Lucky number seven!

I was originally going to have this out like a week ago but snowmobiling got in the way. It's a great hobby.

Review time!

37: Believe me, things are gonna get a whole lot cooler when she eventually joins.

Shadowdispencer: Not too sure about that.

Junior VB: Thanks!

Guest #1: They won't be given an Aura or a Semblance, only beings on Remnant can have them.

New Universe returns: Good to see we have something in common, it was the same for me!

A great suggestion, I'll see if I can implement it in the next chapter.

Guest #2: They're gonna find out right now…

Elusive Prey: Thanks for all the encouraging comments! There actually is a fic here if you look for it and don't give up on yourself. You may never know if you don't try.

Guest #3: If it was dead, I would've put up a notification.

Colossalblackening: I wanted to but writers fatigue was catching up to me.

Guest #4: No love for my other fics, huh?

Red John: Read on and find out what happens…

Mastermind: Here it is!

Wayward Son: Wow. Those are some pretty good scenes with fantastic homages. Also, I totally agree with your opinion concerning Torchwick. That was completely out of nowhere and just felt dumb. Concerning what I will do about them, you'll have to read the authors notes at the end.

Koruto baruro: I'm not a Stephen King guy and the It movies are probably the only thing I'll see from him. That being said, I would greatly appreciate if you left a review concerning this story in the future.

RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.

Chapter 7

Judgement

PLATEAU-SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

"That's because we attacked it." Grayson answered Ruby.

"You did? You guys aren't with the Confederacy?" Ruby asked again.

"Hell no, Rubes." Grayson answered. "Me, Ishi and the rest of our friends used to work for them with pie-eyed dreams of protecting the galaxy from various criminals and exploring new planets. But that was before we eventually found out that it was a cesspit of lies and fascism. After we discovered the truth, we split from the Confederacy and became space pirates."

"Pirates in space? Awesome!" Nora beamed.

"So you're criminals?" Weiss pressed as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them.

"In a way, yes. But we're not the kind of pirates you're thinking of. We only targeted Confederate supply liners, munition stockpiles, military outposts, prison camps, mining facilities, basically anything we could do to strike a major blow to their operations." Ishi explained.

"Oh, I get it now! You're one of those heroic rouges fighting against an evil empire and making the galaxy a better place!" Ruby deduced with starry eyes.

That had made Grayson and Ishi feel very uncomfortable. They were NOT heroes. They were anything but. In reality, they were formerly assassins who killed God knows how many innocent people before finding out that they were tricked into killing those who directly opposed the Confederacy. Sure, the whole sabotage thing they did was to piss off the Confederacy and free anybody that was suffering under their rule but that was still no excuse for what they previously did.

"Uh…yeah, that's totally what we are." Grayson said, although it made him sick to say that. He hated lying to these kids.

"So I'm guessing you attacked the Ulysses because this Sarrano was on board?" Ren inquired.

"True, but how we got here is another story." Grayson began. "You see, we just gone done taking care of some bounty hunter who was after us. Our position became compromised however; Ishi had to warp us as far away as he possible could."

"The only problem was that I had entered in the wrong coordinates in my haste and unknowingly warped us to your planet's orbit." Ishi added.

"So you came here by accident? Wasn't expecting that." Nora said as she scratched the back of her head.

"When we came out of warp, we saw the Confederation's flagship right in front of us. We all knew that Sarrano was on board and this was our only chance to hit two birds with one stone so we attacked with it everything in our ship's arsenal we ended up shooting each other down and that's brings us to where we are now." Grayson finished.

"WOW! That must've been an amazing space battle!" Ruby beamed as she pumped her fists.

"It was. Expect for two things…" Ishi started as he cast a displeasing look towards Grayson. The other man began to sweat and he looked at Ishi worriedly, knowing what was about to come. "He previously wanted to talk to us and you gave the order to attack while completely drunk."

"What?!" Almost everyone exclaimed.

"Oh, what a shock!" Weiss scoffed with thinly veiled sarcasm and anger.

"Dude, not cool." Yang said while shaking her head.

"So that explains the heavy scent of liquor I smell." Ren added.

'Just like uncle Qrow…' Ruby thought tiredly as she rolled her eyes.

"You were seriously drunk when that happened!? Wouldn't that make it a space DUI?" Jaune asked absentmindedly.

