Author's Note:
Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter of Earth's Mightiest Huntsemn, and it's time to kick off the next story arc! But first, let's answer some reviews!
SulliMike23: Oh trust me, when Roman makes his move against our heroes, it's going to be quite the battle.
Sebasquiros: Hulk will probably return at some point, I just haven't decided when yet.
DarthK9: See, that's a difficult question. I would probably recommend the series to others that might be interested in it, but I will say that I personally believe that the series declines in quality after Vol 3, and they make story decisions that I personally disagree with. As for your other questions, I think Yang would be an interesting Ghost Rider from Team RWBY, and for Team JNPR, I could see Jaune taking up that mantle in a sense, though I agree that Nora would be hilarious as Ghost Rider. As for the Collector, while I haven't made any decisions about him quite yet, if he were to show up, it wouldn't be until Act IV based on my current plans (and, as a side note, he actually apparently survived Infinity War, as it's mentioned in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special that the Guardians purchased Knowwhere from him). As for Deadpool, the problem isn't about the jokes-it's mainly revolving around the fourth wall aspect of his character, as it's a little hard for something like that to really work in a fanfiction format. Finally, in regards to Thunderbolt Ross, while I currently don't have any plans to bring him back as Red Hulk at the moment, never say never!
Ironchef13: We'll see. But as of right now, I don't have any plans for Jeff.
Guest: It's always a possibility. Yang and Spider-Man seem like a fun combo with all the quipping banter that could occur between them.
Red Scorpion: Blake's definitely going to get a little more focus in this arc (and potentially a little more in the next one too, now that I think about it). Glad you enjoyed the one shots overall. Blake's method of capturing the Ringmaster I believe actually does pay tribute to a Super Hero Squad episode in which the Ringmaster was defeated in the same way. Here, that hat might just be on a trophy wall in Remnant HQ. As for your guess, sorry-it's not going to be Power Pack.
Thank you all for your continued support. Now, let's get back to the action.
Remnant HQ—November 27th
From the observation box, Logan watched as Ruby cut through the training droids before shooting a few of the drones out of the air. Ever since he had met her, she had improved vastly in her skills. Constant training and various missions involving villains had certainly helped her with that. Helped them all out, really. He was proud of their progress overall.
The Remnantians had been stuck on Earth for over two months at this point. For the most part, they had acclimated to life on the planet well. At the very least they hadn't done anything accidentally illegal yet. Then again, they hadn't really gone out together to experience Earth in full. They had spent most of their time at Remnant HQ, either training or trying to do research into Ultron and ways to stop him. In fact, aside from missions to stop crimes and supply runs, they had hardly left the building at all.
This troubled Logan greatly. He was no stranger to watching young heroes training relentlessly to become better. But he knew better than anyone that focusing fully on training for war took a toll. He didn't want these kids to bury themselves in accomplishing their goal and not take time to unwind.
He knew that it was their choice. He knew that this training—including what they had been doing before arriving on Earth—was their decision They wanted to be warriors. To be soldiers. But even still...he didn't like the idea of children being turned into soldiers at such a young age.
He had seen something like that before—only with her, she had been forced into that life by those that had created her. And she hadn't survived the experience.
Logan had been thinking a lot about her lately while watching the Remnantians train and work together. Especially since the anniversary of her death was coming up soon. He hadn't been able to save her...but he hoped he could still save these kids.
"Logan?" While Logan had been mulling over the situation, Ruby had apparently finished her training and had come up to the control room. "Are you...okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah, kid. Just...reminiscing about something."
"Did I do okay in there?"
"Yeah, kid. You did fine."
"Great. I'm heading upstairs then. We've got dinner to make and then diving more into research on Ultron." She turned around to go.
"Hey, kid," Logan said suddenly. "Why don't you and your friends take the night off? I hear there's a new arcade that opened up nearby. You could go there."
Ruby seemed to think about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, that's okay. We've still got a lot of research to do, and Team JNPR is going to be using the training room later tonight too. Well, all of them except Ren."
It had been just over a week since he had gotten injured thanks to the Sentinel that Arcade had somehow acquired. While he was mostly recovered by this point, he still had trouble moving. Despite his aura working overtime to take care of his injuries, it would probably still be a few more days before he could really start getting back to training.
