Volume 3 Chapter 1: Road to Glory

AN: Welcome to Volume Three, people, That One Volume That Nothing Bad Ever Happened In (TM)(R)(C). Looks like it's time for the Vytal Festival. What could possibly go wrong?!

(Perspective: Kassidy)

This was it. The time for training was over. No more study sessions with Bob to examine everyone that had gotten into the tournament. No more time calibrating, sharpening, fine-tuning, modifying, or otherwise optimizing her gear. No more late nights to be spent as Yang's punching bag… okay, maybe that wasn't so great a loss. But still, there was no more preparation to be done. It was simply the time to compete in front of a live audience a hundred thousand strong, in addition to international television being broadcast to what seemed like literally every television screen (or whatever they were called) on the planet.

Kassidy jumped when something pressed on her shoulder, whirling around to get an eyeful of Yang's usual grin being contrasted by a pair of furrowed brows. "Geez, you're really tense, K," she commented. "C'mon, take some deep breaths. In, then out. In, then out. With me."

She tried to do as she was told, honestly. But her heart wouldn't quit jackhammering in her chest. Her stomach wouldn't quit trying to tie itself into knots. "Heh, never thought I'd be one for stage fright," Kassidy joked, though the attempt to lighten her own mood was doomed from the start.

Ruby and Weiss looked on with increasingly worried expressions, but it was Yang that continued to try and goad her into some measure of calm. "Y'know, don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you'd be the one least eaten up by nerves. You do know this isn't life or death stakes, right? What are you so worried about?"

Kassidy couldn't help but rattle off, "Unknown targets, unknown field of battle, far too close to a dense civilian population center, too exposed, no viable route of retreat, no way to ensure that Bob can help."

"But they don't have any of that, either," Ruby reassured. Tilting her head, she asked, "Are you seriously that worried it's a fair fight?"

Almost automatically, Kassidy recited, "If you find yourself in a fair fight,"

"You've done something horribly wrong," Ruby finished, having that particular phrase long ago burned into her brain.

"I have never, ever, ever been in a fair fight," Kassidy stressed, still trying to fight the jitters. "Training notwithstanding, of course. Anything even remotely like it just smells too much of a setup. I prefer my fights to be foregone conclusions in my favor, thank you very much."

"And when was the last time that happened?" Yang asked, eyebrow raised.

Before Kassidy could give more than a cross look at her partner, her otherwise conspicuously absent AI spoke over the team's communications earpieces. "I've managed to diagnose that you're presently suffering from acute onset social anxiety disorder of a benign nature; more specifically, stage fright."

If her computer were here, Kassidy would've made sure to scowl at it. Alas, Bob's chassis had to be left behind in their dorm room, so Kassidy had to settle for grinding out, "Thanks, Bob, I think we've figured that out."

"Modern research on the subject," Bob continued, entirely unconcerned with Kassidy's outburst, "seems to suggest that performing repetitive, already habitualized tasks is an excellent short-term counter to the condition."

Okay, now Kassidy had to admit that Bob was getting somewhere interesting. "Such as?"

"Kassidy, systems check," her computer suddenly barked at her. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang started snickering at the sudden reversal in their roles, but Kassidy nodded in understanding. As unused as she was to being bossed around by her own AI, going through her pre-combat checks would probably help with her nerves.

"Weaponry check. Ammo check," she listed off, checking Baton in its sheath across her back, a trio of knives hidden in various positions on her person, as well as Rogue in its holster and fifteen spare magazines on her belt. Continuing on to her grapple bracer and cuirass, she listed, "Equipment check. Supplies check." Taking a deep breath and turning a mischievous eye on her friends, she petulantly added, "Teammates check."

Ruby giggled, Weiss rolled her eyes, and Yang stuck her tongue out, but Kassidy was more interested to the expected reports over the comms. "Communications green," Bob began. "Network connection green. Surveillance green. Power reserves at 100% and plugged in, estimated time until power failure is indeterminate."

