Hi everyone! How are you all today? I've been good. I've had like 4 or 5 snow days in a row, so I haven't been to school in a week. Perks of living in Indiana :D There isn't really much news in my life other than that. I feel like it took forever for the chapter to get out, so sorry if it did. Anyways, enjoy :D
"Alright then, time for the next match." Goodwitch declared as Jaune was helped out of the arena, stars in his eyes.
"Sorry Jaune." Ruby said as she waved to him.
Jaune said something that sounded like, "Auedffjkdsh," as the medical team continued to carry him away.
"Do you think he's okay?" Ruby asked.
"Well, other than the concussion he'll have, among other thing, I'm sure he's fine." Vesh said, which worried the girl.
"Don't worry Rubes." Yang said. "He'll be okay."
"The next match shall be…" Professor Goodwitch said as the slot machine of faces began to spin. It stopped first on Nora. "Nora Valkyrie, verse…" The randomizer of doom then stopped once more. "Ike Mers."
"YAY!" Nora cheered as she bounced out of her seat and got changed.
"Monty damn it." Ike mumbled as he stood up and walked to the locker room.
"Good luck!" Ruby called out.
"Thanks!" The archer called back. "It won't make a difference." He then mumbled. The reason Vesh was so reluctant to fight? Because he hadn't found a definite flaw in Nora's fighting style. She over extended herself on her attacks, leaving her vulnerable after one, but she was too fast for most attacks to be dodged. Even though Vesh was strong, the conflict of the two minds was draining a lot of his abilities.
Blue quickly got changed, and returned to the arena, where he found his teacher and opponent waiting for him. Nora was bouncing up and down with excitement. "Are you ready, Mr. Mers?" She asked. A simple nod was her answer. "Mrs. Valkyrie…" She then looked at Nora, who was still bouncing in anticipation. "Nevermind. Begin!"
Vesh expected a quick start, but he didn't expect her to instantly come flying at him, hammer raised. The evil teen quickly crossed his blades in front of him, just in time for Nora's weapon to slam into his blades. This sent the teen skidding backwards. When he finally stopped, Nora was just recovering from her first hit. Vesh then charged forward and slashed at the girl. Nora was able to block it just in time, and responded with an overhead slam of her hammer. Vesh rolled out of the way, and jumped backwards as he returned to his feet. He crouched down, held his bow sideways, and notched three arrows. He fired off all three, which Nora slapped down with a sideways swing. As her momentum carried her around, Nora switched her weapon into grenade launcher form. She changed her hammer into its grenade launcher form and fired off shots as she rushed forward. The Blue Arrow (Superhero reference) pierced each of the grenades with an arrow. As the final grenade was sent flying, Vesh shot through it and hit Nora in the stomach. Then sent the pink haired girl backwards, and as she looked up from her crouched position, she saw Vesh only a few feet from her. Valkyrie quickly switched her weapon to its hammer form once again. As she began spinning it, Vesh switched back to Ichor and Nero. Nora attempted slamming her hammer down on top of her opponent, but the blade wielder was able to sidestep it. Nora's hammer slammed into the ground, and Vesh tried taking advantage of this. The girl with the hammer then fired off a shot from her weapon, sending her flying upwards. The archer then switched back to his bow and jumped up after her. Blue and Nora then met in the air as Nora was descending. Vesh grabbed onto her, and threw her farther up into the air. As he fell, he began firing arrows at her. The pink haired girl blocked the projectiles with her hammer and then pulled the trigger once more, sending her flying toward the ground. As she passed Vesh, her momentum caused him to begin flipping end over end. The hammer wielder landed on the ground and then began to fire to fire grenades at Vesh as he fell. The archer was hit by one of the grenades, which stopped him from flipping. As the next grenade reached him, he retrieved another arrow and fired into the explosive. He continued this pattern until he shot through the last grenade and into Nora's foot. With a bit of smoke cover, the male fighter closed the distance in between the two. He then landed a hard kick into his opponent's stomach sending her flying back. Nora rolled backwards and regained her footing. She then rushed forward once more and swung horizontally at Vesh. The archer ducked under the swing, but didn't predict her next move. The bubbly girl pulled the trigger on her hammer, sending it back towards her opponent. Vesh attempted to block with his blades, but swing was too strong. The hammer smashed into Vesh, sending him flying backwards and tumbling on the ground. "Mr. Mers's aura has now dropped into the red zone. Mrs. Valkyrie is the winner." Professor Goodwitch announced.
