Walking down the steps to the arena, Jaune couldn't help but dread this upcoming battle. He'd never been in a situation with this many people watching him before. Combine his nerves with his semblance and he was positive he was about to go from geek to freak in just under ten minutes.
He also really didn't want to fight with Weiss if he were being honest. She'd not only left him to die in a tree, but she also crushed him under her weight when he tried to save her from her near disastrous landing during initiation. She may have been hot, but her personality wasn't gonna be winning any accolades from him.
Upon entering the arena Jaune offered Weiss a single nod. Receiving one in turn, Jaune turned his attention to the gargantuan cage. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face as he listened to the wild thrashing emanating from the cage.
With nary a word, Port unlatched the cage prompting a massive Goliath to careen towards the pair.
Jumping to the side, Weiss created a glyph in front of the Goliath. The slow lasted for a fraction of a second before the creature shattered the restraint. Halting its charge, it refocused its attention again, this time on Jaune.
Letting out a triumphant roar, the Goliath barreled towards Jaune.
Jaune watched as it approached, time seeming to slow as the ground shook beneath the behemoths feet. Before it got too close again, he felt it. The impulse that usually preceded the unfathomable nonsense that seemed to follow him since the day his aura was unlocked.
Reaching out towards the impulse, he hesitated. Looking around...there were so many people! They were going to see him, there was no way around that.
With that split moment of hesitation, the impulse dissipated and Jaune went flying as three tons of pure muscle barreled into him instantly knocking him unconscious.
'Where am I?'
Looking left and right Jaune saw nothing but an impenetrable darkness stretching as far as his eyes could see. Listening closely, he could only seem to hear himself think as no sound reached his ears.
"Hello?"
As the echo traveled further and further, Jaune felt a crippling sense of anxiety kick in. Frantically looking around, he made no attempt to slow his erratic heartbeat. His breaths quickened, and came in shorter and shorter gasps as a feeling of existential dread overcame him. The last thing he remembered was being hit by a Goliath, and now he was in an abyss with only his thoughts to keep him company.
'Holy shit...am I dead?!'
Unfortunately, there were no pearly gates and clouds. No chorus of angels singing either. Just a cold darkness and crippling isolation. Breaking into a sweat, Jaune darted in a random direction, desperate to see something...anything!
Left!
Jump!
Right!
As he ran every which way, a numb feeling of acceptance was slowly starting to overcome his panic. As he slowed to a stop, tears welling up in his eyes he decided to calm down. The panic was exhausting, and honestly he needed a moment to think rationally.
Choosing a random direction, he walked.
Coming to a stop a while later, he blinked as he looked around. Small white lines were beginning to form as the once black void began to take on vague shades of grey.
Hope blossomed in his chest as he began to notice different shapes expand before his eyes. Facsimiles of trees and hills began to take form as the grayscale world began to bleed into a blinding white. With the black outlines of trees and hills remaining unmoving, it honestly looked like he could have been in an unfinished drawing!
Breaking out into a jog, he watched in amazement as what appeared to be rough black and white sketches became more concrete. A few birds flew overhead, their hollow wings making no sound as they moved soundlessly through the air.
Speeding up into a full blown sprint, he saw miniscule flecks of color that exploded into an entirely new world full of vibrant greens, yellows and blues! Colors of all kinds filled in the trees and the opaque clouds lent the earth their shade. Jaune stood flabbergasted as he took in the bubble-like leaves clumped together in the trees.
Tan dirt seemed to be a running theme, as nearly every pathway he could see was made of it, their lines just a tad bit too straight to be considered normal. Speaking of abnormal, Jaune looked a tad bit closer at the vibrant green hills, noticing just how...plastic they looked.
'They almost look like props or some kind of backdrop...'
Seeing a waterfall up ahead Jaune hobbled over. He hadn't realized how thirsty he was, but thinking about it, it felt like he hadn't taken a drink for days. Dropping to his knees near the base of the river, he bent down to take a drink only to taste…
'Soap?!'
