Chapter 16

Team CRDL got onboard the strange pirate ship to see what is on the ship that just appeared out of nowhere. They check the captain's quarters and admit that the quarter's are kinda cool. Red velvet carpets, curtains, and exquisite wooden furniture. Although Sky likes the shark mouth hanging on the wall. Then they check out the first lower deck where they see barrels full of planks, bananas, cannonballs, and gunpowder along with a chest filled with weapons and equipment, along with a map.

Then Cardin gets an idea. "I wonder if there is any treasure onboard this ship."

Everyone looked at each other with grinning smiles ear to ear with greed in their eyes.

Dove says, "This is a pirate ship. So there SHOULD be treasure onboard."

Russel says, "We should check the lower decks."

"Aye aye." says Sky.

Cardin chuckles. "Good pirate line. So lets go."

The four found a door to the lower deck, but it is sealed shut and locked with seven steel locks. Three on the edge of the door with the door knob roped to the locks and two on each side.

Sky pulls out the laser cutter. "Let me get this door open." Then goes to work on cutting all the locks.

Russel pulls out his knife, "I'll get the ropes." He then cut the ropes as fast as he could.

Once they finished, they head down below deck and find crates of crates of treasure. Crates all the way up to the ceiling from the bow to stern (front to back). Cardin pulls out the first crate with a white cloth on it with a marking that has a bowl with something mound in it with a spoon. He places the crate down in front of his teammates.

Cardin claps his hands and rubs them, "Alright, time to check the loot!" Cardin flips the lid of the crate open.

However, they didn't find any gold, silver, or jewels. But what is inside is a white powdered substance that feels like sand.

"Are those...drugs?" Russel says with a disappointed look.

Russel takes a pinch of the substance and places it in his mouth to taste it. What he taste is something sweet and familiar.

"It's sugar!" Russel identifies the substance. "This crate is filled with sugar!"

Cardin then pulls out another crate with a green cloth, open it, and found tea leaves in it. Then opens another crate with a red and black cloth on it, open it, and found very colorful and soft silk fabrics. Dive furiously grabbed another crate with a black cloth on it, forced it open, and found some very exquisite spices in a form of red or black powder.

Dove slams his fist on the left edge of the crate, "Some fucking pirates! We just found a ship filled with fucking trade and no gold!" Dove is very upset along with his teammates. "No silver, no jewels! Nothing!"

"Hold on." says Sky as he looks towards the bow, "I'll check something out." Sky check and found some actual chests, opened it up, and found it filled with gold coins, an opulent curio, three silvered cups, an elaborate flagon, and a decorative coffer. "Found some. But I also found a map." Sky holds a scrolled up piece of paper.

"Watcha' got?" Cardin says out of curiosity.

Sky approaches with the chest, "Some treasure and a map of some sort."

Cardin snatches the map from Sky as the other teammates look at their loot. He takes a good look at the map and it appears to show some island far south from the mainland that looks like a pirate hideout. However, he also sees a town or city near the coast in the western part of the mainland. But he prefers to show this to everyone else and let them do the hard shit so his team can relax.

"Alright guys." Carding puts the map away. "Let's get the show on the road. Tie this ship up with the cyclops and lets go. Dibs on driving!"

It is morning over at the school base. Around 8 AM to be precise. Blake starts to wake-up on a couch with a blanket over her. She gets up and stretches her arms up and out with a yawn. She looks around and sees that she is in some sort of room with a flat screen television, a bunch of shelves with DVDs, a DVD player, a bunch of XoDS's with a few games, and a few CD's with a few CD players. However, Blake sees a girl smiling near the door wearing a black cat hat, bubblegum pink hair, pink eyes with a red tint while having a petite figure, a green sweater, a pair of blue cargo pants, and a pair of old violet and pink jogging shoes.

"Hello." says the girl, "My name is Yuki Takeya. I'm a third-year. It is nice to meet you." She says it in a cheery tone and being real friendly.

"Good morning, miss." says another voice. A woman with long pink hair, copper orange eyes, wearing a short sleeve long purple dress with black sleeves and a white ribbon/necktie along with a cross necklace and a gray hair clip on the right side of her hair with her hair having a down ponytail. "I'm Megumi Sakura and I teach Japanese literature."

