"Attention Passengers. We have entered Valean Airspace, and will arrive at Beacon soon."
Jaune felt his legs bouncing as he sat on his seat in the airship, his eyes glued to the ground below as the dense woodland of the wild zones turned into a somehow denser urban jungle. Being so high up in the air, and feeling the way the airship moved… it was all he could do to keep his breakfast down, having not even bothered with lunch.
The Arc family curse of air-sickness was a tough opponent, and Jaune had lost every fight they'd had so far.
He'd already lost once on this flight alone, much to the amusement of the people around him, especially the hot blonde with purple eyes. The one sitting near the window alongside another cute girl with red and black hair, who had both cheered for 'vomit boy' as he had thrown up.
Glancing over at the pair, he could see them with their faces pressed up against the glass on the other side of the ship. Could they see Beacon from here already over there? Looking through his window just showed the city of Vale itself, as well as the shoreline, the ocean stretching ever outward.
He was about to get up to check the other window, maybe try and talk to the two girls…? Then an alarm started blaring, and the airship jolted, causing him to bounce slightly in his seat.
"WARNING… WARNING… A Grimm has been detected off-shore, and Valean Airspace has been marked as dangerous. We will be descending to a precautionary height. Please remain calm, as Beacon has already dispatched an Ark to destroy the Grimm. WARNING… WARNING…"
The message started to repeat itself, and the airship suddenly started diving.
Jaune barely had the chance to bring his hand to his mouth to try and hold back his vomit before he was showered in… Rose petals? Turning to look at where the sudden barrage of red petals had come from, he saw the cute red-and-black-haired girl from before holding a bag out to him, while the blonde stared out of the window next to him.
"Here, I wasn't quick enough last time, but I brought sick bags, and you can have one! My dad wouldn't let me leave without them after I told him about the airship, haha, but I don't really get sick on them, apparently."
Jaune looked at the sick bag that the girl was offering him… And promptly snatched it out of her hand, vomiting into it and feeling her tiny hand pat his back. Said patting was interrupted, however, when the other blonde spoke up.
"Ruby, c'mon! You're gonna miss Broomstick's fight!"
The girl, Ruby, let out a small 'eep!' and Jaune watched in amazement as she turned into a puff of Rose petals, appearing next to the blonde girl after a short flight, her face pressed up against the glass.
He felt a flash of amazement at the sight of someone who looked around his age using their Semblance for something so… Trivial. Even among the Hunters and Huntresses in his hometown, only the best even had them, and they were all super secretive about what they were.
To see them being used so freely…
He could already tell that Beacon was probably going to blow his mind. Standing up, his throat feeling parched after vomiting twice today, he strode over to the window as well, and he felt his jaw drop.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
A Grimm was walking in from the coastline, towering above the water. A Leviathan. One of the most basic types of Grimm, but still terrifying to see in person. All the books he'd read at school had clocked them at 57 meters tall, and Jaune had initially found that hard to believe, but seeing one in the flesh now… He believed the books.
It displaced the ocean with every step, sending building-sized waves of water rippling away from it as it moved towards Vale, the wave breakers in between it and the city doing their job to shrink the waves it created. With the airship dropping down out of the air, it must be close enough for the Grimm's lightning breath to be a potential threat as well.
It was a surprise that it had gotten so close to Vale without being dispatched in the first place. But Beacon was certainly aware of it now. A flash of light shone from a place that the window wouldn't let them see, and a moment later, for the first time, Jaune saw an Ark in person.
Roughly humanoid, with what looked like a baton in its hand, was a giant, 40-meter-tall mechanical body. It was called Broomstick -as Ruby's friend had mentioned- and the mech was famously piloted by one of Beacon's top Huntresses, Miss Glynda Goodwitch. Even Jaune, a farm boy from a nowhere settlement like Ansel, had heard of her.
It landed in the water with an earth-shaking THUD, and even airborne, the displaced air of the Mech's landing had buffeted them a bit. Jaune quickly opened the sick bag, but he didn't throw up, having nothing left to give.
Looking back out the window, he saw the Leviathan screeching at Broomstick, a golden light starting to grow in its mouth. But the mech didn't sit still. Waves of water splashed as it darted forward, its baton-like weapon raised as the wrist on its other hand spun rapidly, missiles firing.
