And there, next chapter!
Don't really have anything to say right now.
So let's get to it!
First Steps
Gyro groaned as he opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was cold, as he found himself lying in the snow. "This is…" he groaned as he got up, and realized where they were.
"D-Did we make it?" Ruby asked as she got up.
"I think we did," Weiss said as she looked around. "This is definitely the Emerald Forest."
"So we did it. We made it back," Blake said. "It...almost feels like a dream…though I know it isn't," she added, idly feeling her head, and realize she still wasn't wearing her bow.
"Though...where are the Digimon?" Yang asked. "And has anyone seen Pierce?" she added, realizing her boyfriend wasn't present.
"Down here…" came Pierce's voice as everyone present looked...and saw him buried in a pile of snow.
"...oh yeah, the side effect of his semblance," Jaune blinked, before they helped pull him out.
"But still...where are the Digimon?" Pyrrha asked still.
"We're over here!" came the familiar voices, as the Digimon were standing to the side, their arms full of berries they'd foraged from nearby.
"We went looking for food while we waited for you guys to wake up," Gabumon said with a smile.
"You should have woken us up!" Ren said with a smile.
"We almost thought you guys got left behind!" Nora said, running over and picking up Salamon who she hugged.
"It's nice to be back." Summer said with a relieved sigh as she stretched her arms. "Though...I didn't know the Emerald Forest got this much snow...ever…" she mused.
"That would be the bizarre weather that Remnant has been having," Gyro said. "No seriously, it's so bad Atlas has been having HEAT WAVES."
"...okay, that's not normal at all…" Summer blinked at the news.
"It helped in a weird way at least, I can stand heat better now." Weiss said with a shrug.
"You can't get a tan though." Yang said with a laugh, as Weiss looked down at how pale her skin was, despite having spent two months out in the wilderness, and a lot of time out in the desert at that.
"Everyone else can though!" Nora added with a laugh.
Weiss rolled her eyes at that, but decided not to dwell on it. "At any rate, we should make our way to Beacon Castle. No doubt we're gonna have a LOT of explaining to do when we get there…" she sighed.
"I don't think that's going to be necessary." Wizardmon said as he pointed in the distance, as a VTOL was making its way in their rough direction.
"Huh, good timing, think we should fire a flare?" Jaune asked.
"Well, yes, but this is also bad timing, how do we explain the Digimon?" Ren asked everyone, and they all came up blank.
"I can hide everyone in the shadows with my semblance, we'll meet up with you at Beacon, how does that sounds?" Keenan suggested.
"Best we got for now." Gyro said before turning to Agumon "Light up the sky buddy."
"Right." Agumon nodded before aiming skywards "Baby Flame!" and the fire travelled up high into the sky before fizzing out, the VTOL turning slightly and now heading directly for them.
"Everyone into the shadows of the ruin now." Falcomon said as all the Digimon went into the shade.
"I should probably hide as well, it would be better to explain only to Ozpin first instead of me being found by all the other faculty members." Summer said, about to head into the shadows, before Ruby and Yang gave her one last hug, making her laugh a bit as she returned it, before disappearing into the darkness with the others.
The VTOL came down, and the door opened to reveal Azure. "There you are! We've been looking all over for you guys!" he said, stepping out of it and coming up to them.
In response, Gyro and Pierce both went up to him and hugged him "Jesus christ we've missed you Azure." Pierce said, happy to see his older brother again.
"Um… why? It's only been a few hours..." Azure said, confusing everyone, as the twins let go of him and stepped back.
"Wait… what?" Gyro said in confusion.
"Did you two hit your head or something?" Azure asked.
"Mr. Vermilion, we've all been gone for two months." Weiss said, stepping closer and into Azure's earshot, but out of the pilot's earshot thankfully.
"What? Did you all hallucinate or something? It's still initiation day." Azure shot back.
Silence for several long moments, until "He's right." Pyrrha said with wide eyes, looking down at her scroll "The date is still the same, August 1st."
"... We never DID have the date and time on our scrolls, we just had the call function available…" Blake noted.
"Okay...either you all were hit with some kind of mass hallucination, or something's going on here…" Azure frowned.
"Would it help if we said we know about RWBY up to 'volume 3'?" Nora said.
Azure went absolutely still at that, before looking at his brothers "What… what the hell did I miss if they know about THAT?"
"A lot." was all Gyro said, before they dragged him back into the VTOL, the others boarding it as well, despite feeling a bit cramped, the doors closing as it took back off and made its way back towards Beacon.
"Alright, you've convinced me," Azure sighed. "We'll talk more later AFTER you're all assigned to your teams, though I'm pretty sure you eight already know where you're going...you two DID make sure they got the right ones, right?" Azure checked.
"Of course. We even kept them safe right here," Gyro said, pulling out the chess pieces he'd stored in his pouch the entire time, handing them back to the others.
"Wonder if the teams are going to be the same they were in the show?" Yang muttered as she rolled the chess piece around in her hand.
"You mean the same leaders right? Probably, I mean, you all said it's been long, but all we saw were your fights with those two large Grimm and then you heading into the ruins when the snowstorm hit." Azure answered, making sure the pilot wasn't hearing them.
"No comment on Blake's ears by the way?" Pierce asked curiously, with Azure looking at said Faunus, only to blink when he noticed the cat ears.
"I… I hadn't actually noticed, I thought that was still the bow." he said, once again surprised.
"Like Gyro said, a LOT happened." Blake answered with a shrug.
Later, they found themselves gathered in the auditorium with Ozpin now announcing the teams formed. First of course was team CRDL, which the brothers ignored, as they knew those four wouldn't amount to anything important or significant, so they were...negligible. The second however…
"Based on our observations during the initiation, we have come to a decision regarding the two additional students we will be having this year," Ozpin said, before listing out the names of the next team. "Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Pierce Vermillion, and Lie Ren. The five of you obtained the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will be working together as team JNPPR (Juniper)," he said as some clapping began. "Lead by…Jaune Arc!" he finished.
