The Beacon Academy campus was brimming with activity. It was a sunny day, and dozens of people worked 'round the clock to set up all manner of stands to build the Vytal Festival fairground. Some distance away, on a ledge just outside one of the school buildings, team SKPR stood in a line as they trained together and watched the hustle and bustle. As they performed several combat techniques in sequence, a massive shadow loomed overhead and they stopped to marvel at the source.
Skipper beckoned to his brothers. "There it is, boys. The Amity Colosseum. The melting pot of Remnant combat where soon, we shall test our mettle among the elitest of the elite!"
"One of mankind's greatest technological achievements!" Kowalski adjusted his glasses as he commented.
"We'll plow through the competition, haha!" Shouted Private. In his exuberance he began to take up all sorts of combat stances with such eagerness that it even gave Rico pause.
"All in good time, my young private. All in good time."
Skipper's mind returned to the present. He and his team stood in the center of the Colosseum for their team match. The crowd was ecstatic. It was the first match of the day, and Team SKPR stood a few feet away from their combatants. He looked to his brothers, all dressed up in their classic attire. He and Rico bothered to wear some combat armor, even if Rico was missing one of his shoulder and knee pads. Meanwhile, Private was all dapper in his combat tuxedo outfit, and Kowalski still bore his suit and lab coat. He himself was clad in a tight battledress, light yet sturdy against sustained fire and melee blows, and featuring a multitude of pockets for all sorts of secondary combat gear. They addressed the hyped crowd with their standard protocol.
"Just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave." Skipper said.
"Team SKPR of Atlas," announced Port from the commentator's box. "And Team BASL of Shade!"
Team BASL was made up of three girls and one boy. Two of the girls appeared to be twins, one dressed in a sandy yellow set of checkered shirt and shorts, the other was dressed in a dark shade of orange with brown striped combat skirt. The yellow girl wielded a pair of claws, while her twin was armed with a drill-minigun hybrid. The third girl bore a green-and-brown set of clothes and a flowery hairpin, her weapon holstered on her belt. The boy, dressed like a cowboy and shouldering a golf club, was the only face that was familiar to them. He had a grim expression as he glared at Private. He spat on the ground, then hollered.
"Well well. I had a hankering I'd see you in this here tournament, Mr. Tux!"
"The feeling's mutual, Amarillo Kidd," Replied Private, an uncharacteristic seriousness laden in his voice, the last remnant of a different persona. "Still bitter over the Atlas golf tournament?"
"Far from it Mr. Tux, I've been waiting for this moment more than a desert toad at the start of a monsoon."
Skipper patted his little brother on the shoulder.
The girl in yellow greeted. "Hi, I'm Becky!"
"And I'm Stacy!" The twin added.
"And we're gonna kick your butts!" The two proclaimed together.
The holographic banners that designated their battle environment began to spin. After a few seconds, they slowed and stopped. Around the eight combatants the arena floors opened as their biomes rose up. One half of the arena became a field of boulders, and the other, a sprawl of ice formations.
As Port slowly counted down from three, Skipper looked to his teammates and the enemy. A plan was already set, communicated between the brothers through nods and looks. When Port yelled "Begin!", there was an instant explosion and a ring of the elimination buzzer. The audience first gasped, then cheered.
"An incredible first strike!" Port exclaimed. "Becky Bêcheur has been blasted out of the arena just as the match has begun!" The camera replay on the screens clearly showed Team SKPR focusing all their fire on Becky, sending her flying.
"You don't see an elimination this early often, Peter." Oobleck added.
"What in tarnation?!" Kidd exclaimed. "Hey that ain't fair!"
The boys were too busy giving each other high-fives to even retort. It technically was a fair move.
Stacy's mood switched from excited to furious. "You're gonna pay for that!"
Stacy changed her weapon to gun form as she shouted. A storm of bullets rained on Team SKPR, as their leader shouted "Evasive maneuvers!"
As the quartet scattered, Kidd transformed his golf club into a pair of tomahawks and began sparring with Private and his polearm. Kidd swung his weapons with rapidity, but Private continued to keep him at bay. As the rookie spun his staff around, he tried taking a few shots against his foe, but Kidd blocked each shot and retaliated with his own fire. Private deflected the attacks with equal skill.
