When Weiss had first entered Errol's lab, she certainly didn't expect to be so awestruck. Though if she had given it any prior thought, she likely wouldn't have been so surprised.

The lab looked as though a typhoon had torn through it, with random papers, food wrappers, discarded writing utensils, and empty vials scattered all over the floor and furniture, which included a couple of lab tables and stools, and a small cot in one corner of the room. What could have passed for pristine white walls at one point, were now marked with miscellaneous diagrams, notes, and formulas. In the far corner on the left, a pile of parts that looked to belong to a vehicle of sorts sat collecting dust. About the only items that looked to be in good condition were the various pieces of equipment meticulously organized on the lab tables. Scales, beakers, and vials for measuring amounts of Dust, a grinder meant to safely break down whole crystals into refined powder, a small lathe for shaping crystals, and various hand tools for carving, chipping, and inspecting, along with other devices Weiss had trouble recognizing. The left side of the room was taken over by two racks: one filled with Dust powders and crystals, many of which bore colors and shades that weren't seen in the common market, and the other lined with Dust rounds of varying caliber, including some that looked to be more fit for an artillery launcher. On the right, larger equipment took up the available space. This included a workbench bearing various sizes of bullet casings and machinery for constructing the rounds, and a device that Weiss had couldn't make heads or tails of; at first glance, it looked to be some sort of oven, yet it had large seals on the door and what looked to be various gauges next to a few dials.

In the middle of all this chaos, Errol sat at one of the center tables, hunched over his notebook, a microscope, and a small computer. So engrossed in his work was he, that he failed to notice the two girls entering the lab in the first place.

Weiss' next reaction had corrected that, when two large white mice scurried between her feet and towards Errol, eventually climbing up onto the young man's shoulders without any hesitation.

She'd practically gone into conniptions at that point, breaking Errol from his concentration and ended up forcing him and Ruby to assist her in cleaning up the area for the next twenty minutes. Though not without his own protestations, claiming he was nearing a critical juncture in his research.

During the cleanup, Weiss took a little extra time to examine the papers she had picked up, along with the writing Errol had left on the walls. During that time, she realized that Ruby and Yang may not have been exaggerating all that much when it came to Errol's capabilities; while she certainly understood much of what was written despite his terrible penmanship and shorthand, many of the concepts and designs threw her entirely off balance. Much of what he had written down seemed to reflect concepts and theories that researchers she personally knew at the SDC had spent years working on, yet Errol had put just as much, if not more detail put into them than the company itself had. There were conceptual formulas for Dust that could carry oxygen similarly to hemoglobin, force air to condense into a solid medium, and even alter the mass of affected objects. She found designs for advanced communication systems, an artillery shell comprised of smaller projectiles, and even what looked to be blueprints for the school's lockers.

It left Weiss with so many questions to ask the young man, and when they finally sat down, she did not hold back. Forgetting the reason why Ruby had brought her there in the first place, she began interrogating Errol on the designs scattered about the place. Each question she posed would devolve into a brief debate over the chemistry and mechanics behind his ideas.

Unfortunately, aside from any engineering feats that were mentioned, most of what the Dust experts were talking about flew right over Ruby's head, quickly leaving her bored. And so, as she would usually do when bored, Ruby began to roam around the lab, slowly drifting towards the shelf of Dust rounds. The other two in the room paid no mind to her, though; they were too engrossed in their own conversation.

As she approached the shelves, she began to take in how they were organized. Each row contained a specific type of Dust, with the columns separating out the caliber of the rounds. The pure vials of Dust were on the left, with the type of ammunition changing as one travelled along the columns. There were simple styles of rounds, with such labels as Electric, Gravity, Fire, and Ice. The names she did not equate to a simple element, Ruby figured, were Errol's personal mixtures; these included such names as "Lockdown," "Glacier," "Flash-Burst," and "Live Bait."

