Ben 10 RWBY Volume 1: Dimension Twist

by The Omni-Remnant

After an incident involving an old foe and a Null Void Portal, Ben and his team are transported to the world of Remnant... right in the middle of the Battle for Beacon. What will be the consequences? Ben doesn't know, but he does know one thing: It's Hero Time! (Takes place after Ultimate Alien. WARNING: Major changes to the end of RWBY Volume 3 and beyond. MAJOR AU.)

74. Welcome to Menagerie

A/N: (IMPORTANT, Please Read) Hey everybody, it's time for a new chapter once again. But before we get to that, I have something important to address. Last night at about eight or nine o'clock, I got no less than 74 new reviews for this story, all from the same user, within the span of half an hour. I know this because all of the reviews appeared in my e-mail. But here's the big problem; if you click on the review page, you'll see that there's nothing there, and it's like that for about the first 4 pages. There's a single comment on the 5th page, and then from there onward, the past comments are all visible. As such, this is VERY worrying to me because I don't know if this is just a site problem or the comment section is just permanently bugged now. I've already contacted the site's support AND left a message in the help forums, but I've yet to get news from either one.

Now, if anyone wants to try and leave a comment on this chapter, go ahead and test it out. If it appears in the review section between pages 1-5, great! But if it doesn't, don't worry, I'll still be able to see it in my e-mail. But, if you still want to share your thoughts with me about the chapter or even the story itself, my PMs ARE open, so if you want, hit me up there. I greatly appreciate all of your guys' input and I want to hear your thoughts on my story, so feel free to talk to me about it if you want. But for anyone who spams comments, please don't. We don't need this to get any worse. Sorry to put on the big boy pants, but if I didn't say anything here, this problem might not be addressed at all. But, now that we've gotten the serious stuff out of the way, let's get to what everyone's been for. This is…

Chapter 74: Welcome to Menagerie

…..

Tyrian Callows rarely, if ever, got annoyed by the more trivial things in life. But as Hazel's drop ship flew over the sea with the sun just beginning to rise over the horizon, he was finding himself at his very last, and shortest straw. Why? Because he was sitting right in front of two sleeping behemoths; Thunderhog and Exo-Skull, and their snoring was driving him even crazier than usual! It had been like that for a good four hours out of the five that they had spent flying, and he was just about ready to kill them in their sleep if it would get them to shut up. He had tried everything to drown the snoring out, but to absolutely no avail. And he knew that he wasn't the only one suffering, because all of the White Fang operatives were complaining about it in the very back of the ship… and he was half-tempted to kill THEM for their annoyance as well.

"Ugh, how long will it be until we get there?!" The scorpion Faunus whipped around to his left to glare at Hazel, who was piloting the high-speed craft. "Those two are like chainsaws in an echo chamber! I swear, if this goes on for another minute, I'm GONNA start stabbing people!"

"Calm yourself, Tyrian." Hazel pressed a button on the console, bringing up a holographic map with their location marked with a green blip. They were moving closer and closer to a large landmass, which Hazel was quick to point to. "As you can see, we're almost there. Just a few more minutes and we should see it coming over the horizon."

Tyrian sighed and slumped back in his seat. "Ugh, FINALLY." He jabbed his thumb back toward the sleeping mutants. "The sooner those bozos wake up, the better."

"Hmm." Hazel grunted as he kept his eyes fixated forward. After a few minutes more, the large island nation of Menagerie finally came into view, just as he said it would. "Excellent, there it is."

"Great." Tyrian stood up and went over to Hog and Skull before smacking their faces to wake them up. "HEY! Get up, you lunk-heads! We're here!"

"GAH!" Hog hollered as he bolted up right in his seat, followed by Skull doing the same thing. The moment he saw Tyrian, his pig lips moved up into a snarl and he grabbed the crazed man's throat, bringing him closer to his face. "HEY! What's the big idea, beady-eyes?!"

Skull lowered his head down and glared at Tyrian, snorting out through his nostrils for intimidation. "Yeah! Where do you get off waking us up, huh?!"

But Tyrian just left out a choking laugh as his eyes shifted from yellow to purple, his tail readying itself to attack. "HAHAHA! Go ahead! Just try me! After four hours of hearing nothing but you two idiots snore, I REALLY want you to test my patience!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Hazel hollered, getting the three to stop instantly. "Thaddeus, let Tyrian go. We're here, and I would prefer it if you were alive so that you and Farkas could negotiate with your old prison mates."

Hog's eyes widened and he released Tyrian from his grasp, the scorpion man falling to his hands and knees while catching his breath. "Oh yeah, I forgot." The warthog mutant stepped forward and looked out of the windshield, watching on as they drew ever nearer to Menagerie. "So, this is the place, huh?"

"Indeed, we've arrived in Menagerie." Hazel nodded. "The Faunus homeland."

Skull craned his head over to try and catch a glimpse of the large island. "Huh, so all of the Faunus just live here, huh?"

"Not all, this is just the nation that was gifted to them as a reward from human kind after taking part in the Great War." Hazel explained. "Here, they can live in peace, whilst most other parts of the world tend to discriminate them. However, this small continent is two-thirds desert, and because of that, living conditions here are not ideal."

"Huh, weird." Skull shrugged. "'Cause from what I understand, these people are like humans… but better. If anything, they should be the ones in charge. THEY should be the dominant species and be ruling the world, not relegated here."

"Yeah, Doctor Animo would probably dig this place." Hog added. "He could probably help them take the power away from the humans, too."

Tyrian coughed as he stood up, though that didn't stop him from laughing. "Hehehe! Oh, I like the way you boys think! Bring the doc here and he could GIVE 'em what you two have! Then maybe some of 'em will finally grow a spine and take what's rightfully theirs! AHAHA!"

"As interesting of an idea as that is, I'm afraid that's not an option." Hazel dismissed. "We're here for peace talks, not a continental mutation."

"Yeah, yeah." Hog complied. "I get ya, we'll… wait, what's that?" Hog pointed to the holographic map, which was now presenting a slew of red blips approaching their green blip. "Is… that a bad thing?"

Hazel's eyes widened and he called out; "Enemy fire inbound!"

"Where?!" Skull yelled. "I don't see any—" BLAM! A loud sound was heard and the entire dropship began shaking, lurching backward after whatever made impact exploded on contact. "GAH!" Skull lost his footing and began falling backward with the ship, sending him hurtling toward Tyrian.

The scorpion man's eyes bugged out and he raised his arms in vain. "No, Skull, wait—ACK!" But it was too late. Skull careened back-first into Tyrian and the two went sailing into the back wall, with the two slamming into the door and leaving a dent in it. For Exo-Skull, it didn't hurt too much, but for Tyrian, he was literally caught between a wall and a hard place, so the only thing he could feel in that moment was immense pain. "…AAAAAAGGGH!"

Hog managed to keep a hold onto the passenger seat before climbing into it, his head whipping around to Hazel. "What the hell was THAT?!"

"I don't know!" Hazel grunted as he struggled against the controls. After a few seconds, he finally managed to level the dropship off, but just a moment later, another hologram came up. This one was of the dropship itself, and a section of it appeared to be flashing red with an alarm blaring throughout the craft. "We've taken light damage to our underside! We can still make it, but we need to land as soon as possible!"

Hog grunted as he leaned forward, scanning around to see just what in the world was hitting them. His search proved fruitful when his eyes landed onto the port, where a long row of cannons were settled across the docks. There were also a bunch of White Fang members manning the cannons, though they were all dressed in somewhat different clothing than the grunts in the back of the ship. But all the same, they still wore the iconic White Fang masks. "Woah! Big H, we got company!"

Hazel narrowed his gaze to the port, his brows furrowing further when he saw the cannons and how the White Fang were currently reloading all of them. "I see, long-range Dust cannons. So they're trying to keep trespassers out, are they?" He punched in a command into the console before pulling a lever. "Well then, we'll have to go for broke!"

"W-W-Wait, what d'ya mean by—THAAAAAAT!" In an instant, the dropship increased its speed and blasted toward the town of Kuo Kuana, taking all of the passengers by surprise. "HAZEL! The HELL are you doin'?!" Hog asked with this jowls being pushed back by the sheer force of their speed.

"Hoping to out speed them before they reload!" Hazel grit his teeth as the ship came closer and closer to the town. "Just hang on and prepare for landing."

Thunderhog hastily grabbed the comm unit and spoke into it, alerting the White Fang passengers; "This is your co-captain speaking! The captain's lost it and we're probably all gonna die! Also, lunch will NOT be served today!" The cries of distressed White Fang members could be heard from the back room through the heavy metal wall.

Over on said wall, Exo-Skull covered his eyes in preparation. "I can't watch!"

"Get off of me you lummox!" Tyrian screamed from beneath the rhino man.

The tension grew with every passing second as Hazel slammed on the propulsion, keeping the craft going as the cannons were finally reloaded and repositioned. The seconds ticked off in Hazel's head; 'Three… two …one.' And at that moment, the cannons fired off into the sky, a slew of pure Fire Dust cannonballs ascending straight toward them. But Hazel didn't let up, and thanks to the dropship's unrelenting speed, the cannonballs just barely missed it. The muscular man let out a breath as the ship flew straight over the port, relieved that his idea worked. "Hah, we made it."

"Did we?" Hog asked. "I blinked and missed it."

Skull uncovered his eyes and let out a cheer. "WOOHOO! We lived!"

"Great!" Tyrian yelled. "NOW can you get off me?!"

As Skull began prying himself from the wall, Hog took out the comm unit as Hazel began slowing the ship down. He spoke into the device, addressing the White Fang in the ship once more. "Uh, yeah, this is your co-captain again. Your captain's crazy idea worked and now I suggest you call prepare for landing." There was a round of cheering heard from the backroom of the ship before Hog added; "Oh, and remember, it's your job to make sure that none of your friends kill us. So… don't screw up!" The cheering died down after that.

…..

In the streets of Kuo Kuana, a pair of Faunus were watching with intense stares as the speeding dropship slowed to a halt over the center of town and began to descend, its underside having been m. All around them, a battalion of White Fang guards had arrived and began surrounding the ship's landing spot, preparing themselves for whatever would be coming out of it.

"So… what do you think we have here?" the first one asked. At first glance, she was a rather pretty young lady with greyish-blue eyes and medium-length grey hair that covered her right eye. She had pale skin and wore a black and grey uniform with a gold zipper that was zipped down to reveal her upper chest, as that was one of the places where her Faunus trait was most noticeable. There were dark grey veins going across her chest and up her neck, as well as down her arms and to her hands, which seemed to be naturally grey. "Intruders? Maybe some revolutionaries?" she guessed.

"Perhaps." the other one answered. This one was a young man with tanned skin, spikey brown hair, and a matching goatee. He wore a similar uniform as his compatriot, only he kept his zipper up. At his hips were a pair of scabbards with a blade in each of them, the handles appearing to be in a curve. On his back, his Faunus trait could be seen clear as day; a pair of brown bat wings. "I didn't think that Ilia and the Belladonnas would survive that long on the open water, though. Very surprising." The ship landed on the ground, tilting to the side slightly due to its damages, as the ramp began to lower down, the bat Faunus raised his hand to the guards and called out; "Be on your guard! We don't know what'll come out of there!"

"Yes, Brother Yuma!" one guard answered back.

The bat Faunus, Yuma, nodded his head to his companion. "Sister Trifa, be ready to ensnare."

