Chapter 1: A New Dawn
It was a cool Thursday evening in the down town of Vale as pedestrians could be seen moving to and fro heading to their destinations in a small courtyard area, despite it turning dark as the light of the sun fled from the moon. Street lamps came to life, but no one took much notice. Especially the shady looking man leaning against a relatively small apartment complex. The man in question was wearing a relatively simple outfit consisting of a pure black business suit and a red tie while covering his eyes with a pair of glasses with an extremely deep red tint blocking out his eyes completely.
'God it's cold out tonight,' He thought to himself as a cold breeze flowed over his shoulder, chilling him to almost shivering. This was the third time in the past twenty minutes he had been chilled while he leaned against the wall waiting. 'If this kid doesn't show so help me I will…' But that's as far as his thoughts got before he spied through the crowd a young man who caught his attention. This seemed to be another innocent bystander simply wearing a grey jacket that appeared to not fit him properly, a pair of black athletic pants with white stripes running down the outside of each leg, and white running shoes. He appeared to be extremely tired, his blonde hair strewn around his head in no particular fashion, his dark blue eyes gazing out, as if staring into the abyss. His skin had very little colour to it making it ghostly in the light of the street lamps and moon light. He was only eighteen years old but looked more like a thirty year old as sweat slithered down his face and across the scar that cut down the right side of his face starting at the base of his eye and running down his cheek. 'I assume he's gone exercising, good' thought the man to himself as he stood up straight, 'that makes my job that much easier.'
As he began to stroll over the teen took no notice to him, and why should he, as the shifty man didn't stand out much in a group of thirty people.
He slowly, as to not draw attention to himself, slid a pocket knife from his suit's left sleeve and lunged forward aiming for his targets throat. But as the young man evaded his attack the assassin thought to himself, 'Why in Remnant did I accept this job. Oh right, because it seemed easy.'
As David Smith stood there biding his time he noticed the dark suited man get up and walk to him. That's what caught his attention. He had noticed the shady looking man, recognized the outfit and had stood there waiting for his opportunity. Luckily the nameless man (for he never knew what to call them) had simply walked towards him. As the man rotated his wrist David had noticed a slight shimmer out of the very far corner of his eye. 'A blade, should have known he wouldn't fight fair,' he casually thought to himself.
As the man lunged forward, thrusting the knife at his throat, the trap was sprung. He leaned back swiftly, dodging the blade. He then proceeded to grab the man's hand, twisting at his wrist, snapping the joint and plucked the knife from the air. From there he plunged the blade to the hilt in the man's leg, causing the man to scream in utter agony and bending over while gripping his broken hand. Taking advantage of this David shot his foot into the bridge of his assailant's nose causing him to snap upright. David quickly shoved the man against the brick wall he had been leaning against, the air rushing from his lungs. David had done this so quickly that after this lightning fast series of attacks that the bystanders now realized what was happening, fleeing at once. He grabbed the man's throat, pinning him there with a single hand.
"That wasn't the smartest decision you've made now is it," David asked the assailant very casually, as if they were mere acquaintances talking about the daily news reports. Now in a more serious tone David started interrogating his prisoner.
"Why are you trying to kill me," his voice threatening despite the fact that his voice sounded so nonchalant just seconds before.
"It's just a simple job really. It was go in, kill you and get out before the heat came down," the man managed to sputter after several seconds of trying to catch his breath, a task made significantly harder considering his throat was constrained by a near vice grip. "You know this work better than I do."
At hearing these words David gripped the blade with his free hand, twisting it. The assailant now turned captive uttered a shrill howl as his muscles were torn by an agonizingly slow turning blade.
"Now answer this next question and I'll let you go. Understand?"
The man could barely nod his head due to the excruciating pain.
"Who wants me dead?"
"If I tell you they'll kill me!" shouted the man forgetting his predicament.
David ripped the knife from the man's leg. He proceeded to slam the crimsoned blade through the brick moulding a centimetre from the man's head, shattering the brick into pieces. "And if you don't tell me I'll make you wish you were dead!" shouted David at the man who was less than a few inches away.
At the threat the man's defences broke down, "Okay enough, it was Torchwick! Torchwick sent me, I told you everything so don't hurt me!"