As the two pro golfers fought, Rico and Kowalski ran through the bullet hell to spar with the third girl, Lulu. To their surprise she was quite adept at combating the two of them simultaneously. Relying on her martial arts skills, she outmaneuvered the two deftly. Rico swung repeatedly with his chainsaw as Kowalski stood back at range launching thunderbolts. Their battle quickly moved into the rock field. As Lulu found herself slowly being pushed back, she found an opportunity to turn the tide to her favor. She climbed to the top of a rock and goaded Kowalski's fire. She leaped off just in time, and behind her, her perch was shattered into a thick cloud of dust by the thunderbolts. The brief moment of cover threw the brothers off their game.
Kowalski shouted into the shroud. "Rico, I've lost visual. Any luck in there?"
Rico was too impatient to be aware. He revved up his chainsaw and slashed his way through the rocks and dust, hoping to weed out his opponent.
Kowalski slowly approached the dust cloud, his arms in a ready stance. However the stance didn't prepare him for Rico's body flying towards him, knocking both back to the central area. They picked each other up as Lulu emerged from the rock field to continue the battle. Rico split his chainsaw into twin swords and charged with Kowalski right behind him.
Meanwhile, Skipper focused his efforts on Stacy, and the two dueled with sword and drill in the rock field. Becky's drill offered her a level of advantage with the terrain over Skipper, using the drill to destroy Skipper's cover and throwing the debris his way. The commando attempted to perch himself up on the rocks to deliver a barrage of bullets, but the drill was quick to shatter them. Realizing his situation, Skipper ducked behind a wide boulder. When Stacy destroyed it with her drill, he had already disappeared using his Semblance.
The invisible Skipper attempted to misdirect his opponent by throwing pebbles in multiple directions. For the first three throws, he managed to get her to waste her bullets. However he did not anticipate her infusing the drill with rock Dust and drilling underground. With his target gone, Skipper ran across the rocks to find a safe spot to recover. In transit, Stacy burst from beneath his feet, sending him flying across the biome, but not out of the arena.
The isolated battles continued on for a few minutes, with neither side gaining a significant advantage. Kidd noticed their stalemate with frustration.
"Ain't no way I'm letting you tumbleweed me again, Mr. Tux!"
Kidd pulled back and called out to Lulu.
"Hey Lulu, I think it's time for you to pull out our ace in the hole!"
Lulu nodded and brought out her weapon. To Kowalski, its design was consistent with Dust-based beam weaponry. Then Oobleck spoke through the microphone.
"It appears Miss Arbor is preparing to use her semblance. For those of you watching at home, Lulu can conjure a pearl-like orb that she can then augment with Dust to amplify her ranged capabilities!"
Lulu summoned a levitating spherical crystal at about waist-level, infusing it with ice Dust from her belt bag as she did so. Then, she slid her gun across the ground just beneath her crystal and activated it. A thin laser beam connected the two, then the crystal opened up like a flower, causing an intricate laser grid to cover the entire arena all the way up to the rim. The entire battle halted to a standstill as everyone separated, trying to avoid the lasers. The crowd cheered on regardless.
Lulu cried out to Stacy and Kidd, who both leaped acrobatically across the grid to regroup on a high rock. Stacy began another hail of bullets as Kidd golfed Dust crystals like artillery.
"Fall back! I repeat, fall back!" Skipper shouted. The four maneuvered back to the ice field, trying as best as they can to avoid getting burned by the lasers. Rico threw a smoke grenade to cover their escape. Despite their efforts, however, they could not avoid taking Aura damage, both from the suppressing fire and the grid. Hiding behind a tall ice formation, the boys hunkered down. Skipper immediately turned to Kowalski for their standard strategic protocol.
"Kowalski, options?"
Kidd reverted his weapon back to its golf club form. With Lulu supplying him Dust crystals, he bombarded his opponents' position with several good swings, snickering and hollering yeehaws as he did so.
After a few seconds of thought, he asked Skipper. "How do you feel about disco?"
"Ambivalent," the leader replied. "Why?"