But Ruby's eyes were drawn towards a specific shelf, near the top. What set this apart from the others was the labeling for the ammo; the pure Dust canisters were labeled as "Hellfire," containing a lightish-red Dust that almost seemed to glow with power. Further along the shelf were only two varieties of solid ammunition: rifle caliber rounds and a few artillery shells, both labeled with the same moniker: "Piecemaker." This was what Ruby had been looking for. Slowly, she reached out for the rifle rounds, her desire to actually handle one of Errol's personal Dust rounds overriding common sense. As her fingers neared the ammo, she could feel the faint heat pulsating off of the rounds, warming the area around them. They were so close, just within reach if she stood on the tips of her toes.

"Don't touch that!" Errol suddenly shouted. Startled, Ruby jumped as far away from the shelf as possible and to the nearest safe spot she could imagine; namely, Weiss' arms.

Weiss didn't take this too well however. She could hear the stool she had been sitting on creaking under the increased weight. "Ruby, you dolt! Get off of me!"

Realizing how she looked at this point, Ruby quickly acquiesced, releasing her grip around her partner's neck and softly landing on the floor.

Errol's reaction, by far the most emotional she'd seen him get at that point, piqued Weiss' curiosity. "Is there something special about those rounds?" she asked.

With a dramatic flair, Errol pointed to the shelf containing the "Hellfire" dust. "That," he said, "Is the most potent, unstable, and dangerous Dust compound I've ever created. On its own, it generates an intense flame that flows like a cloud of volcanic ash, alters the gravity of objects caught in the flame, and has been outright banned for use by order of Headmaster Ozpin. As for the rounds, Shen and Ozpin have forbidden me from sharing how they work, along with the formula for Hellfire. What I can tell you is that they might be among the most powerful explosives in Remnant. The only time I've ever fired one of these things was during initiation last year, and the explosion wiped out most the Grimm we were fighting, reduced the forest temple to ruins, and almost killed Team CFVY and us."

As the monologue went on, Errol's voice seemed to fill with pride over his creation, touting the destructive capabilities it supposedly possessed. His audience could tell that even if his claims were exaggerated, he certainly believed in what he had made.

Dots began to connect in Weiss' mind, all the details she'd possessed beforehand finally making sense.

"That's the item the SDC has been hounding you about, isn't it?"

Ruby turned to her partner, confused. "What are you talking about, Weiss?"
Going into lecturer mode, Weiss began to elaborate. "Last year, I overheard my father speaking with some of the members of our board of directors. Apparently, they had been attempting to purchase the design and formula for a new explosive a student at Beacon had demonstrated during the initiation last year. Ozpin stonewalled them long enough for the student to get the materials patented and protected. Father was… annoyed, to say the least."

Errol chuckled at that last comment. "Oh, quite the understatement! You should have seen some of the offers they sent me. All of the zeroes on the checks they sent, high level positions in their labs, stock options!"
This was the first time Ruby had heard any of this. It was mind-boggling; the rewards he was mentioning sounded like the stuff of his dreams. "Why would you turn all of that down?" Ruby asked.

"It just didn't interest me. People like that would've wanted me to work on their own projects, restricting my own work, and I wouldn't be able to control how my inventions were used. Some of the materials here could cause some serious damage if they aren't properly cared for. And even then, I just don't feel like taking chances like that right now. I risked enough coming here two years early-"

"What?" Weiss asked flatly, the enthusiasm drained from her voice.

Ruby, feeling the need to explain, quickly turned to her partner. "Some of the professors from Beacon will scout out the training academies for new students. Professor Ozpin visited Signal while Errol was attending and snuck a peek at his notebook. He offered Errol an early acceptance into Beacon and a scholarship for his work."

Weiss was pinching the bridge of her nose at this point. "You stop a robbery and fail to catch the scoundrel leading it, while he gets his notes peeked at, and you both get in early. What in the world is wrong with that man?"

"I think you'll find that the headmasters of the major academies all have their quirks. Probably a requirement for the job." Errol said without hesitation.

Weiss was about to question that assertion when Errol's scroll went off, sending out a short series of beeps. Holding up his index finger to silence the girls, he pulled out the device and checked the message he had just received, reading in silence for a moment. Pocketing the device afterwards, he looked towards the partners, his face looking somewhat more serious than before.

"Sorry, but we're going to have to call it a night for now. Shen wants to go over potential mission assignments for the weekend with the team."

