Braving the Gauntlet

The Chthonic Professor

Summary: Team GNLT (Gauntlet) passes Beacon's initiation alongside Teams RWBY, JNPR and CRDL. These four boys will change the dynamics between the three teams, but one of their members has something to hide. Gray Wolfgang looks like your average healer on the surface, but there's something far more sinister to his unique power.

-.-

Chapter One - The First Gauntlet

-.-

"Wow…." A young man's awed voice whispered quietly, heard only by the person standing directly to his right, "Check it out dude." He said while nudging the boy beside him with his elbow.

The second boy rolled his light blue eyes, shoved his hands in pockets, and shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a school, Gray. You're such a nerd sometimes." Despite his harsh-sounding words, the boy had a slight half-smirk, half-smile on his face as he took in his best friend's bright expression.

Gray Wolfgang and Lapis Lazuli had known each other since they were boys, having met each other in their first year of combat school. They'd grown incredibly close over the years, and now could easily claim that each knew the other better than they knew themselves.

"Oi!" Gray called out, his deep brown eyes narrowed as he gave his friend an over-the-top glare. "I'm not a nerd! I'm a dork! Get it right, already, there's a difference y'know!" He yelled, pushing his black-framed glasses up his nose with a finger. Despite the supposed anger in his words, Gray couldn't keep the wide grin off his face.

Lapis just let out a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a snort.

"Come on you idiot, let's get going before your dumb ass makes us late." Lapis rolled his eyes again before marching off resolutely. Behind him, Gray's shoulders slumped.

"Aww, c'mon Lapis, don't be like that." He whined irritatingly, causing Lapis' eye to twitch. The slightly shorter boy completely ignored his best friend and kept walking without a single falter in his stride.

"Du~ude!"

Nope. Totally ignored.

-.-

The two seventeen year olds had made their way to Beacon's auditorium after only a minor amount of fuss from Gray. Standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder amongst the crowd of freshman, Gray now had his nose stuck in his scroll while Lapis scanned the mass of people with a bored look on his face.

It was only partially due to their close proximity and partially because they knew each other so well that Gray noticed, even with his head down and his eyes focused on his scroll, when Lapis' shoulders suddenly tensed and he stood up a little bit straighter. His interest piqued, Gray looked up from his mobile device for a moment to glance at his best friend.

To his complete and utter surprise, he found Lapis Lazuli, Mr. Constant-Cool-Careless-Facade, making googley-eyes at some girl halfway across the auditorium. Though, in his defence, where most men would've been drooling at the sight, Lapis was only glancing once every couple of seconds at the girl out of the corner of his eye. From his body language alone he clearly didn't want Gray to know that some girl in the room had caught his eye.

Gray's smirk was almost villainous. The poor fool.

An almost freakishly tall man with wire-frame glasses and messy grey hair was stepping up to the microphone on the stadium, and Gray knew it was the perfect time to strike.

"Hey Lapis," He spoke lowly, his voice almost a whisper, with a wicked smirk on his face. He was facing forwards, but all of his attention was focused on Lapis' face, which he could see through the edge of his peripherals, as he slyly slipped an arm over his friend's shoulders. "Why don't we look away from the beatifically beautiful bodacious blonde bombshell's bombastic boobies and towards the headmaster instead? You wouldn't want to miss his speech, would yoooeeEOWCH!"

With absolutely no expression on his face, the only thing giving away his ire being a small twitch in his lower jaw, Lapis had mercilessly stomped on Gray's right foot, eliciting a harsh yelp from the still-grinning brunet.

"Fuck off."

Hopping up and down on one foot and holding onto the other with both hands, Gray let out a pained laugh.

"Totally worth it!"

Lapis let out a grunt and jabbed his fingers into Gray's side, eliciting another yelp from the boy.

Even with his throbbing toe and the pain in his side, it had absolutely been worth it just to get off that single string of words and to see the lone twitch in Lapis' jaw.

All of a sudden a hush fell upon the room of hyperactive freshmen as the tall man with grey hair began speaking in a slow, measured tone.

"I'll… keep this brief." Gray set his foot back on the ground as inconspicuously as he could and turned to look at Lapis with one of his eyebrows cocked. This was going to be interesting. "You have traveled here today 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." The man's deep baritone voice rumbled across the hall. "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose… direction."

Nearly everyone in the massive room did a double-take. That was harsh.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." The man paused, whether or not it was for dramatic effect, Gray couldn't tell. "It is up to you to take the first step."

With his piece spoken, the man, who everyone knew to be Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon, turned and slowly left the stage.

