Hey people. WaterDragonMaverick here with the next installment of "Sideline: Another Story". Last time, Fragment Hunter and their allies were on a ship leaving Notremodo and heading for Anima. However, a masked motorcycle rider with a transforming bike got onto the ship and started looking for Lapis. Sunset and Azalea fought to protect their injured friend, but the newcomer used a special item called a "Dust Driver" and created armors to fight in. After a while, the biker was revealed to be Lapis' older sister, Lazuli Ondine. With her joining the party, our heroes are ready to reach Mirabelle and get Lapis some help to restore her sight. What will Fragment Hunter encounter after they get off the boat? How long will it take to get to Mirabelle? Can they get there safely? Find out in this newest update!

Class dismissed!

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)

I only own my Original Characters featured in this fic.

After the confrontation with Lazuli Ondine, the members of Fragment Hunter were relieved to have her as an ally that would help them reach Mirabelle. Soon, the ship made its stop for supplies after reaching the western coast of Anima. Taking anchor at a harbor, the traveling Huntsmen and Huntresses were ready to leave with their companions. After bidding farewell to the captain and crew of the ship, several members of Fragment Hunter were guided out of the harbor by the manager. While Ivy and Terracotta spoke to him, the rest of the group looked around the harbor and saw that several shipping containers had a stylized castle emblem with the initials 'S.H.' in the center. Several of them recognized it as the logo of the Stonehaven Foundation and the teams of Fragment Hunter remembered that Azalea was related to the Stonehaven Family. "I still can't believe that you're Mason Stonehaven's niece," Silver Wuruhi remarked. "That kind of thing is hard to wrap your head around."

"Really? The girl that managed to knock me out of my Dust armor transformation twice is related to him," Lazuli questioned as she looked at Azalea, who was petting her dogs.

"Yeah," Azalea answered. "My aunt met Uncle Mason before my parents got engaged. They hit it off well," she explained while playing around with Drei's cheeks.

Soon, Terracotta and Ivy returned to everyone with some news. "We've got transport, so we won't have to walk all the way," Terracotta stated.

"It pays to personally know the CEO of Stonehaven," Ivy remarked with a giggle. "Come along everyone, we'll be taking a train that delivers cargo to several towns nearby. Shion Village, Nashihana, and even Mirabelle itself."

"We could have walked, but that would probably take a day or two," Ventus noted as he stood on top of a container like a perched bird.

"Better to ride in a train, even if it's for cargo," Terracotta stated. The rest of Fragment Hunter agreed and Terracotta took them to the train they would take. Everyone soon boarded the train after making sure the three teams, their friends, and the animals were all together. "That's everyone," the Bull Faunus said as he helped Drei onto the train car. Closing the door to the car, the train crew prepared to leave with their new guests as impromptu passengers alongside their cargo. After the hearing the whistle blow, the train headed off and went to take them to the next station.

As the train slowly made its way forward and picked up speed, Lazuli looked at the group while she and Lapis were resting against her bike, Lorelei. "So, how was school? You know, before everything went belly up like a starved goldfish," Lazuli asked, wondering what Fragment Hunter's days at school were like.

The teenagers all looked at each other and Pinkie bounced around in place with a smile. "Yeah! What was it like before I showed up? Did anything fun happen," the younger Quartz sibling asked her brother.

"Calm down, you pinball," Slate told his sister while he was resting next to Azalea after recovering from his seasickness. "We've got a number of stories about what happened before all that crazy stuff."

"I dunno. Some of the things we got into were pretty crazy, too," Vixen remarked with a smirk.

"Mainly because of you. I still remember your last prank spree," Layla stated with annoyance.

A few months earlier...

The members of Fragment Hunter all knew that the 12 of them were a pretty colorful bunch of characters when it came to hobbies, interests, and personalities. But they all knew that the one that made the most trouble for them was Vixen Kosaku, was a prankster from the first day. Vixen chuckled to herself as she prepared some jokes to pull on her next target. Heading to the kitchen, she reached into the fridge to pull out a gelatin mold she made the previous night. Putting it in a container to hide what was inside the gelatin, she soon took the dessert to the dorms and gave it to Team FCSA. When the four opened it, they soon saw that all four of their scrolls were inside the gelatin. "Not funny, Vixen," Cereza remarked as the four started to take their Scrolls out of the dessert.

"Well, no need to waste good gelatin," Slate and Azalea remarked together, making them blush when they noticed they said the same thing.

Layla watched the two start eating the dessert and smiled before going to get a change of clothes. "I'm going to get cleaned up," she said. "Too bad there are no real baths here. Just showers."

