[Authors Note]
Hi, sorry for posting this so late. I meant to release this last Saturday but a lot of stuff came up. Also, there are some things I wanted to make clear.
1. This story would take place two years before Volume One of RWBY.
2. This fic is connected to my other Rwby Fanfic "Thieves Of Vale" At some point, the connection will be shown. But for now it isn't going to be. The only connection between the two fics right now is that Jonathan Jade and Quinton Quartz were on the same team together at Beacon. Oh, wait, since this story takes place Two years before Volume One I should change Quinton's Age in the Character Book...I'll fix that when I put the new additions in.
3. Yes, Jupiter is Neptune's older brother. I think I explained why Jupiter went to Atlas instead of Haven like Neptune in his page of the character book so check it out while you can.
4. I wanted to make Remnant like the world of Hunter X Hunter, where the map everyone knows is just a smaller part of a much bigger world. Hence the name, Out Of Remnant.
Now that that's out of the way, here's chapter two!
"Woah . . . that was . . . " Jupiter was cut off as Brick vomited next to him, and he looked away, internally accepting Brick's apologies before he puked again.
"I'm just surprised it took this long," Bean deadpanned, adjusting his glasses.
"I don't recognize any of these landmasses . . . " Quinton said, looking out the windshield. "We must be a long, long way from Atlas."
"The ship seems to want to go to this island," Jupiter explained as the ship blasted off towards it. "I think . . . I think it's going back to its base."
Jupiter realized the simulators didn't show nearly how intense the turbulence was when landing. It also didn't simulate how his team was going to be huddling around him so he couldn't even fly correctly, which was again, pretty annoying.
"Guys, personal space!" Jupiter complained, then looked to his friend, "Brick, your breath is killing me."
"Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious Wormhole?" Brick said, obviously frantic. "Why are we listening to an airship anyway?"
"It got us away from that demon warship, didn't it?" Jupiter retorted.
"I don't know if you noticed," Phin said, standing up fully, "but I'm pretty sure we're in something similar."
"Oh," Jupiter smirked, "Scared?"
"With you at the controls?" Phin stared at him, frowning. "Terrified."
"Alright, knock it off!" Quinton said sternly as they all looked towards him. "No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together."
"So, what do we do?" Bean asked.
"First, we find out where we're headed," Quinton decided. "Jupiter?"
"I . . . don't know," Jupiter admitted, looking down at the controls. He looked to his teammates worriedly, hoping they weren't angry at him. "I-I'm sorry, the ship isn't talking to me anymore." That was when Jupiter noticed the castle ahead. But before he told them . . . he wanted to do something. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait, shh! Listen. I think I hear something."
What the others heard was, as Brick described it, "a high-pitched squeal", but Jupiter . . . was farting.
"Come on, Jupiter!" Quinton, Phin, and Brick all yelled as they held their noses.
"But seriously," Jupiter smirked, "there's a castle up ahead."
Everyone gaped as they slowly descended towards a giant white and blue castle, but it wasn't like a medieval castle. It looked much more futuristic than that. It sat right on top of a large boulder structure, overlooking a huge lake. The bridge leading up to it was falling apart, but it still seemed strong enough to use. Still, they flew right over it, the ship's headlights glowing again and activating something which caused the castle to shine various blue lights from its spires as they landed in the courtyard.
They all looked at the castle for a moment before Quinton spoke.
"Keep your guard up," he said.
"Something wrong?" Bean asked.
"My crew was captured by beings with this kind of technology once," he explained, tone almost regretful. "I'm not gonna let it happen again."
Soon enough, they were walking out of the ship and onto the courtyard. Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and they all turned to look at the ship, which was making a humming sound like something was charging up.
Brick was yelling again. "Oh no! Oh no! I knew it was going to kill us! No!"
The ship sent a blast past them and towards the castle, the giant doors lighting up and sliding open.
Brick hid behind Quinton, cowering. "Oh, the door is open," Brick looked to the ship. "Guess I was wrong about you."
The group walked into the dark castle, looking around for any sign of life. It was empty . . . and also really, really creepy.
"Hellooo?" Brick suddenly called out, stopped. Startled, they all turned to look at him as his words echoed around the castle, but Brick just shrugged.
Suddenly, from above, a blue light shone, surrounding them as a robotic voice spoke to them. "Hold for identity scan."
Jupiter gasped, looking down as a white light began to move up his body.
"Why are we here?" Quinton asked, looking up. "What do you want with us?"
