Chapter 43

AN: Before we begin, let's do some Q&A. Switch things up this time.

Guest #1: I did add the endermen in one of the chapters where Team RWBY and their family members went out to get some spell tomes for everyone and the other settlements they are allied with. As for Terraria, sorry but no. I don't do 2D side scrollers. Sorry dude.

Guest #2: An Ovis is a type of sheep from ARK: Survival Evolved.

Guest #3: Since there was a lot of flesh getting ripped from his body, bones breaking, and dying screams: yes. Perry is dead. That is why the her subordinates are questioning Salem's sanity and leadership right now.

Guest #4: I know but I am a bit of a collector and those collecting habits were kicking in to collect almost all the characters from RWBY. It sorta like one of those other base building games that have population management, resource management, and those other stuff needed for survival. Yet having some unexpected arrivals could cause some problems along with unexpected weather. Which is why Ciel was frustrated earlier when she did some inventory with her clipboard. Oscar was ready to make some greenhouses in case of bad weather. Just like what happened with that hurricane from earlier as it blew everything away. Oh, and you spell too with two o's not one. You kinda threw me off there.

Close to Team JNPR's house and the Ren residence, Jaune made an extension to his floating Minecraft platform to accommodate his sisters and nephews arrival. He made another Minecraft house just across from Team JNPR's that has the necessities for living in this strange new world. Saphron and Terra (now in their old outfits along with their son) were waiting outside of their new two story house made of Minecraft cobblestone blocks, blue terracotta blocks, and light blue terracotta blocks. Saphron is holding Adrian, who was doing what any infant does. On the outside, Jaune made three blocks of cobbles at the base, then gives it a three stripe streak with the blue in the middle and the same with the edge of the roof.

Jaune comes out wearing a miner's outfit while wiping the sweat from his brow with a piece of cloth. He turns to look at them, "Okay. I set up the plumbing, built a fireplace, made a nice room for Adrian with colorful carpeting along with a crib, and managed to put in one of those modern gadgets."

Saphron smiles at her brother, "Thank you, Jaune."

Adrian smiles and claps his hands for all of Jaune's hard work.

"Is there a shower?" Terra asks.

"Yes there is." Jaune assures. "But about the toilet. Whenever you flush it turns you...feces-"

Adrian laughs at what Jaune says. Saphron giggles a little.

Terra doesn't look all that enthusiastic. "Is it one of those compost toilets?"

"Close. It does turn your poop into fertilizer which is helpful for the farming we have to do." Jaune points at the half constructed greenhouse, "Which is for that."

Team ABRN and Oscar are working on making a large greenhouse to grow crops when the winter months come. Arslan and Bolin are busy setting up the floors to each level of the greenhouse along with an irrigation system. Reese and Nadir are setting up the walls and the lights for the greenhouse. Oscar is setting up the crop plots, garden plots, interior growbeds, plant shelves, and a few shelves to store some of the gardening essentials.

"I see." Terra says as she pushes her glasses.

"Yeah. We're gonna need it for food and medicines."

Yang then comes by with an alchemy table from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. "Got the alchemy table. So we can learn to craft potions."

Oscar shouts, "Thank you, Yang!"

Penny then walks by with some chemistry sets in her hand.

Terra looks back at her brother-in-law, "At any case, we'll do what we can for this settlement."

Saphron asks, "Did you also paint Adrian's walls royal pear like I asked?"

"I did indeed." Jaune says. Adrian raise a little fist up for a fist bump which Jaune gave him. But just a little tap which Adrian smiles.

"So cute!" Saphron says to Adrian before speaking in baby talk, "Who loves their uncle for all his hard work? You do. Yes you do." Adrian chuckles a bit.

"Oh!" Jaune went, "Before I forget." Jaune pulls out an Arcade Gorge Toy from his inventory and gives it to Adrian.

Adrian reaches out and hugs the toy tightly and snuggles it.

"Awww!" Saphron says. "Your uncle got you a new toy! Ain't Jaune great!"

Adrian smiles at Jaune and gives him a look that says 'Thank you'.

"I love you too, Adrian." Jaune says to Adrian. "Love you too." He then clears his throat to speak with Saphron and Terra. "Anyway, I should get going. We need to find some animals for ranching and some hunting. Catcha' guys later!" And then walks away.

Adrian waves goodbye while trying to say 'Goodbye' in baby language.

