Welcome back everyone to a...wait would this be considered early or late? Another update to The Darkling Thrush!

This time around, we're kicking off a new arc! Holy shit we're making progress. As always, I'd like to thank those who left a review last chapter! Thank you jin0uga, Baoh joestar and noone297. Thank you guys for just leaving your input, I enjoy it immensely. And, really, thanks for the constant reviews, you're what makes this story possible really.

But yeah, We're starting a new arc! Took me long enough.

Anyways, let's get to it eh?

XXXVI

The Vytal Festival: Part 1

It was following the end of The Great War that a contest to commemorate the peace that was ushered upon the world of Remnant. Created to serve as a celebration of peace between the Kingdoms. Every two years, a Kingdom would be chosen to open its doors to the world, allowing citizens from every corner of Remnant to meet and indulge in one another's cultures. These events are called The Vytal Festival, in honor of the land where the peace between kingdoms was brokered.

Now, eighty years of peace later, it is the kingdom of Vale who hosts this year's festival. It is considered to be an honor to compete in the tournament, where the best fighters the four noble academies have to offer test their might for the glory of their kingdom.

A privilege reserved only for first and second year students, while third and fourth years participated in active field work. Truly, only for those future Huntsmen who exemplify the best their nation has to offer.

"Oh fuck! I'm late!" Russel Thrush shouted, before promptly kicking down his dorm room door and dashing down the hall, past bewildered onlookers.

As it was, Team CRDL had some time ago signed on to participate in this year's Vytal Festival. They would not be the first fighters to take the world stage, but they would not be the last. Last Russel checked, their match was scheduled for noon. So the young Thrush afforded himself the opportunity to sleep in for a change.

Surely this experience would make him a wiser man should he grow old. But Russel was a young man, all he could see was right in front of him. Such as if he didn't catch the airbus in the next ten minutes, his entire team would forfeit their match due to his tardiness.

So Russel ran down the hall in a full sprint, not giving a damn who he had to push his way through to make it to the elevator. Reaching the elevator, Russel quickly tapped the call button, repeatedly until the doors opened.

The doors slid open and Russel leapt inside. Just as he did the call button, the young Thrush repeatedly tapped the close door button, as if that could speed up the process. He then hit the bottom floor button and was well on his way.

Now alone, waiting patiently in the silence of the elevator, Russel was finally capable of hearing a low familiar ring from his pants pocket. Retrieving his scroll, Russel found a number of missed calls from his teammates. So the young Thrush dialed back the most recent one.

"Russel, where are you? The next airbus takes off in ten minutes." Sky's voice shouted frantically over the scroll.

"Goddammit, I overslept!" Russel shouted defensively.

"What the hell man? You said you'd be up in five!"

"Clearly I was lying, Sky!" He replied, sounding quite irritated. "I'm not going to make it in ten minutes man."

"Alright, alright. Where are you now?" Russel could hear Sky's disappointed sigh.

"Leaving the dormitory now." Russel announced as the elevator reached the bottom floor. The doors slid open and the CRDL boy came running out passed a pair of students who'd been waiting patiently for the elevator. "I'm going to try cutting through the fairgrounds that might shave off a good minute or two."

"The Airbus stop is on an elevated platform, on the other side of campus, cutting through the fairgrounds won't shave jack." Sky replied in a disbelieving tone.

"Don't worry, I got a plan." Russel smirked as the gears in his head began to turn. Before Sky could question his teammate further, Russel ended the call.

Racing down Main Avenue, under the ever watching eye of Beacon Tower, Russel's master plan began to unfold. As he would need to retrieve his daggers from the locker room, Russel decided to cut out the middle man and signal the rocket locker, causing it to shoot out of the nearby gym and land right in the center of the brick walkway.

A number of onlookers raised their brows at Russel's actions, some even turned to murmur to their companion or two, wondering just what the hell the Thrush was thinking. Russel quickly claimed his daggers and shot off on his way towards the fairgrounds. But he halted for a moment, feeling a pair of familiar eyes accosting him from afar.

