The sound of steel could be heard one early morning in the Beacon Academy gymnasium. The sheer speed at which it was doing so was astounding. It was like listening to a snare drum made of sheet metal playing the most chaotic and incoherent beat, and yet even still, it was music. It was a beauteous melody only those trained in the art of melee combat, the clashing of blades.

In the middle of this frenetic combat zone, an intense training session is currently undergoing between team JNPR and Boboiboy. Lightning was facing off against Pyrrha in a sword fight, Earth was defending against Nora and Jaune, and Water was doing yoga with Ren. Overseeing all this was an unexpected figure being Professor Papa Zola.

Zap went Lightning as he uses his element's ability to perform rapid bursts of movement to escape getting overwhelmed by Pyrrha yet again. Instead of charging after him, Pyrrha uses the time to change stances as she remarks, "You know, a tactical retreat is good and all, but you must also learn to stand your ground in that form, Boboiboy."

Lightning, slightly annoyed by this comment, grunts before brushing himself off and leaning on his sword like a cane. "Do I though? Isn't holding down the fort more Earth's or Wind's style?"

To this rebuttal, came a near-instantaneous chastisement in the form of a wooden ruler too fast for even Lightning to dodge. It was a wonder how that projectile only managed to produce a light sore on Boboiboy's body when it dug into the concrete post-bounce.

"Ayuyu, my dear student... she is right on the money there Boboiboy. Remember every battle you've fought where you had to fight as Lightning or Thunderstorm against another skilled weapon user? Captain Kaizo? Captain Borara? Adada? Each time you tried you would always get knocked around quite a bit."

"Eh? You weren't even in half those battles?" Questions Boboiboy lightning after realization dawned on him.

"Well, I watched all the seasons and the movie of-" Papa Zola explains before cutting after finding out he was going on a tangent. He dramatically swings his hand as if to slap away the diversion to his point.

"That doesn't matter! What matters is the here and now!"

Lightning Boboiboy rolls his eyes, replying, "Whatever. I can just split to cover my weaknesses."

"AND WHAT IF YOU CAN'T HUUUUH?!" Papa Zola screams out with even more flare and now actual vitriol in his voice.

With a groan to let his teacher know what he thought, he begrudgingly raises his sword to face Pyrrha once more.

Seeing his cooperation, Papa Zola nods with a smile of approval only to seemingly summon another ruler to chuck it at Water Boboiboy to stop him from snoozing when he was supposed to be meditating currently.

"Ayuyu... that hurts Mister Papa..." whines out the water element before rubbing the sore area of his head. "I don't want you slacking off in that form like you nearly did against Boboibot!" Ren nods at Papa Zola in appreciation as both boys continue.

Off in a different part, Nora and Jaune were currently fighting against Earth Boboiboy, with Jaune having to dodge or block rocks getting shot at him while Nora and her Alter were trying to bypass Earth's stone barrier with some success. Yet again, Papa Zola produces another ruler and throws it at the back of Earth's head, making him lose focus enough for Nora and Jaune to get in to swipe at him. With some quick thinking, he manages to barely dodge the attacks fast enough to hastily create another wall.

"Mister Papa! What was that for? I had it in the bag!" complained the normally level-headed Earth.

"In the bag you say? If it was in the bag, then how come you couldn't even defend against me HUH?!" Shouts Papa Zola from his seat before going "Ayuyu!"

"I was doing fine until you threw that ruler at me." The young man in brown tries to reason out to his eccentric teacher.

"The fact you couldn't even notice the chalk... IS PROOF OF MY POINT!" Papa Zola declares bombastically.

"What point?!" While Earth is his most mature element, even this form is merely resistant to annoyance rather than outright immune to people like Papa Zola it would seem.

To this, the former superhero, then raises a hand, gesturing for Nora and Jaune to cease their attack before waiting for Boboiboy Earth to calm down. After his breathing has slowed considerably, Papa Zola forms the still-raised hand he used for halting Nora and Jaune earlier to point at Nora.

"My dear student, the one formed from the shared lightning of two... tell me... what is it THAT HE HAS DONE WRONG?"

