HEEEELLLLOOOOOO! Thank you to everyone who left a review, especially those of you who left ship names for Nathaniel and Glynda, and boy did I get a lot of those! It was a very hard choice picking through all of the great ship names I got, but in the end I have decided to go with... *drum roll*
GOODKNIGHT!
It was a very hard choice (seriously y'all had some awesome ideas) and this one barely pulled it out, only just beating The Niemad's suggestion of Skywitch. So congratulations to shadowfox68, who gets my never ending love and adoration (no homo if you're a dude... okay a little. You get a little homo, as in a tiny gay man).
I'm glad to see that everyone is enjoying the story. At times it can be hard to balance trying to stay as true to canon as possible and making necessary changes without screwing up the entire story line with a single action, but it's honestly a fun challenge.
With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!
"I thought that class would never end," said Blake as she adjusted the ribbon of Gambol shroud on her wrist. Pyrrha couldn't help but agree with the cat faunus. If Port's class had been more actual class and less reminiscing then she would have actually paid attention. As it was she normally dozed off, typically waiting until Jaune was asleep so she could use his shoulder as a pillow. At least, she had back when he'd actually had classes with them. Now he was probably either working out or learning about history and Grimm anatomy with Nathaniel when he should be with his teammates and friends. The champion couldn't keep a small scowl from creeping onto her face as she adjusted her vambrace.
"Alright guys, today's the day. The investigation begins!" Ruby jumped off of her suspended bed onto the floor, nearly kicking Weiss in the face in the process.
"I'm glad to see we are taking this so seriously," Weiss said dryly.
"Hey!" shouted Yang with mock indignity, "we've got a plan. That's... moderately serious."
Nora grinned and jumped up onto the bed next to Yang. "It's better than no plan at all right?" The two girls fist bumped.
"Right," agreed Ruby, "everyone remember their roles?"
"You, Pyrrha, and I shall head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other dust robberies or inconsistencies." The heiress put on that smug smile that made Pyrrha wonder what Jaune saw in her. "Seeing as how I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."
"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members," said Blake, "if I can get in I can hopefully find out what they're planning."
"Nora and I will be with Blake, but will separate on the way to the meeting," said Ren as he gave Stormflower one more inspection, "Nora and I will be nearby in case something should go wrong, and we'll go in and help Blake escape."
"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale," said Yang. She smirked, "getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard." the way Yang said that left Pyrrha wondering just how she was going to get the info from her mystery friend.
"Jaune will be joining us after later, when he's flying with Talon," said Pyrrha. "He'll going around the city, talking to the owners of the dust shops that were hit by the White Fang, and be ready to help us if something goes wrong."
"Great, we'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we've found." Ruby pumped her fist, "let's do this!"
"Yeah!"
Pyrrha jumped at the new voice and turned towards its source, the window. There hanging by his tail was Sun Wukong. "Sun!" shouted Blake in surprise as they all jumped back.
"How did you get up there?" asked a bemused Yang.
"Ah, it's easy. I do it all the time."
"You do what?!" shouted Weiss.
"I climb trees all the time," said Sun with a grin. He jumped into the room, landing easily on his feet. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"
Blake stepped forward. "We are going to investigate the situation," she waved her hand to the rest of RWBY and NPR. "As teams."
"Sorry Sun," apologized Ruby, "we don't want to get any other friends involved if we don't have to."
Sun laughed. "That's dumb! You should always get friends involved!" He pointed out the window, "that's why I brought Neptune."
The seven members of RWBY and JNPR leaned out the window, standing on top of one another so no one's view was blocked. Sure enough Jaune's blue haired rival for Weiss's affections was standing on the rather narrow ledge, looking fairly calm about his situation. "Sup?"
"How did you even get up here?" asked a befuddled Ruby.
He smirked, "I have my ways." He looked down at the five story drop below him. "Seriously though, can I come in? We're like really high up right now."
