Chapter 1 Down The Giant Purple Swirling Rabbit Hole

Cardin Winchester was not having a good time. Which would be odd since It was the week of the Vytal festival, a celebration of peace and unity amongst the four kingdoms. There were parades, parties and numerous places where the all around mood was happy go lucky. So one would be forgiven for being confused on why Cardin was feeling like this.

It was quite simply really Cardin wasn't in the Vytal Tournament. At least not anymore he was. His team was still technically in it but that was it. They wouldn't make it past the doubles rounds without him. He was the one that carried them through the first round after all. No, he wasn't allowed to participate because Professor Goodwitch knew about the Forever Fall fiasco. She'd let Cardin think he'd gotten away with it for almost the entire semester only to bring it up now during the Vytal Tournament.

It was a sour memory that was for sure.

In Miss Goodwitchs Office

"Do you know why I have called you too my office today?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

"No not really, but I'm under the impression you do." Cardin answered back as politely as he could, trying his best not to let his sarcasm seep through. He'd rather be anywhere but here right now.

"Do you remember our trip to Forever Fall Forest?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Cardin grit his teeth at the mention of the place but did his best to prevent it from showing on his face "Yes I remember the trip, we were assigned to collect jars of sap for Professor Peach." Cardin responded.

"Yes, you and your team were attacked by an Ursa Major and if I remember correctly you had to be saved by Jaune Arc." Professor Goodwitch said. She wasn't showing it but Cardin knew that she was smirking on the inside. It made Cardins blood boil to think of how that pathetic weakling had to help him while his team ran for the hills. Jaune was nothing but a weakling and Cardin certainly would never need to be saved by someone so worthless in the first place.

"That sounds familiar, yes." Cardin answered fully intent on not acknowledging that statement.

"I also remember something else, something involving rapier wasps." Goodwitch commented offhandedly putting a finger to her chin in thought.

Cardins heart skipped a beat. "She couldn't know. Could she? Jaune couldn't have told her, it was an unspoken agreement, Cardin wouldn't rat out his transcripts and Jaune wouldn't mention the stuff he did for Cardin." "I don't know what your talking about Professor." Cardin decided denial was the safest option.

"Not to be crass Mr. Winchester but I'll call bullshit. I know all about what you did to Jaune and your attempt to "get even" with Ms. Nikos." Professor Goodwitch revealed. "And you will be punished accordingly."

Cardin was in shock. "How?" was the only he could only say. It quickly turned to rage however "it was Jaune wasn't it, that son of bit-."

"No Mr. Winchester, it was not Mr. Arc. Do you take me for a fool? That I wouldn't notice when one team leader grows distant from his team and starts hanging out with another? Especially with one as colorful a reputation as yours? She asked rhetorically.

Cardin made to open his mouth. But Professor Goodwitch cut him off.

"Of course I did. I made sure to keep an eye on your team during that field trip. I heard all about how you held Mr. Arcs forged transcripts over his head and planned to attack Ms. Nikos." She explained.

"Why tell me all of this now? Cardin asked. Before the realization hit him "Wait you knew about his transcripts! And you let him into Beacon anyway and just allowed him to take the spot of someone more deserving! He isn't some kind of huntsman he's a weakling!" Cardin said failing to hide the anger in his voice.

"While I didn't know at first why Headmaster Ozpin approved of him, Professor Ozpin knew from the beginning. So any problems about Mr. Arcs acceptance should be taken up with the Headmaster. Secondly as far as I'm concerned Mr. Arc has shown more qualities and poise of being a huntsman than you have Mr. Winchester. I only let you off scot free for the time being because I hoped you would take the time to consider your actions and correct them as well as apologize for your behavior." She stated, "However, I have seen that you have made no such effort on your part, you have continued to lord your power over others. Therefore I will be assigning you your punishment now."

"What are you going to do expell me? I'll just go to the council and reveal how the school let an unqualified crook like Jaune in. The schools reputation will plummet." Cardin bit back trying his best not to raise his voice. "Jaune is nothing compared to me he's weak, how dare you try and say otherwise!"