"All systems nominal. Project Colossus reports combat ready," Kassidy finished. Taking another deep breath, she couldn't help but notice how the nervous twitching she'd been fighting earlier had died down. "What do you know? That actually helped. Good work Bob, I knew I kept you around for a reason."

"And the randomization process is complete!" Professor Port bellowed over the intercom, easily getting RWKY's attention in the small locker room they had locked themselves in. "Team RWKY of Beacon! And facing them is Team ABRN of Haven!"

"That's our cue," Weiss commented, straightening out her skirt as she sat up from the bench.

"I'm afraid that this is where I must depart from assisting you four," Bob announced over the earpieces. More than one person had approached Kassidy in the past couple days, explicitly forbidding her computer from interfering in the tournament fights. "Your communication devices have all had their protocols updated. You should find that they have perfect reception with each other in the arena, and I've uploaded a few of my own encryption algorithms to the devices as well to ensure that you can't be listened in on."

"Thanks for everything, Bob," Ruby said. Suddenly darting to in front of the three other girls in the room and standing with her back to the door leading up to the coliseum's arena, she said. "Alright, Team Rookie! We've got this! We've all had a hard semester, but that's just made us more ready!"

"More prepared," Kassidy and Weiss simultaneously corrected.

"I know what I said!" Ruby cried. "Now get out there and do what you do best!"

"Yeah!" Yang yelled. "Time to kick some Haven tail!"

Kassidy rolled her eyes with a small smile, and took off after her teammates when they charged out onto the arena. The sunlight blinded her vision for a moment, but she blinked away the glare in time to follow the rest of the team to the center of the arena. Her gaze found itself on the Team ABRN they'd be facing off against; more specifically, it found itself on a girl in a purple hoodie riding a hoverboard.

"Oh my god," Kassidy breathed. "That girl has a hoverboard."

"I know, right?!" Ruby nearly squealed. "It's so cool!"

"And it looks like the nerds have struck again," Yang joked. Kassidy socked her in the shoulder, but conversation died down as everyone met in the center of the arena. A darker-skinned girl with no obvious weaponry was the obvious leader, and also present was a guy with a wooden staff that couldn't possibly have just been a wooden staff (seriously, who the hell brings a stick to an international combat competition?) and another guy with what appeared to be a battle rifle of custom design.

"Team RWKY, right?" Their leader asked. "I'm Arslan."

"Bolin," one of the guys said.

The girl on the hoverboard continued with, "Reese."

"Nadir," the other male finished.

The symbols along the edge of the arena started cycling. Kassidy remembered that the arena was able to set random and customizable terrain, but this was already shaping up to be fancier than what she thought it would be. She was brought out of her thoughts when Ruby introduced herself with, "Ruby Rose."

"Weiss Schnee."

"Kassidy Smith," Kassidy gave out. Before Yang could say anything, however, she couldn't stop herself from gushing, "Oh my gosh, where did you get your hoverboard?! Did you build it yourself? You have to –"

"Easy, K," Yang cut off with a laugh, smothering her mouth with her hand for good measure. Kassidy narrowed her eyes at Yang and tried to pry her hand off her face, but it was to no avail, and Yang didn't even seem to notice as she said, "I'm Yang."

Reese suddenly piped up, "Ooh, she's cute. Can I play with the cat girl, Ars?"

"Wait, what?" Kassidy questioned, having finally freed her face from Yang's hand. Yang didn't seem to be too enthused about the words either, if the way her eyes narrowed was any indication.

Arslan didn't do anything to allay their suspicions when she answered, "Well, you were going to anyway." They were interrupted from further conversation when the floor sunk. Kassidy grabbed onto Yang's arm to steady herself as the arena shifted before her very eyes, as a fiery hellhole with giant crystals of fire Dust came crawling up behind ABRN. A glance behind showed a frozen, desolate wasteland similarly raising into position.

The eight teens only had a few seconds to appreciate the view when Professor Oobleck began counting down, "Three, two, one, begin!"

