"Wait!" Amber's preparation for her landing were halted for a moment as her 'partner' quickly and firmly re-attached herself to Amber with a grip that Amber knew would be almost unbreakable.
"You aren't going to let me die are you Amber-chan? I promise to be good and to make you lots of those orange flapjacks you like!" The promise of the delectable treats stopped Amber from removing her new limpet physically, but even as she swung her weapon round her head to complete her plan Amber spared a moment to cast a baleful glance at the younger Faunus.
"When we get down you will explain where you disappeared to, and if I don't like it..." As she finished her vague threat the ball of her two handed flail embedded itself into the nearest tree they were passing, the chain elongating slightly before turning their flight into a swing, Amber grunting at the strain the motion put on her good arm before pressing a button on the side of the flail's shaft.
The chain began to reel outwards as her feet touched the trunk of the tree, allowing her to 'run' around the tree and down towards the ground, touching down after two revolutions of the trunk and allowing a grateful Faunus to dismount from her back, though the gasping for air and kissing the ground was probably a little overkill even for her.
"Sweet, sweet ground. How I have missed you! Sorry Amber-chan, what was it you were saying?" The fox knew exactly what she had been saying, but it was the girl's way, always trying to push people's buttons and make herself memorable in anyway she could.
"As I said, if I don't like your answer of where you disappeared too..." Able to finish her threat fully now they were land bound, Amber grasped the haft of her extended flail and pulled, her mechanical arm whining for a moment as it's internal motors struggled before with a series of deafening cracks the tree imploded in a spray of splinters and logs alike.
"I think you get the idea..." Huh, the threat of violence seemed to break through the playful facade that the fox faunus liked to use as a shield against everyone, the girl waving her hands frantically to try and ward Amber's anger away.
"I'm sorry Amber-chan, it's just... Have you ever considered how mad your household is? 10 people in a house that even in the badlands should probably only fit 5 or 6, it was like getting thrown in a tiger's den with all the activity and talking and shouting and..." For probably the first time Amber realised that perhaps she hadn't considered everything when the girl had up and disappeared about 3 weeks after she arrived, and that also probably explained why Jaune had been completely unconcerned about her disappearance and had merely promised the family that she needed some time.
"Fear of heights and a fear of confined spaces? Wow, you really like to keep yourself interesting Tangerine..." The girl winced but surprisingly didn't fly into her usual apocalyptic rage that came with someone using her full name, shifting a little uncertainly back and forth before she spoke again.
"Can you call me Rine please Amber-chan? And I am sorry for running off, but after living most of my life in the wilderness... I just needed time to adjust and as lovely as your family is they don't really understand the meaning of the words 'personal space' and 'alone time'." Amber chuckled, that much was certainly true, given that there were only 4 bedrooms in their house every Arc was long used to the idea of sharing a room with at least one of their siblings, and activities in the bathroom were often done at the same time as long as they didn't directly interfere with each other.
As her flail continued it's slow recoiling into her haft, she smiled and raised her free hand to gesture the girl into a hug, which the girl happily accepted with a hint of her usual cheeriness returning.
"Don't worry about it Rine-chan, I suppose that it's hard for us to understand how an outsider would struggle dealing with our little family..." The use of the word little regarding her family made Rine giggle, though any further conversation was cut short by the sound of growling from just ahead of them, the two separating quickly as several Beowolves stalked into the clearing.
"Let's deal with these quickly, then we need to hurry and catch up with Jaune... And the others, we are behind given our late start." She saw Rine's tail flick slightly, showing that she had caught her unintentional focus on Jaune, but she didn't comment before drawing her own weapon from her belt.
"Sure Amber-chan, the one who kills the most get's to hug Jaune-kun first right?" Trying to ignore the knowing tone in the girl's voice, Amber flicked her flail out with her fastest draw speed, the extending chain catching the Beowolf she targeted by surprise and catching it full in the face-mask.
"Sure, 1 to me then..." All things considered, there were probably worse people for Ozpin to decide to pair her up with...
!"£$%^&*()_+
"Monty damn it, Pyrrha it's gaining on us!" Jaune's shout prompted the spartan to increase her pace, showing that despite two years of hardening up he still had a way to go in terms of fitness.
