Outcasts and Outlaws
Chapter 3
Grimm Memories
Uploading the first new chapter early today. This one has a little bit of action in it, and shows the first little flashback of Connor's past. Anyway, enjoy!
Music: RWBY OP 1
Music starts, shows Connor in a red shirt kneeling behind a tall figure in a green cloak in front of him) (Connor raises his hand, a depressed look in his eye)
THEY SEE YOU AS SMALL AND HELPLESS!
(The figure's green cloak flaps in the wind)
THEY SEE YOU AS JUST A CHILD!
(Dark clouds start to form in Connor's eye, it being zoomed in on until he evaporated into dark clouds)
SURPRISE WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT A WARRIOR WILL SOON RUN WILD!
[OUTCASTS AND OUTLAWS]
PREPARE FOR YOUR GREATEST MOMENT!
(Shows Ruby in a training room with her scythe)
PREPARE FOR YOUR FINEST HOUR!
(Shows Connor standing in a tree wearing a long black coat)
THE DREAM THAT YOU'VE ALWAYS DREAMED
(Shows Yang on her bike)
IS SUDDENLY ABOUT TO FLOWER!
(Shows a horde of Grimm advancing)
WE ARE LIGHTNING!
(Shows Damien with Brook standing on one side of him, a shadowy figure on the other)
STRAYING FROM THE THUNDER!
(Connor looks behind him as a Grimm drops down and charges, but slashes past it)
MIRACLES OF ANCIENT WONDER!
(Shows Connor, Yang and Ruby charge in)
THIS WILL BE THE DAY WE WAITED FOR!
(Shows Connor standing in front of Beacon looking apprehensive)
THIS WILL BE THE DAY WE OPEN UP THE DOOR.
(Connor starts to fall forward)
I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOUR ABSOLUTION!
(Ozpin catches him and pulls him back up, then Team JNPR come to stand with him)
HOPE YOUR'E READY FOR A REVOLUTION!
(Shows Ozpin walking away from Connor with his Kane over his shoulder)
WELCOME TO A WORLD OF NEW SOLUTIONS!
(Zooms in on Ozpin's eye as a gold gear spins around in it)
WELCOME TO A WORLD OF BLOODY EVOLUTION!
(Shows Ruby, then Yang, then Ozpin, then a shadowy figure)
IN TIME, YOUR HEART WILL OPEN MINDS!
(Connor steps through the shadowy figure and draws his arm blades)
A STORY WILL BE TOLD!
(He does an epic pose)
AND VICTORY IS IN A SIMPLE SOUL!
[END]
Teams RWBY and JNPR were both sat in the seating area of Professor Ports classroom, anxiously waiting for Port to enter and start lecturing the class on his many adventures around the world of Remnant, which despite the flare he added, were found quite boring by the student body.
As they waited, Ruby's thoughts drifted to Connor. The way he'd punched through that box just to get to his weapons and how he seemed reluctant to reveal the identity of Kane.
Still, he seemed like an okay guy. He was nice enough to let her inspect his blades.
Ruby looked left to her sister, Yang, and asked, "What did you think of Connor?"
"What, you mean that guy that poked you with blades?" Yang replied, her anger once again rising.
"I told you, I poked his blade! Not the other way around!" Ruby replied frantically.
"I don't trust him, he was too quiet." Yang said.
Weiss poked her head from her notes and asked, "Who's this Connor you two are talking about?"
Ruby replied excitedly, "He's the new guy, he moved in just down the hall from us."
Weiss' face became very stern as she asked, "Would this new guy happen to wear big metal gauntlets on his arms?"
Switching the topic to that of weapons caused Ruby to instantly become excited again.
"Yeah, they're so cool! He just flicked his wrist and blades popped out of them, and they were-"
"That idiot bumped into me on the way over here!" Weiss interrupted, "He made me drop all of my most valuable and expensive dust crystals!" She put a lot of emphasis on the word expensive, reminding everyone that she came from a rich family.
"I'm sure it was an accident." Ruby said, trying to get Connor out of the way of Weiss' wrath.
"Accident or not, that dust was almost priceless!"
Ruby sighed and gave up trying to convince Weiss of Connor's innocence and instead turned to Blake for an opinion.
"What did you think of him, Blake?"
Blake, without even looking up from the book she was reading, replied, "He didn't speak to me, but I got the feeling he was hiding something."
"You'd know all about that wouldn't you kitty cat?" Yang joked, causing Blake's cat ears to shake a little under her bow.
On the other side of the seating area, the members of team JNPR were having a similar conversation.
"He didn't seem like a bad guy." Ren said.
"He wasn't exactly friendly when I mentioned that I recognised his name." Pyrhaa noted.
"Yeah, and he also knew about that thing…" Jaune added before nervously trailing off.
"What thing?" Ren asked curiously.
"It's nothing." Pyrhaa defended Jaune while he hung his head to avoid looking at Ren.
Ren sighed and looked at Nora. "What do you think of him, Nora? You're being strangely quiet." He asked, worried about Nora's abnormal behaviour, she was normally so cheerful.
"I think he just needs a friend. He said that he's never had one." Nora replied, sounding very upset and staring into space.
All the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR turned their heads in curiosity to the sound of the door opening up revealing the man himself.
"I think they were talking about us." Connor muttered to Kane so no one would hear him.
"Probably more so you than me." Kane said.
