The following day, all the prospective students woke up, some still sleepy, some ready for initiation, and others indifferent. One student, Lie Ren, a boy with a very reserved disposition, found himself being followed by Nora Valkyrie, a hyperactive girl who talked his head off for most of the morning. While Ruby and Yang were holding a conversation in the locker room over Ruby wanting to work with Yang and the initiation involving being put into dedicated teams, Weiss struck up a conversation with Pyrrha Nikos, a skilled student of Sanctum and minor celebrity over teaming up as well. Jaune's attempts to flirt with either of the two while boasting about "Team Jaune" went over rather poorly, almost ending in physical trauma.
The school's PA system sounded off, reminding the first-years to report to MS Hangar 10 to prepare for the initiation. The large, underground facility impressed anyone who hadn't gotten to see it yet. Sixteen Mobile Suits, aligned in one long row, were docked into solid frames to hold them in place, complete with elevators and catwalks. In front of the Suits were sloped elevators for transport to the surface. Hangar 10 led out into Beacon Cliff, where the initiation would begin. Inside the hangar, the sixteen initiates were given further prep time, making last-minute checks before climbing into their suits and powering them on.
Yang sped off towards her MS, a Gundam-type called the Shining Gold Gundam, which Ruby was only semi-familiar with. That machine was also a custom piece, rebuilt under Yang's direction. Its jutting torso was colored a soft-but-vibrant golden-yellow, with additional yellow and black accents, and it sported two large golden-yellow gauntlets that dominated the forearms, loaded with high-explosive cartridges, which were Yang's own Ember Celica weapons.
As Ruby sprinted towards her own Gundam, Jaune walked half-excitedly towards his angular-shaped Suit, its torso painted silver white, its limbs grey, and other elements painted either white or gold. The Gundam-like suit carried its sword-and-shield equipment, the shield and sword as silver as the Suit's torso. Jaune noticed the "collar" of macro-wrapping, a common Mobile Suit covering for transportation that partially covered the head and clavicles of his MS. He'd have to remove that later.
Inside the cockpit, Jaune fiddled with the controls to his Mobile Suit, trying to power it on. "Stupid...thing...where's the manual?" Hearing his grumblings, Ruby poked her head out of her Gaia's cockpit and shouted over to Jaune, "Need any help?" Jaune replied, "Uh, no, I got it under control, just gotta, ah, turn it on first! Stupid-" As he said this, he tried grabbing both control sticks and shoving them forward while holding down the triggers, which seemed to do the trick.
He heard something flicker into life as the cone-shaped object on the back of his Mobile Suit spun up with a distinct keening noise and began ejecting unusual yellow-green particles, which also issued forth from other areas on the Suit until this behavior ceased and the particles settled on trickling out of the back device. For the brief moment that the particles emanated from the whole machine, it strained against the carriage's restraints. "Huh, guess that's how..." Jaune muttered, his cockpit now fully lit up.
"Welp, good to hear!" beamed Ruby as she returned to her Mobile Suit. In its unpowered state, the Gaia Wulfen was a metallic grey color for the most part, due to its Variable Phase-Shift Armor that boasted the most effectiveness when given a power source. The colors it displayed when active depended on the amount of power fed into the armor. For Ruby's Gaia, the red color displayed represented a middling-to-strong amount of protective strength. This "Phase-Shift" was demonstrated as the Gaia's armor faded to red when Ruby activated her Gundam.
Jaune, looking at the side monitor in his now-closed cockpit, noted the large red cloak that hung on Ruby's Gundam. Fiddling with what he figured had to be the communication controls, he opened a comm-link to Ruby's suit. "Hey, Ruby," he asked, a window showing the inside of the Gaia's cockpit opening up on the monitor in front of him, "what's the giant cape for?" "Oh, it's just in case! It's made of a lightweight cloth, it can withstand some beam fire, oh, I can use it as a distraction, and it looks way cool, don't you think?" "I guess so," Jaune replied, shrugging. Ruby got a nice cape for her Gundam, and his Gundam-like machine had giant-sized packaging material around its neck instead.
