Chapter 7. The Fox and the Doggo, First Impressions

In a sparsely-furnished room with gray walls and a white ceiling, a girl laid on a bed. It's a simple thing; built for one, not all that soft, missing both pillow and blanket. Water soaked the section of the mattress beneath the girl, she herself drenched from a dip in a typhoon. Those sleeping conditions practically begged for her to develop hypothermia, but lacking a change of clothes or even a towel in this place, the other option would have been for her to be stripped nude. And Jaune, shivering in his own wet outfit as he knelt beside the bed, certainly wasn't going to be taking anyone's shirt off in these circumstances.

Bodysuit, in her case. He used to think Huntress fashion was distracting. It had nothing superheroine costumes—or perhaps supervillainess, he didn't get the chance to ask yet. The ridiculousness of wearing a skin-tight one piece to battle registered in full when it ceased being an artist's portrayal on comic book pages and became an actual thing a person does in front of him. What kind of defenses did the bodysuit offer? It wouldn't even protect this girl from the cold air let alone a bullet, being so thin. Way too thin, and there were tears in it.

With a sigh, he cut off that thought to preempt another bout of temptation. Gaze turned towards the ceiling, he counted the seconds in his head as he waited for the girl to regain consciousness, one hand drumming a beat on the mattress, the other extended to place over her face.

After the latest repeat of his guest's fainting act, Jaune had conceived of a brilliant idea. Her looking around seemed to be the trigger for incapacitation, what with the frantic eye motions followed by a groan of pain and a trip to la-la land. So, he simply blocked her vision—and patted himself on the back, because this was the kind of go-getter, problem solving mindset that would get him hired by a company after his Huntsman days were over.

It continued being a brilliant idea right up until the girl awoke for the umpteenth time.

"H—" The beginning of a word was all he managed before she erupted in a violent struggle while screeching like a banshee, the natural response for a person when they came to in total darkness with a warm fleshy thing gripping their face. He's pretty sure someone filmed a horror movie featuring a scene like that. Mistakes were made.

The girl succeeded in slapping his arm aside, at which point she stiffened up and, forgetting the fight altogether, played out a now familiar scene. Green eyes panned from one side of the room to the other, roamed over Jaune's features, then rolled in their sockets.

"Too much…too much…" she mumbled, and clocked out. Again.

Jaune scratched his head, puzzled on the best way to proceed. He had been on the right track. By the sound of it, the girl was undergoing some sort of sensory overload that rendered her mind unable to comprehend…well, anything. Unless she was amenable to living life blindfolded, the problem extended beyond his level of expertise in neuroscience (none).

It's lucky for her that he can turn to his handy-dandy stolen scroll for aid. Slowly but surely, he was coming around to the idea of leaning on the most versatile tool at his disposal. Although, it'd be great if his broke-ass can keep up with his spending habit. How much credit did he have?

Let's see, there's the 400 Points spent on [Blank] , then 75 to save S-Sundancer…

A shaky breath, a pang of regret and hurt. Clamping down on that mess of emotions in a very healthy manner, he continued adding up.

…75 on Skitter and Shielder, plus another 50 just now to get a stimpak that took care of this girl's wounds, which amounted to 600 Points in total, with 400 available until he hit the credit limit. Not encouraging, since his first Jump required a [Skill] that cost those same number of Points. For a brief moment, he entertained the idea of making a second Jump to bolster his budget while letting the girl stay like this.

That notion ended with a whimper slipping out from between her lips, some residual pain bleeding through to torment her even in unconsciousness. It decided his course, and Jaune walked over to the table on the other side of the room, picking up the scroll and opening it to the Marketplace.

The Medical section, in a surprising twist, provided few good options. Medicines relating to the mind were more geared towards restoring or unlocking higher clarity of awareness than dampening one's faculties, which made sense now that he thought about it. If asked, the average person would classify a drug that left them dumb as a poison, not a cure. In this case, though, a pill that expanded the perception of the person swallowing it would only exacerbate the problem, and may well kill the girl. Ditto for an item called [Insight] , aptly-named and on sale for cheap, except the description for it went further to suggest that she'd die screaming. He flipped away to a different page after reading that particular tidbit.

