Chapter 9
Wake up, shower, brush teeth, pack bags, eat breakfast, go to the lockers to get dressed and ready for initiation. All in all, not that different from any other school day Clayton could think of, as both he and Ruby pulled their weapons out of the assigned lockers they'd been given.
"You two seem to be in a good mood this morning." Yang said teasingly, having heard the two run off to the showers the night prior.
"Of course we're in a good mood, we're forming teams today." Ruby said with a smile.
"Right, teams." Yang said, now in a deadpan that her sister hadn't taken the initial jab.
"Clayton and I have a foolproof plan to make sure we end up on a team together, and with you my dearest sister of course." Ruby said.
"That still leaves room for one more person." Yang pointed out.
"Oh who cares who they are, so long as it's not Weiss." Clayton said with an eyeroll.
"I'm just saying, you two have a perfect opportunity to make new friends at Beacon." Yang said with a shrug.
"Right, well that can wait for later, because today, I get to let the other love of my life do all the talking." Ruby said, pulling Crescent Rose from the locker it was stored in overnight, before kissing the side of the receiver.
"I have no clue how you put up with her weapon fetish." Yang said, looking at Clayton.
"I think it's kinda cute." He said, pulling King Slayer from its locker.
On the other side of the locker room, Weiss stood, mouth agape. Right next to her, slipping into a pair of Spartan brand sneakers, was Pyrrha Nikos, the four time Mistral tournament champion, daughter of the retired Leonidas "King of the Ring" Nikos. It was as much of an experience as Weiss was always told. Pyrrha radiated intelligence, strength, and beauty. She was perfectly suited to be Weiss's partner at Beacon.
"So, Pyrrha Nikos…" Weiss started, catching the taller girl's attention. "Have you given any thought as to who's team you would like to be on? I'm sure that everyone must be dying to join you."
Pyrrha, for her part, wasn't sure what to make of the SHI heiress. She'd heard both the pleasant stories about Weiss's singing performances and charitable words spoken in the company of high society… And she'd also heard about the horror stories, of the girl being a two faced snake of a young woman who hated faunus, and thought herself above everyone else.
"Well…" Pyrrha started. "I was planning to just let the chips fall where they may." She said, blurting out what felt almost like the third most scripted line of her early career as a tournament fighter.
"If you'd consider it I was thinking that we would make good partners on a team." Weiss said.
"That… Sounds grand." Pyrrha said, forcing herself to smile, though Weiss seemed pleased with the response as her seemingly innocent smile turned into something closer to an evil grin, and she held her hands together.
"Wunderbar." Weiss said, in what Pyrrha thought was Atlesian.
A nearby locker creaked open behind Weiss, and the two turned their attention to the short young man opening it, before he looked at the two girls and laughed to himself. Weiss instantly recognized the little bear faunus from the airship ride, and clenched her fists.
He was covering his ears up with a blue metal pot helmet that he'd taken out of his bag… Weird choice of headwear. Part disturbed, and part curious, Weiss spoke. "What's so funny?" She asked, as the bear faunus put on a thin blue field coat, and a kit caring vest.
"You think that teams are going to be something we choose. That's funny." He said, slinging a backpack full of ammo over his shoulder, before attaching loose belts of linked .30 caliber cartridges to his vest.
"Well, I would assume that the formation of teams wouldn't be as simple as picking names out of a hat." Weiss said, only for the little bear to smirk.
"That's what they did at Prometheus academy." Siniy commented, as Jaune from his locker on the other side of the bench, looked over at Pyrrha.
"Drawing lots?" The blond boy asked, before Siniy left the room.
"If that's how teams are going to be selected, then at least people with sub par fighting skill have an opportunity to learn from their partners or teammates." Pyrrha said, looking at Jaune, who opened his locker to retrieve a very basic sword and shield.
"Pfft, yeah right. My huntsmen courses are electives. Like I'd get put on a team with people like you two." Jaune said, already not optimistic of his chances.
"Who knows... Maybe fate has other plans. I'm Pyrrha Nikos." The spartan said, holding a hand out to Jaune. The blond hesitated, before shaking her hand politely.
"Jaune, Jaune Arc... And where have I heard your name before?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha just smirked, as it seemed Jaune didn't really know who she was.
"Are you kidding me? You don't know who Pyrrha Nikos is?" Weiss asked.
"No clue." Jaune said, shaking his head, before Pyrrha broke the hand shake.
"Graduated top of her class at Sanctum Primary Academy in Argus." Weiss said.
Jaune shrugged. "I had good grades in school too."
"Winner of the Mistral regional tournament four years in a row?" Weiss continued.
"I grew up in the south west of Anima. Mistral's basically as foreign to me as Vale is." Jaune said.
