Setting: Team AMBR's Dorm Room
Inside Team AMBR's dorm room, the moon's light peeked through the window, lighting up the darkroom. The teens were laying in their respective beds, sleeping peacefully, the pink-haired leader loudly snoring on his side of the room as he was sprawled out on his bedsheets. However, one member of Team AMBR was struggling to sleep. In his bed, Bolt tossed in turned as his dreams shifted from something peaceful to flashes of color. Bolt had been having these flashes for a long time now, and he had no clue what it meant. They would normally replace whatever dream he would've had that night. Some night he would see constant flashes of black, white, and red before he woke up. However, on some nights, like this one, he would see flashes of a person. A woman.
This woman, from what Bolt gathered, had shoulder-length hair that was colored similar to his own, instead, hers was black-into-red rather than blue. The woman wore a black blouse with a corset and a white tulle skirt. Over that, was a long, white, hooded cloak that well reached the ground with its length alone. However, what caught Bolt's eye the most about this woman, was her eyes. They were silver, just as bright as the smile that was painted on her face. Her smile was warm and inviting, it always had been when these flashes came. But, that all came crumbling down when the flashes became more erratic, shifting from one thing to the next before the woman's appearance was replaced by a blooded version, a sight which always jolted Bolt awake.
Bolt sat up breathing heavily, cautiously scanning his surroundings, only to see that he was in his bed in his team's dorm room. The boy rubbed his tired eyes, as well as the sweat from his forehead as he put his head in his hands. He didn't know who or why he kept seeing this woman instead of dreaming, but for some reason, he felt like there was a connection between himself and this woman like he had known her, but he couldn't remember who she was. Every time he had these flashes, he would go through a roller coaster of emotions, from joy and happiness only to have it all come crashing down into pain and sadness before he violently woke up panting like he couldn't breathe.
The boy groaned silently to himself before slipping out from underneath the covers and quietly hopping down to the floor below him. He looked at his teammates' sleeping bodies, checking to see if his drop had woken any of them. However, as he looked at his teammates, he noticed that one was missing. Rae wasn't in her bed underneath his. This concerned him, but he had a feeling that he knew where she was and didn't pay much mind to it After reassuring he didn't wake up Aaron or Mystic, he continued his movements. He went to the desk near the door and grabbed his Scroll before slipping out the dorm room, heading straight for the amphitheater. If he couldn't get any sleep, then he could at least train a bit. Anything to get his mind off that woman.
Setting: Beacon Amphitheater
Bolt walked inside the domed amphitheater, weapons in hand, letting out a small yawn as he was slightly tired from the lack of sleep. However, as the boy entered the room, he noticed that he wasn't alone. A few feet away from him was Rae, practicing close-range combat against a sparring dummy, or trying to practice. Bolt could tell she was inexperienced by her form and how she left herself wide as she attacked the dummy.
The boy slowly made his way closer, trying not to scare the green-haired girl. As he did so, Rae unleashed a fury of attacks on the dummy, the girl feeling good about her attacks. However, as Bolt watched, he noticed that each strike would have been easily blocked if she were fighting against a live opponent. The boy sighed as he lightly laid his weapons on the ground and spoke up.
"Hey, Rae-"
"AHHHH!"
Bolt was cut off by his teammate's scream as she whipped her head around to face him, clutching her batons close to her chest, her face painted with fear. The fear subsided once she realized who had spoken. She let out a breath of relief as she saw Bolt instead of some stranger, letting the tension fall from her shoulders.
"I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't mean to." Bolt attempted to apologize, but Rae waved him off.
"No, no. It's fine. I should've been paying more attention to my surroundings." Rae said, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment as she realized what she got caught doing. "So, how much did you see?"
"Well-"
"Never mind. It doesn't matter anyway. You know now." Bolt tilted his head in confusion at Rae's statement, watching as the girl wiped the sweat from her face. She looked back up to see his confused face and continued. "That I have no combat experience whatsoever. That I lied and kept it hidden."
"What're talking about?" Bolt chuckled, making it Rae's turn to be confused. "That doesn't matter."
"What do you mean? I mean, we're in a school, training to be Huntsman and Huntresses to slay the Grimm. How can having no combat experience matter?"
