Prologue

Knight in strange armor

Narration I:

"Life is no different than the weather. Not only is it unpredictable, but it shows us a new perspective of the world every day."
― Suzy Kassem, rise up and salute the sun: The writings of Suzy Kassem

(Velvet POV)

I ran though the halls of Beacon. My chocolate brown rabbit ears drooped low and almost blended in with my hair. Hazel brown eyes reddened as the dam blocking my tear ducts collapsed to nothingness. School uniform was wrinkled and a bit damp from the tears. Cardin, the jerk who bullies me on an almost daily basis for the past two months, has yet again teased me for my Faunus origin and even worse. He pulled on my rabbit ears to see if they were real. I can still feel them aching at the base. I can't tell my team about the bullying, I don't want to be responsible for his extremely bloody and painful death . . . or Coco getting expelled for murder. It is my problem to solve. No one else can possibly understand what it's like, to be pushed to the side and treated like a freak all because of an extra pair of ears.

Bursting though a set of double metal doors, I ran toward a lone peach tree in the middle of the courtyard. The area around the tree was pretty much void of any intelligent life. Everyone was either in class or at lunch right now. The sun was blazing high in the sky, marshmallow like clouds filled parts of the sky. The air was crisp and has a slight late summer chill. I leaned my back against it's warm bark, and slid down it holding my knees close to my chest. The tree was covered in fuzzy and succulent peaches, few of which littered the ground around me. filling the air with their sweet aroma. The tree itself was easily three times my size. I felt at peace when I'm under this tree. Whether it's my Faunus instincts or not, I don't care. I just needed to be alone right now

"Why must I be cursed with these dang ears." I quietly mumbles to myself as a lone peach blossom fell from the tree and into my hair. I just want an end to all this pain and suffering, or for someone who might understand my pain. The members of my team are good friends, but they can't even begin to understand a fragment of the pain that never leave my side. I quietly sobbed into my knees, I don't understand what drives Cardin to do such horrible things. I'm just as normal as anyone else here. I looked up to see a purple spark floating by my nose. Watching it with curiosity and mild interest.

"What the...?" I mused. Before I can finish the sentence, my nose made contact with the spark. Felt cool like a snowflake bopping the tip of my nose. It started shooting all over the air in a short burst. Seemed to be making all sorts of shapes as it dissipated. Timidly I moved back a bit farther as it dissipated into the air. More started filling the clearing near me. Curiosity got the better of me again as I poked another spark, Same results. I lightly chuckled as the sparks got bigger and clustered more. I smiled as they started forming more complex shapes, like of people and various items. All vanishing as quickly as they appeared. One showed a bipedal predator with stubby arms yet a massive jaw. Another looked like a ship. Edges sloped and sleek with massive engines in the back, looked a little like a war ship if the guns on the side were any indication. I poked on the the spark clusters curiously and timidly retracted my hand back. The cluster broke apart and made an almost alien warping sound to me. The sparks briefly formed scenes. One showed an armored man with dual pronged swords clashing with the blade of a lot bigger foe, one I can't begin to describe. It disappeared with a metallic warp. This was starting to get slightly entertaining, seeing the spark clusters pop like a firework show at my touch.

