I don't own anything related to the RWBY franchise.

Chapter 10 - Falling Down and Pairing Up

"Beep. One minute to drop, one minute to drop. Beep."

It was time... The Mission was starting...

Over and above the holographic projector that was built into the frames, the HUD glasses that Beacon's Initiate class had been given also contained some kind of bone conduction speaker set. The glasses were currently warning everyone to finish making what preparations they required while they still had the opportunity, because they were about to be ejected out of the airship into open air.

Jaune found himself extremely impressed with both the resources and the caution that was going into what would otherwise have been an extremely reckless undertaking. With everyone under constant observation by Ms. Goodwitch and two other Beacon Professors, the chances that anyone would get killed were significantly reduced.

Then again, there was no doubt in Jaune's mind that several very "ambitious" students were going to make a beeline towards the test's most dangerous areas. These dangerously stupid trainees would probably dominate the majority of the Professors' attention, which would ironically make the safer test areas a little riskier in comparison.

After releasing a small, almost silent scoff and completing a tiny shake of his head, Jaune closed his eyes and focused on his aura. Over the next thirty seconds, he poured his entire attention into having his nanobot armor cover his arms and legs in a very specific way. Then, when he finally had it looking and feeling just right, he cracked his neck and drew in a deep breath. He was ready. It was time.

Clink, clank, clunk!

With an abruptness that was startling even after watching a digital countdown, Jaune's harnesses suddenly whipped back into their compartments, the fuselage wall behind him opened up, and he was ejected backwards out of the airship by a powerful jet of lukewarm air.

The blast of air was especially effective at forcing Jaune's body out of the airship as he was currently doing something pretty creative with his reactive armor. After breathing out against a plugged nose to pop his ears, Jaune curled up into a ball and allowed his body to fall where it may for several moments. Then, when he finished tumbling a couple hundred feet away from the airship, he slowly stretched out both his arms and legs and held onto a flying squirrel pose with all of his strength.

The idea behind Jaune's landing strategy was to create drag which would slow his descent. To accomplish this, he was forcing his reactive armor to do something extremely out of the ordinary. At the moment, both of his arms were attached to his torso and his legs were attached to each other by an extremely tough meshwork of nanobot material. The "wingsuit" that he'd created would allow him to glide horizontally just as much as he falls vertically, which would hopefully allow him to decrease the speed of his descent to well below terminal velocity.

A secondary bonus to the wingsuit he'd created was that Jaune should be able to steer his movement with far more ease than the rest of his class to find himself an ideal landing spot. While making use of the wingsuit would force Jaune to activate his reactive armor up to about fifteen percent its maximum output, by decreasing the force of his landing he'd more than offset the cost to his aura reserves.

Theoretically it was a great idea. Now it was time to find out whether or not the damned thing actually worked...

The first half a minute that Jaune spent falling towards the ground was accomplished in a spiraling, flailing, out of control tumble, during which time he was barely able to keep himself from screaming out in fear. The second half of that same minute was spent with just as much flailing but noticeably less tumbling. By the time the second minute rolled around, Jaune was finally learning how to control his body while wearing the wingsuit, and he'd slowed his descent to about one third of its original velocity.

Finally, after about a minute and a half spent in free fall, Jaune was firmly in control of where he was going, and was free to study the staging area below. Right away Jaune could see that he was the only person who was the least bit concerned about the speed of his descent. The rest of his class were only visible as rapidly dropping dots far beneath him. Several of these dots were releasing dozens of tiny light flashes as they used their Dust guns to steer themselves in their desired direction. Obviously this was a technique that Jaune had seen before, and yet he'd always thought that it was rare...

This... this was what everyone kept calling a landing strategy?! Just spamming hundreds upon hundreds of Dust rounds indiscriminately towards Maidens only know where is considered a strategy?! As more and more light flashes lit up the forest below, Jaune grew to understand that heiress Schnee was even more capable than he'd given her credit for. The heiress was one of perhaps five or six people in their entire class whose Semblances were suited to aiding them in a free-fall. What this meant was that he'd been stressing himself out for weeks now trying to find a super clever strategy for no apparent reason...

Thankfully, the utility of Jaune's new wingsuit was currently making all of the effort worth it.

At a speed that managed to leave behind a whistling noise, a red blur whipped passed Jaune on his left hand side. Ruby Rose, because that black and red comet could only be Ruby Rose, was flying towards the forest with what appeared to be a small bird type Grimm already impaled upon the blade of her scythe. Jaune had to admit that he was impressed. The girl was taking every opportunity to cull the Grimm population and it spoke well of her.

What didn't make any sense was the fact that Ruby was wailing as if her beloved pet had just passed away...

Jaune briefly thought about trying to follow the red tinted girl, until he started seeing brief but intense flashes of light emerging from the muzzle of her rifle-scythe. With an ease that set her apart from the rest of her classmates, Ruby began launching herself back and forth through the air at speeds that his eyes could barely follow. Soon enough, Ruby was lost from sight heading to Maidens only know where, and Jaune was left just shaking his head. He was better off following his own plan than trying to guess at his friend's final destination. With that in mind, he angled his body slightly to the left, swerving through the air and plummeting towards the South.

When the mottled green landscape below suddenly clarified into a swath of rapidly approaching trees, it was officially time to slam on the breaks. After carefully swerving down between the peaks of two massive pine trees, Jaune pulled back as hard as he could on his wingsuit in order to give himself some extra lift. While releasing a groan of max effort, he managed to angle his body upwards into a stall which slowed his descent to about one-third of its original velocity. Only then, when he'd decelerated as much as possible and had his feet angled towards the ground, did he allow the nanobot material to suddenly release his individual limbs.

Even though his wingsuit idea had worked exactly like he'd intended it to, Jaune still almost ruined everything by smashing into a maple tree when he dropped down into the forest. Thankfully, he managed to squeeze through a gap in the foliage even as he angled his body to land feet first with his legs bent in front of him. With that accomplished, he quickly yanked his rifle-shield off of his back and began firing dozens of Dust rounds down between his feet. It may not have been a very original idea, but he was still moving fast enough that his pride could be damned.

In what felt like just a split second, Jaune was only a meter away from the ground and it was time to pour on the aura. In the end, his impact with the ground was going to happen at approximately sixty Kilometers per hour, which actually wasn't all that bad when compared to terminal velocity which is a whopping two-hundred Kilometers per hour. Still... In the single moment that he had remaining, Jaune spread out all of his aura as if his skin was a mold, aiming to lock every single cell within his body into a perfect state of suspended animation.

