WELLL LOOKIE HERE! I'VE FINALLY DONE IT! I'VE FINISHED THE STORY REFRESH AND MADE A PROLOGUE! YEAHHHHHHH.
*Ahem*, Excuse me for that, new readers. But in case you didn't know, I've been doing a 'refresh' of this story. Technically it was a rewrite, but I did not think it big enough deviation to warrant a whole new story be posted or to even call it a rewrite, and thus I'm calling it a 'refresh'. Although I didn't have a prologue before. So, would this technically be a prequel chapter? Eh, whatever.
Now, pre-refresh I made the mistake of changing A LOT about the world of Remnant and its inhabitants and NOT tell the readers what I had changed directly. This decision led to what I believe was an appropriate amount of confusion amongst the readers. So, this time, I'll outwrite tell you the topics I have changed, but not exactly what has been changed as to save some surprises.
I'm also going to present them like a game's patch notes to have a little fun with it.
But without further ado, here's what I will be changing but not how I will be changing it. (As presented as patch notes):
New (Major) Characters
Changes to Existing Characters
Altered Backstories
Reworked student team composition and naming
Renamed Huntsmen to Hunters
Hunters now given 4 different ranks
New Geography and Geopolitics
NEW REGION! The Frontier
Overhauled Grimm
Grimm now in Tiers (1 – 5)
Overhauled Aura. This will hopefully be interesting.
Changed Magic System. Ignore this.
Antagonists heavily altered
Dust Nerfed
Added Uanstofei Faunus subspecies
Added Elgyavqie Faunus subspecies
Replaced Ruby's Semblance
Removed Jaundice arc. This decision had no regrets.
Added Elves. Also ignore this.
New monsters: The Steelborn
Expanded bestiary
Added Easter eggs and references
Calander changed to have 35 days every month, fifteen months a year, and 26 years per generation as denoted by the letter following it (e.g: 137m = 13th year of the 137th generation, aka, 3,549 years).
Now with that done, let's not delay any longer, shall we?
Time to gooooOOOO
A Rose With Iron Thorns, Volume 1 – Prologue:
The Beginnings of Greatness.
Eastern Remnant, The Frontier: 24/04/137M, 02:46pm
The head of an ugly, black-furred animal with grotesque tusks sticking out of its mouth rolled across the ground as it was severed from its body. A wide, slanted, single-edged blade came back up to rest on the shoulder of a man with a tattered red cape flying out behind him. His clothes were entirely dress wear. as if he belonged at a fancy party and not the grimy, forested mountainside that he now found himself in. His hair was a spikey black mess, with bangs covering his forehead and some reaching down to his eyebrows, and more dark black hair sprouted around his jaw in the form of short stubble. And as he surveyed the battlefield, his bright red eyes did not miss a single detail.
Around him, gunshots had been calling out, like short and sharp calls from giant birds. However, they had been dying down shortly ago, meaning that the rest of the men were finishing up with the remaining grimm.
Grimm were fearsome and horrible beasts that appeared as if they were forged out of the shadows themselves. Which wouldn't be too surprising if it turned out to be true, seeing as the pests would appear just about anywhere dark enough. It's why so many were out here, in the Frontier, due to all the number of mountainside caves and vast forests with blanketing roofs of foliage.
Another grimm charged at Qrow, a weaker one that took on an appearance that similar to a bear. Qrow let out an exhausted sigh as he slumped back. This skirmish was getting tiresome, how come there were so many grimm here this time? Oh, right, they were on a mountain that contained cliffs and under the constricting canopy of a forest that blocked out just about the majority of light. Fan-tastic.
Qrow's form erupted into a burst of feathers and crows as the grimm swiped at him, causing the beast's paw to hit nothing but empty air. The artificial dark birds then coalesced again behind the grimm, causing Qrow to reappear about as quickly as her left. He plunged his sword straight through the dark animal's spinal column, killing it almost instantly. The only thing left was a wet gurgle before the grimm began slowly disintegrating into midnight black ash.
Qrow, satisfied with his handiwork, gave a curt nod to the disappearing corpse. He turned on his heel and began walking towards what might have once been a gleaming white facility of some kind, but now it was dirty, almost completely destroyed, and overtaken by nature. What remained of the building's pillars and walls were angular and made out of some kind of metal that Qrow, as a hunter and not a geologist, didn't recognize. Sauntering over to one of the perhaps ornamental-purposed, and now decayed, pillars, Qrow firmly swept across it with his sword. The clean cut caused the pillar to topple over, perfect for a seat that Qrow graciously took. Not but a few seconds after he began to relax, he held up his hand to catch an object thrown at his head.
