Author's Note: Hello! Before we begin, I'm here tell you that this story is mainly going to follow the storylineof my own OC's. If you don't like to read that stuff, don't read it then. RWBY characters do appear, but probably not for a few chapters. With that out of the way, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: RWBY and its characters are owned by Rooster Teeth.

Arin

I stare at the trees as they rush past the window of the moving bus. I'm on my way to the station where I'm going to take the ship to Beacon Academy. I remember it was only a few days ago when I received my acceptance letter in the mail. I was so excited then. Now, not so much.

I look around the crowded bus, some people hold their letters in their hands, making it obvious who's going to Beacon. None that I recognize though.

I sigh. I got into my dream school, I should be happy. Maybe it's because none of my friends made the cut. Well, that and the point that I was accepted into the school one year early as an exception. I didn't want to be treated any differently than the other students.

The bus jolted to a stop as we reached the station. I got up and slumped by bag over my shoulder, my two rapiers dangling by my sides. Once in a while they'd get in the way and most of the time they just attract attention towards me. I don't mind though. That way people know that I'm a huntress, or huntress in training to be precise.

I stand in line to board the ship. I ruffle through my bag for my ID card so the attendance knows who I am.

"Arin Steele," An automated voice speaks as I swipe my card, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Thank you," I say under my breath as a habit.

Once on the ship, I take a look around. There are no seats and everyone else is standing. I take position next to a window near the front.

"The ship will take off in five minutes," an automated voice broadcasted in the cabin, "Thank you for your patience."

I looked over the letter in my hand once again. Professor Ozpin says something about team arrangements in the letter, but I don't pay too much attention as I gloss over the words.

"Thank you for your patience," the automated voice chimes again, "We will now begin our flight to Beacon Academy."

I hear a few whoops and cries across the cabin and smile a bit. It's nice to know that even though I may be a bit down, I won't be for long as I'm surrounded by so many new people.

I turn away from the window as the ship begins to lift off and immediately collide with someone else. I stumble backwards while she falls to the ground.

"Ow," she rubs her head.

"I'm so sorry," I say. I offer my hand, "Are you alright?"

"No, no, I wasn't watching where I was going," she doesn't notice my hand and gets up by herself, "I should be asking you that same question."

"Nothing's broken," I reply. I frown as I pay more attention to her. She seems oddly familiar, "I'm sorry, have we met before?" I take in her appearance. She wears a tan (I hope it's tan) tunic with long sleeves, dark blue jeans, and boots. Her long, light-brown hair, is braided and goes over her shoulder. She has brown eyes. Where have I seen this girl before?

"I don't think so," the girl smiles, "Pardon my manners. My name is Samantha Aurum; my friends call me Sam."

Aurum? Again, it feels like I've heard that somewhere before but I can't quite recall. "Arin Steele." I reply.

Samantha gasps, "You're Arin Steele?" she asks in a surprised tone. I find it strange however, I've never done anything noteworthy or worth remembering. "You're the one that fought in the Dust robbery a few days ago right?"

Oh yea, that. I totally forgot about it. "Yea, that was me." I said, rubbing the back of my neck, "It's nothing too big."

"Nothing too big? You stopped ten guys with minimal force!"

"Well when you put it that way…"

"Are those what you fight with?" Samantha looks curiously at the twin rapiers at my sides.

"Oh, these?" I pull the blades out and spin them around, "They're a bit conspicuous, but yes, the Balance Breaker. What about you? What's your weapon of choice?"

She raises her hands and shows me the two bulky devices on her wrists. They open up and transform into two golden batons, crackling with electricity.

"I call them the Auric Spectra," Samantha beams with delight. I suddenly remember where I've seen her.

"You're that kid wonder that's amazing at hand-to-hand combat right?" I saw her on the news once. She won first at a national competition or something. It was a while ago.

"Yep, that's me," Samantha says, still smiling. She swings at the air twice, "I want to train to be the best huntress ever!"

I recall a fuzzy detail from the news report and decide to test it, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen," she states, putting away her batons, "Ozpin sent me a letter saying that, considering my background, I would be allowed to attend Beacon a year earlier."

"Hey!" I'm excited at the news, "I'm sixteen too!" Finally, someone who I can relate too! And we're getting along so well, I hope.

