Against The World: Chapter 2: Getting Launched
RWBY is owned by Monty Our (R.I.P.)
Mecha and Aileen are owned by me.
Ryouji and Aria are owned by GojiGrimlockSaurus.
Everyone was flying through the sky as they were beginning their initiation.
"I believe I can fly...!" Ryuoji sung about in his corny way as he glided through the air, with his reptilian tail feeling slightly cold with the wind blowing on him.
"I believe I can touch the sky~" Aria added onto Ryouji's singing as she came right next to Ryouji to guarantee their partnership.
"I think abou-OUCH!" Ryuoji rammed painfully into a tree.
"Oh, crap!" Aria stopped as she watched Ryouji slowly slowly slid down the tree and towards the floor. He flipped and fell onto his head, hitting the hard dirt.
"Owww..." Ryouji whimpered as he had stars around his head.
"*Sigh*" Aria shook her head as she slowly lowered her way to Ryouji at the bottom.
"Get up." Aria smiled and slightly chuckled as she grabbed Ryouji's arm and helped him up by having him slouch against the tree.
"That was the worst landing strategy that I have ever done," Ryuoji grunted painfully.
"That's the first one you've ever done." Aria replied to Ryouji. "You hit your head pretty hard, I guess."
"Yeah...I'm definitely going to feel that for the next day. Along with a killer headache." Ryuoji rubbed his bruised head.
"Just use your aura. Heal it to the best of your abilities." Aria recommended.
"Thanks, no need to tell me twice, Aria." Ryuoji thanked her.
"Don't mention it." Aria smiled at Ryouji. With that, Ryuoji applied his own Aura to heal himself quickly as his body shined a green Aura.
"Much better." Ryouji smiled as he stretched out a bit. It was then they heard a certain familiar blonde boy screaming bloody murder about being pinned to a tree by something.
"Uh..What was that?" Aria looked in the direction of the blonde boy's voice.
"I'm sorry!" Another voice was heard from a long distance away.
"I know that voice. That's the one coming from the red, ponytailed hair girl I saw earlier in the locker room." Ryuoji scratched his head as he recovered the girl from his memory.
"How many girls are you hitting on?" Aria teased Ryouji, raising her eyebrows in the process.
"Heh...ow...maybe...just one?" Ryuoji teased back at her, which prompted her to hit him playfully onto his shoulder.
"Uh Huh." Aria smiled as she led them through the Emerald Forest.
Meanwhile with Mecha and Aileen...
Mecha was gliding through the air as he was barely skinning the tree branches. Eventually, Mecha then used his heightened reflexes to stop himself from crashing into a tree. He flipped around and used his legs to spring himself from that tree to another, and another, and another, until he landed on the ground.
"Aileen?! Aileen?!" Mecha called out. He saw neither Aileen nor anyone around in the woods.
"Damn...where could she be?" Mecha swore as he kept looking around.
"Woooo! Ally-oop!" Yang Xiao Long kept shouting in mid air as she was still flying.
"That's cool." Mecha commented when he briefly saw her.
"Ooooohhhhhhh CCCCRRRAAAPPP!" Aileen screeched as she was hurling towards a tree near Mecha's location. And she slammed headfirst into the tree.
"Ooohhh Ouch..." Mecha raced to Aileen's tree. Aileen slid down onto a branch and sat there with her seeing stars.
"Aileen!" Mecha jumped up to Aileen's branch and picked her up and brought her down to the floor.
"Mommy...is it...playtime for me yet?" Aileen said in a slurred daze.
"Oh..god...that isn't good." Mecha set Aileen on the floor and kneeled by her side. "Let's see if there is water around here," Mecha searched the area around. Mecha luckily found a small pond. He tasted some of the water, and it was fresh. So he got some in his hand and carried it over to Aileen. He then leaned over and poured it onto her. Aileen then woke up to a really bad headache, just like Ryouji.
"Headaches will be the death of me!" Aileen comically hissed in serious pain of her head.
"Aileen, you should activate your aura." Mecha recommended, as he began to stand up.
"Huh? O-oh...oh y-y-yeah! Sorry about that," Aileen muttered sheepishly as she activated her aura to heal her head.
"Why did you studder so much?" Mecha asked Aileen as he crossed his arms.
"My head just hurts is all." Aileen responded as she rubbed her head.
"Ah I see." Mecha said in response.
Then there was some rustling in he bushes.
"Hm." Mecha then was enwrapped in a blue-ish-white-ish light and he turned into his cyborg form. "Who's there?" Mecha called out, next. He unsheathed two of his many swords; five to be exact. He unsheathed two katanas that were attached to his waist. Then, a mechanical mask began to move towards Mecha's face, covering it up, completely.
"Who's there?" Mecha called out. His voice changed, however. It was thanks to the mask he put on himself. It seemed lower, and more muffled.
He heard nothing.
"Hmm..." Aileen mumbled to herself as her aura was still healing her head and she pulled out her baton handle and out came Armageddon. Then out came a rare Rhinoceros Grimm, which was the twice the size of a double decker bus, charging out towards them called the Ceratorn Grimm. It had two nasal horns with the first one on the nose being bigger than the second one. It had bone white armor on its neck and body with spikes like an Ankylosaur. The Ceratorn Grimm let out a bleating roar as it charged towards the pair like a speeding runaway train.
Mecha and Aileen got in combat stances as they readied themselves for the Grimm.
Mecha waited. He waited until the Ceratorn Grimm was just in striking range.
From inside his mask...he smiled.
