A/N: Hello everybody and welcome back! We're on Fridays once again, so that means it's time for another new chapter! Like I said, we're back to being casual this week, so let's get started! This is…

Chapter 106: Playing Catch Up

…..

It was still fairly early in the morning on the island of Patch, and the small port town of Patchwork was just barely starting to see the smallest bit of activity. After all, it was only eight-thirty, so the only ones out would be the true early risers. However, that just so happened to include many of the teens from the Xiao Long household. Many residents of Patch would find themselves rudely awakened on their Saturday morning as Yang rushed by their homes on her motorcycle, with Ben in his usual place on the back of the bike. And many an irked resident made sure to let their grief be known. "Sorry 'bout that!" Yang called back as some senior citizens tossed random objects at them.

Ben popped his head over his girlfriend's shoulder. "Considering your rap sheet, shouldn't you be worried about Sheriff Howlin pulling you over?"

"Psh, nah, he doesn't work the morning shift!" Yang smirked. "And all the cops that do know they can't catch up with me!"

"Heh, right." As they continued to ride through town, with Kevin, Gwen and the rest of Team RWBY behind them in the Osmosian's car while Rex was on his Ride directly next to them, Ben couldn't help but smirk at the memory of what had happened last night. Darkstar was delivered to their doorstep, wrapped up like a gift and with none of his powers to speak of. It was almost too good to be true, but it was! …Still, Ben couldn't help but feel a bit worried about that as well. 'I'd have thought Salem would give Michael a MUCH harsher punishment than just sending him right back to us. Wonder what that could mean…'

Suddenly, Yang jarred him out of his thoughts. "Hey, Green Boy! Somethin' on your mind?"

Ben blinked and looked to her. "How could you tell?"

"Just a feeling. Also, you tightened your grip around me just a bit."

The hero loosened his grip just slightly and sighed to himself. "Sorry, Goldie Locks, it's just… I'm wondering why Salem didn't give Darkstar a worse punishment. You'd think she'd at LEAST have him killed or something."

Yang gave a little shrug. "Well, you've got a point there. Maybe there's a reason why she sent him back to us?"

Ben pondered on that for a few moments before coming up with an answer. "Yeah, maybe… I guess the only way we're gonna find out is if we actually question him for ourselves."

"Sounds like a plan, but that'll have to wait 'til later!" Yang moved Bumblebee toward the right side of the road and pulled up to the curb, right in front of a familiar apartment complex. "'Cause guess what? We're here."

Ben took off his helmet and dismounted Bumblebee as Yang propped the bike up on its kickstand, right as Rex and Kevin came pulling up. The EVO stopped first and flipped in midair as he deactivated his Ride, landing on his feet perfectly before crossing his arms at the Blonde Brawler. "Sheesh, Yang, could you disturb the peace any MORE?"

Yang gave him a toothy grin, raising her hands defensively. "Hey, a bike makes noise. Nothin' I can do about that."

"You could at least slow down." Gwen spoke up as she, Kevin, Ruby, Weiss and Blake all stepped out of the green and black muscle car. "Seriously, I think you went over the speed limit a few times more than necessary."

With a disappointed expression on her face, Yang directed her eyes down with a sigh. "Yeah, I know. I just so rarely get to cut loose on Patch with my bike, and mornings and evenings are probably the only chances I get."

"Even then, you should be more careful, Yang." Weiss argued. "Wouldn't want to chance getting stopped by the chief, right?" She raised her hand and pointed to the front door of the complex. "But how about we talk about this later, huh?"

"Yeah, let's go surprise the guys!" Ruby said as she excitedly made her way toward the door.

The group immediately followed after her and checked in with the teller at the desk, telling her that they were here visiting friends. As they made their way up to the particular apartment, Blake piped up; "Are you guys sure about doing this in person?" the cat girl asked. "I mean, what if they're not even up yet?"

Kevin chuckled at that. "Heh, if they weren't before, they probably are now. Yang made sure of that."

"Bite me, Levin." Yang retorted with a smirk.

"Nah, that's Ben's job." Kevin shot back, making the couple come to a screeching halt. Yang's eyes were the size of saucers while Ben's were the same, only the hero's face had flushed with red in an instant. Rex belted out a laugh all while Weiss and Blake restrained themselves, with Ruby pulling her hood over her head in embarrassment.

"KEVIN!" Ruby shouted. "Seriously?"

Gwen gave her boyfriend a jab to the ribs. "Yeah, Kevin. Not cool."

Kevin weakly laughed while holding his side. "Hehe, worth it."

Yang, however, seemed to take it in stride, her smile returning soon after. "Ah, it's okay, Gwen. I think I may have had that coming. But just to let you know, Kev…" She wrapped an arm around Ben's neck, making him blush even further. "We haven't gotten to THAT base yet. Right, Green Boy?"

Everyone could see the hero sweating profusely as he struggled to get his answer out. "Y-Y-Yeah. Right." He tugged at his collar, hoping to cool off just a little bit. "N-Now could we please move on to something else?"

"Great idea." Rex said before approaching the apartment that was home to the upper classmen and a certain technopath. "And I think we can start by knocking." And the EVO did just that; he knocked on the door and called out; "¡Hola! Coco, Cooper, any of you in there?" When no response came, Rex raised an eyebrow and knocked again, this time a bit harder. "Um, hello? Anyone here?"

Again, no response. Blake crossed her arms and tilted her head. "Like I said, maybe they aren't up yet." Much to the cat girl's bafflement, Rex placed his ear up against the door, making her deadpan. "Really? You know this would look utterly suspicious to anyone else, right?"

"Shh." Rex pointed to the door. "Listen."

The group walked up to Rex and listened close. From the other side of the door, they heard what sounded like muffled voices, making many them even more confused. "Well, I guess we know that they're awake." Ruby figured. "Wonder why they didn't answer the door, though?"

Out of curiosity, Rex tested the knob, which turned immediately. "Huh, well why don't we find out ourselves?"

Weiss furrowed her brows skeptically. "Uh, how about no, Robo-dolt? You have to know it's utterly rude to just barge in without anyone knowing, right?"

"C'mon, Ice Princess, they're right on the other side of this very door." Rex reasoned. "You can't tell me that they didn't hear us knock. Besides, isn't Velvet's hearing off the charts? She MUST have heard it, at least."

Gwen crossed her arms and pursed her lips in contemplation. "Something's not right here. Hang on." She usually didn't like doing this, but given that there was clearly something going on inside of the apartment and no one was answering them, it gave her a reason to be concerned. Gwen's eyes flashed pink and she scanned for their friends' mana, quickly finding all five of them alive and well. She let out a sigh of relief. "Well, they're all okay."

"Great!" Rex said before opening the door. "C'mon let's go…"

But it was then that Gwen noticed something… very noticeable about two of her friends' life energies. Velvet, Fox and Yatsu were all at peace, the three no doubt trying to sleep in a little bit more. But as for the other two, they were in the kitchen… and their energies were far livelier. In fact, they were a bit too lively. Gwen's eyes flashed back to normal and she reached for Weiss' hand on the knob, harshly whispering; "Rex, WAIT!"

But it was too late. Rex had opened the door just a crack… and was instantly gob smacked by what she saw. There, sprawled out against the kitchen counter… were Cooper and Coco. The couple were still in their sleep wear, the latter even without her signature barrette and sunglasses… and they were both furiously making out with each other right on the countertop. They were going right for each other, too, their lips practically locked in one-on-one combat. One of Coco's arms was wrapped securely around Cooper's neck while her other hand was pressed firmly against his chest, all while Cooper's right arm was draped across the small of her back and his other hand supported her by one of her thighs as she draped herself over him. Needless to say, this made everybody red-faced in an instant. Fortunately, the couple's eyes were closed and they hadn't noticed the door open up, allowing Rex to slowly and quietly close the door.

The group stared at one another in shock and embarrassment, with Ruby having retreated to her hood once again. Weiss swallowed and swiped a hand in front of her. "Okay, let us all agree right now that we saw nothing."

"A-Aye, yo acuerdo." Rex agreed, his face utterly beat red. "That is something that I think we can ALL say we didn't need to see."

Yang scoffed and smirked. "Psh, speak for yourself. That was hot as hell."

"Yang!" Gwen yelled in a whisper.

"What? It's true!" The Blonde Brawler nudged her boyfriend in the side. "Green Boy, we'd better get up to their level, don't cha think?" Ben pulled his jacket over his head and zipped it up, turtling himself so that no one could see his utterly flustered face. Yang covered her mouth, holding her giggles back before giving her boyfriend a hug. "I'm kidding, sweetie, I'm kidding! Well… half-kidding, but I'm not gonna force you to rush into anything."

"…Okay." Ben muffled out while slowly returning the hug. "Sorry, it's just stumbling in on that private moment just REALLY threw me off my game."

Blake raised an accusatory brow at a certain EVO. "Hopefully this has taught some of us that barging in on people isn't a good idea."

"…Yeah, lo siento." Rex apologized, hanging his head in disappointment. He received a smack in the back of his head from Weiss, though he didn't argue with her over it. "I deserve that."

Weiss nodded to him. "You're darn right, you do." However, in her head, a stray thought quickly passed through her mind; 'But I really wouldn't mind if WE did that.' Weiss' eyes widened and she mentally slapped herself, her face reddening even more. 'DRAT! I thought it'd be EASIER having admitted my feelings to myself, but now it's just gotten worse!' Her eyes trailed to Rex, taking in his handsome features. 'Face it, Weiss, you've done step one… now step two comes next. …That might be the trickier part.'

It was then that Kevin cleared his throat, garnering everyone's attention. "Ahem, well, now that we've all gotten our wake-up call, I think it's better that we just wait our here until—"

Suddenly, the door opened once again, revealing a red-faced Cooper and Coco on the other side. "Guys!" Everyone jumped up and yelped in surprise, though the couple didn't seem to even flinch. "Morning everyone." Cooper greeted with an utterly goofy grin.

"What brings you around these parts so early?" Coco asked, her legs crossed while leaning up against the door frame. She was visibly trying to regain her breath, her eyes filled with pent up energy.

"C-Cooper! Coco!" Gwen stammered as everyone scrambled to appear as natural as possible. "I-I thought you guys were never going to answer the door!" She let out a nervous chuckle. "Hehe… w-we knocked twice, you know."

The genius and the fashionable girl glanced toward each other as Cooper let out a small chortle. "Heh, yeah, sorry. We…" But then, they both blinked at the sight of a certain hero, his jacket zipped over his head. "Uh… Ben?"

