Chapter 2: First Impressions
Summary: Some of the team meet for the first time, rather comically in some ways.
Two weeks and a few farewells later, Kane was on board the massive vessel that was carrying himself and about one hundred other young huntsmen and huntresses to Beacon Academy on the outskirts of Vale. Preoccupied with the view from the ship's windows as he was, he didn't notice the quiet girl walk over to him. He jumped a little when she said "Hi" in a quiet voice. Turning to face the familiar voice, he found himself looking at one of his classmates from Signal. She was a kind and soft-spoken deer Faunus by the name of Luna Pines, her body was slender, and stood half a head shorter than him. Looking up at him slightly with eyes the color of honey, she pushed a lock of her Pine-green hair out of her face and giggled; taking some sort of sadistic amusement from startling him, he could feel his skin becoming hot from embarrassment.
"Hey Luna, I hadn't realized that you were going to Beacon too" he replied, returning the smile. Her response came in the form of an excited nod, green hair bouncing, "Yep," her voice was filled with pride, "I got my acceptance letter a week ago, Mom and Dad were so happy for me." Before I could properly reply, a middle-aged blonde woman in business attire was starting to be projected onto a nearby screen, her voice being pumped in through the ship's intercom system. We all turned to watch the screen, the new sight being much more interesting than the news broadcast that had been playing previously.
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" started the woman, she paused before continuing. "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attending this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect our world." With that, the screens cleared and the audio cut out, the broadcast apparently having come to an end.
The ship docked not too much later, and students began disembarking excitedly; everyone eager to get a look at the legendary Academy. Kane and Luna managed to get separated somehow in the rush, and he only realized the shy faunus was nowhere to be found after spending a few minutes chatting to Yang Xiao Long and their friends from Signal. Kane wasn't super concerned, the girl could take care of herself and wasn't one to get herself into trouble. As he scanned looking for his friend, he saw a bullhead with a strange banner flying behind it land at the school, a second one with a slightly different banner landed next to the first.
A strong hand pushed silver bangs out of eyes the color of pine needles, before adjusting a slate-grey vest. William began to frown, before remembering that Ozpin had promised that paparazzi were not permitted on school grounds. The knowledge made him relax slightly, but he maintained a vague mask of stoicism. "ETA: five minutes, Mr Slate" called the bullhead pilot from the cabin. Making his way up front, he looked out the windscreen and gazed upon Vale, his eyes being drawn to the towering academy on the edge of town. A flash of pure-white caught his eye, and turned to find its source to be another bullhead, flying the Schnee family banner proudly. His brief confusion dispelled as he remembered hearing rumors that Weiss Schnee had also applied to Beacon for training. Apparently, they were more than just rumors, he thought with a chuckle; two of Atlas' richest families had students attending Beacon together, this would only end in trouble.
The bullhead touched down and the ramp lowered, allowing William to exit the shuttle. He carried a trunk on one muscular shoulder, and pulled a larger wheeled suitcase behind him with the opposite hand as he stepped out into the light of day; stopping a moment to adjust how his proud weapons, a sword and shield named "Krieg" and "Frieden", hung from their place on his back. He glanced to his left and grimaced out of pity for the attendants who were removing the Schnee Heiress' bags from her own shuttle, the girl had brought half her wardrobe with her it would seem. Stepping down onto the landing platform, he made his way towards the school, having no strong desire to converse with the dozens of students milling about the plaza.
Where did he go? the faunus wondered to herself as she walked through the crowded courtyard. A brief glimpse of scarlet drew her attention just long enough to collide with something large, solid, and silver colored. She fell to the ground with a squeak in surprise, there was the sound of luggage hitting the ground and metal clanged against concrete. "Oof! hey, you alright?" asked a gruff voice, a touch of concern in its tone. She looked up at who she had bumped into, eyes of honey meeting ones of dark green, "S-sorry" she stammered. The muscular man standing before her towered over here at 6'3", grey sleeves rolled up over impressive biceps. A strong hand helped her to her feet, his smile was kind, "It's quite alright, but you'd do well to watch where you're going miss," he chuckled, "some people wouldn't be nearly as polite about this." As if to prove his point, a shrill voice cried out in surprise as a red blur knocked the Schnee heiress off of her feet, dust vials scattering. Weiss began to verbally abuse the offending party; a girl who seemed much younger who was clad in crimson and black.
Luna frowned and returned her attention helping the stranger pick up their belongings, including a sword and a beautifully engraved shield. He spoke, introducing himself and dispelling the silence that threatened to overwhelm them, "Thanks for your help. The name's William Slate." She looked up at him again, thinking Oh no, he's hot, only now noticing how handsome he was; silver bangs framed a chiseled jaw, his face rugged but attractive. She felt the familiar chill run up her spine and a blush threatened to stain her cheeks, his rugged good-looks struck just the right chords in her mind. He chuckled, and the aforementioned blush quickly spread across her face as she realized she had been starring. "O-oh, s-sorry," she said shakily before regaining her composure, "I'm Luna Pines, it's nice to meet you William." Another pleasant smile, "The pleasure is all mine, Luna; and please, call me Will." She nodded in response, "u-uh, I need to go, it was good meeting you, Will!" she stated before hurrying away with her bags in tow, not waiting for a response.
