Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC. RWBY is owned by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth.
"Example" - Normal speech.
'Example' - Thoughts.
|Example.| - On screen messages. computer, tablet, etc.
Drip...drip...drip.
He opened his eyes blearily and stared up at the source of the offending drops of water, a few of which were making their escape down the side of his cheek. The ceiling was leaking. The sound of rainfall outside giving a reason to the water steadily collecting itself at a point on the ceiling. Drip.
He sat up, bringing his right hand up to wipe the droplets from his cheek.
"Wh-where am I?"
He appeared to have been sleeping on the floor with nothing but an old moth eaten blanket separating him from the cold wooden floor. He looked around, observing his surroundings. What little there was surrounding him held an appearance of age and disuse. From the damp flower themed wallpaper, to the worn and brittle looking floorboards. Overall the rather small room seemed quite abandoned. Even the grime caked on the single window looked ready to leave. He tried remember how he came to be in such a dank and uninviting room. It was at this point he came to a startling realisation.
"Actually...who am I?" His identity had be stricken from his very being.
He clutched his head as if the added pressure would aid his memory. It didn't.
"I don't remember anything."
After thinking for a few moments in hope that something would come to him. He did what any normal person would do in that situation. He began to panic. His breathing came in short, fast rasps. His heart rate spiked, pounding in his ears like a drum.
"What's my name? I have to have a name, everyone has a name, right?" He questioned the air.
He released his head as he stood and began pacing around the small room. To and from the door. Corner to corner. Around the edges of the room. His voice becoming more frantic as more words spilled out of his mouth with no-one to answer him. He walked and talked for about 10 minutes.
"What's my name? Where am I? What's my name? How old am I? What's my name? How did I get here? What is my name?!"
He stopped pacing, his panic giving way to frustration. Drawing in a deep breath in preparation for a loud wordless shout. The floorboards voiced their disagreement and with a moan of over stressed wood they cracked, splintered and broke, the would be shout released as a yelp of fright.
A loud crash echoed through the house as he collided with the floor sending dust and wooden splinters through the air. He lay there for a few moments, his face pressing uncomfortably against the floorboards. With a groan he rolled onto his back. Coughing on the dust in the air.
" Urgh. Not my most graceful entrance…I hope." He inhaled to sigh, but unfortunately this brought on a coughing fit. He sat up in hopes to abate his current affliction.
"A-Are you o-okay?" A timid voice sounded from his left. The owner of the voice was a little girl. She wore a light purple sleeveless shirt with a piece of grey cloth wrapped around the bicep of her left arm. She also wore plain black and rather loose looking pants along with a worn pair of black running shoes. She had pale skin that highlighted her amber eyes, eyes that seemed to glow in the dim lighting, eyes full of…not quite fear. Anxiousness perhaps? Well of course she was nervous he had just come crashing through the ceiling. Anyway, she also had black wavy hair that stopped at her shoulders. But what was most peculiar about this little girl was the pair of black cat ears perched atop of her head.
With a spluttering of coughs he sat up and turned his head to look at her. "I'll *cough* be fine *cough cough*... I think." One groan of exertion later he was standing up facing the girl, who was about 5 feet away.
"Who're you?" He asked.
"I-I'm Blake, w-what's your name?" She replied.
"Nice to meet you Koneko-chan, I'm… *sigh* I don't know who I am." His reply growing quieter as each word flowed past his lips.
"What does coneycochan mean?" Blake asked.
"Ko-nee-ko." He said, putting emphasis on each vowel. "Means kitten, Koneko-chan." He smiled.
"And the chan part?"
"It mean that you're small or cute or both, take your pick." He said with a shrug as he looked around the room.
"So…cute kitten?" Blake's eyes widened as she raised he hand to her head in a feeble attempt to cover her ears.
He closed the gap between them and knelt down. Grabbing her arms and gently placing them by her side he addressed her.
"Don't cover your ears Koneko-chan, they suit you."
She opened her mouth reply but was silenced when he spoke over her.
"Now Koneko-chan, you wouldn't happen to know anything about me would you?" He asked hopefully.
