AN: Hello! Couple of things first

Story skips, or point of view changes are show by: -x-x-x-x-

Character thoughts are bracketed [So...Deal with it.]

This is the first member of Team WOLF, and yes he does get frustrated with the team name. A wolf Faunus leading Team WOLF? He has issues with it.

Chapter 01: The Black Armored Wolf.

Warren sat in the back of the wagon and relaxed. He leaned against one of the bags filled with various goods in a vain attempt to get some rest while they traveled down the unpaved trail. His hood was pulled low over his eyes so he could try to sleep, but the trail was not as smooth as when they had first set out. Next to the bag he leaned against was large locked chest with his emblem on the lid. The maroon wolf enclosed within a crescent moon.

"Hey, uh, Mr. Warren? Sir? We should be coming into view of Glade Village shortly."

Warren stretched and grunted noncommittally in reply. "So..." The coachman glances backwards as he continues. "Why did you want to come to Glade? You didn't seem all that interested until I mentioned my destination." Warren sighed. He had the three days (and nights!) it took to travel this far and now he wants to be nosey? Well...at least he waited. If they got there soon he wouldn't be asked too many questions.

"I've heard about this retired blacksmith who lives in Glade. Apparently he used to work in...Beacon? Or was it Signal?" The young man shrugged. In the end that didn't matter too much. "Hm. Either way he was an weapon instructor, helped the students make and improve their weapons. When I heard you were heading here I figured, eh might as well tag along."

The driver chuckled before he replied, "Well thanks all the same for that. I'm not sure I would have made it on my own."

Warren mumbled too quietly for the other man to hear, "On that point, we agree." His ears flicked beneath his hood as somehow, over the sound of the wagon and horse, he heard the sound of someone on the run. The sounds grew louder as they approached. Warren stood up quickly and engaged his weapons, covered by the sleeves of his hoodie, only the claws of the gauntlet that covered and protected his fingers were visible. The driver slowed down when he noticed that Warren had stood up. Before he could ask what was wrong a person ran around the bend in the road and spotted them.

"Please tell me one of you are a huntsmen!" The driver glanced back at Warren without a hint of hesitation which prompted a sigh as War shouted back to the man. "I'm not a huntsmen, but I know a thing or two about killing Grimm! What's wrong?"

The villager hadn't stopped his dash and had reached the wagon. Warren pulled off his hoodie and opened his crate as the villager explained. "It started as a normal Grimm attack. At-at least that's what we thought! Mostly beowolves I th-think I saw a creep? But all hell broke lose when that King Taijitu showed up! We might be armed but we can't deal with something like that!" As the villager explained Warren pulled on pieces of what looked like armor. The villager finally got a good look at him and gasped. "You're a Faunus? Wait...you're him aren't you! The Black Armored Wolf!" War's ears twitched and turned his golden eyes towards the man before he pulled the helmet over his head. He pulled out his scroll and hit a few buttons. The HUD inside his armor flickered to life before a synthesized voice spoke, "Combat and Navigation Assistant, designation C.A.N.A. is online, and awaiting orders."

Warren's voice echoed out from the helm, somewhat muffled. "Cana sync systems with the War Suit. Set a timer, 5 minutes. Begin after War Suit has combat systems engaged."

"Acknowledged."

He closed the crate and jumped off the wagon. "5 minutes? You don't really think you can beat that thing in 5 minutes do you?" Warren paused and looked at the villager. After a tense moment of silence the villager gulped, with the black armor and paint pattern...this faunus almost looked like a Grimm himself. "Cana, estimated time of usage before War Suit runs out of energy using all systems?" There was a pause until the synthesized voice spoke again. "Time estimation until full aura depletion is 12 minutes and 37 seconds." The villager flinched while the driver just stared at him in shock.

"Tha-that thing runs off aura?" Instead of an answer Warren turned away and started to charge down the road. He ran slower than he'd like due to the weight of the suit, but he couldn't afford to fully activate the suit until he needed to. "Cana! Seal the suit, and bring weapon systems online. Leave all non interface systems offline...yes that does include life support, environmental controls, mobility assistance systems offline." The sections started to open and expand, until they fully covered his form in overlapping segments. "Affirmative. Primary system override accepted. Specified systems coming online now. Warning. Aura levels dropping, estimated time of depletion 74 minutes and 58 seconds. Do try to avoid taking hits, as that will skew my time estimate." Warren chuckled mainly to himself as he replied, "Acknowledged."

