Howdy all, another chapter! Once again thanks for the support on this fanfic. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'd like to tell you guys in advance that there is a major canon change to this story, I won't say what but when it happens have faith that I know what I'm doing. It all plays into it later on.
So with that out of the way, Jaune has to start initiation!
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"Hey Amar, what do you like most about being married to my sister?" a much smaller Jaune asked his "new" big brother. Amar had been picked up by his eldest sister Bianca after they met eachother on a bullhead ride, he had helped her with her motion sickness and things clicked together after that. Jaune liked him if he was a little spaced out sometimes, but he trusted him like he trusted Grandpa and Dad.
"I like how I can be the one who helps her when she needs it." he smiled back down at his "little brother", he was a tall tanned man from Vacuo who visited Vale on what soon became a vacation of a lifetime. "There are very few who can truly lend a shoulder to cry on when it comes to your ultra-cool sister, and I'm happy to be that man!"
"Woah, you're so cool! But if I had my way big sis would never be sad!" he shouted, pumping a fist into the air as Amar laughed heartily.
"Yeah, you and me both kiddo." Amar raised his head as Jaune's dad and grandpa came over to them. "Oh hey Nicholas, I was just telling Jaune about how great it is being Bianca's husband."
Jaune's dad chuckled. "Yeah yeah kiss-up, don't think you're scoring points in my book just cause you got our naive little Jaune wrapped around your finger."
"Dad! Don't talk about big bro like that!" Jaune whined as he stepped in between them, there was a moment of silence before the three older men burst into uninhibited laughter.
Jaune woke up blearily as his scroll vibrated loudly against his head, he needed to get up earlier than anyone else if he was going to get ready without everyone else annoying him. He picked up some of the things he would need and lumbered towards the door where a half-conscious Petunia and overly-conscious Oobleck stood slumped and at attention respectively near the door.
"My boy, I'm assuming you wish to evade the stampede of females when the normal wake up call is announced?" Oobleck whispered quickly, making her words come out in a near hiss.
"Yeah, the sooner the better." she hummed and opened the door letting him through. He stepped out into the hallway and almost immediately shuddered, do they not have heating in this damn building?
He quickly power-walked his way through the hallway and into the locker room where he got undressed for his shower. He let the warm water cascade down his body, a good hot shower did wonders for the mind sometimes. He breathed, I need to start this day off on the right foot, if I don't make a good impression now then it will be that much more of a pain to take care of later on.
Part of him wanted to cry at the fact he was going to be put on a four man team, and he wanted to throw up at the possibility that they were some of his fangirls. God forbid that, he'd end it before the end of the first semester. Cracking his neck loudly he stepped out of the shower and dried off, with a towel around his waist he made his way over to some left out clothes. He quickly began to dress himself but before he could get his pants on all the way, he heard something from the side like a soft thunk and he turned towards the sound.
Fuck me. Pyrrha stood there dressed in her pajamas as she her eyes kept widening until he thought they would pop out of her skull. He needed to diffuse the situation fast, he could feel it in his bones that this was going south faster than a Vacuan Spring Break.
"Ugh, good morn-" before he could finish she screeched like she was being murdered, ok, really not used to being around men. She cut herself off with a hand to her mouth as she turned red from embarrassment.
"Oh god! I-I'm so so sorry!" she tried to explain but he held up a hand as he finished putting his pants back on.
"Don't worry it's fine, let's just hope you didn't wake anyone up." she nodded sheepishly. "Let me guess, Petunia and Oobleck let you through without telling you I was in here?"
She nodded sheepishly as Jaune's eye ticked horrendously. I ask for one thing, and they fuck it up.
"Well I'm done so you can-" the door burst open with enough force to almost knock it off her hinges as the a SWAT Team-style raid began on the locker room. A mass of yellow burst through the door and rolled between them.
"Stop where you are Arc!" Yang shouted putting herself protectively between Pyrrha and himself. "You stay right there while we get the teachers."
If there was a camera in the room he would have looked straight into it, deadpan expression. "Look Yang, I didn't do anything I was in the shower-"
"So you thought you would expose yourself to her then? I should have known." alright, that's where he drew the line.