"Freezerburn! Thorned Rose!" Ruby cried, and as four they sprung into action. Yang winked at her before jumping into the air, and Kassidy spun back to get out of the way of Weiss covering the ground they were standing on in ice Dust…

"Nope!" a voice called out, and before Kassidy could fully get herself turned back around a hoverboard slammed into her armor. Another blast from the device's bottom sent her soaring back into the ice-covered plains, and Kassidy only got brief glimpses of Reese flying at her again.

This time, however, she was ready. Reese charged her full speed, but obviously wasn't expecting when Kassidy managed to go from kneeling to sidestepping the attack, burying her elbow in the girl's gut and knocking her off her ride. She followed the gesture into a full spin as Baton slid out of its sheath, blade pointed at the girl who had gathered up the board in both hands and seeming to intend to use it like some kind of bladed shield. "That was pointlessly rude," Kassidy remarked.

"It split up your fancy little team attacks, didn't it?" Reese taunted. Kassidy gasped and turned to try and find out whether her teammates needed help, but her improved hearing caught Reese sprinting at her and let her turn back to the fight at hand. The two weapons collided in a shower of sparks, and in the bladelock Reese added, "And speaking of rude, didn't your mother ever teach you not to keep a girl waiting?"

"Nope," Kassidy answered, grimacing at the contest of strength. She couldn't have an impact in the other fights with this girl flying around the whole place; this Reese chick would just hunt her down if she tried to disengage. Besides, odds are she's the one that statistically needs the most help. The best way she can help was keeping this girl on the ground where she belonged. Having made her decision, Kassidy suddenly gave up the contest, letting Reese's push carry her off balance. Meanwhile, Kassidy rolled under the hoverboard shield thing and sent Baton flashing for the girl's ankles. Reese cursed and swung for Kassidy's head, but she blocked and started forcing her on the defensive with her sword.

Ugh, it's just like Jaune and that damn shield of his. Goddamnit do I hate shields. Oh well, at least this girl isn't built like a freaking tank. And isn't Pyrrha Nikos. And seems to not be very comfortable with hand to hand combat. Kassidy decided upon an old trick that Jaune had seen through rather quickly – fortunately, it only really needed to work once, here. Yelling her fiercest war cry, she took Baton in both hands and gave an overhead swing that at this point could probably cleave a Beowolf in half vertically. Still, as slow as it was, it was painfully obvious that Reese would be quick enough to dodge out of the way. And, of course, if Kassidy was most swordswomen she would've been wide open from how horribly the attack drug her off balance, so it was only predictable that Reese would take the opportunity to counterattack.

True to form, the girl grabbed her board and replied with a horizontal swing of her own. Kassidy couldn't help but smirk as, instead of trying to reclaim her balance, she followed the move into a one-handed handstand, pulling her body out of harm's way while retaliating with her sword. Pushing herself back to her feet – and immensely thankful for the flexibility and acrobatic training the gang had all but forced onto her after her injury – Kassidy immediately continued her assault, getting another slice in, forcing Reese further off balance, and eventually roundhouse kicking the board out of her hands before following through and sending the girl tumbling away across the ice.

Kassidy watched Reese slide away on the frozen surface and crash into the ridge of ice that was built up along the arena's edges. Her hand twitched to Rogue in its holster, but she still needed to hide what exactly her full capabilities were if she didn't need them. She wasn't particularly sure why, since a prior discussion had already established that they would be sending Weiss and Yang on to the doubles round if they won here. She looked around to see how she could get the best advantage when they faced off again, but then Kassidy's eyes fell to a certain device that had been left behind. Yes, that should do nicely.

It wasn't exactly easy to climb on the hoverboard, but she managed to balance herself eventually. Getting it to move, however, was a different matter entirely. Leaning forward just made it tip forward, not to mention nearly ruin her balance. Quickly growing frustrated and impatient – this was in the middle of a fight, after all, so she didn't have the most time here – Kassidy tried yelling at the device, "Move!" When that failed to do anything, she continued, "Go! Forward! Shoo! Mush! Vamos! How the hell do you even work?!"

