Coming to Terms

I tense up a little more as I feel twelve stares from three groups of four kids each burning into me from all directions, so I wrap myself a little tighter in my temporary red cloak.

Oh, wait.

"This is awkward."

"Tell me about it..." The young - and now cloak-less - little girl beside me agrees as we sit in the passenger section of a large airship soaring through the skies. As opposed to everyone else, she has to be at least a year or two younger than the average age in this cabin.

She was nice enough to lend me her cloak as a covering when I was brought to Goodwitch, though it was more of a reflex to get me to cover up. A gesture I appreciated, considering the shameless stares I was getting from some of the girls I could only assume were Juniors judging by their age. Maybe Seniors. 17-18ish... Yeah.

All I told the platinum blonde lady in spectacles was that I woke up in the forest and fought two bears from hell. When I replied to her question about how I killed the smaller one, she stared at me for a moment and asked if I needed to get back to the city.

A city in Hell? Ugh, better than this forest. Of course I said yes. And here I am now.

"So uh, look," I begin softly to the lady observing me from my other side, "How do I put this... Are we in Hell?"

The surprised look in her eyes as she notices my sincerity gives way to amusement and a brief scoff which she tries to hold back with her air of professionalism... and fails.

"Well, er, that depends on how you look at it, Mister..."

"Carter."

"Mister Carter."

"So... No fire? No eternal torment for unforgivable sins? No unfounded tales of the Underworld?"

The surprised look in her eyes returns, but this time with a more serious glint as she appears to be gauging my current state of mind.

"No."

"Oh. Good..." That's a relief, right? "then can you tell me what country we're in?"

A blank stare.

"Uh, continent maybe?"

"Vytal."

Huh. Never heard of it. Well if there's a city and its known, maybe I'll know where in the world I ended up.

"What's the name of the city then?"

"Vale, the economic stronghold and capital of the Kingdom of Vale."

"The Kingdom of Vale?" I echo blankly. This is not helping!

"Yes, the Kingdom of Vale, one of the four Kingdoms of Remnant..." Miss Goodwitch relates with a look of incredulity in her gaze, "Mister Carter, are you sure you're alright?"

I balk at her inference to my mental state. If anyone's a few cents short of a dollar right now, it's gotta be her! Kingdoms? We back in the Dark Ages or something!? But the name does ring a bell...

"Remnant, Remnant..." I mumble softly to myself before recalling my conversation with Jaune with joy, "Ah! I've heard of that name before! Remnant! What is it?"

My smile at the lady quickly fades under the fierce gaze she gives me, "Our planet."

I deadpan and slowly turn my gaze forward, letting my head fall into my hands in bewilderment. It all comes together at once - strange landscape, different gravity, alien creatures...

I'm on another planet. Oh man, I'm on another planet.

Several minutes later, we reach our destination: the large, arching building that Jaune had shown me earlier.

No sooner do I get down, however, when Miss Goodwitch holds me back with an arm to my shoulder. And I'll tell you, that woman is stronger than she looks.

"Mister Carter, I'd like to have you checked to make sure you haven't sustained any major injuries while stranded in Forever Fall..." she begins informatively.

She may be glancing at the claw marks across my chest, but I know she's actually trying to see if she can test my mental state as well. I mean... I do look like a caveman right now.

And noticing my hesitation, she adds, "I assure you, our facilities at Beacon are of utmost quality and possibly the best Vale can offer you at this point. I believe we also may have a clothing donation bin you may go through if need be."

Oh. She had me at clothes.

"Alright. I'll consent."

"Thank you, come this way, Mister Carter," the lady then motions to the remaining students as they watch, "the rest of you may be dismissed for the day."

The kids seem to be pretty happy about that, and with a final wave to Jaune - who seems to have an extreme aversion to flying, judging by the green tinge still present in his face - I follow Miss Goodwitch into the building. It doesn't take long until we reach a lecture hall of sorts and come face to face with a spectacled man in disheveled attire and forest-green hair. I have to hold back a chuckle at the sight.

I mean, I saw some guys in the airship with blue or light-green hair, but that's expected. Kids are idiots. But this guy? I mean, Miss Goodwitch just called him 'Doctor' for crying out loud! But taking him to another end of the classroom, they speak for a minute before the man's equally green eyebrows shoot up over his glasses.

"Ah A stranded young man in Forever Fall Dreadful Absolutely dreadful I must meet him Where is he Oh he is here you say That is absolutely marvelous Oh there he is Hello young man very nice to meet you and a thousand condolences for your troubles my name is Oobleck Bartholomew Oobleck!"

