For their efforts and diligence, all sixteen of the students were placed into four teams. Ruby got to lead Team RWBY, Jaune got to lead Team JNPR, and Cardin Winchester, whom neither of the aforementioned two teams ran into at all, ended up leading Team CRDL. Repairs were made, Ruby stole away to the cafeteria to pig out in celebration (but not before inviting her new teammates, who declined), and Jaune went to their new dorm to sleep off the multiple knocks he took during initiation.
Moving into the new dorms themselves was a big opportunity for RWBY to personalize the room-and their attempt at livening up the bunk beds ended up with the top bed of one pair supported in the air by a jury-rigged series of ropes, and another bunk separated by stacks of Blake's books. It worked, however, especially Ruby's bed, the one hanging in midair. Surprisingly, it remained put even when Ruby jumped up and down for a bit in it.
JNPR refrained from doing anything that wild, however, and elected to try and place their beds separately instead.
"Jaune," Ren began, addressing his leader, teammate, roommate, and fellow scholar, "now that I think of it, our Mobile Suits seem very similar." "Yeah?" replied Jaune, who was busy using his foot to kick a box full of comic books under his bed, "How so?" Ren shifted into a more thinking-oriented pose, looking up at the ceiling as he lay on his bed. "Ours both produce these weird particle-things, they don't seem to have verniers like other Mobile Suits, and they both look like Gundams. Hm. How did you acquire yours?"
"Uh..." Jaune stalled, thinking of a response. "I'll be honest, I used to drive something...older, let's say." "Oh, what?" "A, uh, Ground-type, uh, RX-7-something." "A Ground Combat-type Gundam?" asked Ren, surprised. The RX-78/79 series was notable for being a massive revolution in Mobile Suit technology-in fact, the Gundam series, as it was called, was the origin of the term "Gundam" and inspired many successors afterwards. While various versions of the Gundam abounded back in the day, they became excessively rare mere months after deployment. The 79[G] was notable particularly because it was an attempt at a reformulated Gundam, one more suited to combat in harsher terrain, more suited to mass-production, and more aware to the realities of combat between Mobile Suits as opposed to being built for Grimm hunting. That Jaune piloted one was impressive, even if it lacked some of what made the original Gundam great.
"Weellll, it was modified. Rebuilt after some nasty battle. My sisters had better Mobile Suits, but dad told me mine was special because of what it had been through, what it meant, et cetera. Dad even gave me a hand-me-down sword and shield to go with it." Jaune's reply surprised Ren further. "Well, that's quite...interesting, but that doesn't tell me how you got your...what was it called?" "Exia. Actually, my parents showed up one day and took me over to some secret-y lab and showed it to me. Told me I could pilot it now. So now I do. What about you?"
To Ren, this explanation could suffice, but it seemed...terse. Very casual about it-but, then, I'm trying to have a casual talk anyways... Moving along from that thought, Ren sat up, ready to deliver his story. "Similar story. My mother often took me to this warehouse they kept my Dynames in and let me toy around with it a bit. She even let me design the beam pistols, though they don't quite resemble what I originally had in mind. I suppose mine's a Gundam, especially since it seems like everyone here has one, too." "Yeah, I guess that goes for me, too. I mean, I thought it was cool at first..."
As the two resolved the matter of what to refer to their unusual Mobile Suits as, they turned their attention to the bigger issue: the similarities. "Now," Ren began as he was changing into the Beacon school uniform, "why do both of our Gundam 'Suits seem to use the same tech? Any ideas?" "Uh...it's the new thing?" Jaune replied. "Perhaps, but I've never heard of it. Did your father not tell you what the specifications were?" "Nope." "Me neither. My father just told me that all I needed to know was that it was near-limitless in the fight." "Well, it doesn't matter, so long as we can pilot them...right?" "Jaune, both of our suits use similar, unknown technology, similar design language, and both have capabilities we don't fully know of. Doesn't that seem...suspect to you?"
