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Chapter 2: The Wild Punt

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Pyrrha Nikos was a Grimmer, she knew what she was doing. She knew how to fight and kill Grimm. She knew how to defend herself with potions, oils and decoctions. She had lived a long life as a Grimmer and there was just one itty bitty issue in Vacuo and suddenly the whole world was against her. They started it first, she had ended it. Whoops. She had no experience with trying to train another, albeit very eager person, to fight like a Grimmer. He had no experience and flopped around with the sword he'd purchased, probably from a mall kiosk, like a fish in a frying pan. She didn't even need to draw her weapon to disarm him.

"Again, and try… Please please please… PLEASE! Try to block this time."

"Hey, I've watched movies before, I know what I'm doing… sort of.", Jaune whimpered.

Jaune Arc had no experience whatsoever, he'd read comic books and movies on all the greatest warriors. He'd played video games depicting the heroic Grimmers and he longed to be one himself. He knew Master Ozpin and his clique were the best in the realm. Pyrrha was just being mean, she had to be. Grimmers were heroic warriors fighting off the untamed wilderness, why did she have to be such a bitch?

Another misplaced swing and a miss and Jaune was lying face up again. Pyrrha stared down on him in disgust.

"Jaune, do you have any idea how to use your Aura to shield my attacks?"

"What's an Aura?"

Pyrrha facepalmed. He couldn't be this dense, could he? She was training a man with a head made of solid bone.

"It's the manifestation of our souls. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. With the right training, you can deflect swords and arrows with your hands.", Pyrrha mused.

Pyrrha had already done the arrow shielding with her Grimmer Sister, Cinder. Cinder had nearly killed her early on in their training, almost killing her with a heart shot. Pyrrha had grabbed the arrow at the last possible moment using her Semblance, which she would have to tell Jaune about in due time. Pyrrha grabbed Cinder's arrow right before it pierced her chest and then promptly took the arrow and stabbed it into Cinder's leg instead. Pyrrha remembered how much Cinder had wailed and chuckled lightly at the memory, she wondered where the rest of her Grimmer Siblings were right now, probably not dealing with this, right now.

X

A dark haired woman paced frantically in a forest clearing. She was angry for all the right reasons. Perhaps trying to take on some apprentices was a bad idea, she wondered what Pyrrha would say right now, probably nothing constructive. She had her hair parted over her right eye and wore a dark crimson dress embroidered with Dust that would allow her use of Fire and flames. Dust was a commodity not to be wasted on silly weapons when it could be imbued into clothing and armor. She sighed.

"You're not improving. Do either of you actually know how to fight or not?"

"We're trying.", a green haired girl added.

"You're not a good teacher, Cinder.", the silver haired boy argued.

"Well, I suppose I blame my mother for that. It's not like I wanted to be a Grimmer. Anyways, let's try that again. Sapphire! Gallium! Ready up again!"

"Our names are Emerald and Mercury!", Emerald and Mercury called.

"They're soon to be 'The Girl Who Tried' and 'The Boy Who Failed Miserably'!"

The sounds of weapons clanging and screams echoed through the forests of Mistral. Cinder only hoped her other Grimmer Siblings were having a better time than she was.

X

In a dimly lit room full of loathing and hate, two men sat around a table. Two men sat and stared at the cards on the table. One of them began to cackle wildly. The other man, much larger just grunted.

"Hahahahahaaaa! You're getting senile, Hazel!", the smaller man cackled.

"I suppose. But you're getting too cocky, Tyrian.", Hazel mused before placing down his own cards. Tyrian paled.

Hazel had just dropped his trump card, 'Incinerate' and obliterated all of Tyrian's minions in one fell swoop. Hazel now had the winning score in their game of Gwent.

"That's not fair! You cheat!"

"Sorry, I guess I'm just getting senile and forgetting the rules again."

Hazel wondered idly if Pyrrha and Cinder were having fun like they were. They'd recently finished a contract, gotten paid loads of Lien and had become fast friends with the proprietor of the small pub they occupied in the slums of Mantle. Life was good here, if not a bit cold.

"Barman! I'm going to need another round of your finest! I need to kill my brother here…", Tyrian snarled, his scorpion tail flailing around angrily. "In cards, I mean."

X

Back in Vale, a loud cry of frustration caused all of the birds to evacuate the Emerald Forest like it was on fire. A furious red-haired Grimmer stood and angrily punched a tree in half. She turned around and just glared daggers at the bumbling idiot she was supposed to be training.

"I cannot train you!", Pyrrha roared.

"Nice lungs."

