A/N (Please Read): Morning everyone! New chapter coming at ya! Alright, so this one's a bit on the shorter side again, but considering the holiday craziness that I've had to deal with this past week, I kind of expected that. Still, I think this chapter is still pretty good and I think you all will get a pretty good kick out of it! That said, a couple more things before we get started; First, I'm gonna be posting this on A03 later in the afternoon, so expect that to be the standard way of how these posts will work. Secondly, stay tuned to the end of the chapter for yet another new story announcement! Alright, with that said, let's get to it, shall we? This is…
Chapter 118: News in the Final Stretch
…..
Lisa Lavender whistled a little tune to herself as she continued to pack up her news equipment. As she had hoped, the interview with Ben, Rex and Team RWBY had gone as well as she could've expected, if not, even MORE so. She couldn't help but grin giddily to herself as she shut the door on the side of her news van, the prospect of the world gaining new heroes making her utterly overjoyed. 'Ooh, I cannot WAIT until the press conference later!' she thought to herself. 'I'm sure the public will get a kick out of what they have to say!' But then, another thought occurred to her that she hadn't taken into account before now. 'Oh god… how will they react when they hear that Ben has to go back to his world?! The interview hasn't even been AIRED yet! Oh god, I need to tell them!'
"Hey Lisa!"
"AH!" The reporter leapt up into the air out of shock, spinning around to see her interviewees approaching her. Along with them were Gwen, Kevin, Team JNPR, Ilia and Penny, with Team SN bringing up the rear. With them were Winter, whom she recognized from yesterday, an old man in a floral pattern shirt, and a tall, redheaded woman who seemed vaguely familiar to the Lisa, though from where, she couldn't quite place. "O-Oh! It's just you all. Sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts for a second there."
"Hehe, it's okay, Lisa" Ben assured. "Sorry for spooking ya."
"No problem." Lisa's eyes then darted over toward the older man and the redheaded woman in curiosity. "Oh, and who would you two be?"
Max gave her a smile in greeting. "Ah, you must be Miss Lavender. I understand that you just interviewed my grandson. Max Tennyson, a pleasure to meet you."
Lisa's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Oh my goodness, YOU'RE Ben's grandfather?! He mentioned you several times in our interview!" She walked up and shook the old man's hand. "It's an absolute pleasure, sir. Your grandson mentioned many time how you were such an inspiration for him in him becoming the hero he is today!"
"Heh, I'm sure he did." Max gave Ben a brief glance before returning to Lisa. "But really, it's no big deal. Just a Plumber doing a Plumber's job."
"Which, by the way, it VERY interesting to me." Lisa added. "I mean, SPACE POLICE? How much more amazing can this universe of yours get, am I right?" She directed her gaze over to the redheaded woman, tilting her head. "And who would you be ma'am? You look quite familiar…"
Athena blinked before realizing something. "Ah! Right, my hair isn't up. One moment…" She reached into her pocket and took out a metal hair clamp before pulling her hair back into an upward ponytail, with Lisa's eyes widening in surprise. "There, better?"
Lisa's jaw practically unhinged at the sight of the woman before her, her eyes darting between Athena and Pyrrha in realization. "You're… YOU'RE ATHENA NIKOS! I-I had no idea that you were in Vale as well! How long have you—"
"About two and a half weeks." Athena answered as she pulled Pyrrha into a side hug. "I came to make sure that my daughter was okay after the Battle for Beacon."
The reporter let out a shaky breath as she gave Athena a bow. "Well, I must say that it is quite the honor to meet you, ma'am! I have been a fan of your work for quite some time."
"Thank you very much. So, are you headed back to Vale now that you have concluded your interview?"
Lisa shook her head. "Oh, far from it. There's still the big press conference that's going to be happening in Patchwork today."
Yang's eyes widened at that. "Oh god, you're right! We still need to do all THAT before we leave too, don't we?"
Kevin scoffed and rolled his eyes. "See, this is why I was glad that our secret wasn't public in Remnant before now; we didn't have to do any media appearances or some crap like that."
"Kevin, you've NEVER had to do any media before." Gwen said with a raised brow. "It's all pretty much been Ben since his secret came out."
"Well yeah… but it was still annoying." Kevin grumbled.
Lisa let out a heartly laugh at the couple's banter, her hand covering her chest as she did. "Hahaha! Oh don't worry, kids, it won't be so bad… at least I hope." The white-haired woman cringed a bit as she shifted her eyes to the side. "Not sure how the public will feel about you all having to leave so soon after you've been discovered, but…"
"Oh jeez, that's right!" Rex slapped is forehead. "What the heck will we do about that?! The people will probably freak out at the news of us leaving!"
Blake's hand went to her neck as she too voiced her concerns. "Yeah… and what's worse is that they don't even know we're going to another dimension since the interview hasn't been seen yet. What if they don't believe us when we're telling the truth?"
Weiss hugged her arms worriedly. "And now that the public knows about Salem, too, that'll make things a WHOLE lot more difficult." Her eyes shifted down toward the ground. "If the people become too anxious, then that could mean…"
"Woah, woah, woah, let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, okay?" Ben interjected, hoping to calm everyone down. "Yes, this IS a problem, but I think it's one that we can solve pretty easily…" He craned his head toward Lisa and pointed to the van. "You've got all of the footage from the interview, right?"
"I do." Lisa pat the side of the van. "Got it all on camera and right in here."
"Great, so here's what I'm thinking; we play a bit of the interview AT the press conference FOR the people so that they get an idea of what's going on." Ben explained, piquing everyone's interest. "Since the entire world is probably gonna be watching, they'll get the chance to see all of the otherworldly stuff that we have and hopefully, they'll be able to see that we're telling the truth about us coming from another dimension."
Everyone brightened up at the idea as Ben laid it out to them, earning him nods of approval. "Hey, that's a pretty good idea, Ben!" Jaune commended. "I mean, it'd probably be hard to argue after we present that to them."
"It does sound like a good plan." Pyrrha agreed. "However, there IS another problem; how do we convince the public that they'll be safe until our return? I mean, we will likely be gone for quite a while, so they will need some reassurance that they will be safe from Salem's forces going forward."
Ben placed his hands on his hips. "That, we'll have to talk with General Ironwood about. I'm pretty sure he'll have a good plan lined up, but just in case, I'll talk to him about what I think would be a good plan." He directed his eyes back to Lisa with a smirk. "But all that aside, I'm surprised that you didn't join us for the call, Lisa." He gestured to Gwen and Kevin. "You probably would've gotten a kick out of it since our mothers were on the line."
Lisa's eyebrows shot up at that. "They WERE?! SHOOT! I SHOULD have been there, shouldn't I?" She huffed and folded her arms in frustration. "I was wooried that I'd be interrupting something important since you said an "Agent Six" would be the one on the other end."
"Well, he WAS." Rex clarified. "But he just gave us a quick briefing on what's going on over there before transferring us over to the Tennysons and Kev's mom." At that moment, a small smirk came to Rex's face. "By the way, have you tried experimenting now that you know that you've got a Semblance?"
Lisa sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Hehe, uh… no. To be honest, now that I know about it, I'm kinda worried that it won't work for me anymore."
This garnered a lot of confused faces from the others. "W-Wait, what?" Winter questioned. "Rex, what ARE you two talking about?"
As it happened, it was Sun who answered her question. "Oh, we asked Lisa how she was able to go through the whole battle yesterday without getting much of a scratch on her, and then she explained that she had a "good luck" streak when it came to dangerous situations." The monkey boy used air quotes for emphasis. "But then, when she told us how this streak got started, we put two and two together pretty quick that it must've been her Semblance."
Neptune smirked and glanced over to Lisa. "Yeah, ya don't just keep getting out of bad spots like that without it being a coincidence. We're thinking that she must have some kind of passive Semblance like Qrow."
Winter nodded in understanding. "Hm, I see." She directed her eyes toward Lisa and gave a smile. "Well, if your Semblance truly is passive, then you will not need to worry about knowing that it is there. Even when people with passive Semblances know that they have them, it doesn't affect how the Semblance works."
Yang briefly set her gaze over to her house. "Yeah, if that were the case, then Uncle Qrow would be able to shut his off. But unfortunately, he can't."
"Hm, I see…" Lisa put a finger to her chin in thought. "Well, I suppose all that's left is to test it. The kids think that it's some sort of threat-avoidance Semblance… but the only way to try and test that would be to be put in danger."
"Is that so?" Nora said with a bright, cheery smile as she pulled out her hammer. "Well, I think I know ONE way to test out that theory!"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Lisa's eyes widened and she took a step back, the sight of Magnhild practically petrifying her. "You can't be serious, can you?! You actually want to HIT me with that hammer?!"
"Nora!" Ren strode forward and pushed Magnhild down, locking eyes with his hyperactive best friend. "We do not threaten to hit our guests."
Ilia folded her arms and shook her head. "Yeah, besides, we don't really know HOW this "threat-avoidance" Semblance works or what it considers to BE a threat." She turned toward Lisa and raised a brow. "Miss Lavender, can you give us any other details on how your Semblance might work?"
After collecting herself, Lisa gave Ilia the best answer she could. "W-Well, I know that I've never been hit with any falling objects… and incoming objects from the front have always managed to miss me completely…"
Nora let out a sigh and slumped her shoulders. "Ugh, c'mon guys, the only way we're actually gonna find out is if we try and HIT her with something!" She converted Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and took aim. "Besides, if what she's saying is true, she should be just fine! Plus, we have Jaune here to help her if she needs healing!"
Jaune deadpanned before slapping his forehead. "Well, she DOES make a good point…" He moved forward and pushed Manghild's barrel down. "But still, no grenades. We don't want to chance Lisa getting caught in an explosion." Nora's face immediately went into a frown at this, a small whine eliciting from her throat.
"Ahem!" Everyone perked up when they saw Rex step up, the EVO converting his arm into his Slam Cannon. "I think I might be able to help out with that…" The maw of the cannon reached down and scooped up a huge chunk of the ground, loading the weapon before Rex took aim at Lisa. "Jaune, you go over there and stay with Lisa. If I'm right, then this SHOULD miss both of you, since Greg was with Lisa ALL throughout the battle yesterday and he didn't get hit once either."
Lisa was shaking in her shoes at this point. "A-Are you REALLY sure that this is safe?"
"Sure!" Rex said with a thumbs up. "And besides, Jaune's got his Aura Amp Semblance, so if you guys so SOMEHOW get hit, he'll both take the brunt of the hit AND heal you at the same time!"
