Chapter 15: Watching Character Creation
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! (Except for the original elements)
I truly hope you enjoy it.
...
The screen depicted a dark swamp-like forest, with poisonous water in some areas and dead trees nearby them, monsters of various shapes and sizes were roaming the area as they were scanning the place for intruders, like black bats with four sets of violet wings, and brown scaled lizards with blue sails on their head. This swamp-like forest was a dungeon known as the Poisonous Quagmire.
"Huh?" everyone was confused at the sight on screen.
"That's a weird, yet creepy place." Summer said.
"But what kind of place is it?" Glynda asked.
"I've ever seen a place like it, even during my original life." Ozma admitted.
"I'm more concerned about what those creatures are." Willow said. "They aren't Grimm in any way."
Kai was observing the screen, wondering just what kind of world this was if he's yet to hear about it.
Everything was silent in this dungeon until a shout was heard throughout one area of the quagmire. "Steel Sickle!" a young female voice called out as the sound of a blade cutting through flesh was heard, followed by a roar of pain.
Everyone was stunned to hear the voice. "Wait, that was Ruby!" Blake noted.
"But what that roar just now?" Jacques asked.
"And more importantly, is Ruby fighting or something?" Tai asked, getting protective.
The screen then showed a young girl sliding on the ground, using a scythe she was wielding to stop her from moving backwards.
The girl had black hair that went red at the tips, and was decked out in red and white clothing with some silver armor mixed in for protection, she wore a red and black long sleeved shirt with a breastplate covering her left side, her lower torso was covered by a black skirt with red frills underneath it, and underneath it was a set of black shorts with silver knee guards covering her knees, she also had black and red combat boots on her feet. But what stuck out the most about her was her silver eyes, crimson red cape, and giant steel scythe that she was holding with both her hands.
This was Ruby Rose, the leader of team RWBY.
"Hey, it is Ruby." Velvet said.
"What's with the outfit though?" Coco asked.
"She's got to be fighting something if she's wearing protective armor." Salem said.
She had a look of determination on her face as she scowled at what was in front of her at the moment.
The thing in front of her was massive in size, little over the size of a two story building, it was a quadrupedal dragon-like beast with brown scales covering it's entire body, four clawed legs, three tails with one spike on the end of each of them, and three necks ending with a light-blue armored head on each of them, with green eyes with black slits in them, and two spikes behind them.
This was a Toxic Doom Hydra, the boss of the Poisonous Quagmire.
Everyone paled at the sight of the beast, they didn't know why, but they felt the strength that thing harbored even through the screen, except for Kai who...
"Wait a minute." The writer reached into his pocket and pulled out a regular sized sheet of paper and held it up, until his face lit up.
"NOW I REMEMBER!" Kai shouted. "This universe is one very much disconnected from most of reality." Kai said, making everyone snap out of there paleness and look at him in confusion.
"Say what now?" Raven asked.
"This universe we're seeing right now is very unique, in that to some capacity, its like a variant afterlife." Kai explained.
"AFTERLIFE!" The good guys shouted. "So in this universe, I'm dead?" Ruby asked shocked by what it could have meant.
"Well, both yes and no, you'll see what I mean later." Kai said looking back at the screen.
The hydra was recovering from a large blue cut on the front of its body, just below its necks, which Ruby had inflicted onto it with her attack, the cut soon disappeared as the hydra reared its three heads back, and soon lunged them forward at Ruby, who dodged out of the way by jumping upward.
"Whoa, that thing's heads are surprisingly quick." Jaune said, amazed by how fast the hydra did the attack.
"And Ruby was still able to dodge it." Whitley noted.
"Wait, why didn't Ruby simply use her semblance to move out of the way?" Weiss asked.
Everyone who knew about Ruby's semblance got what Weiss was saying. "Yeah, it would have been tons more quicker for Ruby to just use that." Nora commented.
"She didn't use it because in this world, aura's and semblances aren't a thing." Kai explained.
"WHAT?!" Most of the crowd exclaimed.
"Look, I get that it's most certainly confusing, but you people have to understand that those two things are very... exclusive to worlds such as yours." Kai explained, making everyone think hard about that fact.
"Nice try." She said as she landed onto the hydra's back and ran across it, slicing at it with her scythe as she did, she jumped up into the air as she was done doing damage with that method, but what didn't see the hydra's tail spike aiming at her from behind, and just when Ruby turned around to see it coming...
"Pyrobolt!" A voice called out as a ball of fire came soaring in from Ruby's left side and hit the tail dead on, causing an explosion which sent Ruby flying off.
"Wasn't that Weiss's voice?" Nora asked.
"It was." Jacques confirmed.
She repositioned herself in the air and landed on the ground on her feet, she brushed her arm against her forehead as she looked over to the one who saved her from getting skewered by the hydra. "Did you seriously not take the tails into consideration?" Ruby's savior sarcastically asked.
It was a girl, with white hair tied in a side-ponytail, light-blue eyes, and pointy ears on the sides of her head, she was wearing a white and light-blue wizard-like robe with long and big sleeves, a white skirt that went down past her knees, and long white boots that went up to her knees, and in her hands was a white wooden staff with a blue orb on the tip.
This was Weiss Schnee, the main brains of team RWBY.
"So it is Weiss." Glynda said.
"But what's up with those ears?" Tyrian wondered aloud.
"Is this a variety of Faunus of some sort?" Robyn asked.
"It could be in your world, but in this one, it's something completely different." Kai answered.
"Completely different?" Raven and Vernal repeated.
Kai merely smirked. "Just keep watching."
"Hey, it was a heat of the moment sort of thing, you know." Ruby argued.
"Head Rattle Fist!"
"Ninja Battle Arts: Kaze Tanken!"
The names of two attacks were called out as the hydra was trying to get back onto its feet, two figures jumped into the air as one of them shot forward at the three headed beast, aiming an armored fist at the beast's left head, which caused pink ethereal chains to wrap around the beast's three heads and necks, while the other tossed a dagger with green air around it at the hydra's right neck, which exploded causing a burst of wind to knock the beast onto its left side.
