And I am back! Life, this time not work. I had a 8-hour-long D&D session yesterday and I'm still feeling the adrenaline! Next should be either ViewingTES or Watching Future Mistakes (WFM). In a while...
The atmosphere in the room… cave… whatever space they were currently being held in, was tense. Not as tense as it would've been, hadn't the two parties been friends deep down, but still tense enough that no one wanted to step into the argument.
Qrow Branwen was uncharacteristically serious, his flask hidden but not forgotten (that would never happen, period), and a sharp glare on his handsome features – because screw Winter, he was handsome.
Likewise, Ozpin and Goodwitch alike were looking extra serious and stern, respectively, in preparation for the oncoming argument. They would've usually liked to keep it secret, but with how bluntly the projection had informed them of Penny's origins, they doubted they could keep it a secret for much longer.
Ironwood and Winter were, instead, more than rigid. They looked like they could snap with how stiff they were standing, right across the cave from the aforementioned three. They were wary, and a tad bitter about being forced to reveal an Atlasian Top-Secret military project's specifics, but as previously mentioned, it wasn't like they had much of a chance to keep it secret anyway.
The students were wary and a bit scared. They all knew who they were so seeing an argument between two of Remnant's most famous, respected and powerful men was a sight they really hadn't wanted to see.
Raven, on the other hand, was intrigued. Learning as much as she could always benefited her. It was one of the reasons why, even after backing down from the war, she kept spying on Ozpin – so that she could never be found, but she could know everything. She liked to be in the independent position of power being a rogue Huntress allowed her to have. Furthermore, hearing secrets she could use was always welcome.
Amber and Tai mostly shared the same opinion – that they had no clue what the hell was happening. Both knew Ozpin and Ironwood were friends, and that they trusted each other. They didn't know Ironwood had always been the more rebellious one of the group but it didn't matter, the argument was still unexpected.
Finally, Ozpin broke the silence. "James, we both know we can't stare at each other wordlessly forever. You might as well start. It would give you the field advantage of speaking first."
"This argument shouldn't even be taking place. What you just saw was a crime. A leak of Atlas's top secret projects, unauthorized and somehow stolen from our servers," Ironwood replied stiffly. "I am not only following protocol by not disclosing any more information, but I am also following morality. None of you has any right to know about this project."
"Look, Jimmy-"
"General," Winter immediately corrected Qrow, like she always did.
And like he always answered, he rolled his eyes. "Whatever! -The point is, we're doing you a favour."
"By trying to strong-arm me into disclosing secret military files?"
"By giving you the chance to come clean and explain this nicely, instead of waiting for this projector to start up again and rain shit down on you and your military," Qrow retorted, miffed. "You Atlasians think you don't owe explanations to no one, but the truth is that you can't do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, and expect to get away with it. We've just found out that you've created a battle android and kept it a secret from the other Kingdoms. You do realize that by the Treaty of Vytal, this could result in a declaration of war? You're building an army to hide in plain sight."
"It's not-"
"If hiding amongst the normal people and blending in without being noticed wasn't among Project Penny's objectives, then you wouldn't have had her look so real. She's a robot for Dust's sake, what she looks like doesn't influence her Aura!" Qrow glared at the two Atlasians when they flinched. "You could've had her clearly look like a robot. Instead she's under the disguise of a cute young girl who's even more socially awkward than my niece. If that's not trying to hide a weapon within the masses, then I don't know what it is." He turned to Penny for a second. "Not that you're a weapon, but you were built to be one so my point still stands."
His half-assed apology obviously didn't reassure the girl much.
"Her human appearance was not for the final goal of blending into the people," Ironwood stressed out. "She was built like that to reassure the people. It is obvious people feel safer with human protectors rather than robotic protectors. It was a way to boost the people's morals."
"Bullshit."
"Qrow, calm down," Ozpin spoke up, frowning at Ironwood but stopping from going on a tirade against the cyborg. "James, regardless of this, Atlas still kept her existence a secret from all the other Kingdoms. It does look like you're building a secret army."
"Ozpin, not you too, this is-"
"Completely called for," Ozpin cut him off, now a little annoyed by the man's behaviour. "James, you are not getting out of this. You have to explain or we will find out the other way."
"Are you threatening me, Ozpin?" Ironwood spoke up, eerily quiet.
"No. I'm offering you the chance to prevent mistrust from brewing." Ozpin knew that if secrets were to be outed, it was better to completely come clean, or people's trust would waver and break. Too many times it had already happened to him. "James, we are already aware of Penny's capabilities. We are aware that Atlas's Council wanted her to be a tool of war. In a way, we already know the worst of it. If you don't tell us, we'll be forced to come to conclusions ourselves. Do you really want that to happen, in front of the students nonetheless?"
The normally calm General seemed to the verge of snapping. "Ozpin, I told you, this is classified information I will not discuss just because you feel like I should. I may be your friend, but I owe it to Atlas to respect the project's secrecy. I am Headmaster and General, and I hold two seats in the Council – I cannot let down the people who put me here because they trusted me."
"That's a load of bullshit, and you know it, General," Raven laughed melodically, as if enjoying the argument going on in front of her. "You are getting defensive not because this is one of Atlas's secrets… it's because it's one of yours. If it was the former, your tongue would be three feet up Ozpin's ass in your hurry to tell him everything."
The faces of the two soldiers reddened in rage while Qrow and Goodwitch glared at the bandit queen for having interrupted their argument.
"Enough!"
It was rare for Ozpin to raise his voice, but whenever he did, everyone immediately fell silent, just like in the current moment. The Headmaster looked annoyed more than angry, and he was massaging his forehead as if nursing a headache. "Fighting amongst ourselves will not help. James, for the last time, I beg you, tell us about Project Penny."
The General sighed, seemingly defeated, but then he shook his head. "I'm sorry Oz, but this is classified data I am forbidden from disclosing to non-authorized targets. I can't."
"But you said you'd explain," Qrow accused him.
"Yes, and I did – I told you you shouldn't pry because it's private business of the Atlas military. I never said I would explain how it works or what the details are," Ironwood rebutted, as if that were to be explanation enough.
Ozpin sighed. It seemed that they would get nowhere if that were to continue. Ironwood was too stubborn for his own good. Dropping the matter, he turned to the other problem that needed to be solved.
Aka, Raven Branwen and how she had carelessly abandoned her family without any thoughts whatsoever to the little newborn who would later grow into Yang.
A woman whose lousy motherly skills were only matched by her cowardice.
