WaterDragonMaverick here with the newest chapter of "Sideline: Another Story". Last time, Team SAFR finished up their mission in Forever Fall and dealt with a small swarm of mantis-like Grimm called 'Scykiri'. Now that all three teams that make up Fragment Hunter have finished their individual jobs, we'll have them all regroup at Beacon for some rest and relaxation. Not only that, but also meet up with some characters featured in previous chapters. Our heroes definitely deserve this little break before the Vytal Festival and Bianca Coloratura's concert.
Come on back!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only characters I own are the ones of my own original creation
Beacon Academy was peaceful during the time between the recent Breach and the upcoming Vytal Festival. Students were getting training in, going on missions, or just relaxing after a long day they had. Team SLVR was in the first group as they were getting some training in with their mentor from their bounty hunting job, Ventus Gaia. Ventus used his ability to fly at high speeds to keep the teenagers on their toes as he kicked or punched at them. Lapis soon twirled her trident around to create a burst of wind around herself to knock Ventus off course. When the Falcon Faunus went flying in another direction, Rua teleported above him and slammed her shield into his back. When they landed on the ground, Ventus moved his legs and fired a bullet from his greaves that nailed Rua in the back of her shoulder. Her Aura protected her from most of the damage, but she still flinched and gave Ventus an opening to escape before Vixen used her Semblance. With an illusion of a giant burning lion in front of him, Ventus pulled out his combat knife and prepared to fight whatever came at him before Silver jumped out of the illusion in his wolf form. Silver landed on Ventus and forced the latter onto his back, but the Huntsman responded by kicking the Wolf Faunus off as he rolled backward. Team SLVR then regrouped and held their weapons in front of themselves as they stared down Ventus. "Alright, I think that's good for today," Ven told the teenagers as he put away his knife.
When they heard him, Team SLVR put away their weapons as well and caught their breath. "Man, I never thought that Azalea's uncle would be like this," Rua said. "He's intense in battle."
"I'll say," Silver agreed as he transformed back to normal. "He's badass. I mean, the way he took out Clay Crimson was just so cool! It looked like it was out of one of those hero shows or a video game."
"Anyways, you think Team FCSA and Team SAFR will be back soon," Lapis asked. "I saw that the missions they selected had been registered as completed."
"Probably," Silver replied. "Let's go see if their back yet."
"I'll come with you guys," Ventus said as he walked alongside Team SLVR.
When the five reached the courtyard, they saw that Terracotta was speaking to Nocturne Celeste about something before they saw Team SLVR and Ventus. "Ven! How's it going, little brother," Terracotta exclaimed as he saw the Falcon Faunus.
"Hey, Terra! I beat up this jerk that I had to hunt down with Azalea's friends here," Ventus replied as he playfully slugged his massive foster brother in the shoulder. "You should've seen it! He kept using his Semblance to make things explode, but I kept flying away or used Dust to deal with them! And when he started to catch me off guard with hand-to-hand combat, I changed up the Dust in my greaves and kept kicking him with fire!"
"Really? Tell me more, Ven," Nocturne said as she was intrigued by the story.
Ventus heard the woman and slowly turned to face her with slightly pink cheeks. "Hi, Nocturne. Nice to you here. Here at Beacon. Beacon Adaca- Academy. Beacon Academy. Hi. Hello. Hi," Ventus flubbed as he tried to speak to Nocturne.
"Is he okay," Vixen asked as Team SLVR watched Ventus make a fool of himself while Nocturne giggled quietly.
"Oh yeah," Terracotta said. "He's just not good with pretty girls, even after all these years. Hell, you should've seen when I first introduced him to Ivy. He kept stammering so much that I thought his brain had melted. Hahahaha!"
"Dude! Really?! You have to bring that up," Ventus exclaimed as he turned to his brother.
"Yes," Terra responded with a smirk on his face.
Ventus used his Semblance to hover in the air so that he could look Terracotta in the eye before speaking to him. "You want to settle this the usual way, bro," Ventus asked. "Because I'm ready to go any-"
"UNCLE VEN," a girl's voice yelled out before the Falcon Faunus was tackled to the ground by somebody and their dog. Terracotta, Nocturne, and Team SLVR watched as Azalea hugged her uncle tightly while Dante licked the man's face. "Oh, it's so good to see you! When did you get to Vale? How long are you staying? Did you bring me anything," Azalea said and asked Ventus as she began to squeeze the air out of his lungs.
"Azalea... Can't breathe," Ventus managed to squeak out as his niece kept an iron grip on his midsection and Dante kept licking him.
"Oh, sorry," Azalea apologized as she released him and pulled Dante back. Now free of the two, Ventus took deep breaths and cleaned off his face before seeing Team FCSA approach with Lucifer Fujita and Team PRDT. "I'm so happy that you're visiting, Uncle Ven," Azalea said. "I want you to meet my friends."