I quickly looked around to see the sparks swarming all around the courtyard, sparking as they got closer together. An arc of purple lightning shot from a cluster and struck the ground by me. Now, every fiber in my body told me to get out of that area right there and then. I raced got up and ran to the closest place for cover, a stone bench. Several of the clusters started swirling around in a loop, producing a low pitch whine only faunus can hear. To me, it was like nails on a chalkboard or static like feedback from a speaker on full blast. I tried to hold my ears and block out the sound. The sparks around me quickly moved toward the sound like magnets. Swarming and swirling, sending bolts of pink lightning out every which way. I barely had enough time to get behind a bench before a violent explosion pulsed through the air. Looking over the bench, I saw that the sparks formed, what I think is, a wormhole. For a lack of better terms. The sound was a lot more bearable now, less painful. It looked like something straight of the a science fiction novel, one I read a while ago. Deep purple center, swirling edges with the inside a bit lighter than the rest. Small sparks of pink lightning shot out all over the portal randomly. Looked to be pulling inward yet nothing around it moved. What the heck happened? I wondered. Did I do something to cause it?. A violent explosion of sparks shot out the front of the wormhole. Baseball sliding out of the portal, was a strangely armored man. Kicking up the dirt as his armored bot dug into the dirt, skidding across the courtyard.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" He swore as he stopped sliding, groin first into the tree. He let out a cry of pain the instant it connected. His voice sounded like it belonged to a war hardened soldier, yet just a bit like a young adult as well. His armor was as blue as the darkest seas, yet some areas remained as grey as steel, obviously seen a lot of combat from how many dents and paint burns there were. Few areas were shiny others were old and faded, some places looked like they were recently repaired. Several hardened pouches on his chest. Few places glowed blue and blinked. His left arm seemed to be entirely mechanical, like a beefed up prosthetic arm some veterans of war have. He shook his head as he picked himself up, groaning in pain the whole time. "Note to future. Never sliding though a portal again. Probably should already know this by now." He noted dusting the dirt off his shoulder, stretching his limbs with a loud crack from each one. He could easily tower over me with how tall he is, easily seven feet tall. His face was hidden behind an icy blue T shaped visor. I could make out a small red dot blinking on the side of his helmet. "Random jump was a success, had to pass though a Halo sub-system to get here though. Atmospheric conditions read breathable, up-linked to home still intact, number of universe ties is a normal twenty anchor connections. Strong ties to the RVB system, guess I should expect to see Tucker around here somewhere. Jerk still owes me money. Over all a normal universe from first appearance." He said slugging his rifle on his back. He scanned the area around himself, Visor glowing ever so slightly as he done so. "No shooting, no explosions, no hostile activity anywhere. Liking this place already." I quickly hid lower behind the bench so I wouldn't be see. I was extremely intimidated by the sheer amount of weaponry he had on him. Only someone who is expecting trouble packs that much heat. Twin combat knifes in his shoulder pads with knuckle duster grips, duel pistols on his thighs, two blue grenade like objects along his belt, dumbbell looking objects studded with symbols on his hips. That's just the obvious weaponry, including his weird rifle. Who knows what else he's packing. From first glance, he appeared to be a walking tank. His gaze went from his surroundings to the wormhole. He brought a finger up to the side of his helmet, the blinking light stopped and went solid.

"Explorer Grey to Home, I landed at some sort of school I think. American anime sector zero six. Region twenty two, universe one nine eight one. No sign of any sentient life yet. Proceeding with standard documentation." He asked no one she can see.

"Alright Johnathan. Mark the cords on your HUD and call me when you done your job. We don't want to repeat the events from Metroid prime, Winterfell, or even..." A female voice said over his radio. I was only able to pick it up because of my better hearing. She sounded a bit softer and a lot kinder, yet at the same time sounded like she could take out a Death stalker easy. Note to self, don't tick her off either,

"Don't remind me Serena. I still have the scar on my back from that day. Dire wolves are vicious I tell you. Tell Elaia I'll bring her back something if she's good." The male cut off. Maybe they were siblings? They did sound a lot alike. Who was Elaia? The armored figure looked around the area again to be sure he didn't miss anything. Unfortunately the tips of my chocolate brown rabbit ears poked out from my cover. "Hold up I got a local trying to hide. Hybrid of some type. Mammal class by the looks of the ears. Guessing Rabbit of some sort by first glance. Advancing and investigating. establishing first contact protocol. Pray they speak English but be ready to get my ass out of here. Don't want to have to kill my way out again." He whispered sternly as he approached her bench.

"Careful, you don't have too much good luck with Hybrids." The female, known as Serena, replied. My mind started racing as the figured heavy footsteps got closer and closer. I had two options, Fight or flight. Fighting was out of the question because I don't have Scarlet Fever on me, and he has dozens of weapons on him. Running didn't seem like too bad of a idea, but what if he was here for peace? I didn't have time to think when the man was pretty much right over me. How did he move so fast? I wondered as I almost jumped out of my own skin. He calmly put his hands up in defeat. I fell backwards with a surprised shriek as the strange figure caught me before I hit the ground. His touch was firm yet held on to me like I was made of glass. I don't know what to think. Do I scream? To I kick him in the balls and run? What do I do?

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm peaceful." He spoke in a slow, tender tone gently putting me down. "You understand me, right?" He asked slowly briefly using his hands as he talked. I nodded in response. He gave a audible sigh in relief. "Thank God all mighty." He said holding where I think his forehead is. "Saves me a lot of time trying to play charades."

"Heads up, you got a heavy activity coming toward the portal. Be prepared to fight it out. I don't know if I can shut down the portal in time." Serena warned. "ETA, forty seconds."

