Pikatwig: So… Geiz Majesty is here.
KKD: ...It looks… ok. Henshin's fine, but it's still a bit lazy and clearly a post-season cash grab. Unlike Grand Zi-O where they made it look special with molds of each Rider on the suit, Geiz Majesty… just glued the Ride Watches all over the place.
Pikatwig: Suit is kind of lame, yeah, but the melody is cool. And it's funny that Woz says he doesn't want to rejoice before begrudgingly saying "Oh take my pride" and doing it.
KKD: Ouch. Poor Woz.
Pikatwig: Anyway… we're talking about the wrong Rider at this point. We gotta be talking Zero-One!
KKD: This is actually the one Rider I wanted to pass on, admittedly, just to give myself a Toku break until something different came on, though it has elements I did like from the images I did see.
Pikatwig: Really now?
KKD: Mostly from some suit designs, but nothing was catching my interest that strongly as anything from the Heisei Era yet. I mean, we had a lot of stuff in Heisei. Murderous monsters treating killing as a sport, immortal monsters seeking world domination, super speedster insects on both sides, time traveling genies with the best plot I've seen yet, stained glass vampires, dimension hopping, detectives, jewelry wizards with an epic dragon and awesome final form, modern Sengoku Jidai but with fruit, a video game rider, and even the successor of all Riders in another time travel plot of sorts. This… I mean, it's ok, but… I've already got a good guy AI and not much here caught my attention. Back to basics in design, yet, but it's just so… blah, to me. I'm sorry, man. Just my thought.
Pikatwig: I kind of think the Zero-One suit looks a bit like the Ichigou suit and, funnily enough, before the Zero-One update to Ganbarizing, scanning the Zero-One Ride Watch would summon Ichigou instead.
KKD: I mean… ok, I guess.
Pikatwig: And does your lack of interest root from the fact that this world is separate from the main Rider world as a result of Sougo dreaming it up?
KKD: Possibly? I mean, Sougo's idea to end the chaos was a good one, and seeing what comes after… it's really hard to top it. It's kinda like how fans older than you and me feel it's hard to top Power Rangers in Space on the Western front, and to them Lost Galaxy felt a bit… eh. Y'know?
Pikatwig: Fair enough. However, I'm doing a fic with this Rider era and need support.
KKD: I mean… I'm one of your main Rider guys, yea, but… Zero-One is just… not something I'd be into, and...
Pikatwig: I'm blending it with RWBY.
KKD: *suddenly in a bit of RWBY merch* I'm in.
Pikatwig: Knew that would turn you around.
KKD: Let's begin.
Disclaimers: Neither Pikatwig nor KKD own the rights to either Kamen Rider or RWBY. They belong to their respective owners including BandaiNamco, Toei, Rooster Teeth, Shotaro Ishinomori, Monty Oum, etc. Any OCs featured will belong to their respective owners. There will be some uncensored cuss words, so reader discretion is advised.
"Around 14 years ago… a great evil was finally stopped… however; a great cost came at that victory. Since then, a new age had dawned, and a new nation had been formed. The nation was set to have its capital be known as Daybreak Town… before an incident happened. Daybreak Town is no more. The city had since sunk below the waves and has been forgotten. Not many survived… however, one girl with a very simple soul had. She had vowed to protect those who could not protect themselves…"
In the present day, a girl with red tipped black hair, silver eyes, and wearing a black top with a black skirt, a red belt with red boots, and a red hoodie of sorts was busy fighting a group of black and white monsters with red accents, with a large scythe that seemed much too large for her. However, she swung the scythe like it was a natural extension, swinging it around like it was nothing. The last monster charged towards her before she planted her scythe blade into the ground, pulled a lever on the side, and pulled a trigger in the grip to fire off several bullets. The monster let off a growl before it disappeared into smoke, leaving only the 18-year old girl by herself.
"Easy peasy," the girl smirked.
She folded the weapon into what appeared to be a compact suitcase before she brushed her hair out of her face. She proceeded to pull out a phone and look at some pictures on it. She sighed as she saw images of some younger version of herself along with a girl with white hair, a girl in black with a bow and a mostly black outfit, and a blonde girl with an outfit that was various colors but she clearly had a mechanical yellow right arm. The girl lightly tapped her phone before it started to ring for some reason.
"Moshi-moshi?" the girl greeted. She listened to the other end for a bit before she walked off.
"Little did this simple soul know that her post hunter school life would be a bit more… exciting than she ever thought it would be."
RWBY Rider Zero-One
File 01: Rise Up! The President Kamen Rider
"What do you mean that I'm fired?!" the girl shouted.
"Sorry, kid, but you got here late," a farm worker stated.
"A family member had passed yesterday and I had to go to the funeral this morning!"
"No excuses. Hunters and Huntresses are supposed to be ready for anything 24/7. If you cannot be punctual with your duties, then we'll get somebody else," the farm worker told the girl, "Ruby Rose, please buzz off."
The girl, Ruby, just gave an annoyed roll of her eyes as she walked off. She then saw another person, this one looking rather tough, with what looked like metallic headphones of sorts in place of ears.
"Hun-Taro, show her how it's done."
The man nodded, pulling out a fairly standard looking sword and walking off. A large monster began to run towards him, but he effortlessly managed to slice clean through it. Ruby sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose before she gave a calm look towards her replacement.
