The Dogs of War

A small room with a large glass window, a metal table with matching chairs placed in the center. The room was dimly lit by a small light bulb that hung from the ceiling. The light was focused on the seat opposite the door.

"Great so my options are go to hunter school or go to prison?" taunted a cocky voice. The voice's owner was a young man with jet black hair that seemed to be spiky, standing up on its own. He had six silver earrings running up his right ear. His most distinguishing characteristic however, was his crimson red eyes. He wore a simple crimson t-shirt and black cargo pants, on his feet were a pair of brown combat boots with spikes on the tips of the toes. The teen was chained to the table by a pair of large metal cuffs, though the teen seemed to have no issues moving his arms even with the heavy metal cuffs.

The room's other occupant was sitting on the other end of the room, a silver haired man wearing a green business suit with a cane hanging on the arm of his chair. "Mars Vermilion, a highly skilled mercenary, known for taking on contracts that boarder on suicide missions yet you complete them in record time. Your last mission landed you here," stated the silver haired man taking a sip of coffee. "I am simply giving you a chance to help you help yourself. The question is, Mr. Vermilion, will you let this chance go to waste or will you accept my offer to join Beacon Academy and become a hunter?" questioned the headmaster with a calculating gaze.

Giving the older man a grin showing off a set of shark like teeth, "Well I guess I have no choice then. Alright, I'll play your game Ozpin. I'll attend Beacon and become a hunter, heck I'll even play nice with the other students. Just don't expect me to change who I am. I'll fight how I want and kill what I want to kill," resigned Mars, though one could tell he was far from pleased.

"You won't be a prisoner, you'll have free reign to do whatever you like, within reason. I will also not stop you from killing, but killing or even harming the other students outside of sanctioned matches is forbidden," was Ozpin's warning reply, though he was less than pleased with the mercenary's answer though there was little he could do other than push Mars in the right direction.

"Don't worry I won't kill any of your precious students, however I make no promises about any injuries that may occur if provoked," negotiated Mars.

"That is all I ask. Now if you will excuse me I have another trouble maker to deal with," said Ozpin leaving the room cane and coffee cup still in hand.

"Sooo…are these things really necessary Goodwitch?" questioned Mars holding up his arms showing the large cuffs to the librarian like professor. The mercenary sat in between two armed guards wearing the Atlas military's uniform. The heavy chains rattled against the floor drawing curious looks from some of the other students on board the bullhead.

"Yes they are Mr. Vermilion. Even though the headmaster has approved you attending Beacon, I am not willing to risk the safety of the other students," explained the buxom blond woman narrowing her eyes at the chained teen.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I got it, Ozpin and I already have an understanding. I am a lot of things Goodwitch, but I am a man of my word," droned Mars already tired of being in the presence of the headmistress.

Inspecting the young man before her, the professor noted that he towered over the guards who sat next to him; she estimated his full height to be around 6' 8". The mercenary was slim, but Goodwitch could tell that the boy was all muscle. He donned a black leather vest, popping the collar which when zipped up would most likely cover half of the merc's face. Wearing his signature crimson t-shirt, black cargo pants held up by a woven crimson paracord belt and toe spiked combat boots. Completing Mars' apparel was a steel chain link necklace, a pair of black and red fingerless gloves and finally a crimson bandana with a grinning black wolf with red eyes was tied to his left bicep. An old beat up duffel bag sat at the teen's feet. All in all the professor had to admit the mercenary was able to make quiet and imposing presence.

"Your weapons will be returned to you before the initiation. A code will be sent to your scroll to open your assigned locker," with her part said Goodwitch left the mercenary with his guards, ending their conversation.

As the bullhead doors opened Mars was roughly shoved out of the plane, his chains raddling as he walked. Leading him towards the front gates the guards seemed relieved when they recognized the headmaster, who seemed to be talking with a white haired boy dressed in a white version of the schools uniform with a black and gold trim. Upon closer inspection Mars noticed that the boy stood around 5' 8", his hair was short and spiky with eyes not unlike the color of gold. On his collar was a small snow white fox pin, what drew Mars' attention was the bracers around the golden eyed boy's wrists. They were silver and blue; the four spikes suggested that the white haired teen was preferred to get in close to his opponents, though Mars didn't think the skinny teen would be much of a threat.