When he had gotten inside RWBY's dorm the little leader went about arranging who would go where with their two new members. "Alright. I'll go with Weiss and Pyrrha, Sun will go with Blake, Nora, and Ren." She started pushing Neptune towards Yang, who winked at Weiss as he went past her. Oddly enough the bluenette didn't seem to mind being literally pushed around by a fifteen year old girl. "Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner. Everyone good?"
Pyrrha smiled at Ruby, who bashfully returned it. She new what the little crismonette was doing: she was trying to keep Neptune away from Weiss for Jaune's sake. Even though Ruby herself had feelings for the blonde boy, she was trying to give him a fighting chance with Weiss. Pyrrha didn't think that she would be selfless enough to do the same had she been in charge of forming the teams.
"Actually Ruby," said Weiss hesitatingly as Pyrrha felt her heart drop and soar at the same time, "why don't you and Pyrrhago with Yang? She is your sister, and it's not like we'd need three people just to make a call at the CCT tower."
Pyrrha could see the panic in Ruby's eyes as she scrambled to come up with a response. "Then uh... who... who would go with you Weiss?"
The heiress smiled at Neptune, who winked back. "Well... I guess Neptune could come with me."
Pyrrha could tell that Ruby was trying to come up with a good reason why Neptune couldn't go with Weiss, and failing. Fortunately big sister Yang came to the rescue. "Actually Weiss, my friend's place of business isn't exactly somewhere someone Ruby's age can go. It wouldn't work for her to come with me."
Pyrrha knew Ruby must have been relieved to have an out, because she didn't even pout at the age comment Yang made. "Yeah what Yang said! So let's go like right now!" She grabbed Pyrrha by the hand, Weiss by the collar, and dragged them out the door and towards the CCTS tower before Weiss could say anything on the matter.
"Wow!" shouted Ruby as she stared at the CCTS tower in wonder. "I forgot how big the transmit tower looks up close!"
Pyrrha smiled at the short girl. Despite being a team leader and huntress prodigy the little girl reminded the champion more of an excited little girl than anything else. She'd never say so out loud, but she found it adorable.
"You should see the one in Atlas," replied Weiss.
"That was the first one, wasn't it?" asked Pyrrha.
"Correct," confirmed Weiss, "Atlas developed the Cross Continental Transmit System to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War."
"Ooh look at me. my name is Weiss, I know facts, I'm rich!" teased Ruby. Both she and Pyrrha giggled at the joke as Weiss frowned.
"Don't be pests," she said defensively. "Besides, the only reason we're here is because you like the tower so much. We could have just as easily made a call from the library."
"I know," said Ruby excitedly, "but it's so cool! Ooh I'm going to take a picture!" She pulled out her scroll, which slipped out of her hands and bounced across the ground, stopping at the feet of a red haired girl.
The girl picked up the scroll and held it out to Ruby. "You dropped this," she said. Pyrrha frowned as she looked the girl up and down. Something about her was familiar...
"Penny?" gasped Ruby. Now Pyrrha remembered. The girl had helped them at the docks against the White Fang, but had disappeared after the fighting stopped.
The ginger's eyes widened as she recognized Ruby. "Um..."
"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since the night at the docks!"
"S-sorry" Penny stammered, "I think you're confused." She hiccupped and the scroll flew out of her hands, which Ruby caught. "Uh, I've got to go." Penny turned around and all but ran away from the three girls.
"What was that all about?" asked a confused Weiss.
"I don't know," said Ruby as she began walking after Penny, "but I'm going to find out. You two go make the call. I'll meet up with you later." Ruby hurried off after Penny before either Weiss or Pyrrha could say anything.
"I guess we'll see her later?" asked Pyrrha.
Weiss sighed. "We will. She always does this. Come on, let's go get the information we need."