"Why did you attack when Sarrano wanted to talk it out first?" Blake demanded.

"Do you have any idea how much chaos and destruction you've caused to our planet by your drunken actions?!" Weiss angrily yelled at him. "How irresponsible are you?!"

Grayson sighed. "Okay, fine. I admit it. It was a stupid, reckless stunt but believe me when I say that it was never my intention to get the people of Remnant involved. Had any of us known that there was another civilization living on this planet then I never would've attacked the Ulysses, even if I was drunk." He explained truthfully. This seemed to calm some of them down but Weiss still remained livid.

"And just so you all know, that whole 'talk' thing was a load of bullshit. Sarrano was gonna open fire on us the second we let our guard down. He's done it a thousand times before and this time would be no different." Grayson said with a serious expression. He then turned to Ishi. "And you know that."

Ishi could only grunt in agreement. Grayson did have a point but they still should've escaped while they had the chance. It would've been a much prudent option that could've prevented Rell and Oliver's deaths and his disfigurement.

"So, inebriation aside, you said that you saw the Ulysses when you came out of warp. What was Sarrano doing all the way out here if nobody knows about our planet?" Pyrrha inquired.

Grayson found himself thinking over the same question he had just asked Ishi half an hour ago. There was no way this could've been a freak coincidence. Sarrano wouldn't travel all the way to the other end of the Milky Way Galaxy just to go sightseeing. There had to have been a reason for him to come out this far. One way or another, Grayson was going to get to the bottom of it. "Honestly, I've got no clue but I'm gonna find out." He replied with a shrug.

"HOLY MOLY!" Everyone suddenly heard Nora shout! Her infinitely cheerful expression was replaced with one of pure fear as everyone followed her gaze to the entrance of the facility, almost all of them gasping in horror except for Grayson and Ishi.

From outside the encampment, the bodies of the Grimm had finally dissipated to reveal dozens of horribly mutilated bodies, all of them belonging to the White Fang! Most of the corpses had been gruesomely immolated, blown to pieces, missing their heads; one head still had its spinal cord intact! The ground was literally soaked with their blood, painting a nightmarish picture for the Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Jaune doubled over and began to vomit. Ruby's heart pounded against her chest as her legs shook like jelly. Nora staggered away in numb shock. Blake began to hyperventilate. The others stared in complete fright at what they were seeing. Ishi could tell that Grayson didn't really understand their reactions and it was making the cyborg very worried. These youths had obviously not been exposed to this and if Grayson said the wrong thing, they would distrust the both of them almost immediately.

"T-t-t-the W-White Fang!? H-he-here!? W-why?!" Blake stammered, the sight of her slaughtered people would scar her for life.

"We stumbled upon their base a while ago." Ishi said as he pointed to the silo behind the group. They all looked behind them to see the White Fang's symbol emblazoned upon it.

"They had an outpost all the way out here?!" Weiss shouted in confusion.

"The Grimm must've discovered their location." Ren deduced. The grisly display was causing him to have flashbacks of when a certain Grimm destroyed his village.

"Oh, that wasn't the Grimm, we handled those guys." Grayson told them. Ishi scrunched his eyes shut as hard as he could. 'Fuck.' He mentally swore.

Everyone stared at Grayson with wide eyed, almost mortified looks. "Y-you killed them?" Ruby fearfully asked.

"Yup!" He said jovially, further horrifying them. "We got ambushed by them a while ago but no worries, we took all those jagoffs down before they even knew what hit 'em. You shoulda seen the looks on their stupid faces-"

SMACK

Grayson was so caught up in his gloating that he never noticed Blake, with a furious look, went right up to him and slapped him across so face so hard that it actually caused to stagger a little! "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Blake angrily screamed at him. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!"

Grayson blinked in confusion as he held his burning cheek. "Wha- kid, these guys were trying to kill us! We were only defending ourselves!"

"But you went too far!" Jaune countered, after he finished throwing up.

"Yeah! All you had to do was just knock them out!" Nora reasoned.

Grayson wasn't sure what they were getting at until he began to see what was going on. "Oh for the love of Christ, are you all kiddin' me with this shit right now? You pulverize these Grimm things but you much such a big deal outta this!?"

"Big deal?!" Yang repeated incredulously. "We only kill monsters, not people!"

