TM11: I...I did not understand the meaning behind this chapter at all. Don't misunderstand, it was interesting seeing Old Jack and Alt-Ruby, but was there a reason for them coming besides s*** and giggles? Really, the volume so far seems more like a collection of fillers than a plot driven story. At least the last few chapters give me that impression.
NeoNazo356: Short answer long: I think the reason everything in Giant-Slayer: New World thus-far feels like filler is because it "isn't Canon". Between "Foreverfall, Part 2" and "The Stray" there's a big Timeskip of at least a few months where everything that happened is largely implied. However, because I'm raising the Power Scale of Giant-Slayer in comparison to its Canon counterpart, I intend to fill in that Timeskip with something a little more substantial than the "nothing at all" that was shown/not shown in the Canon prior to the lead-in to Volume 3.
Also, since Jack is stronger (mechanically) than most of the Canon cast, and yet there are people still-stronger than him, obviously I'll have to build toward that, though the VFT should be happening at around roughly the same time of year, fall, so I'm building up to that too.
The reason for the previous chapter was also to act as a segue for future plot strings, and because of certain carry-ons, like in this chapter.
Long answer short: "World-Shaking" was not for "shits and giggles".
*NEW WORLD*
"Ooogh… Kill… meee…" Weiss groaned.
"Weiss, I told you staying up so late to get ahead of everyone else was a bad idea," Ruby chided that Thursday morning.
"Yeah, Weiss. I get that you want to be the best at everything you can get your hands on, but if you make yourself sick over it, what's the point?" Blake asked.
"And here I thought Ruby would be the first of us to get sick," Yang hummed thoughtfully, recalling her sister's own unhealthy habits.
"Hey, I'm plenty healthy!" Ruby cried indignantly.
"Rubes, I still have to remind you to wash the gun oil off your hands before dinner."
"Groooooooss…" Weiss groaned. Moving to sit up, the heiress swiftly drooped over to the side.
"Whoa, there, where do you think you're going?" Yang asked as she caught her.
"To claaass… Gotta gooooo…"
"Not in your condition you're not," Yang argued. "You're staying in bed."
"But my attendance record…"
"Will take an even bigger hit if you make yourself even sicker," Jack argued as he moved in, grasping her by the shoulder.
"Ja-Jack?!" Weiss squawked as he pressed his forehead to hers.
"Oh my, how bold~" Yang cooed.
"Weiss, hold still. I can't take your temperature," Jack scolded as the heiress frantically pushed against him, to no avail. Weiss eventually acquiescing, the Faunus leaning above her closed his eyes in concentration, a slight blush on the girl's face as the seconds dragged on. "Well… It feels like you've got a bit of a fever," he said a few moments later. "Other than that, nothing too serious."
"Oh! Don't worry! I know exactly what she needs!" Ruby cheered as she zipped all around the room and out into the hallway, returning half a minute later with a ton of random stuff in her arms. "Alright, I've got you everything you'll need. A warm glass of whole milk, my favorite video game, Kung Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Deathbattle 2, aaand, finally, a motivational cat poster," she said unrolling said poster, which had the typical Hang in there prompt on it.
"Ruby, please… I don't need that. Just medicine," Weiss pleaded.
"That and rest," Jack said flatly. "If you hold off on resting now, you'll get sicker for longer later. Better to be sick for a day than a whole week," he said sagely, speaking from personal experience. "Ruby, you take the others to class. I'll get Weiss back on her feet by tomorrow morning; that's a Jack Braxton Guarantee," he said giving the girl a thumbs-up.
"Well, look at you volunteering to play nursemaid," Yang said with a grin. "You sure you don't have any… ulterior motives~?"
"Unlike some people on a dry spell, I can actually control myself," Jack said flatly. " . . . You pervert."
"Hey, if I'm a pervert, than you're a super pervert!"
"I know no shame," Jack huffed with a smirk.
"Guys, stop fighting over something so trivial," Blake said flatly as she got her things together. "Jack, can you really get Weiss up and running again by tomorrow?"
"You bet I can. My mom taught me all kinds of herbal remedies, and the Emerald Forest is chock-full of Ingredients for me to use," Jack said jerking a thumb out the window. "Just make sure to film all the lectures, and I'll be sure to do the same the next time you're sick."
"Okay then! I'll leave Weiss in your hands!" Ruby said chipperly.
"I wonder how much of her he'll get his hands on," Yang giggled.
"Yang, behave," Blake chided.
"Wait a minute, don't I have a say in this?" Weiss asked.
"Hmm… Nope," Ruby hummed with an adorable chirp as she and the others left the room.
"So… I guess it's just the two of us, huh?" Jack asked once the others had left.
"Yeah…" Weiss murmured, fidgeting in her bed and suddenly really self-conscious about rooming with a boy.
" . . . Wanna get breakfast?" the Faunus suddenly asked.
*Growrrrrrrrr*
" . . . Well that was rather undignified," Jack chuckled after a moment.
"Shut up and feed me," Weiss said covering her blushing face with her hands.
*NEW WORLD*
A few minutes later and the two of them were in the communal kitchen. Weiss had changed out of her nightgown into her tracksuit, while Jack had gone into his casual attire. Weiss, draping a blanket across her legs, watched as Jack raided the pantry, and then the fridge afterward.
"Oh good, no-one touched the eggs I left behind."
"Well with a label like that, who'd be dumb enough to do so?" Weiss asked as she eyed the carton, the words TOUCH ME AND DIE, J. B. scribbled onto it in black marker with the caricature of a snarling weasel on the end.
"Oh trust me, I've seen plenty of dumb Humans in my day," Jack waved off as he grabbed a carton of milk, spices, and an electric beater. "And not all of it involved beer," he said as he got to work, cracking eggs one-handed and tossing the shells into the trash with a practiced hand.
"That is… a lot of eggs," Weiss hummed as the bowl filled with many, many eggs.
"Hey, I'm feeding for two here. Two-and-a-half since you'll need lots of energy to fight that bug you caught, so I expect you to eat everything put in front of you," he said adding a generous helping of milk. "Plus you might finally grow some tits," he added as he spooled the beater.
"What was that?"
"Nothing~!" Jack hummed gleefully as he scrambled the eggs.
"Hmph. That isn't what it sounded like," Weiss huffed. Jack, finishing up with the eggs, then withdrew a cut of meat from the fridge, cutting it into long, thick strips, when he then proceeded to smother with syrup and spices, tossing them into the skillet with a loud sizzling noise.
" . . . This doesn't smell like pig bacon," Weiss hummed a moment later as the smell began to wash over her.