"Really?" Samantha beams, "So you're another one of Ozpin's select few! Oh, I hope we can we friends."

I chuckle at her enthusiasm and decide to play along, "Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try out clothes and talk about cute boys." I joke. [AN: Sound familiar? It should]

We both laugh and I notice out of the corner of my eye the large lake we're flying over.

"Hey look," I peer through the glass window, "You can see Beacon from here."

"Yeah," Samantha takes a few steps back, "I'm scared of heights though, so I'll stand here."

I take a step back to join her when multiple holograms activate across the cabin. The holograms show a middle-aged woman with light-blonde hair. She has ovular glasses and green eyes and she wears a white top and black skirt.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon," she introduces herself, "My name is Glynda Goodwitch…"

I turn to catch a glimpse of the academy, which the craft is approaching quickly. The tall, white, buildings and the large clock tower seem a bit intimidating. A shiver runs down my spine as I turn back towards the holograms.

"…it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world," Goodwitch finishes up her speech, "We hope you have an educational year here at Beacon and we hope to see you at the auditorium for the opening ceremony." The holograms flicker off.

Cheers fill the cabin as Goodwitch finishes her speech. Just in time too, since the craft has docked and the bay doors open.

Samantha's bouncing around with excitement, she grabs my hand and pulls me along, "Come on!"

I laugh as I let her pull me along. We stop in front of the long path towards the clock tower. I take a deep breath and look around. How to describe it? Pillars, there are a lot of pillars. Uh, trees? Ugh, I can't think straight with all the thoughts running through my head.

"Wow," Samantha, however, seems even more excited, "Arin look! Isn't it beautiful? Hey, over there, that guy's got blue hair! He looks so cool!" [AN: Also should sound familiar.]

I grab onto her sleeve before she can bolt off again, "Easy there, we don't want you running off the side of the cliff or something."

Samantha takes a deep breath as I did, "Right, thanks Arin. Would be a hell of a first day if a freshman fell off the side of the school, right?"

I laughed, "Let's go," I point towards the mass of first-years heading towards the campus, "My guess is the entrance ceremony."

"Woah," I gasp in awe as we step into the auditorium. First impression: tall, high ceilings. The windows around the room allow light to focus on a specific point on stage where a lone microphone stands. People have gathered around the stage and filled up the entire room. Samantha and I stand towards the back to not get caught up in the crowd.

The various conversations around the room are silenced by the appearance of the same woman we saw in the holograms.

"Welcome to Beacon Academy," Glynda Goodwitch speaks into the mic, "It's good to see that all the first-year students have made it here without incident. Now, let me introduce, the headmaster of this academy, Professor Ozpin."

Around the room, people cheer and whoop as Ozpin steps onto the stage. He appears to be a middle-aged man with silver hair. He wears a black suit and a green scarf around his neck, and I think he's wearing glasses, it's a bit hard to see because of the distance and large crowd.

The headmaster silences the crowd with a raise of his hand, "You have all traveled here in search of knowledge – to hone your craft and acquire new skills – and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But you must remember, it won't be easy. You are in need of purpose – direction. Your time at this school will prove that the knowledge you gain here will only carry you so far. In the end, it is up to you to make the hard call."

He pauses as his speech sinks in to the crowd and continues, "You will be separated into groups for initiation which will begin tomorrow. Please spend the rest of the day to get a bearing for your surroundings and don't get into too much trouble." Ozpin then steps back and exits the stage.

The horde of people turns to leave the room. Samantha and I are close to the exit and leave before we're run over by the crowd.

"Where to, Arin?" she asks, "We've still got a few hours till they call dinner."

I shrug, I honestly had no clue what to do. I thought they'd give us a task when we arrived at the school, but we've got some time to ourselves I guess.

"We could check out the commonplace," I offer and hold up my bag, "And I want to drop this off, it's killing my shoulder."

"Right!" Samantha says in her usual, cheery tone, "I think it's this way!" We turn right and head towards a long building with multiple stories. Many other students are headed the same way.

We step into the building and onto its carpeted floor. I recognize some people from the ship that are here too, carrying bags and boxes going up and down the stairs.

Samantha and I head to the second floor where we find a large and spacious room. People are setting up sleeping bags and organizing their belongings. We set down our bags in a corner of the room, next to the window.

I roll out my sleeping bag and peer outside. It's a strange feeling, living at a boarding school, with all these other students.

