It's a fucking writing frenzy! I've got the inspiration for days, and I'm milking the crap out of it! Without further ado, more Hunter X RWBY, and soon we shall see a familiar...and even optimistic face...foreshadowing!
Chapter 8- The End of the Tunnel
With the Second Stage of the Exam drawing to a close, the only individuals who haven't made it are Team Ruby, Team Jaune, and Team Blake. With a total of 123 candidates left in the fight the all out brutality will start soon.
Black 0- Team Examiner
Ozpin watched the monitors in the control room with Glynda as they sipped tea, the cold steel beneath his shoes making the dark isolated box drearier. "It seems not many people are left, don't you think this phase was rather tough Glynda?"
"It's to weed out the weak, besides Bartholomew doesn't disagree with my methods." Glynda said looking to the green haired man in the white collared shirt with brown slacks, black shoes, and a yellow tie who typed furiously on a keyboard as he triggered and operated the traps of her lovely facility as well as ran his quiz game for prisoners and drank coffee; the man was a miracle worker.
"Hmm, yes, yes it's best this time around with all Chairman Cheadle is expecting of our prospect that we up the difficulty far beyond that of our previous exams." Oobleck added, "Besides, I know your cruel streak first-hand Oz and you can't say that this isn't right up your alley."
"Ah don't be so hard on Oz, he prefers the mind games to the flat out conflict." Walker said as he entered the control room, "Yo, Glynda, Oobleck!" He said with a wide goofy grin.
"Aren't you supposed to be taking failed candidates back home?" Glynda asked.
"He is, but he stepped off in the harbor after me. He tried being sneaky and concealing his presence." Ozpin explained sipping tea as Walker joined them and fixed himself a cup, kicking his feet back and placing them on the table as he leaned back in his chair.
"Eh Tyler can bring em back home fine without me, besides this Ruby girl has me interested. You know she's Summer's daughter right, a one in a million singularity! Summer and Qrow were both monsters, so I see the same spark in Ruby I saw in them." He said drinking his tea in one gulp as his hand shook, "I'm nervous just thinking about it."
"Well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested, but if you're here are you planning on helping us?" Ozpin asked.
"I can help with the final, with whatever you've decided Oz. Knowing you, you've already taken my Infusion Power into account and have changed Cheadle's orders to something more befitting Ozpin, the Great and Powerful."
Ozpin smirked, "It's been a long time since you've called me that, I believe it was six years ago, when we went to track down the S-Class Magical Beast Magmon."
"Yeah, but that was sarcastic, and it was mostly because I was trying to impress Summer." He replied with a smirk.
"As if owning a brigantine ship at age 15 isn't impressive enough?" He chuckled.
"Yeah, that was the first storm it weathered, and it was one hell of a screamer. But seeing another storm like it with Ruby has me anxious about what will happen here." Walker finished.
"Well let's return to the monitors then." Ozpin added looking at Team Jaune on the screen.
Blue 4-Team Jaune
Jaune and his team ran through the gate, quickly closing it behind them as the flames almost shot through the door into the big chamber they were now in. "Trust me, you said. There's no way they'd booby-trap a cellblock, you said. Care to rethink your stance on that!?" Jaune screamed at Nora.
"It worked out didn't it? I mean yeah those prisoners may be uncomfortably toasty now, but they have air-conditioning right?" She asked.
"Are-are you serious right now!?" Jaune declared.
"No, she's fucking with you." Ren said tapping him on the shoulder, "You mind not causing a scene?" Jaune looked and saw everyone gathered in the chamber, spotting all these Hunter hopefuls looking at him.
Caradin and the other friends of theirs walked over to them, "What about him?" Newt said pointing at Jaune jumping up and down in excitement.
"Hm, I don't know, maybe a 15?" Caradin said as the others stifled their laughter, while Pyrrha's brow furrowed.
"What's so funny?" Jaune asked.
"Nothing." Pyron said pursing his lips as he looked away.
"A power scale," Pyrrha said, "That's rude."
"Oh don't be mad, you're a 235!" Luxus said with a smile.
"Wait out of how many?" Jaune asked.
"500." Yang said as she looked angrily at Caradin, "I agree with her it's rude, Jaune is a 47 at least!"
"And you're not gauging latent potential!" Pyrrha complained, "Jaune is very powerful, he just needs to awaken that power!"