Normally Jaune would have been surprised by this, but thanks to what the brothers had told him, he managed to look respectful and a bit dignified when he heard the news...though hearing Pierce was part of his team was certainly a nice surprise. "T-thank you, sir," he managed to say, sounding a little nervous still.
"Congratulations, young man," Ozpin smiled as the newly formed team stepped down, before the last students stepped up, Gyro not even waiting to be announced with the girls. "And finally, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Gyro Vermillion, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. The five of you obtained the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will be working together as team RWGBY (Rugby)," he said as the clapping began again. "Lead by...Ruby Rose!"
Gyro let out a small sigh of relief that Ruby was still the leader, glad that hasn't changed, as Yang pulled her sister into a tight hug, Weiss smiling in amusement at the sight of their leader struggling to break free from the tight embrace, while Blake was looking at the pictures on the large screen, finding it strange to see the old picture of herself with the bow still on. However, nobody was forgetting that they had something a lot more important to worry about soon.
"...huh, they're bigger than canon," Gyro mused as he saw the room team RWGBY had gotten. In retrospect it made sense, as with one extra member, it was necessary to have extra space to accommodate, hence why they'd gotten a larger room than what team RWBY got in canon. Fortunately the part about it being across from team JNPPR remained the same, making it easy for them all to meet up whenever needed.
"So...when is Azure coming again?" Jaune asked.
"He should be here soon. He just has to make sure Ozpin doesn't need him for anything after this," Pierce said.
"Considering he's going to be a bit out of it, I would understand why." Pyrrha said awkwardly.
"Anyway, for now, let's just get everyone here." Gyro said, before opening the window and turning to Ruby "Whistle please."
Ruby simply nodded before going up to the window and putting her whistle to her lips and blowing on it, the sound travelling outside as everyone in the room covered their ears.
A few seconds later, and the door to the closet burst open as everyone fell out in a pile.
"You still need to work on exit points." Summer said as she got up.
"I know." Keenan groaned into the floor as everyone else was on top of him.
Eventually the group disentangled and the Digimon were looking around the room. "Whoa...you guys are gonna live here?" Patamon asked in wonder, before idly flapping to the window, and looked outside to which they could see a LOT, as they were actually on a higher floor than the original room team RWBY got.
"It's bigger than the Gekomon's Castle!" Palmon couldn't help but say, while Agumon, Veemon, and Biyomon all gave their agreement, remembering that castle.
"Right, we never did tell you guys where we are," Summer chuckled.
"Well, you have told US," Renamon said in amusement, especially when Wizardmon pulled out a camera...and took a photo.
"So this is the famed Beacon Academy I've heard so much about," Wizardmon mused. "And where many of the next generation of hunters go to train. I finally get to see it."
The chosen children couldn't help but chuckle at the wizard-like Digimon. It seemed even with the threat of an evil Digimon looming, he was still taking the time to enjoy the sights...even if just their Dorm room for now.
"We're gonna have to deal with the luggage." Yang noted after a moment, glancing at several briefcases and the like piled in a corner of the room.
"Honestly, I think we have enough space for everything and the beds, so we MIGHT not have to do the bunk beds of doom idea." Gyro said as he took a long look around the room.
"Bunk beds of doom?" Weiss repeated with a raised eyebrow.
"Somehow I don't think we'll like the answer." Tentomon said.
"Just before you explain that Gyro." Pierce said suddenly, before looking at Summer "The girls explained the whole webshow thing to you, right?"
"Right, while we were upgrading all the weapons, pretty weird honestly, but at least it helps be prepared for some of the stuff to come… and I also want to punch Raven in the face even more now." Summer admitted.
"Right, well...anyway, the girls here built bunk beds to make up for the less than sufficient space in their original dorm...and well...the idea itself was good, but the execution...not so much. What basically happened was a pair of death traps which by some miracle never actually got anyone hurt, despite the fact the only things keeping Ruby and Yang's beds suspended were a bunch of rope and a pile of books between the legs...it's a miracle they didn't crush Weiss and/or Blake in the 3 semesters they were in Beacon…" Pierce explained.
Slowly, Weiss and Blake turned to the sisters, giving them dry stares that were making them uncomfortable.
"If we do make bunk beds this time, I promise to make sure they're structurally stable and not liable to kill either of you in your sleep someday," Gyro said, though stifling a small chuckle at their reactions to what Pierce said...and how he said it for that matter.
"I really hope we don't need to actually make them." Blake said dryly.
"We'll worry about that when the time comes," Gyro said. "And I'll make sure we're NOT stuck running to class 5 minutes before the bell."
"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that," Weiss sighed. Call it petty, but having future knowledge on these small things was a rather useful perk.
At that moment, they heard a knock on the door. "Guys? Its me," Azure said from the other side.
"Azure's here. Quick, you guys hide. We'll need to ease him into this...or blow his mind when we reveal you. Whichever comes first," Pierce said, to which Summer's group quickly hid in the closet, while their partner Digimon hid under the bed. Once that was done, they opened the door for Azure, letting him in.
"Alright, baring a Grimm attack, Oz won't need any of us teachers till morning. So we've got the night to talk," Azure said, before walking in. "...huh, bigger than canon," he mused.
"Yeah, we noticed that too. Anyway, you'll want to sit down because everything we have to tell you is…" Gyro trailed off, thinking of the right way to put it.
"So crazy your socks will rocket off!" Nora exclaimed with a laugh.
"Sounds about right." Yang agreed with a chuckle.
"We're in Remnant. How crazier can it possibly get?" Azure asked...right before he realized what he'd done. "...I'm gonna regret that, aren't I?"
The nods from all 10 of them made him sigh in resignation.
"Put VERY simply, we got sucked into ANOTHER world, where apparently time flows differently, seeing as two months for us was just a couple of hours here," Gyro started.
"And that world was full of monsters too!" Ruby chimed in.
"Right...world full of monsters...not seeing how that's different from here," Azure mused.
"Well...would it help if we told you we made friends with some and brought them along?" Jaune asked.