"Arin," Samantha taps on my shoulder and snaps me out of my daze, "You ok?"

I chuckle, "I'm fine, just thinking about some things," I explain, "Let's take a look around the school."

We wander the campus, taking in the view and our surroundings. We had passed by some holographic domes with people sparring in them, battlefields that could be used for practice. The paths along the cliff give the most scenic views overlooking the lake.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Samantha stares out into the distance as we take a seat down on a bench facing the lake.

"Sure is," I put my hands behind my head and lean back, I'm pretty tired from all the traveling I had to do in the morning, "Hey Samantha, what drove you to train to become a huntress?"

"Hmm?" Sam turns her head towards me, "Well, I guess I just don't like bullies and I hate seeing other people getting picked on. That's also why I trained in hand-to-hand combat, so I could defend myself and others. Being a huntress is just fulfilling my dream, to protect those who can't fight back for themselves. Pretty corny I know, but it's the truth."

"I wish I could have a reason as noble as yours," I sighed, "I come from a family of pretty distinguished huntsmen and I have to try and live up to their name. I've trained my whole life to get into this school to bring honor to family. Yeah, I want to help people, but I've always been pushed to do it for my family and not for my own reasons. I guess now that we're here I can do what I want with my life."

"Sounds tough," Sam turns back to the view. The sun was getting low on the horizon and the clear, blue, sky had just begun to turn a shade of pink.

I pulled out the scroll we were issued and opened it. It displayed my full name and year. It had three blank spots where I assumed information about my teammates would go. The time on the top read 5:12pm.

"We might want to head back now," I stand up and stretch my arms out, "We've been wandering around for quite a while now."

"Sounds good," I help her up and we begin to make out way back to the center of campus.

We haven't been walking long when we hear an explosion. It didn't sound too big, but we barely avoided a flying body that flew right past our faces. A boy with dark hair groans as he gets up. He winces as he touches his shoulder. I can see a nasty bruise beginning to form.

I quickly rush to his side, "Hey, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he brushes me aside and gets up, a look of revenge in his eyes. I follow his line of sight and see a group of four bigger looking guys. They look pissed.

"Hey," the dark-haired boy calls out to the others, "I said I don't want any trouble. It was just an accident."

"Sure it was," one of the bigger guys says sarcastically, "Just like how you spilled Ray's dust supplies back on the ship, just an accident."

The boy groans and I catch a glimpse at his shoulder where the bruise was forming. It's gone. He must've healed it with his aura.

"Look," the boy says again, "Please, I don't want to fight you."

"Likely story," another guy states, unsheathing a khopesh and holding it out in front of him. These guys are just itching to fight.

I pull out my rapiers and stand next to the boy.

He glances at me, "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Get out of here, these guy won't hold back."

"I'm just trying to even out the odds," I say, taking stance, "I want to help."

"Whatever," he says. He has two devices on his forearm that assemble around his hand and give a red glow. I was about to ask him what they were, but that'd have to wait for after we take down these four.

The large one charges at us with a spear. Before I have a chance to even think about charging back, the boy next to me waves his hand and a strong gust of wind blows the charger back. He stumbles, growing even angrier than before.

"Oh dust," I hear the boy mutter. The four now charge at us all at once. Pretty ineffective strategy if you ask me. I take one of my rapiers and focus my aura into its hilt. With one slash at the air I send them flying back once again with an invisible wall of energy.

The boy seems impressed, "Nice one," he turns back to the four guys who are getting up, "You might want to stand back for this one."

"Huh?" I take step back and he looks back at me, a smirk on his face, his gauntlets glow brighter than before. He turns back to the four guys who have gotten back up. Three of them line up with their weapons pointed at the boy. Their weapons have transformed into ranged firearms.

"Watch out!" I call out to the dark-haired boy, but they've already fired. I turn away and brace for the impact. It never comes. I open my eyes and I see Samantha staring in shock.

I turn back and see that he's perfectly fine. The transparent wall that stands in front of him dissipates.

"Sorry for this," he says to his attackers as he raises a hand. A blast of red is fired at the four which again send them flying back. I kinda feel sorry for the guys, they can't even touch us.

There's something different about the blast though, there's fire. The guy welding the khopesh, his jacket caught on fire.

"Damn!" He swats at the flame.

