'Thump, thump, thump.'
"Goddamnit, come on, Alex, you've been pacing for like thirty minutes; just sit down or something. You're making me nervous as shit." The other boy paused before letting out a slight nod and falling back onto the bed next to his cousin. "Sorry, I guess I'm just really nervous, ya know?" Orion let out a small scoff, "No, I couldn't tell." He rolled his eyes before continuing.
"Look, I get it. We're both going to Beacon, and you're nervous about all the people and stuff that might happen, right?" Alex shifted slightly. "Yeah, it's just that we got accepted into Beacon, and now, we have to go there." Orion just blinked at his cousin, puzzled. "Yes? Wasn't that the plan from the start?"
"Yes!" Alex waved his arms in the air in an almost panic sort of manner. "That was the plan; I just didn't think we'd get this far; we met Ren and Nora waaaay before they would normally show up. Then, traveling from Mistral and doing, well, nothing. I just, UGH!" He let out an exasperated yell. "I just don't know what to do; there is so much happening at the start of Beacon it'll be really easy to mess up, like the teams; if that changes, so much can go wrong or be different, and I won't know how to fix it!" Orion lifted one eyebrow. "You mean we, WE, wouldn't know how to fix it."
"Right, sorry, I keep forgetting that it is on both of us, isn't it?" Orion rolled his eyes at him again, "Yes, there are two of us here, which is why you should tell me just what is happening at Beacon. All the pamphlets said was something about an initiation test." Alex's smile just slowly grew. "Hehe, we get to use our landing strategies; they're going to launch us off a cliff and into a forest filled with Grimm, and whoever you make eye contact with will be your partner for the rest of the year, which can be bad in our case because if we partner with one of the main cast we could screw things over."
"Well, there are going to be other people there, right? They won't only have them. It's a big school." Alex's face hardened as he began to think, scratching at his chin as if he had hair there. Unfortunately, he learned that he can't grow facial hair here for some god-forsaken reason. He blamed the BROB. "True, although maybe each year is just small? We don't really see other first years in the story, only second years and no third years." Alex shook his head, clearing up all his rambling thoughts, startled out of them by the little alarm from the mechanical clock next to them. It was time to go. The two made sure to grab the two packages that Marlowe had given them.
It took them a while, but they did eventually make it to the spot they were trying to get to, Vale's air docking building, where they would see an enormous flying ship, easily over three stories tall and longer than most buildings, this must be how they get all the students to beacon, speaking of which, it took a few minutes. Still, Alex was able to pick out some of the main characters from the show; he was surprised at just how long it took, mainly because the number of people and colors almost felt like it was blinding him; thankfully, he noticed some familiar people, the second floor had Ren and Nora on it, he paused, he already knew Ren and Nora pretty well actually three almost four months of traveling would do that, so maybe he should try and talk to someone else? It shouldn't be that bad, right?
It was that bad he forgot just how hard it was to go up to people and just talk with them, so here he was standing on the first level just looking at people, then looking back at the wall, at least he was until he watched a blonde guy walk right past him and slump to the ground, which he quickly realized was none other than Jaune Arc, 'right, he has motion sickness' Alex though, which was odd knowing that he had motion sickness, or had since he hasn't felt a bit of it on this giant ship.
Alex walked over and slid down next to the blonde knight; he raised his arm and tried to pat Jaune's back; he felt Jaune jump slightly at his touch, "Just trying to help; I used to have horrible motion sickness too, just try to take deep breaths." He remembers when he was younger, he had gotten so sick he threw up out the window of his mom's jeep, which thankfully only hit the trees outside of the car, but ever since then, he was able to keep himself from throwing up by just breathing, he had to do it a certain way, sure it sucked. Still, it was a better alternative than puking.
"Here, try to breathe in and out when I do; it should help." he waited until he saw Jaune looking at him, and god, did he not look good; he swore he actually turned a shade of green! "In." he took a deep breath in and kept going for a few seconds, then let it out; he did this a few times until he noticed Jaune turning less green; it took a few more seconds before he saw the green completely disappear. "Better?"
"Actually, yeah, it's a lot better. How did you do that?" Alex just gave him a small smile, "I used to get really sick in my mom's car; I hated puking, so I taught myself not to throw up by just breathing." he wasn't going to tell him he also taught himself to go to sleep right as he got in a vehicle so he wouldn't get sick either, but still. "Gods, I understand that; I hate getting sick; I'm not exactly used to flying this far either." Jaune paused before sticking his arm out. "Jaune, Jaune Arc, short, sweet rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Alex couldn't help but let out a slight snicker.
Catching the snicker, Jaune responded, "What?" Alex just held his arms out, "Nothing, nothing, just, I don't know if that's the best way to introduce yourself, is all; anyways, my name's William, William Britt." he grabbed Jaune's arm and shook it. "So, uh." Right now, he had to keep the conversation going. "What, uh, weapon do you use?" Great Alex, though; now he's just stealing Ruby's lines to save himself from social awkwardness. "I use a sword as a shield." He patted the sheathed sword on his waist. "Nice, old school; I'm actually pretty similar to that."
