(Maxwell Williamson, 3rd person)
Leaning on one of the windows on the airship, Max was one of those young men who looked at least somewhat attractive yet shouldn't be trifled with. He wore a black leather jacket over a white t-shirt, a pair of black armored jeans, and black steel-toed boots with red embroidery. On both arms he wore gunmetal-gray gauntlets, both of which could quickly transform into machine guns with a fire rate of well over 300 per minute. If that wasn't enough to scare, his current Semblance allowed him to unleash and absorb fire, radiation, and blast force with ease. His looks alone made him appear extremely intimidating, with bright blue eyes glowing with the fires trapped inside him.
Today, though, he didn't appear intimidating. In fact, he seemed… distracted. By what, no one would ever really know, as he never spoke except to further intimidate his foes; otherwise, he normally kept to himself. But that was just it; he was remembering why he changed to the way he is. After all, he wasn't always so cold, so distant, so intimidating. In fact, he used to be open all the time, warm and funny, smart and caring. At that point in his life, he was having numerous Aura bursts, growth spurts for Aura that normally resulted in not only larger Auras but different Semblances.
Before he took on his current persona, he went through five different Semblances, each one more powerful than the other: Invisibility, Speed, Soundwaves, Lightning, and Fire. His older brother, Trevor, was always there to help him grow accustomed to his newfound powers. Trevor was the original owner of Max's current arsenal, the gauntlets, but for an entirely different reason: those gauntlets prevented Aura recharges in an attempt to remove the threat of life-threatening Aura bursts mid-battle. With his Aura already so powerful, and in an attempt to remember his older sibling, Max took on the task of using those gauntlets, later adding on twin barrels and rotating magazines to add to the efficiency of his new weapon. Looking down at his powerful weapons, Max recalled the events leading up to the loss of his brother and his well-timed Aura burst that gave him his current Semblance…
–FLASHBACK—
Christmas Day, just before noon, at a mall in downtown Vale. Max was only two years younger than he currently was. He and Trevor went out to the mall, looking at all the people shopping for last-minute gifts for their loved ones, a family tradition that their deceased parents taught them. The brothers hung out around the large evergreen in the large foyer of the shopping center, staring at an unusually large red box with gold lining and a gold ribbon holding it all together. An unusual sight, though the two weren't just fixed on the box, but on the numerous men dressed as elves around the edges of the foyer.
Just as the clock struck noon, the band of green- and red-clad men drew Dust-powered machine guns on the crowd in the mall foyer. Panic filled the crowd of shoppers in the event, but what frightened them more was the contents of the abnormally large box near the tree. Two of the closer criminal cosplayers opened the massive container to reveal none other than a nuclear bomb. This Christmas should've gone down in a mushroom cloud, but the brothers stood their ground and took out the criminals surrounding the crowd, ordering everyone to get away from the site before something went wrong.
The stronger of the two, Trevor, held up the bomb in an attempt to prevent the gravity-sensitive explosive from dropping and going off. That was their biggest mistake, as neither which one knew about the snipers in the upper levels of the foyer. One well-aimed bullet pierced through Trevor's Aura and tore through his skull, ending the older brother's life in less than a millisecond. Although weaker at the time, Max had no choice but to keep the bomb from tipping over. A stray bullet pierced through the nuclear weapon's metal shell, making the bomb go off, just as Max went through one final Aura burst.
The fire, radiation, and sheer force should've killed the youth, but his Aura protected him. In fact, his new Semblance, the power of a nuclear bomb, took this new force as an opportunity to power up without using up Max's more powerful Aura. Instead of a mushroom cloud, Max's Semblance sucked the weapon's deadly power into the space of a man-sized ball. It all went into the boy's chest as his body glowed with a deadly fire. The glow faded into his eyes as he remembered that his brother was now gone.
The gauntlets he has today flew off of his brother's wrists and onto his own, locking into place. None of the snipers made it out. Period. The criminals had holes burned through their chests by the time Max had calmed down. In exchange for the powers of three nuclear bombs, the young boy lost his brother. Because of his loss, he lost his old personality and his will to trust others.
–PRESENT DAY—
Max snapped out of his dream-like state when he heard the whine of the aircraft's engines as they came in to land. It only took a few seconds for him to remember why he was here: Beacon Academy. He followed the other students off the airship until they were actually off the airship; he then proceeded to split from the crowd, searching for some sort of map.
"Ooh, Sis," he heard a girl's voice squeal; he recognized the squeal, immediately pushing old memories of Signal and his past life out of his mind. "That guy's gauntlets look just like yours!"
"Calm down, Ruby," another familiar voice entered his ears. "They're just weapons. Besides, don't you like your own?"
Max could feel his heart racing in his chest as adrenaline told him to either fly away or break something. His instincts were fighting both his emotions and his memories as he walked along the cement path. Even in the midst of warring with himself, the soldier boy couldn't hide the small dark voice in his head screaming that something bad was about to happen.
