"So you've finally decided to take your hood off I see." Qrow begins to walk past Summer as his eyelids half close. "Might as well get this over with."
"You aren't going to question my semblance?" Summer asks as she walks up besides Qrow.
"Nah I'll probably see more of it once we fight some Grimm anyway." The two of them suddenly hear rustling coming from all around them. Qrow hunches down and brings his scythe into attacking position. Summer continues to stay still as she seems to be reaching for something inside her hood. Qrow begins pulling his weapon off his back as he gets ready. "Alright, what do we got?"
As the rustling continues the two of them begin to see a horde of hungry Beowolves begin to encircle them. Qrow looks around and notes that there's at least a dozen of them. "Time to start pulling your weight around partner." Just as Qrow is about to strike a bullet is shot through the head of the Beowolf in front of him. As Qrow turns around he sees Summer holding a ivory handled revolver with smoke coming out of the barrel.
"Looks like that's one for me." Summer smugly smiles.
Qrow allows for a hint of a smile to grace his features. "So you're a gun wielder eh?" As Qrow is facing Summer a Beowolf almost pounces him before he quickly turns around and bisects it in one slash as its top half flies over him before hitting the ground and disintegrating. Qrow then begins to run towards the rest of the Beowolves to begin hacking and slashing.
"Well I've got another weapon, but it's more melee oriented." Summer informs him as she turns her head to the side to shoot a Beowolf right in the head. She then turns her head to the other side and quickly brings her firearm to the side to kill another one. Qrow makes a dash towards three Beowolves that are currently charging right towards him. Qrow notices that one of them is about to pounce and begins formulating a plan in his head. As the first Beowolf pounces Qrow presses the button on the bottom of his scythe. Qrow slides under the Beowolf as he brings his scythe up and slashes right down the middle of the Beowolf. As his weapon is turns back into sword mode he immediately stabs the second Beowolf in the head. As the third is going in for a bite, Qrow presses the button again as it turns back into scythe mode. Qrow then flips over the Beowolf as he lodges the scythe between the Beowolf's jaws and cuts the top half of the head clean off. As Qrow lands and starts making his way towards Summer the three Beowolves begin dissolving.
"I see you're a pretty good shot." Qrow observes as another Beowolf charges at him and proceeds to get cut it in half.
Summer shoots another in the head before turning her head. "I was always the best shot from where I'm from." Without even turning her head she shoots another one without even looking.
"You don't say." Qrow jumps over another Beowolf and cuts it in half as it passes underneath him.
Summer finally moves for the first time as she quickly runs and does a flip slide as she sticks her tongue out and closes one eye in concentration. She lines up her shot and fires. The result is killing the last two Beowolves with one bullet. Summer then get up and starts dusting herself off. As Qrow begins walking towards her Summer flips open the cylinder of her revolver and lets the shells hit the ground while reloading her bullets.
Qrow whistles. "I gotta admit that last shot was impressive."
"I've got to conserve ammo after all." Summer replies as she flips the cylinder back into place. "Plus I win this round." Summer smiles as she brings her revolver back into her cloak.
"I didn't know we were having a competition." Qrow responds. "If I did I would've won."
"Oh no need to be such a spoil sport." Summer lightly pouts.
"I'm just sayin." Qrow puts his hands up in defense of himself.
Suddenly their is a howl coming from behind them as Qrow sees an Alpha Beowolf charge right towards Summer. Qrow narrows his eyes and sees that the Beowolf has a white ribbon tied around its neck. "Looks like we found our target."
Summer turns her head to see the Alpha Beowolf coming right towards her. Summer begins running right towards it.
Qrow looks at Summer in confusion. "Summer? What are you doing?"
"When the Beowolf is distracted cut off its head." Is all Summer replies with.
Qrow doesn't know what Summer has planned but he gets his scythe prepared to strike. As Summer gets closer and closer to the Alpha Beowolf said creature pounces her. Summer closes her eyes as the creature makes contact with her. Just as the Alpha is touching her, the Alpha is met with a flurry of white rose petals as it phases right through Summer. As the Alpha is left in confusion it fails to see Qrow inches away from it as Qrow lobs its head off in one slash. As the Alpha begins to disintegrate Qrow looks at Summer as her top half is floating above her legs while white rose petals begin to return back to where her midsection was.