The missiles, with purple light trailing behind them, detonated on the side of the Leviathan's head and threw it off target, sending the shot of lightning straight into the ocean below them, the seawater sparking around their feet. Even so, Broomstick seemed to be completely unimpeded.
The Leviathan tried to recover, making a swipe at the mech with one of its arms. As the Grimm attempted its attack, Broomstick lurched to the side of the Grimm with a flash of purple light, Goodwitch's Semblance telekinetically moving it in ways it normally couldn't.
The Leviathan's strike missed wildly, and this time, when it tried to right itself, it was met with a baton through the skull, Broomstick's arms glowing purple as Goodwitch used her Semblance to add some extra force to the blow.
The baton was pushed out the other side of the Grimm's head, its purple glow making it apparent, and the body of the Grimm underneath it went slack. It collapsed into the water, sending waves hurtling towards Vale, but now that it was dead, Goodwitch was able to focus on the water, halting it in place with her Semblance, entire waves glowing purple under her power as she stopped the shops on the coast from being hit by anything but the smallest of splashes.
Everyone on the airship had been shocked and silent as they watched, but as the Grimm exploded into a cloud of purple and black smog, cheers rocked the airship where it hovered, as all of the Beacon newbies got to watch what was, for the majority, their first in-person Grimm fight.
"Woah… oh, uh. Attention all passengers! The Grimm has been dispatched, and we will be returning to our previous flight path. ETA to Beacon is about 3 minutes."
Even the announcer sounded amazed, doing a poor job of staying professional in the face of such a skilled takedown. After the announcement, the ship started moving again, but much smoother now that the danger had passed.
At the very least Jaune was thankful to not feel like vomiting for a fourth time for the day.
The rest of the trip was quick, almost exactly 3 minutes from the announcement, and even as Jaune was still trying to process the fight he had just seen, and the sheer mastery of combat Broomstick and its pilot had showcased, he found himself on the Beacon landing platform, his ratty suitcase in hand.
He looked up at the tower that made up the central building of Beacon. And then kept looking up. Up a little more. And it was only when he was leaning so far back to look upwards that he almost fell over that he realized he couldn't see the top of the school, the clouds obscuring it.
"Holy crap, this place is massive."
"Holy shit, that's a big fucking tower."
Hearing someone else feeling just as amazed as he was near him, Jaune glanced to his left and saw the blonde girl who had been talking with Ruby on the airship, in a similar pose to his own, staring up at the tower. Jaune could only nod at her words, as they were nothing but the truth.
Beacon was massive, in every sense of the word. Beacon Tower alone was so tall the clouds blotted out the top, and so wide that it was almost a city block in of itself. That wasn't even counting the small-town-sized training areas he could see in the distance, tall enough for even the largest of Arks to stand and fight in…
Which, for a school that specialized in the training of Mech pilots, was a necessity.
"You got that right…"
The girl looked over at him as the words escaped him, before doing a double take. She met his eyes, a giant grin growing on her face. "Yo, Vomit Boy! Did your stomach finally give you a break, man?"
Jaune tried his best to ignore the stares her yelling was attracting. Scratching the back of his head, a nervous laugh escaping him, he nodded. "Yeah, just had to get used to it, I guess. My whole family gets airsick, so at least I had some warning that it was coming."
The blonde girl closed her eyes, nodding. "Eyup, I've got some mates from Signal who suffered the same fate apparently. They came earlier though, so I'm gonna find them at some point… wait, shit, I always forget to do this."
She stuck her hand out to him, giving him a winning smile. "The name's Yang, nice to meet you, Vomit Boy."
Jaune just sighed as he grabbed her hand, wincing as his hand was seemingly crushed into a fine powder under her grip, a tear escaping his eye as Yang shook his hand. "H-hey. The name's Jaune Arc, not, uh, Vomit Boy."
Letting his hand go, allowing him to realise that it was still intact, just throbbing with pain, Yang shrugged. "I don't know, mate. Vomit Boy is a pretty catchy nickname. Might just stick with that for the moment… oh there are my friends!"
Before he could even let out a complaint about her continuing to use 'vomit boy', she had darted off towards a small group of people and vanished into the crowd a moment later, leaving Jaune by himself… until he was hit by a now-familiar cloud of rose petals.
