Remnant
'It's far too early in the morning for this. Why couldn't my group have gone at noon instead of the asscrack of dawn?' Jaune thought rather miserably while he massaged his arms, subtle applying Force healing to the aching muscles.
Turns out that when your cells ripping themselves apart, it can have adverse effects on the body. Such as a constant ache in all of his muscles, his body worked in overtime to try and repair the mass damage. But hey, at least his headache was gone.
Which was nice, since he had to concentrate on the instructions that Ozpin and Goodwitch where giving currently.
"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," Ozpin said, twirling his cane.
Goodwitch nodded her head, "In addition, you will be receiving your teammates and parents, which I'm sure many of you already heard rumors about."
"Yes, these teams will be with you for your entire career at Beacon Academy, so I would advise teaming up with those who you work well with." Ozpin continued, a slight smirk appeared on his face, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years."
Jaune frowned at the tidbit of info. While it may have been an easy and convenient way to form partners and teams, he felt the method left a bit to be desired. What if the teammates didn't get along? It was hard enough to get fully grown adults to be civil with each other if they had differences. But four students who had just became adults probably only a few months earlier being mature enough to hash out potential problems?
There were better chances of a stormtrooper actually hitting a target.
Though if there was one thing he got out of the speech, it would have to be his amusement at his new friend freaking out at the fact they'd be getting their teammates today. He could literally feel her despair through the Force. Which did confuse him a bit. Yeah, when they met yesterday it had been a bit awkward at first, but they had quickly turned into a comfortable conversation, especially once he had shown her his lightsabers. Nothing that would have indicated that she was this scared meeting new people.
'Maybe she's just overacting.' He thought with a shrug.
"After you land, make your way to the northern part of the forest, there you will find an abandoned temple with relics inside. Each set of partners will grab a relic and make their way back to the academy. You will be graded on this and your performance during the trial as we will be monitoring you, but that doesn't mean we will interfere if you get into any danger. So some words to the wise, destroy everything in your path." Ozpin finished while sipping from his mug, "Any questions?"
"If I slay a couple of high-class Grimm will you tell me what you put in that mug?" Jaune asked, curious what type of drink the headmaster found so addicting that he seemingly always had it on his person.
The question earned him some weird looks from his future classmates, Ozpin on the other hand just seemed amused.
"I don't see why not Mr. Arc, but I have one stipulation."
"And that is?"
A smirk crept up on Ozpin's face, "You have to do it with some flare. Now get ready everyone."
The students all readied their weapons and braced themselves to be launched into the air.
One by one the pads sent them into the air until it only Jaune left.
"Some flare huh? Hmmm, I can manage that." He said before he was launched into the air, joining the others.
As they watched the students fly off into the distance, Goodwitch looked up from her scroll at Ozpin.
"So that's the other sudden addition besides Miss. Rose that you were talking about?" She asked, "From the way you talked about him and his master, I thought he would look… more impressive from what you said about him."
"Looks can be deceiving Glynda. You should always remember that."
Emerald Forest
Flying through the air Jaune began to contemplate his landing strategy, noticing that he was beginning starting to lose altitude.
On one hand, he could slide down a tree while using his sabers to slow his momentum. But at the same time, he would prefer to not take the chance of snapping his wrists from the pressure it would cause, even with applying Force enhancements.
So instead he charged up a Force blast into his fists while he began his descent, making sure it would be strong enough to soften his landing.
Seeing that the ground was getting far to close for his liking, he unleashed the blast downwards, canceling a good chunk of his momentum. Unfortunately, he still crashed into the ground as it hadn't gotten rid of all his speed, but instead of becoming a red smear of paste, Jaune simply cracked the ground, feet sinking down a few inches, and his knees buckling a bit from the impact.
Jaune grunted a little, pain shooting through his legs and immediately called upon the Force, applying it to his legs. Immediately a cool relief spread through them and they healed.
"Probably should've put more power into that blast," Jaune muttered standing back up.
Looking around he noticed that he was in the middle of a small clearing with no defining features than the patch of cracked earth he had caused.
"Now where the hell is North?"
*ROAR*
*Bang Bang*
His head snapped to the right as the sound of combat reached his ears. Seems one of his fellow initiates had stumbled onto some Grimm already.
Deciding the temple could wait a minute, Jaune took off towards where he had heard the commotion coming from.
. . .
Yang Xiao Long wasn't a particularly happy woman right now.