"So thats how your Semblance works." Qrow comments.
"It's pretty good for dodging attacks." After Summer is back to normal she continues. "It's also good for distractions and landings."
Qrow grabs the ribbon and Summer walks up to join him. "Wonder if your sister got the other white ribbon. " Summer wonders out loud.
Qrow pockets the ribbon and sighs. "Who cares if she did or not. I certainly don't." Summer looks at him with a questioning gaze.
"I just though you would like her to be on the team is all, seeing as you are siblings."
"Listen Summer, where I come from things like 'blood ties' don't matter all too much." Qrow turns his scythe back into sword mode as he begins searching for a way out of the forest.
Summer scrunches her mouth into a straight line. "Let me guess. 'Strengths all that counts'?"
Qrow put his sword on his back. "Let me guess. You got that impression from Raven?"
Summer puts her hands on her hips. "Well you were just as bad considering how you spent all that time yesterday looking for someone strong as well."
Qrow wiggles his finger at Summer. "Touché Summer, touché. Now let's get out of here."
"Alright." Summer follows closely besides Qrow as the two of them try to find an exit.
After using Qrow as a landing strategy Raven jumps from tree to tree to make as much distance between the two as possible. 'The last thing I need is anymore of his bad luck.' Raven internally thinks as she notices a few Ursa Minor following her down below. Raven scoffs. 'Damnit Qrow your semblance still rubbed off on me.' Raven decides to jump onto the ground and continue running until she can find a clearing to fight in. As Raven makes her way out into the open she turns around and unsheathes her sword. Her sword was, by Remnants standards, pretty archaic as it was only a normal katana with nothing else interesting about it.
Raven breathed in slowly as she brought her sword up into a fighting stance. The first Ursa came barreling towards her as she jumped onto its head and used it as a skipping stone to plunge her sword down into the head of one of the other Ursa which made it collapse and start disintegrating. The Ursa beside that one swiped its paw at Raven to which she stepped back to avoid the attack before dashing forward to get in the Grimm's blind spot and slice its arm off. As the Ursa is too distracted by just losing its arm it doesn't realize that Raven has already made it lose its head as well. As the second Ursa dies Raven turns around to see the third Ursa trying to bite at her which Raven brings her katana up to hold in the Ursa's mouth. However Raven underestimated its strength as it pushes Raven to the ground and tries to break through Raven's sword. Just as Raven begins thinking up a plan something unexpected happens. The Ursa begins to be choked. Taking advantage Raven kicks the Ursa away and begins to get up to see that someone had his arms around the throat of the Ursa. The man ragdolls the Ursa before going into a fighting stance. He quickly looks behind him to look at Raven.
"Hey their Raven. Looks like we're partners after all." Taiyang quickly turns around and brings his hands into a fighting stance.
"Great." Raven blankly responds. Raven takes notice of Taiyang's weapons: Metal plated fingerless gloves and metal tipped shoes. "Don't tell me you're going to fight this thing without a weapon." Raven groans.
"Well I do have a normal weapon, but I kind of forgot it back at Beacon." Tai laughs nervously and scratches the back of his head as the Ursa begins to charge him. "But don't worry I think I can handle this thing without them." Tai's eyes begin to go blue-grey and his entire demeanor becomes much quieter. Raven takes notice of this. Just as the Ursa is on Tai it goes onto its hind legs and tries to swipe downwards with one of its paws Tai gets right into its blind spot and delivers a punch that is so hard that it cracks the bones on the outer ribs of the Ursa. This pushes the Ursa back a little which allows Tai to switch to his leg and deliver a kick to the cracked ribs with enough force to shatter them. The Ursa falls over onto its back as Tai jumps on top of it and with his bare hands grabs the side ribs that were broken and with all his strength pull outwards. Tai pulls with enough force to rip the Ursa's entire midsection in half as it begins to slowly fade. Tai's eyes go back to normal as he looks to Raven with a smile. "Looks like I'm not as useless as you thought eh?"
Raven looks at Tai's handiwork in surprise. "I'll have to admit, that was the first time I've ever seen someone tear a Grimm apart with their bare hands." Raven walks closer to meet up with Tai. "Plus you seemed to have become quieter while you fought so I didn't have to listen to that mouth of yours."