"Yang! Wait… Well, the hair's about right, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you're not Yang."
It took him a moment to process the joke while being doused in rose petals, but he couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped him after it clicked. "Yep, can confirm that I am not Yang. Jaune Arc, nice to meet ya."
Ruby's handshake was, thank the gods, a much less painful ordeal, but it was also much faster, with both her hands on his shaking it up and down so fast it was messing with his balance.
She eventually calmed down, grinning at him. "Nice to meet you, vomi-Jaune. Jaune! Right, haha! Are you feeling better? My sister has some friends that get airsick, so I have heard how bad it sucks."
Jaune nodded and glanced back at the airship, which was now leaving, with a less than fond look. "Yeah… It's not super fun, but I'm doing better now. I actually wanted to find you at some point to say thanks for the sick bag, but well, now you're here so… thanks for the sick bag?"
He was about to mentally kick himself for putting his foot in his mouth, but when Ruby let out a small giggle, covering her mouth with a fist, he couldn't help the small grin on his face. There was silence for a moment, and he started to feel a little awkward just standing there…
"So, uh-"
"We should-"
Jaune clammed up as they both started talking, motioning for her to continue as she also froze mid-sentence. "You first."
Ruby just pointed over to where the giant crowd of students were flocking to, a giant glowing sign with 'WELCOME STUDENTS' written on it. "I was just gonna say that we should probably get going. Yang seems to have left me behind."
Jaune glanced around, still not spotting Yang anywhere, and nodded. "Yeah, I think she mentioned going to meet some friends from Signal… is that where you're from too?"
They started walking as Ruby gave him the rundown of her schooling career, which was technically more information than he had asked for, but Ruby turned out to be pretty interesting when she ranted, so he didn't really mind, especially with how long the line was when they reached it.
"And then I went to smack him over the head with this and-"
They were nearing the front of the line as she was talking about a training fight she had been in at Signal, she grabbed something from the small of her back, and everyone around her, Jaune included, had to take a quick step back to not get hit by the giant mechanized war-scythe she was holding.
"R-ruby? Why do you have a… Totally tricked-out war scythe?"
Ruby cocked her head to the side, a confused look on her face. "Wait, this? This is the mock-up weapon I've been practising with for a while now. My mech is going to have a majorly upscaled version of this, but learning how to use your mech's future weapon is what the combat schools are for. Did you not know that already? Where did-"
"Next!"
Jaune couldn't believe his luck, stepping forward to the Welcome Desk right as Ruby was about to ask a very awkward question for him. If he had pressed further about his lack of knowledge, then he didn't know if he could come up with a convincing enough lie to cover himself.
How could you explain to a very new friend that you cheated your way into one of the most prestigious pilot academies on Remnant, especially one who was skilled enough to not just already have her Semblance unlocked, but be practised with it?
He felt his hands shaking slightly at the close call as he reached the welcome desk, giving the very bored-looking staff member a shaky smile as the man sat at the desk, a tablet in front of him.
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon. Please tell me your name so we can mark you down as present and accounted for."
The man's absolutely deadpan voice was a little off-putting, especially to his already delicate emotional state, but he was Jaune's momentary saviour, so he didn't hold it against him. "My name is Jaune Arc, sir."
The staff member nodded and wrote down 'Jaune Ark' on his tablet, and Jaune raised a hand. "Wait, no, not Ark, like the mechs. Arc, like the shape… With a C."
To emphasise his point, he bent his hand into a small arc, turning a little red at the judgemental stare that the staff member was giving him. Eventually, he just grunted, adjusting the spelling and glanced up at Jaune. "Sorry, kid. You get used to writing the word 'Ark' when you work at Beacon."
Jaune just waved him off as the map rummaged through a small container, pulling out a lanyard with a card on the end, and passing it over to Jaune. "Oh, no, seriously, don't worry. People mix the two up all the time."
"Thanks. The Amphitheater is over there, by the way. You're heading there next." The man gave him a small nod before waving him along, falling prey to Ruby's excitement as she practically yelled her name out at the top of her lungs, being handed her keycard a moment later.
Jaune hadn't gotten the chance to go far before he was, once again, showered in rose petals, Ruby appearing beside him, the biggest, goofiest grin he had ever seen on her face as she stared at her lanyard.
