Prologue: Rise of the Nerds

Beta: KisaragiKei

Jaune Arc would be the first to admit that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

He was nice, sure. Warm, okay. And some might even say great under pressure.

Pfft, hah.

Though to be fair, he did receive passing marks in the written strategy portion of the entrance exam when he'd applied for Signal 4 years ago. That and electronic information systems. So he liked to take apart his parent's old Hunter comm devices while waiting for the newest copy of X-Ray and Vav, sue him!

Jaune's parents hunted, and not a soul on Remnant could say they weren't one of the best at what they did.

Jaune's sisters mastered, literally, anything they could get their hands on. Arts? Business? Engineering? If it was a major field in the kingdoms, odds are at least one of the seven Arc daughters had their fingers in it. All certainly making their parents proud.

But Jaune? Well... Jaune tinkered. He didn't train, didn't study; aside from spending his time delving into the worlds of science fiction and video games, there really wasn't much he excelled at.

Which was why ultimately, he failed to qualify for Signal Academy.

TTRRRRRK.

Great. Even hanging from a tree. He was about to fail at that, too.

But despite the convenient nudge of gravity to remind the blonde it was still there, he raised his fist up victoriously. Forget Signal! He'd fast-tracked his skinny tookus straight to Beacon, baby!

TTRRRRRK.

"Oh, shut up, world! And be proud of me for once, jeez!"

Oh yeah. And who'd gotten him his transcripts - summarized, certified, and e-filed like a boss? ...He, Jaune Arc!

In a world where technology was just starting to make a comeback, terminals and all manner of cellular communication making the move from solely-military to widely-commercial, there was a blooming - nay, thriving! - sense of potential for those who knew how to take advantage of those systems! And who'd have guessed that by recoding a few lines of data from a debunked training academy grading program to input student values manually and setting up a proxy server to one of the nearby signal towers connected to the CCT to mask the ping of the finished transcript to Beacon under the guise of a rural training academy would do the trick!? He did! It was cake! And the cake was delicious!

TRK...

So why... why... did the world then seem so intent on making his life so miserable!?

TTRRRRRK!

"Nnyyyaaaaaaoooooooo...!"

Hm. The fall felt a lot longer than he thought. Ah well... guess that brass spear wasn't gonna keep him pinned to that tree forever; all he could be was thankful that whosever's aim was so bad to throw it at nothing in particular had just happened to keep him from becoming a meat puddle on the forest floor for some random Grimm to lap it up.

Jaune also made sure to swear that whosever idea it was to launch children through the woods like this, he'd haunt them forever if this killed him.

Which, judging by the rapidly approaching ground, just might hap-

"Gotta find Yang gotta find Yang gotta find Yang-"

Huh?

...THWUNK

"D'oohhhhhhhh..."

"Ow," Jaune grunted as he came to, lying face down as his head swiveled to whatever slightly soft object cushioned his fall, "Wait... R-Ruby?"

And slowly, the girl underneath him lifted her head groggily, her face hidden under her hood which had fallen over it... before bringing it up with no small measure of surprise, "J-Jaune?"

*stare*

*stare*

...Ding!

"So... does this mean we're like, partners now?"

Ruby took a few more moments to look around and blink in an effort to get the stars and little chibi Beowulf puppies to stop circling her head before turning back and nodding at the blonde, "Y-Yeah, I guess- hey, Jaune you're bleeding!"

Finally gaining some self-awareness, as well as a small blush at realizing he'd been perpendicularly laid out on top of the poor girl, Jaune shuffled to his feet with a few winces of pain as he surveyed himself, "Eyyyep, it would seem I am... Guess it wasn't a perfect landing, must've torn me up pretty good..."

Surveying the damage, Jaune could see that the fall had indeed left sizable cuts on his exposed arms and fingers... and he could guess that his face probably hadn't fared much better.

Darn... and my boyishly charming looks were the only thing I had going for me in this world...

"Jaune... Why didn't you activate your Aura?"

