Chapter: "I Miss You Dad."| "They Were Hunters."
Before the fights, the Audience see Super-Oscar speaking to his father and Bat-Qrow speaking to his only family for different reasons. One conflicted about his actions as a hero and the other hellbent on his mission of vengeance against the god-like alien.
Unaware to them, Merlot is planning something with the Kryptonian ship.
Cast
Clark Kent/Superman: Oscar Pine
Johnathan Kent: Ghira Belladonna
Bruce Wayne/Batman: Qrow Branwen
Alfred Pennyworth: Klein Sieben
Lex Luthor: Dr. Merlot
The scene starts with a man hiking up a mountain in Anima. Three men spot him walking up the path. An elder of the three speaks Animan and one of the younger men speaker to the hiker who does not acknowledge them. "He can see that the mountain isn't passable." The elder speaks to his companions as he watchers the hiker walk up the mountain. "He's come to die."
The hiker is revealed to be Oscar Pine.
Many grew confused about being shown a man hiking in the mountains.
"That man is correct," Qrow said. "There are high chances of getting lost when hiking at the wrong time in the mountains." Raven, Ozpin and Oscar nodded, being the most familiar with the mountains of Anima. Ren and Nora nodded since they had travelled through the mountains when they were younger.
"He can fly yet he chooses to walk?" Emerald asked in surprise.
"Remember what he said earlier?" The Host replied. "He's considering to abandon the idea of being Superman and what he stands for."
He walks up near the top and sees Ghira stacking flat rocks onto a pile. "Something, ain't it?" The Panther Faunus asked the young man. "We made a Mistral life on a pancake, so we come to the mountains." He then gestures down the mountain as he picks up another rock. "All downhill from here down to the floodplain farm at the bottom of the world."
"Wait, wait, what?" Many exclaimed upon seeing Ghira stacking rocks.
"Did that tornado throw him all the way to the top of that mountain?!" Roman asked. Darth Anarchus simply shook his head silently and gestured to the screen.
"I remember one season, water came bad, I couldn't have been 12." Ghira stated. "Dad had out the shovels and we went at. All night. We worked until I fainted, I think, but we managed to stop the water. We saved the farm."
"Your grandma baked me a cake, said I was a hero." He said with a smile before he frowns. "Later that day, we found out we blocked the water all right. We sent it upstream, the whole Lang Farm washed away."
"While I ate my hero cake, their horses were drowning." Ghira went on sadly as Oscar looked down the mountain. "I used to hear them wailing in my sleep," Ghira added with a faraway look.
Blake and Kali couldn't help but snicker at the image of Ghira working until he passed out.
Some couldn't help but find it sweet and heartwarming when Ghira spoke of his mother being Oscar's grandmother. He still viewed Oscar as his son, blood or not, human or alien.
Many gasped when Ghira mentioned about the Lang Farm. Ruby, Velvet and Nora cried anime tears at the thought of horses drowning.
"Did the nightmares ever stop?" Oscar asked after a moment.
"Yeah, when I met your mother," Ghira replied with a smile. "She gave me faith that there's good in this world. She was my world." Ghira explains and Oscar looked up to the sky. "I miss you, Son." Ghira stated.
"I miss you too, Dad." Oscar said sadly and then the Audience see him standing alone.
Most of the older Huntsmen smiled sadly, understanding what Ghira was saying. Every good deed was going to be met with something bad, but the people you care about will always give you faith that there's good in the world.
Kali smiled and leaned against her husband. Ghira smiled and put an arm around her.
"Oh, my heart!" cried Nora when Oscar's counterpart was shown standing alone.
"This is heartbreaking." Velvet wiped a tear.
"Was that a ghost?" Adam asked.
"Or a memory?" Cinder asked.
"You decide," Darth Anarchus replied. The two villains stared at the Host before nodding to him.
Klein walks to the entrance of the old abandoned Branwen Manor. He walks through the front door and sees Qrow standing alone in the living room. "You know you can't win this," Klein declared as Qrow stood, half in shadows. "It's suicide." he pleaded.
"I'm older now than my father ever was," Qrow said somberly. He glanced over to the shadows. "This may be the only thing I do that matters."
