Perception and Preparation:
Chapter 1:
Kingdom of Atlas
Azzurra
12th June, 2003
12:30 PM (Central Atlesian Time)
Schnee Headquarters
The brown haired Faunus walked through the door, into the rigidly designed Headquarters of the Schnee Dust Company, her rabbit ears rolled slightly to let herself in the door. At the reception desk, a holographic image fizzed into view.
"Greetings, welcome to the Schnee Dust Company Headquarters, how may we help you?" The hologram spoke from speakers placed around the room. The woman looked around, and the spoke up.
"I have an appointment with Mr Schnee." The woman replied, and the image blinked.
"Thank you. Mr Schnee is currently
awaiting your arrival in his office on floor 57." The image disappeared, and the woman headed over to the nearby elevator. She pulled a scroll from her pocket, and scanned it on the control panel.
"Greetings, Miss Hazel Scarlatina. Rising to floor 57." The elevator spoke monotonously, shifted, and began to rise. After a couple of minutes the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. "Have a nice day." It said as she exited the elevator.
She strolled to the end of the corridor, and was confronted by a large, white door. She took a deep breath, pushed it open.
"Ah, Miss Scarlatina you're here. And five minutes early." A white haired man said from the desk that was at the end of the room. "Please, take a seat, they will be here shortly." He gestured to a chair in front of the desk. She walked over to him, and slid the chair out.
"I mean to ask, Mr Schnee, what do you need of my services." The Faunus asked him, and the man smiled.
"I am starting to uptake a particular… Project. In which I need your skill to search for the correct… Subjects." The Schnee informed her, and she raised an eyebrow. "Miss Scarlatina, I know of your skill. And I would like to hire you. However, this is an official project of the Atlesian Military. Anything that happens in here and the facilities are not to be spoken of elsewhere. Is that clear?" The man said calmly, and she nodded, her ears bouncing slightly.
"So, why're my skills needed?" She questioned, and the Schnee grimaced.
"I fear there is a war coming, Miss Scarlatina. And I'm trying my best to prepare for it, and its aftermath." He said, his ice blue eyes sparkling with sadness.
"And what do you want me to do?" She asked him, and he smiled at her.
"Your ability is-" He began, but he was quickly interrupted by her speaking up.
"Semblance." She informed him. "My semblance is detecting Aura, and I assume you know what Aura is, considering you called me here for that purpose." She told him, and he nodded slowly. "So you want to detect if someone has Aura, I assume?" She asked, and he nodded again.
"Correct. All three of my daughters have shown promise, so they're coming here now for your… Testing." Schnee spoke, and the door to the office burst open.
"FATHER!" Three voices simultaneously shouted from the doorway, and three white haired girls dashed over to the man. "Daddy. What're we doing!" "Are we going somewhere!" "Who's she!" They spoke quickly, and the man laughed.
"Please, please, calm down children. You're here for an examination." He informed them, and they instantly silenced themselves.
"But Father, we haven't studied. How could we possibly pass?" The noticeably eldest of the three asked, and he smiled to himself, and looked over at Hazel.
"This examination is nothing alike with the rigorous tests and examinations you have already experienced. If you would care to explain, Miss Scarlatina. Children, listen close and listen well." The Schnee father said, and the Faunus spoke up.
"This 'examination' is not one that you have any ability to change whether you pass or you fail. But do not think of it as anything similar to tests you take in school. It is more along the medical sides of things." She informed the three girls, who nodded concurrently. "OK, I'm going to take you over to the corner one at a time. This will only take a few minutes." Hazel told them, and headed over to the eldest of Mr Schnee's daughters. "What's your name, sweetie?" She asked the icy blue eyed child, who spoke up calmly.
"My name is Winter, ma'am." The girl said formally, and curtsied politely. Hazel let out a small giggle, and smiled.
"Miss Scarlatina is fine, sweetie. Follow me please." She told Winter, who nodded and the two headed over. The other two girls began chatting with each other giddily, grins on their faces. After almost a minute, Winter headed back over to her father and sisters, smiling to herself happily. Mr Schnee gestured to one of the remaining two, who dashed joyfully over to Hazel, her eyes wide and alight with glee. The same was then repeated for the final child, and she headed back just as happily as the other two before her. Hazel walked over to Mr Schnee, who looked at her expectantly.
