{Glitch in the System}
Morning came and Ray was awoken by the blissful embrace of an angel.
(Scarlet found his resting place and frantically shook him awake.)
He gracefully sat up and wiped away the grit in his eyes before greeting the aforementioned angel in a gentle and kind manner.
(He violently bolted upright, smacked himself in the face to wake himself up and harshly admonished Scarlet for waking him, scaring the girl in front of anyone still remaining inside the ballroom.)
Ray then eased out of his sleeping bag, expressed his gratitude to the angel for her blessed presence, dressed himself neatly, and made his way to the cafeteria for a delicious breakfast.
(He realised he was running late, shoved Scarlet to one side, threw his messenger bag and gauntlets on, and ran to the cafeteria to grab only an apple and a ridiculously hot cup of coffee. Downing the liquid fire and finishing the apple in three huge bites before throwing away the core.)
All in all, the morning of the initiation was going very smoothly.
(Ray was late and ran like hell to the Beacon cliffs with Scarlet tailing just behind him.)
Very smoothly indeed.
(Ray wanted to end his life there and then.)
The 40 or so students stood on dull metal plates on the ground. Ray, despite his best efforts, was forced to stand next to Scarlet as they were late to the initiation by a couple of minutes, luckily no one else noticed, but still, he was hardly a fan of being second to last to go. He looked down the line of students, taking note of each and trying to weed out any competition.
Only two caught his eye; possibly the angriest looking guy Ray had ever seen in his life – that was saying something – and what could have been his sister or whatever. The hacker shook his head, the calmest expression sat firmly on the guy's face like cement. His body language seemed serene and collected, but in his eyes, it looked like he wanted to murder a man.
"Well, someone's happy..." He murmured to no one in particular, Scarlet glanced in the direction of the individual Ray was referring to and visibly grimaced.
"I don't think he wants to be here..." She replied softly. Her eyes darting between Ray and the boy.
Ray rolled his eyes. "That makes two of us."
Ozpin – in Ray's opinion – gave a pointless speech about 'testing your prowess'. Well, something along those lines anyway. Ray's attention span was far too short to listen to painfully cryptic or downright boring lectures. He was pretty focused on that one (potential) student though…
Look at him! He's like the physical embodiment of repressed rage.
Ray's mind ran rampant with similar apt descriptions of this modern cowboy. However, his musings were cut short by his selective hearing tuning in to catch putrid sack of authority, Glynda Goodwitch, as she began to speak.
"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams,"
Ray shook his head. "Well, no, not really." He scoffed, muttering the remark under his breath.
"Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today."
"Oh joy."
If Ray had kept his mouth shut, he would have heard someone groaning, but no, his pride and inability to hold his tongue prevented that.
It was the Headmaster that continued for his lapdog. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon,"
Ah, so two weeks then?
"So, it is in your best interest if you paired with someone with whom you can work well."
Pretty typical of you to be saying that, Ozpin. You are clearly well trained in the art of stating the fucking obvious, aren't you?
Ray's eyes practically rolled to the back of his skull.
"Someone with whom you can work well. Yeah, no shit." He mumbled mockingly, unintentionally earning a giggle from Scarlet next to him. He spared the girl one of his infamous glares before he turned once again to pay attention to the coffee addict.
"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
"What?!" Screamed the second red-clad child that stood on the cliff. Ray noted to himself that it was probably in his best interest to avoid any further crimson-coloured girls in the near future for the sake of his sanity.
Ozpin completely disregarded the desperate cry for attention and nonchalantly carried on.
"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way."
Ray took a moment to roll up the sleeves of his jacket, revealing his brushed aluminium vambraces to the world, and Scarlet, as Ray saw her gawk at them from the edge of his peripheral vision.
"Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path-"
Apparently, misery incarnate has other ideas. Whatever could possibly be going on inside his head right now?
Ray, Scarlet and the entirety of the other students on the cliff carefully observed the boy as he stepped off of his panel and approached the edge of the cliff, stopping just beforehand.
"Mister Ezdeil, where do you think you are going?" Questioned by the disciplinarian, the walking definition of resentment replied with a short, apathetic "Walking" as he remained standing by the edge.
Ray smiled slightly at the endeavour.
This guy does not give a fuck.
"You would be at a disadvantage young man," Ozpin countered reasonably, "these catapults launch you eighty metres into the forest if you do nothing."