For someone who preached that the strong was the only one worthy of living, she ran away from a lot of things. Family, friends, allies, fights, and most of all judgement. Ozpin found it quite ironic. Too bad she also had the skills of a professional Huntress, which she used to raid and pillage nearby villages. And her Semblance made her almost impossible to catch.
Too bad she couldn't use it now.
"Why, Raven?"
Yang's question cut the leftover silence from Ironwood's proclamation like a hot knife through butter. The bandit queen didn't bother replying, and just stared back at her daughter, red eyes into red eyes.
"Why did you leave?" she expanded her question once her 'mother' (appellative about to be rejected) refused to answer, or even just acknowledge her. "Why did you abandon us?"
"The better question would be – why shouldn't I have left?" Raven replied neutrally, uncaring of the emotional impact her words would have on the girl.
"Why… why…" Yang repeated the word a few times, as if uncertain she'd actually had the gall to say that. "You BITCH! How can you say that?! Why did you even have a family, if you didn't intend to stay?!"
Taiyang looked away, knowing what was coming – it was what she'd told him as she left, but those words should never be said to your children.
Raven was unimpressed. "Because it created bonds. Qrow was supposed to take Summer while I took Taiyang, so that we'd then be able to bring them both back to our family, our tribe. It didn't work, so I had a child with Taiyang, hoping to use that as a way to bring him with me. We are in need of Hunter-level fighters. However, when that didn't work, I chose to return to my family. I could've taken you with me, but only the strong survives, and you weren't. I was waiting for you to become strong, and only then I would welcome you into my tribe."
Everyone fell silent. Those words were so full of such carelessness… It was as if Raven wouldn't care if Yang dropped dead in the next second. Of course, her rule of one was obviously there still, but that was simply because since she'd given birth to her, she would need to save her, just once.
The expectations of just about every single person in the room were the same – for Yang to blow up like she'd never before.
Instead, she just… deflated.
"That's it?" she breathed, furious but most of all disappointed. "I looked for you for years, hoping that your answer would clear my mind. Hoping that you still had some shreds of decency. I never expected for you to actually be my mother but I thought you'd at least act human. But this… this is disappointing. I'm not even mad – I can only pity you. I thought you had a reason. Turns out your reason was that you obviously just aren't able to love. And that, I can only pity."
To say people were surprised would be an understatement. Even Ruby and Tai, who knew her the best, were shocked. Yang was indeed very mature, but never when she was also angry. Her anger usually threw every other thought out of the window.
Raven just shrugged.
Ozpin gently coughed into his fist to get everyone's attention. "Well, now that that's taken care of, why don't we sit down and wait for the projector to start? I believe it should be soon, as the crystals have returned to glow."
Indeed they had, and people slowly sat back down. The students were grouped together. Amber and Tai had joined Ozpin's group while Ironwood and Winter had distanced themselves a bit. Raven sat on her own, obviously.
The sounds of chirping birds was the first thing Kotaro heard as he began to awaken from his sleep. And as he opened up his eyes as he awoke, he was greeted with the pleasant sight of Penny smiling at him.
A few people were startled by seeing the girl's face so close first thing in the morning.
A few others didn't react. Yang and Ruby were used to each other, Ren and Nora were the same, Jaune… he literally didn't even blink at that. A few others had the training to not be too surprised.
Penny, ironically, was a bit startled.
"Good morning friend Kotaro!" the robot girl said cheerfully.
"Good morning Penny," He said as he gave the robot girl a smile.
The two of them where still in the cave that they used to keep them secured from the snowstorm that occurred last night. And as Kotaro looked back from last night.
For starters He had to explain to Penny what a friend was. When he introduced himself to her upon her activation and told her that he was her friend, she didn't understand what the word or even the very term friend actually meant. Luckily with nothing better to do last night other than wait out the storm outside Kotaro took the opportunity to explain to Penny what a friend was and what it actually meant.
"This is odd. I am aware of what a friend is, and yet I have yet to meet Friend Kotaro," Penny noted, confused.
"Penny, you were taught the basics by us, don't you remember?" Ironwood said, a bit peeved that the girl who considered him an Uncle hadn't even remembered that.
"Of course I do, it's in my memory database," nodded the girl. In hindsight, it was obvious she was a robot. "I just wonder why it wasn't in my database since the start."
"Some concepts were just too hard to teach via programming," Ironwood sighed. That, and Dr Polendina was also kind of too scientifically-oriented to give a good definition of friendship.
Needles to say when she finally grasped the concept she was very overjoyed.
He couldn't help but chuckle a little as he recalled all the things that Penny listed of that they could do as friends when she looked it up more in her internal memory banks. It was honestly really cute to see her so excited if he were to be honest.
And so all through the night they merely enjoyed each others company.
Yang immediately saw the opportunity to get her mood back up and opened her mouth to make a dirty joke-
Before Weiss slapped the back of her head and shut her up.
And as it Turned out Penny had a plethora of information about the world of Remnant stored in her memory. Though due to the fact she was only just born yesterday she lacked social skills to a certain degree. which meant that he would have to teach her how to interact with people and help her understand the world better like a normal person would.
'Funny how the Atlas council planned on her blending in to society but never actually Planned on teaching her how to socially interact with people' he thought as the irony was not lost to him.
Everyone looked at Ironwood, who flushed slightly and looked away. "She was programmed to have enough information of social interaction to be able to not arise too many suspicions. After a while, she'd be ready to blend in."
"No offence to Penny, but her social skills are even worse than Ruby's," Weiss noted before adding, "Even thought she speaks more coherently."
"She ran away from her escorts, unauthorized," Ironwood replied, giving the girl the stink eye.
Penny blushed and shrank in embarrassment.
"Funny how you call me a monster, and yet no one says anything about the killer robot made to infiltrate other Kingdoms," Raven commented with a huff. "Hypocrites."
Qrow choked on his alcohol. "Hyp- hypocrites?! You called us hypocrites?!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "You heartless bitch! You kill and plunder for your own gain, sacrificing people's lives for the smallest gain! You're nothing short of a villain! That girl may have been built for that reason but she doesn't want to kill people! And the Atlasian Council may be full of jackasses, but Project Penny could be what we need against the Grimm!"
"So now you're taking our side?" Ironwood snapped, irritated.
"I'm not taking your side, Jimmy! Shut up!" Qrow turned back to his sister. "She was built like that. You chose to be like that! We gave you so many chances to change, to become something better, and you betrayed us for your own gain over and over again! Thank the Gods that it wasn't you the one made team leader, or Team STRQ would've been known as the most villainous team ever! You have no right to call anyone out on anything!"
Raven smirked. "Hit a nerve, brother?"
Qrow's eye twitched before they narrowed. "I am not related to you. You're not my sister. It's clear your family and mine aren't the same."
