Ok, yep back to the boring author notes this time, I'm just excited to keep writing.

VOLUME 3

Chapter 26

Let's Get Started

"Hey, Mom."

After everything Ruby had been through, there was one thing she needed to do, far more than anything else; talk to her mom.

Now, as we should know, Ruby had unfortunately lost her mother long ago, but still visited her grave when she could. She stood above this very grave now, the white stone bearing the most lovely inscription.

Summer Rose

Thus Kindly I Scatter

Ruby lowered her hood, waving to the grave.

"Sorry I haven't come by in a while. Things have been... well, things have been, pretty busy. Oh, Dad's here, too! He's, uh, you know... Dad," she said as she shrugged, a faint smile on her face. "He's still teaching at Signal. But he told me that he's going to be on some mission soon. I think he misses adventuring with you. I miss you too..."

She paused for a moment. Regardless of the time that had passed, the pain was still fresh.

"Haven't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet! So that's cool," Ruby recovered. "I think being on a team with Yang helps. Keep her in line... That was a joke. She's actually a really great fighter! You can tell she's learned a lot from Dad! Oh, so are Weiss and Blake. Oh! They're my teammates! Together, we form Team RWBY! And yes, before you ask, that does cause a lot of confusion. Anyways, I made a bunch of new friends, and then I met some... let's just say, uh, odd teachers. And I uh... I have a boyfriend now. Don't be mad, though! His name is Link Valion, and he's the leader of another team at Beacon, Team VDMR. I just know that if you met him you'd love him. He's nice, smart, strong, caring... He's perfect..." she said as she thought about her knight, lost in her happy thoughts. Even if they hadn't been apart for long, oh how she missed him so. "And I'm sure he'd love you. I'll be sure to bring him to visit sometime, maybe when the tournament is over... Oh! We've also stopped some bad guys, too! I guess it's like they say: 'like mother, like daughter'! I still wonder why Ozpin let me into the school early. But uh, I guess he'll tell me one day. You know how he is. It's funny, the more I get to know him, the more he's starting to sound like Uncle Qrow."

She was about to continue, but an adorable yap from Zwei drew her attention back to both him and her father, Taiyang, who waved gently to her.

"Oh! Looks like Dad's back! I gotta go! He's dropping me off at Beacon for the tournament match before he goes on his next mission. Wish me luck!" she said, putting her hood back up and turning to walk away, though she stopped and turned back to her mother with one final message.

"It was good to talk. I love you, Mom."

And with that, Ruby turned back to her father, jogging back as a murder of crows flew into the sun, their formation reminiscent of something gone too soon.

OOO

As for that very same tournament she was discussing, things were getting underway. Round one itself was going on at this moment, so let's transition there, shall we?

In the stadium, a colossal construct hovering proudly over the land, the spectacle was astounding. Banners everywhere, seats filled with spectators, and a battleground alive with combat. This battle, was between teams RWBY and ABRN of Beacon and Haven, respectively.

In the frigid cold and blazing heat of the biomes selected for this battle, the teams fought their hardest, Ruby firing in a few different dirrections before speeding off, Blake exchanging blows with a Reese Chloris, an interesting battle of blade versus hoverboard. Reese found an opening in Blake's assault and dodged back, charging back in. Behind them, Weiss was on support, assisting Yang with Arslan Atlan, one of the few who could claim to be of similar strength to Yang, the one she was currently fighting, Yang working to counter some of her blows before firing back with some of her own, equally as devastating but with a tad more fire.

Above them in to commentators' booth sat two familiar faces, a pair of professors from Beacon known as Port and Oobleck. Between them sat a single shared microphone, and on the wall behind them the symbols of the four kingdoms standing together in harmony. A beautiful sight, indeed.

"Hello!" Port said, his grin still visible even beneath his glorious mustache. "It seems that we have another astonishing bout ahead of us! Wouldn't you agree, Professor?"

"Doctor," Oobleck corrected once again, adjusting his glasses, though his seriousness quickly melted away to allow for his true excitement to show through. "And yes Peter, I think it's safe to say this match may be the closest we've seen of the four-on-four round of the tournament!"

"For those of you just now joining us, welcome to the Vytal Festival Tournament, broadcast live from the Amity Colosseum!" Port said, gesturing to the colosseum from his spot on the big screen, the crown cheering as he did so. The stadium itself was, quite simply, a technological marvel, a gargantuan piece of machinery hovering closely to the airspace of Beacon, as it was the host of this year's Vytal Festival. Though many an explosion rang out from the battlefield as the teams turned each other into pulp, Port continued speaking, making the rules of this tournament clear. "If this is your first time watching, allow us to break down the rules."

Oobleck adjusted his glasses, a hologram displaying behind him in order to assist in relaying his points. "The tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds; teams, doubles, and singles." As he spoke, he held up the appropriate number of fingers. "Age and school year are irrelevant! In this tournament, your only attribute being tested... is skill."