"Psychotic bitch." Vesh mumbled to himself.
"Good match Ike!" Nora yelled out across the arena.
"Thanks!" He called back. "You too!"
"Thanks!"
Vesh then walked back over to his seat next to Ruby. "It was a good match." She said.
"Ya, don't worry about it." Yang added. "Nora's one tough cookie."
"Ya, I figured that out." The archer replied.
"Shouldn't you go to the infirmary?" Weiss asked.
"No, I'll be fine. Just need a bit of rest."
"Are you sure?" Red asked.
"Yes." That's when the slot machine began to spin once. "Let's just see whose next." The first person to fight in the next battle would be Pyrrha. The second, was Cardin.
"EASY!" Yang bellowed from her seat.
"Mrs. Xiao Long!" Glynda scolded.
"She is correct." The Spartan added. "My skill leave is quite higher than that of Cardin's."
"And how would you even the odds?" Cardin asked.
"However Professor Goodwi…" She was then cut off by Nora.
"Send in the whole team!" She called out. Glynda's reply was a heart piercing glare.
"Please, that would be too easy." Cardin bragged.
"Oh would it?" Pyrrha asked.
"Definitely."
"Fine, I accept the challenge." Vesh looked over to see the faces of horror on the other three members of team CRDL's faces'.
"Very well then. The next match shall be Mrs. Nikos verses team CRDL. Please get changed." Pyrrha and team CRDL then left to get changed.
"This isn't going to be pretty." Vesh said.
Pyrrha began to casually stroll out of the locker rooms and into the arena. "Mrs. Nikos, are you ready?" Glynda asked. Pyrrha nodded. "Team CRDL, are you team?" Each member of the team gave various yeses. (Never seen that written. Yeses. It's kinda weird.) "Then let the match, begin!" The combatant's charged at each other as soon as they could. Cardin was the first to meet Pyrrha and was greeted with an upwards swing with her spear, which Cardin blocked. He then tried hitting her with his mace, but was blocked as Pyrrha spun around and used the shield on her back for protection. The red haired girl swung upwards again only to be blocked once more. However, her next slash threw him off balance and rushed forward, slashing his exposed chest. Cardin was down on one knee, and locked up just in time to see Pyrrha plummeting ready for her spear to impale him. The leader quickly rolled out of the way and let his team fight for a bit. The Spartan rolled upon landing and launched her spear at Dove, which he knocked away with his sword. As the spear fell, Pyrrha dropped to one knee and pivoted on it, sweeping Dove's feet from under him. She then caught her spear and quickly changed it to its shotgun form. She took a shot at Sky, but missed. He then attacked with his halberd, but was blocked by his opponent's shield. Pyrrha had already changed to her spear at this point and slashed downwards at the boy. He sidestepped the attack and blocked the next on. Staying on the offensive, Pyrrha swung once more only to be blocked. She then took another shot with her gun, only for that to be blocked as well. She followed this up with two more strikes with her spear. The first being blocked and the second landing a hit, knocking Sky away.
"This is pretty one sided." Ruby said as Cardin missed a swing with his mace, denting the floor.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Vesh replied. Pyrrha then dodged an attack from both Cardin and Sky at the same time. "Or maybe you can be." He added. Pyrrha hit both Cardin and Lark with a throw of her shield and landed on the halberd wielder. Russel and Dove then charged for their attacks. Russel was quickly thrown out again by Pyrrha shield bashing him. After a few blocks from both Pyrrha and Dove, Bronzewing was sent flying away by a quick kick to his chest. Cardin tried landing a devastating hit once more, only to dent the floor. Again. "He's an idiot." Vesh said.
