2INTRO:FOREST HUNT
A.N: please read this AN!
this is my first official fic on this site, I have two test fics under the transformers tag however they have not had much success so I'm trying again with a different series I enjoy.
I had this idea stuck in my head one day and had to get it out!
let me know if you want me to attempt to continue this or if you want it to be a one shot, if I continue this project be warned that it will likely not have frequent updates due to things like writer's block of which I am prone to (it's a total Biatch.)
Hopefully if I do further chapters they won't be as long as this one, I did it this way to feasibly leave it as a one shot.
I hope my writing isn't completely terrible and look forward to any constructive feedback (flames and hate will be ignored and blocked.)
thanks for reading this long AN rant, I hope you enjoy!
He was running through dense forest, for how far and how long he couldn't remember, all he knew was that he had to reach his destination before his pursuers caught up, they'd been playing this game of cat and mouse for some time now and he knew he needed to join back up with his team and their allies.
"aww maaaaaaannnn! Why did I have to volunteer to be the bait for these psychos?!" He huffed to himself as he ducked under a fallen tree, he leaned back against it for a moment to catch his breath, while allowing his enemies to gain some ground as to not entirely lose them.
'all that hard training I've been putting in has really paid off, I've gotten so much better since I started way back then' he thought to himself wryly as he took a quick swig from his canteen.
he took off again as the sounds of his hunters reached him through the brush, he dodged through the trees letting his trail be just noticeable enough that they would keep following
'hmm about five of them still coming huh? what have they been feeding these guys?!' He hummed 'should be doable if I get to the clearing ahead.'
He could tell his destination was close, a clearing in the forest only around ten metres away, judging by the markings he'd left on a rock not far away.
His destination was a long forgotten site with old, broken ruins poking their way through the trees to the sky, this was where his friends were waiting for him. Where she was waiting. He violently shook that thought from his head, he shouldn't feel that way about her, 'no! Bad!Stop it!'
Once he had collected himself again he angled himself in the direction of the ruins and set off at a brisk pace, his armour and equipment barely shifting after all the work he and his friends had put into improving the fit and versatility of his arsenal and gear.
as he made his way into the ruins, he raised his hand, making some pre-determined gestures that only his people would know, to tell his team how many were behind him and that they weren't all that far behind him.
he quickly made his way over to the far side of the old "town centre " as it once must have been. Stopping by an old burnt out storefront that was still mostly intact, he leaned back and sipped from his tactical issued water canteen, while once more catching his breath and briefly thought that his hair had finally grown back long enough to tie back into a passable wolf's tail, like the ones he remembered many famous warriors of the past had done.
He readied himself and waited.
He only had to wait a few moments longer, then his quarry entered through the only visible path to the abandoned ruin.
they were all relatively carefree for people hunting someone, like the they somehow knew that they'd be making and easy kill.
their Commander, on the other hand, looked Furious.
in a lilting, heavy basso tone voice he bellowed, "Et's over ya' bleedin' White Demon!" The scratching of long over use, likely from yelling at his subordinates for losing people to the 'White Demon, was evident in the man's voice.
A sardonic, downright sarcastic, voice that didn't much older than a man's in his early twenties rang forth in reply.
"yeah, it's definitely over, former Atlas 601st battalion commander Warren Steel-Lock. Juuuuust one tiny little problem with your thought process." He had a confident smirk on his face, and for perhaps the first time his enemies could see his face clearly. "It's not over for the one you think it is!"
Deep, dark blue eyes looked at them, almost in pity at the situation they found themselves in, those eyes were set below a head of long, bright blonde hair, recently pulled back into a warriors wolf tail, to keep it out of his eyes and prevent it from obscuring his vision.
His face was indeed young, now looking more seventeen rather than twenty.
theboywore a well fitted white chest plate over a hoodie and military cargo pants,a red sash tied around his waist, with steel soled combat boots on his feet. There was an arming sword belted to his hip, that he now drew, unclipping the sheath from his side and settling it on the side of his arm, in the position of a shield, as he called out loudly.
"NOW!"
suddenly from hiding places around the ruins, his friends jumped up/out, aiming their respective weapons at the five heavily armed and armoured men that had charged into the centre of the ruin, where the remains of an old fountain had been.
