Rick was up and at it long before ROSA was up, they found him going through his pack.
"Rick, what are looking for?" Shaun asked in annoyance, expecting to get a stupid answer like he was used to.
"This," Rick said holding up his old weapons harness, "Got approved last night."
ROSA looked at each other in shock, they knew that Ozpin was meeting with Rick but didn't expect this.
"But…" Owen began when he was cut off by Alex.
"So, you're back in the game?" He asked with a slightly sadistic grin.
"OOOOHHHHH YEAAAAAAAAAAH," Rick said in his best macho man voice, "I am going to wreck some face."
Shaun got over his shock, "So…Rick, I hear you got caught."
Rick laughed at his friends' bluntness, "Yep, they got me. Teams RWBY and JNPR don't joke around, they took me down hard."
Alex laughed at that, "So by that you mean they got lucky? I feel like you would have just escaped if it got hairy."
Rick replied, "Yeah, well, they did get lucky, but they put up a good fight. If not for that dust I stole from your pack, they would have gotten me anyway."
Alex face turned into exaggerated anger, "You stole my dust, how dare you."
"In all seriousness, did anyone of them actually beat you?" Shaun asked, trying to piece it together.
"Yeah, I think that Pyrrha could take me, as well as Blake," Rick said somberly, "I feel like she wasn't fighting at full power."
The conversation was interrupted by Shaun's stomach growling, as well as Alex's.
"Sounds like you need some grub," Rick said with a goofy grin, "Go on ahead, I already ate. Besides, I need to adjust this old thing."
The team left, all of them not wanting to see what Rick could do with a few straps of leather. They arrived at the cafeteria, which RWBY and JNPR had already sat down in. They were discussing Rick.
"I still don't think we should give up a friendship because of it," Ruby pleaded to her team, "Besides, he never tried to kill us."
"He almost got you killed," Weiss said back angrily, "What's to stop him from doing some crazy stunt like that again?"
"I agree," Blake said sullenly, "I feel like he is a danger to everyone around him, even if it is unintentional."
"But…" Ruby said before Yang cut her off, "He put you in danger, he's lucky that I didn't break his jaw."
"Uh…guys?" Jaune tried to say but was cut off by Pyrrha, "I think that he is still a friend, he would never try to hurt us and you heard what caused all of it, the White Fang. It's no wonder that he tried to fight back."
"Uh…guys?" Jaune tried again but was cut off by Weiss, "He is a filthy vigilante who tried to kill us!"
Ruby jumped in, "Kill us?! If he wanted us dead why didn't he just let the Ursa have me?"
"OK, maybe not kill, but he was willing to fight back. What if he does it again? In a different setting? He is capable of more violence than the White Fang!"
"Guys?" Jaune tried to start, pointing behind the groups, but was cut off by Pyrrha, again, "Are you saying that Rick could be worse than the White Fang? In most of my research the Axman has only killed about five people in his career."
"But how many has he left beaten and broken in an alleyway?" Weiss almost shrieked.
"Too many to count," Came a new voice, Ben and the rest of EMBR had walked in behind ROSA, "And he never tried to kill."
"You," Weiss said as she jumped up from the table, "You knew about this and you never told the authorities?!"
"Why no, I didn't," Ben said with a stare down of the heiress, "I though it was better than letting some mother never get to see her child again because some sick ass decided that she was to be the magnum opus of his face collection!"
Weiss stared at the assassin in shock, her rage showing clear on her face.
"Besides, you act like you never took to the streets and beat the ever living crap out of a dude." Alex said with a grin, making the heiress even angrier.
"I have never done that!" Weiss yelled at the fox faunas, not noticing that the rest of her team had a guilty look on their faces.
"Really? You have never beaten someone up for a good reason?" Richard asked as he sat down at the table.
"No, I have the decency to obey the law." Weiss said indignantly, still not seeing the looks of her team.
"Well, maybe you should." Richard replied as he started to eat his pancakes, Weiss was more than enraged enough for now. She sat down and ate her breakfast, it was an awkward silence until Nora spoke out, "Hey, what gonna happen to Rick? I really can't wait to see him again, he was awesome!"
