I Met an Amazon Chapter 7: Field Trip, a rwby fanfic

Summary: A normal excursion to old Valean tunnels and a not so normal excursion to a Vacuoan desert end up being potentially deadly.

Team RAVN sat at their tables for lunch, wanting of casual chatter barring of course the reliable and appreciated parroting of their teammate Nora.

"So, where's today's field trip going to be?" she asked beamingly and rapidly.

Hopefully, it's as delicious as the one to Forever Fall. That wish was however not articulated, and remained a musing in the redhead's mind.

"It won't be," Ren said matter-of-factly, as though he had zeroed in on the unspoken thought regardless, "This one's a field-trip to the Blutvesten Mines; outside the city."

"Oh," Nora said with dramatic despondence, "A mine? That's great; why go to a forest when you could go to a damp hole in the ground that smells of rust, sweat and dirt?"

"Don't forget blood," her partner added with a morose smile, "If the name's any indication at least."

"Nice," she said, before throwing a bunch of blueberries at him which he caught one by one before popping them into his mouth. In the weeks that the pair had been partnered, this game had naturally emerged and perhaps because it involved food, was the only activity the overactive girl engaged in that didn't carry with it some measure of violence. Although there was that one food fight that was pretty aggressive.

Pyrrha smiled at the pair and penned down the scores with undue seriousness, as though the game they played was a national sport and it was her honour to play registrar.

"Ow! That hurts."

The owner of the protesting voice was the second-year student Scarlet Valentina, and the reason for the protest was another second-year, Joseph Gordo, who now possessed a handful of her leporine ears, although they thankfully remained attached to her person as he tugged on them.

Adam, Ren and Nora looked back down after seeing this, the hammer-wielder trying once more to ambush her partner with a few berries but failing predictably. However, Pyrrha didn't take the down scores as she done previously, her eyes remained glued to the scene a few tables across them.

Adam noticed this, and was particularly piqued when her sacred registrar pen snapped in her fingers and she remained unconscious of it, the blue ink trickling down her supple and muscular arm and making a mark or two upon her lunch tray.

It was evident to everyone at the table that she was trying her best at restraint, although the pen was probably not appreciative of it. Ren had noticed this from his partner many times in their weeks together; she never displayed even an iota of anger or annoyance openly when it came to her personal issues, but he felt her flare up whenever she witnessed others being maltreated.

Ren was without sympathy or understanding towards this behaviour; he felt bad for them vaguely, on principle, or would have if he gave it any thought.

Adam was of the exact same sentiment, but the flame in her green eyes – the green eyes that had long become his favourite sight – was an impetus without reason behind it and seemed to compel him, scarcely with his own knowledge, to walk over to the table of the ruction.

"Good morning seniors," he said with a pleasant smile, grabbing hold of Gordo's wrist and stopping the bully mid-tug, "Sorry to bother you, but I need to borrow senior Velvet if that's okay."

Gordo looked up into the pleasant blue eyes of the interferer with his own deep black ones, sizing him up as he read clearly the threat in everything from the very gaze to the vice-like grip that had command of his arm at the moment.

"Is that so?" he asked with a smile, one that managed to be easy despite the wicked strain of sarcasm it carried, "Don't let me keep you guys then" – and with a wink to his classmate – "see you later Velvet."

"Thanks."

Adam smiled as he took his senior out of the cafeteria, making as though he actually had some business with her although letting go of her wrist as soon as they crossed the door as though it had been heated suddenly. The taurine student gave a short apology for his interference before intending to walk away.

"No, it's okay," she said shyly, "My team is currently out of action because of an injury they sustained on a recent mission... Gordo's making the most of that time now, although it'll be over as soon as they get back."

"I see," he said, honestly unsure why she was giving him all this background; a simple 'thank you' or 'piss off' would have been sufficient.

"Following your threat though, it'll be worse than usual."