The maple trees ringing the clearing that Jaune crash landed into shivered just a bit as a cacophonous wave of sound and displaced air blew past them. Several of the smaller animals that populate the forest ran for their dens in response to a fine cloud of dust that suddenly obscured the entire clearing. Several moments later, when a stiff breeze swept through the area, Jaune re-emerged from within the dust cloud, kneeling within a small impact crater in the earth. He might actually have looked like a badass if he weren't hissing in pain, gritting his teeth and rubbing at the back of his calves.

Yeah... Ouch...

Despite all of his efforts, the shock of the impact had vibrated up through every inch of his body... Still, Jaune couldn't complain with the results. His legs weren't broken and according to a small indicator light on the lens of the HUD glasses, he still had ninety-four percent of his aura remaining. Not too shabby all things considered...

While slowly rising back up to his feet, Jaune checked himself out for any pain or injury, and then cracked a satisfied smile when he didn't find anything to worry about. While he was a tiny bit sore all over, for the most part his body was in pretty good shape. Over the next few seconds, Jaune hopped up and down on the balls of his feet, pulled his sword from the sheathe on his back, swung it in a few wide circles and then bounced into a ground eating jog.

The first item on Jaune's agenda was to climb a tall rock formation that he saw dominating the East end of his forest clearing. It was important to get a better lay of the land so that he could find a partner and get to work. While the rock formation was jagged and irregular when viewed from a distance, upon closer inspection its boulders ended up being evenly spaced and almost perfect for climbing. Jaune bounded back and forth from one boulder to the next with very little trouble until he was almost to the top of the rock face, at which point he was forced to leap across a three-meter gap and curl his fingers over the top. After just a few moments spent scrambling for purchase on the surprisingly smooth rock, he managed to hook an arm over the ledge and pull up the rest of his body.

The view from the top of the rocks was well worth the effort, but it was also extremely unsettling...

From his current elevation, Jaune had an unobstructed view of Croftlan Colony, nestled at the bottom of its mountain valley, approximately three Kilometers away. While under normal circumstances this location would be a hiker's paradise, at the moment the entire forest was a writhing sea of pitch black monsters. The closer your eyes tracked in the direction of Croftlan's fifty-meter-tall barrier walls, the thicker the Grimm mass became, until eventually the ground resembled nothing more than a boiling sea of tar.

For several moments after he first caught sight of the swarm, Jaune's body locked up as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing, and how it meshed with his own experiences as a child. This particular Grimm swarm was far too dense, too enormous, too varied, too out of control, too violent, too... evil, to be natural... Then he caught sight of a nearby pack of Beowolves that were beginning to be drawn in by his anxiety, so he drew in a very, very deep breath, and he actively forced his mind to move beyond its fear born paralysis. Jaune was going to be a Huntsman. No. He already was a Huntsman. He couldn't afford to freeze up now when there were people relying on him. It was time to prove that he has what it takes...

It was go time...

Despite the danger of his current situation, Jaune's more pressing problem was that he hadn't seen a single student since he landed in the forest. What this meant was that all of the fighting he was about to perform was going to go completely undocumented. Without even having to listen for it, he could already hear well over a dozen Beowolves sprinting in his direction, which just went to prove how bad it would've been to land closer to the colony itself.

"Fools," Jaune muttered to himself as he dropped down the side of the rock formation, readied his weapons and found a smooth wall of rock to cover his back. Beowolves were notorious ambush hunters which is why they were elevated from their usual D rank up to a C when they moved around in a pack. As a species, Beowolves tended to try to get behind you, where they could take a bite out of something important like your Achilles tendon or hamstring.

While Jaune was fully aware that hemming himself in against the rock face was less than ideal if he ended up needing to retreat, it was still the safest option under the circumstances. He'd fought Beowolves before. He was rested and in fairly decent shape... He was ready.

When they finally burst out of the trees on the other side of the clearing, the double sized pack of Beowolves began releasing a series of overexcited yips and feral sounding growls. They fanned out as they dashed in Jaune's direction, until finally they were running in a semi-circle designed to surround him as efficiently as possible. In return, Jaune pushed down on the centerpiece of his rifle-shield, mechashifting it to reveal the barrel, stock and trigger of a rifle that rested atop his forearm.

As quickly and as accurately as he could, Jaune began firing shot after shot into the Grimm on the right hand side of their formation. While he knew for a fact that he wasn't going to be able to avoid taking part in a melee fight, his number one priority was to thin out the ranks of the Beowolves that were trying to flank him. With that thought in mind, he delivered over a dozen Dust rounds into the Beowolves trailing to his right and then he switched his focus to the left to do exactly the same thing.

As the wings of the Beowulf pack took bullets to their brains and flopped down to a misty oblivion, the rest of the pack fanned out even more in order to hold their circular formation. In their determination to trap him against the rocks, less Beowolves were taking part in a frontal assault, and the ones that led the charge were forced to slow down to stay in formation.

So far so good.

Jaune was ruining the enemy's advance, and the extra time that he was gaining would allow him to fire off about a dozen more rounds.

Sure enough, Jaune managed to drop four more Beowolves, two on both sides, before the pack was only five meters away and he was forced to mechashift his rifle back into a shield. He was just in time to catch the leading Beowulf's claws on top of his upraised shield and then whip his arm to the left to throw the Grimm into another member of its pack. Then he was slashing and spinning and ducking in order to cut his way through another three Grimm that were following directly behind their leader. He slid on his knees to avoid a claw slash aimed at his face, smashed the pommel of his sword into the attacking beast's eye and then exploded back up to his feet to slash his sword up and through a Beowulf dropping at him from above.

After emerging from within the black mist created by the leaping Beowulf's death, Jaune instinctually slashed his sword to the right, slicing off an especially sneaky Beowulf's right foreleg. Then, when the sneak attacking Grimm yipped in pain and dropped to the ground, Jaune leapt over its curled up form and found some space to get his bearings.

Right away Jaune could see that he had to continue moving. While it was imperative that he keep his body flush to the rock formation, that didn't mean he could afford to sit still like a target. What he needed to do was move in a circle around the rocks to keep the remaining Beowolves following him in a tighter grouping. With that in mind, Jaune turned his left shoulder into the rock face and started backpedaling in an awkward but effective retreat. Sure enough, the Beowolves started advancing in a line in order to be the first to get at him. This allowed Jaune to repeatedly punch his sword into their muzzles and heads as they were far too bunched up to attack with any coordination.