A sharp whistle got her attention, as did the hoverboard shooting out from under her feet to the source of the sound. Kassidy hit the ground in a roll, whirling her sword in a defense arc of steel while she got to her feet just in time to see Reese jump back on her hoverboard. "Nice try," she commended, "but it's locked to me."

"Of course it is," Kassidy groused, tucking her sword underneath her chin and tensing her legs for the next bout of the fight. Reese zoomed around a few protrusions of ice jutting out from the ground, possibly in a poor attempt to hide where she was coming from, but quickly return to racing for Kassidy as quickly as she could. Kassidy prepared to dodge to the side out of the way, but was surprised when Reese slid off her board and kicked it at her. Kassidy swung as hard as she could at it, and sent the hoverboard back to sender; she couldn't think of a better idea at the time, and now that it obviously had remote control capabilities she didn't want to risk splitting her attention when she didn't need to.

Reese replied by punching her weapon back, and this time Kassidy had enough time to formulate a better plan. When the board reached her, Kassidy jumped, planting her feet on the board and launching it right while Kassidy shoved herself to the left. She hit the ground running, fully intending to put Reese in a pincer between Baton and the girl's own weapon. It didn't work as anticipated, however, when a quick whistle brought the hoverboard back to its owner at a rapid enough pace that she was able to get it between her and the sword that came flashing down. Kassidy tried to bully through it with a few more brutal strikes, but Reese simply twirled it around her, using the extra momentum to try and shove her back. She quickly got enough space to backflip back onto her board, and quickly sped for Kassidy's head.

Kassidy simply rolled her eyes. This girl must not be the fastest processor in the computer. This time, she settled for kicking herself backwards in a small glide a few feet, just enough to make Reese's attack miss, then putting her entire weight behind a rising slash that… completely bisected the hoverboard. Kassidy couldn't help but wince – as easy as that made her fight, she knew from experience that getting your weapon broken was not fun. Sympathy turned to confusion, however, and quickly to panic as the halves shifted into a pair of pistols that Reese palmed before emptying them at her. Kassidy yelped, before diving and rolling behind a conveniently placed ice spire to her right.

A quick peek out at the complete lack of suppressive fire showed Reese trying to use what time she could to reassemble her board. Determining not to give her that opportunity, Kassidy jumped out from behind the spire and kicked hard against the ice, sending herself sliding across the twenty or so feet. Reese abandoned her attempts to fixing her board manually, throwing the connected pistols into the air and evidently let them unfold back into their primary form, then rolled under Kassidy's strike after it. Kassidy growled and dug her heels in to arrest her movement, and stopped herself just in time to avoid crashing into a pillar of ice, and to see Reese turn around to catch a large shard of fire Dust tossed to her by that kid with a staff. She winked – and then slammed the crystal into her hoverboard, which seemed to absorb the Dust and start glowing orange, as opposed to green.

I get the feeling I'm not going to like where this is going.

Reese didn't waste any time to prove Kassidy's suspicions correct. After a brief detour to thaw a teammate that had somehow gotten frozen (Weiss was the obvious culprit), Reese once again charged at Kassidy for full speed. She pulled up at the last minute, forcing Kassidy to roll to the side or risk being sandwiched between the hoverboard and the pillar of ice behind her. A pulse of fire that shattered the pillar showed that dodging had been the correct decision, but before Kassidy could get her feet under her Reese slammed her board into the ground and let out a fiery shockwave that ruined her balance. Kassidy coughed the smoke and steam out of her lungs, then rolled away to try and buy some distance, but Reese came flipping around on her flipping hoverboard and landed a solid hit. Her armor protected her from the blades and her Aura protected her from the fire, but Kassidy still went flying, skidding across the arena and poetically crashing into what seemed like the same ridge Reese did earlier.

Kassidy spared a quick glance at the scoreboard – and promptly gawked. That one hit took out 37% of her Aura in one hit! And that was a hit that her armor blocked, too! That settled it, Kassidy would need to bust out some of her tricks. One more hit like that in a less fortunate spot would take her out of the fight.