OSA chuckled before Shaun replied, "I think you're going to find out pretty soon."
JNPR and RWBY were going to ask when the bell rang for class; the conversation was cut short when OSA ran for it.
"Huh, what was that about?" Jaune asked as he followed them, along with the rest of the gang. They arrived at combat training, and what they saw was quite shocking. One, Rick was there, Two, he had that stupid grin on his face, Three, he had on what looked like as many weapons as he could possible fit.
He wore his school uniform with a new harness; it was a strange combination of art and insanity. It had loops everywhere, all of which had a weapon in it. He had his axe on his right hip, a machete on his right shoulder, a pair of knives in his shoes, and a pistol on his left hip. All in all, he looked like he was going to tear a person a new one.
Weiss was the first to react, "How are you here!? Why aren't you in prison?"
Rick was almost pushed back by the sheer force of the anger, but still had enough strength to reply, "Well, I am here to sharpen my skills, become a hunter, and to protect the innocent. And apparently deal with an ice princess who has had a few too many shots of anger."
Weiss almost charged the teen when she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Rubys. That young beautiful face was enough to calm her down, after words Ruby asked, "Rick, what happened last night with Ozpin?"
Rick laughed, "Nothing really, he just signed my papers that allowed me to pack these beauties."
Jaune jumped in, "So, are you OK? Did we hurt you last night?"
"Only my brain," Rick said, with the obvious sign that last nights events were to remain secret, "That study session was hard work."
Weiss almost commented when Goodwitch walked in, "Students, take your seats."
As the students sat, Goodwitch continued, "We are going to have some of the last set of duels before the Vytal tournament. These aren't going to determine if you can participate, but they should give you an idea of where you stand. The first match: Rick Grimmes VS Pyrrha Nikos."
The two fighters walked into the arena, each one knowing how it was going to end.
"Why? I though it was established that Pyrrha could kick his ass, why are they dueling?" Owen asked, trying to wrap his head around what was happening.
Shaun sighed, "They are showing teams RWBY and JNPR that Rick can be defeated, this will allow them to be more commutable around our psychopath and, hopefully, allow him to regain their trust."
They were interrupted by the bell ringing, Rick shot towards Pyrrha like a cannon. He came in with his axe and machete, swinging them both in tangent. Pyrrha was quick to dodge and land a strike on Ricks side, or at least try to. Rick had changed his weight, sending him beyond the reach of Pyrrhas spear. Rick charged again, this time swing his weapons in a pattern. It served as a meat grinder, and Pyrrha had to keep on her toes to dodge.
She stopped him by blocking his axe with her shield, before performing a kick to the jaw that sent Rick flying. In a split second, she had been able to pull Ricks axe from his hand, Rick was quick to recover. Rather than fighting with just his machete, he dropped it and pulled out his two boot knives. As he charged in, his style was noticeably different. It was more focused on speed now, forcing Pyrrha to adapt.
She had no time to dodge so she was drawn into a game of block and attack, her training giving her an edge. She discovered a problem, though; Rick seemed to be switching his style to match hers. She noticed this as she found herself on the receiving ends of a hard strike.
They broke off to assess their injuries, Rick had definenitly received the worst of it. His aura was in the yellow, and his opponents was in the green. He gauged his options, he had known that he was destined to lose but he had to prove that he wasn't weak. Rick suddenly smiled; a plan had come to his mind. Rather than charge, he started jumping in place.
Pyrrha had no idea what was happening, but she saw her chance. It was far too open, but she had to risk it, she charged at the fighter. The Spartan realized her mistake for Rick suddenly started darting around her, attacking at any opening she had. Her mind reeled, his style was so chaotic, so random, so…insane that it was impossible to predict. Pyrrha tried to break off, but was shocked to find that Rick had come in behind her and struck at her.
Pyrrha had a slow realization, she could beat him in a fair fight but he didn't fight fair. She smiled, she had one last technique. Rick stabbed and suddenly felt the knife pulled forward, leaving open his back. The blow was sudden and quick; Rick fell to the floor in the red.
