Jaune huffed as he ran through Vale, his bags over his shoulders as he dodged civilians and vehicles alike. He was in a panic, how could he not be? He was released from the police station only an hour ago. He swore the lady behind the desk had purposely delayed his release form, while he was mostly clueless on how the police within Vale worked and the proper procedures needed to releasing someone from the holding cells, he was still fairly certain that -given that he was the only one their last night- it should have gone much quicker since the thugs he beat up last night were probably in the hospital.
He jumped off a bench and over a fence in one of Vale's parks ignoring the protest someone leveled at him as he sprinted through a bed of flowers. If he knew he would be arrested for brawling in the streets by a huntress, then he would have stayed in his room last night. And it wasn't just any huntress either, if the police officer who interrogated him was correct then she was Glynda Goodwitch one of the teachers at Beacon academy and if she was going to be one of his teachers then she would remember him the moment she saw him in whatever class she would be teaching.
He wasn't exactly remarkable in description sure, but something about him always seemed to stay with people, especially women, even if the encounter was just a simple 'hello' as he walked by them. His sisters did tell him it was a good thing and practically ensured that it would help when he was looking for a wife in the future as the women he would be courting would remember and think of him more instead of whomever else was vying for their attention. Given how some girls were around him at times he could guess that it would help when he was looking to make a good impression, but it was not so good when his would-be teacher was stuffing him into a police van after a street fight.
He dashed around the next street corner and nearly slammed into a slow moving pedestrian, he twisted his body to avoid the collision at the last second, before spinning and landing head first into a car window. He bounced off and fell to the pavement as someone started yelling at him. He really hopped that nobody got a good look at his face, the last thing he needed was to be arrested by the police for a trumped up charge of vandalism or property damage the next time he came to Vale. He quickly scrambled to his feet and began running again, pushing himself to go as fast as his legs would carry him. He checked his pocket watch when he came across a mostly empty sidewalk by one of the highways.
'Still 30 minutes left.' he confirmed as he focused more and more of his will into slowing time.
As everything slowed more for him he thanked whatever god gave his this ability as he had fairly recently confirmed that as time slowed around him he still moved at relatively the same speed. Allowing him to move across districts in mere minutes instead of hours, if there were any side-effects to this gross abuse of his power he didn't much care for them at this point, it was either risk himself or risk loosing his enrollment chance. Given how much he wanted, no needed, to be a huntsman he felt it was a worthwhile risk.
When his body was exhausted enough to force him to stop he opened his map and quickly confirmed his location, just a few more miles and he would be at the air strip.
As he pushed himself onward he cursed himself again for picking perhaps the worst time to go for a late night snack, if he refused to go out he would have avoided the street fight with the suited thugs which led to his overnight stay in a holding cell. Granted as far as holding cells went he was fairly certain that it wasn't so 'bad' as compared to what he expected it to be, the cot he slept on was roughly the same quality and size as the one at the cheap motel he was staying at. An officer gave him free food and drink while he waited to be released in the morning. And bizarrely enough he had met a weird silver haired man with thin glasses, a fancy black suit over a green shirt who carried a strange cane in one hand and an empty plate in the other. The strange man entertained him with a discussion about the philosophy of time for about an hour, coincidentally about an hour after Glynda first deposited him in the holding cell.
There was something about the man though, something innately strange, not just his behavior, it was the way he held and posed himself. He started off bizarrely by asking if Jaune knew about time, not what time it was then, but what time itself was. When Jaune was sufficiently confused the man entered the cell, sat down on a cot opposite him and started what in the end was an enlightening and equally bizarre conversation about time, its perception and the power behind it. While the contents were mostly confusing topics in relation to time itself Jaune couldn't help but engage the man in a deep conversation. In the end he had something interesting to distract him from the fact that he was in a holding cell for self-defense, even if the reason was because he went a little too far by using his stand.
