Already another chapter!
Expect this story to be getting cranked out for a good while, because I am in the Digi-mood!
As for why this is already out just after the last one, well, originally they were one BIG chapter, but yeah, cut it in half, it's the best thing to do.
So, before we begin, there's a thing I want to note.
We,re gonna be using the japanese version of digimon levels, mostly so we can avoid the pretty weird Ultra level name.
Although one level has the english name, but only one.
Here's how it's gonna go.
Fresh-Baby-Child-Adult-Perfect-Ultimate-Super Ultimate
So, hope that avoids all of you getting confused later on.
With that said, let's get started!
Once the next morning rolled around…
"Good morning sleepyhead!"
The brothers hadn't realised they had been sleeping close to one Lie Ren and his best friend because of tragedy, Nora Valkyrie.
"Is she always like this?" Gyro asked Ren once the two pairs of tired eyes met while Nora was switching out of her pajamas inside her sleeping bag.
"All the time." the magenta eyed boy said with a sigh, and the twins blinked a moment, before realising his voice was from Monty.
'Rest in peace' the twins thought at the same time, while also realising that Ren would have his original voice through it all, since this wasn't a webshow anymore.
"So uh...think she's gonna lose steam anytime soon?" Pierce asked semi-rhetorically as Nora was still talking like a chipmunk on a sugar rush.
"No," Ren sighed.
"Oh…" Pierce said with a sigh.
"Betcha you're gonna be on team with these two." Gyro told his brother.
"Knowing my semblance, it won't bother to turn itself on for that." Pierce muttered.
"If you do become one of my teammates, I apologise in advance for Nora aggravating you." Ren said with a bow.
"Eh, its cool. At least she seems nice," Pierce waved off, before extending his hand. "Pierce Vermillion, and this is my brother, Gyro."
"Lie Ren," Ren nodded, taking the hand...before Nora was suddenly leaning on his shoulder.
"And I'm Nora Valkyrie!" she grinned.
"Don't Valkyrie's usually have pegasi?" Gyro muttered with a grin.
"That's what I always say!" Nora exclaimed with probably the brightest grin possible.
Ren shook his head in amusement at his friend's personality "So, what brings you to Beacon?"
"We mostly came here since our brother is a teacher here, but also killing monsters sounds like it could be a doable job, you know?" Pierce said with a shrug, using the believable reason the brothers had come up with.
Oh they planned on telling the teams someday, but only when they had their trusts, so they didn't get thrown into the loony bin.
Ren nodded, accepting the reason for what it was "It's pretty much the same for the two of us."
"Yeahp! We're gonna kill monsters together!" Nora exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air.
Gyro blinked, before he figured he might try to start this early "So, are you two together-together?" he asked the orange haired girl.
At that Nora's face turned red "W-what? No! Noooo, nonononono! W-We're just really good friends, you know?"
"Uh-huh." Gyro said dryly as he looked at her. "Well...anyway, we'd better get ready for whatever they got in store for us today. Wouldn't want to go this far and fail just cause we didn't get ready," he chuckled at the end.
"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Nora said in a rather exaggerated gasp. "Ren, we gotta get ready, we gotta make a plan!" she exclaimed before running off.
Ren managed to give the brothers a polite nod, before Nora came back and pulled him along.
The two brothers watched them leave, silent for a few moments, before "Shove em in a closet and threaten Nora with no pancakes till she confesses?" Gyro asked suddenly without looking at Pierce.
"You read my mind." Pierce shot back.
"So...we'd better get to our lockers and actually get ready, or the plan is screwed," Gyro suddenly pointed out, to which they both made their way to the lockers.
When the brothers did get to the lockers, they blinked as they saw a surprising but not unwelcome sight.
That is, Jaune interacting with Pyrrha, albeit he was being a bit of a clumsy dork, but the fact that Pyrrha was smiling and helping him was good.
"Huh, and all we had to do was stop Weiss and Ruby from having a rough meeting, go figure." Pierce muttered lowly.
"Well, here's hoping the rest of the plan goes this smoothly," Gyro chuckled slightly. "Who knows, maybe if we stop the next disaster, some random guy will be able to stab Salem and end the whole thing," he whispered the last bit as a joke.
"Well, that would be anticlimactic, but convenient as hell… hey wasn't there a story where a Gamer went and basically Kamikazed himself against her because he realised he had become a total dick?" Pierce asked.
