The dinging of an alarm on his scroll is what woke Mars. Deftly he reached over and disabled it. A clock read 5:30 a.m. he was confident that the rest of team RVMT wouldn't be up this early.
Another day, another grind.
He had already shed his sleepwear for workout gear and with what he hoped was a silent exit made his way to the Beacon academy gym.
No one walked the halls as he made his way around. Only the light of candles kept him company.
When he arrived it was barren, to the surprise of no one, himself being the only occupant. Not that it particularly bothered him, he would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to wake up this early and workout with him.
Maybe that would change this semester?
He doubted it. It wasn't because his fellow students lacked the drive or the work ethic; it was more because very few huntsmen in training used the gym. To most it was unnecessary. Those who had already had their aura unlocked would experience an otherworldly increase in their strength being able to lift many times their own weight with ease.
The Ruby Rose girl came to his mind, because her weapon probably weighed more than herself.
Why would someone waste their time working out when they were as strong as they would ever need. That same time could be better spent towards modifying their weapons or practicing their semblance. Any huntsman who could develop their semblance would see a greater return then any amount of strength and endurance training could give them.
Hence, was the crux of Mars' dilemma, he had no semblance. There was no trump card he could use against the grimm or against other people. Essentially cutting the number of ways he could get stronger in half.
It was also the reason he worked so hard, waking up early every morning to train his body and every afternoon to train his skills. He needed to gain every edge he could, to make up for what he was missing in a semblance.
He loaded up the weights on the bar for the bench press.
Beacon's gym was one of few that was huntsman grade meaning that everything was heavier and stronger to accommodate for the members occupation and lifestyle.
Something Mars learned when he first started working out and when he unlocked his aura was how much easier it was to get stronger. Sure it still took a long time and you didn't see results overnight, but compared to normal people it was an unattainable speed. It kinda made sense working out was just breaking down your muscles so they would build themselves back stronger and aura instinctively healed a huntsman's body meaning that the muscles healed themselves quicker. Which allowed the cycle to be quickened in breaking them down again.
Mars pushed lifting the bar and its plates off the rack, his body on autopilot repping out the set.
His mind wandered to what had happened during initiation. His team had performed pretty well together. Roy had the makings to be a good leader; he could think fast on his feet and he had the ability to plan ahead as well.
Sweat was building on his arms as he pumped the iron bar up and down, up and down the knurling bite into his skin.
His thoughts landed on the team RWBY and JNPR, or as he liked to call them the 'super teams'.
He hated the feeling that boiled at the pit of his stomach whenever they were involved. Mars knew it was jealousy. He was jealous of them. He was jealous of Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose for being prodigies. He was jealous of Weiss Schnee for the resources she had access to. He was jealous of Yang Xiao Long and Jaune Arc for their huntsman families. He hated that he felt inferior to them.
Each one of them seemed predestined for greatness in one way or another. He had never been special; his dad was an engineer at the CCT and his mother was a school teacher. No glamorous beginning or preordained sign like in the fairy tales. Yet he had still idolized huntsmen, because deep down he wanted to be someone. A person that was important.
His parents were apprehensive at first to say the least. They were scared for him and weren't exactly well-off, the huntsman life wasn't affordable to everyone.
However, they supported him after a couple years of seeing that he wouldn't give up. So they made it work in a way. He couldn't attend Sanctum. It was too expensive, but nor could he attend regular school because he needed time to train. Also the amount of money needed to make a weapon was more than his dad would make in a year.
His parents possessed the same drive he did though. Mars was pulled from school entirely to give him the time of day he needed. He watched tournament fights religiously, dutifully trying to emulate what he saw. He started working a job selling newspapers during the day and his mother homeschooled him at night. His father even helped him design his own weapon for the future.
When he was 11 he joined his first tournament but the results were mixed. He lost in the first round pretty handily at that, but he still didn't have a weapon nor the experience his opponent did.
At that tournament he had learned something else that was very important. Scholarships. How to get a scholarship for one of the graduate huntsman academy's. Most people got in through recommendations from the huntsman who they apprenticed with or by attending a junior huntsmen school like Sanctum. However, the price was merely reduced and the only way to get a full ride was through the regional tournaments.
A sort of tradition that the four huntsman academy's had was offering the winner of the regional tournament a full ride scholarship. Mistral to Haven, Vale to Beacon, Vacuo to Shade, and so on. Mars needed one of those scholarships otherwise his dreams of being a huntsman would end at age 17.
He trained like a man possessed the next couple of years, entering any tournament he could to get as much experience as possible. He'd have four chances to succeed by running the gauntlet.
His breaths were ragged as he pushed himself harder, feeling burning in his chest as his muscles screamed with exertion.
His memory flashed to the hammering of fists onto his face, and the phantom pain of breaking his nose. That had happened in his first year entering the Mistral Regional tournament. He lost soundly to the eventual winner and future celebrity Pyrrha Nikos in the second round.
