We arrived at Jamie Circle Garden a couple minutes late. Shade was outside waiting for us.
"Fashionably late I see. As a musician not bad timing. As a huntsman a couple minutes can be the difference between life and death." He said with his arms crossed. "Alright everyone around back so we can start. Gonna be a lot of work today since we've gotta put three days of work into two days."
We followed him to the back of the arena. He opened a back door and led us to the center of the dimly lit arena. There were a some large cases strewn out the large area. A couple of larger men were siting on the boxes waiting for us.
"Alright kids. Ozpin has informed me that you wanna improve your teamwork in time for the Vytal Festival. I'm sure he told you that my history at Beacon was similar to your leaders. What Oz probably didn't tell you was the story of what our team went though. We'll First off I doubt you've tried to literally kill each other yet." He said with a smile on his face. We were all in shock at what he had just said. "Yeah one of my teammates was an old friend of mine at one point. Something happened to make her seek revenge on me. Not even a week later we were friends again. My other teammates were guys I ended up meeting on a job I was doing at the time. So we all got along pretty well. Oz thinks I'd be the perfect person to help you out with teamwork. We'll to be honest I don't think there is much I can tell you guys. Our team just clicked with each other. Since you guys were determined for this though you get to set up the stage for my concert tomorrow. Normally Id have a whole crew to help but I think you guys can handle it. JB and KG over there have the blueprints for the stage set up and will be handling the electricity and pyrotechnics set ups. You guys will be building the stage to their specifications. Most of the stuff you'll need is in the boxes you see the rest is outside in the semi's. I'll be supervising in the stands." With that he walked off to the backstage area.
With JB and KG's instructions we started putting the stage together. Skyler's flying paired well with Cerise's semblance allowing them to get the higher parts of the structures together with minimal effort. Xana and I carried a majority of stuff from the trucks outside into the stage area. We had a good amount of the stage completed.
"Alright kids you're making good progress, but I can see none of you have noticed that your surrounded." Shade yelled from the stands. Suddenly the lights got brighter and all over the stands were members of the White Fang. "These are former White Fang members and mercenaries I used to run with. Their goal is to try to destroy the stage. Your goal is to stop them obviously. The lesson here is that danger can come from anywhere. You need to be alert at all times." He signaled for them to attack.
Skyler grabbed her boomerang from her back and broke it apart for it's dual sickles. She flew to try to knock as many members out of the sky as she could. Xana locked his kunai to their chains and tossed them at two members and managed to wrap them around their legs. Cerise started swinging her hammer at any member that got close to the stage. I stood on the stage and watched my teammates fighting while firing gravity rounds at anyone slipping though. I had to think of a way for us to battle as a team.
"Skyler catch!" I said throwing her a crystal of gravity dust. She caught it and looked at me confused. "Cerise. Xana on the stage now. Skyler put that in your boomerang and when I give the signal throw it at the ground pushing all the White Fang Members back to the wall."
Cerise and Xana rushed to the stage knocking as many back as they could.
"Cerise can you life the stage so it wont be touching the ground when she throws her weapon? If I'm right when her boomerang hits the ground it should trigger a shock wave hitting anything on the ground and knocking it back. If we can raise the stage off the ground it shouldn't get hit with the impact." I explained.
"I don't think so even if I could I'm pretty sure the stage will still feel some effects of the blast." Cerise said
"As long as everything was put together tight the damage shouldn't be to severe." Xana said
"Damn I was hoping to avoid any damage but it'll have to do. Alright Skyler throw it!" I yelled to her.
She threw her boomerang and the impact from the gravity dust launched every White Fang member towards the walls. The damage to the stage bent a few of the truss and broke a bunch of the lower panels. Other than that it seemed to be in decent shape. A majority of the White Fang members were out but there were sill a good amount remaining.
"Xana will your chains link together without the kunai?" I asked
"No the links are on the kunai." He said.
"Well there went that plan. OK Skyler does the dust affect your weapons sickle mode?" I asked
"To a lesser extent yeah. Why?" She asked.
I handed her an ice dust crystal and loaded my guns with ice clips. "You and I are going to form an ice prison. Xana and Cerise keep pushing them back its ready. Then we focus on getting all of them into it. Once they are you throw your boomerang and seal them all inside."
