Hi everyone. WaterDragonMaverick here with the next chapter of "Sideline: Another Story". If you remember the last chapter, we got a visit from Azalea's mother, Ivy Dahlia Holstein. With her in the story now, we're closer to the Beacon Dance. So, it's time that I started introducing some friends/rivals from other schools since Team JADE is the only one covered so far and most of them are just antagonists. These next few characters are going to be nicer, but still a threat in a fight.
Ready? FIGHT!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only things I own in this story are my own Original Characters
Everyone on campus was talking about a number of things such as the upcoming dance during Sunday, Team CFVY not returning from their mission yet, the Vytal Festival Tournament, and the new arrival of Azalea's mother who had pretty much captivated a majority of the school with her looks and charm. As for Fragment Hunter themselves, they all had varying levels of excitement for the Beacon Dance during the weekend. Unfortunately, the teenagers could barely get any sleep because of a strange and loud noise that kept most of them up. The only one who was actually getting sleep was Azalea who had a peaceful smile on her face as she hugged Drei, who was sleeping next to her while Dante was at the foot of her bed. "How is it they can sleep through this," Slate groaned as he covered his ears to block out the sound.
"I have no idea and I'm jealous of her," Layla moaned as she covered her head with her pillow. "What even is that sound?!"
"From what I can tell, somebody is clearly enjoying some... intimate moments," Cereza muttered to herself. "And they're doing so very loudly."
"I don't care," Sunset stated through her Semblance's telepathy. "Let's just try and get some sleep. We have combat class with Professor Goodwitch tomorrow."
When morning came, Azalea yawned as she stretched out of bed. "Morning, team," she said in a chipper tone. "I slept great last night!"
"I'm glad one of us did," Cereza and Layla both replied dryly as they turned to face Azalea. The Faunus flinched at the bags that started to show under the eyes of her teammates.
"Geez, what happened," Azalea asked.
Slate walked through the door with his clothes all messed up and bags over his eyes. "There was this loud squeaking noise last night and none of us could sleep," he explained. "I think we have rats or something in the walls."
"I don't think it was rats," Rebecca said as she walked into Team FSCA's room. "There wasn't any scratching sound with it at all."
"Well, I think we should just get ready for the day," Azalea said as she grabbed her clothes for the day and went to go get changed. As soon as she returned and the rest of Fragment Hunter went for breakfast, they soon ran into Ivy again. "Morning, Mom!"
"Morning, Azalea," Ivy greeted before she saw the state that the rest of Fragment Hunter was in. "Hmm, looks like most of you didn't get enough sleep last night."
"You think," Rua sarcastically stated as she glared at Ivy in annoyance.
"Calm down, Rua," Silver said as he put his hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Maybe we should've stayed in bed a little longer?"
"I'm not going to get detention for showing up late," Celadon stated as she pulled out a compact mirror to check her makeup. "And I would very much like to get something to eat." Soon, Fragment Hunter saw Terracotta approach them as he headed for the showers and noticed something about how he looked this morning. They saw that his face, neck, and torso were covered in pink smudges. Celadon looked closer at the color and noticed something familiar about it before turning back to Ivy. She saw that the marks on Terracotta and Ivy's lipstick were the exact same color before speaking up. "I... don't think that it was rodents keeping everyone but Azalea up all night."
As the other teenagers put it together, Azalea gagged and covered her mouth when she realized what was implied. "GROSS! I didn't need that in my head on an empty stomach," Azalea exclaimed.
"Better than a full stomach," Sunset commented. "Come on, let's just get something to eat."
After Fragment Hunter reached the mess hall, they ended up running into some trouble in the form of Team JADE. "So, how'd you like the little present we left you, Veal Cut," Aoi Lobelia asked in a malicious tone as she glared at Azalea. As Azalea flinched under the girl's gaze that could literally burn her, Celadon and Layla walked between the two and glared at Team JADE themselves.
"It was actually a pretty good snack for this little guy," Sunset said as she held out her hand and revealed Phoenix crawling onto her palm. "So, I have to thank you three for that."
Jet and Envy just scowled at the group while the latter chewed at a toothpick. "You won't be thanking us when we deal with you in Combat Class later," Envy declared as she pointed a finger at Azalea.
"How about you stop picking on her and deal with me instead," Silver growled as he got in Envy's face.
"It's more fun to treat Dairy Cow like this," Envy said as she glanced at a scared Azalea. "Besides, I don't want to get fleas from you, Mutt."
