Episode Jacob: Chapter 2: Forsaken

Chapter 2 of Jacob's story

One Year after the Battle of Vytal

 

Beacon Academy

 

Cafeteria

 

 

 

            It was a surprisingly uneventful day in the cafeteria.  Mostly kids were just sitting around eating their lunches and not paying any mind to their surroundings.  But towards the back some students managed to bring in and hook up a TV that folks were playing Soaring Ninja 2 on.  Bets were being placed as the next match got underway.  Some folks bet meal swipes, some with candy and random snacks, and some even bet their services for completing homework assignments.  There were even folks gambling with what little Lien they received from their parents in their care packages.  Jacob made sure he had a solid grip on his controller, and as soon as the announcer said ‘GO’ he went full tilt.  He jumped into the air, activated the Thunder Jutsu and sent himself flying into his opponent.  From there his opponent tried to jump back up onto the stage, but he was ready with the Fire Jutsu attack to keep the enemy at bay.  With a few more hits, Jacob KO’d his opponent, and forced them to respawn at the center of the map.  But it was more of the same.  Rinse and repeat.  Jacob’s character didn’t even take a scratch.  After another minute, the match ended with Miles almost throwing his controller on the ground in rage at Jacob getting a perfect game against him.

            “This wouldn’t have happened if we played Soaring Ninja 5!” Miles said as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

            “The only difference is that I would’ve beaten your favorite character instead of Jumpman here” Jacob said with a chuckle.  Miles groaned but eventually smiled and shook Jacob’s hand.

            “Good game man” he said with a smile.

            “Not sure if I would call that a game” Jacob said jokingly.  Everybody watching laughed as well.  Miles just rolled his eyes while laughing with everyone and packed up his controller.  Everybody started exchanging bet payouts following the events of the match.  And as they were getting set up for another round, the bell rang signaling the end of the lunch period.  Everybody packed everything up, and Jacob was ready to carry the TV back to his dorm room.

            “Need some help?” Pyrrha cut in lifting the TV with her Semblance.

            “Please be careful” Jacob said as he watched the TV float up next to his head, “these older TVs are a bit more susceptible to damage from magnets.”

            “Which is why I’m carrying it by the metal frame, and not anything related to the image processing.”

            “I’m impressed.  Didn’t realize your semblance had reached such a level to the point you could tell exactly what you’re controlling without seeing it directly.”

            “Well it helps that it is such a small TV.” They both laughed and made their way back to the dorms.  As they did so, the other members of Team JCTB caught up with them.

            “Sometimes I think we should have a cafeteria rule that states people who play locals aren’t allowed to play money matches on the school grounds” Ty said with a smirk.

            “And lose out on all these meal swipes we’ve been getting our hands on?!” Brooklyn said with a big smile as she counted her winnings, “forget it!”

            “I mean, couldn’t you play somebody who also plays locals?” Christy asked scratching her head.  “It’s usually just one of us or Team NEMN you’re playing against.”

            “Well, we’ve still got some of our other friends” Jacob said as he went over some of his contacts in his Scroll.  “I’ve got a few folks we’ve hung out with before who would probably enjoy playing with us.”

            “Do they even have the same lunch period as us?” Brooklyn asked as she put the meal swipe cards away.  “I’m honestly surprised you don’t have classes going on right now Pyrrha.”

            “It’s supposed to be a study and training block, so Ren and Nora are helping Jaune with a few techniques.  I was on my way over when I noticed you needing a bit of help.”

            “I appreciate it” Jacob said with a smile.  “It’s not super heavy, but it is a pain to lug this thing back to the dorms after lunch.”

            “Sounds to me like you need to lift more” Ty said flexing his biceps.

            “Not all of us get a free workout by just carrying our sword bazooka!” Jacob said pointing his comparatively light katana in Ty’s face.  They all laughed and continued their way through the dorms.  They finally reached their own room.  Pyrrha set the TV down while Team JCTB collected their textbooks for their upcoming classes.

            “I swear if Professor Peach gives us another ten-page essay to do over the weekend…” Christy said as she made sure she had last weekend’s essay ready to turn in.

            “Careful” Jacob said jokingly, “You might incur her wrath so that she ends up doing twenty this time.”  They all laughed, and Pyrrha looked with a warm smile on her face.  Jacob looked over and noticed Pyrrha smiling at them.

            “What?” he asked with a smile of his own.

