I got a new dog, she's very small and very cute and very loud-
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
"Ruby? Rubyyyyyyy?" a voice called out.
The red-hooded Huntress turned around and suddenly, everything had gone back to normal. No tents, no darkness, no blinding silver light, and no Blacksmith.
Like they were never there to begin with.
"W-what?" Ruby muttered.
"Ruby? Who were you talking to? Did you retrieve the nose hairs?" the Cat asked, looking up at Ruby, still holding the basket of ingredients with their teeth.
"What? The nose-? Uh, no...no, I...I haven't yet- I-i, I uh..."
"We got everything else already!" the Cat rolled their eyes, seemingly a little impatient...or incensed at the fact that Weiss decided to keep them on track when it seemed Ruby was the one that needed some guidance.
"I...I'm sorry..." Ruby looked down, dejectedly.
Can't even find a giant living teapot. Really fell off, didn't you? Ruby's venomous doubts hissed.
"You said the Teapot Lady, right? Is that her?" Blake asked, pointing off to the left. Sure enough, there was a booth off to the side staffed by what seemed to be a figure wearing a giant teapot as their outfit, only their light purple/pink eyes visible from the shadows under the teapot's lids. Her booth was littered with all kinds of knick-knacks like plushies of bears and birds, silverware, perfumes, and other various ingredients.
"Indeed it is! Good eyes, Blake Huntress," the Cat complemented, trotting over to the booth.
And you were LITERALLY right there! That must sting, huh? the cruel jabs continued. Ruby didn't even bother retorting anymore, just walking over to the both as well.
"Welcome to Things n'Things!" the Teapot Lady greeted, her voice echoing from within the teapot she wore, "How can I help you fine folk?"
"Looking for nose hairs," the Cat said casually, tipping over a jar of short hairs and inspecting them, "No, not the ogre ones."
The Cat nonchalantly tossed aside and tipped over the various items on the booth, much to the Teapot Lady's annoyance. Ruby rolled her eyes, and looked off in the distance. The whimsy that surrounded her just didn't excite her anymore. If she was happier, sure. She'd love this world...but at every turn, something went wrong. It was frustrating, couldn't even escape reality in a fantasy.
"Ruby?"
Ruby didn't look at Blake.
"...Ruby, if you need a...break after this." Blake continued. "We'll take care of the heavy lifting from here on out. Seriously."
Ruby's expression softened a bit. She gave Blake a side eye, not a rude one, more of a 'oh, for real?' sort of glance.
"We've been through a lot, but you have unfairly gotten the brunt of the damage." Weiss added. "So, we wanna do everything we can to help once we get back to normal."
"You're not in this alone. So, let us take some weight off your shoulders...okay?" Yang asked.
Ruby wanted to say yes, just for a chance to not let her mind scream at her. But yet, it did. Do you hear them? They think you're a liability. They're doubting your leadership skills. They think you're weak. A push over. A child in over her head-
"I..." Ruby began.
They don't see a brave face facade, they just only see the crying child they think they can fix by doing the bare minimum. "We'll take the weight off." What a joke. None of them know what they mean. They can't take away everything you're feeling- and if they could, they'd refuse it. They're so shallow like that... The cruel jabs jeered over and over, stabbing her mind like the devil with its pitchfork.
"...um." Ruby hesitated. Her mind screamed no, but her gut was telling her to just say yes.
"...Ruby?" Yang asked, immediately noticing the turmoil in her sister's brain. "Ruby, are you-"
"I'm..." Ruby felt everything in her vision go fuzzy and dark. Her brain felt like it was being overwhelmed, especially with that voice screaming every imaginable negative thing at her.
Before Ruby could answer, a loud bang flashed in the sky. Team RWBY looked up to see some fireworks go off, and the crowd noticed it as well. Yang groaned. "Bad time to have a festival, guys."
Instead of breaking out into the usual 'oohs' and 'aahs', the crowd began to scream and everyone ran for their lives. The girls were confused until another firework shot up, exploded...and spelt out the word "DANGER" in green lights. Ruby's brain fog immediately vanished as she realized what was happening.
"Something's coming." Ruby gasped, turning to the teapot lady. "We need those leprechaun nose hairs! NOW!"
"I'm sorry, dear- IT'S coming!" The Teapot Lady said, starting to suck up some materials. Ruby's eyes darted around, looking for anything that looked remotely like nose hairs. Her eyes widened as she found a jar at the edge of the table. Ruby quickly snatched that up, and darted off.
"H-hey!" The Teapot Lady screamed.
"You'll thank me for stealing this later!" Ruby yelled back, immediately slamming down the ingredients on the table.
