Hello, and welcome all to another chapter!
Disclaimer: I own none of the intellectual properties.
Chapter One: Nostalgia Can Get You Killed
Nine Years Later
A Beowolf raised its head and sniffed the air, giving a low growl as it whirled around, its pack mates followed suite as they too perceived the new scent in the air.
The group as one growled at the direction of the interloper as they fanned out and began taking loping strides forward.
They stopped when the scent finally showed itself to them; It was a person of slight above-average stature shrouded in a tattered and dirty black cloak that stood before them. Nothing was discernible from the person, not even their gender.
The Beowolves growled threatening at the individual, and some crouched onto all four, ready to spring at the human before them.
As one, the group of a half dozen beowolves charged at the human, crossing the distance in scant seconds, but that was more than enough time for the human to react.
With a casual flick on the human's left hand, four of the beowolves were thrown to the far end of the clearing by the sudden appearance of a gale of wind.
The last two beowolves continued their attack regardless of the incapacity of their brethren. Just as they reached the human, almost impossible fast, the human drew a simply designed long sword from underneath his cloak, and in one fell swoop, easily cutting through both of the attacking Beowolves in a single slash.
The human turned to the other Beowolves whom were just starting to get back up from their entanglement upon the forest floor, and the person began to run at the disoriented Beowolves.
But the Beowolves were quick to their own feet, giving loud angry snarls at the human coming at them.
When the human was but a scant meter in front on the Beowolves, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light. Drawing a moment of confusion from the beowolves, as the human's scent disappeared for a moment, to only reappear beside the Beowolf on the farthest right.
Said Beowolf only was able to give a startled yelp as the sword entered its body from behind, to come out the other side of its body, right through where the figurative heart was located.
Two of the remaining Beowolves took great swipes at the figure with their large paws. One was thrown through the air for a second time, while the second one was soon impaled upon the long sword like the previous one.
The last standing Beowolf leaped from his spot near the figure, but just as it was about to land on the human, said person disappeared for a second time, causing the sharp claws of the Beowolf to tear through thin air.
The Beowolf landed on all four and easily turned its body around to once more face the human. At the same time, the other Beowolf that had struck a tree had regained its bearing and was now circling the human's other side.
The human's focus was only upon the left most Beowolf, and so the one circling ended up in the human's blind spot, and attacked from there.
Suddenly, everything stopped moving; the falling leaves hung suspended in mid air as they fell from the trees, The blowing wind had stopped, the leaping Beowolf was frozen in mid air, one could easily see the bone detail and state of its fur up-close without harm. There was complete silence in the clearing.
But then the silence was broken by the sound of someone exhaling, because not everything was frozen in time; the lone figure caught in between the two Beowolves casually gave a roll of its shoulders.
Turning to the Beowolf in mid air, the person easily beheaded the Grimm before turning to face the sole remaining one -still frozen in time- before making his way to it in quick strides, a mental countdown descending in his head; 'Six. Five. Four...'
He reached 'Two' just as he arrived before the last Beowolf and raised his left hand, where a wrist-mounted gun appeared just as time caught back up and reverted to its normal speed.
An almost look of confusion passed across the bone skull of the Beowolf at the sight of its prey so close before there was a single shot fired and the human remained the only living thing left in the clearing.
Total time for the fight lasted a mere twenty-five seconds.
The guy gave another sigh, this time of relief as he threw back his cowl to reveal a head of messy blond hair, a clean shaven face, and deep blue eyes.
Using a part of the tattered cloak to wipe away the dark ichor of the Grimm blood off his sword, Jaune finally turned his attention small trail leading off to one side of the clearing.
He knew what laid at the end of that trail, he had been fighting for the majority of the morning to get here for a reason, and what laid here for whatever number of years was more than worth the time spent clearing away the surrounding Grimm.
Not too long later, Jaune arrived at what he sought; in a simple grove, not worn by the elements or age, was a simple wooden structure hidden amongst the trees and vines, but that was not what truly drew Jaune's attention; what he had come for was the small portable object simply resting upon the wooden surface.
A rune of the Outsider.
