"Hey Amar, what do you like most about being married to my sister?" a much smaller Jaune asked his "new" big brother. Amar had been picked up by his eldest sister Bianca after they met each other on a bullhead ride, he had helped her with her motion sickness and things clicked together after that. Jaune liked him if he was a little spaced out sometimes, but he trusted him like he trusted Grandpa and Dad.
"I like how I can be the one who helps her when she needs it." he smiled back down at his "little brother", he was a tall tanned man from Vacuo who visited Vale on what soon became a vacation of a lifetime. "There are very few who can truly lend a shoulder to cry on when it comes to your ultra-cool sister, and I'm happy to be that man!"
"Woah, you're so cool! But if I had my way big sis would never be sad!" he shouted, pumping a fist into the air as Amar laughed heartily.
"Yeah, you and me both kiddo." Amar raised his head as Jaune's dad and grandpa came over to them. "Oh hey Nicholas, I was just telling Jaune about how great it is being Bianca's husband."
Jaune's dad chuckled. "Yeah yeah kiss-up, don't think you're scoring points in my book just cause you got our naive little Jaune wrapped around your finger."
"Dad! Don't talk about big bro like that!" Jaune whined as he stepped in between them, there was a moment of silence before the three older men burst into uninhibited laughter.
Jaune woke up blearily as his scroll vibrated loudly against his head, he needed to get up earlier than anyone else if he was going to get ready without everyone else annoying him. He picked up some of the things he would need and lumbered towards the door where a half-conscious Petunia and overly-conscious Oobleck stood slumped and at attention respectively near the door.
"My boy, I'm assuming you wish to evade the stampede of females when the normal wake up call is announced?" Oobleck whispered quickly, making her words come out in a near hiss.
"Yeah, the sooner the better." He answered. She hummed and opened the door letting him through. He stepped out into the hallway and almost immediately shuddered, do they not have heating in this damn building?
He quickly power-walked his way through the hallway and into the locker room where he got undressed for his shower. He let the warm water cascade down his body, a good hot shower did wonders for the mind sometimes. He breathed, 'I need to start this day off on the right foot, if I don't make a good impression now then it will be that much more of a pain to take care of later on.'
Part of him wanted to cry at the fact he was going to be put on a four man team, and he wanted to throw up at the possibility that they were some of his fangirls. God forbid that, he'd end it before the end of the first semester. Cracking his neck loudly he stepped out of the shower and dried off, with a towel around his waist he made his way over to some left out clothes. He quickly began to dress himself, mentally preparing himself for the day ahead of him.
0-0-0-0
Coffee, sometimes his most hated enemy and other times a gift from the gods. Today, it was a gift from the lords above as he peacefully sipped from a small Beacon cup as he chewed on his omelette. He sat mostly alone like usual, but his sparse company wasn't quite what he desired.
"So then there was this big Ursa! I'm talking like a Queen Ursa! And there were four of them!" shouted what he could only described as a pink-haired valkyrie sent to punish him for his misdeeds. Throughout breakfast she had pestered him with these tales and sucked down more pancakes than he thought the cafeteria had made in their kitchens!
"There wasn't even one Nora." muttered her Green-themed companion Lie Rin, a Mistrali if he had to guess. "And please, he's had a rough morning so avoid bothering him."
Finally, thank the gods above! An angel sent down to bless him with a modicum of space and sense! Lie Rin was who he wanted for a partner, someone with a stoic attitude and predisposition for silence would do wonders alongside a lone wolf like him.
"Ok Rinny, but that I still have one more story! Remember that time we..." Jaune tuned her out as he looked at Rin, she just stared back and seemed to pass on a shrug through her gaze. Well, at least she tried; he sighed as he finished up his food and sipped his coffee maybe this day wasn't completely ruined after all.
He looked around and saw Pyrrha swarmed by more fans than him, at least he had scared off some prospective people with a glare and a frosty attitude. Weiss, well, the less said about her the better. The big ugly ginger chick, Winchester, had been whispering about him to the other students resulting in a few glares. As for that Ruby Rose and her sister-
"Hey there, Lady Killer." A yes, the sister. Yang Xiao Long, he recalled. The chivalrous type and from the looks of it, the outgoing type. Not his type.
"Hello." He grumbled, not at all thrilled about being near her, especially right now considering the bubbly valkyrie. She took the seat next to him, serving to incite more discomfort from him. He just continued to focus on finishing his food so he could leave faster. He gave her no eye contact and barely acknowledged her presence outwardly.
