Bartholomew Oobleck

An explosion rang out for the umpteenth time, the shockwave pushing him back slightly. The fight had been going on for a minute now and Oobleck was getting flashbacks of his time in Beacon.

The team used to practice dueling whenever possible and Oobleck knew his former friend's attacks through and through. The only problem was, the same held for his now opponent.

He had been an aura user, an exceptional one at that. He had been practicing ever since he was a child. His father ran a quite successful training center in Mistral teaching people of all ages aura manipulation. He had had his aura unlocked at the young age of 5, a controversial act that had made the news as the youngest aura unlock in recent history.

When Oobleck had first met him, he hadn't quite known what to think of him. He was absolutely calm and collected, well spoken, and reserved. However, once you got to know him, he opened up and was quite the conversationalist. Just never around anyone unfamiliar.

He had a very non-physical fighting style that was entirely based upon utilizing his aura in various techniques that he had developed experimenting with aura and Dust. There had been others who had been so in tune with these materials, but the only one who had anywhere near this level was Jaune Arc.

One of the attacks that he had developed were the bombs that he was pushing Oobleck with. From what Oobleck had managed to get out of him, they consisted of shaping his aura into a super dense hemisphere and collecting and compressing air into it, fitting another hemisphere on top. The aura then compressed the air, causing it to heat up immensely. The aura grenade was then thrown at an enemy and the aura retrieved at the last second, causing the superheated gas to expand and ignite.

Oobleck had been confused when the process was revealed to him as it required aura to interact with a gas, which had never been before in large quantities. The solution was quite simple and required a level of control only he had. He controlled the larger particles in the air itself and used them to create a mesh cage. The holes in the cage would create eddy currents of air that would stop air from moving out. The aura usage was minimized as the only energy spent was in compressing the air. It was a brilliantly executed attack and one of the many that he had kept hidden in his sleeve.

Oobleck spun the weapon, blocking each of the shimmery spheres as fast as his ex-friend threw them. His weapon was marked with black scorch marks its whole length but Oobleck wasn't worried. The build quality was top notch, it would hold. The problem was getting close enough or getting an opening to attack.

That opportunity came soon, when Oobleck ducked under a sphere and lunged forwards under his opponent's guard. He feinted with his weapon to the right and shot his fist straight forwards into his opponent's gut.

The punch was aura-laced and drove him backwards, allowing Oobleck to deliver a cross strike into his head. It sent him flying into the wall and fall to the ground, slightly dazed.

Oobleck leaped to push his advantage but got hurled backwards as an invisible shockwave pulsed out from the kneeling foe. It hit Oobleck with enough force to cause him to leap backwards and do a backflip to dissipate the energy.

"Seems like you've still got it Bart. Makes it an even fight."

Oobleck adjusted his grip on his weapon. "You may be possessing his body, but he was never better than me. Now, be respectful and let go of…his body."

Oobleck struggled to remember his friend's name, which surprised him greatly. There was nary a thing Oobleck forgot; part of why he found history to be so easy was his excellent memory. But to not remember his deceased teammate's name? Something was up.

"So you finally got around to noticing you can't remember his name? I remember you as smarter than that Oobleck." Everything about the man was completely the same as his memories of him, except maybe the tone. That was much more condescending than he remembered.

"Let me help you out. Names have power and meaning. Names help associate an object with the world around it, to help communicate its properties. A simple word can express a countless amount of information."

Oobleck kept his guard up as the man opposite him talked. He seemed to be comfortable, at ease. It was just like when he used to lecture the team about certain topics, only now this was slightly, no wait, very surreal. His dead friend's body was possessed by some sort of being that attacked a Hunter base in Mountain Glenn of all places, and was now lecturing him about names.

"When that object goes away and people forget about it, there is no way to recover that information. The object's true, specific name is gone." The man gestured with his hands. "Of course, you can always use other names to describe the idea, but none will ever encompass the entirety of that idea. Can you see where I'm going where with this?"

Oobleck felt numb as realization dawned on him. "You…" Oobleck licked his lips. His throat felt parched. "You erased him from existence."

