To LoamyCoffee, like many people, I feel the golden age of RWBY was back when there was just enough levity to split up the action that Beacon felt like "Hogwarts with guns". Ruby & Arthur is a pairing I'm certainly proud of, if only because in the Canon, we never hear from any of her so-called friends from Signal ever again; not even in passing. Even Yang's old friends got cameos, even if it was only just as black silhouettes; something else I remedied with the appearances of Sei Ryu, Suzaku Hosenka, Byakko Silver, and Xuan Wu, as well as Ruby's own friends, Arthur Asimov, Alana Lee Miller, and Andrew "Andy" D. Argent.
Of course, after the Vytal Festival, things got a bit convoluted; but I soldiered through it because things were still relatively interesting, even if the plot did turn a bit derivative with a "Demon Lord" and a "Morally Questionable Headmaster".
And I had of course been building up to this date for a good while with the worldbuilding, and I'm moderately satisfied with the cliffhanger I left the previous chapter on.
There's no worse critic than one's own self, after all, and sometimes putting a definitive end to the chapter is the hardest part when everything else comes so naturally; something I had a bit of a problem with in my own Volume 1, admittedly...
To Raidentensho, glad I didn't make Arthur's assailant's identity too obscure right at the end; and I think adding the Robot Masters in alongside the more-generalized Smash Bros. crossover was a good move because it gives me so much wiggle room without making an endless flood of OCs. Not only does it give the "League of Villains" more to draw upon, but it also serves as a look into Penny's spiritual predecessors.
As for Cubix, I remember watching it on Saturdays on Kids WB, but it hasn't left a massively lasting impact, so I haven't thought of that one in years. On note of the Emotional Processing Unit (EPU), I feel like that would be more up Dr. Veronica Magdanus's (Stella Glow) alley than Dr. Stein's, if only because she has more leanings toward human modification, which implies some measure of cybernetic augmentation. Of course, I can easily imagine something similar was incorporated into Penny Polendina's construction, though in general, more-human-like robots such as she are powered by the "Positronic Brains" you're wont to find in Isaac Asimov's work; of which I've dabbled if only to see what I, Robot was really like.
*NEW WORLD*
When Pyrrha Nikos came to the following morning, she found herself on a queen-sized bed a foot away from Nora who, at the moment, was snoring right in her face. Jaune and Ren were sprawled out on another bed in undignified – strictly heterosexual – positions, and the room itself seemed to be what passed for opulence in Minegarde, featuring wide open spacing and nice furniture.
"Well… I didn't wake up on the tavern floor surrounded by strangers, so that's probably a good sign," Pyrrha hummed to herself as she rolled out of bed.
The sound of a rough cloth on stone drawing Pyrrha's notice, she then found Jack seated on the couch and tending to his monstrous Boulder Axe, the Faunus polishing a blade bigger than a coffee table.
Why that specific metaphor? Because he was polishing it on the room's aforementioned coffee table. Which it was bigger-than.
Vivi for her part was similarly dead to the world, but infinitely more adorable; instead of being sprawled out, she was instead curled in on herself like a loaf of bread atop a soft pillow, snoring softly in a way that made the red-head's heart melt.
"So… How did things go last night?" she inquired as she took a seat across from the older teen, amazed that she herself had even awoken from the food coma she was sharing with the rest of her team.
Or at least at this decent hour.
"We feasted, partied hard, drank harder, made our ancestors proud," Jack replied as he returned his Weapon ÄRM to its ring form; and if she hadn't thrown hands with what could've passed for a dinosaur the day before, that'd have made her 'bluescreen'. "Cardin and Brigitte seemed to have a good time, and Reinhardt had his way with a village girl. Or maybe she had her way with him…? It's all a matter of perspective, really."
"Too much information, Jack…" Pyrrha sighed as she turned to her nightstand where the remains of her weapon lay, a defeated sigh leaving her lips as she ran her fingers through her hair.
"Here. Catch."
"Ack!" the red-head squeaked as she scrambled to catch Jack's collapsed M-99 Saber, its configuration not too dissimilar to Ruby Rose's weapon in its own collapsed form.
"You can treat it as a loner until you can make a replacement," Jack replied as he began to maintain his Talon. " . . . I can feel your eyes on me. You have a question?"