'Who lets a freaking deathstalker grow to that size in a training area that you throw new students in? And here I thought that the Headmaster's eccentric behaviour was just a front.' Activating his aura, Jaune swung out with Crocea Mors, the aura extending the length of the blade and allowing him to cut straight through a fair sized tree before pushing off on the now severed trunk with all his might to send it careening towards the deathstalker.
The deathstalker didn't seem particularly fazed by the unconventional attack, but it was forced to slow as it grabbed the tree with both pincers and tore it apart, giving Jaune a bit of breathing room until it could build up speed again. He sighed even as he tried to catch up with his partner again, all he had wanted to do was investigate the cave drawings that looked like they had been their for centuries, if he had known the pebble he accidentally kicked into the cave was going to wake up this damn thing he would have stayed the hell away
"Ruins ahead Jaune, this looks like it might be the place!" The sound of someone screaming above them made Jaune look up as the trees started to thin, the ominous sight of a Nevermore almost distracting him from the rapidly falling red cloaked figure he recognised as Ruby.
Given how far she was falling, and the fact that terror seemed to have stopped her from thinking consciously about using her gun-scythe to slow her descent, the chances of a heavy injury were very likely if he didn't intervene. Even as he and Pyrrha cleared the tree line his mind was littering the scene with angles and velocities, probably trajectories that gave him only a single chance to save Ruby before she hit the ground.
"Pyrrha, need a step there!" Pointing in front and to the left where a small mound suddenly dropped into a little gully, he was glad that Pyrrha didn't take the time to ask questions and simply did as he asked, slipping into place in the gully and bracing her shield above her head.
Pumping Aura into his legs, Jaune dropped both his weapon and shield before beginning his sprint, they would slow him down too much and not allow him the lift he needed. He covered the distance in less than a second, Jaune almost felt like he was flying given the sheer speed he was currently generating, three steps getting him to the top of the mound and the fourth onto Pyrrha's shield, the girl once again showing her strength as she bent slightly before heaving him in Ruby's direction.
The additional push meant that Jaune very nearly missed the younger hunter, only just managing to grab her cloak with both hands as they passed each other, the girls velocity turning his arcing jump into a much more rapid descent. Still he managed to heft her into his arms properly before flinging her up and dropping into a heavy roll, his body protesting at the sudden deceleration that comes with impacting the ground at high speed.
Rolling into a crouched position Jaune held out his arms and caught Ruby for a second time, wincing slightly as his left shoulder almost gave out from the punishment he had given it from the fall, roll and now catching Ruby.
"And he completes the sequence with a perfect final catch, the judges have to be impressed with this doubles performance by the Yellow Rose team!" His joking proclamation was merely meant to distract Ruby from the fall, but to his surprise there was actual cheering from his left as Yang came running up, with a tall black haired girl in tow.
"That was incredible Jaune, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to reach her in time." Looking down at a heavily blushing Ruby, who seemed to have just realised what had happened, Jaune shifted his arms to let her stand back on her feet.
"You okay Rubes? I mean this isn't the first time you've just dropped in unannounced on us, if I didn't know any better I would say you are trying to make Jaune fall for you." Despite the terrible puns Jaune couldn't help but chuckle,Yang was obviously trying to hide her concern for her sister behind her puns and joking attitude, something that Ruby didn't seem to catch onto as she turned scarlet and looked absolutely horrified.
Then, suddenly both sisters stopped and turned to look at him strangely, Ruby's face twisting into a look of confusion whilst Yang's was almost... hopeful?
"Did you just... laugh at one of Yang's puns?" Ruby's faltering question seemed a little out of place, and character really, but Jaune decided to answer the question honestly as he didn't really know what he had done wrong.
"Er, partially that and the situation? Was I not meant to or something?" Judging by the rapid nodding of Ruby's head he should have denied all knowledge of what he had done, but before Yang could react the black haired girl pointed back at the Nevermore with a slight concerned look on her face.
"Is that... Your partner falling from that Nevermore now Ruby?" Turning to eye the falling white speck that was getting closer and closer Jaune sighed even as Pyrrha caught up with them, carrying his sword and shield he had dropped, if he didn't catch Weiss after catching Ruby he would never hear the end of it.
"Yang, I am going to need you and your partner to keep the Deathstalker busy whilst Pyrrha and I rescue Weiss." Even as Pyrrha nodded in understanding and the two began running towards the falling girl he heard Yang shout out to him in confusion.
