Team DEVL

Chapter 7: Reunions

"So, you're telling us that you two are from another universe?" Luna asked, bewildered by the explanation Danny had just given as to why his powers differed from those of a normal huntsman.

"So does Vlad have these powers as well?" Eric asked, taking interest in what secrets his partner could be hiding.

"No Eric, my ghost powers, along with the darkness of my ghost half, were striped from me in transit to this world, and instead I was turned into a Faunus, while being sent back to my late teens biologically." Vlad answered.

"Huh." Was all the paladin could say.

Then their scrolls rang. Danny answered first, and saw that it was a message from Ozpin.

"He wants us to see him in his office, now." The team leader summarized.

"Well let's not keep the old man waiting!" Luna said, bouncing towards the door.

"He just wants to see me and Vlad." Danny told his partner before she could cross the threshold.

"Aw," The wolf Faunus sighed. "Well, tell us what happened when you get back!" She perked up.

"Will do." Danny waved as the two dimensionally-displaced huntsman left the room.

TDEVL

"We picked up strange energy readings in the Emerald Forest. One of the cameras left over from Initiation picked up this." Ozpin presented a tablet, displaying a short video clip of a flash of green, with a white, shuttle-like vehicle flying from the location of the flash.

"Is that-" Vlad began to ask, only for Danny to finish for him. "—The Specter Speeder. It looks like someone's been looking for us."

"I want you two to greet our new arrivals, and protect them from the Grimm in that region. If what you told me of your world is true, they may be in over their heads.

"We'll do it. But the rest of my team is coming with us." Danny stated.

"Oh?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Are they aware of your otherworldly origins?"

"We were telling them right before you called us here." Danny replied.

"Then I see no issue with letting you take a Bullhead out there. I believe your teammate Eric listed 'Certified Vehicular Pilot' on his transcripts." Ozpin sipped his coffee as the Halfa and the Faunus left to fetch the rest of their team.

TDEVL

"We're coming up on the coordinates Ozpin gave us, and it looks like we'll be coming in hot." Eric stated from the cockpit of the Bullhead.

"I can sense a lot of Grimm in the area." Danny noted.

"And I'm picking up some powerful auras." Luna added.

Team DEVL found a clearing, and within it was a battlefield. Seven human figures stood in the clearing near a crashed Specter Speeder, fending off a horde of assorted Grimm.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do." Danny ordered. "Luna and I will drop in first, then Eric will land the Bullhead." Danny turned to the paladin. "You and Vlad will then meet us in the clearing. This goes without saying, but if you see a Grimm, take it down." Danny looked at his team. "Everybody got it?" Three nods told him yes. "In that case, Team DEVL, time to fly."

"Nice battle cry." Vlad noted as Danny and Luna leaped from the Bullhead into the fray.

TDEVL

Sam Manson was not enjoying this. Team Phantom and the Fentons had scoured the Ghost Zone for months, following the trail of the Boo-merang until they found a massive glowing ball in the middle of the Ghost Zone. The orb of energy had drawn in in like a black hole, and they had been buffeted by currents of power as they spun through the rift, uncontrolled. The rift then dumped them in some kind of forest, where they were immediately attacked by creatures sporting some kind of bone armor. As much as Sam loved animals, these things felt fundamentally wrong. To top it all off, every member of their party now had superpowers, like in the origin of the Fantastic Four. Sam gestured with her hand, and another thorny vine shot from the ground and swatted a were-wolf like creature aside.

Tucker was throwing pieces of the Specter Speeder's hull at the creatures, the metal caught in some kind of electrical field that reminded the goth of Technus. Valerie was using the weapons of her suit to fire at the creatures, occasionally letting loose fireballs from her fingertips, a power she doubted came from the suit. Dani—no Ellie—didn't seem to have her powers affected, but her appearance had changed into a sort of half-way point between her ghost and human forms. The Fentons also seemed to be affected. Jazz seemed to be predicting her opponents every move, while every single one of Maddie's shots found their mark. Jack seemed to have the most obvious power, as he summoned what appeared to be a wire-frame shield to keep the monsters at bay.

A loud shout came from above, and several of the creatures were blasted into the ground with green bursts of energy. A wolf's howl sounded, and a girl with wolf ears, tail, and a massive battle-axe slammed into the forest floor, sending out a shockwave that sent the red-eyed monsters flying.

"Now that's what I call an entrance." The wolf-girl quipped.

"Less talking, more slaying." Another voice spoke. Sam looked up, and saw a young man in a black-and-white, hooded outfit. He was blasting the creatures with green blasts which looked suspiciously similar to Danny's ghost rays. A loud caw got his attention, and a pair of red-glowing blades shot out from his wrists. The giant bird-like creature shot towards the newcomer, and he seemed to smirk as it drew closer. The flying man charged over the monster's back, slicing with his blades until they had passed each other. The creature turned for another strafe…

…Only for its back to burst into flames.

The monster crashed into a nearby tree, and began to dissolve as it fell.

The figure descended, and landed lightly on the ground. Green-blue eyes peered from under the hood, and a shock of white hair could be seen.

"Danny?" Sam asked.

The figure removed his hood, revealing a familiar face.

"What took you so long?" He smirked.

Just then, a massive, boar-like beast rammed into the halfa and sent him flying, only for a set of sharpened tendrils to pierce the beast's skin in the gaps in the armor. The four-eyed monstrosity squealed as fire rushed along the tendrils and into its form. The entire thing exploded in a cloud of dust and bone fragments.

"Sorry I'm late, Eric couldn't find a place to park." Another new voice stated, this one carrying another familiar tone. The speaker stepped into the clearing, his crimson eyes glinting in the light.