Everyone nodded and started their part of the plan Xana Locked a couple members in his chains and swung them at anyone who got close. Cerise used her semblance to throw them backwards. I fired at the ground forming a large square of ice. I switched to my blades and Skyler and I stabbed at the ice causing the walls to form. We signaled for Cerise and Xana to begin sending them over to us. Cerise used a piece of sheet metal to scoop us a bunch of the members and drop them into the structure. Xana collected members and threw them to the top where Skyler would kick them down inside the walls. A few of them she would hit with her sickles to send them down frozen to stop any of the conscious members from trying to escape. After they were collected Skyler put her blades together and threw her boomerang down to seal them all in.
"Excellent work guys." Shade said walking towards us and clapping. "The stage received minimal damage and you managed to defeat them all together. Now for the bad news. The stage you spent all day putting together is actually a fake. I purposely had you guys build a fake one knowing it was going to be destroyed."
Skyler collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. "You gotta be kidding me."
"Haven't any of you seen one of our concerts? The stage was way to simple for us. JB bring over the real blueprints." He said waving JB over. The design of this stage was defiantly more elaborate and was going to take much longer. "We'll brake for dinner and then start on the real stage after. We have a lot of work to do to get this place ready for tomorrow night."
I checked the time and it was already seven at night. Shade had Cerise free everyone from the ice prison we created. Shade had ordered pizza for us and he had us explain some of the things we'd already went though. After we ate and talked we got back to work. Shade gave us some extra help with the people he had dress up as white fang members. A few hours later we had made considerable progress. We asked shade if there was going to be another surprise attack and he told us there wouldn't be since we didn't have a lot of extra time. If we had the extra day like we originally planned there was supposed to be another test.
"Alright guys get some rest. As huntsman you'll have to be able to sleep in any conditions. So your choices are the floor or the seats. Normally on a mission you'd take shifts sleeping so someone could keep watch for any danger. Unfortunately that test has been scrapped due to time restrictions." Shade said gesturing to the sleeping bags by the walls with the rest of our stuff.
Skyler and I took the seats while Xana and Cerise slept in sleeping bags on the floor. Despite there still being a lot of noise with many of the crew members still working we all passed out fairly quickly. The next morning we woke up to the sound of the crew testing the pyrotechnics.
"Good morning." Shade said smiling brightly. We all groaned. "So the guys were able to get a lot more work done overnight than I originally planned. They got all the lights hooked up and the pyro is all set up perfectly. All we need to do now is lay out the wire covers and get all the extra equipment out of the way. If you guy scan get that done by noon I'll give you guys a surprise I think you'll like."
We got up and started working. Skyler and I laid out the wire covers and mats. Cerise and Xana collected the equipment and took it to the designated areas. Were pretty sure Shade had his crew scatter the extra stuff out so it would take longer to complete. Xana got ambushed by a fake White Fang member but Cerise took him out quickly. She scolded him reminding him that he needs to be paying attention at all times. Skyler almost got ambushed but she reacted in time and swept his legs causing him to land face first.
"I have to say the way Oz made it sound your teamwork was close to abysmal. You guys have nothing to worry about for the Vytal Festival. I won't say you have it in the bag since it depends who you end up facing but you have a good chance. On that note also remember to relax once in a while. Since you finished by the time I set I'll give you your reward. Each of you gets two tickets to my concert tonight." Shade said pulling a few tickets out of his pocket.
"Any chance of backstage passes?" Skyler said hopefully.
"You've already been backstage." He said smiling. "Unfortunately for reasons I can't disclose at the moment that isn't a possibility. I think everything is pretty much ready for tonight. You guys are free to go back to Beacon and get a little extra rest and figure out who your dates for tonight will be."
We took our tickets and got our stuff packed up. We decided to go to the same coffee shop from yesterday before we boarded the airship.
"So Cerise who are you bringing tonight?" Skyler asked
"Why are you asking me?" Cerise asked.
