Semblance mishaps
"Okay Ruby, you ready for the boost?" Jaune asked.
"Yup!" Ruby gave a thumbs up. The others stepped back as Jaune prepared to work his magic.
"Alright, here goes. Semblance amplification test one." Jaune took a deep breath and activated his semblance, resting one hand on Ruby's shoulder, he flowed his aura into her, directing it to give her semblance the largest possible boost he could.
The effect was immediate. Ruby's eyes opened wide and she started vibrating on the spot. For a moment Jaune thought the test failed and nothing happened, then Ruby disappeared.
Screams and cries came from the observers as they were suddenly buried under a tidal wave of rose petals that appeared from nowhere. Jaune himself was washed away before he could even utter a word.
As to Ruby herself, there was now a hole in the side building as the red blur shot across the Atlesian skies, showering the citizens below with even more rose petals.
"You sure this will be fine?" Jaune asked in a dubious tone. Weiss rolled her eyes at his worry.
"Relax Jaune, my semblance requires me to actively choose to do something with it. I won't lose control like Ruby. There won't be a repeat of last time."
"Hey wait, wasn't there something about a party onc-ah right, shutting up now." Yang cut herself off when Weiss shot her a glare.
"Alright, just let me get to a safe distance before you do anything." Jaune said, still not sure this was a good idea.
"It'll be fine. You've boosted my semblance before, it worked then, it'll be fine this time too." Weiss reassured.
"If you say so. Alright, here goes, semblance test two. Maximum boost in 3… 2… 1…" Jaune let the aura flow and once he felt it take effect, immediately sprinted off to safety.
Weiss shook her head at his needless worry. She could feel her aura thrumming in response to the incredible boost. Last time she summoned a Queen Lancer, this time, she had a better grasp on her summoning, and she figured she'd try for the Arma Gigas this time, maybe put a little flair on it.
Raising Myrtenaster, the glyph appeared under her and she summoned.
"So, what have learnt from this?" Winter sat beside a heavily bandaged Weiss lying down on a hospital bed. Her sister groaned in pain before answering.
"No giant summons indoors."
"And?" Winter prompted.
"No summons beneath my feet, the ceiling hurts!"
"I really, really don't think this is a good idea." Jaune said nervously.
"Third time's the charm, right? I create shadow clones. They can't hurt you so relax." Blake said.
"Yeah, I remember Weiss saying something like that too. But… if you're sure." Jaune grumbled but readied his aura.
"I'm sure Jaune. Hit me." Blake steeled herself.
"Here goes, semblance boost, test three." Jaune began the aura transfer and Blake's breath hitched from the sudden influx of raw power.
Exhaling softly, she activated her semblance and suddenly the field was filled with copies of herself.
"Woah! There're so many Blakes now! Awesome!" Nora cheered.
"If we need to retreat, this is a good way to cover our tracks, I think. No way anyone is finding us in that." Ren agreed.
At that moment, one of the Blake clones at the edge wavered, her form flickered before the clone violently exploded in a blast of fire, incinerating everything around it.
"What the hell was that!?" Jaune yelled.
"Uh oh." Blake muttered, her ears pressed flat against her head.
"What do you mean 'uh oh'?" Jaune shot her an incredulous look.
"My clones can be infused with dust to have different effects. I can make them solid with earth dust or ice dust for example." There was a small tremor in her voice as she spoke.
"A-and what dust do you have on you?" Jaune paled considerably, dreading the answer.
"Fire dust." Came Blake's succinct reply even as the sea of clones around them started to ripple, the first explosions destabilising them all.
"Aw crap." Jaune cursed and kicked the dirt at his feet, activating his semblance a second time, he dumped everything into boosting both Blake's and his own defence.
The explosions drowned out their screams.
"No! I'm not doing it!" Jaune dug his feet into the ground, trying to resist the inevitable.
"Oh don't be such a spoilsport. It's my turn to get the boost." Yang said, dragging Jaune along with her.
"This is a bad idea!" Jaune yelled, struggling to escape Yang's iron grip.