"All three of your children are incredibly respondent to Aura. Winter and Galatea are approximately mid Level Fours on Oum's Scale, whilst Weiss appears to be a borderline Level Five." She informed him, and he raised an eyebrow before questioning her.
"Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but how exactly does this 'Oum Scale' measure how responsive they are to Aura?" He asked her kindly, and she smiled at him.
"Level One on Oum's Scale is Two Shaws of response to Aura. Each Level then doubles the previous Level's amount of Shaws. So Winter and Galatea have 16 Shaws of responsivity, and Weiss has about 32 Shaws of responsivity. This is with their Auras sealed, when unsealed, they will likely progress a few levels." Hazel informed him, and he nodded with appreciation.
"Thank you, Miss Scarlatina. Now, about hiring. Would you consider it?" He asked her, and she nodded slowly, which caused him to smile. "Splendid, thank for your now and in the future, Miss Scarlatina." He thanked her, and shook her hand.
Kingdom of Vale
City of Vale
25th June, 2008
09:25 AM (Valean Time (-2 Hours Central Atlesian Time))
City Centre
Mr Schnee and Hazel walked down the path, looking along both sides. He looked over at her as she stopped moving, her eyes wide and glimmering in the mid-morning sunlight.
"Have you detected any?" He asked her, and she nodded, shutting her eyes slowly. "Where? We need to see them." The Schnee told her, and she nodded yet again.
"Not far from here. Just around the corner from here. There's two of them, too. Strong responsivity." She said, and opened her eyes again. "I need a closer look to check their levels." She informed him, and he nodded.
"Let's go then." He replied, and they headed down the path. She looked around, and nodded at two girls that were crossing the street carefully.
"Those two." She spoke, nodding her head at them slightly. "The blonde and the red hood." The Faunus continued, and Mr Schnee headed over to them, knelt down and spoke to them, and Hazel heard the one in the hood groan as he brought them both over. "Hello, I'm Miss Scarlatina, what're your names?" She asked them, and they looked at each other, and the blonde girl stepped forward, hiding the smaller girl from view slightly.
"I'm Yang. She's my younger sister, Ruby." Yang spoke, her voice staying completely monotone. "What have we done this time." She asked calmly, and Hazel raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing, we only need to take a few examinations. If you could step to the side with me, it's nothing serious." Hazel told them, and the other child, Ruby, dashed over to her.
"OK. Examination." She beamed, and dashed across to the side, rose petals trailing behind her. "What're we doing? Is it a school test, 'cause I'm really bad at those." Ruby spoke from a few feet away, and Mr Schnee looked at her, then up at Hazel.
"Her Aura it's…" He trailed off, and Hazel nodded slowly before she walked over to Ruby. He looked as Hazel worked, and knelt down in front of Yang. "Excuse me, Yang. Where did those… Petals come from?" He asked her, and the blonde looked up at him before answering.
"Those? Ruby makes them if she runs fast enough. It makes decorating for Valentine's Day super easy, we always lay petals out for our Dad, because he says it helps him remember." Yang explained, and Schnee looked at her in confusion. "Our mother died when I was four. We were all heartbroken, but me and Dad knew we had to be strong for Ruby." Yang spoke quietly, and Mr Schnee nodded.
"It's OK. I'm sure you're fine now. After this examination you can go back home, and pretend it never happened. It won't make much sense until it happens." He told her, and the blonde nodded before Ruby appeared next to her.
"Your turn Yang!" She exclaimed, a grin on her face. Yang plodded over to Hazel, and Ruby looked up at Mr Schnee.
"Hi there Mister." She said, her voice happy, even bubbly.
"Hello. So, Ruby. When did you get this… Ability?" He asked her, but only got a look of confusion in response.
"What ability. I run, I jump, I talk, I walk, I speak. I'm perfectly normal." She said confidently, and crossed her arms.
"No Ruby. You and your sister aren't normal. But this isn't a bad thing. It just happens to be exactly what I'm looking for. And that makes you two special." He told her, and her eyes widened and her grin grew bigger.
"Yeah! I knew it was cool, I told Yang it'd be cool!" She cheered, earning several weird looks from passersby. Mr Schnee laughed, and spoke up again.
"Ruby. Those petals, where did they come from?" He asked her, and she shrugged.
