Chapter-10
Jason
"So, uh, how do you…?" Jason asked.
"Neptune is a student of Haven Academy. We met during the Vytal Festival." Weiss spoke as Neptune nodded.
"Member of Team SSSN at your service." He spoke with a smile as Jason nodded in acknowledgement. "So, Weiss called you?"
"Yep. I was pretty surprised to see your face pop up on my scroll, especially after the news of you disappearing from your father's house a few weeks back." Neptune spoke as he stepped away from a puddle of water by the dumpster.
"Well, I planned on coming to Mistral, but my bullhead was brought down by Lancers over Lake Matsu."
Neptune winced. "Oof, Lake Matsu is a big no-no in Mistral's airspace. With all the floating Gravity dust islands and Lancer hives located on them, it just isn't safe, even for Atlesian aircraft."
"After that, Jason rescued me from the crash. He was also headed to Mistral so we decided to go together."
"How'd you sneak past the Mingling outposts…actually, don't answer that. Let's get to my car quickly before the locals get mad."
Weiss furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"
"I'll explain in the car." Neptune spoke as Weiss draped the cloak around and the three walked out. Neptune continued to walk despite the scathing glares being sent in his direction.
Is Neptune of Atlesian descent? Jason wondered as the three came out into a wider street. There was a black car waiting by with a middle-aged man with a goatee and long hair tied in a ponytail wearing a checkered red shirt with beige trousers.
"Mr. Vasilias, you maybe a huntsman-in-training, but it is not safe to wander in the Central Animan neighborhoods for too long." He spoke.
"Sorry, was taking to some friends." Neptune spoke with a laugh. "Weiss, Jason, this is Delphin, my driver. Delphi, this is my friend Weiss and her companion Jason"
Jason resisted the urge to snort at the name and nodded.
Delphin's eyes widened. "Weiss…As in Weiss Schnee?" He spoke in shock as Neptune nodded vigorously.
"Sh! We need to get in before we attract too much attention!" He spoke as Delphin nodded and Jason, Weiss and Neptune got in the back.
"So, why would the locals get angry? Why were people glaring at you?" Weiss asked as Neptune scratched his head.
"Well…did you know that everything in the fall was broadcasted to the world before Beacon's CCT Tower fell?"
Weiss' eyes widened. "Wait…that means…"
"People saw the atlesian droids shooting at students. Ever since then, Anti-Atlesian sentiment skyrocketed."
"Hm, I saw people showing hostility to Atlesian huntsmen on my way to Mistral." Jason spoke.
"Yeah, but its worse here. The highest casualties inflicted in the fall were from Haven Academy. A lot of future huntsmen were lost for mistral and the academy was forced to accept rejected forms which were to be sent for recruitment into the Mingling. So, people are the angriest here."
"They didn't seem too mad back in the alleyway." Jason spoke as the car drove into a flyover and headed north.
"That's because first, it's daytime when things aren't so bad and second, you were in a relatively peaceful neighborhood whose residents don't like violence. Although passive aggression and ostracization has been practiced."
"How bad is it in other places?"
Neptune pointed out of the window to a sector on the right of the flyover. "See that area? Over there, people have broken into homes of Atlesian-origin citizens, dragged them out into the street, and beat them with sticks before ransacking their homes and scribbling some really nasty messages on the walls. Some even had their throats slit."
Weiss' eyes widened in horror.
"Even mistralans who defended any atlesians were declared as 'traitors' and beaten up too. The government initially didn't put much effort, but after a violent clash that happened when rioters came into the northern district where the highest concentration of atlesian-origin citizens live, more Mingling officers have been stationed. The more violent the neighborhood, the more officers that are present."
"But why are the people mad at you? You're not atlesian, are you?"
"No, I was born and brought up in Mistral. But the problem is that my parents are from Argus, which is basically considered a part of Atlas by the rest of Anima. So, in their eyes, I'm another Atlesian."
"What about the huntsman? Something like this will attract lots of grimm! What are the huntsmen doing?"
"Well, there comes the next problem. There's been a string of murders of prominent huntsmen across Anima in the past few months. Mingling investigators estimate the average is 2 dead per day. Attempts have been made to track down the killers, but either no luck or the officers are killed. A lot of huntsmen are dead, which is a really, really bad thing considering how much negativity the anti-atlesian riots are producing. Some hordes of grimm have assaulted the outer wall and it's only a matter of time before Mistral comes under a major attack by the grimm." He spoke as Jason frowned.
