Chapter 6: Initiation Part 1
–
Character Change: ?- Viralious
Location: Airship hovering over the Solitas wastes
–
That morning was quick for every new student at Atlas. At 7AM sharp everyone was woken up and instructed to head to the airship docks at exactly 8AM. Luckily beating the early rush for showers, Viralious had a quick breakfast, grabbed his equipment and was one of the first to arrive.
Precisely at 8AM Ironwood appeared on a holoprojector and began to speak to everyone in front of the docks.
"Good morning, and welcome to your initiation test. Each one of you has been assigned a letter and number combination that should have just come to your scroll. That will determine which bullhead you will board. Once on board, listen to the comm system and when your number is announced you will jump from the bullhead to your designated entrance to the testing area. For this year the testing area will be an abandoned dust mine, it will be swarming with Grimm so feel free to destroy everything in your path. As for team mates, you will make partners with the first person you make eye contact with once inside the mines, as long as they don't already have a partner. Once establishing connection to a partner you will make your way to the center of the mines, your scrolls will point you in the correct direction. Once at the center of the mines you will grab a relic and exit signaling for extraction. Once you are onboard the return bullhead you're done with the test. Are there any questions?"
Multiple hands shot up.
"Good, now will everyone please board their designated bullheads" Ironwood finished as the Holoprojector turned off.
Sighing, Viralious boarded the bullhead and waited to begin.
–
"A3 it's your turn to exit the bullhead"
Viralious moved to the door that was opening on the right side of the bullhead and stared down at the sprawling wastes of snow that surrounded him.
Breathing in Viralious takes the leap from the bullhead.
The wind whipped at his sides as enters a freefall. Shifting his body to have his legs facing the ground, Viralious unsheathes his blades and shifts them into SMG mode. Firing multiple quick bursts to slow his momentum, eventually landing with a roll in the snow.
Brushing himself off, Viralious quickly moves into the large opening in the snow. Stepping down into the abandoned mine.
–
The mine was depressing, dark ice and stone surrounded him. There was enough light shining through allowing him to see without squinting but not enough that he could see clearly.
Sighing he pulled out his scroll and began to look at his location in relation to the relics.
2.8 km to destination. Please proceed with caution.
Shaking his head, Viralious put away his scroll and moved deeper, slightly praying his partner wasn't one of the two goat faunus from yesterday… or Eckhart.
…
"I wasn't expecting this to be so boring." Viralious said after 10 minutes of uninterrupted walking through the sprawling and twisting caverns of the mine. The layout was a maze of similarly looking paths that crossed into and back over each other. Most of the time it felt like he was going in circles and if the distance reading on his scroll was correct he might have actually been. Glancing down at his scroll Viralious lifts an eyebrow as it's no longer properly displaying his position… In fact it's saying he's 1256 km from the target…"I must be too far underground to get a proper signal… I highly doubt I went that far.
As Viralious put his scroll away a faint noise could be heard coming from one of the paths he stood in front of. It was a fifty-fifty shot that it would either be more students or Grimm. Viralious decided that either option was preferable as it at least gave him something to do.
Exiting the path came to a large clearing in the mine, there were what looked like three levels leading out of the "room". Viralious stood on the top one while on the bottom level stood three people… the two goat faunus twins and Winter Schnee…
"Oh for fuck's sake, is my semblance bad luck or something?" Viralious said slightly louder than he expected.
"Who's there!" one of the two goat faunus said.
Jumping down off of his perch, Viralious landed between the two faunus and Winter. That's when he locked eyes with Winter.
"Oh it's you Viralious" Winter said with what seemed to be relief? Exhaustion? He couldn't tell.
"So which one of you is my partner?" Viralious said not turning to the goat faunus.
Winter straightened her stance and addressed him
"I am."
Viralious let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding in.
"Alright, let's make the most of this then,"
"Hey! You ignoring us or something?" the other goat faunus said.
Viralious turned and looked him in the eyes before smirking,
"No, but I can start now if you like."
The other goat faunus facepalmed before looking back at Winter
"Ugh, this jackass showing up doesn't change anything, Schnee, you don't deserve to be here for what your family has done."
Winter started to speak up, when suddenly,
"What makes you say she doesn't deserve to be here? General Ironwood said everyone had earned their place. Are you doubting the general?" Viralious said with a smug tone
"Why you… She doesn't deserve to be here due to her treatment of the faunus!" said one of the goat faunus.
"Has she done anything specifically to the faunus?" Viralious said in a questioning tone
Winter looked at the two, locked in an argument about her. Yet she wasn't a part of it, jumping in
"No I haven't, I've always treated the faunus with the same respect as anyone else. I don't follow what my father believes."