He lowered his head in shame, and walked away hurt but before Pyrrha could follow him, Ren walked beside Jaune. "I don't care what they think, man. I grew up in a place where it was dog eat dog, but in the face of terrifying shit you've show balls that no one where I'm from would have. You're cool." Ren said as he smiled then flinched, "Man, I am not used to this smiling stuff, don't know how Nora does it."
"You're telling the truth?" Jaune asked.
"Dude, with exception of the Phantom Troupe, at the first sight of automated machineguns, private mercenaries, or monsters most people from Meteor City would turn tail and run." He said, "Besides, Pyrrha's right. Your latent power far exceeds Caradin's, with a little polishing you'll outshine the smug bastard."
"Thanks, I needed to hear that." Jaune said with a smile as he rejoined the others, Come on, Ruby, we're waiting on you. He thought.
Red 3/ Blue 2/ Blue 1- Team ?
"This is stupid." Knives said looking over at the other three who'd entered the room with them, it was a large rectangular space with two doors at the back, a scoreboard on the left, a blank wall on the right, and a line of cells in front of them with the exit in the middle of the cells.
"It's not too bad, look there's Blake!" Ruby said waving at her friend.
"Deverou!" Weiss exclaimed waving at her butler wildly before seeing Ruby and Knives staring at her and she recomposed herself, "It's good you're okay."
"You as well lady Weiss, what's the point of this room?" He asked.
"Oh you've gotta be kidding me!" Came a voice from across the room as they turned to see a fat man with black hair in an orange jumpsuit, "I know we're weak, but kids!? We're fighting kids!" He exclaimed.
"Well Grif, considering your physical state it's good you get a fair fight." A man in a maroon jumpsuit with combed back brown hair added.
"Ha, good zinger Simmons! How's it feel to be compared to a teenage girl, dirtbag." A man in a red jumpsuit with short white hair and a scar over his right eye finished.
"Nice one Sarge, but don't let it get to you Grif, you have a wonderful appearance, it really brings out the zen of this room!" A man with blonde hair and a pink jumpsuit commented.
"Shut up Donut." Grif stated simply.
"All of you shut up!" A man with black hair and a beard in a light blue jumpsuit said, "You're giving me a fucking headache!"
"Church isn't that what your girlfriend said after the pounding last night? Bow-chicka-bow-wow!" A black guy in a teal jumpsuit said.
"Oh, hello new friends, I'm Caboose, and that's Church, and," Came a man with brown hair and a blue jumpsuit, "Tucker…" He said with disdain.
"What the actual fuck." Knives said looking at them as the man with Deverou approached them, "Hey ain't you that David kid?"
"Yes." He replied simply.
"Well uh," Ruby started, "I guess we're fighting?"
"Suits me fine." Sarge said, "So long as I can fight a dirty Blue! According to the Warden's rules you gotta win four battles to pass and they can be anything we choose." He said pointing to the scoreboard on the left wall.
"I'm not really a fan of the way he said that." Deverou said, "I'll fight you."
"Alright, the combat style is boxing, a good old fashioned way to destroy your enemies." Sarge said as he entered the center ring with Deverou, "Ready, Set, Go!" He said as he rushed in and Deverou delivered one blow to his stomach that sent him flying across the room and back into his cell.
"That's my win." Deverou said.
"Holy shit!" Church exclaimed, "He got fucked!"
"Bow-chicka, wait what am I doing, that's too easy. Besides I'm not gonna fight those girls, I'm a lover not a fighter." Tucker said as he returned to his own cell.
"Fancy punch butler." Knives said, "Okay, I'll take two of you on, for funsies."
"Ugh, Lopez!" Sarge called as he flopped back onto his bunk. A robot in a brown jumpsuit came out and assembled in the ring, "Grif you go too."
"Oh wow, you have faith in me?" His subordinate asked.
"No, you're half a man so as far as I'm concerned Lopez makes up the other one and a half needed." He coughed.
"Gee thanks." Grif said turning to look at the ring where in an instant Knives cleared the length of the arena with Lopez's head in his hand as everyone looked on in shock, "I-I surrender." Grif stammered as Knives tossed Lopez's head in his lap.
"Good man." He replied.
"Well that's technically a draw since the challenge wasn't declared and Grif surrendered so uh, next?" Simmons asked as Donut skipped into the ring.