Port nodded, a hologram appearing behind him to do the same. "Correct! The winners of this battle will elect two of their members to represent them in the doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing one member to advance once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!"

As he spoke, the hologram changed to show the advancement through the bracket, the champion of their simulation raising their sword high as a crown was lowered onto their head.

"However," he said, continuing, "we all know the rules aren't what you're here for, you're here for the competitors, the ones who are combating for this glory! Through the combined efforts of the four academies, we have even compiled the top 5 seeded teams for you today, just to know who to look out for!"

"At the Number 5 Seed, we have Beacon's Team JNPR!" Oobleck said, their photos displaying on the screen behind him. "Led by Jaune Arc, these first years have proven time and time again to subvert expectations! The real star of this show, however, is Miss Pyrrha Nikos! Her astounding skill and intelligence is matched only by her reputation!"

"Next at Number 4," Port said, the students of his specific team appearing behind him, "are Team GOLD of Haven Academy! Led by Gradivus Grayves, these students are noted to be extremely exceptional in their respective fields. Take caution when against their powerhouse, Zeraphin Darkraim! We've been told his Semblance is quite potent!"

"At Seed Number 3, we have one of the competitors of this very round, Team RWBY of Beacon Academy!" Oobleck said, their pictures displayed behind him. "I can speak from personal experience here, and my experience tells me that these are some of the finest young Huntresses I have ever taught! Led by Ruby Rose, this team is nothing to scoff at! Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee are quite skilled as well, and are more than enough to lead them to victory against most challenges!"

"As for the Number 2 Seed, we have another team from Beacon Academy, Team VDMR!" Port said, VDMR's profiles displayed behind them. "Led by Link Valion, this team is legendary at Beacon for their astounding power, cunning strategies, and boundless heart. Their leader in particular is quite the warrior, having never lost a match during his time here at Beacon, even including battles against upperclassmen!"

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the Number 1 Seed of the Vytal Festival..." Oobleck said, the team's silhouettes fading onto the massive screen, shortly thereafter bursting into their full glory with confetti and applause. "Your Number 1 Seed, Team CMZN of Atlas Academy!"

The crowd roared with applause as their images were shown, many Atlesian spectators rising and cheering as hard as they could.

"Yes, Team CMZN is the Number 1 Seed for this year's festival. Led by Oni Umberdyne, the world-famous Silver-Eyed Demon, this team is the stuff of legends!" Port said, the crowd almost overpowering him, even with his voice projected over the entire stadium. "Not one member of this team is to be underestimated, folks. Takeshi Alpharion is known as one of the world's best users of Dust, even better than most fully-trained Huntsman who devote themselves to the art! Levon Techdemon is one of the foremost experts on mechanics, being an integral part of many Atlesian efforts to better our world! Zero Redfox is renowned for taking challenges from many a Huntsman to try to outshoot her, but none have ever bested her! And their leader, Oni... He's in a league all his own! His combat stats are rivaled by few, and surpassed by none! It's no wonder he's hired for missions over many professional Huntsmen!"

"Yes, Peter, these certainly are some spectacular spectacles on which to spectate on!" Oobleck said, the images returning to the unified symbols of the kingdoms. "I don't think anyone tuning in around the world is going to disagree with me on that!"

The screens changed to display broadcasts of many different areas from all around Remnant. These locations included, but were definitely not limited to, a group of spectators in the Mistral Distillery watching the stream closely, an Atlesian home where many friends had gathered together to witness the spectacle, a bar in Vale in which the patrons realized they were being recorded and turned to wave at the camera, and a mobile home in Vacuo where a group of Faunus watched in earnest.

"Ahh, and why would they?" Port asked, knowing full well the special place in their hearts the Vytal Festival had, twiddling his mustache as he spoke. "Now, let's get back to the match between Team RWBY of Beacon, and Team ABRN, of Haven."

As they finished speaking, so too did the screen cut back to broadcast RWBY and ABRN's heated battle.

"Let's go, Ruby!" shouted Link's voice, he alone cutting through the din to reach her ears. A determined yet playful smile erupted on her lips as she heard, turning to the one who was their source. "You guys are Seed 3 for a reason! Show these Haven losers what Beacon has to offer!"

Ruby couldn't help but laugh at her beloved's antics, as he got very competitive during times like this. It was a healthy competitive drive though; he already pushed himself hard during training, and actually went a bit easier on himself such to ensure he was prepared for everything. She obviously made sure he never overdid it, but now that he was on the same page it was leagues easier.

"Don't worry, we've got this!" Ruby called back, quickly using her semblance to dodge a blow, Link pumping his fist and cheering as she did.

"You're really into this, huh?" Lana asked, looking up to her leader who refused to sit.

"Link-sama is cheering on his girlfriend, it's only natural," Sebastian replied, watching intently as Yang and Arslan continued to box each other.

"He's just got that competitive spirit, but damn does his burn hot..." was all Volga could say, his attention also on the battle beneath him.