"Trust me Mr. Winchester that fact is the only reason you aren't being expelled. No your punishment will be a solo assignment far out in the outskirts of Vale. Consequently you will not be participating in the Vytal Tournament past the first round. Only the team round will you be allowed to enter in in order to keep the appearance of normalcy." Professor Goodwitch said.

"What! I'm the strongest on my team they need me in order to stand a chance." Cardin argued and thought fast. "You're punishing them unfairly as well." Cardin was grasping at straws for a reason to be put back in the Tournament.

"Oh I know. In fact that is part of their punishment. This should hopefully teach them a lesson about how much work they have to do to catch up with the likes of team RWBY and JNPR whom they have fallen far behind. Maybe being outclassed in the festival will teach them that lesson." Goodwitch countered Cardins reasoning.

"That's unfair I'm a huntsman in training!" Cardin once again lost his temper.

"Mr. Winchester I'm afraid if you don't cooperate with me I will be forced to bring your father in on this matter." Professor Goodwitch threatened.

The White hot anger in Cardins blood cooled instantly and he sat back down in his seat.

Professor Goodwitch saw this and continued "Good, your assignment will be a standard grimm extermination near one of Vale's smaller mining villages. After that you will be required to bring back a sample of ore and dust from the mines and write a ten page essay on it. After that you will have detention for the rest of the school year. You leave on a bullhead as soon as your first round match is over." She mandated.

"Also Mr. Arc has had significant improvements with the help of Ms. Nikos over the past quarter." And this time Professor Goodwitch did smirk saying that.

Present

So here Cardin was getting off the Bullhead at the town of Dreary Wood. Cardins team had made it past the first round obviously. They still had him after all. He won a two on one while his teammates used their numbers to finish off the other half of the enemy team. Despite what other people would say about him namely teams JNPR and RWBY Cardin was a prodigy in his own right. First in his class and months younger than most of his classmates, he was closer to 17 than 18 half way through the school year since he was 16 when the school year started. Cardin was the engine that made team CRDL run.

Unlike the team of generational talents that was team RWBY and NPR who could afford to be without one of their members for a fight and still dominate, team CRDL's firepower without Cardin in the mix was practically zero.

Which is why it was so infuriating that Professor Goodwitch had insinuated that Jaune Arc was better than him in any way, least of all being a huntsman. If Jaunes team lost Jaune they'd merely be down a meat shield at worst. What the hell did she know? He had been trained since he was 8 to be a huntsman. There was no way in hell scrawny Jaune could surpass him.

He had more aura than practically all of the first years accept for Jaune. His physical strength was second to none no matter what Nora or Yang claimed, honed from years of adherence to daily workouts focused on pure brawn and a diet that was almost entirely protein.

The fact he wasn't in the Tournament made certain things even worse too. Such as the fact he'd kept his semblance a secret and the chain function of his mace hidden. Those things gave Cardin range and the element of surprise. It was all a waste of effort and planning Cardin guessed.

It's one of the reasons that Cardin felt team RWBY was stupid. The fact they let everyone know about their semblances. The most deadly weapon was the one that no one saw after all. Cardin knew with his semblance he could easily level the playing field with the heavy hitters of his class. Of course that was all useless now since he wouldn't be in the Tournament. He'd lost some matches in combat class that should have been easy wins for him if he allowed himself to use his semblance and/ or the chain in his mace.

Cardin hoped his team would do well without him. But on the inside he knew they wouldn't. They weren't Jaune weak, merely middle of the pack. But being in the middle of the pack didn't get you far in the Vytal Tournament.

Professor Goodwitch told him that the trip to Dreary Wood would take around a day since it was that far out in the outskirts of the kingdom. He had 3 days once he got there to clear the grimm out and collect the samples. By the time he got back on the bullhead the Vytal Tournament would be over. For all he knew something crazy could happen while he was gone.

Cardin walked up the rickety old mayor's house that was in the middle of the village. He saw the looks that the residents gave him. Most of them of suspicion or fear. After all, many villagers didn't trust huntsman because of the power they held and how hard they were to hold accountable for there actions. It was only natural for the weak to fear the strong.

