AN: I am SO sorry this took so long. Geez, my work got crazy. Going from three days with long hours to five days with eight hours really threw off my schedule. But, I've got it worked out now, so hopefully, we won't run into this problem again. Anyway, shoutouts to the three reviewers so far.
JuniorBLD: Glad you like the story so far, and I hope to create more interesting fight scenes. Hopefully my descriptions did the RWBY characters justice.
xXgabeXx: Ha ha ha ha ha, Oh, I am so glad someone else thought that was funny.
Guest(fan): I will keep posting. Thanks for liking the story.
Now, I will be posting a new chapter of He's not like us very soon, so be aware of that. That chapter took longer because I couldn't figure out how I wanted it to play out. Hope you all are not too angry about how long that ones taking. Anyway, on to the chapter.
Answers for your thoughts?
After a full day of reading and researching, Bryce finally felt like he had enough knowledge to get by reasonably. With the help of Alpha, he'd created a believable story, that explained him, his whereabouts, origin, and how he'd ended up here. Or in Emerald forest, as he'd discovered to the forest he'd originally landed in to be called.
He was currently at a school known as Beacon, a prestigious school for teenagers to become Hunters and Huntresses, who were professional fighters who fought Grimm and crime alike. They seemed to take missions like guilds, and often worked in teams, or at least that was the general idea. There was no specific requirement for it. With the use of modified weapons and Dust, essentially magic for them (creation/destruction energy) in physical form, they fought off the Grimm to keep from destruction and had created four different kingdoms. Vale, where he currently resided, Mystral, Atlas, and Vacuo. Also, all hunters and huntresses, training or not, had Aura which as far as Bryce could tell, was a booster in physical abilities and a large defense. It was physical manifestation of the soul that could protect, heal, and enhance one's physical form. Then, there was semblances, which was a unique ability that came from one's soul. This ability could range from enhanced vision, to invisibility, gaining physical strength, or even summoning monsters to fight alongside you.
"Ya know," Bryce sighed, smiling slightly, "It seems it won't be as hard to hide here as much as I thought originally. Sure, I'll have to limit myself somewhat, but with the idea of Aura and Semblances, I can just have more Aura than most, and I can pass of any basic manipulations with creation and destruction energy as my semblance."
"It is kind of crazy how our universes parallel so easily in that regard," Alpha agreed, "But that only makes it easier to hide here. Now, you'll just need to find the dorm room you're staying in and get some sleep. You know what happens if you don't."
"I know, Alpha, it was only drilled into my ever since i was a toddler. Hopefully this scroll Ozpin gave me doesn't guide us down the wrong way," Bryce motioned to the cellular device in his hand, it's guide feature currently pulled up.
"Now, let's see, I take a left at the next hallway, and room 344 should be three doors down on the left." Bryce looked down at the scroll again, remembering how he'd been given the device after informing Ozpin of his story, so that there wouldn't be any inconsistencies between what he and Ozpin, as well as any staff that needed to know, said about where he came from, who he was, et cetera. Ozpin had told him the basic rules of Beacon, which were mostly alike any other school, so he didn't worry about them too much. Ozpin waived him on the uniform, saying as long as he wore his military uniform to classes, he should be good. Ozpin had told him for the first day to do as he liked, and suggested following a team around to their classes, and try to make friends.
Bryce really spaced out as he thought about what the future held for him, so much so that he didn't see one of the dorm room doors swing wide open, and hit him right in the face.
"Gah! What the hell!" Bryce cried as he stepped back, holding his slightly injured nose. As Bryce looked up to see a familiar face peeking past the door.
"Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't mea- Bryce, is that you?" Ruby's voice went from apologetic to surprise in no time flat.
"Sup," Bryce merely waved the hand not rubbing his nose. Ruby jumped up and down.
"Oh, oh, it's so cool to see you! Oh, you to meet the rest of my team, they didn't even get the chance to say hi to you cause those guards escorted you out. Why'd they do that by the way? Did you do something wrong? Oh, who cares, you can explain it all in the room. Come on!"
