AN: Hello everyone and hello 2020! Sorry it's taken so long for me to get anything posted again, but I've been working on something special.
Ruby: What would that be?
AN: Sorry Ruby, but that's top secret for the moment, and the earliest anyone's going to find out what it is would be around March.
Yang: Well, at least we have a release date on that.
AN: Yes, but this is also me letting everyone know that it may be a little while before I can do regular updates again, so don't be surprised if you don't see too many updates on any of my stories for a while. Hopefully this will be enough to tie you all over for a little while.
Weiss: Well I would like to see some updates for the only regular story that we're a part of. I'm right there with everyone that is eagerly awaiting to see how our travels among other worlds with Team JNPR and the Keyblade wielders develop.
Blake: I'd like to see an update or two to Keyblade Legion, myself, or maybe even A Spider's Focus.
AN: Now you guys are starting to sound like some of my reviewers. Don't worry, I'm going to do my best to update my other stories when I can, but this project I'm working on is very important, and I think all of my followers are really going to like it, or at the very least, like that I'm doing it. For now though, let's get into today's Meeting. First off, this one is a very special Meeting, and it has the cast of RWBY traveling to another dimension, while taking place in the aftermath of RWBY Volume 5. I'm afraid that's really all I can say without giving away too many spoilers, but I do believe you'll get a good idea on what's what when our favorite little red reaper gives us our big intro. Take it away, Ruby!
Ruby: With pleasure, sir! Today the heroes of RWBY meet the heroes of the MARVEL Universe!
AN: You heard the lady. Let's assemble!
I do not own anything from any of the RWBY franchise or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Marvel Universe
None of them were sure what had happened. One minute they were all heading for the Argus Limited Station, eager to complete the newest assignment in their mission to stop Salem, and then the next thing anyone knew, the whole sky had lit up in a brilliant color of lights. The only thing more bizarre than that was how Ruby could have sworn that she saw a giant sword flying in the sky above them before she was forced to shut her eyes to avoid being blinded by the light. The others all thought that she had probably just imagined it as a way of dealing with the stress, but given the drastic change in surroundings that greeted their eyes when they looked about again, they started to think they should reconsider that idea.
At first they all thought that they had somehow been transported to Atlas, given the massive buildings that surrounded them and the overly crowded streets, but a second glance helped to dismiss the notion just as it had formed. For one thing, the city was obviously not up in the sky like Atlas itself was known to be, and for another, they saw no sign to indicate that they were anywhere in mantle. Not to mention that none of them remembered hearing anything about a tall building with the word Oscorp printed on the side being anywhere on Remnant, let alone Atlas itself. To add onto the strangeness, there appeared to be a giant, green wall surrounding the city, and said wall appeared to extend upwards without end, and from the looks of trepidation and fear many people had in regards to it, the group of nine could only assume that the wall was not a normal part of the city.
Unsurprisingly, Nora broke the silence that had fallen amongst them and asked, "Anyone else now have like a million questions right now?"
"At least, but I think all of our questions can be summarized with just one," Jaune informed his hyperactive friend. "What the hell?!"
As surprising as it was to hear Jaune say that, everyone had to agree with his assessment, and naturally, they all ended up turning to the former farm boy who was currently playing host to their former headmaster's soul. "Kid, any ideas from Oz," Qrow asked on everyone's behalf.
"Not at the moment," Oscar revealed, but before he could say more than that, his eyes glowed for a brief moment, indicating that Ozpin had taken over. The old wizard glanced around for a brief spell before settling his gaze on the group, and said, "This certainly doesn't seem like anything I've ever seen from Salem, but I can't say for certain if this is her doing or not."
"Do you know for sure that she's capable of this," Yang questioned, already sounding like she was ready to get upset with Ozpin for keeping that information from them.
"As I said, I can't say for certain. In all of my lifetimes, I've never seen anything like this before," Ozpin calmly admitted, but his attempt at placating Yang did not seem to provide much comfort for the group as a whole.
Not that you could blame anyone. If Ozpin, a man who had lived for several, if not countless lifetimes had truly never seen something like this before, then there was little doubt that they could have just ended up in the middle of a very dangerous situation without even knowing it. Worse than that, it meant that none of them had any clues as to how they could get back to where they were before, and while the city did seem reasonably calm, that did not mean it was safe for them to just wander about aimlessly in an attempt to find answers, so his response ended up only driving home just how much trouble they had landed in the midst of. Just when it looked like they were liable to start panicking, they all heard the sounds of people screaming from somewhere close by.
They did not need to look very hard to try and find out where the screams came from; the large crowd of people running in terror definitely helped to narrow it down, and they were soon racing off in that direction to determine the cause of all the panic. When they saw the veritable horde of black creatures with bone-like armor rampaging through the street, they all felt themselves relaxing a little bit, if for no other reason than the fact that they finally found something familiar in this strange place: the creatures of Grimm. Not that they were going to celebrate the discovery of this first bit of normalcy for them, given that the Grimm were still dangerous and already causing a lot of damage to the surrounding area.
"Well, it wouldn't be a big problem if the Grimm weren't around," Blake grumbled as she drew Gambol Shroud in its sword mode.
"As if things weren't already difficult enough," Weiss agreed with the Faunus.
"Maybe, but at least this is a part of the problem that we can do something about," Ruby reminded them, gabbing Crescent Rose from its holster on her back and unfolding her precious weapon for battle. Her words proved to be the call to action that the others needed, because just seconds after she had spoken, everyone had their weapons out and ready, leaving only one immediate question.
"What's the plan, Ruby," Yang asked her sister as she assumed her usual fighting stance.
"Keep the Grimm contained here, and don't let anyone die," Ruby ordered, and with that, the former Beacon students, Qrow, and Oscar were charging into battle once more, the last of which taking control of his body back from Ozpin before he entered the fray at his insistence.
They did not really pay too much attention to the type of Grimm they were fighting at first. As long as they were attacking innocent people, all that mattered was destroying the soulless creatures before they could sink their claws into anyone. After a while though, the group did start to notice how a lot of the Grimm they were dealing with were not the kind that they had come to expect ever since arriving in Anima. Instead, they were all Grimm that were indigenous to Vale and the rest of the Sanus continent. Everything from Boarbatusks, Deathstalkers, and even Creeps were flocking about in this one area of the city. Sure, there were plenty of Beowolves as well, but those were normal no matter where you were on Remnant. Eventually though, other types of Grimm started to appear as well, such as Beringels and the Sphinxs that the team was worried about running across while on the train to Argus, but they were still able to hold their own fairly well.
Ruby herself was able to prove this point when she blasted a Sphinx off its feet, and then spun in to slice it into dust with her scythe, never once losing her proud smirk as she did. "Got him! Now who's next," she shouted.
Ruby failed to notice that another Grimm was about to get her from behind, but luckily, her partner had come to the rescue just in time with a bit of her regular Ice Dust. "Thank me later," Weiss called out to her as she skated past on her glyphs.
The former heiress then leapt upwards to cut down a few more Grimm with her rapier, before landing behind one that Yang and Blake were currently double-teaming against. Even after all the time that they had spent apart, it seemed the Bumblebee Duo of Team RWBY were still as strong as ever, and Blake easily proved it when she managed to snag one particularly stubborn Grimm with her ribbons after leaping in the air, and pulled it into a position that left it completely vulnerable for the finishing blow that Yang dealt soon after.
"Good to see you're not rusty," Yang playfully joked to her Faunus friend, much to Blake's appreciative amusement.
Team RWBY were not the only ones handling themselves well. The remaining three of Team JNPR were holding their own quite nicely as well. No one was surprised by the incredible teamwork that Nora and Ren displayed for everyone, but Jaune was certainly boasting a great deal of improvement when you compared him to how he was back on the first days at Beacon. Many a Grimm had ended up falling easily to the blonde boy's sword, and he was always one of the first ones there to save a civilian's life when he spotted someone in peril. Qrow was also doing his fair share of Grimm slaying, giving a prime example of his skills as a professional huntsman as he tore through the creatures, even as the fighting got more intense, but there was no hiding how little contribution Oscar was able to pay in the fight.
