SaurusRock625: Maybe, not sure on doing that, but it's a possibility.
Sansdust: Maybe
Luffy L Deathwalker: I can understand that. I will try and finish it as soon as I can. But I'm sorry to say that I haven't seen One Piece so a chapter is out of the question, sorry to disappoint you.
Guest: That's perfectly understandable. I am sorry that you will not be continuing reading and I will try and do better in the future.
Shadow-Proclamation8: Glad you liked it. You'll find out soon enough who is playing who.
Spiral-Voltron-Zero0Q1: Thanks and I will.
FanGirl: You're missing out on a good game.
Guest: Haven't played Dead Space, sorry.
The HawaiinDemon: Thanks.
Javier Amon Belmont: Pyrrha will have some thoughts on her counterpart's actions. I'm still doing the train scene.
Gamelover41592: That we do.
Stormfly57: Sorry, haven't seen or heard of that before.
Blue Phantasm: I'm done with Clone Wars at the moment unfortunately, but I do have something in mind related to Star Wars Clone Wars. I'm done with Fall of Cybertron. But if I had to, I may do a chapter on it, but it would have to be the finale. I haven't played either of the Zelda or Icarus games unfortunately.
kamenrider50q: Good suggestion.
Ultrautahraptor: Not sure. I mean I love Tom and Jerry as much as the next guy, but I don't think I'd be willing to do a reaction on it.
ENDDRAGON369: Sorry, haven't seen either of those shows.
Reader: Thanks.
Kitsuna G: I am, thank you.
HonestOutlaw: I have been interested in that game recently.
SPARTAN-626: I have my own ideas of who will be playing Atreus.
VirusChris: Yeah, the stealth missions were a bit unneeded. I get what they were trying to do with MJ, but I don't think they probably conveyed her. The only side quests worth noting are Tombstone and Black Cat and maybe the signal towers. I wouldn't mind doing another Sonic, but I'm not doing Let there be Carnage, I was actually kinda disappointed by the film.
Maximum Rhapsody: I think I could do something like that. The Superman one is something I could do.
Deathcombo99: I'll think about it.
Pharamine: Yeah, sorry, but most of the chapters are gonna be Spider-Man as I am focused on finishing it.
Teen Shallot: That I am! For the moment.
Arturwho: Doctor Who is something I might do more of in the future.
Superprime: Sorry, I haven't played Skyrim. Not really something I'm interested in.
Lorhob09: Sorry, I haven't played the first Red Dead Redemption as of yet.
Primex: I think I can do another one sometime.
PSYCONIG: That makes sense.
Fallbridge: Happy 2023 to you too. I do plan on some more Star Wars, as Fall of Cybertron, I feel like I'm finished with it and I don't really want to continue it any further.
Dragonslayerajahn: That'll be for the next part.
The screen turned back on to show the aftermath of a failed bank robbery attempt, with the criminals of said robbery being either knocked out or webbed up, courtesy of Spider-Man.
"Aw, I wish we could've seen that." Nora pouted as she folded her arms, wanting to see fearless leader taking down some criminals.
"I have a feeling he'll be fighting bigger foes than them, Nora." Ren said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
After being thanked by the owner, Spider-Man resumed his patrol through the city while he waited on Pyrrha's report. He then checked his inbox and found that there was a message for him.
"Message from Doc…" Spider-Man said as he listened in on what Ozpin wanted to say to him.
"Sorry to call so late, my mind's bursting with ideas." Ozpin spoke with enthusiasm. "We've been thinking too small, Jaune. Why replace missing limbs with facsimiles when we can improve upon them?"
Ironwood raised a brow in curiosity over this.
"People who've lost an arm understandably want it back, but we can give them something better!" Ozpin exclaims. "The human body doesn't need to be our default. We can go so far beyond it. Just some thoughts to conjure with."
"Man, I'm still not used to seeing Oz like this." Qrow said.
"I know." Tai said in agreement. "He's always so...collected."
"I'm not too sure about the idea." Ironwood said with doubt.
Winter looked at her general with a curious look. "Why is that sir?"
"Just sometimes whenever someone wants to improve on something more than it should be, it can lead to unexpected results." Ironwood said.
"I agree with you there, my friend." Ozpin chimed in agreement..
"Doc's really giving it both barrels." Jaune said, impressed. "Hope he doesn't burn himself out…"
After a few more minutes of patrolling, he decided to give Pyrrha a call and find out what she knows. He calls her and manages to quickly reach her. "Pyr, what'd you find out about Isaac Delaney?" Jaune asked.
"Check out this picture I just sent." Pyrrha said as an image went up on Jaune's HUD. It was a picture of three people dressed as Spider-Man's foes.
"Wow, those are some goofy looking costumes." Ruby commented, snickering in amusement.
"Which one is Delaney?" Jaune asked.
"I don't know. Guess you'll have to go to the party to find out." Pyrrha said.
Jaune smirked under his mask at this. "Good thing I already have a costume," Jaune said as he hung up on Pyrrha and redirected his course at the college where Delaney was.
After a few short minutes, Spider-Man made his way to the college where a Halloween party was being held, with a number of people dressed in costume.
"Ooh! Maybe Jaune could enter a costume contest and win some candy while he's there!" Nora smiled.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Nora, he's there to find Delaney, not go get some candy."
"Plus, his costume was professionally made, so I do not think he would qualify." Penny explains, making Nora deflate at this.
"Halloween party. Guess I don't have to change." Jaune shrugged as he looked over the photo once more. "Delaney's dressed as one of my greatest foes. Let's find out which one." Spider-Man said as he casually walked through the entrance.
"Greatest foes?" Weiss repeated. "You mean, those people aren't just wearing silly costumes? They're people that Jaune has actually fought?" Weiss asked.
View nodded. "Yep."
Yang began grinning. "Oh this should be good."
"Well that's...interesting." Blake said.
He looked around at the number of people wearing different costumes, some of them he knew as some of the people he fought or was even dressed as him.
"Everyone's in costume. My people." Jaune smirked as he continued to look around for Dr. Delaney.
"I'm just glad it's not actually Halloween." Yang said, knowing just how unbearable Ruby can be on her birthday.
"I mean, it is in that world..." Ruby said in the hopes of convincing them. "Maybe you could-"
"No." All of Team RWBY, JNPR, Coco, Velvet and Sun said at once plainly.
"Mean!"
Even a few people in the crowd were impressed by Jaune's actual suit. "Now there's a guy who puts effort. Badass."
Spider-Man continued to make his way through the campus, receiving more compliments back and forth. Even from one guy who was wearing nothing but jeans and a Spider-Man mask. "Hey! Look at us, we're Spider-Bros!"
"Looks like someone didn't try enough with their costume." Yang remarks.
"Clearly." Blake dryly agreed.
Spider-Man gave a polite wave as he walked away from the party goer and continued on his way.
He eventually caught the sight of one of the people in the photograph, the one dressed as the illusionist, Mysterio, standing in front of a tent that read. "Mysterio's Hall of Mirrors."
"Come one, come all, to Mysterio's diabolical Hall of Mirrors!" The person dressed as Mysterio in a dramatically evil tone.
"So, she's dressed as someone Jaune fights?" Ren asked with a curious look and a raised brow.
View nodded in response. "That she is. Mysterio. The self proclaimed master of illusions."
"What's so intimidating about a guy wearing a fish bowl on his head?" Yang asked. "Doesn't sound very dangerous."
"I wouldn't take Mysterio lightly." View advised. "He can be quite dangerous when he really wants to be."
Spider-Man came up to Mysterio and spoke to them. "Excuse me, are you Dr. Delaney?" Spider-Man asked.
