New pc as my old one was dying a death (half the time it turned on it didn't register the monitor and I had to keep resetting it). I've spent the last day or two logging into things, saving passwords and such. Then downloading files, etc. Ah, it's a pain, but this'll hopefully sort it out for a while now.

Also, I know a few people were worried I'd completely ignore real-life military and make a mockery of it by relying on anime knowledge but a) I have done research and b) this isn't a military school – I meant that it's a huntsman academy with a more military academy bent to it. Jaune isn't a solider and won't be treat like one. It'll just be that the customs and some of the training take inspiration from irl military organisations as per canon. Though given huntsmen are more dangerous ops than the average soldier, expect training to look more like special ops in terms of complexity. Huntsmen are expected to survive in the wilderness vs Grimm after all.


Chapter 2


Jaune was still wiping sleep away from his eyes when he, along with the other men from their barracks, were brought into a large briefing room. The women were already there, having slept in their own barracks, and they looked as tired and bedraggled as he. No showers and no breakfast so far. A few people were already dozing off, though that soon ended when Winter Schnee slammed the butt of her weapon against the wooden podium, startling everyone awake. All that without looking put out or annoyed at all. Her expression was a perpetual frown.

"This is your first, and for some of you only, briefing. It will determine whether you are accepted into Atlas or not. I would pay attention if I were you."

That brought everything to a slow standstill. Jaune took a seat next to Flynt, the other teen removing his hat to scratch his close-shaven hair. He caught Neon's distinctive hair a few seats over, but there was no time to call out to her with everyone settling down. Winter Schnee waited another thirty seconds, just long enough to make them feel awkward, just short enough not to drag on. Finally, she nodded.

"Better. Atlas is a military academy as well as a huntsman one. Therefore, you will be expected to show military discipline. Today, you will be judged not on strength, skill and capability, but on your intelligence, awareness and attention to detail, along with your decision-making skills. I hope you will all keep that in mind as it will determine whether you pass or fail. I see some of you shaking your heads or looking surprised. Don't be. Your records make your physical abilities clear, but weaknesses can be fixed, and strengths honed. You will have four years of arduous training here to make sure of that. What we cannot fix, and what we will not abide, is a poor attitude and inability to follow orders."

That sounded a little backward, but also handy for him since his records were false. Maybe he'd have a chance of passing this after all.

"Initiation is a simple test." said Winter. She pressed a button on the podium and a map sprang up, holographically displayed against the wall behind her. The lights in the room dimmed so they could more easily see it. "This is Test Site A01, modelled after a ruined city. It is a live-fire test site used to simulate an urban environment, and contains roughly sixteen acres of empty homes, broken down ruins and similar props specifically designed and constructed to mirror a section of a town."

Sixteen acres? That sounded like a lot, but his head couldn't really process the measurement. He'd go with big for now and figure it out later. Winter clicked a few more buttons to cycle through images of the site. It looked like something out of a war game based on an apocalyptic scenario, with hollowed out homes, blasted streets and the wrecks of old cars. If he hadn't been told this was a constructed site, he might have thought it a village that had been destroyed by the Grimm and then bombed by Atlas.

"The scenario is thus: this is a town on the outskirts of Vale that has been overtaken by insurgent elements of an unknown terrorist organisation. This group is suspected of dealing with a biological weapon inimical to organic life. If left unchecked, this group will further develop this weapon and may unleash it on Atlas." Winter paused to make sure they were all listening. "In response to this, Atlas has dispatched numerous agents to try and infiltrate the organisation. Many have failed, but one agent has succeeded, siphoning valuable information from the terrorists that will in theory allow us to synthesis a cure or perhaps even a counteragent to the virus. It is imperative that we secure this information for the continued safety of Atlas and her people. The infiltrated agent cannot reveal themselves without exposing their position, but they have left a series of dead drops within the town for our forces to pick up."

