AN: So yeah, this is officially going to be its own story with the Atlas Prep Academy Arc. The Sequel will have him actually going to Vale, Beacon, and the Medical Institute. THAT one will be 'A Personal Favor' so I'm working on a new title for this one. Suggestions will be happily accepted in the reviews.

AN2: While I haven't read 'Roman's Holiday' yet I have heard about the plot, I found out AFTER I put part of Roman's past in the last chapter, so I'm taking what I heard, taking some parts, some of what I already had, and making a fusion so don't expect what was in there to be exactly what happened here for Roman or Neo.

A Personal Favor (Name to Change)

Chapter 9

-Jaune-

Smiling to himself, Jaune happily followed the merrily skipping Penny, Ciel walking by his side as their orange haired friend led them to her father's lab here on Atlas where he worked with a few other scientists. "We are here!" Penny cheered as she put her hand on a palm scanner, the door sliding up as Jaune followed her in to see five scientists in the room, all of them turning to the sound of the door opening.

"Penny?" a dark skinned and haired man in a robotic wheelchair looked up in surprise as the three entered, "What are you doing here? You should be in school."

"The Prep Academy gave everyone the week off Father." Penny walked up to the scientist who looked absolutely nothing like her, probably adopted, as the man gave a nod of understanding.

"Over the trial I assume?" the man's robotic wheelchair approached them, "Well it's always good to see you Penny. Now who do you have with you?"

"This is Friend Jaune and Friend Ciel!" Penny skipped back over to them happily, linking her arms with theirs', "Jaune wanted to get ideas for improving his weapon!"

"Penny mentioned her dad and his coworkers were the best minds in Atlas so I figured I could run some ideas by you all." Jaune gave a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head "I'm pretty good at tactics and have even started studying medicine but I don't know a thing on what would or wouldn't be possible with dust or mechanics."

"Medicine?" A man with a bushy mustache raised an eyebrow, "An odd thing for a young huntsman to study."

"Well sir," Jaune grimaced at the memory, Ciel reaching around to squeeze his hand helping him refocus "during the…incident where the trial became necessary my Semblance activated and let me heal Ciel. I figured if I have a semblance that can heal it would be wasteful to not learn as much as I could about medicine. My sister got a nursing degree from the Vale Institute of Medicine, so she sent me all her old textbooks and notes. I've been looking for more basic materials to help work my way up to that in the meantime."

"A respectable mindset." The man who Jaune sensed a lot of pride from approached, "My name is Arthur Watts, I specialize in programing, AI development, engineering, anatomical engineering, and biomechanical engineering such as prosthetics."

"Prosthetics?" Jaune perked up, "If you've studied biomechanical engineering then I'd love to pick your brain at some point on the field. Even if I'd rather ensure that a prosthetic isn't necessary, knowing how to ensure there isn't rejection of the new part is important."

"We'll see young man." Watts seemed to preen at the recognition though.

"Well, I'm Pietro Polendina." Penny's father approached "I work in the field of robotics as well as the study of scientific application of aura and semblances."

"Elana Muskov, I focus on the application and new usage of Dust." The only woman among the group smiled.

"Alexander Remington, weapon design and manufacture." The second dark skinned man nodded.

"John Smith." The last man among the group smiled "I don't specialize, dabbling in most every field of the practical sciences. Now, you said you had ideas for your weapons?"

"Yeah." Jaune grinned as he pulled up his notebook "I just have a standard issue Atlesian Assault riffle right now, wanting to focus on that before I get a melee weapon. Even if I have a couple ideas already. I…well I don't know if any of them are even possible."

"Well let's hear them." Smith nodded and Jaune hoped he was imagining the slightly smug condescension, that the man wasn't looking down on him just for his age.

"Well, I was watching this video of another Huntsman and saw him using dust crystal in his fighting style." Jaune set aside his notebook as he pulled up his scroll, finding the video of the Huntsman, someone named Hazel Rainart, using dust crystals to make a giant stone construct by channeling aura directly into an earth Dust crystal. "And since metals are pieces of ore that get treated at the right temperature and pressure, I wondered if it was possible to use Earth, Fire, and Gravity dust to make a special ammo magazine that can be plugged into any gun which would have a 'code' to use the dust to make the right ammo. If it did, I could have my gun be able to rotate between a machine gun barrel, a shotgun, and maybe even a grenade or heavy ordinance." Jaune showed the rough sketches of the rotating triple barrel system, the two not in use being stored in the weapon's frame."

"I…it's possible." Elana considered his unusual idea, "Maybe at any rate. The process of getting Dust to be stable and 'rechargeable' for lack of a better word is doable so in theory it could be done. It would just be very difficult."

"In the long run though wouldn't it save money?" Jaune pressed "Atlas already uses aura powered air soft guns and paintball guns to train so what about actual bullets powered by aura? Maybe even getting people who have aura but don't use it every day to get side work charging them up."