"Yeah, and somehow that story inspired another one that was a bit better because the main character hasn't lost sight of himself, well, not yet at least, and I hope he never does, I mean, he has a crazy sister, but the guy is pretty cool… you know, I actually submitted some event ideas to that author a few years back." Gyro said conversationally.
"Huh, neat. So, we good to go?" Pierce asked as he slipped on his jacket.
"Think so yeah, plus Jaune seems to be doing well, so everything should be good, come on, let's go." Gyro said with a nod as the two headed for the cliffs.
Shortly after, the two brothers found themselves standing on platforms alongside all the other students, to which they couldn't help but notice that Jaune still seemed VERY nervous...not that they could blame the poor guy. They may have helped with his fighting skills, but he still had a bit of a confidence issue.
It didn't take long before Ozpin and Glynda arrived, and this time, the brothers decided to pay attention, having a feeling something would be different.
"Now that you're all gathered here, it's time for the test that will decide your team members for the next 4 years you'll be spending at Beacon. Know that everything you find in the forest will be trying to kill you. As for how team members are formed, the first person whose eyes you meet once you are within the forest will be your partner, as for the rest of your team… well, that's a surprise as to how we decide that, but know that your goal is to retrieve a relic hidden within ruin inside the forest. Finally, because we had a bit of an odd number of applicants this year, two students have been made special partners in a way, as if you find them, they will act as a fifth member of your team, as for who they are… I'll let you figure that out yourselves." Ozpin explained everything neatly, the brothers being sure Azure had a hand in that, just as they were sure the special students were the two of them… that or they were Jaune and Ruby. Either way, they didn't have any time to ponder that as the next phase was starting...seeing as Ozpin was talking about them 'flying' into the forest...and some students already being launched. True enough…
"Wait...are you uh...giving us parachutes or something?" Jaune asked cautiously.
"No, you will all be making use of your own landing strategies," Ozpin said, a small quirk on the side of his lip betrayed his amusement.
"Wait, did you say...landing strategy?" Jaune gulped, and at the nod he got, all he could do was slump a little. "Oh…" was all he could say, before he was promptly launched into the forest.
"Huh, was wondering when we'd hear the wilhelm scream." Gyro said as he followed Jaune's flailing form with his eyes.
It was at that point that Pierce happened to notice that...they were next. "...brace yourself," was all he could say, before he too was launched.
In response, Gyro quickly pulled down his goggles over his eyes and pulled out his swords, getting flung through the air a second later.
Ozpin watched as the last few students were sent sailing through the air, sipping from his coffee "Glynda… you know how I said this year would be interesting this morning?"
"Yes?" the deputy headmistress repeated in confusion.
"I take it back, it's going to be extremely confusing, I just can't put my finger on why though." Ozpin said, before sipping more of his coffee.
Glynda looked at him for a moment, then to the students, before sighing "Where's Qrow so I can steal his flask?"
Gyro took a deep breath as he was still riding on the momentum of him being flung, before letting it out with a smile "I love this." he said, before pointing the tips of his blades at his sides, and hitting a switch on the hilt, which, somehow, made blade extensions come out of it and basically cover the holes between his arms and body, almost looking like a pair of wings or a flying squirrel's membrane now.
And with a small application of his semblance to keep the wind riding under him, as well as making sure it was warm, Gyro was basically flying through the air, steering around by twisting his body this way and that.
Elsewhere in the skies, a rotor was heard spinning, before Pierce was seen slowly descending while holding onto Pandora, about half if it's length having shifted into something akin to the blades of a helicopter, spinning fast enough to slow his descent from the skies.
As he kept going down, eventually it ended with him going down through the forest canopy, the blades spinning fast enough to cut through the branches around him.
When he came out the bottom of the surprisingly thick canopy, he looked down, and was surprised to see a giant black snake slithering towards Lie Ren.
He knew the martial artist was aware of its presence, but he figured he might as well make this faster, quickly shifting his weapon back into Naginata mode, aiming the blade downwards, and letting gravity do the rest of the work, as the blade went right through it's head, piercing the middle of the brain.
As for the second head of the King Tajitu… well, it was taken care of easily as Nora suddenly appeared hanging upside down within the canopy, using Magnhild to fire a grenade down it's gullet.
