A/N: Hey there, guys! Sorry that this chapter's a bit late, but it ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated. Given that I'm pretty much adapting an episode here, I suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise. But I also had a bit of a power outage earlier in the week that delayed work on this chapter even further, so that didn't exactly help things either. But, I'm here now, so let's get down to business, shall we? Time to see how the gang handle being transformed into children! This is…

Chapter 80: Arrested Development

…..

Hope had absolutely NO idea what she was doing. The moment she got back to the Plumber base, she asked about Jinn and was immediately brought ALL the way down to what had to be the very bottomest of bottom levels in the entire facility. She was fairly certain that there WAS no further down. 'This has to be even FURTHER down from the cell I used to be in.' she deduced as she and the Plumber agent escorting her stepped out of the elevator. The two were in a very secluded room with a single walkway that led to a separate chamber room on the other end, which only put the silver-haired sorceress off even more.

The guard stopped in place and pulled up his plasma rifle, taking the lead. "Alright, this is it."

"Er, wait, it is?" Hope questioned.

"Yes, ma'am." he said as he went up to the door, placed his eye in front of the electronic lock, and proceeded to get scanned by it. With a massive *KER-CHUNK* the door opened, to which he abruptly snapped to the opposite direction. "Now, you know what to do."

She really didn't, though. "I… do?"

"Of course. Just follow Gwen Tennyson's instructions like she told you and you'll be fine."

Thinking back to said directions, Hope took a few seconds to recount them to herself. 'Speak Jinn's name, give her the artifacts, don't ask questions.' She took a deep breath and nodded. "Hah, alright. Guess I'm going in."

"Don't worry. Miss Tennyson's usually out in less than a couple seconds." the man reassured her. "It shouldn't take you too awful long. Just make sure you close the door behind you."

Hope shrugged and proceeded into the room, doing what she was told and shutting the door on the way. Inside, she was met with a very sterile, white environment, almost as if she had stepped over into a doctor's office of some kind. And the only other thing inside the room other than her… was a floating, golden lamp. It was inside a clear containment tube, spinning slowly as it bobbed up and down. As if detecting her presence, the tube lifted up, eliciting a small gasp and a flinch from the woman. Hesitantly, she eyed the floating lamp for a few seconds, recognizing that there was quite a bit of power radiating from within.

And from there it didn't take long for her to put two and two together. "…Wait. A lamp, magical energy, and…" Charmcaster raised her head up and proclaimed; "Jinn!" Just like that, the mage could feel the air around her stop, and she knew exactly what that likely meant. Time itself had come to a standstill around her, and from there, a blue mist began billowing out of the lamp, coiling around the entire room before it finally took shape…

…Of a giant, beautiful naked blue lady in a shower cap, holding a scrub brush and a loofa as soap suds ran down her back. To top it all off, a rubber ducky was floating in the air next to her head. "Hmph, of course it's during my cleaning hour. Gwendolyn, dear, you either have poor timing or you want to see more of me than you let on. I—" But then, she stopped in midsentence, her eyes widening when she saw Hope gawking in disbelief at the soapy blue woman in front of her. "…You aren't my mistress."

'…Gwen, what the hell are you into?' With her cheeks bright red and her mind going a million miles an hour, Hope was at a loss as to what to say to the magical being before her. "I-I, um—I-I'm just—"

"Speak UP, girl!" Jinn demanded with a snap of her fingers, poofing away all of the bath paraphernalia and drying herself off in an instant. For good measure, she also put her gold metal brasier and thong on to try and get the girl's mind back on track. "You act as if you've never seen a woman take a bath before."

"I HAVEN'T!" Hope asserted, her cheeks beet red at this point.

"Then it pleases me to be the first." Jinn placed her hands on her hip, wearing a knowing smile. "But wait, let me guess… you must be this Charmcaster girl, correct? Or do you prefer Hope? Gwendolyn has told be both."

A pit of frustration was growing in the sorceress' stomach. 'Oh, so SHE can ask questions, but I can't? Okay, sure, THAT'S completely fair.' Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Hope steadied herself and focused back to the main topic. "Hope is fine, thank you. Now, if you don't mind…" She reached for her rucksack and pulled out the Quetzalcoatl tail and Ishtar Tablet fragment. "I need these to be stored in a safe place."

Jinn's eyes brightened up and she waved her hands to the two artifacts. "Ah, yes! Gwendolyn told me that this would be coming back to my lamp soon…" The serpent's tail lifted into the air and went back to its normal size, only to completely turn into blue smoke and get sucked into the lamp the next second. However, Jinn took a moment to inspect the tablet fragment herself. "Hmm… how very interesting. I can tell that this is incredibly powerful… though it doesn't have its whole power."

"Correct." Hope confirmed. "The other pieces are scattered all over the world, and we need to retrieve them before our enemies do."

"Hm, I see." With another snap of her fingers, Jinn sent the fragment into her lamp as well, smiling down to the young sorceress. "Now, was there anything else you needed, dear?"

Charmcaster shook her head vehemently, moving to turn back to the door. "Nope! That's it. Thank you very much for your help, but I really must—"

"Wait." She didn't get far before Jinn swooped around in front of her, blocking her way with her arms out wide. "Before you leave, Hope, there's something I must tell you."

But the already flustered sorceress didn't want to be in that room for longer than she had to be. "L-Listen, if this is about walking in on your wash time, I am SO sorry for—"

"Ha! Oh, no, no, NO. That's not it at all, my dear." Jinn floated down directly in front of the young woman, her body partially dissipating into blue smoke so that she was now only just a little bit taller than Hope herself. "It's alright, I didn't take offense to the intrusion. Caught off guard, perhaps, but I am not upset about it. Rather… what I have to tell you concerns you specifically."

That took Hope by surprise herself. She certainly hadn't expected THIS from the genie whom she'd just met. "I… I-I don't think I understand."

Jinn gave her a soft smile as she swirled around Hope, leaving a trail of blue vapors in her wake. "Oh, my dear, I can sense just from your presence alone that you are a very special young lady, Hope. One who has great potential to be something even greater than what you already are." She raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. "Your skill with magic is obvious, and you carry a sizeable amount of power with you already. But I suggest you be prepared. You may yet receive even more power than any you could ever imagine."

"I-I'm still not sure what you mean." Hope stammered. "What kind of power cou—mmm!" Slapping her hand over her mouth, the silver-haired girl stopped herself from asking a question, which made Jinn smirk.

"Ah, nearly forgot about that rule, did you? Good catch." Giving her a wink, Jinn went over and poked Hope on the forehead. "But don't worry, I wouldn't have answered that question even if you'd asked. Knowing your future can be a dangerous thing, after all. Old Ozpin found that out the hard way." Floating up again, Jinn changed back to her normal size, smirking down to Hope knowingly. "For now, though, my advise to you is to be vigilant, and to keep doing what you're doing. You'll find out what I mean one day. …Oh, and you may wish to return to your friends. They're going to need your help very soon. Farewell for now, dear. Until we meet again."

And with that, Jinn went back inside the lamp, allowing time to resume around Hope as she let out a heavy breath. "Hah… hah… what… was that?" she asked herself.

However, not two seconds later, the door behind her opened up, the Plumber agent rushing in. "Charmcaster! We have a situation!"

"AAAH!" Hope screamed and spun around, raising a mana-charged hand on instinct. "Would it kill you to KNOCK?!"

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am!" the agent apologized with a bow. "B-But… I-I just received an urgent call from Magister Tennyson. He says that Raven contacted the Plumber base just a few moments ago saying that something bad has happened."

Immediately, Hope's attention was focused squarely on the man, questioning what he meant. "What?! A-Are the others…"

"They're okay, but… well, the Magister said you'd need to see it to believe it."

Hope wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but from how worried the agent seemed, she knew to take it seriously. "Okay, get me back up top. Now."

…..

After returning to the surface, Hope met up with Max who brought her straight to the Rustbucket where they drove off as fast as possible to Ben's house. The reason why was still something that the old Plumber was still keeping mum about, though. "Okay, Max, I know that we're in a hurry, but could you possibly please explain WHY we're breaking every speed law imaginable to get where we need to go?" She glanced over to Max in the driver's seat, concerned over what was happening. "What IS going on?"

"You'll find out when we get there, Hope." Max assured. "From what Raven reported to us, you're going to need to see it to believe it."

Hope narrowed her eyes at him. "Have YOU seen it?"

Max shook his head. "Nope, but with how long I've been doing this, I certainly believe it."

"Wow, so we're just going to be playing the secret-keeping game with this one." Hope rolled her eyes and sat back, folding her arms over her chest. "How fun."

Thankfully, it was NOT a long drive by any means, the three arriving at Ben's residence in less than fifteen minutes. And, once they got there, they were met with several others all arriving at the same time. The first to pull up was Natalie in her mini-van, with all of Team JNPR piled in the back as well. And directly behind them were Ken and Winter, having followed them in the former's car. Finally, Evelyn had pulled up to the curb across the street, with Neptune and Penny both with her as well.

Once everyone was out in front of the home, though, Jaune was the first to break the ice. "So… I'm guessing you all got the same weird call, too?"

"If you mean the one where Raven asked us to bring children's clothes to Ben's house, then yeah." Neptune piped up, glancing to Evelyn's arms to see a black shirt with the sleeves torn off, a pair of matching black shorts, and black sneakers to go along with it. "Seriously, what's with the odd request?"

"I'm not sure." Natalie admitted, glancing down to her own daughter's hand-me-down clothes that she had kept in a box in the attic. "…Though my suspicions are high since Raven made me bring FIVE sets that are all in VERY specific colors."

"…The colors of Team RWBY, might I add." Ren explained.

By that point, Hope was also hearing alarm bells going off in her head. Something was DEFINITELY wrong here, and she narrowed her eyes at Max who was shuffling in place awkwardly. "Alright, Max, I know that you didn't want to come right out and say it, but please, just rip the band-aid off and tell us what exactly happened."

"Yeah, grandpa, what is going on here?" Kenny joined in as well. "Are my cousins okay? Is there something wrong?"

Max cleared his throat and pulled at his collar, stuttering at the sudden pressure being put on him. "N-No! Son, the kids are perfectly healthy, I swear to you. They just… might not seem like their usual selves right now."

Before anyone could ask what THAT meant, however, the front door creaked open and Sandra slowly peaked her head out, only to sigh in relief and open the door fully. "Oh, thank goodness, it's only you! Oh!" Rushing outside, Sandra went over to her sister-in-law and procured a handful of Gwen's clothing. "And you brought the clothes, perfect!"

"W-What? Sandra, what's going—AAH!"

