All Characters belong to RoosterTeeth etc.
It was easy to get to sleep, getting up was more difficult. Most teenagers had trouble waking up on time, probably from the unreasonably early wake up calls that they were required to answer to get to school on time, Cinder herself had a lot of difficulty with this. This was evident from the large number of alarm clocks going off at similar times yet one of those did not belong to the illustrious Cinder Fall. She had a sleeping mask covering her eyes along with earmuff to block out sound, so it was no surprise when she slept through all of the alarms around her one of which was Ruby's. She got up, got ready for the day and searched for her combat cloths only to come up short when she looked for them. This sort of tactic was used by her sister to create the most effective alarm clock known to man, a child who doesn't know where something is. When she re-entered the ballroom she saw a bunch of students waking and leaving yet Cinder was not one of those. So she did the only thing she could, she put her arms under Cinder's sleeping bag with one quick motion flipped Cinder. This made a loud thud when Ruby said to the just awakening Cinder, "Where's my combat outfit?"
"Good morning to you too." She said through the mask she was wearing now that it had sunk below her eyes.
"Cinder I need it," she stressed the importance of the outfit but that only made Cinder scoff.
"That old thing, I threw it out." Upon hearing this Ruby's eyes twitched, she moved to Cinder and began strangling her. Well she tried to strangle her, she just got to her throat and began shaking Cinder rapidly. This stirred Cinder to awaken even more so, "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
"I needed that! What am I supposed to do without a combat outfit?" She asked rhetorically, only to continue, "Do you expect me to got out in pajamas? Or in the nude!" Cinder blinked a few times before she answered Ruby.
"Did you check you're locker?" There were a few seconds of pause in Ruby's mind as she wondered what her sister was saying, "I put your new combat outfit in there."
"Did you take it upon yourself to redesign my outfit again?"
"Obviously, I can't have my sister running around in rags." Rubbing her now awake eyes.
"I appreciate the thought but I don't think today was the right day to change my outfit."
"You'd say that until the world ended so I just tore off the band-aid quickly." Ruby just rubbed the bridge of her nose while her her eyebrows twitched, today was going to be a very stressful day and Cinder was not making it any easier by trying to 'help'. The day was only going to get worse and worse after they actually start initiation.
"What is this?" Ruby questioned Cinders choice in outfit redesign. It was similar to her original but instead of the corset being stitched into her shirt it was now more of a leather vest on the outside of it with a silver inlay in the shape of thorns on the side of it, while her belt was a large thicker red version with a similar silver inlay of thorns leading to her flower pin. There were also a pair of gloves made out of the same leather as the vest with the same red stitching, they had the knuckles cut out and back of the hand was opened only being closed by a latch around the wrist, in Ruby's opinion they looked like fancy driving gloves. She liked the new outfit, but that was never really a shocker because Cinder always designed her combat gear and Cinder knew what she liked.
Cinder on the other hand was wearing only a skintight black one piece, it was laced up the thigh only to stop and cover her bust while leaving her back exposed. When Ruby saw this she tried to avert her eyes, but the other people didn't as much. She was strutting through the locker room, drawing everyone's eyes, only to stop when she got to her locker next to Ruby. The only thing in it was a pretty dress with highly detailed yellow stitching all over it. It only took her a few seconds to throw it on making all those who were looking at her sad after the show was over. Ruby just had to tell her off, "Was the show really necessary?"
"You have to establish dominance early on or people will think you're weak."
"Or cheap," Ruby muttered under her breathe. Cinder turned to her with a hand on her chest acting like she had just heard the most offensive thing ever while delivering a short little gasp. Ruby just looked her in the eyes and said with a dry look, "That's what everyone is thinking?"
"That hurts, and I just made you a new outfit and everything."
"I never told you to do that," she said with a dry look, Ruby was always cold like that to Cinder when she was annoyed. It was a total one-eighty to her cheerful personality mode making her seem like a nut job even to Cinder. She could go from a unfeasible happiness to a cold unfeeling look on a dime, and that scared Cinder. What would happen to Ruby if she remained cold and unfeeling. These thoughts went on until Ruby dropped the other bomb Cinder was hoping she wouldn't, "I guess you had so much time on your hand after you took those gap years. I mean you even made two new outfit and everything you clearly had a lot of time on your hands."
