Pure white might have been not the best choice as color for a huntress outfit. Weiss Schnee hadn't put into consideration traversing through a thick forest as she put together her ensemble. Skirts tended to get caught on branches and high heel leather boots weren't made for long excursions on muddy, uneven ground.
As a consequence, the clothes of Weiss had a multiple of tears and stains, her feet were already sore, and mood was at an all-time low.
Beacon turned out to be a lot less impressive as she had hoped. The applicants she's seen so far didn't exactly inspire confidence in her decision to choose this place over Atlas. Undisciplined loudmouths and rude ruffians acted almost unopposed from the teaching staff, getting a limp slap on the wrist at best. The whole place lacked order and proper management when a stunt like earlier could happen right under the nose of the headmaster.
Changing academies wasn't an option, not after fighting her father at every step on the way to allow enrollment at Beacon. Damage control was the word of the hour now, trying to salvage the next four years into something worthwhile for her resume.
The goal was to find Pyrrah Nikos and become her partner. Together they would ace the initiation test and from that moment on, her path to success would be set. No matter how lackluster the rest turned out, the champion and her would make their mark in the world.
For that to happen, Weiss needed to get through this forest as fast as possible. Newfound determination quickened her step and she pushed through some bushes blocking her way.
Behind them, the heiress found something she didn't expect to see.
A small shack in the middle of nowhere. The shabby lodging was an amalgam of scrap metal sheets, bolted and welded together in a rough box shape. Circling around it from behind, she discovered a small porch. Scratchy tunes of an antique record player filled the air with occasional creaks of a rocking chair.
The one responsible for the sound was a young guy lounging in the chair with his eyes closed, seemingly taking a nap in a grimm-infested forest. A none too impressive specimen of the male population with shoulder length dark blue hair combed back, tall but slim physique that gave him a lanky look, wrapped in a tight V-neck shirt and baggy cargo pants. The guy felt like somebody right at home unloading cargo at the docks, not taking a prestigious huntsman exam.
Weiss recognized him as one of the ruffians getting cosy with Jaune Arc at the cliff. No desire to interact with the guy, she opted to sneak by and be on her way, but one detail made the heiress stop and take a better look. The footrest he was using looked a lot like one of her dust cases. She had them all labeled and color coded for easy recognition and particularly this special case full of hard light dust, the most expensive and rarest kind her company refined.
Dirty boots were resting on material worth more lien than most people could make in their lifetime. This begged the question how he came into possession of her property, a fact Weiss wanted to rectify as soon as possible.
But before she could reprimand him with a verbal lashing, the target of her ire opened his eyes from the loud stomps of her boots coming closer. "You're faster than predicted. I thought I had at least another fifteen minutes to finish my nap."
"You stole my dust!"
"I sure did. Name's Sky Lark."
The casual admittance and readiness of the thief to give his name took the wind out of Weiss's sails. "Do you think you can get away with this?"
Sky did a stretch in his comfy rocking chair. "I did get away with it. Without me showing you, you'd spend the rest of your life wondering who nabbed your expensive merchandise."
A truth that was frustrating. She hadn't even noticed the dust missing, despite doing regular checks on her inventory. "Then why wait for my arrival in the middle of nowhere and show me?"
A small frown came over Sky's serene expression. "Not my idea. Cardin needed bait and decided my big dust score would be the best to catch a Schnee."
All frustration of Weiss turned into nervous tension with a draw of her weapon, scanning the area for a possible ambush. The Schnee family was no stranger to kidnapping attempts and assassination plots from a multitude of groups. In her short seventeen years on Remnant, she had to endure White Fang extremists after their life, political and economical rivals plotting intrigues or simple nutcases stalking her family due to unhealthy obsession.
"I can tell you are thinking about some heavy stuff from the look on your face, but it's nothing that serious in the great scheme of things."
The rapier stayed rigid in her hand, Weiss not in the least assured, so Sky elaborated to calm the paranoid girl. "The point of this whole exercise is to keep people away from Jaune. Cardin doesn't like the thought of someone unworthy becoming his partner."
Jaune Arc again, making her life more aggravating. Now he didn't even have to be present to inconvenience people. His mere existence caused others to interfere in her initiation exam and Weiss didn't like what the roadblock insinuated. "Wait a second, you think I wouldn't be worthy of some rude hoodlum? Me, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the multibillion-lien Schnee company?"
