So yeah. RWBY story. First one.
Well, technically I wrote a bit before but, if it ever gets published, it will be after this.
(1st person, Eboni)
"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner," Professor Ozpin says.
A bit more information later, we were being launched.
"Woohoo!" I yell as I fall through the air, approaching the ground at what would be to most people an alarming rate. Thanks to my Semblance however... there's no such thing as an alarming rate, since I could literally stop dead at any point I wanted without any effects of the ridiculous acceleration.
And when I was but a tiny fraction of a second away from the floor, that's exactly what I did. Landing on the floor silently and gently I begin to head for the temple, which should be basically due north of here.
I wonder who I want to partner with.
I hear a rustling behind some bushes. "Someone there?" I ask, parting the bushes while looking slightly down so I don't end up teaming up with someone I really don't want to team up with.
As the bushes are pushed aside, what is revealed is a small pack of Beowolves, 8 of them, preying on some animals. They turn towards me with bloodlust and all get ready to attack. Definitely not a person. At least, not a living one.
As the first of the Beowolves charges, I draw my katana, which almost appeared to 'glow' black and in the same motion slash the nearly-unarmored grimm in half. Moments later the grimm dissipates into fine mist.
The blade was vibrating in order for it to be able to cut through even the toughest grimm armor, however the vibrations were small and very, very fast so it wasn't visible to the naked eye as vibration, just a slight blur around the edge of the blade which gave it the illusion that it was 'glowing' black.
I leap forward and slash apart a second one, spinning around to cut a third one next to me apart was well. A fourth one charges me and swipes with its claws, which I block, cutting through them. Another advantage of a vibrating sword like mine is that it was like a chainsaw, it didn't need to be moving to cut.
Even if I moved it very slowly, it would be able to pass through something relatively soft like a tree... or an unarmored, relatively soft grimm. Some grimm had skin tougher than the armor on the faces of these young Beowolves.
I finish the fourth grimm and quickly turn the remaining four into mist. In Signal Academy they often reminded students that if the grimm hadn't turned to mist, it was still not dead, though the extent of 'not dead' couldn't be as easily determined. The black mist would drift away but, not with the wind. Rather, in a given place, the mist would always drift in the same direction. It also appeared to be intangible and any attempts to contain it for study had failed, as it had passed clean through their containment.
Perhaps wherever this mist goes, it is turned back into grimm. The grimm are soulless creatures, closer to robots than animals, so them being deconstructed for material and rebuilt again was plausible.
I shake my head to get back to the task at hand. Get artifact. Get back to cliff. Done.
I continue to walk through the forest, not silencing my footsteps because I did want to meet someone. Or more accurately, anyone who I wouldn't mind partnering with, not someone in particular.
And as I walk through some bushes into a clearing, I see a girl dressed all in white with white hair and pale skin, rather skillfully wielding a longsword nearly as tall as her with both hands. In front of her were 4 old Ursai and some black mist drifting away. And she looked a bit tired. How many were there to start with?
I use my Semblance to appear behind one of them and strike at it with my sword. The sword passes through its shoulder with a sizable amount of resistance and the arm separates, dissipating into black mist. The wound left before is red, but there is no dripping blood or any such, just red. As the Ursa swings with its other hand, I plant my feet onto what's left of its shoulder and push up, slashing downwards through its head as I come back down and rolling.
"You need some help?" I ask the girl, who was slightly shocked.
"Watch out!" I yell as the Ursa she was fighting swings at her. She blocks with her longsword and slashes back at it, severing the attacking hand from the rest of it. Then she impales it through the middle with her sword and pushes sideways, cutting the grimm halfway in half. The Ursa turns to mist and we're left with two opponents. She's not bad. Which makes me wonder just how many there were before she started fighting them.
I teleport behind one and slash at it but, having seen me pull the same thing on the other one, it turns in time to mostly avoid the attack, taking the opportunity to swipe at me. I swing back at its oncoming arm with my sword and cut through it. One disadvantage of cutting through stuff while blocking is that you didn't completely stop its motion, which meant that I still needed to avoid.
I swipe two deep gashes in the form of an 'X' into the front of the Ursa now fully facing me and impale it in the middle, causing it to disperse to mist.
