EDITED VERSION

Ethan wasn't stupid.

He could be called many things, impulsive, lazy, arrogant, easy-going, but stupid was not one of his characteristics. Most of his team forgot that underneath the jolly veneer of Assault, lied the cunning of a man who spent years breaking people out of transport to the world's only inescapable prison, the Birdcage, and was only taken in when he wanted to be taken in.

His specialty was in people. Ethan simply got people.

And, so, when Pyrrha's eyes widened, her muscles tensed, and her back went rigid, he knew that he had to calm the situation.

"Woah, woah, Pyr," he started to babble, opening his palms to the universal language for 'slow down', "No need to freak out, here, we'll figure this out."

He doubted that Pyrrha was even listening to his words at this point, but his calm tone obviously had an effect on the girl, as she relaxed back into the hospital bed. Internally, Ethan breathed a big sigh of relief. Capes and freak outs were a recipe for disaster.

Then again, maybe this girl wasn't even a parahuman. She didn't recognize the word 'cape', and that was literally in the dictionary as an alternate definition for a parahuman now. Even on Earth Aleph, with their minute amount of capes, the word existed.

He honestly wasn't surprised to find out that Pyrrha was from an alternate Earth. She spoke English without a hint of an accent, so she had to be from an English speaking country. The way she talked about Beacon made it seem like a household name, and he had no idea what she was talking about. What did she call it, a 'Huntsmen Academy'? What was a huntsmen? Maybe that was the word for parahuman on her alternate Earth.

He glanced back towards Armsmaster, "Hey, boss, can we get her some food?"

The Tinker's lips pursed for a moment, before he nodded, "That'd be a good idea."

He turned back to the slightly frazzled, but now calm Pyrrha, "You feel up to get some food from the cafeteria?"

She checked herself over for a moment before looking back at him, "Yes, my Aura seems to have recovered the worst of my injuries, I should be fine."

His eyebrows shot up. "Aura?" he asked, before catching himself, "Wait, wait, no, let's get food now, questions can happen later."

She gave him a very thankful smile, and he felt himself grin back.

He reached his hand back to her, "C'mon, we've got some great burgers here. You'd be surprised how good the cafeteria is here."

Pyrrha pulled herself out of the bed, and gingerly took steps towards the red suited man. Surprisingly, her footing was very solid, despite her extremely low Aura levels, and she was walking fine after a few strides.

Before they got to the door, Assault looked back, asking, "Hey, Armsmaster, you wanna come with us?"

The man in question glanced up with a hum, shaking himself from his thoughts. "Hmm? Oh, no, I'll have paperwork to do and a briefing to give. I'll contact you when I need you."

He waved back with a jovial smile, "Alright, Bossman, your loss."

Before Armsmaster could give another retort, he gestured for Pyrrha to leave, and the two left the armored man alone in the hospital room.

About halfway down the hallway, Assault slowed down and looked over his shoulder. "We should be in the clear, Armsy probably won't bother us for a while."

Pyrrha caught up to him, huffing slightly, "Shouldn't you have more respect for your leader?"

He waved her off, "Bah, it's Armsy, he just wants to be left alone with his tinker stuff. He's probably glad we left him honestly, I just don't want him to ask you questions right now."

She frowned, thinking of her own leader back at Beacon, "He doesn't seem like much of a leader, then."

Assault shrugged, "He's honestly a good fighter, and he's got seniority over most of us."

Pyrrha hummed noncommittally. "If you insist."

"So!" Assault started, changing the subject abruptly, "I'm sure you have a ton of questions about where you are right now."

Pyrrha glanced at him, allowing the change in subject, "I do."

He clapped his hands together, "Alright, Earth 101, what do you want to know first?"

She stopped in the hallway and quirked an eyebrow at him, taking in his outfit. "Well, I suppose I am curious about the whole 'outfit and mask' thing. Huntsmen usually wear colorful clothing, but they usually do show their face."

Assault hummed, "That's actually kind of a tough question. C'mon, let's keep walking."

Continuing down the hall, Assault started to lecture.

"Basically, about 30 years ago, this golden man named Scion appears in the sky, and everyone freaks out. All the sudden, people start Triggering with superpowers."

Pyrrha nodded, taking note of the emphasis on 'trigger'.

He kept going at the acknowledgement, "So, people start to think of this like the old comic books-you guys have comics on Remnant, right?"

Pyrrha nodded slowly, remembering how Jaune always was getting the newest issue of X-Ray and Vav. "Yes, we did, though I don't think they wore masks. Nobody really had anything to hide with Huntsmen."

"Huh", Assault added vaguely, "That's kinda weird. Um, anyways, a big thing in Earth comic books is secret identities. So, when the world starts to act like a comic book..."

"People start to wear masks." Pyrrha finished.

He smiled smugly, "Exactly. Plus, it does provide protection from villains coming after heroes like me outside of work. Being a hero is kinda like a 9-5 job around here. You guys have villains in Remnant?"

"Not particularly," Pyrrha admitted, "There are criminals, but most combat capable people are used to fight the Grimm."

Noticing the faraway look that Pyrrha was started to get, Assault cleared his throat loudly to pull Pyrrha back to him, "Alright, so right now, you're in a city called Brockton Bay."

