….
Not As Grimm
Chapter Ten
A/N: Wait! Don't light your torches, I'm after changing the schedule...again. So, hopefully, each Power Trio will be posted every second weekend.
In the past, Danny has been awaken several times to many bazaar circumstances, ranging from giant robots attacking the karaoke bar, to his mom somehow managing to bring the morning sausage and eggs to life and having them do battle for control over the kitchen - their tiny cries of war will be forever ingrained in his mind. But none of that prepared him for what he woke up to on the morning of his first day off since starting at Beacon academy.
He was sleeping pretty heavy to make up for the sleep he lost from his nightly excursion, so he didn't notice when Ruby and March let the other girls from the team into his room or as they tied him up with some of Blake's long black cables. Why she even had those to begin with, he didn't know.
In fact, he was more than halfway down the brick road leading to town before he hit his head on a slight bump road, jarring him away.
"Huh...where am..." Danny mumbled drowsily as he blinked against the light of the sun. He tried to move a hand to his eyes to shield him from the light, but he found that his arms and legs were bound. "What the heck!?" Danny shouted as he slowly started to realize his position, but was still clueless as to what was going on.
"Well good morning, sleeping beauty - or should I say beast?." Yang said, grinning back over her shoulder as she dragged the boy off by the cables.
"What are you doing!? Let me go!" Danny shouted, pretending not to hear the last part of her remark. He started struggling against the binds, but they held tight, too tight for him to break without getting serious. Aura was moving through the cable, making it stronger and stopping Danny from just phasing through it.
"Sorry, but today you aren't running away. As a team, this is just something that has to be done." Weiss said as she walked alongside Danny as he was dragged down the street. Ruby was standing with her giving the boy an apologetic look, though she was also trying to hold back her giggles.
"What are you talking about?" Danny said, not really sure he wanted to know.
"We're taking you shopping. You need a battle outfit." Ruby said in a matter of fact tone.
Danny paled. "Wh-what are saying? What's wrong with just fighting in jeans and a t-shirt?" He stammered as he redoubled his efforts of getting free. As a man, he knew that going shopping with one girl is a hallowing and cruel task. So the idea of shopping for clothes with four girls was a something out of a horror novel. A horror novel that was deemed too frightening for the public.
"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that." Weiss said, shuddering a bit as they walked along. "Jeans and a tshirt are hardly functional as battle wear."
"Not functional? You wear a dress." Danny said incredulously.
"Hey! It is a combat skirt!" Weiss insisted.
"And what are the five inch heels?" Danny said, rolling his eyes. "Spare weapons? Or do you just want to give your opponents a sporting chance? Besides, I don't have any money. How am I supposed to buy cloths?"
"We already asked Ozpin, and he said he would count it as school expenses." Ruby said.
"Ozpin...why?" Danny cried as he realized they had been planning this behind his back for a while.
"You seem to be under the impression that you're being given a choice." Blake said calmly as she walked alongside Yang. "Besides, we need to get some more clothes for March beyond just those school uniforms."
The brown haired five year old hopped over to the bound Danny, giving the boy a huge smile. "Won't you come with us, please!?" The faunus girl begged, giving a long pout.
Danny realized to late that he should advert his eyes and faced the full focus of the dreaded, heart wrenching puppy dog eyes head on. Danny hesitated for a few seconds, trying to come up with some type of excuse that would allow him to get out of the outing, but they all simply fell to pieces in the wake of the little girl's puppy dog face.
Danny moaned. "Fine, you win. Just untie me."
"Not a chance. It's funner this way." Yang said with a way too proud smile. Danny tried to object, but no one came to his aid. He was dragged the the streets of the town and people hardly batted an eye.
'This world is insane.' Danny thought bitterly as he was dragged down a flight of stairs.
Scarlet Brown was rather odd for a fashion designer girl. Both her appearance and name were extremely common. She had plain brown, short and straight hair, matched with average brown eyes behind fairly normal glasses.
