Chapter 1: Signal

It was graduation day at Signal, those who passed the tests could go on to Beacon Academy for the Entrance Exam. However, Mykeal Belfried didn't care about all that, so long as he could ram his sword into a Grimm's body soon. Signal's Exit Exam is to slay an Ursa.

And, suffice to say, it was far too easy for a Huntsman of Mykeal's caliber. He was born in a border village and had lived with his parents until a grimm attack had killed all the villagers, except him. He was forced to hide in the basement of the village's main hall, and all the other villagers died fighting the grimm. During those few weeks, Mykeal had fashioned weapons out of sticks and rocks, after which he hunted down the grimm that slaughtered his family and ended them all. A group of Huntsmen found him and raised him as a Hunter. When he was found in the ruins of his village, he had been badly injured, and collapsed as they reached him.

He was admitted into Signal eight years later and was able to create the weapon he had always wanted, the gunblade. His semblance is Runeshape, it allows him to, by forming complicated patterns, increase certain attributes of people and objects.

"Are you ready for this test?" Said a voice behind Mykeal. He turned around and it was his friend, Lorenzo Baras. Lorenzo was something near a god when it came to marksmanship, he was second to none currently going to Signal.

Mykeal has known Lorenzo since he was six, being that he was the first non-hunter from Vale he had ever met. He mostly prefered sniper rifles, but in close combat he used a sword to get the enemy off of him. His weapons had been made by Mykeal, as Lorenzo isn't as good with his hands as he is. Lorenzo had a cooldown-based laser sniper rifle and his sword was also a laser weapon. Lorenzo's rifle and blade used dust to give the shots and blade special properties based on the color of the dust's used. The saber had an opening at the bottom of the hilt that had holes for placing dust capsules. The sniper had ten "anti-grav" dust loadable clips that are the laser clips, the rifle's barrel able to semi-detach and flip to a sitting position on the top next to the scope turning the rifle into a marksman rifle. His semblance is Hawkeye, allowing him to shoot anything, within a certain range, dead-on. Due to the mechanism required to fire the laser, the rifle requires at least two to ten minutes of cooldown, depending on the number of capsules used, before being able to fire it again.

"Yeah, this'll be a cinch to finish." Said Mykeal, inspecting his weapon. "Well, all we have to do is kill a Ursa, can't be that hard." Said Lorenzo. "especially with our 'elite' training." Remarked Mykeal. "Well, we better get going." Said Lorenzo, and they were off to the ship for transport.

"Would all but Mykeal Belfried and Lorenzo Baras enter the ship now?" Said the pilot. The two looked at each other, curious as to why they were exempt from the transport. "Boys, you are with me." The two turned and saw Qrow, a teacher at Signal, behind them. "You two, due to your higher combat scores, are going to have a "special" exam with me." The two looked at each other, than back at Qrow and nodded. They followed him to another airship.

"Where are we going for this exam?" Asked Lorenzo. "You will know in due time what will happen." Said Qrow. The group got on the ship and left, heading north. "We are going to Forever Fall Forest." The two were shocked, only Hunters and Academy Students were allowed there. "What are we going to do there?" Asked Mykeal. "You two are going to hunt a Death stalker." Said Qrow. "We're hunting what?!" The duo were, suffice to say, terrified. Even Mykeal, who normally would jump at a challenge, was shaking in fear. "Are you trying to kill us?!" Lorenzo said. "Oh no, your not hunting any seperately, your hunting one together. You two seem to work together extremely well, and it seems Beacon has requested you two enroll as well." Qrow said. The boys then calmed down, knowing they should be able to take it on together.

They arrived at Forever Fall Forest next to a very large cave. Qrow led them out of the ship into the opening of the cave. "Lorenzo, if you would?" Said Mykeal. "I shall Mykeal, I shall." Said Lorenzo, as Qrow fired a flare into the cave. As it went off, Qrow gave Lorenzo the flare gun and a shot and rushed to the ship. "Fire that flare when you've killed it!" Yelled Qrow, and with that, his ship was off to cruising elevation. All they heard was the chittering of the Death stalker coming out of the cave, dazed and blinded. "Mykeal, rune me!" Said Lorenzo. "Already on it!" Said Mykeal, writing some Runes of Hardening on Lorenzo's clothes. "Done!" Said Mykeal, standing and unsheathing his gunsword. "Alright! Firing in 3... 2... 1..." Said Lorenzo, who then fired a multicolored laser at the Death stalker's stinger, slicing off it off comepletely.

Mykeal had ran in after Lorenzo's shot finished and started his assualt on the Death stalker, slashing its joints apart. He had expertly cut through each joint, spliting the legs apart. Lorenzo pulled out his sword beginning his onslaught on it as well. He begun cutting down the Death stalker' tail. Within seconds, it was dead.

