Chapter 3: Partners and Monsters

"-Uuuuuuuck!" Jaune screamed as he flew through the air. This was NOT what he had signed up for. He flailed wildly as he tried to find something, anything to hold on to.

'Why didn't I just sneak in as a freaking janitor?!' he mentally screamed at himself as he physically screamed out loud.

That analytical part of him, the part that had been refined in countless fights, noted that Ruby's sister was flying in front him. It also noted that she was wearing a flight cap. A freaking flight cap.

'Where did she even get that?' that part wondered. The rest of him was too busy panicking to pay any kind of attention.

'Okay, Jaune, deep breaths. Relax. Ignore the fact you are going to fall and die horribly and no one's going to mourn you and you're going to-Okay, Stop! Seriously, Arc! Get it together!' He managed to stop himself from screaming his lungs out.

'Well, that's a start. Now, look around you. The other students also didn't have parachutes. They must have some kind of…"landing strategy", right?'

Jaune looked around him. He caught sight of Ruby in the distance shooting down to slow her descent.

'Huh.' He looked down at 'Ole Trusty. Yeah, that wouldn't do. He looked around him again. Somewhere far ahead of him, he noticed Schnee summon a freaking magic circle in the air below her with a sword and leapt off daintily.

He looked down at 'Ole Trusty. No, that definitely wouldn't do.

'Damn it, Arc, you're running out of time!' He had decided to pull out 'Ole Trusty and at least try to slow his descent when he noticed a red blur coming right at him. He didn't quite know what it was but it was coming right at him and instincts were screaming at him to get away.

'I hate my life. I freaking hate my life so much.'

He tried to twist out of the way but that was pretty much impossible in the air and at the speed he was moving at.

He breathed out when the spear hit the hood on his hoodie and carried him towards a tree, where it embedded itself.

"Oh, wow…Damn…I can't…I can't believe I survived that." He wheezed out. After a minute or so his heart finally decided to stop trying to escape his chest cavity.

"Whew. Now to get off this tree…" he said as he tried to pull the spear out.

Which is when he realized that he could not pull the spear out.

He sighed. "Well, now what?" Then he heard footsteps approaching his location.

'Great, knowing my luck, it's probably a monster or something.'

Weiss Schnee walked into the clearing.

'Ooh, damn, I was so close!'

Schnee raised her gaze to see the blonde fop from earlier dangling by a tree. Her lips curled into a small smirk.

"Nice timing! A little help here?" he asked her with a winning smile.

She looked directly into his eyes…and promptly turned around and left.

"Wait, come back! I seriously need a hand here!" he called out after her.

He sighed again. 'Okay, I might have gone a bit overboard earlier. '

"Jaune?" a voice spoke from beneath him. He looked down and saw Pyrrha looking at him with amusement. "Do you have any spots left on your team?"

Jaune smiled and nodded ecstatically. Sure, she wasn't her first choice for a partner, but if it got him off of this tree, he'd be willing to work with anyone. Besides, judging by her lack of a weapon, he guessed that this spear belonged to her.

'Maybe good things do happen to bad people!'

"Of course! I'd be happy to work with the person that saved my life!" he was talking about the spear. He wasn't sure he would have survived that fall without her timely assistance by means of hoodie impalement.

'Although that was my favorite hoody…'

She got him down and reclaimed her spear.

"Now, where to?" he asked Pyrrha. "I was kinda busy flailing like an idiot to pay attention to directions."

Pyrrha nodded. "Follow me."

"Gotcha."

They were about to leave the clearing when Jaune suddenly crouched, alert. He noticed that Pyrrha seemed similarly alarmed. He approved. That showed that his partner had good combat instincts.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked her.

Pyrrha nodded. "Gunfire. We should go."

Jaune nodded and they both began to move with renewed vigor. Pyrrha ran past a branch, causing it to wind back and move back to its rightful position like a rubber band. Jaune, already alert, managed to move his face to the side and the branch just grazed his cheek, leaving a thin cut.

Pyrrha stopped and looked back at her partner. "Jaune! I'm sorry!"

Jaune shrugged. "It's just a flesh wound!" he declared in his best British accent.

Pyrrha smiled. "Monty Python?"

Jaune smiled back. "Yes! Glad to see my partner has good taste!"

Pyrrha shook her head amusedly before giving her partner a serious look. "Why didn't you activate your Aura?"

Jaune gave her an odd look. He'd heard of Aura, of course, but he, just like most 'hunters', assumed it was a fairy tale or some plot device in movies. Of course, there was the occasional drunk 'hunter' that swore it was real and that it had save their lives but most tended to leave them alone.

"Isn't that just a plot device?" he asked her.

Pyrrha frowned. "Jaune…Do you know what Aura is?"

He nodded. "Sure do. It's a plot device that authors use in their works to justify their characters being shot at and carved up and not dying."

