Cruger and A-Squad were out on a vehicular training exercise when he got a call from a Displaced. "Hey, any of you want to join me on a verse jump?" he called to the others.
"Like you need to ask," said Rainbow. The others also made there interest known.
"All right," Cruger said as he opened a portal, "but watch for pedestrians." As they passed through, they immediately encountered a monkey/human hybrid. Most of the Rangers were able to avoid him, Pearl Spark and Night Breaker on the other hand...
“OWW!! SON OF A B*TCH, THAT HURTS!!”
“Pearl, Night,” Cruger yelled, “What part of ‘keep an eye out for civilians’ did you not seem to get?”
“Sorry chief,” called Pearl from her jeep, Hammer Fist groaning in the passenger seat, “but I couldn’t see him lying there.” Night just stayed quiet on his bike
“You’re lucky he appears to be alright,” Cruger said, “we’ll discuss what to do with you two when we get back.” Cruger walked towards the monkey, “You doing ok bud?”
“Yeah, but it could’ve been worse,” the monkey replied, taking out the weapons that he had on his back as he put them on his shoulders. “If you ran over my back, you would’ve crushed more than my spine.”
“Sorry,” Cruger said, “first time driving into a new verse.” He stuck out his hand, “Anubis Cruger, SPD Shadow Ranger Displaced, no hard feelings?”
“Guess so,” he sighed. “Sun Wukong. Faunus.” He soon shook his hand as he had both pairs of weapons collapse down into his staff and held it in one hand while shaking with the other.
“So,” inquired Night, “Why the weapon?”
“Watch it Night,” said Hammer, “you remember what happened last time.”
Night just huffed, “Well excuse me if I’d like to know if we run a risk of being attacked.”
“I’m not going to attack you guys… Besides, how else are you suppose to protect yourself from Grimm?” He asked, having his weapons be Gunchaku again. “Besides, like with almost all weapons here, it’s also a gun.”
Cruger frowned, “That sounds familiar, where have I… oh yeah! Death Battle, Tifa from Fantasy vs Yang from RWBY, I assume your base is from the latter?”
“Yeah, a lot of the Displaced here are from RWBY. You have Ruby with a Scythe/Combat action sniper Rifle, Her sister with shotgun gauntlets, and some others just to name a few. One girl even has a handbag that turns into a freaking minigun.” He explained. “Mine is a bo-staff and nunchaku that are also shotguns…” Turning to look at the group, he chuckled a little. “What brings you to this neck of the woods?”
Cruger shrugged, “You called us, these jokers just happened to be nearby when I got your call and they wanted to come along. By the way, that’s Evil Breaker, Hammer Fist, and Rainbow Dash, the ones who ran you over are Night Stalker and Pearl Spark.” As he said their names, Cruger pointed at each of the ponies with him in turn. It was during this thought that Sun turned his head to notice somepony he knew coming out of the cottage.
“Sun, what’s with all the-.” Fluttershy spoke, only to see the mass amount of ponies and strange vehicles while she was trotting over. “-noise…”
“Wow,” said Dash, “four legged Flutters, kinda weird.”
“It’s alright, Shy. They’re friends…” The Faunus said, turning to Cruger’s Rainbow Dash, “And she’s my Marefriend.”
“Huh,” was all Dash could say.
“Putting cross-species relationships aside for the moment,” Cruger interjected, “Mind if we continue this somewhere else? I don’t know about you but I prefer talking shop with other Displaced over lunch.”
“Sure,” Sun Wukong told him. “We can go to Beacon, but it’s still under construction… One thing first.” He then raised one of his weapons, firing it once as a beowolf Grimm dropped from the trees above them. Fading as it hit the ground with a hard THUD! “Stay too long out here and the Grimm would want to get you for a meal.”
Cruger sighed, “Of course, as soon as I meet a new Displaced these days, we go straight into the fighting. Might as well make the most of it.” Cruger mounted his ATV, “Mount up! Sun, Flutters, in the jeep, time for some vehicular combat practice.”
“Tempting… Weren’t we planning to talk at Beacon…?” He asked, springing himself over the top of the trees and using his weapon to pole vault himself upward.
“We’re not talking right now,” Cruger said as he gunned the engine, “right now we’re headed to Beacon, and smacking down any beasties that lie between here and there.”