Like anyone else giving him those kinds of looks Cardin simply ignored them and walked up to the front door of the Mayor's house and knocked.

There was a shuffling sound and footsteps came towards the foot before it opened up to a short old geezer. Who had gray hair and a mustache reminiscent of Professor Port.

"Ah, you must be the student sent by Beacon Academy to take care of our grimm problem. Thank you for coming." He said.

"Yes I am sir, thank you for having me." Cardin said in fake politeness acting in all the world like he wanted to be here.

"Well if you're up to it you can get started early on your mission, that path over there leads over to our dust mines. There have been reports of a pack of Beowolves being spotted nearby last night." The mayor offered.

For once Cardin was thinking the same thing. If he could finish the assignment in one day he could get back to Beacon faster. If his team had somehow made it past the doubles round he might even be able to fight in the singles round for his team.

So Cardin said a quick actual sincere thanks to the mayor and made his way up the path to the village quarry.

CRACK

The Beowulf's skull split open with one well placed strike to the jaw by Cardin's mace. That was the last of them. Cardin took a deep breath and looked around. The forms of about 15 Beowolves were slowly evaporating.

The report had said it was a pack of Beowolves so Cardin assumed he finished that part of the mission at least. He looked down at his scroll it had only been a couple hours since he'd set off on his objective.

It was arguably harder to find the Beowolves than fight them. Especially since Cardin was able to use his semblance to fight without having to worry about anyone seeing it and figuring out its capabilities. It was a light workout for him and he was sweating slightly.

It was getting dark out. It would be time to head back to the village and stay at the inn in a bit. Cardin was less than enthusiastic about sleeping on some flea infested mattress. That's why he decided he still had enough time to gather the first of his samples from the mines before heading back.

The entrance to the mine was large and looked like some giant mouth that threatened to swallow him whole, even more ominous with the waning daylight making the shadows move. But what would have scarred a lesser man like Jaune did not deter Cardin. He simply walked in with his flashlight ready.

The mine was stripped and overused, that much Cardin could tell by looking at. Which sucked because that meant that Cardin would have to go further down into the mine in order to find all of the samples.

The samples were easy normal coal, iron and bronze along with some other common metals. What was gonna be tough though was the dust. Specifically Gravity Dust. One of the rarest forms of dust, doubly so when you take into account that he was in Vale not Mantle. With the properties to resist the power of earth itself. Cardin preferred fire dust when using his mace Executioner but he sometimes used gravity dust when he could afford it. He could see why it was so widely sought after. Able to do things like lift the likes of Amity Colosseum high above the ground and far out of the reach of ordinary Grimm.

The reason that Cardin believed he was assigned to gather it in the first place was because he felt Ms Goodwitch wanted an excuse for him to gather and get it for her. She used it in her cape after all. It was probably the icing on the cake for forcing him on this mission.

The farther down into the mine Cardin went the darker it got. So Cardin was forced to slow down his pace to make sure he didn't miss anything important like the ores.

Being left alone with his thoughts once again made Cardin angry. How dare they do this to him! He was Cardin Winchester soon to be the strongest and most admired huntsman of his generation if not ever.

The title made him think of Pyrrha. His mood soured again. She'd beaten him, he could have lived with that since he'd beat her eventually. But no she'd beaten him and his entire team. It wasn't even a fight, as his partners were systematically taken out in front of him. Except Dove. But close enough. Then she'd humiliated Cardin in front of the whole class. He knew it was some sort of revenge for what he'd done to Jaune, after all she knew about the secret to his transcripts as well.

What did she see in him that she'd let him stay at beacon much less defend him and train him? He didn't deserve it, any of it. But for some reason everyone seemed to pity Jauney Boy. Meanwhile Cardin was the only one who seemed to have any common sense.

*Growl*

That shook Cardin out of his thoughts. He scanned his surroundings. A pair of red eyes glowed in the dark not to far away from him.

He pulled out his mace and got into a defensive stance. The creature emerged from the shadows to reveal itself.

