It was a quiet night for everyone. My team was hanging out with team NPR (Jaune's not ther, get it?) to try and lighten the mood they've been in lately with Jaune not being around often and we were bored and figured we'd hang out with them. I was sitting on a bed next to Nora, trying to keep my balance and she continued to bounce in it, Daco was chillaxing on Jaune's bed, Nicolas was next to Pyrrha, looking out the window along with her, although he was looking at the stars, whereas she was just staring off into the distance and Damion was leaning up against the wall silently in a cool manner nearby Ren, who was silent as ever, caring for his weapons. "How come Jaune gets home so late?" Nora asked.
"He's become rather scarce since he's been fraternizing with Cardin." Ren said, looking down the sights of his guns.
"That's what happens when the biggest asshole in school gets dirt against you." I said, the guys nodding.
"That's weird. Doesn't he know we have a field trip tomorrow?" Nora asked as she kept jumping on her bed. "We need our REST!" She said, spinning and flipping in mid-air, landing on the bed in a laying down position, me rolling off just before she landed.
"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing." Pyrrha said in somewhat of an angered tone.
"Hmm... I guess so." Nora said, looking between me and Ren as if to ask our thoughts.
Meanwhile, Jaune was outside the dorm room, looking in through a cracked door, then looking down sadly.
"Hey, Jaune! Long time no see!" Ruby said as she came out of her dorm where hers and Serena's team were hanging out. "Did you lock yourself out again?" She asked, the guys laughing as he remembered the handful of times he's done so.
"Oh, uh, nope! Got it!" He said, holding up his key card.
"So, where have you been lately?" She asked.
"I, uh... I messed up." He said.
"Got that right, motherfucker!" I called out.
"I did something I shouldn't have and now Cardin's got me on a leash and Pyrrha won't even talk to me! I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea." He said.
"Loudly telling people HOW you got into this school was a bad idea!" I called out again.
"Do you have to keep doing that?" Damion asked.
"Sorry, Damion, I calls it like I sees it." I said.
Jaune then slid down against the wall onto the ground. "I'm a failure." He said.
"The first step towards recovery is acceptance!" I said.
"Progress!" Draco agreed.
"Like Catholic priests without a little Timmy glued to their crotch." Nicolas agreed.
"Ugh..." Damion groaned.
"Nope." Ruby said quickly.
"Nope?" He asked, looking at her.
"Nope. You're a leader now, Jaune! You're not allowed to be a failure." She said.
"Certainly a new way of looking at it." Damion said.
"But... What if I'm a failure at being a leader?" He asked.
"Hm... Nope." She said.
"Are you gonna say anything else?" Damion asked.
"Nope." She said simply.
"Today's chapter sponsored by word 'Nope.'" I said, rolling my eyes.
"You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff." He said as she sat down beside him.
"Nope." She said, causing him to hit his head against the door and the guys to fauce-vault. "Jaune, you may have been a failure when you were a kid," He sank down at this, "You might've even been a failure the first day we met," He sank even more at this, "But you can't be one now. You know why?" She asked
"Because if he does he'll die?" Draco asked.
"Because if he is he'll get kicked out?" Nicolas asked.
"Valid reasons." I said.
"Uh, because..." He started.
"Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do. Even Sai and Serena have a team." She said.
"What the fuck's that supposed to mean!?" I demanded.
"And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us." She said.
"I never fail." I said confidently.
"What about when you failed to kill your brother?" Damion asked.
"Silence! I keel you!" I said.
"We have to put our teammates first. And ourselves second." She said, standing up again.
"No problem for me. Every time we fight as a team, I'm always watching out for these guys." I said.
"Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you." She said.
"I don't." Draco said.
"Doubtful." Nicolas agreed.
"No way." Damion added.
"Only with A LOOOOOOOOOOOO-"
5 minutes later...
"OOOOOOOOOT of practice." I said.
"Have a good night, Jaune." She said, going back in her room.
Jaune was about to go into his room, when suddenly he got a call on his scroll. Guess who from? "Hey! It's your buddy, Cardin. I know you're probably with that dust project I gave you, BUUUT I'm gonna need your to go out and grab me a bag of rapier wasps." He said, catching Jaune off-guard. "And make sure they've got some REALLY big stingers. It's important, so don't screw this up." He said, hanging up. Jaune then sighed and went off to do this task.
"So, why aren't we helping him?" Damion asked.
"A: When he had the chance to get my help, he rejected it. B: This is something he must do on his own." I said in my wise-old-Asian-man voice.
The next day...
We were in a beautiful red forest, following Glynda as she lead us through the forest for the field trip. "Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall IS indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked ALL of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside the forest and I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so." She said.
"How encouraging." Serena whispered to Umbra as we all stopped and Jaune, who was carrying everything, bumped into Cardin upon stopping.
