Welcome back everyone, to another Gamer Hunters after a little while.

To compensate, we made the chapter... pretty much huge honestly.

Hope you'll enjoy!

"So the first of the Level 3 Gashats showed no abnormalities or problems. Good," Chroma nodded as he went over the data of the recent battle. After a moment he turned to another screen and went over the other Gashats he was working on. Currently, his main focus was on the Doremifa Beat Gashat, but he also had data on others such as Giri Giri Chanbara, Jet Combat, Juju Burger, and a few more. Additionally, he also had a tab dealing with something called 'DZ', marked at 50%. "And the last one still needs….time," he mused. Still, things were progressing well so far. The boys were doing well, and so far the Bugsters had been kept in check. Still though, their current equipment could only last for so long. He had to get these upgrades done soon. Especially THAT one. "Something's missing from it though, I can already tell… but what?"

Meanwhile, it was another typical day in Beacon. "Huh, it's already been a week since the last Bugster showed up," Retsu mused.

"It's a good thing, seeing as we'd rather NOT have them show up every day," Natt said.

"The only problem….makes things kinda...boring," Ai sighed.

"I suppose it can't be helped. Side effect of living a double life," Edler mused. It didn't help next was the one class they ALL didn't like. Port's class.

Along the way to the class though, they came across a...disturbingly common sight. "Again?" Natt growled, as they came upon team CRDL once again ganging up on one of the other students. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the faunus students, cause by now they'd realized just how big of a bigot that jackass is.

"This again?" Retsu growled, hair turning orange, but soon turned teal again. "Give me a minute."

"You get five," Natt said flatly. By now all of them were so sick of seeing the arrogant young man act like he owned the school when he wasn't anywhere near the top hunter, and generally acting like a total douche.

A couple of minutes later, and team CRDL were popsicles, courtesy of Retsu's Semblance.

"Thanks for the save," the student in question a male cat faunus, evident by the tail, sighed. "You guys are those new Kamen Riders, aren't you?" he blinked after realizing who just saved him.

"That's us," Ai nodded with a small grin, before he frowned. "Those dopes giving you a lot of trouble?"

"Not just me. They pretty much just act like they can get away with whatever they want, and they're always going after anyone they think can't fight back. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Felix. Felix Nava," he introduced himself.

The four of them sweat dropped a bit at the name, but ultimately accepted it. "Anyway, we'd better get going. Be careful with people like these morons running around," Retsu said.

"It might be wise to have your teammates with you. These four usually don't do anything unless they're pretty sure they can win," Edler added.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks," Felix nodded, before going for his class. With that done, the four looked at the frozen idiots.

"I doubt that thought you idiots a lesson, but… just know that the more you do this, the more I want to find a rocket, stuff you four in it, and see how far you go before aliens grab you and probe you, maybe see if they stick you in a box canyon to see what you morons do." Retsu said, looking at the four frozen morons in deadpan.

"I don't know what's worse. That those morons never learn...or that they actually can get away with this shit," Ai frowned.

"Yeah, now that you mention it...isn't this school kind of….understaffed?" Natt mused.

"And yet they somehow keep it running," Edler shrugged….until he realized something. "We've got 2 minutes till class starts."

"...run for it before Ms. Goodwitch catches us!" Ai shouted, the group making a mad dash for the classroom.

Several hours later (and one boring as heck lecture), the teams were gathered in the next class, which was Combat Class.

And already a match was going on, this time, it was Cardin against Jaune… and Cardin was (sadly) winning.

Though Jaune had put up a good effort so far, while his aura WAS in the yellow, he had managed to chip away at least a third of Cardin's own aura.

If Jaune were to be perfectly honest, it was likely he never would have been able to do that without Edler's little tips when they had their own match a while back. Unfortunately, as he'd already somewhat inwardly accepted, while that was an improvement from his initial performance…

The mace found its way against his chest, sending his aura down to the red.

...he still had a LONG way to go before he would be ready for anything OTHER than practice fights.

"That's enough," Glynda said, calling the match. With that she gave comments on both fighters, while also giving tips, namely telling Cardin that while his strength is a good asset, he needs to use more variety, while Jaune she recommended to refer to his scroll more to better gauge his aura. With that done, they moved on to the second match, with the first student selected being...Yang. "Now then Ms. Xiao Long, please choose who you'd like to fight."

Yang perked up when she saw she was chosen, before looking through her classmates with a hum, wondering who to fight.

Eventually, her eyes fell on her opponent, grinning a bit "Hey, Retsu! Wanna fight me?"

Retsu looked up at her at that, looking down to the arena, before shrugging "Sure, might be fun." he said with a slight smile as he pulled his hood up and went down to the arena with her.

"You both know the rules. Tournament style combat only," Glynda said, earning a nod from both of them. She barely finished giving out the signal, when Yang suddenly surged forward. She'd seen what Retsu could do before, and she knew the best way to fight someone like him was to not give him room to breath.

Retsu for his part was almost taken off guard, fortunately the training and his own quick reflexes meant he caught the movement...but he was a little bit slower, meaning he had no choice.

Yang's fist met empty air, causing her to stumble a bit, but quickly turned to see Retsu in the air...now sporting a pair of tanuki ears and a tail. "Seriously? The Tanuki Leaf too?" Yang blinked, recognizing the power up from Mario...adapted into its Super Smash Brothers version, evident by the tail wiggling as Retsu floated in the air, rather than going up high and gently coming down.

"Yeah, I pretty much got all of the power ups," Retsu smirked, though inwardly he knew he had to do this quick. With that in mind, he stopped floating...and came down on her with his hammer.

Yang quickly evaded, and quickly tried to retaliate, the two of them soon falling into a rhythm of attacking and evading, as Retsu had better mobility, but Yang had better power. Yet at the same time, neither of them were overly weak in the other area, thus creating a brief stalemate...one that ended when the ears and tail vanished from Retsu's body.