The marked stone flashed once when Jaune's hand came into contact with it, seemingly burning with life as Jaune furled back his cloak to reveal a satchel.
Deftly pulling the zipper back, Jaune placed the rune in its new home alongside three others.
Once back in the clearing, with the bodies of the Grimm having dissipated into smoke and gone to Monty knows where, Jaune paused as highly tuned senses in ambush-ery and backstabber-y began sounding alarm bells inside his head.
Jaune stopped walking once he arrived at the center of the clearing, there he unfurled his cloak once more as a sign of confidence as he visibly placed a hand upon the pommel of his sword.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Jaune shouted into the surrounding forest his face set into a scowl.
But there was no answer from the silent forest before him.
Jaune waited a heartbeat more before speaking again; "If you do not show yourself, then I will just have to come find you!"
He waited another moment, and just as Jaune was about to go forth on his word and drag out whomever was watching him, they graciously showed themselves first.
The first individual was a tall man, taller than Jaune himself, and looked slightly older as well, though that was harder to tell through the white face mask he wore. He had brown hair that was streaked with red highlights, but two fringes were black and slicked backwards as well. The guy seemed to be wearing some kind of suit variation as he wore a highly embroiled black suit-jacket over a red shirt and black pantsuits. He was also carrying a short sword of some kind, though Jaune was sure it was not of Vale design.
The guy's companion was much more... striking than him; it was a girl first off, with long flowing black hair that fell in a curtain down her back, she too wore a white face mask that covered the upper part of her face, excluding her nose and mouth, she appeared to be wearing a white tank top and boy-shorts underneath a vastly altered black tailcoat, she had on also black leggings that faded to purple as they met up with her heels.
The two sides watched each other as seconds passed. Jaune remained unmoving, the only hint was the barest tightening of his hand around the pommel of his sword.
"Who are you two?" Jaune asked, eyes roaming from one to the other.
"The same could be said to you" the male answered, there was a undertone of violence in his words that Jaune clearly understood as he widened his stance.
"We were sent here for the same reason you were" the girl answered, giving her male companion a sharp glance through her mask as she tried to not cause a fight to break out.
"And what reason is that?" Jaune asked, he highly doubted that statement, but decided to play along for a while.
"The eradication of the entrenched Grimm in the area, of course" the girl answered again as her companion remained silent, crossing his arms over his chest.
'So they say they have been sent for by the village' Jaune thought to himself, eyeing the two of them. They did look very young for Hunters. 'Time to play dumb'
"I hadn't know the village had sent for Hunters" Jaune called out. "In fact, I was under the impression that a village runner was just sent... this morning"
Jaune watched the two of them pause, before sharing a glance before facing him once more.
"It is of none of your business" the male growled out, shifting in his spot, agitated by something.
"That's completely fine by me" Jaune answered before taking a glance at an imaginary watch upon his wrist. "And if you two would move out of the way, I have a long trip ahead of me"
Jaune slowly made his way forward until he stood within a meter or so in front of the two of them, sadly, they had decline to make out of the way for him.
Jaune Arc cocked his head to the side as the two people in front of them remained where they were standing; directly in front of the path leading back to the village and the dirt road that lead back to the larger cities of Vale.
Though he could not see her eyes, Jaune could see the tight frown upon the uncovered part of the girl's face.
"We've actually come here to meet with you in person... Marked Man" the girl said after a moment of hesitation.
Jaune gave a humourless smile at that alias.
Four Years Earlier
A twelve-year-old Jaune gave a sigh as he casually left through the back entrance of the nightclub; it had been pretty easy breaking in and stealing from the owner's office, and now Jaune was several thousand Lien richer because of it.
It was during this night that Jaune suddenly felt the burning upon his left hand, giving a quick glance at his gloved hand, he hastily began to look around, slowing his pace to get a better read on the location of the rune or charm.
Jaune's slow pace eventually brought him to a much less visited part of the city; a place full of the seedy underbelly of society. Jaune had refrained from stepping foot in this area for a while, in fact, he was surprised that there was even a rune here, given that he passed by the exact same area several times the past month.
