Hunters of Justice

by trestwho

Remnant has fallen, its cities captured and its greatest defenders defeated at the hands of the alien conqueror, Brainiac. In the aftermath of his victory, the people of Remnant's last hope lies in the hands of two teams of students, whisked away to another world. A world where Gods walk among them.

64. Hand in Hand

Hunters of Justice (RWBY/DC)

Chapter 47: Hand in Hand

December 18th, 10:15 AM (Eastern Standard Time)

Metropolis, New York, United States of America

It had been over a week since teams RWBY and JNPR last went out onto the field as superheroes. Despite Jaune's newly awakened Semblance healing them of their wounds in short order, neither the League nor themselves felt they were ready to go back out just yet. Their battle against Black Adam had been an intense affair, reminiscent of their struggle against Trigon the Terrible and their failure to stop Brainiac from destroying Remnant. While it could technically be considered a victory on their part, as they got Black Adam to leave Fawcett City without killing any of them, the truth of the matter was that they lost the physical fight. Had Black Adam not had that ounce of honor and dignity, alongside his genuine love and care for his people, he would've killed them easily. It was a sobering thought, one that consumed Ruby and the others every day since.

But now Ruby couldn't let herself dwell on such matters. Instead, she had other concerns that required her direct attention.

"Cookies are almost done!" Ruby announced as she put on a pair of red oven mitts. Standing in front of their kitchen's oven, she stared through the glass to watch as the two dozen gingerbread cookies she had spent all morning making from scratch rose up from the heat. Already her mouth was salivating at the thought of eating them, but she had to remind herself that she had to wait.

"Perfect!" Yang replied as she carried objects in and out of the living room. "Once those are done, mind helping us with the tree, Rubes?"

"Sure!" Ruby said with a smile on her face, briefly turning around to look at her sister and the rest of her team.

As they had come to learn, it was the holiday season on Earth. Particularly Christmas in their new home in the United States. Ruby couldn't pretend to know the exact specifics of the holiday, only that it had originally started as a purely religious affair, according to Blake, before it was taken over by commercial, secular concerns and turned into a holiday that celebrated excess and consumerism. While her tone of voice suggested that Blake didn't feel too highly of the concept, Ruby thought that sounded awesome, particularly the bit about giving presents to friends, family, and loved ones. Not to mention the tradition of laying out cookies for an all-powerful being named Santa Claus. Weiss had tried to tell Ruby that Santa didn't exist, but Ruby had promptly pointed out that with all the other weird stuff on Earth, from actual gods and demons to aliens and interdimensional beings, a jolly fat man wearing a red coat going around to deliver presents all around the world in a single night wasn't that far-fetched. Her partner had acquiesced to that point.

RWBY and JNPR themselves weren't strictly celebrating Christmas, although they were coopting some of its traditions and decorations. Instead, they were celebrating Winter Holiday, a similar celebration to Christmas back home on Remnant. Their thought process was that, since they took place around the same time and had similar themes on spending time with friends and family, it made sense to take some elements from their new home. Especially since they were planning on having company over, who should be arriving within the hour.

"Move it to the left," Weiss called out from the second-floor balcony, directing Jaune and Nora who were holding up an evergreen tree. While others used an artificial tree, Yang had insisted on going out and finding an actual tree for their use. The one she found was huge, surrounded with an impressive cone of needles with a thick trunk that stretched nearly all the way up to the ceiling. There was enough space in their multi-floor apartment for them to put an ornament on top, but they had to finish setting it first.

"This good?" Jaune asked as he and Nora did as Weiss instructed. The Ivory Mage hummed and tapped her cheek for a moment, then shook her head and waved her hand slightly.

"A little bit to the right," Weiss instructed. Nora and Jaune promptly obeyed before looking back up at Weiss, who again inspected the placement of the tree before shaking her head.

"A bit more to the left, actually," Weiss directed, causing Nora to groan.

"Oh, come on!" Nora complained with a groan, giving Weiss a slight glare. "We've been doing this all morning. 'A little bit to the right, now the left. Oh, actually that first spot looked better, but now I think it should go all the way over here.' When does it end, Weiss?!"

"It ends when it looks perfect," Weiss replied while crossing her arms and lightly glaring at Nora. "Which is a little to the left."

Nora stared blankly at Weiss for a few moments, refusing to move from her spot. Then, with an audible groan, she let herself and Jaune move to adjust the tree as Weiss ordered. As they did, she muttered under her breath, "Geez, she is bossy."

"She just wants it to look good, Nora. Give her a break," Jaune whispered back, causing Nora to roll her eyes.

"Could be quicker about it," Nora replied, then went back to completing her task.

Around them, the rest of RWBY and JNPR were busy setting up the rest of the holiday decorations. Ren was hanging wreaths and garlands along the walls and doors, with Pyrrha and Blake placing decorative red and green lights along the railings. Yang was busying herself by placing winter and Christmas-themed pillows, blankets, and more around the apartment, along with placing smaller plants onto tables and cabinets. While their home wasn't completely finished yet, Ruby had to admit that it was coming along nicely. The only major thing they had left to do was decorate the tree, and once Weiss was satisfied they all could get started on doing that.

When the oven beeped, Ruby jumped slightly in excitement before carefully pulling the cookies out. As she expected, the warm smell of gingerbread and cinnamon filled the room, and she took in a deep breath before sighing contently. Placing the tray onto the granite-top island in the kitchen, Ruby waited for them to cool as she grabbed a ceramic jar shaped like Santa Claus to place them in. Behind her, she idly heard Weiss finally deign to give her approval on the placement of the tree, which prompted both Nora and Jaune to groan in relief as they carefully set it down. Having already pulled out a box of ornaments, Jaune, Weiss, Nora and Yang began to place them on the tree. Ruby prepared to go over and join them, as the cookies were too hot to apply any icing just yet, when they heard a chime as the elevator arrived at their high-rise apartment.

"Ooh, they're here!" Ruby exclaimed as she rushed over in a burst of rose petals. As the rest of RWBY and JNPR stopped what they were doing, Ruby stood in front of the elevator doors as they opened, revealing Beast Boy, Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Raven, Cyborg, Miss Martian, and Starfire wearing their civilian disguises and holding presents in their hands.

"Hey, guys!" Ruby greeted their guests, turning her body to the side while extending out her arm. "Come on in, we're just finishing up the decorating."

"Thank you so, so much for inviting us!" Koriand'r happily replied as she and the others entered the apartment. She then wrapped Ruby in a tight hug before exclaiming, "Oh, this week is going to be all the fun!"

"I should hope not," Raven dryly replied, her hood down while Kori released a slightly dazed Ruby. "All I'm hoping for is a nice, relaxing week with friends."

"Lighten up, Rae. It's Christmas!" Garfield said as he happily hung his arm over his girlfriend's shoulders. He then looked at Ruby and added, "Or Winter Holiday, right?"

"Eh, we're kinda celebrating both, so either or," Ruby clarified after taking a moment to collect herself, and Garfield nodded.

"I can understand that," he admitted, then gave Ruby a quick hug as well. "It's good to see you guys again."

Ruby hugged him back and said, "Good to see you guys, too."

Breaking away from her friend, she smiled brightly at the others before leading the way down the hallway towards the living room. There, the Titans were greeted by the rest of RWBYJNPR, who hugged and welcomed their friends as well.

"Geez, those are some nasty scars, Nora," Victor said as he looked over the exposed electrical scars on Nora's shoulders. "They look badass."

"They do, don't they?" Nora replied, flexing her arms a bit to show them off.

Victor nodded positively, then noticed from the corner of his eye that Ren was looking at them with a noticeable frown on his face. It lasted for only a moment before he went back to reacquainting with Raven and M'gann, but it was clear that they noticed it as well. Figuring that now wasn't the time to bring that up, Victor returned to his conversation with Nora.

"Yeah, things have been pretty quiet since Brother Blood was taken down. Mostly petty crime with a few minor Grimm attacks here and there," Dick confirmed, sitting on the couch opposite Yang and Weiss. "They finished demolishing what was left of Blood's church, by the way."

"Good," Weiss declared with a frown on her face. "Anything associated with that man is evil and should be wiped off the face of the Earth. Especially after what he and his 'god' tried to do."

"I'll say," Yang earnestly agreed with a firm nod. "Granted, they didn't have to do much, after you guys were done with it, but I'm glad it's finally all gone. Shame I couldn't put a few punches in myself when that happened."

"Any news on what they're going to put in its place?" Weiss asked, and Dick nodded.

"Jump City's still taking offers and suggestions," Dick revealed, leaning back into the sofa. "Right now, the frontrunners are a multi-denominational religious building, one that would serve as a church, temple, mosque, everything, or a Wayne Foundation homeless shelter."

