*Happy, up-tuned, jingly version of Justice League theme*
Hunters of Justice Chibi!
Planetary Options by Jesse K
Ruby was reading some comic books, which rather than being predominantly about superheroes like back on Remnant, seemed to mostly feature things like pirates and fantasy worlds, or even pirates in fantasy worlds. After seeing Boofy beat down the evil pirate and/or world government agent of the week, she set her comic aside and looked at her friends deservingly lounging about.
"Guys, I got to thinking…about if we ended up on another planet instead of Earth. What would it have been like?"
"What do you mean, Rubes?" Yang asked as she looked up from her video game.
"Like, what if we ended up on, uh, what was Starfire's planet?"
"Tamaran?" Blake recalled from her memory.
"Yeah. What if the boomtube took us there?"
"Well, going by Kori's description…"
Teams RWBY and JNPR fell onto the planet surface, each bruised and battered. Several orange-gold people flew in and one began to poke at an unconscious Jaune, who twitched with each probe.
"These are odd little things. Should we get rid of them?" some guy asked.
"No, let's keep them around. They look like fun."
"Look we can't understand a word you're saying," Ruby tried to explain to the aliens… Or were they the aliens in this situation?
"Okay," Yang called attention to herself while holding her hand up and gesturing to her mouth. "You need to do more than-" A woman suddenly planted one right on her, surprising the girl and causing Ruby to gasp, Blake to blush, and everyone else to stare slack-jawed. The woman wore a smug grin as she separated from the blushing-like-mad blonde and hummed before speaking.
"Now we should be able to speak more clearly to each other. Hello, and welcome to Tamaran!"
"Aren't they supposed to be a warrior race?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, but I have no idea who they're fighting," Yang admitted. "Unless it's each other. Ooh, maybe they'd have tournaments and stuff!"
"Why were you the one to get kissed by the Tamaranean?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because it was my imagination." Nora then zipped over to her.
"So you were fantasizing about-"
"Lalala, what about another planet?" Ruby interrupted, not wanting to hear about her sister's fantasies of making out with people, supposed or otherwise.
"I heard Thanagar's cool," Blake pointed out. "Even if their current standing with Earth is…less than stellar."
"Didn't they try to destroy Earth because it was in the way of a big shield?" Jaune asked, kinda-sorta but not really remembering the paragraph or two about that situation.
"What was with that, anyways?" Weiss asked no one in particular. "They couldn't have just made the shield slightly bigger or slightly smaller?"
"None of us are exactly experts on alien technology," Blake pointed out. "But I can't help but wonder what their planet would be like…"
"From what Shayera told us," Ren stated while sipping on a cup of tea, "the Thanagarians would either conscript us into their military or shuffle us off into the Downside slums on the surface, most likely the latter."
The teens fell through and onto the surface of Thanagar, only to be quickly surrounded by flying people with electrified maces.
"Intruders?" one asked.
"Or filthy refugees. Let's take them in and let the council decide what to do with them.
An imaginary amount of time later…
"After having physically examined you all, it has been decided that you will serve in the Thanagarian army, or be confined to a factory in the Downside. Make your choice."
"Well…we're already fighters," Ruby reasoned. "Can't be that bad."
More imaginary time later…
The eight were practically bawling at the sight of the burning and crumbling alien city nearby, but then they came across one of the tiny, wide-eyed, bunny-like locals being overtaken by the Thanagarian army, holding nothing more than a rickety shield and a stick for weapons.
"Pl-pl-please don't hurt me or my family!" he begged.
"Hey, slave soldiers!" a Thanagarian commander yelled at them. "Hurry up and beat that Smeerp into submission and move on! We've got a dozen more cities to conquer!"
Nora sniffed and readied her Nth metal hammer replacement, wincing as she stood before the hopeless Smeerp. "I'm…so…sorry," she whispered.
The others all paused at Ren's statement, then shook their heads in relief at having missed such a fate.
"Moving on, you know what would be really weird?" Ruby jumped back in while bringing up a picture.
"Isn't that the Green Lantern symbol?" Ren asked. "Is it Oa?"
"Nope, it's Mogo. They're a living, sentient planet and a Green Lantern!"
