Chapter 3
Author's Note: I think I actually managed to get this one out within a week's time. As always, I'm wanting any reviews you can leave me so I can improve. Feel free to suggest other things you might want to read in this story. I've got a general idea for the plot I want, but I can probably incorporate some things if I think it will go along with the story well.
"6:00am. Ugh, why can't I just talk with them a little longer?" Ruby thought. "Sorry guys, but I have to get going. Team RWBY has to get ready for the day!" She said in faux confidence.
"Okay! We'll all be watching the Hunt live, so don't screw up! Go get 'em, girl!" Ruby smiled as the familiar voices praised her. "Bye~" They all sang as Ruby waived.
Without a missing a beat, she put her scroll away, grabbed her whistle, and let out a strong burst of air through the small orifice. Within just a few seconds, the sound was cut off by a pillow slamming into her face. The sheer force knocked her onto her butt and, after removing the pillow, she looked up to see a single red eye glaring at her from atop one of the makeshift bunks within their room. The angle at which she was looking made it possible to just barely see her sister.
"I swear to God, Rubes…" Yang yelled as her eyes returned back to their normal lilac color.
"You are such a pest." Weiss said as she covered her face with her blanket.
"C'mon! The Hunt is the day after tomorrow! Aren't you guys excited?!" Ruby said elated as the door to the bathroom closed. She glanced to her teammates and saw the conspicuous absence of Black hair.
"When in the hell did she even get up?" Yang asked with clear annoyance at her sister's actions.
"Doesn't matter. She's got the right idea!" Ruby said with her usual excitement as she began to attempt to grasp her fallen whistle from the ground. She turned her head to see the carpet bare and whined, "Huh?! Where'd it goooo?" Suddenly, a flushing toilet could be heard just barely overtaking the rapid clanking of metal smacking against the porcelain.
While laughing, Yang managed to stammer out a few words in between gasps of air, "I…love…ya…Blakey! Good fucking riddance!"
Ruby's puffed her cheeks out and pouted; Weiss couldn't help but peek out of the blanket and stare at the shorter girl. "Why do I feel bad whenever I see her so sad. I know she's young and my friend, but…" Weiss thought. It was, indeed, strange since she felt a tugging against her heart every time her leader was harmed in any way. "I've only known her for a few days now, why do I care?!" Weiss yelled in her mind. She simply held her head against her pillow and let the blanket recover her head.
After Blake exited the bathroom, later, she made no effort to apologize or even acknowledge that she had done anything out of the ordinary. Weiss was the next to get cleaned up and ready for the day, leaving Yang as the last one to enter the bathroom due to the obnoxious amount of time she spent on her hair.
The girls were all prepared, exited their dorm, and began heading toward the cafeteria. Yang had a slight limp in her left leg, and her body seemed rather sluggish, still recovering from the previous day. Blake couldn't help but notice, her own leg having almost fully healed from not only from the inhaler, but from her own little addition to her healing process. Her teammates were currently unaware, but Blake was once part of the infamous White Fang. Her time as a member of this 'domestic terrorism group,' as the media called it, made her more than well-versed in anatomy and physiology. Not for the sake of knowledge, but because members were usually injured quite often, but would be apprehended if they were to seek professional medical attention.
So, self-administered stitching, mending, and all around general healing was basic knowledge for most of the group. Before reaching the medical ward, the day prior, Blake took it upon herself to readjust her bone and, to her credit, did quite a good job at it. If it weren't for Weiss' bribe, the doctors would have probably bombarded Blake with questions about how she broke her bone in the first place, since it was such an 'impossibly clean break.'
"How are you feeling, Yang?" Blake asked with clear trepidation in her voice.
"Don't worry about me, Blakey! It's all healed up." Yang said with a smirk. "But, it's so sweet of you to care~" Yang then stated, sarcastically.
"Then, why are you limping?" Blake asked, ignoring her partner's provoking.
"Side effect." Yang said plainly.
"Care to…elaborate?" Weiss said while looking to her left, passed the other two team members, at Yang.
"It's your semblance, right Yang?" Ruby asked in a less of an inquisitive tone and more of an explanatory one.