Silence for a moment, before Pierce scrambled away with Pandora in hand, as the white head blew up, leaving nothing but smoke behind.
Slowly, Pierce and Nora looked at each other, before giving out a silent thumbs up.
Ren looked dryly at the two of them 'I guess… there's no escaping this huh?' he thought with a sigh, before a wry smile graced his lips. 'I suppose there are definitely worse people I could have been partnered with.'
Back above the skies, Gyro was still flying around, looking for a good person to partner up with "This… is harder than I thought."
He continued to fly around, before spotting a clearing in the forest, seeing two familiar splotches of color, one sitting in the middle, and the other moving around the clearing.
"Huh… guess I found them after all." he said, before going into a dive.
Meanwhile, down on the ground, Weiss was walking around the clearing, trying to figure out in which direction the ruins were, Ruby watching her walk around.
"It's this way!... No, that way!... wait, no, it's definitely over there!" Weiss said, moving around, having been doing this for several minutes now.
"So… when are you gonna admit we're lost?" Ruby asked in honest curiosity.
"We aren't lost! Just… misguided." Weiss answered after a moment to find another word.
"Ok, even I know that's just a synonym for lost." Ruby shot back dryly.
"We aren't!" Weiss restated, before marching directly in a specific direction "The ruins are that way!"
Before she could take too many steps, Gyro landed right in front of her, feet first and crouched down, before rising up to his full height, actually scaring her a bit as the sun was right behind him and shadowed him well.
"Actually, the ruins are in the other direction," he said simply.
The white haired girl, currently pale as a sheet, nodded mechanically and slowly turned before walking in the opposite direction she had been heading.
Ruby looked at Weiss, before looking at Gyro with a raised eyebrow "Um… how did you get here from the sky?"
In response, Gyro grinned as he held up his swords, still in their fan like mode "By combining these with my semblance, I can basically fly." he spoke proudly.
What he didn't say was that the fan like mode had originally been intended as a sort of defensive mode, and only became a wing appendage once he discovered his semblance.
Ruby's eyes slowly widenned, and Gyro saw as her pupils slowly took on a star shape as she grinned widely "That's so cool!"
He chuckled in response to that "Thanks, though, we should probably catch up with Weiss before she gets too far."
Ruby blinked at his words, before nodding in agreement as she got up and started following after her white haired partner.
Gyro spared a moment to look behind him, seeing a large black feather falling down, making him grin before he followed after Ruby. Once they caught up to Weiss, the white haired girl had a thought.
"So...how far away are the ruins from here?" she asked.
"At our current pace...we'll be there in an hour or two, assuming we don't get jumped by Grimm," Gyro said simply.
"Of course…" Weiss sighed. She didn't have any issues with the long trek, but she HAD hoped they were closer than that. However, Ruby had heard her...and happened to see the shape of a large Nevermore flying overhead...and that got the gears turning in the young reaper's head.
"Hm...guys, I think I have an idea," she said with a clever smirk.
"You do? Well, lay it on us," Gyro shrugged, hiding a knowing grin. This was going to be interesting.
"THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA!" Weiss shouted as they hung on for dear life.
"NO WAY! THIS IS AWESOME! THIS IS WAY FASTER THAN WHEN I FLY ON MY OWN!" Gyro shot back just as loudly as he too held on tightly, though he had a large grin on his face.
"I KNEW ONE OF YOU WOULD LIKE IT!" Ruby shouted over the howling winds as the trio was holding onto a Nevermore that had been passing overhead, making liberal use of their semblances to reach its height and latch onto it.
"YOU TWO ARE INSANE!" Weiss accused.
"BUT IT'S WORKING, RIGHT? I CAN SEE THE RUINS ALREADY!" Gyro retorted. "WHAT NEXT RUBY?"
At that though, there was a sudden pause.
Gyro didn't even bother to look ahead, just sighing as he hung his head "She already jumped, just great." he said, before putting an arm around Weiss's waist and jumping off the Nevermore as well, though he added insult to injury by pointing his finger at it with a finger bang motion, and concentrated wind pressure slammed into it's back.
Weiss was practically screaming into his ear as she had her arms around his neck, making him roll his eyes as he shifted her to his back.
"Just relax, I have this covered." Gyro said as he went into a dive, using his semblance to push himself down faster, catching up next to Ruby, putting an arm around her shoulder as he once more used his semblance, this time to slow them down as much as he could without making it jarring and breaking their neck.