"Your huntsmen are in shortage."
Things don't look good. He thought before looking at the distant light high up in the sky on the top of the mountain.
"What about Haven Academy? What's the situation over there?"
"Not much. It's the semester break. My second year is going to start in a month." Neptune spoke. "Everybody else has gone back to their homes, everybody except for Sun, of course."
"Where's Sun?" Weiss asked worriedly.
"Sun didn't come back with us to Mistral. He said he needed to go somewhere else and stayed in Vale. But I don't think he's there anymore." Neptune spoke as the architecture shifted from Chinese to a more greek-style architecture.
"Alright, we're in the northern district." Neptune spoke as the car soon stopped in front of a two-storeyed house. Delphin opened the door and the three teens got out.
"Alright, guys, Welcome to the Vasilias household!" Neptune spoke as Weiss narrowed her eyes skeptically.
"Doesn't this look…small?" She asked, although it seemed pretty spacious to Jason. In fact, it looked about the same size as a decent-sized house in San Francisco, which was a lot more than the cramped apartments he saw in the other neighborhood.
"Hey! Do you know how hard it is to get a house like this in the densest kingdom in terms of population?" Neptune spoke in indignation. "We don't have a lot of space like in Atlas, Weiss."
"...Fair point." Weiss spoke as Delphin parked the car in the garage.
"Alright, I'll go back to my house." He spoke before walking off.
Neptune walked up to the door and rung the doorbell, which was answered by a man who looked a lot like Neptune with long blue hair reaching upto his shoulders and a light beard.
"Hey, Rainy shorts!" Neptune exclaimed.
"Yo, Nep. You done with whatever business you had?" The man asked before noticing Jason and Weiss and squinted. "Is that…Weiss Schnee?" He spoke in confusion.
"She's a friend."
"Well, damn. Didn't know you were aiming that high." The man replied. "Come on in." He spoke as Jason and Weiss entered. It was a typical living room with rooms leading to the kitchen, a dining table and a sofa along with a flight of stairs leading up.
The four sat down as the man got up and walked towards the kitchen before coming back with two glasses of water.
"Thank you." Jason and Weiss spoke as the man handed them the glasses.
"So…Who is this?" Weiss asked.
"This is my big brother, Jupiter Vasilias." Neptune spoke as Jason choked on his water and began coughing violently.
"Jason!" Weiss went to clap his back before realizing he was still wearing his armor.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting that." Jason spoke coughing.
Oh great. Now I'm going to see dad's face whenever I see Neptune's brother. He thought.
"You need some help?" Jupiter asked getting up.
"It's…ok." Jason spoke.
"If you say so…Say, where'd you get that armor and weapons?" Jupiter asked in curiosity as Jason looked down.
"My matron gave it to me." He replied.
"Huh. Your matron must be Argusian, because that gear is a lot similar to the stuff used by soldiers back in the days of Argos." Jupiter spoke.
"Possibly. I'm from the northeast, though." Jason spoke as Jupiter nodded before shrugging.
"Anyways, you could stay here for the duration of your stay."
Weiss blinked. "Please, it's fine…"
"No need to apologize. You're my little bro's friend. You can stay here as much as you want."
"Thank you." Jason spoke.
"Where's mom and dad?" Neptune asked.
"Over at the neighbor's. They'll be back by sunset. Speaking of which, you must be hungry." Jupiter spoke as Jason nodded, smiling at the memory of Weiss' revolted expression when he brought her some deer to eat.
"Alright then, I'll go whip up something." Jupiter got up and walked to the kitchen.
"Your brother is…very nice." Weiss spoke as Neptune snorted.
"Jupiter's the most chill person I know. He's got a lot of patience."
Ironic considering who he shares his name with. Jason thought.
"But Weiss, I want to know what happened after you met Jason!"
After that, Weiss narrated all that had happened, omitting out the brutality and violence at Shion. Neptune listened with utmost attention, during which Jason noticed the blush on Weiss' cheeks.
Lunch was ready and Jason took off his armor and kept his weapons away, sitting with his black shirt under his purple hoodie.