Spitting out the foul liquid, he decided that maybe going further up the falls would yield better tasting water. As he approached the waterfall, he heard a somewhat nasally voice coming from behind the cascade, a jaunty tune somehow overpowering the somewhat muted roar of the falls.
"Home, home on the range! Where the deer and the antelope play! Ahhhh!"
Jaune watched as a gray rabbit with gloves for hands opened the waterfall as if it were a shower curtain, his head sticking out as he fixed the blonde with a judgemental stare.
"What's the big idea wise guy? Can't you see I'm trying to shower here?!"
'This thing can talk!?'
Raising his hands in a placating manner, Jaune spoke in what he hoped was an apologetic tone.
"I'm sorry Mr...uhh rabbit sir. I'm not from around here and I was just trying to get a bit of water…"
Eyeing him up and down, the bunny dipped back behind the curtain before the sounds of a faucet shutting off could be heard. The waterfall seemed to dry up as the rabbit approached Jaune from a hole that had suddenly appeared behind him.
Once again scanning him up and down, the rabbit began munching on a carrot.
"So...what's up doc?"
Professor Peter Port was starting to get worried. While his aura was still at a high capacity, Jaune's body had been unmoving for the past two minutes. Weiss was beginning to tire out, but didn't appear to want to admit defeat at the cost of her pride.
Such a mistake would cost her.
Port suppressed a wince as the Goliath once more blew through Weiss's weak (and getting weaker) glyphs.
It's tusk barely grazed Weiss as she evaded, daintily flipping to the side before propelling herself forward, hoping to impale the grimm. With a stomp and a bellow the grimm used its trunk, grabbing Weiss midair before tossing her across the arena with her and Myrenaster flying in opposite directions.
"Weiss!" yelled Ruby, as she prepared to dash into the area.
"Please remain seated Miss Rose, this is still a class."
Even as he said this, a bead of sweat ran down his brow as he watched the situation unfold. He had mainly called Jaune into the arena at the request of Ozpin.
The headmaster had wanted to see what he could do, citing some rather outlandish claims as his basis. He claimed the boy could speak to grimm as well as "bend the laws of physics".
When he had first been inducted into Ozpin's secret society a few years back, he would have never guessed one of his responsibilities in fighting the grimm scourge and Salem would include keeping tabs on a seventeen year-old boy.
Training his eyes on the still unmoving boy, he prepared to make a move in the event that the situation took a darker turn.
"How did you do that?"
"Do what doc? Wait a minute...I don't think I've seen you around here before."
"Umm that thing with the hole, you just sorta, appeared. And...uhh...I don't think you would have seen me...I just showed up Mr, Rabbit…"
A look of demure amusement crosses the rabbit's face as he held out a glove covered hand.
"Eh, just call me Bugs. And to whom do I owe this pleasure?"
"Jaune Arc." spoke Jaune as he shook the extended arm, desperately trying to stifle the absurdity of the situation.
"So, eh...how'd you get here chief?"
"I have no idea. There was a grimm, and Weiss tried to hit it, but we dodged, then I stood there, but then it hit me and then I-"
"Easy! Easy!" yelled Bugs, his hands raised his arms in a placating manner, his carrot somehow errantly hanging out of his mouth akin to a cigar.
"I don't know what none of that means, so just keep it short. How'd you get here?"
Taking a deep steadying breath, Jaune tried again.
"I got knocked out. I woke up and walked through this darkness for what felt like months, and ended up here."
"Whoa back up doc. Did you say you walked through The Darkness?! You're crazy!"
A confused look appeared on Jaune's face as Bugs stared at him with open panic. His eyes widened as Bugs grabbed his face, his manic eyes piercing Jaune's soul.
"Don't you know what the darkness does to cartoons?! It drives them mad! You can get lost out there and Never. Come. Back! Ohh…"
Bugs slide to the floor, his lifeless body now chalk white. His melodramatic moans and groans prompted Jaune to roll his eyes, as he watched Bugs grasp uselessly at the air before falling silent, twin x's appearing in both his eyes.
"You done?" huffed Jaune as he tapped his foot, impatience oozing from his pores.
Cracking his eye, Bugs let out his own exasperated sigh.
