This is a work of fan fiction, created for entertainment purposes only and with no claim to the characters depicted. Ownership of RWBY characters and concepts belongs to Rooster Teeth. Ownership of Iron Man characters an concepts belongs to Disney.
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Chapter 21: The Ball – Unstoppable Forces
"For the record, I think this is a bad plan," Yang put her two cents in while falling back to reload the Ember Celica.
"I've gotta agree... I'm seeing a lot of ways this could make you dead," added Ruby, "Also, Weiss called you a buffoon, but if—and I quote-'he's willing to carry out this suicidal plan, then I'll suppose it's my duty to try and make it slightly less suicidal'." She'd given up trying to do any damage at all with Crescent Rose and was doing her best to harry Cardin with her speed.
Jaune grumbled over the comm as he crouched behind and overturned table, looking up the closest route to the Vale River from the hotel. "Wanna add on to the pile of support I'm getting, Pyrrha?"
"While I will say I wish we had a different plan, I don't see any alternative: our weapons aren't doing anything to Cardin and he doesn't seem to be tiring." She'd already disengaged from the battle and fallen back to carry out her part of the plan.
"That... was sort of supportive, "admitted Jaune, finalizing his route. "And just in case anyone doubts me, this is the best option we've got. And believe me, I'm not happy about it. Thing is, however he manages it, this guy can redirect kinetic energy. That means nothing we do to him is going to injure him. As long as he can move, he's unstoppable."
"But if we can keep him from moving in the first place..." Pyrrha caught on.
Jaune nodded even though she couldn't see him. "Right. So we're in luck in the fact that we have a Dust specialist here that can freeze him. And kind of screwed by the fact that the river is three miles from here. This is going to be a hell of a run." He may not have gotten fat thanks to his lifestyle, but his stamina wasn't much to write home about. He was praying his newly unlocked Aura would help there.
"If we're seriously doing this, I've gotta go get something out of the limo. I'll meet you guys at the river!" Yang said before cutting out of the fight entirely and making a run toward the gaping hole in the wall that coincidentally led to the garage.
Not having been privy to Yang's reasoning over the comms, Weiss was understandably put off by seeing her break off the assault. "Where are you going, Yang?! Get back here: we're in the middle of a fight!" She was immediately reminded of that fact as Cardin lunged for her, missing only by the grace of he pulling herself back with a glyph.
"No sense wasting any more time," Said Jaune, taking one last look at his scroll where he'd set up a connection back tot he Arc Compound and Glynda. "Glynda, please give me turn-by turn directions to the river. Oh, and keep the streets clear."
One of his first successful hacks had been the traffic light control center for the city. It was one of the reasons he was still alive despite driving like he did. He closed his scroll as soon as he got a confirmation the Glynda was doing her job.
Getting into a sprint's stance, then realizing he wasn't nearly coordinated enough to start running from said stance, Jaune got back up only to have a thought occur to him. "Hey Pyr?"
"Yes, Jaune?"
"I just realized we didn't even get to have one dance. I guess there was something to Yang's thing about superhero lifestyles after all. I promise I'll make up up to you... you know, if I'm alive after that."
"I would like that. And you have better survive this, Jaune Arc. Mistral has very specific mythos about heroes who have infiltrated the afterlife. I will find you."
"Cool, like a reverse haunting! And I would totally help her, Jaune, so don't screw up!" Ruby chimed in.
Jaune rolled his eyes. Such supportive women in his life. "Alright chums, let's do this. Everyone else back off so Pyrrha can get his attention."
The signal was relayed to those without earbuds by hand signals for Ruby and it went surprisingly well. Evidently the petite speedster had even let the two SHIELD agents in on the plan, as Ren and Nora ceased fire as Pyrrha knelt, couched Milo in its carbine form into the notch in Akouo, and fired off three rounds rapid into the side of Cardin's head.
Jaune waited for the giant to turn and face her to take off from where he'd been waiting behind her. The object being to make it look like Pyrrha was trying to cover his escape. It took him a few clumsy moment to get up to speed; dress shoes and suit pants weren't the best running gear; but he was soon under way and pelting full tilt for the door he knew would lead to the patio overlooking the main street.