Jaune couldn't help but grimace at this. "Well great, now I'm just gonna be everyone's guinea pig for Semblance testing, aren't I?" He sighed and held up his hands. "Alright, let's see if this crazy idea works or not."
Weiss placed her hands to her hips, giving Rex a skeptical look. "Yeah, you'd better be right about this, Robo-dolt. Otherwise, things might not turn out so well."
"Ah, relax, Ice Princess." Rex said with a wink. "I got this." He took aim again just as Jaune moved over next to Lisa, the woman moving closer to him for protection. "You guys all set over there?!"
"A-A-As set as we'll ever be!" Lisa stammered out before glancing up to Jaune. "I hope he knows what he's doing." she whispered.
"Yeah, me too—" BAM!Without warning, the huge chunk of Earth was suddenly sent hurtling toward them, much to Jaune and Lisa's shock. "WOAH!"
"AAAAAAH!" Lisa let out a high pitch scream as she suddenly latched onto Jaune's arm, unable to take her eyes off of the massive boulder. However, as she braced for impact… something happened. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, the huge chunk of earth suddenly hit… seemingly nothing. The air seemed to shimmer where it made impact before it veered off into a different direction, rushing past Jaune and Lisa entirely before flying off and landing further down the driveway. Everyone's jaws went slack at the sight, with Lisa's face being the most disbelieving out of everyone there. "W-W-What just…"
Ben rubbed his eyes to make sure he saw that correctly. "Holy crap, it actually worked!"
Yang moved her arm out in front of her. "It just… moved to the side a bit." She moved her hand a little for emphasis. "Almost like the wind blew it off course or something."
Penny raised her head up and began analyzing the environment around her. "I can confirm that there is absolutely no wind, neither at this moment nor twenty seconds ago." She locked back onto Lisa and Jaune and explained. "What I think DID happen was some kind of invisible force field caused the projectile to rebound and be sent away from you two. Quite the interesting Semblance!"
"That. Was. SO. COOL!" Nora exclaimed before pointing Magnhild back up. "And now for the second test!"
Jaune and Lisa's eyes widened in fear. "W-Wait, Nora! Don't—" BANG! But it was too late. Nora fired off a grenade from her weapon, the projectile sailing straight toward the knight and reporter. However, just as Lisa clutched onto Jaune again, there was another shimmer in the air before the explosive was veered off course, crashing into the lawn with a loud BOOM! Jaune and Lisa regained their composure, just in time for Nora to cheer in victory.
"YES! It worked again!" The Pink Dynamo said before giving Lisa a thumbs up. "Congrats, Lisa! That Semblance is ROCKIN'!"
"Indeed." Winter beamed over to Lisa and gave her a nod. "It seems your Semblance is quite the handy one, Miss Lavender."
"I… I suppose it is!" Lisa grinned from ear to ear, letting go of Jaune to raise her hands up high. "Woo-hoo! I have a really neat Semblance!"
"No kidding." Sun agreed. "So, what're you gonna do now that you know you have it?"
Lisa chortled before placing her hands on her hips proudly. "Well, the FIRST thing I wanna do is ask my bosses for more field reporting." She smirked and shifted her eyes back and forth. "Ya know, actually get in a bit on the action a little more and broadcast what's going on in real time."
Yang pursed her lip at that. "Uh… isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, ya saw what happened to my uncle, right?" This caught Lisa's attention pretty quick. "I mean, your Semblance is useful, don't get me wrong, but something tells me you don't have a defensive Aura in case something or SOMEONE tries to attack you directly."
"Oh… yes, you make a good point, Yang." Lisa mulled over what she was told before coming to a conclusion. "Okay, so I'll need try to stay as far away from the action as I possibly can WHILE getting a good look at it at the same time." She winced at the next part. "Because I REALLY don't wanna end up like how your uncle did…"
Ben gave her a nod. "Yeah, good idea. Like I said, a hero's line of work is pretty dangerous, and if you, a civilian, end up getting caught in that, that makes things worse for ALL of us." The hero winked and gave a thumbs up. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure out a good balance."
Lisa smiled and sent a thumbs up right back. "Hm, thank you, Ben, I really appreciate that." She then sent him a wink of her own. "And who knows? Maybe once I get the okay from my superiors, I can come over to your world and start reporting on your exploits there!"
"Hehe, now THAT would be interesting." Ben laughed before realizing something. "Oh, and by the way, what time IS that press conference?"
"Well…" Lisa checked her watch and saw that it was now twelve-thirty. "It should be happening in about three and a half hours from now, so you kids will have plenty of time to prepare for it before you leave."
"Wow, four o'clock?" Ruby asked incredulously. "Guess that means we're probably not gonna be on Earth until late afternoon."
Gwen shrugged at this. "Probably, but hey, that gives our parents all the more time to prep for our arrival." She grinned back over to Lisa and bowed her head a bit. "But it was nice to have you here, Lisa, and I'm glad that we could show you a few things from out world, too."
Lisa bowed back graciously. "Oh, it was a really fun time. And I hope that I can talk with you kids more in the future." She sent them a salute as she moved over toward her van. "But for now, I'll see you all in town for the press conference alright?"
"You sure will!" Ben and the others began waving to her as she climbed into the van. "See you soon, Lisa!" With one final wave from the reporter, she started the van, backed up to perform a U-turn, and then began driving back toward the road, giving a couple honks on her horn all the while.
"Well, she was certainly a nice woman." Athena remarked. "And she certainly seemed pretty excited about all of this, too."
Ben quickly agreed to that. "Oh, you've got that right." Once the news van was gone, the hero sighed contently, placing his hands behind his head. "Alright, it's official, that had to be THE best experience with the media that I've ever had."
"No doubt." Kevin smirked. "She wasn't busting your chops at all. A MAJOR step up from Harangue, to be sure."
Blake raised a curious eyebrow. "Harangue? Who's that?"
"Ugh, the BIGGEST asshole of a reporter ever." Ben grumbled as his lips turned up into a snarl. "He's vitriolic, bigoted, and he hates ME specifically. He's called me a threat to humanity and has tried MANY times to turn the public against me on his news show. Hell, he's even tried to take me DOWN a couple times." He crossed his arms and grit his teeth. "And to be honest, I'm pretty sure I hate HIM just as much as he hates ME."
Yang grimaced and pounded her fist into her palm, her Ember Celica activating inadvertently. "Alright, it's official, I know JUST who I'm gonna punch first when I get to Earth."
Blake set her hand onto Gambol Shroud's handle. "You had me at the word "bigoted"."
"I wouldn't do that, girls." Gwen put a hand to the duo's shoulders to try and calm them down. "If you two try anything against him, he'll just use that against you in one of his smear campaigns. The best thing we can try to do is ignore him. It may not make him go away, but it's better than having the public hate us."
The two partners sighed, bringing their weapons down in disappointment. "Yeah, you're probably right." Blake granted. "…But if HE tries anything against US, then I'm not going to pull any punches…" She glanced over to Yang and smirked. "Pun very much intended."
"AAAW YEAH!" Yang wrapped an arm around Blake's shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "Glad we're on the same page about this, Blake! If that ass tries anything, we're going after him!"
"Now THAT is something I can get behind." Ben concurred.
At that moment, Max cleared his throat, garnering everyone's attention. "Normally, I don't exactly condone this kind of violence, but there IS a strong point to be made here." The old Plumber crossed his arms with a serious look on his face. "Harangue's hate spewing has gone on for far too long. It's even started to go on to insulting alien species as well. If he needs to be put in his place… then so be it."
Gwen sighed and nodded. "Yeah, grandpa makes a good point. But remember; no going after him unless he does it first, understand?" She got a round of confirming words from her group of friends, giving her the relief that she needed. The last thing that Gwen wanted was for her group of friends to get themselves in trouble right as they were making their first impressions on Earth.
…..
About few minutes later, Raven, Tai and Vernal had joined the group outside, with the adults all conversing while the teens talked among themselves. However, it didn't take long before the group's heads perked up at the sound of a loud engine approaching them. The team's attention snapping towards the end of the driveway to see a certain black motorcycle coming toward them. "Oh, here they come, Jaune!" Athena said as Jaune let out a groan. "Oh, come now, time to face the music, dear."
Pyrrha grinned over to her boyfriend as they spotted a certain red car and minivan come rolling down the driveway behind the bike as well. "Are you ready?"
"No." Jaune deadpanned. "Even if they've been here for a while, I'm NEVER ready for all my sisters at once—"
"JAUNE! PYRRHA!" The moment that Noire took off her helmet, she threw it onto the grass and sprinted up, enveloping both of them in a tight hug that forced the air out of their lungs. "Thank GOD you two are okay! Do you have any idea how worried we were about you all yesterday?!"
As Jaune and Pyrrha struggled to breath, the blond knight managed to choke out; "Y-Yeah, you kinda made that clear when you guys talked to me on the phone yesterday, sis."
"Well maybe we didn't express it enough!" Noire said before snapping her head back toward her family's vehicles. Rouge was just getting out of her car, with Blanche, Saphron and Terra all climbing out at the same time, while Verte, Azure and Violette all clamored out of their parent's mini-van… and all of them had zeroed in on Jaune with similarly dangerous gazes. "LADIES! Help me out here!"
All at once, the other blonde women and the one brunette all paratactically bum-rushed Jaune, Pyrrha, and even Ren and Nora got pulled into the mix, the duo having stood behind their teammates in hopes of staying out of it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The only one who didn't participate was Rouge, the eldest Arc sister joining her parents as they exited their car and walked over to greet Athena. "What in the WORLD were you guys thinking?!" Saphron questioned.
"How did you even SURVIVE all of that?!" Terra added. "I have half a mind to know your blocks off!" Oddly enough, Jaune noticed that she seemed a lot more… temperamental for some reason, and he had a feeling that it wasn't just because of the pregnancy.
Nora was the one to answer their questions; "Easy! We stayed AWAY from the giant Grimm and just handled the smaller ones!"
"She's right." Ren affirmed. "We pretty much let Ben handle the big ones."
Verte, who had latched onto her brother the closest, buried her head into his shoulder and belted out; "I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU'D BE MORE CAREFUL!"
"And I was!" Jaune insisted. "I mean, what, did you think I'd actually try to FIGHT that giant Grimm?"
Blanche rolled her eyes and gave Jaune a light knock on the head. "Okay, we'll give ya that. Nice thinkin' there, little bro. But still… how were you even able to go through all of that like it was nothing at all?!"