"You bastards!" She snarled, her once lilac eyes burned red and a fiery Aura engulfed her form.
What could've happened to make her so angry you may ask? Well, it's quite an easy answer. You see, the two Ursas she was currently facing had committed a great sin.
They had cut a strand of her precious hair off.
As someone who took great pride in the look and upkeep of her luscious blonde hair, this was simply unacceptable.
With a roar that rivaled a dragon, the blonde brawler launched herself at the nearest Ursa. Proceeding to pummel it with bone shattering punches with the occasional shotgun blast from her gauntlets.
With a final jab, she sent the monstrous bear flying into the forest, smashing multiple trees to pieces in the process.
Turning on the other monster her flames grew even brighter.
"You want a piece of this too?!"
The Ursa stood on its hind legs and roared at the challenge, only to than grunt as a sizzling sound came from its chest.
Yang blinked in surprise at seeing a golden beam of light pierce the Ursas chest, right before it cut upwards and nearly split the beast in half.
The Grimm fell forwards and landed on the ground with a *thud*, revealing a young man with similar colored hair to her own and a sword made of light in his right hand.
Yang's semblance tempered off and she observed the newcomer, blue eyes met lilac while he did the same.
"I could have taken him."
"I'm sure you could've, but I felt like I should probably step in and give a helping hand. Afterall, what are partners for?"
Yang felt a small smile form on her face. It might not have been her sister, but at least her partner had a kickass laser sword, and he was even a blonde.
"The names Jaune Arc by the way."
"I'm Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you, partner."
Minstral
'This place almost reminds me of a miniature Coruscant.' Luke thought while he made his way through Mistral, deciding to take in the city as he made his way to Ozpin's contact.
While he had been here before a few times, he never stayed for very long. He simply got his hands on the material he needed and then departed. But now that he was actively paying attention, he could see the eerie similarities between the city and the galaxy's capital.
The rich and middle class seemed to inhabit the higher areas of the main city and mountain while the poor were forced into the sprawling projects in the lower areas, were many knew one could disappear easily. Especially those of criminal nature.
It was truly like a proto Coruscant.
Making it into the commercial distract Luke began to scan the storefronts for the place he was supposed to find. Thankfully it wasn't hard to locate.
A sign with a picture of bundled TNT and a smiley face hung on a building with the words:
"Nice Dynamite's Emporium: Home to Every Gun and Gub in Remnant!"
Walking through the door the Jedi Master stepped into what must've been every soldier's and Huntsman's wet dream.
Every inch of the wall where filled to the brim with firearms and melee weapons, shelves held explosives a body armor, even the display cases were filled to the brim with various Dust.
Luke gave a small whistle. This place probably had more weapons than the entirety of the Rebellion did in its early form.
But enough about that.
Walking up to the main counter he found a young man with light brown hair in attendance who's attention was glued to his scroll while he leaned on the counter.
"Excuse me but do you have a moment?" Luke asked.
The young man looked up, "Course I do chap. Names Gavin, can I help you with anything today?" He said with an accent Luke couldn't quite place.
"Nothing really, just wondering if you have any good coffee blends in stock?"
Gavin's blinked his eyes at the question before they narrowed with a frown, his posture straightening, "That depends mate, how do you take it?"
Luke shrugged and said, "Usually with a bit of Atlesian whiskey, sugar, and some cream on top."
The young man nodded at the answer, "So your Ozpin's man. Good. That means this is yours." He said as he took a small chip out of his pocket and handed it to Luke. "That chip contains all the info you'll need to know about what you'll be doing out in the wildlands once you plug it into a scroll, it'll even give it some software changes. That way you'll have access to Huntsman networks regular civies are supposed to use."
Luke plugged the chip into his scroll, putting it back into his cloak while it started to reconfigure, "Any reason why Ozpin just didn't give me this back in Vale?"
"Couldn't tell you. Ozpin can be weird in how he does things sometimes." Gavin said with a shake of his head, "Anyways, feel free to take anything you need from the store, the wildlands can be dangerous. Good luck out there mate."
Luke nodded and began to make his way out of the store, though a loud commotion from back in what was probably the storage area of the store made him pause.
"Moonball!"
*Smash*
"Ow, motherfucker!"
Emerald Forest
"Hmmm, how about the white queen?" Yang said while picking up the large chest piece.
"Don't see why not," Jaune replied, scanning the area around them to make sure no Grimm came from behind since his partner was getting the artifact.