Alex pulled out his own weapon, which he had named 'Ash Basher' name still pending, "I just use my Mace." Jaune tired his head before pointing at it. "Isn't that a flail?" Alex froze up before looking back down at his 'mace.' it did have a chain on it. "Nope, plus the chain extends, so it's just a mace with an extended reach." Jaune just looked more confused. "Okaaay, well, nice to know someone else is using a somewhat simple weapon; I was half expecting to be the only one." Alex just let out a snort. "I know what you mean. Do you know how many people I've seen just add a gun to their weapons? It's crazy! Not everything needs a barrel at the end of it!" The two went on about the weird things they've seen so far, which leads us back to our other cousin, Orion.
Orion was on the third story of the ship, wanting to see just how high the ship went and everything he could see; this whole experience was still new to him, but it felt amazing, the place, the people, the atmosphere, his vision swept around the room, his eyes quickly caught something bright in his vision, or 'bright' in the words of standing out, white, white clothing, or more specifically a white dress, and jacket. It took a few seconds, but he realized just what it was that felt familiar or distinctive about her; she was one of the leading girls Alex had mentioned, Weiss?
Alex had mentioned that she used something like glyphs to fight with, or was it that they were her semblance? That had caught Orion's attention before, but he had forgotten to ask Alex about it, but now he had a chance to see if his idea was right; he wanted to know if he could use those glyphs like in the owlhouse; he knew he had magic, which probably meant he had a whole new organ but still, if those glyphs worked like in the show, it could make things way easier in fights. It meant he could use them like Luz in the show.
He felt weird doing this; he was getting closer to Weiss now and as quiet as he could while also looking nonchalant; it was more complicated than he thought, mostly because he was hoping to try and pretend to use his scroll, which he then remembered the thing is made of glass so he couldn't pretend to look at it because people would be able to see that nothing was on it! So instead, he pulled out the camera and made it look like he was trying to take a picture of himself, and when he got close enough, he would try to take a picture of Weiss's back.
The first picture was horrible. He could barely make out the design at all, and if he wanted to this to work, he needed a clear image, so moving closer, he tried taking another one, doing his best to make it look like he was taking a selfie. Damn, right as he went to take that picture, she moved; he took a calming breath and went in for one last- "Excuse me, just what are you trying to do?" Orion looked down and away from his scroll to notice that Weiss had turned around and saw just what he was doing. Shit.
"I was trying to take a picture; I wasn't trying to get you in it, sorry." He was about to try to get out of this, but Weiss kept talking. "No, I saw just what you were trying to do. I missed the first one, but I saw you take the second one!" Her voice was getting louder, and she was drawing attention to each other. "Did you think you would just take pictures of me like some sort of paparazzi! Well, I'll let you know I won't just stand here and let you try to take advantage of me." Orion winced at those words; they were not the right type of words to use for this, and they made it sound way worse than what he was doing. "No, that's not what I was trying to do-" Weiss cut him off, not letting him finish.
"Then what were you trying to do!" her voice was full of resentment and venom, raising even higher, almost like she was yelling and proving a point.
Alex was talking with Jaune when he heard yelling. He had a bad feeling about this, as there wasn't yelling in the show, and only two people on this ship could change people. He put his hand up in front of himself to pause Jaune from where he was talking. "Hold on, Jaune. I'm going to go check up on the yelling. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Alright, man, do you want me to come?" Jaune seemed to hesitate while asking this, probably thinking it might be a fight or something. "Up to you, man." With that, I turned and started jogging up the ship to figure out just what was happening.
It took less than a minute, but eventually, I saw what was happening. It was Orion, and it looked like he was. I blinked, ensuring I was seeing and hearing the 'argument' correctly. Weiss was yelling at him for trying to take pictures of her, but Orion was saying he was just trying to take a photo, which makes sense. Orion loved taking pictures with his scroll.
"That's it. If you think I'll let you continue your—" "Look, he said he was trying to take a picture. Can you just leave my cousin alone unless you can prove he wasn't?" Weiss sniffed while looking at me; ugh, I forgot how much of a stuck-up b- "And just who are you? How do I know you aren't just trying to bail him out of trouble." This time, it was my time to roll my eyes. "Because that's exactly what I'm doing; whatever you think he did, you don't want to forget it, so I'm taking my cousin away so you can both stop 'arguing.'" you could hear the finger quotes.
I felt Weiss's eyes glare at me as I moved forward to grab Orion, "And why would I let you do that, your 'cousin.'" I could feel the pettiness in her words. "Has unwanted pictures of me on his scroll, so either have him prove he has the photos by deleting them, or I won't let either of you go." She was really starting to annoy me; at this point, she's just doing this to be petty. "Jesus, screw off, lady. I didn't take any pictures of you; let us go." Orion went to try and go around her, but instead Weiss, seemed to spin around him and blocked the other way.
I looked down and noticed her glyphs disappearing; she really used her semblance just to block Orion's way. This was getting really fucking annoying. "Delete and show me the pictures, and I'll let you go; if not, I'm not letting you go." I noticed her reach for Myrtenaster, resting her palm on her weapon; she was ready to use her damn weapon for this crap. "Hey, hey, why don't we all just calm down." Jaune had appeared and had put his hand on Weiss's shoulder; she froze when he touched her. "We can all just leave an- awaaa!" I watched as Weiss flung Jaune; he landed in front of us. "Don't touch me." she was seething, actively holding Myrtenaster now.
