Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, the locations or the characters featured in the show, and I am not affiliated with Rooster Teeth in any way. All credit and, I presume, copyrights for the creation of this wonderful series belong to Rooster Teeth Productions and the original creator, Monty Oum. I do, however, lay claim to this story, my own Original Characters (OCs) and any locations featured here that did not originate in the show (that is to say, those which I created). Any similarities to actual persons or locations in real life, living or deceased are entirely coincidental. References to other productions may or may not be accidental or they are at least vague enough to avoid any lawsuits. I hope.

Greetings and salutations, readers! If you're reading this, that's good, so I'll keep it brief-ish and you can get to the story. This is my first fanfiction so please feel free to post comments and reviews. I'm still testing the waters with this project, so the more views/reads this fic ends up with, the more likely I'll continue with it.

I'm doing my best to write this with detail and all that fun stuff, and I thought this chapter was okay enough to post, but I'm hoping to eventually be able to write better and better. I have some stories in mind that I've read that are sort of my role models when it comes to this, and I'll probably recommend them eventually.

One last thing before we get started: if you haven't yet, watch RWBY. That's the prequel to this fic. Fun fact: if a picture is worth a thousand words, then each frame of the show is a thousand words, times roughly 4.75 hours of the show, at an estimated 15 frames per second, equals about 256 billion words. That's in comparison to about 3000 words in this chapter. So go experience the masterpiece that is RWBY before you read this one.

Thousands of miles away from the surface of the world called Remnant, a man stood on the moon. He was dressed in a dark suit and tie, and he stood in the center of a large crater. Though the features of his face were obscured by shadow, it was possible to make out that his eyes were closed. He slowly gazed around at his surroundings without opening them, as if he could see without looking.

The moon. Splintered into fragments thousands of years ago by the forces of God knows what. But it's been like this since the beginning of history. It's a part of the world that everyone down there on that tiny planet knows and loves. The world they take for granted, going about their lives as if nothing could ever go wrong. The world they think is theirs.

He looked up, or down, at the planet before him.

The world that I'm about to shatter.

The humans, the Faunus and their petty war, the proud academies with their Hunters and Huntresses. All of them will fall, in time. It's almost ironic; they call this age "a time of peace." How little they know. There's a storm coming, and when the dust settles, I will be the only one left standing.

The man opened his eyes. He was no longer on the moon; now he found himself standing in a small, dark room with stained concrete walls. Water dripped rhythmically from a rusted pipe running across the ceiling, and before him lay a metal door riveted into the wall. He reached forward to grasp the wheel in the center, turning it.

Time to go to work.

Sirens echoed throughout the streets and alleys of the city of Vale. Crashes and shrieks were clearly audible from almost any given direction, but the high walls of buildings near the street made the sounds behave curiously. Citizens of the once-peaceful kingdom ran in panicked, terrified crowds, pursued relentlessly by the creatures of Grimm. One woman pushed a baby stroller frantically as she ran, only to be cut off by a snarling Beowolf. She scooped up her child, shrieking, then pushed the carriage at the monster and ran. The Grimm's eyes gleamed from behind its bony white mask, and its maw split to release a low, guttural growl before it sprinted after the mother and her child.

Amidst the chaos, a girl of seventeen or eighteen years walked out onto the street from an alley. She was dressed in an orange jacket over a light brown shirt, along with a pleated black skirt that fell to about knee-length. A brown leather strap ran from her right shoulder down to her left side. Her hair was a shade of strawberry blonde and curly, falling just past her shoulders. She sported brown heeled boots and burnt-orange knee socks, as well as a series of looped bronze bracelets on each wrist. The girl walked with an air of confidence, as if she didn't care much about the people around her fleeing in the opposite direction.

Natalie Dryas observed the panicked civilians. Must be a big deal, this breach. A passing man noticed her standing idly and grabbed her arm. "Miss, haven't you heard? Some big hole opened up in the middle of the town square. There are Grimm everywhere! It's not safe! We've got to go!"

She glanced at him without interest. "Yes, I had noticed about the Grimm part. They keep attacking me and it's starting to get annoying." She was interrupted by a snarl from the alley behind her. The heavyset, muscular bodies of three Boarbatusks emerged from the shadows, their red eyes gleaming at her. The man yelped and sprinted away with the rest of the crowd.

