RWBY: The Unknown Sibling
(Harry is two years older than Ruby and three months older than Yang)
To the Anon who mentioned my timelines in ages. He is correct, Harry is the same age as Yang.
Last time
The train was almost ready. However other pieces were not yet in position.
The time had come. The time had finally come for the 1st Year Students to begin taking jobs to earn money and build themselves as Hunters and Huntresses.
Naturally, none of the older students had kept their mouths shut about the lack of interesting missions on hand. They were more impressed with the fact that Harry, who they had seen wrapped up in bandages and hobbling around was walking around fine, after enduring injuries that should have had people on bed rest for at least a month after a week.
Harry grinned at them "No-one knows all my secrets. I like it like that."
Soon enough all the students assembled in the Hall. RWBY, JNPR were right at the front. As Ozpin noticed that they would. HAND would be off to one side and they were. Adam and Harry resting disinterested against the pillar with Damania sitting on the floor and Nanuuk crouched down tinkering with his gloves.
NIKL were towards the back. All was quiet save for the grunts and sound of metal plates and circuitry linking together as Neville prepped himself for his first outing in his 'Crusader Armour'. Neville's armour coupled with his shield and Warhammer, in Ozpin's opinion allowed for no-one aside from that impressively well-built Second Year Team CFVY member Yatsuhashi Daichi to take him in a one-on-one fight.
The Harry shaped walls were impressive reminders of that and the two were playing around and knew each other's strengths. Speaking of Team HAND, that team was definitely a force of nature much like STRQ all those years ago. Ozpin did not regret the formation of STRQ, but did slightly regret HAND. Why, STRQ could be controlled and gotten to obey orders; HAND on the other hand, well HAND was more of a point-and-destroy/hold-the-line/sod-extraction-send-clean-up team. Very helpful for the War to come but Ozpin struggled for them to see a future afterwards.
They could make decent sheriffs and police officers, if the people in question hadn't provoked easily the most mercurial member of the team that required the Goliath-Of-NIKL and Miss. Scarlatina to restrain and speak reason to.
"Welcome. Huntspersonel as the older students remember these next two semesters revolve around doing missions and building a reputation. Some of these missions will be restricted older students only. Happy hunting."
The 1st years swarmed the missions. Harry quickly found something "HAND! Escort Mission with one Doctor Oobleck."
"TEAM HAND!GRABYOURKITANDNESSESSARYPROVISIONSTOASSISTMEININVESTIGATINGTHERUINSOFMOUNTAINGLENN!" Gabbled Oobleck.
"Harry?" Damania asked their speed speak translator.
"Get your kit and anything else you may need for helping Oobleck in Mountain Glenn." Harry said before he began to grin a grin mimicked by the rest of his team.
They rushed back to the dorms and grabbed extra ammo and clothes before heading to a locker room that had been set up for them, NIKL, JNPR and RWBY. There he found team NIKL, a team much more suited for defence and covering fire stocking up.
"Nev, that suit gives me the creeps…How long does it take you get on?"
"Fifteen minutes." Neville grated through the vocal circuitry.
"Too damn long…When we get back, I'll help you make it quicker." Neville nodded but the armour didn't show it. The should cracked and parted as the turret appeared. It hissed, clunked and bumped revealing the magazines both in the immediate firearm and in the spares.
Soon enough Team HAND were with Oobleck on the Airship "Where are they? We are five minutes behind schedule."
Harry's stomach began to sink like a stone "Doctor…"
"Professor Oobleck?" Harry sighed. Confined space, yeah not his thing. Confined space with his counterpart on a 24/7 Coffee Drip really not his thing. Stuck in a confined space with said team of similarly thinking people, aforementioned professor AND his Sisters Team! Dear Oum, his mum and dad were definitely going to kill him. Then there was the ever present weight of his past coming to have nibble on his backside.
"Fuck…me." That broke the impromptu high speed lecture on their objective and the usefulness of a dog.
Damania smirked "That's Velvets job."
Oobleck grinned. Blake blushed, Ruby and Yang turned pale and Weiss turned an interesting shade of purple. Almost like his Uncle…not Taiyang but the one who was really a stranger. "How…"
"Nice of you to offer Weiss. But no thanks, I really don't like girls or women from Atlas…Anyway, is there anything of importance that needs to be discussed or can I self-medicate myself to unbelievably stupid levels to get over my fear of claustrophobia."
Adam tossed Harry a tablet and a bottle. Harry drank and ate it. There was a crackle of aura vanishing before a four inch needle was plunged into Harry's arm and he collapsed, snoozing before he hit the floor.
Harry woke up as they were taking off "Damn it…must be my body getting immune to it." He sat up to hear Oobleck say something about 'Histroy being the backbone of our society and the liver and probably the kidneys.'
"Besides those who don't observe history always repeat it." Harry said as he grabbed a chord of rope on a harness, attached himself to it and joined Yang looking out the airship.
"Correct Mr. Branwen…You're up!"
"Medication ineffective. Anyway worst bit is over, kinda like this bit. Anyway what were you saying?"