All that stood in his way were the glass double doors. Which someone had closed.
Panic struck him. He could have sworn he'd seen the doors open earlier. Someone must have slammed them closed when the crowd fled as if some flimsy wood and glass could stop The Juggernaut. Unfortunately, it could stop Jaune, if only for a few crucial seconds while he pulled them open and Cardin caught up.
Someone else must have had the same thought before a black streak shot past him and the next thing he knew, the patio doors had been blown into a cloud of tinkling glass, charred wood and pink smoke. It didn't take a genius to guess who was responsible for that. He didn't know exactly what their agency wanted from him, but he was starting to like the SHIELD agents.
Holding his breath so he didn't choke on the pink smoke, he trampled the glass remains of the doors underfoot and vaulted the waist-high wrought iron fence surrounding the patio, landing on the sidewalk outside the hotel. Taking Glynda's directions, he turned to his left and struck off down the street, running for all he was worth.
Behind him, the entire glass facade separating the patio from the ballroom exploded outward as Cardin barged through it. The giant lost time looking up and down the street before finally getting Jaune in his sights. "You can run all you want, Arc!" He bellowed to the heavens. "But no matter where you go, no matter what you try—you can't stop me! Nothing can stop me!"
With that, Cardin lit out in pursuit, every step cracking the pavement and shaking the ground. Thanks to whatever new power he'd obtained, he could transfer the kinetic energy in every step straight back into the ground, making ever loping step propel him twice as far as normal.
Jaune refused to let himself look back. That would only slow him down and possibly make him fill his pants in terror. What he did catch, out of the corner of his eye, were the occasional flashed of red rose petals, white glyph-light or pink explosions. His friends and allies were racing ahead of him, roof-topping to avoid all the obstacles he was going to have to skirt on the ground.
A hard right turn took him into a narrow alley between a mini-mart and a shoe store. He hoped the confined space would force Cardin to go around, but a rumble and a crash behind him told him he had no such luck.
"Damn it. Glynda, recalculate to bypass any through ways not large enough for him to pass through. We're doing enough damage without me leading him through places where he'll collapse buildings."
"The new route will add point three miles to the route."
Jaune's leg muscles were burning, as were his lungs. He was afraid to ask how much further he still had to go even without the adjustment, but he wasn't going to be the idiot that trained a superpowered psychopath through a populated area. "Just tell me where to turn."
She did, sending him down backstreets with enough twists and turns to keep Cardin from hitting his ground-devouring stride until finally he spotted the masts an cranes denoting the riverside docks.
Vale sat on a delta where the river met the sea. Most of the docks and accompanying infrastructure were situated on the waterfront as there were few settlements upriver. Jaune had ruled out leading Cardin to them because they were operational twenty-four hours a day and also he couldn't be certain Weiss could freeze sea water. The riverside docks, however closed at nine, meaning only himself and some very unlucky night watchmen would be around.
He made the last turn, his body screaming at him that there would be hell to pay later (at least until his Aura repaired all the lactic acid build-up and muscle strain), and saw the main entrance to the dockyard looming up in front of him.
The steel gate had been ripped open, lying in a mangled heap to the side. It wasn't hard to guess who was responsible for that.
Unfortunately, it was just at that moment that Cardin managed to try something creative with his incredible powers: he jumped.
'Jumped' being the proper term only because he didn't sustain enough hang-time for it to be called flight. But he did clear thirty yards, easily clearing Jaune's head, and landed with a thunderous boom on the asphalt of the dockyard, creating an instant five-foot deep crater.
Jaune skidded to a stop just at the edge of said crater, eyes wide with shock as he watched the big man turn and set eyes on him. Beyond, tauntingly close, he could see the pier stretching out into the river. So close, but a Juggernaut away.
"Going somewhere, Jauney Boy?" Cardin cracked his titanic knuckles.
Left with nothing else to try, Jaune drew Crocea Mors and expanded the shield, slipping into a sloppy battle stance as he tried to edge his way around the crater. "Let me ask you something, Mr. Winchester: what do you get out of killing me? I'm perfectly willing to pay you; find you a new job—Dust, think about all the good you could do with all that power especially if you really took the time to learn how to work it! We shouldn't be fighting, we should be working together!"
