A door was slammed open into a dimly lit workshop, as a young blonde man with a goatee and green eyes stepped inside while still in his pajamas "Gooooooooood Morni-!" and his greeting was quickly cut off by a pair of slippers slamming into his face.
Yang whistles: "Okay. Puberty did wonders on Pierce."
Weiss: "Ugh, another person who yells or does something to wake someone up." She looked over at her partner, who nervously giggled.
"Shut the hell up it's 6 AM!" came two other voices from inside the dimly lit room.
Hedge: "By a show of hands, before you got your current sleep schedules, who wasn't a morning person? And then a follow up question, who still isn't a morning person even with the sleep schedules?"
Immediately, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, Blake, Ironwood, and Winter shot up their hands.
Ironwood: "I'm actually surprised at that, Winter."
Winter: "With all due respect, sir, I liked my beauty sleep, but I was willing to put up with the early mornings."
Ruby: "Yang's never been one for early mornings."
Yang: "Hey, I put up with them." She was met by deadpan stares from her teammates. "Mostly."
The young man, now flat on his back, groaned as he pried the slippers from his face "This is what you two get for working so late on that thing!"
"Well excuse us for wanting to get this done as soon as possible!" one of the voices, the younger of the two, shot back.
"Besides, we noticed a few bugs last night, well, more like I did." the older of the two voices said, before a light was turned on, not a bright one thankfully, finally illuminating the area.
Pyrrha: "Wonder what they were working on."
The 'thing' that they had all been talking about, was a large gate like structure in the middle of the room, the floor around it surrounded by warning tape. Seeing the structure, the young man smiled as he stepped in. "I almost can't believe we're finally breaking this thing out. To think that thing we thought of as kids to find a friend, ended up becoming something that could save a world," he said softly.
"I freaking miss Koromon." a young man with light blonde hair and blue eyes sighed out, lifting an old whistle that was hanging on his neck. Their sole memento of a friend they'd made all those years ago.
Ruby: "Well we already knew this was Gyro from the ending of the last portion, but my whistle pretty much sealed it."
"You guys really need to stop being depressed about this." the oldest of the boys said, leaning against a workbench.
"Not our fault. We lost a good friend, Azure." the only one who had green eyes said.
And if it isn't obvious by this point, these are Gyro, Pierce and Azure, now a little over 10 years after that fateful night.
Ironwood: "So that would put Azure in his late twenties, and the twins at Ms. Rose's age.
Hedge: "More or less."
Blake: "You know, I am curious. How old are you exactly?"
Hedge: "I'm assuming you mean the real me, and that would be 28." This earns a nod from the cat Faunus.
Azure sighed slightly. This was a topic that even after a decade, was rather somber for his little brothers, not that he could blame them. Even if he himself hadn't been too close to the little pink blob, he also missed the little guy who'd wormed his way into the family's hearts in a single day and night. Looking at the portal, he remembered how originally it had been conceived as a plan to find said friend, but when they realized they needed an actual destination...that plan quickly became a bust. Now however, it was a different story...even if finding Koromon was no longer the goal.
About 5 years ago, him and his brothers had found a new webseries that they quickly became fans of, though it did help that his little brothers had quickly admitted they had developed small crushes on some of the main characters. At first things were pretty normal, then came the shocking plot of the third volume of the series. Suffice to say the brothers agreed it was far too cruel and undeserved...though at first they sighed at the realization that there was nothing they could do about it...or was there?
Ozpin: "I assuming that's talking about our webseries?"
Hedge: "That's right."
Jaune: "Do things really get bad in this 3rd volume?"
Hedge: "As I mentioned, I would implement the events into your minds once they are discussed in the story. But to answer your question for now, I can neither confirm or deny."
It was shortly after the fifth volume of the show had concluded that the brothers had remembered the portal they had been trying to make all those years ago, and thus, their plan to go and save the characters of the show, no, of that world, was put into motion.
Glynda: "How many volumes are there?"
Hedge: "As of my and Swift's world, 9."
Pyrrha: "So they only know about half of the events that are to come."
Hedge: "Well, they learn about the 6th and 7th volume later, and who knows if they'll be shown the 8th, 9th and the Epilogue/Beyond episodes. Or even what'll happen after that. Only time will tell with Viz."
If they continued to think of it as a show, it wouldn't be fair to the people of that world. It took time, and sooo many all nighters, but they'd finally done it. They'd found the world they were looking for and synched the portal to it. Now all that was left, was to do the fine tuning, and finish up any remaining business they had, cause they knew, once they stepped through the portal there was no turning back.
The Remnant-born were glad that the boys were treating them as real people and not fictional characters. But they did wonder. If the boys knew up to the supposed 5th volume, at what point of their lives/the webshow did Hedge pull them from them?
"Right, I'm gonna handle the final tests, how about you boys start getting ready?" Azure told his little brothers as he cracked his neck, walking towards the portal.
"Whaddya want for breakfast?" Gyro asked his older brother as he got off the floor.
"Whatever you'll be having." Azure said as he started working on his computer.
"Big breakfast it is then," Gyro nodded. "I think we both need it after last night."
Weiss: "If they were up late into the night, then a big breakfast is needed. Which by the way, thank you Hedge for the breakfast." A multitude of "Thank you" came from the others.
Hedge: "It's my pleasure. Like I stated, you all are my guests."
A week soon passed, and the three brothers were now standing before the gate which was about to open. They had to do this quick, as to make sure nothing went wrong, they'd been ready to divert power from the city if needs be. They weren't too keen on that bit of the plan, but as it was, this was going to be a one time deal only, and they did NOT want to have an 'accident' cause the power failed mid-way...though just to be safe they made sure nobody would trace it to them.
Ironwood: "I'm not sure if the scientists in Atlas could even create something like this, but I would make sure they double and triple-checked to make sure nothing would go wrong."
Qrow: "Easy there, Jimmy. If these boys were able to come to our world, I don't think it would be easy to pick them up to work for you."
Gyro and Pierce had also decided on their 'Hunter looks' as they called it, while Azure had made their weapons for them, and made sure they practice with those types extensively before giving them the real ones.
Ren: "Smart, that way they won't seem to be amateurs."
Jaune winced at that, considering that is basically what he was before getting help from Pyrrha. Thankfully, only said redhead noticed and placed a hand on his shoulder, getting a smile from the blonde knight.
Gyro wore a dark blue jacket with a green flame pattern on the bottom edge and the sleeves, a rainbow colored, twister shaped flame printed on the right breast of the jacket. Underneath it he wore a lighter colored blue shirt, white gloves covering his hands, his legs were clothed in long, dark green cargo pants with simple black and green running shoes. Finally, the one thing to break his color scheme was an orange sweatband around his forehead, which had a pair of goggles resting on top of it, though they looked a bit high tech with some small lights on the side, and the usual whistle hanging around his neck on a new chain necklace.
Ruby: "Ooh, I don't think those goggles are just for show."
As for Pierce, he wore a black tunic with a single square button, that had a high collar with a wine red trim. Over that he wore a dark red bomber jacket that had the silhouette of a roaring dragon's head as seen from the side printed on the back, a pair of aviator goggle hanging around his neck, while a black and red tiger patterned bandana was tied around his bicep. Finishing off the look was a pair of wine red pants and black combat boots.
Yang: "Nice outfit, and I love the dragon."
Qrow: "Of course you'd like that, Firecracker." Sunny little dragon, as Tai would call her.
Lastly, Azure was dressed in a blue shirt, with the sleeves folded over his elbows and a pair of black long pants, with a tie around his neck, albeit one with a flame ornament at the top of the tie, giving him an interesting look of a simple office worker mixed with something of someone ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Glynda: "A very professional look."
As for weapons, Gyro had a pair of curved swords hanging off his belt, with obvious ports at the pommel to attach them together. He had named the swords Ascalon.
Ruby: "What can they do?"
Hedge: "From my research, the name derives from a sword or spear that was used by someone by the name of Saint George, a an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. Said weapon was used to slay a dragon. The Romans are from Earth's very distant past and Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, professing that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and is the Son of God." He then talks to Ozpin in his mind. "That's the major difference of mine and Swift's world compared to Remnant. We have one true God, while yours has the Brothers."