“Yeah… Grimm attacks don’t happen often. They’re only attracted by negative emotions such as sadness, pain and rage. One of the other Displaced, Fox, was out scouting earlier and there were no signs so far in the Everfree.” He said, “The one above me was probably from when Pearl ran over my tail.”
“I said it was an accident!”
“Well, no sense in getting hyped up to do nothing,” Cruger said before turning to Rainbow, “Thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Race?” she asked expectantly.
“Race,” Cruger replied before turning back to Sun, “So, you in?”
That was when Cruger heard Fluttershy speak up. “Actually… he just got a head start with the… Spectrobe I think it was called, that two other displaced let him have.” When the rest of them turned around, they saw the Faunus speeding down the hill with his Torgazar as he was going around Ponyville. “You might want to catch up with him.”
“That’s it, let’s show him why cheaters never prosper,” Cruger said before they all raced along after him, causing Fluttershy to start screaming.
Sun himself though, had a reason for starting ahead as he was approaching Beacon. “Hey Twilight! We got some guests coming.”
“Guests? Who-?” She stopped speaking, her eyes widening at the sight of Cruger and his crew.
“Those guys. We’re going to need a big parking lot to fit all of those.” He said, looking back at the Princess. Who now just stared in shock… “And you might not want to stand in the road.”
Quickly, she ducked for cover as Cruger and the others rolled into town as Sun dismissed Torgazar, looking back at the Shadow Ranger as he and the others soon slid to a screeching halt. “Sorry about that. Needed to make sure that Princess Sparkle here prepared for your arrival so you don’t cause a panic.”
Cruger’s frown softened slightly, “Fine, I suppose that make sense. By the way,” Cruger tapped the prizmod on his own wrist, “I believe we share a common acquaintance.”
“Looks like you met Jack and Jen,” The Faunus chuckled, showing his own prizmod on his gauntlet as he smiled a little at Cruger. “Those two will be teachers at Beacon here once this place is open in the spring. Since it’s going to be an academy for the ponies here and also Displaced.”
Cruger whistled, “Sounds like a worthy enterprise, if you don’t mind I have a little proposal for you.”
“I’m listening.” The Faunus replied as they began to walk to where Twilight’s Castle was. Where most of the construction was taking place.
“Well, I’m a founder of a multi displaced group called Truth. The primary goal of this group is to learn as much as we can about Displacement, but we also provide various forms of support to one another, whether in expertise, supplies, equipment, you get the idea. Anyway, my proposal has three main parts, first I’d like to extend an invitation to you, and any other Displaced you may know, to join Truth.”
“Sounds interesting. I have family that have been Displaced that might be up for that,” The Faunus replied. “What about the other two?”
Cruger chuckled, “Patience, I was getting to them. Well, second, I wouldn’t mind teaching here as well, when I’m not busy fighting crime back home of course. To be honest, my SPD is so efficient that I have a lot of spare time on my hands.”
“Welcome aboard,” Sun chuckled. “Remind me to introduce you to Asphyxious next time you're here. He’s a lich who is also a teacher here and a Displaced.”
“I might take you up on that,” Cruger said. “Now that the stuff that I was fairly certain you’d agree to out of the way, I think it’s time to move to the one that isn’t. To be honest, when I heard that you were building a school that had Displaced as teachers, I thought that it might make an excellent semi-official headquarters for Truth. I’m not saying that you have to be a part of Truth to be a student or teacher here, but it would be nice for us to have a place where we could swap notes or just hang out with other members.”
Sun scratched his chin for a minute, but was soon grinning. “That actually sounds like a good idea. I like the way you think.”
Cruger grinned, “Thanks, now, if you don’t mind, I need to take a peek at the blueprints. My first contribution to you will be to outfit Beacon with some of the latest SPD tech, including a Mark 5 Mana Reactor, an Armor III Shield Generator, a Biblos Computer Core, and a few other minor things.”
“Sure thing. Might want to take to Sage on that-,” Sun replied, turning around to notice his partner and friend. “Speak of the devil, there he is.”
“Sun?” He said, noticing Cruger. “Who’re these guys?”
“Commander Cruger, SPD,” Cruger said, “You’re Sage right? I’ve got a few improvements to Beacon that I want to run by you. Dash, this is gonna get technical and boring, take the Rangers and test out the exercise yards.”
Dash chuckled, “No problem chief, come on gang, time for some fun.”
“I can go with them if you want to talk with Sage, Cruger.” Sun offered.