"Yeah. Basically, when I get roughed up, my aura converts some of the energy used against me into power that I can dish out. I can still be injured, but, when I've absorbed enough power, I can't really feel it. It's like the high from my rage blocks out the pain. The downside: after my rage is done, I can feel the full extent of the pain, from the injuries, all at once. Think of it like drinking; you get fucked up at night, and the next morning you feel like shit." Yang explained as she began digging in her pockets, and other compartments, for something.
"So how much pain are you in, exactly?" Blake asked as she secretly worried about her partner.
"Awwww~" Yang said as she pulled out a bottle from her bra. Upon closer inspection, Blake noticed it was a bottle of Aleve. She was surprised when Yang popped open the cap and downed three like candy. "A lot." she said after swallowing the pills.
"I feel rather bad about complaining about my own sore muscles now." Blake said with a quick chuckle.
"Don't, I'm sure this brute has gotten herself into worse situations." Weiss said in an uncaring tone.
"You've got no idea!" Ruby said while laughing.
"What can I say? There ain't a lot of stuff worse than being boring! Besides, Rubes loosened me up a bit, so don't you worry about me." Yang said nonchalantly.
"I had no idea your semblance had a deeper function than making you Hulk out." Weiss stated with her hand on her chin. "What about you two? I know Ruby's semblance is speed and Blake's is the ability to produce shadow clones…but is there more to it than that?" She asked genuinely.
"Ummm…yeah, I can manipulate the nucleus of most organic molecules and compounds that my aura has a direct connection to. Since my aura is always connected to me, I can speed up and slowdown stuff like my adrenaline, white blood cells, and blood. If I'm running, then I concentrate adrenaline and blood to my leg muscles making the aerobic respiration increase a lot, and making my muscles and tendons more efficient, and by extension, faster. That's also how I use Crescent Rose so easily, by concentrating on my arm muscles more." Ruby explained as all of her teammates stared at her in amazement.
"That was…an impressive explanation." Blake said. All three girls nodded in agreement noticing how smart Ruby was when it came to anything relating to fighting in general. "There's a reason she was made the leader, I suppose." Blake thought as she turned her head to her partner who was starting to say something.
"Wait…so you…have more stamina wherever you concentrate your 'fluids' and other stuff?" Yang asked while trying to compartmentalize everything she heard.
"I believe so, however…" Blake switched from looking at Yang to Ruby, "…shouldn't that make you extremely tired afterwards? Tired wouldn't be a good word actually…you would be pushing your body well beyond its' natural limits; how do you even stay conscious? After all you did in the Emerald Forest, you should have passed out." Blake wondered curiously.
"Have you seen how much she eats? All those calories are probably used during her fights." Weiss said with a small grin.
"So THAT'S how you eat all those sweets and never gain a pound!" Yang shouted at her sister causing Blake and Weiss to start laughing.
"I guess so, and I bet her sweet tooth is the behavioral result of her constantly draining her muscle's glucose storage and needing to consume more carbs to refill them." Blake pondered while looking at Yang's annoyed face. Indeed Yang's semblance made her less susceptible to gaining weight, but she still liked sweets as much as anyone else and would love to splurge like her sister.
"During your explanation, you said 'whatever your aura has a connection to,' right? Does that mean you can manipulate other people's…um…organic molecules, too?" Weiss asked, reverting back to her earlier inquisitive nature in order to learn more about her teammates. The team had become serious again as they opened the doors to the cafeteria.
"Yes and no. I can manipulate them so long as I have a connection to that person's aura, but…you know…an aura has to be compatible. I can alter my aura slightly and, if the other person does the same, we can connect enough for me to help." Ruby says, while grabbing a tray and getting in line behind Yang and Blake, with Weiss behind her.
"But what if the person you're trying to help is unconscious?" Blake asked while grabbing a bowl of mixed fruit, a few slices of toast, and a bottle of orange juice.
"Unless I've got some kind of strong connection with them already, I won't be able to do anything." Ruby said while getting herself a triple order of double-chocolate-chip pancakes, a blueberry muffin, and two bottles of milk.
"Wait, is that how you helped my pain this morning…and here I always thought you were just good at giving massages, sis." Yang asked after grabbing a biscuit, scrambled eggs, a huge pile of bacon, and a massive espresso.