"Yo, watch boy!" Coco snapped her fingers. "What's with the new fashion statement?"

Ben panicked and desperately began unzipping himself, revealing his head soon after. "S-Sorry guys, it's just… kind of cold." He saw Coco giving him a skeptical face, with the addition of an amused smile added onto that. Ben swallowed hard and he decided to change the subject. "So, uh, what were you guys up to while we were knocking?"

With a small laugh, Coco decided to let it go and answer the question. "Heh, yeah, sorry about that. We were going through our usual morning… workout routine when we heard you knock. We were so close to the end that we just wanted to finish up quickly."

'WOW, Coco Puff.' Yang inwardly smirked, immediately picking up on the inuendo. 'Yeah, I bet you two were pretty close to the end, alright.' Nevertheless, the Blonde Brawler smiled and bowed her head. "Hey, no prob. We understand. So, mind if we come in for a bit?"

"Of course, c'mon in." Cooper invited, to which the group all filed in after him.

However, just as Cooper lead the others inside, Coco stretched her arm across the doorway, stopping Yang, Ben, Weiss and Rex in their place. Her amused smirk came back to her face as her chocolate brown eyes made contact with all of theirs. "So… enjoy the show, guys?"

This caused everyone's faces to drain of color immediately, and for Rex to get down on his hand and knees. "I am SO sorry for barging in like that! I-I didn't know you guys were in the middle of a private moment and—"

"Hahaha! Rex, I ain't mad." Coco laughed, much to the quartet's bafflement. "Hell, I didn't even notice you guys until you left."

"S-So… you're not angry?" Weiss asked.

"Nah, I wouldn't have gotten angry unless you actually interrupted our make-out sesh." Coco elaborated. "And even then, I probably only would've been a little peeved."

Ben sighed and wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. "Phew, well, that's a relief. Thanks, Coco."

"No prob… but…" Coco pointed to him and Yang. "Now Tech Head and I have to walk in on YOU guys while you're in a make-out sesh so that we're even."

The Omnitrix bearer's jaw fell open in shock, but surprisingly, Yang gave Coco a shrug. "Eh, guess it's only fair."

"Say WHAT now?!" Ben examined.

Yang smirked and shook Ben by his shoulders. "Ah, c'mon, Green Boy. Fair is fair, am I right?" She gave him a wink as Weiss, Rex and herself began to head inside the apartment. "Now c'mon, we're burning day light."

"I-I don't… ugh." Ben lowered his head in defeat. "I give up."

Coco gave him a pat on the back as he stepped past her. "Ah, don't worry, big man. Just remember this; it's not the first time I've teased you guys like this, and it probably won't be the LAST." She nudged her head toward Yang as they went inside. "Besides, count yourself lucky that you got a gal like her. I certainly would if I had asked her out first."

Ben sighed and nodded to himself. "Heh, yeah, you got a point." But then his eyebrows rose up a bit. "Wait… what did you mean by that last part?" Coco took another glance at Yang, her eyes lingering on the blonde for a bit before giving a knowing wink to Ben in response, clicking her tongue at the same time. This got the heroes' eyes to widen in revelation. "O-Oh…" his cheeks flushed a bit. "I did NOT know that about you."

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Benji."

"So… does that mean Coop knows?"

"Oh, hell yeah, that was one of the first things I told him about me. In fact, we scope out chicks all the time walking down the road together." Ben's eyes nearly bugged out at her reply, which got Coco laughing again. "Oh-ho, god, you crack me up, Tennyson. C'mon, let's head in."

"O-Okay." Ben said before shaking his head. 'Coop, your girlfriend might just kill me.'

By the time they made it inside, everyone saw that Velvet, Fox and Yatsu had all risen from their respective rooms, though they were already in their normal clothes. Velvet saw Ben and Coco coming in and gave the hero a wave. "Morning, Ben! I must say, I wasn't expecting to see you all here this morning."

Ben waved back. "Yeah, well, we decided to swing by to see if you guys were up for some training today."

Yatsu quirked a brow at that. "Oh, of course… but you know you guys could've called over the phone for something like that, right?"

"Well, there's that…" Gwen began as she and Kevin sat down on the couch in the living area. "But there's also the fact that we went through some pretty heavy stuff yesterday and we need to fill you in on a few things."

Fox crossed his arms at that, turning his head in Kevin's direction. "Oh yeah, Kev, I remember hearin' that you, Penny and Ilia all got whisked away by that time traveling professor friend of yours." He gave the Osmosian a skeptical expression. "Are you guys saying you went on another mission without us again?"

Kevin raised his hands up to the blind Hunter. "Hey, in our defense; this whole thing was totally last minute."

"Yeah, sorry guys." Ruby apologized. "We would've loved your help, but I guess Professor Paradox only wanted Kevin and the girls."

Coco rolled her eyes and scoffed a little. "Psh, what? Does he think that just because we're on the beta squad means we can't handle it?"

"Either that or he just didn't think to get you guys." Ben remarked. "Which, agreed, isn't exactly cool, but he hasn't exactly been acquainted with you guys yet either, so there's that."

"Well then, we'll just have to fix that." Cooper said as he finished off a large stack of flapjacks he'd been working on. "Oh, and if any of you guys are hungry, let me know and I'll make some extra."

Weiss grumbled as she clutched her stomach. "No thanks. Nora's kind of pancaked us out, really."

Rex grimaced in agreement. "Yeah, how that girl is able to ingest THAT many pancakes all at once is beyond my understanding." He went over and sat down next to Kevin and Gwen. "But hey, while you guys eat, we'll give you the low-down on what happened yesterday. How's that sound?"

The quintet of roommates agreed and they sat down to eat their breakfast, all while The Alien Trio, Rex and Team RWBY recounted what had occurred in Mistral and at Haven Academy the day before. Team CFVY in particular to hear that Professor Ozpin was back, now reincarnated into a young boy named Oscar Pine. Cooper was as well, though he was more stuck on the fact that reincarnation was even possible. Needless to say, when the group told them all about the Godly Brothers being real and the Relic of Knowledge being in their possession, the team of five were all utterly floored. By the time they wrapped up with Darkstar being delivered to their doorstep for his betrayal of Salem's faction, Cooper and Team CFVY were all staring at them with gaping mouths and widened eyes. "…Damn." Fox muttered. "That's quite the story."

"Yeah… I know this must be a lot to take in." Blake surmised.

"To say the least." Velvet nodded before a smile came to her face. "But congrats to Jaune for unlocking his Semblance! That's great!"

Rex nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he really saved Ren's bacon, that's for sure." He gave Weiss a nudge next to him. "Plus, he gave a certain someone a little boost after she pulled out all the stops against a whole Sphinx."

As Weiss rolled her eyes at him, Coco pumped a fist. "Hell yeah, great job, Weiss-Cream! Can't get any more bad ass than tanking one of those bastards…" Coco wore a confident grin as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. "'Course, if you had invited us, we probably woulda gotten ALL the flying cats in one go, but I guess those Team ABRN guys did a good enough job."

Ruby sent the fashionable girl a cheeky grin. "Someone's still salty…" she sang teasingly.

It was Coco's turn to roll her eyes as Yatsu spoke on their behalf. "We're just happy that you had back-up." The tall swordsman focused in on Ben. "Still, the fact that this "Darkstar" guy was just dropped on your doorstep is a bit disconcerting. Doesn't that mean the villains know where you live?"

"Well, yeah, but really, they've ALWAYS known where we live." Ben reminded. "Darkstar's known since he first sought us out, plus there's Subdora, and Rojo's been here a few times, too. It's probably no surprise that they told Salem. Before, she's never done anything to us to hit us at home…" The hero craned his head down to the coffee table in front of them. "But now that Salem's made her third strike against us, she said she was going to stop holding back…" Ben folded his arms in contemplation. "I'm wondering… if that means she'll come for us here now."

A shiver went up everyone's spines, with Blake hugging her arms close to her. "I hope not. Seeing her in person once is enough for me this week, thank you."

Yang scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't worry about that, Blake. That lady's made it clear that she only leaves her castle for really "important" matters." She pointed out the nearby window. "I doubt she'll consider some island off the coast of Vale important enough for her to make an in-person appearance. I'd expect her to just send her minions here if anything."

"Yeah, maybe." Gwen laced her fingers together in thought. "Still, we can't rule out that Vale's still REALLY vulnerable, and so is Beacon." She moved her eyes back up to the group. "And considering that we're all within the general area of the kingdom, we may have to expect an attack on any front if they decide to come here again."

"Why would they, though?" Fox asked. "They probably know we'd expect them to attack here."

Cooper raised a finger to him. "Well, think of it like this; Vale has three things that are of interest to Salem." He began counting on his fingers. "The Relic of Knowledge, Raven, who's the Spring Maiden, and the Relic of Choice." Cooper jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "And she has Cinder with her, who's the key to getting the relic up at Beacon. That'd be FOUR things off her check list."

"Which is exactly why we've gotta get Raven AND the Relic of Knowledge out of Vale as soon as possible." Ben concurred, raising a brow at Cooper. "Which leads me to ask… is Caesar done putting the Dimensional Doorway on Tetrax's ship yet? I didn't get a good look last night when we dropped off Darkstar."

Cooper shook his head. "Not yet, but he's expected to get it done by this afternoon." The genius smiled as he draped an arm over Coco's shoulder. "Pretty soon, we'll all be headed back home… kind of a lot to take in, really."

Gwen took note of Cooper's eyes scanning across the apartment, along with the rest of Team CFVY as well. "…Guys? Is there something your minds?"

The team eyed each other, with Coco focused right onto her boyfriend. "You wanna tell 'em or should I?"

"Heh, don't worry, I'll tell them." Cooper assured with a peck to her lips. He faced his friends and nodded to them. "Guys, while we ARE gonna be heading back over to Earth with you… we're considering coming back to Remnant after we get all the stuff we wanna do over there done." He could see the visible surprise on their faces as he continued. "See, we've kind of gotten used to living here with each other… and there are still a lot of things up at Beacon that Goodwitch could use our help on. So, I asked Caesar if we could keep the smaller Dimensional Doorway so we could use it, and—"

"I completely understand." Ben spoke up, with everyone else giving Cooper similar reassuring smiles. "I had a feeling you were gonna say that, Coop, and honestly, I couldn't agree more."

Velvet jumped up to her feet in excitement. "You do?!"

"Of course, we do." Gwen nodded. "You five have become as tightly knit as the rest of us, and you've planted yourselves pretty firmly here already."

