Chapter 1: Psycho Mantis

Hello, readers! Welcome to my newest story! I know it's risky publishing a second story so (relatively) soon after publishing my first, but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head.

As you might be able to tell, this isn't the regular "Raiden or Big Boss/Venom Snake and/or Diamond Dogs in Remnant" story or "Remnant in Metal Gear-esque world setting" story. I remember scrolling through the page of Metal Gear + RWBY crossovers and seeing the stunning lack of a variety of Metal Gear characters within Remnant or RWBY characters in the Metal Gear world. That's not to say the stories already written aren't good, I just find it lacking. I wanted to try to spice things up, and a couple days of non-consecutive typing and editing later, here we are. Ready? Enjoy!

Dislaimer: I do not own Metal Gear or RWBY. Metal Gear belongs to Hideo Kojima and Konami and RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth.

It was finally here. He knew it would eventually happen, it was just common sense, but Mantis had been looking forwards to this day for a long time. He felt his half shiver a bit in his shared body, the extra robotic limbs tensing in excitement.

"I know your wavelength… it brings back memories…" He and his other half stated, swerving around his target in the air and enjoying his rival's dumbfounded reaction.

"It can't be…" Solid Snake breathed aloud, craning his neck to find his foe. He was forced to focus, though, as Meryl began to groan in pain as her own arm forced her handgun to her forehead, seemingly against her own will. Mantis had to stop himself from chuckling lest he give his position away. With a casual flick of his other's finger, he sent the command from the depths of his mind to order Meryl's hand to end it…

*Blam!*

"Gah!", Psycho Mantis and his other cried as the puppet strings attached to Meryl's body were blasted off by a bullet, causing her to fall to the ground, the puppet fashioned in his likeness bouncing from the momentum of the strings snapping. All heads turned to see a young man with blonde hair toting a large sniper rifle, a trail of fresh smoke still rising from the front sight.

"Johnny!"

"Meryl!"

Meryl shakily rose to her feet, smiling happily at the man as he also ran up to her. They were so caught up in their reunion, Snake was the only one who noticed the previously dead FROG soldiers suddenly rise up from the ground, a malicious blue aura surrounding their bodies. "Wait! Akiba!" Snake shouted to warn them, already raising his own rifle. Mantis was faster, though, and telekinetically commanded the dead soldiers to open fire. Johnny reacted just barely fast enough to jump in front of Meryl and bravely took the majority of the bullets. If Mantis was still in his own body, he would've surely grinned upon seeing Snake take aim and shooting down the soldiers, the ghostly blue outline never leaving them.

"It has been a long time… Snake…", Mantis and his other jeered, sneering behind the woman's metal visor as their puppets danced under their extended arms. Mantis was practically giddy, relishing the shocked look on Snake's aged, wrinkled and hideous face that had clearly seen better days from all those years ago. Not that Mantis himself was one to judge, of course.

'Two hideous monsters trying to kill each other… once a murderer, always a murderer…'

"Psycho… Mantis?" Snake asked carefully. He swore he could see his old adversary's face floating above the armored woman, the gas mask forever boring into his soul. Mantis felt his other briefly take control, the nanomachines inside her temporarily shoving him down. "No…", she said plainly, "That was another me… Can you hear the screams!?"

Despite the fact that he was basically forced to stand down like some servant, Mantis found himself laughing alongside the mad woman, flashbacks of his previous battle with Snake flooding his psyche, "They cry for battle… Let me hear you scream!" They shouted together, years of torment and hate beginning to rear its ugly head.

"Howl! Roar! From the very depths of your soul!"

There it was. The disturbance he'd been searching for. In the middle of a dark yet lush cemetary, a rather tall man wearing a large and dark hood was kneeling in front of a grave. There was a fresh rose where there hadn't been one before. This was not the first time he'd done something like this, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Getting up to his feet, the man briefly took off his glasses and cleaned them, being careful not to break them again.

"Ah, yes… you've been a strange one, haven't you…?" He muttered, a strange smile on his pale lips. As he turned around to face the direction of the disturbance, he ended up walking into a young couple on the path, both looking understandably mellow to be in such a place, the young man holding a bundle of flowers that didn't seem like they were for the girl walking next to him. Even though they were in his path, the man didn't change the direction he was walking in, and instead kept walking straight ahead.

The man and the couple kept walking towards each other through the cemetary, neither side strangely giving any sign that they even noticed the other. Twenty feet apart became fifteen, then seven. Then they were right about to collide.

Then the man seemingly phased through the bodies of the young couple like they were invisible. Neither the young man nor the girl at his side seemed to notice this seemingly miraculous event. They didn't see the cloaked, bespectacled man suddenly rise up and begin floating in the air either, the strange smile never leaving his face. Pausing to hover in place, The Sorrow smiled sadly in the direction of the troubled spirit, sensing all the things possessed by all troubled spirits that had been unable to find peace. It was nothing new. This one, however… this was something else.

Then he vanished without a trace.

Despite the fact that it was an even fight, Psycho Mantis would've been grinning from ear to ear if he still had his old body. Even while outnumbered, Snake was putting up quite a fight, though that was to be expected. Any time Mantis sent a puppet after him, living or dead, the old man would react in time to either put them down or dodge an incoming bullet. Dodging one of Snake's bullets himself, Mantis and his other channeled his psychic power, suddenly teleporting directly in front of their opponent.

"Snake!" They shouted, extending one of their arm blades and swinging. With a grunt, the old soldier ducked to the left, one of the computers in the room being cleaved in half in his place. Growling in annoyance, Mantis jingled the puppet on their left arm, causing a corpse right behind Snake to suddenly raise their gun up at his head. Luckily, Snake felt his leg brush the body's side, and reflexively pointing his gun back and fired into the corpse's arm and hand, causing him to drop it. Mantis teleported above the globe hologram and commanded more of their soldier puppets to attack Snake, and was simultaneously ecstatic and annoyed to see Snake dispatch all of them, although it was clear he was tiring. For once, Mantis was glad for his second body he was in, as he didn't have to worry over stamina like Snake did.

Unfortunately, that didn't mean that Snake wasn't going to take it lying down, and aimed his shot at Mantis. The psychic wanted to laugh, as he could tell that he wouldn't even have to dodge because it was aimed slightly to his left.

'Wait…!'

Right as Mantis realized what Snake was actually aiming at, the bullet already fired and struck the strings attached to the doll on Mantis' left arm. The nanomachine-manipulating doll fell to the floor, lying like a broken toy.

"My doll! Sorrow!" Both minds of Mantis' body shouted, and to Mantis' frustration, they were forced to teleport away in order to dodge a bullet aimed specifically at them. Reappearing at the side of the room, the psychic sent an unconscious soldier and Meryl, who had been re-controlled, to retrieve the doll. Snake raced ahead, however, and first knocked down the soldier sent by Mantis. In an almost slow-motion sequence, he bent down, picked up the dead-controlling doll, stood up straight and then duck-and-rolled to the side to avoid having to physically confront his ally and attaining one of the puppet dolls that Mantis dropped. Speaking of which, the psychic soldier twitched their fingers, causing the doll under his right arm to shoot two orange wisps of energy at soldiers that Snake knocked out earlier.