"GRIFFON!" Luna shouted, and the newcomer ducked down as another flying creature tried to catch the white-clad man in its claws. He stood back up, and his sclera turned pitch black as more shadowy tendrils, this time tinged with crackling yellow, shot from his fingertips and flash-fried the beast, whose charred remains thudded into the ground.

"Too easy." He said.

"Don't get cocky Vlad, those things hunt in packs." An armor clad figure charged into the clearing, throwing an electrically-charged lance into the side of another of the winged terrors.

Sam did a double take at the shadowmancer. "VLAD!?" She shouted, realizing that the shadowmancer could be none other than Vlad Masters, AKA Vlad Plasmius, one of the two ghosts that bothered Danny the most. Throwing out the vines she controlled, she bound Phantom's Arch-nemesis head-to-toe in vines, the thorned variety. A strange black glow kept the thorns from piercing his flesh, and all combat stopped.

"WHAT!?" Team Phantom/The Fentons shouted as they turned to their captive.

Even the monsters had frozen.

"Stop. Before anyone does anything rash." Danny stood back up.

"You're defending him?" Sam spat.

"After all the lies and manipulations he's put us through!" Valerie shouted, Ellie nodded in agreement.

"Things are different now, Vlad's different." Danny said. Sam could not believe what she was hearing.

"What, so somehow you got Vlad to see the 'error' of his ways and he's using his ghost powers for good?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Plasmius is gone." Vlad stated from his entrapment. "I lost my powers and the psychosis that came with them when we were pulled through the Nexus."

"Then how do you explain the shadows and the force field?" Tucker chimed in.

"That is our Semblance and Aura, the power of the Huntsmen and Huntresses." The wolf-girl stated, holding up her clenched fist for emphasis. "Now would you kindly let go of our teammate." Her eyes narrowed.

"Why should I, wolf-girl?" Her narrowed further and she growled.

"Stop!" Danny shouted, getting between the two women. "Sam, let Vlad go. Luna, clam down before someone gets hurt." His voice resonated with an air of authority that made it hard to ignore. Sam released her control of the vines, and Vlad dropped to the ground with a thud and a groan, while Luna took several deep breaths before appearing to calm down.

"Now, why don't we get out of here before were overrun by Grimm, and head to someplace safe to explain everything." Danny suggested, still using his authoritative voice. Everyone could not help but agree, worn out from battling the monsters that infested the forest.

TDEVL

The Specter Speeder had been moderately damaged in the crash, but could still hover, and was being towed behind Team DEVL's Bullhead by a length of cable.

"This is Remnant, a world where humanity has been hunted mercilessly by the Creatures of Grimm." Danny began to explain.

"Has anyone tried reasoning with them?" Sam asked, ever the negotiator.

"Ha." Luna barked. "There is no negotiating with Grimm. They are soulless creatures, incapable of any thought beyond killing anything human."

"She's right." Danny cut off Sam before she could say anything. "It's been scientifically proven that Grimm lack souls. Unfortunately, the older a Grimm gets, the smarter it gets, becoming capable of strategy, but always seeking to kill. These aren't ghosts. These are beings who thrive on negativity, and will not stop until every soul has been extinguished."

"Poetic, now what's with the powers and the animal ears?" Valerie asked.

"I'm what's known as a Faunus." Luna stated. "We have traits of animals, along with senses to be envious of. Unfortunately, many humans believe us to be less than human, and do not hesitate to make their bigotry known." A subtle growl escaped her throat. "And as for the powers, everyone who has a soul can have their Aura activated. Aura provides those with it active protection, akin to a force-field, along with enhanced durability, endurance, speed, and strength. Those who are exceptionally powerful or in tune with their Aura can even sense the power level of other Aura users. From our Aura, we also derive our Semblance. Semblances are unique to the individual, unless you're a Schnee, and even then, some families will have Semblances that focus around one 'area', so to speak. You also appear to have your Auras and Semblances activated."

"So, when I controlled the vines…" Sam began.

"That was your Semblance." Danny answered. "It was probably influenced by what happened with Undergrowth."

Sam grimaced at the thought of the Undergrowth Incident. She never wanted to lose control like that again.

"So, what about the rest of us?" Tucker asked.

"We'll figure that out when we get to Beacon." Danny replied.

"What's Beacon?" The Fentons asked.

"It's a school to train Huntsmen and Huntresses. Think Hogwarts meets the Xavier Institute." The geekier members of the audience got the reference.

"So, I think I'll point out the elephant in the room." Jack spoke up. "What happened to Vlad?" Thankfully Vlad was in the cockpit with Eric acting as co-pilot.

"When we fell through the Nexus, the dimensional energies altered us. My ghost half and human half were fused into one body, while Vlad had everything Plasmius taken away from him." Danny explained.

"So you trust him now?" Jazz asked, a little suspicious.

"Vlad was not inherently evil. The accident with the portal in college caused all his negativity and resentment to take form as a separate entity. Plasmius. From what I can tell, the Plasmius part of his mind took over the rest after the incident at his lab in Colorado. The Vlad we were fighting since then was more ghost than man. The Nexus basically exorcised Plasmius from Vlad." Danny chuckled. "And turned him into a Faunus."

"What's so funny about that?" Ellie asked.

"I always did tell him to get a cat." He laughed, and they slowly realized why he was laughing.

"Seriously?" Tucker chuckled.

"Completely." Danny replied.

"So, why is so much…younger?" Maddie asked.

"I'm starting to think Fate is just toying with Vlad by now, but don't tell him that."

The passenger cabin was filled with laughter for the rest of the trip back to Beacon.