"Oh admit it Raven, you like the sound of my voice." Tai lightly teases.
"No." Is Raven's only response as she begins to walk ahead of him.
Just before Tai can respond to that something in the air catches his eye. He looks up to see a Nevermore flying above them and as he focuses he sees that the Nevermore has a white ribbon tied around its foot. Tai points up at it. "Hey Raven look! I found a ribbon."
Raven looks up to where Tai is pointing and looks back to him. "Do you have any ranged weapons?"
Tai looks to Raven in mock offense. "How could you already forget what I said earlier?"
"I'll take that as a no." Raven sighs. "I don't have a ranged weapon either. How do you suggest we get that Nevermore?"
Tai puts a hand to his chin in thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. "I could throw you towards the Nevermore... the only problem is I don't think I'm THAT strong."
Raven thinks about it for a moment before she asks Tai a question. "Can you at least get me half way up their?"
Tai looks at Raven then up to where the Nevermore is before he closes his eyes and thinks seriously about it. "I think I should be able to."
"Good. Now give me your arm."
Without opening his eyes Tai holds out his arm. "Sure thing, but what fo- GAKH!" Tai immediately opens his eyes to see that Raven has slightly pricked Tai's arm to draw a little blood. "What the hell was that for?!"
Raven brings the tip of the sword to her mouth and licks the blood off of it and swallows. "My semblance requires a deep connection to someone to work. We don't know each other closely enough yet so I'm using the other method to activate it instead which as you can see is literally having apart of them inside me."
"So then what is your semblance then?" Tai asks.
"Portals." Raven responds.
Tai puts two and two together and realizes what Raven wants to do. "Ah I see! Good idea Raven."
Raven gives a smirk. "Of course it is. Now throw me."
Raven climbs onto Tai's left shoulder as Tai cups both of Ravens feet. "Are you ready?"
Raven looks down to Tai. "Do it." Using all the strength he can Tai throws Raven right towards the Nevermore. As Raven is ascending the Nevermore sees her and sends a torrent of feather at her. Raven takes her katana out of its sheathe and slices through any feathers that would've hit her. With the last strike Raven cuts a portal as she turns around to face the ground. Tai has the portal open up right next to him as he jumps into the portal. Once he leaves the other side Tai and Raven's feet touch each other as Tai uses the impromptu platform to jump as high as he can towards the Nevermore. As Tai ascends even further Raven begins plummeting towards the ground. As Raven is falling she puts her katana back into its sheathe and presses a button on the side as some dust begins coating the blade. Once it's done Raven pulls out her katana and swings it directly towards the ground which causes a huge explosion that helps cushion her fall. Once Tai gets to the height of the Nevermore he grabs the bird by the neck and just as he thinks he's going to fall a portal opens up below him. As he falls through it he appears on the ground next to Raven who is currently standing over him. "Did you get it?"
Tai brings up his arm to show the Nevermore choking in his grasp. "Got it." Tai then quickly snaps the neck like a chicken bone as the Nevermore begins disintegrating. Tai grabs the white ribbon and stands up to see eye to eye with Raven. "Looks like we got our ribbon. Who do you think will be our partners?"
"Hopefully not my brother." Raven sneers as she begins to look for an exit.
"Why not?" Tai pockets the ribbon and follows Raven.
"Let's just say my brother has the worst semblance in all of Remnant." Raven comments as she continues to walk away.
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad." Tai waves Raven off.
Raven looks over to him with narrowed eyes. "His semblance is Bad Luck. A semblance that works against its owner. How can that be anything but terrible?"
Tai has to hold in a laugh at hearing that. "Pffft. His semblance is Bad Luck?"
"Exactly." Raven responds as the two continue to try to find a way out.
"These group of first years are looking promising." Glynda says too Ozpin as they watch a tablet of what was going on down in the Emerald Forest.
Ozpin sips from his mug and intently watches one section that has Qrow and Summer on it and another that has Raven and Taiyang on it. "Those four have piqued my interest."
Glynda looks over to Ozpin in confusion. "Why those four?"
"The way they all fight implies that each of them has had some form of extensive combat training before coming here. Much more than any of the other students who came from the traditional academies." Ozpin narrows his eyes at Summer specifically. "On top of that Ms. Rose has silver eyes."