The young blonde glanced at the crimsonette in question as she got to her feet a few steps away from him, "A who what now?"

"Your Aura."

"Gesundheit."

A short chuckle from the girl before she raised a brow in curiosity, "Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?"

Guhhhh, I think so...? Actually scratch that, I'm actually almost one-hundred percent certain... that it's one of the Signal entrance questions that I missed...

So playing it cool as his gaze drifted to the side in finding that oddly familiar spear on the floor suddenly much more interesting, Jaune waved off the question with ease, "Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what Aura is?"

Ruby smiled at her goofy technically-first guy-friend made at Beacon, raising a finger up with a deep breath to explain before suddenly deflating along with said finger. Funny... she hadn't really had to explain it before...

"Well uh, Aura's Aura, y'know?" she began unsurely with a nervous chuckle, giving a small shrug before continuing with little kicks at the strewn leaves here and there, "We all have it, but Hunters learn to unlock its full potential to fight off the Grimm-"

A raised hand from the knight, earning an amused scoff from the crimsonette before elaborating, "Monsters, the bad guys that have no Aura cuz they like, stand against everything we fight for! So by using your skills, and your weapons, like my baby Crescent Rose ohohooooo~"

"Uh, Ruby? You were in the middle of some world-building exposition here?" Jaune noted with a small wave to get the girl's attention as she'd somehow whipped out her weapon and hugged it to herself lovingly, breaking her out of her reverie with a small blush.

"O-Oh, right!" another grin and chuckle as she swiftly held the massive weapon behind her, "So as a Hunter, you can use your skills and weapons like as circuits and stuff for your Aura! It's really cool, cuz then you can block the bad guys and then be all like A-cha! and hi-Yah! and wha-Pow!"

Grinning at the young girl's clearly un-stealthy imitation of a ninja, Jaune held a hand to his chin in thought before pointing at her in realization, "It's like a force field!"

A momentary stare, and then a short shrug from Ruby, "I would've gone more with energy barrier."

"Hm... Repulsor flares?"

Now both teens in deep thought, they each sprouted grins when the idea seemed to pass between them on the same wavelength as they exclaimed in unison, "Deflector shields!"

But with their following high-five, Jaune grunted in pain at the impact, Ruby's concern returning as she watched her new partner nursing his injured hand, "You haven't unlocked your Aura..."

"...Ya think?"

That was strange though, a student admitted to Beacon of all places without even having unlocked his Aura? That was rare... this guy might be a much better fighter than she had anticipated, "Jaune... what, school did you go to before this?"

Seemingly caught off guard at the question, Jaune glanced at Ruby in surprise before narrowing his eyes in recollection, "Uhm... Xavier's, Academy... for, Gifted Youngsters?"

Yep. Nailed it.

Ruby cocked her head at him, totally not buying that school name for a second. She'd memorized every major and minor combat academy in all four corners of Remnant by heart! Heck, there's no possible way the teachers here would've accepted an application that'd come from an evidently comicbook-influenced fake school name!

So... maybe he was being modest? Yeah, Jaune seemed like the kind of guy who'd not go bragging about his accomplishments; maybe he was even acting clumsy this whole time just so people wouldn't pay so much attention to him! Ohmygosh, she could totally relate to that - he was just like her, making sure it was totally completely obvious to everyone else that he had normal knees! Best! Partner! Ever! ...Of All Ti-!

"Uh... Ruby? This is me, pointing out that you've been staring at me for over the past thirty seconds now..."

And just like that, the young girl was reduced to a blushing mess of stutters and denials, cursing her awkwardness that she'd gone and weirded out her one and only partner so soon... before her muttered syllables at what she thought could maybe count as cursing - since Yang never cursed or let anyone curse around her so she could learn what curse words sounded like - were suddenly halted by a hand placed lightly on her shoulder. Peeking out from under her hood, the silver-eyed girl only saw a warm, understanding smile from her partner that unintentionally coaxed her out of her hood. And shell!

Hah! In your face, Yang!