You could not blame Oscar though, as he was the most underequipped member of the group. Sure, he had gotten a lot better since meeting up with them in Haven, and his skills could get a significant boost if he were to allow Ozpin to take control, but he was determined to do as much on his own as he could. Besides, his main job at the moment was to keep the Relic of Knowledge safe, so if that meant he was relegated to less glamorous jobs like crowed control, he was willing to swallow that bitter pill. It was one he ended up swallowing quite a bit, because Oscar found himself ushering quite a few people to safety after batting aside any Grimm that got too close with Ozpin's cane, including one particular, elder looking store attendant with square-rimmed glasses.
"Jesus, it's like there's more and more of you superheroes showing up every other minute now! Not that I'm complaining, mind you; the world could always use a few more people that are willing to help out others," the man commented.
"Sure, if you say so, Mister," Oscar agreed as he helped the man to safety.
"Hey, none of that formal stuff, true believer. Just call me Stan," the man insisted.
Oscar merely nodded in response and then watched as the man rushed to join the other civilians in escaping, with Ozpin looking on as well. "You know, there's something very interesting about that man," the former Beacon headmaster noted.
"You think so," Oscar asked.
"Most definitely," Ozpin replied, and from the sound of his voice, Oscar had to assume his roommate liked Stan for some reason. Not that he disagreed.
Unfortunately, his moment of pause to speak with Ozpin was what ended up making Oscar miss the moment when they started to lose momentum. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but eventually, the number of Grimm started to slowly become far too much for the team to handle, and Ruby ended up being the one that served as the marker of their decline in being able to keep up. A very painful marker that consisted of her getting blasted into the air by a Sphinx's fire blast, and catapulted up towards a building that she was doubtlessly going to crash into before falling to her death. At least, that is what would have happened, had it not been for something very unexpected.
Instead of the building she was expecting to hit, Ruby found herself bouncing off of something a bit more springy before landing in what looked like a net of some kind. Upon closer examination though, Ruby saw that this thing was not a net, but a giant spider web. Naturally, her first thought was that she had been caught by some kind of spider Grimm, until her eyes were met with the wide, white lenses of a man in a red, web-patterned mask. Looking over the man who was now standing over her, Ruby saw that the web pattern did not even stop at his mask, but extended out to a good deal of a red and blue suit the man was wearing, and in the center of his chest, was a small, black spider emblem, showing that this guy had a very serious thing for spiders.
"Hey kid, I know that they say flying is one of the safest ways to travel, but last I checked, you kind of need to have at least a parachute, a jetpack, or even a small plane if you don't want to go splat, at least when you're flying at this height," the masked man playfully joked, and from the sound of his voice, Ruby had to figure that this guy was not very old.
"How did…what…who," Ruby stuttered, barely able to comprehend or figure out who this guy was.
"What's the matter? You look like you've never seen your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man before," the masked man stated. A loud boom turned their attention back to the situation at hand, and before Ruby could even think of moving, this "Spider-Man" guy turned back to her and stated, "You stay here. We'll handle this thing and getting your fellow strange cosplayers to safety." He then jumped down from the web they were on, shot out web-line to swing from, and shouted, "Web Warriors, go for it!"
None of the others seemed to have really heard the new arrival, but they soon took notice of his friends, starting when a girl in a white and black suit with a white hood, white mask that had the eyes outlined in dark pink, and a blue spider-symbol on her back suddenly swung in and kicked a few Beowolves away from Ren and Jaune. "Did he seriously just say that," this new girl asked. "He does realize that sounds like something from a really old Saturday morning cartoon show, right?"
"Hey, he's your husband, Ghost-Spider," another girl suddenly said before several Grimm were snagged and then pulled away from Qrow right when they were in mid-pounce. When the girl in question landed, everyone saw that her costume was all black, save for the white lenses of her mask and the large spider-symbol on the front and back, and left both her mouth and hair exposed for all to see, and even without seeing all of her face, it was clear that she was a little annoyed. "Dios Mio! It was just supposed to be a normal day, or at least as close to one as we can get anymore, and then this Kang guy just had to uproot the city to who-knows-where for what? Shits and giggles?" She then glared up at the sky and shouted, "Idiota!"
The other girls of Team RWBY shot this new girl a series of confused looks, leaving themselves open to several Grimm that were about to pounce on them were it not for yet another last minute save. Said save consisted of all those Grimm being zapped by what looked like a blast of red electricity, and when the monsters fell down, the source was revealed to be another man in a spider-themed outfit, his being red and black, with the spider-symbol being inside of a circle and looking like it had been painted on.
"Spider-Girl, considering that this guy just zapped the entire city to where or whatever this place is, I really don't think it's a good idea to be pissing him off," the newest spider cautioned in a very young sounding voice.
"Says you, Kid," Spider-Girl scoffed with her arms crossed.
Another stream of webs shooting down to capture more Grimm startled Spider-Girl back to the situation at hand, even before Spider-Man had dropped down next to her to do the same. "Hey, Spider-Girl, Kid Arachnid, how about a little less arguing, and a lot more thwipping? Do not make me take away privileges!"
"What're you, my dad," both Spider-Girl and Kid Arachnid asked at the same time. Not that they waited around for an answer mind you.
Nothing else was said between the four new arrivals, as they made quick work of the remaining Grimm, but not by killing them. Instead, they only seemed to either restrain the soulless creatures with their webs or just knocked them out with some hard punches and kicks. Sure, the knock-out blows seemed to stick, and they always made it a point to encase the unconscious monsters in more webs, but it was still a very poor choice that no huntsman worth their salt would ever try. Despite the bad call of not killing the Grimm, it was keeping the people out of harm's way, and not only that, but these spider people were also going out of their way to keep others safe as well, even at the risk of leaving themselves open to attack. They may not be the brightest huntsmen, at least in their methods of dealing with Grimm, but no one in the group was going to say that these strange people was lacking in selflessness.
When the last of the Grimm was finally contained, Qrow was sure that these guys were going to finally finish off the monsters. He was wrong; instead, they just left them there, not even seeming to care that these creatures could attract more of their kind here, while the one in red and blue, and the obvious leader, put finger to his ear to activate a comm. device that was hidden beneath his mask. That was a dangerous mistake, and given that he could see a few of the Grimm starting to stir, Qrow had no intention of letting others pay for it.
"Spider-Man to Avengers Mansion," the masked man called. "The Web Warriors and I have got things under control in the city, or at least as close to it as we can get, all things considered." He paused for a moment, listening to the person on the other end of his communicator, and seeming to not realize the danger of the creatures that were beginning to wake up and struggle against his and his teammates' webs, or how Qrow was drawing closer to one group of them. "You got it, Mister Stark. We'll be there as soon as we can," he confirmed a little while later, and he then turned to address his team. "Iron Man wants us to bring back one of these things for study, so we have a better idea of what we're dealing with in case more show…"
His sentence went unfinished, as a Beowolf finally broke free of its restraints and pounced at them with a loud growl. It would likely have sliced Spider-Man's head off had it not been for a quick blast destroying the Beowolf right when it was little more than a hair's breath away from him. Turning to where the shot had come from, Spider-Man was surprised to see Ruby smirking proudly towards him as she reloaded Crescent Rose, and said, "Guess that makes us even."
"And you can thank us even more once we've gotten rid of the rest of these guys," Qrow added on, already switching Harbinger into its shotgun mode and blasting several of the restrained Grimm at point-blank.
"Hey, hey! Whoa," Kid Arachnid shouted, snagging Qrow's weapon with his webs and pulling it away from the huntsman. He then leapt towards Qrow and kicked the huntsman away from the restrained creatures as he added, "That is not how we do things. Down. Town!"
The sound of a gun being cocked seemed to crack through the air, as the spider-themed people all turned to see Yang aiming Ember Celica at Kid Arachnid with a dangerous glare on her face. "I don't care if you missed a few classes at whatever school you went to, but if you have even the slightest clue of what's good for you, you'll move away from my uncle and let us finish off these Grimm, now," Yang threatened.
"And if you don't want me to put so much webbing in your hair that you'll have to shave your head, you'll point that thing away from friend," Spider-Girl threatened in return.
A tense stand-off then fell over the group, until Ghost-Spider got in the middle and cried out, "Okay, everyone just calm down! We're all on the same side, here, so let's not start the old cliché where heroes end up fighting each other over a misunderstanding, please?"