"Hmm, both of those are tempting. On the one hand, replacing the center of that bastard's doomsday cult with an actual place to worship seems like the ultimate rejection of everything he stood for," Yang pointed out. "On the other, a homeless shelter would be good for a lot of people in need. I may not necessarily agree or like your father a whole lot right now, but I admit his foundation helps a lot of people."

"I know what you mean," Dick said, nodding sympathetically towards Yang.

"We've had to fight some Grimm, but nothing major like you guys handled in Fawcett City," Garfield replied as he and Kori talked to Jaune and Ruby. "Mostly stragglers from what Brother Blood smuggled in. God, those things are just…wrong in so many ways."

"Because they're creatures of pure hate and destruction, or because they're a mockery of everything that's actually alive?" Jaune asked, and Garfield nodded.

"Both," he answered, and the two Remnantians nodded in agreement.

"Oh, speaking of. Ruby, have you been able to practice using your silver eyes more?" Kori asked, but Ruby shook her head.

"Not really," Ruby answered with a soft sigh. "I thought that after our training in the House of Mystery it would be easier for me, but it's hard to find the right trigger. A 'desire to protect life' is pretty vague, as it turns out. Couldn't even get it to work when the Grimm attacked the Rock of Eternity. Not that I had time to try…"

"I'm sure you'll get it down," Garfield declared with a smile on his face. "Once you do, the Grimm won't stand a chance."

"Just don't get too dependent on it," Kori advised. "As Dick says, it's best to save the trump cards for when you most need them. If you use them too much, the rest of your skills will suffer. That's why I still walk whenever I can instead of just flying everywhere."

"Yeah, I understand that. And that would break your disguise, anyway," Ruby replied, then shrugged. "I'll get there, though. One of these days, I'll be shooting out awesome eye-lasers all the time, just like you, Kori."

"Thank you. Shooting the eye lasers is, indeed, the awesome," Kori said with a smile on her face.

"So, Pyrrha," Donna began as she stood in the hallway next to Pyrrha, Raven, Ren, and M'gann, "how's the training been? Anything new pop up, besides the obvious?"

"Not really, although I've been helping Jaune with mastering his Semblance for the past few days," Pyrrha revealed. "It's most of what we've been training on, actually. He named it Aura Amp."

"Aura Amp…from the sounds of it, his Semblance is extremely useful, even if he can only use it on you guys right now," Raven noted, and Pyrrha nodded with a proud smile.

"Oh, it is," she confirmed. "When he's using his Semblance on me while I'm using my Semblance, I can manipulate so much more without even breaking a sweat. It's like…my tank is not only overcharged, but also constantly refilling to where it's like I'm not even using any of my Aura at all."

"That does sound useful. I'm glad he was finally able to discover it," M'gann said with a smile on her face. "He always kept talking about how he felt inadequate compared to you guys since he didn't have his yet, so this must be a tremendous boost to his confidence."

"I'm glad, too," Ren quietly noted. "If he hadn't, Nora would've…"

Ren couldn't finish the sentence, but he didn't have to. The girls around him understood all the same, and their moods shifted as they somberly looked at their friend. While the others had mostly recovered from their bout against Black Adam, including Nora who had returned to her normal bubbly self, Ren had taken it the hardest. It was clear to everyone that the near death of his best friend, partner, and girlfriend weighed heavily upon him. Ever since he had thrown himself more and more into his training, barely stopping to rest and even ignoring Nora's attempts to get him to take a break. Today was the first day that he hadn't been training, but part of Pyrrha wondered if that was just because they had guests arriving and he wanted to be polite. Either that or he did it before any of them woke up. Ren did look rather tired, with small bags under his eyes.

M'gann mentally marked Ren's attitude and planned to bring it up later during a private session. Just because they weren't using her therapeutic services as frequently didn't mean they weren't at all, and M'gann fully intended to help Ren through whatever problems he was currently facing. At the moment, though, this was supposed to be a happy occasion among friends.

"Hey, you guys want to help decorate the tree?" Ruby asked as she held up the box of ornaments, drawing everyone's attention.

"Sure, I'm game!" M'gann said as she stood up.

The others agreed as well, and soon all the Titans and Remnantians were working together to hang decorations onto the tree. Garlands were wrapped around with lights intertwined and ornaments carefully arranged on the branches. A bright red blanket was placed on the ground around the base of the trunk, a small pool of water underneath to keep the plant hydrated. Before long, the formerly plain evergreen was now covered from top to bottom with decorations, lighting up the entire room with its presence. To finish it up, Kori was handed a large star-shaped ornament, which she carefully placed on the top of the tree after flying up. Once it was in place and connected to the rest of the lights, the tree was plugged in, and the array of red, green, and white lights lit up. The young superheroes smiled as they took the moment all in, their worries momentarily melting away as they hugged each other close.

Ruby didn't know how the rest of the week would go, but this was a pretty good start.

---

With the apartment fully decorated, the two teams of young superheroes were free to do as they wished in the city of Metropolis. Some decided to take the opportunity to explore a bit, as it wasn't often that they got the chance to take in the sights of a city that wasn't their home, while others stayed behind at the apartment, content with sitting around, watching TV, or other indoor activities. Weiss was part of the first group, wanting to enjoy the start of her two-week vacation in the outdoors. When Garfield and Raven graciously invited her to come with them, she had happily accepted.

Of course, when they told her they were going on a nature walk, Slaughter Swamp wasn't the destination she had in mind.

"Oh Brothers, the smell," Weiss groaned as she held up her nose, following the two Titans. The muddy grass beneath her feet squished and squelched with each step, splashing mud onto her boots. "Ugh, these stains are never going to come out."

"We told you not to wear white in here," Raven pointed out as she walked through the swamplands without any issue, the bottom of her cape dragging through the mud behind her.

"And it doesn't smell that bad. I think it's kinda nice. We're in the heart of nature, after all," Garfield added, folding his arms behind his head as he walked backwards, smiling towards an irritated Weiss Schnee.

"When you two invited me to tag along, I thought we were going to Centennial Park. I was expecting to walk through nice, powdery snow," Weiss replied, swatting at a group of gnats that were buzzing around her head incessantly. "Not a smelly, dank swampland. And don't talk to me about this place not smelling bad. You are the last person to make qualified statements on smell. I've been inside your room."

"She has a point. Your room is practically a swamp itself with all the trash and clothes you keep laying around," Raven admitted, causing her boyfriend to look at her with a betrayed look.

"Et tu, Rae?" he asked, his voice quivering, and Raven merely rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Don't try to deny it, you know it's true," she pointed out. Garfield stared at her for a moment, then quickly recovered and smiled.

"Eh, but you love me anyway," he said while folding his arms behind his head again.

"Just for that, if you don't clean your room when we get back I'm breaking up with you," Raven declared, causing Garfield to sputter and nearly trip over his own feet.

As he tried to desperately plead with his girlfriend, who wasn't having any of it, Weiss couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. She knew, deep down, Raven didn't actually mean what she said. Garfield was too important to her for that to happen. But using a bit of the cold shoulder to get him to do something he really should be doing already was perfectly fine, in Weiss' opinion. Especially for something as important, and basic, as simply keeping your room clean.

"Speaking of room," Weiss began, trying her best to ignore the squelching mud as she continued to walk, "how's the reconstruction of Titans Tower?"

"Coming along well, actually," Raven answered. "Victor's been working closely with both the city and the Justice League for its construction. They actually broke the ground about a week ago. He said it should be done in about two to three months."

"That's great news!" Weiss declared with a genuine smile on her face, and Garfield nodded.

"Yep. Pretty soon we won't have to all stay in Dick's apartment," he said. "Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place with all sorts of amenities, but it's just not meant to hold seven people comfortably."

"I can imagine," Weiss said sympathetically. Before she could continue, however, she took a step in a particularly soft section of the swamp. In an instant, half of her leg was submerged into the muddy grime, and Weiss stared blankly at her friends as her eyebrow began to twitch. Garfield was forcing his lips to stay sealed, trying his best to not break out into laughter, especially as Weiss involuntarily slammed her palms against the mud and splashed some onto her face. Raven simply looked at her before calmly raising her glowing hand and beginning to chant.

"…I hate this place," Weiss finally declared after a few moments, prompting Garfield to break for a moment and snort. Raven finished chanting, and Weiss felt herself being lifted out of the mud pit by an invisible force. Once she was fully out, her body briefly glowed as the mud was magically removed, leaving her spotless.

"Thank you," Weiss said to Raven, who nodded while looking at her in the eyes.

"You're welcome. I was already planning on cleaning us up when we went back," she revealed.

Weiss nodded, then raised an eyebrow and asked, "Any reason why you couldn't just cast a spell to keep the mud off us when we arrived?"

"Doing that would cut into the reason why I wanted us to come here in the first place," Raven answered.

