Chapter 5
The ceremony was over shortly after the turtles' team name was announced, and all students were quickly assigned a dorm and sent there. Team LMDR's dorm happened to be next door to that of Team RWBY's and diagonally from Team JNPR's, to the gratefulness of most of the boys. It would be nice to be close to the only ones thus far they'd been able to make any connection with, and Ruby and Yang were excited to be close to them as well. The night had been filled with many congratulations, before everyone retired to their rooms, most students ready to start classes the next day, once inside, the turtles looked and saw the inside of the room, and it was pretty nice, Fairly large for four people, four large beds lined up against the wall, two on each side of the room.
There were some shelves and tables for students to work, and a large drawer for students belongings, Mikey looked around and whistled.
"Well gotta say, these places aren't too shabby, nice to know they're taking good care of their 'valuable' warriors!" Mikey chuckled, flexing his arms. As he did, Klunk Lept out of Donnie's bag, exploring his new home, before jumping on one of the beds. Mikey chuckled "Welp, guess that means that's mine."
His brothers looked around, and walked over to their beds to see something laying on them. Looking at them, it would seem that some clothing wrapped nicely in plastic was laying on the beds. On it was a note stating these were their uniforms. Looking at them, the uniform was a black suit lined with gold, accompanied by a blue vest and a white shirt with a red tie. Looking them over the turtles were surprised, and one of them less happy.
"No way! I ain't wearin' some stupid monkey suit!" Raph declared luudly, tossing it to the side. Leonardo sighed and walked over to talk him down, while Mikey turned over to look at Donatello.
"Say Donnie, do you think these are custom-made for our shells? I mean, we had to have our suits custom-made for Casey's wedding, so what about these?" Mikey asked, the shouting of Raph next to them slowly growing quieter, and Don shrugged.
"I mean, I'd assume so, I did write down the same sizes we gave when asked." Don shrugged, before Raph finally yelled again.
"We are leavin' dis place ASAP, got it?!" Raph grumbled as he passed by Don, tossing his uniform back on the bed, before laying down on it. Mikey couldn't help but chuckle at his brother's annoyance. Meanwhile Leo shook his head, before turning to his family.
"Alright everyone, I think we need to discuss our next move, we've already accomplished Step one, get into Beacon, now step two now is to gather the knowledge and resources for Don to try and get us home." Leonardo mentioned, to which Don nodded.
Mikey also had a few ideas about their situation.
"And be super awesome heroes kickin' shell and saving the day!" Michelangelo added enthusiastically, turning to them he grinned, leaning back on his bed, Klunk curled up at the end of the bed, Don looked over at everyone, pulling out his tablet.
"I'll be doing a lot of research starting tonight, I looked it up and they have a library, so I'll be spending a lot of time there." Don said, pulling out his new Scroll Ozpin had given to him.
"At the same time, we should probably discuss how things went today during initiation, and one of the first things we need is our weapons." Don added, looking over at everyone who knew what he meant.
"Yeah exactly, our weapons weren't exactly useless, but they were so... ineffective, None of us could even hurt that last Alpha there, even when we all went at once." Leonardo said, looking over at Don, Raph decided to chime in.
"But da locals don't have no issues, shell even Yang was able ta mop da floor wit' one of those Ursa things me an' Leo struggled wit'." Raph mentioned. Don nodded.
"The locals seem pretty adept with their weapons and killing these Grimm, But why is that? Are they made of something else?" Don thought, pulling up his Scroll, while Raph spoke up again.
"An' speakin' of their weapons, why da shell is everyt'ing also a freakin' gun?! It's pretty stupid!" Raph muttered, while Mikey shook his head.
"I think you mean stupidly AWESOME! Hey, maybe that's what we're missing, Don, you could look at their stuff and figure out how to make our weapons do that, right? Imagine: shotgun chucks!" Mikey giggled, thinking of all the combos, causing Don to roll his eyes in exasperation.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that" The Brainiac said, rubbing his forehead.
"But you do have a point, these shifting weapons are far more effective, and I hate to say it but we'll need to upgrade our weapons." Don turned to Leo.
"I know it's the ninja not the weapon, and we could make do with what we have, but how long can we just cruise on skill alone?" Don questioned, to which Leo nodded.
"Alright fine, Ruby said she made her scythe on her own, and I get the feeling at least most of these kids did, so there might be a forge or something." Leonardo raised his hand.
"But that's a secondary priority, we can survive without them, and we want to get home first." Leo said, before shaking his head.
"Look, I realize we're putting so much on your shoulders right now, I'm really sorry." Leo stated while Don shook his head.
"It's fine, I'm used to having a million things to do." Don said, chuckling.
"Besides, this world is just so fascinating, the technology, culture, history, I really do look forward to reading all about it!" Don said, a bit sheepishly.
Leo nodded at him.
"Alright, so now that we've got a game plan, I think it's time to turn in everyone, we had a long day, and tomorrow is going to be a whole new experience for us, so get some sleep."