The two of them headed towards the CCTS tower in awkward silence. Neither knew what to say, and all that Pyrrha could think of to talk about that would interest them both would be Jaune, which probably wasn't a safe topic with Weiss. Truthfully Pyrrha couldn't see why Weiss didn't like Jaune, but seemed to have fallen head over heels for some random guy she had known for less than a day. Jaune had confided in Pyrrha that he knew one of the reasons she kept turning him down was because she thought he was just after her name, and Pyrrha could understand that, being famous herself and coming from a wealthy family in Mistral. What she couldn't understand was why Weiss thought Neptune was any different from the boys who were after her money. As far as she knew he hadn't done anything that Jaune hadn't tried. The boy had even stolen Jaune's nickname for her, only it had worked for Neptune!
Pyrrha was about to ask Weiss about that when she ran face first into something metal. She stumbled back and rubbed her nose. "What?" She looked up and realized that they had already reached the elevator in the CCTS tower. She had been so distracted that she had run face first into it.
"Are you okay Pyrrha?" asked Weiss with concern.
"I'm fine. I was lost in my own thoughts and hadn't realized we had reached the elevator."
Weiss pressed the up button and the elevator door opened. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm sure" she reassured the heiress. The two stepped into the elevator, and the doors shut behind them.
"Hello," said a feminine yet robotic voice, "welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"
"We would like to go to the communications room please," said Weiss in response to the AI's question.
"Absolutely. Please place your scrolls on the terminal to verify your identities." Both girls placed their scrolls on the terminal before them. The AI scanned their scrolls, then beeped. "Perfect. Thank you Miss Schnee and Miss Nikos."
Weiss put on a smile that even Pyrrha could tell was fake. It fell, and she tried to put on another, even faker smile, which also fell. Pyrrha placed a hand on Weiss's shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Weiss sighed and nodded. "Yes. It's just that to get the information we need I'll have to get in contact with my father's personal secretary, who will undoubtedly inform him that I called. I prefer to avoid him whenever possible."
Pyrrha didn't know how to respond to that. Her own childhood had been very good, even taking into consideration that she had been trained from a young age to fight. Her father and mother loved her very much, and always made sure she didn't want for anything and stayed in touch with her. The champion couldn't imagine having such a strained relationship with her own father.
The elevator reached the communications room, and the two girls stepped out of the elevator. They walked up a supposedly empty front desk, in which a holographic woman appeared who started typing on the keyboard before her. "Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit Center. How may I help you?"
"I need to make a call to Schnee Company World headquarters in Atlas."
"Absolutely," replied the AI, "if you could head over to terminal three I'll patch you through."
Weiss turned to Pyrrha. "Unless you have to make a call yourself you may as well wait here. Some of the documents I'll be asking for are a bit on the classified side, so if she saw someone with me she may not allow me access to them." Pyrrha nodded her understanding and waited by the front desk as Weiss went to terminal three. A few minutes later the heiress returned, scroll in hand and looking moody. "I got the info we need. Let's get out of here." The two got on the elevator and rode back down to the first floor. When they got off they headed outside and looked around for Ruby.
"I guess she's not back yet," said Pyrrha.
"She will be soon enough," responded Weiss, who sat down on a bench. "Until she gets back we may as well start going over the information I retrieved and sort through what we do and do not need."
"Sounds like a plan to me." The champion sat next to the heiress, and the two of them started going through the information, awaiting the pint sized leader's return.
At the Bullhead landing pads Jaune checked all of the straps on Talon's saddle, making sure none of them were loose or too tight. The day had gone by far too slowly, but now he was finally free to saddle up on Talon and take to the skies to help his friends. Trying and failing to surpress his excited grin Jaune hopped into the saddle and slipped his feet into the stirrups. "Anything feel off?" Jaune asked Talon.
The Gryphon walked around a bit, then flapped its wings a couple times to ensure they could move freely. "Everything seems fine," he confirmed.
"Where will you be flying today?" asked Nathaniel.
"Probably over Vale," Jaune said in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner.
"To go help your friends in their investigation into the White Fang and Torchwick I assume?"
Jaune sighed and slumped in the sadde, "Ozpin?"
"Ozpin."