"No worries, I zone out a lot too, especially when I'm tinkering," Jaune admitted, piquing the girl's curiosity as to what he might be talking about before he checked their surroundings, "Anyway, we should probably get moving. The sooner we're done, the sooner I can get patched up... let's go..."

And with that, Jaune led the way out of the small clearing, Ruby feeling bad as she watched him cringe whenever a stray branch would brush against a scratch or his attempts at swatting away flies ended in him striking his open wounds. There had to be something she could do...

Well, there was that one Aura thing she'd been taught by her dad. But he'd said to save it for a special someone, as most people could only unlock only one other person's Aura if they were good enough... and that it'd probably link them forever in ways they couldn't even imagine!

Well, she was sure it wasn't that intense. And after all, Jaune was gonna be her partner for the next four years... and four years is a lot to a fifteen year old! And he was her first guy friend she made on her own, so that counts as special, right? And besides, he was hurt! Action had to be taken in favor of her new friend-slash-partner!

"Hey, Jaune?" Ruby began meekly, the blonde turning back as he lifted a branch out of the way, his other hand still tender and nursed at his side, "I think there's a thingy I can do to help you feel better if you want... it's an Aura thing, so I'm sure you'll like it!"

He didn't think about it too long, instead nodding a bit with a quick shrug as he let the branch down in front of them, "Okay, shoot."

"Mm, okay."

Without warning, suddenly the crimsonette felt nervous as she stepped in front of the expectant knight. Nervous? But, why would she be nervous? He was just a guy, standing there all tall and confident in a non-cocky way with those eyes that were really really blue but kinda gray almost when you looked into them in the right light and ohmygosh that smile-

Whoa. Bad Ruby, reel it in, girl...

Shaking off the brief reverie, the young girl kept her gaze down so as not to betray the warmth in her cheeks as she placed a hand on his chest plate... oh, right... and the other one...

"Um... If you don't mind, uh, I gotta," Ruby stuttered, barely lifting her gaze as she reached up with her hand - and thus missing Jaune's brief blush as her slender fingers settled over his temple, "There."

"Uhh... Ruby?"

"It's something that helps... I'm going to unlock your Aura, Jaune," Ruby finally stated, the blonde taken aback at the news, "So... try not to move."

"...Oka-"

And Jaune could speak no more, a small flash of red from the girl before him causing her pupils to constrict under the foreign sensation before her eyes closed - as well as his.

"For there's a moment we make a decision, not to cower and crash to the ground... The moment we face our worst demons, that our true light of courage is found," a short pause, as now Jaune, entranced by the soft words heard yet unspoken, began to glow a brilliant white, "So may your aim be ever true, and your spirit always free... But wherever you may go, I swear that's where I'll be..."

And with that, a soft gust of wind seemed to emanate from the knight, like a release just strong enough to rustle the branded and leaves of the trees in the area as Ruby's glow faded and she slumped a bit into Jaune's arms.

"R-Ru-?"

"I'm... okayy," she noted with a slight slur, half-lidded silver orbs glancing up at the knight over his chest plate with her goofy smirk, "Heh... you're shiny..."

Jaune's brow furrowed a bit until he realized what she meant - the glow still had yet to fade from his body as he realized to his utter shock that the small multitude of cuts on his limbs were closing in front of his very eyes.

"This... is way better than Neosporin..."

"Y-You feel anything different?" Ruby asked, gaining a little more coherency as she made to push herself back into an unassisted standing position, "Cuz I always thought Yang had a buttload of Aura, but now I look at you... and you've got, like... at least two buttloads of Aura..."

Her partner chuckled at the statement; though he felt absolutely incredible with the surge of power coursing through him right now that made him feel like he could run to Vacuo and back and still have the strength to arm-wrestle an Atlesian Knight - his favorite bots ever - he didn't really feel much different...

That is, until he focused on his partner.

He blinked a few times as if he were seeing things, Ruby now being the one a little weirded out when the knight suddenly stepped forward... and starting slowly waving his wand left and right over the empty space over her head.

"Ruby... are you seeing this?"