"Blackout!" "Blackout!"

Both soldiers suddenly rose to their feet and charged Snake with blades raised in the air. Snake dodged the first man's knife, but was just barely grazed on his shoulder by the second assault. Taking out a pistol, Snake put bullets into both of Mantis' living puppets and put them down. Snorting in frustration and feeling rather uncomfortable at the asbense of the doll under their left arm, Mantis and his other teleported directly in front of Snake again and, extending their arm blade, slashed angrily at him. This time, he managed to score a direct hit, slashing through Snake's uniform and leaving an enormous gash trailing from his shoulder to his lower chest. "Agh…!" Snake grunted, falling to the floor and clutching his wound in agony. He didn't scream, though. And that was something Mantis wouldn't tolerate.

"Well, well…" Mantis chided, floating directly above Snake's fallen form and extending each of their arms, robotc or otherwise, outward. "And I thought Liquid was tough. Ah, well… I suppose I should put you out your misery, Snake!" He continued, beckoning Meryl forwards with her Desert Eagle pistol forcefully kept trained on Snake. Behind the mask, Mantis felt his other briefly smirk above the endless shrieks and screams ravaging her mind.

"Mantis…." Snake began clutching his bleeding wound. Mantis cocked their head, "Hm? Last words, Snake?"

To his surprise, Snake suddenly jolted his arm out and aimed his Mk. 2 pistol straight at him. "Shut up."

*BLAM!*

Mantis screamed, jolting back and teleporting away to avoid any more possible shots. As he did so, he realized something.

He lost his other doll. Snake lunged for it, grabbed it, and because Mantis was too shocked to comprehend the loss of his doll, all he could do was send one of their blades flying at Snake before a sped-up and shrill version of his own voice from the doll reached his ears.

"Blackout!"

The Sorrow was getting closer. He could sense it. The emotions, the suffering, the anguish. It seemed to be coming from two people at once, somehow merging their pain into one outcry of misery. He'd already traversed the vast sea and had found himself slowly moving through Outer Haven, past the scores of soldiers laying on the ground motionlessly and through empty hallways and rooms filled with computers and weapons.

He didn't much care for it, though, only nearing ever closer to the shrieking pain emitted by the spirit he was after. Well, two spirits, but only one was missing its living body. And that had to be dealt with.

'Just what are you after?'

Psycho Mantis was in tremendous pain. Which was saying a lot, in own doll had taken command of him, forcing him to writhe and suffer as the body he now inhabitated was contorted and bent in ways it shouldn't have, feeling his spirit itself shake within the nanos that flowed through his other's veins and their literally beastly armored suit. He was just barely able to keep watching when the armor flew apart, releasing his other from her prison and seeing her cry and scream for forgiveness for her supposed cowardice so many years ago.

After she had been dealt with and lay curled up like an innocent baby, the screams from her mind finally subsiding, Mantis was left alone in the abandoned nanomachines of the armored Beast suit. He saw Snake panting heavily, another scar on his side from barely dodging Mantis' throwing knife moments prior when he fired the Psycho Mantis doll.

'My own power…?'

Just then, the abandoned helmet shuddered where it lay. It did not go unnoticed by Snake.

'No… I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!'

Suddenly, the discarded pieces of Screaming Mantis' suit began moving back towards the center stairs, rushing past the confounded Snake with vigor and began levitating, re-forming in mid-air seemingly of their own accord. Not taking any chances, Snake took aim at the empty, floating armor, expecting it to attack. But what Snake wasn't expecting, however, was for a familiar, sinister voice to sound from the empty vessel.

"Excellent, Snake…" Mantis appraised, feeling his spirit pull itself partially free of the armor and in full view of Snake. "… Psycho Mantis…?", Snake asked in disbelief, seeing Psycho Mantis' soul floating just above the floating armor. Mantis sensed his disbelief, his shock at seeing his enemy seemingly back from the dead.

"You don't seem to believe your own eyes… very well," Psycho Mantis stated, already having decided on a course of action, "I will show you the power of the world's greatest mind-reader, the world's greatest practitioner of psychokinesis! I'll start by reading your mind, your past… and if you'll remember correctly, you'll know this is no trick! It's true power!"

With that, Mantis summoned the deep reaches of his power. He focused, the suit's arms extending in an equally focused manner, trying to find Snake's mind. If he had a physical face, he would've smirked upon finding it, the mental gate to Snake's psyche, his stores of information collected during his years after 2005.

However, it wasn't that simple. Just like breaking into someone's house while they were away, entering someone's mind required the invader to find an opening, a weak spot. Once inside, there's little stopping the intruder from doing or seeing whatever they want.

To Mantis' shock, however… there was nothing! He peered around Snake's mental walls, his psyche's strength, and there was still no weak point. Not even a memory card!

"What!? Where is your data… where is it saved!? Where's your memory card…?" Mantis questioned demandingly. How dare he… this was the first time he had been seamlessly blocked from someone's psyche! He, Psycho Mantis!

Then, suddenly, as he searched for an answer, visions of a strange, new device from an otherworldy place appeared in his mind… Playstation 3…

"Damn, your skills have improved…" Mantis admitted right before he came to a realization, "Or rather… your hardware." He corrected, cursing the ancient and powerful deity known only as Hideo Kojima and the pantheon of Sony Computer Entertainment! Luckily… he remembered something else that would bring up memories for his adversary! Not only that… but for that wretched being who had been watching them all from the very beginning!

"How about this!?" He suddenly exclaimed, his spiritual voice seeming to echo in every soul left in the room, "Witness… my psychokinesis! Put your controller down on the floor… as flat as you can!" He shouted to a thoroughly confused Snake, although Snake could tell that Mantis was strangely looking at something directly above him, as though there was someone else listening to his words. Mantis felt the otherworldy being place the device onto a flat surface.

"That's good… now, I will move your controller by the power of my will alone!"

Mantis extended his power outwards, pushing through the boundaries of space and time, moving both his spiritual and robotic arms from the suit in an attempt to focus his power.

"Grrr… Argh… HAAAGH!" Mantis shouted, finally making the psychic connection to the otherworldly object. After directing his psychokinesis in the correct ways, Mantis felt the controller… and moved it!

"… what…?" Snake murmured, suddenly looking all around him in confusion. He just felt something… strange. Like a weird buzzing…

*BZZRT-BZZRT!* *BZZRT-BZZRT!*

"YES! HAHAHAHAAA! VIBRATION IS BAAACK!" Mantis cried ecstatically, seeing Snake's physical reaction to moving the controller. He retracted his power back to his own location, and was about to formally challenge Snake to a rematch; One-on-one, no puppets or aides, just soldiers ready to die in battle. But he couldn't. Because, in the very next second, he suddenly felt the most excruciationg, the most hindering and powerful force he'd ever felt wrack his soul to its core, the very fibers of his spirit writhing and twisting under the mysterious power.

