I only own my OC
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Chapter 2 part 1: Trial by Fire
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Blake and Adrian were sitting at breakfast the next morning making the most amount of small talk you could expect of the two of them. As they sat there eating in more silence than anything they were slowly joined by Yang dragging a reluctant Ruby and then Jaune as well. As they all sat there eating, trying to shake off the drowsiness, and wondering where the Nora girl gets all of her energy Ruby asked Adrian a rather curious question. One that got Blake and the rest of the gang wondering as well.
"Hey Adrian, what are the headphones for? You can obviously hear everything that's going on around you so what do they really do? Are they even playing music without being plugged into your scroll?"
"Yeah those things are kind of strange. Why would you wear head phones only on your human ears anyways?" asked Blake.
Adrian wondered how to explain for a moment before answering.
"My headphones do not need to be plugged in to my scroll because I made them and they are special. They, they overload? Yeah that's right, they overload my human sense of hearing forcing me to use my animal senses and make them grow as they would have if I had no human body parts to interfere. For example if I were to take the head phones off and put them on Yang then the required brain functions to not process the information she would gather from the headphones would not be available which would cause her to loose control. Although it would probably be fun so why not try so you can see."
As Adrian hands Yang the headphones he pulls out his scroll and starts pressing a few things on his CUSTOM TOUCH SCREEN SCROLL! But other than that Yang puts the headphones on skeptically while Ruby drools over Adrian's stuff, however as the headphones go over her ears her eyes go wide and tears pour down her face as she jumps up from the table gets down to her knees, reaches her hands to the ceiling and declares to the heavens in sudden despair
(Track on headphones playing Adrian's remake of Hello Kitty by Avril Lavinge and its spot on so no one would expect that it was actually him that sang it to entertain the kids between Grimmer attacks among other songs he remembers.)
"What, where has this song been all my life? Wait, forget that who is this? I want a copy of this song."
"First of all you may only like the song now because you heard it on MY headphones, and there's nothing I can do about that. But you won't find a copy of any of the songs on my scrolls anywhere because they are original recordings. I preformed or sung each and every one myself." Adrian said as he pulled his headphones off Yang.
Yang was imitating a fish. "But, but the, the song. It sounded, no way!" While Yang was broken everyone decided it was time to make it to their lockers to strap up. Adrian had everything he really needed to survive something like initiation but decided that for the sake of the safety of those around him he would go over his supplies again as well as check on his brothers weapon.
Where Adrian made it to the side of the lockers where his locker was located he overheard two other boys talking about Ozpin's speech from yesterday. Adrian couldn't recognize their voices but after listening for a while he managed to pick out the names Sky and Cardin Identifying the two as Sky Lark and Cardin Winchester.
"So who do you think Ozpin was kissing up to so hard yesterday that despite it all is still stuck in this ridiculous school?" "I know man if he's so good then he should just go out there and fight Grimmer to get better, it's what I would do." "Yeah I know"
Either their really confident or they have never really fought Grimmer before, but Cardin does bring up a good point I do wonder who Ozpin was talking about yesterday. He would have told me before basing a speech around me so it obviously wasn't me.
At that Adrian left Cardin and Sky to their own devices as he moved over to his own locker. As he opened it up he noticed first the battered machete hanging in the back, then he noticed the fresh supply of unique munitions for his specialized gauss weapons as well as a set of training rounds uniquely made to not kill even at the speeds they would fly. Third he noticed the large stash of medical supplies in a semi stuffed backpack that looks like a bulging sash, something he wasn't expecting quite yet.
After donning the medical pack and checking his ammo stores he was about to close his locker when suddenly Ruby popped up inside of his arms screaming, obviously at him but not looking away from his brother's machete. Adrian also noticed that he had, on instinct, grabbed Ruby's hand when she reached for the beaten weapon.
"I am sorry but I was not paying attention could you please repeat?"
"Ooh you! I said how could you possibly leave this poor weapon in such poor condition like this? It's like it's died!"