The students exchanged glances. What should've been a big deal had kind of… lacked impact amongst the adults. None of them reacted.
Hurt flashed in Raven's eyes for a second before she closed them and exhaled slowly. "I see. You've betrayed the family that saved you and grew you up. It's obvious who you're siding with."
The tense face-off lasted for a few more seconds before Raven turned back to the projection. As cold as she was, there were a few things she still cared about, and she'd just lost one.
Yang, Tai and Ruby all got up and went to sit with Qrow. Ruby hugged him, Yang leaned against him and Tai put a hand on his shoulder. The black-haired man just nodded and sighed heavily. It had been difficult, but it had been long overdue. Him and Raven were like water and oil – just too different.
Regardless, when he asked her if she could answer some questions for him she was more than happy to tell him whatever he wanted or needed to know, and so she answered whatever Kotaro asked her with the best answers she could give.
The first thing he learned from her was that Remnant had four major Kingdoms. One was Atlas, and the other three were Vale, Mistral, and Vacuo. Each of these kingdoms had its own culture and environment, and each of them had special schools called Huntsman Academies.
Huntsmen and Huntresses were great warriors who had incredible powers called Semblances, which much like the individual they belong to were all unique. They obtain these Semblances by unlocking their aura and going through rigorous training which all led up to hunting down and defending the kingdoms from the Creatures of Grimm.
"Are you telling me he knew literally nothing on Remnant when he was sent here?!" Weiss almost screeched, trying to contain her disbelief and failing.
Jaune and Ruby exchanged a glance and promptly shrugged. In comics with alien heroes, they usually skipped the part where everything was explained.
"Come on, Ice Queen, you don't need to know what it is to break their legs!" Nora grinned maniacally.
Raven silently made noted of that. If the girl liked to hurt people and things, maybe she could be recruited…
Grimm. These creatures were as every bit as gruesome as their name implied. Penny explained that Grimm were nightmarish creatures born from darkness and negativity, though no one knows where they originated from.
What was widely known though was that the Grimm come in many shapes and sizes, and some of them are more dangerous than others of their kind. On top of that, only seem to exist for the sole purpose of killing people and bringing untold destruction everywhere they went.
In a way they where like the Kaiju in a sense, Monsters that only bring destruction wherever they went. And Ultras like him where essentially like Huntsmen and Huntresses, great heroes who fight these monsters to uphold peace in the universe.
"Yeah, though on a much, much, much smaller scale," Jaune laughed awkwardly, recalling the immense power Ultras and Kaijus wielded. "The only, tiny difference is the galaxy-ending powers, really…"
"I am confused," Penny spoke up. "I thought 'galaxy-ending' powers would be very important differences."
"He was being sarcastic," Yang explained with a grin. She was gonna have so much fun with Penny, if the girl couldn't understand sarcasm. "It's the art of saying something you don't mean, but saying it in a way that makes people understand you mean the opposite."
Poor Penny remained confused.
The most important aspect of Grimm however was the fact that they had no souls of their own. They demonstrated all sorts of aspects of being living creatures, and yet they had no souls or Aura of their own.
That made him wonder. How exactly did these creatures come to be? And, if by some actual possibility, Did someone actually create them?
Everyone deadpanned. Even Ozpin, who actually knew they were naturally born from pits of Grimm essence.
"Seriously, why would someone create Grimm?" Jaune drawled.
"I mean, what if they created them, but then lost control?" Pyrrha offered.
"Unlikely, they wouldn't have created so many. It's been millennia and we haven't even thinned their numbers," Weiss shook her head. "That's just impossible. But he's new of Remnant, so I guess that if everything had to be explained to him, he couldn't have known."
"Aww… You're-"
"No, Yang, I'm not going soft."
So many questions, and not enough answers.
Another thing Kotaro also recalled from last night was how he explained to her two very important pieces of information that he felt she had a right to know about.
First, he told her about her origins. Kotaro felt that Penny had every right to know about what she is and where she came from because it wouldn't feel right to lie to her about it.
And fortunately Penny took what he told her rather well, but for only a brief moment he did notice a look that appeared in her eyes when she told him she was thankful for telling her where she had originally come from, and why was constructed from the start.
Chances were that even though she said she was fine something told him she wasn't completely okay with what she was. He would have to talk to her about it, but he felt that it wasn't a good time to do that just yet.
Ruby looked at Penny, who looked a bit confused by her other self's behaviour.
The truth was, she'd come to terms with what she was. She wasn't a real girl and she knew it. Another thing that confused her was how everyone was treating her. Like she wasn't even a robot. Qrow had even apologized when he'd mentioned Project PENNY…
She would need to ask them later.
As for the second thing he revealed to her, that, was more personal.
Flashback to last night.
"Totally an anime, I mean, there are even the 'flashback' title screens!" Jaune grinned victoriously.
"You said that already, you dolt!" Weiss replied, throwing a stray pebble at his head.
"I rest my case!"
"You're an Alien?"
To say Penny was shocked would be an understatement.
For the past thirty minutes, both Kotaro and Penny have done nothing other than made small talk with each other. Kotaro made it upon himself to explain the whole situation between the two of them and went as far as to explain about how they both came to meet each other.
"Wait a second, did he just tell her everything?" Jaune said, confused. Normally, in comics, the protagonist kept it close to the chest for a while. "This is weird… Or maybe not. I guess it could happen."
"Still weird though, I thought he wouldn't tell anyone…" Ruby nodded alongside him, the two experts on the subject having booked tickets for the same train of thoughts.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "It's not one of your stupid comics."
"They're not stupid!"
In a way she felt two very conflicting emotions when it came to about what she was and what was planned for her by the Atlas Council.
A part of her couldn't help but feel thankful. Here she was with a complete stranger who she had met only thirty-two minutes and seventy-two seconds ago upon her, what she could consider her 'Birth', and he still went out of his way to help her. And to give her something she wasn't going to be given before.
"Question, why didn't she just say thirty-three minutes and twelve seconds?" Nora spoke up, cheerfully confused.
Penny blinked. "I am not sure. I believe I wouldn't have made such a mistake."
"Maybe it's the cold messing with something?" Amber offered weakly, feeling extremely out of place. She knew that intense cold could seriously mess with things and people because the Maiden's Powers allowed her to create blizzards and freeze entire buildings solid. Not that she'd ever needed to use it like that.
A choice.
Never in her still short lifetime has she ever been so happy to have met a man like Kotaro and have him as her very first friend.
The other part of her though couldn't help but feel very conflicted about one simple fact. What she is.
"A robot?" offered Raven.
"A girl?" said Ruby.
