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Chapter 2: Let's Get Started

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Delsin woke up at about 7:00 the next morning. It had become his habit to wake up early back home, as that was usually when the trouble started. He got dressed and just started exploring, not sure where to go, but finding that there were about 10 hours before he was supposed to be in the amphitheater.

He wandered over to the Airship station, hoping to see his only Remnant friends when they arrived. He sat waiting for a while until the Airships came into view and started to land. Once people started to get off, he looked around, trying to find them, with no luck.

It wasn't until after the crowd had started to thin down that he saw someone he knew. Ruby had just fallen into some prissy girl's luggage and was currently being chewed out by said girl. Delsin raced over with his Light Dash.

"Sorry? Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?!" the girl said.

"Hey, she said she was sorry! Back off!" Delsin yelled back.

Ruby got up and looked at him.

"Delsin!" she said with a smile, the raging anger storm behind her all but forgotten.

"Excuse me?! Do you have any idea who you are talking to?!" the girl yelled.

Delsin stepped in front of Ruby.

"Yeah, the stuck-up girl who's about to get a Phosphor Beam to the face if she doesn't step the fuck off my friend," he said back, his hand glowing with his Neon power.

"Is that a threat?"

Right as she finished her question, the purple-blue beam flew past her head, barely missing her left ear. She was shocked, realizing that he was serious.

"Look princess. I try to be a peacekeeper. You apologize for yelling at my friend here, and we will be all good. You try any more of this nonsense, we will have problems. What's it gonna be?" he asked, a small amount of menace creeping into his voice.

The girl, a petite young woman wearing a rather short white dress, with stark white hair and icy blue eyes, had all of her anger drain from her face.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," she said as she turned around, and walked away.

"Mm, good enough," Delsin said with a shrug.

Ruby just stared at him in stunned silence.

"What? I wasn't actually gonna hurt her or anything. You guys have that aura stuff to protect you right?" Delsin asked when he saw the look on her face.

"You could've fooled me..." she said meekly.

"Well, I wasn't."

He turned around to see another girl had walked up behind them. This one was wearing a black, single-button vest with a sleeveless white high-collared undershirt under it, white shorts, and black stockings. All of this combined with her black hair, amber eyes, and the adorable black bow she wore on her head, made her look exceptionally mysterious.

"Nice job dethroning the heiress," she said.

"Who, that girl? All she needed was a reminder that she's not as important as she thinks she is."

The black haired girl laughed.

"You don't know who that was do you?" she asked.

"Not a clue, no."

"That was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the biggest distributor of Dust in the world."

Delsin had read something about that. His Scroll had come with a bunch of Remnant information, and he read through a lot of it before he went to bed last night. Apparently, it just hadn't sunk in.

"Huh. Explains why she needed to be knocked down a peg."

The girl, however, had already walked off, leaving him any Ruby standing there. He was about to say something when his scroll buzzed. It was a message from Ozpin, reminding him to get to the amphitheater quickly.

"Sorry, Ruby, I gotta go. Amphitheater's that way, bye," he said hurriedly, as he Light Dashed away.

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He ran all the way there, just in time to hear the worst motivational speech in history. He saw some people he knew come in, Ruby coming in with some scraggly blonde kid, whom he would later know as Jaune, but quickly went over to some blonde girl with purple eyes and well developed … assets.

On the stage, a woman stepped up, the same one from the rooftop battle and the elevator. The woman, whom he now knew as Glynda Goodwitch, told them to head to the ballroom, and that initiation would be tomorrow, leaving Delsin to wonder what "initiation" might be.

After they left, Delsin went and got a shower. When he got out, he went to the ballroom and saw Ruby, laying on a sleeping bag next to the girl he saw her with earlier.

"Sup Ruby!" he called, waving.

Ruby looked around and saw him.

"Delsin! Hey!" she called back, returning the wave.

Delsin walked over, wearing a borrowed pair Beacon sweatpants and a white t-shirt, feeling a little weird not wearing his beanie. The golden haired girl turned over to face him and made a seductive sound.

"Ruby, who's your friend?" she asked.

Delsin smiled in his typical fashion and held out his hand.

"Delsin Rowe."

