Sand and Glares
The small Deathstalker flailed as it died, Crocea Mors stabbing repeatedly through its masked head. He'd already cut off its stinger, leaving its tail to thump harmlessly against his shield, but that didn't make the process any more pleasant. If anything its pathetic flailing made it even worse, even knowing it was a Grimm, some tiny part of him felt bad as it desperately tried to take him to the afterlife with it.
Jaune staggered back as the thing began to turn to oily smoke, panting for breath as he did. "You couldn't have helped!?"
His new partner didn't look up from where she had her face buried in her hands, acting as if she couldn't bear to watch the debacle in front of her for a second longer. For someone who was so dramatic about his admittedly poor combat skills, she hadn't done any fighting on her own; leaving him to deal with the last three scorpion Grimm they'd run across while trying to get to the coast.
She could have at least helped with the last one dammit!
Catching his breath, he glared at her as he sheathed his sword. There wasn't much of her to glare at; the young woman was tiny. She wore high black boots, white short-shorts, a pink blouse, and brown fighting gloves that didn't match the rest of it at all. Apart from a tiny backpack the only thing she had resembling a weapon was her umbrella... or parasol, whichever, which was currently resting next to her as she lowered her hands and stared at the sky... clearly asking the gods where she'd gone wrong.
"Stop that." He growled, "I killed it didn't I?"
Brown eyes rolled before she blinked, making them both turn a bright shade of pink. Then she picked up her little umbrella thing and stomped past him, resuming their trek.
Look on the bright side, it could be worse... He wasn't really sure how exactly, but considering how things had gone so far it seemed like a safe bet.
He'd landed in a small pond of some kind, a tiny oasis maybe, and had come up sputtering for air and spitting out muddy water at the same time his new partner had come gliding down with her parasol. She'd landed right on his head, and propelled him right back under the water when she'd leaped to dry ground.
That had more or less set the tone for the last hour, as she hadn't helped him dry off in the slightest. So far she'd yet to speak so much as a word to him, not even to tell him her name. He'd thought she was just being rude at first, but from the overly dramatic way she'd mimed her disgust he was starting to think she simply couldn't speak.
If she'd been able to he was pretty sure she'd have been extremely vocal in her displeasure concerning her new 'partner'.
Calm down... I can do this. I killed my first Grimm! Three of them! That means I'm not hopeless, I can do this!
Sure, they'd been little Grimm, but the were still Grimm all the same! And everyone had to start somewhere, right?
The first one had scared the hell out of him, erupting from beneath a tiny sand dune just he'd been about to climb over it. It had gone for his legs with its claws and for his chest with its stinger, and he'd barely gotten his shield around to block the latter. His aura had handled the first part... but it turned out that aura only protected him from being wounded; it hadn't done anything for the pain of his shins suddenly being grabbed by the thing.
He'd stabbed and flailed about as much as the Deathstalker in his panic to get the thing off of him, killing it almost incidentally before falling on his ass.
His partner had thought that hilarious because she'd practically been crying as she she shuddered with silent laughter. Her amusement hadn't lasted long past the second Grimm showing up, probably attracted by his panicked shouting.
That one had taken quite a bit longer to kill, even though he'd been more or less armed and ready. His partner's reactions to his less than capable swordplay and less than heroic strength had only heaped more embarrassment onto the teen. He'd eventually worked out a plan to cut off its stinger, draw it close, then stab it in a weak spot behind its head... but it had taken a lot longer to actually turn his thoughts into reality.
Two years of steady but light workouts just wasn't the same thing as five years of daily training... and he didn't doubt that everyone else on this stupid island could have dealt with all three Grimm in less the time it had taken him to deal with one.
No, no, stop thinking like that! Confidence!
"Hey, about you take the next one if we run into one?" He asked as he caught up to her, his long legs proving to be useful for that much at least. "I... think my plan was good, maybe you could try it?"
The girl tapped a finger against her lips, somehow making the motion sarcastic, then shook her head.
"Seriously? How am I even supposed to know if you can fight if you won't take on a single Grimm?"
Her eyes, now brown again, rolled while a hand made a shooing gesture.