"It has. It will remain dead until it is needed again, it is not mine. This is the last we will speak of this Ruby, do not touch my brother's weapon, ever."
The cold and somber tone Adrian stopped Ruby's struggling and after she thought she thought about what he said she turned to the boy who still held her hand but had done so in a way to prevent any pain and bruising. Finally looking into his eyes she saw things she never felt possible from simple eye contact. In Adrian's eyes she saw strength, strength to protect, as well as strength to continue on and survive no matter what, but most of all she saw a poorly hidden, deeply rooted, shoddily denied sadness. His depression ran so thick Ruby wasn't sure if she would be able to break it by herself. She would need help and she knew two people who were just right for the job, she just needed to team up with them.
Sadly that was when Yang decided to come in "Hey you! You just met my sister so I'd appreciate it if you didn't go putting the moves on her so soon."
Here Adrian was presented with a very unique situation as with his four year old remnant level of grammar caused him great confusion for a moment which showed clearly on his face. After finally realizing what Yang meant Adrian's face went front angry and confused, to clearly embarrassed, as he released Ruby and floundered back in a rather cute display of 15 year old naivety. This however caused the girls to adorn confused looks.
"Wait if he wasn't laying moves on you Ruby what was that look for?" asked Yang.
"I did not understand what you were saying, my anger was primarily directed towards Ruby's attempts to desecrate my brother's weapon. While I may not be particularly angry at her I do not appreciate the idea of destroying my brother's weapon. I simply wish to keep it in the state it was when, we'll in this state." While Yang managed to understand Adrian's little slip, Ruby did not, so she pressed on asking him "why would you do that? Cleaning, and sharpening aren't going to destroy it you know." So with a sigh Adrian finished with "I've already said too much, you will just have to just let this one go because I will be very angry if you ever touch my brother's weapon outside of the most direct of emergency because that weapon leaving the locker is the equivalent of Vale being over run by Grimm to me."
"Wait you said you didn't understand what I said earlier but it still got a reaction out of you so did you or didn't you understand." Yang asked suddenly cutting off Ruby's acknowledgment of what Adrian said.
"It is hard to understand, I have a large vocabulary, so I know enough words and their meanings to understand most sentences. The thing is though I haven't learned any proper grammar or speech since I was four years old. That's why I talk so different." Said Adrian.
"Why didn't your parents teach you?"
Looks like I'll be telling them after all "I'll tell you two but you have to understand that I don't want this to be gossip around the school, ok." "Ok! (X2)" "my family died when I was four to some Grimm that split away and got us in the forests outside out village which was attacked by the main force. All that were left behind totaled two human toddlers, a six year old Faunus sibling sister to her newborn baby brother and one other Faunus toddler plus me. Every one who ran we assumed were hunted down because no help ever arrived and we had to relocate. I buried my family leaving my father's weapon, our family heirloom, to mark the grave. Then I buried what was left of anyone else I could find before gathering enough supplies to head out. I used my brother's machete to provide for and protect the other five from there on out, building a shelter suitable to keep them away from the Grimm that I often had to fight and bringing in food to keep us all healthy and alive. I also made sure to entertain everyone regularly to keep moral high thus avoiding even more Grimm. That's where the music comes from by the way."
"Well where are they now? You guys obviously got help right?" asked Ruby totally entranced by the story and missing the slump in Adrian's shoulders entirely, Yang however started to get worried and gripped Ruby's shoulder causing the young girl to look up at her older sister and berries taken aback by the worry on her face "what?" she asked as she looked back to Adrian only to start to worry just as her sister. Looking at Adrian at the moment was hard, like really hard. His smile was by far the most expressing, genuine, and bittersweet happy smile she had ever seen on a person ever. Coupled with his eyes that were displaying amusement, gratitude, depression, sadness, and happiness all at the same time for some reason. His slumped down defeated stance was just making it all that much more the worse! "Wha- no. NO! Don't look at me like that! Wha-*sniff*what happened to them! And don't lie to me! I'M A BIG GIRL AND I*sniff* CAN HANDLE IT! *sniff* I-I Adrian if you don't tell me so help me I promise I'll-I'll!" Ruby was practically near hysterics at this point and everyone nearby was stopped in what they were doing to watch as Yang held Ruby back from tearing into the boy with no pajamas.