"Um..." Blake feels a little awkward, "Hello." She glances out the window and sees that they are on the second floor of the school building. She can see the not only the fence and the walls, but also a playground along with an RV that is going through maintenance. Ruby looks back at the girl, "Is this Splendid General Public School?"

"Yes it is!" Yuki says in excitement. "I transfer here along with the members of the School Life Club such as Mi-kun, Kurumi-chan, and Ri-san! Even Megu-nee is here with us!"

"I'm a teacher, not your sister." says Megumi. "How many times have I told you that?"

Blake looks a little confuse on what is going on. Both Yuki and Sakura-sensei noticed.

"Are you okay?" Yuki asked.

"Y-Yeah...sure." Blake sounds a little hesitant on what is going on.

"Oh, you're probably thirsty." Yuki gives Blake a PET water bottle. "Here you go."

"Thanks?" Blake takes the bottle and drinks it. Then hands a quarter of the bottle back to Yuki.

"Wow, you must be really thirsty, huh?" Yuki looks at Sakura-sensei, "Can you put this back?"

"Sure."

Then Yuki looks at Blake, "Would you like to have the tour of our school... What was your name again?"

"Blake Belladonna."

Yuki then gets excited again and gets too close with sparkles in her eyes, "Blake Belladonna! Are you from some place in Europe like England?! France?! America!?" Then starts petting Blake's ears, "And I love those cat-ears! So cute! Meow-meow!"

"Now Ms. Takeya." Sakura-sensei scolds Yuki, "You're being rude." Blake starts to blush a little.

Yuki looks at Ms. Sakura after stopping, "I'm sorry, Megu-nee."

"I told you, not to call me that!" Ms. Sakura gets angry.

Yuki then grabs Blake's hand, "Come on!" Then starts running out the door, "Let me give you the grand tour!"

Ms. Sakura yells, "No running in the halls! And please don't ignore me! Oh." She follows after, "Wait, up!"

All three of them head down the stairs with Blake asking, "Do you know where my friends are?!"

Yuki looks at Blake while she runs, "Don't worry! We'll meet them later!" Yuki looks ahead.

Blake looks at Yuki and notices that she is acting similar to Ruby. Energetic, pure, and a go getter. A comforting thought to her as she smiles as they make their way towards the first room in the western side.

Yuki opens the door, "This is the library!" She lets go of Blake's hand, does a twirl, and show off. "This is where we have all kinds of books from around the world!"

"Ms. Takeya. Use your inside voice in the library." Ms. Sakura says to Yuki.

"Oops." Yuki rubs the back of her head with her left hand. "My bad." then laughs a little.

Not too far, actually very close; Yang, Weiss, and Ruby are walking from the infirmary along with Shizuka and Kurumi.

"Why did you guys place my teammate in the rec room?" Yang asks.

"There isn't much room in the infirmary." Shizuka explains. "Besides, I use one of the beds as my own. So Yuki came by and would keep an eye on her."

"Not only that, there just isn't enough beds." Kurumi added. "We're not exactly equipped for visitors."

"There are a ton of books!" says a voice coming from the library.

"Who's that?" Weiss asked.

"That would be Yuki." Kurumi says. "Come on."

In the library Blake asks, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Who's Megu-nee?"

When Kurumi heard that, she dashes into the library and goes, "HEY! GOOD MORNING!" Kurumi interrupted Blake and Yuki before something bad would happen.

Yuri and Miki ran down the stairs after noticing the open water bottle on the floor of the rec room. When they see everyone at the library, they sigh in relief.

"What a relief." Yuri exhaled.

"What is going on?" asked the confused Ruby Rose.

"I'll explain."

Everyone is in the cafeteria eating breakfast as Yuki wolfs down baked mackerel with a fried egg on it with a side of rice, fried field mushrooms, and orange juice. Its like everything is getting gulped down into a black hole. Yuri and Kurumi explained Yuki's psychological condition which Team RWBY pity the poor girl. But Yuki is happy, even though what she projects is an illusion from her mind. Yuki thinks the implants are meant to help 'students' make the school better for some sort of program.