It was all he could do not to tear at his hair in frustration. This would have been so much simpler if that Professor had just let Primula jump after me... at least I hope she wanted to go next.
He fretted on those thoughts as they trudged onward, trying to get a better idea of how close they were to the coast. The island hadn't seemed all that big from the air, but he was starting to realize that it was far larger than he'd originally thought. Worse, besides the annoying sand dunes, it was covered in rolling hills that made seeing any other students hard.
They were about halfway up one those hills when Jaune heard sounds of combat from shockingly close by. Some kind of gun booming while a man and a woman shouted incoherently. Not bothering to glance at his partner, he accelerated, scrambling up the slope as quickly as he could. The far side proved to be a steep incline, but at the bottom were two students along with a half-dozen more of the Deathstalkers.
One was Primula, and even as he watched she flung her right hand forwards. The short rod on her back was evidently connected to a small spiked ball by a chain... and said ball burst into flames the second before it smacked into one of the Grimm.
Oh, so that's a dust flail.
The other student was the massive boy who'd been standing opposite him. Clad only in a dark red t-shirt and shorts, he held an over-sized shotgun in his hands, the weapon mounting an equally overly large bayonet beneath its barrel. The gun boomed as he held off two of the things, not killing but them but definitely making them more than a little angry.
"We have to help them, can you take the ones on the left?" Jaune demanded, turning towards his partner as she caught up, panting a little as she did.
The silent girl blinked as if in surprise, then glanced down before blinking again. A moment later she pursed her lips and then nodded.
"Let's go then!" He stared at the incline, sucked in a breath, and then dropped off. Sliding down the sandy slope was anything but pleasant, his aura the only thing protecting him from scrapes and bruises, but it was probably safer than trying to run down.
Primula was too focused on her opponents to hear him coming, and she let out a startled squawk when he all but landed on top of the Deathstalker she'd been about to bash. "Jaune!?"
"Sorry!" He shouted back, frantically rolling off of the Grimm he'd landed on. That actually worked better than he'd intended since the thing's stinger slammed into its own head instead of him. Shaking himself out he lashed out with his sword, stabbing the convulsing Deathstalker in the mouth to try and reclaim some of his dignity. "Here to help!"
"Thank you!" She sounded at least somewhat sincere, stepping over him and bringing her weapon down on top of one of the others.
It let out a furious clattering sound, half of its face cracked and ruined... but it was still alive, and now angry. Jaune scrambled to his feet as the thing grabbed at his friend, missed her, and got the chain of her flail. She let out a word he hadn't ever thought he'd hear from a girl, straining to pull her weapon back.
His eyes widened as he saw another Deathstalker coming up on her side. Scrambling to his feet, he threw himself in front of her, barely getting his shield up in time to block the stinger that had been aimed at her throat. The blow slammed the metal into his chest, making him cough as he tried to slash at the tail before it could pull back.
He... didn't quite manage it, just nicking it a bit and making his opponent as angry as Primula's.
Jaune was getting ready to try his Deathstalker-kill-plan once more when there was a blur of motion, his partner rocketing past him; her parasol in her left hand, and a thin little sword was in her right. She spun like a dancer to avoid the stinger as it tried to gore her, the blade flashing as she neatly severed it off. Before the Grimm could do more than rear back in pain she was on top of it, stabbing it neatly through one of its eyes and down through its brain.
It hadn't even really begun to dissolve before she kicked off of it, rolled once, then repeated the process on the one still holding Primula's weapon hostage.
... yeah, that's not emasculating or anything.
"Everyone..." He shook his head a little, "...all right? Prim?"
"I'm all right, thank you Jaune." She replied, her own breath coming out in pants. "That was gentlemanly of you."
Jaune felt his face heat up a little, and he quickly turned to the other guy present. "You good?"
"Of course! Nothing I love more than killing Grimm." The other teen all but boomed, grinning as he walked over. "Thanks for the assist. Pretty sure we had it, but went a lot faster with you two here. I see you already know my partner. My name's Rau, good to meet ya."
"Jaune." He replied, "This is my partner... uh, she doesn't really talk so I didn't get her name yet."
Rau grunted, "Her name's Neopolitan, we went through the Lighthouse Academy together. She's a wildcat in a fight, but outside of one... she's bitchy and proud of it, even if she never talks."