"No, that can't be true." Robyn shook her head. "Everything you've done has to have mattered."
The Host rubbed his chin in thought, suddenly thinking of a comic he heard about called Letters to the Dark Knight or something. That sounds interesting to react, he mused before shrugging.
"He's been through a lot," Yang said, recalling what the Host had said after Bat-Qrow tried to protect them from Godzilla. "And now he's so focused on his new mission that nothing's talking him out of it."
"Twenty years of fighting criminals amounts to nothing?" Klein asked, shrugging his shoulders while using it as a last effort to talk Qrow out of his one way mission.
"Criminals are like weeds, Klein. Pull one out, another grows in its place." Qrow replied. The memories of his nightmare came back to his mind along with his experience as a vigilante. "This is about the future of the world. This is my legacy."
"You know, my father sat me down right here with my sister." He said, looking down to a plaque with the symbol of the Branwen family on the floor as the distant memory came to mind. "Told us what Branwen Manor was built on."
"Railroads, real estate and oil." Klein replied. Qrow shook his head.
"No, the first generation made their fortune trading with the Valeans. Pelts and skins." He explained before looking up to Klein. "They were hunters."
That doesn't mean you aren't doing good," Ruby said to her uncle's counterpart when he said that criminals are weeds that keep growing back.
Raven smiled a little at the mention of herself.
"And now, generations later, he hunts criminals." Winter muttered. "Poetic, I suppose."
"And he's out to hunt the biggest game ever." Ren swallowed nervously. "Superman."
"And he doesn't care if he lives or not after," Summer said worryingly.
He then walks past the butler who watches him walk out of the old manor. "So falls the House of Branwen." he declared sadly.
"No. It's not going to end like this," Tai said quietly with a shake of his head.
Inside the Kryptonian Scout ship, Merlot is shown opening a case with encased fingerprints. He holds one up for inspection.
Placing them over his own fingertips, he uses them to open up a door to what was left of the Kryptonian Genesis Chamber. He slides down the ruined remains of the pilot and steps into water that reaches above his knees. He reaches a small counsel, the same one General Hazel had used to take command of the ship. He pulls out the command key, inspects it before putting it back in and pushing it in completely.
"How did he get in there?" Ironwood asked in a demanding tone.
"He gained access," Darth Anarchus replied. "And using Hazel's fingerprints."
"How did he get Hazel's fingerprints?" Salem asked. "He used a small Kryptonite shard to cut off his skin." The Host replied nonchalantly.
"W-W-We-Welcome. Analysis reveals ship operating at 37% efficiency." The ship's AI spoke after glitching back online and lights turn on from underneath the water. "Would you like to assume command?"
"Yes, I would." Merlot whispered before realizing he had to speak up. "Yes, I would. Ahem." he clears his throat.
"Very well. Let's begin." The AI replied to the human. "The Kryptonian Archive from 100,000 different worlds."
"Good, teach me." Merlot said eagerly.
"Oh no," Oscar and Ruby muttered when the AI spoke.
"No, don't teach him anything!" Velvet exclaimed.
A shirtless Qrow slams a sledgehammer down on a large tire. He lifts it up and slams it down on the tire again and again.
The computer opens up a file of the Kryptonite, showing close ups of its texture and what it looks like at a molecular level. The Kryptonite is placed on a pedestal before a laser.
Qrow grits his teeth as he does some pull ups while three large weights was chained to his hip. He was then shown stepping back as the laser activates and starts melting the Kryptonite before he was shown pushing a large stack of chained 279 weights. Qrow pulls on a thick rope, dragging the large tire towards him.
Many were not expecting the scene change like so. Even more so when they saw Qrow working out.
"DAMN!" Robyn exclaimed with wide eyes upon seeing Qrow shirtless and his muscles.
"You can say that again," Winter whispered with wide eyes.
"I feel inadequate again," whispered Mercury. Nodding in agreement, Cardin leaned over to Jaune and Ren. "We should hit the gym after this." he whispered getting nods in response.
"Yeah, the suit doesn't add muscle for this Batman." The Host said.