The spider Faunus, Trifa, smiled back to Yuma as she raised her hands up to the ship. "Of course, Brother Yuma, I'll—" But then she let out a gasp at what came out of the craft, her eyes widening in astonishment. "No… it can't be… can it?"

Yuma's lips parted and his head jerked back a bit in shock. "Impossible…" There, filing out of the back of the ship in two side-by-side rows, was a whole group of White Fang grunts. They all had their hands raised up, showing that they were willingly compliant as their fellow White Fang members aimed their firearms at them. "How can this be?" Yuma whispered to himself.

Once they were all off, a single White Fang stepped out from the group of grunts. He was a lieutenant among their ranks, as indicated by the unique mask that covered his entire face rather than just his eyes. He was rather muscular, had short black hair, and a tattoo on his left arm, along with a pair of metal forearm guards on both arms. He called out to his brethren in a pleading voice; "Brothers and sisters of the White Fang, please, do not fire! We come seeking a meeting with the new leader."

That statement was the one that really took Yuma by surprise. 'That information hasn't been made public yet.' He raised his hand up to the guards and ordered; "Lower your weapons." to which they immediately did. Yuma strode forth with Trifa following close behind until they stopped right in front of the White Fang lieutenant, the spikey-haired man narrowing his eyes at the masked man. "How did you get that information, lieutenant? No one outside of Menagerie has been made aware of the change in leadership."

The lieutenant gave Yuma a salute. "Sir, we were given a surprise visit by Ghira Belladonna, his wife, and Ilia Amitola. They were the ones who informed us."

Trifa's eyes glanced toward Yuma as his brow furrowed at the information. "Then they must've made it to the mainland after all." she concluded.

"Yes, it would seem so." Yuma nodded toward the lieutenant. "What branch are you from, lieutenant?"

"Vale, sir." The White Fang put a hand over his chest and bowed his head toward Yuma, with the rest of his troop following suit. "We were devout followers of Adam Taurus before he was unfortunately arrested."

"Ah, excellent." Yuma wore a sinister smile at the revelation. "If that's the case, then your group will truly be welcome in the White Fang's new order. And I suppose that since you're here, you took the Belladonna's information and left them and Ilia in cold blood, correct?"

"We… we attempted to, sir." The lieutenant hesitantly answered. "They tried to escape, but we gave chase. We were closing in on Ilia when we were ambushed by a bunch of Hunters. They whittled our group down to what you see before you." He gestured out to the crowd of grunts, which had been taken from well over sixty to about thirty or so.

Yuma narrowed his eyes. "Is that so? Well then, I can only assume that they escaped?"

The lieutenant lowered his head. "W-Well, I… yes." At that moment, Yuma grabbed one of the blades at his hip and pulled it out of its scabbard, revealing it to be a rather deadly scimitar. He swiftly pressed it up to the lieutenant's neck, making the White Fang holler in fear. "AH! P-Please, sir, we didn't—"

"Didn't what?" Yuma sneered. "Give me one good reason why I should spare your sorry life and not take this group for myself!"

"B-B-Because you don't want to upset… them." The lieutenant pointed back to the ship, and Yuma whirled his head back around to it.

"What in the world are you on about—AH!" Yuma gasped and stepped away from the lieutenant in shock, keeping his scimitar clenched in his hand.

Trifa let out a gasp of her own, with the rest of the White Fang guard becoming aghast at what they saw. A large rhinoceros-man in heavy metal armor with a long, cybernetic horn came lumbering out of the dropship, followed closely behind by a mohawked warthog-man wearing a visor and a pair of gauntlets. "No… it can't be! There's MORE of them?!"

"You got that right, missy!" the warthog jabbed a thumb to his chest. "Let me introduce me an' by bro here. The name's Thunderhog." He then pat his hand against the rhino's shoulder. "An' this is my best bud, Exo-Skull. And as you can see, we've taken control of this here branch of the White Fang."

"That's right." Exo-Skull pulled his giant minigun off of his back. "So if you kill one of our men, we'll slaughter yours, capisce?"

Yuma grit his teeth, the bat Faunus forcing himself to swallow whatever apprehension he was feeling and speak up. "Who are you?!" he demanded. "And what are you doing here?"

Just then, a loud cackling could be heard from inside the ship, making everyone jump slightly. Bounding down the steps was a beady-eyed scorpion Faunus, his demented expression striking fear into the hearts of every White Fang there. "AHAHA! An excellent question, and we have many answers to give you! Hehehe!"

Yuma readied his scimitar again. "You… you're Tyrian Callows! You're responsible for the deaths of countless Faunus and humans alike! Why in the HELL are you here?!"

"Why, because of my cause, of course! The cause which brings us all here today!" Tyrian bowed to Yuma. "For our queen has given us the mission of reaching out to the White Fang to offer our humble assistance!"

"Assistance?" Trifa asked worriedly. "What kind of assistance?"

It was then that one final voice came; "The kind that's hard to refuse." Hazel finally exited the craft behind his compatriots, the large man folding his arms as he came to a stop. "Believe me, you WILL want to consider what we have to offer."

However, Yuma just glared at Hazel and pointed his scimitar at him. "Interloper! What reason does a human have being in Menagerie?!" At that point, all of the guards we concentrating their firearms on Hazel, with Trifa even readying her own weapon. "I suggest you leave now before things get—"

"What IS going on here?!" At the arrival of a new voice, one that was rather smooth yet demanding, all of the White Fang stood at attention, though Yuma seemed reluctant at first to do so. The crowd of White Fang guards began parting, making way for whoever was making their way toward them. Finally, Hog, Skull, Tyrian and Hazel could see the person who had spoken up… and Tyrian immediately fell into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

There, standing at the front of the guard, was a four-foot tall blue monkey. He had shaggy blue hair on his head, back, forearms, and lower legs with darker blue skin on his face and chest. However, that wasn't the strangest part about him. That was saved for his four arms, each with only three fingers while his feet only had three toes as well. He also had four gleaming yellow eyes, the orbs glaring over to the four followers of Salem in judgment. But even then, his appearance got stranger. For adorning his upper torso was a bright pink collared shirt, making him stick out like a sore thumb. The monkey put all four hands on his hips and repeated; "Well? What's going on around…" But then he stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed Hog and Skull, his eyes widening in surprise. "…here?"

The two sides stared at each other for a few seconds more… before Hog and Skull began cracking up with Tyrian. It got to the point where both of the large mutant men were rolling around on the ground on their backs, laughing up a storm. "OH! Oh my god, STOP!" Hog waved his hand in a pleading manner. "I-I CAN'T BREATHE!"

"AHAHAHA!" Skull guffawed at the sight of the alien monkey, pointing and laughing at him as he tried to stand himself up. "S-Simian, what in the HELL were you thinking with that fashion statement?! HAHA!"

The literal spider-monkey, now identified as Simian, clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow at them once more. "How do you know my name? And just who ARE you two anyway?"

"Haha! Aw, c'mon, Simian." Hog stood up and slammed his hands against his chest. "Don't tell me you don't recognize your ol' prisonmates!"

Simian narrowed his eyes at the two, thinking over just what the pig-man said before finally realizing; "Wait… Thaddeus? Is that you?" He bent down onto all six limbs and bounded over to the duo, focusing on the rhino-man next. "And that must mean that you're Farkas, right? How in the world did you two end up like this? …Come to think of it, how are you both here in the first place?"

"Oh, that is a LONG story, man." Hog smirked. "But to cut it short for ya, we got blasted here in the explosion, a witch recruited us into her evil groupies, and Doctor Animo made us into the awesomely powerful mutants you see before you today!"

Skull let out another chuckle before pointing at Simian's shirt. "But what I wanna know is where you got your new duds! I mean, a pink shirt on blue fur?!" Skull slapped his forehead and laughed again. "Haha! It's freakin' hilarious!"

Simian pursed his lips in annoyance and crossed all four of his arms. "I'll have you know that this shirt used to be white when I first got it. But SOMEBODY chose to wash it with a pair of red socks!" He whipped his body around and pointed a single finger to a random White Fang guard. "You know what you did, TOM!" The cat-eared Faunus backed away with a nervous, toothy grin as he silently waved, hoping to not face anymore punishment than he already had.

Of to the side, Yuma bowed his head to the Arachnichimp. "Master Simian, you know these two?"

"Indeed, Yuma." Simian confirmed with a sigh, calming himself down. "I served time in prison with them, back when they were once human. And speaking of human…" The blue spider-monkey faced Hazel with a stern look. "You must be pretty brave to have come here, my friend. Human's aren't exactly all that welcomed by the White Fang here, as you know."

"I am aware, yes." Hazel nodded. "But once you hear our reason for being here, I think that you might just reconsider. Now, where is…" The goateed man raised a brow over to Thunderhog. "What did you say his name was?"

"Trumbipulor." Hog answered before craning his head down to Simian. "We're here to see Trumbipulor."

"I figured as much." Simian shrugged. "You're all just lucky that I got here in time after all of that commotion, otherwise you all WOULD be seeing him… while strapped in chains."

Tyrian threw his head back and cackled to the heavens. "HAHAHA! I'd like to see these sorry souls just TRY and stop us!"

Simian simply narrowed his eyes at the crazed Faunus in trepidation. "Hmm… yes. In any case, follow me, I'll take you all to "Lord" Trumbipulor as he's been calling himself lately." The Arachnichimp faced the two Faunus assassins and pointed up to them. "Yuma, Trifa, I want you to see to it that all of these White Fang grunts that they've brought get proper food and garments. If we wish to be ready to make our move, we'll need every set of hands we have to be at their best."

Yuma bowed his head in respect. "Of course, Master Simian."

And Trifa did the same. "It will be done."

"Excellent." Simian waved his monkey paw over in a certain direction, ushering for the four followers of Salem to come with him. "This way, gentlemen. The White Fang headquarters is just on the outskirts of town." With that, Simian led the quartet away while Yuma and Trifa escorted the White Fang grunts to a nearby outpost, the two assassins giving Hazel matching dirty looks as he walked away.

"I do not trust them." Trifa whispered. "Something seems… off."

"That much, we can agree upon." Yuma concurred.

…..

Hog and Skull had to admit, when they had first imagined what the White Fang's headquarters looked like, they were NOT expecting the building that was in front of them. In their minds, they had pictured an all-white building that reflected the group's choice in color, along with a more modern aesthetic. But as they drew closer and closer to the building, they found that their idea was NOT the case at all. Instead, what they were presented with was a rather large, oriental palace, one that would be right at home if it were in a Pacific island region. The two brutes were so amazed by how grand this place was, that their jaws simultaneously dropped in amazement. "Woo… gotta say, I was NOT expecting this." Hog admitted.

"Yeah, and here I though these guys would be a bit more modern." Skull added.

"You'll find that the White Fang here aren't exactly all that well-equipped, gentlemen." Simian explained. "The ways of Kuo Kuana are much more traditional than those on the mainland. The most weaponry people have here are flintlock pistols, rifles and swords. It proved to be a challenge when Sienna Khan brought her reinforcements from the mainland, but she made one fatal mistake…"

Hazel raised a brow. "And what would that be?"

"Underestimating Trumbipulor." The Arachnichimp answered as he opened the heavy palace doors, allowing them to walk inside. "When the White Fang made their initial distress call to her, Miss Khan had thought that it would be a trivial undertaking to take Trumbipulor down. But there was one thing she wasn't counting on; his intellect. He set up those antiquated Dust Cannons at the port and they took her and her forces down in less than half an hour… and he made sure that she was the only survivor."