"Nashihana has a bathhouse and a hot spring," Azalea remarked. "I could show you if we visit," she told her friend.

"I'll have to take you up on that offer," Layla answered before heading for the girls' showers. As she got ready to clean herself up, she shrieked when she saw that the water was ice-cold. Looking at everything, Layla noticed that the pipes were switched around. "Vixen," Layla growled before she adjusted everything and cleaned up. Using her Semblance to safely get her towels, she dried off and got changed into her uniform. As she opened the door to leave the showers, she was surprised to see that the hall had become a jungle river. Immediately slamming the door closed when a snake came into view, Layla calmed herself down before opening the door again. But instead of the hallway or the river, she saw an open prairie was replacing the exit. Closing the door again and scratching her head on confusion, she opened it to see the door lead to a noisy dance club. "What the!? VIXEN!"

Just out of view, Vixen was snickering to herself before she snuck off, letting her illusions fade away when she did. Soon, she made her way to the library and decided to cause more harmless chaos by messing with the signs while getting some books for herself or moving a cart of books out of somebody's reach when they were blindly reaching for it. "I wonder when my other victim will realize what happened to her shampoo," Vixen thought to herself before a loud shrill scream sounded out through the school, coming from the girl's shower again. "There it is," Vixen laughed.

Heading off to see her work, Vixen soon saw that Celadon now had green hair thanks to quick-acting dye placed in the shampoo. "VIXEN," Celadon shouted in fury as the Fox Faunus laughed loudly, then bolted for safety with the member of Team SAFR chasing after her.

"It took me a week to get the green out of my hair," Celadon complained.

"Oh, come on, you looked good with it," Vixen chuckled.

"I did, but that's not the point," Celadon shouted.

Lazuli was laughing as she heard about the various pranks that Lapis' teammate pulled, clutching her sides as she did while Pinkie did the same. "Hahahaha! That's hilarious," Lazuli said when she managed to compose herself enough. "What else happened while you were at Beacon? I know the Vytal Festival tends to bring a lot of interesting students from the other Academies."

"Yeah," Percival agreed as he leaned against a container in the train car. "Who else did you meet besides my team and GLOW?"

"Well, we did meet Team FNKI from Atlas as well," Cereza stated. "But... how should I put this? Um, let's just say that..."

"Neon needs to watch her mouth around me and Azalea," Rua stated as she began to explain what she meant.

A few weeks before the Vytal Festival Tournament...

Beacon Academy hosting the Vytal Festival Tournament this year meant that Fragment Hunter was in for a challenge when they saw all the various students that they learned with or prepared to face in the tournament. While most of the students from Atlas were serious military school types that showed courtesy, there were a few stranger examples that you'd never guess were students from there. While Fragment Hunter was familiar with Raduga White, they soon encountered two members of Team FNKI when classes were over for the day. "That class was so boring," Rua complained as she and the rest of Fragment Hunter walked out of Port's lecture.

"Professor Port should try and wrap up his stories quicker," Sunset agreed.

"I'll say," said a boy that soon approached the two teams. "Hey. Name's Flynt Coal. I'm from Atlas," he said while the twelve looked at his attire and thought he was from a jazz club instead of Atlas Academy. "And this is my teammate, Neon," he said just as a rainbow-colored blur rushed past them with an excited shout before slowing down. Fragment Hunter saw it was a Cat Faunus with a tail, rollerblades, and was dressed up like she was about to go to a rave.

"You two are from Atlas," Celadon questioned as she looked over their fashion choices. "You don't exactly look like it."

"Remember what I said about a book and its cover," Sunset chided.

"Well, it's not like anybody would expect us to look like fighters," Neon stated in a bubbly voice as she skated around everyone. "I mean, look at this girl," she said before circling around Azalea. "You'd think she's more of a farmer with how she's dressed. Especially with how top-heavy she is," remarked the Cat Faunus skater. "It's like she's a dairy cow."

Immediately upon hearing the last two words, the members of Fragment Hunter watched Azalea's eyes well up with tears before she turned invisible and ran away crying. As Flynt and Neon saw her running, Rua cracked her knuckles loudly while looking Neon dead in the eye. "You have five seconds to apologize before I break you," she threatened while Sunset and Layla chased after Azalea. Neon looked nervous when Rua stared her down, so she skated away to get some distance. Just before she could get to safety, she watched Rua teleport in front of her and cut off every attempt at escape. "GET BACK HERE AND GET BENT," Rua shouted as ran after the Cat Faunus while she kept saying 'Never miss a beat' to herself.