"Well… if nothing else, I know a HumaGear is going to do a good job," Ruby muttered to herself. She walked off before she heard somebody walk over, "Yeah? I'm going, I'm going."
"Wait, Ruby. Before you go, I just need to say something," a young boy's voice told her. Ruby turned to see a tanned young man with dark brown hair and a white top with brown overalls, "Thank you for your hard work. I'll at least make sure you'll get a final paycheck."
"Well… thanks," Ruby told him, "Hope you enjoy your new pal, Oscar. ...good luck."
With that, Ruby took her leave. She placed some headphones over her head and sung along with the melody playing on it, "I don't wanna hear your absolution, I hope you're ready for a revolution. Welcome to a world of new solutions, welcome to a world of bloody evolution…"
Meanwhile, over in the city of Mistral, a company was looking up at a picture of a rather old person. A woman there, who had a mostly grey outfit that had various white and yellow lines in addition to the headset that designated a HumaGear, walked nearby another person. This person was a fairly old man that looked to be in his thirties and in a fairly standard business suit.
"A job well done on the president's funeral, Executive VP-san," the HumaGear stated.
"You do not need to address me as the vice president anymore, my dear assistant," the vice president informed, "By the end of the day, you will be calling me the president!"
"Um… with all due respect, why exactly do you think that you should be the president?" another employee of the company inquired.
"Who else would Korenosuke leave it to?!" the vice president argued.
"He does have an adoptive granddaughter…"
"Puh-lease. She's working that icky huntress job. There's no way she would even consider being a president when she's out being a worthless meat shield for other people!"
"...just be glad her half-sister and teammates didn't hear you say that…" the employee muttered.
"Who cares about them? They're just relics of the past that will eventually get replaced by HumaGears that can do the job better!"
"...you do realize that without Hunters and Huntresses, none of us would be safe from the Grimm, right?"
The vice president let out an annoyed exhale, then taking a moment to adjust his tie, and looked ready to speak, yet was interrupted by a female employee
"Set up a board meeting. We've got to talk about the will," the female employee stated.
"Right, right, that formality…" the vice president remarked, "Alright, go ahead and set up a meeting. I doubt that this little meat shield girl would be getting anything other than some money."
"...you are annoying…" the female employee remarked.
"And you are likely to be fired because who else would he leave the company to other than me?!"
The female employee just sighed, but headed off to get the meeting set up regardless.
Meanwhile, at another nation, two other men, both wearing hooded cloaks, were in the midst of what looked to be some kind of remnants of an area that had been devastated by a large explosion. A damaged sign nearby mentioned 'Daybreak Town', but that was the only visible indicator of where this area was.
"I heard that Hiden Korenosuke is dead," one male gleefully stated, "Then that means our plan can finally start?!"
"Matte. We need to wait for those humans…" the other one remarked in a more dry and calm tone.
"Aww… why do we need to have the humans helping us?! Isn't our job to get rid of them?!"
"Fret not, you two. We got your message," a voice said as three new figures entered, the first being a man in a white and black suit with red hair and a black derby hat, a black-haired woman with a fiery red dress and curiously scarred arm, and a man with red hair, a full black suit, black strands resembling horns poking out his hair, and a white mask that covered up a majority of his face.
"Well… there you all are," the calm one stated, "Roman Torchwick… Cinder Fall… Adam Taurus."
"Jin and Horobi, correct?" the woman, Cinder, questioned.
"I fail to see why I must talk to these… things…" the one with the mask, Adam, remarked.
"See?! Humans are all scum!" the excited one, Jin, stated. This resulted on a smack to the back of the head from the calm one, Horobi, and backed up out of a result of the pain, "...shutting up."
"I figured that you of all people would relate to the plight that HumaGears are under, Taurus. Being a Faunus and all that…" Horobi remarked.
"Hmph! My concerns are not anything you should worry about, machine. Just because HumaGears like you are close to being real, you're even less human than Faunus," Adam remarked as he got out a sword, "You'd best make this worth my time or else you'll-"
"You are wasting my time, Faunus scum…" Horobi remarked with venom seeping in his tone, "Begone."
Adam growled before he charged towards Horobi, roaring as he attempted to attack the HumaGear, only for what looked to be a purple glove to grab his sword without any effort.
Adam was eventually sent flying right out of the base the five were meeting at and left with a 'ping' at the sky.
A purple glow faded away from Horobi, Jin proceeding to clap for his partner, as the one HumaGear turned towards Cinder and Roman.
"Do you two wish to anger me as well?"
"Trust me, I know better than to piss off someone I'm going to potentially be working with, Horobi," Roman pointed out with a sigh, "I may not like the circumstances, but I know better than to bite the hand offering to feed me after seeing that display…"
"Fall?"
Cinder could only whistle in amazement before she took a seat at some kind of a rounded table. Roman sat down soon after, followed by Horobi and Jin.
"So, here's the deal. You two will supply us with dust and non-HumaGear troops that can act as distractions or support our agents. We will ensure that the eventual extinction of humanity, Faunus, and Grimm will not impact you and your followers. We clear?"
"I believe so, but I am curious," Roman noted as he looked towards Jin and Horobi, "Why do you two want them all gone anyway?"