"Given the screaming, I think it's safe to say the Jabberwalker's about to make an appearance." Blake frowned. "Ruby, how fast can you-"
Ruby popped open the jar. "XLR8 fast. Cat, do I just throw it all in, or do I have to use precise measurements?!"
"Doesn't matter, though you'd have to be careful. An uneven Parfait can cause some...oddities in growth. And that needs a different potion to fix!" The Cat explained, as Ruby began throwing ingredients in the nosehair jar.
Ruby mixed the ingredients together, and instantly, the jar she'd used turned into a fancy cup with a parfait inside. The parfait was made up of layers of berries, cream; how did nose hairs and a potato turn into that!?
"Okay, dig in!" Yang yelled, starting to feast the parfait as fast as she could. The other two began scooping pieces of it and devouring it within seconds.
"Good to be alarmed about the Jabberwalker." Curious Cat frowned. "If the Jabberwalker eats one of us, we do not ascend."
Weiss (now the size of around Ruby's arm) nearly gagged when she heard that. "WHAT!?"
"Why would you neglect that detail until NOW!?" Yang (a little shorter than Ruby now) yelled.
"You never asked!" The Cat countered.
Blake (now regular size) groaned. "We're so ditching you after this." She mumbled as she hopped off the table.
"After all I've done!? Forshame!" The Cat cried.
Ruby looked Blake up and down for a moment- the Cat mentioned there'd be a chance for some 'oddities' in growth, so she wanted to be aware of that. Everything looked fine...
(Blake wondered why her pants fit a bit more snug.)
Blake chose a good time to get back to full size. The Jabberwalker roared as it stabbed into a nearby booth, breaking it. It noticed Team RWBY and roared, and RWBY stared back in confusion.
"...this is...new to me." The Curious Cat mumbled, as the creature approached them.
The Jabberwalker looked different, it now sported a large gorilla-like body with purple skin, two extra sets of arms of uneven musculature, and spider legs on its back. Blake and Ruby took a step back upon seeing it.
"That's not the Jabberwalker WE faced." Blake said.
"What the hell happened to it!?" Ruby yelled.
"Must have found some new parts." The Curious Cat growled. "It's biomechanical, you se-"
"PREY! EAT! DEVOUR!" The Jabberwalker yelled, but the next thing that came out of its mouth made the girl's hairs stand on end.
"RUBY," the Jabberwalker added suddenly.
Ruby felt that brain fog return, as the creature suddenly began to charge at her directly. Blake got in front of her and drew Gambol Shroud-
But something flew past them, nearly blowing away the still shrunken Weiss and Yang. It ran right up to the Jabberwalker and began throwing punch after punch, like rapid gatling gun fire. The blur ended it with a powerful and electrically enhanced final punch, sending the creature flying backwards.
Ruby blinked.
"...oh my god." She mumbled, eyes already filled with tears. She knew that blue blur...
"What was-?" the Cat asked in surprise.
"It's...it's Ben," Ruby said with a smile.
The new Jabberwalker screeched out in rage, stabbing its spidery legs into the ground to stop it from being thrown back too much. Once it had come to a stop, Fasttrack rushed in and delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the monster's masked face, following it up with a series of quick jabs to its gut. The Jabber hissed and tried to slash Ben to ribbons with its appendages, only for its would-be prey to be too fast for them. Suddenly, an arrow flew over Ruby's head and stabbed into the hulking nightmare's shoulders as Emerald landed in front of the crimson-cloaked Huntress.
"E-emerald?!" Blake gasped.
Emerald didn't say anything; she simply drew another arrow and fired it at the Jabberwalker's face. The arrow hit its target, gouging one of its 'eyes', and making it reel back in pain.
The monster scurried back, barely dodging another quick punch from Ben. It reached up and painfully tore the arrow out of its eye-socket, letting out a small grunt of pain as it did. With only one good eye left, the monster looked between Ben and Ruby, almost like it was trying to figure out its priorities. With a crack, two mandibles tore themselves free from the Jabber's cheeks, making it even further resemble a monstrous spider. With an arachnid hiss, the Jabber charged forward, dead-set on taking down Ruby. Ben wasn't about to let that thing get close, though, so he raced in, hoping to flank it and maybe kick it off the Garden entirely. But that's what the Jabber was counting on. It quickly swiveled its head in Ben's direction and spat a giant web at him, knocking him away and sticking him to one of the nearby stalls. Emerald nocked another trio of arrows and aimed at the beast, firing them all off as Blake opened fire with Gambol. The bullets didn't really seem to hurt the monster and its arachnid legs swatted the arrows out of the air before they found their targets. Using its massive arms, the Jabberwalker bashed the two aside, destroying two more stands as it looked down on Ruby.
