Author's Notes


Another day of procrastination, another chapter. I really need to get back to my studies…

Enjoy!


Chapter 9: Initiation, Part II


Glynda finished her call with one of the professors overseeing the Initiation. Making sure the students were still safe, she addressed Ozpin.

"Both Peter and Ann confirmed Miss Mino observation. There is a suspiciously low number of Grimm towards the ruins."

"Guess Miss Mino earned a spot in Beacon even if she doesn't pass." Ozpin avoided Glynda's implied worries. "Would be a pity to fail such a promising bright mind. If only I was the Headmaster and my words were law…"

"Ozpin…" Glynda dangerously warned her boss, not in the mood for his antics and taking chances with the students.

"Have Peter, Ann, and Bart on stand-by, ready to interfere if necessary. Even if the teams are attacked by a bigger Grimm, they are not to act unless ordered."

"Are you sure about this?"

Ozpin nodded. "Even if a more dangerous Grimm lurks about, it should be nothing a full first-year team cannot handle. And we have three teams that reached the ruins."

"Twelve students, not three teams," Glynda corrected, "and nearly half of them are in our 'problematic' list."

"Problematic, not weak. Have some faith, Glynda. We won't let them to drown, but no need to turn around the boat at the first sign of turbulence."

Ozpin gaze fell to his own scroll tablet, as the aforementioned twelve students approached the ruins.

-o-

Kohaku froze. "Anyone heard that?"

The group was currently on the bridge connecting the ruins to the forest's ledge. At Kohaku's words, the group trained their ears to the surrounding. But only the wind blowing through the chasm below was heard.

"What did you hear?" Pyrrha asked, her shield and javelin ready to strike. Everyone else followed her example.

"I'm not sure." Kohaku intently listened for the sound; surely, she hadn't imagined it. "It sounded like… like something being dragged?"

"Uh, guys. That's one big bird."

At Jaune's comment, all eyes zeroed in to where the blond boy was pointing. At the top of the cliff, a gigantic black bird with the dreaded signature bone plates of the creatures of Grimm was looking intently at the group.

"That's not a gigantic bird," Yang said as she cocked the shotgun in her gauntlets.

"That's a gigantic Nevermore," Ruby elaborated.

The bird screamed a deafening shriek, beating its powerful wings once. A hail of razor-sharp feathers rapidly approached the students.

"Weiss! Glyphs!" Mytyl shouted. Weiss immediately pointed Myrtenaster at the incoming projectiles, a series of three cyan glyphs manifesting in the path of the feathers. The first glyph and second glyphs shattered upon impact, barely slowing the feathers. With a twist Myrtenaster's Dust chamber, Weiss summoned a fourth purple glyph as the third cyan one was broke. Instead of destroying the purple glyph, the feathers slowed down as they passed through.

A sphere of lighting met the quills, their trajectory easily altered to either side as they fought against the electric field, and ultimately shooting pass the students, into the chasm below.

"Good job," GV complimented Weiss as he recalled the electricity. Weiss responded with a nod.

Another shriek erupted from the avian Grimm, fury ingrained into every second.

"We have to retreat." Jaune's voice struggled to be heard over the Grimm's.

"I don't think that's possible," came Ruby's response.

Stalking out of the forest, a couple of Grimm came forward, led by a Deathstalker. Alone, the smaller Grimm – a motley pack of Beowolves and Creeps – were a nonissue. The Deathstalker, on the other hand…

"Are we… are we being ambushed by Grimm?" Yang asked incredulously.

"Are they allowed to do that?" Nora shared the sentiment.

"Look out!"

From below the bridge, two serpentine heads shot towards Ruby and Nora respectively. Nora managed to bat away her attacker with a swing of her war hammer. Ruby was about to dodge at the last second with a Semblance powered dash, but the head got smacked away by Jaune's shield. A sloppy defense that probably cost way more aura than it needed to, but it achieved its results.

"You truly live up to your title as a meat shield," Ruby sort of complimented him.