Somehow doing that made Cardin fume with rage even more. It was a fucking Ursa Major. Just another reminder about Jaune Arc and Cardins failure in Forever Fall Forest to defeat it and needing to be helped by a wimp like Jaune.

Well this thing was in for a big surprise. In Forever Fall Forest Cardin had lost his weapon and been surprised that was why he'd lost. Not only had he gotten stronger he also was armed this time.

The Ursa Major stalked forward in an attempt to intimidate Cardin growling and drooling. Naturally it had no effect on Cardin who had spent sessions after class with the likes of Professor Goodwitch before.

Seeing this the Ursa Major abandoned its strategy and charged forward to dice Cardin up into chopped liver. As soon as it came close though he leaned back and let the swipe fly harmlessly over him.

While the thing was off balance Cardin swung his arm back and smacked his mace right into the knee joint of the Ursa Major.

It collapsed on the ground in pain and Cardin took the chance to put some distance between him and its powerful arms.

It recovered fairly quickly but it had an obvious limp in its hind leg. Cardin was already thinking about how he would make it suffer. It was the perfect thing to vent his weeks worth of anger on after all.

The Ursa Major seeing that it couldn't simply bulldoze through its opponent watched Cardin with a wary glance. A clear sign that this grimm was more intelligent than others. Cardin would need to be more cautious, it was always the intelligent grimm that got even the most powerful and experienced of huntsmen.

Cardin looked around at his surroundings while making sure the Ursa didn't try anything funny. The cavern roof was low. Still high enough for him to comfortably using the compacted form of his mace, but the chain was out of the question. It would be too difficult to maneuver in the tight space for him to effectively use that feature.

The Ursa Major was stalking at Cardin but keeping out of his range and Cardin followed suit. It was like two animals circling each other before an inevitable bloody fight to the death occurred. It was one that Cardin fully intended to win.

Cardin took the initiative this time and was the first one to strike. He leapt forward mace ready to do some serious damage. He made sure to come at an angle that was on the side that he'd drawn first blood on. This way the Ursa would have less maneuverability in dodging his blows.

The Ursa Major reacted accordingly and raised its arm up to block the blow. It came in contact with the white bony armor that covered the grimms black exterior. His mace wasn't meant for precision strikes. The blow connected with a clang and scratched along the side of the plated armor.

The Ursa howled in pain. But Cardins blown was superficial. At best there was a couple cracks at the point of impact but other than that the armor had done its job and prevented a serious injury from being sustained by the Ursa Major.

Thinking fast Cardin covered his free fist in a coating of aura and launched a punch right at the grimms ugly maw.

One would think that attacking the mouth that could easily bite a normal person's arm would be a bad idea but Cardin was confident in his durability. That and that the Ursa would still be focused on the attack targeted at its paws.

It was and an aura powered fist made contact with the things snout. It retreated backward in pain. Cardin grinned at its fury. He did not see however the free paws swipe at his side.

He was hit with the force of what felt like an enraged Yang. He shot backwards feet digging into the ground arms crossed out in front of him.

His arms were numb in the outside. Now Cardin was pissed. Screw hit and run tactics just fucking bludgeon it to death Cardin thought.

With an enraged roar Cardin stomped forward to meet the Ursa. It did the same. Mace and Claws met in the middle. A shock wave erupted from the clash,, dust and dirt was kicked up by it and swirled throughout the mines environment.

When it settled the two beings were still stuck in a stalemate. The Ursa seeing this pushed more strength into its arms intent on forcing Cardin to submit in the contest of strength.

Cardin started to bend and took a step back. The Ursa Major seemed to perceive this as weakness and pushed further even more. But on its third step it suddenly hit a steel wall.

Cardin glared back at eyes full of fury. He took his own step forward. Cardin would prove to this thing that thought it would best him in a battle of strength that it was wrong. Cardin pushed forward even more now moving back the Ursa Major and beating it at its own game.

The Ursa Major having been upstaged by a mere human in terms of might seemed to have enough of this disrespect. Disengaging from the exchange It reared up on its hind legs leaning slightly to its one good side. It roared full of fury and sent down two swipes at Cardin meant to pulverize him into mush.