"Who changed me into my pajamas last night?" she asked looking down at her completely ordinary-looking bronze-colored PJs.
"That's your takeaway?" he asked quirking a brow.
" . . . Also, yes," the red-head nodded.
"Relax, I had Brigitte do it," the Faunus waved off.
"Ah."
*NEW WORLD*
While there wasn't presently any sort of rush to get up, Jack still wanted to be out of town and on their way at some sort of decent hour. So, after stuffing some cotton balls into his and Vivi's ears, the Faunus raked his rending claws down the side of his Boulder Axe, the horrible *SCREEEEEEEEEEE!* like a rake on a chalkboard violently rousing the sleeping members of Team JNPR from their slumber.
To their credit, they quickly rose into fighting positions, albeit with everyone else's weapons.
"Jack, what the hell, man?!"
"Not cool, bro!"
"So uncivilized."
Jack, after waving off the pig eyes sent his way, ushered everyone to freshen up before they went to the tavern for another gut-busting breakfast.
From there, Jack finalized for the cuts of Savage Deviljho they'd earned the day prior to be delivered to Beacon; more specifically, Reinhardt offered to hand-deliver it to the Ironclad Guild under the Faunus' name since he and Team CRDL were in no shape to hoof it back to Beacon as they had planned. They might not've come out of this whole ordeal smelling like roses, but they definitely had a hell of a story to take back to Vale.
Once that was taken care of, after consulting their maps and checking the bounty boards, the team of five – plus mascot – left Minegarde and began the long trek to Rockwell, with only a single notable detour along the way.
"Jack… I've been chewing on something since the other day."
"They make a floss for that."
"Not literally…" the red-head sighed, waiting for some verbal or nonverbal confirmation that she had his ear. "If unlocking one's Gourmet Cells makes them superhuman, why doesn't everyone do it?"
"Other than it being like the lottery with how much luck is involved?" he asked rhetorically. "Pursuing the power for something other than the flavors you'd get along the way is the same as Humans admitting to their own feebleness," Jack answered as he turned one eye over his shoulder. "And considering they instead choose to double down on the unfounded belief that they're our superiors, not to mention all the racial undertones…"
"Racial?" Pyrrha quirked an eyebrow.
"It isn't that Faunus are 'superior versions' of Humans. It's that Humans are 'inferior copies' of us," he replied candidly. "It's why our origin stories of Humans portray you rising 'from the dust' while Humans' origin stories of us are basically that we were already there in the dark woods like some kind of 'primeval demon'."
"What about The Shallow Sea?" Jaune inquired.
"That's a racist propaganda myth, and if you ever treat that as gospel, I will literally emasculate you. With a shovel."
"Jeez, alright, fine."
"Honestly, that I have to have this speech twice with you people…" he grumbled as he raked his fingers through his hair. "And no, before you ask, Faunus aren't 'Furries'. If anything, Humans are de-anthropomorphized versions of us."
"Hold on, how is what you said not racist?" Pyrrha asked sounding only marginally affronted.
"Because from a biomechanical standpoint, it's largely factual," Jack waved off. "Our ligaments are more flexible, we have superior eyesight, we're more resistant to disease, and all around we have a greater constitution," he casually listed off. "Honestly, that you people ever stopped being racist over something as minor as skin color still amazes me."
"Hey, Jack, before you hate-crime Jaune-"
"Hey!"
"What's this about a detour?" Nora asked.
"A fresh settlement between Minegarde and Rockwell fell prey to a few Apathy a couple days ago, and no-one'd been up that way because there was a giant 'murder pickle' out in the woods."
"I'm never gonna live that down, am I?" Jaune muttered.
"So we're gonna swing by, rout the Grimm, and move on to Rockwell before catching a ride back to Vale," Jack continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Assuming nothing too crazy happens, we should be back in time to get a power nap in before classes on Monday."
"But can we actually fight Apathy?" Jaune asked. "If even someone like Port is willing to admit he had a tough time with them…"
"Maybe for a bunch of 'normies' like you guys, but I have emotional depth and complexity, and this isn't my first time facing thought-sucking leeches," Jack hummed. "Of course, I never went after a cluster of them solo, I always had backup, so I'm expecting you to pull your weight."
