Hi, everybody! WaterDragonMaverick here with the next chapter of "Sideline: Another Story" and the second part of Team SAFR's Search and Destroy mission in Forever Fall. The last chapter, the girls made it to Garrison Academy and prepared for their assignment. Let's see if they can handle themselves for whatever comes next.
Regret nothing!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum
I only own my Original Characters featured in this story.
After Aurora Celeste informed them about the last known location of the Creatures of Grimm sighted nearby, Team SAFR made sure that their weaponry and other equipment was ready for battle. Leaving the castle that was Garrison Academy, Aurora and Team SAFR trekked their way through the forest. Admiring the beauty of Forever Fall may have been something the girls could've done, but they were on a job and had to make sure that the Grimm were taken care of. As the five women made their way through Forever Fall, they talked about some things to pass the time. "If I were to have any job if I didn't choose to become a Huntress, I would want to be a movie star," Celadon said as she explained what her alternate career choice was. "I would dazzle everyone with my acting skills and beauty," she declared.
"Well, you do tend to be overdramatic at times," Sunset remarked with a grin.
"And what is that supposed to mean," Celadon questioned.
"Remember the time when we first saw Bianca's penthouse," Sunset replied. Celadon grinned sheepishly when the moment was brought up as the elegant blonde fainted after processing the fact that Azalea's childhood friend was currently staying in a luxurious hotel suite while in Vale. "And let's not forget the time that Team JADE tried to throw a full plate of rotten vegetables at Azalea and they missed. The plate ended up hitting our table and those nasty veggies landed in your hair. You ended up screaming as loud as Lapis' Semblance."
"I swear, those ruffians are going to get what's coming to them if they keep up with these annoying methods of bullying our dear Azalea," Celadon remarked with a frown and a flip of her hair.
"Even if they might just be jerks, why do they keep picking on Azalea only," Rebecca inquired. "They could've targeted someone else, but they choose our friend specifically?"
"People have different motivations for what they do," Aurora stated. "Some are influenced by who they see as a hero, some because they know it's the only thing they know, and some because of being driven by emotions."
"I need to see what's going on in their heads if that's the case," Sunset muttered. As the group continued, they saw an old and destroyed stone building. "What is this place," Sunset asked.
Stepping closer and seeing a faded mark on what remained of the door, Aurora explained what exactly the building was. "This used to be an outpost during the Great War, but it eventually fell to Grimm during a battle. If we're at this location, then our destination is close by," Aurora told them as she made sure to grab her sword.
Team SAFR made sure they're weapons were ready and soon, they heard growling coming from behind some trees. The girls all saw a small pack of Beowolves and a quartet of Ursai emerging from the forest. The bear-like Grimm roared as they saw the Huntresses and the Beowolves charged at them with fangs and claws bared. Separating from each other, the girls dodged the Grimm and counterattacked the monsters with their ranged attacks. Nailing most of the Grimm in the heads, the only ones that remained were the four Ursai and eight Beowolves. The Grimm all growled at Team SAFR before they charged at the girls again. Acting first, Aurora used her Semblance to release a blast of light like a laser to cut off the arms of several Beowolves before the beam sliced into an Ursa's foot. With the Grimm crippled, Aurora started by attacking the injured Ursa with her sword and thrust the weapon into the bear several dozen times in the blink of an eye.
After Aurora defeated the Ursa, Sunset and Celadon moved in to slash and stab at Beowolves surrounding the Huntress. Taking out the monsters, Sunset changed her weapon into its rifle form and shot at one of the Ursai charging at Rebecca. With the Grimm distracted, the ninja was able to slash at the monster's throat to kill it before using her Semblance to create a smokescreen. With the nearby Grimm unable to find Rebecca, who was now hiding in the trees, Celadon unleashed her Semblance on the demonic creatures and struck them with gem-like projectiles. When the remaining Grimm ran out of the smoke and toward Celadon, they were hit in the back with Rebecca's shuriken when she used her armguards to recall the weapons with a magnetic pull. Meanwhile, Vinyl was dodging the remaining two Ursai and their claws before Aurora and Sunset both stabbed their swords through the Grimm's heads. With the final two monsters dead, the first-year team took a deep breath before Aurora turned to face them. "We may have dealt with these Grimm easily, but they aren't the ones we're after. Our target is deeper in the forest," Aurora told them before she pointed past the outpost. "This way."