            “Just thinking how different things seem now compared to last year.”  As she said this, her Scroll rang.  She picked up and even though she wasn’t on speaker phone, Nora screamed loud enough that everybody in the room could hear:

            “Pyrrha!  Where’s the training weapons you were supposed to bring?!  Jaune’s just brought his real weapons so unless you get over here right quick, I might end up sending him to the infirmary again out of boredom!”

            “I’m sorry!” Pyrrha said a bit nervously while not fully understanding why this was her fault.  She quickly waved goodbye to Team JCTB and made her way over to the amphitheater for training.  Jacob chuckled watching his formerly perceived perfect cousin scramble, then gathered his own books.

            “Ready to go?” Brooklyn asked as she and the rest of Team JCTB prepared to jump out the window to begin their walk to their next class.

            “With all of us together?” Jacob said confidently as he began to run towards the window.  With a powerful leap, he prepared his landing strategy simply saying, “I’m ready for anything.”

 

 

 

The City of Mantle

 

The Headquarters of the Happy Huntresses

 

 

 

Joanna Greenleaf helped some of the Atlesian Knights in the search through their headquarters for the flash drive that Jacob and Pyrrha were looking for.

“Are you even sure you’re in the right place?” the condescending voice of May Marigold chimed in behind Jacob while he was running his hands along the wall.  “We’ve operated out of this space for years.  Robin said she found it dirt cheap and renovated it into….”

“You see that dent in the wall?” Jacob said pointing at a circular indentation in the wall cutting off May’s sentence.  “My dad made that trying to train me to dodge using my Semblance by throwing medicine balls at me.”

“Sounds like a real stand-up guy.” Robyn Hill said cutting in dropping a folder filed with files from her council meeting.  “Almost as if he should’ve lived up in Atlas instead of down here.  Kind of surprised the Order didn’t put him up in their biggest penthouse given how deep in the Schnee’s pockets they clearly were.”

“One would expect” Jacob said cutting away through another wall.  As soon as he did so one, it turned out to be the winning find.  Just like the house in Mistral, there was another small wooden container with a small drive inside of it.  Jacob immediately pulled it out and plugged it in.  But this time, instead of his father’s face, he just got files loading onto his Scroll.

“Maybe he didn’t have time for more than one message” Pyrrha said joining Jacob.  “It might all be information at this point.  If you know where the other two houses are Jacob, I can call people and have them expedite the process….”

“Thanks for letting us raid your headquarters Robyn” Jacob said tossing the flash drive at Pyrrha’s head.  “Try to stay out of trouble.”

“Nice to see you too kid” Robyn said wincing a little bit.  Pyrrha apologized profusely while Jacob stepped out into the cold air of Mantle and took a deep breath.  He then made a beeline for the airship he used to get here and began the takeoff sequence just as Pyrrha jumped on board.

“Will you slow down for two seconds please?!”  Pyrrha said as she quickly strapped herself in.  “What about refueling?  Unless our next destination is up in Atlas, I don’t think we have enough energy to get anywhere other than maybe a remote Schnee mine in the tundra.”

“I had Ironwood bring some fuel while we were searching.  I was hoping to lose you before we left.”

“You were quiet the entire trip from Mistral to here, and I am not going to let you do that again this time.  I’m still here and I want to know: why are you acting like this?  I thought we had put everything behind us.  But all of a sudden, you’re acting just like you did when we first saw each other again at Beacon.  I know we haven’t talked much over the years, but I still care about you.  So would you please tell me what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to drag you into my problems again” Jacob said as he tightly gripped the controls.  “I just…. forget it.”

“No, stay with that thought.  Let me help you” Pyrrha said placing her hand on Jacob’s shoulder.  He sighed, put the airship on auto-pilot, and leaned back in his chair.

“This part of my life I feel like brings out the worst in me.  This memory in particular.  I have made some good strides in the past, but I feel like I just revert to this rigid person whenever this issue comes up.”

“It’s fine to talk about things” Pyrrha said trying to get Jacob to continue.  But he decided he was finally done talking and closed his eyes.  Pyrrha simply let out a sigh and monitored the airship as it continued to cut through the air.  After a few hours, they landed in the middle of the wastelands of Vacuo.  Specifically, just outside a decrepit old village that was approximately a few hundred miles south of the Kingdom of Vacuo.  The village itself was not just falling apart, it was sinking into the sand.  As they came in on approach Pyrrha saw a giant Dust mining cavern nearby.  Most of the village was now a pile of rubble on one side due to years of earthquakes and potential Grimm activity causing parts of the village to crumble into the ground.  Alongside that every so often the winds would blow the loose remains of a destroyed home further inland into the abyss without waiting for the ground to swallow it up.

