Chapter 29: Vytal Tournament Part 4
He looked up as he walked through the door to the warehouse. He looked around and saw Vayla standing in the back with someone else. He approached them and Vayla turned around as he got close.
"Hello again." She said.
"Who's the new guy?" He said with his usual directness.
"This, is Adam." Vayla gestured to the newcomer.
"Hello." Adam held out his hand for a handshake.
"Hi." He replied guardedly, ignoring the outstretched hand.
Vayla looked at the two boys and quickly continued.
"Adam is helping with my prisoners." She gestured to a large wall of circuitry in the back.
"In what way can those three be of use?" He eyed the chambers that each of the remaining members of Team SEAL inhabited.
"Brainwashing." Adam stepped up to the computer monitor and pushed a few icons.
Archer suddenly came alive and Adam said something into the microphone. Archer responded in turn and Adam put him back to sleep.
"As you can see," Adam said. "We can fully control all three of them and make them do whatever we want them to."
"This can be just what we need to get Blake." Vayla failed to notice the small start Adam emitted at the name.
"This is about Blake?" Adam asked.
"Of course, we need the money." He replied before deferring to Vayla.
"Have you not seen the bounty that's out for her? You're one of the White Fang's top agents." Vayla asked curiously.
"I've seen them, but I haven't wanted to act on them." Adam replied with a sigh.
"Why not?"
"Blake used to be a personal friend of mine, and I don't want any harm to come to her."
"Well you might have to on this mission, remember your potential pay cut after this. So are you with us or not?"
Adam took a deep breath and let it out before answering. He let his gaze swing around to SEAL, Vayla, and the other guy, before resting on the determined face of Vayla again.
"Fine, let's do it."
"I hope this battle will be harder than the last one." Yang pulled a face as she remembered Team APPL's performance against them in the first round.
"I'm sure they will, dear." Blake mimicked the tone of a teacher berating a six year old.
"I'm sure they'll be tough, but we will come off as heroes." Ruby was bouncing up and down, getting ready for the battle ahead.
"I still think you should at least try to express some sort of tactical approach to this fight." Weiss said disapprovingly as she watched Ruby.
"The 'tactical approach', as you called it, is run at them and beat the living daylights out of them." Yang replied, cracking her knuckles for emphasis.
Weiss just rolled her eyes and checked the clock, noting that they had five minutes. Yang noted the lack of bossiness in her voice and imperceptibly nodded approvingly. Unbeknownst to all but Blake, Yang had been keeping a running check of Weiss to see if she was worthy of her sister. Yang was very pleased with how Weiss had been treating Ruby lately, so they had no reason to fight. But the first time Weiss slipped up majorly, Yang had promised herself that she could yell at Weiss all she wanted. But only then, and Weiss was slowly gaining the trust of the blonde.
"The announcer just checked his mic, we should get out there." Weiss stood up, still unaware of the close scrutiny she was being subjected to.
"Let's do this!" Ruby yelled.
"Announcing Hailey Shaze, Evan Nelson, Alyssa Vont, and Trevor Callice of Team HEAT!" The four walked out onto the arena wielding their weapons with ease.
Hailey had a chrome Desert Eagle, Evan a pair of samurai swords, Alyssa a scythe, and Trevor had a cannon strapped to his back, not unlike Predator. The crowd roared for them and they waved in acknowledgement.
"Announcing Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long of Team RWBY!" The crowd went mental as the four colorful girls graced the arena.
Both teams took their places and the competitors crouched down into their battle stance, waiting for the timer to strike zero. The crowd helped by counting down along with the timer while growing louder and louder as it neared the start.
At zero, Ruby and Trevor started exchanging explosive rounds at each other, each intent on distracting the other from the rest of the fight. Weiss gave Ruby the advantage in the battle by using her glyph to send her into the air, giving Ruby the added benefit of a larger target than the silhouette of another person. Another advantage was that Trevor had a hard time of tilting the cannon on his back to the right position to fire into the sky. As Ruby flew up and over him, he tried to lean back to continue watching her and ended up on his back like a turtle. Through all of this, Blake and Yang had advanced together towards the rest of HEAT. Yang, seeing Trevor flailing about on the ground, used one of Blake's clones as a push-off point and used Ember Celica to blast herself in his direction. As she made it to him, she swung a punch that had the power to take his head off. Her fist hit the ground where he had been laying a moment before and sunk into a depression that had just appeared. She paused for a second to try to comprehend what had just happened and started trying to escape. That second cost her as Hailey shot her multiple times with her Deagle. Yang's aura decreased into the yellow and she finally used Ember Celica to shoot the ground, propelling her out and away. She was aided by the distracting sight of Ruby charging at Hailey. Ruby continued to deflect shots as she made her way over to Hailey, but she was stopped quickly by Alyssa and her scythe. Hailey let out a sigh of relief as she watched the two move away from her. This relief was dispelled when the cry for help from Evan reached her. She turned and saw Weiss and Blake whaling on him from all directions. She used her Semblance to create two fists out of the dirt and dust and used them to create a moving wall around Evan. She checked her scroll and saw that his aura was teetering on the brink of red.