"So, this is it?" Qrow asked the one who pitched it towards him. His voice came out raspy, like he had some kind of eternally sore throat.
"Yes, that's it. Had to kill a giant Crunchmaw to get ahold of it." The woman said, walking up to stand beside the pillar Qrow was sitting on.
Qrow huffed. "Yeah, they wouldn't have something like that just guarding nothing. Now we just gotta hope it's the right one we need."
He rotated the object in his hands. The whole thing looked like a triangular prism, except the corners were cut off so that would make it a hexagonal prism. Each of its three wider sides had a reinforced glass pane to show its core, a small crystalline device that resembled a type of hard drive each end had a complex release mechanism so that not just any bumbling moron could go around opening it at their leisure. It was exactly what Ozpin had sent Qrow out to the Frontier to get. Or at least, hopefully it was. All the artifacts Qrow had seen in his life all looked the damn same to him.
"Anything else of use in there?" Qrow asked.
The woman huffed. Her arms were folded around her black and red fold-around top, but she still let the beads of her necklace fall over them. "Nothing that I stuck around to look at. It's a deathtrap in there Qrow, more than average anyway."
"On the level of ICErack storage to Tremblehammer Forge, what'd you rate it?" Qrow asked.
"Synthesizer." Was all that the woman said. Qrow let out a long whistle. "I didn't even make it past two ironwalls before I found it and had to delta." She turned around to look at the once-pristine facility. "You'd think something that would have that much security would be… grander."
"Yeah, but it ain't." Qrow sighed, uncapping the lid of his flask and taking a long drink. Once he was done, he held it up, offering it to his companion. By now the last of the grimm had been dispatched by the rest of the other men. The woman took the flask and drank only a sip from it before passing it back. "Now, I've got to get this package back to Ozzy. So, I think I'll take the quick route." He said, stretching.
"Then I'll see you next time you need me." The woman nodded curtly. "Say hello to Taiyang for me."
"…" Qrow looked away for a moment. He then turned his head back to look at the woman over his shoulder. "You could take some time off and say hello yourself y'know. I'm sure they'd be glad to see you. Or meet you for that matter."
"…" The woman did not immediately reply. "Does she… does she still think of me that way?"
Qrow said nothing. The woman took this as an answer all the same and began striding off towards the rest of her men.
"You'll come around eventually…" Qrow mused sadly, watching her leave. Turning to look at the sky, Qrow fastened the package on his belt before a swirling miasma of black feathers slowly began to form around his body.
"Maybe I'll get Ruby a souvenir one my way back…"
✇ARWIT✇
Vale, Island of Patch: 14/06/137M, 01:03pm
This was it. After many years of practice, training, and boring, boring, schoolwork, Yang Xiao Long had been given an invitation to participate in this year's Beacon Hunter Academy initiation. Like many before her, and likely many after, this was her dream. Her whole family were Hunters, it was her legacy. Her Father, Aunts, Uncles, mother…s, they were all Hunters before her. All had achieved Jaeger, the highest formal rank any Hunter could achieve, even before Yang herself came into the world.
It was still about a week before Yang had to take a day-long trip from her home in patch and pass the capital of Vale, Beacon City. Beacon Academy was outside the limits of the grandiose metropolis, sitting at the top of a high-reaching cliff face that watched over the city from a distance. But again, that was still a week away and right now, Yang had to do the difficult act of packing.
Whilst it was tempting to grab every suitcase in the house she could find and stuff her whole room into them, Yang still knew better than to over-pack. She had learned that lesson when she was nine. Instead, she had limited herself to a single suitcase and was now going through her belongings and separating them into what she had to take as well as what she wanted to take. Whatever she was leaving behind she left where it already was.
Like Ruby.
It was the biggest and bitterest pill that Yang had to swallow to leave home and attend Beacon. Her little sister would be staying here on Patch with only their father for company. Sure, there was a school and a smaller city on patch, but Ruby didn't have any friends of her own, not like Yang did. Yang had friends both in Patch and on the mainland in Beacon City. But Ruby had always preferred to keep to herself and work on her machines. Guns, mechanized swords, mecha-shift weaponry, the occasional vehicle, Ruby could hardly ever be pried away from them whenever she got started.
And so, with Yang leaving, she wouldn't be there for Ruby. To protect her. It happened only a few times in front of her little sister's face, but Yang often heard comments floating around made towards Ruby about how weird she was and how she never had any friends. Whilst Signal primarily functioned as a combat prep academy, it was also one of the only schools on Patch, meaning that they had a general studies course too. The people in those courses especially didn't understand Ruby and went further out of their way to bother her.
