The Reviews!
.
Reader: Ryo Aura will not be a thing, unfortunately, as for Merlot giving off Aizen vibes, eh... he's more along the lines of Dr. Gero but a little bit smarter. weird because I've been watching a lot of DBZ and DBS and even DBZA. So expect some moments in the story inspired by those three shows in one way or another.
Dragon Blaze-X: Curse mark? Nah, it's more like a Hichigo situation
Vail Ryuketsu: Jaune will get something related to Bankai, but not quite the same. I can't say too much for fear that the explanation might spoil the story later down the line.
Theanimemaster9000: Thank you, it took me a long time to come up with the lore and make it believable in the RWBYverse. Honestly, They're might be more scorpion references with Arslan (hey they both control fire and have similar weapons, I'm gonna use it but not too much). Yeah, I like the idea of Jaune and Adam being some sort of rivals. I'll take your advice and try to write more descriptive fights as best as I can, trust me, we'll see more Jaune & Adam later in the story and we'll also see Port get serious in this chapter.
AutoHunterJ49(1/3): Yeah, I will be sort of updating the Semblance functions and adding new character semblances to the database.
AutoHunterJ49(2/3): I haven't decided what I'll do with the two other members, in fact, I don't know if I'll be actually adding them to this story just yet. Though, that doesn't mean they won't be in the sequel story.
AutoHunterJ49(3/3): The story's name is based on the same name as the song by ElyOtto but is in no way inspired by it. Also, in a sense, Jaune is like a piece of candy... everybody wants a piece of him, ;) (that piece is either good or bad).
.
Anyway, onto the chapter!
.
.
.
.
.
.
In Port's room, Jaune, Sun, Arslan, and Coco were with the Professor discussing the theory that they had agreed upon was the most likely conclusion to what was going on in Alnwick.
"Merlot is still alive," Port said, "There's no other way to explain this,"
Arslan nodded, "All signs point to him," Arslan said "Though, I'm worried,"
Jaune looked at her with a raised brow, "Why?" Jaune asked
Arslan looked back at him, "From what the Mayor told us, only one family went missing last night, he didn't capture as much as he did the last time it was reported, which makes me wonder if he's gonna try again tonight," Arslan said
"Tsk, She's right, he might strike again tonight," Coco said
Jaune knew Arslan was right, but then he realized something, how was Merlot capturing these people, and then it hit him! He wasn't alone on this little project of his. "Damnit!" Jaune said through his teeth
"What is it?" Sun asked
Jaune let out a sigh, "I was thinking about how Merlot was capturing people, and then it hit me..." Jaune began "He's got help,"
"Maybe, but how do we not know that Merlot isn't just releasing some of his MutaGrimm and capturing people by himself?" Coco asked
"Because I don't think he'd risk being in the same place his MutaGrimm would attack," Jaune said
Coco thought about it and realized Jaune may be right, Merlot was smart, and he propablely learned from his mistakes at his own lab years ago, so there's no way he risks his own safety, but getting others to do it, sounds just like a mad scientist. "Hm, you might be right, but what do we do about them?" Coco asked
Sun turned to her with a smile, "We take care of them just like we are going to do with Merlot," Sun said
Arslan stepped forward, "But now we have another question, why does he need people now?" Arslan asked, "He didn't take people before, so why now?"
Port looked over to the Haven student, "It's possible that whatever experiments he did on the Grimm, he's finally achieved on some level, but now he wants to see how a Human would do with similar experiments?" Port said
"But what is his end goal?" Jaune asked
"Creating an army of mindless soldiers?" Sun chimed in, "I mean, that's probably what he did with the Grimm he captured already, but now he wants to move up to Humans,"
"Mr. Wukong's theory may prove to be the right one," Port said "But we won't know until we find out for ourselves," he told his students
"But how?" Coco asked "I mean, it's possible he's still working from the old lab, but what if he's not? I mean, how do we find our answers?"
Port thought about it, and Coco was right, once they were done here Port needed to report everything, and with Merlot being declared dead for years the council was going to ask for evidence and an explanation. However, the towns folk were their top priority, Port already failed the town once, and he wasn't going to fail them again, so he came up with a plan.