Jaune barely paid attention as he shook off the numbness from his shield hand. "We need to get back to solid ground," he yelled over the commotion. Luckily, the message was received, as everybody quickly made towards the forest… and the awaiting Grimm. With the ominous slithering and flapping of ominous wings as background noise.

Kohaku quickly weighted the situation. "We need to take down the Nevermore, Deathstalker, and King Taijitu, ASAP."

"Copen and I can take on the Nevermore," Mytyl informed confidently.

"BWAAARK," the avian adamantly disagreed as it landed on the bridge, coiling to lunge at its prey.

Three darts impacted its chest. "Bwark?"

The Nevermore violently staggered as tendrils of electricity slammed against it but remained stubbornly alive. With a swing of its wings, the Grimm took flight, each flap buffeting away a salvo of darts.

GV clicked his tongue in annoyance as the Nevermore flew beyond the range of his gun. "If I can hit it again with Dart Leader, I can take it down."

"Guess that leaves me to also help with the Nevermore," Kohaku said, approaching her partner.

"Dibs on the scorpion!" Yang ran towards the Deathstalker. Ruby followed in an attempt to stop her from charging in wildly. Weiss and Pyrrha went after their respective partners.

"We'll take the snake," Jaune said, sounding more confident than he was feeling. Blake, Nora, and Ren followed, being Jaune's partner and the remaining students without a target.

Once each team went their separate ways, Mytyl addressed hers. "Copen and I can fight the Nevermore in the sky. You just need one hit, right, GV?" The blond boy nodded. "I have a plan, but you'll have to give Copen your gun."

Mytyl expected some resistance to the idea – Hunters could be very reluctant to relinquishing their weapons – but was pleasantly surprised when GV simply twirled the gun and presented it to Copen.

"What is the plan?" Kohaku asked.

"My brother's Semblance. If he tags the Nevermore, he can guarantee a hit. No buts. Protect GV from any small Grimm."

Mytyl and Copen shot forward, using the ruins as foothold and making their way towards the looming Nevermore. Seeing the other teams were entertaining both the big and small Grimm, Kohaku decided.

"Let's climb the ruins. The closer we get you to the Nevermore, the better."

-o-

Mytyl inwardly cursed as the bird, once more, foiled a perfectly executed attack.

Her plan had one hitch. The Nevermore was more justifiably paranoid than either her or Copen expected. Dashing from the highest points in the ruins and reaching the Nevermore had been easy, only making them use an extra bullit from the three they could have in waiting at any one time. And without conveniently set up walls they could ricochet between, Copen and she were down one bullit they could use as a safety net and could only depend on repeatedly bouncing off the Nevermore to maintain their count.

She and Copen had expected to reach the bird, bounce of it, and fire some darts at it. And they did just that. But the Nevermore, in a damning showcase of intelligence, figured out that the X-shaped aura tags both of them left on its feathers couldn't mean anything good and promptly ejected those feathers. And not a moment too soon, as one the tagged feathers were consumed by GV's lightning.

It was a dance that repeated itself. She and Copen would tag the Nevermore; Copen with his own Semblance and Mytyl with the considerably weaker version Lumen was imitating. Both of them would fire; Mytyl with her Divider and Copen with his Border and GV's Dart Leader. Before the attacks connected, the Nevermore would eject the tagged feathers in a surprising display of aerial finesse. Without the concentrated fire, the Nevermore shrugged off any damage from the pistols. She had no other alternative, but Copen's Aix Gear slow firing rate and clunky handling meant it wasn't a viable option for Copen, so he let it rest on his back.

Mytyl dashed once more, aiming for the head. And once more the Nevermore twisted to block the attack with its wings. As Lumen rearranged the P-Bits – five to form a blue X-tag on the wings and the remaining three hovering just above her pistol's muzzle – the Nevermore shot the feather at her. Mytyl immediately fired a bullit from her boots and dashed out of the way. And into the path of the Nevermore's approaching mouth. Another bullit was used to get out of the Grimm's surprise offensive.

Mytyl righted herself, ready to follow the Nevermore once more, when the expected gunshot from her boots never came.

'One to reach the Grimm. One to dodge the feather. And the last one to dodge the beak.'