After completing almost an entire lap around the rock formation, the sole remaining Beowulf growled in frustration, leapt a few meters away from the obstruction and then dropped into a new attacking stance. Apparently, the Grimm had learned that following Jaune around the rocks was going to get it killed, and it was aiming to change up the formula. While this Beowulf was showing a level of intelligence that was rare in one of its species, its primary weakness ended up being its short term memory.

With a small smile of accomplishment, Jaune rapidly mechashifted his shield back into a rifle and then fired a Dust round straight through the beast's forehead. As with most things that happen outside of the movies, the fight ended both suddenly and anticlimactically. It goes without saying that Jaune's fighting style hadn't been flashy or "cool," but since he hadn't channeled any of his aura outside of his latent shielding during that entire encounter, he was extremely satisfied with the results.

Then Jaune's moment of self-satisfaction came to an abrupt end, when a pine cone hit him in the back of the head out of nowhere. Apparently, someone had managed to sneak up to within just a few meters of him and they wanted him to know that his situational awareness wasn't everything that it could be...

Well... Shucks.

Turning in place, Jaune finally caught sight of his mysterious assailant, causing his eyebrows to rise up right into his hairline in surprise.

"Blake Belladonna," Jaune breathed out in a soft but incredulous tone of voice. "I didn't expect to find you in the area. I was under the impression that you didn't trust me."

At first Blake didn't respond at all. She just crouched there on one of the rocks, completely still like a statue as she measured Jaune with her eyes. Then the moment passed when she shrugged in a noncommittal fashion and looked down at the ground. "You're right. I don't trust you. The fact of the matter is that I don't trust anyone. Here's the thing though. Whether or not you secretly do chores for Ozpin, you still have two qualities that I've decided I absolutely must have in a partner. You have a good grasp of when your attention is welcome and when it is not... and you have secrets of your own... If you mind your own business... and I do the same... then the two of us will get along just fine..."

After a single moment where Jaune was well and truly surprised by how sharp Blake's instincts were, he slowly drew up a hand to cover his face. A few seconds later, when he finally reemerged from behind his cupped fingers, it was with a long sigh and a look of poorly concealed frustration. "I have a few concerns regarding this arrangement of yours.

"Oh? Do tell?" Blake's tone may have been just the slightest bit sarcastic but she appeared interested nonetheless.

"Do you really want to spend the next four years locked in a partnership built on mutual distrust and secrecy? Do you really want to graduate from this school just as socially isolated and jaded as you are right now? After shaking his head again, Jaune stepped a little closer and stared up into the girl's golden hued eyes. "Don't get me wrong Blake, I don't need you to be my best friend, but I was hoping for more from my partner than silent cooperation."

With a small but not unsympathetic shrug, Blake gestured above her head where a golden yellow halo was suspended on the lens of Jaune's HUD. "I get your point, but I don't think you have much of a choice in the matter."

"So it would seem," Jaune allowed as he sheathed his sword and mechashifted his rifle back into its shield form. "Well, let's get to it then... Did you witness me destroying the Beowolves?"

"Saw it from a distance," Blake affirmed with a nod. "It was fine I guess. You're a little... slow and clumsy, but..."

"Fine yeah whatever, but a critique isn't what I'm asking for," Jaune interrupted with a shake of his head. "I want to know if I had a halo over my head when I fought against the Grimm."

During the next few seconds, Blake's mouth dropped open and her cheeks turned pink. "No... Not until you saw me in return."

"Okay then," Jaune breathed out as he scanned the forest surrounding them. "We have fifty blue and four yellow colored Grimm to destroy in order to accomplish our objective. I think we should start running towards Croftlan Colony while thinking moderately unpleasant thoughts. By the time we get closer to the swarm and the larger Grimm following it, we'll already have encountered more than enough Beowolves."

"Thinking negative thoughts, on purpose, near a Grimm swarm," Blake questioned with her head tilted to the side. "Isn't that a little bit... suicidal?"

"Generating low level negativity is one of the techniques taught in the Freelance Guild," Jaune explained in a businesslike tone. "By thinking about relatively tame fears or disappointments, a Huntsman or Huntress can lure in nearby Grimm, but it's extremely important to stay in control."

"I can see that," Blake allowed, in a slightly skeptical tone of voice. "Just for the sake of reference, what are you going to think about?"

"I was slow and clumsy while fighting the Grimm just now because I was choking off almost all of my aura," Jaune suddenly explained.

"Uhhh okay, that's a very unwise thing to do, but why bring that up now?" Once again Blake's head was canted to the side.

"My moderately frustrating memory is when my new partner decided to randomly insult my speed and coordination," Jaune clarified with a shrug.

For the second time in less than a minute, Blake's mouth hung open and her face started turning red. "I'm..."

"You look a little bit embarrassed," Jaune pointed out, interrupting Blake's apology. "Feel free to focus on that feeling while we move." Without another word, he turned in place and started jogging off towards Croftlan Colony.

After beginning to reach out a hand and then dropping it, Blake rapidly shook out her head and started jogging to catch up.

Under normal circumstances, the Croftlan Colony Airfield is an extraordinarily loud location. On any given day several dozen different airships activate hundreds of powerfully noisy Dust jets to leave the earth and fly away. For this reason, the Airfield isn't contained within the colony's walls, but instead it's housed three Kilometers South, sheltered on three sides by some extremely sheer cliff faces.

If it weren't for the obscurity of the Airfield's location and the fact that its barrier wall was nearly thirty meters tall, everyone within its confines would already be dead. The Airfield's machine gun emplacements definitely weren't enough to dissuade such a large swell of Beowolves, let alone the larger more dangerous Grimm that were currently moving closer through the gorge.

An hour earlier, as the Grimm swarm rapidly overtook the valley and began back flowing up the canyon containing the Airfield, the staff on site had evacuated as many people as they possibly could into the small airships that they'd had on hand. Unfortunately for the fifty plus people left behind, the Airfield had been experiencing a slow day, which meant there hadn't been enough space for everyone to get aboard an airship. Now their only recourse was to gather on the Airfield's defensive walls and use every Milligram of red Dust that they had in a desperate chain of machine gun fire.

The constant stream of Dust being shot out of the two large machine gun emplacements was absolutely shredding the Grimm that were unfortunately enough to land in their sites, and yet it was about as effective as trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.

With no real plan or cavalry to call upon, a series of SOS radio calls were made and half a dozen emergency flares were sent up to burn in the sky. There was an exceedingly slim chance that they'd be seen by someone strong enough to help, but it was their only hope for salvation.

