Chapter 1: Initiation
Four years ago: Beacon
The soon to be members of S.M.K.K. stood atop Beacon Cliff facing the vast Emerald Forest. Headmaster Ozpin had just given the students orders that they are to: choose a partner upon landing, find a relic in the northern part of the forest, kill anything in their way, and try not to die. Simple.
The first of the team to be launched was Kole Fridulf. A blue eyed slacker, of average height and muscular build. Wearing his signature grey slouched beanie, worn with tuffs of short brown hair sticking out the front; a black jacket with grey stripes down the sleeves and grey trim along the collar and cuff, black cargo pants, black combat boots, and a grey pistol belt with a drop legged holster strapped to his left leg.
"Here we go" he said with a lazy sigh, readying himself for the launch. "Ladies I'll see you boots on the ground." he said to his two sisters, not far down the line from him, who were waiting to see if he would survive. The pad underneath him propelled him forward and he flew into the horizon. A smile took him as he felt as free as a bird. Up here among the clouds he didn't have a care. All that mattered was the wind in his face and the clouds inches above. His enjoyment was short-lived when he began to descend to the forest. 'Okay Landing Strategy time' he thought. 'How should I do this?'
"Fuck it!" he screamed
Kole drew his weapon, a bayonetted pistol, from its' sheathe and aimed for an upcoming tree. He gripped his pistol tight and lunged the knife blade deep into the tree trunk. The force of the sudden stop knocked the wind out of him for a second but he recovered as he slid down the tree. Once on the ground he twirled the pistol back into its holster, dusted off his pants, straightened his beanie, reached into his jacket pocket, and opened a pack of cigarettes. As he smoked, his scroll began to buzz. He had gotten three new text messages.
The first from his older sister Auburn which read: * 'Hey runt. Hope you didn't break your neck landing. Try not to die. Hopefully the three of us will find each other. Go team Wolf-pack.' *
The second message from his other, more pleasant sister Shade read: * 'Landed somewhere west. Moving northeast. Keep your eyes open.' *
Finally the third message was sent by someone just labeled as Julie in his contacts: * 'How long will you be gone. The boss wants to know.' *
Kole took a puff from his cigarette and replied to Julie's message * 'It's gonna be a while. I'm taking a little vacation In Vale. Be back in Atlas soon.'*
The heard the sounds of gunfire in the distance. "I'd hate to be them" the said flicking his cigarette to the dirt, pocketing his scroll, and walking in the opposite direction of the gunfire.
"Okay Shade where could you be hiding?"
His intent on avoiding conflict proves useless when a small girl ran in front of him with a Boarbatusk chasing after her. "Ah shit!" he shouted drawing his pistol and firing three shots at the Grimm's face. The beast shook off the hits and changed course for Kole. Again, he shot at the Grimm, but the bullets couldn't get through its bone plating. All the shots did manage to do was anger it even worse. The mysterious girl stood next to him with a pair of strange curved swords in her hands, staring at the Grimm. The Boarbatusk scratched at the ground and continued its charge at the two.
"Bring it bitch!" screamed Kole standing his ground, with pistol in hand.
The girl pushed Kole out of the way at the last second. She then jumped high into the air and crashed down slashing her swords into the Grimm's back, 'Damn!' he thought to himself. 'better let her have this one' for if Kole intervened again she would hate him for the next four years. Plus, if he would wait till the last minute he could kill the beast and be her hero. The Boarbatusk charged at her again, this time curling into a spinning ball of razor sharp tusks and hundreds of pounds of force. Again the girl jumped high into the air, but this time when she landed she buried her swords into the Grimm's back slicing right through the armor plating.
"Holy shit!" screamed Kole "That was fucking awesome. I gotta say I thought you were crazy for facing that thing alone, but-"
The young girl started to stare at Kole with a look of absolute hatred. It was hard to believe that those beautiful pale blue eyes could house such unbridled rage. She slowly raised her swords to Kole as if he was the next thing she will butcher. Kole slowly reached for his pistol unsure of how the next few seconds will unfold.