"I'd say that's an effective use of wind dust, but wind dust is never of that color." Ironwood said.
"You are correct in saying that, general, wind dust is usually white, not green." Jacques answered.
The two figures landed onto the ground as they looked over to Ruby and Weiss.
The one to threw the dagger had long black hair, amber eyes, cat ears on top of her head, and a cat-like tail on her tailbone, she was wearing a black and white ninja tunic that hugged her form, with a amber shuriken decal on the back of the upper torso along with gray armgreaves on her arms, on her lower torso, she was wearing a black skirt with an amber belt wrapping around her waist, and black thigh length leggings with black combat boots on her feet, and she had two black ninja kunai in her hands.
This was Blake Belladonna, the ninja of team RWBY.
"Huh?" Blake was confused as to why she looked like that.
"Wait, why does Blake look like that?" Adam asked.
"You'll see." Kai assured them.
The one who punched the hydra head-on had long and wild golden hair, lilac eyes, two horns on her head that curved backwards, sharp teeth, and yellow scaled wings on her back followed by a yellow scaled tail on her tailbone, she wore a yellow short sleeved tank top that left her midriff exposed on her upper torso, and for her lower torso, she was wearing white pants that were held up by a golden belt, and a black headband wrapped around her head, and for weaponry, she had two gold and black armored gauntlets on her hands.
This was Yang Xiao Long, the main muscle of team RWBY.
"HUH/WHAT THE HECK!" Everyone who knew Yang, and especially Yang herself, exclaimed.
"Why does Yang look like a dragon/human hybrid?" Tai asked.
"You'll see why eventually, can't you see that I'm trying to not spoil anything!" Kai asked all of them.
"He's right, we'll know what's going on here, but we need to view this story one page at a time." Ozma reminded them.
"Thank you." Kai said before facing the screen.
"Would you two stop talking and start fighting!" Yang called out.
"We're still in a battle you know, and we're each running low on HP potions and antidotes." Blake told them.
"Right, sorry." Ruby apologized as she ran forward while Weiss called out another attack.
"Cryobolt!" Weiss exclaimed as sharp icicles materialized beside her and were shot at the hydra.
Ruby, Yang, and Blake ran towards the hydra as well as the icicles flew over their heads, hitting the hydra dead on, causing white dust clouds to cover the area.
"Steel Sickle!" Ruby called out as her scythe gleamed white.
"Stone Strike Fist!" Yang shouted as her right arm glowed orange with rocks growing around it.
"An... earth based attack?" Qrow wondered.
"Interesting." Terra whispered.
The two attacks made contact with the hydra, causing it to roar in pain as the two of them leaped away from the monster.
The boss monster tried to attack again, only for the pink ethereal chains to show up around it's heads, making it roar in frustration as it marched towards the four girls.
"What were those chains?" Harriet asked.
"That question, I'll answer. Those were binding chains, when a monster in this world is attacked by certain attacks or effects, they have a varied chance of getting a part of their body bound by those chains, preventing them from using certain attacks based on the confined body part." Kai answered.
"So, it's like a debilitating status effect in a video game?" Blake asked.
"Not like, IS." Kai corrected the cat Faunus... at the cost of confusing everyone as to why he felt the need to correct her the subject.
"Ninja Battle Arts: Paralytic Caltrops!" Blake exclaimed as she tossed a handful of caltrops with a yellow center in the area in front of the hydra, who incidentally stepped on top of them, doing some damage to the hydra as indicated by something showing up above it's heads.
It was a health bar, that was currently little over half empty and green until the bar decreased in size, going from green to yellow, with a icon depicting a monsters head wrapped in pink chains above the bar, and soon depicted another icon of a pair of lightning bolts above it as well.
"Wait, are they playing a video game of some kind?" Qrow asked.
"Yes and no, it's a video game like world, but they still live their lives to certain lengths." Kai explained.
"Oh, that explains a lot." Weiss said.
"AW YEAH, it's paralyzed and its head is bound!" Yang cheered as the hydra was twitching in place while sparks of lightning was running across it's body.
"We've must've gotten lucky this time around." Blake commented.
"Do it really mater in the long run?" Weiss asked.
"... Good point." Blake said plainly.
"Alright guys, focus, Weiss, attack it from a distance like always, Blake, get ready to hinder that thing's stats as best you can, Yang, you're with me on the front line." Ruby ordered.
"Right!" Ruby's teammates agreed.
"And remember, this is our first dungeon boss, so we're making this something to remember." Ruby told them as she and Yang charged at the hydra while Weiss launched more icicles at it, while Blake tossed some Kunai at it, with Ruby and Yang lunging at the hydra as the beast roared with the chains on it's heads breaking.
Then, all of the sudden, time slowed to a halt.
"Huh?" Everyone wondered what happened.
"Why did time stop?" Marrow asked.
And Ruby's voice was heard echoing throughout the area.
"You know, never in my existence did I think that any of this would happen to me and my friends, I've always dreamed of being a huntress, but here we are taking on a monster the size of a two story building in a swamp." Ruby thought to herself.
"And to think, that not very long ago things weren't always like this." Ruby said as the screen faded to white.
"Oh, I think I get, it's a flashback to some capacity, like in the movies." Ruby theorized.
"Oh, I get it too, it's a story told by Ruby from her point of view." Blake said, being the one who reads the most.
"Exactly." Kai answered.
The screen went back to normal as it depicted a school that looked more like some sort of castle if anything, this was Beacon Academy, only thing is... the time of day was just before morning.
"Wonder why it's so dark out?" Elm said.
"Maybe something's going to happen here." Nora theorized.
All was peaceful throughout this atmosphere while a single man was watching over it all from the highest tower in Beacon, this was Ozpin.
Ozma and Salem's children saw this and looked at their father. "So that's one of your incarnations?" Kana asked.
"Indeed." Ozma answered while sighing.
"Are you alright, father?" Liana asked.
Ozma looked at her and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine." The man himself said.
He was just about ready to see the sun rise as it was around 6:00 AM, he was drinking from his favorite mug his favorite blend of coffee, and just was he was about to take a sip... something weird happened.
