Hello, and welcome...to the prologue of Project HD RPG. Also, merry Christmas/happy holidays (covering all my bases with this one. If you don't celebrate this time of year, I do sincerely apologize).

Anyways, in case you ask, read any of my previous stories, and/or voted on my poll: no, this doesn't mean that the next story from the poll (which I forgot to close until Monday, but the results were still the same as far as what won was concerned) is going to happen immediately. I am still going to be working on the other projects I have going on right now, namely Project Himebana (need two more chapters) and Project Global (if any readers of that story are reading this, I am working on it as quickly as I can while celebrating the holidays right now). Once Himebana concludes, the main event for the project and the latter project from above will be my main concerns.

The above was mainly for those who read my work from before. Regardless, this is a sort of gift for the readers. A weird sort of gift, but one nonetheless.

If you're new to the story idea, let me welcome you to it. Given the nature of the crossover, there's not much I can say about it except...

...well, it works somehow. Can't go into the specifics, but it works.

Anyways, enough about my ramblings, I need to explain the premise of this story: this is basically going to be a collection of entries featuring four of five characters going into the main story. This is essentially going to work out like the RWBY trailers back then, showing each character based on their current situation in their chapter as well as establishing some materials canon to the main story.

So without further ado, let's get started, and please feel free to let me know if this makes any sense.

[Disclaimer: I do not own any characters featured in this story except the OCs I've made. All characters featured in this story and not one of my OCs belong to their respective owners.]

XXXXXXXXXX

Witch #1: The Shy Sniper (Planeptune)

You must fight with honor. Integrity. And above all, be proud of being a Witch.

I never really thought about why Sakamoto-sensei said that to me back in one of my training classes with her. It made almost no sense to me; why say something like that?

"Hey," my companion, IF, said to me as we were perched on a branch, looking out at the forest we had been sent to defeat some monsters. "You okay, Hikari?"

"Hmm?" I asked her quickly as I turned to face her. She wore a black tank top and a pair of short shorts that seemed to be fused into one article of clothing. There was a belt around her waist that had a buckle with the letters I and F on it. Over her body was a oversized, dark blue jacket with black, silver, and white detailing. She didn't have it buttoned up or anything, and there was a belt around it that was loosely opened. It seemed to carry what she had referred to as "cell phones", each being in a little carrying device colored (and I had to check the colors with her to make sure) blue, light blue, green, black, magenta, white, lime green, orange, and light pink.

I don't really know why she had so many of these "phones"...

The last thing I should probably note for her clothes was that she wore boots that seemed to match her outfit.

As for her physical features, she seemed to have emerald eyes and light brown hair down to her waist. I could see that most of her bangs were long and reached down to her eyes, either curling outward or inward towards her face.. There seemed to be a split in the upper left corner of her face. She also had some of her hair reaching down to her chest, some of them even being put into a ponytail that rested on the left side of her head. Holding that ponytail was a leafy green hair piece.

"I asked if you were okay," IF told me. "You looked a little worried there."

"I'm fine," I told her slowly. I wasn't entirely comfortable around strangers, and even though I've known IF for a while now it wasn't enough to make me relax a lot.

"You sure?" IF leaned in a bit and took a good look at me. "You're not...thinking of someone, are you?"

"Not really...?" I looked down at my clothes. I wore what seemed to be a sailor's shirt that was a little big on me along with white loafers, the shirt having blue cuffs, blue detailing, and a blue collar. Like one of my parents, I wore a pair of white socks up to my mid-thighs, though I wore a black one-piece swimsuit underneath my shirt. Slung on my back was a sniper rifle IF had found from one of her excursions. The only reason she gave for handing me it was because she had no use for it because of her current weapon set. To be fair, I did admitted (rather hesitantly) that I knew how to operate one.

The rifle itself was a little weird. It had a sort of magazine for it that seemed to be able to carry up to five rounds. According to IF, it was a model they called "Sniping Peashooter", and the name wasn't far off: it looked like someone had developed it based on what a particular plant looked like. The stock was a rather wooden one that had been etched into to make shapes that resembled roots, the barrel looked a bit like it was a stem, and the muzzle of the rifle was made to look like a pink flower. The magazine itself looked like it was shaped like a blocky leaf.

The strap that was attached to it looked like it was a vine, so there was more to make me believe that it looked odd.

IF sighed as she said, "Look, I know it's not my business to pry, but try not to let it get in the way of the job, alright?"

"Job?" I asked her.

IF grabbed the phone out of her light blue carrier and took a quick look at its screen. "We're going to be hunting some X-Boxers, so be on your best guard."

