The screen began to bubble and boil as the familiar silver door rose from it's depths, the thick purple chains corroding and breaking apart as the door opened up and bathed everything in dark purple.
From the tainted light, came a single red eye that glared at the screen before the door slammed shut and everything became static, a crumbling rose symbol appearing every so often as the title began to form.
The Ruinverse: Chapter Twenty Six, The Hunter Rises.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Sanus, Vale-
ZAP!
BOOOM!
A torrent of rain fell upon the city of Vale, causing many of its citizens to vacate the streets and shelter within their apartments or businesses, lightning darting across the sky like angry vipers.
This city is supposed to be the hope of the Kingdoms, the one that connected everyone together in a common pursuit of preservation and unity.
Yet.
ZAP!
BOOOOM!
It's heart was still, the soul within the stranglehold of fear. For weeks, the city has been under the gaze of a man, filled with twisted visions of heroics.
No criminal was safe from this man calling himself 'hero', no person was safe from his grasps. The Vale Police Department was in the grip of inactivity, the counsel unable to apprehend this man, Huntsmen unable to find him despite tell-tale signs of internal tampering.
And on this stormy night, another soul will face this man, untethered to morality as the Grimm were to logic.
The camera moved down towards a nearby alleyway as a man, drenched with rain, wearing a black tux and fedora and holding a stolen purse in his hand, ran quickly down the filth coated pavement, seemingly in a panic for some unknown reason.
'Shit shit!' He thought while looking to his left and right in rapid succession, not noticing a shadowy figure moving along the rooftops above him. 'It was one purse! ONE PURSE! How can that warrant death!?'
ZAP!
BOOOOOOM!
'Need to hide! But where!? All the other safe houses were destroyed!' he thought while his fear filled eyes darted around, puddles of water splashing against his shoes. 'Even Torchwick's special bunkers were destroyed! All by that so-called hero!'
WOOSH!
The man's eyes widened as something landed right in front of him, causing the puddles to splash water into his eyes, blinding him a little. "Shit!"
SLASH!
His eyes dilated before-
SPLASH!
His head fell from his cleanly cut neck, the body falling backwards into a puddle as blood oozed from the separated parts and down the alley way into the nearby sewer drains.
ZAP!
BOOOOOOM!
Lightning flashed behind the mysterious figure as it revealed a tall fair skinned young man with short blond hair, dark blue eyes, a deep third degree burn covering the lower jawline and mouth, wearing a long sleeved black skin tight bodysuit with interlocking triangular gray metal plating near the chest, waist, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, neck and back, a dull white double crescent moon emblem on the chest, a black domino mask with two triangle-like points on the sides of the eyes that were tipped with gray metal lining, two small trails near the back of the head, red tinted goggles attached to the mask's eyes by black triangular metal plates, a shoulder-length gray gauntlet on the left arm with black metal plates lining the sides and knuckles as flat gray metal joint-like bands were welded together near the shoulder and elbow and coated in a plastic coating, a large gold and brown rotary cannon fused the upper left shoulder by a black metal ball-like joint, gray elbow-length gauntlet with black metal nails at the ends of the fingers on the right hand, two curved copper blades that curved inwards towards the upper elbow that were forcibly welded into the right gauntlet's wrist area, a long green and gray club-like torch attached to the left arm by several black tubes, two long gray belts that criss crossed around his stomach with several pouches and bullets attached to them by thin black straps, two long elastic ribbons with curved black blades attached to the waist by gray circular holes that seemed capable of reeling the ribbons back at great neck speed, two wide black belts around the shoulders that had a gray short blade with a revolver-like hilt, a massive copper greatsword with a reversed barbed hook at the end, a large silver hammer with a heart shaped symbol on the front, a large brown blunderbuss with a gold barrel and two curved ax blades at the back, a large brown gold banded box, two green automatic handguns with a black handle and curved sickle-like blades attached vertically under the barrels, two short curved daggers with a cylindrical revolving chamber built into the hilt, a long dark blue halberd with a large inward-curved ax head on the left side and a small spike on the right, a large red crescent shaped scythe with black trims, a four pronged silver-gray rapier with a revolver-like chamber, and a large black mace sporting four claw like protrusions on the top and a red Fire Dust crystal in the center, attached to them by metal clip-on bands, and thick black boots with gray triangular plate-like talons near the toes and heels while two golden yellow gauntlets were fused to the back of the boots by four black spring locked bands near the sides, standing over the former criminal's decapitated body, blood dripping from his bladed right left wrist as his face seemed filled with cold malice.