Ruby's eyes grew ever wider with that statement. "Missions?! You guys already get to go on missions?!"
Weiss turned to her teammate. "Of course they can. If you had read the school's handbook like I had told you to, you would know that after their first semester, students may elect to go on supervised missions with a professor, or unsupervised excursions with permission from the headmaster. Doing so allows them to gain real-world experience, and earn a modest sum for their work."
It was Errol's turn to look surprised at this point. "That's… almost word-for-word from the student handbook. You actually memorized it? I thought Shen was the only one with the patience for that sort of thing."

Weiss was fully ready to respond with her own barb against Errol, but he went right on talking. "Now, before I forget and you both leave, I have a little something-something for you, Ruby." Getting up and walking over to one of the various cabinets in the room, Errol extracted two boxes of what looked to be ammunition.

Ruby's eyes were sparkling with excitement over the gifts. "Are… are those… ?"
The young man handed over the first box, marked with a black circle surrounded by four arrows pointing inward. "Newly minted Propulsion rounds for Crescent Rose; should give her an extra kick in a pinch. And before I give you these," he gestured to the second box he carried, marked by a flaming skull, "I need you to promise to only use these as a last resort, 'you-will-die-if-you-don't-use-these' situation and only then. Do you promise?"

Nodding so fast her face became a blur, Errol carefully handed over the second box of ammo.

Her eyes practically shining as she accepted the gift, she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him in a bone-crushing grip. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Yrgh!" Errol could barely breathe as Ruby's iron grip tightened around his throat. Seeing that their host was uncomfortable and that it was time for them to depart, Weiss grabbed Ruby by the scruff of her cape and pried her off of Errol, dragging her out the door while bidding him farewell. As they left, Errol could still hear Ruby murmuring 'thank you' as they travelled down the hall.

Errol had smiled softly at the girls as they left his lab, though it faded as soon as he lost sight of them. Turning back to his table, he began packing up his equipment, storing some items into the table, while hiding other vials and his notebook in his coat.

With everything safely put away, he got up and left the lab, making sure to lock the door behind him. As he made his way back to team SBLE's dorm room, he pulled out his scroll and double-checked the message he had received. And as he read it, his curiosity only began to rise.

Andres hadn't spent much time with the girl he considered his best friend this past year; not that it was entirely his fault. Going to Beacon a year before your friends would do that to just about anyone. Combine that with some of the events from that year away, and the few times he had seen her before the start of the semester, he hadn't exactly been himself at the time.

But today was different. He'd had plenty of time to get over last year's troubles, his friend was here in front of him, and he was ready to listen to what she had to say. That was when he remembered; once Pyrrha started gushing, there wasn't much he could do to stop her.

Like a dam bursting wide open, Pyrrha had spent the past half-hour or so giving Andres every single detail of her interactions with her team's… leader (he still had trouble wrapping his head around the idea of Jaune being her boss) these past few days. Starting from the incident with Velvet in the cafeteria, the night on the rooftop, Jaune's dismissal of her aid, and the distance he had created between them since then. Every emotion, every thought, it all came rushing out in a torrent that threatened to overwhelm the armored warrior.

And through it all, he just sat there and listened. He didn't interrupt, he didn't judge, and he didn't look away. After a year's worth of avoidance, Andres wasn't going to let her go now.

Pyrrha had held up fairly well throughout her tirade, all things considered. But as she was winding down, Andres could see how bloodshot her eyes were with stress, the faint hint of tears building up in the corners.

"Every night this week, he comes back to the room just as the rest of us are laying down, and he just sits at his desk and starts working on his own assignments. No greeting, not a single word to us. And we'll wake up the next morning with him asleep at his desk. Whatever Cardin's doing to him, it's wearing him out. At this rate, he'll never be in shape for our first field assignment. I just… I don't know what to do."

Andres could hear her voice straining with each sentence; he'd never heard her sound so defeated before. Digesting everything that he'd heard so far was no easy task. He wanted to throttle both Jaune and Cardin. The former for brushing aside his partner's concerns so caustically, the latter for the never-ending troubles he seemed to keep stirring up. For a minute, Andres just sat there, thinking about how he could help his friend.

Sighing, he looked up at his friend with tired eyes. "Pyrrha," he said. "What do you expect me to do about it?"

