Jaune stared at the glass doors for the botanical garden. It looked dark and abandoned and the ominous feeling the building gave him made his heart hammer in his chest with feat. But somehow his nerves held and he kept walking closer and closer.
"Can you hear me?" Pietro asked, his voice coming in clearly from his earpiece.
"I can," Jaune said, feeling comforted to know that he wasn't walking into this fight completely alone or unprepared. "How are things going on your end?" he asked.
"Slowly I'm sorry to tell you," he answered him, "that woman has created some impressive defenses on her systems, I'm afraid of what will happen if I don't approach this carefully, if I'm detected she might detonate the bombs."
"Take whatever time you have too," Jaune told him, "I'll try to drag this out as long as possible."
He reached the door and grabbed the steel handle pulling it as the sign instructed. Sure enough it opened for him. Stepping inside the dark building Jaune grabbed the black rifle that hung from a sling and held it at the ready.
Pietro had called it a PX11 plasma rifle. He had also listed off various statistics that had mostly gone over Jaune's head. But a few minutes practicing with it had made Jaune agree that it was probably one of the better options he had available, he only wished he had more range time before deciding to come to a fight. And the compact bullpup was light and easy to carry along with the other weapons he had procured.
A whirr of machinery shattered the silence and Jaune raised the weapon. From a dark corner a turret balanced on a tripod opened fire on him. A blue hardlight shield glowed to life at the end of the weapon blocking the hail of gunfire. Jaune moved the glowing green reticle over the machine and squeezed the trigger, a three round burst of blue plasma bolts erupted from the barrel and struck it burning holes right through it making it erupt with sparks.
Before Jaune could admire his handiwork he spotted another turret moving in the opposite corner. Thinking fast he snapped Crocea Mors scabbard onto his gauntlet and deployed the shield with his sword still sheathed. The turret opened fire and clattered against the white surface as he turned the rifle on the turret and fired another three round burst silencing it.
"I see you came with some new weapons," Vasily's voice said from all around them.
Jaune spun around trying to locate his voice only to see that his voice was from an intercom. Jaune figured he would let his machines do most of the fighting, bastard.
"Come here and I'll let you get a closer look!" Jaune taunted him moving away from the lobby and through the doors. The atrium looked like a jungle with concrete pathways winding through patches of exotic plants and trees with plaques explaining each and every plant, for a moment Jaune thought that under different circumstances this would be a decent place to take Penny on a date.
"I think I'll sit back and watch a demonstration," Vasily said over the intercom.
A bush rustles and Jaune turned to see a pack of those mechanical dogs charging through the brush. He leveled the rifle and fired sending bolts downrange at them cutting through their steel bodies and burning through the various plants.
The guns mounted on their backs fired back only for the rounds to shatter on the hardlight shield as it deployed protecting him.
Gunfire erupted from another patch of trees, bullets tore through the brush and at him. Jaune ducked away taking cover behind one of the concrete barriers for the plants. The concrete did little to block the rounds as they tore through turning the concrete into rubble. Several rounds struck Jaune striking the armor plates Pietro had helped outfit him with. It felt like he was being pelted with rocks but the armor held.
He rose from his concealment flipping a switch on the rifle before firing. A spray of bolts erupted from the rifle like a shotgun, tearing through the brush and trees. Pietro had called them plasma flechettes and he saw why now. He squeezed until the spray of burning bolts cleared away the brush and he saw the sparking scrap of the turret smoking.
The weapons smoked with heat and the energy cell's power indicator flashed red showing that he had already burned through most of the ammunition. He ejected the energy cell from the weapon and grabbed a fresh one from the webbing of his armor. After watching so many Spruce Willis movies where he made reloading look like an elegant art Jaune felt like he was a silly child that couldn't understand that the square block fit through the square shaped hole.
More of the robotic canines swarmed and fired trying to surround him as he fumbled reloading the weapon. He dropped the rifle to hang on the sling and reached for the pistol he had procured from Pieto. A single cable extended from the butt of the weapon linking it to a power cell attached to the holster. He fired emitting a thin beam of green light striking one. He fired again and again, staying on the move and retreating from Vasily's dogs before they could surround him.
