Chapter 7 Initiation Part 2

Winter was falling, she knew what awaited her at the bottom. A fast and painful death. Closing her eyes she thought to her little sister, apologizing that she wouldn't fulfill her promise.

Then something grasped her arm and her descent began to slow, eventually stopping. She felt nearly weightless as her body dangled there. She could hear the squirming of the Meolwyrms below her, almost seeming annoyed that their prey hadn't fallen in.

Opening her eyes slowly she saw him. Viralious was holding onto her arm in one hand and in the other was one of his blades, dug into the wall. Time seemed to slow down as he glanced down at her. She then said one simple word.

"Why?"

Viralious glanced back down, his purple eyes showed pure confusion,

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you save me?"

"Do I need a reason, other than the fact that it was the right thing to do?"

Winter looked back at him before frowning

"It's because I'm a Schnee isn't it? That's why you stuck up for me before and dove into a canyon that's filled with Meolwyrms. Look I-"

"No offense, Winter, but I couldn't give a rat's ass about your family." Viralious interrupted.

Winter stared back at Viralious in shock as he continued.

"It doesn't matter what your last name or family is, I would have done the same thing."

She looked into his piercing purple eyes before saying,

"So family doesn't matter… it's the individual to you?"

Smirking Viralious responds, "That's what I've been trying to say. I mean I was never the best with words."

Glancing back at him she smiles slightly

"So any other knowledge you wish to impart?"

"Yeah watch out for falling icicles."

This caused them both to earnestly laugh. Before Viralious said

"Well then Winter, I think this year is going to be interesting. I think we both have a lot that we can learn about and from each other ."

Nodding her head, Winter responds "I agree Viralious."

She looked up at him and felt some connection. Suddenly the purple highlights in his hair had shifted to white and his eyes from their dark purple to a light blue. Almost like a perfect mirror.

"Well this is great and all but you think you can make a glyph as a platform? My arm is getting a little tired"

Shifting back into focus, Winter creates a platform at her feet. She then lets go of Viralious' hand and stands at attention. Viralious seeing a platform pulls his blade out of the wall and lands on it next to Winter.

Breathing in slowly, Viralious speaks up before Winter can ask about what happened to his appearance.

"So if you don't mind me asking what exactly can your semblance do?"

Blinking she responds quickly

"I can summon glyphs that do a variety of things. Such as making platforms, creating attractive and repelling forces, time dilation and summoning things. That being said I'm not the best with those last two so might be best to leave them out of whatever half plan you are coming up with"

Viralious laughed slightly before saying "What about those projectiles you launched at the Geist?"

"Those are me channeling either dust through the glyphs or small amounts of Aura. That being said, it's normally the aura I used to create said glyph."

"Quite the versatile semblance you got there I-"

"If you two can stop making out under the bridge and get your asses back up here and help us fight that would be fucking amazing!" Ifiral screamed as he glanced down the pit to them.

Both Viralious and Winter looked at each other before Winter frowned saying

"I liked him better when he was silent." She then began summoning small step sized glyphs allowing them to climb back up until they were at the same level as Ifiral.

They both took a look around the battlefield. Not much had changed; Ifiral was currently loading a large amount of fire dust cartridges into his weapon while Eckhart was firing his weapon at the Geist on the other side of the platform.

Suddenly, Eckhart opened a gate and appeared next to them speaking up "Ah, look who finally decided to rejoin the fray."

Viralious smirked slightly "Thought you would have had this handled. I mean you want to be the next general right, Ironwood would probably have made short work of this thing already."

Eckhart's eyebrow twitched slightly as both Ifiral and Winter smirked.

"If we are done playing jokes we need an actual plan to take this thing out." Eckhart spat out quickly

Ifiral was the first to speak out "I think we should hit it really fucking hard."

As Eckhart shook his head a loose rock from the ceiling had begun to fall and would have struck him… If a white glyph didn't trap it in place.