Without saying another word, Raven turned around and continued walking. Both Garfield and Weiss looked at each other for a moment, then hurried after their friend. Neither of them knew exactly why Raven wanted them to go into Slaughter Swamp in the first place, only that the dark mage clearly felt it was important.

The trio continued their walk through the swamp in relative silence, letting the sounds of nature consume them. Weiss made sure to watch her step, wanting to prevent another fall. While Garfield could've easily turned into an animal appropriate for their environment, out of a sense of solidarity with Weiss he decided not to. The fact that Raven was also choosing to walk probably had something to do with his decision as well. Finally, they came across a small lake deep in the swamp, with large mossy trees extending out of the water. A few alligators could be seen lurking about, both bathing in the sun and swimming through the water with only the tops of their heads visible. Birds and insects could be heard as they flew above the waterline and around the trees and flowers, and with the sunlight filtering down through the dense canopy, it created a serene atmosphere that even Weiss found amazing.

"We're here," Raven said, standing in the center of a small patch of grass and stones that extended slightly out into the lake. She then turned to Garfield and beckoned him to join her, saying, "Garfield, I want you to sit on this rock."

"Um, okay," he said. Glancing at Weiss for a moment in confusion, he then walked over and sat on the rock cross-legged as Raven requested. As Raven began pacing around him, Garfield then asked, "So…what exactly am I doing?"

"You are going to meditate," Raven revealed, and a brief pause fell over them.

"…Why do you want me to meditate? I'm not opposed to it, honestly it's kinda nice every so often," Garfield admitted, speaking of the sessions he clearly sat through with Raven prior to this, "but why here in the middle of a swamp?"

"Because this swamp," a deep, masculine voice suddenly answered, causing both Weiss and Garfield to jump slightly, "is a central point of the Green."

As the two heroes jumped up and began looking around for the source of the voice, only Raven remained unperturbed. Almost as though she was expecting it. Weiss moved to ask about it when she noticed Raven's lack of reaction, then her voice died in her throat as she watched something walk out of a nearby tree. Rather, it formed from the tree, emerging from it like she would from a swimming pool. The thing was a tall, human-shaped mass of moss, leaves, and branches, with two inquisitive red eyes staring at all three of them.

Despite never seeing this thing before in her life, Weiss recognized it immediately and gasped, "Swamp Thing…"

"Correct, Miss Schnee," Swamp Thing confirmed, his voice grave and reverberating. Almost as though it was being repeated all around them by the plants themselves, much to Weiss' shock. Swamp Thing then pointed his arm at Raven and said, "Your ally reached out to me, requesting my council on the Green."

"The Green? What's that have to do with anything?" Garfield repeated, and Weiss raised her eyebrow at the unfamiliar term.

"I'm confused," she admitted. "What's the Green?"

"The Green," Swamp Thing began to explain, "is a primordial, elemental force of nature. It binds all plant life on Earth together. From the smallest blade of grass to the mightiest tree, all are connected to the Green and governed by the Parliament of Trees. I am the Green's Avatar, sworn to protect all plant life on the planet. So long as any single plant lives, I remain."

Weiss' eyes widened at the revelation, and Garfield stepped up and asked, "Okay, but what's that have to do with me? My skin may be green but I'm not connected to the Green. I turn into animals, not plants."

"It is true that you are not connected to the Green," Swamp Thing admitted, then pointed at him, "but you are an Avatar of the Red, connected to all animal life on the planet. Or do you not remember what you were told when you communicated with the Parliament of Limbs?"

"…Oh, right. Yeah," Garfield muttered, rubbing the back of his head while looking around sheepishly.

"When you told me what you saw when you…nearly died," Raven began, momentarily choking up at the sensitive topic before recovering, "I began looking into it. Both the Red and how it could connect with your powers. While Swamp Thing isn't connected to the Red like you are, Garfield, he is one of the oldest Avatars on the planet and is allied with the League. If anyone can help you connect with it more, learn how it affects your powers and what you can do with it, he can."

Garfield looked at Raven for a few moments while Weiss remained silent, refusing to get into the middle of this situation. Finally, he looked at Swamp Thing, sighed, and replied, "Okay, I'll give it a shot. But if my skin turns red, I'm out. I like looking green."

Despite himself, Swamp Thing couldn't help but give a small chuckle, even as Raven quietly grimaced behind them at the mention of skin turning red, then he and Garfield returned to the small grassy outcropping. While Garfield sat on top of a flat stone, Swamp Thing shrank his body into the grass so that he could look at his fellow Avatar at eye level. That was when Raven began walking away, and Weiss took the opportunity to go after her.

"Alright, I'm almost completely lost," Weiss admitted, her voice in a low whisper so as not to disturb Garfield and Swamp Thing. "The Green? The Red? Parliaments of Trees and Limbs? What are you three talking about?"

"It's as he said," Raven answered, her voice quiet and stoic as ever. "I'm not surprised you don't understand. Most people don't even know it exists. I myself have trouble fully comprehending it. But the fact remains that, on this world and perhaps even beyond, there are forces of nature that bind everything together."

"Elaborate," Weiss requested, her inner student rising to the surface. If she had a notepad on hand, she'd be pulling it out.

"Life on this planet is complex and varied," Raven began, "but they are connected to each other all the same. When life first emerged on Earth from the primordial muck, the energies they released gave rise to the elemental forces and the Parliaments that governed them. They constantly fight each other for dominance, forming Avatars like Swamp Thing and Garfield to represent and protect them. Either from other elemental forces, or more recently the encroachment of humanity. Many heroes and villains draw their powers from them, even if they aren't full Avatars."

"How many are there?"

"It's hard to say, really," Raven admitted. "Life is constantly evolving, and there's so much we don't know. What we do know is that there are at least ten elemental forces, most governed by a Parliament and representing a different form of life."

"You already know of the Green and the Red," she began to elaborate, swirling her hands together to create shadowy images in the air that formed various shapes, serving as illustrations of her point, "but there is also the Black, representing Death and governed by the Parliament of Decay. There is the Clear for aquatic life, run by the Parliament of Waves, and the White for air elementals and run by the Parliament of Vapors. All fungal life is connected to the Grey, although they have no recognizable Parliament to govern them. There is a fire realm whose name I have not been able to discern, but they are nevertheless governed by the Parliament of Flames. The Melt connects all Earth elementals together, represented by the Parliament of Stones. Then there is the Divided, connecting all microscopic lifeforms. The newest force to emerge is the Metal, governed by the Rhythm and connecting all technological elementals."

"This is…fascinating," Weiss muttered as she watched the various conjured images shift and form. Storing all of the relevant information in her head, she then asked, "Thank you for showing me this, but…why tell me? I can understand wanting Beast Boy to know, but I'm not connected to any of these forces at all. Maybe the Red, but that's just because I'm an animal."

"I know, but…" Raven began, then sighed and admitted. "I figured you'd be interested. Since we were heading out anyway, and you wanted to step out of the apartment, it seemed like a good idea."

Weiss nodded in understanding. While she didn't enjoy being led into the swamp, and would've preferred to have been told about this in a more comfortable setting, it was at least interesting to learn in any case. She prepared to ask a few questions when her mind ground to a halt.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked in concern. Weiss didn't answer at first, but her eyes began to widen as her mind raced.

"Hold on," Weiss started muttering, pacing back and forth while waving her finger. "Black is for death, Green is for plants, Red is for animals, Clear is for water, White is for air, Fire I suppose is for fire, Melt is for earth, Metal is for technology, and Divided is for bacteria."

"Yes, that's what I just said," Raven replied, raising an eyebrow in slight confusion. "Where are you going with this?"

Weiss snapped her head towards Raven, who flinched slightly as Weiss shot over to her. The former heiress then said, "Are you aware of the four fundamental types of Dust?"

"…Not really, no," Raven answered, but narrowed her eyes as understanding began to bubble up from inside her. "But please go on."

"You have Fire Dust, Water Dust, Wind Dust, and Earth Dust," Weiss explained. "By combining those forms of Dust into different mixtures, all other Dust elements are made, either naturally or artificially. Remnant depended on Dust for the basis of our entire civilization, but when we came here to Earth through a Boom Tube, all of the Dust we had left became inert."

"Yes, I'm aware of that. That's why you and your teammates started using substitutes," Raven pointed out. "I don't see how—"

"Back on Remnant, we weren't able to figure out where Dust came from, but scientists theorized that it was connected to life in some way, because of how naturally its energies could be activated and controlled by Aura. Many of our legends around the world even said, 'humanity came from Dust,' and we also referred to it as 'Nature's Wrath,'" Weiss interrupted, and Raven's eyes widened.

"Oh…" Raven muttered, and Weiss's face blossomed into a smile.