(Simon Andrews, 3rd person)
Simon wasn't the best person to go to for luck. In fact, he almost literally had the worst of it. Now was one of those moments, as after a red-haired girl fell into some perfectionist girl's junk, a young man got in the wrong position as an explosion sent him flying at Simon and his small pack of stuff. At this point, his head was still spinning as the young boy shot him nonstop rapid-fire apologies.
"Shut up already," Simon nearly snapped, brushing his long brown hair out of his face. "I'm still confused as to how a Dust explosion of such a small magnitude could send you flying so far."
"Oh," the kid muttered. "I don't know. Maybe it's just my luck. Either way, I'm—."
"Don't apologize again," Simon cut him off, straightening out his Norse-styled tunic. A few moments of silence passed as they heard the rich girl shouting at the redhead.
"Well, this is awkward," the first-year muttered to himself after clearing his throat. "Err… what's your name?"
"Simon Andrews," he responded. "And yours?"
"Jason Neuton," the young man responded. The white-haired girl brushed by him, looking ready to kill.
"What's with her?"
"Who, Weiss? Eh, that's just her. She doesn't cooperate well with others, being the heiress to that one Dust company and all…"
"Pretty snarky if you ask me."
"I heard that," the two boys could hear the heiress shout.
"Want me to say it again, because I will," Simon returned. She just huffed and continued walking.
(Jason Neuton, 1st person)
Simon and I kept walking to wherever we were going, finally reaching an auditorium-type… whatever those things are. On the way, I learned that Simon is on his second year here, even though he doesn't have his own team just yet. He also mentioned that he controls thunder and lightning, and can hear things from an immense distance away. I asked him why he has his hair so long, and he mentioned that it's a tradition from his mother's side of the family. I noticed that his hair covered his ears, but I wasn't about to ask why.
I found Robert and invited Simon to stand over with us. As it turns out, the two of them sort of know each other. Ozpin came on stage and gave some sort of speech, followed by Goodwitch, who mentioned that we'd be staying in the ballroom tonight before we went through the initiation process. All I could remember thinking was something along the lines of 'oh, joy'.
And that's where I found myself a few hours later, wearing a white t-shirt and blue shorts. We were about ready to head off to bed when—.
"There they go again," Simon groaned, pressing his pillow to his ears as Ruby, her sister Yang, and Weiss all started arguing.
Robert, earbuds in his ears, put earmuffs over his ears to block out the arguing. Max, headphones over his ears, sighed and turned up the volume on his music. I, on the other hand, was getting increasingly annoyed with the girls' arguing minutes after the candles were blown out.
"That's it," I growled, pulling out a pistol I always kept handy and shoving a magazine in. I then proceeded to get up and march over to the girls' location. Even with my eyes glowing with anger, they were still arguing like politicians. I raised the barrel of the pistol to the roof, clicked off the safety, and pulled the trigger a few times.
The numerous cracks of the gunpowder pistol rang through the ballroom, silencing the girls' argument.
"Thank you," I growled, glaring mostly at Weiss for instigating. "Now get to bed before I actually take aim." At this point, my entire body was starting to glow as I walked back to my spot. Of course, what I had to say seemed to brush on by their ears.
"I think we should do what he says," Ruby muttered worriedly behind me. Weiss scoffed at this.
"So you'll listen to him but not to me," the annoying prick in my side demanded.
"Hey, you were the one who started it," Yang mentioned.
At this point I was resting on top of my bed, trying to shut them out.
"Well, it wasn't me who started fighting her sister," Weiss argued. They kept arguing like this for a few more minutes before I couldn't handle it anymore.
"HEY!" I heard a voice shout next to me, making me flinch. "SHUT THE" insert word I'm not about to repeat here "UUUUP! AND GET TO BED!"
"Gah, Christ," Simon whimpered. "Those were my ears before you, like, made them explode."
"Well, you weren't causing a ruckus, now were you," the soldierly voice I now recognized to be Max Williamson countered.
"Could you at least walk over there next time?"
"Could you cover your ears next time?"
"Even if I did, you'd still blast them out—."
A beam of white-hot Aura burst out of my palm, rocketing to the ceiling. The two looked at me with either shocked or annoyed faces.
"Anyone else wanna argue," I challenged loudly over the new silence. "GOOD. I'm glad. Now hit the sack."
'Tomorrow's going to be a long day,' I thought as my mind wandered to the dream world.
—END—
FINALLY! Golly gee whiz! That was a tough one. Took me, like, a week to do. Not literally, I'm assuming, as I started this one almost directly after the first.
In the meantime, I'd like to state the obvious that I'm uber-excited about RWBY Volume 3 coming out in only a WEEK! This morning, I saw the intro animation on YouTube, and it. Looks. Epic.
Back on this story, I tried to stay in line with who the characters really were. If you guys are confused about Simon, he's a second year who didn't get a team his first year. I'll explain the long hair and Viking tunic later on; it'll actually make sense when I explain it, I promise.
Until next time, I'm signing out. Have a wonderful week everybody.