Hello all you Boils and Ghouls! I have big news to tell you all...
I'm discontinuing this crappy story! (Disclaimer: This is actually a really fun story to write)
Just kidding! ;P
But really, here's the ACTUAL big news. Shortly after the last chapter went up, The Paradox of Remnant has broken the twenty-five thousand views milestone - thank you all SO MUCH! Like seriously, this story was viewed THAT many times; I know some of you have read it multiple times, but it's okay - I'm glad you can read it that often and still enjoy it!
That being said, this just means I have to keep pushing out good content; or at least try to, and hope and pray I don't flub it up...
Before we continue, though, we gotta go over some things...
Hero King Gilgamesh, I have something planned for the Buggle Visor Zwei and Kamen Rider Chronicle so don't worry about that, but I will tell you Dichro will not be getting it; nor will Ozpin for anyone else wanting to ask...
Revamped Persona... *shakes my head* You just HAD to jinx it, didn't you? *evil smirk*
Raidentensho, I am afraid to say that Perfect Knockout will be Dichro's final form for this story... That's all I'm going to say. As for Raven... I'm thinking it's more her ability to be anywhere she wants at any time that Qrow was after...
Demons Anarchy of Pride, yes he does...
Ride player hary... While your sentiments are shared, this was a necessary evil because of what I have planned for Neo.
And now we can begin the Disclaimer: Dichro, Bobby Pin and the Kuroto wannabe are the only things I own; I do not own Ex-Aid, RWBY, or any other mentioned or affiliated media - they are properties of their respective owners.
)-Legend-(
"Yo!" - Speaking
'Is he an idiot?' - Thinking
"Dearest love," - Reading
"Kaishin no Ippatsu!" - Specials
)-Earlier-(
)-Beacon Tower, Headmaster's Office-(
)-Third Person PoV-(
Ozpin was many things in his life...
A savior...
A leader...
A hero...
... A mistake...
Yet not once; not ONCE in his life, would he ever describe himself as a man that could easily be stunned and shocked because of something outside his control... Yet here he was,thrice awed and frozen by the sheer surprise of the events that have unfolded thus far; all because of a single, little boy. He watched the video feed from the security cameras that only Beacon has access to as best as he could in order to learn about the boy... What he saw, instead, was a monster in the making. He watched as Dichro was backed into a corner, only for him to back his opponent into one as well. He witnessed the grizzly attack patterns of both foes. He then bore witness to Dichro's first transformation into Para-DX outside of Beacon; and then proceed to brutally beat the girl down to nothing but a visibly whimpering mess. And just when the headmaster thought everything was going to take a drastically dark turn for the worse...
He stops...
Whether it was from self realization or Coco's intervention, Ozpin couldn't tell, but either way presented hope. If it was the former, then Dichro could learn to resist the urge until he meets someone who legitimately deserves it...
'To be specific,' Ozpin thought to himself, 'the ones responsible for Amber's condition...'
This, however, presented a problem... The dichromatic boy would no doubt try to revolt in a vain attempt to regain control he never lost in the first place.
If it was the latter, then that would mean Dichro would never fully be in control of his emotions no matter what the headmaster did. This would make the boy the single, most dangerous child in the world. Either way, the results and the solutions to find them were the same...
There is no failing this time.
The headmaster continued to muddle in his thoughts as one struck him as odd. That thought being 'If Dichro was willing to risk transforming, or how did he call it... "henshin?" If he was willing to turn into Para-DX right in front of her, then he must have viewed her as either a great threat... or there's a connection between her and Salem, however small it may be.' As he looked at the footage of the girl, he began to consider what the connection may be; 'Roman,' he thought to himself as he started to tap some other functions on the screen in front of him, 'She must be connected to Roman somehow... It's a long shot, but it's our best one yet.' As he finished typing, the image of a middle-aged man with black hair and some silver and gray areas and a strip of silver metal above his right eyebrow appeared on the screen along with a deep voice that Ozpin knew all too well.
"Ozpin? What's with the sudden house call?" the man asked as he answered the call. Ozpin merely smiled softly as he replied, "Hello, James... It turns out that there's someone who may be able to lead to Roman's capture."
The man, identified as James, seemed to hesitate before speaking up again asking, "How is this person connected to Roman?"