Will tried not to laugh at how flustered she was as she scurried off; he paused as he noticed the fluffy white and brown tail protruding from her lower back. A faunus? I see. Well, at least she's cute. he mused to himself before continuing on his way to the school.
Later that evening…
Kane finished his evening meditation and rose, stretching to rid himself of the last little bit of tension in his muscles. The meditation helped, but was less effective when the floor under him was so hard and unyielding. He began wandering around the large room they had been given to sleep in that evening, stopping to ask other first years about their weapons should they have them out. The martial artist had an interest in weapon designs that he got from his mother, he loved how they looked and how they functioned, and there was no short supply of awesome, elegant, and lethal weapons at Beacon. He saw several blades, rifles, a few hand to hand combat weapons, and of course mixtures of those in high numbers. Several caught his eye; the first belonged to a lanky blonde by the name of Jaune Arc, his weapon was nothing more than a sword whose sheathe was also a shield, but he adored the simplicity of it. The next belonged to a muscular man with silver hair, he had caught a glimpse of its owner polishing the large blade and wanted a closer look.
Approaching the man, Kane bowed and introduced himself respectfully, "Good evening, I am Kane, might I ask who you are?" The man looked up at him with a polite smile before answering, "Good evening to you as well, Kane. As for who I am, my name is William Slate, though you can call me Will." Kane nodded slowly before speaking, "alright Will. I must confess, I'm not over here solely for conversation; I have a passion for weapon design and saw you with your sword, thought I might come over and try to get a closer look, if that's alright at least." Will smiled, "of course, I too adore weapons of all kinds, I'd be happy to indulge you if you'll indulge me by listening to me ramble on about my weapons." Kane had no qualms with this and indicated Will to proceed.
William stood and began talking, explaining his weapon thoroughly, "The sword is Krieg, the shield is Frieden. They are both forged from a custom-made alloy that is many times stronger than steel, and very light by comparison. Krieg also contains a custom dust pistol firing explosive dust rounds. Frieden can expand horizontally and vertically going from buckler to tower shield quickly and easily, increasing my defensive capabilities when needed. In instances where greater hitting power is required, I can combine these two elegant killing tools into a fearsome battle axe I call Einheit." he demonstrated this, sheathing sword within shield, and swing the whole thing backwards away from him. The shield rotated 180 degrees and slid up the length of the blade, whose tip spread exposing the dust pistol's barrel, locking the shield in place. The rest of the sword's blade folded, removing sharp edges and allowing William to use the full length of the weapon when swinging and carrying it without injuring his hands.
Kane was in awe, it was a beautifully lethal instrument of war. William allowed him to hold the now separated pair as he explained the name. "Krieg and Frieden; War and Peace," Kane quickly found the switch that allowed the change in form and didn't hesitate to summon the brutal looking axe, "Einheit," continued William, "means Unity." Returning the sword and shield to their owner exactly as he had been given them, Kane made his first comments about the pair, "I love them, the design is efficient, lethal; nothing about it exists just as an aesthetic item. All in all, they're wonderful." William beamed at the compliment, he was very proud of them, and loved hearing positive comments about them. He also enjoyed hearing people insult them, but for different reasons, in those scenarios he would duel the offending person to show them just how good they were. Money was the only thing he had found more effective at quickly influencing people than shows of force. Kane and Will sat together and discussed weapon designs they liked, though as time dragged on, Kane couldn't but wonder what Luna was up to; he hadn't seen her for hours.
Danica sat upon a sleeping on the dining hall floor, the makeshift bedding providing a soft barrier between her and the cold stone floor. Music from her headphones filled her head with screaming guitars and crashing drums, all the while she mouthed the singers words, the song was a duet, it spoke of heartbreak caused by the second singer's "death". Glancing around the dimly lit room, she noticed a green-hair girl sitting by herself; she was reading a book of some sort, and seemed rather lonely. Running her fingers through the scarlet hair upon her head, she made a decision and stood, turning off her music and sliding the headphones down around her neck. She casually crossed the distance between them and stood above the other girl, a smile on her face.
"Hey there," she said in a friendly tone, "you looked awful lonely from where I was sitting, thought maybe you'd like some company?" Yellow eyes looked up at her, rather surprised at the sudden greeting. "Uh, sure," came the quiet reply, "That would be nice actually." Danica sat as the girl (who was a Faunus as it turned out) marked her page and set the book down. The redhead spoke first, introducing herself, "I'm Danica, Danica Carnelian; what's your name?" The faunus hesitated a moment before replying "Luna Pines, nice to meet you Danica." Luna was a little timid, but mostly just quiet and softspoken, she liked people, but it was hard to make friends when she had been bullied so much as a child for having a tail. Danica chuckled, "right back atcha Luna," a smile spread across her face, " ya know, I'd be willing to bet that we'll be friends by the end of the week." Returning her smile, Luna replied "I… I think I'd like that." The two proceeded to talk for a while, before someone called "Lights out!" and Danica had to return to her own bed. The two wished each other luck in the exam in the morning.
Hey, so that's the end of chapter 2, next time, things get exciting as our heroes enter the Emerald Forest. Let me know what you think, your feedback is important to me.