"Hehehe, well THAT certainly showed her, huh?!" Tyrian snickered.

"Indeed, it did. And as a result of that battle, Trumbipulor won a majority of White Fang's favor… if not out of respect, then of fear. Although, now that he leads the organization, he doesn't seem particularly interested in their cause. Instead it's all been about making money and extorting the townsfolk." Simian furrowed his brows a bit. "I have a feeling that's why the Albain Brothers have been so cooperative with him as of late."

"And uh, WHO are the Albain Brothers, exactly?" Skull asked.

"They used to be Sienna's top lieutenants, but after she fell from leadership, they quickly offered their services to Trumbipulor." Simian put one of his hands to his chin in contemplation. "Though if you ask me, they seemed to be a bit TOO quick to leave her in the dust." The alien chimp stopped directly in front of a large set of doors, causing the others to do the same. "Now that Trumbipulor is in charge, I think they might be going along with his way of doing things so that they can get what they want."

"Has the big guy figured out their game yet?" Hog pressed further.

"He may suspect something. But if he has, he hasn't said anything about it yet." Simian breathed out a sigh and closed his eyes briefly. "But I suppose we should stop delaying the inevitable, right?" The Arachnichimp reached up and lifted one of the large door knockers, slamming it against the strong oak door three times.

Not a second passed when they heard a response from the other side; "ENTER!" The voice was so loud and commanding that it took the group by surprise a little, the only exception being Hazel who kept his stoic expression.

Simian pushed the door open by just a crack and went in first, bowing his head toward the new leader of the White Fang. "Trumbipulor, I have some—"

"That's Lord Trumbipulor to you, ya mook!" The booming voice spoke again, this time more agitated. "Now whaddya want, Simian? Can'tcha see I'm busy here?"

"Of course, Lord Trumbipulor, but I have a couple of familiar faces here who are just dying to see you."

A few seconds passed before the voice ordered to have the doors fully opened. "Send 'em in!" At the order, Simian pulled one door open the rest of the way, allowing Hog, Skull, Tyrian and Hazel to get a good look at the new leader of the White Fang. He was quite large, that was for sure, about twelve feet tall from head to toe. He resembled a humanoid bull elephant with brownish-grey skin, long ears shaped like batwings, and a pair of tusks that were shaved down almost to their base. He wore a black one-piece uniform with a large piece of purple chest armor covering his upper torso. There was also a matching purple belt across his waist with a silver buckle in the shape of a heavy lock, with eight large silver studs going all around it. On his wrists, he wore a pair of purple wrist bands with six silver studs in each, and a matching pair of large silver pauldrons adorned his massive shoulders. On his head, he wore a purple cap with a black band around it, a small red diamond-shaped jewel having been engraved into its center.

Trumbipulor's blank white eyes gazed out to the opposite end of the room as he sat on his large throne made of stone, his trunk swishing from side to side impatiently. He was surrounded on all sides by at least six servants, some of them fanning him with large palm-leaf fans while others were presenting him with several different confectionaries. However, once he saw just who, or rather what had come to see him, his eyes nearly bugged out and he stood up abruptly. "What in the Milky Way Galaxy are THOSE things?!"

Skull winced slightly at the elephant alien's upset tone. "He doesn't seem too happy that we're here, Hog." he whispered to his friend.

But Hog decided that a more jovial approach would be better suited for this situation. "Relax, Skull, I'll do the talkin'." He spread his arms out wide and gave Trumbipulor a big grin as he stepped forward. "Haha! Hey, Trumbipulor! Man, it's been a while hasn't it? Little over two weeks if I'm remember correctly. Seems you've been makin' quite the name for yourself around here!"

Trumbipulor simply narrowed his eyes at the pig-man. "Who are you? You sound familiar, but I can't place it…"

Hog ushered Skull over to him, the rhino-man stepping up next to him before he continued; "Ah, c'mon, man! Don't tell me you forgot about your old roomies from that Plumber prison!"

"Old roomies? What're you—wait!" Trumbipulor's eyes widened in realization. There was only one duo that he shared a cell block with, and they were the only ones who he ever got along with. "Thunderhog?! Exo-Skull?!"

"Guilty as charged." Skull smirked. "How's it goin' Trumbi?"

Trumbipulor gave a hearty laugh and approached the two with open arms, settling his hands onto their shoulders. "HAHAHA! By Ma Vreedle's bunions! It's great to see you two schmucks again!"

Hog wore a disgusted face. "Thanks, I really needed that mental image."

"Ah, my apologies. But seriously, what ARE you two doin' 'ere? Last I saw you's guys, we were all runnin' for freedom afta' Vilgax made his grand escape!" Trumbipulor took his hands away from his friend's shoulders before gesturing to the two mutants. "And how the hell did you two end up like… THIS?!"

"You can thank Doctor Animo for that." Hog smirked. "He finally got his mutagen formula workin' properly, and WE were his first test subjects."

"Hah, well, that's REAL surprisin'. Didn't think Animo'd be here to. Gotta say, it's been a weird couple 'a weeks. 'Specially since the breakout happened." The elephant alien put a hand to his head. "I remember us makin' a break for it afta' Vilgax blew the place up. But then, all I can remember afta' that was a white light, then suddenly I'm in this forsaken place. Simian and I wandered for at least three days in the desert before finally findin' this here town."

"We heard." Skull nodded. "And it sounds like you've made quite the impact here. Well, to answer your question, it turns out that we were ALL blasted to this world. Rojo, Darkstar, Animo, everyone." The rhino mutant's eyes narrowed as he came to the unpleasant part. "Unfortunately, that means that Tennyson and his team are here too."

"TENNYSON?!" Trumbipulor hollered before trumpeting his trunk in anger. "You can't be serious!"

"Believe me, man, I wish we weren't." Hog said dejectedly. "And what's worse is that he's made a bunch of new allies in this world, and they're helping him round us all up." The pig mutant raised a hand. "But it's okay! Because we've been makin' some powerful allies of our own! And THAT is the reason why we came to see you today."

"Hmph, I getcha." Trumbipulor made a low rumbling sound in his throat as his gaze settled upon Tyrian and Hazel. "An' I s'pose those two are the pals your talkin' 'bout?"

"You're partially correct on that." Hazel answered as he and Tyrian stepped forward. "I am Hazel Rainart, and the man next to me is my associate, Tryian Callows."

"Hehe, nice to meet ya." Tyrian chortled. "Gotta say, I've never seen an alien elephant. Hell, I didn't know that aliens could BE elephants! AHAHA!"

Trumbipulor's rumbling noise became a full-on growl. "I ain't no stinkin' elephant, crazy eyes! I'm a Paku-Dermoloid, I only look like an elephant!" The alien crime boss craned his massive head back to the mutant duo, jabbing a thumb over to the crazed scorpion man with a raised brow. "Hey, what's the deal with this mashugana?"

"He's a few screws loose of a full deck of cards, if you know what I mean." Exo-Skull explained.

"Me thinks you're gettin' your idioms confused, my friend, but I get the gist." Trumbipulor clapped his hands and faced back to Hazel. "So, what brings you to my little island paradise, eh? A little business venture, maybe?"

"Indeed, Lord Trumbipulor." Hazel put a hand over his heart and gave a bow. "We're here to offer you an incredible opportunity that you may find very interesting."

Trumbipulor narrowed his eyes slightly in intrigue. "…I'm listening."

But before Hazel could go on, another set of doors opened up nearby, causing everyone to direct their attention over to the left side of the room. There, standing in the doorway were two men, both with brown skin tones and lighter brown eyes. They wore very similar clothes; a black tunic with white trim, detached white sleeves that started at the bicep and ended with a black cuff with matching gloves, pleated white pants, and black open-toed sandals with fabric that went up to their knees. They also wore matching red hoods that had a muzzle-shaped brim to them, almost making them appear to have animal snouts on top of their heads. The two appeared to be nearly identical with only two differences between them; one being their height, and the other being their Faunus trait. The taller one had a foxlike tail while the shorter of the two had foxlike ears that stuck out of his head.

The duo walked toward the group with their heads down and their hands together, almost as if they were constantly paying respects. "Forgive the intrusion, my lord." The taller one spoke in a heavy baritone. "But we thought we had heard you trumpet in rage."

"We came to make sure that you were…" the shorter one trailed off, his raspy voice coming to a halt when he saw the four followers of Salem. In particular, his eyes widened when he saw Hog and Skull. "Dear god! My lord, are these… friends of yours?"

Trumbipulor furrowed his eyeridges at the shorter Faunus, moving over to both of them while getting in his face. "That's right, Fennec, these boys an' I go way back. Got a problem with that?"

The fox-eared man, now identified as Fennec, hastily shook his head before bowing it again. "N-No, of course not, my lord."

"Good." The Paku-Dermoloid shifted his attention over to the taller man. "An' whaddabout you, Corsac? Any problems?"

The taller man, Corsac, directed his attention to Hazel and Tyrian, narrowing his eyes at the muscular man. "My lord, the only issue I take with any of this is that man standing there." He pointed over to Hazel and Trumbipulor followed the gesture. "Humans are not allowed in the sanctity of ANY White Fang domicile." Corsac then moved his finger to Tyrian. "And that man is a wanted felon, responsible for the murders of countless Faunus AND humans."

Trumbipulor put a hand to his chin in contemplation. "Hmm, you make a good point. But considering that these guys supposedly have an offer that we can't refuse, I suggest we hear 'em out before lockin' 'em up, eh? Or do I have to get rough of ya's again?" He balled his giant hand into a massive fist, his thick skin tightening as he clenched it.

Corsac's eyes widened and he gulped a little bit, all while Fennec's eyes darted between the fist and his brother. However, the older Albain Sibling managed to get a hold of his fear and recompose himself. "Ahem, of course, Lord Trumbipulor. Whatever you say."

"Good! That's what I like to hear." Trumbipulor relaxed his hands and turned back to his guests. "You'll hafta excuse the Albain Brothers, they can be a bit antsy these days."

Hazel bowed his head in respect. "No worries, Lord Trumbipulor, I understand where they are coming from. But rest assured that we are not here to cause any trouble, in fact, we've come to offer you a great opportunity." He shifted his attention to the Albains and nodded to them. "After all, you may not like me, and you have no reason to. But you don't HAVE to like me in order to get the results that you want."

"And how would you know what we want?" Fennec countered.

"Well… you two were familiar with Adam Taurus, right?" Hazel saw the brothers' faces become shocked at the very mention of Adam's name. "Ah, yes, the one who led the White Fang in the Battle for Beacon… and got arrested for his troubles. Do you wish to know the reason behind his unfortunate fate?"

"I think I can already guess." Trumbipulor spoke up. "Tennyson did him in, didn't he?"

Hazel nodded at the answer. "That's right. Ben Tennyson arrived in this world right in the middle of the battle. And together with his allies, they brought Adam down." He bowed his head to the Albain Brothers once again. "And I'm afraid that he's in the most highly guarded prison in Atlas at this very moment, so there's no easy way to break him out, unfortunately."

"I… I see." Corsac furrowed his brow as his gaze lowered to the floor, his hands balling into fists. 'So HE is the reason why our trump card was incarcerated.' The fox-tailed man moved his head back up to his new leader. "My lord, this Ben Tennyson, he is the hero you mentioned, yes? The one who kept interfering with your plans before you came here?"