"You will each be inserted into the city at differing points and will represent numerous extraction teams sent by Atlas Command," she explained. Around a hundred red dots appeared across the circumference of the map as indication. "You will be granted an empty pen drive. Your goal is to make your way to any one of fifteen buildings marked so." More spots on the map lit up. "This information will be transferred to your scrolls for those wondering. Once you reach these spots, you are to locate a computer left behind by our agent – this is the dead drop. The following prop will stand in for that." A picture showed it as a simple portable laptop left open. "On finding it, you are to insert your pen drive, at which point confidential intel will be downloaded onto it. You are then to exfiltrate the city with said intelligence, reaching any one of four exit points that will be marked on your scrolls. A team of four needs only have one pen drive between them. There are no rewards for gathering more intelligence. Questions?"

A hand rose. "Can each computer be accessed multiple times by different people?"

"No. Once the intelligence has been downloaded, the terminal will become inoperable. This is to prevent the terrorists from finding out that we are onto them. Otherwise, they could change the virus or locate and execute our spy. Each terminal can be accessed only once."

A stir spread among the audience and Jaune felt his stomach drop. That meant only fifteen teams could get out of this in one piece – sixty people. There were well over a hundred here. This was going to be a race to find the intelligence and get out, and he had a feeling that was going to bring out the worst in people.

"Does the site have Grimm in it?" asked someone else.

"No."

"Why not? Aren't we training to be huntsmen?"

"Grimm are simple-minded and violent beasts," explained Winter patiently. "Though they are the primary enemy of huntsmen and huntresses, they are still prey. We expect you all to be capable of killing Grimm and surviving your way through a site filled with them. If you cannot, you would not be here. Atlas asks more of those we would invest millions into training. As I said before, this is not a combat test."

"Can we choose where we're set down?"

"You cannot. You will be randomly assigned to a location by ballot. This is to simulate intelligence control, and the fact that there could be traitors amongst us. Often, contradictory information will be given to you to serve as misinformation for enemy forces."

"But we have to form teams," argued someone else. "You said it's one pen drive per four people. What's the point of splitting us up in that case?"

"To test your ability to think on your feet, and to work with others. Do you see someone you meet as a potential ally, a burden or a threat? How do you deal with them? I said before this task will test your decision-making skills and that was with good reason. You would do well to take my warning to heart."

"What happens to those without a pen-drive?" asked another. Jaune had a feeling that the person knew, but they asked the question anyway. "What if we get there too late or we can't find the terminal in time and someone else snags it?"

"The answer to that should be obvious. This is initiation and there are only two outcomes to this test – pass or fail. Those that fail will be sent home on the next shuttle and will not have a chance to apply to Atlas Academy again."

/-/

"Ballot 71," announced the soldier by the door. Jaune stepped up, thumbing the small round ball with the number printed onto it. For a nation that prided itself on its technology, it was almost funny that they decided this by using a bingo lottery machine. Almost funny. No one was laughing inside the large hangar of the aircraft. "Ballot 71?" asked the soldier. Jaune nodded and handed the ball over. "Alright. Same deal as the rest – you hold position and don't start until the signal is given. Don't even think about trying to cheat. This is an artificial training site, and you are being monitored."

"Got it, sir."

"Good lad." The man pushed a rope into Jaune's hands and then signalled to the open door. The wind was choppy outside, and they were hovering a good height above solid ground. Jaune swallowed. "Get on with you. We've places to be."

Jaune closed his eyes and held the rope tight, then stepped out into nothingness. He'd seen seventy people go before him, some with more or less courage than him, but none – yet – having died. Jaune grimly held onto the metal handle attached to the rope. It whizzed down angrily, fast at first, so fast he felt sick, but then quickly tightening and slowing his descent toward the bottom as the automatic sensors kicked in and slowed him to a peaceful descent, and then an almost gentle step off the bottom. Jaune let go of the rope and waved upward, watching as it was retracted, the door closed and then the aircraft streaming away.

Leaving him alone in this broken and ruined hellscape. The buildings were all a washed out grey, glinting in the harsh sunlight of the early morning, with dust and masonry dotted across the floor. It really did look like someone had taken grave offence to a town and bombed it, but at the same time there was a lack of colour and decoration that made it look fake. There were no signs, brands or distinctions as to what was supposed to be what, no fast-food restaurants, shops or the like. Atlas had obviously constructed the shell of a cityscape, but they hadn't bothered wasting money on making it look too realistic. Function over form.