"Damn it." The man swore. "I'm sure you're probably confused, scared, and probably thinking of ways to kick my butt. So I'll give you the 10 second version of everything. Nod if you understand so far?" He spoke fast looking back at the portal nervously. I nodded in agreement. "My name is Johnathan Grey. I'm not from around here obviously, I just got here from a random portal jump, That swirling vortex is a trans-dimensional multiverse portal, I'll explain more later on if we survive the next five minutes."

"20 seconds. Johnathan, I can't close the portal. It's too wild! Nothing I can do from my end." With that warning he pulled his rifle out. Of course I had no idea what they were talking about. I knew a bit about the multiverse from science class at my old school.

"Why can this ever be easy? Why can't I ever go somewhere nice and not get into a fight or shot at? Which god did I piss off this time? Wait better question, which one didn't I piss of yet. that list would be shorter." He said as his rifle whirled to life. All sorts of lights came on, mostly along the barrel as it sparked. Bolts of electricity arced between the coils as it charged up. He shook his head as he pulled a clip from his chest pocket, opened up the top of his rifle, and pushed three massive slugs down into the internal mag. Putting the empty clip back into his pocket, he closed the top as he tightened his grip on it "No real cover to use around here, collateral damage will be high, I might be able to stop civilians casualties if I neutralize the threat quickly. Speed and precision will be necessary. Why did i leave Mu behind? She would have been extremely useful right now." He said to no one in particular.

"Velvet." I finally spoke. Came out rather shyly, But what else would someone expect from a timid rabbit girl talking to a walking armory of a man from another world. I'm lucky I was able to say that, or anything at all. He looked back as I looked at my reflection in his visor. I don't know who is on the other side, but I'm getting the feeling that he is someone I don't want as an enemy.

"What did you say?" He asked calmly.

"My name. It's Velvet." I replied timidly with my ears flattened against my head again.

"Okay, Listen very closely Velvet and follow it to the letter if you want to live. When the fighting starts, I want you to run and warn anyone you can to stay away. Don't come back for me, don't try playing hero and taking on anything that pops out of that portal alone, just run and get as many as you can away from the fight. I'll draw their fire and hold them here, take out what I can." He ordered handing me one of his pistols. "I normally don't give someone my weapons, but if worst comes to worst. You'd have some mean of defending yourself. Safety is on the side. Flip it when you want to fire. Only pull the trigger if you mean to hurt what's' on the other end. It's full of lock-down paint so it should slow the bastard down enough for you to get to safety. Only got seven rounds in the mag, so make them count."

"Hostiles are in bound in t-minus 5." He readied his rifle. Looking ready to take on what ever comes out of it. "3..2.." Before she could say one, something jumped out from the portal, something monstrous and ugly. A machine as big as a Ursa burst though the portal. Hunched over with a large bulbous back sticking out. Long orange axe formed it's right arm, some type of sharpshooter rifle on it's left. It growled and purred as it scanned the area, back bristles moving with every sound. I tried to stay low as the sentient machine scanned the area. I even held my ears down flat on my head. I looked over at Johnathan, he had one finger calmly moved to the trigger. I looked back to see another one of those things popped through the portal, only a bit bigger and with more armor than the first. This one had a massive cannon as a arm and a straight blade for the other arm. Then another popped out, then another, then another!

How many are there? I wondered, suddenly feeling tiny. Like a rabbit in a pit full of coyotes. Better question, why isn't anyone else seeing this? Suddenly feeling a slight, metallic chill went up my shoulder. I looked up to see Johnathan's his hand on my shoulder. He gave her a reassuring nod, lifted his hand and brought one of his fingers up to where his lips would be. Keep quiet, got it. I thought. I nodded hastily. He quietly reached behind him with his free arm and pulled out one of his grenades, eyes fixed on the cluster forming in front of the portal. Currently at lest ten scattered around the portal, maybe more. All different sizes but retain the overall same look.

"Johnathan, don't do it. You'll be trapped there." Serena warned. I can only guess that she was communicating to him through some type of radio. The nearest machine snapped it's head in their direction and let out a low, menacing growl. That growl, made a Ursa major seem like a fluffy teddy bear in comparison.

"Don't have much of a choice. Don't tell Elaia." With that, he chucked the grenade. It landed on the face of one of the machines, then exploding with a low whine and a loud blue explosion. The portal collapsing in on itself. The machine burnt away, as it's gun fell to the ground. Strange thing was, when they die, their bodies seem to collapse on themselves and leave behind a faint orange cloud.

