Rock Bottom

Civilization can be found anywhere, and Rock Bottom is one of them. Similar to Kumari Kandem and Oceanis, in the seas in Rock Bottom are numerous aquatic faunus and mobians. However, contrary to the other civilizations, Rock Bottom is home to countless predatory faunus and mobians, and while that normally wouldn't be a problem, their behavior and culture more so. Unlike Kumari Kandem and Oceanis, Rock Bottom's residents are completely cut off from the rest of the world, and with the exception of one, the vast majority of the people don't bother with the surface unless they have to.

Being far more savage, vicious, and acting so animalistic that they attack first and never bother asking questions. Because of their hostile nature and aggressive tactics, the underwater city is left alone by not just humans, even Satyra avoids them due to their nature.

Rock Bottom is also highly underdeveloped for a city, and while it has basic homes and the like alongside schools and the like, it's also a survival of the fittest due to the many sea monsters and Grimm down there making the residents much tougher. It should also be noted that while they can make their own food, due to a lack of variety, if a ship is spotted above their city they will instantly attack it, destroy it, and steal what they could and will leave those aboard to drown.

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Mermaid Man

Numerous locations have their own personal heroes. America has Major Glory. Japan has SAM-R-I. England has Big Ben. So it's only natural that out in the sea, the hero of it is Mermaid Man.

...of sorts.

Mermaid Man is a human who was once a simple boy where his family and friends were attacked by Rock Bottom's residents when the ship accidentally went above their territory. The young boy ended up watching everyone die, however, hit his head against some wreckage and forgot everything. One of the residents found him and decided that instead of leaving the kid to drown, took him beneath the waters, gave him a unique starfish that allowed him to breathe underwater, and then brutally trained him to become strong. The reason, because the mobian could.

While his memories were wiped, the young boy still recalled blood and (reluctantly) accepted the training of the mobians and faunus that gave him it. Having broken bones every day, healed by the city's doctor, then trained again. After two decades of this and miraculously not snapping, the boy became a strong, courageous, and decently kind now known as Mermaid Man. Being the only human to live in the city. Who defends Rock Bottom from any perceived threats he believes, though in contrast to the city's people, he also defends other ships and those lost at sea to the point people saw him as a hero like Major Glory or the Scotsman of the sea.

However, while far less savage than the residents of Rock Bottom, and less likely to attack, Mermaid Man attacks others if he thinks their a threat, is out of time with the surface world due to living in the ocean for so many years, and does not know his own strength. Whenever other heroes meet him, he instantly believes them to be jerks if they are human due to his trainers telling him humans are jerks, and doesn't trust them even if they are good. While more likely to trust faunus and mobians, due to his training and misconceived concepts he attacks them as a 'greeting' and usually ends up breaking their bones.

Ultimately, while he is a good person deep down, his way of life and misunderstandings has caused many to realize that he's a considerable threat in his own way. With those in the Huntsmen community given warning not to mess with him.

In recent times, Mermaid Man has been meeting with a kid he calls Barnacle Boy being his only human friend.

It has been five days since the Ace-Ops, Ironwood, Winter, Pietro and Penny have been out at sea. Five days of seeing nothing but the water. Dealing with the strange cold weather that has recently gone away, the Grimm sea creatures, the lack of doing nothing, and pretty much being bored.

'This is the life.' Something Ironwood enjoyed thoroughly, as these five days of nothing has put him at ease as he laid back on the chair he placed at the hull of the vessel and enjoyed the cloudy sky. Sipping some water while adjusting the shades on him and dressed a bit more casual as he wasn't on the job.

Well, he is, but he didn't need to wear his standard uniform in this weather.

"Uh!" Nearby is Harriet on the hull, who's with Clover and both fishing seeing as there was nothing better to do here. Harriet also dressed casually alongside Clover, and looking upset at the fact that on the fishing pole Clover gave her, she hadn't caught anything at all. "This is stupid!" She yelled and threw the pole aside.

"Come on Hare," Clover chuckled as he then pulled up his weapon where a fish is on the hook. A big one too. "Just be patient."

"Say's the guy who has his luck to help him!" Harriet counters with Clover not denying her accusation.

Below the hull the other guests were also doing their own thing.