"Ghost-Spider's right," Spider-Man agreed, silently signaling for Kid Arachnid to stand down. "Besides, unless I'm guessing wrong, it sounds like you guys know a few things about these monsters."
"Doesn't everyone know about the Grimm," Weiss asked like it was the obvious topic in the world, which in a way, it was for her and her friends.
"The what," all four spiders repeated.
"The Grimm," Weiss repeated, only to get blank looks in return, which she could only assume were no different than the ones she had received just a second ago. "You know, the Creatures of Grimm; prowlers of the night; soulless abominations whose sole purpose seems to be the destruction of all living things, human or Faunus?"
"Yeah…Never heard of 'em," Spider-Man finally stated. After a brief pause, he then added, "And what's a Faunus?"
"You're kidding, right? You're looking at one right here," Blake pointed out, indicating her cat ears as she did. "And, aren't you all Faunus, too?"
"Uh…No," Ghost-Spider slowly replied. "We're just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up getting spider powers because of it."
"How does that make any sense or clear anything up," Jaune muttered.
"Enough already," Qrow nearly shouted, having only just retrieved his sword from the webs that it had been stuck in. A sword that he was now point directly at Spider-Man. "What's Salem's game here?"
"Yeah, I'll do you one better: Who is Salem," Spider-Man retorted.
"I'll do you one better: WHY is Salem," Nora demanded.
Everyone just stared at the hammer girl after hearing her question, before Ghost-Spider shook it off and said, "Okay, here's a real question: who are you people?"
"Qrow Branwen; professional huntsman," Qrow identified, flashing his ID at the four for extra emphasis. "And you are…?"
"You're kidding right," Kid Arachnid asked. "We're the Web Warriors! Friendly neighborhood heroes of New York?"
"The what of where," Ruby asked.
Everyone was silent for a minute after that, until Spider-Man finally said, "Well, if that doesn't confirm we've got some weird dimension distorting going on here, I don't what will."
Right when everyone was about to question where he came up with a crazy idea like that, the sound of someone laughing really loudly echoed all around them, and their gazes were soon driven skyward, where they spotted a large projection of a man with blue skin, and decked out in a green and purple suit. It came as no surprise to anyone when he began monologuing not even a second after his image had fully formed.
"People of Manhattan and beyond, I am Kang the Conqueror, and I welcome you to Chronopolis! A world of my creation, born from the thousands of civilizations that have fallen to my forces, and now, that includes yours and another from outside of your universe. Those who bow to me, do my bidding, shall be rewarded, but those who fail me will be cast aside. As for your so-called heroes, be they the fabled Avengers or any pathetic huntsmen, they shall find life a challenge in my world of worlds. Though if they wish to try and stop me, they are all welcome to try; for no one throughout time, in all of space, across the multiverse even, has ever been able to best me. ALL HAIL KANG! AHH HA HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Chronopolis," Spider-Girl repeated.
"World of worlds," Ren added in equal astonishment. "What do you all suppose that means?"
Spider-Man was the one who provided an answer, but it was not to any of their immediate questions. "It'll have to wait," the web-head stated. "Wasp just sent out the signal for everyone to report back to the mansion." He then looked to the group of huntsmen before them and said, "And she wants us to bring you guys with us."
Seeing as they had no better options at the moment, Ruby and the others all agreed, and were soon following after the Web Warriors so that they could meet this Wasp person he had mentioned to them.
The trip to the mansion Spider-Man had mentioned was mostly filled with proper introductions and idle chatter in order to better break the ice, but by the time that the large group had reached their destination, the team of huntsmen felt that they had gotten a reasonable grasp of what the spider-powered heroes were all about. Apparently, they came from a world where the Grimm did not exist, and people could not gain powers by unlocking their aura, assuming that any of them could do that at the very least. More than that, while there were a few people with animal abilities and features, none of them were Faunus since there were none on the Web Warriors' world. That was not to say that they did not have people who faced similar discrimination; apparently there were people known as mutants and inhumans who were born with the potential to gain various kinds of changes and powers, and they all suffered a fate that was similar to the Faunus. Hell, from what they could understand, the mutants even had their own version of the White Fang, both in its good and bad days: the X-Men for the good days, and the Brotherhood of Mutants for the bad.
When they finally reached their destination, they were surprised to find that the mansion was just an actual, two story building. At least it looked that way on the outside, but upon getting inside, they found that there was much more to be impressed by with its sublevels, and so far, they had only seen what could be classified as a central command center. The room itself had a style that most of them could only assume was typical of a place in Atlas, but the overall vibe made the former Beacon students feel more like they were back at their old school. The other people that were already there waiting for them definitely helped to support that theory.
"Hey, this is quite a gathering," Spider-Man commented as they all entered the room.
"Glad you and your team could make it, Spider-Man," a man in a red and blue suit with a star on his chest and a shield strapped to his back greeted before turning to the visitors from Remnant. "You must be the huntsmen that the Web Warriors ran into. I'm Captain America, co-leader of the Avengers."
"Nice to meet you, Captain America," Ruby nodded in reply.
"Please, just call me Cap, or Steve if you want."
"Okay, sure. Anyways, I'm Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY."
"Wait a minute. Did you just say that your team's named after you," a man with a goatee and dressed in an all-black outfit asked. The really interesting thing about him was the glowing circle of light in his chest that his shirt was doing very little to hide.
"Uh, no that's more of a coincidence than it is intentional," Ruby clarified, knowing she would have to explain the naming conventions of huntsmen team names at some point later. "But it does get confusing sometimes. And you are?"
"Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, also a co-leader of the Avengers," the man waved in reply. "And can I just say, I'm really interested in the tech you guys seem to use. I'd probably even try to see if I could replicate it if I were still in the weapons business."
"And yet, I'm sure it's already giving you ideas for your next suit of armor," a woman in a yellow and black outfit teasingly finished for her teammate. "Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, and final co-leader of the Avengers. Though, a lot of my leadership duties lately seem to have me just coordinating our efforts from here at the mansion for some reason."
"Nice to meet you both," Weiss greeted politely. "I'm Weiss Schnee."
"Blake Belladonna," the cat Faunus picked up from there.
"And I'm Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's older sister."
"Then shouldn't your last name be Rose, or hers Xiao Long," Tony asked.
"We're half-sisters, actually. Same dad, different moms," Ruby clarified.
"Unfortunately," Yang muttered to herself, earning her a sympathetic look from Qrow.
"And the rest of you are," Wasp prompted, leading into the introductions for the rest of the group.
"Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR."
"Nora Valkyrie."
"Lie Ren, but you can just call me Ren."
"My name's Oscar Pine."
"And I'm Qrow Branwen; professional huntsman, and Yang and Ruby's uncle."
While the Avengers did not really react that much to Qrow and Oscar's introductions, there was a bit of recognition in their eyes at Team JNPR's that did not go unnoticed by a amount of the collective group. Not that they had the chance to question the superheroes about it, as Captain America had gotten right down to business. "Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have to ask if any of you know anything about Kang."
"Afraid not. Never even heard of him or of your world until we were just suddenly zapped here," Qrow answered on his group's behalf.
"What about those black creatures with bone armor," Wasp asked.
"That we do know a few things about," Qrow answered. "We call them the Creatures of Grimm; soulless abominations that exist for the sole purpose of killing all mankind. The only other thing we know about them is that they're extremely vulnerable to Dust."
"So they have allergies? Well that should make things easier," Tony joked.
"Not that kind of dust," Weiss instantly corrected, retrieving a Dust crystal from Myrtenastor as she did. "This kind; the kind that allows us to harness the elements for battle and provides fuel and energy for a number of our vehicles and weapons."
"Aside from that, we don't really know much more than the fact that they're attracted to negative emotions and other Grimm, so naturally, it's better to kill most of them as soon as possible. Any attempts at further study of the Grimm have never ended well for anyone, so it's better to just not try," Qrow finished.
The Avengers all exchanged looks with each other, before Cap looked to back to their group and said, "It certainly seems to line up with what we've been told, but it seems you're leaving out some key details."
"Like the fact that they have a master who goes by the name of Salem? Or how she's after some powerful artifacts called relics," Tony clued in with a knowing tone, surprising the huntsmen.
