Chapter 3
"We're Not in Kansas Anymore"
Present Day
Forest near Beacon Academy
Lance Corporal Greg Anderson
Echo Squad, Ghosts
(Greg's POV)
Have you ever wonder how annoying it is to be separated from your friends in a place that is unknown to you? Well it really sucks. Still trying to find my way to the source of gunfire, I stopped and noticed how quiet it got. No more gunfire. Thats never a good sign as a Ghost. It tends to mean one thing: an ambush.
Suddenly the tree to my left exploded, sending splinters and tree bark in all directions. I slide to cover behind a fallen tree as grass kicked up like small gysers, followed by large booms of a high velocity sniper rifle being fired.
(Raiden's POV)
I keep my M4A1 in front of me as I walk through the forest. The forest felt weird, that something bad was happening in here. I shook my head and kept on walking. I hear a branch brake and look in the direction it came in. I pointed my M4A1 assault at the b***. "Show yourself!" I shouted. Then it came out. It was Alex with his left arm bleeding. "Alex?" I said as I walked towards him. He weakly chuckles. "Hey Rai." he said as he collapsed on me. I looked at his arm. There was a huge bite on it. Lucky it wasn't ripped of. I take out a bundle if bandages and wrapped it around his arm. "You okay bro?" I ask him as I take out a painkiller for him. Alex chuckled at me, "I'm fine Raiden. Something ambushed me and I killed it but it bite me." he sawllowed te painkiller and his eyes went wide. Yup, that's the joys of taking a painkiller. I hate them.
(Ruby's POV)
"Ruby! What are you doing!?" Weiss yells at me, trying to be heard over the firing of Crescent Rose. Moments ago, we defeated a couple of Grimm that had been following us for a while. However I caught a glance of a grey black figure running towards us in the distance inside the forest. Looks like our fight attracted more Grimm creatures. That's when I decide to nail it with my Crescent Rose. Only problem is that I missed and it dived behind a tree.
"Weiss, I saw a Grimm creature running towards us and I didn't want it to get anymore closer so I shot at it." I replied, momentarily holding my fire to turn to Weiss. She only raised her eyebrow at me.
"Well, did you hit it?" She questioned, still using her cold tone. Before I could speak, the answer decided to show itself. The tree branch above us snapped off as a bullet punched through it. We both ducked down and hid behind the trees. That bullet came out of no where and there was no muzzle flash or the sound of the bullet fired! Who is shooting at us!?
(Greg's POV)
"Who in their right mind would wear red clothing in a forest?" I thought to myself, after watching the enemy sniper duck behind a tree through my scope. Normally I would've have nailed the shooter in the head, but this wasn't a normal situation. I didn't want to kill the first person I see in a world that is unknown to me. My goal for now is to disarm the unknown sniper.
Suddenly I see the figure sprinting towards my area with a trail of rose petals behind them. I shift my fire towards the figure, making them dive behind a tree. The sniper then fired a few shots at me, forcing me to relocate to a new position. Right as I reach for new cover, a round hits my M14's silencer, turning it into a useless dead weight of a hazard for my rifle. I removed the destroyed suppresser, knowing that my muzzle flash and rifle fire would give away my position.
(Ruby's POV)
"Hey, Weiss! I think I got it!" I shouted out loud, seeing the bullet strike the figure. However, my victory is short-lived when a loud gunshot went off and nearly hit my Crescent Rose. I let out a yelp as I fell down in surprise.
"Ruby! Keep this guy busy! I'll attack him from the side!" Weiss hollers over the sound of the now unsilenced gunshots. I never heard of this type of gunfire before. Maybe it is a newly created rifle. That is so cool!
Anyway I start firing again at my enemy, who seems to be quick when switching to new locations. This guy is so excellent with his marksmenship that I think he's missing on purpose. Suddenly a shot rang out and Crescent Rose went flying out of my hand! No! Not my sweetheart!
