S.C.E.N
Hello everyone and welcome to the second chapter, thank you for reading my story and baring with it as I continue to try and approve my writing
Chapter 2 new beginnings
The dragon had begun charging the girl, but she was focused as it got close Salem ran in between its legs swiftly then once she was passed it she jumped on its tail and began running up the grim's back. The behemoth twist and turned but it couldn't shake the little creature. Her stance was strong and unwavering, Salem continued her sprint to the dragon's head while trying to cut her way along but proved to be difficult due to the grim's extremely tough armour plates, but she tried non the less. Once she reached the neck the armour plates separated presumably to allow the neck to move freely, Salem saw her chance to do some damage she started to spin her twin glaive and planted it deep in to its neck.
The dragon roared in both rage and pain, it started thrashing even more violently. It started crashing into trees in the hope to knock off this tiny flee and it worked. As Salem was raising her weapon for another attack, the grim crashed into a thick tree which made Salem stumbled and fall off, the dragon wasted no time, it grabbed her as she fell. The grim lifted the girl to its eyeline and for a moment the two stared at each other before the dragon roared directly at her face, this cause a flood of sheer terror to rise in Salem "this is it" she thought to herself "I've done my best and it wasn't enough" as tears started to fall from her face. The dragon opened its mouth to reveal three rows of massive serrated teeth on the top and bottom and placed Salem in its mouth, Salem struggled but it was no good 'she was going to be eaten', as the dragon closed down its massive jaw. Something snapped in Salem, in a moment of both terror and adrenaline she raised her weapon and stab the dragon in the roof of its mouth. The sudden instance of pain made the grim spit Salem out with such force she slammed into a tree and broke her aura, the dragon took a moment to collect its self then noticed the girl slummed on a tree, she wasn't moving so the dragon got up on its hind legs sucked in a huge wave of air; Salem could only sit there waiting as her leg had been broken from the fall, the dragon went back on all fours and let out a huge fire breath towards Salem as it was coming her way she closed her eyes and the fire engulfed her.
Salem sat up in a cold sweat, it was dark and was very disoriented then it dawned on her it had been a dream, well more of a nightmare, no definitely a nightmare. Taking a few moments to collect herself she turned to her clock, 4:30am and Salem let out a huge sigh "really" resigning her fate from going back to sleep she got out of her bed and went into the shower. The hot water helped to get her awake and relax her a bit, afterwards she got dressed she wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt with a light grey leather jacket that goes to just below the top of her thigh, light grey tracksuit pants, trainers and her weapon was attached to a holstered across the bottom of her back underneath her jacket.
Salem looked in her mirror just to check on her appearance as she stopped and stared at herself for a moment "has it been six months already" she took one last look at her reflections' blue eyes staring back at her before leaving the building. She stepped outside to her surprise it was quite a mild temperature considering the time in the morning; she turned around and took one last look at the building. It was a small bungalow in the centre of the city Ozpin had told her she could stay here until she made up her mind about joining beacon; this was her last day to decide so she wasn't surprised she found herself up so early.
her mind was still racing from the night she lost everything, it was still hard for her to come to terms with what happened and her nightmare only confirmed it but she still tried her best to stay motivated, one of those ways was going on early jogs around the city it cleared the air and helped her to relax; today was no exception so off she went. While on her jog Salem she didn't meet much people on the streets just a few people coming home from a night shift or early starters, jogging past a dust shop she spotted a bald elderly man preparing his store for the day ahead, the man looked up and gave the young woman a small smile and a nod and Salem did the same; this had been her daily routine for a few months now just not usually this early with that done Salem carried on her route.
By the time Salem got to the docks the sun was just under the horizon so she decided to wait and watch the sun rise, she found a nice bench that overlooked the sea and took a moment to appreciate the celestial being, as Salem felt the first ray of sunlight touch her skin it filled her with a sudden joyfulness and she subconsciously started to smile back at the sun.