The Ceratorn Grimm moved it's head downwards. It then quickly moved it back up to try and ram Mecha and get him to get launched. Mecha jumped up and over the Grimm and impaled it's back. The Grimm screeched out in pain as it continued to rush forward. Mecha kept gripping his blade and waited for the right moment to get off. Aileen then readied her axe and held it like a baseball bat.
"Batter up!" Aileen shouted as she rammed the blunt end of the axe right into the Grimm's face. The monster's head shot to the side and stopped itself from moving for a moment. He took out his sword from the Grimm's back and sprung off the Grimm, rejoining Aileen.
"How should we finish it off?" Aileen exhaled loudly as she watched the Grimm like a hawk.
"Well, how about a-"
The Grimm Screeched as it began charging for them. Aileen pushed Mecha away. The Ceratorn rammed right into Aileen, throwing her into the small field of shrubs.
"No!" Mecha reached out to Aileen, hoping to grab her hand, but he couldn't reach her. Instead, he began to try and set up his original plan. A double-attack, striking from it's sides at the same time.
Aileen slowly began to stand up. "Grr...you piece of...!" Aileen then noticed Mecha jumping onto the side of one of the many trees. He planted his sword into the tree trunk. Aileen then got an idea to what he was doing and jumped up onto a tree opposite from Mecha.
Both of them nodded their heads and jumped right for the Grimm, slicing it at the exact same time. They landed on the ground in a kneeling pose, and the Grimm disintegrated.
"You think there's more of that?" Aileen cautiously asked him, with her eyes looking around the area rapidly.
"Most likely. Be on guard." Mecha cautioned Aileen. Aileen readied her weapon with her senses on high alert.
"Let's keep going towards the temple." Mecha said as he pointed in a random direction, most likely forward (to him at least) and they walked in the direction Mecha pointed at.
At the same time, Ryuoji was following Aria's lead since her Faunus senses are sharper and enable her to sense through the environment much better than he can.
"How are we doing, Aria?" Ryouji asked the Scarlet Makaw Faunus.
"It seems like we're getting closer." Aria speculated, looking around the environment. Her ears were twitching around, picking up noises all around the environment.
"Uhh...not really helping." Ryouji said with a deadpanned expression.
"You want me to guess how much closer?" Aria asked him, turning her head back.
"Just tell me when you get a feeling that we're close." Ryouji sighed and drooped his head.
Meanwhile...
"-Yeah, we're definitely making progress." Mecha said as he was looking around the forest.
"Oh? We close?" Aileen questioned the cyborg.
"N-no...I dunno." Mecha responded.
"Ugh..." Aileen groaned as she looked up at the treetop.
Then, Mecha and Aileen heard a sound.
"Did you hear that?" Aileen whispered to Mecha.
"Yeah...ready your stuff."
Mecha unsheathed two of his katanas.
Aileen held her Armageddon in her hand.
"Ready?" Mecha asked Aileen.
"Yep." Aileen smiled as she was ready for a fight.
"HAA!" Mecha and Aileen gave off battle cries as they jumped over some tall shrubs and they attacked...
Ryouji and Aria.
"What the?!" Ryuoji exclaimed.
Mecha and Aileen saw Aria and Ryouji and tried to stop themselves. They diverted their blades to the side, and hit the ground with one knee implanted in it.
"Shit...," Mecha swore. He looked up and locked eyes with the two other hunters before him.
"Oh...wait.." Aileen stopped as well and slowly looked up.
They all jumped away, maintaining a reasonable distance and put away their weapons.
"Who are you?" Aria asked them cautiously.
"We're students from Beacon, just like you." Aileen replied to Aria.
"Yeah, I can tell," Ryuoji replied noting the weapons in Aileen and Mecha's hands. Before responding, Mecha's mask un-attached itself, and his face was revealed and voice was back to normal.
"Sorry for attacking you like that. We thought you were Grimm and were trying to get the jump on them." Mecha responded, scratching his hair.
"Same with us," Ryuoji said to Mecha.
"It's fine. So...uh...we...partners?" Mecha asked Ryouji and Aria, continuing to scratch his hair.
Ryuoji and Aria looked to each other for a short while. "I guess so." Ryuoji held out his hand to Mecha.
"Cool. The name's Mecha." Mecha smiled as he took Ryouji's hand.
"Heh, a nickname, I presume." Ryouji chuckled a little.
"Yeah..." Mecha responded.
"I, too, have a nickname. The name's Goji, but my real name is Ryuoji Takenaka. I am a Komodo Dragon Faunus." Ryuoji smiled back, introducing himself to the cyborg.
"Goji? Like...Gojira? As in...GodMonster?" Mecha questioned Ryouji's nickname, wanting conformation.
"Yeah, I am a huge GodMonster fan. My nickname is to honor my childhood hero." Ryuoji responded, smiling and pointing to his chest with his thumb, where his GodMonster T-shirt would be if he wasn't wearing his silver-chrome samurai cybernetic armor.
"Ah I see." Mecha nodded his head as he let go of Ryouji's hand.
"And you?" Aria looked at the blonde haired huntress next to Mecha.
"Aileen Jäger," Aileen said her name to Aria. She walked up to her and held out her hand as a sign of respect. She was also...slightly smirking.
"Aileen...got it." Aria smiled as a spark went in Aileen's and Aria's eyes..already forming a small rivalry. Mecha and Ryouji saw this...and backed away a little.
"They've got the eyes of predators..." Ryouji sheepishly said as he put up his hands.
"Well Aileen's last name does translate to 'hunter...'" Mecha added to Ryouji's comment.