"So wait, you plan to use yourself as… bait?!" Pyrrha asked incredulously as the pieces fell into place.
"As I said before, I have a depth of emotional complexity the rest of you are sorely lacking in, so I'll 'hold out' the longest in a head-on confrontation," Jack answered. "As long as they're sucking the thoughts out of their helpless victims, they won't come out into the open, so you've gotta wave a fat juicy steak under their noses."
"And what exactly makes you more 'emotionally complex' than the rest of us?" Jaune scoffed as he made air quotes.
"Ren?" the Faunus shifted his gaze, shifting the others' attention to the Mistrali teen.
" . . . Jack has traveled to many places, learned many things, and encountered just as many people from all over the world, meaning he has many emotional responses tied to the subjects he's digested on a spiritual level," Ren began as the world turned monochrome, those around him becoming surrounded by plumes of colorful flower petals. "My Semblance allows me certain… inroads… into the thoughts of others. Whether it's dampening emotions," he said causing Nora to shift on her feet, "or seeing what others are feeling in synesthesia-like displays of color."
"Wait, really?" Jaune blinked.
"Umu," Ren nodded. "Jack's emotions… Imagine if for every place you went to, every adventure you went on, you had a refrigerator magnet to commemorate the occasion. Jack's 'door' would be positively covered in commemorative magnets, while those of us who've been cloistered behind walled cities our entire lives wouldn't have nearly that many. Pyrrha has the most emotional complexity behind Jack because of the tournaments she's fought in and all the work she did as a spokeswoman, followed by you, myself, and Nora."
"Wait, I'm more 'emotionally complex' than the two of you?" the blond blinked, used instead to being at the bottom of the ladder.
"You have seven sisters of which you have a complicated relationship with. Not to mention the shame you endured that forced you out of the public school system," Ren elaborated, a phantom pain shooting up between Jaune's thighs. "If Team Ruby were here, Jack would still be at the top, but the rankings would be shuffled around a bit more."
"Lots of emotional baggage, there," Nora nodded sagely.
"So then these 'fridge magnets' are basically shiny spoons you'll use to distract the Apathy?" Jaune asked trying to piece the battle plan together.
"One part distraction, one part buffer; like having an extended Hit Point gauge on Grimm Souls," Jack corrected. "Unlike the way a Nightmare sucks their prey dry as it incubates new seed pods inside of them, what the Apathy does is purely temporary. The issue is getting their prey away from them because, once all of a person's emotions have been sucked out of them, they literally lose the will to live, to do anything. While an Apathy can be resisted, for a time, once they sink their claws into you in full, you're pretty much done for."
"And you'll just… walk right into their den?" Pyrrha asked.
"That's what having backup is for," Jack answered as he addressed the four of them. "Assuming their main gate has an uninterrupted view of their main thoroughfare, that's where I'll lure the Apathy. Pyrrha can use my loaner gun to snipe them from afar, and the rest of Team Juniper will watch her back for any Grimm that come her way. If nothing goes horribly wrong, we should have this done in about an hour."
"Which pretty much guarantees that it won't be over in an hour~" Nora grinned eagerly.
*Snap* "Now you're getting it," he nodded with a smile. "Jaune, you still have that robot drone Ruby's bae gave you, right?"
"Yeah, I packed it just in case."
"Good, because 'just in case' is right over that ridge," he said thumbing over his shoulder.
*NEW WORLD*
The tiny hamlet that "Team JJVNPR" was tasked with rendering aid to was a largely un-interesting place: wooden walls, wooden houses within, the perimeter surrounded by tree stumps. Normally the unguarded gates would be cause for concern, but as a consequence of the Apathy sucking the townsfolk dry, so too were they keeping the Grimm and Bandits at bay. Grimm had nothing to feed on where Apathy were concerned, and any Bandits looking for an easy score would just be more flies in their insidious web; which was a bit of a given because turning to a life of banditry in the first place implied a lack of 'Willpower'.
Of course, all their preparations and planning didn't stop the unease JNPR felt crawl up their backs at the unnatural stillness of the place: no birdsong, no children playing, no working folk. It was like everything was just… dead. Like the prelude to a horror movie's primary set piece where they killed the ambient music before the huge jump-scare.