Jaune shrugged. "If we really need to know, we'll find out, I guess. No need to worry about it now, I say." "Fair enough." It was at that moment that an exuberant Nora burst into the room, chucking a box of possessions onto her bed and then cannonballing onto it. "WHOO! SHARED DORM ROOM!" "Good to see someone's excited, at least," said Pyrrha, who followed Nora in from the hall, carrying a small bundle of sparring staves under one arm and holding a stack of four packages in her other hand. The boxes contained the Beacon Academy uniforms, which were issued to every student in the school on the first day of classes.
After the team got changed, they all headed out, chasing after Team RWBY, who were now similarly clothed (though Ruby kept her personal cloak on). Class was starting soon, and the first day was always important.
The first class wasn't anything spectacular thus far. While an interesting little primer on Grimm and hunting, Professor Port's class mostly consisted of his bragging about past exploits. Ruby slept through a good chunk of it until Port invited Weiss to demonstrate her skills. Port wanted to bring a live, caged Grimm to the class for the students to practice with, but he was instead persuaded to bring in an MS simulator pod.
Highly configurable and modular, the Atlas Manufacture "NuStandard" Simpod was indeed a popular standard across most of Remnant, with software that could simulate large-scale combat with high accuracy-or, at least, as accurate as the data was. Every Mobile Suit registered at Beacon was given a basic analysis at one point or another for simulation purposes, and Grimm fought in the sim were based off of data and models that were still changing. These factors ensured that no two sim battles were necessarily the same-a Grimm that was easy to beat with a Zaku one day would become much more difficult when the Grimm's simulation was changed after new findings were discovered. Conversely, a new and experimental Mobile Suit would be able to be simulated more accurately as the data on its parts and other capabilities became more refined.
It was in this pod, which normally resembled a typical MS cockpit, that Weiss took her seat. Port pushed a button on his podium, causing a large monitor to rise from the floor, lighting up as the simulator booted up. On a flat, grassy field, Weiss' v Gundam materialized in virtual reality. Opposing it was a massive, boar-like Grimm with great tusks of hardened bone, serrated teeth, four orange eyes, and a spiny backside. The creature, a gigantic version of a Boarbatusk, was as aggressive as any Grimm-something that wasn't very hard to program.
When it charged forward, Weiss deflected it with the v's Myrtenaster before her MS took off on its own burst of speed, but the rapier got caught in the virtual beast's tusks. Unable to free it or turn the beast over, and distracted by Ruby's cheering, Weiss lost control of the sword-wielding arm, and the beast flipped the rapier away behind it and rammed the Gundam backwards.
While getting back up, Weiss managed to dodge the creature's second charge, letting it uselessly daze itself as it collided with a tree. The Gundam boosted over to the discarded rapier, and Weiss shouted back at Ruby's advice. The boar-beast took off again, curling up and rolling at Weiss. Using the fins, Weiss managed to replicate a snowflake shield that knocked it back, before leaping up and kicking off another flake shield to land a fatal lunge on the creature's underbelly, slaying it. Once class was dismissed, Weiss stormed off on her own.
After that, Weiss and Ruby had some words. Weiss was still irate at Ruby and failed to see why Ruby was the leader. After all, why couldn't it be Weiss, who worked hard to get where she was, versus Ruby, who was younger and seemed more naive? However, Ozpin and Port did not share her opinion.
"I mean, it's only been one day," said Ozpin to Ruby that afternoon in one of the school's halls. Ozpin asserted that he was right in choosing Ruby, and he tried to focus on her instead, asking her opinion. Port, elsewhere and meanwhile, chastised Weiss about her behavior. Weiss and Ruby would both come to terms about today, and that following night, they reconciled.
In the meantime, while Ruby and Weiss were having their discussions, their teammates were also chatting about the two:
"Look, Blake, let's get this straight: do you think Ruby's a bad leader?" "Well...I mean, we've only been working together for a short time. She'll grow. She'll learn. I think she was going a bit far, but I don't think Weiss had to snap at her." "My sister's always been like that. She'll be as loud as she wants to be, but she means good. I don't think she'll do too badly." "I think she has great potential. I mean, she must have been selected to lead us for a good reason, right?" "Yeah, I guess so. Can't say I wouldn't take her over Weiss!"