"REND! KILL! RUBY!" the monster roared, raising both of its fists into the air and bring them down. Acting fast, Ruby grabbed the still small Yang and Weiss and raced out of the way with her Semblance, avoiding the attack and letting the Jabber slam into the counter of the stall. All the weight on one side force the other, where the parfait was, to bolt up and launch its contest right at the hulking brute. The Jabber only slightly reacted when the parfait splattered into its face before it fell to the ground in front of it.
Emerald winced. "Shit! Ben, get them away! They're still small!"
"Still smal-" Ben asked, before looking at the still shrunken Yang and Weiss. "Whaaaat the hell."
"Long story involving a Prince and a weird game of chess," Yang quickly summarized.
"If circumstances were better, I would be having a field day with this," Ben admitted.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up later," Yang rolled her eyes. Ben nodded and raced over, taking Yang and Weiss from Ruby.
"I got them. Can you get...whatever was making them bigger?"
"It was the Parfait and it-" Ruby stopped as she realized something. Eating the parfait made someone grow, but would it work on-?
The sound of a fist thunderously slamming into the ground echoed out across the level as the already intimidating Spider-Jabber had grown to an even larger size.
Ben's eyes grew large upon the sight of the Jabberwalker. "...okay, I'm just gonna race you all a safe distance away." Ben grabbed the three women, before darting off. However, before he could make it far, the Omnitrix suddenly reverted him back to human. They tumbled to the ground, with Ben trying to shield Weiss and Yang from getting hurt.
"Stupid watch..." Ben mumbled.
"You...you timed out?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I know. Been awhile since that happened. Thing's been acting weird since I woke up here."
"We still need the parfait!" Weiss interrupted, pointing over to what remained of the dessert.
"Ok, ok uh, I can get it while you three-" Ben started, only to be interrupted by a quick hug from Ruby.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, her voice small, almost like she was on the verge of tears. Of joy or sorrow at the realization that Ben was stuck here too was impossible to tell.
Ben froze up for a moment. "I...I'm sorry. I know you think I should be up there, but...I just couldn't stomach the thought of leaving you down here. Thought that it would make no sense for a realm from creation to...destroy stuff." He said, before hugging back.
"I remember. Used it to try and...rationalize what this place was."
Even with the sounds of the Jabberwalker fighting Blake and Emerald echoing around them, for a moment, just one moment in this chaotic new world, it was just Ben and Ruby again. The sound of another stall being broken into splinters rudely interrupted the moment, bringing the duo back to reality.
"Be right back, promise," Ben said, breaking away from the hug and dialing up another form on the Omnitrix. If it wasn't Fasttrack again, then at least he hoped it was someone strong enough so Emerald could at least grab the parfait. Ruby watched as Ben raced off, slamming down on the Omnitrix again and running back into the fight. She was so tempted to join him, but without her weapon there wasn't really much she could do.
Need to distract that thing! And luckily, I have an army of lovable scamps. Ben rushed forward as he morphed into Ditto. He split himself up, and began to work on causing some sort of 'mouse trap (the game)' for the Jabberwalker.
Blake and Emerald, meanwhile, were holding the beast back. Emerald was firing arrows, while Blake was fighting it in close-quarters. Slashes and arrows attacked its odd body, but yet it did not yield.
"MAIM! RUBY! MUST! DESTROY! RUBY!" the Jabber roared as it lashed out with its four spider legs, attempting to just stab anyone close to it. One of the arms seemed to pierce through Blake's stomach, but the image of her faded as the real feline ninja rushed in and slashed at one of the legs with her cleaver sheath. Emerald spun out of the way of one strike, splitting her bow back into the blades of Thief's Respite. The sickle blades cut into the carapace on the legs but not quite enough to sever them.
"Sorry! If you want Ruby, you'll have to settle for me!" Ben taunted, getting the beast's attention. While a majority of his clones were keeping the Jabber's attention, one of them moved over and tugged on Emerald's sleeve.
"The parfait! Get it to Ruby!" the clone said.
"On it!" Emerald nodded, sheathing her weapons for now and racing towards the downed dessert.
The Jabber clawed at Ben and Blake, but the both dodged them with ease. Pincers, however, were a different story. They struck down like nails being hammered, digging into the ground and making it crack. Ben didn't have a lot of good offensive abilities as Ditto- mainly just 'hooting and hollering'.
One clone climbed up on Blake's back and dodged an attack. "Boy am I glad to see you four..."
"I didn't expect you to be down here." Blake ducked under an attack. "Honestly, we might need your help with Ruby."
"What...what do you mean?" Ben asked, that usual energy Ditto had seeming to just vanish as soon as he heard the words. Blake was about to give a short summary before another spider leg raced towards her, but she dodged out of the way and let it stab the ground instead.
"Why does this feel...familiar?" Blake muttered.
"Why does that thing look familiar?" Ben added.