"Just like the elemental forces that connect all forms of life, including fire, water, earth, and air, that you just explained to me," Weiss declared, then she grabbed Raven's shoulders. "Raven, I could kiss you right now. This is exactly the lead I've been looking for. If we can find a way to tap into these forces—"

"You could manufacture Dust, because they're crystalized elemental energy," Raven finished, and Weiss' smile widened.

"Exactly," Weiss finished, then wrapped a surprised Raven in a tight hug. A moment later, she broke away then said, "I need to make a call."

---

"Weiss, you're not making any sense," Ruby said as she spoke into her scroll. "What do Councils have to do with Dust?"

"I just-! Gagh, I'll explain when I get back," Weiss complained on the other end of the line. "Right now I'm about to talk to Lucius about this. Thank the Brothers he hadn't started his vacation yet. If I'm right, we're one step closer to manufacturing Dust."

"Uh, okay. If you say so," Ruby slowly replied, trying her best to hide the confusion in her voice. From Weiss' groan, Ruby had failed.

When Weiss had excitedly called Ruby, the Red Reaper barely even got a word in before her partner launched into an involved breakdown on things like elemental forces, colors, Avatars and how they could be possibly used to create Dust from scratch. Ruby couldn't make heads or tails of it. Had Weiss been in the apartment with her, rather than taking a cab over to Gotham City to talk to Lucius in person, Ruby would've just smiled and nodded along while Weiss did all the talking. Undoubtedly once she got back she'd go into a much more extensive explanation, possibly with a slideshow, but until then Ruby was just going to keep doing what she was doing and hope she'd understand eventually.

"I have to go," Weiss suddenly spoke. Behind her voice, Ruby could just make out the sounds of the Wayne Tower lobby. She didn't have enough time to say goodbye when Weiss ended the call, leaving Ruby to just stare at her scroll in front of her face.

"…Huh. Alright then," Ruby muttered, a touch of indignation at how the call ended.

It lasted for only a moment, though. While she couldn't pretend to understand even half of what Weiss was talking about, it was clear that it was important. Plus, if she was correct and these colorful, elemental forces were the key to recreating Dust on Earth, that was important enough to let it slide. Such a project would undoubtedly take time, and likely wouldn't begin in earnest until after their winter vacations, but it was still good to get a jump on it regardless.

Walking back down the stairwell to the apartment's bottom floor, Ruby opened the door and saw the rest of her friends grouping themselves into various activities. Donna was training with Ren, Jaune, and Pyrrha, their sparring weapons and fists swinging through the air towards their opponent. Every so often, particularly with Jaune, the sparring would stop so that mistakes could be pointed out alongside ways to correct them. All four were covered in sweat as they gave it their all, and half-empty water bottles and towels were waiting for them on nearby benches. Next to the fighters, Nora was lifting weights on a hydraulic bench press with Victor carefully spotting for her, wirelessly connected to the machinery. Her face was flushed red, and her clothes were drenched with sweat as she overcame the several tons of force being pushed against her.

"What was that about?" Blake asked as Ruby returned to the weapons bench, where her disassembled Crescent Rose waited for her.

"I don't really know," Ruby admitted while scratching her head. "Something about how she might've just learned where to get Dust again. Said that it might be connected to things she called the Red and the Green. It didn't make much sense to me."

"Wait, the Red and the Green? As in the elemental forces of nature?" M'gann asked, taking a break from her own workout. Her bright red hair was tied in a ponytail, and she was holding a water bottle near her mouth while a damp tower hung over her shoulders and gym clothes.

Ruby nodded, then added, "A bunch of other colors, too, and something about Councils or Parliaments. I couldn't make heads or tails of it."

Blake raised an eyebrow in confusion, sharing Ruby's reaction. M'gann, however, understood what Weiss was talking about immediately as her eyes widened in realization, then she slapped her forehead.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that? The connection's obvious!" M'gann chastised herself. When she noticed Ruby and Blake looking at her in confusion, she quickly explained, "The Red and the Green are the accumulated energies that animals and plants, respectively, generate just by living. There's a bunch of them for all forms of life, and since Dust is effectively crystalized elemental energy according to you guys, all we need to do to make more Dust is to harness that energy and store it."

"…Oh," Ruby said as her eyes widened in understanding. "That actually makes sense. Weiss got way too technical for me to follow."

"How come we're only just now learning about this?" Blake asked while raising an eyebrow. "We've been trying to get Dust working for months."

"I hardly understand this," M'gann admitted while pointing to her chest with her free hand. "The only reason why I do is because Gar, apparently, is an Avatar of the Red. It's why he can turn into any animal. For the past month and a half I've been reading everything I could about them. Raven's more of an expert than me, honestly."

Ruby and Blake looked at the Martian for a few moments, then nodded in acceptance. With that, the two Remnantians decided to leave the subject be until Weiss returned, and turned back towards their weapons. Taking their tools in hand, they inspected each and every piece, replacing or repairing as needed. Once they were done, Ruby and Blake quickly reassembled their weapons, then made their way into the indoor firing range. Along the way, they passed by weapon racks filled with the rest of their arsenal, along with the small but growing collection of Earth firearms that Ruby had accumulated since they moved in. There were pistols, revolvers, assault rifles, shotguns, and more. All weapons that had been customized beyond what you'd find on the shelf of a local gun store, with some even been given relatively simple mecha-shift treatment, along with more boxes of ammunition than they knew what to do with. Sometimes to Blake it seemed that, since Bruce was handling their rent and all of their utility bills, Ruby spent most of her internship salary on getting new guns for her collection. Or, rather, getting Yang to buy them for her, as Ruby was legally considered to be underage and thus unable to own them on paper.

Didn't stop her from hosting a gun safety class, though.

"I don't understand why you decided to start a gun collection," Blake pointed out as she stepped into a firing lane and put protective earwear on both sets of ears.

"Eh, I think they're cool," Ruby answered, then inserted a magazine into her weapon and aimed downrange. A holographic projector sprang to life, depicting a snarling Beowolf. Aiming at the target's head, Ruby pulled the trigger, and the hologram disappeared in a flurry of static.

"Hmm, it's going a bit to the left. Gonna have to adjust my scope," Ruby grumbled as she quickly pulled the weapon in and made the appropriate correction. Next to her, Blake emptied her magazine into her own target, itself disappearing after several shots of their specially made anti-Grimm ammunition.

"The new rounds are working," Blake said as she slapped a new magazine in place. "But back to what I was saying earlier, you do not need to keep buying all those weapons. You already have Crescent Rose and Rose Thorn."

"Hey, I'm allowed to spend my money however I want," Ruby replied, finishing her adjustments then firing Crescent Rose downrange again. "You don't hear me badgering you with all my ideas for giving poor Gambol Shroud some upgrades," she imperiously nodded to the Grimm targets that the black pistol still needed multiple shots to take down. "Or complaining about your personal library upstairs, with all your…'literature.'"

"There's a difference between buying thirty different books and thirty different guns. One is classy, the other makes people look at you nervously," Blake retorted between shots. "And those books are literature."

"Blake, I've looked at some of those books. I like romance too, but a lot of them aren't what most people would consider 'literature,'" Ruby dryly replied while giving the Faunus a sideways glance.

"That's because you wouldn't know proper literature if it hit you in the face," Blake grumbled as she fired her weapon, pointedly avoiding Ruby's gaze.

"Pretty sure 'Heroic Passions' doesn't count," Ruby joked, finally causing Blake to lightly glare at her. Ruby responded with a cheeky grin and poking out her tongue, prompting Blake to roll her eyes before going back to focusing on the range. Following her teammate's example, Ruby fired the rest of her weapon as well, then put it aside as she pulled out Rose Thorn, loaded a magazine, then fired downrange.

Both Huntresses continued to practice their aim, testing out their weapons alongside all the specialty ammunition they had made. Just to prove a point, Ruby went out of her way to pull several of the firearms that she had bought, which only got a roll of the eyes from Blake. Once they were done, they stepped out of the firing range to let Pyrrha and Ren enter in their place. Jaune was still sparring with Donna, while Nora was sitting on a bench drinking from a water bottle. Victor, meanwhile, had entered the cordoned off section of the room where they manufactured more specialty equipment. Sparks and light were flicking from under the door, and they couldn't exactly tell what he was working on. At the same time, though, given how Nora would occasionally glance in his direction, the two girls assumed it had to do with the new backup weapon Nora had been designing all week.

"M'gann, do you think you can, I don't know, talk to him?" Nora quietly whispered to her friend sitting next to her.

"I'm going to try," M'gann admitted with a flattened expression. Nora looked at her, then sighed and hung her head.

"I've been trying to get him to rest for days, but he won't," Nora revealed, wringing her fingers together. "Every time I try, he either ignores me or says something along the lines of 'we can't afford to just sit around and do nothing.' I'm getting worried."

"As am I," M'gann said. "Training is all well and good, but the extent that Ren's taking it to is unhealthy. He's not training to get better, he's training to cope."

