Remnants of Madness

[Jackson D. Holic]

AN:

Amvmaster: Literally no point putting this here but hey if you wanna know I decided to have another go and rewrite an old fic of mine and well TBH I think I like how this one came out better than the old one.

Please note this is based on the Project Nexus Arena Mode not the actual Campaign itself.

Here is a word from my friend/beta reader.

Jericho: yes, I'm here of my own free will, no there's no gun to my head?! oh, hi I'm Jericho the editor for this shitshow

Amvmaster: You ain't editing shit!

Jericho: Not directly!

Amvmaster: I am… I'm not touching this now, enjoy reading!

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Prologue

I don't even remember how it all happened.

All I knew is that I was playing a game, I got to the last real mission and then… My screen just went black and so did my vision.

Next thing I knew I was on a bus and I quickly noted that I was in my game, how could I tell?

Well how else would you explain the Masked mohawk scientist 2Bdamned sitting across from you explaining shit in the back of a bus?

I looked out the bus's window and my eyes widened as the scenery from the near desolate city covered in a various only colour filled neon signs to the near black skyline but I could clearly see the near reminiscent of red.

Oh no, this can't be, no no no, shit shit shit, I felt myself hyperventilate in shock, the only thing that pulled me back was 2B's voice telling me to breathe.

I couldn't understand a single thing he said. But quickly as I felt myself lose myself I placed my hands over my eyes and took four seconds to breathe in, holding it for another second I let out a small sigh, my mind was a mess, but I began to grasp what was going on.

…

…

…

Next thing I know I'm beating some homeless people to death with a flashlight then it all became a blur from there.

It was a bloodbath after the other, I twisted someone's neck one second god that fucking pop sound isn't going to leave me for a while and then I was shoving whatever was left of my broken weapon into another person's trachea something about having someone's blood shooting into your face is rather… disturbing.

And then I died.

…

…

…

It was good that it was quick, but fuck me it was jarring to suddenly wake up in the middle of a tube of this watery green goop, I found it was weird it tasted like apple crumble. But then I started to get more… acquainted with the idea of going through a mission, being stabbed and bleeding out only to suddenly wake up back in the tube.

It was a weird thing to get used to, first pain and then nothing and then apple crumble tube water.

But with it came a sense of irritation, like my life had now turned from a fear filled mess to a never ending death filled circus having me as the ringleader that conducted a rather visceral experience of death.

Soon my apple crumple tube water episodes became less as time progressed and I found myself getting better and better at becoming more finely tuned to become a walking talking death machine.

My adventure through the desolate world of Nevada had me visit multiple sceneries from an oil platform in the middle of a lava lake to a haunted house.

With these new places came their own assortment of differing enemies.

There were Zombie's, crazy Abominations, the occasional crazed agents/lunatics and fucking Ghosts!… How? I don't know I just gave up when I wound up on a TV show dedicated to killing their contestant's and showing off the many plethora of deranged executions that came along with it, all in the name of Entertainment.

It was… a roller coaster of ups and most painful, very painful downs that had me wondering if this was really worth it.

But then I was finally given my own room and with it the uncertain answer that I was not so sure I was truly looking for.

It was a big ole room, more like a giant penthouse you would see in Apartment buildings, but unlike the usual ones you would or what I have seen before where everything was luxurious, this place was bare minimum functional and practical, quite like the rest of the building and its contents.

On a side room that held the bathroom I quickly moved over wishing to get myself the much needed shower I had been dying for seeing as I had finished a mission on a train and I was rather sticky to say the least, but before I really jumped into my shower I paused and took a look at the mirror I had inside.

It was very rare that I found myself looking at my reflection, every other time I was either displeased with the new weight I had gained or the newest sweat pimple that had appeared on my shin, but unlike all the other times where I was more content with myself this seemed to be the one time I didn't like what I saw.

It had probably been the third time I looked at myself in the mirror while I was in this world and what I saw shook me, it was like I had been replaced entirely my expression had been the same as I always had a resting bitch face but looking at it more closely it was like my own soul had been sucked right out of me, I was unclear as how to describe it physically but I could just… see it… feel it.

That night I sat on my bed felt my entire world crumble and wondered when this would all end, but quickly remembered that this wasn't going to end.

Like this I was reminded of where I was and if this was anything like the game then I would be finding myself going through time loop after time loop, a never ending cycle to keep this point in time from killing itself, or so I think I could remember, the amount of times I had died and woken up had turned my focus from this world being a videogame and I was too concerned with just trying to get through the missions I had just been given.

"And this is my first loop too." I muttered, staring at my hands, fingers covered in scar tissue from the amount of wounds I had gotten in my early days.

