Volume 3 Chapter 2: Spectator Mode

AN: Well, going on into real life here… I am no longer unemployed. Great to finally be able to support myself, but it does mean that this story might sit on the relative back burner while I get situated with this new part of my life. And find somewhere to live. And maybe probably do a few other things.

That being said, I'll be doing my damndest to not drop off the radar for months at a time like I did in 2017. While I probably won't be able to return to weekly or twice weekly (oh god) uploads again, I'll be shooting for one every two weeks.

And now, it is time for… THE FIRST MAJOR CHANGE OF VOLUME THREE! Mostly because I'm an egotistical brat who wants my own OC to have the spotlight for as long as she can have it.

(Perspective: Kassidy)

"We did it!"

Kassidy chuckled as Ruby jumped… a good twenty feet from a complete standstill – yeah, yeah, rub it in that my Aura control still sucks, why don't you – and planted a hand on her shoulder before she could continue shouting in the middle of the festival grounds. "Want to try louder? I don't think all of Vale heard you that time."

Ruby pouted and grumbled back, "Way to be a spoilsport." After taking a moment to calm back down, however, Ruby continued, "I'm just, y'know, excited is all."

"We all are, Ruby," Weiss assured. "But that's still no reason to abandon proper decorum! At this point, we're just being sore winners."

"You guys know what else I'm excited about?" Yang asked from Kassidy's left, suddenly and blatantly changing the subject. "Food! When's lunch?"

Well, alright, there weren't too many better subjects to change to conversation to than food. "I might be a little bit hungry right now," Kassidy admitted. Her attempts to play off her hunger were thoroughly ruined when her stomach did its best Beowolf impression, much to the amusement of her teammates. "Or… maybe a lot bit hungry," she eventually relented.

"Gee," Weiss remarked, sarcasm dripping freely from her voice, "if only there were somewhere on campus to get food around here. Oh wait…"

Ruby planted a hand on Weiss' shoulders, and tried to act like she was consoling her? "That's okay, Weiss. I forget about the fairgrounds too."

Kassidy couldn't help snickering as Weiss fired back, "I was being facetious."

Kassidy's mirth escalated to laughter when Ruby threw her arms up and made what had been officially termed a 'kung fu' noise. "Well, if you were hungry, why didn't you say so?!"

"Come on!" Yang declared, grabbing Kassidy's hand in the meanwhile and halting her increasing amusement. "K and I know just the place!"

"Noodles?" Kassidy asked.

Yang nodded. "Noodles."

Kassidy's stare turned slightly blank as she thought of all the tasty noodles she would get to eat soon. Should she get a larger size? What kind of stupid question was that, of course she was getting the larger size this time. Maybe some meat as well?

"Hey!" a familiar voice called out, bringing Kassidy out of her miniature daydream and getting the entire group to halt. "Might be hard to eat without this!"

Ruby panicked, flailing around her pockets while Emerald Sustrai held out a red-colored wallet. Emerald and Yang both giggled at the scene, but Kassidy couldn't help but wonder under her breath, "Didn't I watch her put that in her pouch earlier, not her pockets?"

Yang must've heard, for she stopped chuckling and shot Kassidy a mild glare. At this point, the message was common enough it didn't even need to be said. You're being paranoid again. Stop that.

Kassidy couldn't help but wince slightly, and she even felt her ears flatten against her head. Yang smiled and drug her over to the conversation, where they both picked up Ruby exclaiming, "Girl pockets are the worst!"

"What's up, Em?" Yang asked, all while still hauling Kassidy over for some reason. Probably to be more sociable or something. Which was ridiculous. Kassidy had plenty of friends at this point, and she socialized with them quite well, thank you very much!

Emerald answered, "Just left the stadium after watching your amazing fight. You guys were awesome!"

"Well," Kassidy began while Ruby was blushing and stammering, "they were awesome. I kinda lost hard enough that she made me actually use my gun."

