Thank you for the views, reviews and follows/favorites. And now, as usual, here are replies to some reviews.
Presbydos: and that's why I use a Nokia.
some guy: I won't. And in case I do, be my guest. I'll set up the welcome feast.
Guest: I'd put Dust rounds more in term of XCOM Laser weaponry when it comes to damage. Stronger than balistic, weaker than plasma.
thefluffyone93: Yeah... I have that problem...
Granet: Thank you. Chris will be described more extensively in the next chapters. Though, if you follow my other XCOM crossover then you can find it there. It's the same guy, only a different situation.
Yinko: You'll see when Chris encounters one.
necrofantasia: Read and you'll see. Or check my other XCOM story.
LoneWolf218: Acknowledged.
And now on with the story.
Chapter One: First First Contact
If Chris had any doubts about being in a different time zone before they were all dispelled when the mission clock on his HUD, set to Local Time for the part of Siberia where the UFO had crashed, was showing 17:39 when it started to get dark. There was just no way the sun could set that early in the middle of summer. Which meant that he was sent a few time zones forward. Two or three, at the minimum. Which would put him somewhere in Asia's temperate regions, if the trees were any indication. However, he couldn't remember any forests like this one from what little he knew about Geography. And it didn't explain the lack of XCOM coverage either, since there were at least four Stealth satellites in geosynchronous orbit above the continent.
Taking a sip of water from the tube in his armor Chris pondered the options he had. He could continue in the dark, using the low-light settings of his helmet's HUD... But it was inadvisable, since there was a good chance of missing something vital in the dark, especially since he was growing tired.
Second option was to light a fire and camp on the ground. While the fire would keep predators away while he took some well-deserved rest, it could also attract attention of the wrong type.
Which left him with the third option. Taking aim at a thick tree he fired the grappling hook. The barbed arrow-like projectile shot from the device that encompassed his left forearm, embedding in the trunk and instantly securing itself.
A tug and he was walking up the tree, the cable coiling back in the launcher. Soon he reached his target - a nice, thick branch, sturdy enough to hold his weight. From there it was an easy task to use the grappling hook's reserve cable to secure his body and equipment to the trunk and make himself as comfortable as possible.
It didn't take long for exhaustion to lull him to sleep.
And high above the trees' thick foliage the broken moon of Remnant shone...
It was already light out when Chris woke up. After the brief disorientation that came from waking up in an unfamiliar place he let out a groan. Sleeping in armor wasn't the most comfortable thing while on a flat surface, and the branch he was on was nowhere near that.
A glance at the clock of his HUD showed that it was 08:42. Chris mentally added three hours to that. 11:42 seemed more plausible, considering the time of last night's dusk.
But the current time didn't matter... He had been asleep for nearly fourteen hours... That was six hours more than what he usually got, and definitely more than he could afford with his limited supplies.
And speaking of supplies, he was feeling peckish... Straddling the thick branch he removed his helmet and hung it on a protruding piece of bark. Tapping one of the compartments of his armor open he pulled the MRE out and opened it. For a moment he hesitated. The brown block looked so unappetizing... But he was hungry... Finally Chris relented and broke a piece of the "food" and popped it in his mouth.
"Ugh..." He voiced his displeasure at the taste. Somehow someone had gathered the taste of cardboard and the inside of his shoes and put it in a block that felt like dry mud inside his mouth...
A mouthful of water from the small reservoir in his armor managed to make the mass slightly easier to swallow, though it still took a couple of tries. A few more sips from the water managed to wash the taste from his mouth.
With another grunt of disgust Chris put the rest of the block away. It would keep him sated for a while, and the taste made sure that he wouldn't want to eat more of it soon.
Putting his helmet back on Chris recovered the gear he hung and hopped off the branch. The Gene-mods and his armor made sure that he didn't break any bones when he hit the ground and rolled.
Normally the first order of business for the day would be a nice workout. Unfortunately Chris couldn't afford to have one right now...
