Chapter Five: New Face(s)
The Bullhead pulled over the graveyard and Ren spotted Jaune standing near the entrance chatting to an old man, after landing in the car park the team disembarked the Bullhead and made their way over to the Captain. As they drew closer they noticed that his t-shirt and trousers had dirt marks all over them, most of his arm had some cuts on it, the shield was covered in smoke and even smelt like it, but despite all of that he gave a massive grin when he saw them coming towards them.
"Hello." Jaune said, waving his arm around lazily with an easy smile, the wind picking up his blonde hair and the sun catching it slightly in the low light. Despite how good he looked all messy like that Yang couldn't help but get quite angry when looking at him.
"HELLO!" She yelled as her eyes shifted to red, something that Ren noticed, and thus thanked whatever force was out there that he wasn't Jaune right now.
"Your welcome." Muttered Nora to him, and that caused him to freeze up, he knew that she had used some kind of mind ability on Jaune earlier, but could she read his mind right now? Or could she read his mind all the time?
"What the hell do you mean hello?!" asked Yang while still yelling at him, waving her hands in the air. Ruby then joined her at her side and glared at Jaune with her hands on her hips, Ren was willing to bet good money that she was going to start waggling her finger around at him and telling him off for not calling them once Jaune explained himself.
"Uh yeah, it's what you say in greeting people you know." Replied Jaune, sensing that he was in the presence of two very dangerous women he backed away slowly. Yang growled at his response, clearly this wasn't the time for Jaune's sarcasm, but when Ren looked closer he realised that it was genuine confusion, which was bad for him but good for Ren's amusement, he wasn't as stoic as most thought he was and he knew a good comedic opportunity when he saw one.
"What happened to you?" asked Ruby in what she most likely thought to be her intimidating voice, although Jaune did answer so maybe the voice worked on some people. Jaune let out a sigh and gestured to the Bullhead, and started walking towards it with the others all following him and he said that 'he would tell them on the way back.' This proved to be false as Jaune spent most of the ride trying his hardest not to throw up all over the place, even with Nora cheering him on, as for some reason even when Ren explained to her about vomit the first time, it didn't register to her that motion sickness was actually a bad thing to happen to somebody, so for the whole trip back to the mansion Jaune struggled while Nora cheered for him to chuck his guts up, needless to say Ren was sighing the whole way back and doing his best to help out the Captain by directing Nora's attention to other things around the ship.
When they did land and make their way into the mansion Jaune sat them all down around the meeting room table; they had made sure that the holo-screen with the data download was off so as not to shock Jaune even more than he most likely was. He then told them about everything that had happened, who Mercury was and why he hated Jaune so much, how he was saved by the cat woman and then the explosion that he stopped. Ren was quite intrigued by the cat woman person as he knew from his time at BEACON a person that matched that description, but she hadn't left her kingdom in years, so he wondered why she was only now coming out, if it really was her that saved Jaune.
"So she had on an entire black suit." Asked Ruby sceptically
"It was more like a kind of amour, a really sleek form fitting amour, it would offer a lot more movement than your amour." Replied Jaune
"Pft, my amour is cooler, it- it-it-" stuttered Ruby trying to think of anything she could say about her amour. Yang leaned in with a big grin on her face and opened her mouth, presumably to say something stupid like a pun.
"Cat got your tongue?" asked Ren nonchalantly, shooting Yang a small smirk as he beat her to the punchline. 'That will teach her to try and throw me in battle.' He thought to himself feeling very smug and with very good reason.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA." Laughed Nora; leaning her head back and exploded into uncontrollable laughter. Jaune cracked a smirk and chuckled a little, while Ruby turned red at being the butt of the joke, but Ren could spot a small grin on her face when she hid her face. Yang on the other hand, glared at Ren with murderous intent and let out a feral growl, muttering about how hers was going to be funnier. Ren highly doubted that as he also heard her mumble 'feline jealous', which spoke for itself about how bad it actually was.
"I was wondering if she was also a member of the team that I haven't met yet." Said Jaune, as he was scanning their faces for an answer.
"CATASTROPHY!" Shouted Yang looking around to make sure everyone else got the joke; they didn't.
"That joke was." Responded a deadpan Ren
"No she is not a member of the team. Although since she saved your life, maybe we should ask her to join us." Said Ruby. Answering the question that Jaune had posed.
"Speaking of the team." Said Jaune as he stood up from his seat next to Yang and took a deep breath, preparing for a speech. "Thank you, that how I wanted to start this all out. When I woke up I had no clue what was going on, but you guys took the time to walk me through it. I'm not completely used to it, I don't think I will ever be fine with it, but if I join you guys, I know you will help me get back into the world. Who better to help a misfit than a whole group of them?"
Ruby and Yang grinned at each other and then back at Jaune, with Yang tapping him on the elbow with a light punch, Ren gave him a respectful nod of his head and a slight smile. Nora on the other hand, dashed around the table and tackled him in a big bear hug laughing in joy, Yang then leapt on the two of them joining in the bear hug, Ruby considered it and dived for the trio and Ren sighed and walked over to them, waiting for them to stand up before giving Jaune a handshake, which he thought was a big show of affection. Nora didn't think so and asked them to hug (using her hammer, apparently she was a big fan of tough love).
"Well team, we saved the island of Vytal from giant snakes, Jaune joined the team and beat up an assassin so I think that calls for some rest, I'll be in my lab. I got something I want to work on with my amour." Instructed Ruby, Yang and Nora grinned at each other evilly and then at Jaune, Ren sighed as he knew exactly what they were going to do.
"We are going to test the limits of your shield Jauney, see if it can handle the might of my hammer!" Ordered Nora.
"It should hold up." Jaune raised the shield up in front of him and examined it closely. "Nothing so far has made a scratch on it, I just need to add better straps on to it and then we can start."
"Nothing in all the Realms can withstand my hammer." Declared Nora proudly.
"Cough I can cough" said Yang, trying very hard to be discrete. Silently Ren couldn't believe that he was on a team with so many children in adult bodies, he almost contemplated going back to BEACON.
After that happened Ruby did exactly as she said and headed towards the laboratory and began working on improving her amour, ever since Cinder and her attack on Vale Ruby had an idea of what she wanted to upgrade. She knew that there were going to be times when she was without her amour, but would need it in tense situations so she was going to try to make it come to her. It wouldn't be that different from how it suited up on her now, however instead of all at once, it would come in different parts. While Ruby was working in the lab, Ren also was while making sure to keep an eye on the video that was transmitting from the training room, this way if he thought that Jaune was getting beaten around too much by Nora and Yang he would step in and try to be the voice of reason. Currently he was creating more arrows while also adapting them so that he could fit more on his person, this way he wouldn't run out of arrows mid fight.
Ren almost did run out of arrows during the fight with the giant snake/dragon monsters, because Ruby thought that there was only going to be the one monster so she had only given Ren four arrows, and after he shot the first three in the original beast, he had then used the fourth and final to pierce another's eye, stopping it from eating Nora. Surprisingly she didn't take to kindly to almost being eaten and smacked it so hard with her hammer it back flipped a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and then Yang landed on top of it turning it into dust. All in all the fight was a great display of their power and effectiveness at defending people, they also worked very well together as a team.
The addition of Jaune was indeed a welcome one, and Ren hoped that with enough time he would become a critical member of the team and of the friendship they were all building together. Something that he said earlier really stuck out for Ren when he thought about it.
"Who better to help a misfit than a whole group of them?"
