Note: So now we enter Volume 2. Took a little longer to get this out due to the fact that I haven't actually finished writing all the chapters. Really I'm kind of in a rush to reach Volume 3 so I can write a character arc I'm really developed in right now.
Volume 2 will have a ton of character development for the team members, a personal favorite of mine taking place later on but you'll get to see that eventually.
I'm also thinking of adding a rival team for the tournament's first round that the main characters can fight. I'll tell you more about it at the end of the chapter but until then I've held you back long enough. Enjoy!
RWBY: Team JSTC 'Justice'
Volume 2 - Chapter 7
Team JSTC sat in the Beacon cafeteria, eating their selected foods and doing their own things. Jason was examining the designs Ruby had sent him on his scroll for his weapon upgrade. Shade was staring blankly at the squid like creature that was on his plate. Trance was polishing his sunglasses, while wearing them, at the same time. Cait was examining the broken scroll while being frequently distracted by the sea creature on Shade's plate. After a few minutes Trance sighed and stopped what he was doing.
Trance: So guys are we just going to sit here and do nothing until classes start back up tomorrow? Because I'm getting really, really bored.
Jason: And here I thought just being cool was enough to satisfy your every need.
Jason said while lowering his scroll.
Trance: It's just a hobby. Believe it or not.
Shade: What exactly can we do?
Shade looked up from his food and at Trance.
Shade: I'd suggest we all go for a walk but that would likely only increase your boredom.
Jason: Well I've heard the best cure for boredom is a board game. Though I doubt we'll find any good ones to play before the day ends.
Shade: You remember that one we played when we were younger?
Jason: Yeah I do. I remember you being an unbeatable opponent.
Trance: What about the other teams? What are they doing today?
Shade rolled his eyes knowing where the conversation was going. He looked back down at his, now empty, plate. His expression never changing from, deadpan, as his eyes moved to a full mouthed and guilty looking Cait.
Jason: I don't know. With all these exchange students arriving it's getting harder to focus on literally anything.
Cait swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking up.
Cait: Well why don't we go over and ask what exactly their plans are for the day and maybe we could join in.
Trance: You know that sounds like a pretty good idea.
Without warning, Jason is hit on the back of the head by an apple.
Jason: Hey!
Jason picked up the apple and rubbed the back of his head. He turned to see Yang had thrown the fruit. He angrily crushed the apple in his hand. He grabbed the pie he had ordered and threw it back at her. Only instead it hit Weiss. Jason had a victorious grin on his face regardless.
Nora: Haha! Nice throw!
The rest of team JSTC turned towards the scene. Cait put her hands of her face while trying to hold back laughter. Shade face palmed and shook his head. Trance was pointing and laughing. When the pie fell off of Weiss's face it revealed her look of pure anger. Without another word she grabbed the nearest bowl of soup and threw it in JSTC's general direction. When it landed on Shade however, the room went silent. Shade's expression never changed as he took a sip of his drink.
Shade: Fine….
He picked up Cait's fish sandwich and spear threw it towards Weiss. She dodged it just in time for it to splat on the back of the wall.
Cait: Hey! That was mine!
Nora stood up onto her table.
Nora: FOOD FIGHT!
Within seconds the cafeteria turned into a battleground. Jason grabbed one of the stale baguettes lying around and split it into two, using them as short swords. Shade took another sip of his drink before picking up a celery stick and walking into the chaos. Cait had spotted another plate of fish in the center of the room and was crawling towards it. When she reached the fish and reached to grab it, so did Blake. The two narrowed their eyes at each other. Trance walked calmly through the crowd dodging any flying food. He dodged a few swipes from one of the students using a stale baguette and stopped it in mid air by grabbing it.
Trance: Thanks!
Trance used his free hand to grab a tomato and splat it into the student's face. He pulled the baguette away for himself and held it around the center. He kept walking through the crowd. Jason knocked down several students that had thrown food at him and was starting to notice some of team JNPR's actions.
Jason: Are they...building a fort?
Cait and Blake were fighting over the plate of fish. A plate which had long since fallen on the floor. Cait was using an extra large baguette as a weapon. Blake dodged her attacks and eventually gave up on the venture. Shade knocked down another student and moved towards the almost fully built fort of tables at the end of the room. Trance dodged another student's attack and pushed him away. As he turned to look at the fort he received a tomato to the face.