After dusting his Ghost armor off he continued walking in the same direction as before...
Five hours... For five hours Chris had been walking in a more or less straight line, using the strength given to him by the denser muscles he was augmented with and the grappling hook of his Ghost armor to get through obstacles.
"Fucking forest's denser than a jungle..." He grumbled to himself. It was easier to count the time he could see the sky! Like now, as he was looking at the azure expanse above him. Only a couple of white clouds marred the otherwise breathtaking sight... For centuries mankind had wondered what lay beyond... And now Chris knew the answer. Danger... From the expanse of space, with its dangers, to the inhabitants... There were at least five (somewhat) intelligent species out there... Species that wanted his kind dead or enslaved, he didn't know which. What he knew was that the Ethereals and their thralls were the enemy. An enemy that he was more than glad to meet on the battlefield... No, not just him. Every soldier of XCOM was like that, ready to kill every last alien and their supporters to ensure Humanity's survival...
Chris' thoughts were interrupted as something lunged at him from the bushes. The human barely had the time to register the black and white blur before it crashed in him, sending him skidding on the ground.
The next thing that he saw was a skull-like mask that was snapping at him with teeth that looked too sharp to belong to such a beast. Chris tried to push it off as its claws scraped against his armor, but he couldn't ger a leverage, nor could he get his rifle in a position to fire.
Finally he managed to get his legs between him and the beast and kicked hard. His leg muscles, which allowed him to jump ten meters high, sent the animal flying to the other side of the small clearing, where it landed in a crouch. The human wasted no time and tapped the interface on the back of his wrist.
You could almost see the surprise on the creature's bone faceplate as its prey vanished in thin air. It raised its head, sniffing the air as it tried to locate the human.
In the meantime, Chris had gotten up from his position and moved to a spot about a dozen meters away to catch his breath. The lull allowed him to examine the... thing.
Powerful-looking hind legs, perfect for leaping or running. Hand-like paws on the front legs, ending with sharp claws. Black fur covering the muscled torso, with boney spikes along its back and arms. And a skull-like mask with red markings covering the wolf-like head...
Chris either had some serious gaps in his knowledge of animals, or he was just attacked by a werewolf on steroids... But that was impossible, right? Werewolves existed only in fiction.
Then again, just yesterday he was trading plasma shots with aliens. And three years ago those were considered fictional as well.
Whatever the creature was, Chris was sure that it was some rare specimen. That, or a new alien type, even if it looked nothing like the other x-rays he had seen. It would probably be valuable captured alive and brought to Vahlen for interrogation and vivisection...
The XCOM trooper moved behind the beast and calmly raised his Plasma rifle. Vahlen could get her specimen some other time. Right now he was more concerned with surviving, and the chances of that will increase with the creature's death. Especially before it could report his presence to whatever commanded it.
Taking aim at the back of its head he pulled the trigger. The green glob of plasma hit just below the bone mask and most of the creature's head was vaporized.
"Critical hit." Chris smirked behind the helmet as he lowered the rifle and walked to the beast's corpse as it started smoking. He noted that for later as he crouched down to examine it in peace.
A snap of a twig behind him had the soldier pivot around and squeeze a trio of shots from his rifle. The first one missed, but the second and third hit the torso of another werewolf, which fell to the ground, dead.
"Of course..." He whispered to himself. Aliens always came in groups... Though the usual number was three. So where was the last one...
A rustling to his right answered that question. Aiming his rifle at the bushes he waited to get a clear shot...
It wasn't just one werewolf that walked into the clearing though. It wasn't two, three or even four... The numbers were in the two digits... And he could see more of them lurking outside the clearing.
This was bad... Chris was surrounded from all sides by enemies that, while dying as easy as a Sectoid or a Thin Man, had the strength of numbers to overwhelm him.