When Adrian spoke to answer it was soft, and very quiet. However, as fate would have it the moment Adrian made to answer silence spread its reign across the entire locker room, everyone present heard the boy in rags' answer to the young girl's fury.
"They didn't make it. A few months ago we were attacked by some older Grimm that were trying to go after my isolated Aura, they broke into our home and killed three of the four youngest before I could do anything. In an act of desperation I unlocked a second semblance, but not before the sister received a fatal wound after watching her own brother die by trying to jump in front of the attack for her. While I was able to prevent her from receiving any more wounds I could not heal her and had no medical supplies so she died some time during the fight with the Grimm likely brought by all of the negative emotions of the event. After I calmed down and cleared the area of Grimm I was found by a huntsman that came to investigate the sudden increase of Grimm activity in the area. After a bit of convincing he got me to come here, he said it would be good for me. If that is all I believe we need to go to the cliffs."
At that Adrian closed his locker as he walked out leaving Ruby to collapse into her sisters arms. As Adrian was about to pass Yang ha turned to her and decided that he was decidedly harsh with his delivery even if there was no malice in it, it kind of just happened.
"I am … sorry. I did not mean to be so harsh."
"Huh! Oh don't worry, she did say she was ready. I know it could have been said a little better but I could tell that you were just trying to get that off your chest and didn't mean any harm to her really, BUT that doesn't mean that you're just off the hook. You're gonna have to make this up to her OK mister."
Adrian observed Yang for a moment before nodding. "Very well" and with that he continued on out to the cliff side. Once outside Adrian took a moment to notice some of the people that were out here already. Dove, Sky, Russell, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, Weiss, where's Jaune? Adrian noticed Jaune and Cardin were yet to arrive but knowing what was going on and knowing how to solve it were two different issues. Though a plan was starting to form, one no one would like at all but at least one he was willing to go through with. Yet planning Jaune's escape from bullying would have to wait as initiation was about to start and Oz pin has been speaking for a while something about teams that shattered Ruby's world like glass.
"-as such the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for your remaining years at Beacon. There will be one team of three so if a group comes together and you find yourselves a third member your scrolls will relay you a message whether or not the person you meet is part of your team. Now then one person to a pad, any landing strategy is acceptable but flair is always worth a few nights free from homework" "Sir!" "Bye~*wave*!"
Before anyone could say anything they were all launched one after another in quick succession with no time in between throws. In between Jaune's screaming, Yang's laughing, and Ruby's 'birdie no!' Adrian managed to regain control and turned to face the forest in his approach, legs slightly wider than shoulders, arms spread out wide tilted down at the slightest angle. Slow movements on the approach, don't want to change position or else I'll have to use more Aura. Ozpin wants flair well I see the perfect alpha beowolf out there to land on. Looks like Yang and Blake are gonna meet in the clearing a ways northwest, and a bit further west of that I see Ruby meeting… Weiss. Well she'll have fun. Might as, oh shot did she just spear Jaune out of the sky? Yes, yes she did. My bet is on them grouping up with the Nora girl and that Ren guy, heh their already paired and they haven't even landed yet. Well here goes nothing.
As Adrian approached the canopy he shifted his body so that he was slightly lunging to the right side with his right arm raised ever so slightly and hanging out to the front while his left arm did the opposite. The second he broke through the small branches of a tree he passed he reached out and grabbed an incoming branch and swung himself under it launching himself straight through the canopy of the emerald forest as he continued to swing or occasionally hop across branches at mind numbing speeds until he reached his intended destination.
