O00000O00000O

Chapter 28: The Golden Spider

O00000O00000O

Eugene was starting to get worried. They'd been gone a while, but even if they hadn't he still would have been. At the moment, he was floating just outside the temporary hospital, keeping a watchful eye on both it and the horizon.

Eugene felt his Scroll buzz in his pocket. He answered it.

"Are they back yet?" he heard Yang ask.

"No, they aren't," Eugene replied.

Eugene could practically hear the worried look form on Yang's face. When she found out Ruby had gone with them in secret she nearly ran after them herself. It took just about everyone in the room to stop her, and she still didn't stop until Eugene promised to wait for them. Hence why he had been floating in the sky and staring at a fixed point for over an hour.

"What's taking them so long?"

"I don't know. Problems on the ground?"

"I hope not..."

Eugene nodded, though he knew Yang didn't know he did. He knew he had no reason to be worried, Delsin could take care of himself and with all the other people with him, they should be fine. But even still, he didn't want to lose his friend.

At that moment, Eugene turned back to look at his spot on the horizon. And lo and behold, a Bullhead was approaching fast.

"They're back! Get Oz to the airship dock!" Eugene shouted.

He hung up and surged towards the border. Since all air traffic was grounded, the border security forces would likely fire on them on sight, and Delsin couldn't cloak something that big. The only reason they didn't get shot down the first time is that they left right as the shift changed.

Eugene raced forward, flying as fast as he could. After a minute, he got to the border. Indeed, the security forces were already locking onto the approaching Bullhead. Eugene flew past them, cloaking himself along the way. When he got close enough, he saw Delsin and Glynda standing at either of the Bullhead's doors, taking aim at the border defenses. Eugene flew up to them.

"Need a hand?" He shouted.

"Eugene?" Delsin said.

"Here, let me help," Eugene said with a smile, "Hang on to something."

Eugene flew onto the Bullhead's roof, placed a hand on it and let his power flow. The Shroud of Invisibility covered the Bullhead, hiding it from sight. On the ground, the security forces opened fire where the Bullhead was last seen, but they had already moved past them and into the city.

"Go to the Airship Dock!" Eugene said, looking down at Maria Roman as she flew the Bullhead, "Ozpin should be waiting for you there!"

"Got it!" she shouted back.

They flew off.

O00000O00000O

When they landed, it wasn't Ozpin waiting for them. It was a squad of Vale Infantry Soldiers with fully automatic assault rifles pointed right at them.

"Shit!" Delsin said.

He jumped down and took aim with his Concrete and Video powers. Maria and Ruby joined him, readying themselves.

"Stand down!" the Squad Leader shouted, "By the authority of the Valean Council you are all under arrest."

"Not happening," Delsin said flatly.

Eugene hopped down in front of him.

"Hang on Delsin, cool down," he said.

"What?" Delsin said, dropping his hands.

Eugene smiled evilly.

"I got this," Eugene said.

Eugene snapped his fingers. In a flash of blue light, an entire legion of Angelic Wingmen appeared in perfect formation. Delsin looked them over, then nodded in acknowledgment as he powered himself down.

"Your move guys," Eugene said flatly.

The soldiers visibly tensed up, gripping their weapons a little tighter. Both sides stood there, each one waiting for the other to make the first move. Before the situation got any worse, Ozpin powered through the battle lines.

"That's enough, all of you!" he shouted forcefully, forcing his way between them all.

Ozpin turned to Delsin.

"Was your mission successful?" he asked sternly.

Delsin broke off his combat stance slowly and looked at the professor.

"Yeah, it was."

"Good. And your target?"

"Asleep inside," Delsin said, pointing at the Bullhead with his thumb.

"I see," Ozpin said, "Take him in. I'll have someone come to examine him."

Delsin nodded and Turned to retrieve the unconscious passenger.

"But sir!" the Squad Leader said, "By orders from the Council these people are to be arrested!"

Ozpin turned to the man who had spoken.

"Soldier, put your weapon down. These people are operating under my authority and if you or the Council has any concerns or complaints regarding their actions, you can bring them to me personally," Ozpin said.

He leaned in a bit closer and started whispering.

