Chapter 1-The Puzzling Stranger
Rain gently tapped on the window outside. A man sat at a bar watching the rain tap against the window. He sipped his drink slowly as he stared blankly out the window. The bar he was at was dead now. The only other soul here was the bartender who was passed out on a stool behind the counter. It was late even for the man. He was lost in thought. So much had happened the previous week. They managed to recover a relic. Three more to go, granted but it was a start. The White Fang have revolted against their leader, which left him on the run. And more importantly, the man's two nieces were reunited with there teammates. However, this was starting to seem a little too lucky. Especially for a man that naturally attracted bad luck. He took another sip of his drink. He wasn't sure how many drinks he had at this point, but he was sure feeling the effects. This was enough of a hint for him that it may be time to get back to Haven Academy. He stumbled out of the stool he was in, not before waking up the sleepy bartender to pay his tab.
As soon as he stepped outside the bar to meet the cool wet air, thunder could be heard in the distance which seemed to cause the rain to pour a bit harder.
"I shouldn't be surprised at this point," said the black-haired huntsman who was quickly becoming drenched in the rain.
It was hard for him to walk especially fast, but he managed despite being quite intoxicated. The dim streetlights revealed a quiet night despite the rain and distant thunder. The only other lights were some of the neon signs of various shops and businesses that lined the road.
The thunder began to sound even closer. The man was not usually worried about much, and usually had a habit of putting on a cool persona, but something about this storm was putting him on edge. He did not remember hearing about rain today, let alone a lightning storm.
He clumsily turned the corner, as he was now only a few blocks away from what Haven Academy was, however something quite strange was standing in the middle of the street, in the form of a confrontation. Two people stood apart from one another, with one of them questioning the other.
"Who are you and why do you keep appearing in my dreams?" said the one closer to the drunken man. He could only see his back but the first thing he could notice was his odd spiky hair and wore a blue shirt and pants. He was rather on the short side despite guessing from the voice was about 15 or 16.
"This isn't a dream this time, prince" chuckled the other person deviously. He was the stranger out of the two people the drunken man was observing. He was completely covered from head to toe in a tan garb which connected to a mask that completely covered his face. The only holes in the mask were where the eyes should be. Connecting the hood of the robe and the mask was a golden band with the symbol of what appeared to be an eye engraved on it.
"What do you mean and why do you keep calling me prince?" demanded the spiky-haired stranger angerly.
The masked figure then moved his head creepily in the direction of the drunken man.
"Well now look what you have done, prince, you have attracted company," said the figure continuing to chuckle.
"Alright chuckles, you found me, but what is this all about you two?" asked the man walking forward into the light. The boy who previously had his back turned, turned to look at looked at the intoxicated black-haired man. The man could now get a better look at him now. Once again, the boy's hair was incredible spiky and was multiple colors. He had purple eyes that when he made eye contact with the man seemed to just radiate a sort of innocence, which reminded him of one of his nieces in a way. The boy wore a strange and large necklace. It was made of gold and looked like an upside-down pyramid. It shared the same eye symbol as the robed man's headband. It dangled on the boys' neck by a large steel chain.
"Sir, I don't know who you are, but this could be dangerous," said the boy looking at the man.
"The name is Qrow, and I am a huntsman kid, if there is danger, I think I can handle it. On top of that his laugh is good enough for me to knock him down a peg" said Qrow nonchalantly.
The boy looked confused by the man's sentence but smirked once he saw the man pull out something from behind his back. It was a large sword-like weapon from his back.
"Oh please, you think one of you Grimm hunters can do anything to hurt me," said the robed figure continuing to laugh which was only continuing to get on Qrow's nerves.
"If your laughter is what you mean then yeah sure, I guess I better lay down and die now" responded Qrow, which made the spiky-haired boy laugh a little.
"Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" said the robed figure quickly jetting out one of his arms, revealing a device attached to it. It was somewhat like a wristband but something that looked almost like a wing attached to the band.
"Sir you want to get out now, I doubt this is a fight you are used to" pleaded the boy again shooting a look again at the Huntsman.
As soon as he said that however the lights on the street went out and darkness seemed to eat away at all the sources of light around them causing the street, buildings, benches, and signs to seemingly fade.
"What the…how is he doing that?" asked Qrow out loud looking around frantically as even the ground beneath his feet began to turn into a dark purplish color.
"He is calling a shadow game" responded the boy who was now stepping back closer to where Qrow was standing.
"What's a shadow game?" asked Qrow readying his weapon ready to strike, as the robed man's device began to glow.
Suddenly something large began to form in front of them, it was the size of a building. In fact, it almost looked like one. This creature was completely made of stone blocks. In the center of was an animated symbolic eye. While it was humanoid in shape, its torso retained the shape of a structure of some sort.
"NOW MY GOLEM CRUSH THEM!" declared the robed figure.
Qrow stood wide-eyed looking at the gigantic monstrosity that stood before him. He had seen many odd creatures in his time, most of them being Grimm, but nothing like this.
The arm of the creature was faster than Qrow anticipated, however, he managed to get him and the boy out of the way land on the ground in the process.
"Sorry about that kid, did want us to get smooshed," said the Huntsman quickly pulling both him and the boy back up from the ground.
"It's alright, however, you should let me handle this, this is my fight" replied the boy with a smile before returning his attention to the large golem that stood in front of them.
"You're only a kid, and you don't look like much of a huntsman kid" retorted the experienced huntsman.
"You don't know what you're up against" replied the boy sternly.
The robed figure began chuckling again. "You can only avoid the inevitable for so long you fool," he said as the Golem began to try and crush them again with its stone fist.