Nora sighed again, and her back further hunched over as she whispered, "That's the worst part. The only reason why he's doing this is because I nearly died. If anything, I should be the one worked up about it, but I'm not. Not really."

She looked up at M'gann, then gently asked, "Is that…wrong?"

"No, not at all," M'gann reassured, gently taking Nora's hand into her own. "People heal from trauma differently. You were able to pick yourself back up quickly, but Ren… The reason why Ren is acting like this is because he loves you, and he almost lost you. I can't say I'm surprised he's working himself to the bone to try and make sure that doesn't happen again. After Garfield nearly died, I almost fell into the same trap."

M'gann glanced over at the firing range, then added, "But doing anything in excess just to cope does more harm than good. What he needs right now isn't more training, it's rest. Or at the very least something else to take his mind off of things."

"I know what you mean," Nora admitted, then leaned back. "All we've been doing for the past week was just hanging out in the apartment, training, and working our day jobs. Getting back out there would be pretty nice."

"Just maybe not something that's all that intense," M'gann said with a slight smile, and Nora nodded. Miss Martian nodded back, then hummed as a thought entered her mind.

Picking up on her change in expression, Nora asked, "What's got you humming?"

"Oh, nothing," M'gann replied and waved her hand slightly. "It's just… Well, there's something that Garfield's been wanting us to do that sounds like it could help. Not just Ren, but for all of you."

"What did you have in mind?" Nora asked, her interest piqued.

"Well, as you know, my little brother is very keen on conservation," M'gann explained. "That includes handling invasive species. He's been trying to convince us for weeks to go on a weeklong trip down to Texas to hunt feral hogs."

"Garfield wants to kill a bunch of pigs? Isn't he a vegan?"

"Feral hogs are actually a very serious problem," M'gann declared in an authoritative tone of voice. "They tear up the ground, eating everything and destroying crops. Not to mention they're just dangerous to people. Since they have hardly any natural predators, they've been growing unchecked for decades. Honestly, we were considering doing it after Christmas. We'd go down, use our powers and everything. But, if you guys want, I can talk to the others and see if we can't go before."

"Hmm, a week-long trip down south to kill something that isn't a Grimm and is still helping people," Nora replied as she rubbed her fingers down her chin. She then smiled towards M'gann and said, "I think the others would be fine with that."

M'gann nodded back, then said, "I'll talk to Dick and Kori once they get back with Yang from her pilot's license final exam."

"Ooh, maybe she can fly us!" Nora suggested, and M'gann smiled and nodded in agreement.

Before they could say anything else, Ruby called out and asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

"M'gann's inviting us to go hunt feral hogs down in Texas," Nora replied, and Ruby squealed while jumping up and down in excitement.

"Ooh, ooh! I'll bring my guns!" Ruby announced, then zoomed away in a cloud of rose petals back into the firing range she just exited. Nora and the others watched as their young leader disappeared, then the room fell into lighthearted snorts and chuckles.

---

11:00 PM (Gulf Standard Time)

Arabian Sea

Luke Fox stared out of the portside window of the Seahawk helicopter ferrying him, Violet, and Colonel Flagg across the dark waters of the Arabian Sea. The sky was cloudy, and with the lack of light from the new moon it made it nearly impossible to actually see anything. Not that it stopped Violet from openly gawking at their surroundings. He didn't know if her powers enabled her greater sight than a normal person on top of everything else, but it was just as likely, if not more so, that the young Afghan girl was simply marveling at her first view of the open sea regardless of how dark it was. But that wasn't what Luke was focusing on. Instead, he was simply trying to take his mind off of things.

When Colonel Flagg had invited him and Violet, much to his displeasure, to take part in this taskforce, he had thought they'd have taken them away almost immediately. But that didn't happen. Instead, Luke and Violet had to sit through several days of exhausting debriefings with various agencies, both from within the United States such as the CIA alongside those from their international partners including MI6. Only then did Flagg take them away, but rather than go straight towards their base of operations he had them be shuffled around various safe houses around the region, never for more than a few hours at a time. Apparently, it was a security measure so that the supposed traitor they were hunting down wouldn't catch wind of their involvement.

After nearly a week, the three of them were finally being taken to their base of operations for however long this mission would take. Luke had no idea where, or what, this base would be. Given how it was seemingly in the middle of the ocean, he had to assume it was a ship of some kind. Colonel Flagg hadn't told them much, but Luke imagined that he would once they arrived.

"Ooh, I see lights!" Violet called out, tapping her finger against the round, glass window. Both Luke and Flagg looked over, and the colonel nodded.

"There it is, the USS Samuel Lane," Colonel Flagg announced as they flew closer.

As Luke suspected, their destination was a ship. A ship whose name he recognized as the fourth Zumwalt-class destroyer, named after the late General Samuel Lane who led America's military during the Darkseid War, losing his life in the Battle of Metropolis. Luke always found it ironic that, before the war, General Lane was amongst Superman's most ardent detractors, yet in the end he gave his life trying to help him during his fight against Darkseid.

As with the other three ships of its class, the Samuel Lane was a stealth vessel, with a low profile and angular design that made its radar signature indistinguishable from a fishing boat. Perfect for a black ops mission such as the one that they were currently on. Armed with twenty missile modules, two 155mm guns, and two 30mm chainguns, they should be more than capable of defending themselves from anything sent their way. Hopefully, at least. After the attack that decimated Bagram Airbase, Luke wasn't counting on anything just yet.

Landing on the aft helicopter pad, there were a few soldiers waiting for them. As Colonel Flagg stepped out of the Seahawk, followed by Luke and Violet, the soldiers saluted their superior officer before escorting them inside the ship. The Seahawk, meanwhile, was being latched onto the deck as technicians began running diagnostics and refueling its tank.

"I take it this vessel is outside of the normal chain of command," Luke said as they entered the main deck, where crewmembers were at their stations, analyzing monitors and display screens, or simply walking about. While all of them were in uniform, they weren't wearing naval work dress. Instead, they were wearing a light blue uniform with black pants, and on their sleeves was the logo of a black, sideways arrowhead with a white center over a red circle. A black ring with a red edge surrounded the patch, with the words "Advanced Research Group United Support" proudly displayed.

"That it is, Lieutenant," Colonel Flagg confirmed. "The DEO got direct permission from the United States Navy to requisition the use of this vessel for the duration of our mission. Every single person on this ship is a member of A.R.G.U.S., and that's who we answer to."

"A.R.G.U.S.?" Violet asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Advanced Research Group United Support," Flagg clarified. "We're an organization under the direct jurisdiction of the Department of Extranormal Operations, in charge of dealing with threats beyond what would be considered normal. Metahumans, aliens, gods, and more. As you can imagine, such threats require plenty of resources to properly handle, especially as more of them continue to emerge."

"Such as the Grimm," Luke suggested, and Flagg nodded.

"Exactly," Flagg confirmed as he continued to escort them through the ship, passing the galley and crew quarters. "A.R.G.U.S. has been handling the Grimm Crisis ever since the threat became known, and since Bagram we've effectively been handed a blank check by the U.S. government. We're bringing everything we have to bear for this mission, especially if it's as dire as we suspect."

Luke nodded. While he prayed to God that his fears were unfounded, even after a week of thought he still couldn't shake it. The attack on Bagram Airfield was too precise to be anything but an inside job, and whoever did it had extensive knowledge of both the base's layout and the timing of when everyone would be outside. He didn't know who, if anyone, outside of this ship knew the truth of this particular mission, but it was clear that they had to get to the bottom of it no matter what.

"Now, I know it's late, so we'll deal with familiarizing yourselves with the equipment and preparations for our first mission tomorrow morning, but I figure now's a good time as any to meet the rest of our field team," Flagg said as he opened the door to a large conference room, where a Caucasian man and Japanese woman were seated across from one another, not in conversation but rather staring at each other silently in some dominance display it seemed like.

Unlike the rest of the crew, they weren't wearing naval work uniforms. Rather, they were wearing civilian garb. The woman was wearing an open, black biker jacket with a white tube top, exposing her midriff. A red sash was wrapped around her waist, serving as a belt for a skintight pair of black pants. The man, meanwhile, was wearing a bright red collared shirt that exposed his muscular arms, a black belt around his waist, and blue jeans that went into a pair of black boots. Whoever these two people were, Luke got the distinct impression that they weren't military.

Both the man and the woman quickly stopped what they were doing as Flagg, Luke, and Violet entered the room. While the woman casually stood up before offering Flagg a respectful nod, the man stood ramrod straight, his attention dead ahead as he adopted the most serious expression he could.

"Colonel Flagg, sir!" the man barked, flashing a quick salute. Luke and Violet simply stared at him while the woman rolled her eyes and Flagg kept his face flat.

After a slightly uncomfortable moment, Flagg waved the man down and said, "At ease. This isn't a formal environment, so no need to get hung up on rank."