Nora hiccups which prompt her yellow lightning to get replaced by a yellow bolt. Her clothes outright change in appearance in design as Magnhild's silver steel gives way to a golden sheen. A pair of sleek orange reading glasses appear on her face which she pushes up. As she does so, the glint of the glasses masks the change of her eyes from her bubbly blue orbs of happiness to serious Ochre irises. She forgoes the lax countenance of her counterpart and goes for a more business sort of look.

"As you wish sir." She begins before looking at Boboiboy Earth while gesturing courteously towards him. "You tend with focusing on only a limited amount of angles. You struggle to see nothing more than you and your objective, whether that be to save, perform a task, or defeat an opponent. In short..."

She then pushes her glasses up as she looks in the eye once more to emphasize her point. "You have tunnel-vision."

Thinking back... yeah he did. In his fight against Borara, instead of coming up with smart solutions to facing the black-hole-wielding foe, he merely brute-forced his way through that problem after getting that temporary permission to all his forms. Thinking back... the last time he's fought strategically was against Adada... and even then... it wasn't even him... it was the other him... While at the end of the day, they are the same person, right here? Right now? He wasn't just Boboiboy. He was Earth. He was supposed to be the dependable, mature one of his forms, and yet, it was Lightning, more specifically, Thunderstorm, who employed tactics at that time... Thunderstorm, the impatient, angry form of himself born from having his past traumas be slammed right into his face. Even moving away from being philosophical regarding his existence, the fact that Boboiboy as a whole is caught slacking like this... it was unforgivable he thought. If an intense battle happens and he enters tunnel vision once more... someone later down the line WILL get killed for this.

His line of thought is abruptly cut however as Nora suddenly asks him a question. "Uh, I know you're doing some deep thinking but uh... I have a question..."

"O-oh... s-sorry, I'm fine, I'm fine. So what is it?" He says, playing it off with a chuckle and a scratch to the back of his neck.

"Well, actually two. First things first. How do you do the split thing? I wanna try it. I'm getting tired of having to share Renny and my body with her. Besides, I want to hold an actual conversation instead of just me texting myself or writing in the mirror to talk to her."

Boboiboy Earth had to take a couple of seconds to recover from that tonal whiplash. After he did, tries his best to explain. "Well, as you know, my power is gained from this watch. When I do an elemental split, I just usually use my watch's voice command function to do so... but you don't really have a watch powering your thing. If anything, your power became fused with you like a second semblance... so I don't know. Hm..."

Nora nods to this before shrugging it off. "Oh well, we'll think of something after some breakfast. Hey, brave and fearless leader, can we go take a breakfast break now?"

"Oh... uh..." Jaune mutters being suddenly put into the spotlight. In desperation, he looks to the teacher who goes, "Fine, fine. That will be... the END OF YOUR TRAINING SESSION!"

This shout halts both Pyrrha and Lightning's spar as well as Ren and Water's meditation.

Lightning groans as he says, "Aw man! I haven't beaten her yet!" at the same time as Water groaning. "Maaan just when I was getting the hang of it..." Huh... it seems both began to like their training.

"Welp! Time for pancakes!" Nora happily chirps as she begins to drag Ren off much to the taller student's minor annoyance. With that, Boboiboy depowers and follows alongside them but then stops.

"Say, Nora? What was that second thing?"

"What second thing?"

"You know? That second thing you wanted to ask me?"

"Hmm..." She begins to ponder trying to recollect that recent memory. It took a bit, but she manages to remember. "Oh! Ooooh! Right, right.."

She turns back to Boboiboy after remembering and asks, "Say, where'd your group of older sisters go? I know it's the weekends and all but it's kinda strange how they kept team JNPR in the dark."

This got the boy thinking once more. "Huh... now that you mention it... they've been keeping to themselves yesterday as well... and I've seen them wearing these weird clothes as well..." He then realizes what he was doing and shakes his head. "Why are we doubting them? They're our friends. Surely they must just be doing something reasonable right?"

---Meanwhile with Ruby-----

Heading towards a massive tower are a certain red-cloaked leader and her team's tactician. For the most part, the walk was just both girls just chatting, Ruby asking about the CCT and Weiss lamenting about not going here with Neptune instead.

