So, that was a long wait. I super apologize. I just can't seem to do this consistently. *Huh* Oh well, I'm working on it. Anyway, Holy CRAP you guys enjoyed the last chapter. While I didn't get a lot of reviews, I did receive a good junk of favorites and follows, both for the story and for myself. So thanks to all those of you who did. (Favorites: AnimeGamerGirl123, Gabrion, Jack Hunter, Railsaraki3, Tacoturd777, Toy2711, lazy af lul, ty1967, xXgabeXx. Followers: AnimeGamerGirl123, Gabrion, Jack Hunter, Railsaraki3, Tacoturd777, ty1967, ILSergente, JcL107, Lazy Disappointment, Slayersky123, Thundasius, and ivan12ak.) To those who favorited and followed, please, leave a review on this chapter. I'd love to hear your opinions on the story, take some suggestions, and just general feedback, negative or positive. I'll like positive more, but sometimes negative is necassary to make a change for the better, so LAY IT ON ME! Anyway, answer the two who did review recently
Anonymous: I'm glad you're loving. Typos kinda happen and I can't catch them all, so RIP me. But I'm glad you like what you've read up to this point.
Fan: Thanks for the support. Hope you continue to enjoy future installments.
Anyway, without further ado, the chapter (which is way longer than normally).
Canon fire
"Hey," a voice spoke softly, which confused Bryce. He only could think of two people who'd dare do that with his sleep riddled brain.
"Ellie or Aubrey, I don't rightly care which one it is, leave me alone, I am TIRED," he grumbled, rolling over in an attempt to throw the person on top of him off, but it didn't work.
"Bryce, wake up."
"I swear, if you don't let me sleep, I'm going to cut both your hair again."
"I don't think that'd be a good idea. I get really protective over my hair."
It was at this comment that Bryce realized it wasn't either of his sisters who were on top of him. Sleep leaving him faster than he could take a breath, Bryce's eyes shot open, and he looked up to see a very feminine blond laying on top of him.
"Hi!" Yang said cheerfully.
"Whah!" Bryce jumped off his bed, throwing Yang to the floor in the process. She sat up smiling happily.
"Oh, Bryce, I didn't know you were so rough. Please, be gentle."
"Yang, what the heck are you doing in here?" Bryce growled, completely ignoring her jab.
"What?" Yang asked innocently. Bryce glared at her, knowing he probably wasn't going to get a straight answer out of her.
"Get out. Now." Bryce lifted a finger and pointed to the door, reaffirming his words.
"Why? I haven't gotten what I wanted," Yang grinned teasingly. He got what she was implying, but didn't really care.
"I don't care if it's for answer or for training, it can WAIT!"
Yang's face lit up at the opportunity, and Bryce groaned internally as he realized what was coming. Leaning forward, she pointed a finger at him.
Oh, and what if that's not what I'm after. What if I'm after something else?" yang leered.
'Alpha.'
"Yes?"
'You disobeyed my previous note.'
"What do you me- oh… I'm sorry, I was busy researching some important topics."
'Next time, please pay a bit more attention then this time, because this is really a situation I'd hoped to avoid entirely.'
"Noted."
Bryce leaned forward, not blushing at the girl's actions. Thanks to two REALLY pushy girls in Jr. High, and being surrounded by immature teenage boys, sometimes himself included, he was WAY beyond used to it.
"Yang, if you don't stop teasin me, I may just 'accidentally' find a certain girl's web history, and 'accidentally' reveal it to the whole school, and explain it all to a young, naive sister said girl may or may not have."
Yang paled, realizing what Bryce was implying. "W-what… how'd you-"
Bryce let out a devilish smile. "I didn't, you just gave me all the proof I need. Now, leave me alone
Yang glared at Bryce, and tried to call his bluff. "You wouldn't dare."
Bryce grinned even more. "Try me, I dare you."
Yang looked lost. She'd never had someone so openly challenge her, let alone brush aside her teasing like it was nothing. She grinned.
"You win for now, Mr. Anderson. But one way or another, I will get you to train me."
"Hmph," Bryce grunted as he pushed Yang out the door, "We'll see about that."
Once Bryce had locked the door he let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the clock. It read eight thirty-five. Classes started at nine o'clock. Bryc stirred the creation energy inside himself, which was a good way to gauge how much he had. He found he was full, which pleased him.
'So, what's our first class?'
"Combat Class, with Ms. Goodwitch. If you follow team RWBY or JNPR, the other group of people we met two days ago, you should find the class."
'Huh, good to know. Now, for a bit of a wardrobe change.'
With a quick thought, Bryce's dirty uniform was replaced with a clean one, with a minor change. Bryce was in his formal combat uniform, which was a full camo jacket, a green undershirt, and camo pants, along with combat boots.
"Much better," Bryce clapped. "Now, I need to get some food and head to class." With that, Bryce headed to the cafeteria, with the assistance of Alpha. As he sat down with his meal, waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs, root beer (don't judge), he saw Ruby waving wildly for his attention. Chuckling at the display, he walked over.
"Sup Ruby."
"Bryce, what'd you do to Yang," Weiss questioned before he could even sit down. Ruby looked slightly miffed she'd been rudely cut off from replying to Bryce.
"What do you mean?" Bryce asked worriedly. This didn't sound good.
"Ever since she went to your to ask you to help her get stronger and wake you up she's been…"
"Despondent?" Blake supplied.
"Off?" Ruby added.
"Downright weird." Weiss finished.
"Okay, I literally kicked her out of my room after I woke up to her being on top of me. That's it." Bryce defended. "I have no idea why she's acting how she is."
