A/N: Hey guys, welcome to From Earth to Remnant. Before we begin, I would like to inform you of some behind-the-scenes stuff that has happened recently. The original concept and author was ChaidexVulcan, but he gave me permission to rewrite and continue where he left off. This tale is the product of five people's creative minds: ChaidexVulcan, TheKishinSoul, two individuals without accounts (Daniel Petersen and Thomas Drake), and of course myself, The Asiassassin. I have made some edits as well, mostly very minor, because I know how some people are when it comes to reading literature.
Huge thanks to Chris7221 for helping out with suggestions as to how to make this thing better.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy.
It was an intense day at Mt. Spokane High School. First semester exams were almost over. It was the end of the day, only 30-ish minutes left. Everyone was wiped out from the schedule, two classes a day where you take a two-hour-long test in each class.
Barrett Soth, an MSHS junior with blonde-looking hair and a slight figure, wandered into the band room. He had finished his final exam rather quickly, so the teacher let him leave class early. He was actually rather lucky in this case since none of his friends had teachers like that. No one was there except Barrett.
The drummer walked over to his band locker. Instantly he noticed something was off. Poking out from the creamesque-colored wall of lockers were tiny pieces of paper. He slowly opened his eye-level locker only to be met with a cascade of sticky notes. All of the sticky notes were covered with the words "Watch RWBY!" Barrett stood there flabbergasted and blinked twice. No doubt it was his fellow drummer Jeff Updike's doing. Barrett shook his head laughing at the tomfoolery. Reality set in, and his smile faltered.
Setting his backpack down, Barrett pulled out an iPad. He turned it on and became immersed. The odd thing was the set of buttons on the side that he was pushing. There aren't any buttons on the sides of iPads. At least, not like these ones, as they looked more like the A, B, X, and Y buttons on an Xbox controller.
Jeff strolled in soon after, "So… you uh… got my recommendation?"
"Screw you, man," Barrett said laughing.
Jeff joined Barrett, sitting up against the wall of lockers. "Have you figured it out yet?"
"Not even close, but I did find something cool," Barrett replied, holding the device out for Jeff. It wasn't really an iPad; however, it was still a tablet. It wasn't a Microsoft Surface or Cloud, that much was certain. As for who made it and what it was called, there are probably only a few who knew. Barrett and Jeff weren't the only two at Mt. Spokane who knew about this tablet. There were three others: John Petrovich, Daniel Peterson, and Thomas Drake.
Four students were walking along the pavement of Pike's Place market in Seattle, Washington. The leader was a lanky guy with blue eyes and a drum major jacket on. To his left was an Asian-looking kid, shorter than the rest of the four. To the "Asian's" left was another drum major, taller than the first but not by much. To the leader's right was a kid with long dark hair (don't be confused here, it is a guy) and kind of a stooped walk. Barrett was the blue-eyed drum major, and he was leading the others to the Gum Wall. Jeff, the drummer, was the kid to Barrett's right. John Petrovich and Thomas Drake were on Barrett's left, John being the Asian-looking kid.
All four were in Seattle on a marching band trip, hence the drum majors. Daniel Peterson was also there, however he was spending time with his girlfriend. He had asked her a day and a half ago. So while Barrett and the others were hanging out together, as they often were, Daniel decided to go "hoe" before "bros."
"Can you believe he would choose her over us?" Barrett asked the group.
John answered, "Well, he did just ask her out."
"Not to mention the fact that he thinks the Gum Wall is unhygienic," Thomas pointed out, an obvious fact to the group.
"If you had a girlfriend, wouldn't you choose her over us?" John called Barrett out.
The group laughed as they kept walking. The bus had dropped them off, and they had 3 hours to do whatever they wanted. They had just ate lunch at a small pizzeria. Barrett led the way because he was the only one who had been to the Gum Wall before. John was unsure as to why the rest wanted to go to the Gum Wall, but he didn't complain. Jeff was listening to his iPod, not paying the slightest attention to the conversation. He was just jamming out to whatever song he was listening to. Thomas seemed interested in the Gum Wall and kept pace with Barrett.
As they approached Post Street, they noticed a familiar person. He was wearing a University of Arizona shirt, as always, and was walking hand in hand with a pretty brunette. Daniel and his girlfriend were just leaving the Gum Wall with her mother and couple of friends.
John noticed him first and called out to him, "Hey, Daniel, I see you decided to check out the Gum Wall yourself!"
His girlfriend's mom answered for him, "Actually, he was too scared to go in. He just stood here the whole time."
"Well, duh, I stood here, but it's not because I'm scared, it's because that place smells disgusting and it's extremely unhygienic." Daniel looked a little annoyed. His girlfriend laughed, and dragged him off to another store. "I'll see you all later once I've been violated with makeup." Daniel waved to his four friends.