What surprised him though was a blur zooming past the air just below them after a certain point, seeing it crash into a tree right after.
'Huh, guess Jaune still got flung like a maniac.' he thought to himself, before slowing down their descent even further, thankfully Weiss had finally stopped screaming, so it wasn't murder on his ears.
With practiced ease, he touched down on the ground, Ruby doing so with a stumbled before getting scooped up into a hug by Yang, while Weiss fell down to the ground, hyperventilating.
"Well, that was a fun experience." Gyro said with a grin.
"You rode in on a Nevermore." Blake said dryly.
"You know it!" Gyro and Ruby said together, before high fiving each other.
Weiss however was glaring at them with murder in her eyes as she shakily got on her feet. She looked ready to begin verbally tearing into them, but before she could start…
A loud crash was heard as a tree was knocked over, someone being heard screaming while it happened, before everyone noticed that three figures were riding in on an Ursa, two of them holding on for their lives, and the third treating it like a joy ride.
Gyro stared dryly at the fact the two hanging on where Pierce and Ren, while the one who was laughing like a maniac was Nora.
Before the Ursa could get any further in its movements, a bullet tore through its skull, everyone turning to Blake in surprise as the now headless beast slumped down.
"What? It was an easy target?" the hidden faunus said with a shrug.
"...fair enough," the other shrugged.
"Aww, it's broken." Nora pouted as the grimm slowly disappeared under her.
"What the hell is her malfunction?" Pierce asked Ren haggardly.
"I haven't figured it out yet." Ren shot back as the two of them pulled themselves off the ground.
"Help." the two of them heard a voice beneath them rasp out, making them look down to see Jaune… though they both had their elbows in his face, squishing it up.
Immediately they got off of him and helped him up. "Whoops! Sorry Jaune," Pierce quickly said.
"It's...fine…" Jaune managed to say, albeit still looking a little dizzy.
"Well… that just happened." Yang said as she took in the scene.
Back to Ren, he sighed, turning to Nora, about to scold her, only to see nothing but a blinking outline of her, making him look around wildly as leaving her alone was never a good idea.
Fortunately, it seemed she was only looking at the Chess Pieces left around the ruins, particularly the Rook. As such, Gyro and Pierce, despite knowing it was coming, couldn't hold back the wry smiles as they heard her break into song as she balanced the Rook on her head.
Meanwhile, Weiss was looking around, making sure nothing would interrupt her this time, as she stood up, opening her mouth, about to verbally tear into the two adrenaline junkies she was partnered with-
And then a large and old Deathstalker ran into the clearing, chasing after Pyrrha.
Weiss's eyebrow twitched at the sight, while Gyro grabbed the remaining knight piece and tossed the remaining rook piece to Jaune, who fumbled for only a second this time before catching it and putting it in his pocket.
A beat passed, before several people had to back away from Weiss while the ground around her started freezing up.
'Huh, so apparently Yang isn't the only one who can do that.' Gyro thought with a sweatdrop as he looked at the white haired girl.
"Is everything QUITE finished adding more Grimm to our plate?" the white haired girl asked, her voice conveying the very image of tranquil fury.
Pierce WANTED to say yes, he really did. But one look upward told him otherwise. "Uh…." was all he could say, before pointing upward at the giant Nevermore now circling back for them.
Weiss's face was the definition of demonic as she pulled out Myrtenaster from her hip "We're eating chicken tonight!"
'Holy hell that's actually scary.' all the others thought in unison as they stepped away from her more. However, that was a sentiment the two large Grimm clearly didn't share as they continued to charge.
"Attack!" Ruby shouted, holding up Crescent Rose.
"Let's get to a bigger area so we have more space!" Gyro recommended as the ones that had means of attacking long range shot at the Grimm, not only to slow them down, but to keep the attention on them.
With the two Grimm coming after them, they quickly split up, Gyro running after Ruby, while Pierce went to assist Pyrrha who was still being chased by the Deathstalker. Shifting Pandora into its grappling hook function, he used it to first get himself up in a tree, and then fired it again, this time at the grimm, wrapping around one of its legs, he didn't waste any time at all, hitting a switch on Pandora, sending an electrical shock down the cable, and into the grimm, getting a screech of pain from it.