"Fuck it, if this is going to be life I may as well make it worth something." I remembered saying to myself before getting up and walking away.

heading straight to the medical wing I quickly met Skinner and discussed with him the benefits of possible cybernetic enhancements, this seemed to quickly catch the GO3LM's attention and intrigue and before I knew it I was quickly put under anaesthesia for surgery.

My "Employees" appeared to be rather worried after my surgery, that was rather touching if I didn't quickly made my way to the Sleepwalker where I spent round after round testing my newest enhancements, having your spine replaced was something I wasn't fond of but after picking up and throwing a heavily armoured GO3LM into the ground so hard that it's internals turned into red soup put a lot of strain into one's back.

Never going to doubt Skinner again, but I wasn't done seeing as I knew another person that could very well kit me out with additional augments.

Something I believed would greatly benefit me in the end he sold me two augments that increased my bone density making me both twice as durable as before and stronger, something I wasn't going to say no to.

Nanobots that increased my regeneration up an additional 200%, something I was quite fond of as I didn't know how my prosthesis were going to affect me long term, if I even last that long.

But he also threw in a bonus in the form of a familiar large two handed great sword that I fondly knew to be the Binary sword, the same sword Jesus uses or Dr Christoff if i wanted to be technical.

Holding it in my hands I was mildly shocked to feel how light it was in my hands, then again my strength had gone up four fold or so.

With this I now had prepared myself to fight the Mandatus or what everyone called the Machine.

I had to fight through several waves of killer robots and listen to this guy who seemingly spoke in riddles, something I would have found nostalgic if I wasn't so damn annoyed with wanting to get this over with.

I had used a third of my ammo from my Rifle and I had quickly forced myself to rely on my Binary Sword to take these things down.

And then when I finally met the Machine I expected it to be the fight of my life, something that made my enhancements, my augments, my broken psyche worth it.

Instead… I was quickly met with disappointment as it went down like a Nokia in a blender and I was the Nokia.

Now I was standing in the middle of Nowhere, where I had to make a choice.

A choice to either go into the Light and imprint myself into another body or stay and allow MADNESS to sweep the entirety of Nevada.

A fucked up Hero's journey if I do say so myself.

Sitting down next to the desert road, I found myself contemplating everything, and just trying to find reason in this whole ordeal I had.

"Would 2B mind if I just sat here for a while?" I wondered out loud as I looked up at the sky and just stared at the clouds that rolled by, unlike before where the sky was straight red this time the sky was its pleasant blue where the day and night cycle wasn't so screwy since the sun hadn't been killed yet.

Pulling my bandana down from my face I let out a sigh before breathing in the rather pleasant air.

Why do I care about what happens to Nevada? This isn't my home, my home is back… home?

"Great looks like my memories fucked, probably caused by Skinner or Crackpot, wouldn't be surprised honestly if was both of them really." I exclaimed with a shake of the head.

Ok, let's see if I can at least remember something else about my old world like anime, immediately the thoughts of a teenager swinging a large red themed scythe popped into my head and it quickly put a smile on my face.

"RWBY, shit it has been a while since I remembered that series… too bad I had to end up in Nevada before someone did the right thing and made Volume 10 or rebooted it… I think it was Dillion Goo who said he was looking into getting the IP after Warner Bros decided to drop it after Rooster Teeth fell into bankruptcy or something." I talked to myself as I remembered the whole debacle.

"Damn I used to Write a lot of Self inserts dedicated to that series, that and a lot of other places… oof I can hear the reviews complaining about meta awareness, hahahaha." I felt nostalgic about the thought but quickly as it came up I was immediately reminded of another thing I missed. "Oooooooooh fuck I miss writing and consuming random amounts of media… and One Piece, shit I'm never going to see the end of the series either." Shaking my head I felt a weight had slowly been lifted off my shoulders… wait hold on.

Blinking in confusion I noticed how my weight wasn't being lifted.

I was being lifted, turning my head upwards and my eyes widened in shock as I saw something of a portal open up above me.

I felt my mind go blank as it tried to find logic in the explanation of a portal suddenly opening up above me but quickly as I tried to find logic I was quickly met with images of the in coming loops I was going to be facing and figured this must be the universe telling me its time move on already.

Steeling my resolve I took a deep breath and nodded in understanding as I found resolve in myself.

"Guess this is it, let's get this over with then." I said as I quickly kicked my legs down and immediately kicked myself into the portal as I figured this was the universe telling me that it was time for me to finally move on.

"Alright let's get this goooin-oh shit!" Suddenly the portal I went through turned into a tunnel of different coloured lights that forced my aviator covered eyes to close and before I knew it I felt myself being spat out.

When I hit the ground my body tumbled until I finally stopped when I hit something.

"Argh-ok didn't see this coming." I exclaimed tiredly as I blinked my eyes open and saw my glasses had fallen off.