"You don't have to spend all your time in this place," he advised. "You can go out and have fun with your friends out there. Maybe even make some new ones."
Ruby shrugged. "I think we really just need to keep preparing to get back to Remnant...wherever it is. Besides, it's not like there's very many other heroes on Earth that are around our age."
Logan looked down. "Okay kid. I can respect that. You go get going then."
Ruby gave him a small smile and left. Logan turned and looked back at the training floor. A small smile slowly came to his face as an idea started to form in his head.
"Not very many other heroes around their age," he mused. He reached into his pocket and brought out his cell phone, making a call.
"Logan," the one he had called said. "Is that you?"
"Hey, Hank," Logan replied. "How would you feel about a little joint training exercise?"
Remnant HQ—November 28th
The penthouse's loud alarm woke Ruby up. With a yelp, she tumbled out of bed. Groaning, she crawled to her feet and stumbled to the door, opening it at the same time as Weiss opened the door to her room, looking annoyed.
"Who tripped the alarm at 4 in the morning?" she grumbled.
"I did." Logan stood at the end of the hallway, wearing his uniform and crossing his arms. "Suit up and get something to eat. We leave in an hour."
Emerging from her own room, Yang let out a yawn. "It's too early for this sort of thing. Come back to us when the sun's out."
"This aint up for debate. We're going out on a training exercise. We leave in an hour. Suit up and eat, or you'll go hungry for the rest of the day."
Ruby could tell that Logan was serious. Something big must have been about to go down. "Let's do it," she decided, stifling a yawn and turning back to her room.
"Great." Weiss let out another groan. "This is going to be a long day."
Ren limped to his dresser and was about to get dressed when a knock came at the door. Holding his side, he made his way to it, finding Logan on the other side when he opened it.
"Go back to bed, kid," he told him. "You're not coming on this one."
"Are you sure?" Ren asked. "I feel a lot better than I have been."
"Trust me—you aint back to 100% yet, and what I have planned today is going to be grueling. I aint putting you back out there and risking you injuring yourself further. We'll be back by nightfall—probably."
Ren slowly nodded in acceptance. Even though he really was feeling better, he knew that pushing himself too much could cause him to relapse and keep himself out of action for even longer. He rubbed his still heavily bandaged side. "Just a few more days," he told himself. "A few more days and you'll be back to normal."
Quinjet—En Route to Unknown Location—November 28th
Ruby sat in the back of the Quinjet with the rest of her friends. They still had absolutely no idea where Logan was taking them or what kind of training he had in mind.
"Maybe he's taking us out to the woods and leaving us there for a week," Nora guessed.
"Why would he take us out to the woods and leave us?" Weiss asked in annoyance.
"I don't know, maybe we ticked him off somehow."
"How could we have ticked him off?"
"Come on, have you met the guy?"
"Stop it, guys," Jaune ordered. "That's not helping. Logan probably just wants us to train with a larger outdoor environment."
"Our training room can simulate any type of environment," Nora reminded him. "I'm telling you, we're going out to the woods and he's going to leave us all behind."
"He told Ren that we'd be back by nightfall," Pyrrha reminded her.
Nora blinked. "Oh. Right."
While the others were talking, Ruby slipped away and into the cockpit where Logan was. "Uh...Logan?" she asked softly.
"What is it, kid?" he asked.
"Did...we do something wrong?"
He looked up at her. "Nah, kid. You're fine. I've just got a special training exercise planned for you today."
"And...it couldn't be done in the training room?"
"The training room can only teach you so much. In my experience, real world training is a hell of a lot more effective than simulations."
Ruby thought about asking where they were going, but realized that Logan probably wasn't going to tell her. Whatever he had planned though, it probably was going to be tough.
She slowly backed away from him and moved back to the rest of her friends. "Everything okay, Ruby?" Yang asked.
She nodded. "We'll be landing soon," she reported.
"Did he say where we're going?" Blake asked.
"Or what we're doing?" Weiss added.
"He just said that he's got a special training exercise planned."
"Yep, we're totally getting abandoned in the woods," Nora concluded.
Weiss rubbed her forehead. "Nora..."
"We're not getting abandoned in the woods," Jaune told her.
"Logan will probably tell us more when we land," Ruby assured everyone.
