DMI: When Worlds Collide Chapter 7: Fluffy Surprise, a rwby fanfic

I'm not dead yet!

…

_/_/_/_/

The air continued ringing as Ruby landed on her hind end, wincing as her Semblance repaired her most recent cut. Master stood above her, the tip of his blade slightly red with her blood, face as stoic and impassive as a granite statue. Around them stood his other students, ears and tails tucked low in anxious fear.

Master Li Ren sheathed his weapon and said, in his usual calm voice, "Pray tell, how was I able to best thou in combat just now?"

Ruby flicked her fox ears in agitation as she stood up and dusted herself off, "Your talent is above mine own, clearly. As is your stature."

"Superficial reasoning," he replied quickly. "And a simple excuse; Nature dictates that I, as a man, am larger and stronger than even the mightiest woman thou hast e'er seen, young Ruby. Yet I dare not take up mine blade and duel such as they. Why is that, dost thou suppose?"

"…You would be denied a share of dinner?"

Some of the students giggled quietly at the joke, but the mirth was quickly stifled. Master Li was not amused. "In a battle of might and fists, in a contest of brawn, both they and I know full well that I would dominate. But this-" he pulled free his blade once again, bearing it before his face, "…this is the great equalizer."

Ruby blinked in thought as she recovered her own blade, the Rose of Anima, and studied its length.

"It is true I have greater reach and power than thee, and to a degree a higher speed, but thine advantage lies in skill and technique. A well-trained swordsman can fell a dozen foes that should otherwise overpower him. And yet… thou failed against I alone." Master Li returned his sword to its sheathe once again, then stepped forward and knelt before his smaller student. "Thou hast great potential, young Rose… but the control needed to triumph is not with thee. Tell me true: if I strapped yon blade to the arm of our training dummy, would it be capable of besting thee?"

Ruby scoffed at the very notion. "Of course not. It cannot move of its own accord."

"Yet thou insists on filling mine students' heads with tales of how mighty the blade alone can be, and how a powerful weapon is enough to turn the tide of battle. Do not think mine ears to be deaf, young fox."

Ruby blushed.

"Thy spirit is strong, young Rose, more so than any I've had the honor of training hence, but without control over thy short temper, true mastery will ever be out of thy reach. One day… thou will understand."

_/_/_/_/

…
…

Foxy took a slow breath, inhaling through her nose and letting it out through her mouth. Nobody else in the room moved. Everyone waited on the sole Faunus in the room to make the first move.

"My apologies," Foxy finally pulled back her sword and quickly sheathed it, sighing as the adrenaline faded from her system. She tried to flush the image of the black-haired human wearing fake animal ears out of her mind lest it enrage her again. "I lost control of myself. All the more reason I must withdraw from this place; I am dangerous."

"Didn't have to tell us twice," muttered Rube.

Garnet lowered his own weapon and hesitantly folded it back up, never once taking his eyes off Foxy. "It's clear you're not in any mood to talk, so please… go. Just know that I won't let you hurt anyone else here."

"Understood," Foxy replied. She took one step towards the front door, stopped, and thought for a moment. "Actually, there is one more item of business that I must to attend to."

Everyone in the room tensed right back up, Garnet ready to unfold Crescent Rose once again.

"Sir Garnet," Foxy turned her silver eyes back to the only boy in the room. "You gave me a command. I cannot stand for that."

"…Huh?"

"I never take commands from a human. Our operations against the Creatures of Grimm were the sole exception for reasons I have already established, yet you commanded me to stand down with no enemy present." Foxy began reaching for something in a pouch pocket. "My allies in the White Fang would have you drawn and quartered for such an offense, but seeing as we shared a common enemy not so long ago, I am willing to give you a fair chance-"

Whatever she was looking for was clearly not where she thought it was – Foxy stopped talking and starting digging with all her might ("Where… is… it…?"), leaving the rest of the room blinking in awkward silence. Her quiet cursing was the only noise.

After almost a full minute, she finally pulled her target free; a leather glove. She threw it on the floor with a grunt.

"Sir Garnet, I challenge you to a duel."

"…wat?"

"I-Is that so uncommon?" Foxy's bravado began to slip. "You attacked m-my honor! It is the only way to solve this!"

"Garnet," Brandy said suddenly, "It would be best if you accepted her challenge, but take it out front. She won't calm down otherwise. You can handle a little girl like her, right?"

Garnet looked back at her, then at the other Rubys gathered together, before sighing, "Very well. I accept."

"Excellent," the Faunus regained her smug and turned towards the door. "You and I, right now. And no interference from any of you."

Yang muttered, "How stupid do we look?"

To which Weiss replied, "Well I can only speak for myself, but…"

Yang returned her jab with a wet raspberry.

Garnet sighed at the display, then put on his serious face; he nodded to Foxy and followed her outside, Crescent Rose in hand. The others followed gradually as the house emptied itself, all warily hoping they weren't about to see someone get stabbed.