"How did he even find out? We just came up with our plans last night!"
"I don't know honestly, he didn't say. I think it's probably his semblance. He just knows things."
Jaune sighed and rubbed his face, "I guess. Since you brought up the subject I may as well ask now. As long as we're investigating, can I have weekends off?"
Nathaniel frowned and scratched his chin under his beard. "Hm... perhaps. Give me some time to think on it. How long do you think this investigation of yours will last?"
Jaune shrugged, "I honestly don't know. It could be the rest of the year, or it could be a couple days." Suddenly his scroll went off. Jaune pulled it out and opened it.
"Everyone! If you can hear me we need back-"
"HEEEELLLP! They got a robot! And it's big! Really big! The Torchwick guy is in it, but not like, it didn't eat him. He's like controlling it or something!"
Jaune looked up from his scroll at Nathaniel, who had heard everything. "Or it could just be tonight," he said sheepishly. His eyes shot back down to his scroll as he realized something. "Was that Sun?! Why's Sun with them?" Jaune groaned as he realized something. If Sun was with them, then that meant...
Neptune was too.
"Damnit," Jaune muttered.
"I'll get Glynda, and come to your location to help!" shouted Nathaniel as he ran back to the school
Jaune nodded. "sounds good to me. Let's go Talon!" The Gryphon tossed his head back and shrieked, then unfolded its massive wings and took to the sky. The ground passed by as a blur as Jaune guided Talon towards the signal Blake's scroll was giving off. He could still Sun shouting even through the howling wind. Jaune glanced at his scroll to check their position. "We're less than a mile away!" he shouted to Talon over the wind.
"I already see them!" replied Talon, "they're on the highway being pursued by one of Ironwood's metal men!"
Jaune looked up from his scroll and saw that indeed there was a massive mech charging down the road as cars swerved out of the way. Jaune could just barely make out four figures fleeing down the highway as the robot chased them. Two others followed on a bike that he knew was Yang's. Jaune watched as the mech charged down the highway, smashing aside cars as if pursued Blake and Sun. Cars full of people.
Red fury clouded Jaune's sight as he watched whoever was piloting the mech callously smash aside cars filled with innocent people, filled with families. Through their mental link Jaune could feel equal fury radiating from Talon as the Gryphon shrieked in rage and pumped its wing's harder as he angled himself to incercept the mech's path. The ground passed under them as mere streaks of color as Jaune couched his halberd, his face twisted in fury. "Get him of the road," he snarled.
Talon slammed into the mech with enough force to make the ground shake. Driven by the force of Talon's impact the spearhead of Brillant Mors sank into the metal as though it were made of paper as Gryphon and rider shoved the mech off of the highway and drove it into the ground below. Jaune wrenched his halberd free and gripped it in both hands, slamming the hammerhead into the metal again and again with enough force to leave sizable dents as Talon's claws raked over the metal, gouging it open as the Gryphon furiously tried to reach the person within with the intention of tearing him limb from limb. Jaune switched to the axehead and started assisting Talon in his attempt to reach the pilot, each swing splitting metal like wood. Normally Jaune would have tried to curb Talon's blood lust, but after watching Torchwick endanger so many lives the squire wanted blood.
Both rider and Gryhpon were so focused on reaching Torchwick that they didn't see the mech's massive fist come flying at them until it hit them and flung them off of the machine. Jaune slipped out of the saddle as they were knocked through the air and slammed into the ground next to his mount. Immediately he pushed himself to his feet next to Talon and eyed his foe warily. They had done some damage to the mech and torn out chunks of metal plating and wiring, but it wasn't nearly enough to put the machine down. Jaune doubted they would be able to beat it on their own, but he knew they wouldn't have to. He could see his friends and teammates rushing over to help, so all he and Talon had to do was distract it until they did.
