail fire of death that spat out of the barrel proved him wrong.

In the safety of the air hundreds of meters above the ground, Mato unclenched his fists, now full of metal pellets. He had first intended to dodge each individual shot, but the rate of fire was too much for that. He had been forced to defend himself with his hands, and even that would have proven insufficient if he hadn't resorted to using the body flicker technique to evade. It was a rudimentary technique, just a simple trick for increasing movement speed pretty much every saiyan knew, but the fact that he had had to use it against this primitive irked him. Though not nearly as much as… he tapped a tear in his new shirt and his finger came away red.

Mato dropped like a rocket, landing so hard he kicked up a cloud of debris. Barely before the dust settled and the woman could spool up her weapon again he had driven his fist into her stomach. The power behind the blow was strong enough to sending her flying into one of the vehicles that comprised the barricade. The vehicle itself slid backward a meter or so from the force of the impact. Mato held his stance for a long moment, the battle haze slowly clearing from his mind. He shook his head to clear it.

The woman wasn't moving from within the twisted ball of metal he had slammed her into beyond the rise and fall of her chest. Her companions were likewise on the ground immobile. His battle won, Mato used body flicker again to leave the area, though to the eyes of the watching natives it probably looked as though he had simply vanished.

In an alley nearly a mile away, Mato chastised himself. The bullet had grazed him, nothing more. It had drawn about as much blood as a bug bite. Something like that making him lose his cool was a sign he lacked discipline. A little voice inside his head reprimanded him.

It was your own fault. You assumed they could not possibly match you and your arrogance cost you. Does that sound familiar?

Mato growled in irritation but didn't argue. His father had always said the only person Mato couldn't argue with was himself.

Still, that weapon had taken him completely off guard. The rule of thumb in the greater galaxy was that blasters were better than the simpler, primitive solid-projectile weapons. Certainly, the weapons the lawmen on this planet paled in comparison to the blasters Mato had seen the rare times Trade Organization goons had come to Planet Vegeta. But that gun had been different.

It occurred to Mato he still knew almost nothing about this planet. Its name, what the natives were called, whether they were a part of the galactic community, and a number of other important questions needed answering if he was going to live here. And if they did turn out to be spacefaring, maybe he didn't need to live here.

Mato stood. It did no good to sit here speculating. There was only ever one way to get answers. You had to ask the questions.

The man in the suit walking down the street probably didn't expect for an alien magnitudes stronger than anyone else on the planet to appear before him, grab him by the waist and disappear moving at blinding speed up the side of the skyscraper they were in front of. Hopefully, Mato thought as he dropped the hapless passerby, he would consider this unexpected turn just part of the spice of life.

He didn't. Instead the older man was terrified, scuttling backwards until he ran into something solid, with eyes the size of plates. You could smell the fear rolling off him.

Mato sighed. Might as well get this over with. "What's this planet called?"

The man looked at him like he had grown another head. "W-what?"

Oh gods. "This planet. What. Is. It. Called."

"R-R-Remnant."

"Remnant, huh?" Mato said to himself, folding his arms. "A remnant of what?"

"What?" His unwilling informant asked.

"Nothing." Mato focused back on him. "What is the dominant species on this planet?"

"I…I…" His eyes danced around frantically, like he was trying to find a way to escape without showing he was. Mato's tolerance for his cowardice was waning fast.

"Your species! What is it!?"

"I- human." The man covered his head with his arms and cringed away from Mato. "Oh god, please don't kill me!"

Mato stared at him flabbergasted. What the hell is wrong with him? It was just some simple questions. They were going to get nowhere like this. He let out a long breath. "What's your name?"

"Huh?" The man looked as though he was surprised to still be alive. "My name?"

"Yeah. What am I supposed to call you?"

There was a long pause. "Roy. Roy Akasha." He still looked fearful, but at least he had stopped trembling.

"Nice to meet you Roy. I'm Mato. Mato Z-" Mato began before he remembered. "Just Mato. Listen, I've had a very long and frustrating last couple days." That was putting it mildly, really. "Right now, I just need answers to some very simple questions. However, if getting those answers is gonna be like pulling teeth I'm liable to lose my patience and take my frustrations out on you. Got it?"

"Y-yeah, I got it." Odd, Roy looked calmer after Mato had threatened him than he had before. Humans it seemed were a strange bunch.

"Good. Now, do you humans have space flight capabilities?"

This time Roy answered quickly and without stammering, though he still looked surprised. "No, we do not."

Mato's mood soured. It was what he had expected, but even so… "Just to be sure, your species has no knowledge of life on other planets?"