"No dammit! Look ask her!" he shouted, tics in full swing right now. He wasn't sure if that drove his statement home or made him look like a psychopath, maybe both.
"Did he do anything to you?" Yang asked caringly, it made him want to throw up. "You can tell me."
"N-no! He's right, it was my fault I burst in and he was getting changed." Jaune mouthed an exasperated "thank you" and turned to the door. Big, ginger, and ugly stood their with her posse and behind her he could see even more.
"What?" he asked scathingly, Winchester looked behind her and sneered.
"You're screwed, that's what." Suddenly, Oobleck and Port entered into the locker room to asses the situation. Both tried to keep straight faces but they soon began to giggle and snort.
"Oh, so that was your joke of the day." Jaune grit out in annoyance, at that they devolved into full-blooded laughter.
"W-We d-didn't think she would scream like that!" Port choked out between laughing sobs, Pyrrha progressively got redder and Jaune just rolled his eyes. After Qrow took to training him she liked to tell the staff he was a sucker for practical jokes, which was true. Despite his sharp demeanor and undoubted intellect, the guy couldn't see a prank if it was right in front of him. It was annoying but never anything too damaging, but this was not exactly what he had in mind for a good start.
The lights flickered overhead and Oobleck's and Port's laughter ceased. They looked, wide-eyed at Jaune before coughing to themselves and ushering everyone out so he could finish getting changed. Neither of them wanted to explain to Ozpin, or worse Glynda, why Jaune had shorted out the power once again over their stupid pranks, last time Glynda threatened to tie their tubes using telekinesis which set them straight.
Jaune came out in his usual attire he got from Qrow, and swept past the waiting girls. Some were blushing, some were giggling, and others were glaring at him but he couldn't care less, what he needed right now was-
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Coffee, sometimes his most hated enemy and other times a gift from the gods. Today, it was a gift from the lords above as he peacefully sipped from a small Beacon cup as he chewed on his omelette. He sat mostly alone like usual, but his sparce company wasn't quite what he desired.
"So then there was this big Ursa! I'm talking like a Queen Ursa! And there were four of them!" shouted what he could only described as a pink-haired valkyrie sent to punish him for his misdeeds. Throughout breakfast she had pestered him with these tales and sucked down more pancakes than he thought the cafeteria had made in their kitchens!
"There wasn't even one Nora." muttered her Green-themed companion Lie Rin, a Mistrali if he had to guess. "And please, he's had a rough morning so avoid bothering him."
Finally, thank the gods above! An angel sent down to bless him with a modicum of space and sense! Lie Rin was who he wanted for a partner, someone with a stoic attitude and predisposition for silence would do wonders alongside a lone wolf like him.
"Ok Rinny, but that I still have one more story! Remember that time we..." Jaune tuned her out as he looked at Rin, she just stared back and seemed to pass on a shrug through her gaze. Well, atleast she tried; he sighed as he finished up his food and sipped his coffee maybe this day wasn't completely ruined after all.
He looked around and saw Pyrrha swarmed by more fans than him, atleast he had scared off some prospective people with a glare and a frosty attitude. Yang was keeping her sister away from Jaune as well so no Ruby either, he didn't understand her problem with him. Weiss, well, the less said about her the better. The big ugly ginger chick, Winchester, had been whispering about him to the other students resulting in a few glares.
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Jaune strolled down the locker rows trying to find his, it seems he couldn't shake his issue with losing things. He sighed once again, a habit more involuntary than his twitching, as he made another round. He saw Weiss and Pyrrha "talking", really it seemed to be a one-sided conversation with Weiss trying to get into her good graces, he looked her up after the locker room incident and found out she was quite famous. He could feel for her, what she wanted; she was a superstar champion that came all the way from Mistral to escape her fans but just found more here, and that was something he could sympathize with.
"Hey Pyrrha, I need some help." he grumbled, cutting off Weiss's daydream or something. Said Weiss spun around and seemed caught between trying that same popularity talk with him and scolding him for interrupting her.
