Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere in Remnant…

Tap…

Tap…

serrrcee

A lone figure walked along a dirt road, the surrounding land was filled with dying grass, trees, and other wildlife. And a lone crow sat in a tree. The figure Jittered like mad as it walked. The figure itself was tall, had wild, puffy hair that had holes in odd places. Its face was dawned with a metal mask, through one of the holes, a lone, crazed red pupil glew in the dimness of the mask, glancing everywhere. Its skin was a rotten green, and from the side of the mask, one could see its torn off skin and muscle that surrounded the figure's jaw, formed in a twisted grin.

It wore a gray long sleeve shirt, with a light, dull blue collar. with the right shoulder having a tear, and the left having a purple patch stitched on with piss poor effectiveness. There was a large gash like tear in the middle of the shirt, on its arms, tears littered the shirt, its hands were wrapped in old, blood-stained dirty bandages. The pants were darker gray, and had a tear near the top, the left pant leg had half of it torn off, leaving green rotting skin, and long socks.

On its feet, were dull bluish gray shoes, with pointed ends with red bells at the tip. And on its back was a bent stop sign with an exclamation mark on it.

The figure looked like some sort off demented clown. A zombie clown no less. The figure continued its trek, and from behind it, was a burning town, the cries of agony and anguish being ignored by the crazed clown.

The clown didn’t look back at the madness he had caused. Why had he done this? Was it for the thrill of it? Or did he have a vendetta against the townsfolk? Well, why don’t we go back a little bit, hmm?

Darkness. That was all Hoffnar could see. The darkness was a slight comfort to the once scientist, darkness related to sleep. But now? Darkness meant nothing to the Clown who took his place.

Hoffnar opened his eyes and quickly scanned his immediate surroundings and jumped up from the ground. His jittering was starting up again, his teeth chattered, and he was starting to piece together where he was. He was in a sort of green area, trees surrounded him, he laid in a patch of just grass.. He looked at the ground and found his mask. It had fallen off since his last encounter with hank. He reached down with a shaking hand and looked at it for a moment, before turning it around, and sliding it over his face.  He turned around and found his old stop sign, which he picked up, and strapped to his back.

He looked up to the sky, seeing as it wasn’t Red. The clown knew something was amiss, the moon was there, albeit cracked, but the sun was nowhere in sight. Hoffnar. Growled slowly. “This isn’t Nevada..am i in ‘the other place’?” no one really knew what the other place was. And Hoffnar had never seen it either. Though the Nexus corp tried to break in, but that was after he and Christoff left.

He was pulled from his thoughts when growling and footsteps made them known. Hoffnar turned to a bush, his shaking had increased. And from the bushes came black beasts that resemble bears, with bone like armor, and red eyes. They growled at him and surrounded him.

A wicked grin spread across his tattered face. As he  equipped his stop sign from his back “LOOKS LIKE I HAVE SOME NEW PLAYMATES! Heh heh heh…” the Clown rushed to the nearest beast at improbable speeds. Hoffnar bashed his sign against its head like an ax, before grabbing its front leg and ripping it off. The beast screamed, but was silenced by its own limb piercing its chest, it fell and slowly disappeared.

THe clown giggled. Before jumping high into the sky, then thrust his sign down by the pole, he fell onto another, bigger beast, before impaling its head, then he twisted the head around on the sign, ripping it off. The beast dropped, and Hoffnar rolled from the corpse, before looking at the head, he then waved his sign around before it sped off in the direction of another beast, hitting it in the head.

The clown jumped, then buried himself into the dirt, sign sticking out, before it rushed over to the same creature, he dumped out of his tunnel and pummeled the thing mid-air. Its skull caved under the blunt force. Hoffnar then slammed into the ground and spined, dodging a swipe from one of the bear-like things, then responding by reaching into its open mouth and tearing its tongue right out, before snapping its neck. 

He turned to the remaining Creatures. “WHO WANTS TO FIGHT ME!!” he yelled at them. His grin had only widened. The creatures looked at the crazed clown, seeing no negative emotion, they looked into his one crazed eye, and saw only madness and blood lust. The creature turned to their tails and ran away. Hoffnar’s grin fell as he sighed. “Party poopers…” he muttered. He shook his head and put his sign back onto his back, before turning to the left, to a less dense area, before shrugging and walking through the greenery. He only had one real goal in mind:

 Find Hank, or if not Hank, then the Nexus Corp. but how? He had no knowledge of the place… so how would he find them?