Winter herself was practicing her swordsmanship with Elm doing exercise in one section of the ship. Nearby, Marrow was playing a game that he seemed to be enjoying, as he then gave a soft yell at getting a good score of whatever he was playing. Next to him, Vine sitting down crisscrossed and entering some kind of meditative state.

In another section of the ship, Penny is simply enjoying the pictures taken. While most would question what point there is taking pictures of the sea, in truth Penny had also taken pictures of the underwater environment. Using some water-proof drones to check for anything and looking at the fish caught on camera. Her father Pietro just analyzing anything of interest but also trying to figure out where on Remnant they were.

'Assuming we're not lost.' Honestly, Pietro has been doing his best to discover the location of where they all were. Using whatever maps he had and his own tech to get a read on anywhere. 'And yet,' Images of the sky he had taken showed many stars. 'I can't seem to match us to any known location on Remnant.'

Pietro sighed, as he then just pushed a few buttons on his computer and then activated a small program to continue trying to connect to anything out here. Though honestly, at this rate he very much doubted it.

"Father." Penny then looked away from the pictures, and looked at Pietro. "Are you still having trouble finding our location?"

"Unfortunately yes." Pietro rubs the back of his neck, making a slight cough. "No map we have is being very useful. Not to mention I'm getting no signal, meaning we must be very far out at sea."

They must be in some unknown part of Remnant's oceans. I mean, not like the seas were entirely explored. More so since unless one has a proper well-defended ship and a strong crew, then anybody who tried would likely die to the countless Grimm they may meet in the seas. Still, it seemed there weren't too many Grimm here in this region. Not much trouble they encountered. I mean, there was a Leviathan but it was taken down before it even attacked them. So overall, things went rather smoothly here.

"So then, should we go back?" Penny asks.

"I suppose so." Pietro can't think there's anything useful here. If anything, it'd be best to continue watching the portal than continue this rather boring trip. On the bright side, at least Atlas now has an area where they can fish for seafood. "I'll just send the drones to do one last run underwater and that'll be that."

With a click of a button the drones detached themselves from the side of the ship and went underwater. Pietro then turned to get some food with Penny following when he then heard a beeping noise from the console.

"Hm?" turning, he then saw one of the drone signals was already gone. "Must be a fish or something." He then went back and decided to just check what could have caused the drone's ceasing signal later. Not knowing that as soon as he and Penny left the room, all the signals of each and every last drone went out one by one.

"Alright then, I believe it is now time to go back home." Everyone was in the meeting room of the ship, having eaten a bit ago and dressed in their normal clothing. Ironwood addressed that they were more or less done with this journey.

"Finally." Harriet lamented. "It was getting dull here. I'd rather be fighting White Fang than this."

"And get some good food." Marrow added in. "The rations here suck."

"This wasn't a picnic trip." Vine tells the dog faunus who retorts back.

"And yet I saw you looking at those tasteless bars funningly." Marrow jokes.

"Ah whatever." Elm stretches a bit. "At least we got to enjoy some of the view here. And glad that the weird cold weather was gone."

"Yes, it was quite cold." Winter agreed. "Though it is strange how it suddenly just vanished in an instant instead of gradually."

"Ah who cares." Marrow shivers a bit. "At least we aren't freezing now." He then blinks. "Though now we're going back to our cold home." And he was just getting used to the warm weather here.

"Yep." Clover chuckles. "In any case, it'll be nice to go back home though. Maybe check up on some books I've missed out on reading."

"So there truly is nothing out here?" Vine then asks, more so to Ironwood than himself.

"Indeed." Ironwood states. "It seems there is not much to see here, and we may as well go back home and deal with this portal another time."

"But what about the island?" Penny then voices her thoughts.

"We can deal with it ano-" Ironwood then stops, as Penny's words finally enter his mind. "...island?"

"Yes." Penny then grabs her scroll and shows it to everybody. "It seems one of the drones we sent in the sky has spotted an island." Everyone stayed silent.

"Tropical paradise!" Marrow cheers.

The ship soon landed on the island with everybody walking out of it. Boots meeting the wonderful sandy beach, and seeing the tropical trees and rocks. Not to mention a rather interesting surprise of something wonderful.

"Well this seems to be our lucky day." Clover walks up to one part of the beach with high-quality Dust crystals coming out of it. "It seems we found ourselves something nice." He then rubs his badge on his shirt.