Looking at the group as a whole they did indeed fit together very well, but when compared to the rest of the world they had; a genius without any equal, the strongest woman in the world, a literal goddess, a legendary soldier from the worst war in the history of Remnant and him, a master marksman that never missed anything in his life. They truly were a very odd group of people and they would have no chance if they would have stayed with BEACON, the agents would alienate them from everyone, simply because they were different. Here however, they did all fit together, because they were the only people that knew what it was like to be something weird and different.
In the training room, Jaune was being worked very hard by the two strongest on the team. Nora's idea to test the limits of his shield and his own idea to test the limits turned out to be very different. Naturally they went with her idea of throwing everything they could at it to see which would get more damage, however since the shield couldn't stand up on its own Jaune had to stand behind it and hold it. Of course he didn't have to stand behind it, but when Yang suggested that he was going to make a young woman such as herself stand behind it while things were thrown at her, Jaune realised he didn't have much of a choice since she had played on his chivalry. So now he was positioned behind his shield and they were throwing weights at him with various degrees of strength, Jaune was surprised to find out that Nora was the more careful of the two while Yang launched them as hard as she could at him. When he asked her why she couldn't take more care with Ruby's equipment, she responded with.
"Are you asking for help now?"
Jaune then realised that she might be quite angry with him because he fought a master assassin without asking for any back up or calling for BEACON, but in his defence he didn't have a radio on him and there was no way he would have been able to make it to a phone box and put in the number needed, not that he knew the number for BEACON anyway. When he did try to explain this to Yang, she gave him a very similar look to what he had seen Raven give Qrow on more than one occasion, so he shut up and took it like a man.
They had been in the training room for a while now and nothing had managed to damage his shield, all of the weights that they had thrown had either broken or they had bent out of shape. Yang even tried striking it with her fists, but nothing happened. Jaune wasn't even moving backwards when they had been throwing the weights at him, it was like the shield took all of the power out of the impact of the objects. Some of the objects had been thrown with an extreme amount of force but when it hit the shield, it would just slide down and thump on to the floor. Jaune would stand exactly in the same position without moving, in fact the only time that he was forced to move back was when Yang started to move forward while punching and he instinctively took some steps backwards, but even then Yang figure that was more combat nature than her forcing the shield back. It even took a hit from Nora's hammer without any problem, something that Yang had some issue with and that had even managed to take down Cinder, countless frost giant creatures, the mechanical monsters in the mountains and the dragon monster beat thingys. Yang would count this training session as a success for now.
Nora was very impressed with the shield, she believed it to be as finely crafted as her hammer was, although it probably did not contain the power of the sky like hers did, however she would not be surprised if it had the power of the earth as she noticed that the soldier didn't move at all when they were attacking him with the weights and other objects. It even took her hammer and stopped it dead on, although there was a little shockwave from the impact and Nora thought that maybe they could make an even bigger one if they directed the shield more and she struck harder. It would be interesting to see in battle that she was sure of.
"Salutations, Ruby, Ren, Best Girl and Thunder Thighs. I am sure you would be pleased to know that the information that you have recovered has been decrypted. Would you like for me to go through it over night? Or leave it for you to do in the morning?" said Penny out of the blue, completely surprising Jaune and causing him to jump and hold his shield in a defensive position in front of him while looking around for the source of the voice.
"The house has its own voice." Said Nora to the confused captain. "It is quite disconcerting."
"…Yeah, I can understand that."
"Greetings, Captain Jaune Arc of Vale. I am Penny." Came the voice again, startling Jaune once more. "If you need anything just ask. I am accessible throughout the entire house."
"Okay." Replied Jaune. "You can just call me Jaune, I don't mind."
"Sensational, if you need anything just ask Jaune." Responded Penny still in her very enthusiastic voice.
As the three left the training room, they were met by the other two members of the team. Ruby decided that since it was so late they should wait until morning before they went through the information. Ren asked Penny if she could group the information in several different topics so that when they examined the data, they could do so in the most efficient way. Penny said she would get started on that right away, as well as informing them that dinner was ready if they would like it. Dinner turned out to be several large pizza's, Nora was loving it as she had never had a pizza before and naturally it was up to Ren to show her the best way to eat one, and it was not as Yang suggested by folding the whole thing in half and trying to shove as much in her mouth as possible. Jaune enjoyed the pizza, it was certainly nicer than the ones he had back in his time and defiantly better than any rations that the army had provided him with.
They then sat around and tried to get Jaune back up to speed with the times, nothing that would over whelm him. Yang suggested that they watch specific movies to help him adjust to the times, Nora then asked what movies were and Ren explained to her while Yang and Ruby got a taste of what the Captain did in his spare time in the military. He ended up telling them a couple of stories about their parents and how they acted around each other, unfortunately this caused Jaune to have a heavy sense of longing for his friends and family, so the stories were cut quite short. Nora then decreed that since today was in fact a Thursday and was named after her; which confused them all until she explained that when she came to this planet several hundred years ago they thought she said her name was Thor, this day would always remain a pizza day forever.
Jaune was still shocked that she was that old and that she was an actual goddess, all be it one of thunder, lightning and the sky. He didn't talk about it that much, but he considered himself to be a fairly religious man, and the idea that there was more than one god was a little bit weird. He was defiantly, positively, absolutely, certain that Nora was not the creator on the world, as he knew that God did not dress like that, he might have had some strange outfits, but Jaune didn't ever remember seeing him in a skirt, although he might be wrong. Jaune can still remember when he asked her if she really was a goddess on the flight to BEACON, in between his motion sickness.
"Yeah I am, I'm not the strangest goddess or god though; my brother is the father of a giant wolf and giant serpent. Some people even think that he is the father of grandma in Hel, but that was because the language it was written in was all muddled up."
He wasn't going to lie but that almost made him want to throw up even more, however he saw the look in her eyes and he believed her wholeheartedly, this woman was a Goddess and also slightly mad. Still he didn't argue with her as the pizza was very good and if they had this every Thursday then he would be happy to partake in the activity, maybe the food could help him out in this timeline. After dinner had been finished and Yang, Nora and Jaune had finished off all the remnants of the food, the team decided to head up to bed. Jaune walked into his room and Ren patted him on the back, not asking him if he was alright, but still checking up on him in a far more comforting way. Jaune turned and nodded at him and Nora who had joined up by Ren's side.
"Good night Jauney."
"Goodnight Nora, Ren."
With that said and done Jaune walked into his room, placed his shield down on the desk that was in the corner and changed out of the t-shirt and trousers he had on for the whole day and climbed into bed, laying down and then closing his eyes. Strangely enough tonight he had no nightmares of the war.
As he was coming to realise that this would be the normal thing to happen, Ren woke up very early compared to his companions. Thus meaning he would get to start his morning routine unimpeded as per usual. He started off as he always did, going to get some tea to ready himself for the exercise, then he moved outside and went to his favourite spot in the garden, right near the pond and near several redwood trees. Positioning himself correctly he performed several of his stretches and then began to start on his Kata, however as he was halfway through performing his starting move he noticed that there was something moving quickly out of the corner of his eye. Turning towards the thing he noticed in his peripheral, he saw a mess of blond hair shoot around the corner of the mansion and sprint into the woods, a couple of second latter Jaune then appeared coming towards Ren, going at full sprint. Normally this would be met with some worry and resulting in Ren going into a combat stance, however Ren was certain that Jaune was not going to attack him, and was proven correct as the man sprinted past Ren and chucked out a quick good morning to him on his speedy way past.
