Kal Hyde knew he wasn't a particularly driven person. People had been telling him that his entire life; he'd never seen that as bad. He'd gotten his aura unlocked like any curious kid would and he'd practiced with it, but he'd never really pushed it very far. This meant that even though he was 17, he'd never managed to unlock his semblance. Nothing quite gave him the push needed to unlock it.
He lived in Kuo Kuana, so he was relatively safe compared to the rest of Menagerie. The only thing he'd ever been interested in was traveling, but with everything going on with the White Fang and Faunus in other parts of the world, he'd never felt like it was the best idea. This was even though he wasn't an obvious Faunus. He had tan skin, medium-length dark brown hair which he typically tied back, and blue eyes. His Faunus trait was a set of gills along his neck.
They let him breathe underwater, which was cool, and it wasn't hard to hide it with a turtleneck, but the thought of someone happening to find out, or god forbid he brings a girl home and when he took off his shirt she turned out to be a racist, made it all seem more troublesome than it was worth. He'd never ended up traveling and wasted his days away relaxing on the coast, fishing to make ends meet, and he was well aware of the irony.
Right now he wasn't fishing, just laying on the beach dressed in a loose blue tunic and linen pants, enjoying the feeling of the sand. People around him were milling about, fishing, and playing with kids. The beach was a popular spot for aquatic faunus in particular, alongside the shallow sea, which was a marketplace somewhat submerged in water.
Deciding to finally get his blood pumping, Kal stood up and stretched his arms over his head. Working out the kinks, he took off his shirt and pants, leaving him in a pair of board shorts. He set his stuff in a pile, burying the pair of swords he typically carried around with him under his clothes to hide them somewhat. There weren't a lot of thieves in Kuo Kuana, Ghira certainly dealt with them, but better safe than sorry.
Kal grinned, taking off running as he reached the waves, diving beneath them as he began to swim through the water. He could feel his gills work, allowing him to breathe while submerged as he swam deeper into the ocean. It wasn't a good idea to go too deep, as there were certain aquatic Grimm further down that could be dangerous, but up here he shouldn't have any problems.
He swam around for a bit before closing his eyes and simply floated while he thought. There was nothing better than thinking while you couldn't hear anything besides the sloshing of water past your ears.
'What do I want to do? Ghira and Kali keep telling me to just go travel, but I feel bad leaving them here now that Blake has up and disappeared.'
The Chieftain and his wife had ended up taking him in since his parents had been friends of theirs. He'd grown up living with the Belladonnas, although he and Blake didn't particularly get along all that well. His relaxed personality grated on the nerves of a girl who'd grown up so high-strung she'd ended up joining a terrorist group; The White Fang. He'd never been invested whatsoever in the cause, and ever since Ghira had stepped down as leader he'd lost all interest.
Now, Blake had bailed on the White Fang and gone missing, which left her parents worried about her whereabouts. It'd been one of the reasons he'd been considering finally leaving; he hoped he'd run into her and let her parents know she was okay.
Kal continued to drift, enjoying the feeling of the water around him while he considered his options. At times it almost felt like he was sinking, even though in the water it was hard to tell up from down with your eyes closed.
'Wait.'
His eyes shot open, looking around wildly as he realized he'd someone ended up so deep in the ocean that light hardly reached here. He could feel some form of suction pulling him deeper and deeper, and while his eyes were better adjusted than a human's would be to let him see in the inky depths, what he saw made him almost wish he couldn't see.
A black, gaping maw was open, sucking him towards it. Somehow, one of the Grimm of the depths had started slowly pulling him further and further down, and now he was trapped in pull. Frantically, he began to try to swim away. He was a strong swimmer, but this Grimm was powerful, and even with his aura being pushed to its limits he couldn't seem to pull away.
Thinking quickly, he changed strategies, intentionally swimming faster down towards the Grimm. He used the suction to speed up while angling towards the top of the Grimm's mouth. His body blurred as he swam quickly, moving like a torpedo as he launched himself at the top of the maw, grabbing it and flipping his body over the edge to let him escape the pull.