"First: watch your language around me." She said in a very unsettling voice. "And Secondly NEVER! Call me crazy. Got it!?" she added with such sternness that Kole had to take a step back out of fear for his life.
"Okay, Okay." he said in a slow and calming tone "I'm very sorry I upset you. It won't happen again!" He answered taking his hand off his pistol.
"Okie dokie" she said returning her swords into a blown leather sheath worn on her waist. "Oh how rude of me. I'm Katherine, Katherine Lazuli," she said with a smile and a curtsey. That smile was extremely disconcerting to Kole. One second he felt her aura emit a wave of negative energy, but then in an instant, it changed to pure youthful joy. This made Kole concerned. He was now stuck with this crazy chick for the next four years. That is if she doesn't kill him until then.
"Kole. So do you have any idea which way is North?" the girl looked around the forest and pointed in the direction of the gunfire from earlier. "Great" he said under his breath. "Well, ladies first" he said with a wave.
"Such a gentleman" Kathrine said with her unsettling and sincere smile "thank you"
As he followed her, Kole took this chance to analyze his partner: she had long sandy brown hair and a slight tanned complexion; she wore a baggy light-blue blouse, a short gold necklace, a knee-length blue and white plaid combat skirt, and a pair of light brown leather sandals.
"So I take it you are from Vacuo?" he said breaking the awkward silence.
"I am. How did you know?" she answered
"You don't really see swords like that here in Vale."
"They were a gift. My daddy's a merchant back home. When I told him I wanted to be a Huntress he gave them to me for my thirteenth birthday. I call them Mura and Masa, they're dueling kukris. I also have a couple throwing knives in the sheath" she said unsheathing the swords and displaying her skill by chopping small branches to pieces.
Kole quick-drawn his pistol with a flamboyant spin. "This here is Desperado, she's a lever-actioned pistol with an eight inch fixed knife blade under the barrel, and a pair of brass knuckles on the trigger guard. She can shoot just about any type of Dust round you want, but I've always preferred using fire rounds."
"Hmm. That's certainly unique. I've never been one for guns. They're just too clumsy."
"Too each their own, I guess. So what made you decide to come to Beacon?"
"I could ask you the same thing? You certainly aren't from around here"
"Clever girl," he said nodding with a sly smirk at his partner. "Well, it was my sister Shade's idea to come here. I just decided to tag along cause' I had nothing else to do. How about you?
"Well when I was a little girl I've always wanted to help people. The schools in Vacuo were nice, but my daddy felt that I was getting too accustomed to fighting the Grimm in the desserts and the savannas across Sanus, so we agreed that I would come to Vale and better hone my skills. So far I have-"
The huntress was then interrupted by shot after shot from Koles' pistol. The woman turned to her partner and drew her swords in the one fluid motion.
"What is it?" She screamed
"Oh nothing." Kole answered in a relaxed tone. "Just a few Beowolves there in the distance. I got bored, so I took them for target practice. I think that my landing earlier knocked my sights out of alignment."
Katherine looked at Kole with a puzzled look. Here she was telling him her purpose in life, and he just ignores her. She became so furious that she punched him hard in the arm making him drop his weapon. "You jerk!"
The two continued on northward and after half an hour of hiking through the dense woods, they found their objective. Outside the dilapidated temple there were two fellow students sitting outside.
"Kole!" a female voice shouted from the temple. "Thank God you're hear. This guy is driving me nuts!" she said pointing to a man with her. "What took you so long?" said a woman's voice coming from the temple
"I got a little sidetracked, Shade." he answered as he approached the temple. "Who's the chump?" he said seeing who he could presume was her partner. Kole's adoptive sister, Shade was only a few months older than him, but took the role of big sister very had center-split shoulder length black hair, green eyes, and a grey Faunus wolf tail. She wore a white military-styled shell jacket with black trim; a black tank top underneath, a knee length white pleated combat skirt, with black paw print designs along the bottom; and a pair of calf-high heeled boots. The two Fridulf had always been inseparable. Despite being opposites, they each had their backs. A few times Shade had to drag him out of a couple fights and Kole often had to help de-escalate her own conflicts. Kole was the calm and collected brawn, while Shade was the brains with an extremely quick temper..