"Ren…" Nora shuddered as she grabbed onto his hand.
"Yeah. I feel it too," the Mistrali nodded as he stood in front of her.
"More like don't feel it..." Jaune shuddered.
"And you're sure you want to go in there alone?" Pyrrha asked.
"VI! VIVI!" the tiny Spirit Beast at the Faunus' side protested.
"The lady has spoken," Jack conceded as the fluffy fox pouted up at him. "Jaune, give the area a once-over with your Candroid; count the number of houses and try to make a rough estimate of the town's population. Two or so Apathy can usually split a single victim between them, but it can also go double that number in extreme cases if I'm remembering Port's lecture correctly."
"Got it," Jaune nodded as he riffled through his bag before drawing the metallic cylinder and pulling the tab, the red-and-silver can unfolding into a small bird-shaped drone, which Jaune linked to his Scroll before he sent it flying into the air.
"Pyrrha, you ready to cover me?"
"It's a bit heavier than my Miló, but I'll manage," Pyrrha answered as she unfurled the M-99 into its extended configuration.
Had she still been in possession of her primary weapon, she could've given overwatch from a standing position like in sport shooting. As it stood with "The Big Iron" that Jack had loaned her, the red-head had to take a kneeling position and borrow Ren's shoulder, as his Stormflower were the least-suited to fighting the Apathy out of all their ranged weaponry.
"Hey, think I could take a swing at that?" Nora inquired as Ren plugged his ears.
"Not while my life's on the line," Jack returned as he unfurled his shotgun/axe, Vivi fluffing herself up and trying to look frightening as the lot of them stared determinedly into town.
Even though they knew what they were walking into, to actual face it… It was an existential dread in of itself to know that there was something out there capable of sucking out all your emotions and leaving you incapable of caring.
*NEW WORLD*
With their preliminary recon completed, Jaune concluded that the small rural village was almost perfectly bisected by the town's main thoroughfare, one of the two gates opened, the center of town marked by a large analogue well that the townsfolk used to draw their water from.
As far as sniper's perches went, height notwithstanding, Pyrrha's positioning was about as good as it got. With Jack luring the Apathy into the main thoroughfare on the anterior side of the town's well, and they themselves standing in-line-with, there was almost zero cover for the Grimm to make use of once they left the villager's homes. All she really had to worry about was not hitting Jack by mistake.
Friendly fire incidents accounted for a startling number of fatalities among Huntsman, as it turned out...
Jack and Vivi striding into town like something from a Wild West story after shouldering the gates all the way open, once they reached the midpoint between the well and the gate, the Apathy began to slink out of their lairs and into the open, a horrifying scream leaving their maws. It was one thing seeing recreations of them hewn from chalk in class on the blackboard, but actually seeing the emaciated humanoids through the rifle scope… their horrifying non-resemblance to people… The look of them unnerved the formerly Invincible Girl greatly.
Apathy tended to attack in packs, using their superior numbers and will-draining "proximal fields" to bring down their prey and compensate for their lack of inherent physical strength. A single Apathy was weak enough for a competent Hunter to take down with little trouble, though only if they were able to overpower the Apathy's startling resilience.
That was why the M-99 Saber was actually better-suited to the task than her Miló. Because if the recoil against her shoulder and the sheer damage inflicted on the Apathy with each headshot was any indicator, it's that her original weapon probably wouldn't have left a dent unless she got them right in the eye; and if those things were actually facing her, then something was very, very wrong.
Of course, none of this stopping power quieted the unease she felt as the jet black, skeletal bodies threw themselves at Jack like something from a zombie flick.
*NEW WORLD*
The Apathy screaming their will-quashing screams from all directions as they slinked out of the villagers' homes, even as he blew heads off with his Ripper, and then his Talon, Jack slowly felt his will to fight evaporate.
To most others without backup, such would've been a death sentence.
Jack for his own part, had dealt with empathic parasites before, be they Grimm, Human, or Faunus, and had trained himself accordingly for this type of enemy.
Cue Toriko OST – Zebra's Theme
"HRAAAAAAAAGH!" Jack howled a blood-curdling howl that scattered birds from miles around, a non-spiritual crimson haze rising from his body.
