Chapter 2: Partners

Jaune and Pyrrha ran through the forest, with Jaune in front. After a few minutes of running past multiple forest trees, they came to a stop when they spotted temple ruins. They walked towards the ruins to find several chess pieces standing on pillars. Jaune concluded that some students have already taken the pieces since some of the pillars were missing a piece. Jaune decided that he'd take a knight piece and he slid it into his pocket. Pyrrha did the same.

"Great, we got the relics. Let's hurry up and get back to the cliffs." Jaune told Pyrrha who nodded back in confirmation. Just as they were about to leave, an Ursa emerged out of the forest and fell, with a redheaded girl with a pink dress on its back.

"Awww, it broke!" The girl exclaimed as a raven haired boy dressed in green ran towards the girl, panting.

"Nora...Please... Don't ever do that again." the boy panted as he stood next to the girl. They then saw Jaune and Pyrrha at the ruins and ran over to greet them.

"D-did she just ride an Ursa?" Pyrrha asked Jaune who was still shocked from what just happened.

"Yep..." Jaune answered as the pair arrived at the ruins, with Ren greeting them.

"Hello, I'm Lie Ren, that's my friend, Nora Valkyrie." Ren told Jaune and Pyrrha as he bowed, with Nora just exclaiming, "Hello!"

Jaune shook Ren's hand as he introduced himself. "I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc. And this is my partner, Pyrrha Nikos." Pyrrha waved back at Ren and Nora. "Hello!"

"I see, well it's an honor to be partnered up with a tournament champion. Excuse me, while we go and grab the relics." Ren smiled as he and his friend walked over to the pillars to claim a chess piece.

"The green one seems to be calm and collected. His friend seems to be the complete opposite." Pyrrha observed as she watched Ren and Nora grab two chess pieces and walked back towards them.

"We should head back to the cliffs now. I'd rather get this exam over wi-" Jaune was interrupted when two other students emerged from the forest and ran over to them. He recognized one of them as Yang, the same blondie who was talking to him last night.

"Oh, hey Yang." Jaune spoke as the other blonde smirked at Jaune. "Hey hot stuff, looks like you've already formed a little team. Oh right, I'm Yang, and she's Blake." Yang said as she pointed to a raven-haired girl who had a large black bow on her head. "Hi." Blake waved. Jaune noticed that Blake's bow twitched a little, which puzzled Jaune for a moment before shrugging it off.

"Someone catch meeeee!" Another voice yelled from the sky. The students looked up to see that it was Ruby who was falling towards them. Jaune sighed as he walked over and extended his arms and caught Ruby with ease.

"Am I dead? Am I dead?" Ruby asked with her eyes closed. "Relax Crater-face," Jaune spoke. "You're not dead." Ruby opened her eyes to see Jaune's smiling face before her face began turning red. "U-um...I-I...U-uhhh..." Jaune did not listen as she put down Ruby so she could stand.

"T-thank you...Jaune." Ruby managed to sputter out. "No problem."

"You dolllllltttt!" Another voice yelled from the sky. This time it was Weiss Schnee, and like Ruby, Jaune caught Weiss in his arms. Weiss looked up to see who saved her before widening her eyes in shock.

"Hello." Jaune greeted Weiss and winked, causing Weiss to blush before being placed down onto the ground.

"Thank you Jaune." Weiss told Jaune as she grabbed a chess piece. "Now, let's all hurry and return to the cliffs." Everyone nodded.

'That's what I was trying to say for crying out loud!' Jaune thought to himself before a roar came from the forest. Everyone turned towards the direction of where the noise came from as a Deathstalker emerged from the forest and began to charge at the students. A Nevermore then swooped down from the sky as it gave out a loud screech and threw its feathers at the crew.

"Get to cover!" Jaune yelled as they ran from the large feathers that were being impaled to the ground. The students all ran behind the temple ruins for cover.

"Great! Now they're blocking our way back to the cliffs! What are we supposed to do!?" Yang asked, waiting for an answer from anyone until Jaune started running from his cover and pulled out Twin Terrors and started shooting at the Deathstalker while running towards the large scorpion.

