So; this is a RWBY OC team, I know, not so original, but RWBY is just EPIC. And I had to try writing in some characters. So the first four chapters will be introducing the team via backstory, so please enjoy.

I stare at the ski goggles in my hands, their all I have from before... something, I can seldom remember anything past the last two years. Before I can start flash-backing; some blond scrawny kid runs past me, snapping me back to 'reality', I look at my surroundings; we're all still in that odd flying thing, I'm not sure what to call it as it looks like a flying whale with too many fins. I look towards the other end of the ship and see two young girls, well young-ish; one appears around sixteen or so, tall with long yellow hair, and the other I'd say around fourteen or fifteen with short dark red hair and an odd red hood, I didn't realize that Beacon accepted younger students. But I'm not in any position to question who gets in and who doesn't; I'll try an explain how I even got here, flash-backing commenced.

Face down in the dirt... I have an aching feeling this isn't the first time this happened, I pull my head out of the ground and begin to recollect; when a crowbar hits me on the head. My head once again in the dirt... yet somehow I retain consciousness, I pull my head up again and feel the back of my head, no blood, no major wound, however I have lost my memory, blunt force trauma...

Without my memory I try to recollect what I can by examining myself, also checking for injuries, so I make a mental checklist; I appear to have an exemplary vocabulary, bright red hair, some medical knowledge apparently, I have some clothes, black cargo pants, a yellow tee-shirt with an Ocelot face, and a red cargo vest, I think I'm sixteen, and I have a crowbar holster? I actually have a crowbar holster, yeesh, I'm almost afraid to find out my hobbies. Albeit I am void of any form of identification, no wallet, no passport, nothing, great... I pick the crowbar up and holster on my back, again, why do I have a crowbar holster? Who am I Dr. Gordon Freeman? Wait... how do I remember that, but not my own name?

I take a look around; I'm in a forest, looks like late fall, in the distance I hear engines and other urban sounds, so I head towards it, maybe I can find someone there who knows me. As I walk I feel inclined to bring out my crowbar and spin it around some, at first I just swing it but at some point I start executing fancy moves to the point I find myself hanging from a tree using the crowbar. Well, now I know one of my hobbies, doing crazy things with crowbars...

I holster the crowbar before I kill an innocent bird or something and keep walking, it takes about ten minutes when I stumble upon a small mineshaft, it look abandon, that or its just lacking modern equipment. Of course at the moment, I have no idea what year modern is... I examine the area, nothing interesting turns up other than a small jar with blue ashes in it, I pocket it by impulse and keep moving toward the city sounds. I'm only moving for another minute when I notice smoke rising from somewhere to my right, at first I dismiss the smoke as a chimney or camp fire, but I look closer and I see the smoke is a thick billowing black, which means it's not under any sort of control. Something inside me takes over, all senses jump into overdrive and I find myself charging in the direction of the smoke, perhaps I was a firefight... with a love of crowbars?

I arrive at the scene of the fire to see a humble house dangerously close to a barn that was producing the flame, I run to the house and start hitting the door, no answer, I run to the barn as I probably should have in the first place and pry the doors open, I guess this crowbar thing has perks. As I step inside I see more of the weird ash spread on the floor, only in different colours. In the back of the farm I see an old man, I rush over too him and carry him out of the barn and set him on the porch, a quick examination shows he's unconscious, but otherwise unharmed.

I turn back to the barn and try to find a way to control the blaze before it catches to the nearby the forest, this farm was void of a hose or a well, or even a rusty pump with a bucket. I can't even fathom a way to contain the blaze, I begin to think my best bet would be to carry the old man to the city and find a fire department when something catches my eye; I noticed the red ash near the corner just caught fire, but the blue ash didn't, I wondered if the bottle I had could do anything, I doubted it, but at the moment I was ready to try anything.

First I tried tossing a bit onto the fire; nothing, next I tried blowing some onto the flam; still nothing. I was beginning to get desperate, I tried backing up from the creeping flames only to trip over an old rake and fell onto my butt, also losing the jar in mid fall.

