Chapter 25 - Fun and Games
Team RWBY split off from Jaune Ren and Nora, meanwhile Umi and Lucina went to find the rest of their team who were somewhere out enjoying the festival. The festival was extremely well done and set up for being a coverup for a terror plot and coup. There were stalls lining up and down the school courtyard of various shapes sizes and colors. The aroma of food filled the noses of the four girls as they strolled through the area and their mouths began to water being surrounded by food of all different types.
Ruby said. "We can't just be tense and expect the enemy to reveal themselves to us, we should enjoy the festival while we can ya know?"
"I Agree we can't fight on an empty stomach after all." Said Weiss.
"Alright time for some grub what should we have then?" Asked Yang.
Blake poked Yang in the side and tugged on her sleeve shyly and said pointing. "How about there?"
The three girls looked to a small stall with a colorfully decorated sign that had a giant Salmon drawn on it and spelled "Fresh Sushi From Every Corner of Remnant!"
The girls all stared at Blake who looked away trying to hide her shame of being a cat Faunus . Blake walked over and sat down at the stall and put her hands in her lap and stared down, her face red from embarrassment. The girls laughed and sat with Blake and ordered a plate of sushi and rice balls for them all to share and eat together.
Yang poked fun at Blake and said "Blake you could have just said you wanted fish there's nothing to be ashamed of silly."
Blake shouted back. "You guys always make fun of the fact that since I'm a cat faunus that I like fish."
Yang replied back. "Well I mean we call Weiss a cold hearted ice queen bitch."
"Hey!" Yelled out Weiss. "Not funny."
"If i remember correctly I'm the one who's usually called ice queen." Said a stern female voice.
The girls turned to see Qrow, Winter, Ironwood and Oscar.
Weiss got excited and said. "Winter what are you doing here shouldn't you be at the meeting?"
"Yes I should be but I wanted to check up on the four of you I heard some students saying that they heard a lot of screaming coming from your room last night is everything alright?" Asked Winter.
The four girls nervously looked away and gave a simple nod of the head and Winter looked suspicious but Qrow already knew by the look of his face hiding a smug smile and giving off a chuckle.
It took a moment to notice him but Weiss realized Ironwood was with Winter and took a few steps back towards Ruby looking away and saying. "Hello General."
"Hello Miss Schnee. You seem...well I suppose." Said Ironwood.
"Yes I'm doing very well in fact. How...is everything back in Atlas?" Asked Weiss nervously trying to bring up the question that she was afraid to ask.
"The kingdom is doing fine. We managed to capture some White Fang spies attempting to create an insurrection in Mantle. But I know the question you want to ask. Your father did order me to capture and bring you home by any means necessary." Stated Ironwood calmly.
Ruby went for her Crescent Rose but Qrow wave her off and said. "Let him finish Ruby."
Ironwood continued saying. "Though I was ordered to bring you home I know why you left Winter has told me everything which is why I will not disclose the location of where you are to your father. I know how much the family name means to you and how you want to redeem it to the world. So I'm on your side.
Weiss let off a sigh and said "Oh thank goodness."
Ironwood pulled out a pocket watch and looked at it and said "We need to go we'll be late if we don't hurry. Be safe ladies and enjoy your day."
All of the girls gave a bow as he turned and left and Winter went up to Weiss and hugged her.
"Stay safe today Weiss I love you." Said Winter.
Weiss was caught off guard by this display of emotions from Winter but hugged her back and said. "Don't worry I was taught by the best after all."
Qrow walked up to Ruby and Yang and patted them on the head and said. "Kick some butt today kiddos but remember be safe."
"Don't worry Uncle Qrow I have a few scores to settle today." Said Yang with a devilish smile.
Oscar came up to Ruby and said. "Ruby don't underestimate our opponents the scales are tipped in their favor heavily but we can still win this battle. Cinder is the Trump card of Salem's faction and she will be after your blood for sure"
Ruby Replied. "Don't worry Oz I'll be careful."
Oscar shook his head and said before turning to leave with a bit of a blush. "Don't do anything stupid...I'd hate to see you… or any of you girls get hurt... goodluck."