"Wait, did she tease you? Like, suggestively?" This question shockingly came from Ruby, which suprised the other three people at the table
"Yes," Bryce answered tentatively.
"Did you react?"
"No, not really. I'm kind of used to at it at this point. If anything, I took a shot back at her."
Ruby stared at Bryce in silence for a moment before saying, "Welp, good luck with that."
"Woah, hold on a minute there, Ruby. What's wrong with Yang?" Weiss wondered aloud, saying what all currently at the table had been thinking.
"Oh. Well, Yang likes to tease people a LOT. So, when she finds someone she can't get to react normally, she makes it her mission to use just about everything at her disposal to get them to fall victim to her teasing."
Everybody, especially Bryce, was horrified at the news. Weiss facepalmed in frustration, not wanting to deal with this situation. Blake sighed and shook her head in disgust, wondering what she was going to do with her partner. Bryce on the other hand… Bryce proceeded to bang his head on the table continuously.
As this was going on, Yang approached the table. While Bryce didn't notice, due to his head still pounding into the table. While Bryce didn't notice, Alpha did, and warned him of the oncoming threat.
'Bryce, yang is approaching the table.'
'Thanks, Alpha. Say 'Mark' if she tries anything funny… I'm just gonna… continue on here…'
'Acknowledged.'
Yang walked right past Bryce, and tried to pinch his side.
'Mark.'
Bryce instinctively slapped behind him, swatting Yang's hand away. She smiled mischievously as she sat down next to Blake.
"Heeelllooo everyone. You guy's almost ready for classes?" Yang said cheerfully. Everyone stared at her blankly
"What?" Yang raised an eyebrow at everyone. "What's up?"
Weiss sighed before saying, "You're going to leave him alone during classes."
Yang looked mildly hurt, and glared at Ruby. "How could you, sis?"
"What? I can't let you abuse him without giving him the heads up," Ruby whined indignantly.
"You're so cruel, Ruby. You've ruined all the fun," Yang pouted, crossing her arms, and glared at the table. Bryce just sighed before looking at Blake and Weiss.
"Are they always like this?"
The two girls looked at each other before shrugging.
"Yeah, pretty much." "Yes."
"Great," Bryce snickered. "They are a lot like my sisters."
"You have sister?" Weiss questioned, shocked.
"Yeah, two of them. Ellie and Aubrey."
"Why didn't you tell us about them earlier?"
"You didn't ask."
Blake smiled and looked at Weiss. "He makes a valid point."
Yang finally stopped pouting after Ruby had talked her out of it. Ruby smiled to the other three at the table, giving them the thumbs up.
"We're good."
"Great, now," Bryce turned to his food. "I have food I want to eat real quick." Everyone began to dig in. After a surprisingly comfortable silence, before Yang broke it.
"So, Bryce, serious question here. Why aren't you named after a color? Or your sisters now that I think about it. I mean after the war it's common to do so, and I assume you guys were affected by that small town or not."
"What does your name even mean?" Blake added. Bryce nodded and double checked with Alpha.
'You think they'll buy the real reason we get our names?'
'Well, as long as you relate the art, symbols, and definitions, you should be good.'
'That's good to hear.'
"I see why you guys are confused by that, but it's pretty simple. You see, we saw art as symbols and meanings. Blue meant courage, red was strength, yellow, ingenuity. We took that to heart and rather than name people after colors, they earn a name that represents them at four years old."
"For instance, my name, in an old language called archaíos, means force, strength, and valor. I earned it after the defeat of a beowulf to save my friend Miles. Aubrey's means Elf ruler, and she earned hers during a Grimm attack at some ruins known as the Elefin castle, where she lead her friends back to safety during a school trip. Finally, Ellie is just short for Elinor, and it means light, bright, or torch. She got her name when she saved some wins from committing suicide, as well as her semblance being a giant release of bright light. She's always friendly and bright in everything she does."
Talking about his sisters hurt. He was reminded of how much he missed them. Tears welled up in his eyes of how much he missed them. The times they'd shared, all the games they'd played together, all of it. The final gut punch was when he remembered Natalie, his parents, and Miles. Tears flowed freely.
"Dust, I miss them," he mumbled, wiping tears from his eyes. All of RWBY looked at him sadly, their hearts aching to see him so broken, so lost, so homesick. He felt a hand on his back and looked up to see Ruby standing besides him.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll make sure you make it back to them." She smiled cheerily, before turning to the others, "Right guys?" Blake, Weiss and Yang all nodded in agreement, smiling as well.
Bryce felt his heart lighten a little. 'Maybe being stuck here won't be so bad.'
"Thanks guys, I needed that."
'Bryce.'
'Yes?'
'It's 8:55.'
'...Frick.'
Bryce looked down at his scroll, as to not look like he didn't just figure out the time from a voice in his head, and jumped up in 'surprise.'
"Oh crap, guys we gotta go NOW. It's 8:55."
RWBY froze for a brief second before Ruby exclaimed, "Oh no, not again!" There then proceeded to be a mad rush for their first class with Ms. Goodwitch.
…
"Today, we'll be running sparring matches among all the students, to test your basic combat skills, and what you all need to improve on overall. Match ups have already been randomly predetermined and I will call upon you one at a time to fight."
"Does anyone have any questions before I continues?" Ms. Goodwitch glared directly at Bryce, who rolled his eyes. He could already tell she didn't like him. Guess she didn't like his attitude with Ozpin earlier. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'Can't win them all.'
'With your personality that happens quite often with serious adults.'
'Oh, Frick you.'
