J. Chadwick
4) RWBY: Remnant
Day One
Ruby stands in the morning fog. The sun illuminates the staging area, and Ruby looks around. 120 other students wait for the instructor to arrive. The morning assembly to start the first day. Ruby waits and listens to the water fall far in the canyon below.
The instructor stands in front of the formation, and Ruby focuses.
"From here on out, you will always be in the way of danger... You must learn to guard your physical self, with out tormenting your mind. Today will be your first test.
The stress will be real, the fear will be real, and that danger will be real. This will test your fighting spirit. We are not looking to teach how to fight, but to kindle the flames of those that already burn. We expect many to back out after today.
You will gather into transports and be dropped into the Emerald Forest. You will all carry out a recon mission. Somewhere in the forest is a beacon, retrieve it and the first team to do so will be rewarded. For the rest of you...Survive."
The formation breaks and people start loading onto the giant elevators that sink into the hanger below. Yang grabs Ruby's hand and pulls her onto the gray plate just to their left.
"Come on Blake let's be the first ones," says Yang.
Blake crosses her arms and walks over to the plate with Yang. Weiss follows Blake and the four stand on the gray plate. After a few seconds, the plate starts to move. Ruby's stomach lurches as the plates move down into the concrete slab beneath her. After a few moments the walls of the hole give way to the ceiling of a large open space. The team stands on an elevator as it lowers into a large hanger. Four shuttles the size of buses prep for lunch as the team lowers to the flight floor.
"Woah we were standing on this the whole time?" asks Ruby.
"Yep, not many people know this, but the school used to be an old military outpost back in the day. They even say it survived an attack from the Grimm," says Yang.
"It repelled an attack," says Weiss, "the main force of the attack was on the town at the foot of the mountain. The school merely helped."
"Where did you get your PHD in history?" asks Blake.
"The most expensive university in my hometown. Where did you get yours?" Retorts Weiss.
Blake goes quiet and looks away.
The elevator reaches the flight floor and the team walks onto the shiny tile. A flight crewman walks up to them.
"Report to the armory then load onto a shuttle." He points to a door to their right. Above large block letters form the word, "Armory".
"Lets go guys," Yang almost squeals. The team follows behind her. As they push through the door, it suddenly dawns on Ruby.
"Um, I don't have a weapon."
The team walks down a hallway.
"Don't worry, they have an assortment of weapons to fit any fighting style," says Yang.
"Really? Do they have guns?" asks Ruby.
"They probably do."
"If you are just going to use a gun, then you might as well have joined the army," says Weiss.
"What do you use?" Ruby asks.
"I have a custom made rapier that I trained on extensively before the age of ten. I spent the last year learning how to perform surgery with it," says Weiss.
"Surgery with a sword?" asks Ruby.
"Well the surgery isn't on people you see."
Yang laughs and opens the door to the armory.
Ruby's jaw drops.
The room is wall to wall safes full of weapons of every kind. Swords, spears, bows, rifles, pistols, curved blades, knifes, and some that Ruby couldn't even describe.
"If you brought your own weapon then is it probably back in acquisitions, follow me," says Yang.
Yang and Weiss walks towards the back of the room. Blake walks towards the more exotic weapons.
"Wait," Ruby calls out.
Blake stops and turns around.
"Yes?"
"How will I know what weapon I should use?"
Blake looks at all the weapons and seems to be lost.
"Whatever calls to you I guess."
Blake turns and examins the wall of curved blades.
Ruby starts with the row of guns. She looks at hand guns and picks up a small pistol.
"This seems pretty small to take out Grimm," she thinks to herself. She looks at the rifles one row over, and sees something that looks like the turret from a tank. "That would probably kill me just firing it." She walks further down the row and spots a tarnished hand cannon. The metal is etched with patterns and leaves, the handle is wood, and the barrel is almost as thick as her thumb. Ruby opens the chamber where the shells go and notices the size of the round. .50 AE. Ruby was about to put it back, but something about the gun called to her. She decides to hang on to it, and a box of ammo too. "I will probably need something else to, since this will break my hand with a single shot," she thinks to herself.
Ruby walks along the rows of weapons and finds herself amongst the pole arms. A staff looked very pretty, but she reminded herself she needed a weapon not a walking stick. The next thing was a spear with a blade that seemed to be made from the bones of a grim. Her heart skips a beat, and she picks up the weapon. Despite being made of bone, the blade had a weight that soothed Ruby. The shaft seemed worn, like it had been used for ages. Then it dawned on Ruby that the shaft was metal. It was very light and strong. Ruby takes the spear and gun to the quartermaster then follows her team.
The team loads onto the shuttle.
The hunters get situated on the shuttle and the doors close. The platform under the shuttle tips towards the cliff. As the angle gets greater, the shuttle slides off the platform and starts to fall through the air. The engine's speed up and the sudden burst of inertia presses Ruby against her seat. The graceful dive turns into a glide and they glide across the valley floor, then climb to the clouds above the mountains. Ruby looks out the window and at the scene below. The school next to the mountain looks like a toy from that altitude.
They fly for about an hour, and only a few words are exchanged from those on the transports. Most are not sure what to expect. The shuttles begin their decent and slowly fall towards a forest floor. They slow and hover over a forest clearing, and descend into the wild grass below. The ramp in the back opens and the hunters run out into the clearing. The shuttles don't stay and leave immediately. The sound of the engines slowly die into the distance and the hunters are left alone.