The (Mis)Adventures of Team JPTR

by GenericUsername3846

You know when you have a really bad idea that seems better the more you think about it? This is one of those. Jaune Arc, Peter Parker, Ben Tennyson, and Rex Salazar together in the RWBY universe to form team J.P.T.R. And they said Infinity War was the most ambitious crossover in history. Updates will come fairly regularly if my schedule allows for it.

12. Magma-Flavored Machinery

I beg, have mercy on my soul.

Apologies for the long wait, everyone. Back in April, I started my final quarter to earn my Associate's Degree and wanted to lock in for the end. After that was done, I was big chilling, ready to enjoy my first Summer vacation in two years…

And then my company shut down. Yeah, not just the store I worked at, no no, the whole damn retail chain I worked for declared bankruptcy and is currently in the process of shutting down all their stores, so I've been looking for a job while also trying to speed-run my Bachelor's degree. Life has been pretty busy this past year. But hey, I kept my promise. Never more than a year without updates. I'm right on time.

It… does not feel like it's been a year since the last chapter. On that subject, it doesn't feel like this story is already over a year old. I feel like I just kicked things off a few months ago. Time's moving too fast for this story. Here I thought I'd be done in two or three years, but at this rate, it'll take way longer. I might not even still be in America by the time it's finished.

Oh well. Not important, I guess. Let's hope my writing ability didn't wear down after all this time. I'm kinda praying my final course helped me keep some of that rust from building up. The professor of my final English course let us write our final essays on whatever we wanted, so I chose actual children's cartoons.

If anybody asks, I can honestly say I earned my Associate's Degree because of Amphibia, The Owl House, and The Ghost and Molly McGee.

I'm very proud of that. Beautiful A on that paper, you best believe. I'm just sad there was a 12-page limit, or I would have thrown in way more cartoons.

I don't own RWBY, Spider-Man, any version of Ben 10, or Generator Rex

.

.

.

"How did this day turn out like this?"

Slumped over in an uncomfortable plastic chair, Jaune was very tempted to start crying, regardless of where he was at the moment. It wasn't too long ago that he was sitting in class, fervently praying he wouldn't be selected for the day's combat sessions. At least those prayers were answered, if nothing else.

If… absolutely… nothing else.

He was having trouble deciding if his current situation was any better. No matter how many times he crunched the numbers, he couldn't decide. If he was chosen to fight, he definitely would be on life support at this very moment, to say nothing of the fact that he would be outed immediately among his peers, effectively ruining everything he'd worked for in the past week. All those sleepless nights and lifespan-shortening study sessions, wasted!

But, the alternative outcome and his current predicament was sitting in the Headmaster's office, sweating buckets alongside his team, plus Kevin and Weiss. The spacious room was almost entirely empty aside from a large desk situated near the back wall and a handful of bookshelves filled with trinkets right beside it. Rather than walls, the room was almost entirely lined with floor-to-ceiling windows that gave its occupants a clear view of the cloud-covered sky. The abnormal amount of unused space coupled with the lack of proper boundaries made the already large office feel oppressively huge. It was an exceptionally uncomfortable feeling, to say the least.

"..."

It would be so much less painful if it weren't so quiet. Weiss had done nothing but stare at her lap and clench her fists since they had arrived, Peter was politely waiting in stone-faced silence for somebody to address him, and Ben and Kevin were doing their damnedest to hold back their snickering before it erupted into full-blown laughter.

The blonde boy didn't even want to think about Rex, the main culprit behind their undesirable predicament.

"So much stress. Soooo much property damage. Mmmnnn… why isn't Ozpin saying anything!?"

Jaune thought he was doing a pretty good job keeping his cool, all things considered, but he had nothing on the Headmaster. The man had been sitting quietly behind his desk, hands folded in front of him, with an impressive poker face to compliment his composed demeanor. Professor Goodwitch was standing right behind him, her soul-crushing glare leaving Jaune feeling even more terrified. The second they locked eyes, he frightfully jerked his head down to look straight at his lap.

Ozpin did not so much as bat an eye at any of the outrageous things he had been told since they arrived, and he was doing a very, very good job ignoring the crashing and thumping noises next to him. He was clearly furious, the kind of anger that was so tremendous, you couldn't say or do anything and just needed to silently process. Jaune was sure of it. Any moment now, the man would snap, and everybody in the room would feel his wrath.

"I can't believe I got sent to the Headmaster's office before the first week ended. It was nice being a Beacon student while it lasted, but I guess this is it."

"..."

Ozpin was a man whose life was filled with difficult tasks and highly demanding responsibilities. It was only natural for somebody like him. The Headmaster of any Huntsman academy, let alone the most famous of them all, was bound to have a never-ending stream of tasks that required his attention.

At any given moment, something new could come crashing into his already full schedule. A student with a particularly severe injury would add a few dozen extra sheets of paperwork to his desk. A distress beacon from a village assailed by Grimm left him scrambling to choose a team of students, quickly brief them, and hail a Bullhead to take them wherever they needed to go. And those were just the common occurrences.

His life was not an easy one, and certainly not one to be envied.

But, every now and then, there were some entertaining additions to his workload. Once in a blue moon, there was an unwelcome, infuriating event that threw itself into the ever-growing pile of work he put off for later, that he enjoyed for some reason or another regardless of its burden on him. To say the least, such events were few and far between, but they were always memorable, and as soon as one was taken care of, he found himself wondering when the next "big one" would intrude upon his day.

Of course, he couldn't let anybody know that. He had an image to uphold, after all, and gleefully smiling and celebrating in the face of crisis would not do… no matter how much he really, really wanted to. To that end, he maintained his poker face, and prepared to address his students as the dignified authority figure he was meant to be.

"... Let me begin by saying, I am not angry." The grey-haired Headmaster pushed his glasses further up his nose as he spoke. He leaned back in his tall chair, his eyes scanning the faces of the teenagers seated on the other side of his desk. Given how shaken some of the students sitting before him looked, he saw fit to ease their fears before getting down to business. "Let it be known now that I currently have no plans to punish anybody, so please do not worry."

Behind him, Glynda scoffed, but said nothing. Her attention was too pre-occupied by that… thing beside her employer to comment on his words. Her riding crop was gripped tightly in one hand, her fingers twitching every now and then like she was preparing to lash out with the odd weapon at any moment.

"From what Glynda has told me, you've all had a very eventful morning. And, despite your insistence, Ms. Schnee, I do not hold you responsible for anything that happened."

Weiss nodded along, but did not raise her head. Her eyes were fixed squarely on her hands, folded tightly in her lap. It was a necessity, for if she unclenched them, they would certainly be shaking.

Ben, sitting beside the heiress, leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Ozpin could not hear whatever it was his student said, but it seemed to calm the poor girl down somewhat. Her shoulders stopped shaking and her anxious expression eased ever so slightly. Seeing this, the aging man smiled. He cleared his throat and continued. "But, even though there were no severe damages or injuries, I have a responsibility as Headmaster of Beacon to get to the bottom of the matter. An… shall we say, 'occurrence', of this sort cannot be brushed over, even if it would be preferable to simply forget about it."

A sudden loud clanging noise to Ozpin's right made his students jump in their seats and nearly caused him to jerk his head to the side, but he held firm. If he faced the problem head-on, he would crack an impish smile from ear to ear. He would quite possibly laugh until he could no longer breathe. He couldn't, he wouldn't let that happen. It was already difficult to ignore the deranged muttering and laughter, actually beholding the subject of his amusement was a death sentence.

He was forced to take a deep breath to keep his composure.

"Steady, Ozpin. Glynda is right behind you. You're out of chances for this week. If she catches you playing around any more, she'll confiscate your coffee mug again. Do you really want to use those... those inferior mugs in the staff kitchen?"

Peter and Kevin had their elbows resting on the armrests of their chairs, hands folded in front of their mouths. Kevin was very clearly trying to hide his snickering by biting his fingers, though the effectiveness of his strategy was questionable at best. Peter, while more reserved than Kevin, was still obviously holding back a laugh. Frankly, Ozpin couldn't even judge because was right there with them. The Headmaster heard their breaths hitch at the same moment he felt an uncomfortably sweaty hand clamp onto his shoulder, and saw the corners of their mouths raise even higher behind their hands.

"Focus, Ozpin."

"With all due respect, sir…" The final student, Jaune, slowly raised his hand. He was one of the few people in the room not struggling to hold in a laugh. In fact, the blonde was keeping his composure incredibly well, perhaps even better than the Headmaster himself. "Don't you already know what happened? If we're not being punished, then why are we here?"

"A-" Ozpin's breath caught as a drunken giggle directly in his ear cut off his train of thought. He quickly clutched onto it once more and hung on for dear life, refusing to allow it to drive off without him. "As you say, Mr. Arc, I'm well aware of what happened. What I don't know is how the events of this morning came to be or how our present company is still... present. I invited you all here in the hopes somebody would explain to me exactly how… this happened."

At last, he was forced to call attention to it. Ozpin gestured wordlessly to his right, to the source of his jo... concern. Yes, concern.

The gathered students, too, forced themselves to look. Weiss lifted her head from her clasped hands, her expression equal parts guilty and horrified. Ben's grin tripled in size, Kevin was barely containing his laughter, Peter drew in a long breath, one shaky with a barely-restrained chuckle, and Jaune barely stifled a defeated whine. They collectively gazed upon the very thing that brought them to Ozpin's office before they had even gotten to eat lunch.

The one man responsible for disrupting their otherwise peaceful morning, laughing to himself like a crazy person. He had largely gone ignored in favor of checking up with everybody currently of stable mind. It was far easier to let him play in the corner and entertain himself than to try and bring him into a conversation that, frankly, called for a higher level of brain function than he was capable of at the moment.

Rex Salazar was currently in an entirely different plane of existence.

"¡Vatos, vatos, echad un vistazo! ¡Hay PÁJAROS ahí afuera! ¡Todos están saltando y volando y chocando entre sí y parece súper divertido! ¡Debería estar ahí, ahora mismo, AHORA MISMO, no aquí! ¡Guárdame el lugar, voy a volar con ellos!"

Rex's face was pressed against one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined Ozpin's office, staring at the birds scattered about the courtyard below like they were the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. The young man had definitely seen better days. While normally calm and laid-back, he was currently speaking as if there was a time limit he had to beat, and his words were complete gibberish most of the room's occupants couldn't understand at all. His eyes were wildly darting every which way, the pupils several times smaller than they should have been. The red tie that was part of every student's uniform was crudely tied around his head and several buttons were missing from his dress shirt. There was a trail of dried blood running from his nose all the way down his neck, and smaller droplets stained his undershirt. The normally tan-skinned boy was very, very pale, to the point it was actually somewhat concerning. Strangest of all, there was a network of orange lines glowing faintly beneath his skin, as if his veins had caught fire. If Rex's state had to be blamed on something, the Headmaster's money was on the large amount of glittery red dust splashed around his mouth.

Rex continued blabbering on and on, pawing at the glass window like an animal trying to escape from a cage. There was no indication he was the slightest bit displeased or unhappy despite his obvious eagerness to escape the confines of Beacon Tower. No, it was clear to see the boy was positively overjoyed, taking in everything around him with so much excitement, you would think he was an alien seeing the world for the first time. The whole time the battered teen spoke, he was bouncing up and down rapidly, nearly wearing a hole into Ozpin's carpeted floor.

A small part of Ozpin actually hoped he would tear up the carpeting by the window. At least then it would match with the dozen other torn up patches of his floor. Either through sheer friction, curious thread-pulling, or blatantly tearing up the fabric, Rex had absolutely shredded the brand new carpet. It looked like a wild dog had torn through the office and sharpened its claws all over the place. All that didn't even scratch the surface of the damage Rex had caused. There were glass shards and bits of plastic scattered all over the place from all of the Headmaster's few personal trinkets that had been shattered, and those were just from the ones Glynda hadn't repaired yet with her Semblance.

Speaking of Glynda, she huffed angrily for the nth time, obviously barely restraining her fury as she was once again forced to play damage control. Waving her riding crop in a circular motion that had long since become repetitive, a purple light surrounded Rex and pulled him away before he could open the window and swan-dive out of the tower to fly with the birds. She was getting sick of having to keep him from hurting himself, almost as sick as she was of having to fix everything he broke in Ozpin's office.

Eagerly demonstrating his goldfish-like attention span, Rex had already gotten over being telekinetically displaced, moved on from the window, and was now standing beside Ozpin. The teen went through the motions, picking up and tossing around the objects on his Headmaster's desk like he had already done several times. The spitting image of a child hopped up on far too much sugar, he stared at every little thing, oohing and ahhing with genuine fascination before carelessly tossing it over his shoulder and moving on to something else.

Right before her twitching eyes, the number of objects Glynda would have to fix grew and grew. Unfortunately, she had learned by now that restraining her student would only lead to more damage both to himself and his surroundings. It was - somehow - less damaging to allow Rex to roam around freely.

When casual property destruction got boring, just like it had seven times already, Rex moved behind Ozpin and began playing with his stony face. His grubby hands, completely drenched in cold, sticky sweat, rubbed all over, pulling at his hair and tugging his skin. Ozpin had given up on swatting him away after the fourth time this had happened, and was now resigned to his fate. As long as it was all he could do, he fought as hard as he could to retain his calm demeanor while his face was mercilessly groped at.

"¡Oye, oye, Ozzy, oye! ¿Puedo salir ahora? ¡Quiero ir a jugar con mis amigos! ¡Ozzy! ¡Oye!" Realizing he was being ignored, Rex pouted and slumped over Ozpin's shoulder, his hands finding their way to the corners of his mouth. "¡Ozzzyyyyyyy! ¿Por qué estás tan triste? ¡Vamooooooos, sonríe! ¿Estás enojada conmigo? ¿Qué hiiiiceeeee? ¿Se trata de la fiesta? ¡Está invitado, te lo promeeeeeto! ¡Simplemente no tuve oportunidad de decírtelo!" Rex's fingers tugged at Ozpin's lips, forcibly yet gently pulling his mouth into a smile.

The forced smile did not reach his eyes. Amazingly, the aging Headmaster remained composed, which was more than could be said for his thoroughly entertained students. The only ones not laughing at him were Weiss and Jaune, who looked deeply remorseful and incomparably embarrassed respectively.

Ozpin could practically feel Glynda glaring a hole into the back of his head, silently urging him to take action instead of allowing himself to be toyed with. Clearing his throat, he did his best to talk over his student's high-speed babbling, which was far easier said than done with his lips being pulled in every direction.

He knew he should have been disgusted or offended with how he was being treated, but, truthfully, the laid-back man found all of this remarkably amusing.

"I would like to reiterate one final time that I am not upset with any of you. Nobody will face any kind of punishment, nobody will be held responsible for damages, and you will not lose any marks in today's lesson, Ms. Schnee. I just need to know-"

*Bang*

Something large slumped to the floor beside Ozpin. Keeping his head still, his eyes slowly swept to his right. It appeared Rex had finally tired himself out and was currently blacked out on the floor of his office, just beside the desk. It was either that or the blood loss that had knocked him out. Adjusting his glasses one final time, Ozpin leveled his gaze at the others. He was determined to not address the unconscious sixteen-year-old on his floor unless absolutely necessary.

"I just need to know exactly what happened this morning. Would somebody please fill me in on the details?" He was sure to ask as politely as possible so as not to sound annoyed or demanding.

Jaune and Weiss exchanged a look. The three boys seated between them weren't exactly in the condition to explain anything. Kevin was laughing so hard he had fallen out of his chair, only to continue laughing hysterically on the floor beside Rex's unconscious body. Ben kept opening his mouth to speak, only to cut himself off when his own laughter interrupted his train of thought. Even Peter was laughing, though he tried to fight it. Words were coming out, but they were difficult to understand, effectively making them worthless.

It was clear to the knight and the princess that they were going to have to be the ones to explain everything.

