A Step too Far
Chapter 8
An old Titan decides to climb off the walls and take a step away from the Traveler. He never intended to walk so far. He never regretted taking that step.
The following morning, Jaune woke up to the most wonderful sight in his relatively short life. Laying before him was a sleeping angel, the early morning light from the windows giving her an almost radiant beauty. Her snow-white hair fanned out beneath her that had remained untouched all night.
The young man replayed the events of the previous day in his head, still amazed at how it ended up with him in this position.
Sadly for him, that day had started out with him vomiting breakfast from his motion sickness. It incapacitated him for a good few minutes, enough time for the rest of the students to vacate the airship and move towards the grand-looking academy. By the time he had finished emptying his stomach, there were only a few students left in the courtyard. Two of them seemingly having a fight.
The 'Lady Charmer' lessons drilled into him by his father, pushed him to see if he could possibly try to resolve it. The young man's father, however was notorious for giving bad advice, so he was inclined to ignore that particular response. That response died out when he recognised two key things. The first was that one girl was wearing a dress that bore the Schnee symbol. The other was that the other girl was a Faunus.
Luckily, it ended without violence. But it was clear that the Schnee girl was angry. Once again, his 'Lady killer' lessons told him to try and comfort her.
"That was something, huh?" he asked, stopping beside the white haired girl and giving her a sympathetic smile.
"…Shut it, you dolt." She snapped. Her hands were shaking at her sides and he could see her jaw was clenched.
"Well, come on. We'd better get moving. Don't want to be late for orientation right?" Jaune asked, stepping ahead and gesturing towards the auditorium. The girl took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled slowly. Jaune recognised it as a calming exercise.
"You're right, I suppose." Her lips pressed into a thin line while she glared at something out of the corner of her eye. She seemed calm on the outside, but she was still fuming on the inside. Jaune found this look on her a little cute. Before he took another step however, something occurred to him and he smacked himself lightly on the forehead.
"Jeez, I'm an idiot. I didn't even introduce myself!" He presented his open hand to the snow-coloured girl. "I'm Jaune Arc." The girl looked uncomfortable for a moment before accepting his hand gently.
"Weiss Schnee." She announced with a clear and practiced voice. Though the way she rolled her eyes and subtly bit her lip said that she was bored of the action.
"Nice to meet you, Weiss." Jaune greeted with a smile. Despite herself, Weiss couldn't help but smile a little in return. "How's about we have a practice match after the orientation so you can vent some of that steam?"
Weiss' eyebrows rose a little and her jaw slackened for a split second before it shifted back into a more eager look. "Very well, Jaune. Don't think I will go easy on you however." She challenged, turning to walk down the path.
"Wouldn't have it any other way, Snow Angel."
He never saw the light pink-dusting on her cheeks.
As of late, Praetor noticed that Neo had been following him around like his shadow. It was only out of the corners of his eyes that he actually noticed, because whenever he turned towards her she vanished from sight. It felt quite weird for him to be the followed party for once, usually he'd be the one stalking down prey and eliminating them. With Neo practically watching his every move, he felt a lot more on edge, like his life was possibly in danger.
On the other end, Neo was studying. Studying Praetor to be more exact. She wanted to know more about him, what he liked, what he didn't like, how he did things and mostly just to ogle him when he finally took his heavy armour off. That particular goal was accomplished a couple days ago when she hid a camera in his bathroom.
Neo liked what she saw.
Once work was done, she'd wait in the lounge room for him with his favourite cold drink ready. Chilled water from a glass bottle. She learned that little factoid from her second excursion to his living quarters. Then came the home-cooked dinner, Neo wasn't that confident in her cooking, but he ate it anyways and always complimented her afterwards. It was little things like, 'That was good, thanks', but it never failed to brighten her day.
Every now and then, however, Neo got a little too bold for Praetor's liking. The first time was when she decided to walk around his apartment in her underwear first thing in the morning. Although he was flustered, he managed to reprimand her about it.
The second time happened when she snuck into his bed. Praetor started locking his bedroom window afterwards.