"No? Well then, let us continue on with the class," She looked down at the clipboard before she called the first pair of fighters. It was n one he recognized, which honestly didn't surprise him, so he watched the match absentmindedly, trying to discover the average skill level rather than actually watching the combatants. He was rather disappointed at how low it was.
'Cut them some slack, Bryce. You're fighting in a fully trained army meant to fight other species from around the galaxy. Their combatants are often mindless monsters.'
'Still, a little bit of skill in person on person combat would help.' Alpha agreed on that point. Two more matches past, both with less than exciting results, but Ms. Goodwitch, (if he really didn't want trouble he'd have to start calling her that, even in his head) commented that they were 'good' matches. Probably just trying to inflate their egos to make them work harder.
"Pyrrha Nikos versus Bryce Anderson," A low growl came out at Bryce's name. Okay, this was going a bit far, even for him. He hadn't been that bad had he?
'You don't want an answer to that.'
'You really know how to build a guy's ego up, don't you?'
'Please, I can't break that fortress if i tried. At least your ego isn't compensating for anything.'
'Wow, that was almost a low blow. Still gross though.'
Bryce sighed as he got up and walked down into the arena with his sword, holstered pistol, and his combat uniform. The redheaded girl he had seen in the forest fighting the deathstalker walked down the the stage next to him. She smiled as the hopped down into the arena.
"Pleasure to finally meet you, Bryce. May we have a good fight," Pyrrha said cheerfully, extending her hand. Bryce shook it and nodded.
"Same here, Pyrrha. Good luck."
"If you two are done introducing yourselves, let us continue," Ms. Goodwitch packed suddenly.
"Wait, Ms. Goodwitch," a kid with brown hair in armor, a mace covered in dust sitting next to him called out. Ms. Goodwitch looked at the boy in frustration.
"What, Mister Winchester?"
"Who's the army kid? I mean, I have never seen him before, and I know he wasn't there at initiation, so who is he?"
Ms. Goodwithc growled and told Cardin frustratedly, "It doesn't matter who he is right now. Be quiet and please let the match continue." Cardin wisely shut up. At that, the two combatants drew their weapons, Pyrrha readying her sword and shield, and Bryce drawing Alpha, while leaving the deadly pistol in its holster for now.
'Any info on her?'
'Yes, I've got some tidbits that might help.'
'Well, care to inform me one those 'tidbits?'
'During the fight. Good way to continue to train your defensive instincts. We've been slacking on that during training.'
'Ugh... You are easily the most annoying AI in all existence.'
'The Alpha from RvB, Church, Sigma.'
'I retract my previous sentences.'
"Good luck you guys!" Ruby shouted, not really sure who to cheer for, as she knew and liked both of them. Yang chuckled and started passing money around, obviously setting up a betting ring around the fight. Bryce felt slightly annoyed at this.
"Kick his butt, Pyrrha!" The blond boy who'd been leading the attack on the deathstalker called out from the stands, next to what Bryce could only assume was their teammates. Bryce laughed at the display while Pyrrha snickered and shook her head. Ms. Goodwitch ignored the outbursts, and called for the match to begin. The two fighters looked at each other for a brief moment before the clang of metal on metal rang throughout the arena. The two had their swords crossed against the each other and were pushing for dominance. With a giant surge of power, both pushed, and were pushed back a couple feet, their feet sliding in the dirt. And with that the real battle began.
Pyrrha dashed forward, spinning wildly, but in a controlled manner, jabbing, swingin, stabbing in a quick flurry of strikes. Bryce defended each attack as he listened to Alpha.
'Pyrrha Nikos, winner of multiple different tournaments, and commonly referred to as 'Ms. Invincible.' She wields a shield, as well a sword that can be a javelin or a rifle. She uses both for offense and defense. She's not only good with weapons, but is a skilled hand to hand fighter.'
'Semblance?"
'Unknown. Maybe if you push her enough, I'll be able to catch it, but past that.'
'Got it, make her use it.'
Bryce quickly stopped playing defense, and as he barely countered on of her swings, then kicked her in the gut. She stumbled back and looked up just in time to see a swift strike aimed for her head approaching. Barely reacting in time, she blocked Alpha with her own sword. Then Bryce's onslaught began. Pyrrha barely kept up, Bryce's skill, speed, and strength trumping her own. Her defense was falling apart and both of them knew it. Finally, Bryce's sword slipped past her shield, stabbing towards her shoulder, only for it to barely miss as it was pushed to the side by an invisible source.
'Alpha, did you catch that.?'
'I saw it. Push a bit more, I'll have an answer as soon as I can.'
Bryce dodged a jab from Pyrrha's javelin, and knocked her shield aside. He swung again as he saw an opening, only for it to be moved just enough for it to miss yet again, allowing Pyrrha to take a shot at Bryce. This cycle continued for another minute, before Alpha cried out.
'Bryce, I've got it.'
'Great, because this was getting really annoying. What's she got?'
'Polarity. Simply put, she's manipulating the metal to move it where she wants it to by replicating the abilities of a magnet on any object she bushes her semblance into.'
'Oh, so it's magnetic, basically.' Bryce smirked.
'Exactly.'
Bryce flicked a switch on Alpha. 'Suddenly, I don't regret that trip we took to Asteroid 49.'
Pyrrha was struggling. She hadn't expected this guy to be so good. She'd obviously known he was strong, flipping a deathstalker over your shoulder was no easy task, but this was different. He wasn't perfect, he'd left himself open a select few time during his attacks, but his speed, strength, and overall reaction time stopped any attack before they could make any real contact. Even then, Pyrrha had the nagging feeling he was holding back. The only reason she hadn't lost was due to the fact he was using a metal sword. Never had she felt so blessed the have her semblance.