"We're here to learn how to fight and take on the Grimm, but we don't exactly have to have combat experience because we'll learn it while we're here." Bolt informed his teammate, who continued to look at him with a confused expression. "You know what? I'll show you some stuff. That okay?"
Rae continued to stay there flabbergasted that Bolt was repulsed by knowing she had no combat experience. She honestly thought that he of all people would've been the most offended, but he wasn't. In fact, it seemed like he was happy. "I, uh, o-okay?"
"Cool! Um, what should I start with...?" Bolt put his hands on his hips in thought, before springing back up. "Oh wait! I have an idea!"
Rae looked at the boy confused, watching as he stood with his arms stretched out to his side. "Come at me!"
"W-What?" Rae blinked, not knowing what to do at all at Bolt's sudden request.
"I said to come at me." Bolt chuckled, realizing Rae most likely unsure of what he meant, thinking they were going to spar. "Trust me, it'll be fun."
"Uh, alright then." Rae nervously spoke as she reluctantly got into a fighting position, slightly worried that this classified as "fun" to Bolt. The black and blue-haired boy could tell that Rae wasn't fully okay with what was happening and he understood that after what he previously displayed over the last few days.
"Don't worry, I won't fight back. I just want you to try and hit me." Bolt reassured, which made Rae feel a little better about the situation.
Rae stood there for a couple of seconds, attempting to catch Bolt off guard and keep her strategy a secret, but to also stall her inevitable defeat. The girl knew Bolt was on a completely different level of fighting capability than she was, and while she knew he wouldn't get serious against her, she was still scared to even see what going easy was for him. Finally, after what felt like hours, the green-haired girl charged the boy in front of her, who calmly stood as the girl rushed him.
The girl wildly swung her batons at Bolt, who easily dodged the attacks, backing up to avoid the heavy swings Rae would throw in here and there. Bolt skidded to a stop as he backed up several feet from the green-haired girl, who was huffing and puffing, not used to how draining close-quarters fighting could be. After catching her breath, Rae ran in once again, activating her baton's taser function. Rae swung her batons, aiming at Bolt's chest, but missed as Bolt leaned back to avoid it. Rae then switched up her tactic, crouching down to attempt to swipe at Bolt's legs, but failed as Bolt dodged it by jumping. As Bolt landed, Rae took the chance and swung at his head, which was deflected before Bolt flipped back to put space between himself and Rae.
Rae looked on stunned as Bolt stood with a smile on his face. "That was nice, I liked the originality, but you haven't hit me yet."
Rae smiled to herself. She expected Bolt to be a harsh teacher, expecting her to succeed with no trouble whatsoever, but he wasn't and she had to remind herself that he was her father and that she was far, far away from anything Astrix related. She was making a new life herself, and this was the first step into that life. Rae ran in, feeling more confident from the compliment Bolt had given her, thrusting her baton forward in an attempt to shock Bolt but missed as the boy stepped out of the way. The girl kept up her momentum, swinging down at Bolt with her baton. Bolt, impressed by Rae's quick thinking, dodged the shock baton. He jumped back to put space between the two of them, but Rae expected this and moved to keep him in her range.
Bolt was surprised by this and it honestly made him question whether or not Rae was lying about her combat. He dismissed the thought, amazed and almost jealous of Rae's natural tactical mind. Once Rae closed the distance, she swung wildly, attacks that were easily avoided by Bolt. As Rae attacked him, Bolt could see that she was getting extremely tired, as shown by her heavy breathing, but she was ignoring her blatant fatigue to fulfill her goal. Bolt admired her dedication to learning, but he knew he needed to stop this before the girl passed out.
Bolt moved out of the way another of Rae's attacks, bending down to avoid another swing from the green-haired girl, sweeping her legs from under her, sending her flat on her back.
"Ow. What was that for? I thought you weren't fighting back." The green-haired girl groaned as she laid on the ground, grabbing the back of her head as she felt a slight throbbing pain from hitting her head when she landed.
"I know, but if I didn't stop you, you would've kept going until you passed out." Rae sighed to herself, letting herself catch her breath, laying still on the ground.
After a few beats of silence, Rae spoke up. "Did... Did I do good?"