Teams RWBY and JNPR looked at Pyrrha in shock, and with a small amount of hope. Rick picked himself up before turning his back to the crowd; he smiled his dumb smile and winked at Pyrrha. She smiled back, before walking off the stage. As Rick started to walk off stage, Goodwitch started talking, "The next match will be between Richard Necro and Cardin Winchester."
Richard looked at the teacher in shock, he had voiced his complaints to his friends and now suddenly he had a chance for payback. Ozpin must pay attention to more than he claims; Richard approached the arena his fist twitching in excitement. Cardin followed suit, this time with a snarky grin.
"Gonna beat you, animal lover." He snarled as he approached the Monk, who replied in kind, "I am going to break you."
As the two took positions, Richard focused on his opponent.
Focuses on strength to beat his opponents, I can exploit that for an easy win. As he thought this a picture of Velvet came into his mind, he shook his head. No, I am going to make him pay.
The buzzer sounded, Richard charged with his twin blade. Cardin was quick to block, and proceeded to try and crush the Monk to the floor. Richard twisted away, before taunting, "Is that how you handle foes? So far I only see you picking on the weak, you scared of a real fight?"
Cardin's' turned into a mask of rage as he suddenly charged, only to find that Richard wasn't there anymore.
"Too slow asshole." Came Richards's voice from behind him, which he tried to crush. He turned to see that Richard was no where in sight. He suddenly felt a blow to his side; Cardin tried to turn but was again hit by a blow to the other side. Soon his body became wracked in pain as Richard seemed to be everywhere at once.
"Whoa, how is he?" Ruby asked out loud, only to be surprised at the reply.
"His semblance," Rick said from her back, "In combat his reflexes increase tremendously, allowing him to move at what seems like a blink of an eye. Only one distinct problem the distance he can cover is so short, he can't go farther than three feet. It also only last a short time, we've clocked it at maybe half a minute."
Ruby stared at Rick who asked, "What?"
"You…sounded smart there for a second." She replied with a giggle.
"Hey…" Rick started but heard a hard crack that snapped his head back to the arena, Richard had pinned Cardin to the ground. He was currently shoving his fist firmly into the bully's colon.
"I want to kill you," Richard said coldly to the bully, "But I was taught to forgive, so guess what? You get to keep walking on two legs, and I get the satisfaction of beating you."
As he said those last words, he slammed the teens head into the ground and put him in the red. The room went quiet, the students where all shocked at the savage display of violence. All except for Rick and Ben, who merely smiled grimly at the fight? The bell rang shortly after that, both of the fights took longer than expected. ROSA and EMBR raced out before anyone could ask any questions, the day went on without incident.
Soon it was time for lunch, where the four teams met up.
"So, you see the list for some of the fighters?" Ruby asked everybody, trying to break the tension.
"No, I didn't," Rick laughed as he pulled them up, "I'll look now, see if any of our friends are coming."
"Oh, that reminded me. Guys, Aedan, coming to town." Emily said with a lot of enthusiasm, excited at the name.
"Old whiskey?" Shaun burst out, "That old coot gonna show up for us?"
"Yep, he also say's that you still owe him a contest of strength." Emily laughed, very happy to be breaking the tension.
"Yeah, doesn't he still owe Rick one too?" Ben laughed out as well.
"Wait…Whose Aedan?" Weiss asked, obviously very confused.
"He runs a bar in our old town," Emily explained, "He served as a kind of informant for us and the police."
Weiss's eyes narrowed, "Did he know about Rick?"
Shaun burst out laughing, "Of course he did, he gave us all information on targets. As well as a few shots on the side."
"WHAT?" Team RWBY and JNPR yelled.
"Relax guys, it was a code name for information that he was slowly gathering," Rick said as he continued to scroll, "Only Shaun and I actually drank with him, even then he watched us to see if we were getting to much."
"What gives the right to…" Weiss tried to ask before being cut off by Yang, "So, how much can you stow?"
"We don't know, don't care," Shaun said as Rick was still scrolling, "Probably a lot, we both grew up in the country. We had some moonshine makers there."
Weiss and Yang were both about to start talking when Rick suddenly punched the table, making a decent dent. The teams where shocked by this but where even more disturbed when he stormed off.