"Of course, sir," the man replied, maintaining the formal tone. He then shifted his attention to Luke and Violet before saying, "Lieutenant Fox, I just want to say that I read what you managed to accomplish at Bagram. It's an honor to be fighting alongside a hero like you."

"…Thank you," Luke replied, unsure of what to think of the man. He seemed far too gung-ho for his tastes, and the lieutenant had the distinct impression that he wasn't really a soldier despite how he was acting, but he figured now wasn't the time to be rude. Luke then gestured to Violet, who was clinging to him like a lifeline, and added, "But it wasn't just me. If it weren't for Violet, we all would've died."

Both the man and the woman's attention shifted to Violet, who let out an involuntary squeak. The woman briefly sent Flagg an almost appalled look, one that he gave a sympathetic nod to, silently telling her that he wasn't comfortable with the arrangement either. She frowned for a moment, then gave Violet a soft, supporting smile and nod. The man, meanwhile, studied her for a moment, then nodded respectfully.

"My apologies, then. Thank you for your service, Miss Violet. You saved a lot of lives that day," the man said, sincerity in his voice.

Violet looked at the people in the room with her, then gulped and stepped away from Luke before nodding. She took a breath, then said, "You're…welcome. I just…did what I had to do to help."

Both the man and the woman nodded, but before either of them could say anything else Luke spoke up and pointed out, "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've been properly introduced. Clearly you know who we are, but I don't know either of you."

"Of course," Flagg said as he stepped forward towards the other people in the room. Gesturing towards the man and woman, Flagg began to explain, "As I'm sure you can tell, neither of them are members of the United States military. They are outside specialists recruited by A.R.G.U.S., and myself, for their skills and expertise. While we do have several dozen soldiers as support, these two will be part of the main team, including us."

"Specialists?" Luke repeated, and Flagg nodded.

"Some might call them superheroes, actually," Flagg clarified, causing Luke's and Violet's eyes to widen. Flagg then gestured towards the man, who stood up straighter as he was introduced, "This is Christopher Smith, also known as Peacemaker. He used to be a diplomat before he decided that peace needed a much more…direct approach to be obtained. Entire criminal groups have been taken out by him alone, and anything in his hands is a deadly weapon. Given the nature of this mission, A.R.G.U.S. felt his skills were suitable for the task at hand."

Something about the quick glance and frown that Flagg sent to Smith rubbed Luke the wrong way. If he didn't know any better, it seemed as though the colonel didn't exactly like him all that much. The feeling was further amplified when Flagg shifted his attention to the Japanese woman beside him, who received a much friendlier smile.

"This is Tatsu Yamashiro, also known as Katana," Flagg warmly introduced, and she respectfully bowed towards Luke and Violet. "Don't let her appearance fool you, she's one of the best martial artists and swordsmen in the world, something I have personal experience in. She's not officially part of A.R.G.U.S., but I've fought alongside her on several occasions over the years, and she's got my back. Be glad that you're not her enemy, since she can cut all of us in half with one sword stroke just like mowing the lawn. I would advise not getting killed by her. Her blade traps the souls of its victims."

Luke and Violet stared at them, neither saying a word. Then Violet coughed and slowly raised her hand, which Flagg quickly picked up on.

"Yes, Halo?" Flagg asked, and Violet lowered her hand before sheepishly looking away.

"Um, Colonel Flagg, sir," Violet began, trying her best to sound as formal as possible. "About what you just said… I think Ms. Yamashiro sounds really cool, but the way you said it was kinda silly."

Flagg and the others looked at Violet in astonishment, only for the silence to be broken by Yamashiro snorting slightly. The colonel shot his attention over to the Japanese woman, who was smiling and waving him off.

Flagg pursed his lips, then leaned over and quietly asked her, "Does it actually sound that bad?"

"Others have been worse," Yamashiro answered, a smile on her face.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You seemed so attached to it."

For a brief moment, Flagg's face fell as embarrassment briefly took over. It wasn't helped when Smith added, "I thought your introduction was fine, Colonel."

Flagg groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, then muttered, "Okay, that aside… Report to your private quarters. Tomorrow, at 0600, we're starting our mission preparations. Dismissed."

Luke, Violet, Smith, and Yamashiro nodded, with Smith flashing another quick salute before they left the conference room. Flagg stayed next to Luke and Violet, escorting them to their quarters. Settling in for the night, Luke didn't exactly know what would come of this mission, only that it was bound to be eventful one way or another.

---

Geosynchronous Orbit, Earth

Watchtower

"So, yeah. We're going with the Titans tomorrow morning to Texas. Gonna be there for about a week," Ruby announced as she spoke to Superman over the Watchtower's communication array. "Should be fun!"

"Glad to hear it," Superman replied, a smile on his face. "Removing invasive species is just as important as any other hero activity, even if it's not exactly what most people think of."

"You should've heard Beast Boy's argument for it. He was really persuasive," Ruby added. "But yeah, we think this is perfect. All of us were starting to get a little stir crazy, so it'll be good to head back out into the field."

"Will you be taking your hero gear with you?" Batman asked.

"Nah. We thought about it, but then we figured that would be a bit overkill," Ruby admitted. "All we're doing is hunting hogs, not Grimm. Honestly, we're kinda treating this hunting trip as our vacation, so we're gonna use the guns I've collected and modified alongside our powers, except for Donna who's using a really neat Amazonian bow. Speaking of, Diana, do you think I can—?"

"Yes, Ruby. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to make you one if you ask," Wonder Woman answered, and Ruby squealed in delight.

"Awesome!" she cheered. "Well, I got to go and help pack for the trip. Since Yang passed her exam, she's insisting on flying us over tomorrow morning, and Weiss is making sure we're packed well before that."

"Understandable. Last thing you want is to be packing your bags last minute," Flash replied.

"Can't you do that in, like, a second?"

"Yes, but it's still annoying."

Ruby laughed on the other end of the line, then she said, "Let us know if Weiss' theory about how to make Dust pans out. She's really excited about that."

"We'll let you know, don't worry," Superman said. "You all have fun, and we'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Thanks! See you all in a week!" Ruby announced, then ended the call.

The League founders sat back into their chairs, some of them sighing gratefully at the news that their effective charges were putting themselves back out there. Their fight against Black Adam had been a heavy ordeal, and while they knew they'd bounce back, seeing it happen so quickly was always a pleasant thing to see. From what they've been told, Ren's overtraining was concerning, but they were confident that he, with the help of his friends, would be able to work past his current issues.

But, as much as they would like to focus on lighter subjects, they had more important things to worry about. Adopting a more serious expression, Wonder Woman pulled up the conference room's holographic projector, displaying a three-dimensional image of Kahndaq.

"Teth-Adam has completely solidified his control over the country," she reported. "It's too soon to tell how, exactly, he'll govern, but judging by his executions of most of the country's leadership after seizing power I'm not exactly optimistic that he'll be a benevolent ruler."

"To be fair, the people he killed were despots who practically enslaved his people," Hawkgirl pointed out, playing Devil's Advocate, "but I agree. The man's violent, overly so. Luckily, at least, he's completely focusing on internal concerns, and by all accounts he's following through on his promises to lift up his people who're proclaiming him as their savior returned, but I worry for those who chafe under his rule."

"Agreed. Even a benevolent tyrant is still, at the end of the day, a tyrant," Batman declared, bringing his hands together. "We'll keep monitoring the situation. Unless the UN agrees on an intervention, or he attempts to expand Kahndaq's domain, that's all we really can do unfortunately. His government hasn't gotten any international recognition yet, but there's no telling how long that'll last."

"I only hope that the people of Kahndaq don't suffer. Gods know they've been through enough as it is," Wonder Woman said, then sighed and shook her head before changing the image to that of a globe. She continued, "Grimm activity has finally leveled off, for now. I have to assume that Lex has adjusted his manufacturing and selling practices in the wake of the attack on the Middle East."

"The man prides himself on 'having control' over everything, especially his actions," Superman pointed out, a disappointed frown on his face as he focused on the total estimated casualties. "He likely didn't expect the situation to blow up like it did."

"The problem is that he never was in control," Flash declared with a scowl. "He lost control as soon as he started making them. If he's not stopped, what happened in the Middle East is going to start happening all over the world on a regular basis."

"That's not going to happen," Batman stated with a final tone in his voice. "We're going to make sure of it."

"Our analysis indicates that the Grimm aren't reproducing in the wild, yet," J'onn revealed stoically, "which means they're coming from a singular source. If we find that source and destroy it, the Grimm will be cut off. But I fear we only have a limited window for that to happen. If it takes too long to for us to find this source, the Grimm's presence on Earth may become a permanent problem."