"Freeze! Get on your knees and place your hands behind your head!" A voice shouted at me. I looked to my left and let out a eeph. Standing to my left is a teen in strange clothes pointing a grey and black sniper rifle at me. He is wearing a strange grey and black camoflague uniform with black gloves and his sleeves rolled up. His tan face consited of greyish blue eyes and a desert colored baseball cap on top of the dark brown hair of his head. So he is the sniper that defeated me.
(Greg's POV)
So this is the sniper that attacked me. A fifthteen year old girl with a love of the color red. She had short black hair with a red tint to it. Her eyes were full of surprise and worry. She wore a black skirt with red trimmings, black leggings/socks, a black corset with long sleeves, and a red cape on her back. Reminds me of that Red Riding Hood character from that book I found in the ruins of a library years ago. I guess now its time to ask some questions.
Before I could begin talking, an explosion happened next to me, throwing me into a tree. Upon slamming into the tree, I once again blacked out to the world.
(Raiden's POV)
I'm glad that Alex is alright. The painkiller is doing it's job. At least he's still able to hold his sniper rifle. Good thing he still had his Vector smg on him. I want to get out of this forest and maybe a radio. We keep walking until I hold my hand up. "What's up?" asked Alex. I was deadsilent. Over the years I've sharpened my senses when I was fighting the Feds. My ears twitch and I tell Alex to take cover while I stay out here. "Are you crazy?" he whispered in my ear. I shot him a look and he took cover in the foliage. I kept my M4A1 up and looked around. Then I heard movement behind me and I turned around to see a girl behind me. She had a pale complexion and amber colored eyes. She wore a black bow on top of her black hair, a black tank top looking clothing with white also. She wore black boots and pants that is black at the top and turning purple as it reaches her boots. I point my M4A1 at her. "Who the hell are you?" I barked at her.
(Weiss's POV)
Looks like I saved my immature partner once again from trouble. I walked past her towards the boy I sent flying into the side of a tree. I noticed him starting to stir awake so I held my blade against his throat. That woke him up fast.
"Okay, listen up, boy. You are going to tell me who you are and why you decided to attack us." I ordered, holding him by his collar against the tree.
"I attacked you!? You opened fire on me first so I defended myself, Princess!" Shot back the arrogent boy. I glared at him for calling me Princess while Ruby picked up her weapon as well as the boy's rifle.
"Cool looking weapon. What is it and can it transform into something else?" Ruby asked in glee, making me sweat drop at the sight of my partner. Surprisingly the boy answered back.
"That is the M14 Rifle. I made it into a sniper weapon by adding the scope and the color. No it can not turn into something else." The boy answered before looking back at me.
"Look we got off at a bad stop. Let's try this again. I am Lance Corporal Greg Anderson of Echo Squad, a part of the Ghosts. I don't know what happened but I know that I am no longer in the world I lived and fought in. I need help locating the rest of my squad here in these woods. Can you please help me?" He finished, waiting quietly for my answer. After a few moments, I sheathed my raiper and gave Greg back his rifle. Looks like this day might get more hectic than it is already.
(Blake's POV)
This is already getting hectic today. I first find Yang killing and Ursa and destroying a small portion of the forest after I killed the other Ursa. Now this guy is pointing his rifle at me. He wore an unfimiliar military uniform that had a digital black and grey camouflage. He wore a helmet and a mask with a skull imprinted on it. "Look, I'm not going to tell you my name until I know yours," I tell the boy in front of me. He gripped his rifle more harder now. "I'm not going to ask again. Who the hell are you?" he barked again. I sighed and looked back. "Yang, can you come over here?" My partner comes up. "What's up Blake? Oh," she said making an 'O' shaped mouth when she saw the boy.
(Raiden's POV)
Okay that's it. I asked nicely and no cooperation. I start shooting my rifle at her and she and her friend move out of the way. I keep shooting until my M4A1 made a clicking noise. Then her blonde friend started teasing me. "You can't fight without your gun can't you?" she says to me. I grin and threw down my rifle.I took out my knife and pistol and started shooting at her and ran towards her. I saw her bracelets turn into some kind of gauntlet... What the it can shoot shotgun shells?! I have to be careful with her. Her friend takes out a sword of somekind and she swings it at me. I block it with my knife and I point my pistol at her head.