Russel glanced upward at Beacon Tower, and there stood Headmaster Ozpin by the window, his coffee mug in one hand and cane in the other. Russel, raised a hand and waved to the watchful man and cracked a smirk. There wasn't a doubt that he'd be hearing something akin to scolding about unauthorized use of the rocket locker and damaging school property, but that was later and this was now. And Russel had somewhere to be.

So then Russel took off once again, running as fast as his legs could take him while Ozpin watched on, looking after the boy as he sped on. The gray haired man mumbled something under his breath, something about Russel becoming more like his old man every day. With Russel disappearing out of view, Ozpin returned his attention back to his open file on his computer, deciding to amend a certain private article about the young Thrush.

The fairgrounds themselves were buzzing with activity. Visitors from the other three kingdoms and even locals were out and about, enjoying the best Vale had to offer in the way of food and activities. Vendors called out to passerby, goading them to partake in ring toss carnival games and to test their strength by slamming a mallet on a lever to see if they can ring a bell with a propelled weight.

Lethargy had taken hold of Russel since spending his time cooped up in a hospital room. But now that he was out and about, taking in the fresh air and aroma of nearby delicacies, the young man was alive again. But his mind distracted, wandering around the fairgrounds instead of focusing at the task at hand, Russel was completely oblivious to the crowd of people he was just about to run into.

Standing in a large group in the center of a busy intersection between vendors and booths, were a quartet of students from Shade Academy. Among them was an indigo haired young woman wearing a high-necked, tight-fitting gray shirt, along with a long, light blue coat with a leather bandolier and a shoulder pad on the right.

"So, what do you guys think about Vale so far?" She asked, addressing her many companions.

"A bit of a cooler climate than used to." A girl with blonde hair and scale armor said with an indifferent shrug.

"I like it." A girl who looked like a ballerina declared. "The trees are lively, as are the people. A nice change of pace given our usual surroundings."

"Beats the shit out of Grendel." A fiery redhead in their company murmured. "What about you, Neb? You asked, see anything you like about Vale?"

"Undecided." Nebula Violette said simply. The indigo haired girl cast a glance upward, off to the distant Amity Colesseum hovering above the city of Vale. "When's our match again?"

"Sometime at three." The redhead replied after checking her scroll.

"I can't wait." Nebula smiled herself as her thoughts drifted to fantasies of victory. But Nebula's thoughts came to a crashing halt at the distracting noise of a large number of bodies hitting the ground.

Nebula whipped her head around, joining her team in staring at the aftermath of what looked to be a painful head on collision, the kind you'd only see on highways but in the form of ordinary people.

The sounds of groans echoed loudly in the now quiet fairgrounds. All eyes drifted towards the pileup, waiting in anticipation at what happened next. Out of the mass, one Russel Thrush pulled himself free and back to his feet. He retrieved his daggers from where they lay of the floor and firmly hooked them to rim of his pants.

The young Thrush, now out of the fog of his mind, was now conscious of the passage of time. By his count, he still had minutes to make it to the Airbus stop. So he turned his heel, ready to carry on running with purpose.

But from behind Russel, a familiar quartet of bodies freed themselves from the pile up as well. Their dagger-like eyes turning their attention to the young Thrush. "The least you could do was say sorry, jackass!" Serin Quiet, the leader of the all faunus Team STAG shouted with anger in a challenging tone.

That sort of comment got a dark laugh out of the Thrush. Aside from one exception, Russel never said sorry. Given his tenure at Beacon, he'd have thought that was apparent by now. But it seemed the masses had yet to learn.

"I don't say sorry, wolf breath." Russel replied, earning angered glares from the STAGs.

That sort of comment would have flown over anyone else's head, left them wondering just what the hell Russel was talking about. But the comment was directed at Serin. And she was a wolf faunus.

The scene was observed by all sorts of bystanders, ranging from a food vendor to a patron and even Team NDGO who watched from afar.

