WaterDragonMaverick here! Time for the next chapter of "Sideline: Another Story". This one will show off more characters and add to ones we met so far. Time for the start of the Emerald Forest Initiation Exam!
Take your positions!
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P).
I only own this story and my Original Characters.
Morning came to Beacon Academy and students began to wake up in the ballroom. A few were so excited, they woke up before dawn and prepared for the day. One of these excited students included Layla Carbuncle, who was already dressed up in her combat outfit from yesterday. However, she wasn't as excited at the moment because she was busy with something else. "Azalea! Come on! Wake up," the Vacuo-born girl said as she attempted to wake the bovine Faunus from her sleep.
"Something wrong," Sunset asked as she walked back into the ballroom while adjusting her leather jacket. Vinyl was walking by her side with her sunglasses on her forehead and a raised eyebrow at the scene in front of them. Apparently, Layla was desperately pushing Azalea out of her sleeping bag and failing. Looking at the sight in front of her, Sunset only had one thing to say. "I thought farmers got up at the crack of dawn? Do we need a rooster or something?"
"Either help me wake her up, or get going," Layla groaned out as she stopped pushing Azalea. Vinyl decided to place her headphones next to Azalea and began blaring a loud rock song from them. The sudden pounding of drums and wailing guitar failed to wake up Azalea, however. Shocked that her music didn't wake her up, Vinyl kept cycling through her song library for the next few minutes. After going through her favorite songs, Vinyl comically curled into a ball as she retrieved her headphones.
Unsure what to do about the sleeping girl, none of the three noticed a few more people walk up to them until they heard a new voice. "What's going on over here," a male voice asked. Turning around, the girls saw that three new people approached them about the sleeping Azalea.
The one that spoke was a fair-skinned wolf Faunus boy with short, spiky, silvery gray hair and a tail of the same color. He stood at 5'10" with a lean and muscular build and he had piercing azure blue eyes. He was currently wearing a t-shirt with a symbol of a wolf's head howling with a broken chain around its neck, a pair of torn dark jeans with silver chains acting like a belt, and had brown boots. He also had a tattoo of the original White Fang emblem, a peaceful beast's head inside a circle, on his left arm. "Something the matter," he inquired as he saw Vinyl curled in a ball and Azalea peacefully sleeping.
"Our friend just won't wake up," Sunset explained to the group. "She's Azalea, I'm Sunset, that's Layla, and the one in the fetal position is Vinyl," Sunset introduced her herself and the others.
"I'm Silver Wuhuri," the wolf-tailed boy greeted.
"Cereza Fujita," a tall girl with butterfly-styled glasses said casually. She was 6'2 with a slender and curvy hourglass figure, but not to the same extent as Azalea. She had cherry red hair with pink bangs in a short style that resembled a pixie cut or a bob, a fair-skinned complexion with a beauty mark on her left cheek near her lips, and was wearing pink lipstick. Most noticeable about her when you looked though, was that her left eye was a ruby red color while her right eye was sapphire blue. Cereza's outfit consisted of a pair of black leather pants, a backless purple halter top, a pair of blue high heels, and a red leather jacket. She also wore a locket with a design that looked like a butterfly next to a crescent moon.
"Name's Rua Amaranth," a shorter girl with greenish-teal eyes said next to Silver. She was 5'2" with a moderate tan and had a pretty muscular, yet feminine figure with average proportions. She had a short and spiky pixie cut that was purplish-red in color. She was dressed in a torn red tank top, a denim jacket, leather pants, red combat boots, and she wore red fingerless gloves that had a black symbol of a fist with a spiked shield. Rua also wore a skull hair clip above her left eye and had a simple pair of amethyst earrings.
Layla spoke up next, "Now that introductions are out of the way, maybe we can try and wake up Lea!"
"Unless you want me to punch her, I don't have a clue on what to do," Rua quipped.
Cereza pondered on what to do and poked at Azalea's side. Smacking her hand away while staying asleep, Azalea just rolled onto her other side. "Hmm. She's a heavy sleeper," the bespectacled girl commented.
"I would say she's in a coma, but we just saw her move," Silver said. "That must be one nice dream if she's still asleep like this."
"If this keeps up, she won't make it to initiation or breakfast," Sunset said with a worried look in her eye.
Bolting up in an instant, Azalea startled the others as she woke up at Sunset's words. "What about breakfast," she asked before seeing the other students around her. Azalea slowly took in their varied expressions as she recognized the three new faces. Looking down at her clothes, Azalea blushed a little when a few extra buttons were revealed to have come undone in her sleep. "Hehehe. This is embarrassing," Azalea said as she closed her shirt and followed Layla to the showers.
