Okay, everyone, I had noticed that over the last few chapters of the story, there has been almost no Team JNPR usage, so here's a few chapters focusing on them.
Team JNPR sat down with RWBY, Sun and Neptune at the usual lunch table, discussing their next step.
"Okay, so now that we know that they have their hands on Fusion Dust, what are we going to do next?" Jaune asked.
"I honestly don't know." Ruby said, "We kind of hit a dead end."
Moments later, Glynda Goodwich came over to the group.
"Team JNPR, may I speak with you for a moment?" Glynda asked.
"Uh...okay." Jaune replied, "See you guys later.
"Please come with me." Glynda said.
Team JNPR followed Glynda out of the cafeteria.
"Professor Goodwich, what's this about?" Ren asked.
"We were looking over your performance in your classes and noticed that you all missed an assignment." Glynda said.
"Which one?" Pyrrha asked.
"The one where we went to the Forest of Forever Fall to collect red tree sap." Glynda said, "Everyone came back with a jarful, except for all of you."
"Wait, how?" Jaune asked, "We all collected some before..."
Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren turned towards Nora.
"What? Why is everyone staring at me?" Nora asked.
"Nora, did you eat our school project on the way back?" Ren asked.
"No!" Nora said, "Maybe...just a little...?"
"Oh boy." Jaune said.
"Well, in order to earn the credits for that class, you're going to have to collect the red tree sap again." Glynda said, "There's a bullhead waiting outside for you all."
"Come on, Jaune, let's go." Pyrrha said.
Team JNPR headed out for the Bullhead.
Some time later, at the Forest of Forever Fall, Team JNPR's VTOL had landed at the designated area.
"Okay, guys, let's get some sap." Jaune said, "And Nora?"
"Yes?" Nora asked.
"Try not to eat our homework assignment again." Jaune said.
"Hey, I was hungry!" Nora said, following her teammates into the forest.
Meanwhile, deeper into the woods, Savannah's accomplice was searching the forest.
"Keep looking, some of it should be around here somewhere." the man said.
"But, sir, how do you know if there's any of that Fusion Dust, or whatever it is, here?" a White Fang soldier asked.
"Call it...intuition." the man said, holding up the vial of Fusion Dust he had found earlier.
Team JNPR was getting the sap from some of the trees, unaware of the White Fang's presence.
"Mmm..." Nora said, looking longingly at the sap.
"Don't even think about it." Ren said, holding his sap away from Nora.
"And that should do it." Jaune said, holding his jar up, "Now let's get back to Beacon and get those credits."
Suddenly, faint voices could be heard.
"Do you guys hear that?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah." Jaune said, "It could be a Grimm."
Team JNPR readied for an attack, but saw a pair of White Fang soldiers walking through the woods in the distance.
"The White Fang." Ren said.
"What are they doing here?" Nora asked.
"I don't know, we should call RWBY for back-up." Jaune said.
"Jaune, we don't have time, we need to find out what they're doing here." Pyrrha said.
"Pyrrha's right, we can't wait for reinforcements." Ren said.
"I guess you're right." Jaune said, "Let's go."
Team JNPR began to tail the White Fang goons, keeping a safe distance.
The two soldiers had arrived at what appeared to be a base camp, seeing as how there were large tents everywhere.
"It looks like they've been holed up here for a while." Ren said.
"Jaune, look over there." Pyrrha said, pointing to Savannah's accomplice.
"What's he holding?" Nora asked.
Jaune took a closer look.
"Fusion Dust." Jaune said, "It's him."
"How did the White Fang find more Fusion Dust?" Nora asked.
"I don't know, any ideas Ren?" Jaune asked.
"I'm just as lost as you are." Ren said.
"What do we do?" Pyrrha asked.
"Well, we did find their camp." Jaune said, "I'm contacting Team RWBY."
Jaune pulled his Scroll out and made a call to Ruby, but she didn't respond.
"She must be busy." Jaune said, "I'll leave a message."
Jaune put the phone up and started his recording.
"Guys, we found a White Fang outpost here in Forever Fall Forest, they have the Fusion Dust, please hurry." Jaune said.
"Quick, hide." Pyrrha whispered as she pushed Jaune to the ground in order to avoid the gaze of a guard.
Jaune was lying down on his back, with Pyrrha laying on top of him, her face inches from his.
"Sorry." Pyrrha said, slightly blushing as she got off of Jaune, embarrassed at the accidental intimacy.
"Thanks for helping me." Jaune replied, ending the message on his Scroll.
"I heard something." a White Fang soldier said from the other side of the foliage that was hiding JNPR.
"Yeah, search the area." another one said.
"Jaune, it's now or never." Pyrrha replied.
One of the White Fang soldiers was searching near some of the trees, right before a huge pink explosion blew him back into the camp.
"Hey! What was that?!" a soldier asked.
Nora came running out of the bushes with Ren behind her, shooting everything they had into the camp.
"Intruders!" the soldier said, "Don't let them escape!"
As the soldiers focused their fire on Nora and Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune came out from behind, sneak attacking the White Fang warriors.
"Behind us!" a guard said right before getting hit to the side by Crocea Mors.
Meanwhile, in the biggest tent, the man with the Dust was thinking.
"Sir, we've got trouble!" a soldier said, running into the tent.
"What kind?" the man asked.
"We think that they're Beacon students!" the soldier said, "They're making short work of our forces!"
"Do I have to everything?" the man asked, "Move aside."
The man pushed the White Fang soldier to the side and walked out of the tent, holding a long and thick staff in his hands.
Nora stood on top of the last of the White Fang goons.
"That wasn't so hard." Nora said.
Jaune noticed the man coming out of the tent.
