"Stampede"
A/N: Fixed
Panther's point of view
I sat leaning against the base of an oak tree with my arms crossed near the clearing waiting for Ruby to finish talking to her mother's grave. I found it to be a waste of time but I guess we can't all be heartless.
Jacob was standing with Ruby holding her close as she talked, I've never really had a relationship and I intend for it to stay that way as long as possible. His relationship kinda makes me sick sometimes.
I can see why Jacob had to come to be here for Ruby but did the rest of us have to come as well? I guess if one of us has to suffer than we all do, although I don't think Jake is suffering too much.
"So, who are you all and what are you doing here?" asked someone from behind us. I turned to see a man with blond hair, wearing a brown vest over a tan shirt with red trimming and light brown jeans. "Who are you?" I asked a bit ruder than I intended, "Hi dad." Yang said glancing at the man. "We are their teams." I simply stated motioning back to Ruby and Jacob.
The man looked past him at Ruby and Jacob standing, Jacob's arm was around Ruby and her head was leaning on his shoulder as she talked. This sight confused the man now known to be Ruby and Yang's father, "Who's that guy with Ruby?" he asked a bit accusingly looking at Yang. "Oh, that's Jacob, I could have sworn you knew about him?" she said a bit confused at her dad's response to the situation. Yang's father motioned for her to follow him and so she did.
Yang was going to have a hard time explaining this one to him, "You could have handled that better." said Weiss, turning to me, she and Blake were both leaning against the tree on the adjacent side of the path leading to the clearing.
"What was the appropriate response to that situation? Hello sir, we're here with the person fucking your underage daughter." I said sarcastically, Weiss tried to act disgusted but began to snicker a little.
Unfortunately, the one person who should be here, Cole, was back in Vale doing something supposedly important.
"You could try being a little less obvious Weiss." Said Tali who was standing next to me. We all turned to look at her, "Just because I'm incapable of feeling attraction doesn't mean I can't spot it." She said rolling her eyes.
This was the first time she's left the safe house without her goggles in a long time, she wore a simple yellow zipped-up jacket and grey jeans, I also started wearing more casual clothes being a green jacket and jet-black pants.
It's a shame she wore them since her emerald green eyes were beautiful but I guess she doesn't want to stand out.
Yang and her dad returned before we could say anything more on the subject, "Ok, Yang, got me up to speed. It's nice to meet you all, I'm Taiyang Xiao Long. Ruby or Yang never informed me specifics about your teams only that you had been working together, I had no idea that you all had grown this attached to my daughters or who any of you were." He explained. I would imagine teens wouldn't keep their parents informed on all of their activities but not even a note of Jacob or Cole seems a bit weird.
"It is a pleasure to meet you sir, my name is Weiss Schnee." Weiss did a small curtsy which made me roll my eyes, "I'm Jack, this is Tali, and that's Blake by Weiss. There's not much to any of us; I hate people, Tali's a coward, Blake's a recluse, and Weiss is an heiress so that should say everything about her." As I said that I got three death glares and a fist in the side of head from River. "Oh, and that emotional train wreck of a man with Ruby is Jacob." I blocked the next fist that Tali threw in my direction which was difficult since I started dying with laughter.
"She doesn't really seem like a coward." Taiyang laughed, "Of course she wouldn't be to me, we're basically siblings." I managed to get out between laughs.
Ruby and Jacob walked back over "Ok we're ready to go." Jacob started but stopped when he saw Mr. Xiao Long, "Dad!" Ruby's face lit up. Jacob's face fell fast, he probably expected the cliché disapproving father but Taiyang seemed fine with Jacob for now. "Sir, I know we should talk and get to know each other but right now our ride is here." said Jacob, what was he talking about and what the hell was that noise?
I looked to the clearing to see a giant airship appear over the trees we were under, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, the Stampede!" Stone yelled over the roar of the engines. The ship was way larger than a bullhead but not as large as one of Ironwood's capital ships, I wouldn't be surprised if you could fit the whole safe house in there, the ship was a light grey with a bit of a bulky and box-like shape to its mid-section.
The head of the ship had an angular look to it with a large metal horn curving up from the nose, there were thrusters near the front and back of the ship that probably doubled as landing gear, and the back completely consisted of thrusters. "This is your captain speaking, our flight to the Vytal festival will be leaving exactly when you all get on board, so move!" said what was, undoubtable, Cole.
Those crazy sons of bitches did it, they made the stampede. . . they had talked for years about creating their own airship to travel the world but I never thought they would actually do it! The ship hovered over the edge of the cliff with a door open and ramp extended from its left side to the ground, we all jogged over to the ship while Ruby and Yang said goodbye to their dad, we walked inside.
The ship seemed bigger on the inside than the out, directly from the entrance was a hallway to the left and a wall of lockers to the right. We walked down the hall seeing doors on both sides, the first door on our right had a picture of a rose and black wasp overlapped on the door, above the left door was an orange phoenix with an identical, pure black, reflection below it. So, the couple's rooms were easily identified but I'm interested to see what Tali and mine were since we just all used the wasp as a sort of team emblem. The next door on our left had the picture of a green panther on it in front of the Schnee emblem, so I'm directly next to the lovers plus Weiss and I are sharing a room. . . this could have turned out better for me.