She'd done everything he had hoped to achieve in a single year and at the same age no less.
She even got her own reality TV show after that: Living with the Champion. He watched it to gleam whatever he could from it. She had a private trainer, her parents had splurged on making the perfect weapon for her, and she trained three hours everyday all while attending Sanctum. Nothing he couldn't do minus the Sanctum part.
Next year would be different Mars had thought, his parents had actually hired a pretty famous trainer for him, Tyus Graham. But It was short-lived. Tyus was looking to create the next Pyrrha Nikos. Pretty much telling Mars and his family that they should give up the huntsman path, that Mars didn't have any true talent.
Whether it was because he was stubborn or maybe spiteful, Mars continued.
So what if he didn't have good potential he could just work harder to compensate. He'd do everything the Invincible Girl did and more. He trained for five hours, watched film, and worked out everyday to eke out every competitive advantage he could.
In his second Mistral regional tournament he lost in the semi finals to a girl named Arslan she was the same age as him. Ironically her personal trainer was Tyus, the one who had passed over on Mars. Was it some twisted way of fate telling him to give up?
With a final heave he re-racked the weight gasping for breath and arms dangling at his sides.
Still he persisted. His third year would be different, he had told himself. Why? Because after eight years of saving up money he finally had a weapon and armor commissioned.
He called them Atlas and Aegis. Atlas was a halberd/maul that was incredibly heavy and could mecha shift into a rifle for range. Aegis was a set of incredibly durable yet maneuverable armor, made of pure steel making it insanely heavy.
It looked like he was right as well as he advanced all the way to the finals. Standing against him and his scholarship was Pyrrha Nikos.
This time it'll be different.
Sitting up from the bench he reached over to chug some water and towel off some of the sweat from his limbs.
It hadn't, he never landed a single hit against her aura. Somehow he had done better against her without his armor and weapons.
The words of Tyus echoed in the back of his mind. Was this the unscalable wall that divided the ordinary and the extraordinary. No matter how much he worked for something he would always fall to those who were born special.
He only entered his final time because he had nothing left to lose. He had long since given up on trying to unlock his semblance and didn't have the money to upgrade his weapons. Part of him hoped that Pyrrha Nikos had decided not to enter this year. He was wrong of course.
What was like deja vu of last year he was in the finals against her again. To his credit he did better against her; how many hits did he land? Maybe four or five. But the fight had never been competitive, his attacks just a little off, his defense a little too slow.
He remembered how in the following weeks the TV and new stations covered the Invincible Girls legendary record of four straight wins. There was even a documentary on it. He got to see the person who had achieved everything he had wanted and more.
Hell he even made a couple appearances on it as he got to watch the girl break his nose in 4K and demolish him twice in the finals.
Even breakfast tormented him as his favorite cereal was decorated by her face. Every morning he got to see the girl who had ended his huntsman aspirations.
Or so he thought until one day a letter from headmaster Ozpin came in the mail offering a scholarship to Beacon. Like a fire, his determination had been stronger than ever. Finally there was someone out there who saw something in him.
He'd make his own place at Beacon away from those damn prodgies like Arslan and Pyrrha; it would be the place he could finally shine.
The look on his face must have been comical when he saw Pyrrha was there as well. What followed it was anger. Anger that she had thrown away a full ride to Haven for reasons he couldn't even Fathom. Everything he had worked so hard for she had thrown away on a whim, his nose started to hurt again.
He vowed he'd beat her one day, talent was one thing, but hard work was another. He'd prove to the world you didn't need both.
The alarm on his scroll sounded off at 7:30. Had he really been reminiscing for almost two hours?
Mars grabbed his stuff, sniffed himself, and grimaced. Maybe a trip to the gym showers was in order before going back to the dorm.
/-/
The first day at Beacon was quite possibly one of the most hectic experiences of Roy's life. The morning had been a chaotic and painful start.
As the ill equipped leader he was he had slept through his first alarm. Then like a true huntsman only woke up ten minutes before class.
His teammates were no better, Louie was still sound asleep in his nightwear and Arthur had only just begun changing into his uniform.
Those weren't the most pressing concerns. Roy's eyes widened as he noticed Mars' vacant bed but not his presence in their room, his uniform still off to the side.
Panicked energy had converted to action as Roy started shouting commands in an attempt to get team RVMT ready for their first class.
"Louie wake up, God Dammit!"
Louie woke up as he shot up out of bed falling off his bed in the same motion falling with a not so heavy thud.
"Arthur, what's our first class today!? Who's the professor? How far away is it from here!?"
"Grimm Studies with Professor Port, it's about three minutes from here half that if we sprint." Freed from his stupor Arthur fired back in quick succession.
"Okay do any of you know where Mars is"
Blank expressions were his only answer.
