AN

Hey, This is my first story. I had this idea while reading up Steel Ball Run, and realized just how nicely some of the characters fit into the RWBY genre as well. Not to mention, rewriting one of my favorite adventures of all times is going to be great. I'm going to make some changes within the story, some may be more drastic than other. For the most part, characters who die, will still die. However, there are a few instances that I want to change up, and one very critical one that I might have to change to fit in with the themes more. Not too many people have read Steel Ball Run, but i'm going to make this fan fiction 100% readable if you haven't.

"What's going on out there?" A well aged faunus elder emerges from his tent, disturbed from his much needed sleep. The man comes out to see his brightly decorated, rugged son, with a fresh layer of face paint looking grim into the distance, in which a stampede of horses with faunus riders charge after a sole, lonesome boy, running with all his will.

"It's Adam, you can't protect him anymore Chief, he was found with… human books in his tent. This is treachery against our tribe." The well defined, skinny son of the elder presented The Holy Bible and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to his father. With a face bearing no emotion, but sorrow hidden deep within the elder's eyes, he proclaims the punishment.

"He will be scalped, is there no objection?" The son was silent, and nodded.

Adam was running. Running on the desert sand that he's always ran on, and the sand tickled the soles of his feet. He was always naturally fast, and his years of training had only brought improvement onto his speed. Yet, with the technique of the human he surpassed any human record of speed by a landslide.. If he was caught, it would be the end of him, and so he kept on running, he couldn't stop running.

Adam ignored the spear that landed just barely to his left while ducking below a rock chucked at his head. The fast gallop of the horses pushed him further, but he had no fear, he was fast enough, and wasn't only managing to stay ahead of the horses, but was even gaining speed against them.

The tribesmen giving him chase looked off at him in awe, with little understanding. They were on horses, so how was the barely clothed, shoeless, Adam getting away? The leader of the hunting party, donned with brown face paint and a terrifyingly nervous expression was desperately trying to come up with a conclusion. Looking closer at Adam, he slowly noticed something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. The way he swung his arms back and forth, how there seemed to be an almost spring in every single step that he pushed forward with.

The conclusion struck him and filled him with even more rage than the discovery of the filthy books. That's not a faunus running style, it's the humans, used to win competitions and dirty money! After reaching this conclusion, he understood that every second he wasted was a second that Adam got closer to escaping on the rocky hills in which their horses had not even a ghost of hope to catch up to Adam. "What are you all doing! Put more into your horses before the traitor escapes!"

"Adam! You always separated yourself from the tribe, like you were an outsider!" Always being caught training with swords not spears, with art painted with brushes he found, as the humans did, without any shame of what he did. In fact, it seemed that the only shame he had was being a faunus, but now, he managed to obtain the human books. "Don't you understand that it's our tribe being shoved off this land by the invading humans! And you side with them?!"

He was gaining on Adam. They all were gaining on Adam. There was no way he could make it to the hills at this range. He pulled out his tomahawk. "You must be punished!" He raised his tomahawk up. "You are unforgivable Adam! Unforgivable!" The last words were delivered as he finally got within fighting range of Adam, and slammed down his tomahawk onto Adam's skull.

Fear flashed onto Adam's face, before quickly being replaced with a grimace. He couldn't go to the sides, he was surrounded by a hills far higher than he could hope to jump. If he went forward or up, he would lose his skull and be trampled. Adam had but one direction left to him, a desperate move. Adam crossed his right left over his left, spun, and dived underneath the leader's horse, spinning in between the legs. That wouldn't be enough, the horses behind the leader would trample him, and he would die a death far too painful for him to imagine.

Adam took his fist and punched the horse in the stomach right as his face reached the back hooves. The horse, taken entirely by shock, reared it's head down and bucked to the left in reaction, and flung his body far onto the rough hills. With blood pouring out of his mouth and cheek, and falling down his bare shoulders, he crawled up the cliff. The tribesmen looked at him in shock, rather than anger. What sort of madman would let himself be kicked by a horse to escape, or even have that idea in the first place?

