Chapter 2: Peculiar People
It was simple enough finding the building, however it was a little bit more difficult mustering up the courage to enter the application building. 'What if I can't go to Beacon? What if they secretly know the cops are looking for me and call for help,' he thought to himself as he played out the scenario in his head, enjoying it less and less every time he thought about the possibilities. After about a minute of just standing there like a statue, he pushed open the door and walked in. He quickly examined the room
There wasn't much to the application centre, since there wasn't many people in the room. The room was a very plain white colour, with a row of chairs on the left wall and directly across from the door a lady sat at a desk, a few strands of her auburn hair dangling in front of her eyes which hid behind a pair of rimless glasses, staring blankly into a monitor. 'Here goes nothing.'
"Excuse me," he called to the application woman, "I would like to apply to Beacon."
"So, you want to train to be a hunter," she asked sarcastically, almost sounding sardonic.
"That's to be implied I would think."
"Look kid, do you want to go to Beacon or not, because if you do I just need your transcripts and then we don't need to talk to each other any more," she stated, sounding agitated.
"Right, I got them right here," he said, after rummaging through his jacket and finding his transcripts.
The desk lady quickly snatched up the documents, carefully examining them while cross referencing them to the ones on the servers. The process took less than two minutes to do, which was quite speedy due to the sheer amount of information on the documents. They were almost impossible to forge. 'Well, almost isn't enough… No you told yourself you were done with that. That isn't you. But that's what I was. Damn why can't I just leave my past behind me. Those blasted memories,' he rambled to himself not realizing that she was finished and was handing his transcripts back. He cautiously snatched them back, asking, "Is everything complete?"
"Yep, everything checks out," she said calmly, almost friendly, "The new students leave on an airship Sunday morning, six o'clock sharp. Good luck."
'Geez, how will I survive till Sunday,' he thought, internally scowling. But on the exterior he simply grinned and said his thanks to the lady, leaving her to sit there and continue her mundane job. 'Mundane or not, It's a lot simpler than what I'm doing with my life.'
Now at this point it was unbelievably dark outside, the only illumination coming from the street lamps and the shattered moon floating in the sky. He amused himself thinking that the gods were showing a metaphor of his life. 'But all that will change now, I will go to Beacon, like I should have. This is the start of a new and unwritten chapter of my life,' he motivated himself, distracting himself and letting his legs carry him to the airport. But Sunday was a long time away and he wasn't sitting in such an open space for two days. Which meant, naturally, he climbed the nearest building that wasn't connected to the port and decided to take a quick lie down to collect his thoughts. However he quickly let the calming hands of sleep shut his eyes and cause him to fall in a deep slumber.
David was in a dark room, but he was comfortably lying on a mattress. He bolted upright, knowing something was wrong. He wore blue pyjamas and was lying in a queen-sized bed with navy blue sheets covering his body. Somewhere in the distance he heard a shrill cry of fear pierce the air to his right. He instantly swivelled his head in that direction, saw a wooden door and started walking to the door. However the door started to move from him.
He started a never-ending chase, trying to catch the door and see what was causing the ear piercing screams to cut through the air. He was sprinting for the door, almost reaching it. But, he accidentally fell over, allowing the door to escape. He reached for it but it was too far gone. This brought tears to his eyes, 'I can't do this. I can't help anyone. Not even the ones I care for.' At this he heard a deep growl from behind and heard claws slash through the air, and felt a deep pain in his side. After that he blacked out.
At once, David bolted up, grabbed his revolvers and scanned his immediate area. There was nothing around except a flock of birds, fluttering away, startled at the sudden movement. He was back on the rooftop. 'Dammit why does this keep happening? Why now?' The memories always hurt. They were one of the reasons why he was leaving the past behind him. However, they were never so vivid, so real. He forced himself to forget the dream, shoving it into a corner of his mind he never ventured to. At this point, the sun had started to rise again, marking off one day until he would walk away from the memories and all the other aspects of his life that dragged him down. 'But there's always something that just has to happen that screws everything up.' He stood there on the roof, silhouetted against the mosaic of colours brought by the sunrise, thinking and planning out a strategy. 'First I need to get rid of these clothes,' he thought to himself as he started to remove the jacket, revealing the combat armour he wore underneath. It appeared quite bulky, however it didn't hinder his movements. It was designed to provide protection while not restricting movement. It did the job perfectly. The vest was akin to that of a ballistic vest used by police officers, but was bulkier, yet lighter in weight, and was pure black. After removing the jacket he peeked over the edge of the building and, after checking for anybody, threw it over the edge. 'No reason to keep it after all.' With nothing else left, and the sun just above the horizon, he headed off into the city. 'I won't just sit and wait here for two days. That would just be an invitation for someone to spot me.' And so, he headed off.