"That's 'cause it's Saber Rabbit," Jack answered, the heiress gawking as the image of that enormous man-eating rabbit came to mind. "None of that artificial growth hormone crap like you'll get in Atlas, just all-natural fruits and berries feeding this meat."
"If that thing's an herbivore, why did it have such big teeth?"
"To fight off predators. Since its agility took a hit when it began growing that large, the Saber Rabbit had to evolve into something that could fight its predators off," Jack answered.
"Okay, but how does that facilitate growing to be as large as a bear?" Weiss asked, recalling the sight of Nora scaring Jaune shitless with the Saber Rabbit Pelt she'd been gifted after Jack was done with the meat.
"Its Appetite was simply greater than the obstacles placed before it," Jack said sagely as he turned over the eggs, adding the occasional shake of spices and moving the bacon about.
"So… I have to ask…" Weiss began, deciding to draw away the topic form monstrous rabbits. "Yang seems really taken by you. Smitten even. And yet, you don't reciprocate. Why is that?" she asked, bringing up a topic that had been on her mind for a while now.
"All sorts of reasons," Jack sighed.
"Such as…?"
"Okay, first, dating within the team always ends in disaster," he said raising a finger, thinking back to his time in the White Fang where a perfectly-functioning squad's team dynamic got totally fucked because members on the same team began fucking one another, and thus cared more about their partners than the squad as a whole. "Second, I'm a momma's boy with issues. Lots of issues."
"Understatement of the decade," Weiss hummed, thinking back to all the times Jack's "Mom Button" had been hit, and how-badly it had ended for the guy with the itchy finger.
"Lastly… Yang has her fair share of baggage to unload as well, and I'd be taking advantage of her if I tried pursuing her before she sorted all that out," Jack hummed, thinking back to the time that Yang had confided in him, and the bond it had formed between them.
He'd have to start putting out feelers for Yang's mom. The best place to start was with a picture, but the opportunity never presented itself since when moms came up, Yang avoided touching said topic. Plus, there was no telling how out-of-date any picture of her mother she did happen to have was.
Oh well. Work for another day, he supposed.
"Anyway," he said putting a pin in that. "Until we can both get over our issues, no inter-team dating between Yang and I."
"Ah… I see…" Weiss hummed, feeling a contradictory mix of elation and sadness welling up inside her. 'Wait a minute… am I…?'
"Food's done!" Jack said jovially, derailing that train of thought completely as he placed a plate of food before her. "Preeeeesentinnnnng… Jack Braxton's Fluffy & Spicy Eggs with Candied Saber Rabbit Bacon on the side! Enjoy!"
"Mmmm…"
Weiss, having grown up on the finest food by some of the best chefs in the world, was unimpressed by the aesthetics of the food Jack had made; in short, the meal before her looked rather pedestrian. Apart from the decidedly non-pork-like scent coming off the Saber Rabbit bacon, the eggs, even with spices, still looked ordinary.
However, as the steam coming off the food flitted into her nostrils, that sentiment began to change. Though the food looked unassuming, the smell was utterly captivating, doubly-so when she bit into the eggs, a spicy, fluffiness washing over her as the milk and spices mingled atop her tongue, only further complimented by the sweet & spicy tang of the syrup-and-spice-covered Saber Rabbit belly meat.
The growling of her stomach, something she had taken for granted in an environment where that sort of expression was frowned upon, caused a smile to tug at Jack's face as the heiress dug into her meal with gusto, looking for all intents and purposes like any other girl wolfing down a delicious meal without worry for her waistline.
It was nice to see her cut loose like this.
*NEW WORLD*
"So… What do you want to do now?" Weiss asked, feeling a bit better now that she had some food in her stomach.
She was just glad Jack hadn't decided to take any blackmail photos, because the way she'd conducted herself at breakfast was rather… unseemly.
" . . . Well, in theory, training with your spirit shouldn't make your body sick, so you could work on your Semblance, I guess," Jack shrugged as he stepped out of the closet, clad in his Gourmet Hunter gear. "You sit tight, here. I'll be right back. Need to grab a couple things from the woods."
"Wait, you're leaving me alone?"
"I can't get your training aid if I stay here, now can I?" Jack asked in turn.
"Training aid…?"
"Trust me, it'll be a big help," Jack said with a smile. "If you need me, just call me on your Scroll and I'll come running."
"But wait! I don't have your number!" Weiss said, causing the Faunus to stop mid-step.
"Well… Guess we'll just have to fix that, huh?" Jack asked. Holding out his hand, Weiss passed along her Scroll, the Faunus taking his own and placing them back to back. A few button taps and a progress bar reflecting in his jade-colored eyes, after a few moments the transfer was complete, and Weiss' Scroll was tossed back to her. "There you go. I put my number in your speed dial. Now you can call me whenever you feel like it."
"I quiver in anticipation," Weiss quipped sarcastically.
"That's the spirit," Jack nodded. "Now, while I'm gone, why don't you settle down for a nice nap?" he asked, tucking Weiss in before she could answer. "Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it, you just worry about getting well," he said cutting off all protests as he drew the curtains and killed the lights.
"O… kay…" Weiss sighed, realizing she was more-tired than she'd thought. "Stay… safe…"
*NEW WORLD*
"Weiss~"
" . . . "
"Weiiiss~"
"Mmmgh . . . "
"Oh Weiiisssssss~"
"Go'way… Sleepy…"
"RISE AND SHINE SLEEPING BEAUTY!"
*CLAP!*
"AAUUUGH!" Weiss shrieked as the shockwave from the gale-force "thunder" clap violently, nay, murderously roused her from her slumber.
"Oh good, you didn't die while I was out. Nice."
"What on Remnant is wrong with you!?" Weiss shrieked, ears still ringing. "Couldn't you see I was sleeping?!"
"I did, but if I let you sleep, your body clock would be thrown out of whack and you wouldn't be able to sleep before school tomorrow."
" . . . You didn't have to be so rough…" she pouted after a moment.
"That's nice," Jack nodded plainly.
"So… You really went to town, huh?" she asked looking at the bag slung over his shoulder, stuffed to the brim with wild Ingredients.
Way more than any two people could sensibly eat.
"No you dope, I went to the forest."
"That is not what I-"
"Anywho, I got you something," he said holding up a shoebox in one hand, a survival knife in the other which he tossed to her.
"Do I even want to know what's in the box?" Weiss asked with a raised brow, the girl nearly jumping out of her skin with an- "AAAAAGH!" -as the box jostled from within atop the Faunus' hand.