'And none left to make it back,' Mytyl realized in horror. The embers of the final bullit dwindled as gravity took hold and sent her careening towards the chasm below.

"Mytyl!" Copen yelled, preparing to dash after his sister.

He didn't get a chance as Mytyl impacted her amber-colored savior.

"Gotcha!" Kohaku said as she held Mytyl – or more precisely, Mytyl held to her for dear life – in one hand and swung from her extended sword-whip on the other.

"Brace yourself. Wall incoming!"

Mytyl heeded Kohaku's warning, but not as the latter expected.

"What are you doing?" Kohaku complained as Mytyl struggled to position herself. Just in time to hit the wall feet first and reload a bullit. Telling Kohaku to hold on and making sure to keep an iron grip on the brunette, Mytyl dashed up the wall, ensuring a curved trajectory that brought her back to the wall, reloading another bullit into the chamber each time. With one final dash, they both made it back solid ground. Or at least more ground than wall as far the ruins went.

"That didn't go as planned," Mytyl let out, along with a breath she was holding.

"Understatement," Kohaku sort-of agreed, her arms holding her as she sat and leaned backward.

"That bird is smarter than expected."

Mytyl noticed GV was intently looking at the sky, where Copen and the Nevermore were still dancing around each other.

'Come on, bro. You can do this.'

-o-

Copen weaved between another barrage of feathers, kicking into the Nevermore and letting out a barrage of bullets and darts point blank. The Nevermore ejected every feather in the area and promptly replaced them with new ones in a way that avowed to the bird's monstrous nature. The Grimm attempted to bat him away with its powerful wings, but Copen merely took the opportunity to bounce twice from the beast, fully reloading his boots.

Mytyl was safe back in the ruins, his partner's timely intervention being the only thing that stopped him from disengaging and chasing after his sister. Despite Mytyl being the one who wanted to be a Huntress, Copen was the better combatant and it showed as his dominion over their frenetic fighting style kept him continuously harassing the flying Grimm despite the monster's best attempts at shooting him down. But ultimately, they were engaged in a stalemate or – more precisely – a war of attrition. Copen was too small, fast, and nimble to be shot down by the Nevermore, but the Nevermore was smart enough to deny Copen a clean hit. It has seen what would happen if Copen hit it and didn't dispose of the feathers. Even when Copen had stopped using his Semblance, the beast didn't take any chance and shed its feathers. Again, a war of attrition that the untiring beast would eventually win.

One shot. That was all Copen needed. One shot to a part of the Nevermore where the darts would stick. The claws, the beak, the face plate – any of them would work. He just needed to get that one lucky shot.

Or for the Grimm to get one unlucky instant.

"Lola! Engage Misfortune module. As big a range as possible!" Copen ordered as a plan, more of a gamble, formed in his head.

"Lord Copen, I highly advise against that course of action," Lola responded, keeping up with Copen's speed and executing a fail-safe Copen had programmed for lapses of judgments just like these. Only that this was not a lapse of judgment, just a crazy plan. Lola continued her fail-safe explanation, "without your Semblance, the module will affect an area centered around you indiscriminately, including you."

Copen bounced off the bird, then a tower the Nevermore had closed in, hoping to shake him off. Once he got his bearings, he commanded Lola. "Do it anyways."

Lola didn't respond immediately, and Copen got the inkling the little bot, in her little budding AI brain, was not happy about it. Nonetheless, it was a direct command and she did as she was ordered. Changing her appearance to a grey, white, and red ensemble, her red holographic discs morphing into a single cross-like object below the pod, Lola ordered her P-Bits to extend as far as possible, forming an octahedron with Copen and two orbiting P-Bits at the very center.

Copen felt a slight shiver, unnoticeable hadn't he been looking for it, as the module took effect. He didn't know exactly how Misfortune worked. Just causing "bad luck" seemed terribly vague. His father hypothesized that it was a minor, uncontrolled version of telekinesis that made slight 'unfortunate' adjustments to the surrounding. Move a rock a little to the left to trip someone, jam a gun by nudging a bullet just right, that sort of things. Copen was betting on the Nevermore suffering a fatal misfortune before he did.