"What Deathstalker?" As if on cue Jaune had to duck as several trees on the edge of the clearing were sent flying towards them by the arrival of said giant scorpion, Yang's nervous giggle making him sigh even as Pyrrha got herself in position. "Oh, THAT deathstalker..."
Weiss better consider them even for his comments yesterday after this, otherwise he was going to leave the lot of them to the Grimm...
!"£$$%^&*()_+
It had been a tough fight after that, though Jaune still thought the closest he had come to dying had been at the hands of Weiss after he chuckled at Yang's pun of her being 'catch of the day' material with her still in his arms. Still, a fight against a giant Deathstalker and a Nevermore could have gone a lot worse, especially when they were separated with the bridge collapsing in the ruins.
The team ceremony had been a pain, though given they weren't the last teams to arrive he assumed the others could have been waiting much longer than they had, even if they didn't have to contend with giant grimm in order to get there. Being picked as team leader had been an unexpected but pleasant surprise, though not as big a surprise as the one he was currently experiencing looking up at the names being announced on the big screen.
"Tangerine Sangria and Amber Arc picked the Black Queen piece, and will form the first iteration of Beacon's support team network with the Team name Tea, lead by Tangerine Sangria." Tangerine's appearance was quite a shock to Jaune, especially given the last Scroll message he had received from her indicated she was heading back towards the edge of Vale's safe zone, but it seemed her and Amber had reconciled a little given the arm the older girl had around the younger girl's shoulder.
"Tangerine? Her mother must really have wanted her hatred when she was younger." Yang's comment brought back memories, Jaune's mind flicking back in that moment to what he assumed was his third day in the Badlands, the moment he had met her for the first time.
*flashback*
He jerked awake to the sound of Beowolves howling, a not entirely unfamiliar sound he had been subjected to over the last forty hours or so. What was different was forgotten for a moment as his jerking had forced him out of his resting place on a particularly wide branch he had found, his short cry cut shorter as he just about managed to get one arm around the branch, arresting his fall in a jarring motion that made his already tired and aching muscles protest once more.
"Remember Tangerine-chan, aim for the area just below the jaw or beneath the shoulder, your strikes are not enough to pierce their armour directly." Now he realised what it was that had awoken him, a human voice! Looking down, Jaune realised the Beowolves had all moved away from him, probably towards the sound of the fighting, meaning he had a chance to get down and get help.
"Mum! I told you not to call me that!" Leaping down, Jaune ignored the ache in his knees at the landing, what little aura he had left could heal it slowly as he made his way as quietly as he could to where he could hear the voices coming from.
It was a young looking Faunus girl and what had to be her mother, the girl darting around as she engaged two Beowolves with a pair of underarm blades, the older Faunus glancing over in Jaune's direction before flicking her halberd round to cave in the skull of a Beowolf who had tried to sneak up on her. With a cry of victory the girl, Tangerine he assumed her name was, managed to slice the neck of one of the Beowolves neck's, though that changed to a cute 'oof!' of surprise as the dying Grimm fell on her before she had a chance to react.
With the other three Grimm closing in and no signs of the older Faunus moving to help her, Jaune used what little courage he had found during the fall of Arcadia to charge forwards with an attempt at a battle cry, his opening slash causing the nearest Beowolf to dodge back with a pained growl as Crocea Mors opened a 6 inch long gash in it's side.
"Interesting..." Even as the Grimm reared up and Jaune regretted his earlier rashness, the woman's voice filling his ears before the Grimm was bisected in a blow so powerful and so fast that it took Jaune a second to realise what had actually happened, the other two Grimm looking at each other before backing away slowly and disappearing back into the shady woods.
"I never thought I would see another human in the Badlands risk his life for my daughter and I, let alone one with so little training when he knows that fighting the Grimm unprepared is a dance with death that he will probably not survive." With a grunt the woman grabbed the Beowolf corpse that was still on top of her daughter, lifting it enough for her the girl to shuffle out, obviously embarrassed by what had happened as she tried to look anywhere but at her mother.
"What is your name human? And what are you doing out here? The nearest human settlement is at least 15 miles away..." Despite her relaxed stance Jaune couldn't shake the feeling she was merely waiting for him to make the wrong sort of gesture towards her, or more importantly her daughter, and his life would be over before he even had chance to realise what had happened...