The group descended into silence then, mostly just fidgeting with their weapons. Ruby herself pulled out Crescent Rose and checked her ammo, making sure the weapon magazine was fully filled.
After about another half hour of flying, the Quinjet began to descend. Once they had landed, Logan exited the cockpit and walked out to them. "Everyone out," he ordered as the boarding ramp lowered. Ruby and the others stepped out and took note of their surroundings. They were now in a vast, snowy clearing surrounded by trees.
"See?" Nora commented. "Left in the woods."
"Not helping, Nora," Weiss warned.
"Where are we, Logan?" Ruby asked.
"Canada," Logan explained.
"Canada?" Yang repeated.
"Yep."
"What kind of training are we doing today?" Ruby asked, trying to direct the conversation to the task at hand.
"Not yet," Logan said. "We're still waiting on some people."
"There's more coming?" Ruby asked.
"Yep." There was a rush of an engine as a familiar aircraft flew overhead, stopping above them and beginning to descend. "And here they are now."
"The X-Jet?" Jaune asked. "Are we training with the X-Men today?"
Logan smirked slightly. "Not exactly."
The X-Jet landed and the boarding ramp lowered. From that ramp descended eight people that looked roughly about the same age as the Remnantians. All of them worse matching black uniforms with a giant yellow X stretched out over them and the X-Men insignia on their left shoulders.
"Teams RWBY and JNPR—meet the New Mutants," Logan introduced.
The two groups looked at each other, seemingly sizing the other side up. "So...you're big plan was to...what, set us against each other or something?" Weiss asked.
"Nope," Logan answered. "This is a joint training exercise. Both teams will be working together on this one."
He gestured to Ruby and her friends. "New Mutants, these are heroes from the planet Remnant. This is Red Ranger, Ice Queen—"
"I never agreed to that name!" Weiss interrupted with a huff.
"It's not like you came up with anything better," Nora pointed out.
"I have more important things to do than come up with a codename."
"Ahem." Logan glared at them before continuing. "—Shade, Emberfist, The Paladin, Polarity, and Shockhammer." He then gestured to the New Mutants. "And over here we have Mirage, Magma, Cannonball, Sunspot, Karma, Armor, Wolfsbane, and—"
Yang suddenly pushed to the front of the Remnantians. "Phalanx," she growled, aiming Ember Celica and her metal arm straight at the strange yellow and black being that was standing with the New Mutants.
The New Mutants, in response, quickly took fighting stances. "Put them down, blondie," the dark haired girl with the red head band warned as she drew a bow and took aim.
"You put them down first!" Nora yelled as she drew Magnhild, with the rest of the Remnantians quickly following suit with their own weapons.
"Enough!" Logan moved between the two groups. "Warlock aint with the Phalanx anymore, kid. He's on our side."
"Yes!" the being known as Warlock agreed. "Self is friend."
"Yang," Ruby said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. If Logan says he okay—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Slowly, Yang lowered her arms. One by one, the other Remnantians lowered their weapons. Subsequently, the New Mutants seemed to relax a little too—aside from the girl with the bow.
"It's okay, Dani." The red headed girl, Wolfsbane, looked at her, speaking with a Scottish accent. "You can put the bow down now."
Slowly, Dani lowered her bow and slipped it back over her shoulder, though her eyes remained focused on Yang.
Beast poked his head out from the X-Jet. "Everything okay out here?" he asked.
"We're fine, Hank," Logan replied simply.
Beast surveyed everyone briefly before disappearing back into the X-Jet. "Right," Logan went on. "Now that we have that sorted, time for your training."
"What kind of horror show do you have for us this time?" the dark-haired boy, Sunspot, asked.
Logan gestured out to the woods. "Roughly five miles inland there will be a flag. All you have to do is get that flag and bring it back here to pass."
"That sounds easy enough," said Magma, the blonde-haired girl.
"It's never that easy," the blonde-haired boy, Cannonball, pointed out. "What's the catch?"
Logan grinned slightly. "The catch is that to get to that flag...you're going to have to go through me."
Everyone instantly tensed up at this revelation. They all knew exactly how tough and brutal Logan could be. And the fact that they would have to fight him to get to the flag made things even more difficult.
