Author's Note:

Hello everyone! Here's the next chapter for Earth's Mightiest Huntsmen. As you can see, I'm much more excited with this arc than I was the last arc, which is why I worked so hard to get this chapter written and ready to go quickly. You'll see why I'm so excited in a little bit. But first, let's answer some reviews.

RXWriter: This certainly won't be the last we see of the Enchantress. I'll leave it at that. As for your guesses, those are some very good guesses...and one of them is correct.

Cbrandes17: I might consider it then. The thing that gives me pause is that it does seem that certain powers and abilities in RWBY, such as Ruby's silver eyes, seem to work specifically on the Grimm or Grimm enhanced individuals such as Cinder. But I'll certainly consider it going forward.

RozeBomb: Glad you think so! If you want another interesting story similar to this, I highly recommend trestwho's Hunters of Justice story. It's a DC/RWBY crossover story that inspired me to write this one.

Thank you all for your continued support. Now let's get back to the story.

Avengers Mansion—September 29

Sparks flew from Crescent Rose as Ruby finished welding the weapon back up. She let out a breath as she pulled her welding goggles up onto her forehead. "That should do it," she announced before sliding a new magazine into the weapon.

Tony raised his arm, letting his armor do a quick scan of the weapon. "Power readings on the new repulsor rounds seem stable. Structural integrity of the weapon seems intact." He gave Ruby a smile. "Not bad, kid. You certainly know your way around a weapon."

Ruby beamed with pride. "Hey, I couldn't have done it without your help to understand this tech. Your repulsors aren't anything like Dust rounds or the S.H.I.E.L.D. stun rounds."

"That's because I put way more effort into my work than Fury's guys," Tony said with a smile. "And I figured you'd like something with a little more kick in your weapon."

"We still need to test it to make sure the modifications all work," Ruby pointed out.

"I figured you'd say that." Tony activated his comm. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., prep the training room for a level one training simulation." He patted Ruby's shoulder. "Let's see if all that work will pay off."

It had been a week since Ruby's arrival on Earth. Since then, she had settled in with the Avengers. After the battle with Hydra, things had been relatively quiet for the team, which gave the superheroes more time to not only search for signs of Ruby's friends, but also help her train as well as understand Earth's culture.

For the past several days, Ruby's daily routine had been divided up into several parts: training, learning, and improving. Her training had mostly been hand to hand with Steve, T'Challa, and Natasha, all of whom insisted that she start to learn how to fight without Crescent Rose. As T'Challa had said, she was relying on it far too much in battle. She had to learn how to fight without it for situations where she would be unable to access it, such as if it got knocked out of her hands during battle. While she spent much of those training sessions on the floor (particularly if it was Natasha running the show), she could feel her muscles starting to develop further. She was learning, albeit slowly.

As for learning about Earth's culture and history, that was mostly handled by Janet, with occasional appearances from Spider-Man. From what Ruby could tell, the planet was made up of hundreds of different countries, each with their own culture and laws, much like Remnant had been. Most of what Spider-Man had tried to drill into her was a bunch of what he called "pop culture." Though Ruby didn't understand why knowing about this stuff was important, it was amusing to hear him ramble on about "Star Wars" and "Star Trek."

In between the training sessions and the lessons with Janet, Ruby had spent time in the lab working on more modifications for Crescent Rose. She had made it clear that she wanted to help out on Earth as long as she was there. But, as Steve had pointed out, her weapon was still lethal. So she had decided to modify it further, and was happy when Tony offered his assistance as well. Originally, Ruby had wanted to add a miniature generator inside the weapon so she could fire repulsor blasts much like Tony could from his Iron Man suit. But Tony had rightfully pointed out that it wouldn't be easy due to the size and power constraints—not to mention that he wasn't fully willing to share all his tech with her. But what he had agreed to do was harness the power of his repulsors into rounds that could fit into magazines much like her Dust rounds once did. They would be far weaker than Tony's own due to the lack of an Arc Reactor, which meant that she wouldn't be able to kill anyone hit with these blasts, but it was a good compromise, in Ruby's opinion. And they still had far more recoil than anything she had used before.