Pyrrha watched Bryce's movement carefully, trying to predict his next attack. It wasn't impossible to do, it was just difficult to react to them in time. And they said speed and strength was always outdone by skill.
Pyrrha watched as Bryce stared at her intensity, slowly walking around her. Then to her surprise, he stopped. And smiled, eerily. It certainly scared Pyrrha a bit, as the smile was beyond unnerving. Then, she saw Bryce dash forward, at an insane speed, a slip his sword in a large swing past her defense. She immediately activated her semblance to try and pull it back just enough to miss her. Only for the blade, to slice across her stomach taking off a chunk of her aura.
'What?' She wondered, shocked the blade had made contact. She dived back as the blade made a returning sweep towards her. She tried experimentally to pull the sword out of his had, only for nothing, not so much as a flinch, to occur.
"Confused?" Bryce's sudden words surprised Pyrrha.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Oh, don't play clueless. The look doesn't suit an accomplished warrior such as yourself." Bryce shook his head, then dashed forward, swinging his sword down at Pyrrha's head. She blocked it with her shield, and swung at him with Milos, her sword, only to see it be blocked by an oversized pistol with a faint glow.
"Your semblance isn't working. You're confused as to why, and don't act like you're not. We both know you could pull my sword around with your polarity, but now, all of the sudden, you can't." Pyrrha's eyes widened in horror as she realized he'd figured out her semblance.
"How?" She gasped. She was so lost on how he'd figured it out, and how he'd counteracted its effects.
"Simple. I had an incident with magnetic rocks, and it was kind of a problem. So, to avoid further issues, I created a safety system in my sword that constantly changes the polarity of my sword, allowing it to avoid the effects of magnets for the most part. And because of that experience, I'm able to recognize a magnetic pull when I feel one." he smirked. He had her all figured out, it seemed, which scared her a lot. She didn't know where he came from, but it seemed his upbringing would be her downfall.
"Now, I think it's time i finish this," Bryce kicked out, but hit nothing but air. Her resolve hardened more so than it ever had. She HAD to beat him.
"I will not lose, not today at least," she growled, switching Milo to a javelin.
"We'll see about that," Bryce snorted, before Pyrrha rushed him.
Bryce had to admit, Pyrrha had finally closed the gap between them. She was fighting with her all, and it showed. She increased her speed and strength, while still keeping an amazing amount of skill within her moves. Granted, he wasn't fighting at full capacity, but still, giver her some creation and destruction energy, and she'd be able to go up against any seasoned vet back home at the academy.
Pyrrha landed multiple hits on Bryce, before finally locking his sword in her shield. Bryce flicked a switch on his Desert Eagle, and a blade popped out the bottom of the barrel. He'd need any sort of extra defense now that she was giving it her absolute all.
Pyrrha pivoted her foot to swing her body in an attempt to throw Bryce trapped sword out of his hand as well give her an opening to hit him. He didn't release the sword, and she got an easy opening to kick him in the chest as he stumbled slightly to the side. Backing up slightly, Bryce lept over Pyrrha as she charged him again. Turning, readying for his landing, Pyrrha was shocked to see Alpha implanted in the ground next to her. Clicking a button, the sword reeled in almost instantly, allowing Bryce to flying kick Pyrrha across the arena.
As she stood up, she barely looked up in time to see Bryce charging her. The fight began renewed, the sound of metal of clashing against metal ringing proudly. They traded blow for blow, dodging, ducking, weaving, striking, swingin, blocking in an elegant dance of death, neither having the upper hand. Finally, the two jumped away from each other after a particularly harsh clash.
"Well *huff* *huff* that certainly was *huff* entertaining," Bryce smiled as he gripped his sword tighter, and adjusted his hold on his Desert Eagle.
"I *huff* must agree," Pyrrha nodded, "this *huff* is *huff* quite enjoyable."
"I think it's time I even the field," Bryce sighed, as he stood up straight. Pyrrha took a defensive stance. She didn't like where this was headed. "Since I know your semblance, I figure it's only fair you know mine."
Bryce smirked as he touched the small bits of creation and destruction energy left within his soul, and exerted it as an outward force. The ground around him cracked and white mist with black around the edges began to emanate from him. Bryce pulled his arm back and in swung his sword in an underhanded swing towards Pyrrha. An arc of pure white energy lashed out and flew towards Pyrrha, who barely shook of her shock in time to dodge the projectile.
"What the-" Pyrrha started, only to be interrupted once again by a large white sword with black mist coming off it stab at her. It slammed into her chest, sending her skidding backwards. Bryce rested Alpha on his shoulder, and snickered.
"Crazy semblance, huh?" Bryce laughed as the crowd stared at him in awe, while Ms. Goodwitch glowered at him. Ruby looked like she was going to faint from the pure awesomeness playing out in front of her, at least, in her mind.
"What on Remnant? How?" Pyrrha gasped as she recovered, and stood at the ready, glaring daggers at Bryce. She shook slightly, the impact still affecting her.
"I can use my Aura to create physical manifestations of my attacks or gear. From projectiles, to armor, to swords, to afterimages, as long as I have aura, I can do it. Granted, it takes a lot of aura to do so, but I've got plenty to spare."
Pyrrha groaned in frustration. 'This couldn't be a simple fight, could it,' She thought to herself. Bryce was making her nervous. He'd been unwittingly prepared for her semblance, was barely stronger, faster, more skilled, and especially more experienced as far as she could tell, and his semblance was one of the most volatile and versatile she'd ever seen. But she couldn't deny the overwhelming excitement that had laced her entire being throughout the battle. This fight was exhilarating, and she loved it. It'd been so long since someone could challenge her on such a level.