Glancing upwards and seeing the rock he side stepped closer to Winter before turning and saying "Thank you, I must have missed the rock-"

"That wasn't me." Winter interrupted with a shocked expression on her face

Then she glanced over towards Viralious where he stood arm stretched out looking at the glyph with wide eyes.

Eckhart blinked twice before following Winters eyes and looking at Viralious

"You a bastard Schnee child?"

Viralious looked at him annoyed before responding

"Nope, but I don't know how I'm doing this."

As he said that memories of a white robed Geist-looking summon slashing his uncle's back flooded his mind. It was a perfect mirror to his mothers semblance

"No, I do know. It's my semblance… I seem to be able to copy the semblance of others… I don't know the criteria though or how long I can do it for."

Ifiral, Eckhart and Winter all looked at him with confused or shocked faces. Before Ifiral opened his mouth.

"Well if it's semblance sharing time, then I might as well go next. I can control fire or Pyrokinesis for you technical blokes." he said while shifting a side glance to Eckhart.

Coughing, Eckhart spoke up "Well those are very interesting semblances. Mine is a little simpler. I can create short Gates between two places. Though I can enchant one of my bullets to decide the destination if I plan ahead. Before you ask ,I've got a fairly short range of 40 meters."

Raising an eyebrow Viralious says "If that's your definition of short I would hate to see your definition of overcompensating."

All four of them shared a small laugh before the left arm that was attached to the Geist was thrown at them. Winter and Viralious were able to stop it using their glyphs.

Eckhart grit his teeth "We need a plan to get rid of this thing… Hate to say it but our weapons are pretty ineffective against it."

Viralious looked over everyones weapons and thought of the semblances before coming to a realization.

"Break, topple, launch, smash!"

The three looked at him like he had another head.

Viralious quickly continued " Ok I've got a plan. Eckhart, you and me will try and break its guard, getting it off balance. Then Ifiral will use his blade to sweep the legs from under it, toppling it over. Next Winter I need you to place a repelling glyph underneath it to launch it into the air. See if you can angle it over the cliff though. Lastly, Winter and I will try to use another Glyph to knock it over the edge, falling into the pit of Meolwyrms."

Eckhart looked at him before nodding and saying.

"It won't kill it, but if we do it right It should incapacitate it long enough for us to grab the relics and get out. Alright Viralious it's not a bad plan, I'll give you that."

Ifiral just nodded his head before finishing loading the dust into his weapon.

Winter looked Viralious in his eyes. Both light blue pierced each other before she said "On your mark, Viralious."

Lifting his head, Viralious dispelled the glyph that was holding the rock, causing it to crash down onto the ground next to him. He then shifted his blades into SMGs and summoned two glyphs at the end of the barrels.

"When I say to do the part of the combo, do it. Everyone get into position"

All four readied their stances, Eckhart aimed towards the mask, Ifiral shifted his blade onto his shoulder and Winter locked her blades in a fencer's stance.

Viralious took one breath, aiming his weapons at the large torso of ice that housed the Grimm. Before yelling, "Break!"

All four moved in different directions, Viralious ran towards the left side of the geist firing shots through his SMGs into the glyphs that were splitting the dust in the bullet into three curving projectiles striking the torso. Ifiral rushed straight forward, igniting his blade as it hung behind him. Eckhart jumped backwards into a gate he opened firing a shot at the Geists mask landing a bit off center, before appearing in through a gate in the air a good 6 meters away from the Geist and firing another blast into the white mask causing it to stumble back. Seeing this, Viralious yelled out, "Topple!

Upon hearing Viralious say the word, Ifiral closed the rest of the distance in an instant. He dug his right foot into the ground and swung his blade parallel to his chest, striking the Geist in the legs. It didn't have the intended effect of knocking it off balance but it did begin to stumble. Ifiral noticing that his strike wasn't going to cut it he pressed a button on his weapon and struck the ground with it. This created a large explosion of fire that shattered the rocks that made up the legs of the Geists' artificial body. Ifiral then jumped back out of the fiery crater he made.