Ray cocked an eyebrow. Eighty metres you say?
"If you have a flight strategy, the wind will carry you much further than that. Do you not wish to use an advantage like that?"
Ray leaned toward Scarlet. "Clearly not, no. I'm interested to see where this goes."
"I don't need one."
Ray's amused smirk grew wider at the remark. Whoever this guy was, it was piquing Ray's interest to new heights.
Just the way this suave, albeit incredibly monotonous character was dismissing the faculty's concerns as if they were but mere annoyances was truly a spectacle.
I take it back; this guy has never given a fuck in his life.
"Mister Ezdeil, please-"
"Glynda, let him be. No student in the past has done what he's done just now. I believe we should let him go."
Not only is he a lethargic, slightly abrasive, condescending asshole, but also a history maker.
Oh! And he's just jumped off the cliff!
Ray's amusement died off after the coat the individual wore disappeared over the edge of the cliff, the remainder of the students – save himself, Scarlet and the girl that once stood next to 'Mister Ezdeil' - burst into a cacophony of whispering.
Ray redirected his attention to the panel beneath him and crouched down, placing a hand on the metal surface, examining it.
"What are you doing?" Scarlet sheepishly enquired.
"Ozpin just said these catapults were designed to send us a minimum distance of eighty metres into the forest, I intend to correct that." Came his cool reply, never once diverting his gaze from the plate.
"I-Isn't that cheating...?" Scarlet questioned, eyes darting around before refocusing on Ray.
The boy's violet eyes contained a spark of mischief as he spared her a momentary glance. "Only if you get caught."
With a pulse of his Aura, he summoned a thin line of pure hard light out of the tip of his index finger. The line widened and morphed into a cone shape, with the wider base touching the surface of the panel beneath him.
With consecutive pulses of his Aura, the cone brightened and dimmed in one second intervals. It was a probing tool, used to scan the inside of machines to scope out the layout for Ray like a sonar.
"Ah… I see..." He mumbled as he scanned the interior of the catapult.
"S-see what?" Scarlet replied, biting her nails in anticipation.
"It's all mechanical, no digital aspect here. Not to worry though, I know what to do." With that, four more strands of hard light appeared from each remaining fingertip. The probing tool also reformed into the same shape and each of the cables soon wormed their way inside the complex machinery, hijacking it through the seams. Ray closed his eyes and focused, he needed to locate the spring or the gear mechanism used to coil it. If he could take control of that, he could compress the spring manually and release it just before it hits its maximum elasticity threshold. The potential energy stored would launch him way, way further than eighty pathetic metres.
Flight strategies were for the weak.
Once he grabbed hold of the gear responsible for coiling the spring, his strands of hard light formed into a wrench-like tool, locking on to the teeth of the gear and beginning to turn it slowly.
As he began to wind up the spring, the other catapults had begun launching initiates into the air, starting from left to right. Mister Ezdeil's empty catapult fired first, then came his unnamed associate, followed by every other student in an orderly fashion.
As Ray was second to last on the right of the cliff, he had plenty of time to wind up the spring before it prematurely launched him.
"Excuse me, Mister..." Goodwitch spared a moment to glance at the scroll held in her hands, trying to discern the name of the boy she intended to question. ..."Chroma?"
Ray froze and slowly turned his head in the direction of both Ozpin and Goodwitch, several pairs of eyes also found themselves looking upon his prone position.
"Yes~?" Came his slow and hesitant reply as he stood up, his hard-light cables still turning the gear like a damn wind-up toy.
Ozpin's eyes locked with Ray's as the man merely raised an eyebrow.
"Do you mind explaining to me what you're doing to your catapult?" The man's assistant asked the hacker scornfully.
Ray shrugged. "Well… currently, I am coiling the spring beneath this plate to the point where if I turn the priming mechanism any further, the ratchet responsible for holding the gear in place would suffer a critical failure and the potential energy stored inside the spring would instantly break my legs."
Ozpin raised his eyebrow further. "Are you sure that's a wise decision, young man?"
"No, in fact, it's incredibly stupid and reckless, but you said so yourself that it would only launch us eighty metres into the forest sans a flight strategy – which I do not possess – and y'know, since showing off is the flavour of the day, I thought 'screw it, why not?"
Ozpin cracked a smirk.