"AAAUUUHGG! G-GRRRAAAHHHRRRAAGH!" He cried, feeling his power over the abandoned armor waver under this strange force. 'Wh-What is this!? What's happening…!?' He searched and wracked his own mind for an answer, finding none.

'There you are', A new voice announced. Mantis would've cocked his head in confusion if he still had a physical one and wasn't currently losing control over his own spirit. Not only was the voice completely unknown, but to Mantis' surprise, it was in perfect Russian. It had no accents from other nations, and was perfectly understood by him. Gradually looking upwards to where the voice came from, Mantis was astounded to see what looked like a deathly pale, tall man peering down from the railing above him wearing a black-hooded coat that obscured his hair and shaded his forehead, clear glasses that somehow covered his eyes from view, and a few pieces of military gear that seem outdated. Somehow, his appearance seemed familiar to the psychic soldier despite having never met this man in his life.

'My, my…', The deathly pale man commented in his mind in Russian once again, gazing down at the spirit beneath him with a single gloved hand extended to him, and Mantis was able to make out that he was the source of this strange power bearing down on him, 'You hold quite a bit of power… and yet so much suffering. Such… sadness.'

Mantis continued to try to wrench free from whatever force the man was assaulting him with, but to his shock, whoever this man was had outclassed the psychic by an incredible margin. It was like a mongoose attempting to pry itself free from the jaws of a lion. Both were fearsome, but one was undoubtedly far more so.

Down below them, Snake watched in complete confusion. For all he could see, Mantis' spirit was writhing in the air for no apparent reason, and could hear nothing of their conversation.

'Hmph. You're quite the fighter, aren't you? Very knowledgeable in the works of war and combat', The ghostly man stated. Then, suddenly, his smile became more forced, his gaze turning stern and averting to the young woman clad in a skintight uniform in a fetal position on the floor. Mantis followed his gaze, seeing his former other on the floor as well. 'Unlike her. That is simply… sad. So sad…', The man admonished quietly, staring at the young woman with a mix of pity and sympathy along with his crushing ghostly power increasing. Mantis attempted to push back against it, trying to see if he could figure out where he'd seen this strange figure before; Dark hood, spiritual power, glasses, perfect Russian, sorrowful eyes-!

'Wait…', Mantis suddenly realized, casting a glance at one of his dolls on the floor next to where Snake was lefting after dropping it. It was the doll he and his other used to control the dead, having been modeled after…

'… No… The Sorrow…!?', Mantis asked in disbelief, using his native Russian as well, turning back to the pale man above him. The Sorrow raised an eyebrow, but his grin only grew. 'As in the Spirit Medium Soldier of the Cobra Unit? Indeed I am. And what about you? I've heard plenty about you from many of your past kills; You must be Psycho Mantis… or is it Third Boy?', The Sorrow affirmed, continuing to speak in a perfect Russian accent suiting his background as well as Mantis'. Unlike The Sorrow, however, Mantis did not appreciate his other name being recognized.

'Nobody calls me that anymore, old ghost! Why are you here!? What are you doing to me… to my spirit!?', Mantis asked furiously, feeling his resistance to The Sorrow's ghostly power slowly dwindle. As strong as he was, not even Mantis' renowned psychokinesis could contend with The Sorrow's honed and overwhelming spiritual influence. And it was obvious to both of them.

'You are dead', The Sorrow stated casually, 'You have no place in this world, spirit, and haven't had one for nearly ten years now. And yet… you have not moved on despite having no ties left to the mortal realm', The Sorrow calmly continued, the ghostly fingers on his outstretched arm slowly turning into a fist, and Mantis felt even more of his ghostly energy crushing down on him. Mantis' soul cringed, and found trouble speaking back.

'S-So… what? Am I supposed to wander this Earth for eternity? What was the point of you coming here!? To humiliate me in front of my enemies!?', Mantis demanded, his patience beginning to wear thin. Not only was The Sorrow easily overpowering him, but he had also been looking like a fool in front of Snake for the entire conversation with the spirit medium soldier so far. It was utter humiliation, and Mantis thoroughly despised it. Unfortunately, The Sorrow did not seem to enjoy Mantis' accusations.

'Nonsense', He stated clearly, and for the first time Mantis saw his upturned grin fall into a straight, stern line on his face, and he briefly felt ten times more of the incredible spiritual force weighing down on him. It was crushing, choking, and absolute torture, with the all the bitterness from a soldier who spent his life among the living and dead. Mantis would've screamed his hungs out from the sheer pain if The Sorrow hadn't lifted it a second later. Not that he would've admitted it. 'No one should be allowed to disrespect the dead. Least of all me, Mantis', The Sorrow berated him, traces of anger and disapproval lacing his tone. Mantis almost muttered an apology, but his pride refused him to do so.

'But… to answer your question, no. I cannot allow you or any spirit to roam this Earth longer than the physical body has, and you are clearly long overdue to leave this world, Psycho Mantis. However, your case is quite… unique', The Sorrow continued, his words intriguing Mantis. As far as the psychic soldier was concerned, the only thing that set him apart was that his soul was kept on the planet by the nanomachines it had been encapsulated in… but, according to The Sorrow, it didn't end there. 'How so?', Mantis inquired, feeling The Sorrow's spiritual grip lessen somewhat.

'It is your soul's ties to the living world. You see, Mantis, when a spirit wanders the mortal realm even after death rather than ascending to the afterlife, it is always because of something left incomplete; Revenge or unfulfilled deeds or a broken promise or other. However… you, Psycho Mantis, have nothing left here. No unsettled debts, no promises to keep, no deeds to do. Simply put, Mantis, you do not belong here', The Sorrow explained calmly as his signature smile reappeared from hips lips, causing Mantis to send him a questioning look underneath his mask.

Before he could argue the point, however, the Sorrow continued, 'I cannot send you to the afterlife, however. Just as there is nothing holding you here, there is nothing granting you amnesty or permission to the afterlife. Those nanomachines… your spirit has been bound to them, and to her', The Sorrow gestured to Screaming Mantis' still form, 'for so long, it has been nearly permanently chained to the world of life. So… what to do?', The Sorrow finally asked, putting his other ghostly hand to his chin in thought. Mantis hated to admit it, but it was likely he would have no choice in whatever The Sorrow decided to do to his soul; His spiritual power outclassed Mantis' psychokinetic power not only in raw energy, but also due to them both being spirits, and spirits were what The Sorrow regularly dealt with using minimal effort. Which was why Psycho Mantis dreaded and despised every passing second that The Sorrow deliberated. Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait long.

