Chapter 4
First Day Doing Work
It is early morning in Haphaz in Eden Valley as the sun rises from the east as all in the town and valley are bathed in a golden glow from the sun. Over at the Yards, Team RWBY started to wake up in their temporary train house. Ruby and Yang are on the top bunks of the beds with Weiss and Blake at the bottom. They are in one of the three train cars that made this tiny home.
Ruby wakes up all groggy as she asks, "Where are I?"
Weiss sits up, "If I remember, we're in the town of Haphaz in Eden Valley."
Yang rubs her eyes, "Where is that in Remnant again?"
Blake gets out of bed, "We're not on Remnant, remember? We're fic-clones of characters from a show."
Yang's eyes open wide in shock before she facepalms, "Ah shit. I forgot about that."
Weiss gets off the bed and stretches, "Well, time for us to find a job. As a team."
Ruby pokes her head out from her bunk, "Can I get some coffee first?"
The team fix-up some breakfast that were a gift from the locals. It is mostly eggs and bacon with a side of coffee. They sit at a table on the opposite end of the kitchen car as they discuss what their plan would be.
"So what are we gonna do for work?" Blake asks before she takes a bite of her bacon.
Ruby remembers, "There is the voluntary protection job that Silvervale mentioned during the questioning. She said that Adahop is working on improving the defense system and stated that there is a growing concern of bandits."
"We could do that." Weiss agrees before sipping her coffee.
"True." Yang also agrees, "But we're gonna need some other form of income. We could try to go to Dump City."
Weiss looks at Yang in disgust, "Not that desperate."
"Perhaps we could do some farm work." Blake suggests. "Jaune and his team are gonna try their luck with it. But it won't be just limited to just growing crops."
Yang smiles at Blake, "You want to take part in the aquaculture to get some fish."
Blake's ears twitch a little but she tries to play it cool.
"Not looking forward to having fish everyday." Weiss isn't agreeing, "But we could try to head to New Chicargo for a job. Like hairstylists or doing nails at a salon."
Ruby doesn't like the idea, "Yeah, but it will be boring. Not to mention that I have no idea how to do all that."
"Oof." Yang went, "It's gonna be a rough day."
Team RWBY freshened up and are ready to look for a job.
"So where to first?" Ruby asks.
"We should give the whole patrol thing a try." Blake looks back at Ruby.
"Hey girls!" Jaune greets the four.
Jaune is wearing a straw hat and has a garden hoe as he exited his home.
"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby waves and greets him.
"Doin' farm work?" Yang looks at him.
"Yeah." Jaune shows his tool, "Gonna try my hand at it. Pyrrha's gonna work with a few metal tools to make farming go faster, Nora is gonna do the plowing because she's ridiculously strong, and Ren is getting the seeds and is gonna find out what crops we should plant. Although we will try out the food forest route just to be on the safe side."
"Have fun!" Ruby walks off.
"Later, farm boy!" Yang walks off.
"Say hi to Pyrrha for me." Weiss gives her usual attitude and walks off.
"Bye." that is all Blake can say as she walks off.
The four made their way to Shopping Street as they head to the 'Haphaz Militia Center', a substitute for a police force. They went in and see the place is looking exactly like a police station. The standard desks that are all black with computers with no computer screens. Those working on those computers are typing yet are wearing special glasses that gives them augmented reality vision to see their computer screens. Complete privacy for those doing work or slacking off. The smell of coffee lingers in the air as there are plenty of mugs that still have coffee in them. Yet there is also a lingering scent of a candle being burned. A scented candle. It smells like sandy beaches and driftwood that is mixed with the coffee scent. The place is well lit with plenty of sun coming in from the windows and ceiling windows that brighten the place up.
The four head up to the front desk and see Robin Hood from the Fate series checking his arrows to see if they are straight and arrowheads sharpened.
"Excuse us." Weiss says to him.
Robin stops what he is doing and notice the four.
"'Allo there." Robin put his arrows away and greets them with a smile. "You must be the newbies. Here to join?"
"Yes, please." Ruby steps up.
"Okay, gonna have you girls fill out an application form and get ready for a practical course."
"That's it?" Yang asks, "Usually you have to go through some complicated process and all that."
Blake says to Yang, "Since we're fic-clones, we can bypass all that."
"Oh, cool. Love life hacks."
Yang seem a bit cheery, but Blake on the other hand...
Robin Hood gives all four of them forms and pens so they can sign. Yang jumps the gun along with Ruby and just sign the thing. Weiss and Blake on the other hand are checking the whole thing over to see what they're getting into. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong yet found a statement that any items from bandits and raiders will be handed over yet they get to keep a small chunk of money of any kind as a bonus reward for taking them out. But after going through it, they signed it.