Ruby had stars in her eyes. While Ozpin contemplated that info regarding the gods.
Pierce had what looked like a simple naginata on his back, though several parts and pieces seemed to be able to come undone or open, almost like it had several secrets and modes hidden within, as such, he had dubbed it Pandora… though it didn't have 666 different forms like the weapon of the same name in Devil May Cry.
If Ruby's jaw could drop to the floor, it would.
Hedge: "Devil May Cry is a pretty popular hack-and-slash demon slaying game, and Pandora is a weapon acquired by one of the characters you play as, Dante. While the description of the weapon in the 4th game of the series denotes it has 666 different forms it could take, sadly you can't use all 666 forms."
Ruby: "I want it."
Yang looked back at her uncle. "Why do I get the feeling Crescent Rose will be getting multiple upgrades after our time here?"
Qrow snorted. "Because it probably will."
And finally, Azure wielded a pair of kukri knives that doubled as pistols, both of them in black with a white edge to the blades, called Umbrae.
Hedge: "To be honest, couldn't find much on the reference of Umbrae, however it did remind me of a buddy of mine who also has his own story, where his main character has pistols with blades on the hilts of them. Him and I each have our characters in each other's stories, but the premise of our stories are slightly different."
"Alright, did you two get everything you needed?" Azure asked. It never hurt to do a final check. He'd already packed clothes, food, and some valuables that they could possibly use to trade for money if needs be.
"Got everything right here." Gyro said, lifting up a rather large, and used, school bag, Pierce doing the same, both bags being simple grey and black with nothing much to them.
"Right, guess we're ready to go then." Azure said as he shouldered a large duffel bag that had everything he had picked up, from clothes, to stuff they could sell to get money of the world they were heading to.
Nora: "Yeah, I don't think whatever currency they use will get them far on Remnant."
Blake: "And the clothes will be from designers we've never heard of. They'll make a lot of lien off of just those."
"You know, I know its a bit late, but I gotta admit…" Pierce started, looking at the door. "I'm gonna miss the old place," he sighed, before turning his attention back to the gateway that was now active, the three of them having already checked and double checked to make sure everything was working. "So guys, you ready?"
"You know it! Time go and try to save the world!" Gyro said, pumping his fist up into the air.
"Just try to do it?" Azure asked in amusement.
"I'm being realistic, there's no way we can do it on our own." Gyro told him in deadpan.
Azure nodded his head at that "Very true, but, that's what we have the plan for."
"But first we gotta actually get there," Pierce chuckled. "On three?"
"On three," his brothers nodded, the three of them standing before the portal.
"One…" Gyro started.
"Two…" Azure continued, as the three of them took a deep breath.
"Three!" they shouted together before jumping through the gate, and once they went through, the program initialized, and before long the gate went dead, leaving an empty workshop. It was not long after that the Vermillion Brothers were reported missing, with their neighbours saying that the boys just up and disappeared that day.
Qrow: "Wonder if their apartment would get sold?"
Winter: "Well, if no rent was being paid on time, then normally they would get kicked out. Probably anything they didn't take with them would get sold too."
Moments later, a portal opened up in an alleyway, spitting out the three brothers who landed in a heap."Did we make it?" Azure groaned as they got up.
"Gimme a minute." Gyro said, shaking his head, before peeking his head out of the alleyway and looking out onto the street, turning back to his brothers a moment later with an OK sign "Bingo!"
Yang: "What do you think Gyro saw?"
Ruby: "From most to least likely? A dust shop, a Faunus, or a licensed hunstman/huntress," as she put up a finger to denote each likely option.
"Right! So, plan review time!" Pierce said with a nod.
"Well, landing in the middle of Vale is checked off of that, thankfully." Azure said as the brothers sat down in a circle.
"Next step is finding out where Jaune lives and give him some training so Pyrrha has more stuff to work with when helping him." Gyro said as he pulled out an actual list from his bag.
Jaune groaned at that, and Pyrrha patted him on the back.
Nora: "Don't worry, Fearless Leader. That you will definitely fit in to the title now. A body fit for a tactical mind!"
Jaune smiled at that. "Thanks Nora."
"Don't forget we need to also unlock our auras, and get some Dust," Pierce added.
"At least I was able to figure out how mechashift weapons work." Azure said, since that had been a difficult part that was thankfully already taken care of.
"Yeah, but, don't forget, for auras, that's all you Azure." Gyro said with a grin as he nudged his older brother.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, get into Beacon as a teacher, have my aura unlocked, then come back and do it for you two as soon as I can." Azure said, waving it off as he remembered what he had to do.
"Well then, let's get to it," Gyro grinned. "We got a world to save."
Glynda: "I wonder what exactly that the boys are trying to save our world from."
Ironwood: "Tough to say really. All we really know is that it has to do with something related to 'Volume 3.'"
In retrospect, all of Ozpin's group knew it had to probably do with something related to her. They just didn't know what exactly.
A week had passed since the brothers arrived in the world of Remnant.
In that time, they had sold off a few of their possessions to get plenty of Lien, the main currency of the world, and thus find a place to stay until it was time for Beacon to start.
Azure had also started the process of trying to get a job at Beacon, which, from the way things were going, was easier than they had expected.
Though they blamed this on the fact Ozpin had realised he had absolutely nothing on the Vermillion brothers and was curious.
Qrow: "Come on, Oz. I doubt it would be that easy, and I highly doubt Glynda would allow that."
Glynda: "You're damn right I wouldn't."
Ironwood: "I would at least do a background check of the boys before I allowed them in."
Ozpin: "James, it clearly stated that I did do a background on them, and nothing was found. Also, you can't tell me you wouldn't be curious either."
Ironwood relented at that, as yes he would be curious of them, but he would also be skeptical and suspicious of them. He wonders how his other truly would react to them.
Because of this, Azure was quickly accepted and had his aura unlocked, he was even planning on explaining things to Ozpin as soon as he could in a way that was believable… though it certainly helped the man was several centuries old and would be more open to believing that kind of story.
Students: "Huh?" They then all turned their heads to Ozpin, who internally was sweating. The rest of the Ozluminati were also worried that the students would learn of this from a story of all things. Winter, not being a part of the Ozluminati, was also curious what that meant.
Hedge: "Well, when you have a time-based semblance, slowing your own aging down is pretty much a sinch."
"Okay." Was the response from the two teams and they returned their focus to the TV.
The Ozluminati mentally sighed in heavy relief at that response from Hedge, and Oz made a note to remember that in his next life.
"That's not a secret that will stay a secret, by the way." Was Hedge's voice the Ozluminati heard in their heads. "You have a choice regarding that. Either the story tells it, I do myself, or Oz comes clean on that. Again though, I won't force you to make a decision."
Well that meant at least one secret was set to be told later on.
At this moment, Gyro was walking around Vale, messing around with his brand new scroll after Azure had come back to the temporary apartment to unlock both of the brother's auras. They'd manage to get a decent foothold in Remnant, so now he was looking into the next phase of the plan. Finding one Jaune Arc, or at least the Arc family.
While he was doing that, Pierce was gathering up as much of the relevant history of Remnant they would need to know, thankfully, it was all easily accessible on their equivalent of wikipedia, at least according to his twin.
Weiss: "Ugh, couldn't they just go to the library or something?" She really didn't like those community-based websites. Always putting out fake news, and some of those articles were about her!
Hedge: "Sometimes even the books aren't a great source of information either." It was true, there could be books about any of the biggest wars that the Earth had gone through, and depending on the author and the side they were for, they could write about their side winning, when really it was the other.
And if they were right, they should have roughly a year or so before they hit the start of canon, which was plenty of time to figure out their semblances, shouldn't be too hard, since it had to do with who they were, Gyro even had a bit of an idea, considering he did love flying in planes when he was a kid and anything else that went into the sky, and that it had made him a bit adventurous.
As for what his twin's semblance was… honestly, it was hard to figure out, Pierce was all over the place in terms of his personality, but somehow, Gyro felt like it wasn't the deciding factor of his semblance.
Qrow: "Can't be worse than mine," he muttered.
