"Jaune you are the most important thing in my life, You are my only son, Sure I love your sisters as well but I can't have father-son bonding time with them right? It's not just you I forbid from becoming a pilot. It's all of you, I am not having any of my children facing the horrors that I did out there, Never"
God my head hurts
"It's incredible, He took a blow that would have crippled veterans yet walked away with only a concussion and hairline fractures" A voice said in an incredulous tone, the sound of rustling paper quickly followed after
"AND HE'S AWAKE?" The doctor screamed in wonder as she rushed to ask Jaune questions that he assumed were on his health but with the incredible speed that the doctor were speaking at, He couldn't catch anything that he could answer without making him seem like a fool
"Asa, Please old friend, you are overwhelming the boy" another voice pitched in as Jaune turned to his savior, The headmaster of Beacon Ozpin [Redacted] placed a hand onto the doctors shoulder which snapped her out of her speed questioning while she looked away with a guilty look, Opting instead to go through the papers on her clipboard again
"How are you feeling Jaune?" Ozpin asked as he pulled a chair to the bedside, sitting down and acting like a concerned grandfather instead of the headmaster of a prestigious Pilot academy and the Greatest Genius of RRA tech since Nicholas Schnee, Jaune quickly realized that this incredible authority figure had asked him a question as he cleared his throat
"I'm feeling fine, A little sore in most places but I'm not dead so I assume I should be fine" Jaune answered honestly as the man hummed in interest before unfolding a piece of paper that seemed to appear out of thin air
"Two gashes on your torso. Hairline fracture on the left arm, Ribs and Sternum. Bruises on multiple part of the body, minor interior bleeding, along with a case of slight concussions" Ozpin listed off while he kept his Emerald green eyes on Jaune causing him to fidget nervously as the headmaster finished listing off the number of injuries that was presumably on the paper
"um, I feel like that's about right for being hit by a deathstalker?" Jaune said nervously as the headmaster raised an eyebrow, Jaune was sweating nervously as he wonder what the headmaster was playing at, He wasn't taking any PEDs or cheating in the initiation and he wasn't not feeling the pain when that Deathstalker pincer crashed into him. The room stayed silent until Ozpin folded the paper up
"Do you know what most Veterans Pilots suffer when they went through the same scenario that you did?" The headmaster asked as Jaune shook his head no, He doesn't know what would happen but the best he assume was that they parried the attack and killed the deathstalker like how his father would often brag about doing
"Death. They suffer from broken vertebrates and bones all across their body, They would be lucky if their lungs wasn't penetrated by their own ribs or that the brain and heart didn't explode from the pressure they were hit with" The deathly serious tone caused Jaune to turn pale, He finally saw how him surviving a blow like that with outdated RRA and a half made Aurora while those who had the best equipment didn't would bring up some questions
"... I..." Jaune couldn't think of anything to defend himself with, he was lucky and that was all that he had. Luck, Luck that his father didn't track him down and forced him home when he ran away, Luck he met partners and people that helped him through the entire initiation and Luck that he survived a blow that have killed Hunters better than him
"Well whatever the case that allowed you survive your close call with Death himself, I wish you a swift recovery Mr. Arc, Leader of team Juniper(JNPR). Beacon as allocated you with the appropriate funds of passing initiation with both a relic and slaying ancient grimm with your RRA's unfortunate end in mind" Ozpin finished off as Jaune nodded dumbly before leaving the room, Leaving a dumbstruck Jaune Arc
Well... That was weird.. wait leader?
