Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the sandbox I play in so much.
MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE CONDUIT
CHAPTER ONE - BY THE SPEED OF LIGHTNING.
"Spring break's come around and there's no heroes to be found, There's something major going down on Tracy Island. Weapons underground, keeping our planet safe and sound. If someone evil's coming round they should be frightened, 'cause now the boys are back in town. No strings to hold them down-"
This was the sound that filled the room early that morning, accompanied by the musical sounds that were playing through the stereo on the far wall. The young man currently stood in the center of the room did a little spin and dropped his head along to the increase in the volume of the music.
"Don't be mad please, stop the hating. Just be glad that they'll be waiting, friends we have are ever changing. Now the lid's about to blow, when the Thunderbirds are go!"
"Jaune-JAUNE!"
"YIKES!"
Jaune fell back at the sound of the loud voice, topping backward from his standing position. He rapidly fell through the air and smacked his head right on the side of his dressed, effectively sliding right back down to the floor below.
"Ow," he moaned quietly.
"Jaune, are you alright?"
Jaune frantically rubbed his hand against the back of his head and despite the throbbing pain coursing through the back of his head, Jaune managed to get out the words he needed, "Yeah, mom, I'm fine!" Wow, that was almost very embarrassi-
"Maybe if you were more focused on doing something more productive than singing silly little songs then you wouldn't have such falls!"
Yikes, scratch his earlier thought, that was pretty embarrassing.
"You should really look at getting packed, aren't you going to Beacon Tomorrow?"
x-x-x-x
"I can't believe my baby sister's going to beacon with me! This is the best day ever!"
The young woman, a fair-skinned individual with lilac eyes and bright golden hair that fades to pale gold at the tips with a cowlick sticking out at the top tan jacket that bares her midriff, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that feature two gold buttons. Underneath this, she wears a low cut yellow crop top with her emblem on the left in black. a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with her emblem emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold. Underneath this is a long, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of black mini-shorts. To finalize the outfit, she has an orange infinity scarf and a pair of black fingerless gloves covering her hands.
"Please...stop..."
The groaning sound had come from the person inside the blonde's fierce grip. She was Another young girl, who looked slightly younger than the first. Her eyes were colored silver and she had neck-length black hair tipped with crimson ends. She was outfitted in a black long-sleeved blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, over which is a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a matching skirt with red lining. She also wears a pair of thick black stockings and black combat boots with red laces, red trims around the top, and red soles.
Her outfit is topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins. Her emblem appears as a large silver buckle on her wide black belt, which is slung around her hips on an angle. Attached to the other side of the young woman's belt are several bullets each one with a different color circled around the base.
"But I'm so proud of youuu!" the blonde exclaimed in a happy tone, practically shivering with exuberation. Her hands were rapidly moving up and down thanks to her excitement as well.
"Really sis, it was nothing," the shorter girl said, her eyes downcast.
"What do you mean!? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bees knees!" The blonde exclaimed, once again trying to raise her younger sister's excitement level.
"I don't wanna be the bees knees," the dark-haired girl complained, "Okay? I don't wanna be any kinda knees! I just wanna be a normal girl with normal knees."
"What's with you? Aren't you excited!?"
"Of course I'm excited, I just... I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people to think I'm special or anything."
The blond girl slowly moved to her sister's side and lifted one of her arm's around the younger girl's shoulder, hoping to offer some comfort as well as instill some confidence in the younger sister, "But you are special."
"The Robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick-"
The girls' attention is drawn to the 2-D animated newscast on Vale News Network playing nearby, talking about the robbery and showing Roman's mug shot.
"-who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."
The mugshot changes to Lisa Lavender, with a photo of animal-eared demonstrators holding signs saying "WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!" followed by an image of the logo of a growling red wolf's head with three scratch marks, "Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted..."
The news feed is cut off as a hologram of a a middle-aged woman that has very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes are bright green and she wears thin ovular glasses. She has dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar. Her outfit consisted of. a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body is covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings.
"Hello and welcome to Beacon," she said.
"Who's that?" Yang asked Ruby.
"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."
"Oh."
"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!" Goodwitch continued, "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."
Following this announcement the hologram, several people aboard the airship let out cries of surprise and rushed to the glass on either side of the airship trying to get a better glimpse of the view they were all experiencing. Ruby, among the excited students rushed over to the window closest to her and exclaimed happily, "Oh, wow! Look, you can see Signal from up here! I guess home isn't too far after all!"
"Beacon's our home, now," Yang corrected her sister, still wearing the same smile from before. Though she had to admit her sister's excitement at witnessing the school for the first time was something she herself was sharing in during this moment. Over their conversation, The two sisters hear a passenger groaning and hunched over nearby, running to the back of the ship and Yang couldn't help but to roll her eyes, "Well... I guess the view isn't for everyone."
"It was a nice moment while it lasted," Ruby shrugged.