As Neon continued avoiding Rua's grasp, she was soon caught off guard when a gunshot sounded out and her skates froze over. Tripping and skidding across the ground, Neon was soon put into an armlock by Rua while Slate blew at his gun barrel. "You better apologize to my teammate," Slate said as he kneeled down next to Neon while Rua was keeping her pinned down.

"OKAY, OKAY, OKAY! I'm sorry," Neon apologized.

"I think it would be better to apologize to the girl you mocked before," Flynt stated to his teammate just as Sunset and Layla brought Azalea back.

"I'm sorry for calling you that name," Neon told Azalea, who smiled to show she accepted the apology. "You guys want to hang out now? We asked around campus and there's this cool dance club that opened back up after something happened. Let's have some fun there," Neon suggested. Fragment Hunter immediately knew what club she was talking about and decided that it would be fun to go there.

"At least she apologized," Lazuli said as she finished listening to the story.

"Azalea just hates it when people say she's a 'Dairy Cow'. Team JADE always kept doing that," Sunset stated as she remembered when she first discovered her Semblance's ability to see memories of others. "At least Azalea called them out before we left Vale."

"I bet we won't see them again," Vinyl remarked as she and Gin put the finishing touches on his new weapon before he used his Semblance to store it away.

At the same time, Azalea was playing a trading card game with Silver. "I'll activate the ability of my Beowolf Pack and add another Beast or Demon monster into my hand since I destroyed your Stardust Butterfly," Silver said as he ended his turn.

"But thanks to you doing that, my Butterfly will let me get one of the cards that I used before into my hand again," Azalea said as she made her choice, then started her turn. "I'll play the card I chose now, my Forest Fairy King," she stated as she made her move. "Now, I can play the card I just drew. I equip my Forest Fairy King with Magic Forest Spear. With it, my monster can attack an additional time for every monster you have. And with my King's ability, he can inflict double damage against monsters as long as I pay a small piece of health to do so," Azalea said as she made her move and took the win.

"Good game, Lea," Silver said as the two Faunus began picking up their cards. When they finished, the train began to stop. "Are we at the station yet?"

Terracotta and Ivy peered out of the nearest window and saw they weren't near a station just yet. "No. Not quite. There's somebody coming this way," Ivy told everyone just before the door opened to reveal a member of the train's crew. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah, it's just that we can't really get to the station itself because of the track being blocked," the train worker stated. "It would be another 5 minutes on foot if you got out now."

"What's blocking the track," Rebecca asked and got a simple answer out of the man.

"Sheep."

Upon hearing the word, Diana barked and ran out of the train with Dante and Drei following after. "What for us," Azalea called out as she chased after the dogs with Rua and Pinkie right behind her.

"Sheep are blocking our way? You've got to be kidding me," Sunset said in disbelief.

"You obviously haven't seen what kind of sheep live around here or in Vale," Terracotta told her.

"They're sheep. How much trouble could they be," Celadon scoffed while Terracotta and Ivy looked knowingly at each other.

When everyone reached the front of the train, most of Fragment Hunter was shocked to see exactly what kind of sheep were blocking the tracks. Standing before them give off a chorus of 'baa's' was a flock of Dire Sheep, which not only had more horns than regular sheep, but also reached around the size of cattle. "That's a lot of wool," Percival remarked while Lazuli pushed her bike next to him with Lapis riding on top.

The group watched as Azalea played with some of the lambs while Pinkie used the springy wool of the larger sheep as trampolines, laughing as she did so. "Is that even safe," Slate asked as he watched his sister have the time of her life jumping around and avoiding the snowy ground as much as she could.

"You don't have to worry," Ivy said. "Dire Sheep wool is very strong both on and off the animal itself. It's good for quality clothing and the fleece acts like an excellent cushion for the lambs," she explained as she and Bianca kneeled down to pet a lamb that wandered close to them. "That way, they won't be hurt too much if predators were to attack. A natural defense, as it were."

"The wool can also be similar to cotton depending on what they eat," Azalea said as she snuggled a lamb with a smile on her face.

Silver looked at the sheep and watched them back away from him out of instinct. "Think they'd make good lamb chops," he asked, promptly getting punched by Azalea and Bianca for saying it. "I deserved that," he moaned as he was face-down in the snow, then grunted in pain as Dante sat down on his back.

"In any case, these are wild sheep," Terracotta said as he looked at every Dire Sheep and didn't find any sort of farm identification on them like tags or ear marks. "The most we can do is guide them away from the track." Whistling for the dogs, Diana immediately started herding the sheep and lead them away from the train with Dante and Drei.

While the dogs were helping, Pinkie continued to jump on the backs of the Dire Sheep while her brother kept an eye on her. "Hahaha! This is so fun! Have you ever done this, Azalea," Pinkie asked as she started doing tricks while jumping between the springy fleeces of the animals.