Jaune smiled as she raised his arms, hoping to calm his sisters down a bit. "Heh, because honestly, that's what Huntsmen are SUPPOSED to do. Haven't you been listening to dad's stories all these years? A Huntsman is supposed to recognize the risks that come with the job description, and that means having to go through dangerous situations all the time…" He set his sights over to his parents, looking for confirmation from his father. "Am I right, dad?"
"Heh, couldn't have said it better myself, Jaune." Jonathan said before strolling over, his daughters allowing him to walk over to Jaune as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "And I honestly couldn't be any prouder of all of you for what you did yesterday."
"And he MEANS all of you." Mary asserted as she came up as well, the brunette woman pulling Pyrrha into a light embrace. "And I am SO happy that all of you were able to come out unharmed. Though I have to admit, seeing what happened to Qrow was… very traumatic."
Violette shivered at the memory. "You're telling me. The news feed didn't catch EVERYTHING… but we pretty much got the point of what happened. How's he doing?"
"He's doing much better today, actually." Pyrrha answered. "He's up and about, and he doesn't have a scratch on him."
Blanche smiled and elbowed her brother in the arm. "I gotta say, little bro that QUITE the Semblance you got if you were able to heal Qrow THAT fast."
"Uh, hehe, yeah… surprised me too." Jaune said nervously, which immediately earned him some questioning faces from all seven of his sisters, his mother, AND Terra. If there was one thing that Jaune couldn't stand about himself, it was that he was terrible at lying to his family, specifically all of the women in his family. His father could fall of a fib or two, but the ladies? No, they could sniff out a lie like a bloodhound. Jaune sighed and slumped over a bit. "…Okay, would you believe that we have a Relic from Haven Academy that has a genie inside of it?"
If anything, that just made the girls all the more bewildered, with Azure sending Jaune an annoyed expression. "Alright, evil witches who control the Grimm, I can accept as real, but GENIES?! Are you joking, Jaune?!"
"Oh trust me, it's true." Gwen piped up, raising a hand toward the Arc Family. "Wait right here, I'll go get her lamp."
Azure pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, no, don't bother. If even YOU are saying that it's real, Gwen, then I suppose I cannot argue."
Jaune couldn't help but give his younger sister a light grimace. "Hey, what's THAT supposed to mean?"
"Alright, alright, let's calm down a bit, shall we?" Rouge requested, finally entering the conversation herself. "Why don't we just focus on what's important and be thankful that Jaune and everyone else are all okay, huh?" She ruffled her brother's hair while he shot her a thankful smile. "He may have worried us half to death, but at least we're not planning his funeral or anything."
Violette gave a shrug. "Yeah, that IS a good point. Now, with all that out of the way…" A bright smile came to the youngest Arc's face as she spun around, giving Ben and Rex an excited smile. "OH MY GOSH, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" she zipped up to the duo, who took a step back at her exuberance that seemed to rival Nora's at the moment. "I can't believe that you guys can grow GIANT sized! That was so AWESOME!"
The Arc sisters all gave Ben and Rex congratulatory grins as well. "Yeah, not bad, guys!" Noire supported with a thumbs up. "How the hell do you keep pulling all of these surprises out of your butts?"
Rex could only give her a simple shrug. "What can we say? We're just awesome like that."
Weiss rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the stomach. "What my boyfriend means is that it's all in the line of duty as a hero."
However, at her words, the whole group of sisters let out a surprised gasp. "Oh my!" Saphron grinned from ear to ear. "So you two are together now, Weiss? Congratulations!"
"And about time." Terra said with a smirk. "After seeing you two at the birthday party, I thought you'd make a good couple, honestly."
The former heiress and EVO both blushed at the compliment, the couple growing evert more sheepish under the Arc sisters' eyes. "Hehe… thanks, Terra, that's very nice of you to say." Weiss then jerked her thumb over toward the porch. "But why don't we move this conversation over to the house, huh?"
"A splendid idea, Weiss." Athena concurred as she began ushering everyone back toward the porch. "Better than just standing out in the middle of the drive way, that's for sure."
As the group began walking over, however, Terra's eyes managed to find Ilia and Vernal, the bespectacled woman giving the two a curious gaze. "Oh, and you girls are new, I think…" But then, she narrowed her eyes at Ilia. "Oh wait, I THINK I might've seen you here the other day when we all came by, right?"
Ilia brightened up and gave her a nod. "Oh, yeah, I saw you guys here, but we were in kind of a hurry to get to Beacon that day. I'm Ilia, and I'm a friend of Blake's from Menagerie. And I'm guessing that you're one of Jaune's sisters?"
"Heh, sister-in-law, actually." Terra clarified before pulling her wife next to her. "I'm married to this lovely lady, see."
"Hi, Ilia!" Saphron waved eagerly. "I'm Saphron. But please, call me Saph, everyone does." However, she didn't get an immediate response from the chameleon girl at first, with Ilia instead darting her eyes between the two ladies in surprise, all while her spots began to turn pink. "Um… are you okay, Ilia?"
"Y-Yeah!" Ilia said, her smile returning tenfold. "I'm just… ecstatic to meet such a nice couple like you guys!"
Saphron and Terra glanced toward one another, initially confused at first. However, seeing the nervous smile on Ilia's face along with her blushing cheeks, combined with the knowing smirk that Blake was giving them, they were quick to put two and two together. "Oh, I see…" Saph grinned and gave Ilia a wink, making the chameleon girl stiffen up a little more. "Well, I'm very glad to hear that, right, Terra?"
The bespectacled woman smiled as well. "Oh, I can vouch for that." She sent Ilia a wink as well as a thumbs up. "Don't worry, girl. You've got absolutely no reason to be nervous around US of all people."
"Oh, I-I'm not nervous." Ilia assured. "Far from it, really. I'm… actually really AM glad that I've met both of you, really."
Saph gave Ilia a pat on the shoulder. "Good to know. Also, may I just say… you're VERY cute."
"Oh, one-hundred percent, honey." Terra reaffirmed, causing Ilia's pink cheeks to deepen into a mixed shade of reddish-pink. "Hehe, oh, Ilia, you're too much, hon." The woman directed her eyes over to Vernal, who was watching the scene with a somewhat confused face. "And who would you be?"
"Uh, name's Vernal." The lady bandit said before narrowing her eyes a bit. "Also, what did you just do to her?"
Ilia was now lightly giggling while trying to hide her face, all while Saph and Terra smiled proudly. "Oh, you know, just did a little bit of playful teasing." Saphron answered. "No harm done."
Vernal could only blink at the response. "Uh-huh. Well, I think ya might've broken her."
"Ah, she'll be fine." Terra assured. "But to be perfectly honest, it's nice to meet both of you. Kinda wish we could all get to know you better, but it seems you guys are gonna be headed off today, right?"
"Well, they are." Vernal emphasized, jerking her thumb back toward the others. "But me? Nah, I'm staying in Remnant for the time being." She nudged her head toward the massive house. "Plus, I got me a nice place to crash while Tai and Raven head over to Ben's world, so there's that."
Saph blinked at the familiar name. "W-Wait, Raven…" She shifted her gaze around until she found Tai… and he was with a dark-haired woman who seemed to be eyeing her father in curiosity. But then, the woman began making her way over to Jonathan, and the only thing that Saph could think was; '…Oh gods, this might not well.'
…..
Back over with the others, everyone had moved over to the porch, with Verte, Azure and Violette were all sitting on the built-in swing while the team recounted the battle that happened yesterday in clear detail. It was one thing to watch it on television, but to hear what happened from the people who were actually there was a whole different story. Blanche, Noire and Rouge were listening in as well, though they stood off to the side with their parents. "And then, Ultimate Humungousaur SMASHED his fist right into the Grimmungousaur!" Yang finished off with a pump of her own fist. "BLASTING a hole right through it and—"
"Ooh! We saw that part, actually!" Violette exclaimed in excitement. "That was SO awesome!"
"Yeah, it was." Verte concurred. "I had no idea that you could even DO that with your aliens, Ben."
The hero put a hand behind his head. "Heh, well, let's just say that it was an old trick that I just remembered how to do." However, Ben trailed off when he saw Raven approaching Jonathan from behind, causing his head to perk up a bit. "…Uh, Mr. Arc? Ya might wanna…"
"What?" Jonathan tilted his head before feeling a tap on his shoulder, causing him to spin around… and let out a high-pitched screech. "EEEYAA-HA!" He jumped a few feet back, causing him to move behind his wife in the process. "R-R-R-RAVEN?!"
Mary blinked at her husband's sudden movements, not expecting it in the least. "J-Jonathan! What has gotten into—wait." Her eyes widened in realization before going back to the woman before her. "Raven? As in Raven Branwen? Yang's mother AND the woman who pantsed my husband all those years ago?"
"Hehehe, the very same... though I've also done plenty of other things to him." Raven giggled before grinning over to Jonathan. "Though I like to think the personal grudge between his father and mine was a whole lot more memorable than that. How're you doing, Jonathan? It's been quite a few years, hasn't it?"
"Y-Yeah, it certainly has." Jonathan said, warily keeping his eyes on Raven all the while. "Y-You're looking well, Raven. Th-The years have been kind to you."
"I certainly like to think so." Raven touched her face as she smiled. "A lot kinder than they've been to Qrow, at least."
All of a sudden, the door swung open and Qrow gave his sister a light glare. "I heard that, Rae." However, this made Jonathan jump and holler again, taking the whole group aback once more. Qrow glanced between the blond man and his sister before a laugh escaped his throat. "Bah-ha-ha-ha! Oh god, Jon, are ya serious right now? What, do ya think we're gonna pants ya again?"
Jonathan cleared his throat and composed himself. "Well… no, but to be quite honest, that WAS a pretty traumatizing experience."
The Spring Maiden wore a guilty face at that. "I know… and I'm sorry." Raven apologized, earning a shocked face from the knight Huntsman. "The thing between our fathers really influenced us back then, and while it took ME a bit longer to regret my actions, I wanted to tell you that I AM indeed sorry."
"Yeah, me too, Jon." Qrow added. "I know I told ya at the party, but I just wanted to say it again."
To say that Jonathan was left stunned by the show of good nature was an understatement to say the least. Sure, Qrow had apologized at the party a few days ago, but he never imagined that Raven would apologize to him as well. "I… wow. I really have no idea what to say, guys." He smiled to the two Branwens and gave them a nod. "But thank you, it means a lot to me, really it does."
