Chapter 2:Signals

Ruby awoke to the sound of… an alarm, getting up groggily she would discover her scroll was just a bit different, a bronze bit that was once just aluminum, but overall the stroll seemed fineish as there was a faint static coming through the speakers, odd. Well in any case, Ruby was the first one awake, so she decided to check on Blake who was still in the Nurse's office, making her way through the halls, seeing a rabbit faunus just taking pictures of the place, more specifically people walking around the school, hey whatever makes her happy, right? Anyways, at the Nurse's office now, Ruby would unexpectedly walk head first INTO Blake, who had just been released due to the injury being treated a bit, and it was now healing on it's own, anyways Blake and Ruby would fall onto their asses, looking at each other.

"Oh hey Blake uh… I was actually coming in to see you, didn't know you were released." Ruby would say, scratching the back of her head as she got up, Blake starting to get up as well. "Well thanks for checking up on me I suppose. Blake would say with a dry tone, secretly wanting to just head back to the dorm to read a book or two… or three, wanting to put her mind off that cave. Blake having gotten up as well now, she looked like she was hearing… something, her bow twitching a bit as Blake would ask of Ruby. "Are you listening to something on your scroll?"

Ruby would pull out her scroll as they began to walk back to the dorm, the static having gotten slightly louder, although Blake could discern… something within the static, a voice of sorts, although she couldn't figure out what it was saying. "I hear something, like a voice within the static." Blake would say, Ruby raising an eyebrow while asking Blake, "Can you make out words?" Blake would simply shake her head, well that su- hey look, Weiss and Yang are coming out of the dorm, with Yang slowly but surely infuriating Weiss with puns, Weiss looking like she wants to strangle Yang right here right now if she makes another sly pun. Ruby and Blake would walk over, Ruby saying to them, "Good morning guys, uh… how are you doing today?" Ruby would ask, Weiss attempting to respond first with, "Please tell Yang to knock it off with the puns, pleas-" Weiss would get interrupted by Yang, saying to Ruby, "Weiss is just crabby from yesterday, I'm doing fine, also… welcome back, Blake!"

Yang would proceed to bear hug Blake, Blake trying to wiggle out of the hug before the intercom came on, and the voice of a certain Goodwitch was heard. "Can Team RWBY come up to Ozpin's office, please?" ...Well isn't that just perfect? Now then, I suppose the team would silently head to the elevator, Weiss pulling out her now somewhat bronze scroll to call the elevator, Static coming from that before… a voice came from Weiss' scroll, a faint one but it was still a voice. "...vex…" Even I, the narrator couldn't make out all of that, I could only hear the word Vex, oh boy. "W-What was that?!" Weiss sounded actually a bit scared there, something scared the Ice Queen, anyways with Blake she would respond with, "That voice... it was the same one coming from Ruby's scroll." Well shit, this is bad, anyways they're just in the elevator now, Blake catching Yang and Weiss up on what happened the last few minutes before they would arrive at the top, more specifically Ozpin's office where our lovable white haired, coffee addicted, possibly immortal lad known as Ozpin at his desk, drinking coffee as four seats were in front of the desk, he was expecting them.

The four would sit down, Ozpin asking them with his calm and calculated tone, "I suppose you four should know why you're here, right?" Ozpin would say, Ruby would ask Ozpin in a nervous tone, saying to the Headmaster, "I-Is it because of the cave we found?" She would ask, Ozpin nodding before saying to her, "You said there were robots that attacked you and your team inside the cave, right?" Ozpin would as, Ruby nodding before Ozpin continued, "And what I've heard from the nurse, one shot put Mrs. Belladonna's Aura in the yellow and an overnight stay in the nurse's office, yes?" Ozpin would say, Blake nodding this time, causing Ozpin to sigh before saying. "Well then, I suppose I must take… precautions, you may take your leave now." Ozpin would turn back to the monitor as Team RWBY left, leaving Ozpin to examine the Emerald Forest cameras, finding a small patrol of The Basic variation of the Bronze Robots, exploring the forest before encountering a pack of Beowolves.

The Beowolves would rush the Bronze Robots before… they would simply kill them in one shot with ease, a pack of Beowolves, just down and out in a single shot, it was baffling… to some but not Ozpin, he watched the Metal beings begin the construction of a Spire of all things, a few plates brought into existence due to their tech fuckery, it was just odd. He would sip his coffee before our… camera angle would change, back with RWBY in the elevator and that fucking voice within their scrolls, repeating a phrase of sorts. "Their predictions are changing again and again…" Even when lowering the volume of the scrolls, this motherfucker just won't shut up, so they've resorted to muffling the speakers as they began to talk, starting with Ruby.