"This sort of reminds me of how I use pretty and shiny things to keep people away from my weapons cave." I said.
Flashback...
I finally put the last of my weapons in the cave, walking out and away a good distance, turning back and smiling, pleased with myself. "There. Finally, I can keep people, mostly Draco, away from my shit." I said.
"What, you just put it in a cave, how's that gonna stop anyone?" He asked, appearing from nowhere.
"Oh, don't worry, I designed it to be idiot-proof." I said.
"What about smart people like me?" He asked.
"Try it out." I said.
"Okay, here I go!" He said, going towards the cave, but stopped and turned to the glowing red red demon fruit a good distance away from the entrance. "Ooh, shiny... Very shiny- Cave! Shiny... Shiny... Very- cave... Ugh! I can't do it!" He said, coming back over.
"See? COMPLETELY idiot-proof." I said.
"Huh?" He asked.
"Uh... Smart proof." I said as we walked back over to it, looking at it again.
"Ooh, shiny... Touch!" He said, touching in and getting blown up in the process.
"It explodes whenever someone touches it." I explained.
End flashback...
"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, the forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates." She instructed.
"Why? You guys would just hog all the action." I said jokingly to the guys.
"We will rendezvous back here at 4 O'clock. Have fun!" She said.
We all went about our business, Jaune was going to go with his team, but Cardin grabbed him. "Come on, buddy! Let's go." He said. Jaune looked at his team sadly for a moment, but then complied and followed the bully.
A shot time later...
the members of team CRDL were all chilling and Jaune walked up with... Why 6? There's only 5 of you... 6 jars of the tree sap, collapsing to the ground afterward. "Hey, great work, Jaune-y boy. Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Cardin asked in his annoying fake-friendly voice.
"I think I'm allergic to this stuff." Jaune said in a weak/stuffed-up tone.
"Great, great, great." Cardin said uncaringly, now standing over the smaller male. "So, Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself: 'Why did my buddy Caridn ask me to collect 6 jars of tree sap when there's only 5 of us?'" He stated.
"That is one of the many questions I have asked myself today, yes." He said, nodding and sitting up.
"Well, come with me and you'll find out." He said, Jaune groaning. Shortly after, the 5 of them laid down army style at the top of a hill, peering over at the rest of us, Pyrrha popping up in front of everyone with a full jar. Most of the teams were working together, except my team, all 4 members chilling as I had my chains do all the work and Nicolas was singing Rollin' by Limp Bizkit.
"Is there anything you can't do with those?" Draco asked.
"There probably is, but I draw the line before testing the theory." I said as the chains handed each of us a jar.
Ren handed a jar to Nora and swapping it with the empty one she had. "Ooh..." She said as he turned and filled the next jar, all the while, a slurping noise could be heard, Ren turning back to see she drank the sap, the evidence coated around her mouth.
"Cardin, what's going on?" Jaune asked, looking at his dominator.
"Payback." He answered, not taking his glare of off... Guess who?
"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, looking at her, then back to Cardin. "What are you-" He started to ask.
"That's the girl. Red hair, know-it-all, thinks she's so smart." He said.
"Smarter than you!" I called from where I was.
He then pulled out a box, a loud buzzing noise coming from it. "Alright, boys. Last night, ol' Jaune here managed to round up an entire box full of rapier wasps." He explained, Jaune gulping nervously as he looked at the box in Cardin's possession as Russel put his hand on Jaune's shoulder, giving it a shake as if to say good luck. "And now, we're gonna put 'em to work." He continued, Jaune laughing nervously. "Now, according to one of the essay's you wrote for me last week, these nasty things LOVE sweets. I'm thinking it's time we teach HER a thing or two." He said, all of them standing up.
I growled at this and stood up myself. "And apparently, I have to teach YOU a thing or two." I said angrily, about to walk off, but suddenly, just like in the one Eminem music video I don't remember the name of the song to, my conscience came into play.
[Wait a minute! Remember what we said last night: Jaune has to do this on his own. We can't help him.]
We even said it in our wise-old-Asian man voice! Besides, Cardin's about to get his, anyway!
I listened to this, calmed down and sat back down. "Fine. I'll hold off. For now." I said.
"And YOU'RE gonna do it." Cardin said, roughly handing Jaune the 6th jar of sap.
"Do what?" Jaune asked.
"Hit her with the sap. Either that, or I'll have a chat with Goodwitch and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon." He threatened.
Jaune looked down at the jar in his hands, then at Cardin and his team, turning and actually got ready to throw it at Pyrrha, but then stopped, unable to go through with it. "No." He said.
"What did you say? Cardin asked.