He snapped the sheath to his wrist again and deployed the shield as he moved. The beams of energy sliced through the robotic creatures like butter leaving them as piles of slag on the ground.
As a group of them gathered laying down a curtain of automatic fire Jaune knelt deploying the hard light generator on his shield for cover. He set the pistol down and grabbed for one of the grenades at his belt tossing it over the cover of his shield.
The silver cylinder let out an electric buzz releasing arcs of blue lighting that extended and shocked the drones making them fall and spark. Picked the handgun up Jaune turned and sprinted hopping over a concrete wall and dashing through a display of trees and other colorful plants that he proceeded to trample.
He turned and fired several more rapid blasts of the energy pistol scrapping two more. When he turned to sprint away he almost tripped as a branch snagged the cord attaching the pistol to the battery. He spat out a curse and snapped the branch to escape. He would have to tell Pietro that the cord made the pistol impractical for combat.
His boots crushed the flowers and soil beneath his feet. A metallic snap sent ice water through his veins before he felt the steel jaws from an ursai jaw close around his leg. The shin guards from the Armor Pietro had given him only had the paint scratch but his leg was still stuck to the trap and the chain connected to it.
He dropped the pistol and let it hang from the cord and grabbed the hilt of Corea Mors and slashed down cleaving through the steel trap and freeing his leg. Two of the robot dogs lunged for him through the brush. Jaune smashed one to the ground with his shield and slashed another one down with his sword cleaving through steel and plants alike.
With the cursed machines down he sprinted away sheathing his sword and collapsing the shield down into a scabbard onto his belt. Hopping over the concrete wall and back onto the solid path he grabbed for the rifle and an energy cell. This time without any drones shooting at him he managed to reload the rifle slapping in the fresh cell and shouldered the weapon sighting more of the mechanical hunting dogs.
He fired at them finding the weapon simple enough to sight and fire, he blasted down the charging drones mechanically, each pull of the trigger was three shots that dropped the cursed machines, he even fired at brush that seemed to be moving wrong and occasionally being rewarded with showers of slag and sparks from behind the veil of foliage.
With over a dozen of the things scrapped Jaune didn't bother even looking at the ammo display. He simply ejected the cell and grabbed for another slapping it in with greater ease than before. Raising the weapon once more he scanned the atrium looking at all the smouldering drones and plants destroyed.
A shrill ring of a fire alarm made him jump in surprise.
Kaboom!
The concrete ground beneath him erupted into chunks as one of those accursed rounds struck. Jaune turned towards where he had heard the report of the rifle and looked up seeing Vasily crouched in a tree leveling his gun at him. Jaune raised his own rifle and squeezed the trigger again and again deploying the hardlight shield from the end of the gun. The hail of plasma bolts burned through the tree honeycombing and burning off branches and everything. To his pleasure Jaune watched Vasily's aura shimmer from a few hits.
Kaboom!
The hardlight shield burst apart into glittering light. The shot had barely missed him and Jaune ducked scrambling for cover before resighting to the tree to reacquire Vasily. He was gone from the burning tree and he scanned the artificial forest.
More gunfire burst from the trees and Jaune returned it before ducking down and grabbing another grenade launching it into the brush before he continued to fire again switching the gun into its shotgun style firing effect turning whatever concealment the plants offered into ash. The gunbarrel glowed cherry red from the heat of the onslaught.
The bushes to his left rustled as one of the dog drones leapt out for him with steel claws and teeth bared. Jaune dodged away from the strike as the creature turned to strike again. Jaune drew and deployed his shield letting the creature smash against it. Jaune leveled the stubby rifle one handed and shot it as it tried to recover.
Several pops of gunfire sounded and Jaune spun to see Vasily charging him with a pistol in one hand and a blade in the other. Jaune leveled the plasma rifle to return fire only for the weapon to beep negatively at him.