"...I'm sorry, what?" Azure said flatly.
"We brought our new friends along," Pyrrha said, before turning to the beds. "You can come out now."
At her words, 10 strange creatures crawled out from under the bed. Their appearances ranging from a walking plant, to a bipedal bird, to a giant worm, to….Azure's brain stopped short when he saw Agumon.
Azure to slowly turn to Gyro and Pierce. "Is that…?" he let the question hang.
"Hi Azure!" Agumon said with a wave, confirming that yes, yes it was.
Azure was silent for several seconds, unmoving, before blinking slowly "Koromon? Is that you?"
Agumon nodded "Yeah, well, sort of. I'm not Koromon anymore, it's Agumon now."
"Okay...please explain. In full detail. I can tell this is something I need to hear, no matter how mind blowing it is," Azure sighed.
And explain they did. Explaining how they reached the 'Digital World', to how they met their partners, discovered their apparent destiny regarding that world, and of course the evil Digimon they'd been fighting.
"Ok… the devil seems pretty standard for some reason, but, a singing monkey man, really?" Azure asked, bewildered.
"Don't forget about Myotismon." Ren reminded him.
"Yeah, about that, we have a vampire walking around in Vale right now?" Azure asked a bit more urgently.
"A vampire who wants to rule the world," Blake supplied 'helpfully'.
"Right…" Azure sighed. "And apparently its your jobs to find and defeat him."
"Not alone," Gyro said, before turning to the closet. "You guys can come out now."
At his words, the closet opened, and out tumbled the 'resistance' fighters. "Glad we're out. I was starting to lose feel in my legs," Falcomon groaned as they all got up.
"It was rather cramped in there…" Keenan groaned.
However, it was when Azure saw the woman in the group his brain stopped again...before he slowly turned to his brothers. "So Summer Rose wasn't so much dead as...trapped in another world?" he said.
"Pretty much, yes," Summer chuckled.
"Okay...since you know about the webshow, you know what's coming next...what does this mean now?" Azure sighed, feeling like the plan had hit with a hard spot…
"Well, for starters, we're going to have to deal with Myotismon, we can't just let him run around free, nor are we just going to stand by and let him take over our world." Jaune said, making Azure blink at him.
"Wow… Cardin is NEVER going to be able to bully you." he said.
"Um… thanks?" Jaune said awkwardly.
"Anyway." Weiss said, wanting to get this back on track "We need to focus on what's going in Vale most of all, I doubt he would attack the school directly, even HIS army can't handle this many hunters."
"Do you want to tell this to Ozpin?" Azure asked.
"Honestly? We're not sure." Pierce admitted.
"He'd probably be able to help us, but we're just a tiny bit afraid he won't let us since the guys told us he would prefer to not let kids fight a war." Ruby said with a shrug.
"So for now, we try to keep this war a secret...while living a double life as normal students...man, this feels like an anime," Pierce blinked.
"Well...as much as possible. From what you told me, your fights can be pretty...destructive…" Azure sighed.
"If push comes to shove, I'll handle things," Summer said. "I'm sure I can get Ozpin to understand our position."
"Honestly though, I think one of the thing that surprises me most is how… most of you are dating." Azure said, glancing at Blake and Weiss for a moment when he paused.
"It just turned out like that." Gyro said with a shrug, smiling a bit.
"At least I know my girls are in good hands." Summer said with a laugh.
"I just hope dad won't hurt Gyro and Pierce." Ruby said with a frown.
"He won't get the chance." Summer said simply.
"Now that I think about it...what are we gonna do about you five?" Azure said, looking at Summer's group. "It'd be a bit hard to explain an MIA Huntress, a kid who looks like a jungle boy, a ninja owl, a bipedal fox, and a guy who looks like he took cosplay too far…"
"What is cosplay?" Wizardmon asked.
"Nobody answer that!" Gyro said quickly, much to Wizardmon's disappointed sigh.
Gyro honestly did NOT want to see what would happen if Wizardmon discovered a whole other new thing if he acted like being on Remnant was part of a guided tour.
"Well...it should be easy enough. We'll just camp out in the Emerald Forest," Summer shrugged. "Don't worry about the Grimm. Wizardmon's wards will keep them off our tail easily enough, and even if they get through, there shouldn't be anything in the forest we can't handle."
"And if worse come to worse, we do have our secret weapon," Keenan nodded, looking at Summer's card holder.
"Well...alright...but we'll try to think of a more permanent lodging option as soon as we can," Azure sighed...before a few yawns were heard. "And I think you guys should get ready for bed. First class is at 9...then again, considering its Port...getting enough sleep may not make a difference…"
"I honestly thought that was an afternoon class since in the show the next scene was set at dusk." Gyro said, before yawning.
"Hey, Azure, what's the answer to the question all fans had in volume 1?" Pierce asked suddenly.
"You mean Professor Peach right?" Azure shrugged "She's pretty normal looking actually, she just happens to have pink hair."
"Huh… glad that mystery was finally put to rest." Gyro blinked. "At any rate, you're right...we probably should get ready for bed.
"Good idea," Pyrrha yawned. "We'll see you guys tomorrow morning in class…"
With that, the group turned in for bed, Azure going back to his quarters, while Summer and her group went out the window. Literally.
"Not even gonna comment on how readily they did that," Weiss deadpanned as her head hit the pillow, Tentomon getting on the bed next to her. She was too tired after today, a point the group as a whole shared as they and their partners were soon asleep.
The next morning started out peaceful...tranquil...not.
Everyone in the room was woken up by the sound of a whistle blowing, and when they got up, they weren't surprised to see Ruby with her whistle...and fully dressed in her school uniform.
"Oh yeah…" Gyro groaned as he got up. He wasn't much of a morning person. That was Pierce. "Ruby... I love you, I truly do… but did you REALLY have to?"
"Yes." was all Ruby said, grinning cutely at him, and he couldn't be mad at that face.
"Five more minutes…" the Digimon all groaned as they turned around in their half awake states.