Glynda understands the implications. "Do you think she can use them?"
Ozpin simply shrugs as he takes another sip from his coffee mug. "I'm not sure. Potentially, but we shouldn't jump the gun on this. We might scare her off if we do so."
Suddenly the screen their watching glitches out and the screen goes bright red with the symbol of a black spider with all of its legs touching the outlines of the four kingdoms. Glynda immediately panics. "Wh-what?! Why are the Grimm Knights interfering?!"
Ozpin narrows his eyes as he looks at the screen. "I'm not sure."
"We need to do something about this!" Just as Glynda is about to take off Ozpin stops her.
"No."
"No? What do you mean no?!" Glynda angrily replies.
"Let us wait and see what they will do." Ozpin tells her as he takes another sip from his mug.
"But-"
Ozpin holds his hand up in a stop motion. "No buts. Let us see how those four will react."
Glynda doesn't know how to react to Ozpin's response. She looks down from where they're standing then back at Ozpin before she begrudgingly stands next to Ozpin to wait. "You better be right on this sir."
"Oh trust me I'm always right." Ozpin smiles to himself as he takes another sip from his mug.
As Qrow and Summer continue to try to find their way out of the forest they hear the scream of a girl.
"Looks like somebody got attacked." Qrow points out.
"We should go check it out." Summer tells him as she begins running towards the screaming.
Qrow gives a groan as he follows after Summer. "Hello? We were trying to look for an exit?"
"Normally I would also look for an exit, but that scream sounded more in pain than fear." Summer explains.
"There's a difference?' Qrow asks.
"Yeah, but very slightly." Summer responds. The two suddenly hear a giant roar that shakes the entire forest. "I don't think I've ever heard a roar like that before." Summer responds as she runs just a little bit faster.
As the two run for a few more minutes they make it into a clearing to see just what was going on. What they see is truly a terrifying sight. Their was a creature in the middle of the clearing that stood at a little over ten feet tall. It had oily black skin like a Grimm and had outer bone on the ribs and along the arms. Its arms and legs were extremely thin and the two questioned how this thing was even able to support itself. Its hands were nearly as wide as their torso's were long and the nails looked like knives. It was missing its jaw as the top layer of bone looked like a half skull of a human. One of the most odd things was that it had hair like a humans. It roared again as it brought its hand up to face towards them.
"What is that thing?" Summer asks in panic as she takes a step back and has her hand on the handle of her pistol.
"I don't know... I've never seen a Grimm like this before." Qrow brings his weapon out from behind his back as he brings his sword into a fighting stance.
The creature screamed as its entire body convulsed and let out a massive shockwave that affected both Qrow and Summer. They both felt that something happened to them but weren't sure what.
Summer was the first to respond by pulling out her gun and shooting the creature in the head. What happened next truly terrified both of them. As the bullet hit the creature in the face it bounced right off its head and sent a ripple of black aura over its body.
"What the hell?! Grimm aren't supposed to have aura." Qrow begins to sweat a little. Qrow charges the Grimm and tries slashing at its legs. As he got close the Grimm swung its arm as electricity pours from its hand which zapped Qrow. Qrow took a step back to analyze this. "Grimm usually can't do that either. Just what is this thing?"
Summer bings out her other hand to reveal a second pistol as she begins to fire bullets from both guns at the head of this creature. Most of the bullets harmlessly bounce off except one which pierces the aura and penetrates the creatures head. It lets out a yell of pain as it brings one of its hands up to rub the spot it was shot. Now the creature was pissed as it came charging right at Summer. It tried reaching to grab Summer but Summer's body faded to white rose petals as she dodges the attack. Qrow tries to cut the creatures leg from behind but right as he is about to cut into the creature it sends the ground that Qrow is standing on flying which sends Qrow into the air. As the creature turns around it shoots its hand forward and wraps around Qrow as it slams him into the ground. Qrow tumbles away as he brings his sword into scythe mode. The creature gets on all fours and begins to charge something in its mouth. Qrow sees this and begins to run away from whatever it is doing. A second later the creature shoots a fireball out of its mouth which blows up a chunk of trees behind Qrow. The creature then kicks its foot back just as Summer is almost done rematerializing just to knock her back into another pile of petals. The creature stands back up and claws down at the ground which sends a shockwave towards Qrow who jumps to the side of it and begins running right towards the creature. The creature tries to swat Qrow away with its hand but Qrow goes for a swing against the hand. Qrow finds that his scythe slides right off the hand of the creature.