"No offense guys, but I need you to be quiet," replied their valiant leader, refusing to take his analytical eyes off the many separate fights below him. "I'm focussing."

In particular, he was at that moment focusing on Blake and Reese. Reese was currently piloting her hoverboard through the ice, pulling some sort of undercarriage grab while she spun, launching it at Blake, who rather easily knocked it away. However, it boomeranged back at Blake, as she had a harder time blocking it on the return. Blake did her best to try to attack Reese, but her board returned to her just in time to help her defend. Spinning it around to force Blake away, Reese quickly sped off, circling back around to try and attack the Faunus girl. Blake smirked in response, Reese hitting a frozen clone of Blake's rather than the original. The original in question darted in from the side, rending the board in two, each half switching into guns with which she shot at Blake with. Unfortunately, her shots were easily blocked, and she landed rather hard on her bottom, earning a sympathetic wince from Blake. She even subconsciously protected her own, regardless of whether or not she needed to.

Meanwhile, Yang and Arslan were busy doing what they did best; beat the snot out of whatever it was that stood before them. Unfortunately for them, that happened to be each other. They each took turns trying to land a combo on the other, each parrying and trying to do the same in turn. Eventually, both went for a powerful punch, the two's fists colliding with the resulting impact blowing them away. Yang was able to keep her ground better though, and got in close to try and keep going. Arslan was quicker though, using her rope dart to tangle up Yang's feet. This tripped her up a bit and allowed Arslan to knee Yang in the face and knock her away, retracting her dart to make it even harder for Yang to keep her balance due to the added spin. She quickly capitalized on this, pursuing to continue her assault.

Hidden among the icy slopes was Nadir Shiko, aiming his assault rifle at Yang to take a few pot shots, but was quickly frozen in place by a single well-placed Dust round all the way up to his thighs. Whimpering, he looked around to see Ruby staring down the scope of her scythe, releasing the spent shell while blowing her hair out of her face.

"Got your back!" she called to her sister, before hearing footsteps approach behind her.

"But who's got yours?" asked Bolin, twirling his staff to gain momentum to strike before a blackened glyph appeared to his side, a miss Weiss Schnee kicking him through it and into a nearby rock.

"My BFF!" came Ruby's response, giving Weiss a gleeful thumbs up, though Weiss refuted it and glared at her for a moment before running off.

"No," she said, heading back into the fray.

"...Yes," Ruby whispered to herself once the heiress had left, gently fist pumping to express her joy.

Once Bolin had caught himself, he crouched in preparation for Weiss' continued assault. The girl in question formed a glyph in from of him, quickly approaching and cutting through her glyph, attempting to freeze him in place with the ice it had been producing, though he dodged back. She quickly leapt above him to try and hit him from there, but he was easily able to block. Annoyed he was doing so well, Weiss prepared a glyph behind her, Ruby rushing in and using it to propel herself into the air, spinning around in order to strike even harder, and yet Bolin managed to block that too. Ruby new she was at a disadvantage in the air and fired of a round to get away, retreating to Weiss' side, Bolin make his move and charging them.

Link narrowed his eyes as he glared at him. Not because he was fighting Ruby, as he knew it was all for sport, but because he knew he was planning something.

Ruby and Weiss were more than ready for this, however, Weiss summoning a glyph to rain down icicles while Ruby took a quick swing at him, though he dodged through and kept running past them.

"Whaaat!?" was all the scythe wielder could say as he darted past the duo. She misread that entire interaction.

But Link didn't.

"As I figured," he said, hands on the barrier in front of him. "He's after the fire Dust crystals."

True to the warrior's words, Bolin had gone for one of the crystals in question, breaking one off and chucking it to Reese over on the frigid biome, Reese catching it and locking it into her board. Due to this, her board turned red with fiery energy. Winking at Blake, who was taken aback by this and laid back, unsure of what to expect next, Reese made her way over to Nadir, the heat of her board thawing him out in moments.

With Nadir back into the fray, Reese quickly backpedaled towards Blake and slammed her board into her, getting blocked, as per usual. Due to the momentum behind her, however, Blake was sent crashing through a large icy pillar, chasing after and attempting to smash into her from above. Blake quickly rolled out of the way, barely dodging the resulting stream of fire thanks to her Semblance. Whilst still airborne, Blake launched the pistol edge of Gambol Shroud at her adversary who dodged with ease do to the range at which it was thrown. Blake anticipated this and made sure the blade got lodged in a nearby ice formation, pulling herself out of the open to give herself time to regroup, Link smirking as she did so.

"Clever girl."

Reese followed to see Blake with her back to her under an arch, smirking and moving in for the metaphorical kill, Reese launching a wave of fire at Blake. However, Blake herself dissolved, having replaced herself with one of her clones. In doing this she moved to a better location in order to trap Reese with the ribbon of Gambol Shroud, ensnaring her well enough to land an extremely solid kick that launched her out of the arena and into the wall of the stands right below Link, who laughed sarcastically as she did. She noted this and looked up to try and intimidate her heckler, only to stare at the Ace of the Seed 2 team,looking back down in mild shock. Sure, she was doing well against a member of the Seed 3 team, but not the Ace of Seed 2, that seemed a bit much for her.