"The town is in danger with the east gate is down, and with Merlot attacking so much the people are in danger... So I'm asking you four to protect and defend the town while I go look for evidence, if I find enough I'll ask for an airship to pick up the town's people while we deal with Merlot," Port said "Once Merlot and his Grimm are taken care of and the east gate is rebuilt, the towns folk will be allowed to come back here," Port told them
Jaune nodded, "We'll do our best Professor," Jaune told him with a reassuring smile
"Thank you, Mr. Arc," Port said, he then looked to the other team leaders, "Thank you all," he said
The others smiled back at the professor, and with that, Port left to tell the Mayor his plan while Jaune and the others would inform the team and then inform the townspeople to get ready for a possible evacuation while they also tried to come up with a plan to secure it for tonight. Both huntsmen in training, as well as the townsfolk, prayed that another attack wouldn't happen tonight, or else things just might get worse.
.
.
.
Meanwhile and much later at Merlot's Lab, Merlot, as well as Jericho and Treygan, were preparing more Mutant-Grimm to attack the town, this time, with a much larger quantity of them. However, instead of just testing them, this time, they had a new mission.
As Merlot saw his Mutant-Grimm being loaded into cages and containers, from the corner of his eye, he saw Fe approaching. He smiled and turned to her, "Ah, Ms. Feng, did your sources tell you who the boy was?" he asked
Fe nodded, "Yeah, his name is Jaune Arc, the only 1st-year student at Beacon this year, and not to mention he's the one that captured Roman Torchwick, not only that, a few reports say that he's being trained by Ozpin himself and managed to go toe-to-toe with Adam Taurus, so if I had to guess, this kid has gotta be pretty special if he's got the headmaster of Beacon teaching him," Fe said
Merlot's smile widened, "Such feats for one so young!" Merlot said, "Yes, he'll make an excellent test subject!"
Fe looked at him with a raised brow, "So, you want us to get him, Doc?" Fe asked
Merlot nodded, "Yes," he told Fe, "This... Jaune Arc captured my interest, his power, speed, and durability are some of the best I've seen as of late, not only that, that power he was able to use to slice my Grimm in half, was amazing... such power... it could be useful," Merlot said with a smile
"I suppose," Fe told him, "We'll do our best to capture this Jaune Arc, but is there anyone else?"
"Hmm," Merlot thought about it and he remembered about some of the other teens with Jaune Arc, "Yes, bring me the dark-skinned girl with the short platinum blonde hair, her fire Semblance is quite powerful," Merlot said
"Got it Doc," Fe replied, "Are we ready to go?"
Merlot nodded, "Indeed," Merlot told her, "I suggest you let your friends know the real mission so they don't harm my new test subjects," Merlot told him
Fe nodded, "Of course," Fe replied
With that said, Fe and Merlot joined Jericho and Treygen, in loading up the rest of the Grimm. Once they were finished they had 4 Bullheads carrying 4 containers of Mutant Grimm and they left the base's docks and flew their way to the town.
Back in town, Jaune was currently on the east side of Alnwick where a makeshift fence surrounded the entrance. He was sitting atop a house's roof and the one to take the 1st watch over the east gate and notify the others in case something came up, but nothing so far. Suddenly, he heard Bullheads fly over the town and looked up only to see three, each of them carrying containers, and they were quite close to the ground. he focused hard on the Bullheads as they split up and went to each side of the town. and that's when he saw the Merlot Industries Emblem on the sides. Jaune's eyes widened and he realized what was going on.
"BEHIND... YOU..."
Jaune heard the voice again, but instead of questioning the voice, Jaune turned around as quickly as he could only to see two hatchets flying at him, Jaune quickly activated his shield and blocked them. The Hatchets were pulled back and returned to the hands of their owner. Jaune lowered his shield and looked to see his attacker, who was Treygen, standing atop the wall across from him.
'This guy's gotta be with Merlot,' Jaune thought.
"You Jaune Arc?" Treygan asked with a smile
Jaune was surprised to know that this guy knew who he was, so he quickly took out Crocea Mors and took a fighting stance, "And what if I am?" Jaune asked.
"Well, then you just one a special date with our dear Doctor," Treygen said with a smile
"And if I refuse?" Jaune asked
"Well the Doc says you gotta come in alive, but..." Treygen began, he then flipped his Hatchet around then it transformed into a pistol, "Never said anything about a little roughed up!"
Treygen shot at Jaune but he disappeared surprising the mercenary, as he looked around, only for Jaune to appear next to him and Treygen saw him and backed up just as Jaune swiped at him. Treygen barely managed to duck under the strike, and he aimed his pistol at Jaune yet again, seeing this, Jaune quickly put his shield in front of him and blocked the shots, backing up in the process.