"We don't do this sort of thing! We always disarm them then just let the police take care of them!" Ruby added, her voice shaking with fright. Weiss continued to stare at the mutilated bodies, a part of her actually wishing she stayed in Atlas.

"These guys wanted our heads on a goddamn stick! We had to fight back!" Grayson stated, trying to make these kids see some sense to this.

"BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL THEM!" Blake shouted. "THERE WAS NO NEED TO BUTCHER ANY OF THEM!"

That did it. Grayson was getting pretty sick of this "Batman Rule" bullshit. "LISTEN, DAMN IT! THEY WERE GOING TO FUCKING KILL US! YOU HEAR ME?!"Grayson roared at Blake, startling the others with his sudden outburst and language. "IF WE DIDN'T DEFEND OURSELVES THEN THEY WOULD PUT A FUCKING BULLET THROUGH OUR SKULLS! WE HAD NO CHOICE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING SO PISSED FOR?!"

Her lips curled into a snarl, Blake began to reach for Gambol Shroud-

"She is one of them." Ishi said out of the blue. Grayson turned to Ishi with a look of confusion on his face while Blake looked shocked. The others were surprised. Did he somehow know that Blake was a Faunus?

"How…?" Grayson began.

"Her DNA is exactly the same as these 'White Fang'." He revealed. Blake felt her blood run cold. Sato must've had some kind of scanning technology. She hung her head just as Grayson looked at her with confusion and suspicion. She hated those looks.

But it was nothing compared to how much she hated the situation right now. As much as Blake resented the White Fang for using violent, forceful means to achieve equality when there were more peaceful alternatives, she would never advocate killing them. She had seen too many of her kin cut down in botched raids during her time as a member. She had hoped that she could stop them through non-lethal means but now it seemed that reality had showed her that some things were never that easy.

Judging by how Ishi revealed her linage, they had no idea what the Faunus were and now she was faced with the difficult decision to reveal what she really was to Grayson. She was scared of his reaction and she was furious at him for cutting down her people but maybe if she showed him proof, he could understand the weight of his actions.

Blake's friends regarded her with worried looks as she slowly undid the bow on her head. Grayson's eyes widened as she slipped off the bow to reveal a par of cat ears, as black as her hair, resting atop her head that had been previously concealed by the bow. Blake prepared for the worst: Grayson becoming angry and immediately hostile.

However, Blake saw that Grayson had look of steadily growing realization on his face. "Oh…."

He looked over to the others who now looked very wary and distrustful of him, maybe even a little bit fearful; some of them slowly going for their weapons. Now realizing just what he had exposed these kids to, he began to wander away from them as he needed some much needed space to figure out what he should do. "Fuuuuuuuuuuck….." He silently muttered as he ran his hands through his hair.

Ishi sighed. This was a problem that Grayson had for a long time after they found out the truth about the Confederacy. He had no qualms about killing the worst kind of scum humanity had to offer but when it unintentionally affected anyone who was completely innocent, it made him feel horrible. And considering when Dead Echo learned they had been killing innocent people, it was not hard to feel some level of sympathy for him.

"Grayson is prone to violent tendencies." Ishi told the group. "Some of which he can't control." The Huntsmen and Huntresses expressions were unreadable. They weren't sure what course of action to take at this point.

Grayson stood a few feet away from them, lost in his own thoughts. So far the situation had turned out to be completely pear-shaped than he originally thought. He had dragged a lost civilization into his vendetta with Sarrano, traumatized a bunch of multicolored teenage warriors and quite possibly made himself look like a psycho murderer to them. Bad luck just seemed to be piling on top of him more and more.

What he needed to focus on was getting Ishi a much needed recharge and leave Remnant so he can get that AI out of his friend's mind. But they had no clue where they were or even if they would survive the next Grimm attack. Looking over his shoulder, he knew that before he could help Ishi, he had to unfuck this situation right now.

We walked back to the others who still regarded him suspiciously. Yang moved defensively closer to her sister in the event this lunatic tried to pull something. Grayson swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking.

"Look, I know what we did and we're sorry you had to see all that but you have to understand that things are very different where we come from. It's kill or be killed, there is no justice anymore. Not since the Confederacy took over." Grayson explained in a calm manner, the opposite of his previous outburst. This seemed to calm some of them down but made them more worried about the Confederacy.