/-/
Finally he made it to the air strip, he had quite literally ran from the police station, to his crappy motel then across Vale in less than an hour to get here. Just a little further and their would be nothing to stop him from getting his education at Beacon. As he entered the building attached to the docks of the airships he found another problem, one that in hindsight he probably should have checked on in advance since he spent most of the week wondering though vale. He stopped the first flight attendant he came across and said something unintelligible.
"I'm sorry?" she cautiously asked. Her expression changing to one of concern, likely for her own safety.
"Airship. Beacon. Where?" he managed between heavy breaths holding his ticket for her.
She cautiously took it and looked at it before replying "This is for loading Platform 5. You need to hurry to catch it. If you are not there in about 3 minutes you will miss it."
"How? I, still. Have time." he said pulling out, opening and pointing at his pocket watch's dial.
"The airship will depart in 17 minutes. Boarding time for the airship will close in about 3, after that they will not let you on board." The lady said.
He gagged on his next question and shoved his watch back into his pocket. Thankfully she seemed to understand what he was asking her and handed him back his ticket.
"Dock 5 is that way." she pointed out "It has a giant number by it, you cannot miss it."
"Thank-" he managed to say before coughing hoarsely.
"Go, and good luck." she said before he resumed dashing.
Color faded as he pushed himself onward, he felt the exhaustion of using his ability to this extent catching up to him. He did spend almost 45 real-time minutes rushing across Vale to get here, however it felt much, much longer as in a sense it was much, much longer, he had no idea how long he pushed himself as he ran but it felt appropriate to say it was at least 3 or 4 hours of near non-stop running. He focused his vision, trying to locate the sign, but there were too many people, too many faces in the way. As much as he tried to he couldn't stop himself from analyzing and reading their expressions. He practiced so much with it and so often that it had become an near-automatic response, almost like breathing.
A headache formed around his frontal lobe, it was too much, too distracting, reading each face was like having a conversation with that person, as he was surrounded by people each facial expression and pose giving him entire conversation's worth of information. The subtle changes as they moved, announced if they were happy, sad, anxious and more. He felt rude just ignoring them like he did, one of the first things that he was taught by his family and teachers was that it was rude to not respond when someone was trying to have a conversation with you, one of the first things Dio taught him was that reading a person's expression was akin to having a conversation without words. He bit back his desire to speak to them and forced himself into the present as he dashed to the side of the moving crowd and looked up.
'Platform 4' the glowing LED sign read. He was almost there, something caught his attention to his right and he looked. There was a growing number of faces that held expressions directed to him, some of concern, some of indifference, some of the smug satisfaction that they weren't in his situation. The more he watched the people many of whom had unguarded expressions the more his mind seemed to register what they were thinking.
'Someone's in a hurry.'
'Did he miss his airship?'
'What was that?'
'It's a bit like that romance movie I saw.'
'Speed semblance?'
'What his problem?'
'He's going to crash into something.'
He chomped down on his tongue as hard as he could and the pain distracted him from the expressions of the people around him long enough to look up. Glowing in bright highlighted letters was the sign 'Platform 5' with it came an automated message distorted over the speaker by slow motion.
"Final boarding call for, Platform 5."
He began to lean towards his destination, just one more column to pass by and he would be home free. As he began shifting his weight he felt his left foot buckle at the ankle, he gasped and felt his joint collide with the ground before he fell. He slammed face first into the column and slid past the platform, unintentionally knocking people over as he went. He saw their faces in slow motion, faces of surprise and disbelief.
'I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' he internally pleaded as he slapped his hands on the floor to give it some traction while the friction provided by his right shoe caused him to slide into the crowd of people. Thankfully several of them noticed him and he only crashed into those too unaware or too slow to avoid him.
When he finally came to a halt he forced himself foreword 'If this were a battle between 2 people then my stand would help me!' he internally grumbled as he dashed foreword ignoring everything but his goal. He was almost there, just 5 or so more meters. He bit back a yelp as his left ankle protested against him and gave way forcing him to fall foreword as his right leg came foreword. He focused what was left of his ability, as much aura as he could and physical strength as he had into his right leg as he half jumped, half pushed himself the final few meters.
