A Hobbled Attempt

Plenty of people who waited for their turn were watching him; some out of curiosity like Team JNPR or some out of a desire to see him fail like CRDL, though one thought seemed to ring through everyone's mind as they watched Jason step through the doors to the labyrinth: "Can he really do this?"

Jason seemed to share this same thought as he kept his collapsed staff in hand while rushing through the maze, his mind focused on trying to duck and move under the dummy projectiles and whatever obstacle rushed towards him. Extending his staff into the gun form and starting shooting at the various targets on the wall and moving by just as quickly; Jason wasn't physically strong, if it wasn't for the watch and the staff, he could've easily factored as a regular person.

"Looks like it's time fo-No….Nononono!" Jason said to himself before becoming frantic as he realised that his watch that was normally green had changed into a deep red; he had spent so long in his room trying to decode the watch and with plenty of failed attempts to show meant that the watch was timed out and he practically crippled himself for this impromptu test. "Well…I guess listening to Ben's gonna pay off for this one…" Jason thought as he began to demonstrate something to make up for his lack of offence.

Plenty of the people watching Jason on the cameras ranged from surprise to outright impressed as they saw Jason navigate across the field; whether he vaulted over low barriers or kicked himself off of a wall to sprint through a hallway with his gunstaff firing off shots. "Make it count…." Jason muttered to himself as he then extended the staff to melee and used the momentum to swing it onto a Beowolf's head; how this professor managed to contain Grimm in this maze though the fact that Ozpin was perceptive and resourceful enough to run a school, this wouldn't surprise him if he had something to do with it.

"Looks like Mr Moss is quite the athlete." Port noted as he watched Jason navigate the corners and swing his staff into another Beowolf's jaw. 

Yang looked especially surprised as she had seen him fighting training dummies but it was a whole different story with a maze; "So when he can't go all superhot or anything else, he does this? I'll need to check in and see if I can bulk him up to hit harder~" She thought to herself, that same compulsion which had her training Ruby to fight without Crescent Rose now took hold of Jason too as a collective "Ooooh!" could be heard as said free-runner got himself clawed up his arm by a Grimm in mid swing.

Jason hit the wall with a thud as he grasped at his arm, he couldn't afford to stop his momentum now as he made a desperate sprint to the exit and took a last shot at the Beowolf to throw it off balance, his body twisting around it's desperate swipes and then crossed the threshold to the sound of claps and the doors closing.

"Bravo, Bravo indeed!" Port would congratulate as he watched Jason step out and towards the steps; "You certainly made quite the impression young ma-" He complimented but saw Jason stagger along with a slight trickle of blood from his arm; "That looks bad…Mr Moss, I recommend that you go to the nurse's office and get yourself cleaned up." He would offer before Jason's Grade came up on the board under everyone's name. The next one up on the block was Weiss as she clambered in to start her assessment

Jason started to make his way back from the nurse's office, wincing a little as the scratch on his arm was starting to sting from the clean up and glanced down at it and the watch; "You know, for a supposedly amazing and powerful watch…You can be a real…pain?" He reprimanded the watch but began to get a little concerned as instead of being green since a lot of time had passed since he left the test, this time it was yellow. "Huh….Well that's different, I've never seen this happen before." Jason thought to himself as he then felt his scroll buzz and saw a new file pop up; it looked like his grade had been given to him for reference;

Jason Moss:

Strength: C (Average)

Aura: E (Lack of Use resulting in Injury)

Mobility: S (Highly Exceptional)


Tactics: A (Good use of Terrain and Movement)

Semblance Control/Usage: Ungraded/Not Shown

"Stellar…At least the Urban free-running that Ben made me do several times a day is useful for this line of work." Jason thought as he felt his body start to throb with a dull ache; he dismissed it as an exerted exercise but quickly picked up his walking speed as he felt it start to get gradually worse.