Ruby never cared, of course. But Yang did. Yang was the big sister; it was her job to protect her precious baby sister. And Ruby being… well, Ruby, it was especially important to take care of her. Even if Ruby did have a semblance, excelled in almost all of her classes, and that some of their combat proctors say that she may be one of the most powerful Hunters since Bathius Vloodvakc, she still needed to be cared for by Yang. Still had to be protected.
Oh, if only Yang could take Ruby with her in her pocket… that would be so much easier!
"Hey, Yang!" Ruby called down the hall of their two-story cottage from her own room into Yang's.
"Yeah Ruby?" Yang replied.
"Are we going to Beacon City yet? I thought you wanted to go one last time before you have to leave for the Academy!" Ruby said.
"Uh, sure thing Ruby! Be there in a minute!"
Oh, Yang was going to miss her little sister.
✇ARWIT✇
Relade's Fjord, Greyhawk Family Estate: 15/06/137M, 11:20am
Realien Elucia Greyhawk watched carefully from behind her welding mask as she carefully melded two pieces of metal together. The process was difficult, and the framework of the project was delicate, meaning that Realien wanted to make sure she wasn't going to make any mistakes. This mindset did not extend to her attire, however, as her favourite silver hoodie was still being worn and let her thick gunmetal grey hair cascade over it. Her padded jeans were still on, along with her industrial calf-high boots which seemed to be her only appropriate choice in clothing. But she didn't have time to change, she needed to finish working on this project.
She was going to Beacon Academy in Vale, after all, and she wanted to make sure that her weapon was in good shape. Well, perhaps calling it a single weapon was not putting it right, exactly. More like it… was one weapon at a time. The nanomex core stored just above the grip and trigger was the heart of this shifting weapon. Everything else about it was interchangeable. It could become all different types of shotguns, rifles, pistols, machine guns, revolvers, and even a railgun that Realien had gotten working thanks to another person's designs.
Realien lived and breathed weapons. Her whole family did. Her eldest sister, twin brothers, mother and father were all in the business of creating and designing weapons. However, only her father and sister had become Hunters, only they held such titles. It was their footsteps in which Realien wished to follow, to become a great warrior, to actually use the weapons that they make.
But Realien was not entirely sure she could do it. Oh sure, she could fight just as well as anyone else aspiring to become a Hunter, had her semblance already awakened, and perhaps one of the most advanced weapon designs currently in Remnant, but this meant nothing in the face of her great flaw.
Outside of battle, she had no self-confidence whatsoever and was completely socially inept. Unless she was conveying information about fighting an enemy, it was always a miracle if she could get through a single sentence without stuttering. And, oh god, the anxiety of actually going to Beacon, let alone Vale, was almost to much of her. That was a whole other country! She barely left her room some days!
By now Realien had pushed away from her workbench and had put her feet up on her swivel chair so that she could hug her legs whilst her chin rested on the nearby knees. Realien always did this whenever she was festering over something. And maybe, that voice she heard deep down as she festered was right. She couldn't do this. Sure, it'd be years of training, time and effort wasted… but that was better than getting there and proving she was absolutely useless at it! Never mind that she got near-perfect scores on all her practical tests, those were tests! She'd never be good at the real thi-
"Rea-Rea?"
Realien squealed in surprise at her father's nickname for her. So much so, that she even fell off her chair as he entered her expansive room. Giving a good-natured chuckle, Gevriet Greyhawk offered a hand to help his daughter off the floor.
Accepting it, Realien sighed in minute relief. "H-hello Pappa. Is everything okay?"
And there was that stutter again. Even with her own family it wasn't entirely eliminated. That was, unless she was in an engrossing debate about weaponry with her father.
"Well, I was coming to ask you the very same thing, Rea-Rea." Her father said. There was that nickname again. Realien had nothing against it, but she had once promised herself that if she ever made a friend that she'd get them to use 'Rea' as her nickname. So, every time that her father said it was just another painful stab reminding her that nobody else called her that.
Not one. Oh Ani, she was useless, seventeen and her father was her only friend. Not noticing the effect of his words, Gevriet continued.
"You're going to be leaving for your airship to beacon in less than a week. I just wanted to make sure that everything's okay with you. That you're feeling all right."
And there was Realien's kind and caring Pappa. A disposition that starkly contrasted his large, muscled and scarred appearance. His chest barely fit into his grey flannel t-shirt, and the suspenders he wore were almost bursting at the seams as they held up his smart-looking slacks. Pappa always dressed like that, ready to either work or do business whilst able to switch at the drop of a hat. That was also the reason he didn't have a longer beard, he always had said. It was unprofessional for meetings, and would likely catch on fire when working, so he had a sharp grey goatee instead.