The first possibility remotely beneficial he found was a superpower. [Soothe Mind] , which can be summed up as an instant college degree in psychology, letting him heal mental stress and trauma. The downside was that the girl would have to stay in his proximity so he could apply the ability on a continuous basis. Can somebody say addiction?

Also, much like a college degree, paying for it was beyond his means. All in all, it's not the solution he's looking for, but it hinted in the right direction. The remedy should exist independently of him. An object, not a power. A thing of permanence, instead of a consumable needing replenishment. Something like—he paused mid-swipe as a gadget caught his eye.

Mind Suppressant Collar

Yes! This was it! Opening up the detailed view, he read on.

Stop their pesky free will. Best waifu is dumb waifu.
Shuts down independent thoughts and places the subject in a highly suggestible state… Did we say highly? We mean completely. She'll do anything. Anything.
Points Cost: 10

No. This wasn't it. Yet again, the many universes at large have succeeded in scaring the hell out of him.

That was not to say it didn't tempt him. The impulse, a momentary thing, stirred alongside a stolen glance at the girl on the bed. He noted she looked rather pretty past the domino mask; not Huntress gorgeous, but in Vale would be quite cute. That was his hint to retreat at speed from the page, paranoia leading him to move his finger with care lest he misclicks. Seeing the cheap price tag and knowing from his purchase of [Blank] that the device possessed a sort of intelligence, he couldn't help but wonder if it had laid a deliberate trap for him.

Perhaps this was how the process started. He would buy one of these on a whim, and enjoy the high that went with controlling someone powerful and attractive. The store would then ply him with more and better ways to achieve that same rush, priming him to make decisions that result in him dominating all within sight during his travels until, down the line, it's Jax Darkphenix staring back in the mirror.

The next item further fueled his suspicions, being limited in scope across the board while bearing identical prices, gently reminding him that he could gain so much value by going with the superior model.

Inhibitor Collar
Universe: DC
Ancient Americans once said, "Everyone is equal."
Modern Amanda Waller says, "Challenge accepted."
Crafted with mundane yet unexplainable science, this marvel of plot device engineering cuts off access to abilities from a wide variety of sources including metahumanism, magic, and alien biologies. Sleek, stylish, and trendy, each collar comes outfitted with an electric shock function, gratis.
Points Cost: 10

Having gotten used to living with Aura, the idea that someone else can shut it off at will alarmed him quite a bit, and the less said about the 'freebie' tacked on at the end, the better. The accompanying keyfob stopped him from dismissing it straightaway.

Control. He can leave it in her hands. A prison was only a prison until the inmates held the keys. Giving it a tentative maybe, he moved on to try and find a better option.

Ten minutes and two fainting cycles later, he circled back to the inhibitor collar, with it still the single thing on his list because a 'good side' equivalent of the device had not been forthcoming. Despite how useful it might sound to have around, a power nullification effect seemed to always feature as a punishment or an attack, never benign in purpose.

Inhibitor collar x1
Points Cost: 10
Points Balance: 0
Insufficient Points. Buy on Credit (Credit Available: 400 Points)?

The delivery box materialized to deposit a rectangular strip of metal and a keyfob in his hands. Testing it out, he pressed the biggest button on the controller and the strip unfurled into a curving band, clasping where the two ends meet. Another toggle returned it to the inert state. The next switch down was labeled 'Inhibitor', simple enough. The last button, marked by a lightning bolt, laid under a cover one must flip open, reassuring Jaune that the girl won't zap herself by accident.

Walking to the bed, Jaune lifted the girl's head with one hand, the other placing the device behind her neck. Smooth metal flowed over her skin to create a loop. Done, he took a step back to observe his handiwork.

It…it didn't look too bad. Hardly like a human rights abuse at all. A person might even mistake the thing for a choker at first glance. Yeah, he'll call it that from now on, and try not to think about the sketchier aspects.