"We've yet to figure that out ourselves, but we can't really do that without a one-to-one confrontation..." Ozpin replied, "The only problem is that she is currently in the hospital in ICU... She was caught leading the White Fang, despite being human, in a dust shop robbery. The doctors even mentioned that whatever was left of her aura after her beating is what saved her life."
"Hmmm..." was the only reply the headmaster got from his contact for a few moments before he replied, "Very well... I'll be there as soon as I can." With that, the call ended; leaving a disconcerted headmaster to muse on how the chips would fall this time. 'When General Ironwood gets involved in something, there's nothing he will not do to ensure the safety of his kingdom...' Ozpin thought as he pondered on the call, 'I just hope that he does this one in a manner unusual to himself.'
)-Valean Medical Center Hospital-(
)-An hour and a half later-(
Inside a small, simple, rectangular room, an attendant wearing a fall-colored tropical shirt sat behind her desk looking through papers and typing up information onto the computer as she thought of the things that transpired just an hour ago - she couldn't believe that there were some hunters that could go that far to stop crime as to nearly put said criminal permanently out of commission. She then thought about the poor girl who was supposedly the one behind the robbery, whom she believed was no less a victim than the dust shop owner, when she heard the doors open. She looked up to see a middle-aged man wearing a white overcoat and pants, with a gray undercoat, black sweater, a red necktie, and a white glove on his right hand walking into the room with his hands behind his back before exclaiming, "General Ironwood! What brings you all the way to Vale?"
The man simply smiled softly before asking, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could I visit someone? I heard that there was a recent White Fang attack, and that the person responsible was here." At this, the attendant went wide-eyed in shock and stuttered a bit before she spoke, "General Ironwood, sir, with all due respect I highly discourage trying to take her in. She's already in critical condition as it is - she has 4 broken ribs with another 3 fractured, both lungs were punctured with her right one taking the most damage, fractures along her skull, her right arm was dislocated completely, she has multiple torn ligaments and muscles all along her right shoulder, and that's not counting that her left knee was all but turned to dust; the doctors have even said she'll need a complete joint replacement if not an amputation on her leg from the knee down. It's nothing short of a miracle that she's even alive right now."
Hearing all of this, the normally hardened general visibly cringed as he mused to himself, 'Who on earth would be able to do all of that - morally and physically?' As he straightened himself out, his reply gave both shock and relief to the attendant, "I'm not here to take her in - at least not yet. I merely wish to speak with her on... different subjects."
"Yes, of course, General..." her reply garnered understanding as she looks up something on the computer before telling him which room the girl was in. With a quick thank you and well wishes, Ironwood promptly left for the closest elevator. His destination; the ICU recovery ward.
Minutes passed as he traveled to the ICU, preparing to see an adult woman would would be trying to rant and scream her way out of this confrontation. As he arrived, he noticed two guards at the door that weren't supposed to be there. When asked why, one of them replied that both of them were able to resist illusions due to being part of a special Valean Faunus unit. They granted him entry to the room as they stepped aside. Despite what he expected, however, he saw something that nearly broke him down. The young pink and brown haired girl, whom he couldn't really tell just HOW young she was, laid there on the bed clad in a hospital gown and bandages around her head with breathing tubes wrapping around her ears and into her nose, an IV needle in her left arm, her left leg in a cast around the knee along with a cast around her chest and shoulder. What hurt him the most was seeing the distant, thousand mile stare in her eyes; it was why he didn't like training children to be hunters to begin with - they were too vulnerable at their ages and too susceptible to life and death situations. As he entered her room, he knocked on the frame of the door a few times to grab her attention. She blinked a few times before looking in his direction curiously. He sighed as he walked up to her bed and asked, "Is it alright if I asked you a few questions? See, I'm -" She held her left hand up to interrupt him before grabbing a pen and notepad that was on the desk beside her. She scribbled something on it and handed the notepad off to him.
"I know who you are, James Ironwood. Your reputation precedes you," he read aloud. This got him to chuckle before handing the notepad back to the girl and saying, "Well I hope good things... What's your name, anyway, and why can't you speak?" The girl wrote down her answer and held it up for him to see.
"I'm Neopolitan, but you can just call me Neo... What I've heard of you is actually a mixed bag, but it's generally bad due to my profession... As for why I can't speak... well... Some people just aren't graced with a voice at birth, now are they?"
