Chapter 19
/2: New subjects have arrived from Remnant. Three of the seven subjects have been given a memory wipe for further experimentation. Many more are coming soon.
It is high noon now. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury have finally arrived on this strange planet and naked. However, they seem to have their memories wiped.
"Who are you guys?" Emerald asked before looking down. "And why are we naked?"
Mercury looks down at his legs. "Why am I thinking that my legs are supposed to be metallic or something?" Mercury's cybernetic legs are gone and replaced with his old legs. All the flesh and bony parts. "Weird."
Cinder looks at the two back and forth, "Do any of you know who we are?"
Emerald and Mercury looked at each other before looking back at Cinder.
"Nope." Emerald says.
"Same here." Then Mercury looks at his left arm and noticed his implant. "What the hell is this thing?"
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" says a male voice not too far from where they're at. It sounded angry and young.
The three of them look to the east and see a boy with white hair and blue eyes with a fair complexion. They can also see a woman in her mid-20's with similar appearance, another woman yet much older, and a puggy stranger with a balding spot with some brown hair with a mustache, a tan complexion, and brown eyes.
"HOW THE FUCK DID WE ENDED UP HERE IN THE NUDE?!" The boy screams out again in anger.
"Calm down, Whitley." says the woman in her 20's.
The older woman rubs her face. "Yes, please. Listen to Winter. I'm having another terrible hangover."
The bald man place his hands on the woman's shoulder and arm out of concern. "Please hold on, Madam Willow. We'll find a way out of this predicament."
Willow Schnee blinks rapidly to fix her vision, "Thank you, Klein."
"Over there!" Whitley pointed over where Cinder and her group at. The three look at each other before looking back. "Yes, you three!"
Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury walked-up to the Schnee family members and their butler.
"Do you three know what the fuck is going on?!" Whitley demanded. "I demand answers, you peasants!"
"That's enough!" Winter ordered her little brother. She looks back at the three, "Sorry. Can you explain what is going on?"
"We don't know." Emerald shrugs. "As a matter of fact, we can't remember who we are."
Mercury asks, "Do you know who we are?"
"No." Winter gives a blunt answer. "I've never seen you three before, nor have we met." Then she notices something in the distance behind the three. "What is that?"
Everyone looks at the direction where Winter is looking at and they see a gigantic gate with castle walls with heavily armed robots patrolling the top, layers of defensive turrets at the base with a giant wooden spike wall behind them along with many wires. They also see a bunch of traps ranging from happy birthday traps to hidden pitfalls that are too obvious even at a distance. Not to mention the landmines with big glowing lights on them. However, they do noticed the Vytal Festival banners and flags on the walls.
"Must be some sort of fortress." Cinder states the obvious.
"Hope they're friendly." Emerald then takes a gulp.
"What are we waiting for!? Let's go!" Whitley dashes through the open field towards the fortress. Blindly ignoring the defenses and just dashes the first sign of civilization.
Winter reaches out in vain, "Hold on!" But Whitley is too far away. "Damn him! Come on before he gets himself killed!"
Whitley charged directly at the gate while trying to avoid all the mines and traps. He desperately wants to escape and head home as he runs for his life. However, some of the turrets and sentry bots started aiming at him.
"Motion detected." the sentry bots say as they aim there weapons.
Whitley raises his hands up. "DON'T SHOOT!" he shouts for his life. "I'M WHITLEY SCHNEE! HEIR TO THE SCHNEE DUST COMPANY, I NEED TO SEE THE ATLESIAN EMBASSY!"
Someone popped their head out from behind one of the robots, "DID SOMEONE SAY THEY CAME FROM ATLAS & SCHNEE DUST COMPANY?!" It is Flynt Coal, who is on guard duty while wearing sunglasses, leather armor, and a black cowboy hat.
"YES!" Whitley confirms with everyone else catching up. He smiles because someone actually knows who he is. Or rather where he came from and the family business.
"HOLD ON! I'VE GOT TO GET THE OTHERS! I'LL GET THE GATES OPEN IN A FEW MINUTES!" Flynt then heads down to tell the others.
Whitley sighs in relief. He turns to face his family, "See. Our family name means something."
But Winter smacks his left cheek which causes him to fall down. "Next time, use CAUTION!"
Whitley rubs the sore on his cheek that Winter smacked. "I just want to go home, bitch-of-a-sister!" Then gets back up. "So go fuck yourself!"
"Is this normal?" Mercury asks Klein and Willow. "For your family, I mean."
Klein responds, "More than you ever know."
The gates opens up as everyone looks at it. As it cracks opens, they can see Weiss and almost everyone else from Remnant at the gate.
"Weiss?!" Winter is shocked to see her younger sister is a place like this.
"Wait, Weiss?" Willow is also shocked as well.
"Miss Weiss Schnee?!" Klein is shocked.
"OH MY GOD!" Yang shouts as she points at Whitley, "LOOK HOW TINY IT IS!" She burst out laughing before all the other girls do.
Some blush as they snicker while covering their smiles, including Blake. While some just laugh out loud with some pointing at Whitley's tiny genitals.
Whitley looks down and then covers his crotch. "Oh haha." he mocks as his face is bright red. "Very funny. As if we had enough problems already!"