"Pyrrha, I'm sure that he's fine" Weiss comforted the red-haired champion the best she could as she tried her best to keep her annoyance hidden, Pyrrha had been worried over her partner who was caught in the side by the Deathstalker, They were able to take it down but only after did they realize that they were missing a member
"Yeah I know I know, It's just..." Pyrrha's expression twisted and turned but no words came out as Weiss recalled the horrid scene they had all witnessed, Parts of armor and cores scattered on the forest ground being stained crimson from the blood flowing from the gashes in the boy's body, The RRA being pried open so they could place him onto a stretcher and rushed to the infirmary
"He'll be fine" Weiss muttered to Pyrrha, in part to comfort her and in part to comfort herself, The buzzing annoyance dying down a little after Weiss reminded herself of what they had all seen, A darker part of her whispering that if he died then she could have Pyrrha as a partner but she waved that thought away. A Schnee heiress shouldn't think like that
"GUYS HE'S AWAKE"
The scream from her team leader startled both girls as they turned to Ruby in shock, Weiss couldn't get her head around it, She knew that a Deathstalker was close to the weight of a bullhead and being hit by it essentially meant you had signed yourself up for a nice lesson of death. Yet this bo- No Man had taken a hit and woke up from it
"He's either in immense pain or drugged to the point he can't even remember his own name" Weiss mumbled to herself as she followed behind Pyrrha to the infirmary with the rest of their teams, The seven of them signed in and immediately rushed to his room, almost breaking down the door during the process
"Oh, Hey guys" The should-be dead person greeted them casually, sitting up with a simple gown, He looked none the worse with only a new scar near his eye that mirrored hers except that his was a lot longer, Stretching from the edge of his left eye down to his chin, Almost like the trail of a teardrop
"FEARLESS LEADER" The ginger girl shouted as she went to tackle the boy only to be snatched back by her partner, A calm and reasonable Pilot who Weiss found herself conversing and agreeing with on multiple occasions, She does feel bad for Ren with his inability to feel much emotion as a side affect of his SEM
"Nora calm down, We don't know how injured he is" Ren lectured as the ginger girl pouted before her eyes scanned over her leader, before she turned back to Ren with determination in her eyes, whether to be able to tackle her leader or to prove her partner wrong, She did not know
"But Jaune doesn't even have any casts which means he isn't hurt, and you said I can hug him if he isn't hurt" Nora argued as Ren turned to Jaune to look him over and true to Nora's words, he found no casts that were out in the open or hidden under the sheets
"Technically, I have hairline fractures if that counts?" Jaune helpfully added as Ren nodded before turning to Nora who simply looked away and pouted, Saddened by the fact that she couldn't hug her leader and inadvertently cause the broken bones that the deathstalker should have inflicted
"Well, Beacon starts in a month, I think that's enough time for you to get back into the game" Yang piped up as Weiss jumped in shock, For such a vibrant and cheerful girl, she was oddly quiet and stealthy. Something she would have expected for the blonde's partner instead of her
"I still need to replace my RRA with a new one, Crocea Mors is the only remainder I have from my old one and there was nothing else scavenged from my old unit" Jaune said with a sigh as Ruby perked up, Her silver eyes glittering with happiness as she rushed to his bedside
"I can help with that" The redhead said excitedly as she started to talk about weapons and armor upgrades that Jaune could use while the blond chuckled nervously, He barely caught something about an arm mounted rocket launcher that could shoot lasers
"Well, Still need to check my funds. I built my old RRA from scraps and it cost me close to Thirty-thousand Liens" Jaune grumbled as he searched around him for his scroll before remembering that he was in the infirmary and his stuff was likely still in the locker room, Not that he brought much anyways
"...You built your own Hunter?" Yang asked in awe as Jaune turned to them with a confused expression, He was under the impression that most Hunters build their own RRA, those things were expensive
"You don't? Most RRAs I found were in the millions of liens and I couldn't afford that. Functional parts and books I could buy with a few thousand liens was all that I had when I built my own Hunter" Jaune asked as his fellow pilots looked at each other before turning back to Jaune with a concerned look
"Jaune... Most RRA only cost a few tens of thousands, the fact that you built your own Hunter is incredible and the fact that it works somewhat like a regular RRA and the rest of us couldn't tell it apart, Especially Ruby who is a huge RRA nerd, is incredible" Yang commented with a look of awe on her face, Jaune turned and saw that his team was in a similar state
"She's right, Even Nora and I managed to afford our Systems and weapons after a few years working odd jobs across the world. The fact that you weren't able to do so is suspicious" Ren nodded as Pyrrha entered into the room with a Scroll, Jaune blinked in surprise. He hadn't noticed that Pyrrha had actually left during his conversation with others
"Here Jaune, This is your Beacon-issued Scroll. Everything we scavenged from your old Scroll is downloaded into this one, I also added my manager's number. She is really good at dealing with RRA and anything regarding AI" Pyrrha explained politely as Jaune looked at the Scroll in shock before nodding dumbly
"Thanks Pyrrha" Jaune said as he opened up his scroll, quickly setting his password and unlocking his scroll to find his background already set for him, A picture of his family crest as he hummed in nostalgia, There used to be time that looking at his ancestral symbol would bring him a feeling of peace and comfort yet now all that he feel is a empty void
"Well, I got some work to do"
