7:30 AM
Jaune slowed his jogging to a walk, and then stopped, putting his hands on his knees and hunching over slightly as he panted heavily. He walked over to a metal bench on the side of the track in Beacon's gym. The place was basically a giant room with a track running around the interior perimeter with different workout equipment scattered around.
"And that's lap 30. Looks like your in better shape than you thought, Jaune." Jaune took his personal scroll out and watched as a violet holographic figure of an impish boy in his tweens popped up. He was wearing a lab coat that was two sizes too big with the sleeves rolled up over a t-shirt and baggy shorts. "Good morning, Theta."
"Morning. Scans show that your pulse is solid, still a bit fast from your run, but it's coming back down. How do you like Beacon?"
"It's been... Educational, so far. The team I picked for my first few weeks is pretty nice."
"I know. I saw their files. I like Ruby the most. Mostly 'cause Weiss and Blake scare me and Yang makes me feel...weird." Jaune nodded in agreement. "What about your chest? Any more aches or pains I should make note of?"
"No, Theta. I'm quite alright. How about your project?" He sat down on the bench. "Its great! Wanna see?"
"Sure thing." Theta nodded excitedly. With a motion of his hands, tiny, holographic fireworks shot up around him. "That's really great, Theta." He turned when he heard the door open and saw a redheaded girl walk in. "Power off, Theta."
"Alright." He said, albeit a bit saddened at the mid-show cancellation. He watched as the girl drew near. He recognized the hair and green eyes, among other things, as the one and only Pyrrha Nikos. Reigning Mistral tournament champion, top of her class at Sanctum Academy, and former spokesperson for Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes Cereal. And now, the leader of team PRN. He sat there with his elbows on his knees and took out his glasses. Jaune started to wipe some condensation off with his sleeve when Pyrrha reached the bench and laid a small duffle on the ground next to it. "Good morning. You're the new student that came late, right?" Jaune nodded and stood. "Jaune Arc. It's a pleasure." They shook hands.
"I'm Pyrrha Nikos. I'm glad to have you here at Beacon."
"Likewise."
"So, what are you doing here, Jaune? Not many students leave their dorms this early."
"Yes, well, I'm not most students. I just came to see if I could wake up a bit more and think. But, I should get ready for classes now. I'll see you around."
8:20 AM
After another hot shower (which his team didn't have to know about, since he may have used the rest of the hot water), he dressed himself in his uniform. It consisted of a black jacket with gold trimmings over a blue vest, white dress shirt and red tie, along with black pants and shoes. After that, he decided to refuel after his morning run.
The boy headed down to the cafeteria and grabbed some food, along with more coffee. He finished quickly and strolled to his first class, that being with Professor Peter Port. Jaune found the room and opened the door to see a large, portly man pushing a large crate. Said crate kept shaking and growling. That wasn't supposed to be in a classroom. "Uh, hello?"
Said portly man shot straight upright and turned to Jaune. The man had one of the biggest mustaches the boy had ever seen. He was dressed sharply in a reddish-brown burgundy blazer with gold trimmings and black slacks and shoes. "Ah, a strapping young student reporting to class ahead of schedule. I like it! Tell me, boy, what's your name?"
"Uh, Jaune Arc, sir." The man approached and gave him strong handshake. "Wonderful to meet you, lad. Now, you look like someone who can stand a bit of manual labor, would you mind assisting me in moving this large box here? I'll be needing it at the end of class."
"Of course, sir." Together, they pushed it next to Port's desk and Jaune took a seat. He reached in his back pocket and took out paperback book. He spent some time just letting his eyes run over the pages, but he couldn't focus. His mind kept wandering to more pressing matters, matters involving the thing that single-handedly destroyed his life. The thing he'd created. He was brought back to the here-and-now by the bell sounding just as teams RWBY and PRN ran through the doors. He must've zoned out longer than he thought, considering the whole class had came in while he was thinking.
He also noticed that he was white-knuckling the book he held. He stowed it and watched as RWBY in the row of seats below him and PRN to his right. The professor started a lengthy and boring lecture about how when he was a boy, yada yada yada-he tuned it out.
Skip an hour, and then... "So, in conclusion, a true huntsman must be honorable, a true huntsman must be dependable, a true huntsman must be courageous, well-educated, and wise. And that is why I have selected an individual to demonstrate his prowess. Mr. Arc, will you step up and show us what you can do?"
Jaune rose his head from where it was resting on his folded arms. He saw Professor Port gesture to the crate they'd moved that was now shaking and emitting more growls. Jaune nodded before exiting to get equipped.
The classroom of students waited, talking amongst themselves. A student who arrived late with weapons never seen before and was about to fight something in class, so the excessive chatter wasn't seen as very, well, excessive.
Finally, Jaune walked in in his combat getup. He kept fiddling with the three point harness that had an interwoven strip of magnetized titanium, which is what he used to hold Prometheus to his back. He had a similar, smaller harness wrapped around his leg to keep the strange pistol in place.
The professor spoke up, "Are you ready to engage in combat, Mr. Arc?" He had his blunder-axe in hand and, after Jaune nodded and adjusted his glasses, he crushed the lock on the big wooden crate. From the shadows charged a fully grown boarbatusk. It lowered its head to impale the teen on its scimitar-like tusks, but Jaune just rolled out of the way while his arm removed the pistol from his thigh in such a smooth motion that it was like liquid flowing.