*Flashback End*
"Just call her Rine and you will be fine Yang, call her by her full name and she can be downright vicious..." Phantom pain of claws down the side of his face served as a reminder even as Amber's arm on her shoulder seemed to be the only thing stopping Rine from jumping at Ozpin.
"Another girl Jaune? With your love/hate relationship with the Schnee heiress and now a foxy Faunus, you certainly like to live dangerously lover boy." The mention of Weiss' surname brought Jaune's other thoughts to a complete stop, but before he could confirm her relationship to the Schnee dust company a speeding orange blur leapt down from the stage and grabbed him like a limpet, Amber following up behind at a far more sedate pace.
"Jaune-kun! I missed you, I missed you so much!" With the one eyed fox Faunus now nuzzling into his chest, Jaune knew she wouldn't be letting go anytime soon, even with most of the hall staring at the two of them with a mixture of emotions ranging from amusement to disgust.
"Jaune-kun eh?" Judging from the amused look both Yang and Amber were giving him, this was going to not be a fun or non-embarrassing situation for him.
"Rine, meet Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee?" The questioning glance at Weiss was met with a disbelieving look from the white haired girl before she sighed and nodded imperiously.
"So you mean that you had no idea who I was? I suppose your earlier boorishness makes sense now..." Glancing over at his sister, whose mechanical arm was only as advanced as it was because of a favour the elder Schnee had decided to grant them at his mother's request, Jaune knew he had best try and repair the bridges as surreptitiously as he could lest Weiss be the one put in charge of getting the favour cashed in.
"Yes, apologies for that, but two years in the badlands do not lend themselves to concentrating on current events or etiquette. If you think I am bad, wait till Rine gets going, she can give you a run for your money Yang..." During that brief interaction Jaune noticed that said fox girl had been bodily removed from him and was currently in a staring contest with Nora, the normally hyperactive pink haired girl with a blank expression on her face as she stared into Rine's unfaltering one eyed gaze, before the pink haired girl gave a slight nod and raised her finger to Rine's nose.
"Boop!" Rine giggled, her nose was one of her more ticklish spots after all, and Ren gave the usual long suffering sigh he seemed to keep just for Nora's antics.
"Well, that settles it, Nora only uses the boop signal on people she likes, so Rine is stuck with us now whether she likes it or not." Nora merely shrugged non-committedly before pointing at Rine's tail.
"Can I pet it?" Jaune noticed both Amber and strangely Blake wince at the rather blunt request, but Rine merely gave him a look, probably to try and understand quite how offended she should actually be.
"In Vale and the four Kingdom's in general, it is considered bad taste to ask to interact with a Faunus' animal extremities Rine, but from what I have understood thus far Nora isn't one to conform to 'normal'." Nora turned and beamed at him whilst nodding rapidly, whilst Weiss and a couple of the others were casting him an odd look, before Weiss snapped her fingers in understanding.
"Your right Jaune-Jaune, if me and Ren listened to other people then we would have to be together-together!" The actual sound of horror in her voice at the idea of her and Ren hooking up was probably not meant to be intentionally funny, but given the relieved look on Ren's face as she said that Jaune couldn't help the wide smile that came over his face, though he managed to not burst out into laughter like Pyrrha and Yang did behind him.
"What are you all laughing at? Jaune-Jaune, tell me! You're all so mean... Rine, does that eyepatch give you super-secret powers that we can use on these meanies?" And with that Nora was gone, dragging a surprisingly receptive Rine with her and leaving the group to watch them with amusement mixed with slight dread.
"Ren, Nora isn't going to hold this against us right?" The young martial artist looked the most relaxed Jaune had seen him all evening, though his eyes didn't leave where Nora and Rine were muttering together even as he answered Ruby's question.
"Probably not, not unless Rine would try and encourage her into trying to prank us or something like that..." With that Jaune felt the cold wind of fate down the back of his neck, and resolved to try and bribe his way back into Rine's good books as fast as possible, before she and his new bunk mate decided to unleash hell upon them all...
[]{}#%^*+=
"Goodnight Jaune. Ren. Nora." Receiving two responses and a soft snore from the now tired out Valkyrie, Pyrrha settled back in her bed with a contented smile on her face, even if it had been a busy day and a hectic year in general.
The media had been all over her emigration to Vacuo and enrolling to Beacon, depending on which country the media outlet was trying to appeal to she was either painted as an unpatriotic villain who abandoned her country or Beacon's greatest enrolment acquisition in a generation. The choice had not been an easy one, but Pyrrha had grown more than a little weary of her celebrity status in Mistral along with pedestal that people placed her upon, she was a Mistralian and such fawning did not make her comfortable.
