Hey there! here again for another chapter!
Also yes I have heard of the news that Rooster Teeth is shutting down and now the fate of RWBY is, as of the making of this chapter, unknown, lets just hope that a worthy studio can take the mantle, but to be honest, this was a long time coming.
to those asking me, I stopped watching by season 5, as it was clear that anything past even season 4 could not have been Monty's original vision, but was nothing more than pandering to the toxic demographic that it gained due to it being mainstream. As an OG rooster teeth fan since 2010 with death battle, its just sad seeing this once respected titan of youtube, become more and more corporate. Also seeing how TOXIC the entire community has become; quite literally calling anyone homophobic when you just don't agree (not HATE mind you just not agree) with their ships is just sad, like I know some people say that "these are just a couple of bad apples from the whole good batch." but honestly many people who left that community knew that was a lie, hell even some of those in the production were part of that toxicity and causing the problems that made many of their fans leave this once great show, which is why I left that community and just focused on the fanfiction. There were times where I don't agree (ONCE AGAIN, NOT HATE MIND YOU, just not agreeing with it) with some of the ships but I respect it; and this apparently makes me homophobic (Insert Jackie Chan face meme here). And even just critiquing on how they run their shows, as well as their business decisions leads to you being attacked by shills who say that "YOu ArE JuST A REd-PilLED MAlE!" like bruh... I'm just criticizing their business moves, does that makes me an incel?
To be honest, I think it was for the best for RT to die that way, and by how many of the fans that struck through with RWBY are admitting that the later seasons were ass and nothing more than a cash grab, this was a long time coming.
Anyways I hope you will enjoy this chapter!
Also apologies for not updating for the past weeks, the work really kicking in here, but if you are a seasoned fanfiction reader you are used to this at this point.
DISCLAIMER: you know the drill, I don't own anything but apparently neither does Rooster teeth now hahahaha, but Dr. Strange is still owned by Marvel/Disney
Chapter 3: And so the Training Begins
THUD*Jaune flopped to the floor as he gasped and panted for air, the past few weeks have been nothing but hell for the young child, at first, simple exercises of 3 kilometer jogs around the castle grounds coupled with basic meditation sessions and an assortment of classes from his new mentors along with his normal academic studies. But now, the doctor then ramped up the training as the 3 kilometer jogs soon turned to 7 kilometers, and the added task of light sparring with one of the doctor's many magic items and his greatest adversary to date... his cape.
*2 weeks ago
"Alright Jaune, today we sill start getting a bit more serious in your training." the doctor said to the young child, who just arrived after his classes with Alfred on Dining Etiquette. puzzled he looks behind the doctor to find his cape missing but as he was about to ask a red blur zoomed pass him and wrapped around his left arm, his head looks to see the cape seemingly restraining him.
"Ah!" jaune tries to pry the cloth off him, but out of nowhere the cape seemingly goes for the other hand, in a panicked state he tries to kick the cape off only to be outbalanced and soon the whole cape was wrapped around his entire body save for his head, soon he hears a cacophony of giggles and from Odin, a cackle.
"hmmm... 3 seconds, not bad for your first spar." the doctor says stopping the timer in his scroll. the cape then unwrapped itself, softly patting the young child's head before returning to the back of the doctor.
"Doctor Steven what was that?! that wasn't fair I was barely ready!" Jaune complained, illiciting more laughs from his mentors. The doctor then went to face his apprentice, "Jaune there will be problems in life where you will be caught by surprise and not prepared, and that you have to adapt to these problems to overcome them, however with that 3 seconds I saw the advice I could tell you is to never panic, in any situation be it dire or mundane, never panic because it will makes things worse, think before you act and always be alert, a single wasted move can cause you your life." "Just like chess." "Yes Jaune just like chess." he pats his shoulder before stepping a few steps back, "AGAIN!" he shouts before throwing the cape and once again trying to bind itself with the young prince.
As they repeat this routine the doctor shouts his advice as the two continue to spar "watch your step!" "watch you wrists it's already trying to restrain you!" "check your surroundings and adapt!"