"And if I were being honest, if you picked a fight with those kids, you would lose. Badly."

The soldier gulped almost imperceptibly and slowly holstered his weapon. He cleared his throat.

"You heard the man!" He shouted to his squad, "Bug out!"

The soldier quickly left. Eugene relaxed and his Wingmen disappeared.

"Thank you, Professor," Glynda said.

"Yeah, thanks. That was getting bad," Fox commented.

"Well threatening them certainly didn't help," Ozpin replied, eyeing Eugene.

Eugene shrugged, a smirk on his face.

"Ow! Nora, be careful!" they heard Delsin shout.

"Sorry! He's lighter than he looks," Nora replied.

The two of them walked out of the Bullhead, carefully supporting the man between them. Eugene's breath hitched in his throat when he saw who it was.

"Is that...?" he said.

Delsin smiled and nodded.

The sight of Cole MacGrath left Eugene dumbstruck. A whirlwind of emotions ran through him with such an intensity as to leave him paralyzed. But the emotion he found himself returning to the most: Hope.

O00000O00000O

About an hour later, Delsin, Eugene, Yang, George, Ozpin, and Maria were standing outside a medical examination room. Through the observation window, they could see a handful of nurses attending the reawakened Cole MacGrath as a doctor examined him. Ozpin had called his personal physician back to Beacon to perform the exam. After Delsin and Eugene explained the specifics of Conduitism to him, he got right to work.

After a moment, the doctor stepped out.

"Well, doctor? How is he?" Professor Ozpin asked.

The red-haired doctor smiled at them.

"He's severely malnourished and dehydrated, some of his muscles have atrophied, particularly those in his extremities, which is consistent with injuries sustained from lengthy captivity and confinement. But other than that he is perfectly fine. His mental faculties are functioning surprisingly well and he shows almost no psychological signs of PTSD typically associated with these situations. It's actually quite incredible," the Doctor said.

"What about his powers?" George asked, "Are they still working?"

The doctor shook his head.

"I would have no way of knowing. The genetic abnormalities in DNA and RNA for... Conduitism, was it?"

Delsin nodded.

"Well, the mutations that Conduitism causes haven't been adequately studied, and to be frank I really don't have any way to check them. Now, I can say they are working. He demonstrated them well enough when he woke up and nearly fried the heart-monitor he was connected to. As to their efficacy? I'm afraid I don't know."

George nodded somberly.

"If that's all, I'm afraid I have other patients to attend to," the Doctor said, "As always, it is good to see you Ozpin."

"And you as well Dr. Eidolos. Have a wonderful day," Ozpin said.

Dr. Eidolos nodded politely and left.

"Do we trust his assessment, Professor?" George asked.

Ozpin turned to him.

"Before he was a Doctor, even before he was a Med Student, Dr. Eidolos was known as Yfrit Eidolos, a student at Signal Combat School where he learned how to fight. His weapons of choice were always precision weapons, things designed to make small, controlled cuts in just the right place, just like a surgeon. Add that to his Semblance, which allows him to perceive any object as a 3D image in his mind with a fully detailed schematic of its internal workings, when he left Signal to go to medical school, he quickly became one of the top students there, and not long after one of the best doctors in this Kingdom,"

"So, in answer to your question, yes, I trust his assessment," Ozpin answered.

George nodded.

"So can he wake up our friends?" Yang asked.

"If it's this guy, I'm sure he can," Eugene said.

"What makes you so sure?" Maria asked.

"Because on our world, Cole MacGrath is a legend," Eugene explained.

The rest of the room looked at Eugene in mild shock.

"You mean he's from your world?" Ozpin asked.

Eugene nodded.

"Yep. He's one of the most powerful Conduits to ever live," Eugene said, "And one of the first."

The assembled people looked back into the room at the Conduit, who was making the nurses laugh hysterically. Slowly, the same hope Eugene had felt began to well inside the rest of them.

Ozpin cleared his throat.

"Mr. Rowe, could you go talk to him please?"

Delsin nodded and opened the door to the room.

O00000O00000O

Cole saw the door to his room open out of the corner of his eye. One of the kids who rescued him walked in, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember the kid's name.

