Chapter I: Small Beginnings

5 months had passed since the new school year at Beacon had begun. The once quiet halls of the Huntsman school now littered with the sound of the students returning from winter break. Classes would not begin until monday, giving the students another two days of relaxation. Ozpin sat at his desk in his clocktower office as he prepared for the new semester.

"Ozpin?" his assistant Glynda Goodwitch called out to him as she held a scroll in her hand.

"What is it, Glynda?" He asked, not taking his eyes off of the files of paper in front of him.

"It's James, he's arrested Kyle… again."

"Honestly, that boy will be the death of me." Ozpin said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Shall I inform the pilot to ready the airship?"

"Please do."

Atlas, two hours earlier

15 year old Kyle Marchant made his way up a set of staircases that lead up to the roof of a building near Atlas' Huntsman and Huntress training school as "Without End" by Anti-Flag blasted from his headphones. He stood on top of a billboard that stood on the 15 story building that overlooked Atlas academy. Kyle is a teen, standing at 5'6 and has short black hair, he wears black skinny jeans, a plain grey hooded zip up sweater with a black button up shirt under it, a black denim vest with various band pins stuck to it, and black and white shoes. The billboard displayed General James Ironwood's face with text underneath it that read "We Want You For The Atlas Army!" Kyle set his book bag down on the ground and studied the billboard picture. With a huge grin on his face he took out several cans of spray paint and begun spraying.

"Just a few finishing touches annnnnnd…. Done!" He removed his headphones from his head, and stepped back from the billboard to take in his masterpiece and sighed in content "This might be my best work yet." Kyle had removed a few letters from the text and now it read "We Want Your Arm!" and the picture of General Ironwood had his robotic right arm painted out of the portrait and his left hand now carried the robotic arm. "Y'know, sometimes I amaze myself." Just then he saw two Atlas police cruisers pull up in front of the building that the billboard stood on and two cops exited out each of the vehicles.

"Ah crap!" Kyle thought to himself as he hastily threw all the empty spray paint cans into his book bag and headed towards the door that led to the stairway that he had used to get up to the roof, but stopped himself once he heard footsteps coming up. "Looks like there's only one option."

Kyle rummaged through his bag and brought out a black gravity dust infused crystal. "Here it goes." He crushed the crystal in his left hand and dust particles swirled up and around his arm and into his body. He looked over the side of the building, down to the concrete streets and gulped "That's… really high." The footsteps coming from the staircase grew louder and closer. He headed towards the back of the building that led into an alleyway "Here goes nothing!" He shouted as he gave himself a running start and leaped off of the building and towards the ground, as he got closer to the ground he fired a black blast with his left hand towards the ground that lowered his momentum from the jump enough to allow him to land safely "And he sticks the landing!" He said to himself as he mimicked a crowd cheering for him. "Now to get back to school before anyone realizes I was gone."

He turned to leave the alleyway and bumped into a rather sturdy figure. He looked up at the figure who turned out to be General Ironwood who wore a displeased look on his face.

"H-Hey, General, how's it hanging?" Kyle said trying to act innocent and nonchalant "Hey, have you lost some weight? Cause it looks like you've lost some weight. I think I need to cut down a bit myse-"

"What's in the bag?" Ironwood interrupted

"What? Oh, this bag?" Kyle replied as he motioned towards the book bag on his shoulder "Oh nothing, just some books and stuff for school, you know how it is."

"Give it here."

"Y'know I would, but I've actually gotta get going, lots of homework to do."

Kyle tried to walk pass the General, but was stopped as he walked next to him by Ironwood placing his hand on his shoulder.

"Give me the bag."

Kyle let out a defeated sigh and handed over his book bag "Fine."

Ironwood unzipped the bag and gave Kyle a disappointed look. "Really, Kyle?" Two Atlas cops came over, one with handcuffs in his hand and handcuffed Kyle.

"Seriously? You're arresting me?"

"I have no choice, Kyle! This is deformation of government property."

The two cops took Kyle to a cop car and placed him inside. Kyle looked up at the billboard that was now covered in his "art" and smiled "Totally worth it."

