Oh man. I am so excited about this chapter. Things that I've been looking forward to writing have finally come to pass. Exactly what they, well, you will just have to read and find out. Hope you all enjoy it :D

I do not own RWBY. RWBY was created by Monty Oum and owned by Rooster Teeth. I do, however, own any and all original characters in this story unless I specifically say so.


Chapter 4: Eye contact

The sudden jolt sent Aidan soaring into the air. For a brief couple seconds Aidan found it exhilarating. He had been caught up in the moment and focused that he forgot his dread of heights. All of his fears and negative thoughts were absent. That was when he realized that he was flying off a cliff.

He went into a state of panic as the falling sensation kicked in. He instinctively reacted, throwing his balance out of whack. At this rate Aidan's forethought landing strategy would be completely botched. Quickly he tried to rethink it into a new one. As he plummeted down towards the greenery below, he noticed a tree that was significantly larger than the ones surrounding it.

"There we go." Aidan held out his left bracer out on his side and converted it. A short barrel slid out the front of it. He quickly fired two fiery shots, propelling him on course of his desired destination. There was a few moments of waiting, no maneuvering or adjusting, just waiting as he sped towards the tree. Everything that Ozpin and Goodwitch said came back into his mind.

"Okay, okay. Let's get things straightened out. I have to find a partner, find this temple thing, get a relic, then get back. Should be simple enough… if Grimm weren't teeming in this area. In any case, finding a partner if priority one. I can only hope I find someone who is, at the very least, bearable. Forest gets at the top of that list, hes a good fighter and I know he won't let me down. Ran would be okay too. Although i haven't actually seen her fight I get the feeling that she is very capable. That Megan girl seemed nice, so maybe her too." Aidan had been so distracted with his mental planning that he had almost forgot what he was doing in reality. The dark bark of the tree was coming up fast… way too fast.

Aidan, in an attempt to slow himself down, stretched out his arms and legs effectively destroying any aerodynamics he had. It slowed him down but not enough to matter. Aidan extended Ravager and jabbed it as hard as he could into the tree. He glanced off the side of the tree as the blade easily ripped into bark and wood but did manage to slow him down. He crashed through a few small branches before landing on the ground with a thud, knocking any air he had left out of him. After a few agonizing moments of breathlessness, Aidan picked himself up off the ground.

"Well… That was exhilarating." Aidan said to himself as he brushed himself off. Thanks to his aura he had came out more or less unscathed besides a few bruises and cuts. A blue glow rhythmically pulsed from the blond initiate for a few moment before fading away.

"Only a little worse for ware."

A rustling noise coming from some nearby bushes caught his attention.

"Hello… hey, who is that?" Aidan, unsure as to who or what was hidden behind the greenery, stepped back and held Ravager behind him ready to strike. A deep growl radiated from the foliage…

Ran's axe propelled far ahead of its huntress. With the metal cord trailing behind, it coiled around a thick branch of one of the trees below. Ran swung from the branch and, despite slowing herself down considerably, was still moving fast. To remedy this, the faunus shot the spike from her left sleeve into one of the more study looking darkwoods. The spike embedded itself past the bark and into the wood before and expanded slightly, creating an anchor for its owner. She swung around the tree and planted her feet on one of the other tree and leapt to the ground. On what seemed to be a mental command from the huntress in training, the spike detached from the tree and retracted back into her sleeve just as the axe had done earlier to the other sleeve.

For a moment she just stood there, taking in her surroundings. Her heightened hearing lead her to believe that there were beings nearby, but she couldn't tell if they were other initiates or Grimm.

Just then, what seemed like a small ball of flame falling from the sky caught her attention before it smashed into the ground. While its area of impact wasn't very big, the shock from it shook the ground noticeably. The ground around it was singed significantly but not enough to catch fire. As the smoke cleared, a large figure rose from the small indentation in the ground. In one hand he clutched an axe, in the other a large circular shield. Red dreadlocks could be seen hanging out the back of his helmet. To Ran's dismay, she recognized it to be Bruce.

"Oh… It's you." Ran sighed as the two made contact.

Aidan dodged another strike from the ursa and slashed the throat of one of the beowolves. He was badly outnumbered with an ursa and about 4 beowolves, and that was after a minute or so of thinning down the enemy. So far he had managed to either keep away from the ursa or dodge its attacks but he could feel himself getting sloppy. Any strikes from the ursa would be very bad considering his inability to block an attack that big with just his bracers and his aura.