"Just what is going on, first we find a strange cave with strange robots, we enter a portal and find what I think is a robot made… place, and now our scrolls are playing this weird message while our scrolls now have Bronze spots on them. I think it's in our best interest to figure out just what is going on in there." Ruby would say, Weiss responding with a huff, "And risk dying? You saw how in ONE SHOT Blake's Aura was in the yellow, or how it gave her a second degree burn, we should let something like the Military, or maybe even the Grimm to sort the problem out itself." Weiss would argue back, Yang butting in with, "We're Huntresses, remember? We need to take care of this problem before it can get any worse." Huh, Yang getting serious, how about that, anyways, Weiss would just sigh, Blake chiming in with, "I'm with Yang on this one, we need to protect people from any and all threats, if that means going toe to toe with some robots, so be it." Well by the rules of Majority vote, it seems they're gonna be heading back to that cave, in the words of The Drifter, WOO!

Probably like… ten, twelve minutes later…

Finally back at the Emerald Forest and… yep, that man is still rambling, Ruby just deciding to listen in, see what this man has to say. "Do not step on the toes of The Vex, if you know what is best for you." It would repeat, again and again as they got closer to the cave, small spirals now just around the place. "Seems they've done some… redecorating to the forest." Blake would comment, looking around as they finally reached the entrance of the cave, which had a… vault door starting to be built to keep their secrets safe and intruders away, but since it was open, they would just waltz into the vault.

Inside the vault, they would find most of the robots gone except for the one they turned to scrap in the waterfall area, which looks to be… more active, the waterfall, like it's speeding up production of something, but what was it they were producing, more of the foot soldiers, or something worse? In any case, they would head further in, finding the portal, guarded with the foot soldiers… along with a few floating… harpies Ruby called them in her mind, might as well name these things if they were gonna fight them. Yang would make the first move, pulling off what I like to call Aerial Bombardment with her gauntlets, turning a few of the foot soldiers and Harpies into scrap, the rest starting to fire at Yang no questions asked, Weiss began to use her Glyphs to make some of the foot soldiers fall with the help of Blake and her ribbon tripping those foot soldiers.

Ruby would use her scythe to start slicing and dicing, one of the harpies hitting her squarely in the shoulder, making her fucking fall onto the ground faster than a sack of potatoes in pain, Yang's Sisterly instincts telling her to literally jump ONTO THE HARPY AND RAM IT INTO THE WALL. Finally, Weiss would take out the last Harpy with a simple shot from the revolver part of her weapon, causing it to fucking explode as Yang's harpie ride just made it fall apart. The scroll bastard would… begin to congratulate them, saying to the four. "It seems I underestimated you four… perhaps you can get further then I did when I first entered this place."

Ruby would… ask the voice in the scroll, trying to see if it can respond. "What is your… name, mysterious voice..?" To RWBY's surprise, it responded with one simple response. "I come from long ago, way before you four were ever born… you may call me Sterling."

Author's note + Comment reviews

(I hope y'all enjoyed that little… twist at the end, The Vex are starting to become a new side to a game of chess… like a gray side, or maybe bronze. Anyways, let's get to the comments!

Dovah117 writes...

Will one of them become a Guardian? Or a Guardian will arrive to their Infinite Forest? And hopefully doesn't go all Osiris

Don't worry my friend, it won't go full Osiris, as for one of them potentially becoming a guardian, maybe?

Celeste writes…

Yeah you got the name right it's just that at the moment the name C3l3st1 was used, now are we gonna have the Darkness come over as supposed "saviors" and giving Ruby powers or is the Traveller going to do something useful for once and turn Ruby into a guardian so she can kick ass and chew bubblegum?

Ah yes, the great dorito vs. golf ball war, anyways… potentially, partner, potentially.

Guest 1 writes…

Keep going, this will be quite interesting to see. An appearance of Kabr or Praedyth would also be quite interesting due to them both being stuck in the Vex network with the later not being converted and just surviving.

You… sorta predicted it, actually! I was planning to have a Praedyth like figure within the story, and as a little hint, Praedyth and Kabr's story might become more relevant down the line. ;)

Well, that's all we got time for, today, thanks for reading Chapter 2!)