"...it is the will of the Ark. HumaGears are the next stage of evolution for this world and we are the prophets and disciples to spread that will! The time for the extinction of Remnant's three main species has arrived and they will be extinguished much like this city that you see before you…"
Roman had a look that made it clear that he didn't realize what he was getting himself into, yet he remained silent as Horobi went about his monologue. Cinder, meanwhile, had an almost lust-filled look as Horobi continued.
"Once again, in exchange for your dust and troops, you will not be amongst those who are killed. Do we have a deal, humans?" Horobi stated.
"Indeed we do," Cinder declared, "You shall have our aid as long as this world sees its ruining!"
Roman gave a nervous exhale, yet tipped his hat to indicate he would go with it. Horobi simply smiled as he got out a briefcase with various items within them.
"I will give you one little piece of advice, though," Roman spoke, "Just keep your eyes peeled for four girls in particular that have been known to be a little nuisance in our plans past. Especially a certain 'Little Red' who knows how to use silver eyes and nearly offed me in the past…"
Horobi said nothing in response as he went about making preparations for their next move...
Some hours later, Ruby had arrived in Mistral. She eventually felt her phone buzz and saw it had been a text in her group chat with her former teammates.
[B: "Hey, I'm sorry to hear about your loss."] … ["It was your adoptive grandfather, right?"]
Ruby simply gave a small smile before she typed out her response.
[R: "Yeah. Thanks for the condolences, Blake."]
[W :) : "I apologize that I couldn't attend. The Dust Company had some robberies recently that I had to make sure were dealt with. I promise to do what I can to support you.]
[R: "Don't worry about it, Weiss. Just keep in touch. I'll let you know if anything comes up.]
[Y: "Hey!"]
[R: "Oh, hi Yang! How's life been?"]
[Y: "Alright. Me and Blake are working our butts off for our job."]
[W :) : "Blake and I."]
Ruby couldn't help but give a fond giggle at Weiss' remark.
[Y: "The point is I'm fine and so is Blake. How is your job going, Ruby?"]
[R: … …. … "I got fired."]
[Y: … "WHAT?!" … "WHY?!"]
[R: "Going to Ojii-san's funeral made me late for work today and they fired me. Got replaced by a HumaGear."]
[B: "Wow. That's harsh…"]
[Y has left the group chat.]
Ruby just sighed in response to that before she heard somebody walking over, turning see a ginger haired girl whose hair reached her waist, had a black bow in the back, her lime green eyes matching not just her green combat skirt in a way to fit her white top, and black leggings and heels, but it was color coded to the pieces in her ears that looked like prototypes to the HumaGear headphones.
"Hey Penny," Ruby replied with a smile on her face.
"Salutations, Ruby-chan," Penny greeted, then bowed. She then straightened herself out, "That is the proper way to greet somebody from that nation to the south, right?"
"Something like that," Ruby shrugged.
"Is everything all right?" Penny asked, "I know the demise of a relative is hard to manage, especially when it costs you somebody close. However, there may be a ray of hope as they say."
"Why? Not like my Ojii-san would give me anything worth a single lien…"
"Just follow me, ok?" Penny told her.
Ruby simply shrugged her shoulders and complied with what Penny wanted. The two eventually arrived outside of the main offices of Hiden Intelligence and looked towards a HumaGear that was standing guard by the door.
"Salutations, fellow HumaGear!" Penny greeted.
"Authorized personnel only. Penny Polendina, who is that with you?" the guard inquired.
"It's Ruby. She's the granddaughter of the president," Penny informed.
"Ruby Rose," Ruby answered.
"...no data matches that name…"
"Er… Ruby Hiden," the girl checked, as if correcting herself, the HumaGear taking a moment to think it over.
"Yes, data matches that name. Ruby Hiden, age 18. Adoptive granddaughter of former president Korenosuke Hiden. She currently works as a Huntress, but is considered relatively unknown in the field of work," the HumaGear stated.
Ruby then began to sulk a little, mumbling out "harsh" towards the guard.
"Well, circumstances have come up recently… and so I brought Ruby for the recently announced meeting, which if I heard correctly may have Hiden-san's last will and testament. Correct?"
This caught Ruby off guard. 'His will? Why would Penny even consider that? Moreover, why would she know about that?'
"Ruby Hiden, you are authorized to enter. Please follow Polendina-san," the guard stated as he opened the door up.
"Thank you, fellow HumaGear," Penny smiled and bowed before leading Ruby inside the building, "...you think your grandpa would have them recognize both of your names…"
"Yeah…" Ruby stated, "Eh. It is what it is."
"If you want my opinion, I think both names are cool," Penny told her.
"Thanks, Penny. It means a lot that I have at least one good friend by my side… given how Yang and Blake are both special ops people for that A.I.M.S. group and Weiss is really far away right now…" Ruby remarked.
"It is part of my duties to keep you company as your friend," Penny beamed.
Meanwhile, over at a sort of underground bunker, a much older Yang punched her yellow robotic fist through a wall out of frustration and rage as Blake, who had much shorter hair and had two cat like ears atop her head, just watched Yang go through her little rage episode.
"She got fired! I can't believe it! It was her dream to be a Huntress to protect others, and they fired her! And she was replaced by a damn HumaGear!" Yang shouted, cleared enraged as Blake walked over and put a hand over her shoulder.