Cardin ducked down under the first attack. Then using the momentum from crouching shot up with his mace ready. He batted aside the second swing with the Executioner. The Ursa was thrown off balance by this and leaned back on its bad leg. This caused it to stumble and become even more disoriented.

Cardin wasn't gonna pass this chance up. Placing both hands on the Executioner Cardin gripped it tightly and activated the Dust mechanism inside his weapon. The tip of the Executioner whirled into action and flames burst to life.

He swung with all of his might at the Ursa Majors unarmored underside. The spot most difficult to get to. But the Grimm had let itself open when standing on its hind legs. He would never miss such a large opening or target.

Cardins dust and aura powered swing hit home making contact with the Ursa Majors center stomach area. The strike exploded as soon as it did in a beautiful explosion of fire and black blood.

The Ursas form crumpled with the blow and like a professional baseball player hitting a baseball off a tee it was sent rocketing into the wall on the other side of the mine. Resulting in a huge cloud of smoke and rock.

"Let's see someone like Jaune do that, anyone do that for that matter." Cardin thought smugly. This was just another example of his power and how wrong Professor Goodwitch was.

The debris surrounding the spot where the Ursa Major was turned to paste was clearing. And if Cardin wasn't paying attention, he probably would have missed what had happened.

Not quite believing it he took out his flashlight and shown it over in the area. He wasn't seeing things it seemed. Over in the wall was a giant hole. It had been thin enough that when Cardin had blasted the Ursa into it it had collapsed and revealed the space behind it.

He walked over to it and when no Ursa Major popped up to try and surprise Cardin walked even closer.

It lead to a long winding path way that was completely shrouded in darkness and Cardins flash light didn't reach all the way down.

He turned around and looked it into the main path way carved by the village miners. Cardin could continue down that path and he'd eventually find all samples he was looking for. "Or?" Cardin thought "I could go down this new path." He didn't know what was down there, possibly nothing at all. He could head back on the main tunnel and guarantee himself to find everything he needed. But the idea of exploring a new tunnel was infinitely more exciting.

Cardins curiosity warred with his common sense. Eventually his curiosity won out when he realized he'd have to do those essays when he collected those ores and dust. So Cardin set foot into the new and unknown tunnel.

He started slow at first dual wielding his mace and his flashlight. The new tunnel was a lot smaller than the main one. Cardin was only an inch or two from hitting his head on the caverns ceiling. Though the fact he was sporting a large 6' 7" frame probably wasn't helping. The tunnel was wide enough for him to stretch his arms out but that was it. He'd only be able to use his mace in front of him.

The tunnel was long and windy with a relatively flat path with a few depressions. Cardin had considered giving up and turning around a few times. Only the thought of having to sleep in the inn and come back the next day to write the essays stopping him.

After a bit Cardin noticed the change in the tunnel structure, it had risen a bit now more than half a foot separating his head from the ceiling. The walls had widened enough for him to swing his mace as well.

Cardin foot stubbed into a rock and he tripped and fell to the ground. Cursing and muttering he fumbled around for his light. He could barely see the flash light in the dim light. Wait, dim light?

Sure enough a dull purple glow was emanating from a distance away and allowed Cardin to see his flashlight on the ground.

Cardin picked it up and hastily made his way toward the source of the colorful glow. It continued to get brighter the closer he got, to the point where he no longer needed his flashlight.

The mouth of the tunnel opened up into a giant room equal in size to the practice arena at Beacon Academy. At least that's what Cardin estimated it was. The size wasn't the important part though. No the thing that had drawn Cardins attention was the stuff that was littered all over the caverns walls, floor, and ceiling.

Shards of glowing purple crystal. Gravity Dust. They were in all shapes and sizes. Clusters and by themselves, thin and small and big and fat. But there was one thing that was the same for everyone of those shards. They were all exceedingly pure.

Cardin was no expert on dust like the Schnee know it all but he didn't need to be in order to tell it was high grade dust because of how translucent it was. This stuff was practically worth a fortune. Even a single shard would fetch a high price on the open market, the entire cavern full of it would be enough to make even the SDC nervous.

