Arclight Foundries

Mornings for the blonde engineer were usually rather slow and boring, even when he had projects running. He woke up before the sun rose over the walls surrounding the city, grabbed a quick and a nice, hot shower to scald him awake, and made a sandwich to go with the ten pills he had to choke down to avoid keeling over through the day.

Then he went downstairs to get the machines warmed up and check on them, and then to the shop after an hour of that to unlock the door, hang up the sign and run inventory until he had to sit to catch his breath while he caught up on the news. In addition to this particular morning was putting a replica of Velvet's new gun on a set of shelves he'd set beside the door for displaying old projects, but that was nothing.

A nice, relaxing morning, if admittedly a bit on the boring side sometimes, since Ruby and the others couldn't get away from school until a bit after two. Because as much as he adored Ruby, Penny, Velvet, and… Coco, having peace and quiet was much better for his health, and as careful as Coco was being with him, her teasing always scared him just a little bit as well.

But he was used to it by now, it came with the territory of… Being alive, really, he guessed.

"Is this Arclight Foundries?" He looked up from a book when the bell rang and the voice spoke, a tall and lean young man in lightly plated armor much like the training sets the Arc family handed out at Ansel, with an addition of greaves and heavy boots admittedly standing in his door anxiously. "I, uh, I heard really good things from friends of mine at Beacon about it, so I've been asking around and got directions here."

"Yeah, this is the place, sorry if it was kinda hard to find." So Coco 'spreading the good word', as Velvet put it, was having an effect after all. Closing his inventory book with and setting it on the counter in front of him, he stood from his chair and smile, "How can I help you? If you came looking for me, I don't think you want bullets or anything standard."

"Yeah, uh, no…" He nodded, moving to the counter and rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, "Sorry if I'm, you know, kinda nervous but… I use hand-me-downs, and now I have money from missions at Beacon, and I can get something custom made, but I've never made an order myself, so…"

"It's fine, everyone goes through this a first time and you aren't hurting anyone being nervous. The weapons people like me make, the custom designs, they're important." He said simply, smiling as reassuringly as he could muster without ruining the tone he wanted to set. "My dad always said, when I was little, 'I prefer nervous recruits and trainees to confident ones, because a nervous-looking man is the honest one and will ask the right questions'. So don't feel bad about it, you'll get used to it in a little bit. Just tell me what you want."

"I want a really big shield and, uh, some kinda spear that can shoot stuff without changing shape." He explained, even though he was six inches taller and covered in plating. six inches taller than him and built like a brick with armor plating but still anxious just talking to him. "I-, my team I mean, we use me like a vanguard in fights. So I need to be able to stay in one spot and hold it, but I use a sword right now and… That isn't really good for ranged support. And something like, you know, a Nevermore I'm useless against."

"Are you sure you want a spear?" He asked, stooping down to get his sketchbook and a pen. "Something like a straight rifle would be easier to maintain in the long run, and the shield could be made with an anchor system to latch it to for aim-assistance. Or you could make a Pavise style great-shield to place and leave for more deployable cover instead of having to hold it up."

"I thought about that, but…" He made a face, almost grimacing as he explained, "I just kind of want a spear-rifle, I guess. Is that, um, is that stupid?"

"I know a girl that uses a mecha-shifting, three-form combat-scythe that functions as a high-impact marksman weapon, which she also uses the firing of to propel herself around at high speed. Do you know why she picked a scythe?" Jaune asked, drumming his fingers on the counter to keep his thoughts straight and smiling patiently the whole while.

"She likes scythes, her uncle uses one himself apparently and she wanted one too." He answered after a couple seconds when the man didn't reply. Because he was nervous or unsure, Jaune didn't know, and it didn't matter either. "If you want a spear, we can work out a design that incorporates one. That is my job, yours is telling me what you want so I can do it right and then learning how to use it. I don't want my name attached to you getting hurt, or worse, out there on missions."

"I… I like spears, I guess. There's something about them, you know? I'm Mistralian, and our Kingdom was built by men and women, shoulder to shoulder, with a big shield to hide a man behind and a long spear, so..." He gave a nod, like that settled things, and Jaune kind of understood even before he explained more. "I want to be like them, standing my ground no matter what behind a shining shield. You know?"

For Valeans, it was a knight in shining armor astride a gallant steed, wielding sword and shield against the Grimm around Vale and throughout the surrounding lands that created their legend. The plains surrounding from the mountains that protected Vale were ideal for cavalry and wild horses that ran free throughout the plains and hills made replenishing the number of mounted fighters much cheaper than anyone could elsewhere.