“Sounds good,” Cruger replied, “this is going to get really boring for anyone without an engineering degree.” The Faunus chuckled, watching him follow Sage as he went to catch up with Dash and the others.
“Cruger’s kind of awesome, don’t you think?” Rainbow commented, “He’s a total egghead when it comes to machines, but he can kick some major butt.”
“I can tell. You guys see him as a good leader,” Sun replied. “Trust me though when I say that a lot of the Displaced here have a bunch of tricks up their sleeves… Which makes me wonder… have you encountered anything that’s like Androids or Synthetics?”
“We drive a giant robot, and have a pet robotic dog that turns into a cannon,” Dash replied, “Does that count?”
“Yup. That does.” Sun replied as he followed them. “So, what’s the first step in the training exercise?”
Dash laughed, “You thought he was gonna make us do actual training? Cruger can be a bit strict when he’s teaching, but he’s not that strict. Telling us to test out the exercise yard was him telling us to have some fun without losing the whole ‘I’m the boss, respect my authority’ thing he’s got going on.”
“Well that’s something I wasn’t aware of.” Sun scratched the back of his head as he looked back at them. “So, what is it that you plan to do for fun then?”
“Well, I was thinking we could shoot some hoops,” said Evil Breaker.
“Sounds good to me,” Dash replied as the others nodded in agreement, “and with Sun here, we can have some 3v3.”
“I’m up for it.” The Faunus replied, looking back at them. “It’s been too long since I’ve done that.”
“Just a quick warning,” Breaker said, “We’re the best of the best back home, and we tend to get a little intense during sports.”
“Heh. I’ll still be up for it. It’ll be a nice change of pace.” He replied.
“Good,” Breaker replied, “So, where can a group of mighty warriors find a basketball court around here?”
“Mighty warriors huh, so I guess you’ll be sitting this one out eh Breaker?” joked Hammer Fist.
“Laugh it up,” Breaker replied, “we’ll see who’s laughing when you lose.” Breaker then turned to Sun, “Seriously though, where’s the court?”
“Honestly, the only court I remember is the one by the playground where Cheerilee’s school is,” Sun shrugged. “Unless you want to think of a way to improvise?”
“Leave that to me,” said Rainbow Dash. Before anyone could say anything, she flew off and returned with two small clouds, which she shaped into hoops. “Yo Pearl, got a ball?”
“Not a problem,” Pearl said before opening a small portal and pulling out a basketball, “Sure am glad Cruger doesn’t mind sharing a few of his tricks.”
“No kidding,” Dash replied, “sure wish I could carry a bunch of stuff with me wherever I go, I’d never run out of pens to sign stuff with.” It was then though that she heard something else zip around in the air and the next comment that Sun said had Rainbow look up… to stare at her pony counterpart.
“Well then… Dash meets Dash.”
“What the hay-?”
“This is a bit surreal,” Cruger’s Dash said, “Ah man, just remembered.”
“Remembered what?” Sun’s Rainbow Dash asked her. “Better yet, why do you sound like me?”
“Cause I’m you from a different universe,” Cruger’s Dash said, “And now we gotta figure out nicknames for us so that we don’t get confused when someone says our name.”
“Actually, I was just about to head home,” The Pegasus replied. “See you tomorrow Sun.” With that, the pegasus took off into the sky, almost sounding like she cracked the sound barrier as she zoomed through the air.
Dash grinned, “Glad to see I’m fast in any universe, so ready to go?”
“Whenever you are.” Sun replied, cracking his knuckles.
The next hour passed pleasantly for all involved. There were several bruises from players colliding with each other, but they were shrugged off within seconds. By the end of it, they were sweaty, and had no idea who won since none of them had bothered to keep score, but smiling after a game well played.
“Well… I highly doubt at this rate anyone would want to call it a tie.” He said, gasping for air a little.
“We should have brought Twilight,” Rainbow said, drinking a bottle of water, “she would’ve kept score.”
“I agree on that one.” He sighed, looking back at the others for a brief moment.
“You know,” panted Pearl Spark, “we could have… asked… this Twilight.”
Rainbow facepalmed, “Aw man.”
“She’s probably busy with something going on right now. Not only is she a princess but once we hit the ground running, she’ll be Beacon’s Headmaster.” Sun sighed. “Even though I haven’t… actually told her yet.”