Seeing the Geist start to fall to the ground and getting over his shock of watching Ifiral explode he turned to Winter and yelled, "Launch!"

Taking her cue, Winter dug her blade into the rock, using it to channel a large black and purple glyph to appear under the Geist. As it lands on it, Winter removes her blade from the ground and raises it like a conductor's wand. With this motion the Geist is launched into the air, a motion that Winter quickly follows before summoning a glyph and standing upright, lowering her blade to be level with the geist.

Viralious calls to Eckhart who opens a gate below his feet, sending him above the geist where he summons a glyph beneath his feet. It's a lot smaller than winters but it's enough for him to stand on. Looking down, he glares down to the Geist and looks into its red eye. Viralious jumps off the glyph in a backflip then summons another glyph at his feet to launch from. Swapping his weapons back into blade mode he looks to Winter and yells,

"Smash!" Before launching off the glyph and smashing his blades into the mask of the Geist. At the same time, Winter activates a glyph underneath the Grimm but above the pit that pulls it down into the inky abyss where it lands in a hard crash. Viralious uses his glyphs to create footing that he uses to land back on the platform next to Ifiral and Eckhart. Winter lands a minute later.

Viralious' highlights shift back to purple and his eyes follow suit.

Slowly realizing that they had actually done it sweeps through the group. Each one begins to lower their weapons, allowing passing relief to sweep over them. Then Viralious says,

"I hate to spoil the moment but we should grab a relic before more bullshit crashes through the wall."

Looking up, Winter smirks "I agree. I don't want to deal with another one of those."

The four of them then turned and began running the path that led to the pedestals they hoped contained the relics.

"Really these are the relics? I honestly think chess pieces would have made more sense." Ifiral says with a puzzled look on his face looking at the "relics" that were in front of them.

Out of the twelve pedestals only five remained. They were four small statues. As for the shape they were carvings of men each holding a different tool: A hammer, a saw, measuring tape, a drill, and a screwdriver.

"I'm gonna be honest, I think the general just bought something at the last charity auction and threw it down here as a relic." Eckhart replied

Shaking his head, Ifiral moved and grabbed the statue holding a saw.

Winter and Viralious moved towards the relics before examining them. Suddenly Viralious says something in a low whisper,

"Do you want to be on the same team as Eckhart and Ifiral?"

Puzzled, Winter says in a similarly hushed tone,

"Why are you asking?"

"I figured out how they are going to group us together as teams. Look at the tools each statue is holding. They correspond to each other. Ever heard the saying, measure twice, cut once?"

Thinking about it, Winter truly ponders whether she would want to be on a team with them before nodding her head in affirmation.

Viralious seeing this smiles and grabs the statue with the measuring tape.

Eckhart turns to them and says in a commanding tone "Alright mission complete, we were instructed to make our way to the exit after we-"

Eckhart is cut off by the sound of an explosion and two people landing next to them.

All four of them glance down and see the two students laying on the ground. The first is a deer faunus with dark orange hair. She wears a simple yellow and brown combat skirt and brown thigh high boots. She also wears a purple tie around her neck and white glasses on her face. The faunus in question is holding in one hand a long halberd which has some sort of rifling and in the other a large kite shield. The deer faunus looks up and her soft green eyes look around before she jumps up and says to the boy on the ground.

"Ow… Russet can you please give me a little more warning before you decide to use my shield as a base to launch us from?" her voice showing minor frustration but also a timid squeak.

The other person on the ground was a boy drenched in camo. He was wearing camo headphones, a camo tank top with the logo of some indie band, camo pants that seemed to have light blue paint spilled on them and lastly camo combat boots. His weapon looked to be a rocket launcher that could shift into an axe.

"Delphi, don't insult rocket jumping; it's the best way to move around." the boy apparently named Russet said.