The next day, Leo was as per usual, the first one awake. He'd hoped to get a little morning training in, having awoken just as the sun was peeking out, looking up, he saw the room they were in was a bit too crowded to properly do as he wished.
Don was awake shortly after, wanting to do a bit more research, Leo told Don he was going up on the rooftops for some training, before slipping out of their dorm. They were on the top floor, so the climb to the roof wasn't long.
Once on the roof, Leo could feel the chill of the morning air as a slight breeze brushed over him. He took a breath as the still calm and quiet stillness of the night swept over Beacon. He drew his twin Katanas and started his practice.
He didn't have any of the usual gear, no training dummies, no candles, and not even any buildings close enough to practice leaping across them. So he had to stay with practicing against imaginary foes. As he did , he kept thinking of their situation, particularly some aspects he hadn't discussed last night. He could already tell that the Faunus excuse they'd been using for their identity wouldn't last forever. In fact, he was sure that Blake was already onto them.
That was another thing he thought about as he leaped into the air, swinging at an enemy just below him while simultaneously kicking at someone attempting to dive down at him, this Blake Belladonna... something was definitely up with her, she was always cold around the boys, giving them suspicious looks, and generally radiating bad vibes. He could probably guess she was more of the loner type from their brief interactions, particularly in the Emerald Forest, but he didn't think it was this, he saw her smile and chat friendly enough with Yang, but with them...it wasn't the same. He came to his own conclusion as he neared the end of his morning session. She didn't believe them.
Swiping downwards with his blades, he paused, taking in several deep breaths, a small sweat having built up on him, the sun had risen during his training, and he realized that his focus on Blake and their identity had made the time go away drastically, Sheathing his blades, Leo was quick to return to their dorm, sliding in silently. Don was still sitting at the table, his eyes darting along the Scroll as he looked around the sites, Leo tapped on his shoulder.
"Hey Don, what's the time? Sun's coming up and I know classes start at nine." Leo said. As the team leader, he'd also found himself in possession of their schedule, and was supposed to be in charge of keeping them on time, Don looked up, a bit surprised at Leo's sudden appearance.
"Oh, uh hey Leo. Let's see the time is... 8:30, so we have a little more time." Don said, closing the scroll, Leo nodded.
"Still, we should probably think about getting ready to go...especially for some of us." The leader mentioned, looking over at the still sleeping forms of Raphael and Michelangelo. Don let out a breath as he smiled at them.
"Right, that might be a good idea." Don added, getting up, and walking over to his bed, and grabbed his uniform, looking it over, while Leo walked over to his brothers.
"Alright guys, it's time to get up, we need to be leaving shortly." Leo said, shaking both of his brothers. Raph groaned and slowly sat up, clearly less than pleased with the reasoning for waking up. Mikey on the other hand kept on napping.
Leo attempted to shake him a few more times, before Raph moved Leo away, Raph smirked as he got over to his clumsy brother and stuck two fingers over Mikey's nostrils. Mikey groaned and started squirming, trying to breathe.
"Ah, ah, ah! I'm drowning! Someone help me I'm drowning!" Mikey screamed as he thrashed in his bed, before Raph smacked the back of his head. Mikey shot up, groaning as he rubbed his head, looking up.
"Hey bozo, time for school" Raph said, crossing his arms, while Mikey rubbed his head.
The brothers were soon fully up and had, begrudgingly for some, also gotten dressed. The turtles hurried out, wanting to beat the rush of students, as their day began. The classes were somewhat similar to that of their Ninja Tribunal training days, only less rigorous and active and more scholarly. Don of course ate almost everything up, taking detailed notes, and focusing on every word that was said. Leonardo attempted to focus and pay attention, but some aspects just flew over his head. Raph and Mikey on the other hand didn't bother all of that much. Raph still saw the classes as a waste of time, so he sat around waiting for time to be over, Michelangelo just kept daydreaming about all sorts of stuff, including the comics and cartoons he was missing out on, what kind of super awesome weapon he'd turn his nun-chucks into, and what he wanted for lunch.
They had several classes that day, the most notable being Grimm Studies, Combat classes, and History (at least according to Donatello, not so much everyone else). It was rather fortunate as well that those happened to be the same classes RWBY and JNPR shared with them. Those teams had also shown their diligence by rushing into class one minute before class started, to the amusement of their peers, most notably Mikey. Their teachers in that class also proved to be...different, as did the classes themselves.
For Grimm Studies they had a large man named Professor Port, he seemed to think highly of himself as a great Huntsman, while Michelangelo found it hard to believe he'd ever done anything. During most of the lecture, he rattled on about some story or other that supposedly occurred when he was a young Huntsman, a story that even Don found it hard to sit through. However near the end of class, Port tried to make a point and asked for a volunteer to show themselves to be a true Huntsman or Huntress. Weiss took the offer, and actually found herself facing off against some boar Grimm that was captured, Weiss did end up taking it down, but there was clearly tension between her and Ruby over it.