He wasn't equipped for a battle like this... His Ghost armor's plates didn't protect everything... It only covered his chest, crotch and most of the outside of his arms and legs. The rest was a "muscle" suit that retained mobility while still offering protection from heat-based damage, like plasma and laser fire.
Still... Ghosting out (a term that in XCOM slang meant "become invisible and get the hell out of there!") was impossible. The creatures were too many to sneak out undetected.
Using the grappling hook might be an option... If there was a sturdy enough tree nearby. And Chris couldn't see any in the immediate vicinity, not that he had time to look... The snarling werewolves seemed quite tense, as if they only waited for the slightest prompt to attack...
For a few seconds everything was still... The narrow orange visor of Chris' helmet was glaring at the werewolves, who returned the favor with their red eyes.
"Alright, you beasts. Let's do this!" Chris growled and pulled the trigger. The first two werewolves were downed before the others could realize what was happening. A third one had its head removed as it snarled. The rest, however, charged forward on all fours. Chris managed to squeeze another two shots , downing one more werewolf before they were upon him.
The world seemed to slow down as his Hyper-Reactive Pupils tracked the first beast's swipe. Ducking under the attack Chris pivoted on his left foot, sweeping the legs from under the beast.
He didn't have the chance to finish it as another of its kind jumped from behind, slamming shoulder-first in the human. Chris didn't waste time as he turned a trip over the first opponent's body in a roll before he turned around and shot the rugby wannabe before sending a blob of plasma in the first one's chest.
That made six werewolves down, or eight, if you counted the two from before. Only a couple of dozen left...
Chris didn't even have time to curse before he had to leap up. A moment later two werewolves collided in the spot he occupied. To add injury to the insult the human landed on top of them and used their heads as springboard to launch himself away. Both beasts fell, one of them with its neck bent at an unnatural angle.
Chris' flight was cut short as another werewolf leaped up and tackled him out of the air. The two ended in a ball on the ground, rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop. The human was pinned this time, with only his left hand free...
This time Chris was the one to strike first. Balling his hand in a fist he punched the beast in the face until it reeled back, allowing him to free his right hand. Tapping the interface on his wrist he sent the grappling hook shooting straight in the werewolf's eye.
The projectile was made to pierce and secure itself in concrete. Thus the fact that it burst through the back of the beast's head didn't surprise Chris in the slightest. Unfortunately there was no time to try and pull the cable and hook from the creature's skull, which meant that he had to detach it.
Now one of his escape options was eliminated until he could replace the cable. And that was a bit impossible at the moment.
Pushing the dead monster off him Chris grabbed his rifle from where it fell and stood up. The beasts were circling around him, their posture wary... They knew he was dangerous. And that he could kill them from a distance.
Good.
Maybe now he could leave... Perhaps the beasts would decide that he wasn't worth the trouble and let him go? Tapping the armor's interface he activated the Ghost mode and shimmered out of view...
Just as a werewolf slammed at him from behind. A sharp pang of pain in his side and a blazing red warning on his HUD informed him of his muscle suit being breached.
Chris held his side as he jumped to the side. The beasts howled as they smelled his blood. The red drops became visible as they left the Ghost field, staining the ground under him.
"Shit..." He hissed as he pressed his hand on the wound. He couldn't see it, but the pain and blood loss made it clear that it was serious... He would have to patch it up.
But first Chris had to get away from the werewolves...
Clamping the Plasma rifle on his back he pulled out his sidearm. He could shoot it with one hand, using the other to try and keep as much blood inside his body as possible.
"Close your mind to stress and pain..." He whispered through clenched teeth and dashed forward. He'd have time to hurt later. He plowed through the bushes before sliding on his knees as a werewolf swiped at his stealthed form. He didn't open fire though... Cancelling his invisibility was the most stupid thing he could do, even if it was already compromised by the wound.
As blind luck would have it, this was the only werewolf that Chris encountered for the next few minutes. Still, he could hear the pack's howls right behind him as they chased him through the underbrush...