"I… th-that is we… no, what I mean is…" Weiss was being uncharacteristically meek, stumbling over her words as she struggled to form a coherent sentence. She obviously did not want to talk to anybody at the moment, least of all her Headmaster.

"... I'll take this one, Weiss." Jaune chuckled nervously, taking the attention off his classmate. "... You see, Headmaster, it was really just an accident, a, er, really big one. It's… honestly pretty funny when I think about it."

Ozpin did not say anything as he waited for Jaune to continue. He and Glynda stared down the blonde boy together, further adding to his nervousness. It was all he could do to let out another defeated, awkward chuckle, inwardly hoping the floor would open up and swallow him.

Right, funny. Really, the more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it all seemed. Had it seriously only been an hour since everything went downhill?

One Hour Earlier:

"Another day, another heart attack, eh, Jaune?"

Thursday morning, ten minutes before third period. It was nearly time for combat class to begin, and the blonde boy was no more excited than ever. Actually, he was feeling pretty dejected. He had recently learned through eavesdropping on his classmates' complaints that the numerous training rooms, which should have been a benefit, were useless. Most of Beacon's students paid reservations no mind and would simply barge in whenever they wanted to train their skills. They could be kicked out of course, if you were willing to spar for the rights to the room.

There was also the option of requesting a professor to sit in and watch you practice. The main purpose was to have them provide feedback, but also provided the added bonus of making sure reservations were respected. Of course, doing that would mean being watched by a teacher instead of other students, which really wasn't any better. So, basically, training rooms were a no-go.

For the first time in a long time, though, there was a tiny bright spot! He had finally gotten around to testing his theory on the roof doors being unlocked last night before his study session in the library. To his immense delight, Jaune discovered he was right. The doors really were unlocked, meaning he was free to train on the roof whenever he wished. With any luck, he'd be able to sneak up top every now and then to at least practice some basic moves. The knight had already made a mental note to try his luck tonight, but that didn't really do him any good right then and there.

He had been lucky enough to avoid being selected so far, but the sheer anxiety he felt every time his teacher surveyed the room to choose who would be taking part in each battle was so tremendous it was likely to give him health problems. Actually, did he already have some of those? His heartbeat had been feeling rather spotty in recent days, and his egregious lack of sleep couldn't possibly be doing him any favors. He had actually slept through first period that morning and didn't arrive to second period until it was already half-over.

Never mind Grimm, stress alone would be the thing that claimed Jaune Arc's soul. That, or his poor heart would give out while he walked to class.

If nothing else, it was vaguely comforting that he was not the only one in the room feeling rather sorry for himself… in a strange, ironic sort of way, considering their reasons were very, very different.

"Uuughhhh! Come ooooon, when is Goodwitch gonna put one of you guys in the ring? I want a fun fight, already!" Poor Yang, suffering once again, was face-down on her desk, her voluminous locks burying her face. "This class suuuuucks!"

Jaune found it easier to feel better about his situation if he ignored… everything… about his situation… and just focused on Yang's childish behavior. He actually almost laughed at her drawn out complaints that differed so entirely from his own.

"What's so funny, Lady Killer? Does my misery amuse you so?"

Oh. Never mind, he did laugh. Quite loudly, actually. Yet, despite her heated retort, Yang had not raised her head, causing her muffled voice to drift through the golden locks burying her face. Even her bombastic voice had lost most of its energy. All in all, she was a rather sorry sight at the moment.

"Uh, sorry, it just kinda slipped out." Jaune apologized half-heartedly, throwing in a guilty shrug even though she wasn't looking at him. At least he was getting better at acting casual and confident. Nobody even seemed to notice how uncomfortable he was for a moment there.

"Mmmggguuh." Yang made a strange noise in response, surprisingly not making the easy joke she would have normally been happy to share with the class. Even though she was both one row in front of him and pressing her face into solid metal, Jaune could still hear the drawn-out whine.

"Honestly, this is pathetic." Weiss huffed in annoyance at her teammate's behavior. "Can't you at least pretend to be a civilized person while we're in class? There… there are people looking at us." She added the last part in a hushed whisper, like an embarrassed mother begging her child to stop making a scene in a grocery store.

The icy princess was not offered any sort of response. The mass of golden hair remained silent in the face of her scolding. It seemed the gleaming, gilded pile of misery had swallowed up its victim's moans of despair once and for all.

"Nah, she's totally right!" Two rows in front of Jaune, Nora excitedly chimed into the conversation. "I wanna go at it with somebody tough! Everyone I've fought so far gets knocked out even if I just tap them with Magnhild."

Pyrrha shot her teammate a disapproving look. "You knocked Dove through the wall yesterday, Nora."

The hyperactive girl cocked her head at her leader like a confused puppy. "Right, like I said, I tapped him."

Pyrrha let out a quiet, defeated moan, not pressing the matter further. It was already clear to her that doing so would not yield any positive results.

It occurred to Jaune, and not for the first time, he had somehow ended up getting close to arguably the strongest students in his year. He was seriously hoping that might offer him some kind of protection if he ever had to fight them, but he doubted that would be the case. If anything, Nora would probably go even harder on him, as a show of friendship between them. He could hear the ginger berserker's kind-hearted promise now.

"Don't worry Jaune! I know you're tough so I won't hold back! You better go all out too!"

No doubt, that day would end with him in the hospital, both kneecaps reduced to atoms. Just the thought made him shiver and clutch his legs to his chest protectively.

Just then, the door to the classroom swung open with a wooden thunk. It was far too early for class to begin, so nobody bothered snapping to attention like they had trained themselves to do when the telltale sound of the brass knob slamming against its stopper rang out. Professor Goodwitch was never early, nor was she late. The strict woman took care to arrive exactly on time, no matter what. With five minutes remaining before the bell rang, it could not possibly be her.

"What's up, party people!?"

Thus, the high-strung and attentive audience that usually came after the classroom door opened was lacking. A few lazy glances were all that was spared for the new arrivals.

"... I told you showing up late wouldn't get you extra attention." Ben knocked a fist into Rex's arm and pushed past him, bee-lining for his seat in the stands.

"It's not like this was my idea. I just wanted to make the morning less boring, man." The deflated boy seemed disappointed that nobody responded to his energetic greeting and sluggishly followed after his teammate. Peter and Kevin were slower, both being busy on their scrolls and needing a moment to finish what they were doing before joining the rest of the group.

"'Sup guys? You miss us?" Peter slid into his seat beside Jaune, giving his leader a quick nod in greeting as he did so. "Good to see you, boss."

Jaune nodded kindly to his partner and offered a strained smile. If he was being honest, he was still unhappy with how things had gone yesterday... and the fact he was unhappy with that made him even more unhappy with himself. Yet, no matter how many times he told himself it was good that his team was feeling better... it bothered him that he didn't help at all, that they figured everything out themselves. He knew it was an awful way of thinking, but those thoughts refused to go away.

... But that was his problem. It wasn't like they had done anything to him, so they deserved nothing less than the same level of kindness he had shown them thus far. He would not stoop so low as to complain to his team that they solved their problems without him.

... He wouldn't.

"Morning, guys. You didn't get lost, did you?" Jaune's greeting came as naturally as any other, not a single thing out of place with his friendly wave and inviting tone.

"Not this time, no. Sorry we were late, just needed to finish up some extra work before we came in." Ben said, also taking his seat. "Didn't miss anything cool, did we?"

"Yang is complaining. Again." Blake responded dryly, her gaze never leaving the book held in front of her face. The bored girl was resting her cheek against one hand, golden eyes dully sweeping over the same line of text for the seventh time. For once, she was hoping class would hurry up and start and put an end to her companion's distracting moaning.

"My complaints are valid!" Yang passionately shouted, rapidly tearing her head away from the desk in an explosion of golden hair. The overly dramatic act earned her nothing but an eye-roll from her partner. "I can only beat up the same guys so many times before it starts to get boring! I want a challenge! I want to fight somebody strong! I can't believe combat class is the most boring course in this school!"

Huffing in annoyance, Weiss slapped away the golden strands that had whipped into her face. Despite her anger, she decided to remain silent and just pray for the time to pass by faster so class would finally begin.

The aggressive blonde flopped her face back down hard enough to produce a dull "thunk" sound. She released a long, nasally groan to make it clear just how put out she was. It almost managed to block out the sound of the many angry students her comments had upset, not that she would have cared even if she could hear them.

"... Er, sorry… you've had to get good grades these past few days?" Ben offered a confused apology that only made Yang groan louder. "I'm sure it was very hard… having to beat people u- why are you nodding like you agree, Kevin!?"

"You wouldn't get it, Tennyson. It's an art, what we do. Nobody wants to paint the same picture a hundred times." The thuggish boy sagely said his piece, like he was sharing some form of wisdom. Ben playfully shoved his friend and rolled his eyes at Yang, who must have nodded along with Kevin's "wisdom" judging by the subtle rise and fall of the golden mound.

The beautiful girl had become something of an anomaly in their year. Most of the students in their year absolutely loved her, and it wasn't hard to see why. She was gorgeous, outgoing, and friendly. On the other hand, she was painfully arrogant, noisy, and did not hide what she thought of her classmate's strength, though that was less out of a desire to degrade, and more out of a childish lack of filter.

Yang somehow managed to be one of the most popular and most hated people in their year. It was difficult to say if everyone loved to hate her or hated to love her.

Really, though, as long as it was entertaining, Ben didn't care too much. He was half-tempted to literally poke the bear, but decided to pass since doing so would probably be detrimental to his health. Unlike Kevin's empty threats, he got the feeling that if Yang promised pain, pain would follow.

"What kind of extra work were you guys doing?" Ruby turned around in her seat to face the new arrivals. "You're not doing extra credit already, are you? Even Weiss isn't that bad!"

"I fail to see what is so bad about being a good student." Weiss sniffed indifferently.

Rex waved off the question calmly. "Nah, just had to go over some stuff together. It's been a long time since most of us were in school, so we wanted to put our heads together for a while. Since, y'know, we've been pretty spaced out this past week."

There was truth there. They had been going over information together every chance they got ever since they swore to be better the day before. Now, that wasn't an especially large amount of information considering it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since then, but they were doing their best. Between every class period, the off-worlders slipped away from their fellow students and did the best they could to speed through anything relevant before the bell rang.

… Or, rather, Peter hurriedly showed them class recordings and hastily scribbled notes as fast as he could. Thankfully, his long history of spacing out in school had instilled in him the ability to take notes on autopilot, even if he wasn't fully processing what he was hearing. They were barely legible and vague at best, but it was better than nothing.

Realistically, though, that didn't matter. It wasn't like they planned to stay in Remnant forever, so common sense told them it wasn't a big deal if they performed poorly on their tests or even if they failed to graduate entirely. The only thing they were really concerned about was combat class. More than anything else, Peter imparted as much as he could of the rules he'd spent the entire night prior studying. Force restrictions, ring regulations, everything that might be important. The last thing they needed was to mess something up and call attention to themselves while on full display for their class.

It was tight, but he was fairly confident he'd shared everything they would need in the event one of them was called upon to put on a show.

"A while… since you were in school? Did you drop out?" Almost as quickly as she asked the question, Pyrrha covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Ah, I-I'm sorry! I understand that's a personal matter. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to!"

Rex was in the process of raising his hand to repeat his trademarked gesture he used to wave off awkward situations, when he was interrupted by Kevin of all people.

"Nothin' to talk about. We learned what we needed and left." He sat in the front row with the rest of his team, arms crossed as he blankly stared forward. "No point stickin' around once you've learned enough to survive."

Blake lowered the book she was reading just enough to peer over the top. Her curious amber eyes bore into the back of Kevin's head.

"Then why did you come to Beacon, if you don't mind me asking?"

Kevin shrugged apathetically. "... Needed to learn more."

Jaune watched the exchange quietly, grimacing all the while.

"Add that to the list of stuff I didn't know about my team: They were all out of school for a while, not just Ben and Kevin. It's pretty amazing those two were able to get recommended by their Headmaster when they didn't even officially graduate."

Putting those thoughts out of his mind, Jaune absently rubbed at his tired eyes, enjoying that euphoric feeling of massaging the exhaustion away, even if it only vanished for a few moments.

"You feeling okay?" Peter nudged his shoulder and shot him a sympathetic look. "This place has some pretty rough classes, but you've gotta rest eventually. Did you even go to sleep last night?"

Despite knowing exactly what his friend was talking about, Jaune still had the audacity to look clueless. His pasted-on confusion was soured by the clear signs of fatigue present on his face.

Haggard would have been a gross exaggeration. Putting it plainly, he looked tired. Not horribly exhausted, but it was clear to see he had not been getting enough rest. There were faint lines forming under his eyes and there was a distinct lack of light within the blue orbs, as if their owner was already half-dead.

"Was studying during lunchtime not enough for you?" Weiss asked. "Have you begun staying up at night now, too? You've grown a rather impressive study stamp there."

She was, of course, referring to his red cheek. She could not think of much else that would cause a mark of its kind other than somebody leaning on one hand for far too long while using their Scroll or reading a book.

"Come on, aren't you usually on my side when it comes to studying, Weiss?" Jaune brushed off the beautiful girl's concerns with a light-hearted laugh. "I just wanted to cover a little more material on Taijitus before I called it a night. I went to sleep. You know, eventually." His awkward thumbs-up trembled a little and was lowered after only a second, as if it was too difficult to keep it raised. The unfortunate reality was that, while his acting had improved, his tired body was struggling to keep up with him. There was a limit to how smooth he could be after sleeping a grand total of ten hours in the past four days. Even the man himself didn't know how he hadn't passed out standing up yet.

He had certainly had more than a few close calls in the middle of classes. Jaune had gotten used to avoiding propping his face up with one hand, because resting too long on the impromptu "pillow" was likely to make him drift off into Dreamland. Despite long since healing them with his aura, he swore he could still feel all the bruises he had gotten from slamming his forehead into his desk these past few days. The same thing almost happened near the end of the last period. Thankfully, his partner had been there to catch him and right him in his seat before his skull smashed into solid wood.

Or maybe that was a bad thing. Painful as those collisions were, they at least delivered a jolt to Jaune's brain that usually kept him awake for the next twenty minutes or so. Without his midday energy boost, he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. The blonde knight briefly eyed the classroom door, wondering if it was worth it to step out into the hall and smash his forehead against the wall a few times.

"... Not this time. I'm not that tired. Yet."

Weiss rolled her eyes at the sad thumbs-up she was offered. The look on the heiress' face made it clear she didn't believe him at all, but she chose not to press the matter. Her classmate's sleeping habits were none of her business after all, and besides, nobody was speaking to her in the first place.

Not that she was eavesdropping, and she would challenge anybody who dared to accuse her of doing so. Rather, their seats were so close together, it was practically impossible to have a private conversation without whispering. Intentional or not, one was bound to listen in on their classmates' conversations in such cramped seats. She was absolutely not going out of her way to listen in on the Honors Students, that was ridiculous.

Putting the brief interruption aside, Jaune wasn't lying. He wasn't up all night, and he did get some sleep eventually. He was only studying in the library until five in the morning, at which point his lack of sleep caught up with him and he blacked out on top of his Grimm studies textbook. He got a solid 3 hours of sleep! That was a 700% increase over the night before! It was practically a cheat day, or night, or however that worked.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Jaune turned to see Rex and Peter, holding out a banana and a fistful of granola bars respectively.

"'Went to bed eventually', huh, jefe?" Rex stared with half-closed eyes, a knowing smile on his face.

"You missed first period. And breakfast. We didn't see you at all until half-way through second period." Peter was less unimpressed and more concerned for his leader. "If you hadn't shown up when you did, I would have cut class to go looking for you. Being late is my thing, we don't need two me's on the team."

Jaune chuckled nervously and gratefully accepted the food. "I… also wanted to get in some early morning studying? Must not have heard the bells. Guess I'll have to make it up to the teachers. Thanks for grabbing me food, guys."

