Chapter 2: A Grimm Start
The alarm clock's beeping rang out through the dorm, rousing the four newly christened team members. Teddy was the first to rise, his enormous weight causing his whole bed to creak and groan just by sitting up. Sandy and Marco got up after. Everyone get dressed in their new school uniforms and headed back into the center of the room.
Sandy stood with her black hair let down to her shoulders, her blue eyes wide awake. She had foregone the black leggings that came with the plaid skirt. Marco's blonde hair was neatly combed, without a single wrinkle on his suit. Teddy's XL suit struggled to contain his barrel chest, but it fit him surprisingly well for the most part. And Richard was… still asleep.
Sandy turned to Marco with a mischievous grin. "You can wake him up." Marco grinned and held up his hand, creating a chunk of ice in his palm, and snuck over to Richard's bad. Just as he got to the edge, he was met with a deep, calm growl of "Go ahead. See what happens." Marco stopped in his tracks, then decided it wasn't worth it and backed off.
Richard sat up groggily. "Welp. Morning, team." He yawned as he got dressed and joined the others in the center of the room.
"Alright everyone!" Sandy announced. "Now we kinda got thrown together pretty quickly during initiation, so I'm willing to wager we probably don't know each other very well. At this point I think some team leaders would hold icebreakers, get-to-know-you activities, 'Hi, I'm Sandy, I went to Sanctum,' yadda yadda, you get the idea. But screw that!" She crossed her arms. "We're stuck together for four years, so we'll probably know far more about each other than we'll want to admit by the end of this. So let's just get started with classes and kick this school's ass!"
There was a resounding silence across the room. "Sounds good." said Richard.
Marco took out a sheet of paper. "I've got our schedule. It's 9:30 now, we've got our first lecture together at 10:15 with Professor Port. What'll we do until then?"
"Well," Sandy said, "we could start by unpacking."
Marco took it upon himself to organize books neatly on the shelf by subject and alphabetical order while Richard hung posters and hooked up a small television. Teddy moved the beds around at the behest of Sandy, who, after placing her violin case against her bed, proceeded to walk around on the ceiling dusting cobwebs. Richard looked up at her and narrowed his eyes. "It's so weird seeing your hair and skirt go up when you do that."
"Well, when I'm using my Semblance, down for me is whichever way I want it to be." Sandy responded. "Speaking of which, what are all your Semblances? There's Marco's Dust storing, but what about you and Teddy?"
"My teachers described mine as ESP." Teddy answered. "When I activate it, I'm just innately aware of everything in the area around me, whether I can see it or not. That's how I knew there were no other Grimm coming when we fought at the ruins."
Sandy nodded and turned to Richard with an expectant look. He just shook his head and said "I don't really like to reveal the details of my Semblance. It's not very nice."
Sandy blinked and tilted her head to one side. "Okaaaayyy… Oh! It's 10:00, we'd better get going!" She dropped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor with a stylish flip.
As they were walking down the hall to lecture, they heard a commotion down another hallway. Turning the corner, they saw a large, muscular guy with brown hair tormenting a smaller brunette. The girl had a pair of long bunny ears sticking out from the top of her head, and the big guy was pulling on them and taunting her.
Richard and Teddy immediately stepped in. Richard placed his hand on the guy's shoulder and dropped his voice a full octave as he calmly said "Why don't you leave her alone for a while." Teddy emphasized this with a crack of his knuckles.
The big guy got a nervous look on his face that worsened when he saw Sandy and Marco coming in to back them up. He let go of the girl's ears and shook his head dismissively. "Fine. Whatever." He growled as he sauntered off.
The Faunus girl turned toward them and smiled cutely. "Thank you all so much." She said with a strange accent.
"Don't mention it." Richard said, his voice back to normal.
As the team went back on their way to lecture, Marco spoke up. "It was really nice to see you all stand up for that girl. I know that Faunus are still getting the short end of the stick these days, so that definitely made my day a little."
Teddy nodded. "It's strange- I keep hearing about the way Faunus are treated, but I've never actually had anything explicit like that happen to me. But then again, most of what I've heard revolves around Schnee corp, which I really haven't interacted with much."
"Well, we're definitely improving." Said Marco. "My father, actually, is a Schnee factory manager. He's a great guy, treats his employees well if they're human or not. Sadly, I can't really say the same about some of the family 'friends'."
Sandy shook her head. "It literally doesn't make any sense to me. That one animal part that a Faunus has somehow immediately makes them less than human to some people. What difference does a tail make?"
The conversation was cut short when they arrived at the lecture hall. Standing at the front was an older man in a red suit, slightly overweight, with grey hair and thick well-groomed eyebrows that made it difficult to see his actual eyes. His most striking feature was immediately pointed out by Richard.
"That," he announced, "is a glorious moustache."
Professor Port let out a hearty laugh. "Thank you sir, I take great pride in it!" So tremendous was his facial hair that even when he spoke, his mouth was invisible, and all they could see to indicate that it was him talking was the twitching of the moustache.
The four of them took their seats as Port began the lecture talking about the various names for the creatures of Grimm. Not five minutes into speaking, he launched into a story of his personal escapades that Sandy guessed was slightly embellished, judging by the assertion that he was hailed as a hero for capturing a single Beowulf.
"The moral of the story?" He concluded, "A true huntsman must be strategic, honorable, dependable and wise. Now, who among you believes they have the capability to demonstrate?" He gestured to a large metal cage next to him that shook violently. Two red eyes were visibly glowing between the bars.
Nobody raised a hand. Port looked around the room with a slightly disappointed expression. "I see." He mused. "Very well, then, if we have no volunteers-"
"I'll do it." It was Marco who spoke.
Port invited him to the space between the podium and the seats that formed an open space like an arena. Marco stood at the opposite end from the cage.
"Ready?" Port asked. Marco nodded, and the professor brought down his axe and shattered the lock.
The cage burst open to reveal a snarling Boarbatusk, which pawed at the ground and affixed Marco with angry eyes. It immediately charged the boy, who simply stood and waited for it. Just before the monster reached him, a blue flash of light knocked it back.
The Boarbatusk stumbled to its feet, then shook its head and went at him again, this time curling up into a ball and rolling toward him. Marco placed his hand on the ground and formed a sheet of ice on the floor, causing the Boarbatusk to slip and slide out of control. Sidestepping the flailing creature, Marco shot a stream of fire from his hands that engulfed the creature, which let out a series of enraged squeals. Finally he finished it off with a bolt of lightning that struck the Grimm with a deafening BOOM.
The lecture hall filled with applause. "Excellent show, my boy!" Port congratulated. "I believe that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned reading!" He called as the students immediately packed their bags.
Marco walked back to his seat and graciously accepted the high-fives from his teammates. Teddy clapped his hand on Marco's shoulder, nearly knocking him over. "Some first class, huh?" Richard said with a grin.
Marco smiled back. "At least now we know we're in for an exciting year."