A/N: We've all been saddened by the tragedy of Monty Oum's death, but I'll do this the way Rooster Teeth asked all of us to do. Let's honor him by doing something creative, and keep him in our thoughts

*Chapter 8*

Jaune nervously followed Cardin and Adam to the gym. "Are you sure we should do this?" Cardin gave the blonde a hearty slap on the back. "Why not? We have the free period. We might as well do something useful with it instead of lounging in our dorms for an hour."

Adam nodded in agreement with his partner. "Besides, it gives us the warm up we need. We won't try to exhaust ourselves, but still get our blood flowing a bit." He pointed to the gym door. "Here we are."

The three stepped inside, and Cardin wasn't too surprised to see a few people from other teams training. Dove and Russell were lifting weights, being spotted by Alex and Kurtis. Yang was in the boxing ring throwing some poor kid around; Cardin made a mental note to not get in the ring with the blonde brawler. 'That girl can pack one mean punch. Especially if someone messes with her hair.' He ducked as the boy she was fighting went clean through the ropes. "Oh bloody hell!"

Cardin helped the poor sod to his feet, and he saw it was Trent from STAR. "You alright?" Trent winced as he felt his side, bent over. "No…" Cardin couldn't blame him. "Normally I would ask what on earth possessed you to get in the ring with Xiao Long, but I think I'm gonna get you some help first." Trent drew in a slow, rattling breath, wincing.

Cardin sifted through his pack, trying to find some aura shots. 'I'm glad I don't want to become a boxer when I get older.' Getting his ass kicked by Yang was not on his 'to-do' list. He might want to warn Dove.

Cardin pulled out the shots, and he gave them to Trent, the teen too happy to receive the boost. "Thanks. I think I've learned not to mess with Yang." He stood up, cracked his neck, and went over to a set of punching bags instead of getting in the ring with Yang again, who seemed a bit disappointed. "What's the matter Trent? You giving up?"

Trent shook his head as he delivered a swift punch to the bag, shaking it. "No. I just don't feel like returning to my teammates in multiple pieces." Dove and Alex began snickering at his comment, and Yang glared in the two teens' direction. "Do you want some of this too?"

Dove shut his mouth, but Alex sauntered over with an amused smirk. "Possibly. Depends on what you mean by that. Bow chicka bow wow." Behind him, his teammates were mouthing for him to shut up before he got his ass kicked. It didn't really work.

Cardin began to slowly pull Jaune and Adam away, for he saw that Yang's eyes were getting red. "Time to go." 'Oh man, this is not going to end well…' Adam and Jaune gratefully followed him, for the second they left, Alex was thrown across the spot they had left about a second earlier.

Jaune looked back as the green eyed blonde sat up, wincing. "Um…is he okay?" Kurtis called over to them, an amused glimmer in his eyes. "Don't feel too bad. He had it coming." Alex responded by giving him the finger. "Bite me." Kurtis smirked and shook his head. "No thanks mate. I don't swing that way." Dove, Russell, Cardin, and Adam all let out amused snickers as Alex groaned. "My back…"

They stopped laughing as soon as they saw Yang, who's eyes were still red. She looked down at Alex, and she grabbed him by his leg, dragging him behind her. "I'm not done with you yet. Get your ass over here."

They disappeared, and Cardin winced as he heard the dull thumps and Alex groaning in pain. "That doesn't sound too good." He walked over to the sounds, and Yang was hitting Alex with what seemed to be a plastic model of his head. Cardin's jaw dropped. "Are you beating him with his own head?"

Yang nodded, as if it was so easy. "Yes. It's good anger management." She continued to hit him, and Cardin shared a very confused glance with Adam, who had joined him. "This doesn't seem physically possible…"

"That's what I said!" Alex groaned from the ground (A/N: See if you catch the reference…). He let out a swear as he got hit again. "FUCK! STOP HITTING ME!" Yang finally stopping hitting him and dragged him to his feet, her eyes still narrowed. "This is what happens when you try and make a sex joke to me."

She threw him, and Cardin and Adam caught the blonde before he could manage to get hurt even more. If that was possible. Cardin pulled out a pair of aura shots and injected them into Alex's arms. "Here you go. Well Jaune, here's your major lesson of the day. Don't piss Xiao Long off, or this happens."

JNPR's leader scratched the back of his head, a bit nervous. "Um, what should we try out first?" He looked over to the weights, and he looked interested. "Hmmm, these don't look too heavy." He tried to pick one up, and his eyes widened in shock, nearly falling over. "Waah!"

Cardin and Adam ran over to relive him of the much too heavy weight and helped him up. "I think we should start off nice and easy. Now, your aura is already unlocked, so it shouldn't be too hard." Adam looked at the small dummies, and he stroked his chin. "I think those will come in handy."

He grabbed a few, tossing one to Cardin. He caught it, and Jaune eyed them nervously. "W-what are those going to be used for?" The orange haired teen laughed. "Don't worry; we're not going to chuck them at you. We're just going to, well, practice on them."

"Mind if we join?" Kurtis asked, dragging the beaten remains of his partner behind him. "And yes, Yang really does have a plastic model of Alex's head. Which you just saw." Jaune looked over at Cardin and Adam in confusion. "…why?"

"So in case I do or say anything really stupid, she can beat me with my own head," Alex replied, looking up. He stumbled to his feet, wincing. "Owwww, that really sucked." Kurtis snickered, and Alex glared at him playfully. "And aren't you a team player, letting me get my ass handed to me."