"Catch up with the others! I'll be right behind you!" Pierce shouted at the spartan, earning a nod from her as she ran towards the group that had been practically zig zagging around to keep the Nevermore occupied, quickly joining in on having its attention split between everyone.
At the same time, Gyro had used his wind Semblance to launch himself high in the air, and quickly used Ascalon to glide down so that he was grabbing onto the back of the Nevermore. "Thank you, Shadow of The Colossus," he couldn't help but chuckle as he began stabbing away at the Grimm's unprotected back, looking for any openings in the hard feathers. "We'll keep them busy!" He shouted to the others. "Get out of here and we'll catch up!" he said as he stabbed one of his swords into the right spot it seemed, as the Nevermore screeched and veered all over the place trying to get him off.
Ruby was about to argue, but Jaune was the first to stop her. "We have to go. They know what they're doing. Trust me, they'll be fine!" he said urgently. He didn't like leaving the brothers alone, but he also knew that they were tough, and this wouldn't be enough to stop them.
After a moment's hesitation, Ruby nodded, as the group of 8 ran on towards a ravine and a larger set of ruins.
It was minutes later, after they arrived, that so too did Pierce, the Deathstalker right on his tail "Keep going! Get to the bridge!" he shouted, the others doing so as they all ran towards the stone bridge over the ravine.
At the same time, Gyro was doing his best to try and steer the Nevermore somewhere else, but it seemed dead set on crashing through the ruins in the ravine "LOOK OUT!" he shouted at the top of his lungs towards those crossing it, which at the moment just so happened to be Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, the eventual members of JNPR stopping short when they heard him.
As soon as it crashed through the bridge, Gyro jumped off, gliding to land next to Ruby "I don't think he's going to leave us alone."
"Then let's take him!" she shot back with a determined nod.
"Doesn't seem like we have a choice," Blake nodded, standing by her side.
"Well then, let's make it regret messing with us," Yang grinned as she stood by their side.
"I think I may end up enjoying this more than I should." Weiss added with a slight smirk.
"Well then, looks like we're in agreement. Time to roast this bird," Gyro chuckled. "Just a warning though, those feathers are HARD."
"Then let's hit it with everything we got," Yang grinned, as the four girls started taking advantage of the ruins and soon got on to varying vantage points, all of which gave them clear shots of the Grimm. Thankfully Gyro could improvise something as well, making various points in the air around the grimm pop like small implosions. The Grimm screeched angrily, the various attacks, while not doing much damage, were VERY annoying, forcing it to veer off course, avoiding any of its attackers as it soon tried to circle around again.
It managed to get to the other side of the ruins, the group not getting around fast enough to stop it as it crashed through them and toppled them, making them seemingly fall down into the ravine, before they all used various ways to get back up, such as Ruby literally wall jumping off the various stones, Weiss using her glyphs, Gyro flying back up, Blake using her ribbon, and Yang shooting herself up with shotgun fire.
"We need a plan if we're going to take this thing down." Weiss said with an aggravated sigh as she landed next to Ruby and Gyro.
Ruby looked around, trying to think of something, before seeing Blake swinging herself up, an idea sparking in her mind "I think I got one, Gyro, come with me, Weiss, cover us." she said, earning nods from her partners who did as requested.
Down below, while the future team RWBY and Gyro were dealing with the Nevermore, the future team JNPR along with Pierce were busy dealing with the Deathstalker. Strictly speaking it wasn't the HARDEST enemy, in that it was really kinda slow relatively speaking. The problem was that its shell was proving to be annoyingly hard to deal with. Not to mention they were running somewhat short on terrain as it charged at them with all the intent of a tank.
"Okay, hitting it isn't working! We need a new plan!" Pierce said as once again the Deathstalker shrugged off another volley of bullets.
"I know, gimme a bit to try and think of something." Jaune told him as he tried to find any weak points in the armor.
"It would certainly help if it had trouble finding us." Ren said idly as he kept shooting at it just to annoy it.
Jaune snapped his fingers at that "That's it! Pierce! Pyrrha! Stab it's eyes! We gotta impair it's sight!"
"Will do!" Pyrrha said in agreement as she and Pierce ran in, Nora grabbing it's attention with a grenade to the face which also served to blind it for a moment.
Taking the chance, Pyrrha and Pierce stabbed it's larger eyes first, earning a screech from the creature before hurrying to stab the smaller ones managing to get most of them before it tried to snip them with it's pincers.
