Jaune woke from his sleeping bag with a gasp, panting and covered in sweat. Disoriented, it took him a bit to remember that he was safe in the ballroom of Beacon.
Deciding very quickly that sleep would not come to him again tonight, he made sure not to wake anyone as he got up and moved out of the ballroom slowly. He walked with no particular destination in mind, his thoughts running a mile a minute, 'Again with that damn nightmare. It's been seven years already, why won't it just leave me alone.'
Reaching the doors that led outside he shook those thoughts out of his head, 'it doesn't do me any good thinking about it or complaining, it isn't going away anytime soon. I might as well take my mind off of it, distract myself.'
Deciding to do exactly that he took the opportunity of being outside to break into a run. Maybe it was his more wild, Grimm side talking, but there was always something freeing for him about just running. The wind in your hair, the burn in your legs as they pump on the ground, it was liberating. He found it even more liberating to use his webs but decided to save that for the initiation, whatever that may be. For now, running was enough for Jaune.
After a good thirty to forty minutes, he stopped as dawn started to break, lighting up the sky with its beautiful red and orange hues. Wiping his sweat with his shirt he walked back into the building, intent on taking a shower and washing the grime off of him.
Going towards his bookbag in the ballroom, he grabbed his bath supplies, toothbrush and toothpaste. Along with a change of clothes. He offhandedly noticed that Pyrrha was missing from her sleeping place and figured she must have woken up too.
As a matter of fact, now that he looks he noticed a lot of people were getting up to start the day off, some of them eyeing him like he was crazy for working out and tiring his muscles before initiation had even begun.
He ignored them as he made his way to the Boy's shower area to clean himself up. Getting in he quickly washed up before getting out and taking care of the rest of his morning routine.
After leaving the shower room he made his way to the cafeteria where he loaded his tray with some bacon, eggs and a couple of waffles along with a glass of orange juice. Sitting down at the one empty seat in the area, he started by pouting some of the syrup onto the waffles, making sure to fill up each and every one of the little wells in the waffles with the sweet goodness of the liquid.
Once he finished this he heard a gasp coming from right in front of him as a tray placed down at the seat in that area. Looking up he was faced with the whirlwind of an orange head from yesterday, Nora. She had look of deepest betrayal on her face as she said, "Choosing waffles when we have pancakes, this is treason!"
She stabbed her fork into her pancakes and stuffed it, along with a copious amount of syrup, straight into her mouth. She was still talking so most of her word came out like, "Mmm, mm mm!" Her eyes grew wide for a moment and Jaune, noticing what was happening grabbed his cup of orange juice and offered it to the choking lady who grabbed it and chugged the whole thing down.
Her throat now cleared she took a deep breath of relief. Giving out a bit of a chuckle Jaune played along with her earlier but, "Sorry for the grave offense Pancake Queen, I hope this lifesaving juice makes up for this slight."
Nora put her hand to her chin as if in thought, "well ok, your off the hook for now but I'm watching you, man!" With that she went back to stuffing her mouth with only thing on her plate, a heaping pile of pancakes. It was then that their duo was joined by another person.
Ren laid his tray down by Nora's, and slid her plate away for her sliding one of his two plates over to her. This plate had yogurt inside it of it, with fruits mixed in personally by him. Blueberries, bananas, some almonds and chia seeds with a bit of cinnamon in it.
Nora pouted at him, "Hey, those were my pancakes Renny!" Ren had a straight face on as he replied, "And you can have them back as soon as you get something a little more healthy in your diet. Come one this one is sweet, just the way you like it. Eat this and you can have the pancakes back."
"But Ren, pancakes!," she made her best puppy eyes at him but he didn't budge. Sighing, she finally relented, "Fine, I'll eat healthy food, but I won't like it," she stuffed a mouthful of the yogurt in her mouth as she said this in the most sarcastic manner, only for her eyes to light up in delight at the taste.
She then proceeded to devour the yogurt in joy, much to the amusement of both Jaune and Ren. She finished and noticed them looking at her. She grew a sheepish look on her face and looked away briefly before coughing and looking back in a more confident manner, "This yogurt can be considered to be passable, just barely! Now as promised l, my pancakes please!"
She did not notice the yogurt mustache on her face as she crossed her arms in a commanding manner. It was then that a chuckle from behind Jaune caught his attention as it turned into full blown laughter. Looking behind him, he saw Pyrrha, bent over in laughter and trying hard not to drop her food.
Chuckling a bit himself he went over and grabbed her tray from her hands and put it in the empty spot beside him to prevent it from spilling. Nora pouted at this, "Hey, what's the big idea, laughing at me like that?"
Taking deep breaths to calm her laughter Pyrrha replied, "I'm sorry Nora, but it isn't the most convincing when you say that with a mustache on your face," at these words Pyrrha pointed her fingers towards her upper lip.
Nora mirrored the movement and put her finger in the same spot, pulling it away with yogurt now on it. She blushed a bit but got over it, taking the remainder of the mustache off with her tongue and acted like it wasn't there at all, "Mustache, I don't see a mustache," she then noticed her finger still had the yogurt on it and ate it too, completing her destruction of the evidence.