And the third? Well, Neo doesn't like to kiss and tell…
Blake awoke with a stretch, arching her back so far that her head almost touch her pillow again. She didn't sleep too comfortably last night, she was still used to her old bed. To her left slumbered Ruby, her eyes covered by her Grimm-styled eye mask and hugging her pillow to death. On closer inspection, Blake saw a little bit of drool coming from the corner of her mouth.
Beyond the young girl was Yang, sprawled out all over her bed-roll with the covers scrunched up around her feet. From the blonde's mouth came a dull roar, Yang's snoring no doubt.
Finishing her wake-up stretches, Blake finally looked around the room. Everywhere there were teens sleeping, snoring and even a few early risers. One of which was a bouncy girl with short orange hair who was shaking her neighbour awake. The boy that was getting the shake-treatment wore his dark hair long and tied off near the base of his neck. Blake almost pitied the guy.
She risked a glance over towards where she remembered Jaune would be. Sure enough, he too, was awake. Their gazes met for a second and he waved in a greeting. Blake decided to be nice and was about to wave back when behind him, Weiss rose up and rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. The Schnee girl noticed her and scowled a little, then noticed that Jaune was waving to her and decided to glare at him.
Blake figured it was best not to interfere, so she instead got to work on rousing her friends. First Ruby then Yang. A gentle shake was enough to get Ruby awake, but it took both girls and a few light slaps to wake Yang.
When they arrived at the girl's shower room, Yang was still rubbing her sore cheek.
Jaune hesitantly walked through the locker room looking for the one locker that held his family-heirloom of a weapon. Clutched in his hands was a slip of paper with a number written on it, he had taken the note yesterday when they first stowed their weapons so he could remember the locker, however the note somehow lost its effectiveness overnight.
"This can't be right, I swear that my locker wasn't nearly this far along," he mumbled to himself, checking the paper once more. As his luck would have it, young Jaune stumbled into someone. "Oof, sorry about that." He apologised immediately.
The person in question was none other than Pyrrha Nikos, a young woman who'd been invited to attend Beacon from Mistral due to her outstanding record. "It's ok," she dismissed with a bright smile, "Nothing's broken and nobody's hurt."
"Jaune?" asked a familiar voice. The blonde boy turned to see the snow angel herself in full battle gear. A white and ice-blue battle dress and bolero jacket with bits of lace designed to look like bits of snow-flake. At her hip sat her weapon, a rapier that held revolving chambers of dust. She had also taken time to loop her hair into an off-centre ponytail which was held in place by a jewelled tiara. "Who're you talking to?" she questioned, giving the taller red-head a subtle glare.
"Actually, I don't know." He admitted with a bashful laugh. He turned to the red-head and held out his hand. "Sorry, I'm Jaune Arc." It was about now that the young man actually let himself look over the person he was talking to.
Starting from the top, Jaune took in her bright-red hair that was tied up into a long pony tail and her bronze circlet that was partially obscured by her bangs. Wrapped around her torso was a leather-piece that split down the middle and bore bronze embroidery and studs. Over her legs she wore bronze greaves that ended in a pair of high-heeled boots.
Between the two beautiful ladies, Jaune felt a little out of place with his hoodie, jeans and sneakers. The armour plates and gauntlets that he had strapped on helped a little, but not by much.
"Pyrrha Nikos." The red-head introduced herself by shaking his hand firmly and with a gentle smile.
"Waitwaitwaitwaitiwaitwait." The two turned to see Weiss shaking her head in disbelief. "Do you mean, THE Pyrrha Nikos?" The Schnee heiress suddenly had stars in her eyes.
"I guess so?" Pyrrha replied, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
"Oh. My. God." Weiss breathed.
"Is she someone I should know about?" Jaune asked, incredibly confused by Weiss' attitude shift. Neither of them noticed Pyrrha's expression soften at Jaune's question.
"How could you not know about her?" Weiss slapped Jaune's shoulder. "She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four times in a row!"
"The what?"
Weiss visibly fumed, shaking her arms trying to get her point across. "She's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"
"That's you!?" he gasped dramatically, feigning his excitement.
Pyrrha giggled a little at his enthusiasm, even if it was falsely over-the-top. "Yeah, it was kinda cool. Shame that the cereal isn't good for you."
"Attention, all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first year students to Beacon Cliff for initiation." Came Glynda Goodwitch's voice over the intercom.