"Quit screaming! The box's content won't matter in a minute," Jack said as he took a seat on the shelf between hers and Blake's beds. Popping the claw in his index finger and raking it across the top of the box, the Faunus reached in before pulling out-
"VERMIIIIIIIIIN!" Weiss screamed as an enormous rat-shaped Grimm, aka "Vermin", was drawn into view.
Its fur completely jet black, the entirety of its head was enclosed in a skull-shaped carapace, its tail long and bony, with tiny bone plates on its shoulders and hips. The Grimm chomping at the air as Jack held its body, Weiss saw that its ankles were bound with thick twine, preventing it from clawing at the Faunus' hand.
"Yes, it's a Vermin," Jack said plainly as the Grimm struggled in his hand. "And you are going to use it for Summoning practice."
"But why would I want to use that?" Weiss asked indignantly.
"If a larger, stronger Grimm is harder to summon, than the inverse must also be true," Jack answered matter-of-factly like it were the most-logical thing in the world. "Since this one is uninjured, once you kill it, it'll retain its full strength whenever you summon it in the future. And let me tell you, catching this thing without killing it was a bitch and a half."
"But when would I ever want to Summon something like that?" she asked distastefully as she reiterated her previous inquiry.
"Hey, don't diss the idea so-quickly. These little guys can chew through concrete and even steel, not to mention they can squeeze through really small places and are pretty good swimmers. It might not be the most glamorous kinda Grimm to Summon, but it'll definitely get you out of a tough bind if you can summon Splinter without anyone noticing."
"You named him?!" Weiss gawked. "Also, why Splinter?"
"Because I got a splinter while trying to catch him, duh," Jack answered flatly. "Now, take that knife, and kill this thing!" he said holding it out to Weiss by its bony tail, the Grimm flailing about.
"And what if I say no?" the heiress asked as the Grimm tried to take a bite out of his fingers.
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
The stare-down between the two went on for a full minute before the stalemate was brought to a forceful end.
"Whoops!" Jack suddenly said tossing the Vermin into the air,.
"EYAAAAAGH!" Weiss cried as beady red eyes bored into her own, the heiress gripping the knife and thrusting the knife upward, impaling the Vermin against the bed board with a *SHUNK*.
"Wow. Nice aim," Jack complimented as the Vermin began to evaporate.
*Whop*
"EWWWWWW!" Weiss shrieked as the flesh and bone impaled by the knife evaporated away first, the Grimm dropping right into her lap. "GROSSGROSSGROSSGROSSGROSS!" the heiress shrieked as she tried to toss it away.
"Look at it!" Jack said grabbing the back of her head and forcing her gaze forward. "Look at it and don't look away!" he said holding her eye open with the other hand. "Acknowledge the life you've taken! Never forget! Even if it's a Grimm, don't forget! That's the whole point, isn't it?"
"So… So gross…" Weiss shuddered as the Grimm continued to evaporate right in her lap.
A minute later and the last scrap of flesh and bone completely decomposed, the Faunus moving over to the side and opening up a window.
"There. That wasn't so bad, now was it?"
*WHAP!*
*NEW WORLD*
"You didn't have to slap me, you know…" Jack said nursing a hand-shaped print on his cheek a minute later.
"Consider it payback for the rude wakeup call," Weiss stated as she shook her sore hand.
"Alright, I concede, I did kinda deserve that," Jack said rubbing the print on his cheek, a halo of crimson Aura shining beneath his palm until the mark disappeared.
"That you did," Weiss hummed, looking up at the knife still-impaled in the underside of Ruby's bed before turning her gaze to an upturned palm, willing a small sword-laden Glyph to appear. " . . . Summon," she intoned aloud in an experimental tone.
A flurry of snow-colored light spilling upward, momentarily blinding her, a palette-swapped version of the Grimm she'd just slain appeared in her waiting palm, the heiress cupping both hands beneath the newfound weight. In comparison to its ravenous counterpart moments before, this one was absolutely tame; some would even dare to venture, cute, as it sat on its haunches, nose twitching as it looked up at her expectantly.
" . . . Huh…" she hummed after a few moments.
"What?"
"It's just… I'd been having trouble with this for so long, so to finally succeed now…" the heiress trailed off as she set the Summon down, letting it scurry atop the bed and then the rest of the room. " . . . Was I aiming too high?" she asked herself.
"Too high with what?"
"Oh, right, I never told you," Weiss realized. "Before I came to Beacon, my father arranged a final test for me when he learned I wouldn't be attending Atlas Academy."
"I assume the cards were not in your favor."
"Not in the slightest, but that's what made victory all the sweeter," Weiss admitted. "The Arma Gigas I fought, it was comparable in strength to a mecha-suit, and being possessed by Grimm, the armor that was being possessed was made significantly stronger," she began, her hand going to the scar over her eye.
"When you say mecha-suit, are you talking military, or industrial?"
"I've never seen an industrial mecha-suit first-hand, so I'll assume military?" Weiss said as more of a question, thinking back to the demos she'd witnessed when the SDC would roll out new product onto the market. "Anyway, ever since that battle, between referencing books on Hereditary Semblance and Winter's notes, I'd been trying to summon it, but had no luck for the longest time. When Whitley was able to Summon so-easily I'd almost lost hope, but having everything put into context like this…" she said watching "Splinter" out the corner of her eye. " . . . Yes… Maybe I was aiming a little high for my first Summon. You can't run before you can walk, after all," she realized.
"Well that's an understatement," Jack nodded. "I've fought a few of those things in the past, and let me tell you, depending on what armor they possess, they can be damn terrifying."
"You've fought Arma Gigas before?"
"Regular Joes call them 'Possessed Armor', but yeah, I've fought Grimm-possessed suits of armor before," Jack answered. "Sometimes a Geist will take over rocks, or trees, or both. One time a whole haunting of them possessed an old house out in the woods, I literally had to dive into the belly of the beast to beat it."
"A whole house?" Weiss asked half-shocked, half-incredulous.
"Well, I mean it wasn't just one possessing the house. Like I said, it was several of them, spreading the work-load, which was what made it especially trying to deal with," Jack hummed, thinking back to the undulating floors, the flying furniture courtesy of lesser Grimm, and of course, that the bone-chill utterly sapped his strength.
"Hm. Yes. The one I fought was also possessed by several… I'm such an idiot!" she suddenly gaped.
"Won't disagree with you, but why?"
Shooting him a cross look, the heiress let out a sigh before continuing.
"All this time I've been trying to summon the Arma Gigas like it was a single entity, when I'd completely overlooked the fact it was multiple, a haunting of Geist possessing that suit of armor," she said as it dawned on her. "I was so-focused on the memory of what I was fighting, I let the subtler details slip my mind."
