Chapter 14

Let's cut back to Team CRDL to see how are they progressing. The three members couldn't find any ghost weed needed for hatching enzymes in order to get the cure for Cardin's illness. Dove makes a depth module for the seamoth that now allows it to go up to 900 meters. Sky gets in and head towards the upgraded seamoth with a torpedo module for repelling any giant sea creatures, the new depth module, an engine efficiency module to increase the power efficiency and minimize power usage, and a sonar module to navigate in dark caves. Sky heads deep down towards the blood kelp zone and is starting to get the creeps.

"Man this place is creepy." Sky says as he descends downward into the hole.

Then Russel says over the radio, "How do you think I feel when I go down there?"

"I hope going to this lost river area is worth it."

Sky keeps going deeper until she ocean water becomes a pale greenish/bluish color and sees waterfalls of green mist going down into green pools of acidic brine. He drives while following the brine until he screamed when he sees a giant skull with a long snout and lots of big teeth.

"What happened?!" says the worried Dove.

Sky screamed, "THERE'S A BIG ASS MOTHERFUCKING SKULL OF A GIANT SHITTY SEA MONSTER DOWN HERE! HOLY SHIT! IT'S HUGE!"

"Calm down, you idiot. *cough, cough*" Cardin says over the radio in his room while still feeling under the weather. "Just get the damn weed so you guys can cure me and we can get the *cough, cough* fuck out of here. I'm sick of all this ocean shit."

"Okay... Okay." Sky then calms down and focus. "Let's see here. I'm already at 854 meters so I won't just go down unless I get out. Dove says that briny stuff is toxic so I can't just swim in it." He looks at the ground to see if he can find any ghost weed. "There's one." He spots a ghost weed just below him. Sky attempts to get out but hears a strange sound.

Sky looks around with a frighten look. "What was that?" He looks up and sees something big swimming around the skull.

It is long, has a long body that is transparent with a tinge of blue, a head similar to a hammerhead shark, a gigantic mouth, and six glowing yellow eyes. Sky screams again as the giant beast swims towards him. Sky presses every button in a panic until he presses a torpedo button that fires a gas torpedo at the creature's face. It retreated but only for a moment. That's when Sky gets out of his seamoth and use the seaglider to quickly snatch the ghost weed. He quickly grabs it right before the creature comes back. Good thing he manages to get in right before the creature strikes the hull.

Sky looks at the health of his hull is at 82%. He aims and fires another torpedo to keep the leviathan at bay right before turning around and fleeing back up to the surface in a panic. He drives and drives up through the blood kelp and straight out of the cavern. Sky takes a few panting breaths as he sees the sunlight setting and breach the surface.

"I think my ears just popped." he says to himself as he tries to calm down.

"You alright?!" Dove says in a worried tone over the radio.

"Just encountered a big, giant sea monster. It was big, six yellowed eyes, and see through."

"Hold on. I think I got something. The creature you encountered is called, The Ghost Leviathan. Apparently, the one you encountered is a juvenile."

"Wait!" says the shocked Sky, "That thing is a teenager!?"

"Yeah. The adults are super big than the one you just met. The adult Ghost Leviathans are in deeper waters. Just be glad we haven't encountered any."

Sky takes a gulp, "Yeah. Sure. Well I'm heading back to the base so we can make the enzymes now." Sky drives towards the base so they can finally cure Cardin and get the hell out of there.

Back in Team CRDL's base, Sky brought back the last ingredient needed to complete the hatching enzymes. Dove went to work and made them. Next, Russel created a prawn suit that can now withstand depths of 1700 meters and some jump jets and grappling arms. Then Dove makes his way towards the portal just below the gun platform.

Russel enters the portal and has entered into a large aquarium of some kind and is looking at seven big eggs right in front of him.

"Hello there."

Dove hears the voice of a very familiar creature through telepathy. He sees a giant brown creature with tentacles and a strange head. It swims slowly towards him and swims around to rest on a spot close by.

"Do you have what I asked?"

Dove wishes he could answer, but is completely awestruck by what he sees in front of him. A giant leviathan that is intelligent enough to communicate through telepathy.

"Are you alright?"

Dove shakes it off, "I'm fine. But what are you?" he says through the speakers of the prawn suit.

"I am a being that was once used to be part of a cure. However, they don't understand and perished. With the object that you made, my young would be free to leave in open waters. Once they do, your friend will be cured."

