Chapter 2: A Beacon Shines Even Brighter
Aw man. No one's really commenting. And I need those comments to know if I'm doing well. Aw well. Maybe this chapter will garner some.
I don't own RWBY. That privilege belongs to Monty Oum, and Rooster Teeth. Nor do I hold any claim to any references or quotes you find that I use that you can find. Now, without further stalling, on with the story.
It hadn't taken much to convince Ozpin to just accept me into Beacon, just asking worked. I just chalk it up to him seeing me as a curiosity. Randomly walking up to him in the middle of the night and then teleporting us both to his office obviously made an impression.
I opted to enter the school among the other students via air ship. "Coincidentally," I was on the same air ship as Ruby and Yang. But, for now they wouldn't recognize me. I never let any of the girls see all of my face, and I wasn't wearing my hood or leggings, a simple black turtle neck shirt and faded jeans and black combat boots. And Bright Shadow needed to look different too. It looked like a much simpler looking katana in a plain sheathe instead of the proud onyx colored pistol sword it was. Samantha also had to look plain, not the sheathe that turned the sword into a rifle.
Having to disguise myself for now was a personal choice, but dammit, I hated not showing my weapons the way they were meant to be seen.
'No one will ever understand how hard it is to freeze a star in the middle of a super nova in time to forge it into a sword like no other.' Damn my stupid need to make my grand appearance a big deal.
The news is on the screens, first talking about the robbery Ruby thwarted led by Torchwick. Then it goes into how a peaceful Faunus protest is ruined by extremist Faunus group, The White Fang. Before they can give a brief history on how the Fang came to be, Glynda comes on screen.
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch."
As she gives her short speech to all the new students, I just snicker to myself. Privileged few. I literally just asked if I could go to school here, and the headmaster said 'Sure.'
After she finishes, I along with every other student on the ship walk up to the windows to see Vale from a bird's eye view.
'Oh, there goes Jaune. Right toward the bucket. Ohh, that'sss nasssty.' Yeah. I'm gonna have to straighten him up. I wonder how he'd react if he found out Ozpin knew about his fake transcripts and still let him attend thanks to me asking him.
'Aw, well. I'll save that info for when I'm ready to humiliate Cardin when he's starts to try and blackmail Jaune. In fact, I'm probably going to become his primary target with how I plan to treat him. Oh, won't that be just adorable.' I thought to myself sarcastically.
"Oh, Yang, gross! You have puke on your shoe!" I hear Ruby exclaim. Followed by…
"Gross, gross, gross….!" Yang adopts as her mantra as she starts hoping around one foot, trying to kick the gunk of her shoe while Ruby keeps telling her to get away from her.
Not long, we land the ship. Jaune's already at the trashcan.
"Just let it all out. Just let it all out." I say to him as I carefully pat him on the back then go about my merry way. I decide to take a seat on the bench and check out my phone real quick. It being my only link left to my home reality, I try to make sure no one else ever sees it or what's on it. While I'm surfing the web, I can hear Ruby fan-girling over every weapon she sees pass by. Soon enough, her sister leaves with her own friends, disorienting Ruby as they dash away.
'You know, I still don't get how all the extra people still look like silhouettes to me. It's really creepy.'
I see Ruby fall down onto a load of suitcases. That would mean Weiss comes in, right, about…
"What are you doing!?"
Now.
As the "ice princess" begins to reprimand Ruby, the dust particles coming from the case and bottle she's holding are entering Ruby's nose. 'Shouldn't it really hurt when she'-
"ACHOO!"
'….. Sneezes fire?'
The bottle of red dust flies up in the air until hits the ground and rolls into a certain Faunus-in-disguise.
'Ah. There's Blake. Reading, like she usually does.' I mentally note.
"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" Weiss still manages to yell at Ruby.
"I'm really, really sorry!" She pleads to the heiress.
"Ugh! You complete dolt! What are you even doing here?" And she still rages on.
As the one way argument goes on, Blake manages to quietly walk up to them both, dust bottle in hand.
'Hey, I said I was sorry, princess…" Ruby tells Weiss off. As she does that, I put my phone away and walk to the girls.
"It's heiress, actually." Blake says as she reaches them, none of them noticing me walking towards them. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."