"Not when you don't tell your teammate and blast them over a bottomless pit!" Delphi responded, placing her hands on her hips.

The argument is then interrupted by the sounds of Saybr's howling. Glancing up from one of the entrances, a bunch of Saybrs are beginning to jump down.

Then a loud hissing noise echoes through the cavern as two more students drop from a ledge in front of them.

"See Celica, I told you that would work." one of them responds. She has bright blonde hair tied with a light yellow bow in the back. On her head is a light pair of sunglasses that shift down to her piercing blue eyes. Her combat attire, if you can even call it that, is a simple yellow tee shirt, a gray skirt and simple boots. Her weapon is sheathed at her side and looks to be a simple curved saber that could shift into a pistol.

"Right I wouldn't call having to jump to avoid taking an acid bath from a Cenitaur a victory, Ariel. '' the other responded. She was the turquoise fox faunus from yesterday, she wore a simple black combat bra with a long wool fingerless glove on her right hand. Her legs were covered in thick baggy pants that connected to her combat boots laced with thick wool. Her yellow eyes stared daggers at Ariel. Her weapon seemed to be two sets of chakrams, two in fine silver color and two in dulled gold color.

Just then the hissing got louder and large Cenitaur appeared in one of the entryways and glared down at the group of eight students

Viralious looked at the scene before him. To his upper right was a pack of Saybr's running down towards them. And to his Upper left was a Cenitaur and what he could only assume would be multiple Centinels behind it. Sighing, he unsheathed his weapon and loaded in his last red dust cartridges. Before turning to the group.

"Ok this is the bullshit I was talking about earlier, so first things first if you don't have a relic for you and your partner grab one. Next we're going to make a run for it so we don't have to kill these things an-"

Suddenly, Viralious is cut off by the loud sound of a sniper rifle going off as the left side of the Cenitaur's body closely behind a loud crash lands on the pathway in front of them knocking multiple Saybr's off into the abyss below.

Viralious stares in amazement as Professor Murt is there landing in a superhero pose. With what looked to be large tonfa on his arms. Spinning around Murt launches a wave of air back towards the Saybrs he turns and addresses the students

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but the General has ordered that me and Professor Lute make sure you eight get out safely… We've already lost two students to Grimm that shouldn't even be here." Just then another Sniper round flys past Murts head and explodes the head of a particularly ballsy Saybr.

Professor Lute then jumped down from the ledge he was sniping from landing on top of Russet. He wore a similar outfit to Murt minus the fact that it was yellow instead of white accents. His blue hair was well kept and he wore a simple hood.

"Go up the path behind the altar, that should lead you to the evac point we've set up. Professor Basil is waiting there for you. Don't wait for me and Murt, we're going to clear this place out… if you have any injuries speak now or forever hold your peice"

"Does having a professor on top of me count?" Russet said with a slight hitch in his breath.

"No." Lute said, stepping off of him and walking over towards Murt. His weapon was a simple anti-material rifle that seemed to shift into a large sword… or maybe an axe Viralious couldn't tell.

Shaking his head, Viralious turned to Winter and Said "Well you heard him, best we get moving before another Geist shows up."

With that all eight of them make their way to the exit that their professor had instructed them to take. After about 2 minutes of running they exited the mine and were greeted with a pissed off looking Basil. Her look of anger quickly fades however when she sees the eight of them running up towards the bull head she is standing in front of.

"It's go-good that you made it… made it back ok. Ummm is anyone injured?"

Each one of the students shook their heads. Before Basil continued

"Ok that's good…. Did… Do any… " taking a deep breath "Do any of you know what happened to Dree and Drum?"

All of the students had puzzled looks on their faces except for Viralious and Winter. Viralious closed his eyes quickly before he moved to speak,

"Wel-"

"Those two were killed by Meolwyrms after being knocked off the central platform by a large Geist… if Viralious and I would have been quicker we might have been able to save them." Winter replied cutting Viralious off

Blinking rapidly, Viralious turned to the mouse professor who had a look of sympathy on her face.