He looked to the left side of the window he was looking out of, and saw what could have been a shooting star... if, it weren't for the fact that it was falling out of the sky towards the Emerald Forest, the moment it landed, it launched a large amount of dirt and dust up into the area, so much so, that the point of impact could be seen from his position.
"What was that?" Adam asked.
"It's got to be what was caused us to go to them video game world." Blake theorized.
Ozpin glared at the area where... whatever it was, landed. "Interesting." He said as the sun started to rise.
Ozma sighed hearing this. "I guess I really do have to tone down the crypticness." Ozma told himself.
"I can coincide with that, even I have a hard time knowing what you're thinking." Glynda remarked.
It was currently 2:30 PM and everyone was pretty happy with their day, why an outsider might ask, because it's the weekend, no classes to deal with, only a small amount of homework, and no life-changing extracurricular assignments were among ANYBODY whatsoever... now at least...
Until the Beacon intercom system rung out through the campus.
"Would teams RWBY and JNPR please report to the main office immediately, repeat, would teams RWBY and JNPR please report to the main office immediately." The intercom system turned off with those words said, leaving some confused students in it's wake.
"Huh?" The students of Beacon in the theater weren't so different.
(Meanwhile with said teams in an elevator to the main office...)
"What do you think Ozpin wanted to talk about?" Yang asked.
"Maybe he's going to give us an assignment of some kind." Weiss theorized.
"Maybe... to scout out what it was that fell?" Weiss wondered.
"That does seem like a likely explanation." Salem added.
"Please tell me he's not going to give us any paperwork." Nora groaned.
Ren sighed at the alternate Nora's panic. "Oh come on, you'd be worried too if you were me." Nora said to him.
"Yes maybe, but still..." Jaune didn't blame Ren for sighing.
"You are lacking in the smarts department, don't you think." Pyrrha asked.
"HEY, I'm plenty smart!" Nora shot at the invincible girl.
"How do you calculated the area of a circle, answer and win a prize." Kai blurted out.
Nora heard the word prize and immediately began thinking. "Uh- um- well, it's simple, th- the answer is a um-" Nora started sweating bullets. "Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhh."
"Miss Valkyrie." Nora jolted up scared as she turned to Glynda. "I'll be sure to assist you with the more extracurricular studies when we get back to Beacon." Glynda told her, making the girl's heart crack as she fell back into her seat in sorrow.
Ren sighed as his partners behavior. "If he does, I'll try to help you out." He told Nora, earning a hug around the his right arm and a giggle from the girl herself.
"It's going to be alright, guys, maybe it's some sort of secret mission." Ruby told them with a smile on her face.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Because why not say that?" She remarked.
"Secret mission for what would be the question." Blake commented.
"Yeah, it could be anything, this is Ozpin we're talking about after all." Jaune said as the elevator slowed down.
"We're here." Pyrrha said.
"Okay, guys, play it cool." Ruby told everyone as the elevator doors slid open, revealing a fairly standard office that had a see-through ceiling with gears visible and spinning.
Standing in front of RWBY and JNPR was Ozpin himself.
His right hand Glynda Goodwitch (with her stern expression as always).
And the atlesian general himself, James Ironwood.
"Huh, you're there as well Ironwood?" Pietro noted.
"Then, it must be because of that object that fell." Arthur stated. "A man like Ironwood, hardly has the time for idle chat, so if he's there, it's for buisness purposes." He said.
Ironwood looked at him for a moment. "He's not wrong." He said, agreeing with the man.
"Good afternoon, children." Ozpin greet the eight of them.
"Hey there, headmaster." Ruby greeted back.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Pyrrha said lowering her head for a second.
"So, what's the reason we're here headmaster?" Yang asked.
"It isn't a homework assignment, is it?" Nora quickly asked.
"No, but now that you mention it..." Ozpin slowly said as Nora was panicking inside, making Ozpin chuckle. "Hehe, just kidding." Nora immediately sighed in relief.
"Huh, I guess this you has a noticeable sense of humor." Raven said.
"Hey, I have a sense of humor." Ozma said somewhat offended.
"Not offense, but if you do, you really need to work on expressing it." Qrow said jokingly.
Ozma blushed in embarrassment, but refrained from saying anything else.
"Can we get down to business, it's important." Glynda asked.
"Right, of course." Ozpin agreed.
"We've an important field assignment for you eight today." James Ironwood told them, confusing them.
"A field assignment?" Jaune repeated.
"Indeed." Ozpin confirmed.
"What exactly is it?" Weiss asked.
"It's simply some guard detail for some researchers in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin told them.
"Guard detail?" Blake asked.
"Guard detail?" Yang repeated.
"What does that entail exactly?" Velvet asked.
"It most likely means that this world's variant of Atlas is already all over whatever fell." James guessed.
"Yes." Ironwood said as he reached into his left pocket and pulled out a scroll, and placed it on the desk behind Ozpin (who then moved out of the way), which soon projected a holographic picture of what appeared to be a crash sight with a yellow glowing orb in the center, surrounded by scientists, atlesian technology and computers, and tents for shelter. "At exactly five hundred hours last night, an unknown object crashed into the Emerald Forest, luckily no one was there so we can confirm no injuries in the vicinity."
"Wow, just last night this thing crashed, and you guys are already all over it, huh?" Yang commented.
"Looks like you were right." Willow said.
"They're the atlesian army, they'll do anything as quickly as they can to achieve their goal." Weiss told them.
"That is true." Ironwood said as the screen showed a picture of Grimm nearby with the stationed atlesian soldiers struggling to hold them off. "However, because of the slight unrest and tense atmosphere in the area, my men have been having a bit of trouble holding the Grimm in the area off, which is where you eight come in." Ironwood said.
"You want us to act as guards to support the people there, correct?" Weiss made an educated guess.
"That's correct." Glynda answered as the recording of their initiation showed up next.
"Hey, it's our initiation." Ruby pointed out.
"You eight killed both a Nevermore AND a Deathstalker?" Whitley asked.
"Better believe it." Yang said, reminiscing on those times.
"Ozpin showed me how capable you eight can be, so I figured that this... excursion could be a simple matter for you." Ironwood said.