"Query: will Friend Logan be using lethal force?" Warlock asked.
"Does it look like I'm going to be using lethal force?" Logan questioned back. "In this scenario, if I take you down, then you're out." He turned around and started walking down the path that led deeper into the woods. "Wait fifteen minutes and then the training will begin. Use that time to come up with a plan." He paused at the edge of the tree line. "Work together...or you're going to fail." With that, he was gone.
Everyone turned back to look at one another, unsure of what to do next. Eventually, Jaune broke the silence. "So...who's got a plan?"
"We need to stick together," Dani decided. "That gives us the best chance for success."
"Wouldn't it be better if we split up into smaller groups?" Yang asked. "We can cover more ground and find that flag faster."
"That will also let Logan pick us off a lot faster," Dani said back. "Staying together means he'll have to take us all on at once."
"She's right," Jaune agreed. "We all know that Logan is dangerous, especially in his element. If we stick together, we'll stand a better chance."
"We're going to have to fight him eventually," Karma, one of the other dark-haired girls, warned. "To do that, we're going to need to understand all your powers."
The Remnantians exchanged looks with one another. "Well...," Ruby eventually said, "I'm fast, Weiss can summon Grimm, Blake can create shadow clones of herself, Yang gets stronger with every hit she takes, Jaune can enhance our auras, Pyrrha can control metal, and Nora absorb electricity."
The New Mutants stared at her, seeming like they were trying to process everything Ruby had told them. "Yeah, I didn't understand, like, a third of that," Sunspot admitted.
"You don't understand a lot of things, Roberto," Armor, the dark-haired girl wearing a thick green jacket that also had the X-Men symbol on it, playfully elbowing his side.
"So, how does that compare with what all you can do?" Yang asked.
"I'll figure it out." Dani walked to the start of the path and knelt down, putting a hand on the ground.
"What our fearless leader is trying to say is that I'll handle the power explanations," Cannonball said, giving her a worried look before facing the Remnantians again. "She can create illusions in a sense, I can propel myself at high speeds, Rahne can transform into a wolf, Hisako can create psionic armor around herself, Roberto can absorb sunlight to make himself stronger, Xuân can possess people, Amara can shoot lava, and Warlock can shapeshift and absorb things."
"Not bad," Yang commented. "So, how's this going to work?"
"Warlock and I have enhanced senses," Wolfsbane explained. "We should be able to know when Logan is coming for us. And Dani's tracking skills can probably help find the flag."
"Then the rest of us can act as defense," Ruby decided.
"Sounds like a plan," Sunspot agreed. "Perhaps on our way, we can get to know each other better." He rubbed a hand through his curly black hair and offered a charming smile at Weiss, who rolled her eyes and scoffed slightly at his apparent attempt to flirt with her.
"Fifteen of us and only one of Logan?" Nora grinned. "He's going down."
"You really think that it will be that easy?" Dani asked, getting back to her feet. "Do you even know how much Wolverine has been through? How strong he really is?"
"Oh, relax, Dani," Magma told her. "We could use a little boundless enthusiasm right now, given that we're probably all about to get our butts kicked."
"This is serious, Amara," Dani snapped. "We've got a challenge to complete. And the sooner we do that, the better. I don't want to be at this all night."
"Dani," Wolfsbane warned quietly, approaching her. She took her aside and the two began talking in low voices.
"Well someone's in a bad mood," Weiss noted.
"Dani's...going through some things right now," Cannonball admitted. "Don't hold it against her. She's really nice once you get to know her."
"Kind of like Weiss was," Yang joked.
"Ha, ha," Weiss replied dryly. "Laugh it up, Yang."
"We've all been through some pretty rough times lately," Karma admitted.
"Yeah...us too," Jaune admitted.
"Yeah, aren't you those aliens from the planet populated by creepy shadow monsters?" Magma asked.
"The Grimm," Blake confirmed.
"That must be rough," Armor guessed. "Being on a world filled with monsters."
"Eh, you get used to it," Nora responded.
Dani and Wolfsbane eventually returned to the group. "Okay," Dani said. "Let's move out."
"Has it been fifteen minutes yet?" Ruby asked.
"It has not," Warlock confirmed.
"Well, it's not like Logan's going to know if we leave early or not," Yang pointed out.