"Okay." Dove then exit out of the prawn suit and puts in the hatching enzymes into the terminal.

What happens next is that once he places the enzymes into the terminal, the eggs start to crack open. Which means the eggs have started to hatch and seven baby leviathans started to swim in the aquarium. Then the seven make their way towards the portal and vanished. As for the sea emperor leviathan, she is slowly starts to die. After keeping a vigil watch over her eggs for so long, she can finally rest in peace now that they have hatched.

She speaks to Dove via telepathy, "My young are swimming in the shallows. I thank you. Their freedom is my end. What will it be like, I wonder, to go to sleep and never wake up? Perhaps next time we meet I will be an ocean current, carrying seeds to a new land... Or a creature so small it sees the gaps between the grains of sand. Farewell...friend..." The sea emperor leviathan died.

Dove feels a somewhat bit of sadness for some reason, like having a kind and caring grandmother died. But Dove shakes it off as he exits the portal. Once there he sees a baby barfing up the cure in a form of a white mass that glistens yet also looks like it produces electricity. Dove grabbed it with his prawn suit claw as it sticks on to it.

"Hey, guys!" Dove says over the radio, "I got it! I got the cure! But there should be more scattered about. Just keep an eye out of white sparkly blobs."

"*cough, cough* About fucking time. *cough*"

"Hang on man, I'm on my way!"

Dove runs as fast as he could in the prawn suit all the way towards the team's base. Once there, Cardin comes out and his teammates are a little shocked by the gross green stuff growing onto his skin. He exits out of the base and touches the strange blob that Dove brought. The blob immediately spreads all across his body with the green crystals finally gone and feeling so much better.

"Hey, Cardin." Russel says over the radio, "Are you cured?"

Cardin smiles under his scuba mask, "I feel...AWESOME!"

With Cardin cured, Team CRDL cheered to celebrate their team leader's wellness.

"Alright guys." Cardin says as everyone stopped cheering, "Let's get to work. First we need to gather as many materials we need, including the ion cubes in that underwater base. We need to get seeds, minerals, and other shit. Then we should create a cyclops so we can tie a raft onto it in order to carry all this stuff out along with dismantling this base along with the seamoth. I don't know about you guys but I am done with the ocean for a lifetime. Agree?"

"Agree!" Every member of Team CRDL is also getting sick of the ocean and decide to head back. But since it is nighttime now, they decided to get some sleep.

Over at Red Base above the canyon, Sarge is working hard on his mortar cannon made from parts of some wraiths that were just junk not too long ago. He continues to work with a socket wrench, a power drill, and a power saw. The mortar cannon is standing on some recycled crates that have been fused together by a blowtorch with the two wraiths fused together at the top.

Donut then approaches the busy Sarge, "Hey, Sarge. Whatcha' doin'?"

Sarge gets out from he makeshift door, "I'm making the mortar cannon I always wanted for our base. Plus it can be used on those giant worms that keep hammering at the gate." He looks at the desert and sees a deathworm trying to bash at the gate but didn't leave a scratch. "YOU HEAR THAT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!?" he shouts out at the distant deathworm, "WHEN I GET DONE WITH MY MORTAR CANNON, I'M GONNA KILL YOU GUYS WITH IT! THEN WE GET TO DINE ON YOUR TASTY FLESH FOR DINNER! YOU GOT THAT?!"

Donut looks at Sarge, "I think they heard that. I'm pretty sure the whole canyon heard you."

"Good." Sarge looks at his new mortar cannon. "Now where can I find some copper in this place? I just need a few more adjustments. Come to think of it, where is Lopez and Sanchez?" Sarge looks around. "I might need them to finish the rest."

"They say something about making some new friends so they can throw a surprise party." As always, Donut is a bad translator when it comes to Spanish. What they really said is that they are trying to make their own squad so they can succeed from the Reds and Blues and get their own base.

"A surprise party for who?" Sarge asks.

"I think it has something about some of the Freelancers that some how come back to life and are here with us."

"Which ones?"

"The good ones. At least that's what I've been told."

In the canyon at the rebuilt wine bar, York is seen with his helmet off and doesn't have a bad eye anymore. He takes a shot from his glass and slams the shot glass on the makeshift table with a frustrated look on his face.