Yang sent them a small wink. "Just don't forget to visit us over on Earth every once and a while, 'kay?"

"And remember, you still gotta testify at Swift's court hearing." Ruby reminded with a thumbs up. "Just so long as you keep that in mind, we've got no problems."

Coco chuckled and returned the gesture. "Hehe, don't worry, Rubes, we remember. We'll be sure to be there. Besides…" She nudged Cooper's shoulder. "I've still gotta have enough time to leave an impression on Tech Head's folks."

A trickle of sweat came to Cooper's forehead. "Hehe, thanks for reminding me, honey."

"Ah, relax! You're 'rents will LOVE me!" Coco placed her sunglasses on and spread her arms out. "I mean, seriously, what's there NOT to love?"

She and the rest of the room broke out into a series of laughter before it died down, allowing Ben to speak up again. "Well, we'll make sure you guys are well stocked on Earth stuff before you leave. Which reminds me…" Ben quirked a brow in Cooper's direction. "Grandpa told me about your visit… and how you procured my ReBoot DVDs."

Before Cooper could respond, Velvet did it for him. "Oh, yes! I must say, it is quite the interesting show!"

"The animation is a bit… dated, but otherwise, I was thoroughly entertained." Yatsu affirmed.

Fox shrugged his shoulders. "Can't exactly vouch for that, but from what I could hear, it's neat."

"Psh, the show is a LOT like my boyfriend; utterly nerdy." Coco said before hooking her arm around Cooper's. "…And that means I love it, despite how dated the animation is."

Yang furrowed her brows and crossed her arms, giving them all a skeptical face. "Okay, so what IS this "ReBoot" show? I don't think we've been shown anything from IT yet."

Ben raised a hand to her. "Well, you remember Beast Wars: Transformers? ReBoot's actually from the same studio; Mainframe Entertainment. It's about living computer programs that keep the system they live in safe from living viruses who wanna take it over."

Weiss deadpanned at that. "That has to be the NERDIEST thing I've ever heard."

"Yeah, I know." Cooper admitted with a shrug. "But that's exactly why I love it. But get this; it was the FIRST cartoon series to ever fully utilize computer generated animation. It was really groundbreaking at the time." The genius looked at the TV. "In fact… I've still got the DVD in the player. Hey Ben, how long before training starts?"

Ben smiled knowingly. "Oh… not for a little while. You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

Cooper picked up a remote and turned the TV on, booting up the DVD player at the same time. "Oh yeah. Get ready, guys, we're goin' on a trip ALL the way back to 1994!"

"Oh god, help us." Weiss mumbled.

The TV turned on and the intro played, showing a bunch of what appeared to be buildings suspended on floating islands. Suddenly, a voice spoke up; "I come from the Net. Through systems, peoples, and cities…" At that moment, the camera zoomed into a large sphere, taking them through a vortex and to a large city separated into six separate parts. "…to this place; Mainframe." The intro then shifted focus onto a bunch of different individuals, the first being a man with blue skin and silver, dread-like hair. "My format; Gaurdian. To mend and defend." Next came a woman with green skin, red lips and short black hair, as well as a young boy with similar skin and hair color but with a ball cap. "To defend my new found friends… their hopes, and dreams. To defend them from… their enemies." After a close-up shot on a rather threatening robotic being with a massive chin, an epic theme began playing, allowing everyone to see different shots from the show.

"Oh… wow." Blake uttered. "Yeah, this animation is old, even by CG standards."

Kevin nodded at that. "Yeah, but it's still a really good show. Especially when it gets to the third season." He craned his head toward Cooper. "…But I get the feeling you guys haven't made it that far."

"Oh, GOD no." Cooper denied. "We only got through episode eight last night." He gestured toward the TV, focusing in on Team RWBY. "But you girls gotta understand, back in the 90's, this was the shit! My dad used to watch this all the time when he was a teenager."

Ruby gave a small shrug. "Well, in that case, I say let's watch it! What's the harm, right?"

Back on the TV, a large, cube-shaped object that was flashing with power had landed on top of the city, with a slightly foreboding melody playing over it. "They say the User lives outside the Net, and inputs games for pleasure." The camera went back to the main trio; Bob, Dot Matrix, and her little brother, Enzo as the former finished out the into. "No one knows for sure… but I intend to find out!" All three pressed the icons on their uniforms as Bob shouted out; "ReBoot!"

But just as the intro ended, Ben's eyes widened in realization. "Wait… Coop, you said you made it through eight episodes?" He received a nod from the genius… and then both of their eyes widened in realization. It was then that the title of the episode popped up; 'Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from Our Sponsor'. The duo stared at the screen before Ben uttered; "…Cooper, change it to any episode OTHER than this one."

"On it." Cooper agreed hastily.

…..

"I gotta say… it was better than I thought it would be." Blake admitted on the car ride back home. After watching the first two episodes of ReBoot, Coco and Cooper had gotten themselves together and the group made their way back to the Xiao Long abode, ready to get on with their training. The quartet in Kevin's car were discussing what they had just watched, with Blake continuing with; "I mean, hearing that it gets better later on is already a good sign, but I can see how someone could get hooked on this show."

Weiss lolled her head off to the side. "I'll concede; there ARE some moments, even IF the animation is dated. Though I think the villains are some of the best parts of it."

"I KNOW, right?!" Ruby said ecstatically. "I mean, I know we're against villainy and all that stuff, but Megabyte is an amazing villain… and Hexadecimal is unsettlingly creepy. I love it!" The Hooded Huntress pumped her fists. "And hey, I've even got some new sayings out of it." She extended her arms as high as she could and exclaimed; "Alphanumeric!"

Weiss deadpanned and shook her head. "…Yeah, that isn't cool. In fact, I found Enzo to be one of the more annoying parts of the show."

In the front seat, Kevin scoffed. "Psh, just wait until Season 3, Weiss, you'll think otherwise." He gave her a brief glance before going back to the road. "Besides, if you think ENZO is annoying, just wait until we get to Mike TV. THEN you'll really be annoyed. Hehe, Ben spared you guys from getting a full onslaught of Mike already, so be sure to thank him."

Blake furrowed her brows and moved her eyes over to Gwen. "Is he THAT annoying?"

"Unfortunately." Gwen confirmed as the muscle car came to a stop in front of the house. "But we can talk about that later. We're home."

As the group got out of the car and Rex deactivated his Ride once again, Ruby rushed right over to Yang and eagerly asked; "Ooh, ooh! Yang, what's your favorite part of ReBoot so far?"

As she and Ben dismounted her motorcycle, Yang pondered over the question, putting a hand to her chin. "Hmm… I dig Megabyte, I know that… plus the video game stuff, too." She snapped her fingers and brightened up. "Oh! Hack and Slash! Those guys remind me of Hog and Skull SO much and it's hilarious!"

"Haha, yes! I like them too!" Ruby agreed.

As Cooper and Team CFVY exited Coco's roadster, the genius couldn't help but laugh and pat Ruby on the back when he came over. "Heh, I knew you'd get a kick out of ReBoot! But trust me, we may have only had time for the first couple episodes, but it gets even better later." However, it was then that Cooper took notice that there was nothing really going on at the house. In fact… there didn't seem to be anyone there at all. "Uh… where IS everybody?"

"Probably already at the training ground." Gwen revealed. "We told them to go on ahead of us if they were ready. But don't worry, we'll catch up to them pretty quick. Gather up, everyone." The group huddled together and Gwen's eyes lit up as a large, pink sphere appeared around them. "Brace yourselves!" And just like that, the quartet vanished from the front yard, only to reappear inside of the training facility's rec room. "And here we are!"

Coco and Velvet immediately lurched back onto a nearby couch, holding their heads a bit while Fox went into a crouch. Yatsu seemed to get the worst of it, falling onto both of his knees while holding his stomach. "Ugh, jeez, Red, warn a girl when you're gonna do that, alright?" Coco requested.

"Yeah, that was FAR from fun." Velvet piped up.

Gwen wore a guilty face, rubbing the back of her neck. "Oh, sorry! I forgot this would be your first time teleporting."

Cooper placed a hand on Coco's shoulder. "You alright, babe?"

"Yeah, just… a little woozy." Coco said with a pat to his hand. "If anything, I'm more worried about the big guy. Yatsu, how're you holding up?"

"Ugh, the pancakes are churning." Yatsu climbed up onto the nearest chair and began to compose himself. "Give me a minute, would you?"

After a few moments rest, Yatsu's stomach finally settled and the group proceeded toward the back of the training facility, finding no one in the gym. "I had a feeling they're all be in the arenas already." Ben commented as he went to the second set of doors and opened them up, calling out into the big, spacious room; "We're back, guys!"

Almost immediately, Teams JNPR and SN, as well as Penny and Ilia all shifted their attention toward the incoming group, with Athena, Raven and Winter doing the same. Pretty soon, everyone was exchanging greetings with them, Cooper and Team CFVY, with the quintet in particular being quick to congratulate the blonde knight on his recent discovery. "Congratulations on unlocking your Semblance, Jaune!" Velvet said with a brief hug.

Coco gave her usual supportive pat on the back, making the blonde knight stumble forward. "I knew ya had it in ya, Hoodie Knight… somewhere, at least."

"Har-har, very funny." Jaune laughed sarcastically. "Ya know, I think I would've discovered it sooner or later."

"Whatever the case, still sounds like a pretty powerful Semblance." Fox spoke up. "You said it was some sorta… "Aura Amp"?"

Pyrrha gave the blind huntsman a nod. "That is correct." She gestured toward the arena, where there was a rather old and battered refrigerator just sitting in the middle of it. "In fact, we were just about to test its effects on our Semblances… starting with myself."

Ben narrowed his eyes at the fridge. "Uh… guys? Where'd you get THAT hunk of junk?"

"I took a brief excursion to the scrapyard." Raven revealed. "Pyrrha wanted something big and heavy, so I got her the fridge." She received a pair of skeptical faces from Ben and her daughter at her story. "What? It's not stolen if it's junk, right?" Raven turned to Team CFVY with a nod. "Now, would any of you kids like to participate in this little experiment?"

Yatsu quickly declined, holding his hands up while backing toward the bleachers. "N-No thank you. My Semblance is already… temperamental as it is. I don't need something amplifying its effects, thank you."

"Yeah, same." Fox spoke telepathically. "Wouldn't wanna give everyone a major headache or somethin'."

Velvet put a finger to her chin. "Would my semblance even benefit from being boosted in any way? I wouldn't think so…"

Coco placed her hands on her hips. "Heh, well, I'm in if these first few tests go well."

