{Chance is a Miscalculation}
"Hey."
The single uttered word drew the card-wielding duellist out of his trance. He gazed upon his hooded companion from beneath the rim of his tanned cowboy hat as the duo casually strolled through the evergreen scenery. A light breeze swept between them, causing the duellist's coat to billow slightly in the passing currents.
"What's up?" He responded inquisitively, the duellist's curiosity beginning to elevate.
"You wanna – hell, I don't know – spice things up a little?"
The card-wielder, Gabriel, smirked. "Depends on your definition of 'spice'. I'm not exactly a fan of oregano, but I do enjoy the occasional teriyaki chicken now and then."
His partner, Kyzal, turned to face him – at least it looked like he did, the boy's face was concealed by an unusually dark shade.
"A challenge? Perhaps? I'm thinking... who can run through the forest and strike down the most amount of Grimm before we reach the objectives… you up for it?"
Gabriel didn't have to give the marksman a verbal answer as his fingers delicately found their way to his weapon of choice, the one-hundred and four playing cards secured to his waist.
"Well, I do love a gamble..."
Gold-tipped black arrows and intricately decorated playing cards flew through the air as Grimm were mercilessly cut down left, right and centre.
Where a once, light-hearted challenge had taken precedence between the newly-designated partners, a full out war was quickly taking precedence amongst them.
The pair were ruthlessly efficient, decimating the creatures of darkness before they even saw what was coming. One after another, the pair slew Grimm like they were nothing but minor inconveniences, many a confused student saw the beasts killed without any explanation before two blurs shot past them, unwilling to slow down to say 'you're welcome'.
"Twenty-three!" Called Kyzal as they raced through the forest, leaving utter turmoil in their wake.
"Ha!" Gabriel laughed in response as he leapt over a fallen log, turning to witness his partner vault over it with visible ease. "Twenty-eight! Keep up or suck up, son!"
Kyzal grit his teeth and burst forwards with a renewed boost of determination, overtaking Gabriel and nocking two arrows in the string of his bow before letting them streak forwards with a high-pitched whistle and embed their golden points deep within the bowels of two beowolves.
"Twenty-five!" Kyzal corrected his earlier statement with fresh confidence, only for said confidence to be ripped away by Gabriel's immediate response.
"Thirty-thr-"
Unfortunately for the duellist, he was unable to finish his gloating as he skidded to a halt, just before the edge of a drop-off towering over a large clearing in the forest. Kyzal followed suit and they both overlooked the recess in the ground, spotting a pair of students fighting off a swarm of creeps and beowolves.
Kyzal and Gabriel spared a moment to share a knowing look between one another before they rearmed themselves and leapt into the fray.
Ray was done.
So completely and utterly fed up was he, that he had seriously considered just giving up on this futile initiation and going back to Mistral for a second round of poker.
"I. Hate. This. Job." He growled menacingly, striking down a beowolf with each word he angrily spat out of his grit teeth.
"Then why did you choose this profession?" Scarlet questioned him, brutally bisecting another Ursa as she spoke.
Ray ducked under a charging Creep before spinning on his heel, summoning a spear and pinning the thing to a nearby rock.
"Fucking tourists..." The hacker grumbled, twisting the spearhead and putting the pathetic creature out of its never-ending misery.
Two additional creeps leapt towards their comrades' defence, despite the fact that they were far too late to save it.
However, before Ray could deal with these two very much unwanted guests, two arrows struck them down with laser precision. Striking them right between their ugly little eyes.
Ray was taken aback by this, though didn't complain as every other Grimm in the area was taken down in almost the same way – some of the beasts met their makers by way of deadly playing cards tearing through their disgusting hides.
Before long, the undesirable company Ray and Scarlet shared was disposed of and in their place stood two male figures.
Who were also undesirable, but only one of the pair held that opinion.
One of the strangers wore some pitch-black hoodie and baggy sweatpants to match, the hood covering his head working to conceal his face entirely by means of an extraordinarily dark shade. Strapped to his back was both a quiver mounted vertically – almost perfectly perpendicular to his spinal column – and a longbow, with possibly enough power behind it to pierce even the thickest of Grimm bone armour with ease.