"Wha…Where did…How do you know about that," Qrow asked.
"An associate of yours filled us in when she appeared on our doorstep after Kang's little transportation of the city into Chronopolis," Wasp answered, waving to another end of the room, indicating a person that was just entering the room.
When they turned to face the person in question, everyone other than Oscar let out gasps of shock, and with good reason too. There, standing before them, as tall, proud, and beautiful as ever, and all decked out in her usual combat attire with her shield and sword holstered on her back, was none other than a familiar, red haired huntress-in-training that none of the former Beacon students thought they would ever see in the living flesh again. The same young woman that Ozpin had believed to be the perfect candidate as the next Fall Maiden, and who many had long since nicknamed as the invincible girl herself.
"P…Pyrrha," Jaune gasped in barely more than a whisper.
"Hello again," Pyrrha Nikos waved to her friends, just as cheerily as she always would. Right when she was about to add more to it, she was suddenly tackled by Nora in the tightest hug that the hyperactive powerhouse of Team JNPR could manage. "Uh…Nora?"
"You're okay! You're alive," Nora cheered, and for once, it was not in her usual, exuberant manner, but in one that was more subdued, yet still carried a much heavy amount of emotion that Nora only showed in especially serious moments.
Pyrrha seemed to become confused by Nora's statement, and that confusion only grew when Ren came over and asked, "How are you here? Did Kang somehow bring you into this time from past?"
"Uh…No," Pyrrha hesitantly answered. "I was brought from the present, just like the rest of you. What makes you think…?"
After hearing her answer, Jaune had started to think that Pyrrha was unaware of the fact that they were not still students at Beacon right now, until he got another look at the woman that he realized his feelings for too late and noticed something off about her. "Pyrrha, what happened to your eyes," Jaune asked.
"What do you mean? Have they changed color again," Pyrrha asked, sounding a bit more panicked at this question.
"Again," Yang muttered to herself, not noticing how Pyrrha had tensed a little at the sound of her voice.
"Jaune, what's wrong with her eyes," Weiss asked.
"They're silver, and last I checked, Pyrrha's eyes were green," Jaune informed them, much to everyone's astonishment.
Indeed, Pyrrha's eyes were no longer the brilliant green they all remembered her having, but instead, were shimmering, bright silver that was almost identical to Ruby's. While the others seemed pretty stunned by this, Pyrrha just glanced around at her teammates as she tried to explain the reasoning behind the change in her eye color. "Jaune, you know that my eyes have been this way since the Fall of Beacon. Ever since…since I failed to save her."
"You mean Penny," Ren somberly recalled.
"No. I mean…" Pyrrha started to say, only to stop short and turn pale as a ghost when she spotted a certain, red cloaked scythe wielder. "R…Ruby? Is that…Is that really you?"
"Huh? Why are you looking at me like that," Ruby asked, only to jump a little when Pyrrha suddenly rushed over and grabbed her in a tight hug.
"It is! It's really you! Ruby, you're alive," Pyrrha softly sobbed, much to everyone's growing confusion.
"I feel like we have this backwards," was Ruby's first response.
As they continued watching Pyrrha hug the life out of Ruby while sobbing into said girl's shoulder, the implications of the redhead's earlier statement started to fall into place for everyone else, prompting several eyes to widen, while a number of jaws dropped. In the end, none of the huntsmen were able to say anything to express their shock, and ended up needing Spider-Man to fill the silence in order to break the tension here.
"Like I said before, a lot of dimension distorting going on here," the web-head commented.
General Ironwood had experienced many things in his life since becoming a huntsman, and after Ozpin brought him into his circle of trust, the general had expected and lived through many strange ones as well. Out of all those things though, Ironwood would have to admit that this whole Chronopolis situation was definitely took the prize of being one of the strangest, even without regarding his and Winter Schnee's current location. It was not that different from Atlas at first glance, being a highly-advanced, metropolitan city, but if you were to stick around and examine it more closely, you would see that it was even more advanced than what was natural for their home kingdom. The whole place was so advanced that it all seemed like it was from the future, and given what Kang's earlier claims during his announcement, the idea was not outside the realm of possibility. As disorienting as all of it was though, neither Ironwood nor Winter had gotten to where they had by being unable to keep a calm head, and they were doing just that after having sent out another ally of theirs to scout the area in an attempt to locate anyone else that they knew from back home.
While they were waiting, someone else ended up finding them, and he was certainly not anyone they knew. The same could not be said for him in regards to them. "Excuse me, General Ironwood, I presume," a middle-aged man in a smart business suit asked after approaching them.
"You would presume correctly, sir," Ironwood replied, thinking that this man might be a civilian from Atlas who had the misfortune of being pulled into this with them. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't really be of much assistance to any civilians at the moment."
"That's fine, seeing as I'm not a civilian," the man waved off, his smile never wavering. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Espionage and Logistics Division."
"That's…quite a mouthful," Winter noted, now regarding this Agent Coulson with a little more suspicion.
"Yeah, we get that a lot. Just call us SHIELD," Coulson suggested like clockwork. "Anyways, I'd like for you both to come with me. My boss wants to talk with you."
Like Winter, Ironwood was also regarding Coulson with a little more suspicion from the moment he gave his introduction, and while he would admit that they would have to consider finding allies that were from this place, he was not too willing to go to someone who knew about them before they had even met. "I'm sorry, Agent Coulson, but I'm afraid we'll have to refuse. We need to determine if any of our people are here, and I'd rather not leave the only one we do know about without a way to find us again."
"Well it seems like we have something in common, General, because I need to find a lot of my own people as well," a new voice stated from the shadows, prompting the two Atlesians to turn to the speaker just as he was stepping into the light. The man in question was black with obvious scars over the eye he kept covered by an eye patch, and even without the trench coat and all black attire, he managed to give off an aura that screamed bad ass. "Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. For the record, I told Coulson that you wouldn't come with him just because he asked, and quite frankly, given our current situation, we can't afford to waste time."
Ironwood had been a little shaken by Fury's sudden appearance, but he quickly straightened up again so that he could maintain his usual air of professionalism. After all, the man did give him an opening for a line of questioning he could follow up on. "What did you mean by 'having something in common'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I've got multiple agents that went MIA when Kang pulled my New York into Chronopolis, and aside from Coulson here, I've only managed to track down three others. Plus, given the things we've seen out there, I think it would be in our best interest to form an alliance until this crisis has passed at the very least. Especially since I'm guessing you know a few more things about those weird monsters that we've been seeing all over this city," Fury explained.
"What monsters," Ironwood questioned.
His answer came not from Fury, but from Winter, when she spotted something heading their way and shouted, "GENERAL! We have Grimm closing on our position!"
Turning to the direction that Winter was facing, Ironwood found several of the soulless creatures barreling down the street, all of them being Grimm that were typically found in the kingdom of Mantle, and he did not hesitate to draw his side arms and begin shooting. Seeing his choice of action prompted Fury and Coulson to also draw weapons and open fire, but that was not the only thing that they did. Fury paused in his shooting at one point to shout something into a comm. device he had in his ear, but between the Grimm's roaring, his own shooting, and even Winter's own attacks, Ironwood could just barely hear what it was that the new arrival had said.
About part-way through the fight, Ironwood found out that it was actually a signal for backup, and he realized that when several arrows suddenly rained down from above and hit multiple Grimm at various points of their bodies. A minute later, a zip-line was embedded into the ground, and a red haired woman in a black cat suit dropped down with the archer who had fired the arrows, said archer being clad in a black and purple suit with a pair of sunglasses resting on his face and his bow gripped firmly in hand. Just after landing, the archer merely smirked in the direction of the Grimm and said, "Tick, tick, boom."
The arrows that he fired earlier could then be heard beeping before they finally exploded, taking the Grimm that they had been embedded into with them, along with a few others that happened to be close by, and with that, the new arrivals fully joined the fight. While the archer mainly stuck to fighting at a distance by firing more arrows, he did show he was capable of close-combat a few times. What really impressed Winter and Ironwood was that none of his arrows ever seemed to miss the targets he was aiming for, and given how difficult archery tended to be for some, let alone how hard it was to use in an encounter like this, it would be more a surprise if they were not impressed.