Natalie's sudden gasp made everyone whirl toward her in shock. "M-Mom!" Kenny rushed over, taking her by the shoulders as she nearly fell to the ground. "What's happening?!"

Just then, a voice that absolutely NO ONE recognized entered the conversation… at least, no one except for the Tennyson Family themselves. "I'll tell ya what's goin' on, cous'." Kenny's eyes widened at the familiar, boyish tone and he snapped his head to the front door… and what he saw made his jaw drop. There, standing on the front porch leaning against the door frame… was his cousin. His KID cousin, dressed in the very same white and black shirt that he always used to wear, claiming it was "lucky". He also wore a pair of matching white and black shoes and baggy, olive green pants and, completing the nostalgic ensemble.

Max, Natalie and Kenny were left stunned into silence… while everyone else was just confused. "Um… who's the kid?" Nora asked.

"…Uh, Nora? Hello?" Lifting up his arm, the "kid" revealed… that he had the Omnitrix, and within seconds, everything started clicking into place. "Sheesh, guys, it's only been what? A couple days since ya last saw me?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened while Jaune, Nora and Neptune's jaws all simultaneously fell and broke through the pavement. "B-B-B… BEN?!"

"WHAT THE FU—"

"Nora! Language!" Natalie admonished.

For her part, Evelyn couldn't believe it. "Oh… oh my goodness. Ben, is that… really you?"

"The one and only." Ben affirmed, raising his hands up. "Though today, you guys are getting Ben Classic, whether you want him or not."

With a skeptical eye, Penny came forward and performed a scan on the boy, just to be sure that he was who he claimed to be. Sure enough, after a few seconds probing every detail that she could visibly see… it was all a match. "He's telling the truth." the redheaded android proclaimed with an intrigued grin. "He is, in fact, one-hundred percent Ben Tennyson! Quite fascinating, indeed!"

Putting a hand to her forehead, Winter simply continued staring at the now younger Ben, questioning everything that she was seeing. "This… this can't possibly be happening right now, can it? It goes against all laws of physics!"

But Ben simply gave her a questioning look and retorted; "Uh, Winter, after the others got transformed into hybrid versions of my aliens, THIS is what you're finding hard to believe?"

"W-Well, I mean… how ELSE do you expect me to react?!" Winter gestured to the rest of the group. "Let alone ALL of us! I-I mean you're… you're—"

"SO ADORABLE!" Nora cried out and zoomed forward, locking Ben in a soul-crushing embrace. "Oh my freaking GOD, you're just too cute for words!"

"N-Nora! Please!" Ben choked out, already feeling his circulation being cut off. "Now's NOT the time to be gushing!"

With a slight grimace, Ren came forward and managed to pry Nora off of Ben, forcing her away. "Nora! We need to take this seriously." His eyes trailed down to Ben, who was trying to regain his breath. "Think about how Ben must be feeling right now. He probably doesn't want to be trapped in a child's body right now, right?"

"That is correct, Ren." came another voice from inside the house. Everyone darted their eyes to something coming up from behind Ben, and they were all the more stunned when they realized that it was Rook… who was now ALSO a child. "And he is not the only one who wishes to return to normal."

"…Oh good god, Ben wasn't the only one who got hit." Ren concluded, only for Nora to scream right in his ear again.

"AAAAAAAH! ROOK!" Back once again to the hug-fest, Nora whisked Rook off the ground and pulled him in, delighted in the Revonnahgander's current state. "EEEEEE! Oh my gosh, you're so freaking CUTE! AH! And you've got a tail?! Has that always been a thing?"

Much to her dismay, though, Rook managed to wiggle himself free, landing on the ground with an irritable huff. "Hmph, yes… at least it USED to be. Our bi'nthak usually fall off during maturity—gah!" As if in response, the tail whipped up and smacked him in the face, making him push it back down. "Grr, and I did not miss mine one bit."

Nora put on a pouty face hearing that. "Aw! But it makes you at least twenty percent cuter!"

Rook raised an eyebrow up at her, placing his hands to his hips. "I was not aware that "cuteness" could be measured by percentages."

"It's a meme, Rook." Pyrrha stated as she placed her hand on Nora's shoulder, gently ushering her away from the young Revonnahgander. "But let's return to the subject at hand. You and Ben were both hit by this de-aging ray…" Her gaze went over to Natalie and Kenny, the three of them all beginning to realize the implications of this. "…And given that you asked us to bring children's clothes, I hazard to guess that even more of you were as well."

"Oh… oh my goodness. Let me in!" Natalie blew past Sandra and gingerly side-stepped the others at a pace that surprised everyone, all while calling out to her daughter; "Gwen! GWEN?!"

Evelyn gasped as well and charged in after Natalie, on the search for her son. "Kevin! Kevin, are you—AH!" She and Natalie cried out in shock when they entered the house… and were immediately met with the sight of their children sitting in the living room.

Kevin was sitting in a chair with his arms crossed and feet sticking straight out, his baggy clothes hanging loosely on him. Meanwhile, Gwen was huddled up on the sofa, keeping her own clothes tight around her as she kept her head holed up in her shirt. Between both of them was Qrow, the huntsman wearing an awkward grimace as the ladies entered. "Hah… hey ladies." he waved first. "Glad you could make it."

Bringing his head up, Kevin winced as he and his mother made eye contact, feeling especially unnerved. "…Hi mom."

"…Oh, sweetheart." Evelyn moved over to the chair and placed his change of clothes on the armrest… and then enveloped him in a big hug. "Honey, are you okay? You're not… hurt, are you?"

"W-Wha? No, ma, I feel fine!" Kevin lifted his arms to try and get out, but instead wound up bringing them around her neck, falling into the embrace. "I-I mean… most I'm upset about right now is that I couldn't drive back here on my own."

With a resolute nod, Evelyn pulled away and met her son's gaze once again. "Well, don't worry, honey. I'm sure whatever did this to you, it can be reversed. Until then, though, here…" She picked up the clothes and handed them to him. "You can at least wear these until that happens."

"Woah…" Kevin picked up the familiar clothes, his lips curling into a smile. "Hah, I haven't worn these in years!" Hopping off the couch, he took the clothes and gave his mom a thumbs up. "Thanks, ma. I'm gonna go change."

As the Osmosian talked with Evelyn, though, Natalie was much more stunned by the state that her daughter was in. Not only had she regressed in age… but there was something else that was wrong with her. She could tell just by looking at her. She was joined by her son and husband as well, the two staring at the young redhead in astonishment while Winter and Hope came up to her side in support. "…Gwen?" Natalie knelt down next to her daughter, placing the clothes down and reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Sweetie, are you… alright?"

A deep sniffle was all the answer she needed, and the moment Gwen raised her head, Natalie was met with a tear-stained face and quivering lips. It had been so long since she had seen her daughter so… vulnerable. Whoever had done this to her… they had left her shellshocked. "M-M-Mom, I… I-I'm so s-s-sorry—"

"No!" Natalie pulled her daughter in, giving her a shoulder to cry on as she reassured her. "Gwen, honey, NONE of this is your fault. The… the bastard who did this to you—THEY'RE to blame."

"B-But I couldn't STOP it from happening!" Gwen weeped into her mother's blouse, but Natalie just continued to do her best to comfort her. "My friends, my family, my own BOYFRIEND! I let them all get changed into… i-into—"

However, both Winter and Hope cut her off, placing their hands on her shoulders to show their support. "Gwen, if you think that you're a failure for this, then you'd best rethink that." Winter admonished with a small grin of her own. "What happened was an accident, nothing more."

"And even then, it's an accident that can and WILL be undone." Hope asserted, raising a confident fist. "I promise you, we'll find the one who did this to you and we'll get you back to normal. And if that fails, then I'll find a spell that'll return you to your proper age myself!"

With a few more sniffles, Gwen managed to compose herself a little, wiping her tears away on her sleeve. "Snf… th-thanks, Hope… oh! Wait a second!" Her sadness seemingly forgotten about, Gwen recalled what she asked of the sorceress earlier. "Did you get a chance to talk to Jinn like I said?"

Hope's lips inadvertently tightened at that, her eyes darting around the room as she uttered; "Uh… yeah… I did."

Gwen deadpanned, seemingly able to tell that something was wrong. "You didn't ask her any questions, did you?"

"No! No, I didn't. It's just… well, I had an… interesting experience with her, let's just say that." Charmcaster narrowed her eyes down to the younger redhead. "Which, by the way, you could've warned me that she doesn't mind galivanting in front of people naked."

Flinching, Gwen blushed and looked away from her friend. "I-I'm sorry! I… didn't exactly have the time to explain that much to you. …Guess I'm paying for that now, though." She cleared her throat and pointed down to the pile of old clothes. "But, um, speaking of decency… do you think I can go change now, please?"

"Oh, of course, dear." Natalie helped Gwen up and toward the nearest bathroom. "Come on, I'll help you along the way…"

By the time Gwen was gone, Team JNPR had just gotten in the house, and even from what they had seen, they were still having quite the time trying to process everything. "I-I'm honestly having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around this." Jaune admitted, sitting on the chair where Kevin was just moments ago. He set his sights on to Ben, asking; "Who in the hell even DID this to you guys?"

The Omnitrix bearer scowled and tightened his fist around one of his sleeves. "Ugh, some rich dumbass called—"

"Ben!" Sandra suddenly shouted, wagging her finger at him. "What have I told you about—"

"Mom, I'm not ACTUALLY eleven, you know." Ben deadpanned, placing a hand on his chest. "I'm still almost eighteen, remember?"

With her cheeks flushing pink, Sandra blinked in realization before backing off. "O-Oh, hah, that's right, I'm sorry hon. Force of habit, I suppose. Continue."

"Thanks! Anyway, it was this rich asshole named "Billy Billions"." His choice of words took everybody by surprise, to say the least. "Yeah, yeah, you can bet I'm gonna say ALL the swear words I can with this voice. Anyway, apparently, he was jealous of me back in junior high and he tried to get rid of me by sending me into Dimension 12 without me even knowing." He smirked as he went on. "But it totally backfired on him, sending HIM to Dimension 12 for seven years instead. The whole scenario made him stop aging on top of that, so I can only guess that THIS…" Ben gestured to himself, "is his idea of payback."

Pyrrha couldn't help but furrow her brow skeptically. "So, wait… he wanted to take revenge on you… for something that HE got himself into?"

Kenny couldn't help but sour at the thought. "Not gonna lie, the kid sounds incredibly petty."

"I know, right?" Ben rolled his eyes and put his hands to his hips. "So lame!"

"Okay, so why aren't we already out there searching for him now?" Ren inquired. "That seems like a more prudent course of action than just gathering here."