"Well, I fear I've run my course, and I've got to end things here. It was a good fight while it lasted." Bryce said as he raised his pistol towards Pyrrha. In the stands, everyone could mildly hear Ruby squeal in excitement. She'd been waiting so long to see what that gun could do.
"It's not over yet, and I won't let it end that easily," Pyrrha smiled, preparing to dodge the shot.
"Huh, I'm glad to hear that," Bryce laughed, and looked right at Pyrrha. "Alright, in the words of a very wise, old witch, Dodge This." Pyrrha barely had time to dive to the side as three runes appeared in front of the gun. There as a large BOOM, and everything shook slightly. Looking back to where she'd been standing previously, only to see a huge hole in the wall, with small fires leading up to the hole. Bryce smiled as he aimed at Pyrrha again.
"We both know you won't be able to dodge all of these, so we can either continue and you can take a hit from this thing, or you can give up now."
Pyrrha squinted at Bryce and gripped Akouo and Milo tighter and growled back, "I think I'll take option three." Bryce grinned and the runes appeared in front of his gun again.
"Sorry, but that's not an option today." With that, four shots rang out. Pyrrha only dodge three. The fourth caught her in the chest. The resulting explosion sent her into the wall, and she felt her aura shatter as she hit the wall with a loud THUD. When the smoke from the blasts cleared, Bryce was seen to be standing perfectly still, holding his gun in the exact same position as earlier. Everyone sat in shocked silence, as Pyrrha lay on the ground, gasping lightly for air, as the wind had been knocked out of her.
Ms. Goodwitch looked wide eyed at the scene before her, and couldn't muster words for a second, before she remembered she was the ref of this match.
"A-and that's the match. The winner is Mr. Anderson."
Pyrrha looked up to see Bryce standing above her grinning widely, holding a hand out for her.
"Good fight Pyrrha. That was a fun match." Bryce commented as he helped Pyrrha to her feet. Pyrrha smiled and nodded.
"I couldn't agree more. I haven't had that much fun in a match for a while." Bryce laughed. While they walked back to the stands, Ms. Goodwitch commented on their fight.
"Ms. Nikos, It would be wise to note that in the future it would've been wise to use more ranged attacks if you find your opponent outclasses you at melee range. Mr. Anderson…"
"Yes?"
"Be careful what you do. While you did defeat your opponent, you also caused massive damage to the surrounding area, as well as endangered innocents." Bryce felt a nervous sweat drop from his forehead. He could feel the threatening aura that was flowing off Ms. Goodwitch, that seemed to be saying 'DON'T YOU EVER ENDANGER MY STUDENTS EVER AGAIN OR I WILL END YOU.' A very clear message.
"Got it, Ms. Goodwitch."
"Good," Ms. Goodwitch coughed, and the murderous feeling dissipated. Bryce began to walk up the stands, only for Pyrrha to stop him.
"Thank you again for that match. I'm glad we got the chance to fight," Pyrrha smiled, holding out her left hand to shake. Bryce smiled, but nervously held out his right hand.
"I do agree, the match was amazing, but, uh, could you shake this hand please?"
Pyrrha looked questioningly at Bryce, before she noticed his tense, shaking left hand. It was red, and had a bit of blood coming down.
"Oh my, are you okay?" Pyrrha gasped as she grabbed his left hand and looked at it. Bryce waved it off, and withdrew his hand from her grasp.
"I'll be fine, although I thank you for the concern. My aura's big enough I'll recover fairly quickly. I should be a-ok in a couple minutes."
Pyrrha still looked unsure, but replied, "Alright… if you say so." She was silent for a moment before she asked, "Did I cause that?"
Bryce looked surprised but shook his head. "No, you didn't. It was the gun." Bryce looked at his Desert Eagle in his holster. "While this gun is powerful and a great asset, I can only fire it so much before it starts to affect my muscles. When I use those amplifying runes, they maximize the damage I take, but also greatly increase the damage it does. Usually I only fire off a rune shot once or twice. Today, I made the mistake of firing it off five times. This is the sad, yet expected consequence."
Pyrrha was silent at that. "Wow… that's crazy. Do you really need that, if it does so much damage to yourself? Is it that strong?"
Bryce immediately thought of the Nekróspsychí, and shivered.
"I can say with full surety that it is that strong and that it's definitely necessary. It's kind of my trump card in a fight, and it's gotten me through a lot of tough fights that I didn't think I was going to win."
"Then why'd you use it against me? You could've won the match without it." Pyrrha asked curiously.
"Look at Ruby." Bryce pointed to the excited leader of team RWBY, who was drooling, looking at the pistol at his side. Pyrrha laughed at the sight, as Yang giggled at her sister, Blake was trying to hide her smile, and Weiss was visibly irked at how Ruby was acting. "She asked to see it in action. I promised to do so. I figured a safe environment would be a better time to see it than on the battlefield, so that's why I used it." Bryce gripped his shoulder as his arm spasmed. "Though, I'm starting to regret that decision."
"Well, I hope to duel you again." Pyrrha smiled as she said her next line. "Preferably without the gun."
Bryce grinned. "We'll see about that when we get around to another fight."
"Till then."
Both fighters went back to their teams. Bryce saw Yang holding a large stack of cash, smiling like a crazed cheshire cat. Ruby still had stars in her eyes, staring at his Desert Eagle. Weiss looked miffed, but more at Ruby than himself. Blake stared quietly at his injured arm. As he sat down next to her, he waved it off and motioned for her to be quiet. Then, Ruby finally burst.