Unable to contain their chuckles, Jaune and Pyrrha laughed again at this. Ren let out a smile, passing the plate of pancakes back to Nora, who's pout immediately formed back into a smile, forgetting their transgressions.
While Nora stuffed her face, Jaune looked to Pyrrha and motioned her to take her seat, which she did. Now looking at Ren and Nora, "I just realized I know your names but you don't know ours, sorry about that. My name is Jaune Stephen Arc, call me Jaune and this is my friend, Pyrrha Nikos."
Pyrrha did a little wave at her introduction, "Hello there." Like Jaune they showed no reaction to the name and smiled as Ren talked, "Nice to meet you, Jaune and Pyrrha." They talked a little more before the topic of initiation came up, "so what do you think they are doing for it?," Jaune asked this as Nora finished her pancakes and replied, "I'm more worried about teams, we still don't know how they are going to determine our partners," she seemed lost in thought for a bit before her eyes brightened and she jumped up from her seat, "Oh I know, we should come up with a plan to make sure we get who we want as partners, what if we bribed the headmaster? No that won't work, he has the school."
She started listing different options before landing on another one, "What if have a kind of signal, a secret signal that'll lead us to each other. Can you Imitate a sloth?" Ren put his hand on her shoulder, "Nora breathe and relax, we'll figure it out once we have more details," he then showed the barest of what could pass for a smile, "besides I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."
Jaune and Pyrrha just nodded along, agreeing with Ren's assessment. Nora thought about it for a bit before her eyes brightened again, "That's why it'll be perfect! No one will suspect a thing!"
Breakfast went on like this, before Jaune finished his food and got up, "Well sorry to eat and run, but I guess I better get going, gotta get ready for the initiation." Ren and Nora both got up at this, both of them finished with their food as well, Nora yelling, "Hell yes, I gotta be ready to break some legs!"
Her crazed smile as she said this kind of unnerved Jaune as she stated this, "Um right, hopefully it won't come to that," he looked to Pyrrha and saw she was still eating, "I'll see you at the initiation?" She smiled back at him, "You can count on it."
He got up and walked over to the locker room, on the way he passed Ruby and her blonde sister, talking about possibly teaming up. He walked past them looking for the locker he left his gear in.walking a little further he found the aisle and the locker, which was number 626, and opened it.
Inside he found his silver spider Amulet, and grabbed it before putting it around his neck. He then picked up the one other thing in his locker, a black face mask with red lenses in the eyes. There red circuits protruding from around the lenses like veins and they came out in a web-like pattern.
He heard someone else open the locker next to him and looking over, he noticed Weiss, the one from yesterday. Not wanting to be rude Jaune spoke, "Um, hey there, Weiss was it?"
She looked a bit annoyed at the interruption to her preparations but she still answered, "Not really, considering we are both taking the examination, but I guess I didn't expect us to meet again so soon. I was just about to prep my weapon for the initiation."
Hearing the irritation in her voice, Jaune decided to let her get back to her duties and closed his locker. It was then that Pyrrha came up and opened her locker which happened to be nearby as well.
She gave a smile to him as she rummaged through it for her gear, "Hey, I guess we can't seem to stop meeting each other, huh?" He chuckled lightly, "Yeah I guess so, huh? "
He was about to talk again when Weiss spoke, "Excuse me but are you Pyrrha Nikos? 4 time tournament champion?" though she looked uncomfortable at this line of questioning she answered that, "That would be me."
Weiss's eyes brightened up at this, "Oh great. Well I am Weiss Schnee. I need to ask what do you think of teams? If they let us choose what do you think about joining mine."
Pyrrha was clearly uncomfortable at this but responded anyway, "I think that sounds splendid!" Weiss got a big smile at this and thought, 'Perfect at least with us teamed, I don't need to worry about not doing well at this school. With my smarts and her strength, we will excel.'
Sensing her discomfort at the conversation Jaune decided to butt in, "I wouldn't count on it, we still don't know the details of the initiation, let alone how they will choose partners for us. I do however hope we are paired up nice."
Weiss frowned at his interruption, "I'm sorry, but we were having a conversation here." He was quick to reply, "And the lady is clearly uncomfortable, so let her cool down, it doesn't do any of us any good to get worked up. If she ends up on your team that is all well and good, but until that happens, anything is possible."
She frowned at this, she had a bit of a blush knowing she was a bit excessive in her talking, "sorry, I guess I kind of got carried away there. Still though, I don't believe I was wrong in that we need good partners to excel."
Pyrrha smiled at the apology, "Don't worry about it, and I can agree with that. I'm worried about getting partnered with someone I don't work well with."
Both Weiss and Jaune nodded, understanding the concern. The school's PA system activated sending an announcement to everyone in Glynda's voice, "Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff now for initiation. I repeat, all first year students must report to. Beacon Cliff immediately."