The ship's engines flare, it is seen approaching Beacon across a large body of water. It turns towards the docking point and slowly lowers itself down into the position it needed to be. The speed it had been producing moments before all but non-existence right now. Ruby's excited eyes still locked on the view outside of the airship, "I wonder who we're gonna meet! I just hope they're better than Vomit Boy. Oh, Yang, gross! You have puke on your shoe!"
"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!"
"Get-Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!"
Jaune Arc was not having a good day. He'd thought that the least of his troubles were over when he'd surprisingly gotten his transcripts to Beacon approved. That part had surprised Jaune as well. He was certain that his transcripts would be detected as fake and then he would be left to struggle with the idea of what he was going to do next with his life. The transcripts had indeed been accepted and here was now was, dealing with the horrrible aspect of himself known as motion sickness.
'So much for making a good impression, I'm probably doomed to be called some ridiculous nickname that references this incident, you watch!'
Sighing to himself, Jaune finally pushed himself up to his full height. Now that the ship had docked, the motion sickness seemed to calm itself a little bit. He really needed to remember to get some medicine or something for that in advance before he had to take another trip via airship. Dealing with that every time he wanted to go to and from Beacon was hardly an attractive prospect for the young man. Another sigh fell from Jaune's lips and he slowly walked toward the exit of the airship.
Once he'd recovered enough to resume walking, Jaune noticed that one of the girls he'd seen on the Airship before was lying on the ground and had just let out an exasperated sound. Probably had something to do with the explosion he heard on the way over here, Jaune deduced. Perhaps now was as good a time as any to start making friends, "You alright?" he asked, walking over to where the girl had fallen. He held out his hand to her, "I'm Jaune, Wanna hand?"
"Ruby," the girl said, allowing for Jaune to pull her back to her feet. She dusted herself off then returned her gaze to Jaune, "Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"
Jaune winced, visibly groaning at her statement, of course his horrible premonition from earlier had to be coming true already, it was just his luck after all, "Look, motion sickness is a surprisingly common ailment you know. Besides, this coming from the girl who exploded? What if I were to call you crater-face?" got 'em, Jaune.
"Look I'm sorry!" Ruby exclaimed, "It's just the first thing that came to mind! Please don't call me crater face, Jaune!"
"Fine, Fine. Well, we'd better get a move on if we're going to get to the orientation before it's finished. Shall we go? This place has got to have directory right? Maybe a food-court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?"
"Yeah, that's a no," Ruby said, alongside a giggle.
"Figures," Jaune sighed, "Well, the only thing we can do is try and find where the most students are going. That's likely our best bet of figuring out where we're supposed to be going."
"Good idea, Jaune let's go."
Finally, after a short while of searching, Jaune and Ruby finally entered Beacon's large Auditorium which was already rapidly filling up with students as far as the eye could see. Ruby waved goodbye to Jaune when Yang informed her sister that she'd saved her a spot and Jaune went off to go and find somewhere else to stand and wait for the ceremony to begin. He was surprised by the sheer volume of how many students were present here, he'd heard that out of the four combat schools, Beacon was the most popular but still this many students was way above what Jaune thought the reports meant by a lot. He shouldn't really have been surprised. All these students were going to be incredibly skilled as well, so what chance did he have of making a good impression? No, he couldn't afford to think like that, he'd gotten into Beacon and now all that was left was initiation and how bad could that be? Piece of cake, right?
"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge," Jaune's internal musings were cut short thanks to the timely appearance of Beacon's Headmaster, Ozpin, who'd just taken the stage to deliver his speech, "to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. (as the students whisper among themselves) You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
Jaune's head tilted curiously. That was certainly out there. What was this guy drinking? Jaune was almost sure that wasn't coffee in the steaming mug gripped in Ozpin's hands. Was it some kind of hallucinatory tea or something? Well, he supposed only time would tell. Though, the way the elderly man clutched that mug, Jaune doubted he'd discover the answer to that question any time soon.
"Tonight you will gather in the ballroom," the figure of Glynda Goodwitch said, advancing toward the platform as Ozpin stepped away from it, "Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready."
x-x-x-x
"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," Professor Ozpin said, looking around at the gathered students. Though it was almost undetectable, the man wore a small grin on his face.
"Now," Professor Goodwitch said, cutting in from where Ozpin left off, "I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."
"What? Ohhh..."
Jaune paused, well that was rather quick. He was surprised that they were all being randomly thrown into teams without having a chance to work together first. Were they really just going to let the chips fall where they may and expect the students to survive long enough to develop the chemistry that any team needed to succeed? He may've faked his way to get in here, but even he could see how much of a horrible idea that was. Not that he would ever repeat those words aloud of course.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin continued to advise.
