I finally managed to draw what Skyler's weapon looks like. I'll draw his teammates' weapons when I can.
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The next day, Skyler walked into Professor Goodwitch's class, prepared for a fight. He grinned at the thought of beating the crap out of Cardin. He had analyzed his fighting style yesterday when Jaune fought him. Cardin was a glass cannon. But he did like to play dirty.

Unfortunately, Cardin pulled a fast one on him before the battle even began. Apparently, he informed Ms. Goodwitch that Skyler wanted to fight him and one of his teammates. Two on one... Skyler didn't like the odds, but he liked his chances.

He looked at the faces in the audience. His team, as well as RWBY, were cheering him on. He also saw Velvet up there, smiling. Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were also, but Jaune was surprisingly absent from the group and over with the rest of CRDL. What was that about?

But Skyler turned back to his opponents. His second opponent was Russel Thrush, a guy with a green mohawk. He was a bit quicker than his teammates and was a bit more crafty. He also used daggers. Skyler was still liking his chances.

Cardin noticed Skyler eying him and Russel, "What? Getting scared?"

"Dude," Skyler retorted, "I'm not the guy who had to bring a teammate to feel confident."

Cardin sneered, "Why you little-"

"Hey Cardin? How good are you at digging holes?"

"Wha-?"

"I mean besides the one you've already dug yourself into."

There was loud laughter from the audience. And Cardin was just getting angrier.

Ms. Goodwitch cleared her throat, "Match begin."

Cardin charged and raised his club, ready to swing. Skyler smirked as he started to run towards him. As Cardin swung sideways, Skyler hit the ground on his knees, ducking under the club.

As soon as looked back up, he saw Russel jumping at him. Skyler managed to get back on his feet and jump out of the way. He gained some distance before firing. The two jumped out of the way and Russel jumped in the air and rolled toward him.

Skyler couldn't do much but try to block. It failed and Skyler was knocked back. When he looked back up, the two were walking closer. Skyler got up and changed his gun into a sword.

"What?" he asked when he saw their grins, "You get one hit in and you think you've won? Man, you guys are stupid."

They both growled and Russel tried rolling at him again (Skyler was now going to affectionately call it the barrel roll). Skyler managed to dodge it and slash Russel on the side. Russel went tumbling as Skyler turned his attention to Cardin.

Cardin smashed his club to the ground, creating a shockwave that caused Skyler to stumble. By the time Skyler recovered, Russel had rejoined the fray and kicked him in the face. Skyler was knocked away and to the ground. This actually turned out to be a lot more difficult than he thought. One of them, he could take. Two of them... That was stretching it.

Then he looked back up into the audience. A few people, like Jaune, Pyrrha, Hazel, Walker, and Ruby, had saddened looks. Yang, Dante, and Nora looked about ready to jump in and help. Weiss, Ren, and Blake just had a pitying looks. Skyler growled. He was not going down like this. Especially not against Cardin.

"We've got you outmatched," Cardin grinned while he and Russel crept towards him, "Now you see what happens when you mess with us."

Skyler just got up, raised his sword, and glared at his two opponents, "All I see is fear..."

He pulled the trigger on his sword, setting the blade on fire.

"And dead men."

Cardin and Russel both visibly flinched and Skyler charged. Skyler could be quite fast when he wanted to be. Russel was first. He got a few slashes to the chest and was then kicked away before Cardin could even react.

By the time Cardin did, Skyler had already turned his attention to him. Cardin swung his club down and Skyler blocked it with his sword. Cardin looked to see Skyler smirking. Skyler then pushed harder, knocking his club away.

Skyler grabbed Cardin's arm and threw him into Russel, who had just recovered. Skyler then pointed his blade at them and smirked.

"Now burn."

(A/N: I originally had him say "Flame on", but I wanted this chapter to be good.)

He held down the trigger and fire blasted its way right into Cardin and Russel. When the flames died out, the two had collapsed to the ground with charred armor.

"Match end," Goodwitch announced, "Mr. Yin is the winner."

The audience (with the exception of Cardin's team) clapped and cheered. Skyler held his sword up in the air, smirking. Man, that felt good.

Yang then tackled him, "That was awesome!!"

"See, this is why he's the leader," Dante grinned.

"It was very impressive," Blake commended.

Skyler blushed, "Thanks guys."
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The next week, things weren't really... normal. At least, not for JNPR. Jaune had been leaving the group daily to be with CRDL and Skyler (as well as everyone else for that matter) was really confused by this.

The only conclusion Skyler could come up with is that Cardin got some dirt on Jaune and was using it against him. But what in the world could Cardin have gotten against Jaune? Jaune was a nice guy and, while he sucked at fighting, was strategic and had great potential. Plus, how would Cardin have found out?

Maybe he shouldn't be asking questions like this to himself, but rather to others...

So one day after lunch, "Hey Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha Nikos. Jaune's partner, as well as a world-renowned fighter. Just talking to her was an honor, but she insisted that they treat her just like anybody else. For someone this famous, she was surprisingly very humble. Also, just one look at her and Skyler could tell she had a crush on Jaune.

Nevertheless, the red head turned, "Oh! Hello Skyler. What do you need?"

"I just wanted to know something," Skyler replied, "Sorry if this invades privacy, but... is there anything about Jaune that would get Cardin to put him on a leash if he found out?"

Pyrrha flinched, her heart beginning to pound, "Umm..."