"What is it Jaune?" she asked before Weiss could say anything, he could see some relief in her eyes and Jaune was pleased he got his hunch right.
"Can you take a look at this? It says 636 but I can't find it." he asked, she took the paper, looked at her locker, thought for a moment, and pointed down the rows where the duo of Ruby and Yang stood there. He sighed, again, and thanked her for the help, but before he could go Weiss stepped in seeing her chance.
"Excuse me Jaune, I was just talking with Pyrrha about team assignments," Jaune's disinterested and borderline glaring look didn't deter her. "And I was wondering if you would consider joining with Pyrrha and I, with our combined power we could easily rule the school."
Jaune twitched slighlty before putting on an overly sweet smile, he leaned in and near whispered. "Listen to me Weiss, I'd sooner eat my own hand and go home to my parents than ever consider joining a Schnee in anything. Schnee's are cruel, arrogant, gold-digging mafia-style criminal fucks hiding behind Atlas corporate laws to exploit innocent faunus."
Weiss looked dumbstruck but before she could say anything he finished. "I don't deal with criminals, and since I am neither stupid nor greedy your honeyed words won't do shit to me." he looked at Pyrrha who stood awkwardly between the two like a friend caught in a fight between his friend and their parents. "I'll see you around Pyrrha."
He turned around just in time to hide another tic and walked over to his locker near Yang and Ruby. When they saw him approach Ruby looked excited while Yang scowled at him, she checked behind him to one Weiss Schnee who seemed to have stopped working for a moment.
"What did you do Weiss-cream?"
"Nothing, just told her how I feel." he smiled but it did not reach his eyes and Yang smirked.
"Can't say she didn't have it coming," she looked him up and down for a moment. "Ok so I don't like or trust you as far as I can throw you, but your Ruby's first friend so I'm willing to let this try and work. But, if you hurt Ruby, I will break you in half got it?"
"Do you think your childish threats intimidate me?" he asked sincerely, she growled but said nothing and left grumbling something to Ruby.
She looked back at him apologetically. "Sorry, she used to take care of me when we were kids so she is kind of protective. I'm sure you have someone back home like that who acts that way around you?"
"No... I wish I did." his lips thinned Ruby took it as a sign to check her words from here on out. "Don't worry kid, but I need to grab Tesla Sting real quick." he quickly equipped it and walked with her to the bullhead docks.
"So, you anxious for initiation?" he asked her, she seemed to contemplate the question before shrugging.
"Eh, I'm not worried about the actual initiation but what if we get our teams today?" she said, slowly devolving into the worrying Ruby he had come to know.
"Don't sweat about it kid, you need to find someone who likes you for you." he tried to smile at her but he felt it came out a little forced. If he was being honest, he kind of felt nervous about the whole thing too, but perhaps not for the same reasons.
They boarded the bullheads quickly and everyone got situated, Ruby stayed by him as she couldn't find Yang. Meanwhile, Yang was seething as she spied on the two waiting for Jaune to make some move. But, despite being so close to her perfect little sister, he wasn't doing anything; in fact, which was kind of offending her, he looked like he was trying not to throw up.
"Ugggghhhh." Jaune groaned, one hand muffling the sound as Ruby inched slightly away from him. "Don't worry squirt, I won't vomit on you."
That was true, he hadn't vomited on a bullhead ride in years, ever since his mother wanted to curb that habit, but that didn't mean he didn't get sick as a dog on them. He prayed for the ride to take less time than he despaired that it would, but no such luck as he was stuck in a hellish vomitey purgatory for almost 30 minutes. Oh boy, and when we're done doing this I get to enjoy another trip!
Thankfully, the bullhead landed soon after and he stumbled out while leaning slightly on Ruby. When his feet touched down he had to resist the urge to kiss the solid surface as he had done multiple times before. The teachers directed them over to some kind of pads and the students took their places on them, Jaune had a sinking feeling in his stomach and that was never good news.
Headmistress Ozpin strode onto the grassy hill sipping her customary cup of coffee. "Students, today you are gathered for Beacon's honorary initiation rights as hundreds have done before you. I would like to put some questions to rest at this moment: yes, you are getting your teams today."
