AN: Just in case you haven't yet. Please go back and read the last two chapters. I changed my upload schedule to twice a week so this is the second for the week.
Gordeau checked his scroll. It was another proximity alert. Hitting it a white flash appeared and standing at the front of the theater was non-other than Velvet Scarlatina.
"Ohh, where am I?" She mumbled before getting slammed in the side.
Looking down she saw Ruby hugging her, "Ruby!? Why are you in Vacuo?"
Blake stood up and walked over to her friend, "Sorry, Velvet, but you're not in Vacuo anymore."
The assembled crowd proceeded to explain the situation to the bunny Faunus, pausing to let her catch up when the lost universe and Roman and Neo being helpful now were brought up.
Velvet had the information she needed, including the stuff about Ozpin, the Maidens, and Salem, but had one question on her mind, "So if the universe is gone, what happened to Coco?" she asked tears already forming in her eyes.
Gordeau cleared his throat, "I wouldn't worry too much about that, Velvet. You weren't here to begin with, but as we started this universe, one in which you have a significant role, it led us to you. I can only assume that if we find one with a similar attachment to Coco, we could bring her here as well."
Velvet perked up at the information and sat in Ilia's former seat, getting the information about this universe from Blake and Sun.
Gordeau's scroll went off again, this time with a message from Roman, {Does she have a role to play too?}
{I would assume so, seems we must be ready for more guests in the future.}
{If it's because their important to this universe, can we expect the Jacq-ass any time soon}
{No, he is too unwilling to change. I don't think he will show up}
Not getting a response from Roman to this, Gordeau continued the viewing.
Yang suddenly remembered something, "Oh fair warning Velvs, you're really sassy in this universe."
"What?" The shy girl replied timidly.
Sun was woken up when someone threw rocks at him. He noticed he was in a prison cell. Velvet was throwing rocks at him from outside.
"I know I'm not a big time treasure hunter like you," she started sarcastically, "but I doubt you're gonna find El Dorado in there."
Velvet pulled her ears down over her eyes in embarrassment, "Oh, I sound like Coco."
"Different universe, Velvet," Ruby reassured, "And besides Sun's alternate self has done way more embarrassing things so far."
Sun sunk into his seat, as Velvet perked up a little.
Sun picked himself up off the ground while Velvet asked, "How'd you get yourself into this mess anyway?"
Sun looked at her with frustration, "Trying to rescue you as a matter of fact."
"I took a rocket to the face!" Sun yelled.
Velvet continued with the sarcasm, "Oh, that's so sweet!"
Velvet examined the window of Sun's cell, "Traditional sandstone brick and stucco, limestone mortar, huh," she mumbled to herself.
"You always were smart, Velvet," Weiss complimented.
"But not in history!" Velvet retorted, "I got held back in that class remember?"
"That's just because Oobleck speaks too fast for you," Jaune remembered, "Once you had someone help you out, you breezed through that class."
Velvet smiled at the blonde, as Pyrrha asked, "So, who helped you out?"
"I did," Jaune answered, "I was doing so much extra work for Cardin, I learned the history really quickly. Velvet asked for help and I was more than willing to give it."
Pyrrha had many thoughts running through her mind. The first was pride that Jaune had helped someone with there studies, the second was anger at Cardin, and the third was a hint of jealousy that Velvet had gotten to spend time with Jaune while he was under Cardin's thumb. She pushed the latter two out of her mind and settled on pride.
Sun was impressed she could gather that just from looking at the wall, "How'd you get to know so much about this?"
Velvet was happy to reply, "My show. Episode four 'Architects of the New World.'" She continued smugly, while she knocked on the bars, "Yep, it'll just take a tug to pull these bars out." She left the window as she said it.
"But how's she gonna do it?" Nora asked, "Velvets cool and all, but she's no me or Yang!"
"Nora!" Ren scolded the bomber, but Velvet shrugged it off.
"She's right," was all she said.
Sun was doubtful, "Wait, are you sure?" he called after her but was stopped by a familiar voice coming from the door.
Emerald tensed up, chills running down her spine, "No, not him! Anyone but him!"
Mercury's eyes widened at his partners outburst, "Oh no!"
Cinder just got very angry, but she didn't know why yet.
Everyone else looked at the trio with confusion, though at least five of them thought the voice sounded familiar.
"Get out of my way, idiot!" the voice said before bursting through revealing a scorpion Faunus with a deranged look.
Emerald went pale and started shaking.
"Tyrian!" Qrow scoffed from across the room, holding his side. The wound may have healed, but the lingering effects of the poison still hurt like a bitch.