Jaune followed his mark all the way until he reached what looked like a pier; there were rows of warehouses and a slew of docks, though, only a single dock was seeing usage at the moment, where several men in black suits and hats were unloading crate after crate from a boat that would speed off and then return with more crates to unload.
It was just Jaune's luck that wherever they were dropping off their cargo seemed to be the same place where the rune was located.
Jaune looked around for a good vantage place to follow the henchmen and ended up blinking to the roof of one of the nearby warehouses and followed them from above, keeping an eye out for more of them or any sudden development.
Jumping from roof to roof, eventually, Jaune was led to a nondescript warehouse situated slightly away from the others on the pier. This place was most definitely where the rune was located; other than the fact his left hand was pulsing to its own pop beat, the place was heavily guarded as well, where Jaune could see more than a few milling around the building and one or two on the roof as well. Most of them seemed to be armed with melee weapons, but Jaune could see the bulge of a few handguns amongst the guards.
Jaune peeked over the crest of his building to check on the guards on the opposite roof, and to begin formulating a plan to get inside without being detected.
he looked down upon the satchel hanging diagonally across his chest, without opening it, he knew exactly how many runes were inside; a grand total of 7. He had been saving up to fully unlock his BEND TIME Ability.
Jaune bit his lip, this could easily turn bad and force him into a confrontation against the armed men. Jaune was not sure if he was ready to take another person's life again.
He gave a quiet sigh, he knew that these people were not good people per se, but that didn't mean they had to die for Jaune's gains. Humanity was already a remnant of its former self, it did not need more dead.
Jaune has resolved himself to never take a human life again... but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight if necessary or knock his opponents unconscious.
He turned on Dark Vision and watched as everything went through a brownish filter before the henchmen were highlighted in neon yellow as they continued on their patrols. The guards on the roof were facing the other way.
A Perfect opportunity for Jaune to sneak in.
He switched his wrist mounted pistol from semiautomatic to single shot tranquilizer rounds. BLINKING to the warehouse door, checking to make sure the guards were still occupied somewhere else, Jaune took a look through the keyhole, rotating his body around to get a better view of the interior.
Jaune was able to see shelves upon shelves of crates piled high to the ceiling. Jaune had no clue what they were and what they were for because his attention was solely upon the glowing rune at the far end of the warehouse where the offices were located.
Making one more check through the keyhole, and then one for the guards outside with him, Jaune attempted to open the door...
To surprise, the main door was left unlocked, it didn't even squeak when he opened it and closed it gently behind him as he entered the warehouse.
Still looking around with DARK VISION, Jaune was astounded to not see anyone else inside the warehouse with him.
It seemed like the thought they were more than protected with the guards outside. Well, this worked fine for Jaune as well.
He turned off his Dark Vision and blinked several times to adjust himself to the color change before he crept his way forward, keeping an eye out for anything that he could also use along the way to the rune.
Jaune tested the office door and found it too was unlocked. Opening the desk drawer, Jaune came face to face with the Outsider's rune. But just as his hand encompassed the stone, a thought ran through his head;
This was far too easy... Jaune had had a harder time stealing from Junior and his club.
It was with that thought that suddenly, the lights turned on, blinding Jaune momentarily.
He whirled around to race for the door, but it was too late as the audible sound of running feet and shouts were heard.
Jaune cursed as he quickly pocketed the rune and questions ran through his mind a thousand a minute. Stuff like: 'Who had known that someone would try to steal an old piece of rock?' or 'Where had the alarm been?' or more pressingly 'How do I get myself out now?'
Jaune exited the office room to see the entire warehouse now lit up like it was Christmas. Jaune cursed again as he was left with nowhere to hide. That is, until his eyes came across a fuse box right next to him. Not believing his luck, Jaune quickly opened the metal box and began pulling wires, when that failed, he used his sword to stab directly into the wires.
That had the desired effect as the majority of the lights went out, but Jaune had no time to take out the remaining lights as the henchmen came closer and closer.