He felt a touch better about the matter once he activated the power-inhibiting function and the girl gave this long, soft sigh that spoke of sweet relief. She seemed disinclined to wake up anytime soon, falling into a true sleep with a smile playing on her lips.

Sporting a smile of his own, Jaune left her to it. Tossing the keyfob and the scroll onto the table, he sat down against a wall to wait. The fatigue from his recent ordeals was catching up, and with no more troubles on the horizon, he allowed his eyes to close for a while.

-o-

However long he drifted off for, he did not know. In his sleep, he dreamt of Beacon and home, of a city by the sea and a bright sun. Everything was jumbled up in one place, existing in a raucous harmony. The faces around him, all the people he knew, wore happy expressions. It was a beautiful dream that he could have forever lost himself in and when he awoke in an otherworld apartment, he almost shed a tear.

Blinking the moisture away, Jaune noticed movement in his vision. He peered through half-dozing eyes at a shape on the far side of the room. That purple color was reminiscent of something, but…

Ah. The girl he rescued. She's up, and no longer prone to incapacitation, looks like. A roaring success.

She was also fast coming closer to him, both hands wrapped around a shiny object. Crocea Mors, his mind supplied and Jaune chuckled under his breath. She's holding it all wrong. Her form sucked even worse than Skitter's did with the halberd.

It occurred to his sluggish awareness a little too late to ask the question of why she was carrying his sword. He got his answer when the girl, standing over him, raised Crocea Mors high with a grunt of effort. The last traces of sleep were banished as Jaune came to grips with the situation. Namely, that this appeared to be a murder attempt. The sword swung down.

"Holy—!" He shouted in panic and brought his hands up, slapping them together in a maneuver he had only ever seen Pyrrha accomplish outside of movies. On this occasion, he succeeded—like a boss!—and caught the blade in between his palms mere inches from it connecting with his head.

Boy and girl stared at each other.

"What. The fuck, lady!?"

She, in lieu of giving a response, released his sword and scrambled away. Reaching the shield half of Crocea Mors, she hid behind it.

Like, not even lifting the thing, she just propped up the shield and tucked herself into a ball in the most useless defensive stance in history. The eyes peeking at him over the edge were wide with terror, the absolute fear taking him aback to bleed off some of his ire. Only some, because holy damn she tried to kill him! It wouldn't have worked since he had Aura, but still, bloodthirsty much?

Holding up a hand in a warding gesture, he made to stand.

"Okay, listen, I—"

The girl did the opposite as he asked, immediately covering her ears. Unsupported, the shield flopped over. She stared at it for a bit before sighing.

"Just kill me," she murmured, arms dropping to her sides. "If I'm going to be Mastered, then I'd rather die first."

Kill? Mastered?

He opened his mouth. She beat him to it. "Really makes me wonder, though…why would you need all those abilities, Jax, unless getting a girl on your own was too tough~" A mocking sneer. "Performance issues, perhaps?"

Hearing that stupid name, the pieces of the puzzle clicked to form a picture of what happened during his nap. Jaune peered past her at the table, confirming that the scroll sat at a remove from where he left it.

He took a step, halting when she flinched. Slowly, maintaining eye contact throughout, Jaune gave the girl a wide berth as he made a circuit around her. Once next to the table, he picked up the scroll.

Yep. Status screen. Right at the section that listed out the many fantastical [Skills] of a dead man. Except, if you miss the line that declared him dead, you might mistake the device (and powers) as belonging to the sole other person in the vicinity.

"Look," he said to the girl. As should have been expected by now, she squeezed her eyes closed and covered her ears again, because following the orders of someone believed to be in possession of mind control abilities and bearing the intention of using it on you would be the heights of stupidity. Jaune palmed his face. "I'm not Jax. I'M. NOT. JAX."

The shout was heard. A wary eye cracked open, ready to slam shut at a moment's notice.

"He's gone. Check this part here." Jaune pointed under Jax's name, where it said 'State: Dead', inching closer to the girl one cautious step at a time so she could see. Curiosity got the best of her and she visibly resisted the urge to bolt away, instead leaning forward to read the screen.