Johnathan jumped over the bench and fired his rifle. The sound it made seemed unreal, like a sonic boom mixed with a electrical discharge instead of a dust/gunpowder ignition. A large yellow bolt of energy lit the air around it on fire with a loud metallic screech. It went though the beast with a loud, ear damning explosion and metal of the beings shell flying everywhere. Of course the remaining machines shot back orange rounds. Johnathan seemed to dodge as many as he could, some scraped his under suit and left a hole as others got absorbed by his armor, as closed the gap between him and his prey. Knocking it down he quickly jammed the barrel of his rifle under it's shin and pulled the trigger. The machine exploded in a cloud of shrapnel. He quickly reoriented himself and shot another bolt with the precision and skill to match Atlas's top Special Operation unit. This bolt went straight though one machine with ease, and obliterated another one behind it. Both died in a violent explosion. He quickly scooped up one of the rifles the machines were using and sawed another one right down the middle in half by his buddy's old weapon.

His electrical rifle thrown on his back as he used the butt of his gun to deflect a blade. He twisted himself around, grabbed the blade by the blunt end, ripped it off with ease as the beast howled in pain, and stabbed it through the head. He turned just in time to dodge a blast from the cannon. the explosion hit the ground beside him, and the red bolts broke off into more bolts. Also exploding on contact. He held the newly acquired blade by the dull end upside down and threw it at the machine. It impaled itself deep in the thing's gun as it tried to fire again, resulting in it going up in a massive bang and red could. Scorching the ground around it. One knelled down as it's back began to open, popping out some type of flying drone. Looked also child like with two circular wings. Johnathan ran up, used the massive machine as a spring board while dropping a primed grenade into it's back, and held on to the drone's wing with all his might. The drone dipped down under the sheer weight, right before he unsheathed a knife and drove it through it's head. Rolling across the ground he put his knife back and picked up an orange sharp shooter rifle, firing back at the machines with quick and precise shots.

Dang he's quick. I thought. The scene almost made me forget my job. One of the machines noticed me and jumped toward me, knocking me over with it's axe-like-arm embedded in the ground, millimeters right of my head. I tried a series of kicks, but with it's metal shell, it did nothing but hurt my feet. It kept trying to stab my head but I kept moving, till Johnathan jumped on it's back. It abandoned trying to kill me and was now trying to get the man off it's back. I saw someone open the door outside, but it was effectively bent shut when the machine threw Johnathan into it with a loud thunk, also cracking some of the bricks around the door. Most of his weird rifle was shattered on impact and dropped to the ground. He got up and stood to face his remaining attackers. Reaching to his hips and ignited something that resembled swords. Twin pronged blades of some sort of glowing blue energy. it crackled with energy as he held the swords in a obviously aggressive offensive position.

"COME ON!" Johnathan roared at the machines. Several ran toward him but were swiftly sliced as he started a deadly dance. Block right, slice left, reverse, jump over one and slice it down the middle and run toward the next one. Each swing he made was precise and swift, each one doing as much damage as possible without wasting energy or creating too many openings. The door that was bent sounded like someone was pounding on it. Trying to force it open, and swearing as it won't move. I regained my senses and started running as fast as I could. Not sure where but anywhere. I had to get a teacher, they'll know what to do. I didn't make it very far before something burnt though my leg. I yelled out in pain as I fell to the ground, holding my calf in agony.

Looking back I saw Johnathan keeping one of the machine's blades away from his visor with both his blades. The beast that shot me slowly walked toward me, sadistically growling as it sharpened it's axe blade on the gun. I lifted the pistol Johnathan let me borrow, took aim to the best of my ability, and fired four rounds at it. Several went wild but one hit. When it made contact, it just fired a purple paint at it. The beast slowed down but overall just pissed it off even more. With my leg shot, I was forced to crawl away from the rather slowly advancing beast, shooting off the rest of the mag. none hit. It was like the machine was playing with it's prey. Before I could blink, the beast arched it's back in pain and had two blue blades sticking out of it's chest. It gave a screech as it fell to it's knees as another blade sliced it in half before my very eyes. Standing over me was Johnathan, covered in burns and cuts in areas his armor wasn't protecting, panting heavily and erratically. Looking back there were no more. Just several orange clouds, several of the machine's weapons littered the ground too. He deactivated his swords and put them by his hip again.

"That could of gone a lot better." He joked laughing a bit. Before he can say anything else, one of the beasts teleported in a similar way to the portal, directly behind him and readied it's lance.