At least there aren't any Grimm here.

Just a whole lot of huntsmen and huntresses who would do anything to get into Atlas. Jaune wasn't sure if that was better or worse. When his scroll buzzed, he jumped on the spot, panicking and looking around before pulling it out. The name on the front simply read `Neon`. Was she serious? Was now really a time to call one another? He looked around, hoping to see any of the cameras that must have been watching them. The scroll stopped its call, but not ten seconds later a text appeared that read, dnt ignre me. The scroll began to buzz again. Damn it, Neon, she was going to give him away when this all started.

There was no helping it. He'd have to hope this wasn't against the rules. "Neon," he answered with the push of a button. "Are you sure this is allowed?"

"It was not stated as not being allowed."

"Penny…?"

"It's a group call." explained Neon, "You were the last to accept. Bet you're glad I suggested we trade numbers now, eh?"

"Are you sure we won't get in trouble for this?"

"I'd rather get in trouble than flunk out," answered Neon. "Besides, Penny thinks it's fine too. Right?"

"Friend Neon is not wrong to say there was no stated rules against communication." said Penny in a cheerful voice. "A good military operation requires effective communication. If it were not allowed, that would have been stated explicitly to us by Specialist Schnee. It was not. Therefore, it is within the boundaries of the rules."

"And if we're wrong, then we blame Winter for not stating it." said Neon. "Anyway, this is gonna be an absolute free-for-all. Full-on battle royale out there."

"Tell me about it." said Flynt. "And they mixed up our landing spots right after giving us the night to make friends and form teams. Feels like that was on purpose. See how many will stick to their teams and how many give up and just work with the first person they come across."

Jaune felt a little bad that he would have probably done just that if they hadn't brought it up. They'd made an agreement to work together on the idea that they could do so, but now they were split up at different spots of an entire city. It was going to be hard to work together, let alone meet up in any reasonable time to hit one of the target locations and find a terminal before someone else did. In fact, aside from protection, there wasn't much reason to team up at all for this. A single runner could find a terminal first, get the intelligence and then try to escape. That way they could have a bargaining chip to convince other people to form a team around them and help them get out.

Assuming the other team didn't just gang up four on one and take it. There was a trade-off to be made there. A fast person on their own might be able to get to the terminal faster, but they'd be hard pressed to defend what they'd won.

"We should meet up first." said Jaune.

"Do you think we have time to?" asked Flynt. "Wouldn't it be better to split up and find terminals?"

"Other people will have the same idea. We'll be running into fights wherever we go." And he wasn't in much of a state to hold anyone off. "Maybe we can meet up as pairs first or something, but if other people are going to form squads of four based on who they see, there's not much point any of us getting to a terminal alone. We'll be dogpiled."

"Jaune's right," said Neon. "This is going to go PvP real fast."

"You a gamer girl now as well?" teased Flynt.

"You know what I mean, don't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I get the idea. Other assholes are going to try and take it off us. Or are we going to be the assholes if we come across someone who has what we need?"

"We'll decide when we meet up." said Jaune.

"I believe we will have more than enough time." Penny spoke up for the first time, and she still sounded far too happy about all this. The way she talked was like she was thrilled to just be involved in the conversation. "I can see at least one other person talking on a scroll. We're not the only ones who had this idea."

"You're that close to another candidate?"

Penny hesitated before saying, "My eyesight is very good. She is a distance away. Should I approach her when this begins?"

"No." Not to recruit or to fight. "Let's not make enemies unless we have to."

"Understood! I will be friendly!"

That was good and all, but now that she'd said it, he was starting to worry that not everyone else would be. It wasn't exactly a good idea to get engaged with people who didn't have the pen-drive, but not everyone would see it that way. Some would argue there was good reason to take out the competition before they could become competition. There were fifteen sites and probably around twenty-five teams at least. If enough were taken out, there would be terminals for everyone who remained. The longer he was on his own, the more at risk he was of getting into a fight he'd have no chance in hell of winning.

"How about…" Jaune checked the map that had been given to their scrolls. "Um. Site 9?"

"It's the furthest away from an extraction point…" said Flynt. "One hell of a slog back."