"I said, NO." He said, throwing the jar at Cardin... Huh... You would've thought there'd be more on him after he threw a whole jar at him, but no, there were just two big spots on his chest that looked like big red eyes. Most of the team was just shocked and looking on, except for Sky, who was trying to cower behind Dove.
Cardin simply chuckled at this. "Oh, you've done it now." He said, Jaune raising his hands in defense as Dove and Russel grabbed him.
"Pack mentality! Not fair!" Draco called out.
"Sons of bitches." Damion growled.
"That's it. NOW I think it's time we got involved." I said, jumping into and through the trees into the clearing where they were, Cardin knocking Jaune down with a punch to the face, then picking him up and doing it again.
"You know that wasn't very smart, Jaune-y boy." He said, picking Jaune up once again. "I'm gonna make sure they send you back to Mommy in teeny, tiny pieces." He said.
"I don't care what you do to me, but you are NOT messing with my team." He said.
"There we go, Jaune. Starting to defend those you care about. That's some improvement, but I'd be more offensive if I were you right now." I said.
[Seriosuly, all he's gotta do is bring his legs up and kick Cardin in the chest to get free now.]
Or give him a nut check like he did to him in the last... the chapter before last!
"What? You think talk like that makes you tough? You think you're a big strong man now?" He asked, Jaune responding with a weak smirk. He threw another punch at Jaune's face, but then a blinding light filled the whole area. When it vanished, Cardin dropped Jaune and held the hand he punched with in pain.
"Huh?" Jaune asked as he started glowing, but this was stopped when Sky kicked him onto the ground from behind.
What a pussy!
[Time for our badass Spawn entrance.]
"I warned you, you piece of shit!" I said, descending on them, now looking like Spawn, knocking the 3 unimportant dipshits down and grabbing Cardin by the throat, lifting him off the ground. Suddenly, there was a loud roar and a giant ursai WAY bigger than the ones my team fought during the initiation, which were already much bigger than normal ursai, barreled in and knocked me away into a tree. "Oh, That hurt!" I said as I crashed into the tree.
It then reared up on its hind legs, identifying the source of what it wanted by smelling around, looking at the sap on Cardin's chest, dropping back down onto its hind legs and roaring at the leader of the team of pussies. Speaking of which: "That's a big ursai!" Russel said as he ran away after Sky and Dove did so, leaving Cardin to fend for himself.
My team quickly arrived on scene and all got ready to jump in, but I stopped them with my chains. "Wait! This isn't our fight." I said, although I did laugh when Cardin was smacked to the side and the ursai completely ignored Jaune.
Cardin pulled out his mace and prepared to defend himself, but the ursai easily smacked it away from him, sending the large mace to Jaune's feet. Jaune looked around, deciding what to do, the ursai roaring again, loud enough for those further away to hear. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked as she finished collecting sap.
At that moment, team RDL ran by them, although they were safe now, still running for dear life. "Ursai, ursai!" Russel called out, Yang grabbing him.
"What?! Where?!" She asked, holding him up off the ground.
He then pointed back the way they came. "Back there, it's got Cardin!" He said.
"And you left him?! The LEADER of YOUR team?!" Serena criticized.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha said in worry.
"Yang, Blake, you two go get professor Goodwitch!" Ruby ordered as Russel freed himself from Yang's grip and ran away again, the two of them taking off as well..
"You two go with them! There could be more!" Pyrrha ordered, Ren and Nora taking off after them. That leaves Pyrrha, Ruby and Weiss, who all ran to where Russel pointed to where the danger was.
Back with them...
Cardin ran as the ursai chased him, jumping to clear the distance and knocking him down once again. "Crap, crap, crap!" He said as he crawled away a bit.
"Not too fun to be on this side, is it?" I asked him tauntingly.
"So, are we gonna help before he gets killed?" Damion asked.
"No." I said.
The others arrived to see this predicament now. "Oh, no!" Pyrrha said. The ursai was about to swing down and finish Cardin, but its strike was blocked and held back by Jaune's shield. Weiss was about to jump in, but Pyrrha stopped her. "Wait!" She said.
Jaune then managed to force the ursai back and slashed its chest, causing it to roar in pain and stagger back. He then rolled out of the way of another strike, jumping over a low sweep from the ursai's left paw, but he was then caught by the other one, sending him skidding back across the ground, but he was back on his feet in an instant. "Good recovery." Damion complimented.
Jaune then rushed back in and did a jumping slash, but this was interrupted by the ursai smacking him away, causing him to crash into, skid and roll across the ground. "Yeah, you best not do that again." I told him.
It took him a little longer to get up this time, but when he did, he then consulted his scroll and saw his aura was in the red. The ursai then lumbered up towards him a bit, stopping a small distance away. He let out a battle cry and charged, the ursai roaring and doing the same. They then both got ready to strike, but I noticed something.
"Damn!" I said.