But instead of an answer, the person decided to act out a scene. "Ah, Spider-Man, my nemesis! You won't catch me this time!" "Mysterio" dramatically proclaims as they throw a pellet on the ground that begins spewing smoke.
"Ah, we do not have time for this." Glynda rolled her eyes and rubbed her brow in annoyance.
"Hopefully, he can find out if that is Standish by playing along." Ozpin said.
Spider-Man coughed as "Mysterio'' retreated through the Hall of Mirrors. "Oh no. Smoke. Whatever will I do?" Spider-Man plainly said as he walked through the hall for answers.
"This is the end for you, Spider-Man!" "Mysterio '' dramatically exclaims as Spider-Man continued to casually make his way through the Hall of Mirrors.
"Gotta give 'em this, they certainly put in a lot of work." Yang said.
"I suppose." Weiss said. "It does look impressive."
Was then face to face with "Mysterio" who was holding what looked to be a plastic gun. "Now I have you!" "projectiles " exclaims they proceeded to fire plastic projectiles at Spider-Man.
But thanks to his enhanced agility and Spider Sense, Spidey just easily dodges the plastic projectiles, even performing a jump as he fires a web line onto "Mysterio's" bubble helmet and pulls it off, revealing a woman who slightly staggered.
"Hey, what's wrong with you!?" The woman now known as Dr. Stratton irritably said. "I worked on that helmet for a week!"
"Hey, you shot first lady." Yang shrugged in amusement. "Don't blame him for playing the role."
"At least she's not hurt." Pyrrha said.
"I need to find Dr. Delaney." Spider-Man said urgently.
"He's out in the party somewhere." Stratton answered as she tended to her handmade helmet. "Who are you?"
"I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." Spidey jokingly remarks.
"Ha, smartass." Stratton laughed as Spider-Man proceeded to make his way out of the tent.
As soon as he exited the tent, he was immediately drawn by the sound of lights turning on and shining on a man dressed in a green bird costume standing above the crowd.
"Ca-Caw! Ca-Caw!" The man cried out like a bird. "Eat! Eat, my little children!" The man yelled out while throwing candy out in the crowd.
"Man, Jaune sure has fought some weird guys." Sun commented.
"They are...quite odd to say the least." Kali said.
"That doesn't even cover like half the villains he's fought." View said. "There's Hydro Man, Sandman, Stilt-Man, The Kangaroo, The Spot, Big Wheel," View began listing out.
"Oh come on," Weiss said in disbelief. "You're clearly making those last ones up. There's no way guys like that are real."
"It does sound like it, doesn't it?" View nodded.
"Let me hear you SCREAM!" The man dressed as the Vulture yelled.
"That guy throwing down candy could be Dr. Delaney." Spider-Man mused. "Gotta find a way up there." Spider-Man thought as he looked around the area for an easy way up to him.
And luckily for him, there was a ramp nearby that led right towards the man. He took a few steps back before fully running towards the ramp, jumping off it and parkour his way past a few tents before reaching the platform the costumed man was on.
Sun smiled at this, impressed by Jaune's skills. "Nice. Pretty slick moves."
"It's a good thing he caught up to him before he...flew the coop!" Yang remarks.
"When will this end..." Blake mutters in annoyance.
"I'm looking for Isaac Delaney." Spider-Man immediately asked, much to the shock of the Vulture dressed man.
"Uh, I think he's on the dance floor." The man said. gesturing to his right. "There he is!" The man pointed as Spidey turned to see a man dressed in a Lizard costume dancing. "The Lizard in the lab coat."
"Well...that is certainly a sight to see." Ren says.
"Still not as good as your moves, Renny." Nora grins at her partner.
Spidey jumped off the pad and back onto the ground as he proceeded to make his way over to Delaney. He made his way to the dance floor, but just as he was approaching Delaney, he was stopped by a tall, muscled guy dressed in a Rhino costume.
"Hey look, it's Spider-Boy." The man mockingly said, getting in his way and even pushing him. "Since I'm one of your nemeses, we gotta fight." The Rhino-dressed man challenged.
"Another guy dressed as someone Jaune fights?" Velvet says, surprised that there was another one dressed as one of his villains.
"Are they all animal themed?" Ruby asks.
"Quite a lot." View answered.
"Uh, maybe later." Spider-Man said as he tried to get past him, but the idiotic Rhino man just kept pushing him.
"Aw, what's the matter, Spider-Wimp? You afraid of my mighty horn?" The man mocked as Delaney was suddenly being grabbed by the Demons.
"Dude, can you just piss off!" Yang says in annoyance. "He's better things to deal with than your dumb ass."
"Hey! Who...what are you...?" Delaney protested as his mask fell and he was being forcefully dragged away.
"Oh no!" Pyrrha says in worry.
"They found him!" Kali exclaims.
"Hey!" Spider-Man called out by the Rhino dressed man just pushed him to the ground before he could do anything.
"Dude, what the hell!" Nora said in both shock and annoyance.
"I swear, he's like Cardin." Weiss said, frustration that Jaune was being halted by some dumb student.
"Kick his ass, Spider-Man!" One of the onlookers cheered on.
"Please do. He deserves it." Ilia says
The man dressed as the Rhino let out a roar as he dragged his foot back a few times as if he were an actual Rhino before he pounced on Spider-Man, pushing him to the ground.
"The hell is wrong with this guy!?" Saphron exclaims
"He's either incredibly drunk or he's incredibly stupid." Winter said.
"Could be both." Qrow said.
Having quite enough of this, Spider-Man used a portion of his strength to push the Rhino off of him. He acrobatically pulled himself up from the floor before leaping onto the Rhino Man and proceeding to web him up in place.
"Honestly, he kinda deserved it." Sun shrugged, not feeling sorry for the guy. "I mean even if Jaune wasn't Spider-Man, he still basically assaulted the dude."
Yang nodded. "Yeah, he got off easy. Otherwise, he might not have lasted if Jaune really decided to go all out."
"Oh my god, is that the real Spider-Man?" A woman asked in shock.
"I'm totally live streaming this right now..." An excited party goer said as Spider-Man leaped off the "Rhino's" back and pulled him to the ground as he laid there.
"At least now, he'll be less irritating." Glynda sighed.
Spider-Man turned to see Delaney being escorted inside of the building by a few Demons.
"What do you want?" Delaney fearfully asked as he went inside.
Spider-Man ran towards where he was and decided to go for a different entrance, he slung himself up a floor and entered through the window to follow them. Spider-Man was currently perched on the rafters inside of the lobby where Delaney and the Demons were moving.
"Take it easy. Just tell me what you want!" Delaney asked as Spider-Man watched him being forcefully moved through the Laboratory.
"Nothing good, pal." Tai said.
But one of the party goers wasn't intimidated at all by the Demons. "This is a joke, right?" The guy scoffed, totally relaxed at what was happening. "Those aren't real guns." the man said as he got up from the couch.
"Is everyone at this college just brain dead!?" Weiss exclaims.
"Just sit back down, you fool!" Winter hissed in annoyance. "You're just gonna make things worse for you."
"Hasn't he seen the news about these guys?" Yang asked, annoyed and worried at more lives being taken.
"Probably too drunk to realize what's going on, kiddo." Qrow sighed.
The Demon turned to the approaching student. "Back! Now!" The Demon said as he backhanded the student with his gun and then held him at gunpoint.
This caused Spider-Man to intervene as he landed on the ground before them. "Let him go!" Spider-Man demanded as his time slowed down thanks to his spider sense, allowing Jaune to fire a web line at both the Demon's face and his gun before they could fire. He pulled the Demon towards him, causing him to drop his gun and release his hostage as Spider-Man dealt a striking blow to the head.