Magical forcefields were completely illogical and silly. Not like Dust and its magical properties which actually made sense.

'Huh. Actually, when put like that, both sound illogical. Then again, considering my line of business, I have no right to say anything.'

Pyrrha's frown deepened. "Jaune…Aura is real."

He snorted. "Right."

'Well, if it helps her deal with this who am I to deny her that?'

Pyrrha glared at him. "Have you ever felt like someone's been watching you when you can't see anybody around you?"

He thought back to previous cases and the many creatures he had encountered.

"All the time." He answered somberly.

"That was your Aura." Pyrrha informed him.

'Nope, I'm pretty sure that was a very angry monster from beyond human understanding!'

"With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals." Pyrrha continued with her explanation.

"What even monsters?" Jaune asked skeptically. That would certainly explain how he could spend an entire ammo clip on some creatures only for them to get right back up.

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity."

Well, it made sense. For a plot device.

"They are the darkness and we are the light." Pyrrha finished.

That last bit resonated with him and his constant struggles against the various creatures that roamed the night.

"I can agree with that."

Pyrrha nodded but she added: "Yes, but we should never forget that everyone has a little bit of both in them."

Jaune closed his eyes. "Indeed."

Pyrrha smiled. Her partner had a keen mind and seemed to grasp ideas quickly.

"Now keep your eyes closed." She told him.

Jaune seemed confused. "Why? You're not gonna kiss me are you?"

Pyrrha blushed. "No! I'm just going to awaken your Aura!"

Jaune frowned. 'I swear to Monty, if she slips me a pill or something I'm going to shoot her a little.'

Pyrrha released some of her Aura and began to intone: ""For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

Jaune shivered at this. It wasn't uncomfortable or unpleasant. It just…It resonated with something deep inside him.

"Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." Pyrrha finished.

Jaune felt something awaken inside him and snapped his eyes open. He felt…He felt alive. Stronger than he ever had.

'Maybe there's something to this Aura thing after all.'

Then he saw his partner hunched over. "Pyrrha? You alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I just used up a lot of my Aura to awaken yours. You have a lot of it." She replied.

Jaune smiled at her. "Good to know." He said as he examined his glowing hands.

"Well, then, shall we go on, m'lady?" Jaune asked his partner in the most pompous way possible, even bowing a little.

Pyrrha smiled. "Indeed, good sir. Let us continue." She replied in an equally pompous manner.

'Things are finally looking up!' he thought to himself. 'And hey, is that it?'

He looked at the entrance to the cave. "Think this is the place?" he asked his partner.

"Hm...I doubt it." Pyrrha replied while examining the drawings in the cave walls. Jaune frowned and looked at the pictures. It looked a like a group of men fighting some kind of scorpion.

'I'm gonna take a random stab in the dark here and say that those guys have never heard of Raid.'

"You're right. I don't think this is the place, but…"

"But?" his partner asked him.

"I also think we should check it out." He replied. He didn't know much about Grimm, but he knew that any of them could kill a man and he had a duty as a hunter to protect his fellow man from monsters and the like. Jaune pulled out a flashlight from his rucksack.

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

He nodded and walked in.

Pyrrha followed after him.

"The last pair has been formed, sir." Glynda informed Ozpin.

She looked down at her scroll.

"Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy…I can't possibly imagine those 2 getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Ms. Nikos. I'm disappointed with the boy so far, to not even know what Aura is…"

Ozpin just smiled.

"I guess we'll find out soon if he deserves a place here. At their current pace, they should reach the temple in a couple of minutes." She continued.

Then a thought hit her. "Sir, what did you use as relics this time? Ozpin?"

"Hey what is that?" he asked.

Pyrrha examined the glowing point before them and frowned. "I'm not too sure."

They had been looking around for some time now and she was starting to think that the cave was empty and that they should get out.

"Think that's the relic? It's gold and it glows!" So saying, Jaune reached for what he believed to be the relic.

The "relic" moved out of reach.

"What the hell?" Jaune wondered before pointing his flashlight at the "relic".

Yang suddenly gasped as she heard a loud, girlish scream.

"Blake, did you hear that? Some poor girl's in trouble!"

Jaune did not know what the thing was chasing them was but he didn't think it wanted to offer them tea and crumpets.

"Run, Pyrrha, run!" he screamed at his partner.

"It's a deathstalker! A deathstalker!" his partner yelled back.

"How do we kill it?" Jaune tried to ask before he was flung into the sky by the Deathstalker's tail.

"AAAIIIEEEE!" Jaune screamed.

He was truly beginning to hate the sky. And, hey, was that Ruby falling out of the sky?

In spite of his unplanned flight, he smiled. At least he wasn't the only one.

Then he remembered how she had landed perfectly fine without spear assisted help and he sighed. 'Why is everyone in this messed up version of Disneyland so much better than me?'