This put him directly in the line of sight of the Grimm's eyes, and he found a massive whale-like creature with glowing red eyes waiting for him.
'Shit, shit, shit need to escape.'
He had no weapons with him, and even if he did they wouldn't be much use underwater and especially wouldn't be useful on such a strong Grimm. He pushed off the surface of the large Grimm, swimming up as fast as he could, but that just seemed to aggravate the creature.
It started moving, swimming up after him quickly despite its large size. Kal could see it closing in, mouth wide open as it waited to swallow him hole.
'Come on come on, I need to get out of here. I just want to be back on the beach.'
He focused on pushing his aura as hard as he could while wanting to escape, and suddenly a swirling blur portal opened in front of him, showing the beach where he'd left his stuff. Without a second though, Kal swam straight through it and fell out the other side onto the beach, water washing out with him as people began to stare.
Instinctively, he turned around and shut the portal before the Grimm could slam into it. Its body was too large to make it through the human-sized portal, but he'd rather not take any chances.
Kal panted, lying down on the sand as he tried to calm his beating heart. An older couple came over to check if he was alright, but he waved them off while he tried to get his barrings.
'I'm alive, and I think I just discovered my semblance.'
He'd heard semblances tended to unlock in times of high stress, and there wasn't any higher stress than the threat of your imminent demise. He'd be excited about it later though, right now he just needed a moment to relax and calm down.
----
After some time, Kal got up and got dressed. Once he'd holstered his twin cutlasses to his side again, he made his way away from the main beach and into a more secluded area behind some rocks.
'Alright, time to test it out and see what it can do.'
He tested out a few things, the first of which was just picturing a place and making a portal. A swirling circle of water formed in the air and showed him the backyard of the Belladonna house. He stuck his hand through it and it appeared on the other side before he pulled it back.
Satisfied with that first test, he closed the portal, and this time he tried opening a portal with no destination in mind. Instead of a single one, multiple portals opened all around him, showing various scenes. What he could see blew Kal's mind, whether it was giant ships floating in space or a war between two alien beings, Kal knew immediately that none of these scenes were placed on Remnant.
'What the hell?'
After some further testing, he realized that when he didn't have a destination in mind, his portals went into a sort of scrying mode. They'd show him different places, but no actual portal would be made on the other side unless he picked a destination to travel to. The possibilities finally put some drive into his normally laid-back mind and he thought about all the places he could go now.
Taking a breath to calm himself, he focused back on what his priority should be; finding Blake for Kali and Ghira. Then he could go exploring all kinds of places around the world and apparently different dimensions. For now, he remade the portal to the Belladonna house and stepped through into the backyard.
He made his way into the house, calling out as he did. "Ghira, Kali either of you home?"
"In here," he heard Kali's voice call back to him. Making his way into the kitchen, he found Kali Belladonna cooking. She looked young, despite having a 17-year-old daughter, and had short black hair with a pair of cat ears standing prominently on her head. Her bright yellow eyes looked at him as she smiled.
"You're back early today. Got tired of floating endlessly," she asked with some mirth to it. He'd grown up here, and they'd essentially been his parents so they certainly knew what his habits were.
"I could never get tired of it, but I had something to show you guys."
"Then take a seat while I finish and you can tell us all about it. Ghira should be home in a few minutes."
He did so, sitting down while Kali quickly put a snack in front of him for him to eat in the meantime. Kal contented himself to listen as Kali hummed a light tune while she cooked, enjoying the comfortable atmosphere.
Eventually, Ghira came in the door and made his way into the kitchen, kissing his wife before looking over at Kal.
"Kal's got something exciting to tell us apparently," Kali commented.
Ghira grinned, looking at his surrogate son. "Oh, and what would that be."
"I discovered my semblance."