"So, what brings you to Mistral?" Neptune asked.
"Me and Weiss are looking for someone." Jason replied. "Qrow Branwen." He spoke.
"Qrow Branwen?" Neptune spoke with a hint of surprise. "Why are you looking for him?"
"Well, Weiss knows Qrow's nieces, and we also need to know something from him. So…do you know where we can find him?"
"Well, The only place I can say is Haven Academy, considering he's a professional huntsman. But it depends on when he came to Mistral."
"I estimate some days before us?"
"Then he probably isn't there anymore. The only business huntsmen have with academies is simply confirming the completion of missions, which doesn't take more than an hour. So, he could probably be long gone."
"But…I heard on my way here that some folks saw him injured." Jason spoke as Jupiter's eyebrows shot up.
"Injured? Now that's interesting. In that case, I can give the names of some good hospitals that could probably have him, but be careful not to get yourself infected with Enma."
"Enma?"
"Its a type of microscopic grimm that messes with your aura." Weiss explained. "People infected with Enma can't activate their aura in the initial stages. More serious cases could possibly escalate into the grimm eating away at the person's soul like a parasite."
Jason's eyes widened.
"Those things happened back when Mistral was hit by the Soulless Plague during the Great War. But now, medicines and techniques of aura control have been developed to keep the Enma from reaching a severe stage. Nowadays most Enma patients, mostly huntsmen, just suffer from an inability to activate aura."
"Jason doesn't have Aura." Weiss pointed out.
"You don't? Then Enma is harmless to you. Aura gives Enma a pathway to the soul. Enma can't reach the souls of those who don't have their aura unlocked, so it can't do anything."
"That's a relief." Jason spoke. "So, we go in the evening?"
Weiss shook her head. "I'm honestly tired from the trip. Can we do it tomorrow?" She asked.
"First…you two meet mom and dad. Then, Me and Nep can tag along with you." Jupiter spoke.
After Lunch, Jason and Weiss took a shower before taking an afternoon nap. Once they woke up, Neptune's parents, Ops and Saturn, arrived. Saturn was a stoic man, a sharp contrast to the bubbly Ops. But both were nice people.
"Will you be staying?" Saturn asked Jason.
"Yep, they'll be here for a few days, dad." Jupiter spoke as Saturn hummed.
"Got it. We'll discuss the sleeping arrangement once you four get back." Saturn spoke as he and Ops walked to their room.
Jason, meanwhile, sat beside Jupiter who was watching television.
"Holographic?" Jason asked, sitting down beside Jupiter.
"Mom and dad bought it 4 years back. It's actually a luxury among the working class."
"Huh, what does your dad do?"
"We own a bunch of grocery stores. Dad owns a bunch of farms to the southwest." Jupiter replied before Jason noticed a familiar village pop up.
END OF THE BRANWEN TRIBE?
LARGE NUMBER OF DEAD BRANWEN BANDITS FOUND IN SHION
"A few days back, Mingling officers arrived at a distress call sent by the village of Shion, where they discovered corpses of bandits belonging to the Branwen tribe. Many of them were killed off in a gruesome manner, either by a sharp weapon or what looks like lightning burns." The news host spoke as blurred images of the Branwen corpses popped up.
Hm, shouldn't be much of a problem for me. Jason thought.
"Some of the witnesses at the massacre reported there was someone on a horse travelling at immense speeds and cutting down the Branwen bandits. But they also say that there was a massive lightning bolt that struck the wetlands near Shion. Apparently, the lightning strike was so powerful that it led to the creation of massive deposits of lightning dust. Here is what Dr. Jin has said about the lightning bolt." She spoke as an image of an old man appeared.
"It is an abnormal phenomenon." Dr. Jin spoke. "A lightning bolt forms when the static charges created by the collision of water droplets in the clouds travel from the negative charges at the bottom of the storm cloud to the positive charges located on the ground. But the thing is, a lightning bolt is only 2-3 cm in width. The Lightning bolt at Shion, however, was about 100 metres in width, which is simply not possible at all."
"As for the lightning dust deposits, that I cannot fully explain because we lack concrete knowledge on how dust forms. But I can tell you the energy and power. The energy released by a single lightning bolt is about 100,000 Thunraz. On measurements at Shion, we discovered that the residual lightning, which by itself should not exist, was releasing 500,000 Thunraz. Considering these measurements were made 2 days after the strike, we estimate the lightning bolt's energy was…1.5 million Thunraz."