Ruby was confused and said "Why would Ozpin say something like that it doesn't seem like him."
Yang smiled and thought to herself. "If Ruby wasn't so oblivious to Oscar's feelings she would understand but I think I'll let her figure that one out for herself."
"You children can be quite entertaining seeing your romances play out it's like a soap opera." Said Ozpin to Oscar.
Oscar smiled and said "Shut up Ozpin."
Ruby watched as the group walked off towards the school and looked up towards the light blue sky, the sky was almost free of anything obscuring it except a handful of small white fluffy clouds and the occasional airship carrying Mistrals citizens up from the city to the school. A light breeze brushed against Ruby's face as her dark red hair fluttered in the wind and attempted to carry her cape away but all it could do was flap in the wind. The soft sunlight warmed her face and Ruby felt at peace for once as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Then a burst of flames rushed through her mind and Cinder's face popped into her head and broke her from her peaceful mindset startling her.
"It's such a nice day today it's the perfect weather." Said Blake.
"Hey I heard from Lucina that this festival was going to hold a friendly tournament at the schools arena. We should go check it out." Said Yang
"That sounds like a good idea. Maybe we could get a warm up before things get serious today." Said Blake.
"I also agree with that idea how about you Ruby?" Asked Weiss.
"Oh yeah that sounds like a great idea." Said Ruby with forced enthusiasm.
Weiss could thought there was something wrong but dismissed the idea and the group headed to the arena. There was a large crowd in the stands almost filling the stadium up completely. It seemed to be a basic style of fighting where the winner would fight as many battles as they could and the person with most wins would win the tournament. Ruby spotted Umi and Lucina sitting near the front of the the stands. Ruby waved Umi down and ran up to her.
"Hey Umi who's leading right now?" Ruby asked out of curiosity.
Umi grinned and said pointing to the arena. Ruby looked out to see a student in a black short sleeved jacket wearing a black shirt underneath it with white designs going across the shirt. Ruby noticed he was wearing black jeans and black combat boots. He had a fingerless glove on his left hand that had studs on the knuckles either for fashion or combat purposes Ruby wasn't sure exactly. He had piercing blue eyes and an ash like color to his hair with a white streak on the left side of his head.
"That's Nix he's one of the other members on my team he's one seven matches in a row without breaking a sweat and hardly taking any hits." Said Umi proudly.
"Wow that's impressive." Said Ruby.
Ruby looked back to see a cross hanging around his neck and Ruby's mind flashed back to when her mother passed away and the happiness drained from her again but she forced herself to not lose the happiness she had.
Ruby realized that Nix wasn't carrying a weapon and asked Umi. "Uh where's his weapon?"
Umi replied. "Well you see Nix is a special aura user he can conjure up weapons that he has master throughout his life to use at his will. The special thing is it doesn't tax on his body or his aura so he can go all out for the most part that is.
The showoff has even been taking on more than one person at a time. I'm pretty sure he's trying to impress someone." Umi said looking over at Lucina who was watching Nix get ready for the next fight.
The announcer spoke through the speaker and said. "Will the fighters take their positions please."
Nix and the other fighter took to the ring and Ruby looked towards the other fighter and couldn't make out the student because she was wearing a drab colored hood over her head. As she pulled the hood down Ruby couldn't believe her eyes of who she was seeing. It was the bunny faunus...Velvet.
Team Rwby stood shocked to see her here. All the way out in Mistral at Haven Academy. Then they heard Coco cheer Velvet on from the other side of the ring. Ruby observed Velvet after not having seen her in awhile and saw her camera bag was modified and seemed more advanced than the last time she saw it. The weapon mimicking machine had wires running up velvets arms and legs. As Velvet took the hood off and threw it off to the side of ring Ruby saw she her outfit back from when they were in school together was looking good as usual. Velvet tied her hair back in a ponytail and took up a fighting stance with her fists up.