"That's right, and if I know Tennyson, he's plannin' on doin' it again." Trumbipulor crossed his arms at Hazel. "Question is, what can you mooks do to help us?"

"That answer is quite simple; do what Adam did and ally with us." Hazel put his hands behind his back and approached the Paku-Dermoloid. "It was because of our faction that Adam was able to have the necessary resources to pull off his operations in the city of Vale, and by proxy, was able to take part in the invasion of Vale and Beacon."

Fennec grit his teeth at Hazel. "If what you say is true, then why should we? If your faction really WAS responsible for the Grimm Invasion, then it was all for naught, correct? The Grimm failed to overtake Vale and they all retreated. Your side lost."

Tyrian's smile widened and he let out another cackle. "AHAHA! Oh, you're not wrong there, my friend. But here's the difference here; the ones that our queen put in charge of the invasion of Vale were nothing more than immature children! Young minds who had no idea what they were doing." The madman gestured to Hog, Skull and Hazel. "But whereas us… hehehe, well, WE are the best that our Lady Salem has to offer."

"Lady Salem?" Corsac asked. "And who would she be?"

"Oh, she's an extremely powerful woman." Skull answered. "She's able to do things that you can only dream about."

Trumbipulor raised an eyeridge before gesturing them to go on. "…Such as?"

Hog sent his old prison mate a smirk. "How does the ability to control the Grimm sound to you?"

From behind the group, Simian came up and asked; "Those are the dark creatures with the bones on the outside of their bodies, right?" He faced upward toward Trumbipulor. "You remember how powerful the ones we encountered in the desert were, right?"

The alien crime boss rubbed the underside of his chin in thought. "Yeah, one a' those venom-spittin' camel things almost took me down. They were pretty tough." A visible smirk appeared underneath his trunk as he went back to Hazel. "If your boss is REALLY able to control those things, then I think that we may have a deal here."

"My lord, forgive me, but you cannot be serious!" Corsac insisted with a swipe of his hand. "No living being can control the creatures of Grimm, it's impossible!"

Tyrian whipped his head around and glared daggers at Corsac, taking him off guard. "You DARE doubt the Queen?! If you take her name in vain once more, then I shall take your life!"

But Hazel was quick to stick an arm out in front of the scorpion man, giving him a stern expression. "That's ENOUGH, Tyrian." His hand returned to his back and his stoic face returned. "If they choose not to believe us, then it is not our place to force them to. Instead, I offer a different solution; I can arrange a meeting with the mistress herself. That way, we can prove her existence without conflict." Hazel craned his head back up to Trumbipulor, the elephant-like alien gazing down to him in contemplation. "What say you, Lord Trumbipulor?"

"Well… you make a compelling bargain, I'll give ya that." The large alien put his hands on his hips. "Plus, if your boss has the power to give us anything we need, then that'd also do us some good in the long run…" Trumbipulor lowered his head down so that he was eye-level with Hazel. "But what's the catch? You don't offer somethin' like this without expectin' somethin' else from us in return. So if we agree to this, whadda we gotta do?"

"A simple exchange of services." Hazel replied. "Our faction will help get what you and the White Fang want, but only if you help us in our goal."

Fennec came forward once again; "And what exactly would that be?"

"To weaken humanity by snuffing out their hope." Hazel answered. "That way, Lady Salem's Grimm will be able to overtake the world. However, if you ally with us, then Faunus kind will have a new place in the new world order; as the subjugators of the human race. The Grimm will not attack you, and you can finally have the Faunus-run world that you've always desired."

Corsac and Fennec looked to each other in shock. It sounded almost too good to be true… and that was exactly what they were afraid of. The brothers faced back to Hazel and Corsac hardened his face. "Lord Trumbipulor is right. You DO make some… interesting bargains. However, we still need proof of the existence of this "Lady Salem" that you speak so highly of."

"Hate to say it, but Corsac's got a point." Trumbipulor agreed. "If you can arrange a meeting with this "Salem", then we can consider your offer. As of now, I ain't gettin' myself into anythin' without solid proof that you can deliver on what you're promisin'."

"Very well. I will contact the mistress and we will arrange a meeting for later on today." Hazel bowed to Trumbipulor and the Albains in respect. "Thank you for your time, gentlemen."

"Sure thing." Trumbipulor shifted his gaze down to Corsac and Fennec before nudged his head to the four followers of Salem. "Boys, escort our guests to the spare bedrooms. Until they get a hold of their boss, they can stay in there." The Albain Brothers bowed their heads in compliance to their master's orders, though they appeared to be none too happy about it. The duo led the quartet out of the throne room, leaving only Trumbipulor and Simian behind.

"So, do you believe anything they're saying?" Simian asked.

"I'm inclined to." The Paku-Dermoloid replied. "But if they ain't, then they're gettin' sent straight to the curb, friends or not. We got a good gig goin' here, Simian, and I ain't 'bout to let anybody ruin it." Trumbipulor stepped back over to his large throne of stone, sitting back down as he propped his elbow on the arm rest. He rested his hand against the side of his face and continued; "Besides, if Tennyson and his pals are involved, then we may have some BIG trouble on our hands."

…..

Many hours later, as the sun set over in Menagerie and the moon rose to take its place, so too did the sun begin to rise over Vale's horizon. It was about six-thirty in the morning on that side of the world, and as such, things at the Xiao Long house were hustling and bustling with activity. Most of the teens had gotten up a half-hour earlier, with the exceptions of Gwen and Kevin who had gotten up at five thirty to make everyone a quick breakfast. The team were currently readying themselves for the biggest mission that they had gone on yet; liberating an entire island nation from the grip of a tyrannical extraterrestrial pachyderm. And it wasn't just the teens getting ready for departure; Ghira, Kali, Winter and even Doctor Holiday were gearing up to head out as well. Raven was going to be coming as well, but she had yet to arrive. The Resolute had already flown over to the house to pick them up, the ship awaiting for its usual passengers to board once again.

As everyone made their final preparations outside on the front lawn, Weiss turned to Holiday with a concerned expression. "So you're sure that you want to come along, Dr. Holiday? We can't guarantee that this operation will be a safe one, you know that, right?"

But Holiday simply smiled and waved a hand to Weiss. "Oh, it's alright, Weiss. Trust me, I've been dropped into these types of situations before, so I'm no stranger to this kind of danger." The doctor made the last adjustment to her sidearm and put it in its holster, giving the heiress a final nod. "And besides, in case you kids need some medical attention, I'm your best option. So don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Well… okay." Weiss agreed hesitantly. "If you say so."

Suddenly, Rex came up from behind her and gave her a smirk. "Hey, don't worry, Ice Princess! Holiday's as good of a field medic as she is a nanite researcher. She knows what she's getting into."

Weiss raised a skeptical brow at the EVO. "Which is more than I can say for you most of the time, Robo-dolt. I mean, when was the last time you went into battle with an actual plan?"

"Hey, I'm good at following plans, not making them." Rex shrugged, only to get another skeptical brow-raise from Holiday. "…Well, okay, sometimes I'm good at following plans, but I've gotten better over the years!"

"Uh-huh." Weiss nodded with an eye roll. "Well, I suppose we should get on the ship, nothing much else to do here." The white-haired girl then spied her older sister beginning to board the ship along with Penny, Neptune, Ren and Nora, and her eyes widened when she saw what she was carrying. "WINTER! You can't be serious!"

Winter stopped in her tracks and spun around, revealing that she was taking the interdimensional communicator with her. The elder Schnee narrowed her eyes down toward her sister and retorted; "Weiss, it's going to be a very long trip, and Benjamin has already agreed to charge it for me whenever I need it."

"But what about Kenny?!" Weiss reminded. "It's probably the crack of dawn back on Earth too! How do you know he's going to be awake at this ungodly hour?!"

Winter wore a proud smiled and answered. "Because I told him beforehand last night. He said that he'd be waiting for me at about seven o'clock, so all I need to do is wait a half-hour more."

Weiss blinked in surprise. She really hadn't expected that. "Oh, uh… alright, I guess. I can see that you've given this more forethought than I did so… kudos."

"Thank you, now if you'll excuse me, I have a few things on the ship I need to prepare before take-off." Winter about-faced and went onto the ship, with Weiss, Rex and Holiday following soon after.

"Heh, gotta admit, their banter's pretty funny." Rex chuckled as he spoke to Holiday.

Holiday nodded in return. "Yes, almost as funny as your banter with Weiss." The doctor smirked when she got just what she was hoping for; a blush from Rex. She waited until Weiss was far away enough before going on. "You know, it may not be a bad idea to take a chance, Rex. I mean, yes, I know that it hasn't been long since… well, you know. But it's obvious that you and Weiss get along… in a strange sort of way."

Rex sighed and a saddened expression came to his face. "Doc, thanks for the words of encouragement, but right now, I'm still trying to figure out everything for myself." He gave Holiday a shrug. "I mean, I'm not even really sure IF I like her that way or not. Right now, things are just really complicated."

The EVO expert raised her hands up to him. "Okay, I get where you're coming from, Rex. I won't press you into something that you're not sure of yet if you don't want me to." She then gave the young man a smile and a wink. "But remember; if you ever need some advice, I'm always here if you need me."

Rex smiled back and gave her a nod. "Thanks Doc, I appreciate it."

Back on the ground, Gwen and Kevin were busy loading up a few materials into the ship while Yang, Ruby and Ben were talking with Tai, the blonde man making his best effort to keep it together while his children left him yet again. "Alright, I know that you girls don't like me doting on you every time you go on a mission…"

"That's an understatement." Yang commented.

Tai raised his right hand. "But this time, it'll be different. I'm gonna be the bigger man here and just remain calm. From now on, Taiyang Xiao Long is no giant worry wart!"

Ruby pumped a fist into the air. "That's the spirit, dad! Confront those worries and tell 'em to go eat a tree!"

Ben gave a sidelong glance to Ruby. "Geez, Ruby. Sometimes, I worry about what you'd say if you actually knew how to use swear words in the proper context."

"But she doesn't!" Tai proclaimed proudly before giving Ruby a thumbs up. "Way to keep it goin', hon."

"Thanks dad!" Ruby smiled. "So, what're you gonna do while we're all gone?"

"Well, for one, I'm gonna enjoy some peace and quiet." Tai raised his arms up to the heavens. "I can finally move comfortably in my own house again!" That got a laugh out of the trio before he went on; "But I'm also gonna keep myself as distracted as possible so I don't worry about you all that much while you're gone. Jaune's parents are coming over soon while their daughters have a girl's day out, so that'll be fun—AGH!"

Tai, his daughters, and Ben all jumped in surprise when a familiar red and black portal opened up, with Raven emerging from it soon after. "I'm sorry, but were we discussing something about Jaune's parents?" she inquired.

"R-Raven!" Tai stammered out. "I… I'm glad you could make it before the ship took off without you."

"Oh, come on, Tai, I wouldn't have had any problem getting to Menagerie. After all…" Raven strolled over and put her arms around Ben and Yang's shoulders, her smile unwavering. "I've bonded with these two quite well, if I do say so myself."

Yang gave her mother a smirk and an eye roll. "Yeah, mom, whatever you say. Just don't try and go too overboard with this, alright?"

"I make no promises, my dear." Raven assured. "Now, what's the status of everything so far?"

"We're almost ready to go." Ben replied. "A few minutes more and we should be ready for lift-off."