Elsewhere in the forest...
"So then I asked him what happened to his CO and he replied 'The Captain fell into the hole that the outhouse used to be.'" Logan finished, both him and Charlie roaring in laughter. The two comedians managed to end up finding each other and were now heading to the northern area of the forest. Charlie took point since he still had on his Juggernaut suit.
Suddenly they hear a voice yell out "Ogre!" before a grenade came flying at them. Logan ran in front of Charlie and hit the grenade with his M4A1 like a baseball bat, sending it back to its sender.
(Raiden's POV)
I shoot for her but she moves her head at the right time. She moves her sword hilt up and... what?! It's a pistol in the hilt?! What kind of place is this? I shook my head and quicklyove out of the way and did a roundhouse kick for her. It hit her but she brought her sword back and tried to hit me again. I block it again and tried to kick her shins. She moves her leg away and kicks me in the chest, sending me a couple feet away from her and I land on the ground. "Stay away from me!" I heard Alex. I slowly get on my knees and see Alex shooting his Vector at the blonde. She's dodging the shots and shooting her own. I get back up on my feet and look at the black haired girl. "Alright then," i said. I take out a smoke grenade and tree it down. It explodes and smoke starts surrounding us. I yelled at Alex to activate his thermals. He yells back saying they're on and I turn mine on to. I yell back at the raven haired girl. "Let's dance!" I run for her. For some weird reason, she can still see through the smoke like a clear day. Still, I'm a Ghost, and I'll take her down. I fired my pistol at her and she deflects them with her sword. I use that to my advantage and did a flying side kick at her. I hit her in the stomach and she went down. I quickly get down and picked her up. I hold her and have my knife pointed at her neck. The smoke cleared and I saw the blonde holding Alex by his injured arm.
(Ren's POV)
We were heading towards the artifact location just fine until Nora spotted something in the woods.
"Ogre!" she cried out while firing a grenade at it. I waited for the sound of the explosion, but instead, I hear metal hitting metal and the grenade came flying back at us. We dived away, narrowly escaping the blast radius. I look up to see a figure lumbering towards us. The only way to describe it is to call it a real monster. It had on heavy tan armor with a helmet that had a black face plate. What made it more deadly was it's heavy machine gun aiming at us. Nora is right in a way. This is a monster.
Behind the monster is a man in a strange military uniform. He wore black and grey camoflague clothes under his body armor and his face is hidden behind a black mask with a white skull design on the front. He carried a strange black assault rifle in his hands while carrying an even stranger one on his backpack. He aimed his weapon at me while cautiously approaching us.
"All right. Hands where I can see them." The man spoke, making me question his origin. Suddenly Nora rushed at the armored man with her weapon in hammer mode. The armored man surprised her by grabbing her weapon and pulling her into a bear hug. Using this as a distraction, I reached out to knock the assault rifle out of the masked man's grasp, but he managed to pin me to the ground instead. This shocked me as well as Nora. Who are these guys?
(Raiden's POV)
I keep holding on to the girl and kept my knife pointed at her neck. I see her partner holding my brother by his bitten arm. "Alright, let's be civilized people here. Let's trade. You give me back my brother while I give your friend back to you?" The blonde was still gripping Alex's arm as she approached me. She had her shotgun gauntlet pointed at me. "You promise?" she asked me. I nod my head. I may be a soldier but I'm not a monster. I take the knife away from the black haired girls neck and let go of her. I sheath my knife and holstered my pistol. "Alright, now my brother." I ask. The blonde let's go of Alex and he walks over to me. I patted his arm and looked at him. "You okay Alex?" I ask him. He nods at me. "I'm fine Raiden." Then the two girls look at us.