"She just signed a promotion contract for Spartan Athletic Wear!" Weiss said. Pyrrha took a step back, feeling as though Weiss might be some kind of stalker. Pyrrha's PR rep (being her mother,) hadn't made it public knowledge she was doing the promotion. The commercial and thus the official announcement was supposed to happen during the Vytal Festival.
"Wait, Spartan like the sneaker company?" Jaune asked, before looking down at Pyrrha's feet to find the pair of red and gold Spartan 300 running shoes. "Woah." He said in amazement "Those are like 300 lien."
"They are quite comfortable, but I wouldn't exactly tell you to buy them personally unless you're looking to do a lot of high performance work." Pyrrha said.
"Man… So you're like a celebrity then?" Jaune asked, as Weiss just face palmed and left the locker room.
Pyrrha smiled warmly. "I don't have to be if that would make you feel uncomfortable, in the event we are on the same team." She said.
Jaune shrugged. "I don't see why you would need to act like a celebrity for anyone, you seem like you'd be a good friend Pyrrha."
Suddenly Pyrrha's heart felt lighter. "Right, well, I should be on my way. Wouldn't want to be late for initiation." She said, before taking her spear and shield, Milo and Akouo from her locker, then quickly walking out of the lockers.
Keeping his attention on her as she walked away, Jaune had to shake his head. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked himself.
Yang approached Jaune, the Crimson Couple behind her. "I think you somehow repelled a woman without even trying to awkwardly romance her." Yang said.
Jaune just hung his head. "Great, there goes my best chance at having a passing team."
"Hey, maybe you can join our team then!" Ruby said with a twinkle in her eye.
"Really?!" Jaune asked.
Bacon cliff was lined with the many potential students of Beacon Academy. Each individual dressed in their combat attire, and ready for whatever might be thrown at them.
Ruby was, as usual, wearing her black and red gothic-lolita dress, complete with corset, running boots, some umpteen amount of frills under the skirt, and her bright red hood. She held Crescent Rose low in it's rifle form.
Clayton, standing beside Ruby, had on his white knee shorts, held up by a red cloth belt, silver buttoned white shirt, brass buttoned dark red reversible tailcoat, colored a neutral blue on the inside, the cuffs and edges of the breast rolled to expose the blue, along with a white leather belt and bandolier of shotgun shells. With a smile, he plopped a tricorn atop his dark black undercut, adjusted the falcon feather pinned to the black headwear, and half cocked his shotgun to check the chamber.
Yang interlaced her fingerless gloves, held her arms over her head, palms to the sky and stretched, puffing out her chest in the process. Combat, partying, what was really the difference? Brown calf boots, orange socks, black spandex boy shorts and a brown leather half skirt held up by a belt of the same color and material, topped (Yang thought the pun funny,) by her midriff bearing and cleavage revealing tube top, tank top rolled up to act as a scarf, and her puffy short sleeve leather half jacket, zipped only halfway to the collar to show off the goods. After achieving a satisfying pop in her shoulder blades, Yang dropped her arms and flicked her wrists to deploy her shot gauntlets.
Jaune couldn't help but stare at Yang, before he tugged on the collar of his black hoodie, and deliberately looked away. Even with what armor he had, he felt a little underdressed. His basic skater shoes, blue work jeans, orange long sleeve tee, leather work gloves and hoodie all made him feel like a bum. Sighing, Jaune pulled his shield and sword off of his belt, deploying the expanding kite shield, though leaving the blade sheathed inside.
Pyrrha ideally twirled her spear in her hand, simply waiting for the initiation to begin. She was of course wearing the brass colored armor that covered her legs up to her mid thigh, the bracer on her right forearm, and arm band on the left bicep, as those were the parts of her body not so easily covered by her shield, though everything else was kept as light as she could afford without being naked. Hence her choice of silk opera gloves, a hip waist micro skirt, sash, and well fitted corset. The brass circlet she wore was of course just ornamentary.
Weiss eyed everyone around her, as she strengthened out the skirt of her strapless dress. Myrtenaster in hand, she tapped the toe of her heeled calf boot, before shrugging her bolero tighter against her back, and checking to see if her crested hair pin was tightly secured.
Blake's eyes narrowed at Weiss Schnee from the other side of the student lineup. She was certain that no one was aware of her nature as a faunus, least of all the self absorbed Schnee, still she went to great lengths to hide her true identity. She'd stuffed her tail into her baggy pants before her arrival to Beacon, and made sure the bow on her head was securely tied. A pair of deep purple framed sunglasses obscured her catish eyes.