With the Jabber distracted by all of the Ditto clones, Emerald made a dash for and scooped up the parfait. She quickly brought the dessert over to where Ruby, Yang, and Weiss were hiding.
"Here, eat up," Emerald handed over the dessert.
"Emerald? Are...are you-?" Weiss asked as she scooped up some of the parfait with her hands.
"Made of actual emerald now? Yes. Long story."
"Where did you and Ben land!? And why-" Ruby began to ask.
"LONG story." Emerald reiterated.
"Can you at least tell us how you found us?" Weiss asked, eating more parfait.
"Easy. We followed the Cat," Emerald answered.
"The Cat?" Yang repeated.
"Yeah."
Ben's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and his steps slowed as he approached the peculiar tree. He had seen a lot of strange things in his adventures, but this was definitely a new one. The clocks hanging from the branches varied in size and design, each one ticking away with its own rhythm.
Ben reached for the clock to examine it, only for someone to smack his hand away.
"Do not touch the tree!" Emerald warned, her eyes wide with concern.
"What? Why? It's just a tree isn't it?" Ben asked, pulling his hand away from the clock.
"THIS...is a Tick-Tock Tree. Picking the fruits will mess with time -around- you."
"Oh...shit, that's what happened to you. Kind of." Ben mumbled, "Where's the Cat?"
"Dunno. They were gone when I woke up, so I figured they ditched." Emerald sighed.
"Great. There goes our guide. And they were kind of cute."
"In a weird way, yeah. But without them...don't exactly have much of a compass. Your map isn't working still, right?" Emerald asked.
"Unfortunately."
"Ok. We still have something of a lead," the thief explained.
"We do?" Ben asked."
"One acre over, there's this big market I've heard about called the Garden. If Ruby and the others showed up here they'd probably move there next. Border's not that far if I remember right."
"Okay, okay. Good." Ben said. "I wish we could travel faster, but I still don't know what aliens I really have."
"No time to try like now. Throw something out." Emerald shrugged. Ben gave her an uneasy look, but ultimately obliged.
"Okay, Omnitrix. Please give me something good." Ben mumbled, activating the watch. He scrolled to a new icon, one that was too fuzzy to make out. Looked more...quadrupedal? Ben couldn't think of many of his quadruped aliens off the top of the dome. He sighed, before slapping down the Omnitrix.
His body bulked up incredibly, elongating out at the end to stretch into a tail. His legs bulked up as a second pair appeared nearer to the tail before they slammed into the ground. Thick, white armor plating began to cover Ben's body entirely as his mouth began to grow as if he was turning into Ripjaws or Eatle. To finish off, his eyes had turned a golden color. In a flash of green, Ben was now a towering, six-limbed almost pill bug-like alien. Most of Ben's head was now just mouth with golden eyes on both sides of his head.
"This is...who the hell is this guy?" Ben asked, looking down at his grey-skinned hands."
"Oh great. You're new to this one." Emerald frowned.
"I just sort of randomly unlock these guys now. No rhyme or reason. No pattern. No frequency..." Ben frowned. "And this guy seems pretty lame, at first glance."
"Well, armor looks pretty tough at least," Emerald knocked on one of the armor plates for emphasis, "Walking tank at least."
"Tank, yeah...but I'm all about offense. Defense just sort of kills me." Ben admitted. "Even my defensive guys have some offensive leeway."
"Fair. Guys like...Cannonshot and Shardhead are defensive, but they can fight back in someway." Emerald said.
"Yes, exa- what did you just call them?" Ben asked.
"Cannonshot and Shardhead. Is...is that not their names?" Emerald asked.
"No, no. It's CannonBOLT and DIAMONDhead. Where did you get Cannonshot and Shardhead!?" Ben argued.
"I don't know! I don't know ALL your alien names like...Update and Heatburst and Wildthorn!" Emerald scoffed. Ben and Emerald didn't hear something rustling in the distance through their banter...
"You...you don't know ANY of their names, do you? You're getting so close... UpGRADE, HeatBLAST, and WildVINE," Ben corrected."
Before Emerald could get even more alien names wrong, webs flew from the bushes and struck the two of them. One web was strong enough to knock Emerald off her feet and slam her into a tree while four stuck to Ben's feet and kept him trapped there. As the green duo struggled against the webbing, a giant gorilla-spider hybrid thundered out of the bushes, a mask covering its face as it moved over to inspect its catches. Emerald's eyes went wide when she saw it.
"The...the JABBER?!" Emerald yelled.
"Oh, god, not another one of these bastards." Ben mumbled. "Should be able to handle it easily enough."
"We fought a broken one. The jabberwalker in its prime is something else…"
"Why do you talk like there's only supposed to be one?" Ben asked.
"Because that's how it works. If you kill a Jabber, then a new one gets born. No more than that."