"Well, like I'm sure your sister has told you before, Semblance, even Hereditary, are like muscles. The more you train them, the stronger they'll get. Think of managing to Summon Splinter as a light warmup before the 50-meter dash," Jack stated. "Now that you have real success to build on, you can work your way up to bigger and bigger Grimm, and then your Summoning will be really terrifying."
"I prefer the term awe-inspiring," Weiss countered. "Being terrifying is your thing."
"Hey, just because you want respect doesn't mean you can't be feared as well," Jack chuckled.
"I guess so," Weiss nodded. "Oh, and Jack… Thanks. And sorry for slapping you."
"Hey, no big deal. Isn't the first time I've been slapped by a woman," the Faunus chuckled with a cheeky grin.
"Well of course it isn't. You're you," Weiss chuckled with a small grin, before turning her attention back to the Summoned Grimm. Her first Summoned Grimm. " . . . Sic him."
"Dammit, Weiss! This isn't funny!" Jack cried trapping the lunging Grimm between his hands, the snow-white creature chomping at the air in front of it.
"It's kinda funny~" Weiss giggled. *POOF* "AAAAUGH! Splinter! Nooooooo!"
"What are you getting upset about? You can just Summon him again, you know."
"That's beside the point!"
*NEW WORLD*
"Well… Someone's certainly having fun," Jack hummed as he worked ingredients into a bowl and pestle, Weiss sitting up and looking at her desk where a reborn Splinter organized the heiress' school supplies as-commanded.
"Hm, yes, success is quite fun," Weiss hummed with a smile, satisfied she was finally able to summon. While having a Vermin as her first Summon was far from glamorous, a success was a success. One she could readily, and happily, build upon.
"So, what're you going to "capture" next?"
"Hmmm… Maybe a murder of Nevermore?" the heiress answered. "My sister has a substantial collection of them, in far better condition that what my brother wielded, and while individually they aren't all that strong, in a congregated group they can be quite devastating."
"Well, I'm sure if we explain your situation to the Border Patrol, they'll point us toward a rookery or two. You being a Schnee will definitely smooth things along as well, since they aren't too fond of thrill-seekers looking for Grimm for the hell of it," Jack hummed in turn. " . . . What're you even doing over there?"
"I'm seeing how-detailed a set of instructions my Summons are able to follow," Weiss said putting a hand to her temple, once again transmitting thoughts to her Summon. "When I was younger, I had the opportunity to witness Winter commanding Summons with her thoughts alone. I thought doing so myself would be as simple as thinking it, but there are a lot more caveats to it than I initially thought," she said as Splinter began carrying out a different block of instructions, albeit not exactly as-instructed.
"Yes, well, as long as you don't settle for damaged merchandise like your brother, you won't have to worry about becoming a douchebag."
"Harsh but true," Weiss admitted. " . . . Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"There's something I wanted to say to you. For helping me out like this," the heiress said with a soft smile on her face.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
A moment later, Splinter scurried up Jack's bedpost and onto the bed, a folded-up piece of paper held in its mouth. The Faunus plucking the scrap of paper free, Jack gave it a once-over before turning to the side.
"Splinter's handwriting is terrible."
"Read the mood, you dope!" Weiss cried back.
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhere in Beacon…
"It just doesn't feel the same… Weiss not being here and all," Jaune sighed that afternoon at lunch. "Weiss was always so elegant, even as she ate."
"It is a noticeable absence," Pyrrha nodded while Jaune wistfully sighed toward the empty seat Weiss would've occupied.
"Yeah, and Jack's gone too," Nora sighed. "Things are always so exciting when he's around."
"'Exciting' isn't the word I would use," Ren sighed.
When "Jack" ever needed any form of contextual association, most went with "chaos" since he left a trail of it in his wake wherever he went.
"So… whaddya think they're up to?" Ruby asked.
"Who knows. Probably something boring," Blake hummed from her book.
*NEW WORLD*
"Strip."
"WHAT!?"
*NEW WORLD*
"Yeah, you're probably right," Yang hummed in agreement. "Unless…~"
"Unless what?" her partner asked.
"Maybe they're doing something… pervy~?"
"I sincerely doubt that's the case."
*NEW WORLD*
"I'm going to rub some medicine on you."
"Oh…"
"What, did you think I meant something else?"
"N-No! Of course not!"
"Doesn't sound like it."
"Shut up and put your hands on my body!"
*NEW WORLD*
"Yeah, you're probably right. Unless…~" the blond repeated.
"Yang, there is no 'unless' here. Jack and Weiss do not have that sort of relationship," Blake huffed.
"Hey, a girl can daydream, can't she?"
"Yang, I'm… confused," Pyrrha spoke up, with a look on her face to match. "You like Jack, don't you?"
"Yep."
"And you want to date him."
"Also 'yep'."
"And at the same time, you're fantasizing about…"
"An interracial scandalous romantic tryst, yes."
" . . . Why though?" she asked, still confused since she herself was grappling with similar issues.
"Okay, you want the short version? Yes, I do like Jack. Maybe even love him," she stated much to the other's shock since concepts like "love" weren't so-readily dropped by people of their age group in so-serious a tone. "It's just… I'm afraid that even if I do love him… I might not love him enough…"
She wanted to add "to stay" to that "love him enough", but thought better of it since that'd lead to some uncomfortable questions she didn't want Ruby exposed to just yet.
The girl was still blissfully unaware of her elder sister's "mommy issues", and Yang wanted to keep it that way.
"Look, my dad always told me that, barring some really exceptional circumstances, dating within the team always ends in disaster," the blond tacked on.
"So what you're saying is, before you massively alter your team's paradigm, you want to be very certain that any relationship you have with Jack will last long-term and not compromise the integrity or interpersonal relationships of your team?" Ren asked in as many words.
"Yeah, that's exactly why," Yang answered.
At this, Ren could only nod, not buying Yang's answer for a second.
"…You think Jack and Weiss are having downer conversations like this?" Nora asked after a couple minutes.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Not like we'll ever know," Ren hummed as he returned to his meal.
*NEW WORLD*
After the rather embarrassing misunderstanding and Weiss having a bad-smelling salve rubbed into her back, it came time for lunch, courtesy of the Emerald Forest.
"For lunch this afternoon, we have a lovely pan-seared Capture Level 3 Rainbow Salmon accented with lemon accompanied by a medley of steamed mountain vegetables, a side a hearty serving of yogurt with mountain berries, and an assortment of mountain-borne fruit for your tasting pleasure," Jack said in a mockingly upscale tone as he presented their lunch like a sommelier, a lock of hair held up to his lip in effigy of a mustache. "And for your beverage, glistening mountain spring water tapped directly from the source at peak freshness," he said gesturing to a pitcher filled with plastic ice cubes and crystal-clear water.