[...Almost 75 minutes, now if only it could be like that with all systems active…]

Cana's voice interrupted his thoughts, "Contacts." Warren ducked and rolled as a beowolf lunged for his head. As soon as his feet hit the ground he lunged after the creature and grabbed its leg from behind. It struggled briefly before he swung it over his head and brought it down into the ground slam that resounded through the air. With his fist aimed at its head, he fired a round from his wrist mounted pistol and the beast fell still. He waited until the beast started to dissolve into shadows to ensure it's demise before he turned away and-

-was swept off his feet by a giant scaled body. "CANA! Full engagement!" The entire suit lit up, as all of the systems activated. As Warren flipped in the corner of his eye on the HUD he saw a timer start to count down. The second head of the dual headed snake was pulled along with the rest of the body until it spotted the faunus. The entire creature stopped, as it seemed to contemplate why he was still alive before it lunged at him once more. He ducked and dodged as propulsion rounds fired from his left arm and leg. With a crash he landed somewhat awkwardly but when the next rounds fired and launched him forward, his posture and balance was corrected by minute adjustments performed via Cana's influence over the suit. Unfortunately as he slashed at the Grimm the creature's body dropped to the ground and his claws glanced off its scales.

He tumbled through the air and when he crashed into a tree, Warren immediately flipped and proceed to run...straight up the tree. The snake's white head coiled around the tree and started to follow him up. He stopped, turned and fired round after round at the creature's head. It hissed at him and pulled back as Warren dropped from the tree. The creature's black head struck at where he had 'stood' it's fangs sunk into the trunk of the tree. The spikes that had from the soles of his armored boots retracted as he propelled himself downwards. The white half of the snake tried to dodge, but Warren still scored a solid blow, and gouged out one of its eyes. He landed and dodged away as the monster roared and flexed. As its body was coiled around the tree it split and shattered the tree into pieces as to dropped back to the ground and hissed once more. "Cana, Enact dust coated rounds, Ice."

"Acknowledged. Warning! Ice dust reserves at 13%." Warren cursed, it has been too long since he'd be able to buy more dust. The Grimm struck and Warren braced himself as he caught the monster's fangs. The suit deployed spikes along the his feet and from the back of his legs. Pushed backwards the spikes gouged into the earth as he fired two rounds into the open maw before him. The King Taijitu tried to pull away. With a grin he braced, and held the beast in place before the spikes suddenly retracted. With nothing to hold it down, the creature's head snapped back and launched Warren into the air. He fired several more rounds, and encased parts of its body in ice to prevent its escape as he dropped. He landed harshly on top of its head which forced its skull down and crashed into the ground. He took no chances and stabbed his claws through its good eye, and proceeded to fire several rounds, inside its skull.

*beepbeepbeep*

"CANA re-set timer! Activa-" before he could finish the other head charged out from a gap between the trees and managed to close its jaws around him as it crashed into him. The armor, coated in his aura, prevented injury but he was still held within the monster's jaw. It proceeded to smash him into trees and houses as it barreled through the village. This time, Warren did not even bother with the voice commands, he accessed the suits systems and changed the dust setting to lightning before he proceed to fire, from all of his various gun ports. Lightning danced across the scales as it writhed, thrashed, and dropped Warren in the process. A quick propellent round spun him around and he landed on his feet. He looked up to aim at his beheaded target as its body crashed around him. Then he realized that something was off...the grimm was missing its head. The grimm started to dissolve back into shadows and as it faded he spotted someone on the other side of the creature's corpse. Tall, with black hair (with grey streaks) and a tattered red cape. Balanced on a shoulder was a segmented greatsword. "Well, well, well. I take it you're the big bad wolf himself?"

Warren just stared at him before he sighed. "Cana, disengage. De-active the War Suit-" The man's head snapped around at that and his red eyes narrowed as he looked at Warren. Warren in turn glared at him, [Why'd he react to the term 'War Suit'?]

"-and pause timer. Activate minimal defenses protocol." Most of the suit immediately started to open and retract as Warren watched the other man approach. A few people started appearing from around the village also approached them. "Thank goodness you came when you did! We can't thank you huntsmen enou-" Warren cut them off with a wave of his hand as he removed his helmet and turned away. "Forget it, I'm not a huntsmen." Several villagers gawked at him. Though if it was due to his statement or the fact that he was a Faunus he wasn't sure...not that he really cared either way. The villagers swarmed the other huntsmen and showered him with their thanks. Warren took the chance to backtrack to the wagon with the rest of his stuff.