That was when he noticed that Ruby was not shooting and her descent wasn't being slowed down by anything.

Applying his admittedly limited knowledge of physics, he realized that-

'Balls!'

-he was going to crash into her.

"FOREEEE!" he tried to warn her. Ruby turned towards him and her eyes widened.

'Oh, this is just not my day.' Was his last thought before he crashed into Ruby and both of them flew towards a tree. He twisted in midair, hoping to cushion the blow the small girl.

They both slammed into the tree (although Ruby had gotten lucky; she slammed into him rather than into the tree directly like he had.) and they both fell into a branch.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" he heard a voice.

"I…" yet another familiar voice, but he was too disoriented to tell.

He was trying to get up when he swore he heard a cowgirl.

"YEE-HAAAAW!"

"Aww, it's broken."

Okay, seriously, what the hell was going on? He managed to get up and rubbed his eyes, opened them and examined the scene before him.

Then he lowered his eyes, rubbed them again and looked up again.

'This is really happening, isn't it.'

Why was there an orange haired girl observing the carcass of a Grimm? He also noticed that Ribbons and Ruby's "sister" were there.

"Nora! Please, don't ever do that again!" a new voice said.

Jaune looked at the source of this new voice and noticed a girl(boy?) with pink eyes running towards the girl by the carcass.

The orange haired girl ignored the new girl and ran towards what he assumed was the temple. "Oohhh…" she said before snatching rook from a chess set.

"I'm the queen of the castle! I'm the queen of the castle!" she squealed joyfully.

'Well, at least someone is happy. Also, is that the relic? Seriously?'

"Nora!" the pink eyed girl(boy?) yelled.

"Coming, Ren!" The girl, now identified as Nora, yelled back before dropping the queen piece and taking a rook before skipping off towards the now identified Ren.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Ribbons asked.

"I…" the "Sister" tried again.

A loud screech interrupted her and Pyrrha appeared in the scene, still running away from the Deathstalker.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled at her.

"Jaune!" she yelled right back.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled as she managed to jump out of the tree.

"Ruby!" the "sister", now identified as Yang yelled right back.

The 2 "sisters" hugged.

"Nora!" Nora screamed as she jumped between them.

'Did we…Did we just reenact a scene from Shrek?'

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Ribbons pointed out the obvious.

Jaune moved back when he saw Yang tense up and freaking fire burst around her.

""I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" she suddenly yelled.

It seemed to have its intended effect. Everyone fell quiet.

"Umm..Yang?" Ruby tugged on her "sister's" sleeve.

"What?!"

Ruby pointed up, where they all saw Weiss Schnee hanging on a gigantic bird's talons.

Jaune's eye twitched. 'Today's Tuesday, isn't it? I know that this kind of crap can only happen on a Tuesday.'

"How could you leave me?!" Schnee called out from her vantage point.

"I said jump!" Ruby yelled back.

"She's gonna fall." Ribbons once again stated the obvious.

"She'll be fine." Ruby replied with exaggerated cheer.

That was when Schnee began to fall.

"She's falling." Ren supplied most helpfully.

Well, she could summon magic circles, right? Right?

'Damn it all!' and he pushed against the tree with all his might and leapt after the heiress.

"Oof!" he grunted as he managed to catch her midair.

"Hey, there, darling!" he told her with a forced smiled on his face. "I always knew you would fall for me someday!"

The heiress seemed speechless. Heck, she wasn't even glaring at him. In fact, she was looking down.

Yeah, he was that good.

'Look down, dumbass.' The analytical part of his mind informed him.

He looked down and realized 2 things. One, he was a frigging idiot. Two, He was a frigging idiot.

"Meep." Was all he managed before gravity reared its ugly head.

'Damn it, Arc, protect the girl at least!' He twisted and held her in such way that he would fall first. With some luck, he would cushion the fall for her.

"Gah!" he breathed out when he slammed into the earth. 'I've been failing way too much in these last moments.'

"Oof!" Schnee grunted. Jaune landed on his back and Schnee had fallen on his stomach.

They both took a moment to catch their breaths.

"My hero." Schnee suddenly said dryly.

Jaune managed a smile. 'More potential for another smartass!' he mentally cheered.

"You know what, you're alright." He told her.

Schnee huffed and looked away. "And I guess you are not without redeeming qualities."

"That has got to be most roundabout way of expressing gratitude that I have ever heard." Jaune replied with a wide grin on his face.

Schnee huffed again.

"Oh, and by the way, not that I enjoy having a cute girl on top of me, but would you mind getting off?" he asked.

"What?" she asked before realizing that she was basically straddling him. "WHAT?!"

"Why, you! Taking advantage like that! You're the worst!" she screamed at him and slapped him before getting up and storming off.

'The hell happened to having redeeming qualities?'