The Jabberwalker thundered right up to Ben's face and gave him a sniff, almost like it was looking for something specific. It snorted, seemingly dissatisfied that the prey it caught wasn't who it thought. It backed away and looked off to the horizon, tilting its head to the side with a jerk, a snapping sound echoing out from its neck.
"Not...RuBy," the Jabber muttered before it charged off into the distance.
Ben's eyes widened in horror, turning quickly to face the Jabberwalker.
"What ABOUT Ruby?" Ben growled.
But the Jabberwalker didn't answer. They weren't who it was looking for so it just kept running. Ben reached down and began to tear at the webs around its feet, hoping to rip them off. Right now, he had just gotten a boost of fear and anger as he realized what this could mean.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH HER!?" Ben yelled, but the beast wasn't giving him any focus. Its head was swiveling around, continuously looking for Ruby.
"SEArcHInG. StAlKING...RuBY..."
"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" Ben roared. The monster didn't respond, instead deciding to try and move ahead to another acre. Maybe its prey was still relatively close by.
Ben grunted, moving his body as fast as he could to block the monster. "You're not going anywhere." Ben growled, 'brows' furrowed. "Emerald! Change of priority. We're taking this thing down first!"
"Ok, that's...great and all, but I'm still WEBBED TO A TREE," Emerald pointed out, unable to reach her weapon or an arrow to try and cut herself free.
"GET YOURSELF FREE!" Ben yelled, blowing smoke from out of his nose. The Jabberwalker studied its prey briefly, and hissed. The beast then pounced at the alien, hoping to stab its shell open.
Only for Ben to turn into a giant armored sphere, just like Cannonbolt but far larger. The spider legs bounced off of Ben's shell, much to the Jabber's confusion.
"Ya know what...I can actually work with this," Ben smirked inside his shell. He spun in place before rolling towards the monster like a cannon-shot.
"It's just Cannonshot but bigger..." Emerald struggled, trying to break free from the webs. The Jabberwalker tried to dodge the roll, but it was too late. Ben slammed into the monster, sending it flying several feet away. The Jabberwalker hissed, struggling to get up. Ben immediately rolled over it a few dozen times, for good measure.
"You...don't get to stalk her, much less hunt her down!" Ben yelled.
The Jabber seemed to stop moving after what might've been the sixth or seventh time Ben rolled over it, its legs curling up like when a spider dies. A flash of green reverted Ben back to normal as he looked down at the monster. For a moment, he was satisfied that he'd stopped it, only for it to suddenly jolt back to life.
"Seek...FiNd...RUBY..." the Jabber snarled before bounding away on its original mission.
Ben looked horrified. "How the hell did that not kill it?!"
"Who cares? We have a better 'guide' to Ruby now." A now freed Emerald frowned, running past Ben. "After it!"
"And...that's how we ended up here," Emerald finished up in the present.
"Why's that thing after ME?" Ruby said. "You'd think it wouldn't go anywhere near us. It was running from Yang earlier."
"Hell if I know. But I know for a fact it didn't have spider legs when you fought it," Emerald shrugged, "Probably gave it a confidence boost or something."
"Looks like Ben and Blake are having some trouble." A now full sized Yang said, pointing over to the duo. A whole dogpile of Dittos were awkwardly trying to restrain the beast's limbs while Blake was trying to slice through them.
"I'm not the only one who sees the resemblance though, right?" Weiss asked, now at full size herself(and if anyone asked if she'd had a little more to get a bit taller, she'd never tell).
"To what?" Ruby asked.
"Think about it. The spider legs, the web-spit, the monkey arms."
"Ultimate Spidermonkey?!" Yang, Ruby, and Emerald all realized in unison.
"OH SO YOU KNOW SPIDERMONKEY?" one Ditto clone called out.
"IT'S OBVIOUS!" Emerald yelled.
"Whatever!" Weiss huffed, pulling out her weapon. "We need to help them out, now!"
"WAAAAAIT!" A Ditto clone came running over. "Hold on! We're almost done setting things up! Just stay here!"
"Why!?" Yang huffed.
"It's gonna be really funny. Trust me." The Ditto grinned.
"...alright, go for it," Emerald nodded.
"Wait what? You're ok with the comedy tactics?" Weiss asked.
"I've been down here for three years. Comedic tactics are just the usual for me."
"They are pretty funny…" Ruby muttered.
"Hang on, did you just say three years?" Yang asked.
"Comedy and the fight first, time travel story later," Emerald grumbled.
"What the hell happened to you? Seriously!" Ruby looked at the Ditto clone. "Don't tell me you're 3 years older too…"
"Nope! Still…me from the day prior," the Ditto answered with an almost unnoticeable bit of, was that disappointment?
