The Obligatory Beach Chapter
"Did you know about this Olympus?" Ironwood asked his consultant, pointing at the footage of the Gigantic Guyver single handedly defeating the Grimm that attacked Vale during the event known as The Breach.
Agito stood before the Atlesian general, the Beacon Headmaster, and his assistant. From the expressions on their faces, Agito could tell that two of them were not happy with the appearance of Sho's Gigantic form. Ironwood and Goodwitch were clearly the most upset with what happened that day, while Ozpin kept a neutral look on his face and holding his coffee mug. However, the third Guyver could see it in the man's eyes that he too was not happy with this new development.
To the untrained eye, it was easy to miss the shock on Ozpin's face, but Agito had been able to read a person's poker face during his days working for Chronos while planning its destruction from the inside. So, catching the small hints on Ozpin's face wasn't too difficult for Agito.
"Yes, I was aware of Fukamachi having access to the Gigantic," Agito told the three. "It is his creation after all," he added.
The third Guyver noticed Ozpin's grip on his mug tightened slightly. The silver haired man wasn't expecting such a reply.
"He created that thing?" Glynda was the first to speak. "How is that even possible?" she asked.
"There is so much you three do not know about the Guyver and the history of our kind," Agito told Glynda.
"Please explain Mr. Olympus," Ozpin said to Agito, curious about what the man was saying.
Agito didn't say anything for a moment, wanting to humor himself by acting like he was considering telling them everything.
"I do not believe any of you are ready for the truth," Agito told them before turning around to leave Ozpin's office.
"Olympus!" Ironwood shouted before going after his consultant, leaving Ozpin and Glynda alone.
Once outside the office, Agito continued his way with Ironwood calling out to him until the two of them were at the elevator.
"Do you believe he was convinced?" Agito asked the General.
"I don't know," Ironwood said as the entered the elevator, dropping the act he had put on for Ozpin and Glynda. "I don't like doing this to Ozpin, after all he has done to open my eyes to the truth," he admitted.
"The 'truth' he has shown you is only a part of the whole story," Agito told the General. "His decision to allow a team of first-year students to investigate a potential enemy hideout resulted in a large amount of Grimm entering Vale and the fact that there is a subway tunnel that leads to the kingdom means that it is possible for more Grimm to enter," he continued. He personally found the very idea of allowing team RWBY to do that mission was a foolish choice and may have of had a ulterior motive.
"We also have Roman Torchwick in custody," James brought up.
"Who is only a pawn in all of this," Agito pointed out. "I have also done some research on a subject that Fukamachi brought to my attention," he changed the subject.
"And what have you found out?" James asked, aware of what his aid was referring to.
"The first-year student, Ruby Rose, has silver eyes," Agito started as the elevator opened. "According to what little I could find, people with silver eyes could paralyze a Grimm with just a stare," he told the General. "Reminds me of the Gorgon Medusa," he added as an afterthought, which confused James a bit.
"So, the legend says," James said as he and Agito exited the elevator. "But what does that…?" he was about to ask but was cut off.
"Another piece of information, one that was very obscure that I started to suspect someone was intentionally trying to keep these silver eye people's existences a secret," Agito said, catching the General off guard. "Is that these silver eye people have the power to defeat these Maidens of the Four Seasons," he added while looking at the General.
James stopped in his tracks when Agito said this to him. He had a feeling that Ozpin was hiding something, but he wasn't expecting this. Agito had a small smirk on his face when he saw the General stopped walking.
"You once told me, that you felt like Ozpin was keeping secrets from you," Agito said to the General. "Clearly, your hunch was right," he added. "Well, it is of no consequence since that man has made a grave error," he told James.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Sho Fukamachi," Agito answered. "He believes that he could use Fukamachi just like the rest of these children," he added. "But he is wrong," he told the General.
"I don't believe Ozpin is using his students…" James wanted to argue.
"You have a school full of teenagers, trained to become hunters," Agito interrupted. "Students trained to fight against creatures of darkness as well as other hunters who have gone rogue," he continued talking. "Exactly why would you have so many students learning how to fight in one location when there are many combat schools in other locations?" he asked.