"Not even a chuckle? That's a classic!"
"Please, just be serious for like five minutes. I really need some answers here."
"Ok, ok sheesh! Seriously though, The Darkness is no joke. I'm surprised you're dealing with it as well as you are doc."
Frowning in contemplation, Jaune recalled the void he had wandered through, its vast emptiness causing a shiver to run through him at the thought.
"What exactly is The Darkness?"
"Hmmmm well you see where we are now? This is the world. I can pretty much do whatever I want here."
Gripping the backdrop and giving it a firm tug, Jaune watched as Bugs pulled a new scenery into existence. This scenery was a pure white background, devoid of all the green hills and brown roads he had become accustomed to.
"This here, is the white space. New cartoons get made here and get drawn into our world. You can still kinda do whatever you want over here since it IS a drawing board, but in general we don't venture here too often."
Giving a final tug on the backdrop, Bugs gestured out to the dark expanse, it's sheer size looking more and more daunting by the second.
"And this here, is The Darkness. We don't venture out over there, because if you get lost over there, you might not find a way back...and if you do, depending on how long you were out there, you might come back a little weird...even by our standards!"
"You sound like you're talking from experience…"
Bugs looked down, a forlorn expression on his now stoic face.
"Yeah...once. I know a guy named Taz. When he was created, he was given this neat trick. He could spin through anything and I mean ANYTHING! Problem is, it would activate randomly like most of the stuff we do."
"He didn't like destroying, at least he didn't like that kind of random destruction, so he tried to stop. Shortly after, he vanished. For thirty-six years, we all waited for him to come back, and when he finally did...he wasn't the same. He couldn't talk anymore! Everything he'd say would just be these...grunts and gibberish. He became chaotic, destroying things for kicks."
Turning away, from the abyss Jaune looked to Bugs.
"How do you know for sure it was The Darkness that did it?"
"Just a feeling you know? It's no coincidence to me that once he tried to fight the urge he disappeared. It doesn't hurt that I also happened to see him wander back here... it makes sense to me at least. Heck, I'm willing to bet you ended up out there because you tried to fight the urge too. It's a dangerous game doc…"
"Is 'the urge' that impulse I feel when I'm about to do something crazy? Like...it makes me feel like I can do anything."
"Yup that's the one! You feel the urge and you go with it. It's like a gut feeling that never lets you down ya' know?" spoke Bugs as he grabbed Jaune's hand and began guiding him back to the open pasture.
"I don't know. I always feel embarrassed when something weird is about to happen, like everyone is gonna know I'm a freak! Is that normal?"
"Jeez Mac you're a real mess ain't ya'? Listen, just go with it! Loosen up a bit. If you're trying too hard, you're really missing the point. Just relax and go with the flow!"
Jaune's brow furrowed in concentration as they made their way back to the hole. He thought back to initiation and how he'd saved both his team and team RWBY. He recalled the issue with the dorms and how despite how it seemed, both teams did end up better off, with his team receiving their own house and team RWBY receiving a vending machine.
Sure it was weird, but it was also good! Didn't he go to Beacon to be a hero? Well this power was offering a chance at doing some good that he may have never had before! So what if some people made fun of him?! He could do so much with this ability!
...If he ever made it back home that is.
"Why the long face doc?"
"I just realized, I got here accidentally by walking through The Darkness...I have no idea how to get back home!"
"Hmmm, how'd you get there in the first place again?"
"Well I was fighting a grimm, a Goliath to be exact, and he ended up knocking me ou-"
With an inhuman level of speed and a strength that contradicted his form, Bugs slammed Jaune over the head with a massive wooden mallet, burying Jaune in the dirt. He watched a grotesque lump formed on Jaune's head as he mumbled something incoherent before passing out.
Almost immediately, Jaune's body began breaking apart into bits of sickly purple light. Bugs watched in interest as the light particles began being pulled offscreen and towards The Darkness. Before long, all of them had vanished, and once more an amused Bugs stood alone, his mallet still in his grip.
"What a weirdo."
The class sat stock still as the Goliath approached a still recovering Weiss. With a triumphant swagger, the grimm lazily made its way towards its prey knowing that it's kill was all but secure.