He flew through the air 1 meter, the face of the person checking tickets changed from one of shock to mild horror as he perceived what was a blond missile coming at him. He flew 2 meters, the distorted sounds of people gasping and awed by the bizarre and unexpected event began to reach his ears. He flew 5 meters, the ticket checker began instinctively twisting into a ball hopping his reduced size would make him harder to hit as Jaune forced his tickets into the man's hand as they curled shut. Jaune flew 6 meters, he entered the airship and people on board finished parting ways for him. He flew 7 meters he forced himself to twist through the air as he saw a trolley with white suitcases, next to it a gorgeous girl in white and suited men who saw and dodged him at the last second.
He finally landed 8 meters from his starting position, the luggage protested under his sudden weight as the trolley began to move from the sudden inertia and force applied from him, carrying him deeper into the airship. He rode 7 meters on the trolley, students jumped out of the way and it rolled unopposed. He rode a further 8 meters on the trolley, it slammed into one of the couch-like seats the airship had causing him to sail through the air again, thankfully nobody came in his way as his trajectory was set.
He flew 1 meter, he looked back and saw the end of the airship's passenger compartment and with it the comfortable couch that lined the walls between 2 doors and pulled his travel bag off his back. He flew 4 meters, he forced himself to lean foreword and was in a seating position as the couch met his back. His left elbow bounced off his knee and his fist lodged itself under the left side of his jaw, the dying inertia keeping it there and pinning his right hand below his left elbow as his right arm was thrown across his belly. His left leg lashed out meeting nothing but recoiling like a whip over his right knee as his right foot dug into the carpet enough to stop it from going further back.
Finally free of inertia he opened his eyes, his face felt numb, his throat was hurting him, his joints were sore, his legs felt like jelly and the suddenness of impacting his elbow to his knee and wrist had effectively shocked them into a form of partial paralysis. In front of him he saw all the other students watch him with expressions of shock, surprise, and in the case of the cute Gothic Lolita standing now to his right, utter awe.
"That was sooo coooool!" she gushed, fists clutching the silver pins that kept her red cape in place.
He made a soft 'hmm' sound as the pain of the landing finally caught up to his brain.
She made a soft moaning sound as she sat next to him "You are sooo coool."
He looked at her and smiled, she wore a wide smile, her mouth almost hanging open, her silver eyes wide with awe as if anticipating him to do something even cooler while her fists were balled in front of her neck. She wore a black waist corset and black long-sleeved blouse with red trims over a frilly black skirt with Red tulle under it. Her black stocking clad legs were slightly apart unconsciously inviting him to get closer to her. She looked young, maybe she was one of those girls that appeared younger than she actually was, the one thing that he was certain of was that she looked adorable, and oddly familiar.
Whatever it was it could wait as the girl in white appeared before him, she wore a face of fury that hid underlines of surprise form earlier, she had a recognizable crooked scar down her left eye, white hair and strapless thigh length white dress that faded to a pale blue at the hem, with white tulle slightly visible from under the skirt. Matching it was a bell sleeved bolero with red lining on the inside. Even with her scowl he recognized her almost instantly, how could he not when he was a fan of hers. She was Weiss Schnee.
"You idiot! Do you realize what you could have done!?" she yelled.
He willed his face into a neutral one with an equally neutral smile as he watched her. "Have I harmed you in some way?" he casually asked.
It wouldn't do for him to let himself get belittled now, he was in a cool pose however unintentional, he had a fan girl currently enamored with him, who may very likely be his girlfriend in the future. And he had no doubt made an awesome impression on his peers by his crazy and accidental entrance. He couldn't afford to let it all go to waste by letting this girl talk down to him even if she was his idol and current dream girl.