The first roll of the die was cast, and they fell on the Nevermore's favor as Copen's left boot jammed. Copen gritted his teeth as he readjusted his weight to flying and ricocheting with only one boot. The Nevermore was still weathering his assault and no matter how he bounced from it, the boot refused to fire again, making each swipe from the beast closer than he would have liked.

A second misfortune happened, once more against Copen as his right boot fired with a little too much strength, overshooting a twirl and causing his right arm, the one holding Border, to impact the Nevermore's wing. To make matter's worst, the awkwardness of the impact sprained his wrist. Luckily, aura ensure nothing worst happened.

"Lord Copen, please retract the P-Bits," Lola implored, a semblance of worry filtering through her mechanical voice.

Copen didn't respond. 'Come on. I just need one shot. One lucky stroke.'

As the Nevermore approached a bridge of the ruins, probably hoping to shake off the persistent nuisance bothering it, a third roll of the unlucky module was thrown.

Copen didn't know what exactly happened. Maybe the wind under the Nevermore's wing shifted just right (or wrong, for the Nevermore). Maybe the feathers caught the wind just weirdly, or perhaps a trick of the light made the Nevermore miscalculate the distance to the bridge. Whatever the cause, the monstrous bird didn't gain enough lift and clipped the bridge, making it lose its balance for a few seconds.

Few, precious seconds Copen capitalized on.

"Lola! Now!" Copen arced above the Nevermore, taking advantage of the distraction, as Lola shut down the Misfortune module and recalled the P-Bits. Once he was above the avian Grimm, Copen fired himself towards its faceplate faster than the Grimm could react. Landing on the Grimm with a powerful kick, Copen pushed his Semblance as hard as he could before launching himself far above.

The monster hovered in place. Its glowing, red eyes revealed nothing, but Copen liked to think the beast was staring cross-eyed at the aura construct that was the red-colored X sigil hovering right above its face. A crosshair symbolizing its impending doom.

"Begone monster," Copen whispered as he raised Dart Leader to the sky and pulled the trigger.

-o-

"Jaune, let it be known, you are an inspiration to all aspiring meat shields out there."

Jaune couldn't tell if Blake was being serious or facetious. Probably both. Their starting plan, of his own (un)doing, was simple. He'll distract the snake, a King Taijitu apparently, while everyone made quick work of the adds, to use video game terms.

Ren and Nora agreed to it. Blake, knowing more about his skills, was reluctant, but ultimately agreed to the idiotic plan. Jaune figured that slapping a snake away a few times was easier than actually attempting to fight the smaller Grimm.

Jaune figured he wasn't a smart man. There were several holes with his plan. First, King Taijitu had two heads. Second, snakes tended to coil around their prey, not lunge at them. Well, some of them did and apparently this Grimm was smart enough not to lunge after the first two failed attempts. Third, lunging still meant the mouth could swallow him whole.

Not for the first time today, and Jaune suspected not for the last time in the future, he was grateful at GV's crash course on how not to die when all you have is stupid amounts of aura and a shield. But now, the little ones were gone, and the real, trained Hunters-in-training could take reign of the fight.

"What now, oh fearless leader?"

Or not. That was fine too. The King Taijitu observed them, wary about the increased number of food stuff in front of it. And Jaune hated he was thinking of themselves in term of food for the Grimm.

"I am open to ideas!" Jaune asked. It was ok to admit when you could use some help, right?

Ren chimed in. "King Taijitu are weak in the snout. If I can get a clean hit, I believe my aura control is good enough to incapacitate a head in one attack."

So, they needed to stop the head long enough for Ren to hit it just right. Jaune looked at their options: Blake's agility and ribbon-sword-gun thingy, Nora's war hammer-grenade launcher, and Jaune's dingy regular sword and shield that is also a sheath.

A light bulb turned on.

"That's it! Nora, blind the heads with your grenades."

Nora saluted and switched to her hammer's grenade launcher mode. The Grimm recoiled in surprise as several, pink grenades exploded and obscured its vision.