"You thinks somethings about to jump off?" Dew Gayle, the scale armored blonde, asked her team.

"I sure hope so." The redhead Octavia smirked.

The Leader of Team STAG let out an angered howl and rallied her team behind her. "For too long we've been letting you get away with your shit, Russel!" She declared, taking a step forward. "Tormenting Velvet, humiliating Jaune, worming your way out of just punishment like the flagpole and messing with Lance's social life. Enough's enough! Get him!"

Before he knew it, Russel was besieged by Team STAG. Faced with overwhelming forces and pressed with time to be catch the Airbus. Russel took off running like a rock propelled through the air by a slingshot. Not remotely fast enough to outrun his pursuers, who were in questionably better shape than he, but careful planning ahead of time had afforded Russel at least one trick up his sleeve.

"Oh shit." Dew muttered.

"Everyone move!" Nebula shouted before pushing her teammates out the path of Russel and the anger fueled Team STAG, who'd gone running their way.

"Ugh." Dew groaned. "I take it back. I don't like Vale."

"Those guys are going to get someone killed." Octavia said as she dusted herself off, having jumped to the side to avoid getting rundown. "Can we go watch?"

"Octavia's right, someone's going to get hurt." Nebula said before turning and taking off after the angry mob. "We need to put a stop to it."

"Whoa, not our fight girl, not our fight!" Dew protested, attempting to reach out and prevent Nebula from running off again, just like she did back in the town of Grendel.

But Nebula couldn't hear her partner. She had already taken off.

"Oh dammit." Dew frowned.

"Well, looks like we gotta go help her." Gwen sighed.

"Looks like it." Dew nodded, a disappointed look on her face.

"Alright! Fight, Fight!" Octavia shouted eagerly before the trio ran off after their friend.

Running through crowds, Russel kept a foot's distance ahead of his pursuer's reach. It wasn't an easy task, making his way through the crowds proved difficult, the way people stood like obstacles, forcing Russel to usually shove past them. This ultimately had the unfortunate effect of causing the angry mob to grow in size.

Privately, Russel made a not to shove less people along the way, lest his pursuers triple in size once again. But as luck would have it, up ahead another obstacle appeared, in the form of two men moving a long wooden table, no doubt for use in constructing another vending booth.

Just a few feet away from the duo moving the table, he could see the look in their eyes, deer in headlights. They wouldn't be moving anytime soon. So Russel cursed to himself before getting low and sliding under the table.

The likes of Serin and her merry band on the other hand attempted to mimic Russel's actions or simply jump over the obstacle. But as it was, the obstruction acted as a funnel, and the men and women of the angry mob weren't as graceful as water. Some poor bastard ran against one of the men holding the table upward, knocking him as well as himself over.

The table collapsed on one side, falling on a number of people trying to go under and tripping others who'd tried to jump over it. And thus the second pile up of the Vtyal Festival was created in that moment.

Seeing the pile up ahead, Nebula took a detour down around a vendor and popped up back on the main stretch, not at all losing sight of Team STAG and that unruly boy who'd caused this mess. But it seemed the chase would be soon reaching its end, one way or another. As Nebula could see up ahead, the road led to a giant stone wall, crafted to make way for the Airbus that would land up above on the elevated platform.

With nowhere else to run, Nebula could see this chase turning more violent in a heartbeat. As soon as the boy would be cornered, the mob would turn to blows with him. In hopes of avoiding this, Nebula quickened her pace, believing that perhaps she may be able to prevent such an escalation.

Russel could feel the knowing smiles at his back as he ran at the wall. He could practically hear their jeers again, just like on the night of The Dance, when STAG and the rest of the drunks had thought him beat and left him strung up. They were always so certain that'd they'd bested him. And this time was no different.

"But they never really learn, do they?" Russel murmured aloud as he found himself face to face with the natural wall. It was just as he'd planned.