"See you soon!" Saphron says to Jaune.

Terra looks at Saphron all excited, "Come on. Let's see our new house."

Over at the tower close to what is supposed to be a ranch but all their livestock was take by argentavises, Sarge looks up at the sky as he notices the clouds are gathering up to form storm clouds. Yet the storm isn't what he is worried about. He senses something up beyond the clouds like he knows something it up. Then Carolina enters the picture.

"Something wrong, Sarge?" Carolina asks.

Then Epsilon pops up, "Is this one of your...'senses'?"

Sarge looks back at the two, "Oh hey." He looks at Epsilon, "How are you doing Church?"

"Other than a fact that I just lost Iota, Eta, and Omega; I'm doing alright." Then he looks at Carolina, "As long as we don't run more than two Freelancer equipment at once."

"Which I do take responsibility for." Carolina says to Church.

"Just make sure that you don't get too competitive in combat."

They both look back at Sarge with Carolina asking again, "Something wrong?"

Sarge looks back up in the sky again, "Well... Have you guys ever looked up at the sky and wonder if our alien hosts have been watching us from some satellite?"

Epsilon and Carolina look at each other before looking back at Sarge with Epsilon saying, "No. Not really. How come we never thought of that?"

Sarge continues to look up at the sky. "It could be possible if you think about it. There isn't any telescopes as far as we know and there is some anti-spaceship weaponry scattered in other parts of the planet."

Epsilon then says, "Like the tractor beams at the crash sites."

Sarge then looks at Epsilon, "Or that gun platform where that one giant ship crashed. That one teenage hunting team told me about it when they traveled south. Trying to impress me or something."

Then Epsilon goes, "Yeah, but I find it way outside your character Sarge."

"Whatever, spark plug. In any case, we should head over to the gun platform and shut it down. If not, then we blow it with as much nukes as possible!"

"There it is."

"Are you sure it is a good idea?" Carolina asks. "We could end-up with a major environmental disaster out in the ocean. Not to mention that I doubt that the aliens would let us get away with blowing up their containment measures."

"Nonsense!" Sarge disagrees. "If the nuke doesn't work, then we can get our trusty AI friend here to bring it down."

Epsilon appears in front of Sarge, "Okay, one: a nuke should be the last option. Two: I'm not exactly in the greatest of shape right now. Remember?"

"Hmm-mmm." Sarge went as he thinks about it. "What about the other guy?"

"You mean Alpha."

"Yep."

"Yeah. I kinda doubt that he'll do anything in the form he is in." He looks at Carolina, "I highly doubt that guy can hack through-"

"Hey!" Tucker then joined in with everyone looked at him. "Can I get your guys' help with something?"

"Like what?" Epsilon asks.

"Does it include an outlet in life?" Sarge asks in a snarky tone.

"Well sorta. I'm having trouble on which of the new girls I wanna sleep with first."

Carolina speaks in disbelief, "Seriously?"

Sarge says, "Why not the younger version of Maria?"

"Yeah, but it is like trying to bang a younger version of your grandmother."

"EWWWW!" Carolina is disgusted by what Tucker said.

"Do you really need to put that thought in my head?" Sarge says when he looks down.

"Okay, that's disgusting!" Epsilon says in disgusts.

Older Maria comes up, "Did someone say something about me?"

Everyone looked at her and go, "No!"

Then General Ironwood showed up, looking a bit stern, "Col. Sarge!"

Sarge gives a salute, "Sir!"

"Met me in my office." Ironwood sounds serious as he leaves.

"Sir, yes sir!" then he follows the general with everyone looking at him.

"I think he might be in trouble." Epsilon says.

Carolina says to Epsilon, "Probably something stupid like declaring war on gravity."

We cut to an office in the vault where Ironwood slams a few papers on his desk while giving Sarge a very stern look. "Care to explain?"

"Explain what, sir?!" Sarge speaks in military fashion.

Ironwood picks up some of the papers that he slams, "Your proposals." He looks at the papers, "Declaring war on gravity. Declaring war on the laws of physics. Declaring war on anyone that wears the color blue? Creating an evil robot mutant dino army to declare war on?!" Ironwood looks at Sarge.

"That is because I have been hopelessly depressed by the fact that I didn't die heroically! I want something to fight so I can do so!"