If help didn't come soon, then it needn't bother coming at all...

"We should be moving at least three times faster than this," Blake pointed out from Jaune's right hand side as they ran through the woods towards the yellow area of the Initiation Test. "I get that we're attracting groups of mob level Grimm while we move, but still... Why aren't you using any of your aura? We could be moving a lot faster..."

"I suppose that means your mission experience mostly revolves around short term, high intensity fights, rather than day long Grimm hunts in the wild," Jaune mused to himself. Then, when Blake started giving him a suspicious scowl, he waved his hand dismissively. "No worries, Blake. I have every intention of respecting your secrets. All I'm trying to do is get a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses.

"My weaknesses," Blake repeated in a slightly chilly tone of voice.

"Yes weaknesses, everyone has them," Jaune sighed out as he vaulted over a fallen log. "While I've only seen you destroy a few Beowolves so far, I can already tell that you're a much better melee fighter than I am. I'm not talking about physical weaknesses..."

"What specifically do you need to know then?" At this point, Blake didn't look guarded anymore. She looked slightly confused instead.

"Well, for instance, you're definitely a little too impatient," Jaune elaborated as he whipped his sword up through the underbelly of an approaching Boarbatusk. "You want the two of us to burn a good chunk of our aura reserves on the commute to the fight, rather than on the fight itself. Unless you have endless stamina, that's a mistake. In about twenty minutes, we're going to arrive in the testing area that contains the larger, more dangerous Grimm types, at which point we'll need to break through a thick mass of mid tier Grimm. When that time comes, the two of us will have accomplished two things. We'll have warmed up our muscles during this here little jog, and we'll have almost fully regenerated aura reserves."

After opening the then closing her mouth for the Maidens only know what time in the last hour, Blake suddenly leapt high into the air and axe kicked the head clear off of a bird Grimm that was getting the drop on Jaune. Only then, after finishing her flip and landing directly into another easy jog, did she look the least bit content with their current situation. It appeared that she was much happier now that she'd saved his ass.

Jaune, for his part, was perfectly happy to let the woman have her moment, so he merely nodded at her and continued dashing through the woods.

"We also have some things we should explain to each other before we get into the thick of things," Jaune eventually pointed out in a casual tone of voice. "I know you have no intention of telling me your life story, but I think it's important that I know a little about your skills and Semblance."

For several moments, Blake didn't reply at all, she just kept scanning their environment. Then she looked aside at Jaune for just a moment before looking away again. "You go first."

While Jaune had been fully expecting Blake's answer, he still wished the girl weren't such a difficult person. Then again, most people that have any class at all tend to avoid bragging about themselves, so there was a good chance that Blake was just being demure.

"Fair Enough," Jaune allowed. "I'll go first. I'm physically fit as a baseline and I have a vast amount of aura contained within my body. On the other hand, I only started training in martial arts a couple of years ago, which means I have a lot of catching up to do. My Semblance gives me dominion over extremely tiny things such as the cells within my body, particulate matter in my vicinity, and the aura energy that I come into contact with. What this means is I can rapidly heal myself or my teammates' injuries and muscle strain. I can also move my aura throughout my body at a rapid rate or even share it with other people."

"No offensive capabilities then," Blake pointed out in a matter of fact tone. "You're a healer and an aura battery. Sounds like you're the quintessential support specialist."

At first Jaune nodded his head because Blake had the right idea. He also appreciated how her assessment didn't contain the slightest sign of mockery. Then he shook his head and held up a finger. "Under normal circumstances you'd be exactly right. At the moment, my Semblance does lend itself mostly to support. However... I'm a chemist and engineer of sorts and assisted the Atlas military testing out a very specific variety of tech..."

Over the next two minutes, Jaune explained his reactive armor and how the nanobots within it worked.

"You found a way to circumvent your weaknesses," Blake summarized in a quiet voice. "Very resourceful..."

"To a point yes," Jaune allowed with a shrug. "On the other hand, harnessing the suit is the main reason that I've become so frugal with my aura. While using the suit at a hundred percent power, I enjoy speed and strength comparable to that of someone with an S ranked melee Semblance, but only for the four and a half minutes that my aura can fuel it. More often than not, I use the suit at a much lower percentage, and if I'm going to be a healer and a battery, it might be best that I don't activate it at all..."

"So your role will primarily be as a utility fighter then," Blake brainstormed, even as she shoved a knife into an attacking Beowulf's skull. "You're a problem solver of sorts, healing and recovering by default, but capable of unleashing a powerful last ditch attack..."

"At the moment that's about right, but in the future I hope to broaden the uses to which I can direct my Semblance and make progress as a martial artist," Jaune finished.

After two or three minutes passed, during which time Blake tried to act like it wasn't her turn to talk, she drew out a long sigh. "I'm the exact opposite of you in every single way."

After about fifteen seconds passed and Blake didn't continue, Jaune was forced to arch an eyebrow at the woman. Her description lacked... depth.

"I'm physically fit as a baseline but that's the only thing we have in common," Blake finally corrected. "I have a relatively small aura pool, but I'm an extremely proficient front line martial artist and my Semblance is very, very cost efficient. My ability to create short term pseudo solid illusions of myself barely uses any aura at all and has no cool down time. I can use it over and over again for hours on end if I want to. The illusions aren't an offensive force, but they make me extremely slippery and hard to keep track of."

Well, I will admit that you and I are extremely different, "Jaune easily admitted. "You're the much sought after highly agile martial artist type... While I'm learning to make the most of my Semblance and my abilities, as a child I dreamed of being exactly like you."

"Why didn't you train in martial arts then?" Casting a sideways glance at her new partner, Blake's eyes widened when she saw the look of subtle regret that Jaune couldn't quite conceal. "Sorry..."

"No, that's okay, Blake," Jaune replied with a small smile and a dismissive wave of his hand. "My family was... protective of me, and didn't let me train."

"Then what did they let you do?" This time Blake did end up slapping herself in the face. She was clearly trying and failing to keep herself from prying...

Jaune laughed out loud even as he dove into a roll to avoid a dog sized spider Grimm that was leaping out from under a bush. By the time he rolled back to his feet, Blake had already bisected the nasty creature and they were leaving behind a small black mist. "Thank you Blake, and to answer your question, my parents subjected me to an endless parade of teachers and tutors. I have an extremely well rounded education in absolutely everything but the one thing that I always wanted to be. On the bright side, if you want to learn to balance a budget, cook, write, paint, woodwork, carve, act, craft, computer program, repair a hovercar, sew, play an instrument, sing or dance, then I'm your man."