"How does that even work?" Weiss asked in confusion.
"I'unno," her leader responded with a shrug. "But imagine if we ended up on them."
RWBY and JNPR fell out of a boomtube onto the planet's surface, but a green construct formed beneath them, letting them slide gently down rather than have a crash landing. Green constructs continued forming around them, moving them around and bandaging their wounds before setting them on top of comfortable, bed-shaped leaf piles. When they woke up, they noticed how they seemed to be in the middle of wilderness, yet the atmosphere felt absolutely perfect.
"Did we die?" Jaune asked worriedly while checking his body. Everyone else checked themselves as well, finding that they still felt some pain from their injuries.
"Do not be alarmed!"
Immediately, half the Remnantians screamed, Jaune's voice being both the loudest and the highest.
"That was the opposite of what I asked."
"Who are you?! Where are you?! Where are we?!"
After calming the eight teens with some orange slices and soothing nature sounds, the voice explained that they were Mogo, a planet, and a Green Lantern. They then explained what Green Lanterns were and that they had already called a few of them to look into Remnant and come help the teams out. Until then, they were welcome to stay on their surface.
"Thanks for all the help, Mogo," Ruby said to the planet once they were all settled.
A mountain a distance away made a smiley face.
"Is that how it works?" Weiss wondered.
"Don't call them an it," Ruby objected. "Mogo's a person too, even if they're a planet."
"A planet that can change to suit the needs of whoever or whatever is living on its surface?" Blake asked.
"That's what I read, yeah. Sounds awesome, right?"
"So Mogo could make an awesome beach right next to a peaceful jungle just south of a temperate, perfect weather area?" Yang smiled at the thought. "Sounds like paradise."
"Isn't there a paradise world where a bunch of gods live?" Nora then asked.
"New Genesis," Pyrrha answered.
RWBY and JNPR almost splatting, but then several New Gods pop up and begin treating them.
"Eh, sounds boring," Nora interrupted the scenario.
"Hey!" Ruby objected before puffing her cheeks. "I wanted to see what Pyrrha would have imagined."
"Sorry," Nora apologized before shrugging with her hands held up, "but as far as we know, it's literally too peaceful for anything interesting to happen."
"I'm pretty certain that isn't actually the case," Pyrrha quietly objected while Jaune patted her shoulder. Ruby, meanwhile, shook her head and pointed at Nora.
"But at least there aren't bad guys causing grief and misery and killing dozens to hundreds of people," the youngest pointed out.
"…Yeah, that's fair."
"At least we didn't end up on its counterpart, Apokolips," Pyrrha then pointed out.
Everyone shivered at that, but then Ruby went wide-eyed when she saw the scene transition coming up. "No no no no-"
RWBYJNPR fell, several lowlies cowered away or ran to avoid whatever kind of pain this would bring (since that's all that ever happened to them) and then some parademons came up and started screeching at each other.
"(Can we eat them?)"
"(Nah, someone higher up the ladder might want them around. We should at least see what the Furies want.)"
"(We could just take 'em to Granny?)"
"(Yeah, that'll work.)"
The eight woke up in the care of Granny Goodness, whose very presence was disturbing them, on top of the moans of torment and screams of pain and/or frustration coming from seemingly every direction.
"Hello, children!" she began, cupping her hands together. "Oh, you poor things must have had quite the experience before landing on our world."
"What the- Who are you?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"Just call me Granny, dearie."
"Where are we? And what are you going to do with us?" Yang demanded before a shrill scream echoed out. "And what was that?"
"Oh, that was just one of the little ones at practice. Don't mind them. As for where you are, you're in my orphanage. And what I'm going to do… Well, I am known for training great warriors… But first, would anyone like a cookie?"
A platter of fresh-baked cookies was served before them by a green-haired woman with a crazed, twitchy look. The trainee Huntsmen approached it, and Nora picked one up with a scoff. "Oatmeal raisin?" she echoed most of the team's sentiments.
"Oh come on guys!" Ruby decried, picking one up. "Oatmeal raisin cookies are still great. Not the best kind in the world, but compared to no cookies at all…" She stuffed one into her mouth and began chewing before her eyes went wide and she started coughing. "What is this?!"
