Jack woke up on a fine Sunday morning, the sun shining and the birds singing. His mother came into the room, with a basket of dirty laundry. She was silent as a mouse, careful not to wake the drowsy teen.
Jack opened his eyes and climbed out of bed. He walked over to the Xbox with stiff morning legs and switched it on. He hobbled back over to his bed and lay down. He reached for his controller and got ready to play video games. As he grabbed the controller off the windowsill, he felt a strange sensation at his left leg.
He pulled the covers back to find a grotesque purple tentacle around his foot. The tentacle started to drag him at a rapid speed out of his bed and along the floor.
"Aah! What the fuck?!" Jack screamed in horror. He tried to desperately grab at his wardrobe but was being dragged too fast to get a hold on it.
Jack grabbed onto the corner of the wall, but was being pulled along the floor with such power that he physically couldn't hold on. He saw a deep purple portal in his parent's bedroom doorway. Jack grabbed onto the door frames and looked back. He saw his entire family try and grab him, but they couldn't quite get to him. He reached for his father's hand, and he was just about to grab it...
But he couldn't quite reach it. He grabbed and pulled but he wasn't close enough. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't good enough. He was dragged into the void, kicking and screaming. And that was when he saw it. In the sky of this purple world, a face. A hideous face, floating in the sky. It was huge, easily intimidating Jack. It appeared to be that of a demonic woman. It cracked a devilish grin and lunged for him.
Jack woke up from the dream with a line of sweat on his brow.
"Well, that got real fast." Jack cursed to himself under his breath.
"Hey man. Nightmare?" Yang piped up.
"Jesus!" Jack exclaimed. He hadn't expected anyone to be awake, let alone the whole team.
"Hahaha!" Yang chuckled to herself. Blake let a snigger, Weiss found it mildly amusing and Ruby let out a slightly louder chuckle than Yang.
"What time is it?"
"NottoolateformeIcangoonforeverandeverandever-" Ruby was interrupted by a punch to the head from Yang.
"We gave her coffee so we could make sure she stayed up." Yang followed up with.
"Correction - YOU gave her coffee. I strongly advised against it." Weiss said, making sure Yang didn't get away with dragging her and Blake into her mess.
"C'mon Weiss! It was a solid idea." Yang retorted. She was met by death stares from Blake and Weiss.
"Well, it seemed like a solid idea at the time..." Yang said, defeated.
"When has cream and 5 sugars ever been a good idea? You know Ruby, even the best decaf could keep her in her toes for days." Blake added.
"Ahh, I see little duckies..." Ruby moaned.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Jack asked.
"It can't be anymore screwed up in there than it already is. That much we can all vouch for. Even the rookie. Hey rookie, how are those claws of yours doing?"
"What? How did you guys know? Did Ruby tell you?"
"She never can keep a secret in. Once something 'totally awesalicious' gets in her head it's all she can think about." Said Weiss.
"So, you gonna pop those hush puppies out or are we gonna have to press down really hard on your arm while you sleep?" Asked Yang.
"Well I've heard about how strong you are so I guess I'll just quit while I'm ahead." Jack replied. He began to close his eyes, and the girls heard the sound of squelching. The claws protruded from his knuckles.
"Eew! That's gross!" Weiss shrieked.
Blake appeared to slightly relent under her covers, and Yang was in awe.
"And they just... move out of your arms?"
"Yep, pretty much."
"Don't they weigh a ton?"
"Not as much as you might think. I can actually barely feel them."
Suddenly; a knock on the door occurred. Blake climbed out of bed and opened the door, only to be sent flying when a girl with pink hair and a huge hammer flew through the doorway into the room with a giddy smile on her face.
"Didyouguysgetanewrecruitwhereishecaniseehim-" Nora cried.
"Rawr!" Blake yelled as she leapt on top of Nora.
'Was that a... cat?' Jack wondered.
"Do you guys have a cat?" Jack asked. The entire room went silent.
"After all this, we gotta have a talk buddy." Yang replied. She wasn't quite sure if Fauni had been mentioned to Jack yet, or if they had Fauni on his world. Suddenly, people came thundering down the hallway. In the doorway appeared an Asian boy with pink streaks in his jet black hair, a blond boy who seemed rather clumsy from the way he ran, and a graceful elegant girl dressed in a bronze/gold outfit.
"Did you guys see Nora-" Jaune was cut off by the sight of Jack. The whole room went silent. "Who's this?"
"Jaune Arc, Rookie. Rookie, Jaune Arc. Leader of Team JNPR."
"Woah, you guys got a new member of RWBY? That's so cool!"
"Yeah, and check his hands out. Hey Jack, show them the claws."
Silently, Jack raised his knuckles and his claws shot out. He was met with blank faces from JNPR.