'Well…', The Sorrow muttered at last, 'You cannot stay in this realm, yet cannot go to the one after this. So… How about I send you to another living realm instead?', He casually asked. Mantis blinked under his gas mask. First of all, he was surprised that The Sorrow was supposedly giving him a choice to begin with despite having much greater power. Secondly… "Another living realm"? As far as Mantis knew – which was a lot – there was only one Earth in which humanity lived. One, sad, pathetic ball of earth and water where humanity constantly quarreled and bit chunks out of itself repeatedly.

'What do you mean there's another living realm?', Mantis inquired. Instead of a verbal response, however, The Sorrow held out both hands in front of him, his palms facing outwards. After several seconds, his palms began to glow an ethereal white. Due to having to focus his power, The Sorrow's spiritual energy loosened on Mantis' soul, the majority of it going to… whatever he was doing, and allowing Mantis to take an undead breather. He was about to ask as to just what The Sorrow was doing, but silenced himself when the mysterious white energy in his palms began to form a flat, glowing disk of white energy. Even more unsettling, the disk began floating from The Sorrow and directly above Mantis' spirit, almost like a fishing net over a school of salmon.

Now, for the first time in a long while, Psycho Mantis was scared. He was about to be essentially jettisoned from Earth to God-knows-where The Sorrow decided to send him off to… and he had no control over any of it. Throughout his life, Psycho Mantis had always enjoyed doing what he pleased; driving soldiers to insanity using his mind manipulation, traveling wherever he wanted by hypnotizing officials and ordering them to allow him to cross borders, and using his position under Liquid in FOXHOUND to slaughter all the sickening men and women of the world as he so pleased.

Now, however, he had no choice. No say, no options, just dive headfirst into this alien place he had no knowledge of and could very well be far worse than the world of Earth. Which, he knew, was saying something.

'What's the matter? Scared?', The Sorrow began, gaining Mantis' attention again, 'Where did all of that pride and confidence go, Mantis? You… the both of us, we're warriors. Not heroes, not evil masterminds, we are warriors. Fighters. We've slaughtered thousands of men and women, seen into the minds of the most twisted minds this Earth can offer. Seen things most soldiers couldn't walk away from. At least, not with their sanity intact. You've endured this world of sadness, of pain, of bitterness and regret… why wouldn't you be able to endure what this new world can throw at you? If there's one thing I've learned, Psycho Mantis, it's that the spirit of the warrior doesn't leave you, ever. The spirit of the warrior… will always be with you.'

Suddenly, Mantis felt his soul being levitated upwards into the disk-shaped portal, slowly but surely. Deciding that he may as well accept this newfound challenge, he relaxed his soul, steadied his nerves as the feet of his astral body vanished through the ethereal disk.

On the ground, Snake watched Mantis' astral image float upwards… and vanish, the abandoned armor once again falling to the ground and slamming onto the floor, the individual pieces scattering on the floor like rats.

At first, there was nothing. Endless nothing. Infinite white void stretching all around, and Mantis was questioning if anything that had happened was even real. And then, it came.

Incredible, intolerable pain, infecting and drilling inside him with the force of what felt like a thousand jackhammers. Mantis wanted to scream, to shriek to the void his suffering and pain from moving from one realm to another through the vast tracks of space, time and the soul. But he had no throat, no mouth, no lungs. And worse yet, no one to hear it. He could do and say exactly nothing. Then, as soon as it began, the pain began to subside, leaving his body like water through a drain. All of it, except for a dull ache in his head, causing him to bring a hand up to his gas-mask covered forehead.

'Wait… my hand?', Mantis questioned. Throughout the nearly ten years he spent as a disembodied spirit, he could feel nothing; not the floor on his feet, not the softness on clothes, not the wind on his scalp.

Suddenly, Mantis opened his eyes in shock. He could feel everything now, all the muscles and bones crammed within his physical body. His hands twitched within the fabric of whatever he was wearing, and he could feel his toes tense. Fortunately, his gas mask was still on his face, though it felt somewhat… different, although still had its comforting leather feeling on the skin of his face.

Mantis shakily sat up, still a bit dizzy from moving locations in such a way. Everything felt so… strange. He hadn't had a physical body in almost a decade, so the feeling of his muscles moving under his skin and his bones shifting to accommodate them felt alien and plain weird. Adjusting his newly-formed eyes, Mantis felt his heart rate spike in fear when he realized he was wearing a black leather staitjacket. Luckily for him, though, it wasn't properly fastened, so he could move his arms as easily as without it, but his hands were stuck in its sleeves and therefore had difficulty moving and stretching his fingers. Examining the rest of his body, Mantis found that he was also wearing dark grey pants. Oddly, he was wearing no shoes; he was totally barefoot.

*BEEEEP!*

Suddenly, two white, flaring lights appeared in his vision, as well as a loud horn blaring out. It was hard to tell in the dark, but Mantis could see it was a car, barreling straight at him. Caught completely off-guard, Mantis' now physical brain struggled to properly create a telekinetic barrier in time, and it was clear that he was more than likely about to be run over less than five minutes of his arrival. Right as the vehicle was about to squash him, however, the car abruptly swerved to the side and narrowly avoided hitting the former psychic soldier, screeching to a halt beside him.

Mantis stayed frozen in place, not having thought that his life would've been endangered so soon after getting… wherever he was. Internally berating himself for being so slow to react, Mantis focused his attention when the car door opened and a young man hurriedly came out, rushing around the side and rushing up to him breathlessly.

"Good Oum, kid, are you okay!? What the hell were you doing sitting on the road!?", The man asked, his eyes full of worry. As soon as he got near Mantis, though, he stopped in his tracks and stared at his face with wide eyes, visibly put off by the gas mask and unfastened straitjacket. Not that Mantis cared at the moment. Just then, he realized that the man just called him a kid. A child. A young human with no knowledge of the world's true cruelty or the pain it delivered to its inhabitants.

"Hey, I'm not a-!", Mantis began, but froze.

'My voice… what happened to it…!?', He internally questioned, demanded. It was so… young! It sounded much like his old voice – almost exactly like it, in fact – but higher pitched and slightly faster. Just when he thought it couldn't get worse, Mantis suddenly spotted a red stripe right above his eye. Nervously lifting his hand up, his managed to grip it in his fingers between the leather of his sleeve and felt a sting of pain when he tried to pull it off his head. Running his hand along his head, Mantis was dumbfounded when he felt much more stringy, unruly hair all across his previously bald scalp. Everything began to piece together: his familiar jacket, his voice, his hair…

Psycho Mantis was a child once again. Specifically, the age he'd been when he first met Liquid Snake all those years ago.

'H-How…!? How did—Oh, that damned Sorrow! Why am I a child again!? The weakest phase of the human body, closely followed by the stupidest and most foolish!', Mantis shouted internally, clenching his fists inside his sleeves. Realizing that the man was still staring at him, Mantis breathed deeply to try to calm himself. Looking around, he finally realized that he was in a rather large urban city in the middle of the night. More specifically, sitting in the middle of one out of two lanes of an asphalt road, which explains how he nearly got hit by a car. Shakily standing up on his thin legs, Mantis realized just how pathetically short he was; just barely up to the man's chest in terms of height. Growling to himself, Mantis managed to steady his deteriorating nerves.