The room was tense; the surrounding group stared at the small group, Weiss Schnee, and these three boys, who seemingly took pictures of her or didn't. Honestly, most of them didn't care. They just wanted to see what would happen. That's when the first few coughs started, then the next, and the next, the few people in the back and side of the boys had started to cough, and smoke had begun to leak off one of the boys, seemingly without his notice. "Did you really throw him? He was just trying to help! Stop being such a petty cunt, and let us go." The smoke was coming off him more now; Weiss was staring this boy down, seemingly more focused on him than the other one at this point. She sniffed and glared at him at the comment. "He was trying to help you two; you two are obviously some types of deviants from all of this! So yes! I did have to throw him!"
"That's it, this is such bullshit, Orion now! Sorry in advance, guys." Alex's words were terse, but he did want to apologize, even if he was madder than anything else. He felt the smoke surrounding his arm; Weiss rose Myrtenaste, ready to defend himself from the oncoming attack, which is why Alex was able to surprise her and the rest of the room. He just dropped a smoking ball right next to himself, and the room quickly filled with smoke, blocking the vision of everyone in the room and making them cough as well.
By the time Weiss could clearly see and take full breaths without trying to cough out her lungs, the two boys were already gone! But they left the blonde one! "You! Where did they go! I know you are working with them! You distracted me so they could leave!" She was full on pointing and yelling at Jaune now. This caused the other blonde to try to back up from the white-haired terror. "No, I didn't know them. Well, I knew the one who had smoke stuff, but I had just met him!"
"Will all passengers head to the first floor? We will start to land shortly. I repeat, will all passengers head to the first floor? Thank you." Thankfully, Jaune was saved by the voice, allowing Weiss to find something else to focus on. She left the blonde still sitting on the floor with an" I'll find you later." whispered Weiss as she walked off, doing her best to find the two cousins on her way through the ship.
Speaking of said cousins, they were some of the first people out of the ship, both waiting a while to make sure everyone had left before they decided actually to walk towards Beacon, mostly because of Weiss, but also so they could talk about what had happened. "So, did you actually take a picture of her? Or did I just go off and call one of the main characters of the show a cunt for no reason." looking back was probably not the best choice of words, but he was angry, agitated, and surprised, so he gave himself a pass.
"No, I didn't take any pictures of her; I was trying to get a picture of the area around us from the window; it all looked really cool from up at that height. She must have thought I was trying to take a picture up her skirt or something." Orion paused, thinking he could work with this. "Oh, speaking of her, you said she used glyphs for her semblance, right?" "Yeah, different types for different things. Why?" Orion just stared at his cousin for a few seconds; Alex just stood there for a few more seconds until he couldn't take the awkwardness.
"What? Why are you staring at me like that?" Orion made a groan before continuing. "Because they use glyphs in the owlhouse, remember?" Alex's only response was to make a face that seemed to show off just how stupid he felt. "Oooooooh!" "Yeah, 'oh, so do you think I could use them like they did in the show?" Alex just shrugged. He didn't really know; no one in the show tried that. "I honestly have no clue; no one in the show has powers like yours, so maybe? If you want to try it, why not get a picture of the family crest off the internet and then trace it?" Orion mentally screamed at himself for not doing that! That would have been way less creepy. Thankfully, he deleted his pictures so no one would know what he did. "I'll do that the next time we have time to try it."
"Look, there she goes," Alex whispered to Orion, motioning his head to the crowd where a certain white-haired girl was storing off and right past Ruby. Who didn't get in her way? "Shit." "What?" "We already changed something." Orion turned back to his cousin, raising an eyebrow. "What could we have changed by just avoiding everyone."
"You mean besides, getting in a fight with one of the main characters, and almost physically fighting them? Oh, I have no idea what we could have done." With that, Alex started walking towards the girl wearing a red hood. She was talking with that blonde guy who tried to calm Weiss down earlier on the flying bus. He watched his cousin try to catch up with them, only to almost get impaled when the girl whipped out her giant scythe.
"Soo, I got this thing." "Hey, jaun—whoaholyshit." Alex had to smoke dash as he saw the red-tipped blade fly towards him. When he reformed, he stood beside Jaune, his hands raised and eyes wide. "Holy crap, are you okay!" He didn't know if that came from Ruby or Jaune, but he didn't care; he was still alive! "Y-yeah! I'm still alive, I think." he patted himself just to be safe. "Yep, no more new holes." Ruby rushed him. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you; please forgive meeeee!" by this point, Orion had caught up to the three, watching the scene before him with an amused smile. "You're okay; I should have paid more attention or just said something to let you guys know I was behind you."
He heard a slight snicker from Orion when he said the words 'behind you,' but he pretended not to listen to them. "Yeah, but still! I'm so sorry!" "No, I'm sorry. Like I said, I shouldn't have been there." "No, I'm-" Orion interrupted them before the infinite sorry loop would continue. "We get it; you're both sorry. Just talk about something else; you two make me nervous." Ruby took the initiative to talk. "Uhm, Oh! That smoke thing you did was so cool! You were all, 'fwoosh' and 'nyoom' it was awesome!"
"Oh, uh, thanks, it's my…semblance?" 'yeah, let's stick with that.' "I can do smoke, stuff, uhm anyways, back to what you guys we're talking about, Jaune, show Ruby your sword!" While Jaune was doing that, Alex brought out, his weapon. He brought out his weapon to ensure Jaune was done talking about crocea mors. "Aaaand this is Ash Basher!" He swung his weapon, "It's an extendable mace." Ruby paused. "But that looks like a flail?" Once again, Alex froze. "No, it's a mace, with an extendable chain, so it's not a flail." why did everyone think it was a flail? "And this." Orion interrupted them once again. "Is Astral projection." Orion showed his gauntlets and grieves off their red and gold colors shining in the sunlight.