"I'm fine, Pappa." Realien finally answered. She had left a considerable gap of silence between her words and her father's. It wasn't intentional, Realien just… got caught up in her own world yet again. "I'm just working on the barrel of Kettle Dive's revolver."
Her father's mouth shifted into a straight line. "I was more talking about if you're still fine with going to Beacon Academy. I… know what it's like for you with these things."
Realien was silent for longer this time, still not sure whether or not to answer. Realien knew that her father was only trying to do the best for her, but she also wanted to prove that she was able to do this. Prove it to herself most of all.
"…Yes." Realien said at last. "Yes, I want to follow in your footsteps, Pappa. To be able to scour the frontier for new things that will help Remnant. To use all these weapons that we make for protecting people."
Gevriet's smile returned, if not taking on a slightly sad tune. "There's my brave little girl." He moved in to hug her.
Realien accepted the hug from her Pappa, his warm embrace not uncomfortable despite the higher temperature from Realien's working equipment.
She was going to become a Hunter. Hopefully.
✇ARWIT✇
Mistral, Kurohoro: 16/06/137M, 05:42pm
Blake packed her bag with what little items she had taken with her. A few novels, two different outfits, a whetstone for Gambol Shroud, a sizeable amount of ammunition for Gambol Shroud, and two back-up smoke grenades. She had enough cash in both Mistraleise and Valeis notes to buy passage out of one country and into the other. Of course, she couldn't take any public channels because of them, but that didn't mean every other way was illegal, just transporting goods expensive enough not to want to factor in either country's taxes.
She'd still have to camp out someplace cheap when she reached Beacon City due to her tight wallet, but it was enough money to get her what she wanted. And that was a way to Beacon Academy. She had spent enough of time devoting her life to the cause of the White Fang, and now it was time to move on. Certain people weren't going to make it easy on her, but then again, nothing was easy since the day her ears grew in.
A ringing came from her Scroll-brand phone, the standard type in Remnant. It was either that or Parchment-brand, and Blake wasn't going to spend time learning a new operating system.
Blake stared at the device because, like every phone she bought in the past seven years, it was a temporary one she planned to dispose of later. So, this was either a spam caller ...or…
Blake didn't touch the phone, letting it ring out instead as she continued to finish packing. Her nerves were high-strung as the digital chiming backgrounded her mundane task. Something like that shouldn't have put so much terror into Blake, a seasoned fighter who had been in a hundred deadly situations. But it did.
One ring.
Two rings.
Three rings.
Four rings.
And then it stopped. And Blake let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding in.
And then the voicemail spoke.
"Hello Blake-"
*Kssssccchnnnk!*
Blake slashed through the phone, and most of the table it was on, with the blade of Gambol Shroud. Training her weapon's barrel on the door of her hotel room, she didn't have to wait long before it was banged on which prompted Blake to squeeze the trigger and let loose a torrent of high-grade dust-tipped needles. Not waiting any longer, she snatched her bag, only half-zipping it in her scramble, and darted to the window as the banging on the door turned from knocking on it to trying to bust it down. It seemed her preemptive attack didn't slow them down.
But Blake wasted no time waiting to see if they could or couldn't succeed in knocking down the door. She dived out of the window at the first chance she could, shards of glass blossoming into the air around her as gravity took her into its grasp. Gracefully twisting in the air like a trained acrobat, Blake righted herself before her boots met the pavement below. The action of hitting the ground was painful, but not debilitating thanks to Blake siphoning extra aura to her Projection, as to soften her fall. Blake was never the best at the Projection art of aura use, she relied far heavier on the Augmentation arts. Glancing back up at the window she had just used as an impromptu exit, Blake could see dark figures silhouetted against the bright room light staring down at her.
And so, Blake ran. It was what she was good at.
✇ARWIT✇
Rayshaun, Midhorn: 17/06/137M, 08:46am
Pyrrha Nikos spun as she slashed the air inside the spacious practice hall. She was fully armoured in her traditional Rayynn battle outfit, a black bodysuit with pieces of ornate curving metal attached to it through a harness. There was a breastplate, bracers and shoulder guards, all in the Nikos house's gold and red.
Her extended javelin swiped and spun around Pyrrha as she moved through her katas as smoothly as a freshly polished marble floor. Her shield raised where it would block, the javelin was thrust where it would stab. A perfect execution that would be near impossible for any regular person to defend from.
