Chapter 1: Today's the day
Location: A small village on the outskirts of Vale
A scream erupted from the woman's mouth as the Beowolf leaps from the bushes! Despite living in a small town, she had only seen a few of the creatures of grimm in her lifetime. Now a whole pack of them was destroying her home. The massive werewolf like creature rose up to its full height, towering over the defenseless civilian, who cowered in fear, as the beast raised its claw to strike her down.
A flash of petals sped into the woman, whisking her away as the Beowolf's claw crashed into the earth. The woman reappeared several meters to her left, as the petal storm burst, with a young woman in a red cloak with a black mask appearing in its place.
The civilian stared down at her much shorter savour, confused about how and why a teenager had saved her from a bloodthirsty monster.
"You alright?" The hooded girl quickly asked, with the stunned woman only nodding in response.
"Kk" the red clad girl quickly responded, "You should probably get going" She added, much more casually.
Again, the woman nodded and ran back into her village, likely to tell the other residents what was going on.
From her belt, the young huntress drew her weapon, Crescent Rose, and a sniper round tore through the Beowolf, as it attempted to pounce at its new target. The creature fell to the ground and quickly evaporated into a cloud of black smoke.
Crimson Reaper aka. Ruby Rose smiled to herself, a job well done she thought, before the screams in the town alerted her to the presence of more Grimm. It seems that the Beowolf was not alone.
She leaped on the scythe and fired downwards, allowing the sniper shot to carry her upwards. When she was high enough, she activated her semblance, petal storm, and blitzed to the top of one of the towns small buildings, in order to get a better idea of her surroundings. She scanned the town and saw several Beowolves chasing a group of townspeople.
She shifted into a vortex of petals yet again, slamming herself down into the middle of the pack, knocking all seven Beowolves away and to the ground, disorienting the nearly eight-foot-tall monstrosities.
With a swing of her scythe she tore through two of the wolves, with their corpses vanishing into ash and smoke. With two more swings, two more creatures met the same fate. The remaining three backed off, their primitive brains attempting to analyze the scene before them.
They rushed the young huntress, who leapt into the air, dodging the wolves attempt to dog pile her, firing her weapon downwards, killing the middle beast. She then landed on the left one's shoulders. It roared and swung around, and Ruby flipped off, landing behind the Beowolf.
She blitzed past the monster, with her scythe catching its waist with the scythes hook. With another fire of her weapon the creature was torn clean in half.
The final Beowolf roared in rage, charging the red cloaked girl. Ruby turned and fired her weapon, which the wolf impressively dodged. Once it was close enough the creature swung at the girl, who countered with a downwards diagonal swing of her scythe, resulting in its monstrous arm being sent flying, ripped from the shoulder. It howled in pain and stumbled back, and Ruby followed up by swinging the scythe upwards, piercing the creature's chest, carrying it over her head and then slamming it down into the earth bellow!
The final beowolf disappeared, just like it's brethren, as a loud and angry growl came from the bushes behind her. Ruby turned to see an alpha beowolf emerging from the trees, fangs bared and standing much taller than its underlings. Its jagged spikey armour jutted out from its massive frame as it lumbered towards the lone huntress.
The two enemies' eyes met, each conveying a simple and identical message to the other. I am going to destroy you. They charged, with the Beowolf tearing soil from the earth as it's shook the ground with it's pounding steps, and the small redheaded girl vanishing into a swarm of rose petals, wind swirling around her. They met in the middle, with the Beowolves massive claws colliding with the huntress's oversized scythe.
Ruby was sent tumbling backwards from the impact, but recovered quickly, landing on her feet, as she skidded backwards, and the much larger Beowolf stumbled back, shaking its head to reorient itself. It then leapt at Ruby, swinging its bonelike spiked claws at the huntress, who weaved and dodged around its slashes, unable to counter with her scythe at this close range.
The beast's blow finally connected, knocking Ruby across the village street, shattering a wooden pillar that held up a house's porch roof. Ruby's aura kicked in almost immediately, healing her within seconds. She got up quickly and watched at the creature approached her slowly, with confidence, almost sure that its prey was done for.