"ohmygodIcan'tbeleivethatI'mfinallyhereandenrolledatBeaconohmygodI'msoexcited!"
Jaune blinked at the sudden barrage of language sent his way as Ruby danced around him as they walked towards the Amphitheater. But he had the amazing power of having 7 sisters, so he kinda got the gist of it.
"Yeah, I've been wanting to come here since I was a kid, and now I'm finally here…"
While Ruby practically pranced while they walked, orbiting him, his own enthusiasm was dampened as he remembered exactly what he had done to get into Beacon. But… He couldn't, wouldn't focus on that. He would just have to make up for what he did from now on and become a stellar hunter.
He was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard Ruby let out an 'EEP!' as she collided with someone, a girl with white hair in a high ponytail, and, with reaction times he didn't know he was capable of, reached out to grab her arm, as well as the arm of the person she'd run into.
This turned out to be a really good thing, as the white-haired girl's luggage toppled over, before exploding, almost knocking them all over in the other direction after he had dragged the two girls away from the now-smoking crater they would have been in the middle of.
Turning to the both of them, Jaune's eyes were wide. "Holy hell, that was insane! Are you both alright? What was in those suitcases?!"
The white-haired girl was red in the face and glaring daggers at Ruby, but took a deep breath and nodded sharply to him at the question. "Yes, yes I'm alright, thank you… you can let go of me now."
Jaune quickly let go of the white-haired girl, and when her wrist was out of his grip she immediately turned on Ruby, a scowl on her face. "And you! Do you know what you just did?! You just detonated hundreds of Lien's worth of Dust! DUST! You know, that super expensive, super powerful thing that makes our entire lives possible? How could you be so!-"
The girl, who they eventually found out was named Weiss, continued to rant at Ruby for her clumsiness for the remaining 2-minute walk to the Amphitheater. Ruby was a good sport about it, at least, and didn't use her Semblance to escape from the irate Weiss.
As they entered the Amphitheater, Weiss stopped her rant, letting out a huff and placing her fists on her hips. "Well… I hope you take this as a lesson to be more aware of your surroundings, Miss Rose. And you, blonde guy."
Jaune glanced over at them, having said almost nothing since her rant started, and pointed at himself. "Wait, me?"
Weiss raised her chin and met his eyes, and he almost felt intimidated by the glare in her eyes, which was impressive since he probably had an entire foot in height on her. Maybe it was because of the cool scar she had over her left eye, making her look tougher?
After his moment of pondering, however, the glare faded, and she sighed. "Thank you again…. Please don't mention this ever happened."
Jaune put a comically confused look on his face, cocking his head to the side. "Mention what happened?"
Weiss looked like she was about to correct him before she froze for a moment, the finger she had raised bending slightly as she realized what he was doing. "Cough, well, good. I'm glad that's… clear. Goodbye, for now, I'll likely see the both of you later..."
With that, she strode off into the crowd that was forming in front of the stage, likely wanting to put as much distance between herself and Ruby as possible. As Jaune watched her go, he made eye contact with a black-haired girl with a bow who had seemingly been watching them, and nodded at her, smiling.
The girl barely responded, her own nod so small it was almost nonexistent, and turned back to the stage, but that was fine. He was distracted when Ruby elbowed his arm, whispering. "I wanna make friends with Weiss once we're all set up."
Jaune snorted at that, returning her whisper as the doors to the hall closed, and the lights started to slowly dim. "She just yelled at you for about 3 minutes straight."
Ruby just smiled, shrugging while she turned to look at the stage, whispering out of the side of her mouth. "Yeah, she did… but it was kinda my fault. Trust me, I'll have her as a good friend before the term is over."
Jaune had only known Ruby for less than an hour, but he found himself believing that she really could do it.
Whatever he was about to say next was quickly cut off as the lights shut off completely, and the sound of a curtain starting to rise hit his ears. He stared up at the stage and felt his mouth drop wide open as the curtain revealed an Ark kneeling in the middle of it, its pilot's cabin open, giving everyone a clear view of its pilot.
The headmaster of Beacon, and a contender for the title of the most technically skilled Ark Pilot in the world…
Admiral Ozpin.