He walked along the forest, stepping over and brushing aside wild life as he continued to think of a way to attract either Hank or the Nexus Corp. but why would he want that? Simple; He wanted playmates, things to mess around with, a good fight even. And from what he has seen, The Other Place isn't as bad as one would assume, it's better than Nevada that's for sure.

He stopped for a moment, was this truly, the other place? Looking up, he stared at the blue sky, and came to a conclusion, no. It sure wasn't. But He was here, so… they should be here too? Right..?

He continued his trek and continued to think of ways to find the NC personal that had to be here. When he stopped again, but for a for a diffrent reason, a city, or a town at least, it was not really big, people walked the paths and talked, not seeing him, it looked somewhat medieval, but that didn’t matter, for he had found a way.

A twisted grin made its way onto his face, as he equipped his stop sign from his back. One thought went through his head.

“Time to make some noise…” he giggled

A man in red attire watered his plants. It was quite peaceful here in this small town, nothing really happened, and if something did, then there were a huntsman or two living nearby, which helped a lot. But still, it’s not like anything would happen to this little town, right?

The man heard footsteps approaching him, he turned and saw a… strange figure. He looked him over and felt uneasy, but decided to be polite. “Uh.. can i.. help you..?” he asked the man. The green man nodded. “Do you have anything on The Nexus corp?”

The man looked at the clown. “The what..? No, sorry I don't know what you mean..” the clown growled slightly. “Then you are no use to me.” and before he could ask anything, he felt burning pain in his stomach. He looked down and saw he was impaled by a stop sign. Before it was torn out through his side. His breathing became labored and he fell.

“JAMES!” one man shouted. Many others turned to look at the commotion and their eyes widened at what they saw. The same man shook in rage. “YOU WILL PAY FOR TH-”

CRASH- SPLAT!

The clown slammed the sign part of his weapon into the man's head, rocketing it off with stupid force. The man's body fell, lifeless and headless. The clown chuckled before spreading his arms. “Who’s Next?!” he proclaimed. His eyes lit up as more people readied themselves.

The clown gave no warning as he did a front flip into a group of people, he then spun around with his Sign tearing into flesh, cries of anguish could be heard all around as he jumped up from the group do dodge a fire dust round, which landed on a home, and it caught ablaze. The clown put up his middle finger. “Missed me! Clown!” before disappearing into confetti. Leaving the towns folk confused.

One woman took charge. “Be on the lookout, he’s still here! And put the fire out!” he ordered, but stilled when two rotten and cold hands touched her head. The hands then swiftly moved and snapped the woman's neck. “Always watch your back~!” the clown sang. Before  dodging a few more dust rounds, one managed to hit his mask. “Gah!” he cried as it reflected from the iron. He held where the iron slab had caved in slightly, before glaring at them. “OHH! THAT DOES IT!” he pulled out a M60

The remaining towns folk made a collective decision, they would die fighting till the end. Tricky then pointed the M60 to them “Y'ALL LIKE LEAD! IT TASTES LIKE COTTON CANDY! WANT SOME?” he started firing “TO FUCK’N BAD! AHAHAH!” 

The clown jumped up into the air and shakily floated through it, raining down bullets. And while many were trying to dodge, they had forgotten about the fire…

Which had spread to a supply of oil drums. The fire wrapped itself around the drum like a pet snake would its owner. Then-

BOOM!

The drums exploded, casting fire everywhere, some of it got onto people. The screams rang as the birds flew through the air. Agony was present. All because of a clown.

Speaking off. The clown laughed as mayhem reined. He continued to fire his M60 before deciding to continue on his ornery. The once Scientist packed his M60 into Hammer space, and put his street sign on his back as he walked to the other side of the town. Stepping over the burnt bodies of innocent, not that he cared, he had been the one to kill em!

Tricky hummed a circus theme, which then turned into beat boxing. bobbing his head as he walked through the hell he had caused which reminded him, what was he doing.

He snapped his fingers. The attention of the Nexus corp! He chuckled. “How silly of me!”

As he walked through the other side of the town. The screams of agony music to his ears, he saw more of those creatures run to, then around him. The clown turned as they ran into the blazing village, most likely to finish the remainder of. He shrugged. Their problem, not his!

So as he wandered forward on the dirt road, he didn’t notice a lone crow on a nearby tree, watching him. The crow squawked, then flew away, and the clown didn’t see the raven glaring at him.