This shock didn't last long as anger returned, "Arrows! Shoot him with your arrows!" As that final call came out, a shriveled and cracked forearm emerged from the nowhere, visible only to Adam, and climbed with Adam's arm. In that moment, Adam vanished from their sight, the arm pushing him over the cliff. The arm vanishes as quickly as it came. With no time to rest, he keeps moving.

Finally, after putting some distance between them. Adam pulls out a newspaper, and glances over the headline. "Steel Ball Run Race, $50,000,000 Prize". He could buy his homeland and the ancestral land of his tribe with that money. Adam didn't care if they didn't understand his motives, he was going on a trip, and he would win, he would bring that money back and save his ancestors land. Crush the humans with their own running and steal their own creation from them, money, and land.

Qrow was busy trying to deal with the organization of the Steel Ball Run race. Ruby was over in her mahogany chair, looking out of the window of the bright pink room she called hers. Qrow had been awfully busy, and she didn't want to bother him with her boredom. Especially as he tried to deal with the customs of the race and make it all go smoothly, but with over 1000 more people than expected, it wasn't going well. Hopefully, just hopefully, this race would bring them closer together.

They finally reached their dream, so why was it that everything felt so far apart? Her uncle felt more serious now than ever before, even when the had been poor, at least they had each other. Not to say she didn't love him, or wasn't grateful, but a little more attention would have done her wonders. She could wait though, as she always did.

Qrow returned back from his discussion from outside the room, and instantly dropped the calm, collected look and turned to one of suppressed agony. He put on a smile for Ruby, but she could tell something wasn't going right. He sat across from her. "You'll be all right, Uncle Qrow, you always have been! You've been doing this for dozens of years, and they've all gone off without a hitch." Qrow thought about this for a second, but his face was unreadable as always. "Nothings going to plan, and the press has been constantly hounding me about being over budget, and even the president herself is killing me about it." Things like over budget and plans don't matter, Uncle Qrow can fix it.

"That doesn't matter Uncle Qrow, with all those people out here, you're bound to make up the difference, and the president will commend you when it all goes right! It might not be to plan, but that just means that the plan was flawed anyway! It will be all right." Ruby was trying her best to convince him. "Thank you, i'm not sure what it says about me, a grown old man, to have my little teeny niece pep me up, but it really helped. And as such, i'm going to give you a little help of my own!"

Qrow jumped on Ruby before she could get away and got her in a lock and started rubbing his fist against the top of her head. "I'm not a kid anymore Uncle Qrow, you can't keep doing this!" she fake pouted. Even she forgot her troubles then, and was happy to get the attention she craved so shortly before. That isn't to say she didn't try to escape though.

Ruby managed to slip her head after pushing off Crow's arm, just in time for her to get up and get grabbed again. "Slippery one, aren't you, when'd you get strong enough to push me off anyways?" He might have made a mistake once, but not again, as Qrow wasn't going to let her escape and doubled the tightness. She tried wrestling with his hands but to no avail, as she sighed, and gave up.

Shortly after, Qrow let go, and they laughed about it all. "Maybe I haven't gotten stronger, maybe you're just weaker now." Ruby pushed the last sentence with her tongue sticking out. "Or maybe it's just you've gotten way taller." "I like my explanation better." Qrow got up and brushed himself off, "You ready for this conference Ruby?" "Born ready, Uncle Qrow!"

"Mr. Qrow Branwen, you've explained it many times before, but explain it once more for readers around the world. The rules of this 'Steel Ball Run' Race."

"The rules are as follows. The race begins September 25, 1890, there, on the Pacific San Diego beach; the race's goal is New York, in a distance of ~6000 km, and a projected duration of ~70 days. It will be mankind's first North American Cross-Country horseback race! Our crowning champion will receive a grand prize of $50,000,000, second place $1,000,000, 3rd place $500,000 and decreasingly less continuing through 5th place alongside checkpoint awards that are specified within our rulebook."