The following day, after classes, Team RWBY convened for practice, something that the faculty reminded the students to do as frequently as possible. The team, after making the necessary preparations for practice combat, were allowed to go to an empty field reserved for MS training. There were no Grimm to fight in that field, but combat against other Mobile Suits was something that Mobile Hunters had to train for anyways-in fact, one of the classes they had that day was Professor Goodwitch's class, where duels were held between students in hand-to-hand fights and in MS simulations.
Ruby had racked her brain on the way there trying to figure out what they could do. The team settled on 2 vs. 2 combat: Ruby and Weiss vs. Yang and Blake. The pairs took up opposite sides of the field. "Hey, Ruby, any ideas on how to take them?" Weiss asked. "Uh..." "Well?" "Try to stay in Yang's blind spots, maybe? Don't rush her head-on. I don't know about Blake..." "You handle Blake, I'll take Yang." "Good idea."
"Hey," Yang said to Blake, "How about you try and take them on from the rear and I'll keep them busy up front?" "Sounds like a plan, Yang, but what if they try and cover each other?" "Don't worry, a pincer attack always makes the other guys scatter!"
On Ruby's count of three, the four of them took off. Ruby and Weiss split off to engage their own targets, and Blake went ahead of Yang to surround the opposing pair. Ruby rushed in, her Gaia delivering a swift horizontal swipe with the scythe, but Blake's Blitz Gundam leaped over where the beam blade should have been (the computers on all their Suits roughly emulated the existence of it). Ruby reacted by leaping backwards into a short corkscrew maneuver, attempting to bring the scythe towards Blake, who shadow-cloned away at the last second. Quickly regaining her focus, Ruby readied the beam rifle, firing sim-shots at the black Gundam that jinked back and forth before replying with the pistol component of its Gambol Shroud. Ruby leaped in the air again, the Gaia doing a backflip to avoid the salvo of paint rounds, though a couple tagged her.
Weiss zoomed forward at Yang, who was ready to meet a rapier with her Suit's fists. However, Weiss sidestepped at the last possible second, making Yang's fist meet air instead. Yang followed the momentum of the punch to spin around to face Weiss again, who was already using her fins to prepare an ice attack for Yang. Yang instead launched a fireblast as soon as the ice surged forth, the two attacks colliding and dissipating into steam. Yang charged through once more, but met an empty space again. Weiss was already behind Yang and about to finish her off when Yang triggered both fists, sending her surging backwards and catching Weiss by surprise, sending the both of them toppling to the ground.
Back over to Ruby and Blake, Ruby juked back and forth as she charged at high speed towards Blake, who shadow-stepped to the side at the last minute. Blake lashed out with Gambol Shroud, the blade catching the red cloak of the Gaia, which suddenly was not attached to the red Gundam. Blake whipped the multi-use weapon back, along with the cloak to reveal that where the Gaia should have been, a light cloud of rose petals floated in the air. Blake quickly scanned around before almost being hit by a sim-shot. From her flank came a red, quadrupedal machine, styled somewhat like a wolf. A Mobile Armor...?
The new 'mech leaped over Blake's pistol fire and landed to the Blitz's side, transforming and unfurling into the Gaia Wulfen, the scythe readied once more. "How do you like it? It transforms into a high-speed machine!" said Ruby over the comm. Blake, a bit too eager to finish the battle, lashed out again with the Gambol Shroud, the weapon hurtling directly forward, but Ruby sidestepped it, charged over and delivered a swing that took the Blitz's left arm and head off-not actually, of course. Blake quickly retracted the ballistic scythe, but Ruby was too quick for her, the red Gundam raising the beam rifle to the black one's cockpit. One trigger push later, the sim-battle registered Blake as eliminated.