"What was that about?" Yang asked as Ben picked up the dropped scroll.
"Bloody hell," Ben suddenly burst out, much to the surprise of the teams, "From Hunter academy Fate, Mary…Grimmes."
The table went silent, before Ruby asked, "Uhm, who's that?"
"You dolt!" Weiss yelled, "Its someone in his family, probably his sister."
"Yep," Richard began, "It's his younger sister."
"But, how did she?" Ruby asked before Richard cut her off, "Aren't you a prodigy? Same exact thing."
Ben chirped in, "Only, she isn't as nice and sweet as you. She is a cold hearted bitch, sooner throw you into the fray and run. Problem is, she's smart, and I mean smart. She passed the test into the school with all A's."
"Yeah, she is kinda of a pain," Shaun broke in, "And she loves to flaunt that she is smarter than everybody, especially to Rick."
"She always excelled at school while Rick barely scrapped by," Emily added, "She always put Rick down, even if he did well."
"As you can see, not the best relationship," Ben joked before turning serious, "And now she's coming to the tournament."
Weiss chimed in, "If she's such a prodigy, why isn't she here?"
"Don't know, probably just to spite Rick. They were at the same academy, remember?" Richard spoke.
"Anyway we should probably find him before he does something stupid." Emily said as the teams got up. Teams RWBY and JNPR also got up.
"Rick's our friend, too. Why don't we look together?" Ruby said as they zipped out of Beacon.
Ben smiled, "Sure, would help to have a few extra hands with us."
In town…
The teams had just arrived, using Ricks scroll to try and pinpoint his location. They had checked the entire school, even going through the forest briefly, before Jaune had the scroll idea. Anyway, the teams all started walking towards what the scroll said was Ricks location.
"So…why do you two seem to know Rick best?" Blake suddenly asked Ben and Richard.
"We actually knew each other before we ever went to Fate," Ben replied, "We grew up together, and we were best friends."
"If that's the case, why aren't you teammates?" Ruby broke in.
"At Fate, we do things differently," Richard said to the young girl, "We take a written test. It first put us in teams, and then it chooses the leader."
"How did Rick out due…anyone?" Weiss asked, curious about how Rick actually became a leader.
"It wasn't that he made good plans," Shaun answered as he checked his scroll, "It was his plans where so crazy no one could predict them, much less counter them."
"Cool," Ruby giggled, "But another question, why have you talked about Rick yet never yourselves?"
Ben suddenly laughed, "You never asked, if you want to know. I hail from a small town of farmers. It was a pretty peaceful town, lots of people who were probably insane, but it was nice. My family was always big on weapons, we preferred blades to bullets, but we enjoyed them. I was kind of socially awkward, and then I met Rick."
Ben paused to check his scroll, "Hanging out with that idiot taught me some things, primarily that I wasn't the strangest person out there. Anyway, me, him, and the rest of the gang all graduated at the same time, I actually didn't apply to Beacon, at first, because I wanted to stay close to home. Then I actually tried the work, and the rest is history."
"So…what your story?" Yang asked suddenly to Richard, who replied with a grunt.
"I was raised in a monastery, near Ben and Rick's hometown. I was taught by the monks in the ways of combat, and by the school in the ways of social etiquette."
"Who were the monks?" Blake asked, suddenly more interested.
"A group of faunas, all of whom where against the White Fang. They sought to make a peaceful existence with humans, but they did it through calm meditation. Proving that all faunas weren't thieves or murderers," Richard replied, before suddenly turning sad, "At least they tried, I was trained as a body guard for the group. Once I had finished Fate, I was supposed to return."
Richard and Bens face suddenly fell, while Blake hid her reaction.
"A few days before I left, the place was attacked. The White Fang had decided to try and disguise it as a human attack to garner support, but they didn't count on me. I was able to fight off a few, but they burned the monastery to grounds. After they had locked the great doors, I was the only one who escaped. All I had was my weapon, my twin blade, the clothes on my back, and evidence. I had been able to prove what had happened to the authorities, who tried to help out. The White Fang, however, disappeared."
