REBEL 2, ACTION!

Bright morning over Vale as cheering crowds roared. The Vytal Festival Tournament was off to a terrific headstart with the first rounds kicking off. A glorious time for any Kingdom in Remnant, even more of an amusing sight to strangers of this realm. The Festival grounds was bustling with crowds of onlookers and patrolling soldiers. At a noodle stand, Jin Kisaragi sat at the corner on a stool while speaking to Noel and Makoto who sat next to him, "There's a higher chance that we'll encounter her here, so remember to stick with me if that occurs. With a combined effort, we can overpower the Mind Eater spell the Imperator put on Tsubaki."

Both girls nodded, each with bowls full of noodles. "I hope this works." Noel muttered, frowning, "This isn't like her to just want us dead."

"I knew something had to be wrong with her." Makoto said with a hint of grief in her tone. "But…what'll we do about the NOL or the Imperator?"

"Colonel Mutsuki is currently working on that on the other side." The blonde replied, pushing away his empty bowl as the shopkeeper snatched it quickly. "For now, we need to ensure Captain Hazama or Colonel Relius don't pull off another public display. The people of this world are already being threatened by a hidden darkness and we don't need them in a panic."

"And what part of the plan was it for Kokonoe to throw me out in the wilds of this place?" Ragna mumbled, his left hand holding up his head while the other held chopsticks. "Or am I just kept out of the loop this time?"

Jin glanced at him and scoffed. "Why brother, you weren't informed of this? You mean to tell me you were sent here without as much as an explanation?"

Sighing at his brother's words, Ragna just turned away. "Right on the dot, there." With his chopsticks, he reached down to take some noodles when his left arm was grabbed.

"Hey Mr. Ragna!" Ruby yanked at him with an excited look as she spoke rapidly. "Did you see it? Did you see us win? Huh? Did you? DID YOU?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He replied, trying to pull his arm back. "I saw that."

"Yaaaay!" She pulled away and hopped around until she landed in a stool. "So what'ya think? Huh?"

The Grim Reaper blinked slowly with a dumbstruck look. "Uhh, well I…"

"Ruby, must you be a bother to him like that when he's trying to eat?" Weiss questioned as she and the rest of her team approached the noodle stand.

Noticing the four girls arrive, Ranga sat up. "So how are you doing after that fight with Terumi?" He asked as they each took a seat.

"It was…rather an unexpected encounter." Blake said, sitting next to Weiss.

"It was nothing. I'll gladly punch his ugly mug if he shows up again." Yang rolled her eyes, sitting at the end of the stand and nodded to the shopkeeper with a smile, "We'll have a bowl of the regular, please."

"IF we see him during or after the Festival." Weiss added as a large bowl slid in front of the blonde brawler followed by bowls for her and her leader.

"We gotta try, don't we?" Ruby asked, glancing at Ragna.

"This is our problem." He shot her down. "You guys have your own world to worry about."

Blake gave a nod to the shopkeep and turned her head towards him. "Well, Ruby told us everything Professor Ozpin talked about after that fight." Her eyes were soon replaced by stars as she saw a noodle bowl filled with fish.

Ragna blinked very slowly as his eyes glanced over to the young Huntress to be who gave a very innocent smile, poking her fingers together.

"Uhh…yeah… About that, heh…" She quickly looked to her bowl of noodles. "Oh, food!"

Jin shook his head and crossed his arms while Weiss held out a credit card to the shopkeep. "We'd rather keep anyone else out of this." He commented, "The four of you were lucky you even survived fighting that scum."

"Naaahhh!" Ruby waved him off. "We're Team RWBY! We can handle it."

With a sigh, Ragna leaned over to take a bite of his noodles when he saw the blue card fly across the air and lodge itself into the wooden counter, the old man pointing at "DECLINED" on the register. "What? How can my card be declined?" The heiress protested then slouched over. "I was barely into my monthly allowance." She mumbled as Black was in a panic, trying to slowly take her bowl before it was snatched away.

"Nooo…" She let out softly, letting her head fall on the counter.

"Maybe I could help?" From across the noodle stand while holding a handful of Lien, Pyrrha appoched with the rest of Team JNPR.

Seeing this, Ruby shot her arms in the air and cheered, "Pyrrha!"

"Aw, you don't have to!" Yang smiled and brushed off the offer.

"BUT SHE COULD!" Blake snapped.

Pyrrha laughed it off and smiled back. "Well, I think you all earned it after that battle."

Jaune looked over and began to speak, "Mind if we join-"

"RAGNA THE BLOODEDGE!"