"Well consider it payback." Weiss says to her little brother.
"Just give me some fucking clothes!" he marches in in anger so he can get some proper attire. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
As Whitley marches past all the girls that laugh at him, Weiss turns his attention towards the rest of her family.
"Weiss?" Winter approaches her little sister. "How in the world did you get here?"
"For one, we're not on Remnant anymore. And two, I'm just as lost as you're. But come on." Weiss grabs Winter's right hand, "I'll take you guys to the warehouses where we keep most of the clothes." Klein and Willow follow.
"But how did you manage to survive?" Klein asks. "How did all of you ended-up here?"
Weiss looks back, "I'll explain along the way. In the meantime, lets get you in something decent."
Yang looks at the trio, "Emerald? Mercury? Cinder?" The three look at Yang as she smiles. "Is that really you guys?"
"Who's Cinder?" Emerald asks.
"And who the bloody hell is Mercury? That's a stupid name." Mercury says.
"That's your name." Yang pointed out. "Did you guys lost your memory or something?"
"Yes, we did." Cinder says. "Somehow we ended-up here and lost our memories. Can you help us?"
"Sure thing." Yang nodded. "But let me help you guys get some clothes on first." She turns around, "Follow me."
Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury follow Yang as they look at their surrounding. They see the castle on top of a cliff, the floating island, and many houses. However, Cinder sees someone up ahead. She sees a woman with short brown hair, tan skin, and brown eyes with some facial scarring. This person is wearing a set of ARK cloth armor minus the hat. She keeps on getting a familiar feeling when she sees her.
"Who's that?" Cinder asks.
"That's Amber." Yang answers. "Our other amnesiac." Yang looks at Amber and hand signals her to come over.
Yang then introduces her, "This is Amber. Amber, these guys are our friends from Haven Academy. Mercury Black. Emerald Sustrani. And Cinder Fall."
"Have we met?" Amber asks as she takes a closer look at Cinder. "Because you kinda look familiar."
"So do you." Cinder stares back. "I think I recognize you from somewhere, but I can't remember. Strange"
Amber just shrugs, "Oh well. Maybe we can get to know each other more once you settled in." Amber looks down at their bodies, "Because you guys definitely need something to wear."
Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury cover themselves up after what Amber says.
Yang chuckles. "Come on guys."
In the Atrium of the Vault inside the old mine and former shelter. The Atrium also functions as a meeting room for everyone with many benches facing the wall and the projector in the middle of the middle row. They are the type of benches you see at public parks for those who are exhausted after a hard day's work. Saya, Pyrrha, and Arslan look at the map at the large table at the end of the room.
Pyrrha points at an area of the map, "We should start with the front gate where the Market District is. There could be some good supplies we could use once the teams land here."
"Don't we have enough supplies?" Arslan asks. "Because we're already overstocked with all the supplies we need."
"Actually, it is to provide an idea of the location. Start from the beginning to end."
Arslan points at another area, "The Cultural District is where all the museums, schools, and libraries are located. One of the places here could be used as an outpost for the teleporter. Assuming the buildings are intact."
"What if there are people?" Saya points out. "What if there are people living and wouldn't take kindly to our arrival?"
"Good point." both Huntresses agree.
"But what if the place is in ruins?" Pyrrha asks.
Before Saya answers, Dew of Team NDGO comes in cackling. "You girls missed something good!" she shouts at the three before laughing.
"What's so funny?" Arslan is curious on what's so funny.
Dew runs up to Arslan and whispers in her about what's so funny. Arlsan's lips move as if she is saying Really? Dew pinches her fingers to show size. It looks like the size of a peanut. Arslan does the same. Dew nods.
"That tiny!?" Arslan and Dew burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Saya asks.
Dew explains, "Oh, just that Weiss' siblings, mother, and butler arrived. With Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury in tow. They were naked and..." Dew just cracked as she falls to the floor.
Pyrrha caught that, "The Schnee family is here but without the father?"
"Yeah." Dew says before laughing again.
Saya raises an eyebrow, "How old is the boy?"
"Fifteen." Pyrrha answers
Saya realizes what they were talking about as she widens her eyes and cracks a smile. "Are you sure he's fifteen?"
"Weiss says he is. Why?"
Saya then starts laughing when Pyrrha confirms it.
"What's so funny?" Pyrrha is confuse on what is so funny.
Arslan whispers to Pyrrha's ear. A few seconds later, Pyrrha's face starts to turn red after Arslan explains.
"Oh my." Pyrrha covers her mouth to make sure she doesn't snicker. "I'm sorry to hear about his manhood."
On the rooftop of the highest tower of the castle keep. Kohta is checking his inventory for the trip over to the strange city that is supposed to be populated with elves and animalfolk. He is currently over encumbered with all of his favorite weapons he has made and has to decide which five is he gonna take. But that's not what's bringing him down.
Takashi comes up, "Hey, Kohta."
"Oh." Kohta responds with a depressed tone. "Hey."
"Still down about the whole only bringing five of your favorite weapons?"
"Not that."
"The whole not being able to use a semblance stuff."