"Your very welcome." Raven said as she extended a hand to Jonathan. "Jon, to be honest, I think I may be moving on from the Branwen tribe along with my protégé over there." She nudged her head over to Vernal, who gave a small wave over to them. "We don't exactly fit in all that well over there anymore. So, what do you say? Perhaps we can let bygones be bygones? Finally bury the hatchet between the Branwen and Arc families?"
Jonathan looked between the two before extending his hand, shaking Raven's without hesitation. "Yeah… yeah, that sounds pretty good to me, Raven."
"Woo-hoo!" Yang cheered before putting Jaune into a headlock and giving him noogie. "Ya hear that, Vomit Boy?! Our parents made up!" She let go of him and stood him up straight, though Jaune was still a bit disoriented from the action. "Isn't that great?!"
"Hehe, y-yeah, it is!" The blonde knight sent a hopeful grin toward his friend. "…So maybe now we can drop the "Vomit Boy" nickname in celebration?"
Both Yang AND Ruby let out heartful laughs at that, with Jaune deadpanning as the Hooded Huntress placed a hand on his shoulder for support. "Ahahaha! Ah… not in a million years, Jaune." Ruby gave Jaune a small pat on the shoulder. "Sorry to say, but you're never going to live that one down."
Jonathan shook his head and gave his son's other shoulder a light squeeze. "Sorry, son, but after something like puking on a girl's boots, ya never hear the end of it." He jerked his thumb over to Raven and Qrow. "Trust me, those two had their own nicknames for me for YEARS, and I still remember every one of them."
"Oh, yes, we did, didn't we?" Raven smirked as she recalled times gone by. "If I recall correctly, my favorite for you was… "Love Undies"."
Almost immediately, all of the Arc girls, along with Yang and Nora, let out a big, collective laugh, with the only exception being Mary who stifled one of her own along with Pyrrha. "BAH-hahaha!" Blanche guffawed before asking; "LOVE UNDIES?! Dad, what the hell does she mean?!"
"Y-Yeah, what the HECK kind of a nickname is "Love Undies"?!" Nora managed to get out between spurts of laughter.
Jonathan winced as he rubbed his arm awkwardly. "It, uh… had to do with the pantsing thing. Let's just say that big, red love hearts aren't the thing you want to have on your boxers."
Jaune facepalmed as Pyrrha finally let her laughter loose, all while Mary buried her face into her husband's chest as she tried to give him a comforting hug. "Yep, it's official; my dad is the biggest doof on the face of Remnant."
"Hahaha! Aw, c'mon, Jaune." Yang reassured. "At least he's got good company with MY dad."
"HEY!" Tai exclaimed indignantly. "I'll have you know that I'm…" He received questioning faces from his daughters, Qrow AND Raven, making him slump over a bit. "Jeez, okay, I MIGHT be a bit of a goof at times. Happy?"
"Yes." Raven said as she put an arm around his back. "Because I wouldn't have it any other way."
The whole group let out another laugh, this time with Tai and Jonathan joining in as well. However, much to everyone's surprise, the front door opened, with Ghira and Kali both strolling out. The Arc family all went silent, with a few gasps being heard before Ghira spoke up. "Now what in the world is with all of the commotion out here?"
"We could hear you all the way from the kitchen." Kali smiled as she took in all of the new faces that were focusing right on them. "O-Oh, I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?"
Blake, who was leaning up against the railing, gave her mom a wave of reassurance. "No mom, you're good. We were just having a big talk out here. Oh, here, let me introduce you…" With that, the cat girl and Jaune both began acquainting their parents with one another, with Jaune's sisters following soon after. Once everyone was all settled again, the conversation went on.
"Well, it's certainly a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Arc." Ghira said with a bow of his head. "Your family has quite the legacy throughout Vale, and I highly respect your history."
"Oh please, the pleasure's all mine, Ghira. And please, call me Jonathan." Jonathan assured. "I was really invested in what you and Miss Khan had to say at the press conference yesterday. I think that the direction that you, your wife and Miss Khan are taking the White Fang is a really great one!"
"And I'm very glad to hear that." Ghira sighed as a frustrated expression came to his face. "I only wish the conference hadn't been interrupted like it had been."
Mary was quick to agree. "Yes, that definitely is a shame. But still, I have hope that you three can help bring the Faunus community together and achieve equality between our races." A saddened expression came to her face and she glanced downward. "There's already been so much blood shed over the past decade over this, so I certainly hope you can do it."
Kali gave her a bright smile. "Well, we'll certainly try our best. Who knows? Maybe now that the world knows about Salem, both humans and Faunus will be more willing to work together to try and take her down…" Her ears folded down a bit as her gaze went off to the side. "At least, that's what I hope."
"I think we can ALL vouch for that." Ben concurred, the hero standing up to pump a fist. "I'll be sure to stress how important that is when today's press conference rolls around. If this world wants to fight against Salem, then it's going to have to band together in order to do it."
Ghira's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered something. "Oh! That's right!" He focused over to Ben with a serious expression. "Ben, Sienna and I just received a call from General Ironwood." This immediately piqued the team's interest, garnering everyone's attention. "He said that he'd be arriving here within the next twenty minutes or so, and he said that he'd be bringing some guests of his own." Ghira furrowed his brows a bit. "And he also mentioned something about having important news as well."
Ben furrowed his brows in curiosity. "Important news? So soon before we have to leave?"
Off to the side, Winter placed a hand to her chin, pondering what it could be. "Hm, if that's the case, then it is probably urgent. And he's bringing guests, as well… I wonder who, though?"
At that moment, Penny raised her hand excitedly. "Ooh! Ooh! I believe I know who!" The android brought all eyes to her as she explained. "You see, I spoke to the general last night to ask him if he could bring my father down so he could meet Azmuth!"
"Ah, yeah, that makes sense." Ben nodded. "Azmuth DID say that he wanted to meet him, after all."
The Arc family, however, were left confused at all of the names being thrown around. "Wait, wait, wait, hold up!" Blanche interjected, waving her hands around in the process. "Since when did Pen's dad get here? And what about this "Azmuth" guy? Is that even a real name?"
"It is, actually." Kevin answered. "He's an alien, and he also happens to be the creator of the Omnitrix." He jerked his thumb over to Ben. "And he's the whole reason why Ben can access his Ultimate forms again. He came here from our dimension to help us out yesterday."
"Huh… neat!" Saphron said before scanning her eyes around. "So, I take it he's still here?"
"He most certainly is." Everyone's eyes widened before searching around for the raspy, grouchy voice that seemingly came out of nowhere. "Ahem! Down here!" The whole group craned their heads downward, seeing none other than Azmuth standing in the middle of the gathered group. "By the Loboan moons, what IS going on out here? How many people have you become aquatinted with in this universe, Ben?"
As the Arc family all stared down at the small alien in shock, Ben rolled his eyes and sighed. "Way more than you think, Azmuth." He extended an arm toward the family and introduced them. "By the way, these are the Jonathan and Mary Arc, their seven daughters, and their daughter-in-law. They're Jaune's family."
"Wait, HE'S the creator of the Omnitrix?!" Verte asked incredulously.
"B-But… he's so small!" Azure added in disbelief, lowering herself down so that she was eye-level with Azmuth. "And a being with the ability to create such a fantastic device would have to be incredibly smart! There's no WAY a being with a head that small could—"
"I'll have you know, young lady, that I am the smartest being in three galaxies… arguably five." Azmuth spoke up while furrowing his eyeridges. "Now, if you are quite done with your episode, perhaps you could start over?"
The Arc family practically recoiled at the bluntness that the Galvan exhibited, turning to Ben in hopes of answers. "…Yeah, that's basically how he acts to almost everyone." The hero confirmed with a shrug. "Better to just comply with his request, at least from my experience."
With Ben's advice in their minds, the nine Arc women and Arc patriarch all greeted him individually. By the end of it all, Azmuth cleared his throat. "Ahem, well, it certainly is a pleasure. Though I must say, I find it quite humorous how some human beings can have so many children at once."
Jonathan and Mary both flushed a bit, the couple putting their arms around each other. "Hehe, well… let's just say that we were… VERY productive in our youth." Mary chortled.
"Haha, yep!" Jonathan laughed. "The Arc gene is QUITE powerful."
"MOM! DAD!" Jaune hid his face behind his hands as many of his other siblings cringed. "Seriously?!"
The rest of the teens didn't fare much better. "TMI! TMI!" Nora exclaimed as Ren shifted his eyes away awkwardly. Pyrrha also hid her face, thought she used Jaune's back instead of her hands. The others simply let out groans of exasperation at the rather embarrassing conversation.
"Hm, I see." Azmuth stroked his "beard" in contemplation. "Well, I can certainly say that it's quite impressive." He craned his head up to Penny and gave her a smile. "So, Miss Polendina, I heard that your father will be here soon?"
Penny gave him her signature salute. "Correct sir! He should be here with General Ironwood very soon." She let out a small squee of excitement and began bouncing up and down in place. "EEE! I cannot wait for you to meet him! I am certain that you will be very impressed with him and his impressive knowledge!"
Azmuth let out a small chuckle. "Well, I look forward to meeting him in person, that is for certain." He directed his attention up toward Ben, his face returning to its usual neutral expression. "Erm, Ben, what say we move this conversation inside? Best to not have things be too crowded considering this "General Ironwood" likely has important news if he is coming here as well."
"That probably WOULD be a good idea, Ben." Gwen concurred. "It'd be a lot easier with only the team being out here, wouldn't you think?"
"Yeah, probably." Ben nodded before offering the Arc family an apologetic face. "Sorry guys, but when it comes to business…"
But Blanche cut him off before he could finish. "It's alright, Ben, we get ya! We know when to get out of people's hair when we need to. C'mon gals, let's head in and watch some TV while we wait for these guys!" The blonde woman began to reach for the door knob… only to be met with a hand over hers. Her eyes trailed upward to see Yang, giving her a serious face. Blanche broke out into a cheeky grin and gave a small laugh. "Hehe, don't worry, I remember; no bashing in the door."
"Good." Yang smirked, taking her hand away. "Glad we're still on the same page."
…..
As the Arcs and Athena moved themselves into the house, the rest of the team stayed on the porch, patiently for Ironwood to arrive. The only exceptions were Jaune and Pyrrha, who wanted to speak with the large family a bit more before the general showed up, as well as Vernal, who had surprisingly struck up a conversation with Blanche. As it happened, Sienna joined the team immediately after the Arcs went in, moseying from the side of the house to avoid the cluster. "Apologies, I'm not exactly a people person." Sienna said as she crossed her arms. "By the gods, those two have more children than even some Rabbit Faunus couples I know."
