Staring at the panel beneath him Jaune frowned slightly. Were these some kind of starting point? Was the initiation some kind of race, did they have to climb down the cliff?
He and Pyrrha has separated when they arrived, each being put on different panels a few away from each other. He saw his sister was next to Pyrrha while Nora with Magnhild strapped to her back was next to him and Ren was on her other side.
"Fearless leader, I'm scared." Nora said in a shaky tone.
Jaune frowned and looked at the normally bubbly, hyper girl. She was pale and shaking, and he looked to see that Ren was breathing slightly heavily, for anyone else this would be full blown panic. Looking where they were he froze himself, cold sweat started running down his body and he was glad that he had just been to the bathroom.
Felix was standing between Ozella who had a mug in her hands and Glynda, he had a wide joyful smile on his face.
That smile brought up memories of horrors for the three of them.
"Just try and ignore it Nora, Ren, after all we're in a public place, he can't do anything to bad to us here." Jaune told them.
Ozella spoke up. "For years you have trained to become to become warriors, today your skills will be evaluated."
Glynda then stepped forwards giving them all a stern look. "I'm sure all of you have heard rumours about how teams are assigned. Well allow us to put an end to your confusion, you will all be given teammates today."
Jaune could hear some whining from the students but tuned it out as Ozella started speaking again.
"These teammates will be with you all throughout your time at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to partner up with someone you work well with. Now as for who your partners will be…the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
"What?!" Ruby's voice exclaimed.
Ozella continued ignoring the interruption from the youngest student there. "After you have partnered up make your way to the northern end of the forest. There you will find ruins containing several relics. Each pair will take one relic and return to the top of the cliff. You will be monitored and graded on your performance in the forest. And a word of warning, you will face opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die. Now is there any questions?"
Jaune held up his hand. "I have a question, how are we getting into the forest? Do we need to climb down or will we be getting dropped off somehow?"
"Oh you'll be getting dropped off alright." Felix spoke up. "Just remember the landing strategy I taught you and you'll be alright."
"What landing strategy?"
Felix leaned over and pressed a button the scroll in Glynda's hand. Jaune's panel under him spring up and throw him high into the air over the forest.
"YOU NEVER TAUGHT ME A LANDING STRATEGY!"
"THINKING UNDER PRESSURE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF BEING A HUNTSMAN." Felix shouted back at the quickly disappearing Jaune.
One by one the rest of the prospective students were launched into the forest.
"So, we just wait here then until they come back?" Felix asked.
"Yes." Glynda simply told him.
Jaune was spinning through the air, he held his hands out, the red and green patterns on his gloves started to glow and an intense blast of fire shot from each of them. He used these to steady himself then steadily decreased the amount of aura he was putting into each lowering the intensity and descending to the ground safely.
"Well that's one problem sorted out, now I wonder who will be my partner." He muttered looking around he was about to start making his way north when a crashing noise caught his attention.
Looking up he saw a red and bronze figure crashing through the trees with her shield held out in front of her before landing on a branch. She quickly looked around before spotting Jaune on the ground and jumped down from branch to branch until she reached the ground.
"Hello again." She said waving a hand slightly as she stood in front of him.
"I guess we're partners now." Jaune gave her a smile.
"I guess so."
"Well let's head north." Jaune said, they were about to set off when noises caught their ears coming from behind them. "I guess not, I hear about five of them."
As the Beowolf's come bursting out of the trees Jaune quickly pulled out his gun shooting two of them in the head. Pyrrha stabbed the first Beowolf that reached her easily and quickly moved to slice through another one. Jaune finished the last one with two shots to the chest.
The blonde boy looked over at Pyrrha, her skills were amazing, even if it was just a short fight against Beowolf's it was enough to give him a small assessment of what she was capable of. She was well above what a first year student should be, but seeing as how she was a multiple tournament champion fighter it really wasn't that surprising.
"So, now we can go and find the ruins." Jaune said as he unloaded the empty bullet casings from his revolver before reloading it.
The two started walking through the forest.
"So, Pyrrha you're some kind of tournament fighter then? What made you want to become a huntress?" Jaune asked.
"Well I wanted to put my skills as a fighter to better use." Pyrrha told him. "What about you? I mean you are one of the first men to ever unlock their aura, why do you want to become a hunter and how did you manage to unlock your aura?"
Jaune paused for a moment before answering. "I guess I always wanted to do something like that, protect people. I could have been a doctor or something like that if I wanted to help people but I didn't just want to see the aftermath, I wanted to be on the front line and be the shield. During the whole thing with Weiss and me running away I was actually heading to Atlas, join the military and hopefully do some good. Then Felix found me, he said I had potential then asked me if I wanted to learn to become a huntsmen. I didn't believe him at first but he proved himself by unlocking my aura."