"Yes. You did great, actually. For someone with no combat experience, you're pretty good." Bolt complimented, reaching down to help the girl up from the floor and onto her feet.
"Thank you. I appreciate that." Rae thanked, bowing her head and reminding Bolt of a student thanking their teacher.
"No problem." Bolt smiled, sliding his hands in his pockets. "So, is there anything you want to learn specifically?"
"Well, I guess, hand-to-hand combat?" Maybe..?" Bolt nodded, rubbing his chin as he thought of what to teach his teammate.
"Hmm, well, I'm assuming that your semblance isn't really combat-based, since you don't have any combat experience." Bolt looked over at Rae, who stared back at the black and blue-haired boy.
She nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck as she looked down to the floor. "Sure, let's go with that."
"Right, well I guess you don't really need to know how to fight per se, since you won't be up in the front lines like Aaron or I." Bolt trailed off, deep in thought. He had never really thought of teaching a support-based fighter hand-to-hand combat since there was no real need for them to learn it. As the boy was coming up with something to teach Rae, he eventually landed on something that he thought would be perfect for her. "How about I show you enough so you can at least defend yourself?"
"O-Okay! That's fine with me." Rae said, failing to hide her excitement. She was excited to finally be learning how to fight.
"Okay then." Bolt said, walking over to where he left his weapons, picking up his twin pistols. He spun the pistols on his fingers as he walked back to Rae. "Since you're mostly going to be on the sidelines during battle, you don't need to know anything crazy."
"Yeah," Rae nodded in understanding. "I can work with that."
"First we can start with your technique." Bolt said, getting into a fighting stance. "Whenever you're ready."
Rae awkwardly slipped into a fighting stance of her own, activating her batons taser function. Rae sprinted at Bolt, thrusting a baton at his chest, but Bolt used his pistols to block the black stick before parrying it downward. As he did so, he pulled Rae forward, using her momentum to sending her rolling across the ground.
"That was a nice try, but very predictable." Bolt said as Rae stood up. "Try again. Make sure to keep equal pressure on both feet."
Rae ran in once again, swinging her batons at her opponent, who swiftly side-stepped out of the way to dodge them. Rae thrust both of her batons forward, one aimed at his chest and the other aimed straight for his right leg. However, Bolt easily avoided the attacks, using his pistols to block one and stepped away from the other. He then parried Rae off to the side, the girl almost tripping as she attempted to regain her footing.
She quickly rushed back in, swinging her batons once again, only to have her attacks dodged. She, with each strike, attempted to fake Bolt out, seeming as if she was attacking from one side, only to maneuver herself to better attack the other side. Though, Bolt didn't fall for her false attacks, blocking each of the attempts like it was nothing. She continued her attacks, trying to find an opening to land a hit and when she saw Bolt move in a way that gave her that opening, she thrust her baton forward. However, Bolt caught on to that, using his foot to trip the green-haired girl and grab her arm before throwing her over his shoulder, her back colliding with the ground.
The girl let out a small groan as the pain pulsed across her back, which quickly washed out the shock she felt from being flipped over Bolt's shoulder. "That was great, Rae. You found an opening and went for it. You're already getting better at this."
"Thanks, but I haven't learned anything if I don't beat you at least once," Rae said, slipping back into her fighting stance, which held more confidence and drive behind it. Bolt smiled at this, spinning his pistols on his fingers, flipping it to hold the trigger with his pinkies. "One more time."
"Okay." Bolt nodded, the girl rushing forward with her batons sparking with electricity.
Rae swung her batons at Bolt, who blocked and dodged her attacks. No matter what she did, she couldn't even get close to hitting him. He was too quick for her to land a strike, and every time she even got close, the boy almost impossibly avoided her attack. However, Rae wasn't exactly focused on hitting Bolt. As Bolt avoided her attacks, she had her eyes angled downward at his feet, watching his movements as he dodged her attacks, seeing how his feet shifted as he did so and as it went on, she had a good feeling of his foot placements.
She smirked to herself as she swung a baton at him, waiting until his back foot fully placed itself on the floor before she swiftly bent down and swept it from its upright position, just like Bolt had done to her earlier. Bolt stumbled back, landing on his back while Rae stood above him, victorious.