"Cardin's thoughts, not mine. I think you would be cute together, although my favorite for that spot still is Blondetits McGee."
"There is nothing cute about the thought of a relationship with this rude hoodlum."
Sky made a sour face and took a deep breath, before changing his expression to a neutral state. "Then just stay for a while, wait this whole thing out until somebody else gets Jaune, and walk out of here with your dust. Simple enough, am I right?"
"What prevents me from taking my dust back right now?" Weiss pointed the tip of Myrtenaster at Sky's throat.
"Nothing." Sky took his feet from the case and pushed it towards her.
Weiss opened the dust container and checked the content for completeness. Satisfied with the result of her inspection, she closed the lid and hurried away, taking glances back to see if Sky took action to stop her from leaving.
In stark contrast, Sky entered the shack to come back out with an opened can of sausage, took one out and let brine drip off before taking a bite off the cold meat product. Five seconds later, he sat back down in his rocking chair and put up his feet on the freshly reappeared dust case.
Another ten seconds later, Weiss came storming back through the thicket.
He presented his can as an offering. "Sausage?"
Her rapier was pointed between his eyes as a counteroffer.
"As you said, I can't stop you from taking back your stuff. Letting you keep it is a whole nother story." Sky looked around for something to drink and ignored the weapon an inch away from piercing another hole. "I'm not unreasonable, so instead of you uselessly wasting time chasing me around, I propose a little wager that would only take a few minutes of your valuable time."
The lack of metal causing him harm showed at least consideration, a circumstance Sky wanted to capitalize on before the prickly girl changed her mind. "Race a full lap against me and the Dust is yours again."
He took a sip from the can for dramatic effect, making a face from the salty broth running down his throat.
"A lap on what?"
Sky said nothing. The air behind him began to shimmer and wobble like in an extreme heat wave. Something took shape in the visual phenomenon, its outlines slowly getting sharper as the object grew larger and larger. Weiss had to take a step back and look up to get a better idea about the size of this massive structure appearing out of nowhere.
"My heart and soul rests in every bolt, pillar, sheet of metal and repurposed car piece. I present the pride and joy of the Lark dynasty!"
The whole construction looked like the insane fever dream of a madman, rebuilding his favorite roller coaster with only scrap available and changing their mind to race track past the halfway point.
"Four generations of Larks built this racing circuit as a monument to motocross excellence, each leaving their mark in our family history through sweat and tears."
Several thousand tons of rusty metal hammered and welded into winding paths, ramps to jump across gaps and an honest to Oum vertical loop.
"And as the first of our line, my semblance makes it possible to relocate it at will, like anything I put a piece of myself into."
The eyes of Weiss widened as she connected the dots. "You connect part of your aura with objects and bind them to yourself. That's why my case keeps appearing back at your side."
Thinking back on it, Weiss felt the slightest tingle against her aura while she had held the piece of luggage. It meant for as long as Sky didn't release his mark, her property would never be safe again. But who's to say he would honor the deal or wouldn't simply steal something else?
The whole deal was dodgy enough, ignoring the fact she could count the amount of times she rode a motorized vehicle with two hands. Most occasions had been part of some rich people's entertainment, like lavish birthday parties of privileged brats flaunting their new toys from daddy.
Besides, the whole contraption didn't look remotely safe enough to even walk on, let alone drive at high speed, creaking metallically under its own weight.
"Rest assured, I don't expect a sheltered girl like yourself to win against me. Reaching the finish line should be more than enough as a challenge and cure for my boredom."
Weiss stilled at Sky's comment, her whole demeanor turning glacial. "Excuse me, what's that supposed to mean?"
"This isn't Sunday afternoon croquet before tea and pastries at the Schnee Estate. I would be surprised if you don't crash halfway through. Manage that, and the Dust is yours again."
And just like that, the priorities of Weiss had changed. The dust theft had become a minor matter compared to being disrespected so blatantly by a common vagabond in front of his playground made of junk. Weiss wouldn't tolerate her backing down against him becoming the only worthwhile anecdote in his meager life, something to brag about standing around a burning barrel with his riffraff friends.
Nobody beats a Schnee. "Then you won't mind adding some extra incentive."
"I'm listening…"
An investment has to always bear fruit. In this case, a lot of her time and patience has been invested so far and Weiss would reap a benefit no matter what. Finding opportunity in the unlikeliest of places was a skill every Schnee must have to carry the name with authority.
