Sorry this is coming out so late, fanfiction was being a major buzzkill and refused to save or upload any drafts. But, on the plus side, this fic has capped 200,000 views you guys! I'm honored, truly. I'll be a bit too busy over the weekend to write anything so I'll have to get it done after that, but for now enjoy this little piece.
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The Valechan Cosmic Anomaly Investigators (VCAI):
In the world of Remnant there exist any number of cosmic anomalies, most of which are incredibly dangerous. Luckily, there is a single school if you could call it that, that exists to investigate, contain, and destroy these dangerous creatures. The school works tirelessly to push back the ever growing horde of alien horrors that seem to emerge everyday. They are the ones that keep this world safe, wherever there may be trouble, you'll find the VCAI.
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The old woman sat in her antique chair, nervously knitting a sweater for her grandson, or rather trying to keep her mind off the obvious. At every creak of the old house she'd wince and stare anxiously at the ceiling above. She swallowed harshly and continued to knit, humming a tune and trying to distract herself from the various thumps and bumps upstairs.
The suddenness of the door bell nearly sent her into cardiac arrest. Once she calmed down, she quickly moved over to the door, eager to invite her guests, and hopeful saviors, inside. As she opened the door she was greeted by two young men, no more than 18 or 19, standing there with a pair of polite smiles on their faces. They were both dressed in business attire, the blonde one wearing a three piece black suit and matching vest and the Mistrali one wearing a grey suit.
"A-Are you the...?" she trailed off with the question.
The blonde young man nodded and flashed her his badge. "Investigator Arc, ma'am, this is my partner Investigator Ren may we come inside?"
"Oh yes, of course!" she ushered them hurriedly, going to bring them a platter of cookies.
Sitting down on her furniture, the one name Ren opened up a notepad and looked to his partner and then to the old woman.
"Now, Mrs...?" the Investigator Arc began.
"Mrs. Periwinkle, if you please dearie." she said softly, wrinkling her apron in her hands.
"Ok Mrs. Periwinkle, please, tell us when these disturbances began?" Investigator Arc asked, his partner taking down notes.
"Oh, well, it began last month when I was baking for our neighborhood bake sale. It was late at night and I admit I had a glass or two, so I wasn't entirely sure but I could've sworn I heard a loud tumbling from the attic. I thought it may be a raccoon so I went to go investigate, but I swept the entire level and couldn't find anything, so I chalked it up to the wind." the older woman seemed to hesitate. "A-And then, after that, I began to hear strange noises outside my bedroom and up above, sort've like chittering like a cicada makes."
"And this chittering? Did it seem... hostile? Aggressive?" Investigator Ren interrupted, pausing his notes.
Mrs. Periwinkle furrowed her brow. "I-Well I'm not quite sure, young man. I suppose it could have been, they would come quite fast and dissipate rather quickly before I could even track them down. Furthermore, when I would wake up the next day I'd find scratches along my railings and ceiling."
Investigator Ren nodded, still furiously scribbling down notes. He paused and sent a side-long glance at his partner, who in turn seemed to exchange some telepathic message before he began to speak again.
"And these disturbances, have they grown stronger? More prevalent perhaps?" he asked inquisitively.
"Oh yes!" Mrs. Periwinkle nodded vehemently. "They occur at all hours of the day now, to the point where I dread even going upstairs."
And then, as if on cue, a heavy thump could be heard above, accompanied by a series of clacking footfalls. The old woman swallowed dryly, looking over at the determined faces on her two guests.
"Right, and have you caught a glimpse of this intruder?" Investigator Arc asked politely, taking a small bite of a cookie.
"No, well, not entirely. I thought I saw a flash of something out of the corner of my eye, but I dismissed it as paranoia." Mrs. Periwinkle said, now not so certain.
"Yes, can you describe what you saw at all?"
"Well, it appeared to be short, almost like that of a small monkey. And I thought it was crouched upon my antique dresser, but it seemed to flee from my eyesight with extraordinary speed." she bit her lip, trying to dredge up more. "Oh! I believe it was a pale white, or perhaps a gray color and it seemed to have quite the spindly limbs."
