Woo, ' party popper sounds'. I didn't take three months to update this time Yeaa. Enjoy fellow humans!
Initiation couldn't come fast enough
Helios hated this, and he could take a lot of crap. Weiss, after his vanishing act yesterday, had demanded that he not leave her side. Something, Helios had no problem with. It's just the fact that Weiss left for the bathrooms, and Helios is pretty sure the the closest bathroom is not twenty minutes away
' So why in the name of whatever gods this place follows, is she taking so long?'
It took most of Helios' will power to just sit still and not do something stupid that would cause a scene, it's not his fault that the one applicant four tables down and one to the left had painted her shield to look just like a target and Weiss had grabbed some orange fruit that was so perfectly round that it would soar in a near perfect arc for part of her meal, Helios did his best to resist the temptation
' Why would someone paint a shield like that? In this line of work, where you could be overrun by literal hordes of nightmarish creatures that only desire the flesh of humans and faunus, you probably wouldn't want something as noticeable as a freaking target on your back…'
Helios now sat here trying to see the potential benefits of having your shield painted like a target when fighting near mindless monsters, totally unconcerned with the rest of the people in the cafeteria
Until one of them poked the side of his head and he nearly removed their finger with an data-knife
Beacon: Cafeteria
Ruby Rose
Ruby was annoyed, Yang had wanted her to apologise to the crabby girl and try to make friends despite yesterday's… events. But by the time they had reached her table she was gone and there was some fancy Atlasian-Knight sitting there staring into empty space, and Yang still wouldn't let her leave
" Yang! Let's just leave! She isn't here!"
" Nope, she'll come back for this thing" Yang reasoned while inspecting the Knight, she lifted her right index finger and made to poke the thing on the side of the head
" Yang No! Don't touch it! What if it attacks you or something!"
Yang looked back towards Ruby, finger still poised to poke the head of the Knight, before saying 'Boop' and poking the thing anyway… and chaos ensued
The Knight in a blur of movement that only Ruby was able to follow had stood up and planted it's left foot into Yang's stomach pushing her to the floor while at the same time grabbing the wrist of the offending hand with one hand and unsheathing a knife with the other with rather murderous intent
Ruby seeing what was about to happen did the only thing she could, she quickly grabbed the hand with the knife before it could go any further, if any would ask Ruby about this later she would say that the machine had strength comparable to Yang
The Knight, seeing that it's hand was no longer moving took a moment to process, before realizing what it was doing, releasing Yang and and letting out a string of words extremely quickly and bolting away while ripping itself out of Ruby's grasp
" … what 'cough' was that?" Yang said while standing back up
" … I think it said… sorry?"
Beacon: Halls
Helios R Briggs
He needed to get away, he needed to just start initiation and get it over with. Helios disliked many things, one of the things he hated the most had to be the itch
Helios barreled through the halls at full speed, he knew that he had to go to the weapon lockers next, but he needed Weiss because she was the only one out of the two who still needed to collect their equipment. Helios still having not taken his off since yesterday
While he ran through the halls at high speed, he saw exactly what he was looking for. Short, Female, Long white hair, Too much blue and white in his opinion, yep, it's that small human he had to protect. With no further shenanigans, Helios grabbed Weiss by collar of her jacket and pulled her along with himself towards the weapon lockers without slowing at all, the sudden and jarring increase in speed causing Weiss to let out a small yelp
Only a short while later and both of them were in the locker room. And Helios turned around to see an very agitated Weiss
'one explanation later'
" So you brought me to the locker room twenty minutes early because you got startled?!"
"... Yes?"
" I Still Haven't Eaten Breakfast, You Boob!"
Beacon: Locker room
Time, 8:45 AM
Helios R Briggs
Helios looked around nervously, trying to avoid another encounter with the two girls from earlier while Weiss talked with some girl with red hair
" Helios" Weiss called to him, pulling Helios from his thoughts
" Hmm?" ' Why can't initiation happen any sooner?'
" Helios, this is Pyrrha Nikos"
" Oh, I think I remember you, you're that tournament winner like… two years in a row? Right?"