Later that morning she went to the local café where was working, Ozpin had told Salem that she should do something to occupy her time and so this is what she did, the café wasn't a particularly big place it held about ten round tables each with two seats on each table there was also two sofas in two back corners of the café with two rectangle tables. Salem enjoyed working there it helped her gain some off her lost confidence back and she generally enjoyed talking with the public so she didn't discriminate between humans and faunis, to her they were one and the same though not everyone appreciated it.
The owner of the café was called Robert Trist, a human, middle aged man who just always seemed to be in a good mood for some reason and welcomed all his customers with a smile, he was tall about 6.2ft and quite broad, short brown hair with thick eyebrows and wore a perpetual smile on his face. Salem arrived there a bit earlier than usual today but Robert didn't mind he was happy for the help "so what brings you here this early in the morning Salem, your usually not in for another hour" he said while he prepared the first batch of coffee. Salem was to wiping the table but spoke while doing so "no reason rob, I was just up earlier today and decided to come in and give you a hand before we opened" she stopped and gave Robert a smile before proceeding on to clean the next table. Robert had finished boiling the coffee to the right temperature "well thank you for your help Salem you've been a big help since you started here" Salem stopped again and turned to Robert "no I should be thanking you for letting me work here, I wasn't in the best of places when I found this place and you didn't have to hire me but you did and because you did my life has gotten a lot brighter so thank you" and she gave Robert a bow.
The day turned into night quickly the last few people were just leaving, and Salem was once again cleaning the tables, but she was happily humming to herself while she was doing it, so it didn't seem to bother her. Then she looked at the clock 7:00pm and her eyes grew twice as big as it had just dawned on her she had only five hours to decide Ozpin proposition with that in mind she turned to Robert "hey rob do you mind if can leave now I just remember I have somewhere to be tonight" trying to cover up her worry, Robert turned around with his permanent smile "of course dear, you are already way past your working hours, I tried telling you earlier but you were too busy with the customers and clearly never heard me",
A reddish flush went across Salem's face "oh… I'm sorry… I never heard you I was just so absorbed in my work, well I'm going to get going now" and with that she hung up her apron in the back, dawned her jacket making sure her weapon was still there and left. As she was making her way up the incline up to beacon, she heard a noise, this caught her attention but didn't take any notice, then CRASH! The sound of glass shattering, Salem definitely noticed that, not only that by she noticed where it came from and she bolted in that direction.
"Now I will ask again, give us the dust old man and we won't need to get a special bag for yourself" the bald old man raised his hand and gave the assailant the key, once the key was in his hand, he threw it at one of his guys, "grab the dust gentlemen". They proceeded to unlock the cabinet and started draining it into canisters, while the leader was grabbing the crystals from the main counter an arrow of aura flew past his head and into the far wall everyone turned to look at the arrow in confusion then a voice pieced the dark "leave this man and his property alone".
Salem walked out onto the main street her weapon in bow mode and light was emanating from her fingers; seven figures exited the building, six of them were waring black suits with red ties and black trilbies and the last one who was obviously the leader of this posse he had short blonde hair a black suit also but his one had white stitching round the coat from the bottom, up the zip line, round the neck and over the top of the pockets.
The henchmen all carried bayonetted machine guns while the leader had a what looked like an old fashioned military sword with a black sheath , the blonde moved through the middle of the henchmen till he was in front "well, well, well and who might you be"; Salem eyes snapped onto the leaders' "just a passer-by" she says as she twists the blades back in the normal places "okay… get her". The man snapped his fingers and two guys move forward and ready their weapons.
Salem moved two of her fingers upwards which caused the barrels of both guns to bend upwards making their guns useless, both men looked at each other and then ran up to Salem in an attempt to stab her with their bayonets but she just smiled and dashed diagonally with her weapon low to the ground tripping him up then she spun the weapon and cracked the other guy in the head with the back of the blade knocking him out, using the momentum of the recoil she planted the other side of the weapon down to where the guys head was knocking him out. She turned to the blonde leader with a small smile oh her face "so are we going to call this a night gentleman".