"Nice!" Ruby pumped her fist up in excitement.
"That's how it's done!" Coco cheered.
"Now kick their asses, Spider-Jaune!" Nora yelled out in support of her leader.
Jaune turned and saw that they were more Demons to deal with. He used his webs to grab a nearby trash can and swung it towards a group of Demons. But this left him open for an attack by a Demon with whips as he used them to slash Spider-Man, stunning him momentarily as he was on the ground. One Demon attempted to shoot him down, but Spidey quickly jumped away as he fired at him, he bounced off a wall and struck the shooting Demon.
"Impressive always." Terra said.
"That's my brother for you." Saphron smiled in pride over her baby brother.
The Whip Demon tried to take Spider-Man down, but with his spider sense, Spider-Man effortlessly jumped out of the way of the slashing strike as only the other Demons were ones who were hit. This gave Spider-Man an opening as he fired a barrage of web shots at the Demon, completely incapacitating him and unable to move. He used one of his trip webs onto him as he was suddenly latched onto a nearby wall.
"Now that they're taken care of, Mr. Arc can get to Delaney." Ironwood said.
"Hopefully without any more idiots getting in the way." Qrow mutters.
With the Demons taken care of, Spidey looked at the other guests. "Everybody okay?"
"Yeah." A woman sighed in relief.
"Good, uh, Happy Halloween" Spider-Man awkwardly said before launching himself towards a nearby vent as he began crawling through it to follow after the Demons and Delaney.
As he crawled, he could overhear the Demons in the room below him talking.
"[What was that noise next door?]" One Demon asked.
"[I don't know. Cover the door— shoot whatever comes through it.]" Another Demon said.
"Man, it's a good thing he took the vents." Coco said.
Blake nodded in agreement. "With this, he has the element of surprise to use against them."
Spider-Man hummed in thought before turning to his left and saw a power box. He smirked under his mask. "How about some mood lighting?" Spidey mused as he used his electric webs to turn off the power in the lights, leaving the room below him completely dark.
"[What happened?!" One of the Demons exclaimed.
"[I don't know! Just watch that door!]
Qrow nodded in approval. "Nice, keep 'em scared."
As the Demons were distracted, Spider-Man silently jumped down into the room, the Demons not noticing his presence.
He went quickly against the Demons as he immediately took one of them down from behind as the other Demons turned and saw their comrade being taken down. One Demon near the one Jaune just took down went in for a punch, but Spidey simply stepped back as the Demon fell to the ground and Spidey quickly webbed him down.
"Heck yeah!" Ruby pumped her fist up in excitement.
"Take those Demons down to the ground, Spider-Jaune!" Nora encouraged.
One Demon aimed to shoot at Spider-Man, but thankfully, he was right behind a large shelf stack as Spider-Man fired two lines and brought the shelf onto the Demon. The only one left was a Demon holding a powered scythe.
"Ooh," Velvet winced. "That's gotta hurt."
Coco shrugged uncaringly. "Get what they deserve."
"Got that right." Yang said in agreement.
Spider-Man dodged back and forth, avoiding the strikes by the scythe wielding Demon as quickly jumped over him and kicked him to the ground, knocking him out. Breathing out a small sigh, Spider-Man went back to his mission objective. "Now, where'd they take Delaney?" Spider-Man asked himself as went towards the nearest window and climbed out of it.
He crawled down to find Delaney being escorted. "There's Dr. Delaney." Spidey mutters as he follows along with them unnoticed. He noticed a vent nearby that led him back inside of the building.
"Now hopefully he can get to him before Taurus gets to him." Pyrrha hoped.
"As well as find out the location of Devil's Breath." Glynda added.
He climbed through it and made his way into the vents once more and began crawling quickly to reach him. He stopped crawling once he reached a grate, leading into a server room as Spidey watched Delaney being forced in the room. The Demon pushed Delaney onto the ground, and right at the feet of their leader as Delaney looked up with fear. "Who are you?" Delaney fearfully asks.
"You recently began working with someone at an Schneecorp lab." Adam said as he edged closer towards him
Delaney backed away in fear. "H-how do you know that?"
"We don't have much time, Isaac." Adam said with a threatening tone. "Tell me his name."
"Come on, kid." Qrow urged. "Time to get in there and kick his ass."
Delaney just stood there, unable to answer him as he looked around in fear.
Adam grew tired of this as he then began pulling into his powers, switching right into his Negative persona. Adam stepped towards Delaney, putting a hand on his chest as Delaney's whole body changed into a glowing form and standing obediently.
"Oh no." Blake utters.
"He's doing the same thing he did to the guard that released Shocker!" Weiss exclaims
Spider-Man rushed into the room, landing on one of the servers. "Show's over Taurus." Spider-Man proclaims.
Taurus just glares at the red and blue vigilante as he then begins absorbing energy from two of his own men as he groans in pain and falls to the ground.
"What is he doing?" Kali gasped.
"My best guess, taking away the energy he gave them back to him." Ironwood said.
"What for?" Ruby asked with a worried tone.
"From my calculations, nothing good." Penny said with the same tone as Ruby.
Spider-Man leaped onto the floor. "Apparently the show's *not* over." Spidey remarks.
Adam let out a powerful yell as he fired a massive blast of energy towards Spider-Man, blasting him back and destroying the nearby servers in his path.
"Jaune!" His friends and family call out in worry.
"Damn him!" Saphron growls in anger.
Adam collapsed down onto one knee, trying to get a hold of himself after that attack. He looked up at Delaney. "His name..." Adam growls.
"Doctor Morgan Michaels." Delaney said in a monotone voice.
"Damn it!" Tai cursed.
"He knows who has the Devil's Breath!" Winter hisses.
Adam stood up and gave a nod to the Demon next to Delaney. The Demon cocked his gun and handed it to Delaney.
"Thank you." Mister Negative said as he walked away as Delaney slowly pointed the gun at his head, all the while Spider-Man watched under the rubble as he desperately tried to get up.
"No. No. No! He wouldn't!" Nora cried out, not wanting to see a man, who was completely innocent in all this being killed.
"After what we've seen, I think he would Nora." Ren said sadly as he held his partner's hand in comfort and support.
"No!" Spider-Man cried out.
But it was too late, the gun fired and Dr. Delaney dropped to the floor, dead.
The audience looked on in horror as they watched Delaney die by Adam's influence.
"Bastard!" Yang cursed as her eyes glowed red and her hair tempered.
"He can't get away with this any further." Glynda said intensely.
Ilia looked away at this, a feeling of confliction entered through her.
As Adam left the room, the rest of the Demons closed in on Spidey, ready to shoot and kill him. But thankfully, Spider-Man managed to get out from the rubble and web the nearest Demon in the face, pulling him down as he webbed away at another Demon whose gun was firing and smacked it onto the other Demon's face.
"Nice!" Yang cheered. "Make those assholes pay Jaune!"
"Language, Miss Xiao Long." Glynda chastised, though she could understand why she would feel that excited.
Spider-Man gave a side kick to the Demon grunt and punched the other one across the face. And with those Demons taken care of, he went after Adam and ran out of the room.
Once outside, Adam decided to put Spidey off his trail as he pushed past some students while also corrupting them in the process. As he left the two immediately began fighting as more corrupted students were appearing.
"Damn it! He's using the students to cover his escape." Blake hissed in frustration.
"What a cowardly act." Winter scowled.
Everyone else ran in a hurry out of there while Spidey dealt with the corrupted. "Gotta stop them from hurting each other. "Spidey said, he knew that these were just regular students and not criminals so he had to be careful.