Of course, Yang and River's room was on the next right with the color yellow simply over it. They wouldn't mind but not only were Weiss and I opposite genders, Weiss liked me and everyone on the team knew it, this was probably payback for the night after the dance, when I moved all the furniture out of the safe house so Ruby and Jacob would have to sleep together. . . still worth it.
Weiss blushed a little when she saw our emblems together and gave me a small smile, I take it back. . . not worth it. We reached the end of the hall and went through the door to the bridge of the ship, it was minimal with only one pilot seat which no one was in but judging from the front facing windows we were moving.
"You guys like it? Jacob and I had this commissioned not that long ago from Atlas, we wanted it to be a surprise so we kept it under extreme wraps. The ship has four floors, the first contains the engine room and storage for our dust plus a vehicle bay for my hummer, Seeker, and Bumblebee. The second has the armor and weapon room, the third is the one we are on right now, and finally the fourth has the kitchen and living space." Cole was unusually excited.
"We tried to mimic the safe house as much as possible while still keeping it mobile, we figured since everyone is staying together anyways that we'd combine rooms. Everyone's personal effects are already onboard and sorted courtesy of Cole." Said Jacob walking over to Cole's side.
This was all a lot to take in but I had one or two questions, "How much did this cost you, also who is flying the ship?" I raised my voice at the second question making everyone shift with nervousness.
"Well this ship has an AI courtesy of Ironwood that does all the flying. So, the thing about building this is the fact that. . . it broke us." Cole sighed. We all said, "What?" at the same time, Jacob scratched the back of his head. "The AI, ship itself, and the dust to fuel it costed us a bit more than we expected. . . essentially we have enough to feed ourselves for a week at most." I put my face in my hands, "We could have all pitched in or Weiss could have just had it made herself." Tali said exasperated.
"Whenever we end up fighting the White Fang or anyone else it's never our full team since only three of us have means of quick transportation, the Stampede will be the best way for us to all get into a fight as quickly as possible. This was our gift to all of you, all we ask in return is for you all to share your lunches." Said Jacob gesturing to us.
"Hey, don't give all the credit to the ship, she is a beauty but she would be worthless without her pilot." Said a, high-pitched, little girl's voice from behind Cole and Jacob. They turned around and stepped apart to show a small table with what appeared to be a small hologram of little girl with orange hair wearing a light blue princess dress. The hologram had her hands behind her back and was moving them side to side, "It's nice to meet you all, my name is Scylla and I run this ship." Said the little hologram.
Ruby was over at the hologram in an instant with a wild smile on her face, "Oh my gosh you're the cutest thing I've ever seen!" she exclaimed.
Scylla didn't take too kindly to this being as the next moment four snakes with the heads of dogs shot out of the ground at Ruby making her jump back in surprise.
"I suggest that you all dress for the tournament, your clothes are in your rooms and your weapons are in the lockers by the exit." Said Scylla before disappearing.
"We have one more thing for you all." Cole walked over to a black case in the corner and returned with it open and flat. "These are earpieces that will allow us to communicate from anywhere in the city or Beacon, they also work within a thousand yards of the Stampede. Jacob and I already have them in our helmets, Tali wears a headset so she doesn't need one." We all took one of the small black earpieces and slipped it over our right ears. Jacob had his armor back on, "Nod if you're hearing me through your earpiece." I heard him hear in front of me as well as in the earpiece, we all nodded.
"Ok, get your gear on our ETA to the Amity Colosseum is five minutes." Said Jacob then he tilted his head slightly as if someone was talking to him. "Wait, how could Storm be an AI. . . A-239 what the hell are you talking about Scylla?" he was mumbling but we could hear him over the earpieces. "Dismissed and if you don't want to be heard click the little blue button on the side." He said turning back to us.
We walked out while he was still having a conversation with the AI, "Since when did Jacob start sounding like he was in the military?" I asked the room, "Since Python was tired of how he spoke during battle. He said that a squad isn't a squad if their commander can't give orders correctly. He made Cole and I do it too." Said Ruby, who was walking next to me.
I turned to the right and walked in the door, I was surprised to see the room was very large, the rest of the ship was a dull grey but this room was half green and half a silky blue. I walked further in seeing that the green side had a desk with a laptop and a wardrobe pressed against the wall.
Against the back wall was a queen-sized bed and a door that presumably led to the bathroom in the middle of the back wall where the colors changed. The room mirrored itself on Weiss's side besides everything green being blue on that side, there was about two yards between our beds, at least Jacob didn't go overboard on his revenge.
I opened the wardrobe and opened it, my hunting outfit was neatly folded and sorted perfectly on the top shelf with my boots next to the wardrobe, when Cole said he organized he wasn't kidding. I grabbed my hunting clothes and started toward the bathroom, the bathroom was larger than normal, the bath a bit smaller than a hot tub and the shower was separate, a different door led to the toilet.
I didn't pay much mind to the size of the tub until I was pulling on my hood, it could fit two people exactly, Jacob I swear to god I'm going cut your throat while you sleep and make Ruby watch as you bleed out. After I was dressed I walked out seeing Weiss was sitting on my bed stroking Oliver's back.
After a few minutes a voice came over a speaker I didn't see at the moment, "We have arrived at the Amity Colosseum, I'll be cheering you all on. . . except for Ruby." said the childish voice. I heard someone yelling next door, probably Ruby, and laughed to myself a bit. "You and I are going to get along great Scylla." I said aloud, "I expect we will." She replied.