The crimsonette tried to look up; if there was something jaw-dropping to be found, however, she wasn't finding it. Just Jaune's hand. Waving.

"Uhm, no...?" Ruby began, though a stray thought did get her to stop and muse aloud a little longer, "I'm pretty sure I did everything right, so maybe it's your Semblance? But that's supposed to be super rare... most people really in tuned with their Aura might unlock their Semblance in a matter of weeks or days... I unlocked mine in just a few hours..."

She spared the incredulous blonde who was still focused on the empty space above her another glance, "But, a Semblance unlocked so quick? That... almost never happens..."

Yet there he was... clearly looking at something...

Which turned out to be a long faint stream of neon green heading up and down from where the crimsonette stood, more seemingly coming in than going out. Jaune might leave his hand there, or move it around, but the faint and opaque stream just went right through it.

"So... what's a Semblance again?' Jaune asked, his gaze unwavering and his voice the only indication that he'd been listening at all.

"A unique manifestation of your soul." A short deadpan from the knight, to which she elaborated in English, "Aside from the deflector shields, every person's Aura gives them a... superpower - one only they can have - depending on the one thing they're attuned to most in this world. Like me - I have my speed!"

And in a flurry of rose petals, the girl had zipped around their small grove and ended right where she started, surprised to see that Jaune had seemed to follow her with every turn even if he wasn't looking right at her.

No, Jaune was looking at the little stream that'd practically traced her movement in slo-mo to him... and as it continued flowing straight up and down now that she was motionless, her words caused a huge grin to start pressing over his features.

"The thing I'm attuned to most in this world, huh?"

A quick nod from the crimsonette. Well it made sense; at least it did the moment that Jaune recognized what the thin stream was made of...

1's and 0's.

"Yeah. Obviously, since that'd be what helps you get in touch with who you are the most. So... instead of waving your hands around, own it, and focus on it... maybe you'll figure out what it is and how it works..."

Huh... Easier said than done...

The knight looked down and away from the strange stream of binary data floating up from his new partner as he stared at his flexing hands. Something he was 'attuned to'; if it were something like ordered data, there had to be some sense to it. After all, there was a reason Jaune Arc wasn't much of a talker - his thing was with numbers, not letters. So like the data he was seeing, this Semblance at least had to make sense.

Data seemed to flow towards and away from her... inputs and outputs? Maybe. But there had to be an interface, something for him to use to interact with his own Aural energy... but what? There weren't any remotes, controls, mice... or at least a walkthrough guide, c'mon!

But standing there wouldn't help, either. So glancing back up, Jaune lifted his two most prized possessions over the girl's head: his hands. With a surgeon's precision in welding connections on silicone wafers and keyboard reflexes fast enough to earn him the ultra-rare Dual Wielding skill in Remnant's best-selling game, Blade Art Online, Jaune decided his hands would be the best way to go about interfacing with this new phenomenon. Now it was a question of using whatever interfacing method felt right...

Framing the steadily-flowing stream of data with his thumbs and index fingers in a L-7 rectangle shape, Jaune all but chortled in victory when his flick of his gesture towards the stream caused it to pause in place. Pause... Perfect.

"What? You did something?"

With a chuckle and wide smile at the crimsonette, Jaune merely stated, "I have no idea..."

So foregoing her flat stare in reply, Jaune turned his attention back to the stream - his gesture had only made a sort of freeze-frame on a certain line of code while the stream continued in the background; releasing his concentration on it had dropped the freeze frame... so framing a section of the steam again, this time he held it steady as he reached a hand toward the vertical lines of data themselves...

Now to own it... Okay, I am Jaune Arc... And this is my Semblance - the sudden, awareness? of digital data flowing around people that has the potential to do Oum-knows-what... And now, I'm going to touch it...

No sooner did his fingers make contact this time with the data when a new unbidden flow of information raced through his mind in the blink of an eye.

