Chapter 8

Now let's focus back on Team CRDL for a moment and focus on what they were doing. They were...um... Oh, yeah! The Sunbeam blew-up that demoralized them! Then Cardin fell down to his knees and asked what type of place are they in. Now for the continuation.

Cardin bashes the sand with his left fist out of frustration. The rest of the team just watch as the ship comes crashing down into the ocean.

"Oh dude..." Sky says out loud. "...This sucks."

Then Dove turns his attention towards the gun emplacement. That is when he has a thought. "Maybe we should disable the gun right now so another ship can come here."

Everyone looked at Dove.

Cardin stops as he looks at him. "What did you say?"

"If we can manage to shut-down that gun, another ship will come by and rescue us."

Sky then thinks about it for a moment, "Okay, but what about the Sunbeam?"

Russel then prepares his seaglide, "I'll check to see if there is any survivors. I'll meet you guys inside the gun structure." Then he runs off and jumps into the water. Off to find any survivors at the down ship.

Cardin then stands back up, "Right." Then he looks at the gun emplacement, "Let's see if we can shut that thing down for good."

Russel then asks, "Is there away to get inside? We may need to find a key of some sort if the door is locked."

Dove looks at his PDA, "According to this, there is a lock that requires some sort of artifact simply known as the purple tablet." He showed the picture of the tablet to his teammates.

Russel raises one eyebrow, "Is that a U?"

"According to this thing, it is similar but can mean anything in whatever alien language it is."

Cardin then looks at the sandy hill between them and the platform, "Like that one over there?"

The two boys look over where Cardin is pointing and noticed the purple glowing tablet just lying on the sand.

"Yeah." Dove says with a little bit of a shock in his tone, "Looks like that."

Russel then asks, "Why would anyone leave a big key like that in a middle of the beach? Because that's just dumb."

"Not sure why, but let's go."

Before the two go get it, Cardin yanks the fabric of their scuba suits and goes, "Hold it! I'm still leader of this team and I say, let's go!" Cardin then starts getting the tablet as the other two just nodded.

"Well," Russel says as they followed Cardin, "at least he's back."

"But how much more can we take?" Dove is a bit unsure. "If we-"

"HEY!" Cardin yelled out, "Hurry up, you slowpokes!"

They then hurry their way towards a door that has an energy shield blocking the entrance. Cardin uses the tablet on some console and it opened the door.

"Hmm." Dove went, "Kinda advance like some Atlas security door but requires a huge tablet to open it rather than a swipe from your scroll."

Russel looks at Dove as they went in, "Please tell me you don't believe some of that crap about Atlas abducting people for some experiment, are you?"

"No, but they did found a few abandoned research facilities that do such experiments."

Cardin laughs, "Yeah right! Next thing you tell me that they did some experiment that involves making Grimm smarter!"

The other two laugh as they go further in to find something that looks like a control console of some sort. But to them, trying to find an alien console with what little intelligence they have is like trying to find a grain of sand on a mountain. So they head further in and noticed that the place is a bit dark with glowing green lights.

Cardin looks at the place, "Man the aliens must really love green."

Dove snickers a bit, "They're, or were, aliens. What did you expect?"

Russel is a bit more chilled with his hands behind his head, "Can't argue with that."

They keep wondering until they found the device.

"Is that it?" Cardin asks.

Dove shrugs, "Don't look at me. This is alien tech."

Russel then cracks his knuckles, "Let me give it a try."

Russel presses his hand on some red square looking button and press his hand on it. He is hesitant at first but presses it. But when he does, his hand got caught in some energy field.

"Whoa!" the three freaked out.

"Okay, what is happening?!" Russel tries to pull his hand out but is unable to. Then a strange mechanical tentacle comes out with a needle. Russel begins to panic, "NOT THE NEEDLE! I HATE NEEDLES!" Then it stabbed his arm, "OW!" Then retracts back and lets go of his arm.

Russel rubs his arm where the needle stab him. "That really hurts!" he says being upset. "I think it took some of my blood!"

Then they hear what sounds like a siren along with some form of language that they can't understand.

Dove checks the PDA and reads some of the translation out loud. "Let's see here... It says: Specimen implant detect-. Unable to shut-n. I'm guessing that we have these implants, we can't shut this place down."

They all look at their implants and wonder what would happen if they remove them.

"Any ideas on what to do next?" Russel asks.