"Lucky mon don't need to go to class…" Yang groaned.
"Well...we're already awake," Weiss sighed. "Might as well get ready."
"I need coffee when it's THIS early." Blake hissed as she crawled out from under her blankets.
"Live without it, we all did in the Digital World." Gyro told her dryly as he went into the bathroom.
With that in short order the five of them were soon ready for the day, while the Digimon were still asleep on the beds. "Think we should wake them?" Blake asked.
"Normally I'd say no, but we do have some time to unpack...plus I don't think we'd want someone walking in by accident and seeing them," Yang sighed.
"So...the whistle again or a bucket of water?" Weiss asked with a slight smirk.
"Option 3." was all Gyro said as he walked up to his bed and picked up the sleeping Agumon, before shaking him awake "Suffer with the rest of us!"
"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Agumon shouted, waking up the others as Gyro finally stopped shaking him. Once the rattling stopped he glared at his partner. "What was that for?"
"All the times you woke up me up in the night to go poop." was Gyro's answer, with Agumon blushing in embarrassment.
"Now then, I think that woke everyone else up too," Gyro chuckled as the little stint had shocked the other Digimon in the room awake too. "How long do we have before class?"
"Its...6:30 AM right now," Blake said.
"Right, so 2 and a half hours before class and...huh...I just realized something…" Gyro blinked.
"What?" Yang asked.
"...how are we supposed to feed the Digimon? We can't exactly bring them to the dining hall out in the open…"
"Uh...why are you worried, we DO have the pouches remember?" Weiss sighed. "Not to mention all the things we were carrying around in there we wanted to cultivate when we got back."
"...huh, you're right...I honestly forgot after the last month," Gyro admitted, blushing a bit. "And its not like we can't stuff some food in for later."
"Great, now that that's taken care of and we have some time...time to unpack and decorate!" Ruby cheered.
"You girls handle that, I'll find some pots to plant everything." Gyro said, heading for the door, before stopping, turning back to everyone "Please don't make a mess." he added, before walking out of the room.
When he returned 5 minutes later, he sighed… in relief "Oh thank Oum."
The beds were still in the same spots as before, and they seemed to have plenty of space, even for Weiss's large amount of luggage, speaking of her, she was having Patamon and Tentomon help with installing a painting she'd brought along.
"Found enough pots?" Yang asked as she was carrying… his stuff?
"Yeah… why do you have my books?" He asked in confusion.
"Just putting them in the bookshelf." She said with a shrug, which he returned after a moment, not having a problem with that.
"Anyway, I also picked up some pots for the others and handed them over, they're pretty much doing the same thing we are right now." he added as he put the pots down, thankfully, he'd already filled them with dirt.
Eventually, they'd finished with the decorating, the pots all sitting by the windowsill and overall, the room was now fully ready for them to treat it like home.
"Objective...complete!" Ruby grinned by the time they were done. "And it's still...8:00 too," she added.
"Great, we got an hour to get to class and maybe grab a bite," Yang nodded.
"Yeah… I don't think you guys had breakfast in the canon timeline." Gyro said, before his stomach growled "Guess the next stop is the cafeteria."
"Too bad we can't come." Biyomon sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll call Azure and have him bring up something for you guys too, best to hang on to some supplies for now as just emergency." Gyro reassured.
"Also, for now please wait here for the day. You can read any of the books or even try playing any of our games, but it'd be a problem if people saw you guys just yet," Blake said. "The last thing we want is for people to take you all away, okay?"
"Okay," the Digimon nodded.
With that done, the team soon left their dorm, but not before locking the door before they left (And leaving a key inside for the Digimon to use if necessary). Likewise from across the hall, team JNPPR were also leaving their dorm.
"Looks like its no running to class for either of us," Gyro said with a chuckle.
"Yeah...why the heck did our other selves wait till 8:55 in 'canon' again?" Jaune asked.
"Honestly...we have no idea, but with how the other you acted...I think you guys forgot about class," Pierce shrugged.
"Monsters, demons…" was the starting statement from one Professor Peter Port as he began his lesson, and already Gyro and Pierce were tuning it out, in favor of setting up a recording device. Along the way to class they'd met up with Azure, and came up with the idea to help the Digimon a bit by allowing them to watch the classes they were attending, if nothing else to see what was going on. As such, they were setting up devices while Azure would have given the Digimon the devices that would be receiving the feed.
"Ya know...now that we're doing it...do you really think we should? I mean...it IS Port's class," Pierce mused.
"Too late now, the feed is up," Gyro shrugged.
"I guess…" Pierce frowned a bit, he honestly didn't want to subject the Digimon to THIS.
"I can fix that." Yang said, before writing on a piece of paper and placing it in front of the recording device Gyro had.
Back in the dorm, where all 10 Digimon had decided to gather in the RWGBY dorm, they saw the paper obscuring the view, and on it could be read 'This class is boring, play video games instead.'
"Well… if they say so." Veemon said with a shrug.
"Where did Gyro put the gamecube?" Agumon could be heard as he looked through Gyro's bag, before bringing out a purple cube shaped console "Found it!"
"What are we going to play?" Gabumon asked.
In response, Agumon held up quite a few games… before noticing one of them and putting it back in the bag, earning questioning looks from the others "Gyro said Mario Party destroys friendships."
"Huh...okay then..how about this one?" Gabumon said, picking a different one.
"Oooh! I remember that one! It was fun!" Agumon said as Gabumon had picked out the latest Super Smash Brothers game. "Although… I think you don't have the right one." he added.
"What do you mean?" Gomamon asked, looking at the case curiously.
"Well, gamecube games are all in these things." Agumon said as he held up Mario Kart Double Dash "But that case is a lot smaller."
"And this one says Switch on it, while the bigger ones say Gamecube." Tentomon pointed out, noticing another difference.
"Oh… my mistake then." Gabumon said as he put it back in the bag.
"Why don't we play the latest one though?" Wormmon asked.
"Um… the gamecube is the only console I know how to setup from watching the guys do it the first time I hatched." Agumon admitted sheepishly.
