Hillphire and Brimstone
By DarthKirby009
Chapter One
Note to the Reader: This is the background story for the character Hillphire from Between the Anvil and the Shield ( s/12763259/1/RWBY-Between-The-Anvil-and-The-Shield), written by me, and Silver Maiden, written by Necron ( s/12758741/1/Silver-Maiden). While you do not need to read this first before either of the stories linked above, it will give you a better reading experience of those stories. Anyways, hope you enjoy!
He opened his eyes. It was a bright morning outside. He could tell from the beams of sunlight piercing through the cracks of the forge. It reminded him of that day, so long ago. Tears involuntarily came to his eyes. He berated himself internally but for that brief moment in his morning stupor, he was there again in the living room of his old home in Helmford. He could never forget that day. He never would.
...
It was a bright morning, the instant Hillphire opened his eyes, the exuberant 8 year old bounced out of bed. "Mom! Mom! Is it today?! Is it?!"
His mother laughed. "Yes William, your uncle Henry is here already. Got here last night while you were asleep."
"Wooooo!" he squealed as he dashed through the house in search of his uncle. Instead he ran headlong into his cousin Ariel.
"Ow! Watch it!" the ten year old girl exclaimed.
"Ow-y... Soooooorry."
"Ugh, you're such a spaz. If you're looking for dad, he's in the kitchen eating breakfast, just don't headbutt me again."
"I said I was sorry," William said a little dejectedly.
"Whatever," Ariel said rolling her eyes. "Just be ready when my dad finishes the bikes, otherwise I'm leaving you in the dust," she said with a smirk.
William promptly lit up again, "Nuh uh! I'm gonna leave you in the dust!"
"In your dreams grasshopper."
"Grasshoppers are fast you know!"
"Whatever," Ariel said as she walked to the kitchen without looking back at William.
William puffed his checks in frustration, "Well, they are!" then he dashed after her, beating her first to the kitchen. He turned around and beamed at her. "I beat you to the kitchen."
"Cause I let you grasshopper."
William puffed his cheeks again and crossed his arms with a scowl on his face.
"I don't remember such a grouchy young man," his uncle Henry said, before attacking William from behind and tickling him incessantly. William squealed and screamed in laughter from the tickling and tried to fend off his uncle, but to no avail. His uncle was strong man who was a mechanic and regularly installed heavy equipment into homes and buildings. His arms were like iron bars to the 8 year old William and the best William could do was to try and wiggle his way out of their iron grip.
"He, he, he, ha, ha, ha! Uncle! S-stop!" William managed to plead amongst his gales of laughter.
"I'll stop if you can name the dust types I'm going to use to fortify the safe room," his uncle said mischievously.
"E-earth, g-g-gravity, and –HE HE HE HE– lightning!"
"How did you know that?" his uncle exclaimed in mock suspicion. "Name your grandma's maiden name!" then he began tickling him anew.
"HE HA HA HA HA, MARALEY!" William exhaled desperately.
"Well what'dya know! He knows his grandma's maiden name!" His uncle laughed before finally releasing the giggling William. "Sis, what'cha torturing your children with? Family history? No way he should know what a maiden name is."
William's mother laughed, "It's not torture if he likes old stories."
"You don't say, huh?" Henry shot back before looking down at William who was finally composing himself. "What'cha say we do something less boring than listening to family history today Will?"
"Yeah! I wanna see you make the safe room!"
"Then follow me squirt!"
William gladly obeyed, skipping and bounding until he reached the hole in the wall of their home that would soon be the safe room. Already his uncle had moved in the frame of the vault. There were a few dollies in the living room that were used to help with the process as well.
"Hey Henry! Did the squirt wake up yet?" William's dad yelled from somewhere outside.
"Yeah, he did Max. You think you'll be ready to move the door soon?"
"I'm ready now, Henry. Waiting on you."
"I'll be out as soon as I hook up the electricity."
"Okie dokie."
William watched as his Uncle fiddled with the various wires that protruded from the frame of the vault.
"So how did you know the types of dust needed for the vault today Willy?"
"Mom told me! I wanted to know all about it because of the turret you made last time for the city gate!"
"I see. Might make you into a respectable engineer yet with that attitude."
William muffled a squeal of excitement before giggling. He had always dreamed of being an engineer and making cool stuff. When he grew up he wanted to make robots, and cars, and planes, and anything that had gears, engines, and wires. His uncle was certainly the man to teach him too. William couldn't wait to be older so he could move to the tech school near his uncle in Vale.
After 15 minutes Henry had finally finished all the wiring for the vault. "Come on Willy, time to set up the door."
"Okay!" William replied exuberantly before following his uncle outside.
Max was ready with the dollies and the two brothers worked together to lift the heavy door unto them. "Man this stuff is heavy Henry!"
"It's the gravity dust, makes the inertia of the door that much harder to overcome."
"Well good thing we have the dollies. No way we would've gotten it inside without breaking our backs otherwise."
Henry laughed, "I've seen that happen before Max. No joke."
"I'd believe you!"
They moved the door into the house carefully avoiding the wooden door frames and dry wall.
"Here we go," Henry said as they finally got to the vault room. "We're going to need some help getting it in place. Any of your neighbors worth their salt in muscles, Max?"
"I know a few who don't have pimples for muscles," Max shot back.
Henry laughed before grabbing William playfully, "Hear that Willy? He says you have pimples for muscles!"
"Did not!"
