Vale: a modern city with its old roots still visible in places. For all that had changed through history, one of the many things still present was the ever-existent criminal element, one that thrived in the background like a persistent strain of kudzu. Part of this criminal element was currently strolling down one of Vale's more historical streets, a road dotted with apartments that sat on top of shops, bars, and restaurants. The pack of thugs, composed of men in black suits and hats with red sunglasses-with the exception of their red-haired, white-trench coat-wearing, cane-toting leader-walked in a V-like formation, intimidating bystanders to the sides. On this night, during an hour where many townsfolk were far from ready to go home for the evening, these gangsters were making their way to a local Dust shop, intending to make a lucrative hit.
The store, named "From Dust Till Dawn," was still open at this hour, though it was close to closing time for its elderly shopkeep, a man who saw the pack of men walk through the front door. Fear rose up in the old man, who'd heard of similar robberies in the recent past. He pleadingly offered the gang's red-headed leader all the Lien in his till before the younger man presented a briefcase, opening it and directing the old shopkeep to place the Dust crystals on display in the case while his subordinate men-in-black began filling canisters with various flavors of fine-ground Dust. As one henchman went to fill the canister in his hand, he heard a faint song coming from somewhere. Turning his head, the gangster walked over to the source-a person in a red cloak- as he drew out his curved, red-bladed machete and demanded the stranger to surrender. Receiving no response, he forcefully pulled back the red hood, revealing a young girl, wearing similarly red headphones with a flower motif on each ear, reading a weaponry magazine, who naturally turned around and moved the headphones aside to listen.
"I said," repeated the goon, "put your hands in the air, now!" "Are you...robbing me?" replied the black-and-red-haired girl. After a response in the affirmative, the girl immediately understood the situation, at which point, she delivered a quick-and-dirty punch to the henchman's torso, sending him flying back down near the Dust tubes and crashing into some marked-down containers. Another gangster ran up to replace his downed comrade, drew an automatic pistol on the girl and commanded her to freeze. This was met with a sudden burst of speed from the girl as she tackled the man all the way through the store window into the now-empty street.
Glynda Goodwitch, a blond-haired, glasses-wearing huntress and practitioner of glyph-based magic, was about to walk into the holding room and give a stern talk to the girl she had just saved. Taking off her glasses to rub her face and pinch the bridge of her nose, she was met by the man who just strolled in: a man named Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, where she taught classes at in addition to her other duties. She was almost surprised to see her superior here.
"I've heard you ran into someone interesting while chasing down Torchwick today," intoned the silver-haired man. The intellectual's appearance was somewhat odd, though Glynda was able to guess why he was here. "Indeed," she replied, "I met a young lady who managed to hold her own against several of Torchwick's henchmen and almost got blasted by a Dust explosion when I stepped in. I take it you have an interest in her as a student?" The professor chuckled lightly before saying, "Well, you don't fully know that yet, Ms. Goodwitch. I'm simply interested in talking with her to determine how she got here." "Well, you'll have to wait, I must have a word with the girl about her actions today."
"Don't be too harsh on her," spoke Ozpin. Glynda simply turned, opened the door to the room the girl was in, and walked in while Opzin began taking the plastic covering off the circular object he brought with him. Looking at the youthful girl, who was currently sitting at a table, much like a schoolchild called to the principal's office, Glynda stoically pulled up a holopad, brought up footage of the incident, and began pacing the room as she began to upbraid the girl for her actions, referring to her recklessness and near-death.
After a couple minutes of strong criticism, balanced with a few kind words, and finally punctuated with a smack of her riding crop on the table, she concluded her talk by walking off to the side, allowing the man, now carrying a plate of cookies and a cup of coffee. "Ruby Rose," spoke Ozpin, who learned the girl's name (along with details of what happened) by overhearing the conversation that just concluded. He leaned closer to her face, studying her eyes. "You...have silver eyes." "Um..." Ruby replied, unsure of what he was going to ask. "So," Ozpin continued, "where did you learn to do this?" With his head, he glanced at Glynda's holopad, indicating the footage of the fight with Torchwick's men.
What immediately transpired after Ruby tackled the second henchman was otherwise fast. The others began to charge at her, pistols and machetes in hand. Ruby ducked, rolled, and jumped, delivering a series of quick, powerful kicks, punches, and chops to each one that came at her with blades. One raised his pistol and began firing of a flurry of shots at her, which she just dodged as she speedily darted towards the gunman, grabbed him, and tossed him into the ground at Torchwick's feet. After a few seconds of this unarmed beatdown, Torchwick, surprised and impressed, muttered an aside about his hired goons and raised his white cane, revealing a hole in the bottom and a crosshair that flipped up from the end. "Well, Red," he spoke as this was happening, "I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around, I'm afraid this is where we part ways!" With that, he fired upon Ruby, his cane-gun spitting out a quickly-combusting chunk of Dust. However, Ruby managed to dodge the resulting fire-blast, somersaulting in the air and landing in a crouch.