All of the Founders frowned and brought their hands together as they contemplated the news. There was so much about the Grimm that they simply didn't know, and that uncertainly brought numerous problems. Earth had dealt with alien invasions before, both on local and global scales, but the Grimm was proving to be a vastly different issue. It was less of an outright invasion and more of a virus infecting the planet. An invasive species moving in, throwing everything into chaos and helped along by people who think they can exploit them for their own personal gains. As history had shown more times than any of them could count, such decisions were extremely short-sighted.

"The Question is still following leads, but from what I can tell he thinks he's narrowing it down," Batman reported. "He said he should have something in a month or two."

"What's he following as a lead?" Hawkgirl asked.

"Toothpaste, apparently," Batman answered, and the Thanagarian groaned.

"Of course he is…" she muttered under her breath, and Flash sympathetically patted her on the back.

Superman prepared to speak, but just before he could they saw Green Lantern's ring flash a few times. They recognized it as a signal of a transmission, and John Stewart immediately held his fist out. The power ring glowed, and formed a bright green holographic image in the center of their round table. The image was that of another Green Lantern from Earth, John's immediate predecessor.

"Hal, what is it?" John Stewart asked, although he felt he already knew the answer.

---

December 19th, 8:05 AM (EST)

Unknown Solar System

Brainiac's Mothership

Hooked into his vessel's sensors, Brainiac stared into the holographic monitors surrounding him. He didn't actually have to physically look at them, as his mind was able to read what they were telling him regardless of what his eyes could see. Yet, despite this, he glanced between them intermittently all the same. Brainiac knew the reason why. It was a holdover from when his body and mind were still entirely organic, a fundamental instinct that he was never quite able to excise from himself. He had done away with much of his original organic body, replacing the weakness and randomness of flesh with the strength and precision of metal. Not even his mind was left alone as he had, back when he still lived on his homeworld Colu, surgically removed the primitive emotions that held him back from fully carrying out his research. Yet, despite all of that, some things were too deeply ingrained to be removed so easily. While it was certainly possible for Brainiac to carve such instincts out of himself, he didn't know what that would do to his mental faculties, so he decided to leave such things there. It wasn't as though it was a major impairment for him. There were ways to counteract them.

As his ship dropped out of hyperspace, Brainiac felt a momentary lurch as it decelerated to sub-light speeds. It was within acceptable ranges, yet he logged it for review, nonetheless. His standards wouldn't allow for anything less than absolute perfection whenever he could attain it, especially for his mothership. Refocusing onto the mothership's monitors, he inspected the system-wide scans alongside the probes he had sent months before to the only habitable planet in the system, C1962M. It was a remarkably temperate world, dominated by a single continent and supermassive ocean that covered eighty-percent of the planet's surface area. According to the probes, the planet's civilizations had developed remarkably over the past five centuries, advancing to a heavily industrialized society with limited space capabilities. A few artificial satellites were orbiting the planet, and their condition combined with the lack of space debris suggested they were only a few years old at most.

But that wasn't what he was focusing on. Instead, he analyzed the variables that his preservation algorithm calculated. Scarcity of resources, risk of irreversible environmental collapse either by sapient action or natural disasters outside of anyone's control, and geopolitical conflicts both between and inside governments or countries. Even external threats, such as increased solar activity or potential asteroid impacts large enough to cause mass extinction events were considered. For planet C1962M, the most immediate cause of concern pertained to the two dominate superpowers of the planet, each supporting a political and economic ideology that stood in direct conflict with the other, along with having enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet several times over. Currently, the two were locked in the middle of an intense missile crisis, one that threatened to go hot at any moment. According to the algorithm, there was a ninety-percent chance of that happening, either now or sometime again in a future incident. When that happened, all life on the planet would be wiped out, rendered extinct. Brainiac couldn't allow that to happen, and so he decided it needed immediate preservation.

He prepared his forces, both his robotic army and the fleet of support vessels stored inside his mothership. Moving towards C1962M, he launched several of them, already providing coordinates of important cultural centers for the planet's civilizations. At the same time, he had questions on his mind that demanded answers. Seeing as how it would take approximately an hour and fifteen minutes to get his forces into position, Brainiac knew he had time. He could probably get a few in during the preservation itself.

Tapping into his communications array, Brainiac robotically ordered, "Raven, bring me Professor Ozpin. I require his presence."

"Of course, Brainiac. I'll get him right away," Raven Branwen curtly replied, then the line went dead as she moved to follow his instructions.

Raven had proven to be most useful in Brainiac's efforts to study Remnant. Her Semblance, enhanced slightly with his technology to allow her to enter and exit the preserved and shrunken down cities without issue, was offering new avenues into the field of teleportation, and her magic even more so. It certainly helped that her cowardly and self-centered personality, driven by an easily manipulatable self-preservation instinct, made her extremely accommodating to his needs. There was no doubt in his mind that Raven would try to kill him if she had the chance, her loyalty to him was skin deep at best, but at the same time her fear of him made her unwilling to even consider the prospect. So long as she continued to have that fear of him, and held the belief that her survival depended entirely on making herself as useful to him as possible, there was no chance of her attempting any sort of defection.

A few minutes later, he detected Raven's return, with Professor Ozpin in tow. Unlike Raven, Ozpin's attempts at subverting him were ever present. Any fear he held was dwarfed by hatred, not unlike many of the others Brainiac had personally interacted with over the centuries since he began his mission. Unlike them, however, Ozpin was unique. An immortal being, one with thousands of years of experience through the eyes of countless reincarnations. Such a perspective was too rare and interesting to be discarded, and since Brainiac knew Ozpin's efforts at resisting him were doomed to failure, he would put up with them. Such as his constant attempts to get Raven to betray him, which wasn't going to happen.

The door to his bridge automatically opened as Ozpin stepped close, with Raven waiting on the other side. Brainiac could feel Ozpin's glare at the back of his head, but he paid it no heed as he continued to track his approach to the inhabited planet.

"I have more questions of you," Brainiac declared, disconnecting himself from the bridge's cables.

Ozpin didn't say a word. Instead, the immortal man walked over to the holographic chessboard Brainiac had set up. After one last diagnostic, Brainiac left the control station and sat down opposite Ozpin.

"You have the black," Brainiac declared, taking the white pieces for himself. Immediately settling into the moment, he then continued, "Ask your first question."

Ozpin nodded, then tapped his fingers against the hard-light hologram a few times before asking, "Previously, you mentioned that Remnant, and the entire Oum System, was encased by a protective veil that blocked anything outside of it from seeing in. How was it, exactly, that you were able to see past it in the first place and find my homeworld where presumably so many others couldn't?"

That was a question easy enough to answer, and more importantly just so happened to lead into Brainiac's own question. Nodding to his opponent, Brainiac answered, "It was a combination of two factors. The first was that, one week prior to the preservation of your planet, I detected a signal emanating from a dark region of space on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy. This signal was powerful, its signature matching that of a Mother Box."

"The device that teleported my students away," Ozpin said, and Brainiac nodded.

"Correct. A Mother Box is a powerful, sapient computer created by the New Gods of New Genesis," Brainiac explained. "It is capable of performing acts beyond mortal comprehension. Generating a signal powerful enough to pierce the protective veil encasing your solar system was trivial. Once I detected the signal, I investigated the region and became perplexed by the seeming lack of anything substantial. That was when I found the veil, then your planet."

"If the signal was as powerful as you described, then why didn't anyone else detect it?"

"They did. I was simply the closest and first one to arrive," Brainiac revealed, leaning in. "So long as one knows what to look for, and has powerful enough equipment, you can separate the energy signature of a Mother Box from background radiation. Others, including those more powerful than I, were already on their way by the time I finished gathering the information I needed and preserved your planet."

For a brief moment, Ozpin's face hardened as the unspoken implications of Brainiac's words reared its head. Brainiac didn't say anything, but appreciated the understanding, nonetheless. Compared to what others might've done in his stead, Brainiac's actions were a mercy. Surely Ozpin would understand that, but if he didn't Brainiac had all the time in the world to make him see.

When Ozpin didn't say another word, Brainiac decided that his question was finished. He then said, "Now that your question has been answered, you shall answer mine. Your question actually connects with mine, as it concerns the origins of the Mother Box. As you already know, I recovered the Mother Box from your planet's northwestern continent following an engagement against Salem, whom I presume was the one who found and activated the Mother Box."

"Of course she did," Ozpin grumbled under his breath as he shook his head and frowned. "Messing with things beyond her understanding and making us pay the price is all too much in character for her."

"Be that as it may," Brainiac interrupted, bringing Ozpin's attention back to him, "the question isn't where Salem found the Mother Box. The question is how it arrived onto Remnant in the first place. By their very nature, Mother Boxes are nearly impossible to determine their ages. Not even my own technology is sensitive enough to be certain. What is certain, however, is that the Mother Box had been on your planet for at least a hundred-thousand years, which by your admission is approximately within the age of Remnant's first humanity. It is quite probable that it was here longer than that. My question, Professor Ozpin, is how did the Mother Box come to be on Remnant?"

