Location: Highschool in a Town on the Coast of Vale.
"What the hell is this" Jaune thought as he looked at the history test in front of him. With a cold sweat he realized he had studied the wrong section for this quiz.
"Shit" He muttered as he faces palmed, lightly slamming his blond head into the desk. After his mini panic attack, he looked the paper up and down, trying to remember anything that could point him in the right direction.
What was the turning point in the third year of the great war?
Before Jaune could begin his thought process for bullshitting he heard a screech from outside the window, as he and his fellow classmates turned to try to figure out what had made that awful sound.
Glass shattered as a griffin grimm slammed its massive head through the hole where the window used to be, letting out another screech as it roared at the class.
There was panic in the classroom as students screamed and ran wildly, as the Griffin tore its way through the wall, pursuing students as they all tried to squeeze through the door.
A smaller girl wasn't so lucky. She tried to get up from her desk but was knocked over by the mass of students trying to get out. The griffin had recognized this and targeted her, pouncing in front of her, roaring, as it stood above her, the young girl being paralyzed in fear.
WHAM! The griffin was sent stumbling, as Jaune had picked up a desk and had slammed into its feline body, knocking the beast away from its victim. The desk fell apart from the impact, and Jaune fell to the ground.
The griffin shook off the blow and turned to new target. Jaune stood back up, tall, having picked up a new desk to use as a shield, and an old meter stick as a makeshift sword. He and the Griffin locked eyes, each waiting for the other to make a move. Jaune was in between the monster and its prey, something that greatly angered it.
"When I tell you to, run, I'll hold it off as long as I can!" Jaune shouted fearfully, his eyes unmoving from the griffin's gaze, raising the desk up to block his body, while holding the sword above his head.
The girl snapped from her daze and nodded silently, getting to her knees to prepare herself to run, when the griffin crouched, indicating it was about to pounce.
"NOW!" Jaune yelled as he charged forward, and the griffin leapt to meet him. Almost immediately the girl was out the door and the griffin's talons tore through the desk, sending Jaune rolling across the classroom floor.
He got to his knees as the griffin slinked forward, considering how to best finish the hunt. Jaune raised his fists in a fruitless but valiant effort, remembering his grandfather's words "Stand tall and proud, until the end." The griffin pounced yet again, but a red and gold blur slammed into it, knocking it through the hole in the wall where it had came from!
Jaune blinked in surprise as he stood frozen, unsure of what had just happened. Once he had regained his senses, he turned and ran to the hole and looked down from the two-story building.
The blur had turned out to be a woman, a tall athletic looking girl, with stunning crimson hair, and seemed to be wearing some kind of armour. She had just finished the griffin by stabbing it with her spear, the monster fading into black smoke on top of the grass. However, another was charging at her, and she met the beast, using her shield to stop it in its tracks, and then with impressive strength, shoved the creature back and slashed it's chest with her spear, which apparently had transformed into a sword, killing it instantly.
She must be a huntress, Jaune thought in amazement, as he stared at the woman in awe. She looked amazing, in more ways than one, Jaune thought to himself, as he saw the warrior dispatch two more griffins with ease. But he blinked as he took another look at her. She looks so young, Jaune thought confused, as she only appeared to be at most, a year or so older than him. Hunters were supposed to be twenty-one and he had just turned seventeen, so what was this girl doing.
His attention was quickly directed to further up the field away from the school where a bullhead was carrying another young woman, covered in a red cloak, who was definitely too young to be a huntress, firing griffins out of the sky, with what appeared to be a sniper rifle. She then vanished in a swarm of rose petals and the swarm flew through the air as the girl reappeared, now brandishing a scythe, which she used to cut a flying griffin in two. On the ground a petite and frankly stunning looking white clad woman was fighting with a fancy looking rapier, seemingly using it to create strange black and white symbols from nothing, moving in a graceful, almost dance like fashion, which were apparently able to pull the griffins towards them or launch them away, where her partner, a taller girl with long golden hair was firing explosives from her strange yellow gauntlets, tearing through them like they were made of Kleenex.