The teams had fallen silent, before Shaun broke in, "Anyway, after that he joined up with his team at Fate, now onto me."
Teams RWBY and JNPR shot the wolf a dirty look, before seeing that he was just trying to change the subject.
"I was raised in the outskirts of out town; I and my family were hunters and whiskey brewers. I lived pretty uneventfully, until I met Rick. The pair of us were pretty much rivals, we always tried to out do each other. Learned my lesson when he became leader and I didn't."
Alex chimed in, "Yeah, I pretty much had the same life, except for the fact that my family didn't brew whiskey."
Owen also chimed in, "I pretty much just lived in town, and I was trained by my father in the ways of the law. I knew how to handle something, at least I thought until I fought in the school against Emily."
"Yeah, kinda kicked his ass," Emily smiled, "I grew up in town as well, but I was trained by my brother. I worked long and hard until I could compete, and then I brought home trophies. Any way, I just didn't have the ability to go to Beacon until I was transferred; the scholarship saved me big time."
The groups looked expectedly at Micca, who shrugged, "My life is pretty boring, and is that Rick?"
The group spun around, and what do you know, the psychopath was there. He was sitting in a park, bottle of root beer in his hand. He took a swig, before he noticed the group.
"Uh, did you guys look for me," The groups nodded, "For 6 hours?"
The teams did a double take, Weis checked her scroll. Sure enough it was six o'clock.
"Guys, curfew is at 8, and it takes at least an hour to get back." Emily said, looking around.
"We should probably run." Rick said as he picked himself up, and started jogging. Soon, the rest of the teams started to follow. They ran and ran, dodging cars, running over people, and at least once, ran into a wall. Pretty soon they reached the airship; at least they got there as it was leaving.
"Oh, no ya don't." Ben yelled as he turned his weapon into chain mode and swung it, burying it into the metal skin. He used it as a swing to get on the ship, followed by the rest of the teams.
"You know they stopped it for us, right?" Richard annoyed.
"Eh, what can you do?" Ben said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
The argument lasted until the got back to Beacon, where there was a cry of fear followed by a roar. Students fled towards the airship desperate to escape the Ursa herd.
"So, Port?" Rick asked out load, thinking about so many could be released at the same time.
"Yeah!" Velvet yelled as she ran onto the ship, behind Richard. The pair briefly unbalanced by the sudden shift in weight, before Rick yelled, "Teams, protect the airship, keep these sissies safe. Ben you're with me."
"What are you going do?" Ben yelled out.
"I am going to THE weapon." Rick smiled evilly.
"But, Rick…you said." Ben began before he was cut off.
"I said there is a time and place for it, and that time is now." Rick yelled as he started running towards his room, leaving the four teams behind. As he and Ben approached the apartment, they noticed that the battle seemed to have turned. With EMBR in the lead, the students were actually fighting back.
"Good, they're distracted," Rick yelled as he entered the dorm building, "Gives me more time to prepare."
The pair ran into the dorm, where Rick dug out a pretty big package.
"Rick, are you sure?" Ben suddenly asked, a little scared of the package.
"Oh, yeah." Rick said as he opened it.
Meanwhile, back at the field…
Ruby was currently holding off an Ursa that had gotten its paws locked with Crescent Rose, making Ruby stuck in a bad position. She was happy that everyone else was at least giving her some protection, Yang was beating a Ursa to death, Blake was doing quick runs to cause as much pain as possible, Weiss was providing long range magic attacks to keep off more, and JNPR was currently holding their own, Pyrrha doing the best.
"Guys, we need a better position." Emily yelled before suddenly being cut off by a strange revving. Everyone, even the Ursa, paused at the sound. At the same time they could make some strange singing.
"I'm a lumberjack now baby." Sang out, before revving the sound again, suddenly Rick jumped from the sky. He was currently holding a chainsaw, while singing that strange song.
"I'm a lumberjack now baby." He belted out as he chopped down an Ursa, the machine's grinding teeth making short work. He turned to the other Ursa's and started to charge, the chainsaw made short work of any in its path. The flesh was cut, the armor mulched. Essentially, he wrecked everything; finally it came down to the last one.