"Hey, I think your friends here!" Nora told him, reaching out to poke him until Rin stopped her. Nora shrugged and focused her attention on the female blond. "Hi there! My name's Nora Valkyrie and this is Lie Rin!" She greeted before grabbing her buddy in a one armed hug. The quiet girl gave her a light wave of hello. "What's your name?"
"Yang Xiao Long. Nice to get a warm greeting." She she said a bit dryly, giving Jaune a barely noticible sideways glance. "You and Lady Killer over here friends?"
"Hardly." Jaune muttered. It was audible enough for the four them to hear despite the surrounding noise of the whole cafeteria.
"Yeah. He's hardly heard our super cool saga! Oh, you haven't either!" She said, bouncing up excitedly at the prospect of more listeners and potential friends. Rin sighed, knowing full well how Nora would get into an over the top detailed story again and she would need to fact check. Even an over serving of pancakes wouldn't stop her.
Jaune wouldn't stand for another recapping, especially near the other blond. He was about to slide down to finish his meal at a distance from the group until another body plopped down next to him, this body belonging to Ruby Rose. Tolerable alone, not here. "Hi Jaune! Made some new friends?"
"I-"
"You know more people?! That's wonderful! For the first few moments I met you, I thought you were a total sourpuss! Alright now miss~"
"Ruby Rose!" The reaper cheerfully answered with her mouthful of cookies.
"Alright Ruby Rose, lean in and listen to our tale..." and like that, Jaune's breakfast was ruined by the cacophony of a bubbly jabberjaw, a childish reaper, and a brawler who couldn't shut the fuck up with her puns and occasional innuendo's. How he envied to sit in the corner like that bookworm in black.
0-0-0-0
Jaune strolled down the locker rows trying to find his, it seems he couldn't shake his issue with losing things. He sighed once again, a habit more involuntary than his twitching, as he made another round. He saw Weiss and Pyrrha "talking", really it seemed to be a one-sided conversation with Weiss trying to get into her good graces, he looked her up after the locker room incident and found out she was quite famous. He could feel for her, what she wanted; she was a superstar champion that came all the way from Mistral to escape her fans but just found more here, and that was something he could sympathize with. Made interacting with her easier but not not easy.
"Hey Pyrrha, I need some help." He begrudgingly asked, cutting off Weiss's daydream or something. Said Weiss spun around and seemed caught between trying that same popularity talk with him and scolding him for interrupting her.
"What is it Jaune?" She asked before Weiss could say anything, he could see some relief in her eyes and Jaune was pleased he got his hunch right.
"Can you take a look at this? It says 636 but I can't find it." He asked, she took the paper, looked at her locker, thought for a moment, and pointed down the rows where the duo of Ruby and Yang stood there. He sighed, again, and thanked her for the help, but before he could go Weiss stepped in seeing her chance.
"Excuse me Jaune, I was just talking with Pyrrha about team assignments," Jaune's disinterested and borderline glaring look didn't deter her. "And I was wondering if you would consider joining with Pyrrha and I, with our combined power we could easily rule the school."
Jaune twitched slightly before putting on an overly sweet smile, he leaned in and near whispered. "Listen to me Weiss, I'd sooner eat my own hand and go home to my parents than ever consider joining a Schnee in anything. Schnee's are cruel, arrogant, gold-digging mafia-style criminal fucks hiding behind Atlas corporate laws to exploit innocent faunus."
Weiss looked dumbstruck but before she could say anything he finished. "I don't deal with criminals, and since I am neither stupid nor greedy, your honeyed words won't do shit to me." he looked at Pyrrha who stood awkwardly between the two like a friend caught in a fight between his friend and their parents. "Thanks for the help." He told the redhead before walking off.
He turned around just in time to hide another tic and walked over to his locker near Yang and Ruby. When they saw him approach Ruby looked excited while Yang scowled at him, she checked behind him to one Weiss Schnee who seemed to have stopped working for a moment.
"What did you do Weiss-cream?"
"Nothing, just told her how I feel." He barely managed to hide a smirk underneath his scowl. Instead, Yang was the one smirking.
"Can't say she didn't have it coming," she looked him up and down for a moment. "Look, you're a real downer but you seem to have moments. And you're Ruby's first friend so I wanna try and make a friendship work. But you really need to open up more. And I'm telling you if you hurt Ruby, I will hurt you, man or not."
"Asking me to open up right before a threat?" He asked sincerely. "And don't give me that "man or not" shit. Hurt me and I fry you." He gave warnings, not threats. She was taken aback and growled but said nothing and left grumbling something to Ruby.