Natalie turned to face the creatures. More of them? This whole "invasion" thing was beginning to get really old really fast. She reached behind her, following the leather strap on her shoulder down to the handle of a large belt-fed machine gun hanging behind her. Her custom Browning M1919 sported orange decals and an imported ebony wood stock. It had a top-mounted handle and trigger, enabling Natalie to fire it from her hip without having to lift the heavy gun. She swung it around to face them, letting the ammo belt coil beside her on the ground.

The first Grimm spun into a frenzied wheel, speeding toward Natalie. She opened fire with her machine gun, the heavy bullets slamming into the Boarbatusk's thick hide and stunning it as it stumbled toward her. She swung the butt of her gun down onto its head, pummeling it into the ground. The second and third Grimm attacked simultaneously, coming at Natalie from her front left and right sides.

The orange-haired girl smirked and gripped the ammo chain next to her before swinging the whole length out to wrap around the Grimm on her left. She pulled hard on the chain whip, veering the creature into its twin on her right. The two monsters careened into the wall, landing hard in a crumpled heap.

Natalie sighed, leaning against the wall. She hadn't come to Vale to fight Grimm the whole time. Well, actually, she sort of had. Vale's prestigious Beacon Academy was the only chance she had left at becoming a full-fledged Huntress.

Natalie's experience on her chosen career path hadn't been what she would call… successful. It wasn't that she was unskilled; she'd passed the entry exams for the academies in Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo with flying colors. The problems had started later, after she'd been subsequently kicked out of the aforementioned schools. Evidently prestigious, time-honored institutions of higher learning did not appreciate the extraordinary amount of creative effort Natalie put into her graffiti, or the precisely calculated fashionable lateness of each and every one of her tardies. So, here she was, ready to give it her last go at Beacon. Not that it was her last choice, by any means – she would have jumped at the chance to go here. It was just...

"Hey!" The voice of an approaching person shook Natalie from her reverie. A blonde-haired guy with a monkey's tail ran up to her. The newcomer wore a white button-down shirt, open in the front to reveal a golden necklace and some notably muscular abs. He had blue denim pants held up by a white belt, as well as black and yellow sneakers. "Are you okay?" The monkey Faunus seemed alarmed about the pile of dead Grimm next to her.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine," said Natalie, brushing off his concerns. "Why do you care so much?"

"Oh, that's because protecting and serving is my new part-time job." The guy fumbled in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a golden badge and posing in what Natalie suspected was meant to be an impressive stance. "Sun Wukong, official junior detective as of today!"

"…Wonderful. I'm Natalie." She reached out to shake his other hand, but Sun moved the badge back in front of her face. "Um… nice badge?"

"Thanks!" Sun polished the badge on his shirt before leaning back to inspect it with squinted eyes. "You know, there are a lot of people who can go around and say they're the police, but it's not official unless you have one of these babies!"

"Mm, yes, can't have any false cops going around helping people. I'd only feel safe if the person defending me from ferocious monsters was armed with a very small, very official piece of metal." Natalie looked past him at the panicked crowds running around. "Listen, I'm pretty well protected and served on my own right now. Why don't you go help someone else, or fight Grimm or something?" As she spoke, a figure down the street came into view. It looked to be a male, and he was running toward Natalie and Sun, the opposite of where most people wanted to be at the moment. He had on a scarlet red jacket and dyed blue hair, and seemed to be waving and yelling at them, although it was impossible to hear over the noise the crowds made.

Sun snapped his fingers as Natalie's comment triggered a total recall of his best friend and teammate. "Right! Neptune and I were just on our way to the square to help fight! Come on, partner-" He looked around. "Neptune? Hey! Where'd he go? He was here just a minute ago."

"Um, there's a dude with blue hair waving you down over there." Natalie pointed down the street to the figure she'd seen. "Would that be Neptune?"

"Aha! Yes, that's him, and I've gotta go. Hey, good luck!" Sun called as he raced away to his partner's side. Natalie waved at the two junior detectives as they headed to Vale's center. She watched them until they turned the corner.