Finally, it hit him. These are huntsmen protégées, three of some of the best hunters on the planet. The red one was Harbingers, the white one was Snow Sword's, and the blond was Phoenix's. He was blanking on their names, but he had seen them in action before on TV, stopping crime and fighting grimm with their mentors. The question was, where were they, and who was the girl in the armour. He was a huge huntsmen fanboy, heck he wanted to be one someday, but had never seen her before. And trust me, he would have remembered her.
The three girls vanished as quickly as they came, as the griffin flock had been exterminated. The red head was the last to board the bullhead, where she turned and looked straight at Jaune, as she must have seen him when she saved him from the griffin. After what felt like eternity, but was likely only a few seconds, she smiled and gave him a small wave, which he returned awkwardly. She boarded the Bullhead, and it took off, disappearing over the horizon.
Exhausted and frankly very confused, Jaune dragged himself out of the school, which had more or less been abandoned, with all the students and teachers evacuating during the attack. He made it out the doors to the staging areas where local law enforcement was present, doing a head count for all the students and teachers.
He drifted over to where his teacher grabbed him and pulled him to the rest of the class, panickily reprimanded him for not being there, which Jaune barely heard through his own thoughts and exhaustion. He saw the girl who he saved, and she mouthed thank you to him, still looking shaken from the encounter. He nodded and gave her a small smile before falling backwards into the grass as soon as the teacher stopped fussing over him and had gone to talk to the law enforcement. He took his first real breath since the incident started and closed his eyes, as the rest of the class chattered amongst themselves over what had just happened.
Location: HQ, Island of Patch off the Vale Coast
Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha crashed on the couches in the mission room, laying back, relaxing after a mission well done. They had heard about a flock of griffins that were flying towards a populated island, and since they were the closest hunters to it, Ozpin had asked them to intervene and destroy them. Unfortunately, the grimm had made it to a school, before the girls were able to catch up to them, but to their knowledge no one got hurt. Well except for the griffins.
Ozpin had quickly debriefed them and gave them a job well done. Now the rest of the day was theirs. They had been swamped since they started a month ago, with four or five missions a week, most of them being dust shop robberies, which the girls had a special interest in and Ozpin deemed it acceptable to give them priority when it came to missions for dust robberies. With school just starting Yang and Ruby were extra busy with course work. It was rare they had downtime like this.
"P-money" Yang called out as she lounged beside Pyrrha, who was up and stretching, getting ready to go for a workout.
"Yes Yang" Pyrrha answered politely to her new nickname as she raised her leg up to her chest.
"Who was the boy you were waving at?" Yang teased, leaning forward, and grinned cheekily at the red head.
Pyrrha quickly turned red and quickly responded "No one" while waving her hands in front of her. In all honesty she had never met him before in her life, so she wasn't lying. She just kinda saw him staring at her after she saved his life and a wave seemed like the right move.
Disappointed Yang leaned back, "Too bad" She said, and her disappointed look reverted back to a teasing grin "He's cute" winking at Pyrrha, who quickly excused herself to go to the gym.
"Don't you have homework to do?" Weiss asked Ruby, who groaned in response.
"Come on Weiss" Ruby complained "It's a PD day"
"Which means you have a whole day to catch up on your work. Let's go" Weiss commanded as she grabbed Ruby by the hood and dragged her up to the library on the second floor, where Weiss would do her research that she apparently does for fun and Ruby would get started on her algebra, although with quite a large amount of pouting to her white clad friend before hand.
Now Yang was alone, laying back on the couch, with nothing to do. She didn't really feel like working out, or studying for her mechanics midterm next week. She shrugged and got up, and strolled over to the garage that was connected to the hanger, for some much-needed maintenance on bumblebee.
Location: Small Town on the Coast of Vale.
Well unsurprisingly class was cancelled after the Grimm attack, and no one was seriously injured. Typically this would be enough to make Jaune cheer up and relax the rest of the day, especially since he got out of a test he was most certainly going to fail, however he couldn't stop thinking about those girls, and why they were fighting Grimm on their own. Plus, his bike got wrecked by a Griffin, so he was forced to walk home. At least it was nice out.
He walked through his front door, almost being tackled by his mother, who pulled him close with panicked energy radiating off her. He looked to the TV and saw a video of the attack on the local news.
"Oh, my goodness Jaune, I just saw what happened, are you okay? Are you hurt? I can't believe Grimm that size managed to get this close to the city…."