Ruby whined at that but she continued. "Furthermore, your partner for the rest of the year will be the first person you make eye contact upon landing. And that brings me to my next point, your task will be to brave the Emerald Forest and retrieve some relics from within a temple at the center."
Landing? Jaune questioned in his mind, but he kept listening. "You will take these relics and return at a point transmitted to your scrolls so please remember to keep them about you. I wish you all good luck."
At that moment screams could be heard as, at the end of the row, a student was sprung from his pad and sent hurtling through the air at breakneck speeds. Oh you son of a bitch Ozpin he looked back at her half disgusted and half exasperated, she looked at him, smiled, and shrugged her shoulders then returned to sipping her coffee.
Soon enough he felt something under his pad click and he was sent on his way through the sky. Yep, that about sums this whole day up he looked down at the rapidly approaching ground and unsheathed Tesla Sting. He flicked it into its spear form and shifted himself so he was aimed at the treeline, I need to hook onto a tree and use the brush as a cushion. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy wholly, he slammed into the trees and branches and, while his aura soaked up a lot of damage, he could not see very well.
He shot Tesla Sting out hoping for it to catch something and it did, he carved a swatch down a very large tree's trunk making a splintering noise as he descended to the forest floor. Once more on solid ground this time he really did kiss it, he would have taken air sickness over terminal velocity any day. Now firmly on the ground he inspected his surroundings, trees, trees, and more trees he heard the rustling and crackling of leaves and twigs nearby and Grimm of course.
He sped off in the general direction -atleast he hoped- of the temple, if he was being chased by Grimm then he needed a more open area. As the surrounding thicket slowly gave way to a more grassy hillside he could hear the distinct pop! pop! pop! of gunfire somewhere to his east, he contemplated, briefly, just to keep running and let whoever that was deal with it on their own. Unfortunately, his good side won out and he made for the unknown gunman who was currently engaged in what was possibly a life-or-death fight, the gunshots got louder as he closed in.
Deftly jumping over a small knoll he slid down the side of it and came to a clearing mostly surrounded by tall grass. In the middle he saw what could not have been anything other than a King Taijitu currently in combat with his classmate.
"Rin!" he shouted, shifting Tesla Sting back into his railgun form before taking aim. King Taijitu were fast and had a second head, if he could get a single shot in that would cripple the beast, at least partially. "Keep it still!"
Rin nodded from the clearing and forced it back with an aura-enhanced punch. The beast swung its massive head around, hissing and the impudent creature that harmed it before turning towards a new sound. Tesla Sting's dust chamber whirred and cycled as the shot began to charge, the King Taijitu, noticing fully the presence of Jaune, began to make its way over to him but was intercepted by Rin.
Rin fired a volley of shots into the beast's hide causing it to flinch and hiss in anger, it diverted its attention back to Rin giving him full view of the creature's exposed neck and head. Sensing the shot was strong enough, Jaune pulled the trigger and a blinding beam of blue energy exploded forth from the gun, it screamed through the air as the Grimm, sensing the attack, tried to dodge but was too late. The shot hit its mark dead center and the beast's head caved in, the burning energy cauterizing the creature's brain into mush and exploding out the other side of its ruined head.
Jaune breathed a short sigh of relief, the other head would rear up any second. "Rin, get ready it ain't dead yet!"
"I know, it won't fall for the same trick twice!" she yelled back, that was true. King Taijitu, while being Grimm and thus mostly mindless, had the capacity to learn from attacks that killed its other half. Sure enough, the white head slithered into view, roaring and hissing over the corpse of its companion before shooting towards Jaune. He rolled out of the way and shifted his weapon into Tesla's sword form and dragging it along the passing scales. The Grimm screeched as Rin closed in on the other side, firing a barrage before slicing apart the other side with the bladed smgs she had.
It whirled back around and went in for a headbutt at Jaune, he was unable to escape in time and caught the blow full force. He felt the air push out of his lungs as he flew backwards into the brush.