Rico immediately regurgitated a Scroll as Kowalski began crafting a complex, multi-faceted sphere out of the ice with his gauntlets. Skipper caught on to their insinuations.
"Hit it!"
Without warning, a loud disco song emanated from the speakers, and the tall shadow of a dancing Rico loomed from the ice, grabbing everyone's attention. Then, Private leaped on Rico's shoulders. Then Kowalski, and finally Skipper. The crowd was absolutely riled as the ice wall that sheltered the boys shattered and team SKPR rolled across the battlefield on their frosty disco ball, grooving in individual styles in their signature Man-Ladder formation.
As the ball rolled across the arena, the laser grid reflected off its faceted surface, releasing a deadly laser show around them. Luckily, the force field protected the audience. Their three opponents, however, were not so fortunate. They immediately ducked under the rocks as SKPR pulled out their weapons. The ball stopped after hitting a boulder, and the four boys leaped off and fired downwards on their pinned enemies. As the smoke cleared, the laser grid had dissipated and the boys posed on a rock, victorious.
"A stylish finish!" Port declared."Team SKPR advances to the doubles round!"
Skipper motioned to his brothers and shouted through the cheer of the audience.
"High-five, boys! We just earned ourselves a V for Victory!"
They were still high-fiving with each other when they hit the locker rooms. That's when the crossed paths with Team RWBY, whose match was up next. The boys high-fived with Ruby and Yang.
"You guys were awesome," Yang began. "And that disco! Where'd you guys come up with that?"
"Well Blondie, when you spend your academy days around a team named FNKI, you're bound to pick up a few dance moves." Skipper replied.
"Won't they bust you for hacking into the speakers like that?" Ruby asked.
Kowalski scoffed at Ruby. "Of course not, Ruby. We never tampered with the Colosseum's systems. We simply persuaded the sound staff into cooperation should our match meet certain parameters."
"That is almost cheating. If only it wasn't for something that silly." Blake replied.
Skipper slapped Kowalski on the cheek and pulled him close. "Ixnay on the intelligence leak, Kowalski! Now you'll get the whole team caught!"
As the girls laughed at the duo's dispute, Private spoke up. "Good luck on your match, girls! We'll be cheering for you!" Rico regurgitated a foam finger and wore it with glee.
"Thank you, Private." Weiss answered, bowing with the genetically-encoded regality of a Schnee. Ruby and Yang gave a thumbs up to Private, while Blake merely nodded.
The two teams walked in opposite directions. Team SKPR headed for the bleachers, while Team RWBY moved towards the arena. Skipper, still suspicious over Kowalski's big mouth, called out to the girls.
"Ladies!"
Team RWBY turned to see Skipper slowly backing into the exit doorway, waving his hands and motioning at them in an ominous fashion.
"You didn't hear anything..."
One awesome match later…
Team SKPR, starving and in need of more legitimate refreshment than the snacks sold at the Colosseum, found their way to a simple noodle stall operated by a hearty old shopkeep.
"Give us four of your biggest servings, my culinary compadre!" Skipper tossed the shopkeep some lien as he spoke with pride. "We're having a victory feast!"
The shopkeep tossed them four large bowls of fried fish and noodles, and the boys promptly feasted.
Five minutes later, Team RWBY arrived at the same stand, just as Skipper, Kowalski, and an uncomfortably-full Private were chugging fried fish and noodles down Rico's throat as the latter's brothers cheered. Skipper promptly handed Kowalski the bowl to greet them. Weiss handed her credit card to the shopkeeper to pay for her team's meals.
"Hey! Have a seat, ladies, there's plenty to go around!"
"You girls were smashing!", Private exclaimed. "That last move you did was incredible!"
"Aw you're too kind." Yang replied, stroking her hair like it was her ego.
As she did so, a loud thwack struck the table, and the eight turned to see Weiss' credit card embedded into the wood like a throwing star. The shopkeep beckoned them to his cash register, indicating that her card had been declined.
"How is that even possible?" Weiss was dumbstruck.
Skipper flipped out his card and gave it to the old man. "I'll do you a solid, little lady. In fact I'll pay for your whole regiment because of your gold-star performance in the field."
"Are you serious right now?" Blake asked.
"'Serious' is my middle name." The boy replied.