"You must be tested" The robotic voice announced as a blue portal opened above them, before any of them could say anything they found themselves on top of a cliff
"What just happened," Brick asked while trying to keep the small amount of food left in his stomach
"All five of you have auras that are compatible with the blades"
"Is it talking about the ones related to that Surtr thing?" Jupiter asked Bean who simply shrugged
"In order to see if you are worthy, you must make your way to the Northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path... or you will fail and perish."
"Well...that was certainly morbid."
"You will be monitored and evaluated for the duration of the test, but I shall not intervene. At the end of the path, you will find an abandoned temple, containing several relics. Each one of you must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will then guard that item, as well as your standing, and be evaluated appropriately. Do any of you have any questions?"
Brick raised his hand and began, "Yeah, um-"
"Excellent." The robotic voice cut Brick off mid-sentence. "Now, take your positions."
"What does it mean by that" Brick turned to Quinton
"Did you guys ever learn about landing strategies?" Quinton looked at the four younger than him
Phin nodded while Bean responded "Yeah, Grayson made us practice those in case something ever caused our airships to malfunction"
"Yeah, but we don't have any gear to use!" Jupiter shouted
"Well, you are going to have to improvise!" Quinton told them as he put his hands in front of him in a boxing stance, Bean simply adjusted his glasses before he spread his arms and sprouted out a pair of butterfly wings, while Jupiter took a sumo stance. Phin herself took a stance similar to Quinton, her hands at a slightly lower angle than Quinton's. Brick, however, kept his hand raised and asked, "Hey, I-I've got a question."
The others began to launch as he continued. "So this... landing strategy thing... what is it? I had food poisoning when Grayson was teaching that, are we being dropped off somewhere or something?"
The robotic simply answered, "No. You will be falling."
"O-oh. I-I see. So, um, do we get parachutes?"
Bean was then launched, his face and voice oddly full of glee. The Robotic Voice answered, "No. You will need to use your landing strategy." just before Jupiter was launched, Phin soon afterward.
"What the heck is a landing strategyYYYYYYYYYYYYY-" Brick was launched before he could finish his question. Now only Quinton remained on the cliff.
"May the light of Oum bless you"
Before Quinton could even process what was said to him, he was flung through the air and into the forest.
Jupiter was falling fast towards the ground now. With no way to propel himself or slow his trajectory, he was going to crash into something and die. Frantically looking around him; Jupiter tried to find the best course of action. Focused on how he would save himself, he didn't notice Phin falling just behind him.
The Faunus was calmly waiting to fall closer to the trees in front of them to use her semblance and move from mid-air to the top of the branch. Her ears twitched when Jupiter yelled suddenly. "I DON'T HAVE A LANDING STRATEGY!"
"Just use your aura as a shield!" Phin yelled back
"I can't do that!"
Phin dove towards Jupiter. She fully intended to grab a hold of Jupiter to flip them over so that she could take the blow and use her own aura as the shield. But before she could reach Jupiter, the blonde let out a battle cry and dove towards a tree, his fist clenched and enveloped in electricity.
"HECK YEAH, BABY!"
Jupiter tore through the massive trunk with his fist, breaking it in two and making the tree collapse in a storm of leaves. He actually managed to slow his momentum and landed roughly on his back.
Phin wasn't so lucky. Her original plan was to use her semblance and appear on that exact tree's branch but now said tree was collapsing. She gasped and used her semblance on the falling trunk, managing to swiftly appear from a collapsing part to another. She saw the ground arriving too fast for her taste and braced herself for an impact.
"OOF!"
Phin groaned and pushed her hands to the ground, raising herself on all fours and looking around her at the remains of the tree.
"Get, off!"
Phin's ears twitched and she glanced down, noticing she was hovering over a very battered-looking Jupiter.
"I've never thought I would dislike having a girl on top of me so much!"
Phin rolled her eyes before jumping to her feet next to Jupiter's head. "Come on, we need to make sure the others are alright"
Being thrown into the air was a rather exhilarating feeling for Bean. He had no real way to describe the pure excitement that came from seeing the blurred green of trees, shrubs, and flora blur together into one cohesive blur. Bean looked around him, mentally noting the closest people to him, before focusing on the person who was in the most trouble. Brick was heading northeast whilst Bean was moving a few degrees west of north. The winged boy tilted his wings to change direction and was now heading in a similar direction to his screaming classmate. With his aim sorted, Bean needed to close the growing distance between him and Brick before he hit the ground.
Brick screamed, flailing around before Bean had swooped down and snatched him up before he could hit the ground.
