Chapter 4
I woke up relatively tired, but well rested early in the morning. Most of the people around me were getting dressed in their combat uniforms and getting breakfast. Following up, I quickly freshened up and got to breakfast, where I could hear Nora chatting up Ren the entire way. Snorting, I just ignored them and made my way down to the cafeteria.
I passed a few students and realized they weren't insignificant shadow people like in the series, more or less actual characters with unique weapons and unique outfits. If I came here without any context on the show, it would've been near impossible for me to tell who the main characters were I was so distracted that I didn't notice a burly orange haired guy in armor walking by, and he immediately shoved me as he passed. "Oops, sorry," he said, clearly not at all sounding sorry as he laughed. Cardin Winchester.
Great.
No matter, I brushed myself off and ate breakfast, all while reading comments on my newest chapter. Many liked it, but some criticized how gritty and inhumane the story was. I simply replied that the whole concept of this story was to bring out and show the monsters of humanity and Faunuskind, as all of us are capable of such savagery.
When I was done eating two pancakes and some eggs, I made my way to the lockers where the weapons were. Reaching Locker 782, I grabbed my belt and latched it on before heading back. Ruby and Yang were arguing, and I slipped by them before seeing Jaune walking past them in confusion. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high! Why does this have to happen today?"
"Yo, Jaune," I said, waving him over. "Need any help?"
"Huh? Oh, just...trying to find my things..." Jaune said, as he looked through the map of the locker room, eyes roaming over the paper as I walk with him. "I don't think we're heading the right way..."
"No, you definitely are," I said before I watched Jaune bump into Pyrrha and Weiss.
"E-excuse me! Do you not have anything better to do?" Weiss spat as Jaune reached over and helped Pyrrha up.
"Sorry," Jaune said sheepishly. "Wasn't looking where I was going...heh..."
"I see," Pyrrha said as she got up, dusting herself off. "Guess we shouldn't be talking in the middle of the aisles..."
"Hey, uhh I saw you outside yesterday," I said, Pyrrha flinching earlier. "You were surrounded by like twenty people on the way to the main hall. I hope everything's OK."
"Uhh, do you not know who she is?" Weiss asked, and Pyrrha's face flashed in panic. Jaune and I shook our heads simultaneously.
"This is Pyrrha," Weiss said, crossing her arms snootily.
"Oh yeah!" I said, snapping my fingers. "The famous breakdancer, right?"
"No wait, she sounds familiar. Did she...star in a movie?" Jaune asked, and Weiss gaped in horror at us. All the while, Pyrrha's panic had turned into a red face trying not to explode into giggles.
"Wait. Try Hard, right?" I asked, knowingly fueling Weiss's anger and Pyrrha's amusement with Jaune's obliviousness. Lucky for me, he played along without a problem.
"Oh yeah! Love your performance, was great," Jaune said, shooting finger guns at Pyrrha. Weiss jumped as Pyrrha exploded into laughter, Jaune smiling to himself as if he'd figured it out while Weiss spluttered indignantly.
"She's Pyrrha Nikos! She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row!" Weiss cried.
"Never heard of it," I said, feigning disinterest.
"Sounds great. Anyways, I was wondering since we'd need to make teams, if you wanna join us," Jaune said. Pyrrha, having recovered enough to stand up straight, just patted Weiss on the shoulder before she could tell us off.
"Oh, really?" Pyrrha asked, sounding rather interested in Jaune's offer, much to Weiss's dismay.
"Yep. Team Jaune already has a member on board. If you'd like, you could be a part of the winning team as well, what do you say?" Jaune said, failing to sound and look cool as he talked.
"That sounds grand," Pyrrha said, smiling brightly. I snorted and looked away from Weiss, who was fuming now. Though she made a point to push me aside so she too could leave the locker room.
"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."
"Looks like we gotta go," Pyrrha said.
"Oh wait, my weapon!" Jaune said, running off. The red-haired Greek styled girl giggled before looking at me, smiling kindly.
"Sorry if we were interrupting something with Weiss," I said awkwardly.
"Oh, it's quite alright," Pyrrha said, waving a hand. "I'm just glad someone treats me for me, you know."
"Tournament wins, am I right?" I said. "All the fame being more of a hassle than useful?"
"Yes," Pyrrha said, blushing nervously. "There's barely any people who will treat someone normally without reputation being brought up."