As the corrupted students tried to attack him, Spider-Man just sidestepped the students, tripping them over on the ground or just throwing them down and webbing them up to make sure they didn't hurt themselves or anybody else.
As Spider-Man finished up with the students, he ran after Adam, who was just done corrupting the same man dressed as the Rhino who harassed Jaune. Adam proceeded to leave as the Rhino dressed man spotted Spider-Man and stomped towards him.
"Oh, not that guy again..." Yang groaned.
"Well at least Jaune has a good excuse to hit him." Nora said.
Spider-Man groaned at this. "Not that guy again." Spider-Man mutters as the Rhino man charged after him. But Spider-Man jumped over his head as soon as he passed him. Spidey landed a few blows onto the Rhino dressed man.
Grabbing onto a nearby Jack o lantern, Spidey swung it around before throwing it at the man, stunning him and leaving him open for Spider-Man to fire a couple of webs at him, holding him there as Spidey let loose a few more hits on him.
Once stunned enough, Spider-Man latched onto his back as he struggled to get him off as began running towards the entrance. Spider-Man jumped off and fired a web line onto Rhino and pulled him over his head and threw him to the ground, taking him down.
"Well that takes care of that. "Terra lets out a sigh of relief.
"Yes, but Taurus has still gotten away." Winter pointed out
"Plus he knows who has the Devil's Breath." Ironwood added.
"But there's still a chance for Jaune and Pyrrha to find him before Adam does." Ruby said hopefully.
Ren nodded. "They would still need to find Dr. Michaels though." Ren pointed out.
As the police, as well as Sable Agents, were busy taking care of the people and situation, Spidey called Blake.
"Blake, I need your help." Spider-Man requested.
"I've got reports of shots fired at ESU..." Blake began.
"Yeah, that's me." Spidey quickly admitted. "I'll explain later. But right now you need to find a Dr. Morgan Michaels. Adam Taurus's coming after him." He urgently said.
"Copy that." Blake responded as she hung up.
Later on, Spider-Man was currently perched over a building, getting a call back from Blake. "Spider-Man, who is this Dr. Michaels?" Blake asked.
"I think he's the head scientist on this Devil's Breath project." Spider-Man theorized. "Did you find him?"
"Yes and no." Blake sighed. "Winter says they have him under protection at a safehouse somewhere in the city. But they won't tell me where."
"I thought you guys were working together?" Spidey asked.
"So did I." Blake said.
"Why are they keeping Blake and the police out of this?" Saphron asked.
"My best guess is that Jacques doesn't want the police to know about his involvement." Ironwood theorized.
"Of course he doesn't." Qrow rolled his eyes. "Doesn't wanna hurt his chances of being mayor again."
"That doesn't seem very smart." Penny said.
"On that, you're right, kid." Tai nodded in agreement.
"Okay. I have an idea on how to find him. I'll let you know if it works." Spidey says as he hangs up on Blake. He jumped the building he was on and started swinging through his city.
While web swinging, he called up Pyrrha to let her know what happened.
"Hey, did you find Dr. Delaney at the party?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah, but so did Taurus." Jaune said with a serious tone.
"Oh no, what happened?" Pyrrha asked.
"Taurus corrupted him and made him kill himself." Jaune answered with regret.
"That's horrible." Pyrrha gasped. "We have to stop this guy."
"And hopefully soon." Blake said in agreement.
"We will." Jaune assured with determination. "Before Delaney died, he gave Taurus a name. Morgan Michaels."
"Morgan Michaels..." Pyrrha repeated. "Who is he?"
"Not sure. But I bet he works on the Devil's Breath project." Jaune guessed. "Have you learned anything from that Devil's Breath file?
"Yeah, get this. Few years ago, Schnee came to Xiong and asked him to build a lab, but to keep it hidden from regulators." Pyrrha explains.
"Jacques was working with Junior?" Yang said, surprised by the notion.
"Apparently so." Ren said.
"Secret lab?" Jaune parroted in surprise. "For Devil's Breath?"
"If it's as dangerous as we think it is, I can see why."
"Where's the lab?" Jaune asked.
"That's not in the file." Pyrrha regretfully informed. "Schnee made Xiong destroy all records of it. All I have are invoices from Schnee's personal account to Xiong Construction. Knowing Xiong, he kept the invoices around for blackmail material on the mayor."
"That kinda info must've been the reason why Xiong stuck around for so long." Tai said.
"Indeed." Ozpin said in agreement. "With someone as wealthy and powerful as Jacques Schnee, I imagine he could've gotten away with a lot."
"Everything leads back to Jacques Schnee." Jaune said as a look of intrigue set on his face. "Guess it's time to pay him a visit." Spidey said as he headed for Schneecorp Tower.
"I doubt he's going to tell you anything." Pyrrha said.
Jaune just shrugged. "Wasn't planning to ask."
"Can't imagine it's gonna be easy getting into that place." Yang said.
"Yeah, he'll probably have it on lock and key." Sun said in agreement.
"Not unless Jaune Arc can hack into the security network modules and disable their security." Penny said.
"That's...about right, yes." Weiss said.
After Web-Swinging through the city, Jaune made it to Schneecorp Tower, perched on a nearby building. "Okay, that's how I can get into Jacques's office." Jaune observed at the door entrance near on the side of the tower. "Can't get in there without shutting down some security systems." Jaune said as a helicopter flew by the building.
"But if they see me they'll put the whole place on lockdown." Jaune said as he looked down at the base of the building. "I should be able to hack into the security network modules from the outside." Jaune said as he jumped off his vantage point and over to the base of the tower.
"Huh, how about that, Penny. You were right" Yang said, impressed.
"Yeah, it's almost like you got a computer in your head or something." Nora chimed in.
This caused Penny's eyes to widen in response. And before she could deny it, Ruby spoke up for her.
"Uh, yeah! She spent a lot of time in Atlas studying!" Ruby quickly said. "She knows her stuff!"
Her teammates and friends just accept this and continue watching while Ruby let out a sigh of relief.
Once there, he used his scanner to locate the cables. "There're the network cables." Spidey said. "Just need to follow them to the security module." Spidey said as he climbed upwards on the building, following the cable line.
Spidey quickly found the trail leading to the module. "There we go, a security module!" Spidey said in succession. "Looks like there's four of these around the building." Spidey said as he began hacking into it.
"That should make things easier." Spidey said as the lights on Schneecorp tower began shutting down, leaving it completely dark.
This caught the attention of the Schneecorp security team. "What the hell? Security teams, call in."
"Sable Team Alpha standing by. looks like an electrical problem." One squad leader said as he held a sniping position and aimed it around the tower, along with other snipers.
"So much for it being easy." Tai sighed.
"So long as Mr. Arc can stay out of sight, he can still make his way in." Glynda said.
"Copy that." Another Agent said. "Keep an eye on the exterior while we try to track down the issue."
Spidey sighed at this. "Just when I thought it would be easy." He then began crawling up along the tower to get to the other module.
"Man, talk about bad luck." Coco said.
"All Sable teams— looks like we have some sort of software problem. We're calling in a specialist." An Agent reported as Spidey crawling moved his away out of the line of sight of the snipers.
"Oh great, more problems to the list." Tai threw his hands up.
"Well no one ever said that breaking into a highly secured company would be easy." Ozpin said.
"Is for me..." Qrow mutters.
"Copy that. Continuing exterior sweep." Another Agent said as Spidey made his way to the second module.
"There's the second module." Spidey said as he started hacking into it.
"What?! All agents, someone's taking control of one of our subsystems." The Schneecorp Security reported as Sable Drones started hovering near the building.
"Initiating Delta protocol." The Agent says.
