Jaune felt his grip tighten against the hilt of Crocea Mors. Most of his energy was drained from the firm end of Pyrrha's boot pushing him away. It did not take much to show that the two's skills were on separate levels. To add insult to injury Pyrrha was only using the circular shield that she would adorn in combat against him and she was still winning. Though to his shock it looked like he may be winning since the way Filia's home dimension seemed to operate relied more on the adrenaline rush from a startling flurry of attacks. Course worlds like this love an underdog story. One he was not going to have as Pryyha's shield came flying into the air bashing him square in the face. He went dazed to the lights and triplets that circled him.
His sparring partner cover her mouth in shock as she dashed to his side in unexpected concern. Sliding down and looking at his face. He was by no means an unattractive person though the blood gushing from his nose certainly made him look bad, notably from the smooth moves he had played on her to humorous effect day one at Beacon. She smiled when he saw him give the same happy to see you grin that added to his natural charm. He slowly tilted himself up to look at the other two members of their team.
Their martial artists master, Lie Ren, stood there seemingly impartial to the performance briefly though through the time the group had bonded together it was easy to tell that it was one of their leaders more exceptional spars. Nora, the team's berserker for lack of better terms seemed much more preoccupied slowly keeping her right leg from shaking. In truth this was not one of Jaune's regular sparring matches. After what Happened in Maplecrest Highschool's fight club the leader of Team JNPR concluded that they were going to use this world to help train a skill they did not expect needed so much training, control of their excitement. It only took a Sub-Machine gun dubbed by one of their tour guides as a "Tommy-Gun" for them to decide they should not be fighting. All of them Nora especially after the incident agreed that they did not want one of them succumbing to one of this world's styles of warrior's madness.
"Okay, I think it's safe to say Ren is arguably the least affected." Jaune concluded standing up and touching his nose to see if it was broken. His sinuses reeked of blood, but it did not appear to be broken. "Nora and you Pyyrha have a long way to go."
The red head nodded in agreement looking over the shield. She usually never aims for brutal strikes less they were against the Grimm of their home world. Here however she showed no hesitation toward the relentless kicks to push him back before bashing him dead on with it. "Sorry." She responded. Despite being criticized over her effectiveness this new world helped show that she may not be as well prepared as the school lead the world to believe. Granted this easily fell out of the range of normal circumstance.
"It is strange though." Ren spoke up. "This world acts on so many abnormal principles. Crowd cheering acting almost like its own form of aura. Yet we seem to be easily drunk of this energy."
Pyyrha nodded in agreement. She never expected to lose her aura and semblance, but this world seemed to act as an eyeopener not just to them but Team RWBY as well. The way Ruby and Yang responded to the energy during Filia and Nadia's fight was evidence enough of the potency this new source had. The real advantage they had was the fact that Blockbuster attack for them were easier to pull though it came at the cost of the likely refilling before metaphorical tank before it even emptied. That said, over exertion was a heavy fear that that should not be taken for granted. A key detail she picked up waiting many of the Meridian Drifter's fighting style had a strong focus on continuous strikes being chained in rapid succession. One wrong move and they could easily be left wide open. This Rush down style was popular among many brawler's on Remnant. Yang's direct boxing style and Ren's martial arts prowess were perfect examples on why the two would likely last the longest between the two teams by effectively being glass cannons.
Jaune however was a different story, what he lacked in combat experience he easily made up for in both a strong observational skill and a surprisingly high restraint to switch to violence. Likely from his time hiding the fact he only joined Beacon by faking documents that he confided with her. He may not be a powerful fighter, but he would likely be the most dangerous from his analytics in a team fight.
Ren looked to the two on the ground. "This experience has been something that feels so strange." He lamented peering out to the brine-stenched streets of Little Innsmouth. "A world with out Grimm but a firm fear still hits this world." The rest of the team looked at him seemingly in agreement of his thoughts. None of them would have suspected this kind of world would have ever existed if not for a simple parasite and a sudden attack of dead soldiers.
"Don't count your surprises too hard." Nadia spoke up having opened the door to the hideout leaning in on the side of the wall. A bottle filled with what looked to be milk sloshing in one of her clawed hands. "If you ask me, we lucked out with only the Skullgirl. Compared to your situation."
It was a fair point, the Skullgirl for the most part while a dangerous monster to be sure, was not a considerable threat compared to the way the Grimm had almost complete control outside of a few pockets of moderate sanctuary.
"Nadia where did you go off to?" Pyyrha spoke up relieved to see they were not abandoned.
"Figured you lot were starving." She relented holding up a paper bag. The stench of classic junk food seemed to emanate from it. Nora's face lite up in excitement recognizing the scent and the fact it was a Cat-girl that brought them their meal. Nadia noticed this her face turned to one of annoyance predicting what came next. "Make that joke and I will feed you last." She bluntly remarked.
"Awe." Nora a rescinded from her olden meme joke and slowly joined the rest at the makeshift dining table.
"Any news about Yang?" Jaune asked concerned more so about Her sudden disappearance. The wrapped burger landing into his hands after nearly fumbling it.