She looked back at him apologetically. "Sorry, she used to take care of me when we were kids so she is kind of protective. I'm sure you have someone back home like that who acts that way around you?"
"No..." his lips thinned and Ruby took it as a sign to check her words from here on out. "Don't worry about it. Excuse me, I need to grab Tesla Sting real quick." He quickly equipped it and walked with her to the bullhead docks. He wasn't going to say anything and didn't want to, but she didn't feel the same.
"So, you anxious for initiation?" She asked him. He didn't even contemplate the question before shrugging.
"No, I'm ready for the grimm." He said, not really bothering to elaborate on his feelings further. It was true, he didn't fear the grimm. What he hated was the thought of a team. Working and fighting alongside women. That alone appalled him and he didn't even know the potential personalities he would get. He didn't dare think about the possibilities and probabilities.
"What about getting a team?" Ruby asked, annoying him with such a question.
"I'm not thrilled, we'll leave it at that." He plainly answered.
They boarded the bullheads quickly and everyone got situated, Ruby stayed by him as she couldn't find Yang. Meanwhile, Yang was seething as she looked on the two. She would ensure that Ruby and her would be partners, or at the very least that neither would get Jaune. She wanted to sympathize with this guy but he was so harsh. Dude needed friends, but she couldn't do it now and Ruby needed someone reliable in her eyes.
"Ugggghhhh." Jaune groaned, one hand muffling the sound as Ruby inched slightly away from him. "Don't worry, I won't vomit on you." He told her out of courtesy.
That was true, he hadn't vomited on a bullhead ride in years, ever since his mother wanted to curb that habit, but that didn't mean he didn't get sick as a dog on them. He prayed for the ride to take less time than he despaired that it would, but no such luck as he was stuck in a hellish vomitey purgatory for almost 30 minutes. 'Oh boy, and when we're done doing this I get to enjoy another trip!'
Thankfully, the bullhead landed soon after and he stumbled out while leaning slightly on Ruby. When his feet touched down he had to resist the urge to kiss the solid surface as he had done multiple times before. The teachers directed them over to some kind of pads and the students took their places on them, Jaune had a sinking feeling in his stomach and that was never good news.
Headmistress Ozpin strode onto the grassy hill sipping her customary cup of coffee. "Students, today you are gathered for Beacon's honorary initiation rights as hundreds have done before you. I would like to put some questions to rest at this moment: yes, you are getting your teams today."
Ruby whined at that but she continued. "Furthermore, your partner for the rest of the year will be the first person you make eye contact upon landing. And that brings me to my next point, your task will be to brave the Emerald Forest and retrieve some relics from within a temple at the center."
Landing? Jaune questioned in his mind, but he kept listening. "You will take these relics and return at a point transmitted to your scrolls so please remember to keep them about you. I wish you all good luck."
At that moment screams could be heard as, at the end of the row, a student was sprung from his pad and sent hurtling through the air at breakneck speeds. Oh you son of a bitch Ozpin he looked back at her half disgusted and half exasperated, she looked at him, smiled, and shrugged her shoulders then returned to sipping her coffee.
Soon enough he felt something under his pad click and he was sent on his way through the sky. Yep, that about sums this whole day up he looked down at the rapidly approaching ground and unsheathed Tesla Sting. He flicked it into its spear form and shifted himself so he was aimed at the treeline, I need to hook onto a tree and use the brush as a cushion. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy wholly, he slammed into the trees and branches and, while his aura soaked up a lot of damage, he could not see very well.
He shot Tesla Sting out hoping for it to catch something and it did, he carved a swatch down a very large tree's trunk making a splintering noise as he descended to the forest floor. Once more on solid ground this time he really did kiss it, he would have taken air sickness over terminal velocity any day. Now firmly on the ground he inspected his surroundings, trees, trees, and more trees he heard the rustling and crackling of leaves and twigs nearby and Grimm of course.
He sped off in the general direction -at least he hoped- of the temple, if he was being chased by Grimm then he needed a more open area. As the surrounding thicket slowly gave way to a more grassy hillside he could hear the distinct pop! pop! pop! of gunfire somewhere to his east, he contemplated, briefly, just to keep running and let whoever that was deal with it on their own. Unfortunately, his good side won out and he made for the unknown gunman who was currently engaged in what was possibly a life-or-death fight, the gunshots got louder as he closed in.
