Watching the blond knight failing miserably against his taller opponent cleared Braylon's mind of any doubts he had earlier about his opinion on the students. They were simply too unprofessional and untrained to go to the academy at his age. Such statements may sound narcissistic, but Braylon had years of combat experience under his belt. He fought in many circumstances, many different variables that changed in the equation, and he still came out on top. One can't really call swinging your sword and forgetting you are holding a shield a form of intensive training. It was a rookie mistake and the blond paid for it.
The fight in the arena, where they currently had a lecture with professor Goodwitch, was a very educational experience for Braylon. He learned the basics of what he needed to know. The large holographic monitors served to display the fighter's Aura reserves to the audience thanks to the devices called "Scrolls". How people from Remnant managed to measure such a phenomenon to the point of ripping off the health bar concept from every video game ever was a mystery to him. He also had to remind himself to see if he got any of those "Scroll" devices for himself. It was hard to remember such small details with everything that happened recently.
A constant thought creeped back into his mind no matter how much he tried to push it away. How exactly did the Dahl's private army found him across realities like that? Maybe it was a coincidence, but Braylon didn't believe in coincidences. Were they working with demons? Unlikely, since they are obsessed with total destruction of everything ever created. His third conclusion led him to believe that someone else, someone unknown to him, was responsible for that. Someone who had the power or knowledge to track his movement, even if said movement meant jumping across realities. One person instantly came up in his head but he dismissed it soon after.
"No way he is alive this time. The bastard is done for good."
Braylon smacked himself mentally when he remembered he had a weapon that required urgent repairs for a second time that day. A new addition to his arsenal would be welcome, but it would also help him understand how the gun worked. The topic quickly changed to his growing fear of forgetting seemingly unimportant details and how it could impact him in the future.
"I really need to relax. Damn stress is working on me."
He heard the professor speaking about something, so he decided to listen carefully. At least that one wasn't as boring as the first. "Everyone, the Vytal Festival is only months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdom start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing!..."
"Ah, just some stupid festival. I don't have time for that."
The bell rang as people started going out from the arena. From what he heard listening to others, it was lunchtime. He was a bit hungry, no question about that, but he really wasn't going to try the local cuisine, lest they served him something unbearable to eat. Something even worse than Skag meat.
When Braylon sat down near Blake, as girls from RWBY invited him, he could only stare at the food he received. It was a sandwich with bread, meat and lettuce, that much he knew. What bothered him though was the meat part. While he did eat a a wide variety of food, since he used to travel out of Pandora, it was only a small portion of what humanity had to offer in terms of cuisine. Suffice to say, two thirds of galaxy's most famous dishes will never touch his lingual papillae and he wasn't bothered in the slightest.
He ate only when he really needed, due to the implant that improved his metabolism so that it could both drain every last drop of useful things such as vitamins and calcium while at the same time turning food into enough fuel for a whole week. While we can argue that such practice is unhealthy for the body, we need to remind ourselves that, on Pandora, the only way to find edible food was either by hunting animals, like Skags and Rakks, or by scavenging places in search for canned goods and both were equally dangerous activities. When translated to Braylon, it meant that he had one huge advantage over other humans, since he didn't have to eat every day like others. The same doesn't apply to thirst, unfortunately.
The problem became apparent once he started eating. He wouldn't stop until he ate enough to feed a small village. While his companions would most of the times find it either fascinating or disgusting, he didn't really care because he had a perfect reason to do it. His body wasn't the only one that required fuel, it was also his PDA. In fact, half of the food he consumes goes to the device, which is then used for a variety of purposes, such as creating medicine through nanomachines or sealing a wound or even to recharge the batteries. The only problem comes later, when Braylon is unable to move away from a toilet for at least half an hour.
But we digress, so we need to return to our story. Braylon took a bite of the sandwich and immediately recognized the taste of everything said sandwich contained. Bread and lettuce were pretty common in the galaxy so it wasn't anything new to him, but when his brain told him that the meat was that of a pig, despite him never seeing or tasting a pig in his life, he felt sick. Yet such occurrence was far too common to be normal, because it happened every single time Braylon tasted something new. Despite him never seeing a type of food, his brain wouldn't stop screeching about what said food was and how it tasted. He knew why that happened, but that is a another story for another time.
While he was aware that he was trapped in his own world of thoughts, worries and whatnot, his ears just so happened to pick up the conversation at the table. "Jaune, are you ok?" He heard the red-haired girl ask "Jaune", who was digging through his food as if trying to find a secret treasure. Braylon, meanwhile, stared at the food on his plate. "Huh? Oh, yeah, why?"