Three hours... For three hours he ran, the pack of werewolves hot on his heels. Four times they managed to catch up with him, raising his kill count to thirty-four. But he didn't come out of the fight clean either, as two of those times they got lucky... He even had to use his Psionics, resulting in a nasty headache as he kept a field of Psi Panic up for half an hour...
Finally he managed to loose them by using an ages-old trick - he walked a few hundred meters in a stream, the water washing the scent of his blood away.
Dusk was already setting in when he checked the HUD'S chronometer. 18:24, or 20:24, as he presumed.
The teenager had found a cliff that wasn't easily accessed from the ground... Not without a combination of Grappling hook (the cable being replaced just a few minutes ago) and a nearly-agonizing use of his denser musculature to climb the cliff's side.
Now that he was safe from the damn werewolves he could address his wounds. Two more gashes were torn in his suit when the pack caught up with him. One had torn the front, as his abdomen. It was a small miracle that it had only gotten his skin and not eviscerated him on the spot. The second one, on his right arm, was worse... He could barely move it now.
And on top of the pain (which he desperately tried to ignore) there was the blood loss...
Chris' grimace at the sight of the wounds as he peeled the suit off them was completely justified. The wounds were messy and bleeding much more than it was healthy.
He managed to clean the wounds somewhat with the last bit of water from his armor's reservoir. Hopefully they won't get infected... It would be plain insulting if he died from an infection after surviving all the alien and human encounters in the past year and so...
Pulling the XCOM Medikit from its compartment he selected the general antibiotic/wound sealing gel. Hopefully it wound counteract anything that was on those things' claws... Steeling himself he plunged the nozzle in the wound on his abdomen and pulled the trigger. A growl of pain escaped his gritted teeth as the solution filled the wound, sealing it.
He repeated the process two more times, each of them as unpleasant as the first. Pulling the nozzle from the gash on his arm he breathed deeply a few times as the stinging sensation receded.
With the wounds tended to he allowed himself to lie on his back and rest for a couple of minutes.
The night sky was so beautiful... Even if he couldn't recognize the constellations above him. And the large moon was shining bright as it rose above the trees, its shattered side facing...
Chris shot up before falling back down in pain. Blinking the tears that gathered in his eyes away he stared at the moon. What... What happened? It wasn't like that before... This wasn't possible, right? What could possibly do that much damage, and do it in a single day?
Unless...
Forcing his panic down Chris tried to think rationally and try to find a possible explanation. The Moon was whole last time he saw it. This one wasn't. The damage done to it didn't look recent as well.
The way he saw it there were two possibilities:
The first one was that the Alien device had sent him to the future... A future where the Moon had been hit, either by a weapon or an asteroid... One where white-masked black werewolves stalked the woods...
Chris didn't like this possibility. It meant that something had gone wrong... He was sure that XCOM would have prevented anything like that from happening. The Moon above him would mean that they had failed...
The second option was that he was on a different planet. A slightly better possibility for Earth, but just as bad for himself, if not even worse.
If this was Earth then there was a good chance of him finding civilization if he continued searching. If this was another planet... There might not be any civilization at all...
Either way he'd have to survive. And that meant resting for now... First he needed to put something in his stomach. Thankfully he still had most of his MRE. It still tasted bad and was as swallowable as ever.
Swallowing the last part of the bite Chris leaned back, intent on getting some sleep. For a few minutes he looked at the moon.
A dark shape passed in front of it just as he was about to doze off, followed by a second one. Rising up Chris put his helmet on and sought the night sky for whatever that was. Everything could be a threat in his situation...
Locating the two dark shapes wasn't that hard. Tapping the side of his helmet he zoomed in. They looked like bats... Like black bats... With the same kind of bone mask as the werewolves...
The body looked quite humanoid. The hands appeared to be human-like, unlike a bat. Where a bat's wings were a membrane stretching between its "fingers", this one had the skin stretching between it and its body. Another membrane connected the legs, acting as a tail.
