The Courier hated teleportation. The feeling of nausea one got was incredibly uncomfortable. When he first teleported, he was unable to keep his dinner of Salisbury Steak in his stomach. This time was no different. As soon as his molecules reassembled, he felt the bile leap up into his throat. He quickly took off the Elite Riot Helmet and took a breath of fresh air.

This was when he knew something was wrong.

Instead of the familiar view of Big Mountain in front of him, he was in the middle of a forest. A thriving, lush, honest-to-God forest. It couldn't be Jacobstown because, during this time of year, it would be covered in snow. The trees were a lush green and looked healthy. However, one thing managed to throw all of his thoughts of where he was out the window.

The air.

The air of the wasteland was irradiated. It was stale and dry. It didn't matter where you were on the planet. The quality of the air stayed the same. But here, in the forest, it was clear and crisp. The Courier could taste the freshness.

With a growing sense of dread, he checked his map. He was met with the message: Warning! No Rob-Co satellites detected. Please wait until a proper connection is made or the satellites come back online. He smacked the device with his free hand before reading the same message again. With a groan of frustration, he did a quick rundown of his inventory and status. Apparel was fine, he really only had a couple sets of armor anyway. His ammo supplies were depleted a bit, but nothing he couldn't work with. His supply of meds worried him. Only his stimpacks were gone. All of his other chems were accounted for. He had all of his favorites weapons, but one extremely important one. The Transportalponder was gone.

The Courier's eyes widened in shock. Quickly turning on the Pip-Boy's flashlight, he started scanning the ground for the teleportation device. After fifteen minutes of searching, he leaned against a tree. The one thing that could get him back was lost. With a cry of frustration, he slammed his gloved fist into the bark. It snapped with a sharp crack, toppled over, and slammed into the ground with an echoing boom.

All of a sudden, he heard a low growl behind him. Scooping up his helmet and slamming onto his head, he turned to face the noise. What faced him looked like a Yao Guai from hell. It was covered in a thick, bone armor. The creature had long, sharp claws that could probably shred through a ballistic vest like paper. On its face, it wore a white, bone mask that framed its red eyes. It began to circle him, and it let out a loud howl.

Recognizing the clear call for reinforcements, the Courier calmly drew A Light Shining in Darkness in his left hand. After that was done, he reached over with his right hand and twisted a few dials on his Pip-Boy. In a flash of blue light, a large gauntlet materialized onto his right hand. The superheated Saturnite fist, a favorite of his ever since his time at Big Mountain.

As soon as his weapons were equipped, more of the demonic Yao Guais appeared. The Courier felt his mouth stretch into a grin. It had been a while since he had a good challenge.

"What was that?"

Yang glanced at her partner, Blake, from where she was standing. "Hear what?"

"There was a large boom. It sounded like someone knocked over a tree." Blake pointed out to their left.

"Really?" Yang asked, her eyes widening. "Let's go check it out!"

Blake raised an eyebrow at this. "And why would we do that?"

"It could be Ruby!" And without waiting for Blake to reply, Yang sprinted off in the direction of the noise.

The first Yao Guai sprinted forward, baring its fangs at the Courier. He rolled and fired Joshua Graham's pistol into its neck. The .45 auto rounds tore through the armor like butter, and the first beast dropped to the ground dead.

Before he had a moment to rest, two more of the creatures rushed toward him. He met the first one head on, slamming the Saturnite fist into its torso. The beast erupted into flames and flew backward a good thirty feet. The second one landed a clean swipe into his shoulder, tearing the fabric of his duster and tore into his flesh. Leaping out of the way of a consecutive strike, the Courier stood up.

"This is my favorite coat," he said. His voice took on a hate-filled edge. "And you ripped it." He holstered a Light Shining in Darkness and flipped a dial on his Pip-Boy. The Saturnite fist disappeared in a flash of light and was replaced with a hunting shotgun.

The Courier sprinted towards the beast, fully intent on painting the trees with its innards. The Yao Guai look-alike just let out a howl and swung its claws forward. Sliding in between its legs, the Courier missed the claws by inches. Leaping up behind it, he turned and aimed the shotgun at its head. With a satisfying bang, Dinner Bell let loose a storm of pellets. The beast didn't get a chance to even turn around as the 12 gauge shell turned its skull into a fine red mist.

