Julius eyed the bottle in the Vostroyan soldiers hand before shrugging, "Suppose I could use a swig, names Julius Romano."
Nicholas handed off the bottle with a smile, "Nicholas Tsartrov, this here is Edison Luminous." He gestured to the down tech-adept clutching his head groaning.
"Saladin Ad-Dīn Yūsuf." The Tallaharn boy said with his face wraps slightly muffling his voice.
Julius sighed handing the bottle back to Nicholas, he looked up into the dark sky and estimated that daybreak would be within the hour by the orange haze over the mountains getting brighter, "So, lads let me run this by ya. Were you lot fighting a lot of xenos and heretics before you got blown into or thrown into a Warp portal?"
Edison groaned standing up, "Yes."
Saladin, "This is true."
"Huh." Nicholas said staring up at the broken moon, "The hell happened here to break a moon?"
The other three Imperials looked to where Nicholas was pointing and gawked at the broken remains of the moon that hung over the unnamed planet.
"Well Emperor be praised how in Holy Terra are we even on dry land? Shouldn't the gravity be all buggard?" Julius asked loading his shotgun, his father always told him, 'You'll never know when you'll need a loaded gun, so always have one.
Edison stood to his full height cracking his metal back, "Perhaps the gravitational pull from the planet's core makes up for the lack of pull from the moon, and maybe we're on only a fraction of what's considered dry land?"
Nicholas rubbed his temples, "That's too much science for me Eddy."
"What do we do now?" Saladin asked swinging his Khalig through the air making a whistling sound out of boredom.
Before any one answer two more Warp portals just tore through reality.
"Buggar!"
"Shrakk!"
A sharp screaming erupted from the portals as they spat out two more travelers, a Cadian guardsmen came from the closest portal, while a Ta-
"XENO!" Nicholas shouted firing lasrounds at a Tau Fire Warrior that sprung from the portal, a second later and the other two guardsmen opened fire on the blue skinned armor wearing alien.
Fate however was on the TFW (Tau Fire Warrior, I'm that lazy) side as most of the rounds hit the surrounding foliage instead, giving it a short window of opportunity to scramble away until it broke out into a dead sprint in the far opposite direction of the guardsmen.
"You better run you bitch!" Julius shouted firing one last shell at the fleeing alien, managing to clip its armor and send it into a glancing blow of a tree, "I'll skull frakk you with this shotgun!"
"Pansy!" Saladin shouted waving his sword threateningly.
"I'll drink your blood like wine! Then spit it back into your face!" Nicholas roared just missing the xeno's head with his lasrifle.
The Cadian boy as he rose to his feet, "Damn, the whole platoon is gone." He muttered with a with a shaky voice, a traumatized look plastered across his face, "They're all dead, I'm all that's left…"
Nicholas bumps the Cadian's shoulder with the Amsaec bottle, "Know how that feels, drink?"
He looked at the bottle and Nicholas, "Thanks mate…" Gently he took the bottle and sipped a small amount of the liquor, "here…"
Nicholas took the bottle back looking at the Cadian with sympathy. Julius also took notice of the boy's sorrows and gave him a pat on the back.
Saladin nods to the estranged Cadian guardsman as the soldier began to drudge forward into the forest in a mindless march.
Julius calls to him, "Wait pal, where are you going? We don't know where we are!"
The Cadian turned with a deadpanned stare, "Anywhere is better than just standing around… my names Gavin, what about you guys?"
Julius was about to answer him but the words got caught up in his mouth as he stammered, "G-g-g-g-g- behind you!"
Gavin raised a brow before the foreign hissing noise started to ring in his ears, he closed his eyes and opened them slowly to see a massive shadow dwarfing his own, "There's something big behind me, isn't there?"
The other three guardsmen and Techpriest nodded rapidly.
Gavin sighed closing his eyes for one last time, "Frakk."