Shaking his head and taking up a ready position Ren began his Kata again and was halfway through when he heard Jaune coming towards him again, still in a full sprint. Jaune and made sure to give Ren a large berth, which the marksman was thankful for as he continued his Kata, moving on to the next one as Jaune ran past him again. It occurred to Ren that he might not be the earliest riser amongst his peers any more, as the Captain seemed to be wide awake and judging from the foot prints in the grass, he had been doing this for a long time. Finishing his Kata for the morning, Ren adopted a kneeling position and was contempt on meditating while Jaune continued to sprint past him every fifty-three second. Ren then moved from the kneeling position to the lotus position when he heard footsteps approaching him from behind and was joined by Nora who sat in the same position that he did.
She had decided to join Ren in his morning meditations sometimes as they allowed her to pray to her father and mother back on Valkyrie. She hoped that they heard everything she said and gave her their blessing, she was after all doing this for them and to show them that she was worthy of being the queen when the time came for her father to pass the throne on to her. It was when she had finished her little prayer to them and her brother that she noticed Jaune still running around the garden at a full sprint.
"How long has he been doing that for?" she asked Ren, knowing that she wasn't interrupting his meditation as he had done that before she came out, and now he was just relaxing and enjoying the serenity of the moment.
"Since before I came out here." He responded still with his eyes closed but being able to see exactly what Nora was looking at. Jaune then came to a halt near the front door of the mansion and put his hands on his hips, he looked like he could probably keep going for another hour or more but had told himself to stop and take a rest. He then walked over to Ren and Nora silently singing an old soldiers song that Ren recognized from a couple of veteran members of the Vale army that he had met a couple of years ago. Ren didn't bring up that he knew the meaning behind the words that Jaune was singing, but he filed it away for a later topic of conversation.
"Morning Nora." Said Jaune in greeting as he sat down next to them.
"Sleep well Jauney?" she asked in response while lazily waving at him.
"Uh the bed was a bit too soft." Replied Jaune as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and looked away from the duo. Ren knew how he felt, back at BEACON the beds were hard, unforgiving almost pieces of metal, here it was different and while Ren had no problem sleeping anywhere he needed to, he could imagine that for someone who had only slept on either the ground or on the canvas of a camp bed it would be a difficult night's sleep.
"We could help you get a harder bed if you want." Offered Ren, opening his eyes and looking at Jaune, judging his expression and was presently surprised to see that his face showed he liked Ren's offer.
"If it's not too much trouble." He stated looking hopeful and also worried that he might have offended them in some way. "I'm not used to sleeping on a bed like that."
"We can change that after breakfast, for now though-"
"-let's eat." Finished Nora
The three then headed inside the mansion and made their way to the kitchen. Due to him getting up early Jaune had not had anything to eat since the pizza and due to the kitchen still looking like a science laboratory from the future, Jaune had avoided going in it to grab something to eat. Now with Ren and Nora for assistance Jaune felt a lot more confident around the 'kitchen'.
"Want some cereal Jaune?" asked Ren as he pulled out two bowls from a compartment in the wall that just appeared, and reached for a third waiting for Jaune's response.
"Uh, I don't suppose Pumpkin Pete's is still going is it?" Asks Jaune to which Ren smiled and nodded his head, pulling out the third bowl.
"Penny, can you please bring up the Pumpkin Pete's." said Ren to the house; Jaune now realising how insane that sounded, but he guessed that was the future. The table in the centre where they had eaten their pizza on the night before opened up a small compartment on the side and a box of cereal was picked out by Ren.
"There you go Ren." Came Penny's soft robotic voice from the ceiling.
"Thank you." He responded. Jaune took a good look at the box of cereal and was pleased to see that the logo had not changed, nor had the size of the box. What had changed was the mascot on the front of the box; when Jaune was a child they had made the mascot a giant Pumpkin, and then when he turned eighteen the mascot was changed to a soldier, and then when he started to get recognized as Captain Vale he hoped they would change the logo to him as that would be a funny thing for one of his sisters to see, however they kept the logo the same as a soldier for as long as he could remember. This was the first time he had seen someone else on the front of the box, and it was also the first time he had seen a woman on the box as well, Jaune was pretty sure that she wasn't a cartoon character like the Pumpkin was. She was however the most gorgeous woman that Jaune had ever seen in his life; sure Yang, Nora and Ruby were all beautiful, but this woman really stood out to him. He really hoped that she wasn't a cartoon character and that he hadn't compared a fictional character to his new friends.
During the breakfast Ren and Jaune ate in silence while listening to Nora talk about the battle of the snake/dragon monsters that they had fought yesterday, occasionally Ren would jump in to correct the things that Nora was saying so that Jaune didn't think that Ren had somehow managed to kill a hundred enemies with just one arrow, 'not that he couldn't per-say but it was always better to have some secrets' he thought.
"Good morning Ren, Cap'n, thunder thighs." Greeted Yang as she came in to the kitchen and then plopped herself down next to Jaune, at the kitchen table.
"Yang!" cried Nora in greeting while Ren just nodded in his style, meanwhile Jaune muttered under his breath that he still wasn't technically a 'captain'. However quietly he tried to say it he was still heard by both Ren and Yang, while Nora stuffed her face with some cereal after she had greeted Yang.
"Wait, you're not a real captain?" asked Yang in disbelief as she stared at Jaune, Ren fixed her up a bowl of cereal and leaned forward interested in the story that Jaune was going to tell.
"No, it's, uh more of a name than a rank, I kinda just got called it out of nowhere, and it uh, well it stuck, I guess?" Said Jaune as he looked at the faces of Yang and Ren, who still didn't look like they believed him, Nora on the other hand just nodded in acceptance and went back to eating the cereal, pouring more into her bowl.
"There has got to be a story to that, so come on spill it." Ordered Yang, and so Jaune told the story of how he heard that a friend of his was being held capture in the mass prison in Mistral, Haven as it was then known, Ren now informed Jaune that the prison had since been converted in to a school where students could learn almost anything in the world which greatly pleased him. Jaune told them how he snuck in alone after STRQ industries had flown him over, how he had broken out a prisoner named Tuckson who started calling him captain, how when they were escaping together he kept calling him captain, and when they arrived back at the Vale army camp they all cheered for him, chanting captain loudly. Then the name Captain Vale started and now here he was, a false captain, yet everyone keeps calling him that.
Yang loved the story and was laughing for most of it and also amazed that Jaune had managed all of that on his own, and was glad that her dad, aunt Summer and uncle Qrow had helped him out. She was slightly confused about her mother, how could she go from helpful to hating, it didn't add up. Ren was also in awe at how that event had happened, he always did enjoy history and hearing how one of the greatest events in military history happened was incredible, the liberation of three hundred or more prisoners was an amazing feat to accomplish. Nora enjoyed the story as it was worth of being told in her family's hall of banquet. For a mortal this man had achieved something very few of her fellow Valkyrians ever managed to achieve, immortality in the hearts and minds of people.
"Good morning team." Said Ruby entering the kitchen, this caused the coffee machine to start up as Penny knew exactly what her creator and friend would need before she started her day, coffee with an ungodly amount of sugar. After Ruby downed it all in one go to the horror of Yang, Jaune and Ren, she turned to them and started to say.
"So since the information from the scroll is now available for us I th-"
"Apologies for the interruption Ruby, but an object is approaching the mansions airspace; Bullhead class is similar to that of the Atliasian military, scans reveal six heat signatures and they are refusing to respond to any attempts of communication."
