"Come on, let's go! I don't want to be late for our first match!" Weiss yelled at Blake at Yang. I looked up to see the cat-faunus and the blonde brawler still dressed in their pyjamas while Weiss was already clothed in her combat skirt, rousing her teammates out of bed. I woke to find Velvet's long, normally straight but now messy brown hair in my face and realized that my arms were still wrapped around her, also that she was still sleeping soundly, her small figure rising and falling slowly in rhythm with her breathing. I smiled to myself and slowly got out of the sleeping bag as slowly as possible to not disturb her. Weiss then looked at me and opened her mouth, but I placed my hand over it to stop her from waking Velvet.

"Quietly please." I whispered, pointing to the sleeping rabbit-faunus.

Weiss scowled and removed my hand. "Shouldn't you be going back to your dorm as well to prepare for the tournament?" She whispered.

I shook my head. "I'm not participating. Only the original team JNPR is." I replied.

"Hey, where's Ruby?" Yang asked from her closet, picking out her usual clothes.

"She said she'd just be out for a while before joining us for the tournament. Ruby said that she'd be back in time for the tournament though." Weiss answered in her partner's stead.

I felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around my waist. I looked back slightly over my shoulder and saw Velvet standing behind me, her head on my shoulder. "Good morning." She said with a smile.

I smiled back. "It is now that you're awake."

"All right lovebirds, get out of here before I get nauseous." Yang said, waving us off with her free hand as she draped her clothes over her other arm and headed into the bathroom to presumably shower and change.

I picked up my sleeping bag and led Velvet out of the dorm to leave the rest of the team to prepare for their upcoming fight.

"So did I hear you right? You're not taking part in the tournament?" Velvet asked with a yawn.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, Jaune wanted me to take his place but I told him that it just didn't seem right. He was gracious enough to accept me as a fifth member of the team and that's a debt that I can never repay. I couldn't replace him of all people in the tournament."

"So what are you going to do while the rest of us are fighting?" She inquired.

I shrugged. "Probably just watch." I thought for a moment. "Well… that and study. My grades haven't exactly been the highest lately." I replied.

She stretched and nodded back. "Okay, just don't strain yourself. Take a break every once in a while."

"I will." I promised. After sharing a quick kiss, we headed back to our own dorms. I unlocked the door and knocked. After Jaune calling for me to come in, I saw him, Nora and Ren already dressed in their combat gear and heard the shower running, where Pyrrha was most likely doing the same. "So, you guys ready for today?"

Nora was pacing quickly and the first to answer. "We're gonna destroy them!" She said ecstatically.

"I'm confident that we'll do well." Ren said with his eyes closed, meditating crossed-legged on his bed.

I looked over at Jaune and he had a worried expression on his face as he twiddled his thumbs from the sitting position on his bed. "They'll do fine," he said gesturing to Ren, Nora and the bathroom where Pyrrha had finished her shower and emerged wearing her combat gear. "I'm just worried about bringing you guys down."

I immediately got frustrated and dropped my sleeping bag beside my bed. "For fuck's sake Jaune, we went over this already, you're going to do fine. You're our team leader. With you on our side, we can't go wrong." I stated.

"He's right you know." Nora added.

"Agreed. Professor Ozpin wouldn't have made you team leader if he didn't think you weren't fit for the role." Ren piled on.

Pyrrha said nothing, merely sat next to her partner on their combined beds and kissed him on the cheek. Jaune's face grew a tad pink and he took a deep breath.

"Okay, if you guys think that I can do this, then I'll do it for you."

"YEEEEAAAAAHHHH JAUNE!" Nora cheered. I thought I heard a couple bones crack when she enveloped him in a massive bear-hug.

I smiled and shook my head at Nora's antics. "So, when's your fight?" I asked after Nora had put down our team leader, leaving him gasping for air.

"Shortly after team RWBY finishes theirs." Ren answered.

"Right now, we have to go and check our weapons though, make sure they're in working order." Pyrrha said. "It's a good idea to do before a tournament, or any engagement really."

I nodded. "Okay, I'll let you guys do that and I'll be watching from the stands." My four friends filed out of the room, leaving me to shower and change, Castor and Pollux on my arms as usual.

I left for the airship docks to catch a ride to the coliseum, only to be intercepted by Headmaster Ozpin himself.

"Professor." I greeted the man happily. "What can I do for you?" I learned a few weeks ago that I really actually owed Ozpin a lot. He helped me get my head on straight, put me on a team when he could've just as easily expelled me and if not for that last decision, I never would've met the love of my life.

"Good to see you, Mr. Taren." He said with a smile and his coffee mug in hand. "I was actually wondering if you'd be interested in a proposal."

This piqued my interest. "What is it?" I asked.

His expression turned serious. "It's a mission that has to be handled quickly and you will be rewarded extra credit if you succeed. A small settlement just north of Vale is fighting for its own survival right now." He took a swig of whatever was in his mug before continuing. "We think they may be fighting against an Omega beowolf."