Connor slowly walked up to the seats, taking care not to look directly at anyone. As he passed Team JNPR, he felt a cold shiver run over him, as if they weren't exactly on his side so far. As he passed team RWBY, he couldn't help but glance at Ruby, and she smiled at him. This caused him to blush a little and he moved on.
When he reached a seat he liked the location of, Professor Port came into the room through the open door, his greying moustache clearly groomed.
"Greetings, class!" Port announced as he walked towards his desk in the centre of the classroom. "Welcome to a new year at Beacon! Now, let's get down to business!"
Port turned away from the class ands walked to the board at the back of the room, picking up a tiny remote control along the way. He then pressed a button and turned back to the class, the screen now showing a picture of an enormous snake like Grimm.
"As you all probably know, this is a picture of a King Taijitu, an enormous snake like Grimm. Today, we will be looking into the weakness' of these fascinating but dangerous creatures, and my many adventures with them!"
The moment port mentioned the possibility of him storytelling, the majority of the class switched off.
"A King Taijitu…" Kane said to Connor, "Remember the first time you saw one of those?"
"How could I forget it?" Connor whispered as he slipped into reminiscence.
Many years ago… (Connor: 13 Years of age)
Rain pouring down on all sides. Trees everywhere, the droplets of rain reflecting off of the leaves. A lone bird sat upon a low hanging branch searching for a mate.
The bird immediately scattered as the branch it had been sat on was cut in half by a machete blade and Connor struggled through the bushes. Both his gauntlets were on his arms, one with a blade attached and the other without, as it was in his hand.
Connor continued to trudge forward through the leafy undergrowth, chopping branches and leaves as he went, occasionally raising a leg to step over a tree root.
"We shouldn't be doing this." Kane told Connor as he continued to chop his way through the jungle.
"It makes no sense to be this close to the temple and not keep going." Connor explained.
"Mars said he doesn't know what could be guarding it. What if it's something you can't deal with?" Kane asked.
"I can deal with anything that comes my way. Plus, Mars doesn't need to know. We can get to the temple, kill the guardian, and take the gemstone with no problems and then go back to camp." Connor replied.
As Connor broke through another branch, it revealed a large clearing in the jungle and a large cave entrance in it.
"This is it!" Connor stated excitedly. "Once we're in there, Kane, I can finally discover my own semblance, and then you can go!"
"I told you it's not that easy. I can't just leave." Kane reminded Connor.
"Whatever." Connor spat as he walked towards the cave, completely unaware of the massive snake slithering around the back of him.
The snake rose up its head, silently stalking Connor, preparing to finish him with one strike. When it was fully reared up, its head reached the tops of some of the smaller trees, making it roughly the same height as a double decker bus and it was just as wide.
Connor felt a shiver run down his spine as he saw an enormous shadow casting over him from behind.
"MOVE!" Kane shouted at him with urgency.
Thanks to Kane's warning, Connor managed to roll forward just as the snake brought its venomous fangs down into the ground into the ground where Connor had been standing.
Connor turned around as quickly as he could and stood up to see the snake pulling its fangs out of the ground.
"What is this thing?" Connor yelled at Kane, scared out of his skin.
"It's a King Taijitu!" Kane replied, "Aim for the head!" he advised.
The King Taijitu brought down its head again, Connor rolled backwards and its fangs smashed into the ground.
This time however, the snake was much quicker to react. It tore its fangs out of the soil and charged at Connor one more time. Connor had been expecting this repetitive attack style and punched downwards sending the snake face first into the dirt. He then flicked his blade back into place on his gauntlet and jumped onto the snakes head, preparing to finish it quickly.
Feeling Connor on its head, the King Taijitu lifted its head up and Connor flew off, landing in the dirt.
Beginning to panic, Connor changed his weapons into shotgun mode, causing them to transform into a military class, black shotgun, and he opened fire sending shotgun shells all around the clearing, only a few of them hitting the snake, but doing next to nothing.
The snake, sensing the fear in its prey, slowly slithered forward while opening its mouth to reveal its fangs.
"CALM DOWN!" Kane shouted, aware of Connors panicked state.
But this only panicked Connor more. He continued to fire shotgun shells at the snake, missing almost all of the time now, while it slithered closer to him and he crawled backwards.
The King Taijitus mouth was now completely open, Connor dropped his shotgun out of sheer fear and prepared for the end, to be swallowed whole and slowly digested.
After a few seconds, Connor realized that the snake hadn't moved. Something had happened. Suddenly, the snake went limp and fell to the ground, revealing a small, sharpened tree sticking out of its skull.
Connor leaned his head around the dead Grimm to see Mars standing behind the corpse.
Mars stood the in his long pale green cloak and suit, with his long dyed dark green hair flapping in the wind, staring right at Connor with a mixed look of disappointment and anger.
Connor nervously smiled and greeted him. "Hey Mars. What's up?"
Mars breathed out deeply and then said, "I am very disappointed in you."
Connor's smile disappeared and he hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry." He muttered.
"You could have died!" Mars scolded.
There was a short silence between the two of them before Connor lifted up his head and spoke.
"At least the temple guardian's dead."
Mars turned away from Connor and stared into the mouth of cave whilst the rain continued to fall down on the two.
"That wasn't the guardian."
Hope you all enjoyed this one, Mars becomes a favourite of mine later on. Anyway, more of these flashbacks will pop up throughout the story to explain Connor's past. I'll upload another couple of chapters today if all goes to plan. So, please follow the story if you're enjoying it so far, as I have loads more chapters to upload. Also, any reviews, short or long, would be greatly appreciated. I love reading comments.