Mistral, though, was more hill-ridden, their forests more dense than even Vale's and full of loose stones and soil and roots protruding from the ground, the terrain was simply rougher in every way across most of the territory that could even be settled safely enough to matter. So the image of a knight on horseback didn't come up much, even though they did exist. Instead it was men and women, clad in heavy and shining armor, with shields large enough for a man to hide behind in all kinds of shapes and styles, with long spears that could reach out and snatch the life from a Grimm from the relative safety their tight formations of massed spears bought.

"I wanted to be a Huntsman, once, and wanted to fight like the knights of old, too." Jaune nodded, smiling warmly at the dream even as he knew he couldn't reach for it. A dream that he instead enabled for others. As he suppressed a pang of jealousy once again as he asked, "So, you said you're kind of the tank of the group, right?"

"Y-Yeah." He nodded and smiled, proudly pointing a thumb at himself. "I have a monstrous amount of Aura, so I hang in the front and get as much attention on me as I can. I can take it, so s'fine for me doin' that, but right now that's all I can do. I… Feel like a weight out there, sometimes, because of how often all I am is a guy just standing there. Doing nothing but looking good."

"I understand the feeling, sorta." Jaune nodded, taking in a breath while he thought and then suggested, "Okay, so, I have an idea. Come here, lemme sketch it up for you."

Turning his sketchbook lengthwise on the counter, he started on the shield first since it was the more complex of the two pieces he'd need to work on for this particular project.

A heavy, rectangular shield made of a hardened black iron-steel composite from Vale itself - since the man said that he couldn't afford something like Seer-Steel from Atlas or Red-Steel from Vacuo, not that he'd use that on a shield - with padded leather attached to the back for when he had to brace it, which would absorb blows more gently than n.a.k.e.d steel. He would make it with a vertical-style grip carved of sturdy wood and padded with the same leather as the back of the shield.

The front of the weapon, he explained to the man as he drew it for a reference, would be decorated with whatever emblem he offered and a flame-patterned edge. A flavoring for pure decorative effect, and one he knew Mistralian soldiers used from his studies in the past. On the back he also attached a metal pad a few inches under the grip, spaced about six inches apart, with two thick pegs a foot long and an inch thick with a small spike at the tip.With a button press, it would shoot down hard enough to punch into stone or steel and lock itself, so he could deploy the shield wherever he want and have it anchored down to resist most things.

For the spear he would use the same black iron composite material, to keep cost down as to match the shield itself, and kept its design as simple as he could for the project at hand.

The spear would be, at full length, a foot taller than the wielder himself with a broad spearhead about three inches at its base and three inches long to the point. At the bottom of the spearhead, at the connection between the spearhead and the shaft itself, the seam of the gun aspect itself would show. Besides that, the metal would be smooth and undecorated down to the grip, and a bolt behind it that, along with pressing a small button above the grip, could be lifted and pulled to move the head down below the barrel itself and lock it into place.

Then the bottom of the haft would fold up and into itself, locking into a loose rifle b.u.t.t to rest the weapon against his shoulder with the spear grip now working well enough as the grip of the rifle. The bolt would pull back and open up, and the incredibly large rounds would have to be individually hand-loaded in.

"It's a slow load, yeah, you're right about that." Jaune explained when the young Huntsman asked, sketching out the long rifle round on the page for him as he continued explaining. "But the weapon is meant to fire an extremely damaging single shot, since you want to deploy the secondary features against hard to kill flying enemies. The rounds I am suggesting are expensive but gods will they ground pretty much anything you could even hope to fight without an Atlesian fleet."

"So it's kind of like… A one-hit-kill kind of thing?" He asked, smiling slightly at the idea when he nodded. "I guess that makes sense, yeah. One of my teammates has a machine-gun, so I guess I don't need one too to function with them."

"Instead you can learn to play the heavy damage role for the team a bit more, especially towards aerial targets." Jaune went on, sliding the design pages to him to let him look it over. "The bolt-loading systems means I can chamber it into higher calibers, too, and even without it adding a semi-automatic loader and a magazine port would make the grip a bit weaker or more expensive."

"Which you're avoiding." The young Mistralian nodded, smiling appreciatively while he looked over the design. "This won't be too high maintenance?"