The overall look was kind of like those winged suits that Chris had seen on TVs.
The human focused his attention on the creature's head. The bone mask was white, like the werewolves', with the same red markings. Only, there were no eyeholes. The bone curved on top, making a pair of oversized bat-like ears. A pair of fangs could also be seen jutting down from the bone, going past its chin.
Of course... There were werewolves. Why not have Dracula's spawn as well?
The two batmen, as Chris called them in his mind, pulled their wings to their bodies and swooped down at him with a screech. If he were to guess they used echolocation, just like real bats... And they had found him.
The human stood up and lifted his Plasma pistol. The batmen were inside his range, but still far enough to dodge the shots... He was going to wait for them to get closer.
"Come on... Come on..." Chris whispered as he tried to steady the pistol with his injured hand. Shooting with the non-dominant hand was tricky...
"Just a bit... Closer... Gotcha!" He pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. Three globs of plasma shot out at the first batman. The creature spread its wings, trying to evade the shots. Two of them went wide, but the third one hit it in the shoulder. The beast let out a horrible screech as it plummeled down like a rock, what remained of its wing flapping behind it like a grotesque cape.
The second one wasn't deterred by the death of its comrade. It continued forward before spreading its wings with a thunder-like clap as they caught the air. Chris aimed the pistol at the creature, but before he could pull the trigger it let out a shriek. Even with the helmet dampening the sound it still hurt his ears.
Looking up the human's eyes widened before he ducked down, ignoring the pain in his abdomen. The bat beast flew over him, its claws scraping over his armor.
A clatter signaled that it had gotten his rifle from the magnetic clamp on his back. Turning around Chris clamped the Plasma pistol to his hip and darted after the weapon as it tumbled toward the edge. Just as it was about to fall down he jumped after it, his fingers barely catching the top rail before it fell over.
Another horrible screech heralded the beast's next pass. Chris immediately turned on his back, his thumb flicking the rifle's safety off. His finger pulled the trigger three times.
The rifle shot out one glob of plasma before it let out a hiss and a whiff of green smoke. Chris' eyes widened at the telltale sign of an empty energy clip.
At least the plasma round hit the bat-man in the chest, burning a large hole straight to its heart. The corpse, however, retained its forward momentum which had it slam straight into Chris, sending both tumbling over the edge. The human twisted in the air, putting the bat-man's body between him and the ground before the impact.
The Plasma rifle fell a few meters away from Chris as he lay on top of the corpse, groaning in pain. At least it didn't fall on him... That would've been embarrassing, not to mention painful.
For a few moments Chris just laid there, preferring to just rest while he could...
And then a werewolf stalked in the clearing.
"Oh fuck me..." Chris groaned as he pulled his sidearm and snapped a pair of shots at the beast, bringing his kill-count to thirty-five.
Several growls came from behind the bushes surrounding the clearing. Chris grit his teeth and pushed himself off the bat-man's corpse. It was time to run again... Standing up the human tapped the interface, activating his armor's invisibility...
The crackling of electricity and acrid small from his back wasn't what he was expecting... Peeking over his shoulder he saw a long gash going straight through the Ghost module. The bat must've gotten the device on its fly-by...
"Fuck me sideways!" Chris swore. That was his biggest advantage against the werewolves...
Scooping up his rifle he clamped it on his back and ran towards the edge of the clearing.
He wasn't going to sit around and let the werewolves get him...
Headmaster Ozpin leaned back in his chair. Everything was so quiet... Beacon Academy was almost empty, with just a few members of the staff staying behind. The others were getting some well-deserved rest before the school year's start in two months.
Reaching out he tapped the interface on his desk. A screen popped up, showing a small clearing, devoid of anything of note.
It was a view from one of the cameras hidden in the Emerald Forest. Ozpin checked the footage daily in order to monitor the Grimm's movement.