"Okay." I watched as IF slipped off the branch and landed on her feet gently. I followed suit and felt my uniform flutter through the air before I landed on my feet as well, a little less gracefully than my current partner. We then started walking through the forest. "So what do they...look like?"

"You'll know it when you see it. I am curious, though: when I met you, you had some sort of animal ears on top of your head and a tail. Care to explain?"

"Hmm? Oh...my familiar?"

"Is that what you call it? Usually, when I think of a familiar, 'animal features on the master's body' isn't my first choice of understanding it."

"It's rather...hard to explain to a person outside of our culture, but...in a nutshell, they're animals we form connections with. With our familiars...we're able to use our magic to the best of our abilities."

"Ah. A bit like a goddess around here, right?"

"Goddess?"

"Right." IF sighed. "Look, around here there are four goddesses, one for each landmass. Their job is to protect their landmass and preside over them. That's a quick summary of it, but there's a lot more than that. For instance, there's the Shares system, the battles they've been in..." IF then spotted something up ahead. "Look, there's one of them. We'll go in quietly and take it out. We're lucky, we'll get a Symbol Attack and maybe get an X-Boxer Soul as a battle reward."

"Reward?"

"Yeah. Think of it as like a trophy. We'll also get some credits out of the battle as well."

"Oh. That seems understandable, but...how do you get a...Symbol Attack?"

"That's simple. Just strike the enemy before they engage you."

"Okay..." I looked ahead and saw that there was a weird-looking skeleton in our path, wearing a pair of red boxing gloves over its hands.

That must be an X-Boxer, then...

Cautiously, I inched my way towards it as I slipped the sniper rifle off of my back. It didn't seem like it was going to engage me yet (or really think I was a threat), so I think I was in the clear.

I beared the rifle against it and watched as it noticed my presence and looked to get ready to attack.

I only had one shot to pull it off.

I pulled the trigger and was met with a resounding ding as the Boxer was blasted a bit back.

[SYMBOL ATTACK!]

Those words popped up across my vision, and I shook them away quickly as I watched a few new icons appear in my sight. I had a little section for the Boxer's health and a blue bar I had no idea about in the upper left corner while the upper right corner seemed to keep track of turn orders. Along the bottom were mine and IF's health and SP bars (she had explained rather briefly that they were for skills). Down in the lower left corner were some names that I couldn't quite understand what they were referring to, but I chose not to worry about them right now.

The X-Boxer turned and looked at me before IF came in from above and struck at it a few times.

"I'll hold its attention," she told me. "You work on picking it off from a distance."

"Right..." I replied as I aimed carefully and took a deep breath.

I have a few more shots, but I need to line them up just right. If I don't, then IF's life is in danger...

I watched as the X-Boxer swung a left hook at my partner, but she dodged it gracefully as she slashed at it while going around its back. I took the chance to shoot it in its head. It stumbled back a fair bit but was still alive.

IF took the moment to strike at it some more and used some sort of fire magic she referred to as "Demon Flames" to strike it some more, making it go into the air. I looked at it and shot a few more rounds at it, missing with one but hitting it in the ribs somewhere with the second one. This kept it in the air a bit longer before it came back to the ground hard. As it struggled to get back on its feet, I couldn't help but feel sorry for hitting it like that. I know that if this was a normal world that I'd be dead from the headshot alone.

"Good work, Hikari," IF praised me. "I think that gun's rather good for the moment. Well, for a level one newcomer, I mean."

"Thanks..." I said slowly. I then looked at the X-Boxer once it managed to get back on its feet. "Um, IF...?"

"I think I have an idea. I'll get it airborne again, you shoot at it with your best shot."

"Okay..."

IF ran up to it and performed a few more slashes at it before backing up and using her spell again to send it up into the air. I stomped my left foot into the ground ahead of me as I aimed at the enemy.

One more shot...make it count...

"Precision Shot!" I called out as I started glowing white and felt my familiar appear on my body. They were the ears and tail of a shiba inu.

Firing the gun, I felt little recoil as a white burst of light zomed out from the barrel and went straight through the X-Boxer. Soon, I watched as the enemy disappear in a flash of light while dropping some things on the ground. Sheathing her weapons under her sleeves, IF calmly walked over to the things and picked them up.

"Impressive, so that's what it does..." she said.

I slipped the gun onto my back and placed my right fist on my chest, giving off a cute smile as I replied with, "It's nothing, though..."

"Nothing? You fought rather...well, for around here, you fought well. Now..." IF reached for her blue carrier and pulled out the phone in there. "Since we're a party at the moment, we'll have to manage our resources together."

"So how much more?" I was curious: she never said how much we needed...did she?