And for what it's worth, Weiss was her father's daughter. "Your associates are doing the same thing with the others? Stopping them from reaching the temple?"
Sky nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."
Maybe this wasn't such a waste after all. As childish this whole operation seemed to be, her talking with this guy instead of actually participating in the initiation test showed their effectiveness. She could use this and might as well get something worthwhile out of this farce.
"I want Nikos. Make it happen when I win."
When not if.
"Easy enough. She isn't getting past Dove." Sky snapped theatrically with his fingers and made two motocross bikes appear, identical besides color with one black and the other white. "First pick of transportation for the lady to show there isn't any foul play at work."
The decision process made Weiss furrow her brow. Aesthetically, she was drawn to the white machine, but she couldn't shake the suspicion Sky expected that to be the case and prepared accordingly.
"The black one." Weiss declared, smiling after seeing his eyebrow rise in surprise.
Her smile dropped when he shrugged a second later. "We keep track of our position through scrolls. No shenanigans here either."
Their scroll had a simplified map of the course layout, two dots representing them with their names underneath. She tapped on her dot and saw her profile picture and an aura bar at ninety-five percent. The loss of five percent through mundane walking through the forest irked her and she pressed Sky's dot to compare their levels.
"Your aura is already below half."
"Summoning all that stuff doesn't come without drawbacks," Sky replied with an eye roll. "My skill set isn't nearly as broken as the rest of my team."
Debatable in Weiss's opinion. The ability to mark an object the size of an industrial plant with part of your aura and summon it at will from anywhere across Remnant felt exploitable as hell. Transporting several shipments worth of dust by the price of an airship ticket, bypassing any risk common in transportation and handling sounded like a dream come true.
She would remember his name. Four years can go by fast.
"No helmets?" Weis took the bike from the kickstand and pushed it to the starting line.
Sky followed to get in position with his machine. "Your aura is a better safety measure than any piece of hardened plastic around the noggin."
A practical and reasonable answer Weiss could agree with wholeheartedly. An injury getting past their natural, protective forcefield wouldn't be stopped by any kind of protective gear either. That's why most huntsmen and huntresses forewent wearing armor for the sake of better mobility.
Any developing goodwill she had towards Sky was obliterated, when he pushed a button on his scroll and the speakers among the track sprang to life with loud crackling noise. They started to play a high-intensity rock song with lots of electronic beeps and boops, which Weiss neither recognized nor appreciated getting subjected to hearing.
Sky started his engines and turned to Weiss. "The button for ignition is on the right handle."
"I knew that." Weis shot back with a grumble, pushing the button with her outstretched pointing finger like calling an elevator. The machine under her butt sprung to life with a deafening roar and its sudden vibrations made the heiress truly aware of what she had agreed upon.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
The two turned their attention to the starting light, fittingly a traffic signal turned sideways. The red lamp sprung to life and Weiss involuntarily tensed. At yellow, her hands began to get clammy and she masked her nervousness by gripping the handles tighter. Sky watched the display with mirth, leaning stealthily towards her ear and blowing into it at the same moment the light turned green.
Weis jerked in surprise, turning the gas handle all the way with her motion and the bike bucked like a horse before blasting off with the girl on one wheel. He calmly went after his shrieking opponent, which tried to get her ride back under control. And although nerve wracking, the maneuver gained her an early lead by going full throttle at the start, pushing the machine to its limits on the long straight. Sky stayed behind her, content with keeping distance as his opponent went faster and faster.
The reason for that course of action became evident a few seconds later. The road made a sudden right turn and Weiss took the curve way too fast, making her use a glyph on instinct to stop driving off the track. It had the desired effect, but it also shot the girl like a bullet and forced her to keep adjusting trajectory with more glyphs like playing pinball with herself.
"And here I was, thinking this could be boring! There's a one of a kind crazy bitch under all that frosty exterior!"
The excitement of Sky wasn't shared. She almost crashed and the race had barely started. Driving more cautiously as a result, Sky used her trepidation to catch up and drive past her with perfect control over his machine.
"Fortune favors the bold, Schnee! Don't get cold feet now!"
Weiss grasped the handles of her bike harder, staring ahead not deigning to look at Sky as he let himself fall back beside her.
"Did you get it? Cold feet?"
Weiss ground her teeth together but kept otherwise silent.
"Because you're a—"
"Yes, I understood that joke! Shut up and drive!"