The creature grabs hold of Qrow's scythe as it slams it into the ground which buries the blade of the scythe into the ground. The creature tries to punch Qrow but Qrow jumps back. The creature tries to follow Qrow but ends up stepping on the scythe which breaks the ground enough to trap the creatures foot in the ground. 'Why do my attacks feel so weak?' Qrow thinks to himself as he tries to figure out how to get his weapon back.
As Summer reforms she begins to unload more shots on the creatures leg that is currently stuck in the ground. The first few shots don't phase it but then the bullets pierce the aura and shred the foot from its leg. As the monster falls over it shrieks in pain as Summer begins reloading her revolvers. The creature turns back around and clenches its fist as the rocks below Summer's feet break away. Summer jumps back as she fires more shots at the monster's head which harmlessly bounce off. The creature begins running on all threes at Summer as Summer begins to run away as fast as she can while occasionally turning to take shots at the creature. As this is going on Qrow grabs his scythe and pulls it out of the ground and immediately goes charging right towards the creature as he raises his scythe up and swings down on the side of the creature as he barely slices into it. The creature took notice of him and uses its one good leg to kick Qrow away as it turns back to continue chasing Summer. Just as Qrow is getting back up a familiar portal is cut near him as he sees his sister emerge from the portal.
"What do you want Raven." Qrow tiredly asks.
"I had a feeling that whatever made that loud roar earlier was probably fighting you." Raven looks to the side to see the monster. "From the looks of things I was right."
Tai suddenly comes out of the portal as well. "Oh hey Qrow." Tai waves.
"So this guy is your partner after all." Qrow comments.
"What about you?" Raven asks.
Summer comes barreling past them as she catches a breather behind the three. "Hey guys... could you oh I don't know help out?"
"Got it." Qrow responds as he charges towards the creature.
"Whoa what is that thing?" Tai asks finally looking at the creature.
"We thought it was a Grimm, but then we found out it has aura and can use elemental attacks almost like dust. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." Summer explains.
"That is strange." Raven comments as she takes her sword out of its sheathe and gets into attacking position. "I'm going in." Raven cuts a portal and jumps in. Just as Qrow is reeling for another attack Raven comes out of a portal next to him as the two of them simultaneously strike the creatures hand which cuts deep into it. The creatures black blood starts to ooze onto their weapons as they pull their weapons out.
"Looks like I better join them." Tai says. "You stay here and rest Summer, we've got this." Tai's eyes suddenly become blue-grey again as he becomes completely silent and charges dead on towards the creature. Tai sprints towards it, jumps into the air, and punches it right in the arm which sends the creature tumbling to the ground. Qrow jumps on the creatures back and slams his scythe into it which barely pierces. The creatures skin start to try to grab at Qrow's feet which makes Qrow immediately jumps off. As the creature begins to charge another attack in its mouth Raven sheathes her katana and presses the button which begins coating the blade in fire dust. Raven pulls the sword out and with a loud boom slams the dust covered blade on the creatures head which not only explodes from Ravens hit, but also forces the fireball in the creatures mouth to explode inside of it. As the smoke clears the creature appears to have half its face melted off. The neck also seems to be weakened as well from the explosion. The creature punches Raven square in the chest which sends her flying about twenty feet before smashing into a tree.
"Raven!" Qrow shouts out.
"I'm fine!" Raven shouts back as she slowly walks out of the clearing.
Tai doesn't waste any time as he circles around and unleashes a flurry of punches and kicks on the knee cap of the other good leg. As more and more hits rain down the aura gives out and Tai manages to shatter the knee cap. The creature turns its head to fire a beam at Tai from its mouth. Tai notices and drags the creatures leg in front of the beam as the beam is let off. The force from the beam completely severs the other leg off the creature as it shrieks again in pain.
While this is happening Qrow changes his scythe back to sword mode and charges at the last arm joint as he slices into the arm. As it barely nicks again Qrow decides to bring his left hand up to the top of the blade as he pushes his sword with all his might to cut through the limb. The arm starts to spaz about but Qrow continues pushing until eventually he cuts cleanly through the arm. "Target immobilized." Qrow announces so the rest can hear him.