The young child tries to grab hold of the cape once again, this time taking hold of the cape while making his hand smaller by balling it into a fist, eventually he was able to set it free, but as he was about to celebrate his successful escape the cape went for his legs. 'oh no!' was his last thoughts before stumbling to the ground after a short scuffle he was once again on the floor wrapped by the cape.
"15 seconds, a rather large improvement jaune, you learned from your 1st mistakes, and kept calm, we will continue this until you could go 1 minute not being restrained, and as we continue we will make things harder and complex." the doctor told the young child. "now...AGAIN" the doctor shouts.
*Back to present
"hah!" Jaune shouts while attempting to strike the cape as it goes to the offensive trying to restrain him once again. he dodges the sentient cloth to the left, then steps back.
'15 seconds left'
he attempts to sidestep to the right as another attempt to restrain his legs is done.
'10'
he grabs the cape and tosses it away, stopping mid-air to fly towards him once again.
'5'
'4'
'3'
'2'
just then, the cape sped to Jaune, able to lightly wrap his right hand.
"Time! sorry jaune but the cape got you in the last second." the doctor said amusingly.
"Oh man! I was close! maybe I need to be faster in dodging?" jaune tries to strategize to himself. this was one of jaune's greatest strengths; he is a patient and down-to-earth kid which the doctor appreciates, he keeps his nerves in check and accepts the critiques of his mentors to improve on himself, a trait of a brilliant strategist to be.
"Flexibility can be your key to succeeding, do you know how to do a flip Jaune?" the doctor suggests as he gives a water bottle to his apprentice. "Not really doctor, I was usually restricted in moving in such dangerous ways by my dad..." Jaune says as he looks down. This statement made the sorcerer frown slightly. 'good goddess, he really did live a sheltered life' he thinks to himself, realizing that jaune didn't have much of a childhood, he could barely leave the castlegrounds without an entire company of palace knights by his side, with the strict order to protect jaune from any and all threats no matter how small, and coax him back to the castle. Thankfully this was stopped by the prince as he announced his grandson's training by a 'capable mentor'.
"Well Jaune guess we know what to practice in the next lesson." the doctor grins sinisterly as Jaune feels a dreadful spark from nowhere, 'oh no, doc Steven has something scary in mind...'
"So far, your training has been improving immensely, well done, there are times you blank out while thinking of your plan but so far, you are doing good. in our next lesson we will start training your flexibility while continuing your spar with the cloak." he points to the floating cape, which seemingly raises its left side morphing its ends into what looks like a thumbs up. "that will be all for now, good work today, you may now go to you next lesson." he bows to his apprentice, who bows in return before running to the 2nd floor balcony, where a beautiful garden full of different herbs, flowers and other flora, and in the center, is a table full of different flasks and beakers, making it look like a scientist's table. There he sees his next mentor on his schedule.
"Ms. An, Ms. Frigga." "Hello Jaune." The 2 ladies greeted as they start to place different potted plants on the table.
An Ren and Frigga Valkyrie are Jaune's tutor when it comes to studies consisting of anything nature related, grimm related or not.
"Now Jaune today we will learn on the importance of edible and non-edible flora, sometimes during your journey there will come a time when you will have to live off the land, now thankfully unlike your skills or lack thereof on combat, your skills in cooking are impeccable thanks to your mother, however in your quest to become a hunter everything will not come to you, sometimes you are forced in a situation where you must survive on your own with no help, such as escort missions where you will be out there for days without no sign of civilization or a market anywhere. For now we will work on plants, and when your older you will have hunting lessons."
she presents 2 plants, both seemingly identical with a blue berry with many bumps on its surface. "Now Jaune, say your in a situation where you ate your last ration a day ago and you stumble across these 2 plants, which of the 2 can you eat?", jaune looks at both plants and as he continues to do so, he sees the minor differences that was not seen at first glance, the left plant looked normal save for a few holes made by caterpillars on the leaves, while the right plant had small black spots over the tip of the berries, and the stem holding the berry looking more blackish than green.