Pale spat the last of his dip into the grass in front of his assigned stone pad, and wiped what lingered in his lip against his pant leg, as he eyed Belladonna from a distance. His outfit was much the same as he'd been wearing for the past 2 years. Black riding boots, gray cotton pants held up by black cotton suspenders and a white cotton shirt faded and stained so bad it'd turned some shade of ash, a leather waistcoat halfway between mud brown and off gray and a once white cotton thigh coat dyed gray hung around his shoulders, only to be worn properly within a minute. Placing the dirty white wide brimmed hat on top of his long mess of brown hair, Pale checked his belt for any missing rifle rounds, or revolver cylinders. Satisfied, he pulled Dixie's Revenge off his shoulder, and the bayonet, Meat Knife, off his belt, then combined the two.
Siniy paid no mind to anybody, as he strapped his blue steel helmet tighter to his head, hiding his short white hair and bear ears. His blue coat and kit vest were buttoned and zipped up, and the baggy black tank top he had on underneath was tucked into his four sizes too large navy blue field pants, (kept up by a belt of course) they themselves tucked into his brown leather buckled jump boots, the accompanying white leg gaiters keeping the loose fit pants tight to his calves. Repositioning the linked belts of ammo, Siniy prepared for the fight ahead. With a deep breath, he hefted Seal Club up into a low ready, and waited.
Nora Valkyrie bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. Her ankle boot heels clicking against the stone pad she stood on, as she held her war hammer in her pink fingerless gloved hands. The manic redhead, in her pink skirt, sleeveless white shirt, black collared vest and detached sleeves, spun once in place as she leaned over to her lifelong friend.
Lie Ren stood firm with his hands balled into fists at his sides. His dark green, long-sleeved tailcoat, left unbuttoned, gently fluttered in the wind, exposing his black, long-sleeved shirt beneath. Light-tan pants housed either of his machine pistols on their holsters, the two weapons resting against either thigh. Growing impatient, Ren began to tap his black slipper shoe against the stone.
Halcyone triple checked the functionality of her machete rifle, and then nodded in satisfaction. The extra money she'd made before coming to Beacon through less than legal means revolving around courier work within Vale, had been spent on updating her wardrobe. She'd kept her black leather jacket, modifying it slightly to incorporate extra padding on the right arm, where the sleeve had been ripped off at the bicep some years ago. A new pair of thick tear resistant black pants and a leather waist belt with a thigh holster for her rifle when compacted were what cost most of the money. Her golden yellow undershirt was still in tatters, the boots she wore were mismatched, and the old janky brass left leg brace/knee pad had seen better days since she first dawned it, but that didn't matter. Scratching the short blond hair on top of her head, and drawing her amber lensed goggles down over her chocolate brown eyes, Halcyone felt as ready as she'd ever be. She looked left to see four boys, three of which wore nearly full plate armor, but the fourth seemed to have crawled out of the same hole in Vacuo Halcyone had, his spiky mohawk and the respirator covering his mouth and nose a familiar sight. She shrugged to herself while pulling up her golden thread shemagh, thinking that Vale might not be so bad after all.
Ozpin surveyed the students before him, before sipping coffee from his mug, and then speaking. "For four years or more, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest before that training can continue."
Glynda, holding an Atlas made datapad, stepped up beside him. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about how teams are being formed this year. Allow me to put an end to any confusion there might be. Each of you will be given teammates... today."
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin said, leaning on his cane.
"Shit." Pale muttered to himself.
Ozpin smirked a little. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. And we will know if you try to cheat." He suppressed the urge to grin. "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way, most likely in the form of grimm. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die.
Jaune laughed nervously, as he pulled his sword out of his shield. "Right, destroy everything." He said to himself.
"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the forest containing several "relics." Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Ozpin asked, finding that there were no raised hands or complaints. "Good! Now, take your positions."
To most of the students, the stated objectives were simple: land, find a partner, get a relic, kill everything, and leave. But to others the matter of how you found a partner was reality shattering. Eye contact wasn't much of a metric of who'd work well together now was it?
Ruby and Clayton looked at each other. There was now a chance they wouldn't be on the same team, and that was nearly an unbearable thought for the two.
Yang had her own reservations, the possibility of being separated from her sister and de facto best friend was not something she'd looked forward to, worse if either of them ran into Weiss.
Pale groaned at the thought. Any number of the animals attending beacon, and he might get stuck with them. Just his luck. Still, at least there was the Schnee and the gang of useful idiots he could run into.
Siniy more or less was unperturbed by the thought of being paired with random people. Outside of Pyrrha being an obvious top pick for a partner if he could choose one, he didn't see anyone else being problematic, and wouldn't complain about who he'd get… Unless it was the Schnee… Then he'd complain… But he'd still work with her.
Halcyone could care about a partner. She'd been running untaxed goods across borders solo for so long the thought of being paired with someone was novel to her. Still, it might be fun. So long as she didn't have to bunk with that racist kid in gray, or the Schnee.
All at once the students found themselves upended as the tiles bearing Vale's seal rocketted forward, sending them all flying into the air. Now the question on everyone's mind was, how exactly to land?