Wow. Positive response for this story has been what I assume is overwhelming. Twelve followers in as many hours, plus nine favorites in that time; by the time this chapter was published, those numbers went up to 30 and 18. For a new author's first story's first chapter. Wow. While this means I have a lot to live up to, this alleviates my fear that the concept was so unusual that it would alienate my potential readers.

Special shout-out to Redditor positron_potato, who not only suggested the excellent title (I was having a lot of writer's block on that count), but also gave a lengthy critique, where he called me out on giving too much detail to the Undersider's outfits, not enough to their actions, and the awkward (or perhaps not awkward enough, given that they accept "we're in a new world" too easily) dialogue that the talky bit started with.

I'd also like to note that this is not, as I had thought, the first crossover thing between Worm and RWBY. .com threads/shard-quest-part-2-worm-rwby-quest.279987/

A quick note on the clothes. As anyone who has done an image search for RWBY knows, Remnant fashions are not like those of Earth, so Earthling street clothes would stand out. Having them changed into clothes before arrival seemed logical to me, since Cauldron has a plan for the Undersiders (as Lisa correctly, if somewhat obviously, noted), not to mention simple—I don't think I could make a shopping trip into an interesting chapter even if I stopped myself from overthinking how Remnanters would do it, given their highly variable fashions. But you don't want to hear me ramble about how differences between Remnant and Earth would affect commerce—you want to hear me write about the Undersiders fighting a creature of Grimm.

Welcome to Remnant 0.2

Blood

Taylor awoke before Aisha and Alec but after the others. The first thing she noticed was the grass against her skin, followed closely by how sore she was, and some time thereafter she briefly realized that she wasn't wearing clothes she recognized before putting that out of her mind. As she sat up and tried to stretch the kinks out of her spine, she looked around with her own eyes and with the senses of the insects, spiders, and such around her.

Taylor quickly discerned a couple odd things. First, while the bugs were generally recognizable, most were just a bit different and most of them couldn't be identified more specifically than "ant," "butterfly," or "spider". They were also quite uniform, with only a few kinds of butterflies and spiders and one kind of ant. Taylor remembered a day not long after Leviathan attacked that she spent seeing how many different kinds of bug she could identify; she counted well over a hundred, including over a dozen spider varieties, several types of ant, and scores of fly species. Second, a lot of the bugs were at least a bit bigger, ranging from ants being maybe a third larger to a large number of inches-long beetles and a few wasps of a similar size, with oversized stingers.

In addition, the bugs smelled...something unusual in the air here. Two things, really. First, the omnipresent taint of pollution was gone, like the difference between the inner city and rural areas, taken to its ultimate conclusion. More unusual was the presence of something completely unknown in the air. It reminded her a little of something from a factory, a little of a little of what she imagined sticking her insects' antennae into an electrical outlet would be like.

"Something's...not right."

"What an impressive observation," Alec noted dryly. "Maybe it's that we're in the woods? That doesn't seem right."

"Maybe it's the fact that we lost our clothes and look like the Power Rangers?" Aisha suggested.

"Um...Aisha? What Power Rangers shows have you been watching?" Lisa said.

"I mean, something other than the obvious. The air's different, somehow. The bugs, too."

Lisa nodded. "Taylor's right, there's something weird going on here, besides the obvious. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore."

"No sh—"

"More specifically, we're in a different…"

Taylor's attention was diverted when she noticed a strange animal, something like a wild boar in general shape and size, and mostly covered in jet-black filaments somewhere between feathers and fur. The head was different; through the fuzzy vision the arthropods' eyes gave her, it looked like there was a red-and-white mask with four orange eyes on the creature's face. Similar patches of white dotted the creature.

Taylor carefully landed some flies on and next to the mask. It felt solid, like rock. Maybe it's bone? Taylor was trying to think of if she had ever felt a sheet of bone, or any bones that hadn't been cooked or fossilized or something. She also noted that the mask was solidly attached to the creature's face, and that part of the white blur was actually a large, sharp-looking pair of tusks. Checking the other patches revealed them to be much the same, aside from the lack of red markings.