Ruby, Nora, Ren, and Jaune shuddered at the site of the crazed Faunus.
"Hey," Mercury said to his partner, in a surprisingly calming tone, "It's okay! He's not here. He can't hurt you."
Emerald calmed down a bit, as Cinder raised an eyebrow, "Why are you frightened of this imbecile?"
Mercury glared at Cinder before answering for his partner as she was still calming down, "Since you've been gone, Tyrian needed a new target to torment. Unfortunately for us, he chose Emerald. He's nearly broken her a few times and I've had to step in more than once."
Everyone was seeing a different side of Mercury. Gone was the cold-hearted assassin, and in his place was a concerned friend and teammate. They could tell that, despite what he and Emerald would say, he truly cared for his partner.
"Hey, Wukong!" The Faunus said in a cheerful tone. He was holding the map from the diary.
"Tyrian Callows." Sun responded chuckling. "I should've guessed."
"Wait, I know this creep?" Sun asked.
"Yep," Gordeau responded, "Remember those pirates your counterpart pissed off? Well, Tyrian is their leader."
Sun went wide-eyed, and Emerald laughed, snapping herself out of her funk.
"You okay?" Mercury asked.
Emerald continued to laugh, "Yes, just imagining Tyrian as a pirate was too hilarious for me!"
Mercury thought for a minute than started laughing too, "Yeah, that is a funny image!"
"Yarr, I be crazy! Now, walk the plank, you landlubbers!" Nora replied in a pirate accent, causing the three to almost die laughing.
When the three realized what had happened, they sent each other wide-eyed glances before returning to the screen silently.
Gordeau chuckled, knowing there was a universe where they were all pirates.
"Fascinating document, huh?" Tyrian responded unfolding the map. "Seems like this 'Sir Francis' was in my line of work."
"Don't flatter yourself, Tyrian." Sun said flatly.
Tyrian looked angry for a minute before shaking it off, "Always ready to be enemies, eh? Tell you what, lead me to the gold," all hint of humor left Tyrian's voice, "and I might just let you live."
"Well, that's certainly different then our Tyrian," Cinder scoffed.
"Well, since Salem doesn't exist in this world, you all had to find something else to occupy your time." Gordeau commented nonchalantly
"WHAT?!" was the collective gasp.
Sun chuckled darkly, "Is that it? It that my deal? Die know or help you and die later? It's a tough call but you know what? I'll take die now."
Blake and Raven chuckled at the dark humor.
Tyrian got furious he held a gun up to Sun's face, "Listen to me, maggot. I was promised treasure on this gods damned rock. And now my men are dying. They can't even go outside to take a piss without an armed guard!"
Qrow snorted before he raised an eyebrow, "I know the kid has taken out quite a few guys, but they shouldn't be that afraid of him."
Roman shrugged, "Maybe it's Schnee and Taurus he's scared of? He hasn't talked about them yet so they may not be working together."
Gordeau silently chuckled, knowing what was coming.
Sun backed away as Tyrian ranted, "And I have nothing to show for it!" He swung his gun at the bars before turning his back.
Sun looked behind him to see Velvet hook a tow cable up to the window.
"Not being very stealthy there, Bunny Girl," Neo smirked.
Velvet turned around with a death glare, "Bunny Girl?"
Neo raised her hands in surrender, "Hey, I don't know you very well yet! Roman and I have a hard time remembering names, so we give people nicknames."
"That's why you call me Red?" Ruby asked, "I thought you were just insulting me."
Roman laughed, "To be fair you never told us your name, but, yeah, we meet a lot of people so nicknames are easier for us."
Ilia turned to Neo, "So, what's mine?"
Neo pondered for a minute before smirking, "I'm thinking Rainbow."
True to the name, Ilia's face flushed through just about all of her colors before settling on a yellow tint with her freckles turning pink.
Neo continued smirking, "I take it you like it?"
Ilia nodded silently with a beaming smile on her face.
Tyrian calmed down slightly and turned back to Sun, "I am making you a fair offer. You help me find the treasure, and the last man alive gets the gold," he cheered as he said this last line, then he started smirking, "and the girl."
"Woah! Creep alert!" Yang yelled.
Weiss narrowed her eyes, "You keep your filthy hands off our friend!"
"Yeah!" Ruby exclaimed.
Sun scoffed trying to lie, "The girl? Oh, Tyrian the girl's long gone. She's probably off the island by now getting help."
Sun buried his face in his hands, "Okay, I definitely need help in the lying department."
"Hey," Summer defended, "Being honest is not that bad of a character trait!"
Sun looked at the Rose matriarch to find she was smiling at him.
"Yeah," Tai commented, "Sums never been good at lying either!"