Despite this she somehow managed to get a job working at one of the higher end clothing stores in Vale's upper distract not only as a designer, but also a manager by the age of sixteen.
The owners had wanted to hire younger people in order to try to appeal to the students at the Beacon and Signal Academies. After all, many of the more skilled young Huntsmen and Huntresses in training were considered to be on the level of celebrities, and having them wearing battle outfits from their product line was good for business.
Though there had been may who had applied for the job, the head of the department was a bit of a drama queen and didn't want anyone who might have out shined her, which allowed the timid looking Scarlet to be picked above the rest of the applicants.
But even though she had the position of her dreams, it didn't stop her from feeling depressed as she stood in the shop, completely alone while the rest of the employees were working on projects for the up and coming festival. The festival was going to be a really big event and all the most important people in all of Remnant would be there. So the company was throwing all their more senior staff into preparing for the event, even though it wasn't for another two months. This left Scarlet alone to look after the shop and hand over the orders when the customers come for them.
Weekend afternoons were pretty empty since the head designer only ever made arrangements for the week, so Scarlet just sat behind the counter watching the news while eating some cookies she had brought with her from home. She hadn't expected anything to happen that day. So she was startled when the bell to the front door rang. She quickly wiped her face to make sure there won't any crumbs from the cookies before turning to greet the customers.
Team RWBY was one of two high interest freshmen teams that were attending Beacon academy, ever since their initiation exam where the team took down a Nevermore, a rather powerful brand of Grimm that took the form of a giant bird.
On top of that, some of the individual members of the team had made names for themselves. Weiss Schnee was the heiress to the world's largest dust company, so for her to pick the life of a Huntress was considered a big deal and was a topic of speculation.
Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose were half sisters and the children of rather a accomplished Huntsman with each's mother being a Huntress themselves. Yang made a name for herself roughing up gangs in the back-alleys of the city where the cops and patrol bots wouldn't go. And Ruby was the youngest entry Beacon had ever had, on top of being made the team leader over her older and more experienced teammates.
Like many young girls, Scarlet idolized the group, so to have this team walk through the door of the store when she was the only one manning it made the trend following girl have to bite her lip and clench her fists to stop herself from being reduced to a blubbering fangirl. u
"Hello there!" Yang said with a goofy grin and a wave. "We're here to try to pick out a new combat outfit."
Scarlet's eyes widened. "Um...what...what are your sizes?" She asked, trying not to sound to curious.
Yang started to laugh waving the question off. "No, not for me." Yang said cheerfully, not noticing as Scarlet's eyes glanced over the other girls, wondering which one was there for a wardrobe change. But then Yang pulled on a long black cable and lifted up young faunus boy with raven black, wolf-like ears and a tail to match that was tied up. "New teammate."
Scarlet's smile fell a little as she looked at the boy. He wasn't exactly what people imagined when they thought of a student of Beacon Academy. He was rather on the short side, standing at around five foot four, and he didn't exactly look as muscular or proud as the other male students she's seen from Beacon while he hung there, tied up by his teammate.
"Please, call the police." Danny said, earning himself a slap on the back of the head from Yang, and a giggle from Ruby.
"Don't forget we need to pick some things out for the team's mascot." Ruby said guiding March out from behind her.
Scarlet was rather disappointed, Team RWBY had been the all girls team, but now they had a fifth member that was a rather lanky looking boy. She glanced longingly at the other members of the team, but held back her sigh. After all, beggars can't be choosers, and it was still better than just sitting on her hands.
"Well...let's see what we can do." She said, forcing a smile before leading the group further into the shop.
Scarlet lead the girls and the tied up boy into the back of the store where they kept the various clothes. She allowed herself a small, rather unprofessional smile as she heard the girls making small comments about the large room and the vast selection of clothes, though one look at Danny's continuing to pale face told her that he wasn't nearly as thrilled.
Her mouth twitched with a bit of frustration. This was why she hated dealing with men. They had no respect for art or fashion. And she already hated this one more than the average boy...well, faunus. Not only because he wasn't impressive to look at, but because he ruined the greatest team that contained only girls.