"Marcus Oros" said the man as he shook Kole's hand "hey man, I didn't mean to hit on your girlfriend, I didn't know. So are we cool?" Marcus was a tall and slender man of dark complexion and was about a year older then Kole. He had a short blonde undercut afro and wore a red sleeveless zippered hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers. Among the group, he was the only one who wore any armor, a single red and gold spauldron strapped to his right shoulder
"That's my sister, jackass." suddenly a jab of pain struck Kole's side, hard. He looked down and saw that Kathrine had elbowed him sharply in his ribs. She had a look of annoyance in her eyes and her hands close to the grips of her kukris. "I'm sorry, okay?" he said in a hushed tone. "Shade, this is Kate. Just a little warning, don't swear in front of her. Trust me. It won't end well for ya"
"Seriously?" the woman said standing in disbelief "What does she carry around a swear jar with her? Cause we may be broke by the end of the day."
"Wait? You two are brother and sister?" said a confused Marcus
"Yeah. What's it to ya?" answered Kole
"But she's a Faunus and you're Human. I may not be good a math, but even that doesn't add up" Marcus said still hung up about the siblings
"So which relic did you get?" Kole said changing the subject
"There's just a bunch of chess pieces here." Shade said leading her brother inside. "They are just sitting here. I got a bad feeling about them. It's obviously a trap. No one would just leave a relic unguarded like this."
Kole took a close look at the pieces sitting atop twenty pedestals. "They don't look like relics." He said leaning close to them. He picked up a black pawn and inspected it closely. "Weird?" he said placing the piece in his pocket. "Well, objective complete. See you two back at Beacon."
Shade rolled her eyes at Kole's recklessness, grabbed another black pawn and chased after her brother. "You know that thing could have been booby trapped!"
"It wasn't though. So were golden." He said opening his pack of cigarettes. "Mission accomplished. Good job team."
"It's gonna be a miracle that you don't get yourself killed here."
Marcus then pulled out his scroll and began playing rap music, while Katherine skipped along behind Shade and Kole.
"So I guess we're all going to be teammates now. I have a good feeling about the next couple years. I can't wait." said Katherine, "When do you think we get to start going on missions?"
"Lady, there is no way in hell that I'm going on fucking missions with this douche bag" Marcus said gesturing to Kole
Katherine unsheathed her Kukris and starred at Marcus. "Never insult my friend. And never swear in my presence?" she said flourishing the kukris as she stepped towards the man
"Hey, dude. Can you get you fucking partner away from me, she's acting crazy." Marcus said unsheathing his own weapon, a curved cavalry sword, to defend himself
Katherine shuttered when she heard 'that' word. She gripped her swords tight and begun to chase after Marcus. Kole just stood there and took a long drag from his cigarette
"Oh yeah, Shade. That reminds me. Kate doesn't like it when you call her crazy."
Shade folded her arms and watched as Katherine ran after Marcus all the way back to Beacon cliff. "Huh. Good to know."
Back at Beacon the four trainees stood in line to approach the stage as Headmaster Ozpin greeted them to the crowd of spectators. Before walking across the stage they all made sure they were presentable to the headmaster and the audience: Shade dusted off her skirt, Marcus spit-shined his spaulder, and Kole adjusted his beanie.
"Shade Fridulf, Katherine Lazuli, Marcus Auros, and Kole Fridulf. The four of you retrieved the black pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team SMKK (Smoke). Lead by…Shade Fridulf."
Shade returned the announcement with a humble nod and fought hard to keep her tail from wagging with joy.
"Way to go sis! Bet mom and dad won't believe this" said Kole looking down to Shade
"Yeah. Go team!" Shade said in a sarcastic tone. Underneath she was absolutely, anxious. She struggled to keep her, wolf tail from wagging in excitement and fear.
"So you guys, wanna go get some pizza" asked Marcus
"I'm in!" said Kole grabbing his stomach. "All this Grimm killing has made me starved"
"That sounds fun," added Katherine "can we get one with pineapple? I love pineapple."