The next thing to happen was that the massive elevator system warmed up, sending out warning beeps indicating that it was about to begin ascent. After a few seconds of that, the multiple cradles released their restraints as the mass elevator carried the Mobile Suits up the sloped track to the surface. At the end of the slow climb, the Beacon Cliff greeted them, overlooking the Emerald Forest, a vast expanse of woodlands tall enough to conceal a Mobile Suit. However, it was slightly hard for the students to see it, even in their tall machines, as ahead of them lay a slightly long strip of what a few suspected to be catapults.
On all of their Suits, a comm feed opened up, revealing Professor Ozpin's face, with Ms. Goodwitch standing behind him. "Students, please step onto the footlocks in front of you," said Glynda. Most of the sixteen initiates glanced down with their Mobile Suits, and all of them thusly guided their machines into the new set of restraints. Once everyone was secured, some noticed subtle changes occur, thrusters and comm-links having their settings modified.
"For years," began Ozpin, "you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Glynda and Ozpin then segued into explaining how teams would be formed during this first assignment, which caused Ruby some stress, especially due to the permanency of team composition. "...That being said, the first person you make contact with in your Mobile Suit after landing will be your partner for the next four years. After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." This last note caused Jaune to gulp nervously.
"You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and carry it on their person before returning to the top of the cliff. We will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Jaune's attempt to ask a question instead resulted in him getting cut off as Ozpin instructed the lot to brace for takeoff. All of them took a "ready" stance with their Suits, bracing for what was likely about to happen, lowering their centers of gravity.
As Jaune was asking about landing strategies, the first Mobile Suit, belonging to Weiss, was launched by what turned out to be a linear catapult, hurling her entirely-white machine towards the expansive forest, thrusters flaring up. The others followed suit, also being launched by catapults while Jaune finished his question. Ozpin's reply was simply "You will be falling." As Jaune continued to ask regarding the subject, the last six catapults began to launch, with Nora going first. The catapults continued to launch across the row, finally reaching Jaune's Exia, cutting him off as he hurtled through the air after the others.
Over the treetops of the Emerald Forest, a large, crow-like avian glided over the forest canopy, right before it was absolutely smashed by around 70 tons of metal, electronics, and other material in the form of the Gaia Wulfen. Inside her cockpit, Ruby screamed, "Birdy no!" While using the few thrusters she could to brake, she readied her Crescent Rose in its folded form, fired off a couple blasts to open up a gap big enough for her Gundam to fit through, then performed a reverse somersault as she transformed the box-rifle into its scythe form, using the beam blade and its emitter to hook onto a branch, doing another backwards 360 before releasing and falling further.
Inside Weiss' Mobile Suit, the v Gundam (pronounced "Nu"), she readied her glyph magic. The twelve fin-like devices on the back of the MS detached and flew ahead of the machine. Through these sub-machines, which folded and arranged themselves into hexagonal patterns three-at-a-time, Weiss used her powers to create snowflake-glyph platforms for her Gundam to land and kick off of, slowing her own descent. The ability for her to express her magic at such a scale was all thanks to the v Gundam's design (and especially its "Fin Funnels," as the devices were called), created by her father's company and built by one of its partners.
Lie Ren's Mobile Suit, called the "Dynames," produced its StormFlower, a pair of beam pistols, each boasting a solid blade that pointed downwards. Using these pseudo-bayonets, Ren stabbed a tree, riding down the trunk in a spiral while carving a deep groove into the tall tree, coming to a soft landing. Hearing a noise, he looked above, seeing Yang's Gundam speed past overhead.
Whereas some used thrusters to help carry them ahead and then brake themselves, Yang was instead boosting herself along using nothing but the recoil generated by her Shining Gold's Ember Celica, which fired off its explosive shells, generating short-ranged fireblasts that propelled her along. She fired herself into the tree canopy, using the branches to cushion and slow her horizontal flight before emerging, her Gundam kicking off tree trunks towards the ground. Landing in a somersault, she said, "Nailed it!" as she quickly shifted into a running stance, her Suit dashing off.