"Cold?" Nora spoke up, and shrugged at the looks she got. "What? She's probably cold if they are in Atlas."
For now though, she put those more negative feelings aside for now and just enjoyed the time she spent with her very first friend.
They mostly talked about what they plan to do in the morning when the storm outside dissipated, among those plans was to first find a settlement of some kind and then make their way from there.
"Duh," Weiss rolled her eyes.
"No shit, what else there is to do?" Yang chuckled.
"Well, they could actually do a lot of things, from toughing it out in the wilds to wandering until they find the biggest city," Jaune tried to defend what was going on, though even he had to admit that the two of them would need to find a town anyway.
His friends' eye rolls told him they had seen right through him, like usual. He wasn't a good liar, dammit! Nevermind he actually got into Beacon, fooling even Ozpin.
Ozpin, on his part, withheld a sneeze. Was someone talking about him?
However it was later on during their conversations did Kotaro reveal the truth about what and who he his to her.
"Yes. While i may look like a human I am in fact not originally from Remnant at all," he explained to her
"Then if this is true than who are you really friend Kotaro?" Penny asked now truly interested in knowing more about the man who pulled her away from a life of being a weapon.
"Wow, loving the redhead lass, taking it in stride even when she's being told the guy who saved her is some kind of alien from another world unknown to mankind," laughed Qrow. "Gotta love the acceptance."
Amber allowed herself a small smirk as well. "True… honestly, if something like this were to happen to me, I'm not sure how I would react." Probably not unlike how she'd first reacted when she'd gotten her Maiden Powers, and then again when Ozpin had found her and told her what they were.
Kotaro took a moment to close his eyes, straighten himself out, and take a deep breath and exhaling. He then open his eyes and looked into Penny's green ones, before telling her the Truth.
"My real name is Taro. And I, am an Ultraman."
With that Kotaro, or Taro as was his actual name, began to tell Penny the story of his people and the Land of Light. He told her how much like the people of Remnant his people resembled humans as well, which honestly surprised the robot girl with how there were other races out there in the cosmos that looked exactly like Remnant's people. It was honestly really incredible.
However she then felt what Kotaro described to her as sadness when she learned of what happened to his home world when its sun died. The thought of something so terrible happening to such a peaceful race of people was very disheartening to hear. Luckily for her, Kotaro explained that his people had managed to pull through the disaster that struck them and create their crowning achievement that saved their world.
The Plasma Spark.
Then what he explained next really amazed her. From what she was told, when the Plasma Spark bathed it's light and power across the planet, it had an adverse effect on the Land of Lights people. Its energy had transformed them into beings of light who were gifted with new forms and incredible powers!
And they had decided to call themselves, the Ultras.
And with their newfound forms and powers, the Ultras had decided to use their newfound powers to defend the universe from the forces of darkness.
It was honestly like something out of a fairytale. A race of beings who hale from a land of light, who use their incredible powers to save lives and battle with horrible monsters. It was all so amazing and Penny was making sure to store and engrave this information in her memory banks.
"Alright, this is even more absurd to hear than it was to see it," Winter commented, still finding it really hard to believe it was actually true. As far as she was concerned, she wouldn't believe it until she saw that Taro man in person.
The students, meanwhile, were all amused by the fact Taro sounded just like one of their teachers, who was incidentally named Kotaro Higashi as well. They would be calling him 'Professor Taro' or 'UltraProf' for months after they returned home.
Back on Remnant, Kotaro Higashi felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of dread, as if some of his more troublesome students would soon give him a heart attack by almost guessing his secret identity. How he could have such a precise sense of dread, even he didn't know.
However as she continued to listen to Kotaro's people's history, one bit of information that caught her attention.
Raising up her hand much like a school student, she then asked one simple Question. "Friend Kotaro, i am sorry to interrupt you but i have a query i must ask you. Who are Rayblood and Belial?"
At the mention of the names Kotaro sighed, adopting a certain look on his face as if he was expecting her to ask that. "Well Penny, I've already explained this much, so i might as well tell you about those two."
"He didn't tell her about them?" Amber frowned. "I thought they were integral part of his story…"
"He must've mentioned them carelessly but omitted the part where they destroyed almost all of Ultra or whatever their planet is called," replied Weiss.
"Land of Light," Penny helpfully supplied.
"I guess Penny's gonna get some answers, huh?" Sun grinned, giving a thumbs-up. "Though I still haven't been told why I'm here…"
No one answered him. Poor guy.
Penny waited as Kotaro seem to steel himself before he began to explain to her everything he knew about the two.
"You see Penny, my people have been around for a very, very long time. And during that time we had made and battled many enemies and monsters alike." he said while the Gynoid listened intently, "But none of them, and i mean NONE of them, are more infamous than Alien Rayblood. Or as many have come to call him, The Shepherd of Monsters."
With that said, Kotaro held his hands out and small sphere Of light formed in his hands. When the sphere fully formed in bis hands, images began to from until Penny finally got a glimpse of this 'Alien Rayblood'.
Penny didn't even know where to describe the Aliens appearance, he was tall and had a somewhat lanky body, and body colors consisted of shades of blue and grey and his head had what she could only guess where some kind of horns, or at least whatever counted as horns for this alien's species. Finally while he lacked any facial features he did have a pair of eyes, a pair of blank, soulless white eyes that seem to pierce you as he looked right at you.
Everyone in the audience shuddered. They couldn't explain the quick feeling of terror they felt for a second, but as quick as it'd arrived, it was gone. They shook themselves and continued watching the projection.
But for some reason that Penny couldn't explain, just seeing a projection of Rayblood sent a shiver down her metal spine. Like just seeing his projection alone installed some kind of fear into you. However she quickly forgot about these feelings when she remembered something.
"Why do they call him that? The Shepherd of Monsters i mean." Penny asked.
" Its because of his power," seeing Penny's confused look Kotaro kept explaining everything to her, "Reiblood has a unique power that runs down to his very genes, the power to control Kaiju, Giant Monsters ranging from prehistoric beasts to planet destroying Goliaths. they all differ in terms of appearances and abilities much like the the Grimm in a sense. And Reiblood could make them all slaves to his will with nothing but his sheer willpower alone."
As expected, Penny was surprised for what felt like the umpteenth time today. A being that could control Monsters, with only his sheer will?
That honestly frightened the ginger haired girl. For what if this Reiblood came to Remnant? Would he use his powers to control the creatures of Grimm as well? and if so what would that mean for all of Remnant and its people if such a being came to their world?
And it was these thoughts that made a certain thought came to mind, "if this Reiblood was so dangerous why hasn't he been stopped by you or the other Ultras?" she asked him.