Bryce, who only really understood the last part, tried to stop her. "Hey, hold on a sec-" that was all he got out before he was grabbed by the arm and pulled haphazardly into the unorganized room. Bryce looked at the beds and all he could think was, 'Are we sure these kids can't use any creation energy?' They had one bed above another by attaching ropes to the ceiling by seemingly nothing, the other two beds stacked on top of each other, balanced by the use of books on each pillar to hole the top bunk in place. Each setup was somehow stable, and Bryce had NO clue why or how.
On all but one of the beds sat the other three girls Bryce had seen with Ruby. The noble girl with white hair sat in the bottom left bed doing homework. On the bottom right bunk sat the long haired blond girl laughing at something on her scroll. The black haired girl, who Bryce was starting to suspect was a faunus, sat on the top bunk on the right, in the very corner, reading a book. Faunus were basically humans with some animal feature, like a dog's nose, monkey tail, or what Bryce suspected in girl's case, cat ears.
"Blake, Yang, Weiss, I found Bryce, that guy we saw yesterday during initiation. The one that cut the deathstalker in half," Ruby exclaimed, jumping up in down in excitement.
"Hey, I've been meaning to find you and talk to you about that. I've got a lot of questions for you," the blond smiled as she sat up," I'm Yang by the way.
The black haired (faunus) girl looked up and spoke next. "I'm Blake, if we're doing introductions. I have many question for you. You've got me curious.
"Hmmm… though it isn't any of our business, I guess i myself have also been wondering about your previous whereabouts, and your sudden appearance," the assumed Weiss, who looked both at and down at him at the same time, commented. She seemed to do it unconsciously, as if she'd been trained from an early age to do so, which further supported his noble theory.
Wanting to test his theory quickly before these four dove into the obvious interrogation that was about to take place, Bryce said, "Well, you four seem as curious as cats, and we all know what they say about that," Bryce gave a quick glance at Blake. She paled, and her bow twitched.
'Welp, confirmed that one,' Bryce thought as Ruby and Yang giggled, while Weiss just snorted.
"Uh, we are not faunus, or cats for matter, you dolt," Weiss scolded Bryce angrily.
Blake's bow twitched again, more noticeably this time. Luckily for her, the rest of the team were in front of her, facing Bryce. Ruby finally got everyone to sit down, and Bryce prepared himself mentally before saying, "Alright, hit me. What do you wanna know?"
"First off, who are you really?" Ruby asked.
"What?" This question confused Bryce, and caused him to be slightly worried. Did they know what he was as well?
"You know, how old are you, what do you do, basic introductory stuff."
"Oh, okay. You could've just said that." Ruby merely shrugged at Bryce's response, and waited patiently for an answer, "Well, my name as I mentioned earlier is Bryce Anderson, I was training to be part of my town's military force, and I'm sixteen."
Everyone looked floored at this. "SIXTEEN!" Yang shouted.
Bryce was surprised at the outburst for a moment before responding. "Yeah, I'm sixteen, why?"
"You're sixteen and you can throw a deathstalker around like nothing? What kind of military does your town have?"
"Why are you even here, if your training to be part of your town's military force?" Blake interjected. Bryce nodded, to show acknowledgement to the question.
"Well, as you have probably guessed, I'm not exactly a student here-"
"Called it!" Yang laughed. A glare from Weiss shut her up.
"Anyway, I come from a remote village near the badlands."
"The badlands!" All four gasped in shock. Bryce groaned.
"Yes, the badlands. Can you be quest long enough for me to finish my explanation?" Bryce stared down all four girls, as if daring them to interrupt him again They didn't.
"Okay, now, we lived on the edge of the badlands and train to fight the toughest grimm possible. No matter the job, military or not, they train to use their aura, semblance, etc from the age of four."
"Woah, that's hardcore," Yang muttered. Bryce chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess it is. But, I grew up with it, so to me, it's normal. About four days ago, I got into a fight with a kid who was bullying one of the underclassmen. He was the son of one of the council members, you know the type. Thinks he's numero uno and the top dog, immune to social constructs and rules. During the fight, I hit him too hard and his neck snapped, permanently paralyzing him."
"Since his friends threatened the girl they'd been picking on, she didn't testify at my trial in my defense. I got convicted with a class B crime, which means banishment from the village for a minimum of three years."