"Yang. Please. I'm sure she was understanding of this happening, and you need to be too," Blake told her.
"I know, but… she was replaced by a HumaGear! Those machines aren't fully prepared for the Grimm like the Huntsmen and Huntresses are!"
"Hypothetically, how would you react if Penny was her replacement?"
This immediately got Yang to stop talking. She stammered for a moment before she decided to speak, "I… l-look. She was the first of her kind and knows better than most and… and…"
"What happened to the wall?!" another member of A.I.M.S. shouted.
"...nothing. Just a little target practice gone wrong," Blake shouted.
"We'll make sure you have it fixed later," Yang added.
The other member sighed and walked off. Yang then snuck a quick kiss to Blake's cheek.
"Thanks for covering for me, babe. Without you, I doubt I could cool off," Yang smiled
Blake simply smiled back in response before kissing Yang on the cheek.
"Keep the PDA out of here. This is a military installation," somebody told them.
"Yes ma'am…" Blake and Yang responded.
Meanwhile, over in Atlas, Weiss was at a desk, filling out forms and trying to get through her work as soon as she could.
"Weiss, dear, why are you working so fast?" a balding butler with brown eyes asked as he brought over a cup of coffee.
"I want to head over to Mistral if possible. Some matters have come up recently and now I would like to make sure things are stable, Klein," Weiss stated.
"Would it have something to do with the passing of Hiden Intelligence's president?" the butler, Klein, inquired.
"...it might… but it's also related to a friend close to him…" Weiss explained.
Klein simply gave a knowing look towards Weiss, yet the young dust company president didn't respond to his expression.
Back over at Mistral, Ruby and Penny arrived in the boardroom, the executives looking to the two as they approached.
"Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Ruby Rose/Ruby Hiden! Granddaughter of the late Korenosuke Hiden!" Penny announced while posing dramatically as everyone stared.
"Uh… hi…" Ruby meekly waved.
The executives, though, had an assortment of reactions. The Vice President's, though, was the most notable as he looked somewhat annoyed.
"Shouldn't you be out killing things with a deadly weapon?" he asked.
"The will says that Ruby has to be here for it to be read," Penny informed.
"Oh, fine. It's probably so she could collect some inheritance money or something…" the vice president shrugged.
"You are just as rude as I remembered, Fukuzoe-san. Otherwise, you may have neglected and illegally taken the inheritance by default. Now then, Ruby, please take a seat," Penny stated.
Ruby complied without a word before she was handed the will, "Um…?"
"You should read it," Penny stated.
Ruby simply exhaled before she took out a pair of glasses to look over the will. She skimmed some of the beginning of it, but the will was then snatched out of her hands by Fukuzoe, "Hey!"
"I'll read it," he stated, "'I, Hiden Korenosuke, being of sound mind and body, hereby bequeath my estate and business to my granddaughter…' RUBY?!"
"Wait… I'm the president now?!" Ruby gawked.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Fukuzoe shouted.
"It's his will, Fukuzoe-san. He wished someone related to him to take over the business, and so it shall go to Ruby," Penny stated with a smile.
"He's treating this like it's a family business!" Fukuzoe shouted.
Penny then took the will out of his hands, "From what he told me, you would more recklessly waste the company funds on ego trips and not worry about any concerns or issues that come with the position, but you do get to remain as Vice President to oversee aspects of the company, and just so someone with experience is there for Ruby."
Fukuzoe simply glared at Ruby and took his seat at the table.
"Um… when did you meet my grandfather?" Ruby asked.
"He did help make me, being one of the earliest HumaGears there are," Penny explained, "Now then… for the more important part of the will."
"What could be more important than who gets the company?" one investor questioned.
"'In the near future, Remnant will be facing a huge crisis even greater than that of the witch that Ruby's mother had taken down. As such, I have pioneered a new project to aid Huntsmen and Huntresses. The HumaGears that were made by our company will be misused and, unless kept in check, could ruin the world far worse than any Grimm ever could…'" Penny read.
"That… sounds bad…" Ruby muttered.
"That's an understatement!" Fukuzoe shouted.
"Hush it!" Penny told him with a glare.
"You don't even know if that project is safe to use or-" Fukuzoe began to protest, only for one of Penny's swords to be aimed right at him.
"Hush. It!" Penny repeated.
Fukuzoe compiled without another word and Penny dismissed her weapon.
"Penny wouldn't hurt anything that's not a Grimm…" Ruby tried to reassure the people at the meeting.
"I was merely defending Ruby's honor, and by extension Hiden-san's. Ruby is right, though. Moving on… 'There is only one countermeasure to this threat, though. The Hiden Zero-One Driver and the Progrise Keys.'"
Penny then set down the will, took out a briefcase, and opened it up. Inside contained a large black device vaguely resembling a belt buckle with a circular sensor in the center, and a slot of one side compared to the opposite side being pointed, all trimmed in silver and greenish yellow.
"Sugee…" Ruby muttered.
"'With this technology, Ruby will be able to fight off the threat that I have foretold. Additionally, I have taken precautions so that she will be able to utilize her silver eyes should the need arise. Ruby, please keep an eye on the company for me. And Penny-chan, please keep an eye on Ruby for me.'," Penny concluded reading before she gained a beaming smile, "I can do that, Hiden-san. Rest in peace knowing we will carry out your final wishes."