"Oh."

Jaune smiled.

"Well, I knew that."

Jaune frowned. The girl endured the flat stare he leveled at her quite admirably, confident expression daring him to contradict her claim.

"It was… a test. Yes, a test." She glanced to the side to avoid his accusing eyes, before rallying. "A-and you took my powers away! What is that if not a 'I'm going to do terrible things to you, huhuhu' move? And you put a collar on me." Jaune winced.

"I would call it a choker."

She arched an eyebrow. "And I would call it a collar. A slave collar."

"Whoa, okay, let's not go that far. I assure you it was necessary for your own good." He paused to contemplate that line, which sounded suspiciously similar to the official SDC stance on faunus work conditions, and revised his words. "Your power was going haywire and I had to use the col– choker to shut it off. You can deactivate the effect at any time by toggling the keyfob over there, but—"

No longer listening, the girl ran for the table. One frantic search later, the control device was in her hands; she pressed on it while displaying a victorious smirk. Jaune simply sighed.

Three…Two…One. Cue the obvious routine.

Rolling his eyes, he walked over to the passed out girl, reaching down to enable the inhibitor again.

-o-

In a sparsely-furnished room with gray walls and a white ceiling, a girl stood at the wide window, looking out over an alien sky. Nose pressed to the glass, she bore an agog expression. In the background, a boy droned on and on about a bunch of nonsense.

At least, that's what Jaune guessed her opinion was, because the girl who referred to herself as Tattletale was barely responding.

"Did you hear me?"

"Uh-huh."

"You're the one that asked for an explanation, remember?"

"Uh-huh."

"That planet up there is going to impact this one in a few hours."

Tattletale spun to him. "WHAT!?"

"I'm kid—"

She had already whirled back to the window, one hand clicking on the controller suppressing her superpower, the ability to infer and extrapolate data on a level that a detective could only dream of. Tattletale claimed she was the closest thing to a psychic in Brockton Bay—and at first tried to get him to buy that fib until he called her out with his own earlier deductions. With her power, she can as good as read a person's thoughts, and smell a deception from across the street. Without…well.

Jaune was happy to say that the sensory overload did not lead to a subsequent loss of consciousness this time, just a keening whine as Tattletale clutched her head. Improvements!

Although, had she looked at him or the scroll for any length of time, it would still knock her out for some reason. How odd.

After she reactivated the choker, he asked, "Were you really trying to check if the planet was going to hit us?"

"…No. Of course not."

"It was just a joke."

"And I knew that." She insisted in a bare-faced lie, clinging on to what shreds of her pride that remained.

Which was kind of pointless, since he had long concluded that this girl was hilarious. How else did she want him to think when, after being provided the answer to her woes, she continued to repeatedly shoot herself in the foot for the smallest of things, like switching on her power in an attempt to verify that his name was real.

"So, let me get this straight," Tattletale said, getting back to the matter at hand (and in no way changing the subject). "You have a phone—"

"Scroll."

"—phone that sells anything and everything, and can also open portals to different worlds."

"That's the gist of it."

"It sold you this collar that shuts off my power completely, and it can sell powers."

"Yup, except for the collar part. It's a choker."

"And you just happened to show up in Brockton Bay, fought Leviathan on a whim, then accidently took me to a different universe. Except, it's a one way trip so you can't put me back on Earth Bet."

"Not quite how I would put it, but yes." He would have (and did) recount the story twice as heroically. He arrived in Brockton Bay, as intended. Dueled Leviathan, for great justice! Absconded with the girl to a different world, to rescue her—minor complications notwithstanding.

"Bullshit!"

"Oh, come on! There's a literal planet in place of the moon, your superpower isn't working, and I showed you the Jump Portal app. I'm telling the truth. What don't you like about it?"

She cocked her hip, and smirked. "All it proves is that you want to keep me here. Tinkertech that allows extradimensional travel have existed for years and each one of those pieces of equipment weighs, like, a ton. Saying this itty bitty phone can do the same is laughable. It's a red herring, and the collar does nothing. You're using a Shaker effect to disorient me whenever I use my power, conditioning me like a dog to stop trying. It only works in a room this size, so you hid the exit to prevent me from leaving and learning the truth or finding the portal-tech that can send me back home. How close am I?"

