Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY but do own all OCs here.
Chapter 4
Date: Unknown, estimated to about a few months before the formation of Team RWBY.
Location: Deserts of Sanus
Not everyone has the pleasure of living within a Kingdom's walls. While many get to relax and chase their dreams behind great barriers, others have to deal with the outside world beyond. These groups battle the elements, bandits, and Grimm on a daily basis. Many have been able to build villages despite these challenges, though their tendency to "disappear" isn't uncommon. Some believed that settling down would essentially paint a target on themselves, and chose the nomadic lifestyle.
The Anuflutix - or "Moon Drifters" as many call them - are an example of the latter group. Roaming the deserts of Sanus, they would scavenge everything they could to maintain their gear and equipment. Food would either be brought in from hunters or gatherers, or bargained from traveling caravans. It is far from a glamorous lifestyle, but it still has its fair share of thrill and adventure. As far as the tribe was concerned, it beats wilting away behind some wall.
Today was different than most days, though. The Anuflutix don't believe that one becomes an adult simply through age. So what if someone's twenty-one or seventy-six, they can still act like a child. Nope, in this tribe, one must earn such a title. And how do they do that? One word: Survival.
A trove of threaded cargo-vehicles mowed across the sands, carrying several individuals. One of them was a young lad with chocolate skin and maize-colored eyes. Dark-goldenrod hair dangled in braids from his scalp, adorn with red beads. He wore a ragged set of pants and simple sandals, with two russet shoulder-pads strapped to him. Both of his arms bore tattoos; one had white feathers, the other a tan dust-devil. Both seemed to shine in the sunlight, giving off a sprinkle or two on occasion.
Opposite of him was a pale-white elder, clutching a scepter in his hands. Strands of tea-green hair dangled over his platinum eyes, while a gold amulet hung over his buff shaman robes. The emerald jewel inside vaguely resembled a betel leaf, sunlight bouncing off its surface (and occasionally into the duo's eyes, to their annoyance.). The staff held a cyan Dust crystal at the tip, light swirling within it.
The elder cast a concerned look at his pupil. "This is the day you've been training for, Seti," He said. "The end of childhood and potentially your first day as a man. Are you certain that you are up for the challenges ahead?"
The teen simply nodded in excitement. Yet still his mentor's face remained still. A foreign voice entered the back of his head and left a simple message.
Don't worry, Iah. I'll be fine.
Iah finally smiled. "I admire your valor, but it also pays to have a bit of caution on the side. This isn't some mere sport, you know."
The apprentice merely crossed his hands behind his head in confidence. Minutes passed by before the vehicle slowed to a crawl. Once it came to a complete stop, the elder leapt off it and onto the warm sands. The boy was about to follow him when the shaman made an "ahem" towards him. Seti turned back towards the wagon and caught a glimpse of a spear in the back.
Realizing his error, he rushed over there and reclaimed his weapon. The tool wasn't anything special, just a worn red-brown pole with thin lines of dark goldenrod and a gunmetal tip.
Returning to his foster-father's side, they found themselves surrounded by ruins of an ancient fortress. Under their feet and further beyond were crimson sands, with the occasional bone poking out. Other individuals around the teen's age group were also present, with their families watching from a cliff above them. Most of them were fellow tribals, but the rest…
There were about eight of them, forming four pairs. Though the sunlight obscured most of their faces, he could make out some of their attire. One of them appeared to be a woman in a qipao, with a parasol at her side. Another was a man in mechanical white armor, his eyes hidden under a visor. A green-haired man with glasses stood beside a shorter one in burgundy. Another woman appeared to have fishing nets wrapped around her limbs.
Yet one figure that stood out above the rest. He was a broad individual, the shape of his helm covering that of his head. A scorpion tail stuck out from his back, ready to strike any that dared raise a blade towards his direction. A smaller shadow stood beside him, bearing the silhouette of a bird-like mask. The tailed man was recognized as Suraj Singh, the chieftain of the Anuflutix. The child was his youngest one, Utu. But who were the others with them? It didn't take a genius to deduce them as outsiders, but their purpose and connection to the chief…?
The man in question raised his arms. "Welcome, brothers and sisters. Mothers and fathers. Friends and siblings. I know many of you have questions today, and I wager that many of them involve our guests. 'Who are they?' 'Why have they come here?' Regarding the first one, these are Huntsmen from all four of the planet's Kingdoms. As for the second one…"
Suraj chuckled. "Let's just say that they need inspiration for lessons at their academies. I figured that they could come here and learn from us. Jot some notes down."