"Were they just carrying those in their pockets for the past few hours?" Blake gave the boys a bewildered look. "How… how did the banana not get crushed in Rex's pocket?"

"How did I not notice Jaune wasn't there for first period?" Ruby strained her mind, trying to think back to Grimm Studies, but found she could not remember if she had seen her fellow team leader or not. Come to think of it, she had been too busy drawing hilarious pictures to even notice he had arrived late to second period. That wouldn't do! They were supposed to be friends, and she didn't even notice he wasn't there. She would have to pay more attention to him from now on to make sure he wouldn't be missed again.

Though she had not commented, Pyrrha heard every word of the conversation and squinted her eyes unhappily. Her mouth pressed itself into a thin line before she began to speak.

*Click, click, click*

Alarm bells began going off in everybody's brains. The familiar clacking of professor Goodwitch's heels outside the classroom could be heard, signalling the imminent ringing of the bell. Everybody with a working set of ears cut the chatter, preemptively shutting down anything that would earn their teacher's ire. Jaune magically gained a burst of energy and sucked down his late breakfast in seconds, stowing the wrappers and peel under his chair. It seemed banging his head against the wall would not be necessary. His fear of the combat course professor had the same effect, if not stronger. Even Yang was quick to raise her head and straighten her messy hair. There were limits to her brazenness, and angering this particular professor sat well beyond those limits.

In the seats around them, Rex, Ben, Peter, and Kevin all nodded at each other. They were ready to go, armed with every rule in the book in the event they were chosen to fight. Pyrrha despondently closed her mouth, stowing the comment she was about to make for later.

The classroom door swung open at the exact moment the bell rang. The combat course's professor marched in with purpose, noting silently that her students were all waiting at attention as they should.

"Good morning, everyone." Glynda took her usual position at the head of the classroom, hardly glancing at her class as she furiously tapped away at the large Scroll in her hands. Some foolishly believed the lack of eye contact meant they would be excused for not returning the greeting, a mistake they were quick to remedy when the stern woman's piercing eyes flicked in their precise direction. A second, smaller chorus of "good mornings" came soon after.

After confirming everyone had responded, her attention returned to the Scroll. She began pacing in a small circle, continuing her work while beginning the day's lesson.

"Many of you have had the chance to test your skills since the term began. I have watched you closely, observed your mannerisms, your habits, and your attitudes. As our first full week together nears its end, I feel I have learned enough to confidently say…"

The pacing stopped immediately. Glynda's free hand gripped her riding crop and slapped the end against the ground, producing a painfully loud sound that caused many of the students to flinch. Peter grimaced and rubbed at his ears while Blake calmly adjusted the bow atop her head.

"You all have much to learn, winners included." Glynda's odd weapon was looped back into her belt and the pacing continued, only now she was looking directly at her students. "You have power, but not precision. Capability to attain victory once, but no method to repeat your success. Worst, I have noticed the very thing that serves as a Huntsman's worst enemy: extreme, overbearing pride."

"Mmm." Blake grunted, bored and thoroughly unimpressed by the rehearsed speech. It seemed her initial theory was correct, although their instructor had folded sooner than she expected. The quiet girl had thought the professor would hold onto her reset button until at least the second week.

Apparently, the experienced Huntress deemed it necessary to throw the kill switch already. Glancing over at her arrogant partner, Blake got the feeling this wasn't happening because of the class as a whole, but rather a few, select students.

"This should be an interesting period."

"Understanding one's own abilities is essential for properly gauging danger. Too little faith in oneself can lead to easily resolved situations ending in disaster. Alternatively, too much faith has led many a Hunter to an early end. As such, one of the most important things an aspiring Hunter must learn is to remain both self-aware and… humble."

There was extra emphasis on that final word, enough to clue even the dullest students in on just how important it was. Most were beginning to put the pieces together. Some were already sweating profusely, praying to the gods they would be ignored. Exceptions, such as Yang, looked like they had just won the lottery. The blonde girl's eyes slowly widened, her lips sluggishly forming an overjoyed smile as she realized her ceaseless prayers had been answered. The other battle maniacs in the crowd looked on with bright faces, bouncing in their seats as they pleaded for their cruel professor to stop yapping and pull the trigger on the first bout.

"As many of you may know, there are select students in your year of considerable acclaim. I thought it best to refrain from including them so soon, lest your egos be bruised too much, too early." Glynda grinned a little, as if she had just told a joke only she understood. "But, the grace period is over. You have all had opportunity enough to test yourselves and confirm your capabilities. Thus, I have decided to change things up today."

While most of the students whispered among themselves, Kevin narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the professor.

"Paradox's fake transcripts might say we're good at this stuff, but it ain't like she's actually seen us fight. For all she knows, we're not that much stronger than anybody else here. There's gotta be some other reason. ... I don't like this. What're you playin' at, Goodwitch?" The beefy young man looked over his shoulder to lock eyes with his fellow heroes two rows back. They were already looking right at him, doubt flickering in their eyes. Good, so he wasn't the only one who thought something was off.

As Kevin skeptically mused to himself, the large monitor fixed to the back wall flickered to life.

"Normally, I would personally select both participants for each match during our first month. However, for today's bouts, I will allow you to volunteer yourselves. Whoever would like to go first today, please raise your hand."

It was not even remotely difficult to figure out where this was going. So, unsurprisingly, not many hands were raised and, equally unsurprising, the hands that were raised came up in less than a second. There were only five, but two in particular had clearly been raised long before the others.

Yang shot a competitive smirk at Weiss.

"You want me to stop complaining, Weiss Cream? You know what I want. Come on, just let me have this one and I'll-"

"Benchwarmer says what?" Weiss asked with an impressively passive face.

"What- Oh, YOU DID NOT!" Yang was shocked. No way straight-laced, serious Weiss knew the 'who says what' trick! Who could have possibly taught it to her!?

"Snrk. Hee-hee-hee!"

Never mind. The little gremlin snickering to herself answered the question for her. Yang made a mental note to give her little sister ten thousand noogies later for costing her what she'd been begging for since the first day. Grumbling furiously, Yang threw herself into her chair. This turn of events displeased her greatly, but she was not such a barbaric heathen that she would ignore the "who says what" protocol.

Down below, Glynda's steely eyes fixed Weiss with a calculating stare. "I see. In that case, Weiss Schnee, prepare yourself for battle and join me on stage."

"At once." Weiss curtsied politely and headed for the locker rooms, but not before shooting Yang a smug grin. She was not the least bit remorseful over her declaration of war, nor was she above immaturely gloating about her victory.

That decided it, she was definitely learning all the wrong things from Ruby, and yet, Yang couldn't even be mad at the girl. She had been telling her uptight teammate to loosen up, and that was exactly what was happening. All she could do was seethe quietly in her seat. In the long run, she had won, but at what cost?

While Weiss prepared herself, Glynda tapped away at her scroll, altering the monitor behind her. One of the empty, square frames was filled in by Weiss' face, while the previously full aura gauge beside it depleted itself.

A few minutes later, Weiss returned wearing her battle uniform - a name Ben and Kevin refused to take seriously once they got a good look at the white dress - and clutched the handle of the rapier strapped to her waist. From her position on the stage, she glared directly down the middle of the classroom, right at a certain group of people. She was 99% sure she knew exactly what she was getting into, and had no intention of shrinking away from the self-imposed challenge.

"Who will be my opponent?" Apparently wanting to add to the image of total confidence she was projecting, the white-haired girl saw fit to fan the flames further and apathetically called for an adversary.

"Oh gods please not me!" Jaune was trembling in his seat. His shivering intensified when Weiss' glare swept over him. He had seen firsthand these past days exactly how strong Weiss was and did not want to get involved with any of that. "I'm not ready to die yet!"

"Not so fast, Ms. Schnee." But, to the haughty student's surprise, professor Goodwitch put a stop to any volunteers' attempts at tossing their hats in the ring. "I said I would not be choosing both participants in each match. Now that you have volunteered yourself, I will be selecting your partner."

"She's totally looking straight at us." Peter met the professor's eyes. It was not difficult, considering they went straight to his team before dropping two rows down to Kevin's group. Those steely orbs swept all over the handful of students, carefully weighing the possibilities before their owner spoke again.

"Your opponent… will be Rex Salazar."

Eyes widened across the classroom. Any especially slow student who had yet to put the pieces together finally caught up with everybody else. Today would be the day to destroy any overly confident student's bloated ego by siccing the Honors Students on them. Suddenly, many of them felt much better about not raising their hands.

Weiss clutched the handle of her rapier tighter. She was confident in her abilities, but it was hard to not feel nervous. Beacon Academy, already a home for the best in the world, had a certain class above the regular students, a class so prestigious she hadn't even heard of it before Initiation day. Her opponent belonged to that very class. There was no way she would back down now, though. As long as she thought it through and planned accordingly, she could win.

She would win.

"Good luck, Rex." Jaune flashed his teammate a thumbs up.

"At least it wasn't me."

"You got this, bud." Ben gently knocked a fist against his friend's chest and offered an encouraging smile.

The tanned boy raised an eyebrow at the choice, but did not raise any objections. As a wide smile stretched across his face, he rose to his feet and made a show of stretching his arms carelessly.

"Guess I've got no choice then. See you in a few, princesa." Knowing full well nobody understood what his affectionate nickname meant, he gladly shouted it for the rooftops before smoothly unbuttoning his uniform and throwing it down. He picked up the red jacket draped on his seat and threw it on over his dress shirt. Satisfied with his wardrobe change, Rex walked to the edge of the bleacher-like seats and took a step over the side. He dropped ten feet down into the battle arena, bending his knees to absorb the impact. There was no need to visit the locker room like Weiss had since he had no equipment to prepare or tools to check.

Rex calmly stepped onto the stage wearing his usual jacket and goggles. He was clearly unbothered by the situation, and proved it by making a show of paying more attention to tugging his gloves down than he did his opponent. If his goal was to aggravate Weiss, he succeeded, judging by her twitching eyebrow.

Truthfully, he was preparing, just on the inside.

"Okay, remember what Peter told you. Normally, ring-outs are a thing, but this place goes wall-to-wall, so I don't think that applies here. There's no force restrictions unless the ref tells us beforehand, and I need to watch out for weird magic stuff if she has a Semblance. Then… the battle ends automatically once somebody's aura drops below thirty percent. Speaking of aura, that'll protect her, so I don't have to worry about pulling my punches. Got it, I think that's everything import... wait… aura…?"

On the monitor above, the second picture frame was filled in by Rex's face and his own bar dropped to zero. He stared at the now empty bar, suddenly feeling much more nervous than he did five seconds ago.

"Take your positions." Goodwitch had already moved to the back of the stage, directly under the large screen, and waited for the two students to move to opposing ends of their battleground before continuing. "Both of you, activate your auras, and we will begin."

Nodding along, Weiss was surrounded by a white glow. As the light faded away, the long gauge next to her picture filled back up, broken into three sections colored green on one end and red on the other, while the middle was bright orange. A thin white line lit up right on the border between orange and red, signifying the point where a match would end once one of the combatants' auras dropped low enough.

Peter had stressed about this before, but his fears were alleviated not long before class began. He had run through a checklist with his fellow heroes, listing off rules, permitted equipment, and, of course, aura. When he asked his teammates if they had everything they needed, every one of them reassured him, claiming they "had it covered."

They had it covered. Obviously, that meant they had all managed to get their auras unlocked at some point and didn't need him to do it.

... Right?

Weiss stared expectantly at her opponent for exactly three seconds, then tilted her head in confusion. From the stands, every student did the same. The last to react and the first to show frustration was professor Goodwitch.

"Mr. Salazar, activate your aura immediately." Her tone made it very clear she was not asking for his cooperation, she was demanding it.

... Come to think of it... it did seem like they were only half-listening when he was explaining everything, and their response had been rather... flippant...

B-but that didn't mean Rex didn't have aura! After all, even after several weeks of having his own aura unlocked, Peter could barely even turn it on! Maybe... maybe Rex just needed a minute. Y-yes, absolutely, that was it! Wiping the sweat forming on his brow, Peter silently encouraged his teammate to activate his latent powers.

The confident boy scratched at his cheek with an uncomfortable and slightly panicked expression, the very pinnacle of the legendary "oh shit" face. "Yeah, uh, about that…"

"Oh yeah, Peter did ask about that before class, didn't he?"

Peter felt a pit grow in his stomach as he stared at Rex's empty aura gauge.

He didn't have it.

He didn't have it!

"He… never got his aura unlocked. … NOBODY ACTIVATED HIS AURAAAAA!" The poor boy was stressing his soul out. He gripped the sides of his head with both hands and watched helplessly, slack-jawed, as Rex fumbled around trying to think up an excuse. "BALLS! Why didn't I double-check!? Why didn't I make sure he got this done!? THE ONE THING WE CAN'T COVER UP!"

Rex leaned back on his heels, then forward onto the balls of his feet. It was dawning on him that he miiiight have messed up by not listening to Peter, but his lecture was just so boring! Regardless this seemed like something with enough importance attached to it that it couldn't just be waved off. But, he had already jumped on stage with so much confidence. It wasn't like he could just say "never mind" and chicken out now. His reputation was on the line! Eventually, he gave up on awkwardly shuffling around and lazily grabbed the back of his neck with one hand. There wasn't any good way to explain this, so he would have to go with plan B: Bullshit.

Still holding the back of his neck, he threw on his best smile and addressed the professor with the utmost confidence he could muster.

"Hah? Come on, I don't need any of that. I can fight just fine without a crutch like aura."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The silence was unbelievably loud. Many of the students were caught between wanting to laugh at the ridiculous statement and remaining quiet out of fear of what Goodwitch would do to them if they dared to disrupt her class. Weiss stared incredulously at her opponent, unable to believe he would make such an absurd statement right in front of their teacher.

The unimpressed professor stifled a sigh of disappointment and began to speak again. "Mr. Salazar, you are not the first to make such a claim, and you will not be the last. However, in my class, no students may shirk their responsibility to safety or themselves. Activate your aura, now, and we will begin the match."

"Why? I made it this far without it, didn't I?" With no other choice, Rex kept up the bluff, pressing his luck even further while fighting to get his nervous sweating under control. "Didn't you check my school records? I topped out every class I was in all on my own, no aura required. I beat up plenty of scrubs without it before, and I can do the same now."

Every word out of Rex's mouth was sending the rest of the class spiralling further and further in the depths of disbelief. Not only were his claims unbelievable, not only was his confidence off the charts, but he was actually arguing with Goodwitch with a smile on his face! Had anybody ever done that and survived!?

"Haah!?" Ruby let out a small squeak of disbelief. "That's a thing? You can get into Beacon without using your aura?"

"Forget that, why didn't you guys tell us about this? That's awesome!" Nora turned around in her seat, excitedly probing for an answer from Team JPTR. This was way too juicy to pass up. She wanted all the details.

"I… had no idea." Jaune uttered quietly. For the first time in a while, his confident public persona dropped, leaving only his genuine confusion.

"Could… could he be the same as me, then? He was late to awaken? Or… maybe…"

"Think of a cover! Now!" Peter was still clutching his head, sweating profusely as he tried to make up an excuse. He seriously doubted this approach was going to work. They needed a real solution or he would have to explain his teammate's lack of aura to Beacon staff.

Unaware of his friend fast-tracking to a heart attack at twenty-seven, Rex remained steadfast. For good measure, he shook off some of his playfulness and adopted a more serious expression and posture. "Hey, the point of today's lesson is being humble, or some junk like that, right? Well then, humble me." As if emphasizing his point, Rex gestured to himself and struck a confident pose. "Embarrass me. Knock me down a peg. Show me I can't make it here without using my aura, otherwise I'm just wasting my time."

The assembled students were dumbfounded. Most of them could freely admit they were just as confident as their teacher claimed, but going into a match without activating your aura? That went beyond "overconfidence", it was pure arrogance! No, pure insanity!

But, it couldn't be helped. Many of the off-worlders had not received any help activating their latent auras, nor had they encountered any situation that called for such a thing. As such, there was only one among them with any such ability.