"Astral projection? But you're not projecting anything." This time, it was Orion's turn to show off; he motioned with his hand, drawing the circle and watching as a small symbol appeared inside it. Once completed, it turned a bright orange before a flame burst out of it. Leaving Jaune and Ruby stunned. "Is that projecting enough for you?" The cousins just smiled; besides the occasional village, this was the first time they got to show off their own powers and abilities. "So uh, anyways, My name's William, and this is my cousin Orion." Ruby let out a bit of a surprised gasp before she steadied herself. "My name's Ruby. It's nice to meet you both." They both in sync nodded before stopping to look at each other as if offended from being in sync. "We should probably head towards that spot everyone was walking to." Jaune and Ruby blinked at the cousins. "Wait, where are you guys going?" They just pointed at each other. It turned out they were both following each other, thankfully the cousins, mixed with looking for the right area and trying to figure out where everyone else went, letting them find the right spot.
Walking into the auditorium-looking building, except for the fact that there was no roof, the four of them heard all the sounds of a large group of teenagers talking and mingling. This was quickly interrupted by someone yelling at Ruby and telling her she saved her a spot. She rushed away from the other three, telling them she'd see each other after the ceremony.
"Ah, wait!" Jaune yelled after the shorter girl, only to droop his shoulders when he realized she wasn't going to stop. "Aw man, now where am I supposed to find a nice, quirky girl to talk to?" Alex moved his hand to his chest as if to feign being hit. "That hurts Jaune, and here I thought you'd want to talk to us, for shame." Alex moved his hand to his forehead, sniffing loudly. "Aw, come on, I didn't mean it like that! I'd love to talk to you guys; it's just Ruby's a girl, you know." Orion just shook his head, and Alex just snickered at him.
"It's fine, Jaune. We understand. Come on, it looks like they're about to start talking." With that, the three moved up to the front, or at least they were going to try to until they quickly heard a rather familiar voice, a rather unfriendly one at that. "You! You walked in with those scoundrels from on the airship! What did they say? Did they try to get you to buy pictures of me? Did you buy anything from them?!"
Turning, the boys noticed it was Weiss, badgering Ruby with questions about them, trying to see if she had bought anything from them, and seemingly getting mad she was with them. "I knew they were trying something! Show me your scroll, and let me see proof you didn't buy anything!" Poor Ruby was utterly flustered. "I-I didn't buy anything! I swear, we just talked about weapons and how I almost impaled one of them!" The blonde one, Alex, quickly recognized as Yang, jumped in upon hearing this. "You almost impaled someone?"
"It was an accident! He was walking behind me, and I didn't know, so I whipped out crescent rose to show her off to Juane, but when I did, I almost cut him!" Yang was trying to calm her sister down, now putting her hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay; you both walked in together, so I'm guessing he's okay." Ruby nodded her head. "Yeah, he's okay…wait, why would they have pictures of you?"
"Because one of them tried to take pictures of me on the airship, then when he was caught, he denied everything and continued to lie about it, then he had his cousin, or whoever, bail him out!" Ruby seemed to wilt slightly after hearing this. "But they seemed nice enough." Weiss just scoffed at the younger girl's words. "Hmpf, well, you wouldn't know I have experience with creeps like that- wait, there they are now!" Weiss quickly stomped over to the three boys who were watching everything unfold; a quiet, 'aw shit' could be heard when they noticed her walking towards them, Yang and Ruby following closely behind. "You thought you could just get away with leaving like that on the airship! Trying to sell pictures of me to random people, and I wouldn't find out! You're dumber than I thought."
"But they didn-" Ruby was shushed when Weiss placed her hand in front of her. "Shush, you just probably didn't notice with them hiding their douchery so no one would catch on, but I, Weiss Schnee, can see right through you."
"Alright, Snow Queen, calm down. Do you have any actual evidence that these guys did that? Because from what I can see you're just saying they're doing something you haven't been able to prove yet. Plus, you're trying to say my little sister bought pictures." She used finger quotes when saying this "Of you when she obviously didn't." Weiss huffed in annoyance. "You can't see it either; of course, you all would; you don't exactly seem like the brightest bunch here." This seemed to anger Yang. "Excuse me?"
But before anyone could get another word in, they were all interrupted by a loud voice cutting through the entire room's conversations. "Ahem, I'll keep this brief." Alex could visibly be seen stiffening as he noticed just who was talking. Ozpin. "You have traveled here in search of knowledge, to hone your craft, and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." he paused, allowing everyone to really listen in on what he was saying. "But when I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far."
"It is up to you to take the first step." Everyone paused, thinking about what the man had said; the two cousins seemed to be thinking, hard, their faces scrunching up in some unknown emotion to those on the outside. "You will all gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins; be ready; you are dismissed." With that, the two cousins and, hopefully, Jaune planned to wander off, but Alex stopped when he heard Yang speak up. "He seemed kinda off." He forgot they felt something odd about Ozpin even this early on, didn't they? "It's almost like he wasn't even there." Yeah, now it was time for him to leave. He didn't want to accidentally say something he shouldn't.