Seti and other kids turned towards each other with puzzled looks, a couple of them snickering. The man cleared his throat.
"Now, as you all know," he began. "This is your rite of passage, the chance to be called men and women. To become full-fledged warriors and hunters for our tribe. To accomplish this, you have one objective; survive for one hour."
Seti raised an eyebrow. An hour? Wasn't two a few years ago? Half the day a decade before?
The man pointed towards the ruins. "For one hour, you all must survive against the swarm of Grimm lurking within this fortress. One hour you must work together to weather through wave after wave of our greatest enemies. If you live long enough to hear our horn and escape, you have passed."
He turned towards the children. "When I say 'go', run towards the ruins to begin the rite. If any of you should consider deserting your brothers-and-sisters-in-arms now…"
Everyone glanced up at the hill. A cannon was rolled beside the foreigners, with a large net loaded inside. A man pulled the trigger, firing it onto a random bystander. The poor fellow yelped in surprise, flailing his arms in an attempt to break free. Many chuckled at his misfortune, many more kept silent. The latter knew the message behind this. Suraj turned his gaze towards Iah.
"Give them their blessing, my sage."
Iah nodded. He reached into his bag and produced a bag of ash. Blowing it towards the teens, he began speaking in an unknown tongue. The children joined in, reciting his words as the ashes fell upon them.. The foreigners looked at each other in confusion. The movement of the one with glasses seemed to indicate an explanation on his part. Once the ritual was done, he returned to his wagon. His transport and the rest left the scene soon afterwards.
Suraj held his arm up for a couple of seconds before bringing it down.
"Go," he simply said.
The kids scattered to the winds. Seti made a dash for the south-western portion (to the left of the guests' view). Immediately after entering them, he ran into a small pack of Creeps. Two of them leap at him, but a horizontal slash from his spear sliced them in half. Another ran towards his leg, but found itself impaled by his tool. The largest of the pack snuck up behind him while the cubs distracted him.
A growl alerted him to its presence and he sidestepped its charge. A couple of thrusts from his weapon put the Grimm out of commission. A few baby Deathstalkers burrowed out of a sand pile and charged at him. He smirked and made a simple wave with his left hand. The feather-tattoo on his limb flickered to life and a gust of wind engult the scorpions. A few rapid slashes made short work of them.
A part of him wanted to believe that this was going to be easy. The rest reminded him that he still had to survive for the rest of the hour. So he began exploring the ruins in the hopes of passing the time (and finding a worthy challenge). The Grimm left little of the past behind.
He had come across some skeletons, still clinging to scraps of armor. Some of them appeared to be of Mantlean design, others Mistralic. Yet the other bodies did not bow to one lone authority. Oh no. Each of these outliers represented a tribe that was willing to stand up to the tyranny of Anima and Solitas. One of the fallen held the crest of his people; a raft sailing in the moon.
A rattling caught his attention. An ink-like fluid began creeping up on the dead and into their armor. The sludge enveloped itself around the bones and settled over them, harding into a rock-like material.. A glowing red mist appeared in the ribcage and eye holes as the abominations rose onto their feet. Any weapons the dead carried ended up fusing onto the monster in some manner.
Seti stepped back in horror. He had heard of possession-type Grimm, but nothing about them raising the dead. One of the husks screeched at him and fired its arm-mounted rifle. A wave of his right hand caused the other tattoo to glow and a wave of sand rode to his feet. It quickly rose and solidified itself, blocking the bullet. Another motion sent it flying towards the defiler and shattered it into a hundred pieces.
More reanimated corpses charged at him, swinging their blades wildly. He had to keep his distance from them and summoned a gust of wind to knock them off of their feet. While they were down he swiftly beheaded them with his spear. All it did was drive them into a frenzy. A fist of Sand plowed through them and scattered the tainted bones across the hall. The substance reverted to its more gelatin-like form, then disappeared as vapors.
One had a crossbow fused to its arm and fired an incendiary bolt at him. He summoned another wall of sand and let the projectile explode upon contact. To his surprise, it consumed the barrier and turned it into glass. Another husk pinned him against it and sank its fangs into his shoulder. Growling in pain, he bashed the head clean off its shoulders and sent it flying into its kin with a burst of wind.