"Him… too?" Jaune muttered to himself quietly enough the others could not hear him. To be blunt, most of the class thus far had gone over his head, his tired ears not picking up on most of the words that were spoken. But this, this he heard clearly. This kick-started his senses; The faint possibility there was somebody else lacking in the aura department, even if not to the same degree.

"Rex always did seem pretty sure of himself, but, this is just… there's no way. Could he be lying?"

And, in that moment, Peter felt something snap. He didn't have a solution. There was no good way to get out of this situation. As much as he hated it… the best option was to just ride out Rex's gambit.

He made a mental note to drag his fellow heroes together as soon as the lunch bell rang. Before fourth period began, he was unlocking everyone's auras.

Glynda looked like she was going to explode, but, before she lost her temper, she managed to take a deep breath. Her brilliant green eyes leveled on Rex, their red-faced owner slowly opening her mouth to speak again.

"Mr. Salazar, how on Remnant have you made it this far without using your aura?"

If you wanted to have a long, meaningful discussion on semantics, it technically was not a requirement to have a documented win with aura assistance to enter and graduate from combat school, or to even have it unlocked in the first place. That being said, it would be nigh impossible to keep up with your peers given the physically enhancing properties of aura.

It was the sort of rule that did not exist only because it was generally assumed that such a thing would be impossible, something so blatantly unfeasible that making an official rule out of it would have been a waste of time. It would be like pairing a toddler against an adult bear. With such a massive power gap, skill was utterly irrelevant. Anybody could guess the outcome of the battle in an instant.

Feeling his act was beginning to pay off, Rex threw his cocky grin back on and pointed to himself once more. "Simple, maestra, I'm just that good. I told you I'd be fine without it, and I've got the skills to prove it." Rex clenched and unclenched his fist a few times, turning his powers off and on to show off the blue lines that came before his transformations.

"Regardless of what you think, I will not allow you to…" Glynda observed him carefully, internally debating what the best course of action would be. She remained silent for one minute, then two. The quiet dragged on for so long, Rex began to think she had passed out on her feet. "... No. If that is your wish, then very well. You may battle as you are, Mr. Salazar."

"Wh-what!?" Weiss was dumbfounded. She was expected to fight against somebody who didn't even have aura? No physical enhancement, no shielding, no… nothing? A single stab of her rapier could easily kill her opponent if this match was allowed to proceed!

"As I said, the purpose of this lesson comes down to a single principle. A Hunter must be humble. To understand your abilities as they are, without over or undervaluing them, will save your life and the lives of those around you in the future." Those green eyes were on Rex again, piercing straight through to his soul. "You will soon learn, Mr. Salazar, that there are limits to what you alone can do. I hope this match will teach you that."

Instead of responding verbally, Rex gave the professor a goofy smile and a lopsided thumbs-up. She scoffed at his dismissal of her proclamation, but accepted it as a matter of course.

"P-p-professor! I'm n-not sure I should-!"

"Please be calm, Ms. Schnee." Glynda raised a hand to silence her panicking student. "I assure you, no severe harm will befall either of you. I will be watching every one of your movements, and I will step in should I deem intervention necessary. Fight with everything you have, as you would in any other match."

Returning to her post at the back of the stage, she waited for the pair of combatants to ready themselves. Still feeling uncomfortable with what was going on, Weiss shook her head and shakily raised her rapier, a white glow surrounding her body. Rex, having no aura to activate, assumed a very casual position, one that was not at all appropriate for a battlefield. His hands were in his pockets, his stance was weak, and he wasn't even looking at his opponent. Instead he chose to twist his entire upper body around and flash a smile at his team in the stands, silently promising them a victory.

His careless attitude had the unintentional effect of returning some energy to Weiss. She was well aware taking on one of Beacon's Honors Students would be a tremendous challenge, but she wasn't even being taken seriously! Her classmate wasn't even using his aura, and still he acted like there was nothing to worry about!

She had every advantage in the world, and Rex wasn't concerned in the slightest.

Part of her was still afraid to continue this match, painfully aware of how easy it would be to not only hurt, but outright kill her classmate by accident. But, the far larger, more prideful part of her was outraged that she was seen as such a minor threat that, even with every handicap in the book, her opponent was still unbothered by her presence.

Growling quietly, she tightened her grip on her rapier. If he refused to take her seriously, she would show him firsthand what a grave mistake that was.

Jaune felt a pit growing in his stomach as the fighters took their positions. "Please don't die, Rex."

Goodwitch raised one arm high into the air.

"Do your best, Weiss!" Ruby cheered from the stands.

"Bring home the trophy, Rex!" From the row behind her, Ben supported his own teammate.

"On my mark…" The match's officiator looked between her students one last time, then thrust her arm down. "Begin!"

Not wasting a single moment, Weiss created a white glyph in the air behind her. The pattern within the glyph constricted, then launched her forward at an impossible speed. In less than a second, she was directly in front of Rex, who had yet to remove his hands from his pockets. He hadn't even turned to face her, his eyes still locked on the stands.

"He's mine." Thrusting her rapier forward, Weiss determinedly aimed directly for the center of his back. At this distance, at this speed, she was sure she had caught him.

But, at the last moment, she felt a sudden wave of emotion and veered off to the side. In that split-second, she reminded herself there was no aura barrier to catch the blow. Just before impact, the very real possibility of her blade skewering Rex crossed her mind, and, not wanting that thought to become reality, her confidence collapsed and she frantically adjusted her sword arm to point the blade at his left shoulder instead of his spine.

*Fweeeee*

Just as her blade was about to make contact, a high-pitched, mechanical whirring assaulted her ears. From the corner of her eye, she could see a hand approaching, covered in glowing blue lines. Impossibly, it began to grow and morph into a new shape, until, finally…

Clang!

In a spray of sparks, Weiss' blade was knocked to the side and her target sidestepped to avoid being bowled over by her. She had too much forward momentum to stop so quickly and sailed a short distance away before managing to halt herself. Afraid of a counterattack, she whipped around, blade raised, ready to face whatever was coming her way.

Only to realize her opponent had not moved at all. Back turned, he waited patiently for her to attack him again, one hand resting on his hip and the other-

"H-HUH!?" Weiss' eyes bulged out of their sockets. In place of Rex's right hand, an unbelievably huge sword was resting on his shoulder, angled diagonally so the blade pointed to the corner of the ceiling. It was too large to conceal, even in a collapsed form. How… where…!?

It did wonders for her sanity once she realized she was not alone in this reaction. The vast majority of her classmates also wore stupefied expressions or made strange noises as words failed them.

"That's it? Come on, princesa, show me some more. That fancy magic thing was really cool. Hurry up, I want to see it again." Rex was half taunting and half genuinely asking for another demonstration. At last, he fully turned to face her and tapped the massive sword growing out of his right arm against his shoulder a few times. Instead of pushing the offensive, he waited patiently for her to attack again.

"That's… not…" Weiss thought back to Initiation. She remembered when Ben's massive Grimm form came barrelling out of the woods, Rex had appeared shortly after with wings growing out of his back. Soon after, his arm had turned into a massive projectile launcher.

"I thought… it was a Semblance of some kind… but that can't be! He just said he wouldn't use his aura! What… is he?"

Desperate to confirm her suspicions, Weiss whipped her head to the screen that monitored their vitals. Despite using what should have been his Semblance, Rex's aura gauge was still at zero. True to his word, he had not called upon the power of his soul.

Unknowingly, the heiress took a cautious step back. This was beyond uncharted territory. She could not expect anything to make sense anymore. Her best chance at winning this bout was to assume her expectations would be shattered at every turn.

"... Well, alright then." Rex raised his sword off his shoulder and let it drop to the floor. The heavy blade easily shattered the reinforced concrete like it was made of glass. "If you're not coming to me, I guess I'll lead. You know the Paso Doble?"

Stomping one foot on the ground, he surged forward at a tremendous speed. His speed wasn't quite on the level of aura-boosted movement, but it was clearly beyond what a regular person should have been capable of. Weiss raised her rapier and managed to parry Rex's giant blade into the ground. As if he expected that, Rex used the momentum to twist his body and vaulted over his sword arm before lashing out with a spinning kick. Weiss blocked the high attack with her weapon, but the impact still sent her sliding several feet away. She barely managed to stay on her feet, pressing her toes into the ground to retain her balance as she skidded away.

It made no sense. Despite telling herself to expect nothing to make sense, she still didn't know how to react to this. No normal person should have been able to move as fast as Rex just did, especially not while lugging around a massive sword. And his strength! She was sure she was stronger, but even with aura, she was still sent flying. There were too many nonsensical variables, too many factors that weren't adding up. In the middle of their fight, Weiss froze, unable to process it all.

This couldn't be right. This wasn't right. What kind of freak of nature had she gotten herself into a bout with!? Was this the level of Beacon's Honors Students!?

"Come on, Weiss! Wake up!" The heiress' eyes snapped over to the stands. Her leader, annoying as always, was cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting words of encouragement. "I know you can do it! You're stronger than this!"

"... Stop distracting me." The girl grumbled half-heartedly. Ruby's frustrating support was as unwelcome as always, but she had to admit it successfully snapped her out of her daze.

"... Expect the irregular." Weiss took a deep breath and pointed her weapon at Rex again. "Nothing has made sense so far, and it's unlikely anything will make sense going forward. Take note of anything important, ignore everything else."

Rex was strong and fast, far beyond what a regular person should have been capable of. He could use what she assumed was a Semblance without activating his aura. He was powerful, but his defenses had to be weak with nothing to shield him. His unexpected speed had caught her off guard, but she was still faster and stronger with the aid of her aura. Her best approach would be to overwhelm him with her speed and target any openings until his strength waned.

Weiss nodded to herself. That was the approach she would go with to claim victory.

Rex continued to casually assert his dominance over the situation. His sword was still resting on his shoulder while his free hand remained in his pocket. Weiss decided to go on the attack while his guard was still lowered. Rushing forward, she tested his guard with a head-on attack. As she expected, the simple attack failed. Rex managed to raise his huge sword and bat away her comparatively tiny blade. Despite its immense size, he seemed totally unbothered by the giant weapon and waved it around with speed and dexterity comparable to her own.

His practiced, graceful movements did not fall in line with what would have been expected of a brute lugging around an oversized lump of metal. Rex was practically dancing in a style almost similar to her own, calmly stepping around the battlefield while maneuvering his weapon to block and counterattack. It was almost like his sword was his dance partner, either being led around by Rex or being robbed of its momentum to allow him to pull off otherwise impossible maneuvers. The fact his opponent had aura didn't seem to matter at all, as if the arrogant boy was used to fighting physically superior opponents.

Weiss' strikes were countered at every turn, clanging and spark showers accompanying every collision of steel. Switching tactics, she formed a glyph under her feet and launched herself into another glyph waiting above. Repeatedly creating floating platforms to maneuver herself with, she darted all around her opponent, disappearing from his line of sight every time he whipped his body around to face her. The dancing warrior waited patiently until, at last, she found the perfect opening. Rex had just turned around, believing he had caught her attempt to sneak up on him. She now had a clear view of his undefended back and the means to strike. Angling the glyph she was standing on, she launched herself forward like a bullet, mercilessly bearing towards her opponent's vulnerable point.

At the very last moment, Rex noticed where she had gone and attempted to dodge, but he was too late to avoid her completely. He knew there was no escaping the sharp blade of the rapier, so he braced himself for the painful impact. He did not run, he did not try to shield himself. Instead, he altered the form of his large sword. The long blade collapsed in on itself and spread out, forming an almost cube-like shape. The three meter-long sword had transformed into a giant fist.

He felt the impact, the sharp pain of a blade's tip sliding along his lower back. He felt a draft as his jacket and dress shirt were sliced clean through. There was probably a long, red line opened up in his flesh, but he paid that no mind. The wound didn't feel very deep, so it was nothing to worry about. The experienced fighter would show Weiss that he, too, knew how to capitalize on an opportunity.

As the nimble girl soared behind him, he stuck his arm out straight and swung his gigantic fist in a circle, expecting an easy hit as she flung herself into his waiting counterattack. There was no way she would expect his self-sacrificing plan to allow himself to be hit so he could strike back with a metal fist. He could already taste his victory.

"... Huh?"

Unfortunately, his strategy did not pay off. Weiss quickly caught on to his plan and reacted in time to counter him. Still soaring through the air, the heiress repositioned herself and flipped on top of his mechanical fist, using it as a springboard to leap across the stage like a professional gymnast before he could go for another counterattack.

"Wow. Not a bad move. Reminds me of a friend of mine, though he's not as fun as you." Rex tenderly pressed a hand to his back, wincing in pain as he did so. As he thought, his wound wasn't very deep, and it was hardly bleeding at all. Weiss had only grazed him. Unfortunately, his poor jacket would need some repairs.

Weiss didn't care for his praise. While he was busy talking she created another glyph behind her and rocketed forward again, prompting Rex to transform his other hand into a matching metal fist. He attempted a downward slam, only for Weiss to flip over the attack and land behind him.

Rex swung wildly several more times, pulverizing the stage around him, but Weiss was too fast. She gracefully evaded every attack and flying shard of concrete until, tired of playing defense, she elegantly vaulted over a sweeping lariat and struck his nose with the same spinning kick he hit her with before. There was a loud cracking noise as the impact sent him skidding head-over-heels across the floor.

"Good job, Weiss!" Ruby continued to support her partner from the stands.

"Keep pressing the attack! Don't let up now!" Yang, too, began cheering, offering advice to help finish the fight quickly.

"Erm… everyone…" Pyrrha wore a strained smile, like she wanted to be excited, but couldn't for some reason.

"Aren't you two a little too quick to forget he's vulnerable?" Blake didn't particularly care for Rex any more than she did the rest of the class, but it concerned her how easily her teammates forgot the boy's body had just taken actual damage. "... Whatever. I guess it's fine if Goodwitch doesn't call the match."

The experienced Huntress was leaning next to the door leading out of the classroom, her piercing eyes taking in every little detail of her students' bout. She had not so much as twitched since the match began. Evidently, the damage Rex had taken thus far did not warrant bringing the match to a premature end in her eyes.

"Is he gonna be okay down there?" Jaune took his eyes off the fight and turned to Ben. "I don't know him as well as you, but it looks like Weiss might be too fast for him."

Rex was slowly picking himself off the ground, doing his best to suppress a pained yelp. An aura-reinforced kick to his unprotected face was no joke. Blood was streaming from his nose like a waterfall, not to mention it was almost completely numb. Furthermore, while the wound on his lower back wasn't deep, the injured teen's wild movements had widened it, causing more blood to flow out. The small bit of his flesh that was visible through the torn jacket and shirt was covered in red fluid, and the hemline of his dress pants was beginning to discolor as blood seeped into the material.

On the other end of the stage, Weiss grimaced at her pure white boots. Some of the blood that had burst out of Rex's nose had stained the expensive footwear. It was possible she would have to throw them out and get entirely new boots if she couldn't clean them soon.

It seemed it hadn't fully dawned on her yet that it was blood, her classmate's blood, no less, dirtying her shin.

Ben ignored all the mounting evidence and snorted at the insinuation his partner would be outmatched so easily. "You kidding? Relax, Jaune, he's got this. Take a closer look, he hasn't even started trying yet."

Rex morphed one hand back to normal and wiped at his bleeding nose. The numbed injury was already fading to the back of his mind. His number one priority was finding an effective way to counter Weiss' use of glyphs to fly around the stage. Despite clearly being at a disadvantage, he did not look worried at all. If anything, he seemed to be having fun. He wiped his bloody glove off on his dress pants and smiled brightly at Weiss with red-stained lips. Such a genuine, pure smile threw her so off guard she actually lowered her rapier a few centimeters.

"Ha, this is awesome!" Rex turned his attention to Professor Goodwitch, smiling at her like she had given him the greatest present ever. "You should have called me down sooner, teach! I haven't had a fight this good in a long time!"