A massive sword impaled the beast from above, with a man in grey landing on the creature's shoulders. He then leapt from the sword, which was stuck in the ground, landing without a sound.
"C'mon, I had him!" Ruby complained, exasperated at her uncle's actions
"Let's move kid, you know we're on a time crunch" Harbringer aka. Qrow Branwen retorted, a small smile crossing his face "Unless you want to be late for your tour of Beacon?"
Ruby opened her mouth to argue but then quickly thought better of it.
"Fine!" She whined "But let's go! I don't wanna be the last one there!" shifting back to her petal form and sped towards the Bullhead that lay at the at the edge of the forest surrounding the town.
Qrow chuckled, and then gave the town a quick once over. The medical team had rushed past and was treating injured villagers and there didn't seem to be anymore grimm, so their presence was no longer needed.
Qrow nodded to himself and then proceeded to stroll back to the airship with a smirk on his face, as his Niece begged him to hurry up from the bullhead.
"C'mon" she begged, her voice squeaking with excitement "Today's the day!"
Location: The streets of Mantle
BOOM! The side of the dust shop erupted as several robbers leapt from the building, just as their getaway driver pulled up. They jumped into the black convertible, and sped off down the street, as sirens wailed from behind them. Two women looked on from the building above.
"Are you ready sister?" Snow Sword aka. Winter Schnee asked
"Of course," Frost Storm aka. Weiss Schnee responded
Winter nodded and used her glyph to summon their ride, a gigantic white Sphinx, which both huntress's mounted. The Sphinx took off, swirling the air around it with its massive wings.
The roar alerted the speeding robbers, who were shocked to see the giant white Grimm on their tails.
"Holy crap!" One exclaimed, right as their ride was knocked sideways by a black repulsion glyph created by Weiss.
Their vehicle landed back on the road, with two of the robbers firing their weapons at the two huntresses' pursuing them, who easily weaved around the gunfire, using their swords to block any bullets that strayed too close.
"Don't tell me you're not excited" Winter said to Weiss, as they barrel rolled to avoid a grenade thrown at them.
"With all due respect, I need to focus" Weiss said bluntly, as she prepared to leap off the Sphinx.
She flipped off, summoning a series of propulsion glyphs to allow her to almost skate across the street, speeding forward towards the dust robbers.
Weiss stabbed downwards into the earth, creating a wave of ice with the dust in her sword, knocking the vehicle into the air, which caused it to crash down to the ground hard, sending the occupants sprawling across the street.
Winter landed beside Weiss, allowing her to summon to disappear in a flash of white.
Their targets quickly got up, raising their guns at the siblings who stood before them. The two women nodded, before launching themselves at the attackers.
Weiss blocked the but of a gun with her blade as the robber attempted to strike her. She then struck him with a glyph enhanced kick, sending him flying into a wall, knocking him unconscious.
She then blocked gunfire from two other robbers, and countered with a diagonal slash with her sword, sending two bolts of ice dust out that froze both their weapons solid.
They tossed their weapons aside, and charged their much smaller opponent, expecting to tackle her. She cartwheeled over the first, knocking his partner aside with a blast of fire dust. She then turned with the grace of dancer and struck the final robber with the butt of her blade to the head, knocking him out.
She then caught the final robber attempting to flee the scene, and she sent a pool of ice dust out to intercept him.
The robber, rather comically, slipped on the ice and fell to the ground hard, clearly too banged up to get back to his feet.
Winter was surrounded by the five remaining robbers, all aiming their guns at her, preparing to fire. However, a clock glyph appeared at her feet and she vanished in a flash of white light, using her time dilation.
She then appeared behind the circle of robbers, with her blade out to the side, crouching as she waited for the inevitable.
One by one the robbers all fell to the ground, knocked unconscious by a flurry of unseen blows.
Winter got to her feet and dusted herself off, proceeding to sheath her blade. She turned to face her sister, who had stopped to catch her breath.
"Well?" Winter asked, with an uncharacteristic amount of sass.
"Yes, I am excited." Weiss proudly admitted "Today's the day."