"Jaune!" he heard Rin shout but he was out of reach, the creature roared in satisfaction before turning back to Rin. Jaune, who still had his sword gripped tightly, wheezed as he got up, he felt the head-splitting ache of something in his chest. The goddamned thing had cracked one of his ribs, but his aura would be able to repair it fully in due time. Jaune hobbled his way back towards the fighting before trying to speed up and ignore the pain in his abdomen, he came upon Rin and the King Taijitu locked in deadly combat. The creature hissed and charged straight at Rin, fangs sharpened and ready to split the girl in half, but, just as it closed it, Rin's aura flared and she deftly punched a fang out of the creature's mouth.
Jaune gaped as grabbed said fang, and with a spin, drove the fang home into the Grimm's eye before sending an aura pulse into it. There was a ripple through the creature's head before it popped showering gore and Grimm blood all over the area.
Jaune whistled as he walked out the brush. "Damn Rin you don't hold back?"
"No, then I would die." she stated simply, he snorted at her bluntness but he was ok with this partnership. "I see that we are partners then."
"Yes, Jaune Arc of course." he said, she nodded and introduced herself, formally, as Lie Rin.
"Well, before I got turned around I'm pretty sure the temple was that." he said pointing in the direction he was facing, she nodded and they walked through the brush. Their walk had been mostly peaceful, occasionally they'd slaughter some beowulves but for the most part they crept through the underbrush without saying a word. Jaune had gotten his training in stealth from Qrow -There's no problem you can't run away from Jaune!- but he was impressed by whatever Rin had done to garner such a knowledge of stealth tactics.
Pocketing the thought for later their walk was interrupted by the feeling of the earth quaking like a Goliath Alpha had seemingly sprung up from nowhere. He swiveled his head around trying to find the source, he began to panic as, in the distance, a horrid maniacal screeching seemed to echo out of the woods.
"We need to move! Now!" he shouted turning to his partner who he expected to see ready for action. Instead, she looked very tired like a mother being fed up with their rebellious teenage child. "Rin, what is this?!"
"It's-"
"Rinny!" the final explosion sounded in time with her shout as Nora Valkyrie descended from the heavens, another person in a headlock to keep her from flying away. "I finally found you!"
She landed gracefully with her partner still clasped in her arm in front of Rin. She dropped her unfortunate partner and skipped towards Rin with a bright, cheery smile plastered to her face. She put her in a bone-crushing hug and then transformed her cheery smile in an adorable pout. "You didn't make the signal Rinny!"
"Sorry Nora." Rin sighed, obviously not apologetic. "Anyways, is your partner ok?"
"But hey! Atleast you got Jauney!" she shouted, ignoring Rin's question and skipping over to Jaune. Oh god please no before he could react she put him in an even more bone-crushing hug than Rin's!
"Nora, you're crushing him."
"Oh yeah! I need to introduce you to my partner!" she cried, once again ignoring Rin, and holding up her broken partner... Dressed almost all in white and holding a rapier. Weiss shook her head and shoved Nora off of her.
"Rin please! I will do anything to trade partners!" she begged, then turned to who Rin's partner was.
"Oh fuck."
Oh fuck.
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After a very... tense... walk to the temple they arrived relatively unscathed and only slightly mentally harmed. Weiss and Jaune did not talk to eachother and filled the gap between them with their respective partners.
Man fuck today, this could not get any worse. he sighed, no use in complaining now. Who knows, maybe they wouldn't end up on a team together, but knowing Ozpin she would do for sick kicks. He tried not to imagine what Qrow would say about teaming up with a Schnee, he always half-doubted his words on them but this turned out to be another example of why he should never doubt Qrow's wisdom.
They halfheartedly followed Nora who picked up a rook piece and began to dance around singing "I'm Queen of the castle!". Ignore it, and maybe it will go away yeah, that was wishful thinking. He picked up a rook piece of his own and pocketed it as did Weiss and Rin, he wanted this day to be over just so he could head down to the Crow Bar and get smashed.