She looked back up just in time to see that her aura dropped into red, he profile darkening and being crossed out, slamming her fist on the ground in anger.

"Ooh, a double whammy! Reese Chloris is eliminated by ringout and Aura level!" Port declared, waving his arm to the side.

"Oh, she really should've worn a helmet!" Oobleck added, adjusting his glasses, as he always did.

Meanwhile, Arslan was using her rope dart to flee from Yang, who was blasting herself through the air in pursuit. She wouldn't let her get away. Nadir and Weiss were in the midst of their own dance, Nadir trying to mow Weiss down, Weiss simply forming a glyph and launching Bolin at him, knocking them both onto the ground. Summoning another glyph beneath them, they were helpless as an icy wind summoned forth a giant hand of frost to capture them. This hand quickly reformed into a ball that began rolling around freely.

Arlsan, still fleeing from Yang, rolled her eyes and quickly moved to land in the oncoming path of the frigid globe, skidding right into place. Rolling her eyes, she settled into a stance as the ball of her remaining teammates rolled at her, hitting it once with a precise palm strike once it reached her. This palm strike did precisely as she intended, shattering the whole thing to pieces..

Aside from her teammates, of course.

"Yang!" shouted the Schnee Heiress, Yang turned to look right as she created a large icy slope. "NOW!"

Yang smirked and nodded, propelling herself forward with Ember Celica and onto the ramp. Blake quickly hurled her weapon to her blonde teammate, Yang catching it as Blake made her way quickly to Ruby. Ruby in turn switched to a clip of gravity Dust for maximum recoil, joining hands with Blake and firing to launch her forward, Blake whipping a screaming Yang forward towards the remainder of Team ABRN, Nadir having no choice other than to drop his gun in awe as Yang smashed into them. The one blow was more than enough to launch all three remaining members out of the arena, again into the wall by Team VDMR.

"Haha," Link sneered as they hit the wall, Sebastian chuckling as he stood and applauded, many others around him doing the same.

Yang stood up straight, rolling her shoulder as the buzzer rang to signify her knockouts, Ruby cheering in the background. "Yes!" she cheered in turn, a wide smile on her face.

"And that's the match! Team RWBY is victorious!" came Port's voice over the speaker, the crowd cheering ever louder.

"We... did it?" Weiss asked sheepishly, unsure of whether or not she had heard right.

Ruby had to double take as well, turning to Yang who merely gave a thumbs up in approval. Barely able to contain her excitement, she leapt in the air, cheering. "WE DID IIIIII-"

OOO

"-...is anyone else starving?" Ruby asked, hunching over.

"I may have worked up an appetite," Blake responded, hands behind her head. Despite how cool she tried to play it off, her stomach growled in booming agreement, Blake's face reading of shocked embarrassment.

Weiss shrugged sarcastically, the next words out of her mouth bound to be sassy. "Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus to get food around here."

Looking around, it was evidenced she was referring to the multitude of stalls around the fairgrounds.

"Oh, wait."

"It's okay, Weiss, I forget about the fairgrounds, too," Ruby agreed in order to comfort her teammate, lopping her arm in hers. Weiss wasn't a fan though, and yanked her arm away.

"I was being facetious?"

"Gah!" was the only response this startled Ruby could muster, flailing her arms around in confusion. "Well if you were hungry, why didn't you say so?!"

Yang stopped laughing just (Yang Xiao) long enough to respond. "Come on! I know just the place."

She waved to them and began leading, the rest of the team following her. Weiss stopped for a moment, hearing her scroll ringing, pulling it out only to see that the caller ID labelled the caller as 'FATHER'. Glaring at the device in her hand for a moment, she merely put it back in her pocket, leaving her father without an answer.

"Hey!" called a familiar voice just out of sight. The group turned to see none other than Emerald holding up a familiar red wallet filled with Lien. "Might be hard to eat without this."

"No, no, no, no!" Ruby repeated frantically as she patted her pockets in vain, Emerald laughing and approaching her.

"Good to see you, Ruby," she chuckled as she handed Ruby back her wallet, Ruby quickly putting it back in her pocket.

"Oh! Thanks, Emerald! Oh. Guess I dropped it. Girl pockets are the worst!" she said dejectedly, insulting the very pockets she just decided to use again.

"What's up, Em?" Yang asked, getting a fist bump from the secretive thief.

"Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!" she said with a smile.

"Oh, shut your stupid little face..." muttered Ruby, rubbing the back of her head.

"She's not wrong, you know," Link said, having finally found RWBY. "You guys ran off after you were done, I wasn't able to congradulate you!"

"But you just did," Weiss cut in, raising a finger alongside her point.