"That will be all, Mrs. Periwinkle." Investigator Arc closed, standing up and adjusting his tie. His partner, Investigator Ren, followed suit and waited patiently to follow his colleague's lead.
"W-What do you think it is?" The older woman stammered, slightly put off by the way the blonde man stared intensely above them.
"I believe you have a case of what is called a "Dimensional Shambler" ma'am." Investigator Ren cut in, stowing away his notes. "Quite a nasty business, you were quite right to call us."
"T-They're that bad?" Mrs. Periwinkle asked, her mouth dry as sand.
"Oh yes, had you not gotten to us it might have kidnapped you and taken you to its dimension." Investigator Arc chimed, sending a message on his scroll. "From there they would submerge you into this thick grey ooze native to their dimension and feast upon your soul and flesh."
Mrs. Periwinkle seemed to be on the verge of fainting, a handkerchief raised to her forehead.
Even so, Investigator Arc smiled calmingly. "Do not worry, ma'am, me and my partner are more than enough to protect you. Now, excuse me while I go to the car and collect our necessary tools."
In a moment the blonde investigator returned, a duffel bag in one hand and a shotgun slung over his shoulder. The old woman sucked in a breath, even as the two conversed casually and began to take out items from the bag. Ren reached into the bag and pulled out a small device the size of a pocket watch and unholstered his pistol, adding to the tension.
"M-May I ask you young men, what are you going to do with those?" Mrs. Periwinkle asked, raising an unsteady finger at the weapons.
"Don't worry ma'am, the VCAI will compensate you for any damage." Investigator Arc smiled, loading a shell with a strange marking on it. "We're going to need to destroy that entity real quick."
"S-Should I step outside?" the investigator seemed to mull that over before nodding.
"Yes, if you could please go visit a nearby friend for an hour or so we'll get right back to you." Mrs. Periwinkle nodded and rushed out the door, crossing the street and knocking on her neighbor's door.
"You ready?" Ren asked, flicking the his gun off safety and checking the anomaly tracker. On the radar-like screen, a single red blip told them where their friend was, just around the corner in the upstairs bedroom.
"You know it." Jaune answered, cocking the shotgun and the entity-slaying ammo. Silently, he thanked god for the R&D department back home. "What's the plan, you throw up and barrier and I distract it?"
Ren nodded silently, his psychic powers showing in a small pink sheen across his body. No matter how many times he would see it, Jaune could never get over the fact that his partner was an actual psychic. Not even mentioning how useful the guy was, the shit looked cool as fuck when he did it.
The two crept up and outside the wood door, faint scratching and chittering could be heard inside. Giving a silent countdown, Ren placed a hand on the door and focused his energy, imagining an impenetrable wall around the room. The pink sheen seem to extend from his hand and cover the door, no doubt enveloping the walls and causing the entity to grow nervous.
The two of them pressed against the door, Jaune giving a curt nod before he kicked it open. Instantly, he caught a glimpse of the short, gray creature as it skittered away from its perch atop a dresser. Jaune fired a single slug at the gray blur, catching the side of it if only barely. He could hear the roar of agony and anger the creature gave as his partner rolled in a fired a round towards the darting form.
Honed reflexes watched for the cosmic horror, its form barely visible as it scrambled about trying to get away. Then, it happened, the creature slipped up on one of its jumps, making it just a fraction slower but it was enough. Aiming the barrel of the shotgun towards the warped mass, Jaune let loose a single slug that slammed into where the creature's ribs would be if it had any. With a gurgling cry the beast fell to the floor, thick gray ooze slowly congealing into a puddle around it.
No matter how many times he'd do this, Jaune didn't think he'd ever get over how fucked up some things were. The dimensional shambler looked like if someone took a child, turned it inside out and colored it gray. The result was a malformed, knotted form of flesh and sinew and the corpse stunk like rotting garbage. Absently, Jaune asked himself why everything not from Remnant was so goddamned horrible.