"Easy there, Freckles," Ventus said as he stretched out his back and heard a pop. "I've already met Team SLVR, so what about the others?"
After a few quick introductions to each other, Team SAFR soon arrived with Aurora Celeste, Ivy Dahlia Holstein, and the other two dogs that belonged to the Holstein Family, Diana and Drei. "And that's Team SAFR coming up now," Azalea said. "Hey, girls! Come and meet my Uncle Ventus," she shouted to the other members of Fragment Hunter.
"Hey, isn't that the one Faunus who rescued you from those Rapier Wasps," Sunset asked as she recognized Ventus Gaia.
"Yeah, That's Uncle Ven, alright," Azalea answered. "He's always been looking out for me whenever he visited home."
"Well, you're family," Ven stated. "Who would I be if I didn't look out for my family and friends?"
"A giant bird looking for food," Terracotta quipped with a playful smirk, which Ventus replied to by laughing sarcastically. As everyone began talking about a variety of things, Terracotta and Aurora noticed something about the lone male member of Team PRDT from Vacuo. "Hey, Aurora. Can I talk to you in private for a moment?" As the two former members of Team NOCT separated from the others, they had serious looks on their faces as they discussed what they saw. "That Percival Ivory kid looks a bit familiar, doesn't he?"
"Yeah. Too familiar," Aurora agreed. "Considering that Team FCSA spent time with his team on their job, they might know something about him."
"If I'm right, then we might have just met the son of Orchid Tilia," Terracotta said as he looked at Team PRDT heading off for their dorm room.
"Your ex-girlfriend and our old teammate... I'm not sure if that's a good thing or something that might end up being like what happened to us," Aurora said. "I guess time will tell."
Back with Fragment Hunter and the others, Lucifer Fujita was introducing himself to Ivy. "Hello, Madam. My name is Father Lucifer Fujita. May you receive bountiful blessings," he said with a polite bow of his head.
"Thank you. I've been told that many times and I already have them," Ivy replied with a smile as she placed her arms under her chest. "It's been a while since I met somebody of strong belief. Which religion do you belong to?"
"While I may worship my God, I've discovered that stories of deities with messages to their people are similar to my own faith's morals. As such, I've been learning about multiple practices and studying their lessons in order to share them with those who need help in trying times," Lucifer told Ivy.
"That does seem like something a true holy man would do," Ivy said. "What inspired you to become religious in the first place?"
Lucifer sighed as he placed a hand on his book and turned in the direction of his daughter, Cereza Fujita. "It was when my wife died that I eventually found new hope," he answered. "Since then, I just want to make sure that nobody becomes the same as I once was."
Hearing his explanation, Ivy gave a sad smile and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You know, some cultures believe that around the end of October and the beginning of November, the spirits of the departed may visit their loved ones when they are left offerings and have a trail of marigold petals to enter the land of the living. My family's farm planted marigolds where my parents were buried so that they could see how their home was doing. Perhaps you could do something similar to that," Ivy said.
Lucifer smiled at what Ivy told him and reached into his pocket to hold something. "I believe that sounds like a beautiful sentiment," he voiced as he put his book away. "I'm sure that my wife would've loved to meet you."
"I think she would," Ivy agreed. "Well, I need to get going and ask my daughter if she's been up to anything in her personal life," the Cow Faunus chuckled. "Make sure that you keep in touch with your daughter as well." Lucifer nodded at Ivy before she left and he soon walked over to Cereza to talk about how her life was going.
The next day, the members of Fragment Hunter were all exhausted from the currently warm weather and all their missions. "We need to do something," Lapis said as she sat down next to the statue in the Beacon Courtyard.
"Yeah. I'm pretty beat and this weather isn't helping much," Azalea agreed before her Scroll sounded off. Fishing it out of her pocket, she saw the name of the Caller ID and answered it immediately. "Bianca! How's everything going," Azalea answered the call. Upon hearing the name Azalea said, Silver and the other members of Fragment Hunter paid close attention. "Yeah, the weather's really hot today and we just finished some missions," Azalea said. "Wait, really? You'd do that? On the roof? Wow. I'll see what the others have to say and I'll meet you there." Hanging up her Scroll and putting it away, Azalea looked at Fragment Hunter to explain what Bianca called about. "Bianca wants us to hang out at the hotel's pool on the roof. Anyone interested?"
"Yes," Celadon, Vinyl, and Silver immediately exclaimed and bolted off to grab their swimsuits from their rooms.
Seeing that the three rushed off so fast that they left clouds of dust, the others just blinked at what happened before continuing to answer Azalea. "It might be fun. Count me in," Sunset said. "What about you guys," she asked the other members of Fragment Hunter.