"Are you sure that it's okay to let her live like this?" Blake says out of concern for Yuki. She thinks that letting Yuki continuing in whatever fantasy she is in is wrong.

"That's just wrong." Yang agrees as her eyes glowing red.

"I'm sorry." Yuri apologizes, "But it is the only way for Yuki to be happy. It's been like that for a long time. The only way for her to snap out of it is-"

"Hey, Ri-san!" Yuki runs up to Yuri with an empty plate. "Can I have seconds?"

Yuri smiles as she looks at Yuki, "Sure thing." She gets up and walks with Yuki to the kitchen

"Can we speak to someone in-charge?" Weiss asked after eating her breakfast.

"That would be me." Takashi stands up from the right end of the table.

There is a moment of silence with all the members of Team RWBY go, "..."

"You're the leader?" Weiss asked in complete disgust.

"Well excuse me, princess!" Takashi says to Weiss.

Yang says, "I think Ice Queen is better."

"HEY!"

Ruby then stands up, "How about you all tell us more about this canyon? You know, the people, the land, and anything you know about it."

Saya adjusted her glasses. "Very smart and straight to the point for a 15-year-old."

Ruby starts to feel bashful and rubs her left hand behind her head.

"We'll talk more in the teacher's lounge where the map is."

Team RWBY are in the teacher's lounge with a full map of the canyon they are stuck in and it is more updated. However, the place feels more like a war room than a lounge. Saya points at the map to show where they are.

"We are here at Splendid General Public School. Right at the center of the map."

Ruby looks closely at the map, "Okay."

Then Saya pointed upwards, "Over here we have Hope County. That place is controlled by a cult called, Project at Eden's Gate."

"Who are they?" asks Yang.

"They're a doomsday cult that are militaristic and are comprised of zealous hillbillies. This faction uses some form of mind controlling drug called, Bliss. They use it to mind control the entire populace and control the entire area against the zombies. Yet they cause terror and kill those that don't share their faith. If you do, they torture you in order to convert."

"Yikes." Yang went. The rest of Team RWBY didn't like to hear that.

"There are also other places such as Fortune City in the desert, Harran City up in the mountains, Los Perdidos near the coast. There are gangs, raiders, bandits, and psychopaths everywhere!" Saya pointed each and every location respectfully on the map that she said. "Which is why we need your help." Saya looks at the four girls. "We need to leave this place."

"Well, our place isn't as safe as well." Blake says. "We have some giant reptilian monsters and beasts roaming the place."

"Giant reptilian bests?"

Weiss then says, "But they are called..." looks at her teammates, "...dinosaurs?"

"What did you say?!" Saya is shocked to hear that. "That would explain some of the stuff we have in our implants! There must be other creatures roaming about as if to test our survival skills."

"That's what we were thinking!" Weiss agrees.

Saya smiles, "Looks like we are in agreement. I'm starting to like you four. But there is one thing that has been bothering me." Saya looks serious, "How did you girls found the map that led you here."

"Nora found it." Ruby says in a cheery tone.

"Who's she?"

Blake answers, "A member of Team JNPR from our world."

Yang then adds, "But she is a little..."

Back at the Remnant encampment, Nora is busy with a giant cauldron that is boiling something pinkish as she stirs it. Pink bubbles start coming up as Nora stirs the cauldron faster with some sort of stick. She laughs and cackles madly, wearing a demented and creepy grin. Someone knocks on the door as Nora returns to her normal smile. Pyrrha and Jaune come in the room.

"Heyyyy, Nora." Pyrrha greets, "Whatcha' doin'?" The two looked at the cauldron filled with some strange pink liquid.

"Yeah, what is all that stuff?" Jaune asks.

Nora just smiles and replies, "Oh, just makin' a love potion for someone special.

Pyrrha and Jaune looked at each other before laughing awkwardly while looking at Nora.

"Um, Nora." Jaune speaks, "I don't think that using a love potion might work on-"

Pyrrha interrupts Jaune by grabbing his arm while speaking over him, "We'll just leave you be. Good luck."

