Team RWBY and Team JNPR waited for their professor to arrive.
They had the first class with the Doctor in the morning, yet it had already been some time and the professor still had not appeared. There was a loud wheezing noise, and the Doctor`s blue box slowly faded into existence in the corner of the classroom.
"What`s happening?" Jaune asked, getting out of his seat.
"I think the professor has arrived." Ruby stared.
The box completely solidified and an exhausted, limping Doctor staggered out, taking off a gas mask he was wearing. "Professor!" the students cried, seeing the Doctor`s dress suit covered in slash marks and scratches.
"I`m fine! Nothing to worry about! Was doing some...ah...'hermit' stuff and lost track of time." the Doctor collapsed down on his chair. "I hope all of you finished the assignments I gave you yesterday, eh?"
Professor Ozpin looked at his scroll.
An unidentified man single-handily stopped a Dust heist led by the dastardly Roman Torchwick late last night.
An entire street of downtown Vale was devastated by whatever happened and a group of White Fang soldiers were captured, although Torchwick himself got away. The unidentified man was caught by the Huntsman Qrow Branwen with the aid of Raven Branwen who had appeared from nowhere, only he had escaped after a long battle and remained missing to this point.
"Hmm..." the headmaster muttered thoughtfully.
Ruby stared at the metal cylinder in her hand after returning to her team`s dorm.
It had been days, yet no one had been able to figure what the thing she stole from the Doctor`s desk was. She tried pressing the cylinder`s button again. Nothing.
"Whatever this is, we should return it to the Doctor`s desk tomorrow before he realizes it`s missing." Blake finished reading her book.
"What? We still don`t know what it is yet! This metal thing could help reveal who that weirdo really is." Weiss said, writing off her class thesis for Special Hunter Studies.
"Yeah, we can`t just give up now." Yang agreed.
Ruby held the button down and shook the cylinder furiously: "Couldn`t you do anything!? At least activate a death ray and something because I`m about to - "
There was a small clicking noise and a light projection emitted from the cylinder`s front. "Voice-activation request confirmed" a female robotic voice said.
Ruby almost dropped it in surprise.
"Whoa. It`s like a laser pointer and a projection screen in one!" Yang observed.
Ruby pointed it at a wall and the entire team watched in silence as the projection showed a blank blue screen. "The 51st-century British video-archive database of Earth is in operation." the voice said, causing the four girls to jump in surprise. "Please enter an entry." There was a pause.
"Umm..." Ruby started hesitantly. "Can you tell us anything about the Doctor?" Another pause. She tried again. "He`s a strange man with a blue box who wears a scarf - "
A humming noise emitted from the cylinder, then the projection lit up to display more than a dozen images of eccentrically-dressed men.
"Who are those people?" Ruby asked, a little bewildered.
After seeing pictures of a couple more men, an image of their professor came up.
"Hey, it`s the professor. What does he have to do with all of those guys?" Yang wondered.
"The Doctor." the voice began. "A mysterious and legendary time-traveler known for his role as the 'protector of the universe'. It is unknown if this man exists or not, yet much information seems to indicate it is true."
"Time-traveler?" Blake asked curiously.
The projection changed, displaying a complex diagram of the Doctor`s blue box. "This blue box has been sighted wherever the Doctor goes. Legends say he uses it as a transport across time and space."
"Oh, come on!" Weiss exclaimed, causing the other three girls to look at her. "There`s something obviously wrong with this...cylinder-thingy. I mean - that weirdo is a time-traveler? Really?"
"It does sound a little far-fetched." Blake remarked.
Yang thought about this. "I have an idea." She held up the cylinder and asked: "Um...cylinder-thingy, can you tell us where this Doctor guy is from?"
"Information...unknown." the cylinder responded.
"What do you mean unknown?" Ruby asked.
"There is not enough knowledge about this topic to give a valid response." the cylinder answered. "Would you like to search another entry?"
"Um...okay." Ruby said." Why is he called the Doctor? Where did his blue box come from? How does he seem to know everything about us? What is his real name?"
There was a pause. "All questions cannot be answered from lack of information."
"It`s no use. There is nothing there..." Weiss reached for the cylinder`s button.
"Wait." Blake suddenly spoke up. "Cylinder, you mentioned the Doctor is the protector of the universe. What does he protect the universe from?"
There was a long silence. "Under the authority of the Earth Time Agency, this information is considered to be classified. Would you like to continue?
"Yes!" Yang exclaimed, not hesitating for a single moment.
The projection screen began displaying pictures and videos of many grotesque-looking monsters.
"Eww...what are those?" Weiss asked, looking shocked.
"I`m pretty sure those things aren`t Grimm since we would have heard about monsters like these..." Blake observed.
A projection of what resembled a cylindrical metal robot began playing. "Ex-terminate!" it screeched in a cold, metallic voice that made Team RWBY shiver in absolute fear. There was something about the robot that shook them, nothing in all of Remnant would be able to stand against whatever it is...
The screen changed and the girls screamed; a terrifying, bulbous-headed monster wearing a black suit was looking at the camera. "Silence must fall." The video ended with static and the young Huntresses blinked, not remembering what they witnessed.
There were photographs of an explosion, and a legion of armored, android-like humanoids stormed out of the blaze. A sound file activated: "Cyber-upgrade all humans and delete the Doctor."
More monsters were displayed, some of them the stuff of nightmares. Ruby found herself hugging Yang in fear. Her sister frowned with worry as the projection continued, Blake was quite disturbed at what she saw, and Weiss looked plain disgusted. Yet they all knew these beings were far beyond anything Remnant would be able to defeat...
"Who is that man?" Blake spoke up when the projection began displaying more than thirteen images of eccentrically-dressed gentlemen, all valorously battling against the never-ending nightmare of monsters. "The man who stops the monsters." the cylinder responded to her question. "He who has many names. The Oncoming Storm. Time`s Champion. The Predator. The one the universe knows as the Doctor."
The projections of the men continued on until it finally stopped at the man Team RWBY know as their professor. The videos stopped playing and showed a blank screen again.
"Would you like to continue searching an entry?" the cylinder suddenly spoke up.
"Um...no thank you." Ruby reached to press the cylinder`s button before remembering something. "Cylinder, since the Doctor is a time-traveler, then what`s his role in Remnant`s history?"
"Information...unknown. There are no records of a location called Remnant in the universe."
"What? That is... a little weird." Ruby shut down the cylinder, causing the projection screen to disappear.
There was a long silence in the dorm room.
"It seems there was much more to the professor than meets the eye." Blake broke the silence.
"Really? I never knew." Yang smiled sarcastically.
"I told you so in the beginning." Weiss sounded triumphant.
Ruby was quiet for a moment. "I think we should go see the professor tomorrow and make him explain everything."
"You think he isn`t a suspicious man after everything?" Blake asked.
"I think the professor is a good person on the inside, only...too mysterious." Ruby responded. "After all, doctor who?"
It was a never-ending question.