"I think the one with black spots are not edible Ms. Frigga." Frigga smiles and plucks a berry from the left plant and eats it, much to the shock and panic of the young child. "Ms. Frigga what if I was wrong!?" he shouts as both women laugh at his panicked face. "Calm yourself Jaune you were correct, these berries are known as elderberries, these usually grow around rainforests and mountainous areas. the other plant is a Valean Creepers, these also grow around Mountainous areas, a very toxic berry that can cause skin irritation just by touching its fluids. A rule of thumb is to always be careful when it comes to black stemmed plants, because they might have natural poisons to protect themselves from predators." An would advise the young prince.
Frigga once again presented 2 plants with large fruits along its stems, the left plant had its fruits in a variety of yellowish hue, while the right plant had a variety of colors with its fruit, ranging from red to greenish. Jaune had a hard time trying to discern which was really edible, as both seemed to be nigh identical in size and shape.
"the edible plant is the right plant, they more look like the tomatoes mom buys as groceries." An Smiled at him, "Correct young prince, these are wild toromatoes, when cultivated become what tomatoes are now today, The other plant is horsenettle, a highly poisonous plant that can cause difficulty of breathing." Jaune shudders at the thought of dying a excruciating death just by being unable to breathing. "This shows that not everything will be as it seems."
They continue to identify edible plants from their non-edible lookalikes, with Frigga even giving tips on how to cook the wild fruits and vegetables to better achieve a flavor profile not resembling eating chalk and dirt, while An helping in teaching jaune on the basics of salves and its healing specialties, although his inexperienced hands usually end up burning the plant paste, but at the end of the lesson he was able to make a small vial of antiseptic ointment from atlessian mint leaves and Mistralian Chastetree stalk. "Always keep that vial with you Jaune, legends say that the first salve you make is a special lucky charm." An says to the child as he marvels at what he has made.
the three walk to the northern area of the second floor where a large shooting range with many target dummies at different ranges, Jaune's next mentor was practicing his aim with his bow and arrow. "Mr. Li." Jaune Bows to his next mentor, so does the 2 women. "Frigga, Love." Li greets the 2 women respectively. "Ah, Jaune you are a bit early for our next lesson, how was your lessons on plants?" he inquired to the young boy who held his salve up to him. "It was great! Ms. Frigga and Ms. An helped me in figuring out what wild plants to eat and not, Ms. An even gave a lesson on salve making! look look! its my first salve!" the child ecstatically showed the vial, which made the man smile but a hint of sadness can be seen across his face, yet he steels his nerves and starts his lesson for the overly-active child.
He pulls out corked test tubes of colorful dust on a table, and a small crossbow accompanied with arrows with what looks like a clear compartment in the middle, "Now Jaune, do you know what this is?" Jaune looks at the tube and immediately knows what it is as one of his cousins, Thomas Montgomery is the head of Arc Energy Inc. "That's a tube of dust Mr. Li, Wait can I finally fire a weapon!?" His eyes wide, however the round of laughs can be heard by his mentors, "Unfortunately, you are still too young for that princeling." jaune pouts much to the amusement of his mentors.
"Now jaune since you know the basics of dust, I can further our lesson and how it is used in combat," he takes one of the tubes with red dust inside, and places some of it into the compartment area of the arrow. "This is fire dust, a highly combustible material, the higher the concentration the more violent the combustion, some of the more potent fire dusts can even ignite just by a mere breeze. This is one of the most basics and common of the dusts as fire dust are used as a means to propel bullets and even the low concentration dust is used by engines." he finishes by firing the red dust filled arrow on a target, upon hitting the target it creates a light spark followed by an explosion, amazing the young child.
he then starts placing blue dust into another arrowhead "Ice dust on the other hand, is capable of creating icicles, snow, and when concentrated enough, could create a temporary cold environment around its implosion, the lower concentration versions of ice dust could be used to summon snow if released to the atmosphere near the clouds." He then shoots the arrow, and on impact upon its chest, multiple icicles violently sprouted out the target, shredding any stuffing resembling the abdominal and thoracic organs in its way.
