"So, let me get this straight, after you got onto the ship, you crashed into yet another box canyon?" Church asked for clarification.
"Yep." Sarge replied, "Now that I think of it, it does seem like an unfortunate coincidence." He pondered, causing Church to groan, why was it Sarge of all people, one of the ones stuck here with him?
"Damn, you guys really do have shitty luck."
"You don't know the half of it." Mused Washington, causing Church to scowl something awful.
"No one said that you could talk." Church snapped at his replacement.
"Church there is no need for hostility." Wash reasoned. "You were gone, and someone needed to fill that gap."
Church's scowl did not dissipate. "Whatever, just get back to the fu- i mean, the story." Church cut off the curse before young ears could hear it, as across from the room Ruby was also sitting, half listening to Oobleck's current lecture.
Well, at least they told him that the teachers name was Oobleck, despite the fact he sounded sorta like Caboose.
Speaking of... the regulation blue sim trooper spoke up to give the next bit of the story.
"Well you see, we crashed and they had a red base and we had a blue base and agent Washingtub wanted to fix the radio while tucker was stupid, then I was sad, but then I found Freckles so things were less sad." Caboose explained.
Church was now fairly certain he knew less than before.
"yeah, um could somebody give me a quick and easier version of events to remember? cause i didn't understand half of that." church interrupted caboose's explanation.
"When we crashed it was on a planet called Chorus." Wash explained in a far more competent manner. "It was in the middle of a civil war that was made far longer than it should've by Charon industries who wanted to have easy access to the alien artefacts on planet."
"What, like Tuckers sword?" Church asked.
Wash nodded. "Exactly. We were split up, but eventually we were reunited and ambushed by Felix and Locus, the main enforcers of the civil war. Eventually, we managed to inform both armies about what was going on and the united to combat the threat."
"Huh, and you saw this 'Felix' guy here?" Church questioned further.
"That's right, and because he has a physical body, it means he can do a lot of damage to this world." Wash said as seriously, as only a freelancer could.
"Well he isn't the only one then."
Church could practically see Wash's eyes narrow under his helmet. " What do you mean?"
"Well, being the incredibly kick-ass ghost I am, I can still possess people." Church informed smugly.
"Sense when!?" Wash's voice climbed an octave, tearing Ruby's attention away from Oobleck's lecture.
"Uh, sense I posses that blonde guy over there, what was his name again? It was uh, Jack, James, oh! John, it was John!" Church exclaimed proudly.
Sarge stepped forward. "Uh you mean Jaune?" The red leader corrected.
"Oh whatever, it's basically the same thing. The point is I totally possessed him, and used him to find you guy's." Church explained.
"Is that why Jaune can't remember the second part of his date?" Ruby questioned in whisper, but unfortunately someone heard her.
"Miss Rose! Do you have anything to add?" Oobleck raced over to to her seat so fast Church got second hand whiplash.
"Eep! I- uh- mean- I uh, no sir." Ruby stammered out.
"Hmmmm." was all Oobleck said before returning to his lecture.
"Right, yeah that's why Jaune passed out." Church told Ruby, who only gave the briefest of nods before paying full attention to the lecture in fear of being called out again.
Then Church got an idea
"Hey, what if I showed you that I can still possess people?" Church proposed.
"Right now?" Wash questioned.
"Right now."
"Sounds interesting enough to me blue." Sarge remarked.
"Well who do you have in mind?" Washington asked
"I already possessed that jaune kid, so lets try someone different, like the teacher guy." Church reasoned.
Church could tell that Wash was frowning under his helmet. "Church... that is a terrible idea, we're right in the middle of class."
"You could get into trouble with principal Ozpin!" Caboose cried out.
After considering all of that information very carefully Church made his decision.
"Eh fuc- I mean fudge it."
With that wonderful example of self censorship, Church walked over to the energetic teacher, reached his hand out and the familiar sensation of possessing someone enveloped him.
"In conclusion-Wa-kika-herger!"
Blinking twice, Church took a moment to get used to the sensation of being inside the new body.
"Sir? Are you alright?" A kid with pure white hair asked him.
"Yeah, sure. uh what was I talking about?" Church was met by a room of blank stares.
"You." church pointed at a random student. "Miss-"
"Xiao Long." Wash called out.
"-Xiao Long, can you uh summarise what we've been learning about in class today, as taught by me?" Church did his best teacher impression, inwardly wincing at how he sounded exactly like Caboose.
"Well, uh we learned about how in the battle of... Martyrdom, the Faunus used the surrounding dark forest to ambushed enemy forces near the end of the war." Xiao Long clearly bullshitted her way through answering.
But Church honestly didn't care. "Yeah, that is correct." Church said intellectually, causing the girl with the white hair to frown.
"But that information was barely correct!" She protested in what Church would call a posh accent. "And it misses several key factors such as General Lagune's unwillingness to retreat or battle of Waterstone only hours beforehand!" She turned to face the body Church was inhabiting. "Are you alright sir?"
Ignoring Wash's very disrespectful face palm, Sarge's "I knew this wasn't a good idea." And Caboose's jumping with his hand up to answer the question. Church formulated a sentence that would assure the class of his sanity.