Location: Shady Bar in Vale
VROOM! Bumblebee shot through the streets of downtown vale at breakneck speeds, swerving in and out of the traffic, with its Rider, Yang Xiao Long or Golden Dragon having the absolute time of her life. Her passenger and father, Taiyang Xiao Long or Blonde Phoenix, was really wishing that he drove.
As they pulled up to their destination, a sketchy looking bar, Taiyang dismounted the bike shakily
"Alright we are going to have a serious talk about your driving after this" He said, half joking to his daughter and protegee.
"Oh, don't be a baby, old man, we're alive, aren't we?" Yang teased back
Taiyang chuckled, but then turned serious "You understand the plan?"
Yang nodded. This bar had been confirmed to be a major black market weapons site by the authorities, but Taiyang had volunteered to check it out before the authorities arrived, as huntsmen's skills and abilities would make this a far less dangerous investigation than it would be to local law enforcement.
Yang had tagged along as she wanted to get a bit more experience in dealing with the criminal underworld, before she became a huntress, or at least that's how she justified it. In reality she only came as she suspected there would be a fight.
They entered the club, split up and walked through the crowds, hoping to find some staff that would allow them to find where the owner was, in order to question him.
"Hey Blondie, come over here" A slimy voice jeered from the bar
Yang turned and smiled as she recognized the source of the noise. Barry Jones, a known weapons, drug, and human trafficker had apparently taken an interest in her.
Excellent she thought to herself, as she strolled over to where Barry sat at the bar. The tall, scrawny, and nasty looking man was accompanied by two even taller and nastier looking bodyguards, who looked an awful lot like gorillas in black suits with their gigantic shoulders.
"Who me?" she said, attempting to play dumb.
"Yeah sweetheart" He said, with an enormous smirk on his face "How bout a drink?"
"Alright" Yang said flirtatiously "A strawberry sunrise, please"
Barry ordered the drink and leered at Yang as she stood by the bar
"So, what's a girl like you doing in a place like this" Barry asked, as he slid closer to Yang, who simply turned to face him, showing little discomfort in the older man invading her personal space.
"Oh, just looking for something, or someone" Yang replied, winking.
"Huh, well you're certainly what I'm looking for" Barry leered, as he drunkenly reached out to grab her hair. Yang's playful smile turned into a frown as she grabbed his hand.
"Oh, I really wouldn't do that if I were you." Yang warned, her eyes flashing red, as she pushed Barry's hand away from her hair.
"Oh, come one don't be such a prud..." Barry muttered as he went to stroke Yang's hair with his other hand.
WHAM! With a left hook from ember celica Barry was sent into the bar, shattering the glass at the back. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
"Told you" Yang said as she shrugged her shoulders, and turned as their confrontation had attracted a lot of attention.
About 15 large and mean looking men started to walk menacingly over to where Yang was standing, drawing their weapons. They surrounded Yang in a circle preparing to fight.
"Crap, not again" Taiyang muttered as he heard the commotion from the other side of the club. Running through the crowd and leaping over tables, he was able to see the source of the noises.
When he got to the circle of burly thugs, he leapt over the wall of guys, rolling in the air, landing gracefully with his back to yang's, drawing his weapons, a pair of twin metal cestus's, that can be boosted by rockets attached to them.
"Really?" He asked, as both him and his daughter assumes their fighting stances, preparing for the small army that had congregated around them.
"We got this!" Yang said confidently "No sweat"
"Not the point Sweetie" Taiyang sighed
"HYAHHHH!" The circle erupted with various battle cries, as the goons charged at the two brawlers. Taiyang put his hands together, prompting Yang to step aboard, and get launched into the air.
Time seemed to slow, as she was illuminated by the club's spotlight, appearing as an eclipse. With a massive grin she proceeded to slam down on the dance floor with a mighty punch, rocking what seemed to be the entire bar, disorienting the goons, even knocking some over.
From there she launched herself into the fray, striking one of the goons with a right hook, following up with an elbow to the face and finishing him off by throwing him over her shoulder.
Another guy grabbed her from behind, she countered by slamming the back of her head into his nose, stunning him. She followed this up with a back kick, launching him into the air, and knocked him away with a shotgun blast from ember celica.