Looking at the closest head, the white one, Jaune ordered Blake. "Wrap your ribbon around the white head."

Blake wasn't sure what Jaune was planning but did as he said. Getting into position and with the Grimm's white head distracted, it was a simple matter to loop the ribbon once around the neck. She was surprised when Jaune caught the end she threw, the one with Gambol Shroud.

"Pull!" Jaune ordered.

Catching on the plan, Blake pulled her end. She quickly found Nora helping her. Between the three of them, they managed to ground the white head, which was struggling futile against the restrains. Before the black head could respond, Ren closed in the distance and delivered a powerful, aura-enhanced punch, causing the head to bulge grotesquely as its insides were scrambled and it was left inert.

The black head, realizing the fate of its companion, lunged towards Ren in revenge. Unlucky for it, Jaune intercepted with his shield and batted away the Grimm.

'He really is getting good at defending,' Blake thought as she retrieved Gambol Shroud.

"One down, one to go," Jaune announced, a bit of confidence seeping through his voice.

"Encore!" Nora exclaimed excitedly.

-o-

A left jab. A right dodge. A right jab. Another dodge. A classic one-two-three combo. Yet another dodge. Finally, a few dozen jabs that had Yang holding herself from yelling like a crazy woman. She fell back as the Deathstalker's stinger missed her once more.

"This thing is though." The Deathstalker shrilled offensively at Yang. "Yeah, well… your mom."

"Yang, stop antagonizing the murder scorpion." Ruby cleaved through two Creeps in one stroke. With the smaller Grimm in the area taken care of, she and Weiss turned their attention towards where Yang and Pyrrha were unsuccessfully dealing with the Deathstalker. Weiss summoned a glyph below the Grimm where a pillar of ice rose from it, toppling the Deathstalker. To everyone's dismay, the scorpion Grimm started thrashing wildly as it attempted to right itself. Too wildly to safely approach. The underside, while less armored, still was too tough for bullets to do any significant damage.

"Not what I hoped for, but it will buy us a few seconds." Weiss sighed. A quick look towards the ruin revealed Mytyl, Copen, and their partners still dealing with the Nevermore.

"I'm open to ideas," Yang said as she rejoined the group. "What about you, P-Money? Aren't you like a world champion or something?"

Pyrrha shifted uncomfortably at the reminder, but answered nonetheless, "Not many Grimm opponents in the circuit."

Ruby carefully observed the Deathstalker, which was finally getting on its feet. Ruby's eyes landed on the stinger. "I have an idea. Pyrrha, Weiss, can you slow down the tail?"

"If Pyrrha can make the shot, I can make her bullets burst into ice," Weiss confirmed. Pyrrha nodded, up to the task of hitting the tail.

"Yang, close in and keep the Grimm occupied. As soon as I sever the stinger… smash."

"…I'll forgive you for suggesting I'm some sort of rampaging monster just this once," Yang scoffed. She wasted no time launching herself towards the Deathstalker.

The Deathstalker shrilled offensively at Yang. Yang blinked. "Yeah, well… your mom."

Ruby sighed. Pyrrha and Weiss blinked, with the latter commenting. "Your sister has problems."

"Don't remind me."

Pyrrha knelt and took aim with Miló while Weiss summoned a glyph in front of the redhead. Pyrrha took a few shoots at the Deathstalker's face, which burst into ice. The Grimm shook the ice away and shrilled offensively at Pyrrha.

"Come on, P-Money! It's fun."

"Yang!" Ruby chided her sister.

With the Grimm distracted, Pyrrha aimed for the tail and fired several rounds, encasing the tail from base to right before the stinger in ice. Pyrrha couldn't help herself. "No, you!"

With Yang's howling laughter in the background, Ruby sprung into a Semblance powered sprint up the Deathstalker, shooting towards the stinger and cutting it off in one swoop. Quickly switching to Crescent Rose's rifle mode, Ruby turned to fire a few shots at the stringer, giving it a little, but appreciated, speed as it stabbed the Deathstalker in the back.

While the Deathstalker recoiled in pain, Yang mounted the arachnid and started pummeling the stinger further into its carapace. With one last might punch, the stinger was fully plunged into the beast, which shook and fell. Soon after, it started to dissolve the way Grimm did.