"Excuse me," the kid said to the nurses, "Could you give us a minute please?"

The nurses nodded and walked out. Cole sighed.

"Damn kid, I was making progress with those two," he said, "You just had to come in and screw it up, didn't you?"

The kid smiled.

"Yeah, that's me. Delsin Rowe, cock-blocker extraordinaire," Delsin joked back.

Cole smirked.

"So, kid. What brings you here?" Cole asked.

Delsin sat back in his chair.

"I'm here to ask you some questions."

Cole raised an eyebrow.

"You don't look like any interrogator I've met."

Delsin smirked

"I'll take that as a compliment," He said, "But this is... oh, what's the word... Ah! A debrief, not an interrogation."

"Ok, then. Shoot."

"Ok, do you know where you are?" Delsin asked.

"Umm, in a hospital?" Cole replied slyly, gesturing to his surroundings.

"Yeah, but like, do you know where the hospital is?" Delsin pressed, "Do you know anything else about where you are?"

Cole searched back into his memories but found surprisingly little.

"Earth?"

Delsin shook his head.

"Oh boy," Delsin said, with a sigh, "We've got a lot of catching up to do."

O00000O00000O

Meanwhile, just after Delsin walked into the room, Eugene walked out of the building. It was just too much to take in all at once. And no one could blame him. Cole MacGrath was Eugene's hero. When he was a kid, Eugene and his parents took a trip to New Marais. It was just before the Blast in Empire City (and as was later revealed to him the Blast in New Marais as well) when the city was still a fun tourist destination. It was day three of their trip when things went to hell. Word of the Blast spread like wildfire, but no one in New Marais heard about it until later.

The Militia quickly took control of the city and blockaded all points of entry and exit, leaving Eugene and his parents trapped in the city. At first, it wasn't too bad. The Militia was just trying to keep the peace. But that didn't last long.

Once they started rounding up "deviants," things got much worse. Protection rackets and excessive use of force weren't even the worst things, or so he heard his parents say. But though they managed to hide him from the worst of it, Eugene knew more than he let on. He was eleven, not blind.

And then, Cole showed up.

Almost overnight things got better. Oh, the militia did their best to vilify him, but Eugene read comic books, so he knew a superhero when he saw one. And when he saw Cole drop lightning bolts on Militiamen and heal anyone he might have injured in the crossfire, oh boy did he see one.

And when he died to activate the RFI? Eugene was there to mourn his hero.

So to see that hero alive again? He was ecstatic. But that elation combined with the despair he still felt, the hope of seeing his friends wake up soon, the fear of knowing they might not, the unease of not knowing who set off the Blast or even had access to that technology a whole universe away, leaving him so confused he could barely think straight.

Yang appeared next to him. While she didn't know the specifics of what was troubling him, Yang, being the big sister that she was (even though Eugene was technically older than her), knew when someone needed help and exactly how to help them. And right now, Eugene needed something to do.

"Hey," she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "You busy?"

"You need something?" he said, practically on auto-pilot.

"Yeah," Yang said with a nod, "I was hoping you could start teaching me how to use these new powers?"

Eugene turned to her.

"You want me to teach you?" he asked.

"Well yeah. You've been a Conduit longer than me and you're the only one here who has actual training using them, so I figured you're probably the best one to ask."

Eugene nodded, the solidity of her logic a welcome calm to the storm in his heart. He stood up.

"We'll need an open space to practice," he said.

Yang thought about that for a moment.

"I get to pick where we train, right?"

Eugene nodded.

"Then take me into the city. The Blast-site," Yang said unflinchingly.

Eugene just stared at her.

"No one's there, it's a great place to practice acrobatic combat maneuvers and there is no way in hell I can make it any worse if I destroy stuff with my powers," Yang said.

Eugene was hesitant to accept this, even if her logic was sound. That is until she made one more point.

"And there, I'll be more motivated to get it right," she said.

Eugene nodded, knowing her tone invited no further argument. Plus, she was still right.

"Ok," he said as he stood up, "let's go."

Yang nodded and the two of them left.

