JAQK Volume 1, Chapter 1

The ship landed in front of Beacon Academy, Jack looked out one of the many windows on the ship and watched as the groups of new students began to file out of the other ships in droves. As the ramp leading off the ship he was on began to lower, and the people around him began to file out, he took a deep breath, put his goggles over his eyes, grabbed his things, and headed down the ramp. Jack couldn't help but feel excited and nervous at the prospect of just being at Beacon Academy. He walked through the crowd as he day-dreamed, suddenly he bumped into someone and fell back onto his butt. Then he looked up and saw a huge menacing figure standing before him with its back to him. Jack rubbed the back of his head, "I am so sorry. I wasn't paying attention and—" he was cut off as the figure turned and stuck its hand out to him. The figure was tall, dark skinned, long haired boy with a warm, yet unshaven face. His hair was slicked back, and he had green eyes. He was wearing a long black over coat, with a grey t-shirt that had a design of a heart covered in chains on it. The boy looked at Jack with his hand outstretched, "Don't worry about it. Now let me help you up." Jack grabbed the boys hand and was pulled up way quicker than expected. "Thanks…" Jack said as he dusted himself off. Jack held his hand out nervously, "I'm Jack, Jack Chronos." The long-haired boy reached out and grabbed Jack's hand with almost crushing strength, "Quinn." He said plainly as they shook hands.

They started walking together towards the auditorium with the rest of the new incoming students. Jack watched Quinn as he walked next him, he didn't really seem to express many emotions…or talk from what he could tell. The two walked in silence as they filed into the auditorium. It was a large elegant room, with a raised stage, there were many adults sitting on the stage in chairs. Jack assumed they were the various teachers of the academy. As the crowd began to settle Jack's attention was drawn to the stage, as he looked an older woman stepped up to the microphone. She had blonde hair tied up in a bun, light green eyes, glasses, a purple cape, a black and white dress, with knee high black boots to match. The woman cleared her throat before speaking, "Good afternoon new students. My name is Glinda Goodwitch, and I am the headmaster of Beacon. When I look around at all of you, I see nothing but infinite potential. The one thing I hope that you all take away from your time here, is the fact that strength is not something that you are born with. Strength is forged through hard work and the experiences that are yielded from it. Tomorrow you face the first of said experiences, initiation. I shall give you more details in the morning. Until then, explore the campus, and get plenty of rest tonight…" She smiled, "…you're going to need it." She stepped down and they were released back into the courtyard.

As Jack walked with Quinn through the courtyard they talked sparsely. Suddenly someone bumped into Jack causing him to drop his bag onto the foot of the person behind him with loud metallic thunk. The person let out a high-pitched squeal of pain, the boys turned around to see a girl with white hair in a long-braided ponytail, a white dress with pink frills and pink straps, she was wearing thigh high white healed boots, and was wearing an angel shaped necklace. Her angry bright blue eyes met Jack's as she held his bag in her hand, with a furious pout on her face. "How dare you drop this on my foot!" she yelled. She tossed the bag at Jack, he caught it, letting out a gasp. She then got in his face as Quinn watched, "Do you have any idea who I am!?" Before Jack could answer Quinn cut in, "You're Angel Schnee." He said stepping in between them, "The heiress to the Schnee dust company, but if I recall correctly your company is currently under investigation for doing business with the Blackheart family." He said getting closer to her with a stoic expression on his face. Her face turned bright red, but she was still pouting. "How did you know about that?" she asked fuming. Quinn smirked, "Its been all over the news lately." He said before walking away, nodding at Jack as he passed him. Jack quickly followed leaving Angel before she could retaliate.

The next morning, they were shown to their lockers by Glynda. "These will be where you keep most of your gear, as well as your weapons. These lockers are equipped with global positioning technology, as well as jet propulsion. Simply type in the coordinates of the desired destination either on the locker itself, or into the app on your scroll and it will make its way to the specified location within minutes." She started out of the locker room, "Get your weapons and meet at the cliff side when you are finished. Don't keep me waiting." With that she left, Jack opened his locker and grabbed his weapon, a long katana, with a scope and trigger on the hilt. "what do you call it?" Jack jumped almost dropping the weapon. He turned to see Quinn standing with a large staff that had two axe blades on both ends strapped to his back. Jack breathed a sigh of relief, "I call it Primrose, and its my baby." He said hugging the sword. Quinn smiled, "I see." Quinn noticed Jack's eyes being drawn to the large weapon on his back, "I call it Cerberus." Jacks eyes lit up at the name, "Cool!" he beamed. Quinn chuckled, "We better get going. Ms. Goodwitch told us not to keep her waiting." Jack nodded, "Right! Let's get going."

The students stood lined up at the cliff side overlooking the forest below. Glynda addressed the students as Jack looked up down the line of students, he couldn't see Quinn and that made him nervous. "You will be launched into a forest full of grimm, your task is simple; retrieve one of the artifacts planted in the forest and make your way to the other side of the forest to complete your initiation. Furthermore, the first person you make eye contact with will your partner for the remainder of your time here." Glynda explained as she walked down the line of students. "Any questions?" She asked as she reached the other end, Jack piped up, "Um…what did you mean by-" before he could answer he was suddenly launched into air. He quickly put his goggles on…then started screaming. As the distance between himself and the trees grew smaller and smaller, he reached and grabbed Primrose off his back. Then, he started doing calculations in his head about angled and his velocity before ramming the blade into the trunk of a tree. It slowed his descent enough for him to land safely with a roll just to be safe. The tree split in half and the two halves fell to the ground behind him as he stood. He took off his goggles, he was breathing heavily, "Yes! Yes! I'm so glad that actually worked!" He exclaimed as he started walking through the forest.