"Yeah! Teamwork!" Yang cheered, raising her hands just in time for Ruby to land on them.

"Good catch, sis."

"Three hoorays for Ruby and her plan!" Yang called, raising Ruby even higher. "Hip hip…"

Ruby started struggling. "Yang, put me down!"

Pyrrha laughed at the sisters' antics and joined in on the hoorays. Weiss shook her head at the immaturity but couldn't help smiling.

They were soon joined by Jaune, Blake, Ren, and Nora, who just finished the King Taijitu.

"Jaune. Blake. Tackle Yang!" Ruby continued to squirm in Yang's arms.

"Hip hip hooray!" Jaune cheered and Blake deadpanned.

"Traitors!"

"YEEEEESSS!"

Mytyl's victorious scream caught everyone's attention. The group of students saw Kohaku carrying a cheering Mytyl far away from GV, who's electric aura looked positively murderous. Their attention shifted in the direction Mytyl was cheering.

Copen faced off the Nevermore, hovering in front of the beast, who stared up at the boy as if realizing its remaining lifespan was measured in seconds. As Copen raised his hand and fired, seven streaks of blue projectiles shot from the gun and arced in defiance to the laws of physics towards the Nevermore's face plate.

GV's aura peaked as his voice reverberated throughout the valley.

"Let this joyous song"
"Ring forth as a dragon's roar"
"And grant the spark's gift"
"Auric Surge!"

Everyone had seen what GV could do with his Semblance. Everyone had wrongly assumed that, while incredibly strong, it was as far as his Semblance went. Once more seven tendrils of lightning shot from the boy towards his target. But unlike before, where the lightning merely struck the Nevermore, this time the tendrils consumed the Grimm in its entirety. And continued consuming it as the Nevermore disintegrated, unclear if it was due the sheer force of the attack or the Grimm's natural death. Nobody could tell. Once the target of its rage ceased to exist, GV's lightning shroud coalesced and dispersed into feather-like aura constructs, not unlike Ruby's Semblance's rose petals, that were swept away by the wind as they slowly faded.

Yang was the brave soul who broke the speechlessness that befell everyone. "Holy shit. You sure know how to pick'em, Rubes."

Ruby didn't have it in her to respond, still in a state of awestruck.

-o-

Glynda held her scroll tablet tightly, her eyes glued on the 25% aura reading of Mister Volt. A 25% that was originally 83% before shooting to 100% during that final attack. And Glynda suspected it said 100% because the device couldn't go higher.

Mister Volt had been forthcoming about his background and capabilities, but he was young. She had assumed that it was a bit of arrogance filtering through his own self-evaluation and that would put him around his expected level of a second-year student. Stronger than a first year, but not so much that he would be out of place with them. She expected him to be around Pyrrha Nikos's level.

And she still suspected that, sans his Semblance, he probably was on the Mistrali champion's level. But that was the issue, without his Semblance he was on Miss Nikos's level, with her Semblance taken into account. Add his Semblance into the mix…

"Ozpin, we cannot have him with the first-years. He'll slaughter them."

Ozpin nodded, clearly taken by surprise too. "Mister Volt is much stronger than we anticipated, but I do not believe so much that we need to adjust for his strength. I suspect much of it is front-loaded into that Semblance of his. And it's not like Miss Nikos wouldn't 'slaughter' every other first-year either."

Ozpin considered his options on the matter. "He still has areas that can be improved. I'm willing to bet his hand-to-hand and close-range capabilities, while not bad given his past, are comparatively lackluster. In combat class, you should focus on those. And is not like his fighting capabilities will help him in every other subject," he finally added.

Glynda saw the reason in Ozpin's words. She didn't like having students like Volt and Nikos among others that were well below their weight class. But she recognized that was partly because she was the Combat instructor and was the one left to deal with that particular mess. It wasn't the student's fault if their overall competence heavily leaned towards person-to-person combat, leaving everything else at its appropriate level, or even below.