Jaune got back in the saddle and couched his halberd again. Talon shrieked his defiance at the machine and charged forward, his claws tearing out chunks of concrete under his paws. Panels on the back of the mech opened, and numerous missiles came flying out and arced towards Jaune and Talon. The Gryphon spread his wings and took to the air, the missiles passing just inches beneath him. The Gryphon landed and closed the gap between Jaune and Torchwick. The war beast slammed into the mechanical monster and forced it back inch by inch as the machine futilely tried to push back. Jaune drove his halberd into the gap he and Talon had torn in its chest again and again. The machine brought one of its massive arms around, this one ending in an intimidating laser cannon. Jaune eyes widened and he mentally shouted at Talon to disengage. The Gryphon spread its wings and leapt back as a ball of white hot engery slammed into the ground where they had been. "Circle it! Keep his attention on us!" Talon took to the skies and flew around the mech, which followed them and began firing blasts of energy at them, which Talon nimbly avoided. After a few seconds of this Torchwick's mech stumbled as a barrage of fire from Jaune's friends pounded it from behind. Torchwick turned towards the greater threat and started firing its cannons at the others, who were forced to scatter. Jaune grinned in victory. Torchwick had made the fatal mistake of ignoring Jaune and Talon, and they meant to capitalize on that. The Gryphon flew several hundred feet into the air, then turned and shot down like a bullet towards the mech, which was still engaging the others.
When Jaune and Talon were just over a hundred feet above the mech one of the panels opened and a missile shot out towards them, closing the gap in a millisecond.
While both rider and mount were protected by their auras the direct hit was more than enough to drain them to almost nothing and knocked Jaune out of the saddle. Talon slammed into the concrete twenty feet away as Jaune landed back first on the mech, gasping in pain as the impact drove the air out of his lungs and drained the last of his aura. He slid off of the mech and onto the ground, where he barely managed to push himself to his feet and leaned against his halberd for support. He looked up and saw the cannon of the mech aimed directly at him. Tired, battered, and without aura there was nothing Jaune could do but stare death in the face and bare his teeth in defiance, which was exactly what he did. "Do it," he growled, "if you're man enough."
"Not bad kid," said Torchwick over the speakers, "but not good enough." The light of the charging energy blast illuminated Jaune. Oddly enough the only thing he could think of in his last moments was that he hoped he at least looked cool right now, because Vaya knew he didn't feel cool.
His final moments were rudely interrupted, however, when Ruby and Pyrrha came out of nowhere and sliced off the arm attached to the cannon that was pointed at his face. The energy dissipated as the arm fell to the ground next to him, and Pyrrha and Ruby pushed the mech back from him as the others, including Sun and Neptune, rushed past him and joined in what was becoming a beat down, with the unfortunate Torchwick's mech being the target.
The mech quickly being reduced to scrap Jaune limped over to Talon. "Are you okay?"
The war beast pushed itself up and shook its head, its mane flying side to side. Some of his plumage was still smoldering, but that seemed to the extent of his injuries as far as Jaune could tell. "That was nothing. I've been stepped on by a Goliath before and came out perfectly fine, minus a broken wing and wounded pride."
"Can you still fight and fly?" asked Jaune as he climbed onto Talon's bare back, the saddle having been totally destroyed in the blast.
"Of course I can." The proud Gryphon arrogantly spread his wings, his head still held high...
And then flinched and drew his left wing back. "Well, I can fight," the Gryphon said sheepishly, "but not fly."
The sound of a Bullhead engine grabbed Jaune's attention, and he looked up to see one such vehicle flying away from the site of the battle. Jaune sighed and shook his head. "Your eyesight is better than mine. Is Torchwick in that Bullhead?"
The Gryphon hissed in displeasure, which was all the confirmation Jaune needed. Jaune slid off of Talon's back and winced and clutched his side as pain lanced through his body. He masked the pain he felt and patted Talon's side. "Hey, we did really well. We took that thing on in one on one combat and we held our own. Not bad for a ten thousand year old bird and a fresh faced squire." The Gryphon nodded in agreement, but Jaune could feel the disappointment radiating off of his mount, and felt it echo in his own soul. They should have done better. They should have been able to capture Torchwick.