"Well, we need to defeat enough to get two Boxer Souls. We already have one along with some credits for the fight, so...that could range from another battle to about...twenty?"

For someone who I barely met for a while now, she sure knows what she's doing. "So that's it?"

"Well, basically. I'm sure I found another not too far from here. We'll head over and get that one too. It'll take a little while for them to respawn."

"...Respawn?"

"They come back after a while." IF then raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you don't know what that mean?"

"Slightly? I mean, usually...when we kill something it...stays dead. Except for the Neuroi sometimes. I remember my parents telling me tales of Neuroi they fought...where the armor regenerated."

IF closed her eyes as if in thought. "Hmm...the Neuroi sound a lot like what we deal with."

"Oh, they can get big. Like...about a third of this landmass or...over half the size of this forest. It's closer to the forest part usually..."

"That big, huh?"

XXXXXXXXXX

About three battles later, and we got enough Boxer Souls to go turn in the quest back in the city and receive our reward, which seemed to go into IF's account.

"Rather good so far," she told me as she was busy flicking through the screens at the Guild for any new requests. "Dogoo hunting earlier, Boxers just recently...what else is there to do?"

"We could celebrate," I told her. "I mean, it's not too much, but..."

"Hmm?" IF sounded surprised.

"...What is it, IF?"

"There seems to be a few new quests on the Guild's Quest Board. Seems like it's in a new location I haven't been to. Let's see...Pixelvaders...Clydes...Miss Clydes...where exactly did this place come from?" IF manipulated the screens to see what reports concerning it said, giving off an air of confusion. "How can it just appear out of nowhere? There had to be a reason for it..."

"So what now?" I asked.

"Well, it's a new quest, and it seems like people want it to be checked out. I say we go in and take a look ourselves tomorrow. We'll have to get there bright and early."

"So what do you want to do until then?"

"Well, we should get some food. We still need to eat and regain our energy from fighting."

"Ah. Erm...do you mind telling me more about this world?"

"Sure. Nothing better to do, anyways."

"Thanks..."

"No problem."

XXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, IF and I were at the mouth of the cave that had been found, staring down into its depths.

"I hope we have more than enough supplies for the trip," IF said to herself.

"Why?" I asked. She had told me about the prospect of a "GAME OVER" yesterday, but I was still rather curious about the repercussions of it.

"You're not exactly a tank, I'm more of a damage-dealer, and we don't really have any healing abilities beyond items."

"Erm..." I was about to say something but realized that I had a problem: while I had inherited my parents' magic abilities, I had tried using my healing magic to fix a small cut a while back. However, I couldn't do that for some reason. The only skill I could do according to IF was a skill called "Precision Shot" (she had access to my skills and other things via her phone, so she could take a look herself), and that was some time before that fight with the first X-Boxer.

"Anyways," IF started walking into the cave, "we've got a lot of things to do down here, so let's make this quick."

"Right..." I followed her carefully, my rifle patting my back gently.

The shy sniper, born of two women via magic. Despite her timid nature, she has a heart of gold and cares deeply about her friends, even opening up to them after a while. She is only one of five people whose interfering presence in Gamindustri will shape the future of what's to come.

XXXXXXXXXX

And there's the first of the characters. This is not representative of the whole story, but this purpose is to give you an idea of the possibilities.

Neptune: Also, the teases.

...

Neptune: What? Never had a character inside one of your author notes before?

...Yeah, I have, but...you're not Lio...

Neptune: Oh, Lio, huh? He must be that voice I knocked unconscious on the way here.

Huh...he's able to be hit...that's very-wait, why are you here?

Neptune: Well, I've been wandering around here for a while now and figured I can see what my future teammates are going to be like. Besides, having a cute girl help you out is preferable to a Neuroi core, right?

...At least Lionelis is a custom Neuroi core for the series he's from. Besides, how'd you hit him anyways?

Neptune: I have my ways... ;)

...Which incarnation are you? Because last I checked the you from the very first game had a huge hammer for knocking walls down and such in dungeons, and...

Neptune: That's a Neptune secret.

...Okay...anyways, while I deal with trying to figure things out over here, like where Histoire is at the moment, if anyone else is going to make an appearance here, and so on, please read and respond and let me know what you thought of the first "trailer" as well as giving me feedback on how I handled each character along the way (I am looking things up and reading other stories on the site for ideas of their personalities considering the multiple dimensional interpretations...or something along those lines). Also, if you're interested in reading my current series feel free to do so.

Neptune: Next time, it's the introduction of the "Lightning Noble".

Hey, that's my job!

*clears throat* Thanks, and I'll see you in the next entry. Have a safe holiday season.