Lifting my head I quickly looked around until I saw the familiar black frame red lensed glasses sitting a foot away, reaching over and taking them I slowly put them over my eyes and sat up.

Looking around I felt immediate confusion swell up as I was now in the middle of a forest.

"I… don't think this was supposed to happen."

Prologue end


Profile:

Name: Jackson

Origin: Noob

Outfit: Black and Red Trucker cap, Black Aviators with red tinted lenses, black Bandana wrapped around the lower face, black and red lined coat, black cargo pants held up but an ammo belt, Black armoured gloves, black Bulletproof vest, Backpack, black and red lined combat boots.

Weapons: Binary sword, Glock 17(Suppressor), HK416 (ACOG sight, Explosive magazine, Suppressor), Throwing Knives, Flash Grenades, Hand Grenades, Shurikens.

Augments: Legs and arms are replaced with cybernetic Prosthetics that Provide both strength and speed, Spine was replaced entirely in order to handle the load from the Prosthetics, Increased Bone density, Nanobot infusion that Increases natural regeneration by 200%(Aura will increase the percentage to ???%).

Aura colour: ???

Semblance: ???

 

[Jackson D. Holic]

Amvmaster: Alright, the first chapter is up and I am sorry that this is short. I had to write this one quickly because I have work and that's going to have me pushing this on the back burner until I get my days off, but I promise i will get the second chapter out when I get the chance.

Jericho a word for our readers?

Jericho: In my opinion first chapters should be the shortest

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Chapter 1 Initiation, what Initiation?

"Ok aren't I supposed to be in the middle of waking up in 2B's lab?" I asked myself quietly, standing up I quickly double checked my rifle to see if it was still loaded. "Then again I'm exactly complaining either."

Flicking my rifle's safety on my eyes, I looked around the place… trees. "I can't say I don't miss this."

Can't say I'm familiar with this forestry though, then again I'm not exactly the king of anything forest related.

"Gonna need to start somewhere though, not like I packed much or water on me to last me this final trip," I muttered looking down at my bag that were mainly filled with grenades, shurikens, a canteen filled with at least liter and a half of water and whatever granola bar I had haphazardly threw in just incase I got munchy on either the helicopter or bus ride. "I'm going to give myself at the very least a day, maybe not even that if I really think of it."

Ammo wasn't much of a problem either, hell for all I know I'm in the middle of some kind of fantasy world or some shit so ammo is probably going to be scarce.

Throwing my bag back over my shoulders and then tossing my rifle over my shoulders where the magnets in my bag activated causing the rifle to stick in place while I grabbed my Binary sword that sat against a tree.

"Looks like you're going to get even more show time here darling." I said twirling the sword around my hand until I stopped it so the blade quickly rested on my shoulder.

Walking in a random direction I quietly grew used to the calm sounds of the forest, from the gentle breeze that rustled the trees' leaves to the light chirping of birds and the-

"Lets see, high fantasy, post apocalypse, possible sci-fi, what other Isekai tropes can I think up that would explain ending up in a forest?" I suddenly spoke up with my gloved hand lightly tapping my chin.

Maybe this is a chance to finally stop this violent cycle?

"Fuck it I need sleep." Turning my head up to the canopy I pushed myself against the ground, my prosthetic legs cracking the medium soft dirt as I jumped up, the force behind my jump nearly made me overshoot through the treeline if not for my free hand to quickly grab onto a rather large thick branch.

My fingertips easily breaking the bark as I quickly pulled myself to stand on the branch, using the brand as I stepping stone I quietly started testing various large branches, checking to see if they could be used as my new makeshift mattress, my body was fine but my mind was tired as the entire situation had me ready to just sleep.

finding a good large branch I quickly stabbed my sword into the tree's large er trunk and used it to quickly hang my things, starting by hanging my rifle by it's sling, my bag and finally my belt and drop holster.

"That should hold." I said placing my aviators in one of my belts pouches and pulled my coat off for me to quickly throw over my chest as a makeshift blanket.

Laying down on my branch bed I slowly pulled my hat over my eyes and immediately felt myself drift off to sleep.

It was seamless, the transition I mean.

From dreamless sleep or I think it was dreamless, straight to waking up as something hit my tree.

THUNK!

My body immediately moved, not in defense but in a startled fashion that caused me to suddenly roll off my branch mattress.

"Shit!" my mouth spewed out as I fell right out of the tree and my body quickly found itself hitting the ground back first.

Immediately I felt pain and then it quickly dulled as I could feel the Nanobots in my body quickly walked their way into negating the damage I had taken from my fall, speaking all after it happened even with me being quickly healed I still let out a mandatory "ow" to show my pain.