"I guess that's us, huh?" Jaune summarised, "Shall we go ladies?"
Blake found herself peering over the edge of Beacon Cliff. Red leaves stretched for miles, and even in the distance she could barely make out a greyish blob that could be ruins.
She could hear Ozpin's muted voice speaking to the rest of the students. She didn't bother to take much heed from the man, though she did file away a few key words. 'Land', 'Eyes', 'Partner', 'North', 'Ruins', 'Relic'. From those alone she could infer a few things, one being that their partners could be selected via eye contact. Harsh, but random.
Another thing she deduced was that she was supposed to head north and retrieve a relic from some ruins, that being the main objective. If there was a time-limit or not was up in the air, though Blake suspected that she should keep a steady pace none-the less.
"Any questions?" Ozpin's voice broke through her thoughts. Seeing nobody raise their hands, he pressed a button on his scroll. At one end of the line of students, someone was suddenly flung into the air towards the forest. To her right, she saw Yang shake her hair and slip on a pair of Aviator sunglasses. Beyond her, Ruby had deployed Crescent Rose and was shaking nervously.
To her left, Jaune had drawn his sword and was inspecting his shield. He noticed her and gave a curt nod before being shot off into the forest. Now it was Blake's turn.
Without warning, she was suddenly in the air with the ground very, very far beneath her. She took the moment to revel in the feeling of flight, spreading her arms wide and feeling the wind whip around her, tugging at her hair and catching on her clothes.
Sadly, it had to come to an end sooner rather than later. Blake opened her eyes as she felt gravity's pull and quickly located a suitable tree branch to land on. It was a rather thick branch, a few feet thick if she guessed correctly. Thick enough to bounce off of and slow herself down a little. As she approached, Blake drew her weapon and held it at the ready. Her Aura strengthened around her ankles as she touched down and not moment later she had kicked off, leaping to another tree and repeating the manoeuvre over again until she dug her heels into the bark of one final tree.
A cursory glance around revealed nothing out of the ordinary. That was until she heard some familiar whoops of joy from above, accompanied by rustling trees and loud gun blasts.
Blake couldn't stop the smile breaking through.
Time to go find my partner.
Jaune couldn't believe his luck. Shortly after landing, which involved huddling behind his shield while he barged through branches and tree trunks alike, the first person he saw was Pyrrha. According to her, she was actually getting ready to pin him to a tree before she saw his shield deployed.
The two had chatted while they walked, with Jaune asking her what Mistral was like and Pyrrha asking him about his childhood and such.
Eventually, the topic of how why they decided to become Hunters arose.
"My parent's kind of pushed me into the role." Pyrrha confessed. "They always spun me tales of their adventures when they were younger, they always made it sound so romantic. The way that Dad used to swoop in and save Mum when she got in over her head, y'know?"
"I know that fight. Though in my case, my parents always tried to keep me as far away from it as possible. Making sure I never got into trouble, that sort of thing." Jaune sighed, sounding a little wistful. "I was told stories of my great-great-grandfather, my grandfather and even my own dad's exploits and how they were heroes. Then one day, I decided that it was a great idea to wander off into the woods, prove to my parents that I could be a Hunter.
"Now, I was about eleven when this happened, still a stubborn kid who wanted to be a hero like his dad. Not even an hour away from home and I run straight into a Beowolf pack." He chuckled. "There I was, a little kid with nothing but a toy sword against a pack of these Grimm. Man, I must have run for at least an hour, the things nipping at my heels the whole time."
"Oh my," Pyrrha covered her mouth in shock. "How did you get out of that alive?"
"I eventually stumbled right into a hollowed-out tree. The Beowolves, thankfully, seemed confused. Then, just as I'm about to make a break for it again, I hear this massive 'BANG', louder than anything I've ever heard. From my hidey-hole, I see this mountain of a man in black and gold armour beating the Grimm to death with his fists. And every few punches he threw I can see lightning erupt from his hands and vaporise some of them."