In a flash the giant black snake's mouth chomped the poor traumatized Cadian solider all the way down to his shins, when it lifted its head from the ground level the boots of the solider standing in place could still be seen with blood spurting from the still active veins before they went cold.
"Uh-uh-uh-"
The Snake hissed twice sneering down towards the guardsmen and Techpriest, all of whom were staring deadpanned in utter shock.
"That went south… so fast…" Saladin muttered staring at the ankles in more or less amazement.
Nicholas licked his lips trying to come up with a statement, "I've never seen that sort of xeno befo-" The second head from the tail loops around from the other side of the small clearing causing the Vostroyan to frown, "that's some cheap shrakk right there."
"Uh anyone see a Commissar?" Saladin asks checking over his shoulder.
"Nope." Julius responds taking a step back, "So I vote for a tactical charge in the other direction, because that's the manly thing to do right?"
"Most certainly!" Nicholas responded with a nervous chuckle shuffling backwards.
"I agree." Saladin says as he backed away from the imposing monster.
Edison nods and points behind them, "I believe I hear the Omnissiah calling me, from the other direction!"
"Then it's agreed!" Julius said clapping his hands together, "RUN FOR YOUR FRAKKING LIVES!"
Beacon, half an hour earlier…
Hansel opened his slowly, unlike others he didn't need an alarm clock, on Krieg your body suffices, when it tells you to get up you get up pronto because the Commissar would have an inspection every day on the battlefield to make sure everyone was combat ready.
His body was telling him to get on his feet and organize his weapons and equipment… but for some reason Hansel just didn't want to get up. The floor was comfortable, he was toasty in his coat, the school day wouldn't start for another couple of hours, and most importantly there was no battlefield to go to at the current moment.
'So… this is what it's like to have nothing to do… I hate it.' Hansel thought placing his right arm underneath his head.
The whole room was silent, excluding Yang's incessant snoring, and was quiet peaceful. So peaceful in fact it was making Hansel consider sleeping in for a little while longer.
That was until a yawn caught his attention.
He didn't turn his head or get up but opted out to listen for whoever it was, though he had a pretty good idea who it was.
Ruby.
As fate would have it the girl in question shuffled into view with a tired look in her barely opened eyes, her hair was disheveled and shot out in multiple directions like a hung-over monkey's head.
If it wasn't for Hansel wanting to keep a low profile he would've stifled a small barely audible chuckle, though with the mask on its noise would've been louder.
Ruby yawned again while stretching her arms out doing a small stretch. She turned around and saw that the rest of the team was still fast asleep until her eyes landed on Hansel.
She could never tell if he truly was asleep with that mask on, it'd be scary if he was actually awake right now, but she knew he was probably asleep… and so were the others…
Hansel raised a brow at seeing the thought process of Ruby's face, how quickly it turned from a simple smile to a devious grin, like she was going to do something she knew she could get away with doing.
It didn't take Hansel long to figure out what it was because as soon as she initially crossed over him she settled down next to him on his right side, taking up the space where his right arm would've been. As gently as she could Ruby slid her right arm across Hansel's chest until her fingers were touching his left shoulder.
Ruby made her head comfortable on Hansel's right shoulder in a way where she thought that he wouldn't notice a change in pressure, which just might've been the case if he wasn't already awake, with his mind racing faster than a shooting star.
Warning, Hansel exe. has stopped working…
Rebooting: 25%
Ruby nuzzles her face closer underneath his gas masked chin.
Rebooting: 65%
Gripped his coat tightly, yawning softly.
Rebooting: 99%
Reboot complete:
Hansel cleared his throat loudly, "Ahem."
"Eeep!" Ruby closed her eyes as tight as humanly possible cursing herself, 'He's awake! What have you gotten yourself into Ruby Rose!?'
Hansel pushed himself off of his bedroll and turned his head to a rather red faced nervous Ruby, and stared at her silently for a good couple of seconds, waiting for her to do or say something that would have her explain herself. But Hansel wasn't going to wait and decided to make the first move.
