Mmm yes, Qrow and Noctus, among the finest duo of dipshits I have the pleasure of writing about. I'm just glad I get to do so more often now! Anyway, you guys aren't here for however much I love those two, you're here for a chapter. So take it, and let's get going.
Chapter 29
I'm the One
The following day, high up in the clouds the crowd roared for the next round of the festival; the doubles round. As we know, Cinder had chosen the combatants the previous night, Emerald and Mercury from her team, and Coco and Yatsuhashi from CFVY. The very same four stood in the center of Amity Colosseum, except for Yatsuhashi that is, as he sat meditating as the roulette wheels to choose the biomes continued to spin.
"Emerald and Mercury of Haven, versus Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon!" Port shouted, announcing who exactly it was that was fighting, just in case some people hadn't figured it out yet.
"Good luck, you two!" Velvet shouted from the stands, Fox on one side of her and Ruby on the other. They weren't going to miss this fight for anything. Along with Ruby and Link came the rest of their teams, naturally, though they were a little more scattered due to the lack of seating.
One of the main differences between the preliminary round and the doubles, other than the number of competitors, of course, was the battlefield. Rather than two biomes, one on either side, there were actually four, one to each cardinal direction. The roulette wheels finally stopped spinning, the biomes chosen being a savannah-like plain, city ruins, a hot spring with geysers, and the forest biome again.
In the center, Coco eyed Emerald for a moment, lowering her sunglasses to get a better look. "Hey!" she said, getting her attention. "Love the outfit, kid!"
"I'll try not to get blood on it," Emerald retorted, a smirk on her face.
Yatsuhashi finally finished meditating, rising from the ground and drawing his weapon, Fulcrum. "I can't promise you'll leave without a scratch."
"I won't be the one bleeding," Emerald clarified, stretching her arms out.
"Ooh, I like her!" Coco cheered, pushing her glasses back up.
They would have continued the pre-match banter, but they stopped when Port began counting down to begin the fight. "Three, two, one, begin!"
Mercury and Emerald smirked for a moment before backing into the grass behind them, their forms being obscured by the vegetation. Coco merely rolled her eyes as she readied her own weapon, Gianduja, and proceeded to quite literally mow down the entire plain in just a few sweeps, her fans cheering for her even as the bullets hit the barrier before them. With all the grass gone, Coco and Yatsuhashi looked around for a moment before realizing that their opponents were no longer there.
"Huh?" Coco muttered, circling around to make sure she wasn't just seeing things.
"Look out!" Blake shouted from her seat, the others around her looking worried
Right as she said this, Mercury fell from the sky, a powerful axe kick aimed at Coco, though Yatsuhashi pushed her out of the way and blocked rather easily, sending Mercury back. Coco recovered quickly and raised her weapon to Mercury, firing round after round at him, though he ran away fast enough to dodge all of them.
"He's good!" Sun shouted from his own seat. Surrounding him was the rest of SSSN, Scarlet in particular looking a little perplexed.
"Yeah, but where's the girl?" he asked, scanning the battlefield in the hopes of finding Emerald, but to no avail.
Eventually diving through the gunfire, Mercury got close to the two, landing a few kicks to Yatsuhashi's massive frame, though he more or less ignored it. Mercury didn't have any time to try anything else, however, as he was forced to dodge through even more of Coco's gunfire, landing on top of Gianduja. With the barrel now forced into the ground, Coco couldn't very well shoot at him any more, kinda just having to deal with taking a kick to the face. Yatsuhashi moved quickly though, and took a swing at Mercury such that he couldn't continue his assault. Swinging again, he caught Merc and sent him back. However, this seemed to be deliberate, as this knocked him behind Coco, Mercury pushing the barrels of Gianduja into Yatsuhashi's gut. They stood there for a moment before Coco huffed and returned her weapon into its handbag form, both she and her teammate taking a swing at Mercury, though he rather easily dodged back and fired at the two, both deflecting rather easily.
Coco lowered her bag, only to look extra surprised as they were surrounded by plethora of bullets fired from Mercury's boots, each spiraling around them before he directed them all down onto the members of CFVY, the resulting chaos being the perfect cover for Mercury to make his way behind the two, grabbing each one by the arm and letting loose a flurry of kicks that separated the two, Coco being knocked towards the forest. She quickly stood, but was caught off guard when a chained hook came from the trees, pulling her into the shaded depths.