The Apathy, used to siphoning their prey's willpower uncontested, were unprepared for the Faunus before them to flood his body with massive amounts of adrenaline, turning his raw anger into bodily energy. Even after the first dozen were taken out between the high-powered shotgun slugs and devastatingly powerful hand cannon rounds, the rest were able to close the gap to rake claws across his body. However, the strikes to his body seemed to further fuel their prey's ire, allowing him to stave off the crippling apathy that'd have rendered him completely helpless and begin ripping their bodies apart with his bare hands.
On top of this, someone from outside the village was attacking them from at range, the concise, high-powered shots blowing heads apart like melons, forcing the pack's attention in two directions. Those that managed to get to the village gates proper were thusly blown apart or thrown in all directions by grenades lobbed at them by a manic ginger-haired girl.
Between the powerful rifle rounds, grenades, and iron-rending claws, the Apathy were whittled down little by little like wheat.
"Ren! How is Jack holding up?!" Pyrrha called out as she reloaded.
"Jack's almost out of unyielding rage!" Ren called out as the plume of crimson 'flower petals' rolling off of Jack's body and into the Apathy's maws began to thin out.
"IRON REAVER!"
"BLADES OF BLOOD!"
"CROW CLAW!"
"WHIP WING!"
"PEACOCK PEAK!"
"CONDOR CANDLE!"
"OWL'S EYE!"
"Um... Are you sure about that?" Pyrrha blinked as she watched the Faunus's literally blood-stained hands rip the Apathy to shreds, and even light them on fire or blow them apart. "Wait, what about Vivi!?"
"Vivi's giving as good as she's getting," Ren said looking through a pocket monocular, the tiny fox-like Spirit Beast spitting out glittering golden stars or full-body tackling the Apathy away from her 'master', giving Jack a little extra breathing room as he began to slow down once again.
"Holy cow, we're winning! We're really winning!" Jaune whooped as Jack and Pyrrha rounded up the final few.
"Dammit, Jaune! You just jinxed us!" Nora screamed.
"Nora, this isn't cause-and-effect-"
*SKREEEEEEEEEE!*
"I'm sorry… What were you saying…?" the ginger asked as even from the heart of the village, the Grimm-like cry sapped at their willpower.
*NEW WORLD*
Cue Toriko OST – Determination
"You gangly bastard…!"
-the Faunus growled falling to his knees as long spindly limbs rose from the depths of the town well-
"You might be able to sap my will…!"
-before ripping the standing roof aside-
"Take my will to fight…!"
-allowing a multi-headed torso to see daylight-
"But the one think you'll never have…!"
-followed by a misshapen body wrapped in humanoid limbs-
"The thing that filled my heart even as I rotted away in chains…!"
-and far too many legs as it loomed over Jack.
"Was the Full Course… my mother left for me!"
To Ren's discerning eye, instead of the crimson red of Rage that acted as a buffer to the Apathy, pouring out from Jack's body like a landspout of Sakura petals was the violet light of Love, the Grimm actually recoiling as Jack rose back to full height, the lesser variants rushing out the town gates and into Pyrrha's sniper scope.
"YOUR STORY ENDS HERE!"
The multi-headed-and-limbed Apathy – a "Legion" – mewling pitiably as Jack stepped forward, the Love rolling off of him turning the creature's non-existent stomach, prompted it to swing out desperately with a too-long arm.
Jack callously backhanding the strike, made Ren's eyes go wide as the Faunus' touch caused the Grimm's arm to bubble and boil.
A pained wail leaving the Grimm as its flesh sloughed off the bone, Jack's footfalls toward it may as well have been the tolling of a bell.
The Legion whirling on its heel and turning to run, suddenly found a scowling ball of fur flying into its face and sinking its fangs into the Grimm's conjoined neck, staggering it long-enough for Jack to sweep multiple feet out from under it with a sweeping low kick.
Those struck limbs proceeding to explode and melt one-by-one-by-one-by-one, Jack's foot came down on its remaining arm and pinning it in place, the Legion letting out a pitiful, agonized wail as blisters and boils creeped up its shoulder and onto one of its faces, causing it and half of its neighbor to melt.
"Your singing stinks," Jack said as he raised his arm, Violet light gathering around it to Ren's discerning eye before the Faunus called out- "BURNING HEART OVERDRIVE!"