Reese seemed to know it, too, as she came gliding in a downright lazy manner, grinning like a cat that just got the canary. "Looks like Ars' research was right. You're not too bad, but you can't keep up with me. Not for long."

They'd done research specifically on her? Kassidy had to keep from smirking as a hastily thought-out plan assembled itself in her mind. She knew all about the power of a reputation; she'd lost count of the number of times she made use of it. "I'll admit, you're pretty good."

"Only 'pretty good'?" Reese challenged, grin growing.

"I might actually need to use my Semblance for this fight."

Reese's grin disappeared instantly, her brows furrowing. "Arslan said you didn't have a Semblance."

Kassidy raised Baton so its dull edge rested on her shoulder, and with the other hand pulled Rogue out of its holster and started spinning the pistol on her finger. "She doesn't know about my Semblance," Kassidy said, trying to milk the situation for all it was worth, "because I didn't want her to know about my Semblance." She lost the battle of hiding her smirk when Reese's eyes widened, and she actually started hovering backwards to keep the distance between them even. "Want to see it?"

Reese's eyes widened further, before hardening almost immediately. "Like hell I'm going to let that happen!" A small explosion of fire shot from under the hoverboard as Reese launched herself at Kassidy, doing her damndest to take her out before Kassidy could 'use her Semblance'.

Kassidy's smirk widened as she ducked out of the way of the ballistic teenage girl, before coming back up and firing into her back. The taser bullet covered the distance between them nearly instantaneously, and Reese fell off her board as she succumbed to the electricity-induced spasms. A quick glance at the scoreboard showed that the bullet had taken out 40% of Reese's Aura. Kassidy sighed in relief; people had a disturbing trend recently of blocking, dodging, or otherwise completely ignoring a gun that was designed to be complete overkill on anything smaller than an Ursa, so Kassidy was glad to see proof that Rogue was still effective. She waited for the electricity to run its course and the twitches to stop, before marching over to Reese and planting a boot on her shoulder to keep the girl pinned.

"Real neat Semblance, yeah? I call it 'basic marksmanship'. Quite simple, really."

"Bite me," Reese groaned.

Kassidy hummed, showing to give some thought, but didn't take long to shake her head. "Nah," she said. She took the boot off Reese's shoulder, then wound back and punted her in the stomach as hard as she could. A buzzer sounding through the stadium's PA system alerted everyone that the kick had done the last six percent of Aura needed to take Reese out of the fight, a state of being that Prof – Doctor Oobleck confirmed. She took a knee as the girl evacuated the air from her lungs, and consoled, "Sorry about that. Figured you'd appreciate that over me shooting you again."

"Kassidy!" Ruby suddenly yelled over the earpieces. "Get your grapple brace ready! You're throwing Yang!"

"What?" Kassidy replied. She whirled around to the rest of the fight, and her confusion faded as she saw the other three members of ABRN grouped up in one nice, easy-to-explode pile, and Yang already starting to propel herself along a giant track made of ice. Kassidy smirked, holstered her weapons, and yelled out, "Here you go, babe!" before shooting the line over to her girlfriend, who snagged it out of the air. Kassidy began sprinting along as quickly as she could…

Ruby interrupted her plans by belting out, "Kass, I have an idea! Jump!"

Nine months ago, Kassidy would've completely ignored the order. Six months ago, she'd probably call Ruby crazy. Three months ago, she'd hesitate and ask for more information. Still, the kid's proved herself dependable time and again, and so Kassidy jumped without hesitation, despite her immense confusion. As her body twisted, she got to see Ruby's 'idea', as the girl swung at her with the blunt end of Crescent Rose. Kassidy bit back a yelp and desperately tried to tuck her legs under her to catch the weapon, and sure enough the scythe connected with only a moderate sensation of someone trying to hammer her ankles into her hips. She pushed off, and suddenly found herself flying at ABRN, though she noted she'd come up short all the same. Kassidy traded a quick look with Yang, winked, and hauled on the line for all she was worth.