"It will only be for a little while, just until he is placed on a team. You just have to make sure he doesn't cause trouble with the other students. You are one of the few people I can count on to do this for me," explained Ozpin to the unknown teen as Mars was shoved in front of the pair.

"I thought you said I wasn't going to be treated like a prisoner here Ozpin. Last I check being shackled and escorted by armed guards was for prisoners. Now I hear your assigning me a babysitter, you're really making me start to rethink this whole becoming a hunter thing," ground out Mars through clenched teeth.

"I assure you the transport was out of my control, it was the only way that the Atlas Corporation would allow me to let you even walk out of there. As for your 'babysitter' this is Jupiter Winter, he will be watching you only until you are placed with your partner and team," reassured the head master clearly wanting to avoid setting off the already agitated mercenary.

"Fine let me just get these cuffs off and then I'll take my bag back there Rick," chuckled Mars ignoring the glare from "Rick" and the questioning looks from the headmaster and Jupiter.

What happened next startled the group as Mars' arms became encased in a black aura. The aura around his arms seemed to make the guards nervous, but what put Jupiter on edge was the fact that the headmaster had tensed up the second the black aura had appeared. With a savage grin Mars slammed his wrists together shattering the cuffs earning frightened yelps from the guards, before they aimed their rifles at him.

"That is enough! Lower your weapons, your job was to bring him here. Mr. Vermilion is no longer in your jurisdiction, now I will have to ask you to leave," stated an irritated headmaster narrowing his eyes at the cause of the incident.

As the guards left Mars could only smirk in triumph at their retreating backs. "I have to watch this barbarian. I have been around him for all of two minutes and he is already causing issues, why can't you have one of the second year teams watch him?" questioned Jupiter who had been staring at Mars with a calculating gaze up till now.

"You make it sound like I want to have a babysitter watching my every move snowman," sneered Mars.

"Enough the both of you, I expect you both to at least act professionally with each other. You don't have to like each other, but I expect you both to comply with the instructions that I have given you," said the headmaster in a firm tone leaving no room for argument.

"Yes sir/whatever you say," chorused the boys not wanting to get chewed out by the already irritated headmaster.

"Now I need prepare for my opening speech which will be starting up in a few minutes, I expect to see both of you there on time," with his piece said Ozpin made his way to the academy's auditorium.

With the departure of the headmaster both teens stared each other in a contest of wills. The mental battle was soon interrupted by a loud explosion sounding off in the distance.

"What the hell was that?" questioned a startled Jupiter.

Looking down into the court yard both teens noticed a small girl dressed in black and red and another dressed in all white. The girl in white seemed to be yelling something in audible at the girl in red. A suitcase filled with dust vials seemed to be strewn about on the ground.

"Looks like Red Riding Hood almost blew herself and Snow White to pieces. Though they seem fine given the way Snow White is yelling at Red Riding Hood the way she is," casually stated Mars glancing at the scene before walking towards the academy's front entrance.

Making their way to the auditorium with Jupiter leading the way the boys entered the massive auditorium packed with other students. Standing in the back, the duo did not have to wait long for the speech to begin. Leaning against the one of the pillars Mars absent mindedly started to play with the chain around his neck impatiently waiting for the speech to end. Jupiter on the other hand was busy contemplating how he got stuck watching Mars, too distracted by the enigma that was Mars.

After giving his speech the first year students were instructed to camp out in the ballroom for the night.

"Well I'm going to find a place to sleep. See ya in the morning," bidding Jupiter good night figuring he may as well end the day on a positive note. Tossing his duffel bag against one of the nearby pillars on the near one of the windows; Mars practically collapsed next to his bag falling asleep the instant he laid down.

"How a person can fall asleep that fast I'll never know. Let along in that position," Jupiter whispered to himself as he unrolled his sleeping bag a few feet away from his rouge-ish companion. On the other side of the room arguing could be heard, having just gotten comfortable Jupiter simply covered his ears and fell asleep.