I watched as time seemed to slow as the ash fell from the jar in midair, a gust of wind causes some ash to blow into my face; my eyes screwed tight, my thought itched and I sneezed causing a stream of water to shoot from the ash and onto some of the blaze. I couldn't believe what I just saw; this blue powder is somehow infused with water. I grab the remains of the jar and throw a bit in my face to wash away the flames, it takes a minute but the fire is out, somehow I managed to stay dry, except for a small amount of water that splashed on the crotch of my pants; great, now I look like I just peed myself.

I shake off the embracement as the dark color of my pants makes it harder to see and head back to the supposed septuagenarian to assess his condition, I find he has regained consciousness but seems exhausted, "Sir, sir are you all right?"

My reply is a low moan and a nod. "Ugh... ma' barn, ma' barn is..." He tries to crane his neck
towards his barn, "Sir it's alright, I took care of the fire. Can you tell me who you are and what happened please?" The barn had electric light but other than the red ash, nothing highly flammable. "My name is Victor Cortello; dust miner. As for what happened to ma' farm it was them damn black tuxedo wearin' fedora gangsters! The set ma' barn on fire after stealin' ma' dust!" Dust... is that what the powder stuff is? "Sir, do you know where they went?" Wait; why was I asking him this? What could I gain from asking where some mob suits are going? "Their probably headin' to their normal squatting place; 'the black shard casino'..." His head started to tilt as he began to lose consciousness again; I had to lightly shake him to wake him up. "Sir, is there anything I can do, do you need medical attention?" He shakes his head and points to a stump in his front yard, "I'm fine, but do me a favor an' kick those tux boys where the sun don't shine! Take my ax, ol' Susan's good in a fight." He started to get up and limp away; "I'm heading to bed, catch my consciousness. I'll be fine so long as you put those sons-of-bitches in their place."

With that I saw him walk into a room and start snoring, loudly. I turned to the ax in the stump; it was an odd ax, it had some metal support on the handle and the head felt slightly loose, but it was otherwise a sturdy tool, well sharpened with no rust. I slid it into the holster beside my crowbar and start jogging to the city.

It took me about twenty minutes to get to the city and find the Black shard casino; I start to walk in the front door when I start to think; what the hell am I doing? I wake up in the woods, stop a fire with 'dust', and then follow an old man's request to go beat up some supposed mobsters. The entire situation screamed insanity, and yet; it felt natural, like it was something I do often...

I brushed away the thought and walked into the casino, oddly enough there wasn't a bouncer or anyone checking i.d, good, because I have no idea, and I'm probably underage. I decide to try to stay inconspicuous and try to find out what I can about these tuxedo wearing mobsters.

As I take a seat at the bar and order a non-alcoholic drink, and slowly scan the casino when it hits me; nearly everyone in the casino had a weapon, not concealed, not hidden, just walking around with them like it was normal, now that I think about it; a lot of people in the streets had guns and swords to.

After the bartender came back over with my drink I grabbed his attention; "Eh bartend, looking for my friends, wearin' black suits and fedoras, know where I can find them?" "In the back." With that he walks to the other end of the bar, no questions asked. Okay...

I start heading to the back of the casino when I see a hallway that leads down to the washrooms and the system room, but one door was unlabeled; I figured that was the door I needed. I slowly crouch down and start to open the door, I crake it open just enough to peek through, and that was when actually saw them, men wearing Black leisure suits, black fedoras, just as Victor told me. They seemed innocent enough, a few of them sat in the corner of the room and smoked while some of the guys around the table talked about the casino, then I saw it; three more guys walked into the room from another door carrying large attaché cases.

"Alright, here's the dust from the old geezers place, can't believe he dug that much alone." "Yeah well that isn't important, what is important is we get this to the boss so we get paid." That's when I decide it was time to step in; "Sorry gentlemen, paydays been postponed." I say brandishing the ax.

