“So exactly who are you supposed to be, Stevey?” A guy in a black and gold set of Halo armor asked, his voice slightly muffled from his helmet.

“Oh just an old RWBY OC of mine I designed a while back,” a boy who was wearing a blue and white hoodie, black tracksuit bottoms along with some blue and white trainers, admitted with a smile. He had black hair with a blue and white stripes on the fringe along with a pair of black sunglasses.

“Eh, I'd stick to actual characters.”

“You would Treny… or should I call you Wash for today? You never had any creativity. Why be the same as everyone else? Other groups would have already took all the good costumes anyway.”

“Screw you, Steven. And don't call me Treny. You KNOW how much that pisses me off.”

“But it got you into character didn’t it,” Steven chuckled.

The armored guy just looked at his companion for a moment before walking away without a word.

“I’d almost say you were Washington… all we need now is a car to hit you and I could make the claim,” Steven said as he walked up next to him his hands behind his head.

Trent laughed sarcastically. “Oh haha. Real fucking funny. So what do we do now?”

“Walk around… see some of the guests… buy some souvenirs and enjoy the day,” Steven replied.

“So basically the same as any other convention, eh? All right. Lead the way.”

“What else were we gonna do?” Steven chuckled before looking forwards to see two people ahead them at a nearby stall, one of them had what looked to be a hammer of some kind on her shoulders whilst the other looked to have a sword on his back and putting something on his face.

“Not a bad Amy Rose cosplay,” Steven admitted to Trent, who nodded in agreement.

“Maybe and…” Trent looked back and noticed they were gone. “...where'd they go?”

“I actually don’t know… they just faded from existence in front of my eyes… how about we don’t go to that stall?”

Trent nodded. “Yeah. I agree.”

“Well what should we look at first? I’ll let you decide this one being I decided that we’d come here?”

“Hmm…”

One hour later

“Well… what now?” Steven asked as he looked at some of the nearby stalls wares many of them selling nothing that interested him.

“Hell if I know,” Trent responded with a shrug. “Hopefully someone here has SOMETHING good “

“As long as we avoid that one stall I don’t care,” Steven admitted as he stopped at a nearby stall that looked to be selling objects ranging from strange swords to pieces of parchment, before he added “This stuff looks promising.”

“Eh. Let's see what they got.”

They both then looked at the wares as they saw that on display were three weapons that interested Trent, these being three Halo weapons, these being a pistol, shotgun and a rifle.

“I see something you're missing to complete your look Wash,” Steven chuckled gesturing to the guns.

“No shit. So is there anything here you'd like?”

“Nothing looks to fit.” Steven sighed.

Seconds later, a tall man dressed completely in red spartan armour appeared in the stall before he said “Are you a red or a dirty blue soldier?”

Trent looked at him for a moment before saying, “Um...neither, technically.”

“Relax… I just like playing the part kiddo… even I can’t stand that guy. A friend of mine said I should go and ask like him,” the man chuckled before placing a hand out to Trent “The names Andrew.”

Trent shook his hand. “Trent. And this guy is my friend, Steven.”

“So we have an unarmed Freelancer agent and an unarmed Huntsman… not very well equipped are you?”

“And how did you know that?” Steven asked.

“I was walking around an hour ago and heard you say you came as your RWBY OC… also helps a lot of people do that here, you get used to what costumes are supposed to be after a while.”

“...So you're a creepy stalker?” Steven pointed out.

“Trust me… there are many vendors here who fit that more than me.”

“Like that weirdo who kidnapped two people earlier?” Trent asked.

“...Kid… you need to be careful who hears you say that stuff… some vendors will have your hides if they hear you,” Andrew warned as he looked around himself nervously.

“Oh really?”

“That vendor is the worst of the worst for it, he doesn’t care how you end up after one of his deals.”

“So those two guys are pretty much screwed?”

“Not always, some get lucky… depends what they bought from him,” Andrew admitted.

“Wonder what happened to them…”

“If I had to guess… they’re in a new reality,” Andrew admitted.