Jaune glanced at his partner in surprise, the young woman ignoring them both as she sheathed her blade back inside her parasol. It made some kind of sense that they'd know each other, since any prospective Hunters from Vacuo had probably gone to a small selection of schools, but it still kind of surprised him.
Well, at least I know her name now.
Shaking himself a little, he forced his brain to stay focused as Primula wandered over to join them. "Right, well I guess we've got a team, now we just need to get a boat and get out of here."
His first friend nodded, her voice tired. "Can't argue with that. The closest shore should be to the east, that way. Not more than a half hour's walk."
They all turned and stared at her in surprise, making the dark woman shift a little uncomfortably. "What? I... paid attention when I was falling."
"Well," Jaune smiled, "I'm glad you did. Come on guys, I've had enough sand for one day."
Rau frowned a little, some his joviality fading, but nodded and started off. Neopolitan went right on ignoring them, though she began strutting in the direction that Prim had indicated all the same, leaving the pair of them bringing up the rear. Things stayed like that for nearly thirty minutes, moving over one hill, between a few others, and then yet up one more...which gave him plenty of time catch up with Prim about what had happened.
"I was fourth out, after you three." She nodded when he asked, "Used a bit of gravity dust to slow my fall. Started heading to where I thought you might have landed and ran into Rau fighting off a few Creeps. What happened to you?"
Jaune winced, "I ah... landed in a pond, then Neo landed on top of me. Ran into a couple of those scorpion things walking this way but nothing too major."
There was a definite snort from Neo, proving that she could hear just fine even if she couldn't talk.
He glowered at her back a little, then tried to recover, "It's, um, a bit to get used to, isn't it? I mean, I figured how to kill them, just taking a bit of practice to get it right."
"Me too." Prim replied, a little too quickly, "I mean, they're not all that dangerous, it's just... um..."
Rau sighed and glanced over his shoulder at them, "You're both pants at combat, go ahead and say it."
They both winced.
"Knew it." The other boy grunted, turning to look ahead again, "Bet you both got in on academics... guess we'll have a balanced team, two nerds and two fighters. Could be worse."
"Oh come on!" Jaune groaned, accelerating a bit to try and catch up to the others, "We weren't that bad."
Rau snorted, "True, I've seen worse, usually from people actively getting eaten... and I guess you did work out some kind of little scheme pretty quick, so guess you're smart enough. But, I mean, come on bro. You were waving that sword around like you didn't know what end to hold, and Prim let her chain get grabbed by a tiny little-"
Neo abruptly smacked him in the chest, coming up short just as they reached the top of the next hill. The bigger teen grunted, not quite glaring at her before looking ahead and going as still as the mute next to him.
Well, that can't be good.
Swallowing, Jaune moved up as quietly as he could, looking over his partner's shoulder to see... a really, really, really large Grimm lounging in the sun beside another small pond. This one wasn't like the scorpion's he'd seen, it looked more like some kind of demented dinosaur. It was as big as a small house, standing on two trunk like legs, and had a thick looking tail stretched out behind it.
"That," Prim murmured weakly, her eyes very wide against her dark skin. "Is the largest Creep I've ever heard of. What do we do?"
Rau snorted, already drawing his gun out, "Obvious isn't it? We kill it."
He felt his mouth drop open, "What?"
The bigger teen rolled his eyes, "Jaune, we're hutnsman now. Killing Grimm is what we do. It's half-asleep, we hit it head on and kill it before it wakes up."
"That's not our job though!" He whispered furiously back, "We're supposed to find a team and get back to the boats, they didn't say anything about fighting Grimm!"
"Coward." Rau sneered back at him, turning to the women. "What about you two?"
Prim just gaped at him, then at the massive Grimm, then shook her head and took a step back.
"Figured. Looks like it's up to us Neo."
Jaune watched as his partner pursed her lips, her eyes shifting colors rapidly as she blinked them. Then, to his complete surprise... she shook her head and pointed at him.
"You're... what?" Rau gaped at her, "You serious? You're always up for a fight!"