Emerald waved it off. "To-may-to, to-mah-to, you still won your fight. And you did really good before that point, too, so don't sell yourself short!"

Kassidy blushed from the praise, and quickly moved to steer the conversation a different direction. "My computer told me your team moved on to the next round, too."

"You know, I feel like we never see your other teammates," Weiss noted.

"How did they do in the fight?" Yang asked.

Suddenly, with absolutely no prompting whatsoever, Bob made himself known over Kassidy's Scroll. "Calling it a 'fight' would be less accurate than calling it a 'slaughter'. Team Carmine nearly set the record for shortest first round victory."

"They did really well," Emerald confirmed.

"That's great!" Ruby said. Suddenly, she offered, "Uh, why don't we all go out and get some victory food together?"

"Oh… gosh! That's so nice of you!" Emerald deflected. Why was she deflecting? "But my teammates are all kind of introverted." As if to prove her point, she turned to look behind her, drawing their attention to Mercury sniffing at some boots. "Really socially awkward," Emerald finished.

"Actually, sniffing boots as Mr. Black is doing is a common way for experienced boot shoppers to approximately detect the quality of the leather used in the product," Bob announced without warning.

"Doesn't take from Emerald's point," Kassidy pointed out. Okay, so Emerald was just covering for some weird teammates. She really needed to stop being so paranoid. "Still, I won't blame him for being weird. Ruby's weird, and we still keep her around."

This got a round of laughter from everyone present sans Ruby, who whined, "Kass!" and started beating on her chestplate with her fists.

"Really, I do appreciate it," Emerald insisted, "but I should probably get back to being his chaperone or something. Ugh, what I'd do to be able to lock him in the dorm room and not have to be his babysitter." She grumbled a little bit more, but then continued, "But at least he's good in a fight. Actually, it looks like it's going to be him and me in the doubles round. What about you guys?"

Ruby smiled and put a hand on her chin. "Well, as the leader of this team I thought long and hard about this decision."

Kassidy grew a grin of her own as Weiss leaned in and offered, "We put it to a vote."

Ruby sputtered a bit before backtracking, "Yes, uh, but I decided we should put it to a vote, and we voted for Kassidy and Yang."

"Yeah," Kassidy offered, "Weiss and Yang are going to… wait, wait, wait, what? What kind of vote did I miss? Last I heard, it was Weiss and Yang." She ignored Emerald's cocked head as she pulled out her Scroll. "Bob, back me up here, in our latest meeting we voted on having Weiss and Yang move on, right?"

"The last one you were present at, yes," Bob confirmed.

Kassidy opened her mouth to argue more, but for the second time today Yang silenced her by clamping her hand over her mouth. "We… kinda haven't told her yet," she explained.

"Oh," Emerald hummed, seemingly losing herself in thought for a few heartbeats before she blinked herself back to the present. "So Kassidy and Yang, huh? That already sounds like a real strong combination there."

"Yeah, we're gonna kick butt!" Yang declared, finally pulling her hand off Kassidy's mouth so she could smash her fists together.

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

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Kassidy assured.

"Well, I think we're going to go catch some more fights," Emerald said, starting to walk away.

"Have fun!" Ruby shouted after them.

Kassidy waited a few seconds for everyone to go their separate ways as Yang led them towards the noodle stand they found a few days ago. It wasn't long, however, before she was no longer able to keep her peace. "Alright, at what point were you planning on telling me?"

Ruby poked her fingers together. "Well, we were talking while you were out last night getting another one of those late-night workouts in, and one thing led to another and… eventually, we just put it to another vote, and it was unanimous among the three of us that you should take Weiss' place."

"As much as I would have loved to move on to the doubles round," Weiss added on, "the fact remains that you work far better with Yang than I do."

"You work just as well with Yang as I do," Kassidy argued. "And you're also a much better fighter than I am when it comes to these regulation matches."