"Bryce! YOUR GUN IS AWESOME! You have to let me try it sometime. I mean, youwerejustlike "Dodge This," thenblewaholeinthewallandslammed PyrrhaNikos intoawallwithabullet, it was so COOL!"
Bryce only understood only half of what the girl said, but told her he wouldn't be letting her try his gun anytime soon. She pouted at this and seemed to be trying to create a plan on how to get the chance to look at her gun. Bryce made a mental note to keep his gun on lockdown for the next little while.
"I have to say, Bryce, you impressed me. Beating the Invincible Girl is no easy feat. Though," Yang playfully tossed the money in the air, "I bet you were going to win from the beginning."
"Betting on a school endorsed match is a horrible thing to do, and you should be ashamed of yourself," Weiss huffed, as she glared down at the arena waiting for the next match to start.
"You're just saying that because you lost money," Yang teased.
"Shut up."
Bryce laughed and turned his attention to the small crew of people working on fixing the arena up before the last match. While his friends all watched, Bryce retreated into his thoughts.
'I know my gun was strong, but I don't ever remember it being that painful to fire. Geez, that hurt a LOT. Even with the limiters I created it dealt a crapton of damage.'
'Well sir, that' probably because it's still imbued with destruction energy, and lots of it. Had you switched it to an aura based energy, it wouldn't have hurt as much, yet stil being useful. Maybe not as deadly or destructive, but still effective.'
Alpha's explanation made sense. Destruction energy severally outclassed Aura, so while he had lots of aura and a small dose of creation energy enhancements, it wasn't enough to truly compare to the Desert Eagle's massive amount of destruction energy. For a weapon anyways.
'Well, it seems I'll have to rectify that later. I don't want my hand to be in sever pain every time I have to use this while I'm here. At least, as long as I keep up the facade of being from Remnant.'
"Alright, our next fight will be Jaune Arc versus Cardin Winchester."
Bryce sat back in silence to watch the blond leader of Pyrrha's team walk down with a sword and shield in hand. Ruby called out to the blond. "Go Jaune!"
"So that's his name," Bryce whispered. Yang looked at him, with a raised eyebrow before realizing what he meant.
"Oh yeah, you haven't really met all of team JNPR yet besides Pyrrha. We'll have to do that after class."
"Sure. But for now, let's see how this goes."
With that, the two of them turned to the match in front of them. Bryce wondered who was going to win.
…
"You sure you're okay, dude?" Bryce asked Jaune for the third time after the match. Jaune had really taken some big hits during the fight, and it was obvious to Bryce he was being bullied by the brown-haired, mace-wielding brawler.
"I'm fine, really, just a bit sore," Jaune smiled softly. Bryce could easily tell it was faked. Jaune was definitely NOT fine. All of team RWBY and the rest of JNPR, which had all introduced themselves more formally to Bryce after class, could tell he wasn't.
As the group sat down in the cafeteria to eat some food, Bryce stared at Jaune.
"Dude, I'll be honest here, you don't seem 'fine.' especially with from what I've heard is Cardin bullying you."
"Psh, what? Cardin? No, he's just teasing me."
Every eyebrow at the table was quickly raised in a questioning glare.
"He is constantly hitting you," Ruby started.
"He's always insulting you any chance he gets," Nora, the hammer wielding, orange-haired added.
"And then there's the locker incident," Pyrrha pointed out.
"I didn't land to far away from the school." Jaune grumbled.
"Jaune, you know if you really need help, you can just ask," Pyrrha said, putting a hand on her leader's shoulder. Nora suddenly jumped up in excitement, sending Rens food to the floor.
"Oooh, I know. Let's break his legs." After everyone dismissed the idea, Jaune stood up to leave.
"Guys, really it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me." That was when everyone at the table heard a gasp of pain, followed by some laughs and a girl saying, "Ow, that hurts." Everyone turned to see Cardin pulling on a bunny faunus' ears cruelly.
Team CRDL just laughed more as Cardin chuckled, "See, I told you they were real." At this point, Bryce had seen enough. He was done standing by, and there was no way in kólasi he was going to let this continue. It went against everything he'd done in the past. Standing up and marching over to team CRDL. Cardin reached up to tug the poor girl's ears once more, one for his hand to stop mid reach. He turned to see Bryce holding his arm.
"What? Hey, let go," Cardin said, trying to rip his hand out of Bryce's grip. Bryce glared at the brown haired bully, and shook his head.
"No, I don't think I'll be doing that."
"Hrmph," Cardin finally slipped his hand out, and went to grab the girl again, only for Bryce to grab his hand again.
"Stop it. Now. Leave the girl alone," Bryce snarled. Cardin only smirked.
"Girl? What girl? I only see a filthy vermin. What, she your pet?" Cardin snickered, as his team 'oooooohhhhh ed as if that were a burn. For Bryce, that was the final straw. Anger coursed through his veins. Letting go of his hand, Bryce grabbed Cardin's shirt with one hand, and threw him out one of the Cafeteria's windows. The resounding crash of shattering glass caused silence to overtake the lunchroom. Bryce lept out the window after the bully, and many students clambered to the windows to see what was going on. Team RWBY, JNPR, and the rabbit faunus walked outside to see Bryce pound a fist into Cardin's gut. The bully grunted in pain as he flew into a wall opposite the grassy clearing they were in. Cardin stood up and growled.
"How dare you! Why would you hit me?"
"Do you really not get why yet, or are you just playing stupid, hoping it buys you some time?"
"Hey, all I did was call scum what it was," Cardin yelled back, as he ran at Bryce, and tried to punch him. Bryce twisted past Cardin's attack, Grabbing his arm in the process, and put him in a backwards armbar, his foot pressing him into the ground while he pulled hard on his arm.