"Time limit…" Retsu growled, now being forced on the defensive, using his hammer to score hits where he could, but as it was, at the rate things were going, he'd be losing more of his aura by the time his power recharged. "Guess this isn't such a great match up for me."

Yang grinned "Well, I guess that means I win."

"Nah, I just needed you to give me a few seconds to test something," Retsu chuckled, before he surged forward.

Yang quickly moved to defend...and promptly felt a mass of steel plow into her, sending her back. "Cheap trick!" Yang gasped.

"Turning metal right before I hit something makes for a good battering ram," Retsu smirked...right before he got sent back with a strong punch, Yang looking like she was literally on fire.

"Well how about I melt all that right off then?" Yang said with a grin. As she said that, Retsu returned to normal, seemingly deactivating his semblance, and for a second she wondered if he actually WAS going to give up, until…

"Yare yare daze…" Retsu sighed in annoyance, getting up. "Guess I'll have to step up a bit," he said as he turned to her, and she noticed bits of his hair that were visible had turned orange. However, what really caught Yang's attention was when several gasps were heard, and she turned to see what they were looking at, just in time to see the gauge displaying their Aura...with Retsu's gauge suddenly filling up to full.

"What the hell?!" she said in shock, before turning to him "What are you doing?!"

She could feel him raise an eyebrow, before looking at the screen, and then turning back to her, shrugging "It's just something I do."

"So… do you guys know what just happened?" Ruby asked in the seats as she looked to the rest of team SBLE.

"Honestly? No. I have no idea." Natt said, looking at the screen in confusion.

"With what little study I've done up on aura, I know that realistically, his aura suddenly recharging would be impossible, so this… I don't know what's going on." Edler admitted.

He wasn't the only one who thought that, as Glynda was looking at the arena with a frown. She had no idea how Retsu had done what he did, but as it was, there was no sign of foul play and the equipment seemed to be working correctly, so she couldn't exactly call off the match…

"Well whatever, let's get this done," Retsu shrugged, before revealing his weapon which had turned into its sword mode, and suddenly surged forward. Yang quickly reacted, throwing a punch, only for Retsu to jump over her, but this time she was ready, and followed up with a blast from her gauntlets...only for Retsu to suddenly double jump in mid-air, avoiding her attack.

The fight soon shifted, as Yang suddenly found that Retsu was somehow evading and dodging all her moves by use of various video game moves like the double jump and power slide, and heck, she swore Retsu wasn't THIS acrobatic before. The surprises kept coming when out of a double jump, Retsu air dashed right into her, slashing her with his sword, getting to the ground, and rebounding with another dash, catching her in the side, and chipping away at more of her aura.

Yang growled, her semblance activating as she aimed for a punch at him, and with the distance, he wouldn't be able to evade...only he did, as it almost felt like he sped up at the very last moment, and something akin to a pulse was felt before he evaded out of the way, her fist missing him just BARELY, before he got to her side and slashed her again, sending her tumbling away. She barely had time to get up as he pressed his advantage, attacking and evading in a way that didn't need him to break off his assault till finally…

"That's enough," Glynda said, as by now Yang's aura had fallen into the red from where Retsu had been chipping away at it even when she'd been able to defend. "A rather impressive come back, Mr. Plaiy," Glynda said, before frowning a little. "Might I ask how you managed it?" she asked, and everyone in the room could tell what she was referring to.

Retsu looked around a bit, seeing all eyes on him, bringing out a small "Mendokusei." from him… not that she had anyway to know what that meant, but judging by his annoyed look at the class, it wasn't happy.

He then turned back to her "I'd prefer to speak of this in private please, it's a personal matter."

Several hours later, and Team SBLE were gathered in their dorm room. Earlier, after class, the team had understandably confronted Retsu on the matter. Retsu sighed, and after a bit of coaxing, told them the truth, the same one he'd told Glynda. When he was done…

"Damn...I knew you had a secret up your sleeve, but not one of those situations," Ai blinked.

"It certainly is...rare…" Edler nodded.

"And I can imagine not something you really like to advertise...though it WOULD explain the aura recharge," Natt mused.

"Yeah, so PLEASE keep it under your hat guys, I'd like to make sure this stays between us unless it really needs to be addressed… besides, some people would certainly whine about it being unfair." Retsu explained, before sighing in annoyance at the end.

The next day came like any other day. Wake up, go to class, then break in between. Of course, it wouldn't be a normal day without SOMETHING going on. Case in point…

"Really? Does anything go through that head of his?" Natt said in exasperation, as once again team CRDL was busy showing their 'superiority' by being neanderthal bullies. 'Bonus points' being that the victim was Felix...when that went SOOO well the previous day.

"Ok, you know what? This is just getting stupid." Retsu said, before they heard what sounded like a revving noise and suddenly he blurred, kicking all four members of team CRDL in the ass and bringing Felix closer to them "Speed shoes." he said to the questioning stares.

"That Semblance of yours is really broken," was all Felix could say.

"But still useful," Retsu grinned.

"For now, let's get out of here before those four finally grow a brain and figure out what's going on," Edler sight in annoyance, to which they did.

"Thanks again for the save," Felix sighed, reaching into his pockets, only to blink in confusion as he moved his hands around in them, his face growing more and more distressed "Where… where is it?!"

"What's wrong? Did you lose something?" Ai blinked in surprise.

"The charm! The lucky charm my brother gave me!" Felix was almost hysterical by then.

"Where did you last see it?" Natt asked, hoping to try and calm the frantic faunus.

"I had it with me before...right before…." he trailed off before his eyes narrowed in anger. "Them...they must have taken it or caused me to drop it…!" he snarled.

"God dammit those assholes are really acting like a bunch of proper cunts right now." Retsu growled.

"This is really entering illegal territory, even for them." Edler added in anger.

"We should report this to the faculty," Natt growled as well.