"Because of two reasons." He said as he started to list off the reasons, "Firstly, he's been dead for a very long time, but his spirit resides everywhere across the multiverse. The reason for that is because he searches for a successor."
"Even in death, evil manages to corrupt and hurt," Ozpin sighed, knowing that villains never stopped. Even if one of them died, another one would just take their place.
The saying 'as long as evil stands, good will rise up against it' worked both ways. Heroes could save people, but evil would always strive to defeat them and conquer the world.
"To do this, He spread his genes across all the universes and amongst all living creatures. Those who carry his genes are called Reionix. Reionix, much like Reiblood himself, can control other Monsters with the power his genes and special devices called Battlenisers. And from the shadows he watches... as he secretly influences the Reionix to destroy each other." he explained.
"He... makes them fight to the death," Penny said with horror laced in her voice. Her innocent mind was trying but failing to understand how anyone could be so, so... Evil. "How anyone could be so needlessly cruel and do something so horrible."
"To find the cruellest successor," Qrow said at the same at which Raven said, "To find the strongest successor."
The two exchanged glares.
"It is unfortunately not unexpected," Amber sighed, shaking her head. Honestly, it wasn't even the worst he could've done. He could've made them kill each other, then pitted them against other monsters, then tortured them for centuries until they were completely insane and only set on total destruction.
"Like i said, to find a successor," Said Koatro, as he then began to go into full detail of whatbhe was implying to her. "Because think about it for a moment, Even as a Ghost Rayblood is powerful enough to create entire Black Holes to swallow entire planets just by opening up and outstretching his hand. And can bend the wills of entire armies worth if giant monsters to obey him without fail. Now take all of that into context, and just imagine what the person he he deems worthy enough to replace him would be like."
And she did, and the more she thought about it the more terrifying the very idea became.
As Kotaro put it this Rayblood sounded powerful enough to destroy Remnant just by simply waving his hand. And Rayblood was looking for someone who would not only have all his powers, but be even stronger than him in every sense of the word.
It was frightening to imagine.
Indeed it was. A good chunk of the students shrank and subtly shuffled closer together, as if Rayblood were to be about to appear at any given moment. The adults stiffened at the thought of such a powerful entity, but they otherwise reigning in their emotions – emotions were the bane of Hunters, when it came to fighting Grimm.
Seeing how distress Penny was getting from this, Kotaro decided to change the subject. He continued on to explain on who Belial was, he told her that much like himself Belial was an Ultraman much like him. He was a prodigy who was known throughout the Land of Light as one of its greatest warriors, and was known to be one of the greatest Ultras in the entire Space Garrison.
But one day Belial did the Unthinkable by trying to take the power of his home worlds life source, the Plasma Spark. However it didn't go as Belial intended as not only did the power prove to much for him to handle, but for attempting to take the power for himself he was banished from his home as well.
Kotaro Explained that if Belial had removed the Plasma Spark from its chamber, and take it for himself, all life on his home world would've died, as it was only because of the Plasma Spark that their world didn't freeze from the cold of outer space. That's why Belial was exiled, not just because of his desire for power but because if he had succeeded he would've eneded up dooming everyone on his home to a cold and frozen fate.
And that's when met Rayblood.
Rayblood had took Belial's exile as an opportunity to accomplish his goals, and had merged himself with the Ultra Turning him from a warrior of light to a warrior of darkness.
The Image or the Dark Ultra was truly something out a nightmare when Kotaro showed it to her with the image sphere. Belial was a muscular ultra with a body that was pitch black with hellish red marks all across him. In the center of his chest was a blue crystal, which Kotaro explained was color timer, that was a sickly dark purple in color. And his hands ended in long sharp claw-like talons. But the truly the most notable of all his features were his eyes, large and curved and glowed a hellish red. And they burned with only one singular emotion.
RAGE.
'He... looks like a Grimm.' Penny couldn't help but think to herself, as the similarities were rather close to each other.
"He does look eerily similar to a Grimm." Qrow hated to admit it, but that guy gave him the creeps, even to him, a professional battle-worn Huntsman.
"I wonder how strong Taro is, compared to him," Goodwitch wondered out loud, accidentally making everyone else consider the same.
"We would need to see Taro fight before we can know that," Ren commented. "And if the Ultramen are really so strong, I am not sure we want to see him fight something on his level."
That sent another shiver down everyone's spines.
Raven, on her part, was firmly telling herself that she wasn't afraid, and that it was just too chilly for her tastes. She lived in Mistral, where it was always fairly warm, so it made sense for her to shiver slightly in that cold cave, deep underground somewhere.
Nevermind they were close to a freaking volcano.
From there Kotaro went on to Explain that Rayblood had also given Belial his own Battlenizer known as the Giga-Battlenizer, a more powerful version of any Battlenizer as it could let him control and summon over a hundred monsters at once. A perfect tool for his newfound powers.
He then showed Penny an image of the weapon, it was a staff that was a dark in color and had two clubs attached at each end that were highlighted with little blue lights.
From there, Belial returned to the land of light with an entire army of Kaiju at his command. He would have destroyed the Land of Light if not for the arrival of Ultraman King.
King as Kotaro described was the most powerful being in all the Universe. So great were his abilities, that he could restore the dead back to life, and prevent universe destroying catastrophes with nothing but his sheer energy alone.
"Bullshit!" Weiss exclaimed, shocking everyone with her outburst. "I call bullshit! No one can bring back the dead! No one! That's just-"
Bonk!
Weiss fell silent as Winter smacked her on the head – hard. "Weiss, behave yourself. That is not the reaction befitting of someone of your status," the Specialist remarked.
"Jeez, you Atlas Specialists think you're so special, don't you?" Qrow taunted her with a huff.
"She is not a Specialist. Had she been one, I would've told that it's implied in the title itself, and-"
"Schnee, enough. He's provoking you. Don't start an altercation now," Ironwood commanded neutrally, making her fall silent. "And you, I would prefer if you didn't try to pick a fight with my soldiers, Qrow."
The man just pointed a finger at his chest with a disbelieving expression, as if to say 'Who? Me?'
Ironwood groaned in exasperation.
Even from just seeing the image of the ancient Ultra, Penny couldn't help but feel awed about him. "He sounds amazing! and he's the one who sent you here to Remnant?" she asked.
"You better believe it." Kotaro confirmed as he looked back to all the time he spent training with the Legendary Ultraman. King was every bit as amazing as his own father made him out to be when he was younger, and even then that didn't even begin to describe how amazing he was.
"Wow... so what happened next" Penny asked as she was really getting into this tale.