Cooper's eyes widened tremendously at that. "Uh… hon? You sure? Hype might already be uber-powerful enough. If Jaune gave you a boost… you might bring the mountain down."

The fashionable girl craned her head up and winced, the thought of a thousand tons of mountain falling on their heads making her suck air in through her teeth. "Good point. Might be better for outdoor target practice."

However, at that moment, another voice piped up from the stands; "YO!" As it happened, Vernal and Oscar were also there as well, the former giving the group a salute while the boy simply sent a small smile. "Hey guys! Glad you could finally join us." Vernal greeted as she got up, her eyes moving over to Cooper and Team CFVY. The lady bandit gave the quintet the once over and sent Coco a smirk. "Ah, so THESE are the ones you told me about, huh? Hm, they certainly look pretty tough."

Coco lowered her sunglasses and returned the smirk. "Could say the same about yourself, sister." She nudged her head to Vernal's right arm. "Nice ink, by the way. You must be Vernal, right?"

"Sure am. And thanks for the compliment." Vernal pointed back at Coco. "So, you must be Coco…" Her finger trailed across the rest of the team. "…Cooper, Velvet, Fox and Yatsu, right? Yang told me about you guys last night. You seem like a cool bunch."

"We like to think so." Coco crossed her arms with a smirk before noticing Oscar off to the side, making her eyebrows shoot up for a second. "Uh… just a sec, Vernal. We'll be right back…" She ushered Cooper to follow her and the others as they made their way over to Oscar, the farm boy shrinking back as they stepped closer to him. Coco leaned down so that she was face to face with him, her lips parting in astonishment. "…Prof? That really you?"

Oscar blinked and blushed, backing away so that he wasn't so close to the… very attractive girl. "W-Well, y-yes, but at the same time not really." He put a hand to his chest and introduced himself. "M-My name is Oscar… Oscar Pine. The Ozpin you know is… residing inside my head."

"Yeah, we heard." Fox piped up, crossing his arms. "Ben told us somethin' about him fading away with time, though? What's that about?"

"W-Well, he said that when he fades away, that'll be when his soul and mine fully merge. Then I'll be the one and only person in charge again, but his memories will all be my memories as well." Oscar explained. "Does that make any sense?"

"Not really." Cooper shook his head. "But then again, I'm a man of science, so magic doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me anyway."

Velvet tilted her head a bit. "But… didn't Ben also say that you and Ozpin could switch places or something? What's that about?"

Oscar sighed and slumped his shoulders. "Well, I guess there's no getting out of it… Ozpin, they want to speak with you." At that moment, Oscar's eyes flashed and Ozpin took over, the reincarnated man taking out his cane for good measure

"Ah, Team CFVY." Ozpin smiled as his voice echoed, taking the five teens aback. "It's very good to see you all again."

Coco and the others all wore vacant, stunned stares before she slapped her own face, just to make sure she wasn't hearing things. "P-Prof! It really IS you!"

"By the gods." Yatsu put a hand to his head. "This… this is unbelievable."

"And yet, here I am." Ozpin said as he spread his arms out. "Though I don't think you were expecting to ever address me like this."

"To say the VERY least." Velvet affirmed. "This is just so off the wall!"

At that moment, Nora zipped right over and stood in between them all, raising her hands up in exasperation. "Yes, yes, we're all super shocked that Little Cute Boy Ozpin is a thing, now can we PLEASE get on to seeing Jaune practice his Semblance?!" She began bouncing up and down in place. "I wanna see things get demolished already!"

Ozpin gave a chuckle and nodded. "Yes, I suppose we should get today's practice underway. I will be observing from within Oscar's mind, so good luck to everyone." His eyes flashed again and Oscar was switched back in Ozpin's place, the boy shaking his head a little.

"Ugh, okay, I think I might be getting used to it now." the former farmhand commented.

"Good to hear." Raven spoke up, garnering everyone's attention. "Now, if we're all done with the pleasantries, let's get to work, huh? Jaune, Pyrrha, take your positions."

…..

After making the necessary preparations, Jaune and Pyrrha stood together in the arena with the broken fridge, both of them ready to experiment with their Semblances. Pyrrha took a deep breath and faced her boyfriend with a nervous smile. "I'll be honest with you, Jaune, I've never used my Semblance on anything larger than my weapons before." She took a brief glance over at the wrecked fridge. "Do you think I'll be able to lift something like THAT?"

"What? Sure you can!" Jaune supported, putting his arm around his girlfriend. "I mean, you pretty much controlled ALL of those cans pretty well during our food fight with Team RWBY, remember?"

"Yes, but those were all smaller objects." Pyrrha reminded. "This is a really large fridge. Even with your Aura Amp, I might—"

"Pyr." Jaune put a reassuring hand to Pyrrha's shoulder, smiling at her with every ounce of genuine emotion he had. "It'll all be okay. I'm right here with you and I'll help you through it, just like you helped me with my sword play, remember?" He leaned in and gave her a peck on the lips, a smile forming on the Invincible Girl's face. "So, how do you feel now?"

Pyrrha giggled and put her arm around Jaune's neck. "Much better, thank you." She took a brief glance over to their three coaches, with Athena giving them two thumbs up and the biggest smile imaginable. 'Mother, I love you, but dear god, you are sometimes TOO supportive.' Pyrrha gave her mother a thumbs up as well before focusing on the obstacle in front of her, taking a deep breath as she steadied herself. "Alright… let's do this."

Jaune nodded, keeping his hand on her shoulder as she raised her arms toward the fridge. "Alright, I'm gonna start… now." Jaune closed his eyes and focused on his Semblance, a white, ethereal energy beginning to pour right into Pyrrha. In response, Pyrrha's Aura began to glow a brilliant orangey-gold, with a very powerful sensation watching over her.

"Ooh… tingly." Pyrrha said with a slight smirk. "You certainly know how to make a girl feel good, Jaune."

The blonde knight blushed and glanced off to the side. "Okay, as amazing as that compliment is, and thank you, by the way, could we not say that with your mother so close to us?" he whispered.

Another laugh escaped Pyrrha's throat and she nodded. "Right, right, time to focus…" The redhead trained her eyes on the fridge and furrowed her brows at it, focusing intently as she kept her hands raised and focused on her Semblance. All of a sudden, the fridge began to glow with a black aura around it, the large object beginning to skid along the ground just slightly. After a few seconds, the team in the stands gasped in awe as the huge fridge began to hover slightly above the ground, floating up into the air slowly and steadily.

Jaune brightened up and he gave Pyrrha's shoulder a little nudge. "You're doing great, Pyr. Keep it up!"

Pyrrha peeked open an eye to see, only for both eyes to snap open at what she was doing. "It… it worked? It worked!" The Invincible Girl broke into a smile and cheered. "Haha! I cannot believe it worked!"

"Woo! Alright, P-Money!" Yang shouted from the sidelines. "You too, Vomit Boy!"

"Jaune, Pyrrha, good job!" Ren supported.

Nora punched her fist into her open palm with a determined grin. "Okay, now crumple that thing up like it's a piece of paper!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Calm down, Nora. There are still some things I wish to test…" The redhead held up two fingers on her right hand and concentrated her eyes onto the fridge's doors, moving the hand slowly and steadily. As she had hoped, the doors slowly began opening much to her delight. "Oh, this is VERY promising."

Off in the stands, Gwen nodded in agreement. "She's right. With her and Jaune's Semblances combined, they could be quite the force to be reckoned with, especially since most weapons are metal."

Ruby chuckled at that. "Yeah, let's be glad that she's not focusing on any of OUR weapons, right?" Her eyes widened as she went back to the arena. "Woah!"

With all of her attention directed at the fridge, Pyrrha slowly began cupping her hands together… and in response, the fridge began to crumple and flatten like a pancake. By the time she was done, the refrigerator was little more than a piece of scrap. Coco gave out an impressed whistle. "Man, Jaune's got Pyrrha's Semblance jacked all the way up to eleven."

"No kidding!" Sun shouted out. "She flattened that thing with no effort at all!"

"Kinda like how All-Might did in that one MHA episode…" Neptune commented.

"Woo-hoo! Alright, Pyrrha!" Nora shouted out, happy that she got to see a fridge get ruined.

It was then that Pyrrha slowly set the scrapped fridge down, letting out a breath as she did. "Phew, that was… nerve-wracking, yet surprisingly fun to do." She craned her head up and gave her boyfriend a more lingering kiss as he stopped using his Semblance on her. "An excellent test run, my dear."

"Hah, no doubt about it." Jaune winked. "See? I knew you could do it."

"Haha!" The couple snapped their heads up to see Athena clapping her hands supportively for the two, the woman having made her way up onto the arena. "That was brilliant, you two! What an impressive showing!" She made her way over to her daughter. "Dear, the way you focused your Semblance on such a large object was splendid!" Athena then shifted her attention to the blonde knight. "And Jaune, it seems your Semblance has many different uses! I look forward to seeing what happens when you pair up with others."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes a bit before giving her mother a smile. "Thank you, mother."

"Yeah, Athena, thanks." Jaune returned before waving to the crowd. "Alright, who's next?!"

"Ooh-ooh! Me!" Nora shouted enthusiastically as she zipped right up onto the arena, stopping dead in front of Jaune and Pyrrha, flexing her muscles. "I wanna be SUPER zappy-jacked!"

Jaune's pupils dilated to the size of peas. "Uh, Nora? I think you're forgetting that I have to be close to you in order for my Semblance to work."

"Yeah, but you don't have to ACTUALLY be touching me, right?" Nora reminded. "You took your hands off of Ren and you still kept sharing your Aura with him, remember?"

"…Yeah… good point." Jaune grimaced. 'Damn it, guess I'm gonna get shocked after all.'

At that moment, Ben stood up and began making his way off the stands and into the ring. "Ah, don't worry, Jaune. I'll make sure you aren't zapped." The hero pulled himself up onto the arena and went to the Omnitrix, searching for one of his lighting-based aliens. "And even better… I can be the target for Nora to sick herself on."

Nora clapped her hands excitedly. "OOH! Good idea! Make sure whoever you turn into is satisfying for me to hit!"

"Hehe, alright, here goes!" Ben slapped the Omnitrix core down and transformed in a flash of light, becoming a familiar Transylian in a ragged, dark green coat. "FRANKENSTRIKE!"

Up in the stands, Vernal's jaw dropped in surprise. "W-Wait, isn't that the alien that was with Cinder's group yesterday?" She whipped her head over to Gwen as Frankenstrike and Jaune went to work on juicing Nora up, the hyper redhead giggling as she felt her friends using their powers on her. "How many types of aliens can Ben even turn into?"