Pyrrha hadn't spent long in the air before she engaged a key feature of her Aegis, transforming the Gundam-type into an arrow-like form that rammed through trees, shattering whatever she ran into before returning the Aegis into its regular MS mode. Landing on a branch as she rolled the Suit into a crouching position, beam rifle at the ready, she noticed, through the rifle optics, the form of a silver-and-grey Gundam-type tumbling end-over-end awkwardly, throwing out the odd particle while a male voice screamed near-helplessly out of its loudspeakers.
Wasting no time, the red-and-soft-orange Aegis flipped the beam rifle over, the weapon reshaping itself into a longer, narrower javelin with a heated blade. Pyrrha hurled the rifle-javelin, which boosted itself with an emission of plasma, sending it flying towards the about-to-crash Exia. A distant noise of hot metal and the low twang of the spear indicated it hit, and a "Thank you!" broadcast over loudspeakers indicated she made the mark, as usual. "I'm sorry!" Pyrrha replied over her own speakers.
Upon landing, Ruby wasted no time, pushing her Mobile Suit into a full-on running stance and taking off in search of Yang. As her Gaia took off at incredible ground speed thanks to its high-powered actuators, Ruby kept thinking Gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang... She tried a broadcast on as many channels as she could, calling for her sister. After a couple attempts at this, she began considering the possibilities she had if Yang couldn't be her partner, cycling through Jaune and Blake. Okay, who else do I know in this school? There's Yang, Jaune, Blake, and...
Ruby ground her Gundam to a halt as she spotted another Mobile Suit that was most certainly not Yang's. The pure-white Suit turned around, seeing Ruby's Gaia. Once Ruby finally came to a halt, she regarded the other Gundam for a few seconds before a comm-link automatically opened up in her main monitor, revealing the pilot to be Weiss. After a few moments of silent surprise between the two, Weiss closed the feed, her v turning away and walking off. "Wait," Ruby called, "where are you going?" As the v Gundam walked off, Ruby, dejected and disappointed, muttered, "We're supposed to be teammates..." as she dreaded having to work with Weiss.
Stumbling through the foliage, Weiss came upon what happened to be Jaune's Exia, pinned to a tree via a spear stuck through a slowly-burning piece of synthetic wrapping. As the Exia weakly waved a hello, Weiss turned her MS around and decided to stick with Ruby, leaving a dejected Jaune alone again. Grabbing the MS-scale cape of the Gaia Wulfen, she dragged Ruby along, telling her, "By no means does this make us friends," as Ruby exclaimed, "You came baaaack!"
"Hey, wait," Jaune broadcasted, "come back! Who's gonna get me down from here?!" He flapped the arms of his Exia, trying to signal them back, right before Pyrrha's Aegis approached. "Jaune?" Coming across the suspended Exia, Pyrrha jokingly asked, "Do you have any spots left on your team?" as a comm-link opened up between their Mobile Suits. "Very funny," replied Jaune. The two smiled at each other for a bit, right before the now-blazing macro-wrapping gave way, ripping away and burning up, freeing Jaune of both the tree and the awkward collar. Unfortunately, the Exia landed face-first when it fell. While Jaune's restraints saved him, Pyrrha could not help but giggle at the image of Jaune's face pressed against the screen.
"What's the hurry?" asked Ruby. "I will not let my mission be delayed just because you're too slow! I swear, if I get a bad grade because of your-" Weiss' reply was cut off by the Gaia suddenly appearing in front of her v, an accompanying gust of wind rustling the leaves. "I'm not slow, see? You don't have to worry about me!" said Ruby to a surprised Weiss. "When did-" "Weiss, just because I don't know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters!"