"No, I don't," Weiss said emphatically. "Under no circumstances would I be able to help Yang beat both Nora and Pyrrha at the same time. The fact remains that you have hundreds of more hours working with Yang than I do. In fact, you probably have at least as much time working with Yang as Ruby does, and those two have lived together for years."

"And Aura control issues aside," Yang picked up, "you're a really great fighter. You beat Torchwick, after all."

"After I ambushed him," Kassidy denied.

"You beat that Reese girl pretty easily," Ruby continued. When Kassidy opened her mouth to argue, Ruby cut her off. "Don't even try to argue with that. You kept up with every single trick she could throw at you and didn't reveal a single thing you kept up your sleeve until the very end. Think about it: if your Aura was as strong as mine or Weiss', would that last attack have taken you down to half Aura… or just blow you halfway across the stadium and leave you feeling a little sore?"

"Don't forget all the other tricks you didn't show," Weiss said. "Right now, all they know is that you have a big gun, and that it can shoot electricity bullets. Apart from JNPR and SSSN, they don't know you also have ice, high explosive, and armor penetrating rounds. They don't know about your Aura gliding technique, they don't know about your Aura projections, and they don't know about who knows what else you have hidden. Really, you're the best choice to send along with Yang."

"C'mon, partner, we're gonna kick some serious butt," Yang declared. "But that's later. Right now, we've got food to eat."

The statement got Kassidy to look up from her musing to find them all at the noodle place. She could've sworn she heard Ruby mumble something about Sun taking her here, but ignored it – and her thoughts – to take a seat on the far left side and openly consider the menu. "Mind giving me a moment?" she asked the older man behind the counter. "I want to try something different this time."

Yang picked up the slack immediately. "I'll have a bowl of the regular, please." A giant ceramic bowl piled to overflowing with noodles slid its way to Kassidy's right and found itself in front of her girlfriend.

From Yang's right, Ruby made an interested noise at seeing both the amazingly quick service and the food that her sister got. "I'll take the same."

Weiss hummed as she surveyed the menu. "Do you have anything with a low salt – oh!"

Kassidy ignored them all as Weiss was interrupted with a visually identical bowl of noodles. Pointing to the menu, she asked, "Could I have the one with the grilled steak?" The man nodded, blurred into the back room, made enough noise to raise the dead, and came back out inside of three seconds flat with a bowl piled high with perfectly grilled and seared, amazingly seasoned, and divinely smelling strips of steak atop just as large a pile of noodles as everyone else had ordered. Kassidy openly stared at it and drooled. It's… perfect.

In fact, she was only released from the spell when something crashed into the table. Kassidy chastised herself for letting herself ignore her surroundings, then looked over past Yang and Ruby to find a credit card embedded into the wood near Weiss like some kind of plastic shuriken. The man clearing his throat got everyone's attention as he pointed to a register showing that the card had been declined. "What?!" Weiss cried. "How could my card be declined?"

Kassidy didn't hear much more of what Weiss said, as she took some covert looks around before trying to secure her meal of pure bliss. Her attempt had failed, though, and the man blurred over and took her precious from her. Defeated and so dreadfully hungry, she could only let out a cry of "No…" and plant her face into the wood.

"Maybe I could help?" a new voice said. Kassidy blinked an eye open just in time to see JNPR approach the stall, Pyrrha already having a card in hand.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled.

"Aww, you don't have to," Yang tried to say.

Of course, Kassidy wasn't having any of that. "But you could!" she insisted, leaning almost out of her seat as she tried to implore her friend to allow her to eat such divine food.

Pyrrha laughed at Kassidy's display. "Well, I think you all earned it after that battle."

"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asked.

It would have been rude to say that she didn't care; of course Kassidy wanted her friends to sit with them for lunch. But she was kind of preoccupied with tearing through the noodles and steak that the man had just set back in front of her. Of course, she was not the only one to have been busy eating, and conversation died down for as long as it took to consume everything.