He leapt back again and spewed fire dust from his left bracer onto the closest beowolves, engulfing it in bright orange flames. The beowolf flailed for a few second before falling to the ground. Another beowolf jumped at him, in hopes to end him with a single bite to the back of his neck, just as Aidan dropped down to the ground to dodge yet another ursa attack. The ursa's paw smashed the airborne beowolf off into the base of a nearby tree where it no longer stirred. Aidan reverted the flamethrower into its gun form and aimed it toward the last two beowolves. The first bullet hit the closest beowolf in the face, causing it to fall back a few feet away, dead as a doornail. After a second shot, the second beowolf had a hole the size of a large fist though its upper chest and it too fell dead.

With the weakest eliminated, the hunter turned to the largest of his enemy. The ursa had backed up considerably. For a moment Aidan thought the ursa had given up and was about to retreat, but that was when it slowly started lumbering toward him. It steadily gained speed and was soon all out charging.

Aidan planted his feet firmly in the ground and held his sword arm behind him. He closed his eyes and held out his left hand as if he was telling the beast to stop. His breathing slowed down and all outside sounds disappeared. Aidan opened his eyes and beheld the world around him. Everything had almost stopped. Smoke slowly rose from the smoldering carcass of one of the beowolves. Leaves on the trees moved just enough to be noticed. Aidan looked forward to his outstretched hand. At first it wasn't even noticeable, but slowly, small blue ripples slowly pulsed from it. Behind him the same effect could be seen coming off his sword arm. With all his might, Aidan swung his blade around from behind and smashed the charging beast with the flat of the blade. All at once everything rushed back to normal and the ursa flew back and crashed onto the ground in a heap. Still feeling the effects of his semblance, Aidan smiled.

"Play time is over, chump." Aidan leapt into the air, much higher then he would have been able to in normal circumstances, and brought Ravager's tip down hard through the already broken plating on the Grimm's head. After he was sure it wouldn't move again, Aidan pulled his weapon from the ursa's skull and leaped off the monster.

Aidan took a few steps back from the lifeless body and watched as black smoke slowly rose from it. Satisfied with his work, he retracted his blade. While this wasn't his first time facing a creature of Grimm, he wasn't exactly used to battling while so outnumbered. Just another thing he would be forced to get used to.

Suddenly a loud snap could be heard above, followed by a sharp but brief scream and sound of brushing leaves. Not knowing what it was, Aidan turned quickly and aimed the gun of his left bracer towards the source. It was Megan.

She sat on the ground, her face was a slight shade of red from embarrassment and her expression containing a hint of pain.

"How did you get… Did you just fall out of the trees?" A small grin appeared on Aidan's face as he slowly lowered his arm and gun.

"It's not-argh- funny." She winced before laughing herself as she rubbed a sore spot on her leg. Aidan laughed slightly as he walked over and held out his hand to help her up. With her single good eye, Megan made eye contact with her helper. For a quick second, Aidan felt as if she wasn't really looking at him. Rather it looked as if she was looking past him, or thought him might better describe it. Suddenly, Megan blinked causing her eyes to refocus as she smiled and took his hand.

"Thanks." With a little effort Megan stood on her own two feet.

"Why on earth were you in the trees anyway. You don't exactly seem like a tree hopper." A 'tree hopper' was the name given to specialized faunus guerrilla fighters during The Faunus War. Their tactics involved travel quickly through travel by running and jumping along tree branches while remaining almost entirely undetected. However it wasn't limited to just trees, it could easily be employed in urban areas as well. Only those who were adept in stealth, agility, and speed could be able to do it. The tactic was later employed by Huntsmen and other skilled fighting forces.

"Well, I heard the commotion so I came to help if I could. By the time I got here though, you were already cleaning up. So I just watched… I guess I stepped on a weak branch." Megan said quietly as she brushed leaves off of her dress.

"Well, it looks like we've got a temple to find, partner." The two trudged off into the wood in search of the so far elusive temple.

One of the burning trees gave way, falling down just a few feet away from Ran. A quick slash from her katana left the attacking beowolf headless as it fell to the ground limply.

"Bruce!" She shouted having lost sight of her partner. No reply.

"Bruce, please. I need you to answer me." Ran ducked underneath the charred trunk of a tree in an effort to get away from the couple beowolves pursuing her though the fire. She knew he was nearby and that he could hear her considering how loud she called.

The two, shortly after meeting up only a few moments after landing, had found themselves in the middle of a raging forest fire. Where and how the fire had started was beyond them but how it started wasn't what was on their mind. On top of that, a pack of beowolves had found them and decided to take it upon themselves to effectively stop them from leaving the firestorm. In the ensuing chaos, Bruce and Ran had gotten separated.