Before the Courier could land, however, a massive claw slammed into him, knocking him through a couple trees and causing him to lose his grip on Dinner Bell. With a grunt of effort, he staggered to his feet and looked down. A three foot long branch was stabbed straight through his abdomen. Gripping the branch tightly with both hands, he tore it from his stomach and tossed it to the side.

Coughing, he checked his status on his Pip-Boy. Three broken ribs and a pierced abdomen with no stimpacks to heal it up. Luckily, he could already feel his Phoenix Monocyte Breeder working its magic. Turning a few dials on the Pip-Boy, the Courier equipped a massive, rusty sledgehammer. Hefting Oh, Baby! onto his shoulder, he glared at the large Yao Guai.

"You just made a huge mistake."

"Damn…."

Yang was impressed. From their position in the bushes, they saw that this figure had just been knocked back twenty feet and impaled and shook it off like it was nothing. He then proceeded to materialize an extremely large hammer out of nowhere. Now he was just standing there, waiting for the Ursa Major to make its move.

Blake came to a similar conclusion. But she was more worried about the fact that his Aura hadn't absorbed any of the blows. Before she could analyze any more of him, both opponents suddenly dashed toward each other.

They met in an arm-jarring clash of bone and steel that even Yang could feel. In one sudden move, the mysterious stranger shoved the hammer forward, and with his right hand drew a long knife from his belt. He thrusted it forward and it buried deep into the Ursa's left eye. The beast cried out in pain and staggered backward. This was the only opening the figure needed, as he hefted the hammer onto his shoulder, like a baseball bat, and swung it with enough force to crush the skull of the Ursa into a red paste. Yang's eyes widened. It took an enormous amount of strength to overpower an Ursa Major.

With the fight over, Yang could finally get a good look at him (she assumed it was a man from the roar earlier). The stranger had a rather large frame. Yang guessed he was around six foot three in height. He wore a long, dark green duster with grey shoulder plates. She could see the grip of two handguns coming from shoulder holsters underneath the coat. A large, black-handled fire axe was slung across his back and, crossing over the top of it was a sniper rifle with desert camouflage. On his left arm, he wore some kind of thick device that glowed a bright blue. His legs were covered in dark grey military pants tucked into heavy combat boost. He had a large holster strung across his right hip, and it currently cradled a massive, engraved revolver. There was another handgun on his left hip that she couldn't make out. His chest was covered in body armor with bandoliers crisscrossing all over it, with anything from bullets to grenades to throwing knives to handguns. On his belt was a canteen with the number 13 written in bold and two knife sheaths. He wore what looked like a standard-issue military helmet at first, but the face was covered in a respirator. The most unnerving part of it, however, was the eyes. They were covered in thick, red lenses that seemed to pierce her very soul.

He let the hammer fall to the ground, and, with after fiddling with his wrist device for a second, it disappeared in a flash of blue light. He suddenly straightened in his spot, and in a blur of motion drew his revolver and pointed it directly at where they were hiding.

Blake's breath caught in her throat. "Yang? Maybe we should lea-"

Before she could finish that thought, Yang stood up abruptly and started walking toward the stranger. She grinned broadly and raised her arms in the "I surrender" position. The man's revolver stayed trained on her head. "That was amazing!"

Yang stopped, however, when the man thumbed back the hammer on his revolver. "Look, you can put down the gun. There aren't any more Grimm around. Me and my partner here aren't a threat either."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" His voice sounded grainy and robotic coming from the respirator.

Yang gave the man a questioning look. "Whadda ya mean by that? Why would we want to hurt you? Listen, how about we put the gun away and get to introductions?" She stuck out a hand. "Yang Xiao Long, at your service. And behind me is my new partner, Blake Belladonna."

The man stood there, unmoving. He suddenly spun the revolver in his hand, before slamming it home in its holster. Then, he grasped her hand in a firm grip and shook. "Six. Just Six"

Yang grinned as they shook hands. Six had a strong grip. "You gonna take off that helmet, so I can match a face to that name?"