As Yang did her best to hop off of the downed v, she whirled around, an armored fist rocketing towards the prone MS, but instead it stopped cold against a snowflake shield, generated by the fins that managed to get into position in the nick of time. Man, thought Yang, those things are annoying! As she leapt away, the v Gundam was already back on its feet. Weiss, remembering Ruby's advice, instead sent the fins forward, firing off bolts of ice. Yang leapt forward, practically catapulting the Shining Gold Gundam into the midst of the funnel-type devices, leveling fist and foot at each. It was a daring maneuver, one which got her bogged down with ice before she managed to take out half of them. Crashing back to the ground, the fins hovered over her, charging up a powerful runic blast, before they were swept away by a wave of thermal energy that vented itself from the Gundam, melting its icy weight as well. The fins fell to the ground, disabled due to the simulation (as imperfect as it was), and it was back to one-on-one.
Yang wasted no time making the first move again, boosting forward on fireblasts and thrusters, ready to deliver a powerful blow to Weiss. Weiss readied herself, and as Yang got near, Weiss used the Myrtenaster to bring up an ice wall in the hopes of stopping Yang. While this did neuter a lot of Yang's momentum, she merely used another fireblast to send her other fist into Weiss' left side. However, Weiss was already ready for this, and used a fireblast of her own from Myrtenaster to throw Yang off. The yellow Gundam quickly rolled with the counterattack, and fired a blast that managed to disarm Weiss. Yang charged in again, managing to beat Weiss to the punch, as it were, and struck the v Gundam solid in the left torso once more before Weiss could reclaim her rapier. The simulation counted that as a fatal blow, taking Weiss out of the fight.
Ruby and Yang matched each other here. The two siblings, wasting no time, charged at each other. Ruby's beam scythe was shown as fatally piercing the Shining Gold's torso, while a point-blank blast from the Ember Celica registered as having crumpled the Gaia's cockpit. The sim-battle ended in a draw.
In the discussion over dinner that followed, Team RWBY compared notes and thoughts.
"Weiss," Ruby complained, "I told you not to engage Yang head-on!" "It's not like I wanted to! Besides, I ran out of options." "While using the funnels was a good idea," Blake chimed in, "you may have relied on them too much." "Once I knocked that sword out of your hand, it was game over for you!" said Yang. "Anyways, why didn't you tell us you had an alternate mode on your Mobile Suit?" said Weiss, addressing Ruby. "Well, it's meant to be a surprise! And it worked! Kinda." Ruby replied. "You charged at me repeatedly. Why you didn't try and get some distance between the two of us actually confused me." said Blake. "Well, I didn't think I was gonna hit you because you kept dodging, so..."
The discussion went in a circle a couple of times, but eventually, the four of them agreed to work on particular strategies in the future.
HW-X04/MS-WF-X04B Blitz Gundam (Modified Stealth-capable Gundam-type Mobile Suit)
Manufacturer: Hyperion Weaponry (originally, defunct, co-creator), Mobile Suit Consulate of Mistral (originally, co-creator)
Operators: Blake Belladonna
Operation: Pilot in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions and weight: 18.63 m. (head height), 65.88 metric tons (overall weight)
Design features: Gundarium-alloy armor with ECM generator system, unknown sensor range, 10 thrusters (outputs unknown), Ultracompact Dust Reaction Battery (power output unknown).
Armaments: "Gambol Shroud" Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe: MS 70mm magnum pistol/anti-armor blade (10 rounds capacity), dura-chain grapple system, anti-armor sheath.
Some years ago, four prototype Gundam-type Mobile Suits were stolen from a Hyperion Weaponry facility during a daring raid, sometime after final shakedown testing of the units in question. The theft was never reported to any authorities, and the story of the raid was told only by some ex-employees of the company who were quickly out of a job after their expensive prototypes were lost.
One ex-employee who, more recently, happened to be manning a supply train for Atlas, claimed he saw the fourth of the prototypes reappear during a White Fang raid on the convoy, except it was different. Colored black, he said, and sporting none of the weaponry or perhaps even armor it was supposed to have. Some tend to dismiss his account after he starts talking about the "cloaking system" it supposedly should have had, but the story still intrigues others, since no footage of the attack was captured, lending an air of mystery to the otherwise real attack. The urban legend is, in actuality, real, but very few people know the truth of it...
A/N: I'm back for now. Whoo. Sorry about the delay.