Hey, everyone. WaterDragonMaverick here with the next chapter of "Sideline: Another Story". In the last chapter, we had a bit of a breather for Fragment Hunter when Slate and Azalea went out on a date after everything that happened with Team JADE. For this chapter, we'll have the appearance of not just another one of my Huntsman characters, but you'll also get to see an Original Grimm idea that I've been planning. So, get ready to see what our heroes will fight and who the experienced warrior is.
On your guard!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only things I own are my Original Characters and the Grimm introduced in this chapter
The rest of the weekend went well for Fragment Hunter after Slate and Azalea's date. While Silver and the other girls tended to tease Slate for what happened when they returned to the dorm, Slate was only happy that Azalea had a nice time. When classes started again on Monday, the twelve teenagers had a few things still on their minds. "What happened to Team JADE? We haven't seen them since Terra scared them off," Lapis questioned.
"If I see them, I'm going to deck those jerks in the eyes before I personally introduce them to the ground," Rua snarled as she punched her palm.
"You don't have to worry about that for a while," Sunset said. "I heard that after Terracotta stopped the fight between them and Slate, they all got punished for what Terra told Professor Ozpin. 'Three members of Team JADE from Haven Academy were assaulting Slate Quartz and injured him beyond his Aura being broken.' I think that's what your dad told me, Freckles," Sunset explained before turning to Azalea. "I heard they had to help Professor Port all weekend with capturing a Grimm or two in the Forever Fall Forest."
"What kind of Grimm," Cereza asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"No clue, but we might see it in Port's class this morning," Sunset told the others.
"Well then, let's get ready for it just in case," Celadon said as she guided the others to the locker room to collect their equipment in case they had to participate in one of Professor Port's 'interactive' lectures.
When Fragment Hunter attended Port's class, they saw that Team JADE was there as well. However, they noticed that they were exhausted and still scratched up badly by whatever they had to help Professor Port catch. Eventually, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and several other students from all four schools all waited for Professor Port to show up and start the lesson. "I wonder if we're going to be bored to death today," Rua said as she stretched her arms.
"I don't think so," Layla said as she pointed to Professor Port and a woman pushing a concealed box that kept moving around violently into the classroom. The box was likely a crate or cage that held the Grimm that Team JADE had caught and everyone had their eyes on it before they turned to see the woman assisting Port. "Who is that," Layla asked as Port and the woman managed to place the box in the corner of the classroom. Sunset seemed to recognize the woman, but wasn't entirely sure about it.
The female in question was about 5'11" as she stood slightly taller than Port, had flawless alabaster skin that gave off an impression of health and beauty, and her shoulder-length black hair with azure highlights fell over her eyes after she stood back up. Fixing her hair so that got out of her cyan eyes, the woman scanned the classroom to see who was present. She wore a black dress with a blue trim that ended above her knees and had a silver emblem of an alicorn's head that its wings positioned to resemble a crescent moon. She also wore vambraces and armored boots that were silver in color as well as a necklace that seemed to have Dust in the center. "Greetings, young Huntsmen and Huntresses," the woman announced with an apparent echo in her voice. "My name is Nocturne Celeste and I will be aiding your esteemed professor, Peter Port, in his lectures today."
While several students were a bit hesitant to call Port 'esteemed', Sunset's suspicions of the guest were correct as Rebecca turned to her. "Celeste? As in she teaches at that 'Garrison Academy' place you went to before," the ninja asked.
"Yeah. That's Nocturne, my mentor's younger sister," Sunset replied before Professor Port started the lecture.
"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Celeste," Port said as he thanked Nocturne for the introduction. "Now if I remember our last class correctly, I was in the middle of one of my heroic tales of my youth," Port stated as the rest of the class groaned. Most of the class passed by as Port's story droned on and everyone who didn't pay attention to the lecture was either fast asleep like Azalea and Rua, reading a book like Vixen and Blake, or doing something else entirely as Slate began to play a video game on his Scroll and Vinyl listened to her music.
"Honestly, I can't believe some of you at times," Celadon whispered to her friends as she filed her nails. "Falling asleep in class and not paying attention to the important parts of Professor Port's story."
"He's on a tangent about how he made a shelter with nothing but his bare hands and a couple of big rocks," Silver countered as he decided to pull out his own Scroll to play video games. "Not to mention you're filing your nails right now."
"As you said, he's on a tangent. But my point still stands," Celadon said. "We should pay attention more. Just look at Miss Celeste. She's focusing on the story," she stated as she gestured to Nocturne.
"Actually, I've known her for quite some time. She's not paying attention," Sunset retorted. "She likes to go into her own little world whenever she gets bored." To prove Sunset's point, Nocturne pulled out a knife and started to twirl it around while quietly humming a little tune. "See what I mean."