"Ren, you mind calling it in?" Jaune asked, idly poking the corpse with the gun. Ren nodded and fished out his scroll, opening a menu he made a call back to headquarters to report their mission.
"This is Car 47, Investigator Arc and Ren, mission is a success we had a code 31-34 at one Mrs. Periwinkles house. Requesting cleanup crew and sterilization as well as additional investigators." Ren spoke casually, whacking his partner to stop him from poking the body.
"Understood Investigator, secure the scene, personnel will be there shortly." a sweet voice came from the other end. The two investigators taped off the scene and warded off any curious visitors, local police arriving to help them. When the clean up crew and additional investigators arrived they were let off to enjoy the rest of the day before they went back to base.
In the car, Jaune decided to phone in back to his dorm mates. The scroll rang twice before it was picked up, a small pause as the sound of rustling could be heard on the other end.
"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, Ren flicking a curious eye at him.
"Oh, hold on-! And there we go!" Pyrrha said, finishing whatever she was doing. "Sorry, putting the finishing touches on a little project."
"Good to know," Jaune smiled. "Anyway, Ren and I just completed our call and we gonna pick up some doughnuts, want us to bring you home one?"
"Oh ugh," Pyrrha hummed for a moment before shouting to their other roommate the same question. "I think I'll take, ugh, maybe like a jelly one? If they have it?"
"Ok, and Nora-?" he was cut off by a yell over the line.
"Get me a dozen plain!" shouted their bubbly roommate, Pyrrha snorting a small laugh.
"You heard the lady." she giggled. "See you home guys, drive safely."
"Ugh actually I was thinking about driving very unsafely. You know, doing drifts and whatnot." Pyrrha gave a sarcastic laugh at his quip before saying goodbye. The two investigators continued their way down to the local town's doughnut shop, entering in and giving a nod to the sole worker.
After grabbing their food the two young men decided to sit down for a moment and chat. It wasn't very often they got breaks, it always seemed to be that somewhere, at any time, some godforsaken cosmic horror was descending upon a small town.
"So, you think the shambler was alone?" Jaune Arc, a rookie investigator, asked to his partner, fiddling with a coffee straw.
"Hmm," Lie Ren, fellow rookie investigator, rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. "I like to think so, the creature already seemed stressed and upset. Furthermore, given the fact that it hadn't abducted Mrs. Periwinkle in a few months I'd imagine it didn't have the manpower necessary."
"Cleverly deduced my friend, that one of your psychic abilities?" Jaune playfully mocked, causing Ren to smirk.
"No, I just pay attention to the professors, in class, and just in general really." He paused, as though in thought for a moment. "Honestly, you should try it sometime."
"Oh, hahahaha." Jaune grumbled, widening his partner's smirk. "Let's get home shall we, I think I need a shower."
"As a friend and nearby person, trust me, you do." Ren was "playfully" punched in the arm and the two left the small shop.
On the way back, Jaune stared idly out of the window of the sleek black car, mind adrift. It felt like so long ago that he had enrolled in Beacon Academy, a young buck with nothing to prove but his own merit. Of course, his entire family balked at the idea of him fighting monsters and his mother alone barely even let him out the door on the first day. But now, he was well on the way to being a full-time Senior Investigator and taking the fight to the nasty things that crawl around in the darkest reaches of space.
The thought went sour at that. Those damned creatures, shamblers, shoggoths, the Hounds of Tindalos, and any number of other disgusting, disturbing, and mind-breaking beings that lurked where no man should tread. The school he studied at, more of a government branch really, the VCAI, Valechan Cosmic Anomaly Investigators, were a school made up of primarily two departments. His department, the investigators, were the select agents that were personally sent out to track, record, and kill anything that fell outside the norm these days. The other department, the researchers, would catalogue, study, and experiment on whatever they could get their hands on in an attempt to combat these alien beings.