As if on cue a team of six similarly dressed foes appeared from out of nowhere. As they turned to face and encircle the man holding their comrade David took action, spinning around whilst grabbing the man into a choke-hold with his left hand, and drawing his custom jet black revolver, which he nicknamed Rock, and pointed it at the new enemies. At this point he didn't think it could get any worse as he scanned the crowd, quickly realizing that one of them was clearly taller and more muscular than the rest, carrying a crimson red cleaver instead of the similarly coloured swords the rest of the criminals seemed to only carry.
David readied his revolver, taking careful aim and firing directly at the proverbial giant's forehead. The projectile collided causing the man mountain to collapse. There was however no actual hole in the man's head due to the fact that the revolver was firing off single lead pellets, carefully designed to disperse on impact while merely wounding or knocking someone out. His own careful design, of course. But as the behemoth fell over the original hostile broke free of his grip and proceeded to punch David in his chest and then elbowing his forehead causing him to stagger.
'Fine you want to play, then lets play,' David thought as he removed his second revolver from its holster, nicknamed Sling, and was an exact replica, down to the very fine mechanisms required for its many uses. He quickly fired three into the original assailant's chest, causing the man to stumble and fall on his back and curling up into a ball due to the sheer amount of pain he had endured thus far.
Afterwards he sprayed the other 8 bullets at the other 5 enemies, knocking two out and injuring the rest. He then quickly sprinted at the 3 standing enemies, flicking his wrists and changing the two revolvers to their alternate forms. The 6 chambers quickly stacked on each other, ejecting the empty casings as they did so, ending with the barrel on top creating two miniature staffs. He made quick work of the three of them, striking them with lightning fast strikes to their heads, incapacitating them in the process.
By this point it was nearing midnight but at this exact point Vale's police force decided to get off their behinds and do their actual jobs. This was a problem considering there were twenty cops in total. This may have been a sufficient amount for the original amount if it weren't just David standing there as the cops surrounded him.
'I don't have time for this kind of crap right now,' he scolded himself, not being quicker to escape. At this point the cops had all pointed their firearms directly at him. It was also at this point that David bolted for an alley he saw to his left and made for his escape before the cops could even react to him fleeing.
It was all a blur of motion as he sprinted down the alleyways, sliding to a stop at each corner and was in the clear. At least, that's what it seemed like until he ran right into a brick wall. 'There's no way I could climb that,' he realized, blaming the roadblock for existing solely because of his bad luck. Before he slammed against it he noticed a metal pipe running up the building to his left, realized there was no other option, except for being captured by the police, and clambered up the pipe. It would have been difficult for others, impossible for most, but he expertly shimmied up the pipe and leaped over the wall just as the cops rounded the corner.
'What is a guy like me supposed to do now' he questioned himself as he joined the other pedestrians, but was just wandering aimlessly. 'I'm now a fugitive, but at least the cops didn't catch my face, or at least I hope. And there's the obvious fact that Roman wants me dead. But he can't blame that on me. But, I do realize that I did drag myself to that. What is there left for me? I'm an outcast of society, with a past that is constantly being dug up by someone,' he rambled to himself absent minded of what he was doing, but not caring about it.
'I need to start over, a clean slate. But that's impossible. I mean, where can I go after all I've done?' He stopped and decided to sit on a bench. He just sat there staring at his shoes, wondering what he could do other than just run. 'But that's what I'm best at,' he told himself. He then overheard two other people, same age as himself, two boys talking to one another.
"Are you excited that we can actually go to Beacon at the start of the next year?" One asked the other. His partner merely shrugged.
'Beacon? I remember that name, it's that school used to train people to fight against the Grimm if I can remember.' He remembered his parents telling him about it, how it's where the people who protected us from monsters were trained. But the memory had long since vanished, like much of his young life had. 'That's it, I could go there and start over, do the right thing for society and protect others. I graduated from Signal, and was recommended for Beacon. But can I still go, or the more important question, will I go?'
He stood up walked towards the duo he had previously been eavesdropping on and interrupted their conversation, "Where can I go to apply to Beacon?"
"Go to the building at the end of the street, you can apply there. But you will have had to graduate from another combat school first," They explained to him.
"Don't worry I already have, thanks for telling me though," he said absent-mindedly as he hurried to apply.
"No problem happy to help."
This was the start of a new dawn, David felt it in his bones and he had a future to look forward to instead of regretting his past. This was the start of something great.
Just to let you, the reader, know that I will only be using source material for the characters in the show from volume one. However, I may include some of the information Rooster Teeth provides in Volume 2. Also, I will NOT be doing any shipping of any characters. Mainly becaue it is just my personal opiinion on the subject and it is my story, so if you want shipping, write your own story.