"Coco!" called Yatsuhashi, holding an arm out as if to save her, though this was to no avail, as she disappeared right as he spoke.
Mercury used this chance to kick Yatsuhashi once more, though he powered right through the kick and grabbed Mercury by his face, throwing him clear across the arena and into the hot spring biome. He followed up by leaping high into the air after Mercury, coming crashing down with his blade, only to be met instead by his boots. The shockwave from this lone action was enough to shake the entire colosseum, the ground beneath them nearly caving and creating multiple geysers. Mercury fired his boots such to break free, attempting to land a kick on the brutish teen before him, though he missed, being forced to duck below another powerful sweep from his blade. One swing focussed downwards broke free a few stones, Mercury quickly kicking a few at Yatsuhashi and dazing him. Capitalizing on his chance, he once again went to town on his foe, culminating with a kick that sent him skidding back and onto a geyser right as it erupted, taking out a massive amount of his aura and leaving him in immense pain. He frantically stood in order to get his head out of the heat, opening his eyes just in time to see Mercury right on top of him.
Coco, meanwhile, was having a rather hard time herself, still being dragged through the trees by the chain that had bound her, only coming undone as she slammed into the trunk of a tree. Getting up and shaking it off, she looked down to see her sunglasses on the ground, shattered.
"I take it back," she uttered as she glared angrily around, "I don't like her."
Right as she spoke, a gunshot came from one of the nearby trees, Coco barely dodging back as she finally saw her assailant. Emerald didn't stop at one, however, and kept firing at Coco, though she aimed back and fired, Emerald leaping out of the tree and activating the sickles on her weapon in order to swing through the trees more quickly. Despite Coco's efforts, Emerald eventually vanished from her sight.
"Damn!" she shouted as she looked around in the hopes to get eye contact back on her foe.
"Coco!" shouted a familiar voice, Coco turning back to see Yatsuhashi making his way over to her, hand on his weapon.
"Watch out, she's in the trees!" she retorted, turning back around since Yatsuhashi was now there to watch her back, or so she though.
As the elimination buzzer sounded, her eyes widened in shock as she heard what Port had to say.
"Oh, and with that final blow, Yatsuhashi is eliminated!" he shouted.
"What?!" she quietly shouted in fear, turning back to see that Yatsuhashi was no longer with her. Scared at this point, her hands had begun shaking, the rattle being loud enough to obscure the sound of Emerald closing in for the kill.
"Damn!" was all Coco could say as Emerald rose up from behind her, turning too late to see her as Emerald swung, the gunshot resounding throughout the stadium.
Coco's unconscious form was sent flying out of the forest and into the center of the battlefield, rolling up next to Yatsuhashi, also out cold. Emerald followed shortly after, strutting out of the forest while spinning one of her sickles around as she approached Mercury. Mercury merely looked down at the two with his arms crossed, the elimination buzzer finally ringing out.
"And with an amazing upset, Emerald and Mercury are victorious!" Oobleck shouted from the booth.
"Coco?" Velvet said with worry, covering her mouth. Though Fox shook his head beside her, he put a hand on her shoulder in order to calm her. Ruby merely watched on as Emerald and Mercury talked to each other, completely unaware of Cinder sitting behind them, a sinister smile on her face. Standing, she left the stadium, flanked by cheers and boos from all sides.
OOO
A while after the fight, Weiss and Winter had met up in order to spend some quality time together, as their last encounter was cut short by Qrow, Noctus, and Ironwood, so they really needed some one on one sister time. They had met in a elegant pavilion on campus grounds, surrounded by almost royal fountains. Sitting at a fine table with a plate of croissants and strawberries between them, the sisters quietly enjoyed their time, Winter sipping from her tea as Weiss recoiled from the news she was just given.
"You're..." she said, still processing, "leaving?"
"Yes," Winter said as she set down her cup. "I was merely needed to oversee the transport of additional units to Vale. Our last shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a run-in with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate those Paladins were in the prototype stage; otherwise your team may not have fared so well."