"Oh, but I do want you children to be healthy," Granny said with a wicked grin, "so I made the cookies sugar-free!"
"Noooooooo!" Ruby cried out as she collapsed to the ground and Granny Goodness cackled evilly.
"The horror...the horror..." Ruby whimpered while lying on the ground in the fetal position, Yang comfortingly patting the young cookie lover's head.
[~][~]
Meditation by Trestwho
In the dark silence of her room, Raven Roth sat cross-legged on top of her bed. Her eyes were closed, and her arms were stretched to the side and slightly curved upwards as she began to meditate.
"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…" she chanted, slowly beginning to levitate off the ground. The outside world began to drift away into a sea of nothingness, and Raven sighed contently.
"Yo, BB!" Nora suddenly shouted from the kitchen, knocking Raven out of her meditative trance and causing her to flop back down on her bed. As the half-demon grumpily stared at her door, she could hear Nora continue. "I made breakfast!"
"Sweet! I'll be down there in a bit!" Garfield shouted back from his room. Raven could hear his door being opened and his feet hitting the ground as he walked towards the kitchen, and when they finally became fully muffled the girl shook her head and began to mediate once more.
"Azarath…Metrion…Zin—" she said as her body once again began to levitate, but Garfield's sudden shouting caused her to fall back down.
"What are those?!" Garfield accused, his voice slightly angry at whatever Nora had cooked up.
"Pancakes, silly!"
"I thought you were going to make waffles!"
"Yeah, well, pancakes are infinitely better, so I went with those!"
As the two continued to argue over whether pancakes were superior to waffles – they weren't, in Raven's humble opinion – Raven attempted to go back in her meditative state. She was admittedly finding it harder to do so, but eventually Raven was able to drown out their voices somewhat.
"Azarath…Met—"
Just then, Raven was interrupted yet again by the sound of clicking heels, signaling Weiss' entrance into the kitchen.
"Yang Xiao Long! What did I tell you about using my stuff?" Weiss asked, her shrill voice hurting Raven's ears.
"Oh, come on, Elsa!" Yang replied in a joking tone. "I couldn't find mine, and yours was right there."
"Okay, one. My hairbrush is not a community item. Two, stop calling me Elsa!"
"I thought you liked that movie and the message it told?"
"That's beside the point!"
Raven gritted her teeth and strained to block out the noise, her brow noticeably twitching in annoyance. After a few moments, with the sounds of pointless arguing still going on in the background, Raven began to mediate once more.
"Azara—"
Just then, the voice of Jaune cut through everyone else's, "Hey, have any of you seen my-?"
The remainder of Jaune's statement was cut short as a now visibly angered Raven teleported into the main room. Her skin was blood-red, and four red eyes stared at everyone with enough hatred that everyone felt the temperature in the room rise a few degrees.
"WILL YOU BE QUIET!?" Raven roared, her voice echoing with demonic energy. "I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR USELESS PRATTLING! I AM TRYING TO RELAX, BUT I CAN'T DO THAT WITH YOU IDIOTS RUNNING YOUR MOUTHS ABOUT YOUR INSIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS!"
For a moment, everyone stared at the seething half-demon, unsure of what to say that wouldn't make her angrier. Raven, meanwhile, continued to breathe deeply while staring deep into everyone's souls. The Titans, Huntsmen, and Huntresses stared right back, before finally Ruby quietly coughed.
"…okay…" she whispered, and at once Raven turned back into her normal grey hue.
"Thank you," she said. Raven then turned back around and walked back into her room, closing the door behind her. The others all stared at the door for a long while, still trying to process exactly what had occurred, when Nora looked over everyone.
"Geez, what's her problem?"
[~][~]
Onomato-POW-a! by Trestwho
"Stop right there, thief!" Yang yelled as she and the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR chased after a hapless thief through a dark alleyway.
"You'll never catch me!" the thief replied as he continued to run.
"You better hope so! 'Cuz if I do, I'm gonna hit you so hard that words will fly out!"
The others paused at Yang's threat, slowing down and allowing her to press forward without them. They watched with raised eyebrows and confused expressions before turning to face each other.
