Chapter One
As Damian walked towards the train station, he thought to himself about what life at Atlas would be like. Who would he make friends with? Who would he fight alongside with and who would he study with? He let out a sigh. He had always had trouble making friends due to his size, his temper and being a Faunus. This time would be different though, this time would be-
Honk!
He was disrupted from his thoughts as he saw his train start to take off. He had only just arrived at the gates. He burst into a sprint. He jumped over the ticket gate, ran along the platform, and with a giant leap he landed on the back of the last carriage. Panting and smirked to himself, he opened the door.
Upon entering the carriage, he noticed there was no one there. Must be because it's early in the morning, he thought. He walked down the aisle, looking for a seat with some leg-room. As he turned to sit down he saw something out of place; the bag racks were all full. He turned around and the other rack was also full of large burlap sacks. Very weird indeed, he said to himself. The door at the forward end of the carriage opened up and a man in a black uniform walked in. He spoke loudly and directly.
"I knew we had a train robber and I'm not surprised it's a filthy animal like you!" Damian looked around, just to make sure the man was talking to him.
"You think I did what now?" He asked the man, puzzled. The man drew his gun.
"Where are they?!" He demanded. Damian was now even more confused than before.
"Where is who? What am I being accused of?" The man pointed his gun at Damian.
"Look here you little shit, I know you've done something to the passengers of this carriage, as they are gone and I never saw you enter the train!" Damian couldn't ignore these facts so he slowly raised his arms.
"Look, I think there's been a huge misunderstanding… so how about you put down your gun and we just talk this out." Now the man just looked annoyed.
"You will not tell me what to do, you hairy fr-" The man stopped mid-sentence and fell to the floor with a blade in the back of his head. Behind him stood a short figure in a black cloak and a white mask decorated with Grimm markings. The figure walked forward, over the body, and slowly pulled out the blade and attacked it to a weapon and swung it over its back. Then it looked at Damian and spoke slowly.
"Hello there, my large, furry friend." Damian just looked back, mouth slightly open in shock. The figure continued. "You see, you have helped me rather a lot without even knowing it… you see, they now think that you," it pointed at Damian, "are the train robber when in fact, it was yours truly!" It gave a little bow, then walked slowly towards Damian with its left hand outstretched in greeting. Damian could not comprehend what was happening right now, but he still knew what he must do.
"Oh well, no problem I guess." Damian extended his own arm to meet the figure's and gripped it tight. "Unfortunately I am not a crook like you." He pulled back his right arm and punched the figure straight in the face. It would have been sent flying if not for the fact that their hands were still locked. With a mighty swing Damian flipped the figure over and smashed it into the floorboards with a satisfying crunch.
"I may be a bit of a beast, but I am not a criminal."
The figure groaned and rolled over. Its mask had shattered and fallen off, revealing the good looking face of a young girl with curly brown hair. Well, if you didn't count the broken nose. She groaned some more and tried to move, but was only able to roll a little to each side. Damian looked down, still not quite sure what was going on. The girl spat out a mouth full of blood.
"Man, that wasn't - cough - my best - cough – idea." She then returned to relative silence, which was abruptly broken by the sound of the intercom going off and the train doors opening. Damian looked round to see what was going on. Something darted into view and hit him right in the face. He fell to the ground and blacked out.
When he opened his eyes, he was looking at the underside of a chair. He tilted his head and saw a boot coming his way and bit into it on instinct. The scream and thud that followed told him that it had worked.
He rose up, slowly, to see that the train was now full of Atlas military enforcers, who had just seen what happened. He slowly lifted his arms and spoke clearly.
"I do not know what's going on here." One of the soldiers looked at his colleague, shrugged and pulled out some handcuffs.
"Soooooo you'll come quietly, then?" Damian nodded.
Twenty minutes later Damian found himself at the city's police station. He was stripped of his weapon, armour and bag and He was brought to a dark room and told to sit at a table until someone came to deal with him. This gave Damian plenty of time to go over his thoughts.
The first of which was what an awful start to my life as a huntsman. He sat and thought about what he could do to get out when he heard muffled voices outside.
"Can I be bad cop this time?" The first asked.
"No Philip you're a goofball!" The other voice snapped, "Anyway it's a Faunus kid so you'll be more of a relatable to him. A moment later the door opened and two figures walked in, one tall muscular with bright blues slicked back hair, white streak. The other one was short and almost ball shaped, he was balding and had to sizeable tusks protruding from his jaw.
"Do you know why you're here?" The first barked.
"Uh well I think." Damian started but the officer slammed her coffee cup on the table, causing it to drench herself and Damian. Damian screamed in surprise and fell out of his chair.
"To slow! Do you think I have time to deal with every one of you delinquents that walks into this door! Well do you?" Damian quickly but clumsily stumbled to his feet.
"Ugh no. Mam." He added quickly.
"Exactly but it seems you're not entirely inept. You seem to know the chain of command. Maybe atlas will make something of you yet."
"I'll take it from here Sargent Azure Marine." Philip said calmly "you've rattled the boy enough. So my boy what happened?" With a sigh of relief Damian told them the short tail of how he ran for the train, how he was confronted by the conductor and then how the clocked figure showed up and killed the conducive and finally how he took out the figure before he two was knocked out.
"So let me just check a few things?" Philip began. "Did you have ticket for this train?" Damian nodded his head.
"Did you attack that officer because you assumed that it was the person who attacked you on the train?" To which he nodded again.
"Do you think you could tell me anything else about this girl, the one on the train?"
"She was just a small girl with brown curly hair and a bit of a pointed face I guess." Damian said disheartened, he was having problems remembering the details of the scene.
"How small is small? Most things must be small to you." Sargent Marine barked. Reminding Damian that she was still in the room.
"Low end of five foot, maybe smaller." He replied. The Sargent put down a tablet she had been using to record what Damian had been saying.
"I think we're done here." She said aloud.
"Yes I think so too." Philip said, "My boy, follow me and we can gather your personal effects. Damian nodded and left the room with the constable.
Once Damian was outside, he realised he was right in the middle of Atlas with no real idea as to where the Academy actually was. He was about to go into a shop across the street when Sargent Azure walked outside.
"You a little lost teddy bear." Her tone was different from before, still dominating but less brash.
"Yea I don't actually know how to get to the academy." He replied embarrassed. The Sargent absentmindedly flipped out her pistol and used the hammer spark to light a cigarette.
"I'll be heading around that way if you want a lift?" She said equally absentmindedly.
"Why would you do that?" Damian asked curiosity getting the better of him. She took a drag then replied.
"Because my sister works there, and my niece, on the other side, will be starting like you today."
"Oh really." He replied. A bike suddenly whizzed round the corner and stopped in front of Azure, she hopped on and patted the small area of seat behind her.
"Hop on." Damian was about to argue but she stared at him until he clambered on. Damian had to wrap his arms around her tightly as she took of the moment he got on the bike. She was able to get to the academy within a matter of minutes. She dropped him off at the gate and sped of saying she had to continue her patrol. Damian turned to the gate and realised it was closed, and no one was around. Just great, Damian thought to himself. All hope was not lost though. He sat down, and produced a flask full of his mother's porridge. His eyes lit up as he began to shovel it down but once he was finished he sat decided to just wait and see if anyone would show up.