"Levon said the same thing..." Weiss muttered to herself, though Winter took this as her being disheartened by her words, quickly reaching forward and taking her hand in hers.
"Weiss, you've done... well, out here, on your own. You should be proud. I'll be honest, it was quite amusing seeing Father's face the day you left for Beacon!"
"I can't wait to show him what I learned!" Weiss declared adamantly, sitting up straighter.
"Oh?" Winter said, a hint of a challenge in her tone. "Then what do you think you've learned?"
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, not directly facing her sister. "I'm getting better and better with my glyphs! I've even started Time Dilation!"
"And what of your Summoning?" Winter asked, staring intently at her sister.
"I..." Weiss said, lowering her eyes to the ground with a sigh. "You know I can't."
"Don't be ridiculous," Winter said, waving off Weiss' words. "Every Schnee has the ability to summon. We have for generations."
"I've tried!" Weiss shouted, uncrossing her arms. "It's just... it's the one thing I've been having trouble with!"
"We Schnees are unique," Winter began, holder her hand up and summoning a glyph. "Unlike many, our Semblance is hereditary. But that doesn't mean it will come easily. Your Semblance is like a muscle. The more you practice with it, the stronger it will become. But if you only focus on one aspect of it..." she trailed off, the glyph expanding and bathing the area in a brilliant white light, Weiss turning away and shielding her eyes. As the light subsided, she lowered her arm, gazing at the ethereal beowolf that stood at her sister's side in awe. "If you fail to test the limits of what you think is possible, then you'll never truly grow."
With smiled for a moment, as she knew someday she'd be able to do what her sister could do... maybe even better.
OOO
"You'll never beat me, old man!"
"You're nothing but talk, kid!"
"You can do it, Ruby!"
While Weiss was having heartwarming discussions with her sister, Ruby was... Well, she was playing video games with her uncle.
And she was losing. Horribly.
This was evidenced by the fact that right as Yang cheered on her sister, Qrow's character lopped off the head of Ruby's, the game saying 'SOARING NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!' and signaling the end of the fight. Though Ruby's head sank dejectedly at her loss, Qrow merely smirked.
"Ouch," Yang whispered. Maybe she jinxed it...
"And by the way, don't ever call me old," Qrow clarified.
"My turn!" Yang shouted, shoving Ruby out of the way and yoinking the controller from her.
'NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES!' the game declared, Yang doing her best not to repeat the mistakes her sister made.
"Now, where was I?" Qrow asked as he began absolutely laying waste to Yang's character.
"You were telling us about your last mission!" Ruby said cheerfully as she popped up from behind the two.
"Right, right..." Qrow said, thinking back to the mission in question. "I'd come across a small village in the swamps west of Mistral. Right off the bat, I knew something wasn't right."
"What were you doing there?" Ruby asked, looking down to see a message from Link on her scroll, quickly messaging him back.
"I needed information," Qrow said, Yang's health bar already down to half. "Tired from battling Grimm along the way, I decided to start my search at the town's inn. The place was crawling with lowlifes and thugs, even a few Huntsmen that I could only assume had been hired by less-than reputable people for less-than respectable jobs. And that's when it happened."
"What happened?" Yang asked.
"I was defeated..." he admitted, both of his nieces gasping in shock, "by the mere sight... of the innkeeper's skirt length!"
His trap laid and the bait taken, both girls went silent for a moment while Qrow's character now slayed Yang's, 'SOARING NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!' sounding from the screen once more.
"You are the worst!" Yang shouted, chucking a pillow at her vulgar uncle, though he caught it with ease.
"Best two out of three?" Qrow asked with a laugh, Ruby standing and sitting on Weiss' bed.
"So, Uncle Qrow, did you get in trouble with Ozpin?" she asked. After all, he did kinda pick a fight with someone working for the guy in charge of all of the festival.
"Nah, me and Oz go way back. We're cool," he said, waving it off.
"Cool for an old guy," Yang said, scoffing.
"Not funny," Qrow said, his tone much more serious than before.
"So, what are you doing here anyway?" Ruby asked, looking up from another message on her scroll. "I thought Dad said that you would be on a mission, for like... ever."
