Chapter 2: Time for a Mix-Up
"No easy feat for...zzzz… and then I jumped on the beast...ZZzzzzzz… after several hours….ZZZZZZzzzzzz…. finally emerged victorious!" Jaune phased in and out of consciousness as Professor Port regaled his class with yet another one of his tales. Just as he'd promised himself, Jaune was attempting to catch up on the lost sleep of last night. Besides, any important detail he could get from the others, right?
As he sat up and looked around, Jaune realized that it might not be that simple. Nora was as clocked out as he had just been, drooling on the paper that was supposed to house her notes.. Blake had turned her attention to the book in front of her, the title of which she kept completely hidden from view. Every now and then the faunus shot an annoyed glance at Yang, her partner who'd happened to pass out on the faunus' shoulder. At least that one wasn't surprising, given how little sleep Yang had got as well. Next to them both, Ruby just doodling away, probably just as unaware as any of the others. Only Ren, Pyrrha and Weiss still made any attempt at following the rambling professors tale, and even they looked strained by the effort.
Giving Pyrrha's arm a quick poke, he leaned in and whispered to her. "What'd I miss this time?"
"Deathstalker, search and destroy mission, Port was a big hero." Realizing it wasn't really anything new, Jaune was about to lower his head again, but the professors next words fixed that.
"I think that's enough talk for today, let's instead discuss some practical application." More than just Jaune sat up at this. Watching their teammates kill Grimm was the only reason most people didn't just give up on life upon entering the classroom. "However, as you might guess, you can't do a search and destroy within a classroom. I daresay tracking the beast would be a bit too easy. Instead, I ask all team leaders and their partners line up here in the front."
There was a fair bit of confusion at this. Friends murmured to each other, trying to guess what this surprise may be. Jaune followed Ruby and Weiss as the pair made their way down to the front, Pyrrha close behind.
Once everyone was lined up, Port pulled out a large bowl continued. "Now here is the name of every student not currently at the front of the class. Each team leader and their partner will pick a name, assigning them a random partner.
Now Jaune might not be smart, but he figured out a problem pretty quickly. This means it's impossible Pyrrha and I get partnered! A glance at the expression of the redhead next to him revealed she had come the the same conclusion.
"Now the more observant among you might have figured out none of you can be paired up with your partner. That was by design. After all, on a mission you might not always have the choice of who is by your side against the forces of evil."
Jaune sighed. At least I might get Ren or Nora for this. He then realized Port hadn't even mentioned what "this" is.
"As I'm sure you are all aware, you have yet to receive any work to do over the weekend. Do not worry, us teachers aren't going soft on you just yet. Instead, this will be a weekend-long test." It was possible every student present groaned at that, yet somehow Professor Port ignored it. "Each pair will be sent out in an area of the Emerald forest, to complete your own search and destroy mission. Your task will be to find the Grimm that has been marked for you, slay it, and make your way back South to the cliffs. You will be sent out later the afternoon, and will be expected to return on time for your classes on Monday. Now, since we already know your combat abilities, the Grimm you are assigned not be a challenge to slay. Instead, you will each hunt an Ursa, whose territorial nature will mean it won't wander away from the area on you. It shall be marked with a stripe of color to help you identify it. The region's selected for this are known for their low Grimm density, meaning there should not be any surprises coming your way. This shall be a test of tracking, outdoor skills, and teamwork with a new partner. Any questions?"
After such a thorough and long winded explanation, neither Jaune not anyone else had anything else to ask.
"Excellent! Once you pick a name from the bowl, I want you to go seek out your new partner immediately." And with that said, Professor Port started making his way down the line, pausing in front of each student.
Jaune began to panic slightly. What if I'm with some stranger who thinks I'm worthless? What if I get paired with one of the two remaining CDRL members? Port reached Ruby, who stuck her hand in and pulled out a slip of paper, I followed by a huge shout.
"BLAKE! OMG OMG YAY WE'RE TOGETHER BLAKE!" Those immediately near the excited girl flinched at the volume of her shouts. Jaune turned to look at Ruby's new partner. Despite not looking nearly as happy as Ruby at this luck, there was no doubt the faunus was relieved with the outcome.
Next, Weiss reached her hand into the bowl and pulled her slip of paper. Immediately, her face seemed to droop, but she quickly put on a neutral facial reaction, so Jaune doubted it was the worst outcome. Weiss moved back to the waiting students, and Jaune's eyes followed her along the desks, stopping just in front of Nora and showing her the piece of paper.
That might not end too well. Jaune realized as Weiss was pulled into a huge bearhug. However, Jaunes thoughts were quickly wrenched from that topic as he realized the Professor now stood in front of him, waving the bowl back and forth in a manner he obviously thought would be enticing. With a gulp, Jaune stuck his hand in and pulled a name as quickly as he could. Opening it, Jaune was first filled with a huge sense of relief, only for it to quickly turn into terror as the realization of how much teasing a full weekend alone with Yang would mean.