"Mister Chroma, you must understand that this is forbidden, tampering with the catapult has the potential to not only damage it, but harm yourself and those around you, please safely release the spring and-"
"Oh! Too late! Spring is ready. Gotta go. Cya!" Goodwitch did not take too kindly to Ray's impertinent interruption, sparing him a scowl before the five beams of light erupting from his fingertips suddenly shattered into a brilliant shower of violet sparks when he clenched his fist, and the boy was launched from the cliff with the explosive force of a grenade.
Honestly, he'd have been better off rocket jumping.
Remains of the catapult were scattered atop the cliff like shrapnel, some parts hitting the other students, others falling into the forest below.
As for Ray, however…
I did not think this through.
My legs – surprised to say I still had them – hurt like a bitch. I seriously miscalculated the force that spring contained.
Not only was I going possibly four times faster than the catapult was originally designed for, I was also soaring through the air at twice the height too.
This gave me ample opportunity to pluck my scroll from my pocket and clock my speed in.
One-hundred and forty-two miles per hour, not quite the speeds I had hoped for, but it was good enough. I didn't take wind resistance and its effects into account, so realistically, it should have been expected.
Still, my objective had yet to be located and marked on my HUD before I found myself a partner.
I managed to spot a couple different landmarks while I was still approaching the apex of my trajectory; a bridge connected seamlessly to a series of tall, stone towers, followed by a small plain with pillars idly littered either side. For what purpose they served had me confused, it didn't matter though.
They probably served as much use as a waterproof teabag.
I also spotted and marked the location of a semi-circular set of ruins, I couldn't see it well given my altitude and distance, but I marked it under the suspicion that it was my destination.
Once I hit the peak of my flight, I felt the planet's gravitational pull politely remind me that I was not meant to fly, thus my sudden and sharp descent into the forest floor began.
I had a few cards to play in regards to my landing strategy.
Whilst I could just divebomb into the ground like a damn asteroid, it would most certainly end up in a very pitiful and messy demise. I had no intention of becoming a pink smear across the Emerald Forest, thank you.
Alternatively, I could try to aim for a tree, wrap a couple of hard light chains around it and hope for the best, again though, the likelihood of my survival was greatly underwhelming.
Thus, I was brought to my final and safest option; place my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.
I'm kidding of course, I'm not a fucking pussy.
Siphoning light into my gauntlets – Darkstar and Helix – I filled their capacitors up with as much of my semblance's energy as I could, effectively charging them up like batteries as I approached the ground at an alarming rate.
Remember: It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.
Once the gauntlets had reached maximum capacity, I shot my arms out to the side and a series of hard light cables dispersed into the tree line, piercing through the wood like bullets from a rifle as they latched onto anything and everything before anchoring themselves in place.
What I was attempting to accomplish was essentially a reversed slingshot, where instead of launching me forward, the cables tensing would slow my fall instead. However, hard light was not known to be very tensile – the effort was working to rapidly decrease my speed, but I could feel wire after wire snap under the extreme exertion they were placed under.
It worked though, by the Gods did it work. Though my landing wasn't as smooth as butter, I did land with both of my legs intact, rolling as I hit the ground to break my fall entirely.
It wasn't graceful, it wasn't majestic, but it got the job done, and in the real world, that's all that fucking matters, really.
Ray slowly stood up from his crouched position and patted his jacket to rid it of any stray particulate.
His beanie was readjusted on his head and he doubled checked the strap around his left shoulder, reassuring himself that his invaluable messenger bag and by extension, the items it contained, were intact.
The boy sighed in relief, not only because he didn't die before encountering any Grimm, but he also managed to do something he had prayed would happen ever since yesterday.
Scarlet wasn't here.
Which meant Ray might have finally lost her.
Hopefully, she will find herself a nice partner that actually gives a damn and keeps as far away from Ray as possible. Yeah, she might have been bullied and was using him for some kind of comfort, but that wasn't his problem now, was it?
Ray carefully analysed his immediate vicinity to be sure that he hadn't landed in some kind of Grimm nest. Luckily, he hadn't, but as his eyes scanned the lush, green environment he felt as though the forest was seriously lacking in variety.
Green stretched as far as the eye can see, the only breaks in this pattern were the umber bark of the oak trees surrounding him and the occasional flower dotted erratically throughout the forest floor.