For the scythe portion of Crescent Rose, Tony had whipped up a miniature force field that covered the blade, which she could turn on and off with a small button on the weapon's handle. With this shield activated, hits dealt by Crescent Rose would instead produce a small electric shock rather than a lethal blow. All that was left to do was to test the modifications out.

Truth be told, Ruby was glad that she was being kept busy. It kept her mind off worrying about where her friends were. In the week that she had been on Earth, there was still no sign of any of them. She was starting to believe that none of them were on Earth. Which meant that they could be on hostile planets in the far corners of the galaxy. Which was certainly a problem, as the Avengers' space capabilities were vastly limited. Steve had said that their strongest member, Thor, was due back any day now, would be more than happy to help locate them. Ruby could only hope that were okay.

"They're still alive," she told herself. "They're alive. And I'm going to see them again. And then we're going to get back to Remnant and take down Ultron once and for all."

Ruby shook her head to clear her thoughts as Tony led her into the training room. She had to focus on the task at hand, which was to test Crescent Rose's modifications.

"I'll monitor things from the observation room," Tony told her, walking off. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Tony," Ruby thanked him. Once the hero was gone, the lights dimmed and several walls began to rise up.

"Hello, Ruby Rose," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice boomed from the speakers. "Are you ready for your training exercise?"

"Let's do it," Ruby confirmed.

"Very well. This exercise will test your weapon's new functions. You will be faced with a variety of robotic adversaries. Some will take on the appearance of humans. Others will not. You must defeat the robots by using your weapon. However, inflicting lethal blows on the human foes will lower your final score. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Ruby answered.

"Very well. The exercise will begin in 3…2…1…begin."

Asgard—September 29

"Jaune?"

Jaune snapped out of thoughts. "Huh?"

"You okay?" Weiss asked, taking a seat next to him at the foot of the Asgardian palace.

"Yeah," Jaune answered. "Just…thinking is all."

"You've been doing a lot of that this past week," Weiss noted. "You're worried about Pyrrha, aren't you?"

Jaune sighed. "I wish I knew where she was. Where any of them are."

Weiss put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find them. Heimdall should be fully recovered from whatever Amora and Malekith did to him any day now. If he can see as well as Thor claims, it shouldn't take him long to find them."

"And then we'll get back to Remnant and take down Ultron," Jaune finished. "Together."

Weiss stood up. "Exactly."

Jaune stood up as well. "How about you?" he asked. "Figured out how to do that summoning thing you were talking about yet?"

"It's harder than it looks," Weiss admitted. "The best I've been able to do so far is partial summoning."

"You'll get it eventually,' Jaune assured her. "You're pretty quick to learn these sorts of things."

Weiss smiled slightly. "Thanks, Jaune."

"Ah, there you two are." Thor approached them from the palace. "It is time to go."

"Go?" Weiss asked. "Go where?"

"Midgard," Thor answered. "My father will awaken within the hour, and while you both have eternal gratitude for helping our forces against Malekith, it is still probably for the best that we vacate Asgard before Odin awakens. He has never been truly fond of mortals, especially those that have come unannounced."

"Won't that leave Asgard vulnerable to attack?" Jaune asked.

"Nay, Jaune Arc. By the time any of our enemies can rally for attack, Odin will have awakened. Asgard will be secure. Now come. Midgard awaits."

Jaune and Weiss followed Thor down away from the palace and towards the rainbow road that led to the Bifrost. When they reached Heimdall's observatory, they found that the Warriors Three were there.

"Come to say goodbye?" Jaune asked.

"Aye," Fandral confirmed. "It was an honor to fight by your side."

"We shall toast your names at feasts for many years to come!" Volstagg agreed.

"Farewell, mortals," Hogun said, bowing slightly to them. "May fortunes favor you in the future."

"Why Hogun, it almost sounds as if you will miss them," Fandral commented, slapping him on the back.

Hogun remained stone-faced. "I'll admit that they have proven their worth."

"Good luck, mortals," Fandral told them. "And when the time comes to retake your world from your foe, know that you will have the support of the Warriors Three."

"Thank you," Jaune answered. "Thank you all."