Trent just looked at him for a few seconds before tilting his head. “I'm sorry, WHAT?”

“Did you say a different reality?” Steven asked in surprise.

“I did… I’m different to the others who do this to people. I know the cost of it on their families better than most.”

“Okay, what the hell are you talking about?” Trent asked.

“That man you saw is commonly know as the Merchant, he tricks people into buying his products at prices that are too hard to resist before sending them to new realities against their will. I, on other hand, don’t force it on people. I tell them what's gonna happen and continue to support them after.” Andrew admitted. “People like those you saw need help recovering from what happened to them. They need people who are willing to help them.”

“...Trent… he’s not lying at all. He’s being honest.” Steven told his friend.

“How the hell will you know that?” Trent asked.

“He didn’t pause when he was explaining it, he’s not acting defensively when you asked him what he meant and he’s stilling looking us in the face in a way to speak,” Steven admitted.

“He can be a psycho or high as fuck.“

“If I was psycho, you think I would have been allowed to open a stall here,” Andrew pointed out as he took of his helmet to show them his face which showed that he had bright green eyes and a messy head of black hair.

“There are obvious psychos, like Joker and Needles Kane, then there's subtle psychos. You can be one of the latter.”

“If I was a psycho then why do you think I know what happened to those two people you saw?" Andrew pointed out. “If I’m a psycho for knowing that, what does that mean for you who saw it happen?”

Trent stood silent for a moment before sighing. “Okay, you got me there.”

“Will you just hear me out? Most people don’t manage to see it happen even in a packed area. The fact you saw it happen speaks volumes. You two could both help them… same as my son tries to do.”

“...You’re saying someone in your family had this happen to them… why tell us this?” Steven asked.

“Because I lost him because of a man like that vendor, but this one took him from his own home. I could only stop him from being taken away completely by stopping them.”

“So what do we have to do with this?” Trent said.

“I think you could both help me find those who need help. Those who are now lost. But I feel like I should warn you… there’s little chance anyone who is tricked by people like him can get back… it’s almost always a one way trip.”

“What about their families and friends.”

“...As I said, they think them dead, and many never find out the truth. I try to ensure that the families of those who get tricked at least find something to know they're gone so they can at least grieve… or I create a clone of the person to take their place,” Andrew admitted.

“Okay…”

“Look, I know this is hard to believe, and I can’t blame you for thinking I’m a liar… but I believe everything happens for a reason… maybe the reason you saw what happened today was to help people like them… if you wish I will leave a clone of you both in this world to take your places.”

“And exactly what's in it for us? We won't be able to see our love ones again, so we should get at least something out of this.”

“Tell me… why did you pick your costumes?” Andrew asked.

“I just like Wash. He was a badass and had a few funny moments with him.”

“I guess… I always wanted to be my OC… I wanted to feel significant,” Steven admitted.

“What if you could become them?" Andrew asked. "Powers, equipment, skills, everything.”

“Wait, seriously?” Trent said, surprised. “No kidding?”

Andrew gave him a deadpan expression. “No... I’m telling you all this just to mock you. Of course l’m serious! All people who have this happen to them take the form and powers of what they were dressed as and brought from their vendor.”

Trent looked at himself and then at Steven. “What do you think about all this, Steve?”

“Sounds too good to be true,” Steven commented.

“I’ll admit it, if I hadn’t done this so much I would have said the same thing,” Andrew admitted as he put his helmet back on, “So… what takes your fancy Agent Washington?”

Trent looked at the guns. “How much for these?”

“You're helping others and you know my secret. So for the guns it would cost a fortune under normal circumstances, but…I’ll give you the three on display along with a AI chip for the Epsilon AI, for only thirty dollars.”

“Wait, Epsilon? Really?”

“As in Church, and yes I am serious. I do my best to help those who buy from me.” Andrew explained as he rolled his eyes under his helmet.

Trent shrugged. “Okay then.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out his wallet before taking out the money and giving it to Andrew.

