RWBY 1. Preview 1: Barry Shrike

"Barry, you've got a letter from Beacon!" his mother shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm coming! I can't believe it's finally here, the answer to whether or not I will be attending Beacon next year is just inside of this envelope. I don't know if I can open it..."

Barry Shrike is a 5'9", medium built, 17 year old with scraggly, dark brown hair and bright green eyes. He is very tan after spending almost all of his time outside training in the abandoned quarry, and he is always covered in dirt, even if he just got out of the shower.

"I just got to get in. I have to be able to fight, to protect my friends and family. I can no longer be weak, especially after what happened to dad."

* * *

><p>Barry's dad, Adam, was his hero. Adam Shrike was a simple man who worked for the Schnee Dust Company mining dust. He started at the bottom of the company, mining day in and day out, for several years until he got his first promotion, as a supervisor for a small section of the mine. After that he kept rising through the ranks, until he was one of the few people in charge of the whole mining operation. Not only was Adam a great miner who loved his job, he always made time for his family. He never missed a single one of Barry's birthday's and every year he gave Barry an assortment of cool looking minerals as a present and Barry absolutely loved it. Barry wanted to be a miner just like his father, so he was extremely happy when on his 15th birthday his father took him to work with him.<p>

It was almost quitting time and Barry was having the greatest day ever. Sure mining was hard work but it was quite rewarding as Barry found a new mineral to add to his collection (It wasn't dust so it would have been tossed by the SDC anyways). As Barry and his dad were just about to head home they heard a large explosion coming from the other side of the quarry. The quarry was being attacked by a radical group of faunus protesting against the SDC for its use of faunus slave labour. The protestors were not being peaceful however as they were killing anyone who wasn't a faunus.

"Barry, go hide in that big crack in the wall, I will protect you." his dad told him.

As soon as Barry went into hiding, two faunus showed up wielding swords and charged at his father. Adam picked up the pickaxe and started fighting back, and to Barry surprise he was actually winning! Where did his father learn to fight like this, Barry thought, he is just a miner. Adam had quickly disarmed one of the faunus and bashed his head with the pickaxe, knocking him out instantly. The other faunus was getting a leg up on Adam, but then out of nowhere a boulder came crashing down the side of the quarry and nailed the protestor square in the head. Adam just smirked as he looked upon the two unconscious bodies lying on the floor next to him, he was about to call out to Barry to tell him it was safe when he saw a frightened boy, around Barry's age, walk around the corner.

"Excuse me boy, why are you out here all alone? There is a battle going on, you need to get to safety" Adam asked the young man.

"My father... my uncle... both dead... I'm all alone." The boy sobbed.

"Come here, you're not alone anymore. What's your name?"

The boy came up to Adam, and went to cry on his shoulder, but his tears never came out. What did come out was a knife the boy had concealed underneath his clothing, and he plunged the knife right in Adam's chest. "My name is Ash."

"But why? Why are you doing this? You are not even a faunus." Adam said, fighting for his life.

"Just because I am not a faunus, doesn't mean I don't support the White Fang." Ash replied as he took the knife and delivered the final blow.

Barry just stood there motionless, watching from afar as his father was murdered. He stood there silently as he watched Ash, the boy who killed his father, walked off. After about an hour he got the courage to go out in the open to his father's body, then he kneeled over his dad and cried.

* * *

><p>"I can't hide in the shadows anymore, I have to go to Beacon and become a hunter. I will be stronger, I still remember that boy's face, Ash's face, when he killed my father, my hero. I may not be able to change the past, I may not even be able to get my revenge on Ash, but I will make sure that I never have to stand by and watch someone I love die."<p>

Barry opened the envelope and read the first line aloud. "Congratuations Beryl Shrike, you have been accepted into Beacon Academy."


	2. Preview 2: Rusty Osprey

16-year-old Rusty Osprey is many things. He is a tactical genius, a master of dust and an advanced engineer, a student who got accepted into Beacon a year early, and he is also in a wheelchair.