"Well, a professional Huntsman like myself is expected to get results, as soon as possible," Qrow said, starting another round against the elder niece.
"Yeeeeaaaah, I get that. We're pretty much pros, too," Ruby declared confidently, putting her hands behind her head.
"Oh, really?" Qrow asked, absolutely torturing Yang's character.
"Psch, yeah!" Yang declared, trying and failing to land a grab on her uncle. "Read the news sometime. We totally saved Vale while you were gone."
"Funny, because I heard Vale suffered a Grimm attack after you almost managed to stop a train," Qrow said snidely, once again finishing off his poor niece's character, leaning over to her such to rub it in. "But they don't give out medals for almost."
"They do, and it's called silver!" Ruby declared matter-of-factly.
"Well, we helped take down Roman Torchwick! He's locked up in Ironwood's ship and crime's been down ever since! That's basically a bounty mission!" Yang added, though Qrow shrugged.
"Sure, you may be acting like Huntresses, but you're not thinking like one. You really think four girls and their friends could end all crime in a Kingdom?" he asked, Yang and Ruby's faces going blank for a moment.
"I mean, I did until you said that..." Ruby said, tapping her fingers together nervously. "But we had help! It wasn't just Team RWBY!"
"Oh?" Qrow asked. "Who else is out there fighting crime with you?"
"Team VDMR," said a new voice, everyone present turning to the now open door where Link stood.
"Link!" Ruby cheered, standing and giving him a hug. "What took you so long? I told you what we were doing..."
"Oh, you know how Lana can be, she wouldn't stop going on about the fight earlier today and how sad she was that CFVY lost..." he said, leaning against the door frame. "My ears are still ringing..."
"Of course," Qrow mumbled to himself, though Link ignored him and looked at the screen.
"Oh, mind if I play a round or two?" he asked, Yang handing him the controller.
"Go for it, no one's ever beaten Uncle Qrow at this game," she said, rolling her eyes as she sat on Weiss' bed, Ruby joining her.
"Ooohhh, I don't know who to cheer fooor!" Ruby whined, looking between the two of them.
"Doesn't matter, Qrow's gonna win," Yang said, closing her eyes and waving it off. 'VERDANT KNIGHT WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!' responded the game. "See? I told y- wait what?"
"Did I do that right?" Link asked, Qrow staring at the screen in confusion. "I've never played this before, but it's fun!"
"Link, you just perfected Qrow," Yang said, looking at the screen in disbelief.
"Is that bad? Did I mess up?" Link asked, looking a little worried.
"No, no, that's really good!" Ruby said quickly. "It means you won! He never touched you!"
"Oh, cool!" Link said, looking back at the screen. "My uncle never let me play games."
"Kid, are you messing with me?" Qrow asked. "No newbie plays like that. You used at least 3 frame-perfect combos. What are you trying to hide?"
"What are you talking about?" Link asked, cocking his head to the side. "I just wanted to have some fun..."
"Yeah, let him have some fun, Uncle Qrow!" both Yang and Ruby said, Qrow's shoulders sinking in annoyance.
"Fine. Best two out of three?" he asked, turning to Link.
"Oh, of course!" Link said, the game going just like last time, Qrow getting perfected.
"Ok, what?!" Qrow shouted, standing and gesturing at the screen. "You can't z-drop in the middle of that, there's too much hit lag on nair 2!"
"There's too much what?" Link asked, turning to Qrow in confusion.
"I know you're playing dumb, damn it!" Qrow shouted, pointing to Link. "How long have you played this game?!"
"I don't know, 2 minutes?" Link replied, checking his scroll for time.
"Pipsqueak, I really don't like this one," Qrow said, turning to Ruby.
"You're just mad 'cuz he whopped butt," Ruby replied, glaring smugly at her uncle.
"Yeah, yeah," Qrow said, sitting back down. "Good games, I guess."
"Yeah, good games!" Link replied cheerfully, smiling at Qrow. "So, what were you guys talking about when I got here?"
"How Teams RWBY and VDMR have helped crime drop considerably!" Ruby shouted.