Rainbow chuckled, “Man, that is gonna be one epic freak out.”
“Let’s save that for another day. You think Cruger might be finished with Sage?” He asked, looking back towards where they once were.
Before his eyes a portal opened and Sage and Cruger stepped out, discussing something on a piece of paper. “The tricky thing about Mana Reactors is that they’re dependant on ambient magic, you gotta factor the position of nearby ley lines if you want to put one in a building,” said Cruger “I’m telling you we’ve got to put it in the southeast tower.”
“Where it may be open to sabotage? Doubt it. Basement is better in my opinion.” Sage replied as everyone now noticed the huge broadsword on his back.
“And limit it to 78% efficiency?” countered Cruger, “If we put it in the tower, the shield can prevent destruction by bombardment, and if a saboteur can get in the tower, they can get in the basement. Putting it in the tower would also prevent them from being able to tunnel in.”
“If that’s the case, then how do you propose securing it?”
Sun rolled his eyes, seeing this. “Here we go…”
Cruger pointed to something on the paper, “The support beams here run straight down to the foundation, we can secure the reactor to that. If you mean security, we put it in this room, no windows, thick walls, and that tower was going to be a low traffic area anyway. Mana reactors are light weight anyway, it won’t fall through the floor.” The Faunus was surprised to see that Sage was having to keep up with him on an intellectual level without getting utterly confused.
“Is this normal?” He asked Dash.
“When he’s working on a project,” Dash answered, “told ya he was an egghead.”
“I heard that,” Cruger said without taking his eyes off the paper. Soon though, it seemed like Sage was nodding his head at one of his proposed suggestions.
“I think you got yourself a deal-.”
“Hey Sage. I noticed the ATV outside. What’s with the-.” Everyone turned to see Neptune walk in on the group as they were talking. “Sage, please don’t tell me you called the cops… I have Ruby causing trouble all over town with that robot girl Penny and now I come back to find you guys. Please don’t tell me these guys have a warrant to search this place.”
“Search it?” Cruger said, “I’m helping redesign it. Anubis Cruger, Displaced. What’s this about a robot girl causing trouble?”
“Don’t worry, that’s normal for Penny.” Sun sighed. “She really can catch you off guard at times. She’s a displaced as well, but is a Synthetic with an actual living soul.”
“Might like to meet her next time,” Cruger said before turning to Sage, “So, anything else we need to iron out?”
“From the looks of it, we covered everything… Unless there was anything your companions needed to remind you about.” Sage replied, looking over in Sun’s direction.
“Don’t look at me,” Rainbow said, “I just catch crooks.” The other Rangers nodded in agreement.
“Well, guess it’s time to go,” Cruger said as they headed back to their vehicles, “Now let’s head ba…”
Rainbow Dash started laughing, with the others quickly joining in. Fluttershy was still on the jeep, and holding one of the roll bars in a death grip.
“Okay, what did you do to Shy?” Sun asked. “It looks like you killed a puppy in front of her.”
Cruger managed to stop chuckling, “Sorry, guess we went a little too fast for her, she’s probably never been in a car before.” Cruger snapped his fingers in front of her face, breaking her out of her trance. In doing so, She fell into the Faunus’ arms and instead, held onto him as she shivered a little. Looking at her, Sun chuckled as she curled up in his arms like a young filly.
“Dude, you scored.” Neptune stated, causing Sage to facepalm himself as he groaned while Sun just rolled his eyes and looked back at them.
Cruger chuckled as he mounted his ATV, “Why do I get the feeling that he gets smacked on a regular basis?”
“Not always… Just once in awhile. Ruby here is really the one with the low IQ. She thought that I was a saiyan upon first glance.” Sun told Cruger as the rest of the squad returned to their own vehicles. “I’m going to guess that this is goodbye?”
“Of course not,” Cruger said, “This is a see ya later. I’m coming back to teach at the very least, plus I’ve got to make sure Sage put the designs I gave him together right.”
Sage just nodded his head, giving a fake salute with one of his hands.
Cruger returned it before turning back to Sun, “Well, if you don’t mind?”
“Oh yeah,” He said, taking a deep sigh. “Cruger, our contract is complete. Have a safe trip home.”
Cruger nodded as a portal opened up in front of the convoy, “Take care of yourself monkey boy, and don’t forget to give my offer to everyone else.” He then turned to his team, “Alright gang, let’s roll out.”