The blonde woman who'd been standing behind Ozpin throughout his short speech stepped up to the microphone and began speaking, but Gray wasn't listening anymore. He'd turned to Lapis with a grin on his face.

"I like this guy." He grinned, nudging Lapis in the side to get a reaction out of him. Lapis turned to begin following the throng of students leaving the hall, but kept looking at Gray over his shoulder.

"Why, because he has grey hair?" Despite the fact that Lapis' face was completely devoid of emotion, Gray could have recognized the twinkle in his blue eyes from a mile away.

"Boo!" He cheered, giving the boy's retreating back a double thumbs-down. Even then, Gray still had a grin on his face as he jogged to catch up to his friend. Slapping Lapis on the back, he said, "Dude, that's something I'd expect out of me. I never thought you'd stoop so low." He crowed, throwing an arm over Lapis' shoulders and causing the both of them to stumble.

The shit-eating grin on Gray's face grew ever wider, even as his nerdy plastic glasses were knocked askew.

"I'm so proud of you!"

Lapis elbowed him in the stomach, causing Gray to double over and groan even as he laughed.

"Shut up."

Gray's laughter would follow the group of freshman all the way to the locker rooms.

-.-

After they'd arrived at the ballroom where they'd be sleeping, Gray and Lapis had claimed a spot with their sleeping bags nearby a window before heading out to take a much-needed shower.

Returning to the ballroom, the two boys were no longer dressed in their casual clothes, instead wearing their bedclothes. The two were dressed surprisingly similarly, both of them wearing loose tank tops and baggy pyjama pants.

Gray, interestingly enough, was wearing a speckled grey tank with a black breast pocket on the left side of his chest and a white trim. His pants were incredibly baggy to the point that they pooled around his ankles and beneath his feet as he walked. They were black and had the words "I 'heart' Kamata' printed all over them, both right-side-up and upside-down, with the words in white and the hearts in red.

Beside him, Lapis was wearing a plain baggy blue tank top and a pair of loose pyjama pants similar to Gray's. His pants had a base burnt orange colour to them, but were checkered with magenta and navy blue lines.

Lapis was, as usual, slumping as he walked with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. Beside him, Gray was walking with a grin on his face, having just cracked a joke, with his fingers threaded together behind his head.

There were numerous boys all over the room attempting to show off their muscles by walking around shirtless, but quite a few of the girls in the room had their attention on the two boys instead. One such girl was a certain blonde bombshell named Yang Xiao Long.

Now, Yang wasn't the kind of girl to turn away from a free show, but despite the fact that numerous boys in the room were giving just that, she was getting an even better show from the two unknowing boys. They'd initially caught her eye because the taller boy, despite wearing a pair of nerdy-looking glasses, looked quite a bit older than the other freshman because of the distinct amount of stubble on his chin. Then her eyes began to wander.

The slightly shorter boy (though not by very much) had some surprisingly muscular arms in spite of his seemingly average frame, and even without any flexing on his part Yang could see the definition of the boy's upper arms. With that kind of muscle Yang was almost certain that the boy must use a fighting style similar to her own.

The boy beside him, the one that had initially caught her attention, was showing off an impressive pair of arms as well. What with the way he had them causally intertwined behind his head, his elbows in the air, the boy's biceps were on full display.

With a low growl and a nudge to her sister's side Yang purred out, "Mama likes what she sees!" She even managed to waggle her eyebrows at the pair of boys before Ruby pelted her in the face with a pillow.

"Yang!"

While peeling the pillow from her face Yang managed to catch onto the tail end of a loud chuckle as the pair of boys passed beside where she and Ruby were lying down.

"Hey Lapis, I think the beatifically beautiful bodacious blonde bombshell with the bombastic boobies from before was checking us out." He said with a cheeky grin on his face. Without skipping a beat Lapis slugged his best friend in the shoulder, scowling at Gray for bringing trying to use the same stupid joke twice in the same day.

Gray had been expecting Lapis' punch, already knowing how his friend was going to react, but he'd been mid-step when Lapis had launched his assault. With a slight cry of surprise, Gray stumbled, tripped over his own feet, and took a tumble.

With a light groan, Gray lifted his head from whatever had cushioned his fall and came face-to-face with a pair of violet eyes.

Everything went quiet for a moment before Yang cracked what could only be described as a cheesy grin.

"Hey Ruby," She called out in a teasing tone, eyes locked onto the wide brown orbs of the boy who'd managed to literally stumble his way into her cleavage, "Did a wise-guy with a wicked way with words just waddle his way into my womanly wonder-globes?"