Already, the boys and girls back at R&D had developed this new type of ammo to be used out in the field. They called them "dust rounds" and they were filled with this magical powder that could be mass produced, the powder seemed to be toxic to any and all cosmic anomalies that any investigator had come across. More than that, certain quantities of one type of dust in a single shell or bullet could produce a wide variety of elemental effects. Anything from freezing shots to electrical bullets, the dust rounds were the most versatile weapon in an investigators arsenal.
"You spacing out?" Ren asked idly from the driver's seat, cruising down the road.
"A little, just thinking about how crazy this all is in retrospect." Jaune muttered, a bored hand jammed into his cheek.
"What? The part where we kill monsters or that we have to kill monsters dressed like 40s-era gangsters?" Ren asked cheekily, striking a jab at the odd dress code.
Jaune was inclined to agree, it was a little strange that investigators had to be in formal clothing during their missions, even though it may have been better to create a uniform. Although, things weren't all bad, their clothing, while in formal style, were created with both comfort and flexibility in mind. Down to their shoes, an investigators outfit was designed to be as protective and uncumbersome as possible in the field. The material, made by R&D, bless them, was stretchy, insulated, and tougher than steel when it came to wear and tear.
This meant an investigator could easily run down a suspect in a pair of clunky-looking loafers or trek through a muddy swamp without damage to the expensive appearance of the fabric. It was actually impressive how much thought was put into training and keeping track of the agents under the VCAI, they were all mandated to take vitamin and nutrient supplements with all their three meals that would strengthen themselves and their bodies. But that was nothing compared to the select few people like his partner in crime.
Psychics were found centuries ago in lands of old and myth, but they had stayed prevalent ever since then. People like Lie Ren, could channel their body's "aura" energy to produce a versatile number of techniques and skills handed down through the ages. There was the average stuff like telekinesis and energy sensing, but when one got to the level of control that Jaune's partner did, they could produce barriers, read emotions, sense vibrations in the air, and even read minds amongst other things. In comparison to some magic bullets and pills, Jaune felt a little outclassed by his bro-friend sometimes, but he knew that Ren would never be one to get a big head.
"Bet you're happy to see Nora again, huh Ren?" Jaune quipped, pretending to clean his nails.
"Hmm? Oh yes, Nora of course." Ren answered, pretending as though he hadn't truly been listening.
Nora was Ren's best friend since he discovered his psychic powers. Ren's parents were quick to enroll their son into the VCAI lest he get attacked by some unsavory figures or lash out with his powers without meaning too. Originally, Nora was supposed to be his staunch bodyguard, a protector for an important person, but things kind of devolved once they and Jaune and Pyrrha were bunked together.
The four had quickly become friends, lending eachother a helping hand where necessary and often times getting mixed up with their neighboring room's hijinks. Pyrrha was an all-star champion, sponsorships, TV deals, movies, the works, but she surprised everyone when she declared that she wished to become an investigator and to claim her own path in life. Jaune could respect that, hell the girl was probably the best damn warrior in their entire year, but he appreciated her for who she was more than anything, Pyrrha Nikos was a sometimes adorkable-sometimes motherly best friend and roommate to them.
"Thinking about Pyrrha?" Ren asked, taking a left along a back road.
"How'd you know?"
"Psychic powers, I could feel you emotions. And perhaps I saw your tent..." He trailed off, Jaune not quite catching on for a moment before he suddenly bolted up straight and readjusted his tie.
"I have no clue what you're talking about." Jaune denied adamantly, a thin dust of pink covering his cheeks.
"It's fine Jaune, you know that she..." He trailed off again, as if trying to find what to say before he sighed. "Nevermind, let's just go back to listening to music."
Jaune groaned and fell back, he loved Ren, truly, he was a brother and dear family, but the guy had such bad music taste. For some reason, he liked the worse parts about country and chill music, the slowest, most boring and drawn out songs that could make an outer god want to commit seppuku.
After a few hours of torturous music and banter, the two young investigators finally arrived back at Beacon Academy, the familiar stone columns and arches providing some comfort to the two weary men.
"Hey Jaune!" came a plucky voice to his side as they walked into the locker room. Ruby Rose, a rookie investigator like him, came speeding up in front of him with a big smile on her face. "How'd it go?"
