Yeah you know that weird feeling when you're comfortably sleeping in bed and you just suddenly experience that you're rapidly falling to your doom? I mean it's such a weird feeling but it's pretty much normal to experience it once and a while.
So, when I went to sleep on a typical night and felt that strange sensation, I didn't think too much about it. You're just going to wake up, pat the bed down to assure yourself that you did not in fact leave it, go back to sleep, and soon forget about it.
"Huh damm this feels pretty real." Was all I could think of as I could feel the wind billowing on my back. Plus, the sounds of a bustling city with cars driving down the road and the bad air quality really made this an immersive dream experience.
"Any second now and I'll wake up on my bed fumbling around as I try to figure it out that I'm still on my bed." Yup any second now.
Any second now.
…
Bed?
…
Now this is a bit much-Fuck what the heck was that!
My inner thoughts were cut off as some...thing collided into me as the sudden collison forced me to open my eyes. My eyelids opened up fully expecting to see the tan ceiling of my fan lazily spinning around to assure me that I was in fact still home.
Definitely did not expect to see blue skies overshadowed by some massive floating structure in the sky.
Yeah did not expect this at all.
…
Also, why the hell was I seeing all of this through one eye instead of two!
…
This day was going to have a whole lot more surprises, won't it?
The bird that I collided into cawed at me as if it was agreeing with my inner predicament. Looking closer at the bird within my grasp it actually wasn't a bird but more like a Nevermore chick now that I thought about it. I mean it didn't have the iconic white mask that all Grimm had but it did have the general shape of the notorious avian Grimm.
So, I'm in the RWBY universe now...
Damm this must be either the real deal or I must've eaten something real funky before I went to sleep.
The nevermore chick cawed at me one last before it wriggled its way out and flew away into the open sky. And just when I thought I made a friend.
Yeah this is the real thing isn't it.
...
Wait wasn't I falling?
Turning my head, I could see that I was rapidly approaching the ground at an alarming rate. My landing point had no real way for me to stop my inevitable fate of being a fine paste on the ground.
My arms? I couldn't feel any feathers or any form of flight on them so that idea was shot down;
My legs? I couldn't feel a damm thing waist down. It was like my two perfectly normal human legs got turned into one single leg. What the hell did I become a decapitated beowolf or something!?
Ok time to start to screaming hysterically and hope something saves me.
"AAAAAAHHHH!" Was what I would've yelled if I had a fucking mouth attached onto me, wonderful. Not even a day in and I can't even speak or yell. Well time to start screaming internally then.
As my form was just the moments away from pancaking into the ground, I closed my one singular eye and began lamenting over the fact that my life in this new world was going to end so fast. I didn't even get to do anything significant or worth doing. Screwing up the timeline, maybe going to Beacon, eating that infamous old man's noodle stand, and so much more. Why was the world so cruel to me!? I just got here for crying out loud!
Wait shouldn't I be dead by now?
Hesitatingly opening my one eye I saw that I indeed had not died a painful death but was very much in fact very alive. Patting my new strange body, I begun to hysterically cheer the fact that I had not died a painful death. All internally of course, no mouth remember.
Taking a minute to calm down I begun to check wherever the hell I had landed. Seeing the run-down buildings that surrounded this little park that I had landed told me that this city was not in the best of states. The park may have been a place where families spent their time together once upon a time but today it was just a junkyard where people just threw their junk hoping that someone else would clean up their mess.
The playground equipment that the children might've played on were run down from years of neglect and cluttered with junk. Piles and piles of garbage filled the place and with all of the junk here it made sense no one was here. There was also a rundown car littered with graffiti and more trash.
I looked up to see a massive indomitable city floating above me and I immediately knew where I was. Anyone that watched RWBY would recognize the iconic floating city of Atlas.
So that meant that I was in Mantle, the former kingdom before the capital was moved into the city of Atlas, and hence the Kingdom of Mantle became the Kingdom of Atlas. It was also the main setting of the shit show of Volume 7. From a barely standing city to being the recipients of Salem's wrath.
Seeing how the buildings around me were still standing despite their poor state and that I could hear the commotion of people minding their own day all around me, without any complaints of Ironwood's Dust embargo, it was safe to say that I was nowhere near Volume 4, maybe somewhere close to Volume 1. There was not an abundance of Atlesian ships dominating the airspace so the events of Volume 3 had yet to occur.
But before I could do anything else, I needed to address a very serious question that had yet to be answered.
What in god's name did I reincarnate into?
Conveniently having landed on a puddle of water, I looked down to see what I really was. Staring back at me was a Geist, the Grimm capable of possessing inanimate objects and wear them like an armor. As far as I was concerned, I looked like the textbook picture of a Geist. Skeletal arms with some spikes potrudimg out of my shoulder blades and a ribcage visible on my chest. The only difference that I could tell at first glance was I had two tiny nubs located where my forehead would've been, maybe I would develop some sort of horn like appendages if I did get to live longer than a week.