In the dining hall, Azalea had changed into her regular clothes and met up with everyone from that morning. She remembered Silver, Rua, and Cereza from the airship to the school grounds, but was nervous about interacting with the latter two. Those thoughts were cast aside when they explained a little about themselves and the group began to talk with each other.
"So, what do you think is going to happen for the initiation," Cereza asked as she removed a cherry pit from her mouth. "I heard that each school has a different test."
Azalea would have spoken up, but she was too busy chewing an apple to answer with what her father told her. Sunset had half of a pancake in her mouth, so she couldn't provide an answer to Cereza's question either. Vinyl only shrugged and the rest of the table gave mutters that explained they were in the dark about it as well.
"Well, it doesn't really matter," Cereza said as she popped another cherry in her mouth. "I'm sure that we'll be fine," she assumed as she walked up and left to collect her weapons. Eventually, the others followed suit and headed for the lockers they were given yesterday. Before she left, Sunset quickly grabbed a donut and scarfed it down with a satisfied smile.
Azalea walked alongside Rua and Silver as they made their way through the halls. However, the taller girl bumped into somebody that gave her a bad feeling. A tall armored boy with burnt orange hair looked down at Azalea and smirked to himself. "Well, well. What do we have here? What's a girl like you doing here," he smugly asked.
Azalea only shrank away from his gaze as he turned around to face her. Rua and Silver glared at the boy in front of Azalea. "Leave her alone, jerk," Silver practically growled at him.
"Make me, Fido," the boy taunted back at the wolf Faunus. "I doubt a dog like you and a shrimp like her can do anything."
Rua heard what the boy said and immediately raised a fist to him. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?" Her loud voice echoed through the area and brought a little attention to themselves. "You can eat a d-," Rua tried to curse out before her mouth was covered by Azalea.
As the boys glared each other down, another boy made his way towards the four. He was an inch taller than Silver and had short dark brown hair. He had lightly tanned skin and his left cheek had a horizontal scar across it. He wore a white dress shirt, blue denim jeans, brown cowboy boots, a short brown poncho with twin bandoleers underneath, and a brown cowboy hat with an iron horseshoe symbol pointing upwards. He also had a belt that had a buckle with the same emblem holding twin holsters. His viridian eyes studied what was happening around the area and saw the incipient fight while Azalea was the only one who was scared.
"I suggest that you leave the lady and her friends alone," he said to the armored bully as he stepped in front of Azalea. Sneering at the new arrival, the bully only dismissed him and turned back to Silver. Just as he was about to punch the wolf Faunus, one of the teachers walked towards the group and addressed the teenagers.
"Is something going on here, Mr. Winchester," the green-haired instructor asked as he saw the crowded hall. Glaring at the four others students, the bully just left to get ready for the initiation. "Hmm. He never answered my question," the teacher noted.
"Thank you, Professor," Azalea sighed with relief. It was lucky for them all that both the drifter-looking boy and the teacher arrived to prevent Silver and Rua from getting in trouble before they even found out if they would officially make it into Beacon.
"It's no problem, my dear. And it's 'Doctor' Oobleck. If you pass the entrance exam, I will be your history teacher for your time at Beacon," Oobleck said as he spoke to Azalea. "Now, go and get your equipment. You'll need it, Miss Holstein."
As Doctor Oobleck left in a blur, Azalea turned back to her friends and saw that the cowboy was already walking off now that everything was settled down. "Who was that guy," the horned Faunus said to herself before she reached her locker. After unlocking it, she obtained her weapon in its compact form and looked it over again before placing it in her pocket.
As Azalea scanned the room, she saw a few of her new friends with their own swords, guns, or more unique weapons. She also saw the two girls from the airship again and this time, she saw them more clearly. Gasping, Azalea recognized them from trips with her father to an island in Vale called 'Patch'. "Ruby? Yang? Is that you," Azalea said to the girls.
Breaking away from their conversation about Ruby needing to 'break out of her shell', the sisters saw a face they haven't seen in a long time, but still seemed familiar to them. "Azalea? Oh my god! It really is you," the blonde exclaimed as she went up to the Faunus girl and gave her a strong hug. Hugging her back just as hard, Azalea was happy to see an old friend that she didn't expect to see after so long. Ending their hug, Yang looked over her friend and noted something. "You've really grown. Haven't you, Freckles," Yang playfully teased Azalea while subtly emphasizing her own developed figure.
Blushing in embarrassment, Azalea crossed her arms over her chest before speaking to Yang. "It's not all that great," she managed to squeak out. "But, I can say that you probably got a few unwanted admirers as well," Azalea said as she gently poked Yang in her stomach.