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled, attempting to leave her cover and run towards Jaune to help him, but was pinned down as more feathers began raining down on them. Jaune's bullets hit the Deathstalker's eyes, causing it to roar out in pain as it swung at Jaune with its left claw. Jaune jumped over the claw and shot at the parts of the claw that were not protected by any bone plating. He then holstered one of his Twin Terrors before pulling out his sword from his back, gathering his aura into the blade and sliced off the Deathstalker's claw. It roared out in pain as it used its remaining claw and swung it at Jaune, who jumped over it and sliced off the remaining claw. The Deathstalker then desperately lunged at Jaune with its stinger, who dodged it and ran towards the Deathstalker and plunged his sword into its face, finally killing it.

Jaune pulled out his sword and aimed his gun at the Deathstalker's face before shooting it twice to confirm that the scorpion was indeed dead as it layed on the ground and slowly disintegrated. Jaune looked back as the Nevermore screeched in agony and crashed to the ground.

'Well, looks like they've managed to do some good without me. Who knows, maybe I'm better off being a solo student. But then again, I'm no exception in the school system so yeah.' Jaune thought to himself as he sat on the body of the dead Deathstalker and pulled out both of his Twin Terrors to refill them after his fight. As he was placing bullets into the magazine of his guns, the seven other students began running towards Jaune, only to be surprised to see him sitting on the body of the dead scorpion.

"You dolt! What in Remnant were you thinking!? You could've gotten yourself killed!" Weiss yelled at Jaune who just ignored her and started to refill his other magazine.

"Well for your information, I handled the Deathstalker so that you all would focus on taking down the bird, you're welcome." Jaune said as he reloaded his guns and holstered them on his back. "So do me a favor and don't criticize me for my actions. I'm not called a champion for no reason." Jaune said, not noticing Weiss whose face began turning red in anger.

"We should hurry and head back to the cliffs." Jaune spoke and began running, with the other seven students not far behind.

After the exam was completed, all of the students waited in the auditorium as Ozpin and Glynda announced the team pairings. Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark were put together as team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang became team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose. Jaune noticed that Weiss seemed to have an upset look after it was announced that Ruby would be the leader.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie, please approach the stage." Ozpin announced as the group of four walked into the center of the stage. "Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren. You are now team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."

'Wait, what.' Jaune thought as the Headmaster smiled at Jaune. "Congratulations young man."

As Jaune and the others walked off the stage, Jaune could only think to himself, 'God damnit.'

Once team JNPR entered their dorm, they began unpacking their luggage. Jaune spotted an object on his bed as went to retrieve it. It was a sword that had a golden handle. Jaune noticed that a letter was written next to the blade. He ripped off the envelope and unfolded the paper inside to read the letter.

Dear Jaune,

No words can describe how happy I am for you to have gotten into one of Vale's most promising Huntsman schools. You have indeed carried on the legacy of the Arc family with pride and passion. I asked that Ozpin leave this new weapon for you when you arrived in your dorm. I call it the Excalibur. If you gather enough aura into the blade, it will deal a lot more damage to your enemy/opponent. The Excalibur can also mechashift into a gun. Consider this a gift or reward for all of your hard work you've put in to achieve your dreams. I bid you good luck during your next four years in Beacon, my son.

Sincerely,

Your Father

PS. Your mother and sisters say hi.

Jaune chuckled a little after reading the last sentence before folding the letter and placing it in his pocket as he continued unpacking.

"It's getting pretty late now. I'll go take a quick shower." Ren said as he grabbed a lightish-pink towel and a set of clothes before entering the bathroom and closing the door. The room went silent with Jaune laying on his bed, with Pyrrha sitting on hers and Nora doing the same.

"Sooooooooo, how about we get to know each other more? Y'know, since we're gonna be together for a long time." Nora asked. Pyrrha decided to go first.

"Well, for me, I graduated from Sanctum Academy, but I didn't have many friends, probably because I'm pretty shy when it comes to socializing. Anyways, my semblance is polarity. I can manipulate any metal that is attracted to magnets." Pyrrha explained. Nora spoke after her.

"Well as for me, Ren and I have been pretty much doing almost everything together ever since we were young. My semblance is that I can increase my strength when I absorb electricity, or lightning." Nora explained with lots of energy. "I also like pancakes!"