Atlas Police Station

Kyle sat alone in an interrogation room, for the past 30 minutes he had been told to sit and wait. He began to succumb to boredom and began balancing himself in his chair "This is soooooo booooring." He said returning his chair to its normal state. "Hey!" He shouted towards the one way mirror "Can you guys at least give me some crayons and a colouring book?" he said sarcastically "I might literally die of boredom!" He began to move around in his chair as it increasingly became more uncomfortable the longer he sat in it "Or at least a cushion for this seat? My butt's getting cold."

Just then the door opened up and a female figure walked into the room holding a vanilla folder and placed it down onto the table as she seated herself across from Kyle.

"Winter! Looking beautiful as always."

"Enough joking around, Kyle. This is serious."

"What am I even doing here? I haven't done anything."

Winter opened up the vanilla folder and took out several photos of the graffitied billboard and placed them in front of Kyle.

"There's no evidence that that was me." He said keeping his innocence.

Winter then placed photos of his book bag filled with filled and empty cans of spray paint.

"That's all statutory evidence."

Winter sighed as she returned the photos to the folder "Kyle, this is serious. It's the fifth time this week that you've gotten yourself in here. Why? Why do you want to cause problems for yourself?"

Kyle said nothing in response and sat there silently.

"You can talk to me, Kyle. You know I've always seen you as a little brother."

"I refuse to speak without my lawyer present." He said sarcastically.

Winter let out another sigh and stood up from the table. She grabbed the vanilla folder and made her way to the door of the interrogation room. "By the way, Ironwood called your uncle." She said before closing the door on her way out.

"Seriously, he told on me?"

Two hours had passed since Winter left the room and Kyle once again found himself stuck in the seemingly never ending cycle of boredom. He began making guitar noises as he strummed at an air guitar to the imaginary rhythm of "Can't Stop" By the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"Can't stop, addicted to the shindig." He started to sing to himself "Chop top, he says I'm gonna win big. Choose not a life of imita-"

Just then the door once again opened at in walked in Glynda Goodwitch "Hello Kyle,"

"I see my uncle couldn't even find the time to come and lecture me himself."

"You know he's a busy man, Kyle."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say."

"He wants you to come back with me to Beacon."

"Why? So he can keep a better eye on me? So I don't become more of an inconvenience to him by always making you come out here?"

"You know it's not like that. Kyle. he cares about you."

"Yeah, well I guess he just has a weird way of showing it then… He does know I'm only 15, right?"

"Yes, yes he does."

"Isn't the age requirement like 17?"

"Yes it is."

"So then how am I going to attend Beacon if I'm not even old enough?"

"Well Ozpin has already made one exception to that rule, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to make another."

"Wait, what do you mean another?"

"Listen, I'll go to your apartment and pack your clothing and everything. That'll give you enough time to say goodbye." She said ignoring any more questions that he had.

"I'll just wait for you at the airship." Kyle said as he stood up and headed towards the door and opened it."

"Don't you want to say goodbye to your friends before you go?"

"I don't have any to say goodbye to." He replied before closing the door. "Seriously?" He thought to himself as he made his way through the police station. "No one is going to try to stop me from leaving? I mean, they don't even know if I'm allowed to leave. If I had known that they wouldn't stop me I would've just left."

As Glynda got up from her chair and headed towards the door it opened and General Ironwood walked in, stopping Glynda in her path.

"Hello Glynda."

"Ironwood."

"So Ozpin is taking him in?"

"Of course, are you surprised?"

"Not really, the kid has potential. He just needs to get rid of his cocky attitude."

"He's just like his father."

"That's putting it lightly."

Kyle grabbed his bag from the receptionist and checked through it. They had removed all cans of spray paint. All they had left in the bag were the several dust crystals and a half eaten granola bar. "I wonder if this is still good." He thought to himself as he took a bite of it, the hard and stale granola emitting a loud crunching noise as he bites down "Nope, it's not." He walked out of the police station and walked through the streets of Atlas, gazing at the many tagged walls he had left his mark on and stopped in front of the billboard he had just finished renovating as a worker had already begun cleaning off the paint."