"It is time," Thor announced. "Open the Bifrost."

Volstagg walked to the sword that opened the Bifrost and twisted it within its pedestal. Seconds later, the portal opened. Weiss hesitated, staring directly at it. "Is this going to be as bad as the other portal on Jotunheim?" she asked.

"The Bifrost is about as stable of a gateway as we're going to get," Jaune assured her. "But trust me—it's still not a pleasant experience."

"Let us depart," Thor said, walking towards the portal. Jaune gave Weiss a confident look before following him through. After a moment's hesitation, Weiss followed.

Once again, Jaune found himself being pulled in multiple different directions as he plummeted through space. He barely registered Weiss flying behind him, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly, Jaune stumbled out onto solid ground. He nearly lost his footing, but recovered quickly. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked around to find himself alongside Thor and Weiss directly in front of a large mansion.

"What is this place?" Weiss asked.

"This is my home while on Midgard," Thor explained, "as well as the home of this world's greatest heroes. Come." He swept his cape behind him and marched up the front steps, throwing the front doors open. "Ho, Avengers!" he boomed. "Thor has returned!"

As Jaune and Weiss followed him into the main hall of the mansion, two men entered from another door. "Welcome back Thor," a blonde-haired man greeted him, shaking his hand.

"Thank you, Captain. It is good to be back on Midgard. Things on Asgard have been quite eventful these past few days."

"I'm sure you'll tell us all about it." The blonde main nodded in the direction of Jaune and Weiss. "Who are your new friends?"

"Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee," Thor introduced them. "Mortals from a world called—"

"Remnant," the blonde man interrupted as realization dawned on his face.

Jaune picked up on it quickly and knew instantly what it meant. "Someone's here?" he asked hopefully.

The blonde man nodded. "Your friend Ruby Rose has been with us for a week now."

"Ruby's here?" Weiss asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," the blonde man confirmed. "Though a little anxious about where her friends are. She'll be glad to know you're here." He turned to the other man. "Jarvis, would you mind getting Ruby up here? I think she's in the training room right now."

Jarvis bowed. "Of course, Captain Rogers." He turned around and headed off deeper into the mansion.

Jaune felt a surge of relief and joy at the news he had just heard. Ruby was here, alive and well. And if she was here, then there was a chance the others were somewhere on this planet too.

Things were finally starting to look up.

Ruby stood ready as several different robots rose up from the ground around her. They reminded her a little of Ultron's drones, which certainly helped her motivation.

She cocked Crescent Rose and lined up a shot on the first robot. She pulled the trigger and a beam of blue energy shot from the barrel, blowing the robot's head clean off and sending Ruby propelling backwards. She took advantage of this by activating her weapon's scythe and slicing another robot cleanly in half.

Two more robots aimed their hands at her and fired several blasts, which she easily dodged using her Semblance, closing the distance and slicing them to pieces.

Several spherical drones flew in from the ceiling, firing on her from above. She fired another few shots to speed herself away from them before slowing to a stop to fire on the drones. Each one, when hit, exploded in a shower of fire and shrapnel.

A shot hit Ruby in the shoulder, impacting her Aura. She turned around to see more robots, these ones taking on the appearance of Hydra soldiers. She smirked and pressed the button to activate the shield. Instantly, a sheen of red energy coated Crescent Rose's blade. As the robot Hydra soldiers opened fire, Ruby sped towards them with another burst of speed from her Semblance.

She swung into the first one, slashing it across the torso. The instant the robot connected with her force field, it collapsed to the ground, sparking. The other two robots there didn't fare any better.

Ruby twirled Crescent Rose as more robots rose from the training room floor. As they aimed their weapons at her, she slammed her own weapon into the floor before spinning around it, delivering a series of kicks to the nearby robots. She then swung under Crescent Rose, yanking it from the ground before converting it into a rifle and firing several more shots at the nearby foes, each one sliding her further and further away from them.

A robot hand clamped down on her shoulder. She quickly pointed Crescent Rose up and fired a shot straight through the robot, blowing a hole through its head. She got back on her feet as the remaining robots closed in around her.