It shook its head to get rid of the flies, then suddenly stopped. It turned its head towards the group and began creeping towards them. Taylor tried harassing it with mosquitoes, biting flies, and other pests the more it came towards them, but it ignored them save for an occasional shake of the head.

Taylor raised her hand, interrupting whatever Lisa was saying. "There's something weird in the woods, and it's coming straight for us."

Everyone was looking at Taylor, waiting for her to continue.

"It's some kind of boar, but it looks tougher and meaner than normal ones. It has big, sharp tusks, and…it's definitely coming for us. Rachel, Brian? See if you can find some big sticks. Everyone else? Find a tree to climb or something, you're—"

"We're not big and strong enough to fight wild animals with sticks," interrupted Alec. "Got it."

"Right. Alec, if you can, use your powers to disrupt or stop it. I'll do the same. Lisa, speak up if you can think of anything helpful."

Lisa nodded. "Got it. That tree looks pretty good," she added, pointing to a large tree with rough, rounded leaves.

Sabah frowned. "There aren't any low branches…"

"Same with the other trees."

Taylor continued with her orders. "You're Parian, right?"

Sabah nodded. "This is Flechette, you pr—"

"Okay. Flechette…Flechette, can you use your power on rocks or whatever?"

"Anything I can touch." She was already grabbing fallen twigs and what small stones she could find. "I used to use a rapier, before joining the Wards. I'll stay on the ground with the others."

"Alright."

The group made preparations. Alec, Taylor, Lisa, and Sabah helped each other into the most convenient tree, while Brian and Rachel got branches with the help of Flechette and her power.

"By the way…Taylor, your teammates are using your real names?"

"It's a…thing we do. Codenames in costume, real names otherwise. Good habit, we thought."

Flechette nodded. "…Lily. I'm Lily."

"Glad to make your acquaintance. The boar's getting pretty close. If it charged, it could probably get here in a few seconds, but it isn't. I don't think it knows we know it's there."

Alec shifted on his branch. "Maybe it's just passing by?"

Lisa shook her head. "If it was, it would have gone around. No reason to mess with us."

"Well, there goes my hopes."

Brian sighed. "You're safe in a tree, Alec."

"And if it takes you, Rachel, and Lily down, it won't climb the tree to—"

"Boar, not bear."

"Oh. And now my hopes are back."

"Glad you have so much faith in—"

"It's charging!"

Out of the tree cover came the creature, even more monstrous through human eyes than arthropod ones. What had seemed like tusks were protrusions marked with red and jutting from the creature's jaw, blurred by compound eyes with its slender fangs. The eyes were as unnatural a shade of orange as Taylor had thought, but they seemed to be glowing faintly. The fur, if that was what it was, was shaggy and stuck up in random locations, giving it a wild, fierce appearance. And it was rolling at them. The shocked protestations of the three adolescents armed with big sticks were cut off by the need to dodge to avoid getting maimed by the monster. It stopped and unrolled, letting everyone get a good look at the unnatural beast.

"I've got nothing!" shouted Alec as Taylor set thin clouds of insects gathered over the creature's eyes.

Brian glanced to Rachel. "Flank?" She nodded in reply, and the two of them began advancing slowly.

Lily stared at the black beast. "Keep an eye out, I'm going to hit it. Don't want to hit you."

Brian nodded, as Lily threw a pebble. It passed directly through the white mask and the creature's torso, burrowing a ways into the ground and out of sight. This would have been the end of any natural animal, but this was clearly no natural boar; its injury didn't stop it from running towards the three fighters. Perhaps it was a bit more clumsy, but it was largely unaffected.

Brian and Rachel backed off to the sides, trying to force it to divert its attention three ways, while Lily grabbed her stick and prepared to strike it. The monster darted between Lily and Brian, striking Aisha directly in the leg with a blunt tusk.