Making their way through the woods, Team SAFR was feeling a bit exhausted from their walk through Forever Fall. "Ugh... This is such a pain," Sunset said as she opened a bottle of water and took a drink. "This forest goes for miles on Vale's northern coast. I'm surprised that we haven't found any other Grimm yet. Are you sure that it was some ruins that the Grimm were sighted at," she asked Aurora.
"Let me double-check," Aurora said as she pulled out her Scroll. While she searched for the information, Team SAFR took a small break. Vinyl began to inspect her weapon as it seemed to not work during the earlier battle. Soon, Aurora found the information about the mission again. "Okay, there are Grimm at some ruins in the forest, but it's actually not like the outpost," Aurora told the others. "Turns out, the Grimm have been sighted near an old stretch of railroad tracks that used to go through the forest. It's just a little further to the southwest of our current location."
"Thank goodness," Celadon said as she put her own water bottle away. "I don't think I could have taken anymore aimless walking."
"Which is why you always need to have a map with you," Rebecca commented. "And if you don't have one, make one."
"Good advice," Sunset remarked. "Who told you that?"
"My grandfather," Rebecca answered.
"Come on, girls," Aurora said as she put away her Scroll. "We need to take care of those Grimm." Taking the lead, Team SAFR followed after the pink-haired Huntress as they made their way toward the old railroad tracks that Aurora mentioned. After another few minutes of walking, the five females found the remains of an old stretch of track. Plants had grown over the rails and the wooden ties have rotted away, so it was obvious that the line they found hadn't been used for quite some time. Before they could figure out which way to go, Aurora heard something. "Quick, hide," she told the girls as a large shadow began to fly over the tracks and past the girls. When the flying shadow went past them, Aurora turned to Team SAFR. "Seems that we may have found one of the Grimm we were looking for. Let's follow it," the Huntress said as the girls walked down the tracks, ready for a fight just in case.
Going after the shadow, Aurora and Team SAFR soon came across an old and demolished station before seeing the shadow stop and begin to descend. Hiding in the remains of the station, the girls saw that the Grimm wasn't like what they encountered earlier. It was a large insect-like Grimm that resembled a 20-foot tall praying mantis, but it had back legs similar to a grasshopper, multiple horns on its head, and mandibles similar to a stag beetle. Landing on the ground, it folded its red wings and hid them underneath another white set of wings that acted as armor. More Grimm of the same kind soon appeared, but they looked younger as they were not only smaller than the first insectoid Grimm at what looked like the same height as Vinyl, but the beetle-like mandibles were actually on their heads as a pair of horns. "What are those things," Celadon asked as she was slightly creeped out by the bug-like Creatures of Grimm.
"Scykiri," Aurora answered. "Mantis-like Grimm that attack in small swarms and can cut through anything in their path with their arms."
The girls were quietly observing the Grimm while Phoenix snuck out of Sunset's jacket and saw the Grimm. When the gecko made a small scared noise, the Scykiri turned toward the station and approached the building. Seeing that Phoenix was scared by the Scykiri, Sunset held her pet in her hands before she and the others avoided the largest Scykiri's attack. With a swing of its arm, it carved through the wall that Aurora and Team SAFR was hiding behind. Making her way toward the closest tree, Sunset placed Phoenix on a low-hanging branch. "Stay here, Phoenix. I'm going to make sure these things don't come after you or my friends," Sunset told her beloved pet before drawing her sword and changing it into its sniper rifle mode.
The younger Scykiri all jumped toward Aurora and each member of Team SAFR with their arms raised. Bringing their limbs down, they tried to cut away at the humans, only for the girls to dodge the Grimm and slash at the ground instead. Sunset opened fire on the mantis monsters, but the younger Grimm fought back by unleashing a blast of green-colored electricity from their horns. The bullets were destroyed and Sunset had to change her weapon's form in order to not waste any ammo. With her sword raised, she ran toward the Scykiri and watched as the Grimm jumped forward to try attacking her. Thinking quickly, Sunset slid across the ground with her sword raised as the Scykiri landed so that her weapon would cut away at the reckless monster's body. While her plan worked, it only cut off one of the Grimm's front legs while she avoided getting hurt. The Scykiri screamed and hissed in pain before it unleashed another blast of electricity which managed to hurt Sunset.