My eyes barely opened as I slowly sat up.

"Wha-"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

My eyes immediately opened as I heard shotguns going off in the air, turning my head in the direction of the sounds. I frowned as this answered some of my unasked questions, ranging from gun's existing as well as crossing out some of my fantasy Isekai theories.

Still that doesn't explain what the hell woke me up.

THUD!

Hearing the sound my head quickly spun around and I saw someone had just landed right in front of me, thankfully my blurry vision had quickly cleared up because those shotguns had pulled me out of my sleepy stupor.

AS the person finally stood I took in their appearance, black and red accent lolita dress, red cape, a silver emblem on their dresses waist belt, black stockings and black combat boots, Black short hair with red stylished highlights, their face was young and their skin was a near pure white that could have made most people mistake them for either not getting enough sun or they were possibly Vampiric.

Hopefully not the later, I fucking hate those things.

I somewhat narrowed my eyes in confusion as I thought I recognized this young girl, but my mind had quickly pulled a blank as she quickly turned her head to face me.

Both our eyes met and for the longest while the girl and I just seemed to freeze in place like angel statues(if you know you know!).

Suddenly our stalemate of staring had quickly been interrupted as I heard something drop down.

And then it hit me.

Literally.

Thump.

"Fuck!" I cried out, hands quickly went to my head as I flinched in pain, looking down at what hit me as it now sat on the ground in front of me, my teary eyes stared at my glock.

"Oh are you ok!?" Hearing the girl speak, I didn't exactly see as my vision had been filled with red petals that hastily reformed into the girl that I was just having a staring contest with.

"I'm good, I'm good just… ow." I said, rubbing my head, nanobots had quickly gone to work fixing my newest injury. "I thought I kept it secured in my holster." I mumbled looking down at my glock.

Immediately as I mentioned it though the girl's attention shifted away from me and to my gun as she quickly snatched it off the grassy floor.

"Oh no, little baby I hope you're fine, a fall like that might've caused your internals to shift!" The quickly and seemingly started to expect my sidearm, as she ejected the mag and pulled the slide back slightly, her eyes narrowed before she turned her attention to me. "When's the last time you've done any maintenance on her?"

"Her?" Wait what?

"She's filthy, how are you supposed to go through initiation if your weapon is so dirty?" The girl seemed to continue her rant while checking my sidearm more extensively.

"Wait hold on, initiation?" I quickly asked as it was just the first thing I latched onto.

"Well duh, I can't exactly have you failing, seeing as we are partner's and all." The girl exclaimed before finally holding my glock back to me.

"Partners?" I muttered taking my pistol and just stared at this weird girl.

"Well yeah, don't you remember, the first person you make eye contact with is your partner for the next four years, she must've really hit your head isn't your aura supposed to stop that? Well then again it's not like you can keep your aura up all the time." The girl seemingly just continued with getting to her own conclusions.

Conclusions I chose not to rectify in the current setting as I was seemingly having one hell of a mind fart here.

What the hell is up with this girl? Why was she so excited with my gun? And what the hell does she mean partner's for the next four years?

"Come on, let's go before everyone else takes all the relic's." She said grabbing onto my arm and trying but pretty obviously failing in pulling me onto my feet.

Feeling sad I just pushed myself onto my feet and stopped her pulling entirely.

"Look I don't know what is going on here, but I can't exactly leave here this sudden." I said as the girl's eyebrows creased in mild confusion and she looked half ready to whine about needing to go. "Look, just wait for a minute while I get the rest of my stuff on." I said placing my glock in her hands.

she seemed to blink and moved her mouth to speak but stopped as I grabbed my coat and hat off the ground, putting them on. I looked back up at the tree and once again leaped right into the air, this time making a light grunting sound as I moved. Grabbing the familiar branch I had found myself sleeping on not too long ago I quickly reached over to my hanging equipment and started putting everything on, seeing as I had someone waiting for me I just opted to put my belt on and just grab everything else.

As soon as I had everything I looked over to another side of the forest where I saw what appeared to be smoke in the distance… Whatever this initiation was, I don't think anyone told them about fire safety in the middle of a forest.

Dropping down to the ground my legs buckled as I hit the ground with a crouch, looking back up I saw the girl was still standing in one place as she stared at me in awe.

"Wow look at your weapons!" Nevermind, she was actually looking at my weapons, putting them down though seemed to distract the younger girl long enough for me to quickly move about putting the rest of my gear on.

"I've never seen a gas operating system quite like this, how many rounds does it fire?" The girl asked holding my HK416.

"Either six or around eight hundred round's perminute, never really thought to look into it too much, it does the job though." I said strapping my drop leg holster to my thigh and making sure it was tightened by it's straps.