"Very fitting...," Ryuoji commented, his body almost locking up.
"Indeed..." Mecha stared at the two, raising his eyebrows in response to Ryouji.
"So...we going to break them up?" Ryouji asked Mecha, looking at his new companion.
"I think so...right about now," Mecha suggested as he could clearly see the embers already forming around Aria and Aileen.
"Yep...let's go." Ryouji and Mecha both grabbed the two vixens and pulled them away.
"Alright, Aria, let's not jeopardize our future teammates before the school year has even started," Ryuoji scolded his close friend.
"Hey now, Aileen. Hehe..no need to get so worked up over her!" Mecha chuckled.
About 5 minutes later...
After everyone got acquainted, they all walked through the Emerald Forest, looking for the temple Ozpin had mentioned.
"So does anyone have a clue as to where the temple is?" Ryuoji asked everyone as he cut through the vegetation with his Orochi Fang Sword.
"Nope. Although I figured my robotic suit would pick up some of those relics..." Mecha replied to Ryouji.
"So what's your guises story?" Aileen asked Ryouji and Aria.
"Meh...I am just a samurai warrior who wants to be a Huntsman to bring honor to my family's name," Ryuoji shrugged his armored shoulders.
"Is that seriously all?" Mecha questioned Ryouji.
"Yeah. I don't have the most exciting life compared to most warriors, except for that I have met Aria in Haven Academy. At first, we didn't get along cuz' we fight, and I mean it, we fight a lot. Sometimes, our fights become brutal." Ryuoji chuckled, moving his eyes up into the air, remembering the old times he had with the Faunus.
Mecha turned around and backpedaled. He looked at the two.
"Yeah I can see a little rivalry." Mecha nodded his head.
"Now occasionally we'd indulge it, but we mostly move past it and beyond it," Aria replied, using her head to motion towards Ryouji.
"Well that's good. I can tell you two have a good friendship." Mecha said back to Aria as he smiled and looked forward, no longer backpedaling.
"Yeah...it evolved through battle...and..." Ryouji paused and trailed off.
"Eh?" Aileen turned her head towards Ryouji.
Ryouji went silent. He then broke it with, "Nothing...best I don't say it. Not yet, at least." Ryuoji shrugged it off.
"Hm." Aileen and Mecha grunted. They were a little suspicious.
"Don't mind about it. Ryuoji's a bit...sensitive when it comes to his past. It's not exactly pleasant for him to talk about it to anyone." Aria filled in for her friend.
"Do you know about it yourself?" Aileen asked Aria.
"Yeah. He told me about it, but I am not going to tell it to you either until we feel it is right at the certain time," Aria answered.
"Yeah, of course." Aileen answered Aria as she completely understood. She and Mecha have the same situation, but they didn't show it. Mecha and the others continued their trek thrpugh the woods until they managed to reach the temple where Yang and a black haired girl with a bow happened to be there.
"That's gotta be the broken temple." Aileen mentioned as she eyeballed and pointed at the two girls there.
"Yeah." Ryuoji nodded in response.
"Isn't that...Yang?" Mecha ran up towards the temple.
"What's she doing here?" Ryuoji wondered.
"She's got the same reason as us; she wants to get that relic." Aria explained as she looked at Yang.
"But what about her friend?" Aileen pointed to the other girl who was with her.
"I don't know." Mecha replied shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders.
"Well let's ask them." Aria sighed as she put her hand on her forehead.
"Jeez, alright." Mecha groaned as he followed Aria to the two girls. Yang and the black haired girl were too busy examining these artifacts, that looked a bit like...chess pieces.
"We should pick one, y'know..." Ryouji mentioned as he caught up to the group.
"How many chess pieces are there, though?" Mecha pointed out that there is a limited number of pieces.
"Uh...it looks like there's...just enough for everyone. But there were a few that already passed through here." Aileen examined many of the pieces.
"Better get whatever's left before the pieces are gone," Ryuoji grabbed a black knight piece.
"The black knight?" Mecha ran up to Ryouji. At the same time, Yang grabbed the white knight.
"How about a cute little pony?" Yang called out to her friend.
"Sure." The black haired girl with a bow rolled her eyes but smiled as she joined Yang. Mecha then began to walk over to the blonde bombshell.
"Sup." Mecha waved to Yang.
"Hiya!" Yang waved back at him.
"Who's your friend?" Mecha asked Yang, looking at Yang's companion.
"The name's Blake. Blake Belladonna, if that's what you're wondering about." The black-haired, yellow-eyed girl answered him, but she seemed shy and quick to end the conversation, and almost mumbled that previous sentence.
"Nice to meet you, Blake." Mecha extended a greeting towards Blake.
Blake didn't react to him at first with slight hesitation.
"Blake?" Mecha looked at Blake in a somewhat confused manner.
"Hey, she's a little shy, no need to be so up-front with her!" Aria scolded Mecha, pulling his shoulder to make him stop.
"Alright, alright, sorry." Mecha threw his hands up in the air.
"Let me do it," Aira sighed irritably pushing Mecha out of the way.
Mecha scoffed and threw his arms around wildly. 'No need to be rude!'
"Hey there, Blake. My name's Aria. I'm sorry that my new teammate here is being such an idiot." Aria slightly chuckled.
"Oh come on!" Mecha shouted in Aria's direction.
"No...it's fine. I should be the one apologizing. It's just that I am an introvert when it comes to...new people." Blake responded.
"Really?" Aria said as she looked at Blake with her now interested brown eyes.