"But why us and not some of the more experienced teams?" Ren asked.
"I'll admit, we're good, well some of us are, but why us specifically?" Jaune added.
Ozpin smiled before a recording of the food fight between the two teams showed up. "Consider it a penalty for that bombastic food fight you had all that time ago." He answered, earning blushes from the eight students of Beacon.
The eight students in the theater blushed just much.
"You were wrapped up in a food fight?" Weiss's family asked Beacon's resident ice queen.
"Ruby, Yang, seriously?" Tai asked his daughter.
"You certainly know how to get into the battle though." Kali admitted.
"Don't encourage behavior like that." Jacques told the woman.
"Ruby, Did you seriously do all of them." Summer asked her daughter.
"Well, um, we..." Ruby struggled to find the right words for this kind of scenario.
"I can testify to that, they completely drenched me in grape soda for crying out loud." Neptune said, somewhat ticked off.
"I thought that might have been the reason." Weiss admitted.
Ironwood sighed inwardly at this, but shoved his concern to the side. "We have an airship at the docks ready for your leave, just be sure to get to it at 4:00 exactly, and take what you need only." The general stated.
"Um, right, you can count on us." Ruby said after she recovered from her blushing.
"Alright, you can leave to get ready now." Ozpin said as they bowed their heads in respect and left through the elevator.
(In the Emerald Forest at 4:05 PM...)
The two teams of four were currently on a atlesian bullhead airship as they soared through the air above the Emerald Forest... bickering amongst themselves all the while.
"I can't believe that we got thrown into this because of your immaturity." Weiss complained.
"WHAT! You're the one who started the food fight in the first place." Yang shot back.
"Wait, she did?" Winter asked.
"Yep, got hit in the face by a cream pie and then-" Yang was cut off by Weiss's panicked voice.
"NOT. ANOTHER. WORD!" Weiss shouted at the blonde.
"You didn't deny it." Ren piped in.
"Quiet you." Weiss snapped.
"I got thrown into a window because of that fight, remember?" Jaune said.
"Hey, who was it that tossed you at it like a sack of potatoes, again." Weiss sarcastically asked looking over to Nora.
"Um... Pyrrha?" Nora sheepishly answered, causing Ren to facepalm.
"Nora, no blaming others for what you've done." Ren muttered.
"Guys, calm down, were almost near the crash site." Blake told them.
The airship lowered itself to the ground as the two teams jumped of it and hit the ground with their weapons drawn just in case if any Grimm showed up. Ruby held her scythe, Crescent Rose, with hand while sticking it in the ground as she pulled out her scroll from her pocket, depicting a map with a certain area marked on it. "The crash site is not too far away, but let's go in with caution." Ruby said.
"Right." Her friends agreed.
"My my, that's some camaraderie you eight have there." Jacques commented.
"Yeah, perfect agreement." Cinder added.
They moved through the bushes and trees for a little bit to hear voices near them. "That must be them." Ren theorized as the voices got a bit louder.
They moved through one last set of bushes before they came across the crash site with scientists typing away on computers, doctors tending to what wounded there were, and soldiers standing by to protect them all. "And here we are." Yang said.
One of the scientists looked at them for a second and realized that there were new arrivals. "Oh, might you be the backup Ironwood promised?" The scientist asked.
"That's right, huntsman and huntresses in training, teams RWBY and JNPR at your service." Ruby declared.
"Oh good, we've quite frankly been needing some good news around here for the past four hours, everything we've tried to see just what this... thing is ended up in failure after failure." The scientist told them as he showed them a crater in the middle of the area that was surrounded by clear anti-radiation walls.
He showed them what it was in the crater and they were... somewhat confused.
It was a yellow glowing orb that was stuck in the crater, with two scientists monitoring it up close while wearing hazmat suits just in case.
"An orb?" Terra noted.
Tyrian looked at the orb and, even though they were only viewing this world, could feel that something was... odd about it.
"What is it?" Weiss asked, biting the bullet.
"That's the thing, we don't know." The scientist told them.
"What?" Pyrrha said astonished.
"Anything we've done to try and collect a sample of it resulted in samples vanishing about as quickly as it came off the main body the orb, and it would also seem that the pieces we do get off of it just reappear on the orb." The scientist explained.
"That is strange." Jaune commented.
"Indeed." The scientist began explaining the situation again before Ruby started to tune him out.
She began to zone in on the orb with her silver eyes, as the orb's light began to catch her eye, and hypnotically signal to her that... something was going to happen.
"Look away kid, now!" Tyrian muttered, loud enough for Salem to catch it.
Until...
"bECoME As POwEr!" A robotic voice echoed in her mind with those words.
"Everyone nearly jumped at hearing the robotic voice.
"That voice was creepy." Jaune admitted.
"You think, it sounded like something you'd hear from a psychotic robot it an apocalypse." Nora said pointing at the screen.
Ruby gasped as she recovered from whatever she went through, but the words she heard, she knew one thing about them above all else.
They were from the orb.
"I don't like this." Ruby whispered.
"They've got to get away from there NOW!" Tyrian said.
"Huh?" Cinder was shocked to hear this from the psychotic scorpion Faunus himself. "Are you... actually carling about what happens to them?" She asked in a baffled tone.
"Let's just say that Salem turning over a new leaf made me do the same." Tyrian admitted.
"Huh?" Everyone said as they heard Ruby.
"What?" Yang asked.
"What do you mean?" the scientist asked.
"Oh, sorry I w-" Ruby was cut off by the orb, which started to intensify in terms of brightness.
"AH, what's happening?!" Nora asked, almost blinded by the light.
"I DON'T KNOW!" The scientist yelled in panic.
"Sir, we're getting massive energy reading from th-" One of the scientists was cut off as the computer he was on short-circuited and the screen shattered.
"That's not good." Summer said in some amount of panic.
"What's the orb-" Yang was cut off by the orb, which began speaking.
"DEStrOy AlL eVil, dEstRoY aLL EviL!" It said in a creepy robotic voice.
"What?" Ozma wondered what the orb was talking about.
"Destroy all evil?" Clover repeated.