"That's enough." The only other person in the room called. They were sitting down on a bench to the side of the primary training floor, heavily armoured in black and gold plate mail, with a navy-blue caped trailing behind them. They had a grated helmet that concealed their expression.
Pyrrha did as she was told and stopped immediately, turning to face her proctor.
"Clean execution." They nodded. "I cannot see much improvement to be done on this particular kata."
Pyrrha bowed deeply. "Thank you, Warden Claris."
Warden Claris waved a hand to signal Pyrrha to raise. The Warden then followed suit as Pyrrha stood up again, pushing away from the bench and approaching the younger girl. When they stood less than a stride away, they finally paused to address Pyrrha.
"There are great expectations to be carried by you, Miss Nikos." The Warden told her. "By Rayshaun, by the Wardens, by your parents. Perhaps even the wider world should they support you."
Pyrrha drooped momentarily at the flattering yet personally depressing words. Yes, she wanted to make these people proud but at the same time she wished it didn't have to be her. That if she could just be a little more… normal. But she wasn't normal. She was the prodigy of Midhorn, the undefeated champion of the Mistral Junior Tournament, the upcoming star of Remnant, the pride of Rayshaun.
The girl who had never lost a fight she had been in.
Except against…
"Shall we have one last spar before you leave for Beacon, Pyrrha?" Claris asked their student. "Your progression has been a noticeable enough that you may last a whole minute this time."
Pyrrha smiled. "I would be honoured, Warden."
Pyrrha got into a fighting stance, one she had been working on specifically to fight Claris. Battles with the old Warden and their menacing spear, Ghaliraa, were the only few times that Pyrrha got to experience something now almost alien to her.
But perhaps it would be different at Beacon Academy. Perhaps she can meet some friends, have some fun, and be a normal teen. Not have the hopes of an entire country on her for a change.
To be somebody other than The Invincible Girl.
✇ARWIT✇
Atlas, Atlas Airspace: 17/06/137M, 08:46am
She was Weiss Schnee. She was the heiress to the most powerful Corporation in Remnant. She was respected, intelligent, powerful.
And she would prove it. She had to.
Her request to go to Beacon Academy and train to become a Hunter was… not the most conventional of propositions to her Father, the head of the Schnee Corporation. Some (Primarily her father) could call it outlandish and a waste of time. But Weiss had a vision for the company she would one day inherit, and that vision required her to be a Hunter of Huntress rank. And as a Schnee, she had to settle for nothing less than the best. And despite what her Father thought about the Atlas Academy, Beacon had already proven itself.
Her Father had not made the task easy. Weiss had to argue her point more than once, and that was just to take up Hunter training. Convincing Jacques Schnee to allow her to go to a school in a whole other country that never had the most… agreeable relationship with her homeland, now that was a whole new battle. There were some promises Weiss made and actions she did that she knew would become regretful one day.
As if instinctually, Weiss raised a hand to her left eye, fingers trailing down the fluffy white bandages that were there. The doctor said that they could come off in about another day or two. Enough time for before Wiess had to arrive at Beacon in another four days. Weiss settled her hand back down on her white dress, the fabric of her jacket matching perfectly with the dress' skirt.
'Four days…' Weiss thought with melancholy emotion as she stared down at her clothes. 'Four days in Beacon City without Father. Four days I have to spend in a lavish hotel room. Well, that's no different from home really. Just less…'
Weiss cut off her train of thought, abruptly sitting back up in her seat. There was no time to dwell on the past, only think of the future.
She Was Weiss Schnee, after all. She was powerful.
She had to be.
✇ARWIT✇
Vale, Whitmond: 18/06/137M, 05:32am
Jaune Arc, dressed in a hoodie, jeans and sneakers whilst equipped with his family's ancestral armour and weapons, stood at the open door to his family home. Out before him stood the Arc family's limited property, enough to house a chicken coop and a moderately sized garden. The weather was pleasant enough, cool but not cold, the snowing season having just passed over Vale. The winding dirt path twisted over the ground and lead to the main road, which in turn would go all the way down to the Remnant Continental Railway System station.
Jaune had to do this. His father and grandfathers before him were all great warriors. Some were huntsmen, some were soldiers, but all of them wrote their names in history in some form or another. And that meant Jaune had too as well, no matter how ill-suited he was to the task.
He had minimal training in aura use, barely knew how to swing a sword, and had never even been in a fight before. But that wasn't going to stop him from trying. He was able to get some fake transcripts that gave him invitation to attend Beacon Academy's entrance exam, not that they were cheap or easy to get, however. But as Jaune said, he wasn't about to give up so easily. All he had to do was pass initiation and he would be in. He would become a Hunter.
