*Red vs Blue theme played, showing clips of our loveable idiots before The Booth came into view. Doc was already sitting on the right hand seat, Chi once again beside the mic.* "Chi!" regenengel3 said, stalking into the Booth.
"What?" the A.I. asked.
"Disclaimer!" regenengel3 barked, pointing a Dramatic Finger at him.
"Do I have to? I just did that yesterday!" he whined, slouching slightly.
"Do you want to get sued?" regenengel3 asked, quirking her left eyebrow at him he froze before slowly turning to her.
"... We'd get sued?" he asked in a hushed voice.
"Not sure, but I'd rather not find out!" regenengel3 admitted, far too cheerfully for the Church.
"Regenengel3 does not own RvB, RWBY, anything, or anyone from those franchises. Marley and two of her teammates do belong to regenengel3 and should not be used without permission from regenengel3. Now that that's out of the way..." Doc said, sounding rather bored and maybe a little vindictive.
"DOC! You... you..." Chi stammered, staring at the man. Doc turned to him and tilted his head.
"What?"
"You stole my part?!" Chi exclaimed, halfway between impressed and angry.
"Ugh... just start this thing would you?" regenengel3 asked, smiling awkwardly.
"Right right. Ahem. The Media Guy!" Chi called.
{Show One: Team JEMC}
"I'm Frank 'Doc' DeFreanse!"
"And I'm Chi 'The Sarcastic One' Church!"
"Ever hear of Hunters? What about Remnant?"
"What do scraps and food gatherers have to do with jem-see?" Chi asked, turning toward Doc.
"Team JEMC. A team of two Hunters and two Huntresses. An intrepid team of teens who train day in and day out to protect the people of the... Kingdoms!" Doc said, floundering slightly as though he had been meaning to give the number of kingdoms but forgot before he spoke.
"Yeah but... why jem-see?" Chi pressed.
"Now shush, look! There's young miss White at the gates of Beacon, the illustrious High School of the Hunters," Doc said, dodging the question with all the skill of a Blood Gulcher. Blood Gulchers were highly skilled in the conversational arts after all.
"Now you're making my reference sense tingle..."
/*/
Marley rolled her shoulders under the straps of her backpack. She just couldn't seem to shake the feeling that there were an untold number of eyes on her. It made her antsy. She didn't like being antsy. She didn't like ants.
/*/
"Whoa! Doc, are you getting this?!" Chi asked, flickering slightly in surprise.
"Overreaction is my thing Chi. And if you're referring to Marley's thoughts, yes. I'm getting it."
"But... how?"
"Do not question my powah!" regenengel3 said with a goofy grin. Doc and Chi shared a look before turning to the author.
"Never talk like that again, regenengel3," they said as one. The young woman pouted, sinking lower into her seat.
"Yes sirs."
"Well, while you're here... Why is she stuck on ants?" Chi asked.
"... Would you believe me if I told you I have no clue?"
"Ah well. On with the show!" Doc said cheerily.
"Did you happen to give him a personality transplant?" Chi asked the author sitting beside him
"No."
"But..."
"It's elementary my dear Chi. He's gone round the twist, leaving his rocker behind in the sands of time, and cracked from all the insanity, brushes with death, and total solitude. Not to mention O'Malley."
"Ah. Right. On with the show!"
/*/
The feeling of eyes on her had dissipated and, with a smile, Marley strode off the docks and into her new life... as a Huntress in Training. Okay, so it wasn't all that different than Signal, but now she was on a floating island! Who wouldn't be excited their first day? "Hey! Marley!" called her best friend from Signal, Emily. She grinned and jogged to catch up with her girl-friend.
/*/
"Uh... I thought Marley had a thing for Flowdie?" Chi asked, looking toward regenengel3.
"She does Chi."
"When a group of girls are friends, they will sometimes call each other 'girl-friend.' It's... help me out here regenengel3!" Doc tried to explain.
"Marley's straight, Emily is just her best friend and thus one of her girl-friends. I know, us women are pretty confusing. Deal with it," regenengel3 stated bluntly.
"There you go then," Doc said, gesturing toward regenengel3.
"Humans are weird," Chi said, shaking his head. Regenengel3 and Doc just chuckled.
/*/
"Hey Em! You as excited as I am?" she asked. Emily snorted.
"No-one is as excited as you are, White," she said with a smirk. Marley rolled her eyes.
"I think you'd be surprised," she said. Emily quirked an eyebrow.
"Ever hear of Summer Rose?"