Having been momentarily delayed by the pile up, Serin and the rest of her team had given Russel a bit of a lead. But that didn't matter, not anymore. Not while he stood cornered ahead of them.

"You think yourself a predator, but that's just a lie you tell yourself, Russel." Serin announced darkly as she and her team began to close in on the Thrush. "We're the Predators. You're the Prey."

"But can you climb?" Was Russel's retort.

Without another word, Russel drew his daggers and leapt upward, stabbing one into the side of the rock. The likes of Serin and her team ran at Russel, hoping to at least grab at his legs and pull him down. But they weren't quick enough, Russel was already out of reach.

Using his daggers, Russel stabbed his way up the side of the wall. He'd sink one dagger into the rock, then remove the other. He'd pull himself up and begin again. "Bet you weren't expecting that?" Russel smirked to himself as he taunted Team STAG down below.

"After him!" Serin ordered her team. The trio of TAG did as they were told and attempted to climb after Russel. But they struggled to do so and it soon became apparent that Russel had successfully escaped their grasp.

Standing from at the front of a growing crowd, consisting of both the angry mob and curious onlookers, was Nebula. Staring upward at the Thrush as he made his escape, Nebula was left with mixed feelings about the whole ordeal. On one hand, no more harm would come to anybody with the boy's escape. On the other hand, he'd escaped any just punishment for his actions.

But Nebula could find no solution to her plight. Just as it was back in Grendel, the quarry had gotten away yet again. But she pushed those thoughts aside, she'd done her best then and she'd done her best now. So she brought her eyes upward and just kept watching with all the rest of them, watching to see what happened next.

By then Russel had almost reached the top. It had taken him less than two minutes and he was just one stab away, which was all that remained. All Russel needed to do was jump one last time and stab the damn rock and pull himself up, then he'd be through.

So Russel reeled back, just like all the other times and prepared to leap upward and stab the rock once more. So he did, he leapt and stabbed forward with success. Russel removed his other dagger where it was embedded in the rock and began to pull himself up with the other. But then suddenly, it all began to give way.

It took a moment for Russel to register what had happened. But then he realized his fault and never before did he wish to bang his head on something. Of all the rookie mistakes he could have made, he'd gone and stabbed into dirt, dry loose dirt.

Russel didn't need to be a genius to know what would happen next. He'd fall back down to the waiting masses. Then like jackals they'd be upon him. Then back to another month in a hospital bed. That is, if the fall didn't kill him.

But to Russel's surprise, he wasn't falling. He looked up in wonder at what had happened, at what he hadn't anticipated. And the young Thrush couldn't help but laugh at his fortune. "Sup, Cardin."

"Scale a cliff? Really? That was your plan?" Cardin asked, sounding mildly disappointed in his partner's solution to reaching the Airbus in time. "You couldn't take the stairs like normal people?"

"Worked out in the long run now, didn't it?" Russel cocked his head back down to the angry mob waiting below. "Mind pulling me up now?"

With little effort, the Winchester boy pulled his partner up from over the edge. "I see you've got quite the crowd stirred up." Cardin mused as he peered over the railing to the angry mob Russel had attracted with his antics.

"We've been in recovery for almost a month, Cardin. What better way to get back into the swing of things." Russel smirked, having found a measure of pride in his work. "Not to mention, it certainly will make the tournament a little more interesting." He jotted a thumb downward, pointing out a number of youths around their age wearing armor and uniforms from other schools.

"That kind of attitude's going to get you into trouble one of these days." Cardin remarked before the duo began to walk towards a nearby Airbus waiting for passengers to embark for the flight over to the Amity Colesseum hovering above Vale.

"Maybe so." The Thrush shrugged. "Or maybe not. Who knows?"

Cardin scoffed. "Sure. Well, come on. The others are waiting for us."

"Look out everyone." Russel said aloud as he and Cardin joined Sky and Dove at their spot in line. "Here comes CRDL."

In the locker room of Amity Colesseum, the many participating fighters were busy situating themselves for their coming matches, or catching their breath from fierce battle experienced in their own tournament match.