"Well said..." Ironwood stated before turning his curious gaze to her and speaking once more, "Tell me... What do you know about Roman Torchwick?" At this, Neo froze before writing once more on the notepad - this time for longer than the others. She handed the notepad off to him to read it himself.
"A lot more than I should, I have to be honest... People think I'm obsessed with him, but that's not it. It's more that I NEEDED to know if I wanted to survive. I needed to be ready for anything and everything he could throw at me. Even suicide jobs. The main thing you need to know is that he's as careless as he is cunning; and that carelessness has often had me at death's door more times than often."
"Something is telling me that there's a 'but' coming..." the general speculated as he handed the notepad back. Neo nodded as she took the notepad back and wrote again for a lengthy amount of time before handing it back to him.
"You're right, there is... And it has something to do with that Crazed Red and Blue Midget. I was stupid and careless - even moreso than Roman is. I heavily underestimated him and it nearly cost me my life if it hasn't already cost me my position. The kid is..." James read it as best as he could, but the words were a scratched mess as he tried over and over to read it. Before he could ask what it was supposed to say, Neo grabbed the notepad back abruptly before turning to a clean page and writing down the entire sentance before handing it back to him.
"That kid is no kid; he's a monster."
This garnered James' curiosity as he read it. His thoughts began to run at high speeds as he processed the information and tried to figure out how someone could have done something to scare her this much when he looked back at Neo; she was staring at her hand, which rested on the bed and gripped the covers, as if it was the only thing left - her thousand mile stare returning in full force. The general cleared his throat as he handed the notepad back and asked, "Before we get onto the subject of the person that did this to you, can you tell me everything you know about Roman and any other associates he had? Especially who he was really working for? In exchange, I'll do my best to ensure your safety against whoever was responsible for your... capture..." She looked back at him in mild shock before nodding slowly and began to write off everything she knew off the bat; base locations, which White Fang members he worked with, the names of three others that Roman and herself was working for and why. For some reason, when it came to the why portion she could never pin down what had Roman scared, but she could tell something had worried their boss at the time, Cinder Fall, enough to make her accelerate the plans they had.
"When I asked Cinder why this was necessary, she simply said that 'An ally of ours was destroyed recently - an ally that was so powerful it would have completely cleared Beacon Academy of students entirely in the time it took me to ask that'. I guess now I understand her concerns, but she never told me or Roman - or even her own subordinates - about this monster..."
That caught his attention. 'Someone or something that could clear out all of Beacon Academy in a matter of seconds?' he asked himself, 'How is that even possible?' His lack of a response had the girl concerned slightly as she tried to snap her fingers at him. "My apologies," he began, "But your claim is kind of hard to believe... At least not without you describing who it is that you were talking about; otherwise, I can't keep you safe from them." Nodding in understanding, she took hold of the notepad and began to write down the description of the boy she fought as well as the events that lead to her hospitalization.
"... and then he pulled out some kind of strange device. I don't know what it was, but it gave a name that I'll never forget as long as I live. 'Perfect Puzzle.' After he activated it, it gave him some kind of weird armor that allowed him to practically push all my Aura out of my body in the first few hits and began to wear me down to this... crippled state. My Semblance, if the guards outside didn't tell you already, is an Illusionary Semblance; I can create reflections of things that I want people to see..."
"And it didn't work against him, did it," Ironwood stated more than he asked. The girl's nod only confirmed his suspicions. 'That means whomever did this is a bigger threat and a greater potential ally than anyone could have ever imagined...' he contemplated on this mystery person for a second before coming to a realization he was afraid of having, 'Ozpin must be in on this mystery person... If anyone knows about this guy, it'll be him.' Turning his attention back to Neo, he nodded and said, "Thank you for your co-operation in this matter. I'll have the councils consider the information you gave me when deciding your sentence. That being said, I will also give you the security needed to keep you safe from any... unwanted visitors." She took the notepad back one final time and wrote something else in it before tearing the page out and handing it to him.
"I honestly feel safer stuck in solitary confinement than I do here, but thanks for the help. By the way, any chance I can get my scroll back or at the very least get something that has text-to-speech? My hand is hurting from writing everything out. ;P"
James couldn't help but chuckle at her attempt at getting a better end of her ordeal as he said, "Sorry to say your Scroll was confiscated for a reason. Roman's code is the best way to track him down, but I feel like I might be able to pull a few strings to get something to help with communication." Neo tried to clap excitedly, but the moment she lifted her right arm she sent herself into a pain-induced fit as she gripped the cast around her shoulder and made a pained expression. Making sure she was alright, he bid her goodbye and left the room with a mission. "Ozpin better know something..." he whispered to himself as he pulled out a black scroll, with gunmetal gray trim and diamond, to dial the Beacon Headmaster's code, "Otherwise, we're officially sunk on leads to this mystery child."