Raising a finger, Ben explained; "Well, first, we gotta wait until the girls wake up and get dressed. We gotta have 'em with us if we all wanna get back to normal." He then put up another finger. "And secondly, we've already got a search team going. Sun, Rex, Ilia and Swift are all out on the town searching for Billy… along with a certain friend we made in France. Once we hear from them, we'll know exactly where to go."

Nora tilted her head at that last part. "Huh? A friend? What friend?"

With a devious grin, Ben winked to her. "Oh, you'll find out in a little bit. For now, though… all we can do is wait."

"Hm, I see." Winter nodded, standing up while gathering the clothes for Team RWBY in her arms. "Well, I'm going to head upstairs and deliver these to the girls. …Hah, I cannot believe I'm about to see my sister as a child. It's… been a long time since those days." A forlorn smile graced her lips. "I should probably make use of the opportunity for as long as I can."

Ben gave a low chuckle, rubbing the underside of his nose. "Heh, good luck with that. Pretty sure Raven's gonna try the same thing…" With a single nod, Winter left and went straight upstairs, leaving the others behind as Max walked in. Ben felt his shoulders sag as his grandfather knelt in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Not gonna lie, grandpa, this HAS to be the weirdest thing I've been put through."

"Ah, it's up there, undoubtedly." Max concurred. "But like you said, you'll be back to normal before you know it. I've got faith in you kids that you can do it… but hopefully you'll be able to get it done before the day's out."

The hero furrowed his brow in confusion. "Huh? Whaddya mean?"

Max wore a sheepish smile, rubbing his neck. "Hehe, well… let's just say a very important friend of mine is coming by for a visit later. You remember Donovan Grand-Smith, right?"

"Uh… oh, yeah!" Ben nodded. "He was the guy who tried to make that underwater resort and failed miserably because of giant squids, right?"

"Er, yeah, maybe don't bring that up to him when he gets here." the old man advised. "Anyway, Donovan and his family recently bought some property here in Bellwood and they were swinging by to inspect the place… he also may have mentioned about wanting to talk some business with you kids."

That piqued Neptune's interest, peeking his head over Ben's. "W-Wait, a billionaire wants to talk turkey with US?!"

"Ooh, how thrilling!" Penny bounced excitingly. "I can only imagine what he wants to talk with US about."

Jaune, however, was a bit concerned. "Uh… this guy wouldn't happen to be one of those billionaires who puts up a nice front only to be an absolute scumbag underneath, would he? And he's not, like, related to this Billy guy, right?"

But Max was quick to deny that. "What? No! Of course not. Donovan and I go WAY back. He's one of the actual GOOD billionaires out there, in fact."

"Yep, from what I remember of him, I can vouch for that." Ben said, tapping his chin in thought. "And if I remember right, he had a grandson about my age, too. I think his name was—"

"AAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEE!"

A loud scream came bursting through the entire house, making everyone jump and cover their ears. The hairs on Rook's tail even stood up on end, he had been so startled. Ben, however, knew exactly who that scream had to belong to. "Oh boy… Weiss is up."

"How do you know it is her and not one of the others?" Rook asked as he tried getting control of his tail.

The Omnitrix bearer gave another eyeroll. "Trust me, she's the ONLY one dramatic enough to scream that loud about something like this."

…..

Upstairs, meanwhile, the scream had managed to stir the other girls from their slumber, starting with Yang. The first thing she heard when her eyes opened were one; hyperventilating, and two; the voices of Winter and her parents trying to console her friend. "Weiss, please, you need to remain calm." the elder Schnee said, calm yet firm. "Devolving into hysterics isn't going to help your situation."

"Listen to your sister, Weiss." Raven chimed in. "This is no time to panic."

"HAH-HAH-HAH! OH, REALLY?! Weiss screamed, her breathing erratic and her voice raised to the point of almost screaming. "Because let me tell you, this is the PERFECT time to panic! I'm—no, we're ALL—"

But Tai interrupted her before she could finish. "We KNOW what you girls are right now, and we're trying to find a way to fix it. Rex and the others are out searching for that Billions kid right now, so—"

"OH-HO-HO, REX! You had BETTER save some of him for me!" Weiss exclaimed, and it was only then that Yang noticed something seemed… off about her voice. "I swear, I am going to BEAT the ever-living crap out of—"

"Mmph! Would you keep it down?" Blake piped up… and it was the sound of her voice that elevated Yang's concerns even more. "I'm trying to sleep here."

However, Weiss wasn't about to let that happen. "Oh, no, no, no, NO! Blake, you need to get up THIS instant and see what's happened to us! You won't BELIEVE this!"

As worried as Yang was, however, she also recognized when Weiss was being overly dramatic, so she propped herself up on her arms to speak up. "Ugh, Weiss, would you…" But then, she trailed off, finally hearing herself speak. She was very much higher-pitched, just as her friends were. And, as she got up, Yang also noticed that she felt a lot… lighter than usual. Not only that, but Winter and her parents were a LOT bigger as well. Did… did she shrink? "Mom? Dad?"

"Hah! Yang!" Raven hurried over to her daughter, staring at her with relieved eyes. "Dear, are you okay? You don't feel… anything odd, do you?"

"I… don't feel sick or anything, if that's what you mean." Pushing herself up to a seating position, Yang plopped down on the bed… and that's when she was finally able to get a good look at herself. Her hands, for one, were much smaller than they had been, to the point where Ember Celica just fell off of her wrists. Not only that, but her legs were dangling out of her jean shorts, and they were MUCH thinner than she remembered them being. And finally… it donned on her. "Wait…" The place where she felt lighter the most… was in her chest. Her head snapped down… and her fears were confirmed.

Her girls were gone. She was thin. No ifs, ands or bust about it. Outside of losing her hair, it had to be one of her worst nightmares come true. …And then another revelation hit her. She reached up, and to her horror, her hair was now shoulder length. "AAAAAAAAHHH!" She shot up to her feet, already feeling her clothes start to slip. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

"Y-Yang, sweetheart, calm down." Tai asserted, sitting her back down with a firm hand to her shoulder. "And please, don't fall out of your clothes."

But Yang wasn't in the mood to listen to reason. "Calm down?! Calm DOWN?! Dad, how do you expect me to calm down when I'm a… a-a KID?!"

Just then, Weiss' voice piped up from behind her parents. "Welcome to the club, Yang." Lavender eyes widened as Yang whipped around, seeing the heiress come around the corner. She too had been de-aged, to the point that the scar over her right eye was no longer even there. Her hair was slightly shorter as well, though it was still done up in her signature ponytail. "At least you're not the only one."

"AH! Oh my god!" The duo turned again, seeing Blake standing with her mouth agape and her own clothes loosely hanging from her body. Her hair was still short, though it might've even been a tiny bit shorter. "W-What's happened to us?!"

"Well, obviously, we've been reduced to preteens." Weiss concluded, placing her hands on her hips with an angry glare. "And I have a pretty good feeling I know who did it."

Yang's fists clenched with rage, her teeth grit together vengefully. "Billy! That little asshole did this to us—WOAH!" Unfortunately, she ended up falling face-first over the edge of the bed. Scrambling to her feet, Yang let out a groan and salvaged the situation. "Ugh, I meant to do that. Okay, girls, I think we all know what the mission is now, right?"

Raising both hands in determination, Blake gave her partner a nod. "Right! We've gotta get ourselves back to normal as quick as we can!"

"My sentiments exactly." Weiss approved, marching straight to the door. "Now come on, let's—"

"Ahem." Raven cleared her throat, sending a disapproving glare down to the three. "I hope you're not forgetting something important. Or rather, someone." She moved so that the girls could see the fourth bed… and what they saw made all of them make a beeline straight for it. "Your leader isn't in any shape to go anywhere, after all." Raven stated firmly.

Weiss, Yang and Blake were all rendered silent in shock at the sight of Ruby, her eyes still shut as she laid sprawled across the bed. Only, she definitely wasn't a preteen like they were. Given how much smaller she was, she had to be at least nine or eight years old at least. "Oh my gosh…" Weiss placed a hand over her mouth. "…Ruby."

Yang's hands shot up to her forehead, pushing her hair back as she tried to comprehend her sister's state. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! I should've figured she'd be younger than us if SHE got de-aged, too!"

Shaking her head, Blake couldn't help but feel sad for their poor leader. "What do we do? She's gonna be devastated when she wakes up."

"How do you know that, Blake?" Winter questioned, peering over the girls' shoulders.

"Uh, she JUST turned sixteen." Yang smacked her head. "Duh! You can't just take away a Sweet Sixteen and expect someone to be okay with that!" Just then, a soft moan was heard and the girls brought their attention back to Ruby, who began stirring on the bed. "O-Okay, girls, just… act natural."

"There is NOTHING natural about this." Weiss asserted.

The Blonde Brawler rounded about on her and pointed at the former heiress. "Why do you think I said "act"?!" she whispered harshly, only for Ruby to finally speak up.

"Hmph… Yang? Girls?" Ruby rubbed her eyes, her vision hazy as she awoke from her sleep. "What's with all the yelling? I was getting some great sleep…" It was then, however, that she started to catch on. "Wait… what am I doing in a bed, anyway? We were about to beat that little twerp, weren't we?"

Swallowing nervously, Yang jumped up on the bed and placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders. "U-Um, Ruby? Okay, I need you to stay calm when I tell you this, but… Billy did something to us and then escaped."

Ruby's eyes darted open hearing that, her eyes snapping around the room to take in her surroundings? "W-What? What'd he do to… to…" Her sights finally landed on Yang, seeing her sister as a preteen instead of a young adult like she was used to. Slowly, she scanned across the room to see both Blake and Weiss in similar states, which eventually brought her to stare at her own hands… which were slightly chubbier than she remembered them being before. "Oh… OH. This… this is…"

Tai came forward and reached out to his daughter's hand. "N-Now, Ruby, I know that this is probably a lot to take in, but I promise, we're working to—"

"Pretty cool, actually!"

…And just like that, everyone in the room was left collectively baffled. Ruby didn't seem upset about this in the least, which made Tai tilt his head. "U-Uh, I'm sorry, but… what?"

"Yeah, I think this is honestly really neat!" Ruby hopped up to her feet… only for her cloak to make her trip and land back on her butt. "Oof! …Well, okay, the oversized clothes are a bit of a bummer, but I've always kinda wanted to experience being a kid again!"

"And… you're not worried about being stuck like this?" Blake asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ruby shrugged. "We're gonna find Billy and kick his butt anyways, so there's nothing to worry about as far as I'm concerned." She craned her head down to her baggy clothes, raising her arms so that her poofy sleeves flopped about. "Though before we get to that, we're gonna need some clothes that fit."

