"If you look, you may not have time to leap"

     (Y/N) (L/N) stood proudly over the tattered remains of an IMC Legion class titan from inside his own. A Vanguard class with his own touches. His arms were outstretched in an 'are you not entertained' position with one leg on the former titan's hatch. He spun left and right challenging anyone else who thought of opposing him. Stepping down off his one-legged pedestal, he looked around at his handy work. Shredded remains of all kinds of IMC titans were thrown around him, each in a slightly weirder and more broken pose than the last. This Cooper guy better be worth it, (Y/N) thought to himself, looking at all the carnage that surrounded him. "Pilot, I am detecting multiple hostile titanfall signatures. Recommend you ready up." His Vanguard class titan spoke to him in a semi monotone voice.

     "Let's get this show on the road, Osiris!" Instead of taking his XO-16 off the titan's back, he picked up the late legion's predator cannon. "Because I'm in the mood," he said, smiling down at the Rotating Cyclone of Absolute Death and Destruction. He picked up the legion's ammo reserves and strapped them to the now empty slots on his titan that once held the almost-empty XO-16's ammo. Just then, he heard the sound of meteors falling. Only they weren't meteors, they were 20-ton death machines.

     This should be fun.

     He revved up the predator cannon as the titans hit the ground. Taking advantage of the unprotected warp falls, (Y/N) shot at the closest thing to him, which just so happened to be a Ronin. He unleashed the lead storm into the titan's hatch, and almost destroyed it before it even had the chance to grab its Leadwall shotgun off its back. By the time it had, its armor had practically flown off. He dashed toward the stunned pilot and jammed his titan's hand into the Ronin's hatch, and, messily doing so, ripped the pilot from his seat. He then front kicked the Ronin yelling "THIS. IS. SPARTA." Looking at the now scared- for- his- life pilot, (Y/N) tried to make a disgusted noise and yelled "DESCUSTANG!" before hard balling the pilot at an unsuspecting scorch that had tried to sneak up on him. Now having the disembodied remains of his comrade splattered all over his ocular system, the scorch pilot panicked and fired in a random direction. (Y/N) disarmed the scorch (figuratively and literally), and tackled him to the ground, lifting his rocket racks off his back and firing 16 of them into the scorch's cockpit. The front of the titan ignited, killing the pilot and destroying the titan beyond repair. "LEFT" (Y/N) heard his titan yell. He instinctively dodged backward and to the right, narrowly avoiding the fist of a Tone. The pilot reeled back in his titan looking offended.

     "YOU!" You yelled. You swung your legs around and tripped the Tone before punching the cockpit until the hatch dented. You reached inside and ripped the pilot out. Using your titan's giant hand, you tore off one of his legs.

     "AH! I thought you militia were supposed to be merciful!" The man cried in pain.

     "You're using Tone you cancerous bitch! You get special treatment! And I'm NOT MILITIA!" You jammed the pilot's body into his cockpit, before throwing it at the next closest titan- an Ion class, just as it activated its laser core. When he hit his own squad mate's titan with the focused laser, it effectively detonated the Tone, knocking the Ion back and doing considerable damage. Using the daze to your advantage, you jumped at the Ion and slammed both of your fists down onto the titan's hatch, denting it and 'altering' the titan's sight capabilities. You then grabbed its arm and swung under the 'armpit of the titan, breaking its arm back the wrong way. Holding its arm with one hand and putting the other on the titan's dented hatch, you held it in place as bullets started to rain from all directions. You felt slightly annoyed as the pilots finally decided to ignore the plot device and started attacking all at once. "Any quick way out of this, OS?" You asked your titan, getting serious.

     "None that I can see pilot," he responded. "We may have to go try-hard."

     "Where the hell did you hear that?" You asked in slight disbelief.

     "I overheard two Militia riflemen use the phrase 'try-hard' when describing a friend they had played with in a game. I searched the phrase 'try-hard' on the internet, and saw it was something that many young people say when they want to become serious."

     "This is war OS, not e-Sports!" You said, still slightly dumbfounded.