" Um… yes, it's a pleasure to meet you Helios Weiss has said quite a bit about you, apparently you are quite talented for you age, well it has been just Grand talking with-" Pyrrha attempted to end the rather uncomfortable conversation but was interrupted by an blond boy with light armor covering himself
" You know what else is Grand! Me, Jaune Arc, Short Sweet-" Helios quickly stopped paying attention and started looking around again
After a moment of looking around, Helios saw the two girls from earlier talking to each other while walking towards the small group of four that had formed, obviously intent on moving past and towards the exit across the room. Still not wanting another encounter with the girls, Helios flared his jumpkit before leaping over Jaune's head and running towards the door, ignoring Weiss as she screams his name
Fourteen Minutes Later
Helios stood on his launch-pad alongside the other students on the edge of Beacon-Cliff, he felt giddy and excited at the chance of combat, not that he could be blamed. He found himself on the very right, farthest away from the Headmaster while he went on and on with some speech about what they were doing. Helios already knew the details, Ozpin told him yesterday while they were on their way to the ballroom after their conversation
' remember, eye contact, pairs of two, north, get relic, don't die, easy as 3.1415'
Helios decided to do one last check over everything he had on himself, he had everything he might need out there, data-knife, his Mastiff, his L-Star, his EPG, his Charge-Rifle, the case, Fire-Stars, Grav-Stars, Arc-Stars, Satchels, his Wingman, and ammunition for his Wingman, Mastiff, and EPG. His tactical abilities were all in working order as well, and the subtle weight on his leg told him that his Satchel Detonator is where it should be
Though he had lost his humanity over a year ago now, Helios still found himself prone to his nervous tics, the subtle uncontrollable twitch of his fingers, not enough to unintentionally fire his weapons, but enough to be noticeable
Helios felt the ground shake as students were launched into the air one after the other, and eventually, he himself felt the rush of air and following weightlessness as he soar through the air. But eventually, all that goes up must come down, Helios was no different
As he fell through the air he spotted an small clearing where several students had already landed and began fighting some of the resident Grimm
' How did they already land? Maybe I'm so much lighter that the pad launched me higher?... I'll figure it out later'
Helios decided to stop that line of thought before it got him too distracted.
After a brief look at the battle, Helios saw where he was going to be of the most use. Unclipping his Charge-Rifle off the top of his jumpkit, he angled his fall so that he would land on the back of a beo-wolf that was flanking a boy and armor and equipped with a Mace. A quick final adjustment and Helios was right on course
Helios felt like time was slowing as he grew closer to his target. He felt the beo-wolf's breath be forcefully ejected from it's lungs as his foot collided with it's back and forced it to the ground, between a rock and a hard place. And he felt his other foot reach its target as well, he felt the satisfying snap as his other foot smashed the beo-wolf's neck into the ground, forcing it to bend upwards at an unnatural angle. The destruction of it's spine ending the monsters life
To any other person, this would simply be a dead beo-wolf, another small victory for humanity
To Helios, the death of the beo-wolf was a glass of cool water in a dry desert, a breath of fresh air after being inside an stuffy house all day
Clearing his mind of the rush of euphoria to keep himself from getting distracted, Helios bent his knees before pushing himself off the ground, using his jump kit to push himself higher into the air
Another quick overview of the battle and he spotted his next target, another beo-wolf going after a different applicant. Raising his Charge-Rifle he aimed at his target, he squeezed the trigger and felt the gun charge up, coil like a spring. And then release, a bright light blinded Helios for a split-second as a laser shot from the barrel of the gun and evaporated the beo-wolf into a black mist. The death of the second Grimm giving a similar rush as to the first, but weaker
After that, Helios landed on the ground again and the other applicants finished off the rest of the Grimm. Helios went to tell them all the direction of the ruins, but before he could the different pairs of two all ran off in different directions
' So much for telling them all where to go'
And with all that excitement out of the way, Helios turned north-west a began on his journey to the ruins