Yang shot up out of her chair and crushed the spoon in her hand, turning it into an unrecognisable piece of mush. She looked very panicked and frantic at the news, but Ren placed a hand on her shoulder as Nora jumped around and held her hand in a silent show of their support. Ruby flicked her wrist and Penny brought up an image of the aircraft, she recognised it as General James Ironwood's personal Bullhead. Ruby could imagine several different reasons why he might be coming here unannounced; weapons, Yang, Jaune or Nora, either way he wasn't getting any of them. Jaune was still slightly confused about all that was happening, clearly Yang was scared of the people that were coming, but somehow the voice and Ruby had managed to make a video of the aircraft just appear out of thin air right above his cereal, and he wasn't too much of a macho man to admit that he let out a little cry of shock.
"Let them land-"
"RUBY! They're going to take me!" cried Yang, her eyes turning red
"Nope, I'm not letting that happen. We are a team, and you're my sister, nobody is going to take you away from me." Assured Ruby, as she was holding both of Yang's hands; looking her dead in the eyes. Taking a few deep breathes, Yang found herself calming down and her eyes returned to their normal colour, she muttered a silent "Okay." And then everything seemed to be fine, however Nora had her doubts about the reason for this visit by the General something something, she forgot the name, sue her.
The team then decided that they would head out to meet their esteemed guests; Nora and Ren already had on their combat gear as they had planned the day before to do a little bit of sparing together, well Nora planed it and asked Ren to join her, nicely, with her hammer. Yang then went and grabbed her combat gear and Jaune who didn't have an of his old amour as it had been damaged due to the fight with Dr Watts, the explosion and the fall and was simply too much for the amour and it had been broken beyond repair, instead he just grabbed his shield and stayed in his t-shirt and jogging bottoms.
Standing outside and watching the Bullhead lower itself on to the ground in front of them, Ruby was very thankful that the garden they had was massive and that there was enough space to land about four more Bullheads with ease. Hopefully they wouldn't bring in any more Bullheads because then the already antsy Yang might jump away and escape. As it so happened she was standing at the back of the group with Jaune and Nora stood in front of her on either side, almost shielding her and Ren was stood next to Ruby. While they had been waiting for Yang and Jaune to grab their gear, Ren had told her about the times that he had met with General Ironwood and it seemed like a good idea to have him ready to greet their guest.
The Bullhead then opened up and the six figures walked down the ramp and Nora was able to get a good look at this Admiral something something; He was tall, with slightly grey hair and a hard look in his eyes this man demanded respect from everyone he met and he didn't care about respecting them back. Nora knew those type of people, hell she had turned them into dust when they challenged her, and this man wouldn't get any respect from her so long as he continued on that path of his.
The other five people that followed him down the ramp were different from him, none of them were wearing the same uniform, as she thought was accustomed to soldiers. The leader was even Taller than the Commander something something, and boy was he an unattractive man and he was somewhat ginger. The other three men behind him were also unattractive; one had all his hair all spiked up and was green, another had longer hair than Nora and it was blue, and the third man had short blond hair, but didn't seem to have eyes.
They all walked down the ramp confidently and with purpose, however the sixth person coming down looked nervous and unsure of what she was doing. Where the four men were unattractive, this woman was unbelievably beautiful, long red hair, bright green eyes, nice muscular body but still feminine and she was also quite tall, probably shorter than Jaune but still taller than Nora was, which wasn't really hard. Glancing at her teammates, she saw that Yang was looking at the ground and then everywhere the newcomers weren't, Jaune was staring straight at the tall ginger man not in a threatening way but in a curious way, Ruby was looking anxiously everywhere and Ren was looking right into the Sargent something somethings eyes.
"I am General Ironwood, for those of you who do not know me." Okay so he was a General, meh Nora was a goddess so take that yo-
"Yang Xaio-Long will be coming with us now." Like hell she will, you will have to go through me and my motherf-
"General perhaps we can talk about this inside, before you start making demands of us." Aw, good old Ren always so calm and cool and diplomatic and handsome and smart and funny and handsome, mum would like him.
"Agent Ren, I am… interested to see you in this… new area of employment." Said General Ironwood and how dare he talk to my man like that, I am about to sma-
"It serves a greater purpose than BEACON. Better people as well." The General considered this and then scoffed.
"Helping a mad woman break down-town, destroying a mountain, abducting a national hero and causing panic when fighting monster; no doubt from her world." Said the General; pointing a finger at Nora and then looking at her with distaste. Ren then stepped forward, not backing down from the General and corrected him.
"Stopping a mad woman, taking down a group of would-be terrorists, helping a hero and those monsters were not from Nora's world, but that didn't matter because we still stopped them and nobody got hurt."
General Ironwood tensed up at this and glared down at Ren, then he turned his gaze over to Yang briefly and then finally locked on to Jaune, and when they did he stepped past Ren and made his way over and held out his hand.
"Captain Arc, a pleasure I am sure." Jaune did shake the man's hand and kept eye contact with him throughout.
"Sir." Was all Jaune had to say to the General, which in itself Nora realised was a pretty big insult, Jaune was considered to be something of a legend on this world and for this legend to not say anything more to the General was probably quite insulting. The General seemed to realise this as well and he didn't look happy. As he made to grab Yang to almost drag her to the Bullhead Jaune sidestepped in front of him and grabbed his wrist, this caused the five people that came with the General to tense up. Jaune then released his wrist, but still stood in front of Yang.
"Fine." Spat the General. "We will talk inside; however these three 'enhanced' will wait outside."
"Then the same will be said for your guests." Replied Ren as he eyed the General, as though testing him to argue with him.
"Winchester, Thrush, Nikos, wait out here and keep an eye on them, Lark, Bronzewing, you are with me."
Ruby and Ren then headed inside, leading the General and his two escorts. When they passed Yang Ruby smiled at her reassuringly and Ren nodded to Jaune and Nora, signalling them to be on their guard. Ruby personally didn't think that they would even lower it for a second, Ren and her had the harder job of the team. Trying to convince General Ironwood to leave without him starting a fight, but luckily for the team, Ruby still had the recording of when she asked little woman to order her troops to leave the STRQ weapons behind after the fight with Cinder.
As they lead General Ironwood to the meeting room where they could hopefully talk some sense into the irate man, Ren was careful to keep an eye on the two that he had brought with him. Ren knew that Sky Lark was an engineer and mechanic on multiple different things in the military bases, but didn't know why he was here as he was not combat ready. Dove Bronzewing on the other hand was one of the most ruthless killers that Ren had ever heard of or met, he had more confirmed kills on his hands than the top ten agents in BEACON all put together, and then most likely doubled. However what did worry him were the three people that were outside with Nora, Jaune and Yang.
Outside Nora was eyeing up the three others still out there with them. Yang was fidgeting like crazy and kept on thinking that if she got a good head start then nobody would be able catch her. Jaune however stopped her thinking by placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling at her, easing her nerves. The two other men saw this and smirked evilly at each other.
"So you're the legendary Captain?" Asked the tall man with what was a sneer that seemed ever present on his face. Jaune looked a little surprised at being called out by the strangers, as he fully expected to just stand in silence opposite them.
"Uh I don't know about legendary." Jaune tried to joke to ease the tension that he could feel in the area, he also gave his best smile to see if that could win them over, it seemed to work on the red haired woman as she gave a small smile but then disappeared almost immediately.
