Jax is a smart man, arguably smarter than anyone in Vacuo… that is until the Republic came in and proceeded to fuck everything up. This made Jax feel… inadequate, a little bit insecure one might say, watching one of his pawns be shot on live television only made him angrier. Not because he cared for the pawn, no, but because this display of power from Courrier would only serve to pull attention away from the crown… and from him.
Right now, this so-called 'Hero' is sat unconscious in front of him, on the other side of the table separating the two of them. Jax bounced his leg up and down impatiently, "Is he still asleep?" he raised an eyebrow at his sister Gillian, who was standing right behind him. Normally he'd pick a more… intimidating interrogation room than underneath The Mirage but Gillian was being particularly ornery today so he caved.
She narrowed her eyes, turning to one of the members standing by the exit, "Go wake him," she commanded, Jax watched as the woman walk over to Courrier's unconscious body and slap his face a few times to no avail.
"Uh… do you have like… a bottle of water or something?" the guard asked slowly, nervously, looking around the room and making eye-contact with the other guards, but none of them speaks up. Jax narrowed his eyes at this; the guard was acting too… not-mind controlled for his liking.
"N- Nevermind…" the woman held up her weapon and pointed the stock of it towards Courrier; she quickly slammed the butt of it down towards Courrier's nose, Jax smirked as Courrier was startled awake. With the guard quickly backing off and reassuming her original station when Gillian glared at her.
"Did I fall asleep again? Damn it!" Courrier sighed, "Hey you," he looked at Gillian first, completely disregarding Jax's presence in the room, this only made him angrier, "Mind explaining where I am?"
"You do not need to know that," Gillian smirked, "You've been particularly troublesome for The Crown, Courrier, and it's time for you to pay your dues."
"The Crown?" Courrier raised an eyebrow, "Oh right, that," he laughed sheepishly, "I honestly forgot about you guys until today, with everything going on you'd understand," Jax continued to be ignored, "So is this like a meet and greet or am I being inducted into some kind of sex cult?"
Jax scoffed, "You have quite the mouth on you, Courrier," he stood up, motioning for Gillian to follow him as he walked over to Courrier's bound form, "Let's keep that mouth shut in the future, hmm?" Jax grinned, grabbing Courrier's head and forcing Courrier's weird, strange eyes to focus on his.
"Wow! So it is a sex cult!" Jax focused his Semblance on Courrier, feeling a strange tug on his mind and Aura as he furrowed his brows. Remarkable mental resistance on Courrier, he might have to put more effort into this…
But the only thing Jax could feel that strange tug on his mind again, the outside sounds started to blur before another noise invaded his head entirely. Something about a… situational comedy TV show? Something about bears and bulls? And a… zombie dressed as a cowboy in those olds shows he used to watch?
Jax snarled as he focused all of his energy on this, why wasn't his Semblance working like normal? What the hell was all of this background noise in Courrier's head?! A shrill voice talking about how… a TV show's many sequels were superior to the original…? Something about a sink?! Jax closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying his best to push through…
Meanwhile, back at the Sink, the Courier's brain tank was humming a TV show opening when suddenly… "Hmm?" the Courier's second artificial brain raised its hypothetical eyebrows at the Courier's first organic brain after it suddenly seized up, "Hello? Brain? You there?"
As a fun side project during his twelve years a Courier, the Courier decided to install a second brain tank that will house one of his artificial brains, so that his original brain can converse with someone else other than the Sink's personality AIs. This artificial brain is constantly receiving information from the data banks in the Forbidden Dome, allowing it to have all the memories of the Courier, no matter how far away the man might be.
Right now though, artificial brain is currently wondering what happened to original brain, as the original brain had suddenly stopped speaking during their heated debates about old American sitcoms. Personally, artificial brain thinks that Frasier 5 was the best sequel in the Frasier series.
But Frasier 4 was good too… Frasier 6 wasn't as good since the entire original cast died out but it still provided great entertainment and joy for the citizens of America! And Frasier 7-
"Hey man, I know that you have majestic eyes but how long is this gonna take?" Gillian scowled at Courrier's attitude, mentally questioning why Jax is taking so long to just Mind Control the moron already, "How 'bout you take me out to dinner first?"
Jax then opened his mouth, his eyes still completely focused on Courrier's, "Why isn't it working…?" Jax snarled, "W- Why?! Damn it!" he released Courrier's head and paced around the room, sulking.
"That was freaky," Courrier shuddered dramatically before scratching his head with his… unbound… hands… Gillian glanced at the rope on the floor, completely unfurled, "Thanks for the advertisement guys, but I don't think I'm ready to have another kid yet," what the hell was he on about? "Don't want another mini-me walking out there, like the last one, who should be twenty-nine by now…"
Was he… it looks like Courrier thoroughly convinced himself that The Crown was some kind of strange sex cult, "What the hell are you one about?" Jax pulled out his sword and pointed the blade at Courrier's neck, "Do you not know about The Crown? Didn't you… didn't you kill one of our members on live television?!"
"Oh that, I was like high off my balls on Mentats and Psycho during that entire thing," Mentats? Psycho? "Looks like my hypothesis on drug mixing were correct after all!"