…

"So… that looks complicated."

"To the untrained eye, yes. Once you get the hang of it then Runes are really quite simple."

"I'll take your word for it. So… can these Runes of yours send us home?"

"In theory it is possible, however it would require the skill and power of a True Master… and I am barely an Acolyte. Granted I am far advanced among my peers in the field, but I have a long way to go before I can claim any sort of mastery."

"Damn. Though I do have to wonder… what would happen if you 'accidentally' sent one of us to the wrong world? Like… to someplace where giant monsters are eating everything, and she wouldn't last 5 minutes…?"

"…Are you having a disagreement with the Ruby in black? I did sense hostility between you two prior."

"Disagreement is too weak a word. That fucker just stood there while I almost died fighting a Grimm today. That's not something I'm gonna forget any time soon."

"While understandable, I would advise you to not hold onto such a grudge. It can only be detrimental to your health."

"Whatever."

"…"

"Fine. I'll… consider it."

"Regarding your earlier query, I can say this much – no one knows for certain how travel between worlds might work. It is a truly unknown field of study. The few scholars who have deigned me worthy of their trust have admitted that the scant few theories we have suggest… visiting other worlds than our own should be impossible."

"Fat lot of good those theories turned out to be…"

"True… … … okay, the Rune is complete. Please do not bother me while I charge it up, I need to focus. It should only take a moment…"

…

And to think, last week all I was worried about was making it to work on time!

Ruby followed her sister and housemates as two of her lookalikes went out to the front yard to try and kill each other. Foxy was being a real butt, and neither Ruby nor anyone else was keen to see her draw blood again with that sword of hers. Hopefully she'd chosen the wrong opponent, as Garnet's weapon was on another level entirely, but there was no telling when it came to a duel. The entire thing could be over in half a heartbeat.

The weary teenager considered the people around her, idly wondering if any of them might step in; the techy one, Rube, seemed totally unfazed and almost apathetic, while the adult of the group, Brandy, never once dropped her air of control – she seemed the most likely to do something, but based on what Ruby had seen so far, she may cause more bloodshed than if she let the fight play out. Scary.

Ruby briefly considered running to the backyard and bothering ZoomZoom, but decided against it; if their warning was as serious as they implied, stabilizing the dimension took far more precedence than stepping in to stop a little fight.

"Are you ready?" Foxy asked as she drew her rapier. The blade glinted in the light from the street lamps.

"Always," Garnet answered by unfolding his far more intimidating weapon, which he called Crescent Rose; a giant mechanical scythe that had what looked like a trigger built into the handle. Was it also some kind of gun?

The tension only had a moment to build before they struck.

Metal clanged against metal at speeds that reminded her of machine guns, both combatants moving at speeds for beyond normal humans; Ruby had no chance of following their movements, especially after dark like this. All she could see was two reddish blurs flickering with flashes of light from their weapons striking one another. It reminded her strongly of a few anime she'd watched, but far more realistic.

"Are these guys even human?" Yang muttered from next to her, face locked in a look of shock. Weiss and Blake were next to her, speechless as the scene played out.

Neither Rube nor Brandy seemed surprised at the fight, though Brandy appeared to be tensing up. Was she looking for an opening? Ruby took a tentative step away from her…

…right before Garnet and Foxy broke off, the latter gasping for air. Garnet wasn't much better, but he wasn't visibly struggling.

"Curses!" Foxy growled. "How can I be outmatched in speed?"

Garnet smirked, "I happen to be the fastest in my class."

Foxy snarled, readied her blade once again and charged, though with markedly less speed than before. Garnet flipped his ridiculous weapon around, dodged her attack and let it fly sidelong to hit her in the shoulder as she ran by. The Faunus grunted in pain, then stumbled and fell to her knees.

Ruby sighed deeply. The fight was over and no one was dead. Thank God.

"Your Aura is critical," said Garnet as he folded up his scythe. "Sorry, but… it looks like I win. Go on, then… if anything happens, someone will come find you." He then turned and began to head back towards the house.

All of a sudden, Foxy screamed, "DUELS ARE TO THE DEATH, HUMAN!" She took up her sword again and barreled forwards, right for Garnet's back. The boy had no chance of getting his weapon back out in time to stop her from running him through.

As luck would have it, he didn't have to.

A shape materialized out of absolutely nowhere and blocked the attack with… and Ruby had to rub her eyes to confirm it… a giant wrench.

"Wha…?"

Foxy also appeared confounded, no longer willing to put everything into her sword but still swinging anyway – the intruder easily batted away her attacks, reared back and let that giant wrench fly with a powerful two-handed swing. The moment it contacted Foxy, Ruby heard a sound like shattering glass. The person who called herself a Faunus went flying high into the air, quickly moving out of sight in the darkness.

"Whew…" said a new, slightly deeper version of Ruby's voice. "Everyone alive?"