She slammed Crescent Rose's point into the ground and took aim, firing multiple shots at them. Both the robots and the human replicas went down with ease, until Ruby's weapon clicked empty. She quickly grabbed another magazine from her belt and reloaded her weapon, but by the time she was ready, the robots were upon her.

She quickly adapted, swinging the weapon left and right and taking down robots and Hydra lookalikes with each swing. Robot parts were flying in all directions.

The last remaining robots were moving back behind cover, still firing on her. Ruby crouched into a running position before kicking off, using both her Semblance and Crescent Rose to increase her speed even further. She flew by the remaining robots, creating a backdraft that blew them all into the far wall. She skidded to a stop and jumped, pointing her weapon down and firing a shot to send her higher into the air. As she descended, she cut down each remaining robot as they were pinned to the wall before landing. A second later, the sliced-up robot parts fell behind her.

"Training level one complete," F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced as Tony descended into the training room.

"Everything seemed to hold up," Tony reported. "Your weapon didn't explode with the repulsor rounds and the force field's working to perfection. Keep fighting like you did, and you might even be able to beat Cap's record."

"Really?" Ruby asked hopefully.

Tony chuckled. "Kid, no one's been able to come close to Cap's record."

"Oh." Ruby chuckled awkwardly.

"Excuse me, Miss Rose." Jarvis entered the training room, "but Captain Rogers has requested your presence in the main hall."

"Is something wrong, Jarvis?" Ruby asked.

"I believe he means it to be a surprise."

It took a few moments for Ruby to realize what this could mean. The only thing it could mean. She quickly clipped Crescent Rose to her back and sped out of the training room with her Semblance, streaking straight into the elevator that led above ground.

"Please, please, please, please, please," she silently pleaded, her foot tapping with hopeful anticipation. When the elevator doors dinged open, she ran down the hallway and into the entrance hall. She skidded to a stop, letting out a startled gasp upon seeing who was in there.

For a moment, she didn't move. Her heart pounded in her chest. Then, emotion overtook her. She ran over to Weiss and Jaune and pulled them in for a hug.

"You're alive!" she cried, squeezing them tight. "You're alive!"

"Akh!" Weiss gasped. "Ruby—too—strong!"

But Ruby refused to let go. Tears were starting to run down her face as she squeezed her friends even tighter.

"Okay, okay, Ruby," Jaune rasped with a straggled cough. "You can—let go now."

Reluctantly, Ruby let go of them. "I—I'm sorry," she croaked. "I—I should've found you sooner—"

This time it was Weiss' turn to hug Ruby. "I'm glad you're okay too, Ruby," she told her, a smile forming on her face.

Ruby accepted the hug. "What happened to you guys?" she asked. "Where were you?"

Weiss and Jaune exchanged a look. "Well," Jaune admitted. "That's a long story."

"Asgard?" Ruby asked.

"It's a pretty magnificent place," Jaune answered. "Everyone there is pretty much several times stronger than all of us put together."

The three of them were in the lounge within Avengers Mansion. The Avengers had graciously given them some space to catch up with one another. Currently, Jaune was explaining to Ruby about where he had ended up and his adventure with Thor and Weiss.

"And the first thing you did was pick a fight with an Asgardian?" Ruby asked.

"Hey, he picked a fight with me!" Jaune protested.

Ruby snickered.

"At least I didn't get tricked by the mortal enemy of Asgard," Jaune pointed out.

"Wha—hey!" Weiss complained. "If you didn't know about who he really was—which you wouldn't have if you had ended up there with me—you would've fallen for his lies too!"

Both Ruby and Jaune shared a chuckle at that. A moment later, Weiss chuckled a bit too. "At least we were able to help save Asgard from Malekith."

"Barely," Jaune reminded her. "We got our butts kicked by Amora and Skurge."

"Only until you opened up the Casket of Ancient Winters and froze them both."

"What about you, Ruby?" Weiss asked her. "Did you get into any trouble when you showed up." Then she paused. "Wait—of course you did."

Ruby chuckled awkwardly. "I…may have helped fight off a few bad guys…including one with a scythe for a hand."