The man motioned him to continue. Oobleck felt sick as he saw the encouraging expression his friend always wore when teaching someone something. "Now everything he was, him and all of it is gone. You purged that information from the world."

"Yes, exactly! Doing so didn't violate natural norms, as all information is and will be lost eventually. So yes. Everything about him is gone, and only our memories and his impacts on the world remain." The despicable being's voice was triumphant.

Oobleck somehow felt even angrier, but suppressed it with a great effort of will. There was still information to be gathered, and it seemed that the thing standing in front of him was willing to diverge it. He had to keep it talking as long as possible so he could think of a plan. He needed to defeat it or at least stop it from getting out.

"So how did you manage to make such an excellent replica of his body?"

"Trade secrets. Can't tell you everything can I?" The being smiled and cocked his head.

"So what are you? Some sort of god? Demigod? Demon? You're obviously not anything terrestrial." Oobleck's mind ran wild with different possibilities, plans, attacks, and counters.

"I have been called many names of the years, though one I truly liked was Nergal. A civilization way out there in the universe gave me that name and I thought it fit. Perhaps if you knew them you would appreciate the poignancy of the word. They appreciated it, a little too closely in fact, and are now no more. A sad day it was."

While Nergal seemingly rambled, Oobleck decided upon a plan. The body that Nergal was occupying was still mortal, and had no aura around it. Oobleck was sure there were some arcane abilities that were protecting the body, but it was still possible to kill it. It most likely wouldn't stop Nergal, but he couldn't afford to give him any chances to do to him what he had done to his teammate.

"So now you're here, on Remnant. You want to destroy this world too? Cast it into oblivion?"

He laughed. "Oh no, that was started ages ago. I'm just here to finish the job."

…

Jaune Arc

"The Prometheans? Who're they? Some kind of cult?" Nora bounced up and down on the sofa while the other two leaned back to listen to Jaune.

"They're some sort of criminal gang, the news had some stories on their activities back in Vale."

"Yeah, that they are Ren, that they are." Jaune was going over what he was going to say and how. He couldn't reveal information a Beacon student couldn't possibly know, but he had to give enough knowledge about their weaknesses so that they could take down the asshole who had taken over the clone's body. He hated that guy so damn much for that.

"So ever since I came to Vale, I tried to learn more about this place. Culture, history, that sort of stuff. You guys helped a lot with that, by the way." The other three nodded along. "And one day while I was searching for stuff going on in Vale, I came across this news article. Real small, but it was something different. Some guy busted up the area outside Junior's nightclub."

"The place where all the thugs and such go to?" Pyrrha questioned. "I heard about that fight, the whole street was damaged, the building next door had its front damaged beyond repair."

"Right, so you can see why I read further into this. So I tried to look into the incident since only a fight between two Hunter trained individuals could cause that much damage. I got curious as generally people try not to have large fights like this out in the open, especially not next to a club where the police are just waiting for an excuse to raid.

"Time goes by; I start seeing more of such incidents in the news. Attacks and raids by a single entity, always on criminal hideouts and warehouses. Soon after, he started leaving marks. A red P on a burning Remnant. Later on, it seemed that he got sloppy, or stopped caring about not being seen, and eyewitnesses started giving reports on his appearance. Apparently it wasn't just him, it was a group of similarly dressed guys who were gaining a significant foothold in the Vale underworld."

Thus far, it was mostly true, the figure had done all that. He just didn't let them know he was the one who did it. The less he lied, the better it would be for him in the event his lie fell apart.

"After the initial interest and secrecy in him decreased, the media's attention went off them and it became much harder to find out anything about him. Now, up till now I think this was something you all might have known, but this is where it gets relevant."

Time to lie through your teeth Jauney boy.

"I decided to find out more about them, to do some in-depth, hands on research. Pyrrha, don't get mad, because this happened months ago. I, uh, I went into Vale and searched for info. Went to Junior's, a couple other places, paid some guys in the right places and soon got a feel for what and who these guys were.

So from what I gathered, these guys are independent mercenaries of sorts. They buy Dust and sell equipment and manpower. Only one individual has been seen at a time. Apparently these Prometheans ever gone lethal, but they scared even Torchwick."