"Oh, hush, Ice Queen," Link replied with a glare, Weiss' finger dropping instantly. His scroll rang for a moment, checking it to see he had a message from his team. "Oh, shoot, I gotta go. Catch up with you guys in a bit."

They all waved as he left, Ruby do so more enthusiastically.

"I heard your team progressed to the next round too," Blake said, returning the topic back to the one at hand.

"You know, I feel that we haven't seen your other teammates," Weiss said, referencing the fact that Emerald was usually alone.

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang asked. She wanted answers to the very important questions.

Emerald took a moment to remember her 'battle', and by that I mean her, Mercury, Cinder, and the disguised Neopolitan casually beating the daylights out of the team unfortunate enough to have to fight them.

"Really well," she said, nodding.

"That's great," Ruby said with a beaming smile. "Uh. Why don't we all go and get a victory food together?"

"Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but my teammates are all kind of..." She trailed off, looking to Mercury, who was smelling a boot to see if the leather was of a respectable quality. Based on his perplexed response, it didn't appear so. "...introverted. Really socially awkward."

Yang merely nodded in agreement. "Ooh, yeah, I could see that."

"Oh yeah, looks like Merc and I are going to move on to the doubles round. What about you guys?" she asked, curious.

"Well," Ruby said as she puffed out her chest, "as the leader of this team, I thought long and hard about this decision."

"We put it to a vote," Weiss quickly added in. Ruby blanking for a moment.

"Yes, so, but I decided that we should put it to a vote," she stated in recovery.

"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake clarified.

Weiss curtsied deeply, a prideful smile on her face. "I will happily represent Team RWBY."

Yang simply replied by smashing her fists together. "Yeah, we're going to kick some butt!"

Emerald laughed in turn, crossing her arms. "Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Yang said as she and Weiss smirked in response.

Emerald's smile returned to it's standard warmth, turning and waving. "Alright, well we're going to catch some more fights."

"Have fun!" Ruby responded cheerfully, waving to her as she left.

"See you later!" she said in turn, turning to Mercury and gagging as she did.

"So, how are the new friends?" he asked, setting down another boot. It smelled better, but still not good.

"I hate them," she explained.

"Orders are orders," Mercury shrugged.

"I just..." she said, struggling to find the words to describe how she felt, "how can they be so happy all the time?!"

"Did you at least get what we want?"

Emerald rolled her eyes, beginning to walk away. "It's the heiress and the bimbo."

"Hmm, alright," he said as he followed after her. "At least we know who we're working with."

OOO

Yang had ended up leading RWBY to another noodle house titled A Simple Wok, which seemed to be a rather successful chain based on it's recurrence in our tale.

"I'll have a bowl of the regular, please," she asked, a gargantuan bowl sliding in front of her absolutely filled with noodles.

"Oohhh..." Ruby muttered as she started at her elder sister's food. "I'll take the same."

As the bowl slid in front of her she couldn't help but gasp as she grabbed it, the thing likely outweighing her.

"Do you have anything with a low-salt...?" Weiss asked, though the same type of bowl was plopped down in front of her. "Um... okay..."

Blake, the quiet warrior she was, simply turned to the shopkeep and nodded, and he nodded back and ran into the back and back out quickly with a bowl of the same noodles yet also a load of fish. Despite her efforts though, she couldn't help but drool at the meal before her, her eyes sparkling in awe. Wess smirked for a moment before reaching into her pouch, pulling forth her Schnee Dust Company credit card, handing to the shopkeeper.

"Aw, Weiss! What's the occasion?!" Yang asked both with gratitude and curiosity.

"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round," Weiss said with pride before her card was returned to her, and by 'returned' I mean 'flung back with enough force to lodge it in the wood of the counter'. Looking at the shopkeeper, he merely pointed at the register, a red flashing 'declined' drawing her attention. "What?! How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance!"

Blake panicked for a moment, slowly grabbing her bowl and dragging it closer to herself, but unfortunately the shopkeeper saw and retrieved his as of yet unpaid for wares, Blake nearly crying in defeat. "Nooo!" she cried, her pleas falling not on deaf ears, but professional ones.

"Maybe I could help?" asked Pyrrha, who had overheard Blake's dilemma and came to assist. With her was the rest of Team JNPR, as always.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby cheered in delight.

"Aw, you don't have to ..." Yang said, rubbing her hair absentmindedly.

"But she could!" Blake yelled, slamming her fists on the table. She was hungry.

"Well, I think you all earned it after that battle," she said, offering her card to the shopkeeper. "After all, you were named Third Seed! That's quite the accomplishment!"

"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asked cautiously, Ruby nodding in affirmation as she patted the open seats next to them.

The two teams sat and ate, enjoying playful banter and other tournament talk, JNPR getting food as well. Once they had all finished, some ended up being rather content with their meal, some felt sick due to having ate too much.

"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren asked Pyrrha, who simply shrugged in response.