Multi-colored eyes narrowed and she stabbed a finger at Jaune again before carefully moving back from the top of the hill, making her stance clear.
"Our mission's not to fight these things, it's to find the boats. What if there aren't enough for everyone? What if getting out of here fast is part of the test?" He tried again, "Come on man, let's move around and get out of here. We'll be killing plenty of Grimm later."
The other teen's dark eyes narrowed furiously. "...sod it, I'll do it myself."
Then, before any of them could realize what he meant by that, he turned and started running straight for the massive Grimm. Even Neo seemed slack-jawed as the three exchanged incredulous looks before rushing up to the crest of the hill and simply staring as their team member ran straight for his slumbering enemy.
"Um..." Prim's voice was very small. "Jaune? What do we do?"
Oh Gods... this is bad... this is bad this is bad this is bad!
He swallowed, "Um..."
The Grimm seemed to hear its opponent coming before Rau got halfway to it, massive yellow eyes blinking wide open as its armored head turned in their direction. Even the soulless creature seemed stunned by the sight of a single human sprinting towards it, because it took it a long couple of seconds before it let out a ground-shaking bellow and dragged itself up to its feet.
He felt the roar in his chest, and some sane part of his brain started screaming in panic, telling him it was definitely time to run away and live.
"We... oh gods, he's going to get killed." He shook his head, "We have to help him! Come on!"
With that, and before he could actually think about it too much, he charged down the hill... heading for the enormous Grimm.
Rau got to the Creep when Jaune and the others were about a third of the way down the slope. The idiot managed to avoid getting eaten in the first moments, something he personally thought of as a miracle, but his gunfire didn't seem to be doing anything but tickle the giant creature.
Have to think! Have to think! Dammit, I don't know anything about this! Wait... "Prim! What's this thing's weak spots!?"
The girl was puffing as she kept up, her voice wavering, "Um, its neck! Behind the mask! Eyes and its legs, but those the spots on a normal one!"
"It's all we've got!" He shouted back, drawing his sword but leaving his sheathe in place. He didn't need to be a genius to guess that it wouldn't help him if the thing managed to hit him. "You and Neo try and get the legs!"
Both women nodded, splitting away from him to try and circle around the thing while he headed in to help Rau. The other boy had seemed to finally realize he'd bitten off way more than he could chew, and was trying to circle back as his gun uselessly hammered away at the thing.
"Its eyes!" Jaune bellowed as he got closer, "Shoot the eyes!"
Rau actually jumped a little, turning to stare at the three of them in surprise. That nearly got him eaten right then and there, and Jaune felt himself flinching when the things head came crashing down to take a bite from the sand. It was only when he heard the shotgun start up again, and saw the flash of red running through the dust cloud that he realized Rau was still alive.
The Creep roared in pain as one of the shots got its left eye, stumbling sideways in an attempt to get away from the pain. Of course that brought Jaune right into its sight, and he felt his knees go week as a few angry tons of Grimm started lumbering straight towards him. Behind it, the thing's tail flailed wildly, kicking up an angry sandstorm around them, making it impossible to see much of anything except for its looming shadow.
He threw himself to the left on reflex as he saw the head coming down, slashing at it as it rammed the sandy ground next to him.
...he might as well have hit it with a wet washcloth for all the good it did, a tiny chip of its mask flying away as he staggered back. He was too busy staring in surprise at his sword to realize that the thing was whipping its head around until it slammed into him, sending him flying.
Landing in a dust cloud of his very own hurt, a lot. Pushing himself up with a groan, he stared as the rest of the team kept up the fight. Prim was visible in the cloud thanks to her burning flail, the fire sparking and flashing whenever she hit the thing, trying to hammer at the back of its knee. Neo was practically invisible but from the way the thing abruptly stumbled he thought she was having more luck getting through its tough skin.
Rau was having about as much as he'd had, his attempt to shoot out its other eye resulting in a flailing kick that saw him land right next to Jaune with a wheezing groan of his own.
"Come on." Using his sword to push himself to his feet, Jaune stumbled over and offered the bigger teen a hand. "We gotta help the girls."
Rau blinked vaguely a few times, then shook himself and took the offered hand, "Yeah, right. How? Thing's a fucking tank. We're hurtin' it but we ain't killing it."