The other girl was still dealing with hers, fending off a few attacks and slowly killing it. A few slashes on the front and a missing head later, the Ursa turns to mist.
Her sword collapses down to about a quarter of its original size and she puts it on her back breathing heavily. This reminds me that I still had a sword in my hand as well. I sheathe it and turn to her, looking below her face level in such a way which would probably be deemed inappropriate were I a boy. "Thanks for the help, I'm Avory," she says.
"No problem, I'm Eboni by the way," I answer.
"You're good with that sword of yours," she compliments.
"Thanks. I spend a lot of time practicing."
"So you wanna be partners?" she asks. Oh hell, why not. Instead of answering I just make eye contact.
"I'll take that for a yes. Now where was that temple? I knew which way it was until I got into this fight but I've turned around so many times I've forgotten," she says.
I take out a compass and point north. "That way, I think," I say and we begin walking there.
"I think that's it!" I say, pointing to a ruin with pedestals, on the pedestals were a bunch of what looked to be chess pieces. And it seemed that there was a pair already there, holding one so presumably this was the right place. The pair already there appeared to be the yellow haired loud girl from last night and the black haired girl who had been reading a book she and her sister had tried talking to.
"Looks like it. Let's go grab one and get back to the cliff," Avory says.
"White bishop?" Avory asks.
"Why not," I say, not particularly interested in which one, as long as we get one and bring it back.
"Hey, I'm Yang," the yellow-head says.
"Blake," says the black haired one.
"Eboni," I say.
"Avory," Avory says.
"Have either of you seen a girl in a red hood with silver eyes?" Yang asks.
"Uh... over there?" I say, pointing at the sky which said girl was falling out of.
And then someone else flew into her from the side, sending them both flying into the trees a little bit away. I guess whoever smashed into her must have been a lot heavier than her, since he wasn't much faster.
"You're not gonna go find your sister?" I ask.
"She'll be fine," Yang says casually.
"If you say so..."
And then an Ursa bursts in, a blast of purple lightning appears, and it collapses, a pinkish-orange haired girl jumps off saying, "Aww, it's broken."
"Nora, please never do that again," says the boy who followed her but, by that time she had already picked up one of the white rooks and was balancing it on her head, singing, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle."
And then said girl arrives from the trees. "Yang!" she yells.
"Ruby!" the obviously older of the two responds.
"Nora!" the pinkish-orange haired girl says, bouncing in between the two.
And then Pyrrha Nikos shows up. Being chased by a death stalker.
"She ran all the way here... with a Death Stalker on her tail?" asks Blake.
"Seems so..."
And then a Nevermore flies over with a certain Weiss Schnee hanging from it. "How could you leave me here?!" she yells.
"I said 'jump!'" Ruby yells back.
"She's gonna fall," Blake says.
"She'll be fine," Ruby says,
"She's falling," Blake says.
And indeed she was. And then the boy who'd crashed into the little sister—Ruby apparently—jumped out and caught her, which did nothing but make him a cushion for her fall.
And then, just to make sure that we were thoroughly fucked, since a Death Stalker and a Nevermore obviously weren't enough, two more girls show up, one themed in blue and the other in green, and chasing them was an Ursa Major that was at least 500 years old... and it was a terrifying sight to behold. It was massive, first off. At least 3 times as tall as me. It was also covered in spines and armor that was going to be harder and thicker than most grimm and its skin is probably sturdier than the armor of most younger grimm.
"Okay, now we're thoroughly screwed," I say.
Ruby then proceeds to attempt to fight the Death Stalker only to get pinned by the cloak by a Nevermore feather shot at her and gets saved by Weiss, then after a short conversation which was way too long.
"I have a new plan. Everyone grab a relic and RUN!" Ruby says.
Once every pair had a relic and a very brief introduction session was had (which meant Ruby and Weiss, Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc, and Jay and Deni) we stood off past the grimm which had kindly waited. Well the only ones that waited were the Ursa and Nevermore, the Death Stalker was busy breaking out of some ice. Were they... playing with us? Well whatever, if they're so confident in their victory, we'll just have to use that to make sure they don't get one. The Death Stalker was most immediately in the way of Beacon Cliff so we run past it with two of the people with shields, Jay and Pyrrha, blocking its pincers as we ran past.