Henry laughed again. "Sorry squirt, but you're a long ways away from being able to help us lift this door. Go outside for a bit while I go over some stuff with your dad, okay?"
William huffed and puffed his cheeks up again before obediently leaving the room, but only hid outside the door so he could hear the 'technical' stuff his uncle would talk to his dad about.
"Now this system is pretty good Max, but it's got it's quirks. The lightning dust I incorporated into the door will shock any living thing without an aura, which is only grimm, of course. But that's not the down side. I made this vault to protect those inside at all costs. It will open for people if no one is inside or if there are no grimm within a ten foot radius, but closer than that it locks down if there is someone already inside. So if you plan on using it in a pinch you should make sure to get everyone inside in one go. That's the safest bet with this system. There's a monitor inside the vault that will show you what's just outside the door so you can open the door manually if necessary, but you'll need the password to override the safety lock, and in a pinch that means you likely won't be able to help someone get inside very fast."
"What are you doing?" Ariel said right behind William.
"Wah! Ariel! You scared me!"
"Duh, captain obvious, so what are you doing?"
"Listening to pops and uncle talk about the security vault."
"Well let's race before they finish up. Dad is pretty busy so he's gonna leave as soon as the vault is finished."
William half pouted. He wanted to see the door installed, but at the same time he wanted to race too. He decided to race Ariel. They had a score to settle after all. They quickly started up the two motorbikes. The bikes were made just for their size and were only powerful enough to reach 12 miles per hour. While they weren't much, they were enough to make the kids in William's neighborhood super jealous as they both zipped by, trying to leave each other behind to win the race around the town. William ended up frustrated by end of the race though as Ariel played dirty! At least William thought so as she was not above cutting people off and swerving wildly to throw other people off their game.
"No fair! You played dirty again!"
"Short cuts aren't dirty squirt, they're smart."
William could only puff his cheeks since he wasn't as good at trick jumps as Ariel, who used them to jump over obstacles while he had to go around them.
"Still not fair!"
"Willy, life's not fair, okay? Just accept that I'm better than you in racing."
"Never!"
Ariel giggled, "Well you can just continue to eat my dust then."
William fumed even more, "One day! You'll see!"
"Whatever you say, Willy. Come on, if we're lucky we can see the final adjustments to the vault."
William instantly perked up again, "Okay!"
Just as Ariel said, Henry and Max were just finishing up connecting the door of the shelter. All that was left now was the final wiring, which would be quick. One of the neighbors who had helped move in the door was still there.
"Hey, Max, you won't need us anymore, right? Looks like everything is in place."
"Yeah, we're good Juan. Thanks for all your help"
"Anytime."
As Juan started to leave, William noticed Juan's daughter behind him. She was the same age as William, had sandy brown hair, soft grey eyes, and a demure personality that made her a magnet for all the older girls to fawn over as the 'cutest little thing.' William would've acted the same way towards her were it not for the fact that he could relate to her – constantly being treated like a kid all the time. Why couldn't anyone just treat him like a grown up?
"Hey Marcy!" William called.
"H-hey Willy," Marcy managed to respond, blushing slightly.
"What'cha doing here?" William asked.
"I... I came to watch."
"Oooooh, I think she came for something else," Ariel said with a smug grin on her face.
"D-did not!" Marcy replied with a mortified look on her face, blushing profusely now.
"Oh! You're just so cute!" Ariel said, rustling the girls hair.
"Hey! Stop it!" William exclaimed, "We're not babies!"
"T-thanks Willy," Marcy replied, still red as a tomato.
Ariel looked back and forth at the two of them and grinned even more, "Whatever you say squirt."
William puffed his cheeks just a little, but then smiled and waved Marcy and her father Juan goodbye. He felt proud of himself for defending Marcy. Though that pride was quickly dispersed when uncle attacked him again with tickling.
"HE HE HE HE! UNCLE! HA HA HA HA! STOP!"
"Yes, Henry, stop! Your hands are all greasy!" William's mother chided.
"Oooh, the boy will live through a little grease!" Henry shot back.
"But his shirt won't!"
"Fine, fine," Henry relented laughing. "All done squirt! I'll have to see you later."
"Awww... You're not going to stay for bug fights?"
Henry laughed, "We'll have to make bugs fight each other to the death some other day. Just makes sure to leave a few good sized spiders around for it." He whispered the last sentence.
"I heard that!" William's mom said disapprovingly.
"Looks like I better be off while I'm ahead, eh?"
William giggled, "Yeah!"
"Is the airship ready Max?"
"They gave us a call a few minutes ago. They're ready when you and Ariel are."
"Alrighty then! See ya squirt!" Henry said ruffling William's hair.
"See ya Uncle Henry."
Ariel merely waved from the door of the house and everyone waved back as the two departed for the airship station in the middle of the town.
"We'll have to redo some of the town's emergency evacuation routes now that our safe room is installed. I'm going to the city hall, okay dear?"
"Okay, be home for dinner," William's mom said.
"I always make it," Max said, winking at the woman who merely giggled.
"Yes, you do," she said smiling and gave Max a quick peck on the lips before he left.
"Ewwwww!" William exclaimed and the two parents merely chuckled as they went about their own business.
Even though William had said that, he smiled on the inside seeing his mom and dad act that way. He looked now at the safe room. It LOOKED. SO. COOL! He couldn't wait for his dad to get back so the whole family could go over all of features it had.