"Excellent, if we stay on schedule, we should be in Menagerie by midnight over there." Raven shifted her eyes around, searching for a certain couple. "Are Ghira and Kali on the ship already? I figured that they'd be some of the first ones up today."

The three teens shared an amused glance toward each other before Ruby answered her. "Well… apparently Ghira isn't functional until he's had a couple cups of coffee in him, so we're actually waiting on them."

Raven couldn't help but let out a chortle at that. "Haha, oh, now that's funny. Well, I suppose I should get on the ship, then. Don't want to provoke the sleeping giant, after all." The tribe leader sent a small smile to Tai, giving him a nod. "And Tai? You don't have to worry about your daughters. They're big girls, they'll be fine."

Tai gave her a deadpan expression. "Gee, thanks for the encouraging words, Rae."

"It's what I'm best at." With that somewhat sarcastic remark, Raven strode forth onto the resolute, giving Tai one final wave before getting on. "We'll see you when we get back, Tai, and we WILL be back!"

Tai sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Well, THAT one was a little more encouraging, I'll give her that."

Yang gave her father a smirk. "Dad, something tells me if you want her to ACTUALLY be genuine with you on something, you're gonna have to talk one-on-one with her about it."

"Yeah, I know, I know." Tai ran a hand through his hair. "Still tryin' to work all of that out, though."

Just then, the conversation was interrupted by the sound of yet another one coming out the front door as it opened up, revealing Jaune and Pyrrha in the middle of talking with the latter's mother. Athena had a concerned expression on her face as she spoke to the two; "And you're absolutely certain that you don't need me to come along?" she asked. "I mean, having an official Huntress with you will probably give you an edge in your mission."

Pyrrha gave her mother a smile, reaching out to grasp her hand. "Mom, I'm glad that you're offering, but I think we already have enough people as is. Besides, I'm sure that General Ironwood needs someone to remain here to watch over Vale until we get back, and you're just the Huntress for the job."

Athena sighed at that. "I'm aware, it's just…" She slowly pulled her daughter into a hug. "I suppose it's just a little bit of nerves. Seeing you all going on a mission that's so far away from Vale… it's rather worrisome."

Pyrrha hugged back instantly. "I know, mom. I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous too." She pulled her head away to look her mother in the eye. "But I'm sure that everything will be okay. After all, I have my teammates by my side on this one." She moved her head around to give her boyfriend a wink. "Right, Jaune?"

"Of course." Jaune said proudly while puffing out his chest. "Don't worry, Athena. We've got a lot of great fighters on that ship, and we're not about to go down easily." The blonde knight jabbed a thumb to his chest. "And remember, we've all got each other's backs out there. We'll be back, and that's a promise."

Athena smiled back at Jaune and gave him a nod. "I'll hold you to your word, Jaune. Thank you." She went over and gave him a quick hug, much to his and Pyrrha's surprise. She then pulled away and set a hand on the young man's shoulder. "I'm very glad that my daughter found someone as special as you, Jaune. Your commitment to your friends and teammates is something to be truly admired."

Jaune blushed and his hand went to the back of his head. "Aw, c'mon. I'm just doing what I feel is right."

"And that means that you're on the right track." Athena reached over and put her other hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Now, you two go out there and do me proud, okay?"

"Of course, mom." Pyrrha affirmed with another hug. "We'll see you when we get back. Love you!"

"Love you too, dear." Athena gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead and nudged her head toward the ship. "Now go on, or else you're going to miss your flight." The couple gave her a nod and they set off to the ship, with Athena giving another sigh as they left. "Be safe." she whispered to herself before craning her head over to Tai to give him a friendly grin. "Tai, I know you must be proud of your daughters, right?"

Tai blinked, taken aback by the question. "Of course, I am. I couldn't be any prouder of them."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it." Athena moved herself around to head back into the house, but not before saying one final thing; "So long as we keep faith in our children, we have nothing to worry about. I know how worried you must get when thinking about them taking on such dangerous odds, but just remember; they aren't the same people who left for Beacon Academy a year ago. I sure know that my Pyrrha isn't." The Mistralian woman gave him one last nod before heading inside. "Trust me, things will be fine."

With the redheaded woman's words sinking into his head, Tai lowered his head in thought before taking a deep breath. "Yeah… it'll be fine." He raised his head back up and gave his daughters and Ben a salute. "Well, best of luck, guys. And Yang, you make sure that you and Ben kick that elephant guy's ass once for me!"

The powerful couple smirked and Yang gave her father a thumbs up. "Now THAT'S a promise, dad!"

Ben pumped a fist with an eager grin of his own. "Yeah, Trumbipulor won't know what hit him. He's going to be facing time for this AND for all of the other crimes he's committed."

"I certainly hope so." came a familiar gruff voice. Everyone moved back around to see Ghira, Kali, Blake and Sun walk out the front door, the former with a grateful smile on his face. "Once again, I cannot thank you all enough for your help in this endeavor."

"My husband's right." Kali bowed her head. "We're truly thankful for everything you've done for us…" The woman sent Tai a guilty expression. "And on that note, I apologize if our stay here was any inconvenience to you, Tai. I know that this was all very spur of the moment, so…"

"Ah, think nothing of it." Tai assured. "Trust me, if I was in your guys' place, then I'd probably take the first offer for shelter too. Besides, even if I WAS here when my kids brought you home, I still wouldn't have turned you away. I mean, you're Blake's parents, for cryin' out loud!" The blonde man raised a brow to Blake. "Besides, we all know that your daughter wouldn't have taken that very well if I had."

"Hehe, yes, she is quite persistent." Ghira chuckled.

Blake's ears folded back and she narrowed her eyes at her father. "Dad, seriously?"

But Kali just rested her hands against her daughter's shoulders to calm her. "Now sweetheart, you have to admit, you ARE a little stubborn when you want to be."

"Mom!" Blake protested. "Do we really have to have this conversation NOW?!"

Yang placed her hands on her hips while giving her partner a smirk. "Uh, Blake, I think you might just be proving their point."

Blake facepalmed and let out a groan. "Ugh, fine then. I'll just do the opposite and give up on this, then." She glanced toward Sun and nudged her head toward the ship. "C'mon, Sun, everybody's already on board."

Sun raised a brow at her. "Uh, what about Ilia? Wasn't she—"

At that moment, the front door burst open and Ilia came out, the chameleon girl now back in her clean grey and black stealth suit. "I'm here! I'm here!" she repeated in an urgent state as she pulled her single glove on. "Sorry, I had to wait for my uniform to get out of the dryer. Ugh! I can't believe I forgot to do that last night!"

Blake gave her friend a knowing smile. "Well, I can't blame you. After all, you were too busy getting scared out of your mind by a certain video game if I remember right…"

Ilia was quick to point a finger at Blake. "Hey! I got past Night 4, so in the end, it was worth it!"

Ghira narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Um… just what ARE you girls talking about?"

But Ilia was quick to wave Ghira's question off. "Oh, uh, it's nothing! Nothing important, really."

Kali though was quick to see through Ilia's act. "Nothing, eh?" She leaned forward and quirked a brow. "Or maybe you're too proud to admit that you might be having a good time with Blake's friends?"

"W-Well, I…" Ilia shifted her eyes left and right, seeing that everyone's gaze was on her now. She pursed her lips in frustration before letting out a sigh. "Alright, maybe I'm getting along with them a tiny bit." She folded her arms and faced away from the group. "But I still have my reservations, just so you know."

"I had a feeling." Blake said before putting a hand to Ilia's shoulder. "Still, I'm really glad that you at least interacted with everyone without starting a fight."

Ilia gave Blake a shrug. "I didn't exactly have a reason too, at least not after our talk yesterday." A smile slowly worked its way to her face as she craned her head to Blake again. "So, now that everything's all set, you ready to take back Menagerie and the White Fang?"

"Definitely." the cat girl confirmed before her eyes widened in realization. "Oh shoot, we'd better get on the ship if we wanna make our time!"

Ghira stood at attention at his daughter's words, checking his watch to see that the time was now six-fifty. "Blake's right. We need to head out right now!" The panther man gave a respectful bow to Tai as Blake, Sun Kali and Ilia began making their way toward the ship with haste. "Thank you again, Tai, I hope our paths cross again someday."

"Likewise!" Tai pumped a fist into the air. "Now go take back what's yours and show those aliens what's what!" Ghira gave Tai a two fingered salute before spinning around on his heel and climbing onboard the Resolute. The blonde man grinned down to his daughters and Ben, giving them a salute of his own. "Well, I guess that's your cue."

"Yeah, we've gotta get goin'." Ben agreed. "We'll hopefully be back before sundown tonight, so expect us back in time for dinner."

Just then, a familiar voice spoke up from behind them; "Hehe, well then, I guess I'll have to prepare a little victory meal for your return." Everyone did an about-face and saw Grandpa Max approaching, a soft grin etched onto his aged features as he walked up to his grandson. "But remember, Ben, this might not be as easy as you think it is. After all, Thunderhog, Exo-Skull and Salem's other followers might just be there as well, so expect some heavy ordinance from their side, alright?"

"We will, grandpa." Ben promised. "You're the one who's always told me to never underestimate your enemy, so I've just got that engraved into the back of my head now." The Omnitrix bearer gave his grandfather a quick hug. "Wish us luck, okay?"

"Heh, of course." Max promised as the hug broke. "Now go on, you've got a whole nation to save!"

"Right!" Ruby cheered before giving her dad a quick hug. "Bye dad! We'll see ya soon!"

"And have fun with the Arcs!" Yang urged while also giving him a hug. "Seriously, you could use a little fun in your life."

"Haha, I'll try." Tai let his daughters go and waved them off. "Good luck!" With those final words of encouragement, Tai watched with Max as the three ran off to the Resolute, the ship's ramp retracting a few seconds after they had gotten on. The two men watched on as the ship rose up into the sky and then blasted off over the tree tops, leaving Tai to sigh in thought. "Well, there they go."

"Yep, off to be heroes once again." Max nodded.

"Max… when did you realize that your grandchildren wouldn't stay the same?" Tai asked. "You know, the moment when you knew that fate had different plans for them than you originally thought?"

"I'd say it was the very moment when Ben got the Omnitrix." Max answered. "Gwen beginning to learn magic was also a big factor." The old man gave Tai a pat on the shoulder. "But I can tell you one thing, it only gets better once you learn to accept it."

"Yeah, I get ya." Tai nodded. "Still… this'll probably be a big challenge for me."

"Ah, don't think of it as a challenge, Tai." Max grinned. "Think of it more as… adapting to something new. Your children are starting to stray from the nest, and that means that you can finally relax."

Tai returned the grin with a shrug. "Heh, when you put it like that, I suppose it might be a bit easier." At that moment, two loud honks were heard and the men trailed their eyes down the drive way to see the Arc's minivan pulling up toward the house. "Well, I guess the path to relaxation begins now."

…..

As the Resolute began its long journey across the world to Menagerie, Ghira stood in the middle of the crowded hull of teens, with Raven, Kali and Winter standing with him as he addressed the group. "Alright, now listen up! If what Ben tells me is true, then this ship will be able to get us to Menagerie by midnight in its time zone. Once we do, we'll be landing behind my home and we'll make our way inside undetected. While we're there, we'll go over our plan one final time." The large man put his hands behind his back. "When we're all clear on what we have to do, we'll execute the plan and engage the enemy, is that understood?"

Jaune and his team gave Ghira a salute. "Clear as crystal, sir!"