Sure enough, everyone managed to get through Port's test with some decent marks against them with some outliers; Nora managed to blow everyone away with an S Rank in Strength, Weiss managed to show most people up with a high standing A in Semblance Use tied with Pyrrha who seemed to have straight As across the board. However it looked like that despite some good all round traits, it looked like Jaune, Jason and Cardin seemed to be near the bottom tier with Jason excelling in Mobility, Cardin in Strength and Jaune in Tactics.

----A Few Weeks Later----

Time seemed to skip much quicker now, the teachers were adamant on pulling out all the stops for their classes; Jason had considered pulling out another form that was fitted to either bump up his brainpower or to keep his speed going when it came to Oobleck's classes and to keep up with the rapid paced professor. Port seemed hearty in his attempts to engage other students; whether it was to better take on Grimm or to come up with stories that might help them.

During the daytimes; Jason was as good a student as he tried to be, doing his classwork at a good pace with Port's Grimm studies being his strong suit though Glynda's figurative ass riding during one on one training was more than a little debilitating, enough to the point that both Jason and Jaune were the two unfortunate ones to be near the bottom of the class. Jaune's could be explained as he was capable of being ranked higher but he kept making reckless choices that hindered him while Jason was more then capable of using the watch to insta-win his fights, his obstinance on not using it combined with the fact that he lacked much durability made him a glass jaw in a fight, especially when it came to fighting someone stronger or more experienced then he was.

Dealing with the others was one thing; Pyrrha was nice enough to apologise if she thought she went too far, Nora and Yang tended to get carried away and it often got them a reprimand by Goodwitch for going too far. 

Cardin on the other hand: He was an asshole in and out of class, He was one of the big hitters in Glynda's class and he took some of the biggest pride in that. Whether it was kicking Jaune while he was down when he messed up or taking jabs at Jason for being the weakling of their classes, the only difference was that Jaune shrugged off the poor treatment as "practical jokes" while Jason snapped back at Cardin for his attitude.

It didn't take long until things came to a head when Jason found out that Jaune was being bullied into being Cardin's lackey; he wasn't sure what it was but he didn't have to be a genius to realise that Cardin had something on Jaune.

"Jaune, you really need to stand on your own." Jason pointed out while the two were in a training hall together; since Pyrrha began avoiding Jaune after his outburst, he had to look elsewhere to try finding a training partner. "Cardin's got you wrapped around his pinky and if you don't do something about it, you're gonna stay that way."

"I know! But what else am I meant to do? If I stop doing as he says then all it takes is one word to Professor Goodwitch and I'm good as gone." Jaune would admit as he swung his sword at Jason who managed to deflect it with his staff. "I just…I want to do this Huntsman business because I wanna live up to the hero legacy my family has."

"What exactly is it that Cardin has on you? I'm not gonna be able to help you out if you don't tell me." Jason mentioned as he tucked away his staff; "Whatever it is, it won't leave here…I can assure you."

Jaune similarly sheathed his sword; "It's…I never actually got accepted into Beacon…I managed to forge some documents and I lied all the way through…" He confessed as he then looked out the window; "I just wanted to be a hero like my family was before me." 

Jason frowned a little; it didn't seem right for someone so genuine in his desire to help people take to doing something dishonest, but then again he was no better; "Look…What's done is done, you can't change that but you can still turn yourself around and make that into a good thing."

"Yeah, with Cardin keeping me down and threatening my stay at the school…That's already a good start." Jaune grumbled sarcastically; "But that still leaves the whole "Pyrrha won't talk to me anymore" problem so that's just as good."

Jason sighed heavily, Jaune really wasn't making it easy to help; "Alright how about this? I can talk to Pyrrha to see if I can try getting her to hear you out on this, but in return; you have to keep trying to build up your confidence, whatever it takes to help you stand up to Cardin." He said and then left to go try to find Pyrrha for two reasons, one was to straighten things out and the other was for something different.

Pyrrha meanwhile was conflicted; the lashing out that Jaune gave her on the roof still hurt when he got caught up in the moment and respected his desire to be left alone, but she also still felt like she could help him which gave her a desire to keep trying but this always rotated back around to her first feeling. A swift knock at the door took her out of her train of thought as she went to answer; standing there was Jason which seemed confusing since he never really showed himself much outside of classes. "Jason? Is something the matter?"