Rebecca tried to hide from the Scykiri and go with some stealth tactics by using her Semblance to create more smokescreens, but the Scykiri just began to cut down every tree she was hiding in. Changing up her strategy, Rebecca threw shuriken at the Grimm as she avoided each of them and tried to use the Dust in the throwing weapons to harm them. While they did hurt the insect-like monsters, they were just powering through the pain and managed to jump onto the girl. Rebecca was pinned down by one of the younger Scykiri and she had to use her sword to avoid getting harmed by the Grimm's scythe-like limbs. "These things are tougher than they look," Rebecca called out as she struggled against the insectoid creature.
"I can see that," Celadon exclaimed as she tried to block some of the attacks aimed at her with her spear, but one slightly older Grimm managed to disarm her of her weapon. Forced to use her Semblance, Celadon created a large gemstone and began to shield herself from the Scykiri. Unfortunately, the Grimm began to gain up on her and recklessly attacked the girl's barrier by slashing at it or jumping on the gem. "I could use a little help over here," Celadon said to her teammates.
"I think we've all got our hands full at the moment," Sunset replied as she managed to avoid another attack from the Scykiri she was fighting. Aurora was dealing with several younger Scykiri, but the largest one managed to sneak up on her from behind and put her on the defensive. Seeing her teacher on the ropes, Sunset was beginning to feel stressed out from what was happening as she looked at her teammates. Rebecca and Celadon were pinned down while she was avoiding a Grimm that she never battled before. As she ended up tripping and falling on her back, Sunset saw the Scykiri jump at her and countered with a stream of flames from her Fire Dust jacket. As the Scykiri burned and evaporated as it died, Sunset caught her breath before hearing music around the area.
Seeing Vinyl step forward, the blue-haired girl spoke up. "Rhythm Scratch is working again," she stated with a smile before turning up the music that was playing. As the music sounded off through the ruins and nearby forest, the Scykiri all approached Vinyl who was moving around to the fast-paced beat of the song. When the lyrics started, Vinyl started her attack by launching an energy blast from her palm and nailed the closest Scykiri in the head. When the Grimm stumbled backward, Vinyl rushed forward with a hard light katana in her hands and slashed the injured bug to pieces. As the Grimm died, two more tried to slash at Vinyl before she countered by performing a spinning windmill dance move with her katana summoned from the Hard Light Projection Braces on her legs. As she spun around, the Scykiri's attacks were parried and their limbs were cut off by Vinyl's weapon before she launched herself off the ground with her hands and kicked at the heads of the two Grimm in front of her multiple times, firing several energy blasts with each kick.
With two more Scykiri dead, Sunset helped by sending several fireballs at the Scykiri pinning down Rebecca and Celadon. With the Grimm's attention caught by Sunset, they jumped at her only for the Huntress-in-training to dodge and used her Dust techniques to create an explosion underneath the Grimm. As the flames engulfed the bug-like monsters, Vinyl created two disks of hard light and threw them at the burning Grimm to slice them into pieces as they turned golden when they approached the demonic insects. With those Grimm dead, there were only three more Scykiri left and all of them were fighting against Aurora as she used her Semblance to try gaining any advantage she could.
The largest Scykiri noticed that its swarm was killed, and it cried out as its arms began to grow bigger. The Grimm's arms split apart and it had four bladed limbs to attack with as Aurora looked shocked at the Scykiri's additional attack capabilities. Dodging the blades, Aurora watched as the Grimm's arms got caught in a large tree trunk when it had the bad luck of impaling the tree when it missed Aurora. The Huntress ran onto the roof of the station and saw the last two Scykiri, who were slightly younger than the one that got stuck, generate electricity between the multiple horns on its head before more green electricity built up between its mandibles. The Grimm fired beams of green lightning at Aurora, but Celadon countered by sending a large gemstone at the attack to block it. Seeing Team SAFR with all their weapons raised for battle, Aurora smiled at them while the trapped Scykiri managed to free itself. "Time for some pest control," Sunset quipped as she held her sword in front of her.
"Really? That line," Celadon asked incredulously.