Ruby press her index fingers together quietly looking to the back wall of the room for some sort advice, but walls unfortunately don't give advice. With a nervous sigh Ruby looked back to Hansel ready to explain what she was doing by his bedroll when he was doing something that raised a red flag.
He was taking his coat off.
"…." Ruby couldn't find any words to say, all she did was stare at Hansel with a terrified look, she was not that kind of girl! She wanted to wait til marriage before she… as Yang described it, 'popped her cherry.'
"I- eep!" She closed her eyes as Hansel pulled her towards him, but he was still wearing his fatigues, what was he doing?
Ruby opened her eyes to see Hansel wrap his coat around the both of them and settle back down onto the floor.
'…..oh.' Ruby thought with a dark red face.
"You looked cold." Hansel whispered wrapping his arms around Ruby, "I don't want you getting sick."
"Thanks." She squeaked in embarrassment.
"I also heard what you said to me a few nights ago. When you thought I was sleeping."
Ten thousand bombs went off in Ruby's head, her heart started beating like a million engines were kicked into overdrive.
"Y-yes…"
"I trust you." He said squeezing her closer.
A large Cheshire cat grin adorned her face, she did it, she broke through! How badly she wanted to squeal and hug him and kiss him- Yang would lose her cool if she did that! But it would be worth it in Ruby's opinion.
"Thanks Hansel, that means a lot to me."
"Go back to sleep."
"Okay, fine, kill the moment." She murmured resting her back down on his shoulder, letting the embrace of sleep wash over her.
Yang opened her eyes slowly, she had a good night's sleep dreaming that she was at an Achievmen concert and they were singing a song just for her, even with eight hours sleep she still felt drowsy.
"Nnnngh," She whined throwing her legs over her bed, twisting to the side a couple of times to crack her back. Lazily her eyes drifted over to where her sister slept, only to widen to see Ruby absent from her bed.
She jumped down to the soft carpet to go check the bathroom, but a hand from behind clasped over her mouth, "Shh."
"Mmlake?" 'Blake?'
"Just don't freak out okay." Blake said releasing her grip on Yang's mouth.
"What was that for?"
Blake rolled her eyes and pointed toward where Hansel usually slept. Correction, where Hansel and RUBY were sleeping.
The room started to heat up as the blonde's face twitched with outrage, "Yang… cool down, you know there's no way you're going to stop those two. Your sister likes him a lot Yang. I think you just need to accept it." Blake reasoned holding onto her partner's shoulder.
Yang glanced towards Blake with a scowl, then back at her sister and that… monster of a boy. She glared at the skull themed mask with contempt, out of all of the damn people that they could find in that forest it had to be someone like him, a murderous racist asshole that treated everyone like they were beneath him and not worth his time.
But then she glanced to her sister's face; it had been years since she'd seen Ruby look legitimately happy, she never really got over Summer's death, for a whole year Ruby had stayed in Yang's room because she's end up screaming in the middle of the night from reoccurring nightmares of being surround by Grimm in the forest when they were little.
Now it looked like her sister was having a pleasant dream… with someone that makes her happy… somehow.
"I know Blake. She's my sister though, I'm supposed to protect her, how do I know that he won't hurt her?"
The Raven haired girl looked past her partner towards the sleeping soldier, "Hansel told me he wouldn't, he in his own words said that he would sooner kill himself, I'm pretty sure that he'd kill anyone that tries to hurt her too. I also think Ruby is old enough to handle herself Yang."
Yang sighed staring at the odd couple, "I know but seriously? This guy? The whole, 'I'll kill you all' looking racist jerk? I'm certain Ruby can do better."
Blake grimaced at the remark, she knew that Hansel's views on Faunus miffed her at best, but she also remembered where he comes from, "While I may not like any of those portions of his personality, Ruby can decide for herself if she really wants to be with him."