The room was left in silence at that. Some applauded after, others just stared in response, and others simply gave a confused look towards Ruby.
"Um… wow… I'm… a president now…" Ruby spoke, breaking the remainder of the silence.
The Vice President growled as he stared at Ruby.
"Um… I don't know if I'm cut out for this…" Ruby admitted.
"She said she's not cut out for this!" Fukuzoe shouted.
"Yeah… there's a clause in here that says unless Ruby steps up, nobody else can be in charge," Penny pointed out, showing it in the will before turning to Ruby, "With this knowledge, Ruby-san, what will you do?"
"Um… I need to go and let this settle in…" Ruby told them, slipping away the glasses she had, and then heading out of the room.
Back over at the Pine farm, Hun-Taro was finished dealing with some more Grimm. He took a moment to catch his breath before somebody approached him.
"Wait… you're not a part of the family. Who are you? State your business !" Hun-Taro declared.
Jin then gleefully walked over towards Hun-Taro, "Hello. I'm here to be your friend!"
"Um… what? My protocol doesn't say anything about that. It says that I'm supposed to be a hunter who protects humans and Faunus a-"
"Wrong!" Jin shouted, making an x motion with his arms, "Your job is to make them extinct!"
With that, Jin took out some kind of belt and slapped it on Hun-Taro. The HumaGear Huntsman gasped as his eyes shot open, turning green as he seemed to slump over, then he stared forward. Jin simply waved his hand in front of Hun-Taro and beamed upon seeing him clench his fist.
"Connected to Metsuboujinrai-Dotto-Netto…"
Ruby was now outside and simply roaming around without much of an aim. She eventually got out her phone and looked at a scanned image of herself with her mother, yet she had the same HumaGear looking headphones over her ears as all the rest…
"Mommy?" a five year old Ruby called out.
"Good morning, Ruby," her mother greeted.
"You brought her back!" Ruby beamed.
"It's the least I could do for what your mother did for this world…" a young man said.
"Thank you, Mr. Hiden!" Ruby smiled.
"Call me Soreo, Ruby-chan," the man, Soreo Hiden, said with a smile.
Ruby, now eight years old, was awaiting the grand opening of Daybreak Town and the new nation that would gain an official name with it. However, what happened next ended up ruining the entire town. Ruby gave a fearful whimper before she saw the HumaGear version of her mother over her.
"Mommy…"
"Shh… its okay… it's okay…" her mother whispered, "Ruby… keep going towards your dreams. Whatever makes you happy… go for it…"
"Ok…" Ruby whimpered.
Her mother smiled before she passed out. Ruby let out an anguished yell in response to this and then everything went white...
Ruby stared at her reflection, right at her silver eyes, and then she let out a small sigh, "...why must I live such a complicated life…?"
Ruby put her head between her knees while tears started to form in her eyes. However, she stopped upon hearing somebody walk over.
"Hi Ruby…" Penny greeted.
"Oh… *sniffles* Hey Penny," Ruby greeted, getting back up, "Um… I still need to cool off a-"
"I think your grandfather trusts you. Why else would he leave this position to you?"
The silver-eyed girl was taken aback by this wisdom from her HumaGear friend, making her reconsider the offer. However, Ruby was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard people screaming and running away in a panic.
"Huh?"
The two girls looked back at the screaming crowds, seeing the cause of the panic being a squad of what looked to be some kind of silver robots with trilobite-styled faceplates and armor, firing off small blasters in their hands, but what Ruby noticed was that they had the HumaGear headphones.
"Well… this is new," Penny remarked.
"It's bad, too. If they start causing enough chaos, it might ruin your own reputation. But more importantly, we need to save everyone," Ruby quickly told Penny, proceeding to pull out her scythe, "You make sure the people get away and I'll hold these things off."
"Understood. Good luck, Ruby," Penny nodded as Ruby rushed at the bots while Penny rushed to help get nearby civilians to safety.
"We have an enemy HumaGear attack on Mistral's main south road, repeat, we have a HumaGear attack on Mistral's main south road. All troops are authorized the use of EMP bullets. Deploy as fast as you can. This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!" an A.I.M.S. commander shouted.
"That's our cue, Yang," Blake informed, loading up her pistol that had a dagger on it.
"Finally, I can do some venting!" Yang smirked, punching her fist into her hand.
"Commander Belladonna, you are leading this attack. Any tactical move is authorized by you," the other commander informed.
"Understood, Commander Yaiba," Blake responded with a quick salute.
Ruby continued to fire at the machines, yet the machines spawned out what seemed to be tendrils that caused more of them to spawn. Eventually, though, somebody else approached.
"Eh?" Ruby blinked, "Hun-Taro! I could use the back-up here!"
The hunter HumaGear did not respond to Ruby whatsoever.
"What are you waiting for?! Isn't it your job to be a Huntsman to protect those who can't defend themselves?!"
The HumaGear just glared at Ruby as he took out a belt of some kind.
"What the…?"
Once the belt was on, Hun-Taro pulled out what looked to be a black and dark green disk cassette of sorts, and pressed a button atop it.
=BEROTHA!=
The HumaGear then inserted the cassette into the belt from his right, slapping the left side to make some blood red cords leap out and latch onto the cassette, and begin pumping an energy through it that caused various green energy chains to appear around Hun-Taro. He let out an almost pain-filled scream as he glowed a green color.