After making her case, Ruby's Gaia sped off once again, disappearing in a cloud of rose petals, moving too fast for Weiss to even hope to track. Weiss picked up noises of foliage moving, branches bending, leaves rustling. While trying to call Ruby back, Weiss realized that she was surrounded by several pairs of glowing red eyes-the eyes of Grimm. One Dire Beowulf, a Beowulf the size of a Mobile Armor, stepped out of the tall shrubbery, growling at the white, mechanical intruder. Once again, Weiss called for Ruby.
Walking her Gundam through the forest, Yang tried calling out for others. Hearing leaves rustling, she parted a small, dense cluster of shorter trees apart with the Shining Gold's hands, revealing a growling Ursa Major instead of Ruby as she expected. Leaping out of the way of the ferocious Grimm, she readied the Ember Celica of the Shining Gold right before a second Ursa Major revealed itself. As one of the towering beasts lunged at Yang, she readied a punch that blasted it backwards and knocked it flat before delivering an uppercut to the second, followed up by a flip along with boost-blasts from the gauntlets that knocked the Ursa down. "You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a red robot with a hood, would you?"
This question was met with a roar from both Grimm. "You could just say no!" The first one charged her again, swiping at her, but not connecting as the Gundam backflipped away. Yang's taunting of the monsters was cut short as she noticed that part of the radial V-fin on her Mobile Suit cracked and fell away. That enraged Yang, as she hated getting that part damaged, but also was furious that she got hit at all.
With that, her Gundam emitted a burst of fiery energy before she charged at the Ursi, delivering a furious barrage of fisticuffs that sent the Grimm through several trees. As the second one went right up to her, roaring and about to attack, it was suddenly stunned before it fell over, revealing a black Gundam standing behind it. In its hand was some sort of flat cord, which was revealed to be connected to a bladed weapon when the newcomer pulled it back, storing the now-folding weapon on the back of the Suit.
As the comm-link opened up to reveal a smirking Blake Belladonna, Yang said, "I coulda taken him!"
Weiss managed to withdraw the hip-carried rapier of the v, called "Myrtenaster," and raise it just in time to block a swipe from the main Dire Beowulve's claws. The Gundam braced for impact, the Myrtenaster taking the blow, resulting in the machine being pushed back. Despite being surrounded by mildly-smaller versions of the hulking creature, Weiss remained composed. Remember your training, Weiss, she thought. Head up, shoulders centered, right foot forward...not that forward! Slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and... Her Gundam snapped into a swordfighting stance, its left arm drawn back, the Myrtenaster pointing forward, ready to strike. A cylinder of Dust charges inside the weapon spun for a short distance, selecting a fire charge. "Now!"
The Gundam charged forward on a thruster-enhanced leap, zooming elegantly towards the Beowulf in front of Weiss. Weiss was confident, certain that she would land a killing blow on the creature-until the Gaia materialized next to the lead Beowulf while landing a beam scythe blow on it. Taken by surprise, Weiss braked her v, but while flailing to a stop, she swung Myrtenaster, which discharged the fireblast she prepared, sending a line of fire across the clearing and into a tree, igniting it and blasting its leaves off in a flash.
Ruby, taken aback while watching Weiss' stumbling, was suddenly knocked back by the retaliating Dire Beowulf, sending her Gaia into Weiss' v. The Phase-Shift armor, along with her Aura, absorbed the strike, letting Ruby get away with having to stand up from a kneeling position. "Hey, watch it!" said Ruby. "Excuse me," Weiss replied, "you attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!" "You'll have to try a lot harder than that!" Raising their weapons once more, they looked around at the snarling, howling beasts. Ruby swapped the elongated E-cap on her Crescent Rose and prepared for a fight-until a burning tree fell down near the duo. "We have to go!" said Weiss, grabbing Ruby and pulling her away from the growing inferno that possibly trapped the pack.
Making it to relative safety, the two took a moment to catch their breath before Ruby asked, "What was that?! That should have been easy!" "Well, perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!" "What's that supposed to mean?!" "I'm just surprised that someone that talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!" "Well, I'm sorry that you need my help to win a fight! I'm just fine on my own!" "Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon! Bravo!" That last comment angered Ruby quite a bit, since she decided to vent her anger by drawing Crescent Rose, using its beam blade to slice through a tree.