"Let's move out," Dani stated, already starting for the path. The Remnantians and the New Mutants exchanged looks with one another, but slowly followed after her.
Ruby didn't know what to think about these other young heroes. But she hoped that their relationship with them would improve.
From the trees opposite of where the heroes were walking, three figures watched them head down the path.
"Are our forces in position?" the long-haired man with mirrored sunglasses asked.
The masked man with goggles nodded. "They have taken strategic positions in the woods. On your command, they will move in."
"Are you sure they'll do what you think they're doing?" the female figure asked.
"Of course. They will follow my predictions to the letter." The long-haired man grinned slightly. "You have your assignments. You know who our primary target is. Capture her and as many of the other young heroes as you can. Bring them to the plane. Kill the rest."
"And what about the Wolverine?"
"I will keep him occupied."
"But—"
"Silence," the longed haired man interrupted her protest. "You will get your chance soon enough. But you are to locate and secure the primary target. Is that understood?"
She hesitated, but then nodded.
"Good. Get moving, both of you." Silently, the others began to pursue the young heroes. The long-haired man brought up the rear, adjusting his suit and tie and keeping a hand on his sword.
"Ah, Wolverine," he thought, "How will you react when I cut down your latest charges right in front of you?"
Blake kept her ears perked as the group moved down the path, listening for any signs of Logan. While she didn't know much about his past, she did know that he was a highly skilled warrior with decades of war experience. He wasn't going to be easy to get past. That much was obvious.
She wasn't exactly sure about the New Mutants quite yet. While they did seem nice enough, she could tell that a few of them had a lot of emotional baggage. Especially Dani. She could tell that she was haunted by something brutal. Something she didn't want to talk about.
In a way, she could relate. After her experience in Murderwolrd and the flashbacks to her torture at the hands of the Badoon, she had felt more closed off than usual. Yes, Jaune and the others had told her that she could open up to them when she was ready, but she wasn't sure when that would be—or if she would be able to at all.
"Are those real?"
Blake jolted out of her thoughts. "What?" she asked.
"Your ears," Magma repeated. "Are they real?"
"Oh...yeah, they're real."
"So you're a species of cat humans?"
"She's a Faunus," Yang explained. "They are part human, part animal. So they're not all part cat. Our other friend Sun is part monkey, for example."
Amara winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to insult you."
"It's fine," Blake assured her. "You didn't know."
"Can you cut the chatter back there?" Dani called back to them. "We have to stay focused. Logan might be plotting an ambush at any point."
"Uh, Dani?" Sunspot suddenly said as the group came to a stop. "We may have a problem."
Blake looked around the others to see the path was splitting into three directions. One continued north, but the other two branched off to the east and the west.
"Which way?" Jaune asked.
"Obviously we need to go down whatever path has footprints down it," Sunspot pointed out, gesturing down at the snow at their feet.
Dani knelt on the ground. "Sorry, Roberto, but Logan already thought of that. He's left footprints down all these paths."
"Of course he did," Weiss grumbled.
"So, what's the plan, Dani?" Wolfsbane asked.
Dani stood up. "Teams of five," she decided. "We each take a path. Stay in close contact with each other so that when he ambushes us, the rest can come running."
"So much for not splitting up," Jaune commented.
"We don't have much of a choice," Ruby told him. "If we go down the wrong path all together, that will waste time. And if he's set up traps down the wrong paths, we're all going to walk into them."
"I'm glad you agree," Dani told her. "I'll take Magma, Armor, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane with me. Cannonball—"
"Why you take a few of our new friends with you?" Cannonball suggested.
Dani gave him a look, but relented. "Fine. Magma, Armor, you go with Cannonball." She pointed at Weiss and Yang. "You two: Ice Queen and and Emberfist. You're with me. We'll continue heading north."
"Still never agreed to that name," Weiss muttered under her breath.
"All right then," Cannonball said. "I guess I'll take...Red Ranger and Shade and go east."
"Then I guess the rest of us we'll head west," Jaune decided. "Stay in contact. Report anything strange immediately."
"Good luck," Ruby said before she and Blake followed Cannonball down the eastern path. The other teams went down their own ways, and soon enough, vanished within the trees.