"Dimensional shambler." Jaune replied back with a tired smile.
Ruby made a face. "Ugh, I hate those things. All those weird limbs and the grey skin, ugh it's just so gross."
"You're telling me, anyways did you see Professor Port anywhere, I've gotta give him our report." Jaune asked, Ruby rolled his eyes and gestured to a door behind her reading "Professor Port" and under it "Tracking and Capture Studies".
After giving the older professor his report, and having to endure a 20 minute long story, Jaune was about ready to pass out on the nearest comfortable surface. Heading back to the dorms with his friend, the two were almost immediately jumped by Nora who clambered over the two of them to get at her doughnuts. As Jaune watched the ginger girl devour the pastries without mercy, a soft hand tapped his shoulder.
"Have fun?" Pyrrha asked, a knowing grin on her lips.
"Yeah, nothing like hunting small monsters to brighten my day." Jaune said just a tad sarcastically, his redheaded roommate rolled her eyes and punched him playfully on the shoulder.
"That's my favorite investigator." Pyrrha giggled, Jaune giving a mocking laugh.
"Well, I'm about to cash out for the rest of the day. Read some comic books, change into my jammies, and-" he was cut off by the intercom giving a high-pitched whine before a voice came over it.
"Will all investigators immediately report to the atrium, this is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill." the intercom whined to a close, Jaune groaning in agony as he was forced to stand back up.
"What do you think that was about?" Ren asked, concerned.
"I don't know, but I can't imagine it being too good." Pyrrha responded, getting into her clothes as Nora sloppily threw on hers.
"Let's go, this'll be fun!" Nora cheered, running out the door with Ren in tow.
Well, the mood in the atrium was not fun in the least. Professors hurried back and forth, and the only one remaining motionless was Headmaster Ozpin and Deputy Headmistress Glynda, although even she was making phone calls. Once the assembly of a couple hundred investigators were seated, an ocean of stoic faces gazing at the headmaster and eachother, the headmaster slowly cleared his throat.
"I understand that what I am about to say will be troubling, even horrifying, but I ask that you remain calm and do not speak." The grey-haired man said, increasing the tension in the room. "This morning, we confirmed the reports that an outer god was in position to enter our world, more specifically a place known as Dunwich."
You could have heard a pin drop, the air was ice and all motioned seemed to cease. Headmaster Ozpin, seeing no one was inclined to talking, continued on with a steely look.
"We have brought all of you here today to be the first expeditionary force into Dunwich. We have asked all of you to act as the defenders of mankind for perhaps the most important part of your career, even after you leave this school." he continued, dauntless. "The outer god we believe to be summoned in the town, is known as Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of a Thousand Young."
A few of the rookie investigators seemed to be on the verge of fainting, while others sat white-faced at the implications.
"We have received full support from the Atlesian military, and you will all be supplied with the latest technology from our R&D department." Professor Peach, the head of R&D, spoke up, trying to quell discontent.
Ozpin nodded, thankful for the intrusion. "Know this, it is very likely, even certain, that some of you will die on this mission, I will not sugarcoat that. But let me tell you from experience if even a single outer god can be fully summoned to our plane of reality it will bring destruction and havoc beyond your wildest nightmares. I understand the sheer magnitude of this, no one better, but the world needs you to act as their defenders, their warriors against this tide of darkness."
There was a pause, and Headmaster Ozpin seemed to age hundred years in the short reprieve. "You will all be divided into companies with your roommates first and then fellow investigators, we will have a mix of all years as well as professionals. The bullhead leaves tonight, you will all be supplied from the armory. Godspeed."
As one, the investigators stood up and saluted before rushing out the door to the locker rooms, their dorms, and the armory. Jaune felt a steely hand grip his shoulder, turning to find Ren looking to him for guidance.
"Well?" he asked, as if there was any choice.
"Get to the armory, we need to get weapons." Jaune shouted over the crowd, Nora and Pyrrha following them. This was going to be a hell of a field trip...