Trance: Oh come on! I just polished these!
Trance wiped away the tomato juice off of his sunglasses and turned to his attacker. It was none other than Yang herself, who was laughing at him. Trance narrowed his eyes and raised his baguette weapon of choice. It was by now that everyone noticed most of the students were running from the cafeteria. Team JSTC all rushed over to the now fully built fort of tables and stood alongside team JNPR while Nora proclaimed herself as "Queen of the castle" multiple times. Shade finished his drink then tossed it to the side as he picked up a turkey leg as a secondary weapon.
Ruby: Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be delicious!
Team JSTC looked at each other slightly confused, until they figured out that Ruby wasn't referring to them.
Nora: Off with their heads!
Nora began throwing melons at team RWBY. Trance smirked as he jumped into the air and used his pulse to increase the speed of the melons. Yang used turkey's like gloves to break most of the them before they could hit. Blake dived forward and picked up two stale baguettes for weapons. Yang throws the turkeys at Pyrrha who dodges out of the way. The new target, Jaune, is saved as Cait jumps in the way, blocking one turkey with her weapon but getting hit by the second. Jason and Pyrrha move in to fight Blake. She attempts to disorient them with her semblance but is quickly forced into a one on one with Jason. Trance starts throwing apples in an attempt to stop Ruby's surf across the tables towards Pyrrha. He fails to prevent her from reaching and knocking back Pyrrha. He charges towards her alongside Ren and Nora. Weiss uses ketchup bottles to force them to slip and fall over. While Ren falls into a table causing it to launch into the air, Nora and Trance dive into the air towards Weiss. Nora grabs a metal pole and impales it into a melon, creating a makeshift hammer. Trance uses his pulse to give her momentum against Weiss. As she goes to hit Weiss, Ruby dives in her way. Receiving a massive hit knocking her to the back of the room. Weiss grabs a swordfish from a nearby plate and uses that as a weapon to fight Nora and Trance. Her defense lasted no more than five seconds before Trance knocked her into a disoriented state and Nora sent her flying into a pillar. Trance caught the swordfish in mid air and tossed it over to Cait, who had recovered thanks to Jaune. She caught the swordfish and took a large bite out of it. Shade immediately passed by her and charged at Yang alongside Ren who had recovered. Ren blocked a kick from Yang, receiving an challenged look from her. However the moment they broke the lock, Shade swung at Yang with his food items while simultaneously dodging her attacks. Before long Shade and Ren overpowered her and knocked her back. Nora immediately dived in and used her makeshift hammer to launch Yang through the cafeteria roof. In doing this she destroyed her own weapon.
Meanwhile Jason and Blake broke a weapon lock when she jumped up and kicked him to the floor. She grabbed two lines of sausages, whipping one around Jason so that he was immobile. She used the second to whip Nora to the back of the room and into a soda machine. Cait and Nora grabbed some soda that had landed on the floor and started throwing them at Blake. When none of them were accurate enough throws to hit, Pyrrha used her semblance to create a storm of soda that hits Blake into the back of the room. Ruby being the last of team RWBY standing used her semblance to create a tornado of sodas moving towards the two teams on the other side of the room. Shade and Ren got caught in it, quickly followed by Trance and Pyrrha. Nora, Cait, and Jaune were the last ones caught in the typhoon of soda. They were forced against the wall as a mountain of food and soda collided with them, painting both them and the wall. After a few seconds each person on the wall fell to the ground.
Ruby: Hurray!
Jason: Ahem…
Ruby looked down at Jason who was still tied up in sausages. She giggled a bit before biting one of the loose ones and slurping them all up like a noodle.
Jason: Alright, you win.
Just then Glynda Goodwitch walked through the main doors with an annoyed look on her face. She used her semblance of telekinesis to put everything back to where it was.
Glynda: Children, please. Do not play with your food.
Yang fell through the roof and the trio of teams burst into laughter. Discounting Shade of course, who simply chuckled. After they all calmed down the teams started to chat amongst themselves.
Jason: Well that was fun.
Shade: Indeed.
Trance: Gotta polish my sunglasses again though.
Cait: Did any of you spot where that swordfish went?
After a short while team RWBY approached teams JNPR and JSTC.