"Yep. I knew it," Weiss said. "No matter where we go, you always seem to get yourself into trouble."

"At least we're all here," Jaune said after a moment. "At least we're okay."

The three of them descended into silence for a moment as they thought about their missing friends. "Are you sure there's no sign of them on this planet?" Weiss eventually asked.

"The Avengers have been monitoring everything since they found me, looking for similar power readings like they detected when I came here," Ruby explained. "So far…nothing."

"Who knows where the others are," Jaune said. "I mean, I ended up on Asgard. Ruby ended up on Earth. Weiss ended up on Jotunheim. It's like whatever that thing was that Ruby broke on Remnant, it sent us all to the far corners of the galaxy."

Ruby tilted her head down slightly. "From what the Avengers told me…if I hadn't done it, we'd all be dead now. Even they have had trouble beating Ultron."

"I didn't mean it in a bad way, Ruby," Jaune quickly told her. "I was just making a statement. No one blames you for what happened. Heck, we should probably be thanking you for saving our lives."

Ruby managed a smile again. "Thanks, Jaune. I just…hope everyone else is okay…wherever they ended up. And on Remnant too."

"No doubt everyone on Remnant is still fighting," Jaune spoke up hopefully. "Ozpin and Glinda and all of them. They're not going down without a fight."

"We're going to get back there eventually," Weiss agreed. "Once we find the others, we're going to find a way back to Remnant and then we'll shut down Ultron for good."

"The Avengers are going to help us with that," Ruby added. "They've fought Ultron before. They know how to take him down. When the time comes, they'll help us save our home."

"That's good to hear," said Weiss. "With how ineffective we were against Ultron back in Vale, we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to win."

"But first thing's first," Jaune interrupted, "we need to find the others."

"We will," Ruby promised. "But at least we're together, safe with allies. They've been training me this past week in combat. And they have a place here in the mansion where you can modify your weapons. Without Dust, they're going to need some upgrades."

"It would be nice to be able to use Myrtenaster at full power again," Weiss admitted.

"Yeah, well, I think my weapon's already good to go," Jaune said. "The smiths on Asgard reinforced it with Asgardian metal."

"And gave you some new armor too, it looks like," Ruby noted. "You look amazing, by the way." She then looked at Weiss. "How come you didn't get Asgardian armor too?"

"They offered to forge her some after she helped save Asgard," Jaune told her. "But she said no."

Weiss shrugged. "Hey, I happen to like the way I look."

"In that dress?" Jaune asked.

Weiss stamped her foot. "Why does everyone keep saying that it's a dress? I keep telling you guys, it's a combat skirt."

The three of them shared another laugh, which also served to relax Ruby even more. For the first time since Ultron attacked, she felt well and truly at ease. Two of her friends—including her best friend, Weiss—were back with her. And she wasn't planning on leaving them again anytime soon. The hope that she would find her friends—the feeling that had been slowly starting to wane—was finally restored. For, now that there were three of them together, it could be that much easier to find the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR.

For once, she was at peace.

"She's definitely in a better mood than she has been this past week," Steve noted as he watched Ruby, Jaune, and Weiss through the security cameras.

"No kidding," Tony agreed.

"Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee as well seem more relaxed," Thor added, standing behind the other two men. "It is good to see them reunite with their friend."

"Now, let's only hope that the rest of their group can be found as well," Steve said.

"Are we planning on keeping all of them here at the mansion?" Natasha asked. "Because that would start to crowd things out. Not to mention raise some eyebrows that the Avengers are letting strange aliens live amongst them."

"Tony and I have been talking about that," Steve told her. "And we may have an idea for that."

"I've been starting to work on renovating one of my old penthouses on the other side of the city," Tony explained. "Turning it into a living space, upgrading the tech, that sort of thing. Once it's ready, we can move Ruby and her friends in there and have an Avenger or another hero chaperone them until we get this mess sorted out."

"What hero would volunteer to watch over a bunch of kids?" Natasha asked.

"If needed, we'll keep it on a rotating basis," Steve answered. "So that no one is away from their regular duties for too long."

"And what about Ultron?" Thor asked.

