Chapter 4- Moving Forward

The view from the Bullhead was breath taking as Phoenix looked down upon the city of Vale, he felt pride swell up in his body as he had been given the chance to prove himself to the world, Professor Port had managed to convince the Headmaster to allow him entrance into Beacon Academy.

"Out of the way short stuff" a voice grunted out before a large hand placed itself onto Phoenix's shoulder and shoved him into the wall making the small man grunt in pain before turning to glare at the retreating back of Cardin Winchester

"Oh I'm so proud of you" a cheery voice sang catching Phoenix's attention, a busty blonde girl was currently hugging the life out of a younger girl with a red hood, the young boy soon raised his eyebrow upon recognizing the girl from the store that was attacked

"Really sis it was nothing" the younger girl replied in a quiet voice, Phoenix would of continued listening in however a blonde boy holding his mouth preventing himself from vomiting rushed past him, the blonde hair and the blue eyes along a familiar black hoodie as well as a white sword and sheathe made Phoenix's eyes widen

"It can't be" speaking quietly to himself "no, that's defiantly him. But what is he doing here?" The person that Phoenix was talking about was the only biological son of Arthur and Guinevere Arc and the resident black sheep of the family Jaune Arc

Phoenix had mixed feelings of Jaune if he was being completely honest, he didn't like the way the Arc family treated him however didn't say anything, the reason for that was buried deep within Phoenix's body.

Seeing the way, the family bullied Jaune for not being a Huntsman like the entire family before him, Phoenix had thought they might have done something to him if he spoke out, he was adopted into the family and could easily be thrown out.

He had been abandoned once by his real parents, the fear of being abandoned by the Arc family scared Phoenix, its why he never wanted to get really close to the family as they could just leave him like his biological family did.

Violet seemed obsessed with him for some unknown reason and so couldn't really keep her away, but the other family members he tried to push away, then there was also his Haphephobia that he was trying to deal with.

However, he also felt annoyed at Jaune slightly, yes, he might not have been strong but the world is infested with Grim that would like nothing more than to tear you to pieces, whilst the kingdoms are considered safe havens you can never really be safe and if a Grim came near Jaune as he was right now, then Phoenix would honestly admit that his older brother would be killed.

So, the question is, why was he on the Bullhead heading straight towards Beacon Academy?

"Hello" a cheery, quirky voice soon spoke up from behind Phoenix making him jump slightly before whipping his head around only to gain a slight blush on his face.

Standing now in front of him was a beautiful girl having bright red hair done in waist-length ponytail, her eyes were a glowing green colour that had a little bit of light green eyeshadow around them.

She was tall, taller than Pheonix although most people were, she was also quite muscular compared to some other girls he had seen wandering around the Bullhead

Her outfit was slightly interesting, as a top she wore a brown Corser that had a vertical strip in the centre, an elastic, black mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves as well as a red, ankle-length sash that was wrapped around her skirt.

"Oh... Um. Hello" Phoenix replied quite awkwardly, not knowing how to act in this situation as the only real girl he hung out with was Violet and he rarely spoke to anyone apart from his adopted family

"Sorry for surprising you like that, I just thought you looked slightly lonely standing in the corner" the girl spoke with a kind smile on her face, holding out her hand although Pheonix stared at it like it was a disease

"Um, I'm sorry but I don't like being touched" the boy replied with a hint of shame in his voice, he hated his phobia but whenever he thought about someone touching him he would always get flashbacks of the Dursleys beating him

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. My names Pyrrha Nikos" the red-haired girl kept the smile on her face after Phoenix turned her handshake down

"A pleasure to meet you Mrs Nikos, Phoenix Arc is my name" a small hissing sound was soon heard making Phoenix quickly raise his hand and seemingly stroke the scarf that was around his neck

"I don't mean to sound rude but aren't you a bit young to be attending Beacon?" Pyrrha asked making Phoenix slightly glad that she didn't say anything about his disabilities

"Professor Port convinced the headmaster to allow me entry, apparently I'm some sort of prodigy in fighting" the crippled boy replied making Pyrrha nod her head

"So, what about you?" Phoenix asked making Pyrrha stare at him with what looked like to be surprise although her stare made feel him slightly uncomfortable "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry"

"No, no its okay. I was just surprised that's all but can I ask. Do you not know who I am?" The red-haired girl looked like her normal cheery self on the outside however she was hoping and praying within her mind that the boy she just met didn't know her

"No clue. Why is that bad?" Phoenix asked with slight worry although he became very confused when the girl in front of him seemed to do a little jiggle of happiness before returning normal

"No, it's not bad. It's just that people normally already know who I am even when I've never met them before"

"Really? Are you famous or something like that?" Phoenix wondered, when Violet wasn't helping him train she was often sheltering him from the outside world, not wanting Phoenix to be an easy target due to his mangled leg as well as the fact that the further he was in the outside world the further he was away from her arms.