…

Almost everyone in the vicinity paused at Yang's words.

Gray's grin could have lit up a lighthouse.

"Aw shit, there's another one of him." The look on Lapis' face was soul-crushing.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled with her cheeks burning a bright crimson.

"Big boobs, blonde hair and a fellow lover-of-puns? What are you, my dream girl?" Gray's cheeky comment was immediately followed by Lapis' cry of "Dammit Gray!" alongside a face-palm of epic proportions. Gray moved to lift himself off of Yang, bracing his arms against the ground on either side of her, but stopped as she suddenly moved.

Yang's violet eyes were practically sparkling as she reached forwards and ran a finger up and down each of Gray's biceps. She licked her lips, winked, and said, "Well, big boy, with a body like this I'm sure it won't be too much trouble for you to find out."

While Ruby and Lapis were sharing a slack-jawed expression a shiver ran up and down Gray's spine as he blushed like a tomato. Lifting himself up from the ground, Gray stood silently as he shifted his pants, his tank top, and fiddled with his hair.

Yang smirked up at the flustered boy. She'd won this round decisively, but somehow she was sure this guy would be back for more.

"Well…" He finally said, traces of a blush still staining his cheeks, "It's been a pleasure meeting you…" He trailed off, looking down at the buxom blonde expectantly while avoiding her eyes completely.

"Yang Xiao Long." Yang provided with a foxy grin, "And this is my little sister Ruby Rose." Yang jabbed a thumb at the still slack-jawed Ruby. The poor girl was blushing even harder than Gray. Gray coughed, scratched the back of his head nervously, and gestured over at his friend who was both trying to look indifferent yet simultaneously glaring mutinously at his best friend.

"This is Lapis Lazuli , and I'm Gray Wolfgang. It's been a pleasure meeting you two… lovely ladies." He finished a little awkwardly. Yang winked at him again and purred, "Oh, believe me, the pleasure was all mine."

While Gray's blush resurfaced, Ruby took matters into her own hands by once more yelling out "Yang!" and pelting her sister in the face with another pillow.

The two boys let out identical snorts of amusement as the sisters began to bicker with each other. Before things could escalate any further Gray started walking away, Lapis not far behind.

"I guess we'll see you around, or something," He called over his shoulder with a lackadaisical wave.

With their backs turned to the bickering sisters, neither boy noticed the white-haired heiress to the Schnee dust company stomp her way over to the whirling mass of limbs that were Yang and Ruby.

-.-

The morning after, Gray and Lapis found themselves standing side-by-side at the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley filled to bursting with emerald green trees.

After listening to Ozpin's rather enlightening speech, most students were gearing themselves up in preparation for what was to come. Gray was not one of those people. Now, while that might sound like he was being far too arrogant for the current situation, the truth was in fact quite the opposite.

Lapis was trying with all his might to either not laugh or begin to panic at Gray's dilemma. While Lapis had already devised a strategy to ensure a survivable landing in the forest below, Gray was still shaking like a leaf beside him.

Not only was the teen trying to get over his fear of heights while approaching the cliff, he had now just been told by the man that was going to be his headmaster that they would be launched off of said cliff without any predetermined way to survive such a devastating fall. The poor guy was shaking so hard that his knees were practically knocking together.

"L-Lapis," He ground out through chattering teeth, "W-What the heck am I supposed to do?" He questioned, genuine fear in his voice.

"Brace yourself," Was the only thing a grim-faced Lapis could get out before the metal pad beneath Gray's feet launched him into the morning sky. With a tight smile, Lapis locked his legs and prepared himself for takeoff.

Despite the guy's fears and seeming immaturity, Gray could be a surprisingly resourceful guy. Lapis simply had to trust that his best friend wouldn't get himself killed trying to complete this infernal test.

That being said, Lapis' tight grin quickly morphed until it was nearly splitting his cheeks. There was no way he wouldn't be enjoying this.

Heck, maybe he'd finally find something of a challenge during this blasted test!

-.-

AN: Alright people, this is the first instalment of Braving the Gauntlet. I came up with this little plot bunny while watching through Volume 3, and after managing to get my friends obsessed with the show, we had a little chat about weapons and semblances and such. So, being the writer our little group, I decided to throw something together to not only satisfy our inner heroic desires, but also to fix some of the moments from the latest volume that have utterly destroyed me and ruined my entire life. Because there's no way the last couple of episodes haven't traumatized me. Seriously. I can't deal with this shit any more, where's Volume 4 already?

That being said…

Peace!

The Chthonic Professor