He sighed as he walked. That was so much fun, and he gets to do it again! And then after he gets to have some fun with the Nexus Corp! Today would be fun… just like Jarrolds birthday party! And that one time where he was the unstoppable champion of Nevada! Good times! Good times.

Qrow watched in silent horror as the Shion village burned down, with the screams of agony only adding to his guilt of not going down there to help them, but there were too many Grimm, and that.. Clown…

He looked at the green skinned maniac, the thing was beatboxing a circus tune! After he brutalized so many innocents, burned down a village, and he was beatboxing!

Qrow watched as the figure continued its trek. Next village was abandoned, and with team RNJR coming up on to the remains of Shion fast, he had a choice, fight the clown, or go help his niece and her team.

He chose the former.

A decision he would come to regret.

Chapter Text

Hoffnar walked the dirt road aimlessly, he didn’t have a map, sue him! Still, The clown continued to walk, the cries of a crow echoed throughout the trees. TRicky would have ignored it but… 

He felt something rapidly approaching him. So he grabbed his sign and turned around, his sign held like a staff 

CLANG!

His sign collided with a long sword, wielded by a man in a red cape, he had a look in his eyes. Tricky then pushed the man off him. The cape wearing man, rolled and stood. “Good reflexes.” he spoke, taking out a flask before lifting it to his lips. Hoffnar chuckled. “Not bad yourself, now..” he shifted into a combat stance. “Shall we dance, bird brian?!” Before the man could respond, Tricky charged at him, spinning his sign like a helicopter blade. The man was put on the defensive, until he gave a sweeping lick to Tricky's legs, then striking him with his sword.

The clown flew back with a cry of pain, but landed on his feet. He felt his take bar lose almost half. The crazed clown smiled. Finally, a challenge!

The man looked at him. “You mind telling me why you burned down that village?” the man spoke with an edge to his voice, the clown didn’t care. TRicky laughed. “If you MUST know-” he raised his hands. “I’m trying to find VIctims! Play a game! And since i can’t find em..” his eyes glinted. “I gotta get em to find ME” 

Tricky then jumped and hovered in the air, pulling out his M60 from hammer space, he rained bullets at the man, who rolled and dodged them with trained speed, tricky fell from the air, and Qrow ran towards him. Before his sword landed, the clown disappeared in an explosion of confetti, blinding the alcoholic birdman. “Fuck!” he shouted, then, qrow was hit against his head with the clown's stop sign. He fell forward. Before looking up to see the clown with his signby his side.

Tricky laughed. “That was fun! But sadly, all good things, must.. END!” the swung down his sign-

Only to collide with another sword, turning he saw a woman with long black hair, red eyes, and a scowl. Tricky then used her sword to vault himself over Qrow, he landed and turned back to them. “WELL WELL WELL! A new challenger!” he laughed, voice glitching.

Raven helped her little brother up. Before growling at the maniac. “Nobody hurts my brother but me.” Tricky only laughed. “AHAHA! WHAT A FUCKIN EDGE LORD HAH HAH HAH!” Raven scowled. “I. will. Kill. you!” Tricky stopped everything, it went dead silent. Before his shaking ramped up.

Stuipid rat, you don’t kill clown…” his voice became deeper and more manic, before he lifted his mask revealing his tattered face.  “CLOWN KILLS YOU!!!!!!” he shouted at teh women, the world shook as he yelled.

System):WARNING!

System):REALITY COMPROMISED

System):THE CLOWN HAS BEEN ENGAGED

System): ERROR. ERROR.

Red static erupted around the clown, words flashing all the while. Tricky flipped his mask back on and charged at Raven. Said woman tried to block the attack, but the clown spun and dodged her counter, then slammed his sign into her gut, she flew back, and Tricky was right on her ass. He swung his sign around. Draining her arua. Before swinging his sign at her arm, shattering her  arua, and removing the limb. 

Raven shouted as pain expelled from her right arm. She cried as a fist embedded herself against her face over and over. Her aura had shattered. The pain was unbearable through her swollen eyes, she just saw the twisted clown that was going to kill her. Raven had a lot of regrets, mistakes that she would never get to make up. She closed her eyes and she braced herself, but it never came. 

Opening her eyes, she saw that qrow had  knocked the clown off her. He looked at her. “It.. it will be- Hsss , okay Rav…’ before coughing in pain. Hoffnar had calmed down a bit. He laughed. “How cute!” he shouted to the siblings. Qrow looked at him.