Deftly jumping over a small knoll he slid down the side of it and came to a clearing mostly surrounded by tall grass. In the middle he saw what could not have been anything other than a few beowulves currently in combat with one of his classmates. That girl in black who always deep in that book.
She flipped over one lunging at her and shot it in the back of the head with one of her dual katana's pistols. Two more came came at her at once with a claw swipe, but she used her two katana's to deflect and twist the grimm away for her. The grimm snarled in frustration at the girl's resilience but froze for a split second when they felt something else, a greater source of negativity.
The presence, being Jaune of course, made himself known by impaling one of the grimm in the spine before his gun shifted into the rail gun form, ignoring the monsters last few moments of futile struggle. "Move!" He yelled. The girl quickly flipped out of the way and he opened fired, blowing the other beowulf's head to pieces with his rail gun just as the first one he killed turned into black mist.
He quickly shifted his gun back into a the spear mode and looked towards what would be his new partner. They stared at each other for a second before nodding wordlessly. 'Not a bad choice,' were the words in their head. Both silent, independent types with little for socializing. They'd get along greatly.
"GRRAAAGH!"
Then the short quiet came to an end when the sound of a ursa blasted off by a shotgun came near them. They turned too the direction of the commotion and sure enough, they witnessed a ursa minor's skull caved in by one Yang Xiao-Long. "No one touches the hair!" She growled.
'Was she on fire?' Jaune wondered with a slightly confused stare at her somewhat smoldering and brighter appearance. Blake was probably thinking the same thing though she only showed it with an eyebrow cock.
Yang breathed in and out a couple of times before she looked normal again and turned to see her two other future classmates. "Oh, if it isn't the Lady Killer and -"
"Blake." The bookworm answered curtly.
"Cool. So you guys are partners?" They nodded and Yang turned to Blake with an oddly apologet smile. "Good luck then. He's the only guy here and he's completely frigid." She told her, ignoring Jaune's glare that would send a chill up many spines.
"I think I'll manage." Blake responded nonchalantly.
Yang gave off a small chuckle before the leaves of bushes behind her startled russle and she looked like she was holding back a pained groan. They could all hear the grumble of a famaliar voice, one that grated on Jaune's ears more than Yang's voice. "Who in their right minds just rush off like that?!"
From the foliage erupted one peeved Weiss Schnee. Jaune would've been more inclined to smile at Yang's bad luck had he not been in both of their presences at the moment. "Weiss-cream, maybe if you kept up with your legs instead of your mouth, you wouldn't be so behind. Seriously, are you gonna yap at me more than you fight grimm?"
Weiss wasn't focused on her by the half way point of her sentence. Instead, she and Jaune Arc locked eyes for a few seconds. The forest began to seem ice cold around them like their feelings for each other. Nothing but cold animosity. "Yikes, is winter coming early around here." Yang jested from the side. Even she felt at unease around these two.
"Let's go." Jaune robotically told Blake as he began to walk in the direction of the temples. He wanted to as far away from those two as possible.
0-0-0-0
The walk to the temples was tense, to say the least. Jaune and Weiss did their best to not even look at each other, their partners filling the gap between them. Yang tried to do joke around with the cold members of the group, but that proved futile which lead to her annoying Blake as of now. Blake mostly tried to concentrate on the objective, but Yang tried to rope her in with puns, jokes, and idle conversation topics which made Blake respond with curt answers.
'Man fuck today, this could not get any worse.' He sighed, no use in complaining now. Who knows, maybe they wouldn't end up on a team together, but knowing Ozpin she would do for sick kicks. He tried not to imagine what Qrow would say about teaming up with a Schnee, he always half-doubted his words on them but this turned out to be another example of why he should never doubt Qrow's... wisdom.
They eventually came upon a temple in the distance. "Aaaaagghh!" The scream of a teenage girl.
"Ruby?" Yang muttered to herself.
"Wwwwhhoooo!" The scream of an excitable young lady.
"The pink girl?" Jaune muttered. Those screams sounded like they were coming from behind them, topside. They could hear flapping too.
"CAW!"
That didn't sound any better. When the sounds got even closer and were able to be pointed out, the group looked upwards and not a few seconds passed before a gaint nevermore was overhead. And two people were falling from the sky.
"Somebody catch us!/Hi Rinny!" Were their simultaneous cries.
Two people were heard rushing to the groups direction and those people were Pyrrha and Rin. Instead, both the falling girls fell atop of Jaune with a yelp. The boy was taken by slight surprise since he thought someone else would the one to catch them.