"That'll also make it the least contested," said Neon. "Not a bad shot if we want to meet up first. Runners will go for the closest. We meeting up inside there or outside?"

"Let's try and meet in whatever building is directly opposite the entrance." said Jaune. It was a long way from an exit point, but ironically not too far away from his entry position. It would take a few minutes to reach it, more if he wanted to play it safe like he did. "Does that sound okay?"

"Good for me."

"I'm in."

"It sounds sensational! I shall see you there, Jaune!"

"Great." Jaune licked his lips nervously. "Let's look after one another and get through this together, yeah? No leaving anyone behind." Especially not him. "Alright?"

The three of them signalled their approval, and just as they did a loud siren wailed out over the city, rising and falling in pitch before going silent. The signal had been given and everyone was off, no doubt sprinting toward the nearest intelligence site. The call was ended by Neon who was probably doing the same. Jaune let them. He counted to sixty before taking his first, tentative step out into the ruined city. Slow and steady wasn't going to win the race, but it would at least not get him ambushed and slaughtered by another team.

This wasn't how he expected an academy to handle their inhiation, but then he hadn't put much thought into it before now or even realised it'd be a thing. Beacon probably had one much the same and he'd have been just as hopeless at that as this. At least here he could get by on hopefully teamwork rather than fighting ability, but that depended on whether other people approached them. If the others got into a fight, he'd have to try and help. He touched his hand to the hilt of Crocea Mors, a weapon he hardly knew how to use, and hoped that wouldn't happen.

/-/

It had to be a miracle that he made it to the building across the street from Site 9 unmolested. It was a large, tall skyscraper of sorts, though maybe that was a bit on the nose since it was only about six storeys tall. It still dominated the other buildings around it, with a radio antenna on the top that made it look like a news station. The building was remarkably still in one piece, which probably meant it was designed that way on purpose to let soldiers practice fighting in an enclosed space. The building he was in across the street was another broken down shell, with Jaune perched on the second floor having clambered up a stone ramp to get a better view of the street to the left and right.

A couple of people had already gone inside the site and Jaune was starting to feel increasingly anxious about that. The building was big enough that it would take time to find the terminal, and no one had come out looking happy yet. The occasional gunshot had already started to play out as teams clashed. The sound of it, sharp and loud against the silence of the ruined city, was a stark reminder to the fact he didn't have any aura. If he got shot, he'd probably die.

It was a little too late to worry about that now.

The sound of footsteps picking their way through rubble and dust reached his ears. Was that one of his teammates finally arriving? Jaune crept his way to the edge of the floor and peered over, only to curse as he found himself face to face, and eye to eye, with a man coming up the same way, who must also have decided to take to the second floor for a bird's eye view of the site. They each froze, shock spreading across their features before Jaune's hand flew to his weapon and the man's hand to a gun at his side.

"Wait!" blurted out Jaune nervously. The other candidate paused, as surprised as Jaune was. Wait for what? He hadn't really thought that far, but he went with it. "Peace."

"Peace…?"

"Y-Yeah. Peace." Jaune pointedly took his hand off his weapon. To his relief, the other guy did as well. "I don't want to fight you."

"I don't want to fight anyone," said the guy. "You looking to team up?"

"Sorry, I already have a team on their way here."

"Ah. Shit." The man smiled bitterly. "Site 9? Guess it's not gonna be the easy heist I thought it'd be."

"Afraid not." said Jaune. "A couple of people are already inside. I guess they started closer to here."

"Already? Damn it! I thought I could-" He grunted unhappily and took a step back. "No trouble, yeah? You can have this place. I'll just go find somewhere else, form a team with someone. No need for us all to start anything now."

"That's great with me." said Jaune quickly. He obviously wasn't the only one nervous about this, and the guy clearly didn't want to tackle with him when he might have backup arriving any second. To be fair to him, any fight against someone who didn't already have a pen-drive was a waste of time. Time they couldn't afford to lose. "Good luck," added Jaune. "I hope you manage."

"Yeah." The guy smiled weakly. "You too, man. Thanks for the easy out. Not worth either us bloodying ourselves for nothing, right?"