Silver began to growl like a wolf again before Fragment Hunter all heard somebody approach the four teams. "Leave the girl and her friends alone before I'm the one who deals with you," a pale, muscular boy from Atlas Academy declared as he walked into view. He stood at 6'1", had a brown crew cut, and had greenish-hazel eyes. But everyone could clearly see that the most noticeable thing about this new arrival was that his left arm was robotic. "You really want to fight me," the Atlas boy asked as he grabbed a chair with his left hand and began to tighten his grip.
Jet, Aoi, and Envy looked at the boy grabbing the chair and saw that he started to crack it with ease. Deciding that it wasn't worth it, the three bullies left and Fragment Hunter saw the cyborg turn to them. "Th-thanks," Azalea said as she watched Team JADE walk away.
"No problem, Miss. I just can't stand people like them. Oren Maxwell from Atlas Academy, at your service," he said as he saluted with his right hand. After Fragment Hunter introduced themselves, Maxwell recognized Azalea. "Aren't you the daughter of Terracotta Gaia," he asked.
"Yup. And the really hot mom with the sweet rack," Vinyl said bluntly. After the music lover said that, the rest of Fragment Hunter stared at her with varying expressions. "What? She is and does. Just look at Azalea."
"Can we not, please," Azalea replied as she covered her chest by crossing her arms.
"I was only going to say that your father is a great man," Maxwell stated as he returned the conversation back to the topic at hand. "A strong warrior dedicated to protecting those who can't protect themselves or training them so that they can."
"Yeah. He is," Azalea said with a smile as she remembered good moments with her father.
"I'm looking forward to battling you in the tournament if we face off against each other, Azalea," Maxwell said.
"You might end up facing off against either of us instead of Freckles here," Sunset reminded as she pointed to herself, Team SAFR, and Team SLVR.
"I'd be happy to fight any of you twelve if you've been getting specialized training from Terracotta Gaia. He's known through the Huntsman community as 'The Minotaur of Menagerie'," Maxwell stated. "But I feel like that I might not get the first shot in because of my teammate, Raduga White." After saying the name, a blur sped past the group and the wind following it forced most of the girls to keep their skirts down. "Speak of the rainbow-colored devil and he shall appear," Maxwell remarked with a deadpan face.
"Hey, Maxie! How's it going," a new boy said as he stood next to the cyborg. He was 5'11" with a lean build that looked like it was meant for speed, had pale skin, rose-colored eyes, and short white hair with rainbow-colored bangs covering his forehead. Instead of wearing the Atlas Academy uniform like Oren Maxwell, the newcomer wore a skating bodysuit with a pattern similar to stained glass, a pair of black gloves, and a pair of customized boots with retractable ice skates and what looked like Ice Dust crystals embedded in them. On the chest of the bodysuit, there was a symbol that depicted a snowflake that was split apart into a pair of skates.
"Everyone, meet my teammate, Raduga White," Maxwell introduced as he gestured to the apparent skater with his robotic hand.
"Nice to meet you, ladies," Raduga greeted. "Same to you two," he said to Slate and Silver. After Fragment Hunter replied to the skater, he spoke back up. "The tournament's going to be awesome! This year, Team GLOW is going to win for Atlas!"
"Not if we win first," Silver said with a grin and crossed his arms with Vinyl doing the same next to the Wolf Faunus.
As Maxwell and Raduga had a brief staring contest with Silver and Vinyl, Slate got between the four and separated them. "Calm down, everyone. We need to deal with classes and the dance first, then we can get in each other's faces about the tournament."
"Slate's right. We should get something to eat, then head off to class," Rebecca stated.
"Can't do anything on an empty stomach," Raduga agreed. "Come on, Maxwell. Let's get back to Garnet and Lucy." Maxwell and Raduga saluted Fragment Hunter as they left, then met up with a dog-eared Faunus boy and a blonde girl who were both in Atlas Academy uniforms.
After Fragment Hunter had breakfast, they went off to their classes for the day. Soon, the twelve teenager warriors were in Professor Goodwitch's class and were listening to her speak before she chose who would fight for the day. "I'm sure that you've all been enjoying classes with the other Beacon alumni teaching, but several of them are unavailable today as they are occupied with other missions. As such, I'll be the only teacher for Combat Class today," Goodwitch said before looking at her Scroll and the stands where the students all sat. "Now for the first match of the day, do we have any volunteers?"
"We'll go," a feminine called out as two hands were raised up. Glynda turned to see that the voice and hands belonged to two girls from Shade Academy in Vacuo. The first girl was a dark-skinned Faunus with bat ears on her head, an athletic build that stood at 5'4", had short black hair, was wearing red lipstick, and her brown eyes scanned the room to look for an opponent. The second girl was a 5'8" blonde with her hair in pigtails that reached her shoulders, an hourglass figure with average proportions, dark gray eyes, and red lipstick as well. "Me and Ebony want to show what we have for the Vytal Festival," the blonde said.