"Well, hasn't today just been the most interesting one I've had in a while," Natalie murmured to herself as she turned back in the direction she'd been heading. By this time the street was deserted, so she should make better time. I do wonder if they'll let me in, though. The school year was half over now, with the second semester well underway by the time Natalie had even gotten to Vale. She had to question whether or not they'd allow such a late entry to the curriculum. On top of that, what kind of team would she be on, if any? Most academies organized their students into teams of four members in the same year, but Natalie would be an odd person out. Unless three other complete strangers decide to try enrolling at the same time. She actually snorted out loud at the last thought.

She had only walked about twenty feet before her thoughts were interrupted by a screeching noise behind her. She sighed and turned around. "What now-" She stopped mid-sentence, jaw dropped, to stare at the sight before her.

A huge steel claw was reaching slowly around the corner of the office building next to her. As she watched, dumbfounded, a second claw emerged, then a third and fourth, followed by a segmented tail and an insectoid body. A huge Death Stalker moved slowly into the street, but this was no ordinary Grimm. In addition to being almost double the size of a normal Death Stalker, the creature's limbs were covered by thick steel plates. Its scarred carapace looked like it had been shattered and welded back together from different sections, and the half of the monster's eyes were replaced with red camera lenses. The creature's tail was covered with metal armor as well, with exposed circuitry and sparking wires running its entire length. In place of the stinger of a normal Death Stalker, this creature had a twisted metal apparatus with multiple circular blades slowly rotating, as well as a short cannon barrel in the center.

Natalie backed away slowly, gripping her gun. "I'm just… gonna… leave… now…"

The huge scorpion-esque Grimm turned to face her. It stared at her intently for so long that Natalie wondered if it could even see her. She felt a drop of sweat work its way lazily down her temple, and she took a shaky breath. Then it let out a bloodcurdling scream, like a cross between the howl of a dying animal and the screech of grinding gears. The girl whirled and sprinted away in the opposite direction in an instant.

Natalie could hear the thundering blows of the giant creature's claws as it chased her down the street. Her first thought was Oooooohmygodohmygodohmygod! Her second, slightly more composed thought was Dear God, I'm going to die. After she overcame this initial burst of panic, she tried to think rationally. She'd need to keep her wits about her to kill this... What in Remnant is this thing? She took another glance back at it. The giant… um… Mecha-Death Stalker chasing her obviously wasn't a natural occurrence like most Grimm. It was clearly artificial, given that Natalie hadn't heard any news about the creatures of Grimm suddenly leaping forward a few million years in evolution and developing the ability to weld.

Natalie gulped. But that meant that some person, human or Faunus, had taken the greatest enemy of mankind and made it worse. As in, deliberately.

She was so shocked by this revelation that she almost didn't notice the robotic scorpion closing in on her. The blades on its tail appendage spun up like a drill before speeding forward to strike at Natalie. She leapt forward just in time to keep from being hit, narrowly avoiding the stinger. The pavement in the middle of the street was not so lucky; the Grimm's tail strike crushed the asphalt into rubble, and then ground the rubble into smaller rubble with its rotating drill blades.

"Phew," Natalie gasped as she landed nimbly from her jump. "That was close." The Death Stalker swiped at her with its claws, swinging wide and demolishing a fire hydrant and some lampposts in the process. Alright, this is getting too close for comfort now. She gripped the top-mounted handle of her gun, pulling it up and unleashing a storm of .30 caliber shots at the offending Grimm. Bullets screeched off the creature's carapace, resulting in a cacophony of clattering noise that almost deafened her. The normally powerful attack had little effect on the armored scorpion's steel exoskeleton, and it roared more out of frustration than pain. "So, you don't like bullets, huh? Then you'll like this even less!" Natalie snapped out her chain whip to wrap around the monster's stinger, pulling hard in an effort to keep it from moving.

This proved to be a mistake as the Death Stalker simply pulled its tail up, flinging Natalie into the air with ease. Well, that just worked out SUPER great, didn't it? thought Natalie as she sailed over the Grimm. The creature watched her land before roaring and firing a shell from its tail cannon. The explosion knocked Natalie back before she could recover from her fall, and she slammed hard into the side of an abandoned-looking warehouse. She gasped as the wind was knocked out of her, and her head swam from the impact.