"You have no idea how to hold a sword aside from not grabbing it by the pointy end. You have no defense whatsoever and despite finally grasping how to use your rather massive pool of Aura, this is the fifth attempt at you even considering how to use your Semblance!", Pyrrha rambled.

"I dunno, I guess I just don't have one…"

"Everyone has one, Jaune! That's like saying you were born without genitals, which might be true considering how many times I've hit you there when you've completely and utterly failed to block any of my attacks."

"I definitely have those!"

"You're not convincing me. And no, please don't show me. I'll take your word for it."

"Awww, you're not even giving me a chance!"

"This is going to take a lot longer than just a few lessons, Jaune. If I had any sense, I'd take you along for the ride as a Grimmer, but you'd just get killed as soon as Nevermore Chick chirped at you."

Pyrrha was about to hurl more insults at poor Jaune Arc when she heard an announcement from higher up the cliffs. Beacon Academy had started their 'initiation ceremony' and was sending future Huntsmen into the forest to prove themselves. Great, more losers. Pyrrha unsheathed her sword.

"So why do you have two weapons anyways?", Jaune asked

"The spear is from Grimm and the sword is for Humans."

"What about Faunus?"

"For Faunus I just use my womanly charm. No, idiot! The sword works on them too!"

"Oh."

Pyrrha quickly splashed some Humanoid Oil on her sword and downed a Decoction of the Beowolf. The putrid and concentrated decoction flowed through her veins and turned her skin deathly white, black veins twisted over her body, making her look not unlike her master Salem, just with bright red hair and green eyes.

"Why are you doing that? I don't think they're after you."

"I'm not well liked around here. Better safe than sorry.", Pyrrha growled, her voice taking on a more feral tone as the decoction worked its power.

Pyrrha turned her eyes to the sky as a man came sailing towards her, his arms were outstretched and weapon was grasped firmly in his hands. She ducked backwards and anticipated an attack. The attack never came, instead the man crashed into a nearby tree at terminal velocity and died instantly. She raised an eyebrow.

"That's the Initiation Ceremony; Master Ozpin launches new students into the air and makes them create a 'landing strategy'. The ones that survive get to become Huntsmen.", Jaune explained. Pyrrha just stared at him.

"That's one way of doing it."

"I think that was one of the guys from my performance. Cardin Winchester or something… He looks dead."

"That's because he is dead, you idiot."

"Oh. Well, what now?"

"We leave. Take any valuables from the dead students and sell them for Lien. Then we continue down the Path. The Path of the Grimmer. I'm done here.", Pyrrha concluded. She'd take Jaune along for now, he couldn't possibly get them into any more trouble and if worst came to worst, she'd just sell him to the brothel. He'd be more useful in a brothel.

A voice cried out in the distance, it sounded young and female, probably younger than they should have been. Pyrrha did want to run off into the distance never to be seen again, but she was still a Grimmer. Perhaps this young girl was part of a contract she hadn't noticed. She turned towards the voice and ran, leaving Jaune to stumble after her.

"Help!", the voice cried out again.

Pyrrha jumped around a grove of trees and spotted the girl, she was very young, probably only about fifteen at the oldest. The blond haired girl from the club stood protectively over her as no less than a half-dozen Beowolves began to descend on them. Pyrrha pulled her spear out and flung it towards the Grimm. She pulled back and focused with her own Semblance, polarity and the control over metal, causing the spear to curve and strike all of the Beowolves in one blow. She pulled back again and sent the spear back into her hands for another shot. She didn't need another shot, the Beowolves were dead and slowly dissipating into smoke.

"Oh my gosh! Who are you!?", the smaller girl asked.

"Pyrrha Nikos. I'm a Grimmer."

"Oh wow… I'm Ruby Rose… Uhhm. This is my sister, Yang Xiao-Long.", the smaller girl added.

"A real life Grimmer, huh? What are you doing in the Emerald Forest?", Yang, as she was now known as, asked.

"Him.", she said as she pointed back to Jaune.

"Huh… Alright, whatever floats your boat, I guess. I'd have done that back in town, maybe in a nice bed or something…"

"No! I was training him, not fornicating with him!", Pyrrha roared.

Pyrrha was about to say something else when a feline form fell from the trees. It was also shaped like a human. She turned and thrust her spear at the form.

"No! I'm a human!", the cat person called.

"Name?"

"Blake…"

"Okay, Hello Blake."

"You're a Grimmer."

"Nice of you to notice. You're a Faunus."

"No I'm not! I'm not a Faunus, I'm a human!"