This was the man that held Vale in the palms of his hands, the one that destroyed all of Vale's criminal families, the one that will continue his crusade against evil…through unheroic actions.
"Pathetic." the figure said to himself, his tone cold and uninterested at the sight of this criminals' corpse. "Stealing an old lady's purse under my watch, did he not hear the news or was he that ignorant?"
ZAP!
BOOOOOOM!
As the figure was about to leave the scene of his latest 'heroic' action, he heard the faint hum of metal behind him and turned around.
Only to see, floating in the air by a thin black aura, was a tall muscular pale skinned woman with long red hair in a waist-length ponytail that curled slightly into a loose ringlet, light green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her green eyes, slim black diamond shaped goggles tinted with red lenses, a D cup chest and small ass, wearing a deep red long sleeved skin tight bodysuit coated in interlocking diamond shaped metal plates near the arms, shoulders, neck, hips, legs and back, a yellow spear emblem blazoned across the chest within a diamond shaped exterior, two long red sashes attached to her shoulders and hung down towards her hips, black elbow length gauntlets with red circular magnetic plates dotting the fingers and palms, a bronze circlet adorned with a pair of small green teardrop shaped emeralds on thin bronze chains under the hair, a blue handled longsword with a golden crossguard within a white sheath with two golden lines going down the middle on her left hip, black thigh high boots with a red trim near the toes, and holding a deep red spear in her left hand as a half circle shaped shield was attached to the right hand, who narrowed her eyes at the sight of this masked killer.
"Red Huntress." the figure frowned while looking at the floating woman with annoyance. "What are you doing here, villain?"
"I am not a villain, I am a hero."
"You were with him the first time we met."
"And again I tell you I'm a hero, I was trying to help you." she said with a frown. "But this isn't about my status."
"No it isn't….what do you want?"
"You must stop this madness." she said while looking sad, seemingly knowing her words will never get through to him yet is hopeful that they will stop this 'hero'.
"Madness? Is it madness when I'm saving people?" he frowned while crossing his arms, his left hand twitching every so often as his face masked the pain he was currently enduring.
"You are killing people."
"Criminals are not people, they are beasts, Grimm in human skin." he growled in anger. "It is my mission to hunt them down and prevent them from corrupting this city."
"By blackmailing the council? Pulverizing suspected criminals without due process? Turning Vale into a one man police state?" Red Huntress said as the figure narrowed his eyes from behind his mask. "That is not what a hero does."
"It is now."
"You used to be better than this."
He looked down upon the rain soaked ground, his hands uncrossing as he gripped his right hand tightly into a fist. "I was a fool, an unlucky greenthorn that thought cheesy one-liners and capes were enough to stop Vale's criminals…but I was wrong! Criminals are nothing but animals, lacking any empathy or emotion but greed."
"That is not true and you know it."
"It is true! Every criminal I fought either broke my bones, punctured my organs or fired upon me, ME! The hero of this godforsaken city!" he roared with anger. "I was trying to save their lives yet…yet they tried to kill me!"
Red Huntress' expression softened upon hearing the man's words, feeling a bit of doubt forming in her heart, yet she regained her composure and frowned at the man. "Killing the criminals of Vale is not the right way, there are peaceful methods of apprehension."
"I tried and failed, I will not make the same mistake twice." He frowned as the mounted rotary cannon aimed towards Red Huntress' direction, lighting flashing in the sky as his expression became one filled with hate. "Now leave or I shall kill the last remaining criminal of this city, that being you Red Huntress!"