Jaune glanced over his shoulder, back into his three-story home. It had to be that large to accommodate such an extensive family of children. Only one of his sisters had left home, to be with their wife, Terra. The rest of his remaining sisters had stayed at home, even the ones that were still older than Jaune.
They were some of the only things keeping him behind. His dear sisters, annoying as they were, always held a special part of his heart. But now, his heart yearned to become the next great warrior in the Arc family.
Nothing would stop him.
✇ARWIT✇
Vale, Beacon City: 19/06/137M, 10:10am
"We're here, Nora." Ren nudged his dozing companion. Awakening with a little 'Hwagh?', Nora pushed off from Ren and did her best to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Considering they had spent more than half a day on the train, it wasn't considered an easy feat. And that wasn't even mentioning just how much of a heavy sleeper and an anti-morning person Nora Valkyrie was.
"No, we're not…" Nora mumbled. She chose to flop over away from Ren and snuggle into the small space of train seat cushioning. Ren sighed in resignation, knowing that he'd get nowhere unless he physically removed Nora from the train carriage.
So, looping his arms under and around Nora's muscular shoulders, he hefted her off the train and began dragging his drowsy companion through the aisle and towards the doors. He had made sure to grab both their suitcases from the overhead loft before departing the train entirely, and thankfully Nora had finally gotten the memo and was standing on her own out onto the RCRS station platform. She was still drooping and hadn't completely opened her eyes yet, but Ren would take what he could at this point.
"Here," He said to her, passing a dark-pink suitcase and bulky warhammer to Nora. The latter was her beloved blasthammer, Magnield.
"Thanks…" Nora continued mumbling sleepily. Letting out a yawn seemed to help her, however.
"The General has booked us a room to stay in for the rest of today and tomorrow, until we move to the Academy," Ren said. Turning to his companion, Ren now saw that she seemed far more awake now and, dare he say, contemplative.
"Why are we doing this, Ren?" Nora asked.
"Nora, you know why. The general tasked us with-"
"I know that Renny." Nora interrupted. "But I mean, why are we still doing this."
"Nora…"
Nora waved her arms around in front of her. "This is a whole different country! There's nobody here to know what we do and do not do! We could start fresh! Go to Beacon Academy, train up, and then… I don't know, move to some frontier town?!"
Ren couldn't bring himself to look his best friend and longest companion in the eyes. So instead, he chose to observe the other people at the station, coming and going from the RCRS.
"You know it isn't that easy, Nora. Just because there's nobody to monitor us here, doesn't mean that we'll be able to just… walk away."
Nora didn't respond immediately. Even though Ren wasn't looking at her, he knew that she had taken to observing the people around them as well.
"Please just…" Nora took in a breath. "Please just think about it."
"…Okay." Ren agreed. And how could he not? He and Nora had been through thick and thin together. If they were to run from their pasts and presents, they'd still do it together. But for now, they were here, they had a job to do, and they had to go to Beacon Academy.
They had no other choice.
✇ARWIT✇
Vale, Beacon City: 20/06/137M, 09:59pm
Mars Urinoes, wearing slightly ripped jeans, a brandless shirt and wrapped in a brown parker that her dark golden hair swept over, stood atop a two-story building overlooking two almost empty streets on either side, and a dingy dead-end alley that held a single lone dumpster. But Mars wasn't here for the ambience. She was here because it was somewhere she recognized from her travels across the Plains of Remnant. And that was a place for low-lives to skulk about, and perhaps even confront those weaker for their own gain. Her belief was heavily supported by the fact that a gang of five people were lingering in the mouth of the alley.
And so, Mars waited unseen, five minutes away from her hotel on top of a building's roof that sat on the indeterminate border to Beacon's faunus quarter. Crime was always higher on borders, whether they be the ones between the counties, or the ones found in the cities that divided class. And despite the 'progressiveness' of Vale, they still held remnants of their caste-separated monarchy, like the so-called 'faunus quarter'. It was basically a section of the city where faunus both congregated and were socially restricted to. Sure, faunus could walk wherever they wanted inside Beacon City, but they couldn't find true acceptance anywhere outside the faunus quarter.
And a divide like that always stirred up trouble from both sides. Like how the gang was approaching a lady who appeared to be returning home after working late.
'Showtime.' Mars thought. Taking out her curve-bladed tonfa from their holsters, leaving them inside their sheaths. She watched and waited for the perfect moment to strike, the time where their guard was at their lowest. One second. Two seconds. There!