"Oh my… This looks amazing!" Weiss awed as Jack dropped a garnishing of parsley atop the salmon. "Though you didn't need to be so snobbish about it," she pouted at his mocking tone.
"Hey, I'm just giving you a little taste of home," Jack shrugged.
"Yeah, well…" Weiss trailed off. "Some of us came to Beacon to get away from home…" she muttered to herself.
"You know I can totally hear that, right?"
"Shut up and eat your lunch," Weiss huffed as she bit into the Rainbow Salmon and mountain vegetables, feeling her body surge with strength as it fought off her illness. "Jack…?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you become so strong?" she asked sipping her spring water.
"There's no big secret. Hard work and plenty of it," Jack answered between bites. "You city kids in your walled-off towns can choose to become strong, but for those of us not-as-fortunate to have high walls, guards, and auto-turrets doing the heavy lifting for us, we have to become strong. A day out there's worth a week in this place, so that means I get more mileage out of my training," he elaborated. "Hell, with how-low they've set the bar as of late, I could probably pass my final-year exams and become a Hunter right now?"
"Why don't you then?" Weiss asked. "And what makes you think you could become a fully-fledged Huntsman right now anyway?"
"The reason I don't is because four years of free room and board is something you can only enjoy when you're young or retired. As for the other thing, if the Rogue Hunters I've fought and/or killed are anything to go by, it's that they've lowered the bar more and more since the days of Jaune's grandfather so they could have a greater quantity of warm bodies out in the Frontier with an 'acceptable' decline in quantity," Jack answered, thinking back to all the bounties he'd claimed because he happened to be in the right place at the right time. "I'm just glad these schools pump out truly exceptional Hunters every couple years, otherwise we'd all be fucked."
Just because a Village had a Hunter on-site didn't mean it was safe. Not if they were complete shit at their jobs.
"Are there really Hunter Academy graduates as weak as you say there are?" Weiss asked, worriedly.
"Well, for me, 'weak' as a metric might be 'strong' from your perspective," Jack said stabbing his claw into a wild strawberry and holding it up. "However, give a guy a 'force field' for long-enough and he'll get really full of himself. Not that I'm complaining, I've made scads of money off guys like that. Gotta love that Human arrogance; padding my bank account since my mid-teens."
"Well that's… sobering…" Weiss hummed, the pace of her eating slowed.
"If you think that's sobering, wait 'til I tell you about the time I slaughtered an entire village," Jack chuckled darkly as he bit into an apple with sharp teeth. "I mean, I didn't slaughter everyone, just the rapists, but still!"
"It sounds like the Frontier outside the Kingdom Walls is an utter hell," Weiss said, her appetite waning only for her stomach to disagree.
"Which is why they can sucker you with elevated taxes whenever they feel like it," Jack shrugged noncommittally as he ate.
" . . . Hey Jack, can I ask you something else?" Weiss asked after a tense moment.
"Sure. What?"
"Why… did you erase everyone's memories yesterda-"
*PTOOOOOOO!*
"You remember that?!"
"Ugh! You can answer me later! Just grab me a towel, you dope!"
*NEW WORLD*
Suffice it to say, spring water tapped fresh from the source was not pleasant when made into backwash-in-projectile-form.
"Okay, first: WHAT! Second: THE FUCK?!"
Good thing they were back in their room, otherwise half of Beacon would've heard this outburst.
"Nice to see you're calm about all this."
"How the heck do you remember any of that? In case you don't remember, ironically, I dusted you guys yesterday."
"Yes, well, after that little mishap with Ruby before school even started, I've been really paranoid about Dust Explosions going off in my face," Weiss sighed thinking back to one of her more-awkward moments. "When I saw you raising that tin above your head, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I retreated to the back of the group. I got hit by the smallest amount of it, so while I forgot some of the nonsense, I didn't forget about the greater multiverse being revealed as fact."
"Well, at least you remembered. If it were anyone else, they might not have the good sense to keep quiet about it," Jack sighed, wondering how he could salvage this whole fiasco.
The reason he didn't tell anyone in the White Fang, especially Adam, about what happened during his own extradimensional adventure is because no-one would believe him. Sure, there was a lot of weird shit out in the Frontier that no-one could explain, but he had been working consecutive shifts in-succession up to that point, and no-one (living) was there to witness him "leaving the building". Suffice it to say, despite whatever evidence to the contrary he was able to bring back, claiming you got sucked into another dimension via "wormhole in the sky" was the kind of shit you got committed for.
"Even if someone did say something, would anyone believe them?"
"You need to be less-worried about the people that don't over the people that do," Jack said rubbing his eyes.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because there is some really freaky shit out there," Jack said jerking his head out the window toward the mountains in the distance.
"Like what?"
"Really. Freaky. Shit," Jack shuddered, thinking back to all the creepy, fucked up, Eldritch shit he'd ever encountered.
"Like what?" the heiress repeated.
"Like a male skeleton in bed with a female clothing store mannequin, and in the ensuite, a trio of male clothing store mannequins holding knives over a female skeleton in a tub of murky water."
"I… I… I can't even tell if you're joking or not…"
"I wish I were, Weiss. I wish I were," Jack shuddered. "And that isn't even counting the cults I've had the misfortune of running into. You claim a grilled cheese has magic powers to desperate-enough people, and they'll worship just about anything."
You wander around Ghost Villages long-enough and you see some really up-fucked shit.
"Okay… Moving on…" Weiss said trying to purge that rather disturbing imagery from her thoughts. "Why was it so-important you erase our memories? Don't you trust us?"
"Weiss, let me tell you a little something about the multiverse," Jack stated in turn. "There's an infinite amount of ways things can go wrong, and only one where everyone gets a 'happily ever after' at the end. You yutzes only knew about the multiverse for a few minutes and you were already coming apart at the seams. Do you really think you'd all be able to go about your everyday lives, happy as you are, if you had to cope with the insignificance of your own meager existence?"
"Oh, like you can?"
"I have to," Jack answered, causing Weiss' snark to stop short. "I didn't ask to get dragged down that badger hole, but I did, and I have to live with it. Live with knowing how no matter what I do in life, in the end it all amounts to nothing because there's an infinite number of 'me' that are able to do it better, or an infinite number of 'me' that simply have it better, and that I'm possibly one of the infinite number of 'me' that don't get their happy ending. That no matter how hard I try in the end I'm going to fail, or that if I succeed there's going to be an infinite number of 'me' that fail in my stead."
