Jaune and his partner kept staring at the hole for quite some time. Both of them saw what happened and it left them speechless. Their first thought was to turn around and run as fast as they could, but their minds instilled a paranoid fear that, whatever caused that hole and killed that Grimm, would eventually come out and chase them. The unbearable fear slowly conquered their will, eventually convincing them to take out their weapons and prepare themselves for the imminent encounter. Never did they expect to see a person jump out from that smouldering mess, especially when they realized that said person, a boy, was yet another of many Beacon applicants.
"What are you looking at?" The person asked after both parties finished staring at each other. "Never saw someone jump out from a laser-induced hole?" They slowly shook their heads. "Geez. And you are supposed to be fighters...?" He murmured, walking towards them.
"W-wait..." Jaune struggled with words as the boy passed them. He turned around and gathered his bravery together. "Did you-"
"No. It wasn't me." The instant response made him slump forward. "It's dead though. Long story."
"Well, we have all the time in the world." Pyrrha pointed out as she began walking in the same direction as the boy, followed by Jaune.
"So?" The boy asked back as he moved through the bushes.
"So, you can tell us everything. In case we encounter something similar."
"No need to worry about that." He replied calmly. "And besides, why are you two following me? Aren't you partners?"
"We are... lost." Pyrrha admitted.
"And how is that my problem?"
She frowned, sensing the slight hostility coming from the boy. The thought was quickly removed away however. "My partner and I thought you knew the right direction..." She trailed off awkwardly and winced when the boy called her out.
"Really? I just came out of a hole. You know, in case you are blind and such."
"Hey now." Jaune immediately became defensive. "There is no need to be harsh towards my partner."
"Oh yeah?" The boy chuckled as he kept walking forward. "What you're going to do? Deliver justice?" He then turned around, stopping everyone. "Look, brat." He spat. "I'm sure you and battle-axe over there are fine on your own. So why don't you leave the adults alone? Really busy right now, you know?"
Pyrrha crossed her arms and frowned. "For someone who claims they are mature, you fail to act like it."
Braylon mock-gasped. "Man, muh feelings. They hurt." He then turned around. "But seriously though, go find a bush and fuck already. Just leave me alone."
They let the boy distance himself a bit from them before Jaune whispered to his partner. "I really don't like that guy."
"Neither do I." She sighed. "But such is life I guess. Besides," she turned to her partner and smiled. "he is not my or your partner, so everything is alright."
He replied with a smile of his own. That smile died as soon as everyone present heard a mighty roar in the distance. Even the boy stopped walking.
"Get ready." She warned her partner as her grip on her spear tightened. "Something is coming our way."
Jaune nodded and mentally prepared himself for any threat that would approach them. He briefly looked around, trying to spot anything enemy-looking. Then his eyes returned to the boy in front of them.
"What is he doing?"
The boy looked around without any weapon in hands, seemingly exchanging facial expressions between worry and anger. His head turned to their right. Cursing loudly, he started running in the opposite direction just as Jaune started hearing a slight thumping noise. Even Pyrrha was alerted by his behavior.
"Did he spot something?"
Jaune Arc was a dunce, or at least that was his opinion about himself. Whenever he tried to act either though or charming, he only ended up revealing his socially-awkward nature. Combined with his lack of self-esteem, it was a wonder that he ever got out of his house. But Jaune was no fool. When needed, he was able to realize things faster than others, especially when his life was on stake. He may be a coward, but he was a perceptive coward.
"Pyrrha...?" He asked slowly. "Do you hear that?"
Indeed, the thumping sound steadily grew louder and louder. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. It reminded Jaune of the sound that animals with hooves make when their legs strike the earth. What bothered him was the fact that he heard more thump-thumps than it was natural. The only conclusion he could come up with was that, whatever came towards them, was not alone.
"Run!" Pyrrha suddenly shouted as she sprinted in the same direction as the boy. There was no point in denying the facts. She too saw the threat. Jaune first looked in her direction, then to the opposite side. What followed was a sight that Jaune would gladly remove from his mind when given the opportunity.
It was a Grimm, of the Boarbatusk type, no doubt about that. It was unnaturally big, perhaps bigger than the scorpion Grimm that chased them, and completely covered in white bone-like armor, exposing only few small fur patches on legs and belly. It had six eyes, one which had a scar, six legs, four ears and tusks so large that they were more akin to the horns of a ram, coated in golden yellow color. The trees that came in contact with its tusks exploded into bits as the beast continued its mad rush towards the target. *
He didn't even think about his next move. Thinking would mean death. Jaune turned around and ran, all in the blink of an eye. Panic kicked in only several seconds later, delayed by his reaction. It was somewhat far away from him, so he had a little bit of advantage. There was no doubt that the Grimm would catch him sooner or later, if he didn't do something. But what could he do, exactly? He couldn't fight it. He couldn't outrun it. He was stuck running forward, eventually meeting his death at some point. All that "Aura" stuff Pyrrha talked about only meant lots of pain before meeting his maker.