Pyrrha had her shield to protect herself, wedging it between the pincers, but Pierce seemed to be a prime target… at least that's what the Deathstalker thought before Jaune came in and uppercutted it's pincer with his shield, keeping it's momentum and actually clamping down on it's other arm.
Let's just say the result earned an even louder shriek, as the grimm actually cut off one of it's pincers.
They all stared at it for a moment, confused at the turnout, Jaune looking down at his fist "Huh… that was lucky."
"That was freaking awesome!" Nora hollered out with a grin.
"It's not dead yet though." Pyrrha cautioned as she retrieved her shield.
"We need to find a way to break through its shell." Ren said as they saw the grimm try to rear itself up to attack them again.
"Our weapons aren't working though," Jaune said.
"Then what about we use another weapon?" Pierce pointed out, before pointing at the flailing stinger tail. "I hear scorpions can die from their own venom. Think that applies to Grimm too?"
"It's definitely worth a shot." Jaune said, before turning to Ren "Think you can get its stinger lose?"
Ren nodded wordlessly before running at the grimm, jumping over it's now lone pincer and quickly scaling up the stinger and unloading a whole clip from Stormflower into the point that connected the tail and the stinger.
The grimm seemed to be getting extremely aggravated, as it trashed around before managing to buck Ren off, though Pierce had gotten behind just in case and caught him, cushioning the impact. Fortunately, even if he hadn't cut off the stinger, it was already getting loose. Something Jaune noticed, and quickly looked around till he spotted Pyrrha's shield.
"Pyrrha! Shield!" Jaune shouted as he pointed at the loose stinger.
Pyrrha followed his finger, before nodding in understanding "On it!" she said and flung her shield like a discus, striking the loosed point of the stinger and cutting through it, making it fall on top of the grimm and finally break through it's armor.
"Nora! Coup de grace!" Pierce shouted to the girl who gave a salute, before rocketing off the ground, and with a small summersault, came down with the full force of her hammer, slamming the stinger into the Grimm. If being impaled in the brain didn't kill it, then the poison should, evident by how the Grimm stumbled a bit forward...before falling off the cliff.
"Well...if being stabbed and poisoned doesn't kill it, that drop sure will," Pierce couldn't help but chuckle, as this was starting to feel like overkill. However, any celebrations were put on hold, as the nearby sound of gunfire signaled that the others weren't done dealing with the Nevermore.
"Come on, we'd better see if they need help!" Jaune said, as Nora used her hammer on the remains of the bridge...and catapulted them all to the other side.
What they saw… well, it seemed they had a plan at least.
Yang was making sure to get it's attention on her, by firing her concussive blasts from Ember Celica, the grimm zeroing in on her standing atop a pillar, opening its beak to try and gobble her up, but instead, Yang grinned as she jumped a bit, getting caught in the beak, but kept it open with one hand and her feet, gaining a wicked smirk as she reared her free hand back.
"I! Hope! You're! Hun! Gry!" she said, punctuating each syllable with a blast from her weapon down the Nevermore's throat.
"That's gotta sting," Gyro commented wryly as the giant bird veered off course, Yang jumping out of the beak before it crashed into a nearby cliff. On cue, he and Weiss dashed forward, Weiss going low, while he went high, using his wind semblance to fire a blast of compressed air, knocking the Grimm back down again, to which Weiss took the opportunity to freeze its tail and legs to the ground, stopping it from going anywhere. "Slingshot now!" Gyro shouted, to which Blake tossed Gambol Shroud while holding on to part of the ribbon, Yang catching the tossed part and stabbing it into the pillar she was next to, making the ribbon go taut. At the same time, Ruby and Weiss jumped towards the ribbon, while Gyro went up the cliff over the struggling Grimm.
Ruby landed with Crescent Rose under her feet right on the ribbon, while Weiss got behind her, creating a glyph, which together, turned the ribbon into a giant slingshot, with Ruby as the ammo. "Of course YOU would come up with this idea," Weiss commented once Ruby was in a ready to fire position, though there was a notable hint of amusement in her voice, as while this plan was crazy...it was likely to work.
"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked, ready to go.
"Can I?" Weiss smirked confidently, though Ruby was less than confident with that answer.
"CAN yo-?"
