Zach: Guardian of the Multiverse

Chapter 15: RWBY and The Room

    "So, Ruby was it? Can you not tell anyone what you saw?" I asked, not wanting unwanted attention.
    Ruby had a confused look on her face, "Huh? I came out here to scout and look for Grimm. All I saw was you being attacked by a Grimm."

    I breathed a sigh of relief. Good. She didn't see the portal. I thought to myself. I decided to change the subject. "That's an interesting sniper rifle you have. What model is it?" I asked, genuinely curious.

    "Oh this thing?" She asked holding her rifle up. "I made it myself. I call it 'Crescent Rose' and it's the best scythe a Huntress can have."

    I raise an eyebrow about to ask when her four foot long sniper rifle started to transform before my eyes. From the front toward the barrel of the gun sprung a three foot long curved sickle blade, and the stock of the gun grew to a length as she was tall, maybe about five and a half feet. The sniper rifle became a scythe even the Reaper would envy as my eyes were wide with amazement. It must have been my look on my face because Ruby started to giggle.

    "Come on. It's like you haven't seen a weapon like this. Come on, I'll show you to my friends." Ruby said with a smile as she lead me east to a campfire in the distance. I glanced at Blair and she nodded before jumping on my shoulder. She knew not to talk or use magic.

    Once we walk a good hundred yards or so we make it to a campsite where a fire was going and around that fire was a blonde who was about 16 or 17 with a yellow scarf, purple eyes, and a brown trench coat. There was also a girl a little younger than Blondie, with pale skin, white hair and a faded blue dress. Next to her was a girl about the same age as Blondie, with black hair, a black skirt, a white shirt with black overalls.

    From left to right Ruby introduced me. "This is my sister, Yang, and my teammates Weiss and Blake. We're Huntresses and we hunt Grimm to protect humanity. Everyone, this is Zach. He isn't from around here. Let's make him feel welcome."

    "Hey. Where ya from?" Asked Yang.
"I'm not from around here. I was hoping to find a town or something to pick up some supplies." I said, putting another half lie to preserve secrecy.

"Well, you're in luck. We're actually not that far from a village. We were headed there ourselves." Weiss said. Blake was giving me a curious look, like she didn't trust me. Not that I blame her.

"We were actually about to set up camp for the night. You're welcome to camp with us." Ruby said with enthusiasm.

"Sure. I'll take first watch. I'm sure there are more monsters around." I volunteered, partly because I was still awake from the encounter.

After a couple hours the group was asleep and I was tending to the campfire. Blair jumped on my shoulder.

"What is it? Something wrong?" She asked.
"What? No, no. Just... thinking." I said
"About what?"
"These girls. They're so young. They are even younger than me and they are risking their lives for their world. I can't say for sure what it is about this place. I want to protect people like this, people who don't have my predicament. Going from reality to reality, risking my life for a purpose even I'm not aware of."  I said, looking at the coals I was turning over with a stick and putting another piece of wood in the blaze, the wood making a pop as the water evaporated from the heat.

Blair jumped off my shoulder on to the ground in front of me, sat down and looked at me. "Why don't you protect them? Why not defend them from other threats?"

That made me stop and think. I never thought about it that way. "Thanks Blair. You're right. For a cat, you're incredibly wise."

"Well yeah. I'm a talking cat." She smiled and jumped on my lap and began to sleep. An hour and a half later, Yang got up and said she'd take watch, so I sat against a nearby tree and went to sleep.

*****
We woke up the next morning and walked a few miles until we reached a village. It was small, about two or three dozen people were out and about selling wares, shopping, and creating new wares. We stopped by a food cart selling fruit and on the side a restaurant. We got some breakfast with me having a simple omelet and ordered Blair a fish. We had a bit of small talk, but nothing to say here.

Afterwards, Ruby and the others went off to tend to their own business, while I saw an old building behind some newer ones. It wasn't anything big, one story tall and looked like its been empty for about two years. I fished in my pockets for the Key and decided to head for the front door to the place. It was a oak wood door with a iron knob with a small keyhole underneath it. I looked around and made sure no one was looking as I stuck the Key into the keyhole. I was surprised when I turned and the door unlocked with a click.
I opened the door and saw the same setup as when I first went to the Room. I placed the Nexus on the console and the machine hummed to life.

Blair looked around in awe. "What is this place?" She asked.
"Oh right. You haven't seen this place, have you? This is the Room, a sub space for me to use. In here, I could do anything. Well theoretically anyway." I explained to her as I run my hand over the console screen.

I decided to try something with the Room.  Typed in the console:
_COMMAND_
_CREATE STRUCTURE_
_ARMORY_

After I hit enter, a huge wall of weapons of every shape, size, color, and material imaginable was created out of thin air.  On the screen a message popped up:

The armory houses every kind of weapon from any world for the Guardian to use. It houses different kinds of weapons made from different materials and even allows the Guardian to combine different weapons and materials, allowing for unlimited potential. Just use the screen built into the wall of the armory.

"Neat." I went to the leftmost wall of the armory and noticed a small screen, about the size of an iPad, with different options: melee, long range, magic, combine, sort, materials, swords, daggers, axe, bow and arrow, flail, mace, armor, and so much many more choices to choose from. I admit the weapons nerd inside me was having a field day.

I have decided to forge my own weapon.