Jaune cursed, pulling up his shield to cover him as Vasily closed to the distance. Pietro had warned him the weapon was prone to overheating.
Vasily swung his sword at him and Jaune deflected the strikes with his shield and the inoperable rifle. The blade chipped away at the polymer frame of the weapon effectively ruining it with every parry.
Vasily lunged a thrust at Jaune, the tip scraped up sparks from the surface of his shield. Pushing the blade away Jaune swung the rifle at him, the glowing hot muzzle snapped out striking Vasily in the side of the head.
The assassin cursed and retreated. A partial circular burn scar adorned his cheek from the blow and he laughed at Jaune as his aura healed the wound. Jaune tried pressing his attack and pursued him as he tried disappearing into the smoke filled artificial forest.
Jaune discarded the chipped and useless rifle tossing it away and into the bushes. Jaune grabbed for the pistol that was hanging off of the holster by the cord. It was dinged here and there but Jaune supposed it was still in working order. He fired into the bushes where he had seen Vasily rush off too hoping to at least hit something despite his lack of visibility on the target.
His leg caught something and he almost tripped, looking to his side he saw that his foot had caught one of the supporting legs of a turret that swiveled its barrel his direction. Jaune raised his pistol and fired at the same time as it launched a steel string bolo his direction to entangle him. The thin green beam cut the bolo lines and sliced the turret in two. He hadn't seen the steel net dropping from above.
The weighted ends powered by gravity dust knocked him down, pinning him down in a crouch that took all his strength to hold as he witnessed more of the drones appearing from the trees.
Jaune fired through the entangling net killing several before the rest unleashed a hail of gunfire on him striking him only to be blocked by his aura and his armor.
He fired again and again scrapping the machines with ease. One charged to maul him but when put a bead on the mechanical canine his pistol didn't fire.
It knocked into him tearing at whatever it could reach through the gaps in the net. Jaune smashed the butt of his pistol against its eyes, damaging one before he abandoned the weapon and scrambled to free Crocea Mors from the deployed shield.
The blade cleaved through the steel netting and he decapitated the robotic beast in the same strike. Jaune rolled and charged the remaining creatures cutting through them and the foliage with his family blade before rushing out of the thick assortment of plants and onto the clear concrete path. He breathed in smoke as the fires he made from the energy weapons. Looking down he spotted the cable for the pistol dangling, a bullet must have cut it and rendered it useless. He cursed, he really wasn't a gun fighter and as powerful as Pietro's weapons where they probably needed to go back to the drawing board.
The fire alarm still blared echoing through the atrium all around him. He flinched in surprise as water suddenly fell on him raining the artificial forest and drenching him. The fire suppression system apparently had activated giving it a semblance of rain.
Jaune turned and looked all around him for any signs of gunfire or turrets going for him. "Where are you Vasily!?" He called finding the calm to be more nerve wracking than the fighting. "You wanted a fight here I am!"
A drone leapt from the brush and Jaune cut it down. "Come on!" Jaune roared. "You wanna hide and let your toys do all the work! I never thought I would be anything for a world class assassin to hide from!"
Three more burst out, Jaune deflected them with his shield and sliced them up littering the area around him. Jaune slid his blade back into the shield and morphed it into its broad two handed form. "How many of your bloody paychecks have I burned through doing this!?" He called again expecting a rifle shot to call out, he was hoping that by some twisted logic Vasily would find that unsporting.
Several more charged and attacked and Jaune ended them with cold efficiency. "I'm getting bored Vasily, I can do this all day! I thought you wanted to fight me, I never thought I would be worth the attention of an assassin like you, I still don't understand why!"
Jaune looked up and spotted the assassin dropping from the trees his blade in hand. Jaune parried a blow and swung his two handed blade at him.
"You know why!" Vasily hissed unleashing a torrent of cuts and thrusts. "You beat me, no one ever beat me."
"Tough shit, I got lucky!" Jaune growled back charging with his longer and heavier blade.