'Ebony' was wearing a brown corset-like top with black and tan sleeves, beige shorts, a pair of spaulders, and a pair of sandals. The blonde wore a corset of her own in black, had a hooded red coat over it with a silver chain acting like a belt, was wearing leather pants with a single greave on her right leg, and heeled black boots. Professor Goodwitch looked at her Scroll to search for student information on the two before she spoke. "Ebony Rain and Jennifer Dawn of Team PRDT? Am I correct?"
"Yup. That would be us," Ebony replied. "We'd like to go first today."
"Very well," Glynda agreed as she looked at the stands. "Would anyone like to go against our first volunteers of the day?"
"We'll do it," Layla said as she and Slate stood up. "It'll be fun to go against somebody from Vacuo like us."
"Perhaps," Ebony said as she went off to collect her weapon with Layla heading off to get her own. When they returned after a few minutes, Ebony's weapon was shown to be a shield with a rifle built in, similar to traditional war shields that had staves or fighting sticks placed on the defensive weapon. Wielding the shield in her left hand, Ebony waited a moment for Layla to join Slate with her weapons. "This could be interesting," Ebony commented as she watched Slate load up his revolvers.
"It will," Slate said as he spun the cylinders of his guns and looked at Jennifer Dawn, who pulled out her own gun. It was a pistol that resembled a crossbow, but the apparently decorative limbs of the weapon looked like they were sharpened and could fold into another form. This made Slate cautious about getting close to Jennifer in the fight and Layla was silently informed of it when Slate subtly gestured toward the firearm. Layla nodded in understanding as she and Slate prepared for battle against the members of Team PRDT. "We're ready over here, Professor," Slate told Glynda.
"If both sides are ready, then the battle begins immediately," Goodwitch stated as she stepped off to the side. With Aura level displays for all four fighters up, Ebony was the one to make the first move when she started running toward Slate with her shield raised and prepared to block any shots he fired. At the same time, Jennifer Dawn quickly took aim and fired at Slate. Forced to dodge out of the way, Slate was in Ebony's path and she began to strike away at him with her shield, punches with her free hand, and sweeping kicks. Thanks to Terracotta's training, Slate was able to deflect or dodge several of Ebony's attacks, but still got hit with a few of them and was knocked down before Layla used her Semblance to push Ebony back.
When Ebony fell onto her back, Slate started to open fire on her with a few Lightning Dust bullets to zap her. Ebony tried to defend against the attack, but a few of the bullets shocked her and made her stumble back more as her Aura was lowered by a decent chunk. "Jenny, go for it," Ebony called out as she attempted to stand back up. At her teammate's instruction, Jennifer Dawn moved the grip of her pistol and the action moved the sharpened limbs of her crossbow-styled weapon folded to form a single-edged short sword. With the new weapon form shown off, Jenny ran toward Slate to slash away at him before she was stopped by Layla and her scimitar.
The two girls stared each other down for a few seconds before they backed away in order to continue their sword fight. As Layla and Jenny swung their swords, they clashed with each other and sparks flew off both blades. Jennifer tried to use a sweep kick on Layla, but the latter anticipated it and used her Semblance to stop the Shade Academy student's attack before continuing to attack with her scimitar. Slashing at Jenny with a combination of attacks that resembled a dance, Layla was able to knock her opponent away with one final kick. "You're good," Jenny complimented. "But I need to up my game," she said as she pulled the trigger of her weapon while it was in sword form. When she did, the blade split apart and became a whip similar to Silver and Celadon's weapons.
"Oh crap," Layla exclaimed as she saw the whip and had to dodge out of the way. At the same time, Ebony and Slate were continuing their fight by using their weapons to open fire on each other. While Ebony's shield was able to fire more powerful shots than Slate's revolvers, they were being fired at a much slower rate and Slate could easily dodge them at the distance Ebony was at. In contrast, Slate was able to shoot at Ebony easier, but she was able to block the bullets that were fired directly at her. After several failed shots, Slate smirked to himself and started to perform a few trick shots that helped turn the tide of the battle after he reloaded his guns.
As he dodged Ebony's attacks, Slate aimed his revolver toward her at an angle and pulled the trigger. As Ebony raised her shield to defend herself, the bullet bounced off the weapon and began to ricochet around the arena. As it bounced off the walls, the bullet soon hit Jennifer Dawn's weapon just as she caught Layla's scimitar and knocked it out of her hands. However, the bullet continued on its path and struck Ebony in the leg from behind. Crying out when hit, Ebony dropped her shield and was left open to an attack from both Layla and Slate. As the two slashed and kicked at her respectively, Ebony's Aura was lowered considerably and was now in the low yellow levels.