"Well over a million." the Anodite answered. "Though he only has access to around fifty right now, if I'm not mistaken." However, she then noticed that a certain farm boy was nowhere to be seen, much to her confusion. "Uh, Vernal? Did you see where Oscar went?"

Vernal perked her head up and craned it around, only to not see Oscar anywhere. "Huh, beats me. I thought he was on the other side of the bleachers."

A suspicious feeling rising up in her, Gwen stood up and began walking off the stands. "I should—"

"O-Okay, Nora!" Frankenstrike shouted out, halting the flow of electricity. "I-I think that might be MORE than enough!" However, by the time the Transylian stopped pouring on the juice, Nora's entire body was sparking with pink electricity, even more than yesterday when Rex had done so himself. And that was all thanks to Jaune keeping his Semblance concentrated on her, his hands raised to do so… while also hoping to block any stray attacks that came his way.

Nora herself was giggling like a mad woman, the tingling sensation all over herself giving her endless amusement. "EE-HEEHEEHEE!" she cackled as she gripped her hammer firmly. "Oh, Ben, I don't think I've EVER felt this jacked! Not even REX'S boost from yesterday felt this powerful!" She reared her hammer back as Frankenstrike began to back away, now feeling like he had made a terrible mistake. Nora sent a smirk to her blonde friend behind her. "JAUNE! Whatever you do, do NOT let up on that sweet stuff you're givin' me!"

Under his breath, Jaune whispered; "I'm tempted to say "no"." with a panicked face.

With her smirk still firmly in place, Nora widened her stance to prepare for her strike. "Ready Ben?! Three…"

"N-Nora, wait, I think we can find you a different target!" Frankenstrike pleaded, now immensely regretting his decision.

"Two…"

"Come on, I'll get you some more pancakes!"

"PANCAKES CANNOT SATISFY THIS HUNGER!" Nora bellowed in a surprisingly deep, guttural voice. "ONE!" With that, she shot forward, appearing almost as if a pink bolt of lightning had shot across the battlefield.

"Oh, I am become error." Frankenstrike muttered before feeling the full force of Magnhild slam into his gut, sending him rocketing backward without even the need of an explosive. He was sent spiraling through the air before slamming back-first into the far wall on the other side of the room… which just so happened to be where Oscar was standing. Fortunately, the boy wasn't hit by the massive alien, but he did belt out a rather loud scream, garnering everyone's attention.

"Oscar!" Ruby called out, her hands gripping at her hair in shock.

"Oh no!" Penny exclaimed. "This is NOT sensational." She cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted to him. "Are you alright!?"

Oscar was breathing hard as he stood up, looking over himself to make sure he was unharmed. "I… I'm okay! Just… a bit rattled is all." He brushed himself off before a flash of green light behind him caught his attention.

Inside the wall's new crater, he saw Ben with an absolutely agonized expression on his face, the hero groaning as he slumped forward and onto the floor. "Ugh, not fun."

"Ben!" Nora exclaimed as she, Jaune, Pyrrha and Raven all came jogging over to them, with Yang and Gwen not too far behind. The Pink Dynamo had returned to her normal state, sending a guilty smile down to the hero as Raven and Yang rushed to help him up. "Sorry, I guess there was a lot more "oomph" behind that hit than even I realized."

"Hey, no prob, Nora." Ben assured. "Besides, I'm only a little sore after that. Hehe—ow."

Yang rolled her eyes and began lugging him back to the stands. "Yeah, I think you need a break, Green Boy."

However, it was then that Gwen raised a brow over to Oscar. "And what exactly were you doin' over here, Oscar? You were in a pretty dangerous spot, you know."

Raven zeroed in on the boy with a harsh expression. "She's right, you would have been much safer remaining by the stands with everyone else." The Spring Maiden gestured over toward the massive indentation that Frankenstrike had left. "If Ben had been flown at least one foot further to the right, you could have been crushed."

Oscar hung his head and prodded his fingertips together nervously. "W-Well, you see… I just…" He sighed and let his arms slump to his sides. "I just felt… out of place."

Pyrrha quirked a brow at him. "What do you mean, Oscar? If anything, you could not be more "in the right place" than now."

"Yeah!" Nora put her hands to his shoulders and shook him lightly. "Why so down in the dumps?"

Once she was done shaking him, Oscar shook his head. "Heh, well, I'm glad you guys think so." He craned his head up and met all of their eyes with his, raising his arms up to gesture toward everyone. "But to be honest, I'm probably at the worst disadvantage here out of everyone. I'm younger AND shorter than everyone here, I don't have any combat experience of my own, I can't bring up my Aura by myself, and I don't even have my SEMBLANCE unlocked yet." He took a brief glance at Jaune. "And now… I'm the only one who doesn't."

Jaune put a hand to the back of his head, wincing as the memory of yesterday's training session in Mistral came back to him. "…Yeah. Honestly, Oscar, I had NO idea that I would unlock my Semblance yesterday. But I KNOW that you'll unlock yours eventually too. Your Aura is already unlocked, even if you can't bring it up yourself. What you need is more training, and with us—"

"How do you guys even HANDLE all of this?!" Oscar blurted out, his voice echoing throughout the room, much to everyone's surprise. There was a momentary silence before he continued. "I'm… scared." Oscar admitted. "More scared than I've ever been in my life. More than I ever thought was possible."

It was at that point when a few of the others began to move off the stands. "Oscar, we're all really scared." Blake supported. "When Salem burst into the White Fang's palace in Menagerie, that was one of the most frightening moments of my life."

"Same here." Ilia concurred. "It was like time froze to a standstill. We understand how scared you must be, but you have to remember, we have each other's backs here."

Oscar folded his arms, his head moving back down toward the floor. "I always knew I wanted to be more than just a farmhand, but… this?" He unclipped the cane from his belt and showed it to everyone. "Who would as for this?" He stared at the group with a resolute expression… but a tear escaping his eye belied his true emotions.

Ruby smiled sympathetically and gave him a nod. "Oscar, we all went to Beacon so that we could help, people… but you're right. None of us asked for this either."

"She's right." Ben spoke up, bringing everyone's attention to him as he stood on his own two feet. "And unfortunately, fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing."

Gwen facepalmed and threw her head back. 'Really?'

"I understand your concerns, Oscar." Ben assured. "We ALL do. We're all afraid of what Salem will do next. But that's exactly why we're doing this kind of training; to be ready for whenever that happens." Ben reached over and put a steady hand on the boy's shoulder, only for Oscar to pull it away.

"How can you be so confident?!" Oscar shouted as he got right into Ben's face. "You guys have been fighting Salem's forces for the past THREE weeks! People have tried to KILL you, Salem's three strikes are up and she's gonna stop holding back against you! How are you guys just… so calm about it?!"

Throughout Oscar's rant, Ben remained steadfast, keeping a calm face about him as he let Oscar vent. 'The kid's scared… better to let him get out his frustrations now.' Ben took a small breath and nodded. "Oscar, I know that this is all still very new to you." The hero gestured around to everyone in the room. "It was for everyone else here, too. But they're all here because they want to fight for what's right. Am I right, everyone?" He got an uproarious cheer in response, which Oscar was taken aback by. "And as for the confidence… let's just say that this isn't my first rodeo with people who wanna take over the world."

Oscar rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I know that, but… Ozpin's memories are getting clearer with each passing day. And the things I'm seeing that Salem's capable of… it's horrifying. I'm… seeing them in my nightmares."

"Heh, well join the club. I see my enemies in my nightmares too." Ben grimaced and groaned in disgust. "Try getting back to sleep after seeing Vilgax in your dreams, I dare you." He reached over and this time, Oscar didn't pull his shoulder away. "The point is, I've faced threats like this before. I know that if we work as a team, we'll pull this off. And I know how you must feel about being at a disadvantage compared to us. That's why, until you can properly hold your own in a fight, you'll be on the sidelines, okay?" Oscar craned his head up to face Ben once more. "I promise, you WILL be trained in combat, one way or another."

"And considering you'll be getting Oz's muscle memory when he fully merges into your soul, it will hopefully help the process along." Raven added. "But Ben's right. For now, watch, learn, and when we are ready for you, we will let you know." She narrowed her eyes and went to eye-level with the boy, speaking not to him, but to the person inside. "And Oz, do NOT put any pressure on him. Understand?"

Oscar could hear Ozpin mentally sigh in his head. "Of course, I won't. Dear lord, she's even more irate now than she was when she left."

Oscar glanced off to the side with an irritated expression. 'Be nice.' he scolded before nodding to Raven. "He gets the picture. And I understand, Miss Branwen."

"Very good." Winter piped up, causing everyone's attention to return to her as they all moved back toward the stands. "I'm glad to see such comradery amongst you all. Now, perhaps we can resume training?"

Jaune put a hand behind his head. "Yeah, sure, Winter. But I think I'm gonna take a little break after that whole… you know."

"Of course, Jaune." Winter nodded before gesturing toward her little sister. "In that case, Weiss, would you like to take the stage and try bringing forth your new Summon?"

Weiss' eyes widened in surprise. "R-Really? So soon?" Her eyes moved down toward Myrtenaster, nervously pursing her lips. "I mean, I totally want to, but I haven't even practiced trying to summon it yet."

Winter offered a supportive smile. "Well, what better time to try than now? After all, you've successfully summoned the Arma Gigas many times already. So the next logical step would be to try for something bigger now." She strolled over and brought her sister in for a small side-hug. "And don't forget, I'll be right here to support you, as will everyone else. Think you're up for it?"

After taking a glance around to all of her friends, Weiss smiled and nodded to her sister. "Right! I'm all over it!"

…..

"I am not all over it." Weiss said exasperatedly as she huffed and puffed, a bit of her hair beginning to come undone from her ponytail and fall down the side of her face. The first part was easy; bring forth a new summoning glyph to bring forth the Sphinx. And Weiss had successfully done just that; she had created a rather large glyph with wing-like patterns coming out from the center of the circle.

The difficult part though was getting the Sphinx to come out. She had been… partially successful, as the Sphinx was gazing directly at her. The only problem? It's head, neck, back and wings were the only things that were coming out of the large glyph. The rest of its lower half was stuck unsummoned. "And it's just standing there like a statue!" Weiss added.

"Heh, kinda like in Egypt." Kevin quipped, earning him an elbow from Gwen. "Hey, just sayin'."