Cardin immediately thought of how much he could make if he was to bring it all back to beacon. He'd be able to bribe off Professor Goodwitch with a small chunk and still be set for life. Cardins delusions of grandeur hit a snag when he thought about the logistics of it. The amount would take days to mine and even more transport. Cardin would need an entire crew to work this.

Plus there was the danger of mining such pure dust as well. The faunus protested a lot about their injustices and crimes against them but Cardin could agree with them on the dangers of the dust mine.

He'd had an uncle of his tell him plenty of stories about the dangers workers faced when extracting Remnants most precious material. Things like cave ins, grimm attacks and miners lung were common. This wasn't even taking into account the dust itself. Cardins uncle had told him stories of how one wrong hit to a crystal of dust could cause a reaction with enough power to kill a normal civilian. It was even worse when a chain reaction occurred and all the other dust crystals nearby blew up as well. A gruesome tale Cardin had been told was that an entire vein of Fire dust had gone off in a big mine up in Atlas. The explosion had been so intense that the blast had reached the entrance of the mine all the way from down where the vein was found. All the workers in the mine had died because of it, the bodies had been indistinguishable because of how charred they were.

That had been a single vein of fire dust, the amount of gravity dust here dwarfed that and was purer too. Cardin would have to be extremely cautious in order to not set if off and kill himself in an explosion or the cave in that would definitely follow.

He walked to the center of the cavern where a single crystal was separated from the rest. He looked at its base, it didn't seem connected to the rest of the dust in here. Cardin thought that it was the safest. He kneeled down and slowly pulled the shard out of the ground, being extra soft as to not set it of by accident.

Once Cardin had secured it he took off his travel pack. He hadn't warn it during the Ursa fight obviously, he just threw it to the side before it began and picked up when he was done. He'd anticipated a longer time tracking the pack Beowolves so he'd packed a change of clothes, a couple meals and a sleeping bag. He took out the specially crafted case meant to store the dust and samples.

Cardin took a look at his own dust. He was down to one vial of Fire Dust. When Cardin got back to Beacon he'd have to buy some more. He placed the pure chunk of gravity dust in the container and stocked his mace with the final vial of Fire Dust.

"Well that's the gravity dust part of the assignment done. That was supposed to be the hardest part anyway. I'll head back to the village and tell them about this dust deposit. Who knows maybe I could convince them to let me have a cut of it. I did find it after all." Cardin mused to himself.

*GROWL*

"You have got to be kidding me!" Cardin thought.

He turned around to see a single Beowulf coming in through the small tunnel Cardin had come through. This must have been a straggler from the pack he killed earlier in the day. It must have tracked him all the way here.

It glared at Cardin before charging and pouncing at him. Cardin acted on instinct and brought his mace up to defend himself from the hostile beast. He caught it in the side of the head.

It's momentum halted and changed direction following the swing of the mace. It flew to the ground and landed on a patch of Gravity Dust. Cardin immediately felt his stomach drop. To much force could cause the dust to have a volatile reaction!

The shards visible underneath the Beowulf started to glow a bright purple and Cardin feared he'd actually caused a chain reaction. But just when it seemed like the material was about to burst it began to dull back down to its dormant state.

Cardin sighed, that had been too close. Cardin was knocked off his feet when a black blur plowed into his midsection and had to hold back a snapping pair of jaws from ripping Cardins face off. Shit! Cardin had been so worried about the Dust he made a rookie mistake and taken his eyes off of the grimm.

The beasts drool was getting on his face. He had dropped his mace to prevent its jaws from taking his throat off so Cardin was holding it back with his bare hands. Thinking fast Cardin rolled to the side using the momentum to throw the grimm away from him. Not even bothering to look where it landed Cardin jumped to his feet and grabbed his weapon.

A whimpering howl caused him to jump back and find the Beowulf. It was impaled on one of the larger Dust crystals in the cavern. It looked at Cardin from its angle.

It began thrashing all over the place intent on causing the most damage possible in its dying moments. This meant scratching and clawing all the nearby gravity dust crystals. Cardin paled at the sight, he was under no illusion that he would get lucky a second time. He turned and ran toward the entrance he had come from. Behind him he heard the whines and cracks of glass shattering. That was the volatile gravity dust activating Cardin had to get out of here!