Their next class of note, history, was taught by Doctor Oobleck, Oobleck was tall, thin, had messy green hair and his uniform was very disorganized, all facts that made sense from his behaviour, he was constantly in motion, speeding around the room and speaking at a speed that even Mikey found overwhelming. These factors, combined with the fact that most of the turtles found the history of this world to be irrelevant to their current plans meant that only Donatello had any interest, despite that interest being very high.
Their final class of interest was the one that everyone for the most part paid at least some attention to, even Raph and Mikey. Combat. The professor of this class was actually a shockingly familiar face, Professor Glynda Goodwitch herself.
Michelangelo had swallowed hard upon this news, getting flashbacks from their time training under the sadistically strict Chikara-Shisho of their Ninja Tribunal days. The professor proved to be her usual self, strict and serious, keeping an eye on the students to make sure they were all focused. She explained that the class would feature a lot of sparring with most learning being focused on how to use their Auras and something called a Semblance. The brothers had looked over at Don, who sheepishly shrugged, this news however had brought a smile to Raph's face, letting him know that he'd get something out of this class at least.
They day was long for the turtles, classes rolling into more classes, until the day ended. The one and only break they got was lunch in the middle of their classes, the turtles were initially planning on getting lunch and getting out of the cafeteria to eat it, avoiding people. The turtles had noticed that their new uniforms had somewhat helped keep them under the radar, the green, bald heads with colorful bandanas of course still caught some looks but not as many as before. As the turtles made their way away however, someone called out to them.
"Hey, Leo, Mikey, guys over here!" Came the young voice of Ruby Rose, looking over the turtles saw Teams RWBY and JNPR had found a table and were sitting with each other, Yang was also waving the four over, and with a look they all slowly walked over, upon reaching them, the turtles took a seat with them.
"So how's your first day been going guys?" Yang questioned the turtles, to which she got a slew of different answers.
"Completely astounding, I'm just simply surprised at everything I'm seeing and learning!" Donatello excitedly exclaimed, to which Mikey rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, if by exciting you mean a total snoresville! Like seriously shouldn't we be out smashing bad guys and kicking some Grimm shell?" Mikey groaned, his head collapsing onto the table, Pyrrha shook her head and looked over at him.
"Michelangelo, you should focus more on your classes, these are very important towards your career as a future Huntsman." She added softly, trying to help cheer him up. Raph scoffed and rolled his eyes, but said nothing more, Leonardo nodded in agreement.
"Indeed, Mikey, you need to stop slouching." The elder brother added, earning a groan from Mikey "Besides, I'm sure that things will get easier as time goes on."
Over the next few weeks the brothers had slowly relaxed as they started to get more and more used to their new environment. School days had largely been accepted and for the most part (Michelangelo the exception) complaints were relatively non-existent. In their times off, the boys had started to wander about and do their own personal thing.
For instance, Raphael was out near the back of Beacon academy, underneath his motorcycle early one evening. It'd taken a few days of convincing and dragging Donatello from his work and research, but the turtle had finally set out to convert the Shellcycle to Dust energy, but once done it was all good to use. And so Raph was out here, double checking that all the components were working well. He'd test driven it a bit, and it drove fairly well. while he was working, Raph heard several footsteps approach, the hothead groaned as heard them, trying to ignore them, which ultimately failed as the approached him. Hearing them stand right next to him, he cried out while working in one last bolt.
"I swear Mikey, if dis is you tryin' to be funny again, I'll knock ya head off!" He exclaimed finishing the piece, the response he got was a familiar chuckle that didn't belong to his boneheaded brother.
"Sorry to disappoint but I'm not Mikey" Came the perky voice Raph had come to tolerate most of the world's inhabitants. Crawling out from underneath he looked up to see the familiar blonde hair of Yang Xiao Long.
"'Sup Yang, Whatcha doin' here?" He asked, flipping up onto his legs and patting himself off. She shrugged, her hand on her hips as she looked back at the turtle.
"Nothing much, just thought I'd come by to check on ol' Bumblebee." She added, before looking back at the bike. "So this your bike you've mentioned huh?"
"Yeah, this is da Shellcycle." Raph added proudly, patting the back of it. Yang nodded, and returned her lavender eyes to Raph. "Probably the best and fastest bike I eva rode."
Hearing that little tidbit, Yang's friendly smile turned into a competitive smirk.
"Oh is that so, huh? Well clearly you've never been on Bumblebee, she's a thing of beauty, and the fastest I've ever seen, I should know, I'm the one who made her like that" She added, to which chuckled and shook his head.
"Listen lady, I'm sure yer bike is pretty decent, 'specially in the department o' speed, but no way is some Bumblebee matching the Shellcycle." Raph said, matching Yang's smirk as he leaned back against the Shellcycle, arms crossed. Yang did not back down.
"Oh yeah? Prove it, and put the money where your mouth is, beat me back here and I may just concede that the Shellcycle beats the Bumblebee." She challenged, crossing her own arms. Raph raised an eyebrow as he listened to her challenge.