As if the hair weren't enough, the entire slew of words with which I'm consequently barraged with at a million miles per hour is definitely enough to throw me off. But then to my utter surprise, he dashes over to me with impossible speed and shakes my hand energetically.

I can literally only babble at the man who just revealed that he has superpowers without a second's hesitation.

"I-I-I uh um uh... O-Oobleck? Uh..." I finally regain enough composure to ask a coherent question without any restraint to my evident awe, "Are you The Flash? C-Can I have your autograph!?"

He only stares at me for a second, forgetting to let go of my hand as Miss Goodwitch walks up from behind him to join us.

"That's what I'm talking about..." She mentions casually, to which he gives a long 'Hmm' and lets go of my hand.

And with just five words, that lady has made me feel like I'm the dumbest person in this building. I decide to keep my mouth shut for the rest of my time here... there has to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for what this man can do!

"Well then Mister Carter even though I am primarily a history major I have had rigorous training in the medical and scientific fields of anatomy and chemistry Therefore now I'm going to run a few tests if you don't mind So if you will Please hold still for just a moment and..."

By the time I've even registered what he was saying, my cloak has been whisked away and I'm surrounded with several streaks of green as this speedy Professor rushes between me and his desk several times, poking and prodding me with all sorts of instruments until finally screeching to a halt in front of Miss Goodwitch.

"A moment in private if you will join me Glynda and if you will please call Ozpin to come down as well. Now."

Speeding into a back office, Miss Goodwitch only looks at his wake with a mild air of confusion before turning in my direction.

"If you'll give us a moment, Mister Carter. This shouldn't take long."

As she steps in and closes the door behind her, I start getting a bad feeling about coming here. If this is an alien planet... And I'm the alien...

I gulp out loud at the thought of probing and live dissections and am about to turn away to exit the room when a strange glint on the teacher's desk catches my eye. Is that... A ruby?

Against my better judgment, I pick up the cloak and wrap it around myself before walking over to the table to investigate. Approaching the table, I see bars of metal and wires of varying compositions littering the desktop along with several electronic devices - rudimentary at best - that are connected to portable power sources.

But what catches my eye, of course, is the abundance of jewels on it! I'm no jeweler, but I'm guessing that there's at least five hundred grand's worth of precious rocks strewn about this guy's desk like stationery from an Office Max! But when I pick up the large ruby and watch it glow in my hands, I quickly realize that it's anything but.

"What in the world are you?" I mumble quietly as I slowly sit down at the desk to examine these strange crystals.

About a half hour or so later, I'm startled at my work when not two, but three people step out of the back room, the addition being a rather youthful-looking man despite his full head of silver hair, spectacles, and walking cane.

It's safe to say, however, that Doctor Oobleck is even more startled to see that I'm about to cut the ruby red crystal with little more than a handheld circle saw.

"OH DEAR MONTY OF THE HEAVENS ABOVE what are you doing young man That is an extremely volatile form of Dust which should be handled with the greatest caution lest it explode and take out our entire side of the building with it!"

I hold out a hand to stop him as I lower the saw and cut the giant ruby in half without any complication, much to all three adults' surprise.

"Relax, Professor. I have it under control," I mention as I motion to the bars of iron heavily wrapped in copper wire and connected to various power sources all around my small workspace surrounding the crystal, "It didn't take long to realize these babies contain a fair amount of iron, which would need to be controlled as I exposed these crystals to heat and air..."

"Doctor."

"Right."

Miss Goodwitch looks like she's itching to say something and is about to speak up when the third man stops her by speaking up first.

"Continue."

"And uh..." I lose my train of thought for a moment as I gauge the dynamics of this trio. Something's changed... I think he's their boss. Which would make him the Principal?

"Uh.. Well, as I was saying," I continue while looking through a hanging magnifying glass at the finer cuts of the crystal, "Under closer examination, I realized I was looking at some form of euhedral porphyritic chondrule - a crystallized form of space dust that must've formed in large amounts in the ground when the planet was born - which is a conjecture I now find to be correct, except... wait..."

The three adults lean in a little closer as I hold the crystal in both hands and hold it closer to the glass - making sure to keep it well within the electromagnetic field I've created to stabilize it, though - and definitely seem to be paying attention as I reach a rather... unexpected conclusion.

"Wait... By these markings... It almost looks like these crystals have large amounts of crystallized hydrogen. No wonder they're highly reactive..." I look back up at the adults with a fair measure of disbelief, "I'd say it was impossible because this type of hydrogen simply don't exist in rock formations, but since I'm literally looking at it right now, I'd say this was one of the most advanced forms of high-energy propellant I've ever seen!"