He got back up with a groan. "Thanks Jauney/Sorry Jaune." Nora and Ruby said respectively as they helped him up. He just grumbled under his breath about women falling into his life and looked towards the temple. It now had a Nevermore perched on it.
"How the hell did you two end up on that thing?" Jaune finally asked.
"It's a long story. Wanna hear?" Nora asked with a bright expression. Jaune was about to quickly refuse, but stopped as he could hear something else coming towards the now group of eight. It sounded like a combination of scuttling and furious hissing. The group all turned back to the forest and from it burst an old deathstalker, the grimm's twisted version of a scorpion. It was charging right for them.
"Quick, make a break for the temple and find cover!" Jaune yelled as his weapon was set to the railgun mode. The huntresses with the lighter weapon fire ran ahead while Jaune, Nora, and Ruby where in the back as they provided cover by aiming at the deathstalker's legs and eyes to slow it down.
The group running at head where a little less safe than thought since the nevermore decided to cover for its kin with fire from above, shooting at the initiates with powerful feathers that it constantly regenerated. The deathstalker's three assailants had to hold back and make a priority for cover too. At the very least, they did enough damage to the ground based grimm to keep it at bay as they ran to cover too.
"We need a better position," shouted Weiss, who was currently launching icicles towards the nevermore to little effect. "I think our best option would be getting atop the temple as best we can!"
As much as he hated to say that she was right, this was not a good defendable position. "Nora! Rin! Cover our retreat from the deathstalker! Yang, you cover us from the Nevermore! Everyone else move it!"
He fired a shot at the Nevermore but that barely grazed it, it wasn't all that wounded but it certainly had its attention on Jaune. Nora and Rin engaged the deathstalker, he was hoping a tank like Nora could tough it out while Rin was too graceful to be caught. Still, he wasn't one to waste time so he ordered a full retreat to their little group of hunters-in-training.
0-0-0-0
Jaune dashed across the bridge, both of his brand-new friends hissing and cawing as they chased after his team and comrades. They had made it to the structure, just barely, and now he needed a plan. He saw the stone spire and large bridge connecting the structure to the land and he got an idea-
"Blake, Weiss, and Yang, with me! We're taking on the Nevermore from the tower!" He turned to see Pyrrha and the others on the bridge. "You guys fight the deathstalker! Use its weight to your advantage!" Did Jaune have a preference on who he worked with... yes. Did he have the time to follow his preference, no. They were the closest ones and almost automatically, he decided he would use them.
That tactic was an old favorite of Qrow's, she gained some amusement on tormenting the creatures and she would lure massive deathstalker's into places that their weight would collapse or otherwise incapacitate them. He never found it entertaining as much because he was usually the bait to reel them in.
He, alongside his team, clambered up the spire to get a better vantage point. Their feathered friend followed them up, shooting its spiky feathers into the structure and nearing goring Weiss and Blake multiple times. They got near the top and Jaune turned to Yang-
"Blast a hole and give us some cover!" he said, she saluted him and broke a whole in the wall giving her an unobstructed view of their adversary. "You think you guys can lure that thing into coming here directly?" He asked.
"I might have an Idea." Blake said as she connected her dual swords onto some form of rope. It was essentially a kusarigama now. She turned to Yang who nodded at the implicit idea of making the beast fly the way they wanted it to. They proceeded to leap out of the spire and split up around the spire. They were going to agitate the big bird into coming on over.
Weiss and Jaune exited the spire at its peak and were caught in the open wind. "Weiss, I need to charge for a moment, you'll have to buy time with whatever you can do."
"Hmmph, you're lucky this is essential to my survival." She turned away mumbling something about taking orders from Jaune to which he rolled his eyes. Schnees, just like how Qrow said.
She opened up a few glyphs as Jaune turned and primed his Tesla Sting. He needed this shot to have an extra punch so he turned on the dust reactor's secondary mode, he focused and lit his aura around him. From almost nowhere clouds appeared in a radius around the tower, despite the size of it thunder roared overhead as Jaune grit his teeth in concentration. Sweat dripped down his face as he tried to power his aura into something useful, he could feel it building overhead, so close yet maybe not coming in enough time.
"Dammit all!" he shouted, he tried to think of things that brought up memories. Images flashed in his head almost without warning, for he had opened the floodgate.