Ironwood drops the papers and slams his desk, "Listen: I don't know how the hell you got the rank of colonel but I do question your sanity! Or at least your common sense."

"I...do not follow, sir."

Ironwood takes a deep sigh and regain his composure. "What I am saying is that I am unsure you are fit for duty. I don't know exactly how you got to where you are today, but you need to understand that we are trying to survive on this strange world. But declaring war on the aliens is something I can accept. However, we aren't ready yet. We need to learn more about the aliens and what do they want."

"I know exactly what they want, sir! They want to learn about our weaknesses and take advantage of them!"

"Sarge!" Ironwood sounds a little hostile towards the serge- I mean colonel. "If you continue with such outlandish proposals, you will be demoted!"

"...Huh-oh." Sarge says then takes a gulp.

"Indeed huh-oh. Now please, get to your post."

Sarge does a salute, "Sir! Yes, sir!" then leaves.

Over at Team FAME's house, Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan joined them for a bit of a conversation around a table with everyone having teacups filled with mint tea.

Roman says, "I swear you guys look familiar for some reason."

"We get that a lot." Emerald says before she takes a sip.

Mercury then says, "Tukson says the same thing. Isn't that weird?"

Neo holds up a sign. 'Yeah. It is weird' then nods her head.

Cinder puts down her cup, "It is so strange that we lost our memories when we came here. Almost as if it was on purpose."

"Indeed." Amber agrees while holding a tray of six bowls of tomato soup. "Tomato soup anybody? It's gonna get colder outside."

"I'll have some." Emerald says as she took one of the bowls.

"But there is one thing that is bothering me." Mercury says. "How come you guys have a semblance and I don't? I mean Huntsmen have them in order to fight against monsters according to some of the other guys. Yet I don't have one for some reason."

Roman the says while Amber gives him his tomato soup, "Now that is weird. Although, I don't think I'm a Huntsman. Because I don't have a semblance or aura either."

"Maybe you should unlock them." Cinder suggest before she gets her soup. "Almost everyone has their's unlocked, so why not yours?"

"Good idea!" Roman agrees with Cinder. "And who knows. Maybe I might get my memory back."

Out at the beach, Caboose and Donut are with the four maidens, Gretchen, and Younger Maria. They are gathering some of the resources that have washed ashore. Which includes palm leaves, planks, bamboo sticks, and a few other things that have washed ashore.

"Man." Donut says, "I cannot believe that someone would just litter like this!"

Caboose then goes, "Litter? But I don't see any kittens."

"Trash litter, Caboose." Younger Maria says to Caboose while picking up a barrel.

"Ooohhh. But I don't see any recyclable corpses."

Everyone looked at Caboose with bizarre looks on their faces.

"Hey!" Caboose says as he looks at him. "Why is everyone looking at me?"

Spring nudges Donut a little, "Is he..."

"To some extent, yes."

"Oh."

Then everyone went back to work.

Summer Season talks to Gretchen, "So Gretchen?" Then proceeds to pick-up a few more planks.

"Yeah?" Gretchen pick-up the planks beside Summer Season.

"Have you ever made any regrets to your life choices?"

"No." Gretchen answers bluntly.

"Are you sure?" Summer Season looks at Gretchen with an unsure expression.

Gretchen talks while continuing to pick-up the planks, "Look. It is my life and I get to choose what the hell I get to do." Her pace on picking-up the planks has increased while sounding a little frustrated. "If I want to go out with a bang then I'll get to go out with a bang. If I want to be a Huntress, then I'll do my damnedest to be one."

"Okay!" Summer Season backs away from Gretchen. "Sorry."

Gretchen stops and looks at Summer Season all pissed-off, "Look. I get to chose what I want to do and no one else! Got it!?"

Summer Season backs away and is a little frightened, "Okay, I got it!"

Gretchen calms down as she takes a deep breath. "Sorry. But you sounded just like my brother. He is super protective."

Summer Season lets her guard down, "You have a brother?"

Gretchen looks out in the distance across the ocean as she reminisce about her brother. "An older brother. Hazel. Usually, he is quiet and a bit composed. Yet he cares about the well being of others as well as life. But he can be a bit strict from time to time. Such as that one time that he tried to keep me from joining Beacon Academy to become a Huntress. Last time I saw him, before I died, we had a fight right before I ran off." Her expression went from smiling to sad. "Although. From what Ozpin and Ozma told me-"

"OVER HERE!" Fall shouts from the west. "I FOUND SOMETHING!"