He held up his hand, silently asking for her to allow him to continue. "He's your leader, your partner, your friend. He's gotten himself into this mess, and honestly, I couldn't care less about him. If he can't stand up to a worm like Cardin, then I don't know if he belongs here."

Pulling his friend up as he stood up, he grabbed Pyrrha by the shoulders. "But, I can tell that you care about him. So here's what you're going to do: you're going to go right to CRDL's room, drag your partner out of there, and talk some goddamn sense into him. And if he still won't listen to you, then I'll twist his head on straight and force him to listen. Got it?"

He could see that she was beginning to feel emboldened, but still, something held her back.

"I just… he said he doesn't want help. What if he won't…"

"Won't what? Let you help him? What the hell is he going to do to stop you? What is Cardin going to do? You are Pyrrha goddamn Nikos! Nobody in this entire school could keep up with you! What can they do to stop you?"

"Nothing?" She said, quietly, almost hesitantly.

"Speak up, I can't hear you."

"Nothing." Her voice was growing, her confidence rising.

"You still don't sound convinced. I asked you, what the hell can CRDL do to stop you?"

Standing tall and firm, looking directly into the eyes of her friend, she responded as though letting out a war-cry, "Nothing!"

Finally, a response he could get behind. A rare smile breaking across Andres' face, he pointed towards the exit of the arena. "Then what are you waiting for? Go get him!"

Grunting in affirmation, Pyrrha turned about face and marched towards her destination, the fire in her eyes rekindled.

As she turned the corner, Andres reached for his scroll, having felt it silently vibrate while he was giving his pep talk. He opened up the 'recent messages' application, and his eyes narrowed as he read.

Back in the freshman dorms, a pencil clattered to the floor, as its owner sighed and slumped in exhaustion. Turning around in his chair, with a sheaf of papers in his hands, Jaune addressed the other residents of the room.

"Alright Cardin, I've finished your team's assignments for Dr. Oobleck's class and our waivers for Professor Peach's trip this weekend are filled out," Jaune sighed, clearly exhausted both mentally and physically, "Now can I leave? You've been working me to the bone all week."

Cardin brought his hand up to his chin in mock thought. "Hmmm," he smirked, "You make a good point there, Jaune."

"I do?" Jaune gawked, not expecting the response he was given.

"The boys and I have been working real hard these past few days. So I'll make you another deal?" Cardin grinned with anticipation, "Since I'm feeling generous, if you help us out with one more thing tonight, you'll have all day tomorrow off. You can do whatever you want and we won't bother you."

Even after hearing those terms, Jaune knew in his gut that what Cardin had in store would not be pleasant. But he knew he had no choice but to play along at this point. Steeling himself, he looked his tormentor in the eyes with defeat and sighed. "What do need me to do?"

"Ah-hem?" Cardin grunted, wearing that same, self-satisfied smirk.

"What do you need me to do, sir?" Jaune sighed.

Leaning back in his chair, Cardin crossed his arms behind his head, resting his neck on his wrists. "It's pretty simple, actually. All I need you to do is…"

*Knock-knock-knock*

A light tapping came from the door, bringing the conversation to a grinding halt. The boys in the room all looked at each other confused; nobody expected anyone to come calling at this time of the evening.

*Bam-bam-bam*

Whoever it was at the door was evidently becoming impatient, the knocking having grown louder. "Will someone get the door?" Cardin demanded.

Russell, as the closest person available, grumbled as he moved for the door, the knocking continuing to resonate through the room. As he opened the door, all Russell saw was a shock of red hair, before the person in question grabbed him by his collar and brought him down to her level. His own eyes, wide with shock, stared into the angriest pair of iridescent green eyes he'd ever seen.

"I need to speak with Jaune." She was calm. Almost eerily so. Russell could see a cold, cold fire burning behind her eyes and he desperately wanted not be the one to get burned.

Quickly nodding, he moved out of Pyrrha's way as she stormed past him. Her gaze softening as she caught sight of Jaune, Pyrrha all but flew to him, grabbing him by the sleeve of his hoodie and pulling him up out of his chair.