"I mean, that's the only thing I could think of that would explain Jaune's behavior."

Pyrrha's eyes widened in realization, "No... It couldn't be... We were alone when he told me..."

"When he told you wha- Oh, right. Sorry. A secret between the two of you. Got it."

Pyrrha smiled, a bit sadly, "Thank you. It's just... Jaune told me this secret when I offered to help him. He was convinced that he didn't need help and well... He told me his secret. Words were said and he told me to leave him alone. So I did."

Skyler thought for a moment, "Okay... Where was this conversation held?"

"The roof area. Why?"

Skyler's eyes widened, "Pyrrha... Cardin's dorm is directly below that."

Pyrrha covered her mouth, "Oh no..."

"I should've broken that guy's legs that day..."

"What do we do?"

"I'm not sure. I think we better see how things play out before we do anything drastic."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to argue, but Skyler stopped her, "I know. I don't like it either, but we can't afford to get Jaune in trouble."

Pyrrha reluctantly nodded, "You're... You're right."

"Of course I am," Skyler turned to walk away, "I know you have a crush on him and everything, but this is the best option."

Pyrrha's face became as red as her hair, "Wha-what? How did you-"

"For one, I'm not Jaune. Second, it's written all over you."

"Yeah, well... You have a crush on Blake!"

That froze Skyler, "You, uh, know about that?"

"You're not very discreet."

Skyler smiled a bit, "I suppose that's karma... Nice talking with you Pyrrha!"
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"Yes, students," Glynda informed the students as they walked through a red forest, "The forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

"What a ringing endorsement," Dante muttered, "I am filled with confidence."

Glynda held up a full jar of their objective, "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

While Yang and Ruby smiled at one another, Jaune attempted to (noisily) sneak away from Cardin to his team, but the blackmailer saw this and grabbed Jaune by the back.

"Come on, buddy," Cardin grinned, "Let's go."

Jaune miserably looked up at his team, where Nora and Ren had already walked into the forest's depths and Pyrrha was staring sadly at the scene. Dropping his gaze, Jaune turned and followed CRDL, to the disappointment of a sighing Pyrrha. She looked at Skyler with a pleading look.

'Not yet,' Skyler mouthed to her.

Pyrrha sighed again and continued to walk away to join her team.
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The assignment wasn't that hard. It just took a while. Correction: It should've taken up a short period of time, if NORA hadn't begun drinking the sap she had been handed. She even proceeded to steal other sap from people.

But progress came to a screeching halt when three members of Team CRDL ran towards them, one screaming, "Ursa!! Ursa!!"

Yang grabbed him by the collar, "What?! Where?"

"Back there! It got Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped her jar in terror, "Jaune!"

"Guys!" Skyler said to his team, whipping out his flamethrower, "Go get Ms. Goodwitch!"

"Same to you guys!" Ruby said to her team except for Weiss.

Pyrrha did the same with Ren and Nora, "You two, go with them! There could be more!"

When they got to where Cardin was, they arrived just in time to see an Ursa Major about to make mince meat out of him. Before it could, however, there was Jaune. He blocked the Ursa's swipe, but he was struggling.

Weiss prepared to fight, but Pyrrha held her back, "Wait!"

Jaune took the shield out from the Ursa's paw and slashed at its stomach, causing it to lash out and try to crush him. He rolled out of the way and jumped over its swipe at his feet, but he was unprepared for when it launched a claw at him in midair. He landed far away, yet was immediately back on his feet and passing Cardin as he charged again. The Ursa knocked Jaune behind it when he tried for a leaping attack, and Jaune looked at the scroll in his shield to find out that his Aura level was in the red. He grew angry again and started to run at the Ursa as it also begins to dash towards him.

As they are just about to clash, Pyrrha saw that Jaune had left himself completely open to the Ursa's attack, and lifted her hand out to him, gathering dark red energy in her arm. Just as the Ursa was about to hit him, the glow surrounded Jaune's shield and made it lift up to block the swipe. Jaune used the surprise defensive move to lean on the ground, push his shield back up, and swing his blade right through the Ursa's neck. The head fell to the ground as the body slammed onto the ground.

"Whoa..." Skyler breathed.

"Um... What?" Ruby said as Pyrrha's hand stopped glowing.

Weiss was equally amazed, "How did you...?"

"Well," Pyrrha smiled, "Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, Skyler has... What do you have?"

"I don't know," Skyler admitted, "I have discovered it yet."

"Oh... sorry... Well, anyway, my Semblance is polarity."

"Whoa," Ruby gasped, "You can control poles..."

"No, you dunce!" Weiss scolded, "It means she has control over magnetism!"

Ruby was still impressed and whispered, "Magnets are cool, too..."

"Magnets," Skyler muttered, "How do they even work?"

Pyrrha started to leave, but Weiss said, "Wait, where are you going?"

"Yeah!" Ruby agreed, "We gotta tell them what happened!"

"We could..." Pyrrha said, "Or perhaps we could keep it our little secret?"

Pyrrha walked away again as Ruby, Skyler, and Weiss smiled at each other in understanding. Skyler then ran up to Pyrrha.

"I was right," he told her with a grin, "Just a little patience."

"I get it," Pyrrha retorted, "You don't have to rub it in."

"Hey I just proved Pyrrha Nikos wrong. I'll take whatever victory against you I can get."
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And that ends the last of the two-parters! And after I get done with The Stray, I'm releasing the introduction of my new story! Till next time guys!