"How?"
"Well his eyes glowed for a second and then I felt it, my aura rushing through me." Jaune told her.
Pyrrha was surprised. "That's all he did?"
"That's, I've never heard of someone being able to unlock their aura's like that."
"Oh you mean the whole touching and chant." Jaune nodded. "I know about that, but Felix said that those aren't really necessary. They just help people concentrate. But if you have enough skill you can just project your aura into that person then use it to pull out their aura."
"I see. But that would take immense skill with aura manipulation." Pyrrha said.
Jaune just nodded. "That sounds like Felix, and I'm pretty good at aura manipulation as well. My Semblance is based around aura after all."
Pyrrha's curiosity was piqued by that statement. "Really, what is your Semblance?"
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Jaune told her with a smile.
Pyrrha smiled back and her sword started to float above her hand. "My Semblance is polarity, I can control magnetism."
"That's an interesting semblance. Here's mine." Jaune started to glow brightly, his aura shimmering around him on a level Pyrrha had never seen or heard before. "My semblance is aura enhancement. I have the ability to increase the power of my own or another person's aura, defence, speed, strength, healing are all drastically increased. I can increase a person's aura to be powerful enough to even regrow organs and limbs. It also increases the power of a person's semblance. I can also refill people's aura levels by transferring some of my aura to them."
Pyrrha was slightly wide eyed, thanks to her experiences with training and learning about aura she was able to realise the potential his semblance had. She thought her semblance was useful but Jaune's was every hunter's wildest dream. Aura was the lifeblood of their profession and to be able to enhance it to that level was beyond amazing. Not only would he be able to increase his own power making him perfect for frontline fighting but he would also be perfect for a support role.
Eventually they came towards a cave.
"You know I think we shouldn't head inside there." Jaune said pointing to some drawings on the side of the cave showing what looked like a scorpion. If they were supposed to be a warning he should complain to the person who put them there, they were pretty easy to miss.
"I think so as well." Pyrrha said.
Jaune looked around. "So which way do you think we should go?"
Pyrrha looked around herself before pointing through some trees. "That way."
The two then heard a noise come from behind them, there heads turned so fast they almost gave themselves whiplash as they saw a golden glow along with a number of red glowing orbs under the golden glow. They felt a rumbling coming from the cave and realised quickly just what was making its way towards them from the cave.
"I think running would be a good idea." Jaune said looking at his partner.
She smiled back at him. "Yes I do believe it would be."
The two then quickly took off, the Deathstalker quickly chasing after them as the ran through the trees, charging through them like they were twigs.
"I don't know how but I know this is your fault Felix!" Jaune shouted as he ran, he knew that his sadistic teacher was watching and could practically hear Felix's laughter.
"I hope Ren and Nora are having a better time then me." Jaune muttered.
Somewhere else in the forest Nora was yelling cheerfully as she rode the back of an Ursa, Ren chasing after her.
Jaune suddenly stopped and turned, his body started to glow as the Deathstalker's stinger came down at him. He quickly dodged and grabbed the golden stinger, however he underestimated the strength of the Deathstalker and his own footing and found himself being lifted off the ground. The Deathstalker brought its tail back before fling it forward and Jaune found himself once again flying through the air.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted and started to run after him, the Deathstalker close behind.
"Well it could be worse." Jaune muttered to himself as he was about to activate his semblance he saw something falling from the sky, something that was very familiar and which he was on a collision course with.
Ruby was screaming as she fell to the ground, the Nevermore she jumped from still circling overhead. Suddenly something hit her and she along with the unknown object ended up crashing into a tree. Surprisingly she didn't feel any pain, that's when she noticed the bright glow surrounding her.
"Hey, looks like I'm not the only one to arrive in style."
She knew that voice, it was Jaune! Suddenly the glow surrounding them died down and Jaune let her go before jumping out the tree.
"Might as well get our relic while I'm here." Jaune said running to what he presumed were the relics, chess pieces and picked a rook.
"Did your sister just fall out of the sky?"
Hearing that Jaune turned to see a girl with long black hair and bright amber eyes wearing a bow to her head. She was talking to Yang. The blonde was still in shock so didn't answer.
Suddenly Nora came bounding into the clearing, riding an Ursa off all things. Jaune sighed and palmed his face.
The Ursa fell over having finally reached its end point fell over and died from all the damage the orange haired hammer wielding girl did to it.
"Aww it's broken."
Ren appeared. "Nora, don't do that again."
"Did that girl just ride an Ursa?" The black haired girl said.