From there he explained that king used his powers to trap Belial in his own prison, locking away the evil Ultra for all eternity. And sure enough over time the damage that Belial caused became undone and peace had returned to the Land of Light once more.
"Its kind of sad though when you think about it. In his desire to get stronger he had lost everything he had and ended up being turned into a monster himself. Believe it or not my father actually was very close friends with him." He said.
"Yeah, I can name another one who ended up just like that," Yang shot a sharp look in Raven's direction.
The woman just huffed. "I did not lose anything. I earned my powers, and I gained a lot by my own strength. I am nothing like that failure."
"Is she really that conceited, or is it her way of coping with knowing someone outclasses her that much?" Amber asked Qrow, having sat beside him earlier.
Qrow thought about it a little. "I guess both. She's scared so she's forcing herself to believe she's still the strongest person around. Defence mechanisms and all that bullshit. You know, since she's given up everything for her inane rule of strength, and now she's feeling like a particularly disgusting squashed bug under the Ultramen's soles."
Raven seethed at that. "I could probably kill any of those so-called 'Ultras' without taking a single hit."
"Of course you wouldn't take hits – they'd kill you before you even think of drawing your sword."
With a growl of anger, Raven sat back down. "We shall see, Qrow. In the end, we shall see who was right and who wasn't."
Penny perked up a little more from that bit of information, "Your Father was friends with Belial?"
"Oh yeah, very close really! Dad always talked about the things they accomplished together whenever it was brought Up."
Now Really interested Penny then asked, "So who is your father Kotaro?". However when she asked that question Kotaro then looked like he became rather embarrassed about something.
"Uh well, that's the thing... my Father is... well... the Supreme commander of the Space garrison along with my Mother."
"WHAT?!" was everyone's response to that.
"He's the son of the two head honcho?" Nora grinned like a madwoman at that. "Wow, he must be really important then! Maybe he's meant to one day take over and be the Supreme Commander himself!"
Ren shook his head to banish the shock. "Nora, he may very well not be able to do that any more. Remember – he was exiled for having tried to touch the Plasma Spark."
"We don't know for sure."
"Yes we do."
"It wasn't shown onscreen."
Ren threw his hands in the air and admitted defeat.
"Really?!" Penny said in shock! Not expecting that bit of information for one moment, "But wouldn't that mean in some relevance to hierarchy, with them being your parents, Would that make you a Prince?"
"Prince can only apply when someone is of royal blood and the spawn of the ruling monarch," Weiss rattled off, more than happy to correct someone. "Which means that while he may be important, he is not a prince."
"That's actually not true," Taiyang spoke up. "Or, well, it's not true that he cannot be a prince. If his parents rule the Ultramen, then he is a prince of sorts. They are very important, so it wouldn't be impossible for them to be the rulers of their world, the Land of Light."
"Uh well, i wouldn't say it like that but i guess that's one way to look at it. My parents, Father of Ultra and Mother of Ultra, said they saw great potential in me when i was very young. And ever since then they trained me to be the strongest Ultraman ever, something I did my best to live up to" He said as he showed her an image from the sphere again as it showed two different Ultras.
The first was a Male Ultra who had a Muscular build, and his body was red and silver in color and he also had a sideburns running down his face, and had yellow, almond-shaped dome eyes. And around his waist was a silver belt with a large buckle. The most striking feature about him though were the large pair of horns on his head.
"He must be his father," noted Sun. "They don't really look alike."
"Meh," everyone else shrugged. Taro was in disguise anyway.
The second Ultra was a female, she had a very elegant look and much like her husband she was also red and silver in color as well as the same kind of eyes as well. She she had six metal orbs running down the center of her torso that went from biggest to smallest from the top, and she had a blue wristband on her left arm. She also had a crest on her head and a pair of pigtails on her head.
"What are those metal balls for?" asked Ruby, pointing at the orbs on the woman's torso. "Are they like tattoos?"
"I guess we will never know. Perhaps they are ornamentals. Perhaps they are somehow important." Ozpin as usual was being vague as all hell. Even though hell is not vague at all. "For now, I believe we cannot answer that question."
"Well there you have it, the truth of who i am and The story of my people." Kotaro said as he willed sway the sphere in his hands. And now he waited to see how Penny would react from what he told her.
Penny remained quiet for a moment, adopting a look on her face as she took the time to absorb everything she has just learned, "It's all so incredible. everything about this is so unbelievable but somehow i know your telling the truth." she said, before she looked back up and gave him her usual happy smile that he was familiar with.
"That's impossible, there's no way!" Amber exclaimed, shocked that someone could somehow believe such a story just because they had a feeling it was the truth. "I would've asked for proof over proof over proof!"
Penny took her signature megawatt smile and somehow turned it up into a gigawatt smile. "My sensor are capable of analysing people's voices, body language and heartbeat to deduce whether they are lying or not. Only the most skilled of liars would be able to fool me, and even then, not if they were to tell such an unlikely story."
"Wow." Amber's eyes widened. "That's cool."
"But I'm happy that you told all of this, I honestly think that it's so incredible how our friendship is so out of this world!" she said without a hint of any ill will, which honestly made the Ultra really happy that Penny accepts him for what his is.
"YOU ROCK GIRL, YOU'RE OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED IN THE HOLY CHURCH OF PUNS!" Yang screamed enthusiastically, startling everyone else. Nora fell on the ground, Jaune squeaked and hid behind Pyrrha, Blake meowed and jumped three feet in the air, while everyone else leaned back from the cheerful blonde… before groaning at what she'd said.
"Yang, no…" her father tried to stop her.
"Yang, YES!"
As well as earning a bit of a laugh at her unintended pun.
Silence, absolute silence. Then…
"HE LAUGHED! I LOVE HIM! I WANT TO MARRY HIM! HE LAUGHED AT A PUN! HE'S THE MAN OF MY DREAMS!" Yang screamed even louder, forcing poor Blake to cover her cat ears lest she got deafened permanently.
"Jeez, firecracker, I didn't think you were that desperate for someone to laugh at your puns…" Qrow groaned, rubbing his ringing ears.
"I don't understand – why is Friend Yang so happy about someone laughing? People laugh all the time," Penny asked, confused. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out why would someone be that happy about laughing. "After all, jokes are common amongst friends, according to my database."
"Yes, but her puns are never funny, so no one ever laughs at them," Ruby tiredly explained, having already had to explain her sister's obsession with puns to a lot of people in the past, mainly Yang's friends. "We don't laugh at puns any more because we're desens- desint-… We~iss?"
Weiss rolled her eyes at the childish call for help. "Desensitised."