"One of the people in our village has a semblance that lets her teleport things to a random location. Never anything big, only human sized or smaller. She used her semblance on me, per my father, another councilman. I ended up here, and have just kinda been wandering."
Bryce's story wasn't a complete lie. The bullying incident had really happened, and if Miles hadn't beat down the two friend of Jamison, the aforementioned bully, threatening Bailey and her brother, he would've been kicked out of Epilarchía academy. The last part was a lie, but it was a legit punishment one could receive in society, for that level of crime. What he'd done hadn't classified legally as a class B crime, but regardless, it was a legit sentence.
"Woah…" Ruby whispered, blinking back tears.
"Just like that? They just kicked you out, no food, no water, no help?" Blake asked, incredulously.
"Yeah, pretty much," Bryce nodded, shrugging. Honestly, it was a normal concept to him. Septonians were taught from a young age to like anywhere and constantly took trips to other exotic and remote places to learn and survive on their own. The idea felt natural to him, and he couldn't honestly say he understood their reactions. Guess that' the differences in cultures. "So, I ended up in the Emerald Forest, and kinda just walked. Yesterday, I heard gunshots and explosions, and just followed the noise. That, consequently, lead me to you guys, fighting the Deathstalker and the Nevermore."
"That's… very hard to believe," Weiss stated, blatantly suspicious.
"Oh really, snow angel?" Weiss' eye twitched at the nickname. Bryce payed it no mind. "How else do you explain it? I just accidentally fell through a portal from another dimension and ended up here?" Bryce deadpanned. He really hoped telling the truth, which he hoped seemed to them so insane of a possibility, that they'd automatically believe his story. THey sat in silence for a moment before Weiss shrugged.
"Fair enough. It's just weird to have never heard of towns near the badlands before."
"Why do you think we're there in the first place?" Bryce shot back.
"He makes a good point," Blake nodded. Weiss merely huffed in response, crossing her arms and scowling slightly.
"Thank you Blake. Now, any other questions you'd like to ask?" Ruby's hand shot up instantly. "Yeah, Ruby? This isn't a classroom, you can just ask."
Ruby blushed a little in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry. Just kinda used to it when someone asks if we have questions. Anyways, what does your sword do, what's its name, how'dyougetittodoeverythingitdid, canitturnintagun, canit-" Ruby's voice began to speed up as she went on till Yang slapped her in the back of the head, which (thankfully) cut her off.
"Sorry about that," Yang snickered, "She's a bit of a weapons enthusiast. Actually, eccentric is a better word for it." Despite denials from Ruby, the rest of her team nodded in agreement.
"So I noticed," Bryce chuckled at the team's interactions with one another. "Anyway, my first weapon, and my main one, is Alpha, which is a double-edged shorts sword, with a grappling hook and whip feature. It's made out of a steel/titanium alloy, so while it's heavy, it's amazingly sharp and durable." Now, while this was partially true, as titanium and steel were common across most dimensions, the metal he'd coated the blade in, dýnamium, was not. Which meant he had to conveniently leave that out.
"As for ranged," Bryce reached behind him and pulled out his favorite Desert Eagle, a fifty caliber pistol loaded with armor piercing rounds. He often just pulled it out of a pocket dimension most Septonians stored their gear, but he'd been consistently wearing it to hide where he really got it from, or lack thereof to everyone around him.
"Woah, a… a… what is that?" Ruby drooled, looking longingly at the camo patterned, glowing purple hand cannon in front of her. 'Obviously Desert Eagles don't exist here. Interesting, they usually show up somewhere,' Bryce thought.
"I'd have to agree with Ruby here, I've never seen that kind of gun before, not even with the experimental weapons my father brought home to look over," Weiss mentioned.
"It is a bit strange. I mean, dude, your gun is literally glowing," Yang agreed. Blake looked at the gun nervously.
"That doesn't look like it was designed for combat with Grimm," she said, slowly, her pale skin getting paler than normal. At this point in time, Bryce had only one thought on repeat in his mind. 'Oh... shoot.' This gun was a modified military issue weapon. Meaning it was designed to fight not only the Nekróspsychí, but it was meant to be used against other people using similar weaponry.