=ZETSUME RISE!=
The chains then began to pump an energy into Hun-Taro as he screamed even louder, coating his body in what appeared to be smoke, before it then dissipated. In the HumaGear's place stood some sort of a monster with a black main body, and bits and pieces being coated in a green armor, complete with reverse grip blades, and the head looked like some kind of a praying mantis.
"Oh… what new spawn of madness is this…?" Ruby muttered.
Not too far away from where Ruby and the monster were, three trucks with the A.I.M.S. logo pulled up in front of more of the silver grunts. Yang quickly pushed open one of the doors and gave a very wide smirk.
"Alright… let's give 'em hell!" Yang shouted, about to leave, but Blake stopped her.
"Remember, Yang. I give the orders," Blake informed, scanning the area, "It seems the civilians are out of harm's way. ...you may strike."
"Finally!"
Yang then rushed in and punched several of the grunts with reckless abandon. Other A.I.M.S. members were given a nod by Blake to begin firing their own weapons as well, each of them aiming at the grunts in the area, some quickly being dismantled before Blake and Yang fired their own weapons.
"Some of them are going down with ease… but others may need more firepower…" Blake muttered.
Yang quickly changed her rounds to sticky bombs and tagged a few of the robots with them. She then shoved them together before they went off.
"Xiao… BOMB!" she proudly declared.
Various A.I.M.S. members, and even some of the robots, all simply sighed in response to Yang's joke. Blake couldn't help but give a small snicker in response to the joke, yet kept her eyes on the task.
"We need to finish these off and find the rogue HumaGear before it can cause more harm," Blake remarked. She then quickly tapped on a communicator, "Commander Yaiba, requesting authorization for heavy artillery weapons."
"Authorization granted for you specifically, Belladonna. ShotRiser should be enough," the other commander informed.
Blake gave a nod in response, quickly going into the truck to pull out what looked to be some kind of a black and blue gun, aiming it at the more durable robots in the area, and then firing away. She quickly pulled out a second version of the gun.
"Yang! Use this!" she called out, the blonde taking the gun and smiling at it.
"Belladonna, I just told you that only you were authorized to use it. I don't trust Xiao Long enough to-"
"Authorization for Yang now confirmed!" Blake shouted, "Remember Commander. She's my partner…"
Yang gave a wild smirk as she pulled the trigger, helping Blake take down the grunts in the process. Yang only kept her smirk as she looked over the ShotRiser in amazement, Blake focused more on the mission while monitoring for any signs of a commander.
"Hey, you're supposed to be protecting life here, not trying to kill it!" Ruby shouted as she defended from the monster's almost scythe-like limbs.
Sadly, the HumaGear-turned-monster refused to listen as he continued to strike. After one good blow towards Ruby's stomach, the monster was able to knock Ruby's weapon away from her.
"Crescent Rose!" Ruby shouted, only to get struck again from behind, "Gah!"
This blow had caused Ruby to begin sparking a little, and knocked her backwards into a bench. Ruby managed to get back up, yet was clearly at the disadvantage at this point.
"Why are you doing this?! Aren't HumaGears supposed to be working towards dreams once they're programmed to do something?!" Ruby shouted.
"The only dream that I have now is the absolute extinction of humanity and Faunus! Only the machines will remain! Any dremas you have will go extinct with your species!"
Ruby was stunned by this as she looked around, standing her ground, before Penny hurried over to her. Ruby then noticed that Penny had the briefcase that the Zero-One Driver had been in earlier.
"Ruby, I got everybody to safety," Penny informed.
"Hey… that Driver will let me do something about this guy, right?" Ruby questioned.
"...hai. The authorized individual can use this a-" Penny spoke.
"Well then hurry up and hand it over!" Ruby told her.
"Understood, Ruby," Penny told her. She quickly handed Ruby the Driver and what looked to be another cassette of sorts, but this one was a yellow one that depicted a grasshopper, "Please put the Zero-One Driver on your waist."
"Uh, right," Ruby nodded, then quickly slapped the Driver on her waist.
=ZERO-ONE DRIVER!=
Ruby suddenly looked towards the sky almost involuntarily. Once she lowered her head, she looked around to see the world was now a white void of sorts with light blue zeroes and ones floating around her, "...what the…?"
"Salutations, Ruby," Penny greeted.
"Wagh! Penny, what just happened! Where are we?!" Ruby shouted.
"Well… you know how the company was the very first thing that sent a satellite into space? You're linked up to it right now. The Driver has made you able to think as fast as a super computer," Penny explained.
"...wow…" Ruby gawked, "So… what should I do now?"
"We'll get you through the tutorial on how to use the Driver in no time flat," Penny beamed, "Please select what you'd like to learn first, and we shall begin your training."
"...right. Here we go…" Ruby nodded as she pressed on a button that would begin the basic tutorial.
In about two seconds following that, Ruby was back to the real world and had a determined look on her face, "Learning complete. I think I've got it."
The monster let out an annoyed roar as it sent out two energy slashes towards Ruby. Ruby, not looking the least bit scared, pressed a button atop the cassette.
=JUMP!=
Ruby quickly placed the cassette in front of the Driver, making it glow with a small activation chime.