"That... is... so cool! Like ohmygodthatsthebestweaponiveeverseeninthe-" Nora was silenced by Ren putting his hand over her mouth to quiet her down.
"I wouldn't call it a weapon. I'd call it a natural defence."
"Dude, that's so cool. All I've got is this sword and shield." Jaune said, unleashing his sword.
"Cool, I've got one too." Jack said, lifting Excalibur. This was the first time JNPR had seen Excalibur, and Pyrrha seemed immediately interested.
"The prophecy..." Pyrrha muttered under her breath. Suddenly, the whole room went quiet.
"What do you know?" Blake asked.
"Woah, woah, woah. What prophecy?" Jaune asked.
"Not much, only the basics. There's a hero, a villain and a sword that looks just... like... that."
"Woah, hold up. I'm all for the hero part but the villain?" Jack asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
"For every hero, there is always a foil." Ren said.
"Do you know what she looks like?"
"All the story mentioned was a 'hideous woman with razor sharp teeth'". Jack's eyes went wide, and he began clutching Excalibur a bit more tightly.
"Why? Something to share, Jack?" Weiss asked.
"Ahhh... good morning, Team RWBY!" Ruby awoke with. She didn't know she'd been out for 10 minutes.
"Shh. The adults are talking." Yang interrupted her with.
"I drink semi skilled milk..."
"She... she came to me in my dream. A white skinned woman with three rows of razor sharp teeth and purple tentacles. She smiled at me, and then tried to eat me. Then I woke up."
"And that brings us up to speed?"
"Pretty much. The villain made themselves known. Not much else we can do except wait for her to appear again."
"Then why are we still talking?" Ruby said with a moany voice. "It's 10:30, its past our curfew!"
"We're trying to save the world from a deadly monster and you're thinking about sleep?" Jack couldn't believe it.
"That's Ruby Rose for ya." Yang said. "It is getting pretty late, we should probably all throw in the towel. We can hang out with Jack tomorrow."
"Good idea, I think I'm still jet lagged from teleportation." Jack joked.
Looking around at this friendly group of people, Jack didn't feel so alone anymore in this new world.
"Are you kidding me?"
Jack looked on at Yang Xiao Long in horror.
"Nope! You against all of us in the arena! Booked it for you in an hour! Get ready!"
Jack had showered and got dressed into his leather jacket, and grabbed Excalibur. He examined it's Glagolitic inscriptions, which read "Dubhenn haern am glandeal, morc'h am fhean aiensin". He had no clue what it meant, but next to it was "Excalibur". Yang had already left along with all of Team RWBY.
He strapped Excalibur to his back by the scabbard and made his way to the arena.
Jack attracted a few stares on the way there.
"Woah, who's the new guy?" One girl asked.
"Sweet sword, dude." One guy said as he went past.
"Thanks man." Jack reciprocated as he wandered on his way.
He finally arrived at the arena; a large coliseum in the heart of Beacon Academy. He stepped inside and drew his blade.
"Remember Jack, there's no harm in running away..." he told himself under his breath.
"Hey! You ready?" Ruby yelled to Jack from over on the other side of the arena.
"As I'll ever be..."
"Good. The rules are we fight until one of our auras are depleted. Sembelences are allowed, and you may use any weapon on you right now." Weiss said. Suddenly, Jack was regretting not heading to the Armoury of the Gods and grabbing every piece of tech and magic item in there.
"Remember, it's four against one so It's just for us to gauge your strength. No shame in losing or surrendering." Blake added. Thank god, he thought. He didn't have to get hurt, or at least not too bad.
"Not that we'll give you the chance!" Yang finished with.
Damn, so close. "Now everyone turn on your auras...!" Yang yelled.
"Wait Yang, Jack doesn't have-" Blake tried to warn Yang.
Yang leapt into the air, much to Jack's amazement. He was under the impression that these girls were capable fighters, but not superhuman. He knew about their sembelances but he didn't know that this was their general ability. He was dumbfounded. Yang landed a full strength punch, and Ember Celica unloaded a round into Jack's legs. Yang's full strength, combined with Ember Celica's might, turned Jack's legs into a fine red mist. He was mortified to say the least. He flew back 30 feet, and the now crippled teenager landed on the dusty sand.
No, he wasn't just crippled... he was dead.
"OH MY GOD!" Yang screamed. They all rushed over to Jack's corpse, Ruby in petal form.
"Y-Yang, what did you do?!" Ruby asked, through sobs. Ruby fell to her knees by Jack's side.
"Oh god, I didn't- I didn't mean to! He must not have had his Aura on-"
"He doesn't even have an Aura!" Blake yelled. They were all distraught, they'd killed their new friend in a routine training exercise.