"It's just that you seem a little... not okay."
"How perceptive." Braylon thought and smiled slightly.
Braylon was very much aware of Jaune's anxiousness. It was written all over his face, even if he tried to deny it. But Braylon wasn't interested in being someone's shrink. Rather, he saw it as an opportunity to begin their "friendship" from scratch. Hostile neighbors were always trouble that can be avoided.
"Jaune, Cardin is bullying you ever since we started school."
"Oh please. He never bullied me!"
"He stuffed you in a locker."
"...It was comfy to be honest..."
"Jaune, if you need help, you can always ask."
"Yes! Just say it and we will break his legs!" Answered the ginger.
Jaune stood up, ready to leave. "Guys, you don't have to worry about me at all. He is a jerk to everyone."
As if on clue, everyone turned their heads towards another table, even Braylon. There was a Faunus girl with rabbit ears, bullied by Cardin and his team. They mocked her as she gathered her plate and walked away, Braylon could see tears in those eyes as she passed by their table. He lowered his head.
"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him."
"He is not the only one."
"And yet you do nothing to stop him." Braylon thought. This situation could be turned to his favor. If he beat the bully right there, his reputation would skyrocket, people would trust him and it would most likely help him find what he came for in the first place. At least, that was what an optimist would like to think. Braylon was no optimist. He knew that it would sooner or later come back to bite him. Without saying a word, he got up and went towards Cardin's team, leaving behind two confused teams. The demon, however, had something to say.
"My, oh my. The absolute state of humanity. Fighting the war of lower lifeforms."
"The guy and his team remind me of bandits. They deserve what I'm gonna do to them." Braylon curled his right hand into a fist.
The voice laughed. It was a distorted, high-pitched laugh, something that shouldn't belong to such a deep voice. "Then go ahead, I won't stop you. But let me remind you that justifying crimes is one of the many reasons why mortals end up down here."
"I am aware of that."
"Then go, do it. It's not like you are going to see Anathema anytime soon." It laughed once more before going away.
"Hm?" The boy with brown hair noticed Braylon approaching them, so he turned around. "What do you want-ah!" Braylon placed his fist into the boy's face, throwing him to the table that cracked in half as his body dropped down. It served to warn the remaining three members of his presence.
"Muh nose!" The boy screeched through his hand-covered face. "He broke muh nose!" Even Braylon was surprised by the results, staring at his own fist. The faint laugh in the darkest corners of his thoughts was all the explanation he received.
"Dove! You alright man?!" The one with the mohawk, known as Russel, crouched near his partner. "Fuck! His nose is broken! The bastard broke his nose!"
Cardin and the last member turned to face Braylon, deadly serious. "Who the fuck are you?"
"You will apologize to that girl, right now."
"Huh? You dumb bastard!" The one with combed hair, Sky Lark, tried to act tough as he got closer to the Vault Hunter. "Don't talk if you can't back your words up!" Braylon, without any warning, uppercut Sky, knocking him down in front of Cardin's legs, unconscious. Cardin spat on Sky and stood up.
"Useless fucks..." He murmured before he adressed to Braylon. "You got a nice pair of balls there, pal." He nodded to Russel and Dove, whose nose was put back into its place, though whether it was completely healed or not was debatable, yet the blood was still present on his face and clothes. They got up, moved the tables and stood to Cardin's side, who cracked his knuckles."Let's see what they look like after I crush them to a pulp!"
Other students either fled or formed a circle around the soon-to-be fighters. Braylon failed to spot either RWBY or JNPR.
"Hmph." Braylon, expressionless, took a fighting stance. "Bring it on, then."
(Yakuza – The End of The Dogma)
"I don't even need my mace to kick your ass!" Cardin boasted as Dove and Russel spread to Braylon's left and right side, clearly attempting to find his blind spot. It was Russel who decided to begin the show by throwing a quick right punch. Braylon moved away and ducked under Dove's roundhouse kick, then quickly stood up and kicked him away so that he could deal with Russel.
Braylon blocked the flurry of punches and moved sideways when Russel tried to superman punch him. He grabbed the member of CRDL by the uniform and brought him closer to his face. Braylon's first attack was a headbutt that easily broke Russel's nose. Not satisified, the Vault Hunter repeated the attack two more times and tossed a barely conscious bully into the crow, not bothering to look how he landed.