She continued her rambling which Jaune was too exhausted to follow and drowned her out. He knew that she was justified in being worried half to death, but honestly after the day he had he just wanted some much-needed rest.
After his Mom gave him a once over check and multiple assurances from her son that he was okay (he left out the fight he had with the griffin) he trudged upstairs, passing each of his sisters room, as he made way to his room, which unfortunately was at the top. He typically didn't mind, as it gave him space from his seven sisters, but his legs already dead from the events of the day, not helped by the walk home, wanting to give out when he was half way up the five story house.
He passed the Twins, Rosemary's, and Marjorie's room's, one of them previously housing his older sister, Saphron, before she moved in with her wife, Terra, in Mantle.
He then passed his sister, Clover's room, the adventurous tomboy of his sisters. Since his much older sister, Pepper, moved out nearly a decade ago, she had been alone on this floor.
He then passed the last floor before his own, housing his only younger sister Poppy and his Brainiac sister, Lavender, who was no doubt studying away for the MCAT, that she was preparing to take in a few weeks.
He finally made it to the top of the house, where he got the room, that was essentially an attic. On the plus side the whole floor was his room, giving him more room than most of his sisters. He collapsed on his bed passing out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
"Jaune, you okay sweetie?" His Mom asked as he slowly opened his eyes, squinting to avoid being blinded by the sunlight that entered his room. His Mom gently shook him awake, and he smelt dinner being cooked downstairs by his father.
"Mum" Jaune groaned groggily "What time is it?"
"You've been asleep nearly twenty-four hours" His Mom answered, still shaking his shoulder, until her Son propped himself up by his elbows, rubbing his eyes to wake himself up.
"Wait, really?" Jaune exclaimed, and his growling stomach seemed to answer that question for him.
His mother smiled and walked over to the ladder that connected his room to the rest of the house.
"Dinner's downstairs when you're ready" She explained, and before she climbed down the ladder, she turned to face him with an inquisitive look on her face
"Are you sure you're okay?" She again questioned.
He nodded and, his Mother, now satisfied, climbed down to help her husband finish up supper. Jaune got up stretched and headed down the ladder hungry for whatever his parents had prepared. The dinner table was a buzz with conversation, as it often was with the ten family members but Jaune barely paid attention. He had much more pressing matters on his mind. He finished the feast quickly, and bolted upstairs, for once being excited to do some research.
Jaune slammed his butt down at his desk, whipping open his laptop, curiosity overwhelming him. He searched for a news article on yesterday's attack, to see if he could find any clues to the mystery of the four young huntress's, maybe why four of them were without their mentors, and who was the mysterious redhead.
The article didn't say much, nothing he didn't know anyway, in fact none of the articles he could find on the subject seemed to say much more than the basics. Four young huntresses stopped a griffin attack. He switched over to a huntsmen message board. Most of the posts were just links to articles about pro huntsmen but he did eventually find a fair number of older ones that had the girls killing grimm and stopping crime. He did notice that the majority of these involved dust shop robberies. Jaune was confused.
Huntsmen did help stop crime on occasion, especially for criminal's typical law enforcement wasn't equipped for but typically their primary responsibility was eradicating the creatures of grimm. It was unusual for any huntsmen to spend this much of their time on crime fighting, especially a crime as niche as dust shop robberies. He read the articles carefully, but they really only had the typical info. Sure, it told him what happened, but nothing on the girls, who didn't stay long after the robbers were apprehended.
He did also find it odd how the frequency of dust robberies was as well. Dust robberies were rare in most circumstances, mostly due to the incredible power of the Schnee Dust Company, so attacks were generally limited to White Fang raids, and none of the robbers seemed to be connected to them. Mostly just heavily armed thugs. They also seemed to be concentrated in Vale. Jaune saved the articles and began to look through more, before stifling a yawn and looking at the clock. 1:00 Am! What! He rubbed his eyes before looking back at his laptop. It was going to be a long night.