"Yer sayin' you want me to take part in a high-speed and incredibly dangerous bike race through the streets, just to prove that yer bike is better than mine?" He asked slowly, Yang nodded confidently.
"Yep." She responded without a moment of hesitation, Raph's smug grin couldn't get any wider.
"Count me in."
The two had taken a quick moment to set up their various bikes at the edge of Beacon's parking lot. The route was a simple one, they'd take the lone road connecting Beacon to the rest of the city down to the highway, following that for five exits, at the fifth exit they'd exit and turn down to the underpass and make their way back, first one back to Beacon would be the winner.
Raph revved his bike to taunt his opponent, his confident smirk hidden behind the red helmet he wore. Yang ignored him, herself getting ready as her blonde hair flowed under the yellow helmet on the bruiser's head. Raph reached into his belt and pulled out a shuriken, feeling it in his hand. After a moment he quickly tossed it up into the air, grabbing onto the handles quickly. The seconds ticked by, and time seemed to slow as the object soared into the air before reaching its peak. The two racers stared straight ahead at their target. Soon the shuriken shot down just ahead of the two, and embedded itself into the ground. The second it made contact, the two bikes screeched to life, tearing down the road and off towards their target.
The two were neck and neck as they travelled down the winding road. Raphael noticed how much she would occasionally swerving in close to try and unnerve him, and making sure that when the turtle looked up at her, the blonde's tongue was out and aimed at her rival. The turtle had driven through machine gun and rocket fire, so this barely phased him. However it did open all new rules of engagement.
So dat's how ya wanna play huh? Alright, I can play. He smirked and gunned it.
The two arrived at the highway soon enough. As it was later in the evening traffic wasn't that heavy, but there were just enough to offer themselves to be interesting obstacles. The two drove next to each other, their speeds matched when it came to the straight path of the roadway. That changed when they came across the first car, and the game changed. Weaving in and out of traffic, the two bikers split apart, going in between any openings they could find. Raphael held a slim advantage here, able to pinpoint and notice openings just as they were about to occur and reacting on split second choices to pull ahead. Yang however wasn't that far behind, and she was able to make do with her incredibly recklessness, diving for gaps and openings she probably shouldn't have. The first and eventually second exits passed by, and the two were still neck and neck.
On coming up to the third exit, Raph held a barely noticeable lead after Yang got caught behind a pair of cars, forcing her to slow down and lose the lead she previously enjoyed. The turtle looked alongside to see the blonde, three lanes away, was also not far from giving up. She zoomed between a car Raph was sure wouldn't leave enough room, but as she had done before, Yang took advantage and enjoyed the prize. Raph gritted his teeth, seeing that once again the tiny victory he'd been enjoying was passed up. So in his fervor he noticed that coming up, and just behind Yang, was another pair of cars. The problem was that the Shellcycle wouldn't be able to fit in the space between them. So he decided to improvise. Revving the engine he zoomed for the gap and then leaned back, pulling the bike onto only its back tire. While like this, he was able to narrowly squeeze by, landing the front tire on the street, the honking behind him vanishing as the third exit passed by.
Seeing that, Raph still trailed behind Yang, and she would not let him pass, staying in front of him. Raph watched her keep the lead and denying Raph even a little breathing room, swapping lanes with him. Raph was getting tired of these little tricks Yang was clearly enjoying, and as such he tried to think of a good way to pass her. Looking up, he saw a sign warning of the upcoming fifth exit. Raph was running out of space to continue the race, and he needed to do something drastic. Gritting his teeth he looked ahead of Yang. Currently she was right in front of him in the third lane from the left. Next to her was up and coming a car that would keep her from turning right more, but also trapping Raph. He'd already tried swapping lanes, but she kept her eye on the Shellcycle and kept the lead. Thinking of an idea, Raph hoped this stupid, stupid idea paid off.
Just as the car passed right next to Yang, Raph faked a turn to cut behind it, pulling right up behind her. Seeing the car, Yang didn't do anything, and as such was unprepared for Raph to quickly slam left, pulling up dangerously close, too close for Yang to try and intercept him. However Raph wasn't content to just catch up or even pass her. He needed to decisively take her out of the race, and that's where the stupid idea came into effect, as Raph pulled next to Yang, he suddenly kicked off the Shellcycle, his ninja body briefly coming right ahead of Yang.
Yang's eyes widened and she forced herself to slow down. While midair, Raph launched his legs out, kicking against the car Yang was next to and flipped back over to land on the Shellcycle, pulling ahead fast, leaving Yang behind. Raph threw his fist in the air, cheering out that it had worked, the final exit was pulling up ahead and for the first time Raph enjoyed a clear lead, smirking cockily, he looked back and saw Yang was far behind him.
"Eat my dust, Blondie!" Raph shouted back with a victorious chuckle. However while doing this, he failed to notice that up ahead a car had unexpectedly slammed their brakes. Turning around Raph's eyes widened.