The redhead on the other hand, had no problem with taking any variety of approach against the vile servants of Salem, and she was very proficient in whatever method she chose to utilize against them. Between her utilization of her firearms and the electrified staffs that she easily spun around in her fingers when she got in close, the way this woman worked was a sight to behold. In fact, if Winter did not know better, she would say the redhead was a fellow Schnee, or at least a cousin of hers with the way that she practically danced across the battlefield. The Grimm did not even seem to so much as scratch her as she spun around and struck them down, and every strike she landed held a kind of precision that matched if not exceeded Winter's own, but even with these surprise reinforcements, they were still likely to be overrun at any moment.
Their chances saw some improvement soon enough when a laser blast suddenly sliced through several of the Grimm from above, indicating that Ironwood and Winter's ally had finally returned even before she landed amidst them. While her appearance seemed to confuse the SHIELD agents at first, they quickly became a little more awed when the ginger haired girl released her Floating Array from its backpack and sent the swords flying to cut down any Grimm that remained in just a matter of seconds. With the situation appearing to have been handled, everyone holstered their weapons once more, and regarded one another in silence for a few seconds, until Winter took it upon herself to break the silence.
"Very impressive. You certainly seem quite skilled, Miss…" Winter commented to the redhead that Fury had called in.
"Call me Black Widow," one Natasha Romanoff filled in for the Atlas specialist.
"Hawkeye's the name. Hitting every target I see is my game," the archer then introduced, right when the youngest member of the group had joined them, prompting him to stare at the young girl who now sported longer hair and a Victorian-era style dress. "And…is she with you guys?"
"Indeed she is," Ironwood proudly answered. "Allow me to present Penny Polendina, the Protector of Mantle."
"Salutations," Penny greeted in her usual, exuberant way.
"Yeah…Um, hi," Hawkeye replied uncertainly. He then turned to Fury and said, "Still no sign of anyone else, but we do think that there's a chance that Agent Venom might be somewhere in this area at the very least, given some rumors that we overheard, or maybe even one of the symbiotes."
"Well then let's cross our fingers and hope that it's the symbiote that's on our side. The last thing we need is to have to deal with Venom and Carnage," Fury grumbled.
"I don't suppose you had any better luck finding our people, did you Penny," Ironwood asked.
"Sorry sir, but I wasn't able to locate any of the Ace Ops," Penny apologized. She then brightened up a little bit as she added, "But I did find someone else from back home, and someone who said he'd be willing to help us out."
"And who would this person from back home be," Winter asked.
"Your father's competition for the open council seat, Specialist Schnee," replied a voice that Ironwood and Winter were both familiar with, prompting them to turn and see a young woman with tanned skin, violet eyes, and light-blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail, decked out in mostly green clothes, and with a crossbow on her left arm. All of these features and more made it easier to identify this woman as the hero of Mantle's people.
"Robyn Hill. As hard as you may find this to believe, I'm actually very relieved to see you for once," Ironwood admitted, his voice carrying that very relief as he spoke.
"The feeling's mutual, Ironwood," Robyn nodded in return. "It's certainly nice to see some familiar faces, and not anyone else that's swinging around and climbing up walls while dressing up like a child playing superhero."
"Don't think I don't know that was a slight against me, Robby. I know you're aware that I'm still right here," a playful voice cautioned, right before a man in a red and blue suit dropped down from above to land in the middle of the group in a crouch. "By the way, for those of you who don't know, I'm Spider-Man."
"…I'm sorry; you're who," Hawkeye asked.
"Spider-Man."
"Yeah…No. No you're not," Hawkeye immediately disputed. "Widow and I have worked with Spider-Man, and fought alongside of him, neither of which is necessary to know that you're not Spider-Man. You don't even have the symbol right; never mind the costume as a whole."
"I'm what you could call the local Spider-Man, but if you really want to avoid confusion, call me Spider-Man 2099," the web-head of the future clarified.
"Seriously? Another Spider-Man? Sounds like my worst nightmare," Fury grumbled, and it was a little hard to tell if he was joking or not.
"Is this going to be a problem," Ironwood asked, wondering if this Spider-Man was a threat.
"Shouldn't be. If he's anything like our Spider-Man, then he's definitely on our side, but you should probably expect more than a few bad jokes while we're with him," Black Widow cautioned.
"I thought they were pretty funny," Penny confessed.
"So if we're all done pointing out how subjective humor can be, I've got a place nearby that you guys can lay low and use as a temporary base or whatever the technical spy term is, assuming you're all still interested," Spider-Man 2099 offered.
It was not like anyone had any better ideas, and they all quickly moved to follow the web-slinger of Nueva York to his place, right when another Grimm suddenly appeared out of nowhere to make one last attempt at getting the drop on them. Thankfully it did not work, because someone managed to blast it into dust with a vibrational shockwave, prompting them to turn and spot another woman in a uniform similar to Fury's stepping onto the scene with one arm raised in the direction that the Grimm had just been in and a knowing smile on her face.
"Hey. What'd I miss," Daisy "Quake" Johnson quipped to her fellow SHIELD agents and the huntsmen of Atlas.
Even after all these years, Ghira Belladonna was normally a very calm, patient man. Yes, he was well aware how surprising that was given his appearance; it was not every day you met a man of his size that preferred a more peaceful approach over a violent one, but Ghira never was the type to follow stereotypes like that. Maybe that was another part of the reason why he had originally founded the old White Fang. Regardless of this, there were still times when Ghira's patience was tested to its limits. One such time would be during his interactions with that Sun Wukong boy that had followed his daughter home to Menagerie. Sure, that time was probably more due to his duties as Blake's father, but he would insist that the monkey Faunus was more at fault than anything else for their inability to get along most of the time. This time though, was definitely making its mark on the list of times that his patience was being pushed to the breaking point.
He was not sure how this had even happened. One moment he and his wife, Kali were on their way home to better start up the new movement for equality between Faunus and humans, with Ilia Amitola joining them as a leading representative of the new movement, and the next, they were suddenly transported into this strange place that Kang called Chronopolis. More specifically, they were in an area of Chronopolis that was literally a city in the sky: a city that they found out was called Attilan after meeting up with some of the people who actually lived here. The people in question were certainly a pleasant bunch, Ghira would admit that, and he was glad that they were willing to help them out with their current situation, even if it did mean that he would need to help them first, but most of the people that they had met afterwards were a very different story. Then again, the fact that most of the people that they ran across afterwards were enemies more than likely had something to do with that.
Thankfully, he was no stranger to dealing with robots; almost everyone in the White Fang had been forced to fight some variety of Atlas's mechanical soldiers whether they wanted to or not, even when he was in charge, so really, the only problem he had was how they just kept coming. "So much for starting a new movement for Faunus rights," Ilia complained as she stunned another machine with her whip sword.
"There will always be a time to start such a movement, Ilia," Ghira assured his daughter's old friend. He then used his claws to rip another robot apart, before having to throw another off of him when it foolishly tried tackling him from behind. "But I will admit I was looking forward to doing so more than this."
Kali was also having some trouble with their attackers, but she still managed regardless of that. She was not just a simple stay-out-home wife after all, as her skill with the gun she was currently using proved. Even in the midst of a battle though, she did manage to find some time to joke around with her husband though. "Makes you wish that Blake and Sun had stuck with us a little longer, doesn't it?"
"Blake, yes, but as for Wukong," Ghira growled before tearing up another robot.
"He really doesn't like Sun, does he," Ilia noted to Kali.
"At this point, I'm pretty sure that it's more of an act on his part a good deal of the time. Sun is actually rather charming," Kali shrugged.
"Kali, please! Now is not the time," Ghira shouted.
"I couldn't agree more," a new voice interrupted, right before several robots were destroyed by a small blade attached to a long chain.
Turning to where the chain came from, the Belladonnas and Ilia all saw a tiger Faunus drop down from above and begin tearing through the remaining enemies with grace and speed that could only belong to one person. Or at least, only one person that they knew, and the form-fitting black dress with white pants that she wore certainly helped in confirming her identity, even if she was lacking the red cape that she had taken to wearing since she became the new leader of the White Fang. When the last robot fell, Ghira felt that this shocking arrival needed to be addressed right away, especially given what he knew about this person's current status.