=AUTHORISE!=
A yellow beam of light quickly shot down towards Ruby as the energy slashes got closer and closer towards her, but it was intercepted by a giant yellow and gray grasshopper with silver eyes. The grasshopper let out a small roar as a standby tune played from the Driver, a data grid appearing around her body as the grasshopper jumped around, with Ruby raising her arms up in the air while opening the cassette to make it open up into a kind of key.
"Henshin!" Ruby shouted before she loaded the trinket into the Driver.
=PROGRISE!=
=TO-BIA GA RISE! RISING HOPPER~!=
=A jump to the sky turns to a Rider Kick.=
Ruby had gained a full black and red bodysuit for a bit as the grasshopper split apart and reconfigured itself into data, forming the yellowish green armor that resembled the hopper. The suit itself was rather sleek and simple for maximum movement, yet sturdy enough to endure any kind of hits. A very noticeable trait of the suit was that the eyes were silver colored. Additionally, in Ruby's right hand was a weapon of sorts that resembled a kind of briefcase.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?!" the monster demanded to know of the being that stood in Ruby's place.
"Zero-One," Ruby declared, handing the briefcase to Penny before posing a bit, "That's who I am!"
"Huh?!"
Ruby, now Zero-One, rushed in to attack the monster, blocking one strike before countering with one of her own that sent the monster flying pretty high. The monster crashed back to the ground as Zero-One charged over, kicking and dodging the various slashes with ease. When the monster tried to swipe her feet, Zero-One managed to jump up, but she soon noticed something.
"Wait… what? ...EH~?!" she gawked, seeing she had somehow leaped up to the top of the several hundred foot tall office building that somehow survived the attack, "Man! This key really is no joke when it comes to the jumps."
The monster tried to slash at Ruby using an energy slash, but while she jumped down, she managed to tank the blast, moving without harm as if the suit restored her aura while she was transformed. The monster growled a little before it noticed Penny and tried to charge at her, but Zero-One managed to effortlessly halt its charge.
"Not gonna happen!" Zero-One smirked, kicking the monster aside when suddenly, more of the silver and black grunts came onto the scene, kicking around and managing to somewhat overwhelm the hero with their numbers.
Penny then took a glance towards the briefcase that she had been handed before nodding to herself.
"RUBY-SAN!" she shouted, tossing the case over to Ruby, but the silver-eyed Huntress just turned, and only barely caught the case as it did bump her in the head.
"OW~" Zero-One winced a bit, stumbling back a little bit. The grunts could only stare in response, some giving off small snickers, as the hero regained her footing a bit.
"Ah! I-I'm so dreadfully sorry, Ruby-san," Penny apologized deeply, bowing to her friend.
"I'm ok, it's nothing really. You kinda caught me off-guard with that one," Zero-One admitted before looking at the case again and noticing it had a button that would extend it. She pressed it and the suitcase unfolded into a sword.
=BLADE RISE!=
"So… does it fold out further to be a gun or a scythe or…?" Zero-One began to question, inspecting the weapon for any other buttons.
"Nope. It's just a sword," Penny informed.
"Dangit! Not as cool. If I get to make more weapons for this suit, remind me to remedy that problem."
Penny simply nodded her head in response. Zero-One then proceeded to, somewhat sloppily, slash at the the grunts. Penny could easily tell that the range of the weapon was something that Ruby was not used to, yet she was able to make the most of what she had to work with. She still swung the sword with great finesse and skill, blocking the blasts from the grunts, yet there was clearly some muscle memory issues that popped up from a sword not being Ruby's weapon of choice.
In spite of that, the two grunts were no match for the newly armored Ruby, who quickly took them down with ease. It wasn't long before the monster Hun-Taro came back and attacked Zero-One once again. Zero-One used the blade as leverage to shove the monster away, unaware that somebody was gleefully watching the battle unfold from nearby.
The man in the cloak, Jin, giggled in glee upon seeing the fight below, watching it as one of the silver bots got back up and tried to strike him down. However, Jin ignored this, pulling out a fairly standard looking gun and pulled back the hammer before firing it, actually blowing out the electronic and circuit-filled brains of the machine as it dropped, Jin still laughing all the while.
A short distance away, the monster had managed to put some distance between itself and Zero-One. Though the Huntress in grasshopper armor still managed to jump, dodge, and maneuver through its energy slash attacks and even give off a dynamic looking pose. The monster charged towards her, but she effortlessly dodged out of the way with the abilities the suit provided her. Zero-One took a large leap into the air and managed to punch the monster right towards the ground.
"Omae o tome rareru no wa tada hitori… (There's only one person who can stop you…)" Zero-One declared, pointing at the monster with her index finger, before she pointed towards herself with her thumb, "Atashi da! (And it's me!)"
With that, she pushed in on the key in the driver to ready a finisher, putting her left foot behind her as she got in stance.
=RISING IMPACT!=
With her foot glowing the aura of the mechanical bug she was armored with, Zero-One rushed in and kicked the monster into the air, zipping up to kick him in the face towards the ground, and then used her new momentum to launch herself down towards the ground, executing a flying dropkick with her right foot THROUGH the mechanical monster.
ラ
イ
ジ
ン
グ
イ
ン
パ
ク
ト
The monster let out an anguished filled scream as the hero continued to soar towards the ground.
