Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
CHAPTER 8
Clayton and Pale had arrived at the ruins faster than they should have been able to, but that's what having maps of the region, and a compass will net you, and Pale, having been quite the traveler and trail man, happened to have both. Stepping into the clearing, they were met by Blake, Yang, Siniy, and Halcyone. At the sight of all those gathered faunus and sympathizers, Pale froze for a second. Blake was right there, so close, he'd only need to unsling his rifle, point, and pull the trigger… But there was the matter of 4 witnesses, two of which he'd become concerned of being unable to put down. Still, his brain in a freeze, Pale took his rifle off his back, depressed the set trigger, and started leveling the weapon. Then a roar came from behind him, and he spun.
With a thunderous bang, the ursa that had emerged from the forest fell over dead before Nora could hit it with her hammer one last time. Clayton looked at Pale in surprise, and raised an eyebrow at how he'd seemingly been prepared for that grimm to pop up behind him. "Nice shootin'." Clayton said, clapping Pale on the back, bringing the woodsman's brain back up to speed with his body.
"Yeah." Pale said, before turning back around and recomposing himself, adjusting his hat to hide his eyes hoping Blake wouldn't recognize him. Blake did in fact recognize the man who'd drunkenly mistaken her hotel room for his own. She wondered who exactly he was, but that was of little concern, as the sound of a screaming Jaune Arc pierced the air. With a thud, Jaune slammed into Siniy, who merely stumbled as Jaune bounced off of him into the grass.
"Where did he come from?" Blake asked, as Ruby and Weiss walked out of the Woodline. The second Ruby laid her silver eyes on her boyfriend she rushed over to him, jumped up onto his back, and trapped him in a hug.
"Ruby?!" Clayton asked in surprise, as he tried looking over his shoulder at her. She let go for a moment, giving Clayton time to turn around, then jumped back up to hug him.
"Oh I'm so glad I found you, now we can be on a team together, and I won't be stuck with just Weiss." Ruby said, as Clayton hugged her back.
"Hey!" Weiss said in indignation.
Pale took a second to process things. There were a multitude of chess pieces laying on pedestals, most of what he assumed would be the pawn and bishop pieces were missing, while others were in the hands of Yang, the energetic redheaded girl that was singing to herself, and the giant bear man. Respectively Yang had a white knight, the manic redhead had the white rook, and the bear man had the black rook.
It was clear to Pale that whatever pairs had matching pieces would be on the same team. This left three options for who he and Clayton could be on a team with. Yang and Blake was a possibility, being close in and near to his target might make it easy to simply kill her on the first night, and then dip out before anyone realized what happened, or it could be really bad if somehow Blake knew who he was and was simply trying to keep her cover up, and duped him into exposing himself, ruining the kill, or worse furthuring any plans the Fang had. The manic redhead and her boyfriend looked annoying and nondescript, but as far as he knew had no association to any of his potential threats and targets, a good choice if he wanted to stay out of everyone's way. Then there was the bear man, and the chick that looked like she crawled out of a hole in Vacuo. Pale weighed his decisions and thought deeply about his choice.
"The white knight looks good, now let's get out of here." Weiss said, snatching the item off it's stone perch, Pale sighed to himself. Shooting he could do, but thinking long and hard was a waste of time. His timely blunder might have just endangered his life in the future. "White rook it is." Pale thought, only to look over and see that Jaune had taken the piece, leaving just the black rook, which Clayton took with less than a thought. Pale facepalmed.
"Alright then, if that's all, I think we might want to-" Weiss started before Pyrrha came bursting through the trees with a deathstalker on her tail.
"Wonderful." Siniy said in Cyrillic, before the cry of a nevermore came from above. "Not wonderful." He said, as a King Tijitu reared it's head, attracted by the amassed negativity of the group. "Ok now that's just not funny." Siniy said, raising his machine gun.
"RUUUUUUUUN!" Pyrrha shouted, as the death stalker barreled towards the ruins. With eyes wide, everyone bolted away from the structure, as Pyrrha took the initiative to pole vault over it with her spear, causing the giant scorpion to crash into the pillars trapping it for the moment.
"I second that!" Weiss said, as everyone started following Pyrrha back towards the cliffside, multiple ursa and beowolfs approaching from deeper in the forest.