"Now this is something good." Harriet comments as she zips back and forth on the beach and going into the trees. Coming back with a coconut in her hands. "Finally!" She then cracks it open with her hands. "Something not boring."

"This does look nice." Elm agrees as she punches a tree, and a bunch of bananas fall into her hands. "Heck, the perfect place to sunbathe."

"Not to mention a party." Marrow wiggles a little.

"And potentially a place to stay at." Winter looks around, noting the island to be quite big. When they flew toward it, it was big enough to hold numerous towns at once. "Maybe even put a base here away from home."

"Yes. That would be useful." Ironwood can see it now. A place Salem didn't know of, meaning a blind spot to her views. Not to mention there seemed to be Dust here, meaning they can mine a private source. Though he would mine it for the military purpose to aid against Salem and her forces and ensure Jaquess didn't find out. Heaven knows he'd want this source for himself. Thankfully, he trusted his team not to tell him, especially Winter who was never fond of the man.

To think that this trip wasn't so pointless after all.

"Wow. Look at the beach and trees." Penny thought the same, as in the command deck of the ship she looked out at the beach, wishing she could be with the General and the Ace-Ops as they looked to be having fun exploring. But knew she had to be here for her father as they worked out the coordinates here and the map they made to travel to this location.

"It is nice." Pietro agreed as he gave a slight cough. "Not often we get to travel. More so when the location is a beach." Being a scientist and helping people in Mantle left little to his schedule. So it was nice to be somewhere else around here. Especially with his daughter, who he had rebuilt.

"Then we should go on when we are done." Penny tells him with her wonderful smile. "Oh. Maybe I should also take pictures for my friends." Ah right. Penny's friends, team RUBY as he thinks they are. Pietro didn't know too much about them, other than they're good people for Penny that she hung out with.

"Then go ahead and do so." Pietro chuckled. "I'll follow soon after I finish this map."

"Gladly. Come soon father." Penny then left, leaving Pietro behind as he chuckled before coughing again. Uh. It seems him rebuilding Penny has certainly lessened his health. He didn't regret it, but he'll have to be more careful now with his health. His aura, practically a patchwork by this point.

"Still," Memory of her in pieces came into his mind. Brought to him after he requested for her to be brought back when he saw what that girl did to his daughter. "Better you alive, than scrap."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"?" Pietro then turned. His mobile chair moved him towards a console, where it glowed red. Checking it, he adjusted his glasses to see what it was about. He then gasped. "This is-!"

Ironwood walked up to the beach, the rest exploring a bit while he gazed at the sea.

It's been a while since he had time to rest. To just relax.

However it seems that time was over, as now he would have to get back to work. To ensure that communications for Remnant was working again, plan against whatever plot Salem and her forces had, and who knows what else. It was so...tiring.

So it felt nice to have such a dull yet stress-free trip.

"Now to go back and see what I can do here." Ironwood says as he then turns.

Swish!

Then turns back around swiftly when he heard water spraying and footsteps coming at him. His prosthetic right arm slamming against a fist as his own eyes meet the eyes of another. The attack had made a big noise and a force strong enough to get the attention of Winter and the Ace-Ops. Where the mystery attacker then grinned.

"Well, well. A human." He said with a toothy grin. "Here to rob us a bit. That is what you're kind does." A purple starfish on his face. An orange suit and a blck speedo with a strong figure built like an athlete. Behind him, multiple faunus and strange...humanoid(?) animals that all looked savage at a glance. The difference between the attacker and the rest was that this man is human.

"Who are you?" Ironwood asks with a glare. Knowing this man attacked without even bothering to talk first. Eyes then settling at the strange humanoid animals. "What are you?"

"Oh, racist." The human then grins as he then backs off. Ironwood and the rest ready with the faunus and humanoid animals looking to do the same. The strange human standing tall and putting both hands on his hips. "Well then prepare for a beatdown human scum. For Mermaid Man is here to save the day!"

Mermaid Man and Rock Bottom are expy's of Spongebob Squarepants. GrimmFall does NOT need the real deal, as not even Sammael can handle their stupidity. The heroes would go mad at their attitude of the laughing sponge.

In the meantime, hero meets hero and like any good crossover, a misunderstanding so we can see the good guys fight it out. Enjoy.