"I dunno. They're always there after I run, and I run really fast, it's so fun!" She exclaimed, and she dashed around him, leaving him surrounded by petals. "See! Petals! Always there!" She exclaimed as she dashed around him, leaving more rose petals. "Ooh hoo… Di-i-izzy…" She murmured quietly, and she sat herself down on the pavement.
"Well, Ruby. Your running. That's special, no one else can do that other than you. Not many people can do anything like it. So, when it happens, we'll come and get you. Because you're needed." He told her, and she smiled at him and nodded. "Good, ah, it appears Miss Scarlatina is done." He said, and Yang ran over and Hazel followed slowly behind her. "So, what're their Levels?" He asked, and she walked over to him.
"At the moment, with her Aura sealed, Yang's a Level Five. Ruby's another story, her Aura's unsealed, and her Level is much higher, she's a Level Eight." Hazel informed him, and his eyes widened, but he nodded anyway.
"Good to know. We'll have to mark them down, put them under surveillance. We can't have them knowing we're watching though." He muttered as he pulled out his scroll, and wrote down their names on a document. "OK, we're good to go." He said, watching as the two girls headed off in the direction they were originally going.
Kingdom of Atlas
Azzurra
14th December, 2013
7:45 PM (Central Atlesian Time)
Schnee Headquarters Basement
Winter hid behind a wall, several brightly coloured beams shooting past her. She held her sword close, and pulled a pistol from her pocket. She dove past the wall, shooting three times to her side as she did so, only to hear the rounds thud into the wall across from her. She heard more of the beams appear and disappear above her, and she fired blindly toward the origin point. Her pistol clicked, and she sighed in annoyance before reloading it expertly, and moving across the room once more. She saw a flash of white hair vanish behind a column across the room, and fired at it, and she saw it move behind a wall nearby to it. Winter grinned, conjuring a glyph below her feet, and she launched herself into the air, aiming her pistol below her.
However, her descent was stopped by a similar glyph appearing below her, and she hit it, stopping dead in the air. She stopped to think, before smiling yet again, and she jumped from the glyph, spinning herself around to aim at her target behind her. She fired two shots, both which impacted a glyph that formed just ahead of the target, which grinned at her before running off. Winter growled, firing a few more shots at her target before the pistol clicked once more.
She threw it to the ground, and rolled behind a nearby overturned table, and heard it thud from several different impacts. She readied her sword as she pulled it from its sheath, and conjured a glyph in front of her, before charging toward her enemy, baring her teeth in anger. She jumped over her glyph, and threw a sword strike at her enemy, who carefully parried it, causing Winter's sword to hit and get lodged in the ground. Winter looked across, and ducked below an incoming strike from her enemy, and she pulled her sword from the floor. She rolled to her side, grabbing a pistol that was lying on the table, and fired a clip at her target, who rolled under them, and each shot thudded into the wall behind.
She threw the pistol to the floor, and launched herself into the air using her glyph once more, she crashed down, but her enemy rolled, causing Winter fall to the floor. She instantly stood herself up, leaning on her sword. She heard a chamber revolve, and threw herself to the floor again, and a beam shot over her head. Winter charged, slashing down at her enemy, who rolled backward and parried Winter's attack. Winter sent several more slashes, all of which her target blocked carefully before attacking with strikes of its own. They stood still, their swords glinting in the light, and a buzz came from speakers placed above them.
"Match over. Result: Draw. Please clear arena floor." A monotonous voice spoke, and the two opponents lowered their swords, and looked each other in the eye.
"Good match Winter. You did well." Winter's white haired opponent said kindly, and Winter laughed lightly.
"You too, Weiss. You're going to be a superb fighter. Maybe as good as I am…" Winter smirked joking, earning a punch on the shoulder from her sister.
"Come on, we need to get out of the arena, Gala and Vel are up next." Weiss told her, and Winter nodded, and the two left the arena quickly, smiles on their faces. "I think Gala may be able to hold her own, but Vel's really good with her Aura." Weiss spoke, and Winter nodded slowly.
"If it goes well. Gala will win. But this is father testing her to her limits, so I think she'll, at most, lose but hold up a good fight." Winter replied calmly, and she pushed through the door to leave the arena. "Now. I'm famished after our fight and Gala's fight won't start for awhile, let's go eat." Winter said to Weiss, who nodded and they walked away.