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Cover Art: Mysterywhiteflame

Chapter 4


Their dorm was called a barracks and was possibly the coolest thing Jaune had ever seen. He wasn't sure what he'd expected – a hotel-style room maybe with four beds or some horrific army barracks from an old movie? – but what they got was a rectangular room with a large open space in the centre, and then four pods sunk into the walls. Each of those was a carved-out space that they could easily crawl into, with a cushioned bed beneath them and some shelving units both at the head and the foot. There was a chest at the foot as well, and numerous charging stations and sockets on both ends, and finally a glass sheet like a door that could be drawn shut for privacy. The result was that by having the beds set into the walls, the rest of the room felt ridiculously spacious. Another doorway led to a clean bathroom with white tiles, a shower, toilet and sink.

"It's adjustable!" said Flynt happily from across the room where he'd taken one of the bunks. They were all ground level, two on each side, but Flynt was now sitting up on his as the mattress had risen on pistons to become a reclined seat. "Look at this!" He pushed a button and it slowly whirred down again, then he pressed another and the lower end came up like a footrest. He slouched back with a happy sound, kicking off his shoes to fall by the foot of his bed. "Oh man, this place is awesome."

"The backdrop is holographic!" squealed Neon, equally excited. She'd found a way to turn the back wall of the pod, the solid one, into a display of a rainforest with bright greenery. Another switch turned it to a beach with a gently sloshing ocean brushing up onto white sand. "It even has sounds," she gushed as the noise of the ocean quietly came from her bunk. "How am I supposed to ever sleep anywhere else again?"

"How much do you reckon this kind of thing costs?" asked Flynt.

"More than any of us could ever afford." answered Jaune as he flicked through his own holographic backdrops. He'd heard how some people liked listening to rainfall to help them sleep, and sure enough there was a setting for a forest with a gentle pitter-patter of rain. It looked so real that he actually shivered as if cold.

This really was incredible. Beacon? What Beacon? He wasn't sure if this was designed to wow them into being happier to be here or if it wasn't just what everyone in Atlas got. The place was seriously hi-tech before, so this might have been more of the same. He'd been worried about the lack of a window at first seeing as how they were technically underground in the floating island, but with the vents providing clean fresh air and the displays acting like a window to any world they wanted, it really felt like it didn't matter.

I could get used to this. I was worried about sharing a dorm before but these beds are practically private rooms.

"There's even air conditioning and heating in the pods!" crooned Flynt. "That's it. I'm not graduating. Ever. You can come back and find me still here in thirty years' time."

"Miss Schnee might have something to say about that." said Jaune. "What do you think, Penny?"

"Oh? Me? Oh, it's sensational." Penny sounded distracted and picked at her sleeve. "I have to go visit the… um… medical bay. I hope you all don't mind."

It must have been about her prosthetic arm. Jaune could understand why she might feel nervous about telling it to the rest of the team, so he sided with her. "Oh yeah, you mentioned that to me before," he lied. "We're cool if you want to head off now."

"Ah! Yes!" Penny caught the hint, sent him a dazzling smile and rushed for the door. "I will be back soon later tonight. I promise."

The door slammed and clicked shut behind her. Flynt was still playing with his bed, but Neon looked Jaune's way with her tail flicking lazily behind her. "So, what was that all about?"

"It's Penny's private business."

"Oooh. Sounds saucy."

"Leave it be, Neon." said Flynt. "He's giving us a hint. It's none of our business."

"I was only teasing. Geez." Neon's tail took on an agitated swing despite her grin. She sat cross-legged on her bed. "So, we're all teammates now. That means we should get to know one another, right? Should we do the full introductions when Penny is back?"

"Not a bad plan." said Jaune. "Do any of you know if we have lessons tomorrow?"

"It's on your scroll."

Jaune blinked and checked his, finally noticing the mail symbol over the insignia of Atlas that was the wallpaper on his new school-issued device. There were a number of apps pre-installed, including a map, emergency numbers, an internal mail system and a list of school rules. There was also a lesson plan, which Jaune ignored for now and opened the mail. The first part of it was the expected "welcome and congratulations for passing…" speech you'd expect, but the below caught his interest more.

Your first day will be orientation instead of normal lessons. You will meet at the cafeteria to eat and must have finished and be ready by 9am. Uniforms not required at this point. Each team is required to have elected a team leader, who will represent the team and attend extra-curricular leadership lessons with other team leaders. Team leaders will receive additional privileges to recompense the extra time required. Please respond back to this mail with your team designation and leader before 7am. Welcome to Atlas. May your ambitions be not only met but surpassed. Gen. J. Ironwood.