Scarlet looked over the four older girls and the tiny faunus girl as they all looked at the women's clothes line. She could only hope that one of them would decide that maybe a change of outfits might be nice after seeing the styles out there. "How about you girls stay here in the girls' section to pick something out for your little mascot, I'll take the boy to find him his battle uniform."
"Yeah, that does sound like the most time efficient option." Blake said nodding in agreement.
"Does that mean I have to untie him?" Yang said, sounding a bit disappointed as she gave a small pull on the bind.
"Only if he promises not to runaway." Weiss said, crossing her arms and glaring down at the helpless boy.
"I make no such promises." Danny mumbled, ears flattened against his head. But after seeing the silent stares of his teammates he sighed. "Fine. I promise I won't make a break for freedom."
"Alright Yang, let him go." Ruby said, satisfied with his promise.
"Do I have too?" Yang whined, she was enjoying pulling Danny around like a dog on a leash.
"Yang." Ruby said in a warning tone to her older sister.
"Oh, alright." Yang sighed before undoing the strap that held the binds tightly around the boy's body. Danny finally got up on his own two feet and started to stretch and rub some feeling back into his arms and legs.
It just made Scarlet more depressed about the whole thing. He sure was small. He didn't even look like he was seventeen yet. He didn't have grace or obvious strength like most of the guys at Beacon. He looked like a plain, ordinary little boy. But, she spotted small lines on his arms. Scars? He didn't even seem to be 16 yet.
Sighing with defeat, she turned away from them. "Come on, the men's section is this way." She said, her voice bitter as she ordered the boy to follow her.
"Yeah, yeah." Danny grumbled walking after her in no great hurry, his tail hanging low snf his ears flattened. He had a feeling that today was going to just be one of those days where the world had decided to make fun of him.
It wasn't until they had reached the back room and Scarlet turned to him with an angry face that he began to worry, and that worry turned to full blown panic at her single word. "Strip."
A girly scream went through the air as the older members of the team perused the part of the store were they kept children's clothes. "Sounds like they're having fun." Yang said, not bothering to act sorry for the things she had done.
"We'll have to make this up to him later. Forcing all of this on him was a little mean." Ruby said a little guiltily.
"As if, he needed this. I'm not about to apologize for doing him a favor." Weiss piped up.
Ruby giggled a little. Weiss was never about to admit fault for anything, let alone apologize. Though Ruby was surprised out of her giggles at one of the outfits she found. "Hey, this looks exactly like my uniform." She said, pulling out a dress just like hers with a large red hooded cape clasped to the back. She was surprised to find it since her outfit was more or less homemade, modeled after her uncle Qrow's outfit. Not to mention it was in March's size.
"What the, they have mine too." Weiss said in shock as she pulled out a small white dress with snowflake designs on it.
"Am I the only one that finds this a little weird?" Blake added as she pulled out a tiny version of her own battle clothes.
"This is just wrong on so many levels." The group turned to see Yang standing there holding out a copy of her own uniform, complete with bandanna, a long golden wig and some cupped pads around the chest. Yang shivered as she put it back.
"If there aren't laws against that, then society as failed." Blake said, closing her amber eyes tied and desperately trying to erase the image of March wearing such a thing from her mind.
"Focus girls, we have a mission of our own to complete!" Ruby said, trying to gather them all back to the topic at hand. "We need to find the perfect mascot costume."
"Right." Yang and Weiss said together with a nodded.
"Um, before we do that, where exactly is our mascot?" Blake said glancing around. The three other girls froze, glancing around to see that the darker girl was right, and panic quickly gained hold.
Scarlet was working with a nightmare given physical form. A fashion nightmare that is.
Being that he was only fifteen, full armor was out of the question. He would simply out grow it to quickly. Armor is not exactly one size fits all; too loose and it will rub the wearer the wrong way, leaving all kinds of sores and slowing them down - though if it is too tight, it would limit maneuverability and cuts down on the protection the armor provides for the blow.