"...don't bother," Felix suddenly sighed as if the energy he had evaporated. "Not like this is the first time something like this has happened…"

"Come on now, don't say that," Ai said, hoping to help. "I mean, I'm sure if we explain…"

"What's there to explain?!" Felix shouted. "You think those four are the first? There are lots of people like them, and nobody is lifting a finger to do anything, not even the teachers!" he shouted. "That's just how things are...nobody cares...I wish there were more people like you four, maybe then things might actually start getting better…" he seemed so tired by now, and as if things couldn't get worse...a familiar static started to appear over his body.

"Shit!" Ai swore as he saw the static.

Edler didn't waste time in using his game scope on Felix, and the result was "This is… a new Bugster."

"I don't even know this one, but judging by the music note, it's for Doremifa Beat." Retsu noted.

"We'll worry about exactly which Bugster emerges from that strain later. For now we need to get him to CR," Natt said, to which they quickly brought him to the elevator.

"The patient is one Felix Nava, age 17, Faunus: cat. So the cause of stress was a build up due to continued discrimination, with the loss of an important gift being the breaking point," Spring frowned, looking over the charts. "Honestly, why do people keep doing these things, especially when they cause more outbreaks than any other kind of trigger," she sighed.

"If we knew, we'd tell you," Edler sighed. "Anyway, it seems the strain we're dealing with is that of Doremifa Beat."

"That's your game isn't it?" Ai mused, before gaining a mischievous smirk. "Does that mean you're the Bugster we have to deal with?"

"Of course not!" Spring shouted, smacking him upside the head.

"ANYway, we should begin the operation immediately. As it is, the outbreak may happen anytime," Edler sighed, pulling the situation back on track.

"The strain comes from Doremifa Beat, so odds are we'll be dealing with a rhythm based ability," Natt sighed.

"No problem, leave the rhythm games to me," Retsu grinned, as they entered the operation room. "Don't worry Felix, we promise we'll make this better, THEN we'll get your lucky charm back."

"Yeah… thanks guys. I guess the virus DOES take priority so I don't die." Felix said, laughing awkwardly.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." Edler reassured him, before they all strapped one the drivers and activated their gashats "Henshin!"

In response to their transformation, Felix winced as his body was covered completely by the pixels, which formed up into the usual orange mass.

"Let's take this someplace else." Lazer said as he pressed the stage select button, bringing them all out to…

"Is this an opera house?" Ex-Aid asked as he looked around.

"I… think so yeah." Snipe said, honestly thrown for a loop.

"Well… fitting in that case." Brave said as the Bugster Union finished forming, revealing itself as a giant treble clef.

"Okay, these Unions are waaay too on the nose," Lazer couldn't help but say, before they didn't waste time and began attacking. In retaliation, the Union released shockwaves of sound at the group, forcing them back when it hit them.

"Let's not waste time," Snipe frowned, opening fire again, using his explosive ammo to cause additional damage.

In retaliation, the Union looked ready to fire another blast, but Brave was faster, creating a wall of ice around the Union, dampening out the soundwave, causing the wall to break, but leaving it open to Ex-Aid and Lazer who quickly came in and started attacking the exposed Union, scoring hit after hit as they rebounded off of the blocks that appeared.

"Let's bring it down!" Ex-Aid shouted, earning several nods as Lazer got next to Snipe and they charged up their weapons, before firing, hitting the Union dead on, while Ex-Aid rebounded, turning his hammer into its sword mode, Brave running forward with his flame sword, before they made a pass and struck the Union at the same time, causing massive damage and making it break down.

Once the actual Bugsters finished forming, the grunts could best be described as ravers, concert goers, basically, music fans, dressed in merchandise and waving around glow sticks.

For the leading Bugster though, he was dressed in an open yellow hoodie with several pieces of 'bling' on his hands and a heavy looking necklace of gold chain around his neck, what looked like a stylised gas mask on his face with pink lens over where his eyes would be, a pair of headphones, and… well, a pretty big mohawk honestly.

"Hey hey! Let's start this concert with track number 5!" the Bugster announced loudly, the grunts cheering him on.

"Okay...who's this guy?" Lazer blinked.

"That's DJ Scratch. About the closest thing to a final boss Doremifa Beat has," Ex-Aid said.

"So wait...we're up against a boss who's fighting abilities are basically 0, right?" Snipe checked.

"Other than maybe making us play Rhythm games….yeah?" Ex-Aid shrugged.

There was a bit of a long silence in the group, eventually broken by Lazer "Well… don't know if I should be insulted or relieved."

"It's an iffy area sometimes." Brave said.

"Hey hey hey! Don't go talking like I'm not here yo!" DJ Scratch said indignantly.

"Oh god, he even has that kind of speech tick," Lazer couldn't help but say.

"Let's just get this over with," Snipe grumbled, opening fire...to which the Grunts got in the way, several of them getting destroyed.

"Hey hey hey! Don't go attacking the star just like that yo! You gotta EARN the right to face me first! Let's party!" DJ Scratch called out, before suddenly an instrumental version of the song 'Excite' started playing while he sent a series of symbols in the shapes of a triangles, circles, squares, and Xs floating towards them.

"Are we really doing this?" Brave groaned.

"We might get a penalty if we fail this, so roll with it," Ex-Aid deadpanned. With that...the four of them began dancing to the tune, following the indicators and before long, they'd all cleared the mini-game with varying points, but overall everyone cleared it without too much issue. Once it was done...everyone promptly leveled up and tore through the Grunts, before focusing on DJ Scratch.

"This is officially the most annoying operation we've done," Snipe sighed. Honestly this really was annoying.

"Heh, not bad, you got past my mad song and my fans," DJ Scratch smirked. "But now time for my BEST move."

"This guy really isn't giving up, is he? Lazer groaned.

"Come on Wall of Sound yo!" DJ Scratch called out as he spun a disk from...somewhere and suddenly they were all blown back by a massive burst of sound.

"...okay, that was different…" Ex-Aid blinked as they got up. They didn't take TOO much damage, but that was still...surprising.