As he spun, he squeezed the trigger twice and sent two glowing blue bolts of 'hard-light' into the grimm's hind right leg. The students watched in awe and shock as the rounds burned away at the black flesh, leaving a rising trail of bluish-white vapor.
The leg collapsed under the boar's weight, and it had to switch its weight to the other three. It limp-hopped around to try and charge Jaune again, but he just planted his foot on the grimm's faceplate. He switched to his rifle, shouldered it and shoved the barrel into its glowing red eye. His expression changed from uncaring and mellow to a cold scowl as Prometheus spat the killing round into its brain. The body started dissolving and Jaune slung his rifle and walked out of the now silent room.
Not at all expecting the fight to end in twelve seconds, Port cleared his throat as the bell rang. "Um, yes, well...Class dismissed. Be sure to cover the assigned readings. And remember, stay vigilant!"
As Jaune walked out, he stopped and checked his pistol for any signs of damage. He stepped into a side corridor as he heard Ruby and Weiss arguing.
"Weiss! Why are you acting like this? What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a leader and all you've done so far is be a nuisance."
"What did I do?"
"That's just it, Ruby. You've done nothing to earn you're position! I've studied. And trained. And frankly, I deserve better. Ozpin made a mistake."
Jaune took the opportunity to step back into the light. "With little-due respect, Ms. Schnee, Ms. Rose is the one who formulated and executed the plan to kill an adult nevermore during initiation. Along with that, you speak of having to prove yourself capable of being a leader, yet you've done nothing but whine and yell at the girl."
"You're taking her side?"
"Yes." Jaune now stood firm and glared at her, "Leading people and having their lives in your hands is a responsibility that Ozpin would not give out lightly." Weiss crawled in frustration and stormed off. "Is she right?" Jaune turned to Ruby. He gestured for her to follow him and sat down against the wall. "Ruby, why are you here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why did you come to Beacon? Why become a huntress?" She looked down in thought. "So that I could help people. My parents were great huntsman, and I guess I wanted to be like them. But, it was mainly because I wanted to keep people safe." Jaune nodded. "A noble goal. But if you want to do that, first you have to lead your team, including me. A leader has to be able to make difficult choices that'll determine who lives and dies on the battlefield. There will come a time when you'll have to make that decision. And you'll also have to be able to continue to lead on and stay focused on the task at hand if..." Jaune hesitated, "If one of your own does't make it back with you. That is when the true test of character comes about."
"You say that like you've done it." Jaune stayed quiet for a minute. He then got up and offered Ruby a hand. "So, what now?"
"I was going to go find a shooting range and relieve some stress in a semi-productive manner. Would you like to come?"
"Okay! Let me change and get Crescent Rose!" She then sped off.
Two years ago...
The city of Volare, Atlas was bustling with the fervor fueled only by a groundbreaking turn of events that could potentially change the world. News had come around that two prodigy geniuses, only sixteen years of age, had built, and were about to activate, a machine that used electrically powered fusion generators. The power cells of these generators were said to have been infused with a person's aura and would generate enough juice to power the whole kingdom. Needless to say, excitement had filled the air. It also filled the swarms of people that had come to spectate the activation from outside a huge building.
The building was dome-shaped with the walls made of steel-reinforced concrete and the ceiling made of glass. It was all one big room, with large metal coils lining the perimeter at twenty meter intervals.
The coils were connected by thick wires that all fed to the center, where a metal structure was being examined by a sixteen year-old boy. His blue eyes moved over every inch of the structure. Calculating any possible fault in its integrity.
Four circular frames were placed in a square on a raised platform, with one frame on top. The frames were made of metal but had strips of blue light in the middles that pulsed every few seconds. The boy walked over to a large computer setup. He started typing in a bunch of codes. The boy turned when he heard the sliding glass doors to the room open. In walked another boy. This one had stark-white hair and dark purple eyes that flickered anxiously over the data pad he held in his hands. "Uh, Jaune? I think you should take a look at some of these projections I've been cooking up for the APEG(Aura Powered Electrical Generator). If we don't plug in the right aura/electricity ratio, the power might be enough to de-energize the human body down to the molecular level, not to mention explode. I'm talking nervous systems shutting down, zero motor-control, I mean-"
Jaune placed a hand on the other boy's shoulder. "Lukas, we'll be fine. If I had the slightest doubt that things would go wrong, we wouldn't be here. This is what we've dreamed of achieving since we were twelve! We're finally here." He still seemed hesitant. Jaune sighed, "Look, we'll clear the building of all nonessential personnel. I can have them shut the blast doors so, if there's any sort of negative consequence it'll stay contained. We can't back down, not now." That seemed to receive some of Lukas's worry.
Then, an older man in a lab coat came in and told them, "It's time."
Jaune turned to his best friend once more. "Moment of truth." He gave the word to initiate the safety protocols and they both headed to a large console that held the computers. The frame contained numerous buttons, switches and dials, but the most important thing was the two hand shaped glass panels on it.
Jaune entered some more commands into the computer and, with Lukas next to him, they both placed one hand each flat against the panels. The glass started to glow a blue color as huge sheets of metal extended to cover the glass ceiling, windows and doors.
Jaune heard a loud alarm blaring, and then a huge flash of light, followed by white hot pain coursing up his arm and consuming his entire being.
Then darkness.