Nix and Velvet were both ready and the Referee signaled for the fight to start and Velvet and Nix ran at each other and threw kicks and punches at each other testing the other's abilities. Velvet was faster than Nix but Nix was stronger. Velvet swiftly dodged a punch to her head and got low and landed a firm blow to Nix's stomach and then elbowing upwards striking Nix in the jaw causing him to stumble. Velvet followed up with a high jump kick and kicked Nix in the chest sending him flying and falling to the ground.
Nix just smiled and in a flash of blue dust like particles Nix teleported behind Velvet and as she turned around Nix had both his hands together and smashed across Velvet's head and then kicked her in the chest causing her to fall forward but Velvet did a handstand turning into a backflip and jumped back gaining some distance. Velvet wiped a bit of blood from her lip and smiled.
"I guess we shouldn't hold back what do you think?" Asked Velvet.
Nix said with a chuckle. "Well I'd hate to hurt you if you weren't giving it your all."
Velvet clasped her hands together across her chest and closed her eyes and her eyes lit up as her aura activated. Velvet held out her hand and a katana manifested itself and Velvet grasped it and dashed forward at Nix with the katana swinging it upwards. Velvet thought she landed a good hit on Nix but Nix pulled a longsword out of nowhere and blocked the katana easily.
Nix chuckled and said. " I never would have thought there would have been someone with the same ability like me. To bad for you I'm still going to win."
Nix aimed his hand at the ground and red blue and yellow symbols lit up going up Nix's arms and towards his left eye. His eye glowed red and the symbols on his arm changed into a red color and Nix shot out a large firebolt at their feet sending Velvet and Nix flying in opposite directions. Velvet flew threw the air but conjured up Weiss' rapier and cast her glyphs and jumped off one mid air and flew at Nix.
"My Glyphs! Only the Schnee family owns that ability how is she able to do that!?" Yelled Weiss.
"I guess Velvet's gotten a lot stronger since the last time we saw her." Said Yang.
Nix conjured up a rapier himself and deflected Velvet's direction slightly causing her to miss Nix grazing his cheek. Velvet rolled changing from Weiss' rapier to Yang's shotgun gauntlets and fired consecutive missile after missile at Nix. But Nix seemingly sidestepped the missiles causing the blue dust like particles to fly from his body. Velvet adjusted her aim and launched herself up into the air and fired down at Nix who was unable to dodge the missiles and took direct hits sending him flying back into the arena wall. Velvet pulled out Ren's smg blades and fired at Nix who blocked the bullets with a longsword. Then Velvet dashed forward and in a spinning motion slashed at Nix and hit him but the attack was too weak to penetrate his aura. Nix pulled out a giant battle axe and brought it crashing down on her smashing into her aura and causing her to fly back in pain.
"Alight try this on for size then pretty boy." Velvet said.
Velvet held her hand out and Ruby's scythe manifested itself but then Velvet's Exo suit light up various colors and then the digital outline became whole and Velvet had her own crescent rose in her hands.
"THAT'S SO COOL!!!" Ruby screamed out in excitement.
Velvet fired the sniper rifle and flew forward and twirling the scythe around uppercutting Nix threw his aura slashing him across the chest causing Nix to scream in pain. Then in another twirl firing the weapon brought the scythe down on Nix with the blunt end of the weapon bashed at Nix's aura almost shattering it. Nix got desperate and stumbled back and conjured up a giant machine like object and fired explosive shells at Velvet who jumped into the air dodging them. Nix aimed up and fired three more shells at the bunny faunus who hung in the air with the giant red scythe. Velvet fired the scythe and flew downwards at the explosive shells cutting them in half causing them to explode behind her.
Nix dropped to his knees looking exhausted and conjured a revolver and quickly fired all six shots up at Velvet. Velvet seeing this aimed the sniper rifle down at Nix and attempted to fire at him but was struck in the shoulder by the revolver shots. She cried out in pain but pulled the trigger and anyways and fired a large sniper rifle bullet and a bullet flew through Nix's into Nix's aura and breaking his right arm knocking the revolver out of his hand. Both fighter fell to the ground in the ring and laid silent.