"Of course I am, or my name wouldn't be Professor Oobleck!"
Church was rewarded with strange looks from the entire class excepting for Ruby who only face palmed much like Wash had.
Clearly that didn't work for some reason.
Time for plan B.
"Class dismissed!" Church yelled out, he then waited as the class filed out, leaving just Church, his fellow sim troopers and their freelancer.
"Well that could have gone better."
"Of course when they finally do catch up with me, they insist that the present is destroyed and that we're all now in the future."
Qrow frowned. "Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't always the present?"
"Yep." Tex laughed. "But they are just a bunch of idiots, so I went along with it rather than arguing."
Currently Tex and Qrow were walking along in a swamp, which according to Qrow would take them right to a coastal city that they could get a boat or plane from. Tex personally wasn't fond of walking through swamps like during tuckers 'quest' with the alien, but still if this was the fastest way then so be it.
"Sounds like you made the right choice." Qrow told her before he held up his fist, causing the pair to stop.
Nothing happened for a few moments as Qrow scanned the trees evidently looking for someone. He eventually stopped on a tree on their left, but as he did so a raven burst out of the tree and flew away.
Qrow sighed. "We're gonna have to move faster, were currently in bandit territory and with my luck we can probably expect an encounter soon."
Bandits? Sounds interesting.
Agreeing with O'Malley for once, Tex asked. "Bandits?"
"Nothing but a bunch of killers and thieves, they move through out Anima, attacking villages and taking resources all in the name of their own survival, bunch of jerks." Qrow spat out, voice filled with a lot of venom.
"Right. How long until we can reach the end of the swamp?" Tex questioned, deciding not to question Qrow about what was clearly a loaded issue.
"About 12 hours of straight marching, provided we don't stop for a rest."
Tex nodded. "Right, so lets get moving, and with even a minuscule amount of luck, we'll reach the end without running into trouble."
But as Tex said that last word, they found trouble in the form of what looked like a squad of soldiers that had been torn apart, their blood, limbs and equipment all over the section of the swamp they had just entered and that clearly served as the soldiers former encampment.
"Ah shit..."
Slowly making their way around the destroyed encampment Qrow knelt besides one of the soldiers that remained mostly intact.
"Omega, start being useful and give me an analysis of what happened here." Tex said aloud.
It took a few moments but the A.I quickly gave his idea of what happened and briefly took control of the body to give both Tex and Qrow his report.
"Six soldiers, all decently armed and equipped, but not for this environment, they most likely crash landed as evidenced by burns on one of them. after landing they tried sending out an S.O.S signal, it got through but the radio has clearly been turned off sense then. These men were not killed by Grimm, their wounds are more consistent with are reminiscent of the long-bladed, single-edged ōdachi, or 'great sword' as some call them."
With that Omega voluntarily retreated back, allowing Tex to resume control of the body once more, something she found suspicious, but she wouldn't look the horse gift in the mouth.
After hearing O'Malley's analysis, Qrow picked up a single feather that he had found.
"Raven..."
"What should we do for the poor bastards?" Tex asked Qrow as she picked up one of their discarded guns, finally something she could shoot with.
"Not much we can do besides giving them a proper burial, even then we don't have any shovels."
"Well the response team can do that, speaking of we should probably leave before some one finds us and gets the wrong idea, now that would be some bad luck." Tex said, wanting to just leave the swamp already.
But before either of them could take more than a step, a loud military sounding voice called out.
"Right, the distress beacon came from around here somewhere, fan out and find it."
You know she should really learn to just keep her mouth closed. Seriously those blood gulch idiots must've really gotten to her.
"Their heading towards us." Qrow informed her.
"No shit Sherlock, shut up and hide."
Elsewhere, in the vast deserts of Menagerie, there lie ancient ruins, a relic of a era forgotten by all but two.
These ruins now lie covered by the sands of time... as well as physical sand.
But on the uttermost tip, the only section of it to still see the light of the sun, there was a flash of light.
But this flash was different, longer lasting and a vibrant rainbow of colours, as apposed to the pure white of the previous flashes.
This flash, not witnessed by Man, Faunus or Grimm, left behind a single person in full body armour.
And in this persons hand, he had a key.
Notes:
And that's the end of that chapter.
I had some fun with the first section, which itself is there mostly to catch our dear friend Church up on what has happened sense his departure. The idea of him possessing Doctor Oobleck, came from a reviewer called Trutsky64674, (even if he spelt Oobleck's name wrong), still Kudos to him.
I quite like my work here with Tex and Qrow as they are very fun characters to write, especially sense neither character has good luck on their side.
And finally, we have who will be the last person to arrive in Remnant for the entirety of the fic, meaning all the pieces are now on the chess board so to speak. the only clue I will give you as to this persons identity, (if you can't guess it.), is that they are currently alive and relate to the title of this chapter.
As always, I would like to thank everyone for reading, and I would like to give extra thanks to those who comment/review as they are the highlight of my day.
The next chapter will be out in a couple of days, so stay tuned for that, but till then thanks for reading and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.