"Alrigh' seems like we got us a fight on our 'ands boys!" Steel-Lock said gruffly to his men, taking note of the children that had surrounded him and his four burly mercenary soldiers. "Ready up! Auras on! Kill 'em all!" He ordered as they opened fire on their chosen targets.
"We got ya' Fearless Leader!" A bombastic, loud voice called as Nora Valkyrie launched herself,giggling all the way, into the middle of the fight that had broken out, slamming her war hammer Magnihild down scattering the group of men trying to shoot the young hunters and huntresses, to Jaune she looked exactly like he thought a heavenly warrior maiden should look like.
Shaking his head once again to clear the thought out of his mind, as he knew he shouldn't be thinking that way about his friend, who as far as he could remember his other friend's girlfriend(?), he brought his focus back to the fight, which wasn't going as easily as they had hoped, the four mercenary thugs were somehow holding their own against seven trained(partially) hunters and huntresses, all as their Commander charged at him in a fury, Aura blazing off him in waves of kinetic force.
"I'll Kill ye' fir wha' ye' done teh me men! White Demon!" Steel-Lock bellowed in rage, his semblance Kinetic rush cracking the ground around him.
"Suuuuurrrre, I mean it wasn't like it was just me razing your Dust-damned Faunus smuggling ring! Why am I the only one being marked with a new nickname?!" Jaune grumbled under his breath as he readied himself to receive the charge, deploying his heater shield on his arm. He took note of the position ms of his group,
Lie Ren, his quiet, dual pistol blade wielding, BFAM(Brother From Another Mother) best friend.
Nora Valkyrie, the bombastic bomber, and all around bubbly high energy brawler.
And a more recent addition following a painful subtraction,
Oscar Pine, the young, clockwork cane wielding farm boy with the spirit of their deceased headmaster living rent free in his head.
he quickly perceived their positions, and the positions of their sister team Team RWBY, and realised that none of them would be able to reach him in time without leaving themselves open to a brutal counter strike from the soldiers, so he quickly came up with a plan as he called out.
"Guys leave 'Captain Ahab' here to me! I wanna check out what I can do with the new upgrades Weiss helped me install!" His voice rang clear across the ruins, as he cycled up his Aura and let it flow down his arm to the Aura trigger mechanism now imbedded into the cross guard of his weapon, a faint mist of icy vapour roiled off the edges of the ancestral blade as it formed a new, razor sharp edge of permafrost.
As he did this he sent another pulse of Aura down his shield arm , triggering the mechanism in the shield as well.
His small heater shield took on a bright luminous white glow as the hard-light Dust in the centre of the shield was activated and bloomed out into a large barrier, reminiscent of a S.W.A.T riot shield, between him and the charging Commander.
He brought his arms into position, shield forward and sword poised, chambered and ready to strike, as the man before him continued to barrel forward, gaining momentum towards him with a massive mauler mace in each hand, curiously reminding Jaune of Cardin Winchester from his time at Beacon Academy.
The blustering bulwark of a man collided with the hard-light shield construct, spreading small cracks along it, as he began to repeatedly slam his maulers against it in a staccato rhythm of blows, using the momentum of Kinetic Rush, trying furiously to batter Jaune into an early grave, soon the hard-light gave out. 'Not too bad, gonna have to talk to Weiss about getting a better Dust reservoir for the shield.' Was the only thought Jaune had as he began to block, duck and parry the heavy blows of the older fighter.
As he parried a particularly powerful strike, he couldn't help but feel that this was an easier fight than he had initially expected from such a feared and notoriously brutal fighter, that the smuggler was reputed to be. The style was oddly familiar too, the only difference was the extra mace...
Jaune didn't let that make him drop his guard however and so he struck back with unerring pressure and precision.
before long, and in what could only be seconds in live combat, Jaune could see the results of every one of his attacks take form, as even the smallest nic from his heirloom sword Crocea Mors left a layer of Dust infused ice to spread across his opponent's body, and soon the man was encased up to his neck and unable to move as his weapons fell from frozen, nerveless fingers.