"Yeah." Kohta then puts his arm down. "I thought I could be like some badass superhero, but no. Because of the whole 'different universes, different laws' bullshit."
"Sorry, dude. But at least your goin'."
"Yeah, but there are a few things that have been bothering me?"
"Like what?"
Kohta walks towards the east side of the tower and looking down over at the settlement. Then he looks at his new Pip-Boy. "There is some stuff here from Fallout, Dead Space, Halo, and probably other shit from video games I've played back before..."
"Yeah, I know it." Takashi walks next to Kohta as they both gaze down below. "I keep thinking we're in some sick twisted game of some kind. But my question is: What is the end goal? I mean, we have these implants that lets us build shit, scavenge shit from sci-fi and eventually magical, and all the other shit. What's the point?"
"I've been asking questions like that since we got here over a month back. But we should focus on what we need to do now." Kohta slowly tries to walk towards the stairs. "Can you take my stuff because it's seriously weighing me down?"
Takashi chuckles while cracking a smile, "Sure. Which weapon you want me to look after?"
Over up north, a G79H-TC/MA Pelican shows up at full speed with Coco behind the wheel. She appears over the landing area next to the falcon of the garage where the elephants are stored with her teammates ready to greet her. Velvet waves hi and smiles at the landing craft while Yatsuhashi sits in a meditative stance before getting up. After landing, Coco exits the vehicle.
"Got a new vehicle ready. Enough room for two teams, a pilot, and two to three people. I even got more supplies. Just the cube stuff for the printer."
"Don't we already have enough?" Fox says. "I mean Ciel is making a damn tower for all the extra supplies." Fox pointed at the three story building near the keep.
"She asked me to get them for more experiments."
"Oh."
Velvet then says, "Just to let you guys know next week is the first of October. Which also means-"
"Halloween!?" Fox says with joy in his tone.
"That and-"
"MY BIRTHDAY!" Ruby appeared out of nowhere that scared almost everyone. Yatsuhashi is busy unloading.
As for Fox, he lost his balance and falls off the edge of the roof. Fox quickly does a somersault when he reached the ground to avoid crashing into the ground.
Ruby looks over the edge, "Sorry, Fox."
"Wait." Coco says and is surprised. "Your birthday is coming up?"
"Yep!" Ruby confirms as she has her clenched hands are close to her face and shakes up and down in excitement. "Same day as Halloween! I hope for an awesome birthday!" Then stops and looks serious, "Despite the fact that we are in a hostile alien world where there are dinosaurs, zombies, alien fish, and who knows what else is lurking out there with no new video game releases, convenient stores, and functioning shopping malls." Then gets excited again, "But still! I'm excited! I already let Team NDGO and Team JNPR know so they can find a present for me in the magical kingdom!"
"Right." Coco says as she just smiles and shakes her head slowly.
Back at the valley where all the Halo machinima characters are, we have someone in brown armor is in front of a camera giving a weather report. He is standing on the edge of a cliff with a few shipwrecks behind him.
"And today's weather is about 69 degrees and will continue to drop since autumn is around the corner. With the exceptions of a few areas that are gonna remain tropical or hot for a long time. If you guys want to avoid the cold, head up north."
"And cut. That's it Craig." says the camera man that has a synthetic voice. However, the camera is still recording.
"Well I'm glad we don't have to say the same exact thing every now and then, Zoom." Craig then notices something. "Are you still recording? Because the red light is on."
"Nah, it means it's on standby." Zoom is lying of course.
"Are you sure? Because you said a lot about the red light. You say that it means recording, the footage is processing, and a bunch of other stuff."
"Nope." Zoom lies again. "It just means standby."
Trivia: Zoom, the monitor character, and Craig are from the machinima show, The Forecast. Watch on Youtube.
Someone in red armor on a mongoose started zooming by in front of the camera.
Craig looks at the person that zoomed by. "Oh shit."
A hail of bullets started firing with someone screaming, "DIE YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
"Fuck!" Zoom shouts and takes cover behind some rocks with Craig.
"Oh not again." Craig says woefully.
It is Willy armed with a heavy machine gun turret and trying to kill Spriggs again. He fires every round then he can at Spriggs after she insulted Willy about his mother again. He ran out of bullets a few seconds later.
"Shit!"
Then switches out for a flamethrower.
"BURN!" he screams out as he gives chase.
Zoom peaked out from one of the rocks, still recording, and watches Spriggs driving by with Willy firing the flamethrower.
"BURN! IF IT'S A CHOICE BETWEEN REGULAR OR EXTRA CRISPY, I WANT YOU EXTRA CRISPY! NOW BURN!"
Zoom watches the two go back and forth as he records the comedy with Willy using a ghost to chase after Spriggs, chase Spriggs on foot with a railgun and a grenade launcher, and try to run down Spriggs with a warthog that Wily is somehow able to drive upside down and floating on the upper edge of Zoom's screen.
"Just another day here in this alien planet."
Craig pops his head up, "Yep."
Then a Spectre is being driven with three aliens in tow with Botri, Soltri, and Rotri singing.
"Napalm sticks to little kids. Do-da, do-da. Napalm sticks to little kids, oh the do-da-de. Watch them scream and burn, watch them scream and burn. Napalm sticks to little kids. Oh the do-da-de."