Robin Hood take the signed forms and checks, "Okay, looks like things are in order. Let's head on over to the practice grounds."
He takes them underground where they enter in a massive complex that look more like a secret military training ground with fake buildings, debris, and a few fake plants.
"Huh." Ruby sounds a little disappointed, "I thought something like this would be 100% completely holographic. With changing environments and all that with touchable holograms."
"We had them." Robin Hood states, "But some of our guys did massive damage to some of the systems and... Yeah, we used to but people kept on trashing it. ESPECIALLY with computer viruses that made the holograms completely lethal."
"Oh." Ruby is taken back.
"Don't worry though, we still have a few holograms that can still be felt. However, they're older models from a century ago so they aren't as accurate."
"Geez." Yang cracks her knuckles, "This place feels like it is being hold together by paperclips and rubber bands."
Robin Hood laughs, "You said it!"
"So what are we to expect?" Weiss preps her weapon.
"Mostly humanoid targets. Some are fast movers while others are holding hostages. That's just level 1."
"Does it involve the bandits down south?" Blake loads her gun.
"Ah, that. Possibly." Robin then mess with the console, "But we're not sure what species they are or if they're a mix of species working together. In this scenario, you're gonna have to fight against a wide array of species and races in order to deal with whatever the hell is out there. After that, we're gonna move on to level 10 where you have to fight monsters. Like deviljhos, dragons, and whatever creatures this thing can spawn. Any questions?"
"Just one." Ruby is ready to fight, "How long would this take?"
"Depending on your performance. It could be a few hours or a few days. If you can score a high performance on level 1 and level 10, you girls are in while also have to do the other levels to prepare for whatever situation there is. You girls got it?"
"RIGHT!" the four agree.
In the south just passed the mountains, something major just happened. An entire encampment has turned into a desolate battlefield with corpses everywhere with scavengers feasting on the dead. Neebs, Appsro, Thick, Doraleous and Arend are there as they arrived via jeep.
"The hell...?" Thick jumps out of the jeep.
Appsro jumps out and is confused, "This is the bandit camp?"
Everyone get out as they are confused on what the hell happened here. This is suppose to be the bandit camp and the group came armed to the teeth. Another vehicle, one looking like a warthog from Halo with gun and everything, shows up with Simon, Fuzz, and someone that looks like a smaller version of Doraleous yet the yellow is replaced with orange.
"Damn." the man says as he gets out, "The hell happened here?"
"I dunno, Ginger." Dorealeous looks at his son, "Look like someone came by and just... Slaughter."
"You think it might be the guys from Smack Town?" Neebs asks the others.
"Possibly." Appsro tries to figure it out, "But they're WAY further down south and no one ever dare to try to raid it with all those fighting game characters."
"Could be." Simon shrugs, "Might be those Mortal Kombat characters."
Fuzz looks at the carnage, "Does look like it."
Arend takes a closer look at some of the bodies and see many dinosaur humanoids with red skin and wielding barbaric/medieval weaponry. There are also a few that were using carnosauruses as mounts.
"Desert Saurians?" Arend turns the head of one corpse, "What the fuck are Desert Saurians doing on this world?"
Appsro looks at one of them, "Don't know."
Ginger lays down some facts, "Last I checked; Sauria is mostly off-limits since it is a primitive world from what the sources I have gathered. Why a bunch of mercenary-pirate-barbarian desert dwelling anthropomorphic dinosaurs doing here, I cannot say."
Neebs look at Ginger, "Probably got abducted, brainwashed and then forced to fight by some evil corporation that were selling them for dirt cheap."
"Got something!" Simon shouts as he found something further in.
Everyone walk towards Simon as they also take note of the other dead bodies they pass by. Some of them are more human with a lot of piercings on their faces with some having red warpaint that look like lightning bolts and hawks. All of them, surprisingly for bandits, are wearing old military fatigues with pieces of armor while armed with some random weapons that look like they're from Dump City. They made their way to where Simon is at and see a man with a video camera that is still recording. The camera looks like something from Earth's early 21st century that has a DVD inside. Simon turned it off the recording. He open the screen up and watch what is on the screen.
On the screen, they see the bandits fighting for their lives against a strange figure. They can barely make it out what the figure look like as some of the images are glitched with the old digital, blocky mess with what appears to be moving shadows that cover the figure's true form. There is a sound of various gunshots and roars with the figure moving super fast while wielding claw-like weapons or actual claws that are a foot and a half long. The figure was moving so fast that the camera couldn't keep up. That is until the person that was holding the camera turned around and is face-to-face with the figure. From its shadowy body has piercing, glowing blue eyes staring at the camera holder while also showing its menacing, psychotic grin before killing the person holding the camera. The footage is pressed fast forward and has nothing worth of note.