After retrieving her weapon, Jenny used her whip sword to strike at Slate and Layla when their backs were turned. Seeing that Jenny was still a threat in the fight, Layla used her Water Dust to create whips of her own and began to duel against the girl. As the two girls attacked each other with their whips, Layla kept getting hit a few times and Jennifer's weapon was soaking wet. With one final strike from the both of them, Jenny managed to knock Layla's Aura down to the same level as Ebony while Layla managed to drench her opponent completely when she landed a clean hit. Taking her chance, Ebony went after Layla and dealt a devastating combo attack that lowered Layla's Aura into the red. "At least we managed to be the first to knock one of you out," Jenny said after she spat some water out of her mouth.
"But Team FCSA has already won," Slate declared as he fired at Jenny and Ebony. As Jenny tried to deflect the shots, she noticed that her weapon was actually getting colder. When Slate stopped firing, she saw that he used Ice Dust bullets to freeze her weapon before he fired another Ice Dust bullet and froze her because she was still soaking wet from her duel with Layla. At the same time, Slate used more Lightning Dust bullets and shocked Ebony's Aura levels into the red.
"That's the match," Glynda stated. "I must say that all four of you were able to put up a good fight. Both teams will likely do well in the tournament. Now, for our next match..."
For the rest of the class, everyone witnessed Pyrrha Nikos take on all four members of Team CRDL without breaking a sweat. Everyone believed that she had no issues with taking part in the Vytal Festival Tournament because of that. However, during the final match of the day between Pyrrha and a Haven Academy student named Mercury Black, the latter gave up after a while. Everyone was confused by his actions because he managed to disarm Pyrrha for a moment with only his kick-based fighting style and would have likely been able to defeat her if he continued. Fragment Hunter themselves were still talking about it as they decided to hang out with Ebony and Jenny after class. "That Mercury guy was strange. He could've taken Pyrrha because she already fought against Team CRDL just before him. Even athletes get exhausted," Rebecca stated.
"Who knows? I just know that Vinyl would've likely been able to match him with their fighting styles being so similar. Heck, my little sister has kick-based style and would probably be able to outmaneuver him with some extra training," Slate commented.
"Uncle Ventus would probably beat that guy easily," Azalea said. "He's even got similar weapons to Mercury's boots."
"You said that he had talons, right? Would that mean he's even more dangerous in battle because he could probably claw somebody's eyes out," Sunset asked. Slate and Azalea just eyed Sunset because they knew Fragment Hunter spied on their first date a while ago. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," Sunset said before turning her attention to her pet gecko on her shoulder.
"You guys were pretty good in that fight," Ebony remarked. "I need to improve on dealing with trick shooters and Dust ammo."
"At least you're pretty skilled in physical combat," Slate mentioned. "I probably wouldn't have been able to beat you in a one-on-one match."
"I'm sure that with your skill in trick shots, you might have been a match for me alone," Jenny said as she made sure that her weapon was no longer frozen. "So, anyone ready for the dance this weekend," she asked as she returned her gun to an inactive form.
"Depends," Silver said with a slightly pink face as he slid closer to the blonde of Team PRDT and Celadon. "Either of you want to go out with me?"
"I thought you would've asked Yang Xiao Long," Lapis pondered out loud and with a small smirk.
"I heard that she and the rest of Team RWBY are working on the dance preparations in place of Team CFVY since their mission is taking longer than expected," Rua stated.
"At least we know it'll be fun," Vinyl remarked. "Yang's a bombshell that knows how to party and Weiss is a proper lady with her own charm and beauty. Between the two of them, they'll make the dance a perfect night for everyone."
"As long as they want to be there," Azalea muttered to herself. She soon saw Slate put his hat on her head and Sunset place a hand on her shoulder. Seeing the rest of her friends smiling in support, Azalea brightened up a bit herself.
"If those jerks from Team JADE show up, we won't let them get near you," Rua said to the Cow Faunus.
"Thanks, guys," Azalea whispered before they heard a dog barking and running toward them. "Well, that's Dante."
Soon, the large hound jumped in the air and began to fall onto Silver. "Not again," Silver muttered before the impact came and he was struggling to free himself from underneath the giant canine. "Azalea, get your dog off of me!"
"Aww, but he likes you," Azalea and Vixen snickered as the dog began to lick Silver's face.