"Thanks!" Brick had to shout to be heard over the air drag.
Quinton, noticing that his juniors were safe, proceeded to enact his landing strategy. Once he was below the tree line, he stretched his Grimm arm to grab onto the trees, swinging down like he was using a grappling hook.
He then stuck his landing with a tight roll, only to be greeted by a very large Beowolf, which stood up on its hind legs and began to howl at a pitch so loud that he almost had to cover his ears mid-descent. Quinton quickly ran up to it and activated his semblance.
Pink and Red flames began to flow off of his hair, his aura rolling off of him in small pink bursts. Using the extra strength he'd gained, Quinton punched the Beowolf's head clean off, its body dissolving into black mist as it fell to the ground. An Alpha Beowolf, even larger than the one that he had just killed, howled so loudly that Quinton had to cover his ears to keep his hearing intact.
This howl was cut short when it was promptly stabbed in the back by Phin, in her right hand was a slender, curved black and purple dagger.
The Faunus then jumped off of the dissolving Alpha's back and walked over to Quinton with Jupiter following behind her, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah" Quinton answered, "We should regroup with Bean and Brick then grab the relics..."
"Where do you think we are?" Jupiter asked.
"Most likely in the northeastern part of the forest. That's where I think we were launched." Phin answered then looked skyward. "It's still morning, and the sun is to our left," she pointed left for emphasis, "so that would mean we're currently facing north," she pointed straight ahead. "If we want to get to the temple, we'll probably have to go... that way." She pointed midway between the arc his hands had previously made, pointing directly northwest.
"Your navigational skills definitely improved from when I last saw you." Quinton praised Phin before heading in that direction with Jupiter in tow.
"Show off" Jupiter mumbled under his breath as he followed Quinton
After a long and rather talkative walk, Quinton, Phin, and Jupiter had finally come across the ruined old temple that they been searching for. In the center were stands with what appeared to be chess pieces on top of them.
The three of them walked down from the hill they were on and were then greeted by Bean. Jupiter decided to get a better look at Bean since he never had a chance to check out his wings before.
"Sup, Bean." Jupiter greeted "Where's Brick?"
"I kinda lost him on the way here..." Bean nervously chuckled "But he should be able to catch up, he knows where to go"
"Hey, Phin. Come over here." Quinton called
"Coming!" Phin came up the temple steps, noticing that they had a few different options as to the relics. However, one pair, in particular, caught her eye. Twin black knights.
"So, which one do we choose-" Quinton abruptly stopped when he realized that Phin had already taken the black knight out of instinct. "I'm not even gonna ask how you got there that fast."
Phin gave a silent smile, while also pocketing the marble black knight. Then, as she and Quinton were about to join Bean and Jupiter, they heard an incredibly high scream at a pitch that only dogs and cats should hear.
"What was-" Jupiter began before, suddenly, Brick came running with a Death Stalker right behind him, barely dodging its claws as it swept at him. Then, as if by the good graces of the gods, he was saved from his chase by a spear that had embedded itself partway through the Death Stalkers head
"Who threw that?!" Jupiter asked, looking around for the owner of the spear
"Worry about that after we take the Grimm out!" Phin said as she jumped on top of where the spear was embedded and, using her semblance as a booster, slammed her foot onto the spear, running the Death Stalker clean through, killing it in the process.
"Did you run all the way here with a Death Stalker on your tail?" Bean turned to Brick who was now heavily breathing on the floor
"Ye-yeah"
"Who's out there?" Phin shouted out from above the slowly dissolving corpse of the Death Stalker, pulling the spear out and tossing it to Jupiter who approached her.
"No one is" The robotic voice from earlier responded
"Then where the heck did this come from?!" Jupiter asked, holding up the spear
"That came from the ship you arrived in" The voice responded "It sensed you in distress and aided you"
"Don't really know what that means but we got the relics!" Jupiter held up the black rook piece he picked up "So the trial or whatever is over right?"
"Not quite"
Then another Death Stalker came charging out of the woods.
"Great, now that the gang's all together, we can die together!" Brick yelled out sarcastically.
"I don't know whether to laugh at the joke or point out the fact it was incredibly morbid." Bean quietly deadpanned.
"Not if I can help it!" was all Jupiter said before dashing headfirst at Death Stalker before anyone could protest or offer backup. The Death Stalker simply swiped one of its massive claws at Jupiter, and while it was only a graze, it was enough to make him veer off course and crash.