Simon turns the camera off and put it in his bag.
"What the fuck was that?" Doraleous is confused and slightly scared of what he saw.
"Couldn't see much." Appsro cross his arms, "But that was creepy at the end."
"Yeah, but who are these guys?" Simon looks at all the bandits. "Who are they and where the hell they get the Desert Saurians?"
Back at the station, Team RWBY are fighting against holograms of criminals with one of them holding a hostage at gunpoint. Ruby uses her Crescent Rose and fires at the criminal's head and free the hostage. The rest of the team charge in and take down the rest. Weiss uses her glyphs to bind three of them. Blake charges in like a cat before using her Gambol Shroud to take down another three from the air. Yang take the head of two of them and smash their heads together.
The computer then says, {Now moving onto: Level 7.}
"Okay!" Robin makes an announcement, "The next one is gonna involve stealth and rescuing hostages in a locked room!"
A few holograms appear and the room went dark with the lighting being like that of night with some of the lights turning on. The holograms start to appear and armed with the holograms of the hostages in one building.
{Begin.}
Team RWBY try sneaking past a few of the guards as they carefully sneak through the bushes. Yang takes a peek through the window and see five hostages and seven guards. Eight since one of them is coming out of the bathroom with the sound of a toilet flushing.
"Wait." Ruby whispers, "Holograms can use toilets?"
"Probably trying to make it realistic." Weiss replies.
"So what's the plan?" Blake asks.
Yang thinks about it for a moment, "Do some of the species see in the dark?"
Blake pulls out her Gambol Shroud in pistol form and adding a silencer on it.
"Only one way to find out."
Blake fires through the window and takes out the overhead light. The criminal holograms are now on alert as the light went out. The team managed to get in and take them all out in the dark. They freed the hostage holograms and head on upstairs. Quietly.
"Damn." Robin is watching their progress on the holo-monitors, "These girls are good. They're beating all the standard time records like its nothing."
On the monitor, Ruby uses her semblance to take down three more holograms as Blake charges in and free the hostages. Weiss uses her summoning glyphs to bring forth Grimm to deal with the remaining holograms and Yang joins in on the beating. Yang charges in and punch one hologram that gets knocked into five more holograms in a row and right through the wall. At least they should have been if it weren't for the fact they are holograms and no damage to the building. After that, the simulation is finished with an air horn being blown. The girls are now feeling worn out and fatigued as they start to pant.
Robin walks in, "Awesome! You girls are definitely in! But you may need to do more training against monsters and how to handle them. Not all monsters are as dangerous as those Grimm things, so no need to kill them."
Yang stood up and cracks her back, "Man, that was one hell of a workout."
"I could really use a bath." Weiss cracks her neck.
Ruby sits down, "Can't wait to get out in the field. For real."
Blake looks at Robin, "Just what kind of monsters are you referring to?"
Robin replies, "Well, killing Pokemon, Pals and other such creatures is illegal. I'll give you a list. And boy it is a long one."
Ruby looks at the holoscreen and smiles, "Awesome!"
Everyone look at the screen and see they got an A- as an overall score.
"Why a minus?" Weiss looks at Robin.
"Well, there are a few flaws in some of your approaches. Especially back on level 5."
The girls look at Blake.
"What? I can't help it if I smell fish and couldn't resist."
"Being a cat Faunus is no excuse." Weiss being stern.
"I know."
Robin then hands them their badges, "And here are your official badges. Welcome to the police."
The four look at their badges and see the emblem of a rising sun with a shield at the top. On those badges, they read, 'Haphaz Protection Force'.
"Protection Force?" Yang asks.
"It's kinda like police but better. Because you girls can act independently without someone barking orders at you. Unless there is a certain emergency. So, like Huntsmen on Remnant but with the police."
Yang smiles, "Nice."
"So your first order of business: you girls are gonna go out on patrol. Have fun!"
"Alright, team!" Ruby is excited, "Let's go on our first assignment! Bonzai!"
The other three go, "Bonzai!"
Then they tilt to the left like a bonzai tree. Robin laughs at Team RWBY and signals them to leave. The four left to go on their first patrol duty. When they left, Robin gets a call.
"Hello?"
{Hey, Robin?} Ginger's voice is on the phone.
"Oh hey, Ginger! How's the bandits?"
{Well... We got something that might be much worse as it took down all the bandits. We're bringing in a camera to try to restore some of the footage of what happened.}
Robin's smile dropped and look serious, "How bad?"
{We're bringing in pictures so you can see for yourself.}
AN: Happy Holidays Everyone!