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. "You went to Torchwick's men to get information? What if they ratted you out to him? You could've been kidnapped like that time after your expo!"

Jaune smiled comfortingly. "Relax Pyrrha. For one, I'm not dumb enough to go to near him for information. And two, who said these men were thinking straight when I interviewed them? Junior's serves some strong drinks." Jaune saw Pyrrha opening her mouth. "And no Pyrrha. I didn't have any, though your concern is quite touching."

She just smiled a little and leaned back. "What else did you learn?"

"These guys are formidable fighters. They are quite skilled with their weapons and use Dust heavily. Their attacks are unpredictable and they are hard to gang up on. Remember the incident back at the docks in Semester 1?" They nodded, thinking back to the story that RWBY had told them. "That was another thing that roused my curiosity. The Promethean stopped Torchwick from killed Blake and Sun by just showing up and talking to him. So that means he's respected by even a scoundrel like Torchwick.

The reason for him saving Blake and Sun is not evident yet, though I think that he may have done it either to make a point or to simply provoke Torchwick. But the bottom line is that they are a dangerous group, and we should be careful against them even as a team."

"Jaune, are you saying we might be attacked by them?" Ren got straight to the point.

And now it was time to connect it all back. "Yes. A while after the expo, I was contacted by them on my scroll. They wanted my technology and weapons. They were quite persuasive. I managed to stall them by drip feeding them some plans every couple of weeks and they seemed content enough. Don't look at me like that, it wasn't anything great, and I didn't want to bother anyone over this.

But I haven't sent them anything ever since we got to Atlas and I think they've gotten impatient. I heard some nurses talking about how a couple squads had been sent to a SDC camp up North. Someone had managed to infiltrate the compound with almost no noise and had killed the Hunter that was protecting the mine. The White Fang and the Prometheans are the only groups who have any chance at doing such a thing and as such, I'm just making sure that we as a team are ready for a fight if the Prometheans come across us."

"They're searching for you? What kind of technology did you provide? Was it really cool?" Nora was still somehow bouncing on the sofa with the same vigor as she had been 10 minutes ago. Jaune was happy she was on his team; he had seen how she utilized that energy against her enemies.

"Until otherwise confirmed, I think that yes. They might be searching for me. I apparently really interested them at my expo for them to be doing all this."

The room was quiet for a bit. Everyone digested the knowledge for a bit before Nora, unpredictably, broke the silence.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm just going break his legs!"

…

Prometheus C – Body

The armored man walked into the elevator with a scroll from what he presumed was the dead commander of the squad. He had been a fool. If both parties have weapons the obvious thing to do would've been to incapacitate him. Especially as they seemed to be intimidated by the armor and logo.

He had to hand it to, what was the silly name he called himself now? Jaune? He scoffed as the elevator authenticated the scroll and started rising.

He had seemed to be truly lost and without a clue as to what was going on. He had walked right into the trap and opened the prison. He had even given him a body and an easy way to go into the open world!

If it was any easier, I would think this was a trap.

The elevator reached the top and the doors opened into the cold. Not that he could feel anything but that's what the sensors on the screen in the helmet told him. For how much he loathed Jaune, he had to admit one thing: he made some damn good equipment.

The suit flowed with him, feeling as if it was simply a second skin rather than a thick layer of armor encasing him. The sword stayed sharp as it ripped and tore through the soldier's armor. The shield had scratches in it and a couple dents but that was to be expected when a dozen soldiers fire their guns full auto at you.

He knew nothing of the current state of the world beyond what Jaune had thought about and experienced in this body. He knew about weapons and using them, but the whole Aura business was Jaune's forte. He had never understood and never wanted to. He was powerful enough not to resort to cheap tricks like that.

He leisurely strolled out of the enclosure that held the elevator cabin and walked out into the clearing. The two soldiers standing guard had barely any time to react before they lay dead on the ground, snow turning red around them.

There were a few soldiers facing outwards on the perimeter of the clearing chatting amongst themselves. He shook his head as he strolled up to them. They were extremely incompetent to not have noticed the message that that soldier girl had managed to send out before he killed her.