For a moment, it looked like he was getting through to the giant. Cardin gave him a curious look. "Y-you're serious, aren't you?"
"Completely. Look, I never meant for you to get hurt. What do you say, buddy?"
"I say..." Cardin started, but the whispers started again, accompanied by more visions of the Gem. In his mind's eye, he could make out the shadow of something vast within it: a hulking humanoid shape with a domed helmet. "That it's too bad that you never meant for me to get hurt, because I mean it completely!"
He thrust his fingers into the broken ground beneath Jaune's feet and heaved, cracking off a shelf of the stuff with Jaune on top and hurling it skyward. All his prey could do was scream as he and a tumbling slab of asphalt and concrete rapidly ascended.
The Arc family shield was suddenly rimed in a familiar black energy signature and tucked in close to Jaune's chest, pulling him backward, out of the way just as a blur of laughing pinkness shot past him. Was Nora flying? By spinning her hammer overhead?
Jaune's confusion was ended when the laughing woman twisted in midair, brought up her hammer, and shattered the slab into a cloud of debris that rained down on Cardin. He didn't have time to appreciate it before his magnetically levitating shield deposited him further inside the dockyard, away from Cardin and the renewed fray.
He looked back and saw that the pier was right there. Turning, he prepared to yell at Cardin, to get him moving again, when he caught sight of a flash of blonde hair.
"Hey Cardin!" Yang had her belt on, more than likely invoking the 'three strikes' clause from Coco should she ever find out. She thrust her elbows back, causing the Ember Celica to cock dramatically (while expelling a pair of perfectly good shotgun shells because Yang cared way more about the drama of the thing). "Round Two!"
Cardin growled, wiping dust and grit form his eyes. "Don't you get it!? Hit me as much as you want, Xiao Long, you can't win. I'm raw power!"
"Nope." Yang replied, popping the 'p'. "You're the same thing you always were: an arrogant bully who thinks he can hit things until he gets what he wants. Only this time? The thing you tried to hit was one of my friends. So now I've gotta step in," She reached down and took hold of the dial on the belt, clicking it three levels clockwise. Blue and orange particles expanded in a wave from ever surface of the belt to cover her body until all anyone could see of her was a Yang-shaped blob. Then the blob expanded to twice Yang's size and the particles dispersed into blue and orange tendrils of smoke rising from a super-sized Yang, "... and see how you do picking on someone your own size!"
"Oh my..." Pyrrha breathed.
"Sweet Dust, is that what that thing you found does?!" Jaune added.
"I am so confused right now," Ruby said over the comms, "That is so cool, but that joke was so awful."
"Oh hush, that was awesome." Yang motioned for Cardin to come at her and she wasn't disappointed. The Juggernaut exploded from his crater, leading with a powerful haymaker that she easily dodged, replying with a pair of jumbo blasts to his gut from Ember Celica. Then she clapped his ears. Unstoppable or not, the sudden change of pressure in his inner ear disoriented Cardin, and when he went for his next swing, Yang caught his arm and hauled hard, throwing him over his hip.
Her aim was to wing him into the river, but she had never had the best long-range aim in the first place and on top of that, she wasn't used to fighting at huge size, so instead, she launched him into a stack of cargo containers, which toppled over on top of him in a cacophony of clangs.
"Eh, I meant to do that."
"How do you call yourself a Huntress if you can't even aim properly, you gigantic oaf!" Weiss had recovered quickly from the prospect of a giant Yang and was responding to something she couldn't compartmentalize in the only way she knew how.
Yang blew a kiss in her direction. "Love you too, Weiss Cream!"
"I hate to interrupted this little moment," Ren called out, "But I hardly believe that stopped him. We need to be on our—" The pile of fallen containers exploded outward, flying in all directions, creating a deadly rain of twisted metal as Cardin hurled them off him in mass.
Black glows started appearing over them, flaring into existence just long enough to knock them into trajectories that took them away from the assembled Hunters (and Jaune) or knock them into one another to do that same. Pyrrha had to step fully into the open to keep them all in sight as she waved her hands in frantic but precise motions, literally orchestrating her friends' salvation.