"Yep. Another normal day."
Now we head over towards the Red Base with Sarge using a sniper rifle to spy on Caboose who is playing fetch with his super robo pets. He grunts as he watches him just messing around.
Simmons walks up behind him, "Is there a matter, sir?"
Sarge lowers the sniper rifle, "That no good blue pest!" He sounds angry at Caboose. "That idiot has more robots than Red Team! That is unacceptable!"
"Don't we have a squad of robots?"
Sarge turns to face Simmons, "But everyone knows that one giant robot equals up to the power of six robots. With Lopez, Sanchez, and eight more robots on the way, they're outnumber six to one. Red Team needs to have their own giant robot to even the odds. Or greater!"
Simmons isn't feeling up for it. "Sorry, sir. But I don't think that's a good idea. Remember what happened to C.C.?"
"She was the most beautiful robot that ever lived. Up until Lopez 2.0 took over and try to kill us."
"That's the point. You converted her into diesel, which is highly ineffective in combat for a robot, and she tried to kill us."
"Nonsense. She was the perfect killing machine! Able to rain death down on our enemies!"
"She didn't because she ran out. Plus we were the enemies in her eyes, er, sensors. Not to mention that some of the hardware for her is missing because of Grif's laziness. I did made a mech earlier, but..."
FLASHBACK
Many days earlier, Simmons made a mech at a laboratory from Osiris: New Dawn as it walks very, very slowly on the edge of a cliff.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" Simmons swears up and down in frustration. "This thing is slower than my grandma! How in the world do they use this thing on alien worlds?!" Simmons sighs as he looks down inside the cockpit of the mech. "Fuck it. I'm gonna scrap this."
Then he felt the mech being unbalanced as it tilted forwards towards the right as it is hanging over the edge of the cliff.
"Uh-oh." Simmons gets out of the mech as it starts to fall down off the edge. "Oh crap oh crap oh crap!"
The mech falls down as Simmons runs away from the cliff. He turns around and watch it tumble down onto some wreckage. It exploded into pieces and is set on fire.
Simmons gives a disappointed sigh. "Back to the drawing board." Then runs back to Red Base.
Back at the bottom, Caboose and Freckles in his toy body looked at the wrecked mech.
"Look, Freckles!" Caboose sounds delighted. "Parts we need for our new friends! Enough to make you a new body, too!"
FLASHBACK ENDS
Simmons finishes, "The thing was complete shit so I had to let self-destruct. I've been trying to figure out what was the pro-"
"Did you use diesel?" Sarge interrupted.
"No. Diesel will make it slower."
"How about D batteries?"
"Not enough in the world to power that thing. I did use lithium though."
"How about something nuclear?"
"I think it might be the armor and all those weapons on it. That extra weight might have been the problem. I just need data on the Mantises and the mech I piloted in order to make the mech more effective. Plus I need some proper AI to configure the mech into a robot."
"How about Andy?"
"Fuck that! Last thing we need is an AI of a bomb with enough firepower to make this place into a smoking crater.
"Good point. That guy is the most annoying thing on the planet. We need something from our team."
Both Simmons and Sarge look at Lopez and Sanchez working on their eight robots and almost done. Sanchez notices the two looking at them while Lopez is using a socket wrench on one of the robots' legs.
He says to Lopez, "Lopez? Esses caras estão nos encarando." as he looks back at Sarge and Lopez.
Translation: "Lopez? Those guys are staring at us."
"A quien le importa. Solo quiero terminar esto para poder dejar este caótico y dejar atrás a los idiotas."
Translation: "Who cares. I just want to get this done so we can leave this dumbass canyon and leave the idiots behind."
Sanchez turns his head at Lopez, "Eu acho que nós vamos ter que fazer algo estúpido para esses fuckbags."
Translation: "I think we're gonna have to do something dumb for these fuckbags."
Lopez stops working and look at Sarge and Simmons who are still staring. "Bien, ¡a la mierda! Salgamos tan rápido como podamos."
Translation: "Alright, fuck it! Let's leave as fast as we can."
"E quanto a Lorenzo? Ele é um de nós e precisa ser livre também."
Translation: "What about Lorenzo? He's one of us and needs to be free too."
"FETCH!" Cabooses says as he throws the ball right at one of the robots Lopez made.
"TARGET ACQUIRED!" all the Mantis robots say as they lock-on.
"Ah Merda!"
"Oh, mierda!"
Both of them say "Oh shit!" as they get out of the way of the rocket fire that causes their new robots to explode...again. Both Lopez and Sanchez get up from the ground and see the robots in pieces again.
Lopez throws his wrench down in a fit while saying, "¡Maldito hijo de puta! ¡A la mierda este lugar, folla a estos humanos y folla a todos esos imbéciles que trabajan con Caboose! ¡Mierda! ¡Mierda! ¡Culo! ¡Perra!"
Translation: "Goddamn son of a bitch! Fuck this place, fuck these humans and fuck all those assholes that work with Caboose! Fuck! Shit! Ass! Bitch!"
Lopez walks away while throwing his arms up and down with all his frustration.
Both Sarge and Simmons look at each other and go, "Nah."