"Well, since you all have introduced yourselves, I guess I should too. I actually skipped a grade and graduated from Signal Academy. I spent most of my free time training with my father, and I took part in tournaments and won five of them, and because of that, I was put in commercials including food brands and energy drinks, so yeah. My semblance is Aura Amplification. I can amplify a person's aura or mine so that I can heal from my wounds." Jaune explained as Ren came out of the bathroom with a towel on his head and in his sleeping clothes.

"I finished showering. One of you can go next." Ren said as he was drying his hair with his towel. "Okay Ren!" Nora instantly ran into the shower and closed the door.

"Is she always like that?" Jaune asked Ren who just shrugged. "You just kinda learn to tune it out." Pyrrha giggled a little.

Jaune woke up and looked at his alarm clock that was standing on a drawer next to his bed. It was currently 5:30 AM, and classes started at 8:30 AM. Jaune decided to begin his new mentally planned schedule and started his morning by washing his face, and brushing his teeth. He then strapped on his Huntsman clothes and weapons before quietly leaving his dorm to make sure that he did not wake his team.

Jaune approached the training room and set the training to the difficulty he thought was fit for him a quick warm-up. The training room then summoned a pack of hologram Beowolves as the training room made a countdown.

"Training course begins in 3...2...1… begin." The training room spoke as the pack of Beowolves charged at Jaune. Jaune pulled out both his Crocea Mors and the Excalibur from his back and charged at the Beowolves, sending a flurry of quick slashes and swings before dashing past them, and killing the Beowolves in an instant.

"Huh, this sure does pack a punch." Jaune spoke as he looked at the Excalibur he held in his hand.

After another few rounds of fighting holographic Grimm, Jaune finally decided to fight at maximum level of the training course with droids. The training course then summoned 50 Atlesian Knight-130's and 25 Spider Droids, who were all aiming their weapons right at Jaune.

"Finally, some kind of challenge." Jaune spoke to himself as he holstered Crocea Mors and pulled out his shield.

"Training course begins in 3...2...1… begin." Right after the training room announced the beginning of the course, the droids instantly opened fire upon Jaune, who ran to his right and hid under cover. A 130 droid then snuck up to Jaune and swung its arm blades. Jaune dodged them and sliced off the robot's torso in half as more Atlesian Knights ran towards Jaune. Jaune ran and rammed his shield at one Knight and slashed his Excalibur at 3 other Knights, decapitating them and then sending a flurry of slashes through many other Atlesian Knights who were focused on melee weapons.

"A few down, so many more to go." Jaune muttered to himself as the Atlesian Knights' arms began to transform into small gatlings that started firing at Jaune.

"Crap!" Jaune yelled as he brought up his shield and charged at the Knights while transforming his Excalibur into its gun form and firing upon the droids. Several Knights then decided to charge at Jaune with their sword arms. Jaune then transformed his Excalibur back into its sword form, gathering his aura into his sword before sending a violent slash at the remaining Atlesian Knights, causing them all to explode. The explosion instantly subsided as the remaining 15 Spider Droids opened fire upon Jaune.

"Oh crapbaskets." Jaune spoke to himself as he ran for cover. Jaune holstered his Excalibur and shield and pulled out his Twin Terrors and loaded the guns with red bullets. He ran from his cover as he started firing upon the Spider Droids, taking down 2 of them by damaging their weapons and legs. Jaune ran towards one of the spider droids for cover as he saw another droid charge its weapon and shoot it at Jaune, accidentally killing one of its own. Jaune kept shooting at the Spider Droids until he was out of ammo. He holstered his guns and pulled out Crocea Mors, gathering his aura and charging at the remaining spider droids, and sending a huge slash, causing the Spider Droids to stay frozen. As Jaune walked away from the remaining Spider Droids, they exploded behind him.

"Good morning Mr. Arc." A voice spoke out. Jaune looked to his left to see Professor Goodwitch standing behind the entrance. "While I respect that you wish to train in the morning, I would ask that you keep noise down at a minimum. I have recently received a formal complaint that someone woke up when they heard explosions in this area." Glynda explained with her arms crossed.