Santos cleans a glass and notices York raising his shot glass. "Problems?" he asks as he pours another round into York's glass.

"You have no idea." York says with lots of anger being suppressed behind his tone. Then drinks his shot.

North Dakota then shows up and sits next to York. "Still upset?"

"You can say that. The woman I love married my best friend when I died, the Freelancers are no more since we did some illegal shit, and I came back alive on some shitty alien planet." York then drinks another shot and slams the shot glass. This time, there is a crack at the bottom.

Then Delta appeared, "I don't think drowning your sorrows in alcohol would help your situation."

"But it helps." Then he shows his shot glass to Santos, "Can I get a pint glass?"

Santos takes the shot glass, "I think you had enough."

North then tries to cheer his pal up, "Well be glad that you didn't get stabbed in the back by your own sister."

York sighs, "Yeah, I guess. Speaking of." he looks at North, "Where is that trouble maker?"

"In jail with many others. Such as the councilman, the Blues and Reds, some mercenary name Felix, Maine, Wyoming, and a few of our AI."

"What about that Locust guy?"

"No one has seen him. Probably flew the coop before we got a chance to get him."

Then Theta appeared, "Yeah. Good thing too. That guy sounds scary."

York chuckles a little.

North then smiles, "See, your getting better."

"Your right." York smiles, "Maybe it is time to move on. Find someone new. Although, it won't be the same with me and Carolina. What we had was...special."

"How about that medic chick? Cpt. Meme I think her name was."

"After what that Lt. Hammer did to her, I doubt that."

"Then Grif's sister?"

"She's a little weird if you ask me. Not to mention that I heard she is a bit of a slut."

"How about Ohio?"

"She's a lesbian."

"Oh right. Well definitely not my sister since she's a bitch. Definitely not Gen. Volin because she's a bigger bitch. Why not one of those female counterparts of the Reds and Blues?"

"Maybe. But I'll think it over in the future. In the meantime..." York then puts his helmet on, "We got some work to do."

Over where Team RWBY is at, the whole team and Zwei decided to check out some of the apartments while hiding from the massive horde of zombies below by avoiding the windows. Not to mention the ram zombie still skulking about. Ruby is a little shocked after learning what condoms are but tries to shake it off and continue scavenging. They did found some canned food which should last them for a day or two with a few jars and bottles of water. However, Yang then noticed something on the fifth floor in a numberless apartment.

"Hello." Yang says as she notices another pixelated chest except that it is brown and ordinary.

Ruby then appears, "Whatcha' found?" She then notices the oddly bizarre chest. "Another one?"

"Yeah. But not as fancy as the one I picked-up. Looks too ordinary." Yang opens the chest to see what she can find. "Lets see here... Some pixelated gold ingots, some pixelated wood plank blocks, a few pixelated switches, a few seeds, something called ender pearls, a...diamond hoe? Huh? Hold on, here's something." Yang pulled out some pixelated green book. "A knowledge book."

"What's in it?"

Yang opens the book up. "According to this, it has recipes about crafting, a bestiary about mobs, stuff about enchanting..."

"That's interesting. We can use it to give our weapons a boost."

"Yeah, but there's a lot of stuff here." Yang flips through the book. "But some of this stuff requires the pixelated resources which aren't here."

Ruby then checks her implant. "Hang on. Maybe..." She checks over to the page with a pixelated block on the tab to see what is there. "Hmm. Okay, I got it. We can convert some of the resources we have into the pixelated blocks like turning six stones into a cobblestone block, converting a single gold ingot into the pixelated variety and back again."

"Wow." Yang sounds impressed. "That is very handy and very BLOCKY."

Ruby is unamused, "Lame."

"What will it take to get a good laugh." Yang then checks the chest again. "Hold on. Found another book. A journal." She pulled it out and opens it while putting the knowledge book in her inventory. She reads aloud, "I have no idea how I got here, but this place is extremely dangerous. -

First I was busy finding some diamonds at an old mine just north of the city, then something sucked out all the color of the world that stopped time. Then I got sent to this place. Whatever this place is, everything is round. I can't believe it! For the first time in my life, I get to see something that isn't squared. Yet I also found some strange device on my left arm. But unfortunately, I was surrounded by zombies and only have my stone sword. To make things even strange is that it is morning. Zombies walking about with the sun out? Just how can that be? Back in my world, zombies die when the sun comes up along with the skeletons.