The legs hurt. The lungs hurt. He had to give up. Too much running. The Grimm was approaching him fastly. Before he knew it, the giant monster was ready to attack.
And that was when Jaune entered the world of explosions and pain.
Yang picked up two sounds and one of them even came with graphic effects. The first, and also the loudest, was an explosion that happened somewhere far away, yet she was able to see a brief flash that the trees failed to conceal. The second was that of someone screaming.
"Do you hear that?" Yang asked her partner, unsure if she would pick up the meaning of her words.
"Uh, Yang..." She replied by pointing a finger up. Yang followed and, to her surprise, saw Ruby falling down from the sky. Her landing was canceled abruptly when something smashed into her with such speed that Yang failed to catch it with her eyes. Her sister ended in a tree.
"Ruby!"
It was too late to do anything to help the little sister. Something else showed up, indicated by trees falling down. She could swear she saw two figures on top of an Ursa, a suspicion that received proof once one of the figures dissapeared inexplicably only to reappear near them, holding one of the chess pieces. It was a hyperactive ginger wearing pink and white clothes. A boy called her "Nora" and she replied with "coming, Ren".
Yang frowned. This was her chance to save her sister before something else happened. Something that could-
"I! Hate! My! Fucking! Life!" Shouted yet another voice as its owner appeared from the other side of the forest, followed by a girl with red hair. Things suddenly became more interesting when the trees were destroyed. But unlike with the Ursa situation, where trees fell down, in this one the trees either sailed through the sky or exploded into thousands of bits that polluted the already-ugly scenery. The one who commited such a brutally awesome act was perhaps the biggest Boarbatusk she ever saw. And with yellow tusks no less.
"Jaune!" The red-haired girl yelled as she and the boy jumped sideways, thus evading the Grimm's attempt to squash them like bugs.
"Did they-"
Yang's partner fell silent as the blonde fighter screamed in fury.
"Can everyone chill out for just two seconds?! Is that too much to ask?!"
"Weiss is falling!" Her sister informed everyone, much to Yang's chagrin."
The Boarbatusk snapped its head towards Braylon, ignoring the redhead. Of course, Braylon was the only one who know why that happened and the answer was carved in his skin. But he had to think fast and jump away again, as the creature seemingly jumped and headbutted the ground. The resulting explosion caused a small crater.
Cursing under his breath, Braylon jumped another time as the Boarbatusk repeated the same attack. He never expected for the Grimm to swing its head towards his direction as soon as the ground exploded. In no time he found himself flying and smacking the ground like an asteroid. It hurt with all the Shield.
"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" He heard a voice commenting sarcastically despite all the ringing in his ears as he tried to stand up and failing several times. "Not if I can help it!" Replied another. "Ruby wait!"
"Man, remind me why I hate my life."
After the fifth attempt, Braylon went back on his feet. But unlike other applicants, which he barely noticed, he inspected the ruins, where several chess pieces stood on top of small columns.
"So this place must be the objective, from the looks of it."
Only then did he bother to acknowledge the exsistence of others and his first mental comment was about their vibrant colors and how those hurt his eyes.
"And these should be the next generation of "Huntsmen"? Someone has a good sense of humour."
Hearing a screech that only a bird or bird-like thing could emit, Braylon blinked several times before swinging his head left and right, trying to identify the source. He could practically hear his brain snapping like a twig when he saw a massive bird-like Grimm floating in the air and throwing dozens of feathers at the ground like weapons shooting bullets.**
"Son of a bitch. Are you serious? Giant birds and boars? Come on now. First time it was funny. Now it is just annoying."
And just when he thought that the situation couldn't become more critical and bizzare, he saw, in the distance, a flying dot. Strangely, the dot seemed to reflect light.
Placing a hand above his eyes, the Vault Hunter tried to see what was the object exactly. Then, his PDA warned him about something he actually never thought it would. At least, not in the current reality.
Warning. Unidentified flying object flying at 3.2 times the speed of sound towards the user's direction. Warning. Transmission detected. Playing transmission.
"Five-one, five-one, this is Condor seven-five, I'm picking up a strange signal. Sending a sample."