Ruby threw a pillow at the girl.

"Delsin that's my older sister, Yang Xiao Long. Yang, this is my friend Delsin, the one I told you about," she said, a little angry.

Yang removed the pillow from her face and smiled.

"Relax Ruby, I was just kidding," she told her sister before turning back to Delsin, "It's nice to meet you Delsin."

"You too Yang. See you guys in the morning."

Delsin walked past them and saw the Snow Princess from earlier still awake on her sleeping bag. Feeling a little guilty he cleared his throat as he walked by. She turned to look at him. As she saw his face a startled look appeared on hers.

Delsin threw up his hands in a surrender.

"Hey, I'm not here to fight. Just hear me out, ok?" he said.

The girl sat up, still wary.

"Go on," she told him.

"Look, I just wanted to apologize. When you were yelling at my friend I admit, I could have handled that better than threatening to shoot you. Anyway, how about we both agree to not let our emotions get the better of us next time. Agreed?"

Weiss looked back at him with a mixed expression, one part mild surprise, and one part grudging agreement.

"Agreed. Weiss Schnee," she said, holding out her hand.

Delsin shook it.

"Delsin Rowe. Good night Weiss."

"Good night Delsin."

Delsin walked away. The diplomacy stuff was not really his first choice, but in the month since his so-called "Second Age" of Conduit/Human coexistence began, he'd had to learn. He'd gotten pretty good at it too.

Walking by, he saw the black-haired girl from earlier, the one who'd told him about Weiss in the first place. She was sitting in a chair reading a book. Figuring it would be a good idea to get more diplomacy practice, he walked over.

"Hey. You're that girl from earlier right?" he asked.

The amber eyed girl peeked over the top of her book.

"Oh. Aren't you that guy who told off the Schnee girl?" she asked in return.

"Yeah," he replied, scratching the back of his neck, "That would be me."

"Well done."

"Uh... Thank you. Delsin Rowe," he said, extending his hand.

The girl put her head down into her book.

"Blake," she said, not looking at him.

Delsin got the hint. This girl obviously didn't want to talk.

"Well, goodnight Blake."

"Goodnight Delsin.

After that brief exchange Delsin walked past everyone else to his small sleeping bag in the corner of the ballroom and closed his eyes, falling asleep. He hoped against hope that maybe he'd wake up at home again.

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He woke up the next morning, unhappily finding himself still on his sleeping bag. Groggily, he got up and got changed. The whole rest of the morning passed in a blur. But eventually he slowed down.

While the other students were getting their gear ready in the locker room, Delsin had other plans. Since he had no gear to prepare, he decided to explore, maybe find a spot or two for some of his "art projects."

He made his way out to the courtyard, trying to get a big picture view of the campus. He had picked out several spots on the ground and was about to go on aerial recon when a voice called out from behind him.

"Hey!" the voice called.

Delsin turned to face it. He saw a young man, maybe 17, with white hair and gray eyes, probably about 6 foot nothing. He was wearing a solid royal blue t-shirt and grey jeans.

"You're a first year right?" the young man asked.

"Yeah," Delsin answered warily.

"Well then come on! Initiation is in like, 5 minutes!" the young man replied, running off.

Delsin checked the time on his Scroll, and saw that he was right. He switched to his Neon power and sped off. He bolted past the young man who had warned him, but noticed that the same young man was managing to keep up. He also noticed that the young man's hair color had changed from stark white to lightning-bolt yellow.

After four and a half minutes of running, they reached the cliffside, just in time to see a somewhat annoyed Ozpin, as well as a rather angry Professor Goodwitch.

"Mr. Rowe, Mr. Roman, so nice of you to join us. If you would please stand on one of those platforms while I explain the terms of this exercise again?" Ozpin asked, sounding frustrated.

The both of them laughed nervously as they stepped forward onto the metal platforms in front of them. Ozpin spent the next few minutes going over the objective. Basically, all they had to do was go get a relic from a temple while traversing a monster infested forest. Simple enough.

That is, until Glynda took the floor.

"I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. Today," she said.