"Well I mean I'm bringing Nora I'm guessing Crimson will bring Weiss and Xana will bring Yang. So I was just curious who you were going to bring." Skyler said
"Actually I'm not sure if I'm going I'm not familiar with the band." Xana said
Skyler played Angel with a Shotgun (The Cab) and Reincarnate (Motionless in White) on her scroll for him. "So what do you think? They are awesome right?"
"It's OK but I kinda prefer more country music. If Yang wants to go I'll come but I think Id rather try getting a little practice in." Xana said. Skyler looked like she was about to tear into him but I stopped her.
"Easy Skyler not everyone likes the same music. If he doesn't wanna come that's his decision same with Cerise. The point of tonight will be to have fun with our friends." I said.
"I'm going. I just didn't say if I was bringing anyone." Cerise said
"That's fine but at least invite someone you can stand since he was nice enough to give us the tickets." I said.
"Fine. So How did your meeting with Weiss's dad go. I assume well since you two were hanging out after or was it a last date." Cerise asked.
"Right. I forgot about that." I said taking a more serious tone. "So for now we are allowed to continue the relationship. However we basically had to made a deal with the devil. If we win the Vytal Festival Tournament we are allowed to continue our relationship and he will hold a press conference announcing his daughters relationship and how happy he is for us. However if our team doesn't win not only are me and Weiss no longer allowed to date but I also have to leave Beacon Academy."
"So what does that mean for us? Your our leader. Are we going to be forced to leave with you or are you going to be split from us." Xana asked
"I assume that will be up to Professor Ozpin or you guys on what you'd rather do." I said.
"You realize that puts an immense amount of pressure on us right." Skyler said
"Or give us the right to screw you over for making a stupid decision without thinking of how it will affect us." Cerise said
"Yes to both and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten you guys involved. I let that bastard get in my head and I shouldn't have. Whatever decision you guys choose I'll accept it." I said.
We sat in silence for a while before someone spoke.
"Well all the work we've put into our team would go to waist if we choose to screw you over. I'm sure you were thinking this would give us extra motivation for the tournament. Well I'm motivated. I hate Jacques Schnee and I'll gladly take a chance to piss that fucker off." Cerise said.
"I'm in but you owe each of us for this." Xana said
"You are really lucky I'm a sucker for a good romance story. We're gonna kick major ass in the Vytal festival." Skyler said
"Alright Thanks guys I'll repay you all for this. I promise." I said.
We got back and Skyler and I gave our tickets to Weiss and Nora. Yang wanted to go to the concert but she decided to help Xana train instead. They were going to give their tickets to Blake and Sun but they already had plans. Same with Jaune and Pyrrha. Cerise gave her ticket to Coco. Skyler convinced Xana to give his tickets to Ruby and Velvet.
On the way to the concert Velvet and Ruby were talking about weapons. Coco and Cerise were taking about some fashion stuff. I didn't really understand most of it but I think Cerise and Coco made a date to go shopping. Me and Skyler mostly talked with our girlfriends. Coco asked us when Team CCSX were gonna take them on. Ruby said since I was on her team first that they get first dibs. Cerise reminded us that she and Xana wanted to face Cardin's team also. So we agreed that tomorrow we would fight Cardin and Ruby's teams. Then the following day we would take on team CFVY. The concert itself was a lot of fun. It was pretty late when we got back and we all passed out shortly after we got back to out rooms.
The next morning I woke up to a message from Velvet. She asked if there was somewhere we could meet up before our match with Cardin and Ruby's teams. I told her to meet me on the roof in a few minutes. Maybe she's worried about the last time me and Cardin met. I got dressed quick and headed up to the roof.
"Hey Velvet everything OK?" I asked
"Yeah. Coco said that you guys were taking on Cardin's team today. This doesn't have anything to do with me again does it?" She said.
"Well yes and no. When I told my team about my time here I mentioned the day me and Cardin fought. Cerise and Xana didn't appreciate the way he acted so they wanted to test them out. So it has to do with that day but it's also some practice for the tournament. I'd like a little revenge against him for myself for what he pulled in Emerald Forrest." I said
"I thought a grimm attacked and that's what caused you to have your panic attack?" She asked.