Sanchez watches while saying to himself, "Pergunto-me se Lorenzo tem problemas como estes na sua cela."
Translation: "I wonder if Lorenzo has problems like these in his cell."
Somewhere, in the valley, there is a shipwreck with many barred cells where prisoners are kept. Here the Blues and Reds along with many others are kept in their cells.
Lorenzo sighs as he says, "Sono all'inferno adesso."
Translation: "I'm in hell right now."
Loco, the counterpart of Caboose, is saying a bunch of stuff while in an excited tone. "Then we get to enjoy the sunlight! We get to run around and roll in the grass!"
Mark Temple, leader of the Blues and Reds, says in a passive aggressive tone, "Be quiet."
"Then we get to go sledding in the mountains! Get to go Trick-or-Treating once Halloween comes around!"
"Please be quiet." Mark says in a more aggressive tone.
"The roll around in a big pile of leaves! Make snowmen! Having a few dinosaur pets!"
"Be quiet!" Mark shouts over Loco's words.
"Oh boy, things will be awesome once we leave this place and have fun! And we also get to make smores! Do some scavenging!"
Mark Temple then yells, "LOCO! BE QUIET! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"LET ME OUTTA HERE!" We head over to another cell with an energy door. It is Isaac Gate, also highly known as, Felix. He bangs the energy door with his head and fists. "FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY! LET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! GET ME AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!"
"Yeah, shut up!" says South in the cell across from the Blues and Reds. "You guys are on my last fucking nerve!"
"Here, here!" says Sharkface in the cell next to South. "You guys are so fucking annoying that I can't sleep!"
Aiden Price is on his bed with a pillow over his head to drown out the noise. Everyone is making so much of a racket that it is hard to relax with so much noise and negativity. Gene keeps talking about scientific theories. Biff is contemplating on why he is there, even though Temple is glad he's alive. Cronut talks about fashion and the awful interior decor of the prison. Surge is doing a workout by doing pushups while counting. Wyoming tries to block the sounds out by finding a mute button on his helmet. Bucky is buys doing something in the corner of his cell...and it involves a porn magazine. That is until the warden fired his gun.
"SHUT UP!" The warden is Phil in basic brown Mark V armor. "ANYMORE SHIT OUT OF YOU GUYS, YOU'LL ALL DO SEWAGE DUTY! GOT IT?!"
Everyone shuts up and just sit in their cells.
"GOOD!" Phil puts his gun away. He says to himself, "Worse. Job. Ever."
Now we head back to the Remnant camp. Outside of the warehouse. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are now wearing clothing. Cinder wears a red and black checkered shirt, a red hoodie with black sleeves, black jeans, and black low hiking boots with some red dye on them. Emerald wears a white hooded sweatshirt with a green t-shirt underneath, beige cargo pants, and brown hiking boots. Mercury is wearing a sweatshirt that he dyed gray with a hunting vest over it that he dyed black, black work gloves but he cut off the fingers, black jeans with some gray dye on the sides in the form of stripes going from the end of the leggings to the waist, and black cowboy boots.
Yang whistles. "Damn. You guys look good."
"Why thank you." Cinder says.
"Thanks." Emerald smiles.
"We make do with what we got." Mercury says.
Blake walks up. "How're you guys feeling?"
Cinder says, "Well Yang here did her best to explain who we were as Huntsmen from Mistral. Yet we have no idea why that one Huntress with the black pigtails and green eyes isn't here with us."
"That is weird." Emerald agrees. "What was her name again?"
Yang shrugs because she has no idea. Blake shrugs along with Yang since she has no idea either.
"Anyway." Mercury beings to speak. "How goes the whole 'tea' thing?"
Blake smiles, "I had a few cups so I'm good."
Yang snickers, "That much is a guaran-tea. Eh?" Yang looks at all four of them with no one smiling or laughing. "Oh come on guys."
Cinder looks at Blake, "Don't you guys have tea growing already? Like the camellia plant?"
"We sure do but..." Blake slouches forwards as she groans with an upset look. "They're taking forever to grow."
"We also got some new types of tea." Yang says as she pats Blake back. "We got goldenrod, red, rose hip, reishi, and green from the Splendid School."
"Yeah, but someone drank it all."
Yang gives Blake a weird look. "Who the hell would drink ALL the tea?"
"Don't know, but I'm glad Team CRDL did something right for once."
"Speaking of that school." Emerald steps closer to the two. "I find it hard to believe that zombies are a thing."
Yang says with a very serious look, "Trust me, they're real. Having thousands of undead corpses barreling down on you with no defenses while a cult tries to conquer your shelter is no joke."
"I guess so."
"At least one thing for sure though. Those cultists are, dead-icated."
"Goodbye." Emerald leaves after Yang's awful pun.
"That was lame." Mercury says before leaving.
"Sorry, Yang. But I think you're trying too hard and it's not working." Cinder leaves with her teammates.
As the three leave, Yang goes, "What will it take to get a laugh?"
Blake responds, "When you stop being pun-ny."
Yang laughs at Blake's pun. "Okay. That was a good one."
Winter Schnee, now wearing cloth armor, is checking out the vault and is a little impressed by all the construction that those younger as her made. However, she checks to see any dust by running her finger on the side of some pipe-looking props. She looks at her finger and sees no dust of her finger as she rubs it with her thumb.