He flicked his bloody hand to the side, scattering the last bit of crimson liquid across the floor. "I gotta admit, though, I really don't like losing, and you're making me look like a joke right now." Rex passively glanced at his oversized metal fist and found it in himself to laugh quietly. "Maybe a little too big and slow for a ballerina like you, huh? Fair enough, gotta match my dance partner don't I?"

The giant fist morphed again. Its orange coloring turned a dark, steely color, and the knuckles converged into a single curved blade. Rex's newest weapon was an axe twice the size of his torso.

"Sorry, but this is the smallest I can go." Rex jokingly held his bladed arm out to the side and raised his human hand above his head. "But wait, there's more!"

Extending his index finger to the sky, Rex morphed his left appendage into a long, thick, black cord while a giant cylindrical tank grew out of his back. He eyed his new weapons and made a pleased noise.

"Oh yeah, now it's a party." A gleeful smile split his face. He beat Weiss to the punch and took the initiative in the second round. One large step at a time, he ran straight to her, wholly unbothered by the weight of his new armaments.

Weiss weighed her options carefully, and decided to continue with her old strategy until it failed her. Leaping into the air, she blasted herself across the stage, again aiming to take her opponent from behind.

Only for a familiar black cord to entangle her leg as soon as she maneuvered behind Rex.

"Wh-!?" She had no time to make any movements. The cord tightened up and she was thrown back down to earth, smashing violently into the stage and bouncing on the ground a few times. The tremendous impact knocked the wind out of her and very nearly caused her to lose her grip on her weapon. Weiss' head was swimming and the room was swirling around her. In one disorienting blow, her aura had been reduced by about thirty percent.

"This is bad." Unwilling to let her pain keep her down, Weiss jumped to her feet and put distance between herself and her opponent. Blinking furiously, she willed her eyes to refocus as fast as possible. "He has too many options. If I counter one of them, he pulls out a new weapon. I can't counter all of them. What do I do?"

In a rare moment of introspection, the heiress slowed down. She took stock of the situation and tried to find a way out. This was a problem that could only be solved by adapting, not brazenly charging forward with one of her usual, catch-all strategies.

Unfortunately for her, Rex had no intention of giving her time to find a workaround. He lashed out with his whip from across the stage, unbothered by the distance between them. Weiss danced around the snake-like cord, batting it aside with her slender weapon whenever it got too close for comfort. The battle turned into a performance reminiscent of a ribbon dance as the beautiful girl elegantly evaded the whip with grace. She ducked, side-stepped, and flipped over every attack, not once taking her eyes off her opponent.

Rex grinned at her impressive movements, then decided to switch it up. He moved to strike at her side with his whip, abandoning all subtlety and winding up for an overly wide attack. As he hoped, she took the bait and preemptively ducked under the strike long before it reached her. Just as she moved to avoid the sweeping attack, he leaped into the air and twisted his body. The whip bent around his curved axe blade and abruptly changed direction to curl around his body. Smirking proudly, Rex ducked just in time for the whip to swing around above his head, arcing towards his opponent at an otherwise impossible angle. Weiss managed to raise her weapon to shield herself from the blow, the powerful impact sending her sliding across the stage on the balls of her feet. That whip was much thicker than it initially appeared. The weighted strike left her arms shaking, a slight numb feeling coursing through them.

"Ugh, just when I think I have his moves figured out, he switches tactics. There's already so many ways for him to combine his equipment, and I likely haven't even seen everything. How do I counter all of his moves? I need a way to…"

Weiss' eyes widened. She was thinking about this all wrong. The way forward did not lie in thinking up ways to counter every one of Rex's moves. Worrying too much about future possibilities would inevitably lead to her defeat. If he really did possess the ability to throw endless combinations of moves at her, she only had to adapt to each combination in turn and tear him down before he could show her something unfamiliar.

With renewed confidence, she spun the cylinder of her rapier until a blue vial locked in place underneath the blade.

"Besides, he's not the only one who can switch things up."

The next time the powerful whip swept towards her, she took advantage of Rex's strategy and ducked long in advance. As she hoped, he tried to catch her off guard and used his axe to change the whip's direction. As it swung down, threatening to crush her, she made her move.

Weiss hopped above the whip and shoved her blade straight into it, skewering the cord into the ground. The blue vial loaded into her weapon began glowing, and a spiky mound of ice encased the whip, freezing it to the floor.

Knowing she likely had only a few seconds before Rex found a way to counter her latest power play, she switched to a red vial and created nearly a dozen glyphs in the air above her. Glowing red energy converged in the center of each glyph before beach ball-sized orbs of fire were launched out like artillery shells. Unable to escape, Rex's eyes widened as the barrage of fire dust impacted him directly. The ensuing explosions shook the entire classroom and created a thick cloud of smoke that covered half the arena, hiding the helpless hero from sight. For the time being, the arena was dead silent.

"Hah… hah…" Weiss used the moment of peace to take as many deep breaths as she could. Flying around the stage and desperately avoiding the lightning-fast whip strikes had quickly drained her energy. But, surely, she had to be close now. A direct impact from that many blasts of fire Dust had to have had some effect, especially on somebody with no aura.

"Hah… Hm?" In between breaths, she chanced a look at the monitor. Her aura reserves were still comfortably high, though her continued use of her semblance had dropped her down to about fifty-five percent full. Of course, Rex's bar was still empty.

As she took advantage of the opportunity to take as many deep breaths as possible, her eyes drifted down and fell on her bloody boot. She had already seen it, already agonized over how annoying it would be to clean, but only now in this moment of calm, did she pause. The heiress stopped and considered for a moment just what it was seeping into her snow white footwear.

"... Wait, isn't this actually really bad!?" Weiss muttered under her breath in a panic. She had gotten too excited, too absorbed in their battle. Only now that her attack was complete, did she fully consider the implications of launching a fire Dust barrage at an unprotected combatant. Goodwitch still hadn't moved, sure, but…

Suddenly afraid, she whipped her head around and anxiously peered into the smoke, for once praying her opponent wasn't finished. With every second that went by in silence, her anxiety grew. Normally, seeing movement after such a large attack would have been disheartening, but she almost felt happy when a faint blue glow pierced through the smoky veil. Releasing a relieved breath, Weiss found herself smiling as she raised her rapier once more, ready for whatever Rex was going to throw at her.

As the ash dissipated, she saw that her opponent had not taken any damage at all from her barrage, save for a few singes on his jacket. His axe hand was gone, replaced by an oversized gauntlet projecting some kind of energy shield around his entire body, minus a small hole near his left arm to let the trapped whip through. From within the glowing blue sphere, he shot her a cocky smirk.

In the stands, the Invincible Girl slammed her hands down on her lap. The scene playing out before her eyes left her flabbergasted.

"Is that hard light Dust?! How did he get his hands on that?!" Pyrrha was unable to contain her shock. She knew very well how incredibly expensive the rare resource was, to the point most companies could not afford to buy it in bulk. A single six-inch vial of hard light Dust could sell for anywhere between two-thousand and five-thousand Lien. Nearly all of Remnant's supply went straight to the Atlas military to fuel their research projects. Even she had never used any herself. In her eyes, the benefits did not outweigh the extreme cost.

"It's those awesome gauntlets again! But where do they keep coming from?" Ruby was enamored with the beautiful tech Rex had shown them thus far, almost forgetting what was going on as she stared hungrily at his machines. Exasperated, Yang gently knocked on the side of her head, breaking her sister out of the trance she was in. "I-I mean, KEEP GOING WEISS! YOU'VE ALMOST GOT HIM! … Probably."

"Ren, I want that! Imagine if I could put a hard light generator on Magnhild! I could make super awesome grenades with that!" Nora excitedly shook her partner around, not taking her eyes off the fight for a single second. She had been drawn into the excitement since the beginning, and she was not about to miss whatever awesome thing would happen next.

"Impressed, ladies?" Ben leaned back in his seat, grinning widely at the performance down below. "That's my partner down there, so you'd better get used to that feeling. There's plenty more where that came from."

Jaune watched with bated breath, excited and terrified by the impressive display of technique from both parties. They were both far beyond his level. If he ever had to fight either of them, he would have no chance of victory.

All around them, every student in the room was excitedly whispering about the most intense bout they had witnessed since classes began. Blake suddenly began to feel nervous as her golden eyes swept over her classmates. Yet again, everybody but her was ignoring the obvious.

"Really, am I the only one concerned here? Has everyone else forgotten how dangerous this is?"

The shield dropped as Rex collapsed the gauntlet, leaving his regular right arm in its place. His whip arm, too, fell away, scattering mechanical parts everywhere. It wasn't very comfortable ditching pieces instead of reabsorbing them like he usually did, but with the tip trapped under an ice block, there wasn't much choice. He was back to looking like just another everyday human teenager. With the blue energy shield now dropped, Weiss could see there was a small patch of raw, burnt skin on the left side of his neck, just barely peeking out from under his jacket's low collar.

"Whoo! I've had some pretty great fights, but this is definitely one of the best! You've gotta show me how you did that when we get out of here." Rex cheered like a child for the show he was treated to. It was clear he still refused to seriously acknowledge his opponent as a major threat to his safety. That, or he was having too much fun to fully acknowledge how dangerous his situation was. Either way, he was certainly too high on adrenaline to acknowledge any of his injuries. The hero likely hadn't even noticed that his nose was still bleeding, soaking his lips and running down his neck until it seeped into his shirt.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at him. She was getting sick and tired of this continued act of indifference. Here she was, throwing everything she had at him, and he was hardly even bothered. She couldn't even tell if he genuinely wasn't worried about his injuries or if he really was too excited to acknowledge them, nor could she decide which one scared her more.

But, in the midst of the fight, she began to feel strange. She had been in intense battles before, all of which she won, of course. However, those were always so dull, so monotone. The moment she put some thought into it, the path to victory became clear. But this, this was different. With such a strange opponent, one so dedicated to completely throwing out the rulebook and acting as he pleased, the heiress couldn't help but feel excited herself as the battle wound down. As sure as she was that she could win, at this point, she had no idea how she would win. There was something oddly... exciting about that.

Rex's cheerful attitude was dangerously infectious. Weiss couldn't deny it, she was having fun. Even though it was dangerous, even though her aura was getting very close to falling into the red, she was enjoying the fight more than any other she had ever been in.

Regardless, the show must go on, and their fight wasn't done just yet. She allowed herself her own tiny smile before letting the atmosphere of their battle overtake her once more. The skilled Huntress-in-training could feel it, their battle would end soon.

"Shut… up!" Allowing her spirit to take hold of her, the Dust princess began throwing everything she had at her opponent with a spin of her rapier's Dust cylinder. Glyphs appeared all over the battlefield, all of them starting out red, then making way for yellow glyphs, and finally blue glyphs. With a wave of her hand, every one of them launched their payloads, spraying fire, lightning, and ice into the arena. Dozens of explosions rang out, spraying bits of concrete all around. Many of the students up in the stands ducked down to avoid catching stray debris to the face, while professor Goodwitch merely raised her riding crop and halted the approach of any flying shard that came close to her with her Semblance.

It didn't matter. She could fire off as many Dust bombardments as she wanted, the heiress knew full well that when the smoke cleared, she would see the familiar blue glow of Rex's energy shield. Which was exactly why she didn't plan on waiting.

Before the smoke could clear, she popped open the cylinder built into Myrtenaster. That last attack drained her ammunition completely, leaving her without any Dust to create more glyphs. As soon as she reloaded, she would dart into the pitch-black smoke cloud and take Rex by surprise before he got the chance to collect himself.

She loaded in a vial of ice Dust, then lightning, and just as she was about to slot in a new vial of fire Dust, she paused. She heard the sound of… an engine? The loud roaring noise brought to mind a motorcycle, but that was ridiculous. There couldn't possibly be an entire vehicle inside the classroom, could there?

"WHOOOO!" From the cloud of smoke, Rex appeared. To be fair, she was right, he wasn't riding a motorcycle. It was more like his legs had morphed into a sort of hover bike while one of his hands had taken the form of a huge, flail-like weapon akin to nunchucks.

"He beat me to it?!" There was no time to finish loading the fire Dust. Acting purely on instinct, Weiss hurriedly closed Myrtenaster's cylinder and formed a block of ice between her and the fast-approaching technomancer. He was not deterred in the slightest and swung his flail straight through the ice shield, shattering it easily. He would have gone on to hit Weiss as well if she had not flipped to the side at the last moment.

However, his attack managed to glance off her rapier, pushing her off balance. Instead of landing on her feet as she planned, her body flipped over and tumbled across the arena floor. As she fell, the open vial of fire Dust flew out of her hand. Red, crystalline powder scattered everywhere, clinging together in the air and forming thick clumps. As it fell like red snow, time seemed to slow down.

In a matter of seconds, the whole atmosphere changed.

"... W-wait…"

"REX!"

In the stands, three students with particularly sharp eyes perked up. Peter, Blake, and Ruby sat up in their seats and began calling out to the young man. They could all see something terrible was about to happen, something they were powerless to stop.

"Whoo! You see that, Be- ack! Hrk!" Rex's boasting was interrupted when a huge clump of red powder fell directly into his wide-open mouth, completely cutting off his air supply. It was so unexpected he lost focus on his machines and his arm and legs returned to normal. Suddenly dismantling the Rex Ride did not halt his momentum, it only left him unprotected as he hurtled directly into a wall while hacking up his lungs.

Peter felt a chill run down his spine as his very blood ran cold. The worst thing that could have possibly happened, happened.

Rex had just gotten a mouthful of fire Dust.

Several hoarse coughs escaped Rex's mouth, accompanied by dry wheezing. With every wheezy breath, shiny red powder sprayed out of his mouth. He awkwardly stumbled to his feet and pounded himself on the chest several times in an attempt to get the stubborn clump of powder to either go down or get sent back up. His wet mouth and throat made the crystalline dust stick together, making it even harder to dislodge. Some of it had ended up on his face and shirt, making it look like he had been doused in red glitter.

Stomach-down on the ground, Weiss looked back and forth between Rex and Myrtenaster, utterly horrified. All of her excitement evaporated in an instant, replaced by a crushing sense of dread.

The crowd of students went silent in seconds as each of them processed what they were seeing.

"Oh no." Even Yang wasn't making jokes. She looked completely serious, not a trace of humor in her features. She leaned forward and dug into the railing in front of her, her tensed fingers easily crushing the thin metal.

"Did he just swallow Dust?!" Pyrrha rose from her seat and stood on her toes to get a better look. Several other students were doing the same, muttering worriedly to each other.

Ren did not say anything. He was too busy pulling out his Scroll and hurriedly dialing the Beacon hotline for student emergencies. It was a rare occasion for the normally emotionless boy. He was actually showing some resolve and panic as he punched in the number as fast as he could.

Ben didn't know what was going on, but the reactions of his classmates made it clear that it was nothing good. He didn't hesitate to grab the back of Yang's seat and vaulted over both her and Nora, landing with a roll in the battle arena. Peter was right behind him as they both ran to Rex's side. Jaune hurriedly ran to the stairs, dashing as fast as he could after his teammates. Not one of them were concerned with match regulations anymore. If they were punished for interfering, then so be it.

They weren't the only ones. The members of Team RWBY and PVRL were also climbing to their feet, each of them rushing down to the arena to get to Rex.

"Stop! This match is over!" The commanding voice of professor Goodwitch hushed the chattering students. She hurried over to Rex, who was full-force punching himself in the chest to try and dislodge the clump of Dust. "Mr. Salazar, listen to me! You must not swallow, no matter wha-!"