"Yeah, I've helped you after a lot of fights in the past, so I know your aura pretty well now." Ruby said as they all moved through the line.
"I think it would be best to get you to learn myself and Blake's aura at some point, that little power of yours sounds amazing to have during a fight." Weiss states as she looks at her choice of food to choose from. She ultimately decides on grabbing a bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of blueberries to put in it, a banana, and a bottle of water.
"Does your semblance have any negative side effects like Yang's?" Blake asked as they all pay for their meals and begin walking to an open table.
"Well, there's the whole calories thing. If it's been a while since I ate, or I know I won't eat for a considerable period of time, I have to be careful. Using too much energy without refueling can send my body into shock." Ruby said as all four girls sat down. "But that's obvious. More importantly, the body is supposed to regulate its' own stoichiometry, so when I start messing with things in there, I can possibly put my body into a serious chemical imbalance, if I'm not careful."
"So that's why Professor Ozpin plans on putting you through those biochemistry courses." Weiss says as she begins mixing the blueberries into her meal.
"Yeah, but that's really only to help me understand the details behind it. I can already tell when my body's is starting to reach its' limit. First, I usually get a headache at the back of my head and top of the back of my neck. Then my muscles may start to twitch and spasm, getting a little worse gradually. Finally, I will feel my limbs fall asleep and go numb, at which point I will fall unconscious." Ruby explains happy to finally get to inhale her chocolate breakfast.
"Ohhhhh, so that's why you and Uncle Qrow used to train for so long!" Yang stated before downing a quarter of her espresso in one gulp.
"Mhm! Hu untad ma ta bood a toence fu it!" Ruby spouted out with her mouth full.
"How about you speak without your mouth stuffed full of food, you dunce!" Weiss said while glaring at her partner sitting to her left.
Ruby swallowed her food and spoke again, "I said~ He wanted me to build a tolerance for it." Ruby again started filling her mouth full of food.
"I understand now." Blake said while taking a bite from her toast.
"What about yourself, Blake? Does your semblance have more to it than meets the eye?" Weiss asked while turning her head to her other teammate.
"That's a really good choice of words, actually." Blake stated while wiping her mouth with a napkin. "My semblance actually relies on 'what meets the eye,' as you say. As you may or may not know, light is both a particle and a wave, meaning that its properties are quite unique. Since what your brain perceives, as vision, is the light being reflected off of an object, I force the light reflected off of my body to remain still, and, by extension, I go invisible…until I get more than about 3 meters away. That's when my aura is no longer strong enough to hold the light in place." She said as she begins to eat her fruit once again.
"I see. But I have seen you using your clones as a platform to leap from; how do you do that if it's just light there." Weiss asked as she took another bite from her blueberry oats.
"My aura does not keep the light still from a distance. To keep the light still, I leave a small portion of my aura around my clone in the shape of my body. Then I extend my aura, at a slightly different concentration, out of wherever I plan on connecting to the clone from. If I have to jump on top of it, I will force a bit of my aura through my feet…when it hits the aura around the clone, they repel each other. However, the aura surrounding the clone is not strong enough to handle most attacks, so it cannot be used as a shield." Blake explained while picking up her last piece of toast.
"Wow, that's sooo cool. I can't imagine how much coordination it must take for you to do that. Managing your aura so precisely that even light can't squeeze through…awesoooooome~" Ruby said after swallowing another mouthful of chocolate pancakes.
"That is pretty badass…but, what happens to the aura around your clone once it goes away?" Yang asked as she committed pork homicide to the bacon on her plate.
"Unfortunately, it simply dissipates. Whether I move far enough away, or someone slice's through my clone's aura, it is gone…some might call it a waste of energy. That is actually where I got the whole swinging ribbon action from. I use my ribbon to travel on the battlefield so I can preserve more of my energy for the fight." Blake said before finishing her last piece of toast.
"So, basically, you use your aura to take the light, being reflected from your body, and store it in a single spot while you move away from it? However, the aura cannot handle any attacks or lengthy distances, so you will lose it after a while?" Weiss asked to clarify.