"Oh thank god."
"Alright, everything's set on our end!" another Ditto called out.
"Perfect! Stand back and watch our genius at work!" the main Ditto smirked, regaining its energy, before it went to rejoin the others. As he rejoined his others, Ben was half-expecting those venomous doubts to nag at him again when he said "genius," but they were uncharacteristically silent. Not that he was complaining about that, it just felt strange that now they'd shut up. The Jabberwalker-Spidermonkey hybrid screeched out in annoyance as clone upon clone piled on top of it, trying to hold it down. One of its spider legs managed to kick off some of the annoying little creatures and jabbed at Blake again, only for the limb to be parried aside by the large cleaver sheathe the Faunus sported. Once the spider leg had stabbed into the ground and not its intended target, more clones duplicated themselves before restraining the limb in place.
"FREE! RELEASE! NOW!" the hybrid roared before it pulled its arms to its chest. With a mighty roar, all of the clones were thrown off the monstrosity's body, thudding into pillars or smashing into stalls and boxes, shattering them into splinters. Blake managed to catch one of the clones before he hit the ground, earning a nod of approval from him.
"Alright! Now!" that Ditto called out.
The Jabberwalker-Spidermonkey turned around to see three of the clones pulling away a bar that kept back a collection of the Every Flavor Apples that the Cat was so intent on trying earlier. The hybrid tilted its head as the apples rolled towards it, almost amused by the comedic trick the clones were pulling. All four of its spider legs just stabbed into the ground and lifted it up, letting the fruit just harmlessly roll by and bounce off the arachnoid legs. If this thing could smirk, it would be right now as it fixed its eyes on what it assumed to be the main clone.
"Plan B, now!" the main one called out. Three other clones had set up a makeshift ram using a twizzler-like tree trunks and some vines; someone must've been selling candy lumber out here. The trio of Dittos pulled the trunk back and threw it forward, hoping to knock the monster down a few pegs. Its giant gorilla-like arm jolted up and caught the ram in its fist. One spider leg pulled out of the ground and cut away at the vines supporting the trunk before slicing the trunk in half. Weiss and Yang were charging in to help, but one of the trunk pieces was thrown at them, knocking them to the ground. The other part of the trunk slammed into Blake and the original clone before the Jabber thundered over to where Emerald and Ruby were still hiding. Emerald had her weapons at the ready as the giant loomed over her, saliva collecting and dripping off its mandibles.
"DETECTED. DISCOVERED. FOUND. RUBY!" the monster roared, before Emerald spun Thief's Respite in her hands and opened fire with a barrage of bullets.
"Ruby, RUN!" Emerald ordered as her fingers continuously squeezed the dual triggers of her weapons. The Dust shells she fired though just bounced off the thick hide of the abomination, barely even phasing it.
"What?! No, I'm not-!" Ruby started to argue.
"You can't help right now, just GO! It's after YOU and it won't-" Emerald was cut off when she heard a terrifying sound, the sound of her guns running on empty. The Jabberwalker-Spidermonkey reached out and grabbed Emerald's head in its head, picking her up off the ground before it started squeezing. Emerald's eyes shot open in pain, her grip loosening on her weapons before she dropped them entirely. Ruby was panicking now, scrambling to pick the dual sickles of Thief's Respite.
She had a temporary weapon but they weren't her weapon. They felt clumsy and awkward in her hands, trained as they were to hold a massive scythe. She flicked the sickle blades out and, in a desperate attempt, rushed up to try and slash at the monster's leg. It must've sensed her coming, because the minute she started running, one of the spider legs shot out and pinned her to a nearby pillar, the sharp point stabbing into the collar of her hood. At first, she panicked because that's where Little was resting.
"I'm ok!" Little reassured, trying to keep a brave face when a nightmare was staring them down, but they couldn't hide the fact their whole body was shaking in fear. Ruby struggled to rip herself free of the pillar. She needed to help, she needed to fight, she needed to save Emerald! She failed before but she wouldn't let that happen again! Her red Aura began to flicker as rose petals began to apparound her, just a small collection floating around her arms. One of the petals brushed up against the spider leg and, strangely, the Jabber-Spidermonkey spun its head towards Ruby. It growled as it continued to crush Emerald's head in its fist, an audible cracking reaching Ruby's ears.
The twizzler trunk piece that pinned Yang and Weiss was thrown off the two Huntresses, thanks to the former's strength. The small army of Ditto clones helped free Blake and the prime clone before they merged back together, followed by a flash of green. Ben groaned as he got back up, his eyes moving over to see Ruby and Emerald in the clutches of the monster. Yang's own gaze had shifted until it had fallen on a sight that just made her heart drop.
"RUBY!" Ben and Yang called out.