Two voices cried his name, and Jaune looked up just in time to see Ruby and Pyrrha slam into him and hug him tightly, which made the pain in his side significantly worse. "Guys," he gasped, "please let go. I think I cracked a rib back there, and this really isn't helping matters." Both of the girls released him and jumped back with concern on their faces. Jaune groaned inwardly. Maybe he should have just let them keep hugging him. He stopped Pyrrha from slipping her hand under his shirt to check his injury and pushed her hand away. "I'm fine," he grunted, "just need to wait until my aura fills back up enough to heal it." He looked at Talon, "so how long will it take your wing to get healed up?"
"A couple days when my aura is refilled, a process which will be much faster when I get some food in my stomach."
Jaune nodded and winced in pain again, leaning on his halberd for support. By this point in his training Jaune had received a couple cracked rips, and new that the healing process would take somewhere between a couple hours or a day, depending on how bad it was.
Pyrrha and Ruby gently but firmly placed their hands on his shoulders and pushed him into a sitting position. They undid the straps on his breastplate and removed it, setting it to the side and rolling his shirt up. "We need to be sure that there's nothing else other than a cracked rib," said Ruby.
"I'm fine," he growled as he tried to push their probing hands away to no avail. They continued to poke and prod his chest and stomach as they searched for anywhere else he was hurt. With a defeated sigh he leaned against the warm side of Talon and let them do... whatever it was they were doing. "Not a word out of you," Jaune warned Talon. The big beast shrugged, but Jaune could feel the smugness radiating off of his mount.
When the others reached them Yang grinned at Jaune. "Wow Jauney boy. All you had to do was lift your shirt and you got Pyrrha and my little sis all over you huh?"
Jaune's face started turning red as he groaned. "They did this, not me. This was not my idea."
Sun sniggered into his hand at the sight of a blushing Jaune being attended to by two women. "Man, you got the ladies all over you huh?" He looked at Blake and wiggled his eyebrows. "You know, I might have cracked a rib too. Wanna check?"
Blake blushed and shoved him away, but Jaune could see a small smile on her face. "Shut up. You're fine," she muttered.
Nora giggled. "That looks fun! Can I help?" She leaned in and pressed her finger on his stomach, hard. She also managed to find the cracked rib.
Jaune yelped and shoved the ginger's hand away. "Two's enough," he said through gritted teeth, "but thanks Nora. Now do me a favor and never do that again."
"We really need to talk about your bedside manner," Ren said to his partner. She huffed and crossed her arms indignantly.
Jaune looked around for Weiss and saw her a few feet away talking with Neptune, which immediately had him scowling. He listened in on the not so quiet conversation they were having.
"And that was so cool how you and your partner combined your lightning blasts and his semblance to take that Paladin apart!" Weiss was practically falling over Neptune, which left a pain in Jaune's chests that dwarfed his cracked rib.
"What can I say Snow Angel? Cool is just how I do things." Weiss giggled at that, which was almost enough to make Jaune stand up and smack Neptune upside the head. That was the best the bluenette could come up with? Jaune could think of five different lines that would have been way better than that and she wouldn't have even cracked a smile, but that made her laugh?
"It wasn't as cool as she's saying it is," Ruby whispered to him. "Watching you take on the Paladin by yourself was way cooler than anything he did. You looked like a knight charging into battle to save the princess, like in the fairy tales my dad used to read to me." Her cheeks turned a bit red and she looked away from him. "I... you were really cool."
"You were," agreed Pyrrha. "I haven't seen such a sight in... ever, honestly. You and Talon did a considerable amount of damage to the Paladin before we even got there. Honestly I think that gaping hole the two of you left in its chest was the only reason Sun and Neptune's attack worked as well as it did."
Jaune sighed and leaned against Talon with his eyes closed. He was glad the others had acknowledged his and Talon's role in the fight, but was it too much to get at least a good job from Weiss? "Thanks guys," he said, then frowned as something occurred to him. "So how did Roman escape?"