Jupiter, roughly standing and yelling out to the others, "I'm okay!" Then he heard the Death Stalker behind him. Jupiter managed to turn the spear in his hand into a rifle and fired off a warning shot, the recoil of the rifle shot Jupiter back far enough to dodge its claw, giving him a chance to run back to the temple.
Bean started to run over to him out of concern that he might not make it. What neither of them saw was the Nevermore in the sky, which began to make razor-sharp feathers rain down from the sky. Quinton ran after Bean with his semblance activated, and just barely managed to reach him in time to block and deflect some of the incoming feathers with a swing of his Grimm's arm.
"Jupiter!" Bean yelled out, his voice filled with fear. Quinton looked in the same direction and saw Jupiter about to be skewered by the Death Stalker's tail. "Crap!"
Then, a black blur shot past him, before stopping in front of Jupiter, revealing it to be Phin, as she swung her leg at the Death Stalker's stinger, changing its direction and making it implant itself into the ground.
Jupiter, seeing this opportunity, climbed up the Death Stalker's tail and fired off several shots between the tail and the stinger before the Death Stalker's tail flung him right off and into a tree harshly, his aura shattering instantly that moment.
Phin then saw how much damage Jupiter had done to the Death Stalker's stinger with how it dangled and looked to Quinton. "Quinn, cut it!"
Quinton grabbed one of the Nevermore feathers he defended Bean from and threw it at the stinger causing it to fall off and land right on the Death Stalker's head.
"Phin!"
"Already on it!" Phin called from above as she descended towards the Death Stalker. Using her semblance to boost her speed as she then slammed both of her feet into the stinger which impaled the Death Stalker's head.
Quinton, now assured that the Death Stalker was taken out, turned his attention to Bean, who was simply staring at what had just happened. He tapped his shoulder and once he had his attention, asked him, "Can you stand?"
Bean silently nodded, accepting Quinton's hand up.
"Uhh, guys that was cool and all but...the Nevermore's circling back. What do we do?" Brick asked with a shaky voice.
"Well, there no point in staying here any longer. We already have our objective." Phin stated as she helped a dazed Jupiter up.
"She's right." Bean agreed "We got the relics, we just need to head back to the cliff. There's no point in fighting."
Before anyone could say any more the Nevermore came circling around and crashed through a nearby Mountain cliff before any of them could get to it.
"I don't think it's giving us much of a choice!" Jupiter said snarkily
"Phin! Get ready!" Quinton prepared himself as the Nevermore flew towards them
Then... another roar resounded throughout the forest, it was more than enough to spook the Nevermore, making it retreat from the area. The roar came from within the ground beneath them that began to crack.
"Everyone move!" Quinton warned
Phin uses her semblance to speed herself and Jupiter away while Bean picked Brick up and flew away.
As Quinton ran towards his comrades the ground under him collapsed and A dragonesque creature emerged. It was a Wyvern. A dragon of darkness that is rarely ever been seen by any Huntsman
Phin and the others were able to get far enough to not fall through the cavern created by the Wyvern, while they were still on the ground. The Wyvern flew in their direction. Quinton knew the four of them were exhausted and wouldn't be able to outrun the Grimm.
Quinton then activated his semblance once more, jumping between the remaining pieces of debris in an attempt to get the Wyvern's attention. It worked, as said Grimm began to shoot fire at Quinton from its gaping maw. He managed to dodge them, though they began to destroy the cavern it created.
Then, he saw the Wyvern begin to tire. It was on its last legs, affirming that it was much younger than other Wyverns, but it was still stronger than the Nevermore that it had just scared off earlier, even if it was by just a small margin. Seeing his chance, Quinton held his gravity on the most airborne piece of debris, above the Wyvern.
He didn't know this, but as he activated his full power, the whited of his eyes turned black, and his irises began to glow a bright and vibrant red. Using all the power, he could muster, he launched himself at the Grimm, and, using his left fist, slammed into it. After a full second, he pushed his strike through once more, beheading the Grimm and killing it. However, here laid another problem.
He had broken his arm in several places, and his left foot was fractured. And he was free falling. "Crap!"
However, before he could even prepare to launch his Grimm arm to grab anything, a certain Butterfly Faunus managed to fly over in time and catch him.
"What the heck was that, Quinton?!" Bean asked as he carried Quinton out of the cavern "What did you just-"
"It's his semblance." Phin answered "It's a power booster. But...I've never seen it hurt him like this."
"Congratulations, you have passed the trial" The Robotic voice from earlier announced
That was all Quinton heard before he blacked out into a dark, dreamless rest.