Ghira and Kali let out a small laugh at that. "Haha, too true." The panther set his sights over to the teens, with Winter, Max, Tai, Raven and Qrow all gathered together as well. "Well, I think we're all here. …My word, this is quite the sizeable group."
"Yeah, why do you think we're gonna be living in separate houses on Earth?" Ben smirked. "None of us have the room it'd need to house ALL of us together."
"It's a bit disappointing that we won't be living with each other…" Ruby said with a sad smile. "But at least we'll all be in the same town, so we'll still see each other every day."
Sun placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah… kinda sucks that not all of the couples will be under the same roof, though." However, just as the words left his mouth, Ghira raised a brow at him, causing the monkey boy to grow pale. "N-Not that there's anything WRONG with that. I-I mean, it's not like any of us have trouble sleeping WITHOUT our significant others, it's just—"
"Sun." Blake spoke up, placing a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder while giving him a deadpan expression. "Stop. At this point, he's just messing with you." She pointed over to her father, who was giving Sun a smirk. "See?"
"Oh… and I fell for it."
"Like a fish to a worm on a hook, dear." Kali smiled before giving her husband's arm a tight squeeze. "But he was only half-kidding, right dear?"
Ghira cleared his throat, hoping to clear the air. "Ahem, r-right." However, he then gave Sun a serious look. "But, if I'm being perfectly honest, Sun… I DO trust that you and my daughter will make good decisions going forward. Still, I hope that you'll both watch out for each other while on Earth… even if you aren't living under the same roof."
Sun nodded resolutely, his expression also quite serious. "Don't worry, Mr. B. I'll make sure of that…" He reached over and took a hold of Blake's hand, lacing his fingers with hers. "We both will."
"Very good…" At that moment, the whole group began to hear the sound of approaching jet engines, causing them to crane their heads up to see, to their surprise, the Resolute. "Hm, I suppose that's the general now." Ghira remarked.
Just as he said that, Jaune and Pyrrha both exited the house, moving their eyes up to the ship as well. "Huh, I expected him to arrive in a Bullhead, not gonna lie." Jaune admitted.
"Yeah, me too." Yang piped up as she placed her hands on her hips. "I guess asking Tetrax for a ride is a whole lot more convenient, though." The space craft lowered down into the front yard, its ramp lowering to the ground just moments after it did. However, as the ship opened up, everyone's eyes widened when they saw who was waiting at the very top of the ramp. "…Wait a minute. Is that…"
Neptune, Sun, and even Blake all brightened up as they saw two certain individuals smiling down at them, with the blue haired boy letting out a laugh. "Haha! No way!"
"YES way!" Sage exclaimed as he and Scarlet both began making their way down the Resolute's ramp, setting foot to the ground before meeting their teammates and Blake into tight hugs. "Haha, see? I told ya we'd make it!"
"Haha! You sure did, Sage!" Sun laughed as well. "Glad you guys could be here to see us off! What time did you guys get here?"
Sage rubbed the back of his head as they separated. "Heh, pretty early. Us and Team ABRN made it to Beacon at about two in the morning. Our flight kinda got diverted due to… all of THAT." He directed his attention over to Ben and the others, quirking a brow in the process. "Because man… that whole thing yesterday was INSANE! Is THAT the kinda crap that you guys gotta go through?"
Ben and the rest of the team let out a laugh at that. "Hehe, well… it didn't get AS crazy as that until yesterday." the hero answered. "If that kind of attack happened EVERY time we fought Salem's forces, we'd probably have been discovered a lot earlier."
"No doubt about that." Rex piped up with a smirk. "Then again, I pretty much deal with giant mosnsters all the tiem, so it was no sweat for me!"
"WOAH!" Sage shouted in excitement. "You're that Rex guy, right?! Dude, I saw you transform into that giant robot and I was FLOORED! You're awesome, my man!"
Rex raised a hand and gave the green-haired boy a high-five. "Hey, thanks dude. Gotta admit, things WERE a bit sketchy at first with the whole battle, but I think we pulled out okay."
"Hehe, to say the least." Blake chuckled a hug to Scarlet. "I didn't think it'd be YOU guys who were the special guests that Ironwood mentioned, though." Blake said as she and Scarlet separated from their hug. "I mean, I knew we'd be seeing you at SOME point today, but—"
Scarlet gave a wink. "Hey, we didn't want to miss a second with our friends before they left. So once we arrived at Beacon, we asked Professor Goodwitch if it was okay for us to take a jaunt over here before your big press conference and…" However, the redhead then trailed off when he saw Penny, his eyes widening in shock. "O-Oh my god! It IS true! You're the girl who—"
"The girl who got sliced up at the Vytal Tournament?" Penny finished with a cheerful smile. "Indeed so, but I got better!" She gave a salute and greeted; "Salutations! I am Penny Polendina! I am an—"
"An android." Sage affirmed with a nod. "Yeah, we know… and you are freaking AWESOME!" He pumped a fist with a big grin on his face. "They way you just kept beating up on that big lizard Grimm and didn't give in? Haha! That was great!"
Penny's cheeks couldn't help but flush in embarrassment. "Aw, thank you very much."
It was then that Scarlet's eyes noticed Ilia standing off to the side, to which he raised a curious brow at her. "Hm? Well, you're certainly new. Didn't I see you before you all left Mistral the other day?"
"H-Huh?" Ilia perked her head up at his words and greeted him. "O-Oh, yes, I'm Ilia Amitola. I'm a friend of Blake's."
"I see." Scarlet grinned. "Well, it's a pleasure, Ilia. I have to admit, there's a whole lot that we've missed out on." The redhead craned his head down a bit. "Makes me wish we didn't have to leave when we did."
Neptune gave his friend a thumbs up. "Ah, don't worry about it, dude! Trust me, you were better off healing up. By the way, where IS Team ABRN anyway?"
"They're in town helping set up for the press conference." Everyone perked their heads up as General Ironwood came walking down the ramp, with Glynda Goodwitch not far behind in his mechanical walking chair. "Team CRDL are helping out as well, so you'll all get a chance to see them before you all head off for Earth." He spotted Ghira, Kali and Sienna in the crowd and immediately went over to them, extending a hand toward the panther man with a slight chuckle. "Heh, let's just hope that it goes a lot smoother than how it did yesterday, right?"
"Hehe, you can say that again, James." Ghira laughed as well. "But I'm sure things will be a bit calmer now… hopefully."
Sienna placed a hand on her hip. "They'd better, otherwise I may not return to Vale for a while. Lots of bad luck here for some reason…" She glanced over to Qrow. "No offence."
"Some taken." Qrow grumbled.
Glynda smiled as she reached the bottom of the ramp. "Good day, students. I'm sure that you're all very excited for your little trip later?"
"Oh, you don't know the HALF of it, Prof!" Nora exclaimed, pumping an eager fist. "I've been waiting for Caesar to use my brain baby since I thought it up! I can't WAIT to get to Ben's world!"
"Hmhm, I'm sure." Glynda said before gesturing over to the ramp. "But before you all go, we have another guest who I believe Penny requested…" From the inside of the ship, Pietro Polendina emerged, the man's chair walking steadily down the ramp.
At that moment, Penny gasped in excitement. "AH! Father!" The redheaded android zipped up right as her father's chair made it to the bottom of the ramp, giving him a greeting hug. "I am so glad that you could make it!"
Pietro let out a chortle as he returned the hug from his daughter, smiling happily at the sight of her. "Hoho, it's good to see you too, my dear." Once the hug ended, Pietro readjusted his glasses as he went on. "I'm especially glad to see you safe after what you did yesterday! From what I understand, you held off that monster of a Grimm for a good twenty minutes or so. And all by yourself! Oh, I am SO proud of you, dear."
Penny beamed and gave her usual salute. "Thank you very much, father. I will be honest, though, fighting that thing left me exhausted." Her gaze went to Ben, all while wearing a thankful grin. "I am simply grateful that Ben and the others returned when they did." However, the android perked up again as she spun around and beamed toward her father. "Ooh! But before we go any further, I have someone who I would like to meet you!"
"Really? Meet me?"
"That's right, Pietro." Max spoke up as he stepped forward, with Azmuth standing on his shoulder. "Someone would like to commend you for your work in creating Penny." He reached up and allowed Azmuth to step into his palm, delivering the Galvan to the arm rest on Pietro's chair. "Isn't that right, Azmuth?"
"Ahem, yes, indeed." The First Thinker gave a greeting smile up to the elderly professor, who was staring down at him in surprise. "So, you are Pietro Polendina, Penny's father."
Pietro blinked a couple times, taking in the tiny creature that he was speaking to before answering him. "Um… y-yes, and who would you be, little friend?"
Azmuth put a hand to his chest. "I am Azmuth, and I am the creator of the Omnitrix."
Pietro, Ironwood, and Glynda's eyes all widened simultaneously at that, and over by the teens, Scarlet and Sage's jaws dropped. "W-Wait, seriously?!" Sage exclaimed.
"He created Ben's watch?" Scarlet whispered.
"Yep." Ilia answered. "Surprised us too."
The adults' gazes darted between Azmuth and Ben's wrist at a rapid pace before Ironwood managed to utter out; "…You're kidding me." He stepped over and lowered his face down to Azmuth's eye level in disbelief. "YOU'RE the creator of the Omntrix?"
"B-But… you're so… small." Glynda said in disbelief.
"Ah, General Ironwood, I presume." Azmuth narrowed his eyes slightly at the general before setting his sights onto Goodwitch. "And Professor Goodwitch. It's a pleasure." The First Thinker placed his hands behind his back. "Indeed, I am the creator of the Omnitrix, despite what my appearance my lead you to think."
"Azmuth's known as the First Thinker by the Galvan Race." Gwen spoke up. "He may be pretty small, but his physical size belies how smart he is."
"I see…" Pietro glanced down to Azmuth, raising a brow at him. "Well, if that's the case, then why would you want to commend me? I'm not nearly as smart as you."
Azmuth shook his head. "No, perhaps not…" His smile returned before gesturing over to Penny. "But it takes real talent to grant an artificial being like her with a true soul. You have a wonderful and brilliant daughter, Pietro, and I cannot help but be impressed with how much thought you put into her."