"Yes." Blake said as she began to focus on the rest of her fruit.
"Any drawbacks?" Yang said while taking another bite from her biscuit and mentally cursing herself for forgetting the gravy.
"Not particularly. Obviously I use energy every time I create a clone, but other than that…well, for some reason I cannot manipulate the light of other objects, even though there is no reasonable explanation for me not to be able to. I don't know if my semblance is incapable, or if I have not learn how to yet." Blake said as she began to finish her fruit.
"That's quite interesting." Weiss said after she peeled the banana and begin to take a bite.
"Oh yeah~ Be gentle, baby…" Yang said right as Weiss had a bit of the banana on her lips.
"Ugh. You disgusting oaf." Weiss said as she placed her banana down and went back to finish her oats.
Ruby's cheeks flushed red at Yang's comment and tried to change the subject, "W-what about y-y-you, Weiss? Your…uh…semblance…glyphs, right?" The younger girl muttered.
"Yes. To put it in layman's terms, I can extend my aura over a certain distance and, by varying the concentration and frequency of it, the glyphs will have different properties. For example, I could make one of my glyphs resonate at a frequency perfectly in sync to whatever it is touching to make my glyph attach to it until I change the frequency of it again." Weiss said, taking the last bite of her oats.
"Is that what you did while we were in the Emerald Forest fighting the Nevermore? Your glyph held me in place while you aimed at the Grimm, then let me go when you waved your fingers." Ruby wondered aloud as she picked up her blueberry muffin and began to eat it.
"Precisely. It is a well-developed version of what Blake does when she jumps from her clones." Weiss said with a proud look on her face and arms crossed over her chest.
"Ooooohh, sounds like she's calling you out, Blakey." Yang said as though she was trying to instigate an argument.
"I'm fairly certain that is not what she was trying to accomplish. Though it makes sense that you would be better at it than myself…didn't you say that your semblance was genetic?" Blake asked after shrugging off Yang's comment.
"Yes, it is. My father and grandfather were both able to use glyphs, as well as my sister." Weiss sad while attempting to take a bite of her banana. Right as she placed fruit on her tongue, Yang let out a very suggestive moan only loud enough for her teammates to hear. Weiss scoffed as she threw her fruit down once again and Ruby hid her face with her hair as she looked down toward her lap and twirled her thumbs.
Blake, however, felt a warm sensation within her body and a shiver shoot up her spine at the sound her partner made just a foot away from her. "How can she manage to be so vulgar with two people she just met not even a week ago?" Blake thinks while looking at Yang's younger sister. "A better question would be how her sister has managed to remain so innocent throughout their childhood...hopefully I'll get used to this." She thought wondering why she gets that warm feeling in the first place. It's the same kind of feeling you get when you are really excited to do something that you've been waiting to do.
"So, Weiss, are there any negative sides to your semblance?" Blake asked after regaining her composure.
"Similar to yourself, I do not regain any energy used for my glyphs after they disperse. However, it is important to point out that my glyphs cannot discriminate. For example, if I have an explosive glyph set for an enemy, do not run near it expecting it to leave you unharmed because you will end up the same as any other unfortunate Grimm to walk upon it." Weiss stated in a serious tone followed by drinking the rest of her water.
"Meh, I'd be fine." Yang stated and kicked her feet onto the table since she had finished her breakfast.
"Assuming you did survive, I don't even want to imagine how much pain you would be in the following morning. It would take more than a few pills of Aleve to help you." Blake said, finishing her orange juice and placing her trash on Yang's tray and doubling up their trays.
"You'd better not try to test that, Yang!" Ruby said as the other three girls began to chuckle. "What's so funny?! I'm being serious!" She partially screamed.
"You are too cute for your own good…" Weiss thought and immediately shook her head mentally. "INNOCENT. To innocent for her own good." She corrected herself as she grabbed Ruby's chin and brought a napkin up to her partner's mouth. "Honestly, I had better not have to baby you forever." Weiss stated while wiping the very conspicuous milk-mustache Ruby had after downing her milk.
"T-thanks…" Ruby said with a deep red crawling across her face.
"No problem. Now, since we're all done eating, shall we make our leave?" Weiss asked her team.