Ruby: Hey we were going to go hang out in the library. Do you guys want to join us?
Jason: Sounds good to me.
Jaune: I'm in.
The three teams happily made their way to the library.
[Later on in the library]
Jason and Shade silently watched the members of team RWBY play a game of remnant. Trance was reading the latest issue of X-ray and Vav and Cait was looking out the window at something. When Yang used a trap card against Ruby and destroys her army, Shade walks over to Yang's side of the board and looks at her hand. Without saying anything he simply shakes his head seemingly unimpressed.
Yang: What, you think you can do better?
Shade: You wasted the trap card on Ruby's army when you could have easily saved it for when she reinforced them. You would've lost several of your forces but the payoff would be wiping out her entire army after her reinforce move. Leaving her completely open for a counter attack.
Yang sat there wide eyed and confused.
Jason: Shade and I played a lot of this game when we were younger and he never lost. Not even once.
Yang: Seriously? You two are definitely playing next game! Anyway, Weiss it's your turn.
While the game continued Trance noticed Cait was distracted by something beyond the window.
Trance: What's up Cait?
Cait: Atlas, actually.
Trance seemed slightly confused at first until he saw the atlesian ships outside.
Trance: They must be here for the festival.
Cait: They really like making their presence known don't they?
Trance: I suppose so.
Cait seemed visibly unhappy about the Atlas presence at Beacon.
Trance: You don't like Atlas?
Cait: They don't exactly have a good reputation with the faunus in case you haven't noticed.
Meanwhile, Jaune approached the table that team RWBY was playing on and offered to play with them.
Ruby: Sorry Jaune, we've already got four people.
Jason: You can always play next game like us.
Weiss: This game requires a certain level of cunning that I seriously doubt you posses.
Yang: You attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago.
Shade: I didn't think anyone could be so bad at this game that they attack their own forces.
Weiss gave Yang and Shade an annoyed look.
Jaune: Bring it on Ice Queen. I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader.
Weiss: By who? Your mother?
Jaune: A… and Pyrrha!
Pyrrha: Hello again!
Jaune: Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!
Weiss: I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!
Jason: Honestly, they'd probably be better off in his hands over yours considering the state of your kingdom right now.
Weiss shot a glare at Jason.
Jaune: Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake was secretly a fa…
Pyrrha stepped in and placed a hand over Jaunes mouth before he could finish.
Pyrrha: Fun loving person, whom we all admire and respect.
Everyone turns to Blake who held a very annoyed look on her face. As Jaune gave up and turned to go sit back at his team's table Sun approaches the table.
Sun: Sup losers?
Ruby: Hey Sun!
Sun: Ruby, Yang, Blake… Ice Queen.
Weiss: Why does everyone keep calling me that?
Jason narrowed his eyes at the blue haired guy standing next to him.
Jason: Who's the blue guy?
Sun: Huh? Oh yeah I wanted to introduce you all to my old friend.
?: Aren't libraries for reading?
Ren: Thank you!
Nora: Pancakes!
Sun: Shut up, don't be a nerd.
Neptune: Geh geh geh geh! 'Intellectual' okay? Thank you. I'm Neptune.
Trance walked up to the conversation and narrowed his eyes at Neptune from behind his sunglasses.
Weiss: So Neptune, where are you from?
Neptune: Haven. And I don't believe I caught your name, Snow Angel.
Trance and Jason whispered to each other.
Trance: I don't like this guy.
Jason: I'll reserve judgement but I don't like him either.
Sun: I never took you as the board game playing type.
Blake: Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later.
Blake got up and left the room. After a bit more idle conversation Yang offered to start another game. Shade and Jason accepted immediately, while Neptune also decided to join in. The game that followed was surprisingly intense.
[Later that afternoon]
Team JSTC walked through the halls of Beacon towards their dorm.
Jason: I was sure Yang was gonna explode after you broke through her defenses.
Shade: She made the mistake of wasting her trap cards on my weaker units.
The team entered their dorm. However Jason waited outside in realization.
Jason: Ah crud! I forgot I wanted to ask Ruby if we could upgrade my weapon today.
Trance: Well there's still some time. Maybe she's still in the library.
Jason rushed back towards the library. Cait looked out the window a groaned in annoyance at the sight of more Atlesian ships. She closed the blinds and laid back on her bed.
