A Leaf Turned
Chapter 3
The Initiation
As Adam plummeted through the air towards the initiation zone with an objective clear in mind. He considered his options for partners. The results were bleak. Of the choices he had among those he knew so far they were all less than ideal. Ruby was noisy, awkward. Her lack of socialization skills would be a blessing if not for the fact her sister was intent on breaking them. So she was a bust. Yang was even louder and would likely take ever opportunity to try and have him "warm up to her" in some vague attempt at his own shell breaking. Another bust. The Schnee might be an option if she wasn't a Schnee, they were both content to ignore each other and he imagined they could do so for four years. But he'd probably slit her throat within the first week if he was left alone with her at length. Total bust.
Pyrrha Nikos had talent to be sure, she seemed polite, even enough to indulge Arc in his failings. But her obvious siding with the Schnee made her a horrible option as well. So bust. That left Jaune Arc... And Adam would freely admit he'd probably just shove the blond down some stairs in the hopes he broke his neck and left Adam without a partner for the remainder of his time at Beacon.
Would the headmaster allow that? He thought to himself. If he was saddled with Arc in the end, he imagined the plan would become more real than he wanted to admit.
You miss Blake. Came the thought.
Had she been here with him rather than a kingdom away she'd have made an ideal partner, reserved, knew his social cues for being left alone and he was comfortable around her. But no, he was stuck here scraping the bottom of the barrel so desperately he felt like he was back on the streets again.
The treetops were close enough and he curled his legs and grasped Wilt. He twisted mid flight and slipped through the foliage and with a flick of his arm he swung and speared the ground and slid along, kicking up dirt and using his sword as an break before he slid to a complete stop in the forest.
Standing tall, the bull Faunus rolled his neck and surveyed his lading site. Nothing but trees, brush and greenery and not a single sign of anyone else. Good, that means I won't be picked just yet. That thought comforting him he took to the trees and began to run and jump across the foliage with practiced, but not entirely graceful, movements. At the very least, he'd have less chance of being spotted both by Grimm and his fellow first years until he was confident in his choice of a partner.
He wasn't traveling for more than five minutes before he heard the sounds of small-arms fire echoing out nearby. Along with the screech of the Grimm that could only be a King Taijitu. Adam moved in the direction, keeping to the shadows and trees to creep along towards the fighting.
He'd arrived just in time to see a dark haired boy dressed in a mix of green and white fabrics going hand-to-fang with the beast. And he'd actually won not a few moments later with a mixture of Aura and martial arts techniques. He's quiet, clearly skilled. But I know nothing of his personality. Adam narrowed his eyes and shifted as he weighed the pros and cons.
The boy could have been like Blake in the personality department and while it was a shallow reason to choose a four year partner Adam wasn't exactly looking for depth in choice, just general quietness.
This choice was interrupted when some girl appeared from the trees, hanging upside down and poking the boy's nose. Adam blinked.
He'd just been partner stolen. But some girl who may or may not have had the same idea he did. The bull was understandably a little irritated at the loss, but not overly much as he turned and moved along again.
"Help!"
Adam paused, glancing around at the call. He listened closer.
"Someone! Help!"
That voice sounded… familiar.
"Heeeeelp! Oh come on…"
Oh, it's Jaune Arc.
Adam pinpointed the direction of the voice… and promptly moved the opposite direction at leisurely speeds to gather distance between himself and the blonde idiot, who had hopefully broken a leg upon impact and was now going to be Grimm food if his shouts of help were anything to go by.
He also incidentally missed crossing paths with the Schnee dragging Ruby Rose through the forest behind him, neither party in their own urge to be away from Arc noticed each other and so continued the initiation for Adam.
Roughly another ten minutes passed along by before Adam considered just skipping the partner phase and merely finding the temple ruins and retrieving the relic because finding anyone else in this haystack of a forest was clearly more time consuming than it needed to be.
"You monsters!"
Adam stopped short mid-step and paused as the sounds of what could only be Armageddon followed the roar of fury that had echoed across the forest. It was soon accompanied by the crackle of a crescendo of powerful blasts and wood splintering.
The bull Faunus briefly recalled the voice and he followed the sounds of carnage until he came upon a sight that actually both impressed and confused him.