"I know some of you just want to throw us in whatever jail you have here but please hear me out…my friend is dying." That last part immediately had everyone concerned as they looked at Ishi.

"Ishi was so badly injured in the crash that we had to replace most of his limbs but his brain took the most damage. My other friend, our ship's doctor, managed to restore most of what was lost but he had to install our Ship's artificial intelligence into Ishi's head to as a replacement for any brain matter he lost. But now that AI is trying to take control of his mind and if it does, I lose the only friend I have left." He said desperately. Any disapproving opinions everyone had about these two had done a complete 180. They no longer saw a lunatic but a desperate man who only wanted to save his friend. But why would anybody be so crazy enough to actually put Artificial Intelligence into someone's brain?

"The only way I can help him now is to get him off world and to some ex-Confederate bioengineers that can remove the AI out of his head. But we can't do it by ourselves. We don't know anything about Remnant, how it works, the lay of the land, or even the Grimm which I doubt we'll survive the next encounter. We…." Grayson trailed off as he hung his head. He didn't want to beg but he and Ishi were in dire straits and wanted to desperately make up for his friend's condition.

"We need your help." He said with a pleading look in his eyes.

For a while nobody said a thing. They had calmed down after his explanation and plea but were now faced with a tough choice: help them or take them in to be arrested. Some of the members felt terrible for Grayson and Ishi while Weiss was somewhat less sympathetic considering the situation. Jaune and Ruby looked at each other with uncertainty. They wanted to make their decision right now but being each Team's respective leaders, it would be best if they talked it over with their friends.

"Erm…we kinda need to talk this over with each other first." Jaune said to Grayson as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Let me guess, you're gonna huddle together in a little circle while we await our fate?" Grayson dryly replied with an eye roll.

"No! What made you think that?" Ruby answered quickly as to not dishearten him. She forced a smile though Grayson could see that she was trying a little bit too hard.

"Urg!" Everyone heard Ishi grunt in pain as they saw him clutch the side of his head. Grayson ran over to him and sat Ishi down on a nearby crate. "Look, whatever you guys need to talk about, do it quick. My friend's running on borrowed time." He urgently told the others

"R-r-right." Jaune hastily said as the he and the others walked a few feet away from them and began to have their group discussion. Gray planted a hand on Ishi's shoulder as his friend breathed deeply; sweat rolling down his face.

"Is it getting worse?"

"Yes. The pain is almost unbearable."

"I know, man. I know but we're gonna get out of here. Just stay strong, 'kay?"

"I'll try my hardest…that's the first time I've ever seen you beg like that."

"I ain't too proud of it but I'm desperate at this point. Look, if they decide to help us we can't let them know or tell them that we used to be assassins or we're completely fucked."

"Agreed. We'd lose their trust if we did."

The duo looked over to the others who were closely huddled and appeared to be in a heated debate.

"Do you think they'll help us?" Ishi wondered.

"What other choice do we have?" Grayson sighed.

"We should be turning these thugs in to the authorities!" Weiss firmly stated.

"But didn't you hear what Gray said? Ishi's dying! We can't just ditch 'em, we have to help 'em! Isn't that what we do?" Nora said.

"Help them!?" Weiss said incredulously. She pointed to the dead White Fang soldiers. "They're murderers!"

"Now hold on a minuet." Pyrrha interjected. "Yes, they did kill them but Grayson and Ishi were only defending themselves."

"It still doesn't make it right." Blake pointed out.

"I know that. I'm just saying that there's a difference between being forced into difficult circumstances and murdering." Pyrrha elaborated.

"After all, it was only going to be a matter of time before we had to do the same." Ren added.

"W-what?" Ruby balked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss demanded.

"When you all joined Beacon, did any of you think we were just exclusively slaying Grimm?" Ren asked them rhetorically.

"Well, that's what the academies were made for, right?" Jaune guessed, unsure of when his friend was getting at.

"Not exactly. Sooner or later we were going to have to resort to deadly force in the event we have to protect someone." Ren explained to them. "We couldn't go on forever just knocking our enemies out."

"But it worked out so well when we fought the White Fang." Yang reminded him.

"I don't want to sound demeaning, but I think you were all very lucky to do so." Ren stated, trying his best not to sound condescending.

"Besides, it was only going to be a matter of time before Ms. Goodwitch would eventually break the news to us. It would have to be something we had to face and accept if we were put into a dangerous situation where we couldn't just disarm or incapacitate any non-Grimm enemies." Pyrrha said with a mix of seriousness and reluctant acceptance in her voice.