It was an average day in Vale, just like the day before, with people going about their business. 'However, even the most average day can change completely,' he thought to himself as he recalled the previous day's events. He started going to different shops, wandering through them, looking at what they were selling, and walking out. This was his way of making sure he wasn't being followed by anyone. It worked well in the past and never once failed him once. The sun was starting to near its peak and so far nothing had happened, other than a few instances where he thought someone was actually following him. It was actually relaxing, especially for what had happened yesterday.
David was just about to open the door to a local weapons shop that he enjoyed checking out every time he could go there. Especially since he new the clerk and sometimes would just stand next to the counter, telling him what was happening. However this visit took a slightly different path. As he shoved the door open with his forearm, he felt the door stop, bounce back on him, and stop halfway open. Shortly afterwards he heard a small thump sound, followed by a quiet voice.
"Ouch, what just happened?" The voice asked, obviously as confused as David. The voice was feminine, that much he knew, however the voice sounded almost childish.
'Now what kid would be so interested in a weapons store?' he questioned himself as he walked through the doorway. After he searched for any other people in the store, but he only saw one other person. The person in question was a young girl, who was sitting flat on the floor. She had dark hair, with red highlights at the ends. She wore a red cloak and skirt, 'Geez, she looks no older than sixteen, why would she be here. Every day stranger things keep happening.'
"Excuse me, do you need help?" He asked the stranger, offering his hand.
She sighed, afterwards reaching for his hand. He pulled her gently to her feet. "So what is someone like you doing in a weapons shop? No offence but you seem a tad bit too young to have your own weapon," he pressed, not understanding much of the situation.
"Well, it's just that I really like seeing other weapons," she answered sheepishly, "besides I already have my own."
"Really," he said thoroughly puzzled, "now why would you need your own weapon?"
"I actually do need my own weapon because I've been attending Beacon for almost a whole year now. I'll soon be…"
"Hang on one moment," David cut her off, "how old are you exactly?"
"Sixteen years, why does it matter?"
"The minimum acceptance age is seventeen, that's why!"
"Well, umm, I kind of got moved ahead two years. You see..."
'Geez, what is happening?' He thought to himself as she talked about a story of a dust shop being robbed and how Roman Torchwick was there, 'Well then, Roman has been very active in his schemes over the past year,' then when Ruby had finished her story he brought himself back to the physical world. "Okay, sorry I bumped into you with the door. But I haven't even told you my name," he realized, "the names David Smith. Pleasure to meet you."
"Okay then David. My names Ruby. Ruby Rose."
"Well then, I will hopefully see you at Beacon. Later," he said while turning around to leave.
"W-wait, what do you mean, see you at Beacon?" she asked as he opened the door to leave.
"I am terribly sorry for not telling you, but I will be attending Beacon Academy starting Sunday," he spoke, sounding almost honoured to be attending Beacon. But, who wouldn't be grateful to be attending the most prestigious combat school in Vytal.
"Well, what are you doing until Sunday?"
'Well that is an excellent question, what am I going to do?' He stood there questioning himself. "Well I'm not exactly sure, I guess I'll figure it out as I go along."
"Well if you aren't doing anything I'd like you to meet the rest of my team, I think they'll really like you."
"Fine, I'll go meet you're team, however, I don't have to like it," he said jokingly.
"Yay," the response bringing a smile to the young girl's face, "the rest of my team is just at another shop. I was going to go back to them, but then I met you and now I want to introduce you to them," she spoke at an almost incomprehensible pace.
"Okay, let's not keep them waiting," he said, holding the door for her.