James didn't respond to Agito's question.
"Unless, you have something that requires a large number of capable combatants to defend it," Agito answered his own question before staring at the General. "General, I agreed to aid you as a favor for the help you have provided me when I came to your world," he told James. "I think I should be told of exactly what you are trying to protect and from whom," he added.
James stood in silence as he contemplated on his options. He always felt like Ozpin wasn't telling him the whole story and that his trust in the man was fading. He wanted to believe that when Ozpin let him into his secret organization the Beacon Headmaster would have faith in him. However, these recent events had made him doubt Ozpin and it bothered him.
Trust was something James valued, but even he knew that trust can be used against you. Which was something he never wanted to experience again.
"Fukamachi is not like the rest of Ozpin's students," Agito told James. "He has been used by others and those he cares for have been put in danger by those who keep secrets time and time again," he explained. "He won't hesitate to kill anyone who will put his new friends' lives in danger, even if that someone claims to be fighting for the greater good," he added as he walked away, leaving James alone to think about what he said about Sho.
Beacon Library
"A group beach training session?" Sho said in confusion as he and Ren looked at everyone that were standing across the table to two oriental boys were sitting at.
Standing before the two boys were teams RWBY, the rest of JNPR, SSSN, and NDGO. Everyone had recently met Sun and Neptune's other teammates, Scarlet and Sage and have pretty much gotten along with one another.
"Yeah, it'll be fun," Ruby told Sho and Ren. "We're thinking of going this weekend," she added.
"Uh…who else is going?" Sho asked Ruby.
"Duh, all of us," Ruby answered. "Who else would we invite?" she asked.
Sho turned his attention to Nebula after hearing Ruby's answer.
"Did you tell Russel about this?" Sho asked the purple haired girl.
"I was going to…" Nebula started to say but was interrupted.
"There is no way we're inviting him and the rest of team CRDL," Weiss interrupted as she turned to face the leader of team NDGO. "Why would you even want to invite him?" she questioned the girl.
"How about the fact that he's my boyfriend and I want to spend the weekend with him at the beach," Nebula retorted, angry that someone was trying to prevent her from spending time with Russel.
"She clearly has low standards," Yang whispered to Blake, who nodded in return.
Unfortunately, someone heard Yang's whispering.
"Better than a girl with no standards," Octavia retorted in Nebula's defense all the while glaring at the blonde brawler.
"What was that?" Yang turned her attention to the red head girl, her eyes turning red.
"You heard me Goldilocks," Octavia spat out, not backing down from the blonde brawler.
"I'll go as long as team CRDL can come along," Sho interrupted the two girls.
This caught all of team RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN's attention while Nebula gave Sho an appreciated smile.
"Why would you want them to come along?" Pyrrha asked Sho.
"They need something to distract them," Sho answered, remembering how the four absent boys were still having a tough time getting over what happened at that village. "And this beach trip sounds like the distraction they need," he added while getting up to leave the library.
"I still don't see why we need to invite those four," Weiss complained after Sho left.
Nebula glared at the Schnee heiress and was about to give the girl a piece of her mind but was interrupted by a lunatic.
"Do not dare defy the Warrior God!" Nora shouted as she jumped onto the table. "For his word is law!" she declared.
Everyone was silent as they looked at the hyper girl in confusion.
"She's still calling him that?" Jaune asked Ren.
Ren simply nodded his head, letting his team leader know that the most unpredictable member of their team was still calling Sho the Warrior God.
Vacuo
For the past couple of months, Tukson had searching through every library and book store in the desert kingdom. The faunus man was looking for anything that could lead him to what his associate, Lisker, was looking for. While he was initially afraid of Lisker's power, Tukson was also intrigued by what the man told him. The very concept that humans and, by that extension, faunus were created by aliens for the purpose of being weapons was quite a claim. However, Tukson could not deny that there may some level of truth in Lisker's words as everyone in Remnant is capable of fighting, with the Great War and the Faunus War being good examples. Yet, Tukson was also interested in the prospect of there being more weapons left behind by these Creators as Lisker called them.