Yang, the friendly blonde who seemed more eager to tease and have fun, stood over the bodies of two Ursa, both were very, very dead and dissolving into the black mist that all Grimm did upon death. One was decidedly more dead because it had clean been blown back through a tree and the trails of powerful flames following a skid mark in the ground also hinted it had been flung with extreme force.
The second just had a crushed skull.
Yang turned, apparently sensing his presence. Red glowing eyes met dull red ones and the pair stared in silence before Yang took a breathe and exhaled slowly, when she opened her eyes again they were back to their usual lilac and she placed her hands behind her hair and offered him a bright smile despite the scene of destruction around her.
"Guess we're partners!" She announced the obvious.
Adam glanced around. He had missed her display of power, but if this was the aftermath and she didn't seem an ounce winded? He supposed they were indeed partners then. She was strong and while she was exceedingly loud, if things had to get loud, Adam's primary method of combat anyway, it seemed she would do. "Seems so." He deadpanned.
Taking that as a sign of approval she marched on over and held out her hand, only then did he fully notice that her gauntlets had retreated and become bracelets. "Well then partner! My name is Yang Xiao Long!"
Adam raised a brow at the offered hand. "Adam Belladonna." He replied dryly. "A pleasure."
When he left her hanging she dropped her hand and just looked a bit annoyed at his rude gesture. But the shrug that followed told him she had actually been expecting something like this from him. "Well! This is going to be interesting."
"It seems so." He wouldn't exactly call it "interesting" as much as "Trying".
Yang either didn't catch his hidden meaning or chose to ignore because she simply flashed another smile, turned and began to walk. Apparently expecting Adam to follow.
And follow he did. Trailing behind her by a few feet, a respectable distance considering she was a human and he was more or less lost in his musings on his new partner for the next four years of their schooling together. Adam wasn't sure if he should feel comforted by her easy acceptance of his reserved nature or suspicious.
And overall, the way she walked. It was a careless swagger, the overly showy sway of her hips. As if she was trying to distract him from the fact her arms were her deadliest weapons? Did she knew she did it and was doing so on purpose? Or was it just natural that she fall into such a careless appearance when out of combat? And what did that mean for her personality if so?
Questions he couldn't outright ask her without seeming rude or like he'd been observing closely for less than professional purposes. The bull Faunus merely looked back ahead as they continued their trek through the forest, the lull of their steps and nature around broken only by the sounds of gunfire in the distance to tell them the other students were also encountering their own difficulties.
The shrill cry of some distant student filled the air and Yang immediately jumped. "Some girl's in trouble!"
Adam only sighed. She didn't have the sharpest of ears, but Adam could tell that wasn't the voice of a girl but rather a really frightened blond he'd been eager to leave behind hanging in some tree for the Grimm.
Maybe the Grimm had gotten him? On the one hand, Adam didn't particularly care, one dead human among millions of others. But was that his personal bias? Or just ruthless cold heartedness? He wasn't sure which answer he liked. And he was sure Blake would be disappointed in either as well.
"Probably just spotted a spider or something." Irony aside, Adam and Yang continued on their trek. And sure enough, they stopped at an outcropping and spotted the remains of some… old temple? Doesn't look much like a temple.
"Seems more like a shack than a temple." Yang said, as if sensing his thoughts on the matter. "Still, knew we'd find it, partner!"
Adam winced, partner. Yang threw that word around like they were automatically best friends and it irked him more than it probably should have. "Just… Call me Adam."
"Right, partner!" Now she wasn't even trying to hide the fact she was trying to get on his nerves!
Rather than give her a very stern warning against testing his patience, he merely hopped off the ledge and landed on the ground below, moving towards the pedestals to see their relics. Chess pieces? Adam thought, observing the golden and black pieces. Knight, Rook, Pawn, Bishop and King pieces… A few were already, namely the Bishop and Rook pieces. Oddly enough, neither color sported the Queen pieces.
Curious, but probably unimportant.
"I vote for the pony." Yang was suddenly beside him, pointing to one of the golden Knight pieces.
Adam honestly couldn't think of a thing he could less about right now. So he shrugged his confirmation and she gladly took hold of the piece. "Guess now we just gotta get back to the cliff." Yang reasoned.
"Then lets. We're already behind other students, I'd rather not be dead last." What? Adam had a competitive streak when it came to certain things.