"You're not done eating yet…" Yang stated with a grin while pointing at Weiss' uneaten banana.
"It seems to me that you would rather have it. Besides, you probably have plenty of experience with it." Weiss shot at the brawler.
"Ha! The only thing that I heard out of that was that you're inexperienced and I'm a sexy heart-breaker!" Yang stated with no hesitation.
"What an excellent role model…" Weiss mumbled while picking up her banana and finally taking a bite.
"No wonder you're a virgin if that's how you treat it…news flash: don't use teeth." Yang said with a smirk across her face.
Weiss said nothing but simply threw the peel at her, which landed on Yang's boot. Blake and Ruby were both quite red, but were staring to giggle. "Did I miss the joke?" Yang asked after kicking the peel onto the double stacked tray.
"I'm just glad that you two are getting along." Ruby said while picking up her tray. "C'mon guys, let's go."
"So, are we going to go and train now?" Yang asked after they threw away their trays and left the cafeteria, heading towards the front entrance to Beacon.
"I don't think that is a good idea, since we're still healing and all. We can have another training session tomorrow." Blake stated.
"But we're gonna get behind if we don't keep up our training…" Yang argued.
"That's not necessarily true. What we've been talking about during lunch helps us out a lot, also. We're are going to be a team for the next four years, so it probably did us some good to learn a little bit about each other." Weiss said in an uplifting tone.
"Yep. And now we need to incorporate what we've learned into our fighting to make better use of our strength's and cover our weaknesses." Ruby said excitedly.
"That's cool, but what are we gonna do right now if we aren't training?" Yang asked, crossing her arms behind her head.
"I actually need to go and buy some more ammo for Crescent Rose, so I'll be heading into Vale soon." Ruby said while pulling out her scroll.
"I think I'll go with you, I would like to visit a few book stores and perhaps find something of interest." Blake explained while also looking at her scroll for the list of books she wants.
"There's actually a book store across the street from a boxing gym I like. Called Tukson's Book Trade; my dad would get my textbooks for Signal from him. He's a cool-cat…or wolf, I guess." Yang said while looking at her partner.
"Wolf?" Blake inquired carefully, expecting the answer.
"Yeah, he's a wolf Faunus. I like hearing his stories about the White Fang! He used to be a part of 'em, then he got pissed at all the murdering, theft, and assault that started happening." Yang said while smiling.
"…A-and you're okay with that?" Blake asked, hiding her worry at the possible answer.
"Back in his White Fang days, they were still doing the protesting and gaining a huge following from Faunus and Humans. When the shit-storm went down, and the leadership changed to that new guy, things started to get violent and he didn't like that one bit." Yang explained with a very serious tone. "So, to answer your question: yeah, I'm okay with it. He and others like him are cool." She said while smiling to Blake.
Blake let out a huge mental sigh of relief, but wondered about her other teammates. Especially the Heiress of the White Fang's biggest enemy. "What do you guys think about that?" She asked while turning to her other teammates.
"Same." Ruby said while still staring at her scroll, presumably at what kind of ammo she'd be buying soon. "There are too many people being mean to the Faunus over a stupid war that happened like a hundred years ago or something. I love everybody!" Ruby said while looking up to Blake and smiling while speaking the last part.
"I've had quite a difficult life thanks to the White Fang, so I adamantly despise them…but I suppose I agree with Yang. The problems with the White Fang only began when this aggressive nature surfaced. As for the Faunus in general, I have no quarrel." Weiss said in her usual Ice Queen attitude.
"That is quite a relief…maybe I can get through these four years after all." Blake thought to herself.
"Okay, so we're heading to Vale right now?" Yang asked as she pushed open the front doors to Beacon academy.
"Yep! We'll take an airship to Vale and split up." Ruby said gleefully.
"We?" Weiss asked in annoyance.
"Yeah, I want you to come help me pick out the ammo. There's no better person I want helping me pick what to get when it comes to dust." Ruby clarified right before giving Weiss a hug.
"Buttering her up and then asking for a favor…I've taught you so much." Yang said while mocking a sad face at her lest statement.
"Fine…" Weiss said quietly as all four girls went straight for the airship docks straight ahead of them.