Back at the class it was...boring. There really wasn't any other way to describe it as Port's lecture had quickly degraded to 'bla bla bla blablabla bla' as far as the brothers were concerned.
Even Weiss seemed to be nodding off at times, before someone poked her to make her snap back up. The fact she didn't even get annoyed at Ruby for her rather...childish...drawing of the portly Professor...spoke volumes.
And Yang was completely asleep at this point.
"Think we could weaponize this?" Jaune muttered sleepily.
"Boring Grimm to death… sounds fun." Nora said with a snort.
"Suddenly fighting for our lives everyday seems so much better than having to deal with this…" Gyro groaned.
"Kill me...please…" Pierce let out a long suffering sigh as the boisterous professor went on and on and on and…
Oh god this is too much! Fast forwarding!
"The moral of this story?" Port said, putting a close to his story...which probably the entire class didn't hear by now. "A true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well educated, and wise," Port said. "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of those traits?"
Weiss...had a flat look by the end of that line. Partly cause out of sheer boredom she'd taken to watching whatever Ruby seemed to be doing to keep herself...awake...and well...she sure didn't seem to be looking the part of a huntress right now (though she had to admit, Ruby's little balancing act with her book, pencil, and a random apple was a decent distraction from the boring story). Listening to the line though...she idly mused how once upon a time she'd have probably jumped and claimed she was the embodiment of those kinds of virtues. Suffice to say, her two months in the Digital World had done much to make her take an introspective look. With that in mind…
"Nobody is all of these traits, at least not yet," Weiss said, drawing attention to herself. "If anybody actually believes they are, then they have an ego problem, because I believe a true huntsman should also be humble."
"Huh...guess the time spent had more of an impact then we thought," Gyro couldn't help but blink at her statement. He was surprised, but in a very pleasant way.
Likewise, Professor Port seemed pleased by her answer. "That's absolutely correct, Miss Schnee," he nodded. "Right now none of you are quite the embodiments of these traits, but that is exactly why you're here. To learn and grow so that one day you may become true hunters."
"Was he testing us?" Pyrrha wondered with a raised eyebrow.
"Possibly." was all Ren said in answer.
"Is it weird I'd forgotten about wanting to be a hunter at times?" Ruby whispered to Blake.
"Considering everything we've been through? Not really, I think it all slipped our minds at one point." the faunus girl shot back.
"It's a much better result than canon, that's for sure," Pierce nodded.
Once the murmurs died down, Professor Port proceeded to the next part of the lesson. "Now then, since you answered my question so well, how would you like to give the class a demonstration. You seem well on your way to being an accomplished hunter, so why not show the class what you can do?" he offered, gesturing to a metal cage...which was shaking rather violently, with a pair of red eyes peeking through the bars.
"Okay, this they'll want to see," Gyro smirked, before taking the paper blocking the feed away.
Back at the Dorm room, Tentomon had nodded in approval at hearing Weiss's response to the Professor's question, having taken a moment to listen. However, it was because of that he saw the paper being taken away. "Guys, something's happening," he said, drawing their attention as they paused their game and crowded around the screen...just in time to see the Professor ask if Weiss would like to fight...whatever was in the cage…
"Wonder what's in the cage?" Salamon said.
"It's too dark to see." Patamon added, squinting at the screen.
"Think it's one of those Grimm things they told us about?" Biyomon said.
"A teacher wouldn't actually bring one into a classroom if it was dangerous, right?" Palmon frowned.
"Well...we're gonna find out," Gomamon said, as on the feed, Weiss was back in her usual combat outfit, Myrtenaster at the ready. In response, the professor cut open the cage and out came a black boar-like creature with bone white armor, and the most hatefully red eyes they'd seen since Devimon.
"That thing sure does look evil." Gabumon said, honestly not liking the look of that thing.
"Kinda reminds me of Boarmon, just more angry and less fire." Agumon said, remembering having seen some Boarmon on the flying island.
"Well...I'm sure Weiss can handle it," Tentomon said.
Back in the class, the Boarbatusk charge forward, and Weiss got out of the way. Snorting in anger, it soon tried again, and again, till Weiss realized this Grimm was no doubt young and stupid if it didn't have any other strategy. With that in mind, right as she dodged again, she slashed at it...and the blade of Myrtenaster actually cut through the armor, causing some black smoke to seep out and a cry of pain.
"Huh…" Weiss mused, looking at her weapon...before her eyes widened as she remembered she'd had it upgraded with Chrome Digizoid. If this metal could fight Perfect level Digimon, then it made sense a Grimm like this would be easily cut by the metal. With that in mind, she knew she had the advantage...she just had to make full use of it. Creating a Glyph behind her, she waited till the Boarbatusk came charging again, and quickly flipping onto the Glyph, she used it to propel herself forward, and at the critical moment, thrust forward, her weapon piercing the armor and spearing it through, the Boartusk barely getting a moment to let out a dying scream as it was dead in an instant.
There was a long silence in the class as everyone was in shock at how fast the battle had gone by, and especially at how easy she had defeated the Boarbatusk.
"Well… that was… surprisingly efficient…" Port managed to say after a few moments.
"It was nothing, just...surprisingly weak armor is all," Weiss said, trying to play off her win. Sure she won, but the last thing they wanted was for anyone to ask too many questions. Hopefully with this they'd be able to avoid questioning and risk someone realizing her sword was coated with an 'alien metal'.
"Well… I suppose it WAS rather young for a Grimm… I guess it's armor hadn't developed enough yet then." Port said, shrugging it off, as the Digidestined all let out silent sighs of relief.
"Well, that was pretty fast." Veemon said plainly after seeing the fight.
"I guess Grimm aren't THAT strong then." Gomamon added.
"Well...that Professor guy DID say it was young so...maybe it was a 'child-level' Grimm?" Wormmon offered.
"That does make sense in a strange way." Tentomon mused, before everyone turned to the window opening, seeing Wizardmon climbing inside.
"What are you doing here?" Palmon asked in confusion.