Hedge: "Heh, guess the term 'luck of the draw' wouldn't be the best way to describe your bad luck semblance, huh Qrow?"
Yang: "Oh my god, that explains so many things when he always visited." Ruby had to agree as well.
Qrow: "No, no it wouldn't."
He shook his head, for now, he had to focus on any leads regarding finding the Arc family so they could get started on giving Jaune a good foundation for his skills so Pyrrha would have something to work with when training him. That and also so Cardin wouldn't be able to push him around as easily if at all. Going through the information, he finally found something of note. It seemed the Arc family lived in a rather small town, nothing big, and honestly rather out of the way...probably why Jaune didn't even know about Pyrrha.
Weiss: "Except that she was on a cereal box of all things," she rolled her eyes.
Jaune: "For the record, my sisters and I love that cereal."
Pyrrha: "Explains how you got the hoodie then."
Ruby: "Wait what?"
Nora had a huge grin on her face. "His hoodie was a prize for sending in box tops!" Before Jaune could react, his chestplate was removed, and she turned him around so everyone could see the bunny rabbit face on it.
Ruby tried to hold in her laughter, Yang bursted out in laughter, Blake and Ren chuckled, so too the adults, and Weiss rolled her eyes.
Ruby: "It's got a cute little bunny rabbit!" She couldn't hold it in any longer, and she too bursted out into laughter (Yes the exact same laughing fit she did in V4).
Jaune just pouted and sat back down. Pyrrha patting him on the back.
At the very least, it wasn't too far from Vale, hell, it was on the same coastline just a few miles away, he could get there easily with a car or motorbike.
With that in mind, he decided he'd be handling the initial meeting right now, as he went to the nearest vehicle rental store he could find, glad that the process for getting a permit wasn't actually long on Remnant.
Minutes later, he was driving towards one of the many exits of Vale on a motorbike, humming the first Kamen Rider theme as he went along.
Yang grinned. "Awesome choice of vehicle."
Ruby: "Would like to see how it was modified though," she grumbled.
Yang: "No touchy Bumblebee," she stated firmly.
He did have to sigh as he waited for the gate to be open enough for him to go through.
In a sense, Remnant was similar to Attack on Titan, in that cities were enclosed behind walls to keep them safe, the difference was that the threat on Remnant was easier to manage as opposed to, well, Titans. Shaking his head from the thought, he focused on his destination, as the LAST thing he wanted was to be jumped by some random Grimm that might have gotten through.
Jaune: "Attack on Titan?"
Hedge: "It's a popular anime where I'm from, though I can't do it justice as I've never watched it, same with the other show that was mentioned, Kamen Rider. Different premises in either of them."
He followed the path, only having to take one turn that had him rolling over a wooden bridge at some point, till he reached a town that, just like everywhere else, was surrounded with relatively high walls, though one side was left open for ocean access, but he could see that they seemed to have harpoon turrets on the towers that lined the parts of the wall closest to the water.
He had to resist snorting as he saw the guards walking along the top of the wall, because of how much it reminded him of medieval stories.
Ruby: "What can you tell us of that time period, Hedge?"
Hedge: "Well, we're talking the way distant past of Earth's history that's for sure. There is so much to talk about it, but the one I really like is the story pertaining to King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table. Those Knights being Sir Percival, Sir Gawain, and Sir Lancelot, which fun fact, there is a video game adaption of that story, and Chaos and Destruction are based off Sir Lancelot's sword, Arondight, from that game. There were other knights too, but those three I mentioned were the King's most trusted."
Eventually, one noticed him, and after making sure he was friendly, they let him inside, parking his rental bike in a small garage near the entrance.
"No address… but considering he has 7 sisters, I'm bound to run into a family member eventually." he muttered to himself as he looked at his scroll before putting it away.
All of Team RWBY slowly inched their heads to Jaune with shock in their eyes, and Qrow even spit out his drink. He had the decency to spit towards the floor and not towards anyone next to him, Hedge willing something into existence to clean the spill.
Ruby: "Seven sisters? I can barely handle one."
Yang grabs her and gives her a noogie. "I heard that."
Qrow: "At least she isn't like her mother," he muttered.
Jaune: "Lots of things are suppressed from my childhood."
Eventually, he found exactly what he was looking for on the beach.
He could see Jaune, wearing what he supposed was a workout outfit since it was a white t-shirt and blue cargo pants that reached his knees and some sandals, as he swung a wooden sword at an imaginary enemy… badly at that.
Everyone winced at how Jaune was swinging the sword.
Qrow: "You know kid, I could give you some tips too." It helped that Harbinger was part sword.
Jaune: "I actually wouldn't mind that."
'You'll thank us for this someday Pyrrha.' he thought with a mental sigh as he prepared himself to basically work Jaune's skills up straight from the bottom.
"Hey man! Yeah, blonde guy! You're doing it wrong!" Gyro called out, walking towards Jaune who looked around in surprise before turning to him.
"Um, I'm doing it wrong?" he repeated in confusion.
Gyro nodded "Yeah, your stance is pretty easy to trip up right now. One shove and you'd be flat on your ass, it might be better to spread your feet wider and get lower to the ground, as not only is it harder to move you, it makes you ready to get into motion faster."
Jaune blinked, before looking down at his feet, and deciding it couldn't hurt to try, did just as Gyro said.
Gyro nodded as he walked around him, before looking at Jaune's free arm "Any reason you're holding it up like that?"
Jaune looked to his free arm at that, blushing sheepishly "Well, I want to use a shield so…" he trailed off with a shrug.
Gyro nodded again, before walking towards the edge of the beach and lifting the lid of a barrel that had a handle on top of it 'Very convenient.' he thought with a smirk as he threw it to Jaune, who dropped the sword as he floundered to grab the lid.
Hedge: "Every kid's go to makeshift weapons for a future knight."
Weiss: "How did you get into Beacon if that was how you were?"
Jaune really was screaming internally, and even Pyrrha to an extent since only she knew the real reason. But Ozpin decided to step in.
Ozpin: "His tactical scores were the real selling point, and I'd say that has shown over the time he has been at Beacon."
Weiss: "Hmm, I suppose that makes sense."
Jaune gave Ozpin a quick look of thanks. But then he wondered if he truly knew his scores were all fake.
Slowly, Gyro's hand met his face, groaning audibly into it 'This is going to be a long day.'
Jaune groans. "Yeah, it will be."
Several hours later, Gyro was sitting on the same beach from earlier, with Jaune lying flat on his ass next to him, panting for breath.
"So, hey, Jaune, if you don't mind me asking, why are you training so much?" Gyro said, glancing at the blonde, the two had exchanged names over the many hours where Gyro did his best to instill the basics into the eventual leader of team JNPR.
Jaune took a few moments to catch his breath "I want to prove to my parents that I can handle myself, that I'm not as weak or stupid or, whatever they think I am."
Ruby and Yang shared a look. That was their dad to the T.
Ruby: "Jaune, we know how you feel."
Gyro actually looked directly at his fellow blonde at that, interested in learning what had driven the boy so much in the original story "Oh? What brought that on?"
Jaune sighed as he tried not to get angry at his parents for being overprotective of him and his sisters "My dad's a retired Huntsman, he did pretty well for himself honestly, until a mission that could have gone better where he lost the ability to run, his legs still work fine, but he can only walk. Then a couple of years later, my eldest sister became a Huntress, she was doing pretty well too, then she had her own bad mission, except hers went horrible, and she lost her whole left arm, all she's got now is a stump. Obviously, my parents ended up overreacting, and now are super overprotective of me and my sisters. But they never even fully listened to my eldest sister story's. She said it was her own fault for losing her arm and that she was just too reckless. Well, I'm not the reckless type, I'm not the strongest guy, but I'm good at tactics."
Glynda: "I don't remember hearing that from the Arcs."
Ironwood: "Neither do I."
Ozpin: "Did that really happen, Jaune?"
Jaune: "Different world, remember? Trust me, I'd remember if something that drastic happened."
Winter: "Still, losing an arm for being reckless. Depending on your fighting style, it might drastically effect it."
For some reason, Yang winced at that, and it almost felt like a jolt was shot through her right arm. "What...was that?"
Hedge had seen her reaction to it, and took note of it for later.