Ruby Rose beheld a sight that not even the presence of 6 alternate versions of herself could prepare her for: a Furry. Two wide ears sat atop her head like Foxy's, but these were clearly closer to a dog's ears. Below that sat a very canine face, complete with a snout, a body covered in reddish-brown fur, large paws for hands and backwards-turned feet, and a bushy tail to top off the image.

Before anyone could answer the newcomer, however… Foxy landed. The only sound was a loud Sploosh!

Weiss declared, "She landed in a swimming pool?!"

"Fug! And I knocked her out…!" The dog-woman cursed and took off running in Foxy's general direction. Garnet was right behind her, and everyone else came running right after him.

Brandywine was the last to find her feet, and Ruby clearly heard her muttering under her breath, "Unbelievable. I'm in way over my head here-"

…
…

Foxy had indeed hit one of the neighbor's above-ground swimming pools; Ruby rounded the corner of the house in time to see the dog-woman paddling to the side with Foxy's cloak in her jaws. Garnet reached the edge in time to pull the unconscious girl over and get her to the ground, and then immediately started CPR before anyone could say anything.

"I knew that hit wouldn't kill her," said the newcomer as she knelt to one side and shook her entire body free of the chlorine water. "But I didn't think my aim was that good…"

Rube was closest and said, "I would've gone for the head, myself."

"ZIP IT," Garnet growled between breaths. He kept pumping Foxy's chest every so often as he returned to pushing air into her lungs, desperate not to lose her.

Ruby could only stare. Moments earlier, that girl had been legit trying to kill him. Now he was doing everything he could to save her life.

What kind of guy was Garnet Rose…?

Several tense moments passed before he got a result; right after one more push of air, Foxy started sputtering and coughing up water. Everyone visibly relaxed.

"Jesus fuck," Yang said. "Please tell me it's over. I can't handle anymore of this."

"You…" Foxy gasped as she looked upon her savior, "You… saved me…?"

Garnet, also breathing heavily, said, "Comes… with the job…"

"Wait, you guys are friends?" the dog-girl said, pointing one claw at them both. "Oooh… you Peaches are more fugged up than I expected."

Garnet blinked at her, finally realizing she was a new face. "Who are you? Where the heck did you come from?"

"Five bucks says her name is also Ruby," Yang said quietly. Ruby gave her an elbow to the ribs.

The part-canine part-human looked around, taking in the faces all around her. "Well I was in the forest of Patch less than a day ago. Dunno where I am now. As for a name, the blondie called it – I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose."

Yang blinked, "You heard that?"

"You weren't exactly quiet about it…"

Garnet cleared his throat to cut her off, "Look, let's just get back to the house and get cleaned up. Ruby, uh… the new one… you should come too. It's pretty clear you're part of this, so we need to get some stuff out of the way."

The dog-Ruby offered to carry Foxy, who politely refused, and as everyone turned to head back home Ruby heard Rube say to Brandy, "How many more do you think we'll get before this is over? 10? 50?"

"Even 2 is too many, if you ask me," said the adult. She glanced back towards Garnet, still tense, but shook her head and walked on.

Ruby slowed her pace and considered the crowd of lookalikes, both here and at the house: a young man with the fighting prowess of a video game protagonist, a fox-eared zorro wannabe, a cyberpunk reject, some kind of YA novel lead, an androgynous magic-user, a normal-looking adult woman, and now an anthropomorphic dog?

She muttered, "Next time I see Zoh, I'm grabbing an impact drill."

…

"So that's it then? All done?"

"This Rune is complete, yes. I would feel much better if I were able to place a few more around the city, but this region is now stable."

"That shouldn't be too hard, seeing as how we're basically stuck here unless Zoh-piddy Doodah comes marching back to clean up her mess."

"That would be most convenient…"

"Hmm… the house is quiet… where'd everybody go?"

"Wait… around the city… OH BY THE ANCESTORS HOW COULD I FORGET?"

"…What?"

"The Creatures of Grimm caused a lot of destruction today… and I still need to wipe the memories of the people who witnessed them. If I do not hurry, the events of today will imprint themselves too deeply and be difficult to alter."

"You can do that?"

"It is not my first choice, I assure you… but considering the level of danger the people of this world encountered today, it is the least I can do to maintain the peace."

"Those Runes of yours are pretty handy, huh?"

"Magic has many uses. I need to go right now; please inform the others of my errand upon their return."

"…And I thought Daft Punk was too much. Goddamn."

…

Author's Note: A bit late, but on we go. This was the action bit, next chapter will be a lot of talking as the eight Rubys finally sit down and figure out who's who. I'll be getting right into that one as soon as this chapter goes up, so the wait shouldn't be quite so long this time. Also, no character bios today – it occurred to me that I kinda went back on my word and started introducing people before Normal Ruby, our main character, got to know them herself. Once we get past all this introduction stuff and into the individual character arcs, the rest of the bios will follow soon after.

Until next time!

=^..^=