SLAD: Broken Lives, Brighter Hopes; Blue and Purple Trailer

[thezombineer]

Sup guys? Long time no post. Sort of. But I digress...

This be a RWBY fic. Yep. (God, brain, quit being in such a weird mood.)
I don't actually remember how this came around, but Clash and I think Alice are gonna be working with me to write it (Yay collabs!). I don't know who's gonna be posting stuff once we get to the main story arc. Or what the story is. We'll burn that bridge when we get there....

Anyways. Just a trailer, like the RWBY trailers, but better :P

Oh, and by the way, "SLAD" is pronounced "salad," and if you watch RWBY, you will understand why.

The Vale docks. Most likely one of the worst places in the kingdom, both in populace and smell. There wasn't a single spot fish couldn't be smelled. Not even inside nearby buildings.

The two had just arrived by ship from Vacuo. They had recently been accepted to Beacon Academy, the best place to learn the skills of being a Huntsman or Huntress. Beacon had a large number of applicants, and as such, being accepted meant you were already highly skilled in the art of combat.

Unfortunately, the couple were still at the docks and not at the shining beacon of hope that was Beacon. No pun intended.

The girl sighed. "At least we're off the boat." she said to her, rather seasick, partner. Well, they weren't partners yet. That was up to Beacon to decide. Well, it depends on what you mean by partner. They were together, next to each other. They were also together-together. But they weren't partners in the "official" sense of the word, when it came to Beacon.

He looked up from where he was puking over the railing. "I told you we should've taken an airship, Cooki." He straightened up, and started walking towards the end of the dock. "Or a train. Or walked."

Cooki followed. "I like the ocean." She smiled. "Thanks for being willing to do that for me though, Shawn." She wore a light purple corset with a cross seam, going in and out of a white hold up the front. The seam met a dark purple skull at the bosom with a black trim around the edges of the corset. She had purple jeans, with a blue belt around her waist, from which hung, of all things, a frying pan. She also wore a gold necklace with a little blue gem at the end of it, gloves that came most of the way up to her shoulder and were ringed with two different shades of purple, and simple purple tennis shoes. She was a Faunus with short, blonde hair, light blue eyes and bat ears-in addition to human ears--and wings.

Shawn turned around and smiled. "Of course. But next time we're taking a train." He said jokingly. He wore a blue shirt, beneath a darker blue hoodie, beneath a trenchcoat, as well as jeans and boots. On his back, hiding under his coat, there was a sheath for a sword, which happened to have a sword in it. Who woulda guessed? He also had blue eyes, brown hair that was just long enough it looked just a bit shaggy, and like Cooki, he also was a bat Faunus, giving him the ears and the wings to match.

When he turned back around (he had been walking backwards as he spoke) he saw they were approaching the end of the dock. He looked around, a bit confused.

"Something wrong..?" Cooki asked, her hand instinctively dropping to her waist where the frying pan was, and eyes scanning the world around them.

Shawn kept looking around. "I have... No idea... Where we're going."

Cooki laughed. "So ask for directions, silly". She wandered off towards a nearby seafood restaurant not more than ten feet away from them, and went inside, and Shawn followed. She went up to the counter to talk to the cashier. "Excuse me, sir?" She said. "Hi. We're a bit new in town. Do you know where the Emerald Fall Hotel is?"

The cashier thought for a moment. "Uh, yeah." He jotted down some directions on a piece of paper. "Here you go. That's by the airship docks, isn't it?"

Cooki nodded. "Mmhmm. We're heading to Beacon tomorrow."

"Ah." He replied. "Well, good luck you two."

"Thanks!" Said Cooki with a large smile. She was an awfully friendly person.

The directions in hand, and their hands in each other's, the couple walked off into the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About an hour and fifteen minutes later, Shawn stopped short rather abruptly.

Cooki looked at him. "You okay?" She asked, slightly worried.

His bat ears twitched. "Do you hear that?" He turned in the direction of the sound, which he wouldn't have heard without his more sensitive bat ears.

She listened for a moment. "Sounds like a fight..." She said. "And someone is losing."

Shawn nodded and started in the direction of the sound, Cooki following close behind. They found the source fairly quickly, and it wasn't pretty.

Seven thugs, of various builds and ethnicities, were surrounding a young girl, no older than 15 years old. They all wore black suits and bowler caps, with red sunglasses and red ties; obviously they were part of the same gang. All seven had weapons drawn, and one of them was yelling at the girl to give him all her valuables. She was pressed against a wall, on the ground, shaking bad enough that she could barely undo her necklace for the man.

"Hey!" Shouted Cooki. "Leave her alone!" Both Shawn and Cooki started walking towards the debacle slowly.

The leader, the one yelling at the girl, looked over. "Beat it kids. Or you'll be in a world o' hurt." He gestured to one of his men, who then drew his sword and started approaching the two interlopers. The sword had a red blade and was slightly curved, like a cutlass.

Shawn leaned over to Cooki and whispered. "You want this one, or the next?"

She smiled. "I got him." She waited for him to come closer. He obviously hadn't noticed either Cooki's hand dropping to her waist by the frying pan, nor Shawn shrugging his trench coat off. She waited until he was within striking distance, and then made her move.

In one fluid motion, she nabbed Frixorium Volta, her frying pan, from her belt, and brought it up into the thug's face. Not having expected it, he had no chance to block it. He went spinning through the air, dropping his sword, and hit the wall of the alleyway that was to Shawn and Cooki's left. Cooki brought her weapon back around from the swing, and hit the button on the side. The large pan folded on itself several times as well as folding back to reveal a gun barrel, which she trained on the nearest thug that was still standing. At the same time, Shawn reached to his back and drew StarShatterer, his sword, and spun one of the stars on its hilt. The hilt expanded forward and up, while the blade folded back to reveal the barrel of a fully automatic shotgun. "So," Cooki said with a smile. "Who's next?"