"What?" Nicolas asked.
"This is bad, he's lowering his shield as he's going for a stab. That wouldn't be MUCH of a problem, but the ursai is faster and at this rate it's gonna hit him first." I said.
"Yeah, that's not good." Damion said.
"Oh, dear." Draco said, pulling out a tombstone, starting to chisel in Jaune's name and date.
*In GOW's Gaia voice* But the fate of Jaune was not as it seemed... Pyrrha recognized the same thing I did and raised her hand, which was surrounded by a black energy, which then surrounded Jaune's shield and forced him to lift it. This allowed him to deflect the ursai's attack, bringing him down on one knee, but allowed him to take the opening it now had to deliver a swift and powerful strike, allowing him to slice off the massive monster's head.
"GODS-DAMN!" Serena and I said at once.
"Good work, Pyrrha." Selene said.
"Yeah, we saw what you did there." Damion agreed as the Spartan girl lowered her hand.
"Uh, what?" Ruby asked, confused.
"How did you..." Weiss asked.
"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, MY semblance is polarity." She said.
"Let's not undersell speed and glyphs, but that seems to be the most useful semblance in the show so far." I said, then paused for a second. "Except Yang going Super Saiyan, but right after that." I said.
"Whoa. You can control poles!" Ruby said amazed.
"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!" Weiss corrected.
"Yeah, bitch! Magnets!" Draco laughed.
"Fucking magnets! How do they even work?!" Nicolas asked.
"Do you even know those references?" Damion asked.
"No, but they were in some of those funny 'crack' videos and were too funny not to use." I said, then turned to the 4th wall. "Just go to YouTube and type in RWBY on crack. Then just go around and watch some videos, you're more than likely to find the ones I did." I explained.
"Magnets are cool, too." Ruby said as Pyrrha turned to leave.
"Wait, where are you going?" Weiss asked her.
"Yeah, we need to tell them what happened!" Ruby said.
"We could, or perhaps we could keep it our little secret." Pyrrha said as Jaune sheathed his sword.
"Why would we keep Jaune bringing down that giant fucker a secret?" I asked.
Jaune then walked up to Cardin and offered him his hand, helping him up. "Holy crap, Jaune!" He said, somewhat shocked.
"Don't EVER mess with my team, with my FRIENDS, ever again." Jaune said in a tough tone. "Got it?" He asked, walking away as Cardin just stood there.
"He's indeed come a long way. He will make a good leader one of these days. Now, then! Time for the omake I've been wanting to do for a while!" I said, ending this part of the episode/story,
Omake...
Cardin came out of his dorm as Nora was talking to every other important member of this show (So teams JNPR, RWBY, SUSN and BDSS) except me. "Yeah! Sai's setting up a BIG feast for all of us in celebration for all of us coming so far as teams and stuff! He's got a ton of awesome feast stuff! Munchies, chips, sandwiches, big meals and something called Spinach Artichoke dip that doesn't sound that good, but Sai said you HAVE to try it!" She said, continuing to list all the stuff I was going to be setting up (seriously, if you go to a restaurant that has it, you've GOT to try that shit. It's delicious). "He said it should be ready in about 20 minutes!" She said.
"Well, maybe I can go snag a few things for myself before everyone else hogs it all." He thought to himself, going down to the cafeteria. Just like Nora had said, the table was full of delicious-looking food, but what caught his eyes and annoyed him was a clear-as-day sign in the middle of the room that said "Cardin! Do NOT stand here!". He scoffed at this. "No sign tells me: Cardin Winchester, what to do!" He said arrogantly. Suddenly, a noise could be heard that sounded like something big and heavy falling down from the sky and a large anvil landed on the other side of the sign from him. "That was a close one!" He said. From up in the rafters, I growled at this and opened the scissors again to cut the rope on the piano I had dangling above in case the anvil missed. I cut the piano which then fell, but astonishingly, missed Cardin AGAIN! Crushing the sign, but not him. "Oh, man, someone should really do something about the ceiling!" He said in a scared/nervous tone, looking up a bit, turning when he heard a loud groaning noise as Nora came up behind him, grabbed him around the waste and smashed him into the ground, his legs making sickening snapping and cracking noises at the knees.
"There!" She said triumphantly.
"Oh, god, my legs! THEY! ARE! BROKEN! Oh, my legs!" He cried out in pain, continuing to cry as I came into view on the rafters.
"Hey, Cardin! What's the opposite of Christopher Walken?" I asked.
"Huh?" He asked in pain.
"Christopher Reeves!" I said as I jumped down from the rafters and came crashing down on his legs above the knee, breaking the rest of his legs.
"OW! That was in terrible taste!" He sobbed in pain.
"Don't care, fuck off." I said as everyone else arrived and sat down at the feast.