So, the teams were at random but there were specific partnerships that were going to form? Okay, maybe this guy wasn't as bat-shit insane as he sounded. Through his internal thoughts, Jaune could also hear a loud groan from beside him which he assumed belonged to one Ruby Rose. She'd been shown to be a little awkward socially just like he was, Jaune could easily see how the placement of random teams would be something that bothered her.
"That being said," Ozpin stated with an air of finality, "the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
The shocked expression on Ruby's face, in Jaune's opinion, mirrors her world cracking like glass and falling apart, "Whaaaat?!" she exclaimed.
Nora turned to the boy dressed in green beside her, "See, Renny? I told you-!"
Ozpin took a breath, then pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, "after you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."
Jaune laughed nervously and then a small gulp escaped his lips. Well, the students were expected to have some prior form of combat training to get here so perhaps he really shouldn't have been all that surprised. Coming here expecting that they'd not see combat until instructors here had given them a couple of lessons had been a really stupid assumption to make in hindsight.
"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"
Jaune's hand is immediately thrown into the air, "Yeah, um, sir?"
"Good! Now, take your positions."
Jaune sighed heavily. It was going to be one of those days, wasn't it? He turned his head and watched as the first student right down the very far end of the line was launched off their platform and sky-high into the air. Another sigh left his lips a moment later, 'Yup, defenitely about to be one of those days' One by one, the students were thrown off their platforms until finally with a mighty and girlish scream, Jaune wailed to the heavens, his body spinning through the air like a pinwheel. The blond shut his eyes tightly, continuing to scream like a small girl, descending through the air until he felt rather than heard the rush of sharp metal and the dull thunk that indicated he'd stopped moving through the air. Jaune's gaze tilted upward and he sighed, "Wonderful," he said sarcastically, "Go to Beacon, he said," Jaune admonished himself, "It'll be fun he said."
A ripping sound filled Jaune's ear-drums and without warning his hood split in half leading him to slide down the trunk of the tree and hit the ground, landing unceremoniously on his back-side. Nope, he was definitely far worse than any of the countless scenarios that he'd summoned inside his mind.
"I don't see how this could possibly get any worse."
The shrubs nearby trembled slightly and Jaune immediately reached for the handle of the sword belted to his waist, trying his best to collect the handle of the weapon. Oh god he just had to open his mouth didn't he? He was going to get eaten alive before he'd even found a partner!
The bushes finally broke, a large hand swiping out from within the confines of the shrubbery. Whether by sheer luck or something, Jaune narrowly managed to slip out of the way of the incoming strike. His eye twitched and he instinctively swung his sword as hard as he could, only to swipe it at nothing but air.
"I'm gonna die...I better get out of here..."
He slowly took a step back from the Beowolf, only to stop entirely when he felt something approaching him from behind. Jaune slowly turned his head toward the source of the breathing and his eyes slowly widened, "Another one?" Now, Jaune had two options, he could run for the hills and risk either of these two things taking a chunk out of him...or he could try and fight back which would also ultimately lead him to the same fate...
He sighed and tightened his grip on Crocea Mors. His eyes narrowing some. Running away was no longer an option. He'd been running from things his entire life, Beacon was supposed to change that. There was no way he was going to squander that opportu-
The Grimm's arm charged toward him...but it felt incredibly slowed down? What was going on? One moment he'd been standing in between the two Grimm like a sitting duck and now he was standing on the other side of the small clearing. A howl of indignation flew from the Grimm's maw and it lunged again...but Jaune was gone, A cackle of lightning having been the only thing left in his wake.
"...I dodged it? The hell is going on? My...my body."
Jaune looked up just in time for him to once again slip out of range of the Beowolf's incoming attack, cackles of lightning surrounding his body as he moved out of reach of the target. He couldn't entirely place what was happening of course, but from what he could assume hs body was naturally reacting to things at a much faster pace than his own brain could process as impossible as that sounded.
Was...Was this his semblance?
He'd had his aura unlocked as a child, but never displayed signs of a semblance, so his father had assumed that him entering the life of a Huntsman wouldn't have been a good idea. Sure, his mother had been on his side through the whole thing...but Jaune's father's complete surprise when Jaune announced his entry into- Now is not the time to be getting distracted, Jaune!
The Beowolves lunged again and this time, Jaune was ready. His body flickered and a moment later the lightning charged in and met with his two opponents, cleaving their heads from their bodies one after another in a clumsy motion. It certainly didn't look good, but it'd gotten the job done and as far as Jaune was concerned that was all that mattered. He stumbled forward slightly as he pressed Crocea Mors' blade into the ground, hoping to use it to keep himself upright. Heavy breaths emanated from the young man's lips, he was trying to keep himself upright but it wasn't really working out all that well for him.
"D...dammit."
"Exhausted already, Ladykiller?"
End Chapter
The song featured in this chapter belongs to Busted, and I thought it would be immensely funny if Jaune was just caught singing it. Yes, it was done entirely for the memes. No, I don't regret anything xD