His body type was bad for form fitting leather armor as well, though for different reasons. His shoulders were too wide in comparison to his waist. The cloth would have to stretch too much for him to remain flexible. Even though the faunus boy did have a lean, yet muscular figure - he had insisted against skin-tight clothing.
Scarlet had momentarily considered putting him in a loose, sleeveless outfit, until she actual saw his body. Scars all over the place. Showing so many of those would never do. Scars were like giant glowing targets indicating a hole in the fighter's defenses. Not only that, but beyond a small faded scar, they were not the slightest bit sexy, regardless what any idiots said.
Most Huntmen and Huntresses didn't have a high muscle mass, choosing instead to maintain slimmer figures in order to have better flexibility and speed. Their auras more than made up for any missing muscle mass. But sleeveless combat gear didn't quite look right on him.
Scarlet's eyebrow twitched as the boy tried to cover himself with his arms. "Do you mind, I'm trying to figure out a look that would work for your build, so stop being such a baby about it." She snapped in frustration.
"I don't see why that requires me to be in nothing but my underwear. So stop looking at me like I'm a piece of meat and let me put my clothes back on." Danny snapped back, he was just about restraining himself from bearing his teeth at her. She was really getting on his nerves.
It was a little amusing how he was squirming underneath the girl's gaze, though the accusation that Scarlet was somehow doing this for her own fantasies made her a little angrier.
"You only wish. I'm not into younger boys." Scarlet said. A true statement, though a truer one would have been, 'I'm not into boys.' "If it makes you feel better, then put the school uniform back on, but stop squirming around then."
Turning away from the boy she started moving through the shelves, picking up this and that. Since none of the more standard looks would work for him, she would just have to improvise. Usually, she wouldn't have put in so much effort for a guy, but she couldn't let the little twerp ruin her favourite team. So she would just have to knuckle down and do her job.
Pushing a small pile of clothes to the boy. "Try these on. The changing room is over there." She said, pointer toward the door in the corner of the room. Danny took the clothes and slinked off with a tired expression. Today was not his day.
"Here March. Here girl." Ruby said, making clicking noises with her tongue as she stuck her head into a rack of clothes, looking for the little Faunus girl.
"Ruby, stop, that's offensive." Blake said shortly from across the room as she searched on hands and knees. "I can't believe we managed to lose her in just a few minutes. This store isn't even that large."
"She's probably just playing with us. Come on out March! We need to pick something out for you!" Yang shouted as she scanned the room herself.
"This is ridiculous! She can't be in this room or else she would have heard us, so where is she!?" Weiss shouted in frustration, they had been looking for their little mascot for over five minutes, and hadn't seen hide nor hair of her.
"Where could who be?" The four girls stopped and turned towards the door that lead towards the mens section. Standing there with his arms crossed was an annoyed Danny who was looked for an explanation.
"Um...nice outfit?" Ruby tried, hoping to distract him for long enough for them to think of a solution.
Danny was dressed in a loose long sleeved shirt and jeans, both white with three dark blue lines over the stitches. A sleeveless sky blue jacket pulled on over the shirt with a sort of half collar. Some small metal plates on the shoulders were disjointed, allowing for a greater range of moment and to let them become wider if a growth spurt made it necessary, though those as some silver hanging from a black and blue belt were the only pieces of metal on the outfit. The entire thing had an improvised feel to it, but it still worked as a whole.
"Ruby, where is March?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We...kind of lost track of her - for a minute or two..." Ruby said weakly, all the girls looked pretty embarrassed about it.
Danny sighed before looking up. His teammates felt his Aura fluctuate, growing a little stronger as his eyes turned from blue to green. He seemed to scan the room real quick before they stopped at the entrance and smiled. "Seems like March is behind the front desk." He said before sticking his nose in the air and sniffing. "I think she went back for those cookies that were there earlier."