Three more goons charged but were easily taken down by a series of punches, launching their unconscious bodies across the club. Finally, one of them landed a blow with his baseball bat, stunning Yang. Several more joined in, with a dog pile of seven guys burring Yang. For a moment they had seemed to have finally gotten her, as the pile of large men went still.
BOOOOM! An explosion appeared from the middle, sending the seven goons flying, with Yang standing at the centre, hair ablaze!
The rest of the criminals and patrons fled, leaving only Yang, Taiyang and the unconscious bodies of the nearly two dozen goons, police sirens being heard in the distance.
PEW! A sniper shot blitzed past the two hunters, both barely avoiding the fire. They leaped behind a table, shielding them from the assault.
Taiyang's eyes found the source, Barry had taken refuge on the second floor of the club, aiming his sniper rifle towards them.
"You bastards wrecked my club!" He screamed open firing on the floor, switching his sniper rifle to an assault rifle.
"Hey" Taiyang yelled as he rolled away from the stream of fire "Watch your language in front of my daughter!"
He charged up his rocket powered Cestus, which launched him through the air! Barry raised his rifle to block him but Taiyang smashed through the gun, breaking it in half.
Barry stumbled back and tried to counter with a punch but Taiyang easily avoided it, stepsiding and letting his opponent's momentum carry him forwards. He followed this up with a punch to the kidneys and a strike to the throat. Barry grasped his throat in shock and taiyang smirked as he finished the fight with a sidekick, sending the lanky man through the wall and onto the street.
He flipped off the balcony, and landed by his daughter with a smile nearly as big as hers.
"It could have gone worse." He said with his hands on his hips, observing the wrecked club around him. The police swarmed in, finding the stash of weapons beneath the floorboards.
"Yeah we did good!" Yang cheered, copying her father's stance, proudly observing her handiwork.
"Yeah…" Taiyang began as he checked his watch "Crap, we're gonna be late!"
"Is it that time already?" Yang said, her voice nearly squealing with excitement "Lets go!"
Both her and her father raced out of the club and mounted her bike, zooming down the street.
"Finally," Yang thought to herself as she swerved through traffic "Todays the day!"
Location: Beacon Fortress, Vale
"Welcome to Beacon Fortress, the Headquarters of the Huntsmen Organization, blady bla you know the rest." Qrow rambled dryly.
Ruby stared at the huge castle before her with wide eyes. Sure, she had seen it many times in passing, as her mentor, Qrow often had to pick up mission assignments and talk to other huntsmen here. But this was the first time she would be able to go inside. The first step to becoming a full-fledged huntress. The anticipation was killing her.
She began to take a step forward but Qrow grabbed the scruff of her cape and pulled her back.
"Hold up kiddo, we gotta wait on some people." Qrow said, sounding a bit impatient himself.
Ruby crossed her arms in annoyance "well they should have been on time then!" She mumbled.
However, as she said this, a bright yellow motor bike pulled up with two riders.
"Sorry we're late" Taiyang apologized as he got off shakily and shook hands briefly with his brother in law "Got a bit preoccupied"
"Hey sis, how was your big mission?" Yang asked, "Kill anything neat?"
"I fought an Alpha Beowolf" Ruby said proudly.
"But I had to save your little behind" Qrow interjected jokily
"Hey, I had it!" Ruby complained "you didn't need to jump in"
"Sure, keep telling yourself that" Qrow teased.
Ruby pouted, but quickly perked up and asked her sister "How'd your weapons bust go?"
"Great! I nearly got hit with a sniper rifle!" Yang exclaimed.
"Yeah she did good" Taiyang complimented as he patted her on the back "The little firecracker has really come a long way."
They stopped their conversation as they heard the sound of a bullhead coming in. The aircraft landed before them and two women in white gracefully hopped out.
"Harbringer, Phoenix" Winter nodded, acknowledging the two huntsmen politely.
"What's up Ice Queen?" Qrow greeted, while Taiyang smiled and waved.
Winter rolled her eyes but walked up to the two Huntsmen to talk business.
"Weiss!" Ruby shouted as she leapt on to the Heiress, giving her an enormous hug, which nearly knocked her over.
"You dolt don't just announce it to the world" Weiss berated, clearly annoyed at Ruby's foolishness, but returned her hug, nonetheless. As irritating as they could be, Ruby and Yang were pretty much her only actual friends.