Cutting him off was a voice loud enough to silence the entire fairgrounds as Ragna dropped his chopsticks and lost all color. "You've gotta be kidding me…" He mumbled under his breath, his head turning around with a creaky twisting sound as his eyes caught the glimpse of a tanned man with scruffy brown hair wearing dark green ninja attire. After an awkward silence, the crowd around the grounds

"Yes! It is I, Bang Shishigami, the Ninja Hero of Love and Justice!" Introducing himself so that the writer does not have to, the rather loud ninja made his way towards the noodle stand, making unnatural anime sounds as he pointed a finger towards the red swordsman. "And what fate this is, finding you, the infamous high-class criminal in this foreign land. You've seemed to have also stolen this food from this poor old man! " He then snatched the bowl of noodles away.

"Hey, give it back!" Ragna got up to grab his bowl back. "I paid for this!"

"Unbelievable…" Mumbled Jin, who shook his head.

Bang's eyes trailed off towards the Grim Reaper's more reserved brother, who also received a pointing finger. "AND with Jin Kisaragi, of all people! The so called "Hero of Ikaruga" and murderer of-"

"Oh, you're a ninja?!" Nora darted in, looking up at the scruffy man. "That's cool! So is Ren!" She immediately vanished and reappeared, holding up her teammate off of his feet.

Looking rather unamused and annoyed, Ren glanced back at her. "Nora, put me down please."

"Kaaayyyy~!" She sung with a huge smile, letting him land on his feet.

The ninja seemed completely distracted by this, his attention taken away from the dysfunctional brothers. "I see, then there are others who fight for the cause I live for." Bang put his hands akimbo with a grin. "It is so good to see youth learning these values."

"Umm, excuse me, Mr. uh…Shishigami…" Weiss chimed in, pointing behind the man. "But what's with the huge nail?"

"You don't need to ask…" Ragna mumbled as he put down his bowl and grabbed his chopsticks before being yanked away by what looked like sleeves shaped into paws.

"Meow! Good guuuuy!" Shouted a girl wearing a cat like hoodie with a totally blacked out face, only showing red eyes and a sharp smile. "Tao found you at last!"

The white-haired criminal mumbled under his breath, pushing the cat girl of of him. "Oh, now you show up here, Taokaka? Who else is here? Platinum?"

"Nyope." She purred. "Butt Lady."

"Who-? Oh… Great."

"Uhh, hello?" Ruby leaned over and asked, "Are you a Faunus?"

Tao tilted her head as her ears twitched. "Huh? A fawn-nyess?" She then blinked, her eyes gazing towards the large bowl full of fish. Watching her closely, Blake gave a glare to her, ready to climb over the counter. The old shopkeeper backed away slowly, not wanting to get caught in the middle of this now.

"Blake…" Weiss muttered slowly.

Ragna noticed this and shook his head at the red-eyed catgirl. "Tao, no…"

"Tao nyes!" She jumped over, pouncing for the bowl as did Blake.

"That's MINE!" Said Faunus yelled as both dove into a cloud of smoke that moved into the back of the noodle stand then out around the fairgrounds.

"Should…someone stop them…?" Asked Noel as she watched the comical smoke cloud move around other students.

"Nah, they'll be fine." Yang shrugged it off then looked over at another newcomer. "Well, hello…"

Turning around, Ragna saw who she greeted and sighed. "Yep. Butt floss."

"Grim Reaper." With gauntlet covered arms crossed over a large chest, a tan-skinned woman with pale colored hair walked over. The black jacket she wore gave the mercenary look though it contrasted with the very short shorts she wore with it. "How exactly did you end up here?"

"Long story, Bullet." He said quickly, turning away. "Long story."

"Hey." Yang stepped over with her arms crossed. "Nice gauntlets."

Looking over at the blonde, Bullet raised an eyebrow. "Oh, uh. Thanks. These help me out a lot in combat against the adversaries I hunt down…" Her words seemed to trail off as those gauntlets were clearly not the center of Yang's attention.

"Uh-huuuuhhh… Go on…" She said rather dreamily, not even flinching to Blake climbing up onto her shoulders, holding the noodle bowl up high from Tao's grasp.

"MIIIINE!" She hissed.

Tao glared, bladed caws coming out of her hoodie paws. "Tao wants. Now!"

Shaking his head, Ranga glanced over at the shopkeeper who stuck his head out from behind the counter. "Just get them all food so they'd shut up…"

The old man nodded, vanishing into the back of the stand with loud kitchen noises coming out of it.

Moments later, RWBY, JNPR, as well as Bang, Bullet, and Tao all looked rather famished with empty bowls as the shopkeeper ran in, taking each bowl into stacks and disappearing once again. There was a silence of satisfaction among them, which was broken with Nora's echoing burp.

Jaune dropped his head on the counter with a groan. "If I barf, I'm blaming you…"

"Oh! Aim it at the enemy!" Nora suggested with a grin.

"Nora, that's disgusting." Ren said then looked at Jaune. "But if you do feel the urge…"

"Got it."

"Tao is stuffed…" Said Kaka rolled over on her side on the grass.

Ragna shook his head, looking at the three. "So how exactly did you guys end up here anyway?"

Bang raised a finger, about to speak when Tao jumped on her feet. "Oh, oh, OH! Tao's got this!"