"Yeah that's Nora. Honestly that's probably one of the least crazy things she's done, hi I'm Jaune Arc by the way."
"Blake Belladonna."
"Umm Yang." Ruby said pointing up and everyone looked up.
"HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME!" Weiss shouted from where she was holding onto the leg of the giant Nevermore flying overhead.
"I told you to jump!" Ruby shouted back.
"Renny can I -"
"No." Both Ren and Jaune said instantly at the same time.
"She's going to fall." Blake said.
"She'll be fine." Ruby said.
Ren pointed up. "She's falling."
Seeing no one doing anything Jaune rolled his eyes. His body glowed white and after kneeling for a moment jumped, he practically flew through the air and grabbed the screaming Weiss. After grabbing her the glow started to surround her and the two came crashing down to the ground creating a small crater. Quickly letting go of her Jaune walked out of the crater, the two of them were completely unharmed.
"Woah." Yang said stunned at the display.
"Is that your semblance? What does it do?" Ruby zoomed towards him speaking so fast Jaune was barely able to hear her.
"Oh Fearless Leader's semblance is amazing! He can -"
Ren covered Nora's mouth to stop her blurting out that information.
"Yes it's my semblance, but it's a secret for now, although I might tell you later. But not in a forest full of cameras." Jaune told her.
"Cameras?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, how do you think they're monitoring our progress. They've got cameras hidden all over the forest to watch us."
Everyone stared at him.
"I didn't think about that." Pyrrha looked around trying to spot them but noticed something else. "The Nevermore is circling back, should we fight it or should we run to the cliffs?"
"And I'm surprised the Deathstalker hasn't caught up with us yet." Jaune noted.
"It does seem pretty old, maybe this many people it reconsidering attacking us." Ren said.
"The older they are the smarter they get." Jaune nodded.
"There's no sense in dilly dallying, our objective is right in front of us." Pointed out Weiss.
"Well our mission is to grab the relics and make it back to the cliffs." Ruby said. "There's no point in fighting those things."
"True but I have a feeling they're not just going to let us go like that so we should prepare ourselves." Jaune told them before nodding at his hyperactive hammer wielding friend. "Nora, go and grab the other rook, the castle like piece."
"On it Fearless Leader!"
Zooming to the pedestal with the chess pieces on she instantly grabbed the other rook.
"Why the other rook?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune smiled at her. "Teams come in groups of four."
Pyrrha immediately understood. "Oh so you think they create teams based on the chess pieces?"
"Yep."
"Which means I'm most likely on a team with my sister." Yang said as she saw her sister take the other knight. "Well now that's done let's get out of here."
Jaune's prediction was right, the two old Grimm didn't let them go so easily so they ended up fighting them. He, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora took on the Deathstalker while Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Blake took on the Nevermore. They managed to kill the heavily armoured Deathstalker by literally hammering its own stinger through its body. While Ruby and her team decapitated the Nevermore in a pretty fantastic display.
They were now in the auditorium, waiting as the newly formed teams were being announced by Ozella.
"Opal Kiln, Rouge Arc, Ember Smith and Jade Hayes."
Behind the four girls above the stage a large holographic screen showed their profiles, Jaune smiled at his sister who nodded at him with her own smile. Opal was a tall girl with shoulder length black hair, grey eyes, Ember was an orange haired girl with dark green eyes around the same height as Ruby while Jade was a dark blonde haired girl with light green eyes a little shorter then Opal.
"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces, from this forward you all will be Team KSHR led by…Opal Kiln."
Everyone applauded as the girls walked off the stage.
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie." The named students walked onto the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ozella finished looking towards Jaune, from behind the headmistress Felix gave him a thumbs up. "Congratulations, young man." Ozella nodded her head to Jaune.
Jaune was surprised, him a leader, he took a deep breath and with a determined expression nodded back at the Headmistress. He would try his best not to let her down! Pyrrha gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, Ren nodded to him with a smile while Nora jumped on him. He turned his head and saw his sister give him a thumbs up.
After a moment he and his new team walked off the stage.
"And finally, Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozella called up the four girls to the stage as they make their way up to the stage standing before Ozella. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!" Ozella announced the youngest student in Beacon, the small red reaper as team leader.
Weiss's expression was gobsmacked, Ruby was shocked while Blake didn't have any reaction, Yang however…
"I'm so proud of you!" The busty blonde exclaimed as she hugged her sister, bringing her face into her cleavage.
Jaune just smiled as her watched the struggling red reaper. It was going to be a difficult road as leader of his own team, but at least he had a friend to walk it with him, with hopefully more joining along the way.