"Oh SHELL!" He yelled out, gripping the brakes and turning the Shellcycle to its side, sliding down to a screeching halt. Panting at the narrow break he had, Raph heard the sound of a motorcycle humming, and looking up he saw Yang and the Bumblebee pass by. It might've been his imagination, but he could've sworn he saw her wink as well. Not that it mattered, as not only had Raphael lost his impressive lead, Yang had gained an even better one, pulling down into the exit. Gripping his fists, Raph looked up at the solid holographic railings on the side of the road. Thinking for a second, Raph shrugged.
"She never said this was cheatin'... and I've done a shelluva lot stupider." Raph justified, before quickly revving the bike, charging straight at the railing, pulling up so the Shellcycle launched up and over, The bike and rider plummeted down towards the street, seeing the bright, yellowed bike of his opponent.
Grinning he landed right behind Yang, pulling ahead quickly, Yang quickly looked back, her eyes hidden, but her body showed obvious surprise, Raph smirked and waved at her as he pulled up next to the blonde, the two stared each other down, going too fast for words to be exchanged.
This section of the race was pretty straightforward, literally, and there was almost no traffic. The two remained neck and neck, pulling into the road leading back up into Beacon. The twists and turns of the winding road provided some challenge, but not enough for either racer to properly take advantage of.
They were of equal skill, and as Beacon approached, they were neck and neck, both barely edging ahead of the other, only to be taken advantage of, however, what happened next no one really knows the full extent as to what happened, and when asked about it in the future, each racer would just blame the other.
One of their bikes suddenly made a sharp turn with their front tire, normally for such experienced bikers this would be a non-issue. However, both were so close and so caught up in their race that it went unnoticed for a split second until it tapped into the other's, knocking them out. Both fought to regain control of their respective motorcycles, but in the end they both flipped over across the line, hurtling their drivers off and a fair distance away.
Hot-headed turtle and reckless human thrill-seeker tumbled across the ground, groaning and gasping until they slowly stopped a fair distance away, both laying still for a bit, they each gave a small groan and sat up to inspect the damage, all things considered they were alright (Aura is one heck of a safety device) and their bikes weren't... well... at least they weren't totaled which was a good thing.
Looking back at each other and feeling the rush of adrenaline slowly dissipate and the sheer ridiculous of what had happened, the two started to burst out laughing. As their laughs slowly subsided they slowly and painfully stood up, feeling their everything was sore. Yang chuckled and looked over to her competitor.
"Well... I'd say that's about as decisively a draw as you can get." She added, extending her hand to Raph, who took it and nodded back.
"Yeah I'd say so. So I guess they're both pretty equal bikes." Raph said, slowly walking over to get his bike, Yang following for hers.
"Yeah, I'd say so." She added, before slowly turning to smirk at Raph and softly hit his shoulder. "Even if the Shellcycle's driver is a dirty cheater."
"Hey, dat wasn't cheatin' it was just my ninja intuition!" He defended, slugging her back softly, if a bit harder.
Yang turned back to him, and the two continued bickering back and forth, their tone growing louder but no less friendly, as their back and forth slugging match grew harder and faster.
Michelangelo was in a bit of an odd situation. Here he was surrounded by awesome warriors, literal superpowers, and monsters to slay, but he also felt bored out of his skull, groaning as his head was resting on the table of their final class of the day, it was combat class, and he'd been staring at amateur warriors make a mockery of the word 'combat' and he felt too lazy to volunteer.
It was times like this that he was missing his comics and cartoons, Groaning, he heard the final match finish up, and Professor Goodwitch going over the specifics of their round. His head however shot up when he heard the bell ring. Standing up, he leaped across his brothers, sliding down the railway to the bottom to exit. He barely heard the professor calling out against said behavior, he was too busy enjoying the newfound freedom, he chuckled and walked down the hallways, a spring in his step.
"Ugh, finally, About time that lame class ended, now…" He suddenly stopped and put his hand on his chin.
"...What to do now? hmmmm... I suppose I could try the library to see if they have anymore comics" He said, before hearing one of his classmates mention something as she left.
"Aw, are you sure you don't wanna play? You love that game!" Game the voice of Ruby rose as her and her team walked out close by, Ruby was talking to Yang, who looked down at her younger sister and shrugged.
"Sorry sis, I'd love to but I'm almost done fixing up Bumblebee. Have you asked Weiss and Blake?" Yang suggested. Ruby sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, but Blake wants to go to the library and read instead, and Weiss was all 'Why would I waste my time with those dreadful video games?' like usual." Ruby added, attempting to mimic Weiss, said teammate, being present, crossed her arms and glared at Ruby.
"I do NOT sound like that!" Weiss argued indignantly. Ruby just shrugged.
"Sounded like that to me." Ruby said, causing Weiss to groan and storm off, Yang shrugged apologetically.
"Sorry, but I gotta go, I'm sure you'll have fun playing it on your own." She added, heading off, Ruby sighed and nodded, walking away slowly, However she stopped and looked up when a certain mutant ninja turtle crossed her path.
"I'm sorry, but did you mention video games?" Mikey asked hopefully.