"Hey Jaune! Need help?" Ruby greeted as she skipped into the mechanic's garage, Her new friend grunted as he pulled out his soldering iron from the new mech, The tip red hot and steaming as Jaune placed the tool down
"Almost. After getting the internal kit and all these new fancy schematics and pieces... ugh, I'm just happy that the last thing I have to do is install the core and AI" Jaune shook his head in disgust, Ruby giggled before she turned her head towards Jaune's new Hunter and whistled in appreciation, This RRA was a definite upgrade to Jaune's last one
"Well, I'd say its better looking than your last one, No offence" Ruby commented as Jaune rolled his eyes before stepping away and allowed Ruby to get a closer look, The RRA was painted in a coat of pearl white with gold racing along the edges of each individual plate with two crescent moons painted onto the side of the torso that looked entirely too familiar for her to like. It wasn't the symbol itself rather the placement of said symbol
"..the scar" Ruby whispered to herself as her eyes widened, Whether Jaune did it purposefully or not, he had painted his own Symbol over the two gashes almost like it would protect him, Ruby sighed as she ignored the maybe-metaphor that she had stumbled upon and instead started preparing the tools Jaune would need to install the cores
"Hey, I got the AI and Cores" Jaune said as Ruby jumped in shock, too absorbed in her mind and arranging of the tools to hear Jaune making his way back, After calming her racing heart. She turned back to Jaune with a smile
"Alright let's get started then, No RRA can run without two good cores" Ruby said as she pulled on her gloves and watched Jaune open up the two generators in the back of the RRA before handing her the Cores, She quickly grabbed both and carefully placed it into the correct slots before twisting it in as a burst of electricity hit her gloves
"Readings normal, Core connection unestablished, feeding more dust" Jaune said as Ruby quickly let go of the two cores, The generator's own clamps latching onto the cores and pulling them into the Hunter before the RRA's whir of power can finally be heard, a deep blue glow coming from the visor as Jaune started to turn up the dial of the machine feeding in the dust
"Reading fluctuating, Core connection almost established" Jaune said as he glanced at his newly built Hunter with concern before he let go of the dial and immediately hit a red button next to him causing the RRA to shut down and Ruby looking away to avoid being blinded by the flash when the power was suddenly cut off and the two cores emerged from the RRA, With the test run of the newly bought Core over and declared a success. Jaune and Ruby both let out a relived sigh Once they realized that the hardest part was finally over
"Now, all we gotta do is test this thing out"
(*insert transition*)
"AI Orion reporting, Good Luck Hunter" Jaune's AI greeted as the whirring of the core can be heard and in much higher pitch than the other RRAs surrounding him, Jaune however just took a deep breath and tried to process all the visual ques and symbols in front of him
"Difficulty reading the HUD?" Yang teased as Jaune nodded, His eyes darting between the few that he knew from his old Hunter. This one was much more accurate and much more visually appealing with vibrant colors instead of the pale blue that he has familiarized himself
"The Dark Red means there is grimm detected, Normal red means its probably dangerous in that area and you should either run away or fight it off, Green marks any safehouse, safe point, your LZ or your objective and Yellow is essentially everything in the middle" Ruby explained as Jaune nodded slowly, Not bothering to ask what the other colors mean
I'll figure it out eventually, For now I have some grimms to kill Jaune thought to himself as he turned back to the group, their own RRA core started to ramp up as He shot off into the forest with his team and friends behind, His hydraulics and power output much more powerful thanks to Beacon funding. It wasn't long until he stumbled upon a grimm gathering
With a war cry, Jaune ripped his Sword out of the sheath and slammed the hilt into the bone mask of the first grimm he saw, Shattering said mask and pushing back the grimm
"Who want's to go first" Jaune asked as he spun his sword behind him and expanded his newly made shield that Ruby design and built for him, What's in it he has yet to figure out, All he knows is that the grimm in front of him is about to get a taste of whatever is in the Shield
"HOLD DOWN ON THE BUTTON" He heard Ruby scream as he took a quick glance of his shield and sure enough, There was a button, Holding it down the bottom of the Shield opened to reveal and barrel and the two sides slid down before hard-light dust sharpened into blades, The silence was almost deafening as Jaune felt his smile grow and the Grimm started to whimper
"oh HELL YEAH" Jaune screamed as he ripped into the stomach of a Beowolf, The hard-light dust cutting through the skin and bone like it was made of butter before he slammed Crocea Mors into it's chin and ending the grimm. With the first grimm exterminated and his Shield figured out, This was going to be a massacre
Without hesitation, Jaune spun around and fired off the gun inside his Shield and was instantly thrown on his ass as the caliber that Ruby's anti-material rifle used was shot out of the barrel and shredded through any of the foliage in the way, Groaning and berating himself for being overconfident, He pushed himself up before taking careful aim and firing off another shot
This time the shot landed in between the eyes of the Ursa charging at him and he only felt the recoil pushing him back slightly, The weapons were powerful and his RRA felt better than anything he has experienced. I feel like I can take on a thousand of these guys at the same time
"Calibration sequence is needed Pilot, Would you like to start?" Orion interrupted Jaune's bloodthirsty thoughts as the boy thought about it before confirming the process
"Let's see what this baby can do"
AND CUT
Almost took me a month to realize I didn't post this chapter
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