"Yeah neither do I, you look pretty pathetic. I mean who fights in a war and doesn't kill anyone? What kind of man are you?" asked the tall man
Jaune was stunned "You are right I didn't kill a single person in that war, and I am happy with the example that sets. I imagine if you ask any soldier, they would wish they could take back the lives they took, and I respect that maybe sometimes it is unavoidable to take a life, I really do as I almost killed someone once. But I always do my best to find another way; I just wish everyone else had that chance." This was when Jaune looked the man dead in the eye and shot him a very hard look that made him almost take a step back in fear. "Or that they had humanity to realise there was another way."
Yang gave a smirk and Nora had to hold herself from chuckling at the very obvious insult to the tall man, however he didn't seem to realise that Jaune had called him less than a human. Neither did the other man who just stared at Nora's giant hammer, however the red haired woman seemed to realise what Jaune was getting at and let out a tiny smile that Yang and Nora managed to catch. The tall man then must have realised that he was being made fun of from the smiles on the three girls faces and stepped forward.
"Why you l-" he started to say with clenched fists
"CARDIN." Shouted the red haired woman while stepping in front of him and placing her hand on his chest to hold him back, meanwhile Jaune had already slipped off his shield, ready far faster than either the tall man or the red haired woman were when they moved into their positions. Both of them now realise that Captain Vale was ready to fight right here right now and they quickly have a silent conversation with their eyes that the red haired woman wins and the tall man then steps back.
"Just remember who leads this squad 'champion'." He snarls at her, shooting Jaune one last look of hate. Which seemed a bit dramatic as they had only just met, but bullies will be bullies.
"I'm sorry." Said the woman; turning to Jaune just as he shouldered his shield behind him again.
"I can imagine you say that for him a lot." Observed Jaune.
"Yes, I do."
Jaune hold out his hand to the beautiful red haired woman, who looks very familiar to him, but maybe she just has one of those faces.
"Jaune Arc; short, sweet rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." CRAP CRAP CRAP, had he seriously just said that? He hadn't said those words since he tried it on his crush back in his home village. Granted she was probably either eighty or dead right now but that wasn't the point. Why did he ha-
"hahaha, I'm certain they do." She giggled, that was usually a good sign right, unless it was laughing at him not with him, usually he could tell which was which, but it had been a while since he had been picked on.
"Thanks, um what's your name?" The red haired woman looked a little surprised at this, although he did wonder why as she probably knew that he was from sixty years ago in the past, and it's not like she was alive back then.
"The hell? You don't know who she is? You stupid or so-" began Cardin before the red haired woman interrupted him rather frantically, cutting off whatever else Cardin was going to say.
"I'm Pyrrha; Pyrrha Nikos, it's nice to meet you." She said as she grabbed his hand which he was still holding out subconsciously, having not pulled it back. Jaune noticed that she had a very strong handshake, and hoped that his felt strong to her. For some reason she looked very excited during the handshake and was staring right into his eyes in wonder.
"It's nice to meet you too Pyrrha, you have pretty hair." You idiot, why the hell would you say that, she might be the enemy and you just had to open your mouth and say that to her, I mean it's true but come on. Pyrrha blushed a little bit and shyly looked at the ground before turning her eyes back up to Jaune's.
"T-Thank you, you have nice eyes." Oh come on, really you are going to say that to the guy, he's basically a legend in this world and you try to court him, okay he does have nice eyes they are a beautiful blue, but could you not think of anything different?
"Thanks, my dad and I are the only ones in our family with the blue eyes, all of my sisters have green and my mum has brown." Oh no, this guy didn't know when he was being courted did he? When Ren was telling Nora about Jaune and how he became Captain Vale, she remembered about how he wasn't always made of muscle and was a skinny looking thin stick. Nora could presume from that, he probably didn't get that many women complementing him and thus would not know if a woman was attracted to him. Well this was going to be awkward, funny but awkward.
Jaune then realised that he had spoken about his family in the present tense and not in the past tense, and a sad look crossed his features. This was something that Pyrrha noticed immediately as she was stood right in front of him and decided to try and take his mind off of whatever he was thinking of.
"I've read about you a lot!" she blurted out and then instantly felt self-conscious. Why, oh why did you have to say that? Surely you could have thought of something different to say to him, but no you had to come off like some kind of crazy fan-girl. Did anybody else think about this when they spoke to her?
"Yeah, apparently I made it in to the history books. And got a statue. Well several statues, so that's… great, just great." Oh no, now he was acting like a hurt puppy, and judging from the look in this Pyrrha's eyes she was really drawn to that. Not that Nora could really blame her; Jaune was an attractive, well-muscled man, that didn't look to be afraid to emote. And from the company that Pyrrha had around her, she could probably use someone kind and caring, unlike the Cardin guy.
"Yeah it can be a bad thing; people put you up on a pedestal-"
"Look at you like something you're not-"
"And make you feel alone." Finished Pyrrha with a sad smile on her face, to which Jaune returned it with his own. Jaune then realised that he didn't know how this woman would know the feeling; maybe she had mind reading powers, could that be a thing of the future?
Just as Jaune was about to ask her how she knew about the thoughts that he was having, there was an explosion from inside the house that rocked the whole building and caused everyone to turn towards the sound, Yang and Nora both called out for Ruby and Ren respectively, meanwhile Jaune slipped his shield off his shoulders and jumped in front of Yang just as a fist struck at her, blocking the punch that Cardin had tried to hit her with.
Nora and Yang then jumped into action just as Jaune tilted his shield and kicked Cardin back to where he was originally, landing right next to the other man and Pyrrha. Looking at the three of them; Cardin and the other man had looks of anger and glee on their faces, however Pyrrha looked pained, like she was being forced to do something she really didn't want to do. Jaune turned to Yang and Nora, he knew that they were going to be fighting these people and he had to be smart; they wanted Yang.
"Yang get going, we can take them." Yang nodded and braced herself to jump away, Cardin turned to Pyrrha.
"Get her." Was all he said and the moment Yang had left the ground Pyrrha shot a blast of black energy out of her hands and knocked Yang off course of wherever she wanted to jump to, she then took off into the sky after her and together they collided in the air, landing somewhere in the forest in Ruby's massive garden. Jaune and Nora would need to get to her quickly to help Yang out so she could escape and then return when they had all left, however first they would need to deal with the two other unwelcomed quests.
"Russel, if you will."
Then Cardin motions for the other man to do something and Jaune and Nora decide that were not going to wait patiently for this attack to come and made to charge forward to end the fight quickly. That plan however fell apart very quickly once Russel conjured up a mini tornado in his hands and sent it flying towards the duo, Jaune was then forced to adapt his plan and back away from the tornado. Nora on the other hand, jumped through the tornado and swung her hammer completely obliterating the tornado and cancelling the attack altogether. She wasn't the Goddess of Thunder, mistress of the winds and lord of the lightening for nothing after all.
The two men looked quite surprised that Nora was able to destroy their attack very quickly, but that look of surprise was soon turned into pain as a certain shield bounced off Russel's face and smacked into Cardin's face before returning to Jaune's outstretched hand, he then bashed straight into Cardin and knocked him back. Jaune then continued to force Cardin back, his enhanced strength proving to be able to overpower even someone of Cardin's size, but then he started to feel heavier. That is when Jaune noticed the hands around his shield had turned to a shiny metallic colour, Jaune switched up his attack and swept low with his leg only to hit hard metal. Rolling away and standing up straight he saw that Cardin had turned into metal; skin, hair, clothes and even teeth were now all metal, Jaune wasn't confident that he could do any damage to metal man, but he knew someone who could.