Hours later, everyone was starting to get ready for bed. The cousins had switched out of their regular clothes and into some sleepwear, which just consisted of shorts. Neither of them wore shirts. Orion had wanted to quote, 'Show off his gains. ' Alex just teased him, saying he just wanted to impress the other guys, while Alex just felt more comfortable sleeping shirtless.
Walking to where they had moved their sleeping bags, the two cousins sat down and began to talk. "You know, the closer we get to initiation, the more nervous I'm getting; I swear it feels like I'm sitting on nails or something, plus it's going to make trying to sleep horrible!" Orion slapped his cousin with a pillow, being the ever-so-supportive cousin he was. "Dude just shut up and try to sleep; it's not like we can do anything else anyways; just count in your head or something, but I swear to god, if you start pacing again, I'll throw you out the room myself!"
"Hellllo~" Both cousins looked up to the sing-song voice that had brought them out of their 'argument.' It was the blonde-haired girl Ruby's sister, Yang. "I believe you three know each other?" Both cousins looked at each other, then back at Ruby, then back at themselves. Orion was the one to talk first. "Hello, Ruby." She waved at him. "Hi Orion, there happy Yang, I said hi to one of my new 'friends.' can we go back so I can sleep now?"
"Nope!" Ruby blanched at her sister. "Nope?" "Nope!" Alex was smirking at the little bit in front of him; it kinda reminded him of his sisters; ah, he forgot how much that sucked to think about right now. "Gasp, Ruby, you consider me a friend; I'm so honored; what can I do for the silver-eyed queen? I'm sorry to inform you that a different queen has already recruited me from another castle full of lightning and thunder." Besides the small mutter of 'Did you really say gasp out loud' and a small 'You bet you did.' from somewhere else in the room, Ruby and Yang just stared at him; he felt a slight blush creep onto his face as he realized more people we're staring at the little bit. "Ehem, uh anyways, what brings-"
"What in the world is going on over her- YOU TWO!" Both cousins groaned, "We're you two trying to sell more pictures of me! In the dark with all these people no less, have you no shame! I should-" She was interrupted when something was thrown at her. She quickly caught it before it hit her in the face. "What do you think you're doing? That could have hit me!" Alex muttered a small 'if only' before Orion yelled at her. "It's my scroll! Just check it; I didn't take any pictures of you, so you can stop bothering us! You're annoying as hell!"
Looking down, Weiss noticed that, yes, what he had thrown at her was his scroll. Looking at him and then back at the scroll, she quickly opened it up and started going through it, not just the gallery but also the lien transferring app. She was getting angrier and angrier until she threw the phone back at Orion, storming off in a huff.
Yang raised her eyebrow at Orion, "What was on that to get her to do that?" He just leaned his head back into his pillow with a smile. "Nothing, absolutely nothing, just pictures I took on the ride here when we were on the way to Beacon, and proof I didn't add any more lien into my bank account today, proof I didn't sell anything of her, and proof I didn't have any pictures of her, now if you excuse us we do need to sleep." Even though Orion was being sarcastic he was sounding tired.
"Alright, we'll leave you two alone; good luck tomorrow." The two gave small waves before getting comfortable in their bags, "Night." "Night."
Alex stared back at his reflection. He had just gotten out of the small shower before initiation, and it let him get a good look at just how much different he was from when he first came to this world; he had gotten leaner, but unfortunately, he hadn't gotten any taller, still standing at an average 5'5, but his hair had gotten longer, almost coming to his neck, his brown hair was still messy from the shower, and brushing it won't make a different, he looked at the package he and Orion had opened this morning, the ones that Marlowe had given them, which revealed just what was inside them, huntsmen outfits.
Alex wore a light brown leather cuirass, better known as a chest plate, covering his torso with little flaps near the end, and metal shoulder guards rested on his shoulders. A light orange hood draped behind his head, dark pants underneath the chest piece, black combat boots that went up to his knees, and black elbow-length gloves. The final part of the outfit was the orange-tinted glasses he wore. They were just decorative, but they reminded him of the glasses he wore at home. Ever since he came here, his eyes seemed to have fixed themselves.
Making sure no one was looking at him, he gave a few small flexes to himself in the mirror, posing to see how he looked. "Pretty snug, if I do say so myself." a small snicker made him freeze as he also turned to see his cousin in his new outfit.
Orion's hair had grown much longer than he expected over the past few months, and his black hair went past his shoulders, but one of the things that had hanged was how much buffer he got; he had actual abs he could show off, and show off he did, he didn't wear a shirt showing off his muscles to anyone to see, he also wore a golden headband his arms covered by his red and golden gauntlets, he wore brown combat shorts, with a rather large amount of pocket on the front, which he had two golden looking suspenders the same shade as the headband rested across his shoulders going down to his shorts, underneath them he wore his brown boots that we're covered by his metal grieves, gold and red matching his gauntlets.
"I still can't believe you're not wearing a shirt; I mean, I get you to have an aura, but still!"
Snickering, Orion posed. He was copying a rather well-known blonde-haired pretty boy. Alex swore he mentally heard a 'whoa mama.' when Orion posed. "What can I say? I want to show off a bit." Alex just rolled his eyes at his cousin and moved, making sure not to leave his weapon leaning on the sink. Orion turned to his cousin, a bit more of a serious look coming over his face. "But in all honesty, are you ready for this?"