"Guess that's it for you and your goon squad eh?" Jaune spoke as he glanced around, spotting that his assistance wasn't needed by any of the rest of his group, who had switched tactics and had then easily taken down the mercenary thugs of the smuggling crew, Team RWBY the rest of his team barely had to do anything really, once they'd switched 'dance partners', as the had the advantage of numbers.
he turned his attention back to the now man now squirming in his makeshift cage, trying to get free, like the animals he treated the Faunus as.
Jaune's eyes turned cold as he assessed the Commander, whilst toggling on a comm device to the, newly created, Faunus Crime Taskforce (FCT) Captain, Nicklaus KingsWolfe, an odd man who seemed to have many different semblances depending on what colour his eyes were, he also had extra Faunus traits in the form of a blue-black wolf tail to match the wolf ears on his head. (A/N: as far as I know Faunus only have one visible trait of their animal namesake. E.G. Wolf/dog Faunus have either the ears or the tail.)
he addressed the now shivering man in an icy tone.
"Where are all the Faunus you and your merry band of assholes kidnapped?! I want names of buyers and a list of people you took! And I want them yesterday! " he growled low in his throat, glaring at the man, his eyes chips of arctic ice. This wasn't his preferred method to use to get information as he felt he had next to no menace in his body, proven by how every enemy seemed to brush him off as more of an annoyance than a threat, but the wolf man on the other end of the comm had cryptically told him that they would only get the information they needed from the target if it was Jaune specifically to interrogate the man.
Warren Steel-Lock seemed to freeze further at the look in Jaune's eyes, terror seeping into his own muddy brown orbs, his heavily scarred brow twitched and his red bearded jaw fell, lip quivering.
He spoke hesitantly, haltingly, with evident fear where rage and fury had once been.
"I-ah I(A/N said aye) d-don' got the l-list on m-meh, I-I keep i-it wit me bes' bottle o' rum in me safe at me h-house I g-got f-from me u-uncle W-Winchester, f-fee trainin' 'is brat how teh hold a mace!"
Jaune didn't really know what to make of the frightened mess he saw before him, why was he over-sharing so much random information about who he got his house from? And why did he seem so afraid of him? He was just Jaune, yes he'd handled the guy easily in their fight and had worked hard to get stronger, to the point a dual mace wielding brute wasn't that much of a fight, but he wasn't scary, however Jaune just kept his gaze cold like Capt. KingsWolfe told him too and growled out again, one word.
"WHERE?! "
While he was puzzled by the information that there was a Winchester involved, potentially even Cardin's dad, making Steel-Lock Cardin's older cousin, he knew he had to get the info the Capt. wanted.
"I-I'll take ye' to et I-if ye' l-let meh o-out o'tbis i-ice?" Warren stammered, still looking terrified as his teeth chattered, but also slightly hopeful that he could flip the situation around.
just then, however, they all heard a tearing sound beside them, and as Jaune, who could still move his head, looked over he saw a red and black tear ripping into place barely two metres away, his friends finished gathering the mercenary soldiers up, cuffing them with Aura suppression collars and cuffs. He saw them wander over casually as the rip finished forming, dragging the captives behind them and reading them their rights or as Yang was saying "feeding them their fights". Everyone else groaned at the terrible pun that made no sense (later she would admit that it was one of her worst, and subsequently blame lack of sleep.)
Everyone on teams RWBY and ORNJ knew who had made the rip in the fabric of the world, so they weren't worried.
"Good work, Agent Arc, that's all we needed." A smooth, deep voice said as a shiny black dress shoe stepped out of the the rip in space, followed by an expensive looking, well tailored, grey suit leg, matching the rest of the ensemble worn by a tall, lean muscled man with blue-black wolf ears, a bush wolf tail and grey tinted aviator glasses over his eyes.
the man was casually dragging one end of an absolutely massive double bladed sword (A/N think Thanos' weapon only the blades curve backwards in the same direction, kinda like a thick blade bow.) along the ground as he approached.
"Uh, thanks Nic, but are you sure? We basically got nothing?" Jaune replied thoroughly confused at why Capt. KingsWolfe had interrupted before they got anything truly useful.
"We got plenty enough for me to make use of part of my semblance on him." Came the calm, slightly amused response from the Captain.
"Oh." Jaune said thinking for a moment, then it clicked. "Oooohhhhh" the realisation spread across his face, and he saw the same confusion he'd felt leave his friends too.