That was until Ruby clumsily dropped her scroll down a particularly long flight of stairs. She stares helplessly in horror knowing that even if she tries to use her semblance, her control over it is nigh non-existent, meaning that, unless a miracle happens, the scroll will no doubt crash into the concrete and get damaged.

Fortunately, a miracle does indeed happen as someone manages to catch the scroll before it could reach the floor. The person looks up with her emerald-colored eyes at where the device fell from and raises her hand, saying, "You dropped this," only to freeze up seeing Ruby.

"Penny?!" Ruby exclaims in shock which makes the girl downstairs begin looking for an escape.

"Where have you been? The last time we saw you were nearly a month ago at that night at the docks"

The ginger girl becomes antsier and antsier the closer Ruby approaches.

"Uh... Y... you must have the wrong..." Penny tries to excuse herself, beginning to hiccup more and more the more she tries to tell a lie to escape. After Ruby almost closed the distance completely, Penny suddenly breaks into a sprint away.

Weiss, having seen that entire exchange, became confused.

"What was that about?" She inquires towards her leader only to receive a frantic shrug. "I dunno! But I'm going to find out! Go on out without me."

Weiss tries to protest to no avail as Ruby is already chasing after her orange-haired friend. Left alone, she groans in annoyance before heading into the tower alone.

---Back with Boboiboy---

A few minutes had passed for Boboiboy after his training with team JNPR had concluded. With that, he decided to turn in his weekly report to Professor Ozpin. After finding Papa Zola once again, he enters the elevator once more. As he ascends the elevator, he is met with a peculiar sight. Usually, only Headmaster Ozpin and Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch are present to take his report. For once though, two new individuals show themselves to the two "foreigners." One is a man wearing some sort of white military uniform with a pistol strapped to his side, and the other is a man with red irises lugging a mechanical sword. Both of them give the vibe of seasoned warriors differing in that the man with a gun gives the vibe of a strong and sturdy wall of steel while the sword-user gives a vibe more akin to a prowling aged wolf more than anything.

"Ah, so you two must be the two persons of interest Ozpin has been talking so much about." The large man in a white military garb begins before grunting as Goodwitch not-so-subtly elbows the man in the side. The man winces before showing a look of mild surprise as he notices the look of shock and confusion both Boboiboy and Papa Zola displayed.

"Oh, where are my manners... I am General Ironwood, General of the Atlas military, and the Headmaster of the Atlas Academy."

Ozpin nods, elaborating slightly. "Yes. My fellow headmaster here arrived to witness this year's Vytal festival as well as oversee this year's protection."

Papa Zola then raises an eyebrow as he looks at the man with a more criminal-style swagger and points at him while asking Ozpin. "And this guy? He looks kind of fishy."

"Hey, who ya callin' fishy, tubby?" The man growls at Papa Zola who cowers and laughs nervously. "It's nothing, nothing at all. Peace... peace..."

Shaking his head while smiling at the former hero's antics, Ozpin chuckles.

"Qrow Branwen, Ozpin's eyes in the sky."

In contrast to Papa Zola's fear, Boboiboy's was absolutely shining in awe.

"THE Qrow Branwen?! So awesome!" He says while enthusiastically thrusting a thumbs up.

Qrow raises an eyebrow with an amused smirk. "Oh? You've heard of me then? I didn't know I had any fans."

"Ruby's talked so much about you! It's so awesome to finally meet you!"

"Ruby?" His eyes narrowed as he grabs the boy by the vest while glowering. This puts everyone else in the room on guard, aiming their weapons at Qrow with Ozpin on his chair sighing in frustration.

"So you're the chump I've been hearing gossip about? The guy who made a flashy entrance at the launch area holding Ruby in a princess carry. Explain... or I'll execute you on the spot."

The confused and panicked Boboiboy then begins sputtering like a car. Seeing... Ruby? Like like-liking her?! Sure she's pretty and nice, and a fun great leader but he's never made a move on her?!

"Aren't you being a bit rash Qrow?" Glynda tries to reason out to the man while her wand began to glow purple. Luckily, no battle had to occur as Papa Zola comes to the rescue.

"My fellow warrior of justice... as their teacher... I CAN VOUCH FOR HIM!" The blue-clad man announces dramatically, much to the bewilderment of Ironwood and Qrow.