The second of the two males wore a long brown trench coat stretching to just past his knees. Two half empty decks of cards could be seen strapped to his waist and the cowboy hat the boy wore on his head only served to fulfil the cowboy stereotype Ray had in mind when analysing him. The hacker honestly couldn't give less of a damn about the rest of the second individual's clothing, it really only served to prove Ray correct... again.
In the boy's hand, he twirled a long staff, about five and a half feet in length, with purple, crackling bolts of energy emitting from it like a damn Tesla coil.
"Hey, I like that energy sword thing you got going on there, man." The cowboy commented nonchalantly.
Ray sighed and raised his eyebrows once to acknowledge the boy's half-assed attempt at breaking the ice.
"Yeah, well, that's a nice stick."
Scarlet went to work in immediately shutting Ray up by shoving past him – to which Ray put up no fight against her, given her earlier display of raw power – and went to work on introducing herself and her reluctant partner.
"Ignore him. My name's Scarlet Rubine. Thanks for the assist." She stated with an overwhelming amount of innocent kindness.
"Well, my name is Gabriel Stryker and this is-"
"Kyzal Drave." The boy's partner cut in, exercising his "well used" vocal chords.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. Oh, and this is Ray~"
"Chroma. How many times do I have to tell you?"
"Yeah. This is Ray Chroma. As you can tell, we're partners too!" The crimsonette ignored Ray's complaint in favour of carrying on the already short introductions.
Ray opted to sort through his messenger bag rather than listen in on the conversation Scarlet was determined to maintain in order to check he had all of his tools. Though he could quite easily recreate a missing tool using his semblance, it was far more beneficial to spare himself the time and effort it took to accomplish such a task. That, and he'd rather not slack off and exchange small talk with others. Scarlet was more than enough, he did not need another two to join in.
Ray could easily bet money on Scarlet talking someone to death, the girl's mouth and head worked in beautiful synchronisation to completely and utterly bore the living hell out of anyone in her mere proximity.
If Ray wasn't a victim of this himself, he'd actually be impressed.
"So, are you ready?" Scarlet's overly enthusiastic voice pierced through Ray's distracted mind as he worked on closing his bag.
"Ready for what?" Ray's grouchy reply answered her. Sadly, it didn't so much as faze the girl as she annoyingly leant against the boy's shoulder.
"To complete the objective!" Her voice was assaulting his ears with its positivity. "Gabriel and Kyzal agreed to help us reach it on the grounds that four individuals trying to reach the temple will be far easier and faster, than two, so we discussed it and came to the decision to team up!"
"That's great, Scarlet!" Ray's sarcastic response could've been detected by specialised sensors three miles away, yet his moronic partner didn't or couldn't pick up on the tone of voice to save her god-damned life.
Not only that, but the concept of personal space was completely foreign to the girl as she practically dragged him by the hood of his jacket toward the temple as he sulked in silence.
She really was the bane of existence.
The team of two partners had served to effectively clear their opposition with an impressive amount of coordination.
Scarlet had taken the role of acting leader for the group as she barked out commands like a damn dictator. In lieu of Ray's peace and quiet wandering, the boy was forced to hear the conversation his three other companions were engaging in so nonchalantly. Not even his selective hearing could tune out the noise, nor could he ignore the fact that Scarlet was so casually making physical contact with him whenever she could. Her desire to touch the hacker becoming increasingly old and very much annoying.
'Please tell me this is the extent of her clinginess.' Ray pleaded with any heavenly bodies out there to get her to stop, but alas, it did him no favours.
"So, Ray, what lessons do you think we're gonna have after we finish the initiation?" Scarlet enquired as she held onto his arm affectionately. She gave him a sickeningly sweet smile as her tiny frame looked up at him. Despite his internal despair, the boy swallowed his grit and sighed.
"Probably the usual; Grimm studies, History, Literacy and Mathematics, that sort of bull." He replied lowly, though it wasn't angrily.