Scents were as bland as one would expect from a forest, the slight tinge of moss accumulating at the roots of the trees, the clean, fresh air provided by the giants themselves as they underwent their daily process of photosynthesis.
The rotten stench of Grimm that harboured in this area, prowling around as if they owned the place...
Sounds were as dull as the smells were, the light, cordial singing of birds perching in the highest branches, asserting their vocal dominance with the intention of mating or showing off and other calls from the various other resident creatures significantly drowned out by their avian counterparts.
It was all pretty generic in terms of how a forest was meant to be portrayed, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary as far as Ray was concerned.
Save for the gunfire in the distance...
The hacker dusted the cobwebs out of his mind and focused, he needed to get to the so-called 'artefacts' before anyone else could have a chance at finding him and slowing him down. He didn't have the time to sight-see, the mission was far too important.
A long time ago, Ray would have once cursed and hated his father for illegally implanting several different computer parts, logic boards and wireless transmitters inside his head - not to mention the transparent screens placed directly inside his cornea.
It was those screens in question that gave Ray the unseen advantage of real-time tactical feedback, biometric and environmental analysis readings and come with the added bonus of the time, date and coordinates of his location. Only he could see the augmented reality projections they casted.
Since Ray was not built to brute force his way through everything, his best option would be to try to avoid hostile contact at least until he made it to the objective. From the information displayed on his HUD, the assumed temple was 1.7km from his current location, meaning he had quite the jog ahead of him.
A jog he was not looking forward to.
Scarlet's landing went rather well. Considering Crimson Brigade wasn't exactly the most versatile of weapons, the way she managed to stab it into a tree and effectively corkscrew around the trunk was incredibly impressive for a girl of her stature.
To the outside world, she was a complete train wreck of a person, with social situations being very much outside her comfort zone.
As the youngest of six, she had a lot of expectations to live up to as a warrior. She had to be fearless, strong, intelligent and quick. All qualities she openly admitted to not possessing.
Hence why she had decided to stick to that boy in the amphitheatre. Despite his sour attitude and the way he constantly tried to dismiss her, Ray still allowed her to tag along.
This was why she had to find him.
In her eyes, Ray was the living definition of the warrior her parents wanted, if she could find him and – hopefully – team up with the boy, she would be able to learn from him and become exactly what her parents expect of her.
That, and he is kinda cute.
She blushed at that thought.
Scarlet wasted no time in dismantling everything in her path to get to Ray. Trees, shrubs, Grimm... Even other students would be nothing to her but a minor obstacle on her way to finding him.
She didn't see him land, but she did see in which direction he flew, which meant she had a rough idea of where he could be.
If her calculations were correct, she was only a 20-minute run from his location.
And boy did she run.
The beowolves were just as much prey to Ray as he was to them.
Their claws, known for being incredibly sharp and dense, were nothing in comparison to the condensed light blade Ray twirled in his hands.
It was made out of photons, weightless and could shred through most metals like they were wet tissue paper. These blades were Ray's true weapons; infinite in number and should one become shattered; a replacement was always in Ray's hand within seconds.
Ray held the line in front of the small squad of these poor werewolf imitations, analysing every move, calculating his next steps. His violet eyes tracking their amalgamated amber and reds.
All five of these beasts were searching for fear, hostility or anything else they could feed off of, Ray would deny them such a treat.
Suddenly, the smallest of the group – a new-born, freshly generated from the pits of hell itself – decided today was a great day to attack the son of Orion Chroma.
What a monumental mistake that was…
Two strikes.
That was all Ray needed to reduce the black mass of fur and teeth into a rotting corpse. Its comrades not even batting an eyelid in response to the freshling's final whine in defeat.
A pitiful demise to a pitiful creature.
It was as easy as kicking a blind puppy. Beowolves were ridiculously stupid, even some of the Alphas weren't worth the time of day it took to kill them.
At least that's how Ray saw it.
Ray smirked and twirled his sword in a taunting gesture. "Anyone else?"
His smug remark worked to aggravate the remaining four Grimm, three Minors and a Major, all a waste of the oxygen it took to sustain their meagre bodies.
His blade crackled and sparked with invigoration as he fed it with more light to intensify its stopping power.
He didn't need the boost, the blade was more than sufficient to kill these animals, but Ray hadn't the chance to let go like this in a while, and with all this surplus light energy his body had accumulated over a downtime period of three weeks, he needed to burn it off.