"Is that all you've got?!" Cardin taunted while, coincidentally, standing as far away from Braylon as possible, who turned to Dove. The two stared at each other, exchanging their burning hatred that brew within them as the fight went on.
"Oooh... what..." Their eyes fell on Sky Lark, who lay near Braylon's feet, completely unaware of what was happening around him. "Back to sleep." Braylon said as he smashed Sky's head back to the ground with his leg. Sky Lark was once again unconscious.
"You ugly son of a...!" Dove cursed through his teeth, rage taking over his mind. The bully roared as he ran up to Brayloun, half-crouched and prepared his fist to uppercut Braylon. But his opponent countered by elbowing said fist, breaking several fingers in the process. Dove's screaming ended abruptly when Braylon returned the favor with an uppercut of his own. Even though Braylon was seriously handicapping himself, due to his fighting style and strenght, the uppercut was strong enough to lift Dove from the ground and making him drop to the floor like a sack.
"Crap. Almost lost it right there." Braylon cringed, as did the audience, at seeing Dove's current state.
"Whatever!" Cardin tossed his hands up. "If you wanna do something right, you have to do it yourself."
"Finally decided to grow a pair when your lackeys are down?"
Cardin seethed and ran up to Braylon, who calmly waited for his opponent. Angered even further, Cardin's punch aimed Braylon's face. He never expected the Vault Hunter to grab his fist with his own hand. The team leader was surprised.
"Intimidation? Was that your move? Trying to intimidate me? Then let me tell you something."
Braylon crouched while still holding Cardin's hand and hit him between the legs with a punch of his own. Cardin's face contorted in pain as several boys from the audience cringed. The Vault Hunter didn't stop there, for he got up, headbutted Cardin, kneed in the stomach and punched him in the face. Cardin spun around and hit the floor.
"I fought shit while you were still sucking your mom's tits. A turd like you isn't even fit to blow me."
Unlike his comrades, Cardin was wriggling on the ground like a worm instead of taking the easy way out. However, Dove found the strenght to keep the fight going, so he got up, although barely.
"Hmpf. Looks like that gourd of yours is way tougher than I imagined. Guess it needs another lesson." Braylon said as he walked to the stunned boy whose legs barely had the strenght to hold their owner's weight. Even Sky Lark woke up, but his back was turned to them. Dove, who barely registered the Vault Hunter in front of him, smiled weakly as Braylon first jabbed him, then pulled back the other hand and delivered a brutal punch to the boy's head. Dove flew several meters back, crashing into his teammate Sky and both ending on the floor once more.
The fight ended and the audience cheered for the winner. It ended exactly as he expected. Now the other students should respect him more since he beat up bullies. It was also a clear warning to everyone who already planned to wrong him in any way. As he kept the stern face, he wondered about the damag he caused to CRDL. Thanks to Aura, they will probably be hospitalized for a short time. However, he knew that it wouldn't be the last time when he would see their faces, because now he became their nemesis for making fun of them in front of everyone else.
Braylon returned to reality when the excitement and happiness died down with the same speed they appeared. The rythmic clicking behind him was a sign of trouble. He sighed and slowly turned around. There, between the split audience of students, stood one angry professor Goodwitch.
"I sincerely hope you have an explanation for your actions, mister Braylon."
He looked left, then right. "Professor Goodwitch, these people bullied a Faunus girl and nobody has moved a finger to stop it, not even the professors. For an institution that propagates equality among humans and Faunus, this lack of alertness sure is shocking, don't you agree?" Not only he successfully managed to guilt trip everyone who heard that, but his bold accusation of Beacon's staff left Goodwitch speechless for a moment, before she regained her composure.
"That is... correct." She moved her spectacles. "I agree. Something must be done to solve this problem. Beacon Academy won't tolerate abuse of any kind. Still, I must ask you to follow me to the office."
What little free time remained was spent on moving CRDL to the infirmary and preparing for the next class. For Braylon, it meant gloating about his victory more than he had any right to do... and a brief session with Beacon's harshest disciplinarian.
Compared to "the talk" with Goodwitch, which was really her criticizing him for good twenty minutes, the history class was relatively calm. Its professor, a man with green hair and a crippling addiction to coffe, truly the only two things noteworthy on him, as Braylon would say, adressed the problem of human and Faunus relationships through history, something about a battle at a fort, with such a speed that at least served to keep Braylon from falling asleep just to process the storm of information that left his mouth. Not unlike Jaune, who was the exact opposite and ended up seeing the professor after class.