"I feel like I know what it means, but what does it mean really?" James wondered.
"What the?" Weiss was shocked by the sudden change in events.
"It's speaking?" Ruby wondered while panicking.
"BeComE aS heRoES!" The orb's voice echoed throughout the area as eight differently colored tentacles sprouted out of it, gold, bronze, pink and green tentacles were on the top of the orb, while red, light blue, black, and yellow tentacles were on the bottom.
"Wait, aren't those your colors to some extent." Qrow asked RWBY and JNPR.
"Yeah, sort of." Blake answered.
"But what are they doing on those tentacles?" Hazel asked.
"gUArdIanS BecoMe SAviors!" The top four tentacles on the orb suddenly shot forward at team JNPR, skewering them and turning them into differently colored pixels, which were then absorbed by the tentacles.
"GUYS!" Ruby cried out as she saw her friends get absorbed by the orb.
The audience went crazy seeing the four of them taken out so easily.
"They were taken out so quickly." Jacques gasped.
"OH COME ON, we couldn't even react to that kind of speed." Nora complained.
"That's some technology." Pietro couldn't help but admit.
"SaVioRs BE ReBUilt!" The orb's voice echoed throughout the area as the scientists and doctors rans away while the soldiers tried shooting at it.
"YOU BASTARD!" Yang shouted as she shot herself forward to punch the orb, but the orb simply lifted it's yellow tentacle, pointing the tip towards Yang's fist.
When Yang made contact with the tentacle, the same thing that happened to team JNPR happened to her as well.
"That sphere is intelligent." Winter gasped seeing how it absorbed Yang.
"If it was going to attack randomly, it would have absorbed the scientists and soldiers BEFORE RWBY and JNPR arrived." Glynda said.
"It's a classic tale of the fly caught in the spider's web." Vine gasped.
"YANG, NO!" Ruby cried out with tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Ruby, we've got to go, NOW!" Weiss said as she grabbed hold of Ruby's shoulder.
"Move, before-" Blake couldn't get anything else out before the black tentacle skewered and absorbed her too.
"BLAKE!" The two remaining huntresses cried out before everything went black.
"What happened just then?" Willow asked.
"You don't think that they got hit, do you." Raven asked with genuine concern.
"They must've been." Anna grimaced.
Ruby groggily opened her eyes as she groaned in pain. "Ugh, wh- what happened." She completely opened her eyes as she remembered everything that happened at the crash site.
Including what happened to her friends.
"OH NO!" She cried out as she sat up, only to realize something was off, she looked down and realized that she wasn't wearing anything and her whole body was veiled in a white light.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Ruby screamed in embaressed panic.
"AVERT YOUR EYES, AVERT YOUR EYES!" Summer shouted while jumping at the screen and trying (and miserably failing) to cover it.
The males turned their heads away while the females closed their eyes.
"Now you know how feel." Cinder remarked, remembering that one world where she had a very floaty personality.
Ruby blushed up a storm and covered her modesty the best she could.
She looked around sheepishly... and was confused.
She saw that she was in a light blue cybernetic interspace of some sort, with cubes all over the area and floating overhead, even acting as a floor, and her friends and teammates were scattered all over the place, with their bodies covered in the same light hers was covered in.
"What the?" Ruby muttered in confusion.
"'What the' is right, what IS that place?" Arthur asked, intrigued by the space this Ruby found herself in.
"Must be some sort of cybernetic interspace." Pietro theorized, but then asked. "But what are they doing there in the first place."
"Ugh..." A groan of pain from a familiar voice was heard by her as she turned to see Yang getting up while rubbing her head.
"YANG!" Ruby cried out as she went to hug her.
"Ru-OW!" Yang grunted in pain as she Ruby wrapped her wrapped her in a bear hug. "I'm in pain here." Yang squeaked out.
"Oh sorry, I just thought something terrible happened to you." Ruby apologized.
"Damn, what happened to us, anyways." Jaune's voice asked as he rose up from his knocked out stated.
"You got creamed by some crazy orb, that's what." Mercury remarked, making the eight students glare at him.
"I feel like a got hit by a truck, and lived." Nora groaned in aching pain.
"You and me both." Weiss said as she heard Nora.
"Huh, never thought I'd see the day where I'd agree with Nora of all people." Weiss said to herself.
"I heard that." Nora snapped.
"Where are we?" Ren said as he took in the surrounding area.
"We appear to be in some sort of cyberspace." Pyrrha theorized.
"Is it because of what that orb?" Blake asked.
"It has to be, I mean-" Yang got interrupted by something talking.
"Commencing reincarnation process, step 1: Choice of code name." A female digital voice said as eight screens appeared in front of everyone.
"Huh?" Everyone said at the same time.
"Reincarnation process?" Salem asked.
"You'll find out soon enough." Kai said.
The screen consisted of a single line above a keyboard with a curved arrow next to it with a black and white color scheme.
"Notes, please choose a code name that is not the name of your previous incarnation." The voice clarified.
"Huh?" Was the collective response amongst the eight of them.
"Wait, what was that voice, and what does it mean "reincarnation process"?" Jaune asked.
"Wait, what was that voice, and what does it mean "reincarnation process"?" Jaune asked.
Jaune was mildly shocked at the fact that the screen seemed to mimic him to a scarily accurate degree, but brushed it aside.
"I don't know." Weiss said raising her hands up.
"The reincarnation process is a sequence of events as to what the user wishes to fight and look like in the next world, as per the fact that you are now in the Bridge of Reincarnation." The voice answered.
"Bridge of Reincarnation?" Ruby parroted.
"It must be talking about where they are right now." Liana guessed, not entirely acquainted with technology.
"The voice must be talking about this digital space we're in." Pyrrha theorized.
"Please select a name, or would you like a name picked out for you?" The voice asked.
"Um..." Ruby shrugged as she punched in a name.
"Um, Ruby, are you sure you should be doing that?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, I mean, what if it ends up being a trap?" Nora said, agreeing with the man.
"Well, it's not like we've got much else to do here." Ruby protested as she finished.
"Is the name Crescent Rose acceptable?" The voice asked Ruby.