-His mother's disapproving glare when she caught him playing outside instead of reading on Atlas's "rich history"-
-The god awful dinners between his mother and father and his in-laws, the Goldmines-
-The night of the party, where he discovered his power and being swept away by the Atlas military-
-Gritting out those lies Ironwood printed on the cards-
-Punching Nicholas square in the jaw-
He roared mightily as the clouds overhead finally gave way as a spear of lightning crashed into the tower. It struck Jaune dead center and his aura began to work overtime in sucking it all up like a sponge. He didn't hear Weiss's scream of surprise nor did he see her go careening of the side of the tower, she was saved only by her glyphs as she created pads to land on before jumping inside with the others.
Jaune was deaf to all this as he channeled the garnered energy straight into his gun's reactor, the entire device glowed an eerie blue and loud sounds of gears whirring as well as more electrical sparking could be heard. He hefted Tesla Sting into his arms and aimed at the gargantuan demon, it circled overhead, apparently too scared to get within range of the lightning, but he needed for it to stop moving.
He squeezed the trigger and time seemed to slow, the blast barreled out of the gun in a long beam of blue light. It tore through the air incinerating any debris or small insect foolish enough to get in its way, the Nevermore had not time to react and the blast hit its wings at an angle and passed through to carve a swath through its chest. The creature screeched like nothing he had ever heard before and lifelessly fell into the cavernous pit below. As he watched it fall to its death he spared a look over at Pyrrha's team, they had collapsed the bridge and used its weight to send it squealing into the darkness alongside its dying friend.
He got down along with his team, too tired to do much than lifelessly walk like a doll with them, even after taking the idols. He didn't notice the glares Weiss gave them or the glances Blake made between the two or the worried comments Pyrrha and her team made. He was honestly ready for the bullhead ride home…
0-0-0-0
"Cressida Winchester, Russet Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, you will henceforth be known as Team CRDL (cardinal) led by Cressida Winchester!" Headmistress Ozpin announced causing the rest of the auditorium to cheer and clap.
Jaune, Blake, Yang, and Weiss took the stage with the second of them positively beaming at the opportunity to become team leader. Ozpin looked all of them over before smiling and announcing their team.
"Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao-Long, and Weiss Schnee, you have retrieved the black rook pieces and shall henceforth be known as Team ABYS (Abyss) led by Jaune Arc!" Jaune soaked in that information bit by bit, if he took it in all at once he would either faint or cause a blackout. Weiss looked like she was going to do much of the same as she swiveled her head, unbelieving, between Ozpin and Jaune. Yang looked okay, but her features seemed a bit forced. Blake took it all with indifference.
'Such a hopeful name... yeah, Abyss suits us perfectly.'
"Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Rin, you retrieved the white knight pieces and shall henceforth be known as Team RNNR (Runner) led by Ruby Rose!" Pyrrha congratulated Ruby while Nora and Rin took it all in stride as the auditorium clapped once more as they left the stage. They returned to their seats as Goodwitch informed them all of their dorm rooms (Team ABYS was room 775 while Team RNNR was 776).
They returned to their dorms and, while RNNR went about getting to bed, Jaune began to unpack his things. The air grew uncomfortably quiet, yeah, that's how I thought it was going to go.
"Look, I know this is bad. I am in no way competent enough to be a team leader, it should have been... someone else." Jaune, even though he did not like Weiss, could tell this whole team's dynamic has been thrown off. "I'm not sure if I can make this work, but I suppose we have no other choice."
Weiss didn't say anything but just unpacked, not looking at him at all while Blake silently nodded.
Yang started grinning slightly and turned to her new leader. "Ah, so you do have a glimmer of hope in you."
Jaune snorted to himself but there was no humor in it, 'Yeah, sure, whatever you say.' He set his alarm clock for 7:45 AM and fell into his bed, uniform ready for tomorrow...
AN: Shout outs to my beta, CoffeyJoe!
I changed the teams, I changed the teams. Would've worked on this earlier, but the forest scene kept at bay for a bit and I had other pursuits.
Howler66: never bother asking when I'll post. I'm erratic, so it's whenever I'm feeling up to it.
Dragon Blaze-X: counter arguments for your arguments:
1. Smut - not really counter argument since that isn't an argument either, but smut over plot in a plot story is lame. At least to me.
2. Women in power: I have no idea what your talking about with the 50 years thing. Women were always in power, both here and in other stories, so that argument dosen't make sense for any of the first male stories. Unless there was one you read that had women just come up in 50 years, but I haven't seen that one, so my argument wouldn't apply to that specific one.
Strudivant: My beta is coffeyJoe but i didn't think I needed to bother him for that chapter since my changes weren't that big.