"… 'Words will fly out'?" Ruby finally asked. "What does that even mean?"
The others thought for a moment before shrugging, chalking Yang's statement up to simple nonsense before racing back after her. As they neared, they began to hear sounds of fighting, telling them that Yang had caught up to the hapless thief and had begun to beat him down.
"Hey, save some for-!" Nora yelled out as they rounded a corner, just as Yang threw a haymaker into the thief's jaw.
POW!
As Yang's fist connected, the others stared slack-jawed as an ethereal 'pow!' was spelled out in mid-air, surrounded by a spiked circle. For a moment, both fighters looked as though they paused mid-punch, almost in emphasis, before flowing back into motion. The man flew back into a steel dumpster, groaning before falling into unconsciousness. Yang smirked and cracked her knuckles, not noticing the small words popping out of her hands, before turning to face her stunned teammates.
"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" she asked. Ruby tried to speak, unable to form the words. The others were in a similar state, and Yang looked upon them in confusion before her eyes widened in realization.
"Oh, you guys saw the words fly out, didn't you?" At her statement, the others silently nodded, still in shock, and Yang chuckled. "Yeah, I acted the exact same way when I first saw them. I remember it like it was just yesterday…"
Yesterday
"Come on, Nightwing! Hit me!" Yang gestured towards herself as Nightwing pumped his fists. The two were in the Titans' training room, and they'd been going at it for quite some time.
"Alright, here it goes!" Nightwing declared as he reared his fist back as far as he could and socked Yang across the jaw.
WHAM!
As soon as his fist connected with Yang's face, the word 'WHAM!' erupted out over the two fighters. The world paused for a moment as if in emphasis, and before Yang could even comprehend what had just occurred she was lying on her back, staring up as the words slowly dissipated.
"Come on, Yang. Don't leave me hanging!" Nightwing stated as he jumped from foot to foot. Yang, meanwhile, continued to lay on her back in stunned silence before throwing up her arms.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
"Yeah, as it turns out, if you make enough noise here the words just come out of nowhere. It's pretty neat, actually."
"Huh," Ruby said as she tested out their latest discovery. She was hitting a dumpster with Crescent Rose, watching in amazement as tiny 'bang!' words appeared with each impact. She giggled at the sight. Around her, the rest of her friends – except for an unamused Weiss currently attending to the tied-up thief – were also testing the phenomenon, and all of them were amazed.
"So," the thief began as he glanced between the teenagers, "can I go now, or…?"
"No." Weiss interrupted.
"Ah, man."
Weiss rolled her eyes and rested her hand on her hip. "Guys, can we hurry this up?"
None of her friends acknowledged her, content to mess around with more sound effects. Weiss ground her teeth, ignoring the spiky lines ejecting from the sound, and stomped her foot against the ground.
"Guys!"
Again, her friends either ignored or didn't hear what she said. A vein visibly throbbed on her forehead, and Weiss leaned back before thrusting herself forward.
"GUYS, WILL YOU SERIOUSLY STOP MESSING AROUND?!" Weiss yelled at the top of her lungs. At once, the others stopped and winced at her shrill voice, and once it was over they rubbed the inside of the ears and glared at Weiss.
"Geez, you don't need to yell," Ruby noted, but Weiss scoffed and shook her head.
"Yes, I did. None of you were listening, and unlike you I'd like to get home."
"Still didn't have to yell. We would have stopped soon."
"Besides," Nora cut in, "we could have just read your speech bubble."
"Yeah, we could have—" Ruby stopped herself before turning abruptly to stare at Nora. The excitable woman was looking at everyone with a blissful smile on her face, and Ruby couldn't help but scratch her head.
"Um, read her wha?" Jaune finally asked, and Nora giggled while pointing above Weiss' head.
"That, silly!" Everyone followed Nora's hand to see a bubble ejecting from Weiss' head. Inside were the words she had just spoken, and they could only watch as the word bubble slowly dissipated.
'…I swear, this place just gets weirder by the day,' Blake thought.
"Eh, it's not so bad," Nora responded, causing Blake's eyes to widen. Almost as if answering the Faunus' unspoken question, Nora pointed above Blake's head where a box containing Blake's thoughts hovered. Everyone stared at it for a moment.