"Wow you really did miss us" Yang teased, as she went in for a hug, having to bend down to hug the shorter girl, who stood on her tippy toes.
Weiss rolled her eyes but didn't argue with that statement.
Honestly, she did miss them. Working with her only sister and having some of the best tutors in Atlas offered her opportunities that few others had, but unfortunately it did make for a very lonely existence, never being around those equal to you, your peers.
Because of their mentors often having to work together she would often see and occasionally even work with Yang and Ruby, giving her that friendship that she lacked and secretly craved.
She let go of Yang and went to join her sister, who had a raised an eyebrow at her for her lack of professionalism. Weiss stood by her, and the rest of the huntsmen and huntress's, looking at the magnificent Beacon academy.
They walked through the gates in silence, with Ruby, Weiss and Yang staring in awe at the many incredible statues and art, the brilliant architecture, even just the sheer size of it all. They finally made their way to an elevator, where they stopped.
"Alright wait here okay?" Taiyang said, addressing the three girls "We gotta go chat to the boss"
"We aren't coming with you?" Yang asked confused.
"After we have a meeting with the Wizard" Winter said sternly "We will have a tour of the fortress, however right now there is professional huntsmen business to attend to."
The three girls looked disappointed but nodded in understanding.
However, the three mentors' scrolls lit up, with a calm but powerful voice coming through it.
The wizard, or Ozpin as he was known by high ranking huntsmen, the leader of the huntsmen association, appeared on all of the scrolls.
"The Wizard to all S and A Class Huntsmen, there is an emergency on the Western Vale wall. A few rouge goliaths are trying to break through the defenses and the huntsmen we have stationed there are unable to stop them. If you are in the kingdom, please get there ASAP."
The elevator opened up and Ozpin himself stepped out, walking in a calm yet purposeful manner.
"Harbinger, Snow Sword and Blonde Phoenix, we should get going" He commanded as he walked past them
He then paused to address the protegees "It is lovely to meet you all, but we will have to delay the tour of the fortress. I need your mentors to help me with this matter."
The three huntsmen nodded at Ozpin and began to walk with him towards the docking bay, leaving the four protegees behind.
"Wait" Ruby called out "We can help."
"No" Qrow said "You stay here. You aren't trained…"
"What!" All three girls exclaimed.
"…as part of this team" Qrow finished, narrowing his eyes.
"There will be other times to prove yourself, when you're ready" Taiyang explained, in a softer matter than his brother in law.
"But for now, you three will stay put" Winter firmly stated.
And at that they left, leaving the three huntresses' in training alone in the hallway.
Yang stomped on the ground "How are we supposed to be ready when they keep treating us like children."
"My sister, my mentor, I thought she would trust me" Weiss said softly, clearly upset.
"They can't even trust us with a simple mission like this!" Ruby exclaimed "We could help!"
At that the monitor above the elevator lit up.
"There is a dust shop robbery in the centre of Vale occurring, local police are trying to stop the perpetrators, believed to be infamous criminal Roman Torchwork (a picture of a handsome yet sketchy looking man with a black hat, orange hair and a white coat, appearing on the screen), with several accomplices, but are having little success. Any available huntsmen please respond."
The three girls looked at each other.
Ruby scratched her chin "So, if all huntsman in the area are going to deal with the goliaths, who is here to stop the robbery?"
"How about us!" Yang exclaimed.
Both sisters looked at each other in excitement and over to Weiss.
"But they told us to stay put" Weiss argued "they don't think we're ready for this."
"But if we deal with this" Yang countered "Maybe we can show them that they can trust us. I mean this is what we were trained to do.
"And if we don't help, who will?" Ruby finished.
Weiss looked down, thinking about this for a second "So just like that we're a team on a mission?" She stated uneasily.
"Well we didn't come for a play date" Ruby said with a determined look in her silver eyes.
Weiss looked up to meet those eyes.
"Fine" she said admitting defeat "Lets go."
Ruby and Yang looked at each other with an excited expression.
Next thing they knew all three of them had crammed onto Bumblebee and raced off to stop a robbery.