The two quickly got to RWBY's dorm and Ruby excitedly plugged in the game. Seeing as Mikey didn't have a Scroll to use as a controller, Ruby borrowed Yang's, with her permission Ruby assured. The two set up the ninja combat game, and duked it out. Almost a half hour into it, it was clear who had the advantage.
"Hah! In your face Ruby!" Mikey exclaimed, leaping up with victory, Ruby looked less amused as she saw her virtual ninja's guts spilling on the ground.
"That's no fair! How is it you've beaten me so much!" Ruby demanded looking up. Mikey smirked and shook his head.
"A true master never reveals the secret of their art." The turtle said, before sitting down. "So ready for another round, or are you tired of getting your butt kicked?"
"I am not, and I'll show you!" Ruby said. The two readied their characters. Ruby dashed forward, swinging her sword at Mikey, who leaped over, slamming down with his legs. Ruby barely dodged the attack, but didn't have time to counter the triple combo Mikey mashed away at. From there it was all over as Ruby was combo-locked into defeat. Her silver eye twitching, Ruby let out a cry of anguish before falling on the ground. Mikey chuckled, shaking his head.
"Aw don't feel too bad Ruby, I am the master of video games, a champion across the entire digital realm!" Mikey boasted, pointing to himself. Ruby sighed and sat up.
"Fine...I suppose you're right, but I'm telling you, next time we square off I'll have improved so much that you won't see what's coming!" Ruby exclaimed, grinning. Mikey chuckled and stood up.
"I suppose it's good to have that confidence. And I look forward to our next bout." He said, offering his hand. Ruby nodded, shaking it back. There was a moment, before they both heard a loud yell outside in the hallways.
"Alright, who's the dead meat who took my Scroll?!" Came the angry voice of Yang as stomping was heard. Mikey gulped, and Ruby smirked deviously.
"Oh Mikey, one more thing..." She said. Then she dashed and opened the door, and yelled out.
"Mikey did!" Ruby exclaimed, then turned to the now panicking ninja turtle.
"There's more to games then winning." She winked and dashed out, leaving Mikey to his fate.
One day after classes, Leonardo was in his new favorite area, the combat room, here he found a lot of useful equipment he'd been lacking on his early morning exercises, and so he was spending a lot of time on his own in this room. Today he'd had a few things on his mind while leaping over training dummies, only deliver quick slices against them while in the air. Namely his thoughts were revolving around their Aura. The classes seemed to be mostly revolving around the assumption that the students knew about Aura, and from what he learned from Donnie, apparently this was indeed common knowledge.
He'd been able to absorb a bit of information, and the more he learned about it, the more he realized how similar it was to their Ki. It even granted those trained enough their own individual ability, namely the Semblances that he'd heard about. However there were other abilities of the Aura, the one he'd been most interested in being the ability to channel one's Aura into objects, such as your weapon. It explained the strength of everyone else's weapons while his brothers had difficulty even killing the weaker creatures.
During his evenings when not training, Leonardo had attempted meditating on this, and as he did he could feel...something. A tingle across his skin, a pulling from within. He was sure this was it, but Leonardo felt like it was always just out of reach, just slipping from his grasps. His brothers only had access to the bare surface of this wonderful tool, and Leonardo felt like this was the best way he could contribute to the team, but he wasn't quite there.
Pressing off with his hand, Leo soared backwards, reaching two dummies, lashing out to deliver several lightning-fast kicks to both of them, he knocked one down with his leg, and flipped backwards into the air, swinging his katanas several times before landing. Staying crouched low, he watch as the dummy fell into several pieces before him. Standing up, he quickly sheathed his weapons, when his ears picked up a small clapping sound.
"I have to admit that, that is really impressive." Came the kind, familiar voice of Pyrrha Nikos, turning around, Leonardo confirmed that the champion warrior was standing by the entrance, watching him, Leo smiled a bit awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Er, thanks for that." Leo said, as Pyrrha entered the training room.
"I'm sorry if it appeared like I was being too nosy, I just stopped by to train a bit but didn't want to interrupt, you looked so focused." She added, to which Leo felt a bit more self conscious about.
"No no, it's no problem, I mean I wouldn't want to be the one hogging up the training room." Leo quickly countered, to Pyrrha's amusement.
"Alright, if you say so, Sorry for interrupting your training again, I just was quite intrigued with your combat style." She said, before grabbing her sword and shield, walking to another part of the room. Leonardo nodded, and unsheathing his katanas again, turned back to his part of the room as well.
The two warriors went back to their different training styles, but as Leo did he couldn't help but look back at how Pyrrha trained. He wondered how she was using her Aura. Was her Semblance being put to use as well? Leo backflipped off a wall and spun kicked a dummy as he landed, and thought of a solution. Who'd know more about Aura than a native, and someone who probably uses Aura a lot? Casually shifting a bit closer to Pyrrha, Leonardo calmly called out.
"So Pyrrha, uh, been meaning to ask, what's your Semblance?." Leo asked calmly, landing nearby her. Pyrrha stopped her own exercise suddenly, then turned around to look at Leonardo with a raised eyebrow and small frown on her face.