"That is exactly how it went down, professor." he chokes out.

Basil looks at the two of them with a studious glare, trying to see if there is a lie. Finding none her features relax back to one of pity.

"Alright… if you both don't mind I would like to speak with each of you in my office after your teams have been assigned." She said with a surprisingly calm tone. Only then did Viralious notice the weapon on her hip. It looked to be a sword hilt without a blade and a lone trigger stuck out where the index finger would go.

Professor Basil turned around, her long icy white hair draping behind her beckoning her students to follow her into the bullhead.

Eckhart was the last to board the bullhead as he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

Character Change: Viralious - ?

Location: Watchtower near evac point

He watched as the last of the students boarded the bullhead and took off. He knew the professor and that last kid had seen him. It was obvious from their actions. Yet there was something that caught his attention through his binoculars, the eyes on the mouse faunus.

Smiling a crooked grin, he says to himself, "The hunt is on again… I wonder if this one with prove fruitful after all." He said grabbing his weapon off of his hip, a long two meter katana with a revolver cylinder to imbue the weapon with different types of dust and swinging it at the atlesian Knights that approached behind him "I've never tasted mouse before"

Character Change: ?-Viralious

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

The assembly hall was packed full, filled with students of all ages. Viralious glanced around seeing multiple groups of four clustered together, this must have been the rest of Atlas Academy arriving to watch the new huntsman and huntress be welcomed into their teams for the next four years.

On stage stood General Ironwood, the center of it all. The rest of the professors stood at opposite sides of the stage directing the teams on where to go and ensure the cheers didn't become too rowdy.

"Celica Rhulk, Ariel Arc, Russet Ghermain, and Delphi Amethyst, you four collected the Relics of Construction, they represent the foundation that holds Atlas together. From this moment on you will be Team CARD, led by Delphi Amethyst." Ironwood's voice boomed throughout the auditorium

A loud cheer erupted from everyone congratulating the newly formed team. Delphi looked a little nervous before Celica quickly put an arm around her and was able to get a weak smile out of the timid girl.

Professor Basil then beckoned the four of them onto the stage.

"Viralious, Ifiral Phenrix, Eckhart Slate, and Winter Schnee, you four collected the Relics of Foresight, they represent the knowledge to plan ahead and ensure that you make the right choices in the end."

Time stood still Viralious looked at the General with anticipation thinking

Well I guess Eckhart was fine creating plans. That being said, Winter is smart and it would be great to have her lead with me being her partner and all… Ifiral is just quiet but the fun kind of snarky.

Character Change: Viralious - Eckhart Slate

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

Eckhart stood on the stage looking at his uncle, a smile ready on his face. Time stood still as he thought. Any moment now before I am named leader, I am sure I can get this team into the perfect team in a month flat… we will be the top of every class!

Character Change: Eckhart slate- Winter Schnee

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

Winter looked at the General with anticipation and slight worry. Time seemed to stand still as she thought, Eckhart is going to be named leader… Though I feel like I performed admirably so maybe I will… Then again Viralious did come up with the plan… Did he know that though?

Character Change: Winter Schnee - Ifiral Phenrix

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

Ifiral stood there on stage looking not at the general but at professor Murt. Time stood still as he silently thought, I don't know if there is a god that can hear my prayers, but please don't make me the leader. Don't make me the leader. Don't make me the fucking leader

Character Change: Ifiral Phenrix- Eckhart Slate

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

Time seemed to resume and Ironwood began to announce the part everyone was waiting for.

"From this moment on you will be Team VIEW, led by Viralious." Ironwood said glaring straight into Viralious' soul.

Eckhart looked his uncle in the eye as his own went wide,

WHAT!

Character Change: Eckhart Slate- Winter Schnee

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

"From this moment on you will be Team VIEW, led by Viralious." Ironwood said glaring straight into Viralious' soul.