Could've been worse, I mean I would not want to wound up as a King Taijitu. I mean how the hell does one control two different heads at the same time? Do I have to share a body with another mind, does my mind clone itself and I have to talk to them, do I have to control both heads with one mind and multitask between them?
Yeah not going to entertain that idea anymore.
Still did all Geist fill this tingly? It was like my entire body was being coated in electricity. Wherever I looked this strange sensation was filling me with this urge to...do something. Was it the urge to possess an object? If so, maybe that's why you rarely saw a Geist out in the open in its true form.
Though with my new form brought up its own new set of problems that seriously needed to be addressed.
First what in god's name was I meant to do now? Stuck as an envoy of destruction and death that took out any idea of following the typical route and become a huntsman. I was effectively stuck as an enemy of humanity from here on out. Maybe it was because I was a Grimm but the idea of eradicating humanity did not make me retch in disgust, which seriously had me concerned for my mentality.
Though before I could determine anything, I needed to accomplish one thing.
Leave Mantle.
Which was dead impossible considering what I was and how fortified the city was. While they were not as fortunate as Vale was economically, they did benefit from being in the literal shadow of Atlas's floating city. Security would be tight and with no forestry or structures to hide in, a Geist trying to leave Mantle was a death sentence.
My brooding was cut short as I begun to pick up voices that were scarily sounding like they were coming closer and closer.
"Fiona are you sure that you saw a Grimm falling down here?" A female voice cried out that I recognized as Robyn Hill, leader of the Happy Huntresses. A group dedicated to protecting Mantle when Atlas would not.
That meant Grimm, which meant me. Fuck.
"Yeah I think I saw it fall somewhere over here." A softer voice that I assumed to be Fiona said. While she and the two other characters may have not had as much screen time as their leader did, that didn't change the fact that they were experienced huntresses that could easily kill a Geist not inhabiting any object.
So that meant hiding.
Looking around there was no way that I could possess anything from the various piles of junk around me. Pieces were too small and I could create unnecessary ruckus that would lead them to me so I needed to choose something that was big enough and inconspicuous.
A giant garbage container was the next option.
Seeing the toxic fumes emanating from the trash within the container made me retch that this was going to save me. "Well beggars can't be choosers." Was all I could think of as placed my hands on the vile container hoping that Geists didn't have a sense of smell, even if they didn't have a nose to begin with.
I held onto the container expecting my body to faze through it but nothing happened, no assimilation or anything. The feeling of being coated in electricity got even worse the more I tried to assimilate with the trash container. "Maybe I need a running start?" That'd make sense seeing how Geist usually did some sort of fast float into the object they wanted to possess.
Floating a few feet back I took a fake deep breath before floating head first into the trash container.
Yet it seems that my misfortune was only beginning as my head bounced off that thing with a resounding bang. I clutched my head in pain to try and stop the ringing from bashing my head onto the container. How the hell did that not work out! Curse Grimm and their strange biology!
"Hey did you hear that?" Goddammit they heard my stupid attempt at hiding!
"Happy Huntresses on the double!" Oh, so they brought the whole dang squad isn't that convenient! Why not just add the Ace Operatives in why don't you universe, I can take it!
Please don't actually.
Desperately looking for some sort of hiding place so that I could maybe see the light of tomorrow, my only saving grace was standing before me.
There before me was the deserted car that was decorated full of graffiti. In reality it was an abandoned SUV that looked like it might've been used by the mafia or White Fang seeing the bullet holes that riddled the sides of it. It looked like it might've been used by some homeless people but it might've been abandoned recently seeing that this place held no signs of human habitation.
"Well let's do this the old fashion way." I floated up to the door handle and opened the car with surprising ease. Maybe it might've been me becoming a Grimm but I expected the door to be a bit harder to open with it being abandoned.
Throwing the door open I saw that a lone blanket was sitting at the back seat. My one yellow eye surveyed the rest of the car's interior. Seeing that there was nothing else that could've possibly hidden me so I was going to the next possible thing.
Hiding beneath the blanket like a child that was afraid of the dark was not how I pictured my first experience with huntresses. I kind of expected that I would be this fearsome Grimm that they wouldn't have fought before and I would absolutely obliterate them and spread fear in their ranks but you know what, will get there soon enough.
Hopefully.
"I think it's close." Hearing Robyn's voice getting closer and closer I closed the door before diving into the seat and draped the blanket over me, making sure that my more obvious Grimm features weren't visible at all through the dark blanket.
Did Grimm feel fear? I mean they acted similar to the animal that they take after of. Deathstalkers burrow themselves like scorpions do, Nevermores built nests like birds do, Beowolves hunted in packs with the Alpha being the leader.