"Once or twice as a kid," Azalea admits as the lamb she was petting went back to its father, which happened to be the largest of the Dire Sheep and the flock's Alpha. Azalea watched as the lamb went 'baaaa' and giggled as it said goodbye. "So cute," she said as she waved to the lamb.

"If the wool of fully grown Dire Sheep makes that possible," Cereza remarked as she pointed at Pinkie still bouncing off of sheep backs, "then how good is it for clothing?"

"Very strong," Terracotta stated as the sheep began to head away from the tracks.

"My sweaters are made from it," Azalea explained. "Well, except for the one that tore when we first met Smoke."

"Yeah, that new sweater back then was a better fit on you," Sunset stated.

"Remember when Coco decided to join us on a shopping trip," Celadon remarked and began to explain what happened.

Sometime before the Beacon Dance...

Most of the girls in Fragment Hunter were excited about the dance and had to pick out dresses for that night. While they did so, Coco Adel of Team CFVY offered to show the first-years her favorite clothing store to help choose outfits. "I'm happy to help you girls get new outfits for the dance," Coco said to them as she adjusted her sunglasses.

"Thanks, Coco. We appreciate it," Sunset said. "I'm sure a few of us can get some dresses."

"I've got an eye for style," Coco bragged. Soon, she helped out several of the girls pick out what they wanted and soon tried them on while Coco judged if they were good enough. "No. No. Yes. Maybe. Definitely not," she listed as several of the girls chose their outfits and only Lapis got an okay from her.

"Back to the racks, ladies," Celadon said as she started putting dresses away.

As the girls searched for outfits, Layla soon found an indigo minidress that she thought looked nice. "I hope you're not getting that for yourself," Coco remarked as she eyed the dress.

"Not for me," Layla stated. "Azalea."

"Wait, what," exclaimed the Cow Faunus in surprise as she helped find an outfit for Cereza, dropping a hanger when she did.

"Come on, you'd look good in this dress," Layla said as she gave her friend the outfit and gently pushed her into the changing room. "Just put it on and show us," she told her.

Azalea was hesitant, but soon thought that it would be better to get it over with. After a while, she opened the door and the girls all looked at how the dress looked on her. Azalea was blushing in embarrassment as she wore the short dress because it stopped at her thighs, showed off her cleavage, and was backless. "W-well? Um... How do I look," Azalea asked as she fidgeted in the dress, feeling nervous as it was shorter than the little black dress she wore when she went out with Slate.

Immediately after seeing her, the girls all started gushing over how good Azalea looked and started taking pictures of her. However, the Cow Faunus thought that Vinyl and Coco were being a little too calm and quiet compared to the rest. "Looking good, Lea," Coco remarked with a smirk. "Come on, let's keep searching for the rest of you."

While the girls started to head back to their shopping, Azalea turned invisible and immediately went back to change. "That was so embarrassing," she muttered to herself, not knowing Cereza and Sunset were still there. "I think Vinyl and Coco were staring under their sunglasses."

"It did look fantastic on you," Cereza remarked as she and Sunset checked the pictures they took on their Scrolls. "A little more mature than the other, but just as gorgeous," she stated as she compared the indigo dress to the black one from before.

"Maybe you should get it for yourself, just in case somebody you know likes it too," Sunset teased as she sent a picture to Slate Quartz with a smirk on her face.

"So that's why I found Slate passed out on the hallway with a nosebleed," Silver remarked as he heard the story.

Slate hid his face in embarrassment while his sister laughed her head off at the idea of a picture of Azalea making him powerless. Azalea thought it was cute and giggled at her boyfriend's actions as she stood next to him. "Please tell me you actually kept the dress," he whispered to his girlfriend, making both of them blush.

"Not really," Azalea told him. "There wasn't a reason to get it back then."

"I'm sure that Tifaret Tailor's Shop would have something similar," Ivy remarked as Cereza was kind enough to show the dress on her Scroll.

"Right, that's where my Mom and Valencia work," Bianca states as she remembered the name of the boutique in Mirabelle.

As the group saw there were no more sheep in the area, they were ready to leave when they heard an owl hooting before it started to fly out of the woods. "An Eclipse Owl," Azalea remarked as she noted the size of the bird and the fact it was awake during the day. "The color of their eyes can tell you what their sleeping habits usually are," she explained.

"Why's it flying off then," Rebecca questioned before sensing something approaching. Preparing herself to fight, she drew a shuriken and was ready to throw it when something sped past her. "Huh?" Running past the ninja girl was Drei and Diana, who were scratched up from something attacking them.