Alex grimaced. "I mean, not really, but I'm as ready as I ever could be, ya know? We've been training for months for this, so we hope I pass, but I also hope we don't screw something up with the teams, ya know?" he made sure he whispered this, but nonetheless, it was said, even if he felt even talking about it would conjure it up.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, all the changes and all that. Look, just focus on what we're supposed to do and get it done, okay? If we do that, then we can't blame ourselves for changing something. All we did was do what we were told, right?" He got a nod from Alex. "Good now, let's get out of here. I swear it smells like my old locker room in here, and they don't even have Axe here."
On the way out, the two would see Jaune get flung and stuck to a wall by a spear. Alex just hesitated to help, mainly because Orion kept him focused on getting to the meeting spot, but he eventually left, noting that at least that hadn't changed.
The wind was howling in their ears. They hadn't even been launched yet, but standing this close to the edge of a cliff was starting to get to Alex. The wind and the small chatter had started making him feel anxious. He was rocking back and forth on his feet on what he guessed was the launching pad thingy.
Ozpin's voice cut through his thoughts. "For years, you have trained to become warriors." He felt his eyes drift to Orion then Jaune at that comment, right, years. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the emerald forest." Alex looked around at just who all was around them; he noticed Ren and Nora first, mainly because Nora was waving almost frantically at himself and Orion; he gave her a small, embarrassed wave back as he continued to look. He guessed the four boys in armor were the soon-to-be CRDL; he recognized Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and even Blake for the first time, same for Pyrrha; she was taller in real life, or maybe he was just short.
"Now, I'm sure many of you heard rumors of the assignment of teams; well, allow us to put an end to your confusion." He couldn't help but smirk at this, looking to see the other's reactions. Having already told Orion what they were, let them know just what they were in for, and let them not accidentally screw something up big time, which, now that he realized, was unavoidable now! These were all the same people as in canon! No more extra people besides him and Orion! Shit!
"Each of you will be given teammates today." He could barely hear it but swore Ruby sounded like a deflating balloon. Ozpin was talking now. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it's in your best interest to be paired with whom you can work well; that being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." a small scream of 'WHAT' from Ruby which he was surprised everyone ignored, and a few other small comments like Nora telling Ren she told him so, wait they didn't tell Nora that, how did she know that?
"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest; you will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." He heard Jaune let out a small groan. All he could think about was how much he really hoped they launched soon. He was getting super anxious about this, and he swore he felt smoke leaking off him from how much he was pacing into this launcher thing.
"You will be monitored and graded on your duration of the initiation, but our instructors will not intervene." at this point, Alex had started zoning out. He was thinking about how he would land who he hoped to be paired with and things he could try and fix with who he got paired with or possibly speed up. He zoned back in when he saw everyone get their weapons ready, and he followed suit; getting his mace ready, he noticed the tallest of the armored guys look at his weapon and sneer slightly; that must have been Cardin, He's going to suck to be around.
Alex was the first one launched and the first one to let out a scream of joy, fear, and, well, probably a mix of horror and excitement. Alex didn't last long in the air; once he could feel himself start to go back down, he turned into his smoke form and rocketed towards the ground, the smoke, ash, and fire propelling him faster and faster until once he finally hit the earth he let out a rather loud booming noise, spreading out a blanket of ash and fire around him, once he reformed he noticed that there was some extra black flake in the air, it seemed he had landed on a small group of Grimm killing them on impact. "Alright, a few down, only a couple more to go." With that, he headed in the direction he guessed was north.
Orion learned that he hated heights. He always knew this, but he really felt it when he was falling, who knows how fast towards the earth! He was drawing. He didn't know how many circles or trying to, but he could barely keep a straight hand to draw a circle big enough to help! Eventually, he was able to cast a few fire blasts to slow his descent, which he then used to use some of his abomination magic; he had some of the 'goo' stored in his pockets, so once he started approaching the trees, he summoned it to be around him making a shield of sorts while also sticking to the branches allowing him to slow down enough that once he hit the ground the abominations cushioned all of the blow.
Once he regathered up his goo, Orion started heading, with what his best guesses, wherever north was. It didn't take long before he heard some growls around him; he quickly turned, just in time to move out of the way of a Beowulf; he quickly summoned a fire blast to cook the thing; it only took one to kill it, so once he heard something run at him he did his best to move out of the way, instead of getting hit as he expected, he heard a loud crash and a howl.
Turning, he saw a boy with long gray hair sliding on a Beowulf's body, his halberd stuck inside the Grimm. The boy looked up, raised his eyebrow, and yanked his weapon out of the Grimm; it let out a rather nasty snapping noise. He raised his hands, "Nice to meet you. I guess we're partners, Sky Lark." Orion looked between him and the Grimm a few times before he shook his hand, "Orion Osorio." Sky gave him a slight grin, "Nice name; now let's get out of here before we make a bigger mess; some guy already lit the forest on fire." Orion groaned as he realized he knew just who did that. "Yeah, let's move."
Alex was having a bit of an easier time, mostly because he kind of accidentally made a source of infinite ammo for himself; he had a small forest fire, which he was taking total advantage of by just shooting the hell out of any Grimm he ran into, which then again had only been Beowulf so far but still! Most went down in one good blast. So when he heard a smash close by, he assumed a bigger grimm was near, and having this advantage on his side, he was curious to try and test his abilities on them.
