Sterling was about halfway through a plate of eggs and sausage when he heard the intercom go off. Glynda's voice boomed through, making him freeze with a fork halfway to his mouth. "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to beacon Cliff immediately." As the intercom clicked off, he lowered his eyes to his plate, half-eaten food still steaming. His lips pursed, before his fork moved like a shovel, pouring the rest into his mouth, leaving him squirrel-cheeked as he stood and left towards the cliff.
Initiation came to be something rather less spectacular than he assumed. He was on the third launch pad, his eyes going over the forest, looking for any movement while he was listening to Ozpin. Find the temple, get the relic, kill any Grimm that intercept. The job seemed simple enough. The students around him were preparing, readying weapons. It had to seem strange how he stood still, hands in his hoodie pockets, one eye on the trees and the other on Ozpin. It wasn't until the first pad launched the first student that his knees bent, legs coiling up for the launch.
He heard the second launch pad go off, and he counted the seconds in his mind. One… Two… He felt the latch release and the springs rebounding under him, and he pushed off, sending himself flying over the top of the forest like a torpedo. He watched the rush of leaves underneath him until gravity started doing its work, pulling him towards the ground once more. He heard the familiar metallic clicking as his blades formed as he pulled them out of his pockets. A few quick flicks of his fingers, and the blades split, first in two, then in four. The round guards were pushed together, and the blades started spinning, He threw it under his feet, using the spinning blades for small lift and guiding himself to the ground, slowing his fall until he was down, ducking into a roll as he separated the two. His hands flicked a switch, the blades reforming to two each on the round hilt-guard, opposite of each other, while he scanned the area. He could still hear people moving above him, other students moving far into the forest to get their own relic. A quick inspection of his weapons showed no damage from the fall, and with that he moved on.
The forest was surprisingly quiet for a war zone, and the lush forest wasn't as dense as one would assume it would be, so he let himself look over his weapons, making sure they didn't jam, checking on ammo, no loose plates. The weapon pair was intricate, which meant it was a pain for him to make. The handle was wrapped in a circular rail system which could spin freely around the handle with a pull of a trigger. The ring rail attached to a long blade, which was currently split into two blades and shrunken down, at opposite ends of each other. The base of each sword had guns in them, suppression weapons. Even after about a dozen iterations of the weapon, he hadn't found out why it jammed up when switching straight from one blade to four. He probably would never find it out.
There was sound in the foliage to the left, and he immediately shifted, turning towards the noise and his foot shifting backwards, his right hand up and to his side, left in front of him in stance. It was a few moments before someone came through the green, and his first assumption was that it was another student. He relaxed his form, standing up straight. It was as he was walking towards them that he noticed how tall they were. They were a foot taller, in fact, as he came up to the person. Her, it was a woman, and the antenna were the immediate clue that they were a faunus. He couldn't assume immediately, but they were at least an insectoid, with a liking of purple and black based on their ensemble. She wore a purple long jacket that reached mid leg, sleeveless, and purple boots, black pants, and black shirt. A club was hoisted over her shoulder, and the eyes of the two locked. Sterling was silent, judging for himself, before nodding. "Alright, let's do this."
That seemed to gain the shock of the Faunus as Sterling turned away, moving through the woods and expecting her to follow. "Amethyst." He heard her say. He nodded to himself.
"Sterling." He replied. "We can do pleasantries on the way or after we finish the mission. Let's move." He thought he heard an affirmative from her, and with that they were on their way.
"I didn't expect someone so accommodating." He heard her from behind, and he managed to hold back a chuckle.
"Understandable, giving how humans usually are; but my sister is a Faunus. Adopted sister, of course, but I would do anything to make sure she stayed safe." He cut through some vines that were blocking the way, turning to face her to make sure she was staying it tow. "You could say life was interesting."
He was going to continue when he heard the sound of something hitting the ground with force. He held up his hand, a finger going to his mouth. He moved forward slowly, seeing the black, white, and red figure coming into view. Silently, he cursed. "I hate Death Stalkers. Stay here, this one's mine. You can have the next." One of his blades collapsed down into his pocket before he reached into his cargo pants. Fingertips pulled out a red crystal of dust. He lifted his right hand, shooting with his other sword.
That got its attention, the Grimm growling as it turned to face him. Sterling threw the crystal right at its face, the beast's claws coming in to close in front of it. He raised his weapon again, shooting the crystal, making it explode and tossing its claws back. He rushed forward, pulling his other weapon back out, moving towards its right claw. It came down, trying to clip or smash him, but a wave of white energy came off from him, pushing the claw back. His blade came up from below, slicing through the black flesh of it, cutting the claw off and causing it to shriek in pain. He flipped over the carapace back, dodging a stab from its stinger, and cutting off the other claw. His blades shifted to four and started spinning, and he slid under it, propelled by the spinning blades, gutting it in the process. The Death Stalker fell over, twitching and dying if not dead already.