"After they were dealt with, he yells, 'Hey, Kid, you can come out now!' like he knew I was there the whole time. Turns out, he was passing through when he heard my mother calling out for me. He dropped everything and went looking for me, didn't care that he was delaying his mission or anything. All he cared about was that a child was in trouble and he had the chance to help. That's when I realised that if was going to be a Hero like my great-great-grandfather, I couldn't be a child about it. That I'd have to step up and think about more than myself. The next day, I demanded that my dad train me, wouldn't take 'No' for an answer."
"Wow…" Pyrrha breathed. "Now my reason feels kind of, well, stupid in comparison."
"Don't put yourself down like that." Jaune wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Sure I learned a valuable lesson, but I had to get chased for hours by hungry Beowolves. By my math, you got the better deal." He laughed.
Pyrrha couldn't help but join in.
Blake had found Yang fighting a couple of Ursa. At first she toyed with them, until one of them got lucky enough to slash off one of her hairs. As the single strand gracefully floated to the ground, the cat-girl could only wince as the inevitable happened a second later.
Yang exploded, the rest of her hair bursting into an ethereal fire that gave off such an intense heat that Blake could feel it from her hiding place. How the forest didn't catch fire was entirely beyond her, but it didn't really matter as the first Ursa was completely pulverised in short order.
It was about now that Blake decided to intervene, to cool her friend off if nothing else. Quick as a whip, the Ursa fell dead with her weapon sticking out of its back. Blake just watched with a silent chuckle as Yang's fire awkwardly faded.
"Uh… Hi Blake?" The blonde offered.
The cat-girl's amused smirk broke out into a smile. "Let's go, Yang." She lightly slapped her shoulder as she passed. "The ruins are this way."
"You! Mountain Man!" Shouted a White-fang member, pointing at Praetor. "Boss says he wants you on the bridge."
"On my way." He replied from his seat, overlooking the crashing waves. The criminal known as Roman had apparently managed to commandeer one of the Schnee Dust Company's freight ships mid-transit to Atlas. Now here he was, standing on the slick deck as an insurance policy against Atlas Military.
The titan carefully made his way to the towering command area where the bridge was located. The vessel reminded him of the rusted hulks that littered Old Russia on Earth. The ship was definitely impressive, almost two-hundred metres long, fifty in breadth and rose ten tall above the water. From what he could tell, it was powered by a massive Dust engine that pushed out enough energy to move it through the choppy waters.
Currently, the weather was torrential, every step made splashes and everything was strapped down by water-proof tarps. Inside the ship however it was cramped with tight walls and small bulkheads. The doors were actually too small for Praetor to fit through without removing his armour, so he instead climbed the outside ladders and entered through the (thankfully) larger doors on the bridge.
Sitting in the former captain's chair was Roman, smoking a cigar with his leg over one of the arms. Before him was the command console, a massive desk littered with screens, dials, knobs and switches.
"Good lord, big man, could you make a man wait any longer?" Roman taunted, tapping the ash from his cigar. Praetor's impassive visor answered the man's rhetorical question. "Well, whatever. The Radar has picked up a few Atlas airships moving this way. Apparently, before the captain keeled over, he triggered an alarm. Now since moving this entire ship would be rather conspicuous, we're going to have to keep Atlas' claws away from it." Roman took a drag on his cigar.
"Therefore, while we're waiting for those mutts down there to finish unpacking the dust, I'm sending you with our Bullhead to send Atlas packing."
"A pre-emptive strike?" Praetor asked.
"Sure, whatever. Just keep them off us until the rest of our bullheads arrive." Roman waved him off the bridge. "Now shoo, I need to make some calls."
The Titan left the room and made his way towards the bow of the ship, where a lone bullhead rested on a landing pad. In a matter of minutes, the VTOL was in the air and blasting away towards the horizon.
Praetor had read up on Atlas military tactics. The majority of them involved superior robotic numbers with the few flesh and blood soldiers acting as guards to sensitive areas and personnel. Thankfully that extended to the naval and airborne theatre as well as the ground.
"We're five clicks out," the pilot reported. "Any last minute adjustments to the plan?"
The titan ducked into the cockpit and stood behind the pilot to survey his next battlefield. The three Atlesian airships were in a delta formation and were at roughly the same altitude as their bullhead. He suddenly got a brainwave from his past as a reckless and brutal young Guardian.
"Ascend another click, I'll take it from there." He told the pilot before squeezing himself back into the hold to get ready.