The expression on the man changed from very cocky to a bit annoyed "tsk not bad little goose, boys surround her" and with another snap of his fingers the men began taking their positions around her until they were a in a square position with Salem in the middle. Salem watched and observed the four men's movements, once they had got into their position, she let out a sigh "I guess you guys want to have an intimate relationship with the ground as well" then she twisted her weapon and it separated into two short glaives.
Two of the men pressed a button on their guns and it collapsed into swords, the other two stayed back aiming at Salem waiting for the perfect opportunity to shoot her; as the two men with swords went to attack at the same time from opposite sides, Salem crouched slightly and blocked both blades at the same time, both men were pushing against her weapons causing her to lower further, while Salem was firmly planted the gunmen saw there chance to get a shot in but just before they could pull the trigger Salem let go of her weapons, the sudden lack of resistance caused both the swordsmen to fall into each other just barely stopping themselves form stabbing each other.
Salem saw her opportunity she rolled out underneath the two men picking up one of the glaives just as she stood up one of the gunman pulled the trigger but Salem's reactions were too quick she backflipped just in time and the bullets passed over her, as soon as she came out of the backflip she threw her glaive at the gunman, but he dodged and a smile appeared on his face but so did Salem used her semblance to catch her glaive then directed it back towards the man.
The man lined up another shot but suddenly a was hit in the back of the head with the handle of the glaive and the man shouted in pain then Salem bolted towards at full speed and she jumped, just as the man adjusted himself all he saw was the young girls knee inches of from his jaw then there was blackness, the man dropped to the floor.
Salem wasted no time and ran to the next gunman but he was already lining up his shot but Salem saw a manhole cover and lifted it in front her like a temporary shield and kept running forward the gunman started shooting but was met only with "TANK, TANK, TANK" as the bullets just bounced off of the cover, once the mans' clip was empty Salem turned the cover sideways and threw it with a good bit of force at the man who had no time to react as it cracked off his head completely knocking him out.
Salem turned to the other two guys who had just managed to get to their feet "one last chance to surrender boys". the two men looked at each other "we didn't get paid enough for this" they nodded at each other and ran off into the night.
Salem started walking towards the leader casually putting her weapon back together with her semblance; the leaders' expression changed back to his arrogant smile "well I think we've played enough tonight little goose, don't you think?" Salem held an almost strong smile "sure, does that mean your going to surrender" the blonde man laughed "not quite little one I've only just begun"
As Salem got closer the mans' features became more noticeable then it dawned on her who he was, it was on the television it was said that a master thief was spotted entering Vale and was extremely dangerous, his name was "Jaune ark". Salem was surprised but she continued nonetheless "its over Jaune, turn yourself in or you'll you will be taking a detour to the hospital like your lackeys"; the blonde thief looked at her with the same expression on his face "awe you know who I am that's sweat of you to recognise me but I'm going to have to decline your offer".
Jaune unsheathed his weapon, it was a longsword made with some sort of black steel, in the hilt of the sword was two slots that looked to be in the shape of a crystals. The man rummaged through a bag in his hand until he pulled out a white and a red crystal then slotted them into his weapons' hilt. The weapon started to glow from the hilt a white and red line appeared on both sides of the blade then the energy went up the middle of the blade to the tip. Jaune looked up to Salem "well its fun playing with you but I've got leave this dance for now" and with that he slammed the sword into the ground and a huge steam cloud exploded from the sword causing everything in range including Salem to be blinded with hot steam.
when the steam dissipated Salem immediately started looking for Jaune and spotted him going up a fire escape and immediately activated her semblance and threw herself to the building; she landed behind Jaune who was on the edge of the building "persistent little one aren't you" he then unslotted the white crystal and he swung his sword towards Salem which caused waves of fire rushed towards her. Salem jumped backwards to avoid the flames once she was back on her feet a sudden gust of wind suddenly blasted downwards and to Salem's surprise it was a small bullhead it was hovering just on the edge where Jaune was and he jumped aboard.
Salem tried to follow but Jaune seemed to channel the energy in his weapon to a single point and it expanded into a ball of red energy then threw he it at Salem, as it hit the ground it exploded; a gleeful expression appeared on Jaunes' face but it quickly changed when he saw the dust settle and a large purple barrier appeared.
