Adjusting to New Environments

Jason found himself snapping to attention in a city, sitting on a rooftop with a redhead and watching her shooting purple bolts at a dummy for practice.

"You know, if you keep acting like a kid and he's gonna keep treating you like one." The woman said as she turned to Jason who looked like he was stuck in thought. "I know he's a little harsh about things but that doesn't mean what he says isn't true."

"Oh, come on, Gwen! You know as well as I do that learning by doing is more my style rather than just watching." Jason retorted back at her as he looked her in the eye; "Why can't he let me try it? If I know how to get a feel for it then I can at least work a little better plus I can show that I AM ready."

"Wish I could help you there, J…But Ben still needs it to stop those two from getting any further in their plan, can't really blame him in all honesty. But he DOES see potential in you, he just wants to make sure that you can work without the watch in case anything should happen." Gwen said to try and help Jason understand but it seemed like Jason still didn't look exactly any better about the idea.

"But I've seen what they could do out there…my home's gone because of them and I want to do anything I can to stop anyone else from ending up the same!" Jason fought back; "And I want to be able to protect people! People that I care about, like…like you!" He would say, admitting something that had been bubbling up for a long time since Gwen found Jason trapped in the rubble of a destroyed building while helping Ben.

The air was silent…Not just because no one was talking but no sound could be heard at all. Jason thought it was because his mind was going millions of miles an hour but that changed almost as quickly when he saw Gwen turn around to face him; it was something he could never forget even if they were worlds apart. Her cropped short red hair, her playful green eyes and that almost teasing smile that she had when she found him a little funny…They had melted away into a visage of pure rage and terrifying malice.

"Oh really…And if you were so willing to protect people….Why couldn't you save us?" "Gwen's" voice took a drastic turn as the sky turned black and flickered with orange lights in the time that Jason could blink, the building they were standing on had turned into a slowly crumbling interior of a warehouse.

Jason could feel his breath hitch in his throat; the sight of Gwen trapped under a collapsed rock and trying to crawl towards him, his body shaking and shrinking backward as he could almost feel the intense heat of the flames against him…like he was back there.

"You could've saved us…but you ran away…YOU ABANDONED US!" "Gwen" screamed at him as she tried to claw at him with an outstretched hand. Her face contorted in pain and venom as she tried to pull herself free. As the rock began to sink deeper; a bright green and red light started to flood the room and engulfed everyone in a slow pulse outward.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry! IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Jason yelled into the abyss as the light passed over him, he lifted his arms up to shield himself when he saw the watch on his arm meld itself to his arm.

"I'M SORRY!" Jason would scream out with a sudden jerk upwards in a bed, Jason brought himself to a sitting position and reflexively tried to put out an invisible fire; but there was none there. He remembered where he was, the dorm room that Ozpin gave him; he looked around and saw his staff in the corner along with his books on a desk.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" Jason repeated to himself as he pulled his knees up and hugged his legs to his body, the windows were closed but somehow everything felt cold to him. If there was one solace to not having a team yet, he could allow himself to feel and understand what he felt deep down as he realised just how alone he was. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and found that they were wet; he checked the time and it was not long gone five in the morning…no one else would've been awake at this time to hear him or judge him.

He pulled on a shirt and pants before peeking out the door; noticing that everywhere was closed which meant that nearly everyone was still asleep and he could distract himself by going through some training; he grabbed his collapsed staff and ventured out, following the signs through the school and into one of the training halls that was thankfully devoid of people and of noise. The dream's words still ringing in his head; he started up a combat robot and then unfurled his staff to begin the training programs on it.

The whirrs of the robot dummy and the rhythmic sounds of clashing metal rang throughout the training hall as Jason continued to block, parry and to fight back to up his fighting game. "I can dodge and move easy enough but these Grimm don't look like the type to stop when I run out of juice." Jason thought to himself as he managed to twirl the staff and used the momentum to knock the dummy's head off.

"I think you got it that time." A voice said from behind him as Jason retracted the staff to see this new face; it looked like Yang had been watching him for a while, she had been wearing a yellow vest with dark pants and a pair of sneakers as her training gear.

"I-uh…couldn't really sleep." Jason admitted as he hung the staff on his waist; "Being here at Beacon's still a little odd so I kind of have a hard time with settling in new places." He elaborated and then glanced to his staff.