Delsin saw that Ruby looked a little put off by this, though his fellow students didn't seem to care at all.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin continued, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ruby seemed distraught by this announcement, but the way she displayed it was something Delsin found hilarious. Though Delsin himself was a little nervous about being on a team. He wasn't sure how someone would react to his past if they found out.

Ozpin continued on in what Delsin guessed was a trademarked deadpan. Delsin tuned out most of it, focusing on the task at hand. Eventually, he heard the sound of springs being released, accompanied by some excited cheers. Delsin looked up and saw several students had been launched off of the cliff. Just after he noticed though, it was his turn to be thrown into the air.

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As the last of the students went flying, Glynda looked at Ozpin.

"Are you sure it was a good idea, recruiting that boy?" she asked.

Ozpin smiled and took a sip from his mug. Contrary to what most thought, he hated coffee. That's why it was always full of cocoa.

"Glynda, while he may seem brusque and a little careless, he is incredibly powerful. You could say too powerful for his own good. So we would be remiss not to give him a place where he belongs, and give him people to protect. It would seem that is what he thrives on," he said with a smile.

"While that may be the case, that's not what I was talking about," she replied.

"Oh? And what were you talking about?"

"With the two last minute additions you made to our attendance roster, we no longer have enough students to four man teams without two leftover."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I have a plan," he said staring up at the sky.

Glynda looked at the man before her. She trusted him and acquiesced with a shrug and a sigh. However, Ozpin's interior thoughts told a different story.

"I completely forgot about that. Darn."

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For a while, Delsin just enjoyed the feeling of the fall. He wasn't worried. Even if he did hit the ground too hard, his conduit healing would heal any damage he took in a few moments. Besides, he'd jumped off the Space Needle. This was nothing.

After a minute or two he switched to his Video power and activated his wings. He'd gotten a lot of practice with them, and he was now able sustain them for about 25 seconds and control his flight impeccably. So, using both of his Surges, he flew forward a little farther and used his thrusters to get down to the ground.

In the distance he heard several explosions and a roar, but paid them no mind. They seemed rather insignificant before the large pack of Beowolves in front of him. Fortunately, they hadn't seen him yet, but that didn't matter.

Delsin was caught off guard. Ruby had explained what the Grimm were and what they looked like, but actually seeing them now, was a whole different thing. He could almost feel the enmity flowing off of them, like putrid black waves.

He almost threw up in the bushes he crouched in, but he managed to hold it in and steel himself. Now ready, he cloaked himself and summoned two of his angels, having practiced that part of his power as well.

The angels surged forward on their wings and cut down two of the nine Grimm pack. Delsin followed and launched his Bloodthirsty Blades, killing another and breaking his invisibility. The alpha, which he recognized from the excessive bone plate armor around its torso and head, tore through the angels and with a roar roused the others into a charge.

Delsin responded in kind. Switching over to Neon, he threw a Phosphor Beam at the head of one of the ones on his left, killing it. One on his right got close and swiped at him. He ducked, evading it, and this time with Smoke, unleashed a Cinder Blast on its legs, blasting it back through a tree behind it.

Another two tried to jump on top of him, but he instead threw two Cinder Missiles out at them. One died, its head blown off, but the other powered through it and joined with another coming from the ground along his other side. Delsin used his chain and hit the one in front of him, but before he could finish his spin to hit the one behind him, it managed to swipe and cut into his back.

Delsin fell forward but Smoke Dashed away from the center of the monsters, falling on his face behind a bush.

"Time to change it up," he said aloud, switching to his Concrete power.

He'd managed, in the few seconds he had, to get up to a runner's position. As one charged into the bush where he was hiding, he Boulder Dashed back, knocking it over. Now that he was behind the charging group, he unleashed a Concrete Barrage. Of the four left standing, now only the alpha remained. The Concrete from his barrage hadn't damaged it at all, and the one he had hit into the tree was up again, ready to attack.

The last regular Beowolf charged. Delsin didn't even try to use his ranged attacks, instead punching the ground and using his Ground Smash's shockwave. The concussive force of the blast threw the beast back into a different tree, and Delsin finished it off with a quick shot of Concrete Shrapnel. Delsin and the alpha now stood facing each other, the other eight monsters' corpses fading into black dust.