Cardin was almost to the entrance. But then Cardin felt it. It started of as merely a small tug at first but it continued to get stronger. The gravity dust was sucking Cardin in! He strained against the force of attraction with all his might. He took another step forward, but this one was slower than the last, which had been slower than the one before it and so on. Cardin was now advancing at a snail's pace, worse yet was that Cardin was feeling himself slip and move backward.

It was no use Cardin realized. He was going to be pulled in by the sheer gravity of the reaction. Then Cardin would be crushed into a tiny ball. The pull was now actually starting to lift him off of the ground it was getting so strong. The force grew exponentially from there and suddenly Cardin found himself speeding toward the mass of ever increasing purple mist and rock.

Cardin did the only thing that he possibly could do at the moment. He activated his semblance. Taking in a deep breath Cardin felt himself be surrounded by the familiar purple glow of his semblance. The force was still pulling him back but it was no longer pressing down on him threatening to crush him. The pain disappeared.

This was the magic of Cardins semblance. All he needed to do was to hold his breath and concentrate for him to become practically completely immune to physical damage. No matter how hard someone hit him or shot him it wouldn't hurt him. Normal people would view this as an op semblance but that wasn't true. It had many drawbacks that balanced it out when compared to weaker but more spambable semblance. For starters his semblance would only activate when he held his breath and while activated Cardin would become a lot heavier. Heavy enough that it was unlikely even a stampeding Goliath could move from his place. Which while could be a positive in some cases, was just as likely to be detrimental in a fight as well.

Cardin had compensated for this by building his strength so he could move more effectively while using it. But it was difficult to do tiresome and complex things holding his breath. Right now was one such problem.

Cardin would be completely at the gravity dusts mercy if he lost his breath right now. He wouldn't have the time to take another breath. The moment Cardin would be folded inward by the amount of force pressing down on him. No, Cardin would have to hold his breath as long as the reaction took place in order to have a chance at surfing this. Cardin was being held in pace against the ball of purple energy forming, unable to move a muscle. He saw the walls surrounding him being to warp into bends and curves. Was the gravity so much that it was even affecting the way his eyes perceived light? Like some kind of black hole?

He wasn't sure as his vision was beginning to go dark. It was probably the lack of oxygen going to his brain. Cardin had never trained himself to hold his breath this long. If Cardin passed out now he would be crushed! Cardin rallied on his Winchester family stubbornness, fully intending to hold his breath as long as possible and where many other people would have given up Cardin persevered.

His vision continued to darken and Cardin began to feel a sinking feeling all around him. Like he was going down in quicksand. It was probably a feeling brought on by his body hallucinating.

It continued sinking and his vision was completely black now so he couldn't see anything going on around him. His lungs were on fire and felt like they were being torn apart. Still Cardin refused to take another breath.

It was gone. The sinking feeling gone. So was the crushing pressure too. Cardin couldn't see what had happened but it was at this moment he passed out. Whether he would live to take another breath was unknown to him as his consciousness faded.

Place and Time Unknown

Everything hurt and Cardin felt incredibly weak when he woke up. He woke up, Cardin realized, that was a plus. His vision was incredible blurry when he opened his eyes and Cardins mind was foggy, unable to string together a sequence of coherent thoughts.

Dust, semblance, breath, death and life bounced around the inside of Cardins head. It took a couple of moments for his mind to put itself back together as he recovered from the life and death situation Cardin had found himself in some time ago.

It slowly came back to him. The Gravity Dust, using his semblance to save himself, passing out from overuse and the danger he had been in.

Cardin slowly rolled himself over onto his stomach and picked himself off the ground. It took every ounce of strength he had to do it and keep his body from falling right back over. His vision cleared and he finally got a glimpse of where he was.

He wasn't in the mine for sure since Cardin wasn't buried underneath a mountain of rubble that would have surely come after the explosion of Gravity Dust. In fact Cardin was above ground right now which by all accounts didn't make sense.