"Hey, it says we have to pick a team leader." said Jaune. "How are we meant to do that?"

"By whoever showed the most leadership potential?" guessed Neon.

"Did any of us? No one was really in charge."

"I think that's the point." said Flynt. "I've heard other schools just pick the leader and force you to deal with it, but I guess Atlas believes any real leader would need training. We're all as unqualified as one another so we should just pick whoever wants it. Anyone?"

No one replied. On Jaune's end, he felt unqualified. His transcripts were forged and everyone else had done more work than him. It was hard to say what their reasons for refusing it were, maybe Neon didn't want to deal with comments on her being faunus or just thought the job sounded boring. Flynt looked like a guy more content to focus on his music and have fun than get stuck in extra lessons. Those privileges sounded nice but all kinds of vague as well. Maybe if they were detailed and attractive, they might have been keener on the idea.

"We could pick Penny." said Jaune.

"I'd rather not." replied Neon.

"What? Why?"

"She's nice, don't get me wrong, but she's a little…"

"Spacey." said Flynt, when it became clear Neon couldn't think of a nice way to say it. "Besides, you're the one who brought her into the group. Why don't you take the spot? I'll vote for you."

"Same!" chirped Neon.

"Whoah, whoah. Why should I be leader? I don't deserve it."

"None of us do. That's what the leadership lessons they're talking about are for, right? Someone has to be in command and my style and weapons don't suit it." Neon made a whooshing sound and mimed skating by. "A leader is best if they can stand back and make calls, right?"

"I can't make calls if I'm stuck playing my trumpet." pointed out Flynt. "Literally disqualified by virtue of my mouth being busy."

"He needs to blow on his horn~" said Neon suggestively.

"I'm not taking smack from a girl who thinks roller skates are a viable weapon."

"How very defensive of you, Flynt, did I hit a little close to the mark?"

"Guys. Guys." Jaune interrupted them before they could fly off on a tangent. He was fairly sure they were doing it on purpose to lump him in the leadership position. "This discussion isn't over. I'm not leadership material and you're not throwing me in the deep end on this!"

/-/

Penny squirmed unhappily as her father looked over the various screens. Her head was open with little wires coming up past her cheeks to reach into her brain, or her central processing unit, and play them back on the screens. Her arm had been detached, cut away at the shoulder, and a fabricator unit was re-applying the specialised skin-like polymer that served as her epidermis.

"How is your team so far, Penny?"

"They are sensational, father!" Penny didn't have to hide her enthusiasm. Pietro, her father, had often told her to use more words than `sensational` to describe things, but in all her time reading through language articles, she'd yet to find a word that so thoroughly explained her feelings. Nice was too simple, too little, and fantastic did not fully encapsulate the feeling of being alive and having people who called her friend.

It was sensational. That was all it could be.

"-and I am confident that we will be a team that surpasses all of Uncle Ironwood's expectations. I know he wished me to be on a team with Ciel Soleil, and I was content to do that before, but she was only ever polite with me. Jaune is different."

"Because he believes you are a normal girl."

Penny didn't flinch. "Yes."

"Your readings spiked there, Penny. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"No father."

"Another spike."

Curse her processors! It was hard to lie when she was a literal machine who computed things before she said them; to her father looking over her code, she might as well be shouting "LIE" before every full sentence.

"Is this about Mr Arc seeing your internal workings when you saved him from nearly being killed?"

"Father, no!" cried Penny, almost pulling the wires out her head before thinking better of it. Had she the potential for tears they might have appeared in her eyes. "Please, I promised him I would keep that secret! Don't make me break that!"

"It's alright. It's alright. Calm down." He rolled his way over to her and ran a hand over her still-attached arm. "Hush now, there's no reason to worry, I'm not going to take him away from you."

Penny lay still but turned her head to look at her father, her creator, with big green eyes. "Y-You're not…?"

"I'm not. In fact, I might even erase that little scene from the report your uncle has asked for." He winked at her. "After all, it'll be our little secret, yes?"

"Thank you! Thank you!"

"You're my dear daughter, Penny, I only want you to be happy." He gently pulled the wires out her skull and then brought it back and began to seal it into place. Her hair draped down her shoulders once more. "And really, I think you're worrying too much about your teammate as well. He saw that your arm was mechanical, only that, and I dare say his first impression will be that you have a prosthetic."