Everyone went off to where Fall and Young Maria at to discover that there is a strange cave that was never there before.

"Where did this come from?" Spring says. "Last I check, there wasn't a cave here."

"You can say that again." Donut says. "This hole looks like it can fit four grown people at once and I've seen all sorts of holes."

All the girls are giving Donut awkward looks and back away from him.

Donut looks at all the girls that looked like they're creeped out by what Donut said. "What?"

Winter Season clears her throat and says to Donut, "Maybe you should get the others and tell them of this new discovery while we check on this cave."

"You got it. I'll just use my radio and-"

"Just go to the others!" Winter says desperately before regaining her composure. "Please."

Donut just accept it, "Well, okay. But if you find anything lightish red, I get first dibs. Got it?"

Spring jumps up all happy and smiles, "Okey-dokey!"

"Good to hear." then Donut left to tell the others.

Everyone then face the cave with Summer Season going, "Let's have an adventure!"

"Yeah!" Caboose cheers, "Adventure!"

Everyone went inside the cave and see what is inside. A few minutes later, they come across some strange blue crystals that seem to be radiating with energy. Many are in awe by these strange crystals.

"OOooooo!" Caboose went when he sees them. "Those are really pretty."

"I have to agree." Younger Maria says right before she eats a cashew.

Fall notices, "Really? You just eat a cashew in a middle of looking at something awe inspiring?"

"Well, I'm getting hungry." then she pop a few more cashews in her mouth.

Spring giggles. "Honestly Maria, you're ridiculous." Then Summer Season laughs.

Winter Season smiles, "I have to agree."

Younger Maria gets offensive, "Oh come on!"

Winter Season looks back at the crystals. "Still though. I do sense some form of energy coming from these blue crystals."

Summer Season asks around, "Does anyone have a pickaxe?"

"I got it!" Caboose says. But instead of a pickaxe, he uses his fist and bash one of the crystal into a bunch of pieces.

"DANG!" Summer Season says. "You're one strong guy." She approaches and smacks Caboose's ass while giving him a very big smile while licking the upper parts of her lips. "Bet you can do all sorts of things in bed."

Caboose looks at her, "I swear I never wet the beds. Or have gotten mustard on them from eating hot dogs. Or see Tucker doing things to Grif's sister."

"Huh?" Summer Season went with a confused look.

Fall then approach one of the pieces and picks it up. Once she did, something called a lightstone went into her inventory which caused everyone's implants to go nuts again from the new stuff added into their inventory.

Back topside, Yang looks at her inventory and sees some of the new stuff added. "New magic items. Sweet!"

Team RWBY are at the redwood forests in search of anything out of the ordinary since it is their turn to explore a little around the area.

Ruby shouts, "HEY YANG, COME ON!"

"Coming!" Yang runs over to meet up with the rest of her team. When she caught up, "Hey! Did you guys see the new stuff we got?"

"We noticed." Blake says.

"We'll work it out later." Weiss says as she cross her arms. "Now come on. We need to explore this area before we encounter any more undead."

"Or who knows what else is out there." Ruby says as she looked out into the forest. She has a worried expression on her face because she is unsure about what to expect since things have changed dramatically since yesterday.

Zombies have arrived, skeletal dinos too, and the white moon turned green. Who knows what the hell else might come in and destroy everything that they have worked on.

"Look!" Yang whispers and points at something close by. "Get down!"

Everyone got down and look at what Yang is pointing. They all got onto their bellies on the cold grass and see a strange new creature. It looks like some weird saggy grub with some hairs on it, really big (about the size of a triceratops or smaller), a strange yet cute face with antennas on it with small patches of fur, and very short and plump legs. Six of them. However, when it moved around, a black and luminescent blue patch of wrinkly skin on its belly.

"What is that?" Blake whispers to Weiss. Not wanting to alert the new creature.

"I don't know." Weiss whispers back. "But it does look a little cute despite some...oddities."

"I say it looks cute as well." Ruby agrees with Weiss while whispering.

"But what is it?" asks Yang. "It doesn't look like it belongs here. Plus I highly doubt that anyone has seen it before they went to the city."

They continue to watch the strange creature as it eats some of the bushes close to one of the trees.