"You all enjoy the pool. I'm going to get some reading done in the library," Cereza replied as she left for her destination.
"Same here," Rebecca voiced as Vixen nodded before they followed Cereza.
"I haven't gone swimming in a while," Lapis remarked.
"We know that Slate can't swim, so he should come with us to get practice," Rua mentioned. "Come on, we need to see if Slate has a spare swimsuit for you," she told Slate as she dragged him to the dorms. Slate could only look at her and the others in confusion as he was pulled away.
"Good thing Celadon found one of my swimsuits while we were at Garrison Academy," Sunset said to herself as she left to get what she needed.
Layla and Azalea were on their own as they went off to their dorm room to get their swimsuits. Layla noticed that her teammate was a bit nervous and decided to talk to her. "Hey, Lea? Is something wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. Umm... It's fine," Azalea unconvincingly told Layla, who raised an eyebrow at her in response. "Okay... I'm a bit nervous about wearing a swimsuit in front of you guys," Azalea admitted.
"You have anything revealing with your figure," Layla asked in order to help Azalea out.
"Not really," the Cow Faunus replied.
"Well, I don't see what the problem is if you can still cover yourself up enough," Layla said. "Come on. I'll help you out with finding a good one."
Bianca Coloratura was happy to see Azalea and her friends again when she invited them to go swimming. Wearing a blue bikini and choosing not to put on any makeup, she saw most of Fragment Hunter reach the pool to meet her. "Hey everybody! Glad that you could make it. What about the others?"
"Cereza, Rebecca, and Vixen chose to stay at the library for some peace and quiet," Sunset told Bianca. Fragment Hunter's de facto leader was wearing the black halter bikini she mentioned earlier. It had her winged sun emblem on the front in red and gold, she wore a pair of white sandals, and she also had a pareo with a flame pattern around her hips. "However, some of us were really eager to accept your invitation," Sunset said as she looked at Vinyl, Celadon, and Silver.
Silver wore a black pair of trunks with a chain pattern on the legs and waist while the girls wore their own bikinis. Celadon had on a green bikini and a pareo with a vine pattern while Vinyl wore an amethyst bikini top with a white lily pattern and a blue pair of shorts with her emblem on the hips in a golden color. Celadon removed her hairpin and shook her blonde hair loose while Vinyl adjusted her sunglasses to make sure they stayed on her face. "Well, when an idol such as yourself invites us to spend time at the pool of a wonderful hotel, how can we say 'no' to that," Celadon remarked.
"Not to mention Silver and Vinyl probably wanted to see you in a bikini," Rua said with a smirk on her face while she wore a tankini with a military camouflage pattern.
"No! No no no. That's... that's not it at... that's just... hehehehe," Silver stammered as he attempted to save face and laughed nervously. Vinyl only shrugged and nodded slightly in response as she looked at Bianca.
"I swear that Silver's so infatuated with you, you keep showing up in his dreams," Lapis commented as she arrived in an aqua-colored bikini with a mermaid scale pattern.
"I can actually say that's true," Sunset added as she referred to her Semblance. Removing her pareo and placing it on a nearby chair, Sunset dived into the cool refreshing water. As she surfaced, she let out a blissful sigh before seeing Layla and Slate come into view. While Slate wore a pair of gray trunks and his hat, Layla had a blue and white striped bikini on. "Hey, where's Azalea," Sunset asked.
"She's still changing," Layla told the others as she sat down to sunbath. "She'll be out in a little bit, but I'm sure she'll be a little nervous. Even though Slate did see her getting changed before."
"Layla! Do you really have to bring that up?! I thought we would forget that," Slate exclaimed.
"Blame your Semblance," Layla retorted with a giggle.
After a few minutes of enjoying the water and sun, Sunset sensed Azalea nearby and saw the Cow Faunus shyly looking at everyone from the door. "Nobody's going to bite, Azalea," Sunset called out. "Come on over."
"Umm... I don't know," Azalea timidly said.
"Azalea, you'd look good in anything," Bianca said to reassure her friend. "Besides, you're not the only hot girl here," she reminded as she gestured to herself and the other girls of Fragment Hunter. Sunset and Celadon smirked and posed to prove Bianca's point while Lapis and Layla nodded in agreement. "Plus, we're the only ones here. You don't need to worry about some random perv coming up and harassing you."
"If there was one, I'd break his teeth in," Rua stated as she cracked her knuckles.
Azalea heard what all her friends said and slowly stepped out into view. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw the girl wearing a black wetsuit with cyan sleeves and a light green trim on the cuffs and on the legs. Her suit had a pink design on the chest area that looked like a butterfly floating above some hibiscus flowers as well. Azalea also wore a necklace with a small pink shell that rested on top of her chest similar to her mother's ruby necklace. "Umm... Is this... Is this okay," Azalea asked as she saw everyone was a little too quiet.