What looked like a stage appeared out of nowhere and as the curtains opened, it revealed handmade puppets of the three newcomers "walking" in front of a poorly drawn crayon background of the location Ragna was before fighting Tager.

"Tao was looking around for Good Guy after he vanished but no one was there, meow." The puppet Tao wandered around before slouching down. "So when I got lonely, Scruffy Man and Butt Lady were walking together talking about something." From the side, the puppets of Bang and Bullet walked over to her.

"Ah, well if it isn't Disciple Number One." Said the Bang puppet. "What brings you out here?"

"Meow! Cat Person said to follow Good Guy out to…er… What was place again…?"

Out of nowhere, a puppet of Ranga poked its head in from the side. "Ikaruga." He said then pulled away.

"Oh! Nyeah!" The Tao puppet jumped up. "Eek-aroo-gah… That!" After that, Tao herself continued narriating. "So Tao began to follow Scruffy Man and Butt Lady to-'

"Can we stop with that name already?" The puppet of the mercenary snapped. "I'm just Bullet!"

The Tao puppet just stared blankly at her before turning away. "So Tao began to follow Scruffy Man and Butt Lady to wherever they were going when all of a sudden…" Next to the three, a cardboard cutout with what looked like a drawing of a portal came out attached to a stick with Tao making its sound effect, followed by plushies of Grimm. "Monsters came and attack Tao, meow!" The plushies held up by strings then moved closer to said puppet.

"You beasts shall not walk on this earth!" The Bang puppet exclaimed, throwing cardboard cutouts of nails at the Grimm.

The Bullet puppet waddled over to a plush beowolf and punched it as it flew off stage.

"Oh, wow!" A Ruby puppet jumped in front the side, causing the others to stop and look at her. "Grimm came to your world?! How did that happen?"

"Hey, you're not in this flashback!" The Ragna puppet said as it came back in.

"Neither are you." A Weiss puppet with an unamused look said, standing next to Ruby.

The Ragna puppet looked at the two puppets then muttered, "Touche.", before backing away as the Weiss puppet pulled Ruby's puppet away, much to her protest of waving her arms in every direction.

"When we beat up all of the monsters, Tao and friends were being pulled in, meow!" The cutout of the portal was replaced with a much larger one as the three puppets went right into it. Outside of the little puppet show stage, Tao jumped out of it while holding the puppet of herself. "And that's how Tao and friends got here!"

"A rift pulled you all in?' Jin said while rubbing his chin. "Hmm. Just as Kokonoe described them…"

"That's how we got here too." Makoto said with a hand up.

Noel nodded, looking at Jin. "Does the professor think there's more of those happening in our world?"

"Who cares?! I LOVE puppet shows!" Nora tackled Tao into the little stage. "Do another! Please?!"

"Nora…" Ren mumbled, pulling out his friend from the stage. "We've got a match coming up. There's no time for puppet shows or exposition."

"He's right. We should get going." Pyrrha walked over with a smile.

"And what sort of match is this?" Bang asked with crossed arms. "Is it that competition within that floating arena?"

"Yup!" Ruby jumped in her seat eagerly. "Every academy from each Kingdom competes with their students to see which academy has the best students!"

Hearing this, Bullet looked rather quizzical. "I see… And this is for everyone to see?"

"You got that right." Yang confirmed while grinning at her, though the mercenary did not seem to notice her expression then the intercom started to echo.

"Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately." Spoke Port over it.

"Yes! Like they were scheduled to several minutes ago!" Oobleck said with some emphasis.

"Very well. I shall spectate and see who fights with the most honor." Bang smiled nodded at them. "Good luck to you four."

"Go get 'em!" Ruby cheered JNPR on as they left.

"We might as well watch, right?" Makoto suggested, getting off of her stool. "Or should we keep an eye out for Tsubaki?"

"We'll need to be discreet about it." Said Jin while he brushed off his uniform.

Noel nodded, walking with her friend. "He's right, but I kinda wanna watch too."

Looking at them then turning around, Ragna looked directly at Bang. "Hey, you should keep an eye out for anyone suspicious."

"And why would I?" The ninja raised an eyebrow.

"Because we're trying to stop disaster from happening out in this world."

"And we've got a plan to usurp the Imperator." Jin added. "Part of the plan requires your cooperation. Including Rettenjō."

Putting one foot back, Bang questionly stared at them in silence. "If…this world and ours are at risk of evil," his left hand clenched into a fist, "then I will not hesitate to bring justice." He then nodded at the brothers, walking away. "I will keep an eye out for anything suspicious. You my word."

"Huh." Ragna blinked, looking at his younger brother. "That was…easier than I expected."

Jin just let out a scoff and turned away, heading towards the Colosseum.

"Fine, be like that." The Grim Reaper groaned and mumbled under his breath, "First time you're not actually obsessed with killing me and you just act distant as always…"