Beacon: Cliffs
Ozpin
" Ozpin, the last two students have been paired. It appears Mr-Briggs does not have anyone to pair up with. 'sigh' should I make preparations to send Mr-Schnee the bad news, or should we make a exception this year and have a five man team" The Headmaster's right hand woman said with no small amount of sarcasm, obviously still not over the last minute addition of Ruby Rose
" Yes… a five man, excellent idea Glynda, place him with Miss-Schnee and Miss-Rose" Ozpin asked, completely missing the sarcasm in his assistant's voice
" Wha-... 'Sigh' I should have never opened my mouth"
Beacon: Emerald Forest
Helios Briggs
It was a relatively easy trip, only running into a few groups of one or two beo-wolves along the way. Eventually, Helios found himself in one long stretched out clearing that went both north towards the ruins, and south back to the cliff. Upon looking back south, Helios saw a large fissure running along the bottom of the cliff, an ancient tower barely poking out of the top of the fissure. Turning North, Helios began to jog at a brisk speed
After about ten minutes of walking, Helios spotted something coming over a small rise quite far ahead of him. He watched as a group of eight ran in his direction. And as they neared him, he saw two large black figures come over the rise as well, the one flying through the air and the other skittered across the ground
Once the group and other figures got close enough to identify, Helios gave an exasperated sigh
" REALLY WEISS?" By the time he finished yelling this too her, they had reached him, and the group stopped
" Helios!"
" We've been out here for what, an hour and you already aggravated two giant Grimm?"
" Wait! The Deathstalker wasn't my fault!"
" It's chasing you, you made it mad"
" Wait, where'd the third one go?!" A girl with Ginger hair and a large hammer said, with way to much disappointment in her voice while looking towards the two giant Grimm moving their way, Helios looked back at her before responding
" Third one?"
Right as Helios said this, a Petra Gigas that appeared to be made mostly up of slate rocks burst from the trees on the far side of the clearing, though still far closer than the other two, the creature of Grimm having decided that it wanted to flank the students. Helios, seeing the danger of having potentially inexperienced students fight Grimm of this caliber, began to yell orders to the group
" Alright, you all" Helios said gesturing to the group of eight
" Keep running back through this clearing and you'll find another set of ruins where you'll have a better advantage against that Nevermore and Deathstalker, I'll deal with the Gigas"
" What! you can't be thinking of-" a black haired girl with an Katana-Gun-Cleaver… thing said before being interrupted
" Leave it, I don't doubt that he can do it" the Schnee heiress assured her allies with no doubt in her voice
And with that, Helios drew the attention of the Gigas with a wave of plasma from his Mastiff. The weapons plasma pellets super heating the cool rocks and causing small cracks. Before he ran straight at the grimm, and dashed between its legs and ran into the forest. The giant Grimm turning around rather quickly for its size, before chasing the Pilot into the trees, ignoring the eight teens it had been after previously as they ran in the direction the Pilot had told them
' This may have been a bad idea' Helios thought while dodging a piece of slate that had nearly impaled him after it had been sent flying from a explosion from his EPG, which he had equipped after realizing that the Mastiff wasn't working
His dodge had let the piece of slate fly past and impale some poor tree. Quickly bringing his EPG to bear, Helios lined up another shot on the Gigas, this time aiming for the joint that connected one of the legs to the rest of the Grimm
Pulling the trigger, Helios felt a wave of confusion wash over him, before a sobering wave of realisation hit. The ammo drum of his EPG was empty
Seeing that it's attacker was vulnerable, the Gigas made to destroy the Pilot with a swipe from its arm. Only for Helios to jump over the arm before it could hit him and land in a crouch, before quickly rolling to the side to avoid getting crushed by a second arm
The Grimm, seeing that he had avoided the attack, made to attempt a second attack only to find that in its attempt to reduce the Pilot into scrap-metal, it had rooted it's arm firmly into the ground
Helios quickly took advantage and used the arm as a platform to jump onto the Gigas' back
Due to its one arm being rooted to the ground and the other not having the necessary reach, the Gigas was powerless to do anything while the pilot placed several satchel charges in various nooks and crannies of the Gigas slate armor