Viralious smirked " Well then you heard it here she hasn't done anything to the faunus, so it just sounds like you are making a gross generalization over a factor she has no control over."
Winter and the two goat faunus looked at Viralious with shock.
Did he just do what I think he did? Winter thought
"HOW DARE YOU… YOU COMPARE OUR STRUGGLE TO SIMPLY POINTING OUT THE FACTS ABOUT HER. IT'S HUMANS LIKE YOU THAT PREVENT US FROM BEING TREATED EQUAL!" one of the goat faunus said before rushing Viralious, starting to pull out his sword.
Viralious just kneed him in the crotch before turning to the other and unsheathing his weapon.
"You going to do something stupid too?"
The other goat faunus just shook his head and moved to help the one on the ground.
Turning to Winter, Viralious said,
"If we wish to leave without these two, why don't we take the middle route out of here. You know before he stops clutching his dick… now that I think about it he probably does that every night."
"Fu-Fuck you" the goat faunus on the ground croaked out
"In your dreams" Viralious said before walking away beckoning Winter to follow.
Staring blankly at the scene that just transpired, Winter thought to herself,
What just happened?
–
The two made their way through the mines quietly, the two walked next to each other weapons sheathed.
Winter turns to her partner and examines him head to toe. He's walking quietly, as if he's hunting some easily startled prey. His eyes scan his surroundings quickly but never linger for too long.
Sighing Winter turns her head and looks at Viralious
"What was that about back there?"
Viralious raises an eyebrow "What do you mean exactly?"
"Why did you feel the need to antagonize those two?"
"They were being stuck up asshats, I figured I might as well do something."
"You didn't have to patronize them."
"Yeah I know but they were doing it to you. Turnabout is fair play."
Winter shook her head,
"You didn't have to provoke them either, now they'll never leave me alone… you either."
"I'll knee him in his dick again that should get the message across. It was oddly easy, too. Almost like he didn't activate his aura."
The two continued to walk in painful silence, Winter's mind was running a million meters per minute milling over Viralious's words.
Eventually breaking the silence, Winter finally asked what had been rattling in her head since last night.
"What made you think last names are not important?"
Viralious glanced to the heiress with a puzzled expression,
"What do you mean by that?"
"Yesterday you said your last name wasn't important, I know you said that you would rather be recognized by your skills rather than your mother's but still Why not use it? Why not use it as something to overcome or to strive to meet the expectations of–
"Winter, is this a question for me or is it a question to yourself?"
Puzzled, Winter looked at him before stammering out
"Wh-what!?"
Viralious then stepped in front of her and looked her in the eyes
"Winter, I don't use my mother's last name because I did something that I need to make up for before I can claim it again, that's why I don't use it. As for my beliefs of standing on my own name rather than my mother's, yeah that would ring true."
Meeting his gaze, Winter replied,
"But why not use it as something to overcome or strive to match"
"I don't need to be called a Rose to have to do that Winter. I just have to remember that I am one." After Viralious finished talking his eyes went wide
Winter looked up at Viralious before questioning
"Rose… is that your last name Viralious?"
Pausing slightly and putting his head down Viralious responded
"Yes, now if you would do me a favor and not tell anyone, that would be great."
Laughing slightly Winter responded,
"So Viralious Rose… Doesn't that mean 'little poison flower'? An odd choice for a name."
"Say the person who is named after the winter snow." Viralious said laughing slightly before continuing "Though I am serious. please don't tell anyone about it… not until I've avenged her"
Winter smiled, "I won't."
Viralious nodded in agreement before they continued walking forward.
They had only taken a few more steps before the tunnel shook.
Viralious immediately unsheathed his weapon with Winter following suit.
Winter's weapon was a long, slightly curved sword that came with an elegant crescent hilt guard. The design may have looked simple but in reality the hilt could pull down to remove a small parrying dagger from the weapon allowing her to dual wield. Indented into each hilt was a small button that could be used to open a slot to load dust cylinders into. It was the definition of elegant design, but still functional.
Listening closely they heard what sounded like the tapping of feet on ice and scurrying along rock.
"Yeah that's probably Grimm, well then Winter let's see how you do in a fight" Viralious said while loading red cylinders into each weapon and flipping the blades into SMGs
As he finished, three Saybrs rounded the corner. Viralious immediately opened fire in short 3 round bursts, taking out one and slowing another down. Tangentially, Winter used her semblance to create a glyph that fired small projectiles, taking the other two out.