"Okay, great. You could be a stuffed-animal for all I care, why don't you stay beside me where it's safe."

"Okay…"

Another body fell from the sky and landed face first in the dirt. It didn't move. It appeared to be female as well, but better dressed in some kind of 'battle skirt'. Pyrrha vaguely recognized the symbol on the body as belonging to the Schnee family. Pyrrha shrugged and began to loot the corpse.

"So, do we just go ahead and loot people's bodies now?", Yang asked.

"We do if they're dead. What's she possibly going to do with money or Dust when she's dead?"

"Hey! I'm not dead! Get your hands out of my pockets!", the 'corpse' exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry. Who are you?", Pyrrha asked.

"Weiss Schnee! Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company! And you're a dirty Grimmer, a savage barely-human animal!", Weiss Schnee insulted, which she shouldn't have.

Pyrrha just punched Weiss in the face, hard, and knocked out the prissy Heiress. She resumed rummaging through Weiss' pockets and taking a few more valuable items.

"That was a little extreme…", Yang noted.

"Mhm…", Pyrrha mumbled.

"We should take Weiss to safety! We can't leave her out here to die!", Ruby wailed.

Pyrrha was regretting saving this bunch. It wasn't going to end well for any of them.

"We'll take her back to town and that's it. I have better things to do than take care of a pet cat, two young girls and a dandy."

The rest of the group looked slightly insulted, they didn't say anything in response, best to not piss off the professional monster hunter while they were alone in the woods together.

"I hope you all have transportation of some kind. I only have so much room on Rouge.", Pyrrha noted.

"What's Rouge?", Ruby asked.

"My motorcycle. I'll go ahead and call it here."

"I have a motorcycle too, it's called Bumblebee!", Yang added.

"I hope it has a sidecar, where is it?"

"It does. It's back on Patch, the little island outside of Vale."

"Great.", Pyrrha sighed.

Pyrrha outstretched her hand and conjured her Semblance, she found the familiar motorcycle where it was parked and pulled it towards her. A few moments later, the dark crimson motorbike was there in the clearing with them.

"I'll take Schnee back to town. The rest of you… I don't know, follow me or something? Forget about being a Huntsman at Beacon, it'll just get you killed. Nobody can fight the Grimm like a Grimmer, not even you. Oh you'll put up a nice fight, alright and you might be able to take down the smaller ones, but I've seen things out there that will rip you to shreds.", Pyrrha mused.

"Like what?", Jaune asked.

"Massive Grimm the size of whales swallowing entire ships, Humanoid Grimm that can suck the energy from your souls, massive dragons destroying towns in one swoop and even more horrible things that you stand no chance against. I'm a Grimmer, I was born to fight monsters. Go home and get a job and leave the fighting to me."

"Wait, why can't you just train us? You're obviously a strong competitor and there are legends about Grimmers! Teach us your ways!", Ruby Rose pleaded.

"You'll die, you know that right? Grimmer potions are deadly to you and you'd have no additional defenses against Grimm other than your Semblance and Aura. Once those are gone, you die horribly."

"Ehh, it's still better than going to school again. You know they'll teach us other boring things like History or Math!", Yang added.

"If you want to die young, you're more than welcome to follow me. I'm not going to stop you.", Pyrrha concluded.

Pyrrha threw her legs over her motorcycle and tossed Weiss over the back. She kickstarted the bike and roared off into the distance. With any luck, the poor souls she'd left in the forest would be found by Beacon Academy's own Grimmers and re-educated. Jaune would hopefully be arrested and thrown into a dark cell somewhere. She'd go and give Weiss Schnee back to whoever cared for her, tell them she failed to become a Huntress and was saving her life, get paid preferably not in potatoes and then it would be back on the road again. And she'd never have to deal with that Dandy named Jaune ever again.

X

Pyrrha rode her motorcycle back to Vale. She'd get a nice tidy sum for retrieving the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company from certain danger; there was no way that family actually encouraged someone like her to enroll and become a Huntress. The prissy little Heiress was better suited for dinner parties and PR events. Pyrrha was about to get off her motorcycle when she'd noticed that Weiss Schnee had apparently fallen off the vehicle several miles ago. The Heiress was nowhere to be found.

Pyrrha sighed. Her day just couldn't get any worse.

X

"Okay, so hear me out here, Oz. She kidnapped the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and then dumped her body somewhere along the road.", Qrow rambled.

Qrow had returned to Ozpin's office in the uppermost floor of the tower in Beacon Academy, a tower that had once been the sole fortress of the School of the Corvus. Ozpin just sat idly behind his desk.