"Aye aye."
The bullhead rumbled as the dust turbines span faster, pushing it higher into the air.
"Turn ninety degrees, pilot." Praetor watched from the window as the Atlesian airships become visible once again. The moment that they left his view again, he opened the hatch and took a deep breath. With a calm exhale, he let himself lean forward and drop headfirst towards the foremost airship.
About halfway into his fall, he willed Arc energy into being around him. The energy crackled around him, ionising the air and forming a blue streak behind him. Seconds later, he slammed through the hull and into a hallway filled with deactivated robots.
A second later the alarm went off and the mechanised soldiers snapped to life, raising their weapons at Praetor's still crackling form.
"Intruder! Identify yourself!" they all demanded at once in a deep electronic voice.
In response, Praetor cracked his neck and drew his sawed-shotgun. He manipulated the remaining electrical energy surrounding him into the barrel of his gun and fired. The iron flechettes blasted out at a hypersonic velocity, shredding everything in their path.
He raised his gun into a relaxed position and surveyed the hall of destroyed robotics with a smirk. A few pings off his back armour stiffened him again and snapped off a shot without thinking.
The scream of pain that echoed after the gunshot made him flinch. Glancing out of the corner of his eyes, Praetor could make out the slumped form of an Atlesian soldier leaning on his rifle and clutching a wound in his stomach.
Without saying a word, Praetor strode past the wounded man, dropping a little box by his struggling feet. The man painfully dropped to his knees, as careful as he could to not jostle his wound. With trembling hands he leaned over and picked it up. His back now against the wall, the soldier opened the box and pulled out a small injector filled with small green crystals.
Healing Dust.
Not wasting any time, the soldier stabbed the injector into his wound with a grunt and pulled the trigger. The dust quickly spread through the damaged skin and started mending it within seconds, knitting and melding flesh together until there was no sign of a scar.
He took a breath of glorious air, thankful that he didn't just kick the bucket. Then, just as quickly, he remembered the reason why he was there. The fact that the towering Hunter didn't just kill him outright meant that he had no intention of killing here. But the only thing behind him was the engine room…
He needed to warn the others.
The large room before him housed the largest piece of machinery, Praetor thought he'd see. Pistons fired, electricity flashed and the engine roared with life. Now here he was, about to take it all away.
Hopefully that soldier got the word out to the rest of the crew. He thought, gathering Solar energy into his fist. With a resonating clang, the Hammer of Sol materialised in his hand, the eternally burning head of the hammer ablaze with a fury. Praetor took large breath, forcing more of his light into the hammer. The entire weapon glowed a bright red, as if it were stoked in a forge. With a final surge, it changed. The handle grew longer and the hammerhead bulged and sprouted burning etchings that spread across its surface.
Praetor could feel the flames surrounding him glow brighter and burning more ferociously than before. Although the flames were hot, the weapon itself was cool to his touch. Once again, he looked up at the large machine and then back to the hammer.
With a mighty swing, Praetor brought the hammer upon the machine. And his whole world exploded in fire.
"Hoo boy, I'm tellin' you guys. That ship went down like a stone." A man to his bar buddies, all twelve of them sat around the bar, forcing the man to raise his voice. "The guy does some crazy shit with electricity and punched a hole through the hull like it was paper. Then minutes later, the ships escape pods fly out and the whole thing was set on fire. A few more minutes go by and then another one was falling into the ocean. No flames this time though"
"Sounds like bullshit to me." One man claimed, raising his mug of beer to his lips.
"No no, I swear it's true." The story-teller defended. "I was barely believing my own eyes. As if that wasn't enough, I hear the guy call me up on the radio, and get this. He wants me to land on the last ship." The man's audience all share a sceptical look. "Yeah, I know right? Turns out, the guy absolutely ripped right through the crew, the canopy is shattered and everything, I could even see the bodies. When I land, there he is on the hull like nothing even happened."
"Shit, if that's true I don't wanna get near the guy."
"Oh you can get near him, just don't piss him off."
The rest of the bar murmured in agreement. But off in the corner, an unshaven man frowned.
AN: So, the obligatory 'Initiation' stuff and details to Jaune's backstory.
As usual, please leave some critique.
~Dys