For a while, the others let this fact sink in. They did have a point but could they really take a life? They came to Beacon to protect Remnant from the Grimm but they didn't think that they would eventually be forced to actually use to deadly force. This was something they weren't prepared for and weren't sure what to do if it ever came to them. Everyone was silent until Yang spoke.

"I say we help them." She affirmed. "I know they killed a bunch of guys but they're not like, you know, 'pure evil'. Things are just really messed up where they come from but it doesn't mean that they're bad. Besides, we can't just leave Ishi twisting in the wind. If we just hauled them off to jail after Gray begged us to help them and let Ishi's mind get taken over…I don't think I could live with myself if I did that. Could any of you?"

Yang had a point. If they didn't help him then they would be condemning Ishi to a fate worse than death so that left taking them in out of the question.

"Well…maybe if we do help them then they could tell us more about Earth, the galaxy and the Confederacy." Jaune suggested.

"That's a good idea. We could use that information to warn Ozpin and the other Kingdoms about just how dangerous this Confederacy is." Pyrrha added.

"Considering if they believe us." Blake commented.

"And we could tell them all about Remnant in return!" Ruby chimed in.

"I can't believe this!" Weiss almost shouted. "How do we know they're not tricking us? They could be waiting to stab us in the back the second we let our guard down!"

"Well they haven't tried to shoot us yet so that's gotta be something, right?" Nora said.

The others looked to Ruby and Jaune. The two of them glanced at each other before brainstorming a solution to this predicament.

2 MINUETS LATER

Grayson and Ishi anxiously waited for the group come to a conclusion. They hoped the others would come to a reasonable comprise after all the shit Grayson put them through. He felt bad about everything and now not only had to make it all up to Ishi, but the people of this planet as well.

The duo saw everyone walking back to them and held their breaths.

Ruby was the first speak. "Okay, so we all talked it over and we all agreed that we can't apprehend you two. Although you two did take away several lives, we understand that it was all in self-defense. Your friend needs help and it's our duty to lend a hand to those in need."

Grayson's face lit up. "You mean…?"

Ruby smiled. "Yup! We've decided to help you guys!"

Grayson breathed a sigh of relief while Ishi smiled in appreciation. "Thank you. You all have no idea how grateful we are." Grayson thanked.

"However…" Weiss began while pointing a finger at him. "We are going to be keeping a very close eye on you two."

"We get that things are rough where you come from but you can't just go around killing in self-defense all the time while you're on Remnant. A lot of people here will get the wrong idea." Jaune explained.

"We know that we can't always disarm or incapacitate our way through a fight and we've accepted that one day we may have to resort to deadly force but we're just…not there yet." Pyrrha admitted.

"Yeah. So you guys can go crazy on the Grimm but take it down a notch when you're fighting people, kay?" Nora said.

Grayson and Ishi though this over for second before nodding. The kids weren't asking for much and they had free rein to kill the Grimm so it was easy to agree with them. "Sure. We can do that. Right, Ishi?"

"Of course. We will use non-lethal tactics." Ishi agreed.

Ruby practically beamed with joy. "Alrighty! We're all in agreement!"

"So what's the game plan?" Yang asked. "We don't have any spaceships here so how do we get you guys off Remnant?"

"You know that psychotic General I was talking about earlier? He's our ticket out of here." Grayson replied with a grin. "A jumpship will be here soon to pick him up and we're currently tracking one of his soldiers who'll lead us to him. We follow her, we find Sarrano."

"And then you guys hijack his ship, right?" Nora eagerly guessed. Ren shook his head.

"Actually, we're gonna try and go for sneaking aboard. If we stole it, we'd be leaving Sarrano here and you guys do NOT want that douchebag on your planet." Grayson said.

"I guess that works out better. So, should we get this show and the road?" Jaune suggested.

"Not yet. We gotta take a little detour first." Grayson told him.

"Detour?" Blake inquired suspiciously. Although she agreed to help them, she still remained resentful for how they killed several Faunus.

"My bioprocessor is running low." Ishi informed as he tapped the metallic park of his exposed skull which glowed blue. "If I am unable to find a suitable energy source to recharge, my body will shut down…permanently."