Taking that as her cue, Winter reached over to Weiss' bed, pulling off the clothes that she'd brought up. "And that's exactly what these are for. Tai, I need to ask you to leave, please." Once the blonde man hastily vacated the room, the grown ladies wasted no time in helping the girls change into a more age-appropriate attire.

Ruby was in a regular red t-shirt and black shorts, with matching red and white sneakers. Yang wore a similar outfit, only her shirt and shoes were yellow and she had her hair tied up in pigtails, much to her chagrin. Blake was in a purple shirt with black sleeves that ended right at her forearm, and a pair of black pants with purple sneakers. Finally, Weiss wore a long, white skirt with slip-on pale blue shoes, which matched her blouse perfectly.

Overall, their clothes were very simple, but they were alright with that, especially since they wouldn't be needing them for very long. Blake couldn't help but snicker a little seeing her partner's hairstyle, though. "Pfft, nice pigtails, Yang."

"Yeah, yeah, keep laughing, Belladonna." Yang deadpanned, pointing at the catgirl's own hair. "Bet you wouldn't be yuckin' it up if your hair was in a dumb style."

"Honestly? It already kinda is." Blake sneered at her short hair. "Still not used to having this style as an adult. As a kid? It just makes it even weirder."

Weiss cleared her throat, trying to get things back on track. "Ahem, well, now that we're all changed, we should meet up with the others down in the living room. I'm sure that Ben must be working on a plan as we speak."

Pumping a fist into the air, Ruby was all for it. "Yeah, good thinking, Weiss! C'mon, ladies, let's go!" However, as she marched toward the door, Ruby stopped mid-step when she spotted Crescent Rose next to her bed, her eyes lighting up as she scuttled over to it. "Oh! Hold on! Don't wanna forget our weapons!"

"Ruby, wait a moment." Raven reached out, trying to warn the little girl. "I don't think you'll be able to—"

"Aaaand UP we go—WAH!" *CLANG* The girls winced as Ruby went straight to the ground after trying to lift Crescent Rose, the weapon clattering against the floor next to her. "Oof! …W-Wait, hold on." Getting back up, Ruby went to heft up her weapon again… only to get the same result. *CLANG* "Agh! I-I can do this! Just gotta put in some elbow grease—GAH! *CLANG*

Having seen enough, Weiss went over and held Ruby back by her shoulders, insisting that she stop. "Ruby, enough, please! You can't lift your weapon—"

"YES, I CAN!" Ruby snapped, clenching her teeth as she went to grasp her weapon again. "I'm not about to give up—" *WHAM* …This time, the folded-up scythe landed on top of Ruby, hitting her right on the head.

The group gasped as Raven went to pick the weapon up, scrambling to make sure she was alright. "Ruby! A-Are you okay?"

But it was obvious that Ruby wasn't okay, her eyes brimming with tears as her lower lip started to quiver. And before long, she buried herself in her hands and started crying, wailing so hard that her voice became hoarse in an instant. "BWAAAAAAHHH! I-I-I CAN'T PICK UP CRESCENT ROSE! AAAAHHH!"

Ruby's sorrowful crying was enough to make the others' hearts ache, especially Raven, who reached down to help her up. "Oh… Ruby, sweetie, everything's going to be okay." She brought Ruby close to her chest, allowing the young girl to cry her eyes out as much as she needed to. "This… this isn't the end of the world, after all."

"AAAAAHH! YES, IT IS!" Ruby wept even more, clenching at Raven's dress as if desperate for something to cling to. "I-If I can't lift my weapon, th-then what good am I?!"

"Wow… I mean, I knew this already, but she really loves Crescent Rose." Weiss deduced. "The fact that she's more upset over this than being de-aged…"

But Yang wasn't surprised in the least as she grabbed a box of tissues. "Well, yeah. Ruby forged Crescent Rose with her own hands. Of course, she's upset about not lifting it." Going over to her mother and sister, she joined in on the embrace, holding her sister and rubbing soothing circles into her back. "Shhh, Ruby, everything's gonna be fine."

Lifting her head up a little, Ruby wore the ugliest pout Yang had ever seen, responding; "How do YOU know?! At least you can still WEAR Ember Celica!"

"Well, yeah, but I can't USE them either." Yang jerked a thumb over to Weiss and Blake. "And those two? I'm pretty sure they're now JUST as tall as their weapons." The duo gave Ruby a nod, stepping next to Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud respectively to show that they were only just slightly taller than the blades now. "So yeah, we're all in the same boat as you. ALL of our weapons are too big to use now, so we're just gonna have to make do. Okay?"

Bringing out a tissue, Yang dried her sister's tears and allowed her to blow her nose, with Ruby sniffing one last time to try and get control of herself. "Snf… o-okay."

"Good. Like you said, we'll be back to normal before we know it." Yang assured, only to look up and see something she wasn't expecting. Now her mother was starting to tear up a little much to her and Ruby's confusion. "M-Mom? Is everything alright?"

"Oh! Y-Yes, of course, dear." Raven wiped her tears away with her sleeve, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "I just… everything just hit me all at once, is all." She gave the two a smile as she put her arms around them. "Seeing the two of you like this, supporting one another in this strange situation… not to mention just seeing you two as children in general… it's making me realize just how much I missed over all these years." She lowered her head as more tears brimmed her eyes. "I… could've watched you two grow up if I hadn't been so… so—"

"Mom." Yang reached up and touched her mother's cheek, her smile unwavering. "It's okay. We've been over this, remember? We can't change what happened in the past, but we CAN focus on the here and now."

At this point, Ruby's own grin had returned as well. "Yeah! Hey, after this is all wrapped up… why don't we all go out on a… mom-daughter day? Just you and us!"

Yang was all for the idea. "Hey, yeah! I don't think we've even HAD one of those!"

"A… mother-daughter day?" Raven whispered. "Just the three of us?" The two sisters nodded up to her, their eyes bright with excitement, making Raven's chest well up with emotion. She choked back a sob as she nodded back to them in approval. "Hah… I'd very much like that, actually. I'm sure it'd be fun."

As Yang and Ruby cheered, Weiss and Winter couldn't help but look to one another in that moment. "…It makes you wonder, right?" the elder Schnee asked.

"About if we had that kind of relationship with our mom?" Weiss sighed, her shoulders slightly slumped. "Yeah, me too. …But maybe we could have just a sister outing ourselves?" she asked hopefully.

Winter gave a little laugh and knelt down, putting her arms around Weiss. "And here I thought you'd never ask."

Blake couldn't help but pout a little seeing this. "…You know, it's times like this that I wish I weren't an only child."

"Aw, c'mon, Blake!" Yang dismissed the thought entirely, moving over to give her partner a hug. "You know that we're ALL your sisters here, right?" All at once, Blake was practically swarmed in a group hug by her teammates, reinforcing Yang's words.

Despite the sappiness of the moment, Blake couldn't help but feel just a tad warm and fuzzy knowing how much her friends cared for her. Still, they had more important things to worry about. "Alright, alright, I get it, we're one big happy family and you guys won't let me forget it." She managed to wiggle her arms free and then dip out from the hug, putting her hands on her hips. "But instead of making a cuteness overload, how about we go and kick that little bastard Billy's ass?"

Ruby's eyes lit up in anticipation. "OOH! I'm all for that! …But uh, one problem with that. Does anybody KNOW where Billy actually is?" As she thought, no one said anything. "Yeah, we should probably find that out first before we just go wandering around town."

*Knock-knock-knock*

The ladies' attention was brought straight to the door, Tai calling out from the other side; "You girls good in there? You've got some visitors!"

"Oh! Yeah, dad!" Yang nodded. "Let 'em in."

"…You're absolutely sure?" the Xiao-Long patriarch reiterated. "Because let me tell ya… you might not be ready."

But Weiss simply rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Ben and the others have probably seen us like this already, and if it's Team JNPR, then no doubt they've been told about the whole situation, right?"

"Well, yes, but… that's not what I'm talking about." Tai opened the door and peered inside, telling the girls; "You might wanna brace yourselves for this…" Before Team RWBY could even ask what he was talking about, though, he allowed their visitors to enter… and what the girls were met with made their jaws drop.

Standing across from them were three more preteen kids; the first being a young brunette with green eyes wearing a white and black shirt and a pair of olive-green pants. Next to him was a taller kid with scraggly dark hair wearing a black T-shirt with the sleeves torn off and matching black shorts. And finally, there was a redheaded girl with her hair clipped up to one side, wearing a periwinkle blue shirt with a stylized cat head in the middle and dark blue sleeves, along with a pair of white pants with matching slip-on shoes. But, while their appearances were different, Team RWBY knew EXACTLY who those three were… and they couldn't believe it.

Yang blinked a couple times, trying to come to terms with the boy who was smiling directly her. That smile was familiar, warm and inviting, but it didn't help her feeling incredibly weirded out by the whole situation. "…Green Boy?"

Letting out a breathy chuckle, Ben scratched the back of his head. "Ah, heh… yeah. Hey, Goldie Locks."

"Oh… my god." Blake uttered as she addressed the redhead. "Gwen?"

"Mmhm." Gwen confirmed with a nod, giving the catgirl a wave. "Hi, Blake. Hey girls. I take it that you've been… coming to grips with this like the rest of us have, right?"

"Hah, well, we WERE." Weiss balked, putting a hand to her forehead as she continued to take in the Alien Trio's kid forms. "But we weren't TOLD that you three got hit, too!"

Just then, though, Rook came in and cleared his throat, showing that he too had also been de-aged. "Ahem, make that four, actually." Team RWBY let out a gasp at his entrance, their eyes all focused on one single thing about the young Revonnahgander. "Yes, I am aware of just how astonishing this must be, but we have important business to—"

"OH MY GOSH! Rook's got a tail!" Ruby wasted no time in dashing over and hugging the fuzzy appendage, snuggling into it. "Ah! So cute!"

Conversely, Rook's expression soured and he balled his fists at his sides, taking slow breaths to try and keep calm. "Be patient, Rook. It is understandable why Ruby would have such a reaction…" All the same, Rook glared over to the rest of team Ruby, warning them; "If any of you three attempt to do the same, however, THEN we will have a problem."

"Ah, c'mon, Rook!" Yang winked. "You're practically a cutie pie now! Gotta take advantage of the perks while you've got 'em!"

"I do not know how being an Earth confectionary equates to ones' adorability, but I can safely say that I am neither a "cutie" nor a "pie"." Rook tugged his tail away from Ruby, who pouted in response. "In any case, as I was saying, there is important business to attend to."