"Finally, some recognition!" Weiss exclaims, under the assumption Blake respects her right now.
"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." I say, stealing Blake's line as I reach the group. Which amused Ruby and confused Blake as she was just about to say those exact words.
"Wha-! How dare-! Where did you even-? Ugh!" She exclaims as she grabs the bottle from Blake and storms off.
"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby calls after Weiss.
"Guess I'm not the only one having a rougher stay. So, what's…?" Ruby begins to ask as she turns to Blake, who is already quite a distance away. She then collapses onto the ground. "Welcome to Beacon…" She sighs. Jaune is already there helping her up.
"Hey… I'm Jaune." He says as he helps her up.
"Ruby." She told him. The snickers. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"
"You know, I'm still here. I exist too." I told them both.
"Oh! Sorry! I didn't notice you there. I thought you left like that other girl."
"You know, I'm tired of people never noticing me. It makes me cry myself to sleep at night." I told her, not really meaning that at all. Unfortunately, Ruby isn't so good at interacting with others, so she actually believed me.
"ON MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!"
"….Ow, my ears. And I was just joking." I told her while relaxing my pained ear drums. She can be loud when she wants to.
"Oh. Right. I knew that."
"I'm Duncan, by the way. So, what're your names?" I asked them both as we searched for where we're supposed to go.
"Well, like I already said in front of you both, I'm Jaune Arc." Jaune introduced himself to us both.
"Yeah. Vomit-boy." Ruby snickered.
"Hey! Motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!" He pleaded.
"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit-boy was the first thing that came to mind."
"Oh, yeah? What if I called you Crater-face?" He asked, annoyed by only being associated with barf.
"Hey that explosion was an accident!"
"Hey! Stop the lovers quarrel! Both of you." I said, deciding to just try and speed things up a bit.
"Yeah, well, the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it." He said anyway.
"….Do they?" Ruby asked.
"Not really." I said.
"They will! At least, I hope they will. My Mom always said-"
"Jaune my boy, here's a life tip. When you're trying to act like a lady-killer, don't stutter like that or add your mom into your justification. Doubt yourself, you must not." I wisely told him.
"So…" Ruby starts to say. "I got this thing." And brings out Crescent Rose in its scythe mode.
"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asks.
"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle." She told him.
"A wha-?"
"It's also a gun."
"Oh. That's cool!"
"So what've you got!?" She asks him, excited at the chance to see more badass weapons.
"Well, I've got this sword."
"Oooooh."
"Yeah, I've got a shield too!"
"So, what do they do?" She asked, accidentally causing that shield to start switching from shield to sheathe a few times in the air.
Once it was under control, he answered "Well, the shield gets smaller. So when I get tired of holding it, I just, put it away."
"But, wouldn't it weigh the same? Ruby asked.
"Yeah, it does." Jaune lamely confirmed.
"What about you, Duncan?" Ruby asked me.
"A high-frequency sword."
"…What?"
"It vibrates to do extra cutting damage, allowing it to cut through any object. Living or otherwise."
"Awesome. Can I hold it?"
"Sorry. I made it so that it hurts, even kills anyone but me if they try to hold it. It would take a while for me to set it for you or anyone else to hold." It was true. No one steals my stuff.
"Overkill much?" Jaune asked me.
"No such thing when it comes to someone as crazy as me."
"So, where are we going?" Ruby asked, trying to change the creepy subject of me being kind of a psychopath.
"Oh, I don't know. I was following you two." Jaune said.
"We're supposed to head to the main courtyard. Don't worry, I know where it is." I told them.
"Great."
And that's where we went. Once we got there, Yang quickly noticed her younger sister.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot." She called out.
"Oh! Hey, I gotta go. I'll see you two later!" She told us, then ran off to Yang.
"Hey, wait!" Jaune cried. "Ugh, great. Where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?" He complained.
"Jaune my boy, I'm gonna teach you how to live." I told the blonde swordsman, wrapping my arm around his shoulders. "It's gonna be Legen- Wait for it. - Dary! LEGENDARY!" I exclaimed.
"It, uh, it is?"
"Yeah. And it starts off with a little game I like to call 'Haaaaave you met Jaune'?" I said as I swung him face to face with Pyrrha Nikos.
"No. I don't believe I have." She said, having heard the title of the game I told Jaune.
