Jaune couldn't help but sigh as the twelfth boarbatusk of the day dispersed into a cloud of ash. Looking at his team, he grimaced. Dirt stained their armor and caked their skin, as sweat helped to conjoin the two.

How Port managed to capture the grim instead of killing them was a mystery to him.

"I'm tired!" complained Nora as she draped herself over the still smoking stump of a partially destroyed tree, "Is it too late for us to take back our old room and not do this?"

"Sorry Nora, but we agreed to do this. We have to keep our word."

With a groan, Nora marched over to Ren, pulling him up from his resting place in the dirt. Slinging him over her shoulder, she began trudging back to the cabin.

"Well I'm taking a break! I'm tired, and just look at poor Ren!" said Nora, as an exhausted Ren made a distressed groan from her shoulder, "He may as well be dead!"

"I mean...he's not dead though…"

"Maybe Nora's onto something Jaune. I must admit, I'm getting quite tired as well."

Casting Pyrrha a look of betrayal, Jaune tried once more to raise team morale.

"Come on guys! We're team JNPR! We can do anything!"

"Yeah, anything but catch a grimm. It's been three whole days! We're supposed to have the grimm by tomorrow, and the sun's going down already!"

With a look at the pink and orange sky, Jaune couldn't deny the truth in her words. They'd been attempting to catch a grimm nonstop for the past three days, with absolutely zero luck.

Per their agreement with Ozpin, they needed to have a grimm captured by tomorrow, otherwise it was back to the dungeon with them. Jaune shivered as he thought back to the dumpster fire that was their room.

Marching over to Nora, Jaune grabbed her by both her shoulders turning her to face him. As Ren fell to the floor with a whimper he stared into her eyes, a manic desperation budding in his stare.

"Now you listen to me and you listen good. I am NOT going back there do you hear me!? I'm NOT. GOING. BACK. We're gonna stay out here the whole night if we have to, but I swear as my eyes are blue and my hair is blonde, I refuse to go back!"

"But I don't wanna!"

"You should try to actively use your semblance."

Glancing down to the heap on the ground, Jaune decided to address his downed teammate.

"It's not that simple. I haven't felt the impulse since we started trying to do this. I think I have to wait until I get that feeling before I pull off a miracle."

"Have you actively tried though?"

"Well...maybe I haven't...but I-"

Deciding to stand from his crumpled position on the floor, Ren cast his leader with a somewhat annoyed look.

'He really can be obstinate when he wants to be.'

"Look, I'm just saying try. We've been running ourselves ragged for the past few hours, when you have one of the most ridiculous semblances I have ever seen. Just humor me here. Pyrrha! Help talk some sense into him!"

Perking up at the mention of her name, Pyrrha tried to look anywhere but at her leader. She agreed with Ren to an extent, but she also wasn't the one with the semblance that defied all reason.

"Well...I mean you could try? What's the worst that could happen?"

Images of people screaming as Beacon burned to the ground flashed before Jaune's eyes before he made eye contact with Pyrrha, her shaky optimism wilting under his deadpan glare.

"No."

"Gah!"

Throwing her hands into the air, Nora began pacing around the clearing, her frustration bleeding into every step.

"Look Jaune-Jaune, you're never gonna get better with your semblance if you don't actively practice with it! Ok! How about this? Just use a teeny bit of aura and try to activate your semblance!"

"She does have a point." spoke Ren, as he eyed his leader, "You're never going to improve if you keep running from your abilities. I've noticed that you never really try to use your aura or your semblance. Maybe using a little now is a good way to start."

With a sigh, Jaune looked out at the rapidly setting sun. He wanted to use his semblance, but the risk was honestly just too big. He could do these incredible things, and despite how goofy they may have appeared, he had no idea what active use of such an ability would mean for him or anyone around him.

It scared him.

"It's still not that easy. What if I hurt one of you guys?"

"Jaune did I ever tell you about the times I tried to master my semblance?"

Glancing over to his partner, Jaune tilted his head in confusion.

"No you haven't. I don't think you've even told me what your semblance is at all. Come to think of it, I don't actually know what any of your semblances are."

"Mine is electricity! I can generate and absorb lightning and zap things!"