"No." He absentmindedly scratched the back of his helmet. "And don't ask why."

Yang opened her mouth to reply, but Blake chose to interject. "I didn't see you at Beacon. Are you a student?" He shook his head. "Then where did you come from?"

Six glanced around the clearing. "It doesn't matter anymore."

Even through the helmet's filter, Yang could hear the pain in that voice. His shoulders slumped slightly, and he looked…..tired. Not physically, but mentally. Like he had seen too much suffering and was weary of the world. But, then the moment passed and he stood upright again. He turned and fixed his red lenses on Yang. "I dropped my shotgun in the fight. Have you seen it? It is very important to me."

"Is that it?" Blake pointed behind him. Six turned and walked to where she pointed. He bent over and grabbed something in both hands. When he stood back up and strode back to where they were, Yang got a good look at it. It was an old-fashioned, pump-action shotgun. The whole thing looked worn from use and the camouflage paint that covered it was chipped and scratched. Six reached into his bandolier, reloaded a shell, and pumped it. Then he fiddled with the device on his wrist, and, in a flash of light, it disappeared.

"How did you do that?" Yang asked, giving the device a curious look.

Six showed her his arm. On the device's screen was a picture of a cartoon man, and surrounding him were words like "inventory", "status", and "data."

"This is a Pip-Boy 3000, a rare piece of tech. It tracks my health, stores equipment, and even comes with a built in GPS and radio."

Blake moved next to Yang. "But how does it store your equipment?"

Pulling back the device, he started to mess with it again. "It converts the device into digital code and stores it. The weight stays the same, so I can only carry so much. And, before you ask, I can't carry living things or anything too large." There was a flash of blue light, and, in his hands, he held a repeater rifle. Like the shotgun, this had seen wear and tear. The stock of the gun was decorated, and feathers hung off the end. He flicked more switches, and the gun disappeared once more.

"That's so cool!" Yang said, her eyes wide. "But if you can carry a whole arsenal in there, why do you even have weapons on your person?"

Six reached his hand down to his left side and drew an engraved handgun. He emptied the magazine and slid another one into its place. "Using the Pip-Boy during battle is slow and has gotten me injured on multiple occasions. I prefer to keep more all-around useful weapons on my person, so I don't have to rely on it." He returned the handgun to his side and crossed his arms over his chest. "Now, if you're done asking me questions, I'm going to ask you some of my own. Where am I?"

"You're in the Emerald Forest near Beacon Academy."

He nodded. "Alright. I heard you call those Yao Guais something else. What was it?"

Yang raised an eyebrow. 'Yao Guais? He must be talking about the Ursas. I've never heard them called that before, though. "They're Ursas. Have you never heard that name before?"

"Nope."

Blake cut her off again. "We should really be going."

"Where are you going?" Six asked.

"We've gotta finish our initiation so we can get into Beacon," Yang started. A grin suddenly split across her face. "You should come with us! I mean, if you've got nothing else to do."

Six pulled a roll of bandages out of his pocket and began wrapping the wound in his stomach. Why he didn't do this earlier, Yang wasn't sure. But she wasn't going to argue that with him.

"Sure," he said, tying off the cloth and putting it away. It was already red with blood from its brief time on his torso. "Let's go."

"Hey Weiss! Jump!"

Without waiting for the heiress to reply, Ruby leapt off the Nevermore. They had used it to gain an aerial vantage point to find the relics. She had spotted the small circle of stones.

As she approached closer and closer to the ground, she began to think of a landing strategy. Firing her scythle and riding the recoil would work, but she might need the ammo later. There was also the possibility of hooking one of the trees, but she could throw out her shoulder. She really should have been planning this before dropping down.

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she glanced at the ground again. All of her ideas went out the window when she realised how close she was. There was nothing to do know but sit and wait for her fate.

A strong pair of arms caught her right before she hit the ground. Glancing over, Ruby started to thank her savior when she saw his eyes. They were bright red and looked just like a Grimm's. She shrieked and pushed herself onto the ground.

"Ruby?" A familiar voice asked. The red reaper turned towards the sound. Yang was standing there giving her a worried look.