A more heavily armored variant - with twinblades fused to each hand - strode towards him. It swung both blades at him but he blocked them with his spear. He didn't anticipate that it would break through his poise and sent him stumbling backwards. One of the frailer specimens bashed his own skull with its mace and pushed him back towards its pack's leader.
Seti managed to slide under the alpha and get some jabs at its back. It let out a guttural growl and spun around, the lad ducking and rolling under its weapons. He slashed at the back of its knees, forcing it to fall onto them. Before he could dismember it, though, it spun its torso 180 degrees and blocked the blow. The boy backed up as the creature rose back onto its feet.
He glanced around the room as the thing lumbered towards him. He spotted his glass barrier and looked back at the possessor. He could see an opening in its helm and between its joints. An idea crept up in his head and he ran towards the crystal-clear wall. Hacking away at it with his spear, he willed as much Dust energy into the cracks he created as possible. The fractures began to grow in size as the Grimm shambled forward.
He smiled. With a combination of the two elements, he shattered the transparent wall and sent its fragments towards the beast. As he hoped, some of the shards managed to embed themselves in the armor's gaps. With a burst of wind, he pushed them deeper into the monster's mass. His reward was a screech as the makeshift daggers sliced through its joints. The thing began to fall apart and collapsed in a heap of bone and rust. The mucus-like substance dissipated from the former.
He let out a sigh of relief as he examined the carnage. No more undead abominations roamed this hall. For all he knew, though, more of the possession-type defilers could still be lingering around. Before he had a chance to explore any further, one of the walls exploded into rubble. He coughed as clouds of dust and sand raced past his face. When he could see again, he found himself staring at something that sank his heart.
There, running amok in these sacred grounds, were a swarm of marauders. Some of them dueled with the foreigners at their vantage point. Others turned their attention towards his fellow lads and lasses. Some also found themselves fighting with the local Grimm. One spotted him and leaped through the opening.
"Well well," he said. "Loot and prey," the goon said with a smirk. "Must be our lucky day."
The boy's response was flinging a gust of wind at the crook. He screamed as he flew across the air and slammed into a wall outside. Seti leapt onto the sand and rushed towards a group of bandits. Two of them fired their SMGs at him, but he danced around their bullets. A wave of his hand sent a blast of sand into their eyes, blinding them. He finished them off with his spear before they could react.
He heard a motor a good distance away and saw a dune buggy speeding towards him. A turrent was placed at the back of it, and it was manned by a raving lunatic. He howled with laughter as he fired his machine gun at him. Seti used a burst of wind to propel himself out of harm's way and behind some cover. He took a peak over the wall to assess his situation, but the incoming bullets were all the information he needed.
Something wrapped itself around his legs. He fell face first into the ground and felt a burning sensation on his skin. He didn't need to look up to see the culprits. Blind Worms. More of them sprung up from around him and moved in. He had to use his tattoo of Wind to squeeze his way free. He unleashed a burst of that same power around him as the Creatures charged. To his relief the bandits turned their attention on some of them now. The rest made another dash at him, but he was ready. As they jumped he ducked underneath at the last second. In that timespan he slashed at the "joints" of their segmented bodies and let the pieces fly off into the distance.
He pressed his back against his makeshift cover and risked another glance. Some Ravagers were menacing the dune buggy with their wings and claws. The marauders seemed too busy fending off the swarm to worry about a teenage tribal. He couldn't help but notice how soft the sand looked from here. An idea popped up and he called upon the energies of his tattoos. His understanding of science was murky, but he recalled a lesson involving quicksand. It was time he put it to the test.
A loud groaning sound caught his attention. He smiled as the machine sank into the sand, ensuring the driver and passenger. The bastard on the turret leaped from his seat and ended up diving into the quicksand. He did not rise back up. Unfortunately they hadn't gotten all of the Ravagers. It wasn't a surprise when they flew towards the boy. A gust of Wind knocked some of them into the muddy sands too while his spear reduced the rest to minced meat.
Something small and fast collided into his skin. While his Aura took the brunt of the surprise attack, he instinctively fled to some other cover. He peeked out to see more maraduars, this time using the ruins as the highground. The boy scrambled as gunfire rained down on him and his friends. A blast of Sand briefly covered his escape, but all it did was confuse the criminals. He needed to tip the tides in his favor.