She seemed to catch his own competitive words and nodded with a grin. "Now you're talking." She turned and took two steps before coming to a stop at the sight of a shadow in the sky. "…Uh, Adam." She reached over to tap his shoulder.
The bull Faunus was already looking up. Spotting the sight of Ruby coming down right for them. "I see her." He mumbled, about to step back and give her a clear crash zone…
Until Jaune Arc suddenly slammed into the red hooded girl and sent them both into a tree, several pained groans, thuds, branch snapping followed before both fell to the ground in heaps. Adam would never admit the sight was very amusing.
"That happened." He said, lips curling slightly into a small amused smirk.
The roar of an Ursa made Adam and Yang turn with stances ready for a fight. And sure enough one of the large beasts broke through the treeline, flailing? And soon it flopped over with a sizeable hole in it's back. Along with a passenger. It was the same girl who'd appeared from the tree and claimed his own first choice of a partner.
A moment later she was joined by said boy, who was panting and leaning against the corpse to catch his breathe. "Nora…" Adam barely caught his panted gasps from the distance. "Never do that agai- Nora?"
Adam and Yang both almost jumped out of their skin when they suddenly felt the presence of the girl, now Nora, behind them and grabbing onto one of the Rook pieces. "I'm queen of the castle!" She sang happily while toying with the piece in a manner that reminded the bull Faunus of a child with a new toy. "I'm queen of the castle!"
How on Remnant did she move so fast? Adam wanted to know. One moment she'd been by the Ursa, the next she was behind he and Yang choosing piece? That was some incredible speed. Adam had to admit, he was partially impressed. Partially.
What followed could only be likened to a skit from comedy show as Yang and Ruby had some sisterly reunion, which was interrupted by the Schnee dropping in, sadly not to her death because Jaune-dust damned-Arc decided he wanted to be a hero and "save" her, cushioning her fall. And she wasn't even grateful! Then Pyrrha Nikos arrived with a Deathstalker in tow to add to the Nevermore turning to take another pass at them.
When Yang summed up their situation with a "Now we can all die together!" Adam could only assess the situation from his place and deemed that all the students bar himself suffered minor cases of insanity.
He would not be dissuaded from this notion for the days to come, he was sure.
That said he was eager to vent some of his frustrations on the Grimm currently advancing on their location. He raised Wilt and Blush, about to charge the Deathstalker until Ruby beat him to the punch by blurring forward to meet the large Grimm in mortal combat.
While everyone watched with shock as the large beast batted her aside like she was some fly. Adam was already on the move towards the red hooded girl, his legs carrying him swift across the field when the Nevermore screeched and began to rain down it's razor feathers down towards the retreating Ruby and skewer the poor girl.
A flash of white caught the edge of his eye before he jumped forward as that stinger flew forward with lethal intent!
Ruby Rose wasn't having a good initiation. Period.
She was convinced Weiss Schnee, her partner! Hated her and Ruby was well on her way to being miffed with her as well! She questioned everything Ruby suggest they do and act all perfect and prissy and blah! But that was beside the point for the little reaper because her current predicament could very well mean the end of her time as a Huntress in training.
Her cloak, a precious sign of her attachment to her mother, was pierced and caught by a feather and she was stuck as the Deathstalker approached. Eyeing her like a meal before it's stinger reared back and forward, coming down for her.
Ruby Rose, a young girl with dreams and aspirations of being an amazing Huntress one day, could only lament the fact she and Weiss weren't friends before her passing.
There was the sound of ice creaking and she felt there was suddenly a pair of people beside her. She opened her eyes and looked over, blinking at the sight that greeted her.
Adam, the only other person she knew at Beacon other than Jaune and her sister, and Weiss too, she supposed, was standing there, his legs curled and braced as his shoes dug into the ground. Above him, he had his weapon half drawn from it's sheath and was holding both up in defense.
The point of the stinger of the large Grimm pressed back against him while he stood there, rooted on the spot in his impressive show of strength.
Ruby looked over and saw Weiss was at her side as well, her rapier stabbed into the ground and the Deathstalker was covered in ice blocks, it's legs, body and claws stiffened from the layers of ice scattered across it's body.
White and Black stood up to the evil and held it back like true heroes of old.
Ruby could only come to one logical conclusion at the sight of it. I have the coolest partner and friend ever! She would have squealed had Adam and Weiss' voices not broke her from her reverie.