Still, it was probably, like, the 4th best outcome, after Ren, Nora and Blake. He thought as he made his way towards Yang. Better than like 80% of the other options. As he made his way back towards his group, Yang seemed to realize where he was walking and before Jaune even showed her the paper, he was greeted with a flirtatious wink. Yep, that's gonna be my weekend. Jaune took the seat next to his new partner, and tried to scan for where Pyrrha had gone to find her partner. After a couple seconds, he spotted the redhead next to some other girl, who Jaune was fairly certain he'd never met. To be fair, there was only about three teams he did know, and one of them he straight up hated. Honestly, when he thought about it, Jaune realized it was extreme luck that six of the eight people on teams RWBY and JNPR were paired together.
"Hey Nora, who'd Ren get paired with in the end?" he turned toward the most hyper member of his team, who was still trying to get Weiss to talk to her. The white haired girl was having none of it
"Oh, Ren got paired up with Cardin" she leaned in closer and lowered her voice "I don't think either of them were very happy."
As she said this, Jaune scanned the room in the hopes of catching sight of the pair. Sure enough, they stood together, Cardin looking frustrated at the emotionless Ren. "Can't say I envy Ren's position, however he is probably the best one to be subjected to this." Nora looked like she was about to object. "Nora, just because you'd break his legs does not make it a good pair. And since I know you'll bring this up later, you're only losing Ren for one weekend. You can survive this."
"But Weiss is so boooooring!" came her response, more than loud enough for the heiress to overhear. "She said she doesn't even like pancakes! How can you not like pancakes!" At this, Weiss pointedly decided to look away, making sure that everyone saw her displeasure.
"Now, everyone is expected to be present and ready at the cliffs with your partner for exactly 4:00 PM this afternoon." All heads snapped back towards the front as Professor Port decided to finish off the rest of the instructions "This provides you all with 6 hours to prepare for this mission, which should be ample time. I need not remind you that you will need enough gear to last you for the entirety of the task, which should be at most two and a half days. All the gear will be carried with you however, so keep that in mind and only bring the essentials. You are now dismissed to go prepare."
Yang sighed as she continued to gather what she thought was necessary for the weekend. The task was made much more difficult than it should have been, given Weiss had yet to stop ranting about her partner.
"Unorganized, undisciplined, irrational, hyperactive…" No one was really paying attention to her anymore. "And to just rub it in Ruby and Blake had the luck to somehow still get paired together!"
Yang glanced at the pair, happily discussing how their weekend was going to go, what they could bring, who would carry what. Yang would be lying if she said she wasn't as bit jealous that Ruby had managed to pick her teammate out of all those names. Still, she knew she couldn't complain. Jaune might not be the best in a fight, but this assignment wasn't even about fighting. Besides, last night had shown Yang that she could have lots of fun just her and Jaune. You know, I should probably go meet up with Jaune to plan this out. I'll bring Weiss along too, she might actually shut up if she sees Nora doing something productive. Yang flopped off her bed, placing all the personal belongings she'd deemed necessary for the weekend into her bag.
"C'mon Weiss, let's go find our partners and leave these two to their planning." In return she received a thankful glance from Blake. Yang exited the room with a less than happy Weiss in tow, and knocked on the door across the hall.
"Just a second!" Pyrrha's voice sounded, and the door was opened a few moments later. "Oh hey, Weiss, hey Yang! Nora's just gathering the last of her belongings up." A glance through the doorway showed at least half of the room in disarray, with the ginger girl sitting in the middle of it. With a sigh, Weiss pushed her way over to the girl. Pyrrha turned her attention back to Yang. "Jaune actually just left. I believe he said he was going to start gathering some food. If you hurry you should be able to catch him."
"Thanks Pyr, good luck with your partner!" Yang turned and started down the hall towards the cafeteria. Good thing I went to check when I did. Nothing against Jauney, but I hardly trust him to pick out food for an entire weekend.
As she entered the kitchen, she was happy to see Jaune seemed to have only just arrived. "Hey partner! Already trying to run away from me?" She walked up, slapping Jaune on the back and making him flinch.
"Sorry Yang, I just wanted to come down and grab some food before all the others got here." He had a point, as Yang noticed that the kitchen was still largely unraided, meaning they were probably one of the first teams in here. "Anyways, I got some basics out already, wanna give it a look through and help me grab the rest?"
The two set to work grabbing out some food. "Canned food will probably be best, can't squish that. Maybe some fruit would also be good, to keep up energy." Jaune kept naming the best foods to bring while Yang went searching in the cupboard which had housed the cookies last night. Maybe both of the the had been hanging around Ruby too much.