"In other words, she's really shy," Yang remarked.
"I know what it means. I can tell from just this." Aria smiled to Yang as she put both her hands on her hips.
"Wha-" Blake went silent before blushing slightly.
"Don't blush. There's no need to." Aria chuckled as she looked at Blake again.
However, what happened next caught them off guard when they heard what sounded like a girl's shriek screaming from the horizon.
Yang gasped. "Some girl's in trouble!"
"I don't think that's a girl..." Mecha looked into the sky.
"Look out! Geroniiiimmooooo!" Someone else cried out and it was coming from the sky.
"Who..?!" Ryouji looked up at the sky to see a familiar face to Mecha and Aileen; Ruby Rose.
"What the heck?!" Aria's eyes almost bugged out of her sockets, "How did she get up there?!"
And then, another figure came out of nowhere; Jaune Arc, the blonde knight who was close to throwing up the previous day.
"Uh..." Everyone watched as Jaune rammed into Ruby in mid-air.
"At least the knight was there to rescue her...sort of," Mecha commented with a deadpanned look on his face.
"Yeah...should we go up and help them?" Ryouji looked at the tree they crashed into.
"No...they should be fine...I hope..." Mecha replied to Ryouji's comment with not a lot of confidence.
"C'mon, man, have SOME faith in them." Ryouji chuckled, looking at the tree.
After their conversation, they heard someone else let out a loud "Yeeehhaawwww!" accompanied by an angry growl of a Grimm Ursa coming from the forest. Following that, the Ursa fell down with a grunt dead on the ground. Then, out of nowhere, the orange haired girl from earlier, who seems full of energy now, started zipping around the dead Grimm.
"Aww...it's broken..." She mumbled.
"Nora...!" a boy with long, black hair that was tied into a ponytail caught up to her running out of breath.
"Please...don't ever do that again..."
Only to find her not on the Ursa anymore. She appeared right in front of the white rook piece at the little broken temple. She then grabbed it and held it up in the air and singed a little tune.
"I'm Queen of the Castle~"
"I'm Queen of the Castle~" Nora sang.
"NORA!" The other boy who was with her shouted.
"Hehe...coming, Ren~!" Nora laughed as she saluted and zipped back towards her black haired friend.
"Did she just ride on an Ursa?" Blake asked to a slack jawed Yang.
"I..." Yang studdered again as she tried to say something but was in shock at the craziness that was going on.
"We have just gotten ourselves into a great group of friends..." Mecha said with a deadpanned look.
"Heh, it's not that bad." Ryouji chuckled as he looked at the now disintegrating Ursa.
"Yeah, lighten up a little." Aria chuckled as she punched Mecha's cybernetic armor.
"I hope I can," Mecha retorted, and he also slightly shrugged his shoulders.
"Not much of a fun guy, is he?" Ryouji sighed as he looked at Aileen for some clarity.
"He can be, just not when he's in a dangerous situation. He's rather...stoic, and serious about combat." Aileen put her hands on her hips and looked at Ryouji.
Up in the tree...
"Owww...What was that...?" Ruby Rose said as her head was spinning in circles due to the impact she had on the tree.
"Hey, Ruby..." A familiar voice mumbled in Ruby's direction. Ruby's head flew from side to side as she looked at the blonde knight from a few feet away, dangling from the branches.
"Jaune?" Ruby called out to the Blonde Knight in a confused manner.
"What's up?" Jaune waved back at her.
"Uh...how did you get there?" Ruby scratched her head, barely remembering what happened a minute ago.
"Jeez, you hit your head pretty hard if you don't remember." Jaune replied as he began to sink a bit farther down.
"I must have hit my head onto you, or something like that," Ruby rubbed her head.
"Yep. How's your head feel?" Jaune continued to dangle from the branch.
"Bruised, more like it." Ruby replied.
"I know how that feels..." Jaune also replied as he began to feel a little woozy from the blood rushing to his head.
"Ruby!" Yang called out to her younger sister, hoping she'd come out and join the rest of them.
"Yang?!" Ruby got up and jumped off her tree branch to find Yang, who was right near her.
"Ruby!" Yang rejoiced.
"Yang!" Ruby prepared to hug her big sister, but then...
"NORA!" Nora appeared right in the center of them, blocking the two.
"Gya!" Yang shrieked.
"Huh?!" Ruby also shrieked, as they both fell to the ground.
Then a Deathstalker was seen pursuing a fleeing huntress, this time, it was a girl, who had a red ponytail for hair, and she looked somewhat reminiscent of some sort of ancient warrior.
"Oh good god!" Mecha shouted in the red haired girl's direction as so much stuff was going on it made his head hurt.
"Did that girl just happened to be chased by a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake asked once again.
Yang seemed to be nearly at her breaking point as she clenched her fists and they were shaking. She was looking down, eyes clenched, until finally...
"Grrr...I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Yang's hair exploded and caught fire and her eyes also changed from her normal lilac color to crimsion red as her temper was at a limit.
"Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!" Yang screamed to everyone as she paced around.
It couldn't have been perfect timing.
"Well that didn't last real fucking long." Mecha groaned as he pointed to the sky.
"Oh come on..." Yang's head drooped and she slouched, defeated as her previous prayer hadn't been answered.
"How could you leave me?!" Weiss Schnee of all people screamed as she hung onto the Nevermore's leg.
"I said jump..." Ruby remarked, slightly scared for Weiss.
"She's gonna fall." Blake replied with her arms crossed and looking into the sky.