'I guess I'm going to have to fight my way out after all...' Jaune thought to himself as he pulled out his trusty sword and his wrist mounted pistil gave a hiss as a tranquilizer round was chambered.
The sound of shouting and running feet got even closer and closer, but Jaune was already moving as fast as he could around the other side of the warehouse.
Jaune hid at one end of a row of shelves as one of the henchmen made his way down the row towards him, this one armed with a concealable axe he was currently brandishing.
Putting Aura in his arms and legs, Jaune waited for the henchmen to pass his hiding spot before leaping at his unprotected back, one arm snaking around his throat while the other covered his mouth. Since Jaune was of a much smaller stature than the henchman, Jaune dragged the two of them to the ground; where the henchmen proceeded to try to break out of Jaune's Aura enhance grip for a moment, even flailing his limbs around for a little bit before his movements became lax and he finally stopped moving.
Jaune released the slumped body and checking his pulse, found him to still be alive, just unconscious. Jaune gave a sigh of relief as he got back up and continued on his way.
Not a moment too soon as a minute later, there were sounds of agitated shouting from behind Jaune, where the unconscious henchman laid.
Jaune wildly looked around; there were henchmen coming from behind him, and he could see several others making their way towards him as well.
Jaune's wild searching eventually landed upon the very tops of the shelves themselves, and there, Jaune got a new idea.
He quickly blinked to the top of the shelf beside him, crouching to diminish his profile from the harsh lights of the warehouse.
Jaune watched as the two groups of henchmen met directly underneath him, several heated words were exchanged before the two groups separated and continued combing through the warehouse.
Now that Jaune had some time to think, he realized that now would be a good time to gain full access to his BEND TIME Ability and test it out now.
Jaune laid down to hide as much of himself as possible before closing his eyes i deep concentration, sifting through a myriad of abilities until he found the complete version of his BEND TIME Ability.
Seconds later, Jaune felt a rush of power as the weight upon his chest from where the runes were gathered disappeared as the runes themselves dissolved into nothingness.
With a simple distinct clenching of his fist, time froze to a complete standstill as his vision turned into grey scale.
Jaune had no time to marvel at the frozen state of everything as he BLINKED back onto the warehouse floor and sprinted his way to the exit of the warehouse.
He had just exited the building when the effects of BEND TIME began to fade to his surprise, but no matter, Jaune was already almost home free.
That was, as he stepped out of the warehouse, he walked right into a Dust round, knocking him back into the warehouse hard enough to throw him against the opposite wall, Jaune slumped down unconscious.
Jaune awoke to a stiffness in his hands, feet and neck. He tried to rube some of that stiffness away, but found to his surprise that he could not move his arms, let alone his hands.
With a jolt, Jaune remembered the last thing he saw was a bright flash of red before he had lost consciousness. Looking around, Jaune realized that he was back in the Clubhouse he had stolen from earlier.
In fact, he was in the exact same office he had taken the money from too.
In the middle of Jaune's studying did the door to the room open and his captor entered. Said individual was quite tall with ginger hair and green eyes, wearing a black bowler hat, red-collared white suit, a grey scarf fastened like a necktie, and black pants, gloves and shoes. He also carried with him a walking cane of all things, but Jaune could see that he had no walking disabilities.
"Well, well, well" the man said as he dragged a chair and sat down in front of Jaune. "Look who finally woke up!"
The man gave a cheeky grin at Jaune.
"What do you want with me?" Jaune tried to sound tough, but the fact that his voice cracked in the midst of that sentence told otherwise.
The man before him gave a smile at Jaune's act, even going as far as to ruffle Jaune's hair in a sort of 'nice try, sport' fashion.
Jaune tried to recoil from the touch, but while tied to a chair, he couldn't do much.
Jaune gave a yelp as the hand in his hair suddenly grabbed a fistful of it a tugged hard, bring his head up to look into his captor's.