"Pyrrha, I…I need your help with something." Jason explained with a rather serious note; "Cardin's becoming a problem and I know that you can agree."

The redhead nodded and welcomed him in to their dorm; however none of them were alone since Ren and Nora were there and equally as concerned for Jaune. "I know Cardin is a problem, he's been a problem for everyone…Not just Jaune." Pyrrha elaborated as she sat on her bed.

"Jaune's always gotten the worst of his bullying and I want to try and help him out…But a leader can only do so much on his own, you think you can try again and talk to him? Maybe if you can hear him out and give him some vouching then perhaps he might be able to get out of this rut?" Jason explained as he grabbed a chair.

"Jaune knows exactly what he's doing, he's told me that himself and any time that I did try to help him, he's pushed me away." Pyrrha sighed as she crossed her arms; "I can only help so much but if he wants my help then he has to be willing to let me." 

"Well, we don't really see him as much around anymore since he started hanging out with Cardin…" Nora added as she wasn't blind to what was going on. "Plus we kinda worry about you too, you don't hang out with us much and when we do see you, Cardin's equally as much of a jerk to you as he is towards Jaune."

"Well…A good friend would respect wishes but a better friend would help no matter what." Jason added, partially deflecting the concern on him; "I've talked to him while we sparred, to get the edge off and to work off some of his frustrations…Just, try giving him another chance…I've already asked him to keep an open mind about asking for help so maybe that can help move things along."

Pyrrha silently mulled over his proposal; "Alright, I can try again but I still want him to apologise for being so aggressive about pushing us away."

"Deal…plus there's something…else that I wanted to ask you about. In private?" Jason accepted and then glanced to Nora and Ren.

"On the roof, we can talk out there." Pyrrha would say, taking Jae's arm and guiding him out and onto that same rooftop where she and Jaune had their disagreement; "So what is it that you wanted to discuss?"

"I uh…I need your help with Aura…Mine seems kinda…"

"Not Activated?" Pyrrha took a guess but unknowingly nailed it on the head and realised it when she saw Jason's face falter into guilt; "So you never had Aura activated for any of this time at school? You went into a maze full of Grimm, do you know how dangerous that is?!" Pyrrha reprimanded him as she knew that fighting in such a place with no Aura was more dangerous than anything.

"I know it was risky, but…I thought that you'd be able to help me out…If you're willing to, that is…Jaune told me that you helped him out with his." Jason tried to explain; "Plus it wasn't like I was TOTALLY defenceless, I do still have my free running to thank for not getting hit…much."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes; she appreciated that he was being honest enough to not lie about his logic but still somewhat upset that he didn't do it sooner. "Alright, just close your eyes and focus on your core." She explained before getting in close to start the ritual. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee…" While she recited the words; she could feel his Aura start to pulse intermittently like a heartbeat before finally swelling to the surface.

Jason wasn't sure what he was feeling but it felt like when he transformed; the sudden swell of energy radiated through his body and covered him in an emerald green shimmer on his aura. "Whoa..this feels…amazing." He admitted though he heard the watch start to whirr and glow at this new stimulus.

"Jason, your watch!" Pyrrha mentioned as she saw it start to spin and glow; "I unlocked your aura for you but I never saw it affect other objects like this." She admitted though it was still worrying since she normally saw it quiet and not moving.

"I think…I think you just gave me a little boost in more than just my Aura." Jason said as he came to the realisation when he saw some new silhouettes shimmer across the watch face and then hugged Pyrrha out of joy and thanks, causing the redhead to go a bright pink in surprise.

"I-It's alright, Jason…I'm happy to help and it's good to see it's made some improvements…But to explain what happened, I used my Aura to awaken your own and now the shield protecting you is your own." Pyrrha explained as Jason let go. "Thank you for trying to help, it means a lot."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Jason chuckled while he left, waving to the others as the door shut behind him but that moment of good feeling stopped when he found himself bumping into someone.