An explosion went off not far from him. He turned to see a dune buggy running around with a rocket launcher on its back, firing away at the Grimm. Perfect. The boy waited for it to get closer before propelling himself with a burst of Wind. He landed on the hood and knocked the driver out of his seat. He assumed the goon's former position and started messing with the car's controls. It took a few seconds for him to find the brakes and slam them. By the time the gunner noticed something was amiss, Seti had already flung him out of the turret.
It took some finicking, but Seti managed to operate the machine and aim it at the crocks from earlier. A press of a button sent a rocket flying into them. The bastards were scattered to the winds. He couldn't savor this moment for long, though, as a Jackalope burst from underneath and toppled the car over. Seti had to fling himself off with a burst of Wind Dust to escape as the rabbit-like Grimm slammed into it.
The beast then turned its gaze to Seti and leapt at him. The boy used his Sand Dust to burrow under the grains before the monster landed. This brief confused the beast long enough for Seti to launch himself onto its back. It screeched as his spear dug into its flesh and he gave a good twist for measure. It rolled onto its back in an attempt to crush him, but he just dove back under. He burst back onto the surface not from it when a fireball appeared out of nowhere.
The heat and flames transformed the sand surrounding the Jackalope into glass, pinning it down. Seti looked at some ruins to see a red-eyed boy waving his staff at him. That was Azar, an old friend of his and a pyromaniac at that. He smiled and gave a thumbs up before launching himself into the air again. This time his spear found its way through the nose and into the brain (or at least where the brain should be). Azar approached him as he yanked his weapon out and leapt back onto the ground.
"Fancy seeing you here, Listener," greeted the fellow teen.
Enjoying the carnage, Azar? Seti telepathically sent.
"Damn right," He replied. "Though it'd be less of a chore if the enemy didn't have bullets."
Anyone hurt or lost? He inquired.
Azar frowned. "Some of us got hit pretty hard by the brigards. They're holed up in one of the old barracks not too far from here. Thankfully the bandits are too busy shooting anything that moves to notice them. The Grimm, though, already smell the blood. We're lucky the bastards are keeping their attention divided right now. If they weren't..."
How much time do we have left? The mute added.
"About thirty minutes, assuming my watch doesn't have sand in the gears," the other youth said as he flashed the device. "But quite frankly I don't really care about that. The only thing I'm concerned about are my friends."
Seti glanced at the barracks Azar spoke of. It was about a story high and seemed rather bland in comparison to the rest of the ruins. The main buildings at least have engravings and fragments of (what assumed to be) statues. This one was run of the mill stone. He's surprised that it hasn't sunk yet. Probably why the wounded were hiding there in the first place.
Anyone protecting our injured friends? He asked.
"Six of us," Azar said. "Everyone else is taking the fight to the enemy to keep the heat off of them."
Seti peeked over Azar's shoulder to see something moving towards them. Something fast. Instinctively he grabbed Azar and jumped to the side. An explosion went where they stood just a second ago. When the sand cleared they saw projectiles flying everywhere - rockets, from the looks of them.
Another boom echoed throughout the area. Both turned to see one of the barracks' walls crumble to pieces as a rocket ripped it to shreds. A broad marauder was stepping forth towards the opening as its defenders rolled out. The offending part wore a jetblack leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders. Scraps of metal were strapped to his limbs while his hands carried a bazooka. What caught their eye was a makeshift crown, welded together from all sorts of junk. It didn't take a genius as to who the bastard was.
Get back to work, Seti ordered. He backed up against a sinking pillar, channeling Wind energy into a small swirl just between them.
"And you?" Azar asked.
His answer came in the form of Seti propelling himself with a miniature cyclone. The chocolate-skinned boy had his spear out as he sailed towards the raider. The crook was busy aiming at the defenseless kids when the boy crashed into him. Seti didn't give him any reprise and grabbed him by the shirt. He conjured another cyclone and propelled the snake through the air. Seti himself followed suit imminently after, stabbing and slashing him as they flew. The thug fired his rocket at point blank range, sending them both careening in opposite directions.
Seti groaned as he dug his way out of a sand pile. Far off into the distance the bandits' leader was doing the same. Seems as though his brazen attack left him a bit dazed. The boy didn't waste any time and charged forth. The bastard had already regained his faculties before they met, though, and fired another rocket at him. Seti deflected it with a burst of Air energy and stabbed forth with his spear. The goon tried to block it with his rocket launcher, but it hardly gave him much protection.