Natalie shook herself into focus and grimaced. This wasn't going to work. I might have to fall back on some of my… other moves. She glanced at the buildings around her. The Grimm had chased her several blocks from the city center before engaging her, so they were pretty far from where she'd first seen it. The outskirts of town. No people, that's good. And most importantly, lots and lots of abandoned buildings. Natalie felt a plan formulating in her head, and by the time she stood up from the cracked sidewalk, she had a new gleam of confidence in her eyes.

"Alright, you big stupid scorpion… robot… thing!" she yelled at it. "I'm about ready to mop the floor with your ugly face, so this is your last chance to get outta town!"

The Death Stalker replied with another deafening screech-howl.

Natalie smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."

She hefted her gun and fired another volley of shots at the Grimm, angering it. The giant scorpion charged at her, swinging its claws wildly at its newfound arch-nemesis. Natalie swiftly jumped to the side, allowing the Death Stalker to slam headlong into the warehouse Natalie had crashed into earlier.

Natalie closed her eyes, concentrating and summoning her strength. The reddish-orange shroud of her aura appeared around her, growing more and more intense with every second. With a shout, she rushed toward the creature and slammed both her fists into its side as hard as she could.

The air around her fists cracked, as if she had punched a pane of glass, and the ground shook slightly as the giant Death Stalker rocked back from the impact of her blows. It was crushed against the warehouse, causing cracks to run up the concrete walls. Almost there, Natalie thought. The scorpion, now heavily damaged, tried to retaliate by striking at her with its tail, but Natalie twisted around to deflect the blow into the ground next to her with her gun.

The Grimm moved back and howled at her, aiming its tail cannon for a final attack. Natalie backed up against the wall, which was now perilously unstable. She swung upward with her chain whip just as the scorpion fired, hooking on to a section of the wall above her. As the explosive shell impacted, she sprinted forward and leapt onto the Death Stalker's carapace, pulling down hard on the wall. The destabilized structure groaned, then collapsed slowly over Natalie and the Death Stalker. The tortured Grimm screamed as it was crushed by the rubble, and Natalie scrambled to escape the falling rocks and structural steel girders. A huge cloud of dust began to rise around the destroyed building as the monster's roars faded slowly, echoing across the newly created clearing.

Several minutes passed before a slab of rock shifted, and a small hand emerged from the rubble. Natalie, battered and bruised, pushed some rocks out of the way and crawled from the wreckage, coughing as she stood and surveyed the mess she had caused. "Well. That was destructive." She looked around for any remains of her opponent.

A few yards away laid the severed tail of the robotic Death Stalker, scorched and smoking. Natalie picked her way through the crumbled walls to inspect it.

"Stupid tail thing." She muttered as she kicked it, causing a small panel to fall off. Natalie was about to walk away when she noticed a small, shimmering light from the space that had just opened up on the tail. She leaned down to examine it further.

Natalie peered inside to find a small screen producing a fuzzy image and some crackling noises. She squinted. Was that shadowy outline… a person? She reached in and grabbed the screen to shake it. "Hello? Is anyone there?" The display winked out unexpectedly, and Natalie heard more metallic clanking noises from the tail. She glanced up to see that the magazine of the tail's cannon had been exposed. Red numbers counted down on the exterior casings of the explosive shells.

00:05… 00:04… 00:03… 00:02…

"What the-"

Natalie was stopped mid-sentence as her vision was filled with a white light. Her ears filled with a roar, then a high-pitched whine. She vaguely felt the sensation of falling, and she blinked a few times. Slowly, she realized she was hurtling through the air hundreds of feet above the city.

She could feel unconsciousness overtaking her. She welcomed it. Slowly, her mind drifted off as she fell to the earth…

Ooh, suspense. I hope. I really sort of ripped the band-aid by posting this first chapter. I'm quite nervous about how the story will work out. Like, what if no one reads this and I'm talking to myself here? Does a tree falling in an empty forest make any noise when it hits the ground? AM I EVEN REAL?

Follow and review, please. :)