As they walked through the streets they made the usual small talk. But then Ruby asked him, "So, what's your story?"
The question caught him off-guard, "What do you mean?" he questioned nervously.
"Well, what have you done? I told you a little about me so tell me about you," she persisted.
"Well, it's just that, how to put it… I'm not really comfortable about talking about my past," he said becoming more nervous with every word, "It's not that I don't trust you, but it's just that I don't really want to tell you it right now. Maybe some other time."
She seemed disappointed at the response, "Fine, maybe another time."
Just then, a faint shout could be heard from behind the unlikely pair. "RUBY! Where have you been!?" As they turned and David caught the first glimpse of the shouter his blood ran cold.
'No, this isn't happening, this can't be happening. Why her and why now?' He thought to himself as the white clad heiress, Weiss Schnee, came strutting towards the pair. It was almost as if the universe had seen him having a good chat with Ruby and decided to throw another curve-ball into his life. 'Why does this keep happening to me?'
As she came to face them she turned to Ruby and began scorning her, but David couldn't pay attention to the conversation. His mind was elsewhere trying to piece together what to say. Then, Weiss finally realized his presence and shot him a look and proceeded to interrogate him. 'Well this should be interesting.'
"And who might you be," she asked him casually, yet there was the slightest touch of fire in her tone.
"Sorry, how rude of me. The name's David Smith, but you don't need to tell me your name," he said, putting on a façade of calmness, "Weiss Schnee, I presume."
"Well then, since we now know each other we can leave. Ruby let's go, we were getting worried," she told the young huntress, then turning on David she whispered, "I still don't trust you though."
"Wait a moment, we, who else is there?" David interjected.
As if on cue, a blonde woman with her hair flowing down to her waist ran up from behind David, flew past him and proceeded to question Ruby asking the obvious 'Where were you' first and then after receiving a sufficient answer, turned to David.
"Hello, the name's Yang," she said enthusiastically, extending out her hand, "Who might you be, Ruby's new boyfriend?"
"Yang, stop it," Ruby interjected, obviously embarrassed.
"David, pleasure to meet you, but no I'm not her boyfriend," he said, shaking her hand, perplexed about the amount of people he was meeting in such a short time span. "Okay, is there anyone else I need to meet?"
The universe answered by a simple tap on the shoulder, 'Oh right, she said her team was waiting for her and teams at Beacon comprised of four students.' He turned, locking his eyes with a pair of yellow ones. He quickly shifted his gaze from the eyes to the fourth team members face and extended his hand in greeting.
"David," he said, accepting the fact that there were no other introductions needed.
"Blake," she said back, shaking his hand, "We need to go," she said to her team over David's shoulder, "the last flight to Beacon leaves soon."
"Okay then," Ruby said, enthusiastic as ever, "and David, I'll see you soon at Beacon."
"Hope to see you there," he replied back, waving good-bye to the group. 'Well then, that was interesting. This is going to be a new chapter in my life and it's already turning out better than the last one ever had.' As he looked at them, watching Ruby explain the situation to her team-mates. He felt happy inside, because he knew that what he was looking at would soon be a part of his future. 'What has been going on, the past days have been insane. From everything that concerns Roman, to applying to Beacon and now Ruby and her team. Especially Weiss, but she's in the dark about everything. This is just too complicated. Stay focused, deal with everything one thing at a time. Take things slow. This isn't going to be a quick process, but once all the pieces come together it will all be fine.'
He walked off, his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. It felt good to have a genuine smile on his face once again.
I have a few things to say, one of which is thank you to all those who are reading this story. This is my first fanfic and first small scale project that I've done on my own and the support is appreciated. Secondly, uploads will be infrequent due to school work and exams. However, during the summer I will have more time to work on this and will do so. Also, the next few chapters will be coming out slowly due to the fact that David will have his own team. Which means I will have to think up three more characters on my own (well not really but most likely). So this is going to take a while, but afterwards it will be much more swift to make chapters. But I am working on chapter 3 so there's your little bit of hope for this series. Oh yes, expect cliffhangers because I really want to have people wondering what's going to happen next (if this chapter wasn't proof of that). So thank you and goodbye.