"Are you just realizing that?" Yang asked.
"No, not really." Pyrrha fired a few shots, only for them to be blocked by Thrush. Russel threw himself forward while spinning, making him a bladed ball. He stopped spinning just in time to kick Pyrrha's shield. This was followed by a combination attack by Dove and Russel. "Comeback?" The archer asked. Pyrrha then escaped her two attackers and rolled under another one of Cardin's stupid attacks. Cardin was able to block the shot's from Pyrrha, but was still hit by her flying knee. "Nope." Cardin was dazed to say the least and was then hit in the chest by Pyrrha's boot. After trying to regain the offensive, Cardin received multiple quick strikes. Pyrrha then slashed downwards and sent him stumbling away. Russel rushed forward trying to slash Pyrrha with his knives, but constantly missed. The girl blocked one of the daggers thrown at her, threw her shield into his face, and sweep his legs with her spear. She then spun Dove around with a quick thrust and blocked the shots from his concealed gun. Rolling forward, the Spartan tried sweeping his legs, but he jumped and spun over it. This landed him right next to Cardin, who hit him in the face with the backswing of his mace. The leader slammed his mace into the floor, causing a line of explosions which Pyrrha gracefully dodged with a back flip. She then rapidly slashed him, and sent him into the air. This was followed by her jumping up there herself. After a few more quick hits, Cardin was sent flying once more. Pyrrha pushed off her shield and grabbed once Cardin. She then flipped a few times before slamming him shoulders first into the ground. After landing flat on his stomach, Cardin then received a boot under his chin and Pyrrha back flipped away. Cardin slammed into the ground and the lights turned back on.
"And that's the match." Professor Goodwitch said.
"Lucky shot," was all that Cardin said before collapsing to the ground.
"Ya, it wasn't that lucky but say what you want to." The archer said. Professor Goodwitch then announced that they would have time for one more match.
"Let's go again, Ike!" Nora said.
"Uhh, I think I need a bit of rest." Vesh replied.
"Mrs. Belladonna? You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you…" Glynda was then cut off by Mercury.
"I'll do it." He said raising his hand. Vesh looked back and instantly recognized him as one of Cinder's henchmen.
"Mercury is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent." The professor said as she began typing into her scroll.
"Actually, I wanna fight… her." He then pointed towards Pyrrha. Professor Goodwitch tried to protest, but Pyrrha accepted the challenge. Mercury didn't even need to go to the locker room and quickly stepped out into the arena. The two fighters got into their respective stances before rushing at each other. Mercury spun and tried placing his boot against Pyrrha, who blocked with her shield. Pyrrha then sweep his legs out from under him. Mercury spun and returned to his feet and followed this with a few backwards handsprings to make distance.
"What's he trying to do?" Vesh thought. "He's either stupid or has something planned." The fight continued with a few strikes and blocks.
Ruby then turned around and said to the green haired girl behind them, "Hey, your friend's doing pretty good."
Emerald put on a face smile, only to drop it after Ruby turned away. Vesh then leaned back and whispered d to her. "Tell Cinder she has three days to drop Torchwick or else she's made a powerful enemy."
"Please do you think we're scared of you?" She whispered back.
"Just remember. I'm. Not. Normal." He added to his last statement by flickering his eyes to pitch black. This seemed to give Emerald a somewhat uneasy feeling. Vesh then returned to sitting upright and put his arm over Ruby. He looked back just in time to see Mercury completely miss a kick.
"Using her semblance I see." Blue thought to himself. Pyrrha rushed forward, and Mercury made more distance by pushing off her shield.
Before the Spartan could reach him, Mercury turned around and said, "I forfeit."
"He's doing research." Vesh thought to himself. "Thank Monty he isn't a complete idiot."
Professor Goodwitch somewhat scolded Mercury, but he obviously didn't care. The bell then chimed and Glynda ended her class with a reminder about the dance and their missions. Team RWBY walked out the door but Vesh hung back a bit. "Come on, Lover Boy." Yang said.