“I don’t know who- not, what thing you are, but mark my words, you will pay for everything you’ve done…” Qrow glared at him, and raven closed her eyes, trying to survive the pain. Hoffnar just shook his head. “Poor whittle birdies, sad that yowr guwonna dwie? Wah wah?” he mocked them, before laughing. Qrow growled “and you outta shut it, clown.” TRicky gasped dramatically. “Ooh~! Shots fired, oh wait!” Tricky pulled out the M60, before firing a few shots at qrow, who dodged them with a bit of trouble. “NOW shots fired. Hehe!”

Qrow was… well, he was scared, sure. He had been fighting grim many times, but.. He wasn’t fighting grim this time, this time he was fighting a deranged psychopath zombie clown that makes reality go nuts. This.. thing wasn’t human. Maybe once it was, but it never will be again.

And qrow knew that he really should have chosen the latter choice, maybe then, raven would not-  RAVEN! Qrow looked down to see her with eyes closed and blood around her, he went cold, one or two of the bullets must have hit her. Qrow bent down to check her pulse.

Cold, she was cold, and there wasn’t a pulse. Qrow just collapsed to his knees. “Raven…” he muttered, still in shock. “Well look dat! The Mocking bird’s Dead! Haha!” qrow turned to the clown. And met his eye. In that red eye, it  held madness. This thing had seen and done things not even the old witch Salem would think of doing. But, there was something else, a lighter side, trapped in the madness.

Before qrow could do anything else, The clown once more came at him, dual wielding both M60 and Street Sign. The clown Jumped in the air, pelting him with bullets, which he dodged. Then blocked the once scientist’s bludgeon. Trick jumped off from qrows sword. And landed a few feet back, Qrow Shifted this weapon into the scythe form and spun it around, before glaring at the clown. Before charging at him. Qrow swung his scythe in a side swipe, being parried by the crazed Zed. The two then were engaged in heated combat, both dealing blows and parrying slash blocking them.

Qrow slammed his scythe down and the clown blacked it with his own weapon, the two struggled to get the advantage, when suddenly a chain flew at them, breaking them up, the both dodged it and looked at where it had come from, their reactions to what it was were very, very different.

Reality had shattered, with a jagged hole that led into darkness. Qrow was gobsmacked, how was that possible, then again, how was that stunt the clown did possible either

Hoffnar, on the other hand, smiled. “Finally. There here…” Qrow turned to him“who is here!?” The clown just gave him a look, before te hole was made bigger, and out came gray men in red sunglasses and suits, along with men in masks with yellow visors. the men were talking in protocol qrow did not recognize.one with a one lens goggle spoke up “improbable cause found, should we neutralize?” Qrow took a defensive stance. “What the fuck!? Who are these assholes?” qrow shouted. Tricky laughed and prepared himself. “These guys, bird brian…”

“ -Are the Nexus Corp.”

Chapter Text

Gray men in suits and red shades poured out of the crack like cockroaches, they surrounded them. Some more odd men in masks with yellow visors also came out, along with two men in one lensed goggles. One of them Brought a walkie talkie to his face. “Improbable source found, should we terminate?” One of the scientists responded. “What is the source?” The Soldat looked at the clown. “It’s Hoffnar, and there seems to be a human with him.” The man over the device hummed. “Human? Huh, bring him in too>” The Soldat nodded. “Copy that.'' Then he put the device in his pocket.

Qrow looked nervously around the Nexus corp ranks, just who were these guys? When one of them spoke up. “Terminate the clown! And take in humans for further research!`` The men then aimed their hand guns at them, before the clown laughed, then ran at them.

Fight Fight!

The Nexians started to fire at the clown, leaving Qrow an opportunity to attack, he raised his scythe, and cut down a man. He froze. These guys didn’t have arua? He had just killed another man without thought. What was he becoming? He was taken from his thoughts when he dodged a needle aimed at his neck, the Agent stumbled. And qrow had another choice, fight, or get out of there. He chose the former this time.

Tricky Cut down the Nexus troops with ease as more came from the hole made from reality, he charged at a ATP Engineer, before bashing his head against him, the Engineer stumbled, before he was decapitated by the clown. Hoffnar then  jumped back from a Grenade, which exploded, killing a few more agents. One Agent charged at hoffnar with a shock baton, the clown vanished in an explosion of confetti, repairing behind the confused agent, thinking quickly, Tricky tore the Agents head off, making the body go limp. He then grabbed the shock baton.