"Oh, right...sorry about that. I'm leaving now to head to the dorms." Jaune replied as Professor Goodwitch nodded. When Jaune left the training facility, Glynda walked over to see the damage Jaune had done, and was shocked when she learned that Jaune placed the course to maximum difficulty.

Jaune walked back into his dorm to see Ren in the kitchen cooking breakfast. It was currently 7:00 AM and it seems like it was only Jaune and Ren who were up.

"Hey Ren." Jaune spoke as Ren turned around to see who was greeting him. Ren responded with a smile. "Good morning Jaune. I was wondering where you were when I woke up." Ren said as he flipped a pancake on his pan.

"Oh, I was just training. Apparently I got a complaint that I was making too much noise while I was there." Jaune spoke as he removed his weapons and jacket and went to put them away in his closet. He then returned to the kitchen and put on an apron.

"So, what's on this morning's menu Ren?" Jaune asked Ren who flipped a pancake onto a plate that consisted of 5 other pancakes. Jaune activated his stove and cracked an egg into his pan.

"Pancakes." Ren replied as he saw that Jaune was making omelettes with cheese and ham.

"I didn't know you knew how to cook, Jaune." Ren complimented as he went back to focusing on his pancakes. Jaune laughed a little.

"Heh, my sister Saphron encouraged me to learn how to cook, so I did. My parents said that they really loved my dishes, so I decided to have cooking as one of my hobbies. It helped me forget the celebrity life." Jaune explained as he placed an omelette onto a plate.

"We should make sure that we made enough for both team RWBY and our team since we both share the same dorm." Jaune said to which Ren agreed to.

Pyrrha, Nora and team RWBY began walking towards the kitchen. As they got closer, they could smell food.

"Pancakes!" Nora exclaimed as she zoomed past the others and into the kitchen. When the others were in the kitchen, they stood there in awe as they saw Jaune and Ren cooking.

'Not only is he good at fighting, but he can cook. He's perfect.' All the girls thought as Jaune noticed them just standing there.

"Oh, good morning!" Jaune spoke as he placed two more plates of omelettes onto the dining table, with two plates of a stack of pancakes in the center, which Nora was devouring. There was also one plate of cookies in the center of the dining table as well. The other girls sat at the dining table and looked at the breakfast provided for them.

"This looks amazing, Jaune." Pyrrha complimented as the others agreed and decided to take their first bites of the omelettes to which all the girls enjoyed. Ruby was too busy devouring the cookies that Jaune made.

"It's perfect!" Ruby exclaimed as she ate another cookie. "Thanks Jaune!"

"I'm glad you're enjoying it. Anyways, I gotta go get dressed." Jaune spoke as he walked to his room.

The first class team JNPR and RWBY had was with Professor Port. Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren were busy taking notes while Nora began dozing off. Ren had to make sure Nora was focused multiple times. Meanwhile, team RWBY was pretty much doing the same, with Ruby dozing off while playing with a pencil on her face, Weiss and Blake taking notes, and Yang was having a hard time focusing because she was starting to grow tired. Whenever Port was telling his class one of his stories and adventures, Jaune decided to use that time to sketch some ideas about weapons he had in mind.

"What're you doing?" Pyrrha whispered to Jaune who was sketching something in his notebook.

"Drawing." Jaune replied.

The next class was history, which was taught by Doctor Oobleck. Although Oobleck kept on talking real fast, Jaune understood the topic real well, given by the fact that he had private tutors before he came to Beacon. Jaune noticed off to the side that Cardin was just dozing off with his legs on the table and not taking any notes.

Next was combat class, led by Professor Goodwitch. After all the students were seated, the Professor went over the rules of the combat class, and said that if people were to use long range weapons in the arena, that they must be replaced with stun rounds, which sort of disappointed Jaune.

"For today's first battle, we will have Cardin Winchester..." Cardin stood up from his seat when he heard his name.

"...against Jaune Arc." Jaune stood from his seat too, once his name was heard. A few students looked at Jaune's way without saying a word.

"Please retreat to your locker rooms and prepare for your match." Glynda instructed.