Jaune groaned. "Gah, my back."

And then the realization of what had happened hit him.

'I'm alive... I'm…alive?!' No normal human should have survived that with just a couple (he winced, when his felt his stomach. Okay, a lot) of bruises. He wouldn't even be surprised if he had a few cracked ribs. Still that should have hurt far more.

He looked down at his glowing hand. 'So this is Aura, huh?'

He smiled gleefully. 'Oh, this is going to make hunting so much easier!' he mentally declared as he began to remember all the creatures he had faced and how much they seemed to surpass humanity in terms of physical prowess. His good mood was ruined when he looked at where the heiress had gone and remembered that they were still being chased by 2 huge monsters that really seemed to want to ruin his day. Still, it seemed as though Weiss had somehow managed to freeze the Deathstalker in place for a while.

He also noticed the overgrown bird coming towards them.

Jaune looked at the assembled people. "Guys, that thing's circling back! Any plans?"

"There's no reason to stay around. Our mission was to retrieve a relic." Weiss commented. Jaune noticed that she was pointedly not looking at him.

"She's right. Let's just grab one and go back to the cliffs." Ruby added.

"Run and live, huh? I can get behind that!" Jaune declared before taking a rook. Ruby nodded and took a knight.

"Time we left." Ren said as soon as every pair had a piece.

"Right!"

"Run!" Jaune yelled.

"Oh this is just great!" Yang screamed as the Nevermore followed them through the air.

"Nora, distract it!" Ren yelled.

Nora pulled out a grenade launcher and began firing at the Nevermore.

'Is that a freaking grenade launcher?' No, he wasn't jealous. Seriously. He did not feel emasculated. At all. Really. Why would you even think that?

Still, Nora's volley of purple death seemed to be doing its job. They might just get out of this!

And that's when the Deathstalker popped out.

'Damn it, Arc, don't jinx it like that!'

He cursed and jumped towards Nora, who was still firing at the Nevermore, unaware of the hungry, hungry Stalker. He swore and turned around, running toward Nora and the Stalker while reaching into his belt.

"Nora, get down!" he yelled. Startled, Nora did just that and Jaune threw 2 concussive grenades at it.

The grenades bounced off lightly against the Stalker's head and exploded, causing the Stalker to stagger back, dazed, giving Schnee enough time to grab Nora and use her Devil May Cry magic to take Nora to relative safety. Jaune smiled grimly and threw another grenade at it, this time aiming right under it, hoping that its huge size would contain most of blast and maximize the damage done.

The concussive grenades wouldn't be so hard to replace but the RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenade he had just thrown would be expensive to replace.

'Man, it's a good thing I actually managed to find my locker.'

BOOM!

His eardrums were ringing and he everything he saw seemed to be out of place but he still ran forward. He could still hear the thing shrieking (even though the sound was heavily distorted) so he knew his job wasn't done yet.

'I hate my job.'

He pulled out 'Ole Trusty and tried his best to aim the thing's legs, which was made all the more difficult due to his shaky vision and the creature's frantic movements.

'Wait for it…'

Fortunately, his was a shotgun. He breathed in…

And he pulled the trigger. Not with normal bullets, no. That wouldn't work, judging by its carapace. Loaded with what he had come to call "Frosty" bullets, he fired.

'Gotta love that pump action!'

The Deathstalker's front legs froze and it stumbled. Jaune grinned and reached for another round when his vision restored itself and noticed the tail being reared back.

'Oh, this is going to suck.'

He bent his knees, preparing to throw himself to the side, even knowing that it was too late when 2 blurs flew diagonally from 2 sides, blocking the tail.

Jaune smiled and finished reloading. No Frosties this time. Incendiary rounds. And he aimed for the hopefully soft underbelly, hoping to kill the thing.

He pulled the trigger and immediately jumped back, avoiding the explosion of his buck shot.

The Deathstalker shrieked and reared back, causing the ice to crack

'Are you serious?! How much ammo do I have to unload on this bitch to kill it?!'

It left a bitter taste in his mouth but he knew that he'd failed. He had used up most of his special ammo and didn't think he'd be able to kill it with what he had left.

He turned and ran after Ribbons and Ren.

"Hey!" he called out while running. "Thanks for the assist!"

He wasn't too sure but it seemed as though they'd nodded back. Oh, well, more important things to worry about. He heard the ice shatter and the scuttling of legs.

He frowned and began to reload his gun. It probably wouldn't do much if the amount of ammo he's wasted on the thing was any indication but it was his best chance. Besides, shoot it enough and it would die, right?...Right?

…Right?

'Man, why are all my cases so weird?'

AN: Whew! Finally done. This chapter was difficult for me to write, as it's the first action scene I've ever written. Thoughts?

Also, chapters won't usually be this long; I was originally planning to separate it into 2, but eh, what the hell.