"I see," I commented before Jaune rushed back, completely out of breath as he held up his sword and shield. "I'm back...locker was closer than I thought..."
"Alright, let's go!" I said, and the three of us headed out to the cliffs. Moments later, we were standing on large silver tiles, ready to be launched. As Ozpin began to make his speech, I could feel myself pale.
"Wait. What happens if I can't find a team? What if I end up with JNPR or RWBY and replace one of them or something?" I thought. "I'm gonna be kicked out or killed by a Grimm at most. Maybe I'll end up on a team with three randoms..."
I turned to look at the others, who were all taking position. "Oh, guess I should-" My thoughts were interrupted when I was suddenly propelled into the air at neck-breaking speeds. I couldn't even hear myself screaming as I rocketed up into the sky, before slowly coming back down, the wind screaming into my ears.
"Shit shit shit shit shit!" I yelped as I braced myself. Hopefully someone would recognize me as a stain on the ground or a tree. Shutting my eyes, I heard loud crashing and smashing before I flew smack into a tree, groaning and flopping back down on the grass. "Ugh..." I groaned as my aching body screamed for me to hold up and stay still for a second.
Fighting that instinct, I slowly sat up to see the tree I'd flown into. "Wait..." I mumbled before turning around. Looking back, I could see large holes in the treetops and trunks of much taller trees behind me. The last remnants of a black mist slowly disappeared as well.
Getting up, I yawned and stumbled to my feet before coughing and brushing myself off. "Well...that could've gone worse..." I said before sighing and walking around. "Now where in the forest am I?"
growl
Turning around, I was surrounded by several Beowolves, all circling me the same way a pack of normal wolves would. Smirking, I quickly remembered back when I played Mass Effect at home, and the neural Dust flew out of my belt, forming into a layer of armor similar to tech armor from Mass Effect 2 and 3. A shortsword formed in my right hand and an axe in the left.
"C'mon," I said, before they all charged at once. Throwing the axe at one of the Grimm, I swung around at the next, effectively cutting down two of them before the sword and axe flew back to form a large mace, which I slammed into the third.
The fourth slashed at me and sent me flying, but the armor I made cushioned the impact. Though, I couldn't get up in time before the rest of them started dogpiling me, lashing and biting at me violently.
"Shit! Uhh, shockwave? Gun? Anything?" I frantically thought. I was desperate to try and get them off of me, but I couldn't concentrate on any way for my Dust to do so, being shaken and attacked nonstop.
Then, it all stopped. All the weight on me had disappeared, and it went quiet. Opening my eyes, I immediately sat up. The Grimm around me was disintegrating and in the middle of all the mist was a girl around my age, barely visible through the Grimm remains, at least until the mist disappeared.
She was slim and tall, and wore a blue kimono style outfit that exposed her thighs and shoulders. Her right arm and shoulder had black armor pads, and she had a large buster sword sheathed on her back. What stuck out to me most was the face mask over her nose and mouth. She had long bangs on either side of her face, and a ponytail on the back of her head.
The buster sword itself was very large, the blade being pitch black with a silver edge. The handle guard was dark grey, and the angled grip was leather brown. The sword also had a red gem shaped pommel, which stood out from the sword, but more or less fit in.
"Uhh...hi," I said as I got up and dust myself off. The black armor turned into mist and got sucked back into my belt as the girl approached, who was looking intensely at me. A minute later, she came over and helped me up, hoisting me back up to my feet before walking off.
"Guess you're my new partner. Welcome aboard," she remarked, sounding pretty friendly, but by no means excited. Frowning, I sighed before making my way over to her. She was shorter than me by about 2 or 3 inches, I noticed.
"I'm Markus. What's your name?" I asked, attempting to make some conversation with my savior.
"Liya," the girl said. "What is your weapon anyway?"
"Oh, the belt? It's a neural Dust," I explained, holding out my hand and watching as some of the Dust in my belt escaped the canisters and formed a knife in my palm. "I just think something and I make it."
"That's cool," Liya said. "Any reason why you couldn't do something like that against any of those Beowolves?"
"Uhh..." I said. "Couldn't concentrate. Was being slammed down and bit at...couldn't really concentrate."
"Just use your aura to block it out," Liya said, and I froze. "You do have your aura unlocked, right?"