"Ah. Right. Point to you," the other girl said, crinkling her nose slightly. Summer Rose had quite the reputation for being excitable and flighty, though put a Grim in her path and a scythe in her hands and you wouldn't know it. "So... Beacon. Do you think we're ready for this?"
"Emily. You're one of the smartest, quickest, people I know. Add in my penchant for whole sale destruction and we're golden!"
"Don't you mean 'off white'?" Emily teased. Marley gave her a flat look.
"Ha ha, haven't heard that one before, Gray," she deadpanned, plainly not amused.
"Right right, sorry," Emily said, holding up her hands in a placating motion before getting serious. "But really, do you think we'll even survive initiation? I heard Headmaster Ozpin throws the Freshman class off a cliff into the Emerald Forest on the first day. And what if we're not on the same team?" Marley grew serious as well.
"Emily... we're two of the best medics to come out of Signal in three generations. Any team we land on is going to be lucky to have us, and we'll be lucky to have them. Now, stop whining and let's go! The Welcome Ceremony's about to begin!" she said, throwing an arm around her friend's shoulder and dragging her off, uncaring of her protests.
/*/
"Well. Marley sure seems like a carefree, happy-go-lucky, Huntress-in-Training," Doc said, a little surprised at the difference.
"Yeah... nothing like the scary competent Agent Black that we know and fear," Chi drawled, only partly sarcastic.
"Well Chi, I believe it's because she's younger, still kinda sheltered, and has a whole bunch of other super powered, scary competent teens surrounding her. Not to mention the fully grown Hunters and Huntresses. I mean, look at the Headmaster!" Doc replied, motioning toward Ozpin as the camera swooped in to show thing more in his point of view.
/*/
He eyed the new Freshman class with impassive eyes. Another batch of fresh faced, bright eyed children who thought they were amazing heroes. Oh, how it burned, watching generation after generation of Hunters and Huntresses train and fight and break. That was what he hated most, watching them inevitably break. How many generations had it been? How many times has he given this speech, whipping them into a frenzy of wounded pride and burning determination to prove him wrong? He'd lost count. See? He'd given this exact speech so many times he didn't even have to think about it he just said it. Ah, but what was this? There, right in the middle of the assembly. Sharp blue-green eyes, slight smirk, and one of the odder guns he'd seen strapped across her back. She also seemed to favor darker colors. He mentally checked the class roster and matched her face to a name. Marlene White. Hum. Ironic. This was a girl to keep an eye on. Maybe she would survive.
/*/
"Yesh! Broody much?" Chi asked, drawing back slightly. Doc nodded in agreement and leaned forward slightly.
"Indeed. But don't you notice something else about him Chi?" he asked.
"Oh yeah! He sounds like Wash! I wonder why?" the A.I. replied.
"Eh, alternate reality weirdness?" his co-host suggested with a shrug. Chi didn't even pause to consider.
"Works for me!"
/*/
Marley felt Ozpin's eyes on her and flashed him her signature feral grin in reply. It may have been her imagination, but she thought she saw him quirk his eyebrow. SCORE! She had the Headmaster's attention! Oh wait... she had Headmaster Ozpin's attention. Hum. Was that good or bad?
/*/
"Considering what I saw of Wash's training sessions, especially with Tucker, I'd say mixed with a heavy leaning toward bad," Chi said 'sagely.'
"I completely agree," Doc said with a nod.
"Hey peanut gallery! Shut up!" regenengel3 hissed, peeking over her laptop screen.
"... Now I want a peanut," Doc muttered quietly.
"I never knew you were so brave Doc, defying the author like that," Chi whispered, shaking his head in a mildly mocking fashion. He wisely didn't comment on her seemingly stealing 'Tobi' from The Media Guy. Or had it been the other way around?
"I will offline you, mouthy little A.I.," regenengel3 growled, glaring at the little hologram. The Booth fell silent.