Pietro let out a disbelieving breath, setting a hand to his chest as Penny came over and put her hands to his shoulders. "Well… that is mighty kind of you, Azmuth. Thank you very much." He extended a hand to the smaller being with a smile. "I must admit, though, it's an honor to meet someone of your knowledgeable caliber."
"Thank you, but let's not make this about me." Azmuth insisted as he shook Pietro's hand. "I heard that the general has some urgent news to deliver us?"
It was then that Winter stepped up and gave Ironwood a salute. "He is correct, sir. You told Ghira that you had something important to report?"
Ironwood took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, technically, I do… but at the same time, I don't." Everyone eyed him in confusion as he pulled out what appeared to be a holo-projector from his pocket, setting it onto the ground before tapping a small button on its side. "I think it'd be best if you all heard this straight from the horse's mouth…"
All of a sudden, the lens on the holo-projector began to glow before a large holo-screen appeared from it. The image was a bit staticky at first before a clear signal came through, revealing a man staring back at all of them. He appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties with a head of short, slicked back brown hair and teal eyes. They could only see him from the chest up, but from what they saw, he was wearing a sleeveless Atlesian uniform that consisted of a white, double breasted coat with blue and red accents. The man raised a brow and peered into the camera, glancing off toward Ironwood to whisper; "A-Are we live?"
Winter's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, Clover?!"
The man, now identified as Clover, brightened up and sent Winter a wave. "Hey, Winter! Long time no see. You're looking rather well."
"Erm, thank you." Winter returned before raising a brow at him. "But… why have you called at such a time?"
Ironwood chortled a bit at that. "Heh, don't worry, Winter, we'll be getting to that very soon. But for now…" He trailed his eyes back out to the gathered crowd before raising a hand to the man on the screen. "Everyone, I would like you all to meet Clover Ebi. He's the leader of my special forces unit; the Ace Operatives."
"Also known as the Ace Ops for short." Clover clarified
Ben's eyebrows rose up at that. "Wait, "Ace Ops"?"the hero said mostly to himself before thinking; 'That sounds AWEFULLY similar to "Aseop". Hm, might have to stew on that later."
"Indeed, Ben." Glynda affirmed. "The Ace Ops are a unit in the Atlesian Military's Specialist division that handle some of their more important tasks."
Clover sent a saluted out to the group. "Exactly, Professor Goodwitch. It's about time I got to meet you kids." The man scanned his eyes out over the whole group. "Ironwood told me that he's been gettin' acquainted with some pretty impressive young Huntsmen, but damn, after yesterday, I gotta say that I was blown away."
"Oh, really?" Weiss piped up before glancing over to Ben and Rex. "And I suppose you're impressed by two individuals in particular?"
"Well, there are a couple that do have some… interesting quirks to them…" Clover admitted as he too moved his gaze over to Ben and Rex briefly. "But as far as I'm concerned, ALL of you have what it takes to become some great Hunters someday. I look forward to the day where I can meet all of you in-person."
Gwen bowed her head slightly. "Likewise. Outside of the general and Winter, we haven't really interacted with anyone else in the Atlesian Army."
"Well, I can tell ya that my team is quite the interesting bunch." Clover remarked. "…It may be a bit before they consider you guys to be friends, but we'll see if we can make this work when they meet ya."
Kevin couldn't help but raise a brow at that. "That's… an oddly specific thing to say."
Yang tilted her head a bit. "Yeah, why wouldn't they see us as friends at first?"
"Let's just say that given the circumstances of their work, the Ace-Ops aren't exactly ones to make friends." Ironwood answered before grinning up to Clover. "…Even if they don't want to admit that they ARE friends with each other."
"I've been trying to tell Harriet that for YEARS." Clover said with an eyeroll. "She and the others REALLY need to lighten up a bit. Thankfully, I think Marrow might be finally getting through to them." He directed his attention down to the team again. "If you're gonna try to make friends with any of the Ops, go for him first. He may be green, but he's a good kid."
Sun let out a chuckle at that. "Heh, duly noted."
"Though I have to say that the Ops WERE impressed by your performances in the battle yesterday." Clover went on before setting his eyes onto Ruby and Nora in particular. "You girls actually caught the attention of Harriet and Elm, which is pretty impressive since they're a bit hard to impress. What're your names, ladies?"
Ruby perked up and bowed her head. "O-Oh, I'm Ruby Rose."
Nora bounced up and got closer to the screen. "And I'm Nora Valkyrie! Pleased to meet ya!"
Clover nodded back to them. "Hm, well, Ruby, Nora, like I said, the ladies on my squad were pretty impressed by your skills." He focused on Ruby first. "Ruby, Harriet had her eyes glued on you every time you used your Semblance, since hers is a speed type like yours. Lemme tell ya; she'll be wanting to compare your speed with hers when ya meet her."
The Silver-Eyed girl perked up at that. "Well alright! Sounds like a plan to me!"
"And Nora, Elm was cheering for ya whenever you used your hammer." Clover chuckled as he saw Nora beaming with excitement. "See, she uses one to, and she thinks you'd make a great sparring partner."
A wild smirk came to Nora's face. "Ooh, challenge accepted."
"Hehe, good to know." Clover then directed his sights over to Ben and Rex, giving the duo a raised brow. "And then… we have the biggest anomalies out of the bunch. Ben Tennyson and Rex Salazar, yeah?"
"That's us." Ben confirmed.
Rex put his hands behind his head. "So, I'm guessing that you and the Ops were pretty impressed by what WE showed off yesterday, too?"
"More flabbergasted than anything, actually." Clover explained. "We… really didn't know WHAT to think. I mean, we saw you two become TITANS for crying out loud! I mean, I think even Vine might've even lost his cool for a bit when he saw all of that, and he's tranquil as hell."
"Heh, yeah, that's the usual reaction to whenever anyone gets an eyeful of Way Big." Ben laughed.
"I'm sure." Clover nodded before moving his eyes out over the crowd again, spotting Raven, Tai and Qrow as he did. "Ah, and you must be Taiyang and the infamous Branwen twins. Jim's told me a lot about you three, lemme tell ya."
Raven's eyebrows rose up at that. "Oh really? And what exactly HAS he told you?"
Ironwood suddenly coughed into his hand. "Ahem, well, some of that information maybe a bit… outdated for lack of a better term." He craned his head back around to Clover with a furrowed brow. "For now, I think it's best if we finally told them about… you know what."
"Hey, yeah." Qrow piped up, crossing his arms while raising a brow at Clover. "What's this big news you've got for us, huh?"
Clover grinned and quirked a brow right back at the former drunkard. "A bit of the impatient sort, eh?"
Qrow narrowed his eyes slightly. "I don't like to be kept waitin', man. If it's important, then I think you should spill whatever ya got."
"Ha! Straight and to the point!" Clover laughed. "I like that."
Glynda directed her eyes up to the man. "He IS right, though, Clover. It's time we show them your findings."
"Heh, alright, alright, I think it's time we DID get to the big news." Clover laced his fingers together, propping his arms up on the desk he was sitting at before taking a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to say. "Okay, so I should preface this by saying; you're going to want to strap in, because this is pretty heavy news."
Tai placed his hands on his hip. "With all due respect, Mr. Ebi, these kids have been handling a LOT of heavy stuff over the course of the past few days. I think they can handle whatever you have to dish out."
"And my grandkids are quite experienced when it comes to this kind of thing." Max spoke up as well. "I have a feeling they'll be just fine."
Clover gave the two a shrug. "Well, okay. But it's still pretty big news, so pay attention." Once he was sure that everyone was focused on him before going on. "Alright, so here's the deal; Over the course of the past couple of weeks, about since the Vytal Festival started, General Ironwood has been having the Atlesian forces scour the continents of Solitas and Anima for any signs of the Winter Maiden. And honestly, after the debacle at Beacon, we made sure to double our efforts to find her."
This made everyone perk up, with Pyrrha stepping up and raising a hand. "W-Well, have you found her? Or do you need our help to do so?"
"Oh, no Miss Nikos, that won't be necessary." Clover denied with a knowing grin. "Because, a couple days ago, we FOUND her."
A collective gasp resounded throughout the whole group, with Ruby beaming with excitement. "Really?! That's great!"
"Yeah, that's amazing news!" Weiss agreed. "Where'd you find her?"
"A small town in the northern edge of Anima. Once we located her, we managed to bring her here upon her agreement."
Blake clapped her hands together. "Well that's great! So, I'm guessing that she'll be joining the fight against Salem?"
Both Ironwood and Glynda shared a nervous glance, something that didn't go unnoticed by the others as an uncomfortable silence over took the group. Winter pursed her lips before ushering the Ace Ops leader to go on. "Clover… what IS the state of the Winter Maiden?"
Clover sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "It's… not all that good." He typed in a few commands on the keyboard he was sitting at and brought up a picture of an elderly woman, one who appeared to be quite sickly. She seemed very thin and her dark blue eyes appeared to be quite tired. The sight of her immediately made everyone concerned. "This is Fria, no last name given. SHE is the Winter Maiden."
Nearly everyone's jaw dropped at that, with the exceptions being Ironwood, Goodwitch, and surprisingly, Ghira, who was the one to voice their thoughts. "Oh my word… i-is she…"
"She… she looks deathly ill." Kali said with concern laced in her voice.
"She is, unfortunately." Clover said regrettably. "We found Fria being cared for in an old folks' home. She shows signs of onset dementia, and we've found that it IS getting progressively worse." He shook his head, breathing in a bet to compose himself. "She can only recall a few parts of her memory, which is fortunate because the one thing she DOES remember quite clearly is that she is the Winter Maiden."
"Were you able to confirm that?" Ben asked. "I mean, if she has dementia, she could be mistaken."
"She gave us a very small demonstration of her powers, don't worry." Clover assured. "She just couldn't do it for very long. We convinced her that it would be best for her to come up and stay in Atlas for her own safety, and luckily, she agreed."
Ren let out a sigh. "Well, that's good… but it does lead us to having a problem." The green ninja set his sights onto Fria's face, pursing his lips in thought. "That poor old woman may not have very long to live. Meaning that the powers will have to be passed to someone else."
"The boy has a point." Sienna agreed. "So, if what I've heard about these Maidens is accurate… how do we make sure that her powers pass safely when she does?"