When Adrian burst into the clearing like a madman the beowolves didn't know what to do so they just sat back and watched as the blurry missile flew through the clearing and slammed down on the alpha, obliterating the once leader of the pack leaving Adrian in the center of the crater left behind. And as the dust settled Adrian stood and turned to the pack of young Grimm. At that moment the entire pack knew they were outclassed, but they had heard of the one before them. He was the one who declared war with his darkness, with his Grimm, he had declared war with the Grimm. He wasn't like the other hunters, he was different, he was, no IS a threat to the collective. That means that survival is secondary to killing this one and they all know that, so they howled as one. They did not howl their hunting howl, or even their average threat howl that would call a few nearby willing allies. No they howled to the collective to send back up, to send an army. At the end of their howl every Grimm for as far out as seven miles halted, looked to the sky and answered the collectives call.
Adrian knew what was happening. When he heard the multitudes of Grimm calls coming for miles he smiled, that had to be at least over 20 million Grimm even considering the fact that there would be none coming from the space of Vale itself. Though people are gonna freak when the Grimm come tearing through the city ignoring everything just to get to me. Ozpin may end up calling things off but it's not gonna work if He shows up. Adrian thought as he held his right arm out to his side as a midnight black short sword so dark it seemed to steal the light from the air around it appeared in his hand. (Nightingale blade) he held his left arm out and the same sequence occurred only this sword radiated a bright white lite that was hard to look at just above the handle and had a bronze blade lit aflame. (Dawnbreaker)
"Well guys it's action time, no defense, full throttle from the start, you know the deal. RECKLESS CHARGE!"
When what could very possibly be every Grimm in the entire forest started running past Yang and Blake they decided to he'll with it, initiation first, crazy Grimm later.
"So what do you think is up with the Grimm, I mean yeah see *pack of beowolves run by* their still ignoring us oh hey, we're here, and sons my sister! Hey Ruby!" "Oh hey Yang, do you know what's up with the Grimm?" "Nah, weird isn't it?" "Yeah well the other four over there are a group right now you'll be on our team. Just pick up the gold horse. But yeah they think that the Grimm were going after something, like they might be attacking the city so we were trying to contact the professors but we were told the city was fine and to continue with initiation. Apparently the Grimm are all gunning after one of the people who was launched out here with us, nobody I've asked has seen Adrian and I'm starting to worry Yang!"
Thankfully Blake stepped in at that point to save Yang as the big sister had no idea how to help little red. "Adrian is strong enough to take care of himself, after all he has been doing it for a while it seems"
"What do you mean?" "it's all everyone can talk about, how Adrian has supposedly been fighting Grimm since he was a little kid like in Ozpin's speech and that he did it while raising five other kids who couldn't protect themselves and variations of the rumor." "Oh no he's gonna be so mad! He said he didn't want people to know but now everyone knows! What do I do Yang!?" "No idea."
"Everyone quiet down!" shouted Ren as he crouched into a defensive position that everyone mirrored as they turned to face the south side of the clearing.
The first thing that came out was an Ursa, crawling with only its front paws into the clearing. Suddenly the Nightingale blade flew into the clearing as well and impaled the Ursa's head leaving the darkness blade sticking out of the ground just shy of a meter into the clearing. Following this another Ursa came out but this time only the Ursa's back could be seen aside from the flaming Dawnbreaker sticking out the top through the bear's skull as Adrian drug the thing into the clearing letting it set aflame and dissolve on his sword as he approached and retrieved the Nightingale blade. Before any reactions were made or Adrian haven't managed to lower Dawnbreaker a beowolf Alpha shot onto the clearing to his right and ran dead sprint for Ruby. On instinct Adrian threw Dawnbreaker and impaled the alpha before raising his hand in a tightly clenched fist before releasing it in a spray of mist and light shouting "RECKLESS ABANDON!" which caused a light white sheen of Aura to spread down and cover all eight of the other initiates before fading. As this happened the Grimm really came out of the wood works in a sense. Adrian ran to retrieve Dawnbreaker as Grimm all shapes and sizes ran into the clearing.