"It's an interesting concept admittedly." Remington mused as he picked up Jaune's sketch of the rotating barrel system, softly muttering to himself about mathematical corrections to the concept.

"What else?" Watts was eyeing him oddly, but Jaune pressed on, enjoying getting to talk about the ideas he had and not getting mocked for having an 'overactive' imagination.

"Well, I know Hard light can sometimes cut or burn so what about a backup weapon in a glove or arm armor." Jaune showed the engineer another sketch of a close fist with a holographic hard light blade and armor floating above it "I doubt it would work as a primary melee weapon, but it would be a great backup, wouldn't it?"

"I use hard light myself whenever I go and fight to gather data for my combat AI's." the engineer stroked his mustache as he studied the designs, an eager gleam in his eyes "And this idea is exceptionally doable, with my expertise anyway."

"You've got quite a mind young man." Pietro praised while Ciel and Penny gave him proud grins, squeezing his hands, "Now come on, let's hear more of these ideas. I'm a bit ahead of schedule on my own projects so helping my daughter's friend with his plans sounds like a fun way to spend the week."

-Alexander Arc-

Face set in a dark scowl, Alexander swirled his bourbon around in its glass, the girls thankfully all out visiting Saphron and her wife in Argus. "Oooooh, that's an angry expression." Looking up he saw the familiar form of Roman Torchwick perusing his liquor cabinet, a girl with three tone haired at his side, "Have to say I'm curious, what made you call me out here old friend?"

Ignoring the new girl, someone who Roman apparently trusted implicitly if he brought her into the Arc house, Alexander gripped his glass, small cracks appearing as he struggled to control himself "I'm aware of you setting yourself up as one of the top thieves in Vale along with that friend of yours, the rising Kingpin Junior." Alexander let out a deep breath and set down his glass lest he shatter it "As well as your…friend Malachite in Mistral."

"Oh boy, heavy talk time." Roman sighed, sitting across from him, "You want my friend to give us privacy or…?"

"If you trust her that's enough for me." Alexander ran a hand down his face before he threw his scroll at Roman, a video pulled up "You're aware of the…issues that exist in my relationship with Jaune yes?"

"He still wants to be a huntsman then?" Roman frowned as he pulled up the video, it being one from Jaune's battle entrance exam to the academy, having finally arrived at his request from the school.

"Still." Alexander gave a disgusted scoff, the matter being one that he'd brought up every time the two had met up over the years to drink and mourn their dead partners, the world of huntsman having taken two of the most important people in their lives. "But that was from his entrance test. The kid he's fighting…well I found out his sister was part of a…notorious team from over in Vacuo and with what he says at the end I'm concerned."

Roman tapped the play button as the fight commenced, showing the various dirty and underhanded tricks Jaune employed to beat a fight he'd have no chance of winning head on, a mentality Roman seemed to appreciate. Then, after the fight ended, there was the teenager's closing remark "I'll be out of this pit soon enough, so you'd best watch your back if you ever go to Vacuo."

"That's a threat if I ever heard one." Roman frowned, tossing the scroll back to Alexander as Roman's friend looked between the two, likely trying to put together history and the situation if she hadn't been told already.

"The kid's name is Conrad Esclados, his older sister was part of one of the stronger teams to come out of Vacuo for awhile with half the team having this fixation that they were descended from Malik the Sunderer, having declared that they'd reclaim that throne before seemingly vanishing one day. I wanted to know if you or your friends in Mistral knew anything."

"I don't know anything off the top of my head, but I can ask Little Miss and Junior." Roman shrugged, although the rapid tapping of the man's pinky was the tell that Alexander recognized to show the man's anger and agitation.

"Helps having friends in low places huh?" Alexander gave a snort at the unfunny joke, Roman giving him a tired grin. He knew his old teammate had been a pickpocket in his youth but neither of them had expected the flamboyant man to fall in with the Mistral Mob after leaving the Huntsman life, or rising to the point of such prominence that the Mistralian Mob Queen allowed Roman to go run his own racket in Vale to expand horizons as an ally and partner.

"You're quite riled up about a threat from some random teenage punk." Roman noted as he sipped his drink.

"Jaune's friend was shot less than a week ago." Alexander's stoic response made Roman choke on his bourbon "In the heart of Atlas." That hit home for Roman, the man likely remembering Rhodes "And Jaune maybe an idiot. He may be a brat. He may be a stubborn little shit." Alexander's aura rose up ominously from his skin like the miasma of death, the wood and leather of his chair starting to crumble and rot "But he's MY stubborn little shit." His voice deepened to an unearthly tenor while the black cloud of his aura fully manifested, blood red eyes shining out "And nobody gets to fuck with my family and live to talk about it. I learned to stop playing nice years ago."