Ironwood closed his eyes solemnly. "That's… where things get complicated." The general directed his eyes over to Winter, the specialist letting out a small gasp. "Winter… under normal circumstances, I would have asked you to take up this burden…"
"…I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Weiss suddenly shouted. "You want MY sister to become the next Winter Maiden?! …As cool and poetic as that sounds, I really don't know how to feel about—"
"I said under NORMAL circumstances." Ironwood clarified before going back to his trusted right hand. "However, I already gave you permission to take a leave of absence from the army, and it would be dubious of me at best to rescind that decision."
Without warning, Winter gave Ironwood a salute. "Sir! With all due respect, I am ready to—"
"Winter, you don't understand." Glynda urged, making her stop in shock. "In order to do this, you would have to be the one person that Fria thinks about when she passes, and to assure that, we would have to have you visit her every day until it happens." The Beacon Headmistress furrowed his brows at the white-haired woman. "And I believe you see the problem with this."
"…Kenny." Winter uttered, putting a hand over her chest. "I-I can't believe that I almost—"
Ironwood set a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Winter. Don't think about it too much, okay? We'll find someone to take up the mantle of the Winter Maiden, so don't worry."
Ilia leaned over toward Penny and whispered to her. "I'll say one thing; I wouldn't wanna be the girl who gets THAT job."
"Indeed." Penny whispered back with a smile. "I wonder what poor soul would have to receive such a tremendous burden such as that?"
Clover suddenly cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "Well, in any case, we WILL be taking care of Fria until her time comes, that you can be sure of." The brunette extended a hand toward the team. "That said, if any of YOU have any suggestions on who would make for a good Maiden, then I'd be more than happy to hear 'em."
"Now THAT, I believe I can help with." Everyone spun around to see that Professor Paradox and Oscar were now standing in the group with them, causing everyone to let out a yell of surprise and make Clover tumble back in his chair. "Hello, all! Hope we didn't enter this conversation too late."
Oscar gave a two-fingered salute to Ironwood. "Hey there, general. How's it going?"
"Professor!" Ironwood exclaimed, his eyes darting back and forth between the two. "And Oscar?! W-Where did you—no wait, don't answer that." The general facepalmed and let out a sigh. "Honestly, I SHOULD be used to stuff like this happening at this point."
Next to him, however, Glynda had already pulled out her riding crop, pointing it at the time traveler with a wary expression. "James… who is this? And why did he suddenly just appear out of nowhere with Oscar?"
Ironwood placed a hand over Glynda's, hoping to calm her down. "Glynda, I think I told you about him yesterday, remember? This is Professor Paradox. He's the one who brought Oscar to us in the first place."
The headmistress' face became one of surprise before lowering her riding crop, a small gasp eliciting from her lips. "Oh! Oh, I am SO sorry!" She bowed her head apologetically. "I hope you can forgive me for that. I didn't realize who you were."
"Haha, oh, it's quite alright, Professor Goodwitch." Paradox waved off with a small chortle. "It isn't the first time that the people here have aimed their weapons at me, and I feel like it will not be the last."
"Um, hello?!" Clover suddenly piped up, having readjusted himself. "Would anyone like to explain to me just WHAT is going on here?!"
Pietro adjusted his glasses while keeping a hand over his chest. "Y-Yes, I'm a bit lost as well… hoo, and I think that whole thing might've made the old ticker skip a beat for a second."
Paradox stepped toward the elderly scientist and the holo-screen, giving both men a small nod. "My humblest apologies for that, gentlemen, I did not intend to startle you." He extended a hand to Pietro and introduced himself. "My name is Professor Paradox. I am a time traveler from young Benjamin's world, you see."
Pietro's eyes widened as he shook the man's hand. "A time traveler? Do tell…"
"Oh, simply the result of a quantum space experiment of mine having gone awry." Paradox explained. "Certainly learned my lesson on that one. Took me many millennia to regain my sanity, but that's neither here nor there."
"I see." Clover directed his attention down to Oscar, who seemed to flinch a bit under his gaze. "And who's the kid?"
"Ah, yes, this is Oscar." Paradox explained. "He's a rather special young man with a unique Semblance who I have taken on as my protégé." He gave a smile down to the former farm hand. "He will be accompanying me on my travels through time and space for the time being."
"That's right." Oscar affirmed before bowing to both men. "It's a pleasure."
Clover crossed his arms as a suspicious expression came to his face. "Really? Well, to get back on topic, you say that you know the perfect candidate for who can take on the Winter Maiden's powers?"
A knowing smile creeped onto the professor's face. "Why yes, indeed, I do. However, it may be a while before she's ready."
"So long as she's the last person that Fria thinks about before she passes, that's really all we need." Ironwood explained before raising a brow. "But just who IS this person that you have in mind?"
"Yeah, professor." Gwen folded her arms with a curious look as well. "You don't exactly seem like the type of person who would be scouting out potential Maiden canditates."
Paradox shook his head. "Perhaps not under normal circumstances, but with this, I believe I know EXACTLY who would make for the perfect new Winter Maiden." He shifted his gaze back to Ironwood, Glynda and Clover. "With any luck, I can have her in Atlas the moment she has completed what she needs to in order to receive the powers, and hopefully in the time that's left, she gave get acquainted with Fria before her time runs out."
Clover sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it might not be the option I'm crazy about." He narrowed his eyes slightly at the professor. "No offence, but I still don't fully trust you."
Paradox raised a hand to him. "Most people don't, so I do not blame you for that."
"Hm. But in any case, it's probably the best option we have, so I guess we can try it."
"Now hold on just a sec." Qrow piped up before quirking a brow in Paradox's direction. "Just who IS this potential candidate that you've got lined up, prof? We haven't even been given a name or anything."
"Ah, yes, the young lady herself." Paradox rubbed his chin a bit. "Well, unfortunately, I cannot tell you her name yet, but trust me, you will all be meeting her quite soon."
Goodwitch was baffled by the answer. "W-Wait, WHAT?! You're just going to offer a Maiden candidate to us without even giving her NAME?!"
Ben glanced over to the blonde woman with a sympathetic face. "Yeah, that's how Paradox usually works, Professor Goodwitch. He doesn't exactly like to spoil future events…" He placed his hands on his hips and gave the time traveler an inquisitive face. "Mostly because he doesn't want us to know about certain things. Because apparently if we did, things wouldn't play out like they're supposed to."
Paradox raised a single finger and pointed at Ben. "Right on the money as always, Benjamin. But I promise, everything will be clear in time."
Raven let out an audible grumble at that. "Grr, it's official; I HATE how cryptic he is."
"Join the club, Raven." Kevin muttered as well.
On the screen, Clover let out a frustrated sigh, the man now having a sizeable headache from all of the information being thrown around at once. "Well, if you say so. But in any case, I've gotta get going. We've still got some pretty important stuff to take care of up here." But then, his eyebrows snapped up as a loud beeping suddenly came from his pocket, reaching in to pull out his scroll. "Oh, sorry, gotta take this." He answered the call with a; "Hello?" From there, his eyes began to widen even more as the call went on. "W-Wait, are you serious?! W-When did he… I see. I'm on the line with them right now. I'll tell them. Yes, thank you, Harriet. Bye now."
"Clover?" Ironwood furrowed his brows in concern. "Who was that?"
He ended the call before looking toward Ironwood. "That was Harriet… and she had some important news for me." He then set his sights over to Winter and Weiss, giving them an apologetic face. "If you guys are really leaving for this other dimension, then you might want to do it fast. Winter, Weiss… your father just boarded a flight. He's heading toward Vale as we speak."
At those words, Weiss and Winter's faces contorted into horrified and worried expressions respectively, thought they both had the same thing to say; "WHAT?!" Weiss held her hands to the sides of her face as Winter picked it up from there. "Our father is coming here?!"
"Unfortunately." Clover confirmed. "And if I have half a mind, I'd say he's coming to try and force Weiss back to Atlas with him."
The whole group suddenly gasped in shock before Ruby spoke up. "How much time do we have?!"
"Well, considering he took a pretty fast Bullhead… I'd say about three hours, maybe?"
"God, we'd be cutting it close." Yang remarked. "That's probably just enough time for us to do the press conference and then leave."
Blake folded her ears down a bit. "Yeah, so we'll have to get the conference over with as quick as we possibly can and then book it to leave before he gets here."
Clover let out a sigh and lowered his head a bit. "Well, I wish you all good luck with that. Sorry that there's not much more I can do…"
"It's fine, Clover." Ironwood assured. "Don't worry, we'll make sure that these kids are all out of here before Jacques even arrives." He gave Clover a salute and a small smile. "Thank you for talking with the kids today, Clover. Oh, and before you go, how's the security around the CCT tower?"
"As tight as ever, James." Clover saluted back. "Trust me, I've been making sure of that." The brunette then gave one last wave out to everyone. "Well, have a good voyage everyone! And good luck in the other world."
Qrow couldn't help but internally grumble at that. 'Bad choice of words, man.'
The others began waving back before Ben gave a thumbs up. "Thanks, Clover. Hope to meet you and your squad in person sometime in the future."
"Likewise. Well, that's all from me. Clover, out." With that, the holo-screen shut off, and Ironwood picked the projector up off the ground to return it to his pocket.
A worried sigh escaped the general's lips before eyeing Weiss and Winter. "Don't worry, ladies. If Jacques arrives before you leave, I'll make sure that he doesn't get anywhere NEAR the ship when you all head off."
The Schnee sisters smiled gratefully at the general. "Thank you, sir." Winter said before eyeing her sister. "And if by some chance we DO see him before we leave… you and I both know what we have to do, right?" The elder Schnee sent a sly wink to her sister, which made Weiss smirk with glee.
"Ooh, indeed." Weiss steepled her fingers as her smirk became toothy, her expression becoming what the teens could only describe as "evil". "It'll be fun if and when we get to do that. Hehehehe."
Everyone shared a concerned glance with one another before Azmuth coughed into his hand. "Ahem, very good, I suppose." The Galvan then directed his attention back up to Ironwood, wearing a curious face. "General, if I may, you made it sound like these "CCT towers" are quite important. Tell me, do they hold any special significance?"
"Oh, they definitely are." Ironwood answered. "You see, the CCTS, or "Cross-Continental Transmit System" is our main array of communication for our world. There are four main towers in all of the kingdoms, situated directly at the four Huntsman Academies." He gestured with his hand as he continued. "You see, after the Great War eighty years ago, the CCT was created to help unify the kingdoms, to help bring the entire world closer together."
"If any of them were to suddenly go down, either by accident or from an attack, our communications across the world would be severely hindered, if not cut off all together." Goodwitch picked up from there. "If fact, that nearly happened at Beacon just three weeks ago, when Salem's forces attacked the first time." The woman smiled over to the team of heroes. "But Ben was able to stop Cinder from doing so, so we're quite lucky for that."