"I can mask myself and others from grimm, I also have a passive awareness of sorts."

"My semblance is polarity. I can control metal."

"So that's how you manage to dodge every attack in class!" gushed Jaune as he looked at Pyrrha with a newfound reverence.

A bashful look overcame Pyrrha's face, even as Ren sported an amused smile and Nora let out a dramatic gasp. With a cough, she tried to steer the conversation back to Jaune.

"Yes, I know it's a very powerful ability, but I didn't learn to master it by not using it at all. I was terrified to use my ability too, but my mother didn't give up on me. She bought the most advanced robots that she could afford, and had me practice on them."

"So you'd control the robots?" asked Nora.

"Huh? No. I guess they were too high quality or something because my power never worked on them, but I would practice using my powers by feeling. I'd be blindfolded and would try controlling and launching different sized hunks of metal at them. Over time, I learned how to perfectly manipulate metal, and by the time I had an actual trainer, I could control my semblance fairly well."

"Uhhh, I'll be honest. I've never heard of a robot that was too 'high quality' to be affected by a magnet...can't you just control metal? And if you were blindfolded, how'd you even manage to hit any of them?" spoke Jaune, his suspicion mounting even as Pyrrha took on a look of focus.

"I'd mainly follow the screams," mused Pyrrha as she put her hand to her chin in contemplation. "They had a realistic soundboard built in or something, but I'd just shoot where the footsteps and the screams came from, and would stop when it was quiet."

The three remaining teammates shared a brief look of horror as they contemplated the revelation they had seemingly had. Clearing his throat, Ren asked the question they all needed the answer for.

"So...how many of these robots did you ki...destroy?"

"Hmmm it's kinda hard to remember since I didn't really see any of them, but I'd say maybe thirty or so? I only used the droids to practice in the very beginning when I had no control."

"I see…"

"Do you know what this is Jaune?"

"A dark team secret that we must take to our graves…" muttered Nora under her breath, as Ren fixed her with an affirming nod.

"It is a reason for you to practice. If you don't try, you can't learn. I think you can do it!"

"Uhhh thanks for sharing Pyrrha, I think I get it. Alright I guess I can give it a go...what exactly should I do?"

Walking up to Jaune and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, Pyrrha closed her eyes. Taking the cue, Jaune followed her lead.

"Just visualize what you want to do with your power. Channel your aura into that desire and execute. Concentrate…"

With a hum, Jaune tried his best to visualize what he wanted to happen. He wasn't entirely sure what to visualize since his semblance seemed so random, so he decided to go somewhat broad.

'Something to help us capture grimm…'

Ren and Nora watched in awe as Jaune's aura flared, its purple glow illuminating the rapidly darkening forest. The two blinked as a surge of purple energy radiated from Jaune on all sides, speeding through the forest and up into the air while phasing through everything it touched.

Opening his eyes, Jaune looked around for any sign of his ability taking effect, only to find nothing had changed. The clearing remained stagnant, even as the crickets began chirping with the approach of the night.

Hanging his head, he made no response as Ren approached him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, with Nora following his lead and giving Jaune a friendly punch in the arm.

"Don't worry fearless leader, we can always try again! Pyrrha's right! None of us got it in one go, so we just gotta keep trying!"

"She's right Jaune. It's ok to feel a little disappointed, but just remember it was your first attempt."

"Yeah Ren, I know. I was just expecting something big with my ability you know? Guess it was kind of silly to expect an answer to our problems to just fall right out of the sky huh?"

"Just a little." said a smirking Pyrrha, even as Nora let out a chuckle that turned into full blown laughter.

"I got you some coffee from the back Noir."

"Thanks man, appreciate it."

An atlesian airship drifted overhead, it's engine letting out a dull hum as it slowly drifted through the lifeless sky.

"I can't wait for this transport run to be over with. Vale is nice and all, but you just can't beat atlesian scenery."

"I hear that. At least it's an easy run. Transporting new Atlas tech to Vale ain't the worst job we could have been given."

"True, true. It's still crazy to me that these psychos want to catch grimm! I'd say just kill em' and be done with it."

The two pilots sat in a comfortable silence, even as a wave of purple energy passed unseen through the ship.

