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-CobaltLightning13
CHAPTER 3
Cobalt looked up from his seated position on the floor. In front of him stood a small boy who must've only just been taller than Sky. He was wearing a white jacket with a hood that had strange green markings on it, and the inside of the jacket was green. He had a black belt holding up a pair of white pants that had a streak of green running down the right side.
The boy's face was somewhat childish, still having some of that childhood chubbiness on it. He had olive green hair, with his fringe stuck up to the right. But his most notable feature was his eyes. They were the brightest of greens, so bright that Cobalt thought that they'd make good flashlights.
"Hey, how's it going?" Cobalt asked with a smile.
"I-I'm fine. M-my name is Oliver." Replied nervously.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Oliver. I'm Cobalt, and this is Sky."
"Hello!" Sky chipped in cheerfully.
"So, Oliver, what can we do for you?" Cobalt asked politely.
"W-w-well... Y-you see, I came here alone..." Oliver began slowly.
"And you were wondering if you could hang out with the cool kids?" Sky interrupted with a smile. Oliver breathed a sigh of relief.
"W-would you be ok with that?"
"Of course we would," Sky said happily.
"T-thank you!" Oliver exclaimed."I'll be right back, I-I just gotta grab my stuff." With that, he dashed off. Cobalt turned to look at Sky.
"Seriously?" Cobalt asked, raising his left eyebrow. "He's the one?"
"Yep. You definitely wouldn't know it from how he acts, and I'm assuming he doesn't look impressive, but his aura is about three times stronger than the average." Cobalt whistled in amazement. "But... there's a small darkness in him. I think... that he's like us."
"How so?" Cobalt questioned.
"I think he's been treated like crap, viewed with contempt."
"You want to take him under our wing, don't you?"
"Yep!" Sky proclaimed, emphasising the 'p'.
"But why could be possibly be treated like that? He doesn't seem like a bad kid, and he isn't a faunus."
"I..." Sky frowned on concentration. "I don't know. Maybe his stutter?"
"Hmm... Maybe..." Cobalt trailed off. A moment later, Oliver appeared holding a small green suitcase.
'Hello again!" He said cheerfully. He plonked himself down in front of Cobalt and Sky.
"So Oliver, where did you go to combat school?" Cobalt asked as Sky went back to meditating.
"I... have never been to a combat school before," Oliver muttered. Cobalt felt an intense heat coming from Sky for a brief second before she regained her composure.
"You've never been to a combat school?" She exclaimed. "How the hell did you get into Haven?"
"What do you mean? It was just a simple combat test and knowledge test, wasn't it?" Oliver questioned.
"Simple?! Almost every person here had to study for years at different combat academies just to be prepared for the test!" Cobalt laughed at his friend's reaction.
"What can I say? My parents just homeschooled me..." Oliver furrowed his brows in concentration as his voice trailed off. Cobalt looked at Sky and saw her lean forward. After a couple of seconds, Oliver seemed to make up his mind and relax. "And I guess their training was enough for me to get by." Cobalt and Sky looked at each other but didn't say anything.
"So why didn't you go to a school?" Cobalt asked. Oliver looked at the ground before answering.
"I... I didn't really fit in." Cobalt decided against questioning him further. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Cobalt's scroll buzzed.
"Oh my god!" Cobalt shouted as he started laughing hysterically. Oliver and Sky stared at him in confusion.
"Is everything alright Cobalt?" Oliver asked hesitantly. Cobalt kept laughing for a few minutes before calming himself down enough to speak.
"W-w-well, I jus- just got this text from Pyrrha..." He started snorting again, and the other two leant towards him in expectation. "And apparently some girl exploded and made a crater out the front of Beacon!" He finished just before he broke down again. "She even sent a photo!" He managed between laughs. The other two looked at his phone and began their own bout of laughter. In the picture, two girls were standing, covered in soot, in the middle of a massive blackened hole.
After the laughter died down, Cobalt and Oliver talked about themselves as Sky went back to meditating. She reached out with her aura and scanned the room. Although she'd been blind since birth she had taught herself how to see with her aura. While she wasn't able to make out any fine details, she could see the outlines of objects and she was able to look into people's aura, and by extension, their soul. She was able to read most people's true colours, which gave her and Cobalt an advantage in most battle's against people.
By reading someone's aura, she was immediately able to determine whether or not the person was capable of causing serious harm. There was always something in an aura that told Sky if that particular person had the conviction to purposely cause serious injury, or if they were capable of killing. Reading someone's aura, just like she did with Oliver, was able to tell her the strength of an aura, and what type of life they had led. Furthermore, she was able to identify one's emotions. After much practice, she was able to tell what someone was feeling based on the flare of their aura.
If someone was feeling sad or depressed, the flare of the aura would be much smaller than usual. If someone was happy, it would flare up. If someone was in love, their aura would spike when they got close to the person they had fallen for. Which is what her aura was doing now. She glanced at Cobalt and grimaced. Her own aura almost exploding out of her body, desperate to reach over to Cobalt, yet she couldn't help but notice that his aura barely changed as he gave her a side-long glance. She sadly resumed her meditating.
Sky was abruptly interrupted from her meditation as she heard footsteps on the stage, and someone cleared their throat over the microphone. There was immediate silence in the room as the person began talking.
"Good afternoon students. My name is Professor Aquila, the second in command at Haven..." Cobalt studied Aquila as she continued talking. She had some sort of red and white outfit on, with a pointed hood. There was a large sash around her waist, and it was lined with small throwing knives. She had two large tomahawks attached to her back and the blades seemed to have a purple tinge to them.
Cobalt refocused his attention to Aquila as her speech came to a close. A round of applause began as she walked off stage.
"What's happening?" Cobalt asked Sky. She looked at him and face palmed.
