To Be Relentless

Chapter 15

-Alexander-

"So…" a loud explosion cut Alexander off as he spoke to Roman over the phone, "how's the training going?"

"Oh, just greaaaaat." Roman grunted, the speaker phone call conveying the man's exhausted frustration "She's found she can throw fireballs and lightning now."

"So, it's elemental powers?" Alexander frowned as he kept making dinner, his daughters that still lived in town having gone to Argus to meet up with Saffron before the group would head to Atlas.

"She's also started levitating things and stuck my hat to the wall so no, not just elemental bullshit. Instead, it's chaotic bullshit."

"Lovely." Alexander sighed, slicing his chopped potatoes into the stew pot "What about what I asked you to look into? That thing under Haven?"

"Little Miss did some digging but yeah, she found something." Roman confirmed "Years ago, back when the school was first being built, there was extra supplies that were suspiciously never used, and she found a hollowed out cavern in the school's mountain. She didn't bother going up to see what's at the top, just found the lake at the bottom which had an entrance, but that sounds like what you described to me."

"So, we're heading to Mistral then." Alexander nodded, "Would you three be able to travel without-" another explosion "that?"

"Yes." Roman sighed "She's just doing that for fun at this point. She can't use the powers without things going crazy, but she has enough control to keep them from triggering when she doesn't want them to."

"Have fun." Alexander laughed at his old friend's misfortune, able to feel the middle finger aimed at the Camera. "But anyway, I'll be there in a couple days so we can go to this place." Alexander's mirth vanished as he got serious, "So get ready for that."

"I'll make sure Neo knows we'll be trying to not draw attention." Roman assured him, "See you soon my friend."

"See you soon." Alexander nodded as the call ended.

-Jaune-

Grunting, Jaune threw himself forward in a roll, the hard-light Atlesian Knight's attack passing where he'd just been. Spinning, Jaune opened fire with his new gun, the aura bullets shattering the projected opponent. The Knight's partner rushed him as Jaune's gun clicked, the cartridge empty as Jaune was out of ranged options. Pushing a small pulse of aura into his bracer, a hard-light blade appeared, thrusting up as Jaune stabbed into the solid hologram opponent.

"All opponents beaten." The robotic voice for the training room AI spoke up "Aura reserves currently at seventy one percent. Time taken, five minutes and twenty-three seconds. Best prior record, Six minutes and twelve seconds." Standing up, Jaune deactivated his hard light arm blade and ejected the glowing aura cartridge from his gun, attaching it to his new belt where he had some other prototype 'aura heat sink' clips charging up.

"Well done Friend Jaune!" the happy voice of Penny piped in over the speaker phone as the various raised platforms that simulated a maze lowered down, the training room deactivating as those from the observation booth started making their way down.

His eyes went to Ciel first, his friend smiling at him warmly as she approached, a glowing metallic sphere in hand "WELL…DONE…JAUNE." The robot voice from the AI core piped up, sounding happy even if the ability to convey such was limited. The Core, a gift from the late Doctor Watts, which had been in the case along with his hard light arm blade.

"Thanks Amari." Jaune smiled, taking the core from Ciel now that he wasn't in combat anymore.

"Mr. Arc, I've been meaning to ask all day but where did that name come from?" Specialist Schnee asked as the various ace ops approached to give their critiques at Jaune's run, the fact hew as getting training from them still a rush to the blond student.

"Well Doctor Watts made the base AI core before…" Jaune trailed off sadly before bolstering himself "Before the incident. But he did have base ideas for the final design in the notes." Jaune rummaged around in his case and pulled out the notes he was planning to bring to Penny's father and coworkers later "The final system would have Amari housed in a drone like body with a housing dock that could be carried on my back. She could be help me with any medical procedures I'm trying to do while also adding search abilities. So, I came up with the name A.M.A.R.I which stands for 'Advanced Medical And Reconnaissance Instrument'."

"Quite the interesting design." The Ace Ops leader Tortuga took the papers to look them over "I'd suggest you start training with a weight on your back that would be roughly the shape and weight of Amari and her eventual dock."

"I'll see what I can find." Jaune nodded, knowing that it made sense to do so.

"I'm more interested in what the kid's named his weapons!" the massive specialist Elm chuckled, ruffling Jaune's hair as he tried, and inevitably failed, to fight her off.

"I've just been calling the hard light knife 'the omniblade'." Jaune admitted, his inner dork shining through "But the gun I've been calling 'Peacekeeper'."

"A good name." Marrow gave him a grin, cracking his neck as he stepped further into the training room, "Guess I'm up to work on my Semblance. Haven't really gotten a chance to push it since the Incursion."

"Setting room for maximum number of opponents set to do a direct charge." Specialist Schnee nodded "We'll see how many you can stop."

"Bring it!" Marrow cracked his knuckles eagerly "Let's see if I can beat my best. Doubt it'll be anywhere close to what I was able to do with Jaune boosting me though."

"We'll see." General Ironwood, who'd bee silently observing up until that point, nodded to Tortuga "Start up the training program once we're behind the line, I want to be able to intervene or shut it off quickly if this goes wrong." Given this was a more intense situation than Jaune's training one it made sense. Specialist Tortuga nodded, entering the commands as a wall of hard-light adversaries manifested and started charging Marrow.

"Freeze!" Marrow pointed, eyes blazing and aura shining as a solid chunk of the constructs ground to a halt, the others racing past. "Wait what?" Marrow looked confused, his control slipping as the frozen enemies suddenly began moving again, admittedly only getting a couple steps forward before Tortuga shut them off.

"What was that Amin?" General Ironwood demanded.

"My Semblance has never slowed that many without Jaune's boost before." Marrow frowned, looking down at his hands "Before the most I could do was freeze five or six things at once if I really pushed myself. But I froze over twenty there. I know I've been training more but that big of a leap is…" he trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Unusual." Ironwood deduced.

"You mentioned the kid here giving you a boost yeah?" Tortuga spoke up, "Could it have had a lasting effect?"

"Maybe." Marrow gave Jaune an appraising look.

"Couldn't it have just been from how much his semblance was being used during the Incursion?" Jaune spoke up, doubtful his Semblance could have such an effect.

"Easy enough to figure out." Ironwood nodded, "Winter, you still have yet to be able to manifest a summon from that Alpha Megoliath correct?"

"Correct General Ironwood." Winter nodded, "So far it's just the head I can summon given the size and strength of the Grimm in question."

"Mr. Arc, I want you to use your semblance on Specialist Schnee until your reserves are in the red." Ironwood ordered, "We'll do this each day over the week and then see if Specialist Schnee can summon any significant amount more of that construct."

"Yes General." Jaune put his hand on Specialist Schnee's arm while Penny went to go text her dad that they'd be over soon.

AN: In my defense of the permanent semblance boost it actually makes sense if you think about what's shown in the show. Weiss was shown that she could still only make the Armor Gigas when she got lanced by Cinder, a Grimm that was distinctly more powerful than the Gigas. Yet after Jaune repaired her aura, she was able to summon something she clearly wasn't strong enough to before. And while that could be argued as just writing contrivance look at the more recent Atlas seasons. Jaune was boosting Ren for hours upon hours as they worked to evacuate people. And after those continuous boosts Ren's semblance evolved 'seemingly out of nowhere'. I'd say that Jaune's boost isn't a temporary thing but can have permanent side effects on those he boosts. And even the amounts that get boosted make sense as Ren said he'd only been able to block two people at most without a boost before and that didn't last long. But Jaune was easily able to help him block dozens for hours on end.