"What do you think?" Weiss asks.
"Adequate." Winter responds.
"Oh."
Winter then turns to face her little sister. "But I'm surprised that you and your...classmates managed to survive so long. Let alone create such a massive compound for any major disasters. How did you all create such things?"
Weiss hold out her left arm and shows her implant. "Because of this thing. We all have them."
Winter looks at her left arm and sees the same thing. It opens up to reveal something.
Specimen Identification #3577811330
Species: Homo sapien
Vernacular Identification: Winter Schnee
Gender: Female
Home Planet: Remnant
Characteristic: Dexterity, Adaptability, Resourceful, Unique Undocumented Adaptation, Able to use strange symbols and patterns as some form of power to survive, Militarily Trained, Emotional Subdued, Eloquent, Almost Robotic Fashion, Completely dull in terms of personality
Possibility of Survival: 87%
Winter is a little angry at the last part of her characteristics, but lets it slide. She checks some of the other stuff in her implants and sees all sorts of new stuff for her to experiment with.
"What's with the religion part here?"
Weiss responds, "We're not sure about that, but we decided to leave it for now."
"I see." Winter closes her implant. She then notices Weiss putting on her Pip-Boy. "What is that?"
Weiss shows her sister, "This thing is called a Pip-Boy. This thing has some functions that lets you keep track of your items, be used as a flashlight, gives you perks, and many other functions. Team SSSN found a few crates of these back at some soda-theme amusement park."
Winter goes, "Soda-theme amusement park?"
"Weird, yes, but they brought back something that lets us build the vault. Something called a settlement workshop." Weiss then gives Winter her very own Pip-Boy. "Here, I have one for you. Once you put this on, you'll understand how we built this."
Winter takes the device and puts it on. She then goes to settlement building mode and scrolls through some of the settlement objects. She selected a robot workbench and understands how with a green robot workbench that she gets to put down. But when she tries placing it against the wall but it turns red.
"Now I see." Winter stops what she was doing. "So that's how you make your settlement."
"You can say that, but some required placement of blocks. How is everyone settling?"
"Mother is already at the tavern getting drunk. Whitley is..."
Whitley, for some reason wearing a black business suit, is at the docks while pouting on the edge of the docks he is sitting on. He is made that he is stuck there with no scroll, no internet, no fancy bullshit, no nothing. Not to mention the whole every girl sees his tiny junk ordeal. Whitley just sits there and thinks about what to do.
"This fucking sucks."
"...let's just say that he needs some space."
"And what about Klein?"
"Klein is already making a house for us. We're gonna go for the adobe since you told us about the heatwave."
"Yeah, but autumn is coming up. Which means we need to make something to keep us warm."
"I agree. But I do believe that Whitley needs to be trained in order to survive."
Weiss smirks, "He won't like that, but I hope his training will be brutal."
"Now, now." Winter places her left hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Despite him being a spoiled brat, he's still family." Then she starts to smirk, "But giving him the medicine he deserves to get him out of his shell."
"I'll ask Pyrrha to do so."
"No, I think you should. It will give you two time to bond while training."
Everyone has gathered around sunset in the vault's atrium meeting room with Ruby, Jaune, and Coco in the spotlight.
"Thank you for coming." Coco addresses the audience with a greeting. "We're here to talk about who gets to go on a journey to the west to find out more about the new location beyond the mountains. Before we do that, we have a bit of an obstacle on the way towards the green obelisk. Team BRNZ, would you step towards the stage, please?"
Team BRNZ walks up to the spotlights as Coco steps back.
Brawnz clears his throat. "Thank you, Coco. We ran across a snag over at the obelisk. We discovered something we haven't seen."
Yang leans over and whispers to Blake, "What else is new?"
"We encountered a T-Rex-"
"T-Dom!" May corrected Brawnz.
"T-Dom, that was not only bigger but also has an aura. A red aura."
Some of the people murmur among themselves about this new discovery. A T-Dom that has an aura guarding an obelisk? Very strange indeed.
"Must be very important if something like that is at the obelisk." Penny stands up while making the statement.
"Indeed." Ciel agrees.
"If it was a video game, I say that guy might be a boss." Kohta stated. "That thing might be a boss of some sort that is guarding some treasure or something extremely valuable like information on why we are here."
Saya smiles, "Well, well." She is impressed by Kohta's deduction, "You're not such a dumbass after all."
But that is when Takashi stands up, "But what happens if we defeat the boss and the obelisk requires some sort of key? Or worse, a set of keys. And I don't think that big dinosaur has any unless one of its body parts is a key."
Rei argues, "Now that's disgusting! Why would we need a body part from that creature?"
Kohta explains, "Sometimes a body part of a boss is a key. Like the heart of a demon from Two Worlds 2. Or something from Inner Chains."
"You actually played those?" Takashi is a little shocked that Kohta played such a games. "Because I heard those games are terrible."
"Oh come on now."
"Can we focus on the real topic, please?" Soichiro says to everyone.