/*/
Ah well, whichever it was, she'd take it in stride, like she did with everything else. Sleeping arrangements were made with Emily and they spent the night in relative peace, treating it like a massive sleepover. The next morning was full of excitement as the new students of Beacon Academy gathered on the cliffs overlooking the Grim filled Emerald Forest. She was barely listening as Ozpin told them to use their own landing strategies and that the first person they met eyes with would be their partners. Sounded like a poor way of choosing teams, but whatever. If it worked, who was she to argue, right? Oh, and they'd have to retrieve a 'relic' from the 'forest ruins' to be called students of Beacon. She rolled her eyes and prepared herself for the launch. This was going to be fun, she could tell. "And, Lift off!" she cheered as her launch pad activated, leaping off of it to give herself extra lift. She twirled through the air like a ballistic bullet before pulling on her aura to protect her and her secondary weapon to stop her rotation. Soon, she was falling toward the forest floor in a mildly controlled fall. Her primary weapon made an appearance in its melee form that was reminiscent of a Shepard's crook, which she used to hook onto a branch and spin around it before jumping to a lower one, bleeding off momentum as she went. Landing more or less smoothly on the forest floor, Marley grinned and brushed a few stray leaves from her coat. "Well, that worked," she remarked happily before she walked off to find her new partner, though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't hoping to run into Emily first. Of course, her luck wasn't that great and she ran into a small pack of Beowolves instead of her mildly sadistic best friend. "So not what I was hoping for," she growled, shifting her Crook into it's long range mood and firing syringes filled with explosive dust at the Grimm. The scuffle attracted another student, a red head with a GunBlade. Seeing a Beowolf about to attack the syringe slinging girl, he leapt out of the tree and cut it down before placing himself back to back with her.
"Is it always like this with you?" he asked with a smirk. She scoffed.
"Survive and I'll let you know," she remarked coolly. He laughed and they separated, her weapon shifting to melee form as she spun and twisted around the monsters. Soon, the clearing was full of dust and ash with two barely panting teens in the middle. "You're not too bad," Marley said, planting her Crook in the ground beside her and resting her arms on it. "Got a name?" she asked. The redhead put away his GunBlade and turned to her with a smile.
"Jay Simmons," he said, holding out a hand.
/*/
"I knew he looked familiar! Regenengel3! I thought you said you made up her other two teammates!" Doc said accusingly, turning to the young woman. Indeed, Jay Simmons did in fact look a lot like Rick, but with flare and a cocky attitude.
"I did! But this is a merging of the two worlds remember? And besides, Roosterteeth never mentioned Simmons' dad. Also, there are other people with the name 'Simmons' in the multi-verse. A lot of them. And consider Marley's age as well," regenengel3 rambled.
"I didn't think she was that old," Doc said musingly.
"You're very kind Doc, but fact is Marley's at least 40 in her main story. Pairing her with Simmons' dad, or someone who looks like they could be his dad, here isn't too far fetched."
"PAIRING?!" he squawked, nearly falling off his chair. Chi wisely withheld his comments.
"Not like that! Just on the same team. Jeez, so touchy. Now shut up and let's finish the show alright?!" regenengel3 snarled, glaring at both of them.
"Yes ma'am," they said, quaking in the face of her wrath.
/*/
"Marley White. Thanks for the assist there Jay," she said, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. He laughed again.
"Don't mention it! So, I guess this means we're partners?" he said. Marley shrugged, picking up her Crook and putting it back in it's holder across her back.
"Guess so. Eh, there are worse I suppose. Come on, let's find those relics and get back to the cliff," she said, walking off.
"How do you know it's that way?" Jay asked, jogging after her.
"Because, we were sent into the forest from the North, the center was somewhere South East. I'm headed in a mostly South Eastern direction," Marley said, still walking.
"Uh... how do you know you're headed that way?" Jay pressed. Marley gave him a confused look that slowly morphed into shocked dismay.
"You have no sense of direction... do you?" she asked, her voice a whisper. Jay chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck and blushing faintly.
"Took me five months not to get lost at Signal," he admitted.
"Wait. You went to Signal?" Marley asked.
"Yeah, Mrs. Church's homeroom," Jay answered.
"Ha! Mr. Red's!"
"No foolin'?!"
"Favorite combat teacher?"
"Had to be Qrow, though he wasn't around often."
"Hum, I liked Kimble myself, but that might be because she's Emily's aunt."
"Wait. Emily Gray?" Marley laughed at Jay's shocked face.
"Yep! We've been best friends since grammar school," she told him.
"Huh. Well, I guess I'll have to face my crush sooner rather than later," Jay said, looking away with a faint blush.
/*/
"Let me get this straight. You made a character based off this vague idea of Rick's dad... and then paired him... with Dr. Gray?!" Doc said, barely restraining himself from shouting. The chair would never be the same though. Rest in peace armrests!
"Breath, Doc. Breath," regenengel3 instructed, trying to get the man to calm down.
"No no, I agree with him. That's weird," Chi piped up.
"Ugh. Churches," regenengel3 groaned in vexation.
"What have you got against church?" Chi asked.
"Nothing... unless you mean Alpha Church and then I've got a laundry list. But that's for another time. Let's check in with Emily, shall we?"