     "I apologize pilot. Removing phrase from database." Your titan monotonously said. As it happened, a large energy signature was detected to the right. Your eyes widened in fear as you saw the Arc deploy into the large spinning disks of the fold weapon. The IMC stopped firing. You dropped the remains of the meat shield and looked at the countless titans before you. One of them chuckled. "It looks like you've lost pilot. Surrender while I allow you to." Several others laughed in their cliche English accents. You hesitated, as you had no idea what to do. "You know what? On second thought, I would be promoted if I came back with the head of the 'Rogue' in my hands." As he aimed his gun at me, a huge explosion sounded in the fold weapon's center. Something had detonated in its core, and the weapon began to collapse in on itself. "What?! Impossible! H-how?" The IMC looked at you as if it actually wasn't a rhetorical question. You smirked until Osiris's voice sounded. "Pilot, we need to move. Readings show the arc will detonate in less than two minutes." 

     You ran past the stunned IMC away from the facility. "(Y/N)! I'm tracking you. Get your ass to the evac point NOW!" Gates yelled through your helmet radio. You saw a marked spot on your HUD and began running as fast as OS could. You got to the waypoint, where a goblin drop ship was there waiting for you. You hooked OS onto it and climbed inside. The ship started to pull away until arc exploded knocking the ship around. "Pilot, the ship will not hold. Recommend embarking. It is your best chance for survival." Even knowing that was pointless, you opened the dropship door and was met with extreme heat and radiation. You hung down and OS grabbed you and put you into his cockpit. As he did, the heat melted through the cables holding Osiris in place. The two of you began to fall. "Pilot, we are falling an extreme distance, prepare and stand by for titanfall."

     "The hell you mean OS? We're gonna die! There is nowhere we can go!"

     "Very well pilot," he responded. "Do not stand by for titanfall."

     "Oh fuck yo-" you were cut off by another explosion, causing an extremely painful white light to fill the cockpit, and you blacked out.

                                                                                                                                                           * * *

     Professor Ozpin stood at the window in his office, looking out to Vale, and his prized school, Beacon. He took another sip from his mug, looking down at the students that were walking around the campus. Classes had ended 30 or so minutes ago and the students were exercising what little freedom they had on school days. Glynda was out at the moment, doing something inside the school.

     Suddenly, something caught the headmaster's eye. There was something falling out of the sky above a nearby forest. It looked to be some kind of meteor, flame engulfed the entire thing. Wondering what it could be, he saw it crash into the forest. Fearing it would be dangerous, he thought of someone to send. He looked down and saw eight figures sitting together and presumably talking. Since there were no immediately available huntsmen, and he knew they were itching to do something, an idea formulated in his mind.

     Ruby Rose sat with the rest of her team, chatting the afternoon away with team JNPR. School had only been in session for about a week, and they were still all getting to know each other. Suddenly, Ruby's scroll pinged. She took it out of her pocket and saw a message from Ozpin telling her to bring teams RWBY and JNPR to his office as soon as possible. "Hey, Ozpin is asking for us in his office." She stated, looking between her friends.

     "All of us? What for?" Jaune questioned.

     "Probably some cool mission. I told you he would like us, Ruby." Yang bragged. They stood and began their walk towards the tower.

     The elevator doors to Ozpin's office slowly slid open to reveal the eight teenagers as they walked into the headmaster's office. He could tell a few had worried looks. They think they're in trouble.

     "H-Hello professor. We aren't in trouble are we?" Ruby asked with a worrisome tone.

     "No Miss Rose. You are not here for an infraction of school policy. As I understand, you want to prove yourself. All of you do. Am I correct?"

     "Well, yeah. We came to become huntsmen and huntresses, and-"

     "What my dear sister is trying to say, is that we can only learn so much cooped up in the school. You said it yourself- knowledge can only carry you so far." Yang cut Ruby off.

     "I did say that didn't I?" Ozpin said, turning and looking out the window. "Then today is your lucky day. I have an assignment for the eight of you. Something unusual has come up in a forest nearby. I need the eight if you to investigate."