'There has to be something related to the Creators he mentioned,' Tukson thought to himself as he walked down the streets of the town known as Kipkirmizi. He had passed a newspaper stand but stopped himself when he saw something on the paper.
Ancient Tomb Discovered in the Allghoi Desert
Tukson looked at the picture that was under the Headline and saw beside one man, possibly the archaeologist who found the tomb, a hieroglyph depicting an oval with three spikes sticking below it.
'Could it be?' Tukson wondered as he purchased the paper and began to read the article. 'I should contact Lisker,' he concluded as he pulled out his Scroll and started texting Lisker about the article he found and how he would be investigating it.
Beacon Academy, Docking Bays
The weekend
"I still don't see why THEY have to come along," Yang complained as she sent a glare at team CRDL.
Standing across teams RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, and NDGO was Sho with team CRDL. The four-man team were mostly silent, and they kept to themselves. Everyone had brought a change of clothes consisting of swimsuits, beach towels, and other "essential items" as Yang mentioned. Now the large member of teens was waiting to the next airship to come and pick them up for their "training" trip. Nebula broke away from her team and approached Russel.
"Hey, you okay Russel?" Nebula asked the mohawked boy, getting his attention.
"Huh…Oh yeah, I'm fine," Russel replied but the tone in his voice gave Nebula the impression that his mind was somewhere else.
"You sure?" Nebula asked, worried Russel.
Russel was about to say something but stopped himself when he was about to make eye contact with Nebula. He looked down to the ground to avoid her eyes, which Nebula noticed and became saddened.
The two of them stood in silence while everyone waited.
After another ten minutes the airship arrived, allowing the twenty-one students to enter the aircraft.
"Got to say, this is a much bigger group than I thought it would be," Sho commented as he found a seat.
Sho looked around to see everyone taking a seat. He also noticed how teams RWBY and JNPR were together with Sun and Neptune while Dew and Octavia were dealing with Scarlet and Sage flirting with them. Sho also spotted Nebula and Russel sitting next to each other but weren't talking, but Russel did have his right hand over Nebula's left hand. Cardin, Dove, and Sky were seated behind the young couple, but they didn't seem eager to talk to anyone.
"Mind if I have a seat?" Gwen asked Sho before sitting next to him regardless.
"No, I don't mind," Sho told Gwen before turning his attention to how everyone was so separate from each other. "For a large group, it sure is quiet," he commented on the silence.
"It sure is," Gwen agreed. "I think the mood changed when you suggested team CRDL join us," she added.
"Big surprise there," Sho sarcastically replied before sighing. "I just wanted them to relax and for them to clear their heads," he added.
"Is it about that mission you went on with them?" Gwen asked. "The one you five won't talk about," she specified.
Sho nodded his head, not wanting to talk about it.
'They need this more than everyone knows,' Sho mentally said to himself.
The rest of the flight was very quiet, but it wasn't tense like Sho had thought.
Patch: Aspro Beach
Once the airship landed on Patch, Ruby and Yang led everyone to their favorite beach on their home island. The teens from Vacuo were quite excited to see the beach for the first time as their homeland was a big desert. For Sho, the sight of a beach was pleasant, but his attention shifted to a sudden gust of wind that blew past him and Ren. Sun noticed the empty spot between Sho and Ren and let out an annoyed sigh.
"Oh, come on Neptune!" Sun called out to his friend.
"What just happened?" Sho asked as he watched Sun chase after Neptune.
"I'm not sure," Ren replied before noticing the girls moving ahead of everyone with Jaune, team CRDL, Scarlet, and Sage following behind. "We should probably change into our swimsuits," he added.
"Yeah, but we should probably help Sun get Neptune," Sho said as he watched Sun chase Neptune, who was heading back to where the airship was. "How come the rest of Sun's teams isn't helping him?" he asked.
"I believe they are more interested in Dew and Octavia than they are their teammates," Ren answered.
"I don't know them that well, but I shouldn't be surprised," Sho said before heading off to help Sun. "I'll be back soon!" he called out to Ren.
"Alright," Ren replied before heading to the beach to catch up.