"So you're very well read then?"

Blake hadn't looked over at Jaune when she asked that question, which was actually pretty revealing all by itself. The girl obviously liked reading. "Well...," Jaune hedged, as he attempted to fuel the girl's curiosity. "I was expected to read all of the classics and study most of the deeper thinkers, which actually made my very closeted existence quite a bit harder to bear because..."

"The deepest thinkers usually advocate freedom and self-determination over obedience and safety," Blake finished as if to herself.

"Every single one of them," Jaune agreed in a quiet voice. "I'm lucky my Literature classes weren't as censored as everything else, or it would've taken me a lot longer to realize that I was a bird in a cage..."

"John 'Freeman' huh...," Blake breathed out in an amused whisper. "It's so obvious after the fact..." It was only a split second after she finished saying those words out loud that Blake's eyes suddenly widened in alarm.

Jaune almost laughed as his plan to draw Blake away from her cautious isolation showed results far faster than he would've expected. Of course it was less than ideal that his plan required he reveal aspects of his own life to a relative unknown, but the woman was taciturn and close-mouthed to a fault, so he figured his secrets were in good hands. Then there was the fact that Blake had decided to rely on him, which meant that she wasn't likely to sell him out to anyone... Still... Better safe than sorry...

"The circumstances behind the pseudonym 'John Freeman' aren't dangerous for anyone, but they are the big and important secret that I'm keeping from everyone," Jaune cautioned in a casual tone of voice. "To be honest, I've actually allowed you to know far more about myself than I'm comfortable with, but I'm completely convinced that it was only a matter of time before you figured me out all by yourself. All I ask is that you think about trusting me in return. Well... That and that you keep what you just learned to yourself..."

Blake didn't reply in the negative nor did she reply the positive. Instead, she stared at Jaune as if she were weighing his soul in her mind for several seconds before returning her attention back to the wilderness around them...

Two very quiet minutes later, Jaune and Blake suddenly approached a deep gorge barring their way into the yellow testing area, and Jaune ended up staring down into its dark recesses with a speculative look on his face. "You know Blake... There must be a bridge or an outcropping of rock that spans this gap."

With a small sigh of tightly controlled impatience, Blake arched an eyebrow in Jaune's direction. "Why bother finding a bridge though? We can just use our aura bolstered strength to leap across?"

"Yes, yes we could definitely do that, but if there is a bridge, it'll be a natural choke point that many Grimm will gather at on their way to Croftlan Colony," Jaune pointed out with a mischievous smile on his face. "If we position ourselves in the middle of said bridge, all of the Grimm remaining on this side of the gorge will be forced to approach us in ones or twos..."

"And we'll rack up hundreds of relatively safe kills," Blake finished with a small, bemused shake of her head. "Maidens help me John, I'm trying really hard not to resent how you make me feel, but I do find it a little bit difficult..."

As they turned to the right and started dashing along the edge of the gorge, Jaune cast Blake a sideways glance. "Since you're being surprisingly forthcoming with me, I'd actually appreciate it if you'd explain how I just made you feel. I'm not seeking to cause discomfort for the people around me..."

As per the norm, Blake didn't respond for several moments, and when she did it was in a very quiet voice. "I'll explain because I don't actually dislike you, and I don't want you to think that I do... It's the way that you think that throws me off balance... You're like an old man in a young man's body. You expect the teenagers around you to be both rational and reasonable and they're not. You act like your ultra efficient plans and lofty ideals are just common sense and they're not. You make me feel dumb and immature, and I'm not..."

This time it was Jaune's turn to open and shut his mouth with no idea what to say.

"I'm aware that I'm being unreasonable, and I'll probably grow to appreciate you more in the future," Blake continued, casting a fleeting glance in Jaune's direction. "But I'm not a soldier nor am I a servant. I don't want to obediently follow you or anyone else's orders..."

To the best of his knowledge, Jaune didn't think he'd given even a single order to anyone at any point since he first arrived in Vale. He'd made several suggestions and quite a few attempts to steer people's thinking in the right direction, but no orders. Was he coming off as arrogant and condescending? If so, what could he do about it?

For now, Jaune decided to keep Blake's concerns in mind, until he could think up a few simple guidelines to follow in the future. That was the best that he'd ever be able to do because it's completely impossible for a human to fundamentally change their character. Jaune was who he was, and barring having a lifetime of strict aura training shackle him with some kind of newfound obsession, he'd likely never change. Purposefully modifying his behavior however... Now that was possible...

In the meantime, Jaune and Blake still had a lot of work to do, and he needed to be able to communicate his thoughts if they were going to get it all done. While there was a good chance that Blake could complete the parameters of the Initiation test all alone if she really had to, Jaune wasn't merely trying to pass...

Jaune had some amends to make...

More than anything, what Jaune wanted to do was make a significant difference. He wanted to help the scared and helpless denizens of Croftlan Colony in a real and meaningful way, and to do that he wanted to work as efficiently as he possibly could for as long as the Initiation test would allow. For now, Jaune figured it was for the best that he keep his intentions to himself. He didn't want Blake to disregard his plan out of hand as being another lofty ideal or something.

In a moment of extremely convenient timing, a twelve foot wide natural rock bridge spanning the width of the gorge was suddenly revealed around the next bend in the valley. Jaune smiled in satisfaction as he saw the ancient land-bridge and the horde of over two-hundred D rank and middling sized Grimm hindering each other in their attempts to cross it. A thick mass of Beowolves, Boarbatusks and lizard-like Creeps made up most of the lineup, but there were two mid sized Ursa at the back of the pack that were labelled a cheerful yellow color on the lens of Jaune's HUD goggles.

Turning to catch Blake's attention, Jaune arched an eyebrow at the woman as if to ask what she had in mind. What they were about to do wasn't going to require complicated strategy or a multifaceted plan. He was quite happy to let Blake take the lead if she wanted it.

With a small violent grin and an equally subtle nod, Blake instantly took off in a blur of extreme speed, leaving Jaune just standing there and scrambling to catch up. By the time he finished recruiting aura throughout the various muscles of his body, the woman had already leapt well over five meters into the air and was careening over the main body of the Grimm towards the apex of the bridge.

With a small, almost feline snarl of unleashed aggression, Blake slammed both of her feet down upon a Creep's upper back, snapping its spine into a dozen different pieces before vaulting off of it and landing in a graceful superhero crouch. A split second later, she became an explosion of unrestrained violence, obliterating a wide swath of Grimm within just one or two seconds at the maximum.