Cait: I'm gonna catch an early sleep if that's okay.
Trance: Go ahead. I'm actually gonna relax myself.
Trance proceeded to lay on his own bed and polish his sunglasses again. Shade was going through his scroll to check his weekly schedule.
Meanwhile Jason returned to the library in the hopes of finding Ruby. When he arrived he found Ruby packing up her board alone.
Jason: Ruby, I forgot to ask you something.
Ruby turned in surprise but smiled at Jason regardless.
Ruby: Oh, hi Jason! What is it?
Jason: I was hoping we could get the upgrade done today. You know, get it out of the way and all.
Ruby seemed unsure at first.
Ruby: I don't know Jason. I need to get back to my team and….
Jason grabbed both of Ruby's hands taking her by surprise.
Jason: Please Ruby. I looked over the designs you gave me and I love them! I would really appreciate it if we could work on it now.
Ruby: I….uh….
Ruby blanked out for a moment before smiling and responding.
Ruby: Okay Jason. We'll upgrade your weapon now.
Jason: Thanks Ruby.
Ruby: …
Jason: …
Ruby: You can let go of my hands now.
Jason: Huh...?
Jason looked down to realize that he hadn't let go of her hands. He quickly dropped them as a slight heat made its way to his face.
Jason: S….sorry.
He pulled out his blades and placed them onto the table that the board game was on before and the two of them got to work right away. After a while, they had taken apart the hilts of both blades and were adding a few things.
Jason: There was another thing I need your help with when you find the time.
Ruby: And what might that be?
Jason: Um….
Jason considered telling her the real reason for repairing the scroll but decided it was best to keep the purpose between team members only.
Jason: ...Cait, broke her scroll recently and none of us really know how to fix it in it's current state.
Ruby: Sure, I can take a look at it.
Jason: Thanks Ruby.
They went back to focusing on the blades. After a while Ruby had created a mod that allowed the two blades to combine into a rifle of sorts.
Ruby: Oh no, I don't have any welding tools. I need to add a few parts but I can't without welding them in.
Jason: Here…
Jason held his finger in front of her and it glowed blue. Ruby blinked at it for a moment then grabbed his hand. She squeezed on it slightly and his finger sparked up similarly to a welding tool. Ruby smiled and continued working while using Jason's welding tool hand to attach the parts she needed.
Ruby: Alright, it's done!
Jason and Ruby sat back and looked at the rifle esche design of the new modification. Both blades had been combined into one giving it a trigger handle and a grip. The blades however had split into four different extensions with a needle shaped metal rod sticking out of the center reaching a third of the way across the length of the weapon.
Ruby: Let's take it outside so you can give it a try.
Jason nodded and grabbed his newly upgraded weapon. The two of them made their way outside near Beacon cliff.
Ruby: So their are two new mods for the weapon. The new secondary gun form is designed to use your semblance as a power source.
Jason: How does that work?
Ruby: I added some new conductive fibers.
Jason held the weapon up, aiming it at a nearby tree.
Ruby: Hold down the trigger to charge it.
Jason did so and his arms glowed a low light blue as electrical sparks started swirling around in the weapon's barrel. After a couple of seconds he let go of the trigger and a concentrated bolt of electrical energy burst out of the gun and hit the tree. The bolt of energy then spread to several of the trees around it, showing off it's new chain attack trait.
Ruby: I call it the 'Chain lightning rifle'! Capable of hitting multiple targets whenever it is needed!
Jason: Nice! This'll definitely come in handy in the future.
The weapon is switched back to it's default double swords mod and they walk together back to the dorms.
Ruby: So do you want me to look at Cait's scroll now or…?
Jason: We've still got some time until sundown so yeah.
When they entered team JSTC's dorm they were greeted by the rooms occupants.
Trance: Hey, good to see our local leaders!
Shade waved at them. Cait was sat up in her bed trying to read a book on flight engineering.
Cait: Hi Jason! Hi Ruby!
Ruby: Hello! Jason said you could use my help repairing your scroll?
Cait shot a glance at Jason who was gesturing to go along with it.
Cait: Yeah.
Cait presented the broken scroll to Ruby who immediately began to examine it.
Ruby: Wow, this is 'really' broken. What did you do?
Cait: Uh...um...I, dropped it...