"Listen good, kid" his captor said, all trace of jolliness gone from his face. "I know what you are; you've been marked by the Outsider, so that already makes you a special snowflake. From where's you're sitting you've got two options and two options only; One, you join me and my merry band of thieves, or two, you die" The man released Jaune's hair and sat back in his seat. "You've got chops kid, I like that in you, I took the honor of going through your pockets, and found quite a bit of cash on you, cash taken from this very room. You've got some kill in the art of stealing, but that's just amateur stuff, with me, you could steal anything, rob any place, Dust, you could steal the panties off women if you wanted!"
Jaune's captor gave a bark of laughter while Jaune gave him a confused look as if saying; 'Why in the world would I want to steal underwear from girls?'
"But anyway, since you've been marked by the Outsider, that means you can do some amazing things, things that allow you to easily bypass security systems and guards with ease, though these henchmen aren't much..." His face turned sour for a moment. "But that doesn't matter, join me kid, and the world is your oyster!"
"What if I chose option three?" Jaune suddenly asked.
"What option three?" Jaune's captor asked in a bored tone.
"This one!" Jaune cried as he surged forward in his chair.
But nothing happened. A look of shock came upon Jaune's face as he continued to struggle against bindings that should have been blown off when he used his WIND GUST against the chair. He tried again, but nothing happened again.
Jaune turned his look of shock at his captor who was wearing a smile again. "Can't seemed to get the juice going, huh?" he asked, leaning back in his chair as one hand came up and began to lazily trace through the air.
It took a moment for Jaune to realized that the man before him was not just aimlessly doodling with his finger in the air but was following a tune the filtered through the room. The melody sent shivers down Jaune's back for some reason.
"That is the sound of restraint!" the man before Jaune said as he stopped following the music with his finger. "I stole this weird music machine from some business man's luggage on the docks a few months ago, never understood why it was built for a man to wear on their chest... that is, until I found out whatever the music machine does was that it stopped the powers of the Outsider from working!"
Jaune's mouth was wide open at that revelation and he continued to struggle in his bonds, trying time after time again to use any of his powers, but to no avail.
"So what's you answer, kid?" Jaune's captor asked. "Well, it's not like you got much of a choice anyway" he noted with a shrug. "You've got talent, moxy, and even the beginnings of roguish charm. You kinda remind me of myself back in the day. Think if it this way, kid: me and you together? The sky's the limit!"
Jaune sagged in his seat, he really had no choice in this situation, unarmed and without the aid of his abilities, Jaune could put up a strong fight with his Aura alone, but even then he doubt he could take on the man before him.
"Fine, I accept" Jaune said after a while, though he had no real plans as to actually join with this man. But he was going to do anything at the moment to get those bonds off of him.
"That's great!" Jaune's captor said as he stood up. "The name's Roman Torchwick!"
With that, Roman turned on his heels and made to leave the room, leaving Jaune still tied to the chair.
"Wait!" Jaune called after his retreating figure. "Aren't you going to untie me?"
"Nope!" Roman said over his shoulder as he closed the door. A second later, the lights turned off as well.
Present Time
"I hadn't known that Roman was hiring out people to come kill me" Jaune noted as he flexed his left hand.
"Roman?" The girl asked out loud before turning to her partner. "Roman!?"
Her partner remained silent, only proceeding to unsheathe his katana.
But the girl was not done talking to him; "Since when did we associate ourselves with the likes of Roman Torchwick!?"
"Orders are orders" the male said simply as he entered a fighting stance. "And we follow orders"
"But-!" The girl was unable to finish whatever she was about to say as she suddenly found her right hand raised perpendicular to the ground and felt a small peck upon the back of her hand as Jaune suddenly disappeared from right in front of them.
Her male partner instantly whirled around and began rushing back towards the direction of the main roads.
The girl was left slightly dazed by what had just happened as her mind began to piece together the sequence of events that led to her current position. While she didn't outright blush, a hint of color splashed across her cheeks as she turned around and followed after her partner.
So here is the twist on the upbringing of Jaune. I will probably have several more flashback sequences detailing his time with Roman, his departure from Roman's group, and even what Jaune was doing before being taken under Roman's wing... Maybe add a little Neo into the mix... maybe.
Anyway, I feel like I should make Jaune more ruthless or maybe not depending entirely if I want him killing actual people in my story.