Pulled out of her reminiscence, Pyrrha nodded, then comprehended what she was just told. "Right, Brockton Bay."

"Yep, and, more specifically, you're at the PRT Headquarters."

Pyrrha quirked an eyebrow, "PRT?"

He snapped his fingers admonishing himself. "Right, can't use acronyms. Uh, it stands for Parahuman Response Teams, and they're the government organization in charge of the Protectorate, which is the United States' Hero team."

She continued for him, "And the United States is the name of your kingdom?"

Assault paused, his mouth open as he was about to speak. "Uh, no. We use the word 'country' instead of kingdom. Haven't had kingdoms for a while."

Pyrrha looked thoughtfully. "Huh."

Assault cleared his throat again, "Anyways, the PRT is pretty much our overseers. They're in charge of our rules, our budgets, and our patrols. They have some pretty big control over our PR too."

"PR?" Pyrrha asked, "Why do you need to worry about PR?"

Assault responded, "Well, for the most part, a lot of being a Hero is convincing people they're safe. A big part of my job is public outreach, rather than fighting crime."

Pyrrha hummed noncommittally once more, as they reached a set of double doors. Assault pushed them open, revealing a bustling cafeteria.

"C'mon," he gestured Pyrrha inside, "We can continue after we eat."

"I have no idea how you ate that much, and look like that."

Pyrrha looked up from the remnants of her fifth 'burger', some kind of odd sandwich thing that Assault had recommended. It was weird, but good. The man in question had his mouth hanging open slightly as he held a 'fry' from his single plate.

Pyrrha smirked, Assault had been making jokes the whole time, perhaps now she could give it back to him.

Schooling her features, she narrowed her eyes at him, "And what do you mean by that?"

He jumped back playfully, "No, no, not like that, I meant, like that's a lot of food, and you look great, pleasedon'thitmeIgetenoughofthatfrompuppy." He raised his hands to shield himself.

Pyrrha giggled freely, throwing a fry at the costumed man, "No, no, it's quite alright. I'm rather confused myself of how you maintain your Aura while eating so little."

Assault took notice of the word 'Aura' and returned to a more serious mood, "Alright, Pyrrha, now seems like a pretty good time to get to those questions."

Letting her laughter slow to a halt, she adjusted herself in her chair, "Right, well, what do you wish to know?"

He placed his elbows on the table, "Let's start with your 'Aura'," putting finger quotes around the word. "You've mentioned that a couple of times, what is it?"

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Aura is the manifestation of our souls," she recited, "It bears our burdens and shields our hearts."

Blinking away the water in her eyes at the familiar words. The last time she recited that lesson was to Jau-

She shook her head, no time to dwell on that right now, "Um, anyways, Aura is essentially the weaponization of your soul, us Huntsmen use them to fight the Grimm." Pausing, she lifted an eyebrow and looked up at him, "Speaking of which, if you do not understand Aura, how do you combat the Grimm?"

His head tilted to the side (Pyrrha noted that his body language was particularly dramatic given his half hidden face), and asked, "What're the Grimm?"

Pyrrha gasped, "You-you don't have Grimm here? How does that even happen? What are-"

"Hey, hey," he interrupted, bringing his arms up again, "Relax, Pyr. Remember, alternate world, different things."

Pyrrha blushed at the nickname, that was what Jaune called her. She cleared her throat once more, "Right, of course."

She looked up at him apologetically, "Sorry about that, I'm still a little out of sorts."

Assault rested his hand on her arm, "Hey, you're fine, no need to apologize, you're in a whole new world, without a magic carpet."

Upon seeing Pyrrha's confusion, he coughed, "Pop culture reference, sorry. So, back to the question, what are the Grimm?"

Pyrrha bit her lip, thinking of how to describe the representations of evil. "Grimm," she began slowly, "are monsters. They're an endless horde of snarling beasts that feed upon the negative emotions of humans and Faunus. Huntsmen are trained to defend the kingdoms of Remnant, using Aura, semblances, and weapons. If we fall, the world falls with us."

Assault had a solemn expression, as he offered, "And, these Huntsmen Academies you mentioned...?"

Pyrrha nodded, "That's where we learn to combat the Grimm."

Assault whistled, "That sucks."

"That it does."

The pair sat in silence, Pyrrha occasionally eating a fry from her plate. After a minute, Assault broke the silence.

"Well, I would ask about what happened, right before you woke up here..."

Pyrrha's throat tightened, and she curled in on herself.

"...But I think that might be a sensitive topic," he finished with a grimace.

A chime broke the awkward silence between them, and Assault pulled out what seemed to be an odd looking Scroll before checking it and putting it away. He stood up, looking down at Pyrrha, "Well, that's the boss' boss. C'mon, kid, time to see what we're gonna do with you?"

She stood up, quirking an eyebrow, "What do you mean, 'do with me'?"

Assault chuckled dryly, "C'mon, what'd you expect. You're basically an alien, you're gonna cause so much paperwork, it'll be insane."

AN: Continuing the necessary exposition-y bits. We should get at least a training spar by 1.4, so action will be coming soon. Get ready to meet the Director next!