"As long as the participant is age 16 or older, sex, nationality, social status, nothing else will be questioned if they can provide the mandatory $1,200 participation fee. To exchange horses is instant disqualification. A man of German royalty approached me asking to participate with what he called, an "Automobile." It is entirely allowed. They said these machines would end the age of horse but this race welcomes that challenge entirely, as we are truly pushing the limits of man. We cover medical, food, lodging, and various other expenses and weapons are entirely allowed. Every single participant is an adventurer, and this will be an event like the world has never seen before!"

Cheering came from the press, and muddled questions came in one at a time before they all eventually dispersed. He hates putting on the state personality, but it's just something that's part of the job sometimes. He especially hates when they ask about Ruby, his darling niece, asking if she's his wife. Finally, the race would begin though, and the stress is behind him

The coin pouch clashed metal as it dropped on the registration booth. A small, beady looking Eastern man with a yellow headband holding up spiked hair sighs as he repeats the line for the umpteenth time that day. "Once the race begins there will be no refunds for personal reasons, the start will be held in rain or shine regardless of accidents. Sign here to acknowledge."

The blonde girl read through the rest of the rules, zoning out the rest of the explanation of the man. She came to win, no matter the cost. Hell, if she could have fun doing it, that would be best, but listening to a depressed, vertically impaired foreigner ramble on to her wasn't her idea of fun. She already decided to participate, and wasn't going to back off now. The pen scratched across the paper, as she wrote her name, Yang Zeppeli. "This is your identification number and commemorative badge, you are B-636."

Yang continued looking down, in her beautiful, artisan crafted Italian top. She bore a stunning purple leather tunic, studded with green orbs worked inside the leather, and a metal covering on the top of her shoulders, next to two straps on her that led down to near her abdomen, which contained two strange green steel balls. The purple gloves she wore matched this top in shade, and had quality unsurpassed with Italian leather. Her hat and belt however, looked to be American. Her hat done in the stereotypical western style, covering her pale white face from the sun, alongside her silver belt, which had similar studs to the tunic, and a big green crest in the center with two hands pointing down.

She gave a big, cocky grin to the confused foreigner, her teeth with a false decoration, inscribing, "Go! Go! Zeppeli". She laughed a little, the big moment was finally here. That was, until a strange man came up behind her, marveling at her steel balls. She felt a gentle nudge behind her.

"I've never seen anything like these before!" the excited man proclaimed. Yang didn't particularly want to deal with the man. She wasn't given much of a choice, however, when the man made a crucial mistake to try to touch the steel balls hanging by her side. Yang touched them at the same second his hand collided with them, and suddenly, they began to spin.

Instantly, he was on the floor the man's legs holding no feeling, not even the pain that should be associated with a drastic reworking of leg muscles. "What the hell, bitch, I was just making small talk!"

Yang noted the insult, and with a condescending smile replies "Is that so? If there's nothing wrong with the participation fee on the counter, i'll believe you." His face was flashed with an admission of guilt, he kept himself busy trying to figure out with what was going on with his legs, why couldn't he stand? But dared not speak.

The foreigner speaks, "It's $1,180, you're $20 short."

Yang grins. "And you don't give discounts?"

"No discounts here, what, do we look like a random shop?" The man still can't stand. "But you saw me put the money on the table." Yang continues, not breaking her grin.

"Sorry, I didn't issue a receipt yet, so what's short is short." "I see. Give me back the coins you swiped from me." Yang does something with the steel balls, and suddenly, the man is in a world of pain. The coins drop from his terrified hand.

"If I don't have that money, I wouldn't be able to enter the race, and win, would I?"

I cut out the bit with Sandman and his sister, since it was something that didn't matter that much. I found myself noticing a lot more detail going through it a second time, especially so because I have to closely study each image in order to detail it in words. For the most part this chapter, outside the Ruby and Qrow bit, it was pretty faithful to SBR. I had Yang as Gyro simply because of how similar they were, but every single line that came out of Gyro's mouth sounded exactly like something Yang would say. No Johnny this time, he wasn't introduced in the first chapter of the manga either, next chapter we'll hopefully get into the first part of the race.