"That's because it's not," Bryce stated simply. Everyone grew quiet, even Ruby, whose previous interest in the gun disappeared as she realized the implication of what he'd said. "It's meant to combat people who might attack our village. Raiders, thieves, murders, kidnappers, or even other villages. It's a common problem over there."
"Okay." Blake simply nodded, accepting the answer. She visibly brightened in color. The other four girls sighed in relief.
"Geez, Bryce, don't do that to a girl," Yang teased, "You had us worried you were a murder or part of some terrorist group," At the mention of terrorist, Blake's 'bow' twitched again, which raised red flags in Bryce's head.
"I can research the girl, sir. For now, I suggest continuing to answer their questions." Alpha read Bryce's mind as he continued to look for information on the scroll that Ozpin had given the two.
'You know, you could help me,' Bryce growled inwardly at the robot within his sword.
"But this is a great learning experience for you. Besides, I'm busy," the serious delivery made the joke that much worse.
'Grrr, you are so infuriating sometimes,' Bryce grumbled in his brain.
"So… what is this thing exactly?" Ruby's question snapped Bryce back to reality, especially as he picked up the gun and began to inspect it. Taking the gun from her hands, Bryce answered.
"Oh, this is a fifty caliber Desert Eagle, with armor piercing rounds, modified to be imbued with aura to give it a big more punch, and can punch through just about most metal an inch thick. It wrecks anything weaker than that. The camouflage design is mainly just for show, but the purple glow is the artificial aura. The aura keeps the gun in almost perfect condition along with increasing the speed, power, and strength of the bullets."
"Ruby's eyes became stars as she stared at the gun in awe. "That things a fifty caliber? That's awesome."
Weiss raised her hand. "Explain the importance of caliber for those of us who don't use bullets that are metal." Blake nodded, as did Yang. From what Bryce could tell, she used shotgun shells, not pistol or rifle shells, so it made sense that she would understand gauges, but not caliber. Bryce pulled out a bullet from the gun to reveal a bullet that was thirteen millimeters long, encased in a near four inch casing.
"Calibers are based on a bullets size and the amount of gunpowder used to fire of the bullet within the shell itself. This bullet is the largest regular caliber, and has the most gunpowder overall, the largest bullet, meaning it's the most deadly. Armor piercing is just a way to say the bullet is designed to be more pointed and tougher than normal to pierce thing from metal to concrete, making regular means of armor obsolete."
Yang whistled. "Dang, that's impressive."
"Oh… My… Oum… YOURGUNISATINYSNIPERRIFLE!" Ruby squealed out so fast, Bryce didn't catch most of what she said, grabbing the gun and flipping it in her hands, and even pointing it dangerously around the room.
'Alpha.'
"Yes Bryce?"
'Remind me to never let Ruby be alone with that gun.'
"Duly noted." Quickly, Bryce took the gun from Ruby's hands, causing her to pout slightly.
"You know, I kind of have to laugh at the fact that the marksman of the group is the one to so blatantly mishandle a gun." Bryce grinned as Ruby's face flushed as she realized what she'd just been doing.
"I just wanted to try it," Ruby mumbled to herself.
"You'll see it in action during combat class tomorrow." Bryce told the pouting sniper.
"Really?" Ruby brightened, staring wide eyed at the Septonian, not that they knew that part.
"Yes, really."
"Speaking of combat, what is your semblance?" Blake asked inquisitively. Bryce only smiled.
"You'll also see that tomorrow, I promise. I'm not so careful to hide mine like others," Bryce said.
"Wait, so if you're going to combat class tomorrow, you're going to Beacon now?" Weiss asked, bewilderedly.
"Yeah, well, more like he offered me somewhere to stay for now till I can go home. Since said place happens to be a school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, I'll be going to beacon for now till I can go home."
"Oh… I see." Weiss looked a little bit humbled at her question, realizing just what it was she'd asked. Of course he was going to stay here, he literally had nowhere else to go, and was obviously strong. If Ozpin would recruit Ruby two years early for being skilled, then he'd definitely take a powerful young boy who had no place to call home currently under his wing.
"Anything else you feel like asking?"