"So you harnessed the Dust with strong electromagnetic forces to stabilize it and impede its subsequent ignition when exposed to friction and air..." Miss Goodwitch muses aloud.

"Excellent observation indeed, young man," the silver-haired man states with a mildly impressed air, taking a sip of what smells like coffee from his mug before he continues, "What did you do before waking up in Fall Forest?"

I pause for a moment, debating how much info I can give, but decide to go with full disclosure since it doesn't matter much anymore, "I was an engineer. Mostly in the fields of Quantum Physics and Particle Acceleration."

"I see... Any other specialty?"

I had no idea what he was getting at, but I went with the first thing that came to mind, "Uhh... I did some Earth Science in college?"

"Earth as in dirt?" Oobleck asks quizzically.

"No... Earth as in the planet-" I cut myself off, but too late to cover my mistake as all three adults clearly begin to size me up, "Okay people, I'm getting a vibe somewhere between disbelief and hostility from you guys..."

"No. Not hostility," the man begins coolly, "but because there isn't a single element that you've named that makes any sense, it surely would've been disbelief had it not been for what Bartholomew here has to say... Barty?"

The green-haired man nods quickly before beginning, "After performing a long and scrupulous set of tests on your physical form I found your anatomy to be similar to ours in nearly every way except for two things! One! Your skin muscles and presumably every other organ are significantly more resistant to damage than ours! And two! You have no Aura! None zero zilch nothing zip!"

I blink at the sheer weight of the impossible laced within his words before Miss Goodwitch's voice brings me out of my stupor.

"Is this consistent with your findings in the forest, Mister Carter?"

"Y-Yeah," I reply dumbly, trying to make sense of the situation, "I think it may have to do with the gravity here. It only took a few simple calculations to determine that the gravity here is only about a fifth of that of Earth's..."

"Ah That makes much more sense Much more sense indeed!" Oobleck now exclaims, "His anatomy will have then had to develop greated physical density to resist a stronger field and thus augmenting his relative strength in our planet!"

"So, a fifth of Earth's gravity is like me being relatively five times stronger here?" I ask in contemplation.

"Gravity is a measure of acceleration meaning that any factor between your world and ours in those respects would have to be squared."

"W-Wait," I begin, correcting myself, "So you're telling me that I'm twenty-five times stronger than I normally should be on this planet!?"

"Yes and that's in terms of what the average person can carry here," Oobleck continues, "Hunters and Huntresses with fully developed auras can usually augment their strength five-fold over any given citizen Sometimes even more depending on their semblance."

"What can the average person carry here?" I ask flatly, ignoring the slew of unfamiliar terms he added at the end.

"Well seeing that you are... eh, uh," he clears his throat, the first hitch in his usually lightning-fast dictation, "ahem, very well conditioned, I would say it's safe to assume you'd be in a similar tier as some of our stronger citizens Many of whom can lift a small vehicle."

If it were possible, my jaw would probably have dropped to the floor right then.

"So I'm twenty-five times stronger than that!?"

Alright. So Huntsmen, or whatever, are five times the strength of ordinary citizens, and I'm five times stronger than them. What!?

I then notice as the second man takes another sip of coffee.

"Quite the anomaly, Mister Carter," the silver-haired man now cuts in, "though despite your body's increased density, you still lack the protection of an aura."

I follow where he points his cane to the three large marks across my chest, and I shrug in reply, "Well, at least it's a conversation starter. It seemed to get the ladies' attention over at the forest..."

"Oh?" He replies with an ill-hidden smile before turning to something behind his shoulder, "Well speaking of which, I believe it would be a good idea to come out now... Ladies."

And to my surprise, three young women - among them, the rightful owner of this cloak - pop up from behind one of the long student desks circling Doctor Oobleck's lecture hall with groans of frustration at having been caught before the man clears his throat expectantly.

"Ahem... Miss Belladonna."

A fourth girl suddenly emerges from the shadows of another corner in the room before stealthily joining her peers. Like a ninja. Sweeet...

"May I ask why you four were spying on our visitor?" The man asks with a tinge of amusement in his voice.

"Um, uh," the girl in red and black replies mousily, "We were just waiting to get my hood back. Sorry, Headmaster Ozpin..."

"I see," he notes as he turns to look at the red cloak around me, "I believe it would only be fair to have it returned as soon as possible. Glynda, I'd say a visit to the clothing donation bin would be in order for the young man, wouldn't you say?"