"Relax, you know how my semblance works. I get stronger when I get hit, as long as you don't hit me, nothing will happen. It'll be fine!" Yang said.
"No! I've heard that before. Every time something goes wrong! Every, single time!" Jaune protested.
"It'll be fine, come on Jaune, when have I ever let you down?" Yang said.
"Don't answer that." She quickly added when she saw him opening his mouth.
"Look, it's easy. Just gimme the boost and then you can go. I can test my semblance with the training dummies, it's foolproof!"
"Ahg! Fine! But don't say I didn't warn you!" Jaune threw his arms up in surrender.
"Here goes, semblance test, god I don't want to do this, four is go." Jaune grimaced and let the aura flow.
Yang felt the jolt to her system instantly and screwed her eyes shut to revel in the feeling. Every muscle in her arms and legs sang as power flooded into them, joyous laughter escaped her as she felt like a million bucks.
Then the screaming registered.
"OH GOD! EVERYTHING'S ON FIRE!"
Her eyes snapped open and she saw the training field drowning in a sea of flames. Glancing upwards, she had to blink away the glare from her hair, the normally yellow flames were now pure white and almost blinding in their brilliance.
"Oh yeah… there was that bit of my semblance too…"
"Well… this isn't so bad." Jaune muttered and breathed a sigh of relief as semblance test number five went off without a hitch.
"But it's still terrifying." Ren said.
"No kidding." Jaune agreed. The two of them were standing side by side watching Nora test out her hideously overpowered semblance.
This time, there was no way for things to go horribly wrong unlike with Team RWBY. Nora's semblance let her absorb electricity and use it to amplify her strength. All Jaune's semblance did was increase the magnitude of the strength boost.
It didn't sound like much compared to the chaos RWBY created. But watching Nora bench an actual battleship was horrifying in its own way.
"Woo! I can do this all day! Got anything heavier?" She asked.
"N-no. That's… that's as much as we've got." Marrow replied, his tail sweeping the floor nervously at the casual display of inhuman strength.
"Booo…" Nora whined.
"Maybe we can go back to Argus soon, there's that giant robot there I can try lifting."
"I don't think Cordovin will appreciate that very much." Ren said drily.
"Meh!" Nora had enough of benching the battleship and stood, gently lowering the thing to the ground. Marrow released a breath he didn't realise he had been holding when the ship remained intact, for a moment there he had been worried Nora might accidentally smash the thing to pieces with her strength.
Limit testing approved by Ironwood or not, he didn't think the general would be amused by the loss of one of Atlas' prized battleships in such a manner.
"I feel amazing! Group hug!" Nora yelled and began rushing towards Jaune and Ren.
"Oh shit! Stay!" Marrow activated his semblance, trying to halt Nora in her tracks before she could cause her teammates to go squish.
It didn't take. Nora broke free of his semblance through sheer strength alone.
"Wait! Nora! Stay back!" Jaune yelled, waving his hands desperately.
"She's not listening! RUN!" Ren paled.
They booked it.
"Ah… this… this is fine." Jaune sighed and felt perfectly at peace with the world.
"It is. Care for more tea?" Ren asked.
"Sure." Jaune agreed and smiled placidly as Ren poured him a fresh cup.
"How much do you think we could boost Tranquillity's range? You think it's possible to hide an entire village? Or maybe even a kingdom?" Jaune asked.
"Hmm… I could push the range far enough to hide a village, I think. But the aura cost for that would be unsustainable, even with your boost." Ren replied.
"I see. Shame." Jaune shrugged.
"It is what it is." Ren replied.
"Still, you have no idea how glad I am that your semblance is one I can amplify without side effects. Being this calm is nice." Jaune said.
"It is. But… I can't help but feel we're forgetting something." Ren replied.
"If we forgot, then it probably wasn't important anyways." Jaune said.
"Yeah, you're right. More tea?" Ren raised the teapot.
"Sure."
"Stupid semblance testing. When am I going to get mine?" Oscar whined.