'He'll be the problem, I have to protect him.' She thought.
She started towards him, not knowing that Evan would not be the one to lose the battle for them. In her haste to protect him, she failed to notice Yang sneaking up behind her. Yang aimed a punch at her and she went down. Hailey's aura fell to the red and the match was called in favor of Team RWBY.
"That was intense." Sun breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his four friends raising their hands high in victory.
"I'll say." Colton replied.
"It was crazy!" Krystal called from her snuggling position on Colton's lap.
Aurora rolled her eyes and followed the group as they met up with BOLT and JNPR and descended the stairs to meet up with RWBY. They met up a minute later at the entrance to the arena and exchanged stories about the battle.
"That team was hard." Ruby panted, still out of breath from fighting Alyssa. "I've never gone up against another scythe fighter before."
"You did well." Weiss gave her a quick hug and her face quickly blended in with Ruby's cloak.
Yang started laughing but got a jab in her side, brought to her by Blake.
"Just remember what you fought for." Blake whispered.
"You?" Yang asked.
"I meant the tournament, but that's very nice of you." Blake replied sarcastically, but inside she was excited that Yang would think of her first.
The group set off for the food court, leaving a suspicious looking person behind them. The person began following them, making sure to not be caught. The person stuck with them all the way to the food court, where he watched as Sun tried to figure out where to eat.
"So does anybody have suggestions on where the group should eat?" Sun asked, already knowing the first thing that would be suggested.
"Anarchy Reigns!" Tyger yelled as he made a mad dash to the nearest restaurant.
"Go grab your food." Sun dejectedly sat down to save the tables and put his head in his hands.
Blake sidled up beside him and gave him a quick hug before going off to join Yang in the pursuit of food. He had been there five minutes and the tables were starting to fill up with his friends when somebody tapped his shoulder. He turned around and almost jumped out of his chair.
"Hello, mind if we sit with you guys?" Hailey of Team HEAT asked.
"Uh, not at all, find yourself a seat." Sun gestured at the many empty tables.
"Thanks, we're interested to see how you guys handle going up against BOLT." Evan said. "You know, after what you did to CRDL."
"We won't try to humiliate them, if that's what you're asking. I'm good friends with them."
"Still, it should prove fun to watch." Alyssa chimed in, before following Hailey over to an empty table.
Sun watched them take their seats and arrange food plans for them.
'Of course, they can organize an eating arrangement.' He thought bitterly.
"What's wrong with you?" Krystal asked as she sat down.
"Nothing, just anxious for the battle ahead." He replied with a false smile.
"All right, the other two should be here soon, they got caught up in a line."
The two waited in relative silence for the other two members to arrive and finally Aurora sat down with Colton.
"Aren't you eating?" She asked, looking concerned for him.
"What? Oh, right." Sun reacted like it was the first time he had realized he hadn't gotten food. "I'll get it now."
He stood up and escaped to the first restaurant he saw, leaving his friends confused as to what was troubling him.
"Did he seem off to you guys?" Aurora asked.
"You noticed it too?" Colton replied.
"Yeah, he seems sort of down." Krystal added with a frown.
"Any clue as to why?" Aurora glanced at Sun, who was silently advancing in the line.
"Anarchy?" Krystal suggested.
"No." Aurora fixed a glare on Krystal and she backed off. "It's something else."
"The battle ahead?" Colton added.
"He's never that bad before a battle. What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know, what is wrong with me? That's the question." Sun said sarcastically as he sat down at the table.
"We're concerned for you." Aurora reached out and took one of his hands.
"If you must know, it's because I think we're being watched."
"What?"
"I noticed it when Michael started talking in my head again. He hasn't been doing that very much lately and it immediately put me on edge. Do you see that guy over there?" Sun nodded his head almost imperceptibly in the direction of the man that had followed them from the arena.
Aurora had the good sense not to turn her head immediately to look at the man Sun had indicated. Instead, she used her eyes and scanned the crowd around her.
"I see him." She muttered.
"He's followed us for a while, yesterday too."
"Can we do anything about it?"
"Not yet, except for keep an eye on him."
"Well, we can't worry about it now, we have a battle soon."
"I agree, let's go get ready for it."
Author's Note:
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