"You guys go ahead. I'll catch up in a bit." He replied.
"Whatever." Team RWBY then walked away and Vesh interjected himself between Mercury and Emerald.
"Learning is so much fun." The gray haired teen said.
"Decided to do a bit of research do you?" Vesh asked.
"Why do you care?" Mercury asked.
Blue then walked up to then other boy, draped an arm over his shoulder, and said, "Listen here. Your interests can be my interests. Just as long as you don't piss me off." He said the last sentence far more harshly.
"And if we do?" Emerald asked.
"Simple, I'll kill you." He replied somewhat cheerful. "Don't forget Emerald, three days."
"Don't worry, I won't." She replied.
Vesh began walking away, but stopped when Mercury said, "Wait!"
"Yes?" The archer asked as he turned around.
"If you want to join us, then why do socialize with people like that little scythe wielder?" The teen with gun shoes asked.
"Let's just say that this body has had a change of management." He added a somewhat sinister grin to this. He then turned and began walking away again.
"What a nut job." Emerald said. An arrow then flew pasted her face and stuck against the wall to her right.
"Next time I won't miss!" Vesh called out as he walked away and put his bow back on his back.
The archer was able to catch back up to Blake while Sun was asking her to the dance. He decided to just keep moving forward though and back up to team RWBY. Blake shot down Sun's request, who looked pretty disappointed. "Does Blake seem… different to anyone else?" Ruby asked as they continued back towards the room.
"Please tell me you aren't just realizing that." Vesh said.
"Hasn't she always been silent and secretive?" Weiss asked.
"But she's been more silent and secretive than usual." Ruby said.
"Why don't we throw an intervention?" Blue said sarcastically.
"What the hell are you doing?" The dark half scolded himself mentally. "You're becoming sloppy with your impersonation."
"Okay, how about so real ideas?" Yang asked picking up on the sarcasm."
"We could convince her to go to the dance." Ruby suggested.
"And how would that help?" Weiss asked.
"It might cheer her up a bit." Vesh said, seeming more Ike like.
"I suppose, but you saw her reject Sun. There's no way she's going to go." Yang said poking holes.
"We'll just have to put out best foot forward." Ruby said confidently.
-Later in the Room-
"You what!?" Blake asked to Ruby's idea.
"We want you to go to the dance." Ruby repeated. Luckily, but unluckily for Vesh who just wanted to see the world burn, team JNPR also saw the change in Blake and left team RWBY plus Vesh alone for a while.
"That's ridiculous!" Blake protested.
"Blake, we're worried about you." Yang said. "This investigation is starting to mess with your head."
"You can't sleep, you hardly eat, and to be honest your grades are slipping." Weiss added.
"Do you think I care about grades?" Blake asked.
"Not really, no. You've proven that." Vesh said from his bed as he spun one of his arrows in his hand.
"People's lives are at stake!" Blake added, shaking off Vesh's comment.
"We know and we're trying to figure out what Torchwick up to." Yang said.
"Thanks to you and Sun, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale." Ruby added.
"And the Schnee company record singled out Vale as the primary target for dust robberies over the last few months." Weiss added.
"Don't forget about their missing military tech too." Yellow added.
"We aren't just standing around and doing nothing. We have info this just takes time." Vesh said, trying to regain his Ikeness.
"But there are still unanswered questions." Blake pointed out.
"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open." Red said.
"All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day." Her sister added.
"It'll be fun! Yang and I will make sure of it." Weiss commented.
"Ya, we're planning the whole event!" The blonde replied.
"Excuse me?" Black asked.
"You are?" Vesh asked sitting up in his bed.
"Team COPY's away mission lasted longer than expected." White said.
"So Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off." Yang said. "And now we can make sure you have the perfect night."
"And once it's all over, we'll return to our search. Rested and ready." Weiss said, ending the talk about the planning."
"So what do you think?" Ruby asked.
After a moment of thinking, Blake answered by saying, "I think this is a colossal waste of time." She stood up and walked to the door, but was stopped by Vesh's voice.