"You feel that?"

"Nope."

"Huh."

The two pilots jumped as they felt the ship hit an unexpected wave of turbulence. The ship began shaking, as a myriad of sirens and alarms signaled that something aboard the vessel had gone horribly wrong.

"What the fuck is happening?!"

"I don't know! The calibration! It's gone nuts!"

"Well can we stabilize?!"

As the ship shook it began an erratic descent, its crew desperately trying to stabilize the aircraft. With the ground rapidly approaching, both pilots struggled to come up with something to save their lives.

"We gotta lose weight man! Maybe we can stabilize!"

"How the hell are we gonna do that?"

"We gotta lose the cargo!"

"Lose the cargo?! You're fucking crazy!"

"Dude! We're falling right out of the sky! We've gotta drop the load!"

With the pull of a lever, the backside of the airship slowly opened, as millions of dollars worth of atlesian technology rained down into the forest below. As the alarms on the ship slowly subsided and the plane began to stabilize, the two pilots looked at each other, terror leaking from their very pores.

"Dude?"

"Yeah Noir?"

"What the hell do we tell Ironwood?"

Still standing together, team JNPR took in the nighttime air. It was nice to simply relax after the trying day they'd experienced.

'Still though, what are we going to tell Port tomorrow?'

Jaune couldn't help the worried thoughts that buzzed in his mind. They had agreed to capture the grimm, and Port would be expecting results. He'd seen enough of Port in the last couple of weeks to know that despite the man's bluster, he was a no-nonsense type of Professor.

The fact that he seemed to have a mild personal vendetta against him wasn't aiding his self esteem either.

"Do you guys hear that?"

A steadily growing whistle echoed through the air above them. Looking up, Jaune balked as a torrent of steel boxes plummeted towards his team.

"Uhh guys?"

"Yes oh fearless leader?"

"We gotta move!"

Breaking into a sprint, Jaune barely looked back even as his team burst into action upon seeing the impending danger, with Pyrrha and Nora darting to the sides of the clearing as Ren outright sprinted ahead of him.

'Since when could Ren run that fast?!'

Crash!

With an earth shaking roar, the clearing burst into a cloud of debris, obscuring Jaune's view even as he desperately tried to survey the damage.

Seeing Pyrrha and Nora come running towards his location, he did the only thing he could think of at the moment.

"Jaune! Are you ok?!"

"Yeah Jaune-Jaune? You're not hurt are you?"

"Don't worry, Jaune and I are fine. Both of us...together."

Sporting twin blushes, the girls stammered out an apology as Ren brushed some debris from his white pants, his stoic look somehow managing to convey his annoyance.

"Sorry Ren, Jaune-Jaune's just more...uhhh delicate?"

As Pyrrha let out a meek nod of affirmation, Ren let out a huff, content with letting it go for now.

"Well since you two are here, maybe you can help with that." stated Ren as he pointed to a defeated looking Jaune, his body tucked into a fetal position. "I'm gonna check on the cabin, or whatever's left of it."

As Ren ventured over to the settling dust cloud, Nora and Pyrrha approached the downed figure, noticing the slow heaving of his shoulders.

Kneeling next to the distraught knight, Pyrrha's gentle voice reaches his ears.

"Hey Jaune, are you alright?"

Receiving no response, she tried again.

"Jaune?"

"Pyrrha…"

"Yes Jaune?"

"Am I a bad person?"

Recoiling at the question, Pyrrha shared a quick glance with Nora, her eyes begging for help. Receiving an errant shrug for her effort, Pyrrha refocused her attention on Jaune. Reaching forward, her hand began rubbing gentle circles across his back.

"Of course not Jaune. Why, I happen to think you're a great person!

"Then why do these things happen to me?"

"Guys!" yelled Ren as the rest of team JNPR turned to the wreckage. "Come look at this!"

With a sigh, Jaune slowly began trudging towards Ren even as the girls took off to stand next to their raven haired teammate. As he reached them, he noticed how quiet all three of them were, and how gobsmacked they appeared to be as their jaws hung open in disbelief.

Turning towards the now settled debris, he found himself hard pressed not to gape at the scene before him as well as the cabin had somehow become encased in metal, while the doors, windows and structures all remained the same, with the biggest difference being a massive satellite dish that now sat upon the roof.