Blake kept on high alert, her ears twitching with each slight sound. It would be up to her to listen for any signs of Logan. She would have to be the one to warn them all if—or rather when—he arrived.
"So, your name is Weiss?" Sunspot asked.
Weiss grit her teeth in frustrated annoyance. "Yes."
"But you go by Ice Queen?"
"Not by choice."
"So what exactly can you do, Sunspot?" Yang interjected, seeing the annoyance growing in Weiss' face.
"Weren't you paying attention to Sam?" Sunspot grinned and slicked his hair back slightly. "I can absorb sunlight and turn it into enhanced strength, speed, durability—essentially I get stronger the more sunlight I absorb."
"So you're strong, eh?"
"That's right. And I can tell that you're probably the muscle on your team."
"You could say that."
"Bet I'm stronger."
Yang let out a laugh. "Yeah, right."
"Oh, you think you can take me on?"
She got closer with a daring smirk. "I know I can."
"Maybe after this training is over, we can find out."
Dani suddenly came to a stop. "Watch it," she warned. "Tripwire."
Weiss looked down, just barely making out a thin wire in the middle of the path. "He put traps down too?"
"Just how much time did he spend setting this all up before we even got here?" Sunspot wondered.
Dani looked at Weiss. "Cut the wire," she ordered.
Weiss approached it and drew Myrtenaster. Gently, she moved it down and sliced the wire in half. Instantly, a giant net sprung out of the ground in front of them. Had they not noticed the tripwire, they all would have been caught in it.
"Rahne," Dani ordered. Wolfsbane nodded and instantly transformed into a large wolf, which began sniffing the air, her ears perked up to listen for any signs of approach. The others waited with anticipation.
Eventually, Wolfsbane morphed back into her human form. "I'm smelling something," she announced. "But it's faint...and I don't know if it's Logan."
"Did he call someone else to help for this training?" Yang wondered.
"I don't know. But whoever it is, he's up in the trees up ahead."
Everyone looked up ahead. Weiss squinted, trying to find any sign of whoever Wolfsbane had smelled. But whoever it was, he was doing a great job at hiding. "We'd better call this in," she said.
Yang activated her comm. "Guys...we may have something over here."
Static greeted her. She frowned. "Guys? Ruby? Hello? Are you there?" But no one answered her back.
"Sam? Warlock? Anyone?" Sunspot was also trying to contact his teammates. But like Yang, he wasn't able to reach anyone.
"What are the odds of all our communications being down at once?" Wolfsbane asked.
"Slim." Dani drew her bow. "Something's not right."
Weiss squinted harder at the trees and froze as she saw something that made her blood run cold.
The unmistakable glint of sunlight off a rifle barrel.
"So what exactly is a Phalanx?" Jaune asked.
"Phalanx is a techno organic race roughly 37.5 light years distant," Warlock explained. "Phalanx lives by conquering worlds and assimilating them into the collective."
"Like the Borg in Star Trek?" Nora asked.
"In a way."
"No wonder Yang reacted the way she did," Pyrrha said. "She probably learned about the Phalanx while working with the Guardians of the Galaxy."
"Self does not blame her for reacting that way," Warlock admitted. "Phalanx are warlike and desire only to consume. Self did not want this life, so self fled to Earth. Self was befriended by the New Mutants."
"He became like family to us," Karma agreed. "He became one of us."
"Self hopes to prove self to your friend so that we may become friends," Warlock finished.
"I wouldn't worry too much," Jaune told him. "Yang's really friendly once you get to know her. As long as you don't touch her hair, she probably won't try to beat you into a pulp."
"Query: why would she beat me into a pulp for touching her hair?"
"Uh, well—"
A hand burst out of the snowbank and wrapped around Jaune's ankle. He fell with a yelp as Logan emerged, covered in snow, and threw him straight into Warlock, knocking both to the ground. Moving like lightning, he knocked Karma off to the side before plucking Pyrrha's javelin out of midair when she threw it at him and using it to whack Nora upside the head as she tried to move in with her hammer. He then charged Pyrrha, tossing her javelin aside. She raised her shield to defend herself, but he slid under it, kicking her in the legs and forcing her off balance, which allowed him to flip her onto her back and pin her.
He grinned savagely. "You're dead." He then got off her and reached a hand out to help her up, which she accepted. "All of you are dead," he announced as everyone slowly crawled back to their feet.