One such returning team, consisting of a nefarious and beautiful woman with raven hair, her jewel of a thief, well-tempered assassin and a deadly mute. After leading their opponents on for the begging moments of the match, Cinder's team quickly turned things around and mopped the floor with Team WILL. The Valean team hadn't known what hit them.

But this one small victory was but a means to an end. So Cinder Fall quietly sat down in a secluded portion of the locker room as her 'team' stood around acting nonchalant over the whole ordeal, but in reality they were standing guard, protecting Cinder from those who remained in the locker room.

"Hm." Cinder muttered to herself as she acknowledged a notification on her scroll. Removing the device from her gray pants pocket.

"What is it?" Emerald looked to her leader.

"The Black Queen Virus." Cinder announced quietly. "It's pinged something."

"Wait, has it been discovered?" Emerald asked alarmed at the prospect of their computer virus being discovered. Though it would surely take them time, there was no doubt that Ozpin or even General Ironwood's Atlesian forces could somehow track it back to them and possibly foil their schemes.

"No, no, these fools are still blissfully ignorant of our plans." Cinder couldn't help but smirk devilishly. "It's simply highlighted Ozpin's recent activity."

"Anything we should be concerned with?" Mercury asked as he kept lookout, making sure no one was within earshot.

"He's accessing his personal student files, making amendments." Cinder announced with a hint of interest.

"He hasn't done that for a while." Emerald commented.

After reviewing the information the Black Queen Virus provided, Cinder frowned with disappointment. "It's nothing."

"What was it? What'd he do?" Emerald implored.

"He didn't add anything significant. Nothing about Ms. Rose, Ms. Nikos or even Mr. Arc." Cinder said, dissatisfied. "Just some such nonsense about…I don't even know his name. That's how little he matters." She looked down back to her scroll and read what appeared on it. "Russel Thrush?"

Hearing that name got Emerald's brain buzzing with quiet promises surging back to the surface. "With your permission, can I see?" She quickly asked.

"Where's this coming from, Emerald?" Cinder asked, eyeing her minion skeptically. "This isn't like you."

"Russel Thrush? Fuck that guy." Emerald laughed as she cautiously looked to the rest of the locker room, watching the last of teams depart to either their own matches or to claim their front row seats reserved only for competitors.

"He's caught Emerald break character a couple of times." Mercury chimed in, causing Emerald to direct her deathly glare in his direction.

"Oh? That's quite interesting." Cinder spoke quietly, but with a threatening undertone that sent a shiver down Emerald's spine. "Emerald, could it be I was wrong about you? Are you really that inept?"

"What? No, ma'am. It's nothing, he's nothing. Barely an afterthought." Emerald defended.

"And yet this so called 'nothing' may have gleamed our true intentions through your misstep."

"He's just a thug. A bully. I just want to take him down a notch is all. A pet project before we burn this place to the ground."

"You've served me loyally. I will grant you this." Cinder raised her scroll, offering it for Emerald to take. Emerald smirked to herself as she reached out to take the scroll. She claimed it and tugged to pull it back to her, but found Cinder still holding the device with a cold stare. "I'm going to need that back."

"Y-Yes, of course." Emerald nodded fearfully.

With that said, Cinder released her scroll into Emerald's possession.

"Anything interesting?"

"Oh yeah." Emerald smirked to herself. "How many dead mom jokes do you think will take to beak this guy?"

"His mon's dead?" Mercury raised a brow.

"Apparently she died in childbirth. I think I'll start with calling him fat, then somehow I'll tie that to pregnancy. And then I'll hit him with a dead mom joke." Emerald couldn't resist laughing. Her eyes returned to the screen and her smile grew wider as she continued to read. "Then I guess I'll make dead dad jokes too."

"His dad's…dead?" Mercury asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." Emerald nodded. "What's it to you?"

"Does it say how he died?" Mercury asked quietly.