"Rather loud isn't he?" Brave said, shaking his head a bit.

"You think that's loud, try this!" DJ Scratch laughed, as he turned up the volume to 11...and blasted them across the area with another soundwave.

"Oookay, this might actually be a problem," Lazer groaned.

"Let's try this!" Ex-Aid said, grabbing a couple of power ups. "MUSCLE! METAL!"

"That ain't gonna be enough to stop my song!" DJ Scratch laughed, firing another blast, hitting the powered up Ex-Aid head on, pushing him back, before sending him flying, the power ups vanishing when he landed on the ground.

"Guess power ups aren't good enough," Snipe frowned. "Perhaps one of us should try using Gekitotsu."

"That won't be necessary." the voice of Chroma called into their helmets.

"And why is that?" Brave asked the CEO with a groan, before looking down at his belt as something down there glowed and a greenish-yellow gashat materialised in his holder.

"Because Doremifa Beat is finished." They could practically hear Chroma's grin as he answered.

"I suppose it makes sense to beat a Bugster with the game it came from," Brave mused, taking out the Gashatt and activating it. "DOREMIFA BEAT!" With the Gashatt activated, the screen appeared behind him, and from it, a small yellow robot flew out with a red visor over it's eyes, looking a bit like a hip DJ. Brave then closed the lever on his Gamer Driver, and inserted the new Gashatt into the secondary slot, "Skill Level 3." before opening it again.

"GACHAN! LEVEL UP! TADDLE MEGURU! TADDLE MEGURU! TADDLE QUEST! A GACHA! DO-DO-DOREMIFA-SO-LA-TI-DO! (YEAH! YEAH!) OK! DOREMIFA (THIS IS THE BEAT THEY ASK FOR) BEA~T! (TO THE BEAT! TO THE BEAT!)"

The robot split open across the middle before seemingly swallowing Brave's upper body, converting itself into a metallic yellow torso armor with a set of speakers on his left shoulder, a miniature scratch table on his right forearm, and his helmet now sporting a pair of pink glasses over the eyes, the front of a cap, and a headset.

"Alright, now we should be able to make some progress," Lazer grinned under his helmet.

"Hey hey hey! No stealing my style!" DJ Scratch shouted, firing another wave of sound. However, this time Brave could see something else in his vision, the sounds became visible and points started to highlight as they came closer. Readying his sword, he activated his semblance and struck at the points in the correct rhythm, causing the entire wall to collapse. "What the heck?!" DJ Scratch gasped. However, Brave surged forward, and began striking at him several times, once again matching the rhythm, each blow causing more and more damage, ending with a strong strike to the chest, sending him barreling back.

"Let's not prolong this," Brave sighed, taking out the Doremifa Beat Gashatt and inserting it into his Gashacon Saber. "GASHATTO! DOREMIFA...CRITICAL FINISH!

At that, the HUD in Brave's helmet showed what appeared to be a grid, with the focus being on DJ Scratch. Running forward, his blade became covered in musical notes, before he struck at DJ Scratch, followed by another and another and another, following the rhythm of the HUD, while each strike released a series of sounds that with the rhythm soon became that of an instrumental song.

"Oh hey, that's the first battle theme from Tales of Vesperia." Ex-Aid blinked under his helmet.

"Chroma puts the weirdest things into these doesn't he?" Snipe deadpanned.

Back with the finisher, Brave finished it with one last strike, scoring a 'Perfect'. "Shows over!" DJ Scratch shouted before he fell back and exploded.

"Operation complete," Brave said simply.

"Alright, now that we've handled the Bugster… time to go and kick Cardin's ass again." Lazer said, cracking his knuckles a bit with a smirk beneath his helmet.

Later, the group returned to the CR, with Felix now sitting upright, looking up at them hopefully, and grinning when they held up a bullet casing "This it then?"

"Yeah… something from my older brother. He was a huntsman." Felix said as he accepted the bullet casing, smiling fondly.

"I'm sure he's proud of you." Edler told him with a smile.

Felix nodded in thanks "Yeah… thanks a lot guys."

"No problem. It was our pleasure. Really it was," Ai smirked, cracking his knuckles a bit. Meanwhile several students noted a certain four who were out cold with a black eye each...and walked away without bothering to help.

A week passed after that, and so far things had been peaceful. "So...a field trip to Forever Falls...guess that'd be fun," Ai shrugged.

"Remnant does have some rather interesting sights," Natt mused, remembering his own travels.

"Still, this being Remnant, we should be careful. There are Grimm as usual in those areas," Edler reminded.

"As long as we don't get cocky we should be fine," Retsu shrugged.

"By the way… you've all heard how Jaune has been acting… weird recently, yeah?" Ai asked them.

"Yeah… for some reason he's been hanging out with Cardin." Natt frowned.

"That makes no sense though, why would he hand around that jerkass?" Retsu frowned.

"Well… chances are… what if Jaune's being blackmailed with something?" Edler suggested.

"Huh… well… Cardin DOES target Jaune a lot… would make sense for him to try and blackmail the poor guy." Natt mused.

"Does that guy EVER learn?" Retsu grumbled.

"They have a flatline for a learning curve," Ai deadpanned.

"And here I thought THAT was supposed to be impossible," Natt sighed with an annoyed shake of his head. "Well, let's find out what it is and make Cardin stop...again."

"This is getting really old really fast," Ai groaned.

"Let's try and find Jaune, maybe we can convince him to let us help." Retsu said, the others nodding as they went out of the dorm to try and find the blonde dork.

While searching for Jaune, they ended up finding someone else however.

"Hey Pyrrha… something wrong?" Retsu asked, frowning when he noticed Pyrrha looking down, literally not metaphorically.

"Oh, hey guys," Pyrrha sighed. "And no...nothing's really wrong with me anyway."

"But something IS wrong, isn't it?" Edler frowned.