Oobleck nodded "Good point on history and repeating it…Anyway Southeast Quadrant of Vale has deep caves and wild forests."
"Home to Beowolves, Death Stalkers…Goliaths probably, King Taijitu, Nevermore and Ursa." Said Adam.
Harry sighed "And Oz took away my Goliath stopping rounds…I really wish Neville were here…I'd feel a whole lot safer."
Oobleck chuckled "All Grimm a vicious. Why are you so scared of Goliaths? Out of all species of Grimm, they're the ones that attack humanity the least."
Harry chuckled "Nice to know that statistic. Beowolves not a problem, sick Adam on them. Death Stalkers, Damania eats those between meals. I remember that lesson for Professor Peach."
"That the one where you were allergic to the Red Sap." Blake asked. However Yang and Ruby smirked.
Harry blushed "I'd rather not have to face anymore detentions with Professor Port thank you very much…Turns out, I'm one of five students who can fight the man in a spar."
Oobleck nodded "How many rounds?"
"One round per offence. I got shirty with him three times, cursed AT him at least eight and five rounds for questioning his intelligence…Three separate offences, three separate nights for each detention."
Oobleck nodded "I promise not to tell Peter. Professor Port to the rest of you."
Harry sighed and nodded to Yang who giggled "Harry is allergic to Red Sap…Not in the traditional fever, sniffles and rash sort of way. It's more of a use of hallucinogenic substances…I have evidence."
Oobleck shook his head "So Mr. Branwen suffers from hallucinogenic illusions when exposed to Red Sap."
Harry snorted "Doesn't help that I made enough noise to bring a pack of Beowolves and five Death Stalkers down on us. That is why I know this. Nanuuk is a Polar Bear faunus which means he can exchange claws with Ursa like no-ones business. I can pot-shot Nevermore all day long."
"King Taijitu, they have a nasty bite."
"No-where near as bad as mine. Mine on a command is positively lethal…Now that is something to try. Biting a Grimm to see if it dies."
Oobleck stared at him "Are you insane, Mr. Branwen?"
"Depends on whose responding. My Team: possibly. RWBY: Undecided. Neville: Definitely." Harry replied with a grin. Suddenly they stopped.
"We're here."
HAND were the first to make it to the ground. Harry shifted his sword into his Scythe Sword as he took up a guard position. Adam unsheathed Wilt and took the tail end of the airship. With Nanuuk and Damania securing the Landing Zone. It was deserted.
The rest of the team disembarked. Harry sniffed the air "I've got something."
With that he moved towards a building with Damania following. Opening the door he found a corpse, its skin completely dead but his clothes were intact. Harry sighed and began rifling through his pockets.
"Is he dead?" Asked Weiss nervously.
"Definitely dead, this little sister is completely dead as opposed to mostly dead which is how Grimm go when we de-form them."
"What's the difference between dead and mostly dead? Logically both say they cannot move or talk on their own." Retorted Blake, she knew she had triggered something judging by the grin.
"Look who knows so much. As it just so happens that our friend here is definitely dead, because you open his mouth his jaws gonna come off as opposed to mostly dead which means he's slightly alive. Anyway only one thing to be done with completely dead people…"
"That is?" Asked Oobleck, he was fighting a grin. He liked Harry, loved his abstract sense of humour.
"Go through the clothes and look for loose change."
Oobleck and the rest of the students aside from Weiss either chuckled, giggled or sniggered "That's horrible."
"That's life. Now be positive because I don't fancy being attacked by Grimm right now. Time and a place for everything."
"There's a Grimm." The group turned, Harry activating his sniper rifle and dropping to the floor.
"40 Yards. No wind. No scope…Can't miss the head."
Just then as HAND focused on their defence and ready to attack, the entire pack appeared and saw them. "Orders?"
"Show me what you're capable of."
Harry grinned, and he began to fire as he stood up. He fired five rounds. Two bullets bore through the first Grimm, tumbling as they went maiming two more. Bullet two was a High Explosive round which positively deformed another Grimm. Bullets three and four hit the Alpha Beowulf, cracking its chest and it dissolved as it reached the group. The last bullet well the Beowulf had its mouth over the barrel of his rifle.
Harry got to his feet mecha-shift a whirl. He concentrated on the charged dust in the area and out of his hand launched three lightning bolts.
Adam stood his ground, he should have protected his partner but his gut told him that he'd be more of detriment. Harry was able to look out for himself as the shots aptly proved that. He slid into his traditional form of Iado. And as calmly as one cuts a cake or chops wood: sheathed, sliced, sheathed, slashed, fired and repeated.
Nanuuk succumbed to his base instincts and rushed in with Damania close behind.
(RWBY)
Ruby aimed, fired, aimed and fired providing decent suppressing fire allowing for HAND, in Oobleck's opinion to get in close and allow their inner natures get to work.
Miss Xiao-Long and Miss Belladonna proved most adapt at slicing the offending Grimm and punching them "Yang…Use, bigger rounds. Bigger rounds equals a better dead Grimm." Panted Harry as he flowered his sword one handed savaging three Grimm.