To Ran's relief, up ahead she saw the end of the flames. Just as she was about out though, she was forced to pull up as a tree fell right in front of her. She looked over to see a beowolf standing at the trunk. It was much different from the rest of the pack. It was massive easily dwarfing the rabble she had been fighting before. Large bones jutted out of its arms and back and had bone plating along its chest. Its face seemed to be contorted into a smile, which was a little more than unsettling. Instead of just blatantly charging at her though, it stood completely still and seemed to be observing her. Determining if she was a major threat or an easy kill.

Slowly it stepped forward, apparently judging her as the latter. From behind it emerged several other beowolves. Ran quickly considered her options.

"I can run back into the flames or I can face this thing… There is no way I am going back into the fire, that would mean death."

She pointed her left arm off at one of the trees and shot out her grapple spike in an effort to gain the high ground. She gasped in surprise when the beowolf snatched the metal cord from the air. It yanked back hard on it, causing her to fly forward right into a blow from the overly powerful enemy. She smashed into the ground, knocking the air out of her. Again and again it heaved her body back and forth, slamming her into the ground time and time again. Finally The beast let go and Ran's limp figure plowed though a smaller tree trunk. Her armor and aura soaked up plenty of otherwise crippling damage yet she was still completely disoriented and hurt as she looked up at what would no doubt soon be her demise. Just as the claw of the beast came down to finish the job, something came in between the ravenous monster and the fallen huntress.

There above Ran stood the unmoving form of Bruce. His steel round-shield had stopped the beasts blow dead in its tracks. The 'megawolf' stood back and seemed to reevaluate things.

"Get up, foxy. I'll deal with this, you keep the small ones off me." Bruce's voice growled out of his helmet. Ran wiped some blood off her forehead. Although still slightly disoriented, she slowly climbed to her feet, obviously pained.

"Lets go, Onna." She whipped out her katana pointed it at the beowolves who were circling around.

Bruce meanwhile had charged directly at the megawolf. He easily ducked under its first swipe at him and brought his axe down hard onto its exposed arm. The severed forearm fell to the ground and smoke slowly began to rise out of it. The beast roared in pain and jumped back. Taking the brief moment of opportunity, Bruce transformed his weapon back into its halberd for and jabbed its pointed end at the mega wolf's chest. The plating partially deflected it, but a large chunk of the bone flew off as well.

The large beast took a couple more swipes at its smaller opponent, only only one of them actually landing. Bruce took his halberd and swept it at the megawolf's megawolf was no longer smiling and was backing off more and more. That was when it turned tail and all out ran for it.

Bruce, wanting to end the monster, charged after.

"Come back here and fight me." Bruce yelled as he lost sight of it into the greenery. Bruce was not a fast runner. Quickly switching his halberd into its shotgun form, he fired a shells into the brush.

*THROOM*

*THROOM*

*THROOM*

There was no indication he his his unseen target.

"Yeah, go on. Run like a sissy." He kicked the dirt angrily. You could tell that the Grimm escaping made him pretty angry.

As Bruce turned to look back for his partner, a beowolf's head landed near his feet.

"GO TEAM." Ran yelled enthusiastically as she raised her hand for a high-five. Bruce glared at her until she put her arm down. When she finally did he put his shield onto his back and gripped his shotgun with both hands.

"Come on foxy. We still have ground to cover." That was all he said, without even looking at, much less consulting his partner, and started walking. Ran jogged up next to him.

"Look Bruce. Communication is a thing everybody has to do, especially when they will be relying on each other. Back there, I didn't know what you were planning or where you even were. I needed your help."

With his helmet gone, which he collapsed back into a small piece of metal on the back of his neck, you could tell he was was focused... and angry. To be honest, Ran didn't know what on earth he was thinking.

Finally he said through gritted teeth "Look, Foxy. If you can't handle yourself, you are just dragging me down."

Ran's eyebrows furrowed as she retorted with a twinge of anger in her voice. "I can handle myself fine." Ran was starting to getting fairly riled herself, so she left it at that and said nothing else. The two continued to walk together in a tense silence.

"... I think we've been past this rock before." Megan put her hands on her hips as she looked down at a nearby boulder

"I think you're right." Aidan itched his head and frowned at the ground. The two shared an exasperated sigh.

"Lets just keep going. We are bound to find something… hopefully." Aidan said as the two sped up to a brisk walk.