The driver thanked him endlessly. Every other sentence was more thanks. He just wanted to stow his gear, drag his stuff to the blacksmith's place, and maybe find a place to crash for a few hours. After he stuffed the pieces of the war suit back into the crate, he checked his scroll. Timer was paused at 3:51. Cana managed to reset the timer even though I was interrupted. Looks like that last upgrade worked like a charm. He checked his aura level and winced. Just a few points shy of orange. "Cana estimate time of usage of the War Suit based off current aura levels." There was a pause before, "Current aura level would only power the War Suit for an estimated 3 minutes and 14 seconds before being fully depleted. Considering the difficulty of Grimm faced, a rather acceptable performance." Warren cringed, with the 6 minutes and 9 seconds that already passed that only put the total time up to 9:23. Quite a bit lower than the original estimate of 12:37. He lost a whole 3 minutes and 15 seconds due to damage he sustained. Maybe the armor plating WAS too heavy.

The last smith he spoke to said as much, but didn't have any recommendations for how to keep the level of defense but make it lighter. He slung his bag over his shoulder walked through the village as he continued to muse. He tried use a synthesized material before. It was much lighter but couldn't take the punishment he needed. It always seemed to bounce between those points. Light enough but not strong enough, strong enough but too heavy. At least he managed to fix the bug with the propulsion alignment.

He'd gotten used to the current settings, maybe he could adjust to higher output? But that require stronger, more weighty charges. It make him faster though, in bursts at least. He heaved a sigh, he was working in mental circles. He drew close to his destination when he heard two people locked in an argument. His ears flicked as he recognized the voice of huntsman. [He cut off the King Taijitu's second head, on his first and only attack. Crap~ I'm going to have to thank him aren't I?]

"Come on Timber! It'll be just a short visit! Come see how my students are doing, take a glance at their weapons and then straight to a bar to catch up! I know a great place." A deep voice rumbled out a sigh before replying to him, "Just be straight with me Qrow. Why do you want me to go to Vale?" Warren knocked on the door, and pretended that he didn't hear any of their conversation. The name rung a bell, but he couldn't remember where he knew the name Qrow from.

The door opened, and a large faunas with grey hair and golden eyes stared down at him. Once again, Warren cursed that he couldn't seem to grow past 5'5". Everyone seemed to tower over him, it just wasn't fair. The man stepped aside and let Warren in. "Hm. I take it you are the mysterious 'Black Armored Wolf' eh? Been hearing rumors of some wolf Faunus who claims that he isn't a huntsman, wandering around these parts slaying grim while clad in black armor."

Warren shrugged and replied, "Probably. I don't pay much attention to what people are saying about me. I came here because I was hoping I could get you to take a look at my armor." The smith stared him down, seeming to weigh him when the huntsmen-[What was his name? right!] Qrow screwed the cap back on his flask and spoke up once more,

"See? I'm not the only one who's visiting for your talents! Come on Timberwolf! Look I'll even admit I'm playing favorites. One of my nieces will be going to Beacon next year. But the younger one, three years away and she's designed a weapon that'll throw you for a loop!" Timberwolf stared Warren down for a moment longer before he sighed and turned to Qrow. "Fine, I'll take a look. But when we catch up, you are footing the tab." Qrow grumbled but nodded all the same as Timberwolf turned to look at Warren. "If you tag along, I can take a look at your armor."

Qrow interjected, "I have someone who wants to talk to you while we are there. He told me about the rumors of the Black Armored Wolf and to keep an eye out for leads." Timberwolf laughed and placed a hand on Warren's shoulder, "It's how life goes kid. No need to look so glum."

He stepped past them and headed into his house. Qrow looked at him. "So your weapon is a greatsword?" Qrow scoffed, and pulled his flask out again. "No, I wield a scythe." Warren's eyebrows shot up as Qrow took another drink. "Brought a Bullhead, set down outside of town. Saw the Grimm and helped out, no need to get serious on such small fry." Warren couldn't hold back his growl at that comment. [I had to go all out and that doesn't even come close to his level when he is not even being serious!]

Qrow laughed at his reaction, "What the matter kid? No match for a drunkard who isn't even serious? Well maybe if you got some formal trainin' you might be able to do something about that. We'll see how the meeting with Ozpin goes." [Ozpin? Isn't that the name of headmaster at Beacon? That's it! I've heard of Qrow! A top hunter who does intelligence work for Vale.]

Warren sighed, "Fine. I'll talk with Ozpin. And...thanks. For your help. With the Grimm." Qrow shrugged as he walked out of the house. "Anytime pup." This time Warren didn't even try to hold back his growl. "It's Warren! War-"

Qrow interrupted at that point, "Warren Marune, Dr. Marune's only child. Who left Atlas R&D with his wife to pursue their pet project when it got scrapped because the rest of the scientific community felt that huntsmen in armored suits would never come to fruition. A project dubbed, 'The War Suit'." Warren stopped and stared at Qrow in shock. "You've been missing for over 6 years now, kid. Popping up on another continent with a functional War Suit? We are going to have a LOT of questions for you to answer."