"Sorry… I am fine, thank you!", Mantis said in a faked happy voice, trying to sound like the child that the driver of the car probably assumed he was. He immediately felt disgusted by the sound of his own voice attempting to sound actually innocent. The man nodded nervously.

"Er, okay… Do you need me to, uh, call anyone, kid?", He asked him, unnerved by Mantis' bizarre outfit. Already tired of acting, Mantis outstretched his arms into his favorite pose, and to the man's shock, began floating up into the air and looking down upon him. Mantis smirked under his mask as he felt his psychokinetic power pool and settle in his mind, as well as the terrified look on the man's face. Before he could do or say anything, however, Mantis already found an opening to the man's mind and invaded it, implanting his will into the man's psyche.

"Go away. You saw nothing", Mantis stated simply and clearly. The man nodded silently with glassy eyes, walked back to his car in a zombie-like fashion, and drove off slowly, rounding the corner and driving out of sight. After controlling the man and making him continue driving for several minutes, using the man's memory as a map, Mantis finally let go and let himself float gently down to the ground. As soon as his feet hit the asphalt, he stumbled slightly and put a hand to his forehead, his adolescent mind not quite used to using such focused telepathic power.

'Ugh, I nearly forgot my young mind wasn't as adept at mind controlling… Dammit…' , Mantis lamented as he remembered his teen years. While he boasted to be the world's greatest psychokinestist, he hadn't actually mastered controlling someone's mind until he reached about 18 years old, something he was sure only Liquid ever knew. Before then, he'd mostly stuck with basic psychokinesis, which was to say that he only moved and manipulated the physical world rather than psychological thought processes. Which was something he was now starting to regret. Feeling his brain recover, Mantis deliberated on his next course of action.

*CRASH!*

Unfortunately, he did not get very far. Mantis clearly heard the sound of glass shattering, and… rock music? Turning around, he saw a young teenage girl with dark and red-tipped hair around his current age wearing a dark red hood and blouse, a red cape, a bright red and black skirt, a belt containing bullets and a pouch, and the largest scythe he had ever seen in his life. Unnecessarily huge, in fact, the blade itself nearly being as tall as he was and probably even heavier. He watched her twirl the enormous scythe around far too easily for someone of her size, moving it as easily as if she was twirling a pencil in her fingers before finally slamming the tip of the blade into the dark asphalt. Following her gaze into the broken window she must've destroyed, Mantis realized there were what looked like street thugs and goons glaring at her, all of them wearing black suits, red sunglasses and top hats. Another man stood with them, wearing a bowler hat, white suit with red lining, black pants, a grey scarf and with incredibly red hair that covered one of his eyes, smoking a cigar calmly. As Mantis watched, he realized the music was coming from a set of headphones in the girl's hands, which she switched off somewhat awkwardly after a few seconds.

"… Okay… Get her!", The white suited man growled to his henchmen, prompting them to rush outside wielding large red cleavers. It sickened Mantis that these thugs were ganging up on one unassuming girl… until he realized that he himself in his child form also looked rather harmless. That, and he had the feeling this girl could take care of herself quite easily.

'Eh, what right do I have to judge?', He reminded himself as one goon attacked the girl with a brazen swing. To his mild surprise, the girl jumped over his blade, swung around on her scythe, and kicked him in the face with both feet hard enough to send him flying back into the broken window. As more of the men charged her, a gunshot of all things somehow fired out of her scythe, allowing her to utilize the recoil to spin around gracefully, sending one goon flying several dozen feet into the air and slamming her blade down in time to crush another into the ground. One thug wisely kept his distance and aimed his firearm at the girl, and Mantis almost felt like helping her.

Almost.

Apparently, though, he didn't have to. The girl saw the man about to fire and shot the gun somehow inside her scythe, propelling her backwards and avoiding the bullet spray. However, much to Mantis' surprise, she was somehow able to literally flash out of the way of the next few shots, zigzagging left and right in a red blur, as well as leaving… rose petals behind?

'Alright, just where have you sent me, Sorrow!?', Mantis screamed internally, amazed at how fast the girl was able to move. Not only was she moving too easily with such a large weapon, but she was moving far faster than any human being should be able to move. Not even Snake in his prime was that fast, and he should know because he personally did battle with Snake during that time!

The girl rushed the thug, literally sweeping him off his feet and into the air. Pushing her legs off the ground, she met the thug in mid-air and sent a powerful kick his way, causing him to careen down at the feet of the man wearing the white suit in defeat.

"Hmph… Well, you were worth every cent. Truly, you were!" The man growled sarcastically, and it was only now that he was outside that Mantis could sense the sheer greed and lust emantating off of him. He'd seen it all before… the want for money, the ambitious arrogance to stand above others… it made him sick.

And it pissed him off.

"Well, Red…", Roman began smoothly, walking carelessly past the defeated goon and removing his cigar, "I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around…", he said, dropping his cigar and crushing it beneath his cane. He then raised it, pointed it at Ruby, and a small aiming reticle popped up from the base, revealing a muzzle at one end.

"… I'm afraid this is where we part ways", Roman stated menacingly, glaring straight at the girl in front of him. Without any hesitation, he fired a large flare of Fire Dust straight from Melodic Cudgel and directly at Ruby Rose, a screeching whistling sound following it as it surged through the air. Ruby aimed Crescent Rose down at the ground and prepared to use its recoil to jump up and above it. However, to her and Roman's shock, the flare shot just… stopped. Right before it was about to hit Ruby, the discharge of Fire Dust froze in mid-air, and although it continued to spark and sizzle, it simply floated there.

"Uh… Is that some kinda Sembla-?", Ruby began to ask but was cut off when the spark suddenly flew upwards, propelled by an unknown force, then sharply turned to the side and began shooting straight down to the ground like a meteor. Staring with wide eyes, she watched the flare land directly on top of a fleeing Roman Torchwick, who'd been trying to escape. As soon as the flare made contact, it exploded, launching a terrified Roman and bits of the asphalt forwards and sliding across the ground until he came at a stop near the sidewalk of the building he'd been trying to reach.

"Ow… *cough!*, *cough!*, ugh… what in the hell was that!?", Roman groaned, pressing his hands down on the pavement and wiping the ash off one of his sleeves. Suddenly, he noticed a shadow just above him, and thinking it was the girl, Roman angrily lifted his head to glare at the person.

"Okay, just what the-!?", He immediately stopped, seeing not Ruby standing there, but rather a young boy with unruly red hair, bare feet, dark grey pants, an unfastened straitjacket and, most unsettling of all, a dark, cold gas mask whose eye holes seemed to bore directly into his bone. That, and the boy wearing it was somehow floating a few feet in the air. Feeling a shiver down his spine, Roman opened his mouth nervously to speak.