"Well...I guess Jaune's been having me worried lately, and I just don't know why he won't say anything," Pyrrha said with a tired sigh, and a notable touch of irritation. "Its like he thinks he has to do it all by himself."

"What EXACTLY is going on? We kinda pieced together that he's probably being blackmailed by Cardin since he's always hanging out with him." Ai asked in concern.

Pyrrha looked up in surprise "Blackmail… oh no! Cardin heard Jaune then!"

"What are you talking about?" Natt asked her, confused.

"It's… well… it's personal to Jaune, so I can't tell you, but I can at least say it's perfect blackmail material for Cardin to use." Pyrrha explained.

"Well that complicates things…" Ai frowned. "On one hand we can't ASK you to tell us what it is, and we can't find a solution either without knowing what it is…"

"It's like a puzzle without knowing what the solution looks like," Retsu agreed.

"Guess the only way we'll have any clues is to ask him directly," Edler frowned. "Do you know where we might be able to find him?"

"Well… either over by team CRDL's dorm room… or over on the roof." Pyrrha said, before sighing "I hope he'll listen to you four at least."

"Thanks. We'll see if we can do something about this," Natt nodded. With that, the four of them split up into two groups, one to check the dorm and another to check on the roof. The ones checking the Dorm were Natt and Ai, while the ones checking the roof were Retsu and Edler.

Fortunately for the ease of movement, Jaune seemed to have picked now to be at the roof, where Retsu and Edler found him. "You look like someone kicked your favorite puppy," Retsu said, catching his attention.

"Huh? Oh… hey guys… what brought you here?" Jaune asked, confused.

Edler sighed, walking up to the blonde boy "Jaune… we know Cardin's blackmailing you."

"What?!" Jaune's eyes went wide at hearing that.

"It wasn't too hard to figure out when taking everything into account, we just don't know what he has over you." Retsu added, and Jaune's shoulders sagged a little.

"I… I see." Jaune said lowly.

"Jaune… are you willing to tell us?" Edler asked. "We won't force you but if you tell us we might be able to find a way to counter it."

"And by counter, we mean there are certain benefits from having Chroma as our sponsor," Retsu laughed, earning a small dope slap from Edler.

"I…" Jaune hesitated...before answering. "Its fine. I can handle this," he said.

"You don't have to act tough you know, I mean, there's nothing wrong with asking for help," Retsu prodded a bit.

"Not when I'm always the one asking for help!" Jaune snapped.

Edler sighed "Jaune, do you know how huntsmen get better?" he asked, seemingly out of left field.

Jaune blinked at the sudden question "They… train?" he answered, a little unsure.

"That. But they also get help when they need it, and are able to admit when they aren't able to do something on their own. When they have a team, they go to them with their problems. How do you think Pyrrha, your partner, feels, when you're avoiding her and not taking her help when she's clearly offering it?" Edler said.

Jaune frowned "Why would she want anything to do with me? I'm just… useless old Jaune… I don't even belong here."

"Come on now, you passed the entrance exam and the initiation, of course you belong here," Retsu said encouragingly. Too bad that wasn't going to give him the result he wanted.

"An exam I forged papers for and an initiation I was just getting dragged along for?!" Jaune shouted, and that turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back as suddenly he doubled over, static covering his body.

"You were infected?!" Edler gasped in surprise, and from the reaction it was about to go on an Outbreak. True enough, the static covered Jaune's body, but instead of a Union, something else happened. The static covered him and transformed into a main body of a Bugster.

The Bugster in question had an orange armored body that was themed after a jet, a red visor serving for eyes, he had a turbine for a right arm, a missile launcher for a left arm, and a gatling gun on his right shoulder, a few pipes being visible on his body as well.

"Beginning mission 8." the Bugster spoke "Vernier, ready for take off."

"That's Vernier from Jet Combat," Retsu recognized.

"So we'll be up against some artillery then," Edler frowned as they strapped on their Gamer Drivers. However….

"Hold it!" Vernier said, and before their eyes, his body shifted, revealing Jaune...though his left arm was still transformed...and promptly pointed it at his own head.

"What?!" Retsu exclaimed in anger.

"I've been waiting years for him to build up enough stress for me to take him over, I won't let you Kamen Riders ruin everything so easily." Vernier spoke through Jaune's body "I'm willing however to take my losses and just wait out in another host… you, however, can't afford to lose, can you?" he added with a cruel grin.

"A Bugster that's developed enough to strategize," Edler cursed. This was going to be more complicated than usual.

"So what'll it be? I walk away, or does 'vomit boy' here have his brains splattered all over Beacon?" Vernier smirked.

The two riders glared daggers at Vernier...but removed their Gamer Drivers.

"Thought so," Vernier smirked, before transforming fully and taking off.

"This...just became a problem…" Retsu frowned.

"Well...that definitely complicates things," Chroma frowned as they were all currently gathered in CR. "I was aware that they'd likely evolve quickly since I stopped introducing the anti-virus, but I never thought it'd be THIS fast. Not to mention now that I think about it, I haven't heard from Vernier in quite some time…"

"So, since the last time you beat him, he resurfaced in Jaune and decided to just bide his time unlike all the others… I hate fighting smart opponents." Natt said in annoyance.

"To make matters worse, none of us can fly." Ai said with a groan.

"Actually… one of you can fly." Chroma said, before pulling out a Gashat from his pocket and putting it on the table, showing it to be an orange gashat that red JET COMBAT on the sticker. "The only problem is getting Vernier into a situation he can't just turn into Jaune and use him as a meat shield."

"If only we could lock him in that form…" Spring frowned.

"Hey, that might just work," Ai noted.

"True...if we introduce a program that locks Vernier in his Bugster form, we'll be able to destroy him without worrying about harming Jaune," Chroma agreed.

"Then I guess our goal for now is keeping track of Vernier while you make that program." Natt said as he took the gashat.

"Should we inform Pyrrha about what happened to her team leader?" Retsu asked with a frown.