"You'll get the hang of it, trust me…I've been helping Ruby with trying to open up with other people, letting her make friends with new people and stuff. If she can do it then you can, no problem." Yang mentioned encouragingly as she grabbed a set of weights to use and then turned to him with a rather curious expression as there was still a question stuck in her head; "I've…been meaning to ask, how exactly were you able to get around the forest so easily yesterday?"

Jason was confused for a moment as he started up a second training dummy to practice evasion against a pair of moving enemies; "What do you mean? I just made my way through the forest, same as everyone else…well, everyone except for Ruby, Jaune and Weiss." He explained as he duck and weaved under the dummy's swings of its prop sword followed by a roll under the other dummy's staff.

"Hold on…You're telling me that you managed to land without anyone making eye contact or talking with you throughout the whole first part? There was that green light in the trees and then you show up out of nowhere at the temple." Yang would point out, curious as to how someone like him was able to sneak by everyone else practically undetected.

"Well, it's a part of the training I did…My teacher told me that if I can't fight back against an enemy, then I had to outmanoeuvre them until the right moment." Jason justified as he narrowly missed a thrust by the dummy's staff and then rolled back.

Yang raised an eyebrow in skepticism; "Okay, then what about that light in the trees? You did see that too, didn't you?" She asked him as there was no way anyone could miss that flash of light.

"Yeah, I saw it. But I was more focused on trying to land on the ground safely without hitting a tree." He responded and ducked another swing while trying to keep himself focused.

"Okay, I'm not gonna talk to a robot or to your back." Yang sighed as she punched one of the dummies and then kicked the other; "What is going on with you?" Yang asked as she cornered Jason.

—The Day Before—

"What is going on?" Glynda asked Jason as she pointed to the orange beast on Ozpin's computer, "You may have been accepted to enter Beacon but we are concerned about what we have seen in the forest." She pressured him; the fact that Jason never once showed up on video feed for them during the exams was one thing but if there were new monsters aside from Grimm to worry about, she wasn't going to take any chances.

"I don't know what they are….I don't think I even know where they came from." Jason tried to explain as he was surprised that they were able to snap pictures of both the orange beasts and of Gemomancer.

"Really? Because we saw you enter that forest in the same way that everyone else did but these cameras never once showed you throughout the treeline…And I noticed something rather interesting on further inspection." Ozpin would say, tapping his keyboard and zooming in on the pictures; showing that familiar hourglass symbol on the two bodies. "Mr Moss, I understand if there are some things that you prefer not to say but the sight of these two is rather unusual. All I'm asking is for you to elaborate."

Jason was conflicted; "Okay, on one hand…I need to show that they aren't to be worried about…but how do I explain a watch that can turn me into aliens?!" He thought to himself as he tried to focus his mind on the right thing to say. "…It's something that I'm able to do, I didn't want anyone to see it because I was afraid that the others would freak out." Jason began to explain; "I can summon them up as form changes and control them but only for a short while before it times out."

Ozpin thought over his words as Goodwitch was still uncertain as to how to feel about the whole thing; "So this is your Semblance? Or is that watch on your wrist a gadget to help control it?" She asked him, crossing her arms with her crop on display to show that even if things could change like that, she was still in control.

"Well…In a way, it is…My Semblance allows me to transform briefly with a thought..kind of like imagining yourself as a superhero, the watch stops it from making me into an amalgamation." Jason explained, he felt bad for lying but it was still technically the truth of his abilities.

"I see…So how many of these…Forms are there?" Ozpin would ask, admittedly curious about this type of "Semblance" and how it works. "You mentioned imagining it like a superhero…Do they have names?"

Jason nodded; "The Beast is called FeralHound and the Crystal is called Gemomancer…At the moment, I have ten different forms to change into." He admitted and then lifted up the watch; "They each have their own individual powers that can be used for a while…some of which I prefer not using in public."

Glynda however decided to play along with this since she had little reason to believe him at this time; "Alright, so if they are so special and unique…perhaps you can make one up right now, how about something simple like something with super speed?" She would ask him with a thought off the top of her head.

Jason grinned; "Then prepare to be amazed Professor." He said as he closed his eyes and then pressed his hand down on the button, confident that he was going to blow their minds.

However when that green light dimmed down, there was the sound of humming wings and standing in Jason's place; was a large insect that was just as tall as Ozpin was, it's back was black but the chitins under the exoskeleton were black and green to match the shirt that Jason was wearing along with a similar look to what Gemomancer wore. Besides that was the abnormal body features such as four crab-like legs and two arms with three-clawed hands. He has four small eyes on long prehensile stalks connected to his rather large head.