"Yes," everyone answered immediately and simultaneously.
"I told you you'd look good in anything," Bianca said.
"She really does," Slate agreed. As he looked at Azalea, he saw that the wetsuit showed off her hourglass figure very well. When he realized that his gaze was lingering on her chest a little longer than he should have, he turned away and blushed. As Azalea walked past him, she was blushing as well when she saw that the results of his martial arts training with Terracotta was showing. After they smiled at each other, Slate looked at the ground in embarrassment before he saw Azalea's butt and began to stare at it. Vinyl approached Slate and placed a hand on his shoulder as she nodded in silent agreement that Azalea had a very nice body.
"Did you have that with you when you came to Beacon," Celadon asked Azalea. "You really fill that wetsuit out quite nicely, darling."
"Well... I got it a while ago when I was afraid of revealing my body," Azalea said as she entered the water and floated on her back. "I guess that showing skin isn't the only way if you're all looking at me like this."
"Lea, you're hot. I know that you know it," Layla told her.
"Yeah. A little confidence in yourself is pretty much all you need," Sunset stated.
"I may even know a way to help you get a little extra," Bianca mentioned while she was standing in the shallow end of the pool and flapped her wings to dry them off. "I have a photo shoot later in the week. How'd you and some of the other girls like to join me?"
"Model with... rising... singing idol... I just... Yes," Celadon agreed immediately.
"I'm game," Sunset replied. "You think Cereza would want to join in?"
"You need male models or a bodyguard," Silver asked as he swam over to Bianca, who gave a flirtatious smile to the Wolf Faunus.
Azalea thought it over for a while and looked at everyone around the pool. Her friends all gave her advice and support before, so she looked back at Bianca to answer the Dove Faunus' question. "Okay. I'll come to the photo shoot," she said.
"Yay! This is going to be fun, Lea," Bianca exclaimed as she hugged Azalea. When they released each other, the rest of the afternoon was going by fast as the teenagers had fun at the pool. "Hey, you think we should've brought Auntie Ivy," Bianca questioned.
"If my mom was here in a bikini, I think everyone would have a bloody nose," Azalea retorted with a grin. While Azalea and Bianca laughed at the idea, most of Fragment Hunter began to imagine it and their faces began to turn bright red.
Shaking off the thought by diving underwater and swimming to the other side of the pool, Sunset remembered something she found out before. "Hey, Slate," she called out to the gunslinger. "Maybe you should get in the water? Learning to swim might help out in the future."
Slate looked at Sunset and everyone else in the pool as he stared at the water. "I don't think that I'll do well," Slate said.
"You can't expect to become an expert swimmer on the first try," Lapis said as she floated by in the water.
"At least we aren't teaching you like Yang would," Azalea remarked. "She'd teach you to swim by pushing you into the water. In fact, that's how I learned," she explained and muttered the last part to herself.
"Too bad she and Team RWBY went on another mission," Layla mentioned. "I'm sure all of them would've had fun with us."
"I'm sure they're pretty busy with that mission," Rua said. "Besides, they're some of the best fighters in our year. They'll be fine."
"Yes, I'm sure that they'll be able to handle whatever chaotic thing comes their way," Celadon remarked.
In Vale, Smoke Shadow was walking around in casual wear and enjoying a day in the city with Oliver Electrum, Kun Agate, and Veronica Moonstone. The four of them were also a known gang of thieves that Fragment Hunter had faced off against before and had the codenames 'Sombra', 'Hermit', 'Tremor' and 'Rouge'. Smoke sighed in content as the four walked around the city. "Today's a pretty great day," the Raccoon Faunus said. "Not much to do right now."
"Yeah. We can just have some fun," Veronica agreed as she walked past a young male and made sure that she swayed her hips as she passed him.
"Veronica, I swear that you haven't really changed since the day you joined," Oliver commented as he adjusted his glasses.
"Can you blame her with what she was doing when we met her by chance," Kun voiced as he ate away at a popsicle.
"That's in the past, guys. Let's just have some fun today," Smoke said as he stopped walking and turned around to talk with his friends. Soon, the Faunus felt something gently tugging on his tail to get his attention. Turning back around, Smoke saw a young girl with pink hair who looked like she was about 14. "Can I help you, kid," Smoke Shadow asked as he looked down at the girl.
The girl nodded her head before she spoke to the thief. "Can you tell me where I can find Beacon Academy," she asked as she looked at him with viridian-colored eyes.
And with this not-so-small breather chapter, we have character interactions, a hint as to the identity of another member of Team NOCT, fanservice, an upcoming photo shoot with Bianca, and somebody looking for Beacon. Who is this girl and why does she want to find Beacon? Will Team SMKE end up doing something? What awaits Fragment Hunter next time? I guess you'll need to tune in and find out.
Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out.