"Why does he do these things?" Ruby asked kinda sick from the carnage.
Rick paused and turned his head, "Because that's the way we like it."
He proceeded to violently start cutting the thing to shreds, much to JNPR and RWBY'S disgust. After he was done they noticed that he was just bathed in blood.
"Are you OK?" Jaune asked as he started to approach Rick, who put up his finger in a "Wait" Gesture. Ben threw him a rag, which he used to wipe his face.
"Sorry about that," Rick said as he slung the chainsaw into a harness of his back, "Only problem of such an awesome weapon, gets blood everywhere. I don't know bout you, but I would rather not have to swallow Grimm blood."
Weiss looked at the teen with puzzlement, "Why haven't you used that before?"
Rick laughed, "Well, 1. I just finished the harness for it before I got the weapon order, and 2. It cuts through Aura in a matter seconds. I would kill whoever I used it on."
The conversation continued on as they walked away, but Ruby hung back. She noticed that Micca was also staring at the carnage.
"So, disgusting, right?" She asked trying to make conversation.
"No, it's just…" Micca began, but shut her mouth before she continued.
"Really?" Ruby said in shock, "I thought it was gross, what are you thinking about?"
"It's…nothing." Micca began but Ruby cut her off, "I can tell when someone is in distress, come on Micca."
"All right," The faunas burst out, "I designed a way for Rick to protect himself against this type of stuff."
Micca suddenly looked embarrassed before Ruby started laughing.
"You designed a mask," Ruby burst out, "Micca, you like don't you?"
Micca looked like she was about to throttle the young huntress, before her face went red again.
"In his words, is it really that obvious?" She asked, a little concerned.
"Micca, I'm a girl. I can see things. Besides you stare at him in class, you stand up for him, and you always seemed to be next to him when you can." Ruby said to the snake, who started giggling.
"Yeah, I do like him. Problem is I don't think it would work out." Micca whispered, to Ruby who started getting confused.
"Why?" She asked, thinking about how she noticed that Rick seemed to feel the same way.
"For reason," Micca said, "Anyway, could you help me finish the design?"
"Sure." Ruby said with a smile.
The next day…
Rick was sitting at dinner, he was quite puzzled though. He hadn't seen any sign of Ruby or Micca, Rick sighed at that name. He could deny all he wanted but he couldn't give up on that crucial detail. Rick was thinking this when suddenly he heard a ruckus behind him, he turned to see Ruby and Micca there with a box.
"Uhhh, what's going on?" Rick asked, more than a little creeped out.
"I just wanted to say thank you for saving a few days ago." Ruby replied with a smile, shoving the package into his hands.
"Sure, no problem." Rick said with more than a little concern, he looked at the package carefully. His instinct was to not even try to open it, but he couldn't help his curiosity. He ripped open the package and saw…a piece of metal. It was a small piece, only about 5 inches wide. He looked at it strangely, not knowing what to make of it.
"Put it on your chin." Ruby said, literally grabbing it and thrusting it onto his chin.
The device lengthened, forming a small mask that covered his mouth and all around, going up to his ears. It also stopped at his nose, leaving his eyes unobstructed.
"Uh, what?" Rick asked, his voice slightly deepened by the mask.
"It's a mask, for keeping the blood out of your mouth," Ruby explained, "It also serves as a gas mask and a rebreather for if you go underwater."
Rick looked surprised, "You…thought of everything, didn't you?"
"No, Micca helped. She had the design for the gas mask, and I incorporated it into the design." Ruby said with pride, Micca smiled as well.
"Wow, thanks," Rick said before taking it off, "Anyway, you guys ready? The Vytal transports arrive in a week."
Micca burst out, "OHHHH, YEAAAAH."
Rick and Ruby looked at Micca in shock, before Rick laughed out, "SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM."
It was going to be an interesting next few days.
A/N finally that's done. My original hope was to have this and the next two chapters done before the premier of RWBY on Roosterteeth, but that didn't happen. Between writing and gaming, I have started my marching band season. So it may be longer between updates.
Also the song that Rick sang was "Lumberjack" By Jakyl.
Until I see you again, May the force be with you.