"This…is the Super speed that you were talking about?" Ozpin asked, unsure of whether to be confused about the turn of events, the fact that this creature was vastly different from any insect…Or the fact that this thing smelled absolutely horrendous in his office. "G-Glynda…please open up some windows…." He would ask Glynda urgently as the blonde quickly hurried to the windows and started opening them, her reaction was a lot less subtle as she had her hand covering her nose and mouth.

"That actually works out…I can't be fast like this on the ground…but I can still fly." Jason-Bug said to them with a voice that sounded like a buzzing bee; "Also…This kind of thing does happen a lot…." He admitted before climbing out the window to both give the room a chance to breathe and to showcase his skilled flying.

"Horrific odor aside…This is quite remarkable." Ozpin mentioned while Jason-Bug was doing flips and acrobatics and Glynda started writing. "Does this have any special abilities beside flying?"

Jason-Bug hovered in the air; "Well, I think I'll call this form SludgeWasp, as for what it can do…I can shoot slime that can do just about anything…Immobilising slime, flammable stuff." SludgeWasp explained as he then hovered towards the window before the timer ran out.

"This is a rather interesting ability of your's, you may become a capable Huntsman like this." Ozpin would praise him; "Though I would suggest trying to fix this…malfunctioning issue before you graduate, it could mean the difference between a victory or a defeat."

—Back in the Present Time—

Jason was crossing his arms with an embarrassed look on his face as Yang was still laughing her ass off at his screw up; "It's not that funny!"

"No, it's hilarious! You wanted to show off so badly that you ended up becoming a giant bug thing." Yang calmed herself down as she sat back up and wiped a tear from her eye; "So…That explains why you were so secretive in the forest."

"You can't tell anyone!" Jason stated this outright; "You tell no one about this…at least until they're more used to me and this…whole thing." He added with a rather dour look on his face.

"Sorry, but that's a stupid reason for a secret…" Yang stated as she raised an eyebrow when she realised that Jason was being serious.

"What?"

"Jason, you can transform yourself into super cool forms that can do anything! That's not just a cool Semblance, that's an AMAZING Semblance." Yang pointed out; "Besides, I'm still kinda curious about the other kind of stuff you do."

"Well…I guess there's no point in trying to hide it if it's just us…Alright, Name a power and I'll see if I can pull it out." Jason offered as he stood up with the watch raised to his chest.

"Hmm….How about you surprise me? If it malfunctions again then I wouldn't be shocked." Yang shrugged; her initial idea was to say something relating to fire or strength but decided to temper expectations.

"Alrighty, then let's get you impressed with some Firepower." Jason said with a grin as he slapped down the Watch face, catching them both in a green light.

Yang covered her eyes for a brief moment; "You really need to turn down the brightness settings on that thing!" She joked and then found herself staring agape; "Wow….That's hot….like…Literally, you are burning hot!" 

Standing in front of her was what looked like a man but he looked like he was wearing molten rock as armour and his head was completely ablaze…Well, she could see his face in the fire. "So…What do you think? You asked to surprise you so I chose what I think of you." He would say with a soft smirk on his face.

"Let me guess…Hotheaded?" Yang asked playfully and rolled her eyes as she heard that comment a good number of times from other people.

"Actually, I was gonna go with just Hot." He admitted with a surprising amount of honesty that threw Yang for a loop.

"H-Huh?" She blinked and then felt her cheeks flush at the sudden compliment; "You're really committed to the bit, aren't you?!" She would ask him with a questioning look however she pointed to some targets before he could give his answer; "See if you can hit them." 

He shrugged before making a gun gesture with his hand to shoot balls of fire at each target/robot, causing each one to melt or turn into bubbling puddles of plastic. "Good enough for the madam?"

"That's uh….That's a 10." Yang would say as she hadn't been expecting the targets to be melted like ice cream. "So what's the name for the matchstick?" She asked as she was curious about him now though avoided getting too close to stop herself from getting burned.

"My teacher came up with Heatblast as a name….But I think Sunspot sounds a lot better, don't you?" He would ask as he let a small candle flame dance back and forth on his finger.

"Y-Yeah…Sounds a lot…cooler~" Yang would admit; grinning widely at the pun she had made and the following eye roll from Sunspot; "So is fire all it does?"