"You were high off drugs during that speech?" Jax asked in disbelief and a bit of anger, he then scowled before swinging his sword, fully intending on lobbing off Courrier's head… Gillian watched with wide eyes as a resounding boom deafened her before seeing Jax fly across the room before his back impacted the wall, cracking the concrete. Gillian quickly drew her bow and jumped back, noticing a smoking gun in Courrier's hand.
"Think fast!" Courrier shot at Gillian too, sending her to the wall much like Jax. What the hell were those bullets made out of?! And why do they do… so… little damage? They're more like concussive blasts than the usual Dust bullets, high amount of force but little in the damage department, barely taking off more than half of what a Dust bullet would do to Aura…
"Very perceptive!" was she saying that out loud? Fuck! "These bullets might be worse than Dust bullets in every imaginable way, but the enjoyment I get from seeing people be flung like ragdolls as a result of them?" Courrier chuckled, "Ah… priceless."
Gillian jumped out of the way as Courrier fired another shot, the bullet crashing into the wall and leaving behind a clean hole… so they must be designed based on penetration power instead of normal Dust… interesting, must be where all the kinetic energy was coming from.
Jax pried himself out of the wall, "Kill him! Now!" he commanded the others to attack Courrier, all of whom were immediately sent flying following several loud bangs from Courrier's weapon.
"Let's make this more fun!" Courrier then holstered his revolver and pointed at Jax with a wide grin on his face, "Come pretty boy, show me you're more than those beautiful, luscious, damn near majestic eyes of yours."
Jax jumped over the table and towards Courrier, blades shining as he swung it at the man, Courrier ducked under the strike and kicked the table upwards, causing it to lean the other way and forcing Jax off of the surface. Gillian lined up a shot with her bow and fired, only for Courrier to catch the arrow mid-air and throw it back at her. Gillian jumped out of the way of the projectile, watching as it dug itself deep into the concrete wall.
Jax tried to circle around the table to get to Courrier, Courrier, in response, walked the same way Jax was walking, causing the two to circle around the table like a planet in orbit. Frustrated with this game of cat and mouse, Jax jumped the table again and tried swing at Courrier. Gillian fired another shot, to which Courrier caught again and stabbed the arrow down at Jax, causing his Aura to flicker as he was slammed onto the table.
The guards ran in too, attacking Courrier by coming at him from all sides, some from the back and a couple jumping at him over the table. Courrier ducked under a swing from a guard's dagger before grabbing the man's arm and throwing him at the two jumping over the table. He then crouched down and uppercutted another guard's stomach before grabbing his head and slamming it down on the same table. Gillian clicked her tongue before firing off another arrow; Courrier moved his head to dodge the projective before grabbing the unconscious guard and throwing her at Gillian.
Gillian kicked the unconscious body away, deciding to jump at Courrier in order to siphon his Aura away with her Semblance. Jax grabbed the table and flipped it out of the way, making sure there are no more obstacles between them and moved in to attack Courrier too. Courrier reached behind himself to take out a wooden flagstaff with a gold eagle ornament at the top. Gillian's eyes widened at this, where'd he get that weapon?
A guard ran in with their weapon, a spear, and jabbed it at Courrier. Who quickly dispatched of the woman via a good smack to the top of the head with his flagstaff. Some ice shards flew towards the man but he dodged it, one of the guards had her hand on a vial of ice Dust and was using her Semblance to make projectiles out of them. Courrier grabbed the unconscious body of a guard on the ground and held it up to block the shards before throwing the body at the other guard, causing her to stumble back before being knocked out by a swift kick to the jaw by Courrier. Gillian continued firing arrow after arrow but each projectile was either deflected by the flagstaff or grabbed and thrown back at her. He blocked a strike from Jax before kicking him in the side, causing him to cough out some spittle.
Courrier swung the flagstaff around expertly, crashing the ornament down on Jax's head while using the butt of it to swat away Gillian. Gillian quickly twirled around and grabbed onto Courrier's wrist, smirking when she activated her Semblance... the smirk was quite literally wiped off her face as Courrier headbutted her. Jax attempted an upward slash with his sword before Courrier parried the attack with his flagstaff, redirecting the blade with the ornament before twirling the staff around and slamming it to the side of Jax's head.
Gillian pushed herself up from her prone position, watching as Jax get his ass beat by Courrier while her mind runs wild… Courrier didn't have Aura. Gillian eyes widened again when the words caught up to her. She gritted her teeth and pulled back her bow, readying another arrow and firing it at Courrier. Courrier quickly let go of Jax and grabbed the arrow before chucking it back at her again. Gillian ducked under the redirected projectile and quickly grabbed Jax's shirt, pulling him back and throwing him to a more open and safe space.
Gillian was completely useless in this fight… and so was Jax… she need to get the hell out of here…
From the corner of her eye, Gillian saw Carmine and Bertilak run in with their weapons drawn, "Carmine, Bertilak! Withdraw! Now!" She quickly grabbed Jax and ran out of the room as Carmine used her Semblance to pry the table legs off and shoot it at Courrier while Bertilak sent out heat waves at the man, "Damn it!"