Suddenly, they could hear a familiar hissing, chittering sound from the woods, and at the same time, another, more avian sounding roar echoed in the skies to the East of them. Without warning, Yang and Ruby dashed forth from woods at breakneck speeds like their life depended on it, and it very well did if the massive Deathstalker behind them was anything to go by.
"Oh boy." he muttered, pulling out his weapon and stepping forward from the temple, his teammates did the same and soon they stood ready to intercept the creature. "Guys! Over here!"
Ruby nodded and sped towards them leaving Yang to catch up. "Ruby!" she shouted angrily before dodging a pincer attack from the massive creature behind her, Jaune mecha-shifted his sword into a railgun and fired a single shot into the Deathstalker's hide.
There was the sound of meat sizzling and the angry roar of the Deathstalker, but it did not seem to be entirely fazed by the attack. "Oh dear, this might be harder than I thought."
Yang returned to the fight and shot a volley of shells into the creature, and as if things couldn't get worse, as his team as well as Ruby and Yang laid into the Deathstalker's armor, a horrific caw sounded from nearby. He shifted his attention over to the other side of the clearing where Pyrrha and some Black-haired girl that he vaguely remembered seeing from before. And, of course, behind them was a massive Nevermore; silver lining though, he could easily kill that thing given a decent shot on it Pyrrha and her partner engaged the creature as they made their way towards the rest of them.
"We need a better position!" shouted Weiss, who was currently launching icicles into the creature's carapace to little effect. "There's a larger structure to the north of here we need to move!"
As much as he hated to say it she was right, this was not a good defendable position. "Nora! Rin! Cover our retreat from the deathstalker! Yang, you cover us from the Nevermore! Everyone else move it!"
He fired a shot at the Nevermore that barely grazed it, it wasn't all that wounded but it certainly had its attention on Jaune. Nora and Rin engaged the deathstalker, he was hoping a tank like Nora could tough it out while Rin was too graceful to be caught. Still, he wasn't one to waste time so he ordered a full retreat to their little group of hunters-in-training.
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Jaune dashed across the bridge, both of his brand-new friends hissing and cawing as they chased after his team and comrades. They had made it to the structure, just barely, and now he needed a plan. He saw the stone spire and large bridge connecting the structure to the land and he got an idea-
"Weiss, Rin, Nora, with me! We're taking on the Nevermore from the tower!" he turned to see Pyrrha and her team on the bridge. "You guys fight the deathstalker! Use its weight to your advantage!"
That tactic was an old favorite of Qrow's, she gained some amusement on tormenting the creatures so she would lure massive deathstalker's into places that their weight would collapse or otherwise incapacitate them. He never found it entertaining as much because he was usually the bait to reel them in.
He, alongside his team, clambered up the spire to get a better vantage point. Their feathered friend followed them up, shooting its spiky feathers into the structure and nearing goring Weiss and Rin multiple times. They got near the top and Jaune turned to Nora-
"Blast a hole and give us some cover!" he said, she saluted and broke a whole in the wall giving her an unobstructed view of their adversary. He turned to Rin and saw her already alongside Nora, good, she'll cover her while she reloads.
Weiss and Jaune exited the spire at its peak and were caught in the open wind. "Weiss, I need to charge for a moment you'll have to buy time with whatever you can do."
"Hmmph, you're lucky this is essential to my survival." she turned away mumbling something about taking orders from Jaune to which he rolled his eyes. Schnees, just like how Qrow said.
She opened up a few glyphs as Jaune turned Tesla Sting into a railgun. He needed this shot to have an extra punch so he turned on the dust reactor's secondary mode, he focused and lit his aura around him. From almost nowhere clouds appeared in a radius around the tower, despite the size of it thunder roared overhead as Jaune grit his teeth in concentration. Sweat dripped down his face as he tried to power his aura into something useful, he could feel it building overhead, so close yet maybe not coming in enough time.
"Dammit all!" he shouted, he tried to think of things that brought up memories. Images flashed in his head almost without warning, for he had opened the floodgate.