"Professor Jett is coming up to speak." She answered with a sigh. Cobalt grunted and focused on the headmaster of Haven as he reached the microphone.
"Tomorrow, your journey as Huntresses and Huntsmen in training will begin. Your adventures throughout your time at Haven will prepare you for life as fully fledged Hunters. As much as I would like to give you some long, rambling speech on the history of Haven and what not, I'm sure none of you wants to hear it. So I'll simply say this. Be safe. Tomorrow is the initiation, so get some rest tonight. You will need every ounce of strength you have at your disposal tomorrow." Jett said as he studied the mass of students in front of him. "Thanks for listening, and welcome to Haven."
The mass of students clapped him off the stage, and they gradually separated back into the groups they were chatting in before the Professors addressed the new students. Cobalt turned back to his friends and jolted in surprise when an unfamiliar face stared back at him.
"Hello! How's it going, man? My name is Reese!" The girl excitedly said in one breath.
"Hey, I'm Cobalt." He replied. He extended a hand, and she shook it. Cobalt took this as a chance to study the stranger. She had somewhat long, green hair with matching green eyes. She had a strip of black paint underneath each of her eyes and she seemed to wear a permanent smile. She was wearing a tattered blue jacket with a pink top beneath. She wore black, fingerless gloves and her shorts were the same shade of dull pink as her top.
"A-and I'm Oliver," Oliver muttered quietly while quickly shaking Reese's hand.
"It's a pleasure, little man!" She replied cheerfully.
"And this is Sky." Cobalt took the chance to get Sky's input on the person as he turned around. Sky gave him the slightest of nods before shaking hands with Reese.
"It's fantastic to meet you Sky! How hard is it being a huntress-in-training being blind? It sounds really really difficult dude!" Reese seemed to ignore the fact that Sky's muscles tensed up, and both of Cobalt's eyebrows were raised. "I mean, how do you see Grimm and other people? Do you just guess where they are?" Reese asked with a chuckle. Sky looked nervously to Cobalt before he placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"First off, it is good to meet you too. Secondly, it was quite difficult to start off, but after Cobalt helped refine my aura, it became easier. And I basically am able to 'see' my environment thanks to my aura." Sky explained while facing the floor.
"Ohh that's soooo cooooool! Do you think I could see like you? Or do I need to lose vision? Could you train me anyway?" Reese asked, getting more and more excited with each word.
Sky couldn't help but smile. "I think you need to loose your vision fully for it to work. Trust me, Cobalt has tried before."
"Hey! I didn't not!" Cobalt exclaimed, jumping to his own defence. Sky simply placed her hands on her hips, tilted them ever so slightly and pursed her lips. To a bystander, the scene may remind them of a mother staring down a child. After a few seconds, Cobalt cracked. "Fine! I tried four times! Happy?"
Sky merely laughed at him. "See? It's useless for you to try." Sky said, now speaking to Reese.
"Aww!" Reese pouted. "But it sounds so cool!"
"Trust me..." Sky's voiced trailed off. "You'd much rather have your normal vision..." She finished quietly. Reese thankfully had enough tact to not push it any further and instead started shuffling through her bag. Cobalt, who had taken his seat on his bag, pulled her into a hug and Sky was more than happy to stay there for the time being. However, as luck would have it, another stranger intruded their small group.
"Hey, fellas! Did you guys want some bananas?" Cobalt glanced up and saw the boy who had walked to their group. He had short blonde hair with piercing dark grey eyes. He clearly had no sense of formality, as he was simply wearing a white t-shirt that he hasn't bothered to button up and a pair of blue jeans. He was carrying around a large plate, which had been stacked with many bananas.
"I would absolutely love one! How much did you want for one?" Reese asked.
"Ahh, no cost. I'm just handing some out to everyone." The boy replied.
"Nonsense! Here's... One, two, three..." Reese paused as she counted some of the change in her purse. "Here's ten lien!" She said happily as she exchanged items with him.
"Hey, thanks a lot!" He replied. He looked down at Cobalt, who still had Sky in an embrace. "Would you two like one?"
"Yes, please. I'll take one for her as well." Cobalt answered. "And I'm Cobalt by the way." The others introduced each other as the boy shook hands with them.
"Well, my name is Sun Wukong, and I arrived here from Vacuo just under a week ago." He said after all introductions had been made. "Well, I've only been to a quarter of the room, so I'll catch you guys later."
"See ya Sun," Cobalt called out as he was swallowed by the crowd of students surrounding them. The other four sunk back into their conversations as night rapidly approached. At seven, as the sun finished setting, a group of staff members came around and gave everyone sleeping bags and roll-out mattresses. But as Cobalt went to set up his sleeping arrangement for the night, he discovered Sky had fallen asleep in his arms.
"Aww! She's so cuuuute!" Reese squealed. Cobalt smiled at her.
"Hey, do you mind unzipping my sleeping bag, Reese?" He asked.
"Nah, not at all." She made quick work of unzipping the bag and threw it at Cobalt. He fluffed it out and made sure it covered both him and Sky.
"D-did you want a-a mattress?" Oliver asked hesitantly.
"Yes please Oliver." Oliver hit up and slid one between the arch of Cobalt's lower back and the wall, and went back to his sleeping bag.
"Thank you, Oliver," Cobalt said quietly, becoming aware that the lights started to him.
"N-no worries." Came the reply. Soon enough, the room was plunged into darkness and Cobalt could hear everyone breathing peacefully in their sleep. He smiled to himself as he thought over his first day at Haven. No one had given either him or Sky any grief, and that was all he could've asked for. Yet, he'd seemly already made three new friends, albeit quirky ones. Then again, he was a Faunus and Sky was blind. Shuffling slightly on his pack, he closed his eyes and gradually drifted off the sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