"U-Um… hey there, kid. Uh, nice mask you got there—"

"Shut up", The floating boy stated clearly, his voice as young-sounding as Ruby's yet far more menacing and cold than any teenager's voice should be. Roman gulped nervously, feeling power and venom practically oozing from the boy. Almost just like her.

"Thought you could get away? That you could go on and fool such a skilled opponent?", Mantis hissed, venom lacing his voice. He began raising his arms up, and the large +40 foot tall metal ladder that Roman had tried to get to suddenly began to shake and writhe on its hinges, the bolts and bars holding it to the wall beginning to give away to Mantis' power. "You are sorely mistaken", Mantis stated, and to the surprise of everyone present, the ladder suddenly jolted and broke free from the wall, causing several bricks and bolts to fall to the ground. Mantis raised his right arm above his head as if lifting a staff or pole, and the ladder began to maneveur in the air above him accordingly, rolling and floating in the air with Mantis threateningly over Roman Torchwick.

It aggravated him. It really did. As an adult, Mantis had been able to master and improve many of his abilities from when he was a child, and one of them was reacting to other people's emotions and thoughts. He painfully remembered how vulnerable he'd been to the sheer exerted wills of others as a child, how easily he could sense their ambitions and beliefs. He'd been able to dull it down as he grew older, honing his skills to became less receptive to the thoughts of others. But now, he was back in his child self's body, and was far more receptive to the emotions and wills of others than as a grown man.

And when Mantis watched the red-themed girl fight, he could sense nearly everthing: Her willpower, her eagerness, her determination. Being a teenage girl, he wasn't surprised when the girl showed quite a bit of spunk, but she stood out among many of the children he'd met. Almost as much as Liquid's when they were children. And while she, like all children, would no doubt be soon filled with the same terrible greed and lust that filled and drove all men and women, she was still quite pure and positive for someone as clearly battle-ready and skilled as she was. And this criminal thought he could simply crush and wipe it away like a worthless insect. And for some reason, something about that rubbed Psycho Mantis the wrong way.

Apparently, mankind was the same no matter where he went.

Ruby watched the entire thing with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She'd been just about ready to dodge that flare – like a boss! – and kick Roman's butt… but then this weird-but-kinda-cool-looking boy just made the Dust discharge fly like a star and explode in Roman's face! And, to top it all off, he made the ladder break off the wall with just a few cool poses and his mind! Now, he was about to utterly kick Roman's butt better than she'd been planning to! It was all so… so…

… Awesome!

"THAT IS SO COOL!", She shouted, bringing her hands to her face and smiling broadly. Mantis and Roman both turned to look at her incredulously. Ruby realized she just interruped what was about to happen, and waved awkwardly at the floating boy. "Oh… sorry! That's just such a cool Semblance! You kick butt!"

Mantis blinked twice. He wasn't expecting for the girl to just compliment his power. Now, getting respect for his inhuman abilities was nothing new. However… she called it "cool". Nobody had ever brazenly complimented his abilties like that before, usually either staring in disbelief, believing him to be a monster and/or fleeing in terror. It was… odd, to say the least. Then again, he reminded himself, this was an entirely new world.

'Wait, what on wherever-this-is is a Semblance?'

Too distracted mulling over Ruby's words, Mantis almost didn't hear Roman growl beneath him. "Well, I guess we can agree you're both 'unique', Red", Roman grunted, glaring first at her and then Mantis, "But, all good things must come to an end… case in point!", Roman shouted, pointing up to the air. Mantis initially didn't follow where he was pointing, believing it to be an insultingly cheap trick to get away. However, he then heard the red-clad girl gasp, and then heard to clear and air-piercing sounds of a powerful turbine, and it was only then did he finally turn around to see this new threat.

What greeted him was an enormous, loud, flying… thing, flying in between the city buildings and just above the street towards them. It somewhat resembled a helicopter, but it had no rotor blades. Instead, it appeared to use several jet turbines to hover through the air. What really surprised him, however… was who appeared to be piloting the flying machine.

He couldn't see them, of course, but even if he tried, there was no tuning out the sheer malice residing in whoever was in that flying mechanism.

Thoughts were fickle things; Mantis needed to directly invade someone's mind and search carefully through their psyche to see someone's inner thoughts. Thoughts were, in essence, like little rats and flies that hid away in the shadows, requiring that they be physically found and siezed from their shelters. Emotions, however, were a different matter. They exuded like a powerful stench, pulling themselves out of physical bodies and shoving their way around the outside world, sometimes slithering quietly and other times rampaging about like untamed beasts, depending on their intensity.

And, whoever was inside that flying vehicle exuded one of the most hateful, most menacing and, most of all… the most vengeful energy he'd felt in a very, very long time. So much anger, hatred, disgust, bitterness… if turned into a physical object, Psycho Mantis doubted even he would be able to move it.

Not that he'd ever admit it.

So stunned was he by this murderous energy that he even dropped the ladder slightly, nearly dropping it to the pavement. Suddenly, a thick and grey rope sped past him, the crook of a cane on one end and attaching itself to the flying vehicle, which had opened two doors on its side. Mantis looked back too late to see Roman speeding past him through the air while hanging onto his cane, having fired Melodic Cudgel's handle to attach to the vehicle and using its pull-in mechanism to fly up to it. Gracefully hopping inside the Bullhead, Roman tipped his hat to Mantis and Ruby.

"End of the line, kiddos!", Roman exclaimed, holding up a red crystal in his hand. Mantis scoffed, seeing Roman brandish the gem as if it could actually hurt them. He watched Roman nonchalantly toss the crystal to the ground, prompting Mantis to tilt his head to one side to avoid getting smacked in the forehead and allowing it to roll across the floor, landing at Ruby's feet. Aiming Melodic Cudgel, Roman fired another incendiary flare, prompting Mantis to teleport out of the way and letting it continue on. Raising his arm and the ladder accordingly into the air, Mantis was about to commence an attack when he suddenly heard an explosion where Ruby was standing.

*BOOM!*

"What!?", Mantis shouted, wondering how in the world the flare actually ignited the strange gem. He did a full 180 in the air, staring at a cloud of soot and ash on the ground and expecting to see the young girl's remains splattered about. To his immense surprise, he instead saw a middle-aged blonde woman wearing a long-sleeved pleated top, a purple cape and wielding a riding crop with a strange glyph shielding her and the girl from the blast.

"Move!", The woman suddenly shouted to Psycho Mantis, and before he could object to her ordering him around, she thrust her riding crop towards the Bullhead. Realizing that she was more than likely about to launch a long-range attack and that he was in the way, Mantis quickly flew up and above several purple projectiles that struck the Bullhead in several areas, causing the vehicle to sway about in the air. Hovering just above the ground near the woman and girl, Mantis watched with a smile under his mask as Roman attempted to keep his balance in the unstable Bullhead, eventually heading to the cockpit and disappearing.