Following her order, Sky pulled ahead again without problem to Weiss's great chagrin. The whole race didn't seem anything serious to him, hooting and hollering along the way doing little tricks while singing along to the song blasted over the speakers. It made her feel like he belittled her, a thought driving the young heiress insane with anger.
"Ease up a little, Schnee! You have only one life, so might as well enjoy it! Maybe the loop will break the ice. You might even crack a smile, who knows?"
Said loop would be reached by both of them soon, a giant eye-catcher visible for miles. If Weiss had to take a guess, the intimidating set piece was at least eighty feet tall.
"Use the button on the left handle for the speed boost! Otherwise you will drop down at the highest point like a rock!"
She saw him ignite his thrusters and waited until she reached the same position on the track to mirror Sky. The needle on the tachometer made a jump as both bikes accelerated beyond what was intended.
A smile grew on Weiss's face. Speed was the key to overcoming this obstacle and she had the perfect set of skills to exceed anything Sky could do with his machine. Glyphs appeared again, this time in quick succession and just moments before Weiss reached them. Every touched symbol added manyfold to her acceleration, until everything just became a blur of color and lights.
Sky had been left in the dust behind her as she blasted with rocket speed into the loop, holding on for dear life trying to keep the bike straight. Her speed eclipsed Sky's so much, Weiss was about to exit the loop again when he only entered, making them meet for a moment at the bottom.
"I hope you handle the next curve better than the last. Although, large curves aren't your thing in general, are they?"
There wasn't enough time to be indignant, her attention focused at the road making a sharp right after the loop and going into a large u-turn. Braking wouldn't be enough to stop a collision with the metal fence acting as barrier and a crash would take her out of the race for good.
An unacceptable outcome.
The glyph appeared a split second before the front tire of her bike touched its rim. She made it slanted upward, creating a ramp that would make Weiss skip a whole part of the track, if she managed to stick the landing after getting airborne.
The longest five seconds of her life began.
Strong wind blew the tiara from Weiss's head and undid her ponytail. For a moment in time, there was just the wind in her long hair, the feeling of weightlessness and an endless blue sky. Everything else seemed to disappear into irrelevance below, her mind completely relieved of any thought besides an eerie calm from the breathtaking view.
She reached the apex of her jump and the inevitable downward trajectory brought the ground back into sight. Concerns for her wellbeing came into consciousness just quick enough to prevent ending this experience as a stain on the ground. The landing strategy turned out to be a multilayered combination of three black glyphs slowing her descent and four solid white glyphs to build a ramp.
Despite her efforts, the landing had enough impact to rattle her bones and activate her aura, let alone break loose parts of her bike.
Fortunately, not enough to make it stop functioning altogether.
Sky watched the petite girl fly through the air and land in a shower of sparks with a gobsmacked expression, then settled his features into serious determination as she continued the race undeterred. The time for fun and games was over. Weiss Schnee deserved his best effort after pulling that kind of daredevil stunt.
As such, the lead became smaller and smaller with every passing second when a complete amateur had to face a born motocross racer. The whole race couldn't have been going on for longer than a few minutes and Weiss felt already exhausted from the pressure of staying in control.
Both hit the home stretch at the same time.
They stayed neck on neck for several seconds, until Sky slowly but surely overtook Weiss inch by inch and there was nothing she could do about it. Her mind raced as fast as her bike, but nothing Weiss thought about helped to combat the imminent loss. Glyphs would help them both due to their close proximity and letting herself fall back to be the sole benefactor of the boost would take just enough time for him to cross the finish line before her. Attacking him equaled suicide at the speed they were going where her full concentration was needed to keep the bike under control.
Defeat had become a certainty.
The approaching blemish on her perfect track record made shame burn in her stomach like dry ice. The circumstance or insignificance of a loss didn't matter. A Schnee was above petty excuses for their shortcomings.
Weiss felt the sting of welling tears behind her eyes.
Sky hadn't pulled far enough ahead to miss her visible anguish. His fingers hovered over the brake, frowning as he contemplated throwing the match and how to make it the least obvious. Luckily for him, his excuse came in the form of two figures running towards the racing track below him and Weiss.
"Move your rosebutt, flowergirl!"
"Enough with the puns! And you're behind me slowpoke!"
Russel never had been an overachiever even among their group of misfits, so it made sense for him to be the first to abandon the plan. To be fair, the horde of grimm chasing them could have played a vital part in that decision. Before a very ferocious-looking beowulf could take a bite out his friend, Sky activated his semblance and showed Weiss it didn't limit itself to inanimate objects. Russel vanished out of existence, reappearing in the seat behind Sky with just enough presence of mind to wrap his arms around the driver to prevent falling off the speeding bike.