Gyro took it all in, committing the information to memory as best he could because of just how important it was to finally learn Jaune's reasons that had pushed him to run away from his family and forge his way into Beacon.
At the very least, he intended to only have one of those things happen this time around.
"Tell you what, I'll come back tomorrow with a few notes for you for stuff you should work on. I can see you need help man, but I'm not, well, the best teacher, that would be more my older brother. The best I can do is give you the tools to work with." Gyro explained with a shrug.
Jaune nodded after a moment "Thanks, hopefully it helps me out."
Pyrrha: "It most definitely will," she smiled.
"I'll probably come over from time to time to see how well you're doing… and maybe try to help you get to Beacon if you'd like that." Gyro added with a bit of a grin.
Jaune chuckled "Yeah, I think I would like that."
"Welp, guess I'm gonna get started on a plan and those notes." Gyro said, standing up and brushing the sand off his pants "If you're ever in Vale, don't be a stranger." he added, waving at the still resting Jaune as he walked away.
Jaune: "Knowing my sisters, they'll probably drag me off somewhere before I could even walk up to him or Pierce, since I'll probably mix them up."
Ren: "Will we ever meet the rest of your family?"
Nora: "Ooh, I can't wait till we do."
Jaune chuckled. "Who knows, my older sister Saphron lives in Argus with her wife and son. But for the rest of the family, they might make a trip over to Beacon to see the Vytal Festival."
Roughly an hour later, Gyro finally returned to the apartment the brothers were using at the moment "Hey Pierce! I found Jaune!" he called into it.
"I'm in the kitchen!" his twin shouted back, Gyro heading for that room as he saw his brother reading the screen of his scroll, expanded into tablet mode.
"So, what did you learn?" Gyro asked as he sat across from him.
"A lot… but mostly this." Pierce said, not looking away from the screen as he slid a sheet of paper over to Gyro.
He rose an eyebrow, grabbing the sheet before looking at what exactly was on it, his eyebrows shooting up at what he saw.
An information page on Summer Rose, most likely made a while ago, with a certain part of it being highlighted.
Ruby, Yang, and Qrow all winced at the page. They remember putting out those papers along with Tai after the estimated time length of the mission she took that would ultimately be her last.
Weiss and Blake looked on at their partners sympathetically. Even Winter, despite hating Qrow because of his constant drunk states and how he acts around those with power (the General as an example), looked at him sympathetically.
MIA.
Summer Rose was missing in action, yet, after a few years, she was assumed KIA.
Gyro stared at the sheet for a few more moments, before putting it down as he looked back at Pierce "Well… if I know my tropes as well as I do, we're going to find her eventually."
Ruby looked up with hope in her silver eyes. "Wha...what?"
Hedge: "It's not exactly confirmed that Summer is actually dead. A common thing in movies and TV shows, if there isn't a body shown of them officially dead, it's possible they are still alive. Now, the probability of it, the fandom nor I can tell you if she's still...around." He tried to keep things positive for the Rose/Xiao Long family. "But I'll admit that I wouldn't give a definitive yes or no if she was or not."
Yang: "Either way, you're saying that there is a chance, however so minuscule."
Qrow: "I'll take whatever we can get, in all honesty."
Ruby felt ecstatic. Her mother could potentially still be alive. But if that truly was the case, what was stopping her from coming home then?
"I wouldn't be surprised." Pierce muttered.
The twins sighed in unison after a moment.
They felt like things were only just starting to get complicated.
Ozpin: "Knowing that if she gets involved, it very well will."
A year had soon passed.
In that time, not only had the twins finally figured out what their semblances are, but they'd also done quite a few preparations and had learned everything they needed to.
They'd also managed to work Jaune's skills high enough that he was able to just barely get into Beacon without needing to falsify his papers.
Weiss: "What?!" She was about ready to use her semblance on Jaune, but Hedge steps between them. A dark aura surrounds him.
Hedge: "There will be no fighting here. Do. You. Understand?!"
Everyone was shocked at the force they could feel off Hedge. Not only that, but they could tell there was a change to Hedge too. His skin was darker than before, and his eyes were bloodshot red. They realized that he wasn't using the Chaos Emeralds as they weren't in any of their peripherals, so they debunked it to being his power. Weiss just sweat dropped and cancelled her glyphs.
Ozpin: "His academic scores were falsified, yes. If I hadn't done any background checks, it would've been missed by both me and Professor Goodwitch.
Jaune was shocked that Ozpin had known he cheated his way in, but he decided to stay quiet.
Ozpin: "However, I'm pretty sure he's not the only one here that doesn't have any academic training, am I right?" he says with a knowing smirk.
Weiss gulped at that, as she, along with her sister, were trained at the Schnee Manor by paid trainers. Neither of them had gone to an academy before going to Beacon or Atlas.
The same could be said about Ren, Nora, and even Blake. Ren and Nora had been mostly travelling their entire lives due to their past, so they asked for training from some of the towns they stopped at during their travels on Anima, and Blake got her experience from her time in the White Fang.
Ozpin: "However, despite that, I had decided to give the 5 of you a chance to prove yourselves, and all of you did so with flying colors during the initiation."
Hedge: "Because that was the true way to get in to Beacon, am I right Professor?" He had calmed down and reverted back to normal.
Ozpin: "Precisely. Past achievements may have molded each of you to who you were before coming to Beacon, but unless you were able to pass the initiation, then none of those achievements meant anything."
The 5 students decided to dwell on that, and for now returned their attention to the screen. If that truly was the case, then their Headmaster could revoke their acceptance at any time. Maybe after this chapter, they'll head into the training room and hone their skills.
Sadly, they still had to sneak him out of his home along with the family heirloom, Crocea Mors.
Jaune felt guilty, but he just couldn't let his chance pass him by without doing anything.
At the moment, the blonde trio currently stood on the airship to Beacon, though, Jaune had to stay close to the bathroom as he could regularly feel his breakfast trying to come back up.
Jaune groans. "Ugh. Motion sickness, why must you forsake me and my family?"
Ruby: "Is it that bad?"
Jaune: "Each member has some form of it that plagues us."
"We...really need to do something about that…" Gyro sighed. "I doubt this is going to be your last airship ride."
Jaune simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak as he held his hand over his mouth.
"Right, first chance we get, we'll go and see the nurse, see if maybe they have something to help with this." Pierce nodded to himself as he spoke.
"Definitely better than letting sir pukes-a-lot here spew everywhere." Gyro said as he looked at Jaune dryly, his fellow blonde groaning at the nickname behind his hand.
Jaune: "I'd rather be known as Vomit Boy, Gyro." He muttered.
Yang cackled. "Too late!"
"I'll get you back for that." Jaune managed to mumble out, before groaning as another wave of nausea hit him, having to run back into the bathroom again.
"Sure you will, just as soon as you're finished needing to puke," Pierce chuckled.
Once the bathroom door was closed, Gyro and Pierce looked at each other.
"Spotted anyone else yet?" the shorter of the two asked.
In response, Pierce simply pointed a little ways away, Gyro following his finger to see one Ruby Rose getting the life hugged out of her by her older half sister, Yang Xiao Long.
Yang grabs Ruby in a death grip hug. "Look Rubes, it's us!"
Ruby struggles to get out and flails her arms. "Yaaaaaaang! Let go!"
Gyro laughed awkwardly as he saw the silver eyed girl try to flail out of her sister's arms "Well, at least we found them."
"Are you going to try and stop the explosion?" Pierce asked his brother with a raised eyebrow.
"Probably yeah, would be good if Ruby and Weiss had a better start than canon." Gyro said with a nod.
Weiss groaned and facepalmed. "Can we please just forget that event ever happened, please? I'm very sorry for how I reacted, Ruby."
Ruby smiled at Weiss. "Apology accepted."
Winter: "What exactly happened?"
Before Weiss could say anything to drop it, Hedge used his powers to give the ones who didn't notice the event the memory into their minds.
Yang: "Wow, Ruby. You really did explode."
Ruby: "And I can't believe you didn't believe me when I told you!"
Winter: "Weiss, I'm pretty sure I taught you how to handle dust properly."
Weiss: "Sorry Winter. I know better now."