The devastating chop to the thing's torso resounding like a bomb blast, as the thing began to swell like a rotting corpse under the midday sun, Jack scooped Vivi up into his arms and dove through an open window. And not a moment too soon, because the thing rapidly ballooned to the size of a soccer van before violently exploding into a geyser of ichor and bone fragments, the oppressive wave once smothering the village similarly dissipating.
*NEW WORLD*
"What…" *Pant* "What was that…?" Pyrrha gasped a minute later after the oppressive blanket the Legion had thrown over their shoulders was cast away.
"I… I can't see emotions like Ren… but even I felt that…!" Jaune similarly gasped.
"Feel that? I could taste that!" Nora yelped holding her chest.
"Yes, I'm curious as well," Ren hummed as Jack and Vivi jogged out the village gates to meet up with them, visibly exhausted around the eyes, a little gaunt-faced, yet satisfied. "So… I take it that was your secret weapon?"
"More or less, but it's really only effective against Grimm that feed on emotions. Anything else will just turn its nose up at you and walk away."
"But again, what was that?" Pyrrha repeated. "It felt… Even from over here, my heart felt… full," she half-swooned, half-reminisced.
Cue Toriko OST – Memories Come Back to Life
" . . . They were memories. A 'Full Course of Love' whose flavor and savoriness would satisfy my mind and body when nothing else would," Jack answered somberly, but with a soothing warmth radiating out of his jade-colored eyes. "The Hors d'Oeuvre was my earliest memory with my mother; the Soup, was her charity; the Fish Dish, the warmth she filled my heart with; the Meat Dish, her kiss on my brow; the Main Course, her smiling face; the Salad, her words of encouragement; the Dessert, all that she taught me; and the Drink, her dream of a better future for my sister and I."
"Ahhhh..." Team JNPR swooned without realizing.
"It sounds sappy as hell when I say it out loud like that," Jack admitted with a shrug, "but those memories saved my life, saved my soul, time and time again. And I'll never be ashamed to admit that."
'OH MY GOD, HE'S SO GOD DAMNED COOL!' Jaune, as well as Pyrrha, found themselves admitting.
"That…! *Sniff!* That was beautifuuuuuuul!" Nora wailed as she threw her arms around his legs.
"Well, it's a mother's love, so… yeah," Ren nodded with a nostalgia fit of his own before he spied movement in the village.
Everyone snapping out of their "feel-goods", readying themselves to throw hands with the forces of darkness once more, were both surprised and relived to witness the still-alive villagers shambling out of their domiciles and into the daylight, looking like they'd awoken from a long nightmare.
"Come on," Jack nodded. "The Apathy might be gone, but the villager's still need a pick-me-up. And what better pick-me-up is there than a good meal and a squad of colorfully-dressed Hunters?"
"I thought the pick-me-up after exposure to an Apathy was chocolate," Nora hummed.
"How the heck do you remember that? You slept through that lecture just like me," Jaune huffed.
"How would you know that? You were asleep!" the ginger countermanded.
"Way to inspire confidence, you two," Ren sighed while Pyrrha ran ahead into the village to remedy aid.
*AN*
Midora, for as much as he seemed like a stereotypical mustache-twirling Battle Shounen villain, had a depth of complexity that persisted for all 43 volumes of Toriko's run (circa May 19, 2008 - November 21, 2016). As a man who never really stopped mourning the death of his mother, I feel like memories of this were in my mind as I was constructing Jack Braxton's "origin", even if I wasn't consciously thinking about it at the time. It takes a good long while to re-read and genuinely enjoy 43 volumes of anything.
And ultimately, that's why I had so much fun incorporating Midora's own "Full Course" as a weapon against the Legion; though in the original planning stages, Jack was simply going to be overwhelmed by a flood of Apathy pouring out of the shadows and smothering Jack in a way that Team JNPR couldn't save him from because they couldn't get too close or risk friendly fire.
This one was shorter than "La Femme Rouge", but I like to think I got the point across with both the action and the carefully chosen musical cues, "Memories Come Back to Life" in particular.
All that said, I hope to see you both in the Reviews section, and next time where you'll find me on Vigorous Vitality.