"Wow." Bolt said after a minute of silence as he laid on the ground, which worried Rae greatly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, was that too much?" Rae asked innocently, which caused Bolt to chuckle.
"No, not at all." The black and blue-haired boy said as he stood up, dusting his pants off. "That was perfect."
"Really?" Rae was baffled at his statement. They hadn't been sparring for long, but somehow she was getting better in Bolt's eyes. "But I-"
"Yeah. You're learning as we go." Rae looked at Bolt, her head slightly tilted as she was heavily confused. "Instead of aimlessly attacking me, hoping you'd eventually hit me, you studied my movements and used it to your advantage. That's immense progress, Rae."
"Th-Thank you." Rae stammered, attempting to hide her blush.
"Okay, I think we're done with that for today." Bolt said as he holstered his pistols on his thighs, a feat Rae still had problems believing was real. "How are you with your weapon's alternate mode?"
"Alternate mode?" The green-haired girl whispered to herself, unsure of what Bolt meant until it eventually clicked. "Oh! You mean the guns?"
Rae looked down at her batons, looking for the button she pressed when she used her weapons other form before, however she didn't see it in the place she thought it was. She scoured the twin sticks for the button and her struggle was blatant to Bolt. "Um, not exactly, no."
"Right, you know what," Bolt reached for the weapons in the girl's hands, kindly taking them from her to look for the switch himself, which Rae happily let happen. "I got it."
While looking for a switch on the sticks, he found an orange button at their bottom. Feeling confident he found the button she was looking for, he pushed it and watched as the sticks shifted into their alternate form. However, this form wasn't one Rae was accustomed to.
Instead of the rapid fires uzis that her weapons normally changed into, they were what appeared to be twin sai. Rae looked to the weapons in Bolt's hand confused as she had no clue that they had another form within them. She unconsciously took the twin sai from Bolt's hands, before inspecting them closely. Bolt could see the confusion and awe in his teammate's face, knowing that she didn't know that her weapons could do that and that she wanted to test them out.
Bolt smiled to himself as Rae looked up at him. "One more go?"
Bolt let out a small laugh before nodding, "Okay."
Rae confidently slipped into her fighting stance, holding her new weapons the same way she held her sticks, a big smile on her face. However, before Bolt matched her he walked up to her. "Hold on"
The girl tilted her head and furled her eyebrows as Bolt took a sai from her and gently grabbed her hands before putting two of her fingers on either side of the main blade. "If you want to fight up close with these, you hold them like this."
"Oh, okay, thanks." Rae nodded as Bolt took a few steps back.
"Another tip," The boy spoke up as he slipped into his fighting stance, spinning his pistols on his fingers before aiming them at her. "Get in close if you can, mid and long-range weapon users hate it when you're all up in their face."
"Hmph, no problem." And with that, the green-haired girl rushed in, thrusting her sai forward, only for Bolt to block it. "Or maybe not."
Several Hours Later
After several hours, Rae was laid out on the ground taking heavy breathes as their sparring took a lot out of her. Bolt leaned against the nearest wall, scrolling through the various songs on his Scroll, occasionally glancing at the girl on the floor. He smiled as the girl attempted to stand up, only to give in and plop back down, still too tired to move. He knew she wasn't used to fighting, and that this was to be expected, but hopefully, that would change before they encountered something life-threatening.
When Rae finally got enough energy to stand, she got up and walked over to Bolt before sitting against the wall, trying to catch the rest of her breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"Thank you for this. I never thought I'd have fun fighting." Rae said excitedly, a sudden rush filling her body. For some reason, she wanted to go again, but she could also feel how tired her body was and decided against it. However, that rush slowly faded as something came to mind. Her teammates were highly experienced in combat and trained, most likely every day, to get to that point, but doing a few hours worth of it tired her out. If she got tired from that, then how could she be a huntress? "You guys do this all the time?"
Bolt could hear the decline in her voice but didn't question it, thinking it was the adrenaline coming down. "Not exactly. Aaron, maybe. He has the muscle of someone who trains every day."