"Violence hasn't dropped since Roman got nabbed; it's stopped, completely," Qrow said, more serious than before. "No White Fang activity around the city. Not even Fenrir has been sighted. You cut off the head of the King Taijitu, but now the second head's calling the shots. That's what Ironwood can't get through that thick metal head of his."
"You..." Yang said, sharing a glance with Ruby, "know the General?"
"Hey, I know everybody to some extent," he said with a smirk and a chuckle. "Remember, you're talking to a member of the coolest team that graduated Beacon!"
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a photo of his team back from his Beacon days, on this photo being the members of Team STRQ: Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow himself. "Hah, Team STRQ... That's where I met your parents. We were pretty well known back in the day."
"Well known for crummy fashion sense!" Ruby shouted, pointing at Qrow accusingly.
"Hey, we looked good! And I have a number of inappropriate stories to back that up!" he said, wiggling his eyebrows to further get his point across. Yang ignored him, however, and kept looking at the picture, Qrow noticing and putting it away. "But, I'll save those for when you're older."
"Oh, gross!" Ruby said in disgust. She new what he meant...
"Anyways," Qrow said, standing and brushing off his pant, "I'm too old to be hanging out with a bunch of kids. You're gonna cramp my style." He continued out the door, though he stopped in the doorway, sighing for a moment as Yang and Ruby looked to each other. "Look, just remember that you've still got a long way to go... And don't think for a second that graduating means you're done. Every day out there is worth a week in this place. You two, you're gonna go far. But only if you keep learning; if you never stop moving forward."
With that, Qrow turned and left the room, Yang quickly sitting on the ground next to Link.
"Ok tell me how you did it," she said, leaning a bit too close for comfort.
"Yaaang!" Ruby shouted, though Yang held up a finger to silence her.
"You've played this game before, haven't you?" she asked, Link shrugging.
"I have the previous one on my scroll, I figured it would have been similar," Link admitted with a shrug. "Never touched this one though, so I got lucky that the physics and combos were basically the same."
"You gotta teach us how to play better then!" Ruby shouted, zipping to the other side of Link. "We need to be able to beat Uncle Qrow!"
"...I guess I can," Link said cautiously, Ruby and Yang hugging him from either said. "What have I gotten myself into...?"
OOO
After their heart to heart, Winter decided to help Weiss with her glyphs. She stood a fair bit behind her such to observe but not interrupt, as she needed to know exactly what her sister was doing. Weiss herself stood with Myrtenaster tip first in the ground, a bladed glyph present on the ground before her.
Winter watched on and nodded in approval. "Excellent form! Now think to your fallen foes! The ones who forced you to push past where you were, and become who you are now. Think of them, and watch as they come to your side."
Despite Weiss' efforts, however, she was unable to maintain the glyph, and it flickered a moment before completely dissipating, Weiss stomping her foot on the ground in displeasure. "I can't!"
"Stop doubting yourself!" Winter shouted, chastising her sibling with a smack to the head.
"I'm trying!" Weiss retorted, turning to her sister.
"If this is what you call trying, then you have no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding as a Huntress!" Winter said, though she thought for a moment, thinking of something even better to say. "Why don't you just move back home? I'm sure Father would give you a nice job as a receptionist!"
"I don't need his charity!" Weiss shouted, turning away.
"But you do need his money, don't you?" Winter asking, leaning in closer.
"What!?" the heiress asked in mild shock. "How did you know about that?!"
"Lucky guess," Winter said as she stood up straight. "I may have been in a similar situation when I joined the military. So what have you done this time?"
"Well, that's the thing: I'm really not sure!" Weiss said as Winter walked around her. "I went to pay for lunch the other day, but the card didn't work!"
"How embarrassing," Winter said in what almost seemed to be agreement.
"I know!" Weiss shouted in response, though she looked to see Winter shaking her head. "Well, it was! Why would he cut me off like that?"
"Perhaps so that you'd stop avoiding him and call home," Winter deduced, Weiss closing her eyes and focusing once more and calling forth a summoning glyph. Winter saw and stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, ignoring the glyph flickering and fading. "Emotions can grant you strength. But you must never let them overpower you. It sounds to me like you have two choices in front of you. You can either call him, beg for his money back, and explain once more why you would want to study at Beacon over Atlas, or you could continue to explore Remnant, discovering more about the world and honestly, more about yourself," she said, giving Weiss a moment to think about her words before checking her scroll for the time. "It's time for me to go."