Jaune didn't know? The idea of a prosthetic hadn't even crossed her CPU but she was a machine intelligence, so the first thing she leapt to was her fear of being discovered and judged. Looking back on the scene with her father's wise words, she could see that his hypothesis was far more likely.

"Oh." Now she felt a little silly. "Do you… Do you think I should tell him? Them?"

"I think you should consider it," said Pietro, "but in time. Not straight away. It's perfectly normal for people to have a few little private secrets that they keep to themselves. Once you're comfortable with them and they know for a fact what a special girl you are, then you can tell them. If they truly love you as a teammate then it won't matter what you are or what you aren't. They will accept you for who you are."

It was such a heady idea that she almost wanted to run back and tell them right now so she could experience it. Almost. Her father's wisdom won out again, and she knew from numerous warnings from Uncle Ironwood that some people – a lot of people, really – would be uncomfortable or even afraid of an artificial intelligence. Pietro blamed movies and old-fashioned authors who had almost always portrayed them as evil and destructive. He said it was unfair for her to be tarred by that brush, and yet Uncle Ironwood told her she would if she wasn't careful. Her existence, and the PENNY Project, was to be kept secret at all costs.

That was why it was so important the recording of Jaune discovering her secret, even if he did not fully grasp the implications of it, had to be deleted. Penny was grateful for her father doing so, and even considered deleting it from her own memory banks before deciding not to. Instead, she moved the file location, obfuscated it behind millions of others, and locked it under administrator privileges that only her creator could access.

There. Safe and sound.

"Your arm should be repaired soon." said Pietro. "I'll remind you that we added a food storage and waste disposal unit to you before this, so you can eat, though you'll not taste anything I'm afraid. Please try to remember to eat normal portions. Eating nothing will have your team worrying for you but devouring eight plates in one sitting will have them calling the medical office. To say nothing of the time you drank bleach. You nearly gave your minder a heart attack."

"It said it was lemony-fresh." argued Penny, not for the first or last time. "Lemon is food. It shouldn't have been advertised that way."

"And this is why I never had normal children." said Pietro with a pat on her head. "They're much too fragile. Now, let's get your arm back on and you back to your team. You need to spend time with them so you can bond and make friendships."

"And learn to act more like a human," said Penny, remembering Uncle Ironwood's orders.

Pietro smiled fondly. "That too, dear. That too."

/-/

"-and Jaune Arc." called out Winter Schnee. "If you will all come and wait here, I will take you to your assigned leadership seminar. Thank you."

Jaune steadfastly ignored the well wishes of his team, even Penny's entirely heartfelt ones, and glumly made his way over to the assembling team leaders. Some of them looked pleased to be there, standing tall and proud, but he was relieved to see at least two others that looked as reluctant as he.

They were all clad in the white and grey uniforms they had found delivered to their doors in the night. Each had been sealed tight and named, fitted to their specifications, and including several spares. Neon had been aghast at the boring colours and the fact they all looked identical. Jaune could agree a little. There'd been no uniform or dress code back home in Ansel's schools, but this was a lot bigger and military themed. Jaune felt stiff in his, the clothing not yet worn in, but he supposed he looked good. Not cool or anything, but professional and smart.

Jaune's body naturally found his way gravitating toward one of the men that looked as annoyed as he, the man's fade being somewhat familiar. He noticed, turned, and offered Jaune a sarcastic smile.

"You get lumped into this, too?" he asked.

"Yeah." sighed Jaune. "Outvoted."

"At least yours voted. Mine said that my `quick and critical thinking` in avoiding a fight with you showed my leadership potential." He snorted. "Bullshit is what that is. So much bullshit. I hope these privileges are being able to force them to run laps until they're sick."

What he said jogged Jaune's memory and made his eyes widen. "You're the one I met outside the radio tower!"

"Guilty." The boy grinned and stuck out his hand. "Rain Samson. Call me Rain. Kinda a good job we both decided to peace out of that fight, eh? Otherwise, we'd be flying home today feeling sorry for ourselves."

"Yeah. Tell me about it. Oh. I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc. So, you don't want to be leader either?"

"Too much responsibility in my mind," said Rain. "Having to worry about my teammates, my orders, my fight and everything else. Some of these people here look like they wanted it but I'd have sooner anyone else took it. You?"

"I don't think I deserve it. I didn't show any real leadership back there."

"Good day." a firm, feminine voice spoke up from their left and brought their attention to a slim, short girl with dark chocolate skin and bright blue eyes. She was garbed in a similar shade of blue. "I hope you don't mind if I introduce myself?"