Ozpin looked at Brainiac for a moment, squinting his eyes before replying, "Unfortunately, I do not know. Ozma was born near the tail end of the First Humanity's existence of course. Whenever the Mother Box arrived onto Remnant, it was well before his time. Before your arrival, I didn't even know it existed. If I had to guess, I imagine Salem didn't either before she stumbled upon it."

Brainiac narrowed his eyes at Ozpin, who met them without flinching. The Coluan cyborg couldn't detect any trace of a lie in Ozpin's demeanor, and his explanation was sound.

After a moment, Brainiac straightened himself and said, "That's…disappointing."

"I'm so sorry about that," Ozpin replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm and contempt.

With their first round of questions finished, Brainiac began their game by moving one of his pawns forward. Ozpin countered him with a move of his own, and they quickly settled into a game. This game, compared to others, was proving to be much more even than usual. Brainiac was certain that he would still win in the end, but afterwards he would have to work on adjusting his strategy. Clearly, Ozpin was learning, but rather than getting irritated at the change Brainiac instead felt a sense of satisfaction. It was always more interesting a challenge to go up against someone who could adapt and improve instead of being stuck in rote repetition.

Then, before Brainiac could finish the game, the monitors of his ship flashed. Brainiac's and Ozpin's attention was drawn to them as a proximity alarm blared, and Brainiac immediately left the game behind to inspect them personally.

"What's going on?" Ozpin asked, confused as he remained seated where he was. Brainiac didn't answer at first, instead hooking himself back into his ship directly. Quickly going through the ship's proximity sensors, Brainiac's eyes furrowed as he recognized them immediately.

"Green Lanterns," he growled. Behind him, he noticed that Ozpin perked up slightly at their mention, but Brainiac paid him no heed as he focused on the immediate threat.

Already dozens of the interstellar peacekeepers were flying towards him, intent on stopping him from reaching the planet. Redirecting his forces to attack the Lanterns, he prepared to deal with them before moving on. He had already suspected that the Green Lanterns were preparing to attack him, and so had prepared for such an inevitability. But, just as he prepared to launch his attack, more proximity alarms sounded. The dozens of Green Lanterns were joined by several more, then more, and more still until much to his surprise there were hundreds of Green Lanterns speeding towards him. For a moment, Brainiac's eyes widened. He hadn't anticipated this level of resistance. Never before had the Lanterns assembled such a force to throw against him, yet here they were.

Immediately pulling more of his forces out of reserve, Brainiac said, "Raven, return Professor Ozpin to Vale at once. We shall continue our discussion later."

Without saying a word, Raven entered the room and slashed a red, pulsating portal for Ozpin to enter. For a brief moment, Ozpin regarded both of them then stared out the circular, eye-like window of the bridge. He could see hundreds of bright, neon-green lights speeding towards them, and a sense of hope emerged that he hadn't felt in quite some time.

His heart beat faster as his grip on Long Memory tightened and he weighed his chances again while eyeing Brainiac's back. The impossibly strong Coluan could hardly be called vulnerable, but this was as exposed as he could get while plugged into the bridge, only able to quickly respond with the tentacles throughout the room. Striking him now, at the opening of the battle, was his best and only opportunity to help the Green Lanterns achieve victory. It would be a dangerous gamble, not just to hit Brainiac with enough force to cripple him, but to only unleash enough of his weapon's charge to do so without killing him and destroying all of the bottled cities with his fail-safe.

Yet, as Raven struck his back with the bottom of her sword hilt, Ozpin knew he wouldn't have the opportunity to play the ace up his sleeve. Not only would the tentacles deny him the time and concentration necessary to charge his attack before Brainiac detached himself, but Raven would likely attack him as well. If she could just be convinced to turn against their captor instead at this critical moment, then she could have defended Ozpin from the ship's attacks and bought him the seconds he needed to charge and unleash Long Memory. Even if the resulting blast likely would've killed them both in the process by destroying the bridge and exposing them to the void, he'd consider it worth it. But, of course Raven would never see it that way. With a sigh and a silent prayer to…some other entity more benevolent than the Two Brothers, Ozpin let go of the temptation and entered the portal.

A moment later, the ship shook as the first of the Lanterns' attacks hit the outer hull.

[~][~]

Hello, everyone! Here's the latest chapter of Hunters of Justice! Special thanks to NaanContributor and Jesse K for their help in bringing this chapter to life.

Lots of things happened in this chapter. We're one step closer to getting Dust back, RWBY, JNPR, and the Titans are going down south to kill some feral hogs (trust me, this is a worthy endeavor for a superhero). Most importantly, as many of you suspected, the Green Lantern Ambush is upon us! We've been building up to this for almost two years now, and it's gonna be something special. The Ambush is gonna be a two-parter, as you might imagine, and I write the next chapter of Outsiders we will be writing this two-parter back to back.

Hope you guys enjoy, and let us know what you think. If any of you have a TV Tropes page, any assistance in updating it would be greatly appreciated.

Now, to answer your guys' questions:

I'm glad so many of you guys enjoyed last chapter's complete focus on Vale. As I'm sure you guys could probably guess by now, there was a reason why I did that. With the Green Lantern Ambush coming so quickly, I needed one final look into Vale and all its important characters before it happened. Not to mention just give a general overview of how things are going, which can as you saw ranged from "kinda bad but comparatively decent" to "everything's on fire."

You guys are correct that Adam is a complete monster here. We felt that him doing stuff like this was entirely in his character, just taken on a much worse path than in canon due to the change in circumstances. Let it be clear that we are not sugarcoating what kind of person Adam is. He is not a misunderstood hero, or even a fallen hero like Ironwood was. Adam was always a monster, he was just allowed to fester and grow unchecked.

As for the Blue Lanterns, we're going more with the comic incarnation of them in that they need a Green Lantern present to do a lot of the really crazy things they can do. Remember, Hope with the Will to enact it is effectively useless.

Glad you guys really liked the look through Sun's and Emerald's eyes. They're fascinating characters, and while they aren't aren't on the same level of importance to the plot as RWBY and JNPR, we felt it was still important to show you all how they're dealing with things. Not to mention they provide a different perspective on Vale. Up until now, all we saw were the teachers' POVs, and that can only provide so much. As for Qrow's imprisonment, remember that solitary confinement isn't very pleasant, and Brainiac has far more advanced ways to study Qrow without primitive implantation. It isn't out of mercy for his part, though. Brainiac simply doesn't find it logical to poke Qrow full of probes to study what he wants.

The entire point of that discussion between Brainiac and Ozpin on how to contain Salem was actually a repudiation of the countless "simple solutions" that people have suggested for how to deal with Salem. Both in the canon story and in Hunters of Justice. The point we were making is that just because it sounds simple to us looking in from the outside, it's not nearly that simple for those who are on the inside. Hence why Ozpin refuted those assertions as impractical with what Remnant had on hand by the time Brainiac invaded. The only way such a thing is possible, to contain Salem without killing her, is to provide an outside-context solution. Brainiac had that, sort of, while Ozpin didn't, so Brainiac's suggestions weren't feasible. It would be like telling a Roman Legionaire that the solution to surviving in an fort during winter is to just put in an AC unit. That would solve the problem, but Rome didn't have AC units so that is impossible for them.

Injustice will most likely be given an Elseworlds treatment. We were already leaning that way, so I'm glad you all agree with that.

Cardin being a jerk with a point was actually what we were going for. We, as the audience, know he's wrong, but the people in Vale don't. A bit of dramatic irony there.

Perhaps if Ozpin had more time to win Raven over, he might've been able to help with the Green Lantern Ambush. But, unfortunately, that simply wasn't the case. Raven is simply too afraid and concerned with herself to let Ozpin strike back, hence why he didn't when he really wanted to.

Glad you guys liked the Penny/Fria chapters. We're taking advantage of something that canon didn't do (not that I blame them; again, different circumstances) to have both of them bond. We want you guys to care about their relationship, and I'm glad to see that so far it has worked.

Let it be known, Ozpin considers letting Brainiac get even a hint of the Relics is a lose condition, so he's making sure that doesn't happen. So far, it's been working, but who knows how long that'll last.

You guys will find out what Salem wants. Also, do remember that while that suggestion was made before we knew, or got the best idea, of what Salem wanted, Ozpin isn't the most reliable narrator when it comes to Salem. He tends to not exactly tell the whole truth regarding her to others at times.

That's it for this chapter. Let us know what you all think. Also, I just want to say that the review section is not a place to directly respond to other reviewers, and I request not to receive any requests for inclusions of characters, settings, and more in this story. Anything I include happens because I feel that it would benefit the story, and if it's not included it's because I don't see a place for it.

See you all next time!