The Boy Who Talks to Machines
By The Good Life Creator 678
Chapter Three: Home Sweet Home
"You're making a mistake, Ozpin." Glynda was the first to speak out, having sent the three youths out of the room to wait in the front of the police station. Ruby had phoned her dad for a ride back to her home in Patch and it had been decided that Jaune would be under Thumbelina's care for the foreseeable future. "That girl has no foresight on the situation and that boy is going to get himself and his companion killed."
"Both of them did show initiative in a situation that most would have ran from, Glynda," Thumbelina retorted. "Ruby's spectacular with her scythe, she'll fit right in. Jaune also showed that he's at least capable of being more if pushed in the right direction."
"Ruby almost got herself and the owner killed and Jaune showed very little experience in a combat situation. If Rebekah wasn't there to save him, he would have been killed or worse." Or worse did not have to be said. They all knew what could have happened.
Ozpin cleared his throat, defusing the situation between the two before it got out of hand. "I believe that the best place for them is at Beacon. Do I have to remind you of the situation that both of them are in? Of who we are facing?"
Glynda narrowed her eyes at the man. "No, but we need to consider if we are placing them in harms way unnecessarily."
"Unfortunately, I don't believe we have much of a choice in that regards, Glynda. The city had shown there hand when it comes to the boy and the Queen has made bold moves as of late. It is only a matter of time before our enemies become theirs."
--The Boy Who Talks to Machines--
Jaune went over what had happened earlier in the night. It had been about four hours, five minutes, and approximately forty-five seconds since he had engaged in what he now liked to call The Grocery Store Brawl; about three hours, twenty minutes, and fifty seconds since he got brought to the police station to be processed for vandalism and vigilantism; about one hour, six minutes, and seven seconds since the start of his conversation with Beacon; about twenty-five minutes and thirty seconds since Rebekah had let it slip that he didn't really remember his past.
What had followed was a brief recollection of what he remembered or rather didn't. He didn't have a family that he could recall, no home that he could turn back to. The furthest memory he had was Rebekah's fuzzy face screaming at him as she smacked him awake.
There was no family dinners, no game nights, no happy memories that he could fall back on; just a wisecracking raccoon and mixed emotions as the two had traveled around parts of southern Sanus. He told everyone that it didn't bother him anymore, that he had long made his peace with it.
He lied, it haunted him. He wanted nothing more than to find out if his family loved him.
"You're a bit clumsy," Ruby spoke up, ripping Jaune out of his thoughts. Rebekah laughed at Jaune's double take.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry! It was just the second thing I thought when I saw the video." Her voice sounded a bit small.
Jaune sighed. The observation hurt; cut his ego like a hot knife. She didn't need to be that blunt about it. "You're right," he relented. His fingernails dug into his palms. "I…uh…I kinda just wing it and hope for the best."
"Nope," she said, popping the 'p' sound.
"What do you mean nope?"
"I mean I'm gonna help!" She had a bright smile. Jaune raised his eyebrow at the girl. "And in return, you're gonna show me your weapons!"
"Builds," both Jaune and Rebekah corrected. He had made it very clear that they are more than just weapons to him, more akin to apart of his anatomy than anything.
If she heard, she didn't show it. "This is gonna be so cool. Wait till I tell Yang that I'm gonna help train a literal hero AND skip two years to Beacon."
"I neve-"
"Oh, there's my dad!" A nondescript car pulled up to them, a tribal heart drawn onto the car doors. "Remember our deal!" She was gone in a flurry of rose petals, appearing on the passenger side of the car.
"-R agreed to that." Tires screeched as they broke traction before the car drove off. "And she's off. Great."
Rebekah huffed, tilting her head to the side. She had decided not to crawl to her favorite perch and simply stand by his side as some form of 'punishment.' "You're going to get us killed." She crossed her arms in a childish manner, turning her face away from him.
They had been over this ever since Jaune had concocted that he wanted to be a huntsman. It was about a year and fifteen days since he told her. Every time he brought up his lofty goal, she'd tell him that very same thing.
