We have had Jaune as Batman in this thread before. And hey, I love Batman. But I also love another superhero who could use some love, and whose movie is coming out this year.
To that end...
- - -
Jaune Arc was fourteen years old. Like many teenagers, he had taken to spending time on the walls of Radian to get a break from his parents. He sighed as he looked out over the Albus Mountain range, lost in his thoughts.
Thoughts that a certain cat Faunus girl interrupted when she placed her hands over his eyes.
"Guess who~!" She teased.
Jaune sighed.
"Katy?"
"Aww..." Katy pulled back with a little pout. Jaune smiled at her expression, then turned back to looking out at the valley. Katy frowned and leaned over the wall with him, staring intently at her boyfriend.
"You okay?"
"Just..." He groaned. "I can't believe they won't let me go to the Hunter School! I passed all the physical tests!"
"You totally did," Katy giggled. Jaune gave her a glare without much heat. She smiled and nuzzled him. "Come on, Jaune. You're gonna be a shoe-in at medical school! Why do you want to be a Huntsman so bad, anyway?"
"Because I want to help people," Jaune insisted, "I mean... Really help them. All my ancestors were great Huntsmen, heroes... Why can't I?"
Katy shrugged.
"I dunno... Your parents have always been weird. Maybe it's because you're the baby of the family? The only boy?"
"Maybe," Jaune muttered, "I just can't help thinking there's something they're not telling me..."
He heard a loud metallic screeching. He winced and held his ears. Katy gasped.
"Jaune? Jaune, you okay? You-?"
He looked out. He saw a Bullhead airship falling towards the ground.
"Call it in! It's an airship crash!" Jaune shouted. He leaped off the wall and slid down the bricks, before he got to the ground. He ran for it, hearing Katy shouting for help to the militia on the wall.
He saw the airship crash, heard the boom. He raced through the trees, everything becoming a blur. He skidded to a halt near the wreck. The Bullhead was very tough. Its hull was mostly intact. He could hear crying. He rushed to the hatch, and grabbed onto the metal. It burned his hands, but it gave way to his fingers like tissue paper. He tore the door open and tossed it aside. He dashed in, covering his face against the flames and smoke.
He spotted two people: Faunus by the look of them. They were in the pilot and co-pilot seats, unconscious. Jaune quickly ripped their belts off and carried them both out on his shoulders. He raced away from the wreck, hearing Radian's own airships and recovery vehicles closing in. He set the couple down, and they coughed as they began to breathe again.
The pilot, a man, looked at Jaune, then at the Bullhead with wild eyes.
"Our daughter-She's still inside!"
Jaune turned and dashed back into the wreck. He scanned around through the flames, searching frantically. He heard the crying again, in the back. The ship's bathroom...
He tore the door off the bathroom. A little girl, strapped into the emergency harness over the toilet, sniffled and cried when she saw him.
"It's okay!" Jaune shouted. "I'm gonna get you out of here!"
He tore the straps away, and pulled the little girl into his arms. She clung to him like a barnacle, and he kept her surrounded by his strong arms. He turned and ran out of the Bullhead, towards the hatch. He emerged into the sunlight. He could see his father with Militia troops some distance away, securing the area. He could see his mother already tending to the injured parents.
He saw both of them look up at him. His mother's eyes widened.
"JAUNE! RUN!"
"I-!"
The engines of the burning Bullhead exploded. He fell to his knees, hoping to protect the little girl with his body. Hoping his death let her live, offered what protection he could!
Jaune felt the flames, felt the heat wash over him like a wave at the beach. He felt metal shrapnel hit his body... And bounce off.
He felt his clothes burn... But not his flesh.
He heard the little girl scream, cry. He held her tighter as the flames subsided.
He stood up, the girl safe but shaken in his arms. He blinked and looked down at those arms.
His shirt was burn away. His jeans and shorts were burned to a crisp, barely staying on him. Yet his flesh looked as unblemished and clean as though he'd just gotten out of the bath.
He gawked in disbelief. He looked up. His parents, the militiamen, even Katy... All stared at him in varying degrees of wonder and shock.
What... What just happened...? His mind asked weakly.
- - -
That night, he was back at the Arc farmhouse. He'd gotten checked out, gotten new clothes, and then slipped away to the barn to think.
He sat up in the top rafters, which held a variety of items he'd collected: A telescope, a desk, posters of Huntsmen and images from the Very Large Telescope. A Valean Flag in one corner. All familiar, all comforting. The sounds of the night filled the barn as the stars and broken moon came out.
His parents came up into the rafters, his mother leading. She took a deep breath.
"Jaune? I... I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what happened today," she began. Dad stood nearby her, looking uncharacteristically grim. Jaune slowly nodded.
"I... Yeah," he said. He looked at his hands. "I mean... Did my Aura activate? Is-Is that my Semblance?"
"No," Isabel said quietly. Jaune jerked and stared at her. She shook her head. She walked up to him, and held out her Scroll. She presented an Aura scanning app, something most medics had. She held it over Jaune. It gave no reading. Jaune blinked rapidly.
"But... If I don't have Aura or a Semblance then... What's going on?"
Nick sighed heavily.
"Son? It's time you learned... Well... The truth."
They took him down the stairs, and out of the barn. They went into the nearby copse of trees. In here, Jaune's grandfather had built his wife a replica of a Fuujin-style hotsprings. Next to this was an old storage shed, which had been chained shut as long as Jaune could remember. Nick brought out a key, unlocked it, and pulled the chains loose.
Isabel hugged him tightly.
"Son... I want you to know," Isabel said softly, "We love you. No matter what, okay?"