"On a different world entirely, in every sense," Jaune retorted. "But alright. If you can rationalize the what, then tell me the why, because this is a lot of effort to go through to trick someone I pulled out of a tidal wave. Taking a swim in that for you wasn't exactly fun, and I could have looked elsewhere for a scam victim."

His words wiped off that smugness of hers, replacing it with a new expression he has yet to see on Tattletale. Unsure, lost, and far softer.

"Well, you obviously thought it was worth the risk…"

"Doesn't answer the why, you know~" Jaune crooned with no small amount of vindictiveness, ticked off by the barrage of accusations from what was a rather ungrateful person in his opinion. The thought occurred that he can prove his claim by connecting to an Instance and shoving her through for a few minutes to fight Leviathan 2.0 or something. If only he wasn't burdened with that pesky little problem called a conscience. Le sigh.

"I-I'm figuring that out now." She fidgeted under his deadpan stare. "You did it because, um…because I'm pretty?"

Jaune gagged. The sheer vanity on this one.

His reaction caused Tattletale to give an indignant squawk, one foot stomping petulantly. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I'm not wrong! We just can't all afford enhancements like you!"

"Enhancements?" Jaune furrowed his brows. "What enhancements?"

"Do you expect me to believe that face is natural?" Tattletale scoffed. "Perfect symmetry, no blemishes, glowing smooth skin; I want to meet whoever did the job, because they are good. Like, parahuman levels of skill. Honestly, this was the thing that almost convinced me about that magical store of yours. It would explain how you got your appearance if you can buy your way to handsomeness. I wouldn't put it past you."

Was she a masseuse? Because his ego was getting stroked and pampered like never before. The earlier anger vanished in the wind, and he decided that Tattletale was surely a good person. Yup, yup.

"It hurts me to say, but most people I know generally agree that this is kinda mid." Jaune said, pointing to his face.

"Yeah, right. How beautiful would actual beautiful people be, then?"

The notes of jealousy in her voice convinced him. That was not mere flattery she spouted, but her true feelings, and Jaune saw an earlier event in a new light.

Back when Sundancer grew so flustered in his presence…maybe, just maybe, her reaction at the time wasn't due to natural charm and good looks overflowing from his every pores, but came about because of a dissonance in beauty standards existing between their two worlds. It would mean he had understated things when he considered Sundancer and Tattletale to be pretty and cute, respectively. On the other hand, guys from the Worm universe might well suffer heart attacks should they ever meet Pyrrha or Yang.

It raised the question of how others would judge him were he to travel to a world of near-angelic levels of attractiveness. Perhaps they'd view him as an ugly goblin of a man? He hoped to never find out. His self-esteem may not survive the experience.

Breaking away from a vision of people mistaking him for a hideous monster and hunting him down, Jaune returned his attention to the blonde girl who conflated the speechlessness with her victory and has accordingly grown smug once again.

"While I'm certain that appearance upgrades are for sale in the Marketplace, I haven't bought any of them. I doubt you'd accept it, though, because you seem to think I'm lying from start to finish. So, what is it that's going to persuade you, Tattletale?"

She hummed, tapping a finger on her chin. "Ummm, let me try out the store. Seeing is believing, after all."

Despite her affectation of nonchalance, Tattletale couldn't quite hide the momentary flash of hunger. She's tempted by the prospect of unlimited power and even prettier looks, he'd bet the fortune he didn't have on it. The sneaking suspicion arose that she had been angling for this all along.

"I don't have much Points to spare," he hedged. "It'd have to be cheap."

"How many of these 'Points' do you have?"

"There's 610 Points—"

"Well, I'm sure we can find something to fit that budget."

"—of debt," he finished. Tattletale looked very unimpressed, prompting him to defend himself. "The limit is a thousand, so I have leeway, and it's not like I went on a spending spree for fun. Those Points saved lives."