"That's so cool, and despite how small the ammunition is, anything going that fast would still kill a Grimm with ease." The girl exclaimed with awe while I paused putting my vest on, Grimm? Jesus why does my head hurt all of a sudden?

Feels like I know this term and I know this girl but at the same time I don't, almost like the information I'm trying to reach for is either out of reach or vanished.

Shaking my head I double checked my vest's mag pouches and was glad that my ammo unlike my glock hadn't fallen out.

Once everything was in place I reached over and placed my respective weapons in their designated places, with the exception of my Binary sword seeing as Ruby was currently looking at with a fine tooth eye, scrutinising every chip she could see on the blade.

"How could you let such a fine sword be chipped like this?" The girl asked, her eyes glaring at me as I just rolled my eyes at her obvious impression of a mother catching their kids just as they had their hands in the cookie jar. It would be impressive if it didn't look sad… and kinda adorable.

"Honestly it came like that when I first bought it." I quickly explained, I wasn't lying either and I knew from both visual and physical experience that the Binary sword wasn't going to let a few chips stop it from bisecting whatever dumbass I swung at.

"Also you're rather Judgy for someone who has yet to introduce themselves yet." I said slowly and quickly taking it out of her hand, I wasn't going to accidently cut her for taking it out of her hands, that would be dumb… and I don't exactly aim for killing kids of any sort, that was if they ever existed in Nevada in the first place.

"Uh well… you're right… I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose." She quickly introduced herself while I slid my sword on my back.

"Jackson, just Jackson." I said watching how Ruby nodded and then openly smiled at me.

"Well Jackson… Why is your stuff in a tree?" Ruby suddenly asked as I let out a sigh before grabbing my canteen.

"Cause that's where I was sleeping." I said opening it and taking a small sip, feeling the water rid myself of the dry feeling in my mouth and throat.

"What? you were sleeping in a tree? Wow you must've been uber excited to do the initiation." Ruby excitedly exclaimed, as she had already begun making up new information on the spot, something I should've been quick to rectify but at this point I realized this was probably going to put her in a mildly bad move… fuck it, not like I give enough of a shit to care about her feelings.

"Look Ruby-"

"Not the time Jackson, we need to head north and if my Dad, Uncle and Sister had ever taught me north is this way!" Ruby's head tilted to the sky before her hand quickly pointed in a single direction and started walking in said direction.

…

…

…

"I got a bad feeling about this." Mumbled under my breath putting my canteen away and pulling my aviator's out, putting them on I quietly moved to follow the heavily red theme teen, hands holding onto my rifle as I immediately figured that we weren't exactly alone in this forest.

Chapter 1 end

 

[Jackson D. Holic]

Amvmaster: Another short but hey at least I kinda keep my promise in posting… Did I make a promise? Who cares, let's get on with the chapter Jericho!

Jericho: Dumbass meets weapon manic in their natural habitat, and has a bitch fit

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Chapter 2

You know I haven't been on a nature walk for a long time, so this was rather refreshing or it fucking would be if I wasn't wrestling a damn werewolf looking mofo that was trying bite my head off.

Asshole had the damn gull to ambush me, swipe my rifle outta my hand and was mounting me like… I am not going to finish the line of thought.

"Ruby, where are you!?" I called out as I had my arm in its mouth acting as a chew toy. "Ruby? Ruby!?" I called out another two times before letting out an annoyed growl and reached up and wrapped my free arm around its head and with a quick tug a loud snap of the neck I quickly pushed the dead monster off me.

Stepping back my eyes narrowed as I quickly counted the rest of the werewolves that were left over and found it to be rather… disappointing.

"Six, fuck me I've been killing robots that are more annoying that you shit heads." I expressed reaching over my shoulder and grabbing my binary sword's hilt.

Pulling the long sword off my back I rolled my neck and let out an audible sigh before pulling my bandana over my nose, and readied myself by pointing my sword at the closest charging werewolf that leapt up into the air.

Its jaw wide open ready to bite into my flesh and its claws held in front to dig into my flesh but was quickly met by the swipe of my sword quickly bisecting it's head from its body causing the rest of it to collapse onto the ground in a near ragdoll effect.

Seeing the next coming to me instead of waiting for it I threw myself right into the the path of the werewolf and quickly jumped up and chucked both my legs up drop kicking the thing in it's body sending the both of us in opposite directions with the werewolf shooting right through the otherside of the clearing while I quickly flipped back over onto my feet and skidded against the ground until I came to a stop right next to my rifle I had dropped beforehand.

Because of the ambush I had unexpectedly been a part of I had lost my rifle but now that I had it right in front of me I quickly stabbed my sword into the ground, picked up my rifle and with less than three seconds later I quickly sighted my rifle on the closest werewolf and fired.

a single pull was all I need as a single shot of non-existence exploded out of my rifle, the suppressor doing it's job and the ammo doing twice the needed work as it hit one in the chest and the explosive caused it's body to topple over with a good sized chunk of blacken flesh flying all over the place.