Before Scarlet even took the time to acknowledge his response, she had decided to release her hold on him and excitedly skip towards a naturally occurring flowerbed. The girl let off an overdramatic gasp, cupping her hands over her mouth, and squatted down to smell the multi-coloured assortment of fauna.
Ray seized the opportunity to mouth the words 'Kill me' to Kyzal and Gabriel, eliciting snickering from the pair as they found his begging humorous.
When the hacker's violet eyes resumed tracking his crimson-clad parasite, he immediately noticed something wasn't right. His eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch as he saw the girl's small nose begin to crinkle, her eyes squinted and her chest began to heave as if she was about to sneeze.
"Uh… Scarlet? Are you okay?" Ray questioned hesitantly, caution seeping into his voice as he shared a mildly concerned look with the other two.
Before any of the three males could react, Scarlet's diaphragm delivered one last contraction before her head shot back violently and a fucking tree exploded to their far left in a rupture of powerful vermillion energy. Ray found himself sat on the floor with his hands up to his ears as the incredibly concussive shockwave that occurred knocked him back. Sparks and plasma had scorched the once great oak and the overbearing sound of splitting wood filled the quiet air with a low creaking as the two halves of the tree toppled over with a pair of thuds.
Splinters and upturned dirt showered the area like rain as Ray, Kyzal and Gabriel all collectively recoiled hard from this outburst, completely unsuspecting of the event before it transpired.
It was as if someone had fired a missile at them.
"What the hell was that?!" Ray yelled as his eyes were screwed shut and he slowly pried his hands away from his ears.
Cracking an eye open, his ocular display was delivering unto him a whole host of energy readouts, his integrated hardware was seemingly as spooked as he was, as data filled the left side of his vision like credits after a movie.
Plasma, ionized air particles and radiation were but some of the words the boy managed to register before he dismissed his HUD.
Scarlet, despite the circumstances, was rather hastily dusting herself off with a bright red face, clearly embarrassed and untouched.
The girl dug her hand into one of her leather pouches and brought forth a handkerchief to wipe her nose before sticking it back inside and zipping the pouch closed.
"Scarlet?" Ray called for attention, however the girl was attempting to quickly move away from the inevitable interrogation she was set up for. Ignoring the boy's call as she patted down her clothes and began walking away.
Again, the three boys looked to one another before Ray took the initiative and picked himself up off of the floor to chase his timid partner.
When he reached her, he could still see the flush painted across her cheeks as she lowered her head and averted her eyes.
"Hey Scarlet, what are you doing? Talk to me here." Ray practically pleaded with the girl, still confused as to what the hell just happened.
Still, the girl ignored his question and increased her speed. That was before Ray ran out of patience and placed a hand on her shoulder. Scarlet tensed in response to the sudden contact and Ray spun her around before keeping her still with both hands on her shoulders.
"Hey, look at me." He instructed, his tone wasn't harsh, more of a reassuring modulation in his voice. Scarlet still tried to shy away from him but the overwhelming gaze from his amethyst eyes demanded her attention.
Her eyes looked as if they were about to form tears, Ray's analysis of her ruby irises told him that she was embarrassed, a little scared and almost seemingly ashamed.
Ray heard the girl murmur something quietly, but he failed to discern what she said.
"Look kiddo, if you're going to speak to me, you're gonna have to be a little louder than that."
"I-it's my semblance..." Her meek, tender voice repeated her earlier statement.
Ray's eyes immediately softened, from what he had seen, his over-analysing mind was quickly jumping into action and putting all of the pieces together.
Once more, the hacker found himself sympathising with his partner.
Her semblance, in all of its highly unpredictable and incredibly dangerous glory, was out of her control.
Déjà vu hit Ray like a truck.
We're more alike than I thought...
Author's note:
I'm not very good with regular uploads, a most of these early chapters have needed some edits to make reading them much easier and given my limited free time, I can only do so much before other priorities take hold.
However, I'll try to be a little more straight forward and upload at least once a week.
Please Follow, Favourite, and/or Review if you enjoy the story so far, I love me some constructive and deconstructive criticism.
Have a good one!
-Hydra