Smoke dashing forward, Alex quickly raised his arms, smoke swirling on them as he was ready to blast whatever grimm was behind the forage, only to stop when he had to move out of the way of a sword being slashed at him; he had barely dodge out of the way when he realized just what had happened, and so had the other person, looking up he noticed a guy staring at him or trying to? It looked like his eyes might have been closed, but he noticed his eyes had two scars covering them. "Don't shoot those at me." Alex blinked before he realized his smoke was still around his arms.
Quickly, he let the smoke flow back inside him; he felt a small cut on his side close up. I guess he didn't dodge as well as he thought. "Right, sorry, I thought you were some big Grimm or something." the other man just nodded. "Same here; I saw the fire and thought there was a big fight or something; instead, it's just you?"
"Eh, there was more Grimm over here, but they're gone now." He felt a smirk appear on his face, feeling happy about that. "Hm, good to know, Dove Bronzewing, you?"
"William, William Britt, guess this makes us partners?" The other boy just shrugged. He didn't seem mad, which could have been worse. "Guess so; we should probably try to get those relics now, though." Alex felt the smirk leave his face. "Right, sorry, let's go." With that, Alex turned back to the direction he was moving before Dove had popped up. "North is the other way." Quickly, Alex's smoke dashed in the right direction. "I knew that."
It didn't take much longer for the four to meet up. The first one to notice was Alex, who noticed a guy with a halberd walking towards them, followed by his cousin. "Orion!" Both people turned their heads, a smile blooming on his cousin's face. "Nice!" Alex quickly sped up to catch up with them, Dove following behind.
"So you were the one who caused the forest fire." Alex did his best to look innocent. "What, nooo, okay, maybe, but I didn't do it on purpose; plus, it does help with my semblance." He gave a slight shrug, although he did feel bad for the damage he was causing. He hoped it wouldn't bring his grade down too much.
"Yeah, but it's also causing the Grimm to come out more since they can't ambush well in the fire." Dove was the one to speak up; both cousins and Sky turned to look at him as he began talking. "The fire burns away at the trees and bushes, making it hard for them to hide and ambush, so it leads to them being out in the open, but it also means they can follow it to track us."
Shit, maybe he messed up more than he thought. He shouldn't focus on that right now; they needed to get those relics. "Alright, let's just keep a closer eye out for Grimm; we need to get those relics and leave; that's all they told us we needed to do." They didn't need to overcomplicate things. "Alright, cool, because we're heading towards some now." Alex and the rest of the small team stopped immediately, almost falling over each other in the process. "What?!"
Turning, the group could see a rather large group following them from the back, turning to the front; they could also see more coming from over there. "Right, fun." They needed to be careful! "Orion, stay to my left, Dove, get to my right, another guy, cover the back, try and take as many as you can from a distance; if we don't have to get closer, then we won't." They all made some sort of agreement, and with that, they all let loose their own firepower onto the Grimm.
Sky uses Feather's edge to blast holes in the Grimm, and Dove uses Hallshot to try and get some hits off at the Grimm for either Orion or Alex to hit and destroy the Grimm; this lasted for a few minutes most of the Grimm getting shredded, that was until a roar was sent out, scattering some of the Grimm, an Ursa with a few more following behind it, it was tanking most of Hallshot's shots, or it tanked enough for the Grimm to get closer.
The Ursa fell only for three more to rush at the group, "Guys! We have some Grimm coming up!" The rest were doing their best to ward off the surrounding Grimm, but more and more were starting to break off or use the others to tank hits to get closer. Soon enough, The group had changed from shooting to attacking the Grimm that got too close. "Alright, Dove with me, Orion; you take your partner and try to stay close; we can't leave unless we get an opening!"
With a small count of three, the group split into groups of two. Alex went high, blasting into the air to shoot some grimm and throw himself to the ground. While he was gathering himself back together, Dove was fending off a few be wolves. "Careful, don't leave yourself open around them." Alex nodded, blasting the Grimm and using Ash Basher to try and kill the rest.
Sky and Orion, we're doing rather well as well. Orion would blast the Grimm, and if he didn't kill them, Sky would come in and finish them off with a big hit of his halberd. The Grimm around them was a mix of flaming pieces and frozen bits covered in bits of purple goo; Sky gagged a bit at the weird purple stuff. "Please don't touch me with that." He did his best to avoid touching it as much as possible while hitting the Grimm.
With a final explosion of fire, smoke, bullets, and a smash to the ground, the last of the Grimm group seemed to be defeated. All the boys were breathing heavily but seemed relatively unharmed, with a few scrapes, cuts, and maybe a few bruises, but nothing more than that. Alex might have been a bit worse, but he had been absorbing smoke the whole fight, allowing him to heal whatever had been hurting him. "Everyone okay?" they looked themselves over before a few nods came his way. "Nothing too bad; going to bruise later, though." That came from Orion, who, since he didn't wear any type of shirt, had taken a bit of a hit from a nasty Beowulf to the chest.
A loud Growl was heard coming from behind the group; they didn't have much time to see what it was before Orion was swiped to the side with a large black and white claw. Sky had tried to swipe at the Grimm with his halberd, but it was hit to the side and was almost bitten into if Dove hadn't pulled him back; by the time the group could actually see what it was, they were trying to defend each other from it, Which was when another scream was heard, Alex had a claw slice through his side, large cuts forming as he was swung towards the other boys.