"Well not all of us can spend an infinite amount of time working on Rose Blossom. Besides if you keep acting like this no one is gonna wanna be on your team." Ruby looked at Rose Blossom as she was adjusting them on her wrists. She had that cold little look on her face as she was doing that, hoping what was said next didn't hurt her too much.
"I mean you'd be on my team right?" She asked a little scared to what Cinder would say. When Cinder saw this moved to touch her sisters shoulder to calm her.
"Yeah of course, you don't have to make new friends if you don't feel comfortable with it." Ruby was about to say something else when a witless blonde walked passed them and exclaimed.
"That's ridiculous I couldn't have put my gear in locker 636, I would have remembered having to count that high!" He said all of this while walking passed a dark skinned blonde and a white girl.
"Well Arslan, I heard rumors of teams and I thought the runner up of the Mistral regional tournament would like to join up with someone of my caliber." Weiss said while trying to get Arslan to join her posse.
"No," she said while adjusting the bandages on her arms. She very clearly didn't want to deal with someone so self absorbed, so she delivered the quote while ignoring her presence. Weiss was taken aback by the succinctness of her calm disdain for the girl.
"Well, I'm sure you'd like to think it over."
"No, I don't need to," she was still calm about this lack of interest in the person she was clear. Weiss looked disconcerted as the runner up showed no interest in her even in passing. This was until the green and silver women walked up to them.
"She seems as anti-social as you why don't you try to make friends with her?"
"Two anti-social people mixing doesn't make one social person," Emerald countered.
"That doesn't mean you can't try," She turned to Arslan and said, "Why do we exemplify creativity by following formula?" This bewildered all of the people involved in the conversation, and only mostly mortified Emerald. Weiss turned around and walked away as she said that, Arslan wanted to walk away but she couldn't when the two women began arguing. Jaune saw this and instead of trying to interact continued to his locker, where he instead just kept took his sword. He wasn't interrupted until when he closed his locker to see Cinder standing there, he flinched and lunged back as soon as she was perceived.
"Cinder!" He screeched before stuttering and slowly saying, "Wha-what... are you doing here?"
"Checking up on my slave," she said while walking her fingers up his chest to just under his chin, "And to make sure you're ready for today." This conversation wasn't drawing attention like the last one as most people where focused on themselves getting ready for the test of their lives. Jaune looked a little concerned as he picked up on the unease the others were going through clearly thinking about what Cinder said yesterday. He may have had his aura unlocked, but so did the rest of them and they had their's for years longer than him and they were still worried. He just grabbed Cinder's hand when he went to ask her something, but she just held his arm and responded to him, "You may not have much skill, but if you try I'm sure that you'll make it. Besides I'll make sure you don't die right away."
"You really think I need that help," he said while loosening his grip on her hand.
"Everyone needs help at the beginning and there is no shame in asking for it so I'll help you once at the beginning, but after that you're on your own. I won't be coming to save you after that," she said as she ran her hand under his chin before she walked away. She unsettled him once again but this time it was her both lack of faith and total faith in him that made him confused this time. He just lingered for a few more seconds until he noticed most of the others had left for initiation.
Only when all of the students finished lining up on metal plates on the cliff did Deputy Headmaster Roman come out of a ramshackle tent to talk to them. He was flanked by Neo who was carrying her umbrella opened up keeping the sun out of her eyes, while Roman was just looking as exhausted as ever. When he turned to all of the students he began to speak, "All of you here today have entered into the academy to become Huntsmen or Huntresses. This is where you will be tested to see if you actually deserve to be here."
He said that while looking at Cinder and a few others, she wasn't paying him too much attention focusing on the cliff. He just continued, "Since all of you have no doubt heard the rumor of teams and partners, I am here to tell you... Yes, there are teams. You will be paired with the person you first make eye contact with. Furthermore after a lengthy court case last year we have decided partner trading will not be allowed, and so you don't try to cheat the system you will be stuck with whoever you first make eye contact with, and we have plenty of eyes following you so we will know who you see first." This caused a lot of rumbling among the crowd only until he continued making it worse, "Then you will make your way through the forest where you will find a relic. Bring that back and you're done. Oh also the forest is filled with Grimm so... kill them and if you don't... you'll probably die."
