Jaune was confused.

Jaune had always considered himself at least kind of smart, meaning he wasn't completely dumb but he also wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. But now Jaune was seriously questioning his intelligence as he tried to understand how Dust worked, but there were just so many types of Dust and something about it being activated by something called Aura –which he'd never heard of– which was apparently something that both Faunus and Humans had. Never mind the fact that he also didn't know what a Faunus was.

"Plant Dust?!"Jaune whispered hysterically as he read 'Dust for Dummies and Other Inadequate Individuals', clutching the pamphlet with both hands. It couldn't even be called a pamphlet with how long it was, but at least it did a decent job at explaining the properties of Dust relatively simply.

His mother had told him to read this pamphlet as it was quite popular for people who were just beginning their Combat Schooling, and since he was two years behind everyone he'd have to slave himself to reach their level both physically and intelligent-ly.

Jaune put the pamphlet down on his desk and begun rubbing his temple, attempting to digest the jargon that he'd just read.

Fire Dust was like a flame thrower and was highly explosive, Wind Dust could generate powerful gusts of wind and tornadoes –to highlight how volatile Dust was and how careful you should be when using it, the pamphlet described how someone had handled a shipment of Wind Dust incorrectly and caused a hurricane the size of Vytal in Mistral, which totally didn't terrify Jaune– Lightning Dust was mainly used to power everything because of how much electricity each Lightning Dust crystal had, being widely used in appliances. Finally, Water Dust which didn't have many uses besides being used to create more Dust and making instantly drinkable water. These were only the four most common types of Dust. There are many more types that could be created from combining different types of Dust and simply more unknown Dusts that have yet to be discovered.

Dust really lived up to its nickname, Nature's Wrath.

He'd just reached the section which explained the other less common types of Dust, which was where he decided to stop after he saw Plant Dust. What was Plant Dust gonna do? Grow the Grimm food so they stopped eating Humans?

Jaune snorted at the stupid thought before attempting to get off his chair and wincing in pain, his body feeling sore all over from the intensive training he'd been doing. Despite his countless aches and welts he limped over to his bed and practically melted into the sheets, sighing in relief.

He'd been training for a month now, and his everything hurt quite a lot. Especially when he sparred with his father, even if he was going easy on Jaune, his shield arm still ached from when he had to block and deflect countless strikes. But he still would work harder, the results of his training were beginning to show themselves and that was very motivating.

Before his training he couldn't even run for more than thirty- no fifteen seconds, his arms and legs were quite literally stick-like and even lifting Crocea Mors was a distant dream. But now he felt like he could run a marathon, he actually had some meat on his bones and could actually use Crocea Mors–albeit with much difficulty.

Tomorrow he and his family would travel to Vale, to get him some quality armor to go alongside Crocea Mors. As his father always said "Armor keeps your guts from spilling out!" Not only that, they also said he'd need to get some Huntsman Grade clothing since normal clothing just wouldn't cut it. He also finally got the fifty box tops to trade in for the Pumpkin Pete Hoodie, which was famous for being made of Huntsman Grade Fabric that could withstand very harsh conditions –Jaune would never admit it but he was most excited about the Hoodie.

Right when Jaune began to doze off –even if lunch was an hour or so later– his little sister, Joy kicked his door open with a sharp crack, startling Jaune into sitting up and bashing his head against the top bunk.

Joy was a thirteen year old girl with wild chin length hair that almost seemed golden in color, large light blue eyes that seemed to constantly sparkle with mischief and happiness, paired with a sharp toothed grin that seemed almost Faunus-like despite being Human. She was wearing a deep blue hoodie and a pair of torn jeans. She was quite short only coming up to the top of his chest. She had probably put on the first things she saw judging by her panting.

"Jaune! Jaune! The new video game I was waiting for finally released!" Joy rushed out, somehow saying the words in a single second while jumping up and down in excitement. Jaune smiled at how she always seemed to be happy no matter what and sat up with a slight groan, rubbing his head to try and disperse the pain from banging his head.

"Oh, Grimm Slayer 3?" Jaune inquired as he got off the bed, he'd also been planning to pick up the game as soon as it was released –Jaune also knew disagreeing wasn't a choice when it came to Joy.

"Yes! I've been waiting since before I was born for this game! It seems so much better than Grimm Slayer 2 and I was asking everyone if they would buy it for me but they were all busy and-" Joy waved her hands around wildly, not being able to contain herself and squealing in excitement and impatience before she ran up to him, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Please, could you get it for you sweet little sister? Please?" Joy pleaded while giving him the Puppy Eyes™ and standing on the balls of her feet, her lower lip wobbling as tears seemed to appear in her eyes.

Jaune decided to indulge his little sister, especially since it was hard to resist her Puppy Eyes™.