Winter Silently held back a smile,

Well I was not expecting that but it takes Eckhart down a peg… Plus, it's a win in my book since I'm his partner… oh my father won't like that I'm not the leader…

Her smile turned to a frown.

Character Change: Winter Schnee - Ifiral Phenrix

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

"From this moment on you will be Team VIEW, led by Viralious." Ironwood said glaring straight into Viralious' soul

Ifiral just thought one simple thing upon hearing Ironwood say those words.

Huh, I guess there is a god… Hey god, if you can hear me… go fuck yourself.

Character Change: Ifiral Phenrix-Viralious

Location: Atlas Academy assembly hall

"From this moment on you will be Team VIEW, led by Viralious." Ironwood said glaring straight into Viralious' soul.

Viralious looked back at the general, taking a second to process what he had just said before glancing over at his teammates in similar states of confusion.

Looking back at Ironwood, he stares into the General's eyes and says the only thing that comes to his lips,

"The fuck?" Luckily for him, he's drowned out by the cheers of his classmates.

Behind him Professor Basil has a smile a mile wide, and Professor Makoto (or is it Cinnamon?) a soft smirk.

The squirrel faunus then turns to Basil and says, "Beryl owes us 50 Lien."

A/N

And that concludes the Initiation, teams are set and the plot thickens. Winter and Viralious will have to report to Basil's office but after that we get into the fun parts of the classes. This also is officially page 100 in my notes/script at 32k words.

So this chapter had a lot revealed as well. Let's start with the biggest Viralious' semblance! His semblance is a play on the "my friends are my power" cliche. He can use the semblance of anyone he forms a "close" bond with. That being said, he can only use it to at most 50% efficiency and it will take 1.5x the amount of aura it would normally take to use. So let's say one glyph took Winter 10 Aura to create, it would take Viralious 15. He is meant to be a jack of all trades, master of none. The hair and eye color changing was just added as a nice bit of visual to show which semblance he was copying at a time. Now, he cannot combine them and use two semblances at the same time he has to swap between them.

Next up in the semblance reveal train is Ifiral, which is simply pyrokinesis. He can control fire, hence what he was doing with his blade in the last chapter and this one. It's a simple one but can have some fun uses like what we saw with that explosion against the Geist. Also to clarify, he does still take damage to his aura from fire, so it's a double-edged sword.

Next up is Eckhart. His semblance is like he explained those gates. They have an effective range of 40 meters and he can make them up to his size. His fighting style is more about hanging back and using his gates to reposition and give covering fire. Confusing the enemy. Other than that he is pretty screwed in melee combat.

The next bombshell reveal is the Team JNPR of this story, Team CARD! If you may have noticed these four are the four that Winter described when getting off the airship when she first arrived, so yes I did plan this ahead of time. They will be important in this story and will be fleshed out more as the story goes on. For now you have the small interactions with their partners and their weapons to speculate with. (Yes I broke convention and made the team leader not the first letter. So in the words of Walt Disney, God damn you, this is my circus! )

Next reveal is the weapon of Murt, simple tonfas that can expel multiple types of dust, he's a very hands-on fighter. Then we find the resident medical expert of the staff at Atlas Academy, Professor Lute. His weapon is a mix between the Switch Axe from Monster Hunter and an anti-material rifle. We will hear more from him in the future. Next, we saw a glimpse of Basil's weapon, but it didn't seem that special. Then again, looks can be deceiving.

Lastly we learned a bit more about ? His weapon is a long 2 meter katana which can rotate which dust is imbued into the blade. He also seems to be interested in the small mouse professor. I wonder why? Also why is he watching the Initiation? Guess you will have to see.

I thank my Editor AmeobaHewdraw for checking my spelling, grammar, and proper English so this doesn't read like a 1st graders essay.

Anyway, thanks for taking time to read this! I honestly didn't expect for me to write this much and I hope you all are enjoying it! Until next time

Xcom Out