He ended their pathetic lives and continued onwards to where their air transport was located. Luckily Jaune had thought about an escape plan involving stealing the military transport, so the basic knowledge of flying was still in the clone's brain.

He sat down and plugged the commander's scroll into the correct jack. The machine revved to life and the control panel came to life. He set a waypoint for the base that the memories left in the brain said was where Jaune and his team were located.

The aircraft lifted gently off the ground and quickly gained speed as it increased its altitude, eventually flying at near top speed towards the Atlesian base. The autopilot took over, leaving C with time to reflect on the state of matters.

The last time he had seen humans, they had been primitive, barely able to function and survive. Now here they were, building craft capable of tearing through the air, firearms actually worth a damn, and materials that wouldn't fall apart at the slightest touch. It wasn't anything new to C, but to see humans finally achieve this level of technology disturbed him greatly.

He sat calmly as he covered the miles between himself and his destination. Minutes passed and the scenery flew by beneath him. The sun rose steadily in the sky, throwing sharp shadows across the land and giving the alpine locales an otherworldly feel.

The radio crackled to life and broke the serene trance C had gone into.

"Alpha-RT13, we received a distress signal from you 15 minutes ago. What is your current status?"

C simply pulled his fist back and punched the panel, ripping it out of the dashboard. He threw it to the back of the cockpit and waited. He watched the outermost perimeter wall approach and go past underneath him.

The inner perimeter was within his sight when the alarms on the control panel started going off. He turned on the exterior cameras and flicked through each feed until he saw what was causing the ruckus.

A missile tore through the air towards his plane, the metal gleaming in the early morning sun. C thought for a second before simply turning the craft off and letting it coast. He reached under the panel and opened the electrical box, tearing out wires with reckless abandon.

After a dozen wires, the backup electric locking mechanism in the door disengaged, leaving the mechanical failsafe in place. C grasped the handle and counted down as the missile got closer and closer.

The plane was now in freefall, the missile's trail barely visible above him. He strained his ears to try and discern the missile's location past the screaming of the wind and could barely make out the roar of the solid fuel rocket that propelled the missile.

He waited until the sound was almost the same volume as the wind before bracing, opening the door, and leaping straight out. The air hit him like a wall, stunning him as his momentum carried him away from the useless hunk of metal.

He spun himself in the air to watch the missile detonate just feet from the body of the plane and consume it in a ball of fire. The visor darkened heavily to block out the glare, giving C a spectacular view of the explosion.

Burning parts of the plane spiraled downwards slower than before, the flames throwing up large clouds of smoke. C maneuvered himself into their midst to confuse any thermal imaging systems that the brain remembered as being standard in all scanners in the military's hardware.

C grabbed onto a large sheet of metal and held on. His helmet gave him his altitude and current speed as well as a super useful indicator that stated falling at 30+ meters per second was not a good idea. How did Jaune survive without any such indicators on a daily basis?

A new box came up after 10 seconds of fall and C opened it using the clone's instinct.

Terminal velocity detected. Do you wish to activate the parachute? YES/NO.

C watched the altitude indicator go down as he waited for a safe enough height to open the parachute at. The ground got closer and closer and the trees got clearer and easier to see. A river meandered downhill not far away and there a road right below him. The rising sun made everything easier to see.

Upon reaching the desired altitude, C pressed the confirmatory button on the sides of the hands on the suit. He waited a second and a parachute burst out the back plate of his armor, with cords coming out of the front as well.

He descended the rest of the way relatively uneventfully. He kept an eye on a truck making its way along the road. The driver had no doubt already seen the explosion, not to mention the armored man parachuting to the ground.

C adjusted his course to match the truck's. The truck must have realized what he was attempting to do as he sped up to try and outpace C's fall. C simply moved himself over the road and descended steadily, waiting for the truck to approach. The truck was moving too fast to stop and if it slowed down, C could easily land and hijack it.

Once he was above and ahead of the truck, he cut the cords and fell straight downwards, managing to grab onto a hook on the back of the truck. His shoulder strained as he fought to pull himself onto the roof, the wind and the erratic driving doing nothing to help.