"Of course!" she replied happily, the shopkeeper reclaiming his dishes. "It will give us energy! Besides, we aren't next just yet. I can't recall who's next though..."

Befoer she could dwell on it, Nora let loose a mighty burp, Jaune holding his stomach in pain.

"If I barf, I'm blaming you," he said to her, Nora merely laughing at him.

"Oh, I know who's next!" Weiss declared, checking her scroll. "It's the First Seed team, CMZN."

"Oh, those Atlas kids, right?" Yang asked, Ruby nodding in confirmation.

"If they're anything like Oni was back at those docks a while back, this should be an interesting fight," she said, Blake nodding before adding her two cents.

"But even then, we've never seen any of his teammates fight other than him. If the broadcast was any indication though, each one is comparable to professional Huntsmen already," she said, thinking back to Port's monologue regarding the Atlesian prodigies. "Take Takeshi for example. He's apparently unmatched with Dust."

"Oh, please," Weiss scoffed as she flipped her hair back, crossing her arms. "I've grown up with Dust all my childhood. He might be good, but he can't be that good."

"Why don't we all go watch and see?" Ruby asked, drawing attention to herself. "If you and Yang end up having to fight any of them in upcoming rounds, it won't hurt to scout them out to see what they can do."

"Sure," Pyrrha said, herself curious what they could do. This 'Oni Umberdyne' sounded extremely skilled, and she wanted to see it firsthand...

OOO

"...And there are your combatting teams for this next round!" Port said, having introduced the two opposing teams for this round, Team CMZN and some poor souls from Shade Academy. "Let's remember to have a good clean fight, and don't forget to give it your all!"

"This looks like it'll be a good fight," Ruby said in reference to what was about to unfold. "CMZN may be First Seed, but these guys are in the top 15, so they may put up more of a fight than we expect..."

"Let's hope so!' Nora cheered, rising from her seat. "I wanna see bodies flyyy~!"

"Nora, sit down," Ran pleaded, Nora ignoring him and cheering for more carnage.

"I'm just curious as to what this Takeshi is capable of..." Weiss said, looking down the boy in question. Both his coat and hair fluttered elegantly in the breeze, and at his side was a stunning rapier. It was hard to describe in words, but she envied its beauty, even when comparing it to Myrtenaster. In his hands though, was a... book? "He's reading? During his match?"

"Either he's bored or confident," Blake concluded. It may even be both.

Down below, the teams waited as the biomes were selected, the two being chosen being both desert and forest, the forest being behind CMZN.

"Eh, would could have gotten worse," Oni declared, looking at the landscape behind him. "I guess I should be glad. I won't have a hard time hiding in there."

"Awww, is the big boy from Seed 1 gonna run and hide?" asked one of their enemies, the others laughing, Levon laughing too.

"Oh, no, we just have a plan," he said, Ruby overhearing since the crowd had gone quiet such to hear the prematch banter. What kind of plan...?

She didn't have to wait long to find out, as Port quickly began counting down, signaling the last few seconds before they began.

"Begin!" he shouted, the feed cutting to the two teams, the Shade students eyeing CMZN nervously. Sure, they were top 15, but number 1 was to be both respected and feared.

Oni was the first to move, turning around and heading into the woods, leaving his team behind, aside from Takeshi, who followed closely after, still reading his book.

"What are they planning?" Ruby asked, Takeshi turning around once he had put some distance between he and the other two who remained.

"Are you two ready?" he asked, closing his book.

"Oh, you betcha!" Levon cheered, Zero nodding.

"Affirmative," she said, taking out her weapon, a large rifle with a bayonet and a gatling barrel.

"Excellent! I'll leave it to you then," he said as he drew his sword, Weiss leaning forward in her seat. There's no way he could be as good as Port had said... Right?

To her astonishment and horror, Takeshi drew his rapier, spinning it around once before cutting at the ground, a gargantuan wall of ice being formed and dividing the entire battlefield in two.

Weiss was left breathless. He was THAT good? No wonder he spoke so highly of CMZN; he was right.

"So uh... what was that about Port exaggerating?" Yang asked, almost speechless herself.

"He's... Unreal..." was all Weiss managed to force out, watching closely as Takeshi sheathed his blade, turning back to the forest edge where Oni stood, his leader giving a thumbs up.

"I was expecting bigger," he said, Takeshi shrugging and opening his book.

"The stage was smaller than we had anticipated is all. It will suffice," he said as he sat up against his tree, flipping the page.

Jaune took this chance to glance to the display board, seeing just how massive their aura levels were in comparison to their opponents'. Even their strongest member's aura wasn't a quarter of Zero's, and hers was by far the lowest of CMZN.

"Take a look at that..." he said meekly as he pointed, the others seeing and looking back in shock at the team before them.

"How are these guys students?!" Yang nearly shouted, Ruby examining their formation.