"…Huh. Neat," Yang finally said before shrugging. She then walked over and hefted the bound criminal atop her shoulder and smiled. "Well, let's get a move on. This guy won't turn himself in."
"You don't know that. Maybe I will."
"Sure, you will, buddy. Sure, you will."
With that, Yang began to walk off with a jaunty tune, the others standing still as they were unsure how to proceed. After a moment, Ruby shrugged and folded her weapon behind her.
"Come on, guys! No sense freaking out over it now!" Ruby announced as she followed her sister. One by one, the others followed her example and left, until only Weiss remained.
"…I swear, she's like a child sometimes in how innocent she is," Weiss whispered under her breath.
"I read that!" Ruby shouted back, and Weiss sighed.
'Is this how it's going to be from now on?'
To Be Continued…
"Wait, what? Who said that?!"
[~][~]
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another installment of Hunters of Justice Chibi. Now, before I get into the Q&A, I'm going to have to say that I will not be answering any questions that are spoilers related. Know that if I'm not responding to your review, that is the reason why. I am not ignoring anyone.
Q&A
captaindickscratcher: Ultimately, I used 'by jove' and a yellow submarine because those were two of the most stereotypically British things I could think of without pushing it too far. Given who Mad Mod's character was, we figured we hit the right note. Speaking of Mad Mod, you'll notice that he only had a minor role this chapter. At one point during planning, this chapter was actually going to be about him. But, we ended up deciding that the point of the chapter, that of a massive crime wave hitting Jump City, would be better served by having everyone deal with a variety of crimes across town. His appearance was a nod to our original plans, as we figured we could still make him work.
Guest: Yeah, that was another point of the chapter. There's more to being a hero than just punching criminals. It's also saving people, whether it be from fires or enraged men/women holding a gun to their heads. It's multifaceted, and we wanted to showcase that.
PurpleKetloom: There certainly is, but ultimately that angst for RWBY/JNPR isn't the point of the story. The point of the story is about RWBY/JNPR interacting with the DC Universe while continuing to move forward in regards to their collective traumas. Ultimately, while the start of the story did go a lot worse overall than Vol 3 (see losing just Beacon to losing all of Remnant), much of the traumatic events that did heavily affect RWBYJNPR in Volumes 4+ did not occur. Pyrrha didn't kill Penny in front of Ruby, in fact our favorite gynoid fought alongside them in Vale against Brainiac's forces before being forced to withdraw for her own safety. Yang didn't lose her arm to Adam, and Blake didn't subsequently run away out of a desire to protect her from his wrath. Jaune wasn't kissed by Pyrrha before being shoved into a locker and she then died about fifteen minutes later. Weiss wasn't forced to return to Atlas, separating her from her team/friends/true family. They still have each other, and thanks to that (and extensive help from the superhero community), they've been able to recover in a brisk but natural way. What happened to RWBY/JNPR will still heavily affect them moving forward. If I didn't have that happen, then I'd be ashamed of my skills as a writer. It'll change them going forward, and they do have PTSD, but luckily for them they have both each other and the League.
Hey It's That Guy: While I will be talking about the problems currently facing the world, I won't be getting too political. I'll only touch upon sensitive topics if I feel as though it fits the scene or the chapter. Like, for instance, the Holocaust. RWBYJNPR do know about it, and they of course would be horrified. As they should. But, when Weiss groaned at the idea of Nazi villains, she was more groaning at the fact that they always appeared as standard movie or video game villains. I thought about inserting a comment about her thoughts on what they did, but we felt that doing so wasn't really needed in the chapter. You can presume that they reacted in abject horror and disgust when they learned about it. That's just one example, mind you, but the philosophy of only touching upon real-world issues if the chapter allows it still stands.
mastergamer14: They would die.
Jackalope89: Yeah, Gotham has a crime wave every day, doesn't it? In other news, water is wet. But yes, they did get out of Gotham at a good time. As for your second part, see my disclaimer at the start of the Q&A. But, rest assured that what's happening will be to your enjoyment
That's it for today. I hope you guys enjoy!