Through the fabric of my blanket I could see the shadows of the Happy Huntresses beyond the tinted windows coming closer. With each second that they got closer the more trepidation that I was feeling. So, they do feel some sort of fear after all. It also didn't help that the electricity sensation was at an all-time high. It felt like that I was in a microwave for crying out loud!
"Fiona are you sure you saw a Grimm over here? There are no signs of one being here at all." A voice that wasn't Robyn's said as I could hear the four huntresses circling my hiding spot, seeing if they could pick up any obvious tracks that I could've left. Luckily for me a Geist floated and as such left no footprints on the ground to trace.
Hah take that! My luck is finally turning around!
"I think something tried to bash its way into this trash container." Dammit I forgot about that!
"Weapons up ladies, our visitor might be still around here." Robyn warned. In my peripheral vision I could see a shadow approaching the door that I had just entered the car through.
My mind was racing as I could hear the sound of the door being opened as it was slowly opened.
"Fuck,fuck,fuck,fuck!" My mind was racing as the door opened to reveal a blue haired woman wearing a tan coat and orange scarf wielding some sort of polearm. If my memory serves me right then this was May Marigold, the Happy Huntress with the ability to erect some sort of invisible barrier to cloak whoever was in it from the outside world.
"Huh what's under here?" May's hand reached down to grab the blanket that was between me and my early death. Welp it looks like I'm about to go down in history as the fastest self-insert to die in the RWBY-verse. As the huntress's hand grasped the blanket and was beginning to move it away, I closed my yellow eye in resignation.
I guess one good positive was that electric sensation that I was being bothered by was that I could no longer feel it. At least I could face death without that strange sensation of being shocked that one felt by going down the slide.
"Ahaha!" May threw the blanket aside and I braced myself for my inevitable death.
"Huh nothing's here, well this car is clear." May took one last look in the car before slamming the car door closed. Wait what the hell was going on!
I opened my eye back up expecting to see myself back in the back seat but instead I found myself staring at the front of the driver's seat. If I was staring at the front of the driver seat and judging from how I was looking at it then I was in the steering wheel. Having an idea of what I had done I decided to experiment what my body had done.
Feeling something within me I pulled on it waiting to see what it would've done.
And that something was the car's alarm going off.
The Happy Huntresses jumped at the sudden alarm but quickly calmed themselves down. "Slammed the door a bit too hard there huh May." Joanna, the last remaining Happy Huntress, teased as the group shared a quick laugh at the expense of their teammate.
"It's not my fault that car is so old!" Argued May.
"Ladies calm yourselves." Robyn intervened as she placed a hand on both their shoulders. "We should be glad that there is no Grimm here."
"I guess you're right." Conceded May.
"Good now let's go ladies, our cause of defending Mantle does not end here." With that the Happy Huntresses left the park and off to wherever their cause called them to.
"I survived that holy shit!" Was all that was going through my mind. With the coast clear and danger no longer present I freed myself from the car that I had accidentally possessed. Leaving the steering wheel, I flew out of the car and inspected it.
That strange electric feeling was back and with its reappearance I begun theorizing what had just happened. "So, let's do this one more time." I placed my hands back on the car and just as I thought the assimilation was seamless.
Feeling my body? Spirit? Well whatever it was it began to take hold of the automobile. "So, it seems that I can only take control of objects that have some sort of circuitry or what not running through it." So that severely limited what I could possess with human made objects. Experimenting I begun activating anything that had power still in it.
I played the radio as loud as I could, opening doors left and right, windows rolling back down and up as fast as possible, any headlights that still operated were blaring their lights out both inside and outside. If any person happened to walk by, they would've thought the car was going through some sort of exorcism or possessed by a demon.
"So, I'm some sort of transformer now?" I was hit by the sudden realization as I stopped my experimentation. I mean I could manipulate a car like if I was moving my own body around. Then that would've meant...
Having the crazy idea in my head I readied myself to do what I was about to do. In any Transformer movie or show the transformation from robot mode to vehicle mode was seamless for any Cybertronian seeing how it was part of their biology but for a human to try and replicate that feat was going to be hard.
"Alright you can do this." I psyched myself up, ready to do the seeming impossible. With a sort of clear vision of how the transformation would've looked like I readied my Geist form for the transition.
"3, 2, 1, TRANSFORM!" I yelled in my mind as I tried to manipulate the car to do my bidding. C'mon car you can do it. Fulfill my childhood dreams of being a transformer!
A full second passed with nothing happening.
Then another.
Then another.
Oh no what happened, what went wrong.
Right after I said that the car rumbled before the hood popped off as the engine exploded in a plume of smoke. It seemed like a mini fire was beginning to take place in the now ruined car.
"Shit, now what?" Was all that I could think of as I was ejected out of the dead car. With no electricity powering it I could no longer possess it and was now just as useless as that stinking trash container.
This was going to be a long day.
This seemed to do really well so I'll drop another chapter and see if goes well. If it gets more support then I'll dedicate more time into this