The leader decided to go on the offensive again. This time he was just swinging his weapon as a blunt tool. Blocking with the spear wasn't the best idea, Seti learned the hard way. Best to dance around him and let him wear himself out. Too bad that he launched himself into the air with another rocket. This time he didn't come back down, though. This time he was hovering just above out of reach of his spear. Turned out that he had rockets behind his boots.
The man reloaded his bazooka and set it to rapid fire. Now it was firing smaller and quicker rockets at him. Seti broke into a mad dash for cover, having to hop around like a rabbit to dodge the projectiles. The man laughed like a hyena at this and kept up the game until something collided into him. He coughed and gagged as smoke obscured his vision and flooded his lungs.
Seti blinked and turned his attention towards the barracks. One of the children- a girl with violet hair- was armed with a bow and Dust arrows. She motioned towards something in the distance and back at the man. The boy looked back and saw something glint in the sands ahead. There - buried in the desert's essence - was the rocket he deflected earlier. Somehow it failed to detonate when it crashed there. It didn't take long for him to piece her plan together before he gave her an affirmative nod. Her smokescreen had worn off at that point, so the man began firing on her.
As the girl moved from the barracks to cover, Seti ran towards the missile. Now that nobody was shooting at him, he could finally analyze the situation. Up on the hill the Huntsmen were drawing the bandits to them, away from the ruins and his friends. Good. Less people to disrupt their rite. But even that was going to generate strife among them. Strife that would draw in more Grimm. And with the barracks exposed it was only a matter of time before they discovered its occupents.
Seti noticed a tower not too far from there. A guard's post, perhaps? It was at least four stories tall so it was a good distance from the ground. It seemed sturdy as well, more robust then the barracks building. This will do just-
The girl's screams broke him out of his train of thought. From his position she was laying on the ground, ground flickering. She was crawling away, leaving behind a trail of blood. Her legs were missing and the man was laughing like a madman. Seti balled up his fists as anger flooded his being. Now they were going to pay.
Calling upon the power of Wind, Seti lifted the shell from the sand and pointed it towards the bandit. With a flick of his hand, it was sent soaring into him. The resulting explosion destroyed his boots' rockets and sent him plummeting into the dunes. While the bastard was digging himself out of the mount, another child peaked their head out. Seti sent a telepathic message to them
Get the wounded out of there, he commanded. Bring them into that tower until help arrives.
The kid was rather spooked by the voice popping into their head at first, but they calmed down and heeded his words. While they and another kid grabbed the archer, more carried out the rest of the the time the chief had dug himself free, they were long gone. He was now marching towards Seti, boiling hot steam venting from his nostrils.
"Cute trick, boy scout," he snarled. The rocket launcher seemed to compress and extend in his as he spoke. A blade was exposed on the aft of the launcher and the boy could hear something turning inside of the machine. A cylinder or alternate ammo chamber perhaps? The opening for the launcher remained exposed and the man gave it a good twirl. He aimed the blade at the teen.
"But my stick's bigger," he said.
At the press of a button, a gust of Wind propelled him towards the boy. He was spinning like a buzzsaw as he flew towards, forcing Seti to throw himself over the lunatic with a tiny tornado. While in the air he went to work pooling as much Wind energy between his hands as possible. Once he landed he unleashed a concussive blast towards his enemy.
This time the brute blocked the blast with his weapon. He managed to maintain his footing and merely skidded across the sands. Seti closed the distance with another burst but yet again the bandit blocked his assault. The two of them swung their tools at one another, dancing around each other's swings. Ducking and weaving and jumping and sidestepping.
The man had endurance and poise, but the lad had speed and agility. He finally broke through the man's defenses and landed a few cuts and stabs on him. This pissed the marauder off big time. He stomped on the boy's foot, anchoring him to the earth under his feet. He converted his machine back into a rocket launcher and bashed it against Seti's skull quite a few times. The tribal tried to block them with his spear but the launcher broke through all his defenses. The man hoped back and aimed his weapon at the teen. Yet before he could fire, someone shouted something at him.
"Hey Rubberhose!" said a voice.
The man turned his gaze to one of the other ruins. Atop it was Azar, Fire Staff in hand. The man shot a rocket at him but the lad easily blasted it to pieces with a fireball. This gave Seti an opening. A simple command conjured a swirling mass of Sand under the bandit's feet. When he noticed this it blasted the grainy substance straight into his face. He cursed as it got into his eyes and blinded him, dropping his weapon.