She narrowed her eyes before throwing her shield at the cannon, slicing it off in the process as the shield returned to her hand. "That's not going to happen, Hunts-Man!"
"It's The Hunter!" he growled in anger before raising his left arm.
WOOOOOSSSSH!
Sending a stream of flames at the Red Huntress, who quickly dodged out of the way via 'flight' as the rain continually decreased the flame's potency significantly.
ZAP!
BOOOM!
Red Huntress quickly moved higher into the air, changing her spear into a rifle before firing upon the vigilante.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
He narrowed his eyes before grabbing the knives off his belts and threw them at Red Huntress.
'Shortwings?' she thought before blocking them with her shield. 'Using them like that is-'
BANG!
BANG!
Her eyes widened as she saw The Hunter launching himself into the air, via his boots, and used the kinetic force to push her right onto the nearby rooftop, hitting the bricks hard as she rolled to the side to avoid a blast of buckshot from his left boot.
"You can run from me forever, Red Huntress!" he growled before pulling out the giant hammer and transformed it into a grenade launcher.
BOOOM!
Red Huntress quickly dodged the explosive grenade before using her semblance to 'repel' the weapon out of the vigilante's hands, sending it flying off the rooftop as he quickly pulled out the blunderbuss and fired upon the 'criminal', the bullets being redirected from her body by her own semblance's powers, with great difficulty.
"Just die already!"
"The day I die is the day I stop protecting people."
"That is my job!" he growled before running at her, using the ax side of the blunderbuss before it was bashed out of his hands by Red Huntress' shield. "Damn you! You should've left well enough alone!"
"And let you kill innocent people? Not going to happen." she frowned before bashing The Hunter's head with her shield, staggering him a little as he quickly grabbed the mace.
BOOOM!
Sending a ball of fire at Red Huntress as she went flying across the rooftops, crashing into several smokestacks and water towers in the process as The Hunter moved towards her direction, using the bladed ribbons as springlocked slingshots as he punched the 'criminal' across the face with his left arm.
POW!
Sending her right down the right side of a building in the process.
'Ah…that hurts.' she thought before landing on the ground, her aura nearly depleted from the sudden attack, as she quickly changed her rifle into a sword, just as The Hunter swung towards her and attempted to slash at her sword arm using the pistol's bladed ends.
CLANG!
"You need to stop this madness." Red Huntress frowned while blocking another strike from the bladed pistols. "Killing criminals and forcing a city's government into submission is not the way to stop crime."
"It is the only way! Everyone in Vale is a criminal and only I can stop it!" he growled before the weapons were knocked out of his hands by Red Huntress' shield, making him pull out the halberd and swung it at Red Huntress.
BAM!
Knocking the shield out of her hands before Red Huntress grabbed the halberd and began a struggle to get it out of this mad man's hands.
"Hands off! This weapon is mine!"
"You took it from someone else!"
"He was a criminal! He has no right to be a Huntsman!"
"And the others!?"
"They will cause crime one day! I'm doing them a favor!" The Hunter growled before pulling Red Huntress towards him, using the momentum to land a hit on her torso, sending her right into a wall as he discarded the halberd and blasted the area with flames.
WOOOOSH!
"I will not let anyone fall to crime!"
ZZZZZZZIIIIIIZZZZZ!
CLANG!
BOOM!
"AH!" he cried out as something hit his flamethrower and caused it to explode in his face, momentarily blinding him before he noticed what lodged into the flamethrower's muzzle.
A white shield with two yellow crescent moons on it.
"...you…." he growled while his left arm began to twitch in anger. "You! YOU! YOU STOLE MY WEAPONS!"
"You mean, I retrieved them." Red Huntress frowned while pulling herself out of the wall, flames licking across the floor and ceiling as she held her spear in her left hand and a longsword in her right. "After you callously threw them into the cream."
"You have no right! They are mine!"