When she looked back up, Torchwick was already gone, but a quick scan of the surroundings revealed that he was making his getaway up a building's ladder to make a rooftop escape. She took off after him, withdrawing a small red device as she ran, depressing a button on it, causing a green LED on it to blink. As she followed him up the building, she heard a distinctive sound that overpowered the distant police sirens: the rush of thrusters-Mobile Suit thrusters. She caught up to the crook on the rooftop and was about to engage him when, suddenly, the source of the noise revealed itself. Rising above the tall apartment complex was indeed a Mobile Suit-a Gundam-type, colored blood-red, with black and luminescent yellow accents, boasting a head with horn-like protrusions in a V-shape, moving "binders" on the back, and blunt spikes adorning its shoulders, arms, and legs. Hovering around waist-level with respect to the roof, it extended a clawed hand towards Torchwick, who was standing at the edge. As he hopped onto the withdrawing hand, the Gundam-type's cockpit hatch opened, partially showing its pilot, a woman in a similarly blood-red dress, obscured by shadow from the hips-up, the only other visible thing being her eerily luminescent yellow eyes.
Torchwick looked back at the girl, and, withdrawing a red Dust crystal, shouted "End of the line, Red!" He hurled the crystal towards her and raised his cane-blaster, firing a flare which impacted and detonated the crystal. As the smoke cleared from the resulting explosion, Torchwick's victory was short-lived as he saw a purple runic circle hovering in front of Ruby, having shielded her from the blast. At that moment, another Mobile Suit arrived from above, this one yet another Gundam, a mostly-white, purple-accented suit Ruby vaguely recognized as a GX-9900 model, except modified heavily from the basic model, lacking the original X-wings on the back along with the trademark hyper-cannon, replaced with four corrugated fins angled downward. Coming to a steady hover ten feet over the building, clutching a medium-sized, staff-like weapon in one hand, the new Gundam swung the "wand," which fired off a series of magic missiles, pelting the red Gundam and jostling both Torchwick and the mystery pilot. Just then, yet another Mobile Suit arrived, this one being the one Ruby expected. Having used her Recall Remote earlier, she had summoned her own Mobile Suit, also a Gundam-type, red as rose petals, shaped with a boxy form, clutching a similarly-boxy weapon in one hand. As it also came close to the roof, she quickly back-flip-jumped into its open cockpit, which closed shut afterwards.
Torchwick, staggering into the panoramic cockpit and reaching for the spare seat, exclaimed "We've got Gundams! I think it's that Huntress!" to his savior, who proceeded to close the cockpit hatch, preparing to flee the scene, already hovering a good distance from the surrounding buildings and with a modest gap between it and the Gundams trying to stop it. The Gundam X readied its wand again, the entire Mobile Suit glowing for a brief moment, generating another bright purple mote of light at the end, which was flung towards the fleeing red-and-black Gundam. The magic orb exploded in mid-air into three smoky, concentric circles, a dark stormcloud forming as the runic rings dissipated. The sudden, strong winds threatened to destabilize the enemy Gundam's flight and send it crashing down, and the hail of sharp icicles that followed embedded themselves into the Mobile Suit's armor. Undeterred by the now-fading storm, however, the renegade Suit's yellow accents increased in luminescence as it created a fireball in its hands, which it hurled at the GX, which itstelf generated a runic forcefield to block it, breaking up the fireball on impact, multiple embers landing on the roof. With another wave of the fiery Gundam's hands, the embers quickly coalesced into a pillar of fire, which the Huntress' own Gundam just about managed to dodge. The Gundam X waved its wand once more, and the red-hot debris from the blast gathered into a gray-purple lance, which then surged forth at the fire-Gundam.
Despite additional fire-blasts that seemed to break it up, the rubble-lance reformed and charged forth again, glancing off a red right shoulder and grazing the right binder. The purple debris then split into three snake-like forms, swarming around it before the Gundam surrounded itself with rings of fire that became an explosion of energy, destroying them. It was at this point that Ruby had finally finished starting up her Mobile Suit: the Gaia Gundam Wulfen, originally a one-off prototype that was consigned to obscurity until she "rescued" it and gave it a personal touch along the way. The long box-gun it had folded in half, extending a side-grip, Ruby aiming it at the other red Gundam. The gun fired off particle beam shots at it, though the blue beams were blocked by the other Gundam's own hand. Then, the fire-magic Gundam swiped in the air with its other hand, generating multiple pools of fire at the ground below Ruby and the Gundam of her mysterious ally. Before they were wiped out, however, the white GX shoved her Gaia out of the way, straightening themselves out only for the mysterious Gundam to flee anyways, its binders unfurling into a protective "cloak" of armor as its thrusters kicked into full-throttle, taking it out of the area quickly.