Rusty is a straight-up genius, a genius who has dreams to be a hunter. He chose this path because he loved the strategy of battle and he loved outsmarting anyone who could think they could overpower him. Rusty is small in stature, around 5'5", with almost no muscle. He has long rust coloured hair that almost cover his thick framed glasses, and he always dresses formally, to show off how mature he is compared to his age. Being that small he often drew the attention of bullies in school who wanted to look tough, but when the bullies targeted him they always ended up looking pathetic. Rusty easily took care of these threats due to his semblance, which he mastered at the age of 12. His semblance was a tactical one, he could instantly size up an opponent he faced, this includes knowing their fighting styles, their intentions to fight, and what kind of semblances they have. This told him the bullies weaknesses and he'd always have the perfect dust mixture on hand to deal with them. Dust alchemy was Rusty's hobby, he got an unlimited supply of dust by discovering a new mixture, a dust that could create a stream of ink, and selling it to the SDC. Rusty had found many other new mixtures but decided it would be safer if they weren't in the hands of the SDC, like a combustible gas that could wipe out a whole city or a dust that could turn anything into dust (not the energy kind, just the useless specks of dirt kind).

He was 15 when he decided to start actually being a hunter, figuring that he was already smart enough that an institution like Beacon wouldn't help him, and his first mission was to stop a store robbery that he heard over the police radio frequency he hacked into. Luckily the dust shop that was being targeted was just around the corner from Rusty's place, so he got there just as the heist was taking place. Rusty used his semblance to analyze the two masked criminals.

"First guy is obviously the leader of the two so I should focus on him first, his gun is powered by electricity so one surge from an electric-powered round should short it out and stun him long enough until the cops get here. The second guy look a bit squeamish, he looks like he doesn't want to kill anyone so I should take it a bit easier on him. An ice grenade should freeze him in one spot, and the explosion should startle him into dropping his pistol, then I'll shoot him with a sleep dart." Rusty thought as the guards turned around to see him enter the store. The leader immediately turned around and pointed the gun at the 14-year-old, but Rusty already had his handgun on him and he fired. The electric round hit the robbers gun, overloading it and sending out a discharge knocking him out. The other criminal looked down at his unconscious accomplice and he saw a blue ball rolling across the floor right next to him. The ball exploded sending out ice that froze his legs in place. The man panicked but he didn't drop his gun as Rusty anticipated. Rusty saw this and tried to dive out of the man's line of sight but he was too slow. The robber shot him right through one leg and into the other. Rusty screamed in pain and passed out right as the cops arrived.

The next day Rusty woke up in an emergency room with a doctor looking over him reading his charts.

"You're up. Do you need anything?" the doctor asked

"My legs... I can't feel my legs... Am I going to be paralyzed?" Rusty realized

"Yes, I am afraid so, but don't worry this is only a temporary paralysis. I'd say feeling should start to come back in a couple of months, and you'll be able to walk within a year. Although I hope you aren't to athletic because you won't be able to run, but that isn't that bad."

"No, that can't be. This wouldn't have happened if I was faster, I need to be faster not slower."

"Well I'm sorry you are going to be pretty slow, you'll be confined to a wheelchair for the next year."

"A wheelchair? I think I can make that work."

Rusty immediately starting making plans. he would modify the wheelchair so it would be faster than he ever was. He designed plans for a wheelchair he christened the Pulvissella. He added thrusters so he could go extremely quickly, placing some underneath so he could hover and even fly for a short distance. He also added a workstation on the chair so he could create whatever dust he needed at the moment in battle.

A year later he had full use of his legs again although they were still really weak, but Rusty didn't mind, he still used his chair for everything. Rusty also figured that no one would expect that he would have use of his legs if he was in a wheelchair, so he could surprise his opponents in battle. Rusty fired up his laptop and sent an email to Professor Ozpin.

"My name is Rusty Osprey and I would like to enroll in Beacon, I may be a year younger but I am twice as smart as any new student you'll enroll. If you don't believe me come to my city and I'll show you what I can do."

Ozpin responded almost immediately.

"I know who you are and I'm frankly surprised it took you this long to contact me after you hacked the Beacon database to get my personal email. I already enrolled one younger student this term so I guess you are in."

**A/N There are two teams, so that's eight characters that need previews. Just stick with it, I'll try to get the previews out quickly.**


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