"You idiot!" They spoke together in varying volumes. Weiss hissed and Adam grunted. But both scolded.
Adam furrowed his brows when he and the Schnee had the same idea for a scold towards Ruby, who looked both sorry and sheepish at the pair, but that was second concern to Adam's current disgust that he and a Schnee were, even for a second, of the same wavelength. I feel… dirty. He decided with a deeper frown.
Bias be damned he felt really, really dirty.
"I'm sorry! I just… Wanted to prove to you I can do this, Weiss." Ruby stood and hefted her scythe up, giving the Schnee a downtrodden stare.
"Dying won't prove anything to me, you dunce!" Weiss snapped, before she took a breath and withdrew her rapier from the ground. "We're supposed to be partners. And that means communication. So before you charge in-"
Are… Are they doing this now? Right here? Adam thought, even as he felt the Deathstalker straining it's tail to try and dislodge his defense. Did they think the creature of Grimm would just wait for them to finish their moment before it decided to kill them? "Before you two get too deep into this," Disgusting. "Touching moment. We have Grimm to kill."
"No we don't," Ruby said with a sudden fire, apparently the Schnees' words having brought the girl to better spirits. "We don't need to waste time fighting these guys. We have our relics and we just need to get back to the cliff."
"She's right." Weiss nodded with a smile, apparently pleased that Ruby was showing a bit more maturity.
All fine and good, Adam guessed. But he really, really wanted to kill these Grimm because it would be therapeutic at this point because quite frankly he was surrounded by students were proving to be absolutely insane.
"Guys!" The voice of Jaune called over to them, Adam didn't even bother glancing back and stayed focused on the immediate threat. "That thing is circling back!" The Nevermore was on it's way back then? Well that could complicate matters. Adam wasn't so good at downing fliers.
"That settles it!" Ruby announced to them. "Grab your relics and we're move together back towards the cliff! Let's go!" She turned, rushing back towards the relic alters to grab her own with Weiss behind her.
The bull Faunus could only growl and shove the stinger back before turning and moving to catch up with the others, leaving the trapped Deathstalker hissing and snapping after them. He'd have to wait for his chance to unleash his desire to fight. And with this lot, it's really only a matter of time than chance. He thought with a lingering touch of eagerness.
He never once considered he had a violent personality.
As the others moved away from the temple ruins, he looked at Yang, who was giving Ruby a look that dripped with pride. Adam looked over, Ruby's cloak billowed in the breeze and the way the others moved at Ruby's orders. He was positive that Yang was seeing her sister growing into a real leader figure who would go far and live a bright, if dangerous, life.
Adam could only see a poor, naïve girl playing at leadership with a bunch of kids who were barely able to understand what they truly wanted from the life they were almost casually risking like it was just another day at school.
"Let's move." The bull Faunus said as he stepped forward and after the others. Yang was soon behind them as they made the mad dash towards the cliffs where a most epic battle could be fought across bridges and against the darkness of the creatures of Grimm!
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Adam Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long," Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon smiled to the four assembled before him. "Together, you four retrieved the White Knight pieces."
Adam suddenly understood the significance of the pieces. Because it apparently determined the four man teams.
"Henceforth, you shall be team RWBY. Led by…" Ozpin looked to Ruby and smiled. "Ruby Rose."
And again, together with the Schnee, both thought the very same word at almost the same volume while Yang was busy trying to suffocate her sibling with a bear hug.
What?!
Adam brought a hand to his face to cover his scowl and massaged his temples and found himself thinking a thought he thought he would avoid for the third day in a row but so far it appeared that it was only logical at this point that Blake was at the heart of this current headache and thus, to the sounds of applause and praise from Ozpin and the gather students the bull Faunus could only think.
Damn you, Blake.
"Led by Jaune Arc."
…Say what?
End of chapter 3
Yeah, I skipped the Nevermore and Deathstalker fight because now you can all wonder and be in horrible loss at the fact you will never know what transpired on that bridge! Muwahaha, but no, really. I just couldn't think of a way to write the fight and so instead of being hung up on said fight, I decided to skip it and let you all use your imagination.
Oh, and the odd references here and there when the team reminisces about it. Yeah, anyways! Thanks to those who have reviewed, followed and fav'd! Thanks! Each new addition to the stats brings a smile to my face and fuels my writing! Until next chapter, peoples.
Take care and have a nice day/night!