Day 8

I've been stuck on this world for over a week and the worst part is that I had to survive a whole night without sleep because I had like a hundred zombies barreling down on me and they can run at night. I used up all the arrows and something called bullets that I had. To make matters worse, I lost most of my defenses during the horrible night. The sky was red like redstone along with the medium moon being a darker red with some lighting and thunder for a few seconds. It felt like I was in an epic battle against an entire horde of mobs. Good thing there aren't any creepers because that would be a serious problem.

Day 20

I have to prepare for another night of horror. Good thing I brought some supplies from some strange city in the desert area. Unfortunately, it appears I'm in some sort of canyon with gigantic waterfalls as far as the eye can see. I thought I could use an ender pearl to teleport all the way up there, but it is way too high for me to throw. So I have to stay put until I can find a way out of here. In the meantime, I will keep all of my stuff in the chest and put a few ender chests scattered about in order to transport goods from one location to another easily. Wish I could do the same with myself. This place is a bloody nightmare.

Day 23

Dammit! Those things bit me! I was lucky to have some antibiotics stored in this place so I can cure myself. But I am running short in terms of supplies. To make matters worse, I feel like I'm being watched. When I turn around when checking my defenses at night, I keep seeing some sort of zombie that is green with blisters on it that runs away when I notice it. Whatever it is, it's not natural. Yet it is not what I've been sense watching me. There is something watching me for a long time ever since I got here. I think that who ever they are, they maybe the people responsible for putting the implant on my arm. I need to get back home. Maybe if I create a nether portal, I might find a way back. Just need to find some lava and pour a water bucket on it to create obsidian. Or maybe I can find a place with lots of obsidian.

Day 33

10 Days have passed since I started looking for obsidian or lava. No luck. I'm stuck here on this world with many undead monsters breathing down on me. There were some people that were...different. But they are extremely hostile towards me. I try to explain I'm not a monster, but they just keep shooting me or hunting me down for sport. If anyone ever finds my stuff, you can have it. Hopefully you can make good use of it if I were to disappear. May the Notch have mercy on your soul. I even catalogue some of the mutated variants of the undead in other pages so you can understand how to defeat them. My name is Julias_xXx_Prophet. Remember me. Good luck and Notch be with you.

Yang finishes reading, "And that's it. The rest are detailed pictures and notes on how to defeat the mutated zombies."

Ruby takes the book from Yang and looks at it. "Any ideas what happened to him?"

"Guess the guy died somewhere. But what type of name is Julias_xXx_Prophet? Sounds like a gamer tag."

Blake comes in the room, "Found anything?" Then Weiss comes in.

Ruby and Yang looked at their teammates.

"Yeah." Ruby says. "Yang found some stuff that is similar to what she found earlier. But there is more." Ruby hands over the book to Blake and Weiss. "Apparently, we are being watched."

Yang then approaches the team, "And you were right, Blake. We're being experimented on here."

Blake looks at Yang while holding the right side of the book, "But I have to ask again, what is the point?"

"Survival skills?" Ruby tries to answer as she shrugs her shoulders and smiles.

"That's it!" Weiss blurted.

All the members of Team RWBY quickly cover Weiss' mouth so she wouldn't attract any more zombies.

The team members remove their hands so Weiss whispers, "Sorry." Then clears her throat, silently. "Anyway, I think the whole point is for us to survive as long as we can. Or maybe try to rebuild this planet from the ground-up by creating new civilizations."

Blake thinks about it while giving Yang the journal. "That does seem possible. But if we fail at something, we'll just be wiped-out like what happened to those people on the spaceships Team CFVY found."

Yang then says, "Or probably any other settlement that we haven't found yet." Then Yang opens the chest again and gives everyone some ender pearls. Three for each.

"What are these?" Weiss asked as she takes a closer look at them.

"I believe they are called ender pearls." Yang holds hers up, "The guy from the journal said that you throw them and you teleport where they land."

Blake starts to like them, "Very useful. This is a lot better than smoke bombs for me doing ninja vanishing."

Zwei then enters the room and everyone notices.

"Hey, boy." Ruby says with a delightful tone. She kneels down and let Zwei approach her. But she notices something in Zwei's mouth. "What did you find?"