"Pyrrha? What are you…?" "Not now, Jaune. I need you to come with me." Her tone of voice was the embodiment of silk hiding steel, soft with a strict undertone that would not condone any protest. As she moved to drag her partner out of that den of wolves, she felt a large hand clamp down on her shoulder.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Cardin smirked, feeling quite in control of the situation at hand. Had he bothered to pay more attention to his surroundings, or the panicked reactions of his teammates, he would have noticed some of the smaller metal objects lying around begin to slowly rattle, a faint black aura surrounding them. He did notice Pyrrha's eyes harden once more, fixing an icy glare straight into his own eyes.

"I'm taking my friend," she spat the word at him with emphasis, "back to our room. Now take your hand off me, and let us leave." There was no waver in her voice, no hesitation in her eyes; she meant to leave with her leader and she wasn't going to let Cardin stop her.

"Now I can't do that just yet. Jauney-boy here still needs to run a few errands for me. And I'd hate to see what'd happen if he wasn't able to lend a hand." He mockingly stated, practically begging Pyrrha to respond with her following question.

"What are you talking about, Cardin?"

"Well, I suppose it won't hurt to let you in on this, seeing as Jaune told you first. I was just minding my own business the other night, enjoying my thoughts with a nice breeze from the window, when I overheard the most peculiar conversation coming from the roof. You're offering to help the poor guy, to personally train him, and how does he respond?"

Dread filled Pyrrha's heart, as she vividly remembered that conversation; the moment everything had changed for team JNPR, for her and Jaune.

"He tells you everything: how he didn't go to combat school, how he faked his transcripts, how he lied to get his way into a Hunter Academy. I had to admit, I was impressed. He's either the bravest, or the dumbest person in the kingdom if he thought he could make it here without any prior training. So, out of the kindness of my heart," he said with false remorse, "I decided to give him a hand. He's helping me and the boys out now, learning valuable skills, getting the best tutoring, and in return, I make sure Madame Goodwitch doesn't find out about his 'status.'"

It all made sense to Pyrrha now; at the very least, Jaune had to know that being caught entering a Hunter Academy under false pretenses came with harsh punishments.

"Now, I get that you don't want to see him leave. I don't either; he's been such a good friend these past few days, I couldn't bear to see him go." His smile started to turn predatory at this point. "So, how's about we work out a little arrangeme-"
A swift motion removed Cardin's hand from Pyrrha's shoulder, followed up with an open hand striking across his cheek.

"No," the red-trussed warrior stated. A black haze slowly began to build up around the large boy's armor. "There will be no more arrangements, no more late nights helping your team out with your work, and no more blackmailing my friend."

"Oh? So what's keeping me from ratting out our friend here, then?" Cardin was finding it difficult to adopt a more threatening posture, as his armor seemed to have grown quite stiff at the moment, but he managed as best he could.

"It's simple. You tell Professor Goodwitch about Jaune, I tell her about your actions regarding Jaune's status. And I know she takes matters such as these quite seriously. So here are my terms: after tonight, we part ways. Our two teams never speak to each other again, barring any assignments from the professors. We will not bother each other any longer. You stop harassing my friends, and my friends will stop humiliating you. Whichever team breaks this truce first will not be able to complain about any retaliation. Is that acceptable?"

Jaune was stunned, to say the least. He'd never seen anyone speak to, let alone strike, a bully like that in his entire life. It was… inspiring, to say the least.

Pyrrha did not wait for Cardin's response. After delivering her ultimatum, she turned on her heels and grabbed Jaune's shirt as she pivoted, moving towards the door with her partner.
"Good," she spat with venom at the other boys in the room. "We're leaving, Jaune."

"Ow! Hey! Pyrrha! Not so hard!" Similar protests were heard as the two travelled down the hall away from the offending dorm.

As they left, Cardin felt the pressure on his armor lift, feeling the freedom of movement return to his limbs. The other boys in the room turned to look at their leader.

"What the hell are you looking at? Get our stuff together. If that uptight bitch thinks she's going to get away with this, she's dead wrong. And instead of watching from a distance, that little cheater's going to get a front-row seat to the show. Now c'mon, we've got wasps to catch."