The blonde nodded her head, she stared at the two for a few minutes until a very naughty Xiao Long idea popped into her head.
Silently Yang pulled the bedroom drawer open and brought out her scroll, "Hehehehe…"
"Yang. What are you doing?" Blake asked not liking where this situation was going.
"Oh nothing~" She said mischievously going to the camera function of her scroll.
"Yang, think about that, is it really a good idea?" Blake asked cautiously.
"Yep."
"Suit yourself then, I want no part of it."
Without heeding her partners warnings, the blonde teen took several photos of Ruby and (Dust damnit this was hard to admit) her boyfriend, she then started sending the pictures between the members of RWBY and JNPR as a little joke.
Now, will she regret sending these pictures? More than likely, but it was worth it.
She was about to send one to her uncle but her scroll was receiving an incoming message.
From Professor Goodwitch.
Twenty minutes later, with the Sun just barely passing the horizon...
"Thank you teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY for joining me at such an early hour." Ozpin stated with his hands steeple on his desk, "Late last night we were getting some strange readings from Emerald Forest, I did some comparison an hour ago and it seems the energy signatures match the same ones that brought Hansel here."
The Kriegan boy immediately stiffened his back staring the Headmaster dead on, "More Warp portals?!"
"It would seem that way Hansel." The Headmaster said with a hint of worry in his voice, "We do however have a live feed over the portals, I want everyone to know what they could possibly be dealing with when I send your teams out there to eradicate or save whatever comes out of those portals."
"Eradicate sir?" Coco Adel asked leaning forward in her seat.
"Any number of things could come out of those portals," Hansel interrupted, "It could be the unlucky guardsman like me or it could be Chaos cultists armed to the teeth ready to pillage the land, Traitor Marine Legions in their adamantuium power armor ready to lay waste to whatever lives, or Emperor forbid it could be a couple of Daemons like a pack of Bloodletters coming forth to steal souls."
The shades that were formally over Coco's eyes slid down to her nose as she deadpanned at the numerous horrific possibilities Hansel just listed, "Damn."
"That is precisely why your teams were called here, Professor Goodwitch will accompany all of you to the forest and provide support against whatever will come from the por-" The Headmaster stopped short as a yellow coated man flew from one of the portals to land face first into the ground.
Everyone held their breathes (excluding Hansel) staring at the man wondering if he was alive, they all sighed with relief seeing him lift his head up, but yelped again as a second man wearing desert garbs body slam into the ground several feet away from the yellow coated man.
He too lifted his head up looking confused. Thinking that the spontaneous arrivals were over they were proven wrong when a sled carrying two… men?
Both were wearing red, one however was cloaked in bright red robes and looked significantly taller than the other more ornate man.
"A Techpriest, a Tallarn guardsman, and an Armageddonian guardsman? All in one place?" Hansel said more or less to himself, not realizing or not caring that everyone else in the room looked at him with curiosity.
"Just how diverse is the Imperium?" Ozpin asked raising a brow at the three soldiers conversing with one another.
Hansel shrugged, "Trillions of people, millions of planets. So very diverse."
Through the monitor they witnessed another two soldiers get spat out of the Warp, on human and on-
"Xeno!" Hansel shouted slamming his hand on the table, "A frakking Fire Warrior!?"
Ozpin furrowed his brow at the alien soldier as it started running from the Imperials lasfire and shotgun rounds, "What is the quarrel between you and these Fire Warriors?"
"They are xenos, that's reason enough. They are untrustworthy traitorous vile monstrosities of creation; they the Fire Warriors are the warrior cast for the Tau Empire. Before I came here I was in a campaign against them and Chaos at the same time." Hansel glared at the alien warrior's fleeting form, "I will kill him one of these days when he shows his wretched face again."
Hansel's angry outburst raised multiple questions in the room, 'Why were the aliens considered traitorous? Can they not be reasoned with? Why are the Tau Empire and the Imperium fighting?'