Chroma frowned in thought "I think… it's best if you don't. Not until you've healed him at least. We don't want her doing something desperate. I'll make sure to inform Ozpin though."

"Probably a good idea," Edler sighed. None of them were too happy with this, but it was necessary. Sometimes fighting an enemy that literally manifested from stress...was a big issue...

Whatever the case they soon left CR, having to think of something they could do to fix the problem...hopefully without making it worse inadvertently.

Vernier sighed as he touched down on a roof in Vale, reverting to Jaune's body, though his normally blue eyes were red, a clear sign of him being possessed "That was close. I can't have those annoying riders ruin this for me."

"Well now, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" a voice called out, making him turn to see Graphite and Tox, the former of the two smirking at him "It's been a few years since I last saw you Vernier."

Vernier grinned at them "Indeed it has Graphite, I decided to play the long game on this one rather than an immediate action, and so far it's been paying off, but of course, those pesky riders had to interfere."

"They ARE getting troublesome." Tox groused.

"Yes, I've seen them take down a few of our brethren already." Vernier frowned.

"Yeah, that's why I'm glad to see you my friend." Graphite said with a smile as he went and clapped Vernier's shoulder.

Vernier smiled back, before groaning "Dammit, this host is weak. I know I told the riders I can wait longer if I have to, but I've been doing this plan for years now, and resetting would be time consuming as all hell."

"So you need something to push your host to the limits of his stress so you can materialise." Tox summed up, humming in thought "Well, I'll ask the boss if he has suggestions for you, or maybe one of the other generals."

"The best would be Nin, aka, Mr.I-did-it-in-an-hour." Graphite scoffed "He REALLY likes to brag about that. Too bad he's got that deep cover mission of his in the White Fang."

"Either way, it's VERY fortunate that you're here Vernier, because you just made my job easier. I've been trying to drop off a little something at Beacon with… mild success, and it almost got discovered a few times. But with you here, I can have it placed in the one location where only the intended target will find it." Tox said, grinning as he brought out the Knockout Fighter gashat "So, think you're up for playing delivery boy for a bit?"

Vernier scoffed "Using my abilities for a mere delivery…" he said, sighing "But fine, I can do that much, where do you need me to put it?"

Tox's response was to grin as he went up to Vernier and whispered the location to him while handing over the Gashat.

Vernier blinked once, twice, before laughing loudly "Of all the places…"

"Okay...how to keep an eye for Jaune...without running into the rest of JNPR and having to answer difficult questions?" Retsu frowned.

"You got me. Hopefully with Chroma telling Ozpin they'll make an excuse for us," Ai sighed.

"I just hope nothing more annoying happens," Natt sighed. Too bad murphy was being a jerk today.

"Seriously?" Edler groaned, as coming down the hall...was team CRDL.

"I REALLY hope they don't open their mouths…" Retsu groaned.

Sadly, murphy didn't feel like granting them a break.

"Where do you think that dork ran off to? I still need him to make that essay for me." Russel groused in annoyance as he marched along, hands in his pockets.

"Don't know, but he'd better not have squealed to anyone, unless he wants to get kicked out of Beacon that is." Cardin snorted "Idiots like him are only good for one thing after all."

"You four really give the word 'bastard' a new meaning, you know that?" Ai snarled. "Do you listen to yourselves or do you believe the world revolves around you four and don't give a damn what your actions cause?"

"What are you asses talking about?" Dove asked with a sneer.

"Oh I dunno...how about how you dopes are literally responsible for 2 Bugster Outbreaks in a week that we're stuck cleaning up? How about the part where you dopes act like you're all that when you get your asses kicked on a near 100% basis? Or maybe the part where you four don't know the meaning of acting like a human if it bit you in the faces?!" Retsu growled, hair turning orange.

"Who cares about those stupid Bugsters? We'll just kick all their asses once we graduate." Sky waved off, not seeing the issue.

"...okay, that does it," Natt snarled, dialing up Chroma. However, before he could even say anything…

"I was watching from the gamescope. You four have full permission to use the Rider Gears on them. But please restrict it to level 1," Chroma said simply, followed by whispering "Ozpin was also listening, he said you'll get off lightly and don't have to worry too much."

"Thank you," Edler said...through gritted teeth. "Hey Cardin, remember how you thought Bugsters and Riders aren't a big deal? That you could deal with them?"

"Yeah? I still say I can," Cardin smirked...right before all four of SBLE strapped on their Gamer Drivers.

"It's your lucky day. You get to test that theory," Natt said maliciously.

The grins on the faces of team SBLE were positively DEMONIC when they activated their Gashatts.

"That felt so good words do not describe how good I feel right now," Retsu smirked as they took off the Gamer Drivers, team CRDL currently being pushed away on stretchers with a few limbs bent unnaturally, groans of pain, and weapons that were damaged beyond repair, while their faces were... well….they might need a bit of plastic surgery to fully fix those.

"Honestly, I almost want to smoke a cigarette right now." Ai said with a sigh of happiness.

Natt snorted "Really? THAT joke? Well, can't say I blame you I suppose."

"As much as I agree, since I'm a doctor, I will personally take away any cigarettes I see you holding and throw them into a paper shredder." Edler told the racer, though he was clearly happy with the situation nonetheless.

"Now that we've had our catharsis and probably fulfilled the dream of a good chunk of the student body, let's get back to work," Natt sighed. "Preferably before we get detention."

"Ozpin will probably tell Glynda to wait before grabbing us." Retsu mused, before picking up something on the floor "Oh hey, I think this is Cardin's tooth."

"Hey you're right...nice right hook," Ai chuckled.

"Now...what do we do? How do we find Vernier?" Edler asked.

"We'd need some way to track him," Natt mused, before pulling out the Jet Combat Gashat. "Think we could use this?"

"I think we could. Bugster or not, he's STILL from that game," Retsu mused.

"But we'd need some kind of tracking program for that...know anyone we could ask?" Ai frowned.