Saying nothing, Glynda began glowing a light purple, and with a wave of her riding crop, another glyph appeared on top of the Bullhead, and seemingly by magic, a dark cloud roaring thunder appeared from it. With another swish of Glynda's riding crop, a barrage of icicles struck the Bullhead, stabbing into its metal frame, and Mantis saw that one such icicle pierced the cockpit. Since it didn't fall, he could only assume Roman and whoever else was inside were still alive. What happened next, however, was something even more unexpected to Mantis than summoning a hailstorm.

The source of that hate-filled aura, the carrier of so much vengeful hunger stepped out… in the form of a young woman clad in a red mini-dress over black shorts and dark high-heeld shoes, with ash-like hair sweeping from her head and onto her shoulders. Her most outstanding features, however, were her eyes literally just like fire, glowing strongly in the shadows that the frames of the Bullhead's doors cast. Her appearance and murderous energy almost made Mantis not want to fight her... But then, where would be the fun in that? And besides, if this was the world he was to live in from now on…

… He needed to test himself.

The red-dressed woman in the Bullhead posed her arms in front of her chest, strange tattooes on her arms glowing a menacing red. Suddenly, wisps of flames appeared from her hands. Then, as fast as a bullet, the enemy woman sent a large fireball straight at them from the Bullhead. Glynda prepared to form another shield, but to her shock, Mantis suddenly darted in front of her in the air between them and the fireball. To Glynda, he may have been powerful, but he was still a child whom she had a duty to protect, and was about to reach out to pull him back to when Mantis suddenly reached his arm out and telekinetically twirled the floating ladder in front of them, using it to deflect the fireball like a baseball bat and causing the end of the ladder that was struck to be partially melted instantly, the remnants of the fiery attack deflected onto a spot directly to their left and blasting the pavement it landed on several feet up.

"Hmph…", Mantis grunted casually, looking over his shoulder at a stunned-looking Ruby and Glynda, "I am very much capable of defending myself, thank you", he stated, seeming offended at the notion of anyone other than himself else defending him.

He would've said more if a sudden whistling sound hadn't started emitting from the ground. He looked back to see the red-dressed woman raising her arm up as if lifting something, and all three Ruby, Glynda and Mantis noticed the ground beneath them suddenly begin to glow. Quickly realizing something bad was about to happen, Glynda and Ruby flipped backwards and Mantis teleported, avoiding a sudden explosion beam blasting upwards from where they previously stood. The psychic reappeared higher up in the air, directly across the woman in the Bullhead.

For a moment, the two locked eyes. Mantis peered into the feminine yet fearsome eyes casting a fiery glow in the shadows around the woman while she stared into the cold, empty eyes in Mantis' dark gas mask.

Then Mantis turned his attention back to his newfound allies – wait, were they his allies? How long have they been fighting together? – as they began another attack. To his ever-growing surprise, he saw the woman who'd been helping Ruby suddenly begin to control and shift the blown-apart remains of the asphalt they were just standing on, forming a large makeshift obelisk and sending it at the Bullhead.

'Telekinesis?', Mantis asked himself, although it didn't seem as freely-controlled or versatile. He watched from the air as the fiery-eyed woman blasted it apart and then seeing the projectile re-form and continue on to the Bullhead, grazing past it like a serpent and then dividing into three separate snake-like constructs of stone, slithering about in the air and ready to attack once again at Glynda's next command. Seeing the dire situation, the fiery-eyed woman brought her arms together and formed a ring of strange orange symbols around her. Out of nowhere, an enormous shockwave of flame erupted from her, incinerating the asphalt constructs in mid-air. Not wanting to be left undone and seeing the Bullhead begin to turn away to leave, Ruby made the first move she had in a while and converted her scythe into a rifle, much to Mantis' surprise – 'Just what else can these people do?' – and opened fire on the retreating vehicle. In respone, the fiery-eyed woman merely raised her palm and used it to deflect the shots, casually stopping the rounds with literally her bare hands. Neither side seemed to be making much headway on one another.

'Hmph… I've remained idle for too long… Time to really give them a show!', Mantis deduced, and decided to use a move he hadn't utilized in a long time. He hovered a little ways up into the air, higher than the Bullhead in terms of distance from the ground. Reaching both arms out in front of him and raising one hand over the other, Mantis began to focus his power on the water vapor in the air between his hands. Forcing himself to concentrate more on the physical matter than what he was used to, he strained his mind, finding a small pocket of vapor between his palms and began to compress them this way and that, focusing so deeply on the small pockets of air that he could almost feel the individual particles grinding by one another, picking up speed in his psychokinetic grasp, compressing and rubbing faster and faster... until he felt it; A small electric spark, glowing faintly.

Grinning sinisterly beneath his mask, Psycho Mantis sped up the process, compressing and bumping together and moving the vapor particles apart and repeating faster and faster until the spark began to grow, glowing dangerously as he moved his arms further and further apart to accommodate its growing size. In a quick amount of time, the spark grew into a large ball of unstable electricity, soon growing larger than Mantis himself and crackling hungrily in the air, almost seeming as though it wanted to be let loose to wreak havoc. Not content yet, Mantis added more of his power to the electric sphere, watching gleefully as it zapped at the air around it, glowing brighter and brighter and growing ever larger until it was finally nearly half as large as the Bullhead itself, twelve feet across in diameter and emitting an almost painfully-bright bluish-white glow.

Meanwhile, the woman in the Bullhead took no notice of what Mantis was doing, and performed a wide sweep with her arm. On the ground, Ruby and Glynda realized that the motion summoned five more dangerously-glowing areas on the area around them. Not taking any chances, Glynda grabbed Ruby in her telekinetic grasp using her riding crop and shoved her forwards while she herself performed a flip forwards, carrying both of them away from the range of the fiery beams that erupted from the glowing spots behind them. Ruby landed somewhat painfully on her side, and a bit dizzy from the ringing in her ears that came from the rather loud whisting sound from the explosive beams. As she got up, however, she noticed a strange glowing bluish-white light in the upper corners of her eyes. Curiously looking upwards, Ruby widened her eyes upon seeing the floating child who'd apparently been helping them was now controlling and growing an enormous ball of crackling electricity, his arms outstretched at either side of himself as he telekinetically stabilized and continued growing the static sphere.

"Wow! Hey, I dunno know what you're doing, buddy, but keep doing it!", Ruby cheered him on, having a feeling that whatever he was about to do would be spectacular. The sound of her shouting to Mantis attracted both Glynda's and the fiery-eyed woman's attention, prompting both of them to turn their gazes to Psycho Mantis. For the first time since they'd met, Mantis saw the woman's fiery eyes widen, if only a little, but enough for Mantis to see that she too was shocked at seeing the huge ball of lightning he was manipulating. Grinning savagely under his mask, Mantis decided it was time to unleash his power.