"You!" She huffed and pointed at her suitcases "In those cases were some of the purest, highest quality dust the SDC can provide."
"Your point?" he purposefully raised an eyebrow, enough to hint he knew and it was no big deal.
She chocked a bit before barking "You could have killed us all!"
Jaune decided to pull something from Dio's handbook, the man radiated confidence and power like the sun radiated heat and light, if he could even manage a fraction of it then he might cow his idol into submission with confidence alone. After all, according to his dad confidence was all he truly needed when handling women.
'Here goes nothing.' he thought before asking "And how exactly would I, Jaune, manage to do such a thing?"
"You ignorant buffoon! Can you imagine the devastation that it would cause if even one vial detonated!?" she snapped back, getting more and more infuriated.
"I can see how that might be a problem for you Miss. Schnee. Not so much for me." He said with enough sarcasm to sting her pride, while the cutie next to him just gasped in awe. He didn't even need to look at her to know she was wondering just how powerful he was.
"You! YOU!" She stammered, face red, eyes filled with an undisputed rage, as her whole body straightened and stiffened.
She was about to burst, just a few more seconds and his position as a bad-ass would be secured in the minds of his peers. He just needed to keep this up and then in 4 years he could very well proudly return home a graduate huntsmen and likely introduce his future girlfriend, no, fiancee to his family.
"Cool it, snowflake. I'll handle this." A familiar voice interjected just before Weiss could go ballistic.
Jaune's blood froze, his face almost automatically shifting to a neutral one. He remembered her now, his adorable fan girl, she was there with Yang after the bar fight.
"Miss Xiao-Long, how nice to meet you again." Jaune automatically said trying to keep his confident demeanor going as the blond nemesis gently pushed Weiss gently to the side.
"I see you're trying to work my little sister." she said as her eyes changed to a redder hue.
'Oh crap.' Jaune thought.
"Yang you never said how cool this guy was!" Ruby said darting her eyes between Jaune and her older, much more developed sister. "You just said he was some guy you met at the bar."
Yang made a hollow and fake sounding chuckle as she cracked her knuckles "Oh he is, he didn't even have the courtesy of calling me the morning after."
'Poor choice of words.' Jaune smiled as a few people reacted to this accordingly, many making their own assumptions about what they heard.
Yang's eye twitched as the realization caught up to her before she placed a hand on the segment of wall next to his head "This time you will tell me what I want to know and you will not get away from me."
He was in effect trapped there, his body was still numb from exhaustion while these girls were no doubt fresh and ready for anything. Yang especially, she had that confidence about her. Focused and ready, she was determined to win this time if a fight broke out. The expression on Weiss' face also shifted to a supportive one as she glared poison daggers at him. If he attacked she would help her new blond 'ally' against him. He didn't want to fight her as the rapier by her side was certainly not for show.
Any conflict here would be so one-sided it wasn't even worth thinking otherwise and if he was to salvage his current position of total bad-ass at least in the eyes of the cute little sister and whomever else was now interested in him, he had to make a last desperate attempt. If he was reading the situation correctly -and he was certain that he was- all it would take was 1 final phrase to light the powder keg in his favor.
"Don't worry, this time I'll take you to dinner before I show you my moves and make you scream louder than you did before." he smugly smirked with as much suggestion as he could hint at.
Weiss stepped back slightly her expression changing to tell him that she would not get involved in what she now believed to be a lover's quarrel, while looking at him like as if he were a disgusting pig. He couldn't blame her, he exploited Yang's earlier mistake and implied that he was some kind of playboy who was currently intimate with her. Even so this reaction was far better than Yang's who responded just as he had wanted.
With a fist to his face.
AN: With this we basically come to the end of the pre-Beacon arc of the story. Hopefully I can keep up the updates at a consistent rate, if not please don't hate me. Writing for Beacon is proving more difficult than I anticipated it to be. Until next time, this is NoobSib0t signing off.