"Well I guess you could say that. I'm a four-time winner in Minstrel fighting tournament, most people just take a look at me and already know who I am"

Pyrrha was quite sad about the fame she received after winning the tournament, people either were too afraid to approach her or only tried to befriend her to get in on the fame and learn her techniques

Her time at the academy slowly became lonelier and lonelier until she didn't have any friends at all, nobody wanted to spar with her in fear that she would hurt them, she became the isolated champion and all she wanted in the last few years of her time at the minstrel academy was a friend to talk to.

It was one of the main reasons she moved to Beacon, hoping that there no one would actually know who she was or at the very least know about her but didn't really care.

And it seemed her hope was correct as not even a day at Beacon she had already found someone that had no clue who she was, it was just her luck. Perhaps they could even be partners, the boy seemed to be enjoyable company and they could even spar with each other to improve their skills

Thinking of training her eyes slowly drifted down towards the crippled leg of Phoenix, wondering how the young boy in front of her can fight when he couldn't even stand on two legs that well

"I was personally trained" Pheonix spoke up, seeing how her eyes had moved down towards his leg he answered her unspoken question making Pyrrha look back into his eyes

"My eldest sister took it upon herself to help me train" Phoenix began "Although she didn't have to be so obsessive about it" he muttered under his breath before speaking back to the Pyrrha "Along with her my sisters so called rival demanded that she train me as well so that she can prove that she is the better teacher in training"

"So really your training became more of a competition?" Pyrrha asked with a slight sweat drop upon hearing how two rivals only trained Phoenix just to see who was better at teaching

"Essentially, at first it was like but my sisters rival soon came to care for me and made sure I was safe and okay at the end of our training, my sister seems to love me the most out of our family for some odd reason so there is no way she would purposely hurt me"

From across the bull head a pair of amber eyes were staring at the two speaking with each other, luscious black locks of hair fell down to their shoulders as they stared directly at Pheonix with interest

'So, he is the one that fought off Mercury. Interesting'

Cinder Fall continued to watch as Pyrrha and Phoenix talked, the red haired sometimes laughing at something the crippled boy said whilst the Phoenix would gain a soft smile, it made Cinder wonder how Mercury could possibly lose against someone like this crippled boy and when she first heard about him, she laughed to herself.

However now that she was near his presence she could sense the power coming off from in waves, perhaps it was due to the holding half of Fall Maiden's power but she could feel something coming off from the crippled boy and it was... Arousing.

Something about the boy made Cinder feel hot, the more she looked deep into the boy's glowing emerald green eye the hotter she became, the Fall Maiden's power within her called out to the boy. But why, what connection did the boy have with the Maiden's powers that would draw it towards him.

"So what kind of weapons do you use?" Phoenix asked Pyrrha as they continued their little chat, whilst Phoenix had wanted to go and find Jaune to question him about why he was here, it would have been rude to just leave Pyrrha by herself, besides he was actually beginning to enjoy the girls company.

Alarms blared out as men and woman Faunus in uniforms wearing Grimm masks began to grab all sorts of weapons, setting up formations all pointing their weapons towards a large metal door

"Subject 001 has escaped, I repeat subject 001 has escaped. He is currently heading down corridor 013, if anyone is there you need to be prepared" a voice blared out from the microphone system

"Hmph, not even an Atlas designed tank can break down that door, we should have no prob..."

"THUMP"

The leader of the small detachment that had set up in corridor 014 suddenly stopped what he was saying as a large fist was now dented into the metal door, behind his Grimm mask the leader's eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates

"RAAAAAAGH!" A loud roar came from the other side of door and more pounding happening, denting the door in all sorts of places before it suddenly stopped, nothing was heard for a few minutes

"High alert I repeat high alert. The camera in corridor 013 has gone down, I can't find him in on my cameras anywhere else"

*BANG*

The large metal door was suddenly blown off its hinges and was sent flying towards the group of Faunus, crushing a few of them as heavy footsteps stomped came out from the small cloud of smoke that was created from the door being blown off its hinges.

A large, towering man loomed over the group of Faunus, standing tall at eight feet tall, the man's body wasn't covered by anything except for a pair of tight, shorts showing off an extremely large and bulky body.

Accompanying all the muscle were scars, all of them looking like stab wounds, layering his chest, back, arms and legs, his back looked to be mostly covered by whip marks whilst the most horrifying scar that could be seen was the one of his face, looking like his face had been split open as a large pale white scar started from the left side of his face and ending on the right side of his chin.

"Subject 001, Aries Longbottom, you are ordered to return to your cell at once otherwise we will use force"

The leader of the small group of Faunus looked so small against the towering man now named Aries Longbottom, his dark brown eyes that would be compared to his mother's eyes shined with nothing but animalistic rage and anger

Aries said nothing as he slowly walked towards one of the Faunus, the towering man showed no signs of fighting as a pitch-black bull tail swished behind, upon reaching on of the Faunus who backed himself against the wall in fear whilst the others pointed their weapons at Aires

"I repeat return to your cell immediately subject 001 or we will use force" ignoring the command the dark brown eyes filled with rage stared at the white Grimm mask.