"So just from hearing that vague AF offer this Douche gave was enough for you to get your hooks in 'im?" Yang chirped in her usual bright manner, the busty blonde brawler leaning her metal elbow on the side of the icy cocoon holding the now unconscious smuggler.
"Yes, Agent Xiao-Long, it was enough for me to 'get my hooks in 'im' as you say." Nicklaus chuckled warmly, his long, sharp, canines on display as he grinned at the group happily, his tail swishing lazily behind him.
"Now we have a chance to track down you friend Velvet, and all the other Faunus that this scum has taken." He said, his smile falling from his face as he looked at Steel-Lock.
"One question,if I may Captain" the sonorous voice of Weiss Schnee rang forth. As the Captain looked to her and nodded she stood straighter, and brushed down her combat skirts of non existent dust, and continued.
"Ahem, how was it that, no offence Arc, how was it that Jaune Arc of all people was able to intimidate a grizzly, galling beast like this,ugh, 'man'?" She questioned primly.
Jaune himself was still curious about that and let any hurt he may have once felt at the comment drop away without letting it affect him and murmured back a quiet."None taken Weiss." And got a slight dip of her head in acknowledgement.
They all looked to the Captain to clear up the issue for them, even if some of their number fully believed in the leader of team ORNJ.
"Simple, Agent Schnee, I used, yetanother part of my terrifyingly odd, semblance, on Jaune here to make him look more or less like a demonic being or some such, when he hardened his expression." The wolf Faunus shrugged nonchalantly. "A bit tricky to do with someone who gives off 'loyal golden retriever' energy, but I did it!" He added mischievously as he looked at the slightly puzzled expressions on the gathered faces. Minus the unconscious captives.
"How does that work? We didn't see anything like that!" Piped up the slightly squeaky voice of Ruby Rose. The scythe wielding sniper shooting, corset and battle skirt aficionado, and second youngest of the group.
"I had tweaked it a little bit so that only people who showed ill will towards our humble knight would be able to see it, and speaking of which, I need to release you of that part of my semblance, keeping two facets of my semblance that work similarly to one another going at the same time, and for so long, is beginning to strain my Aura reserves. It's also giving me a killer headache!" He said, placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder briefly, then nodding to the tear behind him as the last taskforce member exited. "Head on back through the portal and get some rest, my guys from Containment squad will handle things from here."
As they headed into the portal, Jaune felt someone sidle up close beside him and he looked over to see Nora standing next to him, her hands behind her back, where Magnihild was stored in its grenade launcher form, she was swaying with her usual energy. He was glad she was doing well, she had looked a bit distressed a few months back after she and Ren had disappeared on a mission.
thankfully they had been found alive and well only two weeks later, thanks to a certain wolf man, but their relationship had been... different since and the bouncy energy ball that was Nora had sought after Jaune for company more often.
It had been many more months before this mission had made Jaune and the others take on this covert solo sabotage operation, where they all had to split up to take down eight different bases at the same time to force Steel-Lock to centralise his operation. Separating Nora and Jaune for the first time since her and Ren were rescued.
"Hey Nora, what's up?" He asked as she, oddly silent, moved closer, then latched herself onto his arm like a sloth. Pressing her chest against him.
"Whoa, Hey! Nora? You okay?! You'd usually go glomp into Ren by this point?" He blurted nervously in surprise, despite her having not done so for some time now, as he felt her press her body against his side even tighter.
"Don't wanna." Was her only reply, ignoring his other question and just tugging him forward into the portal.
Jaune saw Ren looking over at the two of them with an oddly relieved and amused expression, he caught Nora's eye and nodded sagely, as if giving Nora approval for whatever it was she was up to. And, boy, did what she did surprise everyone in the room.
she pulled in a big, deep Nora breath and loudly called to the two teams of young hunters/huntresses around them at the FCT headquarters in her bubbly voice.
"I, Nora Valkyrie, lay my claim to court the Fearless leader of team ORNJ! Challenge me if you dare!" She yelled defiantly, and somewhat maniacally as she was want to do.
'okaaay, this must be some kinda joke' Jaune thought as everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at them in confusion, even the officers and secretaries of the taskforce pausing to see what was happening with the newest and youngest members of the force were up to now.