But those questions would have to wait because the green armored boy was walking away from the other soldiers and the Techpriest, they were apparently conversing with each other, the cameras audio wasn't available to make out what they were saying.
They did however see the Imperials panic and most (excluding Hansel) of the people in the room couldn't blame them. A King Taijitu was right above the green soldier.
Velvet's eyes widen into saucers, "I- I don't think he's going to move!"
Unfortunately for the Cadian, she was right. In one second the Cadian soldier went from Imperial guardsman, to lunch meat.
"Oh my- my Dust." Professor Goodwitch said watching the boy's blood spurt from his ankles, it was a good thing nobody had eaten anything recently otherwise there would be some projectile vomiting flying about.
"Fool should've moved." Hansel muttered nodding his head to the side, earning Coco's immediate wrath.
"How can you just say that?! The kid was just eaten!"
"That was his problem, he should've moved instead of stand there like an idiot." Hansel replied coldly.
Yang growled, her eyes turning into a bright shade of red, "He was just a kid Hansel."
Hansel scoffed shaking his head, "Is that supposed to excuse him? It's a rather poor excuse, the Cadians are supposed to be the 'Emperor's finest' yet one of them just died like a lamb, he dishonored planet dying like that."
"Hansel!" Blake said taken back by his coldness, "He was scared."
"Like I said, poor excuse."
"That's enough." Ozpin stated calmly, "While Mister Hansel is right in the regard that the boy let his fear control him, he also fails to put himself in the boy's mindset."
"If I couldn't run and fire at it, I would've at least pulled my grenade pins."
"W-what?" Ruby asked blinking at him.
"I would've caused as much damage possible or kill it with me. That's what every guardsman usually does when pinned and left with no other option."
"That's enough," Ozpin stood slamming his hand on the table, "those men down there are still in trouble, they need your teams down there as quickly as possible. Go now!"
"Yes sir!" The individual teams and their leaders said in unison making a break for the conference room door.
Ozpin sat back down into his chair, it had been a long time since he's ever had to yell at any students like that, but they were wasting time arguing with Hansel.
Hansel.
That boy has been an emotional roller coaster for the staff and students at Beacon; never had they met anyone so fatalistic, so merciless and cunning. Ozpin had a sneaking suspicion that the boy was holding back with his fight with Pyrrah, he could see it in his form, he was also certain that those weapons of his could've easily have killed Pyrrah if they were used.
In every sense the boy was dangerous, but unique. No one in the history of Remnant has ever had the ability to repel the Grimm, without an Aura at that. Then there was also the case of Hansel's birth; born only to fight and die, to feel nothing, kill everything he was sent up against be it human or otherwise.
What a miserable life.
The only silver lining he could see was whenever he and Ruby were together; she had somehow gotten close enough to him to reveal a troubling past pain, the death of his sister, so openly with her when he would've just shut him and Glynda out if they tried talking to him about it.
He had a sneaking suspicion that the walls Hansel had built up around himself were starting to fall.
But what will these new arrivals foretell? Will they be like Hasnel or will they be different?
Julius and co were running as hard and as fast as a damn Land Speeder, but it wasn't enough to throw the snake off of their trail, "Persistent bastard!"
"No shrakk!" Nicholas said firing two rounds from his laspistol behind him.
Suddenly a light bulb appeared in Julius's head, "I have an idea! Saladin come with me, we'll lead this big bitch to the right. Nick, you and Eddy will lead him to the left, try and serpentine through as many trees as possible so we can overextend and kill this bastard!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Edison said grabbing Nicholas by the collar, "Good luck, Omnissiah be with you!"
"Emperor protects gentlemen!" Julius yelled veering off to the right. Leading the second King Taijitu head farther away from the rest of the body.
Boom! There they are! Our boys have gotten themselves in quite a predicament haven't they? Let's see how this get's resolved next time on the Death Korps of RWBY!