While Jaune had thrown his shield and then charged Cardin; Nora had then leapt through another tornado from the one called Russel. He was laughing very hard despite the fact that none of his attacks had any effect on her and she was getting closer and closer to breaking his legs. As he launched another one at her, she decided to let it come over her and once she was certain that his vision was obscured she flew up into the air and then came down behind Russel and tapped him on the shoulder. Russel turned around with a shocked look on his face and finally stopped laughing for the first time since the pitiful fight started.
"BOOP." And that signalled the punch from Nora, and since it was with the strength of a Goddess, Russel was completely knocked out. She then looked over to Jaune and saw him standing in front of a metal man where Cardin was supposed to be, she then noticed that Jaune was dodging all of his punches and kicks and not returning any of his own strikes. Nora supposed that was probably the smart choice as while Jaune might have the strength of ten men, even he couldn't punch through metal; Nora however could and now that Jaune had got Cardin's back to her, she launched her attack.
CLANG
"All the stories I've heard about his shield, every single one said it was unbreakable. Now I have your hammer." And that is when Cardin's metal skin changed from the shiny white of Jaune's shield to the light grey of Nora's hammer. But that isn't where it ended; his body started to crackle with lightning and electricity, along with his fists morphing into hammers.
"So what's the plan now? Heroes." Asks Cardin sarcastically and honestly Jaune didn't quite have one at the moment.
Once Ruby and Ren had lead General Ironwood and his two followers in to the mansion Ruby felt an air of dread fall over her. She had no idea what the two people with General Ironwood were capable of, the only thing she knew was that they clearly were not enhanced in anyway, otherwise Ren would have told the General to make them wait outside. Ren seemed to know exactly who the two were and his eyes never left the one with blond hair, Bronzewing if Ruby could remember.
Upon entering the meeting room Ruby was glad that Penny had not said a word about the newcomers or made herself known like she usually did. The Atlas military didn't need to know that Ruby had an artificial intelligence, and Ruby would very much like to keep it that way. General Ironwood was the first to take a seat at the meeting room table, making sure that he grabbed the chair at the head of the table, his two soldiers stood on either side of him. Lark looking around at everything and Bronzewing staring right back at Ren, neither of them blinking or even moving that much apart from the rise and fall of their chests.
"This is a nice ceremony Miss Rose, but I will be taking it back with-"
"With the greatest respect, don't call my sister an 'it' please." Interrupted Ruby; feeling a lot braver than she had felt outside for some reason. There was even a nagging voice in her head telling her to smack him, while it was indeed tempting, she ignored it.
"Either way, 'she' will be coming back with me. I have numerous documents, describing how she is my property and that the technology used in her… unfortunate accident was manufactured by Mr Lark here. Anything that comes into contact with that technology automatically belongs to the Atlas military."
"It was your tech?" asks Ruby looking at Lark with a disbelieving look clear as day on her face.
"Yep, built it myself, not a single flaw." He said arrogantly. 'Other than the so called accident that turned my sister in to a walking earthquake' she thought to herself.
"Well done." Ruby said sarcastically. Lark however missed the sarcasm and took it completely as a compliment; something that Ren thought was fitting of his very low social intelligence. While he was thinking this he still kept his gaze on Dove, silently wondering why he would ever agree to be part of this rag-tag military group. He was even more surprised to find that Pyrrha was a part of the group as well, while he knew that she had abilities and that she had also been experimented on, he didn't think that she would have joined up with this group as he had heard of her rather kind nature. All the while he was thinking this he never broke eye contact with Dove, and the same was said for Bronzewing and he was very subtly sizing up Ren and Ruby for weaknesses and open spots in their defences.
"Either way it doesn't matter who built what or how you tricked my sister into unwillingly becoming your lab rat; you are not taking her."
"Would you like me to involve the council? I believe they would love to know about your defiance in the face of an official government body; as well as a council member." Asked General Ironwood, firmly thinking that he had the upper hand in the conversation.
"Funny you should mention the council." Quipped Ruby back, as she tapped her wrist and brought up a video of the aftermath of Cinder's defeat and the Atlas military turning up afterwards, in possession of several of STRQ industries weapons. It then detailed the commander and her reluctance to turn them over until Ozpin turned up and that helped to sway the argument in Ruby's favour. While watching this Ironwood was growing progressively more irate, Sky was confused, but Dove got the silent message that Ruby was sending the three of them; why do you still have MY weapons when I asked for them over a year ago? Subtle power play and nice use of blackmail, he could respect that as he had used that tactic multiple times in his life; everybody had secrets. Even those who claimed to be 'Invincible'.
Ren noticed that the corners of Dove's mouth twitch very slightly for a micro-second, but it was enough for him to see that something was changing between the three other people in the room. Ironwood was losing control and the next best person to pick up control would be the most collected out of the three. Funnily enough Ren heard it before he saw it, the near silent sound of metal being unsheathed.
Dove launched a throwing knife straight for Ruby's carotid artery; death would have been very painful and near instantaneous. It would have been as Ren reacted fast enough to catch the knife out of the air right before it embedded itself in her neck and then flung it towards Sky's shoulder; if he could take out an annoyance then he could focus more on Dove and Ironwood as they were the bigger threats to himself and Ruby, until she could get her amour.
While that was a solid plan for Ren, he didn't count in his bad luck as the knife harmlessly bounced off Sky's shoulder and clattered to the floor. Confused as Ren was certain that Sky was not an enhanced individual, he ripped off his sleeve to show amour that was slowly growing over his arm and becoming bulkier and bulkier. It then produced a missile from a compartment and aimed it at the two Hunter's, however before Sky could turn them into ash, he was blindsided by a flying arm that came through the doors and attached on to Ruby. This arm was then followed by the rest of her amour and attached on to her accordingly.
The off balance Sky them fired his missile up at the ceiling and created a loud explosion that was sure to alert Nora, Yang and Jaune that negotiations had taken a bit of a turn, hopefully they would be okay by themselves for the time being before Ren and Ruby got to them.
With Ruby now fully armoured up and Ren and Dove in a standoff and Sky back on his feet, everyone in the room braced themselves for a fight, almost waiting for someone to fire the starting pistol.
And then Ren heard a loud 'GO!' echo in his head and it was like it was all said it at the same time in all their minds they all moved together simultaneously; Time to work for a living.
What was a beautiful section of the forest in Ruby's garden was soon becoming a creator in the ground and the aftermath of a warzone thanks to the combined effort of Yang and Pyrrha, and while their destructive prowess was indeed impressive, if they were in their right minds and could see what they were doing not only to the environment and to each other, they would be shocked.
It is true the two of them loved to fight; Yang always had loved boxing when she was younger simply because it provided her with an outlet for all of her anger about not getting taken seriously and for the stress from her job, and a bit of rough housing with her father when she was a lot younger and when he could. Pyrrha was of course famous for her gladiator matches in the Mistral coliseum and her career as a combat pilot and frontline soldier against the white fang and the Grimm cult, and she often relished the challenge of fighting against strong opponents and seeing what she would have to change in her style to assure her victory. However for the two of them it had been awhile since they could find someone where they didn't have to hold back all the time; obviously Yang had Nora to spar, but if they went all out in the training room the mansion and the surrounding area would break into pieces and while going to different Realms and fighting there was fun it was more playful between them than a battle.