The sound of galloping suddenly reached Blake's feline ears. She turned and, before anyone else could react, a dark red blur raced past the group. Ruby and Emerald could only watch as a red-furred jackalope, the size of a horse, slammed its horns into the Jabber's chest, knocking it away from the gem-themed duo. Emerald fell to the ground, a visible crack running down from her left temple down to her right cheek, and coughed. The spider leg that was pinning Ruby to the pillar was wrenched free and the rose petals disappeared from around Ruby. The red-hooded huntress' eyes went wide when she noticed a figure astride the jackalope. The rider was clad in rusted plate armor with a trench coat placed over it, their features obscured by a full knightly helmet. The warrior only sported a single gauntleted arm, their fingers wrapped around the hilt of their weapon, a giant wrench of all things.
"Who's that?" Ben asked.
"It..it's the Rusted Knight," Blake beamed.
"Did he wield a giant wrench in the book?" Ben wondered, watching the Knight rush into battle. For a guy in aged armor, he was moving like there was no tomorrow. He was impressed.
"I...I don't think so," the feline Faunus admitted.
"Question his choice in weapon later! Blake! Checkmate!" Weiss called out, holding Myrtenaster in front of her before summoning up two trails of speed-enhancing Glyphs that led up to the Jabber. Blake nodded and raced over to one of them, the Glyph practically letting her just slide across the ground with ease with Weiss matching her speed.
The Knight and his steed dodged a downward strike from one of the hybrid's legs, opening it up for a literal rabbit kick from the jackalope. The hit sent the monster skidding back, right to where Blake and Weiss appeared. Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud slashed into the back of the creature, cutting into the hide. The Jabber spun around to try and smash them into the ground, but the monochrome duo jumped out of the way. Weiss held out her rapier and created a gravity Glyph beneath the beast, boosting the gravity on just the Jabber, practically pulling it to the ground. Two shotgun blasts rang out as Yang launched herself into the air, landing on the back of the Jabber-hybrid. She adjusted herself to where she was basically sitting on the monster's shoulders before she began pounding the back of the creature's head with powerful fists.
"I said! I wasn't! Done with you yet!" Yang reminded the beast of their original encounter, if it did remember that, anyway.
Ben rushed in, ready to assist. "Please, please, have a good physical alien in here-!" Ben grunted, slapping down the Omnitrix. His hands started to grow sharp shield-like plates, as his skin turned purple. Even though Ben wasn't all too familiar with this form, it would do for now.
"HEY! PURPLE SPIDER DIPSHIT!" Ultraviolent roared, flying forward.
Yang looked up and smirked.
"Ben! Uh...ah, screw it, we'll name the move later!" the blonde said, simultaneously launching herself off the hybrid's back and the monster forward with a powerful double shot. The hybrid stumbled forward and right into the oncoming living projectile that was Ultraviolent.
Ultraviolent's sharpened 'fins' stabbed into the Jabberwalker's chest, and he grinned. "You ready to get eviscerated!?" Ben yelled, before rapidly stabbing his fins into the Jabberwalker's body, over and over again.
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE! DIE!" Ben screeched as he stabbed.
One final stab to the Jabber's masked face was enough to end its threat for good...before its body cracked and disintegrated in a storm of pink glass particles.
Ben stared in shock, quickly recognizing the effect. "What the fuck!? That was Neo's power!"
"W-what!?" Yang yelled. "Why's she sending this thing after you?"
"I...I don't know," Ruby spoke up, looking at the empty space where the Jabber-hybrid once stood, "Um...Emerald. H-here," the red-hooded Huntress handed the Jaded Thief's weapons back to her.
"Thanks..." Emerald groaned, taking and clicking the two weapons back together, forming the bow again.
Just before Ben was about to regroup with the others, a loud growl screeched through the area. Out of the corner of one of his eyes, another Jabberwalker emerged from the water.
"W-what the..." Ben hissed.
"Seek...FiNd...RUBY," the new Jabberwalker hissed as it pulled itself out of the lake. Its body was just as lean as the usual Jabber, but its body was far more smooth-looking, coated with a series of fish-like scales. The tail that usually ended in a wide, fan-like tip was replaced with a large violet fin and its face was elongated into a larger fish-like snout.
"Another one? But that goes against the rules…" the Knight muttered.
And the nightmare didn't end there. More and more Jabberwalkers started appearing, each with varying alien appearances. Ben growled in anger as he watched the numbers rise against them.
"Get back. I can do this..." Ben's tendrils rolled back, and he began firing UV projectiles like a machine gun at the Jabberwalkers.
The projectiles found their mark on a few of the Jabbers, tearing through them and knocking them back into the water with loud splashes and shattering sounds. More Jabber-hybrids marched on over from further down the market paths. Ben took aim at them as well, but then the Omnitrix started flashing red before he de-transformed.