As the last Saybr fell the cavern shook again, this time followed by multiple Centinels bursting from the walls.
Viralious jumped back to avoid the Grimm and opened fire, activating the dust he loaded into his weapon, Winter swung her blade and launched a sweep of fire from it using the fire dust she must have loaded earlier.
The Centinels burst in a thick green acid that began to burn away at the Ice in the cavern. The two stood at the ready for more grimm to ambush them… but nothing came.
Glancing around Viralious slightly lowered his weapon before say
"That was too easy."
Winter also dropped her stance and nodded in agreement. Just then the cavern shook again and they could hear a scream from in front of them.
Winter looked at Viralious before rushing forward to help whoever was in trouble, leaving Viralious to follow behind.
–
Winter reached the end of the tunnel first and saw a wide open room. This had to have been a centralized mining location as it was HUGE. Glancing around, she saw a large middle platform with what looked like pedestals on the far side of the room but between her and that was a bunch of paths that raised and lowered into different levels. And looking down she saw what had seemed to be a bottomless pit… Until it moved.
Catching up to the Heiress, Viralious looked around before glancing down the chasm and saw it
"Meolwyrms" he answered in a horrified expression
Meolwyrm Grimm were small wormlike Grimm no more than 15cm in length, they had sharp teeth that could cause some minor damage. A single meolwyrm was no concern, hell a civilian could probably take it out, the problem was that where there was one there were normally hundreds. Each working together as a hivemind, they could tear through your aura in seconds if they caught you and cause death by a thousand tiny bites. A large group of this grimm were declared Settlement Killers, and the only protection that most had was sonars to alert them to the approach and cull them before they got too big.
Looking down into the chasm it seemed like there were thousands of them down there… A death sentence for anyone that fell. Meaning this group hadn't been culled in a long while.
The two were then woken from their thoughts by a sharp scream, glancing down and to their right they saw the two goat faunus, one holding a broken blade, the other barely standing leaning on a bent spear. Both of them looking at the unmerciful eyes of a Geist.
This geist possessed a large rock formation and used broken-down mining equipment to make its arms. It began to raise one of its arms to swipe down at the faunus when it was blocked by a white glyph.
Viralious quickly put two and two together before jumping from the ledge they were standing on and firing his weapons at the Geist to try and pull its attention away from the two faunus.
The Geist turned towards Viralious and Winter before lifting its knees and jumping towards them. Viralious seeing this, Shifts to his right and jumps off of the ground.
Winter was already launching herself from the ledge she was standing on when the Geist landed, causing the entire chamber to shake. Viralious and Winter both landed in front of the Geist upright. The two goat faunus, however, lost their footing and fell into the inky abyss.
The air stood still for a minute before loud, blood-chilling screams echoed throughout the chamber, ending thirty seconds later and was replaced by a low squelching sound. Signaling their end.
Viralious and Winter just looked at each other horrified at what they had witnessed and heard.
The Geist, however, didn't even seem to pause before rushing the two. Viralious dodged right while Winter used her semblance to launch herself higher into the air to jump over the large Grimm.
Shifting his Focus, Viralious began to fire his weapon at the Geist's legs, hoping to topple it; his shots bounced off the rough stone without much of an impact. During this, Winter landed on the other side of the Grimm and began to shift her stance to rush towards the legs. When she was hit by the backhand of an arm made from the pieces of an abandoned excavator.
Winter was able to catch herself in the middle of the platform they were on. Scanning her surroundings, she saw what space they had to work with. It was a semi large oval shaped platform with small paths leading to other parts of the mine. To her right there was a path that would lead them to what she assumed were the "relics" they were supposed to grab. Above her was what she assumed were more paths flooding into the central chambers.
Viralious then landed on her left, digging his blade into the ground; he had to have been hit and knocked towards her.
"We're a little under equipped for this." Viralious spit out turning to her.
"We just need an opening," Winter spat back.
"Do you have any bright Ideas?"
"If you distract it I might be able to use my Glyphs to knock it off balance"
"Ah alright, you think you would be able to launch it to the air?"
Winter looked at him with a confused look in her eyes,
"What? Why?"
Viralious loaded an air dust cartridge into his weapon before answering.
"Break their guard then topple them. Next, launch them into the air and smash them down onto the ground. It's an old Vacuo tactic for taking on a large Grimm."
Winter shook her head before shifting her stance unsheathing the parrying dagger from her hilt.
"I don't know… think you can keep it distracted enough?"
"I have no idea, but don't really have a choice."