"Here we go! Ladies and little girl ("Hey!", Ruby shouted indignantly), it's the show you've all been waiting for! Give it up for… Psycho Mantis! HAHAHAHAHAAA!", Mantis roared joyfully, raising his voice far louder than normal. Bringing both arms in front of him, Mantis reared back and shot his arms forwards in a pushing motion, utilizing his psychokinesis to carefully aim and, with far more excitement than he felt in a long time, launched the enormous lightning ball directly at the Bullhead. The fiery-eyed woman stumbled back as the Bullhead finally turned around and shut its doors, but right before it could even start to fly off, Mantis' crackling ball of lightning thundered straight into it and exploded with tremendous force.

*BRRZZRZZRT-BRRZZZZRRRT!*

Flashes of lightning and the roars of thunder flashed through the sky from where it struck the Bullhead, forcing Ruby and Glynda to cover their eyes with a hand to avoid being blinded by the rapid flashes of white lightning rippling across the air, sparks flying from the explosion and falling like rain to the street and rooftops below. With a creaking roar, the Bullhead was sent a dozen yards in the air, and yet still tried to take off. Within seconds, however, every last electric component of the vehicle was overloaded and damaged beyond recovery, causing the Bullhead to finally tilt over and fall straight to the ground like a flaming asteroid. As soon as it hit the ground, it exploded onto the street in a powerful blast of orange light, sending fiery pieces of metal soaring onto the rooftops and crashing into walls, as well as a huge wave of smoke barreling towards Glynda and Ruby.

Covering their noses and mouths, Ruby and Glynda felt the smoke and ash barrel past them, their capes fluttering and whipping about in the wind. All the while, both could faintly hear the sound of a boy's somewhat muffled cruel laughter somewhere in the air above them, penetrating through the dense ash and the sound of fire crackling from the burning wreck of the Bullhead. Soon, the ash cloud settled, and allowed Glynda and Ruby to breathe easily again as they slowly approached the burning wreck. Police sirens could already be heard as people awoke from their slumber in nearby buildings, peering through windows and stepping out from their doors to stare in awe at the sight of the broken Bullhead lying in a heap of fire and its own destroyed and burning parts of itself. Glynda used her riding crop after stopping a dozen feet away to slowly piece apart the destroyed Bullhead, searching for survivors to apprehend. However, she found none, and deduced that they either escaped or perished.

Considering the lack of charred bodies, however, the latter seemed unlikely. Turning around with a sigh, the first thing she saw was Ruby's beaming and hyped-up face, smiling from ear to ear with stars in her eyes.

"Y-You… Y-You're a huntress!", Ruby nearly screamed, her heart racing after all that happened. She felt like exploding just like the Bullhead had moments earlier. Fighting off the thugs, meeting the floating telekinetic boy, fighting Roman, seeing an actual huntress in combat, watching a Bullhead go down so awesomely… it was just far too much! "Can I have your autograph!? Please? Oh! And that psychic kid, too! Pretty please!? It would be so awesome if-!", Ruby turned around to look up, only to find that the floating child that had helped them had vanished. The echoing sound of his laughter slightly muffled by his chilling gas mask still reverbrating in her mind was the only trace he'd been there. That, and the destroyed Bullhead blocking an entire street with its rapidly-burning metal scraps and thick cloud of ash steadily rising into the moonlight sky. Feeling her smile turn into a sad frown that he had apparently decided to just leave them, Ruby let her arms drop to her sides dejectedly.

"Aww... Wh-Where'd he go…? He was just here! Was he late for dinner or something? Did he-?", Her tirade of questions was interruped by a stern hand clamping on her shoulder. Shutting her mouth with a startled "Eep!", Ruby tensed and slowly looked over her shoulder to see Glynda staring coldly and sternly at her, like a mother catching her child attempting to steal extra snacks.

"We will worry about that child later. For now, young lady, you are coming with me", Glynda stated, leaving no room for argument.

Mantis stumbled into an alleyway, having teleported there after deciding he'd hung around long enough. With a painful groan, he leaned against a wall to keep from falling over, grasping his forehead with both hands to attempt to soothe the powerful migraine pounding within his skull.

'Damn… it's been a long time since I've used that much power… that much concentration in such a powerful attack…', He berated himself, taking in quick, shallow breaths and hunching over slightly, causing his red hair to fall forwards over his forehead. It wasn't true electrokinesis, he just used his psychic power to telekinetically shift and compress the air to form a ball of electricity, much like someone tossing a lit match on a puddle of oil to start a fire. However, not only had it been quite a long time since he used electricity like that, he'd also never created and utilized an electric ball that enormous and unstable, and it put quite a toll on his mind to have used so much concentration and power to properly control and attack with it.

However, he knew that whoever that cane-wielding man and fiery-eyed woman were, they were still alive. It wasn't just a guess, either. While he could no longer sense their presence, bits and traces of it still lingered and left a trail that a psychic such as himself could easily track, meaning that they had managed to get away from the burning wreck. Not that he was going to bother chasing them, of course. He'd used up too much power than he probably should have, and as much as he hated it, would have to limit how much of his power he exerted for a while until he recovered. It appeared that Mantis had already made several powerful enemies within the first hour of getting here. Fortunately, though, he might also have procured some allies, if his apparently teaming up with the girl and purple-caped woman was anything to go by. Still, there was a small chance that some criminal or other, possibly even the ones he'd just battled, would attempt to ally with him to benefit from his power. In any case, he'd lay low for a while until he decided on what to do, as well as until his newfound overexertion-induced migraine subsided.

Wearily lifting his head up, Mantis wasn't even that surprised at seeing the broken, shattered moon floating in the dark night sky, a cool and calm light flittering onto the world below it. He began summarizing all that had transpired so far, including: Meeing The Sorrow, being sent to another world, witnessing a teenage girl fight off armed thugs with an oversized farming tool, participating in a destructive battle between what appeared to be two of the world's factions, destroying a military-grade air vehicle and paying with a headache, and, last but not least, being transformed into his child self upon arriving. Mantis cursed under his breath.

"Damn it… This is going to be a long night."

A/N

And that's it for this first chapter! I hope I get Mantis' character right; I was originally going to do Monsoon, but couldn't quite figure out how he'd get to Remnant, and he just sort of seemed to be Raiden's counterpart to Psycho Mantis anyway. I knew I didn't want to use a hero like Raiden, but I also wasn't all that interested in Big Boss/Venom Snake. I wanted someone a bit darker, someone less heroically-and-morally-inclined than Snake or Raiden, which is saying something, intermingled with the conflict of Teams RWBY and JNPR against the White Fang and the villains controlling it. And who better for that than our favorite fourth wall-breaking psychic, Psycho Mantis? How will he fare in his much younger body? Which side will he take? What havoc will he wreak? How-

"Will you shut up, already!? It's hard enough wandering this strange city with you talking your jaw off behind that screen in the sky! Oh, and you too! I can see you there, too, watching this whole thing! If it's not too much to ask, I'd like some privacy from both of you while I search for a place to stay the night!"

Sheesh, someone's grouchy... Well, on that note, thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!