"Ah, don't worry, Ice Princess!" Rex reassured as he stepped over and into the arena. "You managed to get the Arma Gigas all the way out, so I have no doubt you'll be able to do the same with the big kitty here!"

Weiss sighed and waved her hand, making the glyph disappear and the Sphinx disperse. "Yeah, I know. Just wish I could've gotten a new Summon on my first try."

"I'm afraid it's never that easy, dear sister." Winter said as she stepped over to the two. "Remember, I never had an easy time summoning Grimm at first, either. And every time I gain a new one to summon, it still takes time for me to get a handle on it." She smiled and gave her sister a hug. "I know you will be able to soon, though. That was a great first attempt for a Grimm that large."

The heiress smiled and returned her sister's embrace. "Thanks, sis. That means a lot." As the hug ended, though, Weiss noticed that Rex was staring off into space with a grin of his own, prompting her to raise an eyebrow at him. "And just what are YOU thinking about?"

Rex's eyes widened and a blush came to his face. "H-Huh? Oh, uh… just thinking how awesome it'll be once you're able to summon that Sphinx! I mean, just imagine about how awesome you'll be when you're riding into battle on the back of that thing! Every enemy on the battlefield will fear you."

Weiss' lips parted in surprise… all while a blush of her own came to her cheeks. She closed her eyes and turned her head away, a slight chortle escaping her lips. "Hm, that's very nice of you to say, Rex. And you're right, it WILL be awesome." She lifted Myrtenaster and sighed. "Once I get the hang of this beast, that is."

The EVO rubbed the back of his head, offering a supportive grin. "I know you will, Weiss."

"Hey!" The duo were pulled out of their little moment when Coco, Fox, Sun and Neptune came strolling onto the field, the four ready for battle. "As sweet as you two are being right now, could we maybe have the field now?" Coco asked with a knowing wink.

"Yeah, no offense, but we didn't come here to see you guys flirting." Fox added. "…Or hearing in my case."

Rex and Weiss' faces flushed even more while Winter wore a smirk, the woman glancing between the two as they tried to brush off Coco and Fox's accusations. "W-What? Who's f-flirting?" Rex asked. "W-We're not flirting." He swallowed nervously as a stray thought entered his mind; 'But… I guess I was trying to.'

"Y-Yeah, SO not flirting." Weiss affirmed before adding in her head; '…But I was considering it.'

Sun rolled his eyes as he pulled Ruyi Jingu Bang off of his back, spinning it around before holding it in both hands. "Whatever you say, guys." He leaned over to Neptune and whispered; "They were SO flirting."

"No doubt, dude." Neptune whispered back as he pulled Tri-Hard out and shifted it into its guandao mode. "Now c'mon, let's rumble!"

Winter nodded as she led the still thoroughly embarrassed Weiss and Rex out of the arena. "Very well, then. We'll make sure to keep an eye on your Aura levels throughout your match. First team to exhaust the other team's Aura is the winner."

From the side-lines, a certain blonde genius began cheering. "WOO! You got this Coco! Show 'em who the REAL boss is!"

Sun and Neptune's eyes bugged out. "Say WHAT?!" they said simultaneously.

A tooth grin came to Coco's face as she raised a two-fingered salute to her boyfriend. "Will do, babe! Save a victory smooch for me!"

Fox shook his head and placed his hands on his hips indignantly. "C'mon, Coop! I know she's you're girlfriend, but no show of support for me?!"

Coco gave her partner a smack on the back. "Ah, don't worry, Fox." She put a hand next to her mouth and whispered; "I'm sure Coop'll save a victory smooch for you too."

"THAT ISN'T WHAT I MEANT!" Fox exploded, leading his partner to burst out laughing.

"Haha! Okay, okay, enough messing around." Coco gripped her handbag and slung it over her shoulder as Fox shook his head and went into a battle stance, readying his Sharp Retribution. "Let's do this thing!"

Sun and Neptune spun their weapons around and went into their own stances, two duo ready for battle. "Gladly!" Sun retorted.

"Very well." Raven affirmed before taking her place between the two teams. "Now, before we get started… are all of your weapons filled with Dust blanks?" The four teens all showed her that they did indeed have blank Dust rounds loaded in their weapons, to which she gave a nod and raised her arm. "Good. Now I want you all to remember; whichever team's Aura level reaches zero first loses, and don't be afraid to hold back. Ready… Set…" She brought her arm down and returned to her the coach's corner, declaring; "Begin!"

The four combatants charged at one another and engaged, with Sun going for Coco while Neptune and Fox squared off. The latter two immediately began clashing their blades together, with Neptune having stabbed Tri-Hard at Fox, only for him to make the thrust rebound with Sharp Retribution. Fox then dipped under the next thrust to get in close, batting the handle of the weapon away so that he could get a punch in at Neptune's right side. A small blast of Fire Dust was let loose, making Neptune stumble back in slight pain. "Ugh! Heh, not bad for a guy who can't see."

Fox smirked back, nudging his chin at Neptune. "And for someone who can, you REALLY need to step up your game."

"Oh, don't worry…" Neptune shifted Tri-Hard into its trident mode and reeled his arm back. "I WILL!" With a mighty thrust of his arm, Neptune sent Tri-Hard flying at Fox before running directly after it. The blind Huntsman balled his fists and delivered an uppercut at the three-bladed weapon, sending it spinning up into the air. However, this provided the perfect opportunity for Neptune to leap up and grab it in midair, flipping over Fox's head all the while. "Made ya look!" With a press of a button, Neptune converted Tri-Hard into its rifle mode and shot off a barrage at Fox, making him cry out as the blasts of lightning made impact.

Fortunately, Fox's aura was able to take most of the damage, leaving him stunned, but unscathed. "Heh, not bad, Vasilias… but let's see how you handle something unexpected." He waited for Neptune to land and come charging at him again, the blue-haired boy shifting Tri-Hard back into its guandao mode. Just as he was about to close the distance, Fox activated his Semblance and shouted; "HEY!" through the open telepathy channel, causing the blue-haired boy to stumble and clutch his head in pain. Just as he fell forward, Fox delivered a swift kick to Neptune's head, making him tumble across the cement floor.

"OW!" Neptune clutched his head as he struggled to pull himself up, sending a slight glare Fox's way. "Hey, what the hell, man?! I thought you said you didn't wanna give anyone a headache!"

"Not unintentionally." Fox explained as he furrowed his brows and shrugged, tapping the side of his head. "Besides, we're allowed to use our Semblances in combat." He said telepathically while tapping his head. "And any advantage I can get is one I'm gonna take. You wanna even the playing field? Then use your own Semblance."

Neptune pursed his lips, craning his head down to the floor. "I… can't."

Fox blinked at that. "You can't? Why?"

"Because we're not in the right environment for it… and even if we were, I wouldn't use it anyway." Neptune picked Tri-Hard up and gripped it in both hands, adding to himself mentally; 'Not after what almost happened.' He returned to a combat stance and pointed his guandao at Fox. "I've gotten this far without using my Semblance, so I can sure as hell keep on going without it!"

On the side-lines, Ruby's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait… that's right! Neptune hasn't used his Semblance!" She whipped her head over to Blake inquisitively, hoping that the cat girl's connections would be able to hold the answer. "Blake, do you know why?"

"Yeah, you seem pretty tight with the rest of Team SSSN." Yang pointed out. "Any ideas?"

Blake shook her head. "Not really, no. None of the boys have told me why Neptune refuses to use his Semblance… not even Sun." She narrowed her eyes at the blue-haired boy, putting a hand to her chin. "But… if I were a betting woman, I'd say it might have something to do with his fear of water…"

Back on the field, Fox smirked and raised his fists, popping a few joints in his neck to ready himself for the next round. "You know what, Neptune? I can respect that. From here on, let's do thing the old-fashioned way, huh?"

Neptune returned the grin eagerly. "Thanks… but I don't think it matters. I'm STILL gonna kick your ass!"

As the duo went back to their fight, the battle between Sun and Coco on the other side of the arena was getting quite heated. The monkey boy kept spinning, swinging and stabbing his bo staff at Coco with relative ease, but the fashionable girl kept bobbing and weaving away from the strikes. It was almost like she was dancing around Sun's attacks, to which the blonde Faunus couldn't help but smirk at. "Man, Coco, you've got some moves!"

"Same to you, Monkey Boy!" Coco said as she performed a backflip, landing on both feet seamlessly. When she did, though, she pressed a button on her handbag and Gianduja transformed into its rotary cannon mode, making Sun's eyes widen. "Now dance for me!" With a pull of the trigger, Coco unleashed her firepower at Sun, to which he began spinning his staff quickly to deflect the shots.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Sun shouted. "C'mon, this is just supposed to be practice!"

"Hey, I made sure to load blanks into my baby, remember?!" Coco retorted. "What do I look like, a psychopath?!"

"Eh… good point." Sun admitted before jumping high up into the air and over the incoming fire. "But that won't be enough to save you!" He pulled Ruyi and Jingu Bang apart, wielding the two gun-chucks as he came falling down right toward Coco. He swung both down at Gianduja, firing off a blast of Fire Dust all the while. This forced Coco to stumble, causing her aim to go off-course and blast into the ground instead. She was about to shift Gianduja back into its handbag mode, but a quick swing to the face from Sun's gun-chucks made her stagger back and lose her grip on her weapon entirely, while also knocking her sunglasses off her face.

"Coco!" Cooper shouted from the sidelines as the fashionista landed in a heap on the floor.

However, the barrette-wearing girl was able to pick herself up just in time before Sun could jump onto her back, his weapons hitting the arena instead. She rolled into a crouch and gave Cooper a thumbs up. "It's alright, Tech Head! I'm all good!" Her eyes scanned the floor and she found her sunglasses, giving Sun a small glare as she did. "But I can tell ya someone who AIN'T gonna be pretty soon."

"Hey, don't take it personally, Coco." Sun shrugged before pointing up toward Blake up in the stands. "You're not the only one with a special someone in your corner." He sent Blake a wink, which the cat girl rolled her eyes at… and then returned.

Coco smiled and gave Sun a nod. "You certainly have a very fine lady in your corner, Monkey Boy. But I ain't about to go down so easy!" With that, Coco sprinted forward, dead set on getting past Sun and back to her weapon.

Sun put his weapons back together in their bo-staff mode, spinning it around before sitting on the floor cross-legged. "Good to hear, 'cause I ain't either!" He began meditating and his hair started to glow, his Semblance activating in a split second. A couple of Via Sun clones emerged from his body and began charging right for Coco, though the leader of team CFVY didn't put on the breaks, much to everyone's confusion.