"I wanted to come talk to the Chosen Children… but it seems I've missed them." Wizardmon said with a laugh as he looked around the room.
"They're in class right now," Gabumon said.
"Well then, I guess I'll have to wait till they get back," Wizardmon said, before sitting on the floor, deciding to watch the feed with the others.
"Okay...that was a bit close," Pierce commented. Currently the group was gathered for lunch in the dining hall...which was honestly really massive. "Good job on directing it away though."
"It was fortunate the Grimm was believably young," Weiss nodded. "But that confirms one thing. Our weapons will probably cut the average Grimm apart easily now, so we may need to be careful."
"Grimm are one thing, but another issue is well...the other students," Pyrrha frowned.
"What do you mean?" Nora asked.
"She means if our weapons can now cut through Grimm armor with little difficulty, what happens if they clashed against other weapons. While it's true many weapons are made to be very sturdy nowadays, it would still be bad if we ended up badly damaging or even breaking weapons in a spar," Blake clarified.
"We're going to have to avoid weapon clashes as much as possible… unless of course it's with Team CRDL." Gyro said, adding the last part with a slight grin.
"Speaking of those neanderthals," Pierce commented, before pointing at a table not too far away, where said team was harassing a rabbit faunus with brown hair. "Looks like they didn't waste time starting to pick on Velvet."
"So...what's the plan?" Jaune asked.
"Well, we stop them of course. But first…" Ruby said, before taking out her scroll and discreetly taking a photo. "Evidence."
"Nice, we can show that to Professor Goodwitch," Blake nodded in approval of that plan.
"Now for the next part. We'll start with doing it the way of the old white fang," Ruby said, giving Blake a meaningful look.
"Right...we can't exactly bash their skulls in...yet anyway," Yang mused. "And yes Nora, you'll get first dibs if/when they get to the point."
Nora grinned almost wickedly at that bit. "I'mma break their legs."
"Now then, I don't think ALL of us should go, or it'd look suspicious. So...who wants to help Blake use diplomacy?" Gyro offered.
"I'll go," Pyrrha said. "I might as well put my reputation to good use."
"I'll go as well," Jaune nodded.
"I'll help too," Weiss said.
"Okay then, go for it guys. Don't worry, we'll be right here if things get out of hand," Ren nodded.
"Somebody show this to the Digimon." Nora requested in a whisper, with Pierce grinning as he brought up the recording device.
Over at the other table, Velvet was trying to ignore the jeers as she focused on eating, they were being very obvious and loud about it, even though they were sitting at a different table.
Her will almost broke when she heard about how she must have nothing but the thought of going at it like a rabbit in heat.
Why did today of all days end up being the day her teammates got the flu?
Coco was right, she was really bad at standing up for herself.
"That's quite enough," came a stern voice, stopping them mid-jeer. Velvet likewise was surprised to turn to the source and saw a cat faunus and a few humans, all of them she'd recognized as part of the new first year batch. "Is this really how a huntsman should behave?" she said with a frown.
"Why do you care?" the leader of the bullies sneered.
"Because not only are you harassing a senior student, but you are being obnoxious to everyone in hearing range." the white haired girl, a Schnee Velvet quickly realised, added.
"So? What are you gonna do about it?" Cardin sneered again.
"Welll…" Jaune fought hard to keep the smirk off his face, as Ruby casually sent the picture of CRDL harassing Velvet to all their scrolls, to which Jaune showed his Scroll to Cardin. "Would be a real shame if say...one of the teachers saw this. And on the first day of the semester too…" he let the threat hang.
"Are you threatening us?" Cardin asked with a growl.
"Of course not," Pyrrha said. "We're just doing what any good and decent person would do, and stopping a problem before it begins, right everyone?"
"Yep," the other three nodded.
Velvet had to work hard to hide her giggling as the bully started seething in place, but since even he could see the insult in the words, he got up in a huff and quickly left the cafeteria, his teammates following after him. Once they were gone, Velvet finally had enough and started giggling almost madly. The group let her have her mirth, before she finally calmed down. "Thanks," she said between giggles. "Nobody other than my team has ever really stood up for me before."
"Where's your team now?" Jaune asked curiously.
"They came down with the flu. I'm the only one who remembered to get vaccinated this year, so they're all still in bed." Velvet answered, sighing a bit.
"Would you like to come eat with us?" Weiss asked, surprising Velvet a little bit.
"I'd like that, but I'm done eating actually, probably another day though. I need to get some food to my teammates now." Velvet said as she stood up with her tray.
"You're always welcome to come sit with us when you see us." Blake told her with a smile.
"Thank you." Velvet said, smiling happily, before going to grab food for her friends as the others returned to their table.
"Nicely done," Pierce grinned.
"Thanks...but…" Jaune frowned.
"Something wrong?" Ruby asked.
"It...kinda feels like we're cheating here...since we have future knowledge and all that...it kinda feels like we were manipulating the whole thing…"
"Hm...that's true…it can feel that way," Gyro conceded. "But let me put it this way...it was still the right thing to do either way. If we didn't or don't do anything, Velvet's gonna have to deal with harassment like that...heck, I'm pretty sure it was implied they went and did that to every student, faunus or otherwise, who couldn't defend themselves. Does that make you feel any better?"
"Quite a bit, yeah…" Jaune admitted.
"As long as we don't start using this knowledge for personal gain...we should be alright," Blake said, realizing what he was getting at.
"Though on the concept of 'personal gain'..." Yang looked at the brothers half-jokingly.
"Nice try babe," Pierce laughed. "But no, we don't know any winning lottery numbers."
"Trust me, if we did, we'd abuse the hell out of it." Gyro said with a laugh.
It wasn't long before it was time for the next class, as everyone had 2 classes per day most of the week, save Fridays where the entire day was supposed to be Combat Class. As it so happened, the next class was Azure's class. Engineering Class.