"Sienna Khan," Ghira gasped, as the woman in question wrapped her chain weapon around her waist. "How…? You're alive?!"
"But that's impossible. Corsac and Fennec both received confirmation that she was killed in Adam's coup," Ilia protested.
"What coup," Sienna questioned with a dangerous tone. When she received nothing but silence in reply, along with a nervous look from Ilia, she went on to add, "I'm not sure what exactly is going on here. All I know is that I was preparing to have a meeting with Adam Taurus about his part in the destruction of Vale, and then the next thing I know, I'm here in this strange city, so I'll ask again: what coup are you talking about?"
It was at that point that things finally clicked for the Belladonnas and their young friend, and Ghira felt that there was no point in beating around the bush. "Sienna, that meeting happened at least a month ago. It was a setup that Adam staged so that he could seize power of the White Fang for himself."
"I never would've let that happen," Sienna insisted.
"You…didn't really have a choice," Ilia quietly admitted. "Adam killed you and then covered up what happened by saying that you were murdered by humans, making you out to be a martyr."
"What?! That damn bastard," Sienna growled. "I'll have his head for this!"
"I'm afraid you'll have to get in a line, Sienna. One that my daughter is right at the front of," Ghira informed the young woman. "Besides, we seem to have other problems at the moment."
"Yes…This Chronopolis place that the man called Kang has brought us to," Sienna recalled as she took a breath to calm down. "It seems that he was not bluffing when he said that he was drawing people from across space and time, if what you say is true."
"The fact that you're here when we know you to be dead for some time is certainly proof of that," Kali pointed out. "But, if we want to get back, we're going to need to confront Kang, and we'll need allies for that."
"Luckily, we've met some people that can help, assuming we're able to help them in return," Ghira revealed. He then glanced behind Sienna and smiled as he said, "And here they come now."
Approaching the four Faunus was perhaps one of the oddest collection of individuals that Sienna had ever seen in her life. There were two girls among the number, both redheads, but while the one dressed in yellow and black had hair of a reasonable length, the woman in purple had a wild mane that almost seemed like it was alive, and given the way that it was moving, there was a chance that it very well could be. The next one was a boy that Sienna almost believed was an aquatic Faunus of some type, but she quickly cast that off since he seemed for fish-like than human, and he walked alongside of what was perhaps the biggest dog she had ever seen. The final member, who stood at the front, was a man in all black that gave off a commanding presence not unlike that of Ghira's.
"Sienna Khan, allow me to introduce the Inhuman Royal Family, the rightful rulers of Attilan," Ghira introduced. "King Black Bolt, Queen Medusa, Princess Crystal, Triton, and Lockjaw. Your majesties, this is Sienna Khan, a former leader of the White Fang."
"Former," Sienna repeated questioningly.
"To be fair, the White Fang has been more or less abolished in our time," Ilia revealed.
"I find that hard to believe, since we've seen several men bearing the mark of that very organization, or at least what we believe to be that mark, based on what brief information you gave us, Ghira Belladonna," Medusa stated with a slightly accusing tone, though it was mostly directed at Sienna, given that she was the only one here who she and her family were not at least a little familiar with.
"I assure you, your highness, I have nothing to do with their presence. As far as I was aware, I was the only one in the White Fang's central stronghold that came here," Sienna promised.
Medusa looked ready to challenge that claim, when Black Bolt placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head in the negative. "Yes, you're right, beloved," Medusa agreed. "Now's not the time for questioning trustworthiness."
"Sir, I was able to see Maximus speaking with a man that I believe to be leading these White Fang people while I was scouting out the palace's defenses. If I were to describe him for you, might you be able to recognize him," Triton asked Ghira.
"Maybe," Ghira nodded, though it was still a cautionary warning that may not know the person. "What can you tell us?"
"He wore a white mask like the others, but it seemed a little more ornate than the others, almost like his was the very first. His attire was all-black, save for the white and red rose pattern on the back of his coat, and he carried a sword with a red blade in an interesting sheath on his belt. It almost looked like it was some type of gun."
"Anything else," Ghira asked, though it was with a bit more nervousness now. The description he was giving was steadily growing more and more familiar, but there was still one or two things that he needed to hear about before he was certain that the man was who he suspected it to be.
"Yes. He had red hair, and what looked like black horns on his head. Almost like that of an Earth bull," Triton finished.
That was the thing that drove it home, and just like clockwork, every single Faunus in the group was scowling in distaste, anger, or a similar emotion. "That's Adam Taurus, without a doubt. Though I'm not sure how surprising it really is that he would be working with Inhumans, given his animosity towards regular humans," Ghira confessed.
"Either way, it would seem that I'm going to be jumping ahead of your daughter's place in that line you mentioned earlier," Sienna noted.
"You'll have to get there before I do, Sienna," Ghira insisted with a near savage grin. It turned a little more playful as he added, "Assuming Black Bolt doesn't decide to have a word or two with him first, that is."
Black Bolt merely smirked in reply, proving that he had at least considered the thought, right when Medusa said, "It would likely be best for you to hope that you reach him before we finish having a word with Black Bolt's brother."
"And is that truly how your king feels? I'd much rather hear it from him, if you don't mind," Sienna informed Medusa.
"My apologies, Sienna Khan, but Black Bolt cannot speak. You see, his voice carries so great a destructive power, that even the quietest whisper could destroy a great deal of this city," Medusa explained.
"Well, something tells me that he'll be warming up his vocal chords for the conversation we'll be having in a moment," Ghira commented. "Now let's go liberate Attilan from both the White Fang and Maximus."
"Are you sure you wish to fight your own people," Crystal asked, sounding skeptical of this claim.
Ghira shared a look with Kali, Ilia, and Sienna before he replied, "It wouldn't be the first time we've had to fight in order to take back the White Fang, so I think we should be just fine."
In all her life, be it before or after she had decided to become a huntress, Coco Adel could honestly say that she had never experienced anything crazy than this Chronopolis place. Even the Fall of Beacon had a hard time competing with everything going on in this place, and that was while you accounted for the fact that she and her team had been captured by some weirdo in tacky armor called the Red King, and were about to be forced to fight for their freedom in his arena. She kind of doubted that he would actually let them go if they did win, but right now, it was not like they had any better options. Besides, getting in the ring would probably help them find some other way out anyways, so she doubted that there was too much to worry about.
"Hey kids," a rather friendly sounding voice called out, grabbing the attention of Coco and the rest of Team CFVY. Turning to the speaker, they all saw what they assumed to be a pile of rocks, until said pile actually moved and smiled at them while a large bug scuttled over and began clicking at them like it was trying to talk to them. "I'm Korg, this is Meek."
"Uh…Hi. Nice to meet you," Velvet waved, being the polite little bunny that Coco could not help but adore, even it did seem like even she was feeling a little weirded out by what they were seeing. "I'm Velvet, and this is Coco, Yatsuhashi, and Fox."
"So…what're you all in for," Korg asked.
"Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, apparently," Coco answered. "But, we're not staying for long."
"Oh, so you're planning to fight the champions, huh," Korg guessed.
"Something like that," Coco confirmed as she checked over the workings of her bag/minigun.
"Wait, did you say champions," Yatsuhashi asked, getting a nod in return. "How can there be more than one champion?"
"Oh well, that's a rather interesting story, but the short version is, no one's able to beat any of them, and when they tried to fight each other, they nearly destroyed the whole place, so the judges, or more accurately, the Red King decided to just name all of them the champions, which makes it harder for competitors to win their freedom, since they have to fight all the champions at the same time," Korg casually replied like he was just talking about the weather.
Velvet looked a little more nervous after hearing that, and even the reassuring pat on her shoulder from Fox did little to help with that. Maybe because she could tell the blind boy was feeling just as freaked out by that comment as she was, but at the very least, Coco was keeping her cool. "Has anyone here actually fought these champions before?"
"Doug has," Korg remarked as he turned to someone nearby. "Hey Doug! Come say hi to the new kids!" Everyone turned in tandem to where Korg was facing, only to find a lifeless body up against the wall, at which point Korg just said, "Oh right. Doug's dead. Everyone who fights the Red King's champions perishes."
"What about you? You're made of rocks," Coco pointed out.