"Will…think…about…it." The busty brawler grunted as she punched her way through the Grimm.
Miss Schnee looked rather comfortable in her skills. As she moved through the air and effortlessly dispatched the Grimm in their path. Soon enough there was one left. It rushed Ruby, Ruby rushed it, and Harry rushed it as well.
Oobleck's eyes widened as launched himself into the air and swung at the shoulders as Ruby swung at its legs effectively cutting it in three.
Harry then displayed remarkable durability and athleticism by throwing himself to the floor bouncing and to land on his sword. "I am my father's son…I did inherit some of his misfortune."
Oobleck nodded "Shall we be off?" As they left, Harry looked at the Mountain that the City was near. Something was really off about that mountain.
"Will ask Ozpin to borrow military grade rounds and demolish that mountain." Harry said to himself.
As he walked off a little jellyfish Grimm floated around the corner.
After clearing out the last batch of Beowolves. Doctor Oobleck had them make camp. Harry was on watch. Using earth dust, created a little cube just big enough for him to lay in and for another to crouch.
"Mr. Branwen may I have a word?"
Harry grunted "Sure, first. In my pack, left side, third pocket, pass me the water bottles and two granola bars." Oobleck did so only to find one of each passed to him.
"What's on your mind?"
"Why did you, choose this line of work?"
Harry froze. "Been conditioned into the mind-set of not surviving past Seventeen. Found Mum or rather she found me. I decided may as well use this mind-set to help out the little guy, defend the undefended and try and make the world a genuine better place. By blood, money or sheer determination I'll do it."
Oobleck nodded "You see it as a way out?"
"Been called an adrenaline junkie, I'm good with defence. AND I get paid…Bonus."
Oobleck nodded "What about relationships?"
"Velvet, she's…everything. There are no words to explain how I feel about her…Being here has helped. I no longer see a death sentence and if I had to choose between the ability I have here to manipulate reality via dust or reshape reality like I learnt…I'm staying here…I'm becoming a Hunter because I will not see any more kids become conditioned into soldiers like me. I can't save everyone, and I make no promises to save everyone but for every child and parents or parent, I save…I'll sleep better knowing I did something worthwhile."
Oobleck was stunned. He received similar stories from the rest of HAND. Young Adam Taurus was the most interesting, he had fessed up and said he had been 'White Fang' and turned away. The three Faunus spoke highly of their Leader and they could see that for all of his mercurial temper and quickness to sort it out with violence lay the heart of a good man and dare Oobleck think it a "righteous man." It reminded him of a plaque he had read in Anima. It read in Animan 'Demon's run when a good man goes to war. Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good man goes to war'.
Team RWBY didn't seem to possess the same openness as HAND. But it didn't matter. As they seemed to have lost sight of their quarry and thus settled in for the night.
Harry and Ruby took the first watch. Harry was scanning the area with binoculars and Ruby lodged herself on a ruined wall with Zwei. No words were said between the siblings as they listened to the Grimm howling in the night.
(NIKL)
Neville and his team had been contracted to investigate a set of train tracks that seemed to be running underneath into Vale itself. They followed the mainline.
Neville couldn't help but gulp. He knew something was about to go down.
(Rift)
A rift appeared. This one much, much closer to Beacon and by the time it closed, fifteen people appeared. "Are you sure this is the place?" One of them asked.
"I'm certain Professor Dumbledore."
(Velvet)
Velvet had just come back from town. She needed to grab some food when she heard the voices. She flattened herself against the wall and she listened. Her heart leapt. She pulled out her scroll 'H, They are here. Love you."
The scroll came alive "What?" The power in Harry's voice was dangerous.
"They are here."
Unfortunately she didn't hear the footsteps "Accio device." Velvet felt the power and let go. She jumped backwards and someone grabbed her around the waist.
"What did Harry say? Behind me and grabbed my waist. Stamp on the knee, kick at 35degrees to the side and below the knee. Kick to the head." The yelp was cut out as her attacker passed out.
"Hello my dear. I am…"
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of Great Britain for the ICW, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Manipulator extraordinaire. I know of you. All of you drop your wands and give me that device." Snarled Velvet.
Dumbledore did so "I'm okay. Finish your mission. DO NOT LET YOUR ANGER BLIND YOU. I know you. I'll see you when you get back. Love you."
She then dialled another two numbers simultaneously "Headmaster Ozpin, CFVY, I need you down here. Those people H of HAND and N of NIKL were talking about? They're here. I've messed up one of them."
"Albus, I am Professor Ozpin…Welcome to Beacon, Sanus and Remnant. Please, I must ask for you not to interrogate my students." Velvet stared, CFY should have arrived first… "Who are you Ozpin? What are you?"
(HAND, RWBY)
Harry's body shook as lightning crossed and lightning flashed, thunder roared and the wind howled "What's wrong?" It was Oobleck.
"Shit meet fan." Was all Harry could say.