C managed to get onto the roof and lay on his front, staying out of the wind. He pulled himself along the top, the wind rushing by around him. It would've been deafening if the helmet didn't have active noise cancellation built into it. It was amazing how much stuff still existed in the clone's head. It had been used for months apparently, and didn't seem any worse for wear.

He stopped near the edge and moved to the right, waiting for the truck to turn right. During this time, the windflow on the right side would be the lowest and it would be easier to move around. The turn came within a minute and C quickly reached and punched the passenger window in.

The driver started swerving even more, trying to throw C off, but his grip was secure. The next time the driver swept the truck to the right on the desolate road, C rolled off the roof and pulled himself into the cab headfirst.

He braced himself with his feet on the door and slammed the driver's head on his door once, twice, thrice, then pulled the limp body under him. He settled into the driver seat and pushed the driver's body under the seat. He was minutes from the interior walls and had to prepare a plan of getting in.

…

Team JNPR

The mood had lightened with Nora's exuberant declaration. The four sat in silence for a bit, thinking over everything.

"Do you think he'll be able to make it past the defenses? This is quite a lar…" Pyrrha trailed off when she saw Jaune's expression. "Sorry, stupid question. You know them better than me."

"Yep. This is not a question of if, it's a question of when. And honestly, based on the time at which the camp up north was infiltrated, they might even be here today."

As if on cue, an alarm started ringing on each of their scrolls. They whipped them out and read the message that accompanied the alarm.

'ATTN All Personnel: We are on active alert. An active fighter has engaged and neutralized friendly forces and is assumed to have hijacked a A54 Kestrel that was shot down between the inner and outer fortifications. We have suspicion that the fighter has survived and is attempting to gain access to the base proper. Active units to battle stations, other units on standby.'

There was another message, this one from Major Ashe. They hadn't heard much from after they had settled into their routines and whenever they had it had been about special training and practice missions.

'Team JNPR, you are not exempt from this. You are expected to report for duty to your proper locations as you are all still under Atlesian care. We are sending you backup as to ensure your safety. We do not expect this threat to remain a threat for long, but it is a good exercise for you. Report in 10 minutes.'

"So much for 'staying safe', huh." Jaune was the first to finish reading. He put his scroll away and stood up. The others finished within seconds, shrugged, and followed him out the door. They were to report to the airfield and the aircraft hangars, which was on the other side of the base.

They immediately started sprinting upon leaving the hospital, past a couple marching groups of soldiers and a few trucks carrying supplies and weapons. They went through two checkpoints and were rushed to their positions, an encampment overlooking the airfield. The hangars were on the other side of the width of the runways, with the airpads on the right side facing the hangars.

They climbed the ladder into their encampment, a small room with waist high walls and a metal roof. There were stands to rest long range weapons on to boost their stability, shields that popped up at the press of a button, and an ammunition locker that had a large supply of all sorts of bullets and Dust.

As they settled in, Pyrrha asked the question they'd all been thinking. "So who do you think is the backup that Major Ashe said we would be getting?"

"No clue, though I appreciate getting backup. Maybe a special forces type of guy?" Jaune slotted his sword into a stand, the railgun charged and ready.

"Could be. Or maaaaybe it's a whole squad! And we could have this huge amazing fight with the bad guy, which will convince Ozpin to send us to Vale!" Nora spun her hammer around in the close quarters, miraculously not hitting anything.

"Nora, they're not going to send a whole squad just for us." Ren finished inspecting his submachine guns and tucked them into his sleeves.

"And you would be right! Salutations!" The door opened to reveal a petite, orange haired, green eyed, widely smiling girl. She was wearing a black and green skirt with circuit patterns on them and a small bow in her hair.

The four of them turned to look at the newcomer, three of them with confusion and the fourth with joy and surprise.

"Penny! It's good to see you." Jaune walked forward and hugged her. He had grown quite attached to her during their training and mentoring sessions. She had started to look at him as the brother she never had.

"It is good to see you too Jaune!" She beamed at him. She had been elated when she had heard that her first assignment would be helping Jaune protect the airbase.