"...Holy fuck! That is him! We found him! But how... nevermind! Condor seven-five! Engage the bastard! I want that son of a bitch dead!"
"Copy that, five one. Engaging the target."
Ruby felt, no, she knew she could help, which is why she ran towards the Grimm without any strategy whatsoever. Her heroic attitude took a drastic turn once she found out that her weapon failed to get past the armor. The fact that the flying Grimm blocked her with one of its feathers did nothing to soothe her growing panic. Before she knew it, the Boarbatsuk charged straight for her, an attack that was only stopped by a wall of ice created by Weiss.
Saying that it stopped the attack is oversimplifying what actually happened. The Boarbatusk, instead of hitting Ruby, hit the wall and destroyed it effortlessly. It gave her partner enough time to free Ruby from the feather. And while Ruby knew that Weiss wanted to scold her, it would certainly happen later after the problem was solved. She wanted to kill the Grimm but now she realized that doing it alone would be close to suicide.
However, before anyone knew it, she saw the Boarbatusk giant falling to its left side and dying. Actually, she first felt a rather powerful gust of wind and then the Boarbatusk fell. Just like that.
"Huh?" Ruby voiced her current thoughts, just like Weiss.
"...What just happened?" The white-haired girl asked nobody in particular. "Wait, Ruby!"
Ruby didn't listen. She needed to see why the Grimm died so suddenly and, seemingly, without any apparent cause. When she came closer, she saw several smouldering holes in the Grimm's body. Whoever (she was sure one of the soon-to-be-friends did it) killed it was using energy-based weaponry, as there was not a single drop of blood present.
She heard an echoing thud. Quickly raising her head, she saw the bird Grimm, now lifeless and missing a good portion of its body, several meters away from her and her partner.
The next thing she heard could only be described, in her words, as a "Vrooom!" or "Vooosh!"
No introduction was necessary for Braylon. He knew exactly what he was dealing with. As soon as the PDA warned him of the incoming aircraft, he quickly materialized Ajax's Spear and prepared for the worst case scenario. The approaching object would complicate his life far more than he wanted to. His cover would be blown before he could even use it properly.
As the Boarbatusk was ready to strike the girl in red, there came the aircraft and landed several laser shots that quickly bypassed its armor while at the same time firing several mini rockets that took care of the bird Grimm. All of it happened with such velocity that everyone else could only pick up the sound of the engines coming closer only to go far away.
"Uh... what?" Was somebody's response. Braylon didn't care who voiced their thoguhts, for he had different problems occupying his mind. He decided to go for a "half-truth".
"It was an aircraft!" He yelled suddenly, gaining everyone's attention?
"Aircraft? Here?" The girl with a bow asked.
"Probably trying to help us." He lied. "Maybe the staff of Beacon thought it was far above our level."
"Ha! Yeah right!" The blonde snorted. "We could totally kick their butts if we wanted to!"
Braylon only frowned in response. The aircraft in question was something that, back in his reality, was called RaumKampfjet Mark V, or RKV for short. *** A type of vehicle that was massively produced by the Dahl corporation due to its efficiency in both space and planetary warfare. Bulky, yet lightweight enough to fly at high speeds. Interestingly enough, the RKV belonged only to Dahl's private army for obvious reasons. When in war, every advantage is a must. But for Braylon, that advantage now meant a big problem. He doubted anything in his current arsenal was powerful enough to deal some serious damage. But who said he had to fight it alone...
As suspected, the RKV returned to group's location. Its design immediately made everyone suspicious.
"That... doesn't look like a Bullhead..."
"What is that?"
"Ren! Maybe that is an alien spaceship!"
"Nora, please-"
(Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – RK V theme)
The aircraft fired two rockets at the group without any warning. Luckily everyone, including Braylon was fast enough to run away before they exploded.
"What the heck?!" The blonde shouted. "What was that for?!"
Seeing an opportunity, Braylon jumped in. "I think that the pilot is not on our side!"
"But why though?!"
"Beats me! Look out!"
Braylon knew that he was the actual target, not the others. This was the reason why he tried to get close to someone else, so that his lie receives further proof. And so he reached a the blonde and the girl with the bow. The pilot wasted no time and fired two more rockets, which were easily evaded as the group split apart. Not that it mattered anymore. He got what he wanted.
The loud sound of gunfire caused everyone to turn their heads to see the girl in red firing from her weapon. It wasn't very effective but it did draw the pilot's attention, who replied with a laser barrage. Her partner, the girl in white, summoned a barrier of pure ice to defend them both. He had to ask her how she did that.