Great job Roy! First day as team leader and you've already lost one of your teammates.
"Arthur help Louie get dressed, I'm going to go look for Mars."
Roy was about to leave when the door he was reaching for slammed open into his face knocking him into the wall. Their missing teammate was standing in the doorway. His hair dripped and body damp.
Removing his face planted in the wall he ignored the throbbing pain of his forehead and he sprinted over to Mars' bed, grabbed the uniform and threw it at him.
"Get dressed we only have…" He looked at the clock "Four minutes until class".
Like a nevermore out of hell the four of them burst out of their room and sprinted towards Grimm Studies.
Four quickly turned to eight however as team RWBY joined them in their race towards the classroom.
Roy looked over to see Blake and the rest of her team in a similar state of disarray. Loose ties, hastily buttoned blouses, and…. a hood?
Seeing the door of the classroom closing as they raced closer he poured aura into his legs as he lunged forward diving into the classroom.
"I made it" he exclaimed as he turned over onto his back arms extended. However, darkness enveloped his vision as seven figures blocked his line of vision to the ceiling.
They had evidently followed his lead.
"Oh hell" was all he could mutter.
His everything hurt as he felt seven weights crash into him, more wind driven out of his lungs with each successive impact. He soon found himself at the bottom a jumbled mess of tangled limbs. Running out of oxygen fast.
"Help me" He groaned as he was being crushed. The pile above moved trying to separate themselves.
An indignant squawk sounded from above him.
"Don't touch there!" He didn't recognize the voice. It was feminine he knew though meaning it was a member of RWBY. Or maybe Louie.
"Sorry, but my arm is pinned underneath someone else. I can't move it." Actually that voice sounded like Louie.
"Weiss I'm sure if he was trying to cop a feel you would be last on that list" Someone snickered.
"Shut up!" The voice he assumed was Weiss hissed.
It was a miracle they were unable to detangle their impromptu game of twister before he suffocated.
He lumbered over to his seat only to be interrupted by the bellowing voice of Professor.
"My lad would you be a good fellow and close the door to the class"
Black and White lights flickered in Roy's vision still. He began to close the door still. When from behind it he heard another rumbling of footsteps. Realization dawned on him a second too late.
The door was thrown open with tremendous force and a short orange haired girl barrelled forward right into Roy. Despite the differences in their size and weight it was Roy who found himself flying backwards threw the air as his body hit the ground again dazing him once again.
Seriously, how strong was she?
After three assaults on his life Roy thought that the torture had finally ended.
He couldn't have been more wrong when Professor Port opened his mouth to begin the fourth, "Monsters! Demons, prowlers of the night… The Grimm have many names." He jumped onto his desk like it was a stage. "But I like to call them… prey."
/-/
Louie fought off the weight of his eyelids as they threatened to close on him and not open back up.
His hands had long since slowed to a stop writing notes on paper.
Never had a man so thoroughly bored him to death he didn't know how he was supposed to gleam any knowledge off of this when his whole body was threatening to shut down.
This has to be some sort of semblance or some form of advanced mental training.
He glanced to his side to see if his teammates were faring any better. His partner Mars had stopped taking notes and his eyes had glazed over. To his left he saw that his leader Roy was facedown on his desk. Whether that was because of the lesson or all the physical trauma he had been through Louie didn't know.
The only one doing anything was Arthur who was diligently writing down notes onto his paper, but even his face looked strained.
His gaze returned to his own hand which had by all accounts gone to second base half an hour ago. Who would've thought that he had gotten a fistful of a girl's chest before even getting his first kiss or holding hands. Louie would have been ecstatic had it been any other girl.
The fact that it was Weiss Schnee changed that. Why? Because he was a faunus and she was heiress of the SDC. He already assumed that she disliked him, but now judging by the daggers she was sending him it might have been loathed.
He sighed. The Beacon rumorville would be all over this once they caught wind inevitably. At best he would be branded a pervert. At worst a member of the White Fang raising morale by dirtying the SDC heiress.
Which was infuriating because he was staunchly against the current White Fang. His family's company was proof that faunus could be successful by themselves and could get along with humans.
The Sun Dragons Trading Company was no large conglomerate like the SDC, but it was one of the largest companies based in Vacuo and completely faunus run. For generations since the Faunus revolutions it had been run by the Vermillions. His father was the head of the Sun Dragons just like his father before him whose father had preceded him and so on. It would inevitably fall to his older brother's hands.
What made it worse was that his father had supported the original peaceful Whitefang so after they turned violent they had only served to hurt their business. Angering the SDC was another way to do that.
"Now who thinks themselves a true hunter?" The voice of Port rang out. Returning Louie to his classroom prison/
"I do!" Shrieked the Schnee as she stood up from her chair.
Maybe since she couldn't kill him, she'd decided to take her anger out on the Grimm.