Sky had been trying to hold off the other Grimm, which they had learned was an Ursa major, a rather old-looking one, too; if the giant spikes and arrows in its back were any indication, he was just about to try and slice down at the Grimm when he felt someone collide with his back, he was thrown forward, the Ursa taking advantage of this by swiping up at the teen, his aura flashed dangerously before he was shot back, holding the hurt Alex, who was cursing and spitting at the monster. "Damn, fucking bastard!" He was bleeding heavily from the side, "Shit, it broke your aura. You ok-" Alex stopped him. "I'll be fine; just keep an eye on the Ursa and the Alpha Beowulf." Sky doesn't get to see the alpha until he moves to the side of the Ursa, where he sees Orion and Dove fighting the Alpha Beowolf.
Alex raised his hand, drawing the smoke from the forest fire, filling his reserves, and healing himself completely. They needed to either end this quickly or get the hell out of dodge, but since the Grimm was on both sides of them, running wasn't a good option. "Other guy!" "It's Sky, and yes!" He was slashing the Ursa's paws to the side away from himself, trying to shield himself and Alex, "On my mark, go for its legs!" Alex was watching both Grimm trying to find a way to end this quickly, which is why they would take advantage of the Grimm's defensive marks.
"Orion, Dove! Try and get the Alpha over here! Close as possible, on my mark, try and throw it forward! We're impaling the bastard!" Both gave him a type of affirmation. Alex and Sky were both trying to defend and push the Ursa backward; They would switch up between getting big hits in, and then, while the Grimm was trying to reel back, the other would hit them back.
Dove and Orion focused more on moving it back to meet the others' pace. Orion stayed behind Dove. He did most of the damage with Hallshot, filling the Alpha with slices while Orion tried to burn, freeze, or just hit it with anything else.
Finally, Alex thought they were close enough to each other. "Sky now!" quickly, Alex charged up a bigger shot around his arm and blasted it at the Ursa Major; it was disoriented from both the blast and the ash covering its body, momentarily stunning it! Sky rushed forward, slashing at the Grimm's knees, causing it to drop forward; this is when Orion and Dove upped the ante. Orion double-summoned fire in front of the Alpha. His owl symbol appeared in the symbol, "Dove move!" without thinking, the male jumped to the side! Once he was away, Orion let loose the spell, and fire exploded out of the circles, throwing the Alpha backward, straight into the Ursa Majors back!
The Beowolf yelled out in pain as it couldn't move. It was not entirely dead, but it was not in the position to move! The Ursa, having the weight of the other elder Grimm stuck to its back, was stuck to the ground. "Sky Smahs the Beowulf's head, I'll get the Ursa." With that, the two moved forward, bringing their weapons into the air and smashing down on both the Grimm's heads, black goo splashing on their outfits. Neither stopped until they saw the black flakes starting to come from their bodies.
Everyone was now breathing heavily, covered in cuts, bruises, and probably a sprain or two. "Is everyone okay?" Alex was doing his best to absorb the lingering traces of the smoke around them, mostly to refuel. He was as healed as he could be right now, which was saying more than the others; he wished he could figure out how to heal people like Delsin could in the games. Sky responded first this time. "Was a lot better before we had to fight two old Grimm, but thanks for asking." Next came from Orion, "I'd rather be training with Nora right now." and Dove just gave him a nod. "Could be better."
Alex just gave a little huff. "Alright, let's get those relics then." With that, the group started heading what they thought was north. Sky commented on the burnt area around them and the big boom they heard along the way, but once they finally made it to the relic place, they noticed most were gone already and that there was a block of ice next to it. The four each grabbed the remaining pieces.
Alex grabbed the golden pawn, and Orion, Dove, and Sky grabbed the black pawn. "Alright, let's get the hell out of this death wish of a forest." The four headed toward where they could see Beacon. It took a while, mainly because the spot where they would get onto the pillars leading back to the school was destroyed! Thankfully, there were others they could get onto that led them back to the main ancient bridge thing and back to the school.
They were given a few minutes to clean themselves up before they were told to go to the auditorium again. The four were rather tired from their fight, and the whole team looked like they would fall asleep at any time, so when they were told to finally come on stage, they did their best to look attentive.
"Orion Osorio, William Britt, Sky Lark, and Dove Bronzewing, the four of you collected the black bishop set. From this day forward, you will work together as team BOLD led by William Britt." Alex felt himself freeze up, he was the leader? He hated being in charge of things! He would rather take orders than do that! Orion knocked him out of his spiraling thoughts with a physical hit to his side. "Hey, come on, we made it celebrate!"
Alex paused before his smile broke free. "Okay, maybe we can celebrate a little." With that, he grabbed Orion and shook him as he jumped around. "WE MADE IT!" Sky couldn't help but bust a gut laughing at the image before him, while Dove just gave a small smirk. "You think those two are always this odd?" "Eh, maybe I kinda like it, though."
"Ahem, thank you, headmaster." He gave the man a small bow, not really knowing a good way to show off his thanks. He watched the other team start to head up next. It was Jaune's team. Alex and Orion waved at the three, Ren, Nora, and Jaune. Nora was practically vibrating; it looked like she wanted to hug them, but she couldn't before they all passed.
"So, all in favor of finding our dorm and collapsing?" "Yep." "Sounds good to me." "Sleeeep!"
"Alright, team BOLD, to bed!"