O00000O00000O

The remnants of downtown Vale were in much the same condition they were in when the two of them were there last. Lots of rubble, heaps of destroyed buildings, a couple crashed Bullheads... everything you would need for a training area that Eugene had to admit was pretty much perfect.

The two of them had arrived in what was left of the town square, the exact spot where they had been fighting before the Blast, and started training. Surprisingly enough, Yang got a handle on the basics pretty quick. Not as fast as Delsin did, but definitely faster than most nascent Conduits. Though to be fair, she had destroyed a lot of things too in pursuit of learning those basics.

Yang fired another blast of Iron Shrapnel at a little target Eugene had projected with his own powers. But, the force of the attack threw off her aim, destroying yet another of a somewhat substantial series of ruined walls. To her credit, Yang had managed to hit the target a few times, but the number of misses greatly outweighed the hits.

"Dang it! The recoil is so hard to compensate for!" Yang complained.

"Well, like you said, at least this place is empty so we don't have to worry too much about the giant piles of rubble you're making," Eugene retorted.

Yang glared daggers at him, and given the nature of her powers, Eugene was almost worried actual daggers would fly out and stab him.

"Here, let's try something," Eugene said.

He stepped forward into the firing line.

"See, the recoil from a basic Conduit attack is proportional to the surface area of where you are projecting it. Watch."

Eugene raised an arm and fired a Video Torrent at the target. Now, his aim was better, so he actually hit the target. But, as Yang saw, he hit all over it.

"So if we shrink the projection surface..."

Eugene closed his hand into a finger pistol and fired three shots. Three perfect bulls-eyes. He made a show of blowing off his fingertips like he was cooling down an old revolver.

"Wow," Yang said, genuinely surprised by his aim

"See?" Eugene said, "Now you try."

Eugene stepped back and let her return to the firing line. Yang made her finger pistol and took aim. She fired one quick shot at the target.

And hit it just off-center.

"Ha ha!" she yelled, pumping her fist in triumph.

"Good!" Eugene complimented, "You're making progress. Now just keep practicing that, and we'll work your way up to larger and larger projectiles."

Yang nodded.

The two of them kept going for a few hours. Yang made excellent progress in day one of training, and so, after a while, they decided to head back to Beacon.

Eugene took to the sky and summoned a small vehicle for Yang to ride on so she could keep up. A close inspection would reveal it to be a Black Chocobo from Final Fantasy 5. It took her a moment to learn the controls, but after she did it was pretty easy.

"This. Is. AWESOME!" Yang shouted, doing a whole host of trick flying techniques.

"Careful! The construct isn't super durable!" Eugene shouted, "You're gonna break it!"

"Oh, don't worry!" Yang said back, "It'll be fine!"

And then, as she tried one more fancy flying maneuver, the Chocobo broke and she fell.

"Yang!" he shouted as she fell.

He bolted to her, flying downward at his top speed. Yang couldn't fly, and she had left her Ember Celica back at Beacon since she felt she didn't need them, so she was maneuvering desperately to make sure she didn't die on impact.

"I'm coming!" Eugene shouted.

But, it was too late. Yang was falling faster than him and closing on the ground fast. She crashed into the ground with an audible "SMASH!" A dust cloud formed where she hit the ground and Eugene landed.

"Yang!" he shouted, "Are you ok?!"

"Yeah!" she said, coughing on the dust, "Yeah, I'm fine!"

Eugene raised an eyebrow. He raised an arm and built a large fan with his powers, one that was taller than he was. He swept it side to side, blowing the dust cloud away.

"Um, Yang? Look down," Eugene said, sounding a little nervous

"Hm?" Yang asked, "At what?"

She looked down and immediately saw what Eugene was talking about. Her entire body, head to toe and even her clothes, was encased in Iron. She was amazed she could still move, but she could, like nothing had changed. Slowly, the metal began to fade, returning her to normal.

"Whoa," she said in awe as her normal skin returned, "That's so cool!"

Eugene laughed uncertainly for a moment.

"Yeah," he said, "It is."

He helped her to her feet and looked at the cracked concrete walkway she landed on.

"Wow, I really did a number on that, didn't I?" she said.

"Well that's what happened when a solid block of metal crashes into the ground at thirty miles an hour," Eugene said.