"We won't let ya down!" Nora added.

"Excellent." Ghira praised. "That's exactly what I want to here. Now all that's left is to wait five hours. In that time, I suggest you find something to entertain yourselves with because once we land, it's all business."

Ruby and Nora pulled out their respective loaned 3DS's and held them aloft, the Hooded Huntress smiling eagerly. "Way ahead of you!" she said before she and Nora flipped the consoles open and went straight for their Pokémon games.

Winter smiled and hefted the interdimensional communicator up slightly higher. "Well, I certainly know what I'm doing. Benjamin, if you'd be so kind?"

"On it!" Ben affirmed before slamming down on the Omnitrix. In a flash of greenlight, Feedback appeared in his place and he gave Winter a thumbs up. "C'mon, let's charge that puppy!"

As Winter awaited Feedback to finish charging and Ruby and Penny went to play Pokémon, Pyrrha sighed and hung her head a little. "I wish we could've brought on the games WE want to play. I haven't touched Ocarina of Time in a while now and I want to beat it!"

Jaune nodded at that. "Yeah, we've been so busy that we let our free time get eaten up." The blonde knight gave a shrug. "Guess that's just the life of a hunter." A soft smile worked its way to his face as he moved over and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. "But… on the bright side, we can always just enjoy each other's company."

The Invincible Girl couldn't help but let out a giggle. "Hehe, what a bold move… and one that sounds VERY appealing to me."

Kali caught sight of the couple's affection and she couldn't help but coo at it. "Aw! That is so precious! It reminds me of when Ghira and I were teenagers…" A playful smirk came to her face and she shifted her gaze to her daughter, giving her a wink. "So Blake, do you and Sun have any… personal cuddle time?"

Blake and Sun both blushed madly at the question, the monkey boy trying to hide his face while Blake exclaimed; "MOM! Seriously?! Right in front of everyone?"

But Yang was all too eager to answer Kali's question. "Oh, those two cuddle ALL the time. I mean hell, hey watched a bunch of scary movies a few days ago, and they ended up falling asleep on the couch. It was so cute!"

"YANG!" Blake hollered before trying to pull her blonde friend away. "You're not making this any easier!"

Sun was about to calm Blake down, but then he felt a rather vengeful presence right next to him. He glanced up to see Ghira, arms crossed and with a disapproving stare written across his face. Sun gave the best smile he could muster as well as a small shrug. "Hehe, would you believe that we didn't plan on both falling asleep on the couch that night?"

Ghira let out a frustrated sigh. "I really don't like you."

Over to the side, Rex and Neptune were watching the events as they happened, the EVO wearing an apprehensive face. "Man, I wouldn't wanna be in Sun's place right now. Ghira's a cool guy, but he's also one scary dad."

"Won't argue with ya on that one, Rex." Neptune concurred. "You should count yourself lucky, though."

Rex raised a brow. "Why's that?"

The blue-haired boy smirked at him. "Because now that Weiss has distanced herself from her dad, you won't have to deal with him!" His answer earned him a light smack upside the head from the Latino teen, to which Neptune laughed; "HA! Worth it!"

Over to the side, Raven stood by herself, facepalming as the chaos ensued. "Man, kids these days. Always gotta make a big deal outta everything."

Weiss, meanwhile, wore a small grin as she witnessed the scene unfold; a now laughing Yang running at breakneck speed away from Blake as the cat girl attempted to enact her vengeance. 'Not five minute off the ground and all of THIS happens. Why am I not surprised?' She then proceeded to step over to a cleared off area of the cargo hold, one with very few containers. "Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm going to get in some last-minute training before we land in Menagerie. Might as well since we didn't get our usual training time in, right?" The heiress shifted her eyes over to Gwen with a nudge of her head. "Care to join me, Gwen?"

"Sure, sounds nice." The Anodite agreed. "Can't get sloppy on this mission, right? Kevin, what about you?"

The Osmosian gave his girlfriend a shrug. "Eh, why not? Nothing else better to do."

"Agreed." Ren seconded. "I think I'll join in too."

Penny pumped a fist into the air. "Count me in too! It's better than just sitting around for five hours!" The redhead spun around and sent a smile to Ilia. "What about you, Ilia? Wanna join in?"

Ilia furrowed her brows before turning away from them. "…No, thank you. I think I'm just going to be by myself for a while"

The group looked at her in concern before Penny spoke up again; "Aw, but why?"

Ilia's eyes glanced back to them and she answered; "Because I just want to be alone for a while, okay? I… I need to think some things through." The chameleon girl crossed her arms and moved her eyes back in front of her. "Besides, I'm a highly trained White Fang spy, I don't think my training regimen would really work with yours."

Gwen knew that last reason was partially false, but she could tell just by reading Ilia's mana that she wanted to be alone, so she wouldn't put up a fuss about it. "Well, Ilia, if that's what you want, then we're not about to stop you." A grin came to the redhead's face as she added; "But if you change your mind, you know where to find us."

"…Right, thanks." Ilia strode over to the nearby elevator, hoping to get away from all of the hustle and bustle going on in the large room. 'I just really need some peace and quite right now.' However, just as she reached the elevator, the sliding doors opened themselves to reveal a large figure on the other side, to which Ilia had to crane her neck back in order to see his face. When she did, she nearly let out a scream. There, standing before her, was a large crystalline man, his green eyes seemingly glaring down at her with his perpetually scowling face.

After a second, it spoke; "Ah, you must be Ilia. Ben told me about you." He bowed his head before continuing; "My name is Tetrax, welcome aboard my ship."

Ilia blinked in surprise. "Wait, YOU'RE Tetrax?!"

"Indeed." Tetrax extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"Uh… likewise, I think." Ilia reciprocated the handshake.

At Ilia's last shout, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and faced her direction to see her shaking hands with Tetrax. Once Feedback was done charging the communicator for Winter, he transformed back into Ben and sent the Petrosapian a wave. "Hey, Tetrax! Glad you could join the party! Come over here, there's some people I want you to meet."

"Of course." Tetrax confirmed before speaking to the girl in front of him again. "Ilia, please excuse me." Ilia was quick to let the ship's captain through, but she was even quicker to get onto the elevator and take it up to the upper floor of the ship. Tetrax spun around in surprise when he heard the doors close, just in time to see Ilia go up. "Um… is she alright?"

Blake wore a saddened face as the elevator left. "Yeah, she's fine. She just… isn't in the mood to talk right now." She made sure to add in her head; 'I wonder why though? I really thought we were getting through to her a little.'

"Hmm… well, in any case, she's free to roam the ship if she wants, though restricted areas ARE prohibited." Tetrax continued forward with his eyes focused on Ghira and Kali, the husband and wife in awe as the large crystal man approached them. "And you two must be Blake's parents. Ghira and Kali, correct?"

"Y-Yes." Ghira stammered out. "And you must be the owner of this ship. Your name is Tetrax, right?"

"I am." Tetrax extended his hand again. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, the pleasure is all ours." Ghira insisted as he shook the Petrosapien's hand. "This is the first time we've ever met a real alien that didn't want us dead."

"Unfortunately, my husband's right." Kali added before doing the same. "Our track record with aliens so far hasn't been all that positive."

Tetrax gave them a nod. "As I've heard. Trumbipulor isn't exactly what I'd call a good first impression of alien lifeforms." He then gave the two a reassuring grin. "But don't worry, we will remove them from your homeland as soon as possible."

Kali bowed her head in appreciation. "Thank you. We can use all of the help we can get."

It was then that Ben stepped forward, giving Tetrax a raised brow. "So, Tetrax, any word from General Ironwood yet?"

"Ah, yes, that's actually why I came down here in the first place." Tetrax typed in a command on his gauntlet as he went on; "The general just called and he wanted to speak to everyone. I've had him on hold for a while now."

Ghira let out a nervous sigh. "Oh lord, I was afraid of this…" Taking a deep breath, the chieftain of Menagerie steeled his nerves and stood as straight as a statue, readying himself for the talk that was coming. "Alright, put him on, please."

"Very well. General, you're on." With that, Tetrax pressed a button on his gauntlet and a holoscreen popped up onto it, revealing the general's face.

"Thank you, Tetrax." Ironwood acknowledged before his eyes found the two people he wanted to speak to. "Ghira, Kali, it's… it's been a while, I must say."

"Ahem, yes, it certainly has." Ghira cleared his throat. "But, uh, let's not focus too much on the past, shall we?"

"Yes, you're right." Ironwood agreed. "Let's focus on the here and now." The general shifted his eyes toward Winter and called out to her. "Winter, I would like your assistance in this matter."

Over to the side, Winter slightly grimaced to herself, if only for the briefest moment. 'Sorry, Kenny, but I'm afraid our call will have to wait just a little longer.' She sighed and got up from her seat. "Of course, general." The military specialist went up and stood next to Tetrax, proceeding to speak out to the crowd; "Now, as you are all aware, General Ironwood is bringing a squad of Atlesian soldiers with him on a Bullhead to assist us in taking back Kuo Kuana from Trumbipulor. He's chosen to leave about an hour after us so that he can give us time to take our plan into action."

"Correct." Ironwood nodded. "Meaning that after you all get there, you have about an hour or perhaps maybe less until my ship arrives. And since a Bullhead doesn't have cloak tech, that means that you'll have to take down whatever defenses the White Fang have set up before we arrive." He scanned his eyes over the crowd of teens. "Now, have you decided who'd be in charge of that?"

"I am, general." Gwen raised her hand.

"Ah, Gwen, fantastic." Ironwood approved. "I can see that you all made a good choice with that decision. Now, what defenses can we expect to actually be set up there?"

"The most efficient form of long-range weapons we have are an artillery of Dust cannons left over from the Great War." Ghira answered. "We make sure to keep them all in top shape in case of any Grimm attacks. We already have a plan to take out the ones manning them, though, so it should hopefully not be too much of a problem."

"Also very good." the general agreed. "After you do that, then we should have no problems getting ourselves in there to help." He then put his focus on Ben with a serious expression. "Now Ben, you said that Hazel, Hog and Skull could possibly be with them, yes?"

"That's right," Ben confirmed, "along with a guy named Tyrian. Ring any bells?"

Ironwood's eyes widened in horror and the blood drained from his face. "…Tyrian? As in… Tyrian CALLOWS?"

Winter lowered her head slightly. "I'm afraid so, sir. Apparently, he was working for Salem in the years he was last seen."

"GAH! I'm such a fool!" Ironwood pounded a fist against the table he was sitting at. "All of those assaults that were being reported a week ago WERE because of him! I shouldn't have second guessed myself!"

"Assaults?" Kali asked. "What assaults?"

Ironwood sighed as he gave her the answer. "About a week ago, the Faunus community in Mistral saw an increase in deadly assaults, ones that left them close to death or… outright dead."

Ghira furrowed his brows and balled his hands into fists, trying to remain calm. "I see… and I assume that you called for an investigation?"

"Yes, almost immediately. I sent some of my best people out to investigate the crimes… and they all found the exact same piece of evidence; the perpetrator used a deadly poison and he had Faunus DNA." Ironwood clenched his free hand into a fist as well. "It was at that point where I DID start seeing the familiar signs of Tyrian's handiwork, but I also hoped that this was just the work of a copycat trying to mimic his murders."

Raven suddenly spoke up, taking everyone by surprise. "And would you look at how THAT turned out for you! In times like this, you SHOULD consider every possibility, Jim!"