     "Uhh.. what exactly are we investigating sir?" Jaune asked, fear evident in his voice.

     "I don't know. That's why you're investigating it for me."

     "But wouldn't it be too dangerous? I mean, it could be a huge pack of Ursai or... something." Jaune protested.

     "Again, I do not know. I do, however, know one thing. The sooner you get out of my office and get going, the sooner you will find out." Jaune groaned as Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder. They took the elevator down, where a bullhead was waiting for them.

                                                                                                                                                      * * *

     (Y/N) opened his eyes to find himself on a battlefield of sorts. He was on one knee in front of a soldier who was propped up against a wall. Blood leaked from his mouth and several places on his body. Knowing he was dead, (Y/N) stood up from where he sat. Around him were many more like that soldier, but not all of them were dead. Gunshots rang out everywhere around him, accompanied by the screams of grunts and explosions. Dirt kicked up around him as 40mm rounds slammed into the dirt. A lower leg flew past his helmet. A nearby grunt sat against a wall clutching the stump that was his left forearm, as blood gushed from it. Any soldier that wasn't dismembered or dead was shooting at the incoming IMC adversaries. Men stood up an got down as they fired their R-201 assault rifles in short bursts, attempting to wear through the approaching armor. A grunt tried to crawl away from his cover, but rolled over. The front of his chest was ripped open. His chewed up ribs and 'inner workings' were spewed all around him. Men sat against walls, their eyes wide, breathing sporadic. They were in shock for various reasons.

     (Y/N) remembered this dream, as he had it many times. It was his first real mission as an SRS pilot. A Militia strike team was deployed to raid an IMC base camp on the planet Orthros. There had been a fight for territory between the IMC and Militia, and the Marauder Corps had been sent as support. You had been sent down as support for the strike team. You were unprepared, and the IMC had Militia forces by surprise. Suffice it to say, you were losing. On top of that, you weren't ready to be thrown into a single man support role this early into the pilot game. You were hesitating. One of the only times you had done it. It cost you. One of the grunts ran up to you and grabbed you by the shoulders.

     "Pilot! Pilot!" He continued to shake you and yell in your face. "Pilot! PILOT! Wake up pilot! We need you! Pilot, can you hear me? PILOT? PILOT PLEASE RESPOND." You awoke from the nightmare shooting to a sitting up position. Your breathing was heavy and labored. You sat there trying to slow it down enough to think. "Pilot, your heartbeat and breathing are accelerated and are above normal levels. Please control your breathing." Your titan spoke through the internal speakers. Eventually, you managed to slow down your breathing enough to get a few words out. Then you realized you no idea what the fuck was going on. You looked at the inside of your titan's hatch. The tan metal door sat a few feet from your face. "OS, what's going on? Where are we?" You asked your AI companion.

     "Location is unknown. My systems were damaged during the crash and will need to be rebooted. Opening hatch." The doors in front of you opened to see a wide grassy area surrounded by forest When you tried to step out, you realized you, as well as your titan were on your side. Slowly climbing out of the cockpit, you fixed your 'angle' and stood up. The wind blew calmly, and the sound of shaking leaves relaxed you. "Not what I thought the afterlife would look like," you said to yourself quietly.

     "You are not dead pilot. Your vitals show that you are alive and healthy."

     "That's not possible OS. I don't know if you're really here, but I sure as hell know that I didn't survive that blast."

     "I am sorry pilot, my records say otherwise."

     "The hell you mean by that Osiris?"

     "When the fold weapon fully detonated, I detected a large energy signature. We appear to have been teleported away from the explosion, and moved to a new location."

     "How's that even work? Osiris?" You turned to see his eye blinking meaning he was rebooting his systems. When it finished, he stood up.

     "Protocol 1: Link to pilot . . . neural link established. Protocol 2: Uphold the mission . . . no mission available; awaiting further instruction. Protocol 3: Protect the pilot. Systems rebooted. Pilot, incoming hostiles. 50 meters and closing fast. Suggest you ready up."