Jupiter's eyes were wide while Jason looked away.
I don't know how much this 'Thunraz' is in joules, but I can guess from the measurement I went overboard with that last lightning bolt.
"With all that had happened, I am convinced what happened at Shion was less of a lightning bolt and more of an energy beam from the sky. It is in complete violation of the laws of Rott, and that's all I have to say." Dr. Jin spoke as the screen switched back to the news host.
"Thunraz?"
"It's Old Solitasian for 'lightning'. It's the standard measurement for energy considering Solitasian scholars defined this unit of energy by observing lightning bolts during thunderstorms." Jupiter explained.
"That is all, folks. There has been no information for the cause of this lightning bolt, but we are digging for any information." The news host spoke before shifting to some other headlines.
Oscar, RNJR and Qrow stared at the news in front of them.
"Oz?" Qrow asked. "What the heck was that?" He asked as Ozpin took over.
"I-I cannot tell." Ozpin spoke, disbelief in his voice for the first time.
Oscar was surprised. Ozpin seemed to know everything, always having an answer to whatever questions he asked. So it was very surprising to see him stumped.
You don't know?
"What do you mean you can't tell? That's a maiden, right?" Qrow asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
"Qrow. No human has ever managed to create dust crystals throughout Remnant's history. It would take thousands of years of accumulated magical energy to recreate what is being described to have happened at Shion." Ozpin spoke. "This is not a maiden, I can assure you of that. The only possible way would be the relics, but…" Ozpin sighed.
"It can't be Jason…can it?" Nora asked as Ozpin looked up. "Who?" He asked.
"Jason. We met him back in Kuroyuri. He, well…"
"We fought him and he kicked our asses before helping us to take down the Nuckelavee." Jaune spoke. "He had a semblance that can use lightning."
"Not possible, Mr. Arc. I have said that Maiden powers are beyond any semblance. The Shion lightning strike makes maiden powers look like cheap party tricks. There is no plausible explanation about this 'Jason' being behind the lightning strike." Ozpin spoke as RNJR frowned.
"But…there is no harm in looking for him. If he has any information, that would be nice."
"But we have to be careful. He's a very strong fighter." Ruby spoke as Ozpin nodded. "Understood. Will he be hostile?"
"I don't believe so. Jason didn't want to fight us in the first place. In fact, he's actually a very friendly person." Ren spoke up. "We may not have to fight."
"Alright then. we'll head down to the foothills tomorrow." Qrow spoke up. "Check with information brokers if they've got anything on this 'Jason'."
A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter that just continues the world-building and setup for the action in the next few chapters, because I didn't want to cram too much stuff into this chapter. Jupiter Vasilias is not a complete OC. Neptune does have an older brother named 'Jupiter' in canon, but there's not much information about him so I made up his personality. And as soon as I found out about Jupiter, I just had to write Jason's flabbergasted reaction to hearing Jupiter's name. Too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!
Content Analysis:
1 Thunraz = 10 Joules
Response to Reviews:
DARK WRAITH 2001: Thank you.
Guest (Pete): Thank you. Also, I'm actually curious which review from Shadow Hunter you're talking about because I browsed through the reviews section and didn't find anything like that.
Iron M. Writer: I know it would still be fine for Hades' reason for putting so much effort towards getting Jason to be just 'He was supposed to die!', because Hades is that petty, but I couldn't help but want a more reasonable motivation. Of course, I haven't fully explained Hades' motivation because its too early.
Cchang3: Yeah, Jason has a scholarly aura around him, but that just means he can understand technical jargon a bit better than people like Percy and Leo. I wouldn't say he's a bookworm.
Hestia is my favourite Olympian. I just like how she, the eldest child of Kronos, is like a sweet mother who doesn't get mad at you at all, completely on the opposite side of the spectrum of Zeus, the youngest child, who is the most ill-tempered of them all. It's an interesting contrast which I've noticed amongst the First-generation Olympians. Among the girls, Hestia, the oldest, is the most patient, while Hera, the youngest, is the most ill-tempered. Same for the boys, with the eldest one Hades being the most patient and the youngest one Zeus being the most ill-tempered.