Somehow, through all the flying metal and debris, Cardin spotted her. With a grunt and a bellow, he leapt, easily covering the distance while clenching both hands over his head for a powerful overhand strike.
Ruby launched into Pyrrha's midsection with enough speed to double the champion over and knock the air form her. They cannoned out of the way while at the same time, a trio of Schnee glyphs formed ahead of Cardin. These, however, were not deceleration glyphs. Quite the opposite.
Accelerated to almost the speed of sound, Cardin struck the ground and tore into it like a meteor falling to Remnant, digging a deep divot through asphalt, concrete and the dirt beneath. That divot was soon filled with pink grenades, blasts from the now-huge Ember Celica, and rapid-fire Dust rounds from Ren's Stormflower.
Despite absorbing more firepower than a Goliath, Cardin still managed to extract himself from the hole in no time, muscles contorting and straining under his mounting fury. He emerged, covered in dirt and soot, staring down Yang, Nora and Ren, trying to decide which of them needed to die first.
Then someone whistled off to his right.
"Hey! Did you forget me or something?"
Jaune. Arc.
Cardin's eyes narrowed. It was time to make that man die once and for all. Ignoring the other three, The Juggernaut started toward Jaune, pace quickening with ever step. Once more, he brought both hands up, clasping them together, ready to use them to reduce Jaune to a sticky mess and a bad memory.
Seeing him coming, Jaune started to back up, preparing himself to run the final few steps... only for his shoe to skid on a pebble and send him tripping to the ground. He couldn't even think up an appropriate curse to be his last word as he looked up, finding Cardin barreling down on him. All he could do was raise his shield and pray his Aura let him survive with only every other bone in his body converted to a high-calcium custard.
He felt the impact. The Arc Family Shield shook, sending pain shooting up his arm. Then he heard what sounded like an explosion—only it wasn't happening to him. When a second passed and he wasn't dead, he dared to hope that maybe Nora or Yang had managed to divert the blow.
When he lowered his shield, he discovered not so much the source of his salvation, but a mystery.
Cardin was getting to his feet some ten feet from him—at the bottom of an oddly-shaped crater as deep as Jaune was tall. The ground had been blown apart in a bizarre V pattern, the point of said V starting just a few inches in front of him and extending out about twenty feet in a sweeping arc before him.
How on Remnant had that happened? He decided to table that for a later day because whatever it was hadn't put Cardin down for keeps. Scrambling to is feet, Jaune started backing away more carefully. To his infinite relief, his feet hit the wooden planks of the pier by the time Cardin had gotten his bearings.
"Okay, just like we planned." He said, trying to sound calm over the comms.
"How the heck did he miss you?" Ruby asked, making Jaune realize that the other hadn't seen what happened thanks to Cardin's bulk being in the way.
He decided on the truth, "I... have no idea. Are you guys ready, because I don't think that's going to happen twice."
Ruby chuckled nervously. "Ready here. So is Weiss."
"Ready on my end with the green guy and grenade girl." Yang added.
"I'm ready as well. Good luck." Pyrrha said.
Jaune was pretty sure he'd used all that up over the past month, but kept his mouth shut as he watch Cardin focus in on him again. The big man let out a growl as he dragged himself out of the newest crater and stomped toward him. He moved cautiously as well this time. There had been too many surprised and blindsides for his liking.
Slowly, but surely, Jaune backed past the midpoint of the pier, making certain that Cardin was standing over deep water before stopping.
"L-last chance, Cardin." Jaune said, suddenly realizing that his plan required an astounding amount of good timing. "We can stop right now and sit down, talk about this like adults. Maybe get something to eat? I mean I'm starving after all this: I bet you are too. There's a pretty awesome shwarma place down the street, we could..."
"Don't you ever SHUT UP?!" Cardin bellowed.
"Well, I tried." Jaune shrugged, collapsing his shield and sheathing Crocea Mors. "Ladies, take it away."
Cardin looked behind him on reflex.
He wasn't looking in the right direction. Jaune was watching to either side. On the right, he saw Ruby, Crescent Rose fully extended as she ran at her maximum speed—on the water. Her deadly blade flashed as she slashed it through pylon after pylon, systematically destroying the supports on the right side of the pier. On the left, he saw a whirling disc of black and red and bronze: Milo suspend by Pyrrha's semblance and being rotated at high speed around its own hilt to transform it into a buzzsaw that was doing the same job as Ruby.