Jaune sighed as he put the final pin on the map of vale he constructed. Due to the several massive grimm sized holes in the wall, as well as the massive wave of trauma that swept the teaching staff, school had been cancelled for the last two weeks. While many students may spend the time relaxing, having fun or the rare student using it to catch up on schoolwork, Jaune had a much different plan. He had been meticulously studying the articles about the huntress's activities and recent dust robberies, comparing the details and most importantly the location. They never took place in the same area twice in a row, almost like clockwork, revolving around the continent of Vale, with about three days break in between each attack. However, with each pin placed on the board Jaune's heart rate had increased an extra beat. Because if his pattern was correct then it was clear where the next robbery would occur. It would be tomorrow in his town! Jaune eyes widened as he worked this out and instantly shifted gears, looking for dust shops in the area. As he thought there was only one, and it was only a few kilometres away!
I mean he could always alert the police, but that wouldn't help him solve the mystery of the underage huntresses. If Jaune wanted his answers he had one choice. Be there himself. Was he at all trained for this? No! Was this even close to being a good idea? No! However, this was the kid who tried to stop a one-ton eagle cat grimm with a school desk. Forethought was clearly not his strong suit.
He did however have enough to arm himself. The Arc Family was a passive family, and had avoided conflict for many generations since the Great War. They did not have much in the way of weaponry or tools of violence. They did however value their history. Crocea Mors, his Great-Great-grandfather's sword and shield combination from the Great War. Jaune really was the only one who found any value from the Blade and due to his many attempts to sneak it out as a child in order to train and slay monster his parents had decided to just give him the Blade, as to remember the bravery of his Great-Great Grandfather, who had been hero worshipped by Jaune's Grandfather, who in turn was hero worshipped by Jaune, and the fact that his other siblings really showed little interest in the weapon, as well as the work of Huntsmen in general.
Jaune got the Sword and Shield off the wall and got some old hockey pads from his basement when he still believed he could ever become a half decent skater. He may have a sword and shield, but every knight needs his armour. He collapsed the shield into its sheath form and placed the sword within it, stashing it in a large duffle bag, which he would be taking to the "gym" tomorrow. He then went to bed early, with his parents none the wiser. He was barely able to fall asleep but awoke with surprising vigor. Today's the day!
Location: HQ, Island of Patch off the Vale Coast
CLANG! Weiss's Myrtenaster struck Pyrrha's shield, following up the slash with multiple small stabs at her, trying to put the Prodigy on the defensive. However, Pyrrha countered by lunging forward with a mighty shield bash, easily overpowering the heiress's blows, forcing Weiss to use a repulsion glyph to avoid her being slashed by Pyrrha's sword.
On the other side of the room, in a much less intense sparring match, was Ruby and Yang, which pretty much consisted of Yang launching herself at Ruby and the young huntress bursting into her petal form and zooming to the other side of the small holographic arena and fired at Yang with her sniper rifle, which Yang was able to either block or tank. This left both huntresses at a bit of a stalemate, as Yang wasn't fast enough to hit Ruby but Ruby, trying to avoid close quarters combat with her bruiser of a sister, didn't have enough power to break through Yang's defenses.
The alarm blared indicating a mission request from Ozpin. The girls halted with their training and turned to face the mission screen, where The Wizard stood waiting for their attention.
"There is a dust robbery occurring on the coastal town where you defended that high school a week ago. If you choose to accept this mission, we will have you at that town in an hour via bullhead. Do you four wish to get involved or would you rather leave this one to the authorities?"
"Yeah!" Ruby and Yang cheered, while their more subdued teammates simply nodded.
Ozpin chuckled "I thought as much. Good luck and prepare for a debrief immediately after the mission." He paused before turning the screen off "and do try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum this time. Our insurance can only cover so much."
"Oh, maybe we'll see your friend Pyrrha" Yang teased, giving her teammate a joking elbow in the ribs.
Pyrrha said nothing at this but gave a small scarlet blush that was left unnoticed by the rest of her team, that had already departed for the hanger.
The girls rushed over to the Bullhead, eager to start their mission, despite the large workload much of them were under. Their curiosity as to why Torchwick had robbed that dust shop in order to get into Beacon had not faded and they were taking every dust robbery mission they could find in order to satiate that. While they didn't have the answers for that question yet, their resolve had not waned.
Location: Small Town on the Coast of Vale.
Jaune hopped on his bike and raced down the road. He had heard booms from the main shopping district and figured there was only one thing that it could be. The Dust Robbery. He peddled as hard as he could whizzing past cars and pedestrians alike, all paused in alarm regarding the loud noises that had been shaking their street for the last five minutes.