What better opportunity was there than to waste it all on these four, insignificant beowolves?
It's not like anyone would miss them, is it?
Soon, the Major began barking orders to the three Minors, grunts and snarls communicating in a manner unlike most Grimm. To their credit, beowolves were actually capable of performing organised attacks, usually an Alpha leading Majors and their squad of Minors. It was clear these ones were attempting a strategy that was as pointless as it was hilarious.
Predictably; the three Minors attempted to flank Ray, slowly stalking around him so that they could either:
A: Leap towards him in one synchronous motion and have all three of their bodies bisected in a single arced swing.
Or, B: Actually try to play things smart and attempt hit-and-run tactics in order to keep Ray distracted long enough for one of them – most likely the Major – to catch him by surprise when he's most vulnerable.
Sadly, it was the former, and three more disintegrating bodies hit the ground to join the new-born from earlier.
Ray turned his head and gazed into the Major's eyes.
"Do you call this a fight? Please, don't waste my time." He openly mocked the dark being before him, knowing the only reply he would receive is a growl from the primitive creature.
The beast snarled at him with bared fangs. Black, tar-like drool secreted out of the creature's hideous maw, splattering the ground and staining the grassy clearing.
"Are you going to idle all day?" Ray turned his whole body to face the beast in a threatening pose. Challenging it with a casual demeanour. "Or are you going to take the hint and run?"
The beowolf didn't move, its blood-craved eyes still locked on Ray with every intent to rip and bite into his flesh, yet it didn't so much as twitch to sate its prime directive.
Matted fur, blacker than a thousand midnights, swayed slightly in the light breeze sweeping between them. Bone plating jutted in annoyingly irregular segments out of its flesh, shrouding it in armour most swords and axes couldn't bypass, and bullets from anything smaller than a lever action rifle would just ricochet off the beast's thick, leathery hide. Its skin was tougher than Kevlar, something it only wished was an unfair advantage.
The perfect killing machine, that's what the councils dubbed them.
It was a joke. This dull creature, known only for its killer instinct and not its intelligence, was one of the deadliest entities known to mankind.
Mankind was just as pathetic as this thing if they saw it as a force to be reckoned with.
Ray had seen worse. Compared to Dremoha, this Major was a child's plaything, though, that was nothing compared to Omegas though.
His father's journal mentioned how they were massive, dwarfing everything and possessing the power to wipe out entire civilisations in a single instant. Only one was ever spotted in recorded history, and it managed to obliterate an entire kingdom in less than a day.
The kingdom's name however, was lost to time, much like the recordings and scriptures of the Omega.
To this day, that Omega, nor others have been spotted, but should Ray ever come across one, he would do everything in his power to leave this damned graveyard of a world.
Ray paid no heed to the fact that he was standing in front of this entity simply designed to kill. He honestly couldn't care less since he terminated its brethren in front of its eyes with such ease.
The thing could go fuck itself as far as he was concerned.
Yet, here they both were, stood in a clearing seven-hundred metres from Ray's objective, waiting for the other to act.
"On second thought," Ray sighed as he brandished his sword in front of the offending being, "you're too ugly to let live. Nice knowing you though..."
With that, Ray conjured a pillar of light beneath his feet, propelling him up and towards the Major. He brought his blade above his head as he performed a somersault, preparing to bring it straight down on top of the beast and cleave the bastard in two.
Ray was regrettably denied this opportunity.
Scarlet's timing was terrible, she charged the beowolf with her weapon in hand, swinging it to the left and twisting her body into her strike that disabled the beowolf as she attacked the creature from the rear.
With both of its hind legs dismembered. Scarlet subconsciously declared victory as she went in for the kill, except…
"SCARLET YOU IDIOT!"
Author's note:
Ray has finally seen the infamous Niro Ezdeil for the first time in his life, and of all reactions he could give, he was merely amused.
If it hasn't been made clear already, Ray has the attention span of a teaspoon and always needs to be engaged in something to stimulate his mind.
Also, as if you didn't already see it coming, guess who Ray's partner is?!
It's fine though, I'm sure he'll manage, especially when he finally sees what she's capable of.
Either way, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did intend for it to be uploaded on Friday, but I got caught up in some stuff.
(cough Overwatch cough)
Anyway, please Favourite, Follow and Review. It helps give me motivation to write more.
Have a good one!
-Hydra