"Knock yourself out." said Rain with a grin.

"Thank you. I am Ciel Soleil. And you are Jaune Arc."

The fact she knew his name made him wince, though he wasn't sure why. "Y-You know me?"

"I am a friend of Penny's," she explained, "and was hoping to have her on my team. You beat me to it, however."

"Oh." That explained the knowing – Penny must have told her – and it might explain why she sought him out as well. "I'm sorry if you feel I poached her. We didn't realise Penny had promised her time to another team. I swear she didn't tell us."

"You misunderstand, I'm not unhappy with you or her. I simply wanted to ask if you wouldn't mind me visiting every now and then to see how she is getting on. And if you would be amicable to cross-team training exercises." She looked briefly to Rain. "The invitation extends to your team as well."

Cross-team training? The fact another team leader was already thinking of things like that only drove home how out his depth he was, and judging by Rain's nervous look his way, the other boy felt the same. "Uh. Sure. That's fine with me. You, Rain?"

"Yeah. We haven't decided our training schedule yet but I'm sure the others will be down."

"Excellent." Ciel smiled the smallest of smiles. "I look forward to it. Excuse me, Specialist Schnee is here. We don't want to be late."

"You feeling as dumb as I'm feeling?" whispered Rain when Ciel walked away.

"Dumber," Jaune said back.

Winter Schnee saluted before them with a click of her heels, and they all clumsily returned it. The effort, rather than the execution, seemed enough for her and she said, "At ease. Please follow me. General Ironwood will be conducting your first leadership seminar. This is an honour you will not experience again until your fourth year, but rest assured you will be taught by some of the best tactical minds in Atlas, all of whom have real-life experience leading soldiers and huntsmen in battle, and all of whom have more than earned their ranks and accolades. We expect you to show them the utmost respect at all times. Am I clear?"

"Ma'am!" they replied as one.

"Good. With me."

They were led down more of the corridors that looked the same as all the others, but thankfully Winter talked about the app on their scroll, which she explained would act as a navigation device if they requested it to. It would not only plot a route but alert them at any turns, invaluable for their first few weeks where Atlas Academy could feel and look like an ant's nest with all its tunnels.

Eventually, they were delivered unto a small room with four rows of benches, seats and General Ironwood himself stood before a screen. The first few in saluted clumsily, causing the man to smile. "Come in and take your positions first. Don't fret on saluting and discipline. It will be covered in one of your first lessons. Traditionally, you should all take your positions and then salute as one."

The students filed in and behind the rows of desks. The room was too small to be a proper classroom but perfect for a smaller subset of students like them. Once they were all in, Jaune sliding in with Rain to his right and the open aisle to his left, they stood to attention and saluted. The salutes were clumsy, Jaune's especially, but the General appeared content with their efforts. He returned it with much greater poise.

"At ease. You may take your seats."

Chairs scraped back and creaked as men and women of various shapes and sizes made themselves comfortable. Ironwood waited patiently, then nodded to Winter over their heads, who saluted, stepped out and closed the door with a soft click.

"Thank you for coming today." said General Ironwood. "You have been selected, perhaps with your approval or without it, to serve as leader and commander for your designated teams. Allow me to make two things abundantly clear before we begin. First of all, none of you have yet earned your position. Secondly, it can be taken away at any moment."

No one spoke up but Jaune could feel the displeasure in the air. He wasn't sure if it was a trap or not, but it felt like anyone who argued right now might find out just how fast they could lose it. General Ironwood continued.

"That is not to say that I am not looking at some of the future heroes of Atlas, great leaders in your own right, only that you have not had the opportunity to truly earn your position yet. That is no fault of your own. A true leader is one who can successfully and repeatedly lead his or her team through a mission, minimising risk, injuries and losses, but who can also bring their team back together if the worst does happen. A true leader must be prepared to turn aside their grief at the loss of a close ally, slap some sense into their shocked squad mates and drag them back to base safe. It is not a glamorous or happy job at times. In fact, you'll have more reason to hate the responsibility than you will to enjoy the rank. That is why it can be taken away at any time – at the discretion of your teachers, at the urging of your team, and also at your own request. Should you ever feel that the burden is too much, rest assured that Atlas Academy will not force you to keep it. We do not believe in deciding these matters for our students and enforcing them. Trust is important in any team. It is imperative your teams trust you to both lead and to have their best interests in heart. You must also trust in yourself – and this is not always easy."