"As far as I know…But maybe I can learn new stuff as I go along." He remarked halfhandedly and then found himself backing up when he noticed Yang leaning in.

"So, how about we come up with an…arrangement~?" She would ask him playfully and found it amusing when she saw the timer run out as he turned from walking bonfire to regular kid.

"I-uh….what?" Jason asked, honestly thrown for a loop at Yang's sudden change in attitude as she winked.

"Simple, you help me out with training and stuff in the mornings before classes and I'll make sure that no one finds out about your Semblance anxiety, alright?" Yang offered as she held a hand out to him.

"And I can trust you on this?" Jason asked skeptically as he eyed her hand, "Because I don't want to end up in front of Professor Goodwitch again, she might be a teacher but she is real scary."

"Hey, I may not look it but I am a GREAT secret keeper." Yang protested at his lack of belief in her. "Besides, I don't think that this is something to worry about…if you train up with me then maybe we can help you get a handle on it…What do you say?" She reiterated and smiled softly at him; sure, she might use this to tease him but she wasn't mean enough to out him in front of everyone.

"…Alright, Deal." Jason finally relented and shook her hand, surprised at Yang's firm grip before letting go.

"Cool stuff, now let's get changed…We've got classes soon and I'm pretty sure we both need to prepare." Yang said as she got up and grabbed a bottled water before heading for the door.

Jason nodded as he watched her leave, still wondering how she managed to convince him into showing off his resident Pyronite and training with her. "Man, What is it about the straightforward girls…First Gwen, now her?" He thought to himself as he headed up towards his dorm to change, if there was one upside to having his own room then it was the fact he could have his alone thoughts without worrying people. "Maybe now's as good a time as any..."

By the time class came about; Jason had shown up early and was reading into one of the textbooks he bought while Teams RWBY and JNPR showed up just before the bell rang, much to Ruby and Jaune's relief and to Port's joy.

"Welcome students, I'm so glad to see such energetic youngsters practically sprinting to class." Port remarked with a jovial laugh and showed them to their seats; while most teams were sat with each other, the fact that Jason was a lone member stuck out like a sore thumb since he was sat on his own between some other students who were in the background.

"I feel kinda bad for Jason…he's gotta sit on his own since he's not part of a team yet." Ruby whispered while Yang nodded in agreement. Blake didn't seem to look that concerned while Weiss was focused into her studying that she blocked out what Ruby was saying; though she wasn't going to outright admit it, that same pang of sympathy settled in her stomach on seeing Jason isolated like that.

"Now, today is going to be an exciting start that should wake you all up for the rest of the day, I am of course referring to….GRIMM HUNTING! HAHA!" Port would cheer as he smacked his desk; "I have set up a gauntlet of Grimm for each of you to gauge and test each of your quick thinking and your ability to adapt in a way that a Huntsman or Huntress can, now if you'll follow me." Port explained as he then took the group of students towards a larger training area.

What everyone could see was an Obstacle course full of traps and even some Grimm that Port had let roam around in it's walls; "This is the Gauntlet: It's a special little exercise that I had set up for the first years that I can monitor the progress of our illustrious First years and gauge their skills." Port explained but then gestured to someone with their raised hand

"Wait, but I thought that was what the team building was for?" One student would remark; "Wasn't that to determine everything?"

"Very astute, but no…That first exercise was to analyse your capabilities of working as a team and your ability to co-ordinate as such, this test is to show not just myself but the other teachers how you can act as individuals…" Professor Port explained as he pulled out a clipboard to start reading names; "For example: It will show me how you can adapt and fight against the Grimm and the environment you are in, For Professor Goodwitch; the results will show her how well your individual skills are in terms of combat and reinforce what you had learned in Combat School."

"So this is basically an assessment to see where our strong suits are at…Seems simple enough, though I did wonder where I fit in all this…" Jason thought to himself and began to come up with a strategy of his own as Port cleared his throat and announced the first name on the list.

"Moss, Jason…You're up first, my boy!" Port announced as everyone looked to the lone Huntsman in training. "Professor Ozpin told me about your circumstances and how you don't have a team quite yet, don't fret about it lad! Plenty of Huntsmen and Huntresses have been able to work splendidly working on their own." The teacher remarked as he gave Jason what he thought was a reassuring slap on the back.

Jason walked up to the door of the maze and unfurled his staff; he was nervous about being tested and knowing the fact that he was going to be judged meant that he had to bring his A Game.

"3, 2, 1….BEGIN!"