Four motorcycles sat beside the cabin alongside a massive four person vehicle that looked suspiciously like a tank, with its massive canon and tracks in place of tires.

Moving into the cabin, Jaune felt his mouth instantly go dry as he saw that the entire interior had somehow become some kind of chrome and a massive computer system was now entrenched in the living area. A single wall had been transformed into a weapons rack with a myriad of weapons lining the wall, each sorted into a different category with their own place on the wall.

'This is nuts!'

Jaune's eyes went from amazed to horrified as Nora grabbed one of the guns, her face alight with glee as she pretended to shoot imaginary grimm.

"Nora," spoke a terrified Jaune, "please put the gun down."

"Relax! What's the worst that could happen?"

Upon finishing her statement an opaque grey net sprayed from the front of the gun, its sudden appearance catching Ren off guard as he was enveloped. He flailed around for a moment desperately holding onto his balance, before falling to the ground with a dull thud.

"Renny!" screamed Nora as she dropped the gun and began attempting to pry the webbing off of him.

Jaune watched in stunned silence as one of the most physically adept people he's ever met, frantically tried and failed to tear open the netting. As her breathing became more and more erratic, Pyrrha offered a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Let me try Nora. Whatever this netting is made of, it seems to have some kind of metal in it as well. We'll have Ren out of there no problem, ok?" whispered Pyrrha, as a teary eyed Nora nodded and stepped away from the grey sack.

With a resolute nod, Pyrrha turned to the flailing sack and attempted to pry it open with her semblance. As she steadily became more and more frantic, Jaune walked over and examined the discarded gun. He eyed the intricate silver design and couldn't help but wonder exactly what it cost to make. As he turned it over in his hands, he also couldn't help but notice the switch on the side with two distinct settings.

'Catch and Release...huh.'

Flipping the switch, Jaune pointed the gun at the net and pulled the trigger. Somehow, the net began to glow before it dissipated into an array of lights leaving a petrified Ren to be smothered by a bawling Nora.

"Well I figured it out at least. You alright Ren?" asked Jaune, as he turned to the slowly recovering Ren.

"I'll live. What is all this stuff?"

"This," stated Jaune as he gestured to the room "is the result of me using my semblance. Somehow, someway, I know it's related. See what happens when we 'experiment' and 'try to grow'?"

Jaune was desperately trying to keep the venom in his words from bleeding into his inflection, but he really couldn't help it. He knew some BS like this would happen, yet he still went along with their prodding, and look at where it got them! Almost killed by crashing space debris that turned out to be a secret government airship sent to explode on their doorstep.

"Aww don't be like that Jauney! Don't you see what you've done?! We'll definitely have the grimm for Port tomorrow!"

"Oh really? And how exactly are we going to do that?"

Jaune gulped as Nora's teal eyes stared at the gun still firmly in his grip. Somehow he knew his life just got infinitely more complicated than it had any right to be.

"Mr. Arc! Good morning my boy! Where's the rest of your team?"

"Ahh good morning professor. The rest of my team had something to take care of. I just came ahead to let you know that they may be a tad bit late." Spoke Jaune, his facade of normalcy almost cracking under Ports' stern gaze.

"Excellent! I do hope you haven't forgotten our agreement as I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of grimm for today. You did manage to capture one yes?"

"Well...about that…"

"Because if you didn't, well...that would just be tragic. To renege on an agreement set not two weeks prior! Why, it's simply appalling! So where is your grimm my boy?"

Even as he spoke, more and more students had begun piling into the classroom. Jaune squirmed in place as Port made a show of glancing around him, searching for a grimm he clearly knew wasn't there.

As a few students began to chuckle, Jaune broke out into a cold sweat.

'Where the hell are they?!'

As if answering his silent plea, the door burst open to reveal…

Team RWBY.

'God if you're real, just kill me now.'

"You dolt! See what you've done! We're late now!"

Ruby sputtered as her face turned crimson.

"What I've done?! You're the one who took forever drying your hair! Speaking of which, drying your hair with wind and fire dust? Really?! I've never seen anything so wasteful!"