"Wow, that's… an impossibly-heavy burden to bear…" Weiss realized with wide eyes.
"Why do you think I'm so fucked-up in the head?" Jack asked, a finger-gun to his head blowing his metaphorical brains out. "You know why they say 'ignorance is bliss'? It's because of shit like this. Because some people can't handle the truth."
When confronted with the insignificance of one's own existence, some people had a complete and total psychotic breakdown.
It was not a pretty picture.
"So… you've carried this burden… all this time?"
"Only for a year or two," Jack waved off. "Still, since memory-altering drugs don't seem to work on me anymore, I'm going to have to live with this for either the rest of my life, or until I get so old and senile I can't remember anything from 'the good old days'. Assuming I live long enough to go senile."
"Well… I guess this means you aren't alone anymore."
"Hah?"
"Because this is a weight you and I will just have to bear together," Weiss said, a soft smile on her face.
"Take the out."
"What?"
"Take the out, Weiss. You'll be a lot happier that way."
"Damnit, Jack! This isn't about me being happy! It's about doing what's right, for my friends! For you!" the heiress asserted.
" . . . Well when you put it like that, I really can't take away those memories, now can I?"
"Not like you could. You're all out of Amnesia Dust."
"There's more than one way to skin a cat, Weiss."
"Huh?"
"Nothing," Jack sighed, realizing Weiss wasn't going to budge on this.
*NEW WORLD*
"Well… despite my illness and… other setbacks…" Weiss shuddered thinking back to the dead Grimm that'd literally fallen into her lap and the rather 'downer' thoughts about one's insignificance in comparison to the rest of the multiverse, "I think the day has been pretty productive so far," she finished as she and Jack continued to work on the day's homework assignments as the details were texted their way from the forward party.
No need to wait the whole day to get started on it.
"Yep. Your face has a lot more color to it now," Jack nodded, scrawling at his Plasmology essay.
"Yes, and I feel better too. I really appreciate you taking care of me."
"It's no big deal. I'm sure back home you had whole legions of maids and butlers following your every whim."
"Maybe, but it was their job to take care of me. You volunteered without expecting anything in return. Well… not not 'anything'… but you know what I mean."
"Right."
"Still though… I'm so excited! I finally managed to Summon! Oh, I can't wait to show Winter!"
"Get a few more Grimm in the stables before you get too excited. A lone Vermin a Summoner does not make," Jack waved down. "If you really want to impress her… I think I might be able to help with that," he said with a devious grin on his face.
"I'm not sure I like that look on your face…" Weiss trailed off. "What are you cooking up this time?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now, just focus on getting well," Jack said turning back to his schoolwork.
*NEW WORLD*
"Strip."
"You keep that smelly gunk away from me!" Weiss yelped, pressing herself to the far wall.
"Relax, no more 'smelly medicine'," Jack assuaged, only slightly offended by the jab at the fruits of his hard work. "But no, seriously, strip."
"I-I-I-I do not consent-"
"I'm going to give you a deep-tissue massage."
"Oh…"
"Did you think I meant something else that time?" Jack chuckled with a raised brow.
" . . . Fine. I'll strip. But you'd better turn around," Weiss said turning her own back to him. "Also, I'll have you know, no ordinary massage will do. I've been worked over by the most-skilled and articulate hands in Atlas," she said haughtily.
"Uh, phrasing?" Jack quipped, causing Weiss to flush beet red as she pulled her nightgown over her head, laying face-down on her bed in nothing but her panties a moment later.
"I mean it. If you can't perform, I'll ruin you," the heiress said mirthfully.
"Oh, I'm always ready to perform~" Jack said with a waggle of his brow, only for Weiss to chuff in his direction. "No, but in all seriousness, you're very trusting about me asking you to take off your clothes," he stated, a bit of surprise in his tone. "I thought you'd be a real prude about it, to be honest."
"Yes, well, since we're going to be teammates for the next four years, seeing one another in the buff is… inevitable, I suppose," Weiss admitted. "However, I will hurt you if you try anything untoward towards me," she warned, an icy glare pointed his way. "The only reason I'm acquiescing to this is for medicinal purposes only, and deep-tissue massages have always helped my disposition."
"Well, to be honest, 'deep-tissue' is a bit of a misnomer," Jack admitted. "What I'm really going to be doing is using my Aura to smooth out the flow of Aura inside your body to help facilitate your recovery."
"You can really do that?" Weiss asked with wide eyes and jolting up from her pillow, only to clap her hands on her breasts and dive back down.
"To an extent," Jack shrugged, completely nonplussed; subconsciously to Weiss' ire. "When Aura flows through the Meridians or Ley Lines or Circuits or whatever you want to call them, that means your body and spirit are healthy. However, when either one of those things is out of balance, the flow of spiritual energy can become… messy."
"Messy?"
"I mean… If you imagine the flow of Aura through your body like water in a river, because real life is messy, the water doesn't always flow smoothly because lots of random crap gets in and clogs it up at placces," he attempted to explain. "By the same measure, when you're sick or in distress, the Aura in your body can thicken, or congeal in certain parts of your body," he elaborated. "However, because Aura is metaphysical in nature, science-based medicines can't help. That's where esoteric knowledge like this really shines, even in the modern world."
"So, if you 'smooth out' the flow of Aura through my body, I'll get better?" Weiss asked. "I don't really feel like my Aura isn't flowing smoothly."
"Do you ever feel the blood coursing through your veins? Or the synapses dancing across the neurons in your brain?" Jack asked, the heiress shaking her head. "That's exactly it. Your Aura is such a part of you that, even when its unbalanced, unless you've attained balance, you won't notice."
"Oh, so you've attained 'balance'?" Weiss asked with a raised brow and a sarcastic wit, thinking back to every time his Rage Button had been sufficiently depressed.
"Only very briefly, and I was hopped up on a lot of herbal relaxants," Jack answered to her skepticism. "Like, enough herbal relaxants to knock out a small village."
And he wasn't lying either. He needed to be hopped up on a lot of drugs to get past what happened to his mother even briefly.
"Because of course you can handle that much," Weiss sighed tiredly.
"The point I'm trying to make is, what happens to one affects the other. Even if your body from a mechanical standpoint is healthy, if your spirit is weary, you'll feel fatigued. In turn, if your body is fatigued, your spirit will grow weak."
"So then… What does it look like? Seeing Aura?" she asked curiously.
"It's like… looking at fire," Jack answered. "All the people and animals and plants have a little of it in them. At a passing glance it's like they're bathed in it, but if I really focus, I can actually see the flow."