Steve crossed his arms. "I promised Ruby that we would help her and her people against him."

"And does she know about Ultron's origins?"

"No," Tony answered. "And I don't want you telling her either. Do Weiss and Jaune know?"

"Nay," Thor replied. "It did not come up in conversation. Why would keep such important information from our allies?"

"I'm not sure they'll trust us if they learn that we're indirectly responsible for what's happening on their planet," Tony explained. "Speaking of which, have you ever heard of Remnant before?"

Thor shook his head. "I have never come across such a world. When Heimdall recovers from his injuries, he will attempt to locate Remnant so that we at least know where to go when the time comes to fight Ultron."

"It's a start," Steve said. "That's about all we can ask for at the moment."

"Excuse me, Captain," Vision's voice came over the comm. "But I believe I have a development regarding our Remnant friends."

"What kind of a development?" Steve asked.

"It is best that you come see for yourself."

"What's this about?" Ruby asked hopefully as she, Weiss, and Jaune entered the War Room. "Did you find someone else?"

"I believe I have," Vision answered.

Both Weiss and Jaune took a step back once they had a good look at Vision. "It's okay," Ruby said quickly. "Vision's a good robot. He's not like Ultron."

"What have you got, Vision?" Steve asked.

"I was going through old readings from the past week when I stumbled upon an anomaly," Vision explained. "Upon further investigation, I discovered that this anomaly covered up what I believe to be an identical match to the same energy readings from when Ruby first arrived on Earth."

"Really?" Ruby asked. "Does that mean someone else is here?!"

"I believe so. I used one of Iron Man's satellites and did an investigation of the surrounding area over the course of the days following." Vision pressed a button and an image appeared on a monitor—one featuring a blurry image of two individuals: a boy with dark hair wearing green and a girl with orange hair wielding a giant hammer. "Do these two—"

"That's Nora and Ren!" Ruby cried with joy.

"They're alive," Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's go get them then," Weiss decided.

"It is not that simple," Vision warned.

"Why not?" Ruby asked. "If they're on Earth, we can just go get them."

Steve held up a hand for quiet. "Vision," he asked carefully. "Where exactly are they?" Ruby could tell that he had an idea of what the answer was—and it wasn't good.

"The reason that this anomaly blocked the original readings was because it was deliberately blocked," Vision explained. "Someone tried to cover it up."

"Where are they, Vision?"

Vision stared the group down. "Latveria. They are in Latveria."

Tony let out a muttered curse. "Damnit."

"What's wrong?" Weiss asked. "What's in Latveria?"

"Not what," Steve corrected, turning to face them. "Who."

"Okay…who's in Latveria?"

And then Steve said a name that, for some reason, chilled Ruby to the bone.

"Doom."

That's right, folks: we're going to Latveria! And if you think that Nora and Ren will have it bad there, trust me-this isn't even the worst spot the RWBY characters are in.

And yes, this does mean that Doctor Doom will be the villain for this arc. This should be quite an interesting challegne. After all, Doom is such a complex character that it is very rare for him to be done right. As of now, no movie has ever gotten him right, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. But we'll see if I can pull it off.

Couple of more things to touch on for this chapter. First, as you've noticed, I'm going to be starting to put the date up for scenes and chapters going forward. This is so we start to get a sense of the passage of time throughout this story. And this way, I can distinguish flashback scenes easily. As for why I chose this specific date, well...from my research, as near as I can tell, the Vytal Festival on Remnant takes place during the Fall. However, no official date for it has been revealed from what I can tell. So I just had to come up with a random date essentially. It may not be completely accurate from what actual dates are on Remnant, but my defense for that is that Earth would logically not share the exact same timeframe as Remnant does.

Also, Ruby has some new upgrades for Crescent Rose, including something that allows her to fight with her scythe and not actually kill anyone. Plus, upgraded ammo into what is essentially a repulsor blast contained in a bullet. Would it be possible in actuality? Maybe, maybe not. But it's my story, and it at least makes some sort of sense. Plus, I just love the way that "repulsor round" sounds. Isn't alliteration awesome?

But anywho, that's all from me. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, signing off.