However, what happened next was unexpected. The boys were congratulating themselves on their work when two more attacked out of the blue, catching them off guard. They had barely enough time to dodge their attacks, quickly regrouping and forming a strategy. "I got the left one, you got the right one, got it?" Mykeal said. "Alright then, lets get moving!" Lorenzo said, already rushing at his foe. Mykeal had shifted his sword into gun mode and started shooting at the stinger of the death stalker, trying to cut it off. Lorenzo had to, against his better judgement, rush at the stalker. However, unlike before, these were much older and more experienced, dodging most of his attacks. Only a few slashes had connected, and even then those that made it were only minor cuts at best. Mykeal had no better of a time. It was as if the death stalker was anticipating his shots and dodging each pristinely, which was enraging Mykeal. "What's up with these things!? Its as if they were trained to fight us!" Mykeal said, dodging the stinger once more. "I know! These are supposed to be tough, not impossible!" Lorenzo said, as he was swapping to his rifle. Mykeal had enough of this grimm's antics and swapped tactics. He swapped to his sword and rushed in to stab it in the eyes. In anticipation, it was about to leap back, but, to its surprise, Mykeal swapped to the pistol and shot its eyes out, blinding it. "Shift your tactics more often! It'll trip them up!" Mykeal shouted, as the death stalker swatted its claws around and stinging the ground at random. "I figured that out, but what should I swap to!?" Lorenzo shouted, shooting the left claw off his prey. Mykeal was about to answer Lorenzo, when the Deathclaw swatted him at a tree, rendering him unconscious. "Mykeal!" Lorenzo shouted, firing the laser through his stalkers face, finishing it off. He rushed over, carefully dodging the stinger of the blinded stalker.

"Mykeal! Wake up!" Lorenzo said. Mykeal was coming out of his stupor and was just barely able to roll out of impending impalement by his prey. He was shaken awake by the adrenaline pumping through his veins. "This is beginning to tick me off!" Mykeal then decided it was time to activate a rune he thought was to powerful to use. He snapped his fingers and the light was bending around him, making it hard to look at him directly. As it activated, his hair had began growing all the way down his back, fully covering the glowing mark. A large mane grew around his neck, his eyes had turned to cat-like slits, his teeth grew to almost sabertooth size, prompting his jaw to grow in order to accommodate, and he grew enormous and sharp claws from his fingertips.

Mykeal is a faunus, specifically a lion. The village he lived in was formed shortly after the Mount Glenn incident, a village of faunus escapees. They had great luck dodging the grimm, but their luck would eventually run out.

Lorenzo watched as Mykeal ripped through his prey, tearing its body to shreds. He almost felt sorry for the thing, almost. What he felt more was the new found fear he had towards Mykeal. This was a form he hadn't seen anything use before, human, faunus, or grimm. It was a form that terrified and invigorated him at the same time. Watching the man he knew for years tear through a death stalker like a hot knife through butter was, awe-inspiring to say the least, but it was incredibly frightening as well. Lorenzo was beginning to think what would happen if Mykeal lost control of this, would he turn on his friend? Maybe even attack Qrow when he got back? Well, his questions, for now, will go unanswered.

As the death stalker's body fizzled away, Mykeal turned to him, his form shifting back to a less beastly-state, though retaining a much smaller but still visible mane and his fangs shrank down, still retaining the sharp points however. He then dropped to the ground in front of Lorenzo, completely asleep. "My god, Mykeal. You're something else, you know that?" Said Lorenzo, firing the flare.

Thirty minutes later, Qrow came back to the forest floor. Lorenzo was holding Mykeal up by the shoulder. "How was the fight?" Qrow said. "The first one was easy, the other two, not so much." Lorenzo remarked, Qrow was confused. "There were two more stalkers? There was only one when we scoped this area for your test!" Qrow said. Mykeal had begun to awaken, "you mean to say that we were ambushed by grimm? That they knew we were coming to this exact spot to test our skill?" Mykeal said, half-awake and just barely processing the situation. "The test was how fast could the two of you could kill the stalker. I would then return and pick you up after you shot the flare. But it was taking to long, so I was ready to pick up two corpses when you fired the flare." Qrow said, amazed that these two boys could take on three stalkers and only come out with moderate wounds.

The boy's wounds were being treated when Qrow came into the room, "Good news boys! You're both going to Beacon after you recover!" Mykeal was elated, he was going to the best huntsman school in Vale. Lorenzo was as happy as Mykeal, but was still questioning whether Qrow intentionally added two grimm to fight, or if it was really a fluke.

-End of Chapter 1-

Author's Note

Well, this is the first chapter of my story. This was something I came up with while brainstorming with Black Devil White Demon on a RWBY story he's doing. This is the first of the shorter, more exposition-based character introduction chapters. For now, you've met the team's primary ranged fighter, Lorenzo Baras, and our main front-line fighter, Mykeal Belfried. Next chapter, you will meet the next three main characters of my story. I am open to any criticism you might have. Whether it's actually constructive and made to help me further the story and my writing skill, or to yell at me that I can't write, my story sucks, and that I should kill myself. Just know that reviews dripping with hate will be completely and utterly ignored. Anything constructive will be examined carefully and put to good use. Now that that's over, thank you for reading this story, if you like, review it! If you don't, review as well!

I know that this did need some fixing, so I spent the time during class to fix some of the things that bugged me when I reread the first chapter, this should be the only addition to the author's note though.