After placing the last of the satchels needed to destroy Grimm, Helios leapt off the Grimm before landing several feet from it and running of into the woods in the direction of ancient tower from earlier
A few moments after leaving the immediate vicinity of the Grimm. Helios retrieved the detonator before pulling the trigger. The quiet 'boom' from far behind serving as confirmation that the detonator served its purpose
Helios, after a while of running through the woods to the southeast, had found where his charge and her Allies had gone
The Pilot was certainly impressed to see Weiss and her new allies decimate a Giant Nevermore
' The decapitation was a nice touch'
He began to approach the group while Weiss used her Semblance to make a staircase of Glyphs to the top of the clif
" Weiss, impressive work with the Nevermore" he praised Weiss after stopping only a few feet from her
" Helios! I assume you dealt with the Gigas?" Weiss said, turning her attention from the staircase she had constructed from ice, the rest of the group moving ahead and up the stairs
" Yep, that thing is little more than rubble now"
two continued their conversation while they climbed the staircase
" Thank you for dealing with the Gigas Helios, I doubt that me and my fellows would have been able to fight three giant Grimm at once"
" Well, I can't let you go and get yourself reduced into little more than red paste now can I? Wouldn't be much of a bodyguard now would I?"
" Er… No I guess you wouldn't" Weiss said, obviously desturbed be Helios' comment on what might have happened had he not taken the Gigas Attention away from her group
Reaching the top of the cliff where everyone else was taking a rest, Weiss decided to continue the conversation
" So, you saw our battle with the Nevermore?"
" I did, I'm impressed how quickly you adapted to working in a team, I didn't cover that topic much when I was teaching you"
" Well, I think that-" Weiss was interrupted by a shrill voice
" It's You!" Said a girl in a black and red outfit with matching red cape
" I knew that your voice was familiar back there in the clearing! It's you from the cafeteria!" The girl said pointing an accusatory finger at the boy with a satisfied look on her face
Helios stared at her for several seconds, trying to recall what she meant. Then it hit him like a truck all at once
" Aw… man"
" Helios, is she one of the girls you nearly crippled back in the cafeteria?"
" Yep, he nearly took my finger off, which I do not appreciate" an blond girl interrupted before Helios could reply to Weiss
" Well, Helios apologies for his actions earlier… Right" Weiss said that last part with no small amount of bite in her tone
" Yea, I'm sorry I reacted that way"
" Eeh… it's alright, everyone was a bit jumpy before we knew what initiation was. Didn't help that someone was spreading rumors that it was going to be a free-for-all to get in. I'm sorry that I poked you, your armor makes you look like a robot or something"
" Don't worry about it, you wouldn't be the first. But I reiterate, I'm sorry for my behavior"
" And like I said, it's fine. Just don't do it again"
Before either could apologise again, the group decided to stop resting and start moving back towards the part of the cliffs that held the launch pads
Beacon: Auditorium
Time, 3:30 PM
Helios R Briggs
" Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
There is a wave of applause, while a familiar group of four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster
" Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by... Jaune Arc!"
" Huh? L-Led by...?" Jaune was not expecting to be given the responsibility of leadership apparently
" Congratulations, young man"
Pyrrha gives a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but Jaune is not expecting it and falls over. Quickly he is pulled to his feet by his team and they vacate the stage
" And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Helios Briggs. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Helios looks to the rest of his teammates with curiosity, wondering how they feel about the situation. Weiss is obviously quite surprised and a small bit angry, Ruby is in shock like the previous team leader, Blake is totally indifferent, and Yang is barely able to avoid breaking Ruby's back with her hug
" I'm so proud of you!" Yang said while spinning around with Ruby in her arms, the small girl still not able to fully register what was happening
" 'Ha-Ha' this'll be interesting" Helios said with a amused tone
' this is going to go horribly' he said in his head
Yea! I got this chapter out before it's been a full month since the last! That my fellows is advancement! Anyways, I don't got much more to say, have a nice rest of your day (or night)