"Nnnnnnno..." I said, stretching the word awkwardly. Liya turned around and stared at me with wide blue eyes, and I immediately felt stupid.
"You don't have your aura unlocked? Do you know how close you were to dying?!" Liya asked. "If ONE of them got through, you would've-"
"I get it! I just forgot, OK?" I cried, feeling very stupid now. "Let's just keep going, I'll get it unlocked later."
"Nope, not having my partner die on me out of stupidity," Liya said, and she yanked me back and pressed me against a tree. "Hold still."
She held my hand and closed her eyes, and her own aura began to glow. It was a dim cerulean color, and I looked down at her hand. It felt very warm, and I felt the air around me get brighter and brighter, as if someone had toggled the dimmer switch in my brain.
Suddenly, Liya stumbled back, and I felt my body get warm, as if I were completely submerged in a hot and calm bath. "Whoa..." I mumbled in amazement, before seeing Liya on one knee in front of me, taking deep breaths. "Are you OK?'
"I'm fine. Unlocking aura takes a bit. Seriously, did you forget that huntsmen need aura to fight Grimm?" Liya hissed.
"Uhh...yes," I said dumbly. And there was nothing else I could say, because it was the truth. Liya rolled her eyes and kept walking, me quickly following her. "So, where are we heading?"
"The abandoned temple?" Liya said. "Weren't you listening? We have to go to the temple and pick up a relic for the two of us, then return it to the cliff."
"Got it. May need higher ground," I said as I quickly thought up a large staircase. Liya watched as I jogged up the stairs two steps at a time before I reached the top. Looking around, I could see nothing but treetops for a while. "Forest is too dense!" I called before noticing something. An even higher cliff.
The cliff where Ruby decapitates the Nevermore.
"Well, any direction you recommend?" Liya called.
"Uhh...let's head that way!" I yelled, pointing to the direction of the desired cliff before turning around. With a thought, the stairs shifted into a slide and I made my way down in ten seconds flat, all the Dust flying back to my belt. "Best get going, eh?"
Liya looked at my belt as she narrowed her eyes. "That is freaky," she said.
"But useful, eh?" I said, and the two of us walked in silence.
We were likely walking for maybe a half hour, and were actively avoiding any conversation since we were on the lookout for Grimm. The only words we exchanged were the occasional "Wait" and "All clear" for when we detected any potentially dangerous movement around us.
"So, where are you from?" I asked, finally deciding to break the silence.
"Mistral," Liya said as she peered over a bush, looking around before continuing. "Moved here to enroll in Beacon and get away from a shitty life."
"Shitty life?" I said.
"Shitty parents and shitty friends," Liya said, and after a few seconds of silence, it was pretty clear she wasn't going to say more.
"I'm from Menagerie," I finally said, remembering what I came up with when I first showed up here. "I...don't remember much. Woke up in Vale a week ago with my belt and the clothes on my back."
"You're serious..." Liya said, and I didn't blame her. It was definitely a story that was hard to believe. But it was much more believable than the truth of me being from another world where I knew where life was going to go in this world from the other side of a laptop screen.
"It's true. I'm guessing some jackasses tried to traffick me or something," I mumbled. Liya tensed up, and I immediately coughed, knowing something like this was likely too far from the realm of possibility. "Right, so...what do you think we'll have at Beacon?"
"I dunno. Lots of classes, fighting Grimm, way too much maintenance, and a cramped team dorm," Liya said, seemingly eager to change the subject. "What about you?"
"Same. Though maybe we could make friends outside the team. And maybe fight each other?" I said.
"Each other? Why? Well, maybe for the Vytal Festival, but for classes?" Liya asked.
"Why not? I don't think Beacon's gonna go through the trouble of capturing Grimm on a daily basis, or send us out into Grimm grounds every day," I said. "Plus, I'm pretty sure huntsmen have to fight people occasionally."
"True," Liya said before she sighed. "Hopefully we can find two others and make a full team or else we won't get into Beacon."
I stopped, barely hearing something in the distance. Liya noticed me tense up, and immediately drew her weapon. I drew out a large amount of Dust as well, forming an axe similar to the one I used earlier. "It's moving around. Sounds like...bugs..."
"I hear it too," Liya whispered, and the two of us turned just in time to see what was making that noise break through a large set of bushes. It was a massive black cloud, and I could barely see what appeared to be a few hundred large Grimm finger sized mosquitoes shooting towards us.