"Exactly. We're all in the same boat."

"Ha. I guess we are. See ya around maybe. Hopefully." He shrugged and turned away, loping off at a good clip in search of the next site.

Jaune watched him go just to make sure he didn't loop back around for an ambush, but when it was clear he was going, he let himself relax. That hadn't been so bad. He obviously wasn't the only one wanting to avoid unnecessary fights. It was just a bad idea all around unless you were supremely certain of yourself. The strongest of the people here might go for it as a good way to thin the herd, but everyone else was best served trying to sneak by. At least that was how it seemed to him.

To his immense relief, the next person to come crunching by was a familiar face. "Psttt!" hissed Jaune. "Penny! Up here."

The orange-haired girl craned her head back at what had to be an uncomfortable angle. She smiled brightly on seeing him, so wide her white teeth showed, and waved eagerly. "Hello Jaune! I've found you!"

"Don't you mean I found you?"

Penny blinked and considered that. "You're right. Well done, Jaune. You're incredible."

Was she being sarcastic? He really thought so, but she looked so genuine and so impressed with him that he couldn't bring himself to challenge her on it. "Uh. Right. I'm glad you got here so fast. Some people are already inside looking for terminal. Have you seen Neon or Flynt anywhere?"

"No. I would have come with them if I had."

Right. Of course she would have. Stupid question on his part. They were probably on their way, but he was starting to worry about how long they were taking. Like him, they had to avoid fights, but unlike him they had a much longer journey to make. The longer they waited, the more chance they had for those already inside to find the terminal and escape, and then it'd be a case of hunting them down. Doable, but dangerous.

"We could go in with just the two of us." suggested Jaune. He didn't particularly want to, but then he didn't want to drop out because he sat back and did nothing while others won initiation. "The people who have gone in so far have been ones or twos."

"They might have formed a full team inside." said Penny.

"Yeah. Maybe we should-"

"But I am confident that I can defend us both should we come under attack!" Penny flexed her muscles, which weren't very well defined or visible to his eyes. "I am combat ready! I'll show you just how good a teammate I can be!"

"I'm not questioning that but-" His scroll buzzed. "One sec. Hello?"

"Yo, it's me." Flynt sounded angry. "We're gonna be a little late. Some asshats decided to jump Neon and try to take her out. I got there in time to help her deal with them, but she's got a twisted ankle. We're still on our way, but it's gonna take a little more time."

Crap, crap, crap. Jaune felt like screaming. "Seriously? They jumped her?"

"It's because I'm a faunus," he heard Neon say in a pained voice. "Shit, this stings. I'll be okay."

"How is the site?" asked Flynt.

"Not great. Penny just got here, and I've been here a bit. There are already people who've headed inside. I'm sure I heard some fighting, but I can't say how much longer the intel will last in there. How long do you think you'll be?"

"At least another five minutes, maybe six. Look, you say Penny is there? Can you two go in and look for it on your own? We'll secure the exit when we get there and make sure no one slips out with it or goes in after you. Neon can do that with a twisted ankle at least. She's not going to be much use climbing staircases."

No. No, they couldn't go in alone. He was useless and needed a full team to cover him. But if he said so, he'd be costing them their chance at Atlas. They didn't deserve to drop out because he was too much a coward. Jaune bit his lip hard. He knew he wasn't good enough, but also knew he never would be if he didn't try. It was just like General Ironwood said. He had to work hard to get results. Now or never. If he couldn't do this, he didn't deserve to be in Atlas at all. Jaune took a deep breath and forced himself to speal.

"Yeah. We can handle that." He looked to Penny and took some small comfort in the confident smile she offered in return. If she was that eager to fight, she had to be good. Or naïve. He hoped it was the former. "You two focus on yourselves. We'll find the terminal, get the Intel, and meet you outside. Just make sure you're ready to save our bacon if we get in trouble."

"It's a plan. Kick some butt in there!"

Jaune hung up and stuffed his scroll away, then looked to Penny. "Ready?"

"One question first if I may."

"Sure."

"Where is the bacon?"

"What?"