"Man, everybody's got drones these days..." Spidey remarks, crawling to the next module.
"I wish I had some." Nora said.
"Nora, no." Ren said, knowing what kinda of chaos that Nora would do with them.
"Yeah, Nora, we wouldn't wanna drone on!" Yang grinned.
Weiss rubbed her forehead. "Please stop..."
"Sable teams, I need a status report." The Security demanded..
"Exterior sweep negative. We are all clear." the Agent said as Spider-Man had to run past the Drone's sight. "Still look like a software issue?"
"We don't know, we're evaluating. Please maintain current alert level." The Security requested.
"Okay, just two more modules." Jaune breathed as he kept out of sight of the Snipers and Drones.
"That was too close." Ruby breathed out.
"Y'know for someone who wears red, blue and a large white spider, he's pretty good at being stealthy." Yang complimented.
"Quite." Weiss said in agreement. "Though maybe he should think about making a stealth suit for future missions like this one."
"That could work." Pyrrha said in agreement. "Black I think would be more than suitable."
"Yeah, with neon green!" Nora chimed in.
"Yes and ne-" Weiss did a double take at that as she turned to the pink bomber with confusion. "How would green neon make him stealthy? If anything it would make him a bigger target."
"Maybe save the talk for later." Blake advised as their attention was directed back to the screen.
Attention all Sable teams. There's a small possibility we have a trespasser on site. We're analyzing data now— stay vigilant." The Security requested as Jaune managed to get to the third module and began hacking once more.
"Dammit. Another subsystem is going offline." The Security said in frustration. "I need a team to scan the eighty-fifth floor exterior."
"Copy control, bird inbound." The Agent confirmed as a Sable Helicopter flew right to the side of the building and shined a spotlight on it, heading towards Jaune.
Gotta move!" Spidey urgently whispers as he carefully hurries to the next and final module. While doing so, he was getting a call from Pyrrha.
"Man, talk about poor timing." Sun remarks.
"Hopefully, Jaune can multitask." Yang said.
"Hi, Pyr. Little busy right now..." Jaune whispers while avoiding the searchlight.
"I'll be quick. Listen. I got a lead on Charles Standish's location. I think if I can get to him. I can make him talk." Pyrrha quickly explained. "He knew about Dr. Delaney, he probably knows about Morgan Michaels as well."
"Very impressive work, Miss Nikos." Glynda complimented.
"That's our Pyrrha!" Nora said in an encouraging tone as Pyrrha smiled at her teammate.
"Okay, just don't do anything crazy." Jaune said as he hung up. "Speaking of crazy, gotta find that last module..." Jaune said as he continued to sneak past the snipers, droids and helicopters, eventually running up his way on the Schneecorp logo sign which led to the last module.
"There's the last one." Spidey says as he quickly starts hacking into it. Once finished, this caused the vent entrance near the door to open up.
"Nice!" Spidey whispered in succession. "Now I can get into Jacques's office. And hopefully find out more about Morgan Michaels and Devil's Breath." Spidey said as he began crawling towards the entrance.
"And a good thing too." Blake said.
"Yeah, I don't know what else they were gonna bring out to find him." Yang said in agreement.
"Exterior sweep negative. Should we go on lockdown?" The Agent asked.
"Not yet. Mr. Schnee is in the middle of an important call. But keep tracking there must be someone out there." The Security said.
"Nope. Nobody here but us spiders." Jaune whispers as he enters through the vent and starts crawling his way through.
But as he was crawling he could hear a very familiar voice just below him.
"Hold on. Switching to a secure line..." The voice of Jacques Schnee said, on the phone with someone. "I'm way ahead of you. Xiong. I had my people go through all of your files. If you try to expose our business arrangement. It'll be your word against mine. and I'm not the one behind bars right now..."
"Walt... Is Jacques talking to Junior Xiong?" Jaune whispered in shock.
"I still can't believe he's in league with a criminal like Xiong." Terra said.
"It's not that surprising..." Ilia muttered as she turned her head away in contempt.
He dropped down into the office. "Jackpot." Jaune whispered in success as he headed for the computer at Jacques's desk to access its information.
He was led to a screen with the following title.
OSCORP INDUSTRIES
PROJECT GR-27
Peer Review Summary
Commissioned by OSCORP
Review conducted by Dr. Isaac Delaney
Department Chair, Genetics, Biotechnology and Analytical Chemistry, ESU
"GR-27. Hm." Jaune hummed as he viewed the next slide..
"Gr-27?" Blake repeated.
"Maybe it's the cure of Devil's Breath." Ruby suggested.
"If that is the case, then is it being kept a secret?" Pyrrha asked.
PROJECT GR-27: GOALS
Audit materials submitted by GR-27 Chief Scientist Dr. Morgan Michaels
Observe GR-27 experiments at (LOCATION REDACTED)
Summarize GR-27 status, expedience, and risks
Recommend next steps
"Dr. Morgan Michaels is the chief scientist, but the location of the lab is redacted..." Jaune mutters as he goes to the next slide.
PROJECT GR-27: OBJECTIVE
Pair CRISPR genome editing with Al-controlled gRNA to identify and replace genetic mutations and errors.
"Al controlled CRISPR? If that actually works it could cure any genetic disease... Cystic fibrosis. Huntington's... this is crazy." Jaune said, both impressed and shocked.
"That's...astonishing!" Penny said, amazed by the prospect.
"Something like that would be valuable for anyone." Winter said.
"Indeed." Ironwood said in agreement. "But with Jacques I don't think it's that simple."
PROJECT GR-27: STATUS
THE GOOD
High efficacy. Consistent results.
And now for the bad.
"Why do I feel like there's gonna be a lot more bad than good..." Sun muttered.
PROJECT GR-27: STATUS
THE BAD
Viral delivery mechanism incorrectly targets immune system. Infected subjects highly contagious. One subject exposed. 7 days later, all 40 subjects deceased.
The screen then showed the dead rats. "Creepy." Jaune commented as he continued to read on.
"Ew, gross!" Ruby cringed at the sight.
"I know Peter would be both glad and terrified by the sight of that." Glynda said.
PROJECT GR-27: STATUS
THE UGLY
One infected subject could trigger global epidemic.
Lab techs nicknamed it "Devil's Breath."
"Wait, so, this GR-27 is Devil's Breath!?" Ruby exclaims.
"It looks like it." Ghira said.
"So, it was Jacques' fault that all of this was happening." Qrow scowls.
"But that still doesn't explain why Adam wants him dead." Glynda said.
"Whoa. GR-27 is Devil's Breath. It's designed to cure diseases, but in its current form it's like a bioweapon." Jaune gasped.
PROJECT GR-27: NEXT STEPS
CONTINUE DEVELOPMENT?
Mr. Schnee believes the reward is worth the risk.
"What a foolish notion." Glynda scowled.
"On that, you are right." Winter said in agreement.
MAINTAIN SECRECY.
If this gets out, PR nightmare, could bring down all of Schneecorp.
MITIGATE RISK OF EXPOSURE.
Dr. Michaels should keep only sample on his person at all times.
"Dr. Michaels keeps the only sample with him at all times. That's why Taurus wants him. We find Michaels, we find Devil's Breath." Jaune said as he then proceeded to make his way out of the office and out of the building entirely.
"Hey Jaune, what's up?" Pyrrha whispered.
"Pyr. Get this. Devil's Breath wasn't designed to be a weapon. it's a treatment for genetic disorders. But it's current form is wildly imperfect - in trying to fix the body, it rips it apart." Jaune explains. "We need to locate Dr. Michaels; I don't trust Winter to contain something this deadly."