"I know, and I SHOULD have." Ironwood closed his eyes in remorse. "Truth be told, a part of me wanted to believe Tyrian DID die all those years ago. But now, it seems that he's working for Salem… and that doesn't surprise me in the least, really." The general opened his eyes back up and gazed back to Raven. "But considering he IS with them, what will be your game plan in dealing with him?"

"That's easy." Raven unsheathed her sword. "I will fight him. These kids are good, but when it comes to THIS psycho, I'm not about to have ANY of them take him on."

"Ah, c'mon!" Nora smirked. "He doesn't sound all THAT tough."

Raven narrowed her eyes to the Pink Dynamo. "Alright then, answer me this; do you WANT to lie dying in a pool of your own blood while poison practically flows through your veins?"

Nora's face fell at that. "Uh… no. No, I don't."

"Yes, that's what I thought." Raven flipped her sword around so that she was pointing the handle at Nora. "Now listen here, I know you like a good scrap, but if you're smart, you'll leave Tyrian to me, understand, Pinkie?"

Nora stared at Raven for a good few seconds before finally giving her a nod. "Y-Yes, I do."

"Good." Raven sheathed Omen and returned to where she was before. "Glad we got that settled."

There was a bit of an awkward silence for a moment or two before Ironwood broke it. "Well… I suppose now would be a good time for me to begin prepping for my flight." The general gave the group a salute. "Good luck everyone, and godspeed."

Winter reciprocated the salute. "Of course, General, safe travels." With that, the holoscreen on Tetrax's gauntlet shut off, allowing Winter to give out a sigh of relief. "Okay, he's gone." She walked back over to the interdimensional communicator and began the activation sequence. "Now, if you all will excuse me, I have my own call to make."

Weiss and Gwen shared a knowing smile. "Wanna tease them a little bit?" the heiress asked.

"Eh… maybe later." Gwen replied. "Let's get some training in first, huh? THEN we can tease the heck out of them."

"I heard that, Gwendolyn!" Winter called after the two giggling girls as they and their group went over to train. She shook her head before flicking the switch, the communicator activating with its own holoscreen popping up. Just a few seconds later, Kenny's face came onto the screen and Winter gave him a wave. "Good morning, good sir." she said with a wink.

Kenny let out a little yawn before waving back to her. "Hah, and good morning to you, dear lady." The young man ran a hand through his messy red hair. "Sorry about the bedhead, I got an hour ago just to get ready for this."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Winter assured. "I think it looks rather charming."

"Heh, then maybe I should just make bedhead my regular style if you like it that much." Kenny joked.

"Well, I probably wouldn't go that far." Winter pointed out. "You MUST have a job that you need to go to, right?"

"Ah, yeah, got a point there." Kenny conceded. "But hey, I've got the afternoon shift today so I don't have to worry about it now."

As the two young adults continued their conversation and everyone else went back to what they were doing before, Ben couldn't help but ponder over the string of murders that Tyrian had pulled off. "I gotta wonder, why exactly did Tyrian choose to target only Faunus for his murder spree?" He shifted his eyes over to Ghira, Kali and Blake. "I mean, if Tyrian's as crazy as everyone says he is, shouldn't he be killing EVERYONE, no matter which race they are?"

Ghira stroked his beard ponderously. "Hmm, that's an excellent point to bring up, Ben. I suppose that we can only assume that it was a direct order from Salem herself." His gaze hardened slightly. "And if that really is the case, then I don't think anyone's gotten on my bad side faster than Salem and Tyrian."

"Yeah, no kidding." Blake supported. "Still, it DOES seem a little too coincidental that she ordered him JUST to kill Faunus."

Yang placed her hands on her hips. "Yeah, especially since…" The blonde's eyes widened in realization before she whipped her head around to her boyfriend. "You don't think this has anything to do with how Animo made his mutation stuff, do you?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Ben affirmed. "The two just correlate too well with each other. Tyrian assaults the Faunus people, steals their DNA, and then Animo uses that DNA in the formula for his mutagen. THAT'S how Hog and Skull mutated so well; because the altered Faunus DNA in the mutagen was able to mend perfectly with their own."

Kali shivered in fright. "Dear god, to think that Faunus DNA could be used for such a thing! I can't imagine what would happen if it were used on a wider scale."

"Which is why we've gotta destroy Animo's formula for it before he ever DOES do that." Ben asserted. "Otherwise, we could have a planet FULL of forcibly mutated people. But… right now, I guess we should focus on one thing at a time. We've got a nation to liberate, so let's get back on track."

"Exactly." Blake agreed before her eyes trailed over to the elevator that her old friend had retreated to. "Still, I really hope that Ilia's okay."

Sun came over and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure she's fine, Blake. I mean, we ALL need some alone time once and a while, right?"

Blake shifted her eyes up to him. "I know, Sun. It's just… she seemed upset about something, and I can't help but wonder what it is."

…..

Up in the main hall, Ilia was absent-mindedly walking through the halls of the Resolute, having paced up and down the main hall ten times already while occasionally moving through a few of the other ones as well. She had considered going onto the bridge to see what that was like, but the moment the doors opened, she saw a large blob creature manning the controls and was too taken aback to take another step. So, she just returned to wandering the halls, not even paying attention to where she was going as her main thoughts were on the group of people that were down in the cargo hold… and why she felt herself beginning to warm up to them.

'It's ridiculous!' she yelled in her head. 'How can I possibly be starting to LIKE these people?!' Ilia rubbed her temples as she tried to clear her thoughts. 'Come on, Ilia, remember, you have standards to hold up. Just keep reminding yourself that you'll never have to see them again after this and everything will sort itself out—'

Suddenly, the sound of an automatic door opening caught Ilia off guard, making her yelp in surprise. "Gah!" She stepped back and her eyes fixated right onto the now open room, only to see that there was nobody on the other side. She was confused for a few moments before she finally realized where she was standing, and then it dawned on her; "Oh, I got too close to the door." Ilia glanced from side to side to see if anyone saw her little incident before shrugging. "Well, might as well see what's on the other side."

Ilia strolled into the place, shifting her gaze around the room to see that it was a large brig of some kind, with multiple kinds of prisoners lining the various areas. However, she let out a small gasp when she saw something truly disgusting; a large possum-like creature with large quills and wearing ratty clothes who was sleeping in a nest made of food wrappers. The sight made her turn a sickly shade of green… quite literally. Ilia immediately spun around and her skin changed back to its natural color. "Ugh, I never wanna see THAT again."

As she pushed that memory out of her mind, the chameleon girl walked further into the brig, seeing that most of the inmates were also asleep. There was some sort of bug monster that was slumped against the back of his cell, a large snake-like creature that had coiled itself up, a small baby-like creature with a giant grotesque head that was curled up on the floor, and finally, three pale-skinned people in matching jumpsuits. The largest one had what appeared to be a giant toe-nail on his head and he was sucking his thumb as he slept, which nearly made Ilia gag again. "Ugh, this place is SUPER freaky." she mumbled to herself.

"Tell me about it." A feminine voice replied right next to her. Ilia's eyes bugged out and she spun around, only to see a young woman standing in a cell not far away. She had bright red skin, two yellow horns with a black diamond shaped marking in the middle of them, and dark red hair that reached down to her shoulders. She was dressed in a black leather jacket and matching black jeans that were torn at the knees. She also only had three toes, two in front and one in the back of each foot, as well as three fingers on each hand. Finally, to cap it all off, she had a tail poking out of her pants. "This place isn't exactly what you'd call attractive, at least when it comes to appearances." The young woman narrowed her red eyes at Ilia. "Which begs the question; who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh! I-I'm sorry." Ilia apologized. "I really didn't know that anyone else was in here. And when I saw that everyone was actually asleep, I thought I'd… take a look around."

"Hmph, alright, that's one half of my question." The girl pointed an accusing finger to Ilia. "Now just who ARE you?"

"Uh, right." Ilia swallowed her fear and answered the girl. "M-My name's Ilia, and I'm a friend of Blake's." A few moments of silence passed between them before Ilia facepalmed. "…You probably don't know who Blake is, do you?"

"Nah, I think I do." The girl made a motion with he hands that resembled ears on top of her head. "She's the cat-eared girl who's friends with Ruby, right? The one who shocked me with an electric clone of herself."

Ilia's eyes widened in surprise. "Uh… yeah, that's right."

"Thought so. So, what exactly are you doing on Tetrax's ship?"

"Oh, well, that's actually a pretty long story." And so, for the next couple of minutes, Ilia gave a short recap of her and the Belladonna's situation with Trumbipulor and how he'd taken over their homeland. After her story finally ended, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and gave a few final words. "So… that's basically it."

The red-eyed girl blinked a couple times as Ilia's tale sunk in with her, before she finally spoke up a couple seconds later. "Man… that sucks hard. I mean, I know what it feels like to get kicked out of my own home too, but geez. Compared to my sitch, this is a LOT worse. I'm sorry that had to happen to you guys."

Ilia lowered her head a little bit. "Yeah, thanks." The chameleon girl then raised a skeptical brow. "Wait, a few minutes ago, did you say that you know Ruby?"

"Damn right. That girl's the whole reason why I might actually make parole." The girl jabbed a thumb to herself. "Name's Swift, by the way."

"Swift…" Ilia tilted her head to the side. "There's a name you don't hear often… if at all."

Swift just shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, it was my mom's idea. She says it's a common girl's name on the planet she's from."

Ilia's lips parted at that. "Wait… you're an alien?!"

"Well, part alien." Swift emphasized. "I'm an Aerophibian on my mother's side, and human on my fathers." She sneered at the very mention of him. "Though that's not a fact I like to be reminded of very often."

"Um… alright." Ilia knew when someone didn't want to talk about something, so she decided to change the subject. "So… an Aerophibian, huh? Well, what crazy powers do YOU have? I've seen some pretty crazy stuff from Ben already, so at this point, nothing surprises me."

"I'd show you, but this cell dampens the use of my powers." Swift tapped a knuckle against the energy barrier, making it distort with power. "But to give you an answer, I can fly and shoot laser beams. That's basically it."

"Whoa, that's actually pretty cool." Ilia complemented. "At least, compared to why I can do."

"Which would be… what, exactly?"

"I… I can change color." Ilia answered reluctantly. "I'm a chameleon Faunus, so it's kinda my thing."

Swift's jaw dropped in shock. "Get outta town! You can change color? Like to blue, green, purple and everything?" Ilia gave her a small nod and an eager grin came to Swift's face as she stepped closer to the barrier. "Can I see? That sounds cool as hell!"

"You… you actually want to see me change?" Ilia asked. "Nobody's ever asked to actually see me change my color before."

"Hey, there's first time for everything, right? Besides, I can grantee that there's a LOT of people out there that would LOVE to change their skin into a bright magenta or something." Swift gave Ilia a wink. "So, c'mon! Let's see what you can do."

Ilia couldn't explain it, but there was something about Swift's enthusiasm that made her feel… funny inside. Plus, that wink only just added onto that. "W-Well, I…"

"Ah! You're doing it already!" Swift exclaimed. "Your spots are turning pink!"

Ilia let out a small cry and whirled away from Swift, covering her face as she did. "I'm sorry! I-I don't have control over when I do that!" she explained. "It happens whenever I get nervous or embarrassed and I hate it when it happens!"