She shook her head no as she took a step back. He sighed and dropped his head. "W-we found you outside in the garden. Your wrist thing was beeping earlier though. T-that's how we found you, w-we followed the beeping."
He lifted his right arm. Nope, nothing there, he lowered it. He lifted his left arm to inspect it and lo and behold there was a 'Thing' attached to his wrist. Well it was actually on his forearm but that's not important. The important part was that something was there and that something was quite large. It started at his wrist and stopped just before his elbow, encompassing the whole of his forearm. It had a 5" by 3" screen that was aligned to the right, being closer to his wrist than his elbow. This allowed for the remaining space to the left of the screen display the words "Pip-Boy Evolution", below which was an 8 setting dial. 'How is blue hell did I miss this earlier?' He rotated his wrist to look for a release mechanism of some sort only to find words engraved into the metal.
"It has some writing on it. It says 'Property of Phoenix, If found (which means I lost it, I'm an idiot and deserve a kick in the shin) return it by twisting the dial 3 times.'" He looked up to Blake "Do you think this Phoenix person might know me?" He said.
"May-maybe."
He shrugged slightly "It can't hurt." He twisted the dial once. Twice. Three times. And nothing. The screen didn't change, it didn't beep or buzz. "I don't think it worked, Shouldn't it say that someone is on the way or somethi—OW! It's hot, really hot." He looked again for a release switch of some sort. "The message has changed." The bracer cooled down suddenly. He read out loud.
"Either I became so mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence and tried to send my Pip-Boy to myself or I've lost my memory, tried to send my pip-boy to myself and is confused why a message I apparently wrote is insulting me. Either way I'm an idiot for even thinking about giving this piece of tech away. If for whatever reason I have lost my memory, consult the Memory loss file in the Pip-Boy (that's the device on your arm). The password phrase for pretty much everything is 'For want of a nail I open at the close, for always and always.' From me to me I have some last minute advice to give you: stay put, if you're needed then you will be found. Have fun and don't be a dick. Message engraved in Memory Metal TM the flagship product of Memory Metal Inc." He finished reading and just stood there in silence. After about 30 second he spoke.
"So…my name is Phoenix." The newly identified Phoenix summarised simply.
"I think the message said more than that." Blake chimed in. "You planned ahead quite a bit."
"Oh yeah, the memory loss file." He looked at the screen on his wrist and frowned. "Err…Turn on?" Beep beep. The screen came to life and immediately displayed a string of messages in green text with black background.
|3 hours ago: Pip-Boy system wipe complete.|
"Memory wipe? But that means-" Phoenix began.
"No memory loss file." Blake finished.
|3 hours ago: Items in virtual storage detected.|
|3 hours ago: Items in virtual storage unaltered.|
|3 hours ago: Error: Third party material "Memory Metal TM" detected.|
|3 hours ago: Theme change "Default" partially successful, Third party material unaltered.|
|3 hours ago: New user detected.|
|3 hours ago: Biometric sample acquired.|
|3 hours ago: Imprint successful.|
|3 hours ago: Input name.|
|2 hours ago: Input name.|
|1 hour ago: Input name.|
|Input name.|
"It's been waiting 3 hours for me to give my name? Hang on, there's no keyboard." Phoenix realised. "Is there a microphone or touchpad or something?"
A soft beeping was heard. It's location? The Pip-Boy.
|Voice recognition enabled.|
|Touch screen enabled.|
"Wait, how was voice recognition enabled by my voice if it wasn't on it the first place?"
Blake frowned and answered "I-I don't know."
"Sorry about this Koneko-chan, it won't take too long."
|Input name.|
"Phoenix."
|Welcome Phoenix, to your Pip-Boy Evolution experience. I'm here to guide you throughout this tutorial. Would you like to view the tutorial?|
"…Yes?" he answered apprehensively.
|Great! Let's get started then.|
|Step 1/56, How to input.|
He released a heavy sigh. "This may take longer than expected, Koneko-chan."
As Blake stood there waiting she thought about how, only a few hours ago, this man was a stranger she found lying in the grass.