The guy holding the spear groans and stands up, "he's not worth it, we should get out of here before…"

"Before what?" The boy next to me interrupts, "You're gonna run?"

The leader of the four, Ray I think his name was, scowls at us and then nods to the other three and they take their leave.

"Yeah that's right you better run!" Samantha calls out to the retreating villains. She then turns to us, "Sorry I just got caught up in the moment, you guys fought so well together!"

I waved her off, "Nah, it was mostly– "

"Damnit," the boy is looking at his scroll, and without a word he takes off.

"Wait…" I call out, but he's already turned the corner and disappeared.

"Well," Samantha crosses her arms, "he seemed like the strange type."

"Yea no kidding," I check my scroll again, "we should get going, they're going to call dinner soon."

"Yes!" Samantha does a fist pump, "Food!"

I laugh and we continue on our path to the main hall.

We stand before the tall wooden doors of the halls. Inside, long tables line the hall and students are littered across the room with plates of food in front of them.

"Let's go," Samantha leads the way. I follow her lead as she grabs a plate and begins to pile it with food.

"You sure do eat a lot," I comment on the mountain of food on her plate.

She turns around, "Speak for yourself," gesturing to the mound of food I had placed on my plate.

"Touché," I smile, "lead the way."

We sit down at a table and begin to eat our dinner, "So," Samantha begins, "that guy we met earlier."

I put down my fork, "What about him?"

"Those things on his arms," Sam continues to shovel food into her mouth, "what do you think they are? I mean, mine are like a deploying mechanism for my batons, but his go around his arms or something."

I shrug, "Dunno, I mean they were like some kind of gauntlets. They shot out blasts of energy I assume."

"And that last shot," Samantha pointed out, "if I saw what I think I saw, those were definitely enhanced by fire dust."

"Right, right," I nodded, "We could ask him the next time we see him."

A laugh from not far off startled us and we see a girl with long yellow hair guffawing. And speak of the devil, the same boy we saw earlier stood a few feet away from her, also startled by her sudden laughing. I was about to wave before he turned our way and noticed us.

The dark-haired boy makes his way towards us, when he gets closer I can make out that he has amber colored eyes. He's dressed differently too. He's wearing a maroon-sleeved grey hoodie that covers up the devices on his forearms, black jeans, and matching maroon converse.

"Hey," he greets us as he approaches the table. He gestures to the empty seat beside me, "May I?"

"Of course," I pat the seat, "Please, sit."

As he sits next to me, Samantha gives me a glance that looked like a cross between a smirk and an eyebrow raise.

What? I mouth to her. She giggles to my avail and the boy begins to speak.

"Sorry, I left you guys back there," he begins, "I just– "

"No worries," Samantha butts in, "You have your reasons."

The boy seems a bit taken aback by Samantha's interruption and takes a moment to consider what to say next. "Sorry, I didn't catch your names back then."

Names, right, "Arin Steele," I extend my hand to shake, "And that mess across from me is Samantha Aurum."

"Hey!" Samantha stops eating and turns to the boy, "Just call me Sam."

He boy chuckles, "Terence Cordovan," he introduces himself and shakes my hand, "First-year, and again, I apologize for the mess I had you involved with back there."

I shrug it off, "It was no big deal, nobody got hurt right?"

Terence nods. Sam begins ranting again, "So, Terence. I heard that we'll be assigned teams tomorrow..."

My mind begins to wander as I tune out Sam's voice. Quite an interesting first day and I know there's much more in store for us.

End of Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hey, thanks for reading! This is my first story, so this might be a bit long. If you read all this way and was thinking, "Where's Ruby?", or, "Where's so-and-so?". Sorry to disappoint, but I'm going to be using my OC's quite often. RWBY characters do appear, but it's mostly going to follow a different story line. Again, I'm sorry for that, I'm just trying to improve my writing. Honestly, I have no idea where this story's gonna go so if you guys have any suggestions for plot, requests for interactions between certain characters and plot points, or you just spot a mistake or want to correct something in the writing, please do not hesitate to leave a review or DM me.

Also, side-note, I'm only a sophomore in high school so I get pretty busy with homework and studying, so writing is just a hobby for me. I don't plan to have a certain post schedule or post weekly or anything, so follow the story if you want to receive any updates on when I do post.

Thanks again, and happy reading!

-A