Right after she said this, she quickly gave her sister a hug, Weiss gladly returning it. "It was really good to see you, Winter," Weiss said as she begrudgingly let go.
"Until next time, sister," Winter said, smiling sadly.
The two sisters smiled at each other before turning and heading their own ways, neither noticing the caterpillar crawling over to a small ethereal sword, touching it for a moment before it dissolved into a mist of icy shards.
OOO
Later that night, as Winter departed and Weiss waved her off, Weiss got yet another call, checking her scroll and seeing that it was, of course, from her ever so beloved father. She looked at it for a moment and sighed, her finger almost instinctively going to the ignore button. However, she thought about it for a moment and closed her eyes, releasing a pent up breath, finally pressing the button. She took a moment to think about what she had done, smiling to herself and putting away her scroll, heading back to her room. She had a team that needed her and cared for her; she wasn't going to let them down.
OOO
"Your report was due hours ago, Gradivus. You're slacking."
Yes, I know, my apologies, Sir."
After the end of the day, Gradivus had apparently forgotten his duties, and as such made a mistake that cost many their lives; he made Oni Strife wait. Gradivus was extremely lucky, however, as Oni wanted his information more than anything else at this point.
"I don't care about your apologies, I only care for what you've found."
"Yes, Sir," Gradivus replied, looking over at his teammates and nodding, each one releasing a pent up breath. A call from Oni was never good, and usually led to an 'accident'. "I have obtained the blood samples that you've asked for, and I'm going to send Tetsuya and Lucius to bring them to you shortly."
"Hm, good. The Grimm have grown more active. Don't lose any of it, or else I'm going to be upset, and you know what that means."
"Lose anything and you die," Gradivus said quickly to the two who were to be in charge of transportation of the blood, both nodding nervously. "Is there anything else, Sir?"
"What of the boy?"
"His mission still appears to be going roughly the same," Gradivus said. "We haven't seen any real progress, though we've been assured that it's simply going to take time."
"Time that we don't have. She's moving faster than predicted. Your 'classmates' from Haven aren't from Haven. Keep an eye on them. But make him move faster."
"I understand," Gradivus said.
"Good. I expect these things done fast."
"I'll do them as soon as I can, Sir," Gradivus declared. "With the Vytal Festival happening, I'm unable to use my free time as efficiently as I'd like, especially since we've moved onto the next round."
"What of the boy? Has his team moved on as well?"
"Yes," Gradivus said in confirmation.
"I see. Very well. Ensure one of you moves on while the other is eliminated, and have the one who is eliminated break into the vault. I don't care how, but make sure it's done. The tournament will be the focus of everyone's attention. You should meet little to no resistance. If you do, silence it quickly. Find what is there and tell me what it is. Once I know what it is, I will figure out what you are to do next. However, it may be that what you discover may require more... extreme measures."
"What..." Gradivus said, swallowing in fear, "what might that be?"
Gradivus recoiled for a moment, as he heard laughter over his scroll, unsettling and sinister. Even the rest of GOLD reeled back in fear, as Oni was... horrifying. His voice alone sent shivers down their spines, and now he was laughing. That very laughter subsided after a moment though, a contented sigh coming through.
"If you find something I want, I may come and take it myself."
So yeah, Oni may do something tangible soon. Doesn't that sound like nothing bad could come of it? I sure think so! Anyway, rather than doing my standard little author's note where I say something dumb in relation to the chapter you've just read and dipping out, I'm gonna shamelessly plug another project.
If you read through the reviews of this story, you'll find my buddy BryanPrime917. He and I are currently working on a co-op RWBY story called 'RWBY: Get REKT'. Something to note, however, is that this story is rated M for some things we have planned for the future, so if you can't find it, then make sure you're using the correct filters to get there. Don't expect too much serious stuff though, our characters are... well... they're a bit stupid. In the fun way!
Beyond that though, yeah, nothing else too special here. So, I bid you adieu!
OniHelix out!