Delsin switched to his Water power, this being one of the few times he'd used it in a fight. The alpha began to circle him, and Delsin turned with it, never letting it see his back. Delsin broke the stance first and used his Water's heavy attack, a high pressure water blast, seemingly the same width as a Phosphor Beam.

The beast raised an arm to block it, but the water cut right through it, removing the beasts left arm. Angrily, the beast charged and swiped at him with its remaining hand and Delsin was just a little to slow.

The alpha's claw tore into his chest, making him bleed profusely. Delsin knew his Conduit healing would fix him in a few seconds, but it still hurt, and if he didn't keep moving, he would still die. The pain made him hesitate, and the beast swiped again, this time slicing into Delsin's left arm.

Delsin rocked back from the pain, but he managed to catch himself and steel himself again. He used another of his water powers, making two water duplicates and retreating in a wave. The clones couldn't do anything, but they would slow the beast down.

As it destroyed the clones, his chest wound healed, but they were gone before his arm healed. He was about to try and attack again, determined to push through the pain, when a fireball came out from the left side of the small clearing, blasting off its remaining arm.

Delsin turned, his wounded arm still outstretched with his power active. When he turned, he saw the same boy from earlier, the one who he arrived with. Only this time he had deep red hair as opposed to the white or yellow. The young man approached Delsin, a streams of fire circling his left hand.

"Looks like you could use a hand, partner," the young man said, smirking.

Delsin smiled, his arm healed.

"I had it handled, but if you want to help, be my guest," Delsin replied, similarly smirking.

Delsin switched back to his Smoke power.

The alpha looked at them angrily and roared, seemingly almost dead, but not yet down. As the young man threw another fireball, Delsin threw another Cinder Missile, and both collided with the beast and blasted it to smithereens.

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Ozpin and Glynda were watching the battle via the cameras hidden in the forest.

"It seems your faith was not misplaced Professor," Glynda said, a small expression of shock on her face, "Though I have to wonder why he didn't use his Aura to defend himself."

Ozpin's face revealed nothing.

"He doesn't have one," he told her.

"What?!" she yelled.

"More precisely it hasn't been unlocked."

"Then how did he do all of that? More importantly, how is he still alive?"

"I don't quite know. He tried explaining it when I admitted him, but to be honest it's about as foreign an idea as he is."
"What do you mean foreign?" she asked, her initial shock fading.

"Nevermind."

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"You all right?" the young man asked.

"Yeah, I'll heal up in about a minute," Delsin replied.

"Really? No wonder you didn't bother with your Aura."

"Wha- Oh, right. It's not that I didn't use it, it's just that I don't have one."

The young man stepped back in shock.

"What do you mean 'I don't have one'?"

"I don't. Hasn't been activated or whatever."

"Ooh. That makes … marginally more sense, I guess. So what's your name stranger?"

"Delsin. Delsin Rowe. You?"

"Alexander Roman. Call me Alex."

The two shook hands, then continued their way towards the temple. They didn't talk much on the way there, not even about themselves. After about fifteen minutes though, Alex stopped.

Delsin turned to his partner, noticing his hair had turned back to white.

"Something wrong?" Delsin asked.

"Nothings wrong, I was just considering something," Alex replied.

"What?"

"Well, you said you don't have an unlocked Aura, right?"

"Yeah. And?"

"You wanna fix that?"

Delsin was intrigued.

"OK, how?" he asked.

"Well I've never done it before, but I could try and unlock it for you," Alex offered.

"You sure you know how?"

"It's simple enough. Just moderately tiring."

Delsin thought about it for a minute. He had to admit, it was interesting. And having a secondary shield to protect him would save him a fortune on clothes, especially since the ones he was wearing had rips in them from Beowolf claws. But there was one thing he had to know first.

"I'm willing to let you try, but first I have a question."

"Shoot."

"What's up with your hair? I've seen it be three different colors now."

Alex smirked and let out a short laugh.

"Oh, that? It's part of my Semblance. Take a look."

He pulled a small brown crystal,, maybe the size of a golf ball, out of the small backpack he wore.

"That's Dust, right?" Delsin asked.