"Yikes. You two seriously need a break." Yang commented.

"No kidding." Grayson replied.

"Is there any way that you can recharge with Dust?" Ren inquired.

"Probably." Ishi said as Grayson began tapping some buttons on his Instinct Leash.

"We're currently following a large energy reading somewhere within this base. Whatever kind of Dust gives off that much; it's more than enough to recharge Ishi." Grayson said as he pointed towards a small gate nearby.

"Judging by the sound of it, you're talking about energy Dust." Weiss mused at she tapped her chin. "That should be sufficient enough but how exactly do we administer it to you?" She asked Ishi.

"I am unsure myself but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's focus on making our way to the source." Ishi advised.

"Then what are we just standing around here for? Onward-ho, everybody!" Ruby excitedly declared as she pointed to the gate. "We've got outer space relatives to help!"

"Let me start it off fer ya!" Grayson joined in with a smile. What happened next blew everyone off their feet. Grayson flung out his hand and a whip of blue colored light shot out of the device he wore on the back of his hand and wrapped itself around the gate! Everyone's jaws fell open in amazement while Ruby's eyes widened so much that they threatened to pop out of her skull and sparkles danced around her eyeballs.

Grayson yanked backed on whip and the gate flew off its hinges! Grayson turned towards the teams with smug look on his face. "Pretty kick-ass, eh? Feel free to give me a round of applause whenever you feel like it-"

WHACK

What Grayson failed to notice was that the force at which he yanked the leash back sent the gate flying towards him and slammed into him with so much force that it sent the space pirate tumbling across the ground! Everyone immediately rushed over to him after shaking off the initial shock and noticing that he had no aura at all. Ishi stood where he was, completely indifferent to what happened. Grayson was pretty much asking for it.

"Gray! Are you okay?" Ruby said, stricken with immediate concern.

"OWWW! MOTHERFUCKER! ARRRRRGGH!" Grayson howled in pain as he clutched his arm. Not just his arm but the whole right part of his body hurt.

"Is your arm broken?" Blake asked.

Grayson wearily sat himself up. "I've been through worse." He suddenly hissed in pain as he clutched the area where that pig Grimm nailed him earlier. "On second thought…" He removed his hands from his thigh to reveal a makeshift tourniquet that was now soaked in his blood. It slipped off to reveal a nasty gash running across his thigh.

"Oh my goodness!" Pyrrha gasped, "Did a Grimm do that!?"

"Damn straight. We ran into a whole bunch of the little bastards earlier. They all looked like warthogs." Grayson replied as he tried to block out the pain.

"Sounds like you encountered a pack of Boarbatusks." Ren identified as he took a close look at Grayson's wound. "Those are especially tenacious."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when they tried to carve me up like fuckin' turkey." Grayson sarcastically grumbled. Ren began to tie the tourniquet back on on and made it tighter so Grayson wouldn't lose anymore blood.

"Wow, so you guys really don't have Auras where you come from…that's pretty heavy." Nora said in disbelief.

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" Grayson wondered.

"Auras are a manifestation of our souls. It's like a shield that forms over your body and protects you from harm. Everyone on Remnant has one." Jaune explained, having learnt it from Pyrrha.

Grayson looked at Jaune incredulously. "Okay, I'm willing to believe a lot of things but that sounds like pure-"

"They're telling the truth." Ishi spoke, confusing Grayson.

"I've done a full scan of each of you. You all have some form of biological protective barrier surrounding each of you." Ishi said as he looked at the Huntsmen and Huntresses top to bottom.

"Duh!" Nora exclaimed.

"So that whole scanning thing you have…does it let you see through clothes?" Yang joked with a lecherous grin on her face.

"Yaaaaang! Quit it!" Ruby whined in embarrassment. A thought entered her head and her face instantly went red. She looked to Ishi while covering herself. "Y-y-you don't have that, right?"

"I do not." Ishi answered. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, if Ishi knows it's true then I believe him." Grayson admitted. "Sorry for doubting you guys."

"Don't sweat it." Yang reassured him as he helped him up. "But for the record, you should stick close to us, big guy. You two ain't gonna last long here without an Aura."

"For the record, we handled ourselves just fine for our first visit." Grayson said confidently as he unslung his weapon from his back mounted holster. Ruby gawked at the four barreled shotgun-like firearm clutched firmly in hands.