Winter scowled slightly at this, but in a way, she understood where this version of Mr. Arc was coming from. This version of her seemed to be more concerned with preserving her fa...Jacques's integrity than actually protecting the people of the city.
"I may have a lead on that. Charles Standish is being held at Sable's Central Park compound if anyone knows Michaels' location. It'll be Schneecorp's CFO. I'm trying to reach him now." Pyrrha said.
"Wait, what?" Tai repeated.
"How...is she going to do that?" Velvet asked with some worry in her tone.
"I have a feeling of how she's gonna do it." Blake said.
Pyrrha looked at the screen with worry on her face.
"Reach him?" Jaune repeated in confusion. "That place is crawling with guards. How are you trying to reach him?
"Very very quietly. Gotta go, partner." Pyrrha said as she hung up on Jaune.
"She's acting too foolhardy to be sneaking into a military base," Winter said. "She should wait for Mr. Arc, he isn't that far away."
"Miss Nikos is taking too big a risk." Ozpin said in agreement.
"She's just trying to help!" Nora in deface over her teammate.
"Yeah," Ruby chimed in. "She's more than capable."
"I'm not denying that, but this is taking too big a chance." Weiss said.
"Sneaking into a Sable compound... that could go bad fast. I should head to Central Park." Jaune said as he began making his way there as fast as he could.
As he was swinging he saw that there was another message from Ozpin. "Looks like Doc checked in..." Jaune said as he began listening to the message.
"Jaune. I've had an epiphany. It's all about the mind. Take me for example... a mind of unlimited potential, shackled to a tired, old body." Ozpin explains. "Think of what that mind could achieve if it were freed! In developing our neural interface, we need to think beyond* replicating the tired putterings of our physical forms. Instead, reach into imagination and possibility. Reach into the mind..."
Ozpin listened in to what his counterpart was saying and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It sounded more like to him that he needed to prove something more than anything, perhaps there was more to this than he realized.
"I've never heard Doc this excited by a project. hope he's not *too* excited..." Jaune said with worry as he reached Central Park.
Spider-Man landed on a nearby lamppost as he scoured the area looking for Pyrrha. "Where are you, Pyr..." Jaune said to himself as he continued looking around.
He then used the scanning feature in his mask HUD and managed to find her in a nearby Sable tent. But unfortunately, it looked like she was being held at gunpoint.
"Oh no..." Weiss said with worry.
"It must be one of the guards." Coco said.
"Maybe." Winter said as she squinted her eyes to see that the man holding the gun was shaking, not at all composed. "Maybe not."
"Crap." Jaune cursed as he leaped over there to try and save Pyrrha.
15 Minutes Earlier
Pyrrha is currently hidden behind some bushes as she watches a nearby Sable Agent near a gap in the base's wall.
"Reach him? That place is crawling with guards. How are you trying to reach him?" Spidey asked.
"Very, very quietly." Pyrrha said in a hushed tone. "Gotta go, partner." Pyrrha said as she hung up and looked at the area.
"I do not see this going well." Ghira said.
"It worked out well for her when she was at Tombstone and at the auction house." Ruby pointed out.
"Yes, but this is a military-like operation. It's way more different than gangs and criminal mobs." Blake pointed out.
"Standish is somewhere in there... gotta get past that guard." Pyrrha said as she looked down at the devices given to her by Jaune. "Time to see if these lures Jaune gave me work." Pyrrha said as she sneaked over to a bunch of crates.
Pyrrha peaked her head to see a Sable Agent working. "That gap in the fence looks promising, just need to distract the guard." Pyrrha mutters as she then throws the lure to the far left side.
"Outta the way, fellah." Pyrrha says as the lure starts emitting a beeping sound.
This caught the Agents attention. "What was that?" The Agent wonders as he went to investigate the source of that noise.
"Gotta move... now." Pyrrha said as she rushed past the guard and made it through the gap and into the base.
"Very useful device." Ironwood complimented. "Mr. Arc is quite skilled when coming up with these devices."
Penny smiled in agreement. "Indeed. They are quite functional."
"I just wished they didn't have to be used in a situation where one of my students could be caught." Glynda sighed as she pushed her glasses up.
"Uh, you do realize she ain't your student in this?" Qrow pointed out.
Once in, she saw two Sable Agents standing by a staircase. "Gonna check on our house guest - stay here." One of the Agents said as he proceeded to leave.
"Copy." The other Agent responded.
"House guest." Must be Standish. He's here somewhere..." Pyrrha theorized as she moved around for a better spot near the standing Agent. Once close enough, she threw another lure to get him away from the staircase. Once he was distracted, Pyrrha quickly made her way up the stairs. Once she was up there, her eyes were immediately drawn by an image with several people's faces.
"What's that..." Pyrrha said as she brought out her camera for closer inspection. "Got it. Time to move." Pyrrha said as she moved on from there and got to a point on the platform where she could see around the base.
"Who were they?" Nora asked.
"My guess? Probably more people who knows about Devil's Breath." Ren said.
"Scientists?" Weiss asks.
"Or anyone who helped provide the money for it." Pyrrha added.
She saw Standish was being escorted to one of the tents. "Standish. I knew it. I've gotta get to that tent..." Pyrrha said as she began descending down the stairs, jumping down to where she was behind an outpost tent.
"I do not see this ending well." Terra said.
"I just hope she can get out of this or at least Jaune gets her out." Saphron said, worried for her potential sister in law.
"Standish is secure, ma'am." A Sable Agent reported.
"Lock out comms, as well." Winter ordered. "I do not want leaks to press about Michaels or Devil's Breath."
Winter scowled at her counterpart. Press leakage should be the least of her concerns.
"On it." The Sable Agents nodded as Pyrrha walked over to a nearby generator and turned it off, turning off the lights in the tent as well. "Crap. Generator tripped." An Agent said in annoyance as he went to check on the generator.
"...Won't distract him for long..." Pyrrha whispered as she managed to sneak past the Agent coming near her and through the tent and through the exit out of it, coming back outside into the base.
"How's it looking? Convoy gonna be ready?" An Agent asked his partner
"Five by five. Soon as boss gives the word, we'll get Michaels moved to the new safe house." The other Agent said.
"Who knows how long he'll be safe to know that Adam knows he exists." Blake said.
Pyrrha decided to push away a toolbox, causing a large noise that caused a nearby Agent to investigate. Pyrrha moved once he moved close as she hurried through an open crate. On the other side, she saw a Sable Truck prepping to go.
"Get that truck moving! Should've been uptown half an hour ago!" An Agent sternly said.
"Copy. We're rolling."
"Go go go..." Pyrrha mutters to herself as she moves along to a set of steel beams. Using one of her lures, she distracted a guard behind the truck as he moved away to investigate, giving Pyrrha an opportunity to move towards a staircase.
When she reached the top, she found that there were more agents blocking her way back down to the other side. Pushing another toolbox, she caused a distraction that lured a nearby agent to its location while Pyrrha moved undetected.
She managed to make her way down the stairs once more, her eye catching onto another important image just at the bottom. "Looks Important." Pyrrha said as she took an image of it. "Safe houses... If Dr. Michaels is in one of these, Standish might know which one..." Pyrrha theorized.
"Hopefully so, otherwise this was a risk for nothing." Sun said.
"Let's hope not." Ren said.
"Yeah, otherwise Nikos is screwed." Coco added.
She looked ahead and saw something of interest to her. "There's Standish's tent..." Pyrrha said as she started moving towards a nearby generator, turning it off to cause a distraction.
"Again? What's up with these lights..." One of the agents exclaims in annoyance as he went to check up on the generator. While they were distracted, Pyrrha quickly hurried past them, eventually making her way to the other side and near Standish's tent.
