Series Prologue: The Arbitrary Introduction
Disclaimer: I, OWN, NOTHING!
...
It had been a week since the breach at Vale happened and things had returned to a relative sense of normality and peace in Vale and Beacon for Ruby and her friends, but right now, things weren't so normal around the scythe wielder cloaked in red.
Ruby was out cold on solid ground for a reason unknown even to her, even if she was passed out at the moment. Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she saw that she was in a white void. "Huh, what the?" She exclaimed in slight panic as she sat up quickly and looked around only to find nothing around her... except for a bunch of other people she did/didn't recognize, ranging from her teammates, to her family Tai and Qrow, to her friends and teachers from Beacon, even Roman, Neo, Hazel, and James Ironwood were present among the people that were passed out. "What the..." She wondered why there were so many people here as she looked around her...
Until she faced behind her and saw a six foot tall airhorn right in front of her face, which made her recoil at the sight of it, but what really got her panicked was that she saw a digital clock hooked out to the airhorn that was counting down from six...
Five...
Four...
Three...
Two...
"Uh oh." Ruby's wonder and confusion dissapeared in a nanosecond as she covered her ears and hit the solid surface she was standing on.
One...
Beep! The alarm on the airhorn beeped as the airhorn blared, causing everyone to wake up in panic.
"AAAAHHHH!" Blake screamed in agony as she covered her ears from the sudden noise that SOMEHOW didn't render her deaf.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Yang jolted awake as she rubbed her ears.
"MY CAKE BUTLER!" Weiss shrieked as she jumped up into the air flailing her arms in blind panic.
"Oh gods." Jaune shouted loudly also in panic.
"PANCAKES!" Nora screamed.
Pyrrha and Ren jolted awake and stood up in alarm.
"AAAHHH, MY EARS!" Velvet screamed in pain.
"WHAT?!" Coco asked loudly.
"What the hell?!" Qrow exclaimed in panic and confusion.
"OH GODS ABOVE!" Leonardo Lionheart shouted in panic.
Ozpin, James, Glynda, Taiyang, Port, Oobleck, Winter, and Hazel all sat up in alarm and confusion.
As the airhorn quieted down, and everyone regained their barrings, they saw where they were at the moment.
"What the?" Weiss muttered.
"Where are we?" Blake asked.
"No clue." Yang answered.
"Is everyone alright?" Pyrrha asked her friends.
"Yeah, we're fine." Sun and Neptune answered together.
"Alright on our end." Jaune answered for him, Nora, and Ren.
"Yeah, but man that was loud." Nora complained about the rude awakening.
"It was pretty over the top." Ren commented.
"Not really, I'm pretty sure my ears are still ringing." Velvet answered Pyrrha's question.
"Well, that was one effective wake up call that's for sure." Coco joked.
"Gee, kid, you think?" Qrow asked Coco.
Ruby and Yang gasped at the sound of the familiar voice. "Qrow?" Yang asked.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby leapt onto Qrow's left arm in happiness.
"Oh, it's good to see you, did you miss me?" Ruby asked her uncle.
Qrow smirked, realizing that, despite the fact they they were in some unknown place, Ruby was still being Ruby. "Maybe." Qrow jokingly said as Ruby let go of his arm.
"Ruby." A certain robot in disguise called out to her, causing Ruby to turn around.
"Penny, it's you." Ruby ran over and gave her a hug.
"Ruby, what is going on here?" Penny asked.
"I honestly have no clue, heck I don't even know where we are." Ruby answered.
"Dad?" Yang asked upon seeing her father.
"Yep, it's me." Taiyang answered.
"Where are we, exactly?" Winter asked.
Weiss gasped hearing that voice. "Winter?" Weiss asked, looking over to see her sister near her left side.
"Specialist Schnee?" James did the same.
Winter gasped as she saw the two approaching her. "Weiss? General?" She asked.
"What is going on here?" Weiss asked.
"I... honestly have no clue." James answered.
"James?" Leonardo asked.
"Leo?" James asked.
"Headmaster Lionheart?" Sun and Neptune asked together.
"What are doing here?" Leonardo asked.
"I've haven't the foggiest idea how." James said once again. "But I know for a fact that it wasn't because of anything in Atlas."
"W- Weiss?" Willow asked with a stutter.
Weiss and Winter turned in Willow's direction to see not only their mother, but their brother Whitley as well.
"Mom, Whitley." Weiss asked shocked to see her family (except Jacques) right in front of them.
"What are we doing here?" Willow asked slightly unnerved.
Winter saw her nervous attitude clear as day, and moved closer to her. "Don't worry, everything will be alright." Winter tried to reassure her.
"Even if we have no idea where we are right now?" Whitley asked.
"Whitley, now's not the time." Weiss told her brother, who merely sighed at that.