Bertilak withdrew from the room as Carmine used her Semblance to gather all the concrete dust from the room and spread them out like a smokescreen, allowing for the figureheads of The Crown to escape… thought they might lose a couple guards here and there.
"Hey is that the stripper girl from before?" Gillian heard as she made a tactical retreat, a queen never runs away from a battle! "So it is a sex cult!" Damn that Courrier!
Eryth wiped some blood off the side of his mouth, where the hell was Courrier?! Pyrrha looked fatigued, but Eryth? Eryth might as well fall apart right here, right now! He can barely walk a few steps before collapsing, his Aura broke a long time ago and Pyrrha's been wailing on him with the blunt end of her spear for the past… uh… forty minutes?
He tried to dodge the attacks but the intensity and speed was too much for him to handle, fortunately though, her moves began to slow down as time passes. Probably a sign of fatigue and tiredness from moving around so much.
Eryth coughed and wheezed as he felt the air rushing back into his lungs, Pyrrha kicked him in the stomach earlier, and without the protection of Aura, he felt that shit fully too. He tried to push himself up to his feet but quickly fell down to his knees. He didn't get the opportunity to tell Pyrrha who he really was earlier because she headbutted him so hard it knocked the thoughts out of his brain… or maybe it's just the concussion talking…
"Pyrrha! Wait… argh…" he groaned as he dropped back first onto the sandy brick below him, "Damn it! I-" Eryth then noticed a shadow being cast over his writhing body, he rolled around to see Pyrrha standing above him with her spear pointed downwards, with the sharp end aiming at his chest, "Wait- wait, wait, wait!"
Pyrrha slammed the spear down… "I'm your dad! FUCK!" Eryth clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the pain… that never came. Eryth slowly opened his eyes, seeing the spear point just moments before impaling him to the ground… and Pyrrha with her eyes wide open. She quickly threw the spear away, the metal clattering on the ground below…
Eryth coughed violently as he felt Pyrrha deliver a swift kick to his jaw before walking away. He rolled to his front and tried to push himself up to a sitting position, barely succeeding before his arm buckled under the weight. Pyrrha was sat a few steps away from him, cleaning her spear as she glared back at him with the intensity of a thousand suns. Gods, she looked just like her mother… probably with the temper to match too…
"Hey, hey! How's the family therapy going?" Eryth saw Courrier walk in with a grin on his face, "Did the two of you get it out of your system yet?" Eryth sighed, he's sure that Pyrrha's coming up with plans to kill Courrier right now, "Oh and Pyrrha? Yeah, Eryth's your dad." Yep.
Pyrrha rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply, "I- I don't know how to feel about that," Eryth nodded, Courrier kept that smile on his face though, "How do I know that…" her voice started to shake, "You- you…" She was crying.
"Ooh, tough luck Eryth, looks like your daughter's crying," Courrier nudged Eryth with his leg, "Go do something about that, come on, get off your ass and do something."
Eryth struggled to stand up and walked over to Pyrrha, he extended a hand hesitantly, glancing back at Courrier to see the guy give him a double thumbs up. Eryth placed a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder and rubbed soothing circles on it. Hoping that this would at the very least stop her from crying… and maybe killing him too.
Pyrrha jumped at Eryth and wrapped both of her hands around him; he looked at Courrier with a panicked expression, mouthing 'Help' at the man. He just laughed before walking away, leaving the two there alone. Eryth just patted Pyrrha on the back, "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm sorry."
Worry not, the Courier's not gonna become communist any time soon, since that'll stop him from making bank and gambling said bank.
If FFNet's going to implode again then I'll crosspost this to AO3, I already have all the files saved and everything so making the transfer would be easy, if not very tedious.
On the topic of the bullets, I think the reason why most Fallout/RWBY writers make gunpowder bullets more powerful than Dust is because of how weak the Dust bullet looks in the show (and to make it so the MC don't die instantly when they fire a gun). I don't want it to be like a straight upgrade to the Dust bullets in my story so I made it like a trade-off.
Since gunpowder bullets (except hollow points) are designed to penetrate, they'd impart more kinetic energy onto people with Aura, since the bullets can't penetrate Aura. And Dust bullets are designed like hollow points, purposefully made so that they'd crumple on impact to release the elemental Dust part of the bullet for more damage.
That's why Kali can block bullets with a food tray in that one episode. They're not designed for penetration.
So the trade-off is this, gunpowder bullets are faster (because of the gunpowder releasing more explosive force than fire Dust), can penetrate surfaces, and send people flying because of kinetic energy BUT they deal less damage to Aura because of no elemental Dust (but will still do a good amount because the victim's body will be sent towards a wall or be skid across the ground) and have recoil that'll dislocate your shoulder at a high enough calibre.
While Dust bullets are slower (because fire Dust as a primer), can't penetrate, and can't send people flying BUT deal more damage because of the elemental Dust and are more manageable recoil-wise.
All-in-all, this makes gunpowder bullets functionally worse than Dust bullets in almost every single aspect except for combat against another person with Aura, in which case you can start the Remnant's Space Program when you shoot them.
Thanks for reading!