"Qrow! I need you to help me with finishing this creature off!" Summer shouts.
Qrow runs over to her to see what she has planned. "What are you thinking?"
"I need you to swing with your scythe around that creatures neck to cut deep into it. I'm gonna need it softened up to finish it off with my melee weapons."
"Normally I'd be upset about somebody stealing my kills, but I don't think that matters right now." Qrow runs full force towards the monster as he switches back to scythe mode. The creature looks on as it begins to charge another attack right towards Qrow. Just as its about to release the attack Tai punches the creature in the side of the head hard enough to redirect the attack at some nearby trees instead. Raven then exits a portal created next to Tai as she unleashes another explosion from her sword which further blows the creatures head to the side. This explosion also breaks Raven's blade clean off the hilt.
"Tch." Raven scowls in disgust.
Qrow latches his scythe right into where those two attacked and begins to swing around the creatures neck as he continues to cut deeper and deeper into the neck. Once Qrow sees Summer running towards the monster Qrow pulls the neck back as he leaves to make it fully exposed for Summer to take care of. Just as Summer is right on the creature two sword like blades emerge from her sleeves as she brings her arms into an 'x' formation. As she jumps into the air Summer swings the two blades in opposite directions as she cuts the creatures head clean off.
As Summer lands she retracts the blades back into her sleeves as she and the rest of her acquaintances all look on as something different happens to this monster. Instead of disintegrating like every other Grimm this creature melts. As the black flesh continues to melt they see something that truly horrifies all of them. As they watch the creature melt their appeared to be something inside the creature.
"Uhhh guys? Is that what I think it is?" Qrow questions.
Raven walks into the black goo and retrieves what they all were looking at. When Raven pulled it out it confirmed all of their suspicions. It was a girl. She didn't look any older than them. Raven checks the pulse. "She's dead." Raven darkly declares.
"How awful." Summer looks away in sadness for this loss of life.
"How could a person be a Grimm?" Tai asked no one in particular.
"I don't know but whatever happened before we got here must've been really screwed up." Qrow comments as he puts his weapon away.
We need to tell the Headmaster about this." Summer tells them.
"Agreed." Tai nods his head.
"Let's just get out of here." Qrow says as he begins to walk away.
Raven walks over and picks up her broken blade as she puts it back in its sheathe. Raven then follows behind Qrow as well. Tai takes one last look at the body before deciding to take it with them. Tai grabs the body and puts it over his shoulder as he joins the other two. Seeing that everyone else is leaving Summer ran up to join them.
Once they all made it out of Emerald Forest it went about as good as expected, in other words terribly. Glynda freaked out, but Ozpin stayed calm during the entire ordeal. The four of them gave their accounts of what had happened and were recorded for research later on. Due to this whole mess, the team selection would be pushed back to the next day as putting this case together was more important. The soon to be students would have to spend one more night in the main hall. That night Summer couldn't sleep after what she had seen and the rest of them didn't fare much better. Even Raven was perturbed by this whole debacle. As the night came and went it was the next day and teams would finally be put together. The overall mood of the place was somber after what happened the previous day, but Summer held her head high and looked forward to see who she would be paired up with. Summer was quickly snapped out of her thoughts when Ozpin started giving the last team.
"Lastly we have Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen." The four of them make it to the stage. "You retrieved the white ribbons and from this day forward shall be known as Team STRQ lead by Summer Rose." Everyone claps for them. Summer looks surprised and Raven looks a little upset.
"Thank you Headmaster Ozpin." Summer bows her head slightly.
"No need to thank me. You did a marvelous job yesterday." Ozpin tells her as the four begin to make their way off the stage.
Thus Team STRQ was born.
to be continued...
Authors Notes: It seemed that their were at least a few people who were interested in this story so I decided to go full steam ahead. This chapter was fun to write and I began setting up some of the major plot points for this story in this chapter. I can't wait to show you all. We also got to see Summer and Taiyang's semblances in action this chapter which is cool. Anyways thank you for reading this chapter, I appreciate it. What are your thoughts on it? I always enjoy seeing your opinions. With all of that being said this is Exile Mansion signing off.