Qrow quickly jumped into the air with his harbinger in hand and slashed away at the gigantic fist before jumping up onto the arm of the creature and running towards its head. This seemed to be enough of a distraction that the fist that was aimed in the direction of the boy was now headed to try and get Qrow off it.
The boy could only stand back in awe as the man jumped so high and wielded his weapon with such skill.
"Get that pest off of you!" demanded the robed figure angerly to his stone giant.
"Not laughing, now are you?" said Qrow tauntingly who was now intent on trying to slash away at the head of the creature. Qrow continued to slash and dodge at places he thought were more vital to the creature, but he was beginning to realize that his weapon was barely cutting the stone, and he was only being a nuisance more than anything.
"This has gone far enough" yelled the robed man angrily. As his device on his arm glowed once more.
Before Qrow could react, a mass came out of the shadows and hit him directly in the gut causing him to fall of the golem.
Qrow began to fall in mid-air and heard his name being called by the boy below. As the golem was beginning to launch an assault on the falling body of the man who was pestering it, a bird appeared in its place and zipped away which seemed to give the golem even more trouble.
The boy below was watching intently and was having a hard time following Qrow. He was incredibly fast, and it was impressive to see him deal with the golem. But something didn't add up what was the creature that knocked him off go? The golem was moving frantically at this point as the man continued to jump around and strike it in various places only seeming to make it angrier.
The boy then got a glimpse of something closer to the robed man, there was a stone jar.
"Oh no," said the boy.
"Hey…um…sir" yelled the boy hoping the man could hear him.
"Little busy kid" as he was jumping around continuing to dodge the giant hands of the creature from slapping him off.
"You need to watch out for the morphing jar!" yelled the boy would see it speeding around again.
"A morphing what!?" asked Qrow while continuing to jump around a slice away at the stone creature with still no result of real damage.
"That's enough!" said the robed figure this time targeting Qrow, and suddenly he was bonded in chains. The sudden appearance of chains also caused him to drop his harbinger as well.
"What!" said the Huntsman who began to feel his energy being drained as the chains suddenly wrapped his arms and legs keeping him from moving. The man was once again hit with a mass that he could see this time had a large eye and a sadistically large smile and made a giggle like a shriek as it bumped him off the golem causing him to fall helplessly.
His back was facing the ground and he could see the golem's fist heading right for him.
"It's over," he thought as he closed his eyes.
Suddenly he heard something else falling, and him stopping in midair. Both the golem and the other creature were stuck in place and above and around them were glowing swords. Qrow looked straight up to see the face of a man with a strange hat looking at him.
"Um, good catch?" he said looking into the man's bluish eyes.
"Bring him down," said a deeper, more commanding an unfamiliar voice.
As the huntsman was let down, he could see that the man was covered in strange purplish robes and a green staff.
"Seven Tools of the Bandit!" said the same deep voice, and suddenly the chains keeping Qrow tied" up vanished and the energy that seemed to be drained from Qrow was resurging.
"So, it is you, I see you haven't lost your touch!" said the tan-robed man beginning to laugh again.
"Who are you!?" demanded the boy in what was now a deeper voice than what Qrow had heard before.
Qrow looked back in the direction of the boy as he heard the voice, he was producing was a lot different from what he heard before. The boy looked a bit different now, or maybe this was alcohol really altering things. While he looked same in many ways, the boy looked different too. He seemed taller, his haired spiked differently and taller…somehow. However, his eyes seemed different, they were brimming with confidence, rather than innocence. Even stranger was the golden eye perched on his forehead, similar to the one on his necklace and the headband of the robed figure with the irritating laugh.
"That's a question I would like to know too," said Qrow jumping down from arms of the floating purple mage.
"Oh, in due time Prince, you'll figure it out soon enough" replied the masked figure looking directly at the boy.
With a wave of his hand, both of his monsters began to dissipate into the darkness.
"However not tonight, this is was mere all a lure to get you stuck here," said the masked figure laughing manically causing Qrow to clench his fists.
The masked figure then turned to the Huntsman.
"You better not stay attached to the relic either" continued the figure continuing to laugh not before fading into darkness along with the darkness surrounding the group and the monsters he summoned.
"Wait a minute how do you know about the relic!" demanded Qrow but the only response he got was the feeling was with the silence of the cool night air.
The buildings and objects such as lamps, signs, and bench began to reappear as the dim street lights began to reflect the puddles of water that were on the ground.
"Well, at least the rain stopped," Qrow said, putting out his hands to feel for rain while watching the mage the boy somehow summoned vanish away as well.
"Well kid, I don't know how you did it but you managed to sav-"Qrow began before noticing the boy was on one knee on the ground.
Qrow quickly got down to the boy's level.
"Kid are you okay?" asked Qrow trying to figure out what was wrong. There was no clear sign of an injury that Qrow could tell but the boy looked physically tired, especially in the eyes.
The boy seemed as though he was about to respond to his question but passed out from exhaustion Qrow caught him from completely laying on the ground.
Qrow noticed the boy was like how he first saw him. Short, and more…innocent looking.
The rain began to start up again but now was more of a gentle drizzle.
Qrow sighed in annoyance, wondering if his luck had anything to do with this rain. However, he then considered what the boy did for him tonight. He attempted to save the boy from that strange figure, but the boy pretty much managed to save him. Not to mention someone made a purple robed mage pop out of nowhere and cause swords to fall from the sky and stop that golem in its tracks.
"Either I really went hard on the drinks tonight, or I have a hell of a tale for Oz," said the old huntsman slowly walking home in the dark, carrying the boy who managed save him.