"So...should we introduce ourselves or…?" Pierce left the question hanging.
Gyro scratched his cheek as he thought about it "I don't know honestly, it might seem weird if we come up to them out of nowhere, plus I don't want to abandon Jaune you know?"
Pierce mulled over his brother's words "Well… when you put it like that, makes sense I guess."
Yang: "Yeah, I'd probably tell them to get lost. They may look handsome, but still."
With that agreement, the bothers let things play out as they did in 'canon'...save for the part where Jaune threw up and got puke on Yang's shoes. It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination, Beacon Castle coming into view. Despite themselves, the brothers couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the castle that would be their home for the next few years, and if things went as planned, would REMAIN standing for that long, the two of them scowling at the knowledge of their soon to be enemies. It would be difficult, but they would do what they could to prevent those events from becoming a reality.
Though, in the back of their minds, there was something that concerned them greatly. Over the last year, the weather had gotten more and more weird, all over Remnant at that.
The Ozlumunati knew that the soon to be enemies had to do with Salem's followers. They already were trying to figure out who the woman Ruby fought at the CCT was.
Nora: "How weird we talking on the weather?"
A heat wave in Atlas, a constant downpour in Vacuo, sandstorms in Mistral, and snowfall in Vale. It went without saying that these things never happened in canon, and that...made them understandably worried. At best they hoped it was just some freak weather that would eventually blow over, but at worst they were afraid this was one of those situations where the timeline was aware of their arrival, and was now going to try to toss in some curveballs to make sure things went as they did in canon, their efforts be damned.
Weiss: "Heat wave in Atlas?" She asked shocked.
Yang: "Oh come on Weiss-cream. At least your other won't be so cold."
Immediately, before Hedge could even intervene, Yang was encased in a block of ice.
Weiss: "Ah, that felt so good to do."
Blake: "That may be, but how are we going to break her out?"
Hedge: "As evident, you all can still use your semblances. Yang can just activate hers to break free.
On cue, cracks started to form, and Yang broke free from her icey prison.
Yang took a long, deep breath, then looked over to the Schnee heiress. "Firstly, I applaud you for reacting to that," surprisingly calm. "However." Weiss felt a chill around her, despite it being Yang of all people, as she had closed her eyes when she spoke again after her first sentence, but as she started to speak again and open her eyes, Weiss was met with red eyes instead of lilac. "Expect payback tenfold," she said as she tried to straigthen her hair from the cold, failing spectacularly. "I take that back. Hundred-fold."
At the moment, the twins and their fellow blond friend were walking towards the main building of Beacon itself, each with different thoughts on their minds.
As for what brought them out of those thoughts, it was as they saw two sisters interacting with each other.
Gyro, out of the corner of his eye, saw a certain white haired heiress walking, with two butlers pushing her things along on a transport… tray… thing… he doesn't know the actual word for it, but those thing they have in hotels basically for the luggage.
Blake: "Isn't it just called a luggage cart?"
Hedge: "Yes, as a matter of fact, it is."
Glynda: "To think they were smart enough to build the teleporter, but he doesn't know the name of something simple as that."
Qrow: "Let's give them the benefit of doubt, Glyn."
Either way, he didn't break his stride, in fact, he started walking faster, catching up to the sisters just as Yang zipped past Ruby, making her spin in place as she wobbled around.
Just as she was about to fall over, Gyro got behind her and placed his hands on her back, catching her "You ok there?" he asked casually, but with some honest concern in his voice.
Ruby shook her head of her dizziness "Y-yeah, thanks." she said as she got her feet back flat on the ground, Gyro glancing to the side as he saw Weiss Schnee walk past them, glancing at them for a moment before continuing forward.
Weiss: "Well, at least we didn't get off on a bad start," she said with a smile to her partner.
Ruby smiled back. "True. Thanks for that Gyro."
He uttered a mental sigh of relief at the fact that the, hopefully, eventual partners, didn't have a rough start like in canon. The only issue was that with Weiss no longer meeting Ruby the way she did in 'canon', there would need to be another way for Blake to meet Ruby. Fortunately, it seemed things were on his side, as just as he thought that, a certain thinly disguised Faunus was walking by.
'Oh this is almost too easy.' Gyro thought with narrowed eyes, before mentally shrugging as his pinky finger twitched, and a gust of wind suddenly blew through the courtyard.
Ruby eeped as she held her skirt down, glad no one was looking down at least, and as for one raven haired feline girl, the sudden wind not only blew some of her hair in her face, but made her lose her grip on her book.
"Hey!" Ruby squeaked/blushed/Blake yelled.
Yang: "That'd better have been an accident," she growled as her eyes turned red.
Hedge: "Yang, you know for a fact that wasn't his intention."
Yang: "He could've at least warned her!"
Conveniently, it ended up smacking Pierce in the face while it was wide open.
Blake winced as she ran up to the group, seeing Pierce's hand twitching "Um… sorry." she said after a moment.
Slowly, Pierce pulled the book away from his face, blushing as he handed the book to Blake "Maybe you shouldn't read this kind of stuff in public." he muttered lowly, yet knew she heard him thanks to her ears hidden by her bow.
Blake blushed as she took the book back "Right." she muttered, thinking maybe she should stop reading that in public.
Glynda: "Really, Ms. Belladonna? Do we need to have a talk about your reading habits?"
Blake: "No need! I'll admit it wasn't one of my smartest moments."
"What is Ninjas of Love about anyway? You know, besides ninjas and… adult stuff." Gyro asked, stopping himself short and changing his last words when he remembered Ruby was standing right next to him.
Ruby: "Why won't anyone treat me like a grown up?!"
Qrow: "Cause you're too pure and innocent, and we'd like to keep you that way a bit longer."
Ruby crossed her arms, pouted and grumbled, not really helping her case.
"Well...at least it has SOME plot...not that I could really get to read any of it considering the page it opened on," Pierce admitted.
"What was on the page that was in your face?" Ruby asked innocently.
"We'll tell you when you're older." Gyro, Pierce and Blake all said in unison before looking at each other in surprise.
"Why does everyone say that?" Ruby said with a pout as she kicked at the ground.
Yang had a mischievous grin on her face. "What page was it, kitty kat?"
Blake: "Don't make me cut your hair."
Yang instantly shut up.
"So...uh...my name's Gyro, this is my brother, Pierce, and the guy in the hoodie is Jaune." Gyro started, quickly changing the subject. "And you two are?"
"I'm Ruby!" the young reaper bounced right back into happy as she grinned at everyone.
Blake was silent for a moment as she looked at everyone "... Blake." she said curtly.
"Nice to meet ya," Pierce grinned.
"So...you two excited about getting into Beacon?" Jaune asked politely. The twins had thankfully managed to curl away his attempts at flirting, because in all honesty, that had just been ridiculous.
Jaune: "Yeah, my mom probably wasn't the best source of information for that considering how long it took for her to get dad to notice."
Ozpin: "Arc men have been known to be oblivious."
Jaune groans. "That hurts, Headmaster."
Nora cackles and Pyrrha just pats him on the back.
"You know it! I mean, I was already excited before but I still had two years to wait, but now I got in early because I met with Professor Ozpin himself, he was actuallyimpressedwithmethatwassocoolandallIdidwasgowooshandbamandthenboombecauseIwastryingtostoparobberyandthentherewereexplosionsandaplaneanditwassoawesome!" Ruby started before getting faster as she spoke.
Yang: "Rubes, you talk way too fast sometimes."
Weiss: "How did you even understand that?"
Yang: "Living with her," was her immediate response.
Weiss and Winter looked over at Qrow, who merely just nodded, agreeing with his older niece.
"Uhhh…." Jaune blinked, starting to feel like his brains were leaking out of his ears. On one hand he knew it would be impolite, but on the other hand he felt the urge to clamp the girl's mouth shut, if only so he could let his brain START to try and understand what she was saying.
The others looked at Ruby silently, before looking between each other and sighing, mutual understanding passing between them.
'What did we get ourselves into?'
Everyone: "Chaos."
Hedge: "Trust me, you all don't know Chaos."
Ren: "What do you mean?"
Ironwood: "Wait, do you mean the Chaos Emeralds?"