Adam was aware how this type of thing worked; he did this type of thing himself – until recently. He actually had no interest in this girl's predicament and had only acted at what he had interpreted as Pyrrha's impetus. Still, he felt that he should say something about her last comment, because it was in his nature to give his opinion on things like that.

"No," he said disinterestedly, "It won't get worse unless you let it."

Velvet looked up at her junior after his words, pondering what he meant as he walked away towards the dorms.

What was he thinking? Blake asked herself curiously as she walked out of the cafeteria with her teammates.

The pair was supposed to be maintaining a low profile, and perhaps more interestingly, she had never known Adam to interfere in a situation like that; even when fights broke out among his subordinates, he only handled the meting out of punishment after the two idiots had finished hitting themselves.

"Aw man, I was half-expecting a fight," Yang said in disappointment, referring to the incident that Blake was internally considering.

The comment resulted in a weird wince from Weiss and Ruby, unnoticed by the generally clueless Yang but picked up on by the morbidly quiet Belladonna girl.

"It's better that there wasn't; if the assistant class rep of our year got into trouble with our seniors, it could balloon into a bigger issue."

The comment came from Ruby, surprising her teammates at her common sense; they'd expected that she'd just talk about Crescent Rose and how she'd have jumped in to fight.

"Either way," Weiss declared, "Let's all get ready for the field trip."

"This doesn't count as a field trip," Cardin said to his team after they had all been pushed down from the airship and onto the desert floor.

As though in response to his 'observation', a ping came from the scrolls of each member, revealing a message from their History professor:

"You're a few hundred miles away from Shade, in a hotspot for Grimm. You're meant to survive for a few days (maybe weeks, I forget) using the knowledge from your 'Desert Survival' course. Ciao."

After the message ended, Cardin turned a dark look backwards and asked no one in particular:

"What Desert Survival course?"

To this he got no answer, but the course was an elective in Shade to get members acquainted with the dangers of the Desert climate. Since most members of the academy were locals (foreigners weren't particularly excited to make the trip), Professor Rumpole - the Professor responsible for their class – saw it as unimportant and instead crossed it out with extra sessions of history.

Cardin was unaware of this, but he still intuited that their diminutive instructor was responsible, in some way, for some foul play.

"Um," Shouter started, with a manner not unlike a deferring child to his overbearing father, "I'm a local, so I can manoeuvre us through the desert safely... probably."

Cardin's face was no less darkened by the pleasant news, but he cracked a macabre smile still and nodded for the dog faunus to continue.

After the small stir in the cafeteria, the first year students returned to their dorms, ready to head out for the field.

"That was a cool thing you did back there," Pyrrha said as he walked out of the dorm, her preparation apparently already complete.

"It wasn't much," he said sincerely, walking next to her with a small smile of content.

"It really was though," she insisted firmly, stopping next to him while trying to find the words to say.

"It's difficult to watch that sort of thing happen," she said, looking at the mostly cleaned off ink stain on her arm, "I have to hold back because there'd be... consequences if I get into an altercation or something... I know it's cowardly of me, but thank you."

Adam looked at her in the same questioning manner he had at the table; something at the back of his mind told him not to speak, but he still felt compelled to.

"There's no need to thank me... and not helping out doesn't make you a coward, Velvet's the only coward in the conversation."

Pyrrha's eyes flashed at her partner with a measure of scandal at his declaration.

"Because she gets bullied?"

"Because she lets them do whatever they want."

"That's an unfair thing to say, she's the victim."

"Who else would I blame?" he asked with a sarcastic smile, "Team FROG doesn't bully everyone, only the ones that don't stand up for themselves. Victims choose that path, because they're too weak to choose otherwise."

"That's an... ungenerous perspective."

"And yours is naive."

"Fair enough," the words broke the pregnant pause that had followed close on the heels of his insult, "Let's gather with the rest."

"That... didn't go well."