"I'm working on it." He replied, staring at the fight as the Creep stomped around, trying to crush the women attacking it. It seemed like Neo was the only one who could really hurt it, but even she was just wounding it a little. Running, as much as he wanted to, wasn't an option, the thing would just chase them down.
So they had to kill it, but how?
Weakness... Prim said eyes, legs, and neck... neck... "We've got to get to its neck. The back, behind its mask."
Rau just stared at him, then at the beast. "What, you want to climb up it? No way it would let us, it's moving around too much! And we'd need a lot of time to hurt even if we did."
So we need it to stay still... and we need someone who can actually hurt it to get on top of it.
"I got it! We all have to get up near the front, go get Prim, I'll get Neo!"
From the dubious look the other boy gave him he wasn't sold on whatever the idea was, but he shook himself and started running towards the leg his partner was wailing on. Jaune followed suit, still planning it out in his head.
"Neo!" He shouted as they got closer, fighting to be heard over the roaring. "Neo! Get over here!"
There was a sound like shattering glass and abruptly his partner was standing next to him, her sword planted into the ground as she panted for air. Jaune gaped at her for a moment, then shook himself. "I've got a plan, I need you to get on the back of its head and stab my sword into it!"
Neo looked at him as if he'd gone insane, her eyes a bizarre shade of white-silver as he shoved Crocea Mors into her hands. She didn't even resist when he took her slender little blade, stunned at how light it was.
"We're going to be bait to get it to stay still long enough for you to get on it!" He continued, "Then Prim's going to hammer my sword down into its head!"
Her eyes became brown, then pink as she nodded firmly, hefting her sword up. He had to repeat the plan when the other two returned, rushing back to join them. It was bit hard with the Creep flailing around, but so long as they kept to its right side the Grimm couldn't see them. Running in circles kept it busy until they were ready.
"Are you sure you can hit the target!?" Jaune shouted as they ran the last circle, Neo having already backed off to get ready. His shield expanded as he prepared for his part of the plan, hoping to whatever gods were out there that this would work.
"So long as its not moving much, yeah!" Prim replied, "Can you take my weight!?"
I hope so! "Yeah!"
"Now!" Jaune shouted, rushing forwards, waving Neo's sword to get its attention. Rau followed him, his gun booming, aiming at thing's snout.
The thing roared, opening its jaw wide before bringing it down. Jaune skidded to a stop, turning his back on the Grimm and raising his shield while Rau continued on, drawing its attention before throwing himself out of the way.
Several things happened quickly at that point. He saw Neopolitan abruptly shatter as she'd been made of glass, then heard the Creep's pained roar ending as its head struck the crowd. A moment later a sprinting Prim, her flail whirling with purple light beside her, leaped right at him, both feet hitting his shield.
He felt his boots sink into the sand as her weight hit his trembling arms, it took everything he had left to heaving his shield upwards, giving her the tiniest of boosts as she leaped. Her black clothing whipped around as she became airborne, the gravity dust lightening her enough to make this work.
Turning as she flew, he watched as she came down on the recovering Creep, Neo flinging herself clear from where Crocea Mors was sitting like a nail right in the center of its neck. Prim's glowing flail hit it did center, metal ringing as a flash of light came from beneath the Grimm.
The furious roar became a pained gurgle, and four students watched as the huge Grimm teetered to one side before collapsing. It began to dissolve almost at once, oily black smoke billowing away from its corpse.
"Well..." Jaune offered in the silence that followed. "... I guess that worked."
And the new team JNPR has formed, and Jaune's mixed bag of luck continues. To be clear on Neo, she is also 17 in this particular fic, as such her semblance is not as insane as it eventually will be. I'm going to be rolling with the Professor Arc/Coeur interpretation of said semblance; i.e. something like a dual semblance (teleportation + illusions).
The semblances of Prim and Rau may or may not be revealed over the course of this story, haven't decided yet. I'm trying to balance the homage to canon without endlessly repeating it, so let me know if I'm pulling that off. Current goal is to put a chapter a day until this guy is done with, so expect this to run for about a week. (outline is 8 chapters total).
Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
Thanks, Kat