Inside the Gundam X's cockpit, Glynda relaxed, watching the fleeing "Master" Gundam disappear into the night sky. A comm feed suddenly popped up on her side monitor, revealing the face of Ruby. "Are you a Huntress?" Ruby asked as Glynda turned her attention to the girl who was now in a Gundam of her own. With a look of joy on her face and her hands held up excitingly, Ruby asked in a nearly-squeaky voice, "Can I have your autograph?"
Recalling the incident with a clarity that comes naturally to one who has experienced it mere hours earlier, Ruby answered, with slight trepidation, "...S...Signal Academy." It almost came out like a question. "They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" Ozpin asked with a slightly provoked energy. He was referring to not only the Mobile Suit, a type of weapon used by hunters, police, and the military in the modern age, but also to the Gundam, a type of Mobile Suit made to stand out among Mobile Suits for one reason or another. The martial artistry was certainly impressive, but a Gundam pilot always got his interest. After noting Ruby's confession of "one teacher in particular," he put the plate of cookies down in front of her, which she wolfed down with a smooth rapidity.
"It's just that I've only seen one other Mobile Suit pilot of that kind of skill before," he continued, "a dusty old Qrow..." "That's my uncle," Ruby replied around a mouthful of cookie before swallowing, apologizing, and continuing, "that's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, and now, I'm all like hoo! Wa-chaa!" She demonstrated her martial arts in a less serious way this time with quick, controlled hand motions. "And what is an adorable girl like you doing at a school designed to train warriors?" "Well, I want to be a Huntress!" "You want to slay giant beasts in the cockpit of a Mobile Suit?" Ruby replied in the affirmative, going on to explain her educational situation and her desire to apply to Beacon Academy, which her sister attended, and spilling forth her life's dreams with her usual energy.
"Do you know who I am?" Ozpin asked, moving past her burst of information. "You're Professor Ozpin. You're the Headmaster at Beacon." "Hello." "Nice to meet you!" "You want to come to my school?" "More than anything!" He looked over at Glynda, who gave a neutral reaction. "Well, okay," Ozpin concluded.
ZAMS-X88G/QMS-RR1 Gaia Gundam Wulfen (Personally-customized Transformable Gundam-type Mobile Suit)
Manufacturer: Consolidated Weaponry Bureau
Operators: Ruby Rose
Operation: Pilot in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions and weight: 17.80 m. overall (MS mode), 70.12 metric tons (max. weight)
Design features: Variable Phase Shift Armor, unknown sensor range, 10+ thrusters (outputs unknown), Dust Energy Beam Transfer System, Ultracompact Dust Reaction Battery (unknown power output), transformation capabilities (MA mode), super-locomotion actuators
Armaments: 2 x 20mm CIWS (head-mounted, MS mode only), 2 x beam saber (hip-stored), 2 x beam daggers (torso-stored), "Crescent Rose" beam sniper rifle/collapsible box beam rifle + beam scythe (hand-carried, back-stored, power rating 3.0-8.5 MW, E-cap-powered), beam gun (MA head-mounted, MA mode only, power rating 1.8 MW, directly-powered)
The Gaia Gundam was originally designed as a prototype and a proof-of-concept machine by CWB to see if they could break into the market for transforming Mobile Suits. One of multiple prototypes optimized for a specific environment (rough terrain, specifically), the Gaia was resigned into storage until financial woes hit CWB, forcing them to sell the mothballed prototype. Ruby Rose, a girl in the market to make a Mobile Suit for herself, got Uncle Qrow's help in buying up the overlooked prototype. Afterwards, the young girl spent months fixing it up by selling off some of its original weaponry and building some new armaments for it, including her pride, the "Crescent Rose," a beam sniper rifle that could become a carbine and even sprout a scythe blade made of beam particles. After some tweaks to its quick-response actuators and the installation of extra thrusters, Ruby managed to make it into a Mobile Suit that reflects her speedy nature. The Wulfen, named after the Dire Beowolves she slew with it, was finally painted red to help signify its speed and deadliness.
A/N: This is another idea I finally put to words. When RWBY was originally airing, I was already a mecha-head and I was getting (back) into Gundam pretty heavily, and I kept joking at every little parallel I found (after all, both RWBY and Gundam Wing both have a group called the White Fang). Eventually, I decided to try and write this. I do apologize for the wordiness, however (I want to capture RWBY's level of detail, so it gets wordy), and while I admit this is going to follow RWBY's plot kinda closely at first, I am still going to try to show how things are different with Mobile Suits and kaiju-scale Grimm in the mix. Future promises I'll try to keep: I won't go too fast, because I want to see what Volume 2 will show us in case that affects this fic (of course), and I will pare down the Jaundice arc quite a bit (I will have Jaune get a small comeback, in fact). Also, if you're wondering, I will likely append an MS profile at the end of each chapter, as seen here. Do feel free to leave formatting suggestions for that (or any part of this fic, really).
RWBY is created by and belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth Productions, and Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam, and related trademarks belong to Sunrise, Sotsu Agency, and Bandai.