"I challenge that pretty kitty over there!" He said pointing to Blake, "The challenge is balancing, can we get a tightrope?" He asked to the cameras in the corners of the room as the floor in the middle separated and a tightrope was revealed beneath. He walked out gingerly, and Blake walked across it no different than if she was walking on the ground before.
"So we just need to keep our balance?" She asked.
"And there are no rules. Go!" Donut said as he lunged to try and push her off and she tilted her mass so she fell, hooking her feet on the rope as Donut stumbled. She then flipped up and kicked Donut back to his side, and as he stumbled back into Grif. "Wow, you really are like a cat!"
"My win?" She asked to which Donut nodded and it was added to the current score.
"I'll go next." David said as the floor reassembled and Simmons entered the ring.
"Alright, mine is math! We ask each other a problem and so on, I'll start with a simple one, what's 137 times 562?" He asked.
"76,994." David answered. "What's the square root of 733?"
"27.07397274136177." Simmons responded, "What's the simplified form of the square root of x minus 49 over 35?"
"I, uh," David started as he actually began to think, "I don't know." He said as he turned and left and the score board dinged with a total of two to one.
"Alright, I'm up." Church said as he entered, "Oh and did I forget to mention if you fail to beat me and Caboose you won't be able to pass? Even if you beat me, if you lose to him you still don't have 4 wins."
"Then we won't lose." Ruby exclaimed as Weiss stopped her, "Weiss?"
"I failed in the last challenge, but I won't fail here. Let me face him, what's the challenge?" She asked as air rifles rose from the floor.
"Target practice." Church said as targets appeared on the far right wall. "Whoever gets the most points out of five shots wins." They grabbed their rifles and aimed as Weiss was nervous about the talent of her opponent until the first shot missed the target altogether and ricocheted off the wall and hit the scoreboard. "Dammit!" She smirked and aimed, firing off her shot and hitting the bullseye, "Lucky shot." Church added. However, four shots and four misses later he was out of things to say as Weiss hit the center with every shot.
"Father took me hunting before, if you ever want lessons in marksmanship feel free to ask." She said as her friends cheered. "I guess it's up to you Ruby."
"Yeah, uh, no pressure." She said entering the center with Caboose.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors will be our game." He responded as they took their stances. "First comes Rock, then comes Paper, Rock, Paper, Scissors!" He said throwing out rock as Ruby used Scissors.
"Shoot…" Ruby said as she tried to compose herself against her opponent, they eyes of everyone on her made her feel small and helpless. It was like on the ship when the captain made his presence known, she'd never done well with being the center of attention having a bunch of people talking to her and asking questions, she just wanted to run away but Caboose's voice brought her back to that reality.
"First comes Rock, then comes Paper, Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Caboose cried as she felt smaller than a flea and threw her hand out in fear. Ruby used Paper and Caboose used Rock again, she'd won one but now it came down to the wire and she was sweating bullets.
"Yo, Ruby. It's alright." Knives called from behind her, "You figured him out yet?"
She heard those words and realized she'd been too focused on the others looking at her that she didn't notice Caboose's nature, he was simple minded and had chosen a children's game, what's more he'd used rock two times in a row, so logically he'd use it again! "First comes Rock, then comes Paper, Rock, Paper, Scissors!" He cried as she knew what came next.
He threw out Rock once more and she covered with Paper, and like that it was over, they cheered and the door in the front opened for them, and as they walked through and entered the big room where everyone was gathered Ruby counted 120 participants including her group that had made it. The loudspeakers buzzed and they heard a new voice, "Hello everyone, my name is Bartholomew Oobleck and I am the Hunter in charge of the third stage of the exam, it'll be a grueling task ahead of you so if you want to back out, now's the time." He paused for half a second before resuming, "No one? Great, onward my friends!" He declared as the large gate at the other end of the chamber began to slowly open and they saw the scrawny man behind it, "The real test is just picking up speed."
With the second phase concluded, Ruby and Co move towards an unknown hurdle, but they've overcome them and are halfway to the end of their journey on the path of becoming Hunters. However what are Walker's cryptic words about Ozpin's plan, what is this third stage in store, and will our valiant heroes meet their end along the way or succeed? The remaining number of candidates is 120.
Okay, I know I kind of rushed things, but I want to get this Hunter Show on the Road so I can dazzle you all with Ruby's powers! Because nothing is more fun than the magical world of Nen, and so our next arc once the Hunter Exam concludes will be the Nen Training Arc. Be prepared for familiar faces :3