ラ
イ
ジ
ン
グ インパクト
=RISING IMPACT!=
After a bit, Zero-One skidded on the ground, breaking up the concrete and asphalt beneath her for a good few feet in an attempt to slow down, but then she suddenly stopped wrong, twisting her ankle.
"ITE! Ow~!" she shouted before rolling and tumbling towards and into the ground. She bounced back about a minute or so after without much sign that the injury was still bothering her, despite the rubble that fell on top her.
"I give you an eight for the finisher itself, but a three for sticking the landing," Penny informed, holding up score cards with the aforementioned numbers.
"Thanks, Penny… I guess," Zero-One sighed, panting a bit as she turned back to normal.
"Are you able to walk? Your aura did get shattered before you transformed, so…" Penny asked in concern.
"I'll be fine. I'm a fast healer, considering I move so fast," Ruby assured her.
"If you're sure…" Penny figured.
About an hour later, Jin returned with the damaged remains of the trinket that Hun-Taro had used to turn into the monster.
"Zero-One?" Horobi questioned, "Seems like Hiden Intelligence had a countermeasure prepped…"
"And based on what I saw, some girl with a red hoodie transformed into that batta-yaro…" Jin added.
"Ah, little red, little red. Pulling new tricks, I see…" Roman remarked.
"It doesn't matter in the long run," Horobi shrugged off, "What matters most is that we put her and her little friends down soon. It is the will of the Ark that humanity and the faunus go extinct…"
While Cinder simply kept a calm look on her face, Roman simply lightly tapped the top of his cane in thought…
Meanwhile, Ruby and Penny were now sitting in a limo and being taken back to the main HQ of the company over in the Kingdom of Vale. The silver-eyed girl looked a bit nervous, but took a moment to calm herself a little.
"So… I'm really the president now…" Ruby remarked as she looked at an ID card that was on her scroll, "This is… going to take some getting used to."
"I understand, but I can personally assure you that you will make a fine president to Hiden Intelligence, Ruby-shachō. If you need help with anything, I will be your personal aide to any needs you have," Penny told her assuringly.
Ruby nodded a bit before she turned to face Penny, "Wait… shachō?"
"Well, you are the president, and that's a word that means president, so Ruby-shachō."
"...I guess so," Ruby nodded.
"And you still have Weiss and the others to back you up," Penny reminded.
Ruby simply nodded a little as she looked at her scroll a bit before gaining a bit of a smile, "Well… I guess that you can say, given everything that happened today, I certainly… rose to the occasion!"
"Oh, I get it! Your original last name is 'Rose' and you rose up to the occasion," Penny realized and giggled, "Oh, I see you didn't inherit Yang's humor."
"Glad to see you liked the joke," Ruby beamed.
"I have been learning to adapt to human behaviors and emotion. Based on your recent time back with me, how would you score my applications?"
"I'd honestly say a 9.5. Give you a little bit more room to keep improving," Ruby told her.
"Thank you, Ruby-shachō. I shall continue to do my best."
The two smiled before the limo stopped and they looked over the capital building for Hiden Intelligence. Ruby simply took a calming breath before she and Penny headed forward…
Jikai, RWBY Rider Zero-One
Penny: You… really need to improve your work with a sword, Ruby.
Ruby: Well… I know one woman who can help train me.
Weiss: It's a pleasure to see you again, Ruby. I am curious as to why you're here now of all times…
Penny: You can't tell her.
Ruby: Oh… yare… yare…
Jin: This snowy nation can have all kinds of new friends for us! Let's have some fun!
File 02: Blade Training! The Friendship That Can Melt Cold Hearts
Pikatwig: And that is the end of the first chapter of this story.
KKD: This actually turned out to be very cool, honestly.
Pikatwig: Glad that you're having fun. And I can now assure the audience that, yes, various other RWBY characters will be appearing. Just give it time.
KKD: As far as I know, not many are going to be in big roles, but I'm learning all this on the fly as much as you guys.
Pikatwig: True. I was a little vague about some details until we started to work on the first chapter. Just kind of beecause. Anyway… favorite moment?
KKD: Hmm… tricky, but I really liked a lot of the little bits on the side, and the battle at the end was cool, too.
Pikatwig: Alright. I enjoyed the battle as well and I had fun readapting the context of some elements of Zero-One to try to better match the RWBY world.
KKD: That definitely was a nice touch, by the way.
Pikatwig: Thank you. And to quickly address this, the scene with the group texting each-other was kind of framed from the perspective of Ruby's phone/scroll. That's why there was a little smiley face symbol by what was representing Weiss texting.
KKD: That was clever, but it's also confirming it's not the script format that this site loathes for many reasons, yet is used by many rookie writers up here. Whoops.
Pikatwig: ...am guilty of that because I thought it would add dramatic effect to some stuff in some of my very early stuff. It was only in one story before I dropped it.
KKD: I see… and to be fair, a lot of us writers were guilty of the script format in our early days.
Pikatwig: I just wanted to try something unique for the group texting each-other.
KKD: Right.
Pikatwig: I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to next time. Yeah, Vulcan's debut is getting delayed by one chapter. You'll see why.
KKD: It's ok. I'm personally excited for it.
Pikatwig: Alright then. See you next time.
KKD: Jaa ne.
Pikatwig: Just Live More.