"Aisha! Wha—" Brian's concern was interrupted as the monster whirled to the left and latched onto his leg. Brian bashed it a few times before Lily stabbed his assailant; his branch struck hers and was sliced clean in half. The monster, now clearly hampered by the branch through its chest, nevertheless spun about to strike Lily. Its blow was interrupted by Rachel jabbing her branch at its face, catching it between tusk and fang to pull it off-balance. A brief struggle between Rachel and the monster ensued, ending with the branch snapping. While the struggle was occurring, Lily recovered and grabbed the branch wedged in the beast, and managed to twist it, nearly slicing it in half. The creature collapsed and remained still.

Several seconds followed where no one moved, worried that the beast would once more stir. Lisa broke the silence. "I'm pretty sure that if it could still attack you, it would."

The four in the tree climbed down, while Rachel and Lily examined the wounds suffered by Aisha and Brian. The former had a broken leg, with probably both the tibia and fibula fractured based on the way it seemed to have an extra joint. Brian's injury was likely more immediately dangerous, several deep wounds from the monster's teeth.

Brian took one look and winced. "I don't suppose anyone has a first-aid kit or…sewing needle or something?"

Lily was already working, using a twig and her power to remove a large piece of Sabah's dress. "I took some basic first aid with the Wards, but no, no kit. We do have Par—Sabah, though."

"I didn't take any first aid, though…"

"Time for your first lesson, then."

While Lily and Brian tutored Sabah on stitches, Alec and Lisa started improvising a splint for Aisha's leg. Taylor and Rachel stood a bit away, trying to help when they could but fully aware that the way they could help most was probably not getting in the way.

Rachel glanced at the monster's corpse. Taylor noticed that its inside was a flat, bloody red, with a thin coating of black and the white mask and lumps on that.

Rachel looked back to Taylor. "Do you think we can eat it?"

"…What?"

"Is that thing edible? If we're stuck here, we'll need to figure out something to eat."

"I'm…maybe we should wait for Lisa to be done and ask her?"

"Probably. Maybe…would spider silk help?"

"A little, if I had enough. I don't have any, I don't know if we could make enough fast enough to be worth it even with the number of spiders I'd have back home, and there aren't as many here."

"Less bugs here than in Brockton Bay? Is that normal for forests?"

"I don't think so. I haven't been outside of the city since I triggered."

The wounds were treated—not well, but well enough given the circumstances. Once this was done, they rested in the most comfortable parts of the clearing they could find. Lily used her power to whittle the large branch, while the others tried to relax and process everything. They had been awake for maybe an hour or two—none of them had a watch, so it was hard to tell. In that time, they discovered that they had been transported to a strange new world, with fewer insects, seemingly fewer people, and monsters. They had many questions, more each moment. Why did Cauldron bring them here? What was that boar-like monster, and why did it evaporate into thin air? Were there any other people, and if so, where?

"How did we get into these clothes, anyways?"

This question earned Aisha glares and odd looks from the others.

"I need something to talk about or I'm gonna go crazy. I know you guys like to be all quiet when stuff's going on and think and stuff, but my leg really hurts, for some reason, and the quiet is driving me crazy!"

Brian sighed. "Maybe you'd like to talk about why you got—"

"Oh, don't get started! Anything else."

"...Fine. Just stay out next time."

"Not exactly in a condition to try anything."

Lily cleared her throat. "Alright, here's a question. Why are the two of you bickering like kids?"

"Brian's my big brother."

"Ah. Got it."

"He worries way too much about me."

"I said I got it."

Lisa stood up and started pacing. "Probably good to start talking, but bad to start arguing."

"We're not—"

"Does anyone here know anything about wilderness survival? Boy Scouts, classes, lots of camping trips?"

There was no response.

"Lily?"

"Wards training doesn't really cover that. Sorry."