"Sure, why not? Mom increased my allowance ever since I started training, and I also wanna check out Grimm Slayer. The combat was pretty fun in the last version." Jaune said as he made his way to his room's door. Joy cheered, pumping her fists into the air before quickly bolting in front of him and began hugging him so tight his back made concerning cracking noises.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Joy thanked repeatedly, her voice muffled from how she stuck her face into his hoodie. Jaune his wince of pain as she hugged tighter and patted her back in response, after a torturous amount of time Joy finally let go and Jaune let out a silent sigh of relief before opening his door.

Which promptly fell to the floor with a loud crash, Joy's footmark perfectly in the center of it.

Jaune looked blankly at Joy, who giggled nervously before darting out the empty doorframe with a flash of electricity.

Jaune gazed at the door for a few seconds, wondering if he should replace the door or simply be door-less. His sisters had destroyed his door more times than he could count, accident or not.

He'd decide once he gets back.

Jaune went down the stairs to the first floor and made his way to the front door, where Joy was waiting for him excitedly. Jaune slipped on his worn sneakers and opened the door, Joy zapping out the door immediately. Jaune shook his head with an exasperated smile before sprinting out the door while forgetting to close it in the process.


The sun shone down on the forest, a few clouds dotting the sky that moved along with a gentle breeze. The tall redwood trees shook slowly, the birds chirped a beautiful song and a lone deer fed on a patch of tall grass. It was the perfect environment to simply lay down and enjoy the scenery.

That was until a flash of electricity zoomed across the forest, startling the deer and birds into fleeing like the wind and leaving burnt grass and broken branches in its wake. A blonde boy broke through the thick foliage, panting and gasping in a futile attempt to try and catch up to his sister. Had he forgot to mention how hard it was to catch up to her when she used her powers at every opportunity she could?

Jaune could remember there being a word for her power… Sapience? Resemblance? He couldn't –for the life of him–remember the word.

Joy's Semblance –which she lovingly called Galvanizing Teleportation, having learned the words just because nothing else sounded as electric as Galvanizing Teleportation – was the ability to teleport in any direction within a short distance. Each teleport would begin and end with a large explosion of electricity, which she could control the size of depending on how much Aura she used to fuel her Semblance. This paired quite well with her weapon, Fulmen Mors, a chain knife with a mechanism for controlling the length of said chain. It didn't have many special things about it besides being infused with Lightning and Burn Dust, the end of the chain knife literally exploding with electricity and fire when she activated the Dust.

"Joy! Why are we cutting through the forest? And would it kill you to wait?" Jaune asked between breaths, Joy dashing in front of him and giving the most Joy-like answer he could think of.

"Because it might've been fun, and yes it would kill me to wait. Plus it be would slower taking the path to town." Joy answered, poking him on the nose playfully before dashing away through a bush. Jaune sighed, wanting at least a few seconds of rest but he knew that a few seconds was enough time for Joy to disappear with how thick the forest was. So he kept on running through the bush.

And tumbled off the cliff that was behind the bush.

Jaune's mind was blank as a paper for an entire three seconds before his brain finally processed that he was about to fucking die! Letting out a scream that would have been mistaken for a little girl he tried to think of how he would survive in this situation.

Jaune frantically scanned the rapidly approaching ground and saw a small pond that was reasonably close to him, and decided that he'd cannonball into it. Sure he might break a few bones from impacting the water with so much speed but it was better than death!

Rolling up and closing his eyes as hard as he could, Jaune braced for impact until he heard a blast of electricity along with a pair of arms catching him in a princess hold.

And abruptly drop him onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Jaune didn't register the pain as he was too busy vomiting onto the ground.

"Wow, I'm really lucky aren't I? Motion sickness looks gross." Joy's voice said from behind him, acting as if she hadn't just saved his life. Jaune tried to respond but was interrupted by a burst of nausea and vomit and fell onto his hands and knees.

"J-Joy?" Jaune asked shakily, flopping onto the ground and rolling onto his back.

"Uh, yes?" Joy replied, hoping Jaune didn't get mad.

"Did-did you know that cliff was there?"

"No! I swear I didn't! I mean if I did I might still have done it but- that's beside the point! I swear on my Game Station I didn't know I would fall there! Even though the fall was a nice adrenaline rush." Joy hastily rushed out, her words being almost incomprehensible as she wildly gesticulated.

"Fine, I believe you… but please slow down next time." Jaune pleaded, waving the matter away dismissively even though the experience took two years off his life. Honestly he just didn't have the energy to be mad right now.

"Okay! I promise! And an Arc never goes back on her word." Joy declared proudly, before walking away towards where the general populace of Incus lived.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Jaune said with a roll of his eyes, getting up and trying to appear calm and collected even though he was the complete opposite.