He patted her on the back.

"Don't worry, I'll get Delsin to come out here and fix it later," he said, "C'mon, let's walk back."

"What, no flying?" Yang asked sarcastically.

"Not a chance."

The two of them had just started walking back to Beacon when they heard something. In the alley next to them was a woman, sobbing. Eugene froze; such things were well outside his realm of expertise. Yang patted him on the back and walked over to her.

"Hey," she said gently, "Are you ok? What happened?"

"I don't know," the woman said over her sobs, "I was walking down the street when heard someone crying. I turned down here to see what was wrong, but then..."

She held up her hands. Yang and Eugene gasped silently. Most of her forearms, including her hands, were burnt in a crisscross pattern. It didn't look too bad, at least, it was nothing that wouldn't heal with time, but nothing Eugene could think of caused a burn in that pattern. Thinking back, the burns themselves looked like the pictures he'd seen in his High school History Class about survivors of napalm attacks, but the pattern was still confusing.

"Unless..." he thought.

"I'll call you an ambulance, ok?" Yang said encouragingly, "Don't worry, you'll be fine."

The woman nodded. Yang pulled out her Scroll and made the call. When she was done, Eugene got her attention.

"Yang, did see the pattern on her arms?" he asked.

"Not really. Why?"

Eugene looked at the woman, then lowered his voice.

"I think she was attacked by a Conduit."

Yang's head snapped to attention.

"What?"

"Those burns aren't from anything natural. There is no weapon on this planet or mine that leaves markings in that kind of pattern, and no Dust will either-"

"Which means someone was controlling the fire that burned her," Yang said.

Eugene nodded.

"Think you can get a description of her attacker?" he asked.

"I can try. She's pretty shaken up."

"Do it," Eugene said.

O00000O00000O

After Yang got the description and the Ambulance arrived, the two of them got to work tracking their target down. The girl they were looking for was slim with pale blonde hair and wearing a black jacket. That was as much as their source could remember, though no one blamed her.

"So, where should we start looking?" Eugene asked.

Yang considered that for a moment.

"Well, the attack was only an hour ago, so she couldn't have gotten too far."

"True," Eugene said.

Yang stopped.

"Wait, what if she didn't mean to attack that lady?" She asked.

"Hm?"

"Well, if she's a new Conduit like you said, she probably doesn't know how to control her powers. Maybe if we can find burns around the city with a similar pattern, we can follow them to find her," Yang explained.

Eugene nodded.

"Ok then. Let's get to work," he said.

Starting from where they found the woman in the alley, it wasn't hard to find the next marker on their trail. Or any of the ones after that really. As Yang had thought this girl was obviously not in control of her powers. They found more of the same crisscross burn marks almost every ten feet. It was funny. The more Eugene saw of the patterns, the more they started to remind him of something, though he couldn't place exactly what.

After following the trail for about an hour, they heard police sirens in the distance.

"Something tells me that's our target," Yang said.

"Yeah, let's go," Eugene said.

O00000O00000O

"Put down the weapon and place your hands behind your head!" a policeman with a megaphone shouted.

Dorado Arachne was surrounded. Behind her was an alleyway that lead to a dead-end, and in front of her was a half-circle of Vale Police Department cruisers, each one used as cover for one of many cops pointing guns at her.

"Stay back!" she shouted, raising her fire-encased hands, "I'm warning you!"

While it sounded like a threat, she did mean it sincerely. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but whatever had happened to her, she couldn't stop it. She tried to keep it under control, God knows she tried. But when she accidentally turned a wall to slag, the police were soon to follow. The fact that she was a Faunus didn't help matters. Her trait wasn't that obvious, merely a series of vein-like markings starting at her neck and proceeding down her back. Normally, she just passed them off as a nice tattoo, but the cops didn't buy it.

They cornered her only a few minutes ago, accusing her not only of melting the wall but being part of the White Fang, the people responsible for the giant crater in downtown Vale. She was looking for a way out desperately.

"This is your last warning! Put the weapon down or we will open fire!" the megaphone cop shouted again.