"Whatever, but that won't change the fact that we don't know where we are." Whitley told his sister pessimistically.
"General?" James looked in the direction the voice came from and saw the Ace Ops, Clover, Marrow, Harriet, Vine, and Elm looking at them, alongside Robyn Hill of all people.
"Clover, Robyn, everyone?" James was getting more confused with each passing second as to what wa going on, even if he didn't want to admit it.
"Yep, we're here." Marrow commented.
"What is going on here?' Harriet asked.
"Somehow I don't think anybody here knows." Vine told Harriet.
"Is this the work of some sort of technology?" Elm asked, her distrust for technology bubbling up for a moment.
"Somehow, I severely doubt that." Robyn said.
"Mom? Dad? Ilia?" Blake asked shaking at the people she left behind in Menagerie after taking her from the White Fang.
"Blake?" Ghira saw her daughter and rubbed her eyes, wondering if this was a dream.
"My little girl." Kali whispered as she walked up slowly to hug Blake in happiness and relief.
"You're here..." Ilia muttered absentmindedly, shocked to see her friend in front of her again.
"This is getting ludicrous." Glynda muttered.
"Indeed it is, with all these varied people around, it's certainly a lot to adapt to." Port added.
"But where exactly are we is the question." Emerald intervened.
"That's right." Cinder agreed, with her presence calming Emerald down slightly.
"We appear to be in some sort of void." Oobleck observed.
"It would seem so." Ozpin agreed, slightly familiar with this type of situation, kinda.
"Ummm... pardon me, sir, but..." Ozpin looked down to see Oscar looking up at him, clearly nervous at what was going on around him. "What is going on right now?" Oscar asked him.
Ozpin looked at the boy and felt something weird between the two of them. "Well, admittedly, I've not any sort of idea, but I know that if anything bad were to happen, I'll be right here to make sure you're okay." Ozpin assured the boy.
"Uh, thank you, sir." Oscar thanked him.
"Ozpin..." A low growl came from Hazel, as he heard Ozpin talking to Oscar while the headmaster of Beacon sensed the negativity coming off of him, they both made eye contact for a moment, but for some reason neither person tried to attack or defend, as if a voice in the back of their heads was telling to calm down.
"Oh boy, all these interactions are starting ot make me dizzy." Roman muttered as Neo merely nodded in agreement. "Seriously, what's going on here." Roman asked.
James heard Roman's voice and got angry at the fact that he was in front of him.
"TORCHWICK!" James scowled at the crime lord of Vale. "Are you the one responsible for this?" James asked.
"Oh come on, seriously, in the middle of a void with a white backdrop as far as the eye can see, and you immediately jump at me with a Grimm would with fresh meat." Roman said, peeved at the baseless accusation the general was making.
It was then that a certain pair of White Fang Faunus would notice the four Schnee members. "You..." Sienna growled.
"Schnees." Adam snarled in fury as he started walking up to them... until something came up.
"Now, now, let's all settle down." A loud voice echoed through the void everyone was in.
"Who's there?" Blake asked.
"Show yourself." Hazel demaned, ticked off at the one who had something to do with Ozpin's presence around him.
"Calm down, now, I'll unveil myself." Suddenly, a golden portal opened up in front of everyone, and soon after some...thing walked out of it.
The thing was a quadrupedal animal-like creature that looked like a panther with a small golden coat of fur all over its body, it had three thin tails sprouting out of it's tailbone, red eyes with white sclera that were surrounded by four smaller dot-like red eyes, horns on its head that had holes on the sides, and the horn on the right had what seemed to be a halo stuck near the tip of it, a snout that was long, yet it hid it's fangs seemlessly, it had four furry spikes on the back of it's head that rose upward slightly, and pointed ears on the sides of its head. And despite being animal-like, it's forearms looked straight and almost human-like in appearnace, they even had five fingers like a human's.
Everyone could tell that this... thing meant business, as it's eyes were staring at them intensely.
Everyone recoiled in fear or tried to reach for their weapons, until the creature spoke up. "Don't bother, your weapons aren't with you, your auras and semblances are disabled, and everyone has a hyper regenerative healing factor on them that heals any injury they take and prevents them from feeling pain of any capacity from those injuries." The creature told them.
But as soon as it finished talking, it's expression softened as he spoke up again. "But either way, it's a pleasure to finally meet the people of Remnant I've been told so much about." The creature said as it moved one of it's tails below it's upper torso and lowered it's head at the same time, as if to imitate someone bowing to them.
"Ummm... hello." Ruby waved at the creature.
"Who are you?" Yang asked, unnerved by the creatures appearance.
"My name is Riaze (Ri-Ah-Zei), and I am a familiar of sorts to my master." The creature, now identified as Riaze, introduced itself.
