A/N:
Shout out to GTR Online by PrisonDictator for inspiring this story. Read his work a while back and always wanted to do my own take, though I never found the time or motivation. Then the world went to shit, and I'm suddenly back at home with an abundance of free time with nothing else better to do.
Tiny explosions peppered the ground where Weaver once stood. The combined detonations shook his screen violently as he sprinted towards cover. Glancing up, Weaver could see the thruster of the Lazer as it whizzed overhead. After ducking under a roof that would shield him from being shredded by the jet's explosive cannon, Weaver expanded his minimap to see the Lazer blip nearing his own. Seconds later, the sound of muffled explosions invaded his headsets.
After hearing its engines roar overhead, Weaver equipped his Heavy Sniper MkII chambered in explosive rounds and began taking potshots at the opposing aircraft. After burning through two magazines, the Lazer's burning fuselage came tumbling down to the earth.
Once the message popped up confirming his kill, Weaver expanded his minimap to determine his next move. Seeing the griefer's blip appearing not far from him, Weaver found some cover before opening his Interaction Menu and launched a nano drone. Maneuvering the quad drone towards his opponent's location, he quickly stunned the player before they could hop on their Broomstick. Immediately after the limbless player recovered, Weaver detonated the drone, adding another kill to his name. Before the limbless player was able to react, Weaver detonated the drone — adding another kill to his name. A couple of seconds later, the player cursed Weaver out on the chat before leaving the lobby.
Seeing that no one was near his position, Weaver quickly dialed Lester to call off the cops that had been pestering him before requesting his Nightshark as well as his Avenger. He burned through most of his ammunition during this session and needed to resupply. While driving, Weaver reminisced of his encounter with the player he made rage quit. Just another typical asshole who thought harassing a low level wouldn't go unnoticed. After destroying their precious K/D and saving the random, who actually sent him a text thanking him, Weaver called this little skirmish a success.
Just as Weaver was about to enter his Avenger, the screen turned black as a message popped up, declaring that he lost connection due to 'unknown issues.' For the GTA veteran, it wasn't the first time he saw this. In fact, it doesn't surprise him at this point. Knowing the game will take its sweet time to find a new lobby, Weaver whipped out his phone and started browsing Reddit.
Unbeknownst to him, the screen started to glitch out as the clouds began forming and deforming violently. Weaver didn't bat an eye as he was preoccupied perusing his feed. Suspiciously, when he glanced up to check on the status of the game, the anomaly stopped before Weaver delved back to his phone. A couple of minutes later, Weaver noticed the clouds dissipating as it grew dark.
Tossing his phone aside, Weaver returned his attention to the monitor as the camera panned down to the ground. When it finally loaded, however, he immediately knew something was off. For starters, he definitely remembered setting his spawn point at his Eclipse Tower penthouse, not some dark alleyway. Confused, Weaver his minimap, thinking he was somewhere in Los Santos. Instead, it left him more perplexed.
'The hell?' Weaver was beyond bewildered.
The layout was utterly foreign to him. He expanded and closed the minimap several times to see that it wasn't doing anything aside from irritating him ever so slightly. Making sure it wasn't a visual bug, Weaver pulled up the map from the menu. Likewise, it left him with more questions than answers as it displayed a completely foreign layout.
Instinctively, Weaver began searching for a new session. The last time Weaver stayed in a lobby with a modder, he ended up watching a slideshow as his desktop struggled to render hundreds of UFOs covering the map. However, as soon as he reached the top of the clouds, it panned back down to where he was. After several more failed attempts, Weaver found himself in the same alleyway.
Weaver then checked the player list to find he was the only one. Oddly enough, there wasn't any indication of what kind of lobby he founded himself in. It didn't say Public, Invite, or even Solo. It was just left blank. Giving up, he decided to take a closer look at the map.
Weaver couldn't lie; he was taken aback at the map he was seeing. It consisted of five-oddly shaped continents, one of which vaguely resembles a dragon, with smaller bodies of land dotting around. Judging by how it took him to expand the map, either he was lagging or that whatever he landed was massive — hundreds, perhaps thousands of times larger than San Andreas.
Eventually, Weaver noticed the different names on the bottom right of the screen as his cursor hovered over the continents.
'Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas? What kind of names are these?' Weaver asked himself, bewildered. Despite that, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen these names before.
Weaver was tempted to do a hard reset, hoping it would fix... whatever is happening. Though a part of him wanted to stay and do some exploring.
"Ah, screw it." Weaver's curiosity got the better of him as he began scaling a ladder he spotted. After reaching the top, Weaver panned around to see the rows of buildings that seemed to stretch on for miles. Even spotted the silhouette of what looked like a castle in the distance. Both of these pales in comparison to what was hanging above.