Plenty of eyes went wide at his nonchalance at what he just said but that was only followed by even more bad news, "So any questions? No good," he turned back to Neo and said, "Launch them."
She hit a button and one by one they began getting launched off the cliff, first that went was Eve, Jaune raised his hand to ask as question but he didn't wait to be called on simply just asking, "And how will we be getting down there?"
"Really?" Roman said as he turned to see Mercury shortly followed by Emerald getting launched, "Is... it not obvious?"
"So, you handed out parachutes, right?" Roman just looked at him in confusion to say the obvious to say that Weiss and Arslan who just got launched already knew.
"No, and you have to land on your own." Cinder and Ruby went as quickly as the others, and Jaune wanted to reply to him only until he got launched at a high velocity into the forest. He stood there looking at the new human projectiles that he just launched off the cliff while lighting a cigar. He then turned to Neo and said, "He's gonna die isn't he?"
She just raised her shoulders in a shrug and walked back to the tent. He shook the ash off his cigar a few times before following her into the tent.
Plenty of people had flowery landings, Weiss made glyphs and slid down them like she was ice skating down a slide, Arslan launched a rope dart into a tree to swing down like a superhero, Emerald launched her revolver sickles to swing from branch to branch before she landed on the ground. Others were not as graceful, Eve just sliced through the trees until she hit the ground, Mercury shot her boot guns towards the ground destroying everything on the ground until she hit a tree with a groan, Ruby hit a bird and swallowed it, she was coughing as she hit several things one of them being the ground.
With everyone falling Cinder was sure that Jaune would need help, that is after all why she told him she'd help him before. She quickly began to glow with a fiery presence before two curved swords formed as she flew directly into a tree using the swords to cut through several of them until she landed on a tree branch high up. She put both of the swords together before forming an arrow and pointing it directly at where he was falling, she then let it go as if flew quickly. She heard a loud thunk of it hitting a tree to only be followed up by Jaune shouting, "Thank you!"
"That's all the help you'll get!" she shouted back at him. She then broke her swords apart and stabbed the tree riding them down to the ground. When she was on the ground she left the weapons in the tree and began walking away, which just started to break apart as the tree began to burn. Cinder stood tall until she heard a loud crash coming from the other side of some trees.
There stood two ursa with a single red haired woman with a sword stood in front of them. She put both of her hands on her sword but before she could draw it one of them delivered a slash at her, she ducked out of the way and recoiled back. She drew her sword as the ursa swiped again, it didn't do much as she caught it with her blade still half in the sheathe. The paw was stopped as she stood there not even flinching before she forced the ursa's paw back causing it to stumble. The second ursa charged her, trying to slam right into her, but that was also stopped by the red blade still being halfway out of the sheathe. She kicked the ursa back again, causing both of them to recoil again. Both the ursa stood up ready to attack her at the same time but they never got the chance when she began her hair to glow along with all of the red accents on her cloths, and drew the now glowing blade and in one motion quick slashing horizontally cutting them both in half.
They both began to dissolve as she quit glowing. It was quite as she had little reason to make a sound after the fight. The only sound was a sarcastic clapping coming from behind where she started in the fight. Cinder was clapping as she watched the Eve's fight with the Grimm. When they made eye contact Eve said, "Didn't think I needed help?"
"I didn't think you needed any help... partner," she waited a second to deliver the last part of the sentence. Eve just sighed as she heard what Cinder had to say but that didn't calm her either, as she just walked away from her new partner. Much to Cinder's chagrin as she wasn't expecting that, "Wait, come on. Was it something I said?"
Ruby was far less lucky as she had to cough up a bird that was to her knowledge still alive, when she finally did it flew away. She stood up and began running away from the worst thing she ever had in her mouth. Ruby was worried that whoever she was partners with would not want to be around her, Cinder would scare all of the people away from her, Eve would probably avoid her, Jaune was Cinder's pet so that would get complicated fast. There had to be other people she could team up with like that Why girl she seemed nice, if a little fickle.