"OOOOOOOOOH! WHATISITWHATISITWHATISIT!?" Ruby frantically asked as she zipped up to Grayson and eyeballed the weapon.

"This here's my pride and joy: Boneduster. This baby can fire 4 shells at the same time and when it's overcharged, it fires a superheated shockwave so powerful it can vaporize almost anything it hits." Grayson informed.

"SO COOOOOOOOL!"

"Yeah but it's not as cool as Ishi's rifle. It fires guided bullets." Grayson told her as he pointed at Ishi. They cyborg instantly felt Ruby's hyperactive gaze shift to him and she was upon him in seconds. "YOU CAN SHOOT GUIDED BULLETS?! HOW?!"

Ishi gave Ruby a confused. He never met anyone so interested in weapons so it felt strange yet oddly comforting to interact with someone like Ruby. He relented. "It's actually not as complicated as you would first believe it to be." Ishi began as he started to inform Ruby of the inner workings of HeadHunter.

"Bit of a gun nut, isn't she?" Grayson said to Yang.

"Gray, I can tell you stories." She smiled.

"So you mentioned something about 'overcharging' your weapon. I guess that's kinda like how our weapons work?" Jaune inquired.

"Sorta but none of them can transform into melee weapons like yours. Up close and personal weapons kinda got phased out years ago." Grayson answered.

"Phased out!?" Nora gawked. She then brought out her signature weapon, Magnhild, and transformed it into its warhammer configuration. "I beg to differ! There's no way you can phase out something this awesome!" She said proudly while striking a pose with her weapon.

"Yeah!" Ruby joined in after Ishi had finished telling her everything about HeadHunter. She whipped out Crescent Rose and struck a pose like Nora did. "Remnant's got the best weapons!"

"No argument here. But gotta know: how do you even lift those things?" Grayson pondered as he pointed to their weapons.

"Most of them are made of lightweight metals." Nora chirped.

"But it's mostly because we drink milk! Gives you strong bones!" Ruby said with a flex of her arms.

"I'll have what you guys are having." Grayson humorously commented, earning a chuckle from the others. Their strength mostly came from training though it was important to have calcium in your diet.

"So tell us more about that whip thing you do! That was amazing!" Ruby asked.

"Well, it's nothing much. It just shoots out an energy lasso that's actually pretty damn useful so far. It's called the Instinct Leash." Grayson said. Truth be told, he didn't really know much about the mechanics of it, he had just been using it to lasso enemies and pull objects down or towards him. He was going to have to experiment with it more.

"Neeeeeeat! So does everybody where you come from use it?" Ruby excitedly questioned him.

"Actually, this thing is pretty fucking illegal. This little fucker can get you locked up in a supermax prison for the rest of yer fuckin' life." Grayson informed her with a smile. Ruby was more shocked at Grayson's language than the whole prison bit.

"Uh, could you do us all a favor and lay off the F-bombs? My sister's only fifteen, ya know!" Yang scolded. Grayson raised an eyebrow and took note of the uncomfortable expression Ruby was wearing.

Grayson merely shrugged as he walked over to the open gate. "Sounds like a good age to be swearing if you ask me."

"It's….really not." Ruby said meekly as she pressed her index fingers together.

Everyone followed Grayson as they went through the repurposed mining complex. As they walked, they saw mounting evidence of the White Fang's activities: dozens of crates containing lighting and fire Dust, racks of weapons, improvised explosives and several APCs and IFVs; likely stolen from a Vale military compound. These guys were geared for war. The sight of their frighteningly impressive ordinance was beginning to confuse and worry Blake. Why was the White Fang stockpiling all of this equipment and what could they possibly be using it for? Did Torchwick have another secret base of operations like the one he had hidden beneath Mountain Glenn? As much as she wanted to stay and gather some clues to this, she was reminded that her friends needed to help Grayson and Ishi. When all of this was over, she was going to have to come back to this place and investigate.

Grayson pressed a few buttons on the Leash. "Looks like the energy signature is starting to go deeper into this base. As in underground." He saw an elevator that led into the mines which was behind a chain-link door. "There. That should lead us down."

"It could be dangerous from here on out." Pyrrha surmised as she analyzed the situation. "There's bound to be White Fang insurgents in here and there's no doubt they heard all the commotion topside. We'll most likely be confined to close quarters combat in tight spaces."