"What the… the fuck happened to the moon?!" Weaver exclaimed as he stared at the fractured moon. Then it finally dawned on him; the cobwebbed gears in his head began to turn. He had seen this before, but it was a long time ago. "Wait a minute, isn't this from RWBY?"
While Weaver was trying to find some logical explanation, he noticed in his peripheral a cluster of red dots with blue cones approaching him on the minimap. Instinctively, he avoided the cones before looking over the edge. Weaver saw a familiar bowler-hatted criminal on the streets below, accompanied by four men in black suits with red accents.
"Wait a sec, isn't that Roman? Why is he…" Weaver continued to watch the group as they entered a quaint store called From Dust Till Dawn. It was slowly starting to come back. "Fuck, the robbery!"
It took him a second to process everything.
"Nope. Nope. No fucking way this is real." Weaver reasoned as he receded back into the shadows. At this point, he was questioning his sanity. A video game inside an internet show? C'mon, how fucking ridiculous is that?
Though the more he thought about it, the more Weaver's unsure about it. Despite not having any tangible explanation that could explain all this, there's always a small, a small, possibility that his Online character had actually been isekai'd or some shit. Regardless, he's about to test that theory.
The sound of glass shattering derailed Weaver's train of thought as he looked over the edge to see one of Junior's goons sprawled out on the streets, shattered glasses everywhere, and Ruby Rose unfurling Crescent Rose into a scythe.
Immediately, Weaver whipped out his Heavy Sniper and placed the crosshair on Roman's head and was about to fire but hesitated. This fight was the reason why Ruby got on Ozpin's radar and got accepted into Beacon early. If he ended the fight right here, right now, Weaver risks jeopardizing the timeline. Who knows what kind of repercussions Roman's untimely death would cause this early on. Shaking his head, Weaver lowered his sniper as he vaguely overheard Roman ordering the goons to attack Ruby. If he couldn't kill him, maybe at least he could stop him from escaping.
"Alright," Weaver opened the Interaction Menu and launched the nano drone and maneuvered it down to ground level — just out of the way from the battle.
For Weaver, it was almost surreal, watching the fight unfold from a different perspective. In the episode, the camera followed Ruby as she dispatched the goons with relative ease. With the quad drone, it's as if he was merely a bystander on the sidelines. It kinda felt exciting, he had to admit. Once Ruby had dealt with them the goons, both Ruby and Weaver turned their attention towards Roman, standing idly in front of the store.
"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." Roman muttered to the unconscious men lying near his feet before turning his attention to Ruby and grabbed the cigar he had been chomping on.
"Well, Red. I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around," Roman flicked the cigar and crushed it with his cane before aiming it at Ruby, "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."
This was Weaver's cue as he positioned the cursor over the criminal until it turned red. With the click of his mouse, he fired a shock round, a small area of Roman's left shoulder shimmering with electricity, but nothing happened.
'Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me.'
Torwhick fired his cane at Ruby, shards of asphalt flying everywhere. The last thing Weaver saw before the feed went static was something hurling towards the screen. Immediately regaining control of his character, two blinking red/blue blips appeared on the minimap.
Weaver looked over to his horror to see Roman clambering up the same ladder he used earlier. Panicking, he ducked behind a skylight before Torchwick reached the top, followed by Ruby.
"Hey!" Ruby exclaimed as the criminal came to a halt near the edge of the roof.
"Persistent…" Roman mutters as a Bullhead emerges from below and shines a spotlight on Ruby, allowing Roman to board the VTOL and turn towards the soon-to-be Huntress.
"End of the line, Red!" Roman said as he produced a red Dust crystal from his suit. Before Torchwick was able to toss it, a deafening shot crackled, followed by the red Dust crystal exploding in his hands. The Bullhead's interior erupted in flames as the criminal was hurled against the wall from the blast.
Recovering, Roman clambered back onto his feet and gripped the side of the Bullhead, only to scrambled behind cover as a stream of bullets whizzed past him. Likewise, the Bullhead pilot ducked her head as rounds began peppering the front of the aircraft. Glass shards flying everywhere inside the cockpit.
Stunned, Ruby turned around to see a person clad top to bottom in dark attires running towards the Bullhead as he reloaded a rifle she didn't recognize. Nearing the edge, the person tossed an object with his other hand as it latched onto the VTOL's thruster. Before she could make out what it was, it detonated in a fiery explosion with enough force to rock the aircraft. Once it had resided, the figure continued his onslaught.