That drew somewhat surprised looks from the two of them. They were well aware that Kal was not the hardest of workers, so they figured he might never discover it if he wasn't put in a dangerous situation. That line of thought immediately led to him being barraged with questions as they asked what happened.
Kal told them what had happened to him this morning, and what he'd discovered his semblance was, other than the fact that he could apparently travel to different dimensions as well. He trusted Kali and Ghira, but that information was something he felt should be kept close to his chest until he figured everything out.
"I'll put out an announcement about the Grimm. One that big off the coast pulling people down is dangerous, but your semblance certainly fits you to a T now doesn't it?" Ghira said.
Kal nodded, munching on a plate of fries Kali set in front of him. "I was thinking maybe I could use it to find Blake."
The husband and wife shared a look before they looked at him hopefully. "Do you think you could scry her?" Kali asked.
"That's what I figured, but I wanted to wait until I was with you guys to try."
The two quickly urged him on, and Kal concentrated, forming a swirling portal as he focused on Blake's face. The portal shifted, the view changing to a dorm room where Blake could be seen. She looked much like a younger version of her mother, wearing a black and white outfit. She wasn't alone in the room, a trio of girls bickering near her while she read quietly on the bed.
Kali's eyes teared up as she saw her daughter while a smile formed on Ghira's face now that she knew she was safe. Kal focused on trying to figure out where exactly she was.
"That's one of the academies, right? Did she run off and decide to be a huntress?"
Ghira focused on it for a second before he answered. "I think that's Beacon Academy in Vale. I've been there before to speak with Ozpin, and the architecture seems to line up."
Kal leaned back thoughtfully. "So, what do you guys want to do? I can open the portal and take us there, or bring her here."
The two thought about it for a moment, mulling over their options as they talked to each other. In the end, they came to some agreement because Kali turned towards him again and responded.
"I think we're happy just knowing she's safe. If she wants to be a huntress that's fine, but she should've let us know. We probably shouldn't drop in on her, but you always wanted to visit Vale right?"
He could see the knowing grin on her face and couldn't help but sigh. "You're well aware the two of us don't exactly get along right?"
Kali pouted while Ghira looked amused. "I know, it's so frustrating. Could've had you properly married into this family, but you and Blake are like fire and water."
He scoffed at the very thought. "I'd love that, all except for the being married to Blake part. We just don't have compatible personalities, it happens, but I'll go check up on her for you guys. Don't think just popping into Beacon is the best idea, though, so maybe I'll go to Vale first and then head over."
"That'd be for the best, better not to cause a stir when you could go about it an easier way. Are you able to open a portal directly to Vale?" Ghira asked.
Concentrating on images of Vale he'd seen before, another scrying portal opened showing the busy streets. The view changed as he cycled through locations until he found an abandoned alley.
"Yep, I can head over right now," Kal said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. He'd always wanted to travel, and now it was as easy as a simple thought.
Ghira and Kali quickly pulled him into a hug, before he ran upstairs to his room and grabbed his wallet where he'd been storing his savings. He changed his clothes, switching to a pair of black pants with a light blue zip-up jacket with a turtleneck to hide his gills, the two cutlasses still holstered at his sides. He had a good amount of Lien saved up since he didn't have a lot of expenses, so he should be fine while he was there. He could travel anywhere, so at night he could just teleport back into his room and sleep there.
"Well then, I'm off," Kal said, grinning. Ghira and Kali just looked fondly amused at his excitement. Ghira clapped him on the shoulder while Kali kissed him on the forehead and he waved to the two of them as he made a portal to the alley, stepping through and disappearing from Kuo Kuana to reappear in the Vale.
Walking out of the alley, Kal could immediately feel how different the atmosphere was. Everything felt so much busier than Kuo Kuana, people were haphazardly bustling down the streets and it smelled much less clean.
'Well then, time to get myself acquainted, and then I'll go to Beacon to see Blake.'
He joined the throng of people walking down the street, taking in the sites as he took his first steps forward in a new life opened up to him by his semblance.