I'd love to tell you I spent the next two minutes expertly beating the cronies to a pulp; I'd like to tell you I walked away slowly as the cops started clicking cuffs. But I hate lying apparently; I spent the next two minutes running back into the casino with every one of the 'suits' on my tail carrying pistols and red machetes, I ran and jumped behind the bar counter and hid as the bullets fly over my head, shattering the bottles beside me.

I find a cupboard with a double barrel shotgun inside, I grab the shotgun and hide in the cupboard and wait, as the gunfire dies down and the screams of civilians fleeing dissipates I wait for a specific sound, fifteen seconds later I hear that sound, one of the suits just jumped behind the counter to look for me. I wait... it takes only seconds, yet it feels like hours, he finally opens the cupboard and I have the shotgun pointed directly at his head, "Alright listen to me and listen good, and you might just live, tell them you found my body, and I am dead, or you get to feel a 12 gauge." I whisper.

He hesitates for a second but he complies; "I found the kid, he's dead." "Alright, we'll have someone clean that up, back to work boys." That's what I was waiting for; I roll out of the cupboard and behind the suit I had lie, grab him in a headlock and let the two shells fly.

What the hell did I just do? I just killed about three men with the shells... I never intended to kill them, just beat them up... I look to the corpses expecting there to be blood and innards splattered across the wall, but oddly enough there wasn't. And I don't think the guys that were hit were even dead, they just seemed unconscious as one of them moaned.

I have to dismiss the fact that physics is taking a day off as the remaining eight men realise I'm still alive, luckily I still have one in a headlock working as a human shield, oddly enough as the bullets hit him they don't seem to actually go through him, so much as hit and bounce off, but from the way he recoils after every hit I can tell it Freakin' hurts.

After he passes out I toss him aside and jump over the counter as the suits attempt to reload, I bring the ax to one of their necks by impulse but it seems to pass right through his neck, nonetheless he screams in pain and passes out... I'm starting to question how the hell I'm even breathing with physics this bad.

So I continue to fight with the mobsters as they attack me with their machetes, I trade the ax for my crowbar as the titanium would be better for blocking blades than the ax's wood handle. Parrying as many blows as I could and hitting when I had the chance, they start different tactics; one of them charges at me head on, as I ready to hit him with the crowbar I'm grabbed from behind. It was a distraction... shit, the guy who was charging at me had stopped, and he took a few steps back as the other six suits ready there pistols.

Now I was starting to panic; I struggled to the point it looked like I was having a seizure, it seemed to sorta work however; as the firing squad paused and looked at each other, buying me just enough time kick the knee of the guy holding me, causing him to loosen his grip just enough for me to grab him back and throw him at one of the shooters. As he lands on one of his teammates I quickly move to start smashing heads when someone shouts "ENOUGH!"

Everyone turns their head towards the front door where a large man is now standing, I'd say he was about 6'8 if not taller, and his arms looked like tree trunks, and he wore a similar suit to that of the other moblings. And he had to big brass knuckles hanging from a chain on his belt. "Shit, it's Bluto..." I hear one of the suits mumble to another.

'Bluto' quickly looks around the room, then to his men, then at me; "So you're the little punk whose been messing with our fine establishment?" I nod in reply, for some reason I can't muster any words to reply. "Well then boy, it looks like you and I have some business to discuss." He says cracking his knuckles and bringing out his brass. Now I'm able to reply; "Alright then, tell your men to take the wounded out, last thing I need is to trip over their limp corpses." I say bringing my crowbar across my chest.

The moblings turn too Bluto and he simply nods as the move to grab their friends. "Alright Bluto, let's get down to brass tacks shall we, Oh I'm sorry; it looks like you already started." I say as I gesture to his brass knuckles. His face starts to turn bright red and he flexes, ripping the sleeves of his shirt into pieces. And if that wasn't bad enough his Brass knuckles unfold into large boxing gloves with spikes all over the top of his fist.