"Yeah, that! We're dentistised to them. So Yang's really happy someone laughed at a pun, even if it wasn't hers."
With everything being said between them now though, the two decided it was time to Go to bed and called it a night.
Flashback End.
Now it was morning on the next day. And the Two of them decided it was time to be on the move again.
"Say Penny?"
"Yes Friend Kotaro?" Said Penny as she took a moment away from doing a diagnostics run on herself.
"I'm just going on a whim here but, you wouldn't happen to have an internal map or anything would you?" he asked, while he did take the time to read over Penny's blueprints he hasn't gotten that far on them yet. So it would be essential and beneficial for the both of them to learn as much about Penny's design as possible. "I figured that if you do have one we could figure out where we are and hopefully find a settlement somewhere."
"Well, that would be very useful," commented Ren.
"Yes, but chances are that she won't have one," Jaune replied with a sigh. Comics were so predictable. If the main character was lost in the wilderness, it was almost impossible for them to have a map. And even if they had one, either they lost it, they couldn't read it, or they didn't know where they were on the map.
Penny adopted a thinking look as she began looking through her systems. And after a brief moment of searching she perked up smiling, "Oh, yes i do! From what i can tell we're not that far from Argus actually."
"Argus?"
"Argus?" Jaune echoed, surprised.
"You know Argus?" Weiss asked him, not expecting him to know of that city. Though to be honest, she never expected him to know anything.
"Of course I do, my sister and her wife live there!" Jaune exclaimed. "Which reminds me, I'll have to visit. I'm due to become an uncle in four weeks from now, so I can't miss that. Plus, Saph and Terra might need the extra hand."
"Oh, yeah, you told us about your sister," Ruby recalled, nodding. "Don't you have, like, five of them?"
"Ugh, seven." Jaune found some solace in the fact that he wasn't the only one to think that was an astronomically high number. "Yes, I know. My household was one of high libido, very crowded spaces, and all-too-common childhood traumas of walking in on my parents."
Everyone groaned in disgust. "Didn't you learn not to enter their bedroom, ever?" Yang snickered.
Jaune had a faraway, haunted look as he replied, "They were never in the bedroom…"
Another groan of disgust echoed in the cave. Though honestly, what else could his parents have been, if not sexual deviants or something? Who the hell had EIGHT kids?
"Argus is a port city in the northern region of the Kingdom of Mistral, and acts as the major trading center between the continents of Anima and Solitas. It is one of the largest non-capital cities in all of Remnant." Penny explained to him, "so we are really fortunate that it's close by."
"Indeed it is. So how far is it from here?" Kotaro asked, the sooner they were out of these woods the better.
Taking a moment to check, Penny gave her verdict. "I calculate that the distance from our position in this cave to be roughly over 100 miles from here. If we leave now we may get there in two or three days."
"A hundred miles in two or three days?!" Jaune exclaimed. "That's crazy!"
"Not really, Hunters can travel fast and untiringly for long distances," Weiss replied before she was lightly smacked by Blake. "Hey!"
"Stop correcting everything he says," Blake berated her, rolling her eyes at the heiress's pettiness and attempts to annoy the Arc into stopping his courtship. "What I'm curious about is – shouldn't Taro have landed on Atlas?"
"Yeah… it said Atlas…" Yang nodded, realizing that as well.
"Did he cross the ocean?" Blake wondered.
"I see no reason for an Atlasian warship to be flying anywhere near Argus, not with Penny Polendina onboard," Winter replied, confused.
Ozpin merely shrugged. "Perhaps it was a bit of a mistake… or maybe Mr Taro really did cross the ocean. It's not so unlikely considering he was trained by world-saving warriors to fight against galaxy-destroying monsters."
Everyone nodded at his words. Yeah, when put it like that, crossing the ocean wasn't all that impossible.
"Then let's not waste any time getting there. Let's move out Penny." Kotaro said.
"Right away!" Penny jumped as she quickly began following the Ultra.
And so our heroes where on the move together for the first time. Their destination, Argus.
Two Days Later.
It had been over two days since the unlikely duo have been walking.
All through that time nothing to uneventful happened and our heroes were almost To the city of Argus.
Other than the first Grimm encounter that the two experienced.
It was during the first day on their travels did they encounter a Farm on their way to Argus, However Instead of finding living people like they expected it turned out the residents were all dead.
All the students shivered at the sight of the dead bodies.
In a possible future where RWBY were scattered and RNJR formed, the latter would be desensitised to death by the time they stumbled into the Brunswick farm. However, the students now, almost two years earlier, weren't prepared to deal with the sight of corpses.
The adults bowed their heads in respect for the dead, except for Raven, who muttered a quick 'weaklings' and nothing else.
The most Mysterious thing about their deaths though were two facts. Firstly, nothing was destroyed and the people all died in their beds without a scratch. It was only when they found the estate's founder journal, which used to be owned by a man named Bartleby, did they discover the cause of everyone's deaths in the estate.
The Apathy.
"The Apathy," Penny repeated, looking the name up on her personal Grimmology Index stored in her memory database. "Humanoid Grimm. Speed: E. Strength: E. Armour: E. Dangerousness: B. Special abilities: Keening Wail, drains the victims' will to live, leaving them defenceless to attacks. A pack's single cry is enough to make even a battle-hardened Hunter lay down and accept their fate. Do not engage in close range."
"That's the kind of Grimm there are in Anima?" Jaune exclaimed, freaked out by that Grimm.
"Habitat: everywhere. Rarity: very rare." Penny added, making him relax ever so slightly at the rarity, but tense at how they were everywhere.
"Great. And I'm the only one in the entirety of Beacon who can't fight at range…" the poor blonde groaned.
His teammates tried to comfort him, Ruby offered to get him a gun, the rest of her team just shrugging. Everyone else didn't really care.
From what Penny described of them, from her personal Grimmology Index stored in her memory, the Apathy were a breed of rather dangerous Grimm, and for good reason too.
What made them so dangerous was the fact that while they were slow and not particularly strong as most others of their kind, they had the dangerous ability to sap away the will to live from living creatures. A rather dangerous ability that was the cause of everyone in Bartleby's estate to perish.
"Okay, can we appreciate the two Pennies said more or less the same thing?" Yang grinned, trying to shake off the dread the corpses' sight instilled in her.
No one else laughed.
From what they learned from the Journal, Bartleby had caught two of them in an attempt to cut costs on Huntsman protection against Grimm by keeping the estate calm. Unfortunately, the rest of pack followed the two he caught to the farm, draining the will to live from the entire estate, hence why everyone died in their beds.