"So where are you from, Aidan?"

"Born and raised in Vaise. Its a really nice place if you can get over all the horrible weather it gets.

"I don't know much about geography. Where is that?" Megan looked at the tree branches above as they walked.

"Oh. Um, Vaise is a coastal port like Vale. If you go east by train, you can get there in a day or two." He glanced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of their objective through the dark brush that surrounded them. "How about yourself, where are you from?"

"Um… Uh…" The question distracted her from… whatever it was she was looking at above. She stuttered and didn't seem to either know how or want to answer.

"Well… you see… Bruce and I were abandoned as children, so I don't actually know where we come from. We lived most of our lives in Springfield though."

"Ohh, Atlas huh. I've never been to Atlas myself but I've heard it's freezing up there for the majority of the year. I dont see how anyone can live there." Aidan said, shaking his head slightly. Megan laughed.

"You're thinking the northern parts of Atlas. The southern areas aren't anywhere near as cold… Aidan stop where you are right now." Megan's face had suddenly gone into a look of seriousness as she lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. Aidan obliged and went into full alert as he quickly scanned around him.

"What is it? Whats wrong?"

"Haven't you noticed how dark it's been getting. There is no way it got dark out that quickly… and on top of that it's only a little ways into the afternoon."

It was true. In the back of Aidan's mind he had already noticed this but had thought it was ridiculous, that it must have been his imagination. Now that he had the notion shoved right in his face, he noticed that light could barely get through tough the branches, and he was slowly losing the ability to make things out in the increasing darkness. He could see multiple movements from the branches above, and that was when he realized just what it was. His heartbeat sped up considerably.

"Ow… what the..!?" Something fell from the branches above and landed on Megan's shoulder. She reactively brushed it away and jumped back as she realized what it was. There on the ground was a two foot in diameter starch black spider. Its blood red eyes were easily seen especially in this darkened forest.

"THERAS!" Megan let out a bloodcurdling scream and as quick as you can blink, a silver knife impaled the spider into the ground. A single chirp quickly escaped the corpse as it died. With that hundreds of Theras lept down from the obscured branches onto the initiates.

Trying to think quickly, Aidan sent a quick burst of flame into the air. The smaller Grimm landed on the ground, burnt to a crisp. Larger ones, some even as large as beowolves, weathered the heat and landed smoldering but alive. Megan whipped out two or her larger knives and delved into them, dicing them into several pieces.

Aidan slashed one of the closer bugs in the head, causing it to split.

"Megan, we need to fight these things in an open area, we can't fight them were they have the advantage."

"Its worse than that. They don't just have the advantage… this is their home. We must be right next to the nest." Megan shouted back, although it was hard to hear her due to the chirping of the swarming Grimm.

"But if we are near the nest… then that means-" A loud series of stomps could be heard but the making was nowhere in sight. Aidan shoved back yet another Thera and swiped a couple of the smaller ones off her arms. Megan cast a vial of blue dust into the ground underneath a group of larger theras. The vial shattered on impact; promptly freezing any spider limbs in contact with the ground in place. Suddenly she retreated behind her partner.

"I have an idea, just keep them off me for a minute." Aidan wasn't able to turn around to see what his partner was doing but put trust in her to get them out of this.

"I… I think it's getting closer." Aidan quickly turned his attention to the direction of the stomps. That was when 8 glowing eyes came into view. Whatever it was, it completely out-sized all of the other Grimm. It was definitely much much bigger. It was the Queen.

Megan chucked down a series of knives into seemingly random places between them and the largest it. The handles of each knife yellow with black lines going down it. A single white skill rested at the bottom. As Aidan saw this, he understood.

"Wait until it's a bit closer. We will need as much shock from this as we can." As the Queen got closer, the eyes got larger and larger. They still couldn't actually see the Ginormous grimm yet but you could feel it coming closer.

"Almost… there… NOW!"

"GOT IT!" Both initiates turned and shielded their eyes Megan tapped a small button on her arm. There was a large flash and a series of small explosions.

The next thing Aidan knew the ground below him gave way. Hunter and spider alike fell into the blackness that lay below.


Oh man. This is my favorite chapter yet. We got to see Aidan's semblance, a little thing I like to call Focus. We also got to see who the partners are. That should be fun, especially with how different Ran and Bruce are. On top of that I finally got to include spider grimm... Freaking spider grimm! I hope you all enjoyed this but there is no way you did as much as I did.

Blacklightning

Next time: Arachnophobia!?

*Edited on august 9, 2015