"YANG!" she cried, clinging onto her sister. "You have to watch out! There's a Grimm around here!"

Yang snickered and jerked a thumb to her left. "You mean Six? Sure, he looks scary, but he's no monster."

Ruby turned her head back to the "Grimm." Taking in his appearance, she forgot all about her fright. She skipped over the man's armor (though it did look quite cool), and went straight for his weapons. The two most notable were slung across his back, crossing over each other. A tan stock peeked over his right shoulder, hinting at some sort of rifle. On his left, was the haft of what looked to be an axe. When her eyes moved downward, she nearly passed out in glee. The man had seven, SEVEN handgun holsters on his person. There was a large revolver on his right hip, and an engraved handgun at his left. The grips of two revolvers stuck out from his back. Two shoulder holsters had that many more handguns. Opposite his heart, was the final pistol. And that wasn't even counting the numerous knives and grenades strapped across it.

"Oh my gosh!" she said, her eyes glittering. "That's a lot of weapons!"

Six just let out a chuckle. "Yup, it sure is."

Gazing around, she looked at everyone else. There was the bouncing, orange-haired girl and her friend with the pink hair streak from that morning. Blake stood next to Yang with the ghost of a smile on her face.

A sudden crash could be heard coming from the treeline. Pyrrha had sprinted out with a Deathstalker hot on her tail. The scorpion was snapping madly, desperately trying to slice her in half.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked.

The air around Yang started to heat up. Ruby took a couple steps backwards to avoid getting burned. She was about to tell Six to do the same, but Yang snapped before she could.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN!"

Ruby blinked and took another look at Six. The man hadn't even flinched when her sister lit herself on fire. In fact, he had shielded his red lenses and was looking up into the sky.

"Is that girl hanging onto a giant bird?" he asked.

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?!" Weiss called from on top of the Nevermore.

The heiress was currently holding onto one of the bird's talons. As far up in the air as she was, she looked like an ant.

"I told you to jump…" Ruby said, speaking barely above a whisper.

Blake glanced up into the air, apparently disinterested. "She's gonna fall."

"She'll be fine."

"She's falling," The boy with the pink strip said.

Indeed she was. Keeping a firm grip on the slick claw couldn't have been easy. Now, she was plummeting to the ground below. Since she felt it was her responsibility that Weiss was falling, Ruby prepared to catch her. That was, until Six brushed passed her.

He strode right where she was going to fall and held out his arms. Weiss fell into his arms bridal style, and he gently set her down. Nobody noticed Jaune go flying overhead and land at Ruby's feet.

"Thank you," she said, dusting herself off.

Six just grunted in acknowledgment as Pyrrha landed next to him.

"Great," Yang said. "The gang's all here. Now we can all die together!"

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose with a grin. This was her chance to finally prove what she could do. "Not if I can help it!"

She charged the Deathstalker with her superhuman speed. Yang shouted something at her, but Ruby paid it no heed. Firing her scythe to gain extra speed, she swung it in a wide, horizontal blow. The scorpion smacked her with the back of one of its pincers and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Shaking off her dizziness, she realized something. There was no way she could beat this thing by herself. She fired her scythe once, before putting it away and running back towards their group."Don't worry! Totally fine!"

When she looked ahead she could see Yang sprinting towards her. A sudden caw from above her gave her a brief warning to what was coming. Massive feathers began barraging the ground around her, until one pinned the back of her cape to the ground.

Pulling fruitlessly on the trapped cloth, she glanced back to Yang. Her sister's rescue attempt had been blocked by the last couple quills. "RUBY! GET OUT OF THERE!"

"I'm trying!" she called, tugging once again on her cape. The Nevermore's feathers had gone extremely deep, preventing removal without the proper leverage.

Her fall had allowed the Deathstalker time to catch up. It stopped right in front of her, clicking its pincers. The scorpion's tail pulled back and Ruby gulped. There was no way she, or anyone else, was fast enough to stop it.

Time seemed to slow down and the golden stinger descended. She could faintly make out Yang screaming her name in the distance. Ruby closed her eyes and waited for the impact.

The blow never came.