Hedge: "Yes and no." The Chaos Emeralds appear around him. "These aren't the only emeralds, they are actually powered by a much stronger emerald." With his powers, he summons said emerald. This emerald was the same color as the one he had with him when they had arrived to this dimension, but it was bigger than all 7 emeralds. "This here is the Master Emerald. Guarded by a race of warriors at first, but due to...let's just say events, there now is only one left in the universe they derive from, but because of those major events, there was a god of destruction named Chaos that had his soul trapped into the Master Emerald. The Guardian of this emerald," he places his hand on it, "can effectively control the Chaos Emeralds and block out the user of them from utilizing their power."
Everyone was amazed at this emerald, but they did wonder one thing.
Ozpin: "Out of curiousity, how much power does this Master Emerald have?"
Hedge chuckled, and this worried them a little. "Infinite."
If their jaws could drop to the floor, they would.
Winter: "That's...impossible."
Hedge: "Is it? This emerald was effectively created by the gods themselves of the universe it derives from. I'd say it's very possible, considering the universe is full of endless possibilities."
Weiss: "And how exactly do you have it if it's supposed to be in the possession of this so called guardian?" She asks with a raised eyebrow and her arms crossed.
Hedge: "Would you believe me if I said the guardian tends to end up letting the Master Emerald get stolen often by their and their friends' arch nemesis? And those same friends asked me to hold onto it?"
Jaune: "That honestly sounds like a good reason."
Hedge: "If you look past the downside being Angel Island isn't floating in the air anymore..." he thinks with a mental sweat drop.
A few minutes later found the group walking through the courtyard, their trek towards the auditorium resumed after getting Ruby to explain again slowly.
What had surprised the boys though, was Blake falling in step with them, and not making any effort to leave the group.
They didn't know what exactly had caused it, but apparently something had caused the faunus girl to be more at ease around them. Not that they were complaining, as this would make things a whole lot easier down the line.
"So…" Ruby suddenly started, trailing off, before looking at everyone "What do you all have?"
Yang smirks. "Weapon Nut Ruby incoming."
Ruby pouts. "Yaaang."
"Uh… what are you talking about?" Jaune asked as he turned to look at her.
"You know, what kind of weapon." Ruby said with a shrug.
"Oh, that." Jaune mumbled, apparently being relieved.
To be honest, the wording WAS a bit suggestive.
Ruby tilted her head. "Huh?"
Yang/Qrow/Hedge: "Nothing!"
"Well, I got these, I call them Ascalon." Gyro said as he pulled out his twin curved blades from their sheaths, giving them a bit of a twirl, before attached them together to show off the alternative mode as well.
"Ooohh, what else can they do?" Ruby asked as she looked at the combined blades closely.
"That's a secret till I have to reveal my semblance." Gyro said with a cheeky grin as he stored them away.
Ruby pouted at that, before turning to the others, eyes shining hopefully.
Ruby: "No mention of them being dragon slaying swords," she pouted.
Pyrrha: "You forget Ruby that they aren't from Remnant. Him saying that would imply he took down a Grimm like that, and the only known one would be a Wyvern."
Ironwood: "And to our knowledge, those haven't been seen in a long time."
Hedge: "Tell that to the one hidden in Mountain Glenn..."
Seeing that, Blake shrugged and pulled out her weapon. "Gambol Shroud," she said simply, revealing her katana-machine gun combo, also showing how it's sheathe was a cleaver.
Yang: "Not much of a talker huh," she teased her partner.
Blake: "Hey, I've opened up a lot more lately."
"And well...I got this sword," Jaune said, pulling out Crocea Mors.
"Cool," Ruby said. "What does it do?"
Gyro and Pierce had to hold back snickers as Jaune clumsily tried to explain how Crocea Mors DIDN'T have any extra modes, except for the sheath acting as a shield.
Well, not yet anyway, they still had to figure out exactly how combining an arming sword with a shield/sheath made a bastard sword.
Jaune: "Wait what?"
Hedge: "Spoilers," he said with a cheeky grin.
"Well...the classics are great too," Ruby said at the end of Jaune's explanation, a rather poor attempt at being polite considering her previous excitement.
"Think of it this way Jaune, you don't have to worry about too much maintenance, and because most people would expect something extra from your weapon, they'd act a bit more cautious, which might cause them to overlook some things." Gyro added after seeing Jaune slump.
The blonde knight tilted his head at those words, considering them "I… guess that makes sense."
Qrow: "Underhanded tactics if you ask me, but then again I like using them myself."
Winter: "Combine that with your semblance, and I'd be surprised if you were ever beaten in a fight."
Qrow raises an eyebrow at that. "Was that a compliment?"
Winter sweat drops. "You're delusional, you drunk."
"So...uh…" Ruby started, not quite sure what to say next. On one hand, she wanted to ask about Pierce's weapon...but at the same time she had a feeling it wouldn't be so good after what just happened.
"Huh? Oh right, I haven't shown my weapon yet," Pierce chuckled. "Say hello to Pandora," he said, pulling out his weapon, still in its default naginata mode.
"And what does it do?" Ruby asked as she noticed what looked like several pieces that could move along the shaft of the weapon.
"Well… what would you like to see it do?" Pierce asked with a grin.
Yang: "Oh geez." Ruby looked on with waiting and excited eyes.
"Can it shoot fire?" Jaune asked jokingly.
In response, Pierce grinned as he twisted two pieces of the weapon, a nozzle coming out just above the blade and a trigger near the middle, which when pulled, made a stream of flames come out of the nozzle, it was thin, but nonetheless, it was fire.
"And there's more!" Gyro said with a grin as he nudged his brother to show off a few more of his weapon's many functions.
Pierce nodded as he started showcasing quite a few alternate forms, such as a trident, a grappling hook, a whip function, and plenty more.
"Uh...is she okay?" Jaune asked cautiously in the middle of the little exhibition, as true enough, Ruby was now drooling with stars in her eyes.
The Ruby with them also was in the same position. Yang decided there were two things to break her out of it, and she mentally ordered a plate that appeared in hands with chocolate chip cookies and strawberries. She placed it in Ruby's lap, and after two seconds of catching the smell of her two favorite snacks in front of her, she broke out of her position and started devouring them. All with a smile on her face.
"Eh...probably," Pierce sweatdropped. He couldn't say he was surprised at the reaction, but this was a bit stronger than he'd imagined.
Gyro looked at the little reaper in concern, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his scroll "Let's see, where is it again?" he muttered, before nodding as he flipped it around and put it in Ruby's face.
No reaction for a moment, before her eyes went to the screen and she snatched it away from him, muttering inaudibly as she looked at whatever was on it, then quickly looked back up at Gyro "You designed this?"
Ruby looks over at Hedge. "I need to see all of his schematics."
Hedge chuckles. "What if I told you you'll be able to work on something really awesome later on?"
Ruby ponders this for a little. "Fine, but I'll hold you to it."
Yang: "You know she'll hold it over you until you let her work on whatever it is you're promising right?"
Hedge: "Oh, I'm well aware. And you're going to help her later." That last sentence said in his head.
Gyro nodded simply, smiling a bit proudly.
Ruby looked at him, before smiling brightly "That's so awesome!" she said as she raised her hand up high and Gyro gave her a high five.
Everyone looked at the two of them in confusing, before Blake was the one to break the silence "What did you show her?"
"A blueprint for something that's a bit excessive but still awesome." Gyro said with a shrug as he accepted his scroll back from Ruby.
Weiss: "Excessive?" A weapon built like that is excessive."
Ruby: "There's no such thing, Weiss."
Yang: "Yeah there is."
Blake/Qrow: "Hair."
Yang: "Hey, everyone knows that no one is allowed to touch this hair but me!"
"...so uh...aren't we supposed to be gathering somewhere for the initiation?" Jaune suddenly said, remembering that yes, they WERE supposed to gather.
"Where do you think we've been walking to?" Pierce said as he stopped in front of a large door and opened it, showing that the auditorium was inside, and people were still coming in from other doors or corridors.
"Huh...I kinda thought we got lost just talking…" Jaune admitted.
"Hey wait! I haven't shown off my weapon yet!" Ruby said before anyone went inside.