"No, the shield's locks are a simple pressure-lever system. It actually doesn't lock down, really, the pulley system is always yanking it down. Like a crossbow, kind of, if that helps." He explained, pointing to the spiked pegs of the leg on the diagram. "Makes that cheaper, too, but it will mean you'll have to manually reset it every time."

"So when I dig in, I'm stuck there, huh?" He sighed, looking bothered by the risk that brought for reasons Jaune more than understood. If they got overwhelmed and had to pull back, then he'd need to leave it or take a second to unlock it. "It's risky, but… You don't play the tank without risking enough already. What's a little more for so much added versatility, right?"

"Not a question to ask me, Sir." Jaune said matter of factly, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall behind him. "That kinda thing isn't my field. It's up to you and you alone to decide if you're willing to roll that dice."

"I… I think it is. I want this. Can we discuss a price and timeline? I need it for a mission in a week, if I can manage it." He smiled apologetically and Jaune sighed, but nodded almost reluctantly.

"I can pull it off, but a rush job means longer days for me and anyone who helps me. And that means a higher price tag, if not by ridiculously much for it." And it also meant less idle time to relax for him, and combined with his new obligation to Coco… This was going to be a fun week.

"I should be able to cover it, yeah. And if not I'll just get a loan and pay it off after my mission." He shrugged, smiling nonchalantly at the idea of taking on debt to rush into a new weapon. "Beacon runs those kinds of things themselves anyways, for students who need to update equipment or get repairs after a bad mission mostly."

"Can you learn to use it in time?" Jaune asked as politely as he could manage without, hopefully at least, offending the guy.

"I can, yeah. I think." He shrugged again, "If not, I'll just pack my old kit instead. Not like I'm going to throw it away, so it doesn't matter."

"Alright then. Come over to the register, I'll get a quote on the prices up and running, and tally up the hours and stuff for you." He said with a small, forced smile and an already exhausted sigh at the work to come. And the man's answers, but who was he to question him? He was the Huntsman, he knew what he could handle. "I'll need your IDs and contact information, though, for background checks and stuff. Normal procedure."

"Sure, of course." He nodded, watching him type up the amounts with some small amount of anxiety as he finished up the pain in the rear of an order.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"But I wanted you to help me get ready for the missions!" Ruby w.h.i.n.ed, splayed over the arm of his couch and pouting, while Penny sat on the floor behind the arm of the couch; while she worked on the helmet of the suit for him, the two girl's heads close enough their heads almost touched and worked on the suit's helmet for him. "Why'd you have to take on a rush order like that, Jaune?"

"Because friend-Jaune needs money for food and other human necessities. Like television and alcoholic beverages." Penny offered helpfully, turning the old Atlesian military helmet over in her hands and sticking her tongue out while she worked at removing its innards and laying them out around her meticulously. "Father says that such things are 'very, very important to a working man'. Along with several things I was told not to mention in polite company."

"Television and, uh, beer isn't a 'necessity', Penny. Honestly, the fact that your father was even allowed to have a child… How that could even be possible escapes me." Jaune sighed, rolling his eyes and sitting down on the floor across from her. "How's it coming along, Penny?"

"I am removing unnecessary functions and integrated components for long-range communications, mapping and some other combat-prescient functions from this helmet." She pointed down at one pile of chords, wiring and circuitry and added another wire she'd yanked out to the pile. "Once that is done, I will reconfigure the ammunition and Aura-monitoring suites of the helmet to recognize the armor downstairs, then reset the display to more appropriate items for the kind of work you do."

"Is that hard?" He asked curiously, watching her fingers pry open the armor sections and fish out what she wanted gone with next to no effort. Like she'd done it all her life, and knew the helmet inside out. She hummed and gave him a questioning look and he explained, "Reprogramming it and rerunning the wires like that, is it hard? I don't know how complicated the actual helmet is, so I was curious."

"It is not hard at all, friend-Jaune, and I would not mind if it was." She smiled widely, looking at him even while her hands continued working on the helmet expertly. Which was odd since she wasn't actually looking at the helmet, but he pushed it aside. Not his business. "I am more than happy to help, and this helmet is nothing more complicated than a standard Atlesian helmet should be. My father has dozens of them in his laboratory, and I have been around them since I was made."

"Made?"