"And that's what you'll use on me?" Weiss asked, feeling a little bit vulnerable.
"Relax. Aura Vision isn't the same as X-Ray Vision. You don't have to worry about me seeing you naked," Jack chuckled, pulling up a chair to the bedside. "Well, more than I already have," he added, only to get a playful slap in the face with the heiress' pillow.
"Don't make me regret trusting you," Weiss stated as she shifted atop the bed, hiking the covers over her bare buttocks out of habit as she buried her face into her pillow.
"You won't regret it."
Jack, closing his eyes, let everything else fade away, the sound, sight, smell, and taste of the world around him dimming darker and darker until everything went black.
Snow-white flames piercing the darkness, bathing his "third eye" in light, Jack beheld the petite silhouette of his teammate. "Squinting" his "third eye", the flames that "bathed" Weiss began to peel away, revealing the tiny rivulets of fire flowing underneath.
Eyes roving the ebbs and floes of spiritual energy beneath his fingertips as his hands descended towards her, extending his middle and index fingers, Jack traced the meridians flowing through Weiss' body until he found a node in the small of her back where the flow had begun to stagnate, affecting the floes that followed in its wake. Stretching out his arms toward her, fingertips forming a fine point, when the quartet of fingertips found Weiss' ivory-colored skin the girl yelped with a cute- "Eep!" -and shuddered beneath the unfamiliar touch.
Back in Atlas, the masseurs that handled her aches and pains had soft, supple hands; hands that had never known a hard day's work in their entire lives. So to have rough, calloused fingers pressing against her own soft, flawless skin was a sensation she was wholly unprepared for
"I… I'm fine… Keep going," Weiss breathed out between the sparks tingling her skin. 'Is this what they mean by 'skinship'?' she questioned. 'Is this what Yang aims for…?'
Jack, nodding his head, focused his attention back on his patient, unaware of her thoughts.
Rivulets of crimson fire coming into view from his own arms, Jack pressed his fingers firmly into Weiss' back and "injected" his Aura it into her own, tongues of red mixing with white causing the tangled-up node to become unraveled, a surge of new energy flowing through the heiress' spiritual body.
"Hyaun!"
"H-Huh?!" Jack gawped.
"Keep… Keep going…"
"O… Okay…"
Finding another clogged node by her right shoulder blade, Jack repeated what he'd done before, the flow of snow-colored fire through her body turning more vibrant as little by little, he cleared out the "mess" in the heiress' spiritual body.
Finding his rhythm, Jack began his work, heedless of any… distraction.
"This… feels so good…" Weiss panted as her toes began to curl. "I can't believe… you can make me feel this good… just by touching…!" she gasped as a particularly thick node came uncorded, her back arching. "It feels like something… is flowing inside my body…!"
"Uh, phrasing…?"
"Shut up and touch me more!" the heiress ordered firmly.
'I… think I might've just heard something I have no business hearing…' Jack thought to himself as he continued his ministrations, the heiress' body filling with renewed vitality as he freed up her congealed spiritual energy, the girl squirming and writhing under his touch. 'Whoever she marries someday better be able to do this too, otherwise I am just ruining her for other men.'
But that was a story for another day.
*NEW WORLD*
"That… *pant* was… *pant* amazing~" Weiss purred, face buried into her pillow as she flopped out across her bed in a very unladylike manner, all the tension in her body completely gone.
"Yes, that's… one word for it," Jack hummed awkwardly, back turned to her as he pulled the covers back over her buttocks from when he'd freed up the nodes in her calves and thighs.
With her express permission of course.
"Hey um… Weiss… We're just going to keep this our own little secret, right?"
"What!? Are you kidding?! I want everyone to feel like this! This wonderful skinship I am beholden to!" Weiss said excitedly, scrambling around for her Scroll, heedless of any and all nudity. "I'd be absolutely remiss to hoard this nirvana all to myself," she sighed wistfully.
'Okay, I get that cleansing her Meridians or whatever is meant to have a therapeutic effect, but isn't this a bit much?' Jack asked before chopping her atop the head. "Weiss, calm your tits for a moment and think about it. If everyone found out about this… doesn't that mean you'd get to feel this way less and less?"
It was an ass-pull to be sure, but at the moment it was all he had.
" . . . We can't tell anyone about this," Weiss said seriously as she dressed herself.
"Glad you know me so well," Jack sighed happy Weiss innate heiress selfishness wasn't totally gone.
It was one thing to hear the words coming out of Weiss mouth, but if he heard stuff like that coming from any of the other girls on his team, Ruby being the "adorable little sister with a boyfriend", Blake being the "girl next door he'd bathed with as children", and Yang being… well… the girl he was debating whether or not it'd be ethical to romantically pursue her or not…
Call him the can-opener, because he was opening up many proverbial cans of worms.
Then again, he was rooming with four girls in a co-ed dormitory, so that was just par for the course.
*NEW WORLD*
"Third-period homework assignment… sent," Ruby nodded after third block.
"And after this, all we have left is gym," Yang nodded casually. "Still, couldn't we just give them their homework at the end of the day? Like normal people?"
"No need to wait the whole day to get started on it," Blake chimed in.
"Yeah, that's fair."
"If any of us ever get sick, we should probably do that too," Jaune hummed.
"Not it!" Nora whooped.
"I wouldn't trust you to do this anyway," Jaune hummed.
Deep down, even though she was a beast on the fighting room floor, Jaune thought Nora was a bit of a spaz sometimes.
How Ren wasn't ripping his hair out over her… Guy must've had the patience of a saint.
*NEW WORLD*
"Well… You're certainly having fun," Jack hummed off to the side as he watched Weiss practice her newly-awakened proficiency Summoning; infantile it may be.
At first Weiss practiced exclusively with "Splinter". As the first Grimm she'd summoned, now that she could Summon, the next step was to work on the summoning itself.
So, like training a muscle, Weiss repeatedly summoned and dismissed the Vermin, over and over again. To the untrained eye it might've looked like nothing was really changing, but Jack's eyes were far from untrained so he was able to see that with each repetition, the time it took to summon, the time required to dismiss, and the lag before she could summon again was getting smaller and smaller, little by little.
Sure, the timing would obviously be different for larger, stronger Grimm and the Glyphs would have to be more-intricate and more energy would have to be spent, but she'd only been able to summon reliably for a day. She could afford to take her time with some low-risk training. Especially in school where room and board were provided, thus freeing her up from having to work for a living.
Part of the reason why some Hunters stagnated early-on in their careers after graduating was because they had to spend so much time struggling to make ends meet, they couldn't dedicate any time to actually growing stronger through training or auxiliary study.