Flashback
The Midday sun struggled to breach the clouds that composed the overcast sky. Blake's second set of ears twitched as she stepped onto the run down back yard porch of the abandoned house they were squatting in. They didn't know it was squatting, of course. The two kids just wanted shelter from the abuse, both emotional and physical. One day turned into a week, a week in to one month, one month into three and somewhere along the line their refuge from the public became their home.
The house itself would have looked beautiful in its prime. However having 3 floors (including the basement) doesn't counter the fact that it's front yard it the unofficial Faunus district and it's back garden only has a small field separating it from the forest filled with Grimm (probably). It was due to this that the estate agent that has owned it for years could never sell it. The humans didn't want to live in the faunus part of town and the faunus weren't paid enough to keep up the rent. It was because of this that the 4 bedroomed house fell into disrepair. But of course children didn't care for the reason they have shelter, they just accept it and move on to their other issues.
One such issue was the unfamiliar sound that reached Blake's sensitive ears. She turned to her mentor and friend, Adam. Adam was of average height for his age of 12, 3 years Blake's senior. His complexion was light pink, his hair brown, with what look like bat wings swept back against his head. Adams eyes were squinting heavily, they were open enough to allow for vision but not enough to discern his eye colour. He wore a t shirt that looked like it was supposed to be white but his time on the street had long since dirtied it. On his lower half he had dark blue short that stopped just above his knees and blue open toe ninja-like sandals.
Adam was only a few paces behind Blake. As his foot touched the first step that lead onto the porch, she asked him. "Adam, do you hear that?" He shook his head, his unkempt brown hair brushing against his ears as he did so. Over the year that they've known each other Adam had learnt not to underestimate Blake's senses, especially her hearing.
"What is it? Is someone coming?" Adam asked.
"No, not people. It sounds…it sounds like beeping." She walks down the steps, passing Adam, attempting to pinpoint the direction of the sound. "This way" she said as she wandered into the field of tall grass behind their home. Her head softly bobbed above the grass as she went to find the source of the beeping noise.
Adam walked after her at a casual pace, knowing that Blake won't get to far ahead, they didn't last this long being reckless. After 10 minutes of trailing 8 metres behind Blake's bobbing ears. Blake stopped and held up her right arm above the tall grass, silently signaling to Adam that she found something. Adam picked up the pace, reaching Blake a few seconds later.
"The beeping stopped but I think it came from that boy." She said, pointing at the figure lying on the flattened grass. "Maybe that thing on his wrist was causing the beeping."
"A man." Adam corrected.
"But he doesn't look old." She argued.
"He still looks older than us. About 18, an adult, a human adult. What does that mean?" he questioned.
Blake sighed and recited what he always told her. "Humans are bad and nothing good will ever come from being near one." She looked up at the darkening sky. "It looks like it's going to rain. Adam, we can't just leave him here." She pleaded.
"Fine, I'll wake him up". Adam knelt down next to the teenager, placed his hand on his shoulder and shook him not too gently. "Hey! Get up."
"It's not working." Blake murmured.
"And what do you expect we do?" He retorted.
"We could take him back to the house?"
"I don't want a human in my house. Besides there's no way we could lift him, let alone carry him 50 meters to the door."
"We could drag him there?"
"That would take too long."
"I'm not leaving him alone in the rain, it's cruel. If he stays I stay. Blake said as she crossed her arms.
"As if he would do the same to you, he'd leave you to freeze if the positions were reversed" Adam snapped.
"We have to show them that we're not the animal they think we are." Blake said, showing maturity not often found in a 9 year old.
Adam sighed and relented to the cat faunus' will. "You get left arm I'll get right one."
After 30 minutes and multiple breaks, they finally got him inside. A heavily panting Blake turned to her friend "I don't think we're going to get him upstairs"
Adam turned towards her. "We struggled getting him up three porch steps, there's no way we're going to get him upstairs" Adam confirmed.
"What shall we do with him? We can't just leave him in the doorway."
"Can't we?"
"Adam!" She scolded.