Weaver would've preferred some heavier ordnance like the RPG, but he reminded himself that he was trying to down the bird, not blow it out of the sky. Moreover, he needed the mobility once Cinder joined the fights. Not to mention the armor-piercing rounds from his Carbine Rifle MkII shredded through the Bullhead like it was nothing. Once Weaver noticed the glowing eyes and tattoo emerge from the side of the Bullhead, he didn't waste a second and focused his attention on Cinder.
Cinder raised her open hand to block the incoming rounds as it harmlessly dissipated in her palm as stray rounds created more bullet holes in the wall behind her. Still, Weaver noticed Cinder staggering a bit with each round she caught. In retaliation, Cinder launched a fiery projectile that shrieked towards Weaver, who didn't have time to react.
Before it impacted, a familiar purple barrier appeared in front of Weaver, splintering the projectile across the ground. He remembered what happened next and sprinted out of the way as the ground erupted — concrete fragments flying everywhere. Weaver narrowly avoided the raining shards, while Ruby didn't even get a scratch as all the pieces around her were levitating.
Glynda was nearby, explaining the barrier and floating shards around Ruby, though as to where she was didn't concern Weaver as he swapped to his Heavy Sniper and trained his sights on Cinder and fired. The round struck her center mass as the explosions catapulted Cinder against the wall, her figure shimmering in a light hue before fading. Her Aura broke, and she was now vulnerable.
In his crosshair, Weaver was tempted to finish her off. Roman was one thing, but Cinder... her death would prevent so much trouble in the future. Sure, Salem will probably find a new pawn, but at least it'll put a damper in her plans.
Then it dawned on him as to how she became the Fall Maiden. For all he knew, killing her wouldn't return the power to Amber and get her out of the coma or whatever she's in. Weaver vaguely remembered how the Maiden's powers were transferred, which possibly meant either Emerald, if she's actually Cinder's last thought, or Salem... Yeah, that wasn't gonna be ideal.
With this in mind, Weaver shifted his aim from Cinder's head to one of the Bullhead thrusters and began firing.
Small explosions peppered the thruster, chipping away the casing and exposing the engine and its metal skeleton. Even Ruby, who finally snapped out of her daze, quickly joined in and fired Crescent Rose at the thruster — seemingly knowing what Weaver was trying to do. Despite their efforts, the wounded bird began tilting its engines. They were getting away.
'Oh no, you don't!' Weaver mentally screamed as he reloaded his sniper and tracked Bullhead through his scope. When the crosshair aligned with the thruster, a fire now enveloping the exposed engine, he squeezed the trigger.
Click. Click.
Weaver looked up to the top right of his screen to the two zeroes — he ran out of ammo. It then dawned on him that he was on his way to restock before disconnecting. Understandably, Weaver was furious at this realization. He was this close to downing that bird and perhaps preventing the shitshow at the end of Volume Three.
As Weaver watched the Bullhead escape from view with gritted teeth, black smoke trailing behind its damaged thruster, he noticed two blue blips on his minimap. One he knew was Ruby considering she was standing next to him, which meant the other was...
Turning around, Weaver saw Glynda slowly approaching them with a familiar stern expression. He knew what's about to happen.
"The two of you will be coming with me," Glynda declared. At that statement, Ruby's head sunk. Her dad was not gonna be pleased to hear about this.
Weaver, on the other hand, was unfazed. Well, his Online character was. In real life, he was in a panic frenzy as the gravity of his situation was starting to set in. No doubt in his mind this was something else — something beyond what he initially thought.
Then the memories started pouring in, the Vytal Tournament, the fall of Beacon, the deaths, he needed to stop it. But he couldn't do this alone. Although he would love to see Ozpin in person, he needed to get his bearings. Something he wasn't gonna do inside an interrogation room.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Weaver paid no attention to Glynda as he jumped off, causing both girls to yelp at the sight. Rushing towards the edge, both of them looked over to find no trace of him.
Down below, Weaver managed to duck under an awning that broke his fall and changed into something inconspicuous. He wasn't gonna lie: Weaver smirked as he saw Glynda's irritated and Ruby's concerned faces as they scanned the streets below. Once he noticed the blue cones on the minimap looking the other way, Weaver began strolling down the sidewalk.
After walking several blocks and looking behind his back ever so often, Weaver quickly started an MC and spawned in his Bati 801. Hopping on and revving the bike to life, Weaver secured a matte black helmet on his head before speeding away. The several cop cars racing towards the scene didn't bat an eye as he disappeared into the night.
Plan to upload a couple of chapters (had a lot of ideas swirling around), but don't expect a full-fledged story. This was something I've always wanted to try but have no intention to follow.
Criticism is appreciated (writing and storytelling isn't my strong suit). This is also my first rodeo, so keep that in mind when you write a comment.
Edit: Minors tweaks. Moved and edited A/N because my dumbass forgot to thank the guy that made me do this in the first place.