"I'm gonna be sick!" Screamed Weiss as she turned around and threw up.
Yang ran to Jack's side, and fell to her knees.
"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..." Yang cried, as if she was begging for forgiveness.
"Y...yang..." Jack whispered. Yang's eyes shot open, and she started sweating bullets. She crawled close to him. How was he still alive? "Closer..." Jack begged. Yang got very close to him as he drew his last breath.
"Y-yes?" Yang almost whispered through tears. Jack brought his hand up to stroke her hair, and even though she would usually fly off the handle in rage at this, she allowed it as he died. He put his hand on her shoulder, and before he could say anything, he died.
"Oh my god, no..." Weiss cried. Tears were streaming down everyone's face. Ozpin came sprinting in.
"What the HELL did you- Oh god..." Ozpin shuddered. Never one to cry in front of students, he was always thinking about the greater good. "Go quickly! Get the nurse!"
"Wait, professor-" Blake saw activity coming from the aura monitor on her phone. Jack still had no Aura but the bar was shaking on her screen. This had never happened before.
Jack's eyes shot open and his claws shot out.
SNIKT!
Blake looked at her scroll and saw that Jack had full Aura. Jack plunged the claws into Yang's neck, taking a third of her Aura. She got to her feet, and Jack held on. He stabbed her once more in the stomach, and again in the neck. She frantically tried to throw him off, and once all her Aura was depleted she fell to her knees. Jack retracted his claws and lay down on the ground again.
Everyone went silent.
"Oh my god, he's a ZOMBIE!" Ruby yelled. She sped over to him.
"Thatissocooldoyoufeelpaindoyouseeinblackandwhite-"
"Yes and no!" Jack yelled through staggered breaths. "I don't think I'm a zombie, I-" Jack had a revelation. His jeans were still on his waist, despite the fact that his legs had fell out of them. He looked back at his jeans and saw two brand new legs.
"Oh, I knew your healing was good, but this... it's barely been two minutes." Ruby said, in shock.
"I feel energised... protected. Blake, I assume that's my Aura?"
Blake nodded.
"It must have kicked in due to the trauma..."
"Very well then. How are you feeling Ms. Xiao Long?"
"Can't complain, could be dead."
"Are... you okay?" Asked Weiss.
"Yeah, I feel good. Yang?" Jack replied.
"As I said, can't complain."
"Good, now we can get to the real talking point. How the hell were you able to punch someone's legs off?"
"I... just punched you same as I do everyone."
"And to jump that high?"
"You can't?"
"Nobody can!"
"Clearly can because I just did it..."
"Ahem, if I may. Jack, you mean to say you can't perform feats of strength akin to a Remnantian?" Ozpin inquired.
"No earthling can do anything even close to that. That was like superman strength."
"Perhaps you should throw a punch at Ms. Xiao Long."
"Gimme your worst." Yang was clearly eager to see if Jack could hurt her. Her aura was fully replenished and she was ready to go again.
"Remember, no claws, no Excalibur - just you seeing if your strength can compare to ours."
"Got it sir." Everyone stood back and waited for Jack to swing. He threw the hardest punch he could, and...
"Rah!"
His hand bounced off Yang's skin leaving no mark. She was fine.
"Hahaha! Is that all you got? Jack, buddy, if you got a little trouble getting it up I can always try and fix that!"
Team RWBY laughed at this one, Jack included.
"Ms Xiao Long. Okay Jack, maybe it was just Yang's... dexterity. Try on Ms. Rose."
"What? No! I didn't sign up for this..."
Ozpin glared daggers at Ruby.
"I'm not hitting her."
"What? Why?"
"She doesn't want to be punched, so I'm not going to."
"Erm, no... I'm sure it will be fine. Besides, I won't hold it against you."
"Really? You're sure?"
"Yeah! Just... don't hit hard."
"I'll just throw a small one."
"Thanks."
Jack took a step back, and threw a punch at Ruby. She didn't even feel it.
"Oh yeah! I'm the strongest person in the history of ever!" Ruby celebrated to herself. The rest of the team facepalmed.
"Hmm... most interesting. Give it time, I'm sure your strength will develop."
"Will do, thanks sir."
Ozpin swiftly left the arena.
"So, not the kind of morning I had in mind."
Instinctively, Jack went to pull out his phone. He loaded it up, looked at it in wonder.
"Hey... what do you guys reckon the internet on earth will work here?"
"Sure, go for it."
Surely enough, no Earth internet. It loaded up , the search engine for Vale.
"Okay... so no Earth connection."
"Unlucky dude."
"Eh, it was a shot in the dark.
They started walking back to the dorm.
"You got a few lucky hits in. I was in shock." Yang said.