Making their way through the forest, Jaune and Pyrrha were searching for the temple when Jaune's attention was garnered by the distant sounds of explosions. The noise did not escape Pyrrha's attention, who answered Jaune's query by identifying it as gunfire. As the pair continued on, Pyrrha pushed a branch out of the way, which snapped back and hit an unprepared Jaune in the face of the Exia, knocking it down and jostling Jaune. Pyrrha apologized before asking why Jaune didn't use his Aura to stop the blow. Pyrrha had to explain to an actually-clueless Jaune about what Aura was, about souls and the Grimm's lack thereof, and how Aura was inherent to all.
After this, Pyrrha placed her Aegis' hands on the head and chest of Jaune's Exia. "Close your eyes," she ordered. Jaune obeyed, closing his eyes, the sights and sounds of the cockpit melting away. Inside and outside their Mobile Suits, the light of their souls glowed as one. Pyrrha began to speak as this process continued:
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."
After this, Pyrrha ceased to glow, and seemed a bit more exhausted. As Pyrrha explained that she unlocked Jaune's Aura, she noticed how, on the comm-feed, the bruise he just sustained in the cockpit healed up quickly.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the forest, Lie Ren was walking the Dynames through a field of rather tall grass before he stopped, sensing something. His intuition was proven right when a King Taijitu, a massive serpent, rose up from behind his Mobile Suit. It swiftly slithered around him before coming to a brief stop in front of Ren, whereupon it lunged at him, fangs bared. Ren dodged it quickly, taking the Dynames into a backflip, assisted by the glowing particles that flowed out of multiple areas on the green-and-black MS.
As the great snake snapped forward again and again, Ren kept backflipping, letting the monster's head strike earth a couple of times before it launched another attack that Ren was forced to block. He raised the Dynames' arms into a cross-stance, letting him deflect the blow that connected and using that strike to catapult away from the snake. When he touched land again, the King Taijitu coiled around him, towering above the Mobile Suit. The Dynames quickly drew its StormFlower pistols, the fold-out guns flying from the forearms into its hands. Leaping upwards, the Dynames flipped over and unleashed its weaponry.
The twin beam pistols sprayed rapid-fire beam shots into the serpent, though the green-colored bursts failed to seriously harm the creature. As Ren fell earthward again, he guided his agile Dynames to deliver a kick to the head of the Taijitu, knocking it over. He charged in, swinging the solid blade of one pistol into its head as it rose again, sending it away for a mere second before it leaped at him again. He dodged again, leaping into the air and flipping before he landed, plunging the blades into the head of the beast. However, the other half of the King Taijitu rose up, white in contrast to the black half he had been fighting.
The two heads lunged at Ren once more. He dodged both, landing on the body of the black half, gliding on the slick "back" of the massive Grimm as he continued firing on it. For all of the footwork he could do with a Mobile Suit, however, he was knocked down as the white head came back for a second swing. Knocked away with his StormFlower out of his hands, Ren snapped out a quick "No!" as the black head bore down on him. However, he called upon his Aura to protect him, and he noticed that the particles from the Dynames also seemed to react with his Aura. With the metal hands, he blocked the upper fangs of the Taijitu head, creating a forcefield that held the mighty Grimm back. Ren finally managed to overpower it, grabbing the fangs and breaking them off.
As the head fell towards him again, he sidestepped and spun, throwing one fang into the eye of the creature. Summoning his Aura and the odd particles again, he slammed one of the MS' palms into the fang sticking out of the snake's eye, driving it in. This caused the head to ripple like a water balloon before it exploded, taking the black head off. Charging at the white head, he delivered another such palm slam into the nose, stunning it like before. Jumping for the StormFlower, he grabbed them and aimed both at the exposed eye of the creature, unloading a prolonged burst of fire into it. The eye was vaporized entirely, the remainder of the shots blasting out the insides of the white head. The creature fell for good, smoke pouring from the ruined eye cavity.