Just as she was running through the trees she was racking her mind thinking of all of the people she could team up with until after she came through a brush into a clearing did she make eye contact with the girl in white. Why stared her in the eyes waiting for her to react first leaving an awkward silence until she said, "Are you ever going to speak?"
"No, I was waiting for you to go first," they just stood there before both of them broke eye contact. Ruby laughed a little while Why just rubbed her head for a second until they finally, she smiled at the childishness was going to become her norm.
"It could be worse at least you're partnered with the amazing Weiss Schnee."
"I could be partnered with the morally ambiguous Cinder Fall, she's a lot more fun." This made Weiss, who she just learned the name of, scowl knowing this was her partner. She walked through the trees while Ruby followed her, until they came to her the voice of a boy in the trees. They both looked up to see Jaune pinned to a tree with a black glass arrow. He gave a strained chuckle towards the girls as they just stared up at him.
They just stared for while until a third woman walked through the clearing, she wasn't paying attention until she ran into Weiss. When she looked Weiss in the eyes she sighed then turned to go another direction only into walking into Ruby. She groaned rubbed her temple while looking up only to make eye contact with Jaune still pinned to the tree. There was a slight pause until she slammed her face into the tree where she began screaming, Ruby grabbed Weiss as they slowly walked away ready for the girl to explode. Jaune just chuckled as they walked away from them while he waited for her to stop screaming. When she finally stopped she didn't turn to him while she said, "After initiation you're going to leave me alone and not try to be my friend."
"I cannot promise that." She glared while he hung there waiting for her to move. With a quick motion she flung the rope dart up to him severing the arrow allowing him to fall out of the tree, "Ow."
Mercury was walking through the forest alone waiting for Emerald to track her down. Emerald had a way of not being found unless she wants to be and any social situation was definitely a place she doesn't want to be found. It was quiet. Mercury hated the quiet, it always reminded her of home and those memories are never pleasant. She had to end the silence, "AAAAAHHHH."
Her scream was not of terror or pain but of need to for sound. This scream lasted for several seconds of echoing through the forest but when that was gone she was sad from silence again. That was until a rumbling came from where she was standing, when she looked down she saw instead of the ground she was standing on a black scaly body. Her eyebrows furrowed as she said to herself, "I probably should have noticed this."
She jumped off the Grimm surprised to see it's giant snake face. It's massive fangs sprung to life as king taijitu lunged directly at her she flung herself out of its face. After she rolled on the ground she landed on her feet in the most superhero pose imaginable, only to quip, "Well aren't you feisty, but I don't swing that way."
It moved to surround her leaving its body forming a constricting cage around her. She didn't waste time kicking the ground launching herself into the air while spinning, she kept firing her boots to control her ascent. The king taijitu tried to spin up to her but it was stopped by Mercury raising her left to deliver a high ax kick. She chuckled to herself while it rocketed down to the ground, "Well that's disappointing, You just weren't quite up to snuff were you?"
As she descended the body writhed a little, she figured she'd have to hit it a little more to make it stop. But that thought ended when the second head came up to bite her. It got her in it's maw only to be stopped when she did the splits to keeps its mouth open. That only stopped it for several seconds while the fangs inches from her face, she dropped her head and said, "Thissss... has become a difficult situation."
She slid her arms in between one of the fangs and used them as scissors to snap the tooth. It went flying as she fired off a shot from both her legs blowing a hole through each side of it's mouth. It let her go only for her to rocket herself to the fang that was currently flung from its mouth, when she caught it in mid air she spun herself around in the air. Launching herself at the grimm only giving herself some time to position the tooth on the tip of her boot, she spun herself around like kicker and rocketed the tooth straight through the eye of grimm. It formed a small circle around where it entered and exited giving the sense that it was a larger projectile than it actually was, but that only lasted for a few seconds before the head began to dissolve. She landed on the ground and smiled as she spoke to herself once again, "That wasn't that ba-" she didn't finish that thought when the first head of the king taijitu clamped down onto her, "Fuc-"
She was stuck in the mouth of the beast while it sled her through the forest it didn't get far when it stopped. The king taijitu's neck began to constrict and it began to choke as two chains that were wrapped around it's throat began to tighten even more. It choked in it's death throws before the head finally came off in a very dramatic fashion, as it began to dissolve only to leave Mercury lying where it used to be. After the entire Grimm finished dissolving Emerald came climbing down from a tree to look at the corpse like Mercury. She kicked her friend several times causing Mercury to cough several times and say, "You have to kiss the princess to wake her."