Treygan looked at the Beacon student and Jaune looked back at the Mercenary with a glare.
Treygen smiled, "Damn kid, that's some neat trick ya got there," Treygen told him
"Who are you? What do you want?"
"Ah, where are my manners, ma' would scold me if I forgot to introduce myself," Treygen said with a smile, "Name's Treygen Anvikal, a pleasure to meetcha'," Treygen said with a tip of his hat,
Jaune glared at Treygen, "Ok... I know who you are, but what do you want?" Jaune asked
"You, well, the doc wants you," Treygen told him
Seeing this as an opportunity to get information, Jaune decided to continue the conversation, "When you say doctor, you mean Dr. Merlot, right?" Jaune asked
"Well, well, well, you're smart too!" Treygen said with a laugh, "Yeah, Dr. Merlot is the one that hired us and is the one that wants you,"
"Why me?" Jaune asked with a raised brow,
The mercenary shrugged, "Well for whatever he's doing with the other people we got back at the lab," Treygen said "Now, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way, up to you kid,"
Jaune smiled a little, "Sorry, but I think that I wanna do this the hard way," Jaune said, holding Crocea Mors at the ready.
Treygen smiled but let out a sigh, "Welp, can't say I didn't try" Treygen said as he flipped his other hatchet around and it turned into another pistol.
Jaune quickly pushed all his Aura into Crocea Mors, but Treygen was already charging at him, so Jaune quickly swung to the right and sent Arcus Mortis toward the Mercenary, but Treygen slid in his knees underneath the attack and when it was safe, he got right back up and began firing at Jaune. Jaune was momentarily shocked but he quickly activated Aura Sight and cut every bullet he saw coming his way as Treygan was closing in. Getting close to the blonde knight, Treygen quickly switched his left pistol back to hatchet form and swung down at Jaune.
Jaune quickly blocked the attack with his sword only for Treygen to aim his right pistol at his gut, but Jaune thought fast and slammed his shield down onto Treygen's pistol, causing the cowboy to shoot a wall instead.
Treygan was then bashed by Jaune's shield, causing him to stagger, giving the blonde teen the opportunity to slash at Treygan, hitting his aura and causing the man to wince, Treygen quickly regain his composure after the hit and shot Jaune's leg, hitting his aura and throwing the knight off balance a little, which gave him time to back up a little.
Treygan quickly turned his pistol back into a hatchet, just in time as Jaune swung down on him. Forming his pistols into an X shape, he blocked the downward strike from the Huntsmen-in-training, but Jaune smiled as he pulled pushed his aura into the sword, but instead of unleashing an Arcus Mortis, he pulled his sword away and then used his shield to bash Treygan's arm, breaking his block and leaving him wide open much to Treygen's shock. Jaune then slashed upwards diagonally and unleashed his Arcus Mortis, hitting the Mercenary and sending him flying back.
Treygan hit the side of the wall and fell into the backyard of a house. He got up and dusted himself off, smiling at what just happened, "Damn! Gotta admit the kid's pretty good!" He said "But time's a-wastin', gotta finish this as soon as possible," he said
Treygan pulled two clips from his back and smiled as he loaded them into his Pistol/Hatchet hybrid weapon.
"Aw yeah! This'll do the trick!" Treygen said as he looked ahead of him only to see Jaune charging in.
Treygen aimed his pistol and fired at the Blonde knight's leg, only for it to bypass his aura and go through his left leg! Jaune's eyes went wide with shock as he stumbled and fell off the wall and just a few feet in front of Treygen.
'W-What the hell was that!?' Jaune asked himself
"Like that?" Treygen asked, "Aura piercing rounds, things cost a good price, but hey, they're worth every penny," He told Jaune
'Damnit!' Jaune cried to himself, he slowly began to stand up, but pain shot through his right shoulder. "AHHH!" Jaune cried in pain.
Treygen smiled as he shot two more rounds through Jaune's left arm and his right side. Jaune fell to his knees as he coughed up a bit of blood. Treygen walked over to Jaune and smiled, as he aimed his pistol at Jaune's head.
"Give up kid, I don't wanna have the doc and Fe bein' mad cause I didn't take you in alive," Treygen said with a smile.
'Damnit!' Jaune cried to himself, 'I thought I had him but he had some trick of his own! Damnit! Damnit! DAMNIT! I-I... I can't lose like this! I can't let him take me away!'