Kevin nodded at that and explained; "Yeah, we just got a call from Sun and Rex. They think they've found Billy's hiding spot."

Weiss and Blake couldn't help but brighten up a that. "Haha! Yes! I knew our boys wouldn't let us—wait." The former heiress' celebratory mood was cast aside as she asked the group; "Were they de-aged, too, or not?"

Gwen shook her head. "Nope, sorry, ladies. Not ALL of us were hit with Billy's de-aging ray… though that's honestly probably a good thing."

"Yeah, it is." Blake agreed, though she still pursed her lips in annoyance. "Still, sucks that we've gotta wait to give our boyfriends any sort of affection." She made sure to leer over at Yang for good measure. "Lucky."

"Okay, hold on just a second there." Yang contended, raising a single finger at her partner. "Just 'cause Ben and I are the same age does NOT mean we're gonna show THAT kind of "affection" to each other." Her sights went to her boyfriend expectantly. "After all, it'd be weird if we did THAT while we're like this, right, Green Boy?"

Ben nodded immediately. "Oh, yeah, totally. If you're not comfortable with it, then I'm not either, Goldie Locks. We'll wait until we're… uh, I guess "age appropriate" again."

That managed to get a giggle out of Yang, who went over to ruffle his hair. "Haha! Yeah, that sounds about right. …Also, wow, you are surprisingly short."

As the young hero grimaced, Gwen couldn't help but laugh. "Ha! Yeah, the doofus WAS a pretty late bloomer, all things considering."

"Oh, are we BACK to this again, dweeb?" Ben threw the insult back, getting in his cousin's space.

"Depends if you feel like going a couple rounds, shorty." Gwen retorted, poking Ben in the forehead.

However, before anything could really start, Max came in and broke everything up in an instant. "Hey now, let's NOT start this back up again, huh? It took a whole summer for you two to stop going for each other's throats, so let's not fall back into old habits." Ben and Gwen both silently backed down, muttering a small apology to one another in the process. "Good, now let's all get going, shall we? Sun and the others are waiting for us, after all."

"Oh, I'm all for it, Grandpa Max!" Ruby saluted before marching her way out of the room. "C'mon guys, let's—WAH!"

…But she didn't make it two paces out of the room before getting immediately scooped up by a pair of strong arms and pulled into a death hug by Nora. The Pink Dynamo's grip was so strong that Ruby's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. "EEEEEEEE! RUBY! You're so freaking cute, I could just eat you up!"

"N-Nora… can't… breath…"

"Hey!" Yang stormed over and actually rammed right into Nora's legs, making her drop Ruby right into Yang's awaiting arms. "Nora, come on! Would it kill ya to show some self-contro—WOAH!"

Unfortunately, both sisters were then immediately picked up by… Penny. At first, the redheaded android simply stared at the two, holding them out at arm's length as she scanned them over. But, once her scan was complete, Penny came to one absolute conclusion. "Scan complete. Immediate course of action;" Without warning, Penny brought the sisters in for an embrace, much to their dismay. "Must. Protect. At all costs."

As the blood drained from their faces at the lack of circulation, Yang was fairly sure of one thing. "…Yep. Worst day ever."

"Eh, I dunno, I've had worse." Ruby shrugged, only to smirk as a plan formulated in her mind. "But while we're here… I think I can use this to my advantage." She pointed down the hall and declared; "Penny! To the front door! We're leaving right now!"

Penny stood at attention without question. "Yes, ma'am!" And, with amazing speed, Penny zoomed through the house and out the front door, taking the duo with her.

"…Well, guess there's nothing more we can do but follow them." Ben concluded, stepping out of the bedroom. "C'mon guys, let's go before they leave without us!"

…..

Thankfully, Penny didn't get very far… at least in terms of how fast XLR8 could keep up with her. After bringing her and the sisters back to his house, Ben asked his grandfather to take them to where they needed to go in the Rustbucket, and the old Plumber was more than happy to oblige. "I've gotta say, in a way, this feels just like old times." Max peered over his shoulder from the driver's seat, his gaze settling upon Ben and Gwen who were sitting across from one another at the table. "Takes me back all those years ago to that first summer."

Gwen gave a little chuckle and agreed with her grandpa. "Hehe, yeah, it's a little surreal. Though of course…" The two cousins craned their heads back around to the rest of the team, who were all crowded around the RV. "We've got quite a lot of extra passengers."

"Eh, wouldn't be the first time." Jaune noted from the beds in the back, he and the rest of Team JNPR having settled there. "And hey, at least it's not AS crowded as it could be."

"Indeed." Pyrrha smiled down to Team RWBY, Kevin and Rook, who were all sitting on the floor. "I suppose that's one upside of you all being this way."

Kevin gave her a deadpan stare and folded his arms. "Yeah, don't get too used to that. Once we get back to normal, it's right back to my car for us. …Speaking of, how's the old man doing back there?"

Peering out the back window, Ren saw that Kevin's car was still following behind at a brisk pace, with Qrow behind the wheel while Raven took to the passenger's seat. "So far, so good." the green ninja replied with a small wince. "Although… you really need to get it cleaned after this."

The young Osmosian's lips curled in disgust. "Don't remind me. Ugh, those stupid birds…"

"Oh yeah, speaking of those…" Blake smiled up to Pyrrha. "We heard that you ended up taking down a majority of those, Pyrrha. Nice work!"

With a slight blush, Pyrrha curled her finger around a stray lock of hair bashfully. "Oh, it was nothing, really. I simply wanted to get rid of those things as soon as possible." Her expression turned serious as she explained further. "After all, they attacked while we were taking the dogs for a walk, and I was NOT about to let those disgusting birds drop their toxic feces upon them."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Blake smiled before realizing something. "Wait… where are Rommy and Rema?"

Ruby's eyebrows shot up as the realization hit her too, enough to make her stop playing with Rook's tail. "And what about Zwei? Are they okay?"

Jaune raised a reassuring hand. "Don't worry, guys, they're all fine. Frank and Carl took them to a pet washing place while we're dealing with this." He gave the girls a thumbs up. "By the time we get home, they'll be squeaky clean and ready to see you."

"Aw! That's great!" Blake beamed. "I've been meaning to give Rema a bath for a while now, actually. Thanks, Jaune."

Just then, from the front of the RV, Max called out to the group; "Heads up, kids! We're here." Taking that as their cue, the group all stood up and made their way up to the front windows, looking out to see… a massive, golden skyscraper. The structure had to easily be over one hundred feet tall, especially compared to the skyscraper that was directly next to it. Granted, the gold paint wasn't exactly appealing, but considering who probably owned it, it was all too fitting. Because directly in front of the building was a large fountain with a large centerpiece in the shape of the Billions logo, a clear indicator of who this place was owned by.

"…Well, at least he's consistent." Yang commented. "Talk about tacky."

Neptune narrowed his eyes at the structure. "Ugh, yeah. Talk about an eyesore. Has this ALWAYS been here?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Ben grimaced. "I just never bothered to learn who it belonged to before now. Makes you wonder why he's jealous of ME when he has his own skyscraper." It was only then, though, that Ben saw which particular skyscraper Billy's was built next to. "…And one that's bigger than Captain Nemesis', apparently."

"Who the heck is Captain Nemesis?" Nora asked.

"That's a can of worms for another time." Gwen replied. Upon a second glance, however, the Andoite spotted Sun, Rex, Ilia and Swift all waving to them from in front of the fountain, prompting her to head toward the door. "C'mon guys, the others are waiting for us."

The team exited the Rustbucket just as Kevin's car pulled to a stop, with Qrow, Raven, Winter and Hope all climbing out. The formerly drunken huntsman was particularly proud of himself. "Haha, see, kid?" he called out to Kevin. "Not a scratch on 'er!" But, just as Qrow gave the hood a light tap… *POOF* …The front right tire popped. "…GAH! DAMMIT!" Qrow facepalmed.

But Kevin wasn't too worried. "Hey, don't worry, old man, I've got a spare in the back—"

*POOF* *POOF* *POOF*

…And then the REST of the tires all popped, making Kevin fall to his knees and his jaw drop to the pavement. Qrow didn't fare much better, burying himself in his hands in shame. "…God dammit." Kevin muttered.

"Well, ain't that just a kettle of fish?" Swift commented as she and the others all approached the team. "Sorry, Levin."

Kevin's glare directed back up to the Aerophibian girl, pointing a stern finger at her. "DON'T… start."

"Alright, okay, backing off." Raising her hands defensively, Swift moved away from him, instead shifting her focus down to the other de-aged team members. "So, uh… how're the rest of you guys holdin' up?"

"As well as we can be, Swift." Gwen sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "I… may have had a bit of a meltdown, but I'm alright now." She gave a smile up to the four of them. "But thanks for tracking Billy down. Hopefully we can wrap this up as soon as possible."

Ilia nodded back to her. "Agreed. For all we know, leaving you guys like this for too long might have permanent side-effects or something."

"Hey, uh… where IS our "friend", by the way?" Ben pointed out. "I thought he was with you guys."

"He is, but he's scouting around the building, looking for a way to sneak in." Sun explained, his gaze awkwardly trailing over to Blake. "…With any luck, we'll be in and out of there in no time. After putting Billy in his place, that is."

"Oh, you bet we're gonna do that." Blake affirmed, raising a fist. "And we're getting first dibs."

"Exactly!" Weiss concurred before whipping her head up to Rex. "And Rex, if you can figure out how that de-aging ray works, that'd be great."

The EVO dutifully saluted to her. "Sure thing, Ice Princess. The sooner we get you all back to normal, the better." But then, without any warning…

*BOOOOM*

A loud explosion reverberated through the entire area, bringing everyone's sights up toward the sky when it was followed by a loud scream. Much to the surprise of everyone, about half-way up the skyscraper, a portion of the exterior wall came crumbling down, followed by Billy and his robotic retainer, Mazuma, falling from the hole it left behind. Secured in the blonde robot's arms, Billy nevertheless let out a fearful scream as they both plummeted toward the ground, only for Mazuma to make a perfect landing while leaving the sidewalk cracked beneath her.

Once they had landed, Billy opened his eyes and saw that they were safe, smiling up to his cybernetic assistant. "Hah, I knew you wouldn't leave me." But just as she lowered him to his feet, Billy was met with the intense scowls of Ben, Gwen, Kevin, Rook and Team RWBY… followed by Team JNPR, Rex, Sun, Neptune, Ilia and Swift all towering over him as well.

"…Billy." Ben said venomously.

Dusting himself off, Billy cleared his throat to address him. "Ahem, Tennyson."