[Ruby Rose] [Age 15 | First-year] [Last Call: N/A] [Last Message: from YXLong - 'Remember, break out of that shell~ And don't talk nerdy to anyone!' - sent 32mins ago] [Previous Affiliations: Signal Academy | Patch] [Relatives: Yang Xiao Long (Half-sister, student) | Taiyang Xiao Long (Father, teacher/Hunter) | Summer Rose (Mother, deceased)] [Measurements: 32"-24"-3...

With a slight gasp as he let go of the data stream, the flow of information simultaneously ceasing from his mind, Jaune had to regain his bearings a bit as Ruby grabbed both his shoulders with a concerned glare, "Hey, you okay!? Your eyes just did a weird thingy like your irises were like gears turning or something and it was really weird but kinda cool but-"

Crcrk!

Suddenly stopping as a nearby snapping branch from the woods caught her attention, Ruby peered around Jaune's side and made to take out her weapon when Jaune suddenly held her back by lightly tugging her arm.

"Wait... wait," he began quickly, finally piecing together what had just been plugged into his consciousness, "Did you... get a scroll before initiation today?"

"Jaune, their call and location functions are shut down during initiation, and now's not the time for-"

"Just - did you?" he cut in, getting a nod in reply, "Show it to me."

And just as he expected, when Ruby pulled out the electronic device, Jaune realized that the steady stream of neon green data had not been coming for Ruby... but from her scroll. So he was reading its signal, then! This... Could probably turn out to be more than useful... if only he could figure out why that scroll would actually record something like her body meas- never mind. Not important right now.

"Jaune, we should really get moving... we still don't know where the ruins are and there's a good chance we won't be alone much longer..."

Despite her growing concern, Jaune didn't look at her as he glanced at the woods when a second snap of plant life caught his attention as well, "Then maybe there's a way we can hit two birds with one stone, then."

Sure, Jaune couldn't fight. In fact, he was terrible at it. And he couldn't track a thing to save his life, either... but if it's one compliment he'd always received from his sisters - and even one time from his mom! He'd cherished that day ever since - it'd always been about his unflappable ability to keep a cool head in a rough situation. And right now, more than ever... Jaune was in his element.

Okay... so I've got a systemized Semblance capable of interfacing with wireless devices. Sweet. My energy must have a signal of its own at some point, which means I should be able to locate other students from a distance as long as they have their scroll here in the forest. Digital data flows everywhere... all around us... in the air, through the city... then I should be able to see it, too. I'm just not looking-

Jaune held out a relaxed palm towards the forest, Ruby's head cocked to the side as she watched a bit of Aura coalesce around it before the white energy pulsed out with a quiet ping.

-big enough... there we go.

He grinned as the result of his action revealed about fifteen other signals highlighted through the forest in his field of vision like co-op beacons in a video game. A ping, capable of locating a device and its distance from the source which in this case could almost be used as radar. Perfect. Though it unfortunately didn't reveal any viable conglomeration of signals to show the possible location of the temple like he'd hoped, it did however reveal two such signals coming their way...

"Jaune... how'd you do that?" Ruby asked, a bit confused at what she'd seen, "You just unlocked your Aura... it takes like, months to get it to move around like you just did."

Staring at his hand in confusion, Jaune shrugged.

Huh, figured most people would kinda just 'know' how it worked when they unlocked it. It's their own energy, isn't it?

"I dunno," he finally replied as he willed his Aura to make his hand glow again in front of the curious crimsonette, "I guess I visualized the energy going through my body and to my hand - like circuits, y'know?"

A blank stare.

Jaune pointed at his temples, "Input source," at his heart, "Motherboard," and then at his glowing hand, "Output device," before slowly tracing a line from his head to his heart to his hand, "Input command... to output device."

A blank stare still, Ruby's head cocking a bit to the side as an eye winced in though before drawling, "I know that... I mean... it makes sense. I've just never seen it work for someone that way so easily be-"

Crcrk!

And without hesitation at the sound, Ruby had stepped forward while unfurling her admittedly very intimidating scythe, only for Jaune to reach out a hand and stop her.

"It's a person. Two people. Headed this way..."