Ruby: "How could I forget to show off Crescent Rose?!" she panicked.
Ironwood: "Is she normally like this?" He asks with a sweat drop.
Glynda: "From what we have seen?"
Ozpin: "If it was allowed, I have no doubt she would legally have it be her baby."
Qrow: "She already calls it that."
Winter: "That's not healthy."
Yang: "You try telling that to her face and see what that gets you." There were even moments where Ruby would tuck it into bed with her at night.
"Well, go ahead, we probably still have like 10 minutes or something before we need to be inside." Pierce said as he looked inside the auditorium before turning back to the short girl.
Ruby nodded with a smile as she reached underneath her cape and pulled out a large red block like thing, before motioning the others to give her more space, and opening it with a flourish, revealing a very large scythe.
"I call her Crescent Rose, not only is she a scythe, but she's a high impact sniper rifle, and, I made her myself." Ruby said proudly as she compacted her weapon down into its sniper rifle mode, which honestly looked more like an AK-47 in appearance.
"So… it's a scyther rifle then?" Pierce said with a grin, causing a few groans.
Ruby groaned. "Oh no..."
Yang: "Oh him and I would get along just fine."
Qrow: "Greaaaat," he muttered. He already had to deal with all the puns from her and Tai. Now Pierce would be saying them too? A fate worst than death if you asked him.
"Stop the horrible puns please." Gyro said as he covered his face with his hands.
"Oh god he's just like Yang." Ruby muttered in horror alongside him, before she and Gyro looked at each other, and pat each other's backs in silent support for having siblings who loved bad puns.
After the moment of support had passed, the small group finally stepped inside the auditorium, and were greeted with… an argument.
Blake: "Great. It's Yang and Weiss, isn't it?"
Pyrrha: "What makes you say that?"
Blake: "Considering how the night ended when we first met, I'd say it's highly likely."
'Oh you have got to be kidding me.' Gyro thought in deadpan as he saw Yang and Weiss glaring at each other and very loudly arguing with one another.
Both he and Pierce thought they would have to try and break up the argument, before a pair of fists descended on top of the two girl's heads, making their eyes go blank at the sudden impact to their skulls.
Everyone gaped at the scene, none more so than Gyro and Pierce however, as the person who had hit the two girls on the head was Azure.
Yang: "A teacher not afraid to get physical. That's a scary combo." She and Weiss rubbed their scalps as if Azure had actually hit them.
"That's QUITE enough you two," Azure sighed. "Honestly, you're both part of the next generation of protectors. Please save arguments like this for outside or AFTER the opening speech."
"Dear Oum Azure has balls." Gyro muttered in a bit of awe.
While Yang simply winced as she rubbed her head, honestly as long as her hair wasn't damaged she wasn't going to go ballistic against someone, Weiss was fuming as she turned her glare onto Azure "And just who do you think you are to hit me?!"
Azure simply gave her a dull look "A teacher."
Nora: "And that one response is enough to break the Ice Queen's shell."
Weiss: "Hey! You try acting the same way to someone that apparently was a teacher. Dealing with a teacher with a grudge is a recipe for disaster."
Immediately, Weiss's face went pale, her mouth hanging open in shock at the fact she'd just talked like that to a teacher.
"Now then, when you're done putting your blown mind back together, the headmaster will be starting his speech soon. I think it'd be in your best interests to be paying attention," Azure chuckled. "And that goes for you too Gyro and Pierce. I'm not gonna be bailing you out if you get in trouble that's your own fault," he added with a smirk.
"Hey, we're in the room big bro, so we're safe." Pierce shot back with a wave of his hand.
Azure shrugged with a smile "Fair enough I guess." before walking off to where the other teachers were.
It took the gathered prospective students a full 10 seconds to process that last part.
Ruby: "Heh, I imagine that was the same reaction our friends at Signal had when they found out Dad and Uncle Qrow were our relatives."
Yang: "Oh most definitely. My friends knew not to mess with me in order to not incur the wrath of Dad."
Winter: "Did you also threaten the students, Branwen?"
Qrow: "You really think so low of me, don't you Ice Queen? No, I didn't, but most of the time Tai was with me, so he knew the same things I did if anything/anyone was doing something bad to the girls."
"Wait...he's your brother?" Yang asked as she turned to Pierce, having moved over to Ruby while Azure was basically scaring Weiss into turning white like a ghost, the snowy themed girl still frozen in place.
"Yeah, he got a job at Beacon and, well, he's the reason we were allowed to take a slightly harder entrance exam since we never went to a training school before, I mean, they had to doubly make sure we had what it takes." Pierce explained.
"God I almost puked like three times during that." Jaune said with a groan as he remembered he too had to pass the harder exam.
The students nearly sweat dropped at that info.
Weiss: "It can't be that bad...right?" She looked over at her professors.
Ozpin: "If you'd like Ms. Schnee I could have you and your team attempt it. Extra credit would be awarded if you pass, but no reward nor punishment would come if you fail."
Hedge: "If you'd like, Headmaster, I could rearrange the training room to accommodate it."
Glynda: "Ozpin, are you sure?"
Ozpin: "You saw how they completed the regular initiation. I'd say that they should do just fine."
Nora: "We'd like to do it!"
Ren: "Nora, at least get all of our thoughts about it first before giving the answer."
Both Team RWBY and JNPR had got into their own group huddles, thinking if they should attempt the harder initiation. For now, though, they decided to inform their headmaster at the next break.
"Huh." Yang said, choosing to ignore what Jaune had said "Well… I guess we were getting kind of loud." she admitted, before holding her hand out to the goatee toting blonde "Anyway, name's Yang."
"Pierce, nice to meet you." Pierce said with a smile as he shook her hand.
"Nice grip there." Yang said with a grin as she still held his hand.
"Not too bad yourself." Pierce shot back.
"What is this?" Ruby whispered as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.
Weiss/Winter: "Muscle-head bonding.
Hedge: "Ain't that the truth." On screen, it shows a very iconic scene of two admittedly buff gentlemen doing a handshake. (If you know the scene, good on ya. If you don't, here's a hint: "You sonova bitch.")
Yang: "Holy hell, those guys are jacked. Look at their muscles!
"Something I don't think I want to be a part of." Blake said dully "See you guys later." she added, before walking away from the group.
"See ya later." the remaining three not in a conversation told her back, still watching Pierce and Yang interacting.
However, before the conversation could continue, everyone's attention was drawn to the sound of a microphone being switched on, as up on the stage, a middle aged man with gray hair and black glasses stepped up and began speaking.
Gyro and Pierce, for the most part, tuned out Ozpin's speech, as it was more of a downer than anything, so instead they thought about how they should go about doing things tomorrow, as they still hadn't fully decided on that. Ideally of course was that they make sure they partnered with each other, so that if nothing else, they could easily plan their steps in the future. It wasn't long before the speech was over, and everyone was ushered to the room where all prospective students would be spending the night...though why was something that still baffled them, especially when they noticed how there were some students who seemed to like sleeping in their underwear.
As for the boys, they just had simple t-shirts and pajama bottoms, something they had managed to get Jaune into instead of his onesie.
Weiss: "Thank Oum."
Yang: "Yeah Jaune, that was seriously embarrassing."
Jaune: "For both of your information, that was a gift from one of my sisters." He paused. "Then again, they most likely had blackmail on me if I didn't end up wearing it."
Speaking of Jaune though, they seemed to have lost… him… oh wow, even the author is surprised by this one.
By the luck of the gods and everything else, Jaune had ended up right next to Pyrrha Nikos, AKA, the girl that would eventually love him.
If there was a record player, there would be a record scratch sound played, but most likely it played in Jaune's head.
Jaune: "What?" Pyrrha blushed up a storm and her face nearly was the same shade as her hair and Ruby's cloak. "Is that true, Pyr?"
Pyrrha: "Very much so. It was a dream come true that you were the first person to notice me as just Pyrrha Nikos, not just the 'Invincible Girl.'"
Jaune: "I...holy shit I'm an idiot." he said with a face palm. The words she said to him during the dance coming back to him. "Well, if you wouldn't mind, how about the two of us go out to dinner when we get back?"