He switched the view to other cameras until he found something interesting. Three Beowolf corpses littered a clearing, with a rather large amount of blood around their smoking corpses. Narrowing his eyes the Headmaster flipped through the cameras until he reached another, similar view. Only this one contained an Ursa Major as well...
"Hmm... Perhaps they fought for territory..." Ozpin mused and lifted his mug up. Taking a sip from the coffee he switched to another camera...
And then he did a textbook spittake at the scene shown in the feed.
A human, dressed in strange armor, was choking a Beowolf with one hand while firing some kind of Dust weapon at the rest of the pack. Quickly zooming in on the fighter Ozpin took a better look. He was covered in blood, and if the gashes that were visible were any indication then a good part of the red fluid was his own...
Pulling his Scroll out Ozpin opened it and called one of the numbers he had on speed dial.
"Yes?" The face of Glynda Goodwitch, one of his closest friends and a teacher at Beacon appeared on the screen.
"Glynda, are you still at the Academy?" Ozpin asked, his eyes flicking towards the screen with the video feed. The Huntsman had let the Beowolf he was choking fall and just dashed out of the camera's view.
"Yes, but I was just about..."
"Good. Meet me at the gates to the Emerald Forest." Ozpin commanded as he switched through the cameras' views, trying to locate the human.
"What? But..." Glynda started to protest, only to be interrupted by Ozpin for the second time:
"No time to explain now." With that Ozpin ended the call before calling up the cameras' feed and a map of their locations. After pausing just to grab his mug the headmaster dashed out of his office.
A couple of minutes later he arrived at the gates leading to the forest. Glynca was already waiting for him, riding crop tapping her hand impatiently.
"What's going on, Ozpin?" She asked him with narrowed eyes. She had important business to do today...
"There's a wounded Huntsman in the forest." Ozpin said as he held up his Scroll for her to see the running human. "If we move fast we can intercept him here." He continued, pointing at a spot on the map.
"Let's go." Glynda nodded before the two sped off in the forest...
"Fifty-seven!" Chris roared as he stabbed his knife in the side of a werewolf's neck before pulling it out and kicking the bleeding beast away. Ducking under another's swipe he pointed his pistol up and promptly shot it in the head. "Fifty-eight!"
The XCOM soldier had lost track of the time he had spent fighting the beasts... It felt like weeks. And he could also feel that he was on his last legs... Right now he probably had more adrenaline and drugs in his veins than blood.
His eyes flashed purple behind the helmet's visor and a werewolf doubled over in pain, clutching at its head. This gave Chris a chance to deliver another fatal blow to the neck before he moved onto the next one.
Unfortunately, the next one moved onto him first. The beast's claws scratched at his armor, the power behind the swipe sending him flying right into a tree.
Falling in its base he brought his gun up and squeezed a pair of shots at the assailant.
"Sixty..." He wheezed as the werewolf dropped. Unfortunately there were half a dozen more ready to take its place...
"Fuck you..." Chris groaned and tried to stand up. His body, however, didn't respond... He simply lacked the energy to do so. He could barely lift his pistol anymore...
Seeing this the beasts charged at him, leaping the air. Chris desperately tried to do something... Anything... Roll to the side, bring his pistol up and shoot, slash with the knife... But nothing happened.
And then, just as it seemed that this was going to be the end for Christopher Redmond, a purple barrier appeared between him and the werewolves. The beasts bounced off it as a blonde-haired woman dropped in front of him.
The last thing that Chris saw was the woman waving a black object, shooting streams of purple at the beasts before a silver-haired man dressed in green jumped in the fray.
Then he promptly lost consciousness...
Author's Notes:
And that's a wrap. Chris has had his first taste of Remnant and it's local fauna, and he's definitely disliking it.
The Draculean (Bat-man) is my own fan-made Grimm. It was inspired by Dracula's bat form in the Van Helsing movie. After all, there are werewolves here, why not vampires? If anyone wants to use it then just message me for permission.