"...Shit..." is all I can utter as he starts charging at me, I have to dive out of the way to avoid his charge. He barrels past me by mere inches, as he tries to slow down he ends up tripping over a slot machine, hey jackpot. I quickly pull myself back up and pull out the ax, why I didn't think of using both the crowbar and the ax before, I don't rightly know.

Bluto picks himself up and starts charging again, talk about predictable move-set. I wait till he's nearly right in front of me and sidestep while hooking his ankle with the crowbar, "Timber!" As Bluto falls he uses more swear words than I knew existed. When he finally lands I jump on his back and alternate wailing on him with the ax and crowbar, again, no blood, yet I could hear his grunts of pain.

After about fifteen consecutive hits something weird happens; with an ax chop near his shoulder-blade I heard what sounded like glass shattering and I found the ax was actually in him... I retracted the ax and found it to be covered in blood now... people can bleed, and I drew blood...

Bluto is super pissed now as he throws me off his back, "I don't know how you managed to break through my aura, but you aren't going to live to tell the tale. He pulls two red crystals from his pocket and crushed them in his fists, at first I saw no point in that, but then his fists caught fire; I had to assume that those crystals were solid dust. But before I can try to figure out how that's possible he starts shooting huge fireballs at me from his fists, I found myself hiding behind the bar counter again.

I have no idea what to do at this point now that he's started using long range, I try searching the cupboards again to see if there are anymore shells for the double barrel. I find one, and only one shell, but hopefully it will be enough. I leap over the counter and run to the double barrel lying on the floor, I have to dodge a few fire-balls, but I make it. I open the body and let the old slugs eject and load the new shell; I turn to towards Bluto to shoot but only see him charging at me fire-fists first.

Instead of shooting him at point blank (because if he died he would have landed on me and I would be trapped under fat-fiery-fists) I tried side stepping and tripping him but he saw it coming and punched me, well; he punched the double barrel, snapping it in half... that was almost my spine...

Bluto readies to attack while I discard the pieces of broken shotgun, now I have no ranged weapons... shit. Bluto isn't charging now, he's just casually walking to me with a grin that would make Satan cringe, I grab the ax from the holster and try to look like someone who isn't about to wet their self.

He's about a foot away and I swing the ax at him, he grabs the ax from me mid swing, and pushes me to the ground where he pins me down under the ax head. "Hehehe... boy; do you know how much money it will cost to fix this casino?" As he talks I try to push the ax off me, with little success. "Well I'll tell you; it will cost more money than it took to build this establishment n the first place, which is approximately fifteen times more than the money we would get by pawning off the old coot's dust." I see where he's going with this and struggle when I remember the loose ax head... "So you see boy; you owe me a lot of money, and I have a feeling you ain't carrying that much in your wallet. So I will need to take some collateral." He draws back his other fist lining it up with my jaw, just as he starts to swing and his weight shifts; "Here's your collateral!" I pull the trigger previously hidden within the axes head, the shot goes right through his left eye, Bluto scream and stubbles back.

I don't waste a second; I leave the ax head open and switch the fire to 'thrust mode' so every time I swing a shot propels it faster, I begin a brutal onslaught on Bluto as he poorly attempts to block with on hand while the other clutches his eye, swing after swing after swing, I just keep swinging until I found myself psychotically singing the chorus of 'swing swing' by the all American rejects. (How do I remember THAT?!)

After a few minutes; Bluto was on the ground, bleeding and gasping for breath. "Alright kid," he starts with a raspy, out of breath voice. "You beat me, now finish the job, put me out of my misery." I stare back into his one remaining eye, I take a second to be dramatic, and then I speak; "Put you out of your misery? You would like that wouldn't you? So you no longer feel the pain, and the suffering, well guess what; you're going to suffer just like everyone you stolen from, threatened, and killed. I'm not going to put you out of your misery, why; if it were up too me; you'd be serving five consecutive death-sentences. But you know what; after everything you've done, after all those you hurt, you might just get lucky and be given the lethal injection, or maybe a firing squad." Then for the hell of it I do my best 'Marvin the Martian' impression; "Ooh, isn't that lovely? Hmm?"