"They don't appreciate art." He thought to himself before continuing his little goodbye tour. Kyle had been transferred to Atlas at the request of his uncle. In those 5 months of school he had secluded himself from the rest of the students and mainly kept to himself. So when it came time to leave he didn't feel sad or anything. To him it was just a change of scenery. He made it to the airship that Glynda had used to travel to Atlas and seated himself in the aircraft as he waited for Glynda. The pilot had already begun to prepare the airship for take off and Kyle soon found himself unable to stay awake and fell asleep. A sudden rumble woke Kyle up from his nap and he almost panicked as he looked out the window and was welcomed to the sight of not Atlas like it had been before he fell asleep, but the clouds in the sky. During his sleep Glynda had returned with his stuff and the ship had taken off and began its flight to Vale.

"You seemed tired so I didn't want to wake you."

"Well next time please feel inclined to warn me that the scenery might change when I wake up." Just then the sight of the towering building of Beacon Academy came into view and Kyle couldn't help but feel awestruck at the size of the academy.

"There is so much room for my art." He thought to himself as he grinned

"Don't even think about it." Glynda said, shattering his happy thoughts.

Soon the airship landed on the school's mini airstrip "And we have landed." The pilot said as he opened the doors to the airship "I hope you enjoyed your flight on the S.S. Tipyourpilot."

"Heheheh he's funny." Kyle said with a chuckle. Kyle grabbed his bags from the airship and followed Glynda as she escorted him to Ozpin's office. They walked into the main building and once again Kyle couldn't believe the size of the school. He had always thought the academy in Altas was huge, but this was the first time he saw Beacon and there was no doubt in his mind that this academy was big enough to be its own little island. The two of them made their way through the lobby and entered the elevator that acted as the only way to reach Ozpin's office. The elevator reached the office and Ozpin stood up from his armchair to welcome his nephew.

"Welcome to your new school, Kyle."

"This place is huge, uncle Oz."

It is, but please refrain yourself from… expressing yourself on school property."

"So Why exactly do you want me to attend Beacon?" Kyle asked, Ozpin knew this question would pop up but he didn't expect it suddenly.

"Ms. Goodwitch, would you please be kind enough to leave Kyle and myself alone for a chat?"

"Of course, sir." Glynda made her way back onto the elevator and left the two of them alone.

"Please take a seat, Kyle."

Kyle sat his bags on the ground and sat himself in the seat across from his uncle's desk.

"The reason I want you to attend Beacon is because I see so much potential in you. You have the kindness and cleverness of your mother and the strength and courageous attitude of your father, and I truly believe that you will make an excellent Huntsman and protector of the innocent."

Kyle sat in silence, taking in all that his uncle had just told him, feeling a sense of dignity knowing that that is how is uncle sees him. "Thank you, uncle Ozpin."

"But…"

"But what?"

"There is a problem with your living arrangements."

"What kind of problem?"

"Well, it's already the start of the second semester and the teams have already been set up so you'll have to become an extended member of one of the already formed first year teams."

"Sure, I don't have a problem with that."

"Excellent! But, before we get ahead of ourselves, you must first pass the entrance exam."

"Are you serious? Do I atleast get time to study?"

"Don't worry, it isn't a written exam."

"What kind of exam is it then?" He questioned, giving his uncle a worried look. He had heard from the other students back in Atlas about the sort of exams his uncle had set up in the past, most of them ending with a few students heading to the emergency room, so he couldn't help but feel a bit worried… and scared.

"Tomorrow at the break of dawn you will meet me on top of the cliff that overlooks Emerald Forest. Now why don't you go for a tour around the school and meet back here when you are ready to sleep."

"Wait, where am I going to sleep? Is there like a special dorm room for students who aren't students yet?"

"Not quite."

"Then where?"

Ozpin motioned towards a couch that was placed in the back corner of his office with a pillow and blankets neatly set on the couch.

"Great… But what about my weapon? I didn't really have a chance to go back to school for it."

"Do not worry, it'll be sent here and you'll have it before you attempt the exam. Now go have a look around, but don't come back too late, you'll need all the rest you can get for tomorrow."