Sighting the next werewolf I continued to single fire mow down these things, that is if you counted mowing down the last three werewolves to non existence.

When all was said and done I slowly stood back up, my eyes darted around the place as I tried to find anything that could clue me in on the teenager that had up and left me to deal with these… whatever the hell these things were.

BANG!

Hearing the crack my body turned, gun raised as I saw another werewolf had managed to sneak behind me but instead of pulling the trigger like I usual did when I was flanked a familiar tone of a red blur shot right passed the thing and seemingly stopped to reveal Ruby in a crouched position, in her hands held a rather large and in charge red Scythe that made me step back as it's length had my immediate attention.

But just as I was distracted by Ruby I watched as the werewolf that flanked me dropped to the ground, their body bisected in two pieces. Jesus, that thing had to be on some level of sharpness to do this.

Then again my Binary blade wasn't something to scoff at either but damn this surprised me.

"Heeeeey, uh sorry for leaving you there, I figured you'd want to take the front and all." Ruby said as she had quickly turned from something of a rather stoic figure to that of an embarrassed teenager.

Pulling my free hand up I just started to rub my temples to stave off the future brain ache I was going to be feeling in the next minute.

"Uh Jackson?" I could just hear the sweet worry from the girl as I stopped my massaging and addressed the girl in front of me, she had the gall to even look embarrassed as she hugged her scythe closer to herself as a way of anchoring herself down, something I was guilty of doing as well from time to time but now was not the time for reminiscing.

"So you had a scythe and you decided to show me this now?" I asked, well it probably came off as sarcastic but either or it seemed to do the job as Ruby continued to look more guilty by the second.

"I'm sorry, I should've told you and-"

"And you should've communicated with me." I quickly jumped in, my tone was filled with disappointment as I tried to give my best impression of a disappointed dad/brother/Person-in-Charge(you try being in charge of a Mercenary company and not act like a disappointed commander when one of your own does something stupid).

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I quickly exclaimed, extracting my sword out of the ground and quickly putting it back on my back. "Be better, if you're going to be my… partner, you're gonna make mistakes I get that just do better."

I tried to channel my own inner Kratos as Ruby looked at me with wide eyes and quickly shifted her expression from one of sad guilt to one of determination.

"Right, well we better go before another pack of Beowolves comes to us, uh no offence but I don't think either of us were being too quiet not to be heard from everyone in the forest." Ruby said, her scythe quickly shifting to form a large rectangle box that she quickly slipped onto the back of her waist.

"Lead the way." I said with a nod double checking my Rifle's magazine to see if I needed to either switch the magazine for a fuller mag or if I needed to be prepared to swap for another on the fly.

"Right." Ruby said as the two of us quietly marched through the forest, my knowledge of those Beowolves fresh on my mind as I had watched them slowly disintegrate into black smoke, another pain flashed through my head but I quickly pushed through the pain as I slid my mag back into my rifle with a satisfying click that indicated that it wasn't going anywhere.

"You were pretty good out there, I nearly thought I didn't need to jump in." Ruby spoke up as I shook my head.

"Too soon Ruby a little too soon." I said, shaking my head, this girl is worse than me when it comes to awkward silence.

We continued walking in silence, through brush the two of us continued our trek.

Little was said between us but I never really cared to think about it seeing as my attention focused on the forest as it now held monsters, it would be rather surreal if not for my previous or I guess my current occupations profile.

Zed's were a dime in a dozen in the outlands so wolves were not something that had me too worried, but it didn't mean I wasn't cautious, Abominations weren't something I worried about but their speed had me on the ropes many times.

double checking my guns now became a regular occurance as we walked, something that seemed to catch my partner's attention.

"Why are you constantly checking your weapon?" Ruby asked, her eyes looking back every now and again towards me and then my gun.

"Nervous tick." I exclaimed, the excuse was quick and should more than explain it.

"Well can you stop, who knows what you're doing to his internals." His?

"You know… you did the same with my pistol." I pointed out watching how Ruby seemed to frown at me.

"What?"

"You, giving genders to my guns, I mean I get it, give your guns personality and all but why are you doing it?" I asked.

"W-well I don't do it to just guns I do it to all weapons and it isn't weird my sister called Ember Celica her girls and I called Cresent Rose my Baby cause your weapons aren't just your weapons, they are extension of yourself it's not like a third arm but like an additional part of your soul, it's like the small mission piece to make you whole." Ruby's voice grew in volume as she seemingly was impassioned by her own words. "So yeah I gave your weapons 'genders' because they are a part of you and if you can't see that then you don't deserve them, in fact you shouldn't have them in general!"