Emerald shot a questioning look Mercury's way. There was something about the way he'd said it that just seemed off, unlike the sadistic assassin she'd come to know. But, she indulged the silver haired boy and read aloud what Ozpin had written about the Thrush.

"Ozpin wrote that he died of a heart attack. But he's suspected there's more to it. Apparently, Russel and his dad didn't have the best relationship. They fought a lot." Emerald said before awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Man, how am I going to tie child abuse to patricide, and then to dead mom jokes?"

"What's your sudden interest in this Russel character, Mercury?" Cinder asked, having been watching her two henchmen for some time.

"My dad and I fought too." Was all Mercury said.

"I got it! I'll call him fat and pregnant, taunt him with child abuse and then hit him with the 'your parents are dead' gag!" Emerald declared. "Fucking full proof."

"Oh give me that." Mercury muttered before snatching the scroll out of Emerald's hands. The thief began to protest, but her cries fell silent as she soon found herself being slammed onto the floor.

Mercury stood over Emerald, one boot pressed firmly against her gut, holding her in place. The thief attempted to struggle in vain, but they both knew that no matter what Emerald did, there would be no moving Mercury's leg.

"Now, now, children. Behave." Cinder said coolly. "You can be as rough as you want anywhere else. But not when you're handling my scroll."

"Of course, ma'am. How stupid of me." Mercury said before removing his foot from Emerald's gut and turning to go and sit at a nearby bench, as to read the contents of Ozpin's file undisturbed.

"What the hell got into him?" Emerald asked aloud.

"I'm not quite sure. But it seems you've hit a nerve." Cinder mused as both she, Emerald and the murderous mute in the corner turned their attention to Mercury. The silver haired young man paid no mind to them. He simply continued to read in peace. "One hell of a nerve."

Down below, the quartet of Team CRDL stepped out onto the field, meeting their opponents at the center shoulder to shoulder.

"Impressive, huh?" Sky smirked as he waved to the crowd.

"You know, it's nice to have people cheering for us for a change." Dove mused as he joined Sky in waving to the cheering crowd.

"This afternoon we've got ourselves another exciting matchup." Professor Port announced from where he sat in the commentator box overlooking the arena.

Beside Port sat Dr. Oobleck, who fiddle with his spectacles before contributing to the commentary and introducing the two teams that now took to the field. "Yes, with us today we have Team PSYK, led by Panini Delso, of Vacuo. And their opponents Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester, representing Vale.""

"Cardin Winchester, eh?" Panini Delso, the leader of Team PSYK questioned, "That wouldn't happen to be as in Roman Winchester, would it? The hero of The Great War?"

"Looks like you've got yourself a fan, Cardin!" Dove shouted giggily, before elbowing the CRDL leader in the arm.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Cardin answered, not seeing any harm.

Panini exchanged a glance with her team and shared with them the sinister smile she now wore on her face. "Oh, this is too good." She muttered to herself before raising her cannon weapon, ready for battle. "You've had this one coming for a long time Winchester."

And so, both Team CRDL and PSYK readied themselves as the biomes were selected behind them. Out behind Team PSYK emerged what appeared to be unfertile land with trenches and large boulders scattered around. While behind Team CRDL, a ruined urban setting emerged with a shattered church at the center of it all.

"Alright, here we go." Russel smirked to himself as he raised his daggers.

The crowd increased their vigor, demanding for the match to begin. And so, up in the commentator's box, Professor Port bowed to their whims and bean to countdown.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One! Begin!"

Anyways, the initial opening was crafted to properly reintroduce Russel back into the story. It just seemed like something that would happen, seeing as he's been out of it for a month in story and out.

Aside from that, I haven't too many notes for this chapter. I've been playing with Emerald and Mercury being foils to Russel and vice versa for a while. He's been pissing Emerald off since meeting her and become acquainted with Mercury to the point where he'd show up at their game nights. So, expect more Mercury and Emerald for this arc and the next.

Next chapter, Team CRDL vs Team PSYK.

'Til next time dear readers, later days!