But much to her amazement, the response she got from Swift wasn't the one she expected. "Hey, there's no reason to apologize." Ilia's head snapped up and moved back to Swift, the Aerophibian beaming a grin to her. "Your color changing trick is part of who you are, so you shouldn't have to apologize for it, right?"

"W-Well, I…" Ilia let out a sigh and faced back to Swift fully. "Sorry, it's just that… I'm not used to changing colors in front of people who aren't Faunus. The first time I did it in front of humans… I got called so many bad names."

Swift pursed her lips, almost as if she was frustrated over something. "Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I used to wear an ID mask to hide my alien appearance from the world. And then, when it got knocked off… I was beaten up for it." Her smile returned and she gave Ilia a nod. "But you don't have to worry about it around me, or any of those other guys down there in the hull. If Ruby's taught me anything, it's that there's a lot more good in any world than there's evil. And it's because of her kindness that I wanna start doing better with my life than just going on doing what landed me here."

Ilia was inclined to believe Swift, but then the awful memory of that day began to play in her head again, and with it, her doubts returned as well. "That's a nice sentiment to have, but I'm afraid that it doesn't work like that with the Faunus." Her eyes shifted away from Swift. "I don't know what it's like in your world, but here, Faunus are either discriminated against, or the humans who DO claim to be pro-Faunus rights don't do anything to solve the problems that we face. Something's gotta give at some point, and I'm not sure what that's going to be."

There was another long silence between the two for a little bit before Swift finally replied. "…You know, at one point in my life, I probably would've said the same thing." Her words got Ilia to focus back onto the Aerophibian hybrid. "Before he kicked me out, my father always told me to keep my ID mask secured to my face, because he knew that nobody would ever accept my true appearance. And then, the existence of aliens became public knowledge in my world, and he turned out to be right. Hell, I'm certain that if I hadn't blasted all of those jerks that were beating me up, I probably would've died."

Ilia quirked an eyebrow. "What exactly are you getting at in all of this?"

"I'm getting to it, don't worry." Swift reassured. "Because after that and getting kicked out by my dad, I'd lost faith in all of humanity. I didn't think that anyone would accept my appearance and I'd be better off as an alien criminal." Her smile widened slightly. "But then I met Ruby, and I began rethinking a few things."

Ilia narrowed her eyes. "You make her sound like some sort of saint."

"Oh, trust me, she's not." Swift smirked. "She's told me about some of the pranks she's helped her sister pull, and dear lord, they are anything BUT saintly. But no, she's not a saint, she's just a good friend. Someone who helped me reconsider my options and helped be start down a better path. Do you have anybody like that, Ilia?"

"Well, the closest friend I have is Blake… and she's been trying to help me get used to her friends, I guess." Ilia put her hands in her pockets and shrugged her shoulders. "And… I hate to say it, but I think it might be working."

"See? That's a pretty good start, right?"

"But that's the thing, I don't WANT any human friends." Ilia insisted. "Not after… not after…" She lowered her gaze and her eyes changed to blue as she choked out; "Just forget it."

Swift's expression softened up and she reached her hand out in concern. "Hey, is… is everything alright?"

"It's FINE!" Ilia asserted. "NOTHING is wrong!"

"I find that very hard to believe." Swift argued, though she made sure to keep her voice at a more soothing level. "Ilia, if there's something bothering you, you don't have to be afraid to say it. If you need or want to get something off of your chest, I'm willing to listen, as are the rest of the people down there."

Ilia forced her eyes to go back to normal and she locked eyes with Swift, giving the Aerophibian a good stare to see if she was telling the truth. "…Listen, Swift, I appreciate the offer, but I don't know if ANYONE down there will understand what I've had to go through."

"Well then, what about up here?" Swift countered. "We were both bullied for what we look like, and while that's not the BEST thing to have in common, it IS a start."

Ilia screwed her eyes shut. "I know, but… you've only heard one half of the story." She let out a sigh and opened her eyes back up, giving a pleading gaze to Swift. "If I tell you this, will you PLEASE not tell this to ANYONE down there? Be it Ruby or anybody else?"

Swift pondered over the request. 'On one hand, I'd be keeping it a secret from Ruby, who's still vouching for my release. But on the other… Ilia needs to get whatever this off her chest, and it's going to just keep affecting her negatively if she doesn't.' After a few good seconds of internal debat, Swift raised her right hand and gave Ilia a grin. "Alright, I swear. But I hope that you can find the courage to tell them yourself."

"I'll… I'll try." Ilia conceded before sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Well, take a seat, it's going to be a long story."

"Sure thing." Swift obliged, sitting on the floor of her cell. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Okay." Ilia took a deep breath, steeling herself to the painful yarn she was about to spin. "As I already told you, I'm a Faunus, but I'm a Faunus that can also easily pass for a regular human girl. For years… that's practically how I lived my life." Ilia set her forlorn gaze to the ground. "I used to live in Mantle, the city just below the capital of Atlas. My parents worked in the mines with the other Faunus there, but they managed to enroll me in an Altas prep school with a bunch of rich kids. I felt like a princess."

"Hmm, sounds like the highlife." Swift agreed. "I imagine it wasn't easy for your parents to do that, though."

"It was… hard to make ends meet while sending me there, but we all managed." Ilia held up three fingers. "But there were three simple rules that I had to go by; no bringing friends home, no talking about my parents, and absolutely no changing color. Nobody could know I was a Faunus in an academy only for humans."

"That… that sounds awful!" Swift leaned forward. "How did you manage all of that?"

"It was a lot easier than you think, actually." Ilia answered. "It was a little confusing, but not difficult by any means, especially if it meant being in Atlas." Her brows began to lower as she continued to recount her story. "But as you can imagine, a human-only prep school meant that there was a lot of prejudice toward Faunus. The other girls would often call them all of these various terrible things… that they were animals or they smelled. But the worse thing about it was… that I actually joined in with them, because I felt like one of them."

Swift noticed that Ilia was trailing off a little bit, and this provoked her to ask; "And then what happened?"

Ilia shut her eyes, the memory coming back to her as clear as day. "Then… there was a cave in at the mines. I was at school when I heard the news. It turned out that one of the workers tripped while handling a bunch of Dust crystals and… my parents…"

Swift felt her heart sink at that moment and a gasp escaped her lips. "Oh my god…"

But Ilia continued on without even realizing that Swift had spoken up. "While the other girls were snickering at what happened, I couldn't hold it back anymore. Every inch of me became blue as I cried my eyes out. And as that happened, all of the girls that were friends with me just a few seconds ago were all now scared of me." Ilia craned her head back up to Swift, an astonished expression on the alien hybrid's face. "Now do you see why I'm not all that eager to make human friends anymore?"

"I… I don't know what to say." Swift uttered.

Ilia's eyes widened when she saw Swift begin to tear up a little, the Aerophibian wiping them away a few seconds later. "W-Wait, why are YOU crying?"

"Because it's sad!" Swift answered. "Ilia, that has to be the saddest thing I've ever heard anyone go through! I'm so sorry that happened to you."

The chameleon girl gave a proud smirk as she stood up, her skin suddenly shifting to red while her hair, spots and eyes changed to yellow. The sudden change made Swift's jaw drop to the floor. "Don't be sorry, Swift." Ilia assured. "I broke their teeth in."

Swift mimicked Ilia's expression as she stood up as well. "Heh, alright, mad respect. And I absolutely LOVE the color change." Her expression softened up a little. "Ilia, I can't even imagine what you must've gone through after all that happened," Swift put her hand up to the barrier, "but believe me when I say that not all humans hate people like us. Whether we're aliens or Faunus, there ARE humans out there that will accept us for who we are, and we WILL have the freedoms that we want someday. But we can't keep our hate bottled up forever. If we do, then we'll just keep festering in it until we're dead, and nobody wants that, right?"

Ilia let Swift's advice linger in her head for a moment before letting out a sigh, her color pallet changing to a cool shade of blue and pale indigo. "I know, it's just… I'm not really sure WHAT to do at this point. I mean, yeah, sure, everyone seems nice enough, but I'm still afraid of everyone turning on me again."

Swift sent her a sympathetic look. "Hey, I haven't really spoken to most of those guys down there all that much, but I have talked with Ruby quite a few times already. And from what I hear, her friends are a pretty cool group of people." Her smile returned as she whispered; "And if you ask me, I'd say you'd have better luck with them than the trash bags you've met in Atlas."

Ilia glanced off to the side. "Well… Gwen told me last night that I had a friend in her…"

"There ya go!" Swift supported. "If you can get into the good graces of Tennyson's cousin, then you're pretty much a shoo-in with everybody else!"

"I guess…" Ilia trailed off as her skin went back to normal. "I guess I could make a better effort."

"Great!" Swift said with a thumbs up. "Good on ya!" The Aerophibian then leaned forward and gave her another wink. "And just so you know, you've got a friend in me, too."

Ilia's spots turned pink again and she returned the smile. "Hehe, thanks. …So, uh, I've pretty much got nothing to do for the next four and a half hours on this flight." She rubbed the back of her head in thought. "Jeez, that's a pretty long time, now that I think about it."

"Hah, yeah, bit boring, wouldn't you say?" Swift gave a shrug. "But then again, we could always just sit here and talk for a while, provided the gang downstairs don't mind."

The grin on Ilia's face widened slightly at the idea. "I… I'd actually really like that."

Just then, a loud yawn came from behind Ilia, causing her to whip her head around. There, she saw the possum creature, now half-awake with its large, yellow eyes half-lidded as it smacked its chops. "Alright, you disgusting criminals, up and at… 'em?" His eyes bulged open at the sight of Ilia standing there, the alien having no clue who she was. "GAH! Intruder alert!"

Swift immediately tried to intervene from her position. "Argit, you idiot! Don't—"

But it was too late, Argit went into a defensive position and stuck out his quills, firing them off at Ilia. Fortunately, Ilia was much faster and pulled out her Lightning Lash just in time to whip them all out of the air. She then whipped the last one back to Argit, resulting in it sticking in right in the shoulder and instantly knocking him back out. The two girls blinked in surprise as they glanced to each other. Finally, Ilia broke the silence. "So… is he…"

"He'll be fine, unfortunately." Swift rubbed her forehead. "Why don't we just agree that never happened?"

"Oh, definitely." Ilia swiftly concurred.

…..

A/N: And there we go! Another chapter down! A bunch of interesting stuff happened in this one, huh? Salem's followers arrived in Menagerie, Trumbipulor and Simian have finally made their debut, and the team have all started their own journey to Menagerie. I also managed to sprinkle a little bit of Winter and Kenny in there again because I can't get enough of writing their interactions. But what's this? It seems that Ilia and a certain Aerophibian are hitting it off rather well… interesting. As you can probably tell with the way I described Trumbipulor and Simian, though, they're a sort of hybridization of their Ultimate Alien and Omniverse appearances. Namely that Simian's got his pink shirt (because I think it's HILARIOUS) and Trumbipulor had a slightly more armored appearance (WITHOUT the weird harness that he had). They're still mostly based on their UA selves, but I thought I'd have a little fun with their designs. Plus, I gave Trumbipulor's species a (unofficial) name. Trust me, that's actually going to be pretty important later in the arc.

Now, before I go, I just want to remind you all that if you make any comments and they don't appear anywhere in the review section, I'll still be able to see them in my e-mail, so don't worry. And of course, my PMs are open if you wanna share your thoughts with me there. I look forward to seeing what you guys think, so have at it! Thanks for reading guys, I'll see you later, and let's hope this problem gets sorted out soon. Peace!