"Lemme guess. Dimension 12 robots plus big explosion equals your super-genius brain screwing up royally?" the Omnitrix bearer deduced.

"That is none of your concern." Billy straightened his tie while holding his head up with as much dignity as he could. "Well, I hate to seem rude, but… I have a dentists' appointment, so if you'll excuse me."

But just as he was about to walk off, Yang grabbed him by the collar. "Not so fast, you little—GYAH!" Yang let out a scream as Mazuma picked her up by her hair, much to the shock of everyone. "AAAGH! LET GO OF MY HAIR!"

Raven's expression twisted in anger as she went for Omen. "Get your flighty, metal mitts off of my daughter you—"

"Hold on, Raven! Wait a second!" Ruby slid in her step-mother's path, wearing a knowing smile. "Maybe we should let OUR android friend take care of this, hm?" Raven was taken aback at first, but eventually, she smirked back down to Ruby and nodded in approval. "Great! Ahem… PENNY! We're in danger!" Not two seconds later…

*NYOOOM*

*CRASH*

Yang and Billy fell to the pavement, the latter gasping in horror as he watched Mazuma get absolutely totaled. From above, Penny had come crashing down on the blonde robot with her Block Buster boots, the massive spikes snapping Mazuma into several pieces and even decapitating her in the process. "NO!" Billy screamed. "MAZUMA!"

"M-M-Master—B-B-Billy…" Mazuma's head rolled over to him, glitching out as her features contorted into unnatural expressions. "F-F-Forgive—M-M-Meeee—" And just like that, the robot shut down, with Billy falling to his knees.

"Hmph… primitive." Penny dismissed, putting her Block Busters away as her eyes changed color from green to red, reaching down to take Billy up by his collar. "You made Ruby cry. That is unacceptable." She drew closer to his face, lowering her voice to a threatening tone; "Change. My friends. BACK."

Frightened out of his mind, Billy couldn't help but tremble in Penny's grasp. "I-I-I can't! I-I don't have the de-ager ray with me! I left it in the building with those stupid Dimension 12 robots!"

The Omni-Hunters weren't too impressed with that answer. "Oh, lemme guess, you got too cocky and ended up losing control of them, right?" Weiss guessed, motioning up to the redheaded android. "Penny… put him down, please." Following orders, Penny dropped Billy right in the middle of Team RWBY and the Alien Trio, the seven kids glaring at him. "Thank you. Now… GET HIM!"

The only thing Billy could do was scream again as he was swarmed by the group, before the punching, kicking and hitting soon began. The beatdown was merciless, to the point where some of the others had to look away. Others, however, were quite supportive of the beat down. "YEAH! That's it, guys!" Nora cheered on. "Exact the cutest vengeance EVER!"

"Go for his knees, Kev!" Qrow encouraged as well. "GO FOR HIS TINY KNEES!"

Hope, however was much more hesitant about what was going on. "Doesn't it feel a bit… wrong supporting this?"

"Normally, I wouldn't condone child violence." Winter admitted. "…But considering that everybody involved are technically adults, I'll allow it."

As strange as that sounded, Hope had to concede that her logic was sound. "…Eh, fair point. Gwen! Cast a fire spell on that awful hair of his!"

All the while, Billy screamed with every hit he received, all but begging for the onslaught to stop. "AGH! GAH! Wait! You NEED me to stop those things!" He held up his pocket watch as he scrambled away from the group. "This invention is the ONLY thing that can get those robots back under control! You go in there, you'll be met with an entire ARMY of those things!"

"…Your point?" Yang called his bluff, much to his astonishment.

"W-Wait, what?"

Weiss stepped forward and waved her hand dismissively. "Listen, you little twerp, we've faced a LOT of worse things than whatever you've cooked up."

But Billy wasn't done making his case. "Y-You don't understand! Now that they aren't under my control, NOTHING is stopping them from activating the portal I built to Dimension 12 and bringing the rest of their army here!" He brought up his pocket watch again. "And my invention is the one thing that can get them back under control!"

Ruby tapped her chin in thought. "Hm… well, if that's the case…" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Change us back and we MIGHT help you clean up your mess."

"Uh… yeah, about that." Billy rubbed his neck with a wince. "I may have left the de-aging ray stored in the same room where the Dimension 12 robots are about to bring their army through…"

"Ugh, of course." Ben smacked his forehead. "Bad enough you felt like stroking your ego by making your building the tallest eyesore in town, but you're also REALLY bad at storing things!"

Billy snapped back around, pointing irately at Ben. "Hey! My tower is NOT an eyesore! It's been in the family for YEARS!" He wore a satisfied smirk as he glanced toward Nemesis' tower. "Besides, Nesmith's building sucks compared to mine."

"Why. Does that. MATTER?!" Ben barked back, clenching his fists at his sides as he marched up to the boy. "You keep trying to prove that you're better than everybody else. But what happens?! You end up making a huge mess that you don't even know how to fix!"

Not backing down, Billy wagged his pocket watch at Ben. "Hey, I had the situation under control, and I can get it BACK under control!" He opened the watch and began tinkering with its innards. "And when I do, I'll get my plan back on track. Once that portal's working again, I'll send you into Dimension 12 and get you out of MY hair for good! Then YOU'LL be the loser stuck in an alternate world while I'll be world famous!" He tightened his grip on the watch intently. "Then, I'll take my revenge against everyone in Bellwood who gave me a hard time!" He thrust his finger out to the city. "AND THAT INCLUDES YOU, LUNCH LADY!"

The Omni-Hunters and their mentors could only stare at the boy in silent shock, all of them in complete disbelief at what he was saying. "Wow… maybe he DID go nuts over the last seven years." Rex remarked.

"Uh, not to rain on your parade there, dude." Kevin began, only to correct himself. "Well, actually, I DO mean to rain on your parade, but in any case, you're way too late with that plan of yours."

"…Pardon?" Billy sneered in Kevin's direction.

"Yeah, we already got sent to an alternate dimension a couple MONTHS back." Ben confirmed, gesturing to the team surrounding him. "Where do you think THESE guys came from?"

Billy blinked incredulously and shouted; "WHAT?! B-B-But I… I-I just thought these losers were a bunch of super-powered groupies you picked up! You're telling me you've already been to an alternate dimension and CAME BACK?!"

"Yeah… TWICE. In fact, multi-dimensional travel is pretty much a thing now."

Rex sent a toothy grin down to the short rich kid. "Yeah. What took MY genius brother about a month to figure out took YOU seven years. How do ya like THAT, Tom Thumb?"

By this point, Billy was stuttering for an answer, only to get cut off by Ben again. "Oh, and bringing a bunch of Dimension 12 robots to attack me? Nemesis already did that. Even that pocket watch of yours is just a knock-off Omnitrix. Have you EVER had an original idea?"

"Exactly!" Yang prodded Billy's chest with her finger. "You're just a petty, spoiled rotten copycat! And now, WE'RE gonna go clean up your mess." She nudged her chin up to the others. "C'mon guys. Let's stop wasting our time and get this done."

"W-Wait! NO!" Billy roared defiantly, going to confront the team again. "YOU NEED ME—AAGH!" But, before he could even take two steps… a long pole came SLAMMING down from above, making him fall over while taking several others by surprise.

"H-Holy crap!" Jaune exclaimed. "What the hell is that?!"

But Sun knew exactly what it was. "Haha! 'Bout time!" He put his hands over his eyes to block out the sun as he craned his head up, calling out to the sky. "How long does it take for one celestial monkey to search for a secret entrance?!"

From down the pole came sliding a tall, hairy, tailed figure wearing regal, golden armor, his garb shining in everybody's eyes as he swung down to their level. But, once he was on the ground, the Monkey King sent Sun a challenging smirk. "Oh, you think you could've found one faster, kid?" Lifting his staff to give the ground a single smack, he made the weapon shorten to its regular size, pointing it at the younger monkey. "I'd like to see ya try."

"Oh-ho-ho! Challenge accepted!" Sun approved, pointing his own staff at Wu Kong. "I'd take ya up on that offer."

"Well, that's gonna have to wait another time." Wu Kong spun his Ruyi Jingu Bang onto his shoulders, holding his head up high. "Because I DID find a way in…" He trailed off, however, when he finally noticed all of the new faces staring right at him, bringing him to greet them with a wave. "Oh! Heya, kids! Nice to finally see all of you… ya know, NOT while disguised as a woodpecker."

"…I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Nora thrust her hands toward the tall monkey.

"I have to agree with Nora here." Ren said shakily. "What is going on here?"

Ben, however, was more than happy to explain. "Hah, well, remember that "friend" I talked about earlier who we met in France?" He gestured up to the Monkey King. "Well, this is him. Everybody, meet Sun Wu Kong, the legendary Monkey King."

The entire group, apart from those who had already met him, stared in stunned silence at the Monkey King, who gave them all a simple salute. "'Sup?"

Neptune had to smack himself of the cheek just to break out of his stupor. "S-So wait… you guys ran into him in France…" He directed a finger straight to Wu Kong. "And YOU said that you were disguised as a woodpecker? Does that mean—"

"Yep!" Sun confirmed, stepping next to the immortal monkey. "This guy was the same woodpecker who's been following me around for weeks! …Though he's been watching us for a lot longer."

"Believe me, I was just as stunned as you guys were when I found out." Gwen said as she folded her arms. "Though I DID have my suspicions about it for a while. Always found it weird that just a random woodpecker came in to be Sun's familiar from out of the blue."

Wu Kong gave a short laugh as he rubbed his neck. "Hehe, yeah, probably coulda found a better cover for myself in hindsight… but now, I'm officially here to help!" Peering down to the petrified Billy Billions at his feet, Wu Kong stamped the pavement with his staff again, making the boy tremble. "And I'm gonna start by keeping THIS one here while you guys go get that de-aging ray and stop those robots."

"B-But there's still so many questions we want answers for!" Jaune insisted. "Couldn't you come with us and—"

But Wu Kong raised a finger and wagged it in front of Jaune's nose. "Ah-ah-ah, not gonna happen. You kids are all heroes, aren't you?" He received a collective nod from the team. "Then in a situation like this, you've gotta act like it. Just because I'm here to help doesn't mean I'm about to fight ALL your battles for ya." He proceeded to shoo them off toward the building. "Now, go help your friends get back to normal. Once that's all wrapped up, we'll talk then, 'kay? Part of being Buddhist is exhibiting great patience, after all."

Sun was all too quick to agree with those words. "Hah, I hear that, Monkey King! Don't worry, guys, we'll have this wrapped up in no time!"