"You wanted to know who I was earlier, right." Cardin nodded, and gasped in pain as the heel of Bryce's foot dug into the small of his back. "Well, I'm just a kid from the badlands, kicked out of his own village, who ended up here."
"I bet it was because your worthless trash," Cardin joked, only to grunt as Bryce put more pressure on Cardin.
"You'd be wrong. It was for paralyzing a bully like you for teasing a faunus. Permanently, I might add. Can't bully faunus when you're stuck in a wheelchair and can barely move your arms, can you? So unless you want to end up like HIM, I suggest you STOP. IT. NOW." Bryce pulled on Cardin's arm with every word. Cardin felt like his arm was going to snap, even with his aura. "Do I make myself clear?"
Cardin howled in pain. "Frick you, dirt bag!"
Bryce glared at Cardin, then let him go. Cardin recovered quickly, turning around and sitting up, intending to get back at the new arrival, only to freeze when he saw the deadly pistol Bryce had used earlier in class aimed directly at his face.
"Do. I. Make. My. Self. Clear?"
Cardin nodded dumbly. He had a feeling if he took a hit from that gun point blank, he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Once Bryce saw Cardin's affirmative response, he pulled the pistol away and holstered it.
"Good. Now," Bryce walked over to the rabbit faunus, who flinched under his gaze. She was nervous as his hand reached out to her, looking away out of anxiety. Only to be mildly surprised as the hand rested on her shoulder.
"Hey," Bryce gave the girl a comforting smile, "you okay?"
The girl visibly brightened and nodded. Bryce let out a sigh of relief. "Glad to hear that. What's your name?"
"V-velvet," she responded timidly, as if saying something would bring his wrath or any of the other upon her.
"Where's your team?" Bryce was worried Velvet's team was also racist, as she sure hadn't had any help back there, and he didn't want to leave her out to dry. He couldn't be there every time she was bullied, but he didn't want to let her be bullied if he could help it.
"Detention." This response surprised Bryce, and he had an inkling of a feeling he knew why they were there.
"Why?"
"They beat up another guy that said a racist comment to me."
"What's your team's name?"
"Team CVFE (Coffee)."
"Well, if they're ever gone, find me. I'll make sure you don't have problems again."
Velvet looked up at Bryce, sincerely shocked. She was so used to racist comments and threats, she'd only heard such kind and comforting words from her family and her own team. She hugged Bryce as tears fell slowly down her cheeks.
"Thank you," she whispered. Bryce chuckled softly before patting her on the back.
"Well, I wasn't gonna sit by and let it happen. I'm not that kind of person."
"Still," Velvet sniffled, as she slowly detached herself from him. She still looked worried. Bryce reached up and ruffle her hair and ears.
"Hey, be proud of your heritage. They make you look adorable."
Velvet blushed. "T-thank you."
Bryce nodded and turned to leave, only to see the crowd of students who were silent and in awe, as well as a shocked team JNPR standing next to an amazed team RWBY, with a proud looking Blake in the back. Before Bryce could properly say anything, a voice rang out from the broken window.
"Mr. Anderson!" Bryce flinched as the voice of Glynda Goodwitch cut through the air. He turned to see a very angry and displeased Ms. Goodwitch standing at the front of the window. "Ozpin's office. Now." The finality of her words made Bryce nervous for a brief second, before looking at Ruby.
"I think I'm in trouble."
Ruby giggled, while Weiss rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Oh, you think?"
Ignoring Weiss, bryce jumped up to the window seal and followed Ms. Goodwitch. He smirked inwardly at the shocked faces of students as he passed by. Bryce wasn't a prideful guy, but he took silent gratification from the situation.
Ms. Goodwitch led him through the winding hallways of Beacon Academy. They finally entered an elevator that took them to what Bryce assumed was the top floor of the building. When the doors opened up, Bryce saw an office that looked like it was part of the school's clock tower. Bryce looked at Ozpin, who sat behind a black desk. He was reading a document while sipping from his precious coffee mug. As Glynda's heels clicked on the floor, Ozpin looked up and smiled.
"Ah, Bryce, good to see you." Ozpin said. Bryce nodded, while Ms. Goodwitch huffed.
"Ozpin, can we please focus on the task at hand, rather than pleasantries."
"Fine, I'll cut my talk. You do realize the best idea with these discussions is to create calm conversation and ease into the subject. It keeps people from being overly nervous about a problem."
"Your 'conversations' are mere drabble, taking away from the real point of the student's presence." Ms. Goodwitch seemed MAD. Bryce didn't know why, nor did he rightly care.
"Huh, alright. So, I think the subject of this talk is fairly obvious."
"Either the match with Pyrrha Nikos, or beating down Cardin Winchester. Although, I'm going to assume both."
"You'd be correct on the latter. I wanted to figure your general skill level, and talk about your reaction to Cardin's bullying." Ozpin chuckled. "Though, I can say I'm partly pleased by your actions to Winchester."
Bryce raised an eyebrow, while Ms. Goodwitch scoffed.
"How so?"
"I'd been worried about what your thoughts on faunus would be. It seems my worries were misplaced."
Bryce snorted. "I live in a world where we interact with alien species, all the time, on a regular basis. People with animal features is at the bottom of weird, intelligent species I've seen. If I think of those as people, I wouldn't be hard pressed to think of faunus as people as well."
"I'm glad to hear that. The main issue I have with this fight with Cardin will be a reoccurring issue. He's not the best person right now, but I believe he could be a great Hunter in the war against the grimm. So I don't want you beating him 24/7. Also, I'd appreciate it if you refrain from doing the same to other students. If violence does occur, don't injure them too much."