"It's really nice to see you again, Azalea," Ruby said as she placed her weapon under her hooded cloak. "Looks like we'll be fighting monsters together soon enough. I can't wait to see what your weapon is," Ruby exclaimed.
Soon, the three girls heard the sound of someone crying out in surprise and something getting stuck in a wall. Turning towards the source, they saw a blonde boy with a javelin in his hoodie and two famous faces. Pyrrha Nikos, who is a famous athlete from the Kingdom of Mistral, was apologizing to the boy because she most likely threw the javelin. And Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company that was founded by her grandfather, Nicholas Schnee. A bit scared of Weiss because of her reputation, Azalea was quick to activate her Semblance and escape the locker room after hurriedly saying farewell to Ruby and Yang.
After leaving the building, Azalea uncloaked herself and calmed down. Knowing that someone like Weiss Schnee would be in her class was a little nerve-racking, but Azalea couldn't let some high society heiress from Atlas keep her down. She had to move on and continue with heading towards the initiation exam.
At Beacon Cliff, Azalea stood on a metal platform with Beacon Academy's emblem on it as she looked down the line of people on similar platforms. Seeing people like Layla, Silver (who was now wearing a couple belts over his shirt and a singled sleeved leather jacket with a metal spaulder on his right arm), and Sunset around her put the Faunus girl at a little ease. Soon, Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch started to explain how exactly the test worked. Explaining that teams were indeed being formed today, Ozpin elaborated that everyone needed to pair up with somebody they can work well with. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years," Ozpin said a very contradicting piece of information.
A couple of other students were surprised at the news or explained that it would have been smart to set up a signal to find each other if they knew each other. Azalea was on one of the more panicked students as she worried about who was going to be the first person she met. If she didn't see somebody she knew, she could just use her Semblance to hide. But, Azalea was also scared of if she couldn't find any of her new friends because of being partnered up already. Azalea's mind started to go crazy with different thoughts and it began to show as she shook in place.
Seeing Azalea shaking at the news, Sunset turned to the girl next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Azalea," she asked before hearing something.
"What if I'm partnered up with somebody who'll hate me because of my horns?!"
Pulling back her hand, Sunset was shocked at hearing what Azalea said. However, it was more of the fact that Azalea's mouth didn't move as she heard her concerns. "What was that," Sunset said as she looked at Azalea.
Turning to Sunset, Azalea steadied her breathing as she saw the fiery-haired girl looking like she heard something surprising. "What was what," Azalea asked.
"You have horns? Are you a Faunus," Sunset whispered in Azalea's ear.
Quietly gasping, Azalea stared at Sunset for a few seconds. "How did you know," the farm girl asked back in a whisper.
"I can't explain. But, I think I heard you say it. We'll discuss this later when we aren't going to be shot into the forest," Sunset stated as they turned back to Ozpin.
"...to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you WILL die," Ozpin explained and one student laughed nervously. Ozpin explained that each pair of students would make their way to an old temple and get a relic to secure a position on a team while teachers could only watch their progress. "Take your positions," Ozpin instructed as everyone got into a ready stance.
Layla and Sunset stretched their arms and backs before they were sent flying off the cliff with determined faces. Azalea could see a few other people prepare their equipment before they were catapulted as well. Eventually, it was her turn and she was launched by the springboard underneath her. Flying through the air was actually easy for her because her father had prepared her for being thrown about 80 feet in the air by the platform.
Soon, Azalea saw a few others start their descents and landing strategies. A few students used a whip form of their weapons to catch onto branches, some planted their blades onto the trees, some used their Semblances to their advantage, and even a couple of students like Layla used Dust to slow their fall. Azalea saw her chance to start her landing strategy and pulled out her personal weapon. A Multi-Action Dust Baton called 'Gladion' that allowed her to cycle through what kind of Dust she needed to use for the situation at hand.
Cycling to a Wind Dust setting, Azalea swung her baton like a magic wand to create a small, but powerful whirlwind to slow herself down. As soon as she decelerated enough, Azalea caught onto a tree branch and steadied herself. After placing her baton away, Azalea began to climb down from the enormous tree. Growing up on a farm with a couple of large orchards really helped with her own climbing skills, so the Faunus was able to get safely down to the ground.
With her boots on the ground, Azalea's mind went back to earlier with Sunset as she trekked her way north. She knew that she didn't say anything to Sunset about being a Faunus, so how did the girl find out? Something strange was happening if Sunset learned her secret without seeing anything, but also heard it from Azalea on the cliff despite not actually saying anything.