The scene they found themselves in eight minutes later would have been amusing, were they not all full to bursting, as everyone leaned back in their chairs or forward onto the counter, except for Kassidy letting her head rest on Yang's shoulder. In fact, the only person not wearing a dopey grin of some kind was Jaune, who couldn't stop groaning and was honestly starting to scare Kassidy who, being immediately to his right, was in the line of fire if his lunch returned fire.

"Are you sure it was wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren asked.

"Of course!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "It will give us energy!" Nora interrupted whatever she was going to say next with a burp that could have scared away some of the smaller Grimm.

Jaune brought attention to himself when his forehead met the table. "If I barf, I'm blaming you."

"Ooh!" Nora shouted. Leaning forward, she added, "Aim it at the enemy!"

"Nora, that's disgusting," Ren chastised.

Kassidy waved it off. "Use whatever you've got on hand, I always say. Or in your stomach, as the case may be."

"Got it," Jaune groaned.

Pyrrha stood up, drawing attention her way once more. "Well, we should be off," she announced.

"So, you think you guys are ready?" Ruby asked.

"Of course!" Nora answered. "We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team, what's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune…" Nora trailed off, unsure of what to say in Jaune's favor. She shook her head and tried again. "We've trained all year, our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and, uh… Jaune!"

Kassidy wasn't the only person to hiss at the low opinion Nora espoused of her leader, but it was Ren who leaned over to ask his leader, "Are you going to take that?"

"She's not wrong," Jaune said, face still firmly planted on the table.

"I'm kidding!" Nora backtracked. Waving a hand in his direction, she continued, "He knows I'm kidding. Don't be so nervous! The worst that can happen is we lose. Then it's 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 so we have no home left to go to, we'll officially be renamed 'Team Lose-ifer'…"

Nora, at this point, couldn't do much more than plant her own face into the table as her emotions got the better of her. She started to bawl, but quickly stopped as she suddenly lost all color and turned black and white. As the obvious culprit, Ren kept massaging his hand along Nora's back; Kassidy didn't miss the pink sparks of Aura that would occasionally dance from his fingertips as his Semblance worked to calm Nora's emotions. He felt the need to add, "So, yeah, we're feeling pretty good."

"Don't fret," Pyrrha said, planting a hand each on Jaune's and Nora's shoulders. "If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not, well, murderers."

"Hey," Kassidy suddenly barked. "I resemble that remark!"

"Yeah, don't sweat it guys!" Yang declared, quickly shifting all attention to herself and, for the third time that day, smothering Kassidy's mouth before she could say anything more. "We've all faced way worse before."

"Let's see," Weiss started listing off. "Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath..."

"Yeah, and that was all while we're still in training." Ruby nearly swooned as she continued, "Oh, imagine what it'll be like when we all graduate!"

Kassidy rolled her eyes and tried to say something, but Yang's hand remained clamps over her lips and kept her from saying anything intelligible. Weiss took the opportunity to grumble, "Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal."

The speakers suddenly had some feedback sound over them, before Professor Port's voice announced, "Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately?"

"Yes!" Prof – Doctor Oobleck added on. "Like they were scheduled to several minutes ago!"

"Well, it looks like this is it," Pyrrha said, guiding her team out of their seats and towards the coliseum.

Kassidy finally pried Yang's hand off her face, and asked, "Think we should follow them? And would you stop doing that?!" Everyone nodded, Yang shrugged with a far too innocent grin, and as one they left for the stadium.

They had just gotten to their seats as the terrain finished changing into a forest and a mountain, and for Professor Port to announce, "Team JNPR of Beacon vs. Team BRNZ of Shade! Three, two, one, begin!"

Kassidy found herself nearly sharing a seat with Yang they were so close, but she ignored it for the time being as she leaned forward at the match beginning. "Come on," she muttered. "You need to smoke that sniper out fast; if she's any good at all, she'll tear you apart." When JNPR instead elected to retreat behind cover, however, she leaned back against Yang and groaned. "And now they just screwed themselves over."

"Auras, remember?" Yang said.