Just like ammo, weapons, clothing, and food, time was also a "resource" that needed careful management.
All the money in the world can't buy you even one more second of time.
"I think I'm starting to understand what Winter meant, more and more," Weiss hummed as she once again summoned Splinter, this time only requiring five seconds to do so.
If she could obscure the Glyph somehow, she could compensate for how "showy" it was.
Then again, since the Summoning Glyphs lit Weiss up like a bright neon sign, both figuratively and literally, that was easier said than done.
Like has been said for ages. Baby steps.
"Well, I'm glad you're having fun with your new toy," Jack hummed as he worked on Roland's assignment. "Still, if you don't want to spend the rest of the evening until bed working on homework, maybe you should set the rat down and get started."
"Yes, I suppose you're right," Weiss sighed, dismissing her Summon one more time before gathering her school supplies and getting to the boring work. "I can work on summoning larger Grimm later, I suppose."
Even Weiss could think schoolwork was boring when presented with a more-entertaining alternative.
*NEW WORLD*
"Death by red rubber…"
"Jaune, you've been moaning that for the last ten minutes. Give it a rest, will ya?" Yang sighed tiredly, both teams making their way back to the dorms after the game of "Death by Dodgeball" Brick had subjected them to.
At any other school, a buff-as-hell gym teacher beaning students with rubber dodgeballs would be considered abuse, or power harassment, or any number of things. But at a Hunter academy where the students of that course would be fighting monster, learning how to "dodge" was something that could only be learned while being on the defensive.
Hence, Brick spent most of the class period beaning everyone with dodgeballs.
Now, normally this wouldn't be so bad, they had Aura to protect them. However, when the guy throwing the balls had arms as thick as tree trunks and weighed as much as a small automobile, that Aura got chipped away pretty quickly, leaving everyone involved covered in bruises by the end of the day.
"Did we even learn anything from all that?" Blake asked.
"We learned the 5 Ds of Dodgeball…" Ruby moaned, rubbing the bruise forming across her stomach. "Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge."
"You said 'dodge' twice."
"It could be worse," Ren hummed. "He could've started by throwing wrenches at us."
"Well that seemed… oddly specific," Pyrrha hummed.
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball," Nora hummed, even her exuberant energy depleted.
"That was even more weirdly specific," the red-head hummed.
*Creak*
*Creak*
*Creak*
*Creak*
"Um… Guys… What's that noise?" Ruby asked, a hand to her ear.
"It's coming from our room," Yang realized.
The two teams approaching the door and pressing their ears to it, their faces began to flush in response to the muffled words that greeted them.
"Jack… I can't… I can't hold on any longer," Weiss gasped amidst the creaking of furniture.
"Don't worry, Weiss! I'm right here beside you!"
The next moment there was a large *THUMP* against the nearby wall, books falling to the floor from an overhead shelf accompanied by a feminine- "Ahn!"
"Whoa momma that's hot," Nora whistled.
"What… When… How…?" Jaune stammered.
"Well, when Jack said he was going to take care of Weiss, he really meant it," Yang nodded, a mix between pride and regret sounding in her tone.
"Should we… Should we come back later?" Pyrrha asked as furniture rattled just beyond the door.
"Do we even want to come back later?" Blake asked as she heard a desk lamp getting knocked over, the images of the two of them "getting their freak on" filling her mind.
"It sounds like they're getting their freak on."
"Nora…"
"When… When did the two of them get this close?" Jaune gaped.
"Maybe… it's the Florence Nightingale Effect?" Pyrrha postulated.
"No, that's when the caregiver develops romantic feelings for the patient," Blake interjected. "The opposite is 'transference'."
"Oh."
The next moment a chair scraped across the floor.
"I'm not cleaning that up," Ruby stated, growing a little flushed in the face as she backed away from the door, squirming uncomfortably.
"Not it."
"Not i-Crap!" Yang swore.
" . . . Well! Good luck with that!" Nora said with a wave of her hand as she strode to her room.
"Wait, we can't leave yet!" Jaune cried.
"Why not? Not like we have a dog in this fight," Nora hummed as she went for the knob, washing her hands of the whole thing once it stopped amusing her.
"Well… I'm going to get started on my homework," Ren hummed washing his hands of that conversation as well.
"Jaune…" Pyrrha said, her hand to his shoulder; the affections he held for the currently-ill member of Team RWBBY was no real secret. "I…"
The next moment there was a pained, anguished shriek from the other side of the door, Jaune's shoes scuffing the floor as he snatched Ruby's Scroll from her side and dove for the door.
A moment later, said door came off its hinges as a large Boarbatusk-like creature, colored like freshly fallen snow, barreled through it, completely flattening Jaune.
"Weiss! Hang on!" Jack cried, belly-down atop the Grimm-like creature as he held onto it by its tusks.
"I'm…! Trying…!" the heiress growled in turn, belly-down atop Jack's back and holding onto the tusks as well.
"GANG WAAAAAAAY!" Ruby cried as she dove to the side, the Boarbatusk-like creature swinging its head and bucking its legs, leaving a ruined room in its wake as it ran into the hall, flanks crashing into the walls.
"Whoa! Who brought home the bacon!" Yang cried out in shock.
"Okay, that one was pretty good," Blake conceded.
"Yes!" Yang whooped, pumping a fist.
"Stop, Bacon Bits!" Weiss pleaded as the creature galloped down the hall.
"You named it that?!" Jack yelped.
"It seemed appropriate!"
"Weiss, that's fucking dark! I know that pigs will happily eat bacon but still!"
"Hey, what's all the noise out here!?" Vincent demanded, stepping out of his room at the end of the hall. "OH CRAP!" he yelped, eyes going wide as the Grimm and its passengers barreled towards him. Hands of flesh and chrome grabbing onto its tusks, riding boots squealing against the hardwood floor before a buck of the Summoned Grimm's neck threw him overhead, Weiss yelping as she was sandwiched between the two young men.
A few seconds later and the wild Summon dove through the window at the end of the hall, taking its screaming passengers along for the ride.
Nora, who poked her head out JNPR's door the moment RWBBY's door came down, decided to make her thoughts on the matter known.
"Oh. So they weren't getting their freak on," Nora whined like someone who'd lost out on something interesting. "Don't worry, Jaune. Maybe next time it'll be you in there."
"Don't patronize me," he moaned from beneath the collapsed door.
"I'll call the RA," Yang sighed.
"The RA just went out the window," Blake stated.
"Crapbaskets," Ruby moaned as she looked into their room.
Whole place looked like a tornado came through there.