Grudgingly, her expression softened. "Right. You mentioned that." A pause. "Hey, you really did it, then? Helped out Sundancer and… Skitter?" She said the second name with some fondness. It spurred a hunch.

"If Skitter was the kid wearing a dark costume with a yellow-eyed, insect-looking helmet, then yes. I'm guessing you're familiar with each other."

A nod. "Mhm. That's the one. She's a friend of mine, or as best as you can have in this business. It's good that you saved her. So, thanks." A sense of malaise stole over her countenance. She soon played it off, but not before Jaune became keenly aware that by bringing her here, he had ripped her from everybody she knew. "A-Anyway, was it all medical supplies that you bought? Not gonna lie, the cost seems a little expensive if that was the case." Jaune waved his hand in a negative.

"Nah, most of the credit was spent on this one ability. It's called [Blank] , and it makes me…immune…to Thinker powers… I might know why you pass out looking at me." He winced upon meeting the gaze of the flabbergasted girl, who quickly recovered and pounced on him. She grabbed two handfuls of his shirt, shaking him; the scroll slipped out of his grasp, bouncing across the floor.

"No, duh, you ass! Turn it off!"

"Why? You're wearing the choker."

"Pleeease!" Wait, were those tears in her eyes? Jaune panicked when Tattletale sniffled. "I feel uncomfortable when I don't have my powers active, and it really hurts when I look at you without the inhibitor. Please, Jaune, it huuuurts~"

"Alright, alright! Don't cry. I'm not sure if I can, but I'll try." And he discovered that he could. The moment he thought of wanting to deactivate [Blank] , the mental image of a slider scale emerged within his mind. Jaune willed it to move and it obeyed, falling from the top position to the bottom. "There. That did it, I think. You… you aren't going to cry, are you?" The hesitant shake of her head was not encouraging, so he employed what he'd learned growing up with seven sisters to distract, distract, distract. "Hey, how about I show you that Marketplace. Maybe I can't buy anything big, but it's getting to about dinner time, probably, so what say we get some food? How does that sound?"

"...'kay."

Whatever annoyance and hard feelings Jaune had for the girl sputtered to nothing as he extricated himself from under her to go find the scroll. How could anyone stay mad after a sight like that?

-o-

Behind Jaune's back, a no-longer-teary Tattletale…grinned an all too fox-like grin.

Author's Notes: Turned [Blank] off around Tattletale. Nice move. And with Jaune getting the upper hand in their exchanges thus far, she now has something to prove.

Yeah, that's Lisa Wilbourn. Self-serving, impulsive, manipulative, kinda bratty. If she has a softer side, it's buried deep. Will default to using her power even when she knows it's a bad idea, will use it for shortsighted petty purposes, and will even do it for the lulz. An imperfect person. The anti-waifu.

Some writers like to take these traits away and portray her as an absolute darling and genius planner. To make things easy, Waifu Catalog MCs upon adding her to the party would typically grab the perks that just… smooths out all of her downsides, personality- and superpower-wise, so she'd work properly. Though, had any of them bothered to ask her, she would loudly insist that she's fine as she is. After all, there's not much she hates more than being treated as a convenient tool for others (her parents, the supervillain Coil) to exploit, instead of being seen as a person.

And now, flaws and all, she's making half of a dynamic duo with Jaune. It's going to be hell on them both.

.

You know who's the actual sweetie pie, as written in Worm? Sundancer, the gamergirl/ballerina who (technically) lives in a foreign country. Backstory has her as a legit pro gamer from an almost-identical Earth to ourselves, meaning she would understand the principles of minmaxing builds and probably has reliable meta knowledge if they entered the more popular game franchise universes. Give her the Company Scroll and she could have helped Jaune munchkin his way to OPness. In short, she's the perfect waifu for someone clueless in a World-jumping WC story. A shame that those qualities aren't the criteria on who gets brought along.

After all, the synopsis doesn't say 'power gets handed to Jaune and the road home is going to be a smooth, easy ride full of him styling on the multiverse'.