"It seems herbivorous." Weiss whispers to her team.

"Looks that way." Blake whispers that.

Ruby smiles, "It might be friendly."

"Could be." Yang whispers but has doubts.

Then they see more of those weird creatures close by as they eat some of the bushes.

"There's a bunch more of them!" Ruby whispers yet sounds a bit excitable.

"Ssshhhh!" everyone went.

"Sorry." Ruby whispers a bit more softly this time.

Then all the creatures stopped eating as they try to waddle into position for some reason. Team RWBY look at them with curiosity as Ruby pulls out a smartphone to record these strange creatures. When the creatures gotten into some clearings away from some of the branches above them. What happens next is that the creatures started to inhale a lot of air as their bodies started to bloat and triple in size. The creatures started to exhale the air they swallowed through their wrinkly patch under their bellies as they take-off into the air. They lifted themselves high into the air as they float away towards the south like giant balloons.

Yang stands up as she keeps looking up at the sky, "Holy shit."

Weiss stood up along with looking at the sky, "That was...strange yet, amazing. Strange yet amazing."

Blake stood up who is also in awe but doesn't say a thing.

Ruby stands up with her phone, "And I got it all on my 'I Can't Believe It is Not a Scroll' device thing!" Ruby is really excited, "Everyone's gonna flip when we get back!"

Weiss smiles as she crosses her arms, "Despite the dangers, this world is pretty amazing."

Blake nods and smiles, "True to that."

Yang smiles, "Yeah."

They all see the flying creatures off into the south as these bloated creatures migrate to warmer climates. Ruby continues to record as the creatures fly over the ocean. The whole team look at them with amazement as they see the graceful creatures float peacefully like dandelion seeds floating in the wind. Even thought they all went through a lot over the past few weeks, there is still beauty once they are able to find it. Times like that not only fills them up with awe, but fills them with hope as the wind started to blow. The hope to return home and able to survive another day.

Blake interrupts this awe inspiring moment by saying, "I think it is time to head back."

Ruby stops recording and puts her smartphone away, "I guess so."

Yang looks at the two, "Can you wait for a little while longer until they disappear from sight?"

Weiss says to Yang, "But I think it is best to head back because of all the craziness that has happened these past two days."

Yang sighs and looks down, "Fine."

All four girls turn around and started to head back to the Remnant Encampment.

"Oh, Ruby?" Yang says towards her little half-sister.

"Yeah?"

"How is Yuki, Alice, and everyone else doing on that island?"

"Their doing fine from what I've seen."

"Really?" Weiss says.

"Yeah." Ruby turned her head to speak to Weiss. "All of them are actually doing great and the island. They have a few new items that they discovered along with some seasoning herbs that they discovered on another island to the southeast." Ruby faces forward, "So...who wants to have one of those stew pots I've been hearing about from Mistral. Plus, the country of Japan on Earth has the same thing. You know? The stuff that you throw into a bot and they get cooked on the table such as meat and veggies along with chrysanthemums. They usually serve it in colder seasons so why not now?"

Blake says to Ruby with a smile, "I had stew pots before and they were delicious."

"I'm willing to try." Weiss says.

"I'm in!" Yang says in excitement. "Oo! We should have our entire family to join in!"

"I'll get the cooking herbs!" Ruby says.

"I'll get the meat!" Yang volunteers.

"I'll get the vegetables!" Blake volunteers as well.

"I'll see if we have any pots like those once we head back." Weiss says.

Yang then tries to say, "I just hope that I don't get...gassy!"

"YANG!" Ruby yells at her older half-sister, "That's gross!

Weiss rolls her eyes in disgust.

"Didn't you signed the agreement that forbids you and your dad from doing any bad puns or jokes?" Blake asks.

"Long as we're the only ones and outside of the settlement, I'm good."

BICORN: Project PHOENIX Progression: 83%

Progression of Project ARES Phase 2:

...

...

Project ARES Phase 3 is now ahead of schedule.

AN: What's up guys!? Just uploading this a little earlier because things weren't as tough as I thought, but it is only the second week at work. But I am gonna take two weeks to upload some new chapters because things are gonna get hard down the road real soon. Don't forget to leave a question in the reviews if you want to ask something. Oh and next few chapters will be focusing on Salem's faction for a bit.

Oh and can I ask you guys a question: What do you love about this fanfiction?