"I make no promises," Bryce sighed, the snorted. "But I'll try my best."
"That's all I'm asking for. Now, onto the main subject of today." Ozpin looked to Ms. Goodwitch, who nodded and lifted her tablet to Bryce. He watched as he and Pyrrha duked it out. Finally, he used his semblance and fired off his pistol. The blasts from the gun shook the camera off center and ruined the audio.
"You showed a great deal of power here."
"True, but it's not the best I can do. So what's the issue?" Bryce was confused as to why they were so worried about this. He hadn't announced what he was, so he didn't rightly see an issue.
"The problem is what you'll attract. Whether or not your true background is revealed, if you so offhandedly wield such power that easily outclasses everyone your age, you'll draw the attention of bad people who want to use you. That will only cause more problems than we might be able to deal with."
Ms. Goodwitch glared at Bryce. "Quite so. Your little 'display' has already been posted to the Remnet and gone viral. We already have HUNDREDS of people calling from all sorts of schools to come to the Vytal festival earlier JUST to see and/or fight you. And we don't know how many of them are good or bad."
'It seems we forgot to factor in our strength compared to this world in terms of eye-catching." Alpha said. "That is an oversight on my part, and I do apologize for that."
'It's cool Alpha. We should've both thought of the repercussions of looking powerful in front of so many people. Plus, we forgot cell phones, which is easily the biggest oversight in a modern era EVER.'
'Very true. Though, I do wonder what this Vytal festival is.'
'We can look it up later.'
"I'm sorry for the problems I've caused, and I'll try to tone it down unless it's deemed absolutely necessary." Bryce told the two professors. They both nodded, albeit Ms. Goodwitch a bit reluctantly.
"That seems fair," Ozpin agreed, "Now, as a last note of business, I would appreciate it if the two teams you monitor are team RWBY and JNPR. call it a hunch, but I have a feeling they'll be both causing and getting involved in trouble during their stay at Beacon. It would greatly ease my mind if I knew a capable person such as yourself is watching over them. As it would obviously incite problems and curiosity if they were followed by a professor, I think the safer, and better option is to have you stick with them and be apart of any big things they get into.
"I'll do that."
"Good. I think our discussion is done for the current moment," Ozpin gestured to the door, "You're free to return to your classes."
Bryce thanked both of them as he stood from the chair he'd taken residence in. As he walked to the elevator doors, ozpin called out, "Oh, and Bryce."
"Bryce turned to look at ozpin, who had an amused grin on his face. "Please, next time you decide to intimidate a student, use the gun first. I think it'll solve the problem much faster."
Bryce smirked. "Alright, I think I can do that. Sounds like fun." And with that, he headed into the elevator and descended down to the main floor.
…
"Cinder!" An orange haired man, dressed in a pristine white and red suit called out from a nearby computer in the warehouse containing all the dust any army could ever desire. The woman in question was talking to her subordinates, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury black. The woman turned and looked at the man with a weird sort of amusement in her amber eyes. She had black hair, and wore a form fitting red dress, lined with dust. Her arms were covered by similarly decorated red sleeves. Her dark glass heels clicked on the floor.
"Oh, Roman Torchwick," Cinder Fall smiled to the Master Thief, "What a lovely surprise. Have you finished gathering the dust I require?"
"Oh, I'm getting there. But I think you'll want to see a new variable that just appeared."
Cinder raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Oh, do tell. What have you found.
Roman lifted a scroll up and tapped the play button. A video of Bryce's fight against Pyrrha played on screen. Emerald and Mercury stared, shocked as Bryce displayed his power. Cinder's smile only grew more amused. When Bryce fired of his pistol, even cinder looked shocked as they watched the arena get torn to pieces, and the damage it do Pyrrha, how it'd punched right through her aura, when she had almost two-thirds of it left. They were especially surprised when the shockwaves from the four simultaneous blasts shook whoever's scroll it was out of their hands. The video ended in static.
"Oh my Oum," Emerald muttered. Mercury looked at Roman in astonishment.
"Is this real?" Mercury's question got a mere nod and smile from Roman. "This is… crazy." Mercury began to grin. "It's exciting."
"Oh, and that's not even the half of it," Roman chuckled, "It seems our new friend just showed up randomly and was inserted into Beacon by dear old Ozpin. Ozpin only does that for people who he's interested in or he thinks can help him in the future, and we all know what that means."
"He's different. And it has to be big." Cinder finished. She smiled mischievously at Roman. "Thank you Roman, this will be very useful information. See what more you can dig up about our new friend."
"Hey, I may be many things, but useless? Never gonna happen, my dear."
"Watch how you address her, Torchwick," Emerald growled, raising an accusatory finger to the criminal. Roman only snickered.
"Or what, doll? You're gonna swing at me with your imaginary weapons?" Roman proceeded to lift up Emerald's dual wielding pistols up, in their sickle form. Emerald looked flustered as she looked to her sides, while Roman and Mercury laughed. She stomped up to the well dressed man and swiped her weapons from him before returning to Cinder's side.
"Now, now. There's no time for such play. We need to further our plans. Especially," Cinder pointed to Bryce's frozen image on the scroll, pistol raised, sword in his right hand, the look on his face showing he was enjoying himself. "That there is a new piece in play." Cinder gestured to the three of them. "Go, you all know your roles. Do what needs to be done."
The three pawns left, leaving Cinder to look at the scroll one more time. "The only question is, what kind of piece are you?"
So, yeah, please review, like and follow if you want more. If you have suggestions or problems with the story, leave it in a review or PM me. Anyway, till next time, and as always, Stay Cool.