RWBY Shark and Hare

Ren was on edge. Not because there was something threatening him, but because of the overwhelming number of students gathered in the hall, precisely the massive output of Aura all those hunters in training were giving off. He was used to feel the Aura of others, most people in his former school had already unlocked it, but there never was such a sheer mass. Out of curiosity, he calmed his Aura and let a small part flow out, interested if he could filter out a single individual by the color of their Aura. The pressure immediately inflicted on his brain was incredible, so much that he stumbled while withdrawing the sensing part of his Aura from the maelstrom of life force hammering on it. "I guess it's impossible to make out a specific color with this many people in one spot," he thought, trying to keep his balance at the same time.

"Be careful, Ren. Why would you even stumble, the ground is plane, oh but maybe they put invisible things on the ground to test us, that would be sooo cool, but the initiation should be a bit harder, don't you think?" Nora rambled after putting her friend but not friend-friend back to his feet, earning a grateful glance.

"I suppose.", he answered, regaining his usual calm attire while deciding to better scan the other students with just his eyes until he could get an opportunity to do it with his Aura. The girls were looking pretty hot, as he had to admit, although still giving off a vibe of murderous intent and seemed in a good shape overall. Most of the males were taller than him and clearly very muscular, just a few looked similar to his own limber and wiry body shape. One was the scraggy blonde from yesterday who had tried to flirt with everything that had breasts (and even one girl that had no visible) and now looked a bit terrified, most likely because of the upcoming initiation, another a tall, brown-haired boy, his attention apparently completely focused on Professor Ozpin's speech. Suddenly, he turned his eyes and met Ren's gaze with a friendly smile before reverting his point of view back to the grey haired man in front, making the Asian wonder if he sensed that someone was watching him. Shrugging, he also turned back just in time to get filled in on the most important informations for their trial, knowing that Nora wasn't someone to rely on in these things and he surely didn't want to miss, for example, the location or time of the initiation. The matter was cleared in a few words, and the teenagers made their way out of the hall to get a little warm-up done before the start, the air filled with excited chatter. Ren decided to fall back a bit, he didn't like crowds and was also not too fond of the idea of getting caught up in some kind of ruckus. It seemed though as if he wasn't the only one who decided to do so, as the boy from before hadn't moved an inch and was staring to the ceiling, thinking about god knew what. A girl with black hair and a bow was also with them, eyes glued to her book, seemingly not taking note of anything around her. The rest of the students had left in the meantime, and those three were all alone, not saying a word, not moving a muscle. They remained like this for a save five minutes, then the brown haired nodded to each of the her two and made his leave, steps fast and supple, not causing any noise as he did so. Ren looked at the girl who, now that the trinity was broken, also attempted to get out and settled to go with her. For the first time, her sight arose from her lecture and she looked at him, apparently not sure whether he would talk to her or not. When he did not attempt to, her glance reverted to her book, clearly not eager to start a conversation herself.

_Outside of the academy_

Velvet was in an uncommonly good mood. So far, she had managed to hide her ears under a top hat, and nobody bothered to ask why she was wearing one. She didn't think a disguise as simple as this one would work, but it did, and she was really happy about it. No bullying so far, and if this kept up, the four years at Beacon would be the best of her life. Humming a little melody, she walk-jumped outside the academy and towards the location of the initiation, not paying attention to the person coming quickly from her right. Naturally, a crash was unavoidable, and she got knocked to the ground pretty hard, the reason being that the person she ran into didn't move an inch upon the impact. "Ouch, ouch, ouch…what was that?", she whimpered, rubbing her knees.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over, really. Are you okay?" a startled voice said, and as Velvet looked up, she met with two dark, gleaming, red pools, filled with serious concern. Those optical appliances belonged to a tall, slender boy with ash brown hair, which was partially falling into his face, since he bowed down a bit and offered the girl a hand. Wary, she took it and was somehow happy that he didn't just pretend to help her, as many others had before. His grip was firm and strong but didn't clutch her hand as he pulled her up without any signs of effort being required. Now, she could take a better look at her aide. He was presumably two inches taller than the average, with a well-defined and somewhat handsome face, a straight nose, upturned eyes and his hair tied into a loose ponytail. His clothes seemed obviously designed for combat and maximum freedom of movement. He sported a grey, close fitting T-shirt, loose black pants tucked into matching boots and had white tape partially wrapped around his right forearm. A mahogany-colored jacket was draped on his shoulders, the sleeves dangling in the breeze.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks. Sorry for bumping into you." Velvet answered, putting on a shy smile. She wasn't used to people being friendly to her or even viewing her as equal, and deflated a bit as she remembered that this was probably due to her hat.

"Phew, I'm glad to hear that. Oh, and no probs. See ya around!", the boy answered, gave her a dazzling smile, and before she could say anything else he was gone.

Confused, the girl stood for a couple seconds, not sure if the incident just now really happened or if she was imagining things. A look on her watch made clear that the initiation was about to start, indicating that this wasn't the time to contemplate such things, and she dashed off to the meeting point, not wasting another thought on the encounter.

The thing was, said meeting point happened to be a cliff, and she was amongst the last to get there. Professor Ozpin was already waiting with his usual cup of coffee in hand, accompanied by a stern looking blonde lady. After a short briefing on how the trial and grading would work, the students got ready for the oncoming. Apparently, they would be launched off the cliff, and Velvet wasn't sure if she liked the idea. Luckily, another student raised his hand and asked the question that was bugging her so much.