Ozpin rose an eyebrow. "Was that a jab to another Batman then?" he asked.
"More or less. He has muscles but he also has a suit that makes him look more muscular than he is." Darth Anarchus replied. "He has an compelling story though, so we shall see him sometime in the future." He looked away with a thoughtful expression. Wait, which variant was that again?
He puts two metal shafts together before he was shown weight lifting 189 pounds on each hand. He flicks a remote button and sets on a prototype Kryptonite gas grenade before he places three grenades on his desk. W hen the large tire was less than ten feet away, Qrow dropped the rope and let out a scream of rage.
His goggled covered eyes turn away from the laser and deactivated it. The Audience then see him finishing squats with 855 lbs. with weight chains before he was shown dropping his weights on the ground with metallic clanks. Spear shaft in hand, Qrow walks over to the Kryptonite that was now melted down to a emerald spear head.
Most of the single ladies began to drool a little while most of the men, save for Jacques and Klein, made notes to work out like Bat-Qrow.
"Oh that's not good," Amber said when she saw the Kryptonite spear.
"Oh no, that was good," Sienna said, Robyn, Winter, Cinder and Glynda ended up nodding in agreement, before Ilia, Emerald and Ozpin elbowed them on their sides. "Oh! I mean you're right, not good." The Tiger Faunus cleared her throat.
Back in the Kryptonian ship. Merlot unzips a body bag, revealing General Hazel's body. "Alexander Merlot, your security override has been accepted." The AI declared as Merlot dragged the dead Kryptonian General's body out. "Genesis ready to analyze genetic foreign sample."
"Acknowledging presence of genetic material." Merlot places the body in the water. "Analyzing. I've identified the host as General Hazel of Candor." The AI stated robotically.
"And let me guess, he gained access for Hazel's body?" Glynda asked. Darth Anarchus nodded his head.
Merlot stared at the body before he pulled out a knife and cut his palm open. He grunted in pain before he held his fist over Hazel's face and let the blood drop down on the Kryptonian's face. "Acknowledging presence of foreign genetic material. Analyzing." The AI informed.
"Wait, what?" Many asked upon seeing Merlot cut his palm and splash his blood on Hazel's face. "What is he doing?" Willow asked.
"Nothing good," the Host replied.
"You flew too close to the sun." Merlot said sadly, tears forming in his eyes. "Now look at you." He then pushes the General's body further into the water.
"Advising, action forbidden. It has been decreed by the Council of Krypton that none will ever again give life to a deformity so hateful to sight and memory-the desecration without name." The AI said in a tone close to protesting.
"And where is the Council of Krypton?" Merlot asked. "Destroyed, Sir." The AI relented.
"Then proceed." Merlot ordered. "Very well. Preparing chrysalis and commencing metamorphosis." The Ai said before the Audience see a handful of tentacles reaching out and grabbing onto Hazel's body.
Some now felt uncomfortable and disturbed. Hazel may have been a villain but Merlot was crossing a line with using his body for experiments and his own ends and from the sound of it, doing something Krypton thought was bad, and they drilled into their own core to use as fuel.
Robyn was shown walking in a hotel room, packing her clothes. In the background, a news reporter is covering a story of the Kryptonian ship acting up, causing the lights to flicker. She looked up to the lights above her before glancing to the TV. She walks over to a small table and opens up a news report about the Kryptonian ship with bolts of lightning surging around it.
As she reads it, her screen gets a new message from Qrow Branwen entitled, "Boys Share Too." She opens it and the Audience see the message.
Both Qrow and Robyn chuckled in amusement at the former's counterpart's email remarking what her own counterpart had said.
Cracked Merlot's Drive, found your photograph.
But it doesn't belong to you.
Robyn gains a slight worried expression as she scrolls down and sees the photo of herself during the Great War, battle armor and all with a handful of soldiers standing at her sides, looking to the camera.
. . . It IS you.
Robyn rubbed her forehead with her left hand.
Who are you? Where have you been?
Robyn then clicked on the link to Merlot Corp-Metahuman Research. And the four symbols from earlier popped up. The WW for Robyn, the C, the lightning bolt and the A. Furrowing her brow, Robyn clicked on the file with the thunderbolt symbol.