Now we just run like hell, at least till we find a good place to fight them. Unfortunately, just as we were almost there, the Nevermore got between us and Beacon Cliff. Well this was a decent place to fight them, since at least with the Ursa and the Death Stalker we could drop them into the seemingly bottomless ravine.
"Alright, let's split into 3 groups, each one will deal with a Grimm," Ruby says.
"Yang, Weiss, and Blake, we're taking the Nevermore. Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren, and Nora, you're taking the Death Stalker. And Jay, Avory, Deni, and Eboni, you're taking the Ursa. Any objections?" Well she sure took command.
None are had, which is probably good because the other two grim were coming very dangerously close for indecision.
Jay speaks, "I have a plan for dealing with the Ursa. We probably can't pierce its armor or even hide, so we'll need to knock it in."
"I'm not so sure about that. Eboni's sword has some crazy cutting power," Avory points out.
"Heh, with that? Sure if it stood still and let me keep cutting at it for at least 30 seconds maybe I'd get it but, luring it to the edge and then collapsing the edge or knocking it off seems much easier," I say.
"It seems to heavy to knock off, so I think we'll want to lure it to an overhand and destroy the overhang," Demi says.
"If I jump off with its attention on me, will that be close enough to the edge for you guys to get it off? You'll have about 2-3 seconds before I need to come back or be to far down to get back," I say.
"We don't really know each others skills but... just with Deni and I we'd probably manage, so if Avory's abilities are of any use here then we should manage," Jay says.
"I can help with destroying the ground under it," Avory confirms.
"Okay, will this ledge be good? Can you destroy this in less than 3 seconds?" I ask, leaning over the edge and looking at the thickness. It didn't look too thick, I'm not sure it could hold the Ursa on its own in its current state.
"No problem!" is the cheerful reply I get.
"Good, because otherwise we'd have a problem," I say, pointing to the now very near Ursa.
"Okay, Deni, Avory, get in position. Eboni, get ready to distract it," Jay says. We all nod and the three of them hide behind some pillars, hopefully ready to destroy the platform.
The Ursa takes sight of me as the closest to me and charges. As it grows very near, I teleport back and to the side, towards the place we needed it. It stops and ascertains my position once more, then charges again, swiping at me. I draw my sword and slash at its unarmored thigh, barely piercing through the thick hide.
It swipes at me and I teleport back, avoiding the attack. It may be smarter than the young ones but, it was sure as hell still stupid. It advances again, repeating the same attack. I once more evade and it doesn't try again. This time it feints a swing and continues charging towards where it predicted I would teleport. Okay, maybe not so stupid. I raise my sword and block the punch, getting thrown backwards and off the edge, which wasn't exactly not according to plan.
As I fall, I can see it leaning over to see me and then there's a loud thud and cracks appear under it. Before it can react, it happens once more and the platform crumbles. I teleport back up, just barely reaching the safe area and look down. It was falling and falling. Even if it survives the impact, it's not coming back up here any time soon.
"Let's go help the others then," Jay says.
We end up going to help fight the Death Stalker and finish just in time to witness Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang pull off the most ridiculous stunt ever, including basically slingshotting Ruby at the frozen in place by the tail Nevermore, having her run up the wall with Weiss's help, and beheading the giant thing with her scythe. I feel the strong urge to say I could have done it better but don't.
"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren, together you are team JNPR (read: Juniper), led by, Jaune Arc."
"Congrats," Pyrrha says, walking over to Jaune and punching him in the shoulder... embarrassingly knocking him down.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, together you are team RWBY (read: Ruby), led by Ruby Rose." Team RWBY led by Ruby. Wonder how much confusion that will cause.
"Jay Gladiolus, Avory Alyssum, Deni Fleur, and Eboni Daku, together you are team JADE (read: Jade), led by Jay Gladiolus."
Please review and tell me what you thought of this first chapter.
The first two OC last names are flowers of the same color as their theme color (Jay = Jade = Green and Avory = Ivory = White), the third one is just 'flower' in french and the last one (MC) is 'dark' in Japanese, just incase anyone was wondering about the last names.
Future chapters are planned to be longer.