Behind it was a tall blonde woman with a scowl on her face and behind her was a slightly startled and confused Salem; before Salem could speak the woman flicked what look like a wand of some description and the barrier broke into several purple shards and she fired them at the bullhead causing it to shake but no real damage was done. Jaune shouted to the pilot "looks like we've got a huntress on our tail now, could you give me a hand and I'll fly" there was a moment of silence then a huge sigh "fine I'll shake them off" and they swapped positions.
The two on the roof watched as a new figure in the dark appeared, it looked like a woman in a dress maybe they couldn't tell except her eyes were light blue like ice and before they could react she threw an ice shard at them, it landed by their feet which created a small explosion of ice, they backed up, she threw a few more. Once they were backed up enough she raised her hand and two large ice spikes came out of the ground underneath them, the blonde woman reacted immediately moving both her and Salem out of the way. The woman turned to Jaune "deal with your own messes next time", Jaune gave them woman a weak laugh "sure thing".
Salem saw the bullhead flying away and charged her aura, she held out both her hands and the bullhead stopped dead in its tracks she turned to the woman "do something!? Quickly!" given no time to scowl at the little girl she channelled her power into a massive energy blast and launched it towards the seized bullhead. Before the blast connected it suddenly moved at full speed again and the attack just skimmed past, to her surprise the woman heard a "thud!" and noticed the girl had passed out, the woman went over to check on the girl and sighed "huh it's going to be a long night I hope Ozpin knows what he's doing" with a scowl on her face.
Salem woke up, she was sitting in a chair with head on a table it took a minute and then it dawned on her she had no Idea where she was, and she immediately stood up in a panic, had she been kidnapped? had she been reported to the police? was she dead? Not knowing how to check for the last one she assumed she was still alive at least. A door opened on the other side of the room and a familiar blonde woman walked in "so your finally awake, good because I have some questions for you" Salem just stood there for a moment and the blonde woman indicated to the chair she had just stood up from "take a seat please" and Salem did as instructed, she sat down and the woman followed suit on the other side.
There was a moment of silence then the woman spoke up "what is your name", "Salem… Salem velaros" she said in a worried tone; the woman started writing down on a clipboard the woman spoke up again "well miss velaros what you did tonight was very well done" Salem raised her head rose up to look at the woman and a small smile began to form but was completely shot down when the woman said "but your actions were too reckless you could of put you and others peoples lives in great danger" Salem shot back "but they started it" the woman completely dismissed what Salem had said "in any case normally I would let you go home now, but someone would like to talk to you first.
Just as she finishes a familiar tall grey-haired man, cane and coffee in hand walked into the room "good evening miss Velaros"; Salem couldn't believe her eyes "professor Ozpin?" the headmaster couldn't help but chuckle to himself quietly "how are you feeling after your "night out"", then It click Salem immediately shot up from her seat "did Jaune and his partner escape what happened". The professor looked at Salem "they got away unfortunately, but I didn't ask you if you could remember anything, all I asked was if you were alright because going through aura exhaustion is not easy for some people".
she looked eyes with Ozpin "so that's why I blacked out, I was so focused on stopping those guys I didn't even notice my aura was drained, in any case yes professor I'm fine now just tired" Ozpin raised an eyebrow "speaking of stopping those guys it looks like your just as skilled as ever" he shows Salem CCVT camera footage of her fight, she looked away after about a minute "I know what your going to ask me and I already have an answer", Ozpins' expression changed to a slightly curios look, "oh and what is your answer" Salem looked at him with determined eyes "the people that got away was my fault and I realise that but just as you said to me that night, I will use this failure as my first foothold to reaching my goal, and my goal is to stop people like the ones I faced tonight and I've I know the best way for me improve is by joining beacon" and she put her hand towards Ozpin "I accept your offer professor Ozpin" Ozpin gave her a smile and shook Salem's hand "welcome to Beacon".
And that's it for the second chapter I hope you all enjoyed it, thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.