On that... disturbing note... I walked into the back room again and grabbed the case of dust, as I turned back to the door I noticed another case and a duffel bag full of cash... I decide to take the money as compensation from the mob to help the old man fix his barn.

As I start to leave Bluto, still lying on the floor I might add, yells at me as I leave the casino; "I swear I'm gonna find you some day kid! And when I do, I'm going to tear you limb from limb, one at a time so you can feel the pain as I tear you apart! I swear!..." His shouts grow faint as I continue to walk away, after I travel about two blocks I hear sirens in the direction of the casino, bout time some law enforcement showed up. Of course; I didn't want to talk to them just yet, as it may be hard to explain my predicament. And the fact I just technically robbed a casino.

I finally return to the old man's house in the city limits to find him still fast asleep, I gently set the cases down and go to remove the duffle bag when Victor bolts awake, which; I'm not gonna lie; scared the crap out of me. "Ehh wha? Boy, is that you? What's with all the cases?" He asks as he stumbles out of his room, still half asleep.

"Uhh... Well this case is the dust they stole from you, and these cases are... collateral?" I say trying to make the fact I robbed a casino more understandable. "Boy, are you tryin' to tell me you beat the crap outta Torch's men AND robbed them blind?" He had me pegged, I didn't

Really know what to say so I just nodded. Victor started sifting through the case of money counting it, he then looks to me with a blank look in his eye and asks; "Boy, do you know what this means?" I shake my head, I honestly don't know. "Boy, what this means; is not only can I rebuild my entire property, but I can afford to put in security and keep the mobsters away forever!" He begins excitedly jumping around the bags until he stops, holding his hip and muttering; "And maybe get this bum-hip looked at..." After sorting the money in a safe place until Vic can use it, he asks me if I'd like a drink; "Umm, mister Cortello, I appreciate the offer, but I'm sixteen." (I think...) "Not a problem boy, I have some cola round here somewhere... and call me Vic." He replies as he rummages through his kitchen.

I look around his house and get a detailed look for the first time; despite appearing an old shack from the outside, the interior is fairly modern and well-kept. I look over to a small table in the corner of the room; it holds a single picture of Vic and a young man, around his early twenties I'd Victor bump his head on something; "dag- gummite..." He then walks into the living room with a glass of cheap vodka and some coke. "That boy in the picture is my son, Jerrod 'junior' Cortello, one of the head scientists at... that place." I don't understand what place he's referring to but before I can ask he continues; "I always forget the name, but it's the top manufacturer of most of everything, they build weapons, robots, kitchen appliances, you name it... oh, speaking of weapons?" He turns to me and I realise I still had 'Susan' in the holster, I hand 'her' back to victor and he quickly starts inspecting her.

"Well she has no new cracks, no jammed rounds; looks like you took care of my little lady. Good on ya." He then puts Susan on a rack above the couch. "So boy, how long you gonna keep those goggles on?" At first I have no idea what he meant as I felt my face and sure enough; I had a set of oddly high-tech goggles that I'm pretty sure I didn't have when I first pulled my head out of the dirt... As I inspect them I find something engraved on the side, the name Grant...

"By the way boy; do you have name?" I take a moment to consider my answer; I had no idea if that was my name, or if t was safe for him to know, but something in the back of my mind told me to just go for it. "My name is Grant, and I'm afraid that's all I can tell you at the moment." It takes Victor a second but he just shrugs and drinks another mouthful of his vodka, "Well Grant, I don't suppose you have someplace you need to be?" I shake my head because at the time being, I'm homeless. "Well I could use someone to help me fix up the barn, if you're interested I have a spare bedroom you can use."

I look to Victor and smile, "Well Vic, I think I'll have to take you up on that offer." We toast our glasses and chug the remains of our drinks, I may not know who I am, but I think I'll be okay not knowing for a while.