"I think we should find out more about these things to understand why we have them." Cardin does have a point...for once in his life. "Maybe we should head back to the base and find out what to do later. Right now-" His stomach starts to grumble, "I'm hungry."

Dove looks at Cardin, "Same here."

"Ditto." Russel agrees as his stomach starts to growl.

So the three make their way outside and see Sky Lark with a puzzled look on his face.

"Hey, Sky!" Cardin shouts at his teammate, "Any luck!"

Sky looks at his teammates heading towards him. "Well I checked and there aren't any survivors."

"That sucks."

Dove then says, "But what's troubling you? You looked a little puzzled."

"Well, here's the thing." Sky explains. "I was heading over to the Sunbeam crash site but when I did, I discovered not one but more ship wrecks."

"What's weird about that?"

"All three wrecks I've found are called the Sunbeam. They're all on top of each other."

This is a huge shock for the team. All three wrecks bearing the same name and went down the same way.

Cardin then looks out into the ocean where the wrecks are and mutters to himself, "Just why are we here? What is the purpose?"

Now we travel back to whatever town the huntsmen students of Remnant call it. It is nighttime as everyone eats at the Malachite Inn. Things are alright for all the students. Team RWBY have volunteered to help out the twins with the cooking.

Brawnz then raise a glass, "Can I get another glass of amarberry juice?"

Yang goes, "Just one second!" as she runs over to the kitchen.

Ruby is keeping an eye on the baker's oven since Team ABRN ordered a pizza. She has to keep an eye on it so it wouldn't burn.

Weiss is doing the dishes with the only bar of soap they got from a drop. The reason being because it is the only bar of soap in the entire camp.

Blake drools over some fried salmon patties but Melanie smacks her head with a spatula.

"Get back to work!" Melanie scolds Blake.

Blake starts to look depressed, "Yes, ma'am."

Miltiades then runs in the kitchen, "Is that pizza ready yet?!"

Ruby then pulls it out, "It's done!"

Yang then comes in, "Can I get another amarberry juice?"

Melanie handed her a glass, "Here you go."

Ren then runs into the kitchen with a frighten expression, "Can I use the grill real quick!"

Ruby looks at Ren, "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nora is on night watch and I need to make her pancakes before she does things to me!"

Then there was a large quake that shook the ground.

Blake fell down on her butt, "What was that?"

"Paaaaannn-caaaakkkeeess." says a disturbing distant voice of a teenage girl. Then another quake shakes everything.

Ren screamed, "MOVE IT!" Ren quickly gets to work on the grill as another quake shakes the ground.

"Paaaaaannnnn-caaaakkkkeeeesss!" the voice says again but sounds closer.

Weiss does a facepalm, "Please tell me that isn't Nora."

The loud stompping sounds are heard coming in through the front door that later bashed through the wall that leads to the kitchen. It is Nora who bashed her way through with a frightening expression that scares everyone.

"GIVE ME PANCAAAKKEES!" Nora scream as her scream shakes the entire building. She glares at Ren, "Ren! You better have my pancakes or else I'll take your batter!"

"The first patch is ready!" Ren gives Nora a plate that has twelve pancakes with some syrup on them.

Nora takes the pancakes and smiles innocently at Ren, "Thank you, Ren!" She said it in a cheery tone. Then walks out the door while slurping one of the pancakes.

Ren wiped his forehead and sighs in relief.

Jaune approaches Ren as he sees Nora walking out. "Is it just me, or is Nora getting worse if she doesn't get her pancakes?"

"You have no idea."

Pyrrha also approach, "What does she mean by taking your batter?" she asked.

Ren's face is bright red, "You don't wanna know."

Then more stomping sounds are coming straight towards them with Nora screaming, "MORE PANCAKES!" while showing her plate to Ren.

Ren immediately went back to the modern grill, "Give me a sec!" He works as fast as he can on making Nora's pancakes.

Ruby approach Nora. "Hey, uh, Nora?"

Nora looks at Ruby with a death glare.

It frightens Ruby that causes her to stagger back a bit. "Um...Do you think you could make your own pancakes?"

Nora sighs. "I would." Then shows the engrams on her implant, "But for some reason, I can't unlock it." She has 20 engrams left and the pancake engrams only cost 2. Nora has unlocked the modern grill engram, but when she presses on the pancake batter engram, but she got a big red ERROR. "See?"