     "Ok. Time to greet the locals." You began to hear growling, snarling, and the sound of running feet. Grabbing your Flatline off your back, you checked the magazine to make sure it was armed and ready. Into the clearing you saw a large black wolf creature, bone armor sticking from its body. It came running at you. You opened fire on its head, dropping it in a matter of seconds. More came into the clearing and began running towards you. OS began opening fire with his XO-16. Whatever they were, they weren't going down easy. "OS, give me something to work with." You turned to him.

     "I am sorry (L/N), these creatures are of unknown origin. Comparative data to anything within the Frontier database has come back negative. Bio-scans come up empty. It appears their body material is of alien origin as well. Pilot, look out!" You turned as one of the wolf things lunged at you. Ducking under it just in time, you used your grappling hook and shot it into the creature's neck. Shooting upward at it, you drop kicked as hard as you could, breaking its neck. You turned just to see three more in a midair lunge at your face. You activated your cloak and moved under them. Their confusion lasted only a second before OS swept them all away. 

     By now, they were getting a little close, so you decided to do this the fun way. You balled your left hand, activating the phase shift module on your wrist. Shifting to the alternate dimension, you moved to where you knew they would be, and started to phase in and out of reality over and over again, phasing into a different wolf thing each time, basically blowing them up from the inside. Upon running out of phase shift battery, you decided to use ordinance. You took three E-smoke grenades off your belt and chucked them at the area most directly in front of you, and watched as the smoke deployed itself, electrifying anything stupid enough to run into it. The despaired howls and barks of the dying wolves left a sign that your plan was working. When the smoke cleared, you activated your stim. Feeling the needles in the suit stick into your arms and legs, you ran at the wolves and began rapid-fire punching them into oblivion. None of them had the reflexes to keep up with your speed.

     When the stim wore off, you stepped in front of OS, and the two of you gunned down the remaining wolves. Tired and panting, you put your flatline on your back before deciding to leave OS for a minute and stepping out into the open field, taking note of the fact that the wolves' bodies were disintegrating. You remembered the side arms you had holstered to your chest and hip. On the hip was the B3-Wingman you kept. You removed it from the holster and examined it, checking the cylinder. Satisfied with the full ammo, you re-holstered it. Then it was your chest sidearm, the Smart Pistol-MK6. Removing the magazine, you examined the holes in the back, telling you the amount of ammo that was in the magazine. Seeing that it was full you reinserted the clip and were about to re-holster it before yo- "Freeze!"

                                                                                                                                                        * * *

     When the bullhead dropped off teams RWBY and JNPR, neither of them knew exactly what to look for. They had only been given an approximate location of this "unknown object." The eight started towards the drop zone, all the while wondering why they hadn't seen a single beowolf yet. As they kept moving, they eventually made it to a clearing. They stopped at the treeline, however, upon hearing gunfire. "What do we do?" Jaune asked.

     "You're a leader, aren't you?" Weiss looked over at him, slightly annoyed.

     "SHH. Stop talking. Maybe we can get a closer look . . ." Ruby dragged out the word some as the next sight shut them all up. Before them was a huge pack of beowolves. They were all running in the direction of the gunfire, which seemed to be some kind of rifle, and something much, much bigger. What they saw next shocked them even more. From over a hill, they saw a man with strange armor and a glowing mask. He was . . . teleporting in and out of them? He disappeared and reappeared from inside the beowolves, and when he did so, they exploded into a bloody mess. They saw smoke flaring from grenades that killed Grimm that ran through it.

      "Who is this guy?" Ruby looked confused and somewhat mesmerized at the same time. 

     "I don't know, but he looks dangerous. We need to be careful." Weiss squinted at the odd sight before them. 

     "I agree with Weiss. We don't know who this person is or what they're capable of," Pyrrha added.

     "He can't that bad though. He's fighting all the Grimm off. The enemy of my enemy is my friend right?" Ruby suggested, trying to look at the situation positively.