"Agree." Brawnz then finishes, "So we're gonna use the falcon along with the armaments of the pelican Coco brought back before the elected teams can go pass the mountains." Brawnz looks at Coco, "Back to you, Coco."
Brawnz and his team head back towards their seat while Coco says, "Thanks dude. As of right now, we're gonna decide on who gets to go. So now we get to vote."
Ruby then says, "We will set up a voting box where everyone can cast their vote on who's going. Any objections?"
There are no objections.
"Good. Jaune would you please set up the box?"
Jaune already did as Ruby looked.
"Right."
Everyone lines up to cast their vote on who gets to go.
"So how are you doing, Blake?" Yang asks.
"Remember the when I said, 'I'm gonna have zombie nightmares for a week'?"
"So that's why you were really pissed off?"
"Yep."
Dew whispers to her teammate, "I hope we get to go."
Octavia whispers back, "Yeah, I know."
Nora whispers to Ren, "Are we going?"
"Possibly." Ren whispers back.
"So you're volunteering?" Yuki asks Yuri.
"Yes I am." she replies. "I think I may help out with some of the cooking, research, and identification of plants."
"I'm coming along." Toshimi says as she glares at her former friend, Misuzu Ichijo. Misuzu looks away with the look of guilt before Toshimi looks back. "I may be low level, but I will help out Yuri the best I can as an assistant."
"Are you sure?" Yuri is unsure about Toshimi after what she told Yuri about what happened.
"Some distance from me and Misuzu might be good for us."
"Why can't you guys forgive and forget?" Yuki asks.
"Like forgetting the time when I was being eaten and she stomped on my head to have me let go of her hand? When she let me die?" Toshimi looks serious and angry. "Tell me, how can I forget something like that?"
Yuki looks a little frighten by Toshimi's angry expression. She gulps and doesn't respond.
"I thought so."
Yuri then changes the subject, "By the way, isn't it weird that you and I sound exactly alike?"
"Now that I think about it, yeah. That is weird. Some people might get us mixed up if they don't know who are they talking to." Then looks serious again, "But don't think changing the subject will help."
Back at Dead Canyon, the Project at Eden's Gate members are still searching. Even though the sun is setting over the horizon.
Jacob is still high in the air in his plane. He says via radio, "Has anyone found them yet?"
"This is Alpha Team, can't find any sign of those heathens."
"Bravo Team here. We didn't find them but we found plenty of beer for the road!"
"Charlie Team. No sign of them here in the mountains. Checked all the cabins we can find."
"Delta here. We ain't found shit!"
"Zulu reporting. Nothin' but a bunch of zeds. We may need to call it a day. Sun's going down and I don't want to be out here at night when the undead blasphemies get riled up."
"Very well. Head back to Hope County and find a place to rest for the night."
Everyone on the radio say at once, "Roger."
Jacob puts the radio away and flies back. However, he thinks that there is something going on. 'Why did they leave the place bare and set up traps?' he thought. 'As a matter of fact, how did they disappear like that? There was no way for them to get far. Especially during a horde night. Better let my brothers know about this and the outsiders they escaped with. They must've had a working plane or helicopter. But we made sure that the helipad was toast so they can't have build one. We've harassed their pad for the past month to make sure they didn't. To make matters worse, I've missed almost all the Sunday services today. Best to make it before the last.'
As Jacob's plane heads north to Hope County, someone has been eyeing the Peggies with a pair of binoculars while on a minibike. It is a young boy with long black hair that grows over his eyes while wearing leather armor from 7 Days to Die. Not to mention that he has a bit of an eerie atmosphere about him. He pulls out his radio.
"This is Kurokami. Master Shido, the assholes at the school are gone. They disappeared and the cultists searched everywhere for them with no trace. But they did leave behind a few traps."
"Then they must be planning on coming back." says Shido. "Why would they take everything and set-up traps?"
"Are you sure, sir?" Kurokami sounds unsure about the situation. "Then where did they go?"
"Don't know. But find a place to hide until morning. I'm gonna send back-up to help you out with-"
"Oh mister Shido~!" says a teenage voice of a girl. "I'm ready~!"
"Just a second, Mikki! I've got something important on. I'll call you back later. I'll send in back-up so you can explore the school to find out how they left. Those bastards must have missed something."
"Roger. Over and out."
Back at the Remnant encampment, Penny and Oscar are looking over at the gazebo to watch the sun set. Oscar is wearing clean pre-war parkstroller outfit which consist of a gray shirt and blue jeans with a pair of brown shoes. Penny wears the same flower dress she wore before.
"Wow." Oscar says.
"Yeah." Penny says. "First time I've ever seen a sunset like this. Usually I had to watch it go over city buildings. But watching it going over the mountains is quite the sight to my ocular sensors."
Oscar looks at Penny with a weird look, "Your what?"
Penny giggles a little. "Sorry, force of habit."
"So what's next?" Oscar looks a little nervous. He has never been on a date before and is nervous that an older girl asked him out.
"From what my friends told me, we should get some nutrients from a meal that is meant to be served at either midday or evening and then watch a motion picture about romances." Penny has no idea how a date works so she asked members of Team RWBY for advice.
Oscar looks confused and tries to figure out what Penny just said. "You mean a dinner and a movie."
Penny smiles, "That's exactly what I said."