(Yang's POV)
Okay. Things have gone from normal to crazy in a matter of minutes. First of all, after I obliterated that Ursa and a small portion of the forest, I met my new partner Blake. Now, we just met these two guys in unusual camouflage military clothing. They both wore masks with a white skull in them and they both had an ardent of various firearms which would make Ruby go crazy. We just had a fight and they put up a good one. I checked Blake if she was alright. "Are you okay Blake?" she raises an eyebrow at me. "I'm fine Yang. But those guys did give up a a good fight." she replied. I nodded at her and look at the two. "Who are you two?" I ask them. The one I was holding was reloading his rifle when the other one told him not to fight. He then walked up to us and removed his helmet. He then reached for his mask and started taking it off. I close my eyes. I hope his face is not disfigured or anything. I open my eyes and see him. He was really young. He may be my age. He had white skin color, black hair and brown eyes. He looks handsome. "I'm Sargent Raiden Williams and that over there is Private first class Alex Williams. He's my brother. I'm leader if Raider Two-Five, a Ghost team. I'm not in the world I fought in anymore and i have no idea where my other squad mates are. Can you help me?" he asked us. Wow, for a guy his age he could talk firm. I look at Blake. "Do you think we can trust them?" I ask her. "I think so Yang. They just fought in self defense and in shock. Maybe they're fine." she replies. I nod and look at the two. Looks like we're helping two guys we barely know.
(Logan's POV)
This day is getting more crazier by the second. First, we get knocked out in a Federation Weapon's lab from this white electric ball, then we wake up in a different location with the other half of the squad missing, and now we get attacked by a bunch of teenagers, dressed in weird clothes and wielding transforming weapons. Thank God that I managed to reunite with my friend, Charlie! He is currently holding the hammer/grenade launcher wielding girl in a massive, armored bear hug while I sat on top of the black-haired boy, pinning him to the ground. The boy looked like he was chinese with black hair that had a pink strand on the front. He wore green Oriental-styled clothing and grey pants with a red belt. He was carrying dual green machine pistols with blades at the bottom, but I disarmed him of those.
"Ren! Is the Skull Guy hurting you!? Let go of me, you ugly Ogre!" Shouted the girl, trying to squirm out of Charlie's grip. She had short orange hair and white skin. She wore white gloves with sleeves, a shirt with a heart design on her chest, and a skirt. She is the one who fired the grenade at us that I had hit back to when using my M4A1 as a bat.
"Hey! I am not an ogre, girl! I'm a Juggernaut Ghost! I have a name and its Charlie Hinders." Charlie fired back, having been offended by being called an ogre. Thats when the boy decided to speak up.
"Nora, I don't think these two want to hurt us. They're only doing this in self-defense, because you started to attack them." Ren replied calmly, hardly surprised by the situation. Maybe now I can start asking questions without having to get answers from the involvement of jumper cables and a car battery.
(Derrick's POV)
This is nice. We did our mission, we blow up the Federation factory sky high. What I did not expect that I would wake up in the middle of nowhere. Good thing I still had my FP6 shotgun, MP7 smg and G18 machine pistol on me still when I woke up. I found Rick lying down on the ground after I was walking around. He was looking at the sky, board. Idiot. We both found Nate later when we kept walking around. I knew that Echo team had a mission like us but I didn't expect to see him here. If I found Rick and Nate, then there's a good chance of finding the rest of my team ad Echo. For now, Nate told us that we need to rest for a bit and break out our rations. I'm starving.
(Logan's POV)
"Okay. I'm going to ask you a few questions which I want answers to. Once you answered them, my friend and I will release you. Got it?" I asked him, which he promptly nodded yes.
"Question One: Where are we?"
"You're in the forest near Beacon Academy." Ren replied.
"Okay. Question Two: Why did your girlfriend attack us?"
"Actually, Ren and I are childhood friends. Not that he isn't a boyfriend, but he could be one- Oh wait. I accidently thought that your friend was an ogre and since the forest is crawling with Grimm, I got trigger-happy and fire a grenade at you." Nora replied, making Charlie mutter something about not being an ogre.