The leader looked around at his men, the girl on the ground temporarily forgotten. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get them!" He said in an annoyed tone. Having been prompted by their leader to do something, they started advancing on the couple at full speed.

One of them was taken down as he ran towards Shawn and Cooki. Shawn popped off three shots at him, two of which hit him in the stomach.

Cooki fired a couple shots at the approaching group, but her targets where a tad bit better at evading fire. Well, it's hard to dodge shotgun rounds, so the first thug never really stood a chance.

As the thugs came within striking distance of the two, Cooki hit the button on Frixorium Volta, causing the pan to return to its original shape. The nearest thug swung his sword at her, she brought the pan up catching the sword in the bottom of the pan. Another thug swung at her, and she rolled to the side and back to her feet. The guy who had been blocked with the pan was immediately thrown off balance by the loss of a place to direct his downward force. Cooki used that to her advantage, and swept his feet. He landed on his back, groaning.

Shawn, by this point, was engaged in combat with the other two thugs who had moved to attack. Their leader had chosen to stay out of the way for the time being. Shawn brought StarShatterer up in a two handed grip, catching a sword with the top of the barrel. He kicked the man holding the sword square in the sternum, knocking him over. He spun around to swing at the other thug, hoping to hit him with the blade atop the barrel. However, the thug brought his sword into a blocking position just in time to stop StarShatterer. Shawn smirked a bit. "If only it was that easy." He spun one of the stars on the side of his weapon, and the blade on top of the gun swung forward to become a sword again at an angle that sent the thug's sword flying. Shawn dispatched that one quickly, making sure not to kill him but keep him from getting back up.

Cooki swung her pan at the thug that was still standing. Behind her, the grounded thug kicked to try and knock her to the ground too. However, being a bat had a few advantages. His foot made contact, and knocked her over. In mid fall she twisted around to face him and then just stopped falling. The thug had forgotten about her wings. She shot him in the face, making sure he was out of the fight. The nice thing about Dust powered weapons was that, except under extreme circumstances, they wouldn't kill humans. She buzzed up into the air and flew over her other opponent's head. He swung in vain at her feet, and in response she did a summersault midair that ended with her foot hitting the back of his head.

Shawn's foe had gotten back to his feet. They were engaged in a duel at this point. He did a back flip, not landing on the ground, but instead hovering just out of reach. He spun the star, putting StarShatterer back into shotgun form. Two quick shots brought his foe down.

The two bats landed next to each other, looking straight at the one remaining thug, the leader. "So," said Shawn, a tiny bit smugly. "What was that about us being in a world of hurt?"

He simply backed away. "Look, I-I-I didn't know. D-don't hurt me." Shawn started walking towards the girl, who was still near the thug and who had been watching with interest. The thug, thinking Shawn was about to attack him, ran off yelling something like "I need to get back to The Club and tell Junior!" Neither Shawn nor Cooki knew what he meant, and just let him go.

Cooki collected the girl's items, which were currently strewn about the alley, while Shawn helped her up. "You okay there?" He asked.

She nodded, though her nose was bleeding and looked a bit funky. "Y-yeah, I think so..." She said. "Who... Are you two?"

Cooki walked over with the girl's possessions safe in hand. "I'm Cooki, this is Shawn. We're going into our first semester at Beacon in a couple days."

The girl took her items. "That's cool. Good luck. And... Thanks for the help." She smiled and started to walk off, but Cooki placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hold on a second." Cooki said, smiling sweetly when the girl turned around. "Your nose is broken. Here, lemme help you..." With that, she placed her hand over the girl's nose for a few seconds. When she pulled her hand back, the girl's nose was straightened out and was no longer bleeding. "Better?" Asked Cooki, still smiling.

The girl reached up and felt her nose. "Y-yeah. How'd you do that?"

Shawn decided to take that question. "It's her Semblance." He said. "She has the ability to heal wounds."

"Woooooow." Said the girl. She was obviously fascinated. "What's yours?" She asked.

At this point, through the universe's own sense of Deus Ex Machina, the thug that Cooki had knocked into a wall decided to finally stand up and grab his sword. He charged the group, either out of a sense of revenge or just because he was an idiot. "Uh, are you gonna do anything..?" The girl asked.

"Yep." Said Shawn, making no movements and acting like everything was alright.

"Well do it already!" The girl almost screamed as the thug closed into striking range.

The thug swung his sword and hit Shawn square in the shoulder... And all three of the group exploded into shards of glass. That thug had a rather painful walk to the hospital, and was blind in one eye for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Shawn and the other two appeared in the middle of a nearby park. "Woah!" Said the girl, who had to catch her balance now. "What was that?"

"You wanted to see his Semblance." Replied Cooki. "That was it. It's only really good for escapes though. It can be used during combat, but not very effectively with all the glass going everywhere. It wouldn't be very fun to teleport just to get stabbed with a shard of glass that you created by teleporting."

"Wow." Said the girl, still amazed. "That's so coo--Hey, I know where we are!" She ran off to the nearest street, and peeked around the corner. Shawn and Cooki followed close behind. "My grandfather's Dust shop is right there!" She said, pointing at a shop down the road called 'From Dust to Dawn'. "Thanks for the help, you guys!" She said as she ran off down the street, waving back at them.

"Well." Said Shawn. "That was... An interesting way to be introduced to a new city."

Cooki smiled and took his hand. "All in a day's work." With that comment, they resumed their quest to find the hotel they were going to wait at for the airship to Beacon.