"Gkahg!" With one final thump, Rex took a deep breath and sighed with relief as the lump in his throat traveled down. He successfully managed to suck down the thick, red powder, enjoying the feeling of air traveling freely to his lungs. "Finally! I can breathe! Ugh, God, it's like inhaling a powdered donut!" Painfully unaware of the looks he was getting, Rex experimentally cleared his throat, then chuckled and morphed his right arm back into a sword. "Hey, teach, I'm all good now. I just needed a second to-"

"YOU IDIOT!" Weiss stomped over and screamed frantically in Rex's face. "Y-y-... y-y-you just… you swallowed fire Dust?!" The poor girl looked terrified. She had thrown away her weapon, careless of any damage it may have sustained, and was looking her opponent all over like she expected something awful to happen to him.

"Nurse's office now Mr. Salazar! We need to hurry!" Glynda grabbed his shoulder and tried to lead him out of the classroom, but Rex didn't so much as budge.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's everybody freaking out for?" He looked between his opponent and his teacher, then glanced into the stands to see everybody was looking at him like he had grown a second head. "I told you, I feel fine. I mean, I guess my throat's kinda itchy, but that's not really... r-real- gakh!"

A frigid sweat was gathering on his forehead. Midway through insisting he was perfectly alright, Rex felt an odd pang in his chest that surged through his entire body, like his heart suddenly beat with explosive force only once before returning to normal. Immediately after, he was struck with a searing pain in his gut, like that one, forceful beat was a trigger. The explosive burst of pain instantly made him collapse to his knees. It felt like his stomach was trying to eat itself and the rest of his body wanted in on the action. He began to feel warm, uncomfortably so, like he had been thrown into a furnace with the heat slowly rising. Even his lungs were burning, making every breath he took feel like he was inhaling ignited air. Seconds later, he experienced the indescribable sensation of every nanite in his body going into overdrive, working overtime to counteract whatever was going on inside him. He felt the hands of his teammates clutch onto his arms as they attempted to pull him to his feet and carry him out the door to the nurse's office. Catching a glimpse of his own hands through blurry, tear-filled eyes, he could see every one of his veins were bulging out and glowing with vibrant vermilion light beneath his skin.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" In the back of the dying boy's mind, he was aware of Weiss apologizing profusely as she frantically tried to pull him to the hallway.

For those few seconds that felt like they lasted hours, Rex was in the worst pain of his life, and he could hear the entire class shouting and panicking around him. Before long, that noise faded, growing quieter and quieter as the seconds passed, until he heard nothing but a loud ringing. His vision was next to go, gradually fading to black. His legs buckled and he heavily slumped back down to the ground. Rex clutched his burning stomach with his one normal hand, feeling like he would throw up pure magma at any moment. Sweat poured down his face like a waterfall, soaking the ground under him. He could feel boiling blood pumping out of his nose faster and faster as his heart rate went up and up without stopping. Maybe he was screaming, but if he was, his failing ears did not pick up the sound. For just a brief moment, he felt an impending sense of doom, like his life was going to end at any second. For the first time in a long, long time, he felt true, all-encompassing fear envelop his entire being.

"Am I… am I dying?"

His eyes and ears having failed him, Rex almost felt like he was floating through a dark void, the only perceivable sensation being the pain he felt as his body tore itself apart. This... was it. The young hero could feel it. He was a goner.

And then, just like that, he was fine.

All at once, like a switch had been flipped, he felt perfectly all right. All the pain, all the discomfort, everything that was ailing him went away, and he felt better than ever. The sensations disappeared so quickly he actually felt sick in a different way now, as if he was experiencing mental whiplash. Shaking his head, Rex wondered if he just imagined the whole thing, like some kind of freaky sensory illusion. The only things that did not instantly fix themselves were his hearing and sight. The chatter around him slowly grew louder as Rex's ears gradually began processing the stimuli properly. At the same time, color and shapes returned to the world. As the seconds ticked by, Rex became more and more aware of the world around him, until he could clearly see the faces of the people huddled above him.

"My… word." He raised his head and saw both Weiss and professor Goodwitch were backing away from him. Their eyes were not locked on him, but on something beside him. They looked like they didn't know if they were meant to be afraid, relieved, or amazed by what they were seeing. Strangest of all, there was an odd, flickering orange light cast over their bodies that definitely wasn't there before.

Even his teammates looked like they didn't know what to say. Ben was staring off to the side with a cautiously awed smile. Peter was, without a doubt, one-hundred percent nervous, and Jaune was somewhere in between both of them.

Not a single one of those people were looking directly at him.

"What's… all the fuss abo-" The boy's eyes drifted sideways, towards a bright orange light.

"WHOA!" Rex jumped to his feet and reflexively swung his right arm as far away from himself as he could. He reacted so quickly, he almost slipped on the puddle beneath his feet formed of his own sweat and blood. The arm was still morphed into the sword he loved so much, but there was something very different about it that caused him alarm.

For one thing, it was on fire.

The huge sword looked like magma had been poured inside of it, burning the sword from the inside out. The orange metal heated up until it was almost white-hot while hissing flames were dancing along the edge of the heated blade. It looked like the kind of weapon one would expect to hear about in legends of gods or demons.

"Dude, I didn't know you could do that! That's awesome!" Ben marveled at the sight, eyes full of wonder. He may have been an experienced hero who saved the entire universe more times than he could count, but there wasn't a single man in all of history who wouldn't lose his mind over a giant, flaming sword. This was the kind of thing every guy dreamed of... not that he was jealous... at all. "Make something else!"

Blake shot Ben a wide-eyed look of disbelief. "Are you being serious!? He could be dying of Dust poisoning right now!"

Thunk!

The raven-haired girl whipped her head back to her endangered classmate, startled by a loud noise. What awaited her was not a flaming sword, but a flaming axe. Apparently, Rex had taken Ben's suggestion to heart and switched to a different machine.

The tanned young man no longer appeared to be in pain. A smile even bigger than Ben's decorated his pale, blood-stained face as he waved around the axe that looked to be blazing from within. It was not dissimilar to a child happily playing with a brand new toy on Christmas morning.

"This is the coolest thing ever! I should- wait. Wait, what!? No! Come on, not yet!" Rex's childlike joy disappeared along with the flames. The heated, fiery glow in his axe subsided, growing dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared completely. As if the magma within was evaporating, the flames and the heated glow vanished with a long, low hissing noise. The now black and blue weapon looked the same as it ever had.

"There's a time limit!? This sucks, I thought I got an upgrade!" Rex morphed the axe back into his regular arm and pouted, kicking his feet at loose chunks of stone that had broken off the floor during his and Weiss' battle. He had gone from a child who got everything he asked for to a child who asked for a new action figure only to receive socks.

"... So, he's okay?" Yang squinted at Rex, trying to find anything that might be wrong with him. She tried to play her emotions off with a smile, but she could not hide the nervous sweat covering her face.

"I… believe so, yes." Ren nodded his head in confirmation. The Scroll in his hand was cautiously lowered to his side, the call forgotten. On the other end, the operator was still speaking, frantically attempting to confirm whether or not one of Beacon's students had swallowed Dust. He couldn't explain how, but their classmate did not seem to be experiencing any issues after suddenly ingesting half a vial of fire Dust.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Pyrrha took a step back and pressed a hand to her chest. She took several deep, relieved breaths and felt a smile stretch across her face. If the worst was going to happen, there was no chance Rex would be on his feet, stomping around right now. For all intents and purposes, he seemed healthy.

... Minus... his still-bleeding nose and slashed lower back... and burnt neck. ... He did look rather pale, now that she got a closer look at him.

... Maybe they should get him to the nurse anyway.

"Have you ever seen him do that before?" Jaune frantically turned to Ben, the one who knew Rex better than any of them. The easy-going teen just shrugged.

"Nah, never. I don't think he knew either."

"As long as he's okay, I'm not going to worry too much about it." Peter watched Rex continue to kick rocks and moan about losing his cool fire powers. He placed a hand over his heart, willing it to stop beating so furiously now that his teammate's life was - seemingly - no longer in danger.

"Mr. Salazar, are you sure you're alright?" Professor Goodwitch stepped up to her student, showing him an uncharacteristically gentle smile. There was a time and place for her stern persona, and right now it was more important to be patient than to be strict.

The boy crossed his arms and pouted. "... I guess. Actually, now that you mention it…" Trying to force down his negative emotions, Rex looked down and clenched and unclenched his fists. His disappointment was immeasurable, and his day was pretty much ruined, but, for some reason, he was very quickly getting over it. He was already feeling better, happier, more ready to face the rest of his day.

Rex was excited. He was energetic, full of life and vigor. Forget the flaming sword. He didn't need it. He didn't need any of his weapons! Forget it! Forget all of it! Who was his next opponent!? Where were the Grimm!? He would take them on with his bare hands! No! Forget that too! The Grimm could wait, there were way more fun things he could do!

"Uh… Rex…?" Ben took a cautious step back from his partner. There was a wild look in his eyes, and his pupils were constricting to an unnaturally small size. The boy's feet were taking turns tapping away at the floor, going faster and faster until they were both little more than blurs. His fingers were twitching and his breathing was shallow, rapid, and loud.

"¡Ayyyyyyy SI!" The entire group jumped back in fright, shocked by Rex's sudden shout. He threw his arms out and up, eyes darting around wildly. "¿¡DÓNDE ES LA FIESTA!? ¿¡NO FIESTA!? NO TE PREOCUPES, ¡YO EMPEZARÉ LA FIESTA! ¡VOY A TRAER BEBIDAS, Y COMIDAS Y JUEGOS Y CHICAS YREGALOSYPAYASOSYPÁJAROS! ¡VAMOS, VAMOS! ¡WHOOOO!"

Without warning, Rex took off, bowling over Ren and Blake on his way out of the classroom. With a speed nobody present had seen before, he smashed through the door and into the hallway, whooping and shouting in excitement as he tore through the corridors of Beacon. The metal door was nearly dented in half, and it had launched out of its frame with such tremendous force, it cracked the opposite wall in the hallway.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Seconds passed in silence as the classroom's occupants stared blankly at the empty doorframe. Not even Professor Goodwitch knew how to react. At last, she settled on leveling a meaningful look at Jaune, who quickly got the hint.

"... T-Team JPTR, let's get our teammate back before he hurts himself. … Or… somebody else."

Present:

It had taken a while to catch Rex. Once that Herculean task was finally complete, they meant to drag him to the nurse's office, but were interrupted by the buzzing of the intercom. Glynda instructed all of Team JPTR to report to Ozpin's office to explain what went down that morning. Weiss, being the one closest to Rex when everything turned bad, was requested as well. Kevin was also dragged along since he knew the young man before they enrolled at Beacon and may have been able to help provide an explanation for Rex's survival and subsequent behavior.

Looking Rex over, he might have been hyper, but his life did not appear to be in imminent danger. Thus, the JPTR boys decided to skip the nurse for the time being and head to Beacon Tower to meet up with Weiss and Kevin.

"We ended up following a trail of wrecked lockers, torn up floor tiles, and broken water fountains until we found him in Professor Port's classroom. Apparently, he broke in right in the middle of his lecture with a third-year class and bear-hugged the Beowolf he was using for a demonstration until it blacked out… o-or died, I think. After that, he challenged Professor Port to an arm-wrestling match for... um... 'el honor de... enseñar... la clase', whatever that means. I guess... if he won, Port would have to give him his bird for the big... 'fiesta'... Rex wanted to throw. I think that means party, but I honestly don't know." Jaune was just finishing up his explanation, thankful to have finally reached the end. "I'm not sure who won, but apparently Rex scared the professor's bird, so he wasn't too happy with him."

"I see. It sounds like you've all had a very eventful morning." Ozpin nodded along with everything his student said. As he hoped, it was all very enterta... enlightening. He said enlightening. "The property damage conducted by Mr. Salazar was relatively minor, and given his addled state, I feel it would be unfair to charge him for any of it. It's very good to know nobody was hurt."

Peter, Ben, and Kevin had pulled themselves together shortly before Jaune finished recounting his tale. Peter, especially, felt guilty about laughing the whole time instead of helping explain, but, with all the danger passed… it was just so ridiculous. He couldn't help but be amused once he realized nobody was at risk and Rex was practically riding out the ultimate sugar high on school grounds. Continuing his little acid trip in front of Ozpin just made the whole thing even funnier. He only wished he had paid more attention in Spanish class so he could fully understand his teammate's mad ramblings.

"While I am thankful, I must admit, I'm quite curious how Mr. Salazar survived." For the first time in ages, Glynda spoke up from behind Ozpin. "To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever survived directly consuming such a large amount of Dust, especially not fire Dust. Even a Dust-based Semblance can only dull pain or provide a moderate resistance at best. How is such a thing possible?"

Nobody had an answer for her. None of them had any clue how Rex was able to just shrug off what should have been an incredibly lethal toxin. The two adults seemed to understand the meaning behind their silence and did not press the topic any further.

"Uuuuugh."

Weiss jumped in her seat, surprised by the hand suddenly slapping onto Ozpin's desk. Rex, waking up at last, began pulling himself off the ground with a long, drawn out groan. The poor boy looked like he was recovering from the nastiest hangover in history. To make things worse, all the sweat coating his body had chilled, leaving him shivering on the ground. He numbly reached up to massage his temples, confusion flashing in his eyes when his fingers brushed against fabric. Tugging the red tie off his head, he stared hollowly at the scrap of fabric as if it was an alien object.

"Ah, Mr. Salazar, so nice to see you up. Are you well?" The aging Headmaster greeted his student warmly and without concern, as though nothing was wrong.

"Hngrmgrblr, machine elves…jhhgk." Rex slurred drunkenly, holding a hand up to his throbbing head. "I… need a lot of ice cream. And pizza bagels."

The young man shook his head in an attempt to clear away the brain fog. Then, out of nowhere, he snapped to attention with a horrified look in his eyes.

"Wait. No, don't tell me." Suddenly panicking, Rex held out his right hand and morphed it into a sword, moaning pitifully when he realized it wasn't on fire. "COME ON! I REALLY LOST THE FIRE POWERS!?"

"Mr. Salazar." Glynda's stern voice snapped her student out of his pitiful murmuring. "I'm happy you are well, but would you please explain to us what exactly happened?"

Rex let out a pathetic whine and closed his eyes, racking his brain to find an answer. "I... I'm not sure. One minute I felt fine, then I just... got this big burst of energy. It was like I got injected with a gallon of adrenaline. I got so excited, I think I blacked out and my body was running on autopilot after a while." He dug his fingers into the sides of his head, gently massaging his scalp to try and force out clearer memories. "But, I don't remember this kind of thing ever happening before. The closest thing would be when I... when I... hrk!"

Rex's hands went straight to his stomach. He began making strangled retching noises and doubled over in front of Ozpin's desk. Weiss, only inches away from the sick boy, immediately retreated behind Ben just moments before Rex fell to his knees.

"Bllrgh! Gghhg!" To everybody's immense relief, nothing came out of Rex's mouth except a handful of tiny, metal orbs. They were so small, in fact, that the only reason they were even visible at all was because they were all glowing fiery orange, as if Rex had expelled molten embers from his body. Looking closer, they seemed to be liquifying into miniscule puddles of molten ore. In seconds, they were completely reduced to liquid, burning straight through the carpeted floor and falling to the bottom of Beacon Tower. Beyond that, after expelling the super-heated orbs from his body, Rex's veins finally returned to normal. The orange glow beneath his skin vanished. At last, he looked normal once again.

As he had done up that point, Ozpin remained composed and showed no outward reaction to the new set of holes in his floor. Although, Jaune was pretty sure he saw a single bead of sweat rolling down the left side of the aging man's face.

"..." Ben gingerly padded over and reached out to his friend, rubbing a hand on his back with an uncomfortable expression. "... You... okay?"

"..." Leaning forward on his knees with one arm propping him up, Rex shakily raised a hand and gave his partner a thumbs-up. "All good." His voice was strained, but not lacking in energy. He was even smiling again, albeit faintly. With the danger passed, Weiss returned to her seat, carefully avoiding stepping on the tiny holes burnt into the floor.