"Wait a minute. What is a Grimm?" Charlie asked, failing to realize the massive bear creature behind him. However Nora did. In an instant, she was out of Charlie's grasp and with weapon in hand, began riding the creature with the skill of a bull rider. It was decided that we could explain along the way, chasing after the crazy girl.
(Nate's POV)
"Ok, guys. We'll rest here for 15 minutes. You can eat MREs or smoke if you got 'em." I announced, sitting down on a tree stump. After walking for a while, we needed to catch our breathes. Besides I could tell Derrick wanted to eat by the way he was drooling from thinking about food. I was very accurate. He and Rick tore through their MREs like straving dogs. I just was about to listen to my Ipod when I hear a girly shriek of terror in the distance.
"Change of plan, boys. Sounds like a damsel in distress needs saving. Lets go!" I ordered, much to the dismay to the others.
"Well, tell them to wait after lunch!" complained Rick, but he still got up. We all begin to run towards the area of the scream.
(Rick's POV)
I keep my baby near me, my AMELI light machine gun as we started running through the forest. I was in the middle of eating my MRE until that scream came. Curse you scream. We keep on running until we found a girl. She had long, red hair in a ponytail, green eyes and a peach colored complexion. She wore armor over her clothes and had a spear of some sort and a shield. I look at Derrick. "Think that's her Big brother?" I ask him. Derrick nodded. "Who else Rick?" Then Nate walled towards her. "Are you okay?" Then the girl pointed her spear at Nate's crotch. I point my AMELI at her ready to fire. "Tell me the word Nate and I'll pop her head off."
(Nate's POV)
Okay this is not a good day. This girl has a spear pointed at my cojones while Rick pointed his machine gun at her. This is the worst way to make first contact with the people here.
"Look why don't we settle this like civilized people and figure out whose who and what is what. Now can you please move the spear away from my balls?" I asked calmly in a normal voice. This caused both Rick and the girl to lower their weapons. I hoped that the others had a better meeting with the people here.
(Pyrrha's POV)
This is awkward. First Jaune got flung across the forest, I have a Deathstalker chasing me and I run into these three guys in unfimiliar black and grey camouflage military uniforms. The one who has asked me to lower my weapon seems decent enough so I complied. I put my weapon and shield away and look at him. "I'm Pyrrha Nikos." I started. The guy took his helmet off and looked at me while he made a gesture to his colleges. "I'm First Sargent Nathan Johnson, this is Corpral Derrick Haven and this is Private First Class Rick Grimes. We are Ghosts." Ghosts? I never heard of them. Before I could ask I hear the Deathstalker behind me. "We have to move." I tell them. Nathan looked at me. "Why Pyrrha?" then the Deathstalker came out. "That's why."
(Nate's POV)
My jaw hit the ground when I saw the giant scorpion.
"Damn thats one big ass scorpion." Comments Derrick, snapping me out of my blankness. I raised my SCAR at it, switching to full auto.
"Ok, Ghosts! Light this massive SOB up!" I shout out loud, letting loose a volley of bullets. The others started firing as well, raining bullets onto the giant scorpion.
(Rick's POV)
Damn it, the bullets aren't piercing through it. "Nate! The bullets aren't going in it!" I yelled at him when my machine gun was already half way through it's mag. "Then use you Kastet then!" yelled back Nate. I slapped myself on the head. I'm such an idiot. Why didn't I do that earlier? I slung my AMELI and take out my Kastet. I load a grenade round into it and aimed at the giant SOB. "Fire in the hole!" I shouted as I fired it. It made a graceful arc before hitting it making a huge explosion. I hope that took care of it.
(Nate's POV)
That grenade should've taken it. Instead it only pissed it off more.
"Follow the girl and don't fall behind, Ghosts!" I yell, grabbing Derrick's collar and nearlied dragged him with Rick following closely behind. I hate this forest. I hate this world. And I really hate this big oversized scorpion.
"Fuck you! Fuck you, Federation Weapons Lab!" I curse, holding my middle finger up to the sky.