"That's weird." Ruby takes a closer look. "Is there a glitch?"

Nora shrugs.

Pyrrha then looks at it. "Mine works fine. I did unlock the pancake batter engram and so did Jaune."

Oscar then says to Nora, "I think you need to tone down of the pancakes."

Nora gives Oscar a threatening glare.

Oscar got scared but tries to hold his ground. "*clears throat* Sorry, Nora. But we are running low on certain ingredients such as cashew milk and salt. Unless you wanna mine some salt and help out with the cashews-"

Nora pulled out a stone pickaxe out of nowhere and dashes out.

Ren comes out of the kitchen with a plate full of 20 pancakes. "What about your pancakes?!"

Nora dashes back and gulps down all 20 pancakes at once then dashes back.

Everyone looks out the door and see Nora dashing her way to the cave that has now been converted into a mine.

Yang comments, "We really need to get back home."

Everyone nods at Yang's comment.

Ruby then says to Yang, "But you know what? You haven't said a pun this whole time we've been here. Isn't that weird?"

"I'm trying to come up with some. But hard to do since I really need something for my hair."

All the girls say, "Same with us."

Jaune then says, "But isn't Nora on night-watch duty?"

Pyrrha then says, "She is, but she won't find any crystals in the mines. We need to find a new crystal source somewhere else."

Oscar then adds, "And we need to plant some more cashews."

Weiss then says, "Maybe we should put her on a diet."

Jaune then says to Weiss, "Nora? On a diet? Fat chance of that!"

Yang looks at Jaune and smiles, "Now that's a pun."

"Dammit!"

Dawn is approaching over the savanna, as both Team CFVY and Team SSSN wake-up and start the day. Coco comes out of the yurt as she stretches her arms and yawns while wearing her new Pip-Boy.

Sun and Fox are at the campfire and say, "Morning!" at Coco.

Coco says in a groggy voice, "Morning."

Sun holds up a piece of cooked spare ribs, "We got ribs for breakfast!"

Coco approaches Sun while in half-awake/half-asleep mode and just snatches the ribs from Sun. She sits down and eats quietly.

Neptune approaches and says, "Morning everyone!"

Sun says, "Hey, Neptune!"

"Hey." Fox says nonchalant.

"..." Coco is busy having breakfast.

"I got some spinach and found some edible mushrooms that Sage help me find." Neptune pulls out the spinach from his implant.

Coco snatches the spinach and eats it.

Sun looks at Coco, "Guess someone didn't get much of a good night sleep." Coco smacks him in the face as Fox laughs at Sun's misfortune.

Fox stops and looks at Neptune, "Where is everyone else?"

"Scarlet is checking some of the computers you guys found. Velvet is with Yatsuhashi to see how far away are we from our settlement. Sage is checking on the supplies and robots."

Coco got done eating, "Yeah, those fucking robots are loud as hell."

"Unless you have ear plugs on hand."

Coco glares at Neptune. "You guys have ear plugs the whole time?"

Neptune gulp. "Well I-"

Coco punches him in the stomach regions and Neptune drops down as Coco smacks him.

"Ow! Ow!" he cries out. "Not the face! Ow! I said not the face! Ow! Ow!"

"Then tell me next time! Because I had a rough night! You fucking asshole!"

"Alright, alright! Ow!"

Fox goes, "Breakfast with morning entertainment? Feels like home!"

"HEY EVERYONE!"

Everybody stops at what they were doing as they see Velvet and Yatsuhashi running towards them.

Velvet says excitingly, "We found our base! It's just a few miles away!"

Coco then gets up after beating Neptune, "Alright! Saddle up! Let's get rolling!"

Neptune gets up from the ground with a black eye on his right eye. He rubs his eye and says to himself, "Man. I thought all the ladies love me."

Then someone throws a rock at his head. "OW!"

Back at the settlement, it is Yang's turn to be on guard as she stands on top of the wall with her spear. She lets out a big yawn until a sound of a horn scared her. She looks at sees four massive vehicles lined-up at the gate.

"What the-?" she says as she blinks a few times.

Coco then comes out of the first elephant and waves at her.

"HEY!" she says at Yang.

"Coco?!" Yang shouts, "Is that you?!"

"You bet! And we got supplies and goodies!"

"Hold on, I'll open the gate!" Yang then shouts out loud, "HEY GUYS! TEAM CFVY AND TEAM SSSN ARE BACK! THEY GOT SOME NEW STUFF!"