"You don't have to go with me," Jaune retorted, grumbling more incoherent as he stared off into the darkness of the sky, drawing imaginary lines between the brightest dots that pierced through the city lights. Or at least that was his plan before Rebekah gave off a sigh of indignation, turning to glare at Jaune. He glared back at the raccoon. "What? I'm a big boy, I'm sure I can handle things on my own."
"Puh-lease, you'd die without me."
"Prove it."
"What about when I first found you in a crater?" His first memory of fire and screams; she was the one that guided him to safety. "Or when we took on the giant Cactus Man?" She managed to somehow get the thing to stay in place while he dug underneath to cure him. "Or the Many Face Giant?" It was then when Jaune learned that some EVOs could breathe both fire and ice. "Or that rabbit thing that keeps finding you out of nowhere?" What crime he did to it he'd never find out. "Then there was earlier with Big Mouth." Okay, she made her point.
"You didn't have to go over my greatest hits." He felt his pride deflate. His point that he could survive without her had be ripped apart. She really did know how to rip apart a man's confidence before it even formed.
Then something clicked; they've had this argument before and there a few words she didn't say like she had every time Jaune had brought up his desire for being a huntsman. "Wait a minute, why aren't you trying to talk me out of this?"
She gave Jaune an incredulous look. "You heard the Green Man, we're screwed either way." She wasn't wrong; what Ozpin had offered was an ultimatum, not a choice. Her fingers laced behind the back of her head as she looked into the night sky. "Besides, who knows, this can be fun."
Jaune smiled softly as he looked with her. Fun was not the word he'd use to describe his choice. Sure, he wanted to be one but fun wasn't exactly what he had in mind; but it was growing on him.
"I have my work cut out for me, don't I?" Images of Ruby and her acrobatic style of fighting flashed through his mind, slamming into robbers with a fifty caliber propelled scythe. If that was the level of skill required to enter Beacon he had a lot of catching up to do. The choice not to flew right out the hypothetical window the moment they stepped into Vale.
"Damn straight, I can't be saving your hide all the time."
"You're still o-" Jaune was cut off as a loud novelty horn bristled through the city air. Professor Peach had made her presence known to them in a bright yellow car that had seen better days, spots of rust peaking through the paint. How she could see out of the sticker littered rear window Jaune didn't know.
Both Jaune and Rebekah looked incredulously at the sight. "Is it too late to cheese it?" Jaune whispered.
Thumbelina honked on the horn again, all but hanging out the driver window as she did so. "Hurry up you two! We're burning moonlight!"
"You know, I can build a motorcycle and follow behind you." It was true, he could see the blueprints right now. It was more of a heavy-duty hoverbike with a battering-ram but it was still a far better option than the yellow monstrosity that the mad doctor called a car.
Thumbelina's eyes lit up with mild mirth at the idea; excited to see another machine that the blond teen could manifest. "You can create a form of locomotion?" Come on, take the bait. "No, no, I'll just have to see you manifest it in a more controlled environment in the morning." Damn it. "Besides, how do I know you won't just take the opportunity to run away when my back's turned."
'Maybe because we would be hunted down and returned to you with a whole new set of circumstances?' Jaune wanted to ask that out loud but thought better of it, not wanting to burn bridges before he crossed them.
"Damn it," Rebekah muttered as she scurried up Jaune's back, taking up her usual perch.
"Stole the words right from my mind."
"Are you two going get in or am I going to have to get you?" The woman sounded all to excited at the prospect of dragging them into the car.
"Moving!" the two yelled in unison, not wanting to see how she would drag them into the car.
The door opened with a rusty creak, earning a cringe from Rebekah at the sound as they shuffled into the Peach's two seated chariot of doom. With a slam of the door and a sputtering whimper of the engine they were off to the mad doctor's house at the outskirts of Vale.
It was only a few minutes into the drive before Jaune broke into his old habit. "You know I'm a dreamer, but my heart's of gold. I had to run away high so I wouldn't come home low. Just when things went right, doesn't mean they were always wrong."