"Great! I think I'll leave you two together for now to get to know each other." I told them and began to leave. Jaune tried to call out to me for help but stopped when Pyrrha started to talk to him. 'It was obvious in the show they're gonna get together. Might as well speed it up a bit.'
Soon I found Ruby, in her sister's arms as Weiss had just overheard Ruby mentioning her.
"Oh God, it's happening again!" She screamed.
"You're lucky we weren't blow off the side of the cliff!" Weiss yelled.
"Oh my God, you really exploded." Yang commented.
It went from Ruby apologizing to Weiss again, Weiss giving her the Dust for Dummies pamphlet (I could still hear it in that high-pitched voice in my head), to Yang trying to mediate.
"Look, uh, it sounds like you two got off on the wrong foot! Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?" She reasoned.
"Yeah! Great idea, sis! Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Want to hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!" She asked. That wouldn't work.
"Yeah! And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall, dark, and jerk-face over there." She sarcastically told the young girl, pointing at me at the end.
'Okay, now that's just hurtful.'
Ruby didn't pick up on the sarcasm, and asked the heiress "Oh wow, really?"
"…NO."
Thus began Ozpin's speech. It went as it was supposed to. Then Glynda came and told us all we'd sleep in the ballroom tonight and that initiation came tomorrow.
It was a pretty uneventful night. It went the way it was supposed to for the most part. Provided that I told Jaune to ditch the onesie pajamas and I was added to Ruby's list of friends. Oh, I spoke to Blake for couple minutes, unintentionally annoying her as she just wanted to read. She was okay with me as I seemed to be more, mentally refined, than some of the other people she met.
Oh, dear Blake. If you only knew.
Soon enough, morning came, except I decided to sleep in until we needed to get to the cliffs. Didn't need to keep my weapons in a locker, I could just mentally make them appear.
Once I made it to the cliffs, everyone was already there. Ozpin and Glynda were already explaining how partners would be assigned today, which caused a cry of indignity from Ruby... After the explanation, Ozpin asked "Are there any questions?"
"Do we need to have partners?" I tiredly asked instantly. The other students were looking at me, wondering why I would be stupid enough to want no help.
Glynda did not look amused by how I didn't seem to be taking this seriously, evidenced by how I looked like I just woke up. Which I did.
Ozpin didn't seem to care though. "If you somehow manage to make it to a relic without making eye contact with any student, then technically no you won't Mr. Verser. Keep in mind, I'll likely still have to assign you to a team that is made at the end of this initiation." He answered.
"Well, that makes this easier." I then stepped off the launch pad.
"Any particular reason you're not using the launch pad Mr. Verser?" Ozpin asked me.
"Launch pads are overrated." I told him as I stretched out a bit, walking towards the cliff. All the students were still wondering what was wrong with me.
"(Yawn) Time to get this stupid disguise off at least." I said aloud. Everyone, minus Ozpin, seemed confused at that. And I decided to have some music play as this happened, which confused people even more as they could hear it. Then, my clothes and sword changed.
Queue "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Tops
My turtle-neck morphed into my black and red hoodie, the silver hidden blade gauntlets on my wrists. The jeans and boots morphed into the ninja leggings I preferred. And finally, my weapons returned to their true appearance. Bright Shadow, still sheathed inside Samantha, changed back into the black, straightened pistol katana it was and its sheathe made it appear as though a high-tech rifle was dangling at my hip. And Machina appeared on the opposing hip.
Although my hood was down this time, the girls of the soon-to-be-team RWBY recognized me instantly.
"YOU!" All four exclaimed instantly.
"Well, it was nice formally meeting you four. I'll catch you on the flipside." I said, as wings started to form from my back. They looked neither angelic nor demonic. They looked as though they were cut out of the star-lit night sky and attached to my back.
Then, I jumped off the cliff, and soared into the Emerald Forest, leaving everyone dumbfound. Minus Ozpin, whom just drank more of his coffee.
Well, I enjoyed writing this chapter. And I hope you, dear readers, enjoyed reading it. As for the background music. I may or may not keep doing that. Probably will be rather rare when that happens. You know the drill. Rate this fic, review this fic, and give your thoughts to it too. If you don't, I'll still keep updating, but it will feel better if I get more feedback. VindictiveDunc, out.