Sun began to smile to now, knowing someone else shared his problem but never let it get her down.
Tyrian read Sun's face before laughing, "Oh, Wukong, you were never good at poker."
Tyrian slammed up against the bars to be right in Sun's face, "I will find her, trust me! How much trouble could one little girl be?"
The room, mostly being female, sent glares at the screen.
Right as Tyrian finished his line the back wall of Sun's cell is ripped open revealing Velvet sitting in a jeep. She stood up before yelling at the surprised Sun, "Well?! Come on!"
"That's how much trouble we can be!" Ruby shouted as the rest of the girls cheered.
Sun recovered and grabbed the map from the jaw dropped Tyrian.
Emerald laughed at Tyrian's ridiculous face. Cinder chuckled as well.
Oscar commented on something else though, "Hey, you remembered the map!"
"Huh," Sun commented, "Guess I'm getting a little bit better then."
Tyrian shouted a slew of expletives at Sun as he ran to the Jeep. There was a big turret on the back and he got up to use it as Velvet drove away.
The weapon nuts began drooling.
Sun turned the turret and immediately fired on the vehicles Tyrian sent after them.
He made quick work of them with the mini-gun and grenade launcher combo.
"It's like Coco and Nora rolled into one!" Ruby shouted about the awesome weapon.
Velvet dropped a little at the mention of her currently absent girlfriend.
Nora, however, was in awe, "Ren…"
"Nora, no!" was the calm boy's response.
"Nora, yes!" she replied, as the students, Oscar, Ozpin, and Qrow shuddered at the thought of Nora with a mini-gun and her grenade launcher.
Unfortunately, Tyrian seemed to have an endless supply of vehicles, and Velvet was running out of road.
"Uhh, Sun!" She yelled back, seeing the bridge ahead had been blown out.
"Uh oh." Velvet worried.
"Keep going!" Sun yelled, "Punch it!"
"That's your plan?" Jaune yelled, "Jump the gap?"
"That's pretty reckless, Sun." Yang looked at him seriously, before switching to a goofy grin, "I approve!"
Team STRQ all groaned at Yang's behavior.
Velvet floored the accelerator and the duo made the jump. Tyrian's vehicles stranded on the other side.
"We made it!" Velvet sighed.
"I can't believe that worked!" Sun stated as Velvet looked at him funny.
Pyrrha sighed, "Then why suggest it?"
"Don't know," Sun shrugged, "But we made it so that's all that matters."
They drove for a few more minutes before Velvet asked, "So, who was that guy?"
"Just an old business ass – OH LOOK OUT!" Sun had suddenly spotted that the next bridge was out as well, and they weren't going to be able to jump this one.
Weiss was laughing, "I know he didn't but it sounded like he called Tyrian a 'business ass.'"
"Sister!" Winter replied, shocked Weiss's outburst.
The rest of the room fell into laughter.
"Hold on!" Velvet yelled as she braked and swerved, sending Sun flying off the back.
"SUN!" Velvet yelled.
Sun, who was sitting right next to her, looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry," Velvet replied sheepishly, "I always get so engrossed in movies. I tend to forget I'm not there."
Ren chuckled, "Nora does that too, but only with fight scenes."
"REN!" the bomber shouted, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.
"Ruby, too." Yang smirked.
"Hey!" was the reaper's response before folding her arms and pouting.
Velvet smiled, seeing she wasn't the only one with this strange habit.
He grabbed the spare tire as the jeeps back wheels slid off the bridge, but the jeep stopped.
"Good luck saves me, yet again!" Sun cheered.
"Yeah, but what's the payoff gonna be this time?" Qrow wondered.
Velvet pulled Sun back into the jeep and then sild over to let Sun behind the wheel.
"You okay?" Sun asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Velvet panted out, she noticed Sun had a cut on his forehead, "Oh, but you're bleeding!"
"Eh, comes with the territory," Sun casually shrugged it off, "Let's get the hell out of here!"
Tai chuckled, "It's just a flesh wound!" he quoted remembering a similar situation with Qrow.
Said man groaned, "You just had to bring up the lizard again, didn't you?"
Sun tried to drive away but the rear wheels wouldn't grip so they went nowhere.
Suddenly chuckling and amused applause was heard. Sun and Velvet looked up to see Tyrian standing there a group of his men behind him.
Blake winced, "I think we just found the payoff."
Sun and Qrow sighed.
"Going somewhere?" He quipped.
"Hey, Tyrian." Sun replied nervously.
"Did you really think you could escape from moi?" Tyrian asked rhetorically.