Right now however that was different, Yang was almost putting everything in to her fight with Pyrrha and she was scared that she may have to lose control and let the Dragon out to beat her; the last time she did that she broke downtown Atlas. Pyrrha also was pushing herself harder than she had against- ohh that was classified, sorry.
A blast of energy forces Yang to block and take it head on, forcing her back creating a trench in the ground, Pyrrha then follows up with a flying punch that Yang catches and attempts to strike with her other hand, only to have Pyrrha block the strike and lock her arm around Yang's holding her in place. The two now stuck in a battle of strength, glaring right into each other's eyes.
"I'm sorry, but this is my mission to bring you in!" exclaimed Pyrrha as she then freed her hand from Yang's grip and threw her over her shoulder, slamming her into the ground and the kicking her away from her. Yang rolled herself to her feet and side stepped the elbow drop from Pyrrha, punching downwards across her face and then upper cutting and finishing up the combo with a left cross, successfully putting some distance between the two combatants.
"YOUR MISSION!" Yells Yang, diving at Pyrrha who managed to roll out of the way and blast Yang with more dark energy, sending her flying into a tree. She didn't crash through it, merely slumped down to the base of the trunk and grabbed around it to hold herself up while Pyrrha approached behind her to grapple her and force her into submission so that neither of them would get hurt anymore from this fight.
Yang however smacked her with the tree lick a baseball bat and then brought it down on her like a hammer, flattening Pyrrha into the ground like a nail. Yang flung the tree away from her and took several deep breathes, it was getting harder and harder to contain the Dragon and sooner or later she might have to let it out. Then only Nora might be able to stop her, unless Ruby had a Yang buster amour in her inventory.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME IN ATLAS?" Screams Yang at Pyrrha who was slowly getting up, leaves and bark falling off her as she did, carefully looking in to the iliac eyes of her opponent, and it might have been her imagination but they seemed to be slowly filling with red.
"They tore me apart; subjected my too numerous experiments. I was the only person who survived the procedure; hell I didn't even know it was a procedure. They tricked me, then poked and prodded me 'everywhere', trying to coax the beast out." Yang took in a deep breath and steadied her right hand, that had started shaking from remembering all the times they tried to collect a 'Sample' from her. "I am never going back there."
Pyrrha understood her words, she really did. If she was in Yang's position she would do anything to resist going with her and she would pray that someone would help her and set her free.
'You have a mission to complete.' Said the voice in her head, and it made a compelling point, this is what she signed up for, wasn't it?
'Yeah I do… but at what cost?'
The two fighters squared off against each other and one flew forward and one launched at her with a roar.
One with determination.
The other with reservation.
'The fight is going well… not for Jaune and me, but it was still going well' thought Nora. While she might not be winning she could still appreciate a good battle and so far this was proving to be one. The tall man known as Cardin had the strength and the power of her hammer, meaning that right now she was fighting herself, only he didn't feel any of the pain that she felt when she was hit by his fists.
As Nora took another swing at Cardin with the hammer it bounced off his chest harmlessly, how could the hammer fight against itself? It didn't make sense. Cardin then knocked Nora back with a overhead smash to the ground, he had figured out that while the lightening was cool, against Nora it didn't do her any harm and so he had stopped using it soon after this discovery.
Jaune then dived up to Nora's side and used his shield to block a horde of pebbles and rocks that were thrown at him by Russel. Compared to Jaune, Nora felt like she was handling this a lot better, while she would have a bruise or two due to her extreme durability, Jaune had cuts all over his right arm and his shins from where Russel had managed to get the parts that Jaune hadn't been able to hide behind his shield. His shirt and trousers were also torn and had a little bit of blood on them from the light cuts he had received; he was also noticeably out of breath.
"We need to get to Yang, can you deal with Russel?" he asked Nora while eyeing up their opponents.
"Yeah, but I can't put a dent in him if he is using …my…hammer!" Nora then realises she had been incredibly stupid and short sighted. "Go I got this!" she shouts to him as she flies towards Russel, grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him towards the ground with a lot of force. He hits it with a loud thud and groans out in pain, just as Jaune punches him in the face before he runs off to where he can hear the sounds of fighting coming from the woods.
Nora then turns to her over opponent and does something that her mother would be very proud of; waits patiently.
Cardin strikes her around the face with a left swing, then a right and then a left again. Meanwhile Nora takes the hits and is forced backwards, but she is still waiting, trying to concentrate. Cardin manages to get in several more strikes before he notices that Nora isn't fighting back.
"What's the matter girl? You scared to fight?" he asks arrogantly
"No, I am trying to concentrate." She says calmly. This irks Cardin and he launches himself at Nora, intended to crush her into paste, but he can't as his whole body is now immobile.
"H-H-HEY! WHAT GIVES?" He yells in response to having his movement restricted like so.
"The hammer is mine to command, and only mine." Says Nora stepping forward and in-front of Cardin. "And you, are made of my hammer."
Nora then flicks her wrist and sends a screaming Cardin hurtling up in to the air, and the higher he gets the louder his screams become.
The harder Nora laughs.
Back inside the mansion the fight is hitting its full stride; Ren and Dove had started off by throwing whatever objects they possibly could at each other. For Dove it was all of the knifes that he had managed to hide in his sleeves and pockets, most of which had missed Ren or he had been skilled enough to catch the incoming projectile before it hit him. Dove was slightly impressed that the man's reflexes were that quick and that his dexterity was so high, it was almost enough to rival his own ability. For Ren he had mostly focused on dodging out of the way of the incoming items and using the surroundings to limit his opponents line of sight so that he could rebound objects off the floor and wall to attack at different angles, however Dove had taken to throwing his own knifes at whatever Ren was throwing and slowly but surely they were both running out of ammunition.
That didn't bother Ren as much as it should, while it was true he was an excellent marksman, he was an even better martial artist and close-quarters-combat fighter. This meant he was confident enough that a brawl between him and Dove could be settled quite quickly once they had both exhausted all throw-able resources. However Ren did notice that Dove's reflexes and hand-eye coordination were extremely fast, this would possibly mean that he might present more of a challenge in hand-to-hand combat than he originally thought.
Just as a knife flew past his head, Ren then saw Dove reach into his pockets to only draw out nothing and search his other pockets; some might have seen this as a feint, but Ren could tell that he was genially out of knifes. So Ren decided to do the comforting thing and punch him.
Dove stumbled back from the punch and then ducked under the high kick aimed at his face instinctively. Ren then hooked his leg back around and caught his heel on the back of Dove's head with a perfectly executed hook kick that his master would be very proud of.
Bouncing on the balls of his feet in-front of Dove, Ren lifted his hands up into a classic fighting stance; left hand out and at chin height, right tucked back to the side of his head and never break eye contact with your enemy. Dove shook his head in response and then mirrored the same stance as Ren had, and beckoned with a very specific finger for Ren to 'come at him'. Very quickly they fell in to a routine; strike, block, strike, evade, guard, counter, throw something, catch/dodge and then repeat. Dove did note however that Ren indeed was the superior fighter between the two of them, and with his throw-able items limited to rubble he needed a change of scenery; which is how the now found themselves in the kitchen and the fight had shifted into Dove's favour as he was throwing everything he could get his hands on towards Ren.
Over with the other two fighters inside the mansion it was a lot clearer on who was winning the fight. The moment the five people in the room had started the battle Ruby immediately blasted General Ironwood with a low powered bolt of silver energy sending him flying into the wall and knocking him out of the fight. For several reasons; to get rid of the leader and strategist and because Ruby didn't like him that much.