"Yes." Ruby answered.
"Your choice of name is the one you have for your weapon?" Glynda asked.
"Hey, can you blame me, this whole thing got sprung on me." Ruby retorted.
"Yeah, and besides, it's only a code name, not her real one." Yang said, taking her sister's side.
"You went with the name of your weapon, of course." Weiss commented as she decided to have this system pick a name for her out of curiosity.
Letters randomly showed up on her screen and soon depicted a name for her. "Is the name Snowfall acceptable?" The voice asked Weiss.
"Huh, that's actually sounds like a nice code name for me." Weiss said aloud.
"It looks like whatever this system is supposed to be is harmless." Blake noted as she tried making a code name for herself , followed by everyone else.
"Is the name Shadow Cat/Blazing Fist/Arcross/Battle Queen/Strikeblade/Pink Lightning acceptable." The system asked.
"Shadow Cat?" Blake repeated as she thought about the name for a few seconds. "Sounds pretty cool." She said.
"I love my code name, makes me sound like a superhero or something." Nora cheered punching the air above her.
"A mix of Arc and Cross, sounds pretty awesome." Jaune added.
"I think it's a lovely name." Pyrrha said.
"Battle queen and Blazing Fist are pretty badass if you ask me." Yang pitched in with her opinion.
Everyone turned to Ren to hear his opinion. "My other's code name is... nice, sounds intimidating, to some degree." Ren answered.
"I guess it can work." Blake said.
"Hehe, badass." Yang cheered at the name she got.
"A mix of arc and cross, I like it." Jaune said.
"Umm, I guess it can work to some capacity." Pyrrha sheepishly said to herself.
"Yours is pretty cool, Ren." Nora commented.
"And yours is very much fitting." Ren remarked.
"Thank you." Nora said as they all answered yes.
"Please note that you are able to use your real names however you see fit, but upon meeting anyone you don't know, it is highly recommended that you use your code name." The digital voice told them.
"Oh, that makes sense." Weiss said.
"Yeah, it does." Emerald said, agreeing with that logic.
"Got to be careful with who's around you." Tyrian added.
"Especially when going into a new world." Qrow finished, before a thought occurred to him. "Hmmm." He hummed to himself.
"Something wrong, brother?" Raven asked.
"Not really, I just feel like there's a word to describe an instance like this." Qrow said.
That got people to think about it, until...
"Isekai." Kai said simply.
Everyone looked to the writer confused. "Huh?" Summer muttered.
"Bless you?" Marrow said, not knowing what he just said.
"Isekai, it's a phrase people in my world use to describe the instance where someone from one world gets put into, or displaced in another." Kai said, clearing up their confusion.
"Isekai?" Ruby repeated what the writer said. "Sounds like a cool phrase." She said.
"It does have a catchy ring to it." Liana added.
"So that we don't give away our real names, very thoughtful." Pyrrha added.
"Now what?" Jaune asked.
"Proceeding to step two: Choice of Gender." The voice answered.
What everyone did next should be obvious.
Tyrian snorted at the simple response the eight student's on screen gave to the system. "It better have been obvious." He joked.
"Okay, now what?" Ruby asked.
"Proceeding to step three: Choice of Kinmen Race." The voice answered again.
"Huh?" Blake was shocked as to what that could have meant.
"Race?" Weiss asked.
"Kinmen races are a type of classification that belong to all beings that shall be reincarnated, some races have more benefit over others, for instance, the Magikin are able to utilize magic more effective most other races, while the Dracokin has high balanced stats in everything but magic, and has higher tolerance to heat and fire."
"Wait, this world they're going to has ACTUAL magic in it?" Weiss asked, catching bits about what the system said.
"Yeah, this world has magic in it, but it's completely different compared to what you guys are used to, and I use that term loosely because most didn't even realize that magic existed up until you came here." Kai answered.
"That would most certainly explain why the four you were able to use those attacks in the beginning." Oobleck said.
"That... Sounds. AWESOME! Sign me up." Yang said as a list of races showed up in from of them.
Originkin
Magikin
Demonkin
Beastkin
Dracokin
Cyberkin
Skykin
Aquakin
"Wow, eight different Kinmen races?" Nora wowed at the options.
"Warning, only one kinmen race and chosen for one amongst you." The voice warned them. "Also, please note that choice of kinmen race will result in most skills and abilities being different from one another."
"So they can only choose one race amongst them." Elm said.
"Wait a minute." Ozma said as Kai paused the screen. "Eight different Kinmen races, RWBY and JNPR combined are comprised of eight people, and only one race per person." Ozma whispered to himself.
"Ummm, Ozma?" Salem asked.
"Something's off." Ozma said definitively.
"What do you mean." Port wondered.
"Don't you think that the numbers are a bit too coincidental?" Ozma asked everyone.
"Wait." Ironwood looked at the race options himself, and arrived at the same conclusion. "Yeah, he's right, it's almost like the "One race per person" rule is full of hot air." The general of Atlas said.
"Can you provide us with some insight on that fact?" Ozma asked Kai.
"Hate to tell you this, but that's top secret." Kai simply answered.
Everyone sighed at this. "Of course it is." Winter muttered.
"So only one of us can choose one each race, huh?" Yang wondered.
"And each one has different benefits to them." Weiss guessed.
"Welp, I already know which one I'm going with." Yang said as she picked the Dracokin race.
"I'd probably do the same thing." Yang stated.
"Ahem, probably?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I do too." Blake picked the Beastkin race, as she felt it would be the most comfortable to go with.
"I've got a good feeling about this one." Nora said as she chose the Skykin race.
"The Aquakin race sounds advantagious." Ren commented as he chose said race.
"I'm interested in what the magic of this world is, so I'll go with the Magikin." Weiss said.
"I'll take the Cyberkin." Jaune said.
"Maybe... the Demonkin for me then?" Pyrrha said somewhat unsure about her decision.
"If the one race per person thing it full of hot air, I'd probably not go with that race, sounds a bit overly intimidating." Pyrrha admitted.
"All right then... guess I'm stuck with the Originkin race." Ruby said.