"Don't sweat it! We can handle it!" Nora said confidently as the others nodded in approval. Pyrrha smiled at Nora's optimism.

They walked over to the door and Grayson forcibly kicked it open but then it swung back and slammed right into his nose, sending him crumpling to the ground!

"FUCK! SON OF A FUCKING CUNT! GODDAMMIT SHITFUCKCOCK!" Grayson cursed as lay on the ground, clutching his broken nose. Team RWBY and JNPR Stood with mortified expressions while Yang had managed to plug up her sister's ears with her fingers before Grayson could let loose his tirade.

"Oh dear…" Ren flatly commented.

Ishi shook his head. "Is watching you inflict accidental harm upon yourself going to be a common occurrence with you?"

"Eat my nutsack, Ishi." Grayson grumpily replied as he sat up.

Weiss shook her head as her face curled in disgust. "You are the most repulsively vulgar man I have ever had the misfortune to meet." She frowned as she folded her arms.

"Well get used to it cuz there's gonna be a lot of it, Snowflake." He replied.

Blake walked over to the chain-link door. "You could've just pushed it open, you know." She demonstrated by gently doing so.

"Oh yeah, that's fun." Grayson replied with an eye roll.

Confident that Grayson was done cursing (for now at least), Yang removed her fingers from Ruby's ears. "You didn't hear what he said, did you? Because you can't say anything he says."

Ruby's eyes darted left and right while looking somewhat guilty. "I tried not to."

Grayson got up and rubbed his nose. Definitely broken. Ren walked up to Grayson to check up on him…again. "Are you okay? Is it broken?"

CRACK

Grayson snapped his nose back into place, causing Ren to grimace at the sound. "Not anymore." He replied as he wiped the blood off on his arm.

"Look, if you're gonna keep hurting yourself like this then you have to stay close to us, Gray. If you think about it, it could make your time on Remnant easier." Yang suggested to him.

Grayson thought this over. Though he didn't want to feel like he was being babysat, it would be nice to have his newfound allies by his side in case things got hairy.

"You think you can keep up with me?" Grayson said with a challenging grin.

"Pffffft, easy! We'll be sure to keep you on a…." She glanced down at his Instinct Leash and gave him a huge smile. "Tight Leash!"

This earned a collective groan from everybody.

"Your one of those pun types, aren't you?" Grayson said with a tone of resignation.

"Yup. And admit it, it was funny!" Yang said happily.

"Yeah. Reeeeeeeal funny." He drawled as he as everyone else got on the elevator.

Jaune pressed the down button and the elevator began to descend deep into the mines…albeit very slowly. "Looks like this is gonna take a while." He commented.

'Thank you, Captain Obvious.' Grayson mentally complained.

Ruby inched up next to him. "Soooooooooo we were thinking that if you could tell us more about what's it's like where you come from, we could tell you all about Remnant."

Grayson and Ishi looked at each other, unsure of how to answer. "We would greatly appreciate learning more about your planet but are you sure you all want to know about the nature of our world and the Confederacy?" Ishi sternly told them.

"We kind of have a good idea of how bad it is." Blake admitted.

After a moment of deliberation, the pair nodded. "Okay. We'll tell you." Grayson accepted. "But we warn you: It's not gonna be pretty."

To be continued…

Damn, this was hard.

I had to go through a dozen revisions of this chapter because I wanted to get the feeling and interaction right. The hardest was the Teams agreeing to help out Grayson and Ishi. I feel like I got it right by having Pyrrha and Ren tell them the hard truth and reality of being a Huntsman/Huntress since they're the most mature out of the cast.

The easiest part had to be making the combination of RWBY's lighthearted nature and Bulletstorm's no holds barred, ultraviolent swear fest. Makes for some good comedy.

One thing I do want to address is that while tis will be closely adhering to Bulletstorm's storyline, this will include Volume 3's darker tone. It was a huge conga line of character development for the cast (as well as numerous Break the Cutie moments) and all of that will be retained in this fic. One huge difference, as well as a bit of notification or spoilers depending on how you look at it, is that Penny, Pyrrha and Roman will NOT die in this.

I'll be going on break to work on two chapters for Wrath of the Ultrabots and maybe one for Kaiju Warfare. But to give you guys a little treat, the next chapter will feature Mercury and Emerald!

Don't forget to review but please don't flame.