"Oh no, Tyrian," Sun replied sarcastically, "Just giving the young lady the ten-lien tour!"
"The usual defense strikes again!" Yang teased.
"Hey, at least they're better than yours," Sun teased right back.
"Hey, my puns are great!" Yang defended.
"Yeah they are!" Tai agreed.
Everyone else groaned at the two blondes.
"Shut it!" Tyrian snapped grabbing a shot gun, "I bet you're working for them too."
Roman's eyes went wide, "Guess it's not the dynamic duo that has them scared."
"Yeah," Ilia agreed, "But then, what does?"
"What?" Sun asked surprised.
"You thought you could set me up and keep everything for yourselves, hmm?" Tyrian theorized, before blasting the windshield with is shotgun.
"There's the crazy he's known for," Emerald grumbled.
Mercury nodded, "But the greed is interesting. I know that's what I would think, but I doubt Tyrian would care."
Sun and Velvet ducked behind the dashboard in the nick of time.
"Damn it!" Velvet swore, "This guy's crazy!"
"Yes, yes he is." The entire audience agreed.
"Tyrian, take it easy buddy." Sun tried to reason.
Tyrian laughed, "Well, you're out of luck now, and out of road!" Tyrian went serious, "Now, give me that map."
Sun whispered to Velvet who was still ducked behind the dash, "Hold on."
"Let's hope this plan is better than your last one," Ilia grumbled.
"I don't know, Rainbow," Neo countered, "That's a look Dum Dum gets all the time, right before he tells me a stupid plan that will never work."
"Hey!" Roman responded, before folding his arms and pouting. Neo, again, laughed at the similarities between him and Ruby.
He picked his voice back up before responding to Tyrian, "All right, you got me, fair and square." Sun reached his hand below the dash.
"Hey, don't move," Tyrian threatened.
"Relax, Tyrian," Sun said reassuringly, "just getting your map." He whispered to Velvet again, "I said hold on!"
"I am!" She bit back quietly.
"Woah! Angry Velvet strikes again." Nora commented.
"What? Again?" Velvet asked shocked at her on screen self.
"Yeah, last time other you was angry, you punched Sun in the face!" Nora continued, ignoring the look of disbelief on Velvet's face.
"Well, hand it over!" Tyrian ordered impatiently.
"Well now, you told me not to move," Sun quipped, "Looks like you're gonna have to come get it."
Ren chuckled, "While a good joke, I don't think anyone would fall for that."
Sun sighed but he nodded in agreement.
"I mean he's not wrong," Ruby and Summer both said, causing the group to send them unbelieving looks.
He had slipped the jeep into reverse instead of getting the map.
"Wukong!" Tyrian yelled as Sun back the jeep off the bridge and into the water.
"You were right Ice-Cream," Ilia sighed, "That was stupid."
"How did you hear that nickname?" both Weiss and Winter said at the same time.
Ilia raised an eyebrow at the pair, but Neo cleared it up, "I'm pretty sure she said Ice-CREAM referring to me, not Ice QUEEN referring to you two."
"Oh," The Schneesters responded.
Neo turned to Ilia, "Nice try, Rainbow, but it's too close to theirs. No one's gonna know who you're talking to. I did like it though."
Ilia deflated a little until she heard that Neo liked it, "Well then, I'll just have to try harder."
Neo giggled. Roman raised an eyebrow at his partner/adopted daughter. Blake was embarrassed that Ilia was trying harder than her, but couldn't work up the courage to do anything about it.
"Sun!" Velvet screamed as they fell.
Thankfully, neither of them was damaged when they hit the water, but Tyrian's men fired at them from the bridge.
Sun and Velvet swam towards a small dock where they would be safe from the gunfire.
When they caught their breath Sun finally spoke, "This was a big mistake."
Blake looked worried, "That's not Sun's normal tone."
Yang nodded but looked down, "Yeah, I'd now that tone anywhere. That's the tone of someone,"
"Whose given up," The pair finished together. Their heads snapped to each other and they looked at each other with shocked expressions.
The ones who knew what the pair had been through had sympathy in their eyes.
Velvet laughed him off, "No kidding! Y'know, I should've turned before the bridge!"
A light chuckle spread through the theater. Ruby was glad Velvet had lightened the mood.
Sun looked at her incredulously, "That's very funny."
Velvet suddenly remembered something she had filmed, "Oh, c'mere a minute, I want to show you something."
"Huh?" Velvet asked, this being the first time she's seen her camera in this universe, "My camera doesn't take videos."
"It does here," Weiss responded, "That seems like a significantly small difference to be focusing on."
Velvet shrugged, "You're probably right."
Sun looked at the camera unconvinced, "That thing still works?"