"Perishable rock," Korg admitted. Almost right after he said that, the doors opened up, and the sound of cheering echoed into the room. When no one else seemed to move, Team CFVY took that to mean one thing and Korg quickly pointed it out. "Oh, looks like you're up."
"Great," Coco muttered under her breath. "Know what? Doesn't matter. We don't need to win; we just need to keep them busy long enough to find another way out, and then make a break for it when we do."
"Yeah, that sounds a lot like the last thing Doug said," Korg recalled fondly as he watched the young huntsmen and huntresses head up. "See you later New Dougs!"
Team CFVY did their best to ignore the chanting crowds around them, seeing as it reminded them a little too much of the Vytal Festival Tournament, which led them to remembering other events that happened at that time, and merely stepped into the arena with proud strides. They did pay attention to the man standing over everyone and acting as commentator, and given both his armor and his red skin, it was pretty easy to guess who he was.
"Greetings one and all! Witness the latest additions to the collection of the Red King: huntsmen and huntresses of that other world known as Remnant: Team Caffeine," Red King announced, not unlike how Professors Port and Oobleck would have during the Vytal Tournament.
"Hey! That's Team CFVY (Coffee)," Coco shouted up, annoyed by how he had messed up their name.
Red King apparently ignored them, as he merely continued on with his introductions. "Yes, they seem…somewhat formidable, but just how long can they stand against…the World Breakers?"
Right when he finished saying that, the four heard something banging against one of the doors on the opposite end of the arena, until finally, they came crashing open with several large, behemoths of men rushing out, all roaring angrily, two of which were green, with one who was blue with spikes on his shoulders and head, and the final one being red. The leading, green giant was the only one who spoke though, as he loudly roared, "HULKS SMASH!"
"…Still think we can handle this, Coco," Velvet nervously asked. She had never seen anything more frightening than a Grimm before, but these powerful looking bruisers definitely fit that description.
"Like I said before; no big deal. We just stay clear and keep them busy, and then bust our way out of here," Coco reassured her friend, still sounding as confident as ever.
"Not good enough you say," Red King suddenly asked the crowd, who Team CFVY had only just noticed were not sounding very satisfied. "Well then…what if we were to add the newest addition to our coliseum collection of fighters?" The crowd was definitely getting excited now, prompting the Red King to continue on. "Give it up for…"
Right when he was just starting to get into the swing of his intro, something dropped down from above, making the whole arena go silent as they waited for the dust to settle and reveal what it was that had interrupted the festivities. When it did, Team CFVY was met with the sight of a man with a shield, a blonde in a red and blue outfit with a star on her chest, what looked like a wizard in a red cape, and a Viking with a hammer. None of these people looked familiar to the huntsmen, but the other blonde girl and the black haired one with cat ears certainly did.
"Yang? Blake," Velvet gasped in surprise.
Turning to the rabbit Faunus, the Bumblebee duo of Team RWBY both grinned a little as Yang waved and said, "Hey Velvet! Coco, Fox, Yatsuhashi, great to see you guys."
"Where did you come from," Coco asked, wondering how they just suddenly fell from the sky.
"Believe it or not, a giant underwater city," Blake answered, earning her blank looks from her former upperclassmen. "It's a long story."
"And it looks like you have one that's just as long," the man with the shield commented. "Someone mind explaining to me why it looks like your friends are about to fight Hulk, Red Hulk, A-Bomb, and at least one or two other Hulks that I don't recognize?"
Coco looked to her teammates, who could not offer anything in the way of responses, and instead said, "Like you said, Shield-Man, it's a long story."
"Well, at least it will be a worthy fight," the Viking commented as he spun his hammer around in his hand.
"Oh, it will be more than worthy, Asgardian, and it doesn't stop with just the World Breakers either," the Red King promised. "Give it up for our surprise guests, ladies and gentlemen: the Avengers and their little friends!"
"Little friends," Yang and Blake both repeated, indignantly.
"But can these sudden reinforcements help Team Caffeine…"
"Team CFVY," Coco and Velvet both shouted this time, only to be promptly ignored.
"Against the terrifying, the deadly, the ultimate mother-daughter brawling duo themselves: The Branwens, Raven and…"
Before the Red King could finish, another door in the arena was blasted open, and as the smoke cleared, everyone saw the very familiar leader of the Branwen Tribe strolling out, with her helmet on. What came as an even bigger shock though was who was strutting out alongside of Raven. Sure, her outfit was different in the sense that it had a much more edgy feel to it, and looked typical of someone who was part of the Branwen Tribe, and her robot arm looked a little bulkier and spikier, but there was no mistaking that mane of wild blonde hair, or how her eyes matched up perfectly with those of Team RWBY's resident brawler when she was especially mad and using her Semblance at full strength.
"Guess who's back," announced a woman who was practically the identical twin to Yang Xiao Long, right to the point where even her voice sounded the same as Yang's, but with a much greater edge, and a lot less playfulness in it.
"Yang," Blake gasped in shock.
"What…But…Who…Huh…How…" Coco stuttered, her confident demeanor now shattered at the sight of a second Yang. "I am so confused right now."
Yang on the other hand just narrowed her eyes at her doppelganger as she commented to her partner, "I guess now we know why Silver-Eyed Pyrrha is always so on edge around me."
"Oh, so that redhead bitch is here too, huh," the other Yang asked, her voice suddenly turning more menacing as she spoke. "Good. That means that once I'm done here, I can go find her, and pay her back for getting my sister killed."
"That wasn't Pyrrha's fault," Blake tried to reason.
"Save it, Belladonna! I don't want to so much as hear your voice after how you up and abandoned me and everyone else," Other-Yang snarled, making Blake flinch back a little.
"She calls Blake by her last name," Yatsuhashi nervously noted.
Blake regained her composure easily enough, and calmly looked Other-Yang in the eye and said, "Well you're going to have to, because we're calling your bluff."
"What bluff," Other-Yang questioned.
"About how you're going to kill Pyrrha," Blake said.
Other-Yang laughed for a brief second or two, sending nervous chills up everyone's spines. "Oh, I don't want to kill her," Other-Yang dismissed before her voice turned as cold as ice. "I want to make her suffer. Her, and Ozpin, and everyone else that played us like chess pieces in a sick, twisted game. A game that got my sister killed, and let Nikos steal something that should never have been hers in the first place."
"Yeah, I'm with Blake on this. You're bluffing," Yang confidently declared. "No matter what universe or lifetime you're from, there's no way any Yang Xiao Long would ever intentionally harm a hair on her friends' heads."
Other-Yang was quiet, studying her doppelganger for a minute before she finally said, "You're right. Yang Xiao Long wouldn't intentionally hurt her friends." That brought some relief to the group, until they heard the rest of her declaration. "But in my world, Yang Xiao Long is dead, and she has been ever since her sister was killed by Ozpin and Pyrrha, and her so-called 'friends' abandoned her. My name…is Yang Branwen."
At that point, the sky seemed to turn dark, as an immense power seemed to emanate from Yang Branwen, but it was not until Yang and Blake saw a faint, fire-like aura appear around her eyes that they realized just what that power was. "You…You're a Maiden," Blake gasped.
"The Fall Maiden to be exact," Yang Branwen proudly declared. "And I must say, I think it suits me way more than it ever did Cinder."
Seeing the Fall Maiden's power in the hands of her twisted, evil doppelganger, and knowing that her mother had the Spring Maiden's power, whether it was her Raven or her evil twin's, Yang knew only one thing right then and there. "We might be in a lot of trouble."
As crazy as everything was, from being transported to Chronopolis, meeting several superheroes and the doppelgangers of some of them from other dimensions, not to mention the whole plan to stop Kang and set things right, it looked like they were going to pull it off. Sure, Kang had picked up some help from some of the other villains, both in terms of enemies that the Avengers had and villains from Remnant, along with Yang Branwen and her universe's version of Raven, and somehow even managed to convince Salem and her cabal to join forces with him, but that was not going to stop the heroes for so much as a second. Not when they had so many allies on their side.