"Well Quinn is nice. I really hope I run into Quinn." At that moment he heard a growl from behind him. He turned to see a two beowolves charging towards him snarling angrily. Jack took off running, "Alright, I can do this….no I can't!" he said as he ran. He kept running around and over trees, he would need a plan, or someone to help him at the least. Eventually he tripped, caught himself, then turned over onto his back. The fall had sent Primrose flying out of his reach, there was no time to grab it either as the beowolves had caught up with him. They got ready to pounce he closed his eyes as they leapt towards him. Suddenly the beowolves were sliced in half, he opened his eyes to see a girl in front of him with a huge sword in her hands. She was wearing blue jean shorts, a low cut yellow V-neck shirt with an orange tunic over it, and a hat over a head of bright orange hair. "T-thank you for saving me…" He said as he stood up dusting himself off. The girl turned around to face him and they made eye contact, "No problem, goggles." She said with smile. He grabbed Primrose and put it on his back, she did the same with her long sword. She stuck her hand out to him, "Valance, Karina Valance. What's your name?" She asked him. Before Jack could answer there was a loud roar in the distance and it didn't sound far. "We should run." She said before grabbing Jack's hand, practically dragging along behind her as they ran.

"Whatever you do, don't look back!" She yelled as they ran. So of course, Jack looked behind them to see a grimm-o-rilla barreling towards them. Seeing this only made Jack panic and run faster, "I told you not to look back!" Karina said. Suddenly they passed by two familiar faces, it was Quinn and Angle who started running with them. "What did you do!?" Angled yelled at Jack. "I didn't do anything…I think." He responded. "We can't run forever. We need a plan." Quinn cut inn. "From what I've read, we need to get it into an open area to even have a chance of beating it!" Jack explained. They managed to make it to an open area with ruins and pedestals, "The artifacts!" Angel exclaimed. "We've got bigger things to focus on right now." Quinn said as he turned with cerebelus ready. Karina nodded drawing her sword, Angel took out an elegant rapier, and Jack held Primrose nervously. "Hat girl help me take out its legs." Quinn said to Karina, who simply nodded and they both charged. Jack looked to Angel, "Does that rapier fire dust?" He asked. Angel nodded, "Why?" she asked. "Follow my lead." They charged in. Quinn and Karina dodged the slams of the grimm-o-rilla. Then, they swung their weapons in unison hitting it in the back of its knees causing it fall to its knees. As the grimm slammed its fist Jack transformed Primrose into a sniper rifle, and Angel turned her rapier into a grenade launcher. "Now Angel!" he ordered. They fired their weapons simultaneously freezing the monster's hands to the ground. "Now what do we do?" Quinn asked as the beast struggled to get free. "How hard do you think you can throw me?" Jack asked. Quinn looked surprised, "Pretty hard. Why?" Jack looked at Angel, hand me one of your fire grenades. "Why?" she asked. "I have a plan, it's a fifty-fifty shot and it might kill me—" She shoved the grenade into his hands, "Say no more." She said quickly. Quinn picked him up ready to throw him, "You sure about this?" he asked. "Well…no, but there's no going back now! So, throw me!"

Quinn nodded and Jack at the incapacitated grimm, as he flew over the beast's head time seemed to slow. Jack placed the grenade in the grimm's jaws, then he quickly fired a shot at the grenade as time moved normally. The grenade detonated completely blowing the head off the grimm. Jack landed shakily on his feet, he was sweating and breathing hard, he was suddenly tackled from behind and hugged by Karina, "That was awesome goggles!" she beamed. "I will admit, that took some real courage." Quinn said walking up to them. "Are you kidding me?!" Angel yelled, "You people are crazy! Come on Quinn lets go get our artifact and get out of this nasty forest." She said dragging Quinn away, "Alright. See you guys around." The two of them grabbed an artifact and left. Jack and Karina walked up onto the ruined platform. Jack grabbed a pocket watch, "The artifacts are…watches? That's lame." She said as Jack slipped it into one of the many pockets in his trench coat. "Time pieces to be exact. Looks like the four of us were the last ones to get here." He said as they walked down the platform heading towards the cliffside.

When they made it to the top of the cliff they were met with the rest of the students, as well as a very pleased Glynda, "With that you have all completed your initiation." She said addressing the students. "Congratulations!" She said with a smile. Later that same day after they got back to the academy and got cleaned up, they were brought to the assembly hall to be put into teams. The four of them were all called up one after the other and stood before Glynda, "Jack Chronos, Angel Schnee, Quinn Eckhart, and Karina Valance, you four showed excellent teamwork in the field. Therefore, you four will be known as team JAQK, led by…Jack Chronos." Jack looked surprised, "Wait what?" He said in disbelief. Karina looked at him, "Your name is Jack?" She asked genuinely. Glynda smiled, "Once again, welcome to beacon! I'm sure this will be an interesting year!"