As Silver kept trying to get out from underneath Dante, Slate felt something pulling at his clothes and saw Azalea's other two dogs getting his attention. Luring him away from the others while they chuckled at Silver and Dante, Diana and Drei brought Slate over to a part of the courtyard where Ivy was enjoying the peaceful afternoon. Turning toward Slate, Ivy waved to the boy and signaled for him to come closer. "Hello, Slate. I heard that you did well in your latest sparring match," Ivy said.
"Yeah. But, those two girls really gave me and Layla a run for our money," Slate replied. "Is there any reason why your dogs wanted me to come over here?"
"There actually is a reason for that," Ivy said as she adjusted her blouse's collar. "Have you asked Azalea to the dance this Sunday yet?"
The question caught Slate off guard a little and he stepped backward. "WHAT!?"
"Have you asked Azalea to be your date for the Beacon Dance yet," Ivy asked once again. "It's a pretty simple question like 'Does this outfit make me look sexy' or 'Is Terracotta a terrifying-looking gentleman?' It really isn't that difficult to answer," Ivy said with a small smile on her lips.
Slate was feeling nervous about Azalea's mother asking him if he was going to take her to the dance and kept stammering. "W-w-well... I-it's just that... I... You see... T-the thing is..."
"You really do like her, don't you," Ivy guessed with a smirk.
"...A little," Slate hesitantly admitted with pink cheeks.
Ivy laughed a bit at Slate's behavior before looking him in the eye. "Slate, you should just try and ask her when you can. I'm sure that she'd be happy if you took her out again."
"Maybe you're right," Slate said as he looked over in the direction he came from and thought about Azalea.
"A mother knows quite a bit about her children," Ivy told Slate before she stood up and left with Diana. "I'll see you around." As Slate watched the Faunus woman walk off, he thought about when he could ask Azalea to the dance and headed back to join up with Fragment Hunter.
In the city, Terracotta was sitting on a sofa inside the penthouse of a hotel and spoke to the blonde teenage client who hired him. "So, how's everything for the upcoming concert?"
"It's going well, but it won't be for another few weeks," the girl said. "My manager is thinking of holding a contest for giving out backstage passes, but I want to actually give some to somebody."
"And I'm sure that I know who you have in mind," Terracotta remarked with a smile. "But after this weekend, I need to help with mission assignments for first-year Huntsmen students. They'll be shadowing me, the police, or other Huntsmen depending on the jobs they selected, so it might be difficult to be your 'bodyguard' during then," he said and air quoted 'bodyguard'.
"That's fine. I would actually want to interact with other kids my age," the teenager stated. "Too bad that my manager and chauffeur won't let me out of the hotel unless it was for some promotional event."
"You're a teenage girl. You should go and have some fun," Terracotta said. "In fact, Beacon is holding a dance on Sunday night. You could sneak out and enjoy yourself there. I'm also sure that an old friend of yours would be there, 'Miss Coloratura'."
The girl smiled at the idea Terracotta was suggesting and went over to one of her hotel room's closets. "I'm going to need the right outfit!"
"Don't worry. You have until this weekend," Terracotta mentioned with a smile as he went to help the girl choose a dress for the dance.
And with this chapter that takes place at the same time as "Extracurricular", Fragment Hunter meet some new friends/rivals and gets ready for the upcoming dance. At the same time, Terracotta helps out the client he apparently knows and encourages her to go to the dance herself. The dance itself will take place in Chapter 20, so be ready for that by then.
For the characters introduced, I'll explain their names and how they fit in the RWBY Color Naming Rule.
Oren Maxwell's first name is a Hebrew name that translates into various types of trees such as ash, cedar, and pine. As for "Maxwell", I've got a theme/motif for his whole team and if you can guess it, good for you!
Raduga White's first name is the Russian word for "rainbow" and there's no thinking required for his last name. Just like Maxwell, the motif for his there. You just have to think about it or you probably need to read more manga. *hint hint*
Ebony Rain's name is sort of obvious. As for her weapon, I got the inspiration for it after I saw the Black Panther movie in theaters. The weapon was pretty cool and I thought that it could be modified to fit into RWBY. The actual weapon name is called a "Nguni shield", so go ahead and look it up if you want.
Jennifer Dawn's name was a little tricky when thinking of it to start, but I soon found out that the first name was actual Cornish for "white enchantress" or "fair one". When I came up with her character, I thought that having her as a vampire hunter-styled character would work pretty well. Her weapon was inspired by the Fangire Slayer equipment from "Kamen Rider Kiva" (which I have REALLY gotten into. It's such as great show).
I'm going to write up more for the "Beacon Dance story" and after that, I'm going to try and focus on writing more for "Go Go RWBY Rangers". So, if you like that fic of mine, be on the lookout for it in the future. Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out!