"You lost the right after you gave you the path of a hero." She frowned before running towards The Hunter, slashing at the left arm's tubes as the white shield spun around, via a black aura, and began to cut the belts off his waist and torso.
"GGGGRRRRR!" he growled before throwing a box and rapier at Red Huntress' face, attempting to blind her as he grabbed the giant greatsword and, with some effort, used his left hand to send it slamming down upon the 'criminal's' front.
SWISH!
BOOOOOM!
Red Huntress gasped in pain, a deep gasp forming near her stomach as she felt ready to fall to her knees, but she managed to hold tightly to her resolve and, with a lot of effort given her aura levels were nearly depleted, she quickly kicked a short sword, one of The Hunter's stolen weapons, from the ground and sent it flying into his face.
SQUISH!
"AHHHHHHH!" he screamed as his right eye was destroyed by the blade, causing him to unclamp his hand from the greatsword and attempted to pry out the blade from his skull. "YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU WHORE! MY EYE!"
Red Huntress flitched at the words before regaining her bearings and used her semblance to fly towards The Hunter, stabbing him in the chest before pushing him right out of the building and throwing him right at a lamp post. "Sorry, but it ends here!"
"AH!" he cried out while pulling the blade out of his eye, blood dripping from his face as he jumped upwards.
BAM!
BAM!
And rocketed towards the scythe, grabbing it with his left hand as the bladed ribbons shot out and wrapped around a lamppost, using the momentum to increase the power of his oncoming attack.
Red Huntress' eyes widened as she quickly threw her shield at one of the ribbons, breaking it but not stopping the vigilante's trajectory. 'Shit!'
"DIE!" He roared while using his left arm and right arm respectively to create an attempted 'X' slash, the 'criminal's' eyes closing tightly as he was close to victory over his arch enemy. 'This is it! Finally! I will kill crime! I will-'
CRASH!
Instantly, and unexpectedly to boot…a large white SDC Dust truck, coated in a black aura, landed on the vigilante just a few inches from Red Huntress' position, crushing him and causing a rather large-
BOOOOOM!
Explosion that knocked Red Huntress back a few feet, the flames licking across the street as rain fell from the heavens, lightning licking the sky like a hungry animal.
She groaned before opening her eyes, causing her to gasp at the sight of the burning truck and quickly used her semblance to throw the vehicle off of her foe, her aura shattering from the endeavor as she felt the gash on her stomach opening up a little. "Ah…ah…" 'No! I didn't want this! I didn't want him dead!'
As she ran towards the flames, ignoring the heat in the process, she noticed The Hunter's body in the center of the newly formed crater, his left and right arms mangled and broken along with half of his face exposed, revealing portions of his burning skull in the process.
"A…a…h….a..h..h..aa.." he gasped, blood dripping from his lips and nose as he felt the scythe's crescent blade piercing his left lung, becoming dangerously close towards his upper spine in the process. "Ah..a..hhh..a…p..a…in…"
"Hunts-Man!"
He slowly, with extreme difficulty, turned his head in the direction of his hated enemy and frowned, his left arm, the left shoulder blade being exposed and revealing a pale gray metallic plate in place of the white bone, twitching uncontrollably from both the pain and the cybernetics. "H..a..pp..y now? Y..ou…kill…ed…a…h..ero…"
"No I'm not!" she screamed, quickly pulling off her goggles to reveal her secret identity, one that not even The Hunter could find out.
Pyrrha Nikos, champion of Mistral…and his partner.
His eyes widened, before slowly returning to a natural stare, a small chuckle forming from his bloodied lips and 'Red Huntress' carefully picked him up and held him in her arms. "Of..course..Red Huntress, red haired Nikos…gods…I…m…a…dunce…"
Pyrrha shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "You aren't a dunce, dense maybe but…I'm sorry. I never wanted to do this, I just…wanted to bring you in, set you straight."
"A..nd..I..t..ied..to..kill you…" he coughed, blood splatting onto Pyrrha's left shoulder, as he felt weaker with every passing second. "...the hair, the..weapons…everything…was so clear…you..were trying to…h..elp..me..."