"Yes, uncle Ozpin." Kyle said as he headed towards the elevator. Once the elevator doors closed he placed his headphones back on his head and played "Holiday in Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys. The elevator door opened up and he began looking around the school. For the first time in his life he felt optimistic about his future as he saw the smiling faces of students, both human and faunus. He walked past the library and was taken back by the size of the library and how many books there actually were. He passed the many classrooms that the school had and couldn't believe that a huge school like Beacon even existed "I feel like I'm at Hogwarts!" He thought to himself as he continued to explore the neverending halls. After he had wore himself down from the exploring he realized that he had lost himself in his music and gotten himself lost. He looked around his surroundings, trying to find something that seemed familiar, but found it to be difficult when in the school everything seemed the same, but different. He decided to just seamlessly walk around in hope that he would find himself at the elevator to his uncle's office by mere chance. He soon found himself once again lost in his music, but as a song ended he swore he could hear screaming and battle cries. He removed his headphones and began following the noise that sounded more and more like a battlefield the closer he got. He soon found that the sounds of battle were coming from what seemed to be the school's main cafeteria, he slowly opened the door and as soon as he did he was completely fixated by the spectacle that had been happening before him. The cafeteria was almost humongous, chandeliers hung from the ceilings and along the walls stood food stalls which served different types of food, but that hadn't been what caught his attention. What caught his attention was the mess that littered the cafeteria. The walls and floors were covered in food and drinks, the tables were scattered all over the room, some of them broken, a teen girl laid unconscious on the ground next to broken pillars, and another teen girl was now rushing at a group of teens at full speed causing a whirlwind of food a beverages to follow her and rushed past them, sending them flying to the wall. She jumped out of the way as the whirlwind of food and beverages hurled into the teens, drenching them.

"Holy… crap." Kyle started as he watched the red headed teen made her way back to her group of friends with a smile on her face. "This school is…"

"Awesome!" A teen with a tail standing next to him finished. The teen turned to his friend next to him who had been hit by the food ricochet and didn't share the same enthusiasm as the tailed teen or Kyle.

Kyle turned his attention back to the group of friends and found himself infatuated by the red headed teen's beauty, and for the first time he began to feel nervous. The doors of the cafeteria swung open as Glynda and his uncle walked in. With a flick of Glynda's riding crop the tables and seats were all returned to their spots.

"Children. Do not. Play. With. Your. Food." Glynda scowled, clearly angry. The group of friends looked at Glynda now afraid, but that fear disappeared when a blonde girl fell down through a hole in the ceiling, causing the teens to laugh, in which Kyle couldn't help but chuckle at their antics.

"Come now, Glynda." Ozpin said as he placed his hand on her shoulder trying to calm her.

"They're supposed to be defenders of Remnant."

"Yes, but they're also still kids. And that's not a title they'll have long, so let them enjoy it."

Glynda sighed and smacked her riding crop against a table, causing everyone's attention to be turned towards her.

"I hope you all had fun, because now you must clean this mess, and no one leaves until this cafeteria is spotless!" The group of friends groaned as Glynda turned to leave the cafeteria.

"You heard her kids." Ozpin said, taking a sip of coffee and following Glynda out of the cafeteria.

"Well… I guess we should get started." The red headed teen said as she picked up a tray from the ground. "Sun you and your friend are going to help, right?" She asked the monkey tailed teen.

"Weeeeeell we would, but we actually have to do something."

"Like what?"

'Well you see it's…." Sun found it difficult to lie on the spot and looked to his blue haired friend for help.

"Don't look at me, dude."

"Run!" Sun shouted as he dashed out of the cafeteria

"Wait for me, dude!" The blue haired teen shouted as he followed suit.

"I'll help." Kyle said with his hand raised, which he soon realized what he was doing and slowly lowered his hand in embarrassment.

"You don't have to." the red haired teen said with a soft smile which at that moment Kyle could swear that his heart quite literally skipped a beat. "I'd feel bad for having you clean when you didn't even have anything to do with the mess making."

"Oh, come on, Ruby. he's the one offering and we could use all the help we could get." The blonde teen that fell through the roof said.

"I mean…" Ruby started as she smiled again, at this point Kyle was sure he would die from a heart attack.

"If you really don't mind, we could use the help."

"O-Of course!" Kyle said nervously "I-I'm Kyle." He said offering Ruby his hand for a handshake

"Well nice to meet you, Kyle. I'm Ruby! This is my older sister, Yang." She said motioning towards the blonde "This is Weiss." She continued motioning towards a girl with white hair and wearing a white and blueish combat skirt "This is Blake." She said pointing at a girl with a black ribbon on her head which Kyle thought made it look like she had cat ears. "And we're team RWBY! Led by me!"

"Team RWBY led by Ruby… that's pretty meta."