Once again, a pair of arms wrapped around her. She heard the flap of a coat in the wind and opened her eyes. Crouched in front of her, shielding her from stinger was Six. He had somehow crossed an impossible distance to protect her. Her eyes drifted down to his left shoulder and they widened.

One Piece: The Very, Very, Very Strongest

The large stinger had pierced through his duster and armor. A large hole had replaced anything that was there and blood mixed with venom was leaking out of the wound. Taking another glance at his face, Ruby couldn't see any emotion through his mask. His breathing sounded labored through his respirator.

His right hand drifted down to his left arm, and he flipped a dial on the weird bracelet he was wearing. Blue light flashed and whirring filled the air. Six suddenly whirled around and swung his right fist. The Deathstalker screeched in pain and stumbled backwards.

With some room to navigate, Six let go of her and stood up. Ruby took another look at him. On his right arm, was a weapon that made her salivate at the mouth. It looked like the marriage between Yang's Ember Celica and a power saw. The large bulky gauntlet had a rotating serrated blade on the front.

Then, she looked at the Deathstalker.

The beast's tail had been nearly cut in two. The half with the actual stinger was currently being yanked out of Six's shoulder by the man himself. Apparently, the saw had made quick work of the Deathstalkers chitin, slicing through it in a single blow.

Six finished pulling out the stinger and jabbed a syringe into the wound. He visibly seemed to relax when he pushed down the plunger on it. Pulling the handgun across from his heart out, Six racked the slide before revving his saw.

"Alright, you sorry excuse for a Radscorpion," he said, his voice coming out in a low growl. "Pick on someone your own size."

Yang slowly stood up, staring at Six. The man had just taken the stinger of a Deathstalker for her sister. Nobody, and she literally meant nobody, had ever done anything like that before. It simply left her awestruck.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she ran over to where Ruby was. Her sister was sitting there with her mouth hanging open, watching Six tackle the scorpion with no fear. Once she had pulled the feather out of her cloak, Ruby turned back to Yang.

"Wow…" she said, drawing out the word. "He's so cool!"

The Deathstalker snapped one its claws at him, but Six just tore through it with ease. Even the bullets from the handgun he was using were doing damage, judging by the way they punched through its armor like wet paper. Normal handguns couldn't even lay a scratch on its armor, so what he was using definitely couldn't be street legal.

An opening appeared after Six had sliced off the pincer, and he took it. With a thunderous cry, he drove his sawblade into the Deathstalker's head, sending chunks of flesh flying in every direction. When he backed up to check on his handiwork, not even a piece of the beast's skull remained. It was dead, but he fired a couple rounds into its neck just to be sure.

Six put away his weapons with another flash of blue light. Yang caught her sister's quizzical expression and bent down next to her. "His wristband is like a portable armory. He can store all sorts of weapons in it."

Ruby's eyes widened when she said this, and Yang felt sorry for when she was going to berate Six with questions. Granted, that would probably be a good time to ask her own. Like where he learned to fight like that and how he moved so fast. But, those could wait for another time.

The man in question suddenly reached down to his Pip-Boy and flipped another switch. A large, bulky sniper rifle materialized in his hand. It looked nowhere as sleek as Ruby's, but from the effectiveness of his arsenal, Yang didn't dare underestimate it. He cradled it in his arms and looked up into the sky.

"Where'd the giant-ass crow go?"

He got his answer when a loud caw filled the air. Yang gazed up and saw the Nevermore circling above them. Pulling Ruby up, she watched as her sister grabbed Six's wrist and began to pull him towards the group. "We have to go! My sniper rifle didn't do anything to it, so there's no wa-!"

BOOM!

In the short time Ruby had been talking, Six had readied, aimed, and fired his gun. Following his barrel, Yang looked at the Nevermore again.

Or rather, what was left of it.

Whatever rounds he had chambered in his rifle had completely obliterated the top half of the bird's skull. With no brain to help it fly, it spiraled toward the ground. Six nodded at his handiwork and put away his gun. He walked up to Yang and clapped her on the shoulder.

"Mission accomplished, right?"

Here's chapter one. I know it's somewhat short, but I like keeping them brief with lot's of action. I also felt like this was a nice natural break in the story.

'Till next time.