With that, Viralious rushed forward shifting his weapon to its blade form. The Geist which had been running at them had swung its arm to catch Viralious as he rushed forward. Ducking slightly, Viralious slid under the arm and stuck his blade into the rusted metal of the arm.
The geist however detached the arm and sent it flying towards Winter. Viralious delodged his blade and looked as the rusted arm flew towards his partner. Before the arm could connect a blue shatter in the air appeared and Ifiral popped out and blocked the arm with his large blade; stopping the arm in its tracks
Just then Viralious heard the familiar and annoying sound of drones buzzing in the cavern before another shatter appeared under his feet and placed him next to Winter.
"Well, looks like we have to clear out this rabble first, right Ifiral?" Eckhart said jumping from a third gate appeared in the air landing next to Ifiral.
The man in question just looked at him and shrugged before his weapon began to shift, splitting into two large shotguns. Ifiral glanced back at the group holding one in each hand.
"Do you have a plan to actually defeat this thing?" he said
Viralious shook his head before speaking,
"Just some quick ideas about toppling it bu-" before he was able to finish Ifiral had burst forward firing his weapon at the legs of the Geist.
Standing there Eckhart just blinked before he started running parallel to the arm before opening and jumping through another gate.
Viralious turned to Winter before smirking.
"Well, I hate to leave this to them, after all can't let Eckhart's ego get too large" before rushing forward to join the fray.
Winter looked at the three boys as they fired upon the Geist, its focus clearly split between the three before she lowered her stance and activated a glyph above her head.
–
Ifiral was the first to engage the Geist, his shotguns fired burning shrapnel into the hard stone and ice of the legs that made up the Geist's body. It was generally inefficient but was definitely annoying. In retaliation, the Geist possessed a large rock with its open hand and began to swing it towards Ifiral.
Eckhart's drones buzzed around and were taking in the whole fight, every angle and every opening was relayed back to Eckhart and his little visor. Opening a gate in front of him he fired three shots before jumping backwards. A second gate appeared in front of the swinging hand of the Geist before the three shots came through and hammered it. The impact caused the arm to miss its target landing a good two meters away from Ifiral.
Seeing this, Ifiral leveled his shotguns together and fired off the remaining dust he had loaded into them. This created a large fireball that exploded halfway and slammed into the Geist's arm causing it to melt clean through.
The Geist then gave a unsettling scream before discarding the melted rock. Looking around it finds its next suitable replacement. A large rusted out drill. Moving it's hand to possess this piece of Mining equipment its arm is suddenly cut by Viralious who was spinning with his blades creating a downward buzzsaw of death.
Screaming in pain, the Geist stumbled back slightly before swinging its other arm, still encased in rock, back toward Viralious. Before it can connect however, three projectiles strike the rock, knocking it off course. Turning to see the source of the attack, the Geist sees Winter standing and opening Glyph after Glyph before launching projectiles at the Grimm. With this all four continued their assault; Ifiral and Viralious were using their weapons in gun mode to pepper the legs with Fire and Air dust, Eckhart was using his portals to move the Geist's attacks off course while Winter continued to hammer the Grimm with her Glyphs. During the fray the Geist managed to grab a large stalagmite to shield its exposed hand.
The Geist was having issues using all of its limbs to counter the four combatants, Shifting its legs lower the Grimm then jumped into the air and landing with a hard thud causing the cavern to shake and small chunks of rock and ice to fall from the ceiling.
Ifiral staggering back from the force of the jump shifted his weapon back into its blade form. Then he pressed a small indent on the trigger causing Fire dust to swirl around the blade before it ignited. The fire surrounded the whole weapon before it seemed like it moved towards the tip and eventually off the weapon causing it to gain an extra quarter meter in length.
Smirking, Ifiral swung the blade so it was behind him with one hand and began running toward the Geist, blade trailing behind him only a few feet off the ground.
The Geist seemingly taking notice of this moved its left arm back and moved to slam it into his path when a high impact dust round collided with the bone white mask.
Eckhart was in the air having appeared through one of his blue gates, his pistol aimed squarely at the mask of the grimm. He then shifted his mass and fired again, using his momentum to launch him back into another gate that spat him out onto the ground where he did a small roll before standing to observe the battle field.
His plan had worked; the two shots he fired had distracted the Grimm enough for Ifiral to close the distance. All he needed to do was swing it into its legs then Winter would be able to …
His thoughts were interrupted as he saw Ifiral swing his blade upward towards the crotch area of the Grimm. This strike, while powerful, wouldn't do much to it. Grimacing, he began to run forward aiming his pistol towards the arm of the Geist that began to swing towards Viralious.