"You didn't just get lucky!" Vasily insisted, drawing a pistol and firing several shots that shattered against his armor and Jaune powered through on his attack, Vasily parried his blade away and Jaune sliced open a tree trunk. "I know all about you Arc, your family have been some of the most accomplished warriors and huntsmen in history, you were made leader of your team in Beacon over the famed Pyrrha Nikos."
Jaune's blade descended, striking Vasily's blade and shattering it into pieces. Vasily withdrew away from him as he tried pressing his advantage. He swung the two handed sword almost catching him, the blade struck another tree trunk making him miss.
Easing off the attack Jaune deployed his shield and drew his blade happy for the shorter blade in the confined space. Vasily unslung his rifle and leveled it.
Kaboom!
Jaune lept to the side as the shot struck a tree showering him in splinters. Jaune charged and closed the distance before he could get his second shot off. Vasily deployed the bayonet and parried his thrust. "You survived the Fall of Beacon and killed Flex, one of my top competitors."
Vasily parried his blows as he pressed his attack keeping the assassin on his toes. A stock swung out from below and clocked Jaune in the mouth, he reeled back from the strike tasting blood as Vasily leveled the rifle and fired.
Kaboom!
The shot struck his shield and knocked him back and into a tree. Something metallic clicked beneath Jaune's feet and a metal cable shot up from the ground and wrapped around him tying him to the tree. His shield was pinned to his chest and this sword hand was restrained as he found himself restrained against the tree.
Vasily watched Jaune struggle against the cables as he opened the chambers of his express rifle and ejected the smoking shells. "You are probably one of the greatest huntsman to ever set foot in Beacon Mr. Arc, I live to hunt talent such as yours."
Jaune grinned at the assassin and shook with a full bodied laugh. Vasily closed the rifle raised an eyebrow as he watched the blonde knight giggling at him.
"What is so funny?" Vasily asked him.
"I got into Beacon with fake transcripts," Jaune told him, laughing even harder.
"What?"
"I never went to a combat school, I didn't even know what aura was until initiation, I didn't even have a landing strategy!" Jaune explained to him, "Pyrrha had to unlock it for me!"
"So what?" Vasily said, "that doesn't matter, your natural born talents shone through."
Jaune didn't stop laughing, tears were streaming down his face and he gasped for air as his mocking giggles continued. "Fuck no!" Jaune told him, "My grades were shit, I was the worst in my class, I trained with Pyrrha nightly just to barely keep up!"
"You were the leader!" Vasily hissed in disbelief.
"I know, believe me Ozpin has a strange sense of humor," he told him.
"You're lying!" Vasily snarled his face twisting with rage.
"I was the worst fighter in my combat class!" Jaune continued spitting the truth in his face like it was venom. "I got bullied by the one guy in Beacon who had worse grades than me!"
"Liar!" Vasily barked.
"I was a punching bag in Goodwitch's class, I was the biggest loser to ever step foot in Beacon," Jaune's laughter reached a crescendo, "and I kicked your ass! So that makes you an even bigger loser than me! All your talk about me being the one to best you and I'm just a fucking nobody" The rest of Jaune's words were lost as he continued to laugh at the assassin.
"SHUT UP!" Vasily roared, leveling his rife at Jaune's face, the bayonet poked Jaune in the cheek and he stared down both the massive spiral barrels. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"
Jaune only laughed harder at his fit. Every roar of anger just adding to the punchline, the blonde knight could hardly breathe; he was laughing so hard.
He watched as Vasily grit his teeth to squeeze the trigger. Jaune's left hand shot out free from his shield pinned against him, his two fingers extended as he jammed them down both barrels, Jaune's aura glowed a bright burning white as his semblance activated and the rifle exploded.
Hey I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter. I have been excited for a long time to write Jaune telling Vasily the truth about who he really is, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed finally writing it. Please review and leave me with your thoughts and comments. And as usual I would like to thank MidKnightMoonglow99, FireFly25, MajorBrony95 and DrknssRules1 for all their help in this fic and the next. See you all again next week for the conclusion of the showdown.