She wanted to. Oh, boy, did she want to, but she couldn't. Not without cutting off her hands. And who knew? With how fast she healed now, they might just grow back. She hated the thought of having to hurt them. It wasn't that she was a pacifist. Far from it, as growing up in Vacuo as a pacifist was impossible. She just didn't like to use it when it wasn't necessary. Though, from her point of view, it didn't look like she would have much choice.

She drew her right arm back and snapped it forward. A sort of gelatinous web shot forward and attached to the interior of one of the police cruisers through a not quite closed window. The second it did, the web ignited, and the car caught fire. The nearest cops ran away and dove behind other cars. Just in time too, as the fire was so hot it soon had the entire car engulfed.

"Please!" she shouted, "I don't want to hurt you! Leave me alone!"

"Open fire!" one of the cops shouted.

Dorado closed her eyes and shielded her face as the bullets started flying at her. She froze, waiting for the pain to start as the bullets pierced her pale skin. But, to her surprise, it never came. She opened her arms to see what was going on.

Before her stood a strange pair. On her right was a girl with long blonde hair cascading down to her lower back. From her stance, and the shotgun gauntlets on her wrists, Dorado knew the girl was a Huntress or at least one in training.

On her left, however, was the one she found most intriguing.

He was just a kid from what she could see. Brown hair and glasses with a well-worn red and white striped hoodie. He didn't look like he should have the confidence with which he stood, but that was likely because of the most prominent feature on his person: the sparkling wings.

Dorado had heard of the Bird Faunus from Beacon. Hell, damn near every Faunus in the Kingdom had; they were practically legendary. But this guy... he didn't fit the description at all. Not even close, which begged the question: who the hell were these guys, and why the hell were they standing between her and men with guns?

"STOP!" the boy shouted.

"We're not here to fight you!" the girl continued.

"Get out of the way kids! You don't know what you're dealing with," one of the officers said, "That freak behind you is dangerous!"

The boy smiled.

"So am I."

He snapped his fingers.

A squadron of angelic warriors burst forth from nothing in a flash of blue. Dorado's pale red eyes widened. The cops recoiled, if only a little. The angelic warriors simply stood there, swords pointed upwards like a regiment of soldiers awaiting orders.

"As we said, we are not here to fight," The boy said, "But we will."

With a flick of his hand, the warriors vanished.

"Rest assured, this young lady will be taken care of," he said, pointing at her, "If you have any questions, you can contact Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy. He'll explain everything."

The girl stepped forward.

"Now," she said, her body somehow turning to solid steel, "Get lost."

The officers packed up and left, the little display shaking them up quite a bit. Luckily there were very few civilians present to witness those events. When they were gone, the boy turned to her.

"Sorry about that," he said, "Are you alright?"

He held out a hand to her for a handshake. She recoiled from it.

"I'm fine," she said, suspicious, "But who the hell are you? And how did you do that?"

The girl shrugged.

"How do you set stuff on fire with webs?" she asked rhetorically.

Dorado's eyes widened.

"You mean..." she said, "You're like me?"

The girl nodded.

"Nice to meet you," she said, "Call me Yang."

The boy held out his hand once more.

"Eugene Sims," he said.

Gingerly, Dorado accepted the gesture.

"Dorado Arachne," she said, "Call me Rad."

O00000O00000O

Cole sank into his bed.

"So... Remnant," Cole said.

"Yeah. It's a little trippy," Delsin said, "I felt weird about it too when I first got here."

"How long ago was that?" Cole asked.

Delsin shrugged.

"Coming up on a year now, I think," he said.

Cole nodded.

"So then, now that I'm all caught up," Cole said, "What's next?"

"For now, just sleep tight. You've got work to do when you recover."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Delsin looked a bit somber for a moment, but the look quickly passed and was replaced by his usual cheery look.

"Oh, just saving a couple more people and possibly the country. What could go wrong?"

Cole rolled his eyes as Delsin left.

When he was alone Cole smiled.

"It's good to be back."

CHAPTER END

A special thanks to Youri Kloens, my first Patron and the creator of the Dr. Yfrit Eidolos, as well as TheStrangerThatCameFromNowhere who created our new character.

You'll be happy to know, I have fleshed out my page on the website mentioned at the edge of the last chapter. Please, check it out.