"Oh, don't be such a baby. I'm not going to put makeup on you," Daniel's girlfriend smirked at him. The rest of the two lovebirds' conversation was distorted and cut off by distance.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going," Jeff had spoken for the first time in a while.
The group walked into the small alley that was Post Street. Thomas marveled at the amount of gum present on the walls.
A cough came from behind the four students. "Come here."
John turned around. All he saw was a wall covered in gum. He was so confused. How could a wall talk, and with a Japanese accent? Barrett turn to see what John was looking at. The same voice spoke again. This time John spotted where it had come from, a small doorway that was supposedly sealed off.
"There," John said pointing.
"There what?" Thomas and Jeff had turned around by then.
"The voice, that's where the voice was coming from," John lowered his voice as he slowly approached the doorway.
"What are you doing?" John was pushing open the door when Thomas stopped him. The door opened the rest of the way on its own to reveal a man in a military uniform. The Lieutenant Colonel grabbed John and yanked him through the doorway. The three remaining in the alley rushed forward to help their friend. What could one man do against four of them? Once they were all inside the man closed the door behind them.
"You have to keep it safe." The man shoved the tablet into Barrett's hands. At closer inspection the officer was disheveled and looked paranoid.
"What is it?" Jeff looked at it with curiosity.
"Sit down and I'll explain," the Lt. Col. said. There was definite urgency in his voice. "My division has been on the run for a while now. The Japanese Government has funded a research team to develop secret technology. With this technology they could have an infinite supply of resources. This tablet is a working prototype of this technology. It was designed to transport people and things to an alternate reality."
The four students didn't really learn much from the 15-minute explanation of how the tablet worked. There was an awful lot about the Many Worlds Interpretation that they didn't really know. To make a long story short, the science division had stolen the tablet to keep it out of the hands of the Southern Expeditionary Army (SEA), who planned to use it to take over the world. The science division, with the help of a Japanese recon team, fled to America. They purchased fake uniforms to go undercover. The team needed to get rid of the tablet for a year or two in order to lie low.
After the apparent Japanese scientist left, the group discussed whether to turn it in or not. They eventually decided against that idea, on the grounds that no one would believe them and that if they didn't keep it safe they might get in trouble with the SEA refugees.
Jeff and Barrett had together figured out a couple of the features the scientist told them about. The others, John, Thomas, and Daniel, helped whenever they could, but weren't as involved with it as Jeff and Barrett were. John read some of the code and learned some things about how it worked. Daniel knew most of the concepts for the Many Worlds Interpretation. Thomas was a little lost in it all, not being as tech savvy or science-passionate as the others, but he did bring up a very good point about it being a prototype.
Jeff and Barrett were enthralled in the app they were working out when John walked in.
"It probably works both ways like Thomas said," Jeff concluded.
The band room filled up a little more after John joined Jeff and Barrett, but it was still unusually empty. Thomas showed up soon after. The guys started talking about the OCs they had created some time ago. Daniel never showed up, but he was always a little inconsistent with who he hung out with.
"So, Thomas, did you figure out what Semblance would go best with Breeze's bow?" John asked.
"Umm… well, since his name is Breeze, I was thinking maybe control over air, kind of like in Avatar: The Last Airbender. That way his Semblance can aid his accuracy." Thomas looked at the others hesitantly.
"Sounds great, but there has to be something to limit it," Jeff said; he was kind of like the judge for their OCs, in a sense.
"How about that it's limited by distance? The further away, the weaker it is," John suggested. Thomas agreed. Barrett later asked what Breeze looked like. Thomas explained the gray hoodie-like shirt and the bow. After Thomas finished talking, Jeff had to leave. The others kept talking but abandoned the RWBY OC topic.
The next day they all gathered in the commons at school, which essentially was a cafeteria. Daniel asked the group if they wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons with their RWBY OCs. Pretty much all of them were on board with the idea. They made plans to stay after school that day. Classes went by quickly as they anticipated their adventure for later.
The first thing they did was to make their OCs into D&D characters:
Azure Rouge, Barrett's OC, was a swordsman with a skill in backhand and an offensive style of fighting. His Semblance was a mirage created by electricity that could be used in a second from as a moldable weapon or ammo.
Breeze Winston, Thomas's OC, was a bowman with a special set of arrows. The arrows were formed from his Aura and had different abilities. His fighting style was more defensive but not entirely so.
Robin Maize, John's OC, was a swordsman with skill in dual-wielding and great-weapons, again favoring an offensive style of fighting. His Semblance was a weaponized form of energy that is taxing to the user.