But back to the fight, the lasers, as predicted, pierced right through the ice, but at least the pilot had no clear shot of them.
"Sir, target has allies."
"Typical. Take them down."
"Copy that."
He silently thanked his PDA for spying on the conversation while also smiling to himself. Others will act as a perfect cannon fodder for him to take the aircraft down, as evidenced by the ginger girl shooting grenades and her partner firing with two pistols. The RKV suddenly dissapeared as it took off. A sign that it was about to bombard the area.
Waiting for everyone to gather together, the group, due to Braylon's convincing arguments, ran further into the ruins, leaving behind the forest as the aircraft appeared again, dropping a miniature nuclear rocket.
"Whoa!" The blonde near him yelled as her head turned slightly to see the explosion. "That was close!"
"Yeah!" Braylon replied just to say something. "And if we don't do something, we are all screwed!"
The group split into three smaller teams. Braylon, Ruby and her partner hid behind the first column they found. He didn't bother to see where others went.
"My sweetheart didn't do anything." Ruby calmly replied as she and Braylon, accompanied by others, fired few shots at the approaching vehicle, only to return back to cover as lasers zoomed dangerously close to their heads.
"Fuck!" Braylon cursed.
"Language!" Botrh of the girls replied simultaneously.
"We were almost fried by those lasers and our guns are ineffective... why do you care about my language?!"
"Weiss! Can you throw me towards that thing?!"
Braylon, as much as he wished to smash his head against the column, decided to act calm just so he could listen about the "strategy". Maybe he could learn some valuable information?
"Of course I can, you dunce!"
What happened next was so ridiculous, so inexplicable, that might as well be considered a stage act rather than a true strategy. An utter mockery of reality was about to happen, and Braylon had to be the audience for only God-knows-what time.
It all started when Ruby jumped out of her cover, going against all logic and reason in the universe. Then, the redhead tossed her spear, a weapon she didn't have before, at the aircraft, which dodged it with ease. This in turn allowed the white-haired girl to perform some kind of sorcery that would toss Ruby into the air and straight at the RK V with the efficiency of a cannon. Rather than land on it, the girl transformed her weapon into a scythe and sliced one of the engines. The ginger with the grenade launcher jumped on top of the redhead's shield and propelled herself upwards with a method known as a "rocket jump", a method that can only be achieved in videogames and poorly written works of art mind you, turned her launcher into a war hammer and slammed the thing on the other engine. And the most mind-boggling thing to Braylon was the fact that the RKV could all dodge it with ease by accelerating, yet it went with such speed that allowed this comedy to happen in the first place.
"My brain is full of fuck right now..."
While it wasn't enough to outright destroy it, the damage on the engines meant that the RKV would be slower than usual, opening whole new possibilities and attacks.
The blonde jumped from a column and shot herself at the spaceship. He didn't see what exactly happened but he could hear shotguns going off and glass cracking.
And now for the final blow. When the blonde jumped down, the girl in black used some kind of a long ribbon to make a slingshot with the columns, allowed Ruby to jump on said ribbon and, once again with the help of White's sorcery, shot herself at the RKV, sliced it enough to cause serious damage and jumped down using unnecessary acrobatics that would only be useful in a circus. The RKV, now damaged beyond repair, decided to retreat, leaving behind a group of very euphoric teenagers, minus Braylon who stood some good fifteen meters away from them, first slackjawed, then cursing as much as he could.
We apologize if you failed to understand any of it. We simply decided to give you an image based on Braylon's point of view, who was so confused that the word itself might be an understatement.
"Almost twenty full minutes of bullshit!" He waved with his hands as he paced back and forth. "Twenty fucking minutes of God-tier bullshit! What the fuck!? You! What was that shit?!"
"That, mortal, is what happens when worms like you learn how to weaponize their souls."
"...You are fucking with me, are you?"
"But of course! What, you thought I would simply give you the answer you want? Am I a dog?"
Braylon, still enraged, stared at the cheering group. They were either laughing, talking or hugging each other.
"It is true, however, that they know more about the mortal soul than your reality. Simply a side effect for having a threat they were not able to eradicate from the beginning. You can thank Anathema for that."
"Huh..." Braylon's frown slowly turned into a smirk. "Wait... I can use this to my advantage."
He realized that, thanks to their "effort" he hid his true self from their eyes, meaning that his cover was still very much alive. Now it was time to act dumb and pretend he was just another average mortal, so he returned to the group with a big smile on his face.
"Wow, guys! That was so cool!"