He wasn't going to question his luck though. Cardin continued to look around, it was a forest of some kind not one with the large tower trees like the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall Forest. These were much smaller, the ones Cardin would find in a park at vale.

It was night time right now. Then Cardin looked down at himself. He was still in one piece that was great, his armor was on still and had been protected by his semblance. So had his travel pack and mace which were one his back and attached to his hip respectively.

Cardin brought his scroll out to call for a Bullhead pickup. But there was no signal which was just great. He'd have to find a place where he could get a signal.

Cardin looked around again, this time he saw something though he missed last time. Above the treeline far away was a large amount of tall and blinking builds. He didn't recognize them from anywhere, they definitely weren't like that of Vales.

Seeing no other choice Cardin grabbed his stuff and began walking towards the human settlement. It took him about an hour where Cardin was on the constant look out for grimm looking to ambush a lone traveler. But he didn't encounter any, what should have been a stroke of good fortune just worried Cardin more for some reason.

He made it to the edge of the woods and finally got a full look at the settlement. To call it a settlement would be an injustice though. It was definitely city level. Cardin saw moving vehicles going throughout the roads with multiple civilians walking on the sidewalks. The place was more packed than what had Cardin seen at the Vytal Festival with all the tourists in vale at once. How was this place not being besieged by grimm? There surely more people since it was late at night. Even Atlas the safest of the four kingdoms never had this many people bustling around at night due to fear of grimm attacks.

Cardin made to take a step down the hill and into the city but stopped and looked down at himself. He was still in his armor. Cardin didn't know much about this place. Perhaps it would be better to not appear as that much of a threat.

He took off his travel back and brought out the spare pair of clothes he had, jeans, sneakers, a black t-shirt and a long gray jacket. He un-strapped his armor and slipped into the casual attire and placed the pieces of armor in his travel pack.

Cardin kept his mace on him just in case he got into a scuffle or trouble reared its ugly head.

He finally gathered the courage to walk down into the unfamiliar environment.

When Cardin made it out into the open and onto the sidewalk he noticed a couple things. First no one paid him any attention, which was good. Second Cardin was a lot taller than most of the people here. Thirdly was that Cardin recognized none of the logos or signs on the buildings and streets. Where the hell was Musutafu?

Cardin decided he would need to ask someone about where he was and directions to the nearest CTT tower. That way Cardin could call Bescon and inform them about his predicament.

Cardin looked around at the civilians walking around trying to find one that looked like they were nice enough to give him directions.

Cardin saw a small woman walking by herself. She looked good enough. Following her Cardin walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She spun around quickly with a surprised look on her face. Coming face first with Cardin chest she looked up to meet his eyes.

She took a cautious step back intimidated by him. Cardin put his hands up in placating manner to show he meant no harm.

"Hello, I'm new to town and kind of lost right now can you point me in the direction of the nearest communication building, please? Cardin asked with as polite a tone he could muster.

The women looked at him suspiciously for a second before he eyes travelled to his travel pack. A look of realization dawned on her face. "Oh you're a tourist obviously, we are near the airport I guess. I should have been able to tell by that accent. The customs building is two blocks down from here in that direction." she pointed down the street to her right, "You can't miss it there's a huge sign." She finished.

Cardin didn't know what a customs building was but it sounded like what he was looking for. "Thank you." Cardin said to the lady and turned to the direction she had pointed in.

After a couple of steps she called out after Cardin, "Enjoy your stay here in Japan."

"What the hell was a Japan?" Cardin thought.

Authors Notes: This is my first idea for a crossover. I was originally going to do something else but this thing just popped into my head and the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea.

I started this story on the suggestion that writing multiple projects at once helped prevent you from getting writers block and burnout. So Now I will be working on this story in tandem with Bound to Change.

Cardins Semblance, I came up with the idea based on Cardins confidence and belief in himself (ego). He has so much confidence in himself and his abilities that his Pride is able to negate the insults made at him. This manifested in a semblance that completely negates physical damage. Other semblances based on his anger issues were considered but I felt this was more unique.

As always your comments and feedback are appreciated.