Through the tablet she saw as other students arrived at the ruins. And as the tower with the final objective, the tower Volt had been standing on, collapsed.

"…"

"I suppose we can make an exception here and adjust the mission parameters," Ozpin chimed in, giving the orders to a couple of Bullheads to pick up the students through his scroll tablet. "In all fairness, they shouldn't have been fighting those Grimm in the first place."


Author's Notes


So, rundown! Assume GV and RWBY spoilers!

Professor Ann Greene: I'll be making slight use of the professors named dropped in the RWBY novels. I cannot stand Ozpin, Glynda, Bart, and Peter being the only people manning Beacon.

Grimm: Grimm are a joke in the original show, except when they are not. It's very inconsistent. Generally speaking, I'm following these self-made soft rules of thumbs:

Your average pack of Grimm (Beowolves, Creeps, normal Nevermores, etc.) can be taken out by first years.
Slightly stronger Grimm (Ursai and their Major variant, Alpha Beowolves, Beringels, Sphinxes, etc.) can overwhelm a first year if accompanied by another Grimm.
Big non-ancient Grimm (giant Nevermore, Deathstalker, King Taijitu, etc.) require a team of first years to take down. A single, professional Hunter can give them a fight.
Ancient Grim that aren't particularly special (any of the previously mentioned Grimm, but really, really old) require anywhere from one novice team to multiple experienced Hunters to deal with, depending on the Grimm. Or one very good Hunter (Qrow-level or above)
Special Grimm (Apathy, Goliath, Nuckelavee, etc.) can vary greatly in their danger and must be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Lumen and Lola: To give some background to anyone unfamiliar with Gunvolt: In the original games, Lola (the actual combat pod) is capable of copying Septimas (the game's analogue to Semblances) after Copen defeats the holder. But that's a game mechanic, as we have seen that she is also capable of copying them with sufficient observations on at least two separate occasions, maybe a third one. The rules in this fic differ slightly, but that's why Lumen allows Mytyl to mimic Copen's semblance and Lola… well, this serves as a good segue to…

Misfortune: Any RWBY fan knows where this came from. I'm not being subtle. Rest assured, all in due time. On that note…

Copen's Semblance: For the GV cast, I'm translating their Septimas into Semblances. This is pretty straightforward for people with Septimas that can be translated. I need to take more creative liberty with people like Copen, who don't have Septimas in the games. Copen's Lock-On mechanic, which is actually a function of his gun, was transferred to his Semblance for the purpose of this fic. Speaking of semblances…

Azure Striker: I suspect this is will be a big point of contention. Generally speaking, Septimas Semblances in terms of raw power. I will tone down the 'Septima turned Semblances' of some characters, but others will retain their "holy shit" quotient but offering considerable drawbacks. I already hinted at one of GV's drawbacks of going all out with Azure Striker.

If I have to comparatively rank Semblances, I would say Azure Striker is around the same level (albeit flashier) of the Schnee's Glyphs and Glynda's Telekinesis (something I like to think I hinted at but realistically I didn't). Pyrrha's Polarity actually ranks lower, but the nature of her Semblance in this particular setting makes it stronger than normal because everyone uses metal. Except when they don't. Then Pyrrha just dies.

Finally…

Jaune's relative competence: I just don't want to (completely) repeat the Jaunedice arc, okay? This is also the reason the teachers are aware of Jaune's transcript stunt. I try to justify his slight competence as GV helping Jaune, but I realize that's stretching it. Bear with me on this.

Addendum: Remember how I said I cut a paragraph off the notes in Chapter 4? I think most of the key points have been touched in the story, so I can post it:

"[Copen has] Aix's Gear, Lola, Border, Lola, Bullits, Lola, Bullits, Lola, and Lola; you name it, he has it. Specially Lola. The only thing lacking are his years of stalking people and Mega Manning the shit out of them. Which is good, because LOLA.

Here we have a man that is not an Adept in his games, therefore he cannot carry over an OP power, and still manages to give no fucks because at the end of the day, he built Lola and everything that entails.

I'll try my best, but I feel like this fic will devolve into a Mary Sue and Gary Stu fest.