Jaune smiled, "Well that's us, we better get on over there I guess. I'll see you on the cliff." With a wave, he walked off and headed toward the cliff.
While walking he heard a voice next to running up and getting closer to him, "Hey Jaune, wait up!" Running up to him he saw Ruby, closely followed by the blond sister of hers, and smiled, "Hey Ruby nice seeing you."
She smiled back as they walked along, "You too," she then frowned, "I still don't see a weapon on you, could it be that mask in your hand?"
He answered her, "Something like that, but you are only half right. Still though you'll have to wait, don't want to ruin the surprise after all, right?"
She pouted a bit but agreed to wait and Jaune turned his attention to the blond, "I'm sorry, but I don't believe I got your name?" Giving a bit of a grin she introduced herself, "I'm Yang, Yang Xiao-Long. Thanks for taking care of my sis here, I know she can be a handful at times," with those words she pulled Ruby into an embrace she struggled to get out of.
Chuckling a bit he answered, "Not at all, I've only known her for a day so all I could get out of her was really her obsession with everything weapon related."
Hang laughed at this, "Yeah she does get like that, especially when you talk about her own weapon." Ruby felt a little annoyed, "Hey you do know I can hear you right? Stop talking like I'm not here." They simply chuckled at this talked for a bit more before reaching the cliff.
Seeing the headmaster Ozpin and Glynda at the edge and noticing the empty metal platforms, he was able to surmise they were supposed to stand on them, one for each person.
"Well it was nice talking to you but I suppose we might need to split for now," agreeing with his sentiment they all waved goodbye to each other and chose a platform to stand on.
Looking around there weren't many other people who had showed up yet. There were a couple of pompous, generic looking people who wore different sets of armor each, one of them carrying a giant mace.
It wasn't long before the spots filled up though, the last ones appearing being Weiss and Pyrrha. Ozpin then cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention.
"Thanks for quieting down. Now I'm sure you are all curious about the initiation process and the assignment of teams. Worry no more, as we will be going over that right now."
He started speaking once again, "These platforms you are standing on are launchpads, and they will be shooting you into the Emerald Forest below where you will venture North. There you will find some ruins, with some relics inside. Your task is to get there, secure one of the relics and bring it back to this here cliff. We will not be providing assistance, so use caution or death is a very real possibility here. Also no aid will be rendered in your landing on the forest, so I hope you have thought up a suitable landing strategy. Any questions so far?"
No one voiced any concerns or questions at this. In fact they even looked a bit excited at the chance to show their skill. He continued at their silence, "Now on to the selection of teammates, you will each be given your own partners who you will be with throughout your time here at Beacon, so it is prudent to be paired with someone you work well with. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next 4 years."
He heard a despairing whimper coming from Ruby and somewhere a little farther up, Nora's voice said in triumph, "See, I told you!"
Smiling a bit it was then that Ozpin decided to start the exam and pressed a button on the scroll in front of him. He saw on of the armored guys from before being launched.
Realizing what was happening, he pressed a button on the spider pendant around his neck. The spider expanded in size before popping open from the top and bottom. Sleek metal plates slid into place around his body, forming an armor around him.
Pretty soon his entire body was cover in a sleek metal armor suit, most of it black with glowing red circuit lines throughout the suit. Clawed gauntlets were attached at the wrist. And he finished off the sample by putting his mask to his face and pressing another button on it.
The mask extended around his head and trapped him full in a suit of spider armor if you will, the webbed circuit patterns around his now glowing red eye lenses also lighting up. He adopted a stance as the others around him looked in surprise. Ruby was the only one gushing, yelling about how cool it was with stars in her eyes before she was launched away too.
From Jaune's point of view, a hud appeared in the top right corner of his vision, monitoring his vitals and keeping track of his Grimm sides stability. Getting into a stance, he was then launched as well.
Letting out a whoop at the feeling of freedom as the wind whipped past him he kept an eye on the treeline of the forest as he remembered getting the suit from his father who had in turn gotten it from General Ironwood, a family friend and member of the atlas military.
The suit was imbedded with top of the line Atlas technology and they spared no expense whatsoever. His Grimm side was too unstable so they needed a suit to help monitor the fluctuations, and mitigate the damage that could be caused if he let that side slip from his control.
He decided he was close enough to the forest and aimed his hand, with his middle and ring finger pressing on the palm of his hand, at one of the thicker tree branches. A webline shot out and stuck to the branch.
Swinging in an arc from. The webline he let go of the web and shot at another tree branch, repeating the process before he found a place to land, which just so happened to also have an Ursa Grimm waiting there.
He stretched out his while missing and got a grip on the Ursa's head, who then began thrashing. picking up speed in his swing while keeping a grip on the grimm he sped for a particularly thick tree trunk, let go of the webline and slammed the grimm's head as hard as he could into the trunk.
The Ursa's head smashed like paper and the tree broke apart, falling to the Forest below. Jaune landed in a roll on the ground below, the remains of the grimm now dissipating. He smiled in satisfaction, "This is going to be fun!"