My eyebrows shot up. I learned in Port's class that Omegas were extremely dangerous and came in all forms of grimm: creeps, boarbatusks, beowolves, ursai, nevermores, deathstalkers and even king taijitus. They were larger, stronger, smarter and more durable than regular grimm but thankfully; they were also unusual; not uncommon, but not rare either.

I exhaled deeply. "So who will I be going with and when?"

"As I said, this matter needs to be handled quickly, so you will be leaving as soon as possible. You are also one of the only students whom I trust to keep this matter quiet. If word got around that an Omega was close by, the fear would undoubtedly bring additional grimm to the city, so you will be going by yourself."

"So, wait. I'm going by myself to fight an Omega?" I asked in disbelief.

Ozpin gave a small nod. " Possibly an Omega, but yes. Your team is currently occupied fighting in the tournament but the settlement is also protected by a well trained militia." He paused again. "That is, if you accept." I nodded without hesitation. I had a personal blood feud against beowolves so killing an Omega was going to be a good stress reliever. "Good. An airship is already prepared and waiting." He said, gesturing with his free hand over to where a bullhead was docked. "When you have completed the mission or need to be evacuated, call me and I will send the airship to pick you up immediately. When you have your armor and other supplies, get on the ship and tell the pilot to fly you to Hishan."

I then left Ozpin standing there as I sprinted down to the locker room to strap on my armor and grab Andrea's sword Dusk as well as the mask Jaune made. After the equipment was on, I ran to the dorm where the only thing I grabbed was my duffle bag containing spare clothes and a toothbrush. No doubt I must've looked strange wearing my armor, a mask and gauntlets with a duffle bag over my shoulder as I made my way to the awaiting bullhead. I jumped on the aircraft and the pilot turned her head towards me.

"You the huntsman?" She asked as I closed the door, her eyes and head covered by the flight helmet she wore.

I nodded and took a seat. "Get me to Hishan." I replied. She nodded back and flipped a few switches on the dashboard. The engines whirred to life and seconds later, we were in the air, flying away from Beacon, the coliseum and soon enough: Vale.

After a two-hour flight, a small village with people freely roaming the streets and surrounded by a thick forest close to a few mountains came into view. It looked to have four clear roads leading in and out, each one leading north, south, east and west. In the middle of the village was a small concrete fountain and to the north, a large white building stone with a makeshift wooden tower that I assumed was the town hall. Around it were twenty or-so concrete and wooden buildings including houses, general stores and what looked to be an armory judging by the number of armed people outside it. As we got closer, I could see that the outermost layer of buildings had signs of being attacked by grimm. The walls had claw marks and some were completely destroyed. The roads had also been protected by makeshift barricades that were big small to allow a single person through, rather than a vehicle.

"This is gonna be a shock-drop!" The pilot yelled over the sound of the engines. Good, a shock-drop means less risk for the airship. The procedure was simple: instead of landing, the bullhead would hover over the designated landing zone and I'd just open the door and jump out. "Ok, over the DZ in ten…nine…eight…" She continued counting down and on five, I opened the door as the bullhead neared the town square. "…Two…one." I jumped out and fell about ten or fifteen metres to the ground, letting my aura absorb the force of the impact. I looked up to see the bullhead flying back towards Beacon. I turned my gaze to the people around me: a few civilians and the militia. A man who looked to be in his mid-thirties wearing a green combat jacket, combat pants and boots to match with an assault rifle in hand walked towards me and I took off my mask, placing it in my bag.

"Can I assume by that entrance that you're the help we requested?" He asked. Ozpin said this place was manned by a militia force, but this guy looked to be actual military. His blonde hair was cut short and his green eyes projected an attitude that I could tell didn't exactly earn him many friends.

I nodded and extended my free hand. "Joseph Taren." I answered. He merely looked at my hand and glared at me.

"We told Ozpin to send a team of huntsmen. Instead, he sends us a kid. Not even a full team of kids, one fucking kid!" He said angrily as he stormed off towards the northern barricade.

I let my hand hang down by my side as another member of the militia, a woman of probably the same age, approached me. "Sorry about Henry. He's just on a little on edge right now." She said with a friendly smile. Rather than the combat attire the other guy was wearing, She wore a simple black hoodie with a black t-shirt and blue jeans, a rifle slung across her back. Her long pink hair and cyan eyes shone brightly in the mid-morning sunlight as she greeted me. "My name's Grace and I'd like to speak on behalf of everyone by saying thank you for coming to our aid."

I nodded. "Of course." I looked around at the other faces still staring at me, men, women and children ranging from ages eight to about seventy. "Um, is there somewhere else we can talk?"

"Of course, follow me." She then made for the town hall and created a hole in the sea of people that had gathered around.

I followed Grace, my bag slung over my left shoulder and heard a high-pitched voice say: "Mommy, is that the man who's going to help us?"

Another voice replied: "Yes it is, dear. He's going to get rid of the big, bad monsters."

My mouth went dry as I mindlessly put one foot in front of the other. There's no 'if' now. I have to succeed. I swallowed as Grace opened the large doors to the town hall, the only light being from the windows at the top of the walls. There was a makeshift infirmary by the podium where the mayor would speak and a few small tents were pitched adjacent to the walls with a few families inside. Grace led me to the back of the hall where she opened a door to reveal a flight of stairs that I assume led to the makeshift watchtower and underneath the staircase lay a sleeping bag rolled out on the wooden floor.