Pyrrha let out a sigh. "Close." Pyrrha mutters as she looks up to see only a single agent guarding the tent. Using her lures once more, she threw it away from the tent but just close enough for the Agent to go to investigate, Pyrrha ran past him and made her way into the tent.
"Hopefully he actually knows something that he didn't tell Winter." Ruby hoped before noticing Winter's look. "Uh, no offense.
Winter shook her head. "None taken. I too find my counterpart not trustworthy enough."
Once inside, Pyrrha crept behind Charles, who was currently working on the computer and who looked to be on edge as he drank some coffee.
"Charles Standish?" Pyrrha called out, causing Charles to snap up from his desk in shock.
"Holy crap!" Charles exclaims as he turns to Pyrrha.
"Charles... where is Dr. Morgan Michaels?" Pyrrha asked.
"Taurus sent you, didn't he..." Standish asked, panicked.
"Does she look like one of the Demons?" Coco asked sarcastically.
"Can't fault him for being scared." Velvet said. "Plus the fact he's basically being held by Sable Agents probably doesn't help his mental state."
Pyrrha shook her head. "No."
Charles pancaked as he grabbed a nearby gun from the table and pointed it at Pyrrha. "If he wants to kill me. You tell him to do it... do it himself..."
"Oh god..." Yang said, worried for her friend. "This probably wasn't a good idea."
"Obviously not!" Weiss exclaims before quickly turning to Pyrrha. "No offense, Pyrrha."
Pyrrha remained silent as she continued to stare at her counterpart with an unsure look.
"I'm not with the Demons, I'm not with Sable. I'm a reporter." Pyrrha assured. She shows him her badge. "And I want to see Taurus stopped. Just like you."
Standish read the name on the badge. "Nikos... I've heard your byline... Winter won't listen to me. She has Michaels in The Bowery, they're moving him to a new safe house tomorrow at noon, but she's totally ignoring Grand Central." Standish frantically explains.
"Grand Central?" Pyrrha asks.
"Demons were talking about it while they held me. They're going there to get..." Standish was about to say until a familiar figure jumped onto the tent.
"Oh no..." Blake muttered.
"Talk about poor timing." Sun jokingly remarks hoping to alleviate the tension.
"To get what, Charles?" Pyrrha urgently asks before anything could happen. "What do the Demons need to get at Grand Central?"
Standish titled his head. "Is that...?" Suddenly, the gun was webbed out of his hand as Spider-Man leaped into the room.
"What the f-" Standish trips over onto the ground, knocking himself over on the ground.
"Charles!" Pyrrha exclaims..
"Ooh..." Spidey winces.
"What the hell?!" Pyrrha exclaims at Jaune.
"Hey, it's not his fault." Yang said in defense. "The guy had a gun on her."
"I mean he was startled by a guy in red and blue spandex." Sun said.
"A guy who just recently saved his life?" Terra pointed out.
"That was not a Sable guy." Jaune comments while looking at Charles. "Definitely not a Sable guy."
"Heard something, proceeding to investigate." A Sable Agent said from the outside.
"Sorry, Charlie." Spidey remarks as Pyrrha checks to see if he is okay.
Jaune looked over his shoulder to see Agents coming to them. "OK. Time to go." Jaune said as he grabbed Pyrrha.
"Wait, no he knows something-" Pyrrha tried to say, but Jaune didn't listen as they flung out of the tent just as Sable Agents went into the tent and tended to Standish.
"Well...that was eventful." Qrow remarks.
"That's one word for it." Tai said.
After a long and very quiet web swinging, Pyrrha angrily made her way back to her apartment, slamming the door while Jaune watched on.
"Well that was maybe the most awkward swing of my life. Pyr is not happy." Jaune muttered to himself as he decided to leave the area, web swinging his way through the city to clear his head.
"But...he just saved her, didn't he?" Saphron asked.
"I don't think that's how she saw it." Coco said
But just then, he got a call from Pyrrha. "Hey, OK. another thing. "Sorry Charlie?" Pyrrha repeated in an angry tone. "You knock a man out, destroy my background research, and the best you've got is "Sorry Charlie? Is everything a joke to you?"
"What? MJ. No. I screwed up. It was a tension breaker." Jaune hurriedly tried to explain.
"Tension breaker," right." Pyrrha said, doubtful. "You know this is *exactly* why we broke up?"
Qrow groaned. "Are you seriously going on about that again? I'm pretty sure he knows by this point."
"Go easy, Uncle Qrow." Yang said.
This confused Jaune. "I thought we broke up so you could focus on your career?"
"We broke up because you wouldn't stop treating me like a baby!" Pyrrha exclaims in frustration. "Don't do this, Pyr! Don't do that, Pyr! Oh, that's too dangerous, Pyr!" Pyrrha listed out the phrases she remembered. "I may not have super spider powers, but I'm not made out of glass!"
"Considering that you were dumb enough to sneak inside of a military base with no real way out, it's hard to imagine why." Ilia rolled her eyes, prompting Nora to snap at Ilia.
"Hey! Don't insult her like that." Nora said.
"She does make a fair point." Coco said. "I love our girl, Pyr, but this version acted recklessly."
"I...have to agree." Weiss said.
"Weiss!" Ruby exclaims.
"You snuck into the middle of an armed military-!" Jaune was about to yell out in frustration before cooling himself down. "You know what? Can we not do this right now? Please? Did you learn anything about Dr. Michaels?"
Pyrrha sighed. "Fine," Pyrrha huffs. "Michaels is in the Bowery somewhere. Winter's moving him tomorrow at noon."
"Awesome." Spider-Man said. "Anything else? Was he saying something about Grand Central before I jumped in?"
"He was..." Pyrrha was about to say until she stopped herself. "No. It was nothing."
Glynda sighs. "She shouldn't disclose information like that because she's upset at him. It could cost lives." Glynda said.
"Listen, I gotta go, Jaune. Filing deadline." Pyrrha said as she turned off the call.
"Jaune. That's how you know she's still mad. Jaune." The blonde superhero sighed in annoyance with himself. "Nice work, Mr. Super Hero."
"I still don't get why she's mad at him." Sun said. "He saved her from a situation he put herself in the first place."
"But she was just trying to help find out more about Devil's Breath." Nora said.
"Yes. But she at the very least could've waited for Jaune instead of going out on her own." Ren gently explained to his partner.
Nora then turned to Pyrrha, who was looking down at the floor during this. "Pyrrha, you gotta see that you were only trying to help, right?"
"Actually, Nora, I can't." Pyrrha admitted, much to Nora's confusion. "Because I too believe my counterpart acted recklessly."
"What?" Ruby said in shock. "But...You were just trying to-"
"I understand what my counterpart was trying to do, Ruby." Pyrrha gently interrupted the young reaper. "And I get where she's coming from from wanting to be an equal to Jaune in this world. And I can get not wanting to be a burden considering the lack of powers, but it's like the others said, she was too careless in finding the truth, she shouldn't have snuck without properly planning head and she might've gotten caught or worse."
"But what about Standish?" Nora asked.
"Jaune did what he had to and I shouldn't fault him on that."
"That's a very fair assessment, Miss Nikos." Ozpin said. "Let's just hope that their partnership can remain intact."
As Spider-Man was swinging through the city to clear his head, he suddenly got a call from someone. He checked the ID. "That's Oscar's Mom. Hello?"
"Mr. Parker, it's Rio Pine. I want to thank you for getting Oscar the job at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter." Rio said in a grateful tone.
"Glad to. And please call me Jaune. "Mr. Arc" is... probably someone more together than me." Jaune said.