As Layla Carbuncle was sent flying into the air, she used her Aura to activate the Dust crystals embedded in her jewelry to create a stream of water that she used with her own Semblance. With an ability of telekinesis to control numerous objects around her, the girl controlled the water to use it as a makeshift grappling hook and slow herself down. After stopping on a branch, she pulled out her scimitar and planted the blade into the tree trunk before sliding down.
Layla got the ground and saw a small pack of Grimm in front of her. Smiling to herself, she spun her sword around and prepared for a battle. The Creeps lunged at the girl, but the first was cut down quickly and the others soon followed. Layla soon pulled out her second weapon, a large ornate pistol that resembled a genie's lamp, and fired it into the closest Creep's mouth to kill the monster. A few other of the lizard-like Grimm dove underground to try and surprise Layla, but she anticipated it and nimbly dodged the emerging monsters before slashing at them.
Soon, the Creeps were killed and their bodies began to vanish into smoke. Taking a deep breath, Layla relaxed after the fight and heard something else a few minutes later. "No touching," a sensual female voice said like she was taunting her opponent. Soon, an Ursa slammed into a tree in front of Layla and fell down to the ground as it died. "Poor guy could have lasted longer. What a shame," the voice said as Layla turned to its source.
Cereza and Layla locked eyes as the former adjusted her glasses. "Well, looks like we're partners now, luv," Cereza said as she looked over her tonfa guns. Putting away her own weapons, Layla smiled at the new partner she had.
However, the purple-haired girl was still worried for Azalea because it meant she wasn't able to be her partner and make sure the Faunus girl didn't get harassed by anyone. "I hope Azalea's going to be fine without me as her partner," Layla said to herself as she and Cereza headed north.
As Sunset walked through the Emerald Forest, she had a few things from the cliff plaguing her mind. What was with Azalea 'saying' she had horns? How did she hear the girl with her mouth moving? What is going on? All of these questions filled her head as she cut down a few low-hanging branches with her weapon's sword form. "This is just too confusing. I need to find Azalea and we need some answers from each other," Sunset noted as she spoke to herself.
"Hold on... Last night with Layla," Sunset muttered as she stopped. 'She said something about Azalea's looks when we met back up. And Azalea still wore her bandana,' she thought. "She must have learned before and kept it a secret with Azalea. I still need to talk with them when this is over," Sunset stated before continuing on her path.
After a few minutes of walking, she heard something familiar before a sudden noise overtook it for a moment. The noise was loud and deep like a drumbeat and it came from above Sunset. Looking up, she saw Vinyl Aurum blast some energy from her hands to slow her descent and activate her weapon. With two large disks of hard light appearing beneath her feet, Vinyl landed on the new platforms and spiraled down to the ground with style. Landing in front of Sunset, Vinyl removed her shades to make eye contact with the girl she met before and partner up with her.
"Looks like we're partners," Vinyl laconically said as she put her sunglasses back on.
"Sure does," Sunset replied back with a hand on her hip. As they made their way north, Sunset's mind continued back to the topic of Azalea. 'That thing on the cliff is STILL bugging me. I just hope Azalea does well in this place,' Sunset thought to herself.
Azalea made her way to a clearing in the forest and tried to make sense of which direction she was going. However, she heard a growling sound and saw a pack of Beowolves surrounding her. With a fire in her green eyes, Azalea pulled Gladion back out and set it to her personal favorite setting, Lightning. As the werewolf-like beasts lunged forward, Azalea ducked underneath the first sweeping claw and uppercutted the Grimm with her free hand. The impact sent the monster flying into a tree branch and it was impaled by the wood.
Swinging her baton, Azalea smacked the Beowolf in front of her with the weapon and shocked the beast with every strike. As the stunned beast stumbled back, the Faunus girl threw the Grimm over her shoulder and into a couple of others. The pack leader stepped forward and roared at the girl before leaping into the air. As it moved towards her, the large Beowolf howled to signal the others to attack Azalea. Seeing two wolves jump towards her from both sides, she rolled forward to dodge and set Gladion to use Ice Dust. Striking the ground with her weapon, Azalea froze the ground beneath the leader and watched the Grimm slip onto its back when it landed.
Acting fast, Azalea jumped in the air and did an elbow drop on the open pack leader to deal heavy damage. One of the remaining Beowolves slashed at Azalea's head with its claws, but barely did any damage to her. Retaliating, the Faunus girl kicked the Beowolf's legs to knock it down and finished it off by stomping on its head. With another Grimm's skull cracked, Azalea pulled out Gladion again and activated its Fire Dust setting. With a swing of her baton like it was a magic wand, a ripple of flames shot around Azalea and torched the Grimm surrounding the girl.