"Just take this song and you'll never feel left all alone. Take me to your heart; feel me in your bones. Just one more night and I'm coming off this long and windy road." Thumbelina's voice was airy as she picked up where Jaune had left off, her fingers thumping on the steering wheel as she heard the piano and guitar in her mind.
Jaune did a double take at the woman. Sure, he got comments before at his nervous tick but singing along? That was new. Usually only Rebekah did.
"I'm on my way, I'm on my way, home sweet home."
For the first time since Jaune could remember he felt like he belonged, like he had a family; if only for a few minutes.
--The Boy Who Talks to Machines--
Thumbelina's house was nothing like Jaune had pictured in his mind; having conjured up an image of a bright peach colored castle with Tesla coils at the front gate and a three headed poodle barking in the yard. Instead what greeted them was a normal farmhouse painted a natural burgundy with white trim and a large peach tree overlooking the front porch. There wasn't even a flying monkey to be seen in the distance.
"Well, here we are! Home sweet home!" Her voice was cherry as she opened the car door and shoved the two up the porch steps. "Come on you two! We have a long day tomorrow!" Jaune shivered at the excited gleam in her eyes as her smile threatened to break her face in two.
Was it too late to back out now?
Rebekah shifted along his back, holding onto his shoulders in a death grip in an attempt to use him as a shield from the mad doctor.
Thumbelina dug deep into her pockets clanking around loose change in an effort to find her house keys. "Got 'em!"
The inside was also not what Jaune had expected. The picture of cold steal tables, sterile equipment on tin treys, and florescent tubes hanging from the ceiling was replaced by peach themed knickknacks, normal furniture and pieces of strange equipment and lab documents scattered on the available counter spaces. It felt warm, inviting. Like the car ride there he felt like he belonged.
Like they were home.
--The Boy Who Talks to Machines--
Quarry smiled crookedly as he stared at the large screen, thick stone fingers thudding against the hard wood of his chair. Crashing aluminum and fizzing soda thundered out of the speakers, teenaged yelps of pain sprinkled in. His police informants did not fail to deliver. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? The prodigal son has returned to us."
The pink man stepped back from his boss, fear pounding away under his girth as his heart worked overtime. He knew the smile Quarry had, a sinister smile that he donned every time he had a plan. "Wh-what d-d-do you plan to do?" His voice had a nervous stutter as he tried to question on what the next course of action would be.
The twisted laugh that echoed along the roughly cut walls did nothing to placate the pink man. "Nothing right now. If I know the kid, he'll search me out. Right now, it's business as usual."
A/N-I swear that this will pick up. After a few chapters. Maybe.
In all seriousness though, it will pick up.
Anyways, sorry for the lengthy, it's a bit shorter than the last one by a wide margin. Thing is I don't really pay attention to chapter length. Aiming for a certain length leads to burnout and too many rewrites just to make it a certain word count among other problems.
Fun fact, Quarry is my favorite mob-type villain in animation. Part of it is because he's almost the opposite of what is usually portrayed, a very serious threat that is not above wet work as opposed to some short goon throwing around money; looking at you Gatō from Naruto.
Seriously, in Gen Rex, the three times that Quarry fought Rex, he beat the brakes off the poor boy.
On another note, expect mostly villains from Gen Rex to appear. They won't exactly be like their counterparts in the show but they will appear. I got plans for Hunter.
I do have one question for everyone though, what do you think I should name Rebekah's semblance? Phase Shift? Phantom? It has the ability for her to become intangible for three second bursts with the weakness that she's still subject to gravity. I remember watching a Batman Beyond episode with a reporter that had that ability before he sank to the center of the Earth.
Onto the reviews.
MereC55- Got it one, dude. Yeah, Ozpin would play hardball when presented with something like that but he isn't exactly cruel. The government on the other hand is a different beast. As for the pairing, that is more than likely. From the way last chapter and this chapter is going, I'd say Lancaster is a safe bet.
Tropendo325- Glad you find it interesting. Rebekah is fun to write, originally I wanted her to be the devil on Jaune's shoulder but the more I thought about it, the more a sassy raccoon with a comically large cannon just became more appealing.
Remember to read and review.