"This is where we let the next watch sleep." Grace said as she closed the door, gesturing to the sleeping bag. "But since there's only one of you, this is where you'll be staying. Sorry we can't do any better."

I set my bag next to my new accommodations and smiled at Grace. "It's okay. This is actually how I spent my first few months at Beacon."

"All right then. You said you wanted to talk about something?"

My smile faded. Right, time to get to business. "When the headmaster sent me on this mission, he said in the brief that you thought you might be fighting against an Omega beowolf." The kind woman nodded back as she clasped her hands behind her back. "What makes you think it's an Omega?"

"It started out as just a rumor, after we were attacked by an Alpha, some kids thought it was an Omega because of its size, and since we're a village of only about sixty people, rumors tend to get around fairly quickly." Graze took a deep breath. "But a few weeks after that attack, another group came in and they sieged the village with ferocity none of us had ever seen before. After that, the mayor established the militia and we didn't need that much training considering how most of us living here are ex-military."

"Yeah that's great, but what about the Omega?" I asked.

Grace took another deep breath. "Henry thought that since these beowolves were more ferocious than the last group, he thought that we might be facing a group led by an Omega so he just thought that it might be a good idea to warn our reinforcements about a possible threat." She paused. "We sent that request yesterday and there have been two more attacks since then; all beowolves, no ursai, no deathstalkers, just beowolves. Now it's looking like less of a rumor and more of a high possibility."

I nodded in understanding. Port had said that the Omega grimm would only attack with the same grimm type as it was. Something to do with proving racial superiority or whatever. "Okay. Do you have someone up in the tower right now?" I asked.

Grace nodded. "Twenty four-seven." Her eyebrows shot up. "Oh! That reminds me." She reached into her back jeans pocket, pulled out a walkie-talkie and handed it to me. "We use these to stay in contact. Whoever's in the tower is codenamed Archangel, the northern barricade is Vanguard, east is Goliath, Behemoth is west and south is Deadeye."

I gave her a confused look. "Why the codenames?"

She smirked slightly. "Their symbolic of what each squad's role was in the military before they either left or retired. Goliath and Behemoth are heavy weapons experts proficient with light machine guns and rocket launchers, Deadeye are sharpshooters and Vanguard is a mixture of all three. Five people man each barricade, but we have four people awake at a time so that they can take turns getting their sleep when they can."

"Okay I guess that makes sense." I said, hanging the communication device on the front collar of my shirt. "Do you have a codename in mind for me?"

She shrugged. "Not really. What weapons are you skilled with?"

I extended the blades on Castor and Pollux. "These are also grenade launchers." I said, retracting the blades and pointing to the barrels on the underside of my gauntlets.

"Hmm." She said as the tapped a finger against her chin in thought. "How about 'Wardog'?"

I nodded with a small smile. "Awesome."

"Okay then, I'll notify everyone of your name, but what do we do now?"

Think Joe, think! What would Jaune do? I thought. "Well, we're going to have to confirm whether or not we're up against an Omega or not, so that means we're going to have to wait for the next attack." It seemed like the only logical thing to do at the time.

Grace nodded. "Okay." With that, she left and I heard her on the radio informing the five other callsigns about my nickname.

I sat down on my sleeping bag and exhaled deeply. It's a good thing I got a good sleep last night. A second later, my scroll started vibrating and I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Joe, it's Jaune. I was just wondering where you went. You said you'd be in the stands, but Nora pointed out that you weren't there so we were wondering if maybe something happened to you."

"Yeah, Ozpin kind of… wanted me to do something for him." I said, deliberately avoiding the truth. I knew that if I told him what my situation was, he'd start worrying and spread the rumor about the Omega around Beacon, the very thing Ozpin did not want.

"Ah, so then…where are you?"

My breath caught in my lungs. "He actually sent me on an extra curricular assignment and said I'd be out of Beacon for a few days. Nothing big, I'm just deliver a few packages to some associates of his."

"Oh, okay. Do you know exactly how long you'll be gone?" He asked.

Damn it, lying is hard! "Not really, he didn't even tell me where his associates were, he just gave me a few names and put me on an airship." I said, trying to give myself a little wiggle room in case the mission lasted a long time.

"All right then, I guess I'll let you get back to it."

"Yeah, by the way, how'd you do in the fight?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Actually pretty well. We managed to win despite the fact that everyone forgot about our team attacks."

I frowned. "Since when do we have team attacks?"

I heard Jaune groan from the other end of the line. "We had a huge discussion about this after the breach in Vale!"

"I… I can't say that I ever remember having any conversation like that, Jaune."

"Yeah, three days after the breach, we were all sitting in the cafeteria and I explained to everyone our team attack names!" He said, still sticking to his idea.

"Jaune…" I started slowly. "I was in the infirmary from my match with Fox three days after the breach."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"Must've been a dream then."

I hung my head and smiled. "Goodbye, Jaune."

"'Bye Joe."

I removed the scroll from my ear and hung up.