“And what about you, friend? A Huntsman without a weapon, we can’t have that. Let me see what I have for you.” Andrew said as he reached under the counter pulling out a case that held two swords.

The swords almost looked mechanical in nature, their colour schemes looking similar but switch between the hilt and blades. The first had a white hilt and a black blade whilst the second had a black hilt with a white blade.

“These are the swords known together as Sacred Darkness. Separately they are unnamed, so I’ll leave that task to you.”

“And what do they do exactly?” Steven asked curiously looking at the blades.

“The one with the black blade can turn into a machine gun, whilst the other turns into a long range sniper rifle that has a bayonet below it, and they're only ten dollars a piece… what do you think?”

“Trent… what’s your opinion on these things?” Steven asked curiously.

“Not bad,” Trent said. He then turned to Andrew and said, “Though, what should we expect from this?”

“Honestly… I couldn’t tell you, each reality is different with it’s own quirks… but they always have things from whatever you brought in them… so in your cases things from Red Vs Blue and RWBY,” Andrew told them. "Apart from that, I couldn’t tell you.”

“So, we're going to some random, alternate universe, with little to no chance of seeing our love ones ever again, and becoming fictional characters, weapons, skills, and all that, in order to help people who went through the same thing, but without knowing the consequences. Am I missing anything?”

“Not really… just that I fully intend to help you in any way I can once you get there.”

“Before we do this, answer me this. How can we help these kinds of people, if they'll be in different realities?”

“When you are used to your powers and abilities I will explain everything about that. To start with, you should learn how to use your new stuff when you arrive, find somewhere to stay and all that. I’ll try to drop you near some sort of civilization.”

Trent sighed. “Okay then. You said you can make copies of us so no one knows what happened?”

“If you wish I will do that, they’ll have your memories and live your lives like you would have.”

“Up until we came here?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Andrew said.

“Yeah...I think that's best for me. Rather my family doesn't know about any of this. At least then they won't mourn…”

“Honestly… you know where I came from Trent. They wouldn’t care if I did disappear.” Steve admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Okay, then just do it for me.”

“If you are sure that’s what you both want.” Andrew said calmly as he removed the swords from their cases before putting them into their scabbards and passing each of the products that they had brought to them.

Trent shrugged. “Hey, who knows, might be interesting. Though, if this actually happens, I'm glad I didn't dress as Church.”

“...You realise that you will have Church nagging you right? Maybe you’ll be like Carolina by the end… oh and heads up your gears will stick to your suit, they seem to stick to you instead of needing a sling to hold any guns,” Andrew admitted.

“Between having him in my head, and constantly dying as Church, I prefer former. As for the magnet thing, that'd be useful for holding them.” He then grabbed the shotgun and placed it on his back, where it stuck to perfectly. “Cool, it works.”

“Yeah it does,” Steven added as he placed both scabbards at his sides before he added “Wait… you mentioned we’d have to deal with things from Red Vs Blue and RWBY right?”

“Yes… Yes I did,” Andrew admitted with a smile.

Trent grabbed the pistol and put it on his right hip. “As long as there's no idiot like Caboose I'll need to deal with, that might not be so bad.” He then picked up the rifle.

“Right… you ready for the AI chip?”

“Is this gonna be painful?”

“You really want me to answer that?” Andrew replied as he walked out of his stall behind Trent’s back.

“Wait what?”

“Okay, and now,” Andrew said before attaching the AI chip to the back of Trent’s neck.

“Okay then… so, now what?”

“Now you disappear,” Andrew replied with a smile.

“Wait… wha….” Steven said as his knees suddenly began to give way as he grabbed his head in pain.

Trent looked at his friend in shock before he took a knee and grabbed his head in pain. “GAH! MY FUCKING HEAD!!”

“Have fun,” Andrew added as he clicked his fingers before a portal opened below them as they both fell through.

Author's Notes:

Okay, that's the end of the first chapter of my collab story with Dark Brony. I hope you guys enjoy this new story, and I hope we satisfy you with the future chapter. Until then, see ya.
-Dark