Zwei drops it from his mouth. He dropped some sort of golden bracelet with some swirls on it and a green jewel. Ruby picks it up and everyone's implants goes off again.

"Ooo." Yang went, "Some new stuff."

Everyone checks their implants and found a new tab with two crossed axes with a sword down the middle. They open it and new stuff appears. However, they get something new.

Weiss raises her left eyebrow, "That's new."

Blake tilts her head, "It wants us to choose a god?"

"Which one should we choose?" Yang asks.

Ruby then suggests, "I think we should hold off on that while we get out of this canyon as soon as we get the teleporter back." She looks out the window, "Besides, I think we should wait until morning."

Blake pulls out the map, "In the meantime, let's see if we can find out where Saeko and Rika's base is."

Weiss looks at the map. She pointed at their location. "We're right here." Then moves her finger, "Saeko and Rika ran up north towards the mountains. My guess is that they're at this school here."

Yang looks at the map, "But it ain't circled."

"Rika says that the map is out of date, so we should check it out."

Ruby also looks at the map. She pointed at some town near the river, "What about here?"

"Rozhok?" Blake asks. "Maybe, but we should check the school first since it is closer."

"Then we have our course?" Weiss asks.

"I think we do." Yang answers.

Ruby says, "Then lets try to get as much sleep as we can in order to be prepared for tomorrow."

The sun is setting behind the mountains with hues of orange, reds, violets and blue with a black sky with some stars starting to show. Not to mention the three moons rising in the opposite horizon. Hordes of zombies are still gathered around the building with their moans and groans still echoing in this seemingly lifeless landscape void of people. They stumble about with the ram still patrolling about among the ranks as it screams and roars in the air. Some of the zombies started eating a deer not too far from the small town. Zombie dogs growl as they run about in search of any other non-zombie victims for them to chase down. It's gonna be a long night to put up with the racket.

Meanwhile, some place not too far, Saeko and Rika managed to run all the way from the unnamed town to some place called Splendid General Public School with iron fences with steel sheets and barbed wire at the top. The place is surrounded by steel log spikes, wooden spikes, and a drawbridge over a hole filled with many layers of steel spikes. Near the drawbridge is a watch tower made of wood pallets, picket fences, and metal barrels. On that tower is Kohta Hirano, a chubby highschooler with black hair, brown eyes yet wearing a pair of square black glasses, a white hooded sweatshirt, black denim pants, and a pair of worn gray running shoes. He is holding a crossbow that is armed with steel-tip crossbow bolts.

Kohta notices the two women running towards the bridge. "HEY!" he shouted and wave, "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RV?!"

Saeko shouts back with her left hand cupped close to her mouth, "WE RAN INTO A NEW TYPE OF THING! IT HAD THE STRENGTH TO DESTROY THE RV!"

"Oh shit." Kohta says to himself. "Takashi is not gonna be happy about that. He worked hard on restoring that thing." Then look at the two women, "HOLD ON, I'M COMING DOWN!" Kohta climbs down the ladder, runs over to the drawbridge, and lowers the bridge.

Saeko and Rika ran across the bridge and are exhausted while out of breath.

"What happened?" Kohta asks.

As soon as Rika catches her breath she explains. "We found a group of bizarre teenage girls and a corgi skilled in mechanics. They are not from this canyon."

"Really?" Kohta winced at what the former cop said. "Someone from OUTSIDE the canyon?"

Saeko then pulls out the inactive teleporter, "Here is proof. I had it on me while Ruby explained things and forgot to give it back to her."

Kohta is takes a closer look at the device and is impressed. "What is it?"

"It's some form of teleporter, but we have to show this to everyone."

Then a teenage girl with dark purple twin tails that go to her hips, violet eyes, wearing a tan camouflage vest with dark brown shorts, red and black running shoes with soccer socks, and armed with a steel shovel appears. "Hey, ladies." she says in a friendly tone, "What happened? What happened to the RV?"

Saeko puts away the teleporter as Kohta closes the drawbridge, "I'll explain to everyone what happened."

Night has come. The zombies are now running around in search of their next meal.

/2: Progression of Project Z: 98%

Progression of Project PHOENIX: 24%

Progression of Project ARES: ON HOLD until Project PHOENIX is at 50%

Preparing Hallow's Eve Event in Autumn.

Good work. Continue monitoring all projects until further notice.

/2: Affirmative