Viralious ducked lower, causing the arm to swipe right over him before he ejected the Air dust cartridges so he could gain extra height. In the air slightly above the White bone mask Viralious used his momentum to rush forward intending to lodge his blades directly into the mask. Until a strike from Winter's projectiles she fired from her glyphs caused the Grimm to lurch forward making him miss the mask entirely and digging his blade into the hard Ice that made up the torso.
The Geist rapidly flailed around, Viralious stuck to its back, Ifiral swinging his large fiery blade between its legs and Eckhart peppering it with High impact gun fire from a distance and small pot shots from his drones. Shifting its weight, the Geist spins around in a circle smashing into Ifiral's blade, knocking him backwards, and flinging Viralious off of its back.
Viralious rolls on the ground before lifting himself onto one knee. Even with his Aura, getting flung through the air onto hard solid rock was pretty painful. Looking over the battlefield he sees it.
Winter rushed forward using her glyphs as a springboard, launching herself into the air to summon a glyph that would send her flying into the white mask of the Geist, killing it. Until a chunk of ice fell from the ceiling blocking her path. Falling down with it, she was struck across the chest and sent flying over the edge towards the inky black abyss.
A/N
I'm splitting this chapter into two as this feels like a good stopping point. Especially since I don't have as long of a note at the end of the chapter like Chapter 4. So then let's go over what happened.
For the Initiation I looked at the Wastes of Solitas and though well we can't just launch them into the tundra and expect it to turn out like beacons but part of the fun of RWBY was the initial test at Beacon, showing the teams forming by "complete luck" (I 100% believed that Ozpin and in this story Ironwood prechose teams and just nudged them together).
Next is the conversation between Viralious and Winter. So this is meant to show more of Winter's mindset that she's surprised to find someone so flagrantly disregard their own family. After all, her current goal is similar to Weiss' in the show proper; to rebuild the name of her family's company. So seeing someone completely ignore their own name is quite a shock. This will play a factor in future chapters as well.
Onto the next giant bombshell, Viralious is a Rose. Yes he is the Child of Summer Rose. I will admit when I first thought of this story he wasn't Summers' kid… He was Ozpins. But that got boring and a little complicated when trying to work the whole immortal parasite wizard aspect into the story. Then one of my friends mentioned that It would be great to have a character who the show could use to explore Summer's past and BAM. Viralious became a Rose... ok it's a little bit more then that but it's the main factor for it. I personally thought it was fairly obvious with the hints I gave. The blonde child in Chapters 1 and 2 was Yang, the stepfather is Taiyang. His half sister is little Ruby Rose and his oh so hated Uncle is our favorite Drunkle Qrow. This is the other major connection to the actual show proper that I mentioned in another A/N, but don't worry I don't plan on this flowing into events of the show proper for a long while. This is 12 years in the past after all. also don't worry we will be exploring Summer and team STRQ latter in this story.
Up next is Winter's weapon… It's basically the same as the show except I tried to add dust capabilities to it. I mean she was the Heiress to the world's largest dust company, so you would expect her to have a weapon like Ravens with that kind of reputation. Not much to say about it.
Next is the goat faunus… Like I said in a previous A/N; plot device. They were never going to appear after Initiation anyway so I had two choices: expulsion or death… the latter seemed like a great way to introduce the Grimm variant that was made for this story. I personally think we need more Hive mind grimm that work in tandem. Also more insect grimm as not everything will be massive birds or wolves. A worm makes perfect sense for this (Though I guess it's more of a leech).The name was originally Gravediggers but I found out that another Fan created grimm had the same name so AmoebaHewdraw gave me the alternative. Meolwyrms (Pronounced like Mealworms).
Lastly we see Ifiral and Eckhart's fighting styles. Let's start with Ifiral. His combat style is a mix between Diluc from Genshin Impact and Cloud Strife's combat style from the FF7 Remake. His weapon is a two handed sword which he wields with one hand that can be split into dual shotguns a la Reaper from Overwatch. We will learn more about his semblance in the next chapter.
Up next is Eckhart. We knew his weapon was a pistol but his semblance is where he truly shines again; it will be explained more in the next chapter but it does have something to do with the Gates/Shatters that were mentioned. I can say it is based off of one of the Spellslinger's from Wildstar's Interrupts.
Hate to leave you all on a cliffhanger but this was the best place to cut the chapter before it got too long… I mean just look at this A/N and how long it is. Lastly, Viralious' plan is based on blade combos from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 where they are exactly described. This is where I would like to thank my editor, AmoebaHewdraw for making sure my writing is somewhat literate.
Until next time
Xcom out