"Of course I can!" Weiss snapped a little, before Ruby readied Crescent Rose, and Weiss turned the glyph red, launching Ruby straight at the Nevermore. Her flight path was true, and she landed on the cliffside, while catching the Nevermore by the neck on Crescent Rose's blade, before running upwards on a path of glyphs Weiss created, shooting her weapon the whole way to keep up momentum and drag the new helpless Grimm up the cliff. At the same time Gyro jumped off the cliff, using his semblance to speed up his fall while Ruby ran up. When the two were about to pass, Gyro struck, and in a flash of blades, the Grimm was promptly decapitated, its head flying into the air, before falling into the abyss below, Gyro landing on the ground, while Ruby landed on the top of the cliff, the now headless body falling to the ground.
"Well… that was a thing." Yang said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead, as Ruby started to speed back down the cliff, Gyro having to use his semblance to keep her on the wall of the cliff by having a strong enough wind push against her.
"That, was, AMAZING!" Nora shouted as she ran towards them, the rest of the group not far behind.
"Honestly, not sure who made it more badass anymore, you guys or us." Pierce said with a wry grin.
"Well, we did a double decapitation and Yang shot down its throat, what do you have?" Gyro shot back as Ruby arrived back down and sped up next to everyone.
"We made it cut off one it's pincers and then impale itself with its own stinger." Jaune said, deciding to get in on the playful banter.
Gyro blinked a bit, before nodding "Yeah, that does make it hard to decide."
Before anything else could be said, all of them shivered as a suddenly powerful, and COLD, gust of wind blew past them… followed by the cold staying as it started to snow, getting progressively faster.
"A snowstorm? NOW of all times?!" Pyrrha said incredulously, considering it had been sunny mere moments ago.
"What is WITH the weather lately?!" Gyro couldn't help but ask.
"You tell us! Even Atlas' scientists can't seem to figure out how we're getting heat waves when we're practically on Remnant's north pole!" Weiss said, as while she was used to snow, the fact remained this was Vale.
"We need to get out of this storm! If we stay out dressed in summer clothes like this, we might get pneumonia!" Blake had to say a little louder as the wind got stronger.
"The ruins over there!" Jaune shouted as he pointed towards the entrance to the ruins embedded into the cliff wall.
The group of 10 quickly ran into the ruins, brushing off any snow that had gotten caught in their clothes once inside. While it wasn't particularly warm or anything, it was still a large improvement compared to standing outside.
"So...now what?" Ruby asked.
"Well, I think it would be best if we waited out the storm, if not for it to stop at least until it lessens a bit." Gyro said as he looked outside, pulling the stone door open a little.
"I guess we're in gonna be in here for a while then." Yang said with a sigh as she moved her hands through her hair to try and get it back in place.
"Well, good thing I have cards then." Pierce said as he pulled out a deck of cards, though Gyro chuckled as he recognized them.
"Seriously, the promo cards from Agarest War 2? You still have those?" He asked with a small laugh.
"Hey, Azure's the perv who bought that game from that thrift store, I just wanted the playing cards because they have character art on them." Pierce said as he showed some of the cards which had artwork of some of the playable characters on them.
"Wait, I've never heard of that game before, why does it make your brother a perv?" Yang asked in confusion as a few of them brought out their scrolls and turned on the flashlights in them while Pierce started dealing out cards.
"Lots of fanservice." Pierce and Gyro said together dryly. "Part of the plot is literally choosing a bride since you later play as your future son...and of course what game like this DOESN'T have the harem aspect to it?" Gyro explained.
Everyone gave them dry stares, and suddenly, they all thought a bit less about the elder Vermillion sibling. Whatever the case, they decided to start playing to pass the time.
It actually took a few hours to pass before they heard the storm started to slow down. Peeking out the doors to see it had reduced to a calm snowfall, with the Emerald Forest now looking more like the White Forest now. They all sighed in relief as they stepped outside, the crunch of snow sounded under their feet.
"You really have to wonder what's the cause of all this freak weather these last months, I mean, Vacuo has had so much rains it's gotten to flood levels." Gyro said as he stepped out from under the roof on the entrance altar.
"Mistral has even had to borron tips from Vacuo because of how severe some of the sandstorms would get when they came out of nowhere." Pyrrha added as she rubbed her bare shoulders to try and warm herself up.
"Well, we'd better get back to Beacon. The last thing we want is to be caught in a blizzard or something," Gyro sighed, to which they all nodded in agreement. However…
"Whoa…!" Ruby suddenly said, before pointing at the sky when they looked at her questioningly.