"Born." She corrected, his eyebrow rising as she moved on, turning the helmet in her hands and showing him the back, pointing out two thick chords running down from the base of the helmet to where the wearer's spine would be. "When I am done, you will only need to hook this into the armor's processing unit port on the back where I instructed you to put it. With that, the helmet will process any information for you and display it on the HUD system of the visor. If you press a button on the side of the helmet, you can even move the displayed information around with your hands."

"That's awesome, Penny, thank you so much." He smiled, which the small woman returned brightly and seemed to preen under. "It would have cost a fortune to get a helmet like this brought in and worked on like this, and taken months normally… How are you so good at programming?"

"My father is a robotics expert working for the Atlesian military." She explained with that same beaming smile she always wore when talking to him or Ruby, grinning from ear to ear with her head tilted slightly to the side and her bright eyes sparkling, almost like they were glowing. "He made the new Atlesian Knight series and some other things I am not allowed to talk about, but they are simply sensational."

"So your dad taught you all this stuff?" Ruby asked, eyes closed while she relaxed and only partially paid attention to the conversation being had.

"Hm?" Penny seemed to think for a second before she nodded, "Oh, yes, he... He made sure that I knew as much as he could impart to me. Without breaking Atlesian law, of course, since some of it would be military secrets."

"Hey, uh… None of this would count as that, right?" He asked, suddenly paranoid about the idea and drumming his fingers on his knee with the anxiety. "The, uh, the helmet I mean. Would that do anything? I don't want any trouble, you know? Not with Atlas especially, I get most of my Dust out of there like everyone else. I can't afford to have to import from Vacuo."

"Oh, no, there is no problem here friend-Jaune. This is an officially decommissioned helmet given, along with precisely seventy-two others, to my father for testing and analysis." She assured him, smile shrinking slightly when she saw how concerned he'd suddenly gotten over the idea. "I promise, friend-Jaune, there's nothing to worry about. I wouldn't do anything like that to you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He sighed, relaxing and popping his neck with a grimace and g.r.o.a.n.e.d at the throbbing in his head that was suddenly coming on. "Just a bit of paranoia there, I guess. Just forget about it, Penny, I was… I was being paranoid for no reason, I think my medicine is being weird."

"Are you okay?" She asked, hands finally going still while glanced him up and down worriedly like she was looking for something. "Friend-Jaune, do you need to lie down? I can complete work on the helmet without you, if I need to. And while I do enjoy spending time with my friends, I would not want you to be uncomfortable while we do so. That would not be something friends would do. Right, Ruby?"

"Yeah, Jaune." Ruby agreed, rolling over and hopping off the couch, stretching her fingers towards the sky and squeaking as she did. "Penny and I can get some work done on the spear-rifle you want to be done too, while you rest."

"You don't mind?" He asked to check, "I wouldn't want to bother you or anything, you know?"

"You literally pay me for this stuff, Jaune. This is literally my job." She waved it off, gesturing at Penny with a hand, "And Penny likes this stuff too, so she doesn't care either. Right, Penny?"

"Oh yes, I quite enjoy programming and technical work. It is highly pleasurable to me to program things, and my father wishes to see what kind of work we do, and besides." She assured him, smiling gently and adding almost coyly, "My father is quite interested in the designs I have told him about, you know, friend-Jaune."

"H-He is?" Jaune sounded as surprised as he felt, he was sure, eyes wide as saucers and headache pushed to the back of his mind.

"Oh yes." She answered, nodding excitedly as her hands returned to work. "Father says that this kind of suit could be put to great use working in dangerous environments or speeding up the construction of defensive installations. Depending on how the suit ends up, you may have the possibility of a contract with the Atlesian military in the future, according to him."

"I… Wow." He blinked, cracking out into a wide grin, "That's awesome, Penny! Absolutely amazing!"

"Indeed, it is quite sensational." She waved her hands at him with a smile the way his mother used to when he was little, "Now shoo, go get some rest, friend-Jaune. Ruby and I will deal with whatever problems occur while you rest, do not worry about it."

"Fine, fine, just don't burn the place down or anything." He sighed, standing and rolling his eyes when Penny looked frightened and opened her mouth to say something. "No, Penny, I don't think you will do anything to burn the house done. It's just a figure of speech."

"Oh…" She blinked after a second and nodded understandingly, "I will remember it in future, friend-Jaune. Now go to bed, please."

He rolled his eyes as they exchanged good nights, and he went off to take his nightly medicine and get some rest. He hated when his medicine acted up like this, but… it came with the territory of everything else he had to deal with, so there was no point dwelling on it.