"So, this landing strategy..thing, uhm, what is it?" He wasn't rewarded with a satisfying answer. Moreover, the student next to Velvet suddenly was shot right into the forest, a second later it was her turn. Before she even realized what had happened, she was flying over a sea of leafs, rapidly losing height. As things stood, she would end up as a bloodstain on the ground with a few brown hairs here and there, which was not really in her future plans. Quickly, she stabilized her position, landed on a big oak branch and launched herself off again, right onto another one, repeating the process while aiming lower and lower with every jump until she landed on the ground with a graceful curtsey. Immediately, the Bunny Faunus started scanning her surroundings for possible threats and only proceeded towards her goal after making sure she wouldn't fall victim to a Grimm attack right away. The forest was silent, almost like a crypt, and not a single leaf moved. No air currents touched her face, no bird sang. A strange pressure was over the place, causing goose bumps to run down her body.

"What is wrong with this place?", she murmured, not letting her guard down for a second. She had heard once that something like this could be caused by large packs of Grimm, but there were none to spot neither to hear. Suddenly, a faint breeze made her hair flutter slightly. Without a second thought, Velvet whirled around and delivered a strong kick to the creature in her back. Kicking a tree would have been the same. Slowly, she averted her gaze on the creatures head and met with two glowing red eyes in a white mask of wrath. Within a second, the Faunus in disguise flipped back and skidded to a halt, her heart almost exploding. There truly were funnier things to do than to have a sudden face-off with an Ursa Major, and some that were better for one's heart as well. Velvet gulped. "Okay, I can deal with this one. I hope it IS just this one. Otherwise, I'm screwed.", she thought while taking her battle stance. Her confidence dropped a second later, as about fifteen normal Ursa emerged from the woods and encircled the girl. The massive bear-like Grimm growled, ready to attack. The Ursa Major, seemingly leading the pack, got on two legs and let an eardrum-shaking roar out, enough to make the huntress waver. Then, he charged. Velvet was still fighting against the aftermath of the roar caused on her second pair of ears, and the moment she realized the danger she was in, the Ursa already reached her and prepared to crush her head with his gigantic left paw. The next moment, a long, dark staff was thrusted through its skull, and a blade stuck out of the back of its head. Letting out a last, painful screech, the giant monster fell to the ground.

_A few minutes in the past_

'Approximate launching angle 78°'

"You will be using your own landing strategy."

'Launching speed fifty-two point seven meters per second'

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

'Temperature seventeen point three degrees. Air humidity thirty-four percent. Wind blowing from southeast, speed five meters per second. Ready for take-off!'

Mako had been standing in a relaxed position, his hands crossed behind his head, glancing at the sky. He seemed like he didn't even notice what happened around him, thus Professor Goodwitch shot him an annoyed stare, which he ignored in a very polite way and started zipping up his jacket. Nobody, not even the teenagers standing right beside him noticed that his iris and pupils had switched color for a short time. The second his platform launched him off, this changed and his whole body tensed up. Using a short impulse from his legs, he supported the platform in launching him off and flashed past the other students in a few seconds. A glance to the side confirmed that most of the others were already slowing down their fall way before they even brushed against the tree crowns. Various shots could be heard, followed by the sound of bodies hitting forest ground. Mako instead was stretching his body to the fullest, making him gain speed in a rapid pace. Without touching as much as a leaf, he shot through the trees and dove right into a lake amidst the woods. The water responded to his entering as if someone fired an arrow in; the surface almost didn't wrinkle. A whole minute later, the boy got out of the water, stuffed something in his pocket and dashed off into the woods.

"That went well. But some of those cartographers should have mentioned the dragon down there. Well, now it's too late. I hope that thing's…..whatever you call the gem in its tongue sells for good money.", he spoke to himself while running at full speed towards his goal. Slowly, the corpse of a massive, blue snake-like creature with a bunch of faintly glowing eyes on top of its head emerged on the lake's surface.

Having studied maps of this place prior to his arrival at Beacon, he knew where he had to go, but the problem was the entirety of other students inside the damned forest. If he met one, he had to stick with her or him for four years, which is a friggin' long period, and he didn't plan to let Fortuna decide who his partner was going to be. Having calculated the landing spots of everyone launched off before him to avoid them didn't change the fact that there were others he had no idea where landed. Being on edge was all he could do about it for now. Suddenly, a nearby roar made the hunter run up a tree and hide inside its branches, his heartbeat calm as ever, but scanning the environment for possible attackers. His eyes switched colors again, and a second later, he jumped to the ground, rolled off and used the speed of his movement to hurl his weapon. The scream a second later confirmed that he had hit his target. Smiling, the young hunter followed the path of his projectile, knowing that he had found what he was looking for. Shortly, he reached an open space, preoccupied by a bunch of Ursa and, in between them, the girl he knocked over before. Within seconds, he filtered every information he needed out of the surroundings, then jumped into the pack and kicked right through the neck of one Grimm. Not wasting a second, he turned around and focused some Aura into his right middle and index finger, then stabbed another Ursa with his fingers and blasted the accumulated force right through its heart. The whole movement had taken less than three seconds. The living Grimm, now taking note of the newly arrived threat, turned on him and started attacking. Mako grinned. He had hoped to encounter some Grimm during the initiation, but this was far better than he expected! Thirteen full-grown Ursa, and he was disarmed. For him, there couldn't be a better situation right now. He flipped back several times to bring some distance between him and his prey and took battle stance; standing on his left foot, the other bent towards his chest, he clenched his fists with index and middle finger of each hand only half-bent. His left was about the same height as his sternum, his right pointed to the ground and slightly to the back.

"Come."


End file.

RWBY