he continues the lesson by placing a cloud-ish white colored dust to a new arrowhead, "Wind dust, on the other hand is capable of using air in combat: from forcing your opponent to move through rampant and strong winds to creating large cyclones and tornadoes, out of the common dust types, wind dust is the most versatile, with many uses." he then shoots towards the next target only for it to hit the ground, but then a torrent of wind starts to appear, lifting the dummy and sending it flying, tearing into its plate armor and skin, causing the target's stuffing to come out, before falling straight into the ground with a loud thud.
he then takes the last testube and inside it was yellow dust. "And finally, we have electric dust, it-" "YOU MEAN THE BEST DUST AROUND" A boisterous voice comes out of the blue revealing Jaune's last mentor of the day, "Mr. Odin!" Jaune goes to greet the man, only for Odin to pat the child on the back "Don't mind me Jauney-boy, just continue your lesson."
"Well then Odin since you are late why don't you explain the last of the basic dust?" Li passes the vial to the bearded buff man. Odin then places it inside his halberd via a port located at the base of the axe head which then makes the whole halberd spark in electricity, "This jauney boy, is electric dust, THE BEST OF ALL THE TYPES OF DUST capable of manipulating the most powerful element of all!" he then spins his halberd, which in turn makes more sparks as it gathers energy, eventually making a visible electric halo around the halberd as Odin spins it faster, until he fluidly pointed the energy towards the last dummy, and out of nowhere a large bolt of yellow lightning hitting the target, followed by the powerful sound of thunder. as the light faded, the entire target was annihilated with only black smoke and black stains marking what once was there.
Odin poses in an overly dramatic pose "And that is how you use dust HAHAHAHAHA!" he bellows, which causes a face palm from his wife and a quiet chuckle from his 2 old friends. Frigga then marched towards his dunce of a husband and slapped the back of his head, which caused him to fall to the ground in force, cracking the marble floor. Li then continues the lecture "That is the 4 of the most basic elemental dusts, however they are not the only types of dust, there some more complex types of dust, such as gravity, earth and even plant dust, without much explanation since we are going past overtime and I know your parents will be fuming for being late for supper again, there are also different effects of combining different types of dust however this is the extent of how much do we know of dust, there might be even more types out there just waiting to be discovered."
"That is soooo COOOL! when can I use them?!" the young hyperactive child began planning on ways to mix and match the dust to make amazing things, he could fly! no more using bumpy airships and getting tummyaches! and there are other types? what could earth dust, or even plant dust do? his imagination runs wild. "Unfortunately jaune, you won't be handling dust until we say you are ready." jaune slacked his shoulders and pouted at that. "Then when will I be ready?" Li doesn't answer the princeling but looks at him with a sad smile, seemingly reminiscing something, "Well jaune that ends today's lesons, prepare for a quiz tomorrow and remember to do your best." he bows at his student, which returns a deeper bow, then rushing to go home as it was sundown.
the four then start to cleanup the sanctum while assessing their apprentice's performance for the day, during this time the doctor joined them as they discuss. "He really is his father's child, very headstrong and ready to rush in." Li inquires, Frigga and An nods further assessing the day, "He also has his mother's insightful and inquisitive mind, and both their kind hearts.", Odin then solemnly smiles "reminds me of our children..." a sad silence is heard throughout the area, the two women holding back sobs and tears as they each remember the children they lost during that day where their homes fell from that damned beast. However Li had a determined, fiery look on his eyes, "They aren't dead, brother, our children are strong, and judging by who their fathers are, they are too stubborn to die." the statement alone uplifted the room as they laugh. "We will find them, I just know it. And I will do everything in my power to help you." The good doctor proclaims.
As they leave the sanctum to return to their respective homes, both couples had 1 thought in mind.
My little angel...
My Young warrior...
WE WILL FIND YOU
And that is another chapter done! thanks once again for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, once again apologies for not updating much as work has been building up a lot right now, and that grind never ends, but hopefully this holy week can help me catch up on my writings. Also yes unfortunately no young pre-beacon child JNPR bonding, the reason to this will be revealed soon. Anyways that's all I have to say and I hope to see you again in the next chapter!
Some rando filipino