From that point onward, Braylon stopped caring about RWBY or JNPR or even the Faunus, whom he considered to be creepy beyond measure thanks to their "additions" and instead walked back to his room. He kept his kind-hearted facade through the whole day and it made him tired. But work had to be done and his first task was to repair the gun he took at the initiation. An extra weapon was always welcome in the hands of a Vault Hunter.
Beacon Academy had one place that was always open for students. A place where they could take care of their equipment and experiment with newest tech on the market. It was even encouraged by professors to make a visit at least twice a month to "expand their knowledge" about combat and develop effective strategies when dealing with Grimm. It was dubbed "the Forge" for those exact reasons.
Braylon entered the Forge and was instantly met with a sight that would be all too common on Pandora. A large room, well lit, with machinery, posters and random weapons decorating the walls. Workbenches were scattered everywhere, filled with bullet casings or gun parts. There was also someone in the corner of the room, striking metal on an anvil like a blacksmith. A man with short gray hair, bald on the top, with a beard and a potty mouth. He was taller than Braylon and sturdy but seemed rather tame in comparison to some individuals he knew personally.
"Would you look at that," he spat "another kid that needs to fix his weapon 'cause he has no idea how to handle it properly." He dropped the hammer and went to place his hands on the counter between them. "Correct?"
The Vault Hunter showed him the damaged weapon. "I need to know what this gun can do." He saw the weapon in Braylon's hands and took it. "Its an energy one, kid. Uses Dust as ammo to vaporize the shit out of anyone dumb enough to stare at the barrel. From the looks of it, damn thing fires plasma."
"Plasma? That could come in handy... I want to retrofit it."
"Come again?"
"I want to take that gun and modify it so that Dust becomes unnecessary."
"Boy... let me put it this way." He rubbed his eyes. "All tech you see around here has Dust in it for a reason. Everyone with half a brain knows how to use it. Why would you even think of that in the first damn place? Lemme guess. You wanna feel special?"
"Spare me of your comments and give me access to your machinery, old man."
"O really? And why would I wanna do that?"
Braylon took the Unforgiven from his holster and placed it on the counter. The old man looked down and grabbed the gun.
"This toy sure is heavy." He commented. "What's it made of?"
"Dustless material."
"No shit, detective. I can see that. A Dust-infused gun wouldn't be as heavy as a small brick." He checked the bullets. "And the firecrackers are differently designed too."
"Like I said. No Dust. Not even in bullets."
The man turned his gaze back to Braylon. "You know what that means, don't ya?"
"Enlighten me."
"You just gave me a god-damn gun that fires bullets not based on Dust. This is something that Remnant has yet to see. Don't tell me you come from the future."
"Now you saw with your own eyes. Are you going to let me use your tools or not?"
"I... I am at a loss of words there, boy. You also know how to make energy-based weapons like this gun?"
"Not a problem."
""Not a problem" he says. Arrogant turd."
After taking Unforgiven back, Braylon prepared himself for the hard work that was about to come. His PDA would make it somewhat easier, due to it having knowledge necessary to build such a tool. The manual labor was a whole another story. He had to be precise, methodical and most of all, concentrated. One tiny failure in measurements could result in a catastrophe.
"I need to see this shit."
"If you promise to keep your mouth shut. Now quiet, old man."
"Name's Gray."
"How original."
"Fuck you too."
Claptrap had a stroke of genius. Of course, whether or not Claptrap's ideas are brilliant or not is a matter of perspective. But for the robot, every idea he had could only be conceived by nothing short of a prodigy. That alone would serve as an explanation for why he lay on one of the beds surrounded with nothing but junk. Things like scrap metal, empty batteries and broken hard drives made up most of the objects in Claptrap's reach.
He had spent most of the night trying to assemble his project out of mentioned materials. Even though a Claptrap's skill is questionable, his intelligence and creativity were not, or at least not so much. Claptrap knew that the probability of his project actually working was low, but he had to try. He didn't forget his ultimate goal, after all.
Right when he was about to assemble a crucial component that would lead him a step closer, there came Braylon, barging into the room like a madman. Claptrap, scared beyond his programming, jumped in surprise and accidentally broke the materials needed for the component.
"****!" He cursed loudly and cursed once more when he realized what happened.
But the fleshbag was unresponsive. He shambled towards the nearest bed while carrying a weapon and dropped himself down on the soft mattress, a loud sigh escaping from his lips.
"I want to kill myself." He stated before burying his head into the pillow.