"Oh, look at that, we got a moss brained idiot walking around like he owns the place." Cardin sneered as he and his teammates happened to be walking back to their dorm; "You look pretty happy, you finally get more imaginary friends to annoy?" He added with his crew minus Jaune laughing at the joke.

"Great, we're back to jokes about my name…and my supposed Semblance." Jason thought and then sighed; "What do you want, Cardin? As far as I remember; you don't have the imagination to think of good insults, let alone be able to know what a friend is."

"Unlike you, Moss…I have actual friends, not the likes of Team RWBY or JNPR to hang around you out of pity." Cardin snarked as he leaned over Jason; "Besides, Jaune-y boy's been hanging with US now so that friend circle of your's is getting pretty small." He taunted and then prodded Jason in the chest.

"That's weird, I thought friends want to be around each other, not forced into hanging out." Jason snidely poked back; letting Cardin know that he was on to his plan…However Cardin wasn't exactly smart enough to pick up on that part.

"Call it my raw charisma…Who knows? Maybe I'll start taking the girls as "friends" too…it's not like they pay attention to you or to Jaune." Cardin decided to escalate the mean factor.

"You know, most of Jaune's team alone could fold you like a pretzel…That's probably why you like picking on people like Velvet or Jaune and me." Jason remarked with a twitch of his eyebrow; "I know that's because they're the only kinds of fights you're confident that you believe you can win."

"Ha! Look at that Jaune, your weakling best friend is pretty funny…Though I think you're never gonna be able to make it far by running away from everyone." Cardin gloated; "The fact that your greatest "skill" is ducking and dodging? Even Jaune-y Boy is at least able to fight back, rather then just being a slippery coward."

Jason was slowly losing his temper and found it very tempting to try and bust out someone like the Tetramand in his arsenal but restrained it; "That's a pretty funny joke, Cardin…You almost had me convinced that you could think." His mouth moved before he could register it, making Jaune snort in laughter before quickly shutting it up.

Cardin's smarmy sneer quickly turned into an angry one as unlike the other jabs that Jason took at him, this one actually bothered him; "You wanna say that again?"

"Careful Cardin…You start a fight in here and Goodwitch will be on you in an instant." Jason warned, knowing Glynda would definitely take umbrage with fights in the dorm.

"Fine, next time that I see your face…you better watch yourself because I'm gonna bury you." Cardin snarled as he shoved past Jason and headed towards his dorm, letting the threat hang over the boy's head as Jaune split off to go to his dorm.

"I'm really, really sorry about this, Jason…I promise, I'm gonna try." Jaune admitted sadly once Cardin was out of earshot before grabbing his scroll.

"Don't…Just don't apologise to me…You can actually do something about all of this and you can make a difference but you gotta TRY first…What kind of hero runs away from a bully?" Jason let the words sit as he tuned in to his own dorm and left Jaune to hopefully do the right thing.

——The Next Day—

After classes, Jason was trying to improve on his staff strikes against a dummy; he had been lucky enough to not have classes with Cardin but he intended on keeping his focus on training since he wanted to try getting better at hitting more precisely. "Once I finish this up then I can see what those new forms are li-Wait…Something feels wrong…" He felt someone watching him, since his Aura had been awakened by Pyrrha; everything felt sharper like he could notice people staring at him and see a lot more clearly. However being able to see better didn't always equate to reacting quicker as he saw Cardin rearing up to whack him with his mace and rolled out of the way.

"I warned you…Next time I see your face, I'll bury you!" Cardin remarked as he swung the mace down and missed but pulled it back up. "I know you're up to something because Jaune's been more…confrontational about our friendship." 

"Well, bravo for you, Cardin…It shouldn't be surprising to see that no one here hangs out with you by choice." Jason snarked back at him as he readied himself; "Though I gotta admit, I've been wanting to practice on a dummy…but I guess there's no difference when it's you."