'We of Mistral are born alone and we die alone, only those that we share blood with can be trusted at our sides, and only those we have bled with guarding our backs...' It was a phrase her mother had drilled into her head whilst they were training in her youth, and despite the fact she disagreed with the main unspoken message it certainly summed up the Mistralian attitude towards the other kingdoms and life in general, something Haven had great difficulty dealing with in their attempts to train their four person teams that had become the bread and butter of Hunter deployments.
Given the harsh topological layout and variation that Mistral boasted, not to mention the variety of threats ranging from Grimm to pirates, hardiness, self-reliance and strength of arms were revered in equal measure. It was something that had made Pyrrha stand out in a bad light in her first Mistral tournament actually, going easier on her first round opponents than she needed to to hide her strength and actually caring for their well being after she beat them, but it was something that enamoured the other kingdoms towards her and led to her popularity growing immensely by the end of the tournament.
'Still, seems not everyone knows me as the 'Invincible Girl'...' Glancing over to Jaune's bed, her partner and new team leader looking absolutely adorable in his onesie, Pyrrha was glad she had ended up with him rather than anyone else.
"You're the one who headed the supply donations push... I can't even count the number of lives those supplies saved...' It had been something she had tried after her second win in the Mistral tournament, primarily because she wanted to some good with her newfound fame, even if it did cause a storm online as every Mistralian and their mother tried to come up with a good reason for why she would do such a thing.
If she hadn't already been leaning towards Jaune as a partner, primarily because he wasn't acting all fangirl-esque like Weiss and seemed nice enough, his sheer gratitude for what SHE had done despite the lack of positive response in Mistral had sealed the deal. Whilst he didn't seem in too much trouble during the start of initiation, using Milo not only helped him from attempting a more 'impromptu' landing but also made it easier for her to track down his location as quickly as possible, though given the clinical slaughter she found on her arrival it seemed she had found the one person who could help patch up a weakness of hers.
She had borrowed his notebook again that evening, leafing through the pages to find information on Grimm that she hadn't even considered before, such as how Beowolf packs arranged themselves when sleeping into defensive positions or that Boarbatusks could be lead into traps due to their love of mud baths. It was fascinating and whilst not useful to her or most front line hunters, it was the sort of thing that would be invaluable to normal people who had to fight the Grimm everyday when the hunters were spread too thinly to assist them...
Something to think about on the morrow she thought sleepily, as her eyes closed slowly and steadily and her thoughts became fuzzier, for now she was content to enjoy her first day at Beacon and all of the true friends she has made along the way. Now if only she could convince Weiss that Jaune wasn't in fact a barbaric ruffian out to steal her maidenhood it would be perfect...
Cheeks colouring slightly as the image of a partially dressed Jaune from earlier in the evening came to mind, Pyrrha had to stop herself from mentally giving her support to the idea, certainly not until the fourth date...
A/N: This chapter span a little out of control at points there, but given it's increased size I don't think people will mind the result very much. People will notice I didn't particularly focus on the Deathstalker/Nevermore fight, primarily because like the Wave mission in Naruto it has become an almost cliched plot point where everyone tries to come up with a way of altering the fight, and this leads to one of two results.
Either they change something and it has not net change on the end fight result, or they have an OP member (usually Jaune in the stories I read) who seems somehow capable of taking at least one of the beasts by himself. In the latter case it destroys the team work dynamic formed by these fights, in the former there really isn't much point in writing the scene as it might as well be canon.
So I have made my minor changes before the start of the fight and left it at that, apologies if you guys wanted me to write the fight but I think you would prefer this chapter quickly rather than waiting for me to mull over that fight for ages to try and make it different.
I received a review indicating that they like my cultural generalisation of Atlassians and requested one for Mistral as well, which got me thinking onto my next change to the usual 'fanon' of the series, why did Pyrrha move to Beacon? There are several possible explanations but what I am wanting to exam in this story is the reaction to the move by both Vale and Mistral, as well as the rest of Remnant of course.
I've only hinted at the backlash for now, but it would certainly add a heat to the interactions between JNPR and the Haven teams if they were pissed off at her 'abandoning' her country. Let me know what you guys think!