"Look out!" I yelled. He barely moved out of the way in time. Several sparks shot as the blade racked across the helmet. The beast slid a bit before screeching back at Johnathan, who screamed loudly in pain. In a instant, he pulled his helmet off and threw it to the side as he activated his swords again. Growling at the beast in anger and pain. I got a good look at my protector's face as his helmet bounced along the ground to my feet. His skin was as pale as a weary ghost, eyes as blue as the hottest of flames yet hardened like he seen and been though the horrors of war. Scars from previous fight marred his face like freckles. A fresh injury ran long ways across his left check, barely missing his eye by millimeters, and was bleeding profoundly. Buzz cut brown hair. His eyes portrayed lots of hidden emotions. Anger, pain, sorrow, and they were locked on to the knight who hurt him.

"Kid, stay behind me." He ordered keeping himself between me and the machine. The beast screeched again before lunging at him, Johnathan stood his ground and was pushed back a bit as their blades collided in a plethora of sparks. Every time the beast swung, Johnathan blocked and countered with one of his. He refused to let the beast have a single inch and fought with such ferocity. It tried to shoot again but he forced the gun up as the bolts flew through the air and incinerate a segment of the wall in a fury of fire.

I heard muffled chatter through the dented door. Didn't even take a second before my giant for a partner kicked the door right off the hinges as Goodwitch stormed out. "What is going..." Goodwitch's rant was cut short by one look at the battlefield that was the courtyard. Johnathan noticed their arrival and quickly pushed the machine back with all his might.

"Run kid, Run!" He warned blocking another strike with both swords as sparks of plasma flew through the air. For a short moment, he left himself vulnerable and the knight took full advantage of it. It smacked him with the side of it's gun and sent him flying through the school's wall. The machine turned it's attention to Goodwitch, screeched, the jumped toward her. Unfortunately, for the machine, he pissed off the wrong teacher. She filched her crop to the side casually and the beast was catapulted off the edge of the cliff. Swirling her weapon of choice, The courtyard practically rebuilt itself to pristine condition. Then turned her attention to me, who was leaning on Yatsuhashi for support.

"What the heck, happened here?!" She demanded. I just stood there awestruck myself at what happened. My eyes went from the damaged helmet to the the unconscious form of the man who saved me, barely hanging out from the wall, which a few people attempted to pull up but miserably failed. I carefully bending down and picked up the helmet, with Yatsuhashi help. I looked right at the icy blue visor and let out a deep sigh.

"I'm not too sure." I said running her hand down the slash mark and looked at it closer. But I have a bad feeling, that this is only the beginning. Of either something really good, or really bad.

Two small inverted symbols were stamped on the side of the helmet, along with a few words. Barely able to feel or see it with how worn it was but it's there. First word series spelled out 'UNSC' with an eagle holding a banner. Other one looked like a triple crooked L with a Y separating them with the words 'Project Freelancer, Beta team leader, Agent Ohio' under it. Where exactly was this guy from?

And this is a wrap. Hope you enjoyed. I'll update this as much as I can along with 'Into the light'. Before you ask, and I know someone will. No, Johnathan is NOT the Master chief or a Spartan from Halo. Close but not quite.

Another answer to a unavoidable review. The reason the fight seems rushed is because Velvet was seeing it all go by so quickly, her mind wasn't processing all the information at once with how fast they were fighting, I'll explain later too. If I wrote it from Johnathan's Pov, then it wouldn't seem as rushed because it didn't happen so quickly. Hope that makes sense, some how.

I did write some of the Prometheans with their own personalities a bit before their deaths. Please leave a idea for a universe you'd like to see appear in this. Whether it be a small cameo or major plot twist, I'll find some way to make it work. Till next time

~Dgreen20

~Edit notes~

I'm back. Decided to edit the Prologue to make it flow better and smoother. Added more detail and expanded the fight scene with the Knights. Also added a few things for future chapters later down the line. I am going back and editing all the chapters so far to make sure it is all connected with little to no holes. Going to keep the main structure of it, but going to try and fill a few minor holes i noticed. Add in more detail and make it feel better. Please leave a review on what you liked or don't like about the story so far. is it going too fast? too slow? Not able to keep up? Let me know so i can fix that. Other wise I'll keep thinking nothing is wrong or you guys just don't like it. That is all I got for right now. I'll go back and edit this more in the future if needed.

Bye

~Dgreen20