Smiling faintly, Ozpin returned his attention to Jaune. "Thank you for clarifying everything, Mr. Arc. I believe I understand the situation quite well now. Your teammate doesn't seem to be in danger, but I ask that you take him to see the nurse after leaving my office. After that, you may take your team as well as Mr. Levin and Ms. Schnee to the cafeteria to make up for missing your lunch period. I've already notified your fourth period teacher you will all be absent from class. Mr. Salazar, you have permission to take the rest of the day off if necessary."

"... Really? We can go? Just like that?" Jaune was extremely confused by the lack of… anything. He was convinced they were in for a much more dramatic meeting. All he had really done was recount the details of their morning. Surely professor Goodwitch could have done the same all on her own.

"Just like that." Ozpin confirmed. "I invited you all here in the hopes you would be able to explain Mr. Salazar's reaction to ingesting Dust. If you truly do not know, then I've heard all I need to hear from you. And after the morning he's had..." Ozpin glanced at Rex, who was still staring wistfully at his right arm. "I believe Mr. Salazar should have a rest before I question him personally. Have a nice day, Mr. Arc. And all of you as well."

Still not fully convinced, Jaune and the others slowly got up, waiting for Ozpin to say something else. But, he never did. The man continued to smile warmly as they shuffled to their feet, not raising a single objection. Kevin went to support Rex as he woozily approached the elevator and Peter tapped on Weiss to get her moving. The non-responsive girl was still off in dreamland, hardly acknowledging anything as she raised a hand to wave him away. Peter shrugged and left her in her seat.

The boys all left her alone in the office with the Headmaster and the Vice-Headmistress. Sensing she wanted to discuss something with them in private, neither of them spoke until the elevator doors were fully closed.

"Is something the matter, Ms. Schnee?" Ozpin inquired patiently.

The girl bit her lip, debating if she should open her mouth or not. In the end, her curiosity won out. Something had been bothering her, and she needed to at least try and get an answer.

"... He-Headmaster Ozpin… there is an Honors program, isn't there?"

Ozpin squinted his eyes almost imperceptibly, his gaze critical.

"Well, of course there is. Why ask such an odd question?"

"I… n-no reason! I'm sorry, thank you for your time!" Weiss hurried out of her chair and curtsied politely before beelining to the elevator. She wanted to be far away from there as fast as possible.

Soon, Ozpin and Glynda were alone in the office.

"... Honestly Glynda, letting a student fight without Aura?" Ozpin picked up his coffee mug and smiled as he took a long sip. "That was quite… irresponsible of you. It almost seems like something I would do."

"Really, Ozpin?" The strict professor sighed heavily. "A student nearly dies and that's what you're worried about?"

"He's still very much alive, is he not? I'm confident Mr. Salazar will be alright. He's a strong boy."

Again, Glynda sighed. Her boss never failed to test her patience in a way her students never could. "... You requested that I keep an eye on them, learn about them, and that's what I did. I was hoping to see more of what he was capable of. You know I never would have let any other student do what he did. After what I've seen today, I don't plan on repeating my mistake."

At last, Ozpin's smile dropped. He turned in his chair to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows behind his desk. The man quietly observed the grey clouds, heavy with rain. By the look of it, they could expect showers for at least the next few days.

"Of course I know that. I don't blame you for this. I doubt the result would have been different either way. All that's important now is that everyone is safe. Although, now I'm left with more questions. … You're certain he did not use Aura?"

"I closely monitored his Aura gauge. It didn't increase even once, not even when he used his morphing ability." Glynda confirmed.

It was Ozpin's turn to sigh. The fun part of today was over. The enjoyable stories, the humorous visuals, those now existed only in his memories, and now he was left to deal with the aftermath. It was time to do his job and be a responsible Headmaster.

"So, what would you like me to do now, Ozpin?" Glynda crossed her arms, awaiting further instruction.

… No. There would be time for that later. There were other steps to be taken first.

"For now, I believe you have other classes to teach. I'll take care of the damages." Ozpin took a sheet of paper from one of his many desk-drawers and handed it to his Deputy Headmistress. She accepted the document and quietly made her way to the elevator, leaving the middle-aged man by himself.

Ozpin leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

"... You five really are much more unique than I initially thought. I wonder, is this the norm where you come from, or are you truly something special? I haven't seen this much excitement from one team so early in the year since Summer Rose. ... Hm."

Ozpin leaned forward and switched on his Scroll monitor. He would need to contact quite a few repairmen to get everything squared away.

Beacon Halls:

Thankfully, the trip to the nurse hadn't taken very long. She initially planned to give Rex blood to make up for all he had lost, but decided against it in the end. Color was returning to the young man's skin unnaturally fast, as if his body was rapidly replacing its missing fluids. Eventually, she told the boys to give her a call if he showed any signs of pain or discomfort, then sent them on their way. The only care Rex received was a bandage wrap for his lower back and a patch of medicinal gauze applied over the burn on his neck.

"... Hey, Peter, didn't you say eating Dust is supposed to kill you, or something like that?" Rex glanced over his shoulder to look at his younger teammate, the only one on Team JPTR who had bothered to study such things before the term started.

"Oh yeah. Dust makes a great energy source, but it's also super volatile. It messes up your internal organs, fries your nerves, disrupts your blood flow… even just consuming a little bit can put you in the ICU. Forget nerve toxin, it's everything toxin. You chugged half a bottle, so there must be something special about you." Peter patiently broke down the reason why the entire class lost it the moment Rex did what would have been a death sentence for anybody else.

The disappointed hero put a hand on his chest. "That so? Well, better thank the Omega, then. It probably saved my life back there. Could've done without the sugar rush, though."

"Yeah, I'm a real special guy. I'll explain when we're back at our dorm."

Jaune was still reeling over everything that happened. "Yeah, listen, it's great that you can survive this stuff, but please don't make a habit of eating Dust. I really don't want to see my teammates almost die if I can help it."

"Whatever you say, mom." Rex waved him off noncommittally. "Right now, I just want to eat some actual food. I think that Dust burned a hole in my stomach, 'cause I'm starving."

The group collectively agreed. Being late to lunch wasn't doing them any favors, especially Jaune, who hadn't even had much of a breakfast. All of them were more than eager to get to the cafeteria and gorge themselves on whatever was left after the rest of the student body tore through the food supply. Kevin was barely even with the group anymore as he speed-walked towards precious sustenance.

"By the way, Weiss," Rex looked over his shoulder at the snowy-haired girl. "You ever gonna stop moping?"

Ever since Rex was dragged to Ozpin's office, Weiss had been dead silent unless spoken to. All she did was stare at her lap and grimace. He couldn't understand why she seemed so messed up when he, the guy who was actually in danger, had already moved on. Even now, she was slowly bringing up the rear, a contemplative look on her face as she stared at her feet.

When she heard her name, the girl suddenly stopped moving. Her movement halted, but she at least raised her head to look her former opponent in the eye.

"... I…" The heiress looked conflicted. There were a lot of thoughts swimming around in her head, but, really, she just wanted to say one thing to him. "I would like to offer my apologies. It was my Dust that caused all of this, so I can't help but feel responsible for what happened. I'm… truly sorry for putting you in danger." Going off the downtrodden look on her face, she really seemed broken up by what happened between them. To add emphasis to her apology, the remorseful girl even offered a humble curtsy, which only succeeded in throwing her classmate further off his game.

"Huh?" Rex looked completely lost, like he'd just heard something outrageous. "'Sorry'? Why? It's not like you threw the vial at me, I hit you and it went flying. If anything, it's more my fault than yours."

The other boys wisely elected to stay out of the discussion and did their best to ignore what was being said as they all kept walking. Ben did send a side-eye Kevin's way, catching his friend shaking his head with exasperation.

"But-"

"Uh-uh, no 'buts', I'm not hearing it." Rex smiled kindly at her. "It was a fight, the whole point was for us to go at each other like crazy. Meh, so things got a little outta hand, that just means it was a good fight. The way I see it, we're all good. … Buuuut, if you really want to apologize to me, I wouldn't say no to a few vials of Dust."

Jaune's breath hitched. No way. No way his teammate was already doing the exact opposite of the one thing he asked of him.

"Was he even listening to me?"

"... Huh?" Weiss stared at Rex like he had grown a second head. She had been prepared for a variety of responses, such as anger or plain and simple forgiveness. But, a request for more Dust was not something she had even considered. "For what?"

"'For what'? Dude, really!? I had no idea Dust would give me that kind of boost! I mean, flaming weapons!? How awesome is that!? No way am I leaving this alone, I've gotta try it again!" His excitement died in an instant when he remembered the unfortunate reality. "But, I mean, come on. What kind of sick joke is this? I suddenly get awesome, flaming weapons, and then they just disappear like, five seconds later! This is so unfair!"

Rex laid his head in his hands, bemoaning his tragic fate. Oh, teased with such incredible power, only for it to be pulled away instantly. The multiverse was a cruel mistress indeed.

"Excuse me?" Weiss still seemed confused, but there was something else bubbling up to the surface as she listened.

"I guess what I'm saying is…" Rex rubbed the back of his neck before suddenly clasping his hands together. "Can I please borrow a few vials!? Just a few, I swear! I just need enough to test this out a few more times. If I can figure out how to make it last, that'd be the sickest thing ever!"

"... What?" Weiss' voice was dangerously quiet.

Peter felt his spine tingle at Weiss' latest response. As far as he could tell, Rex still hadn't noticed exactly how she was reacting to his request. He tried to discreetly whisper to his teammate, to let him know he should really quit while he was ahead.

"Uh, Rex? You might want to stop asking for-"

"Come on, just a few vials!" Regretfully, the amped up teen was too excited to hear his fellow hero and completely missed his warning.

"... Absolutely not." Weiss uttered quietly. Her eye was twitching as she spoke. "I can't believe you'd even ask me such a thing. For one thing, Dust is incredibly expensive, and I'm not going to hand out my personal stock so you can waste it in a training room. Secondly, I cannot, in good conscience, hand out a dangerous poison knowing you are just going to drink it."

"Dude, seriously." Kevin, being the only person in the group with a girlfriend, knew exactly how dangerous this game was. In a rare act of charity, he, too, dropped back and attempted to warn Rex to give up on his fruitless endeavor. "Just let it go before she-"

"I'll drink in moderation!" Rex pleaded, throwing away his final lifeline as Weiss' patience finally snapped.

"SHUT UP!"

Rex was taken aback by her furious shout. He hadn't even known Weiss could yell that loud. The girl was full-tilt glaring at him with so much fury, he was afraid she would set him on fire with just her eyes. The other boys shared a look and decided to just take a step back. They'd tried to warn the fool, and now he had to live with his mistake. It would be too cruel to completely leave him alone, though, so they decided to just walk a few feet away. Close enough to offer moral support with the occasional nod, but far enough that they could escape if they were in danger of being dragged into the argument.

Ben silently apologized to his fallen comrade. He was too late to save him.

"Wh-"

"Just… shut up!" Weiss continued to aggressively shout at him, coming ever closer to outright swinging her fists at him. "Are… are you kidding me!? After all this, the first thing you do is ask me for more Dust!? Are you trying to make me angry!?"

Rex suddenly felt much smaller now that Weiss was glaring at him, which almost felt silly considering she was nearly a full head shorter than he was.

"Y-yeah? I mean, no? It's not like it'll kill me, so why no-"

"You don't know that!" Weiss wasn't finished tearing into him. "You survived once! Once! That doesn't mean anything!"

It dawned on the Dust princess that, even if it was currently empty, she was still in a public space and she did her best to reign in her anger.

"You… you're just so…" She took a deep breath. "... Do you have any idea… how terrified I was when you swallowed that Dust? I thought… I was so sure you were going to die, that it was my fault. And now… and now you want more? You have the nerve, the audacity to ask me of all people for more?"

Her final words came out in a hissed whisper. Rex was stunned. Weiss, the haughty, arrogant girl was no longer glaring at him. Underneath the anger, she looked just as scared and uncertain as she did when he first swallowed the contents of her Dust vial. He couldn't even tell which emotion was causing her shoulders to shake at that moment. His excitement evaporated and he was left feeling like an ass.

"I-it's not as big a deal as she makes it sound! Omega's always there for me, I'd be fine even if I drank a gallon! If I just explained that to her it'd all be fine! I can just… just… oh man."

"... S-sorry. I didn't really think that through." The embarrassed hero felt so awkward it hurt. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he offered his guilty apology. "I... just figured if it didn't matter to me, it shouldn't matter to anyone else. I wouldn't have asked if I knew you were that worried about me."

Weiss glared at him for a few more seconds, then gave up on looking angry and sighed. "Of course I was. You're my classmate, it's only natural for me to be worried. Especially if Dust poisoning is a concern. Just… please don't ask me again. That's all I ask."

Rex put his hands up in surrender, all too eager to take the out he was offered. "Right, no problem, I'll never ask you for Dust again."

"You don't have to go that far." Weiss said with her usual, unimpressed stare. "But, thank you."

The huddled group of boys all let out quiet breaths. Thankfully, Rex managed to deescalate the situation without making it worse for himself.

"... Can I ask Ruby?"

And just like that, they shared a collective, disappointed moan, even Jaune.

"Dumbass." Kevin muttered, dragging a hand across his face. For the record, even he had never fumbled such an easy recovery so badly.

Weiss promptly slugged Rex in the shoulder. It didn't hurt much, though, since she didn't put any Aura into the attack. The weak blow didn't even elicit a reaction from its victim.

"Guess that's a no. Had to try. Oh well, it was nice knowing you, awesome flaming sword. You were gone too soon." Rex moaned wistfully, like he was remembering an old friend. "So… we cool?"

Weiss was glaring again, but there was less fire in it. "I'm still mad at you, but… yes, for now, we're 'cool'. I've said all that I want to say to you."

Rex released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He was happy to be off the hook after unintentionally angering the short girl. She was surprisingly scary when she was genuinely angry and not just yelling out of annoyance.

"Awesome." Feeling like pushing his luck, Rex grinned and tenderly rubbed his shoulder. "I can't believe you'd just punch me like that. Such a violent lady." He commented sarcastically.

Weiss responded with her usual snark. "Apologies, I just really needed to hit you after everything you said."

"... While we're on the subject, my neck still really hurts from when you kicked me in the face. I think you gave me whiplash."

"Do you want an apology for every injury I've given you today? You're the one who ran your mouth about wanting to be humbled." Weiss smugly threw his own confident words back at him as she leaned back on one foot.

Rex whined pitifully. "Come on, not the consequences of my own actions. Let me off easy, just this once. Can't I get an apology for my jacket, at least? I really like this thing."

Weiss fixed him with an impressive deadpan stare that was positively dripping with an unspoken "are you serious".

Then, slowly, she held out a hand. "Give me the jacket."

"Huh?"

"Jacket. Give it to me."

Still confused, Rex shrugged off his torn jacket and handed it over to Weiss. She turned it over in her hands, inspecting the damage her rapier had caused.

"Mending a tear is easy enough, but don't expect me to do this every time you run your mouth off. Consider this my final apology. And no, I will not mend your dress shirt as well. You can figure that out yourself."

With that, Weiss turned on her heel and walked away with the jacket in hand.

"Wait, where are you going?" Rex called after her and pointed over his shoulder. "Food's this way."

"I'm not hungry." Weiss responded without turning around. "... Also, I'm glad you're not dead."

Rex grinned at her retreating form. "What a coincidence. I'm pretty psyched about that too."

The teen hero watched her until she disappeared around a corner. If she weren't looking away, he might have noticed she was frowning the whole time.

Maybe the starving boy's perception was skewed after having his stomach set on fire, but he couldn't imagine how the heiress could possibly not be hungry. His tired body was ravenously screaming at him to provide it with sustenance before it started eating itself instead. But, if she wasn't hungry, then she just wasn't hungry. He wasn't about to force her to eat if she wasn't feeling it.

"... Hoo, good thing she offered to fix the jacket. I really wasn't looking forward to doing it myself. I'd probably just make it look worse."