"A familiar to your master?" Glynda parroted, puzzled by that part of the creature's identity.
"Don't think too deeply into it for now." Riaze told her. "Anyways, I think it's time that one amongst you lot ask the million doll- lien question of the moment." He stated, causing everyone present to get the memo.
"Right." James said, going with the flow, before asking a question. "What is this place?" He asked.
Riaze breathed in and out for a moment before answered. "This is a special void in between dimensions that my master constructed for me to control to my hearts content, it is a place where you all will grow in spirit in accordance with the plans my master has as to how you will gain them." Riaze explained.
"A void between dimensions?" Winter repeated.
"Where... we'll grow in spirit?" Glynda asked.
"That... sounds weird." Yang responded.
"You think, what does that mean, and who's this master you're bringing up?" Weiss asked.
"Cool it, Schnee, my master wished for you all to be here for what he has planned, I am merely a messanger of some variety, as well as a host." Riaze told them, confusing everyone slightly.
"A host?" Ruby repeated.
"What does that mean?" Sienna asked.
"Well, if you wish to know, my master wishes to grant the lot of you a rare chance hardly no one else of your world will get." Riaze told them.
"And that would be?" Robyn asked.
"A chance to oversee the multiverse in all of it's wonder and glory." Riaze told them.
"Huh?" That got everyone confused even more.
"What do you mean, oversee the multiverse?" Marrow asked.
"Does anyone here ever think about the multiverse theory?" Riaze asked the whole lot of them as only a handful of people, those being Ruby, James, Oobleck, Ozpin, Hazel, Willow, Vine, and Sienna raised their hands, making Riaze facepalm and sigh. "And the master wondered at a time IF Atlas was going to fall at some point." Riaze muttered.
"What?" Everyone exclaimed in reaction to that.
"Don't think about too hard." Riaze told them. "Anyways, for those who are not well versed into the subject, the multiverse theory is an interpretation of the fact that despite you lot being in one universe, there's another universe that could either be similar to your home universe or completely different to it." Riaze explained.
"What does that have to do with us being here though?" Port asked.
"It has to with the latter of the possible universes, where my master wants all of you to view these different universes in the only he knows how." Riaze told them. "That way being through the viewing of animations depicting what goes on in those universes to a nigh perfect degree." Riaze finished.
"Really, how come he wants us to do so?" Nora asked.
"That's a question even I don't have the answer to, but I can assure that you all will meet with my master at some point, so when the time comes, you can take it up with him, if you wish." Riaze informed them all.
"It sounds nice, but is there anything we'll be able to get out of this?" Cinder couldn't help but ask.
"Knowledge of the grand scheme of the multiverse as a whole, and if my master is feeling generous, new weapons and powers dependant on what is may be that we view here." Riaze answered.
"Wait a sec..." Ruby said suddenly. "You're saying that if we go through with this... we'll be able to get WEAPONS FROM OTHER WORLDS!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.
"And powers, but yes." Riaze answered, making Ruby imagine what kind of weapons are out there.
"That actually sounds, amazing." Weiss said in awe at the prospect of getting new abilities from other worlds.
"Indeed." Riaze answered before his expression hardened. "But be warned, you'll also see them go through many struggles, you'll see battlefields where spirits and ideals of many varieties clash head to head, and beware, for you'll also see people who die for what they believe in, and hear the screams of their unrelenting agony of not being able to see their lives through to the end." Riaze ominously warned them. "That is one other reason why my master has gifted upon you this chance to see other realities and study the abilities of those within them, to compensate for what you may see and be witness to as a result." He finished.
Everyone was slightly unnerved at what the familiar said... Until. "I say we do it." Ruby said.
This got everyone's attention. "I'll admit, if we do this, there are going to be things that we don't want to see, but if we can get new abilities by doing so, then I say we at least see where it goes quite frankly." Ruby stated.
Everyone heard this and started pondering on it in their own ways.
"Well put Ms. Rose." Ozpin said with a smile. "This might be beneficial for all of us, in fact, so maybe we should go through with it." The headmaster of Beacon suggested.
"I'll stick by you, Ruby." Yang said.
"Me too." Blake answered.
"Someone's got to keep you from fainting at the sight of some extravagant weapon, so I'll stay as well." Weiss stated.
"Family gotta stick together, so I'll stay, could be a chance to learn something new." Tai agreed.
"Same here, could be a chance to learn some new tricks." Qrow answered.
JNPR broke out of a huddle the team was in and nodded in agreement. "We're in as well." Jaune stated.
"Let's see people break some legs." Nora smiled wickedly.
"It could be a good chance to see some other varieties of action." Robyn answered.
"We're in as well, but only if..." Clover and the rest of the Ace Ops looked to James.