"Well, I'm sure that I can find a rodent around here to kiss you."
"You're no fun." Mercury said as she tried to stand up only to fall back once again. Emerald looked a little confused only to see Mercury was missing a heel, this caused her to chuckle a little, when Mercury noticed it as well she spoke up, "Well ha ha. Now help me you Chocolate Mint Goddess."
"You gotta stop hitting on me."
"I'm fine with our borderline lesbian behavior," Mercury quoted while Emerald offered her a hand to balance her now unstable friend.
"It looks like all of the partners have been formed Roman," said a woman with a southern draw, she was a larger woman dressed in purple resting calmly in a folding chair that any person who enjoyed their own child's softball game would envy. This was quickly followed up by a tall bearded man in a suit vest mixing drinks behind a makeshift bar at the back of the tent speaking up.
"They look like a good couple." He said mindlessly as he finished another drink that he passed off to Neo who generously took it to where Roman was sitting. He looked more than a little uncomfortable in a less than pleasant looking lawn chair, were Neo handed him a drink to which he thanked her before she took a seat next to him. Her chair looked nicer in every way almost like it came from a fancy ice cream parlor. She wasted no time taking the drink she just handed to Roman before sipping it for herself, while shaking her finger at Roman. He shook his head at that and said to the man behind the bar.
"Just because they look nice together doesn't mean they are together."
"Uh, that's not what I meant-"
"Then do pray tell Junior, what didya mean?" The woman asked him with a sarcastic tone clearly not caring about his response just wanting to make him uncomfortable.
"I- uh- didn't- guuh. I'll just be quiet now." He said as he started to clean several glasses. Roman was looking at his scroll as the students were all making their way through the forest. He was probably thinking of name possibilities for teams having such an eclectic cast of people this year was going to make naming teams more difficult. He just shook his head as the students on screen were battling their way to the relics.
"What are you thinking Roman?"
"Why do you think the Headmistress wanted those two," he said while motioning at Cinder and Ruby, "children to enter Beacon at the same time?"
"Who knows, she probably met them on the street and said 'let them be my eyes.' You can never guess what she's thinking."
"They are the only ones to ever be recommended by her, so there has to be something special about them."
"Maybe they're her children, who knows." Junior said as he finished cleaning the glasses.
"That's ridiculous, she would never have children," The woman said to him.
"Well a woman like her, I mean it wouldn't be too difficult with those looks." He said that mostly under his breathe as all eyes suddenly turned to him. Most of their eyes were wide only for him to spew out at her, "You settled down, what's the problem with her doing the same?"
"Well the fact that she's as terrifying as a sitting down with an ursa for dinner." She said rather cross with his logic. She was filled with several angry thoughts because he would bring up her family like they were some sort of bargaining tool. He was a despicable man but if his face wasn't so far up there she would slap them, no one ever insults Miss Malachite like that.
"That doesn't matter as long as they are here. I just need to figure out who they are and why they are important." Roman told them as he lit another cigar, "So you know tell me every odd thing they do."
"Yes sir Deputy Headmaster." They both said in unison, Neo just nodded along with them. When he saw this he had to tell her the truth.
"You aren't a teacher, so what are you gonna tell me." He responded to her, she just gave a coy smile along with a wink. This like most things she did unsettled Roman in a way he hoped that she didn't know, but at the same time she absolutely knew.
Please like, comment, and subscribe. Or you know don't you have free will and I don't control you so whatever.
I didn't go as far with this chapter as I wanted but I think this is far enough. Junior and Lil' Miss are replacing Port and Oobleck so look forward to that. They will have different personalities and probably will have different interactions with the protagonists.
I tried to write the combat scenes as quickly as possible because the main fight will be next chapter. That was why they were so slap dash and quickly written.