"Coco, what are you doing?!" Velvet cried out.

"Get out of there before they explode!" Yatsu added.

But Coco didn't slow down, instead keeping a determined face about her as she continued forward. "Heh, I knew he'd try something like that." One of the Via Sun clones made to lunge for her… but Coco batted it away with an impressive roundhouse kick to the chest, making it fall to her right side. She then took the other one's arm and flipped it over her shoulder, slamming it onto the other Via Sun clone before continuing toward Sun himself.

"Haha! That's my girl!" Cooper cheered.

"Sun, watch out!" Blake warned. But it was too late. By the time Sun had opened his eyes, Coco was directly in front of him and had kneed him right in the face, sending him sprawling across the floor. Blake winced and shut her eyes. "Ooh, that didn't look good."

Sun struggled to his feet as Coco grabbed Gianduja and shifted it into its handbag mode, gripping the leather strap tightly in her fist. "Hey Monkey Boy!" Her opponent barely had time to mutter out a; "huh?" before Coco reared her arm back. "Incoming!" With a mighty swing, Coco hit Sun straight across the jaw, making the monkey Faunus sail backward… for a good fifty feet over the arena's edge and toward the room's entrance. Coco's eyebrows snapped up. "Oh god, too much!"

Blake shot up out of her seat the moment she saw Sun fly back toward the door. "SUN! Hang on, I'm—"

But, just a few moments before Sun could make impact with the door… it opened up, and a large hand shot up and caught Sun by the collar of his shirt. The room was stunned into silence for a moment as Raven halted the match, with everyone's eyes going right toward the room's entrance. There, a familiar figure was standing tall as he held Sun in one of his large hands, his signature purple coat being the first thing that everyone noticed. Blake didn't know whether to be overjoyed, or afraid for her boyfriend at that moment. After his eyes scanned Sun's nervous face, Ghira's eyes went up to the crowd. "And just what in the world is going on in here?"

From behind Ghira, Kali emerged and her eyes widened at the sight of Sun in her husband's grasp. "Ooh, great catch, dear!"

"D-Dad!" Blake exclaimed, stepping down from the bleachers with everyone else. "You're here!"

Ghira smiled at the sight of his daughter and her friends approaching. "Blake! So good to see you…" He directed a more judgmental gaze down toward Sun. "Not sure if I could say the same for you, though, boy."

Kali gave him a light smack on the arm. "Oh, come on, dear, be nice."

Sun let out an apprehensive laugh. "Hehehe, h-hi, Mr. B!" he waved. "Wasn't expecting you to be the one to catch me."

"Hm." Ghira mused before promptly dropping Sun onto his rear. "And just how is it that you were sent flying in the first place, Sun?"

"That'd be my fault, Mr. B." Coco saluted as she and the others approached. "We were sparrin' in the ring and I kinda got a bit overzealous." The fashionista presented her handbag. "I went for a hit with my weapon and I sent him flyin' back a bit more than I thought I would."

"Which, by the way, was still pretty awesome." Cooper reminded with a kiss to her cheek. "Nice hit, babe."

Sun stood up and rubbed the back of his head as Blake came over to them. "Heh, yeah, Mr. B, it was all practice. That said, I… took a pretty hard hit if I do say so myself, and I'm still standin'!"

"Hm, yes…" Ghira crossed his arms and eyed Sun again with a raised brow. "But you're also telling me you were sent sailing… by a girl's handbag."

"Dad! Seriously?" Blake questioned. "You KNOW there's more to that!"

"She's right, Ghira. When you say it like how you did, it does sound pathetic." Everyone's eyebrows snapped up at the addition of another new voice, with Ghira turning around to address it. From behind him, Sienna Khan emerged into the room, the tiger lady in her full formal White Fang garb. She placed her hands on her hips and gestured to Coco. "But give the boy some credit, that is no ordinary handbag."

"M-Miss Khan!" Ilia exclaimed before lowering her head to the White Fang High Leader. "It's so good to see you again."

Sienna smiled at the sight of the chameleon girl and stepped over to her, placing a hand on her chin to lift her head to her. "Rise, Ilia. No need to be so formal, especially seeing as you're not part of the White Fang anymore."

"I… I suppose not." Ilia said with a sheepish smile. "But still, it's good to see you here, Sienna."

Upon seeing the White Fang leader, Ben's face became pale and he quickly hid behind Yang. "Hide me please."

Yang rolled her eyes and side-stepped, robbing Ben of his hiding place. "Green Boy, relax. It's not like Sienna's just gonna notice you and come over to us instantly—"

But in the blink of an eye, Yang was proven wrong. From seemingly nowhere, Sienna had appeared directly next to them, almost as if she had snuck over without a sound. "Why hello, Benjamin."

"GYAH-HA-HA!" Ben shot up and yelped, making Yang recoil at both the suddenness of Sienna's appearance and her boyfriend's freak-out. "S-Sienna!" The hero was beginning to visibly sweat under the tiger woman's gaze, her eyes focused directly on him. "H-How've you been? It's been a while, huh?"

"Indeed, it has." Sienna nodded. "And you're looking quite well yourself. Tell me, have the scars I've given you healed yet?"

Ben cleared his throat and collected himself. "Y-Yeah, almost. In fact, they've blended themselves in pretty well with all of the other scars on me."

This perked Sienna's interest. "Ah, interesting. Other rewards from previous battles? You must be proud of them." It was then that she took notice of Ben's very uncomfortable expression, which she crossed her arms at. "Ben, are you… nervous about me being here?"

"HAHAHA! W-What?! No, no! What would give you THAT idea?" Ben's left eye twitched, his signature tell to indicate that he was lying.

Yang shifted her eyes over to Sienna with a deadpan face. "He thinks you're gonna skin him alive after Rath pissed you off."

It was Sienna's turn to laugh this time, waving her hand in Ben's direction. "Hahaha! Oh, please, Benjamin. I think you got the wrong idea about what I said." Ben stared at her dumbfoundedly for a moment as she put a sharpened nail underneath his chin. "My problem isn't with you specifically. It's with that annoying beast of a transformation. So long as you don't transform into Rath anywhere near me, then we're fine."

"We… we are?" Ben muttered.

"Of course." Sienna nodded, taking her finger away. "You won my respect in combat, after all." A devious smile came to her face. "Plus, I would hate to rob your mate of a face such as yours."

"M-Mate?!" Ben blushed.

Yang crossed her arms and pursed her lips at the High Leader. "Man, way to be subtle, Sienna."

The tiger woman waved her hand to them. "Oh, come now, I'm simply jesting. Now, Ghira and I have heard from Kali and the others that quite a few things have gone on since we last encountered you…"

Ghira perked up and extended a hand. "Yes, and we'd like to hear more about that. Care to elaborate?"

The whole group eyed one another with similarly apprehensive gazes before Blake sighed. "You two… might wanna mentally prepare yourselves."

…..

After moving the conversation into the rec room, where there was thankfully just enough space for everyone to stand or sit comfortably, the teens and Raven began recounting the events of the day before to Ghira and Sienna, all while Athena and Winter listened again in silence, having heard all of it before. Kali, sitting in between the two other adult Faunus, put a soothing hand over her husband's own at the sight of the utter bafflement on his face. "Sweetheart, is this all making sense to you?"

"Y-Yes, it's just that… it's all so unbelievable." Ghira shook his head and lowered it toward the floor. "The gods being real, a different humanity having existed long before us…" His eyes moved up and found Oscar in the sea of teenagers, making the boy flinch a bit. "And a man who can reincarnate into other people. It all sounds so… preposterous, but at the same time, I know that it has to be true."

Oscar put a hand to the back of his head. "Uh… well, I—" Suddenly, his eyes flashed and Ozpin took over, giving Ghira a bow.

"I know that this must be a lot to take in, Mr. Belladonna." Ozpin recognized. "But I assure you that it is all completely true."

Over to the side, Gwen and a few others shot Ozpin a skeptical look. 'Yeah… we'll see how truthful you're being real soon…'

Ghira and Sienna stared on in astonishment before the former cleared his throat. "Ahem, um, you're Professor Ozpin… correct?"

"Indeed." Ozpin smiled. "And it's a pleasure to have met both you and your wife, Mr. Belladonna."

Kali smirked and let out a small laugh. "Well, if this isn't one of the stranger parent-teacher conferences we've had?"

"Seriously, mom?" Blake deadpanned. "We're not talking about my grades or anything."

"She's right." Sienna said as she stood up from the couch, her eyes squarely focused on Ozpin. "This is a very serious matter, and as such, I have a question for you, Ozpin." The reincarnated man nodded to her, ushering the tiger woman to continue. "Just why did the gods give YOU the job of stopping Salem if you failed the first time? If I were a deity and a mortal had failed me, I'd snuff them right on the spot."

Ozpin gave out a hollow chuckle. "Hmph, well, I certainly can't blame you for thinking that. But to make a long story short, they tasked me with this as a punishment for not being able to stop Salem in the first place." He placed a hand to his chest. "But, as you can see… things haven't been all that successful for me."

"That's putting it mildly, having the body of a child." Sienna remarked. "But I suppose your answer makes sense."

"I'm glad to hear that, Miss Khan. Now, if you'll excuse me…" Ozpin's eyes flashed again, returning Oscar back to his rightful place.

The farm boy rubbed his head and rolled his eyes. "Could you give me ANY kind of warning?! Like, at all?"

It was then that Ilia cleared her throat, catching the others' attention. "So, Sienna, we heard yesterday that you and Ghira are going to be co-leading the new White Fang?"

Sienna nodded to the chameleon girl. "That's right. After a long and much-needed conversation, Ghira and I came to the conclusion that neither being too peaceful or too violent is going to bring about peace between humans and Faunus." She placed her hands on her hips with a determined grin. "So instead, we've decided to go in an entirely new direction."

"Correct." Ghira said as he stood up. "While activism for Faunus rights WILL still be the main focal point of the new White Fang, we'll also function as a coalition for defending innocent people, both human and Faunus alike."

Ben grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Now you're speakin' my language! You guys would be like a special force of freedom fighters who ACTUALLY fight!"

Ghira chuckled and nodded. "Hehe, exactly. And what's better is that General Ironwood has already agreed to support us, which came as a relief." He settled a hand to Kali's shoulder. "And what's better is that we've already found some willing recruits to our cause, both new and old."

"And the ones loyal to Adam?" Blake asked. "What about them?"

"We've been working hard to take care of them." Sienna assured. "It hasn't been easy, but we've already found many."