"Good afternoon, everyone," Azure said as he addressed the entire class. "I'm Professor Azure Vermillion, and I'll be teaching you engineering through your time at Beacon. Now, to start, I'm sure you all know that while combat skills ARE very important, just as is knowledge in various different fields for a Hunter, in the end, one of the key parts you'll need for dealing with the dangers you'll face are your weapons. My job is to teach you how to either create weapons that would best suite you, or from there, how to improve and develop them to keep up with your growing skills."
While the class responded with varying degrees of interest, from notable boredom and disinterest from a certain group of neanderthals, to decent interest from the majority of the class. However, of them all, none were more focused than Ruby, who was wide awake, pencil and paper ready to jot down notes.
"She REALLY likes weapons, doesn't she?" Weiss asked rhetorically, seeing as Ruby's behavior was a complete 180 compared to when she was in Port's class.
"Yeah, I'm a little worried I might come in second place." Gyro said, feigning hurt, only for Ruby to turn to him with wide eyes before planting a kiss on his lips right in the middle of class, before pulling back and smiling at him and then concentrating back on the class itself.
Pierce poked his brother a few times, Gyro not responding at all "Welp… she broke him by trying to be nice."
"Class, please refrain from public shows of affection till after my lecture is over," Azure said in amusement. "Oh, and Mr. Vermillion, please get Mr. Vermillion back to his senses...that felt weird," Azure said before adding that at the end.
"Just call us by our first names Azure." Pierce said with a laugh as he shook his brother for a few moments, Gyro eventually snapping out of it and looking around in confusion.
"What happened?" he said.
"Best we don't tell you." Pyrrha said, hiding a laugh.
The class went by rather interestingly. Azure started by not just explaining the basics, he went into detail of a number of different weapon types and their advantages, as well as their disadvantages. From there he went into details on basic mechashift systems, as well as how to make a simple system and of course, maintenance.
However, it was midway through the lecture that trouble started happening again. Namely starting when Jaune felt something hitting him in the back of the head. Rubbing the back of his head a little, he didn't feel anything, so he shrugged and went back to note taking. Sure he'd had a bit of a 'preview' with the twins, but it was still good to pay attention. Azure knew his stuff. Heck, the brothers admitted he played a BIG role in building the gate that let them enter Remnant, so a guy who could build an interdimensional machine was definitely someone you'd want to get engineering tips from. Of course that was when he felt another hit, and this time turned around and wasn't surprised to notice a chuckling team CRDL. This naturally caught Azure's attention.
"Mr. Arc, is there something you'd like to say?" Azure said, though he was merely playing the part of an impartial teacher. He knew full well Jaune had been paying attention.
"Oh uh...no Professor Vermillion," Jaune said.
"Alright, in that case would you mind telling the class the key advantage of these three different types of blade weapons," he said, before showing the pictures of dual blades, a broadsword, and a greatsword.
"Oh right," Jaune nodded. "uh...Dual Swords have low damage, but they're lighter and somewhat easier to handle, so they're great for higher mobility. Broadswords are more in between, so they don't offer quite as much of a specific advantage, but they're well rounded and adaptable...and uh...Greatswords are slow, but they hit really hard, so they're great for heavily armored enemies. Is...that about right?"
"That is absolutely correct," Azure nodded. "Remember class, it is important to choose a weapon that best fits your prefered style. Choosing a weapon that is incompatible with you for the long term is only asking for trouble. Likewise, each weapon has its own advantage and disadvantages, so it's important to keep that in mind as well," Azure nodded...before noticing how Cardin was talking with his team...while his hand was mimicking talking, as if saying 'bla bla bla'. Honestly, if he didn't already know how much of a trouble maker Cardin would be, he'd probably have missed that one.
"Mr. Winchester, is there something you'd like to add to the class?" he said, eyes narrowing a little.
Cardin just smirked at the question. "Oh nothing, though I kinda wonder why bother with weak weapons like the first two," he said.
"Oh boy, here we go." Gyro muttered with a low groan.
"Pardon me, but taking one look at you, am I wrong to say that you're the type who has the 'bigger is better' mentality?" Azure said calmly.
"Well, it IS better. Why bother with all those weak ass approaches when you can just pummel a Grimm to death?" Cardin said cockly.
"I see…" Azure said calmly. "In that case, would you like to give a demonstration? Show the class 'what you can do'."
Cardin smirked at that. "Okay, I'm game. Who's gonna be my opponent?" He was eager to show the rest of these posers who the big man was here.
"Why...me of course. I'll be fighting you with these," Azure said, pulling out Umbrae.
Cardin looked the professor over. Despite him having a decent build he still looked more like someone who spent most of his time with his head in the books. Not to mention he was teaching how to make weapons and picked a weak weapon like dual knives...he was game. "Sure. Maybe I'll teach you a thing or two while I'm at it."
"Welp… Cardin's fucked." Pierce said simply.
"Going to get his ass booted down to hell." Gyro added.
"This is going to be a massacre." Jaune finished with a nervous laugh.
"Is Azure really that strong?" Nora asked. "Not to sound like Cardin, but he looks more like an office worker than a fighter."
"You'd think twice if you knew who he based his outfit off of…" Gyro mused.
"I wonder why Gyro said that," Agumon mused.
"Hey...doesn't he kind of look like this guy?" Tentomon mused, having been going through one of the scrolls the brothers left, which had some videos from various games they'd collected. He then showed it to the group. It was a vid regarding something called 'High Mystic Artes' from a game called 'Tales of Xillia 2'. After they watched the vid…
"...that Cardin jerk is toast," were the deadpan words from all the Digimon.
"Now then, whenever you're ready," Azure smiled, calmly yet firmly grasping Umbrae in a reverse grip.
"I'm ready right now!" Cardin all but roared as he ran forward, his mace raised high, ready to bash the older man on the head.
Azure didn't move, calmly waiting as Carding got closer, but right as the mace came down, Azure simply side stepped a little, then lashed out with Umbrae, catching the mace with one of his weapons, then move it to the edge and off the mace, robbing it of its momentum. As a result, Cardin stumbled forward, to which Azure simply put his foot forward, and tripped the young man up, causing him to fall flat on his face.