He weaved between the parked cars and nearly hit some poor old lady taking her dog for a walk! He shouted an apology back but didn't stop. He couldn't, not if he wanted answers. He finally made it to the street where all the commotion was.
The dust shop was on fire with smoke billowing out, making it difficult to see and breath. The local law enforcement was retreated back, looking worse for the wear from what appeared to be a deadly shoot out. Civilians were running scared, with a few laying injured on the street, caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, they appeared to all be alive, but screams could be heard erupting down the street. This was fine though. The huntresses had just leapt down from their bullhead, and had a handle on it.
Jaune had learned all of their names at this point, except for the mystery crimson haired girl. She was in the thick of the combat, sending goons flying side by side using her shield, instead of her sword, to take down the auraless criminals with Golden Dragon, who had just knocked a goon into a car window, shattering it with ease. He appeared to be fine, besides his loss of consciousness anyway.
Red Reaper had been zipping around as a swarm of rose petals on the edges of the combat zone, firing dust rounds at the robbers who were being encased with ice or shocked with electricity dust. On the top of the dust shop was Frost Storm, who seemed to be creating strange symbols that had various effects, acting as support for Golden Dragon and Mystery Girl.
The robbers didn't stand a chance and were quickly being incapacitated. Jaune was just staring at their incredible efficiency, that he completely forgot to get involved like he had planned to. He was just stuck in a daze, as the warriors knocked around dangerous criminals like they were toddlers.
Before he knew it, the battle had been won and police were reorganized, and detaining the defeated criminals. Well the conscious ones at least. Jaune was shaken out of his daze.
Shit he thought, I can't believe I got distracted and didn't even get to be part of the action. However, looking over the scene he saw an opportunity. The girls were helping with clean up, and the few injured civilians and cops. Okay new plan, help get the injured people out of there. At least this way he could probably get a chance to talk to them. He began to take a step forward when the ground rumbled beneath them, and the concrete street cracked.
A massive black and bony pincer like claw exploded from the earth, ramping up the pandemonium to eleven! It tore up the ground some more, and inched its way out of its newly formed crevice, slowly revealing itself, as the viewers either ran in fear or stood frozen in shock. It was a giant scorpion grimm, with a golden stinger on its tail nearly as big as Jaune was and massive claws, large enough to snap a person in half with ease. The grimm roared and began to snap at civilians, officers, and robbers alike, who desperately tried to flee the scene.
Ruby was stunned! How did a deathstalker get underneath a building! She did what her instincts told her to do first and fired her sniper rifle at the deathstalker, who took the shots like they were bee stings. The rest of her team followed suit, with Weiss blasting the scorpion with fire dust, Pyrrha with her weapons rifle form, and Yang as usual just launched herself at the creature, hoping to finish it up close.
The deathstalker was not as slow as its size suggested, and as Yang came crashing in it raised it's pincers up to block the attack and wacked them outwards, sending the blond brawler flying back to her team, and crashing into the street.
However, her sister decided to capitalize on this distraction and flew towards the tail, hoping to remove the stinger and send it crashing on the deathstalkers head. She burst into a storm of petals and soared on the wind, reforming to try to land a massive scythe slash on the creature's tail, but the creature merely swished its tail away from the huntress's slash.
She landed on the creatures back, and transformed into her petals again and flew up to land on the top of the tail. She tried to transform her scythe into its sniper form to fire at the link between the tail and the stinger. However, the deathstalker had other plans and thrashed its tail violently, and it struck Ruby, knocking her away into a nearby wall.
Pyrrha and Weiss continued to fire at the beast, giving their youngest member a chance to retreat from the situation. They were successful in keeping it in one place, but not much else.
Jaune decided pretty quickly that he wasn't going to be doing much by trying to help the four huntress's take down the grimm, so he settled on helping the evacuation, helping disoriented civilians up and assisting the now somewhat mobilized police officers with removing the wounded as the huntress's did battle. They would typically tell the civilian kid to scram but at this point they could use all the help they could get. After helping a woman and her child get free from rubble caused by the creature's emergence, he took a chance look at the fight occurring.
Ruby had decided that team attacks may be their best bet and yelled "Freezer Burn!" giving a name to the team attack they came up with in the first dust robbery.