"Well...Chroma is busy, so let's not bother him…" Natt frowned, the four of them thinking hard about it...until they all had a shared brainstorm. "Duo!"

"A tracking system huh? Well, I guess it'd be possible, I could use the data from the Bang Bang series and Jet Combat since they use minimaps and targeting in certain modes." Duo told them over the scroll.

"How long do you think it'll take you?" Retsu asked.

"Well… give me half an hour, I should have something decent by then, I'll focus on making it track Vernier first and foremost, and make a version for other Bugsters afterwards, since this is pretty important right now." Duo answered.

"Alright, we'll talk to you in a little bit then I suppose, we'll try and find him the old fashioned way in the meantime." Natt said before hanging up his scroll.

"Think he's in town?" Ai asked afterwards.

"I doubt it." Edler said "Any source of stress for Jaune would be at Beacon for now, and Vernier knows leaving the city would be too risky as he'd be quickly spotted if he tried to make a break for Jaune's home."

"So he might be hiding under our nose then?" Natt mused. "You don't think he'd try blending in with our friends would he?"

"I doubt it, they'd probably ask questions Vernier can't answer… that and his voice, it TOTALLY isn't Jaune's voice, you'd have to be a moron to not notice that." Retsu pointed out.

"The only people I know who might fall for that….we just sent them to the hospital," Ai mused.

"...actually what DID Cardin have on Jaune? I mean, if it's something, you don't think Vernier might try to use it to make Jaune's stress increase, do you?" Natt blinked.

"...well, he told us what it was, and if Cardin has even half a brain cell, he'll probably have had it recorded somehow," Retsu gulped.

"Team CRDL's dorm it is," Edler nodded urgently. The group rushed to the room...and found it open.

"Hold it right there Vernier! We're not gonna let you-" Ai started but…

"Save your breath. The neanderthal was stupid enough to NOT keep evidence," Vernier deadpanned, sitting on the windowsill… before promptly leaning back and falling out the window.

The four were silent for a moment, wearing the same deadpan faces Vernier had been "Huh… I'm as disappointed as Vernier was honestly." Natt said, as they went to check out the window, only to not spot a trace of Vernier "Guess he left silently."

"Well, at least we know he'd somewhere around Beacon, so we just need to wait for Duo to call back." Retsu said.

Just a few seconds after he spoke, Natt's scroll started ringing "Speak of the devil?" Retsu asked.

"Huh… nope, I thought it was too." Natt said as he answered "Something up Ruby?"

"Well, I don't want to make you guys panic, but I think I saw a Bugster fly by really fast? He kind of went around a corner and I lost him though because I was surprised." the reaper answered, concern in her voice.

"We know, we're hunting him down right now, thanks for informing us, let us know if you spot him again." Natt told her with a sigh.

"Will do! Good luck guys!" was the cheery reply before she hung up.

"Okay... I've had quite enough of this guy running around," Natt said in annoyance, before pulling out the Jet Combat Gashat along with Bang Bang Shooting, pressing down the two buttons "BANG BANG SHOOTING!/JET COMBAT!" which caused both screens to appear, the Jet Combat screen having a small orange robot with gatling gun arms fly out, it's body somewhat shaped like a jet.

"GACHAN! LEVEL UP! BA-BA-BANG! BA-BA-BANG! YOW! BANG BANG SHOOTING! A GACHA! JET! JET! IN THE SKY! JET! JET! JET COMBA~T!"

5 seconds later and team CRDL's dorm needed a new window, with Snipe, now in Level 3, going full tilt in the air after where Vernier went. The robot had opened up like the others and essentially swallowed his torso to become armor for him, giving him an orange chestplate over his gauges that looked similar in shape to a cockpit of a jet, the shoulder armor being white, and a pair of orange wings on his back, the two gatling guns right at his hips ready to be grabbed and used, while his helmet now sported a jet fighter pilot's breathing mask, and some orange goggles over his eyes, with the green bang of the helmet now pointing upwards.

"Time to shoot this Bugster down," Snipe said, gunning the wings to chase after Vernier.

It took him a minute to chase down a trail, eventually seeing the smoke trail going around a corner and veering after it, finally finding him "You aren't getting away!"

Vernier looked back, cursing in annoyance "Dammit! Leave me be!"

"You really think I'll just leave you alone when you're holding a friend hostage? Get real!" Snipe shot back. At that he began opening fire and the two soon engaged in a mid-air dogfight. Vernier weaved and barrel rolled to avoid the attacks. Eventually finding an opening, he moved to do a loop, and soon the two were trading fire as both sides weaved and evaded each other's shots. The battle was a seesaw as the two fought for dominance, but eventually it ended….in a draw. Snipe managed to fire some missiles, which Vernier, being in mid-dodge, was unable to evade, taking large damage, but not before he managed to shoot Snipe in one of the wings, causing both to start spiralling out of the air.

Snipe frowned under his helmet, seeing some trees incoming, to which he quickly pulled out the Jet Combat Gashat, causing his extra armor to vanish, following which he could easily grab hold of a branch and used a mix of leverage and momentum to get himself to land safely on the ground. Once he was stable, he pulled out his scroll and dialed his teammates. "Guys, I managed to gun him down, but I don't think I cured the infection. I'll track him down as best as I can, but try to find me using my Scroll's signal," he said.

"Right, we'll be there as soon as we can," Ai's voice said, though before he hung up Snipe noted a question of "Do either of you actually have a driver's license?"

Deciding not to question that last bit, Snipe immediately let his hunter experience take hold, moving through the woods at full alert. He made sure to avoid staying in the open for long, while quickly scanning for any signs of his target. The first clue he was getting close? Several Grunts he noticed wandering around the woods. Quickly getting to a higher point, he proceeded to live up to his namesake and sniped several of the from the cover of the trees, destroying them in one shot, while quickly moving to keep them from finding him. The Grunts, completely in disarray were soon routed, before Snipe's scroll went off. "Yes?"