"How do you know?"

"...I know."

A deadpan from the crimsonette, "Then who?"

...Oh yeah. He hadn't thought of that.

Lifting his hand at the forest, which had still been glowing from his 'hardware metaphor' to this partner, Jaune let out another ping with a twitch of his palm. Picking out the closest signal stream, he then decided to hold out his box-frame with his fingers and flick the gesture towards the stream. Sure enough, it seemed to pause it into a freeze-frame window in front of him to look at.

"Jaune," Ruby began impatiently as she watched him move his hand up repeatedly as if he were scrolling down the screen of an invisible tablet in front of whim, "What're you-?"

"One second. A little trickier than I thought."

Figures. The more distance from a device, the less information one could glean from its signal at times... so his 'Aura' clearly wasn't connected to a network, though it could still connect to a device whose signal was originating right in front of him. Which made sense. But unfortunately... the relatively short distance between him and the source of the signal stream was leaving him with little more than binary code.

"...Hold on, think I see something - repeated line of code, spaced apart from the others. One sec..."

1
0
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0

"Uhh, Jaune?"

Ruby cocked her head at the knight who seemed to be staring at nothing, shaking his head in frustration with a hand to his chin in deliberation before he mumbled, "Has to be a way... has to be a way... well maybe-?"

And framing his hands around the window again, Jaune boxed that specific line of green code in the fore of the greenish stream of data continuing behind it - but instead of flicking the gesture forward, he quickly pulled the gesture apart in a new zoom-in gesture. He grinned at the result.

011
110
010
111
111
111
000
101
011
110
110

Code within the code. Like a stream, every current was comprised of countless trickles. And like a signal... well, every line of code could be amplified for him to read. It seemed direct contact from very close to the source was the only way for information to be downloaded directly... but this, he could work with. Another zoom-in gesture.

01010111
01000101
01001001
01010011
01010011
01010011
01000011
01001000
01001110
01000101
01000101

"Oho, now we're talkin!" Jaune finally exclaimed with a clap of his hands, his eyes already running down the block of glowing code with glee, "The person headed our way is WEI- wait..."

The knight paused, brows furrowed in surprise until he slowly lifted his gaze toward a final snap of a twig and a grunt of annoyance from the forest.

"...Snow Angel?"

"Ugh," the heiress in question groaned as she emerged through the canopy to Ruby's surprise, her cold eyes boring into Jaune's at the nickname before narrowing as they glanced back and forth between the pair of dolts she quickly deduced had become partners, "Sweet Monty above, I'd have chosen either of you two dunces over my current lot in fate..."

Eyeing the dirt smudges and twigs stuck in her dress and hair that otherwise should've been immaculate, Ruby could only drone, "What... exactly... happened to yo-"

"OOOOOHHHAOOOOOAHOAHOOOO!"

The trio interrupted by what Jaune could only describe as the best Tarzan call he'd ever heard since... well, Tarzan... a girl literally swung into the clearing from the canopy on a vine, leaping off with a bubbly whoop and backflip before landing right next to a very miffed Weiss.

"Awesome, found more hitchhikers!" the girl stated in elation, the gleam in her turquoise eyes as bright as the luster in her orange hair... and the shine on that enormous war hammer she was hauling, "You guys seen a guy with longish, shortish hair, tall but not too tall - but not small, either - and acts like a sloth!? Me and my new partner in crime-"

"Not crime."

"We haven't found Renny-bear after all this time!" the hammer maiden cried out with what looked like genuine anguish in her eyes, "It is a crime... a crime of passion!"

"Oum... please strike me down."

As Ruby watched the argument between the unlikely duo slack-jawed in disbelief at Weiss' lot in life, Jaune simply stared into his hands with a wide grin.

Jaune Arc had discovered his Semblancey thing. The prospects were unreal... the applications, endless... so he planned to do what he did best as soon as he could. Tinker.

As soon as he survived the day, though. He still had absolutely no training and no hope with a sword...

Yes. When he survived... if he survived...

Jaune Arc... would go viral.