Ruby then introduced Kyle to the rest of the group of friends, Jaune, a blonde teen who wore Knight like armour on his persons, Pyrrha, a red headed teen who wore spartan like armour, Nora, an over energetic teen with orange hair, and Ren, a black haired teen who wore a green traditional martial arts outfit, the four of them made up the team JNPR led by Jaune. After introductions the group of friends got to cleaning the entire cafeteria, which lasted nearly the whole day.

"And we're done!" Ruby shouted with glee

"And it only took the entire day!" Yang said with false enthusiasm.

"I think we earned ourselves a little trip into town for a bowl of ramen!" Jaune said excited at just the thought of ramen.

"I could use something to eat." Blake said as her stomach began to rumble.

"It's settled then!" Yang shouted

"I'm going to eat everything!" Nora said with a huge grin on her face.

"Please don't, Nora. Not again…" Ren pleaded.

"Come on, Kyle. my treat as a thank you for helping us." Ruby said as she took hold of his arm, which caused his face to turn as red as Ruby's cape.

"I-I'd love to, but I can't." He said, trying to hide his blush.

"Why not?" Ruby asked disappointed.

"Well, I have to wake up pretty early tomorrow to take the entrance exam for the school."

"Ooooooooo, good luck, kid." Yang said giving him a thumbs up which caused Kyle to let out a nervous chuckle.

"It's not that bad, is it?"

"Well if you don't consider being launched into a forest full of grimm and forced to fight for your life, all the while trying to locate a certain relic and returning it safely back to the cliff bad than nope, it's not bad at all."

"Great…"

"So you're gonna be a student here?" Ruby asked with a smile on her face.

"I really really hope so."

"Well then, as your first friend at Beacon it is my duty to be there to cheer you on!"

"R-Really?"

"Yup, Professor Ozpin is having you meet him on the cliff near Emerald forest first thing tomorrow morning, right?"

"Uhm… y-yeah."

"Great! I'll be there cheering you on! So I guess we both should get some sleep then!"

"G-Great."

"So no ramen for you, sis?"

"Weeeell I mean if you brought me a bowl back I wouldn't be upset with you."

Yang chuckled and ruffled her little sister's hair "You've got it sis."

Yang then left to join the rest of their friends as they made their way to the transit that allowed students to travel from the city of Vale to Beacon.

"So where are you sleeping tonight?" Ruby asked Kyle as the two of them began to walk towards the dorm rooms that were assigned to the students.

"Well since I'm not a full student yet I am calling the couch in Ozpin's office my bed for the night."

"Really?"

"Sadly, yes. So if you could actually help me get to the elevators I would reaaaally appreciate it."

Ruby chuckled and agreed to escort him to elevators, the two of them began to small talk as they walked together.

"So are you nervous?"

"After what your sister said… nope."

"Really?"

"Yeah… I'm just a bit terrified now."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh at Kyle's reaction and Kyle couldn't help but smile at how cute Ruby looked when she laughed.

"I guess this is my stop." Kyle said as they stopped in front of the elevators. "Thanks for keeping me from getting lost, this place is actually really creepy at night."

"Of course, and thanks for helping us clean that mess."

"No problem, it was actually pretty fun with you guys."

The two stood silently, with awkward chuckles sometimes breaking the silence as they both found it difficult how to say goodbye.

"Well then I'll see you tomorrow, Ruby."

"Y-Yes, most definitely!"

"Well then, good night."

"Good night, Kyle. Enjoy the couch."

"Oh, you know I will."

Ruby smiled as she turned and made her way towards her own sleeping quarters. Kyle pressed the button on the elevator and almost immediately the elevator doors opened up. He made his way to the office where Ozpin had still been. Kyle walked towards the couch and kicked off his shoes and laid on the somewhat lumpy couch.

"Don't you want to change into your sleeping wear?" Ozpin asked his nephew as he noticed Kyle fidgeting around in his streetwear.

"Nah, I'm okay."

"How was your first day?"

"Well… let's just say if one day in the future if I ever decided to make a show where I tell my kids how I met their mother… it would be a short show." Kyle said unable to keep himself from smiling. Soon Ozpin had left the office, leaving Kyle to himself. He couldn't stop thinking of Ruby and how much fun he had with her and the rest of the group. In the past he had kept away from other students, but because of one girl, today he found himself surrounded by friends.