"H-hey Nora, that's not really a funny joke." He stammered out. "Also aren't you with Ren? He's right here?!"
He pointed at the young man he considered like his brother, thoroughly embarrassed and baffled by the events unfolding before him.
"Not a joke!" Was her firm reply. Totally serious for once. Staring challengingly at Ruby and Weiss of all people.
"We broke up, when we went missing all those months ago, we came to an agreement that we worked better as friends or more like family, than as being 'together together' as Nora would put it." Ren spoke up calmly, with only a slight hint of sadness at the fact.
"But dude, even if that happened, this is kinda out of left field don't ya' think? I mean we just finished a long mission to help us find missing Faunus and not to mention one of those Faunus being a friend of ours, then bam! Nora's claiming me without and warning or explanation as to why?" Jaune ramble out words almost as was as Ruby could run with her semblance.
"Not to mention, how does she even know I started to like her that way?!" He blushed as he caught on to what he just said and hurriedly tacked on awkwardly. "If I started to like her that way I mean and wanted to be with her that way, instead of keeping said hypothetical feelings buried deep down to respect the feelings of my friends.."
his words trailed off awkwardly as he saw a hurt look starting to form on Nora's face as she heard him basically denying that he was attracted to her, she looked down to the ground and loosened her grip on him, stumbling back a few steps.
"You don't want to be together-together with me?" She said in a soft, sad tone, disbelief in her voice. The tone practically ripped Jaune's heart out. He panicked as he realised what he had done, and the effect his words had left on her.
"No! Nononononono, I didn't mean it like that! I'd be super stoked to be together-together with you Nora ! By Oum, I'd be more than happy! But I just don't get why you'd wanna be with me?! I mean I'm not that strong, and almost always get in the way or make some dumb mistake that leaves someone else in danger, and there also what happened between you and Ren?! Like, just a few months ago you two were both really happy together!" He word vomited, waving his arms in panic.
"There's, like, no way someone as awesome as you would want to be with me of all people! I'm a mess! Also is it this breaking some kinda rule in the 'bro code' or something?! Like, 'thou salt not date your BFAM's ex'?" He was tired and sore from the mission, that had lasted for two weeks straight with little to no rest, and that had left him very off balance, even more than he usually might be when having a conversation of this nature. 'Why did this have to happen now of all times?! After such a long mission?! ' He bemoaned in his head.
He had enjoyed hanging out with Nora more after they'd rescued her and Ren, they'd been to movies together, alone, gone out to eat and buy snacks alone more often too, and generally just spent a lot more time as a pair than before she and Ren's disappearance and subsequent return.
Nora had even taken to hopping on his back and using him as a 'horsey' to gallop around the towns or village they'd been to at the time, wherever it was that they'd gone to for a mission. It used to be considered Ren's role.
Hope blossomed on Nora's face as she heard his panicked confession and, in typical Nora fashion, she launched herself at him and clung on tightly, squealing in joy and making a mental note to help her new beau (?) to fix his poor self esteem.
"I picked you coz I like-like you Jaune-Jaune!" She squealed with the typical lack of explanation that came from Nora.
Jaune felt his head being smushed into the large, soft mounds of Nora's chest and paired with the lack of sleep from the past two weeks of hunting the smugglers, setting traps and all the fighting, and the lack of readily available oxygen he was getting from Nora's bear hug, had him losing consciousness, causing him to fall back onto the floor with her following due to the vice grip she had on him.
as the darkness filled his vision, he thought to himself. 'If this is what being with Nora will be like, I don't mind one bit.' after all being put to sleep by your girlfriend's soft breasts smothering you after a long, miserable mission?
That seemed pretty good to him. He even forgot that they never actually clarified and agreed to get together-together, but, well after all that talking how could they not be?
Once again, however it turned out between them, this part of the situation felt pretty, Dust-damned good in his opinion.
A/N: there it is folks, let me know if you want me to continue with this little abomination of mine!
I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna make it up as I go so hopefully it doesn't go too far off track so I'll be relying on all of you to help me keep things in order.
Thanks for reading this far and see you again next time!
Your friendly neighbourhood dark archer,
BlackArrowPrime94 signing off.
Byeeee.