Taking the silence as his cue to continue, he explains. "That event is one of many embarrassing things those two have done at this school..."

This only causes the gruff man to return his gaze towards Boboiboy only to have his focus ripped back away as Papa Zola shouts, "BUT!"

"At the end of each one of these, they both just laugh it off acknowledging it for what it was! A minor accident!"

Boboiboy sighs in relief as the man lowers him down with a softening expression. However, that relief was replaced by further confusion as Papa Zola yanks him towards himself before gesturing to him as if he were mere merchandise.

"Besides! If your niece really did fall for him, wouldn't a nice, handsome, hardworking kid around her age with the power to control multiple elements be the best-case scenario? HMMMM?!"

What..?

Boboiboy was confounded by the sudden turn of events even more so than earlier. Papa Zola was now endorsing him to Ruby's uncle?! Was he trying to save him or condemn him to a worse death?! Fortunately, Boboiboy's worries were unfounded as the man merely "tsch'd" instead.

"Yeah, it's whatever... besides, her pops is the real wall to overcome anyways."

Boboiboy whisper-shouts, "What was that?!," towards his teacher who panicked and replied, "I don't know! I panicked," with as much fear in his voice.

Ironwood then finally speaks out. "Control multiple elements? What does he mean by that?"

Being placed on the split once more, Boboiboy's mind wasn't currently at its sharpest. If it was, he'd probably suffer a complete mental breakdown. So when that question came up, he answers without hesitation much to Ozpin, Glynda, Zola's panic, and Qrow's interest.

Boboiboy raises his arm before dazedly saying, "With my power watch, I can transform into various elemental forms and even split into three elements at once!"

"Interesting, is this perhaps a new way of creating a Dust weave? Fascinating... well how does it work?"

The still dazed Boboiboy shrugs and explains that "I dunno. My alien robot friend Ochobot gave it to me after I powered him up with Cocoa."

Ironwood merely nods, chalking his explanation to his currently overheating brain and childish imagination. Even still...

"Er... Boboiboy... May I examine your device?"

After regaining composure, Boboiboy became hesitant. "But... why?"

"Oh, I just want to see it for myself. If we can recreate this technology, we might be able to even be able to create a world where humanity is no longer haunted by the Grimm."

"James..." Glynda says to Ironwood in a warning tone.

Common sense dictates he not give it to the man in front of him who he has just met... however, as someone who's taken to being a hero... this could lead to saving so many lives... with his mindset, he then hesitantly removes his power band and lets Ironwood hold it.

The man then begins to examine the watch thoroughly only to be confused at what he saw.

"It's... just a watch..." James says trying to disprove his own words by searching even more thoroughly but just as he first thought... it was just a normal digital watch with a rubber strap.

"What? No, it's not. Here." Boboiboy takes it back before wearing it, and with a smirk, before raising it and shouting, "Earth!" It glows a brown light which proceeds to somehow open his watch with a mechanism that wasn't there earlier as the lightning bolt symbol gets replaced by one more akin to the peak of a mountain. His body is then engulfed in rocks that appeared out of nowhere before exploding, revealing his change of outfit to a brown shirt and brown hat.

Before Ironwood could examine it further, Ozpin intervenes, saying, "I believe you still have things to do Boboiboy?"

Boboiboy's face snaps into shock after that realization hit him. He then places down the scroll in his hand which had a list of his weekly report written down before sitting in front of Ozpin. "Right... so my weekly report... I'll start off with by saying, so far... not much has been going on for..."

Suddenly, his watch emits a ringtone. He then goes and turns his watch on and sees a text message from Nora, which reads, "Meet me at the gym alone, now. I found something of interest to you. -NA"

"Huh..." Boboiboy raises an eyebrow at this. He then looks at Ozpin who chuckles, before gesturing to him that it was alright.

"I'm sure whatever you have to say, I can find in your report. You've done so with every other report thus far anyways. So, go and attend to your friend."

Boboiboy nods and politely bows to everyone else. Papa Zola does a dramatic bow before vanishing into the elevator as well.

After assuming they were out of earshot, Ironwood levels a disappointed face at Ozpin. Qrow also joins in, openly snarling at Ozpin.