"It was but before the ursa showed up Cardin threw a jar of sap at me and releases a box of rapier wasps. The sap all over me attracted the grimm." I said
"I see. Just promise you won't go as far as you did last time. For me." She said.
"I won't. Were gonna try to take them out as quick as possible since we also have to face team RWBY." I said.
"Thank you. I know he was a jerk to me and I do thank you for getting him to back off. He's just not worth the effort." She said.
"Yeah I know if my team didn't wanna take him on I wouldn't have given him a second thought. Well I should probably see if my team is ready. I'll see you at the fight." I said starting to walk away.
"Umm can I talk to you about something else quick?" She asked.
"Sure what's up?" I asked walking back towards her.
"W-well I've got someone I like but I'm pretty sure they like someone else. I'm not really sure how to tell them how I feel." She said.
"Well I can say from experience you don't wanna wait to long cause it might be too late. I thought I was gonna lose Weiss to Neptune. I probably shouldn't say this but Ruby just had her heart broken because she liked Weiss and lost her chance. If you think the person you like isn't in a relationship you should make your move while you can." I said.
"Alright I'll think of something. Thanks for the advise Crimson." She said.
"Of course. I should probably get ready. I'll see you later Velvet." I said heading back to my dorm.
I got back and my team was finishing up getting their gear together. As soon as I was ready we went down to the training hall. Cardin and his team were already there waiting for us.
"I was starting to wonder if you were gonna show up." Cardin said resting his mace on his shoulder.
"Figured we'd give you time to warm up." I said.
"I'm surprised you'd still wanna show your face around this school after we all saw you bitch out against one ursa. That Jauney Boy had to take out for you." He said. I hadn't noticed but Team RWBY and JNPR had arrived in the arena.
"Jaune has become a great fighter. He's not the nervous kid you used to pick on. He's more of a man than you could ever hope to be. Yeah I had my issues from my past that came back to haunt me but I've moved on from that. I thought after I kicked your ass last time you'd have changed too. Guess we'll just have to teach you that lesson again." I said
"You got lucky last time and pulled a cheep shot. You think you and your team of rejects can beat us." He said gesturing to his team.
"Are you guys seriously gonna talk all day or are we gonna see some action?" Coco said entering the arena.
"I had to stall since you took forever to show up." I said
We squared up with Cardin's team. Sky started by firing shots towards Cerise. Skyler intercepted them and reflected them back at him. Russel rushed at Skyler but she flew up and he ran right into Cerise's hammer. Sending him flying into Dove. Xana caught Sky and sent him flying into Russel and Dove. Skyler placed lightning dust in her boomerang and threw it at the pile of bodies causing them to all flail around as the electricity flowed though each of them. Dropping all of their auras to red. Cardin stood looking on at his team.
"So I can't help but notice a bunch of rejects just wiped out the majority of your team." I said as my team surrounded Cardin. "So I'll give you one chance. Give up now or we'll pound your face into the ground." I said with a smile on my face. I saw Velvet in the stands it looked like she was getting worried.
Cardin fired off a blast towards me. The impact knocked me back a bit. Xana hooked Cardin's mace with his chains and pulled it out of his hands. Skyler flew up above Cardin's teammates. Cerise hit him towards Skyler and she kicked Cardin to land on his teammates. Finishing him off.
I looked over to the stands "Alright I think were warmed up. Ruby you guys ready?"
"Yeah but don't think were gonna go easy on you just half our teams are dating!" She said pulling Crescent Rose out.
Cardin's team trudged out of the area. I think Cardin's pride was shattered. Ruby's team dquared up across from us ready to fight. I had a bad Idea but I was going to do it anyway. I activated my semblance.
"Hold on before we start there is something I have wanted to test for a while." I said walking over to Yang. I pulled a strand of hair off her head. Yang got pissed instantly and punched me as hard as she could and knocked me into the wall. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that a quarter of my aura was gone even after activating my semblance. "OK guys that was one punch and she just evaporated the boost of aura I got from my semblance. Watch out for that." I walked back over and readied up for our match.
"Do you really think that was smart?" Cerise asked
"Nope but that's a side effect of fearlessness. Stupidity." I said smiling
Cerise just looked at Weiss. "What do you see in him again?" Causing Weiss to blush.