By the time Jaune managed to perform his own aura leap over the main bulk of the Grimm host, he had plenty of room to land and just as much time to place himself at Blake's back. Even as he set himself up in opposition to the eighty plus Grimm that were turning away from Croftlan in response to their arrival, Blake continued to tear apart the Grimm host's frantically attacking main body. She moved like a chainsaw through their ranks, her katana and cleaver combo severing heads from shoulders and limbs from sockets in fluid movements that were almost too fast for him to perceive. In just the first thirty seconds of their very first battle together, Jaune was already well aware of just how fortunate he was to have landed Blake Belladonna as a partner.

Objectively speaking, Jaune was a highly competent young Huntsman, as he wasn't having too much trouble fending off wave after wave of the D rank Grimm that were attacking him while he cut deep debilitating holes into their bodies with sharp, efficient sword strokes. He bashed a Boarbatusk clear off of the land-bridge with a sweep of his shield, used the momentum that his swing had generated to send a high kick into the head of a leaping Beowulf and then stabbed his sword down into a creep's skull as he finished the rotation and regained his balance. Then he was firing a volley of dust rounds down into a pair of spider Grimm that were trying to sneak up on him from under the bridge, backslashing his blade through the neck of the same Beowulf that he'd just kicked, and stomping his foot down onto the head of a second Beowulf that was trying to bite into his ankle. Jaune was moving fast. He was keeping up with the chaos happening all around him. He felt both calm and competent.

Unfortunately for Jaune, there was still a noticeable gap between his current efforts and those of a gifted martial artist like Blake.

Blake Belladonna was a tornado of blades. She was a meat grinder that the main body of the Grimm were being pushed into from behind. She was poetry in motion to the point that Jaune had to force himself to keep his eyes on the task at hand. Blake Belladonna was incredible, and Jaune found himself grinning in anticipation even as he carved the eyes out of a nearby Creep's head.

Jaune and Blake fought back to back when things started getting tight. They twisted in place together to cover for each other's non-dominant arms when attacks came from under the bridge or to both of their sides at exactly the same time, they rapidly exchanged information using precise one or two word snippets, and altogether they moved as if they'd been paired up for years rather than merely minutes.

Of course, Jaune knew exactly what was expected of him when he was surrounded and flanking a teammate because he'd completed so many spec-ops training simulations in the VR rig. On the other hand, he couldn't help but wonder what circumstances led to Blake's perfect understanding of paired combat and dynamic teamwork, especially considering the fact that she was such a remote and untrusting person... However it happened, for the moment, Jaune was just happy that he could sweep his sword through a Grimm to his right without Blake entering the path of his blade and getting bashed clear off of the bridge. No... The woman was fully aware that he was right handed, she knew both his reach and his weapon style, and she was staying clear even as she flowed through a series of attacks that completely defied description...

Within the next ten minutes, Jaune finally managed to eliminate the last of the Grimm that had stuck around on his, the Croftlan side, of the bridge... After wiping away some of the dirty black grit that had accumulated on his sweaty face, he turned around, only to find Blake waist deep in Grimm viscera, and partially concealed within a cloud of that ethereal black smoke that destroyed Grimm always leave behind. The teenaged kunoichi (female ninja) was moving like a bat out of hell and was already well on her way to destroying the remaining sixty-seventy D ranked Grimm. Of course that meant she'd destroyed over one-third more Grimm than Jaune had in an equal amount of time...

The question that Jaune was leery about asking was whether or not Blake was going to have enough aura remaining after their current fight to immediately continue moving. Instead, he moved to stand a meter and a half back on Blake's right hand side and started speaking to her as if she weren't currently engaged in mortal combat. "I want to try sharing some of my aura with you without touching you. It might not work, but it'll be useful if it does. You interested?"

"Not necessary yet," Blake immediately responded. "I haven't used more than ten percent of my aura. My stamina is good, but I lose aura quicker than most when I actually do start taking damage."

While Jaune really did want to try sharing his aura without having to make physical contact, his real intention just then had been to find out how Blake was fairing without insulting her in the process. Now that he had assurances that she was still in good shape, Jaune focused his attention on feeding aura into his reactive armor bands and mechashifting his shield into its rifle form.

Even as he manipulated a thin layer of his armor to grow around his body, Jaune fired a few investigatory dust rounds towards the two Ursa's eyes, chest and various joints. The dust rounds were completely ineffective. The bullets didn't do anything at all other than make the two yellow tier Grimm roar their anger towards the sky. Both Ursas were far too heavily armored to be injured by normal ballistic weapons. With a slow nod of grudging understanding, Jaune focused his aura as he slowly ran a finger down the length of his sword's blade, and then he turned to regard Blake's continuously fighting form. "I'm going to take out the Ursa at the rear and then fight my way back in this direction."

After casting a glance over at the thin film of black material covering Jaune's entire body, Blake stabbed a Creep in the throat and then swept a Beowulf off its feet with a low kick. "Don't tell me," She finally grunted out even as she continued to move. "Show me."

Jaune had to admit, if only to himself, that that had been a pretty cool response... A little bit dismissive perhaps, but it was cool nonetheless... The woman had style... With a nod of his head, Jaune took two bounding steps and then aura leapt through the air over the three dozen remaining blue ranked Grimm to land behind the rearmost Ursa. As he expected would happen, the bear Grimm immediately swiveled in place, released a deafening roar and then launched a clawed forearm down at him in a downward sweeping movement with all of its weight behind it.

Stepping even closer to the Ursa's body, Jaune threw his rifle-shielded arm up towards its descending claws in a fantastically rapid sweeping motion with every ounce of his armor bolstered strength behind it. With a high pitched jarring crashing sound, Jaune's shield slammed the beast's claws right back up and into the air with enough force to send the entire Ursa windmilling to regain its balance. Then Jaune was dashing up against the Grimm's legs even as he allowed his reactive shielding to flow back into its bands.

While the reactive armor was definitely an excellent tool to use when it came to destabilizing a strong opponent and gaining an advantage, Taiyang's training had assured that Jaune was no longer completely reliant on it when it came to simple minded foes such as Ursa or Beowolves. No. Against an Ursa, even a rather large, powerful and armored version like the one in front of him, Jaune didn't need any tricks beyond the aura treatment that he'd just given his sword. If he had the time and the focus required to do so, Jaune could rearrange the molecules in any object containing his aura. As an example, before leaping over the gorge to confront this Ursa, Jaune had sharpened his sword's blade down to a molecule thin edge, making it so that no amount of physical armor was enough to even begin slowing down his blade.