"Mhmm. Sure I did."
"You scared the shit out of us, we thought you were dead!"
"So did I!"
Jack and Yang laughed it off. In his head however, he knew it to be true. If Yang wasn't in shock, then there's no chance he could have gotten those three stabs off without his remnant strength and speed.
"Team RWBY?" Ozpin said, approaching from behind. They all turned at once.
"Yes, Professor?" Ruby asked.
"I think I've figured out why Jack is the way he is."
"Go on."
"Earth's physics are different to Remnant's. Luckily, the portal Jack came through gave him the capability to become as strong and as fast as us. We have our top scientists working on finding another like it, but it seems to be an isolated incident. The scientists say that the portal enhances earthling bodies to the capabilities of a Remnant body"
"And the other way round?"
"What?"
"Well if I'm to go home someday, I'd like to stick to being superman."
"Hmm... I see. There's nothing to suggest that going through the portal the other way would change you back."
"Thank god. Now how do we open these portals?"
"We.. have no clue. They're an enigma, if you will. Something summoned you here, that's all we know."
Your scientists told you that?"
"The prophecy did."
"Got it. And my claws and healing?"
"Also from the portal."
"Interesting. I got another question."
"Go on."
"How strong are Auras? I mean, I got through Yang's in three stabs."
"The Aura is a projection of the mental state. If Yang were thinking normally at the time, it would have been another story."
"Oh, Okay."
"With your Remnant strength though, you could have possibly dealt with Yang's full aura."
"Don't give him any funny ideas, Prof."
Ozpin glared daggers at Yang and her terrible joke.
"That's actually one of her good ones." Ruby whispered in Jack's ear.
"Can't wait to hear the rest."
"You can, trust me."
"But that's all we know. I'm sorry Jack, but it may be that to return home you have to fulfill the prophecy."
"Then how do I go about doing that?"
"The prophecy never said. Just lay low for a while. Enjoy yourself, get to know your surroundings and your team. You'll need the information later."
And with that, Ozpin disappeared.
'Bring Bring!'
The team turned to Weiss.
"Father again." She put the phone back in her pocket, showing no intention to answer.
"Aren't you going to get it?"
"Erm, Weiss's father isn't that kind of father." Blake said.
"Oh, I see. Well let's just drop the issue."
"Good thought."
"So what do you guys want to do?" Weiss asked.
"I don't know, I guess I'd like to look round Vale. I hear it's quite nice." Jack said.
"I can vouch for that. They got that new movie in down at the theatres, we could go see that." Yang added.
"Which one?" Blake asked.
"Captain Huntsman. It's a superhero film."
"Like we don't get enough superhero films." Weiss said.
"We get a few of them too." Jack added.
"You know what would be cool? If they would all team up, and go fight a huge villain that they can't beat on their own." Yang suggested.
"Kind of like what we're doing with the Fang lady?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah. Although we still need to find the other three."
"Erm, guys... the whole superhero team up thing already happened on Earth." Jack interrupted.
"Really? Was it cool?" Yang asked, rather hastily.
"She really likes superhero movies." Ruby said.
"It was awesome, yeah. They called it the avengers. I think I have it on my phone actually."
"I thought you couldn't connect to Earth from here." Blake argued. She had a point.
"It was downloaded, no reason why it shouldn't still be there." Jack pulled out his phone and began to check whether or not The Avengers was on his phone. Sure enough, it was.
"Yep, we got it. You guys wanna watch it tonight?"
"I don't know, we got school tomorrow."
"Aww, come on Blake!" Yang complained.
"It's a film nobody but us will have ever seen."
"Fine, I guess. The book's always better though."
"In this case, It's a comic book."
"Cheap literature."
"I like them..."
"Oh yeah! This is so exciting!"
"I guess it is." Team RWBY stood around, not knowing what to do. "Actually, I've got an idea on what to do next."
"Shoot." Ruby said.
"Red, yellow, black, white..." Jack looked around at everyone. They were beginning to understand what he meant. He looked at his chest with a determined look on his face. "Blue."
"Oh yeah! Let's kit him out!" Ruby yelled, a little too loud.
"This is gonna be fun..." Yang said with a devilish look on her face. Jack was slightly worried.
"I've got some good ideas about this..." Weiss said with a smirk.
Now Jack was pretty scared.
"I think I'm gonna go home and read a little." Blake said wryly. She was met with disappointed looks from Team RWBY. "Nah, just kidding. I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Now Jack was terrified. You know it's gonna be bad when even Blake is excited.
Hey guys! Thanks so much for all the overwhelming support so far, please leave a review on this chapter telling me what you guys would like to happen in the next couple chapters! Also don't forget to share the story around with your friends and like it if you enjoyed it so far!