Weiss struck down with her sword, creating a floor of ice under the creature and forcing it to slip and slid on the new surface. Yang then launched herself into the air using her gauntlets, and came down hard, shattering the ice bellow and creating a wall of steam on the street, covering the deathstalker.
Step one Ruby thought to herself, blind it. Step two cut off that tail. She yelled "Flying Red Razor!"
After spitting out that mouthful, Ruby was flung at the scorpion by Pyrrha, who grabbed the tip of Ruby's scythe, and used her polarity to send the red hooded girl flying as a living beyblade. She tore through the air, but unfortunately did not make it to the creature's tail.
Deathstalker's, like scorpions, don't rely on sight, so the freezer burn attack really only pissed it off. It again simply moved it's tail out of Ruby's way before trying to pinch the girl with its claws. She then transformed back into her petal form and zoomed out of the cloud of steam.
The deathstalker had the same idea and lumbered out of the steam to chase some tasty looking civilians that caught its eye. Weiss nodded at Yang and Pyrrha, creating a repulsion glyph that they both leapt at, and were sent flying to intercept the deathstalkers path.
Pyrrha landed first, ramming her shield into the deathstalkers side, causing it to stumble. Yang capitalized on this, firing at its side as well with her shotgun blasts, forcing the creature into the wall of buildings. Eventually the beast got tired of this and thrashed back around launched cars at the girls by knocking them aside with its claws.
Yang and Pyrrha did a series of back flips to avoid the cars being tossed at them, and Weiss launched a follow up attack. She got into a dancer's stance and a clock glyph appeared bellow her, infused with lighting dust. Time dilation!
Before the creature knew it, Weiss was on top of it, slashing hundreds of times at it's face, trying to break through its thick armour. However, Weiss's attacks, while fast, lacked in piercing power and she was soon out of lighting dust. She landed in front of the scorpion and soon realized her mistake.
The stinger was coming down fast towards her and she was exhausted, her limited stamina being overwhelmed by the attack she had just pulled off. Fortunately, someone was there to help.
Jaune leapt in the way of the stinger, raising his shield to block the venomous stinger, which rammed into the shield with a clang! However, his stance was not at all grounded and the impact sent him flying back into Weiss, who was knocked over with the larger boy.
Yang seeing her friend in danger acted fast. She leapt from the ground and gripped onto the scorpion's tail, with one hand and fired at the creatures back with her gauntlets. The deathstalker again thrashed in its anger, trampling around the street, and crashing into a partially damaged two-story building, with Yang still gripping onto its tail.
Pyrrha leapt off her shield, using her polarity to launch herself to the building doorsteps, where the deathstalker was still trying to remove Yang from its tail. Seeing a supporting metal beam, she struck it, using her polarity to crush the metal. She ran out of the building as it collapsed on the deathstalker and Yang leapt off it's tail to avoid the same fate.
"Get off me, you imbecile" Weiss yelled, as Jaune shakily got to his feet, where he looked a bit abashed.
"Sorry" he muttered, extending a hand to help Frost Sword up, but she slapped it aside and dusted herself off before strutting back to her team.
"I mean he did save you" Reaper shrugged as Frost Storm walked beside her.
Storm cross her arms and hmphed at this "Yeah but the lumbering dolt nearly crushed me as a result."
Dragon and the Mystery Girl ran up to join the two girls, each giving Jaune an appreciative nod as they passed him.
Jaune was about to walk away, with his rather embarrassing rescue attempt still fresh in his mind. He was about to turn away when he heard a voice calling out.
"Hey where you going?"
He turned to find Reaper waving him over, and blinked in surprise before smiling and jogging over to join the group.
"I'm Red Reaper" She said, giving him a friendly wave.
"Jaune" He said, before jokingly adding "Short, sweet, the ladies love it."
"Do they?" Ruby asked doubtfully
"The Ice Queen clearly doesn't" Dragon bantered "But even if she doesn't admit it, we're all grateful you saved her butt there" She then turned to give Storm a teasing scathing look, to which Frost Storm rolled her eyes at.
Golden Dragon then turned and gave Jaune a big smile "So thanks, I'm Golden Dragon, by the way!"
Mystery Girl finally spoke "I'm Centurion" She was giving Jaune a strange look, like she knew him from somewhere. I mean she technically did, but Jaune wasn't going to tell her that.