"Er, uh, yes," she answers cautiously, purposefully keeping her gaze away from me while I take off the cloak and hand it to the blushing young girl, "But I feel the task would be better suited for Bartholomew, don't you think?"

Aw... and I was just starting to like her. Reminds me of my schoolteachers. The cute ones, hah. Oh well, I guess it isn't meant to be.

"True... well then, Barty-" Ozpin starts to mention but stops short when he turns and sees the Doctor is at his desk, studying the contraptions I made meticulously and mumbling something about 'cutting purified Dust crystals without an aura... incredible...'

He turns back to Miss Goodwitch with a shrug and is surely about to revert the responsibility to her when the little girl cuts in.

"Uh, Professor? W-We can take him. I know the way..."

I'm almost sure I see the blonde girl in the group do a fist-pump out of the corner of my eye before the Headmaster sighs and leans on his cane.

"I suppose you can take your team and help Mister Carter here find his way to the donation bin," he finally acquiesces.

"Must we all go?" the girl in white complains as she crosses her arms, jutting her hip out to the side. Of course, every school has to have a girl like her. I bet she's rich, too.

"Yes," the Headmaster now commands with the smallest of smirks curling the corner of his lips hidden behind a final sip of his caffeinated brew, "We wouldn't want to give way to rumors, would we Miss Schnee?"

She turns away with a huff, which if I recall correctly in my high school experience means reluctant acceptance.

Oh... Oh no, juuust peachy. Like being back in high school all over again.

The crisp afternoon wind brushes against my skin as our group walks along the outer paths across the courtyards, the occasional breeze stinging the scratches along my chest.

I look down and check for bleeding, ignoring the occasional furtive glances from my escorts. I guess I don't blame them, I'd do the same if I were in their position and some scantily clad girl popped out of thin air... much like the blonde who doesn't care whether I catch her staring or not.

But meh, she's a little too young for me.

"Here we are," the girl in red begins as we reach a small building on the outskirts of Beacon, "You'll find clothes inside, and I'm sure there's stuff your size."

"Thanks," I reply before the blonde speaks up.

"Need any help, big guy?~" She asks with a questionable grin.

"Er, no... Wait a minute," I stop suddenly, narrowing my eyes at her, "You look familiar..."

I turn around to see the group of girls and the pieces suddenly come together all at once. I can't help but grin as I look at the young girl in red and snap my fingers in triumph.

"Hah! You look like a silver-eyed Ariana Grande!" I declare, eliciting a pout of confusion from her before I turn to the blonde, "Scarlet Johanson!" A raised brow from the blonde before I turn to the girl in white, "A... Really pale Jessica Alba with a scar!" She scoffs derisively before I turn to the ninja girl in the bow, "Uh..."

Ack! It's on the tip of my tongue... Oh, got it!

"A really cute Mila Kunis!" I state with an ear-splitting grin before realizing that I added one too many adjectives in my excitement.

My smile dies down as I see her look down with a slight blush and raise my hands apologetically, "Oh uh... my bad."

The not-very-latina Jessica Alba throws her hands up in frustration, "Obviously."

She points to Ariana, "Ruby Rose."

Then to Scarlet, "Yang Xiao Long."

Then to the still-blushing Mila, "Blake Belladonna."

Then with both thumbs points at herself angrily, "And Weiss stinkin' Schnee!"

"I'm sorry, your Highness," I state with an exaggerated bow.

I'm surprised her 'team' puts up with her, but I'm not really one to judge...

"It's heiress, actually," Blake speaks up for the first time.

Never mind. I throw up my arms in realization as I walk into the building, "I knew it! And I bet she's rich, too!"

I turn just a bit before closing the door behind me and watch as the blonde bursts out in laughter at the fuming heiress and the crimsonette chuckles lightly, Blake content with turning away and covering her smile with her hand.

Some time later, I step out of the donation bin rather pleased with my finds.

Black button-up Oxford shirt with grey dress slacks and a simple black belt and shoes. Though the dress shirt is probably a half size too small - defining my chest, shoulders and back - it's a problem I usually have with any shirt I try on due to my build.

"Not bad, big guy~" Yang states with a smirk.

"You... clean up nice," Blake adds softly.

"Aw, no need to return my compliment with another," I reply bashfully at the girl who apparently psyched herself up to say that judging by how she looks down with a light blush and smile. I don't think she's used to giving those out much.

"Well, I guess we'll send Ozpin a message and see where we go from here," Ruby remarks as she starts typing into what looks like one of those old sliding phones.

"Good, may we go now?" Weiss asks, glaring daggers at me.