"I think we took a wrong turn." Pale said, jumping over a fallen log, as the forest started getting denser, and stone ruins formed an artificial canyon, forcing them towards a section of cliff that looked unfamiliar. A stone spire and aqueducts connecting the forest to the cliff over a gorge, and a small ancient villa of some kind.
"You want to check the map right now, or do you want to keep running?" Clayton asked while sprinting on all fours, as the nevermore cawed from above them.
"Definitely keep running!" Halcyone said, before the nevermore swooped in low, and came to perch on the stone spire in front of them, effectively blocking them from victory.
"Shit!" Yang shouted, as everyone took cover behind stone pillars or in defilade behind the small hill in front of the gorge, as razor sharp feathers rained down on the group for a second, nearly cutting off Pale's prosthetic leg.
From behind them, the death stalker and King Tijitu burst out of the dense forest, a small army of ursa and beowulfs behind them. Looking between the Nevermore and the wall of demonic spawn they were caught between, everyone unanimously and unconsciously decided the bird would be easier to deal with. Ren was the first to issue orders. "Nora, distract the nevermore." He said, as he ran up towards the ruins. Mid run, Nora let off 6 tandem warhead fire and wind dust grenades, the effects combining to make a potent high pressure explosive.
Ruby was next to give orders. "Clay, the pillars!" She shouted, pointing out a domed rotunda in front of the bridge.
"Big guy, with me!" Clayton shouted to Siniy, who nodded his head in understanding. Once they'd reached the pillars nearest the bridge, they waited for everyone to pass through, then started pushing towards each other. The death stalker got closer, and closer, then with a deep roar, Siniy shoved as hard as he could, and his side fell inwards, leading to Clayton's side giving way easier. They'd succeeded in dropping the domed structure on top of the Deathstalker, trapping it once more, and more importantly keeping the small army of grimm at bay with all the ruble. However… The King Tijitu had other plans, going around the deathstalker, the white head of the snake reared up, and hissed.
Just as Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had made it to the end of the bridge, the nevermore had circled back, and crashed into the top of the ruins, collapsing the tower in front of them, creating a flattened floor of rubble. With the group backing away from the Tijitu that had slithered onto the bridge, their space was becoming limited. "Big guy, lay into that nevermore." Clayton said, and with a grunt, Siniy walked forward and let off a roar, as he started firing at the giant bird while moving to the center of the ruins. "Pale, pick off any of those grimm that slip past the deathstalker." Clayton said, and with a serious nod, Pale ran towards the center, and jumped up to the tallest pillar he could, using it as a sniping nest. "You, cover the left side, Pale can't see past the snake." Clayton said, pointing to Halcyone. She shrugged, shifted off to the left, and checked to see if she had a round chambered.
With another screech, the Nevermore had made a circle back. Ruby looked at her sister and nodded, tossing her into the air with a backswing from Crescent Rose to deal with the bird, Weiss and Blake had moved to the center of the ruins to aid Siniy with shooting at it. Clayton looked at Nora, then at the snake. "Anyone have a bunch of refined fire dust on them?" He asked Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, only for the blond to perk up.
"I've got a vile!" He said, fishing the SDC marked tube of dust out of his hoodie pocket… In hindsight it was probably a bad idea to be walking around with that thing just jingling in his pocket.
Clayton pumped his fist. "Yes, you're coming with me." He said, only for Jaune to gulp. Clayton charged forward on all fours, and Jaune hesitated before rushing after him. The King tijitu gave an open mouth hiss, before Clayton jumped into the air, and socked it in the lower jaw, stunning it. Grabbing onto one of it's fangs, Clayton wrapped around it's head, and dug his shotgun axe into it's eye, gouging out the beady little thing. Jumping off it's head, Clayton raised his axe again in an overhead strike and slammed into the head of the beast, sending it to meet the bridge.
Weakened and stunned, the tijitu was unable to prevent the gorilla faunus from prying it's mouth open. "Blond Boy, NOW!" Clayton said, and with a grunt, Jaune tossed the vile of dust into the snake's mouth. Falling back, Clayton gave the snake time to raise it's head again. "PALE, IN THE SNAKE'S MOUTH!" Clayton shouted to the sniper. Hearing his name and the target, Pale shifted his stance, then… Inhaled, took note of the wind, looked through the brass scope that ran the length of his rifle, rested his cheek on the padded leather of the stock, kept his eye just close enough so that no edge of the sight picture was black, placed the pad of the finger on the trigger, picked out the red vile of dust in the mass of white flesh, lined up a shot, adjust for wind and distance, exhaled… And squeezed.