"She'll be fine." Ruby said in return.
"She's falling." Ren defied Ruby as Weiss was, indeed, falling from the sky.
In the meantime, Jaune untangled himself from the tree branch.
As Weiss was falling, Jaune was looking in the direction of Weiss and he found the perfect opportunity to catch her in his arms, bride style.
He readied himself, and ran...jumped, and caught Weiss in his hands in mid-air.
"Just...dropping in?" Jaune tried to woo Weiss with his *Cringy* pun, but Weiss didn't respond. All she did was look down with her still-worried face, looked back at Jaune, and in return, Jaune also looked down;
They were still a long ways away above ground.
"Oh god..." Jaune shrieked as he and Weiss held each other in a Scooby-Doo like vibe, and fell to the ground with their weapons falling out of their sheathes.
Then Jaune fell face-first onto the ground, followed by Weiss falling on top of him, crushing his back.
"My hero." Weiss was simply checking her nails to see if there was any dirt in them.
"My back..." Jaune reached his hand in the air, only for it to drop back down a second later due to the pain.
Then the other red-haired girl was later knocked across in front of Ruby, Yang, Blake, Nora, Ren, Mecha, Aria, Ryuoji, and Aileen by the Death Stalker that had been pursuing her.
"Great! Now the gang can all die together," Yang said sarcastically.
"The four-star regional champion? Pyrrha Nikos? What are you doing here?" Ryouji looked at the red haired spartan.
"Um, I think that creature is the answer to your question," Ren tapped on his shoulder and pointed to the Death Stalker charging towards them.
"I mean why she came to Beacon, Ren." Ryouji sighed as he felt like the question was easier to answer.
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby rushed out towards the Death Stalker with her Crescent Rose ready. However, she had forgotten about the Nevermore that Weiss had fallen off from and that had fired off a volley of its own feathers towards her.
"Oh no!" Ruby shrieked as she tried to dodge around the arrow-feathers. However, Ruby's cape got caught on one of the feathers and she was stuck on the ground.
"Ruby, no!" Yang began to run towards her little sister to get her away.
The Death Stalker approached, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby.
"NO!" Yang shrieked. She reached out to Ruby as far as she could. But she was too far away. All she could do was watch as the golden stinger lowered closer and closer towards Ruby's body.
Ruby closed her eyes and she waited for her demise.
Ice was heard being formed. It sounded...familiar.
"You are so childish!"
"Huh?" Ruby slowly opened her eyes again, only to see the heiress standing in front of her, using ice glyphs to stop the Deathstalker's stinger. "Weiss...?" Ruby couldn't believe it with her own eyes.
"...And dimwitted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style." Weiss put her hand out towards Ruby. "And I suppose, I can be a bit...difficult...But if we're going to do this, we'll have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off...I'll be...nicer." Weiss had trouble saying the last few bits of her sentance as she bent down to Ruby's level.
"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this." Ruby whimpered as she explained to Weiss why she was being what she was being. She was being rather...difficult earlier as they were going through the Emerald Forest.
Weiss smiled a little as she walked away, "You're fine."
"*Sigh* Normal knees..." Ruby clasped her hands together as she whispered the two words she wanted to be when she got here.
As Ruby stood up and looked to her right, she noticed the Deathstalker trying to pry itself free from the ice Weiss created. "Woah..."
Yang rushed up to Ruby and gave her a squeezing bear hug, "So happy you're okay!" Ruby and Yang looked up to the sky to see the Nevermore still flying around. Ruby and Yang regrouped with everyone and everyone discussed the plan.
"Guys! That thing is circling back! What are we going to do?!" The Blonde Knight asked with worry on his face.
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss looked at the destroyed shrine.
"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs." Ruby explained. She pointed her thumb in the direction of the cliffs, and Weiss smiled in return. "There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby explained to the group.
"Run and live. That is an idea I can get behind." Jaune pointed his thumb to his chest and smiled.
"Heh, you're quite the capable warrior, eh, Jaune?" Ryouji chuckled as he crossed his arms, smiling at him.
"Oh come on, dude." Jaune sighed. "Give me a break."
"You practically did nothing." Aileen groaned, crossing her arms and sounding disappointed.
"You don't know that!" Jaune shouted back defensively.
"Well..." Ruby and Pyrrha both began to say something, but stopped.
"Alright, I'm guilty." Jaune sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"Haha, I like you, man." Mecha chuckled as he walked up to Jaune and wrapped his hand around the blonde knight.
"I'm not sure whether I should take comfort in that or not," Jaune shook his head.
"Oh don't worry. We're good people." Mecha waved his hand, showing off Aileen, Ryouji, and Aria.
"Yeah, we're cool." Aileen smiled at Jaune.
"Thanks." Jaune smiled in response, feeling better about the situation.
"Alright. We all ready to go?" Aria pointed to the cliff.
"Yeah! We better get moving. NOW!" Goji pointed to the Nevermore flying above them.
"C'mon! Let's get to the cliffs!" Ruby shouted to everyone as she waved her arm to have everyone follow her.
"Yeah!" Ryuoji zipped off leaving a dust outline of him in his wake.
"Gya-Hey, Ryouji! Wait up!" The Scarlet Makaw Faunus ran after her close friend to catch up to him.
"Guys, c'mon!" Ruby shouted to everyone. She raced after Ryouji and Aria.
As Yang and Blake were following everyone else, Yang stopped for a moment and looked at her sister.
"What is it?" Blake approached Yang with her question. As she did, Ruby stood atop a stone, with the wind blowing her cape to the side.