A/N: Seriously, with all these new ideas I keep going on, I gotta start recycling/deleting old ones...

Anyway, time for some back story followed by some AU story.

So I'm chatting with KisaragiKei, who by our convos I've come to believe is a 'she' (B/N: Hey! I'm of the Male genetic combination of the X and Y chromosomes, thank you very much! I'm just a… male that as taken a liking to my feminine side. A/N: Ah.) and we find ourselves having an interesting prompt come up -

Jaune. Technopathy/Technokinesis. Go.

I had an idea, he had his... so we decided to go for a Coeur/CollegeFool approach and write both our works separately while beta-ing each other's progress. In other words, things got pretty rad pretty quick, and Viral was born. Check his out too - it's a working title, but it'll on his page sometime next week! I'll also be setting a link to the story directly from my own page!

B/N: Yeah, This all started with a simple PM to Phantom here. I had this great idea and after refining with Phantom here, we both saw the great amount of potential it had.

A/N: Indeed! And exactly… 49 PM's later, here we are.

Now for this AU.

It is indeed AU, where a little change during initiation has made a big difference. Now, the general plot points in canon - field trip, criminal plans, tournament - all stay there and are thus stuck to schedule-wise, but with these new team(s), the way the baddies are fought will change how they approach things. Which change how the baddies approach things. Which in turn, changes everything else. Guhhh... I feel like I'm writing Live, Die, Repeat all over again...

B/N: I really liked Live, Die, Repeat

A/N: 'Liked?' Hey now, LDR is still alive and kicking, eh!?

But now things get interesting. Jaune's had previous experience with tech. Ruby has experience with weapons... what happens when two obsessions become one? Hm? And likewise, other characters will experience slight shifts in personality. Biggest example, Pyrrha.

Spoiler alert: At this point, she's still riding her fame, and has yet to realize how distant she is from the people who idolize her. Yet.

So Jauney-boy's Semblance is being revealed. So he can talk to scrolls that are close to him, big deal. Well... check out the coverart I put together - remember what I said about two obsessions becoming one...? :)

B/N: I'm sorry world. We have created a *knells down dramatically* ...a monster!

A/N: *taps fingers evilly* Indeed... So with that, Kisa and I wrap up the prologue chapter!

On a second-to-final note, being that this is the third story I'd consider my 'main' work that I'm updating, expect shorter chapters. Like 2-5k words, almost like Coeur has going on with From Beyond or College Fool's Fall of Professor Arc. It's not really because I can't afford to make so many stories with big chapters - it's that I'm trying to learn from better authors. So with Viral, I'll be exploring how to say more with less. If that makes any sense.

And on a final note... yea, this is a Lancaster fic.

Like what you've read? Then by all means Fave, Follow, and Review to show your support! I've binge-learned all I could about binary, and am willing to take suggestions about how code can be *cough cough* hacked... in order to hack or anti-hack certain hackers if/when they hack or anti-hack their hacks...

B/N: This is like playing one of those fighting games all over again. Counter the counter that counterattacks your original counter attack...

A/N: That's the plan! But until then...

B/N: I'll be the cat that lurks behind you~ Don't mind me. Mrrreeew~ :3

A/N: Ditto here... wait...

A/B: And Happy Reading!

2-14-2016 UPDATE

WHAT THE FLYING CROW!?

So ALL THAT FINALE was to pretty much pit All The Worlds Evils on Beacon while Ozpin was talking to Queen Daka of the Nightsister Clan since the first episode!?

Dang... that was... tantamount in several aspects to both TGG and LDR... okay, then. That was a thing.

*takes deep breath, beginning to regain composure after just finishing finale*

This is good... this is a good thing. Evil has a face, underlings, and a convenient alternate dimension. Equally convenient is the end game... for a certain fic of mine, that makes its ending that much more... palatable.

Indeed, this off season will be prime for story-weaving the rest of these three mains of mine. Like I've always said, your support is appreciated!

TPS, signing out - for real this time...

Viral
TPS (c) 2016