/-/
Grimm Studies ended after Professor Port had revealed the boarbatusk inside a cage that had somehow gone unnoticed during the class.
Like some gladiatorial display he had Weiss Schnee fight it.
Her leader Ruby Rose had tried to help her, but it seemed she was very against getting help. They fought a lot even after the battle was over.
It had actually put into perspective how lucky Roy was with the team he was leading. They had only known each other for a Day yet they all got along fairly well and didn't seem to have chemistry problems like the other teams.
Their next class History was a complete 180 from the previous. While they had been bored to death by a long nonsensical story in Ports lesson they struggled to keep up with the frantic speed Doctor, yes Doctor, Oobleck lectured at.
Roy had snapped many pencils and strained his semblance to the max, enhancing his hearing to understand what Oobleck was saying at his thousand words per minute pace.
Somehow he made it through the entire class with only a nosebleed. Something that occurred frequently when he was younger and used it for too long.
After class Roy and the rest of RVMT made their way to the cafeteria to get some food and regroup for the day.
"Arthur, what's our schedule look like for the rest of the day?"
"Hmm… looks like we just have Combat class with Miss Goodwitch in the afternoon."
Finally a class he was looking forward to.
"Well we have some time before that begins so I'd like to go over some things as a leader first."
They looked content. None objected. Roy took this as a sign to start.
"Thank you." Roy nodded as he turned to Mars, "Where were you this morning?"
"I was at the gym. I was sweaty from working out and decided to take a shower there."
Roy continued to nod his head. He couldn't fault him for the extra training.
"Just make sure you are ready for class next time."
He turned to Arthur.
"I know that you were the only one who took any meaningful notes from Ports class and I from Oobleck." Arthur nodded. "I think it would be in our best interest to have a group study session covering each other's weaknesses with certain topics."
"I follow that sentiment and would do nothingless for us to achieve our potential to be at the top of the leaderboards for the team."
Beacon had a ranking system for each individual year, they had team rankings and individual rankings split into academic and combat.
"That leads me to my final talking point." Roy wiped his mouth with a napkin before continuing. "As a leader I want to set team goals, lofty ones at that. Our goal is to be the Best at Beacon"
"Arthur, you would know how many first year teams there are. Care to share?"
"There are 27 teams in our grade and 108 total students." Arthur replied dutifully.
"Okay let's try for the top five in both leaderboards for the first semester."
It was quite the goal especially with how talented this group of freshmen appeared to be. But Roy believed that RVMT could be one of the best.
"Sorry to rain on your parade, but the ones who are going to be the Best at Beacon are us!". A loud voice called over from the table next to them. The Blonde Brawler Yang Xiao Long.
"As if we'd ever let a bunch of brutes hold the number one spot." Weiss shot a frigid glare at Louie who shrunk under it.
"Hey now let's not get too hostile" Arthur put his hands up in defense before smirking, "But if I were to be honest your team wasn't the one we were really aiming for that would be JNPR."
Roy's food caught in his throat. Had prim and proper Arthur really been the one to quipp back.
"Oh the team of big strong boys are gonna go easy on the team of little girls?" Yang grinned looking at Roy "Nora's pretty petite, however if I remember correctly you sailed pretty well in the air."
"Ahh yes!" Arthurs finger went to his mouth "Almost as well as our little princess over here against the boarbatusk." Arthur's voice was laced with sarcasm. "Maybe you focus on shoring up your grimm fighting skills first before today's class"
Roy balked, was this really the same highclass Arthur he knew? He was giving a tongue lashing like the kids on streets where Roy grew up.
"Hey now guys let's not fight now.." The small demure voice of Ruby tried to inject.
"Yeah lets just try to be friends" Louie attempted to speak up.
"Like I'd ever be friends with crass like you." Weiss shot.
Mars apparently drew the line at bad mouthing his partner, "Hey, fuck off! He said it was an accident!".
Before the conversation could spiral any further Roy intervened, "Hey let's stop this please we're all on the same side here, how about helping each other out?"
Weiss fumed. "Like a bunch of oafs like you could ever… ARGHH!" She stormed off, but not without shooting an icy glare at the four of them.
The rest followed suit.
"She hates me" Louie said it as if it was a statement of fact.
"To be fair I think we all fall under the same category now." Arthur reassured him.
"My hopes of getting a girlfriend are over" Louie sighed. "Now I'll be lucky if I can even get a date to the dance before the festival."
Oh yeah that was a thing. Roy had completely forgotten about that part of it. "Don't worry we'll add that as a minor goal for the semester as well". Roy said it as a joke to cheer him up but he just slid down in his seat further.
So we're nearly done establishing backgrounds on all the characters and then we can start to actually make some progress in the story. I'm planning to change some plot points and have events play out differently that way the story doesn't feel like a rehash of the main story albeit from different eyes.