Mars pushed at her aura, forming it into her semblance. One that she was grateful that had manifested as soon as it had into her training. The telltale tugging of her body told Mars that it was working and so scantly a microsecond later she was exactly where one of the gangers had been. The rest didn't even have enough time to register their surprise before Mars lashed out with a palm strike to centre mass and immediately disabled one of her opponents.
Now finally scrambling for their weapons, Mars kept on the offence in the attempt to leave them no time to breathe, this worked as she swapped the grip of one of her tonfa and slammed the sheathed blade into the side of their head. The other tonfa remained in the same grip Mars had on it and was pushed behind her and into another thug's throat, leaving them choking and gasping for air. They were so preoccupied with this movement that they weren't able to see Mars' axe kick swinging down and clocking them over their head.
Ducking under a wild unarmed strike by a thug, Mars pivoted as her hand dove into a pouch inside her parker, drawing one of her concussive grenades. Pushing at the thug with both hands, Mars covertly affixed the grenade to the man's clothing as he stumbled back from her shove. Before he had the time to begin closing in again, the beeping from the grenade snatched his attention as Mars had already primed it before passing it off. They made wild and fearful expressions to both the grenade and Mars, appearing confused as to why someone would use grenades in close-range combat.
Mars answered this unspoken question by activating her semblance once again, exchanging the man with the grenade for the man who she had initially swapped places with. When he appeared in front of Mars, his body position suggested he was partway climbing down from the roof to come and help his friends. Mars, not missing the opportunity that presented itself, reared her leg back and swung it forth with gusto. The high-pitched scream of pain that rang through the night would forever remind the thug to not keep his legs too wide when climbing down anything. Mars turned to face the last two gang members, but instead of seeing two final combatants, she saw them fleeing down the street, leaving their friends behind.
"Filth." Mars huffed. With her work done, she flourished her sheathed tonfa before returning them to their holsters that hung at her lower back. Turning to the woman, Mars put on a small smile. "Are you okay, Ma'am?"
"Oh yes, thanks to you I am." The woman nodded, her breath coming out short and ragged. It was clear to Mars that she was frightened by the whole experience. "Is there any way I could repay you for this?"
Mars shook her head. "No need. Just be careful, I probably won't be here to help next time."
"Oh thank you so much!"
Mars watched as the woman departed down the street and into safety. Making sure that she was gone and out of sight, Mars turned back to the thugs who varied in states of consciousness but all in pain. She looked down at them with a mix of disgust and fury. Gathering saliva in her mouth, Mars spat towards one of the still barely conscious thugs. Her projectile splattered against the ground, only just missing one of the man's fox ears.
"This world would be better without the lot of you. You all made sure to drill that lesson into me." Mars stared bitterly down at the faunus thugs. And then, she turned on her heel and strode down the street. She had sleep that she needed, Beacon Academy was starting tomorrow, and she was attending.
She would change this world, for the better.
Vale, Island of Patch: 21/06/137M, 06:00am
Ruby Rose's alarm went off, the blaring beeps rousing Ruby out of her slumber. Bleary and not yet able to achieve full awakeness, Ruby blinked her eyes and let out a long and tired yawn. She stayed where she was for a few moments, absently staring off into space before any thought pushed through her mind.
'Today's the day…' Ruby thought. 'I'm going to Beacon Academy…'
Pushing up and off her blueprint easel, Ruby looked around at her room. Her empty bead, where she should have been sleeping sat in a corner still made. Her cabinets were half decorated and half littered with pictures, figurines and odd bits of metalwork that Ruby had collected or made herself over the course of owning this room. The particular corner of the room that Ruby now sat in she had dubbed her 'Workshop Mini' and held some of her smaller prototypes and a good deal of incomplete designs.
Pushing her roller chair away from Workshop Mini, Ruby spun around on the chair's swivel, staring at the ceiling all the while. She came to a rest just left of her room's centre and simply left herself to continue her staring. Ruby took in a huge breath.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAH!" Ruby cried out in delight as she wiggled all her limbs. "I got into Beacon!" She popped off her chair with legs split apart and fists raised in victory.
"Ruby?" Ruby heard her father, Tai Xiao-Long, call to her from the bottom floor of the house.
"Oh, uh, sorry dad!" Ruby apologized.
"It's fine Ruby. Are you finished packing? We need to get to the airbus station before seven-thirty!" her father reminded her.
"Uhhhhh…" Ruby looked down at herself, still wearing her pyjama singlet and pants. "Uhhh…." She looked at her open suitcase, only holding some of her clothes. "UHHHH…!" she glanced at Workshop Mini, still containing in-progress projects. "Yeah, I'm good!"