"I... I beg your pardon?" She asked slowly, causing Leonardo to wince.
Were Semblances a secret? Private information? He probably should've paid more attention to Don when he talked about that.
"Er, uh I mean...um if you wanted to share I mean... um…" Leo was interrupted from his terrible backpedaling by Pyrrha's soft chuckles, Her face grew soft again and she sighed turning to him.
"You really don't know a lot about Semblances, or even Aura, do you?" Pyrrha asked, her tone more or less confirming that she already knew the answer.
"Um... I mean, maybe I'm not an expert…" Leo added, fearing he may have just exposed a major flaw in his team's cover story, Pyrrha shook her head.
"It's not just that, I've seen how you and your brothers are in combat class, only your brother Donatello seems to have much of an inkling about it." She said softly, causing Leo's shoulders to droop.
"Um... yeah." Leo admitted, to which Pyrrha shrugged.
"Well for someone who doesn't know much about it, you sure fight fairly well, especially for someone who doesn't know much about using their Aura." She said, and smiled warmly at Leonardo "What do you say I help you along with the basics?"
"You...mean that?" Leonardo asked, his earlier feelings of dread now replaced with hope. Pyrrha nodded.
"Of course. I'll be a bit busy with some other obligations to have recently come up…" She said, a warm look of contentment filling her eyes, as if she remembered something fondly, "But I am sure I can help you out sometimes."
Leonardo was incredibly grateful, bowing to her in thanks. The two discussed the finer points of their new arrangement, and soon enough they both left, on their way. However as Leonardo and Pyrrha separated, Leo looked up and saw a familiar face had come at the end of the hallway, Blake Belladonna, to be precise.
The two stared each other down, the tension near tangible in the air. Leonardo had felt that Blake knew something about them that no one else did, and he didn't know what. Of all of their recent acquaintances, Blake was the most distant. Her teammates seemed to think of it as nothing more than her being herself, but Leonardo wasn't so sure. And the more his suspicion of her grew, the more it seemed she felt the same about him. Their standoff lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity until Blake continued along her way. Leonardo watched Blake walk away a bit before turning the other way.
Leonardo knew, one way or another, he was going to have to confront her about this.
Of all the turtles, it was obvious that Donatello was enjoying himself the most. This new world was just so fascinating to the genius turtle, It had a rich and colorful history, a brand new culture, marvels of technology, and entire new resources to mess around with. He was meticulous to absorb as much information as he could, all while working on studying the world and what it had to offer. This lead him to focus on the substance known as Dust the most. However as he made some progress in it, learning and studying all about it, he also spent time looking to improve the team's performance in combat. Leonardo had learned of ways to use Aura to do that, which Donnie was grateful for, but that was only a small piece of the puzzle.
Mikey's observance on the weapon use in Remnant seemed to be mostly correct it turned out. Nearly every combatant with their own personal weapon was some sort of shifting weapon that combined a melee aspect with a ranged weapon as well. Or, as Mikey liked to put it: 'Every weapon is also a gun!' That wasn't even the best part. From what Don had gathered, it seemed most students had forged their own weapons even, in combat school as well. He talked a lot with Ruby on this, and had even asked for her...creative input about his own personal project.
Because of this latest detail, Beacon also had an extensive workshop, and when he wasn't scanning for information in the library or working in his makeshift lab at their dorm, Donnie was often found there. It took a few weeks, but soon Donnie looked down at his accomplishments, grinning with pride as he wiped his brow.
"Man, my bros are gonna love these!" He proclaimed confidently.
It wasn't long before Donnie awaited his brothers' return to the dorm. Leonardo from training and Aura practice with Pyrrha, Raph from working on his bike or going out with Yang for some crazy adventure (Donnie was a bit worried at how fast Raph had found a replacement for Casey Jones in that regard), and Mikey from checking out some of the local comics. Don couldn't hide the goofy grin on his face, to which his brothers noticed.
"Uh, you okay dude? What is it?" Mikey asked as he sat down on his bed, Klunk hopping up to greet him, Don nodded.
"I am more than okay! So, I'm sure you guys remember our initiation, correct? More specifically what the biggest issue was?" Donnie asked, to which he got a general nod from everyone.
"Our weapons weren't too effective 'gainst those Grimm, even da weaker ones" Raph added, a bit spitefully. He may have got in a better mood recently and be a bit less of a brooder, didn't mean that Raph was any better than normal. Donnie however continued on.
"Exactly. Leonardo here has made progress with his own learning, and will soon be teaching us what he's learned. However, using our Aura is only one aspect we can improve on, see there's another aspect of combat in Remnant." Donnie added, before turning around and pulling out his gifts. Weapons.
At a first glance, they seemed identical to the ones they already had, two katanas, two sais, two nunchucks, and a bo staff. However there were some minor differences. Handles were somewhat thicker, the bow staff and nun-chucks weren't made of wood, and specifically on the nunchucks there were small tubes running across them. The brothers looked at them curiously, then back to him.