Kassidy turned a look on her girlfriend. "Even with Aura, nobody wants to get shot by Crescent Rose. We haven't tested it, but I'm still pretty sure that it can take my Aura out in one hit."

"And that gun she has isn't anywhere near as big as Ruby's," Yang pointed out. Kassidy took a closer look; sure enough, it looked like it was chambered in .40-caliber, if not a little smaller. At least Jaune made the smart call and have everyone fan out to keep the sniper shifting her shots. "Besides," Yang added, "that leaves JNPR with a four-on-three in the melee."

"There's a reason that melee combat fell out in favor of really big guns back on Earth," Kassidy argued.

"Where there's no Aura whatsoever, right?"

Kassidy shrugged and conceded the point, but immediately winced as Ren took what looked like a cattle prod and fell over, stunned. "Getting electrocuted is not fun," she commented.

"Unless you're Nora," Yang amended as the girl sent the poor guy flying into – and through – a rock. A gathering storm at the top of the mountain got her to add on, "Well, talk about convenient."

"Yeah, go get them, Jaune!" Ruby yelled to their left.

"Well, he's certainly improved," Weiss commented.

Yang said, "Yeah, but he ain't got nothing on Pyrrha!"

"Please, don't remind me," Kassidy muttered. She could still feel some of the bruises from the last time they sparred. Still, at least it was nice to watch someone else get beat down, as opposed to her. Her attention, as well as everyone else's, was diverted when Nora suddenly laughed in a resonating voice that filled the entire stadium, before somehow launching all six of her grenades at the same time and utterly ruining the sniper's cover. "Oh, how I wish I had that option all those years ago," Kassidy lamented.

"High explosives: never not fun," Yang commented, drawing back their first shared laugh as partners. They both snickered at the inside joke and high-fived, but Yang stopped laughing and asked, "What's Jaune doing?"

It wasn't long before the whole stadium started booing at the pause in the action, and Kassidy facepalmed. "Looks like bad communication," she pointed out. She shot back up, however, when something slammed into the forcefield right in front of her. Yang laughed as all four of them slowly peeled off of the field from having been thrown into it.

"And with that, it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout!" Professor Port exclaimed. "Literally! Can – can someone go make sure they're okay?"

"Well, that's one way to win, I guess," Kassidy said, standing up and stretching. "So, who's next, anyway?"

"Sun's next!" Ruby cheered. "Go Sun!"

Kassidy rolled her eyes with a smile while the arena got reset, which just so happened to involve Glynda heading out to fix the crater that Nora put into the central platform. When she caught Yang beginning to mope, though, she flicked her nose and said, "Hey, if you were out there right now, odds are I'd be cheering like a loon, too."

Yang's eyes brightened, like she just got an idea; Kassidy couldn't let any such idea come to fruition, which is why she pushed Yang back down whenever she tried to stand up. Yang argued, "Come on, you cheering like a loon? This I've gotta see."

"No you don't," Kassidy returned.

"Good luck Neptune!" Weiss yelled as everyone appeared on the center platform. Yang and Kassidy shared a knowing look before turning back just in time to see… Neptune flirting with the all-girls team they were fighting? Sure enough, Weiss changed her posture as she leapt up. "Break his stupid face, NDGO!"

"Not to demean Weiss or anything," Kassidy whispered as quietly as she could, "but what does she see in him, again?" Yang shrugged, but both returned their attention to the arena shifting to sand dunes and an ocean biome. "Oh god," Kassidy groaned.

"Oh, what's that?" Yang teased. "Does the kitty still not like swimming?"

"I can't swim, period," Kassidy answered with a glare. She pointed at Neptune and added, "And I'm not the only person who…"

Yang interrupted her from finding the right words with, "Is afraid of the water?"

"I'm not afraid of it," Kassidy denied. "I just… strongly dislike it." The match started with Neptune liberally using his Aura to make a mad dash to just about as far away as he could get from the water. He and Sun yelled back and forth about what was going on, but Kassidy muttered, "but at least I'm not that bad about it."