"My...my cookies." Scarlet said in a short squeak, before stopping, not wanting to make a fool of herself in front of her idols.
The group went back to the front desk, and sure enough, there was March, sitting on the chair Scarlet had been in before and watching the small TV. She held a large cookie in both her hands, eating it with rapid tiny bites, like a rabbit would eat a carrot, causing a small pile of crumbs to start to form underneath her.
The little girl didn't even more as they came closer. She just continued to stare at the TV. Danny grinned, lowering his head to right beside hers and spoke in a clear voice. "March."
The little girl jumped before turning to see the group looking at her, though she still didn't seem to register that she was in trouble. "Look! Look!" She said happily, pointing towards the TV.
Danny's eyes went to the screen. It seemed to still be showing the news. The faunus reporter was going on about something or other with some kind of security clip playing in the background in slow motion. It took the ghost boy a few seconds to realize what the clip was.
It was his fight the night before with the gang that had been trying to rob the jewelry store, only slowed down to one third speed. Danny's form in each of the shots was burned by speed and by the white light that pulsated from his body. Though his dog ears and tail were still clearly visible, along with his glowing green eyes and the crystal horns on his head.
"Last night, another dust store was attacked on what is now being considered a chain of related thefts, only to be stopped before they could escape by a currently unidentified assailant who quickly put a stop to the gang's plans than disappeared before officers could arrive on the scene. Though policy have yet to release a statement, we have this footage of the skirmish." The news reporter said before her image faded and the clip took up the entire screen.
The entire 'fight' only lasted around thirty seconds, though it had been lengthened to just over a minute through the slowing down of each shot. Danny had to admit that seeing if from this angle made it seem a lot more intimidating as he hardly even reacted the enemy fire and his glow making him seem out of this world.
"What... what are you..!?" The man Danny had pulled into the ground shouted in pure panic as the clip must have been coming towards an end.
"My name is... Amorak, the Far Frozen" The Danny in the clip said before pushing his hand into the man's head, overwhelming him and causing him to drop into unconsciousness. The ''Amorak' stood up, and vanished into thin air.
"This is all we currently have on this story, but we will keep you informed as the facts develop." The News reporter said as her image reappeared on screen.
"Stupid 'public has a right to know'." Danny mumbled in the back of his mind. He had hardly been in town for a week and already the vultures were after him.
"Reckless." Weiss said angrily, grabbing Danny's attention. "To implant dust crystals directly into your skull. You'd have to be an idiot to even try such a thing."
"Wha?" Danny said confused before he realized they thought the ice horns were dust crystals.
"There are techniques for using dust by fusing it into the uses body, but they went out of practice because they greatly cuts down on the users lifespan. And to put two large ones into your head. That faunus will probably be died with in a week." Yang said said shaking her head.
"Well...maybe they weren't dust crystals?" Danny suggested.
"Of course they were. There had to be some kind of dust based device on them to amplify that aura. No one has so much aura that even cameras can pick it up without the use of dust", Weiss said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Um...Weiss..." Ruby said pointing at Danny. Weiss face palmed as she realized that Danny fit the bill for what she described.
"Alright...but what are the odds that there are two people like that?" Weiss said after short pause. Danny chuckled, a little worriedly as that statement was far too close to the truth.
"He's...so cool." Scarlet said as she zoned out a little.
Danny smiled slightly at the complement, "Definitely, I bet he's really powerful"
"He's arrogant, and what kind of a name is 'Amarok, the Far Frozen'? I've never even heard of a name like that before."
"What makes you think he's arrogant? He dealt with those robbers quickly, making sure nobody got hurt."
"Yeah, he did have quite a bit of style in the way she took those thugs out." Yang agreed.
"And a semblance that allows him to move through solid objects and disappear. Seems like a handy skill to have." Blake nodded in agreement with the other girls.
"Fine." Weiss gave in, retracting her statement.
((A/N: Shite ending, I know. But it was the best I could come up with at the moment. Remember to R&R!))