Over on the other side of the building, in the second-year dorms, another group of students was having their own private conversation. There was only one rule the group was looking to enforce at this time to keep it secret:
"No guys allowed!"

Coco's voice echoed through the halls as the door to team CFVY's room slammed shut in front of Shen.

The young man just stood there for a moment, bewildered, before the door cracked open again, with his fashionista friend poking her head out.

"Sorry Shen, but this is something Seph needs to work out with some girls. A boy just broke her would only make things worse." It almost sounded like something plausible to Shen, but he could tell there was one other thing on Coco's mind.

"Also, Velvs and I finally have some other chicks to hang out with, trade beauty tips, gossip. All that girly stuff you really shouldn't be listening to, alright?"

That fit better with what the boy knew.

"Don't worry about her. Velvet and I know how to perk her back up, it's impossible to stay sad with Yang and Nora around, and Blake can… um…"

Shen just raised an eyebrow at that one. He didn't even need to open his mouth to get his point across. Coco simply frowned when her words failed her.

"Eh, she's good moral support. Either way, you worry about your own stuff, and we'll worry about her. Okay? Now shoo!"

The door shut again, much more gently this time, and as the lock on the inside clicked shut, Shen turned towards his own room. He knew he wouldn't be able to argue with Coco about this. He'd known her almost as long as he'd known Errol, and she knew how to perfectly get under his skin and pick apart any arguments he might have, just as he would to her.

So instead, he turned his focus to his scroll, checking any messages he might have had.

Sitting at the top of a pile of spam, ads, and surveys, was a mission request from Professor Peach. Opening it up, he saw that the professor was sending the first years on their yearly trip into the forest of Forever Fall and required a team to go in and clear out any of the older, more dangerous Grimm present in the area. He knew his team, perfectly suited for scouting and clearing, was going to be her first choice. Sephria would allow them to move silently through the forest, while Errol and Andres could bring down just about anything they could find. Shen's own abilities would only serve to better enhance that synergy, ensuring they could finish the job quickly and without major incident.

As he was running scenarios and simulations in his head, he felt a buzzing in the ammo pouch on his belt. Knowing what it most likely meant, Shen hurried to his own dorm, quickly entering, then locking the door behind him. He raced over to his own desk in the room, while reaching towards the pouch. He drew out a smaller black scroll, much different than the standard-issue most students possessed.

Pressing his thumb to a small pad on the device, the scroll opened up, revealing a newly received message.

Opening the message, Shen's eyes grew wide at the sender, someone he hadn't had contact with in quite some time. Returning his focus to what was important, he panned down to the main body of the message and read. The look only became more intense as he read, understanding what it was he was looking at and why he had received it in the first place.

Knowing what needed to be done, he set the scroll down and closed his eyes, reaching out with his aura. His mind stretched out and silent images began to flow into his brain: Weiss speaking in one view, with Ruby off to the side, and in the other, Pyrrha walking away with from the viewer with a purpose.

He exhaled, closing his mind off and letting the images flow away, before he reached for his regular scroll and penned a text to his other teammates. "I'll talk to Seph about this after she calms down," he thought to himself.

He looked down at the text before he sent it, making sure it wouldn't look out of place to Weiss or Ruby if they happened to read it, before hitting send.

Across campus, two scrolls rang out with different tunes, both reading the same: 'Got a new mission for the weekend. Also, we need to work on our extra credit project tonight.'

AN: Wow, it's been WAY too long since I last uploaded. Another volume came and went while I was monkeying about, with some big questions answered, new questions coming up, and an overall great 4th season.

Couple of things this means for the fanfic: some of the details that came out this volume forced me to rethink some of my future characters and their designs. In addition, I came to the realization that my OC's names can spell a color (I was just too dense to see it). I went back to the older chapters and changed a few things, and now Team SABR has become Team SBLE (Sable, as in the black for a coat of arms). A nice contrast to Team STRQ, I like to think.

So, the Jaundice arc (pun completely intended) is going in a slightly different direction, thanks to Andres' interference. Ruby's got some new toys to play with and Weiss has some information to mull over. And Shen's up to something. You'll have to wait for the next chapter to see what he's talking about and how it relates to their mission. But hopefully, we'll be getting back into some action soon.

Dizzy, out!