"Nothing..." Yang watched her sister in admiration.
"Huh?" Jaune looked to where Yang was looking.
"Ruby...you've grown so much..." Yang nearly shed a tear.
"What was that?" Blake didn't catch it, or at least, she seemed not to.
"N-Nothing." Yang shrugged off the comment Blake made.
Yang ran off, leaving Blake to herself for the moment. Blake smiled to herself briefly before she followed her partner. Everyone was running through the groves, woods, and eventually found themselves right near the top of the summit they need to be at. The Nevermore flew above them while the Death Stalker was still pursuing the heroes. Everyone took cover in the rubble to try and think of a plan.
The giant nevermore sat itself on a destroyed tower and screeched into the sky.
"Well that's great." Yang sarcastically groaned as she looked at the giant Grimm.
"It just means we have to beat it, Yang." Ryouji sighed.
"How are we going to take this thing down?!" Weiss screeched to everyone.
Jaune looked back, and noticed the Deathstalker chasing after them, crashing through the trees after the young teenagers.
"Aw man, run!" Jaune called out to everyone as he began to book it.
"We're winging it, Weiss!" Aria shouted to the heiress as she extended her wings and got a little boost of speed.
"Wait, what?!" Weiss didn't get what the Macaw Faunus meant.
"...Pardon the pun!" Aria paused for a minute before dashing off with everyone else.
"O-Oh...OOOOHHH CRAP!" Weiss pranced after the other huntsmen in training.
"Look out!" Ryuoji noticed that the Nevermore fired off a hailfire of sharp feathers upon them.
"Nora! Destract it!" Ren shouted to his childhood friend.
"Way ahead of ya!" Nora fired off her pink grenades from her hammer, known as Magahild in it's grenade launcher mode while she somersaulted over several feathers. As Nora fired her Magnihild grenades, one hit the Nevermore in it's beak, and the Nevermore screeched. It got up off it's perch, and flew into the sky again.
But then, the Deathstalker came sprinting towards the Valkyrie, but luckily, Blake, Ren, Ryouji, and Mecha blocked the pincers of the Deathstalker from hitting Nora.
"That way!" Jaune pointed in the direction leading to an ancient arched bridge.
"We'll hold it off!" Ryouji smiled to Ren and Blake.
"Go!" Mecha added to Ryouji's callout. Team RWBY were the first to reach the bridge while Team JNPR was holding the Death Stalker off.
The soon to be Team RWBY started firing at the Deathstalker from afar to weaken it for the other two teams.
"Guys, let's scram! They're at the bridge now!" Mecha shouted to everyone.
"And they need to watch out for that Nevermore!" Ryuoji gestured to the bird Grimm flying towards the soon to be Team RWBY.
"Don't worry, we'll deal with the bastard in a sec!" Aria smiled as she extended her wings and began to fly into the air.
"What do you plan to do?!" Ryouji called out to the Scarlet Makaw Faunus.
"Hehe..."
Aria just sped right to the center of the bridge and stayed hovering in mid-air. She then did an arial kick, showing off her shoe grieves. And when she kicked, an incendiary dust bullet sped right out of a bullet barrel and went right for the Nevermore.
"GET ACROSS!" Aria screamed to everyone as she continued to kick, and kick, and kick.
The Nevermore was pelted mercilessly and driven back.
"That's it, you bastard." Aria smiled devilishly as she noticed the Nevermore flee into the fog in the distance. "It's gone!" Aria began to hover back down to ground to join the rest of them.
But then, the Nevermore came speeding right back, attempting to destroy the bridge! As it did, Half of the group was launched back; the soon-to-be Team RWBY, Ryouji, and Aria. They all fell on their backs on the cold and hard cement.
"Ow! Grr..." Aria squinted at the Deathstalker and her eyes then followed the Nevermore as it continued to hover in the sky. "I'm not letting you get away this time!" Aria quickly got back up and hovered into the air with her lovely pair of red, blue and yellow wings. She then raced after the Nevermore, keeping a reasonable distance away from the beast, before beginning to kick and shooting her dust bullets at the flying Grimm.
"We've got your back!" Yang called out to the Scarlet Makaw Faunus from a long distance away. She jumped onto a somewhat destroyed structure, and Ruby and Blake followed her. Weiss, however...
"Ugh..." Weiss scoffed at Ryouji.
"What's your deal?" Ryouji got out of his fighting stance and faced the Heiress.
"Just go help your..."Friend."" Weiss sighed as she used her glyphs to jump up and join her soon-to-be made team. Ryouji watched Weiss leave, and when she got to the top, Ryouji simply muttered,
"Wow." Ryouji knew what to do. He retracted his claws, and jumped into the abyss below. He then chanted in his ancient language,
"Watashi ni kite kudasai!" (Come to me...Dragon!)
Ryouji closed his eyes, then quickly opened them. They were...reptilian! His pupils were in a straight line! When that happened, was enveloped in a green beacon of light. When the light died down, there was a loud screech.
GRRRROOOOOOOONNNNNNNKKKKKK!
And what emerged was a green, scaly, Komodo-like dragon. Ryouji had activated his Semblance. He turned into a giant, Dragon-like reptile. Dragon Ryouji began to hover into the air, leaving the soon-to-be Team RWBY stunned and in awe.
"Holy...is that...Ryouji?!" Blake stuttered at the sight in front of her eyes.
"It's gotta be! Who else would it be?" Ruby geeked out at Ryouji's new animalistic like body.
"He's so lucky!" Yang shouted in jealousy.