Seti followed up with a cyclone underneath him, lifting him up into the air. The marauder was panicking now, spinning like a top and unable to reach his tool. This caught the attention of humans and Grimm alike.
Now! Seti psionically sent out. Shoot him now!
Azar was the first to answer his call. His fireballs practically turned the poor sod into a bonfire. Someone conjured up a lightning storm above his head and zapped him, paralyzing him. More kids joined in, flinging Elemental energy, spears, arrows, javelins, chakrams. It wasn't long before the bastard's Aura broke. That was when the Grimm closed in. All of that fear, all of that agony was music to them. Too bad he also served as bait. The tribals never ceased their fire, never let up on the barrage. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the bandit leader nor the Grimm that rushed to end him.
Without him to organize the raid, rounding up the bandits was a simple matter. The pain and panic they brought dwindled with the Grimm population. They won't have to worry about a Ziraph or Deathstalker. Seti decided to spend the remaining half-hour at the tower to watch over the wounded. His heart sank when he saw just how crippled some of them were. One was missing an arm, another his eyes. The girl that saved his skin earlier was now laying on a stone bed, with bandages wrapped around what remained of her legs.
Seti took a chair and sat beside her. She was unconscious, probably from losing all that blood. Looks like her Aura was already back up and working on cauterizing her wounds. He couldn't help but hung his head in shame. He should have been faster, should've kept his focus. His mind drifted off to the Hunters back there and he have that bastard the window to-
He shook his head. What's done is done. She was breathing right now, but he didn't know if she or the other two teens would live to see the sun set. And even if they did, the chieftain would probably just throw them into the desert tonight.
The horn had finally sounded off. It was over. All of the young retreated back into the cargo haulers as they pulled up. Iah hugged Seti out of sheer relief, laughing and patting him on the back. His face fell at the sight of the more crippled participants, however. Seti didn't bother to conceal his own concern either. The only comfort they can take in was that they got out of there alive. The ones responsible were either in the Huntsmen's custody or at the desert's mercy.
It was some time before they made it back to their current camp. Iah had set up an improvised stage and podium for the ceremony with some Stone Dust. As the young adults rushed atop it, Seti spotted the crippled along the crowd. They were at the edges, sitting in beds of stone. No doubt to make it easier to discard them after all they went through. One of the strangers- the one with the visor- was tending to them.
Suraj made his way to the podium and cleared his throat.
"You are probably expecting a medal of some form," he began. "Or perhaps some trophy for the kills you have claimed during initiation. You may be disappointed to hear that you will receive neither. Life does not hand out awards for anything. Not for your skills, nor your body count, and certainly not for intelligence."
He raised his arms into the air. "Life is simply about survival, about living to see the sun the next day. To embrace your family and loved ones once more. To change the world as you see fit. Today was but one of infinite challenges you will face. The world will test you, break you, remold you over and over again. To survive you must grow, adapt, transform. To remain as you are is stagnant, weakness. And in a world as rife with strife as our's, such individuals do not belong here."
He motioned towards the blind and limbless. "They failed to bend and broke. Now it is up to the desert to-"
"Bullshit."
All eyes turned on the visored man. "These kids fought as hard as any of the others," he motioned towards the legless archer. "This one here risked her life so that others could live."
Then he pointed at the blind one. "That one there took a literal bullet for his brother."
And finally the one with a missing arm. "And this chopped his own arm off just to escape from the Grimm."
He turned back towards the chieftain. " You talk about adapting and transformation, yet you're so quick to dismiss these three. You hardly give the change to grow and learn from this. You think you're the only ones living in a wasteland? Atlas has to adapt to the cold of Solitas on a daily basis. We had to invent new ways to survive. We had to recycle the old to build the new."
The white-armored Huntsmen took a step towards the stone stage. "Where you see trash, I see raw material. They can be repaired, refined. We already have the means to do so. Hell, from the looks of things, you already have enough scrap to build three prostheses."
"And the Blind Worm?" Suraj" said as he pointed at the eyeless one. "We do not have the resources to waste on someone that can't see the horizin."
"We give him new ones at Atlas." The Atlesian said. "Far as I'm concerned, he's already enrolled."
That last word caught every tribals' attention. All eyes shifted onto their chieftain.