Withdrawing the pistols, Ren stood and observed the remains of the Grimm before a sound much like a fake bird call drew his attention. A pink-and-white Gundam-type appeared out of the branches of a nearby tree, hanging upside-down. The automatic comm-feed opened up as per usual, showing Nora Valkyrie's face. "Heh," Ren said, "I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like." In response, the hanging Gundam reached out with one of its hands and poked Ren's Dynames in the face. "Boop!"
MCMS-SP20 Aegis Gundam (Special-Project Transformable Gundam-type Mobile Suit)
Manufacturer: Mobile Suit Consulate of Mistral
Operators: Pyrrha Nikos
Operation: Pilot in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions and weight: 18.35 m. overall (MS Mode), 70.44 metric tons (std. Weight)
Design Features: Phase-Shift Armor, unknown sensor range, 14+ thrusters (outputs unknown), Ultracompact Dust Reaction Battery (output unknown), transformation capabilities (MA mode), reinforced extremities
Armaments: 2x 75mm CIWS (head-mounted, MS mode only), 4x beam machete (integrated into limbs), 4x beam gun (torso-mounted, MS mode only, power rating 1.6 MW), "Miló" beam rifle/heat javelin/xiphos (hand-carried, binder-stored, power rating 2.6 MW, directly-powered), "Akoúo̱" custom shield
Pyrrha Nikos, the rising star from Sanctum, had been competing with any Mobile Suit that suited her, using only the Miló and Akoúo̱ weapons she designed and created. As time went on, she upgraded these weapons as necessary. Before the Mistral Regional Tournament that became part of her list of achievements as a celebrity warrior, the Mobile Suit Consulate of Mistral decided to build for her a "real" Mobile Suit to compete with some of the contestants, who themselves fielded Gundam-level Suits.
While Pyrrha was reluctant at first, the Consulate promised her creative control over the MS, along with a degree of fair play, as they made this offer to several others who accepted, promising a level playing field. Pyrrha agreed, taking them at their word. With the guidance of the Consulate's engineers, she started designing, and designing, and designing, until she realized that the MS she created might as well have been a Gundam, as she remarked. Having heard this, the final product was solidified into the Special Project 20: the Aegis Gundam. While inspired from an earlier experiment from the consulate, Pyrrha's design was almost built around her personal weapons. The transforming MS could directly feed the beam rifle and the shield was now more well-integrated with the Suit. With a few final tweaks, Pyrrha entered the tournament grounds and would go on to perform well in the Regional Tournament. When she left for Beacon, she brought the sterling Gundam with her.
The Aegis itself is a "fluid" Mobile Suit, able to adapt to ranged combat and close combat at a moment's notice. A beam machete built into each limb allows it to fight off opponents that close the distance, while four torso-mounted beam guns add an extra mid-range punch. Miló is ostensibly a beam rifle, but can transform into a heat javelin or shorten into a double-edged heat sword. Akoúo̱ is a durable shield, treated with anti-beam coating and boasting a sharp outer edge. It can also be thrown, and, thanks to Pyrrha's semblance of polarity, be manipulated mid-air. Finally, the Aegis can transform into a tapered MA form, able to ram through solid objects or grab onto targets if need be.
A/N: I figured that doing the whole initiation arc in one go was a good idea. As it turns out, breaking it up over two chapters is good enough, as this one is long and took a stupid amount of time. I know that I avoid calling Exia and Dynames Gundams-I'm planning on giving Jaune and Ren a scene that explains it. I forgot to make notes for the last chapter, and I didn't think to do an MS profile for that chapter, but I think all I wanted to say was that I wanted to try and compress the arcs so I can do my own fleshing out of things. Also, I realized that I made an error in the first chapter: I described the Gaia as painted red, when, really, Phase-Shift doesn't work like that.
Thank you for reading and sticking with this mess.