The gate opens and the elephants managed to go inside. Everyone gather round and see what's up.

Team SSSN stacked a few crates with Neptune standing on one stacked three crates high and says, "Guess what ladies! We have something that might cheer you up!" Neptune pulls from his pocket left and raise it in the air, "We got some soap!"

The girls (with the exception of some) gasp at what Neptune has.

"YOU HAD SOAP THE WHOLE TIME?!" Coco shouted in shock.

"It is supposed to be a surprise." Neptune puts his arm down that has the soap. "Now we only have 19 bars of soap, so we have to-"

The girls charged at the team and try to get as much soap as they can, but end up fighting over them while saying who needs it more. Yang and Melanie have a tug of war over one bar while Weiss tries to run off with one but Coco pulled her hair. All the members of Team NDGO get into a cat fight with Blake and Neon over one bar of soap. Arslan gets into a slap fight with Ciel. Velvet gets her ears yanked by Reese while Velvet is holding a bar. Nora tries to run away with a bar of soap in her mouth while being chased by Miltiades in comedic fashion.

That is when Ruby puts her foot down. "EVERYONE, ENOUGH!" Ruby stands firm with Pyrrha and Penny behind her. The reason why Penny is with Ruby and Pyrrha is because she doesn't exactly understand what is going on.

Everyone stopped fighting as the boys try to hide from the girls' vicious behavior behind a few crates and some of the vehicles.

Then Ruby makes a speech, "Look at you girls! We are supposed to help each other to survive yet you all act like animals rather than ladies!" She looks at Weiss, "Weiss, look at yourself! You're supposed to be a dignified young lady! What would your sister say if she sees you acting like a savage rather than an almost little miss perfect?!"

Weiss lowers her head in shame.

Then Ruby looks at Yang, "And Yang! You're supposed to be my big sister, the person I look up to! Yet here you are acting like a five year old fighting over a toy! I understand that you want to keep your looks but you should be ashamed of yourself!"

Yang turns her head in embarrassment.

"We are all supposed to be Huntresses! Yet here you girls are being no better than criminals!"

Pyrrha then steps up, "She's right! I know times of tough, but this is what we should prepare for! Days to weeks to months with very little necessities while hunting Grimm! Ruby is right about all you girls being ashame of yourselves for calling yourselves huntresses!"

All the girls that were fighting looked at each other and truly do feel ashame of themselves and brought shame to their position as huntresses.

Neptune comes out, "Well," claps his hands, "with that out of the way, I should say this again. We only have 19 bars of soap so each team should have one. The rest we should save for later. Agreed."

"Agree." all the girls say with a little less enthusiasm. The guys also agree but still trying to hide.

Oscar pops out from behind a crate, "I should check on the farm."

Yatsuhashi asks Ciel, "Is there room for some of the supplies?"

"I'll try to organize."

Sage pops out along with Scarlet, "We'll help out."

Coco and Yang walk towards one of the elephants, "By the way, I have a surprise of my own for you."

"Really?"

Everyone starts to disperse as Ruby takes a deep breath.

Pyrrha place her hand on Ruby's right shoulder, "You did good."

"Thanks. Facing a crowd isn't easy."

Penny tilts her head, "I'm confuse. What exactly was going on?"

"I'll explain later."

/: Would you like to save the footage?

Yes, please. I need something hilarious for the cafeteria to boost morale.

/: Affirmative. Processing. Please stand by...

...

...

...

Footage saved and uploaded to storage device.

Man the guys are gonna love this cat fight.

/: Please refrain from using speech to text while monologuing when talking to self.

Whoops.

/: Please have a good lunch.

Oh, I will! By the way, progress?

/: Processing...

...

...

Progression of Project PHOENIX: 5%

AN: Another week, another chapter. I read an interesting review from .wolf about some of the stuff the person said.

I have check the They Are Billion and don't worry, I got something interesting in mind when autumn comes. If you are wondering what season the planet is going through now, it is late summer. And let me tell you, there gonna get more than just a billion zombies coming up!

As for the NPC's, there are some like the Super Mutants from earlier and there are others. There are a few friendly NPC's but only a very small number. There are plenty of hostile NPC's that don't have any implants. Remember Project ARES that was mentioned in the first chapter. If you brush up on your mythology, you'll get what is gonna happen soon.

See you guys next week!