"We're not done yet." Jaune said, "There's still one left!"
"Piece of cake!" Nora yelled, launching at the man.
The man swung his staff, with the huge axe blades coming out as he did, and hit Nora with the flat side, sending her flying.
"Nora!" Ren said, running to help his friend.
"He beat Nora in one hit!" Jaune said.
"What do we do?" Pyrrha asked.
"Uh...hit him from both sides, he can't protect his whole body!" Jaune said.
As Jaune and Pyrrha were keeping the man at bay, Ren ran to Nora's side.
"Are you alright?" Ren asked.
"I've been through worse." Nora replied.
Ren smiled before looking at his teammates that were in combat with the mysterious man.
"Ren, we need a plan." Nora said, getting up.
Ren looked around the immediate area and found a large case. Ren ran over and opened it.
"I think we might have just found our edge." Ren said.
The man swung his axe, hitting Jaune's shield and sending him flying into one of the tents.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled, right before jumping back from the man's attack.
"Hey, ugly!" an unfamiliar voice cried out.
The man turned around, only to see a large hammer, with blades on the edges, hit him into a tree.
"What?" Pyrrha asked.
Pyrrha looked at where the man was launched from and saw a girl who had the average height between Ren and Nora, her hair was orange, most of it on the back was pretty wild and some of it was in a spiky ponytail that hung from the bottom of the hair and went blacker the lower it went. The girl's left eye was pink while her right was blue, her face wasn't as rounded as Nora's but not as sharp as Ren's. Her outfit consisted of a long sleeved top that looked relatively simple, it was green, pink, white and black with a small heart shape cut in it, a band of black color surrounded the stomach area. She had a white skirt with a black inside along with tall black shoes with pink soles. And, finally, there was a big, yellow bow on the back of the skirt.
Her weapon looked like a green, pink and black version of Magnhild, with four small blades on the edge of the hammer's end pointing to the sides.
"Ren? Nora?" Pyrrha asked.
"The name's Flowerpower, but yeah, we're in here." the female Fusion known as "Flowerpower" replied.
"Odd, our Fusion is female, but I don't feel the slightest bit different." Ren said.
"I guess something affects the Fusion's physical gender, but not the ones who do the Fusion." Nora said, sounding scientific.
"I guess that makes sense." Ren replied.
The man got back up and observed the Fusion.
"I knew I should have put that stuff somewhere safer." the man said.
"We're just glad you didn't." Flowerpower said, "Pyrrha, take care of Jaune, we've got this."
Flowerpower rushed at the man, giving Pyrrha time to run to Jaune's aid. Flowerpower swung her hammer at the man, who blocked it with the flat side of his axe. The proceeded to spin around and kick Flowerpower. Flowerpower recovered from the attack pretty quickly and spun around herself, hitting the man with the hammer again. The man rolled on the ground before stopping in front of a tree.
"You know what, you're very problematic." the man said.
"Aw, I'm flattered." Flowerpower replied.
"Nora, was that necessary?" Ren asked.
Nora didn't get a chance to reply before the man came running at them. Expecting more close-range combat, Flowerpower pressed a button on Stormhild and the weapon began to transform. The hammer split in two, the barrel compacted a bit and the handles shortened. After a moment, each half had become a double-bladed, large barreled handheld gun.
The man swung his axe down, but Flowerpower jumped back and fired the guns, firing bullets that were bigger and more effective than Stormflower could shoot. The man put his axe up to block the bullets as Flowerpower jumped from tree to tree, harnessing Nora's strength and Ren's athleticism.
"Now!" Nora and Ren said.
Flowerpower leapt at the man, merging the weapons back together and swinging the reformed hammer upwards. But they were in for a surprise when the man jumped over them. The man swung his axe, hitting Stormhild and sending Flowerpower flying into a large boulder.
"Oh..." Flowerpower moaned.
The man got on his feet and pressed a button on his axe, compacting the axe blades and causing them to unfold upwards. The handle also shortened. His weapon was now a double-edged longsword.
Back with Pyrrha, Jaune was starting to get back up.
"My head." Jaune groaned.
"Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked.
"I'll live." Jaune said.
Pyrrha was relieved, but that relief quickly turned to panic when she saw the man approaching Flowerpower.
"Jaune, we have to help them!" Pyrrha said.
"But what can we do?" Jaune asked, "He made short work of...who's that?"
"Ren and Nora fused," Pyrrha said, "they called themselves 'Flowerpower'."
"And the Fusion is a female." Jaune said.
"Can we get back to the task at hand?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune looked around for something to use and saw the crate of Fusion Dust Ren had found earlier.
"Pyrrha, look." Jaune said, "It looks like they've been stockpiling this stuff."
"And now, it's going to help us." Pyrrha said, grabbing a vial.
"Uh...are you sure there isn't another way?" Jaune asked nervously.
"Jaune, our teammates' lives are on the line." Pyrrha said.
Jaune conceded, knowing that Pyrrha was right.
"Let's do it." Jaune said.
The man was now a few feet from Flowerpower.
"I'll say this much, it wasn't nice knowing you." the man said, lifting Flowerpower up by her head.
Suddenly, a bright flash of light came from behind the man, gaining his attention.
"What now?" the man asked.
The light faded, allowing Flowerpower to see what happened.
"You're in trouble now." Flowerpower said.
Well, here's another cliffhanger ending. This chapter had the first male/female Fusion, which was a tricky, but unavoidable, concept to figure out. But I hope I handled it properly. But I can tell you this, this next chapter is going to be great. This was the longest chapter so far, containing 2165 words (including the author's notes).
BTW, there is a poll up on my profile page, please cast votes there for one of my future stories.
Powerhouse out.