"Go ahead, try them out." Donnie added, the first one to pick theirs up was Raph, looking at the Sais. Don grinned.
"Now then, pretty nice and familiar. Just press one of the tips against the back of the other sai and push that button there." Don mentioned. Raph shrugged and did so. Once he did, however the weapons moved, the back of the first Sai opened up and took the prong inside of it. The tip of the first one split open, a small barrel appearing as well. The two sets of prongs on the sides of the Sais also rotated down to the underside of the fused weapons, fusing together. On the rear set, a trigger and trigger guard sprang out. Raph widened his eyes, holding the new weapon, while Don was almost bouncing with excitement.
"You like? Now your sais are fused together and have formed a fully functional automatic weapon" Donnie added impressively, Raph looked down at it, his eyes still wide, obviously extremely impressed.
"I... well that's definitely not what I expected." Raph said, pressing the button again, allowing them to split up into sais again. Mikey was quick to leap up.
"Oooh oooh, me next! Me next!" He said, rushing over to grab the nun-chucks, looking them over, he noted they were made of a hard but lightweight metal instead of the traditional wood, and he spied several buttons and triggers on his. Donnie chuckled, before leaning back to open their window before leaning in to show his brother.
"Now, this one actually has three parts to it. First there are these triggers on the side, two sets of them actually, press the larger ones." Don pointed out, to which Mikey nodded and did so, from the tips of each shaft a short, curved blade popped out "Bam, instant Kusarigama! Just pull it again and your nunchucks are back."
"Woah, that's pretty neat!" Mikey said, giving them a test swing, making sure to keep them away from himself. Pulling the triggers again, the blades folded back up. Don leaned over.
"Now for this next one, I'm going to want you to point the ends of your chucks outside of the windows. Now, up where the chain connects to the shaft is a small button. Press it". Mikey nodded and aimed one of the chucks out of the window and his thumb pressed it. His eyes widened in pure amazement as he saw a small jet of flames shoot out from the tip, looking down at it, Mikey was almost lost for words, Don smirked "And that's not all, if you press and hold the smaller triggers on the side now"
Mikey did so, and soon the ends of his chucks lit on fire, Letting go it went out, Looking up he couldn't help but give his brother a big hug.
"Holy shell bro, these are freaking awesome!" Mikey said, looking over at his new chucks, giving them a couple of spins, Don chuckled and patted Mikey on the head, Raph simply rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Yeah great idea Don, givin' Mikey of all people a flamethrower."
"Hey, I'll have you know I am very responsible... well most of the time." Mikey countered, Don decided to preemptively interject and end the brewing argument, before it began.
"For you Leo, I know you're a turtle of simple tastes, so yours is a bit simple as well." He handed Leonardo the two katanas, Leo holding them in his hands to test the weight. Donnie pointed out a button and a switch. Pressing the button, the sides of the handle opened up and two large, star-shaped shurikens rested next to the blade. "There you go, and with a swing of your sword, you'll launch those at impressive speeds. Also the switch on the side will distinguish between different styles of shuriken, such as star and narrow ones."
"Wow... this is actually really impressive Donnie, we're really grateful that you took the time to help us and make all new weapons!" Leo added, a big grin on his face, Don smiles wide, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"Aw shucks guys, it's nothing really, it was a lot of fun getting to mess around with Dust and this world's shifting technology." He said, then bent over to grab the bow staff. "And last but not least, the grand finale!"
He grinned and pressed a side button, the staff collapsing to the size of a baton, then extending to full length. Another button also shot out a blade from the tip and two smaller ones from underneath it, turning the bo staff into a yari, finally, a twist of a knob folded it back, and a trigger, guard, and iron sights popped up, the staff turning into a rifle. Returning it to its bo staff form, Don bowed to the applause he got.
"Thanks guys...and really I'm happy to help, we're likely gonna be stuck here for a while, so why not make the best of it?" Don asked, sitting back at his desk, Raph sighed and nodded.
"Gotta admit...things like dis are making our stay a bit more bearable." Raph admitted, looking at his new sais, He got a round of agreement from his brothers, and Leonardo stood up.
"So, it seems that we've now got the knowledge, the equipment, and the team to thrive in this world." Leo said confidently, grinning as he looked over his family.
"Let's see just how well we do until we get home." Leonardo added confidently.
AN: Alright everyone...I am so sorry for the massive delay with this chapter, and for any lack of quality it had. This chapter was a pain to write, as I had very little idea on how to go about with my plan for this one. The fact that my schedule took a blow didn't help either. I actually ended up scrapping the second half of this chapter and put my planned chapter six in its place instead, which would explain the larger than average length. But don't worry, my plan for the next chapter will be a lot more solid, and it should come out faster! Thank you again for your patience and for enjoying my story!
Also because I feel like I don't do this enough, I really would like to thank my anonymous beta readers, regulars and my one temporary reader, so much for helping contribute to this. You people know who you are, and without you this fic would just be a mediocre mess. I really, really appreciate you're help with this.