"The bacon that needs saving," explained Penny. "Have you hidden it? Did you cook it here? I must admit that given the lack of breakfast, planning ahead to bring and cook bacon was not a bad plan. An army marches on its stomach. However, there are more readily available and easily portable foods filled with carbohydrates that would have been better than any pork product. Grains for instance, or synthesised energy bars-"

"Penny."

"Yes, my friend?"

"It's a saying."

"Oh." Penny trailed off. She didn't blush, but she did glance aside slowly. "I knew that."

"Shall we just go inside and pretend this didn't happen?"

"A sensational idea!"

"Great. Also, you don't need to keep calling me your friend," he said, moving away with his sword hilt gripped firmly in hand. "You can just call me by my name. It's easier."

"But you are my friend. How else will I make that apparent if I don't say it? How will others know?"

"You don't need to make it apparent. What does it matter if other people know? You're my friend and I'm yours. It doesn't matter if it's said out loud or not. It won't change the fact we're friends. As long as we know we are, that's all that matters." He glanced back. "Right?" He saw her stood stock still, frozen to the spot. His confidence faltered. "Penny?"

The girl jumped, as if startled awake. "Y-Yes!" gasped Penny. Her eyes shone brightly and her lips spread, revealing rows of perfect, white teeth. "Yes, you're right!" she said loudly. "My fri-" Her hands clutched together. "Jaune." She tested the word, speaking his name slowly, and then quicker. "Jaune. Thank you, Jaune. You're right, Jaune."

"You don't need to keep using my name either…" he mumbled. "Oh, whatever. Neon and Flynt are counting on us to get the Intel so we can pass this thing. Let's just focus on that and get out quick. Okay?"

"I'm right behind you, Jaune!"

The entrance area to the building was abandoned. That wasn't too surprising seeing as anyone coming in would want to get out of the wide, open space before they could be spotted. The building was modelled after a business of some sort, with a receptionist's desk at the front, a few doors to either side and a broken-down elevator that probably wasn't, and never had been, capable of functioning. Beside it were a set of stairs leading up.

"So, where do you think this terminal will be?" asked Jaune. "Not the receptionist's desk or it'd be gone already."

"I can sense electrical signals above us," said Penny.

"You can what-?"

Penny jumped. Her hands flew to her mouth. "I… um… I… Semblance!" she blurted out. "It's part of my Semblance. I can detect electrical currents like machinery or computers. I sense one several floors above us."

There was so much hesitation there that his first instinct was to call out the lie. On the other hand, what other reason would she have? Maybe it was part of her weapon or something, but that wasn't against any rules. Or is she a hacker and using some ability to trace it? Well, whatever. It's beneficial to us so it's not a problem.

"Cool. We take the stairs then?"

"Yes." Penny seemed relieved he was dropping it. "I do not know exactly how many floors up it is but-" Her eyes widened. "Jaune!"

Her hands struck him suddenly and threw him off his feet. Violently off his feet. Jaune didn't so much fall as cartwheel out the way, flung several metres away from her as a loud crack echoed out from above and a streak of yellow light sparked off Penny's shoulder. The girl was knocked back, then forced to duck as a second shot came and struck her left arm.

A shooter? Why was-? Shit, of course. There were other people here and they didn't want them stealing the intel. Jaune scrambled for the nearest doorway and dove through it. Thankfully, no bullets came his way. They focused instead on Penny, who zig-zagged her way after him, dodging a few that sparked on the floor but being hit by one more along the way. It didn't do much more than knock her off balance, and she managed to dive through the door after him. High above, they heard the clack of footsteps as the sniper quickly repositioned themselves.

"Are you okay!?" he gasped.

Penny nodded quickly. "I am fine, f- Jaune! That was close. I saw the laser sight on your chest."

A laser sight. Holy shit. The person shooting him wouldn't have expected it to really hurt him; it would have been a nasty surprise to everyone when the bullet tore through his chest and left him dying in a pool of blood on the floor. To their credit, they'd probably freak out as well and suffer their fair share of trauma for having killed someone, but since they expected him to be as capable as Penny, it was an otherwise good plan. One person monitors the entrance and tells people to politely leave and find another site by way of bullets, while the rest of the team looks for the Intel. Most people wouldn't want to risk going up against a sniper in an elevated position when you were stuck in an open hallway. Hell, he didn't want to deal with it, but that was taken out their hands now. They were inside, and the only way to go was up.