"Enrolled?" Asked a parent. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Suraj didn't respond immediately. "When I said they came here to learn a thing or two from us, I was not lying," He began. "But I will confess that there was also an exchange of information. And it was not enough for the tribe. You have already noticed these children's rites have been short in comparison to others. This is not a coincidence."
He gestured towards the wasteland. "The Creatures of Grimm have been getting bolder lately. Stronger and stranger even. Fighting them off is becoming more and more difficult. I fear that our current knowledge about them is simply not enough anymore. We need experts on them now, but we do not have the funds- or stomach for that matter- to hire Huntsman. So I chose the only logical conclusion…"
You would make your own. Seti telepathically sent out across the camp. Suraj and the Hunters seemed rather disturbed at first, confused even. Iah pointed at the boy for them and the chieftain sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.
"Yes, took the words out of my mouth," He said. "Or, erm… brain I suppose. We send some of our newly christened men and women to the four corners of the world and learn all they can. Once they do, they can pass the information to our next generation of warriors."
"And they're okay with this?" asked one of the teens. "What's the catch?"
"Besides going to one of our academies?" chimed a round man with graying hair and a blunderbuss. "Nothing really. Once you graduate you have the freedom to choose who you work for and where to go. Nobody's keeping you from coming home."
That same Huntsman slammed his weapon into the sand. "So who among you is brave enough to venture out into the world? To see and battle sorts of monsters?"
Seti was the first to raise his hand. I am. He sent out.
The Chieftain smiled. "And who will join this soldier?" He asked. "Who among you will call him brother? Who will fight alongside him side by side.?"
More hands rose into the air, some balled up as fists. More voices joined in with his. Suraj's smile grew.
"That's the spirit," he said. "Carry it with you and you shall prevail. For now, rest your weary bones. You've earned it."
Everyone scattered and returned to their tents. As Seti went into his he spotted Iah and the Huntsmen moving towards the chieftain. No doubt to discuss the process of enrolling their future students. Or to compete for his favor. Probably both. As the boy made his way to his bedroll, he noticed something on the floor. He reached down and brought it to his face.
It was one of their dreamcatchers. The people of Remnant have developed legends of epic heroes and supernatural beings. His tribe was no different. Yet while many would move on and regard these stories as myth, his people did not. The Anuflutix belief holds that there are entities lurking in places beyond human eyes and comprehension. Including the realm of dreams.
He hung the oriniment back up. Call them old fashioned, but at least they were prepared. An encounter with the Sleep Clut- a devourer of dreams- would draw in all sorts of negativity. And everybody knows what kind of company that would bring in. The Sleep Glut takes pleasure in such suffering. He will not satisfy him today.
The child- no, man- plopped down onto the bedroll and crossed his arms behind his head. He allowed his eyelids to fall and his mind to drift. He could have imagined it, but he could've sworn the dreamcatcher flickered as the darkness closed in. Probably just the sun.
Something jolted Seti awake. He gasped as he bolted onto his feet, reaching for his spear. To his surprise, he wasn't in his tent. Rather he seemed to be outsides. The stars hanging above the night sky, the moon made whole. Ruins of differing designs and nature surrounded him. Some of the architecture he recognized, but the majority was alien to him.
It was then he noticed something else; there wasn't any cold out here. Hell, there didn't seem to be any temperature period. As soon as the thought crossed his mind the ruins suddenly boxed him in. They crashed and collapsed into one-another, creating makeshift walls around him and a ceiling above. Now it seemed as though he was at the end of some type of hallway.
Seti blinked. This was getting bizarre. Without much choice, he pressed forward. As he walked on through the ruins he noticed a steady decline of sand under his feet. The walls seemed to change too. The wear and cracks were replaced with freshly cut stone. The door closed behind and vanished. Now he was trapped in… wherever the hell this was..
Four murals popped up around him. The first to pop up was a silhouette of an armored boy with a sword and arm-mounted shield, against a dark-blue background. The second was more feminie and had canine ears at the top of her head. Her background seemed to flicker between green and snow white. She was holding a naginata. The third had a more masculine build, with a bronze background and what appeared to be an SMG. One of his arms seemed bulkier than the other.
But that's not what caught his interest. No his eyes were glued to a floating orb. Random symbols and numbers flashed across its surface while several voices spoke in a hushed tone. They were all moving too fast for him to catch anything. He approached the sphere and reached for it, but it retaliated. A jolt of lightning struck him in the fingertips and coursed through his body. Let out a short yelp of pain as he fell onto the floor bottom first.