Oh boy, I set her off by accident.

"She's dying for a cleaning as she is absolutely filthy it's frankly amazing how she hasn't discharged by accident or fallen apart and with how you brutally smack your magazine against him is frankly scary and he looks to also be in the same state as her and don't get me started on your sword, who in the everloving fluffer knuckle just allows their sword to be chipped and not fix it!?"

While Ruby continued her tirade my attention was quickly pulled away as I heard something shake in the air, the trees seemingly were pushed around as my eyes turned upwards and widened in horror.

"And another thing-!"

"DOWN!" I cried out lunging forwards as I pushed Ruby down before I felt giant talons quickly grab me around my chest. "Shit!" Force behind the large talons forced me to the ground and with it my grip of my rifle.

Trying to reach down to grab it I was instead met with my body being pulled away just before I could grab my rifle.

"Jackson!" Hearing Ruby's cry I watched her quickly grab my rifle and with a burst of blurring red shot through the air and I saw her quickly grab onto the leg of the giant black raven as it had quickly taken off back into the air.

"Ruby what the fuck is this thing!?" I roared over the air as I quickly adjusted my hat so it didn't fall off my head because of my impromptu flight.

"It's a Nevermore! A big one too!" Ruby cried out as I felt the things feet slowly start crushing me. "I didn't think there would be any in the Emerald Forest!"

Not wanting to touch that new subject I quickly started to use my arms to pry this thing's foot off, but unfortunately for the first time I could feel my cybernetics actually struggle against this bird's grip.

So instead I quickly changed tactics from pushing myself free I latched onto the thing's feet, as my fingers grabbed onto it's scaly flesh.

Fine if you weren't going let me go then let me return the fucking favour.

the things skin immediately was ripped under my gloved finger tips, pain I had caused it quickly gave me freedom and instead of dropping from probably a thousand feet into the forest I quickly grabbed it's feet and with a mighty pull I climbed myself up it's leg it's feathers thankfully strong enough to hold my weight as I found myself hanging on right next to Ruby.

"Now what!?" I called out.

"I dunno but I think I can see the temple we're supposed to go to!" I just barely heard Ruby yell, turning my head down.

I too found the supposed temple she had seen, wait why the hell does she need to know where a temple is?

"Jump!" Just before I could ask, Ruby yelled out and pushed off the giant bird and began freefalling through the air.

"Wait… what!?" I yelled out my eyes bugged out of my eye sockets while my sunglasses drooped down.

Looking down I watched with bated breath as the younger teen fell right through the air and in panic I nearly pushed off to chase after her but instead just as she was getting closer to the ground a black and small yellow object crashed right into her.

"What the… FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?" I finally roared out pushing my sunglasses upwards as I was actually reaching my limit.

CAW!

Hearing the Raven finally cry out I decided that enough was enough, grabbing onto their feathers I proceeded to pull myself up the bird's body my aim was to it's back and neck, it banked around from left to right forcing my climbing to pause as I saw it's head move around showing it's double set eyes, but instead of looking at me I could see it's attention was pulled downwards.

Following their eyes I saw they had quickly focused a slow growing group of people, uncertainty washed over my face as I was unsure if they too were teenagers like Ruby but the assumption was quick as I felt my eyes widen as I saw a giant scorpion exploded right into the clearing below.

"Oh come on, what next a fucking Ratholos comes flying in or no maybe a fucking T-rex." I muttered under my breath as I saw a familiar spec of red travel along the ground towards. "OH HELL NO!"

seeing where Ruby was going my body moved pulling my legs up and I kicked off the bird full force.

CAW!

"fuck you too tweedie bird!" I yelled back as I dropped right through the air, arms against my body while my legs held together as I fell to ground at 'Literal' neck breaking speed.

My destination was the ground as I tried to aim for the scorpion but it was clear I wasn't going to make it.

Quick thinking had been something I learned as I reached into my leg holster and pulled my pistol out, kicking my legs forwards I pulled shoulders backwards and flipped backwards, mid flip I quickly grabbed my pistol's slide and pulled it back loading a fresh one in the chamber as I fired in the direction of the giant scorpion.

Seven pulls of the trigger and seven bullets shot through the air and smacked against the insectoid's exoskeleton as they seemingly did nothing to it.

Gritting my teeth I chose to ignore this new problem and instead focus on my imminent fall.

"Shiiiiit!" I cried out as I readied myself for either a world of new pain or probably my death, here's to hoping it's a quick one!

"Jackson!"

"Wha-whoa!" Quickly as I heard my name I suddenly felt my body tackle through the air, confusion quickly settled as my entire being quickly turned into an absolute blur before I felt my back come crashing down against the ground as I rolled for a good while or so.