Needless to say it didn't take long for the two to find whatever flammable liquids they could get on the farm, throw them down into the underground areas where the monsters rested, and set fire to the entire lot of them.
"KILL IT WITH FIRE!" all the students cried out at seeing the Apathy's drawing made by Bartleby, and again when they spotted the monsters.
Everyone shuddered in horror, but they were glad those monsters were gone. Even if Taro could probably kill them all, there was no reason to risk it… or to make them look at them any longer than they had to.
It was a much safer way to destroy them rather than going down into their lair instead.
After making sure that those beasts were all dead, Kotaro and Penny buried the estate's residents and went on the move again.
Penny had been rather down after the whole ordeal. Mainly because it was the first time seeing someone's dead body before. Fortunately Kotaro was able to help cheer the robot girl back up to her more chipper mood and all was right again.
Which brings us to now, as our two travelers are finally arriving near Argus.
"It's not much farther, we should be seeing the city just up ahead over this hill," Said Kotaro as he walked beside a now very excited Penny. The Robot Girl currently having more hop in her step than usual. Which was good because it meant she recovered from the experience from two days ago.
"Oh~ this is so exciting! My first time in a actual city, I can't wait to see what we'll find in Argus," Penny said as was already picturing all the fun she and Kotaro will have at the city. " We could do all sorts of fun things in Argus, maybe make some new friends too! Oh i'm so excited i think i could short circuit!"
"It is rather exciting" Kotaro admitted as he watched Penny bounce about with a chipper smile. And as he watched Penny as she bounced in every step, he wondered how anyone would want to turn such a free spirit into a tool of war.
"It is a rather heartless decision," Goodwitch agreed, glaring at General Ironwood, who in turn scowled right back at her, but kept silent.
"Fortunately, it seems your knight in shining armour has rescued you from such a fate!" Yang exclaimed teasingly, trying to get a rise out of the girl.
"But he is not wearing armour…" Yang face-palmed at the gynoid's reply. She was far far faaar too innocent. Even Ruby could've understood that one!
The very idea was sacrilege!
"Oh I can't wait! What do you think we should do first when we arrive?" Penny asked as she looked over to Kotaro.
"Well first order of business is to find somewhere to stay for the night, then we can figure out what to do from there. I rather we take a long rest somewhere more comfortable before anything else. Especially after what we've experienced not to long before." He said as a grim look came to his face.
Penny knew what he was talking about and the two came to a sudden halt as they both looked down to the ground.
The Gynoid would be lying if she said that she still wasn't bothered by seeing those poor peoples lifeless corpses and that didn't bother Her still.
"They would bother anyone…" Qrow murmured before looking at Ironwood, Winter and Raven. "Well, anyone who has a heart made of flesh and not of metal or ice, of course."
"I do regret those poor people had to die, but there was nothing I could've possibly done," the General rebuked before Winter could start a fight.
She may look like a mature young woman but she was still only just born only recently. She was still experiencing everythingbthe world had to offer her. And Death was still a new thing to her, even if she understood that it was just natural part of life.
But that still doesn't mean it didn't bother her.
Seeing her distress, Kotaro put a hand on her shoulder making the robot girl look up to him, "Hey don't worry. We did what we could and made sure that nothing liked that would ever happen to anyone else" he said reassuringly. "All we can do now move on, so don't be so down."
Penny just smiled at his words as she returned to her optimistic behavior again. "Thank you Kotaro." she said
"Don't mention it Penny," the Ultra said as he Gave her a smile, "Now, what do you say we head down to Argus and go sight seeing?"
"Sensational!" Penny whooped, "This is going to be so much fu-"
"A thousand Lien she just jinxed it and something bad is about to happen," Jaune grinned.
Everyone else, still remembering how he won half a million against Weiss on a bet, wisely chose not to answer.
Raven, however, hadn't learned the lesson. "That's stupid. There's no way you can predict the future. I'll take that bet."
KRA-KOOM!
Everyone turned to Raven with matching grins.
She sputtered and growled. "It was a stupid bet," she snarled, glaring scathingly at Jaune, daring him to try and get the money.
Qrow snickered and mumbled a 'sore loser' in her direction.
At that moment though the sound of a massive explosion caught the both of them off guard. Taking a brief moment to look at each other they quickly made their way up the hill just in time to see A shocking sight!
For there, out in the distance was the city of Argus.
And it was under attack by an entire horde of Grimm.
"NO!" everyone jumped at Jaune's terrified outcry. He jumped to his feet. "SAPHRON! SAPHRON!"
"Jaune, calm down, your sister's safe!" Pyrrha exclaimed, trying to calm him down, but to no avail. Normally, she alone could easily overpower the Arc in just about anything, but now that his sister's life was apparently in danger, even with Nora's help they could barely keep him from launching himself at the projection.
Ren immediately stepped in, putting a hand on his shoulder and using his Semblance before nodding to the two girls, who let him drop to the ground, emotionless. "I think it would be best if he were to remain under my Semblance's influence for a while still."
"Yes, I think it would be best," Ozpin nodded, knowing fully well just how strong familial love could be – and how destructive protective siblings could be. Yang using her Semblance looked tame in comparison to a rightfully enraged man or woman whose beloved siblings had been hurt. "Besides, Taro is incredibly powerful – I'm sure he'll manage to help."
"Let's hope so, sir…" Ren's eyes became foggy as he was thrown back to a different time, in a different town. One no Hunter had come to save. "Let's hope so…"
And all of them were circling over one giant Grimm. It was a gigantic, bipedal, reptilian-like sea Grimm with four humanoid limbs and a long tail. It has four gills on each side of its neck and a collection of dorsal plates protruding from its back, with red webbing between each plate. It has a dolphin-like head with a mouth filled with sharp teeth and three yellow eyes on each side of the head. Like many other Grimm it has external ribs.
A Leviathan, and it's destination was Argus. Its intent, was ruin.
It would seem rest would have wait for now.
The projection shut off.
"Oh no…"
"All those poor people…"
"Why aren't the Hunters doing anything?"
"They're gonna die…"
Ironwood cleared his throat, hushing the whispers. "Don't worry, students. A powerful Atlas-made mech titan robot is stationed in Argus exactly for these situations. It is specifically designed to take care of monsters such as the Leviathan. Argus will be safe."
"Are you sure?" Ren asked.
"Positive."
With a sigh, the boy released his Semblance, and then quickly stepped aside. Jaune, having heard Ironwood, sighed and started biting his fingernails as he waited for the projectors to come back up.
"Saph, please be safe…"
Indeed the story said first Atlas and then Argus (Mistral), but given Taro's powers it's not so unlikely for him to have crossed the ocean.
Hope you enjoyed!
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh