Ruby stood somewhere in the dark. The sounds of a distant battle being fought and the sky occasionally lit up with an explosion. But it wasn't enough for her to see anything close. She couldn't feel her Aura making it feel blisteringly cold.
There was a noise and a light began to fill her surroundings the cold seemed to fade. The light Revealing A familiar figure sitting on a crate. Recognizing the figure as Alan who was eating something out of a Can, staring up at the sky. But something was different.
She observed his features and saw His hair was shorter, and the Cloak he always wore was a different material. A helmet of a different design sat next to him. Then there are his eyes, They were Human. Human, Instead of his Faunus cat-like eyes.
"Alan?" she tried asking but her words went unnoticed. just then she heard the sounds of boots crunching on snow and a man handed Alan a device.
"It's our turn with the Radio, I got first 'watch," A man said, his Accent foreign to Her. She tried to get a better look at him but he was wearing a scarf with the same armour as Alan and was definitely older than him.
"Thanks, Dom," Alan thanked the man she now knew as Dom. She heard Alan mention the man before, It was at this moment she realized this was some sort of memory, The Strange Grimm she encountered during initiation had shown her flashes of memories that included Alan and Amin among other odd images.
There was some Radio Static as Dom walked away, The Voice of a young woman breaking through the Static.
"-War For the North continues to its eleventh anniversary, we have today's update on the front!" she said cheerily. "In a Devastating loss of life within an hour, The Tribal Union, BCR and the Midwest Republic Report six thousand confirmed lost and four thousand 'unaccounted for. General Cyrus Amoralis hasn't made a statement about the losses at the moment," Ruby blanched at the number.
"What's he even supposed to say?" Alan said bitterly and moved a hand to the radio where there was a click and an Acoustic guitar started playing. sitting back he began enjoying the Canned food once more.
Ruby took a moment to calm herself after hearing so many people were dead. she moved closer to the Trooper and sat down on another crate taking a moment to recover. When she felt her nerves had calmed she tried to see what the Trooper was eating
'Canned Bacon?' She thought watching him eat the greasy mess inside the Tin. Despite her thoughts, Alan seemed to enjoy the meal.
Inspecting her surroundings at the crate she saw a rifle lying next to her. She recognized it by its description alone as a C1 rifle, her inner Weapon enthusiast screaming at the tape used to affix a flashlight to the wooden handguard. Moving past that fact she looked at its stock, then at the receiver, seeing it was decently taken care of.
Looking upward at Alan she noticed his armour held marks of being shot and splatters of dried blood. This gave her pause.
Ruby Knew the Corporal was a Killer, He was good at taking lives, and She had been a witness to it before, But how many had he killed before- Ruby shook her head to clear it.
"He's a soldier, He fights for The good guys," she reassured herself. Then looked up to watch the cloud-covered sky.
The calm of the moment was interrupted as a Distant Sound was heard. As the sound was getting closer, A continuous roar came from where the Sounds of Battle were loudest. Alan looked back upward when an ominous howling could be picked out amongst the noise. The trooper sighed and took his helmet, placed the Can on the crate then strapped the helmet onto his head. shutting the Light off he then took his rifle and leapt forward, embedding himself into the snow.
Ruby was confused for a moment, then what she now heard as the engine of an aircraft flew by and something nearby exploded She vaguely caught the silhouette of a large aircraft with swept-back wings. The sky filled with tracers as nearby ground air defence chased the Aircraft.
Ruby opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. she continued to gaze at it, just thinking.
'What was all that' 'Was that alcoholism?' were her thoughts. reaching for her scroll at her side the alarm started blaring the moment her hand grasped it, she panicked and swiftly shut it off.
Seeing the Alarm turned off she checked her teammates and saw they had only shifted slightly due to the noise. sighing she checked the time and saw it was six.
"perfect," She whispered and slid off her bed and grabbed the neatly folded Beacon uniform on top of one of the many bags she had with her.
But before she left she placed her uniform down and took a backpack from the side of her bed and dug around until she found what she was looking for. Her notebook. She wrote down weapon concepts and ideas of the like and recently it had been filled with notes from Alan's teachings.
She flipped it to near the end took the small pencil from the book's binder and wrote down a simple title; Are Alan and Amin Aliens?
With that done she slid the notebook under her pillow took her uniform once more and ran off to the bathroom.
"Time to get up for school!" Alan yelled and watched as Amin opened his eyes, His features forming a look of dread.
The Private looked around the room, then at Alan. "Alan, Respectfully go fuck yourself," He said upon realizing where he was. Alan smiled at his reaction and then pointed to Amin's uniform.
Amin nodded then dragged himself out of bed. "First class starts at nine, breakfast at seven, all that after yesterday? fuck me" he complained as he grabbed his folded uniform top.
"aww the Infantry treated you so well," He teased the Private. Referring to Amin's previous Battalion. Siah had been a part of the regular Army.
"Fuck off, let me complain... Sir," Amin shot back, as he got up and started getting ready
Alan walked to his gear. reaching into the large bag at the rear of the belt he took out the map case that doubled as a notebook. Opening it he saw Woodrow's Unholy handwriting. Managing to make out the words 'Kill Bandit get food' and the simple order 'donet falled' which he deciphered as don't fall, Ironically it sat as the last entry.
Alan sighed as he placed the almost mangled case into his large pocket and donned his cloak, providing a feeling of safety to him. He grabbed his trench knife and strapped it onto his wrist under the sleeve.
Seeing himself equipped well enough the Trooper made his way to the entrance of their room. opening the door he exited the room, closing the door. He made his way farther down the hall. Alan thought about his most recent dream; It was just blank. Nothing. it let him sleep longer than an hour, But at some point, it felt like he was being watched.
He walked to the window and saw trees blocking his view. Alan stood around for a moment before realizing he had literally nothing to do for a few hours.
"might as well, see what that offer is" he concluded and started his way to the headmaster's office.
Weiss was awakened by the sound of a Whistle being blown right next to her ear, resulting in her crawling in fear toward the wall. when she caught herself, she realized it was her team leader Ruby standing next to her bed with a whistle.
She had a moment to calm herself as Ruby began;
"Good morning Team RWBY!" she exclaimed,
Sitting up properly she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked at the Scythe-wielding team leader, hearing the tail end of what she was saying.
"Now that you are awake we can finally begin Our first activity as a Team!" Ruby Continued, Wiess glanced beyond the girl and saw the rest of her team preparing various oddities to decorate the dorm.
"Decorating!" they all cheered.
"Right, we still have all of our luggage," she said mostly to herself as she observed the piles of bags and cases occupying their room. Ruby nodded in agreement and stepped off to her side of the pile.
Wiess didn't know what to think about the girl, She acted so childishly sometimes but her sister explained in passing the Cloaked individuals that were their leaders trained her in some form.
Her thoughts went on to those two. The short one, Amin, didn't have a great introduction but later she realized how loud she was and wanted to apologize at some point. then the taller of the two, Alan, She first saw him in action at a trainyard in the Forever Fall forest. She remembers pestering her father to let her ride along with that shipment instead of taking an Airship to Vale.
Seeing him leaving after dispatching the Terrorists. The way the Corporal waved at her, then turned away His Cloak swaying as he disappeared around the warehouses.
Then meeting him in person gave her the impression of the experience of someone who's seen some rough stuff. and that made her respect the man, therefore leading her to tolerate A person like Ruby being selected as a Team leader.
She wanted to thank him for saving her from a potentially dangerous situation. but the few chances she got were interrupted or she lost her nerve.
Sitting up from her bed she walked to her belongings thinking; 'maybe today I will be able to speak with him'
Alan stood in the Elevator and sipped from a blue can. the soft drink brand he seemed to enjoy most. it was called Pepstar, and it held a red and blue start with a white outline as a logo.
He was waiting for the Elevator to reach its destination, For some reason they gave him access to go into the headmaster's office. The Corporal found this odd and maybe he should bring that up with the Headmaster. Alan gulped down the last bit of drink, put it between his hands and crushed the Can with little effort. seating it in a pocket for him to throw away later.
The door Dinged to signal he arrived at the desired floor, and he looked up to see it sliding open. Revealing Ozpin sitting at his desk, holding a mug in his hand.
"Ah, Alan" he began "I didn't expect you so early," Alan nodded and made his way to a chair just before his desk.
"You said morning so I got here in the morning," he stated
"Right," He sipped from the mug and tapped the desk, activating a screen. "It's around eight over there so I believe he's awake," he said as the screen shifted to another screen, where it displayed an emblem. Atlas to be specific. Showing A staff inside some kind of circle.
Alan sat down and waited. Thankfully he didn't have to wait long.
The screen changed to reveal A man, He had an air of experience and professionalism. Wearing an overcoat with a single gloved hand. Alan's eyes travelled back up and noted the small strip of metal just above his brow, his Eyes travelling back to the gloved hand.
"Oz, I thought you were going to call later, is something wrong?" The man asked.
"Everything is fine James," Ozpin swiped at his desk and Alan saw a screen appear, showing himself. "Our guest is early is all,"
Alan realized this was the General of Atlas's military, Remembered the fact when someone requires a large amount of prosthetics they need a chip in their skull to help with operating them.
"Ah, My apologies, you may know me as General James Ironwood." He introduced himself to the Corporal
"Corporal Alan Lynx," Alan Introduced.
"It's nice to make your acquaintance Corporal," The General started
"Likewise General," Alan nodded,
"Before we begin, Tell me about yourself," Ironwood questioned
"Well, I'm probably the last of my Tribe the 'Wanishin' or just 'Lost'" he mentioned his tribe's name. Made from various Anishinaabe Tribes They distrusted the governments that had risen from the ashes of the Third World War and gathered somewhere in Northern Ontario where they lived for sixty years before being wiped out.
Alan pointed to his battalions emblem "I'm a Corporal In the 13th Shock Battalion of the Tribal Union 2nd Special Forces Division. Currently or was assigned to an Expeditionary Regiment attached to A Guard Brigade"
"Your special forces?" Ironwood asked.
"Used as Cannon fodder and the only bastards willing to run into machinegun fire or fortified trenches and barricaded rooms," Alan stated.
After a moment of consideration, Ironwood's face turned to realization,
"you said, Division?" he asked
"Yeah, Twelve Battalions, Six Shock, two Ranger, two Air Assault and two counter-insurgency, We never see each other and I've only ever met the Counter-insurgent guys once or twice" he explained.
"Interesting," He contemplated for a moment then gestured to Ozpin "Anyways we should see about that offer," Ozpin took that as his cue to begin
"Alan, Would you believe me if I told you magic is more than just a fairy tale?" Ozpin spoke.
Alan stared at him, took a moment to think and then leaned forward. "Sir, Earth. My home. doesn't have Semblances, Aura, Dust, Faunus, or Grimm. I'd not bat an eye if the Gods were real,"
"Fair enough Corporal" Ozpin replied then took a moment to sip at the mug in his hand. "You are in a unique position, You have no connections to Remnant other than the friends you've made so far. Your Presence on the CCT can be erased. So with your situation, you are nearly untraceable and that presents us with a great opportunity." The Headmaster began.
Later
Amin sat in the lecture hall, Waiting for his team leader. He left earlier and brought with him various school supplies the Corporal left behind. It was 8:50 and class was about to start.
He sighed in relief as Alan entered the lecture hall.
Alan Walked up to Amin's side and sat down. He noticed Alan seemed distracted by something.
"Something on your mind Corporal?" he asked concerned.
"I Have been informed of something decently worrying," Alan answered.
"Wanna talk about it?" Amin offered
"Can't," Alan Denied.
"Fair Enough," Their Conversation ended there.
After a few minutes of silence, Alan took out Woodrow's map case and looked over some of his notes... Alan folded the notebook side and decided to look at a map. unfolding a small section of a Contrastingly well-drawn map.
"That Woodrow's?" Amin asked.
"Yeah, it's a little scuffed from the fall it took but it's holding." as he finished speaking a group of people ran into the lecture hall. The two turned and saw their teams had arrived in the nick of time and took their seats in the front row.
"ah, they made it on time," Amin said. The Corporal was about to go back to the map case but the door opened once more and in walked a short fat man. Alan recognized him as one of the professors of Beacon.
"Good morning Class. My name is Professor Peter Port. You have the Distinguished honour of being in my class today," he started and took his place in front of some panels that held information on various Grimm.
"Today's lecture is an introductory lesson on the Creatures of Grimm," He began the lesson by clearing his throat and walking closer to the students.
"Monsters, Demons, Prowlers of the night, Yes the Grimm have many names, But I Merely refer to them as Prey-" Alan stopped paying attention and began focusing on the map. The City of New Yellow Knife. Pre-invasion population of 1.12 million. becoming a large city after the Third World War and taking up a large area. Throughout its nine years of occupation and one year of constant urban fighting, its population dropping into the low hundreds of thousands due to civilians not being allowed to leave the city by both sides. most people became disillusioned with militaries causing great difficulty for either army. Still, some fought for the Allied Army and others for the Invaders.
"Eeyup!" someone yelled from behind. The two Troopers looked back and saw a student confidently holding a fist up. He looked around and awkwardly sat back down.
"I love the enthusiasm, Now A Story. A tale of a young, Handsome Man... Me" Professor Port began by telling a story that barely kept the students' attention. The only thing of note he could remember was the Professor's Grandfather smelling of cabbages.
He finished his story with A bow.
"The moral of the story A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" He waved out to the students, "So who among you believes themselves to be an embodiment of these traits"
Alan stared at the map and was about to continue inspecting it when a paper airplane flew straight into his eye.
"Ow damn it" he grabbed the paper and sat up holding his eye with his other hand.
"Ah, Corporal, Please equip yourself and prepare to demonstrate how you deal with this scenario" Alan realized he probably couldn't refuse so he sighed, and walked down, opening the paper he saw a crude drawing of what he assumed to be Port.
Glancing at Ruby he places the paper on the desk in front of her.
"sorry" she whispered and Alan wordlessly continued downward.
Taking his place at one end of the room he watched as the Professor walked out of the room. Alan took in the stares he was receiving. A lot of the students watched on with intrigue.
A thrashing noise was heard from the open door and the professor walked back in dragging a large box with wheels. Inside through a hole in the lid, Alan couldn't make out any distinguishing features. The only thing he could see were two pairs of eyes glaring at him.
The professor held his hand out and there was a pop from his right and a weapon Alan hadn't seen before flew into the man's open hand. Turning around he looked surprised to see Alan standing there.
"ah, so you are already prepared?" He questioned.
"Uh," he scratched his chin, "Can't be prepared in every situation" he stated and the Professor nodded.
"A great observation Corporal." He praised.
Alan flicked his wrist and out slid his knife, catching it with his middle finger he spun it and then tossed it to his right hand where he caught it.
"Doesn't mean I don't have something as back up" he said and the professor clapped his hands together.
"Good thinking, Now that you are equipped, let us begin!" The older man swung his Axe blunderbuss at the crate and cut the lock.
The lid fell off and out came a Boar-like Grimm. Alan recognized it as a Boartusk And it was gunning straight for him.
It got close and Alan thinking quickly, Held his hands out when it lowered its head to strike and grabbed its tusks, Straining for but a moment he felt his Aura fill his muscles and the Grimm Boar began to lift off of the floor.
The monster Let out a growl as The Trooper used its momentum to throw it over. It landed hard on its back. Alan took a few steps closer and raised a leg. Sending down his boot and Stomping down on its head, A tusk cracked off and was sent sliding closer to the watching students.
Raising his knife to slice its throat, it glanced off as it started to spin like a wheel and roll away from him. The Boartusk did not get far as its balance was thrown off by its missing tusk.
"Disabling its second mode of transportation and stunting its ability to attack, Well done!" Port yelled from on top of the Crate.
"Did I do that?" he quietly said to himself, He'd never fought a Boartusk before but it seemed simple enough.
The Boartusk tumbled onto the floor where it got back up letting out a snort.
The Trooper held out both arms in a taunt "Stoodis!" Saying let's do this, as he tossed his knife up and grabbed it mid-air, switching his knife into a reverse grip.
The Monster bellowed, beginning its charge. Alan himself prepared for the beast and started running as well.
When he reached speed he slid on his knees and when they connected he stabbed its neck, wrapping his arm around its throat and lifting it up, Then slamming the Hog onto the ground.
While crouched he placed a boot on its lower jaw. pulling the double-edged trench knife toward himself and standing to his full height. The knife tore through its throat.
It let out one last squeal and stilled. A black mist began to sizzle off its hide as it started to decay.
Alan flicked the knife and the black liquid splattered onto the floor. 'thank God this shit doesn't stain.' Alan thought as the liquid itself started to smoke.
"Bravo!" He heard the Professor and the class applauded him. "As you can see Class we Are in the presence of a True Huntsman-in-Training!" The man exclaimed. Alan carefully slid the knife back into its sheath. "Now, The Corporal here demonstrated how he uses his larger build to take down an adversary. But take this advice, You can't take on every Opponent alone. Remember, you have a team you can depend on."
Solid Advice Alan believed, He then moved his hair out of the way as it started to get into his eyes. 'I need to cut my hair,' he thought. As he thought more about it he remembered his fellow Raiders, and how they Braided their hair, He only tied his hair when it got long. But he needed a solution.
"Now that was all the time we have for today's Class you are dismissed." With the dismissal, Most students got up and started their way to either another class or places unknown.
The Corporal Pointed to Woodrow's map case and Amin nodded in understanding. Refolding it back into place where he put it away in his own Uniform pocket.
Alan walked to the door, passing some students along the way and into the hallway, He was hungry. Only having that drink earlier wasn't an ideal breakfast and the Cafeteria served food throughout the day.
"Um, Excuse me" Alan heard next to him, He stopped and turned. Weiss had asked something but looked somewhat nervous.
"What?" he questioned. She momentarily stopped to calm her nerves.
"I wanted to thank you," she started.
"for what?" He questioned once more.
"Do you remember that day a few months back? At the Trainyard in the Forever Fall?" Alan nodded. "Well, you saved me from a potentially dangerous situation whether it was intentional or not I wanted to thank you."
"I was doing my job I guess" Alan explained and she sighed.
"I was also wondering if you needed help with your hair," She asked. Alan thought this was perfect.
"Do you know how to make a braid?" he asked.
"A braid?" she pondered "Yes I do, But why a Braid?"
"My people back home usually wore them in a specific style depending on the tribe but I just need a basic one." He explained.
"I see," She nodded and smiled "Yeah I can help you with that!"
"Great, I need to go get breakfast" He pointed off to where he thought the Cafeteria was. "Hadn't had it yet because I had to do something important."
"Okay, well I'll see you later" She waved. All nervousness was gone.
"Yep, Later" He turned back and continued down the hallway.
Weiss stood in the hallway, 'that had gone better than I could have ever hoped' She thought, she had remembered the day before and saw how he could be polite but this confirmed it.
She would strive to be a good teammate and earn the respect of the Corporal. She turned and stopped when she saw Yang and Ruby standing nearby watching her.
"Oooh someone likes soldier boy Rubes," Yang teased.
"What? I only-"
"Aw don't worry that's just Yang," Ruby cut in "So I heard he needed help with his hair?" She asked, Weiss sighed once more and let out a smile.
"Yes, I Believe he said he wanted me to help braid it later." They began to walk to the next class, passing by Amin, who was struggling to read the Notebook inside the Map case.
"how the hell is his handwriting the bad," he asked himself just as Jaune walked past him.
when he got about a meter farther a Large figure pushed Juane down onto the floor
"Watch it" Looking up he saw an orange-haired student a head or two taller than him had pushed the blonde down. Taking notice of the private, he pushed Amin into the wall. "and what are you looking at Puny!"
Amin recovered from the push and had to calm himself. The Bully walked off with his team in tow.
"Asshole," he said under his breath and started to stand. where he noticed Pyrrha jogging up to the two.
"Hey, what happened?" she asked and started to help Jaune up.
"Big dude pushed us" Amin explained
"I'm sure it was just an accident," Jaune stated as he stood up.
"Sure bud, dude wasn't being an ass," Amin closed the map case and replaced it in his pocket.
Pyrrha let out a huff and looked off toward the rest of the students. "we should head to our next class," Amin nodded and started down the hall.
Ozpin stood at the side of the hallway and sighed in disappointment, He hoped the behaviour of that student wouldn't worsen. He deals with a few problem students at least once a year but despite that, he felt a bit of nostalgia.
Taking a sip from his mug he continued his way back to his office wondering how this year would go.