"...now I remember how much I hated the time-outs," Ben muttered.
"All of you, this way!" the Knight called, sheathing their weapon and grabbing the reins for their mount.
The Knight galloped away on his jackalope mount, with Weiss, Emerald, Blake and Yang following him. Ben raced over to Ruby and grabbed her hand.
"Come on! We gotta go!" Ben yelled, and they both began running.
The group followed the Rusted Knight to the top of the marketplace, pointing them in the direction of the giant lotus flower. Weiss stopped to look as many various Ever After denizens fled screaming on the lily pads. Smoke plumes rose from the destructive aftermath...
And Weiss was hyper fixated on the destruction. It hurt to see. This place was so beautiful and something just had to come along and ruin it. That trouble, that misfortune, had followed them. Were they cursed? Hexed to bring about the end of peace wherever they went?
It just hurt to think about.
It didn't give her hope about ever having a home again.
Ruby had stopped running when she noticed the Teapot Lady sobbing and crying over her broken things. There were some cracks on her porcelain shell, for lack of a better term, and the look she gave Ruby would have shattered the girl too. She looked angry, hurt, Like this was somehow their fault.
"You'll thank me later." Those were YOUR words. The voice jeered. Does she look thankful?
...no...she doesn't, Ruby thought to herself.
"I'm the Burger Man." A voice behind Ruby said- she spun around to see the meaty stranger, staring forlornly over the chaos. "I have another poem…"
"LIFE, like an overweighted shaken rose,
Falls, in a cloud of colour, to my feet;
Its petals strew my first November snows,
Too soon, too fleet!
'Twas my own breath had blown the leaves apart,
My own hot eyelids stirred them where they lay;
It was the tumult of my own bright heart
Broke them away."
That didn't help either. Ruby thought.
"Ruby?" Ben asked, snapping her out of her spiraling despair. For now, anyway.
"Y-yeah?" Ruby answered, briefly looking back at the Burger Man, but he was gone again. Instead of saying anything else, Ben pulled out the silver rose emblem that Ruby had left with him back during the chaos of the Battle of Atlas.
"Think I have something of yours," Ben smiled softly.
Ruby's face softened. "Don't tell me you fell all the way down here to give me that back..." She sighed, leaning into Ben a little.
"You know I'd follow you anywhere, Rue." Ben comfortingly smiled, embracing Ruby. It wasn't much to heal emotional wounds, but it certainly made them feel better.
Yang hated to get in the way, but she tapped on Ruby's shoulder.
"Don't mean to interrupt," Yang said, jabbing her thumb back towards the lotus flower. Seems there was a passageway inside it that served as the group's out. Weiss, Blake, and Emerald had already entered, guided in by the Rusted Knight.
"Oh. Uh, right...we probably should go see them," Ruby said with a sigh before walking off to join up with the others. Ben shared a look with Yang, one that silently told her he was aware of the situation with Ruby at the moment, before they went and joined up with the others as well. When the two entered, they saw the Rusted Knight gently petting the giant jackalope.
"I can't believe it. The Rusted Knight. In person," Blake said, absolutely star-struck.
"Good job, Gwendolyn." the Knight said, talking to his mount. His voice was old, but kind. Ben took a pause at that name. Gwendolyn?
"So, Ben. How'd you find us?" Weiss asked.
"I...was following an extra Omnitrix key signal, that was far away from you guys." Ben explained. "But...then I happened to meet you guys here."
"Well, who's key was it?" Blake asked.
"I...I dunno, but..." Ben tapped the Omnitrix to try and reactivate the watch's map…and thankfully, it did. Four blips were clustered around him.
…
The one extra blip was standing right before them. Ben raised an eyebrow, before looking up at the only thing standing before him.
The Knight.
"Who is this? My...Hunter fairy tale knowledge is pretty lacking." Ben scanned the body up and down a few times.
"He's the Rusted Knight." Blake explained.
"Then…why does he have an Omnitrix key?"
A chill went down the group's spine. Emerald squinted, as she looked at the armor. That armor looked like…
"Who are you?" Ruby said, voice small.
"That's a good question." The Knight chuckled. "I was expecting Ruby, but not the whole team…"
And then he removed his helmet.
Ben's eyes widened, already full of tears.
It was him. Bearded, tired looking, a little thinner than when the Omnitrix's bearer last saw him, if it really WAS him. Ben took a step back, hand covering his mouth. Ruby nearly fell to her knees, mouth agape with confusion. The other girls were equally shocked. Weiss' eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. Yang had to provide Blake support to help her stand.
The identity of the man behind the mask was…
Was…
Was…
"...Grandpa?" Ben asked, voice small.
Max gave him a small smile. "Heya, kiddo."