The pair of blondes were just finishing gathering up the rest of their food just as Pyrrha, Weiss, Nora and the mysterious girl who Jaune still didn't know were entering. Nora, unsurprisingly, immediately went searching for sweets. "C'mon Weiss, marshmallows will be perfect! We'll have a campfire and everything! Not to mention they even match your outfit."
"Alright fine, but we need actual food as well." It seemed that the Ice Princess was finally warming up to Nora. Or, at least, had finally accepted had she was in for.
"Ohh, good idea Nora! Yang, lets grab some marshmallows as well!" Jaune set to work beside his teammate scouring the kitchen.
"Jauney, why would you need marshmallows when I'm already so soft and fluffy?" That made sure Jaune stopped his search, faced turned away so that Yang and Pyrrha couldn't see his reddening complexion. The pair burst into laughter, causing Jaune to turn to Pyrrha a betrayed look.
"Oh Jaune, lighten up," the redhead replied to his glare.
"You aren't gonna be stuck with this all weekend," he retorted.
"I'm just messing with you Vomit-Boy, now grab some marshmallows and let's skedaddle." With that, the pair headed out of the kitchen.
"Hey Yang, should we bring a tent with us, or just sleep in the open?"
"Well, if you want to bring a tent you can, but that also means you have to carry it along."
"Right, no tent. Should we bring a spare sleeping bag?"
"Just refer to my previous answer."
"Right, I think we'll do without a spare. Should we bring some firewood?"
At this, Yang stopped and looked at him incredulously. "Jaune, we are being sent into a forest. Why. Would. We. Bring. Wood. With. Us?"
"Sorry, just asking," he replied with a sheepish grin.
"Honestly, I know you're a bit scatterbrained, but that was bad, even for you Jauney." She slowed down as they reached the dorms. "Although, I guess that's to be expected when you have to spend so much time with someone as good looking as myself."
Jaune went to enter his dorm. "Just finish preparing your personal stuff. Let's meet back up at the cliffs, say, 3:30?"
"If you say so," replied the brawler, and with that closed her door behind her. Once again, Jaune was left wondering how he was going to survive a full weekend with her. He shook his head and decided he'd deal with it as it comes. Within his room, he was greeted by the sight of Ren preparing his gear.
"Oh hey, how's the preparation coming along?"
"Cardin's an idiot."
"Yeesh, that bad already? I really don't envy you, stuck with him all weekend."
"Yep." The ninja gritted his teeth as he put some finishing touches on packing.
"Still, better you than anyone else. I doubt Cardin will find anything to annoy you with, and it's not exactly like he was ever able to beat you in a fight."
Ren sighed, and put his now full bag on his bed. "That's true. Better me than any of you seven."
Jaune took a quick glance at the time, seeing it as just before noon. That was a bit of a surprise, seeing as he was more or less done packing already. "Hey Ren, I feel we could spare a couple hours now, seeing as we're both pretty much ready. How about we go into Vale and find something to eat real quick? Just the bros, my treat. Seeing as you got a raw deal from this, it's the least I can do.
At this, Ren finally smiled. "Sure, let's go." With that, the two friends headed out the door.
"Ah, I'm glad to see that none of you are late! Please, with your partner choose one of the launch pads marked with a color." Professor Port addressed the assembled first years, while Ms. Goodwitch supervised from the side.
Jaune turned to ask Yang. "Which color shall we choose?"
"Jaune. I'm yellow. Your yellow. We're picking yellow."
"Alright, alright, let's go yellow. No need to be mean about it."
"Now, the Ursa you will be hunting will be marked with the color you just chose. While it is highly unlikely you will run across an the Ursa of another pairing due to their territorial nature, we decided to cut the risk." Port continued to address the class. "Each of the launch pads has be modified to launch you to the general area of your prey. I ask that none of you attempt to alter your path, or you risk failing to find the beast, and as such failing the task."
The pair of blondes stepped on to their launch pad together. "I should warn you, students, if you and your partner do not keep together during this flight, it will only make this task more difficult. I suggest you do not break contact with each other until attempting to land."
"Ok Yang, how do you want to keep contact? Can we like, tie ourselves together? Oh, I see most people are linking arms and such, that seems like the easiest way."
The easiest way, but not the most fun. I might as well take some enjoyment out of this. Waiting until their pad was about to launch, Yang quickly stepped behind the rambling boy, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly. Before he could react, she leaned in and whispered into his year, "Time for liftoff"
"No wait Yang what are you doi-" The poor panicking boy was cut off as they were sent flying into the air.
Chapter 2 is already done, much sooner then I expected! Considering how much time I have to put into this (much more than I thought) I should hopefully be able to post the next chapter within about 3 days!
Thanks to all the people supporting the story, I was mainly expecting this to get lost within the large volume of fanfics, and even a couple responses of people asking for more! And of course I will supply.
'Til next chapter!
-Dunkacoke-