Soon, Port cleared his throat to grab everyone's attention. Rua managed to wake up and punched Azalea to get her to even move, Slate and Silver put their Scrolls away, and everyone else turned back to the teacher. "After locating the beast, I was able to trap my prey with its back to the cliff and finished it off with a clean shot to the head. When I returned to the village, I was celebrated as a savior before I needed to return to Vale for my next daring adventure," Port said as he finished his story. "Now then, I'd like to turn everyone's attention to the cage Miss Celeste and I brought with us," Port said as he walked toward the box and swiftly pulled off the tarp covering it. As soon as he did, most of the students recoiled in disgust and fear as they saw the Grimm inside.
The Grimm had a bone-like mask that looked like a skull with centipede-design marks, a single burning red and yellow eye in the middle of its face, and its black body resembled that of a bone-armored centipede. The insectoid Grimm in the cage was 8 feet long, had sharp pincers, blade-like legs, and kept hissing at everyone it saw while it rammed into the cage to try and free itself. "What in the name of ANYTHING that's holy is that," Celadon loudly questioned as she tried to keep as much distance between herself and the Grimm.
"This, my students, is a Pendra," Port explained in a more serious tone than earlier. "More commonly called a 'Night Crawler' by Huntsmen and Huntresses, this Grimm is a very deadly foe for those who aren't prepared. It can tunnel underground for sneak attacks, has a habit of constricting enemies much like a King Taijitu, and the most dangerous weapon at its disposal is the acidic poison it can create from its jaws."
"P-p-poison," Azalea asked as she shuddered in fear when she saw the Night Crawler's jaws dripping with a purple liquid.
"Yes, Miss Holstein. A Pendra has several venomous attacks that it uses to battle Huntsmen," Port elaborated. "In fact, its venom is so dangerous that I had to use a special cage so that it wouldn't melt when we had to bring the Grimm in for someone to fight it."
"One of us has to fight that thing," Envy Sinn shouted in disbelief. "We were creamed by that bug when we had to help over the weekend!"
"Which is why none of you will be fighting it," Port told Team JADE. "You have been punished enough by myself for what you did last week. So, you are to now report to Professor Goodwitch for the last of your assignments," he explained. At his order, Team JADE all left the room to find Professor Goodwitch while Port turned his attention back to the rest of his class. "Now then, do I have any volunteers for facing this Night Crawler?" Everyone seemed hesitant to do anything involving the centipede-like Grimm, which upset Port a little. "Very well. Looks like I'll choose somebody to fight this Grimm," he said as he started to look around the room. Looking at SLVR, SAFR, and FCSA, Port figured that at one member from any of the three teams would be prepared to fight the Night Crawler. "Miss Blaze. Step forward and face your opponent," he said as he pointed to Sunset.
The girl soon walked down from her seat and drew her sword, ready to face off against the Grimm. The Pendra stared down at the Huntress-in-training and hissed at her. Sunset just glared back at the Grimm in response and held her sword up. "Alright," Port said as he approached the side of the cage with his blunderbuss axe in hand. "Let the battle start," he declared as he swung his blade to break off the lock of the cage and release the Night Crawler. The centipede Grimm saw Sunset at the ready and charged at her while it sounded off a loud hiss. Sunset jumped over the Grimm to dodge and countered by trying to slash at its body, but its armor was too thick and the blade bounced off. The Pendra turned back around and sped toward Sunset as she landed on the ground. The Grimm leaped at the girl in hopes of stabbing her with its legs, but Sunset changed her weapon into its sniper rifle mode to fire a few shots at the Grimm's underbelly. While the bug had less armor there, the shots still didn't damage it like Sunset wanted them to do and only forced the Pendra to the ground.
"Come on, Sunset! You can do it," Silver and the rest of Fragment Hunter cheered for their friend and group's de facto leader. Changing her weapon back into its sword mode, Sunset rushed at the Night Crawler and attempted to slash away at its face. The Grimm only caught at the sword and the two opponents struggled to get the blade out from the other's grip. Soon, Sunset saw that the Pendra's mouth was emitting a purple mist and her eyes widened in surprise as she figured that the Grimm was going to use its poison. Kicking the Night Crawler away, Sunset was able to keep her sword while the Grimm landed on the floor and mist flowed from its jaws, touching the floor and burning away at it.