"Shit!" I yelped, and I held up a wall in front of us both. The swarm slammed into it at full tilt, and it shattered after about three seconds of blocking; the force sending us both flying into a tree trunk. Groaning, I realized I didn't activate my Aura and smacked my forehead in a fit of frustration. Wasn't having and controlling aura supposed to be second nature?
Liya recovered and lifted up her sword, which was about as long as she was tall. Screaming, she swung it horizontally and created a slash of air that split the large cloud of insects into two, some of them disintegrating upon flying.
Liya repeated this action when the large cloud of mosquitoes reconnected and came back to flying towards us, but the sword was heavy, and she struggled to counter the wave fast enough.
The third time was very close, and she only managed to shear off a small section of the swarm.
"This is absolute bullshit!" Liya growled, and she swung her buster sword up, blade shifting into several parts before it flipped into a large weapon. Specifically, a very large scoped rifle. Hoisting it up, the much slimmer and now ranged weapon was about 1.8 meters long, easily longer than her height. Before I could talk, the rifle fired and my ears rang from the reverb. The explosion within the swarm sent most of the bugs to vaporize, leaving the cloud of insects to be around the size of a football.
Pulling the bolt, Liya's rifle ejected a smoking red shell before firing again, eradicating the remainder of the bugs. The echo of the shot disappeared, and Liya turned to look at me again, clearly not happy. "Did you seriously just watch while I did this?" she asked.
"S-sorry," I mumbled as I shook my head. "Just...that was pretty cool to see. I-I'm sorry, I got caught up and the way you were fighting was super cool and..."
Liya held up a hand, and her angry looking eyes clearly softened. "L-let's just go," she said, and continued walking towards the cliffs. Getting up, I dusted myself off and followed while coughing nervously.
"Was she...embarrassed?"
"What were those things anyway? Never seen that kind of Grimm before," I said in hopes of changing the subject.
"Grimm Mozzies," Liya said. "They aren't usually around Vale. Only Vacuo and some parts of Mistral."
"Odd. Still, at least they're gone now," I said.
"I don't remember seeing these in the show. Maybe something's off? No, it's completely likely that these kinds of Grimm exist. I didn't land anywhere near RWBY or JNPR, so maybe this isn't where the screen covers..." I thought to myself as we walked.
My thoughts were interrupted when a loud skittering was heard. Liya turned around and screamed. I turned as well, just as a large black spiked limb slammed into my gut. Miraculously, I wasn't impaled or slashed, as a wall of gold shielded me from the impact. Still, I was sent tumbling on the ground, and I rolled to my feet.
A massive Grimm spider chittered as it rushed towards Liya, who was completely still except for her shaking knees. "Liya!" I remember crying out before shooting my hand out. A bolt of neural Dust formed and slammed into the spider, which was now turning to its new disturbance.
Acting quickly, much faster than before, I formed several javelins and sent them into the spider, impaling it on several areas before it toppled over. Screeching, the spider swung a leg, which nearly took my head off had I not jumped back. Forming a sword, I deflected the next leg attack with ease before throwing that into one of its eyes.
Bringing back all the Dust that was out, I used it to form a shield around Liya in case it decided to go after her, before bringing out some more from my belt in order to create a pair of cannons. Specifically, wheeled smoothbore long cannons used aboard fully rigged sailing ships.
"Fire in the hole!" I yelled, and the two long guns made of neural Dust fired two large rounds that pierced the spider, severing a leg and turning the head into black pulp, which disintegrated at once.
I didn't dare move until it began to disintegrate before my eyes. "OK, maybe screaming 'fire in the hole' was a bit much..." I mumbled as the cannons, the round, and the shield protecting Liya deformed back into a cloud of Dust that flew back to my belt canisters. When it was gone and turned into mist, I turned to Liya, who was on her knees while breathing shakily.
"Hey, it's OK...I dealt with it. Come on, we gotta move," I said as I helped her up. Liya took a deep breath before shakily nodding, steadying herself. "Not a fan of spiders, I take it?"
"N-no...I hate spiders..." Liya said as she pushed herself off me in an attempt to get back on her feet, and she brushed her clothes off. "L-let's...keep going, OK?"
"Yeah," I mumbled. "Sounds good."