"Yeah, I got one," Yang blurted, interrupting Blake, as she went to ask something herself, "How'd you get strong? I didn't think that kind of physical strength was possible normally. I mean, you sliced through a deathstalker, armor and all, like it was nothing."
At this, Bryce began to laugh. As he laughed, all four girls stared at him nervously. 'Why was he suddenly laughing?' they all thought. It was really nerve racking. Finally, Bryce calmed down enough to speak.
"Oh, ahem, I'm sorry, it's just… you guys remember where I lived, right?" It took the girls a brief second before understanding hit them full force.
"The badlands…" Blake responded slowly.
"Yeah, the badlands. That Deathstalker was a wimp compared to what we fight against normally. We trained daily to increase our natural strength to insane levels, as well as training our aura to enhance our bodies even further. Without aura, I can regularly bench about three thousand pounds. With aura, I can life about three times that."
What Byce told them was an understatement. Current Septonians were built to be deceptively strong compared to other species. So while Bryce was sort of muscled, he could really lift close to four thousand pounds without the enhancement of creation energy, which quintupled his strength. Then, because he controlled omni-energy, his strength grew ten times that.
"Yang's eyes were wide with envy, while everyone else was completely shocked.
"Seriously?!" Yang shouted. Bryce simply nodded to her outburst, confirming what he'd just said. Yang glared at the young man, pointing an accusatory finger at him, "You have to teach me how to get that strong."
"Nope, trade secret," Bryce grinned teasingly at the blond, who only growled in response.
"I will get you to teach me, so help me, or I'll-" Bryce cut her off, leaning forward right in her face, grinning.
"You'll do what, exactly?" Bryce challenged. Yang looked lost for a brief moment, before she smiled devilishly.
"I'll figure something out," she replied mischievously.
'Alpha, second not.'
"Listening, sir."
'Never let me be alone in the same room as Yang. I'm worried as to what she might try.'
"Will do, Bryce."
"Is that all the question you have for now?" Bryce looked to each of the girls, only to see Blake timidly raise her hand. The other three looked to Blake, and Bryce nodded to her. "Go ahead, I can take one more question."
"What are your thoughts on faunus?" Blake asked. Weiss scoffed, which earned her a glare from Blake while Bryce simply snorted.
"What about them? They're people, just like the rest of us. Unless a faunus does something to me specifically, I've got no quarrel with them." Bryce answered honestly, understanding why the girl was asking this question. She was worried that she may have to hide herself even more from him if he were cruel to faunus. But to him, the idea of faunus wasn't much of a problem. He'd been dealing with alien species that looked way crazier than faunus, like lizard people, some ghoulish beings, and even literal intelligent slime. Faunus were on the lowest spot on his list of weird, even less weird than his own species. If he could think of all those different species as people, and that they deserved rights, he wouldn't be hard pressed to think the same for faunus.
"That's good," Blake muttered, relief flowing through her, but not enough to be noticeable from her team.
"Now, if we're all good here, I'm going to head to bed, because I have been up for the last twenty-four hours, and I am DEAD tired." Bryce made his point by flopping onto the floor. All of team RWBY looked at each other before Ruby pouted, then responded.
"Yeah, we're good for now," Ruby pointed at him, poking his chest, "But we'll interrogate you more if we feel like you left ANYTHING out."
Bryce just nodded, then went to his own room right next door. He collapsed on top of the lone bed in the room.
"Ugh, I didn't think creating artificial energy with creation energy could be so draining."
"Did you really expect otherwise. You had no natural energy left, so to use what little reserves of your creation energy to keep yourself awake would obviously be tiring."
"Huh, fair enough. Alpha?"
"Yes, Bryce?"
Don't wake me up for anything."
"What about a Nekróspsychí attack?"
"Fine, unless it's life threatening, don't wake me up."
"..."
"Alpha?"
"No promises."
"Ugh, frick off, you stupid robot."
With that, Bryce fell asleep, and dreamed of home.
Glad you took the time to read this. Hope you all enjoyed it. Now, I just wish you all can be patient enough with me for the next chapter of this and He's not like us. So, I will see you in the next chapter, and as always, Stay Cool.