"Of course you do." He said. He had returned to laying in his bed spinning his arrow.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Blake asked.
"You know exactly what it means." He replied.
"Ike." Ruby said, somewhat warning him to stop.
"No I don't, Ike, why don't you enlighten me?"
"It means that all you can do is hang onto your past. You don't see anything in the future."
"And you're the one to talk?!" The Faunus asked. This felt like a bit of a slap in the face to Vesh, especially because he wasn't looking for revenge. He just simply wanted to remove an obstacle.
"I'm looking for a bit of revenge is that too much to ask?!" Vesh yelled as he stood up and walked over to the girl. "You on the other hand are just obsessive."
"Oh, I'm the obsessive one. All you do is research!"
"But at least I eat. You don't do shit anymore!" The archer replied.
"Because I need to focus!"
"Your focus is going to be thrown off by doing something else for one night. You can't take a single break?"
"I can, I just don't see the point in wasting precious time."
"Oh yes, the precious time that you use for being antisocial to everyone, and I mean everyone, and researching only to find nothing. You've done nothing for the team, you've done nothing to find Torchwick, and now you're just gonna walk off and pout!"
Blake opened her mouth to say something, but simply said. "I'll be in the library." She then open the door.
Before she closed it, Vesh yelled out, "Told you so!" Blake then slammed the door. The boy then turned to see three disappointed and angry girls. "She needed to hear it." He said coldly.
"But was that the way to tell her?" Ruby asked.
"It's the way I choose. You guys being all nice obviously didn't work." He then laid back in his bed.
Before anyone else could say something, there was a knock at the door. Weiss opened it, and the sound of a guitar filled the room. "Weisssssssss!" Jaune sang.
"Not the time!" Vesh said as he slammed the door shut for the heiress.
Jaune then knocked again. "Oh come on." Three more knocks. "Open the door." He wined. "I promise not to sing." Weiss opened the door again. "I lieeeedddddd!" He sang out with a few more strums of the guitar. Weiss simply face palmed as Vesh stood back up. "Weiss Schnee." He sang. Vesh grabbed his bow. "Will you accompany me?" The archer notched the arrow he was spinning. "To the dance onnnnn!" He stopped to think, and Vesh took aim. "Sun…" That was all he was able to say as Vesh released his arrow. It collided with the door and shut it.
"Nobody else was closing it." He said.
"Does this mean no?" Jaune asked from behind the door.
"Yes." Weiss replied.
"Awww man." Jaune said.
"Wow, ice queen and king." Yang said.
"Don't put me in a relationship with him!" Weiss yelled.
"The feeling is mutual." Vesh replied calmly as he put his bow away.
"I already have a date in mind anyways." Weiss said confidently.
"Date or no date, none of this will matter if we can't get Blake to go." Ruby said.
-Meanwhile in the Evil Dorm-
"Add her to the list." Cinder said, as Emerald added Pyrrha's name to the list.
"And what about this Ike guy?" Emerald asked.
"He says that he wants to join us, but I still don't trust him. He'll only join if we drop Torchwick." Mercury
"Maybe our plan with the White Fang can help. If he thinks we've gotten rid of Roman there, he'll join us." Cinder pointed out.
"There's an issue though. He says you have three days to drop contact with Roman or else you've made an enemy." Emerald said.
"And is that meant to scare us?" The leader asked.
"I think so. He did think weird thing where his eyes became completely black. He also said he wasn't normal. He could be strong but I think he has his own plans." The green haired girl said.
"Hmm… Add him to the list as well. I don't think he's worth loosing Roman. We'll have to see what happens after everything goes down." Emerald quickly added Ike's name to the list.
"Do you really think he's a threat to us?" Mercury asked.
"I don't know. We'll just have to wait and find out."
Well that's about it. I'm gonna really have to push Ike's story, so there might be a few chapters focusing on him here soon. There really isn't anything else for me to say, so don't forget to leave a review and send a pm. I love hearing from you guys :) Bye!