We reached the temple ruins a few minutes later, and saw that nearly everything was quiet. "Are we the first ones here?" Liya asked as she looked around, at least hoping to see someone here. I made my way to the pedestals where those chess pieces were placed. All but one of the pieces, a pawn, were gone.
"No...we're the last ones..." I said, before grabbing the pawn and grabbing Liya's arm. "Come on, we gotta go."
"Wait, what about the rest-" Liya said before shoving the pawn in her free hand.
"This is the last piece!" I said. "Come on, maybe another two grabbed the pawn and went back early. The exam doesn't end till all relics are returned, right?"
Liya fell silent, and the two of us ran back to Beacon.
It was afternoon when we finally made it back, and Ozpin was waiting personally for us. He didn't say a thing, and neither did we. He simply held out his hand for Liya to drop the pawn piece in, and gestured to go inside, where Glynda waited for us.
As we headed down the hallway following Professor Goodwitch, Liya looked down at her feet the entire time, uncharacteristically quiet. Though, maybe she was naturally quiet when in school. Still, I was worried. "Hey, are you OK?" I asked quietly.
"We failed," Liya whispered. "There's only two of us, and we couldn't find two more...we're going to be sent away because we failed..."
I felt my eyes widen, and realized that we did screw up. "Oh..." I said. Looking back to Liya, her shoulders were shaking, and I was gonna ask if she was crying until I saw her fists being clenched.
"I'm gonna have to go back home..." Liya whimpered, and I tentatively put my hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry..." I said. "I was holding you back."
"No you weren't. We were just too far from the temple to succeed. This was just...bad luck," Liya said as she looked up. Lifting one hand, she pulled down the face mask and smiled at me, showing she wasn't mad at me.
She was also showing a pretty nasty scar going from the top of her lip down to her left cheek, and a small red streak mark under her right eye, likely a birthmark.
I smiled back, a bit embarrassed. She was very beautiful, and I was still an awkward teen. But the tears in her eyes made me feel guilty as well. "T-thanks...still, I feel somewhat responsible..." I mumbled. Liya just pulled her mask up again as we looked back to the front.
We were led to the stage of the auditorium, and everyone waited impatiently. Ozpin joined us moments later and cleared his throat, silencing everyone.
"Today we have a special occasion. Beacon's first pair rather than a full team of four," he said. Liya and I looked to the headmaster in shock, as did everyone else judging by the mutters and chatting that now rose from the crowd.
I turned back to see Ruby and Yang grinning widely at me, shooting me thumbs up. Weiss and Blake were silent and unresponsive however, with Weiss fuming at the floor while Blake simply looked uninterested. Next to RWBY was JNPR, Jaune and Pyrrha waving with a smile, with Nora and Ren just watching curiously.
Before I could ask why we were a pair and an exception, a screen flickered to life behind us. Everyone watched as video was brought up, and footage of Liya rescuing me was shown, before it also showed Liya fighting off those Mozzies, and me fighting off that large Grimm spider.
"These two fought Grimm that would require entire teams to take down with great vigor and bravery," Ozpin said, as I watched the recording. Meanwhile, Ruby was screaming "they were recording us?!" in the background with a sharp "hush" from Weiss. But I didn't notice that. All I noticed was how off the video looked.
Mainly, how much larger the spider in the video looked compared to when I remembered it, or how there looked to be about 4x as many of those Grimm mosquitos in the video than what Liya fought. And how all our fights made it look like we were fighting like a duo rather than one of us fighting and the other watching.
"Because these two showed exceptional skill, I am pleased to be willing to have them assigned as a duo, disregarding the team rule for the time being. Markus Onissa and Liya Eyla shall be Duo MOLE," Ozpin said. The auditorium erupted, in both applause and yelling. Some were complaining at how the rules were bent, others were cheering on how well we did, which wasn't too good in truth.
But I turned to look at Liya, who was clasping over her mouth with both hands, eyes sparkling. It was too cute a sight for me to ignore it. "Heh..." I mumbled, a bit happy for finally getting into Beacon. But there was an issue that came to mind.
The doctored video. Ozpin never made such exceptions for anyone in the show, which made me wonder...why now? I doubt he ever lied to people like this in the show, but why go so far?
Unless...he didn't want me out of Beacon for a reason. The reason that made him want me to stay here despite me not officially passing initiation...
He needs me for something. And I couldn't figure out what.