Pocketing the queen piece Yang started to ask Jaune if he knew the way back to Beacon when a high pitched noise reached her ears.
"Hey Jaune, do you hear that?"
The knight blinked in confusion, "Hear what?"
It was then the sound of screaming reached his ears and he looked upwards, not expecting to see his newest brunette friend barreling down towards them.
Deciding he didn't want his first friend at Beacon to become one with the ground Jaune hurriedly extended his arm and caught her with the Force, fortunately slowing her down until she came to a stop a foot or two above the ground.
"Wha- oh, hey Jaune!" Ruby said seeing the blonde knight.
"Hey, Ruby." Jaune greeted, "Not that I care, but do you mind telling me why you were falling from the sky?"
"Would you believe if I told you that I was riding a giant nevermore?"
"Really? That's pretty awesome." Jaune said before looking around, "Don't you have a partner yet?"
"Of course I do! It's just that Weiss didn't jump when I said jump. Would you mind catching her too when she falls and you know, maybe let me down as well?"
Realizing he was still levitating her above the ground, Jaune cut the connection and put Ruby down on her feet.
Just when he was about to say something else to Ruby a growl came from the forests in front of them, causing the three initiates to get into a combat stance. They were met with the site of an Ursa crash through the treeline, only to fall flat on its stomach. The other side revealed an orange haired girl and a green ninja.
"The kriff…"
Then all hell essentially broke loose.
Within seconds of the two riding in on the Ursa, two girls burst through the woodwork. One seemed to have a monochrome look going on while the other seemed partial to red and gold, they also had a giant deathstalker hot on their trail.
*SCREECH*
"Ahhhhhhh! I can't believe you abandoned me!"
Once again looking up Jaune saw a huge Nevermore flying overhead while a white-haired girl was holding on for dear life, and failing.
"I think she's about to fall." Yang pointed out.
"Nah, she's fine." Ruby tried to play off.
"She's falling now." Yang deadpanned.
Ruby turned to Jaune, "Could you do what we talked about earlier? I really don't want her to be even madder at me if she hits the ground."
Sighing, Jaune nodded and grabbed the white-haired girl with the Force as she fell. Slowing her down and gently sitting her on the ground.
Weiss looked in confusion for what had seemingly slowed her down while she was falling, which lead her to Jaune. She muttered a "thanks" before turning a glare onto her partner.
The other two set of partners had already made their way towards the group and joined them at the ruins, which let Jaune get a better look at them.
The orange haired girl had a giant hammer with a grenade launcher attachment and green ninja had two pistols with sickle blades on them.
Meanwhile monochrome had a sword that probably transformed into a gun and her partner had a short sword/ shield combo.
"Well great, it seems that everyone is here. Now we can all die together." Yang snorted.
"Your just an optimist aren't you sunshine?" Jaune jokes.
"Sure am Sci-fi." She fired back.
"Why is that my nickname?"
"Because both your weapons are straight out of science fiction."
"That's understandable."
"Not to ruin your guy's banter, but we have two high-class Grimm currently staring us down," Monochrome said to them.
"You have a point… I'm sorry I don't believe we've met before." Jaune faltered as he spoke to her.
The girl sighed, "I'm Blake."
"I'm Pyrrha." Her redheaded partner introduced herself.
"Nora!" The orange haired girl introduced, "And this is Ren!"
"Hello." Ren simply offered.
"So now that we're all introduced are we going to kill these things or what?" Blake asked.
"Why fight them at all? Our objective was to grab the chess pieces and return to Beacon." Weiss argued.
Jaune observed the two Grimm. A Deathstalker and a giant Nevermore, two higher class of Grimm that might be difficult for them to take down.
"Because there are over a hundred candidates that still need to go and Ozpin mentioned that we would be graded on our performance. What better way to be evaluated than slaying some high-class Grimm?"
Plus Jaune still had to complete the challenge that Ozpin had given him. He'd was going to find out what was in that mug damnit.
"He has a point." Ren pointed out.
Receiving nods and a huff of exasperation from Weiss, everyone readied their weapons.
Unclipping one of his newest saber from its holster, Jaune ignited the gold saber and took a Form V stance. Which drew some looks from the people who hadn't seen his lightsaber yet.
"Is that a laser sword!" Nora broke composure at seeing the gold beam.
"Close but not quite. It's plasma actually."