Cen Tempête, Jeff's OC, was a gunman; the gun was mechanized to take several caliber sizes. His Semblance was like a radar, allowing him to sense things around him as long as they had contact with the ground.
"Okay. Now that we have characters, let's do this," Daniel said. As dungeon master, he didn't need an OC to play. He designed a campaign for the others to play through, and ran the other events besides what the players wished to do.
Barrett pulled the tablet out of his backpack and decided to ask a question to the group. "What do we do with this? I mean, we're pretty much in trouble no matter what we do, but which is the lesser of evils?"
The group stopped playing to address the question none of them had really thought of up till then. What were they going to do? They couldn't hide it from the SEA for very long, and once found, what would the SEA do to them? They couldn't turn it in or the recon team would be after them.
"Well, what do we know about it? It is Japanese government, Nazi affiliated league, property, so giving it back is not an option and keeping isn't an option. I think it's time to take it back to the scientist," Daniel said.
John leaned forward. "Hold on a second. How do we get it back to them? We don't have contact info."
"That's true, but didn't he tell us at one point where they were going?" Thomas inquired.
A phone buzzed, and Daniel pulled his out of a pocket. He stood up and left the room. As he left he closed the door and the others heard him greet his mother.
"How would the SEA find us," Jeff asked, "if we don't have contact info for that guy and he didn't tell us where they were going? How would the SEA know that we have the tablet?"
"Hello, have you never watched Taken or Sherlock Holmes? They're always figuring out crazy stuff like this with very little info to go off of." Barrett was starting to look a little scared.
They talked for a while longer. Eventually, John left the room to check on Daniel. Not finding him there, he asked Thomas to help him look, leaving Barrett and Jeff alone.
"Do you really think they'll find us?" Jeff asked with skepticism.
Barrett turned the tablet over in his hands. They still hadn't figured out how to travel to any of the alternate realities (Sailor Moon, Full Metal Alchemist, Robotec, Bleach, and RWBY, to name only a few). There were apps to look at them and apps that had schematics on each, but they hadn't found one that transported people to them. Thomas figured it had to be hooked up to a separate machine first.
"Hey, look at this!" Barrett shouted excitedly.
Jeff leaned over. Barrett had just tapped the screen and a new display they had never seen before popped up. Up until then, it had never occurred to them that it might be a touch screen as well as button-controlled.
"You know those little circles on the bottom of the display? I pushed one and this showed up," Barrett said.
"That's cool, let me see it." Jeff reached out as his chair slipped and he fell. His hands flailed as he tried to catch himself. One of his hands hit the tablet out of Barrett's hands. The momentum of Jeff's fall knocked Barrett over too. Jeff laid on top of Barrett. In an attempt to get up, Barrett pushed Jeff off of himself. Barrett rolled onto his stomach, and grabbed the tablet to make sure it was alright. Jeff put his hand on Barrett's shoulder by accident, thinking it was a chair leg, and lifted himself up. His hand slipped off Barrett's shoulder and his fingers grazed the tablet's screen. A blue light filled the room for an instant, then dissipated. Barrett and Jeff were no longer in the room.
John soon re-entered the room with much confusion. First he didn't find Daniel, or Thomas, and now Barrett and Jeff were gone too. Did they go looking for Daniel as well? Then he noticed the tablet upside down on the ground, and thought to himself, Barrett wouldn't leave this just lying around. He picked it up and noticed the new display. He was sure it was new; he'd never seen it before. There was a flashing light under one of the circles on the bottom of the screen. John decided to push it. With another flash of blue light, he was gone.
Thomas and Daniel walked into the room, talking to each other. Thomas had found Daniel outside helping someone load things into a car. After helping, Thomas brought Daniel back so they could finish their D&D game.
"So she broke up with you a couple weeks after the Seattle trip?" Thomas looked shocked.
"Yep, she said she's not good in a relationship," Daniel nodded in confirmation.
"Oh, that sucks." Thomas knitted his eyebrows.
"Ehh, you get used to it eventually," Daniel assured him.
Daniel and Thomas looked at the empty room before them. Thomas picked up the tablet. "Where is everyone?"
"Maybe they went looking for me," Daniel suggested.
Thomas looked at the tablet and Daniel watched as his friend touched the screen. He saw a blue light and Thomas was gone. Daniel shouted in surprise. He hurried to pick up the tablet. He was so worried that his friend had been zapped into oblivion. He panicked when he saw the flashing light on the screen and tried to tap it but missed and hit the circle next to it, which pictured a book instead of an arrow.
A/N: Thank you for reading, don't forget to follow, favorite, review, and all that other good stuff. This is now an official rewrite, so I hope you all enjoyed the improvements so far. It should only get better from here!
From all five of us, we'll see you in the next chapter!