"That was a close one," Sunset said as she saw the damage done to the ground with what looked like a weaker poison attack while the Pendra stood back up. Aiming at the Grimm, Sunset fired her weapon's gun form at the monster in hopes of damaging it. The monster's armor was too strong for the ammo that Sunset was using, so she had to try something different. Looking at her jacket, Sunset got an idea and prepared the Fire Dust she had in her clothing. With the sleeves lighting up, Sunset launched a fireball at the Grimm and managed to hit it. The Pendra cried out in pain before it began to crawl across the floor and avoided the other fire attacks that Sunset began to use. As soon as the Night Crawler got close enough to Sunset, it circled behind her and grabbed at her jacket to stop the assault it was under. "Grimm paste," Sunset said as she felt her jacket being pulled by the Grimm. Acting fast, she swiftly removed her jacket without it being torn and ran to the other side of the room. The Pendra saw that Sunset was retreating and changed her weapon into its rifle mode. Opening fire on the centipede monster, Sunset managed to lure it toward her and make it release her jacket. However, the Night Crawler soon spat a purple glob of poison at Sunset's weapon and forced it out of her hands.
"This doesn't look good for you, Miss Blaze," Port warned as the girl held her hands in pain. Her Aura prevented major damage to her hands and her weapon, but the corrosive poison still burned her hands a little and Sunset's Aura began to heal the small injuries. The Night Crawler managed to take the chance to surround Sunset as she was unarmed, distracted, and defenseless. Circling the girl, the Night Crawler soon began to coil itself around Sunset's body and started to squeeze. Sunset cried out in pain as the Grimm began to slowly tighten its constricting grip on her. "Oh dear," Port said as he reached for his weapon while Nocturne's black hair soon started to move like an ethereal wind was blowing in the room and looked like stars were twinkling in it.
Before either teacher could do a thing, a fireball was launched at the Pendra and it hissed in pain as it released Sunset from its grip. Most of the class and even both teachers were confused as to where the attack came from, but they soon looked in the direction the flames came from and saw Azalea pointing her baton at the Grimm. "If you're going to hurt my friend, you're going to have to go through me," Azalea declared as she looked at the Pendra with an angry glare. Everyone who looked at Azalea were surprised to see that her normally vibrant green eyes were briefly a bright ruby red in color. The members of Fragment Hunter made a comparison of the color to her father's eyes and noted that they looked exactly the same. Jumping toward the 'battlefield', Azalea soon entered the fight against the Night Crawler as she changed Gladion's Dust setting to use Lightning Dust.
"Wait for us, Freckles," Rua shouted as she and Lapis joined the fight with their weapons. Rua grabbed Sunset's jacket before she teleported behind the Grimm and kicked it away from her friend. "Here you go, Firefly," said to Sunset as she returned the article of clothing. While Sunset put her jacket back on and retrieved her weapon, Azalea was quick to strike at the Pendra with Gladion repeatedly and shocking the beast with electricity. As the monster recoiled in pain from the constant electric shocks, Lapis was quick to imprison the Grimm in ice to stall for some time.
"Anyone got a plan for this thing," Lapis asked as she kept on her guard when she saw the Night Crawler using its acidic venom to burn away at the ice it was trapped in.
"It has a big eye on its face," Rua pointed out as she prepared her arm blades. "We could try attacking it like in video games with those giant one-eyed spiders."
Sunset only facepalmed at the suggestion before she spoke up about it. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?"
"Questions for later. It's almost out," Azalea said as she pointed Gladion at the Pendra. The Grimm soon freed itself from its icy prison before attacking the four girls. Running at the centipede monster, Rua slashed and punched at the creature's underbelly while Lapis used her Semblance to pin the Grimm in place. The sonic scream had everyone watching the fight cover their ears as the Grimm's writhed in pain and its armor began to crack. Soon, Azalea placed her hands together to act as a foothold while Sunset jumped toward her. "Ever heard of a 'Fastball Special'," Azalea asked Sunset through the latter's telepathy.
"I believe I have," Sunset told Azalea as the latter got into position. Running toward Azalea, Sunset jumped at the Cow Faunus and was thrown above the Night Crawler. "Rua, help me out," Sunset telepathically said to the brawler of Team SLVR. Teleporting above Sunset with her shield in front of her, Rua pushed Sunset forward as she kicked off the shield for some extra speed. The Pendra looked up to see Sunset flying at it with her sword thrusting forward and it was soon stabbed in the eye. The blade went through the Grimm's head entirely and the soulless monster began to slowly evaporate before Sunset pulled out her sword from the creature's corpse.
"Bravo, students! Now that's exactly what I expect from Huntresses in training," Port congratulated as he clapped for the four girls. "Night Crawlers are very dangerous when battling alone without the proper experience. So are several other species of Grimm. You must always be vigilant when facing the unknown and it's better to have some backup that you can trust with your life," Port said just before the bell rang. "That concludes today's lesson. I want you all to do the assigned readings about Pendra and other insectoid Grimm for your homework tonight. I'll see you next time, class."