"I think I figured it out..." she said, pointing at Zero and Levon. "Those two are the ones staying back when the other two move to doubles. They're having Oni and Takeshi sit out such that no one can see them fight and try to plan a counter."

"B-but even if they're that good, how can those two take on all four by themselves?" Yang asked, Ruby gesturing to their aura levels as Jaune had before.

"Look at their aura and you'll know. Remember, Pyrrha made CRDL look like nothing. It looks like they think they can do the same..."

"It's genius..." Blake said, Pyrrha nodding in agreement.

"I'd better tell Link to watch the broadcast," Ruby said, getting out her scroll. "He's gonna want to see this."

As she typed, the Shade students went on the verbal offensive against Levon and Zero, the short girl messing with her scope a little bit.

"Oh, so you think since you're First Seed that you can take us out 2 on 4? I'm gonna pound your face in so hard you'll have to wipe your ass to blow your nose!" shouted the one with the highest aura, stopping when Zero fired off two rounds into the air.

"There," she said, turning to Levon, "you can do what you want, I've done what I have to."

"Sweet, thanks," he said with a smile before turning to the Shade students. "Ok, who's first?"

The apparent leader of the team stepped angrily forward, one of his teammates holding him back. "Take it easy, Blaise, we've got this. If we focus on one at a time then we can whittle them down one by one. They've set up their own def- AAAHHH!"

Before the Huntress in training could finish, she was hurled off the battlefield by some black piece of machinery, hitting the wall and draining her aura considerably, the elimination buzzer ringing shortly after.

"Ohhh, looks like Lucy Luck of BLUD has been eliminated by ring out!" Port stated, everyone of the now-named BLUD turning back to Levon, who was trying to hold back a laugh.

"What did you do?!" Blaise asked in fear, Levon calming himself.

"I snuck my Nanotech under her feet when Zero shot and drew your attention. I just had to, it was too funny not to!"

"Nanotech?" asked another member of BLUD, the tiny machines flowing onto Levon's arm from his backpack.

"My weapon is a serious of microscopic machines I developed. Sure, they can do stuff like that, but the best part is that I can program them to do this!"

As he spoke, the Nanotech pooled in his hands to form a large staff with a weight on the end, from that end sprouting a large green energy blade reminiscent of a scythe. Aiming this scythe at Blaise, he took a few steps forward, Blaise stepping back.

"I call it Hell's Grand Symphony," Levon said, naming his e-scythe. "It's the best weapon I've ever programmed."

Winding back to take a swing, Blaise raised his weapon to defend, but Levon instead blind-sided one of his teammates, launching her into red and skidding in the sand of the desert in one shot.

"Desiree Matte has been eliminated by aura!" Oobleck declared as the buzzer sounded.

"So, he's got a scythe too, huh?" Ruby asked, ignoring that he had drained the aura of his adversary in one shot, and relative ease.

"You guys should run," Levon said as he started moving again, Blaise and the remaining member of BLUD doing as he said, Levon chasing them down as Zero sighed and walked after them, pulling the trigger of her gun and forcing the gatling barrels to spin out of boredom.

"Uther!" Blaise shouted, getting his teammate's attention, "we need to go for our team attack!"

"Gotcha!" Other responded, activating his weapon, a large sword with a double barrel shotgun mounted to either side. Slamming this blade into the ground and raising a large piece of stone, he spun around and smashed it as hard as he could with the flat of his blade, launching it at Zero.

Blaise was within the trajectory and ducked, activating his own weapon, a pair of flamethrower-vambrances, slamming a fist into the bottom and lighting the whole thing ablaze. Apparently this was hot enough to melt the stone, the fiery mass flying towards her before she blew her hair out of her eye and aimed at it, firing once and piercing the ball of fire, the entire thing bursting apart and plopping harmlessly to the ground.

Uther looked on in shock, but only for a moment as the bullet she fired nearly hit him, barely raising his weapon in time to defend, the force of the massive caliber round pushing him back. He was about to charge, but was stopped when a glint in the sky caught his eye, looking up to see one of the bullets Zero had fired earlier flying towards him. He had no time to dodge or block, and took the round head on, his aura dropping to red in one shot.

Again sounded the elimination buzzer, Port announcing the elimination of Uther Floyd, leaving only Blaise.

"Yep," Levon said as he nodded, shouldering his weapon. "We've trained hard for this tournament."

Blaise looked up in fear as the second bullet Zero fired fell from the heavens, taking him out of the fight.

"And that's it folks, with Blaise Nitro eliminated, this means that this round goes to Team CMZN!" Oobleck declared, the crowd staying in shocked silence for a moment before erupting in applause.

"It was so..." Yang began, Ruby finishing for her.

"One-sided..."

"And Takeshi and Oni have yet to even fight," Blake said, turning to Weiss, who was looking in horror at the ice wall still present of the battlefield. It had yet to even begin sweating, let alone melting.

"How are they gonna get rid of that?" Jaune asked, turning to Ren and Nora, both shrugging. They had no idea.