My arms immediately instinctively wrapped around what I recognized was another person but instead of focusing on what I was holding my mind was pulled to the pain in my shoulders and back.

When it finally came to an end though, the rolling I mean my eyes stared up to the sky as the blurred vision cleared up but by the pain I was feeling had me staying in place.

"Urgh, should've asked for the Doc to shut off my pain receptors." I mumbled as the pain I felt in my body was for real but I could at the very least say for certain that my nanobots were at the very least doing their civic duty of fixing me up but in the most pain-filled way possible.

Crack!

Bone! that was absolutely a-

Crack!

Ah! another one, oh god this is not going to-

CRACK!

"ARGH!" Ok that one made me make a noise, fuck I really should've of damn well told Doc to shut my damn pain receptor's!

"C-can you let go now!" Hearing a new voice my head turned down as I saw myself holding onto… ew gross a dude.

I grit my teeth in new pain as I let go and pushed this person off me, something the guy seemed thankful for or I think he was, the new pain had me laying my head back down against the ground.

Hold on… where the fuck was I again?

Clang!

Hearing the sound of metal meeting something I pulled my up, tilting it just enough for my eyes catch a familiar red themed teen in the distance, while a large Scorpion bashed their claws towards her.

"Oh yeah that's where I was." I spoke under my breath dropping my head back down, with newfound determination my teeth clenched against each other as I pushed myself onto my side, damn nanobots, could you be any faster?

huffing and puffing I slowly climbed onto my hands and knees before I felt a pair of hands on me.

"Whoa hey, here let me help-"

CLANG!

Head snapped in the direction towards Ruby as I saw her standing there with what I think was a look of disbelief, why disbelief? Trailing further along had answered that question as a familiar scythe laid on the ground a good thirty or so meters away.

"Ruby, get out of there!" Hearing another cry from behind me I watched as my… partner was forced to flee, meanwhile I was lying here on the ground.

CAW!

Looking up at the sky my eye's near bulge as the bir-Nevermore came flying back and with a giant flap of their wings I watched in horror as it launch it's own feathers off their wings and like a hail of javelins they impaled the ground it one of them unfortunately hit Ruby's Cloak.

My eyes went back to the scorpion and I saw it moving to Ruby, oh hell no!

Pushing whoever was pulling me off I pushed myself onto my feet and quickly pulled my hat and bandana off, my sunglasses had already been thrown off but I took no care of it as I reached over my shoulder and pulled out my Binary sword.

Getting onto my feet I glared right at the scorpion.

"HEY!" I roared at the top of my lungs the scorpion seemingly paused as it's body turned to face. "YEAH YOU DISCOUNT FUCKING SPIDER CUNT"

"COME GET SOME!" I continued flipping my sword around in my hand. I raised my sword and with a mighty heave I threw it full force like a spear and like I hoped it sailed true as the blade stabbed into the giant insect's body.

Trailing off I slowly started to pull my things off, starting with my bag that uselessly dropped to the ground with an audible thump, pulling my vest off I took a second to drop it alongside my coat.

"COME ON THEN WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG!" I called out to the Scorpion as my right hand went to my left arm as I quickly pulled a part backwards revealing a tiny compartment.

Inside sat five small red syringes the size of my palm.

Grabbing one I took a second before stabbing the needle right into my neck and injected the contents into my bloodstream, closing the compartment I watched as the Scorpion scuttled towards me while the contents of the syringe did their job.

"What's this compartment for?" I heard my voice echo as I felt my breath quicken.

"It's for these unique supplements, think of them as boosters of sorts but instead of boosting one's own immune system these boost your Nanobots efficiency." Doc explained.

My vision started to get fuzzy but also cleared up

"The hell does that mean?"

I could feel my pain wash away as my body felt warm

"Just think of it as a last resort, with this your nanobots will increase your healing factor threefold."

Screw warm, it felt hot.

"Damn that's cool… what else will it do?"

I was boiling at this point and I could feel my back was on fire.

"Well it's a last resort so if needed you could either overload your cybernetics and go into overclock mode which will turn your already insane strength and speed godly."

It wasn't just my back either I could feel in my arms.

"Cooooool but overclocking also means overheating though"

Hell, my legs weren't saved from this heat either.

"Indeed, that's why it's a last resort because it could cause a mild case of immediate death."

Suddenly the heat seemed to die down but just a smidge and I let out a chuckle.

"Oof that sucks-But damn is it worth it." I exclaimed with a wild grin on my face.

BRRRRAAAAAW!

Hearing the Scorpion give out it's own battle cry I couldn't help but wonder to myself

CRUNCH!

Who was going to die first?

Chapter 2 end