Oscar chuckles a little, "You're pretty funny, Penny. And really smart."
Penny blushes and snickers a little at Oscar's compliment. "You're pretty smart and funny yourself, Oscar."
Whitley is watching the two at the docks and goes, "Oh brother. That is just pathetic."
Penny grabs Oscar's hand and pulls him towards the tavern. "Come on. Let's get some spaghetti and share it as we may accidentally find a single noodle that leads us to touching each other's lips."
"Wait, what?"
"And then we get to watch the movie about two animated canines that do the same."
"Wait, what?!"
"Or we can watch an animated musical about a royal prince gets turned into an unidentified creature which must learn about love and patience from a village maiden before a bioluminescent Rosa chinensis loses all its petals. Or is it a Pernetiana?"
"The second one sounds good." Oscar says as he is tugged towards the tavern. He looks at his hand as he notices Penny is holding his hand. His face turns red as he notices a girl is holding it.
Now they're gonna enjoy a night of romance in this strange world full of danger, mystery, and who knows what other shit is out there. But for now, the kids are gonna have a little fun while they can...before shit hits the fan and fuck things up. Especially when October comes around that will put everyone's survival skills to the test up until winter comes. Or worse for the people of the valley when they find out that their little chunk of a valley is in the way of something across the desert where the blood flows continuously.
Across the desert over at what appears to be the map from ARK: Scorched Earth. Gunfire, battle cries, and all sorts of battle sounds can be heard in this little oasis of the desert as two warring factions fight for supremacy. To the north under the blue obelisk, we have Caesar's Legion from the Mojave Wasteland further up. This encampment of this oasis if filled with makeshift fortifications and walls made of junk all the way from the Mojave. There are also a large number of tents and cages that are filled with Legionaries and slaves. The place also has a few tamed dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts such as raptors, morellatopses, iguanodons, direwolves, and equuses. There are a few blacksmith slaves working day and night on making weapons for the Legion from machetes to assault rifles without the use of specimen implants. As a matter of fact, no one has any. But there is one and he is incharge.
This man is a Legate. The Monster of the Southern Desert. The Slayer of Sands. The Beast of the South. This Legate is known as, Legate Judicator. He sits in his chair as he overlooks the camp with his pet yutyrannus named, Cacus. Which has been painted red with a few yellow markings in Latin that reads:
'Mors, quae veniet tibi' which translates, 'Death, has come for you'
Over to the south at the oasis under the red obelisk, we have the Exiles. Strong and capable warriors from the Exiled Lands that have brought their thralls with them that are armed with the best armor ever made and the finest melee weapons and bows ever crafted. Buildings looking like towers and strong reinforced stone for walls to keep anyone out. The place looks more like some sort of town than the military camp up north with dancers, markets, and a few wheels of pain for prisoners. There are a few Exiles that act as commanders with specimen implants on them that help form this place. Yet there is one that is in-charge.
This man is a Cimmerian and worships Crom. A Cimmerian with a buffed physique, long black hair, and plenty of scars on him while wearing a Cimmerian steel tasset and Cimmerian steel boots but no armor while showing off his chest. His name is...Nonan.
(You probably thought it was Conan, didn't you? Well jokes on you! m\/ XD \/m)
He is a general for a big shot in the southwest, back in the Exiled Lands while wielding his flawless obsidian great sword. He sits on his stone throne with his two pets by his side. A sabertooth named, Fang and a tiger named, Copper.
One man comes into the throne room. He runs up to them before kneeling down. "Excuse me, my lord! But the enemy is attacking again with their foul sorcery!"
Ronan rises up from his throne. "Prepare for battle!" he shouts in a commanding authoritative voice. "Have the thralls gear-up and prepare for war once again!" His pet cats roar alongside him as he raises his sword. "Their foul sorcery only makes them cowards!"
At the center of the map, war rages on. A squad of six or eight Recruit decanuses running over along the edges of the canyon with SMGs and throwing spears about ready to attack with the sound of explosions, war cries, war drums, gunfire, and creature roars and shrieks in the dead of night. But the squad was ambushed by Dafari fighter thralls that were hiding above them and start eating the men alive. A large Nordheimer armed with a Deathbringer Axe while wearing Silent Legion armor is seen running and charging at a wounded prime legionary but gets eaten by another prime legionary riding on a raptor. Some of the Legionaries are gunning down a few thralls taking cover behind the boulders, but get their asses handed to them when a Shemite throws a demon-fire orb that sets them on fire. Some thralls try to creep up on an enemy position yet one of them ended-up getting taken by a kaprosuchus which the screaming draws the enemy's attention and opened fire.
Bullets, throwing weapons, blood, and arrows litter the landscape. Dying the waters with red, painting the walls of the canyon crimson, and the corpses of people and animals litter the whole place along with ruined banners, weapons that are on the breaking point, and vultures dine on the remnants along with many other scavengers. Yet the fights continue in many parts of Scorched Earth that can be heard echoing through the night.
/2: Progression of Project PHOENIX: 44%
Phase two of Project ARES is still on hold.
AN: Hey guys! Up loaded this early but oh well. Hope you enjoy! m\/ XD \/m = PEACE!