It took a while, but Sho and Sun were able to literally drag Neptune to the beach. Naturally this got quite a bit of people staring at the three boys.
"So…" Sho started to say. "His name is Neptune, but he is afraid of water," he said to Sun.
"Yep," Sun replied, feeling ashamed of his friend.
"No WATER!" Neptune cried out as he tried to crawl away but Sho and Sun's grips were too strong for him.
"Kind of ironic," Sho pointed out as he and Sun reached everyone.
The rest of their group found a big spot for them to set everything up and Sho noticed that everyone was already in their swimsuits. Except for Ruby, all the girls were wearing two-piece swimsuits and most of the guys were wearing swim trunks. He noticed that Scarlet was wearing a speedo, which made a few of the guys uncomfortable with seeing a guy show more skin than the girls.
'If it weren't for the fact that I saw Aptom naked before, I would be disturbed by this,' Sho mentally mentioned to himself. "So, why is everyone just standing here?" he asked.
"We were waiting for you guys," Yang answered before looking down at Neptune. "What's wrong with him?" she asked.
"Something about an ironic phobia," Sho answered before letting go of the leg he was holding.
"So…" Jaune started. "Everyone ready to hit the water?" he asked.
"NO WATER!" Neptune screamed in terror.
Everyone except Sho, Sun, Scarlet, and Sage looked at the blue haired boy in confusion.
"Was it something I said?" Jaune asked, totally confused.
"Ironic phobia, Jaune," Sho told the blonde boy. "Ironic phobia," he repeated before heading off to change out of his clothes while Sun handed Neptune to his other teammates before following Sho.
Vale
Lisker was sitting at a table outside a café, looking at the message he had received from Tukson with a cup of coffee on the table.
'So, there is an ancient tomb discovered in Vacuo,' Lisker thought to himself before putting the scroll down. 'It's a start,' he mentally added before picking up his coffee as a female faunus approached him, carrying a plate.
"Here is your order sir," the faunus waitress told Lisker with a cheerful tone while placing the plate down on the table.
"Thank you," Lisker replied with a polite tone in his voice.
The waitress smiled before leaving, quite happy that this human didn't look at her like she was a freak or said anything offensive about her.
Aspro Beach
After changing into his swim trunks, Sho noticed how nearly everyone was in the water having fun. The noticeable exceptions were a scared Neptune, Blake reading a book under a beach umbrella, and Ruby, who was building a sand castle with Zwei.
"I knew this so-called training trip was just an excuse to go to the beach," Sho said aloud as he approached his friends.
Once Sho reached the spot everyone set their stuff at, Ruby spotted him out of the corner of her eye. Blake looked up from her book and noticed that there were two growths on Sho's upper back.
'What in the…?' Blake thought before returning to her book so that Sho wouldn't notice her staring at his back.
The last thing she wanted was Yang to make jokes about her checking Sho out.
"Hey Sho!" Ruby waved towards her friend while Zwei barked happily before running towards his master's new friend.
Sho stood still as the Corgi approached him. Zwei stopped about a foot away from him and sat down, looking up at the young man.
"Well, hello there," Sho greeted the dog, kneeling to pet him.
Zwei let out another bark as he enjoyed having the back of his ears scratched as Sho petted him.
"Looks like some of us are having fun," Sho noted as he saw Octavia and Yang having a chicken fight with Octavia on Cardin's shoulders and Yang was on Sage's shoulders. "Kind of reminds me of when I used play kibasen back in junior high," he added while fondly remembering when he played that game with Tetsuro and some of his other friends back on Earth.
"What's that?" Ruby asked, never hearing that word before.
"It's a game like that but is done with teams of four," Sho started to explain to Ruby. "Three members would carry the fourth, who is either wearing a bandana or a hat and tries to take down the other team by either knocking them over or removing the opponent's bandana or hat," he continued to explain.
"That…sounds…AWESOME!" Ruby shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Hey guys, Sho just told about this really great game we should try!" she called out to her friends/acquaintances/people she barely knows.
"What is it!?" Yang shouted while pushing the Octavia and Cardin pair back.