"YOU FOOL..."
'H-Huh?' Jaune asked
"YOU DAMN WEAK FOOL! ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO LET HIM TAKE US AWAY!?"
'Who... Who said that...?' Jaune asked again
"HOW DARE YOU SIT THERE AND DO NOTHING YOU DAMN WEAK FOOL! STAND UP AND KILL HIM! STAND UP RIP HIM APART! DON'T LET HIM TAKE US AWAY FROM THEEEEEEMMMM! STOOOOOP HIIIIIIM!"
Suddenly, something in Jaune snapped and he felt as if the ground beneath him crumbled and he fell, though it didn't feel like he fell, it was as if he was falling into a pool, and everything went black...
.
.
.
Port rushed back to the town as fast as he could, he had found some recently dropped cages and they had Merlot industries' Emblem, telling him that Merlot was still alive, and worse, he had seen those Bullheads as well, meaning another attack on Alnwick was happening.
'Hang in there students! I'm on my way!' Port said to himself
Suddenly, Port heard the whirling of a machine and he turned around only to see two drones behind him. The drones had weapons attached and Port acted quickly, shooting them both down before they could fire at him. They fell into the trees, creating small explosions.
"Lovely shot"
Port quickly turned around and his eyes widened, standing before him was none other than Thomas Merlot himself, surrounded by armed drones.
"Merlot," Port seethed, his grip tightening on his weapon.
"Peter Port," Merlot said with a smile, "It's been ages, how have you been?"
Port didn't answer, his glare hardening onto the scientist, making him grin.
"Ah, I see... you hate me for what happened to your team, correct?" Merlot asked with a smile.
Port didn't answer, his anger rising inside of him.
"What were their names again?" Merlot asked, stroking his beard, before his eyes widened and his lips curled into a grin, "Oh! That's right! your partner was Rachel Rockwell, a beautiful girl, with long gorgeous red hair,"
"Stop," Port seethed
"Then there was, Eric Braun, such a strong young man, from what I remembered, he was very loyal to you," Merlot continued
"I said stop!" Port cried
"And then there was Yur Varoy, skilled man, quick, agile, compassionate, I remember he saved a lot of people that day," Merlot told Port
Port charged at him, raising his Axe at the scientist, but Merlot snapped his fingers and a few drones went in front of Merlot and activated a light shield, blocking the Huntsmen's attack, and Port quickly backed up, and the drones moved away from the Scientist and activated their weapons, large spikes protruding out of them and they then charged at Port. But Port was quicker on the draw and turned his weapon around and shot three rounds at three of the Drones before turning it around and then giving it a good throw with both his hands and then embedding itself in the drone, causing it to fall to the ground.
Port quickly ran over to it and pulled his Axe out of the drone before firing a shot at Merlot. Merlot, however, activated his own shield and blocked the attack, he then snapped his fingers, and the drones fired at the Grimm studies professor, but Port quickly backed away and took cover behind a few trees.
"It's a shame what happened to them, Peter!" Merlot cried with a smile, "They would have made such an amazing test subject if they were here!"
Port's anger grew more than it had ever had in his life, his grip on his weapon tightened so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"It's too bad that they died during your final days at Alnwick, must have been hard knowing how useless you were to save them!"
That was the last straw, Port shot out from behind his tree and charged at the scientist, this made Merlot smile, happy to see what kind of man Peter Port was now.
"Show me what you got Peter Port!" Merlot cried with a smile "Show me what a human Huntsman is capable of!"
.
.
.
Oh man, it looks like things are really heating up! Port's facing up against Merlot! Something is going on with Jaune! Oh, man! Things are really heating up!
Too bad, you won't find out till the end of the net chapter! Speaking of which! Sun and Arslan are gonna show off their stuff in the next chapter! I hope you're all ready!
Btw while I was writing the fight between Jaune and Treygen, I was listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free bird" and man when that guitar solo kicked in you have no idea how high on "Action writing vibes" I was on! I got so pumped up! I think I just found my go-to song if I wanna write some badass fight scenes!
Also, Port's team name was PREY, which I of course got the name thanks to the new Predator movie! I just needed some names with the R, E, and Y.
Here's what's to come in chapter 24!
Sun and Arslan face off against Fe and Jericho! Sun shows off his Kings Aura and what it can do! Arslan shows off something she's kept hidden even from her team! A new challenge appears that threatens Arslan and Sun's safety! Can they overcome this new dangerous challenge!?