     "Wow. I didn't think you were at that literary level, Ruby." Weiss said, earning an elbow from Blake. Suddenly, the gunfire stopped. From the tree-covered hill came the man walking into the clearing. He stood still, giving the teens a good view of what he looked like. He wore (f/c) full body armor and a helmet rather than a mask, with the visor being a weird mirrored 'f' shape. He pulled a pistol of sorts off his hip and examined it. Yang began to move toward him, slowly and silently. Ruby tried to reach out for her but was too late. "What is that dolt doing?" 

     "She did say she wanted to err on the side of caution." Pyrrha looked uneasy but gradually followed her. Once they were all behind him, Yang sprung up and yelled "Freeze."

                                                                                                                                                    * * *

     "Freeze!" (Y/N) heard the yell and then the cocking of a shotgun. Several other gun noises could be heard as well, but (Y/N) knew how this worked. He put his hands in the air and angled them so that the smart pistol was not visible, but was pointing at them. He heard the clicks and dings of the gun's tracking bullets locking to their targets. He turned around slowly, keeping the aimbot weapon trained on whoever was behind him. When he turned fully, he met face to face with a fist equipped with a golden gauntlet of sorts. "Make a wrong move and you'll be sorry."

     "Yang!" Some behind her shouted. Looking at the situation, you saw an assortment of people, but they all looked like teenagers. The four closest people each had two round locks on them, while the four farthest had one. You wanted to go ham on the trigger of the Smart Pistol but waited to see how this played out. 

     "I'm gonna ask a few questions, and you're gonna answer. Got that?" Fuck this, you thought. Clicking your phase shift module, you teleported to the alternate space and jumped into the air behind Atomic Blonde. You quickly exited phase shift and dropped toward this "Yang" person, before rocketing your fist into the side of her head. She left the ground, barrel rolling mid-air twice before landing. (Y/N) slid around to meet the faces of the seven remaining. 

     "Yang!" One with red hair and a  fairly large hammer cried. She bolted towards (Y/N). Seeing her reckless approach, he timed a roundhouse kick to her head knocking her away. He heard and saw an assortment of gasps and angered faces. Before he had time to react, a bullet missed his head by an inch. He jumped to the side and dodged another just in time to see 'Yang' jump off the ground and try to punch him. (Y/N) barely dodged it with the shock of her resilience. Most people would at least be concussed with a punch like his. Deciding that he didn't want to do this,  he yelled to his reinforcement. 

     "Osiris!" He yelled to somewhere behind him.

                                                                                                                                                       * * *

     "Osiris!" They heard the strange man yell. Ruby ran over to her sister, deep concern etched in her expression. She seemed to be okay, however. Yang looked back at her and nodded. Then Something caught the younger sister's eye, and her blood ran cold. The others looked the same, except Yang, who looked at Ruby with concern of her own. Before she could ask, Ruby pointed to what she saw with a shaking hand. 

     "Y-Y-Yang . . . robot." She looked confused until she turned around and saw it too. A giant (f/c) robot sprinting at them from across the field. It was covering a lot of ground, all the while that strange man just sat there staring, seemingly unfazed. In the students' current state of shock, the robot saw an opportunity, and a black rectangle rose off its back. What came out was a huge volley of rockets. Before they had the chance to move, the rockets connected to the ground around them, shooting them all back with incredible force. From their mostly prone positions, teams RWBY and JNPR watched as the man used a jet pack to boost jump into the air backward as the robot's face opened up! The man landed safely inside the robot and the face closed back up. It took this huge gun off its back before speaking in a human voice. "Sorry I have to cut playtime short girls, but I have places to be." The robot turned around and began running away.

     Yang put her feet under her before pulling Ruby up and asking if everyone was alright. They had mostly recovered by this point, and while it wasn't the only question, the most important one was what they were going to do. "We have to go after it. It was heading towards Vale." Nora said in a worried voice. Her friends nodded in agreement before each broke into a sprint, running after it. None of them knew what it was or where it came from, but they were positive they had to get to Vale and stop it before someone got hurt . . . or worse.