Sterling brushed the blades off of his weapons before putting them away, turning to face a stunned Amy. "You can have the next one."
That wiped the look from her face. "How did you do that?"
He turned to face her as they walked through the woods. "I've been training since I was five or six. I fought my first Death Stalker alone when I was thirteen. I've broken my weapons on one of them at least two or three times. When you've had that much practice, you learn how to take care of them quick and easy. Not that it's easy, mind you. Never underestimate those sneaky bastards."
"Your parents were sadistic." He could hear the sarcasm in her voice at that, and he shrugged as he turned to watch his path.
"Perhaps. But I want to be a hunter. People are still violent to the Faunus at times. I wanted to be able to protect her. This just makes it easier. Who knows, maybe we can make peace between humans and fauni before long. A lofty goal, but I support it."
"You're a strange human."
He chuckled at that. "You should meet the people I know."
His step was leisurely and unconcerned going through the forest, silence falling upon the duo as they moved towards their objective. Such things were rarely easy, however. The two came across a clearing, and at first Sterling thought that this was where the artifacts were held. Instead, a pack of Beowolves turned towards them, growling in anger. Sterling turned towards Amy, completely unphased. "It seems like you're up."
He could hear her laugh as the Faunus lifted her club, stepping forward and getting all of the Grimm's attention. Two of the Beowolves roared at her before charging. Amy seemed ready, though, as her weight shifted, the club coming in a hard swing, the teeth at the end chewing through a wolf with ease, knocking the remains away. She kept the momentum, the club going behind her and over her, slamming the other wolf into the ground. Sterling was surprised the wolf's head didn't explode.
Amy slammed the club head down on the Grimm in front of her as more charged. She waited patiently before throwing herself forward, the saw teeth spinning to push her forward harder, her foot finding contact with one head before her body spun, a wide swing that knocked down at least three of them. As the wolves that fell stood, the rest lunged at her. Sterling couldn't tell the exact point when her weapon transformed, but he was hearing the gunshots and seeing Grimm flying around a moment later, the club shifting into a gatling cannon, the shots exploding about a foot from the barrel. She spun hard, covering the entire area around her in explosions, which seemed to do the trick for the Beowolves, as they now laid dead.
Sterling stepped forward, nodding to himself as he watched her, the gun shifting with ease back to the club. "You are a welcome member to the team, Amethyst." That seemed to make her smile, and the two set off. Thankfully, the clearing wasn't far off from the temple, and he was observing the artifacts. They were chess pieces. He thought hard on which to take before picking up the black pawn piece. "Alright, back to the cliff. You can get up, right?"
"Amethyst Silva, Raz Malon, Sterling Moonstone, and Terra Cotta." The four students stepped forward as they were called, arms going behind their back as they stood at attention in front of Ozpin. Sterling had only managed a cursory glance at his team as they stepped up, and he was interested in what Raz and Terra were capable of. But that thought was broken up as Ozpin continued. "The four of you retrieved the black pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team STAR, led by… Sterling Moonstone!"
Sterling couldn't help the small smirk that crossed his face as he bowed to Ozpin, hearing the clapping of the students around him. He turned on his heel, leading his team off of the stage and back to the crowd. It was then that he gave time to the other members of his team.
Raz Malon was a somewhat built guy, about five foot nine. His eyes were the strangest part about him, being a rather dark shade of pink. But that only barely outdid the bright green of his hair, but brown roots showed at his scalp. He dressed conservatively, blue jeans, long sleeve shirt and a loose jacket thrown on. His hands were in his jeans pockets, and he gave a nod to Sterling before turning back to the stage.
Terra Cotta would almost look inconspicuous if not for the twitching end of a tail that she used as a belt, wrapped just under her ribcage. The fur of her ears blended in with her hair pretty well as well. Her hair and eyes were a matching ruddy burnt red. She gave Sterling a smile, revealing sharp looking teeth before listening to Ozpin. Her clothes looked almost designer, Shorts with stockings leading up to her calves, what looked like a half-dressed bound by her tail, a vest, and glasses hanging off her neck.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin took Sterling's attention, turning to the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by… Jaune Arc!"
Sterling clapped, watching the small celebrations happening on the stage, as Jaune was knocked to the floor by Pyrrha. He smiled, restraining a laugh. His eyes were too focused on who was walking up next.
"And finally: Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by… Ruby Rose!"
He clapped again, a smile on his face as he watched Yang hug her sister. He didn't stay long however, turning from the stage and starting to walk, his team following suit. He stopped at the door, opening it and letting the three leave first, his eyes on the stage… and seeing Yang looking back. He gave a smile and wave before sliding out of the door. Dorms had to be set up so he wasn't rushing in the morning, after all, and hanging around for congratulations would just be distracting.