"Crazy asshole!" Russel gave Sky a headbutt into his neck for lack of free hands to strangle him. "Warn me next time before you pull shit like that!"
"It wouldn't have worked if you didn't want help, so shut up and be grateful for me saving your ass!"
The banter and added weight had the desired effect of slowing Sky's bike down enough for Weiss to cross the finish line before him. The cocktail of emotions at the moment she beat him, both positive and negative, paralyzed the heiress into numbness. There was just enough cognitive resources left to hit the brakes and let the machine come to a crawling stop.
"What's her deal?" Russel asked as they came to standstill behind Weiss, clearly perturbed by the doll-like girl staring blankly into nothingness.
"The racing equivalent to post nut clarity? I don't know." Sky decided to give the heiress some space and rather inquire about the early arrival of his teammate. "Why are you here anyway? Don't tell me you couldn't deal with one brat?"
Russel dismounted from Sky's bike and looked down from the track, seeing Ruby getting chased around by a group that consisted of at least four types of grimm. Sky joined him in watching the small girl expertly dodging and juking the mass of claws and razor sharp teeth, before she went to counterattack with her scythe in a vortex of blade cuts.
"Okay, she's good." Sky conceded after she felled three beowulfs in one swing.
Russel nodded after she blasted an ursa with three precision rifle shots. "Determined too, although she could use more confidence."
"Ah, the challenges of youth."
"Dude, we're only two years older..."
A giant ball of rose petals exploded in front of them from which an hysteric Ruby emerged.
"YOU LEFT ME! AGAIN!"
With her flushed face and puffed up cheeks, Ruby Rose resembled more a disgruntled hamster than an intimidating huntress. Russel gave his teammate a meaningful look for wordless communication and they understood each other. Sky wouldn't have been able to go full force against that girl either. You'd have to be a monster which took pleasure in kicking puppies to harm a single hair on this particular head.
"Not my fault this time. Blame Sky, not me." Russel said, smirking when Ruby suddenly had a cookie halfway in her mouth, courtesy of his semblance. "You managed just fine without me. Good job."
As much as she didn't want to, Ruby preened under the praise and unconsciously nibbled on the cookie, reinforcing the cute rodent comparison from earlier.
Weiss took that moment of silence to clear her throat for attention.
Ruby almost choked on her treat. "Oh hey, I'm Ruby!"
Weiss was careful not to look at the redhead. "I don't care who you are."
"Oh…" Ruby deflated, making the two guys in between shiver from the frosty atmosphere.
"I won," the heiress stated towards Sky without any smugness or noticeable satisfaction about her victory. "Bring me to Nikos."
Sky shrugged and ushered her to his bike, patting the seat behind him in invitation. "Your chariot awaits milady."
The thought of riding behind him was off-putting to Weiss, until she realized the only alternative was to drive through a thick forest on her own. She had faith in her skills on a solid track, but off-roading into rough terrain sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.
That didn't mean she had to like clinging on to him for safety. He smelled like motor oil and grease.
Sky ignored Weiss holding him like he was a bag filled with maggots, turning towards Ruby to cheer up the crestfallen girl. "Your sister should be with Cardin. Russell can track his scroll."
Russel groaned. "Don't rope me into helping people without my consent!"
"Please?"
"Fine…" Russel crumbled like a wet cookie under her silver puppy dog eyes. "Give us another bike. I'm not walking anymore through this forest."
"Yes, please!" Ruby's mood brightened at the prospect of easy transportation. "I'm so tired from all the running and fighting…"
Sky looked at the pair in deep thought, going over his mental inventory of available machines and settled for a red bike with matching sidecar to appear. "Please take good care of it. This is summoning, not creation from nothing. I'm not made of money."
Weiss stared at the new vehicle. "Wait a second, why can't we take this one? I'd rather ride—"
Sky replied by driving off suddenly, making Weiss cling tighter to him with a yelp.
Ruby and Russel stared after them, Weiss cursing up a storm at her chauffeur who was laughing his ass off. Eventually, the two took a seat on their own bike, Ruby sheepishly sliding down from the riding seat into the sidecar after Russel gave her a ten second stare.
"So my sister is with this Cardin guy? Will they be fine?"
Russel cringed.
"Define fine."