"Self is sorry," Warlock apologized. "Self did not pay attention to the surroundings."
"No, it's my fault," Jaune apologized. "I distracted you with questions."
"It aint anybody's fault," Logan interjected. "You just got outplayed. Now, get back to the clearing and—" He suddenly stopped before sniffing the air. His mouth curled into a snarl as he popped his claws out.
"What is it?" Jaune asked.
"Someone's here." He suddenly whirled around and raised his claws in a defensive stance above his head as a man in a red suit and sunglasses jumped from above. His sword clashed against Logan's claws, allowing him to quickly kick the man in the chest. However, he recovered well and landed on his feet.
"Wolverine," he greeted with a sinister smile. "You haven't lost your touch at all. I'm glad. This may actually be a challenging fight."
Logan growled. "Shishido."
"You know this guy?" Jaune asked.
"Tomi Shishido," he explained. "Calls himself Gorgon. He's with Hydra."
"Those guys Ruby fought when she first got here?"
"Ah yes, the little girl in the red cloak who managed to defeat Grim Reaper," Gorgon recalled. "I wonder where she is in these woods...and how easy it will be to defeat her."
"You're a fool for coming here alone, Gorgon," Logan growled.
Gorgon laughed. "Who said I came alone?"
"Alarm!" Warlock's eyes telescoped out from his head as it spun around. "Detecting multiple aircraft approaching from the south."
Logan activated his comms. "Everyone get ready!" he barked. "We're under attack!" But static came from his comm in response.
"Did you really think we wouldn't jam your communications?" Gorgon leveled his katana. "You're cut off from the rest of your kids, and my lieutenants are dealing with them as we speak. There is nowhere for you to run. The only chance you have for survival is to surrender."
"That aint gonna happen, Shishido."
Gorgon smiled evilly. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Blake's ears suddenly twitched as she heard creaking of tree branches above them. "He's here," she announced. "Above us."
Ruby swung around and fired a shot from Crescent Rose at the trees above them. The figure jumped from above, avoiding the shot and landing on the ground behind them.
Instantly, Blake saw that this wasn't Logan. This was a girl that, judging by her size, was about her own age. She was dressed in all black and wore a black mask and a pair of black mirrored goggles over her eyes.
"Uh...that's not Logan," Cannonball said, taking a step back.
As if to cap off that point, the girl held her arms in front of her and, to everyone's surprise, popped out two claws from each hand.
"Something tells me," Blake thought as everyone got into their own fighting stances, "this isn't part of the exercise."
Well, that's not good. A lot of fights about to go down next chapter. But first, some things to talk about for this one.
First off-the New Mutants are here! We actually saw a few of them way back in the Mesmero arc a while back-specifically Armor, Magma, Cannonball, and Warlock. For the other four, I decided to add some more classic members such as Mirage, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, and Karma. I wanted to add Boom Boom in as well due to her slightly chaotic nature (and how she would probably make fast friends with Nora because of that), but with eight characters already on the New Mutants roster, I decided to cut her from the roster. As for where another classic member of the New Mutants is (Magik), well...I'll get into that later on this arc.
Originally, the New Mutants weren't even going to be a part of this arc. But recently, I realized that there are a lot of young heroes in the Marvel Universe, and I decided that the RWBY characters needed some hero friends around their own age. Thus, the New Mutants were added. But Hydra was always going to be the enemy of this arc. I wasn't sure what Hydra characters to use, but then I remembered that Gorgon is a mutant. So he was the perfect candidate to use for this arc. As for his two associates that we saw...they're both probably pretty obvious on who they are, despite me not naming names. But I won't confirm anything until the next chapter.
And yes, I'm aware that Warlock is technically of the Technarchy. But while doing research, the Technarchy and the Phalanx and all of that just seemed really overly complicated. So I'm taking the interpretation that X-Men: The Animated Series used for Warlock by just calling it all Phalanx.
I'm really excited for this arc, partly because of the potential battles at hand, but also who else is going to show up and where this arc is going to eventually go in terms of location. Things are about to get wild, including the fights next chapter that may appear pretty savage. But is what I just said a hint, or is it just a red herring?
But anyway, that's all from me. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, signing off.