Cardin smirked as he then twirled his mace in his hand before rushing toward him and making for a giant swing. However when Jason sidestepped him, he snapped his fingers and from the sidelines; Dove and Sky both tried to intervene as they fired their weapons at Jason to make him scramble.

With the gunfire trying to pepper at him, Jason was on the backfoot as he ran and dodged around, but he ended up getting hit when Russel shot in with a double kick on his chest when he jumped out from behind Cardin. Knocking Jason for a stumble in surprise and sending him onto his back when Cardin followed up with a punch to the face.

Smirking at his supposed win, he nodded to his friends who then began holding Jason down with some minor struggling. "You know, you're gonna regret ever talking smack about me from now until the end of school." Cardin gloated as he stood over the pinned down boy, pointing the end of his mace at Jason's head.

"All I ever talked about was the truth, you think you're a big shot because you're bigger and stronger then other people…Well what does it prove that with all your supposed strength, the only way you want to try and prove a point is by jumping me?" Jason snapped back as he tried to pull free. He was past the point of being nice and as far as he was concerned; he had every reason to bring a smackdown on Cardin and his crew, though seeing as even though he had Aura; CRDL's strength was still greater then his.

"Y'know, I overheard Jauney boy's team talking about that watch of your's, apparently it lets your Semblance work right? Well…Too bad for you because I think I'll take it." Cardin smirked as he reached down to pull the watch off of Jason's wrist; but to his surprise, the watch began to crackle with green electricity and forced his hand to recoil like it was shocked.

"Man, you are dumb…you think that I wouldn't have a backup plan for someone trying to take it off me without permission? It'll only come off if I allow it to…But considering it's you, I think I'd rather tell you to suck a di-"

"Alrighty, if you want to play it that way…Jaune, you got your sword….see if you can take it off his hands for him." Cardin ordered as Jaune lingered in the back of the crowd; lamenting his choices in following Cardin like this while the other members lifted Jason to his feet and held his arm out for Jaune to do the deed.

"What?! No…I can't do that!" Jaune protested as he saw Jason giving him a pointed look and knew it meant a specific thing; "Now's your chance…Stand up to this meathead!"

"I'm sorry, I thought you told me no…" Cardin raised an eyebrow as he turned to face Jaune and towered over him; "You're my friend…Right Jaune?" Cardin punctuated with an intimidating tone as he still had the mace in hand; "Friends do stuff for each other…if you can't…Then I need to speak to Goodwitch about you and she can start booking your airship home." He would threaten as he leered at the shrinking blonde; "Do it.".

Jaune was roughly shoved to the front and gazed down at Jason; "I-I…." He was feeling his heart pound in his ears as he had what should be an obvious decision; Stand up to the bully and risk getting expelled or break his friend's apparatus and be stuck under Cardin's thumb.

"Jaune…You're better than this…You know that." Jason tried to reason with Jaune; struggling all the while as he was starting to get concerned that Jaune might actually go through with this.

Hesitating for the longest while and now stopping to think about what he was being made to do. "I…I can't….It's not right!" Jaune grimaced as he realised this was too far; he might be willing to do anything to try and keep his place at Beacon but this was a line that he knew wouldn't be crossed.

"That right? Well then…" Cardin started to get angry and raised his mace up to swing down on Jaune for his supposed backstop.

"W-Wait, Cardin! I-I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" Jaune pleaded but was frozen in place when he heard two loud CRUNCH sounds followed by a high pitched ringing and he was suddenly shoved away, by the time that Jaune could see past the flash of light; Cardin was knocked out on the ground along with Dove who was clutching a bloodied nose, Jaune was on his back and in between the two was Jason: collapsed on the ground and clutching his arm in agony. "J-Jason?"

There wasn't a lot of time for anyone to ask questions as a number of people were taken to the infirmary; the story that Cardin and Jaune went with was that it was an accident, resulting in Jason getting his arm broken during a sparring match, however Cardin, Jason and Jaune knew what really happened and had their own feelings.

And for the sake of the three and their places at Beacon, they had to keep to that story, willing or not...