Alec groaned. "Well, great. We're stuck in another world, where there's different things, not that it matters because none of us know what to do with things from our world, and there's no sign there's any civilization on this Earth—"

Lisa stopped pacing. "Maybe not."

"Huh?"

"Taylor, you mentioned something unusual in the air? What kind of thing was that?"

"I don't know…something almost electric, really. The bugs don't seem to like it."

"And is it omnipresent, or just around certain places?"

"Pretty much everywhere, at least everywhere in my power's range.."

"Probably not natural. If it was, the bugs would probably adapt to it until it didn't bother them, or at least avoid areas where it was in the air."

Sabah frowned. "So…what do you think it is?"

"No clue. But if it's new enough that bugs haven't adapted to it, and widespread enough that they can't hide from it, it's almost certainly artificial."

"Artificial?"

"Like smog, only probably not fossil fuels. Maybe this world ran out and made something different. Maybe they never figured out fossil fuels, or they have some Tinker-made fuel that replaced them. It's also theoretically possible, though improbable, that this Earth is inhabited by some form of extraterrestrial intelligence—"

Aisha, who had been starting to ignore the conversation, perked up at that last suggestion. "Aliens?"

"It's not impossible, we can't rule anything out yet. But whatever it is, we know we're not alone."

Brian frowned. "We know, or we think?"

"Think, but it's a pretty solid argument. Besides, what else could it be coming from? If it was from a plant or something, it probably wouldn't be everywhere."

"Unless it's coming from all the trees."

"Hard to see why. Considering that it bugs the bugs, it's not going to be anything but a pest deterrent, and I don't think trees do that."

"Some trees do," noted Taylor, "but not many, and I don't think they just spread it everywhere in the forest. That would just encourage the pests to evolve resistance to it."

"My point."

Lily sighed. "Do you always argue? How can you get anything done?"

"It's not arguing, it's debating," Lisa insisted. "It's how we make plans. It lets us all contribute to the discussion, so all of us have to make a mistake for it to get into the final plan."

Lily put the branch to one side. "All of you contribute…except that half of the team."

Alec glared at Lily. "I contribute! Just not as much as the nerds."

"Those three can handle all the planning for all I care," Aisha added.

Rachel shrugged. "They know what they're doing."

Brian cleared his throat. "Not that this isn't a helpful tangent, but I think we've established that there are probably people here. Now, how do we find them?"

"Thank you, um, Brian," Lily said. "I don't suppose there's any direction the pollution is stronger?"

"Not really," Skitter replied. "I mean, it's not all equal, there's sort of waves where it's a bit weaker and a bit stronger, but nothing huge and there's no one direction where it's more prevalent."

Lisa frowned. "These waves…are they linear, or what?"

"Sort of. Why?"

"Are they curved, or straight?"

"They seem straight to me, but if the curve is wide enough I couldn't tell."

"If I had to make a guess, it's probably either exhaust from something, or else there's some pulsing thing in a population center, and I'm leaning towards the first. So, if we go parallel to it, we've got a decent chance of running into one end of a trade route. If Taylor senses that it's curving, we can head towards the center of the curves and see what's there."

Lily folded her arms. "No offense, but that seems like pretty weak logic."

"Strongest logic we've got for any direction. If we hit a stream or river, we can follow it downstream until we hit some settlement, and once we get there we can ask for directions."

"Uh, one problem," Aisha interjected. She pointed to her broken leg, and then to her brother.

Lisa nodded. "Brian, can you walk?"

"Um…if we had a choice, I'd rather rest, and won't be able to go fast, but I should be able to walk. Some, at least. Probably."

"Well, that's one problem out of the way."

"I've been working on some crutches for Aisha," Lily said.

"And that's another."

Sabah raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"Um…I haven't really done any wilderness-survival things, but shouldn't we worry a bit about that? Food and water and shelter?"

"…Probably. Anyone have suggestions?"

There was no response.

"Well, I hope we get to civilization soon."