Rae nodded to herself, replaying their fight with the giant Alpha Beowolf, and how she stood idly by while the other fought against the creature, unable to do a thing. She hated this feeling, a feeling she knew all too well; weakness. She's felt it ever since her mother died, and her father grew cruel. She came to Beacon to get away from that feeling, but who was she kidding? She couldn't escape her father for long, at least not for four years.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of silence, she spoke up.
"H-How..?" Rae's voice came out as a whisper, a little lower than she had wanted it to. She hated this feeling. She hated how desperate she felt and sounded.
"Hmm?" Bolt titled his head, not exactly hearing the girl. He was also confused as to why she looked so upset. He could've sworn she was having fun while he was teaching her.
"How are you so good? I mean, it's like fighting is your second nature." Rae nervously chuckled, her mouth speaking before she could think. She didn't know Bolt's past, and his incredible fighting capability could be linked to a painful event. She didn't want to bring up bad memories, she knew exactly how that felt. "Or more like your first nature."
"Oh, uh, well..." Bolt tried to come up with an answer that didn't give away anything while also sounding believable to a smart individual like Rae. He eventually gave up, letting out a sigh, deciding to just wing it and hope it works. "My... mom didn't want me to be bested too easily during combat, so she made sure I wouldn't. I trained every day, fighting against multiple different types of people and multiple different types of fighting styles until I got to this point."
"Wow," Rae said feeling sympathetic, looking down at the ground in sadness. It was amazing that Bolt's mother taught him how to fight, and if she was being honest. She wished her mother did the same for her, or at least how to handle herself once they ran away. "That sounds difficult."
"It wasn't that bad actually. I had... friends with me." Bolt said, moving to sit down next to Rae, resting his arms on his knees. "But, that doesn't matter."
Rae watched Bolt's face as he spoke, seeing his mood decline as he mentioned his friends. It confused Rae greatly. She thought people were happy when they talked about their friends, but when Bolt talked about his, she could feel a great feeling of enmity coming from him. It was like a pressure that locked her body in place by fear.
However, she felt that pressure fade quickly as Bolt stood up, letting out a big yawn. "Anyway, we should probably get back to the dorm before the sun comes up. Don't wanna be tired during class, right?"
"Y-Yeah. Right!" Rae nodded, quickly standing up and gathering her things, Bolt doing the same.
The two members of Team AMBR walked along the halls of Beacon Academy, making their way towards their dorm room. The two were silent as they walked, a silence that have Rae time to think. She wondered what that strange feeling of enmity come from him was. She'd never felt something like that, not from any one of her family members, who she knew had great feelings of hatred towards each other and other things. As the girl went to unlock the door with her Scroll, the boy next to her spoke up.
"You know, just because you're not as strong or skilled as the rest of us, doesn't mean that you're weak." Bolt said, the green-haired girl's hand hovering over the door's scanner.
Rae looked up at the boy, confused at Bolt's words. She didn't understand what he was trying to say. She knew that strong people commanded respect, something that she wished she had from her family. "What do you mean? I mean, don't you have to be strong enough to slay a grimm to be a Huntress?"
"Not exactly." Bolt shook his head, letting out a small sigh before turning to the girl next to him. "I'm going to tell you something that helped me overcome a lot of things when I was training."
Rae hugged herself as she faced Bolt, looking by at him in the eyes. She was eager to take advice from him but was also scared and nervous as she feared what would come from Bolt's mouth.
"Ranks and power mean nothing to pure skill."
Rae stared at the boy for a few seconds, her face painted with confusion as the words didn't make sense in her head, and Bolt knew it didn't by her response. "W-What?"
The boy chuckled to himself, remembering when he didn't know what that meant either. "I know, it's confusing at first, but I think you'll understand it soon enough.
Before Rae could say anything, Bolt scanned his Scroll and was through the door, leaving the girl behind in silence. Rae went to open her mouth and say something but closed it as nothing came out and after a few minutes of thinking to herself, her mouth lifted into a smile.
"Thank you, Bolt."
Sorry for not posting for a while. I was procrastinating writing the next few chapters because I found a new obsession; DND with Voice Actors aka Critical Role. It's extremely entertaining and I can't stop watching it.
I also had a family emergency that made it hard to update, but I'm here now.
Anyways...
Coming up: Grimm History