"Guys, what happened," Azalea asked as she checked the dogs and saw they weren't hurt badly. "Where's Dante?"

Azalea's question was answered when everyone heard barking from two different dogs. One was easily recognized as Dante, but the second wasn't familiar to them. Terracotta whistled for his hunting dog and the animal came running to its master. "Who's the threat, boy," Terracotta asked as he saw the larger scratches and even some bites on Dante, who recovered thanks to his own Aura.

The answer soon came when everyone saw the animal Dante was fighting. Growling as it approached them was an ash gray pit bull terrier with a white chest, scars on the neck and sides of its body, and a bulky collar around its neck. The dog's blue eyes glared at the group and many of them were wary of the animal. However, Rua just glared back at the canine and wouldn't be intimidated while Sunset was confused by something when she looked at the dog. "Guys... I think she's afraid," Sunset told everyone as she was able to sense the animal's emotional state with her Semblance.

Upon hearing that, the dog backed off a little and Rua kneeled down to look her in the eyes. "What's the matter, girl? Something wrong," she said in a surprisingly gentle tone that lightly surprised the others. The pit bull sniffed at Rua as she stayed still, growling when a glowing green barrier formed around Rua and backed away ready for a fight. "Dante, stop," Rua ordered without turning around to look at the hound. With Dante taking the barrier down, Rua held out a hand to the dog and waited patiently for her to come to her. The pit bull hesitantly approached and eventually allowed Rua to pet her. "Good girl," Rua said as she scratched the dog's ears.

Just as Rua stopped, a light on the collar turned on and the pit bull yelped in pain as everyone saw an electric shock zap her. "That thing's hurting her," Azalea exclaimed before using the Dust in her baton and her Semblance to fight through the electric current coming from the collar before ripping it in half with her bare hands. Immediately when she did, she stomped on the collar and destroyed the device that was torturing the poor dog. "That should do it," she said as she ground the broken collar into the ground with her heel.

Immediately after being freed from the collar, the dog nuzzled against Azalea's leg gratefully. "Who would put something like that on her," Percival questioned as Rua began to pet the pit bull.

"Did you hear it?"

"I think that mutt ran this way!"

The members of Fragment Hunter heard two voices and Vixen used her Semblance to hide everyone with an illusion of becoming Dire Sheep, including the dogs. With the group hiding in plain sight, they watched as two bandits arrived with one holding a rope in their hands while the other had some sort of switch. "Where is it," asked the rope-holding man.

"We'll find out," the one with the switch said before pressing the button, but nothing happened. "Huh? What's with this thing?"

The man with the rope saw something in the snow and kneeled down to pick up the shards of the collar. "I think it broke the collar off against this train and ran away," he told his cohort.

"That looks like somebody else took it off and broke it," the man with the switch stated. "We'll need to get out of here and tell the others," he added before looking at the Dire Sheep near the train. "Ugh, I hate animals."

"Good thing we have them as entertainment with all the others. Like the boss will miss one dog in the fights," the rope man stated before both of them left.

After the men made their way through the woods, Vixen ended the illusion and everyone was speechless about what they heard. "Dogfighting," Azalea exclaimed in horror, disgust, and anger.

"How revolting," Celadon remarked in disgust.

"Those sorts of people make me sick," stated Ivy.

Rua looked at the pit bull by her legs and saw she was shaking. Rua's eye narrowed as she looked in the direction of the men and turned to look at the others. "We're going after them," she told everyone with a determined glare on her face.

Okay! With this chapter, we have a small stop for our heroes to take before reaching Mirabelle. I wanted to do this chapter not just for small moments that would have happened between earlier chapters, but also because I wanted to give Rua a pet. We'll see what will happen in the next chapter with this whole dogfighting ring.

Now for the moments I want to talk about in the stories, I wanted to show off some of Vixen's pranks because I only keep mentioning them. So, I hope you enjoyed some of what Vixen had to offer. I also wanted to have Neon and Flynt involved because I gave them a cameo or two before and thought Neon's personality would affect Fragment Hunter a bit. Especially with Azalea and Rua.

As for the scene with Coco and the dress shopping, I thought that Azalea would look good in the Mature dress that Tifa Lockhart wears in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. That dress looks great, so I thought that Azalea could have it for some moments, like a date with Slate in Mirabelle. Also, I can see Tifa's Theme being played for some non-action scenes involving Azalea.

The Dire Sheep shown are actually something my friend 'epicvictory2025' used for his own RWBY fic. The animal is based on Wooloo and Dubwool from Pokemon Sword and Shield, complete with the wool quality. We'll see more of them in Mirabelle.

We'll see more of what Fragment Hunter will get into later. Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out.