Back at the shore, Sho watched as Ruby reached her sister and started explaining kibasen to everyone. He turned around to face Blake and Neptune to see Blake trying to look at him indifferently and Neptune looked on in terror.
"What did I just do?" Sho asked the two of them.
"You've killed me Sho!" Neptune screamed as he tried to make a break for it again.
"GET HIM!" Sun shouted as he and the rest of his team chased after Neptune.
As this went on, Nebula, armed with a water gun, shot Russel in the face, catching the mohawked boy off guard resulting in his yelling in protest. Russel looked at his smiling girlfriend before chasing after her, breaking away from everyone else to have their own fun.
"You're gonna get it Nebula!" Russel shouted as he chased after the purple haired girl.
"I like to see you try tough guy," Nebula retorted as she kept her distance from Russel.
Nebula would have kept on running but she spotted something near the shore that grabbed her attention. She stopped right in front of what she saw, resulting in Russel running past her before falling face first into the sand.
"Hello there, you little cutie," Nebula cooed, kneeling as she smiled at what she was looking at.
"What's got your attention this time," Russel complained as he picked himself back up before walking towards Nebula.
He looked down to see Nebula gushing over a baby sea turtle crawling its way to the water. He shook his head while smiling at Nebula cooing at the baby reptile.
"You and your love of turtles," Russel said softly as he knelt next to Nebula watching the turtle stop and look up at the girl. "I think he likes you," he told her.
Nebula simply smiled at the turtle before letting it continue to the safety of the water. Once the turtle swam away, Nebula was about to soak Russel again, but he had picked her up, startling her a bit before she was thrown into the water screaming, five feet away from the baby turtle so that its journey wouldn't be disturbed. She picked herself back up and glared at Russel before firing her water gun at him again as he approached her.
Back to where everyone else was at, Sho saw Russel and Nebula having fun together and found himself smiling at the two of them.
'If he's pretending to be happy, at least he's doing a good job of it,' Sho thought to himself, knowing that mission really affected Russel. 'But I'm sure he and the rest can recover from it,' he mentally added. 'They just need help from people who care about them,' he finished thinking as turned to see team RWBY and team SSSN about to square off.
"Exactly how did you guys convince Neptune to join in?" Sho asked Dove.
"Sun told him that he can be the guy on top and that Weiss would go out with him later tonight," Dove answered. "He almost refused," he added.
"What made him change his mind?" Sho asked as the two teams started playing.
"Hell, if I know," Dove replied. "Maybe he thinks he might get lucky and see a little wardrobe malfunction," he guessed with a perverted smile on his face.
"I don't he's that perverted," Sho said in response. "He's not like you," he added.
"A guy can dream," Dove said as he watched the game. "Seriously, we have nine hotties in bikinis here," he added. "One of them is bound to have a little slip up," he finished.
"And all of them can and will break your bones if you look at them if such a thing were to happen," Ren said as he approached Sho and Dove. "Also, there are ten girls here, not nine," he pointed out.
"Ruby is too innocent, and Yang would kill any of us for looking at her little sister like that," Dove pointed out.
"Fair point," Ren conceded to Dove's statement.
The three boys stood on the sidelines as the rest of the group, sans Russel and Nebula, watched team RWBY take on team SSSN in a game of beach kibasen.
?
What is the status of the experiment?
Progressing within predicted parameters.
And the four variables?
Three of the variables have integrated with three organizations. The fourth variable has taken to interacting with variable designated G01 on a regular basis.
Continue to oversee the experiment. If results prove favorable, then we will continue with phase two.
And should the experiment proved to be a failure?
Then we shall wipe the slate clean and begin again, as per protocol.
Author's note: Well, this took a while to get around to writing. I've had a hell of a lot of problems last month that required my attention. Granted, it's a filler chapter but I managed to throw in some stuff still relevant to the overall plot of the story. I've also been brainstorming a few twists for the story.
Sadly, this story will be put on hold for a bit as I need to focus on my other story that should have been nearly finished. So, for the time being I'll be focusing what little free time I get after work to focus on trying to get at least three chapters done for my other story Kamen Rider Phantom: The Next before going back to this one.