"The Blutvesten mines were once a major operation that helped fund the Valean campaign during the Great War," Professor Oobleck began, standing at the mouth of the cave, "But following it, many foreign companies were allowed access to these and many other Valean operations because they could charge a higher tax on foreign enterprises, and Mantle's more advanced technology (and heavier reliance on slaves) made the process cheaper in the long run. This led to some of them being depleted and shut down, but it is altogether considered to have been a successful venture."

"This mine has long been shut down, but I was able to get permission from the tourism board to set this excursion up. Your class is the first to be part of this, and it presents a unique and exciting opportunity for all of you."

The expected reception for this 'unique and exciting opportunity' wasn't there, because the host of the students were having signal issues and instead walking to and fro trying to pick up a stable connection.

The green-haired Professor called their attention back with a small cough and an intimation that this particular trip would account for a large part of their grade.

"Anyway, have fun; collect as many old crystals as you can and meet back up here."

There was a collective murmur of agreement from the students and they used the rickety but sure mine elevators to descend.

Ren beckoned their team through a random tunnel lit sparsely by some fading Dust residue. They walked uniformly, Adam positioned at the head of the group because his night vision would ensure they didn't run into anything unpleasant. Using lamps was an option too, but cave-dwelling Grimm were generally very photosensitive and it therefore wasn't an ideal choice.

The redhead turned backwards, his eyes that glowed an electric blue scanning behind him and for a second, pausing on the Amazon in their group, his eyes quivering slightly when they met hers before turning back.

Me and my big mouth, he thought to himself, as he continued walking.

Despite his expression of regret, he still felt that he hadn't done anything wrong. Within the White Fang, as was the case in most revolutionary political parties, a major pastime of the youth was engaging in debates. As they sharpened and trained their blades, they did the same with their rhetoric. Adam, being one of the youth leaders of the Fang, was a master of such rhetoric and whenever a subordinate or equal (he deferred to the influence of his superiors in order to avoid disrespect) would say a line in casual conversation that could be viewed as contrary to the White Fang's doctrine, or at least his version of it, he would take them to task immediately and try to flatten them in a debate.

That was the unfortunate thing that had happened earlier between him and Pyrrha; his habit of rhetoric had taken possession of him and he could not help but contradict her and inadvertently insult her. Luckily for him though, she had been the mature one and called an end to it before he dug himself an even deeper grave – something he was certain to do, another reason he didn't debate superiors. Still, he felt more remorseful that he couldn't finish the debate than of his behaviour; he was confident in being able to convert her to his way of thinking therefore being a little abrasive was okay.

He heard the sounds of steps coming from a nearby tunnel and signalled the others to raise their arms although he smelled a familiar scent among the incoming company.

"What a coincidence," the snooty voice of the Schnee heiress declared as she shone a bright light directly into the eyes of the red-haired faunus of the other team.

Blake rolled her eyes at this, knowing along with all the others of team RWBY that this was no coincidence.

The heiress had charted this course very intentionally, leading the group through convoluted paths against the advice of the tracker of the group with the apparent attention of arriving here. Blake had at first not understood the singular Atlesian, but after catching Adam's scent, she was able to guess accurately that she was looking once more for the Invincible Girl.

"Yes," Adam replied lowly as he signalled for her to dim her light with a hint of aggression implied in the gesture of his hand. This small gesture caused the white heiress to jump backwards, being more akin to a cat than her teammate in that moment.

This action caused Adam to cock an eyebrow curiously, wondering what could have inspired such a reaction from the usually cocksure Ice Queen. He looked at the smallest member and team leader of their group and found that he had elicited a similar reaction.

What's the matter? He thought to himself as his eyes scanned the tall blonde who seemed unconscious of every single thing around her, not to mention the strange behaviours of her teammates.

Lastly, his eyes inquired from his former partner, knowing that the unusual reactions wouldn't escape someone as perceptive as she was. On the ocular meeting, the bull faunus felt his breath catch suddenly.