"Right." Ben pumped a fist before giving a thumbs up to Hope. "Think you can teleport us up there?"

With a confident expression, Hope began casting a spell to do just that. "Hm, of course I can. Hold still, everyone, we're going—"

"NOOO!" Billy screamed at the top of his lungs, lunging at the group, only for the Monkey King to take him by the collar. "Y-YOU NEED ME—"

"NO WE DON'T!" Yang's eyes flared red as her aura burned to life, her hair bursting out on end as she glared malevolently at the spoiled rich kid. "We do NOT need you, you hear me?! You are NOT important here!"

As Billy was left motionless in Wu Kong's grasp, however, the others couldn't help but stare at Yang in shock. "Y-Yang…" Blake muttered. "Your… your Semblance!"

That managed to jostle Yang out of her rage for a moment, finally noticing that her aura was burning just as bright as it always did. "Huh?! Woah!" She smiled and clenched her fists eagerly. "I can still use my Semblance! Sweet! …Wait." She spun back around to the rest of Team RWBY. "Can you girls use yours, too?"

After an exchange of curious glances, one by one, Ruby, Blake and Weiss all tested out their Semblances… and sure enough, every one of them worked. Ruby went rushing off in a flurry of petals and came back a second later, Weiss brought up a glyph in her hand, and Blake was able to make a perfect shadow clone of herself, which dissipated shortly after. Once again, the girls all eyed one another… and they all wore matching grins. "Oh… I think I just thought of a plan." Ruby said, to her team's approval. But all the same, she directed her attention to Raven, ready to ask for permission. "That is, if you'll hear me out on it, Raven."

The Spring Maiden was somewhat skeptical, but she wasn't about to shut Ruby down immediately. "…I'm listening."

…..

High up in Billions Tower, the Computron robots were hard at work assembling the portal device that their former master had been working on. …Or rather, the one their former master had THEM working on, but now, they were intent on using the creation for themselves. Now that they were free, it was time to cleanse this new dimension completely. "This realm is overrun by useless organic life forms." one robot declared. "Activate the portal projector and initialize invasion protocol."

Another Computron robot complied without question, and within half a second, the portal device came to life. A swirling golden vortex appeared within the triangular construct, and through it came several more of their kind one by one. "This dimension must be sterilized. Destroy all flesh and the works of flesh."

"Oh, wow, how original." At the sound of a new voice, the robots all swiveled around to see the young Team RWBY standing alone on the opposite side of the room. The girls all wore confident smiles as Yang, with her hands on her hips, insulted the robots. "Is that the only thing you tin cans think about?"

"Yeah, and aren't you using a "work of flesh" to bring yourselves over here in the first place?" Blake questioned, causing the robots to all look at each other. "Talk about hypocritical."

"Do not listen to them." A larger robot piped up, extending its arm toward the girls. "They are attempting to confuse us. We must exterminate them."

Then, all at once, the Computron robots focused right on the girls, bringing out their saw weapons as they rolled forth and repeated; "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Ruby rolled her eyes at that. "Oh, so now THEY'RE ripping off other robots, too. Guess Billy isn't the only one who's unoriginal here." She shifted her gaze between her teammates, making sure they were all on the same page. "Everybody ready to execute "Operation Distraction"?"

Summoning a glyph at her feet, Weiss confirmed; "You bet! Let's go, girls!" And just like that, the four girls dashed off, with Weiss and Ruby using their Semblances to do so. As those two went off in one direction, Blake and Yang went off in another, leading the robots away from the portal projector.

As they ran, Yang brought her hands up to her ears, sticking her tongue out while teasing; "NanananaNAH! You can't catch us!"

"Must destroy irritant human child!" The robot raised one of its arms to strike down at Yang… only for Blake to push the blonde out of the way. But just as the saw was about to slice into her, she activated her Semblance… while holding onto a vial of Ice Dust. The results were immediate as the saw hit the ice clone and immediately froze the entire arm over. "Error! Error! Begin defrosting protoc—" However, the robot quickly found itself dismembered after a massive stone fist SMASHED straight into its frozen arm, breaking it completely off.

From high above on the catwalk, Bloxx came SMASHING down onto the floor, the Segmentisapien's body cracking it. With him were Rook, Kevin and Gwen, the four of them all ready for battle. "Nice work, ladies!" Bloxx commended with a thumbs up. "Way to get their attention."

"Now we can REALLY cut loose!" Kevin shouted, his body mostly stone but with Lightning Dust coating his arms. He smashed his fists together and transformed them into a pair of maces, which crackled with electricity. "Gwen! Toss me!"

"On it!" Gwen's hands glowed a bright pink as she summoned a mana platform right under Kevin's feet, using it to throw him right into the Computron's eye. With both arms extended, Kevin blasted straight through, taking the robot off balance.

Rook and Bloxx finished it off with a well-placed kick and punch to its midsection, making it fall straight to the ground. "Hah, that is one down." the Revonnahgander stated.

"And only… five? Maybe six to go?" Bloxx furrowed his stone brow. "Either way, we gotta shut down that portal projector."

"Inconceivable." Another Computron robot said monotonously, charging its way forward with its entire torso spinning. "There is no possible way you can defeat us! We will have this world and—"

"Oh, would you just SHUT UP?!" Neptune shouted as he and Sun came in from above, the blue-haired boy taking out Tri-Hard and shifting it into guandao mode. "I'm seriously getting tired of listening to you. GYAH!" With one powerful throw, Neptune threw his weapon like a javelin and lodged it directly in the robot's eye, making it stop and convulse as electricity jolted through its systems. "Sun, GO!"

The monkey boy wasted no time in obliging. "You got it, dude!" Activating his Semblance, he made several Via Sun clones of himself, all of which began climbing up on the robot's limbs. Once they were all in place, every single one of them blew up, taking its arms with them.

However, the robot wasn't about to back down. "Th-Th-This w-w-will n-not s-s-stand—"

"Huh, funny!" Yang quipped as she activated her Semblance, her eyes glowing red and her aura burning once again as she ran up to its massive sphere stabilizer. "…Because you're not gonna stand either! GRRRAAAH!" With impressive strength, Yang leapt up and pushed the robot straight down on its side, taking it down permanently. "Haha! Aw yeah!" The Blonde Brawler flexed her arms. "I may be smaller, but I'm still JACKED!"

"Right on, Goldie Locks!" Bloxx agreed. "Now c'mon, let's get to the rest of these things!"

On the other side of the room, meanwhile, Ruby and Weiss had just dashed into a secluded corner, with three Computron bots crowding around them with their saw blades spinning. Ruby gave a dramatic gasp and hid behind her partner. "Ah! Oh no! We've been cornered!"

With a pose that was just as melodramatic, Weiss closed her eyes and placed her hand to her forehead. "Oh, whatever shall we do?! Or rather…" With a quick swipe of her hand, Weiss pulled out a vial of Gravity Dust and channeled her Semblance through it, creating three black glyphs that appeared directly under the robots' massive wheels and trapped them in place. "What will THEY do? Now, guys!"

From above, Team JNPR, Ilia and Swift came leaping down from the catwalk, the six teens all careening down straight for the robots. Ren, Pyrrha and Ilia all started by effortlessly slicing through the arms of the three robots with their blades, dicing them up into several bits and pieces. Then, in came Nora, Jaune and Swift with the heavier hits.

"GRAAAAH!" Nora slammed Magnhild directly down on top of her target robots' head, slamming it straight down into its body and caving the entire thing in with a single swing.

"Triple Dust: Loaded! Zandar Thunder!"

With his sword now fully loaded with Lightning Dust vials, Jaune brought Crocea Mors high above his head. "LIGHTNING AFTERGLOW! HIYAAAH!" Bringing the greatsword straight down through the second robot's head, Jaune's strike sent arcs of powerful electricity through the entire machine, frying it in seconds.

Finally, flying around her robot at high speeds, all three of Swift's eyes and the tip of her tail lit up, unleashing a devastating quartet of blasts that melted the robots' outer shell like a hot knife through butter. By the time Swift was done, the robot was nothing more than a pile of scrap strewn across the floor. The Aerophibian girl came in for a landing next to Ilia, giving her a high five. "Nice teamwork there, Color Girl."

"Hmhm, I would hope so." Ilia winked back. "Our chemistry should extend to all facets of our relationship, after all." She nudged Swift with her arm. "And that move you just did was pretty amazing, too."

"Oh, stop." Swift lightly pushed her girlfriend's shoulder. "You'll make be blush in front of the gang!" But it was only then that she and Ilia realized that they were flirting in front of Team JNPR… and predictably, the four of them were all left astonished.

Ilia cleared her throat, resisting the urge to blush. "…Uh, we can explain—"

"AAAAAAAHH!" For what had to be the fourth time that day, Nora screamed at the top of her lungs, zooming up to the pair with a wide, beaming smile. "YOU TWO GOT TOGETHER?!"

Before the couple could even answer, Pyrrha joined her teammate in her excitement. "Since WHEN?! I must know!"

The chameleon and Aerophibian duo both swallowed anxiously, taken aback by the girls' enthusiasm. "U-Um… well…" Swift began, grasping Ilia's hand. "Let's just say that… we'll always have Paris." she shot her girlfriend a reassuring grin, which Ilia reciprocated instantly.

…Though that didn't exactly help them from losing the air in their lungs when Nora hugged them. "EEEEEEEE! Oh my gosh, I am SO proud of you two!"

"Yes, congratulations!" Pyrrha applauded as well. "I hope the two of you are incredibly happy!"

Jaune and Ren both gave their compliments as well. "Yeah, congrats to both of you." the green ninja said as he freed the new couple from Nora's grasp.

"Same here." the blonde knight shot a knowing eye to Ilia in particular. "I'll admit, I had a feeling that you had a plan bringing Swift to Paris, so I kinda expected this to happen anyway…" He winked to her and gave a thumbs up. "But still, good for both of you!"

At that point, Ilia couldn't resist blushing, craning her head down bashfully. "Oh… I see." But she shook off her embarrassment and took a deep breath, focusing back on what was important in the moment. "B-But we can talk about this later! We've still got work to do, remember?"

"Exactly!" Weiss shouted out, bringing everyone's attention down to see her waving her arms around. "Like, you know, getting US back to normal!"

"That, and we've got one more big boy to take care of." Ruby pointed over to the largest Computron robot, which was staring them down as its arms shifted into their buzzsaw configuration. The whole team took that as their cue to group back up together, with all sixteen of them readying themselves for one more battle.

"You cannot stop the inevitable." The robot proclaimed. "This dimension shall be purged once ALL of our forces emerge from the portal."