"Indeed it is, my family lives over a large Dust deposit. Anyway, one part of my Semblance allows me to do this."

With that, he took the crystal and placed it in his mouth. And swallowed. Delsin was a little shocked. He'd heard Dust was incredibly volatile and dangerous, but this guy just ate it without a care in the world.

Then Alex's hair changed. His previously white hair turned brown.

"When I eat a Dust crystal, I temporarily gain the ability to manipulate the energy that the crystal represents. Typically, it lasts until I use it up or a certain amount of time passes. If I eat a regular size crystal, like the size of a crystal you would buy at a store, it lasts about an hour. The smaller the crystal, the shorter the time and less power I have access to. It also temporarily changes me physically, each type enhancing one physical attribute and changing my hair color to the color of the Dust I ate."

"Sounds powerful. What about the one you just ate?"

"An earth crystal. It'll probably last about twenty minutes."

"What's it boost?"

"Well, earth does a similar thing as ice actually. They both increase defense, but in different ways. Ice reduces the damage my Aura takes, making it last longer, but Earth boosts my physical resistance, so if my Aura fails, I won't get hurt as badly."

"Can't you just eat both?"
Alex laughed nervously.

"I can. It's just not a good idea. I may get both enhancements, but the more varieties I consume beyond one, the more physical pain it leaves me in. Plus Dust is already volatile. My abilities make it easy to control one element at a time, but past that it gets harder and harder to control."

"Ok, you said that's one part of your Semblance. What's the other?"

"I'll tell you later. It's not really important right now," Alex said, "So, you ready?"

Delsin had gotten caught up in the explaining and had forgotten the original point.

"Uh, yeah. Knock yourself out," he said.

"Hopefully not. Your hand please."

Alex took Delsin's hand and he began to glow, his Aura flaring brown. Delsin would later learn that there was usually a chant used alongside this action, but Alex didn't seem to need one. After about a minute Alex dropped his hand, obviously tired, and Delsin felt a warm sensation envelop him. He looked down and briefly saw his hands glow blue. He looked up at his partner and saw him doubled over.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Alex answered in between his wheezes, "It just took a lot more out of me than I thought it would."

"Ok."

It was then Delsin noticed Alex's hair had returned to white.

"You used up the earth power already?" he asked.

Alex nodded.

"Like I said, took a lot out of me."

During this conversation, Delsin noticed that Alex's shirt had two slits down the back, starting at his shoulder blades and going to about his kidneys. At the moment though, he didn't see the point of asking, and after a few minutes the two of them were moving again.

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Back on the cliffside, Glynda was still watching the students from the hidden cameras. She felt a little nervous about some of the pairings, she had to admit. Like the one on the primary camera on her tablet. A pink clad, red headed girl named Nora and a green clad boy with black hair and a pick stripe going down the left side of his hair named Ren.

"Our last pair has been formed sir, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren," Glynda reported, "Poor boy. I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Ms. Nikos."

Ozpin grunted questioningly.

"I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat," she continued, "I guess we'll find out soon enough. At their current pace, they should reach the temple in just a few minutes."

"Good. How fares Mr. Rowe?" Ozpin asked.

Glynda pressed a few icons on her scroll.

"He's found his partner of course. Alexander Roman. The two seem to work well together. Also Mr. Rowe's scroll seems to be registering an Aura level."

Ozpin's eyes widened slightly.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes. Seeing as he previously did not have one, I assume his partner unlocked it for him, much like Ms. Nikos did with her partner."

"Interesting. Their current status?"

Glynda tapped a few more times.

"Oh. Well, at least we'll get to see how well they work together," she said, holding the tablet so Ozpin could see.

"Indeed," he said.

CHAPTER END

So, what has happened to our hero? Who is Alex? Aw, the Hell with all this cryptic crap. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, even if it does feel a little rushed. It's just that there is so much of this story that I want to write, but most of it is not in Volume One.

Also, clarification. Alex is described as having gray eyes. He is NOT, let me be clear, NOT one of the people with silver eyes. He's going to be OP enough when I get done with him, and you haven't even seen his whole Semblance yet. Also, he cannot eat crystals bigger than the ones seen in the dust shop in Volume One Episode One.