I charged toward Blake and began slashing at her. She blocked most of my attacks and the ones she didn't she let her shadow take. When her shadow would vanish she would fire a round at me. I was able to block a few of them with my sword but plenty of them got to me.
Skyler took after Ruby slashing with he sickles Ruby blocked each strike with Crescent Rose. She sired off a few rounds towards the ground to try to get some distance but Skyler was able to keep up with her.
Cerise swung wildly at Yang but the blond brawler was able to dodge just in time. The quickness of the swings didn't give her a lot of chances to fire back.
Xana tried to keep his distance and fired at Weiss from his kunai's pistol mode. She used her glyphs to block most of his shots. The ones she didn't block missed completely. He kept moving all over knowing if he didn't keep his movements random that she could use a glyph to slow him down. He kept firing at Weiss with one of his pistols and focused on Yang. They both began to glow green. Cerise noticed and stopped swinging at Yang and switched to her buzz saw mode and ran over to help Skyler with Ruby. Yang charged at Weiss and landed a shotgun punch to Weiss's head sending her toward Xana. Xana linked his chains to his kunai and wrapped the chains around Weiss and Yang's legs. He swung Weiss towards Blake and Yang towards Ruby. Yang had just came out of her manipulation as Xana threw her. I saw Weiss flying towards me and caught her.
"I know you couldn't wait to see me but we are in a fight." I said smiling before throwing her in the air. I grabbed her legs and spun her so she would fly towards Blake. She recovered quick and bounced off a glyph towards me. Our blades traded blows multiple times. Before I could react she had formed a bunch of glyphs surrounding us. She launched herself rapidly striking at me as she bounced off each one.
Ruby used her burst of speed to get distance from Skyler and was able to gain equal ground against her blade strikes. Cerise was about to slice at Ruby when Blake kicked her away.
Yang caught up with what happened and was furious. She charged at Xana. She had been training with him and knew his weaknesses. However so did he. When she went to hit him he jumped over her and locked his chain around her arm. He locked her other arm behind her back so the barrel of the gauntlet wasn't able to hit him. He used her chained hand to make her punch herself. Causing everyone in the crowd to laugh. She smiled and started rubbing her but on Xana causing him to blush and loosen his grip. She turned around and gave him a shot to his crotch. Taking him out of the fight.
Cerise had switched back to her hammer to block Blake's blades. She jumped back and took a big swing and threw her hammer at Blake. She used a shadow clone to evade but Cerise used her semblance to redirect the hammer to still strike Blake. The force of the hammer's strike knocked her near the wall with her hammer still following it slammed Blake into the wall. Depleting her aura.
Skyler and Ruby's blades continued to spark as they clashed. Their battle managed to circle the arena multiple times. The only time Ruby fired from her rifle was to close the distance in the air. She knew better than to fire at Skyler since it would just ricochet right back at her. Cerise used her semblance to launch her hammer full speed towards a distracted Ruby knocking her to the ground. Skyler combined her blades and added gravity dust to her boomerang and threw it at Ruby. The impact hit everyone on the ground. Ruby barly managed to escape the weapon directly hitting her but the wave of energy sent her Yang and Cerise flying back. Knocking them all out of the fight. Skyler went over to apologies to Cerise but she yelled at Skyler to go help me finish the fight.
The impact knocked me and Weiss back. She used a glyph to block most of the impact. I dug my swords into the ground to try to lessen the impact. My hands slipped off of them and I was sent rolling backwards. I had just a sliver of aura left while Weiss and Skyler both had half of theirs. I tried to run to grab my swords but before I could grab them Weiss stepped between them and me. She kissed me on the cheek then kicked me back knocking me out of the match.
Skyler had put fire dust in her boomerang and split them into her sickles again. She swung wildly at Weiss but every strike was blocked perfectly. Skyler flew to the opposite side of the arena and dive bombed towards Weiss. Weiss used a glyph to launch herself towards Skyler. At the last second Skyler put her blades together and used the boomerang to take the impact of Weiss's Rapier. Causing a huge explosion in the center of the arena. When the smoke cleared both Weiss and Skyler were on the ground and the scoreboard showed both their auras.