Bloxx raised a challenging eyebrow at that. "Oh, really? Well, ya might wanna think again, Bolts for Brains. Take a gander back there."

The robot swiveled its head around… and was met with the portal projector deactivating, the swirling vortex shrinking just as another of its kind was about to come through. Bringing its sights down, it quickly found the culprits behind it; Rex and Hope, the former smirking up at it as his glowing hand was upon the control console. "Sorry there, Compu-Troll. But this invasion plan of yours just went out the window."

Rolling forward, the robot brought its saws up, ready to destroy the two. "Your eradication shall be swift, fleshlings."

"Yeah, I don't think so." Hope retorted, swirling her finger up in the air to cast a spell. "I'd tell you to look up, but you don't have a neck, so I'll just say it was a pleasure to help destroy you."

A sudden purple flash alerted the robot to something above its field of vision, but it didn't even get the chance to move out of the way before… *SSSHHIINK* It was bisected cleanly down the middle, courtesy of Penny and her Floating Array arm blades. The redheaded android landed in a crouch as both halves of the Computron robot crashed to the floor, standing up only when she was sure it was destroyed. She put her swords away and dusted off her hands. "And that takes care of that."

"Woo-hoo!" Ruby celebrated, jumping up and down with her hands high in the air. "Nice one, Penny! Way to finish it off!"

"Thank you very much." Penny bowed graciously. "Though I must commend all of you for your roles in the plan as well. Everything went sensational!"

Bloxx slapped the Omnitrix on his chest and transformed back to Ben, the young hero scanning his eyes across the large room. "It's not over yet, though. Everyone start searching for that de-aging ray. It's gotta be in here somewhere."

"Oh, that won't be a problem!" Penny insisted as she also began scanning the room, only hers was much more thorough. "Considering how protective Billy was about this device, it makes sense that he would want to keep it hidden… ah-ha! There!" Approaching the northern wall, Penny placed her hand upon it and activated her own nanite powers, remotely overriding the access codes and making the wall shift out to reveal a hidden compartment. And there, nestled within, was the de-aging ray. "Eureka!" Penny lifted the weapon for all to see. "We have struck gold, everyone!"

Yang pumped her fists into the air as she and her team collectively cheered. "Haha! YES! Nice work, Pen! I'd say you're the MVP of this mission, easily."

"Aw, stop!" Penny waved bashfully. "I simply want to see you all happy, that's all. So now, shall we get you back to normal?" She inspected the ray gun and found the reverse switch, flicking it into position. "I am ready when you are!"

But Gwen and the others quickly raised their hands. "Woah, woah, hold on, Penny." the young Anodite halted. "Let's not do this here, okay? Not while we're still wearing these clothes."

"Yeah, if you use that on us now, we're gonna rip right through them." Blake said with a slight blush. "And we'd rather not go through THAT, thank you."

However, that's when Rook garnered Penny's attention. "Ahem, actually, I am ready and willing to return to my proper age." Pressing the chest plate of his Proto-Tech armor, the suit suddenly loosened up considerably until Rook was practically swimming in it. "The Proto-Tech armor is made specifically to adapt to my size, after all. So I will have no issue returning to normal." Just then, his tail came up and whapped him in the head once again, making the Revonnahgander pout irritably. "The sooner the better, please. I am very much over my bi'nthak.

"Very well." Penny accepted, taking aim at Rook with the device. "Everybody, stand back!" The rest of the team did as they were told and Penny pulled the trigger, blasting Rook with a bright golden beam of energy.

Once the beam dissipated, there stood Rook, back to his regular height and age, with no tail to be seen. After taking a moment to feel around himself to make certain things were in their proper place, Rook sighed contently and nodded to Penny thankfully. "Hah, much better. Thank you, Penny."

Raising her hands, Hope approached the team, ready to take them back outside. "Well, now that we know that it works, let's get you all back outside so that we can get you back to normal. Stay still, now…" After chanting a brief incantation, the team disappeared in a flash of purple light, only to reappear back outside of the skyscraper in front of Raven, Max and the others.

The first thing they saw, however, was Billy and Mazuma's parts being carted off in a Plumber vehicle. Billy clenched his teeth the very second he saw them appear, seeing that they had procured his de-aging ray. "NO! It's not fair!" he screamed as he grabbed the iron bars keeping him inside the armored truck. "I'm supposed to be the popular one! ME!"

But before he could go on a tirade, Max slammed the armored door shut, cutting Billy off. "Stop whining, Billy. Act your age." the old man admonished.

"Yeah, and maybe learn some respect while you're in time-out, huh?" Ben teased. He heard Billy give out one last angry wail as the Plumber vehicle drove off, leaving his team to meet with Raven and the others. "Well, I'd say that's a job well done." the Omnitrix bearer gave an approving smile to Ruby. "Nice plan there, Ruby."

"Thanks! But it was a team effort, as always." Ruby asserted, beaming up to Raven. "Thanks for letting us go through with it, Raven."

A sigh escaped the Spring Maiden as she knelt down in front of Ruby and Yang, placing her hands on their shoulders. "I will admit, I was a bit nervous when you asked to do it, but I was right to trust your instincts." She pulled them into an embrace, which they reciprocated without a second thought. "Excellent work, girls. …I'm sure you'll be wanting to go back to normal soon, right?"

Both sisters, however, heard a touch of disappointment in Raven's voice, leading them to look to one another thoughtfully. Eventually, Yang and Ruby grinned up to Raven and continued hugging her. "Ah, well… maybe we're not in TOO big a rush." Yang replied.

"Yeah, a couple more hours like this wouldn't hurt, right?" Ruby added.

Raven pulled back, staring at the girls incredulously. "W-What? No, girls, that's not what I—you don't have to do that for me, really. I know you two would be happier going back to your proper ages, so—"

"We know, mom." Yang interrupted, reaching up to take hold of her mother's arm. "We know we don't have to… but we want to."

Ruby nodded wholeheartedly. "Yeah. You said yourself that you feel bad about how much you missed out on. So why not experience it a little, if only for a few hours more?"

Their words were enough to bring tears to Raven's eyes once again, the woman holding back a sob as she pulled them back in again. "Oh, gods, you two are the sweetest daughters a woman could ever ask for." But, not a second after she said that… an idea popped into her head. "Ooh… I just remembered something." She glanced between the two with a devious smirk. "Your OTHER sister hasn't seen you two like this, has she?"

Both Ruby and Yang lit up in excitement. "OOH! That's right! Vernal HASN'T seen us like this!" Ruby said gleefully.

"Well, what're we waiting for, then?" Yang rubbed her hands together with a snicker. "Hehe, let's go see what Big Sis it up to, eh?"

"My thoughts exactly." Raven stood up and unsheathed Omen, slicing open a portal directly to Vernal. "Hold my hands, girls. We're going to give your sister one hell of an experience." The three girls all laughed as they disappeared into the portal, leaving everyone else to gawk at where they once were.

Gwen was the one to finally break that silence. "…They're gonna traumatize Vernal, aren't they?"

Her response came directly next to her ear. "Probably."

"AH!" Whirling around, Gwen was met by the Monkey King, who was lounging on a golden floating cloud. "W-Wu Kong! PLEASE don't do that!"

"Heh, sorry, kid. Couldn't resist." Moving to a seated position, Wu Kong gave the group a thumbs up. "But hey, what'd I tell ya? Knew you kids could take care of this yourselves. So, the rest of you ready to get back to normal? Then we can start discussin' some really important stuff back home."

"Oh, you bet." Weiss affirmed, peering down at herself. "I am SO ready to get back to my normal self."

Blake let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah, after everything that's happened today, I could use a rest, myself."

With a deep breath, Ben sighed and placed his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I think we could ALL use that. C'mon guys, let's head back to my place. We'll change ourselves back to normal, and then dinner's on me, whaddya say?" The Omni-Hunters all agreed to that without hesitation, making their way back to the Rustbucket.

…All except for a certain Osmosian, who stared at his car forlornly. "Man… can I ever catch a break?"

"Come on, Kevin." Gwen encouraged, leading him to the RV. "Tomorrow's another day." Kevin could only wimper as he entered the Rustbucket, though Gwen was certain he'd get over it. "Oh, come on, act your age."

…..

A/N: And with that ending on an obvious joke, we come to the end of this chapter! And I will say that I diverted quite a bit from the original episode with this one, especially in terms of Billy's involvement with the plot. I won't lie, he's not exactly one of my favorite villains, if only because his personality is genuinely unbearable. And I get it, that's the point of his character, but I definitely made it a point for the heroes to verbally dress him down and let him have it here, that's for sure. He'll eventually resurface in the future, but let me tell ya, he's gonna be getting exactly what he deserves.

In the end, though, yeah, the team pretty much solved this problem by themselves, storming into Billy's skyscraper, defeating the rest of the Computron robots, and then getting the de-aging ray, no harm, no foul. But let's face it, the REAL meat and potatoes of this chapter was devoted to the gang reacting to themselves as kids, namely Team RWBY in particular and how it affects those closest to them.

Of course, you've got Winter and Weiss reminiscing about how their family life could've gone had their father not been such a massive jerk. And then there's Raven seeing Yang and Ruby as children and feeling incredibly guilty about not being present for their childhood. In the end, though, the girls decided to give Raven a little more time with them as kids, as a sentimental gift to her. And you can bet that Vernal's gonna be in for quite a shock when she sees them, that's for sure.

And then there's the Monkey King being his usual self, though surprisingly, he wasn't about to get involved in a situation that the heroes could handle on their own. Guess that shows just how restrained he's become thanks to his Buddhist training. Sure, he's incredibly powerful and can win pretty much any fight, but he's also not about to fight the heroes' battles FOR them. Should make for an interesting dynamic when it comes to their training.

But hm… it would seem that Jinn's taken a bit of an interest in Charmcaster. Wonder what this could mean for the sorceress' future? Aside from that, though, there's also the OTHER bit of big news coming out of this chapter… and it's that we're gonna be seeing some returning characters from the original series VERY soon. Donovan Grand-Smith; the billionaire friend of Max who's actually pretty chill, is coming to Bellwood! And we'll be seeing that…

NEXT TIME! As Donovan arrives to talk business with Ben, we see Ruby, Yang and Raven go out on their mother-daughter outing… while also dragging Vernal along with them. But meanwhile, Gwen and Kevin receive an urgent call from Remnant… Cooper's finished the Driver… which means it's time to begin the experiment. Next time; the first of the two-part Season 3 Finale! Building Toward the Future, Part 1. Will Cooper's project be a success? We'll just have to wait and see, but for now, thanks for reading, everybody, and I'll catch you all next time! And, as always, stay safe out there!