"And I'm Nora! Are you the backup? How do you know out fearless leader?" Nora popped up in between them, hammer hanging from its normal place on her back. "Ohh Jaune, don't tell me you…"

"No! No, Nora, no. Nothing like that. Penny here is a really good friend of mine." Jaune hastily stopped Nora. "She's Dr. Polendina's daughter, and is currently training to be a Huntress." It was true, Penny had begun combat training a bit ago, which put an end to their one-on-one training sessions.

"Well hello then Penny. We're all glad to have you on our team!" Pyrrha smiled warmly.

"Are we going to be friends then?" Penny smiled hopefully.

Pyrrha shot Jaune a questioning glance, to which he just nodded. Pyrrha assumed her previous expression almost instantly. "Yes Penny, I think we shall."

Penny leaped into the air in joy. Nora jumped alongside her and then they both giggled.

"Oh god, if she's anything like Nora, I don't think we'll need to fight." Pyrrha appeared at Jaune's side and whispered out the side of her mouth. Jaune stifled a laugh and resorted to coughing instead.

They settled back into their positions, Penny using her scroll while standing in the middle of the room. Pyrrha had tried to get information out of Jaune about Penny but he told her he would tell her later. She retreated with a doubtful look on her face but trusted him in the end.

Minutes passed while they waited. They watched the rays of the sun throw shorter and shorter shadows as dawn progressed. Jaune was thinking about the wisdom of asking base whether they were sure the intruder was alive after all.

Sitting in the silence, Jaune reflected on the events of the past couple of hours.

Raven and he had infiltrated an SDC Mining Camp on the suspicion that the SDC was hiding something that required Atlesian tech to guard. Raven's claims had not been unfounded, what little he had seen of the living conditions of the workers, more accurately slaves, had been exactly what Raven had told him.

Her reasons for visiting the camp had seemed completely bunk to him. Some ancient evil that controlled the Grimm was now using the largest Dust Company to forward its goals? Give him a break, nothing supernatural couldn't be explained with some simple sleight of hand, smoke, and mirrors.

But after stepping foot in that mine, his opinion and view on the world had completely changed. To start things off, he had been teleported into a room that was literally impossible in 3d space. Not by the limit of human ingenuity, but by definition.

Next, the whole ordeal with awakening some ancient being at a temple. Jaune had accepted that teleportation was a possibility, but this was getting ridiculous.

That's when the damn thing decided to reveal it had been hitching a ride in Jaune's goddamn mind and wanted to kill everything Jaune loved. Oh, and it knew Jaune from ages past and called him Aurawielder. Go figure.

The thing that tried to not just kill him but erase him from existence inside Jaune's own mind. Jaune had managed to escape and stop the thing from killing Raven, but he had no idea what would happen next. He knew that the invader they were fighting was none other than his own Promethean, this time possessed by someone else. It felt wrong.

Jaune had put off the incredible strangeness of the whole ordeal until now, but he let it wash over him now. The more he came to terms with it, the easier it would be to adapt to it.

Not to mention the creepy-ass voice that had been giving him visions and helping him practice killing Grimm in them. She had contacted him once or twice, giving him small upgrades each time, boosting his reflexes slightly, making his body and mind more efficient, and a couple others.

He still had no idea what she was or what she wanted, but he played along as long as she had power over him. Plus, the gifts were quite useful in battle.

"Unregistered humanoid approaching this location! Alarms have not yet been tripped in this sector as it seems the intruder has jammed them. Trying to reroute now." Penny tapped away at her scroll, eyes flying across the screen.

Jaune almost cursed as he stood up and moved to his sword. He simply needed time, time to think about everything that had happened in more detail, to use that information to plan out his future moves. The first rule of a fight was 'know thine enemy', and that rule was being broken quite heavily.

Jaune bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for the Promethean to show himself. Jaune didn't know how he found him, or if he even was trying to go for Jaune at the moment. All that mattered was that he was here, and Jaune was pissed.

It was time to fight.

Obligatory AN: What'd you think of the chapter? Anything I can fix? Anything you especially liked? Please review and PM me with this stuff, I love to get them and it helps me write better. Thanks for reading!