-His mother's disapproving glare when she caught him playing outside instead of reading on Atlas's "rich history"-
-The god awful dinners between his mother and father and his in-laws, the Goldmines-
-The night of the party, where he discovered his power and being swept away by the Atlas military-
-Gritting out those lies Ironwood printed on the cards-
-Punching Nicholas square in the jaw-
He roared mightily as the clouds overhead finally gave way as a spear of lightning crashed into the tower. It struck Jaune dead center and his aura began to work overtime in sucking it all up like a sponge. He didn't hear Weiss's scream of surprise nor did he see her go careening of the side of the tower, she was saved only by her glyphs as she created pads to land on before jumping inside with Nora.
Jaune was deaf to all this as he channeled the garnered energy straight into his gun's reactor, the entire device glowed an eerie blue and loud sounds of gears whirring as well as more electrical sparking could be heard. He hefted Tesla Sting into his arms and aimed at the gargantuan demon, it circled overhead, apparently too scared to get within range of the lightning, but he needed for it to stop moving.
As if reading his thoughts Nora fired another volley of grenades which exploded around the creature. It gave an indignant screech and stopped to chuck its own volley of feathers into the gap. Now! he shouted mentally as he hefted his gun into the line of the Nevermore.
He squeezed the trigger and time seemed to slow, the blast barreled out of the gun in a long beam of blue light. It tore through the air incinerating any debris or small insect foolish enough to get in its way, the Nevermore had not time to react and the blast hit its wings at an angle and passed through to carve a swath through its chest. The creature screeched like nothing he had ever heard before and lifelessly fell into the cavernous pit below. As he watched it fall to its death he spared a look over at Pyrrha's team, they had collapsed the bridge and used its weight to send it squealing into the darkness alongside its dying friend.
He got down along with his team, too tired to do much than lifelessly walk like a doll with them. He didn't notice the glares Weiss gave them or the glances Rin made between the two or the worried comments Pyrrha and her team made. He was honestly ready for the bullhead ride home...
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"Cressida Winchester, Russet Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, you will henceforth be known as Team CRDL (cardinal) led by Cressida Winchester!" Headmistress Ozpin announced causing the rest of the auditorium to cheer and clap.
Jaune, Weiss, Nora, and Rin took the stage with the second of them positively beaming at the opportunity to become team leader. Ozpin looked all of them over before smiling and announcing their team.
"Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Rin, you have retrieved the black rook pieces and shall henceforth me known as Team ARSN (Arson) led by Jaune Arc!" Jaune soaked in that information bit by bit, if he took it in all at once he would either faint or cause a blackout. Weiss looked like she was going to do much of the same as she swiveled her head, unbelieving, between Ozpin and Jaune. Nora and Rin took it all in stride as the auditorium clapped once more as they left the stage.
"Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Yang Xiao-Long, and Blake Belladonna, you retrieved the white knight pieces and shall henceforth be known as Team RYBN (Ribbon) led by Ruby Rose!" Yang and Pyrrha congratulated Ruby while Blake looked indifferent. They returned to their seats as Goodwitch informed them all of their dorm rooms (Team ARSN was room 775 while Team RYBN was 776).
They returned to their dorms and, while RYBN went about getting to bed, Jaune began to unpack his things. The air grew uncomfortably quiet, yeah, that's how I thought it was going to go.
"Look, I know this is bad. I am in no way competent enough to be a team leader, it should have been Weiss." Jaune, even though he did not like Weiss, could tell this whole team's dynamic has been thrown off. "I'm not sure if I can make this work, but I suppose we have no other choice."
Weiss didn't say anything but just unpacked, not looking at him at all as Rin silently nodded.
"Oh don't worry fearless leader! I'm sure you'll do just great!" Jaune snorted to himself but there was no humor in it, yeah, sure kid whatever you say he set his alarm clock for 7:45 AM and fell into his bed, uniform ready for tomorrow...
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Hey guys I hoped you enjoyed the chapter! Maybe you weren't expecting these teams huh? Well suffice to say there is a deeper meaning to all this other than a cheeky name, and you've seen a little bit of it at the end. I'll get to writing the next chapter of this soon and I hope you won't mind waiting for a bit. Thanks for the support guys!
XOXOXO
CoffeyJoe