Kali's face fell slightly. "We've had to perform some… interrogation in order to find them, but we found many, nonetheless." She winced at the next part. "And whenever we'd find them out… sometimes, they would attack us in a desperate attempt at freedom."

Penny gave out a gasp. "Oh dear! I hope none of you were hurt!"

Ghira raised a reassuring hand. "Oh, don't worry, none of us were injured. If anything, it was the betrayers who were the most injured." A smile appeared on his face as he craned his head toward his daughter. "In any case, we're almost ready to make our mission statement known to the world. All we need is our new symbol… which I hear you, Ilia and Kali made with Kevin's help."

Blake gave out a laugh while Ben and Gwen's faces became visibly concerned. "That we did. And I think you're gonna like it, dad." She directed her attention over to her mother. "You've got it ready, right mom?"

"I sure do!" Kali said before producing a special scroll from her sleeve, one that was much larger than the ones that the teens carried with them. "We spent a good portion of last night finalizing the design of it, and I think you and Sienna will like what you see, dear."

Ghira and Sienna both smiled eagerly. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see it!"

"Uh, just one moment." Ben halted before pulling Kevin, Kali, Ilia, and Blake all into a huddle, whispering to them; "Okay, I know you guys took some inspiration from SOMETHING copyrighted from our world. I just wanna make sure you made an appropriate amount of change to it just in case…"

The Osmosian and three Faunus women all smiled at each other before Kali opened the large scroll, allowing Ben to see the design in full. "You tell me, Ben."

Ben's eyebrows rose up and his lips slowly curled up into a grin. "Oh… you used THAT. Okay, that IS passable!" He clapped his hands and raised them up high, garnering everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, it is our pleasure to present to you, courtesy of my friends Blake, Ilia, Kevin, and of course the lovely Mrs. Belladonna… the new White Fang logo!"

Kali presented the design, and almost immediately, the reaction was positive, with everyone giving out sounds of awe at it while Gwen and Rex's jaws dropped. The design resembled a combination of both Ghira and Kali's White Fang flags, with a ring around the outside of the feline head while three slashes were going through it. However, the slashes were much less ragged, instead presenting three clean slashes behind the feline head, colored in a bright silver along with the ring.

But all focus was directed onto the feline head itself, which was also colored silver while the area inside of the ring was a gleaming gold. Aside from facing toward the right, the new head wasn't like the last two, which more resembled that of an actual big cat's head. Rather, this one was much more stylized, with clean curves and sharp edges. Instead of its mouth remaining closed, its mouth was wide open in a big curve and it had two big teeth at the front, one on its lower jaw and a larger one on its upper jaw. Along the inside of its mouth were more teeth, about four on each jaw that curved in the same direction as the larger sets, becoming smaller as they went further back. Its eye was widened a slit that had a cat-like iris in the middle of them, and its ears were folded back as it roared. There appeared to be a tuft of hair on its lower jaw that was curved back and ended in a point, and the tip of its nose could clearly be seen. The rest of the flag surrounding the logo was a dark black, contrasting against the silver and gold quite nicely.

"So… what do you think!?" Ilia asked eagerly.

"No need to answer, actually." Kevin said with a cocky grin. "We know that it's awesome already."

Sienna wore an impressed smile as she took a closer look at what would be the new flag. "Ooh, VERY impressive! I love how dynamic this is. It's so… powerful."

"While also not appearing to be too threatening." Ghira added as he pointed to the new symbol. "I especially how you fused mine and Sienna's symbols together like this. I absolutely am ALL for this for out new flag." He turned to the teens and gestured to the scroll, hoping to hear their opinion on it. "Well, kids? What do you think?!" A cheer erupted throughout the whole room, with Vernal, Gwen and Rex being the only exceptions while Athena, Raven and Winter settled for approving nods.

"Heh, yeah, it's pretty cool…" Vernal said before taking note of Gwen and Rex still stunned speechless. "Uh… guys? You okay over there?"

"That… that…" Rex uttered before his arm snapped up to the new White Fang symbol. "That's the THUNDERCATS LOGO!"

Ghira, Sienna and the rest of the teens all shared a confused glance while Kevin, Kali, Blake and Ilia didn't flinch in the slightest. "That's right!" Kevin nodded. "We used the Thundercats logo as inspiration for the new White Fang icon! You're welcome!"

"Kevin Ethan Levin… as much as I like the idea… you are REALLY pushing it with the changes you made to try and avoid getting into trouble." Gwen went over and gave a scrutinizing gaze toward the new logo. "I mean… is this even enough of a change?"

"Of course it is!" Kevin said as he put a thumb to his chest. "Remember who you're talkin' to here."

"He's got a point, Gwen." Ben agreed. "If there's anyone who can avoid getting into inter-universal legal trouble, it's Kevin. Besides, I actually think it's good enough to get by."

Suddenly, Sienna came up and raised her arms, getting in between the gathered teens. "Hold on, hold ON." Once she was sure she had their attention, Sienna asked; "First off, what the HELL is a Thundercat? And secondly…" She pointed to the White Fang symbol. "Are you saying that this symbol already belongs to something?"

Weiss' brows furrowed skeptically. "Yeah, what IS going on here?"

"Okay, let me to explain, Ice Princess." Rex spoke up, raising his hands up to the White Fang logo. "See, Thundercats was an old cartoon from back in the 1980's on Earth, which basically surrounded a group of anthropomorphic alien cat people who fought the forces of evil in a futuristic fantasy world." He tapped his finger right up to the scroll's screen. "And that's probably why Kevin chose to take inspiration from their logo for your new flag. Because now that I think about it, both symbols really DO have a lot in common. But man, THIS logo has really taken some heavy inspiration from the Thundercat's own."

Ghira and Sienna looked at each other, back at the logo, and then to the earthlings. "So… can we not use it?" Ghira inquired. "Even after you said that it was changed significantly enough?"

Gwen sucked in a sharp breath of air as her eyes snapped between the logo and them. "Well… I think you can. I mean, it HAS been changed pretty well enough." She scratched the back of her head in frustration. "Ugh, I just really hope Mattel won't to sue us if the White Fang ever come to our world."

From the crowd of teens, Coco came up and pat Gwen on the back. "Aw, don't worry, Red. Just remember; getting sued isn't the WORST thing that can happen to ya!"

"No, you're right… but it's up there." Gwen pointed upward for emphasis.

Sienna placed her hands on her hips, her eyes going back to the White Fang's new symbol. "Well, I'm glad, because that will be our new symbol, like it or not." The tiger woman craned her head back to Gwen. "After all, I already told Ironwood that we would be presenting the new flag design there, so it has to be locked in."

Gwen sighed and waved her hand to Sienna. "Yeah, it's fine. Go ahead and use it. If anything, I also actually REALLY like the design."

"Happy to hear it." Winter pipped up, bringing everyone's attention to her as she pointed back toward the gym doors. "Now, what say we return to our training? After all, the first battle has still gone undecided."

Sun smacked his forehead. "D'oh! That's right! We never finished our match!" The monkey boy quickly got up, ushering for everyone else to follow him. "C'mon guys, let's get back to it!"

"Gladly!" Coco grinned mischievously. "Because now I'll get the satisfaction of ACTUALLY beating you!"

As the teens began filing back through the gym and into the arena room, Blake set her eyes back onto her parents and Sienna, nudging her head toward where she was going. "You guys wanna come in and spectate for a while? Things were just getting into full swing before you arrived."

The three feline Faunus smiled to Blake and Ghira gave her a nod. "Of course, dear. We'd be happy to." His eyes then went to Sun and he narrowed his gaze at him. "Besides, this will finally give me the chance to see just how good the boy is at defending himself… and by proxy, you."

"Dad!" "Ghira!" Both Blake and Kali shouted simultaneously.

Sienna smirked as she strolled past the Belladonna family. "Hehe, big papa cat is in the dog house…" she sang with a small chuckle.

As the little familial squabble took place, however, Ben had noticed the serious expression that had overcome Gwen's face. He saw that his cousin was zeroed in straight onto Oscar, almost as if she were contemplating something. Ben tapped her shoulder and brought her out of her trance, bringing her focus to him instead. "Hey, Gwen, you doin' alright?" he asked. "You were giving Oscar a bit of the stink-eye there."

"O-Oh, sorry, Ben." Gwen apologized. "Honestly, I wasn't Oscar who I was directing it to…" She shifted her eyes left and right before hushing her voice to a whisper. "Listen, when we get back to the house later on… I think it's time we confront Ozpin about you-know-what."

Ben blinked before nodding to her, his brows furrowing slightly. "You're right." he whispered back. "It's time to see just what ol' Oz is hiding from us..."

…..

A/N: And thus, we come to the end of another casual chapter, ladies and gents, but as hinted at the end, next chapter will be something MUCH more story-focused. That said, we've seen the return of Cooper and Team CFVY once again and they've been effectively filled in on what's going on. Heck, they even had a reunion with Ozpin! And what's more, Cooper has given both Team CFVY and Team RWBY their first taste of a truly classic show; ReBoot! Admittedly, yes, the animation is truly jank compared to what we have today, but the fact that Tony Jay plays the main villain, Megabyte, just overrides that fact. And there's honestly a LOT of other stuff that makes ReBoot a great show, but you don't have to take my word for it. The series is VERY easy to find, so I recommend that you all check it out for yourselves! But of course, that's not the only thing that happened today. We saw Jaune practicing on using his Semblance on others and Weiss trying to summon her new Sphinx… with mixed results. We also had Oscar having a similar freak-out to the one he had in Volume 5, and we have the return of Ghira and Sienna into the picture! And yes, to those of you who guessed it, you guessed right. The inspiration for the new White Fang symbol WAS the Thundercats logo. I mean, how could it NOT have been? Of course, there were a few liberties taken with the design to try and differentiate it a bit, but in the end, it's still basically the Thundercats logo.

Alright, so NEXT TIME! We'll be shifting our focus between heroes and villains as we take a bit of an excursion back to the Land of Darkness, where Cinder and Neo have acquired some new clothes, though Rojo has been tasked with something she finds impossible to do. We'll also be checking in on Lionheart's condition, seeing as he's been put through some harsh things with being interrogated. Plus, Animo and Watts have successfully finished their next batch of mutagen… and you know what that means! Time for more mutants! Back on Patch, though, Gwen, Ben and the others confronting Ozpin about the voice within the Relic of Knowledge… and the results are rather interesting. After all, Gwen has never had a friend… like her. Thanks for reading guys and I'll see you all next time! Stay safe out there!