"Very well, let's see what these other realities have to offer in terms of abilities." James answered.
"It's might be nice to see what the clothing of other world and realities are like so let's do it." Coco answered.
Velvet nodded before answering. "Yeah, could be fun." Velvet said before smiling.
"Very well then." Ghira nodded.
"Let's do it." Kali answered.
"Uh... alright then." Ilia muttered, hoping to get to talk to Blake at some point.
"Maybe we can see their deductive skills and reasoning, to try and make our careers as junior detectives even better." Sun said as he and Neptune fistbumped.
"Totally." Neptune agreed.
"It would be nice to do so while spending time with my sister." Winter said.
"I'll wouldn't mind being alongside Ruby, so I stay as well." Penny added.
"I'd like to understand the biology and monsters of these other worlds, admittedly, I feel as though there are going to be some in these universes." Port stated his thoughts.
"There will be, Port, especially in the first one, to some capacity." Riaze answered.
"It would be nice to observe their biology and the history behind the world in these realities, so I'll stay as well." Oobleck said.
"I, for one, wish to see what the students will learn from this experience, and hope they don't do anything rash with it, so I'll stay as well." Glynda said.
"I'll stay as well." Leonardo declared.
"It would be a whole lot better compared to me staying in that farm." Oscar thought to himself aloud. "Alright, I'll stay as well." He declared as well.
"If it gives me more time away from Jacques, I guess it could be fine." Willow said with a little hesitant.
"I don't know why, but I think I'd be okay going through with this." Whitley said.
"Tsk, if I can get something that can assure peace for the Faunus, then I guess I couldn't hurt." Sienna said.
"On that, we agree." Adam agreed with Sienna.
"I guess we could see what these other world have to offer." Roman said as Neo nodded in agreement.
"Fine, it would be nice to see what other realities are out there in addition to ours." Cinder said.
"Then, I'll stick alongside you as well." Emerald said inhesitantly.
"All that's left now is..." Riaze looked to Hazel as he trailed off.
"I have one question, and then I'll make I desicion." Hazel told him.
"Alright, what might it be?" Riaze asked.
Everyone looked to Hazel as he spoke up. "Are you withholding something from us?" Hazel asked.
That question got everyone on high alert and to look at the familiar. "I'm afraid that's a question I'm not permited to answer at the current moment." Riaze told him. "I can only answer that question if you agree to view the other realities, and you all make it through the first viewing my master has in mind for you all." Riaze told him with a sorrowful look on his face.
Hazel looked into the creature's eyes and saw the sincere apologeticness in him. "Very well, but if I don't like the reason why, I'm out of here, deal." Hazel told him.
"I know the answer to that and I'll tell you one thing above all else, you won't be leaving when you're told." Riaze told him.
"That sounds ominous." Coco commented.
"If you say so." Hazel said back.
"Now then, since you all agreed to view other realities, my master has chosen one in question that's going to be fast paced, but moderately slow enough that you should be able to keep up with it." Riaze stated as he raised on of his forearms and snapped his fingers, turning the void around them all into a theater room with enough seats for them all, and a screen facing all of them.
"Wha..." Ruby marveled at the feat Riaze displayed before them.
"A theater room?" Ozpin wondered.
"Amazing." Velvet muttered.
"Yep, now then take a seat, and we can get started." Riaze told them.
Everyone looked to each other and took a seat by their friends and family.
"Now then, shall we get started?" Riaze asked as everyone nodded for him to start. "Okay then, but before that." Riaze suddenly dissapered and reappeared in front of Neo as he tapped her neck with his right index finger.
Neo what had happened as she spoke, only with actual words. "What did you do to... me?" Neo stopped slowly as she realized what had happened to her. "Did you just?" Riaze smiled as Neo's eyes began to water.
"Yep, I gave you a voice, something that nearly slipped my mind admittedly." Riaze told her while scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
Tears slid down Neo's face as she hugged Roman. "I... I finally have a voice now." Neo said happily as she hugged the crime lord.
"And you sound incredible, I'll say that." Roman complemented her as he patted her head, before looking over to Riaze and tipping his hat to him in gratefulness.
Riaze nodded back as he spoke up. "You calm now." Riaze asked Neo, who nodded while wiping away her remaining tears. "Alright then, let's get started." He said as he moved to the side of the theater and snapped his fingers, causing the screen lit up.
...
I'll be honest here folks, this is not the best chapter out there, but I tried my best to make this a good chapter that can lay the ground work for the series of reaction fanfics that I have planned.
But I do hope that you all like the character selection I've got going for this story, I didn't really think too much about it (Too much), I just want to make the characters I chose more powerful and aware of the realities that could be out there, sounds cheesy, but hey, this is me we're talking about.