Now the reason the Arc Manor is so far from everyone else in Incus was because anyone with their Aura unlocked would naturally attract more Grimm, which was why only people going to Combat Schools were legally allowed to have their Auras unlocked. The Arcs are famous for their huge aura reserves and war heroes, and there are multiple people with abnormally large Aura reserves in the Arc Manor, which meant that if a Grimm Incursion ever did occur the Arcs would be attacked first, giving everyone else time to evacuate to the emergency airships that were always onsite in case of a Grimm Incursion.

The walls around Incus were built much farther from the village itself, which was one of the many reasons why it was so famous among tourists. It was one of the few places where you could go out and admire the beauty of nature and not get attacked by a Beowolf. It was also famous for its Redwood trees that towered over the walls of the settlement, the largest ones being as thick as a small apartment building and hundreds of meters tall.

Trees that Jaune was finally able to admire now that he wasn't chasing after his sister.

He felt quite small looking up at these gigantic trees which seemed so great and were probably hundreds of years old, and it really made him realize how inconsequential he was in the grand scheme of things. It kind of made him grasp how big the world really was and how little Humanity knew about it. It made him want to take up missions in places like Mistral and Vacuo once he became a Huntsman, to see the other wonderful sights Remnant beheld. It was a nice thou-

"Jaune? Hellooo? Earth to Jaune?" Joy waved in front of his face, gentle concern on her face. It was rare to see Jaune staring into nothingness, eyes glazed over as he seemed to be somewhere else. It was probably nothing but Joy cared about her brother, and she was just making sure.

"Sorry, just got lost in thought." Jaune said with a shake of his head, shooting Joy a smile before they continued on towards Incus.


"Finally, that line was waaay too long." Joy groaned, hugging the disk case to her chest as they both walked out the store with Jaune lamenting his empty wallet. He had thought about telling her that the game cost way more Lien than he originally thought it would, but an Arc never goes back on his word. So he just decided to power on forward and buy it with literally every Lien chip that he had, but it was worth the smile that stretched across her face when they apparently arrived at just the right time to nab the last copy.

"Eh it wasn't that long." Jaune absentmindedly commented as he checked the time on his Scroll, realizing that it was almost time for lunch. "Maybe it was." Jaune said, feeling cold sweat drip down his back as he realized that he hadn't told his mother or anyone that he and Joy were heading out.

"Joy, we forgot to tell mom." Jaune said as he pocketed his Scroll and began sprinting down the street as fast as he possibly could.

"Oh…that's really bad." Joy said before she literally blasted forward, a trail of electricity following her as she stretched her Semblance to its limits to try and get home before her mother found out.

Now this may sound like something that they shouldn't panic about, but Galore Arc wasn't just any mother. She may seem like the average mother at first glance but Joy didn't call Galore the 'Death Mother' for no reason. Galore is fiercely overprotective, always wanting her children to tell her if they were going out to town, what time and when they'd return, why they were going out and much more. If they didn't arrive home on curfew or they left the house abruptly without telling her, she'd scour the whole village and even outside the walls on some cases– Yes, this had happened before, multiple times in fact.

Galore's Semblance was controlling wind, and it was the main reason why Galore fought unarmed. Her huge Aura reserves allowed her to use her Semblance almost indefinitely to fly, create hurricanes, wind blades, and even surround herself in a tornado so intense it would rip Grimm apart from the sheer force of it.

You might ask why she would do this? Surely her children wouldn't get into such trouble? But they would, as there was another saying that Alexander had taught his children:

"Catastrophe follows the Arcs wherever they may go." Alexander had said with a boisterous laugh, when they had arrived from a vacation to Mistal just in time to stop people who were dim-witted enough to try to rob the house belonging to a family of Hunters. The robbers went to the hospital before they could go to prison.

There were countless other incidents, involving Grimm, explosives, and somehow pancakes.


"Nora no!" A male voice shouted in dismay.

"Nora YES!" A maniacal female voice shouted in elation.


But I digress, you all should know by now that Galore takes the safety of her children –Despite the fact that they were Hunters in Training- very seriously.

Jaune sprinted down the streets of Incus, the village being more like a city –Jaune honestly didn't know why everyone still called Incus a village, sure it was nowhere near Vale in terms of size but it was still larger than most other settlements. His sister was long gone, wanting to arrive home in time to avoid any punishment. Jaune honestly didn't blame her for leaving him behind, it was better one of them get punished than both of them.

As he sprinted down the streets and tried to avoid bumping into anyone, before Jaune noticed something strange.

A very suspicious looking person in a hoodie looked left and right before entering an alley, a glint coming from his pocket and his face being obscured by a white mask that he was barely able to glimpse.

His mind told him it was probably nothing and that he should focus on getting home as fast as possible, but his instincts told him that this person was planning something bad.