"This is Duo, I just finished the program. I'll be sending it over, so you SHOULD be able to use it to track him. I can't guarantee if it'll work while Vernier is hiding inside Jaune, but if he's active you should be able to find him," Duo said, quickly sending the program over.

Once the program was received, his scroll sent out a wireless signal into his gashat, and the hud on his visor updated, now showing him a radar function, on which he could see a red dot a little whiles away.

"You aren't getting away you damned bastard." Snipe grunted as he started following the signal.

While following said signal, he got another call, this time from Chroma "I finished the program, uploading it straight to your armor."

"Wait, you can do that?" Snipe asked.

"I'm the one who made them, what do you think?" Chroma shot back, and Snipe could hear the smirk in his voice.

"As long as it works," Snipe shrugged and continued on. It wasn't long before he found more Grunts, and Vernier who had a badly damaged wing and thrusters, meaning he wouldn't be flying long distance anytime soon.

Switching his weapon to riffle mode, Snipe took aim...and took out several Grunts, and quickly moved to another location, the area quickly erupting into chaos.

Vernier actually roared in anger "Just leave me be damn you!" he shouted as his grunts fell like moths to a flame.

"Only when you give Jaune his body back," came Snipe's cold voice...from right next to him!

Vernier actually let out a shriek...in the same voice Jaune did sometimes, as he turned and fired, only for Snipe to evade and literally shoot him in the back.

"No mercy for you," Snipe said simply, closing his Gamer Driver, inserting Jet Combat, and then opening it again, quickly shifting back into Level 3.

"I'm not going down without a fight!" Vernier roared, opening fire, to which Snipe took to the air and evaded without much difficulty, before he returned fire, catching Vernier dead on with a burst of bullets, scoring a flurry of hits.

"Give it up, you're not getting away," Snipe said coldly, locking on again and pelting him with a spray of missiles.

"Gah! Well then, how about this?" Vernier growled, before turning back into Jaune. "Come and try to attack me now!"

In response, Snipe stayed quiet, but flew right at Vernier, and to the Bugster's surprise, socked him in the gut. He was even further surprised as he was forced back into his Bugster form, finding himself unable to change back "What… what did you do?!"

"You SERIOUSLY thought we didn't expect you to pull that trick again?" Snipe smirked. "We had Chroma whip up a little program to stop you from using Jaune as a meat shield. Speaking of which..." he promptly aimed his guns and opened fire at near point blank, sending Vernier back with a burst of bullets.

"I'm not going down THAT easily!" Vernier roared, sending several missiles at Snipe...who promptly gunned them all down.

"No, you are going down that easily," Snipe said simply, before taking out the Jet Combat Gashat and inserting it into his Gashacon Magnum.

"KIMEWAZA!" the weapon announced as Snipe aimed at Vernier, who tried to fly away, before he pulled the trigger "JET CRITICAL FINISH!"

The Magnum shot out a targeting reticle that quickly stuck to Vernier, before a volley of missiles flew out as well, impacting on the fleeing Bugster. "KAISHIN NO IPPATSU!"

Once the smoke cleared, Snipe saw Jaune falling out of it, rushing forward to catch him, right as he heard the announcement of "GAME CLEAR!" catching Jaune by the hand right in time.

"Heh… mission complete."

"Okay, all checks are done, and you're just fine," Spring said with a smile as currently Jaune had been taken back to CR and examined in case of any side effects from his...abnormal Bugster infection.

"Alright… and, there's absolutely nothing wrong with me from having a Bugster in me for years?" He asked, honestly surprised at that.

"Actually, quite the opposite Mr. Arc." Chroma said as he came in, scroll in hand "Vernier having been in your for so long… well, it might give us an edge."

"How so?" Jaune asked, wondering how that could be helpful.

Before Chroma could answer, Edler chimed in "Antibodies from long term exposure, right?"

Chroma nodded with a smirk "Correct, with the blood sample we took from you Jaune, we might be able to help make a vaccine to reduce the chances of infection. But as well, the antibodies can be used to make new, more powerful gashats. And that's without counting the added bonus of you being exposed for so long to the virus, that after removing Vernier from your system, you're pretty much immune to the virus now."

"Wait, so… my blood is going to help people then?" Jaune asked incredulously.

"A LOT of people. Both in hospitals, and on the battlefield. I know it's not the way you expected it, but that's the right path to becoming a hero right there." Chroma said with a chuckle.

Jaune looked down, but smiled a little bit "Yeah… a hero…" he said, before sighing "I should probably pack my bags soon… no doubt Ozpin knows about my forged papers by now."

"Oh, I knew from the start actually." Ozpin said as he came into the room, with the rest of Jaune's team coming in after him but staying silent for now "I however allowed you to come in nonetheless because I knew you had potential to become someone great. That, and Chroma vouched for you after retrieving some of your online video game scores for strategy and puzzle games."

"One of the few players to manage a 10-consecutive win streak in Tetris 99." Chroma said, and Retsu's jaw dropped as he turned to Jaune.

"That was YOU?! You're the guy who kept passing my score in that?!" he asked incredulously.

"Well...yeah I guess. Why is that important?" Jaune blinked.

"Because, that game was made so that not just anyone could clear it to that degree," Chroma chuckled, before going around and retrieving an object, revealing it to be a blue Gashat depicting a rather...emo looking round head with what looked like puzzle pieces behind it, the words 'Perfect Puzzle' printed on it. "Specifically...that game was meant to find a potential user for this guy right here."

DUN DUN DUUUUUN!

I'm sure some of you saw it coming, but yeah, Jaune is a candidate for a Kamen Rider.

As well, Brave and Snipe have now reached Level 3, and, well, Jaune's infection was more advance, but as the story says, that turned out to be a gift.

And the Tetris 99 bit was an idea I came up with on the fly, I mean, picture it, Jaune winning at massive, online Tetris 10 times in a row, beating several other pros.

Also, beating up team CRDL... it was fun to write out that scene.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, and see you next game!