"Final confirmation, are you 100% positive these are your selected races are the ones you wish, once confirmed, your body will painlessly morph into the shape of the race you chose, and you will remain like that until certain conditions have been met." The voice warned them.
"Well, if it's painless, then I honestly don't see why not." Ruby said as everyone nodded.
"Very well, commencing race transmutation process." The voice said as the white light on everyone's bodies began to increase in brightness.
"Whoa, now what's-" Weiss was cut off as the light blinded them.
The light subsided as the eight them now had new features to their bodies... somewhat.
Weiss's new features only consisted of a pair of pointy ears in place of her normal ones.
"Weiss is an elf now?" Ruby asked.
"It's like she's a Faunus, but at the same time, it's like she's not." Whitley commented.
Blake's new features consisted of more bigger cat ears and a cat's tail on her tailbone.
"Another animal feature?" Ghira wondered.
"I feel like I should be pissed off about something right now, but I don't know what." Adam said.
"I think the tail is cute." Kali said gushing about the tail.
"Ugh, mom." Blake sighed in embarrassment.
Yang's new features consisted of two dragon horns that curved backwards on top of her head, sharp teeth, a dragon-like tail, dragon wings on her back, and yellow scales that covered the sides and back of her neck.
"Wow, it's like a mismatch of different Faunus traits mixed together." Tai commented at the first sight of Yang's new look.
"That's kinda scary admittedly, if that's what it takes to look like that." Cardin commented.
"Don't ruin my moment, Cardin." Yang pleaded. "I'm admiring my other selves awesomeness." She stated.
Jaune's new features consisted of blue glowing eyes with gray sclera... and the fact that his arms and legs were hovering beside his joints, only being seemingly connected by a series of blue holographic magnetic fields (think like Peni Parker's robot friend from Spider-man into the spider-verse), and there was a gray metallic backpack of sorts attached to his back.
"I'm a robot!" Jaune exclaimed.
"YOU LOOK SO COOL!" Ruby gushed, seeing this Jaune's new body.
"He looks like a superhero to some capacity." Oscar admitted.
Pyrrha's new features consisted of noticeably darker skin all over her body (Sort of a bluish color), curved ram horns on her head, devil wings attached to the area above her tailbone, and a demon's tail attached to her tailbone.
Everyone, especially Pyrrha, was offset by the invincible girl's new look. "She's looks... ummm..." Port struggled to say the words without sounding offensive.
"Kinda intimidating." Nora shuddered.
"I'd say mystifying, but..." Cinder realized that she was going to have to play nice at some point, so she set aside whatever bad intentions she had in mind.
"She looks good, but it all comes down to whether or not she likes it." Oscar told everyone.
"He isn't wrong, but she's definitely going to have to get used to this new body." Hazel said.
Nora's new features only consisted of a pair of white wings sprouting out of her back.
"Wings." Nora gasped at the sight. "Wings." Her pupils began to grow as she realized what happened to her other self. " I HAVE WINGS!" She exclaimed with glee until she deflated. "But only in another world." Nora sobbed as she slumped back into her seat.
And Ren's new features were a pair of gills on both sides of his neck, and fish-like fins on his arms and legs.
"Huh, seems like that new body is most fit for underwater travel." Ren observed.
"Definitely." Weiss said, agreeing with the obvious.
Meanwhile, while Ruby didn't gain new features, she was noticeably taller than she previously was, about five inches taller than her standard height, and her arms and legs were a bit more longer and they previously were.
"Aaawww... I don't get any new features." Ruby pouted in disappointment.
"Hey, at least your growth spurt came in early." Yang joked.
"Maybe, but I would've like even a prismatic hair color or something, seriously, you'd think that the species name "Originkin" would make them sound super ultra powerful, but they, only look like taller than average people." Ruby complained.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, they say, simple is best." Jacques said to the girl.
"Wow, we're so different from when we got here." Yang said, feeling her new dragon horns.
"Yeah, this is... certainly a new experience." Blake said, blushing as she felt her new tail wagging behind her.
"So... this is the body of a Demonkin?" Pyrrha said as she felt her new body parts.
"If it makes you feel nice, you look pretty cool Pyrrha." Jaune complemented. "At least your body is organic to some capacity." Jaune mumbled as he looked at his limbs and their lack of actual joints.
"Hey, at least you guys got something new, even Weiss got those pointy elf ears." Ruby complained.
"Say what now?" Weiss muttered as she felt her ears, and noticed that they were noticeably pointier then normal. "So this is what a Magikin's trait is?" Weiss asked herself. "But... I feel like I should be more panicked about getting my body altered, even to such a minuscule degree like this, why am I so calm?" Weiss asked in her head.
"Meanwhile, I only got a forced growth sprout or something." Ruby complained while looking glum.
"Hey, being taller has its perks you know." Yang told her.
"Eh, I guess." Ruby said perking up a little.
"It sure feels weird though, suddenly, having wings on my back." Nora commented as she spread her wings while looking at them. "But at the exact same time, I feel like I had them forever." Nora added.
"Huh, must be part of the system or something?" James guessed.
"How do you think I feel, suddenly having gills now?" Ren muttered.
"Choice of race, complete. Proceeding to step four: choice of class/weapon." The voice said.
"Ooohhh boy, this part sounds awesome." Ruby said with glee while hopping up and down.
"Choice of class/weapon is the determining of what variety of fighting style you'll make use of." The voice explained as a list popped up in front of them, and... it was certainly expansive to say the least.
"WOW! TWENTY-TWO different classes to choose from?" Yang exclaimed, shocked by what she was seeing.
Hero
Knight
Black Knight
White Knight
Mage
Cleric
Burglar
Lancer
Fighter
Ninja
Ronin
Duelist
Songstress
Blacksmith
Archer
Grappler
Trader
Gunner
Magihammer
Servant
Star Magus
Rune Magus
"Whoa, those are a lot of possible choices." Blake commented, a bit overwhelmed by the choices.
"There isn't a single RPG video game in Remnant with that many options." Ruby said marveling at the classes and what they could possibly do.
"And to think that there are unlockable classes hidden in the system too." Kai said.
"There are more?" Summer asked.