Pyrrha grabs his head and they lock lips together. "I'd love to."
Hedge: "Arkos has just set sailed."
"Huh, with any luck since he had no interactions with Weiss, he'll notice Pyrrha better." Gyro murmured thoughtfully as he and Pierce sat down in an empty space.
"If he doesn't, well, we can just find a closet and lock the two inside of it." Pierce said with a shrug, eliciting a snort of amusement from his brother.
Jaune: "Hey! I'd fight you before you'd even have the chance." Pyrrha and Nora giggled.
"Hey guys!" the two heard, making them turn to see Ruby walking towards them with a pillow and blanket in hand, Yang following behind her with a rolled up sleeping bag.
"Hey Ruby." the two greeted her with a wave as she sat next to them, Yang doing the same.
"So, I gotta thank you guys for making friends with my little sister, she really needed it." Yang said with a grin as she patted said little sister on the back, getting a pout from her.
Ruby: "Coming from the sister that rushed off and left me dizzy to then get yelled at by Weiss."
Yang: "Ruby, come on, I said I was sorry multiple times about that. How much more do I need to?"
Ruby didn't answer and focused back on the screen.
"Yeah, well if it wasn't for Gyro I would have fallen after you ditched me." Ruby told her, crossing her arms and blowing her older sister a raspberry.
"I said I was sorry ok?" Yang said placatingly as she held up her hands.
"Oh come on, ease up on her Ruby, think about it this way, if Yang hadn't ditched you, you wouldn't have met us." Gyro told the reaper as he patted her shoulder.
Ruby adopted a thoughtful look at that while Yang looked at him dryly "I don't know if I should thank you or punch you."
"Probably a bit of both," Pierce snickered. "That's usually how things go."
Yang snorts. "True."
"Geee, thanks a lot, bro," Gyro said dryly.
"Oh! That reminds me, I've been meaning ask, which one of you is older?" Ruby asked as she looked at the twins.
"Me, by like a few minutes, I took more after mom while Pierce took more after dad." Gyro said with a shrug. "And yeah, before you ask, I know Pierce looks older. We get that a lot, especially after he started sporting that goatee."
"Like Gyro said, I took more after dad, who was pretty damn tall, while he took after mom, who was rather short." Pierce explained a bit further.
"Yeah, but I also got mom's looks, which means I'm better looking than you." Gyro said jokingly, with Pierce laughing a bit.
Yang: "It's a sibling roasting session."
Ruby: "I'm so glad we stopped those years ago."
Jaune groaned. "Lucky you."
Weiss: "Thankfully we didn't have a ton of those."
Winter: "Knowing how Whitley, he probably has talked about us behind our backs."
Hedge: "You don't know how right you are." He then laughed. "This actually reminds me of a scene from another Devil May Cry game of Dante and his brother Vergil. The thing is said game was not canon to the 5 games of the series. It wasn't my first introduction to the characters everyone knows and loves, but it was the first Devil May Cry game that I played." (This is true. DMC: Devil May Cry was my first DMC game I played. I was introduced to Dante and Vergil through UMvC3, and I saw the reboot at GameStop and bought it. Not long after I found out it wasn't part of the actual series, but I still played it nonetheless. As for the actual series, the only one I have really played in full is DMC3, but that's because I'm trying to 100% before I move on to DMC1.)
Ironwood: "How was that scene compared to this?"
Hedge: "Much more vulgar."
Glynda: "Why does that not surprise me?"
"I dunno, I kinda think he looks more cute." Yang said as she grinned at Pierce and even grabbed his arm, squeezing it a bit "Definitely looks more muscular too."
Nora: "Yang, stay out of it. No outside interference!"
Yang: "Don't make me, make my other."
"Oh ah ah." Gyro laughed dryly while Pierce grinned back at the lilac eyed blonde.
"Would you all keep quiet! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" they all heard a voice say, making them turn to see…
"Oh not you again!" Yang and Weiss growled out as they saw each other.
"Ok, how about no argument this time, huh?" Gyro said, getting in between the two girls and pushing them away from each other, being smart enough to push them by their shoulders and not the chest like he would with guys.
All girls: "Smart."
The two girls continued to glare at each other for a moment, before huffing and turning away from each other.
Hesitantly, Ruby went up to Weiss "Um, sorry about my sister, I don't really know what she did to make you angry, but knowing her track record back home, it's probably her fault."
Yang pointed at her sister. "Traitor!"
Yang gasped "You dare!" she said, looking at Ruby.
"Dad's guitar." was all Ruby said, making Yang clam up and turn red in embarrassment.
Nora: "What's that about?"
Ruby was about to answer, but Yang slapped a hand over her mouth. "Not. A. Word. Or painful wedgies for life." Then she turned to her Uncle. "And I'll take all of your alcohol if you spill the beans too." Qrow did the zipper motion with his hand over his mouth.
Weiss looked at the shorter girl, before letting out a sigh "You have my condolences for living with someone like her." she said, making Ruby giggle in amusement, while Weiss let a small smile graced her lips "My name is Weiss Schnee."
"Like the company that's run by a hardass?" Pierce asked.
Everyone either chuckled or laughed at that, even Winter.
Weiss: "Is he really that bad?"
Ironwood: "Ms. Schnee, I have to put up with your father every time I try to make some changes that regard Dust, and that's pretty much every change I put through with the council. 9 times out of 10, he would decline them because they don't favor him and the SDC."
Blake snarls: "Let me guess, they don't make him a profit, or it'll cost him lien."
Ironwood sighs. "Yes."
Weiss blinked at the word used to describe her father "That's… a new one… I can't deny it though, father is a bit of a hardass."
Unseen by the others, Blake raised an eyebrow behind her book at the Schnee heiress admitting her father was a hardass, before shrugging, figuring that was a sort of step in the right direction to the girl not being like him.
Before the conversation could go on further, Ruby let out a yawn.
"Well, I guess it is getting late, let's just get to bed, if we want to talk again, there's always tomorrow." Gyro said, looking at everyone who all gave different signs of agreement before getting to their own sleeping arrangements.
"Night bro." the twins said to each other, bumping fists before getting in their respective sleeping bags.
They had one hell of a day tomorrow.
With that, the TV shut off for now.
Weiss: "Well if timeline is following what we went through, then that means the next day and section of this story would be the initiation."
Ruby: "I wonder if our teams will still end up the same?"
Yang: "Most likely, Rubes."
Blake: "Can we really assume that though? With Gyro and Pierce added into the mix, assuming there aren't any other students joining in, wouldn't it be an uneven amount of students?"
Ozpin: "It would be." Getting everyone's attention. "It was an even division of students to split into the teams that started this school year. Truth be told, I'm curious how my and Glynda's other would go about that."
Glynda: "Considering the lengths the boys went to get Azure to get a teaching position at Beacon, I wouldn't be surprised if he plays a factor in that."
Ironwood: "That seems more likely. Still if everything is going as how they originally, aside from the abnormal weather events, I wonder if any other butterfly effects would happen."
Winter: "Maybe it has to do with the other part of the story's title?"
Qrow: "Yeah, what was the title again? Something about a 'Digital Story' or something?"
Nora: "And the 'THOR' part. That sounds like an acronym to something."
Ren: "It could be a team name."
Pyrrha: "It's the same length as our teams short-hand names."
Jaune: "I don't think a team name is limited to 4 letters, Pyr."
Hedge: "You're right on that part, Jaune. And good analysis everyone. For now, let's all take a break, refill snacks, among other things, then return here. Sound good?"
Everyone acknowledged and headed off to do just that.
AN: And done! Another chapter down.
Now I know I said that after this chapter, I would go back and work on Hedge's story for a bit. Here's the thing: I lied. I'm going to work on the next chapter of this, as there is a cliffhanger at the end of the next chapter, so that will be a good stopping point for now.
Again, thank you all so much for the follows/favorites that have come in since the last update to this. A question regarding the discussed alternate initiation: should the teams take up the offer and try it out? If so, I'll try to whip something up with Swift (and maybe Timeless if they'd like to give some ideas).
We're almost into the main plot of THOR Alter: Digital Story, and I hope you're all excited for it.
Till next time, peace out.