"Mom, you-you're scaring me," Jaune managed, "Dad too."
Nick opened the shed door. He reached for an old lightswitch, and turned it on.
The light flooded the shed. Jaune blinked rapidly... Then gaped.
It looked like a sleek vehicle-A cockpit in tinted black glass dominated it. Behind the cockpit was a white engine assembly, with fins. At the front of the thing was what almost looked like a radar dome. The metal glistened and almost seemed to move, like a living creature.
"Fourteen years ago, this crashed several miles outside of town," Nick murmured, "Your mother and I were driving home from a Hunter job. We investigated the crash site... And found you inside this thing. We took you with us, hid the thing. We said we'd had you on the mission-It had been a very long one, about a year, after all..."
Jaune's jaw remained dropped. Isabel took over.
"We took a sample of the thing to a friend of ours at Lutetia University. He asked if we got it from a meteorite-He'd never seen the materials in it before. He thought it might have come from... Outside the solar system."
Jaune slowly shook his head.
"You..." He backed away from his mother's embrace. "You're kidding. You're kidding!"
He looked between his father and mother. He looked for the slightest hint that his parents were playing a prank on him.
His father remained stoic. His mother cried silently.
Jaune shook his head and stared at the craft.
"You're not kidding?!" He gasped.
Nick reached down and pressed on the side of the craft. The cockpit swung open. He picked up a small box, and handed it over to Jaune.
"We found this, along with a few blankets," Nick said softly, "We tried to open it, but... It wouldn't budge. Even a hammer didn't break it."
Jaune took the box in shaky hands. It then lit up with blue lines. Lines that danced over the surface of the box, before turning into a strange symbol: An S embedded inside a diamond-shaped shield.
The box emitted a beam... And in an instant, Jaune was elsewhere. He gasped and looked around himself: He was standing in a dark but warm looking home, wide open spaces with what seemed to be open windows looking out over a vast, alien landscape. The ground was burnt orange, with black plants and green and blue crystals jutting out in various shapes. In the distance, he could see buildings made of the same material, stretching up into a yellow sky. Overhead burned a red sun.
"Hello, Kal-El."
Jaune started and turned around. He saw two figures: A man and a woman. The man was tall, athletic, and proud, with blond hair and brown eyes. He wore a black bodysuit underneath a red robe, with the S-Shield symbol on his chest. The woman, also blonde but with blue eyes, had her hair in a neat bun and wore a similar bodysuit. Her robe was blue, with a similar S-Shield symbol on her chest.
"Kal-who?"
"I am Jor-El," the man introduced himself.
"I am Lara," the woman introduced herself, "We are your parents."
"Wha-What?!" Jaune gasped, his knees shaking. Jor-El continued as though Jaune hadn't reacted.
"This is a recording we left for you. For when you learned the truth of your origins," Jor-El said. His face became sad. "I wish we were there with you, son. But this was the only way to save you."
"Save me?! From what?" Jaune demanded.
Lara spoke, her eyes compassionate.
"You are the only survivor of a planet called Krypton. It is approximately 17 lightyears away from the planet you now inhabit. We call it Earth, for its ancient name, but the inhabitants currently call it Remnant. We sent you here to escape Krypton's destruction."
"By now, you will have noticed you are stronger and faster than humans," Jor-El continued, "Even with their ability to enhance themselves with Aura and other means, the yellow Sun of Remnant gives you incredible powers."
"I know this must be a lot to take in, son," Lara said softly, her face heartbreaking beautiful in her sorrow, "I know this must be a great shock. I wish I could be there with you to-to comfort you. To guide you. To love you. Please, tell me... Are you loved? Did kind people find and raise you?"
Jaune took a few deep, calming breaths. His eyes were filled with tears as his entire life seemed to flash before his eyes. He slowly nodded.
"Yes."
Both Jor-El and Lara relaxed. Lara herself smiled.
"I am so glad," Lara spoke softly. "So glad... There is so much for you to know."
"So much we need to tell you," Jor-El added, a slight smile on his face. "I know this world isn't perfect, son. Krypton wasn't either. We were destroyed by our own hubris. We reached such heights, did so many incredible things... But we failed. We fell to our pride, our arrogance."
He shook his head. In a flash, thousands of years of wonders went through Jaune's brain. Art, science, culture-All incredible...
Yet he also saw images of the last days of Krypton. Stagnation, corruption, oppression and xenophobia. He saw his parents fight for what was right and try to do good... All for naught.
Yet most importantly, he saw images of his parents loving him, caring for him, and smiling down at him. He felt a smile come to his own face, despite his tears.
"Beyond survival, Kal, that is why we sent you to Remnant," Jor-El said. Lara nodded.
"They have great potential, Kal," Lara spoke, "Greater than they know. They reached such heights, then fell, then climbed again, then fell... Yet still they try to become greater. Better."
"They can break this cycle, Kal," Jor-El said, "They can be a great people, they wish to. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, we have sent them you..."
He felt hands hold his. He felt his heart fill near to bursting.
"Our only son."
The vision ended. Isabel and Nick were holding his hands, both looking concerned.
"Jaune? Jaune, are you all right?" Isabel asked.
"Son?" Nick whispered, his eyes shiny.
Jaune sniffled... But his smile remained.
"Yeah... Yeah, I'm all right," he said. He glanced up at the stars.
"Everything will be all right... I promise."
- - -
Because hey. He's already a farmboy and a bit of a cornball. Why isekai Superman into this world, when Jaune Arc could fit the bill?
Argh, I really gotta work on all my other stories, but hey: Sometimes you just gotta get a silly idea out.