A few minutes after both combatants wore their combat attire and were standing across the arena from different sides, Glynda told the combatants the rules.

"You will be fighting until either your aura reaches the red zone, or you get knocked out of the arena. But if the time is up and neither of your auras drops to the red, then the fighter with more aura left wins. Please prepare yourselves." Glynda explained as Jaune and Cardin put themselves into a fighting stance.

"Break his legs leader!" Nora yelled, moments before Ren quickly put his hand over Nora's mouth to shut her up.

"Fight well!" Blake yelled as she waved a small flag that had the words JNPR on them.

'How did she get those flags?' Jaune wondered as Glynda was about to start the match.

"Begin!" Glynda yelled. Cardin ran straight towards Jaune and swung his mace at him. Cardin thought that he was about to beat a champion, but Jaune was not called 'champion' for no reason. Jaune effortlessly dodged to the side and stuck his foot out and tripped Cardin who fell face first onto the ground.

"Dude, really? It hasn't been ten seconds and you're already on the ground." Jaune taunted Cardin as he struggled to get back up, growling at Jaune. Cardin then swung his mace at Jaune multiple times, with all his swings missing Jaune who did nothing but dodge those attacks effortlessly.

"Missed me!" Jaune dodged another swing. "Missed me again!" Jaune dodged another swing. "At this point I wonder if you're hitting the air on purpose." Jaune taunted as he kicked Cardin's waist, who fell and got back up.

The others watched in amusement as they watched the leader of Team JNPR wipe the floor with the leader of CRDL.

"Wow, Jaune's really good," Ruby stated as she kept on watching the fight.

"He's probably wearing down his opponent," Ren explained as he observed Jaune's movements in the match while the others kept watching.

"Quit messing with me you punk!" Cardin yelled as he swung again and again. Jaune looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Cardin's aura was at the yellow while Jaune still had all of his aura, however, the time was at 45 seconds.

"Welp, as much as I'd love to talk, our time is almost up." Jaune said as he kicked aside Cardin's mace and punched Cardin in the face multiple times before sending a fist full of aura at Cardins stomach and brutally kicking Cardin's knee, injuring him as the match ended.

"Match is over! Jaune Arc is the winner." Glynda yelled as she walked into the arena and saw Cardin on the ground with both hands holding his knee.

"Will some students please send Mr. Winchester to the infirmary?" Professor Goodwitch asked as several students entered the arena and carried away Cardin who was groaning from the pain.

"Mr. Arc, you've shown formidable ability after you managed to win against your opponent without using your weapons. Though I'd advise that you do not taunt your opponents, for it might bring surprising consequences in the future." Glynda explained as Jaune nodded in agreement.

"Got it." Jaune answered as he walked back into the locker rooms and returned to his seat a few minutes later.

"That. was. AWESOME!" Nora exclaimed as Jaune sat down next to his team.

"Good job." Ren complimented.

"That was an enjoyable fight." Pyrrha said.

The class continued with the rest of team JNPR and team RWBY fighting in the arena, with all of them winning their first matches. Both teams decided that they would celebrate their first victories by eating food in RWBY's dorm. Everyone was eating pizza, chips, a few BEAST energy drinks which apparently had Jaune on them, and a bunch of other kinds of junk food you could think of, and somehow there were cans of tuna, all which were being hogged by Blake.

Meanwhile, the students were busy debating whether pineapple goes on pizza, with Jaune, Ruby, Yang and Nora debating that it doesn't while Weiss tried reasoning with them, with Ren, Blake and Pyrrha watching the debate, laughing.

After everyone decided to settle in and call it for the night, the teams dispersed to their rooms and prepared to sleep. Jaune was the last one to shower as he walked back into his room, wearing a white shirt and dark blue shorts. As he decided to settle down onto his bed, he caught Pyrrha staring at him.

"Uhhhhh, Pyrrha...Remnant to Pyrrha, you there?" Jaune asked as she waved a hand in front of Pyrrha's face, snapping her back to reality. The redhead instantly blushed as she quickly covered herself in her bedsheets, including her face.

"...Okay then," Jaune said as he turned off the lights from his room and bed. "'Night team."

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 3: FOUR'S A CROWD