Teams RWBY and JNPR sat on the edge of their seats, ready to dive into action the second the situation became truly dire.
Port watched on too, his mustache twitching as he contemplated pulling the two students out of the ring. As much as he trusted Ozpin, this was going a bit too far for his tastes. He hadn't lost a student under his watch, and that wasn't about to start today.
"Hey!"
The entire class including the grimm turned their attention to a now conscious Jaune as all the lights but one instantly shut off, casting Jaune in a spotlight. He stood wearing a yellow pinstripe suit, with a matching bowler hat that cast a shadow over his eyes,
With a quick glance at its downed prey, the Goliath decided to deal with the pressing threat first. With an angry snort, the grimm charged headfirst towards Jaune, it's angry tusks poised to skewer him.
As it got within striking distance, it's aggressive grunts came to a halt as it skidded to a halt in front of Jaune, who was now holding out a box.
The class waited in stunned silence as Jaune gently placed the box onto the ground, only for the four sides to fall open revealing a mouse, its quiet chittering echoing through the silent room as it made its way towards the increasingly terrified Goliath.
With fearful eyes, the panicked grimm turned on its heel, attempting to outrun the tiny devil. As the chittering behind it grew louder and louder, it just knew it had to escape!
Splat!
Somehow teleporting in front of the grimm, Jaune threw a pie straight into the monster's face, sending it into a blind dash straight into an adjacent wall.
A chuckle cut through the silent arena.
A dozen heads turned as Cardin Winchester burst out into peals of laughter at the absurdity of what he just saw.
A smattering of chuckles broke through the classroom that soon morphed into a raucous chorus of laughter.
Unphased by the laughter, Jaune stood in an entirely different getup. Gone was his pinstripe suit and in its place was a white gold matador suit. With a snap of his fingers, a red cape appeared in his hands as his stance somehow became more posh.
"Ole'!"
Taking sight of the cape, the Goliath burst into a mad dash, fully intent on bowling him over. With a flourish of his cape, the behemoth careened past him, narrowly missing Jaune even as the crowd let out a terrified gasp.
"Ole'!"
With a furious screech, the Goliath turned once more, it's red eyes burning with a righteous indignation. As it beelined towards him, Jaune stood unwavering even as the grimm was merely feet away.
A sickening crack was heard as the Goliath ran face first into a massive anvil that had somehow remained concealed behind Jaune's cape. It staggered backwards only to collapse in a heap, its form disintegrating into ash.
"Whoo! That was awesome!" cheered Nora from the desks, her eyes dancing with excitement, even as more cheers and whistles erupted from the class.
"Way to go vomit boy!"
"That was insane!"
Jaune soaked in the praise and the commentary as he caught a rose that was thrown from the crowd. Deciding to fully embrace it, Jaune bowed to the crowd only to receive an even larger round of applause, with several roses landing at his feet.
With all the merriment at Jaune's victory, no one noticed Weiss eyeing Jaune, her gaze green with envy. She had been taken out of commission fairly early, and here comes this...scoundrel to upstage her in front of everyone!
'First he steals my perfect partner...then a child is elected to be leader of our team...and now this...this...degenerate has disgraced me in front of our peers...unbelievable.'
"Bravo! Bravo! I had my doubts, but you really proved yourself today! Why, I've never seen anything so riveting! The action! The suspense! The drama! What a show! Take note class you are in the presence of a true huntsman-"
Casting a look back at an irate Weiss, he saw her dust off her combat dress, a scowl of displeasure strewn across her delicate face.
"-and huntress in training! Bravo as well Miss Schnee, it was an excellent performance! Now please, take your seats for the remainder of the lecture."
As the two walked up the stairs, Weiss watched with a simmering rage as Jaune was subjected to high fives and flirtatious giggles.
Taking her seat, Weiss toned out everything. The sound of Ruby's voice in her ear felt distant, as she stared at the subject of her newfound wrath. Watching as he gave Ren a fistbump she felt the simmering rage come to a boil.
She would not forget this humiliation.