"Jaune," whispered Penny, shocked. "You're bleeding."

What? He looked down at his arm, cursing as he saw blood. Had he been shot? No, it looked like he'd caught his arm on the stone floor when Penny shoved him with the force of a speeding truck. "It's not bad. It's just a graze from you pushing me aside. You're crazy strong for such a small girl."

"That's not… Why are you bleeding at all?" asked Penny. "Why didn't you use your aura?" Penny touched him with one hand, and her eyes widened. "Your aura readings aren't showing up at all! Why don't you have aura?"

"How can you tell?" fired back Jaune defensively. "I thought that was only possible to detect aura levels using a scroll?"

"I… That… Um…" Penny floundered, looking left and right and clearly searching for a convincing lie. How bad at lying was she? His little sister had been more convincing at the age of ten. "There is… There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. Yes. Perfectly reasonable. But there is not one for why you do not have aura when your records said that you did!"

"How do you know what my records say?"

"Stop asking complicated questions!" ordered Penny in a squeaky, panicky voice. "You are in danger, Jaune! You are my friend! I cannot ignore the fact that you have no aura, are in threat from an active shooter, and are bleeding badly. We must stop this test and get you to safety!"

"Um. Penny?"

"Yes?"

"I know I'm bleeding and all but you…" He pointed, and her face turned to look down at her arm, the hand of which was on his chest. Her arm was outstretched and had taken the brunt of the first shot. "Penny, you're sparking."

Jaune pointed to the cut in her arm, within which little electrical sparks were emerging.

Penny began to shake. "I-I… That is…. I… oh no. No, no, no. Father will be… but this isn't my fault. I tried my best! I was- I don't want to be taken out of Atlas already! I haven't even had a chance to try and fit in!"

Her hand released him, and she backed up, looking for all intents and purposes like she was about to burst into tears. That would be his fault, he thought glumly, those over-used big brother instincts kicking in as they always did when Amber turned on the waterworks.

"Hey, hey, it's fine," he told her. Maybe she had a cybernetic arm, a prosthetic from an old injury or birth defect or an injury. It wasn't that big a deal, but he could see why some people might see it as such. "It'll be our little secret, okay?"

Penny looked up at him and looked so very confused. "Secret?" she whispered. "Ours?"

"Yeah. Friends keep secrets all the time. You keep mine and I'll keep yours."

"Like… blackmail…?"

"No." He shook his head quickly. "Like friends who respect one another enough to not go around telling other people things they don't want told. You know, a sign of trust. I trust you enough to keep my secret on not having aura, and you trust me not to tell anyone about this. Then we both keep going, make it into Atlas and be the best team we can be."

Penny sniffed loudly. "You promise…?"

She sounded so small and frail that he couldn't possibly have said no.

"Pinky promise." He offered his little finger. Penny looked at it in confusion, forcing him to take her hand and link their little fingers together. "This is a pinky promise," explained Jaune. "Now neither of us can break it or it's cross our hearts and die."

Penny gasped. "Jaune-"

"It's a saying, Penny." He cut her off before she could fly into a panic about pacts, contracts or some kind of geas. He really ought to have chosen his words more carefully. "It's not real. It just means we promise not to tell anyone."

"I-I see. And this is… normal?" asked the girl. "This is how things are done?"

"Between friends, yes."

"Then it is a promise." Her voice was solemn. "A pinky promise. My first." Her eyes hardened. "But we cannot go higher and against this sniper if you do not have your aura unlocked."

Her hand reached out for him again.

"For it is in our birth that we shall reach for humanity. To this, we shall become protector and weapon, to serve and defend with no regard for our safety. Unyielding and infinite, untouched by life or death, let the first spark of this new soul reach out and touch yours, so that we might find common ground."

Jaune gasped as the world burned red-hot white around him.


Only a few small changes to this chapter from the original draft – some key little bits of dialogue specifically. Next chapter will have a few more as the initiation wraps up.


Next Chapter: 8th October

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