"And why would she do that?"

"She needs the money from the ransom, Oz. It's like you said. Salem is trying to find the relics. She just can't find them, so she needs money to hire more mercenaries to help!"

"Makes sense. Hmm. Salem needs to be stopped in any way. She cannot be allowed to open the portal again. It would mean the end of all that we know. Send out Port and accompany him to find Miss Nikos. Bring her in for questioning."

"Alive, right?"

"Of course, alive! Qrow, how do you expect me to interrogate a corpse!?"

"I dunno, you usually have some kind of trick up your sleeve."

Ozpin just groaned and took another sip of his drink. This would be a very long day.

X

Pyrrha just sighed, so much for the plan. Without Schnee, it would look like she'd just abducted and dumped the Heiress somewhere, this wasn't going to get her any more likes from the populace of Vale. The sounds of footsteps behind her promptly turned her attention. It was the Dandy, the two sisters and the not-a-Faunus. They had a bright yellow motorcycle between them, which wouldn't stick out or draw attention in any way shape or form.

"How exactly did you get that here so fast?", Pyrrha asked idly.

"My sister has super speed as a Semblance, she just ran off and brought it back!", Yang added.

"Yep! I'm super speedy!", Ruby noted.

"Well, mount up. The two sisters on the yellow bike, the Fau- Human girl in the sidecar. Jaune rides bitch on the back of mine. We need to leave before Ozpin finds us. You're most likely in danger."

"Why? Why would we be in danger?", the group asked.

"Well, I've got a bit of a reputation. Ozpin doesn't like my Master. And I may be called the Butcher of Vacuo. You all now know me, associate with me, and probably will be interrogated for information you don't know. Best we leave Vale and head for Mistral, I have a contact who can get us across the ocean.", Pyrrha explained.

"Uh oh. Guilty by association! Yang, we'll end up in jail or worse!", Ruby wailed.

"But why? Aren't you going to explain that? Beacon Academy is the most prestigious Huntsmen School in the world! Why would you be an enemy of it?", Yang asked intently.

"I'll explain it all on the road. We just… crap."

Pyrrha turned, sensing the approach of several Grimmers of Corvus encroaching on them. Qrow and Port stood side by side, weapons drawn and they didn't look particularly happy.

"Pyrrha Nikos the Butcher of Vacuo! Stand down or face the consequences. Master Grimmer Ozpin wants a word with you.", Port, a rotund man with narrow eyes and a thick mustache announced. He pointed a rather odd axe-gun at her; the blades of the axe were closer to the handle rather than the barrel, which made little to no sense.

"I was just escorting these children away from the Grimm, they could've died.", Pyrrha explained.

"You interrupted the Initiation Ceremony and kidnapped Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Corporation. We found her several miles from the town and she said you robbed her after assaulting her in the forest. We will take the word of an honored guest over your own!", Port stated, the gun still trained on her.

"That was a misunderstanding, I thought she was dead."

"And now you're robbing corpses!? Blasphemy! I think we know enough, Qrow. The sentence is death! Have you any last words, she-devil?"

"Aard."

Pyrrha's hand shot forwards as a blast of energy suddenly shot forth. It was some kind of sonic blastwave that knocked the two opposing Grimmers to their knees, the axe-gun flying from Port's hands and clattering onto the cobblestones. Pyrrha backflipped onto her own motorcycle, pulling Jaune rather unwillingly into the rear seat. She motioned to Yang and Ruby to follow, Blake dove head-first into the sidecar of Bumblebee.

Pyrrha twisted the accelerator and forced Rouge into a spin, turning around to face the front gates of Vale. Her other hand shot out, concentrating her Semblance on the quickly closing gates holding them open. She kicked her motorbike into gear and with squealing tires, shot through the gates of Vale and out into the wilderness beyond. She only just glanced back to make sure the other girls were behind her, they were and were gaining on her fast. Port and Qrow were left in the dust.

Far behind, Qrow and Port dusted themselves off. This hadn't gone even remotely close to their plan. Pyrrha Nikos the Butcher of Vacuo had escaped, convinced some young Huntresses to aid her and also kidnapped the world famous bard, Jaune Arc. Ozpin wouldn't be pleased to hear what had happened so close to the School of the Corvus.

Chapter End. Still technically the introduction. Team RWBY and JNPR do not exist in the world of the Grimmer. Imagine a DnD session where all of the random encounters are epic level and you're level 6. This is the World of the Grimmer; the Grimm are super-powered monsters and not even the Huntsmen and Huntresses of the world pose any threat to them, only the Grimmers have a chance.