Nothing happened for a few seconds until Aries latched one of his large hands onto the man's face and slammed the back of the head against the wall, a crunching sound was heard as blood covered the wall, the Faunus's body began to fall motionless to the ground before Aries quickly picked it up and threw towards the group of his opponents

"Open fire!" The leader yelled as they began to fire Dust rounds from the weapons, Aries charged at them like a cheetah, for someone that was his size the large man moved fast, slamming into the group of men and then the chaos happened as screams could be heard, limbs were torn straight off the body, blood began to pain the entire corridor.

More and more metal blockades began to fall from the ceiling acting as doors to stop Aries from escaping making the large man stop his onslaught and run towards his exit, the only person left alive from the small squadron was the young leader who was bleeding to death due to his missing arm and leg.

"We wanted to create a weapon for the White Fang. A mountain that can pierce the earth and finally eradicate us of humanity, we wanted to create the ultimate killing machine, and we succeed. Not the mountain rides"

"I'll keep this brief" the headmaster of Beacon Academy, professor Ozpin began as he greeted all of his new student within the main hall of the school "you have all travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people"

"Phoenix stood beside Pyrrha as he listened to his new headmaster speak, he had seen Jaune standing behind the young girl with a red hood

"However, when I look upon amonsgst you all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, a direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time in this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step"

"Um, that was... weird" Phoenix said as Professor Ozpin finished his speech and allowed the deputy headmistress, Glynda Goodwitch, to take over from him

"He did seem kind of... off" Pyrrha added in making the crippled boy nod

"you will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation beings. Be ready" Professor Goodwitch announced before following Ozpin off the stage

"I suppose we should head to the ballroom then, get a good place perhaps" Pheonix said with a soft smile as he stroked the scaly scarf around his neck, Pyrrha smiled back and nodded in agreement, enjoying her time spent with the socially awkward raven-haired boy

"I'm a natural blonde you know" Phoenix faintly heard Juane's voice speak up making the crippled boy sigh, using one of his father's old flirting techniques sounded weird, it was even worse when his father told him that was the line he used to 'pick up' his adopted mother.

The moon shone high in the sky as Phoenix stared out of the window looking up at the shattered moon, Pyrrha had gone to change into her pyjamas leaving him alone in the corner the duo had picked, a small book laid beside him filled with runic circles and wards

"Hello" a voice spoke up making Phoenix turn around only to raise an eyebrow as a thought came into his mind

'what's with all the beautiful girls in this school'

"Hello to you" Phoenix spoke not sounding as awkward as he did when Pyrrha introduced herself, his lone emerald eye connected with two glowing amber ones

"Cinder Fall, pleasure to meet you" Cinder spoke holding out a pale skinned hand with smirk on her face, although it quickly faded when Phoenix accidently looked at the offering hand with disgust

"I see" she spoke with slight venom in her mouth, before turning around

"Wait" the crippled boy quietly called out "I didn't mean it. I... I just don't like being touched" the smirk on Cinder's face seemed to return as she turned back around

"Oh? Well everyone has the little problems I suppose" Cinder spoke as she moved in closer and sat beside Phoenix "you haven't told me your name yet however"

"Ah. My apologies. Phoenix Arc, pleasure to meet you"

"So, tell me Mr Arc. How is it that a cripple managed to be specially selected by one of the teachers to enter the school" Cinder spoke as she continued to look into Phoenix's lone emerald eyes, brushing a lock of raven hair out from her eye

"How did you..."

"I gave my ways Mr Arc, but something tells me you still holding your abilities" Cinder spoke making Phoenix quite uncomfortable about the way she seemed to know so much about him

"Phoenix, who is this?" Pyrrha soon turned up and asked making Phoenix's attention draw to her, seeing the moment Cinder reached out and brushed the back of her hand against his cheek

"So smooth" Cinder muttered to herself as she seemed to simply enjoy stroking Phoenix's cheek, the said boy however froze up and looked like he was about to have a panic attack with the fear in his eyes, his breathing started to get quicker as Cinder moved in closer whilst Pyrrha moved to other side, intent on trying to calm her new found best friend down.

"I'll be seeing you around my little bird" with that said Cinder pressed her lips against Phoenix's cheek before swiftly walking away, many of the boy's in the ballroom who were currently showing off their muscle as they flexed stopped to stare as the raven-haired woman walked away with a swish in her hips

"Phoenix you need to breathe through you nose" Pyrrha said quietly as she tried to calm the boy down, he was now hyperventilating "shhhh, no one here is going to touch you" it sounded slightly weird when she said it out loud

"The girl's gone now, you have nothing to fear so just breath through your nose, slowly. That's it" soon enough Phoenix's breathing returned back to normal, he smiled towards the red-haired girl before getting into his sleeping bag

"Thank you Pyrrha, for what you did, I'll see you tommrow"