The arena was quiet and everyone looked to the scoreboard to see both of their aura's were low but nowhere near low enough for the battle to be over. Velvet and Nix got up slowly tired and beaten but not broken. Velvet closed her eyes and held out her hands and two short swords formed and she opened her eyes to show they were glowing pure white.
"Witness my power and accept your defeat Nix!" Yelled Velvet.
Just when Nix was about to respond bright blue wings manifested out of Velvet's back and lifted her into the sky. Velvet wasted no time and charged at Nix who couldn't react quick enough to Velvet's tremendous speed. Velvet shoulder bashed Nix and lifted him up into the air. Velvet went on to attack Nix with a barrage of slashes and swings with her short swords. Cutting away at Nix's aura causing him to yell out in pain. Nix conjure up a tower shield and blocked most of the attack but was still too winded from the shoulder bash. Nix fell back down towards the arena and came crashing down landing on top of his shield. Nix stood up and coughed up blood and looked to see his aura was a point away from losing. Velvet saw she was close to victory and flew high into the sky and then nose dived towards Nix to end the fight. Nix, in a last ditched effort put both of his hands together and then yelled out in pain from his broken arm but pushed through the pain and aimed up at Velvet and his body glowed with the symbols and they glowed a bright white color and then flashed red blue and yellow simultaneously and fired a tri-colored energy ball at Velvet and the energy ball crashed into Velvet and an enormous explosion went off creating a huge dust cloud and shockwave.
The crowds vision was obscured but when the dust finally settled the crowd saw Velvet on her knee supporting herself with the short sword she was wielding. Velvet was huffing and puffing and there was blood running down the side of her face and all down her left arm which it seems she used to block the energy ball. Nix on the other hand was lying on the ground unconscious. His aura glowed and withered away from his body. Velvet's aura however glowed and went off with static still working and still protecting her. Velvet..had won the match against Nix.
The crowd roared and cheered over the match. As Velvet's wings and swords disappeared Coco hopped over the wall and ran towards Velvet and hugged her excitedly hugging her. Lucina ran towards Nix and lifted him up and held him close to her.
"Nix!? Nix are you alright!?" Said Lucina almost in tears.
Nix opened his eyes and grunted as he sat up and put a hand to his head and said. "Damn that hurt like a bitch."
"Nix what the hell were you thinking you could have died you idiot. But...you did look amazing." Said Lucina.
Before Nix could say anything else Lucina pulled Nix close and hugged him and held him there.
"Those two never cease to amaze me how they fall all over each other." Said Umi
"I think it's cute." Ruby said with a smile.
Just then a tall muscular tan skinned student with a lilac colored hair slicked back came up to Umi and said. "Umi there you are I've been looking all over for you."
"Lilo what's up?" Replied Umi.
"I was surveying the area to look for anyone suspicious like you said to do and I saw a group of people that seemed out of place." Said Lilo.
"Hang on Lilo tell Ruby and her friends what you saw." Said Umi.
"Its nice to meet you team RWBY. My names Lilo." Said Lilo with a bow.
"Likewise so tell us about these people." Said Ruby nervously.
"Well I was observing from the schools clocktower and saw an unmarked airship that definitely wasn't Atlas or Mistral. Then i saw a group of people exit the airship. A tall lengthy male with gray hair, a shorter dark skinned girl with light green hair, a very short girl with a mix of pink, dark brown and white hair and a woman with short brown hair in a red cloak. Do...these sound familiar?"
Ruby and her friend's faces all grew pale from hearing these words and they knew what was about to happen.
"Yeah they're the ones responsible for the Fall of Beacon." Ruby Said.
Yang Said. "We should go let Velvet and Coco know what's going on they could help us."
"We don't have time to waste I'll head towards the school and find out what Cinder's up too. We need to know what we're dealing with and plus I could warn Uncle Qrow and Winter." Ruby Said.
"Okay I trust you, but be careful and please don't do anything reckless." Yang said.
Ruby Replied. "I promise I won't." And ran towards the school not sure what to expect but knew the night was bound to turn into a bloodbath and chaos.