As several of the Grimm started burning to death, a few gunshots sounded out and bullets nailed the ignited monsters in their heads. Looking at the source of the gunshots, Azalea saw that same cowboy from when that bully was harassing her and her friends. Revolvers drawn, he shot down more Grimm as Azalea grabbed another large Beowolf from behind in a suplex. Slamming the beast head first into the ground, Azalea defeated the last Grimm as she saw the others were loaded with lead from the newcomer.
With the area clear of Grimm, Azalea turned to her new mysterious partner and the two locked eyes after he reloaded his guns. "Thanks... for trying to help back at the school," Azalea nervously said as she rubbed the top of her head. But as she did that, she noticed that she had lost her bandana during the fight. Panicked, she turned to the battlefield to see shreds of cloth near the melting patch of ice. Covering her head with her hands, Azalea curled into a ball and whimpered in fear at what her official partner would say about her heritage.
Suddenly, Azalea felt something be placed gently on top of her head and saw the cowboy next to her. Looking up, she saw he removed his hat and made the connection. "It's no problem, Miss. Just had to help you get rid of that jerk earlier," he said as he scanned the area for himself.
Surprised at how he was acting, Azalea stood there with her jaw open. "Y-you don't mind my horns," she asked.
"Why would I? They don't change the fact that I'll help a pretty girl in trouble," he stated like it was a fact of life. "Besides, I'm from Vacuo."
Blushing at his kind words, Azalea thought to herself. 'That's the second person from Vacuo to help me like this.' As they walked ahead and came across the temple, the duo noticed that they were the first ones to reach the area. "Wow. Lucky us," Azalea said as she made her way down.
"Yeah. Lucky us," the gunslinger said as he followed the Faunus girl. Looking over the podiums, the two noticed that the relics were common chess pieces. "Guess we better choose one. Ladies first," he said.
Azalea looked over the different pieces and she thought over which one to get. Thinking back to her time on the farm, she remembered something that her mother said. 'Lea, do you know my favorite piece in chess? I know you think it might be the queen, but I actually like the pawn more. Step by step, they can deal with anything that gets in their way and eventually grow into a powerful figure. If you think ahead enough and persevere, you can have more than one queen to aid in your strategy,' the memory sounded in her mind.
Picking up a golden pawn piece, Azalea smiled to herself before turning to her partner. As the two walked back, Azalea realized something. "Hey, I never did get your name," she said to the cowboy.
After a moment of silence, the boy just smiled and said one word, "Slate."
"Slate," Azalea said to herself and pulled down on the hat she was wearing to try and hide her blush. As the two made their way through the woods, something big flew over them and they looked up to see a gargantuan Nevermore. "Glad that we aren't dealing with something like that," Azalea remarked as the Grimm bird ignored them.
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to be fighting something like that," Slate said.
A few minutes later, screams were heard through the forest. Thinking somebody was in trouble, Azalea hurried off in the direction of the screaming. As the two teenagers made their way to the origin of the voice, they found a cave that looked like something broke out of it. "What happened here," Azalea pondered aloud.
Looking behind him, Slate saw a few more faces arrive at the scene. "Looks like we have company," he said as Cereza and Layla showed up to see the decimated cavern entrance. Azalea was happy to see her friends and hugged Layla. As the girls reunited, they saw something in the distance as it came rushing towards them.
As the four tried to get out of the way, Slate ended up tripping over one of the rocks and fell towards Cereza. However, she seemed to vanish as she dodged the falling boy and they both ended up standing next to Layla and Azalea. Despite their confusion of what just happened, the four saw that there was a massive King Taijitu staring them down. "Well... This will be smashing," Cereza said in a collected tone while the others were unnerved by the size of the snake in front of them.
"At least things can't get worse," Slate said before a roaring sound came from the forest next to them. "I know, I know. The moment I said it," the cowboy muttered as he got his hat back from Azalea.
Coming through the forest, Sunset, Vinyl, and two other girls were being chased by a small group of Griffons. The beasts took out the trees around them so that they could fly around more and give the King Taijitu more room to strike. The new group of eight looked at what they were about to face off against and they all had one thing in common about the battles ahead. 'We have our work cut out for us.'
CLIFFHANGER! I wanted to leave it here because it would give me more time for coming up with the action sequences for the upcoming fight and it would give me more room to introduce the other two girls who showed up to the "party".
Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far and I will make the next "episode" have a few cool action sequences for fighting this new set of Grimm for the challenge. Will our heroes make it through? Or will they fail and bite the dust? Find out next time on "Sideline: Another Story"!
WaterDragonMaverick, signing out!