It wasn't any of his business and it would probably be much more beneficial to him if he just pretended he hadn't seen anything and walked away, but he'd always wanted to be a hero and this was an opportunity. Plus there would be no consequence if it was just a regular guy who was dressed weird, Jaune could just apologize.

Fully convinced that he should follow the guy, Jaune nodded to himself and tried to discreetly get into the same alley. The crowds of people obscured his vision and he lost sight of the guy. Slightly panicking, Jaune pulled his hoodie over his head and speed walked into the alley. As soon as he entered the alley, Jaune felt a feeling of wrongness and uneasiness settle into his stomach.

It was as if the shadows in the corner of his eyes began moving, and his instincts began screaming at him to get out of this place. Anybody else would have suspected something was wrong and walked away, but Jaune foolishly thought he was being scared for no reason and walked deeper into the alley. Finally catching up with the guy, Jaune slowed down and quietly hid behind a large dumpster, the dumpster smelling something foul and flies swarming it like they would a carcass.

Jaune peeked around the dumpster and saw the guy walk towards a metal door that was in the walls, the type of door you'd see in a large electrical closet, it even had the stickers indicating it was an electrical hazard. Jaune then briefly thought this person must've simply been an electrician, but that thought was quickly dashed when the guy started knocking on the door.

The guy knocked on the door, three times slowly, five times quickly and then pounded on it hard once to finish it off what seemed to be a sequence of knocks.

Jaune wondered why the guy was knocking on the door to an electrical closet, and he was answered when a minute or so later the door opened revealing a hallway, a large man wearing a white mask that covered the upper half of his face having opened the door.

The large man was wearing a black tank top with a white button up vest over it, black pants and black boots, a black hood and to top it all off the man was wearing a white mask that had two eye slits and covered the upper half of his face. Jaune quickly realized he might have bitten off more than he could chew as he felt fear settle into his already frayed nerves.

"Albinues." The large man gruffly said in a language that Jaune unfortunately didn't understand.

"Dente." The smaller of the two replied in a voice that was slightly nervous, the large man nodding and motioning for the guy to come in and leaving the door open for whatever reason. Jaune absentmindedly thought the guy was saying some kind of key word.

After both of them went inside the door begun automatically closing, causing Jaune to panic. In a fit of panic and foolishness, Jaune got up from his hiding spot and just barely ran into the hallway.

The metal door closed behind him with a click.

Why did I just do that?

Jaune thought, with no small amount of panic and regret as he stood in a grey hallway with a single flickering lightbulb above him.

He just stood there for a few minutes, processing everything.

The suspicious guy was here because he was part of some mask wearing cult or something, and he said some weird word to the huge scary guy that had opened the door and he had just ran into this place where said weird mask wearing cult was hiding.

He hadn't just bitten off more than he could chew, he had bitten off more than his stomach could hold.

In simple words, he was absolutely screwed.

"Trouble follows the Arcs? More like the Arcs follow the troubles." Jaune whispered to himself, fear settling into his form as he tried to think of a way out of this place. But there was no other direction to go than forwards.

Jaune gulped, his Adam's Apple bobbing up and down as a cold sweat begun to break out over him. Despite wanting to both soil his trousers and throw up, Jaune braced himself and quietly walked deeper into the dimly lit hallway.

After what felt like centuries but was most likely no more than a few minutes, Jaune arrived into an actual electrical closet. Jaune briefly wondered if he was actually in an electrical closet before he shook the thought away, after all what kind of person would be inside one?

Jaune looked around the electrical closet, seeing a few metal cabinets that likely housed wiring, Lightning Dust and other things electricity related. A few of the metal cabinets had dials and switches on them, Jaune not knowing what any of them would do.

Jaune quietly walked around the entire electrical closet, the two mask wearing people having disappeared, which meant that there was another secret door. Jaune looked around, seeing only one place where a person might be able to fit through.

A metal cabinet that looked slightly different from the others, its shade of grey being slightly darker and being completely blank besides having a handle. It took an entire minute for Jaune to muster up the courage to grip the handle and another thirty seconds for him to open it. It opened up without any problem, much to Jaune's surprise and fear. It lead to another dimly lit hallway, though now Jaune could hear what must've been voices.

He was actually in the hideout of a cult or something.

Holy. Shit.

Jaune shook his head to try and disperse the intense fear and disbelief he currently felt. This was just like the damn stealth missions that he always failed in his favorite games.

Well, he couldn't fail now, could he?


Author's Note: Sorry for not updating for a while, had some personal stuff to sort out. I didn't tighten the screws on the front wheel of my bike enough and the front wheel popped off as I was riding it and I landed on my shoulder pretty badly.

Other than that I'm willing to recieve feedback since I know that my writing isn't the best.

And I have to say, it is hard to come up with Semblance's that are unique.

I also quickly wanna point out that Jauney Boy isn't gonna be OP in any way, I like the struggle.