With a growl of both effort and lethal intent, Jaune slashed his sword all the way through the Ursa's right thigh from front to back, and then ducked down under the beast's desperation fueled slashing counterattack. He pressed to stay as close to the Ursa's body as he dared after his first attack came to an end, and his efforts paid off when the beast's right leg finally dropped away with a spray of black ichor and the Ursa began topping forward over his body. Then Jaune's blade was slipping up and through the Ursa's chin and mouth to pierce through its brain pan using the Grimm's own body weight to generate the force required.

The Ursa's massive body was turning into a billowing cloud of black smoke long before its bulk managed to land on the human standing beneath it...

Roaaarrr!

Having learned his lesson during the fight with the Gryphon's back on the airship, Jaune instinctually leapt backwards as hard as he could, and he was just in time to avoid a claw slash from the second Ursa directly through the inky black cloud that its companion had left behind. Unfortunately, Jaune failed to watch where he was jumping and he forgot to control his aura-bolstered leg strength, with the end result being that he crash landed into the side of a nearby boulder. For the next second and a half, Jaune was far too busy trying to pull his right shoulder out of the crater that he'd just created in the side of the boulder to fend off the attack being launched at him by the second Ursa... He raised his shield. He prepared to use the force of the blow to free himself from the boulder...

He needn't have bothered...

All of the sudden and seemingly out of nowhere, Blake was crouching on top of the sole remaining Ursa's left shoulder, where she was raining dozens of rapidfire cuts and slashes down into the back of its unprotected head. When the beast attempted to slash up at her with both its claws, her entire body exploded into a burst of light and she was revealed crouching on its opposite shoulder with her swords still in motion. In what felt like no time at all, Blake had carved a nasty bowling ball sized hole in the back of the Ursa's head, and she was dropping to the ground right through a dissipating cloud of black smoke.

As Blake walked up to his side and offered him a hand, Jaune forced himself not to sigh. It wasn't as if he'd been trying to outdo his new partner or anything, but at the very least it'd have been nice to appear capable of taking care of himself. The chances were pretty good that the Ursa's attack wouldn't even have shaved off a tenth of his maximum aura, but to say that to Blake now would just seem... immature.

"In my experience, support types have a lot of trouble dealing with anything heavily armored like the Ursa you just destroyed," Blake offered, in what was unmistakably some kind of consolation. "You're not quite there yet, but you're already more capable than most."

"I appreciate your assistance as well as your encouragement, and I promise to continue improving myself," Jaune responded as he brushed some rock dust off his shoulder and lower back. "In the meantime, we still have to eliminate two more yellow tier Grimm in order to meet the objectives of the Initiation test. I assume you're fine with heading in the direction of Croftlan?"

Blake only nodded. Apparently, she hadn't taken any hits worth mentioning from the low level Grimm that they'd fought so far.

Fwooooshh...Pop! Fwoooosh...Pop!

Both Jaune and Blake turned in place to look up and to the West, where a pair of angry red emergency flares were burning against the bright blue sky. Right away Jaune knew exactly what he was looking at. These flares were the universal call for help that had been adopted by every colony in every country on all of Remnant... This was bad news. Even an absolute edgelord like Ozpin wouldn't use real red, grey and black Dust flares merely to spice up a test. No. Whoever shot those into the sky was in mortal peril and were in desperate need of help...

With a sinking feeling, Jaune realized that the flares had come from nearly the opposite direction than the one they'd want to go if they wanted to safely destroy two yellow tier Grimm and complete their initiation. It didn't matter. They couldn't ignore this. They just couldn't. Those flares represented the lives of innocent people. With a grimace of determination, Jaune turned back towards Blake, preparing to argue his point with as much charm and persuasiveness as possible...

"We should get to the source of those flares as soon as we possibly can," Blake suddenly breathed out, beating Jaune to the punch. "We'll need to make good time if we're going to be of any help, which means you're not going to be able to cut off your aura this time." When Blake finished speaking and turned to look over at her new partner, she blanched in surprise at the radiantly happy smile that he was giving her.

"You're going to be a really good partner Blake, and I'm very lucky to have you," Jaune suddenly announced as he shook out his body, re-applied his aura and began running towards the West. "If I'm judging the distance correctly, I think the source of those flares came from somewhere at the end of the gorge, maybe even at the bottom where it widens and the river turns towards the Colony!"

"I... okay," Blake allowed as she caught up with Jaune's right hand side.

From that point on, Jaune and Blake sprinted along the cliff edge with aura bolstering their muscles as if Monty Oum himself was chasing after them.

Professor Goodwitch stood upon a boulder that she was telekinetically maneuvering through the sky as she moved in slow circles around the Grimm swarmed areas of the Beacon Initiation test. She was observing the fourth year teams that were fighting admirably up on Croftlan Colony's walls, and she was keeping an eye out for any first year attempting to run directly into the red zones. Of course, she shouldn't have had to worry about a newly admitted Beacon student being that unbelievably stupid, but as it turns out, she was...

And her worries were entirely justified...

Glynda could hardly believe the lengths that some of these children were going to in order to try to get themselves killed. The heads up display glasses that the school provided the students shook and then gave verbal warnings when you entered a zone that was too dangerous, then the glasses offered alternatives in the form of arrows that point towards far more attainable yellow level Grimm, then the glasses began giving dire warnings about the trainee's test score being penalized if they didn't immediately turn around... Despite all of those safeguards being in place, some of the children in the first year class just straight up refused to listen to reason. It seemed that some of these students expected the school to be impressed with their daring and bravery...

It was exactly the opposite... Ozpin valued people with the ability to think, and Glynda hated that kind of immature recklessness more than anything... She knew better... She'd learned first hand the tragedy that being too overconfident can cause...

Within only the first thirty-five minutes of the Initiation, Glynda and her coworkers Professors Oobleck and Port, had already had to pull at least ten first year trainees right out from under a stampede of high ranking Grimm... So far they'd only managed to save nine of the ten, and three of those that they had managed to save were going to spend the rest of their lives missing a limb...

It was on days like this that Glynda wanted to just quit her position at the school and go back to being an active Huntress. She was still relatively young at twenty-eight years of age, so there was nothing keeping her locked to Beacon like a mother hen...

Unfortunately for Glynda, the rest of her old team, team GLDA, were dead... All of them...