"That...shouldn't be possible…" Weiss blinked. There in the sky...was an aurora, but not any aurora any of them had ever seen. Rather than a curtain like shape, it was swirling, almost like some kind of rainbow colored hole.
"Tell that to the aurora we're seeing right now," Ren couldn't help but say, as all of them were VERY bewildered by what they were seeing, especially the brothers, as they KNEW this...NONE of this...happened in RWBY canon. This was a divergence, and that could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing.
"Wait… I think I see something in there." Jaune said as he squinted his eyes, trying to peer into the many lights of the aurora.
At that moment, 10 small lights became visible within the aurora… before flying out and heading straight towards the group of teens.
"Get to cover!" Gyro shouted urgently as everyone dived out of the way, the 10 meteors striking down into snow covering the small entrance area of the ruins.
When the snow/smokescreen cleared, they poked their heads out of the cover. "Is it over?" Jaune asked shakily.
"Well...seems like the heavens have stopped trying to smite us so...probably?" Pierce said, looking around for anymore rains of death.
"Though...aren't meteors supposed to be...bigger?" Blake suddenly pointed out, as true enough, the craters in the snow were...very small. Heck, whatever was in them could probably fit into the palm of their hands judging by the size.
"Whatever it was, I want it as a souvenir!" Nora said, grinning widely as she ran up to one of the holes.
"You know, that's actually a good idea." Yang agreed as she copied the hyperactive carrot head.
"Yang, no! What if it's some kind of alien parasite that wants to take over the world!" Ruby shouted as she ran after her sister.
"Sometimes you have to wonder who's the older of the two." Blake said with a sigh as she followed.
"Well...nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess…" Gyro sighed as he and Pierce walked over to the craters. Whatever this was, he had a feeling they'd want to know what it is one way or another.
They were joined by the others who had still been hiding, figuring they might as well figure out what was going on as well. However, when they got there, things only became stranger. As if sensing them coming close, beams of light shot out of the craters, going straight up, and within those beams, something small slowly rose up, till they were at eye level of each of the gathered huntsmen in training. All of them looked stunned for a moment...except Nora who grinned and clapped whatever it was with both her hands. "Got it! Got it!" she said in a sing song tone, before opening her hands. "Ooooh, what's this?"
Everyone looked between each other, before following her example and grabbing whatever the objects were, looking into their hands to reveal…
"Are these… pagers?" Gyro said in confusion.
"What's a pager?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"Something older than all of us Rubes." Yang told her as she looked at the strange object with a raised eyebrow. "Still...since when do pagers fall from the sky? Heck, how'd they survive the trip?"
"Something I think we can find out after we're all back in Beacon," Weiss sighed. "We've wasted enough time as is."
"She's right, let's head back." Pyrrha said in agreement with the heiress, earning a grateful nod from her.
"Yeah, let's...go?" Gyro was about to nod...but the 'pagers' suddenly started glowing with a bright white light.
"Uh...guys? Something's happening to the aurora," Pierce suddenly said, as a light was shining from the aurora too...and then something that made them all wonder if this was all just a crazy dream happened. The sound of rushing water was heard...and a giant tidal wave appeared...from the abyss where the Deathstalker had fallen...which should have been dry land.
"What… the… FUCK?!" Jaune, surprisingly, was the one to swear rather loudly.
"Language!" Ruby found the time to shout, before things got even weirder, as the tidal wave seemed to open in the middle, yet instead of them seeing the forest behind it, it was like it went on into infinity… and then it rushed at them.
They didn't have time to react as the wave swallowed them all up, but instead of drowning, all they felt was like they were falling endlessly between the opening of the wave, shouting helplessly.
A moment passed, and the water receded, and not a single trace remained of the young hunters in training.
Yeahp, this time around the fights went a bit differently, and Gyro and Pierce did stuff that fits these versions of them better.
Also, yeah, Gyro can fly, trust me, this is because he has focused on the 'muscles' of his semblance a lot, if we want to give him a class so you get an idea of what his best points are stat wise, he's a Rogue.
And Pierce would be more akin to a Mimic considering how he's a jack of all trades.
Oh? You want to know just HOW many forms Pandora has?
Sorry, but my lips are sealed.
But for now...
The Adventure Evolves.