"I thought it would've been fun," Sunset admitted before the Scykiri all charged more electricity and discharged it at Team SAFR. Dodging the beams, the girls surrounded the Scykiri and slashed away at their legs with their weapons. The Scykiri cried out in pain before they took flight and attacked by either blasting more electricity or slashing at their targets. The girls kept dodging the attacks and Sunset soon came up with a plan. "Fantasia," she shouted. Hearing the code for their team attack, Vinyl and Celadon charged their Semblances and fired them at the Grimm hovering above them. When the energy blasts hit the gems, they exploded and sent two of the Scykiri down to the ground for Vinyl to slash them to pieces with Rhythm Scratch's hard light claws. With only the largest Scykiri left, it hissed at the Huntress team before seeing Aurora launch herself forward to strike the Grimm. Avoiding her attack, the Scykiri countered by shooting Aurora with an electric blast that sent her falling to the ground. "Green Flash," Sunset called out as she ignited her jacket's Fire Dust and sent a torrent of fire at the last Scykiri.
Vinyl heard what Sunset called out and unleashed a barrage of energy blasts that went through the flames, causing the attacks to combine and become larger fireballs. The Scykiri tried to dodge the attack, but the flames managed to burn its wings and it began to spiral down to the ground below. Sunset and Vinyl then prepared their swords and slashed at the Grimm with a battle cry. "SEIYA!" With the two sounding off, Vinyl and Sunset cut the final Scykiri into four large pieces before it crashed onto the remains of the station and died.
With the battle over and the remains of the Scykiri evaporating, Sunset went to the tree she left Phoenix at and saw the gecko eating a worm at the base of the tree. "Is everyone alright," Aurora asked as she picked herself back up.
"Yeah, we're all fine," Rebecca replied as Vinyl stopped the music playing from Rhythm Scratch.
"That was intense. I can't wait to tell the others when we get back," Sunset said with a smile as Phoenix crawled onto her palm. "I wonder how they're all doing?"
"I'm sure that we'll find out when we return to Beacon. For now, I just want to take a nice relaxing bath back at Garrison Academy," Celadon said.
"You can use my private bathroom," Aurora offered with a smile. "For now, let's go report that the job is done and we dealt with the Scykiri swarm."
When Team SAFR and Aurora returned to Garrison Academy, Celadon took Aurora's offer to use the latter's private bathroom while the Huntress reported that the mission was a success. Sunset, Rebecca, and Vinyl chose to relax in Sunset's old room and played video games in order to pass the time. "That was an intense battle. Good thing you managed to get your weapon working again, Vi," Sunset told Vinyl, gave a thumbs up in reply.
Soon, the door opened and revealed Celadon in a white bathrobe. She sighed blissfully before speaking to the others. "That bath was heavenly. Admittedly, I'm a little jealous of Aurora for having that kind of bathroom."
"I'm sure you would be jealous of a lot of things," Rebecca remarked. "Like Azalea and her mother having a better figure than you."
"...A little bit, yes," Celadon answered as she got herself dressed. "However, Sunset, Cereza, and myself definitely have the second-best bodies of Fragment Hunter. And I think Layla would come next."
"Before we just start talking about our friends like that, I think that we should probably do something for that concert we were asked to help with," Sunset told the others as she stopped playing her game and grabbed the guitar in her room off of the stand. "We did agree to help out Bianca. I mean, who wouldn't want to do something like this," Sunset asked rhetorically as she tuned her guitar and began to play the opening to the song, 'Caffeine', that Bianca Coloratura sang.
"I feel like everything's going to be interesting when we return to Vale," Celadon said as she fixed her hair.
And now the solo missions for Fragment Hunter are completed! In the next chapter, everyone will meet back up and have a breather before they get back to doing some important things in preparation for the Vytal Festival. Not only that, but a few more characters will be introduced and one or two of them will be VERY important for the story.
I hope that you all enjoyed the battle with the Scykiri because I was planning that out a lot! The song that Vinyl plays when she gets into the battle is "Got to keep it real" from Kamen Rider OOO, mostly because the GataKiriBa Combo and Uva from that show were the inspiration for the extra details for the Scykiri (otherwise, it would have just been a regular giant mantis monster). Also, a speed drawing video of the Scykiri made by my friend on Tumblr and YouTube, Chuckles the Jester, can be found on his YouTube channel. Go ahead and check that out if you want to see more of what the Scykiri is supposed to look like.
Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out!