"Did you find anything, James?" Ozpin's voice asked as the call went through. The general simply nodded as he answered, "Yes, but what I found is rather... Puzzling... In fact you could say it's the... 'Perfect Puzzle'." The Beacon headmaster said nothing for a whole minute, leaving Ironwood to answer for him. "So I take it you know something?"
"Perhaps it would be best if I had him explain it himself..." Ozpin stated before speaking once more, "But I advise you to keep this discrete. No one is to know his identity outside of those he revealed it to himself."
"How many, Ozpin?" was the curt response from the general as he gripped the scroll.
The Beacon headmaster hesitated before giving the answer, "Counting yourself... There's at least fifteen people that know." This was a little better than he had expected, but it was still too many people for Ironwood's taste. Seething in barely controlled rage, the general thought to himself, 'Just how long has he been hiding this one up his sleeves?' Calming himself just enough to speak, he releases an exhale of strained breath. "Ozpin..." he began, "You'd better damn well hope to Oum himself that this kid's answer pleases me... or else I'm calling your capacity to being headmaster of Beacon Academy into question."
"You will," was all Ozpin said before suggesting that he remained in Vale until the next day. James simply accepted the offer and cut the call before looking for a motel to stay in. 'Afterall,' he thought to himself, 'If what Neo said is true, then what's a few more hours of waiting going to do?'
)-Meanwhile-(
)-CoRRUpT3d PoV-(
Data Log Entry 1
Subject: Results
Entry Log: My plans to turn myself into a Bugster in the event of my passing all but succeeded. However, it also failed beyond restoration for I am no longer on Earth, let alone Japan. I have landed in another world entirely designated as Remnant. It would also appear that my appearance has caused some... Disturbances... with the local fauna and people. Evidently, my appearance into this world has caused two people to end up being killed. No matter, if they were killed then it just simply means that they were not able to handle my new godly powers - however incomplete they are.
I have managed to steal a "Scroll" from one of the corpses and found it to be of great value. It has taught me a great deal about this world and it's poor excuse for video games. I'm going to change that soon, but I need more data. And I've also read what is known on these black fauna identified as "Creatures of Grimm" and will ask to experiment upon them soon. Perhaps I can make my own Grimm as a result?
Data Log Entry 2
Subject: "Project: Hell"
Entry Log: Testing has begun. I have found that manipulating the cellular structure of the birthing pool's liquid enigma is actually quite easy; mere child's play in fact. I have already begun making prototypes for a new Grimm designated "Project: Hell". This new Grimm will be vastly stronger and superior to any other Grimm that has come before it. I have found that the Grimm feed off of negative emotions; emotions such as Anger, Hatred, Fear, Jealousy, and such.
I find such emotions to be archaic.
Instead, I will develop a Grimm that will feed on positive emotions while in a larval state before metamorphosing into a truly powerful monster that none but myself can withstand! It will be a glorious day when the project is complete.
Data Log Entry 3
Subject: Parad?
Entry Log: I can't believe my luck - and it's all bad! First I find that the process to convert the Grimm's feeding factor was more difficult than I initially perceived it to be which is setting "Project: Hell" back, and then I find out from that woman, Salem, that Parad is here on Remnant, too! Of all the beings to end up in a similar predicament to me, why did it have to be the one that sent me here?! Of course, I have this sudden sense of deja vu where I know it's not really Parad, but who else could it be?
Regardless, I have informed Salem that he must NOT be underestimated, but it was already too late... The foolish woman had already sent her newest and most powerful Grimm to date against him and it lost.
Even if this isn't Parad, I refuse to be caught unprepared...
I will instead familiarize myself with my new form and it's new powers. Powers that have never been seen before in either world. The power of Grade XX-0.
The power of Action Zombie X!
xXx
Uh oh... Dichro looks to be getting into trouble soon. Will he be able to claw his way out of James Ironwood's clutches? And what is this Action Zombie X? Hopefully, we'll find out soon. Until next time, though...
See ya next game!