Azmuth pursed his lips, stroking his beard as his face became quite frustrated. "I see… well, as poetic as that sounds, I must say that it is also very antiquated."
Ironwood and Goodwitch's lips parted in shock. "E-Excuse me?" the general spoke.
"I mean no offence when I say this, but considering the level of technology your world is at, which is actually quite a bit ahead of Earth's might I add… have you figured out basic satellite technology yet?" Azmuth moved his hand to the duo. "I would assume not considering you're using simple towers to communicate."
The two headmasters glanced at one another before answering the question. "Well, here's the thing about that…" Ironwood began. "For unknown reasons, the effects of Dust, what we use to power every piece of technology we have… is unable to work outside of the atmosphere."
"It's quite strange, really." Goodwitch remarked. "And we still have no idea why. Though researchers and theorists believe it has something to do with the raw life energy that our planet gives off."
Azmuth placed a hand to his chin. "I see. And you haven't tried any other way? Perhaps fossil fuels?" All he received from the duo were silent stares. "…I see, this world has not NEEDED to used fossil fuels due to Dust being so prevalent." He extended a hand out to them again. "Well, if I may, could I perhaps have one of each type of Dust to study back on Galvan? The material has certainly piqued my interest."
"Oh! O-Of course, Azmuth." Ironwood complied. "We'll be sending plenty of Dust over to Earth with the team anyway, so some more crystals shouldn't be a problem."
Yang's eyebrows rose up before whispering over to Ben; "Hey, uh… if Dust doesn't work outside of this atmosphere… what'll happen if we take it to Earth?"
"I… honestly don't know." Ben admitted. "I mean, considering how much mana is in our world, maybe it'll work?"
Gwen gave the two a nod. "Yeah, I have a feeling it will. Trust me, after feeling how much raw energy just one Dust crystal can give off, I'm pretty certain that they'll work in our world."
Ruby beamed at that. "Ooh! Good to know!" She then whirled around to the gathered group and raised her hands. "Okay! So we know what we're gonna do later, but for now, what do you guys think we should do until we need to go?"
Sun gave Sage a nudge on the shoulder. "Well, to be honest, I think we should give Sage and Scar the four-one-one on whatever Earth stuff we can before we head off!"
"Hey yeah, that's a good idea!" Neptune said as he ushered Scarlet into the house. "I think we still have a few Earth things inside, so let's give you guys at least a little sneak peak!"
"Good point." Sage shrugged. "I mean, we're not coming with you guys, so I guess it's the next best thing."
"This should be interesting…" Scarlet muttered to himself as Sun and Neptune lead them into the house.
Jaune jerked his thumb back toward the house as well. "As for me, I think the gang and I are gonna head in and fill our families in on what's going on." His eyes shifted to Pyrrha and he put his arm around her. "We wanna spend as much time with them as we can before we go, after all."
Ironwood perked up at that. "Oh, Pyrrha, is your mother still here, actually? I wanna ask her something before she leaves."
"She is, general." Pyrrha gestured toward the door as Ren and Nora followed Team SSSN inside. "She's right in the living room with Jaune's family if you and Professor Goodwitch wish to come in."
However, Glynda bowed her head at bit at the offer. "As much as I would like that, Pyrrha, I'm afraid I'm needed in town. Teams ABRN and CRDL may need my help with setting up a few things with the conference. Team CFVY said that they would be there soon of course, but I just want to make sure that everything is all set." She faced Ghira, Kali and Sienna giving them a small wave. "Would you three like to come with me? I'm sure that the reporters would like to see you there."
Ghira couldn't help but be a bit stunned by those words. "Huh, not once did I ever think I'd hear THAT."
"Indeed." Kali said with a slight waver in her voice. "Almost too much to believe."
Sienna gave a shrug. "Still, it probably IS a good option. Sure, we'll accompany you, Glynda."
Tai gave the quartet a wave. "Well then, you guys wanna lift there? I'd imagine that taking THAT would be a bit inconspicuous." The blonde man pointed to Tetrax's ship with a toothy smirk.
"Hmhm, I suppose so. Thank you, Tai." Glynda chortled before setting a hand on Ironwood's shoulder. "I'll see you soon, okay?" she whispered with a wink.
James cleared his throat and quickly nodded as a slight hint of red rose to his cheeks. "Aherm, y-yes, of course, Glynda. See you soon." As Glynda let out another small laugh, Raven gave Tai a quick peck on the cheek before the two blonde adults, the Belladonnas and Sienna departed… only for the Spring Maiden and her brother to quickly smirk devilishly over at James. "W-What?!"
"I freakin' knew it." Qrow snickered.
"We BOTH did, dear brother." Raven emphasized. "It all depended on how many years it would really take…"
The general facepalmed as the teens started to pick up on the subtext as well. "Could we please not do this now?" he pleaded.
"I dunno, G.I." Yang shrugged. "I mean, I ship it." There came a resounding agreement from the crowd, making the Blonde Brawler jerk her thumb toward her friends. "And it seems a whole lot of others do to."
Ironwood sighed before making his way to the door, with Jaune and Pyrhha following behind him. "J-Just… let's not talk about this right now."
However, Qrow just kept following him. "Oh, we are NOT done with this conversation, Jim!"
Once he was gone, Ilia gave Blake a nudge. "He totally digs her."
"Yep." Blake concurred. "He's almost as bad as you are with Swift." She got a high-pitched growl from her best friend for that remark.
Azmuth cleared his throat, garnering the attention of Pietro and Penny immediately. "Well, now what we have a bit of a lull, why don't we continue our previous conversation inside, hm? I'd like to hear more about how you created your daughter, Peitro."
Penny raised an arm excitedly. "Ah! That is a splendid idea!"
"Indeed so!" Pietro concurred. "I'd be happy to talk with you some more, Azmuth." At his words, the trio went inside, with Paradox, Oscar and Max accompanying them. And with that, The Alien Trio, Team RWBY, Rex, Raven, Winter, and Ilia, the group standing in silence for a bit before Kevin decided to break it.
"So… you guys wanna head into town or somethin'?" The Osmosian jerked a thumb to his car. "We could do some last minute shoppin' for the road."
Raven gave a shrug. "I have no qualms with that, I suppose." She tugged a bit at her battle skirt. "Lord knows that I'm going to need a few changes of clothes before we head over there."
Ben, however, wore a bit of a nervous expression. "As much as I wanna do that, I'm kinda afraid of what'll happen if we're seen in public now." He raised his hand over to his cousin and best friend. "Think about it, it'll be like how the people reacted when they first found out about me all over again."
"Hm, that IS a good point." Gwen conceded. "Maybe we can—"
BZZZT-BZZZT! BZZZT-BZZZT! The Anodite stopped when a buzzing sound started to be heard, causing Ruby to jump slightly in surprise. "Oop! Sorry, that's me." The Hooded Huntress reached down and pulled out her scroll, opening it up to see a message having just arrived in her inbox. "Hm, let's see, it's… oh no." The moment she opened the message, her face shifted into one of nervous panic, her hands shaking a little as she stared at the screen.
"Ruby?" Yang stepped over and looked at the scroll in concern. "What is it?"
"It's… it's my friend, Iris." Ruby held the scroll up so that everyone could see the message that blue-haired girl had sent her. "I-I think she wants wants us all to meet her, Daisy and Ollie at the flower shop… and I think Miss Tigerlily and Jessie there too." Ruby moved her eyes back at the message and sighed, seeing that it was short, sweet and to the point; 'You, me, Daisy, Ollie, everyone. At Miss Tigerlily's shop, WITH her and Mrs. Jameson. Explanations, NOW.' From the tone, she couldn't tell if her friend was upset or not, but if there was one thing Ruby COULD do at that moment, it was sigh and mutter out; "Crap baskets."
…..
A/N (Important, Please Read): Okay, another chapter down the pipeline! This one was a bit more straight forward in what it wanted to tell, but since we're basically in wrap-up mode right now, I suppose that's to be expected. But still, we got some really cool things this time! We got some clarification on how Lisa's Semblance works, we got to catch up with the Arcs and see how their doing, Raven and Jonathan were able to bury the hatchet on the whole pantsing debacle, Azmuth's gotten to meet Pietro and it seems their getting along well, and Scarlet and Sage have arrived to see their friends off! Seems like an all-around good time…
Or at least it WOULD be if Clover hadn't just dropped a huge news bomb onto the group like that. Yep, we heard the Ace Ops' leader call a couple chapters back, but now we have him in full, and lemme tell ya, he had some pretty heavy stuff to share. But what's this? Professor Paradox has an idea of who could be the next Winter Maiden? What an interesting development… and if you couldn't tell by that small subtle nudge at canon, it's not gonna be Penny this time. No, I've actually had a different idea of who could be the new Winter Maiden, and I think it'll surprise a lot of you when we get to that point…
Alright, so as I said at the beginning of this chapter, I've got another special announcement for a new story that I'm planning… and this one is neither Ben 10 OR RWBY related! Instead, I think it's time for something a bit more… unexplored. Tell me how you guys think of THIS;
"As he's training on Dagobah Beach, Izuku Midoriya stumbles upon a hidden gem in the mountain of junk; a centuries-old Volkswagen Beetle. Fortunately, All Might knows someone who can fix it up like new... but once they do, this little yellow bug will change their lives in ways that they could've never expected. After all... it's MUCH more than meets the eye."
Stay tuned for "Transformers MHA, Arc 1: Bumblebee"! Coming January 2021!
Yep! I'm starting a Transformers/My Hero Academia crossover! Quite honestly, it's been one that I've had on my mind for a good long while, and, like this story, it's gonna deviate a bit from the canon events of MHA. Not so much at first (aside from a few select changes), but as things go along, it will, so be ready to see some crazy stuff happen in this one. And trust me, I don't plan THIS series to have volumes as long as the Ben 10 RWBY stuff. That'll stay exclusive to this series, hehe.
But for now, NEXT TIME! The gang take a quick jaunt into town before the big press conference, meeting up with Ruby's friends, Miss Tigerlily, and Jessie at the flower shop, ready to explain just what the heck has been going on throughout all of their time there. Afterward, the gang end up coming across some more of the people they've met while on Patch before finally heading to the press conference… where the public has PLENTY of questions for Ben and the others. How will they handle it? Well tune in next time to find out! See ya later everybody, and stay safe out there!