Jaune felt more and more beaten down by the end of it. He'd known this was a bad idea and now it sounded even worse. I'm the last person who can keep calm in a crisis. I'll panic and break the fastest. Who could take his spot, though? Flynt would be less effective at fighting if he had to and Neon would be skating all over the place with no time to stop and take in the situation.

"I don't want you all to wallow in despair however." Ironwood went on before Jaune could think of an answer. "These lessons are designed to turn anyone, even an absolute nobody, into an effective leader. You will learn everything from protocol to managing team grievances, from maintaining morale to settling disputes, and from accurately reading and commanding a small-scale squad combat mission to taking control of forces outside your team."

He wasn't sure if that was aimed at him or just the general doubters in the room, but it took much of the wind out his sails. He couldn't go back and tell his team he wasn't the right choice when he hadn't even tried yet. It looked like he'd be giving this a go yet. At least to see if he couldn't rise to the position.

I won't know if I don't try…

"Don't think your teammates will have it easy, either. Atlas believes in the idea of every team being independent and capable, which is why you will be expected to elect a squad medic and a squad engineer before the month is out. Those cannot be any of you as the lessons would clash, but they will have their own lessons. The engineer will be trained to keep your team's weapons and equipment in one piece, while the medic will be taught to keep you in one piece. Both skillsets will also be invaluable in your work as huntsmen and huntresses, either to patch up victims of Grimm attacks or repair a vehicle if needs be. As I have said before, you will have the best education money can buy here. We are willing to invest in making sure you are both effective and lasting teams that will be a problem for the Grimm for decades to come."

"Sir." A hand rose.

"Yes Miss?"

"Cloudpierce, sir," the girl stood and snapped a nervous salute. "Should we work to have multiple medics in case our primary one is injured?"

"That is a matter for you to decide as team leader. Part of the privileges that I vaguely mentioned in the introductory mail will include your being able to petition for additional training for your team. This will be judged on a cost-analysis basis by your head of year. For your example, I can guarantee additional medical training for any teammates will be accepted. We always encourage more medics. Requests that might require additional criteria to be met would be piloting, demolitions or codebreaking. The former requires you hold a driving license for six months first, while the latter two are likely to be rejected in your first year but offered in your second or third. What will also be considered is how much you have already requested. The mind can only handle so much of course, and while it is admirable to try and learn everything you can, we will step in if we believe you are pushing yourself too hard. Does that answer your question, Miss Cloudpierce?"

"Yes sir!" said the girl, sitting. "More than answered."

"Good." General Ironwood nodded to her. "Miss Cloudpierce here has the right idea. Your role is to look after your team, which sometimes means assigning them extra work. It might not make you popular, but they'll have to get used to it. I'd advise you all focus on the medical and engineering roles right now however, and only look to expand once you have those sorted. The final member of your team will be an obvious choice for rounding out any skillsets. So, as you can see, you shouldn't feel like you're being dragged into extra lessons because of your position. Your teammates will have additional lessons anyway. To balance this, Atlas Academy has fewer overall lessons than other academies, and some of those electives have been removed. For instance, history is something you can feel free to read up on in your own time. There are no courses on mathematics, science or language here. You're free to self-study those topics, but your primary focus will be combat, tactics and teamwork."

General ironwood clapped his hands together and the lights in the room dimmed, while the board behind him lit up. "Now then," he said. "Let me take you through some of the core tenants of what it means to be a leader, and the first responsibilities you should focus on. This material will be made available and sent to your scrolls, so don't worry about making notes. You'll always be able to review your lessons. First of all, let's talk about how you are directly responsible for organising and ensuring your team takes advantage of free hours to train, study and stay in shape…"

Oh good. He and Rain really would get the chance to force their asshole teammates to run laps. Punishment for forcing the position on him was coming, and Jaune was going to take great pleasure in ensuring his team was up to par.


Added a bit about the uniforms from the first draft as I felt that was lacking and fixed up some dialogue here and there. I know that luxury rooms would not be common for low-ranking trainees, but that's a marked difference between military and huntsmen in this scenario. Also, you'll see why they get the fancy rooms later.

General Ironwood pushing a lot more than Ozpin does as a teacher as well, firmly laying out expectations and making sure the students fulfil them. I wanted the feel of the school to be autocratic vs Beacon's laissez-faire style, but also not "cruel autocratic" but more like "directed teaching". I.e. You will learn this because it's important, and you'll thank us for it later.


Next Chapter: 22nd October

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