"Jaune, please stay with me. You'll be fine. Please!"
"P…yy…ha…" he said, raising his right hand towards his partner's left face, blood dripping from the exposed nails as he gave a faint smile. "I…I did…all…of this…for you…"
Her eyes widened as Jaune's eyes started to close.
"I…wanted…t..o…be..like…y..ou." he said while rubbing her cheek. "I..m..sorry…"
And, in that exact moment, The Hunter, bane of criminals and sole ruler of Vale…was dead, a smile of regret forever plastered on his broken face.
Pyrrha stared in horror at her partner's dead body, her breathing becoming frantic as lightning struck around her, rain falling down her body as Jaune's blood dripped down her lips, forming a strange perpetual smile-like mark as her body trembled with terror.
As the sound of thunder rang overhead, the red head began to chuckle, then cackle, and then laugh a wild maniacal cry of anguish and broken sanity, her lips forming a grin reminiscent of her blood spattered cheeks as she arched her head towards the blackened sky.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA!" she laughed as the screen became pitch black, the sound of her cackling continuing to ring across the empty void. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAAHAAHAHAHAAHAH!"
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Jaune Arc/The Hunts-Man/The Hunter (The Hunter Jaune Arc- THJARWBY)
Age: 17
Affiliation: Normal Evil.
Dimension: - 88888880912- 10 THJARWBY
Abilities: Enhanced strength and durability, hand to hand combat skills and knowledge, swordsmanship skills and knowledge, shield handling and knowledge, cybernetic prosthetics (limited to internal joint movement), high adaptability, high aura pool, leadership skills (lowered due to insanity), Multi Action Dust Rapier handling (Myrtenaster), Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe handling (Gambol Shroud), High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe handling (Crescent Rose), Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets handling (Ember Celica), flamethrower handling (Antiquity's Roast), Hard Light Dust weapon creation (Anesidora), mace handling (The Executioner), knife handling (Shortwings), hammer handling (Magnhild), grenade launcher handling (Magnhild), gatling gun handling (Gianduja), pistol handling (StormFlower), halberd handling (Feather's Edge), ax handling (Blowhard), blunderbuss handling (Blowhard), greatblade handling (Fulcrum), blade handling (Sharp Retribution), short blade handling (Hallshott), keen scientific intellect, high spatial awareness (limited to machines), limited flight (via Ember Celica), high maneuverability (via Gambol Shroud), wall climbing, data hacking, infrared vision (via goggles), nightvision (via goggles), high insanity.
Semblance(s): Aura Amp.
Bio: In this timeline, Jaune Arc, Hunter in training, decided to stop crime as the superhero, the Hunts-Man, in an attempt to put his Huntsman skills to good use. However, he was largely unsuccessful in this endeavor as each crime he tried to stop ended in disaster, given his limited skills and inadequate weapons. The straw that broke the fledgling hero's will was an encounter with Vale's resident crime boss, Roman Torchwick, which led to the blonde's left arm nearly being lost and mangled. Upon his arm healing after a month or two, he decided to rebrand himself as a more brutal hero, after seeing his past trauma and mistakes as 'too dorky', although his mind was heavily altered by the near loss of his arm. Revamping his costume and using his access in Beacon to acquire the weapons and items of numerous students, he became known as The Hunter, Vale's most dangerous vigilante. In a matter of weeks, he single handedly defeated every criminal organization in the city, but instead of apprehending them, he killed them to prevent crime from regaining a footing, although in the end he became the very criminal that he was trying to stop as he took control of the city through intimidation, blackmail and kidnapping. In an effort to stop the madness, Pyrrha Nikos took the mantle of the Red Huntress, Vale's most 'evil' criminal, and confronted The Hunter in combat, but as Pyrrha gained the upper hand, Jaune was killed by a polarized truck that crushed him. As the former hero's last breath of life was expelled, Pyrrha lost herself to grief and went mad, turning herself from heroine to villainess in a matter of seconds. To think...this entire story was made from an innocent dream.