"Ugh," Yang groaned, "this entire match is a trainwreck. Neptune just ran and is only now contributing, Sage got thrown out of the arena before he even did anything…"

"And Scarlet just found his true calling," Kassidy pointed out just as the man landed on the pirate ship and proceeded to fight a 1v2 to astonishing success. "Well, I'll be damned. Remind me not to fight him on a ship."

"Don't fight him on a ship," Yang said.

Kassidy turned an unamused look on her, prompting Yang to stick her tongue out. Growing a grin, she decided to tease, "Careful, or I might take that as an invitation."

Yang actually blushed, before looking thoughtful, and turning an eye on the match before finally saying, "Is it just me, or is this match just one big clown car of ridiculousness?"

"I'm finding it very hard to take it seriously," Kassidy agreed. "Besides, Sun looks like he could probably finish things up himself at this point. Which he might have to."

"Want to ditch the dorks and go have some fun?"

Kassidy thought about it for a second, before nodding. "Sounds like a plan."

Ruby turned looks on them as they got up. "Where are you two going?"

"Out," Kassidy answered. "Tell your boyfriend we said hi, and good job. He's probably got this in the bag anyway."

"And he better behave himself," Yang growled, eyes flashing red for a brief moment.

"Ugh, Yang!" Ruby whined. She shooed them away, before thinking of something and yelling after them, "You better not be doing things in the dorm when we get back!"

Kassidy chuckled, but Yang groaned, "Ugh, spoilsport."

"Agreed," Kassidy said, "but she's cute like that." She stretched as they left the stadium and asked, "So, got any ideas for tonight?"

AN 2: Hope you all enjoyed this episode of The Peanut Gallery: RWKY Edition. Holy crap I hated writing that. Well, having all of that at once. I'll take another look before I put this up in case I messed up with the writing, but odds are I'll be leaving it as is unless the writing is bad; I'd rather not touch it again if I don't have to.

Anyways, I need to get ready for work, so Reviewer Responses are going to be the next thing done before I get this up.

Coming up next: Eh, nothing much. Just a dusty old crow.

ThornedRose367: Depends on how sturdy the shield is and how big the gun is. Unfortunately for Kassidy, most of the shields in the RWBY universe seem to be made of this annoying material called "Plot Armor-nium" which makes them nigh-invincible slabs of steel that render any and all attacks sent their way completely harmless. I shall endeavor to keep up the good work, here's to hoping you enjoy this as well.

EWR115: Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. This is… no fighting, unfortunately. Couldn't really think of a good way to do it without putting out a twelve thousand word long chapter or something. Hopefully you like it anyway.

DIYEyal: Naruto, eh? I'll keep that in mind for future reference, then. Indeed, the "shooting people with a gun" Semblance is one of the most powerful in RWBY, if only people would use it more. Yeah, Kassidy was not at the top of her game last fight. Fortunately, it was still enough to take on Skater Boi Chick. Hope you like this chapter as well as the last one.

Tykene: Glad to hear you liked last chapter so much. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do quite the same with this chapter, but hopefully it'll still be up to snuff.

Ultimatrix bearer: Still no clues as to what Kassidy's Semblance is. Yeah, Kassidy's development is… rather messed up, and one that I will happily and shamelessly hand-wave away with Project Colossus. Don't really watch anime (only show other than RWBY I've seen seriously is Fairy Tail), and I did far too little reading when I was younger. Sequels… I will be LOOSELY following the future plot set up by RT, but suffice it to say that I will not be happy with just retelling the same story. Especially after I throw in some real monkey wrenches into the story. And yes, I currently have a plan for two future stories, and working on plans for a third right now.

Shake N. Bake Mormon: Yes, Fall of Beacon will happen. Technically. Details will – and already have – changed. Sorry, but anything more is spoiler territory.

FlouriteFlower: Thank you for the compliment. No real fights here, but hopefully I still did them justice.