Right now Ruby and Sky were engaged in a high speed battle, Ruby was up in the air of the meeting room and Sky was occupying the ground trying his hardest to keep up with her, however it was very clear who had the superior technology in this fight. Every time Sky attacked with a weapon or a tactic, Ruby would immediately use a system to counter it or out think his tactic in the most bizarre way. Of course that was only a bizarre way to him as Ruby thought it was an incredibly logical choice to make at the time, and when the rest of the team watch the clips later on they also agreed with her.
Sky would shoot missiles at Ruby, hoping that they would knock her out of the air and damage her suit, however she would deploy flares out of her legs and the missiles would explode before they had a chance to impact her. Sky then moved on to a flamethrower hoping to burn her amour and systems, but Ruby released foam that was completely devoid of oxygen and usually found in fire extinguishers putting out the flames, it did make her laugh quite hard as she was now fighting someone who had foam on them.
Sky then used a laser and attempted to cut her amour in half, but Ruby once again out smarted him and showed off her superior technology by activating her shields, deflecting the laser back at Sky and cutting through his amour and destroying the weapon. Meaning that he couldn't use it against her again, which she was grateful for because the shields took a lot of power out of her suit.
At this point Sky was very obviously growing quite desperate and used his freezing tech to try and freeze her amour as nothing could operate when it was below zero, however Ruby was also growing quite bored of the battle and blasted through the ice blast with her repulsors and then tackled him to the ground. She then flies up into the air and he takes off after her, his armour going at a significantly slower speed than her's. As Ruby rockets off ahead of him and up higher than he can track she then blasts him with the full power of her chest piece and dropkicks Sky towards the ground, and together they land about half a mile away from the mansion and Ruby is tempted to leave Sky there but she knows that he might get away without facing any of the consequences, so she grabs him by the back and starts to fly back; hoping that the fighting will all have stopped by the time she gets back.
'I thought he was supposed to be a great strategist and tactician on the battlefield, so why does he keep doing the same move over and over again?' thought Pyrrha as she fly to the side of the shield that Jaune had thrown at her and then she blasted at his with a bolt of her black energy, to which he rolled out of the way easily. 'Surely he would tr-' her thoughts were interrupted by the force of Yang slamming into her back and smashing her into the ground, but while the force of the attack is something stronger and more surprising than she had experienced when being blindsided like that, Pyrrha was quick to recover than knock Yang off of her body and then duck under another Shield throw from Jaune, tackling him and pining him against a tree.
"Please stop fighting." She begged, even though she barely had the advantage against Yang, and now that Jaune had come along she was very slowly losing the fight as they were wearing her down, she was getting fewer hits in against Yang with Jaune intercepting most of them and drawing her attention, perhaps he really was a great strategist.
While she had him pinned against the tree Jaune was slightly taken back by the tone of her voice, it was as though she was in pain and that hurt him just from hearing it, however he wasn't about to just roll over and let her take Yang from Ruby and the others. His trusty shield always returned to him and smacked Pyrrha in the back of the head, dazing her for a split second and that was all the opening that Jaune needed.
Saying a quick sorry to his mum and sisters about having to hit another woman; he punched Pyrrha around the face with a strong right hook, then drove his elbow into her face and finished that arm up with a back fist, bringing his left arm up for a perfectly executed left cross. Now he knew that these attacks would not hurt Pyrrha as he had seen her take strikes from Yang and only manage to stumble slightly and then hit her back just as hard, but the goal wasn't to hurt her; it was to push her off balance long enough for Yang to wrap her arms around her waist and then lift her over her head and slam Pyrrha down as hard as Yang could with the full force of gravity and her overwhelming strength.
'SUPLEX CITY' Cries Yang in her head, feeling immensely proud of the move and glad that her and uncle Qrow spent so much time watching wrestling together.
As Pyrrha lay there Yang was about to strike her again, as she knew that with an opponent this strong it was best to take any advantage you could get, however one look at Pyrrha showed that fighting her further would end up with Yang possibly killing her; all of the fight had left Pyrrha's features and she looked completely destroyed and that is when Yang felt so bad for her that the fire almost went out inside of her. Jaune then stepped past her and knelt down to Pyrrha's level and made eye contact with her, he was showing her compassion even after what she had done and Pyrrha had no idea why.
"I will never stop fighting, so long as I can still draw a breath. Especially if I believe something is wrong, and I don't know you at all Pyrrha, but I get the sense you have had second thoughts since the moment you signed up for this mission." Said Jaune
'Yes I have.'
'Why should you? You are a soldier, a champion, whatever you do must be right.'
"I-I-" Pyrrha begins to stutter out but is interrupted by the arrival of Nora, who arrives in a brilliant flash of lightening, thunder clouds booming in her wake and blue flames dancing over her body, with the famous hammer gleaming in there light. Yang alone, Pyrrha reconed she might have been able to beat, she might not have walked away easily but she would have won. Yang and Jaune together, that was a bit of a stretch as he levelled out her brute force in to tactical force. However facing The Dangerous Dragon, Captain Vale the living legend and the Goddess of Thunder altogether? Yeah Pyrrha had no chance in that fight.
"We don't want to fight you, I just want you to think about what you are doing." Begged Jaune "Do you know what that really means? I want you to change your mind, reconsider, run. I don't care. Just please stop fighting us, we will only hurt you and I have seen enough hurt to last two lifetimes now." He finished sadly
'He's right'
'No you can take them, you've fought more than three people before and come out on top.'
"I have my orders… I have…" she trailed off as she broke eye contact with Jaune for the first time she could remember since having a conversation with someone.
"Yang go find Ruby, I think I saw her flying that way. Nora go find Ren, best guess is he might still be in the house." Yang spared Pyrrha one last glance and leapt off to find her sister, Nora was about to follow when she gave Jaune a curious glance. "I've got this, believe me." And then Nora was sold and flew back to the house to find her Renny.
'Now you can take him easily, he is a Relic of the past, you are the future.'
'It wouldn't be right'
'Does that matter? You have your orders'
'But what if it's wrong?'
'A little late to grow a conscious isn't it?'
"You know Pyrrha it is never too late to grow a conscious and start questioning orders; would you rather be a good woman or a great soldier?" asked Jaune holding out his hand to her, and she glanced from the hand to his face; completely honest and open to her, there was no sign of deceit or malicious content.
'That path has already been chosen for you, and you have enjoyed it'
'I've let people chose for me for too long now; it's time for me to choose'
'Perhaps letting the chips fall where they may?' offered a different voice to the one that Pyrrha was currently conversing with in her head. While the first voice was rich and almost condescending, the second voice was something completely different, deep and seeping into her very soul and the option it gave… now that was a choice Pyrrha could get behind. So for the first time in a long while, Pyrrha did what she wanted and took Jaune's hand, standing up to her full height and smiled brightly at him.
And that my friends is chapter five, enjoy, and review if you would like, I look forwrad to any constructive criticism or any questions.
Has anybody seen gen:LOCK, dude episode 4 had me laughing like crazy when they turned up in their RWBY outfits and Cammie 'we need to wrok on your cursing' 'my cursing's fine' greates comback ever.
Also Volume Six, say what you will; but Mariavs the crocodile woman, Neo vs Cinder and Yang and Blake vs Adam are some damn good fights.
Next chapter might take me a while to work on as there will be a new character and it will focus more on them and their battle between their villian
Take your guesses
Weiss
Sun
Blake
Or Shopkeeper...