As morning broke light from the windows shown through, waking the students. A ray of light illuminated Jupiter's face slowly rousing him from his slumber. Lazily getting out of his sleeping bag, Jupiter stretched back earning himself a few pops for sleeping on the floor. Looking around he noticed that many of the students were just waking up, however there was one missing. Mars was not leaning against the pillar anymore and was nowhere to be found amongst the hoard of groggy students.

"This is not good. Goodwitch will have my ass for losing sight of him, never mind the headmaster. I swear when I find that monster I'm going to kill him," muttered Jupiter as he jumped over a sleepy blond guy in footy pajamas. Running through the bathrooms and the cafeteria and still unable to locate Mars. Jupiter ran to the one place that he knew Mars would most likely be; the locker room. Undoubtedly trying to get into whatever locker that held his weapons, but what Mars didn't know was that Ozpin had given the code to Mars' locker to Jupiter. As Jupiter entered the locker room he was approached by a girl with bright red hair wearing bronze Spartan armor

"Excuse me. You look like you are in a hurry, but are you Jupiter by any chance?" asked female Spartan.

Having been asked politely, but still in a rush to find Mars, Jupiter acknowledged her question with a hurried "yes."

"That's good. Your friend has been looking for you. I think he said his name was Mars. He said that the headmaster transferred his locker code to your scroll. He seemed awfully distressed about not being able to open his locker. He must be nervous about the initiation," informed the crimson beauty.

"Thank you very much…um miss?" thanked Jupiter only to realize he never got her name.

"Oh! My apologies, I am not used to being unrecognized by people. It doesn't happen too often so I forget to introduce myself sometimes. I'm Pyra Nicos. I was nice meeting you Jupiter," and with that the Spartan walk towards the initiation field.

Finally spotting Mars at the end of the locker room Jupiter found him banging his head against the locker door in frustration.

"Damn that coffee addict! We had a deal, but he doesn't even trust me with the code to my own locker! Now if that damn snowman would hurry the fuck up; I could get this show finally on the road," cursed Mars clearly furious about the headmaster's choices.

"Took me long enough to find you. Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it was to find you? You could have at least woke me up to let me know where you were going," lectured 'snowman' with an irritated glare.

"Good you're finally here. Now give me the code to the locker, we don't have any more time to waste," demanded Mars looking irritated, completely ignoring Jupiter's earlier comment.

"You mean you don't have any more time to waste I already have my gear. You're the one who needs to still get ready," mocked Jupiter with a smirk.

"Oh ha ha ha ha, that is hilarious, now give me the code. I know you have it Ozpin told me that he gave it to you, now give it to me," growled Mars becoming more hostile. Not being intimidated in the least, Jupiter started to make his way out of the locker room. "Fine if that's the way you want it. Then I suppose that I'll have to resort to a more primitive way of opening the locker and you can explain to Ozpin why the locker is in pieces."

"Those lockers are indestructible, I've seen those things take several hits from rocket launchers and not even have a scratch after words. If you thin-" Jupiter was cut off at the sound of metal being bent by an immense force. Slowly Jupiter turned around just in time for Mars to remove a black aura covered fist from the door, letting the broken door fall to the ground in a pile of twisted metal. "I-i-impossible! Those things were supposed to be indestructible there is no way anyone could break into them let alone rip the door off with a single punch," stammered a now panicked Jupiter.

Ignoring his babysitter's small meltdown Mars grabbed his equipment from the broken locker. Donning two tactical bandoliers under his vest that held several rounds of 10 gauge shotgun shells; holstered on his hips were a pair of black double barrel sawed-off shotguns that seemed to have a custom revolving receiver. Under each of the barrels was a pair of cleaver like blades on each weapon, with the end of each blade ending in a sharp hook. While strapped to his back was a black double barrel. Resting between the barrels was a large chainsaw serving as a blade. The entire weapon seemed to be one massive zanbato. Pushing past a shell shocked Jupiter, Mars made his way to the initiation field.

Taking a second to process what he had just witnessed, Jupiter stared at Mars' retreating figure. Glancing at the crumpled metal door Jupiter wondered about if the headmaster's decision to let the mercenary attend Beacon was a wise one.