"EVERYONE TOGETHER!" shouted Ruby and Jaune at once causing the two groups to form semicircles of RWBY and JNPR connecting to make one unit with Adrian in the front. Once in position Adrian shifted Dawnbreaker back and pulled out one of the few things that he was proud of in its simplicity, no crazy theoretical earth tech, no video game base, just simple what material can I find to be strong enough to take damage with a capital D and still be usable in battle on a realistic setting. My answer was so great I made armor of it too, that's right I used the bones left behind from the Grimm we ate and made a super material in a chemistry experiment. But his pride is the shield. It was a simple round shield with a small crescent cut out over his fist which allowed Adrian to deliver devastating punches while using the piece. The item was actually attached to his gauntlet and could not be removed without further modifications. Adrian had added weights to it so that rather than being as light as his armor the shield would have enough weight to easily bash things as an attack despite its small size.
With Thorax (whose name honestly started as a joke) and the Nightingale blade Adrian cut into the wave of Grimm that was pouring in on both sides of the clearing at this point, effectively cutting Grimm off on one side from the teams of Initiates who have found themselves a very real trial by fire. After a good solid five minutes of fighting with everything they had while keeping themselves reigned in some of the to-be students were starting to worry.
"We need a plan to get to the cliff, I saw a tower there with a bridge we could cut them off at!" shouted Ruby
"What gave you that idea you imbecile!" "Hey! Don't talk like that to my sister!" "Guys-"
Adrian decided to step in before they made things worse "If you guys continue to allow your minds to be reigned by negative emotions such as anger, fear, and regret you will only draw more and more Grimm to our location where could otherwise take care of the ones already on our trail and then make our escape before the rest make it to the forest. As it is we are in for a fight with well over 20 million Grimm that are already on their way, I would appreciate things not being made even harder than they already are." Adrian shouted out over the commotion which efficiently stopped the fight.
"Yang! Ruby! Ren! Weiss! Watch our backs! You guys have both melee and long range weapons available simultaneously! Weiss! You in particular support the other three with those glyphs! You're the most versatile of us all so keep an eye on everyone and if anyone stats to have extra trouble give support! Blake! Switch to your pistols! Nora! Take your hammer out for now and smash any Grimm that go for you or Blake! Watch her back OK! Pyrrha! You do the same as Blake but use your rifle and let me watch your back! We need you and Blake to support Adrian so we can see if he can cut us a path to the cliff seeing as he seems to be the best fighter here by far!" Shouted Jaune out to everyone so they could take their new positions.
"Alright!" "Got it!" "Right away!" "Sure thing" "You got it!" "OK!" "Anything you say!" "Yeah!"
"What do you need me to do?"
…
Adrian didn't understand Jaune due to his grammar problem.
…
"OH carp that's right! Jaune! Adrian may have an Adult vocabulary but when it comes to grammar and other things he might as well be a four year old!" shouted Ruby
"I understood that and no Ruby that's not what I meant earlier, I am a normal 15 year old." Came the biting monotone remark from Adrian.
"Well we need to get to the cliff, you make your way there and we will follow you. We will provide support as best as we can." Jaune ordered Adrian the best he could.
"Very well." Was Adrian's late call to battle and with it all nine of the young potential Hunters and Huntresses cut a bloody swath through the Emerald Forest as if the heavens themselves had come down with a great dagger and cut a jagged laceration in Remnant through the great masses of black that would only come back together after the group had passed. They made mistakes, for sure. But for an act of total group teamwork under leadership that is not well respected for most of the where this is practically their first meeting, mistakes are to be expected ok. Occasionally Jaune or Nora would let a grim through and it would gun for their partner, more often than not Jaune, but he made up for it by always stopping them with his body unknowingly cementing a crush for him with the redhead.
The four in the back made their own mistakes. Weiss would place glyphs in the wrong places for the most part at first but after a minute or so they managed to get into rhythm with each other. Then they would let a Grimm slip through surprising either Jaune or Nora but the trees were getting thinner and light was stating to shine through, they were almost there.
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LOL it's a CLIFFhanger get it well you don't cuz it only gets worse in the next chapter, you'll see.