"I thought it was 'Danger'." Muttered Private.
"Mind if we join?" Said a new voice, arriving at the stall.
It was Pyrrha and the rest of Team JNPR, planning to eat with them.
"I'd have to be some kind of backstabbing traitor to deny allied support." Skipper beckoned them to sit and motioned to the shopkeep, who slid bowls of noodles along Team JNPR's table, one for each.
Nora brimmed with anticipation. "Yeah we gotta be super-ready for our turn!" She took her bowl and called out to Rico. "Hey Rico, you up for a eat-off? No cheating with your Semblance!"
Ren was quick to interrupt. "Nora, please, not before our fight."
Before they could even reconsider, Rico pushed himself up from the table, grunted with glee and uttered "Challenge accepted!"
The shopkeep slid a fresh bowl to the punk.
Kowalski took out his timer. "Standby for contest. 3, 2, 1, EAT!"
Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren ate as they watched the two compete. Ruby and Yang cheered on as Blake smiled in silence. Weiss couldn't look. Skipper and Kowalski chanted for their brother as Private lay on the table, still digesting.
Ten minutes and ten bowls later, the two ended at a draw. Team RWBY, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren were all full. Some even felt a bit too full. Their silence was only broken by two mighty burps, loud enough to shake the stall; the result of a good contest between friends. They all chuckled at it.
"Do you think you guys are ready?" Asked Ruby.
"Of course," Nora replied. "We got a world-renowned fighter on our team, one's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune, we trained all year, our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and uh... Jaune!"
Ren turned to Jaune. "Are you going to take that?"
Jaune was still sick as he mumbled. "She's not wrong."
Pyrrha patted him on the back. "We'll be fine. If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines, and not, well, ...murderers."
"Yeah we've all faced way worse before." Added Yang.
"Let's see. Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath…" Said Blake.
Skipper chimed in his team's own rogues gallery. "And pirates, mad scientists, underground gangsters, yadda yadda yadda. Look the point is, we've all had combat experience in our first semester alone."
"Yes and by the time we're fully-fledged Huntsmen I predict our skills would have expanded a hundred-fold." Said Kowalski.
Their conversation was interrupted by Professor Port's voice over the intercom.
"Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately!"
His voice was instantly replaced by Oobleck's.
"Yes! Like they were scheduled to, several minutes ago!"
Pyrrha stood up. "Well, it looks like this is it."
Team JNPR left the shop as Ruby yelled "Go get 'em!". Then Team SKPR got up too, in their typical militaristic fashion.
"Let's blow this stand, boys. We'll all reconnoiter at the Colosseum at 1305 hours." Ordered Skipper. And with that, they dispersed back into the fairgrounds.
On their way back to the airship landing pads, a familiar voice hollered to them from across the stalls.
"Hey Mr. Tux!"
It was Amarillo Kidd, leaning against the wall of a clothing store. Skipper, Kowalski and Rico looked at him with a hint of suspicion, but Private threw an arm in front of them and walked up to the cowboy.
"Still bitter, Amarillo?" Asked Private, this time without his Mr. Tux voice.
"A bit. But rest assured that this ain't the end of our eternal showdown and such. One day I'll beat you Mr. Tux, beat you harder than a Beowolf in a boxing ring."
"Well you drew the best fight out of me in that match, Kidd. I look forward to our next round, golf or combat."
And with that, the two parted on good terms.
Meanwhile, at the coast of Vale, at about the time the brothers took their seats to watch Team JNPR, a small, sleek submersible, hidden from all forms of detection, slipped into the Vale river. Its only occupant was an agent, silent and unseen from many for weeks on end. And now he moves towards Beacon Academy a man on a mission.
A/N: Better late than never. I promised I would do this a year a go, so I'm sorry I took this long. Now for some comments about this chapter:
To write SKPR's team match for the festival without the disco sequence from the show would be a travesty. I took a great deal of liberty adapting many characters from the show into the RWBYverse, some harder to do than others, but it's going to be exciting to see how the characters play off each other in the wonderful world of Remnant. Also yes I skipped out on some of the noodle shop dialogue from the original episode, but I don't think it was that big of a loss.
Stay tuned!