Nadia shook her head in disappointment. "I can tell you this much, my friends tell me that her disappearance is not Medici related. Word is they may be gearing up for something but what it is seems to be unclear." Her voice seemed to be somewhat optimistic though how far that stretched remained to be seen.
Ren looked at the feral thief in concern. "Do you have an inkling as to who it might be?"
She leaned back contemplating the question. "There was a time series of kidnappings that started shortly after Lab eight's secret project came out." She pondered more on the events from the past two years. "They began having many missing posters pop up all over popular teenager gather spots. It always seemed like a new one would come every two or three every month."
The four had a concern stare on their face as they pieced it together. "You think it has to do with that?" Jaune spoke up again seemingly more invested than before.
Nadia nodded a little; her ear twitching hearing something outside, though the way her head tilted she seemed to not see it as a threat. "Well that the problem with that theory. About a year after the disappearances happened, they stopped for most of the year, then suddenly picks up shortly after that bladed psychopath hair day has as a friend was found by the Fuzz."
Jaune glanced at Nadia's thoughts on Carol. Granted he was deathly afraid of her. Her entire body was enough to show the atrocities of their world with out a good reason as to why since she never consented. She was no different to a child soldier in many ways, this sentiment was doubled in the case of Peacock the way her body was malformed in such away that many of the advanced cybernetics of their home dimension seemed to be normal compared to the creepy rubber hosed arms of her parasite. Jaune had decided from an early moment that Anti Skullgirl Labs was not a good group even if they had the best intentions.
Pyyrha caught the burger that Nadia tossed her way. The heavy stench of mildly warm grease while not healthy in the slightest was a welcome homely smell. A smell that helped her remind her memory of much more simplistic times. Before the knowledge of other planes came to light. "Hey Nadia." She spoke up.
The Cat's face tilted a little her mouth still stuffed into a decent chunk of her own secondary meal. "Wha's zzup?" She mumbled in between bites.
"Did you ever think you would find yourself in this kind of situation?" The Feral glanced curiously seemingly interested in what she is proposing. "Finding out the existence of other worlds?" She explained more.
She shook her head. "Sure, I probably wouldn't be shocked by the idea. It's kind of that Cat in the box theory. It just means I can probably make new friends and enemies."
Ren took interest in her outlook of this situation as he leaned in. "Cat in the box?" He pondered.
"We know that they could exist, we wouldn't know unless we opened it." She explained sitting back her head tilted to a window several taller buildings loomed over the skylight spotlights highlighting a massive blimp as it lazily floated past to some other destination.
Jaune adjusted his seat listening in to the theory. "Remnant had a similar concept as well, though I think they swapped cat with Grimm." He relented the last part in somewhat amusement that the idea's creature shifted.
"Making new friends?" Ren pondered on.
Nadia tilted herself toward the martial artists in somewhat surprise "What?"
"It's just a very optimistic outlook given everything." Placing his thoughts out for the others who nodded.
"I'd rather have friends than enemies." The feral spoke up in admittance he eyes catching an old photograph pinned to a wall. It depicted a much younger Nadia surrounded by several other ferals of different animals' hybrids. It was taken five years before she had stolen the life gem, before Dahlia destroyed those close to her. "Though I tend to lose more friends than enemies."
Nora's grin slowly dropped looking in the same direction. Memories of her and Rin's past resurfaced to the day the two lost everything. She stayed quiet while Ren seemed catch on as well making the silence even more unsettling.
"But it's why I find new friends." Nadia spoke up remembering the day she wandered into a certain restraint in Little Innsmouth trying to hide from more Medici thugs.
"That seems to be little careless." Ren remarked concerned seeing as they just stirred some bad thoughts.
Nadia let out a reserved chuckle leaning back in the chair. "Calm or just being catty?" She questioned amused. "Ya know, there was a time I went searching for the Skullheart." She recalled back before Eliza attacked her.
Jaune stood up in shock his fist lost its tension of the burger spilling all over his lap. "You what?" His tone seemed more scared over anything.
"They said it could grant any wish. I wanted my friends back" she remarked the days her mind had that kind of mentality. "If I wanted them back I could, but in my adventure, I had an epiphany of sort. Sure, I lost some friends. But now, I got new ones. They can't replace the old ones sure, but they can help you over come loss." She let out yet another stale laugh grimacing at her younger self. "Took one of those dumb film plots they have to teach me that and I never even finished the adventure."
Well this is short by my usual standards…. Anyone who still reads this probably has one question about me on this… Where the heck was I? Well, I'll be blunt I don't an excuse. Admittedly I have fallen out of interests in RWBY a long while ago. Mixed that in with being jaded with college ruining my interests in creative writing. It Shows that I have slowed down excessively which sucks since I started this lil adventure somewhere over 4-5 years ago. I still plan to finish it if possible, just at a different pace.
I tried to get back into writing a few months back with a crossover with Zelda and Touhou and was doing research on that odd number. Course… then Covid-19 happened. While wrote the material months before it hit the world… I felt that some of the plot elements in it were a little too soon to post. I'll probably post it when this all blows over, but I still think it will leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth for a long while.