The shot rang out, and with a thunderous boom, the vile of purified and powdered fire dust exploded, catching the white head on fire, searing the demonic insides of the tijitu. The second head of the snake reared up in pain, and off balance without it's other half, fell off the edge of the bridge, but not before slamming into the rubble trapping the deathstalker and the hoard of ursa and beowulfs.
Turning his attention to the hoard, Siniy roared, and started shooting into the thick of them, as Weiss prepared a fire dust enhanced glyph to empower his bullets… Only for Siniy to stop shooting, and charge through the glyph, causing a small spout of flame to erupt onto the bear faunus, which dissipated with a small noise like an inhale, as if the heat had been sapped from the fire.
Converting Two Theaters into it's shovel form, Siniy rushed forwards towards the deathstalker, and gave one final roar before he drove the shovel into the bride, unleashing a massive wave of energy with his semblance, both thermal and kinetic, sending a shockwave through the stone that flash boiled the rock, splintering it, creating a storm of hot magma. The super heated rock sailed into the deathstalker and the hoard, as the bridge was split in half by the explosion, the end full of grimm, unsupported by the stone pillars, collapsed and fell to the bottom of the gorge.
Distracted by the molten carnage, Clayton, Pale, Siniy, Halcyone, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren, missed Weiss and Blake turn Ruby into a projectile, drag the Nevermore up the cliff with Weiss's white platform glyphs, and cut the head off the grimm using a stone outcrop like a base for Crescent Rose to impart all it's gravity dust propelled energy against. The many who'd missed the shot, turned just in time to see Ruby slice the head off the giant bird, and strike a pose on the edge of the cliff, holding Crescent Rose like a guitar. "DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" Ruby shouted, shaking her head from side to side, holding up devil horns, much to the enjoyment of Clayton and Halcyone.
"Way to ruin the victory." Weiss scoffed.
Within the hour everyone had returned to the Academy, and the team creation ceremony was underway. The most notable teams being CRDL, JNPR, RWBY, and as anyone could guess, with the remainder of students. "Clayton Sanguis, Pale Lee, Siniy Garnet, and Halcyone Lacquer, will form team SPGL. (Pronounced Spangle) Led by Clayton Sanguis." Ozpin said, inciting a round of polite applause, and more than a few cheers from Ruby and Yang.
With a smile and a deep nod, Clayton accepted his position as leader. While not unexpected, Clayton had no need to over achieve, and would have gladly passed the position off to Pale if he was chosen to be the team leader. To his left, Pale grimaced, but bit his tongue. He wasn't one to lead, nor was he one to follow, but he wasn't the one out there that took charge of the bridge situation now was he? Though a detriment, he could live with being partnered to Clayton… Even if he was a faunus, he seemed like one of the good ones. Siniy, gave a grunt of acknowledgement. His position on the team mattered little, he was a student at the best hunter academy in the world, breaking the mold that had been set for him, he would prove he was more than just some dumb brute, more than some animal. Halcyone was ecstatic, handing out high fives and fist bumps with everyone as team SPGL left the auditorium. She did it. The service she owed to The Cobras was paid for. She'd gotten out the only way they'd allow, she'd become a huntress in training… She was free.
Exhausted from their long day of fighting, the many new teams of Beacon moved their belongings to the dorms they were given, and many plopped down to sleep. Clayton and Ruby shared a chaste kiss after changing into their sweatpants and tank tops, then the gorilla faunus and the Red Reaper parted, and turned in for the night. Pale pulled out a pocket watch, and gazed at the interior intently for a moment, before closing his timepiece and rolling onto his side to face the wall. Having no night clothes to change into he simply didn't. Siniy gave a small and silent prayer to his gods in Cyrillic, before he went into the closet and changed into an oversized bath robe and shorts, then rested his body on the tiny in comparison bed. Halcyone didn't bother changing her clothes, rather she removed her jacket and used it as a pillow like she always had, not even getting under her covers before she nodded off. And so the first day at Beacon came to an end.
In a warehouse in the industrial district of Vale, Roman Torchwick inspected all the dust presented to him. It came from all over the world. A small amount sourced from Vale, a train's worth from Atlas, the untraceable crates smuggled in from Vacuo. There was more than enough to sate his greed… But there was one issue. "We're going to need more men, and more firepower." Roman said, remembering back to the faunus that had taken one of his explosive flares to the face, and lived.