"He's doing his best." Saphron sighed. "It's not easy with the weight of the world on your shoulders."
"I should tell you, he has reservations. I finally gave him a choice: this or more therapy." Rio explains. "He needs this, he just hates to feel like a victim, or be pitied."
"I know that feeling." Yang mutters.
"I think Jaune does too." Pyrrha says, wanting to try and help him achieve his potential.
"Gotcha. I'm the same way. I'll let Aunt Glynda know, and I'll make sure I'm there on his first day." Jaune informs.
"Thank you again. This means a lot to both of us." Rio said as the line went off.
Deciding to check up on his mentor, Jaune began making his way to the labs to meet up with his mentor and friend.
The screen changed to Jaune in his lab clothes, entering the lab to find his mentor Ozpin still working.
"Hey, sorry I'm late." Jaune apologized.
"Morning, Arc. Or is it evening? Ah, doesn't matter." Ozpin waved off as he continued his progress. Jaune came up to his mentor. "Check the neurosensors, would you? We need a faster response time." Ozpin requested as he went to work elsewhere.
"Man, Professor Oz sure sounds wired." Yang said.
"Even more than Nora when she hooked on coffee." Ruby said.
"Not possible." Ren says.
"On it." Jaune nodded.
"Try to get it under three milliseconds." Ozpin requested.
Jaune began looking through the direct Neural interface and saw that its current response time was at 5.7ms. He began starting a diagnostics to take a further look.
"Okay...looks like I could optimize this power relay..." Jaune mused as he began working through the voltage and settings. He managed to get it at least 4.9 ms. "Nice." Jaune commented. "Okay, what next?" Jaune said as he noticed the next thing needed fixing. "Looks like some impedance in this neurosensor circuit." Jaune said as he started working on that as well.
After a few minutes of adjusting, he managed to get the interface at 3.6ms. Jaune smirked at this, but noticed another issue that needs fixing. "Signal-to-noise is out of whack. A new signal processor should reduce lag." Jaune mutters as he goes on to fix that as well. And after a few short minutes, he manages to fix it while getting 2.8 ms.
Jaune smiled at this. "I got it, Doc! Two paint eight milliseconds."
"Good work, Jaune." Ozpin complimented as Jaune walked up to him with the neural interface.
"Now, let's see what this thing can do." Ironwood said with interest, leaning in slightly to get a better look.
Ozpin took it and carefully placed it on his head. After making the adjustments, the arms activated as Jaune watched on, just ready to hit the stop button in case it went wrong.
"Here's hoping." Tai said, hoping that he didn't jinx it.
Ozpin motions at the arm, which causes it to reach down into the bucket of tennis balls and picks one of them up and raises it in the air. Ozpin looked towards Jaune, who was still ready by the stop button. Using his mind, Ozpin throws the ball in the air before catching it with the robot arm.
Ozpin motioned for the other arm as it activated and the first arm threw the ball at the other arm, perfectly catching it.
"Yes!" Jaune quietly exclaims in excitement.
"Good so far." Penny smiled.
Ozpin motioned the other arm to grab a few more tennis balls and started juggling with them. Ozpin and Jaune watched as the arms continued in speed while also grabbing more and more tennis balls to juggle with, going at such high speeds that the bucket was nearly empty.
The audience were in awe over this impressive display
"Oh my..." Kali gasped in awe.
"That is some speed!" Terra said with wide eyes.
"I know, it's like...Ruby levels of speed." Sun said, never taking his eyes off the screen.
"Ha! Take that Jacques!" Nora called out before realizing what she said and quickly turning to Weiss. "Oh, sorry Weiss, I didn't mean, well, y'know..."
Weiss moved a hand up. "It's fine, Nora." Weiss said sincerely. "I'd much rather that technology be in Jaune and Professor Ozpin's hands than my father's."
Jaune and Ozpin watched in awe as the arms continued to keep going, never stopping for a single second. Eventually, the arms allowed the tennis balls to fall right back into the bucket, not a single one missing out.
Ozpin sighs. "I'd call that a mild success."
"Oz, you gotta learn to take a compliment, buddy." Qrow says.
Ozpin chuckled. "I'll be sure to do that, Qrow."
"I'd call that unbelievable!" Jaune exclaims as Ozpin chuckles as he attempts to remove the interface, but finds it difficult to do so.
Jaune saw this and looked concerned. "Do you need some help?" Jaune asked.
Ozpin shakily nodded. "Yes." He said as Jaune went over to him and helped him remove the interface. Jaune saw his mentor's sullen expression and grew worried.
"Is he...okay?" Ruby asked, concerned.
"I'm not sure, Ruby." Weiss said with the same look as her partner.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Jaune asked.
"It's become that obvious?" Ozpin says while taking the interface off. "My doctors call it a degenerative neurological disorder," Ozpin recounted as Jaune walked up to him. "Probably caused by overexposure to toxic chemicals in my... reckless youth."
"What does that mean?" Nora asked.
"It means...that Professor Ozpin, in this world, is losing his motor functions. Meaning..." Ren was unable to finish that sentence.
"I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?" Jaune offered, wanting to help him in any way he could.
"You already are." Ozpin assured. "The worst part is it only affects the muscles, the mind continues to work, but it can no longer do." Ozpin somberly explains. "You're the only one who knows, Jaune. I'd like to keep it that way."
"Of course." Jaune promised.
"Uhh... If you'd like to seek a position with more of a future." Ozpin says.
I came here to work for you because of what you've got up here." Jaune said, gesturing to his head. "And that's not going anywhere. So neither am I." Jaune said.
Ozpin nodded as the two embraced in a hug for a brief moment. They pulled away as Ozpin gave Jaune a reassuring pat on the arm as they continued back to their work.
The audience smiled at the bond the two shared with each other as the screen turned off.
Ironwood leaned next to Ozpin. "Just so you know, if you ever do have issues with...y'know, I'd be more than happy to help out in any way I can."
Ozpin smiled. "I appreciate that, James, while my...condition isn't as...quite the same, I appreciate the offer."
"So, thoughts?" View asked.
"Thought it was cool." Sun answered.
"For the most part." Velvet said as she rubbed her arm at the bad stuff that happened.
"But hopefully, this will be one step closer in stopping Adam." Weiss said.
"Yeah!" Ruby said in agreement.
"Okay, good to hear." View smiled. "Well we'll take a small break from that world and then we'll..." View was about to say until an orb floated next to him all of a sudden. And strangely enough, this one had a phone attached to it, ringing.
"You have a phone?" Yang asked.
"Sort of," View said. "Hang on a sec." View said as he took out the phone. "Hello? Oh, Key it's you. What are you calling me...Wait what?...Really? How did? How's it my fault!?" View called out. "No, no! Cracks in the fabric of reality isn't my thing! Well I don't know!" View said as he turned to his audience. "I'll be back a sec." View said as he left the room
"Huh, that was weird." Nora commented.
Thanks for reading this chapter of Worlds of Arc
It makes me really great that I can write these out a lot quicker than I did before. I feel like my passion for writing has reignited. I'm hoping I can get this finished a lot quicker than I had planned. Just so long as I don't force myself to write it and do it out of enjoyment.
Now if it seemed like I may have character bashed Pyrrha/MJ in the game, I genuinely didn't mean to. I don't like the idea of character bashing that's undeserved. And I do like the version of MJ in the game, I just feel like maybe she was written a bit mixed than what they were trying to do.
Also, if you're wondering who View was talking to, check out VirusChris's RWBY Watches Alternate Universes to find out more.
Next chapter, we'll take a break from Spider-Man as we once again make a return to the world of DBZA, where Jaune will see who is the World's Strongest. Thanks and see you around!