"Fine, put him in that small room we never use."
As they reached the room Blake had a thought. She let go of the arm she was dragging, telling Adam to wait for a second, she ran deeper in to the house. Blake returned a minute later with an old greying blanket.
"We can put him on this, so he's not sleeping on the floor"
"He's just been dragged on the floor though a field and half the house. You're concerned about the floor we're leaving him on?" Adam asked incredulously.
Blake Ignored Adam as she walked past him and the unconscious man, putting the blanket on the floor of the small room.
"We only have two blankets between us and you want to give one an unconscious stranger"
"It's midday Adam, you don't need it."
"And if he sleeps through the night?"
"Then you can have the other one, I'll go without one, it's not like I haven't done it before. Come on, help me get him on it."
After 10 minutes of limb moving and blanket pulling they finally had the unconscious teen lay down on the moth eaten blanket.
Adam stood and turned to leave. "I'll be right back." He told Blake.
"What if he wakes up?" Blake asked.
"Hide in the basement."
"There's nothing in the basement." She replied.
"Exactly, he'll wake up and hopefully go home. He'll have no reason to go there."
"Then where are you going?"
The sound of thunder drowned out his reply as he ran off.
Blake takes the time to get a look at the unconscious teenager.
He had caramel coloured skin and shoulder length dark brown loose curly hair. His clothes consisted of a black short sleeve dress shirt and a black and white checkered tie that hung loose an undone top button. Wrapped around his left bicep was a black piece of cloth. The mysterious stranger was also wearing dark grey jeans that, for some reason had a black scarf around the thigh of his right leg. On his feet were black skater shoes with a checkered board design along the sides and checkered laces. On top of all this he wore a dark grey long sleeve cloak with a hood that was adorned with a red phoenix on the back. But what Blake thought was most peculiar was his eyes, they were covered with a long 2" wide piece of cloth, not unlike the cloth around his bicep, which was tied at the back of his head with a simple knot.
As she closed the door and walked toward the basement she thought to herself 'Is he blind?'
End Flashback
Her thoughts on his clothing led Blake to ask her next question.
"Err…Phoenix?" Blake began tentatively.
"Yes, Koneko-chan?" Phoenix said as he tiredly followed the instruction his Pip-boy was giving him.
"How can you read what's on the screen with the blindfold on?" She finished.
Phoenix frowned at the unusual question. "Huh? Blindfold? What blindfold?"
Blake pointed to her eyes. "The one that's covering your eyes."
His right hand reached towards his eyes, His fingers met cloth as he slowly followed the material around his head to the knot. Phoenix's other hand joined his right as he struggled to undo the knot he didn't remember tying. The knot untied Phoenix pulled the cloth away from his eyes as he looked at Blake.
She gasped. Eyes wide, mouth agape, her face the epitome of shock.
"Y-y-you d-don't have any e-eyes."
A/N.
Phoenix is an OC of mine that I created when daydreaming, he had no real substance to him. I would just put him in scenes of anime or books to see how he would interact with the other characters or beat the bad guy. Gradually over time, he gained a backstory. It wasn't until writing this that I've settled on an outfit, which even now will be subject to change. The phoenix on the back of his cloak is the same as the cover image. For his hair, think Jon Snow from the Game of Thrones TV series. His cloak is inspired by Edward Elric from FMA. I got his shirt and tie from what the Youtuber Tomska wears in a few of his sketches, I thought they looked good together. I'll post a character sheet for Phoenix next chapter.
Blake's outfit is from the flashback she has in episode 16 when she's shown as a child at a white fang protest.
Adams outfit is based off one of Naruto's outfits he wears as a child, minus the red swirls patterns.
As you can probably tell this is my first fanfic. In fact it's the first time I've written anything of length for fun. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Reviews in general will make me happy. This is a trial chapter tell me if you think I should carry on this story or not. Feel free to point out many mistakes I've made.
That being said I am looking for a beta, someone who will not just correct basic mistakes in grammar and spelling, but someone who will point out when my writing isn't flowing and when a scene just doesn't make sense. Pm me if you're interested.