"Who is she in this universe?" Qrow asked the Host. "Just keep waiting, I'll explain when she shows up again." Darth Anarchus replied.
"Finally, we're going to see what these symbols mean," Sun said eagerly.
She started playing security footage of a grocery store. A young woman with black hair with red dyed tips grabs a half gallon of milk when the store clerk is threatened at gun point. The young woman looks over to the robber when suddenly the footage glitches and the woman vanished for a blink and the robber is suddenly thrown across the store with bolts of lightning surging in the air and the young woman appears back where she stood with the milk.
"That's Ruby!" Oscar declared. He'd recognized those silver eyes anywhere.
Yang exclaimed. "Woah, did you see that? She moved faster than you," she looked to Ruby. She nodded in agreement.
"Almost looked like my Semblance." Harriet muttered, intrigued.
Robyn's eyes widened before she moved to the next file with the A symbol. Drone footage deep underwater played, approaching a wrecked ship. As one drone got close, two glowing eyes appear in the darkness before Neptune Vasilias swam out, wearing no scuba equipment whatsoever and seemed to be breath water like it was air. Robyn's eyes flashed some recognition before Neptune destroyed the drone in front of him before it switched POV of the other drone but that was destroyed when a sonic boom was released when Neptune swam away from the wrecked ship.
"Hey, it's me!" Neptune said excitedly. Then he froze. "I'm. . . underwater. . ." he said in fear.
"Thousands of feet underwater," Darth Anarchus said. Neptune's eyes widened as he let out a whimper before he fainted.
"What's with the dork?" Roman asked.
". . . He's afraid of water," Sun admitted slowly.
"What?!" Almost everyone exclaimed in shock.
"B-But his name is Neptune!" Oscar protested in confusion.
"That's what I said!" Ren threw his hands up in exasperation.
The last footage showed an middle aged dark skinned man in a lab, a platform behind him with young man's torso and head but the rest of his body was missing hooked up to the platform.
"2200 hours and two minutes," the man said to a tape recorder and looking at his watch. "Subject declining rapidly multiple bodily functions have failed." Robyn's eyes furrowed as she watched the footage.
"Outcome. . . will be death." The man said with a sigh. He puts the tape recorder down and rubbed his head with his hands in exhaustion. He was then shown, shouting in anger and frustration and throwing something across his lab.
The man sits at his desk, safety goggles in hand as he sighs and runs his hand over his head.
Later a black glowing box was shown on the desk. The scientist holds the tape recorder again. "Dr. Silas Coal, suspending all clinical protocol," he said. "Object-61982 is successfully activated." Robyn narrowed her eyes as she and the Audience see the box now pulsing as if made out of pixels. Why does her gut tell her something ominous about that box?
The box hovers in the air, sparking with energy before it start zapping the body. The screen briefly focuses on Robyn's shocked face before it went back to the footage and now the corpse's body started regenerating. But now organically. The young man started screaming in pain as he was forcefully transformed into a cyborg. Before the transformation was complete, Dr. Coal reached to the camera and turned it off and the Audience see Robyn's shocked face as she shuts the computer off and walks away.
Many stared at the screen with wide eyes silently. They were disturbed when they saw the body on a platform with no limbs.
". . . What the Hell was all that?!" Yang, Coco, Sun, Nora, Mercury, Roman, and Qrow exclaimed after Robyn's counterpart closed her laptop.
"World building," the Host said simply.
Next
"Black and Blue. Fight night. Greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God vs Man. Day vs Night. The Son of Krypton vs Bat of Mantle."
"Okay, you got to admit, this is hyping us up."
"It would if it was a fight that wasn't rigged by someone like Merlot!"
"So, it would be better if they were fighting of their own free will?"
"No! I mean, in a friendly spar, not to the death!"
Followed by
"That's fear. You're not brave. Men are brave."
". . . Damn, talk about a badass motherfucker."
"Normally I'd take the compliment, especially since you rarely give any, but now's not the time."
"Fair enough."
And then
"Is she with you?"
"I thought she was with you."
"Is now a good time to ask who the Hell this BAMF lady is?!"