Kurtis shrugged, a glimmer of amusement in his brown eyes. "Hey, I have to think of myself sometimes." Alex rubbed his aching head. "There's no 'I' in 'Team', Kurt." His friend returned with an equally sarcastic remark. "Yeah? Well, there's no 'U' either. So I guess if I'm not on the team, and you're not on the team, then no one's on the Goddamn team! The team sucks!" (A/N: Sorry, couldn't resist…)

Dove and Russell waved. "Hey, we're here too, you know!" Alex face-palmed. "Guys, this is a good example of a friend. You can talk all the shit you want with them and they won't get offended." Kurtis nudged him. "Yeah. A friend will bail you out of jail, but a best friend is in the cell with you saying, 'Wow, that was wrong, but it was fun!'"

"Yeah, and we can share more life experiences of being in the same cell than you can count," Alex muttered, earning several amused snickers from the guys. He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head to try and get rid of the pain. "So, the dummies. I'm pretty sure that we don't plan on bringing them as our dates to a movie theater, so what are we doing with them?"

Adam and Cardin exchanged glances. 'We didn't think that far ahead, did we? Well, I guess basic training is a good idea. It'll warm us up before we go to Grimm Studies for the second time in a day.' "I was thinking basic weapons training, as it helps to be proficient in your weapon of choice."

Jaune looked nervous, and Alex, Kurtis, and Adam all gave him a look of reassurance. "Don't worry Jaune. We're here to help as well. We're all swordsmen. Well, except Cardin." The orange-haired teen gave a small smile. "Yeah, yeah. I know. It's not my fault that I was trained with heavy weapons." 'I should save some lien and buy that Fire Mace I saw in the magazine. That thing looks pretty sweet.'

Jaune sized up a dummy, his eyes narrowed in concentration as Adam and Alex were teaching him proper stances. "And I should hold myself like this?"

Adam quickly moved his feet a bit farther apart, setting him up sideways. "More like this. If you stand normally, you can get run over easily. By standing like this, an opponent who's bigger and stronger will have a tougher time pushing you over."

Jaune stood in the new stance, and as the dummy came close to him he sliced it in half with all his strength. "Swish!" The dummy split, but also hit both Alex and Kurtis. He looked behind him with a nervous smile. "Um, oops…" Kurtis dusted himself off, cracking his neck. "Not bad. Though next time, you might want to work on your strategy…swish, swish, stab isn't the best way to fight. But it works for training."

Alex let out a pained groan. "Today is not my day, is it?" Kurtis snickered and shook his head as he helped him to his feet. "Nope. Sorry mate." Alex stumbled, nearly falling again. "Woah…I might want to get this checked out."

Cardin twirled his mace in hand before lashing out, taking a dummy's head cleanly off…and landing it in the garbage can. "I totally meant to do that." Adam let out a small cough that sounded a lot like "Bullshit", but he still smirked. "You couldn't do that again if you tried."

Cardin shrugged his shoulders, smiling. "You're right. I doubt I could." 'That was one of the best swings ever. And lucky, too.'

Jaune flexed his shoulders before he got back in his stance, proving to be a quicker learner than in the previous life. "Alright, let me give it one more go…" He swung his sword again, and he cut the dummy in half without managing to hurt Alex again. He jumped up, ecstatic. "Wow, did I really do that!?"

Cardin nodded, patting him on the back. "Yep. Good job Jaune." 'He's getting along nicely.' He looked up at the time, and slumped. 'Damn. We only have about ten minutes before Grimm Studies again. Why we have it twice in a day is beyond me…'

He turned to the group, a sad smile on his face. "I hate to tell you all this, but unless we want to be late for round two of Professor Port's entertaining stories, then we have to clean up." Another poor kid from STAR landed about five feet from them, again thrown out of the ring by Yang.

"And help this guy," Alex muttered, helping him to his feet. Cardin saw that this time it was Ryan, and he seemed a little more than just dazed. He was in Lala Land.

"Hey, we're over here dude," Alex said, waving his hand in front of his face. Ryan smiled hazily. "Who is that? Marv Albert?"

Kurtis sighed and began to rub his temples. "Aw dude, he's torched. Help him to the infirmary, and Alex, get checked out too. I'll tell the Professor." The green eyed blonde mumbled in agreement, hefted Ryan over his shoulders, and limped out of the training room, trying to avoid yet another kid who got thrown out of the ring by Yang.

'We might need to stop her before she kills STAR,' Cardin thought as he returned the dummies to their rightful area. "Yang, give it a rest. We already have three going to the medical wing; try not to whoop the entire team's ass, will you?"

Yang pouted as she got out of the ring. "It's not my fault that they can't handle this." Alex, who was still dragging Ryan out, called over his shoulder, "Bow chicka bow wow." Yang's eyes turned red again, and Cardin and Adam held her back. "Don't…Professor Port's entertaining childhood stories are a bit more important than beating Blondie with his own head."

Yang calmed down, and she ran out with the rest of her team. "Later then!" Jaune shared a glance with Adam and Cardin, who were also leaving. "Um, time to go?"

They ran after the other teams, and Cardin felt glad in seeing how quickly Jaune had improved. 'He didn't get discouraged; he tried his damn hardest.' He paused to catch his breath, and he looked at his teammates and new friends with a small smile. 'I'll try my hardest to become as good as I can, too.'

A/N: *wipes head* Whew…I kinda had to 'borrow' my older brother's laptop to get this done…I probably shouldn't have said that out loud. The RvB references are scattered throughout, partly because that's all I've been watching recently…

-RWBYxFluorite-