"Why did you stop me Ozpin?" Ironwood inquires while frowning. "If we had the technology to replicate the power of Maidens, even just a fragment of that-"

But Ironwood wasn't going to be able to finish his words as Qrow takes over, scolding Ozpin. "What the hell Oz?! I've been around magical beings for quite a bit and that boy was oozing magic... why the hell did you not inform me about this anytime soon?! I could feel the mana overflowing from him to the point where it dwarfs even that of Ambers!"

Hearing this stuns the Atlesian general into silence. That boy... DWARFED a Maiden in power?!

Glynda steps in between both incensed members of their secret circle.

"Enough you two. Have some tact. We're all adults here."

Ozpin raises a hand from his seat before saying, "Glynda is right. However, you are both right. I should've shared it ever since I found him. But understand, the reason I did not contact either of you regarding this is due to me having been busy as well trying to get to the source of his abilities as well."

Hearing this, both warriors ease up before sitting on the nearby sofas to listen to Ozpin better.

"And let me tell you, James, what I learned may disappoint you. Boboiboy's watch is mundane in and of itself. If anything, it is merely a conduit with which he believes acts as a source for his power."

---Meanwhile with Weiss---

Neptune-less and Ruby-less, she frustratedly enters the CCT building's elevator. Automatically, the elevator operator's AI greets her. "Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"

With a sigh, she then enters, replying, "I'd like to go to the communications room, please."

---Back with Boboiboy---

"Alright, Nora... or Alter... what do you wanna show to me?" Boboiboy questions as he arrives at the school courtyard.

"Swell! You've arrived sensei-teacher-Shifu Boboiboy!" Nora joyfully proclaims.

Boboiboy sweatdrops at her antics before blankly telling her, "please... don't ever call me that again..."

Nora shrugs muttering, "Your loss," before shouting, "so you finally wanna see what I wanna show you?!"

"Uh... yes..?" Boboiboy replies reluctantly.

"Ok, ok! Sit there and you just watch."

She then takes out... what seems to be Papa Zola's watch before wearing it.

"Don't tell me she..."

With a smirk, Nora raises her hands much in the same way Boboiboy does it, and... a jagged pink and yellow heart appears on the screen much to Boboiboy's shock.

"Nora... Dual... Split!"

A familiar golden glyph appears above Nora which suddenly slams down on her like a lightning strike. As it did, the yellow and pink heart divides into Nora's emblem and a jagged yellow heart which looks like two thunderbolts arching into each other.

As the glyph vanishes, there in the middle stood two individuals.

Boboiboy's eyes widen in shock as he shouts, "WHAAAAAAT?!"

---Meanwhile, with Yang---

"I have to thank you for letting me join." A certain bronze-winged dove expresses his gratitude from below Yang's motorcycle sidecar.

The blonde-haired lady rolls her eyes before replying with a snarky, "You would've told the teacher otherwise."

"So wait, Yang, did you really just kidnap him then..?" A concerned Neptune voices out his worry.

"I would not have and it's... no bother really... I grow tired of my leader's lackadaisical way of going about school anyways. Who knows, this operation could be fun." Dove assures the two as he looks on ahead. With that, all three then zoom faster than what should be considered legally safe, making Neptune freeze up.

They then stop in front of a loud establishment with music and the like blaring inside.

"Come on, my friend is right in here." Yang points to the building with her thumb.

"Are... you sure..." Dove inquires, somewhat worried by the possible interaction with someone unsavory. But seeing as Yang didn't seem worried in the slightest and how the blue-haired one seems to just be following Yang like a lost puppy... he feels the need to be the grown adult to follow the two.

The trio soon finds themselves in a bar with onyx-black floors, blaring red lights, and white accents.

"Hey, kid! You ain't allowed in here!" A guard shouts as he aims his machete at Yang.

"Oh hey boys," calmly saunters Yang only for the two to exercise futility by barring her path.

The next thing to occur was a muffled explosion.

---Meanwhile with Blake---

"This... is SO much worse than the docks..." Sun mutters softly as he watches slack-jawed at an Atlesian mech suit known as a Paladin on a stage while he stands in a crowd of Faunus wearing bone-white masks with Blake by his side.

But that wasn't what got him shocked. No, it was the even BIGGER robot next to it.

To be continued...