"Just do it. You would do the universe a favor." Braylon didn't respond. Only muffled complaining came from him. "Stop *****ing and let me work in peace! Don't you have a class or some ****?" All complaining ended abruptly. Without a word, the human raised his head and stared at the Claptrap with the eyes of a man who spent most of his life tortured in a dungeon, too far gone to realize what was happening around him. "What time is it?"
"I dunno, eight in the morning?" He barked at the human. "Now give me some ****ing peace already!"
Braylon slowly stood up from the bed, stored the weapon in his device and went for the door. "Barely started and I hate school already."
"Cool. Now **** off." He heard the door slam shut and let out a robotic equivalent of a sigh. It was time to start his project from the beginning. How went the human saying? Fall seven times and stand up eight.
EDIT: Forgot to add the secondary firing mode to Fornax. To see its effect, go see chapter 44 of the first story.
I have a confession to make. I decided to bring back the Fornax plasma gun from the first fic and with it, the weapon rarity system I used there. You can see both in chapter 44 for full description. But for those more lazy (like me), below is the shortened (and updated) version.
As for why I brought it back, there are two reasons that in my opinion are good enough. One is that, since I am following the Doom formula, a plasma gun is a must. The other is simply because I think melting stuff with energy weaponry is a nice touch to the overall brutality that this fic will bring out.
Also one thing. Please, PLEASE, I need feedback. I cannot make the story good if I receive no feedback whatsoever. No need to write a damn essay. Just few words or something. Thank you.
WEAPON RARITY: while it has no real impact on the story, I think it is still nice to have this thing here just to see how good a weapon is/how guns will be treated. There might be a possibility I will use this system when writing the prequel to the crossover.
1) White/Low-quality: useless, trash, paperweight
2) Green/Standard: everyone has these, the norm
3a) Blue/Unique: no red text, produced en masse, higher quality than green
3b) Blue/One of a kind: red text, only one in exsistence, given as payment or whatever
4) Purple/High-quality: also rare, but stronger than blue (also costs a lot)
5) E-tech: same as purple, strongest class in exsistence (that is not Legendary or above)
6a) Orange/Prototype: only one in exsistence, either a failed project or never meant to hit the market (too expensive to make, stronger than predicted...)
6b) Orange/Legendary Series: only few of each type are produced (example: only six Lyuda sniper rifles were made, but each has different stats/elemental damage), way too expensive/payment for a job
7) Seraph: dunno if these ones are canon so I will avoid them
8a) Pearlescent/Normal: made by corporations, the endgame wapons, best of the best
8b) Pearlescent/Unique: guns built by Braylon or similar, usually have "Vault Hunter's" in the full name
9) Eldritch: still working on this one, but it most commonly applies to mystical objects that are either cursed (dark red, strong but has serious drawbacks) or blessed (yellow, usually defensive). For now I will stick to this interpretation. May be subject to change in the future.
New item acquired!
Vault Hunter's Fornax:
- "Oh, this will make your day alright." (Fast projectile speed, high damage and reduced recoil but slower to reload)
- Pearlescent/Unique
- Highly effective vs Armor and Flesh
- Secondary fire mode (Braylon can charge the gun to fire a devastating ray rather than single shots, damage varies on how much battery is used)
- Plasma damage (bullets themselves deal standard damage, but because this is plasma, it can also burn the target, just not like Incendiary-based weapons)
- Works outside Remnant (changed this one because it will most likely be used in scenarios outside Remnant)
M1rzaTheBroJo: While the Bill Cipher scene is a joke, it does have an important story detail. Scenes like these are meant to represent just how much the situation is going downhill, to the point that characters from some realities have access to other than their own. In other words, a clusterfuck is happening everywhere. But no, no Gravity Falls will appear in the story. This is what I meant when I said it will be a crossover. Sometimes Braylon will jump to places, sometimes characters or phenomena unique to some realities will appear and so on. I tried to apply this to the previous story and I did, but only partially. If you want to know what it was, go back and reread the story carefully. Same stuff will be implemented here, which is why I added the "Riftspawn" type of creatures. Although most of them will be my creation, some Riftspawns are basically enitities from other universes, such as the Creeper (which I am sure many readers already noticed).
Arsenal:
Pistol: Energy Pistol, Unforgiven
Shotgun: Orphan Maker, Striker
Assault Rifle: Ajax's Spear
Energy Weapon: Fornax
Shield: The Bee
HWM: Holo Sabre, Holo Ripper, Holo Claw