"I know right!" The blonde smiled. "We are the coolest kids in Vale!"
"How humble."
"Yeah! We totally kicked butt!" Ruby replied. "But we still don't know why it attacked us though."
"Bah!" Braylon waved his hand, ignoring the stares he got from the redhead and the blond knight. "It was probably one of those bad guys we met back in town."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, I mean, we did stop them. So it is only natural to think they came for revenge."
"Huh, I guess..."
"Come on now, everyone." Braylon said. "Let's go. We still need to take those chess pieces and return to the headmaster."
"...so now you are a "student", huh?" Claptrap asked as he rolled beside Braylon.
The Vault Hunter didn't answer immediately. His mind went back to when they completed the objective. Beacon's headmaster decided to gather the whole school so that everyone could see the birth of four-student teams that would remain such for all four years. When it came to his turn to be assigned to a team, everyone found out that he was the only one who lacked in teammates, because those who survived were already members of one. His position meant that the headmaster gave him a unique role. He would stay in his private room, yes, but when going into missions, he would become a temporary fifth member of a team. Obviously, Braylon had the freedom to choose which missions should he go on and such. Not that he really cared, as being a student wasn't his objective, but he knew that the staff would get suspicious when they would find out that he hadn't done one single job since he came into the school. He became a bird trapped in an open cage.
"I guess." Braylon shrugged as he placed both his hands behind his head.
"How's the feel?"
"Weird. I never went to school, not that I need one anymore. It feels like I skipped several years of my life and immediately went to college."
"Yeah, a shame that you lost all the teenage drama and ****." The robot replied sarcastically, much to Braylon's annoyance. "Hey, looks like we arrived."
"So this is my room." Braylon pointed out as he opened the door. He whistled. "Wow. It is large."
"And has four ****ing beds!" Claptrap squealed as he jumped on top of one. "Real ****ing beds! Has science gone too far?!"
Braylon grunted as he closed the door. "Well, you do whatever you want." He knew that the robot stopped listening him as soon as it started jumping on the bed and laughing like a small child. "I'll get some rest."
Claptrap stopped jumping to look at Braylon. "Wow. Way to ruin all the fun, party-breaker."
"It's night. The day was shitty. I need to sleep."
"Sure, sure. Whatever."
The Vault Hunter gave a mental order to his PDA to form a cocktail of sleeping drugs and to restore his body while he was sleeping. The device beeped and he closed his eyes.
"And now with the nightmares."
Factions:
1) Dahl Corporation - "Dahl Corporation. So many things can be said about it and most of them are bad. Where do I even start? It was founded a century ago by Stanton Dahl. What was then a simple entrepreneurial dream quickly turned into a multi-conglomerate who specializes in producing guns for "professional mercenary", basically meaning they are jack of all trades but masters of none, save for the recoil which is almost nonexsistent. It is currently one of the major corporations locked in a war for power over the others. And just like the others, it treats its employees and tools as expendables. Case in point: Pandora and Elpis. They are the only reason why those shitholes have humans in the first place. Now they set their sights on the Vault that started all of this. I cannot even imagine what would they do if they learn what it truly is."
PDA Biopedia:
*Entry #34: Blasttusk Spinebuster
Type: Grimm – Beast
Faction: Creatures of Grimm
Description: "Since Grimm do not really fit into the living category, yet are immortal, their bodies can take various shapes and sizes, depending on the circumstances. It is no secret that some can develop mutations that can make them deadlier as a result. As far as I care and know, there might be individuals or even whole subtypes that are as old as mankind. Remember, I said that they are useless to us but still a threat to mortals. They don't follow biological rules or any other type of rules that applies to you. You will definitely find worst specimens."
**Entry #35: Nevermore
Type: Grimm – Beast
Faction: Creatures of Grimm
Description: "One of many subtypes capable of flight. And the tamest one at that. I am serious. Compared to others, these ones are tamer than those slave animals you call "pets". The trick with their feathers is rather simplistic as well. Each feather is placed so delicately in the skin that covers the body efficiently and yet it can be removed with a slight movement of wings, only to regrow almost instantly. The bigger the specimen, the bigger the feathers, the bigger the threat. They outlived their purpose, however, as we made them only to see if we could make subspecies that could fly."
***Entry #36: RaumKampfjet Mark V
Type: Construct
Faction: Dahl Corporation
Description: "I feel like I am missing something. Something big. How did they find me already? And in this reality? Is there a whole spaceship waiting to kill me hidden somewhere on Remnant? Well, whatever. It just means I will have more work to do than I previously thought."