The rest of team JSTC mentally face palmed.
Cait: ...from the top of Beacon cliff.
Ruby: Really? That's some drop.
When Ruby 'seemed' to believe the cat faunus she took the scroll and set it down on Jason's desk. She immediately turned to him.
Ruby: I need your welding hand.
Jason sighed and walked over offering his sparking hand. After a few bumps and surgery references Ruby finished fixing the scroll and handed it to Cait.
Ruby: All done!
Cait: Thank you Ruby!
Shade: You should go. Your team is probably wondering where you are now.
Ruby's eyes widened at the realization.
Ruby: Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that! I should go now, bye Jason!
Ruby rushed out of the room using her semblance leaving the team to themselves.
Trance: Looks like the team leaders are getting awfully close lately. You're the only one she said goodbye to boss.
Jason rubbed the back of his neck shyly.
Jason: Pfff, well I just talk to her the most out of the four of us so…
Shade: What's on the scroll Cait!
Shade interrupted the conversation. Cait looked up from the scroll with a deadpanned face.
Cait: This thing has too many files to go through in one evening. At best, a couple of days and we'll have….something.
Jason fell back on his bed in annoyance while Trance laid back putting his hands behind his head.
Trance: Well, looks like we better get started then.
Jason: This whole ordeal better be worth it….
Jason spoke through his pillow. The team spent the night looking through many of the files on the scroll. Cait went to sleep first, followed by Trance and Jason. Shade however elected to stay up and keep looking through them. He stopped at a file called "Dossiers". He opened the file and a list of names with roles next to them came up. One name however, stood out from the rest.
Shade: Cait Heartsong….
Shade was slightly surprised at this. He looked at her role and it read "Informant/Bargaining chip". He opened her file and began to read.
"Cait Heartsong has proven a reliable, yet reluctant, asset to the cause. Her brother Faraway is the only reason she has been so cooperative. In turn the main reason Faraway remains loyal is because of our promise of protection to his sister. Her codename when referred to in public from now on shall be Dayspring. While she isn't exactly a member of the White Fang she still holds a strong enough connection to us to hold a codename. Although her openly stating that the violent actions of the organization are going too far have earn her the nickname of 'Human Lover' among the other members."
Shade closed the scroll and looked over at Cait. After a moment he decided to check on her dreams again. Proceeding with the steps as he did before he began to see into her head.
Dream Cait: Don't go! It's too dangerous!
The dream opened with Cait, slightly older looking than last time, talking to her brother in their home.
Dream Faraway: I have too little sister. These prototypes could….
Dream Cait: I don't care about that! I don't want you to get hurt!
Dream Faraway: Look, I'll be working alongside one of the upper ranking members. I'll just stay with…
Dream Cait grumbled in annoyance and concern for a moment. She then wrapped her arms around her brother tightly.
Dream Cait: Please don't go! Just stay here! Please!
Dream Faraway: Cait...I can't. I have to go on this mission.
Dream Cait let go of her brother and sat down on a nearby chair.
Dream Cait: I never should have told you about that train….
Dream Faraway: Hey! You did the right thing. When I get back we'll go for a walk through the park, like we used to. Okay?
Dream Cait took a moment to respond.
Dream Cait: You promise?
Dream Faraway: I promise.
Dream White Fang Member: We should go now. Your Bullhead leaves base camp in a couple hours.
Faraway gave Cait a quick hug before walking out the door….
…
…
…
Dream Cait smiled.
Dream Cait: He'll come back. He promised…..
Shade left her dream. He could tell where it was going and was getting more concerned with each dream. He decided to go to sleep and think on it more in the morning.
[End of chapter]
Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Anyway, I said something at the start about creating a rival team for the tournament. Well I figured I'd make it an OC team consisting of four characters you guys provide. I'm still quite a ways away from actually writing that chapter so there is still plenty of time. If you have an OC or two you would like to see in the story then here is your chance.
Leave some character details. I.E: Name, Hair color, huntsmen/huntress gear, personality, etc...
Choice of Weapon is required but semblance is optional.
In the end if I don't get a full team I'll just take some 'inspired' OCs from other stories and credit them. You will also be credited for submitting your character even if they don't make it in.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far. I appreciate it and hope you stick around at least until the end of the volume 3 timeline.