"But Carter here ain't got nowhere to go," Yang mentions with a surprising level of warm concern, "You wanna crash with us for a bit, big guy?"

I shrug non-chalantly, "Meh, why not?"

"Awesome! We'll get team Juniper to come over and Ren can make pancakes and I'll bake the cookies!" Ruby announces happily as we all turn to make our way to a large building. Dorms... hmm, I guess it's a boarding school kind of thing.

Nearing the building, I'm somewhat surprised to hear Weiss speak up... despite her seemingly cold personality, she seems awfully curious about the things she heard in Oobleck's lecture hall after all.

"Carter, you said something about Dust crystal formation being impossible wherever it is you came from. Would you know why that is?"

I raise a brow at her interesting question and turn to Ruby for an explanation, who despite her age seems to be the leader of the group.

"Her family owns the largest Dust processing corporation in Remnant."

"Ah," I concede, deciding to indulge the girl with an answer, "Well, Miss Schnee, I can't say for sure."

She scoffs at my ambiguity, to which I return a playful grin. I always did like to mess with people that have an icy personality, it's fun to melt through it with humor and such.

"Kidding. Though I really can't say for sure, I believe it has something to do with the apparently natural occurrence crystalized hydrogen that occurs in Remnant's rock formations and not on Earth. If it were, we'd have a source for nearly unlimited self-sustaining energy!"

"Sounds like a lot of stuff that doesn't make any sense..." Yang mentions gruffly, crossing her arms under her ample... assets... in frustration at not being able to keep up with the conversation.

"It didn't make sense in my planet either until relatively recently, so don't worry! It's a very rare, high energy substance," I explain more simply, "and on Earth, it's not found in nature. It has to be made."

"By what?" Ruby asks with curiosity herself.

"By impossible methods that can't be re-created in a science lab," I respond jokingly, "that is, until we discovered muon particles... once harnessed, the high-energy radiation they emit was the basis of the Particle Accelerator built in my hometown to create endless amounts of the crystals to fuel our world's first self-sustaining energy reactor-"

I cut myself off as I'm hit with a wondrous, wondrous idea.

"-The same accelerator... that brought me here..." I quickly turn to the heiress, grabbing her by the shoulders and nearly shaking her as I dig for info, "Weiss, how much of this Dust stuff do you guys have?"

"Lots," she replies smugly before turning her gaze down at my hands and sternly prying them off her shoulders.

"My bad."

But the gears are already turning in my mind. The only way for such crystals to have formed is if the entire planet had been bombarded with constant amounts of muon particles to create such vast quantities of this Dust in the planet's crust. If muons were necessary to easily create the crystals, then naturally one could expect for their combustion to emit vast quantities of muon radiation!

And if I could harness that radiation and redirect it at myself with the same mix of particles that nearly killed me that day in San Francisco, then...

"I could go back..."

"What?" Yang slowly walks over and snaps me out of my musing with an arm on my shoulder.

"I-I could go back!" I cry out hysterically, nearly crying for joy at the prospect, "I might be able to get myself back home! All I'd have to do is prove my hypothesis that there are still muon particles bombarding your planet even today..."

"Muon?" Ruby questions at the unfamiliar term.

"Yes, and seeing that nobody here calls the elements the same things we do back on Earth, I have to personally build a device to measure muon concentration in the air. If that works, then I'd need to recreate an environment that can emulate the accelerator anomaly perfectly... And I'd need a lot of Dust to do it..." I continue with intermittent chuckles during my explanation.

"Well, that sounds like reason to celebrate!~" Yang decides es with a smack on my shoulder, "I say we mark the occasion with cookies and pancakes!"

Suddenly, I'm in complete agreement with this girl.

"Let's do it!" I exclaim as we walk into the dorm building together.

I silently shake my own head as we climb the stairs, overjoyed by my own luck. I might actually be able to pull this off! ...As long as I can get everything I need without any problems...

A/N: And there goes chapter 2! In case you guys wanna check the science, you can't. Muon is a fictional particle in the Marvel Universe that makes crazy things possible and it makes a lot of sense here on Remnant! The gravity and body density jazz, though, is all John Carter stuff ;) I hope you all like it!

Carter is strong but has his drawbacks, being without aura and all, and the road to Earth is a long one. Feel free to leave a fave and follow if you'd like to stay tuned and leave a review if you'd like to let me know what you think!

Team RWBY kinda does remind me of those four actresses, and team JNPR reminds me of people, too. More to come with that! If you think they bear a closer resemblance to someone else, let me know! If I agree, I'll re-write the chapter and give you credit!

Till next time, everyone!

Happy Reading!