"Hmph. It's not that impressive." Weiss scoffed at Ryouji's new body.
While the girls were giving their two sense, Mecha, Aileen, and the soon-to-be Team JNPR, were having a little trouble with the Deathstalker.
"Hmph!" Aileen grunted as she moved her axe overhead and hit the Deathstalker overhead. When the blade hit the tough shell of the Deathstalker, the beast didn't even flinch. All it did was screech, and hit Aileen with it's pincer. It flicked her to the right, towards the edge of the cliff. Mecha ran up next, trying to follow up on Aileen's failed attempt at damaging the beast.
He jumped high and held his katana downwards and tried to hit the Deathstalker with a downward thrust. He did hit the Deathstalker, but he aimed towards one of the many beast's legs. He impaled one of the legs on the left, and then jumped up into the air, to try and distract it while the others attacked the monstrous Grimm. Pyrrha followed up with another impalement to different leg. Pyrrha thrusted downwards, and stabbed a different leg, making the Deathstalker screech and stay in place. It felt like it couldn't even move.
"Nora! See if you can penetrate it!" Jaune ordered to his new friend.
"Got it!" Nora transformed her Magahild into it's grenade launcher form and then she fired a shot at the Deathstalker's tough shell. As the grenade flew towards the Deathstalker, it gained a pink trail that followed it.
*BOOM!*
The grenade exploded right into the Deathstalker's tail, severely hurting the creature, and also sending Mecha and Pyrrha flying to the left and right respectively. Mecha slammed into some solid rock, severely wounding his aura from the impact, helped in part due to Nora's grenade, and Pyrrha was quick enough to twirl around and stop herself from hitting the side of the cliff and severely wound herself. She hit the rock with her high heels and landed on the ground.
Pyrrha saw Aileen and helped her up. Pyrrha offered her hand to Aileen, and she took it.
"You okay?" Pyrrha questioned Aileen.
"Yeah, I'm good. I can take a lot of hits." Aileen cracked her knuckles and picked up her axe.
"Do you have a lot of aura?" Pyrrha began to watch the Deathstalker and the other huntsmen.
"I do, but enough talking. C'mon!" Aileen began to move in a jogging-like way back towards where the action is. Pyrrha followed suit. As they returned to the fight, Ren was hit backwards to the edge of the bridge, and Jaune was holding up his shield to defend from any attacks. He was slightly afraid. Nora was firing nonstop at the creature.
"Pyrrha, go join them! I can deal with it from here!" Aileen ordered the Spartan.
"Got it." Pyrrha nodded her head as she held her shield up, protecting herself while she joined her soon-to-be-team.
Aileen was analyzing the Deathstalker, looking around for some other ways to take down the giant monster. Aileen eyeballed the Deathstalker's stinger hovering in the air. Aileen squatted down, and then she jumped into the air, grabbing the Deathstalker's tail. She wrapped her arm around it, and held her axe in the other. She then cocked back a massive swing with her axe and the blade hit the Deathstalker's tail right in the middle.
When it did, the stinger on the top of the tail was beginning to dangle from it's socket. Aileen knew immediately what to do.
"Mecha! Over here!" Aileen waved her hand over to Mecha to get his attention. Mecha noticed Aileen and jumped straight to her. He was holding the Deathstalker in the same position that Aileen was, just a few inches apart.
"Jump up, and slice the stinger off! The others can take it down!" Aileen decided on a plan for the two. Mecha nodded, and grabbed one of his great swords he has stowed away on his back. He sheathed his Katanas back quickly, and on the count of three, they jumped up together, and sliced off the stinger! The stinger fell off and penetrated the Deathstalker's tough shell.
"Nora, nail it!" Jaune called out to the Valkyrie.
"Heads up!" Nora called out to Pyrrha. Pyrrha squatted down, and held her shield up over her head for a platform for Nora to stand on. Nora jumped up, and landed on the shield. She then lowered her hammer, and pulled the trigger on it. She was vaulted probably 50 feet into the air.
"Ah, hahahaha!" Nora laughed happily as she soared through the cool air, and reached the peak. She then began to fall down. Nora then turned her hammer up to the air so when she fired again, the impact from the grenade on the blunt end would propel her faster towards the stinger. Nora pulled the trigger on her hammer, and she raced right towards the Deathstalker. When she reached it, Nora smashed the stinger farther inside the Grimm, and when she did, she fired again, and everyone got off a now crumbling bridge.
Jaune landed on his back, Nora landed on her behind, Pyrrha landed on one of her knees, Ren walked up to the group, and collapsed, from fighting so much, Mecha did a backflip in the air and landed in a crouching position, and Aileen landed perfectly. After resting for a short while, they then looked at the other ground and saw how they were faring.
"Ruby and the others are over there...we gotta help them!" Jaune stood up and pointed to Ruby and her soon-to-be-formed team.
"Eeh, I don't know. I think they have this." Mecha put his swords in his sheathes, crossed his arms, and noticed Ryouji's Komodo Dragon form.
"What makes you say that?" Nora scratched her head in confusion.
"Just watch, I think they have this." Mecha watched the other group go to work on the still-flying Nevermore.
Dragon Ryouji's dorsal fins on his back glowed blue as his mouth opened and shot out a big, red, heat ray aimed right at the Nevermore. The Nevermore swiftly dodged the giant laser-like beam and in retort, fired back a volley of feather-arrows that did little to damage the hulking mass of Dragon Ryouji. Aria was to his right, constantly kicking in mid-air and firing off her incendiary dust bullets that, in- turn, were doing little to damage the Nevermore. Meanwhile, Ruby and co. were shooting from afar with their own weapons.