It was Yang who answered him. "Some chick in white and pink showed up out of nowhere and teleported him away onto that Bullhead. I think I heard him call her Neo, or something."
Jaune grunted and opened his eyes as he heard a Bullhead come in for a landing. The craft swooped down and the hatch opened, and out jumped Nathaniel and Glydna. The two of them looked around until they saw Jaune and the others, and the scattered remains of the Paladin. The two teachers jogged over to them and stopped just shy of Jaune, who was still being poked by Ruby and Pyrrha. "What happened to you?" asked Nathaniel.
Jaune rolled his eyes. "It's just a cracked rib, but they think I'm hiding some other injury. Talon's got a broken wing though. We'll need another Bullhead for him."
Glynda pulled out her scroll and called the school. After a quick conversation she hung up an put away the device. "I've called in another Bullhead. It should be here soon." She turned her gaze onto Ruby and Pyrrha. "Girls. Stop poking Mr. Arc."
"Yes ma'am," they said in unison as they stopped poking him. Their fingers remained on his chest or abs however.
Professor Goodwitch sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Take your fingers off of Mr. Arc."
"Yes ma'am." The two girls removed their hands from his chest and Jaune gratefully pulled his shirt down.
"Oh Mr. Nathaniel!" said Yang as she skipped up to him, "I think I might have gotten hurt too. Think you could check for me?" She winked at the knight, who stepped back and to the side, putting Glynda between himself and Yang.
"Miss. Xiao Long," growled Glynda with a death grip on her riding crop, "flirt with Sir Nathaniel one more time and you will have detention for a month. Is that understood?"
Yang gulped and took a step back. Even she didn't dare awaken the wrath of Goodwitch. "Yes ma'am."
Jaune smiled and patted Talon's side as his gaze passed over everyone present. The night certainly hadn't gone down the way any of them had expected, but Jaune had done fairly well all considering, even if his... secondary goal hadn't quite been achieved. He sighed as Neptune fed Weiss another cheesy one liner, which left her a blushing mess. Honestly, give him fighting the mech over having to watch the girl he had fallen for flirt with someone else any day...
The whine of an engine caught his attention as the second Bullhead swooped in. Jaune pushed himself up and leaned against his halberd. He patted Talon's flank as the big beast pushed himself up and walked over to the new Bullhead. "Come on, let's head to Beacon and get patched up."
Ah poor Jaune. The boy gets a kick ass new mount that flies and fights mechs and he still can't get the girl. Though anyone who's read my other story "The Vagabond" knows I just love to make my main characters suffer. This was the first time we've seen Jaune and Talon work together in a real fight. The only other time was at the docks, and that was less a fight than just cleaning up. I hope they were suitably awesome and hardcore without being OP. While they did do damage to the Paladin they were unable to take it out on their own. Considering that Cailan and Talon together could take down a dragon I figured that Jaune and Talon managing to hold their own against a Paladin was reasonable. Of course Jaune on his own wouldn't have stood a chance, but with Talon, a beast of war who's twice the height of a man, he was able to lay the smack down.
Pyrrha and Ruby continue to pine after the boy even as he pines after Weiss, who's pining after neptune... man now all we need is Neptune crushing on Jaune and we'll have a rom com on our hands (no there will not be Noah's Arc in this. Don't even think about it. Also when I looked up the ship name for Jaune and Neptune I found a friggin spreadsheet of RWBY ships. There are 424 RWBY ships! What the hell people?!)
Well the sad thing about love is that there's usually a winner and a loser. Right now Jaune is currently in the loser bracket. Give our favorite blonde boy time though, he may pull it out in the end.
As always if you liked this then please follow and favorite if you haven't already. If you have a friend who likes RWBY and RWBY fanfiction then feel free to tell them about this fic! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to tell me what you think so far then feel free to leave a review or PM me! I love you all! BBYYYEEEEEEEE!