"You're hedging," Chi pointed out, suspicious.
"Am not," the writer scoffed.
/*/
Emily was rather pleased with the partner she ended up with. A blond by the name of Caleb Valkyrie who wielded a grenade launcher mace.
/*/
Chi and Doc stared at her. "Oh stop looking at me like that! So I'm borrowing names, it doesn't mean either Jay Simmons or Caleb Valkyrie belong to Roosterteeth... right?" she tried. They slowly turned away, but their eyes remained on her.
"You get off on a technicality, miss Engel," Doc said slowly.
"Seriously. Reference. Sense. It's killing me!" Chi moaned. He wasn't sure what Doc had referenced, and it was likely regenengel3 didn't either, but it felt like a reference dagnabit!
"No-one cares Chi."
"*Sniff* I care."
"Don't feel bad Chi, she does this to everyone," Doc said in a would-be calming voice.
"Do not!" the aforementioned 'she' denied, glaring at the two.
"What about 'Journey of the Mind' huh?" Doc prompted.
"So not the same," she said, dismissive.
"Ri~ght..." the medic drawled.
/*/
He had helped her take out a pair of boarbotusks and thus, they were partners. They worked well together and Emily hoped he didn't turn out to have a grating personality off the battlefield. Together, the pair made their way to the center of the forest. When they arrived, they met up with... "Marley!" Emily cheered, catching her friend in a crushing hug. Marley laughed and waved her partner up. Emily took in the solid shoulders, strong arms, large sword, red hair, and cocky smirk before nodding. "Yep, figures Marley here would pick up a guy like you," she said before jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Caleb Valkyrie." Marley leaned around her friend to take in the second male of the quartet and nodded.
"Mace. Nice. So! Relics?" she said, returning her attention to her friend. Both turned to regard the ruins and found black and gold...
"Chess pieces?" Emily questioned. Marley shrugged and her partner picked up a gold rook. Emily picked up the second gold rook.
"I would have gone for the Knight rather than the Castle but hey, whatever floats your boat," Marley remarked, following after them.
"Hush, you don't get a say. And if I'm right, these pieces were set out in pairs to form four man cells, one team two pairs of partners. So, by picking up matching 'relics' we end up on the same team. So no complaining!" Emily shot back with a grin. Marley rolled her eyes.
"I don't know, I think she's got a point. Horses are cooler than castles," Caleb said, though the mischievous light in his eyes gave away that he was joking. Emily gave him a dry look.
"Ah well, Jay picked the Castle, you followed along, what's done is done and we're a team. No fighting over it, okay?" Marley said, trying to end the fight before it began. Emily rolled her eyes and Jay smiled, a real smile instead of his little smirk.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," he remarked. The other three all groaned.
"That was one of the cheesiest lines I've ever heard!" moaned Caleb. Jay chuckled.
"Always wanted to use that one," he confessed. Marley chuckled and soon, the whole team was laughing as they walked through the forest, headed for the cliffs... Marley in the lead.
/*/
"Jay Simmons, Emily Gray, Marlene White, Caleb Valkyrie. You retrieved the golden rook pieces. You shall form team JEMC lead by... Jay Simmons," Ozpin said, eying the team. Marley's smirk was just the same as it had been during the opening speech, Jay's mouth was hanging open in shock, Emily was grinning, and Caleb's eyes were shining. It looked like the boy was barely holding himself back from jumping for joy.
"Why me? Jay asked softly. Ozpin gave him a Look and he stood straighter before giving the Headmaster a nod. Sleeping arrangements would be interesting, with two guys and two girls in the same room, but they'd make it work. They had to.
/*/
*The Booth filled the screen as Beacon faded out. * Doc blew out a breath. "Well, does that answer your question about JEMC, Chi?" he asked. The hologram nodded.
"Yep. Still, a fight scene would have been cool."
"I gave you the Beowolves! Wasn't that good enough?" regenengel3 asked plaintively, hiding behind 'Tobi.'
"Meh," Doc and Chi said with a shrug. Regenengel3 pouted at them.
"Meanies," she muttered childishly. Sighing, she turned to the camera. "Okay, so it wasn't exactly the opening to RWBY, and their team name isn't a color, but come on! It's actually really hard to come up with names that can spell a four letter color with their initials! Props to Roosterteeth for that one. Let me know what you thought of this short down in the review box. Next up... a common 'what if' scenario with a regenengel3 twist on it. Hope you like it!" she said before reaching forward and turning the camera off.