Qrow Dodged bullet after bullet, and cut down as many as he could, but more just poured in. The drunk then jumped to dodge a swipe of a knife. Then shifted his scythe back to the long sword.

THe clown Struck another agent in the neck, he had racked up thirty two kills so far. And he looked at one of the Soldats. And with a wicked laugh, rushed the nexian. Tricky gave a few swipes of the baton, getting hit once by the Soldat, before the nexian collapsed. One corpus down, one more to go. The nexian got back up, but was quickly overwhelmed with blows, until he fell, dead.

The crack in the air widend, as something squeezed through, it was big, two or three times the size of a regular grunt, with a red visor, and oversized shotgun, it was a MAG agent. Qrow’s eyes widened. “What the hell is that!?” he shouted Not getting a response. Hoffnar’s mouth moved up into a crazed smile, and his eye glowed brighter.. “Finally! A REAL challenge! HAHA!” he laughed as more Troops filled into the new world, only to be slaughtered.

Qrow had to dodge an oversized shell from the MAG. Tricky, however, Rushed right at it,  he ran laps around it. The MAG tried to squash the clown, but he was too fast. Tricky then jumped onto its head, driving the shock baton into flesh. The MAG Growled and shook wildly, causing tricky to fly off, and land near more agents, which he quickly slaughtered with ease.

Qrow was getting tired now, he was overwhelmed and overworked. He cut down another Engineer, only to get hit by a stray bullet. Qrow grit his teeth and held onto his shoulder where he was shot. Qrow then ducked under another bullet.

Tricky made his way back to the MAG agent, cutting down Nexus core troops as he did so, he grabbed a sword from a dead agent and smiled before continuing to kill more nexus troops. Once he made it back to the mag, who had taken the baton out of his head, Hoffnar  jumped over it’s head and spun mid air, before falling down, as he  fell, he swiped the sword and sign in an ‘X’ pattern. Doing this resulted in the MAG agents face being sliced open, and with the MAG  was left distracted, distracted enough so that tricky could throw the sword into another Engineer's head, and pull out his M60. Hoffnar then barraged the MAG with lead, most aimed at its head, soon enough, the oversized grunt fell, dead. The clown put his hands up i Peace like signs, the eye holes on the masked formed a happyish face.

Going, Going, GONE! Victory!

 “UNSTOPPABLE NEVADIAN CHAMPION! HAHA!” the clown laughed. No more agents seemed to be coming from the Crack.

Qrow meanwhile had been on the defensive, as he was quickly surrounded by the remaining agents. He fel to a kneel, he felt cold metal on his head and closed his eyes. This was it, he would ide right by his sister, he would never see Ruby or yang grow up. He braced himself. And waited.

…

RAT-A-TATATATAT

…

…

Qrow opened his eyes and saw that the agents had turned their attention to the clown, who had his M60 and Sign, the clown impaled them and pumped Lead into their skulls the second and last Soldat was killed at last. The walkie talkie spat out words from the other side of the hole. “Soldat 2A_675, do you copy, Soldat 2A_675 do you copy!?” Tricky stomped on the Device, before Putting his Sign on his back. He walked over to the chain. “Well, bird brain, looks like you get to live after all! Aww, don't gimme that look! It’s only a bullet wound, HAHAHAHAA!” he cackled. Then he jumped and grabbed the chain before propelling himself into the crack. Screams and panicked yells could be heard, as gunshots echoed throughout the forest. Before the crack closed, leaving the chain behind, and the clown gone.

Qrow stared at the chain, before  standing up and looking around, the smell of burning still lingered. He took a shuddering breath as he processed what had just happened. Then..

“Uncle Qrow!” He turned to see his niece and her new team rush towards her. “Uncle Qrow! What- What happened? We saw the fire, then we saw you fighting a whole lot of guys! And you were awesome, but then, that green guy went into that thing and now he’s gone and you’re hurt and OHMYGOSHISSHEDEAD- ” Qrow wrapped his niece in a hug. “Calm down, kiddo, im fine, but she's not.” not looking at raven Qrow felt tears well up in his eyes. “U-uncle Qrow.. what happened here..?” 

He looked at the concerned faces of his niece and her team, well, not Ren, but that was expected. He  sighed as he looked his niece in the eyes. “Maybe one day, ill tell you, kiddo…”

He sighed again. “maybe…”