He smiled back to them and Reaper asked him a question.
"So, are you a huntsman or something?"
Jaune hesitated before answering unsurely "I mean kind of"
None of them looked convinced at this, but it wasn't like they were going to call him out on this. I mean their first mission was about as unsanctioned as you can get. He had a weapon and had just helped them. Pretty much all that was needed anyway.
They all turned as the rubble behind them shook, the deathstalker was clearly trying to break free. They all huddled up, hoping to come up with a quick plan before that thing got out.
"So, going for it's tail wasn't working" Reaper started "Anyone got any other plans?"
Surprisingly Jaune spoke next "We probably should try to immobilize it. You know, destroy it's legs."
Frost Storm raised an eyebrow "So how do you suggest we do that?"
Jaune looked down at this, unsure how to answer this.
"You could use your ice dust to freeze them..." Reaper started
"…and you could tear them off with your scythe." Jaune finished, and everyone turned to look at him, surprised at his apparent cohesion with their teammate he had met, like five seconds ago.
"Can you two keep it still, while they do that?" Jaune asked, turning to Centurion and Dragon who nodded, and Dragon gave him a grin while cracking her knuckles confidently.
The Deathstalker wasn't polite enough to let them finish their planning and burst from the rubble and charged at them.
"Okay Team Kind of Huntsmen GO!" Ruby shouted as she rushed off to attack the legs, with Jaune grimacing at the name she chose.
He begun to job towards the front of the creature, as it was briefly distracted by Ruby and Weiss, when he was joined by Dragon.
"Hey, are you that kid we saw at the school a few weeks ago?" She asked, raising her eyebrow at him.
Jaune turned red at this "Uhhh, nooo, shut up" He sputtered out, before she grinned at his embarrassment at being found out. He shook this off and ran up next to Centurion, with their shields drawn in a line.
Centurion and Dragon fired their ranged weapons at the scorpion, who was forced to focus on them instead of Reaper and Storm.
The deathstalker struck with its claws, which Centurion leapt into and deflected with her shield, spinning, and slashed at it with her sword, knocking the claw away. The grimm tried to attack with its other claw but was this time blocked by Jaune, who let out a battle cry as he slammed into the pincer back with his shield. Centurion then leapt over him and threw her spear into its head, severely wounding the beast.
The scorpion tried to stab them with it's stinger, but Dragon continuously fired at its tail with her explosive gauntlet rounds, keeping the creature's tail back.
While the other team keep the grimm's attention, Storm stabbed her sword downwards, sending a wave of ice out, freezing the creatures feet solid, and then leapt up and created a platform with her glyphs and jumped over the deathstalker to do the same to the other side. Right after this, Reaper blitzed through the right side, tearing through the immobilized grimm's legs with her scythe, and on a dime flew to the creatures left as petals, proceeding to do the same to the other side.
Finally, the Deathstalker fell on its belly, having lost all it's legs to the assault. Jaune locked onto the sword embedded in its massive head, and came up with an idea.
"Dragon, Centurion nail it" he yelled out to them, and without even asking the two huntresses knew what to do.
"Heads up" Dragon yelled to Centurion as she leapt into the air, and Centurion held her shield up. She landed on the shield and Centurion launched her into the air, and she winked down at the writhing monster. She dropped and slammed a mighty fist on the sword, like a hammer, and the sword tore through the scorpion like butter.
"Nailed it" She muttered happily to herself, and as she leapt off the creature, its tail fell hard to the ground.
Jaune and Centurion smiled at each other as he raised his hand in a hesitant high five. She laughed and returned the gesture. He was about to congratulate the others, but out of the corner of his eyes he saw the deathstalker raise its tail back up for one last attack.
Jaunes eyes widened, "Move" He shouted at Centurion, who had her back turned, as the creature's stinger came down towards her.
He shoved her out of the way, and the stinger tore through his hoodie, grazing his chest before embedding itself in the ground. The rest of the massive tail slammed into Jaune and sent him flying across the street, knocking him into a heap on the ground.
He heard panicked yells and screams as the four girls surrounded him and were talking in muffled voices, likely encouraging him to stay awake and not to lose consciousness. Unfortunately, Jaune had little choice but to fade into the abyss, as everything vanished around him.