In the morning, he was going to have to write a very large check to the owner of the dockyard. But tonight...
Behind him, he heard the thunk as Ruby used Crescent Rose to swing up onto the pier even as the ruined pylons started to give and the wooden planks groaned under their own shifting weight. Jaune gave Cardin a cocky little salute before extending his arm outward.
He was glad that looked badass, because in the next moment, Ruby grabbed said arm while running at easily fifty miles an hour, damn near dislocating his shoulder. At least that's the reason he gave later for the girlish scream he let out.
They reached solid ground as the pier was still collapsing, Cardin had just enough time to turn around before he and the pier hit the water in a colossal splash.
Jaune held his breath as he watched Weiss spring gracefully to the edge of the water and plunge her rapier into it, releasing her entire charge of ice Dust. Just as he'd prayed, the sub-zero temperatures propagated quickly, transforming a forty foots section of the river into a solid block, including the water still mid-air from the splash. Cardin was caught in mid-fall, the water surrounding him locking everything but his head into place, unable to move.
"Yes!" Jaune shouted, unable to control his relief, his pride, or his excitement at having stopped the supposedly unstoppable (never mind that it was actually Weiss who did that part). He threw his arms in the air in celebration only to realize too late that the only thing holding his poor, abused body up had been Ruby.
As he started to crumple to the ground, a pair of strong, slim arms wrapped around him, not quite catching him, but lowering him gently to the ground. He found himself kneeling beside Pyrrha in a warm embrace. She squeezed him tightly, her head resting on his shoulder. "I'm not even going to count how many times you almost died just now." She said, clearly fighting to keep her tone light, "When we get home, we're going to have a discussion about plans and how we're not going to make any more clearly suicidal ones."
The clop of a pair of stylish (and now soaked) wedge boots came from the direction of the river. "So here's a silly question: What exactly do we plan to do with that hooligan now that we've capture him?"
"Don't worry, I've already taken care of that." Lie Ren arrived with Yang and Nora following close behind. In the distance, there was the familiar roar of Bullhead engines; at least three of them. Ren stepped into Jaune's field of vision. "Mr. Arc, I'm afraid that this time I have to insist on that meeting immediately. All of you need to be debriefed ASAP."
Weiss drew herself up, immediately taking charge of the situation. "I how then, that you'll be explaining to us exactly what on Remnant just happened here." She gestured back at the trapped Juggernaut, "That is not the result of a semblance, technology or any Dust I've ever heard of and I am a Dust specialist."
Ren gave her an impassive look. "I can explain that to you right now, but the debrief will make it easier to take, I can promise you that right now."
"Try me."
"Alright. That, Ms. Schnee, is the result of magic."
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AN: Everyone expected Yang to the the Hulk. I get why, but I like writing Yang a bit smarter than just a bruiser and while Green Scar was pretty quippy, Yang is a very banter-ful character. Thus, I gave her the Gi/Ant-man/Wasp powers with a Remnant-based excuse.
I love that Remnant is totally just a setting for 4e D&D, Points of Light and all. I kind of want to run a D&D or Pathfinder game set in Remnant now. Pm if you want in, we'll see if this can happen.
Speaking of which, the first chapter of my original sotry that was originally plotted as a RWBY-meets-dungeonpunk fantasy fanfic, The Dragonwright Chronicles is up on my site. Unfortunately, FF now blocks website URLs even in my profile (people have been telling me it's broken, but sadly, I can't fix it), so you'll have to go to descendantsserial DOT com to check it out. Let me know what you think!
So in most comic appearances, Juggernaut is stopped by either throwing him very far away, selaing him in the Earth, or using mental powers after removing his helmet. In X-men Evolution, they managed to just seal him in a block of ice. Given this is Cinder we're dealing with, I'm pretty sure it's obvious why I went with that option.
The Ball Arc is almost done. The gang will soon learn the true purpose of the Remnant version of SHIELD and what they want with Jaune. It's going to be fun!
Next Chapter: The Ball: Not An After Party