"Unregistered telepath detected," it droned in a metallic voice. "User does not have the proper clearance for access."
Seti raised an eyebrow as he rose back up. Unregistered? Telepath? Before he could inquire a bright light appeared over at the first mural. A silver key was wrapped around the silhouette's neck, glowing like a star. It fired an argent laser at the sphere, emitting strange sounds. The orb rotated for a few seconds before he heard some type of beeing or blipping sound.
"Access granted," The giant ball said. "Welcome white noise."
A white light appeared behind him. There was an exit leading to a stone bridge, with shifting sands under it. The sky seemed to constantly shift between day and night, dawn and dusk. Seti started exchanging looks between the orb and the new offput he was by the whole thing, it was his only escape from… whatever this was. So he ran out the door and onto the bridge.
The door vanished, leaving behind a mural for Seti. The silhouettes for all four gave way, revealing the heroes underneath. A letter also spawned at the bottom of each one. Going from first to last, they all spelt out something; KNUS. Several lights danced across the surface of the pictures, all of which leapt towards the orb. It was spinning like mad as it absorbed the contents. It started flashing red and shouting something to anyone within earshot.
"Alert! Intruders detected in the psionic grid! Initiating counter-meas-!"
CRUNCH! A large hand appeared from the ceiling and grabbed the sphere. The object was crushed like a grape as its shards sprinkled down on the floor. The room and its contents faded away, exposing an empty void. Or at least, it seemed empty. Turns out that hand was connected to something.
Looming above where the room originally sat was a vaguely humanoid figure. Six arms stretched from its torso and extended throughout the darkness. The upper ones held perfect replicas of Remnant's sun and moon, fragments, flames, and all. The middle ones were bare, probing for anything else to grab and crush. The lowest two each held some type of weapons, though what kind was anyone's guess. They seemed to be shifting from one form to the next. Guns, claws, swords, pincers, maces, tentacles, missile launchers, halberds, the list was infinite. And breaking through the shadows was a singular eye, burning like a newborn star.
The Dream Eater let out a sinister laugh. "Lunch time," It growled with a wolfish grin.
A/N:
And look what crawled up from the graveyard of fanfics. Yep, this one lives ladies and gentlemen. This one lives! *Mad cackle* Ahem… anyways… What's my excuse. Once again, life. I'd factor the (as of now) recent pandemic as another contribution to its delay, but no. The virus has given me more time to brainstorm and type. Yay?
So Seti… he's an allusion to early depictions of the Egyptian deity Seth. Turns out he wasn't always the evil god of the desert and chaos. He was once a deity of love or something. Huh. Wonder what drove him to the Dark Side? Hmm. So anyways, he's mute and relies on Telepathy to speak his mind (literally). This was conceptualized before After The Fall was written, before Fox's blindness and own telepathy was revealed. If you haven't gotten that book, go get it. It finally gives him and Yatsu personalities. And they're both glorious.
The Dust Tattoos were given to him to emphasize his tribal nature, as well as make him stand out from the rest of his Team. Far as I'm aware of, they're a rarity among the Fanon. Maybe it has to do with the lack of details regarding such concepts? Especially recharging them. How the hell would someone recharge the energies? Eh, one mystery at a time.
A little bit of trivia. You probably pieced together the round Huntsman's identity by now. Yes, that was Professor Port at the end. He and Oobleck actually met up with the Moon Drifters back in Out For Some Aird Air, my entry for r/RWBY's September 2015 MonCon. It was supposed to be a set-up for this Trailer, but I couldn't think of a way to squeeze Seti or anyone else without spoiling the enrollment side-plot. Actually wait, I think I kinda already did. Scrap.
So the Team's name is KNUS. If you're wondering what the hell it is, it's "Canus". It's Kaimana's middle name and Latin for "hoary, grey, silver" and stuff like that. Some of you might have also noticed how they seemed to have similar endings. Well the next two chapters will provide some clues for that. Yes there's two more chapters coming up. One of them will be a… trippy battle to say the least. The other will be an epilogue and teaser of things to come. Before I end these notes, here's one more riddle.
I am the infinite and by logic or reality
I am all of your desires, fears, and more.
I descend upon you by night, yet by day you will have forgotten about me.
What am I?