"Well, we assume that there are some, but no, we've never proven it." Mato swore in the privacy of his mind. Of all the places he could have ended up, he had to land on a damned mudman planet. So, he's never going to be able to leave this world. He's stuck here, forever. Roy was looking at him funnily.

Mato focused on the present. There was still more he wanted to know. Unfortunately, Roy was decidedly not a fighter. Asking him about power levels and weaponry would probably just be a waste of time. "What kinds of animals on this planet are edible?" The food he had taken earlier had contained meat, so there were at least some creatures on this mudball that could be eaten.

"All of them?" Roy hazarded, sounding uncertain. "I mean, if you cooked them I would say you could eat pretty much anything."

"Hmm, then I don't suppose you know how to prepare the beasts with black fur and bone protrusions?" Mato asked offhandedly. Roy gaped at him.

"You- you mean Grimm?" Roy sounded incredulous.

"Black fur, white masks, red eyes?" Mato offered.

Roy shook his head stunned. "Grimm are monsters, made of pure evil. Of course you can't eat them."

Pure evil, huh? Primitives often concocted such legends about the monsters of their worlds. More likely these Grimm were simply aberrant life forms their science couldn't explain so they invented a mythology around them to fill the knowledge gap. Well, hyperbole or not, the fact that they weren't edible was clear. Still, from Roy's words it wouldn't be hard finding other things to eat.

Mato lost track of time as they talked on, Mato asking and Roy answering as the sun set behind him. He told Mato about this world's governments, the kingdoms that had divided civilization between themselves and the vast expanses of no man's land beyond their borders. He explained the 'dust' that served as vital fuel for all Remnant's technology and weaponry, explaining the minor mystery of that woman's weapon. That woman was apparently one of this planet's warriors, termed Huntsmen and Huntresses. Mato had had to suppress a patronizing smile at that. If that was what Remnant considered a warrior, they were in for a rude awakening someday.

The gloom of dusk began to lighten and Mato remembered a rather pressing question. "Do you know the lunar cycle? How long it is and when the next full moon would be?"

Roy had long since ceased to look surprised at Mato's questions. "I think it's four weeks long." He leaned around Mato to take a look. "It's not full now, but I'm not sure when the next full moon will be." If it wasn't full now, there was no harm in looking. All saiyans were intimately familiar with the phases of the moon; Mato might be able to work out how long he had on his own. He turned to see the moon behind him and gaped.

It was broken. The moon hung in the sky in pieces. How was that possible? Did some calamity tear it to pieces without disturbing its orbit, as impossible as that sounded? Would a moon like this even release Blutz waves? And if it didn't, would that be a problem? Transforming, and losing all sense and reason was dangerous, especially here on a world filled with potential enemies. Typically people were poorly disposed to rampaging monsters and felt inclined to act when that monster shrank into a much weaker state.

Mato had learned a great deal, his brain felt filled to bursting. Hypotheticals and plans danced around his head without pause. He had more questions to ask, but knew it would be worthless. Right now he needed to take a step back and digest what he had already learned. He stood. "Well Roy, it's been educational talking to you, but I've had my fill for the evening." Mato hopped into the air over the edge of the rooftop.

"Wait!" Mato slowly rose back until he was on Roy's level again. The man looked nervous, but determined. "You need to take me with you. I can't get down otherwise."

Mato compared the quietly resolute face before him with the gibbering wreck he had grabbed not even thirty minutes ago. Weak as they were, humans at least had some nerve. Mato wrapped an arm around Roy's waist. "Fine, but if you scream I'm dropping you."

Roy did scream a little on the way down, but he jammed a hand over his mouth so Mato accepted the good faith effort. After depositing the human safely on the ground, Mato raced back to the rooftops. His little performance in the street today made sticking around in the public eye not a great idea.

Back in the sanctuary height provided him, Mato considered his next move. As if on cue, his stomach started to growl.

AN: So this is the crossover I just had to make. It might be stupid, it might be great, we'll see.

A quick note about the DBZ aspects of this story. Remnant basically replaces Earth, so there's no chance of Goku or Krillin or them turning up. Otherwise, Frieza's empire, the namekians, kais, etc. are all around. The saiyans haven't been exterminated by Frieza either.

I'm really happy with Mato's name, it manages to fit both RWBY's color theme naming and the saiyans vegetable theme. Roy means red and his surname Akasha is a reference to the akashic records, which supposedly contain all knowledge. I thought that was fitting for a character who's only purpose was to be a walking info dump.