"*Ahem*" came a new voice over the speaker, everyone turning to the screen to see Ironwood having entered the booth and grabbing the mic. "Mr. Alpharion, if you would be so kind as to clean up for future contenders, it would be greatly appreciated."

"Yes, Sir!" Takeshi said with a salute, drawing his rapier and walking up to the wall, swinging once and turning the entire thing to steam with a well-placed shot of fire Dust, the sudden change in pressure blowing outwards, bathing the stands with the burning humidity from his two lone uses of Dust.

"Did you see all that?" Ruby asked, having called Link on her scroll.

"Oh yeah," he responded, his tone serious yet unworried. "I knew these guys were tough, I'm just glad to see how tough exactly."

"Good," she said. "We need to meet up later to discuss all of that. I wanna see what we can plan with what we have. It's not much, but it'll be better than nothing."

Once he responded, she hung up, looking back to the arena before her. CMZN was too good to just play it by ear. She needed an extremely good plan if they were to face them in round 2.

OOO

"Well that was... something to say the least," Pyrrha said, the group having exited the arena in order to leave behind the din of those proclaiming Atlesian superiority.

"You're not getting cold feet, are you Pyrrha?" Yang asked, Pyrrha shaking her head.

"Oh goodness no," she responded. "It'll just be hard to follow that up is all."

"To be fair, it'll be easier that you think," Blake added. "Assuming it's not as one-sided as that, then the fight will be far more entertaining."

"You are certainly right," Pyrrha said, Nora leaping onto her back.

"I wanna go now!" she cheered, Pyrrha trying in vain to unhook her legs from her torso. "I wanna fight fight fight fight fiiight!"

"We'll go when we're called, Nora," Red said, the speakers of the fairground crackling to life.

"Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately!" Port said, Oobleck's voice not far behind.

"Yes! Like they were scheduled to, several minutes ago!"

"Looks like you're up then," Ruby said, turning to Jaune. "Do you guys think you're up for it?"

"Of course!" Nora said as she butt in. "We're Fifth Seed! We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team, one's basically ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune, we trained all year, our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and uh... Jaune!"

"Are you gonna take that?" Ren asked as he leaned towards Jaune.

"She's not wrong," Jaune admitted.

"I'm kidding, he knows I'm kidding," she said, waving it off. "Don't be so nervous! The worst that can happen is we lose, that is just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing we're failures, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I have no parents, we have no home left to go to, we'll be officially renamed Team Lose-iper!"

As she spoke, her color grew fainter and fainter. He laughter too lost it's charm, growing psychotic and forced, Nora falling to the floor in worry.

Ren wasn't anywhere near as worried. "So, yeah, we're feeling pretty good."

"Don't fret" Pyrrha said as she helped Nora back to her feet. "If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines, and not, well, ...murderers."

"Yeah, don't sweat it, we've all faced way worse before," Yang added, Blake nodding and counting a few off.

"Let's see. Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath..."

"And that's all while were still in training!" Ruby cheered. "Oh, imagine what it would be like to graduate!"

"Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal," Weiss muttered to herself.

And with that, JNPR turned to head off to their match, the weight of expectation now upon them.

"Go get 'em!" Ruby cheered, hoping to put some more confidence in them.

OOO

JNPR made their way to the area, RWBY heading to their seats, Mercury and Emerald doing the same behind them. The desert and forest biomes were retracted, the randomizer selecting forest once again, as well as a large mountain range, the biomes emerging from beneath.

Mercury and Emerald took a seat, Merc munching on hit tub of popcorn.

"I wonder who's gonna win," he asked, Emerald rolling her eyes.

"Tch," she responded. "As if we don't already know."

Cinder quickly made her way up to the seats behind the two, stealing an unpopped kernel from Merc, holding it between her fingers. "Oh, come now. Even if you know how the story ends, that doesn't make it any less fun to watch."

As she finished, her eyes glowed with light and the kernel popped, Cinder munching on it as Port announced the next fight.

"Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade!" he said, Jaune narrowing his eyes in concentration despite Ruby's constant 'WHO-HOOOO's from her seat.

"Three, two, one, begin!" called Port, JNPR and BRNZ leaping at each other immediately, unlike CMZN and BLUD.

"Let's get started," Jaune said as he did, sword and shield at the ready.

Oh boy, here we've got another long chapter to enjoy (8,270 words, to be exact!). And in this chapter, we have one of the reasons why I've been so excited to write about Volume 3;

Team CMZN

Evidently, these guys are beasts, hence their First Seed standing.

Speaking of which, for those who aren't aware of what that is, I'll give a brief rundown. Basically, what it does is rank the competitors from best to worst, meaning a team with the designation 'First Seed' is viewed as more skilled than say Second or Third Seed, and this is to avoid having the better teams go against each other early on. It's real, I swear, look it up.

And don't worry about Team BLUD, they're just a team of last-minute OCs for CMZN to thrash, they won't be important again. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

OniHelix out!