Nora waves goodbye, "Okey-dokey! See you later!"

Pyrrha and Jaune leave the adobe house, closing the door behind them. The cauldron begins to bubble rapidly and Nora grins at it. Ren pops his head out to the surface while Nora pulls out her hardened steel hammer from the cauldron.

Ren gasps for air, "Nora! I can't breathe! And give me back my clothes!"

Nora smacks Ren with the hammer, dazing him, and shoves him back in the cauldron with it. She begins to stir again and hums an increasingly demented tone right before giving a crazed grin.

"Let's just say that Nora is unique in her own way."

Saya looks a little confuse as she just stares and gives a raised right eyebrow. "As in like, Yuki?"

"Not too sure about that, but close."

"Okay then. Anyway..." Saya pulls out the teleporter from her inventory. "I believe this is yours."

"Allllright!" Ruby jumps for joy. "Now we can leave!" Ruby tries to take it, "Thank you so-"

Saya retracts the teleporter away from Ruby.

Weiss understands what is going on, "I'm guessing you want us to help you guys leave, correct?"

"Yes." Saya replies. "If you want the teleporter back, you must agree to an alliance with us and take us out of here. Agree?"

Blake glares at Saya, "And what happens if we don't?"

Takashi pops out from under the table while holding an MK5 along with Kurumi with a shovel. Rei and her mother appeared with Rei holding a spear and her mother wielding an AKS-74U. Rika is wielding her katana while giving a menacing glare, Kohta is wielding an FN FAL while having a bunch of weapons on his back and ammo belts across his chest while giving a menacing grin. Yuriko is armed with her .36 snubnose while Miki is armed with only a lead pipe and Rika is wielding a pump-action shotgun. Zero and Taromaru are giving threatening growls while Zwei is stuck in a pet carrier cage. Team RWBY doesn't have any weapons so they are completely outmatched.

Ruby looks around and goes, "Fair enough."

"By the way." Blake adds something as everyone lowers their weapons. "Do those hillbillies we met earlier part of that Project at Eden's Gate?"

"No." Saya responds. "They are part of some militia over at Willamette or Fortune City."

Is Project Z at full?

/2: Affirmative. Project Z is at 100%.

Should we transfer subjects of Project Z to Project Phoenix?

/2: Pending on ADMIN's judgment.

Alright, continue monitoring. Actually, give me a full report on all operations.

/2: Affirmative. Accessing files of Project Z...

...

...

...

Project Z is meant to test different variations of what is called, "zombie virus" from other dimensions. However, many zombie subjects seem to devour each other when "Infected A" comes into contact with "Infected B". Yet the viruses never mutates when coming into contact with another virus. It just seems that the viruses devour each other. Other mutated zombies have shown the exact same symptoms as well. To further understand, homo sapien subjects must be used for further study. The homo sapien subjects are a little more resilient than predicted. Yet many homo sapiens still have many vices and pride to work out. Such as the nature of "humans".

Any homo sapiens that are deem worthy for further study will either be transported to headquarters or be part of another project. It depends on the ADMIN's decision and the majority vote. There are also other homo sapiens that are deemed necessary for certain groups across the sector and will stay until Hallow's Eve Event.

That would be enough. Carry on.

Back at the school, Ruby and Takashi created an alliance and everything that the people from Remnant have learned is transferred to Takashi's group and vice versa with everyone's implants acting up. Zwei managed to get out of the carrier cage thanks to a screwdriver he smuggled in his stomach. Everyone noticed that and are impressed by the little corgi's resourcefulness.

"Okay." Takashi retracts his hand. "That is one skilled dog."

Ruby looks prideful, "That's right! He's my one and only Zwei!" Zwei runs and jumps up on Ruby. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" She cuddles her dog as everyone watched.

"Right." Saya says. "So can we get the portal open now?"

AN: Hey guys! I know its early but here you go. No questions for now, but maybe later. The polls are still open for those that want to decide where the story should go with the characters of Project Z. As for me, got rid of every last bit of mold that there is and repaired half the damage caused by the gophers. I know this chapter is short, but I've got a lot to do. Later! See you guys on Wednesday next week!