"Nothing's working!" Aria annoyingly hissed, as her wings continued to flap in the air.
Dragon Ryouji huffed, steam coming out of his snout. His right wing stretched out to act as a platform. Aria looked to her left, and noticed the extended Dragon Wing. But, one of the Nevermore wings shot more feathers at the flying duo. Dragon Ryouji noticed these feathers and moved his wing to shield Aria from being hit. All of the feather-arrows hit Ryouji's wing, making it unable to be used now. The wing drooped down, and now it sagged in the cold air.
Aria had to take action. She quickly turned around, and looked at Ruby and her friends. "Lay down large amounts of suppressing fire! Use all your ammo if you have to!"
Ruby and the others nodded, except for Weiss because...well she hated Faunus and didn't want to listen to her, but despite that, she still continued to shoot dust and use her glyphs at the Nevermore. Aria turned back around, and used her colorful wings to fly herself over Dragon Ryouji's scaly back. Aria landed on his back and stared down the Nevermore from afar.
Aria crouched down and patted Dragon Ryouji twice. Dragon Ryouji was then enveloped in a bright light, and all of a sudden, Dragon Ryouji was gone. Now Ryouji was back to his former, lizard tailed, slightly scaly self. Ryouji began falling into the abyss, until Aria spread her wings once again, and flew down to catch her close ally. Aria began to sweat from holding Ryouji in her arms, but she also had to prepare for the next bit. She formulated a plan in her head while fighting. Aria turned around to Ruby and the others.
"Get ready to jump for that monster!" Aria pointed at the Nevermore with what strength she had left, and everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.
Aria turned back around to face the Nevermore one final time, before using her strength to begin to spin around in a circle. Wind formed around Aria. She was gaining speed. She was getting ready to throw Ryouji right towards the Nevermore.
"Ryouji, get ready to fly!" Aria smiled as she let go of Ryouji, sending him flying right towards the Nevermore's mouth. Ryouji was zooming at an alarming rate towards the Nevermore, readying his claws, and moving his arms up over his head. Following him was Aria, as well as Ruby, shooting her Scythe, Weiss using her glyphs to make platforms for herself, Blake fired her Gambol Shroud in it's pistol form to make a swing for her to come over, and Yang fired the Ember Celica at her feet to launch her in the air.
All of them combined, attacked the Nevermore in unison, striking and penetrating through it's body, and causing it to disintegrate into thin air.
But now was the issue of getting back to land. Fortunately, Weiss saved Ruby, Blake, and Yang by using her glyphs once again, and Aria caught Ryouji in mid-air once again and flapped her wings hard to keep at a level ground like she originally was.
The fight was done. They got to the end. They passed.
When they made it back to solid ground, Mecha said to everyone, "See? I knew they would be fine."
"It's like you knew what they were capable of." Jaune turned his head to face Mecha.
"Well, yeah. I fought with them a while ago." Mecha dismissed the question Jaune set forth.
"Oh, uh, right." Jaune eyed Mecha suspiciously, before crossing his arms and thinking to himself.
"And no, not all of us are fine." Ryouji complained as he held his right arm was cut, and bleeding. Ryouji was healing the wounds slowly with his aura.
"And yeah...I seriously hope I never get to do that again." Aria sat down on her knees as carrying Ryouji was extremely tiring for her.
"You'll probably have to.." Aileen scratched her head and chuckled a little.
"Don't. Remind. Me." Aria hissed as she eyed Aileen with embers inside her pupils.
"C'mere." Ryouji smiled and did his best with his injured arm to help the Bird Faunus up.
"Whew...good job, everyone." Mecha exhaled and wiped his head of sweat.
"Thank you! You weren't too bad yourself!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she smiled at Mecha, returning a compliment.
"Thanks." Mecha replied back to the spartan.
"I'm looking forward to working together. At least, I'm assuming we'll all be together." Ryouji said to Aileen and Mecha.
"Me too! I feel like we'll all do amazing work." Aileen put her hands on her hips.
Later in the auditorium...
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." The screen of the auditorium showed each of their profiles as the boys lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continued, "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will together as Team CRDL...led by... Cardin Winchester."
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin called up the next group. Their faces showed up on the same screen that CRDL had. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as...Team JNPR." Ozpin announced to the auditorium.
"Hehe..." Nora laughed as she wrapped Ren in a hug.
"...Led by...Jaune Arc!" Ozpin added, still looking at the young huntsmen.
"Huh? L-led by..." Jaune put his hand over his chest-piece.
"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin smiled slightly.
Then, as a slight gesture, Pyrrha playfully punched Jaune on the shoulder, but it really ended up knocking him to his feet. Pyrrha looked surprised when Jaune fell to the floor.
"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by...Ruby Rose." The silver-haired Headmaster gestured to the four ladies before him.
Weiss's face turned to look at Ruby with a sigh of shock and disappointment. But it was quickly overshadowed by Yang running over and wrapping Ruby in a bear hug.
"I'm so proud of you!" Yang shouted into her sister's ear.
"And finally, Aileen Jäger. Aria "Rainbow" Makaw. Mecha. And Ryouji "Goji" Takenaka." Ozpin called up the last team to the front.
"The four of you collected the black knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team MAGA (Magma). Led by...Mecha." Ozpin announced.
Mecha and the others smiled at the reveal. They were finally able to become huntsmen. After everything in their past. Everything has brought them here, and they're satisfied.