"That's awesome!"
Yang interrupted their conversation and cocked her gauntlets, loading her fire dust rounds into their chambers, "So what's the plan Jaune."
"Why are you asking me for?"Jaune looked at his partner in confusion.
"Because your the one who argued that we should stay and fight."
"Touche." Jaune conceded and cobbled a sloppy plan together from what little he knew about the two Grimm in front of them and his allies weapons, "Alright Yang, Ren, Pyrrha, Weiss, Blake, you guys all hit that Deathstalker at once. Try to aim for the joints in between the armor to incapacitate it and then stab or shoot it through the eyes to end it. Pyrrha I'd suggest you try and distract that stinger since your the only one with a shield."
"Right." Pyrrha nodded and took off towards the giant scorpion, the other four not far behind as they enhanced their speed with Aura.
"What about us," Nora said gesturing to her and Ruby.
The Jedi knight smiled, "Well that depends on two things really." He said before looking at Ruby, "One, can Crescent Rose pierce the Nevermores bone armor on its head, and two, do you think your Aura can take a hit from a giant hammer."
"Uh yes and… yes?"
"Good and remember to aim for the head.." Jaune smiled and looked back at Nora who, judging the twinkle in her eyes, knew where he was going with this, "Nora, knock her where the Nevermore is going to fall."
With his final instruction given Jaune looked up and spotted the flying Grimm. Having it in his site he reached out and concentrated, picturing the Nevermore locking up and freezing while mid-flight. A rush of energy moved through him and the Nevermore began to move sluggishly, right before freezing up completely and began a nose dive towards the ground.
"Nora now!"
"Yes, sir." Nora saluted and turned her grenade launcher into a giant hammer, then proceeding to smack the young reaper in the back with it with surprising force.
Tumbling through the air Ruby managed to right herself as she came close to the falling Nevermore and brought her scythe around, burying it into it's head.
Releasing his hold on the Grimm Jaune instead focused a Force pull on Ruby, yanking the brunette back with all the straight he could manage.
Feeling that something pulling her backward, Ruby tightened her grip on Crescent Rose, which was still buried inside the skull of the Nevermore.
*Crack*
The final result was utterly brutal, the flying Grimm's head being completely torn out, killing it instantly.
Turning to see if the other five needed help, Jaune instead received the site of Weiss freezing the reaming legs of the Deathstalker that Yang, Ren, and Blake hadn't cut off yet. Effectively causing it to collapse. Pyrrha meanwhile backflipped from where she had been holding the stingier at bay and transformed her short sword into a spear, throwing it with pinpoint accuracy into the beast's eyes, killing it.
"Now that's what I call teamwork!" Nora cheered from beside him.
Jaune couldn't but chuckle in agreement.
Beacon
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie. Because you four retrieved the white knight pieces, from this day forward you will be known as team Roadrunner. Led by Ruby Rose!" Ozpin announced while the room erupted in applause.
"What!?"
'Ohh, that's not going to be pretty.' Jaune thought. He didn't need to Force to tell that the Weiss girl was not at all happy about his friend being promoted to team leader over her.
"Yah! At a girl little sis!" Yang yelled next to him, happy about her sister ay attaining such a high honor.
Which the fact that they were sister caught him by surprise a bit, seeing as they looked nothing like each other. No shared traits whatsoever.
Strange, even some of his own sisters who were only half-siblings with him at least shared traits from their father.
"Next up, would Jaune Arc, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, and Pyrrha Nikos come to the stage."
The four junior huntsman walked up onto the stage and stood next to each other before the headmaster.
"Because you four picked the white queen, from this day on you will be known as team Jaybird. Lead by Jaune Arc!" The headmaster announced.
Taken a bit by surprise Jaune nodded his head. He wasn't planning on being the leader, but hey, he could dig it. Though he felt that the name Jaybird was a bit of a stretch for the initials J.Y.B.P.
Walking off the stage with his new team he felt a slap on his back and turned to find his Yang offering a fist bump.
"Hope you lead us well, fearless leader."
Jaune smirked and returned the fist pump, "I'll try. But my first act as leader is to declare that I get the bed nearest to the bathroom."
Yang snorted, "In your dreams Sci-fi. You have three girls on your team, we will fight you for that bed."
Jaune paused as he registered her words.
'I'm sharing a room all by myself with three girls, all of whom are extensively trained with lethal weapons… kriff.'
.