"Uh-huh," Velvet said proudly, "Check it out."
"Of course, it does," Velvet stated proudly, "Even if it's not quite my camera, I still take exceptional care of it."
Sun walked next to her so he could see the screen, "Okay, see this building in the harbor?" She showed Sun the same building he had seen from the tower, "That's where all the boats coming into the colony would've unloaded their cargo. So, if the El Dorado treasure came to this island, it would've come through here."
"And you figured that all out by filming it from across the harbor?" Raven scoffed, "Not likely."
Sun, however, noticed something else, "Wait a minute what's that?" He rewound the footage to see a boat docked at the building. "Right there! That's our ticket out of here! C'mon."
"I mean I understand," Sun commented, "Between Jacques, Taurus, and now Tyrian there is way too much opposition."
"We seem to be doing fine so far," Velvet commented under her breath.
Velvet was shocked, "Our ticket out of here? Are you giving up?"
Sun thought he had made that clear already, "Maybe you hadn't noticed, but we're kind of outnumbered."
"That's what I said!" Sun yelled.
Velvet scoffed, "We're doing fine so far…"
"And that's what I said," Velvet retorted.
Sun was shocked that she would say that, "Velvet, I don't need your bullet riddled corpse on my conscience. Let's go." Sun was not taking no for an answer.
"Did you just use me as an excuse?" Velvet asked Sun with a fire in her eyes no one had seen before.
Sun just chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"You all know I can hold my own in a fight," Velvet stated angrily, "Don't EVER use my safety as an excuse, EVER!"
All nodded, as Velvet started to calm down.
Velvet scoffed again, but for a different reason this time, "Oh, please, you quit if you want to, but don't use me as an excuse!"
Sun scoffed himself, before raising his voice, "Fine! It's me, okay? I am quitting. Are you coming or not?" He was practically yelling at her at this point.
"He admitted he was scared," Tai nodded in respect, "It takes a brave man to do that."
Qrow and Ozpin nodded their heads in agreement.
Velvet couldn't believe it, and was pretty angry at Sun's attitude, "So, that's it? You're just gonna forget about the treasure, and forget about Wukong?"
"Ouch, playing the legacy card," Yang winced, "That's harsh!"
Weiss, Winter, Pyrrha, and Ruby nodded in agreement. They had some pretty big names to live up to, or, in the case of the Schnees, surpass.
Sun got in her face, "Damn it, this is not worth dying over!"
"True again!" Sun stated, "I already lost one friend on this adventure, I don't think I could lose another just because of some stupid statue."
Ozpin nodded, "That's very mature of you, Mr. Wukong." He lowered his head in thought. Should I give up? I keep getting people hurt because of my grudge. He shook the doubt out of his mind and refocused.
Velvet went wide-eyed at how serious Sun was being, "Okay, okay." She conceded.
She continued calmly, "Listen, either way we have to head back to the harbor."
She lightly punched Sun's shoulder before returning to her carefree attitude, "Don't worry about it. We can argue about it later! It'll be great!" She finished sarcastically before walking towards a conveniently parked jet ski.
"Lightening the mood again!" Ruby complimented, "You're really good at that."
"Thanks." Velvet replied, but it was obvious she was embarrassed.
"Wait," Sun stopped her. He turned to her seriously before quipping, "This time, I drive."
Velvet smirked, "Okay."
The audience burst out laughing, "He's got at point Velvs," Yang stated.
"Yeah," Pyrrha chuckled, "Driving over a broken bridge doesn't score you driving points."
AN: I felt the argument here was a good place to stop.
Velvet's here now. Always planed it. And as Gordeau explained, if the people are important to the overall plan, they will be brought in as we find universes that pertain to them. In other words expect more friendly faces in the future.
Congrats to Zweig (and no, even though I said they are helping me out, I did this universe by myself) for figuring out who Eddy was and who was terrified of him. They have picked out a viewing that I personally know nothing about that the cast will see. It won't be next, but it will be shown.
So, Emerald figured out who it was, and that ended up being Tyrian. I know she's also scared of Cinder and Salem, but after what Tyrian put her through in volume six, I think she might fear his unpredictability more. I also feel like he taunted her more than we saw on screen. So without further ado:
Eddy Raja – Tyrian Callows: Main reason here is that, while not bloodthirsty crazy, Eddy exhibits a lot of the same things Tyrian does. He's superstitious, prone to fits of inexplicable anger, and slightly unhinged. Tyrian may be crazier, but he was the only one that fit well in my opinion.
So that's it for new characters in this game. From now til the end of Uncharted, author's notes will all be plot related.