"Well it wouldn't have mattered if you had woken up when you were supposed to! It was your turn to wake up the team!"

"I'm a growing girl! I need my sleep!"

"Ahem!"

Both girls froze mid argument to see an entire classroom staring at them. They glanced back to see Yang and Blake looking like they wished the ground would just collapse around them to save them from the embarrassment.

Both girls turned beet red as they stammered out an apology, even as Port wordlessly signaled them to take their seats. Once they were seated, his searing gaze turned to Jaune once more.

"So Mr. Arc, I shall ask you for the final time. Where is the grimm?"

"Well it's a funny story...the grimm...escaped?"

"The grimm escaped Mr. Arc?"

Ignoring a scoff from Weiss near the back of the room accompanied by a few whispers and chuckles, Jaune decided to double down. Being honest had quite literally gotten him nowhere in life thus far.

"Yes sir. We were...transporting it to class this morning when the devil broke free. My team is attempting to recapture it as we speak."

"Oh? Is that right? What kind of grimm was it Mr. Arc?"

'You son of a -'

"Well truth be told, it was really dark out when we encountered it and when it escaped this morning. I'd hate to give you incorrect information. It really would be best if you just saw it yourself."

As sweat trickled down his brow, Jaune found it increasingly hard to ignore the growing chuckles behind him as Port's gaze became even more rigid.

"Well if you can't produce a grimm for me, I suppose we'll just have to have a meeting with Professor Ozpin later to…reconsider our agreement."

"I-"

His sentence was cut short as the classroom door burst open, with Nora strutting into the room carrying a thrashing grey net slung over her shoulder. Pyrrha and Ren trailed slightly behind her looking exhausted but victorious, their heads held high even as Port leveled them with a questioning look.

"One grimm, hold the mayo!" yelled Nora as she hefted the net from her shoulder and threw it to the ground, prompting even more thrashing and muffled growls from the downed sack.

"My word! Well a gentleman knows when to admit defeat. Good show team JNPR! Now please take your seats so we may begin the lecture!"

As team JNPR sat down, Jaune turned to address Ren, his whispers masked by Port's incessant droning.

"Where the hell were you guys?! Port had me by the short hairs for like ten minutes!"

"Truth be told, we were ready ten minutes prior to class. Nora said something about building suspense and creating tension. She refused to leave until the absolute last minute."

Jaune looked past Ren to see Nora flashing him a thumbs up and a cheeky grin.

'I'll kill her!'

"It's alright Jaune", spoke Pyrrha as she waved away the smoke billowing from his ears, "we got here on time and we got the job done. Isn't that all that really matters?"

Feeling his anger evaporate, Jaune spoke in a more subdued tone.

"Sorry Pyrrha, I'm actually not sure why my emotions have been so erratic recently. I'm usually pretty mellow…"

"Perhaps it is another aspect of your semblance? Most people have a semblance that reflects a core aspect of their personality in some shape or form. Maybe your erratic emotions are a byproduct of an erratic semblance?" whispered Ren.

"Maybe."

"So I've been thinking about it and I want tonight to be taco night."

All three members turned to see Nora in deep contemplation.

"I'm just saying, I've been craving a taco and as of right now I refuse to eat anything else until that craving is settled. So are you guys camp crunchy or soft? I personally am one with camp crunchy, but I might be down to compromise."

"I like soft tacos…" whispered Pyrrha, as Nora offered her a challenging look.

"Well that's just too bad Miss Magnet, camp crunchy shall prevail! Tell her Ren!"

"I actually prefer soft as well."

"Traitor!"

Jaune chuckled as he listened to the back and forth. All things considered, he really couldn't have gotten placed on a better team. No matter how bad it seemed, they had his back and were shaping up to be some great friends.

"And now, we will see what team JNPR has in store for us! If you would, please release the grimm and I will select a student to fight it!"

Perking up at the mention of his team, Jaune glanced at his teammates only to see they had all developed a rapt interest in their desks. As Port asked again for his team to release the grimm and allow him to end the lecture, Jaune felt his stomach sink as not one member of his team made a move. He sighed as he prepared himself for the fallout that was soon to come.

"How did you guys forget the gun?"