For about three years after graduating Beacon, Glynda had lived a nearly perfect life with the rest of her team... Until that day... Until that monster...

No... Glynda refused to take on a new team. She refused to run the risk that she'd lose everyone that she cared about all over again... She was a good Professor and assistant to Ozpin and she had been ever since the Headmaster picked her up and dusted her off four years earlier. She was doing what she could. She was trying to stop the younger generation from making the same mistakes that she'd made.

Fwooooshh...Pop! Fwoooosh...Pop!

Off in the distance, about three Kilometers up Croftlan Colony's steeply enclosed river valley, a series of red Dust flares were being launched into the sky.

Oh no! That had to be the Colony's Airpad! How?!... Why were there Grimm moving in that direction?!

Looking back and forth between the gorge that contained the Colony's airfield, the Colony itself and her coworkers running around like chickens with their heads cut off to save another group of recklessly idiotic teenagers, Glynda had no idea how to react to this new situation. While her job at the moment was merely to fish students out of the red zone and watch the fourth years battle it out on the walls, her real job was to step in if the Colony's walls were in serious risk of being breached.

Croftlan Colony contained thousands and thousands of people. Glynda couldn't in good conscience just run off to save a medium sized Airfield and the few dozen people that hadn't managed to evacuate. She was the reason that it was acceptable that Beacon turn Croftlan Colony's current crisis into what amounted to a field trip. Her presence was what made the difference...

No... She couldn't just run off... yet.

"Hang in there," Glynda whispered through clenched teeth, as she began rapidly floating her body down towards the worst of the fighting on the Colony's rampart walls. "Another thirty minutes, an hour at the most. I'll wrap this up and I'll be free to come and help. Just hang in there..."

By the time Jaune and Blake arrived at the section of the gorge that was directly below the red Dust flares burning up in the sky, they were almost leaving the testing area entirely. Just thirty or forty meters further down the gorge, just ten meters in front of where it finally tapers to an end, the landscape turned a dusty grey color in the HUD glasses indicating that it was out of bounds. That was fine. The distress call was just barely within the testing area. It was coming from the bottom of the gorge.

Without a word, both Jaune and Blake walked up to the edge of the rocky cliffside and looked down into the darkness below.

"We won't be able to tell how bad it is until we climb down," Blake pointed out in a quiet voice.

Jaune only nodded his head before stepping off the edge with his body turning in the air and grabbing a hold of the rocks lining the gorge. The river valley leading towards Croftlan Colony was very steep but not sheer, which meant that they would have a lot of hand holds and purchase to climb down hand over hand. It would be a slow and dirty process, but Jaune and Blake would be able to drop in on the source of the flares from the relative safety of the cliffside.

For the next few very quiet minutes, Jaune and Blake descended down the rocks lining the gorge and studied its increasingly shadowy depths. The gorge was about fifty meters wide, but it was very, very deep so the light that was reaching the ground was becoming diffused and weak. There were two compelling reasons why they both knew that something big was definitely going on somewhere below their feet. The first clue was how the color superimposed on the lens of their HUD glasses went from blue to yellow and directly into orange as they made their way further down into the gorge. The second clue was the sound of rapid munitions fire that they could hear echoing back and forth all around the canyon.

After about four minutes spent climbing, Jaune and Blake had finally dropped down far enough that the cliffside beneath them was worn completely smooth by a mixture of water and time, and they ran out of nooks and crannies to hold onto. Thankfully, Jaune and Blake were low enough that they could finally see the series of very powerful floodlights that were rimming a span of rampart walls. That was also the moment when they managed to take in exactly what it was that they were dealing with,and they both just hung there on the cliffside with their mouths hanging open...

Grimm... Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Grimm were pouring up the river valley like bugs, and slamming themselves against the Airfield's fortifications.

The Airfield's metallic rampart walls were extremely tall, but they weren't anywhere near as heavily fortified as a Colony's walls would be, which is why the two large machine gun emplacements sitting on the top of the rampart's twin lookout towers were sending an unbroken chain of fiery red Dust rounds down into the seething mass of the Grimm bottlenecking in the kill zone. The Beowolves, Creeps, and heavily armored Ursa that were slamming into the fortifications weren't the main cause of concern for the Airfield, even though they were beginning to pile up on top of each other at the base of the wall like ants. No... It was the overlarge A and B level Grimm that were entering the gorge, dragging a foreboding red testing area right along with them that were the real reason the Airfield was essentially screwed...

Even the B ranked Manticores that were prowling around near the back of the Grimm swarm weren't Jaune's primary concern. If those Goliath Grimm (elephant Grimm) managed to slam their tusks against the Airfield's wall, it would explode into pieces small enough to fit into a wallet.

"If we go down there, we won't be able to come back up," Blake whispered from just a few feet to Jaune's left.

At first, Jaune only nodded his head in agreement as he hung there with his fingers shoved between a series of jagged rocks. Both Jaune and Blake were confident that they could fight off several waves of the small and middling sized Grimm, but neither of them had the firepower necessary to take out those Manticores or Goliaths...

Then Jaune saw some of the materials that were just laying forgotten around the Airfield, and his eyes suddenly grew wide...

"Uhhh Blake," Jaune started in a quiet voice. "If I had a reckless plan that might be able to destroy the A level threats, would you help me fight off the main body of the swarm until they come close enough?"

"How impossible is the plan," Blake immediately asked, her eyes boring into the side of Jaune's face.

"It'll be a powerfully difficult use of my Semblance using several times more raw power and control than I've ever attempted to use before," Jaune explained as he scanned the materials present down in the Airfield proper. I'll need a volunteer from the Airfield staff to hook up what I need up on the ramparts, and I'll need you to watch my back when it's finally time for me to make it work."

With one last look at the boiling waves of Grimm scratching their way up the sides of the barrier walls, the Airfield staff with their ragtag collection of machine guns and pistols firing down off of the ramparts, and then finally at the Civilians huddled in the Airfield's main terminal, Blake turned back to Jaune and nodded her head in assent. "I... I want to help those people... I think you might actually have a way to pull it off... I'm going to choose to trust you... Please don't make me regret it."

"You can act remote and untrusting if you want Blake Belladonna," Jaune immediately replied with a slow, bemused shake of his head. "It's no use though. I can already tell that you're secretly a massive softie."

Then Jaune let go of the rocks that he'd been hanging onto, and began sliding down the side of the nearly vertical cliff towards the closest section of the Airfield's rampart wall.