“Why did you live here?” Pyrrha said as she continued to take in the horrendous surroundings.

“When I was young, my dad told me it was to broaden my horizons and appreciate what I had back in the city by living in the wastelands.  Someplace that wasn’t propped up by the riches of the developed world or something like that.  But given what I know now, he was probably worried he had generated too much heat in preparing for his revolution of taking over the Order so he wanted to go someplace where Mortem might not find him.  But given the fact that we were moving to Mantle about a year after we moved in here, I think they found him anyways.”

“Are you certain your house hasn’t already collapsed into the quarry below?”

“From the looks of things, it’s pretty darn close to it.  So we’d better hurry.”  Jacob then put his head down and ran into the ruins.  Pyrrha followed suit until they reached a house with a dirty golden door and Jacob’s family sigil on it.  Jacob kicked the door down and started shifting through what little remained of the building.  Most of the walls had already come down and were in pieces, so Pyrrha started using her Semblance to try and find the metallic flash drive like the ones they had found previously.  Suddenly, they heard a crunch.  They turned to find some sand getting kicked up as a strange figure in a black hood twirling around and stabbing the walls with a pair of chakrams.  The stranger then pulled back and revealed another small wooden box stuck on the end of one of the weapons.  Opening the box, the figure revealed the flash drive and started laughing.

“Man,” the stranger said while continuing to laugh, “this really is playing it close.”

“Closer than you think” Pyrrha said taking hold of the flash drive using her polarity Semblance and quickly hiding it behind her shield.

“Oh goodie!” the stranger said with a clap.  “I was hoping I’d run into somebody!”  The figure removed their hood and revealed Lord Calida Aeris, one of the few leaders of the Order to escape from the Battle of Vytal.

“What are you doing here?” Jacob growled.

“I’m here to pick the roses obviously!” Aeris joked with another little twirl.  “My master told me he wanted to have some fun, so I was to go to two specific places, and ensure you didn’t get your hands on those little flash drives!”
            “Only two?” Jacob said in surprise? ”No more than that?”

“I mean, my master said he helped hide four, but it’s these two that are the most important.  But regardless, Imma need that flash drive back.”

“You want it so bad?” Pyrrha said taunting her.  “How about we head back to Vacuo so you can stand trial for all you’ve done to Remnant over the years.  Then I might actually consider giving this back to you.”

“Ugh” Aeris groaned tossing her hands in the air.  “Why did I always get stuck with the goofy ones?  I bet this never happened to Fulgur.”  With that, Aeris took up a battle stance and got ready to fight.  Jacob made the first move, leaping forward tossing some of his blank kunai to try and get Aeris to flinch thinking they were loaded with Dust.  She did indeed flinch, trying to divert them using gusts of wind.  And when they didn’t explode like she anticipated they would, Jacob landed a powerful hit on Aeris’ abdomen that caused her to skid across the sand.  From there, Aeris collected herself and tried to retaliate by throwing her chakrams at Jacob.  He was able to deflect them easily forcing Aeris to expend more of her Semblance using a few gusts of wind to blow the chakrams back to her.  Jacob then attempted to attack Aeris directly, but his moves were far too predicable, and Aeris blocked several sword strikes.  However, she got too comfortable believing Jacob was simply hacking and slashing.  He landed one more strike that made a loud clang against her chakrams before he leapt backwards.  But as he did, he had dropped a Fire Dust kunai that started to explode as it fell to the ground.  Aeris panicked and created a giant gust of wind to try and knock the kunai away, causing it to fly away from her, but not far enough as the kunai exploded, knocking out a bit of her Aura.  However due to the explosion, the ground around them began to shake.  Another chunk of the village was beginning to wane and crumble into the pit due to the new stress put upon it.  Before Aeris could regain her bearings, she was struck in the head by Pyrrha’s shield causing her to slide.  Aeris stabbed her chakrams into the ground to slow the slide as she got dangerously close to the edge of the pit.  Jacob then took up a battle stance and prepared to attack.  But then Aeris took her left hand and used her Semblance to send out a mighty blast of wind that kicked up a ton of sand surrounding them.  Jacob and Pyrrha quickly shielded their eyes as a small sandstorm began to kick up.  Jacob tried to counter this with a wind Dust kunai, but then he found himself being lifted up and thrown in the air.  Regaining his bearings, he then saw he was now flying out over the pit.  He tried to correct himself, but a flying chakram that smacked him in the head ensured he was not recovering from that attack.  He then focused on his landing strategy to try and ensure he got as close to one of the paths leading out once he landed in whatever awaited him at the bottom of this hole.

Author's Note

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