Yang didn't disappoint as she shot ahead, fist cocked back with the wildest grin Kassidy'd ever seen on her girlfriend. ABRN only had time to let their jaws drop before Yang hit all three of them with a titanic punch, the force enough to send them all crashing into – and then through – a giant formation of fire Dust crystals the size of a small building.

"And that's the match!" Professor Port bellowed over the speakers. "Team RWKY is victorious!"

Kassidy high-fived Yang as she jogged back over from her match-ending punch, and the two quickly made their way back over to the other half of the team. Among all the general applause surrounding them, Kassidy could've sworn she heard Nora yell something about doing a good job and… legs that weren't broken? Her attention was diverted again when Weiss whispered, "We did it?"

All four of them traded glances, goofy grins galore and with Kassidy and Yang sharing a hug. They'd just cemented themselves as one of the top sixteen teams on the planet. No matter how hard she tried, Kassidy couldn't shake the smile that had taken up residence on her face.

AN 2: Oh, hey, nothing went wrong yet. How about that?

Well, I'm going to go ahead and keep this second Author's Note short. Have an interview tomorrow, got a bunch of stuff to do tonight, and I have more writing to outline. See y'all next time!

Coming up next: Meeting with friends, and people who are definitely friends and absolutely not traitors to the cause.

Right after these reviewer responses!

Padparadscha Blue: Unfortunately, all signs point to "no". Mostly because I can't think of enough content, partially because I probably won't have enough time, partially because I have a bad track record of handling multiple stories at…

Oh. Wait, crap. I still have a second story out that hasn't been updated since April of last year, don't I?

serioushugsies: Yeah, between the whole Volume 2 end scene being confusing as all hell, and RT themselves trying to hand-wave it away, I decided it needed a proper replacement. And no, neither of those are her Semblance. The gliding thing is basically an early form of powered movement (because normal people can't jump dozens of feet from a standstill, or move faster than the eye can track), and the Aura pulse circles are the same things Ren did when he was fighting the Taijitu in the Emerald Forest, just used offensively instead of defensively. Kassidy has yet to show her Semblance.

Captain marvel 36: Believe me, I fully understand where you are coming from. Rest assured, I have a plan with Raven, and I did not simply put that in last chapter because I needed an extra 1500 words to pad the length a bit. As for RWKY feeling infallible, I can see where you're coming from with that. To be perfectly honest, Kassidy and Yang in particular have a great groove going on. No set of partners in their year have anywhere near the time put into training together than they have, with the exceptions of Emerald/Mercury and possibly Jaune/Pyrrha. Combine that with real-world experience that comes with hunting a pack of terrorists, and they're definitely a force to be reckoned with. Though I'd still like to point out that most of Kassidy/Yang vs. Nora/Pyrrha basically consisted of Kassidy and Yang covering for each other when one of them messed up.

AgentDraakis: Yeah, once I'd realized I'd written it like that, I couldn't resist adding that line in. IMO, Season 5 has its ups and downs, just like any of the others. I recommend sticking with it through the season, it's definitely gotten better towards the end.

DIYEyal: Yeah, believe me: if my own mother showed up out of nowhere and attacked my girlfriend, I would most certainly have some questions. Actually… no I wouldn't. I'd be giving her a piece of my mind. And probably a piece of lumber. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Bobiverse series then, thanks for the recommendation. Kassidy's Aura isn't that different, it's just like her in that it's more offensively based rather than defensive. Blake is a bit of a glass cannon also, mind you. And this must be the part where I look like an idiot by admitting I have no idea what a "rasengan" is.

ThornedRose367: I… have mixed feelings on Raven. She could've been such a good character, and indeed still has more than a little potential, but IMO she's basically been where she has been because she's throwing a seventeen year-long temper tantrum.

Ultimatrix bearer: Glad you like the story so much. Unfortunately, Velvet… doesn't really have that much of a place in RWKY. To be perfectly honest, I don't think the plans call for her showing up again in the story. Also, I'll be avoiding any spoilers here as best I can, so also unfortunately no thoughts on the RWBY episodes from me. You keep being awesome as well, you awesomely awesome person of awesomeness you.