"Word of advice, kiddo?" A large hand latched onto Rex's arm, turning him around to face Kevin. "Unless it's really, really, really important, stop botherin' a girl with somethin' once she starts talkin' real quiet. That's your cue it's about to get dangerous."

"Great, thanks for telling me that now, Kev. Got any other gems to share?" The goggled teen shrugged off the hand with an impassive look. Kevin shrugged, not about to argue something he knew he was correct about. If Rex didn't want his advice, that was his problem.

"If you two are done tradin' apologies, I'm gettin' food. Don't expect me to back you up if you make someone else mad, I'm not waitin' on anybody anymore. Food. Comes. First."

Kevin turned on his heel and outright race-walked to the cafeteria. He really was through with waiting. Rex smirked at his retreating form and followed the others. With their miniature head-start, it seemed like he would be the last one to arrive at the meal hall.

That is, until Peter dropped back to walk alongside him. The youngest member of the team looked thoughtful. There was a scheme cooking in his cranium that only he knew about.

"Just to confirm, Ozpin did say you could take the rest of the day off, right?"

"Pretty sure, and you better believe I'm taking the offer." Rex confirmed the question with an excited smile. "You guys have fun in class, I'll be hanging out in a training room until you're done."

"About that," Peter's expression turned serious. "I'm thinking we should all cut class."

Rex raised an eyebrow. Of everyone in their group, Peter seemed the most like the rule-following type. He wasn't against having company, but Peter didn't seem like the kind of guy who just wanted to ditch lectures to hang out.

"I'll bite, what's up? Got something you want to do?"

"Well, the cafeteria always has workers in it, plus security cameras I'd bet. But, if all the teachers will still be busy for the next few hours finishing up their classes, that means there won't be anybody near the dorms. No teachers or students, and I doubt they're legally allowed to put cameras in our rooms." Peter calmly broke down all the little details, but avoided answering the actual question.

"Ooookay? And?"

"We still need to talk, don't we?"

Instantaneously, it clicked in Rex's brain. If they ate lunch and got back to their room quickly, they would be completely unbothered for at least three more hours. That was plenty of time to go over everything they needed to.

The off-worlders could properly pool their information at last, plans could be discussed, and...

"No more waiting for Jaune, then?"

Peter shook his head regretfully. "I really wish I could give him the time he needs to process on his own, but it looks like he's just trying to ignore it, like we were. The sooner we can explain everything to him fully, the better. He needs to realize that this is serious, and I doubt we'll get a better chance for an uninterrupted talk than this one."

Rex nodded along. Everything his teammate was saying made sense. It definitely didn't sound as fun as smashing targets, but business came first. He gagged internally, visualizing Six's proud smirk if the agent ever heard him say that aloud. Personal grievances aside, it had to happen, and this was a golden opportunity.

"... Alright. I don't think I can suck down as much as I want to eat in just a few minutes, though. Can I take some plates with me?"

Peter cracked a smile and lightly punched Rex in the same spot Weiss had. "Sure. Just try not to 'suck it down' too loudly while somebody's talking." Then, the smile faltered and morphed into a worried frown. "With how hard Jaune's been studying, you think he'll agree to skip class with us just like that?"

Rex let out a cheerful laugh. "Ha, no shot, hermano! Tell you what, I'll get his legs if you get his arms. Kevin can cover his mouth so he doesn't scream when we're moving through the halls."

The boys smacked their hands together and shook on it. The plan was set, and Ben and Kevin were sure to be on board once they put phase one into motion. Every journey begins with a single step and, luckily, it was a simple one in this case:

Step 1: Kidnap their leader.

Oobleck's Lecture Hall:

Weiss barged into fourth period right in the middle of her hyperactive professor's lecture. At first, he was confused by her presence after being told by Ozpin that she would be absent, but didn't linger on it for too long. The heavily-caffeinated professor decided her thirst for knowledge must have overpowered her sense of hunger and applauded her scholar's spirit before sending her to her seat.

As she expected, she drew odd looks as soon as she appeared, and the crowd of students was already whispering among themselves. Not only did word of what happened in combat class already spread like a virus among the first-years, but her current appearance probably wasn't doing her any favors. Unfortunately, she had no bag to carry Rex's jacket in, so she was forced to drape it over one shoulder. The Honors Student was known widely enough that practically everybody recognized the red jacket, and thus, the rumor mill began turning even faster. No doubt, she would be bombarded with questions as soon as class ended if she didn't make herself scarce immediately.

She didn't care. And she wasn't just saying that to feel better, she genuinely could not be bothered to pay attention to any of it. There were more important things on her mind than her classmates' overactive imaginations.

"Weiss! What happened, is everything alright!?" Ruby began whispering to her partner the moment she slid into her seat.

Weiss' eyes briefly swept behind her team's seats, taking in the empty row there. School hadn't been in session for long, but she had grown accustomed to Team JPTR always being right behind them. All four seats being empty had thrown her off for a moment. It was amazing what a huge difference could be made with such a small change.

"Of course everything is fine. Nobody is in trouble, the damages will be taken care of, and that... infuriating riff-raff is perfectly healthy." The exasperated girl checked off every important point, quickly relaying whatever her team needed to know.

"That's great! I was really worried about you guys after Goodwitch sent you to the Headmaster's office." Ruby flashed her signature million-watt smile. Weiss slowly turned away from her. Focusing on professor Oobleck was more important than being told she was missed.

Yang leaned over her sister and perked up at the sight of the red fabric hanging over Weiss' shoulder. "And what's the deal with-"

"I offered to fix the damage as an apology for my mishandled Dust." The heiress replied before Yang could even finish her question, like she already knew it was coming. "I'm not as skilled with a needle as my butler, but even I can mend a simple tear." Her eyes flicked down to her right leg. The once pure white boot she wore still had blood splattered all over it, the dark liquid long since dried into an ugly shade of brown. "I only wish this was so easy to fix. Now they've had so much time to set in, I don't think I'll be able to clean the stains out. I suppose I'll have to buy a new pair."

Yang held up her hands in surrender and backed off, not wanting to press the topic further. Weiss was acting... how to put it politely...

"You seem more done with us than usual. Are you sure everything's alright?" Blake emotionlessly asked without taking her eyes off their professor.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm fi-" Weiss huffed in annoyance, but stopped nonetheless. If she was being honest, despite the situation coming to a tidy conclusion, there was still something bothering her. Something completely unrelated, yet the more she thought about it, the more it nagged persistently at her. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the lecture, she couldn't. She could only think of one thing.

"..."

All three of her teammates had noticed her sudden pause. They were all looking straight at her with varying levels of interest. For once, the haughty girl didn't feel like pointedly letting out an annoyed sigh. This issue was bugging her so much, she actually wanted to discuss it with her team.

Just to be safe, she took a look around. Obviously, nobody was behind them, what remained of team PVRL was on the other side of the room, and a staircase divided them from their next-door neighbors in the classroom. They were in the front row, but the lecture floor was large enough they were still a good twenty feet away from Professor Oobleck. Good. Weiss did not want to be disturbed while she spoke with her team, not with something this important on the table.

"... It's about Rex." This time, she did sigh when Yang's eyes immediately began sparkling, her mouth already opening to tease her, no doubt. "And Peter." Weiss hissed. "And Ben, and Kevin, and Jaune. All the Honors Students. There's just... something off about all of them."

"Well, yeah. They showed up out of nowhere, got introduced like they were really special, and now one of them totally owned you without even using his aura. Not to mention all the stuff that happened when Ruby and I first met them." Yang casually made a remark that Weiss could not very well leave unchallenged.

"Excuse me? I'll have you know I was not 'owned' in that fight! If it hadn't ended prematurely, my latest strategy would have seen me through to victory."

"Weiss, you were getting destroyed in that fight. We all saw it." Blake remarked calmly, a mischievous glint in her eye as she taunted the haughty girl. "Rex was like a machine, no matter how many times you hurt him, he barely even reacted. Even though you blocked most of his attacks, your aura was still getting broken down way too fast. You wouldn't have lasted much longer before it dropped into the red."

"That is not-!" Weiss caught herself. She had almost begun to shout in the middle of class. Besides, they were getting off topic now. "Just... listen. I'm glad you mentioned the aura, because I need to confirm something. His gauge never once flared up, correct?"

Ruby tilted her head, squinting her eyes as she tried to remember. "I was pretty focused on the fight, but I'm pretty sure it was empty the whole time. Right?" Turning to Blake and Yang, Ruby received two nods in response.

Weiss took the information in stride. It was good to know she hadn't just imagined that empty gauge.

"If that's the case, then how could he have possibly transformed his body?"

Realization dawned on team RWBY. The other three girls went through varying stages of shock. Ruby's eyes rapidly widened and her jaw fell to the floor as she considered her partner's question. Yang lifted her head off of her hand, a stunned look on her face. Blake did not show much of an outward reaction, but her bow began to rapidly flutter as if pushed around by an invisible force.

One of the most basic truths of the world was that aura and Semblances could not exist separately. To have a Semblance, one first needed to have an aura, and that aura needed to be activated to use a Semblance. The only, only exceptions were incredibly rare passive Semblances that were always active, which Rex clearly did not have. If those machines really were part of Rex's Semblance, then every single use should have caused his aura gauge to flare up.

And yet, it remained squarely at zero from start to finish.

"Holy..." Yang trailed off, not sure what to say.

"That's... definitely strange." Blake conceded the point, cursing herself for failing to notice something so obvious. "But you said you were concerned about all the Honors Students. What does this have to do with the others?"

Weiss felt a bit deflated by the perfectly reasonable question. "Possibly... nothing at all. Maybe I'm just overthinking this entire thing, but... all these pieces keep coming together in my mind, and I'm starting to think it's not just my imagination. There could be something bigger here."

So many things she had only briefly questioned in the past were called into question again after the events of that morning. Everything collided together in her skull, and she was continually led to the same conclusion.

"All of them seem so strange. Everything I've seen goes beyond something I can just brush off as a personality quirk or something simple like that." Weiss spoke slowly as she tried to map out the best way to explain her swirling thoughts. "Rex's machines are only the first piece, to say nothing of the fact he just... shook off ingesting enough Dust to kill dozens of people. The strange words he uses are completely unfamiliar to me, almost as if they belong to an entirely different language. But... Remnant has only one language, that's been the case for generations. And what about Ben? I know you all haven't forgotten about that... demon... he transformed into. What about all those other strange creatures? I don't recognize a single one of them, not even from any fairy tales."

The girls all shivered at the mention of Ben's monstrous Grimm form. They had been trying really hard to forget about it ever since Ben promised to never use it again.

"Then there's this."

Weiss reached into her pocket and pulled out the battery she had borrowed without permission from Peter. The unfamiliar device still confused her, as did its inventor. "... So many years of innovation, thousands of inventors, legions of scientists, and Dust was always our only advanced power source to show for it. Then, this boy, somebody younger than even us, casually throws together a brand new source of energy that operates without any Dust at all. Who could have taught him such a thing? Surely he didn't just haphazardly throw parts together and happened to stumble into a new form of energy. And yet, I watched with my own eyes as he assembled it with nothing but a box of scraps."

Ruby was hanging on every word, but didn't get Weiss' point. All she was hearing was what she already knew; Jaune and his friends were all incredible people who regularly did super cool things.

She wanted to be supportive, but she was losing the plot here. "That's great, Weiss. But... so what? What does all that mean?"

"... Like I said, maybe nothing." The confused girl stuffed the battery back into her pocket and cupped her hands in front of her face. "I just have a hard time believing all this doesn't mean anything, that it can all be brushed aside so simply. Maybe they are just incredible people, maybe it is that simple, but..."

"..."

The other girls waited patiently. They had no idea where this was going, and after listening for this long, they were dying to hear what Weiss had been building up to all this time.

"... I know an impressive amount of information about Beacon, to say the least. Before enrolling, I wanted to know as much as I possibly could. I checked several times for any sort of advanced classes or student groups, only to turn up with nothing at all. And then, lo and behold, Initiation comes around and Headmaster Ozpin introduces all of us to his Honors Students. I was stunned, but thought perhaps I'd just missed something. But now... a-and let me remind you, even I'm not fully confident I'm onto something here. I-I may just be rambling on, talking nonsense about completely unrelated factors, and-"

"Weiss Cream." Yang interjected as kindly as her dwindling patience allowed, putting a stop to her comrade's incessant babbling. "It's fine. Get to the point." The impatient blonde had been teased for far too long. She needed to hear where this was going.

Weiss nodded shakily and took one last deep breath to steady herself. "I just can't help but think... all these things that don't make sense, the odd people we've gotten to know, they aren't meaningless. Ben's strange watch and transformations, Kevin's odd stories, Rex's machines and mysterious words, Peter's battery... even Jaune seems like he's always hiding something, but I can't tell what. All I want to know is this; who are these people?"

"..."

None of them had an answer for her. Not that she expected them to. How could they?

Weiss prepared to finish sharing the last of her personal thoughts. "... This is where I'm forced to take a leap and just make an assumption without any kind of evidence. Considering how strange all of them are, and Ozpin's nonsensical introduction of them as a group that shouldn't even exist, I'm inclined to believe there really is no such thing as an Honors program at Beacon. Normally that wouldn't mean anything, but I have to wonder why Ozpin would lie? Why not just introduce them as regular students? And, assuming everything I've said thus far is correct, I continuously find myself returning to my earlier question."

Weiss stared evenly at her team. She could see the gears turning in their heads. They were all coming to the same conclusion as her, which in turn created the same question in all of their minds.

"Peter... did seem strangely clueless about Faunus treatment despite being one himself." Blake pondered carefully.

Yang thought back to her numerous conversations with the tanned boy. "Rex is always saying words I've never heard in my life. Not like Weiss' fancy, rich-girl words, they feel... different. I mean, 'chica'? 'Lo siento'? What even is that?"

"Ben's watch is really cool, but what are those transformations? Books, comics, movies, I've never seen anything like them. He can't just be changing into whatever he imagines, could he? Does a Semblance that powerful even exist?" Ruby tried to work out the finer points of her friend's transforming ability, but failed to truly make sense of it.

It was funny to think they'd all just been sitting in class not even five minutes ago, struggling to keep up with their speedy teacher. Everything changed in the span of one conversation. Weiss had gotten in their heads, and now their minds were just as busy as hers. Questions were swirling around, thoughts and ideas were forming, brought forward, and discarded in favor of others. And through it all, they, too, continuously arrived at the conclusion that they understood nothing, that they could not give themselves an answer, only more questions.

On that topic, they were all forming the exact same question in their minds, the very same one Weiss had been asking herself since she walked into Ozpin's office:

"Who are these people?"

.

.

.

Another chapter should come fairly soon. I worked on this chapter and the next at the same time since they're so closely connected, so it's mostly finished at the time of posting this one. I thought about holding onto it for a little while after it's finished so the updates aren't too close together, but, nah, I can't do y'all like that after making you wait this long for an update. The updates will continue until morale improves.

The original draft for this chapter had way more going on. Glynda was going to say any of the Honors Students, plus Pyrrha, could choose who would go up, which ended in a short little fight to get to the stage first. Eventually, I decided to go with plan B because it just took up too much space and didn't make a whole lot of sense for some of them. The details aren't important, but I will say I was sad to cut out Rex punching Ben in the throat.

Cartoon heroes back in the day really were built different. Our guys were really out here tanking rockets to the face, throwing boulders and cars, and speed-blitzing motorcycles, and half of that was without even using powers. I swear, power scalers need to pay more attention to "average dudes in American cartoons". They're not gonna top charts or anything, but they're a lot stronger than we tend to give them credit for. No human is shrugging off a fifty-foot fall onto concrete, or casually turning around to block a laser that's already traveling towards them.

Anyway, good to be back. I'm really excited to be working on this story again and get to all the big stuff I've planned. I already know it's gonna be a lot of fun to write, and I hope all of you have fun reading it.

Thank you for reading, and please consider leaving a review.
Aren signing off.