Her father said something to her in response, but Ruby didn't wait to listen to it as she was already diving to her closet to pick out suitable clothes to take. Throwing in some casual and 'work' clothes, Ruby also put in her one formal outfit and two extra jackets. Turning to her workbench, Ruby bundled up all the blueprints she wanted to take with her and loosely rolled them into a long tube designed to fit them all. But she wasn't with that corner of her room, as also from the bench was snatched eight different experimental components and Ruby's favourite prehensile magnifying glass. Whilst still trying to find room to stuff all this inside of her backpack, a horrible thought occurred to Ruby.
'Oh no, oh no, oh no! Please tell me I finished it before I fell asleep!' Ruby thought as she jumped away from the open suitcase and leapt towards her main work desk. On it was a pedestal that held a circular device that was coloured yellow, black and gunmetal grey. It had a glowing blue light in the centre of it and the entire outer shell seemed to be made up of rings of varying sizes. This left gaps in some places that showed the internal wiring of the device.
'Okay, not my best but at least it looks like it'll work.' Ruby shrugged as she pocketed the item. Into her pyjama pants. Ruby facepalmed at her blatant forgetfulness in her rush to pack.
Taking her project back out of her pants, she stripped down to her undergarments, throwing the discarded sleepwear into the suitcase. Not even bothering routing through her closet, Ruby activated her semblance. Dark blue, almost black, pants sprouted from her waistline where a belt had formed and grew down to her ankles where a pair of metal boots had also appeared. Above her waistline, a white shirt began forming right out of her body, eventually forming a bodysuit-like top. Reaching inside her closet one last time, Ruby pulled out one of the last items her mother had left her, a crimson red jacket with a thick collar and two white bands running around her cuffs. Well, it wasn't exactly left to Ruby, but it was once her mother's and Ruby had now grown into it.
With her signature look complete, Ruby zipped up her suitcase and hefted the entire large object onto her back. Carefully making her way through the door so as to not bump her suitcase, Ruby sprinted down the hallways and stairs, only stopping once she had reached the kitchen where her father and sister waited.
"Hey Dad! Hey Yang!" Ruby said as she placed her massive suitcase down next to Yang's (somehow) more sensibly sized one. Ruby leapt onto one of the seats at their dining table, waiting for the breakfast that she could see her father making.
"Heya Ruby," Her father greeted. "Excited for the big day?"
"You bet!" Ruby chirped back. "I am gonna rule it!"
Leaning against one of her fists she had propped up against the table, yang gave a chuckle at Ruby's declaration. "Y'know Ruby, you do have to interact with other people there. You'll get put into a team as soon as initiation is over, and some of your grades are gonna depend on if you can talk to them."
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ruby made a long, drawn-out groan into the table she had put her face against. "You always say that Yang! Talk to these people, talk to those people, make new friends… I've gotten on pretty well for fifteen years without friend thank you very much! All I need are my machines!"
Ruby put up her fists on either side of her. With a faint whirring and her arms glowing with green circuit-like lines, a loud sound of metal clanking together was made before enormous metal fists exploded out of Ruby's regular ones. They appeared as giant, massive, metal gauntlets that completely encapsulated Ruby's own hands, but also seemed to move far more fluidly than simple armour.
"Ruby! None of your large builds in the house!" Her father admonished.
Blushing, Ruby retracted what she had named the 'Beatdown Gauntlets' (or BdGs as Ruby constantly referred to them as, skipping the full name's mouthful) and rubbed her left arm with her right.
"Sorry dad…" she apologized.
Her father let out a patient sigh. When he was done, he raised his head back up with a calming smile. "That's okay, Ruby. But to circle back to what your sister was saying, she's right y'know. You do need to make some friends eventually."
"Nooooooo…" Ruby slinked down off her chair and partially under the table.
"Yes. You've somehow managed to dodge every single kid your age on the island for fifteen years. It's time you interact with people outside of your family and strangers on engineering forums."
"S'not my fault that they don't like me…" Ruby mumbled.
Her father sighed. "Look, just promise me that you'll at least try and make some friends at the Academy. For me?"
"…Okay then dad…" Ruby answered reluctantly.
"Thanks. Now, why don't we get you girls some breakfast before sending you off to learn how to fight monsters?"
And so, as she and her sister were served heaping piles of scrambled eggs, strips of bacon and slices of toast, Ruby began to reminisce about exactly how she had been accepted into Beacon Academy two years early…
Oh! Right! It all started with her in a store that was getting robbed when she dropkicked one of the robbers through the window and said something that sounded clever at the time:
"Hi there Criminal Scum! My name is Ruby Rose. Now thrill me."
If you see any mistakes I've made, please tell me so that I can fix them.
Till next time!