As everyone started to leave, most of them expressed their opinions about the fight with the Pendra that Sunset and the others had. Most of them were saying that the girls were great in the battle while the others made comments about the Grimm and what they could do against something like it. Eventually, only Fragment Hunter were left in the classroom as Nocturne Celeste approached them. "I see that you've actually made some good friends, Sunset," Nocturne said with a smile. "My sister will be pleased with everything I'll tell her later."
"Where is she anyway," Sunset asked.
"Today, she was helping Doctor Oobleck with his History Class. However, I believe that she'll be around town tomorrow afternoon. You know how much she loves her bakery visits," Nocturne explained. "Try and see her then."
"Alright, Nocturne. It was nice seeing you," Sunset told the woman before the twelve teenagers left the classroom.
Fragment Hunter were soon in the library doing their assignment from Professor Port by looking up more about insect-based Grimm. "I'm not fond of insects myself, but that Night Crawler was just revolting," Celadon said with a shudder. "Still, I'm surprised that you were the first to intervene in the match, Azalea."
"Well, I couldn't let my friend get eaten or killed some other way during a lesson in class," Azalea said as she turned toward a page about the Pendra Grimm they fought. "Oh dang. It says here that when certain Night Crawlers get old and strong enough, they're called a 'Lord Pendra'. They have more pincers on their tail areas, thicker armor, and can even fire poisonous spikes like a cannon," she said as she showed a picture of a Pendra that looked about the same size as the King Taijitu that Team SAFR and Team FCSA fought together.
"Damn," Vinyl simply said as she moved her sunglasses to get a better look at the monster depicted in the book.
"We wouldn't want to fight that thing before getting enough experience," Rebecca commented.
"Yeah. No question about that," Sunset stated. "We already saw I had a hard time against one of them. I think it would take all 12 of us to kill a Lord Pendra."
"So, what's Nocturne like," Vixen asked as she wrote down notes for her homework before turning her attention to a different book.
"She's kind of like the ultimate big sister you probably never had," Sunset said after thinking about it for a moment. "Always helping out the kids at Garrison Academy before they left for Beacon or any other of the Huntsmen Academies."
"Cool," Slate said. "I noticed her hair was acting strange when that Night Crawler was constricting you. What was that? Her Semblance?"
"I'd like to think so," Sunset replied. "I never really saw it in action before though."
"I bet that Grimm would've been ripped to pieces by her if Azalea didn't act first," Layla surmised.
"Yeah. Same here," Sunset told the others. "Nocturne is actually just as strong as Aurora in combat skill despite being about 3 years younger. Mostly because while Aurora was teaching at Garrison Academy, Nocturne was on missions as a Huntress. Now that they both teach at Garrison, they're around the same level."
"Who would win in a fight," Silver asked.
"I'm not getting into that debate," Sunset warned. After managing to avoid discussing hypothetical battles, Fragment Hunter soon decided to get some training in so that they were prepared for Grimm like what they read about. Using Vixen's illusions to create the images of Grimm, the rest of the group battled against the false monsters and started to test everyone's limits.
On a ship heading toward Vale, several humans and Faunus were excited about the Vytal Festival happening soon in the Kingdom. "I can't wait to see which school wins this year," one passenger said.
"Yeah, same here. I'm wondering if Beacon will win this time," another one replied.
"Who knows," the captain of the ship said as he decided to check up on his passengers. "I think it would be best to wait and see," he told the passengers before moving on. As he walked past some children playing, he smiled at them before he stopped next to a Faunus woman enjoying the sea breeze with a few dogs nearby. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it, Ma'am?"
"It certainly is, sir. A wonderful day to visit family in Vale," she replied as she adjusted her hair to show off her small white cow horns.
"Staying for the Vytal Festival," the captain politely asked.
"Maybe," the woman answered as she began to pet a collie next to her. "It all depends on if my daughter is going to be entering it this year. She just started classes at Beacon Academy. I've been getting letters from her and she's been doing well."
"I hope that you meet up with her when we get to Vale, Ma'am," the captain said as he left.
The collie barked twice when the captain left and the Faunus woman scratched her behind the ears. "Don't worry, Diana," the Faunus woman said to her dog. "We'll get to Vale soon and see everything for ourselves."
And with that chapter, we now have a look at one of my Original Grimm ideas. The vicious centipede Creature of Grimm, the Pendra (aka Night Crawler). Hope you guys all enjoyed that fight and the appearance of Nocturne Celeste. You'll see more of her later and next chapter will focus on Sunset some more while they talk with Aurora Celeste.
If you're wondering about that last scene on the ship, it WAS the same ship seen in Volume 4 with the same captain. And as for the Faunus woman, you'll find out who she is later. Just know that she's important.
WaterDragonMaverick, signing out!