Literally every hero that was so much as associated with the Avengers in passing was geared up and ready to take on this time/interdimensional-traveling conqueror, and accompanying them was Team RWBY and all of their friends and allies from back home. Everyone from Blake's parents and Ilia, to Winter, Ironwood, Penny, the Ace Ops, and Robyn, and of course, their friends on Teams SSSN, CFVY, and JNPR, with Silver-Eyed Pyrrha happily filling in the empty spot on said team. It did not stop there though, because there was one other group that they had met up with since coming to this strange world that had become allies with them, and no one was happier or more excited about this team-up than Ruby and Yang, save for maybe one or two of the people on that very team.
Qrow had already been planning to see this fight through to the finish with his nieces, but the last thing he ever expected was to be working alongside of his sister in that endeavor. Hell, after hearing how Yang had a run-in with the woman at the Sakaar arena, he was certain that it was going to be next to impossible, until their universe's Raven suddenly appeared to lend a hand with Taiyang at her side. He was still determined to have a few words with his sister about why she had the Spring Maiden's powers though, but none of that mattered more than the person standing before him, his sister, and his brother-in-law/brother-in-all-but-blood. It was a sentiment that each of his former teammates both shared, as it was instrumental in proving that they were truly standing together again with her at the helm.
Right there, at the head of both her team and the collective group from Remnant, and right alongside of Ruby, with her white cloak flapping in the wind, was none other than the late leader of Team STRQ herself, Summer Rose, back from the great beyond and ready to prove once again just why she was one of the best huntresses of her generation. More than that, she was especially eager to fight alongside of her daughter and said daughter's team, right to the point where you would think that she was actually Ruby's twin as opposed to her mother. As much of an insanity ride as Chronopolis was, this had to be at the top of the list on the few good things that came out of it, because it allowed Team STRQ, Ruby, and Yang to finally be reunited with Summer.
Glancing over at Captain America, Ruby received a nod in reply, indicating that he was more than happy to let her take the lead on this one, and as such, she proudly shouted out the signal for their final attack as loud as she could, "Avengers and Huntsmen…ASSEMBLE!"
AN: Whoo-wee! Now isn't this just packed with stuff for us to go over. This is probably much bigger than I had originally intended for a RWBY Meeting with anyone from Marvel, but I think it doesn't hurt to go big on the first run with such a thing. In case it's unclear, or if you just haven't seen so much as a trailer for the game, the story behind this meeting takes a great deal of inspiration from the video game LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2, with a few alterations here and there. One of those being that Spider-Gwen goes by her handle as Ghost-Spider in this story, and that Anya Corazon and Miles Morales have assumed their web-slinging alter-egos, and are part of a team of Web Warriors led by Spider-Man. And since it draws inspriation from LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2, it does include various locations and characters from throughout the Marvel multi-verse, including the world of 2099, Sakaar, Attilan, and more. I just showed you the stuff that is here, because that would take less time.
Another thing to note is that Marvel wouldn't be the only thing that would feature people from alternate worlds in this story idea, as we saw with the inclusion of Silver-Eyed Pyrrha and Yang Branwen. Those two are from the same parallel universe, in case that also wasn't clear, and it's a little head canon I have for a What-If world. This one being "What If Pyrrha Didn't Die at the Fall of Beacon?" Now for one thing, there would be a lot of changes from the RWBY canon. For starters, Pyrrha's fight with Cinder still went down, but unlike in canon, Ruby made it in time, and managed to push Pyrrha to safety before Cinder's last, fatal arrow struck. The downside: she ended up taking the arrow in Pyrrha's place, and as a result, an unknown ability of her silver eyes activated, transfering the power to Pyrrha.
Ruby: Okay, I may not know much about my silver eye powers, but I'm pretty sure that's definitely not a thing they can do.
AN: I'm well-aware of that, thank you Ruby, but I did say that this was a What-If world. Things are always weird and a little convoluted in those things. Just look at how out of whack things were in the what-if world we saw in that What-If arc from that one season of Agents of SHIELD. Ward was a good guy, Jemma was killed, May was an agent of HYDRA, Coulson was a teacher/conspiracy theorist, and let's not forget about Fitz going total crazy bad guy! Speaking of people going total bad guys, that leads us into what happened to that world's version of Yang. Keep in mind, a lot of Yang's decisions after Volume 3, at least in regards to where she went after getting back into fighting shape again, revolved heavily around Ruby, because even when everything else she had was gone, she always still had her sister. Take that away, and what do you think the end result might be? Here's my answer: Yang does get back into fighting shape, but only so she can avenge her sister's death by any means necessary, and who better to understand that kind of mindset than the "mother of the year" (he said sarcastically) Raven Branwen. One little chat later about Ozpin's secrets, and well, she wasn't looking for Raven so that she could be sent to her sister via Raven's Semblance.
Weiss: Okay, but what about the whole Fall Maiden thing? How did that happen?
AN: Well, let me ask you this: have you guys ever seen The Dark Knight?
Ruby: Uh Yeah! That was an awesome movie!
Yang: Like that was ever in doubt?
Blake: I really liked it too.
Weiss: I will admit, I do have a certain fondness for the film.
AN: Hey, you know something's good if it's got Ice Queen's approval.
Weiss: Hey!
AN: But moving on, remember that scene near the end between Two-Face and Gordon? You know, when he's threatening Gordon's family? Yeah, Yang did something like that to Cinder, just replace Two-Face with Yang Branwen, Gordon with Cinder, and Gordon's family with Cinder's tag-alongs.
Mercury: Hey! We are not tag-alongs!
AN: Dude, that's the nicest way I can describe you two at this point, because let's face it, you don't actually have much value to her after the end of Volume 3, and once she got her voice back again. Anyway, Yang basically tortured Cinder and her thugs like that...
Emerald: Okay, I think I liked tag-alongs better.
AN: Glad you feel that way Emerald, because, guess who Yang Branwen killed first.
Emerald:...Oh you have got to be kidding me.
AN: Well in fairness, and I don't mean to sound like a cold, heartless, horrible, irredeemable, monster, you know, like certain people we know. *cough* Salem and Raven *cough*.
Raven: Please don't lump me in with the witch.
AN: Are you all just going to keep interrupting me, or are you going to let me explain the What-If world I've envisioned for this story idea? [silence is answer] Thank you. Anyways, not to sound like a terrible person, but it does make sense that Emerald would be the last person in Cinder's thoughts, as far as girls go, and I've seen a story or two where that did actually happen, so Yang Branwen removed that obstacle, and then made certain that she was the last person in Cinder's thoughts, much like Cinder did when she attacked Amber. And to be clear, she didn't make it quick and painless. She made sure that it lasted, and that Cinder suffered, slowly, in ways that no human being could even hope to withstand without going mad...
Blake: Okay! We get it! Yang Branwen is basically what would happen if Yang's character development took a very terrible turn and led to her become a virtual monster! I don't think any of us want to think about it anymore!
AN: Sorry. Got a little carried away. Anyways, another thing you should also notice is that it did not stop with just Team RWBY and their closest allies. It would also include just about everyone from the RWBY world. Mainly the most major characters, which I mentioned in that last bit there. Everyone would be sporting their attire as it is up to the time frame of RWBY Volumes 4-6, with the exception of the folks from Atlas (Ironwood, Winter, Penny, Robyn, and the Ace Ops) who would have their Volume 7 attire. I'm a little undecided on whether or not the others who went through a style change in Volume 7 would get there's too or not (Oscar would get his new style while in Chronopolis, that's a promise), so let me know what you guys think if you think I should expand this into a full story. And yes, we would in fact see the return of the full Team STRQ, all from the canon RWBY universe, with Summer being brought from the past, and Raven being Post-Volume 5, and where I think her character probably went from the last time we saw her.
Yang: That would be something to see. Any chance that story would have a sequel that tells of how things play out for us after we get back from Chronopolis, like by having Silver-Eyed Pyrrha coming with us, or Mom?
AN: Uh...when you say "Mom", do you mean Raven or Summer? Just for clarity's sake.
Yang: And if my answer was both?
AN:...I'm not sure how to respond to that. But either way...such a sequel could be a possibility, but keep in mind, that would only be if I actually run this into a full-fledged story in the future. For now as always, that will be the most we get at a look for this idea, and as always, whether or not this or the others we've seen thus far become more than a story is up to all of you, my loyal readers and followers. Until the next Meeting...
Please read and review, and I'll see you again in the next colorful adventure!