"What are they?" Vernal couldn't help but ask.
Kai merely did a zipping gesture across his face, giving everyone his answer at the moment.
"How are we going to choose just one?" Nora asked.
"Please note, the class you choose will be one that you'll be stuck as for quite some time, but you'll be able to change classes and weapons once you reach a certain point." The voice answered.
"But still... it's a bit overwhelming to some capacity." Weiss muttered.
"Would you like a class recommended for you?" The voice asked.
Ruby wondered about this. "Why not, I guess?" Ruby said.
The voice immediately pulled up a class. "The recommended class for Ruby is... Hero." The voice said.
"Huh, the system is quite right on that mark, to some extent." Ozma commented.
"Yep, I wouldn't have it any other way." Ruby said. "I always have wanted to be a hero figure myself." She stated.
"Wow, that sounds cool." Ruby commented, picking the recommended class.
"Which weapon would you like to wield?" The voice asked again as a list of choices popped up.
"Let's see... swords, greatswords, guns... OH, OH, SCYTHE, PERFECT!" Ruby exclaimed as she picked said weapon.
"Huh, she got exactly what she want to a perfect degree." Weiss commented.
"And I couldn't be more glad." Ruby stated.
"I know which one I want." Yang said as she chose the Grappler class.
"Be warned, the grappler class can only wield one weapon type, are you sure this is the class you want for the time being?" The voice asked.
"You know it." Yang answered.
"Gee, I wonder what that one weapon is supposed to be." Tai jokingly said.
"I"ll go with the Mage class, since these Magikin are well-versed in magic apparently." Weiss said.
"I see the word hammer in one of them." Nora said as she picked the Magihammer class.
"Fitting pick." Yang joked as well.
"I'd take the Ninja, but that's something Blake would want, right?" Ren asked the girl.
"Yep." Blake said as she chose said class.
"So I'll go with the Ronin class." Ren said.
"I'd say thanks, but..." Blake said until...
"No need, I get it." Ren said.
"Gotcha." Blake said back.
"I'll take the regular Knight class then, seems more balanced than the other two variants." Jaune said.
"That's good thinking, balance is a good thing to have." Arthur commented.
"Hmmm... what's the recommended class for me?" Pyrrha asked.
"The recommended class for Pyrrha is... Lancer." The voice answered.
"All right then, Lancer it is." Pyrrha declared.
"Are you positive that this is the class you want?" The voice asked to each of them individually.
"Yes." The eight of them definitively answered.
"Very well then, all steps of the reincarnation process have been completed, please enter the nearby door to begin your life in the next world." The voice explained as a large golden door opened in front of them.
Everyone was shocked to see the door. "Wonder what's on the other side." Nora couldn't help but ask.
"Another world, obviously." Tyrian answered.
"Oh, you know what I mean." Nora snapped at him.
"Well, you guys ready?" Ruby asked her friends.
"Not really, but we've got to do this to figure out what's going on." Weiss said.
"Ditto on that." Blake said, agreeing with the ice queen.
"Same." The rest of them said.
"Okay then... let's go." Ruby said with adamance as she ran through the door.
"Hey, wait up!" Weiss exclaimed.
"Come on." Yang said excitedly.
"Oh boy." Jaune muttered as he and the rest of team JNPR and Blake followed suit.
"I hope we don't regret following through with whatever this is." Ren commented.
"You and me both." Blake said before they both walked in.
Once the eight of them finally walked through the door, it slammed shut and disappeared, leaving nothing but the cybernetic landscape behind.
The screen then faded to black.
"And that's the end of this one." Kai said.
"Aaawww..." Nora pouted. "I wanted to see my other self's abilities." She whined.
"Maybe at another time." Ruby asked.
"Maybe." Kai said before thinking.
"Something one your mind?" Clover asked.
"Not really, but I've decided that I'm going to let one of you pick which world we see." Kai said before looking towards Yang. "Yang, you have the wheel, now steer." Kai told her.
"Ummm... uh, I'm not too sure, well... since I was part dragon in this one, how about... something involving dragons to some extent." Yang said weirdly.
Kai heard this and hummed. "Dragons to some extent..." Kai hummed for a moment before thinking of something. "EUREKA! I've got one." Kai cheered to himself.
"What's it about?" Ruby asked.
"Okay, so, Yang said dragons to some extent, so what if the world only involved dragons..." Kai said before Dizzy came flying by giving the Kai a drumroll and disappearing.
"Thank you Dizzy." Kai thanked the Cheshire Cat before saying what was on his mind. "In title."
That confused literally everyone present before Vernal bit the bullet and asked. "Isn't that technically false advertising then." She asked.
"Trust me, you all are going to love it." Kai said before thinking about what he just said. "Well, most of you, most likely." Kai said, quickly looking at and away from Adam as the screen lit up.
...
This, to those who are confused, is a completely original chapter, one that will also act as a preview to a story that I'm honestly looking really forward to writing, the story will be called:
Gamers from Remnant
I got inspired to try my hand at writing the story when watching virtual reality video game anime, more specifically the anime called BOFURI: I don't want to get hurt, so I max out my defense... yes that is the actual full title of the anime.
The first chapter is already prepped for posting, I just won't do right away, maybe for when I'm not posting anything for a while, but either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and look forward to the next one, where the hero fight's the darkness of evil... with its own power, think of that what you will.
By the way, for the astronomically small few who are wondering, I'm going to be posting info about the inner workings of the that upcoming fanfic on my deviantart account, the classes, the races, the weaponry, even the monsters that will appear in the fanfic itself, so try to look forward to that, I'm really looking forward to doing so.
Anyways, for those who read all the way through, here's a preview of the next chapter, but I'm only going to say it in one line for you:
Adam: My powers... REPELLED, but... wait a second. That sword...
P.S: I have ZERO idea as what John Wick, so as much you may or may not want to do so, STOP TELLING TO WRITE A CHAPTER ABOUT SOMETHING I KNOW ZILCH ABOUT, I've put my foot down on the subject, and it isn't coming back up! You know who you are.
And sorry for how harsh I may have sounded, but I had to say my piece on it.