"I think we're going to like this class." Ren said with an amused smile.
"I'm so recording this." Nora said with a cackle as she held her scroll up and made sure to get a perfect shot of Carding getting his ass kicked.
Unsurprisingly, Cardin didn't take that lying down, and quickly got up, aiming to bash Azure's head in again, but every time he tried, Azure casually evaded with a few small movements, wasting nothing. "Class, as you can see, this is a key weakness of heavy weapons as Mr. Winchester is so generously demonstrating," Azure said simply. "I won't deny that if I were to get hit, this would probably hurt a lot. Fortunately, with a keen eye, it's easy enough to avoid that."
Now the class was actually taking notes, cause this just got interesting.
"Oh, and another thing. While a mace-type weapon IS ideal for countering heavy defenses or armor, there's one large weakness that is shared by many blunt weapons," Azure added, before blocking a strike using Umbrae...catching the shaft of the mace. "While the way Mr. Winchester is holding his mace DOES increase range, it also leaves the mace open to being stopped at its weak point," he said before kicking Cardin in the gut, pushing him back. "This would thus leave you open to counter attacks."
Now Cardin was angry. Roaring again he tried to smash Azure...he never learns does he? ANYway, he tried his tried and true strategy...with no results, yet one swing had Azure jump back a bit further than before. "What's the matter, Prof? Scared?" he said, trying to goad the older man.
"No, I just wanted to be out of the way for the final weakness your weapon sadly has," Azure said simply, before turning to the class. "Now, as you can clearly see, Mr. Winchester also has a fire dust crystal embedded in his mace, no doubt both to give it some ranged options, as well as improve its striking power. While clever, it unfortunately has a structural flaw."
"I'll show you flaw!" Cardin growled, rearing his mace back, ready to use his Dust function...and conveniently slipping the fact that he was about to attack a teacher. However, Azure simply flipped one of his kukri, turning it into a pistol, before in a single fluid motion, he aimed, fired, and hit the dust crystal right as it was about to activate. The result was an explosion that threw Cardin off his feet, and right into a (fortunately empty) set of seats, the large boy dizzy from the attack, while his Mace clattered to the floor, the Dust Crystal shattered.
"And THAT, is the unfortunate final weakness of Mr. Winchester's mace. While the Dust Crystal was a nice touch, it was sadly painfully open to attack, as I just demonstrated. Also, after Mr. Winchester wakes up, will someone please tell him I'll reimburse him for the destroyed Dust Crystal," Azure finished. "Any questions?"
There weren't any questions for him, and soon enough, the class let out, the students walking out and heading to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day.
Wizardmon couldn't help but laugh after watching the beat down that Cardin had experienced "That was rather entertaining, I must admit."
"Yeah, plus Azure is REALLY smart from the way Gyro and Pierce talk about him." Agumon added.
"I'll have to find some time to speak with him then, I'm sure it would be an interesting conversation." Wizardmon said, and the Digimon got the sense he was smiling in amusement.
Now that classes were over, the group was once more gathered in their dorm rooms. "Hey guys," Gyro said as the Digimon came to greet them. "How was your day?"
"Other than the games, kinda boring," Veemon admitted. "Do we really have to stay here all the time?"
"Until we can find a way to avoid you guys being noticed...unfortunately yes…" Pierce sighed.
"I'm glad to see you're all back." Wizardmon said as he stood up "I had something I wanted to mention at Gennai's home, but never found the chance to talk about it."
"What is it?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The thing I grabbed onto to avoid getting blown to the ends of the world? It was the RV. Right now it's hidden near Gennai's home." Wizardmon explained.
"Oh, well, that's actually pretty cool." Gyro said with a grin.
He liked that RV.
"We'll be sure to give it back to you the next time you end up in the Digital World. I'm sure it'll be just as useful," Wizardmon nodded.
"Now then...we should discuss the next issue we have," Ren said.
"Right. Myotismon," Blake nodded with a frown.
"First of all, we'd need to find his base or something. Maybe then we can plan an assault. Otherwise, we'd be stuck just doing counter attacks," Jaune mused.
"But how do we find his base?" Gomamon asked.
"By finding out more about him," Weiss said, pulling up the Analyzer regarding Myotismon. She carefully read the entry, before… "Here!" she said, pointing at a particular line.
"Huh...he really is a vampire," Pierce mused, as it turns out sunlight weakened him.
"So he'd definitely want a base somewhere where sunlight couldn't reach him," Yang nodded.
"But...there are a LOT of places like that in Vale…" Ruby frowned. Plenty of warehouses, empty buildings, and the like coming to mind when she said that.
"Then our next move may be to make use of his attacks," Pyrrha mused.
"Oh! I get it!" Nora grinned. "So when he sends out attacks, we can use those to try and figure out where the Digimon are coming from, right?"
"Hopefully he doesn't see it coming." Salamon said with an uncertain look.
"Well, he probably has one or two idiots working for him that won't notice us tailing them." Gabumon said with a shrug.
"So...I guess for now we just wait?" Palmon asked.
"Seems like it," Ruby nodded. "Oh, while we were on the way back though, we got you guys something," she added, before pulling out a bag, revealing it to be full of candy bars, drinks, and other snacks.
"We figured other than what the cafeteria has, you'd all like something sweet, so we raided a vending machine earlier," Yang said with a grin.
"Ooooh!" the Digimon all said as the bag was placed between them.
"Open the wrapper before eating," Ren quickly added, remembering there were things that didn't need to be opened to eat back in the Digital World.
"Okay!" they all said as they started digging in, and from the sounds that followed...they were definitely enjoying them.
And there's the chapter!
Yeah, a pretty easy day for once, been a while since they had those.
But yeah, we are back on Remnant now!
You see, if they had picked the Gomamon card, they would have went to Earth, so we added the Veemon card in to act as the door to Remnant.
As for where the Agumon card goes... some of you may already know the answer, the rest, you'll find out one day.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed, because...
The Adventure Evolves.