Their eyes hadn't met since they walked through the doors of this academy, he had gotten her message and never came looking, the foreignness of this formerly familiar action made him acutely aware of it though. Her eyes weren't any different, not substantially, still as guarded as they had been when he saw that she had decided to leave the Fang. Still, they were now foreign to him; the same subtle look that had passed between them dozens of times during life and death excursions was without accommodation for him. Blake saw it too, and looked away instantly for that reason.

Still, Adam acted naturally as though those copious emotions and thoughts had not journeyed across his consciousness just now but as a result, was unable to catch another uncomfortable reaction from his class rep. On the other hand, Ren noticed all the bizarre reactions with slight curiosity before letting out a sly cough to knock the students out of it.

Weiss was the first to recover, remembering her objective in coming here.

"What a coincidence," she started with an artificial smile that if a comparison were to be made, would most accurately be said to be of the same kind as cheap orange juice – the type that was only orange in colour – painfully sweet and likely served to you by someone with a grudge.

"Since we've run into each other, let's move together. I happen to know the best spots to get old Dust crystals."

Ren was a naturally distrustful person (you didn't survive the continent of Anima any other way), and the coincidence along with the strange behaviour by most of their members (Yang not only acted as usual, but was clueless to the unusual behaviours of her friends too) made him feel uneasy. Still, seeing the amused smile that appeared on the face of his teammate Adam – the only member of their team he'd regard as being more cautious than he was – he felt that there wouldn't be a problem. Besides, he couldn't as well stop them from joining and it would be helpful if they had someone who knew the network well as none in his team had even a vague knowledge of it.

Plus, we could probably take them if it came down to a fight. They had the Invincible Girl after all.

"Sure thing," he said dully, "You can take the van with Adam and give him directions."

The suggestion made Adam's amused smile widen into a grin as the arrangement went as he had expected it would. No one objected, and with Pyrrha and Blake bringing up the rear, the octet set out.

Weiss had somewhat recovered, but now walking in such proximity with the bull faunus, she acquired a doe-like meekness that she had probably never envisaged that she was capable of.

Adam remained amused by this and humoured her, leaning into her whispers as she gave him directions.

Still, what caused the generally cool Ice Queen to freeze up on sight of the red-haired terrorist?

Weiss and Ruby had just followed Adam to Whitey's and covertly hid to ensure that they weren't picked out.

"What could he be doing here?" they asked each other as they watched.

Suddenly, they him attack the trio inside the bar with such speed that it made Ruby wonder if they had the same Semblance. More surprisingly though was the apparent ease that his ferocity was countered with. After another failed attack, it seemed like they were trying to negotiate.

That was when it happened; even from outside, the pair felt the atmosphere grow cold as their classmate took a battle stance.

What is that? Weiss thought, her mind in a measure of terror as she tried to parse together a proper answer to explain what she was witnessing at the moment.

This guy's dangerous.

That was the reason for her and Ruby's bizarre behaviours, although most of their present company were oblivious to it.

"What way next?" Adam asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Um, right."

"Where to next?" Cardin asked as his team made it to the top of a large desert rock.

"That's what we're up here to find out," the dog faunus said as he walked to the edge of the mass, scanning intently for even a suspicion of green across the grey and orange barrenness that dominated his sightline.

He hated this place.

He had been aware of that, it felt to him, for all his life but the realisation struck him anew as he desperately scanned the desert.

He had escaped this place; he'd made his way out of the wastelands of Vacuo to the springs of Vale.

He had left the coarse sands behind.

But he was back now, and he was back because of him.

The dog faunus' green eyes discreetly pierced into his partner and team leader's back, his resentment towards him so intense that he had to clench his fist to avoid doing something stupid.

In the midst of his staring, he noticed something moving above their heads.

Shit!

His internal swearing was caused by the recognition of the Grimm creatures that were now descending towards them, in all likelihood attracted by his negativity.

"We'll have to find another platform to look from," he said ruefully to his teammates, "This one's a bust."

This elicited a visible scowl from everyone; they had spent hours looking for a formation high enough to scout from. The difficulty of the trek was increased by the fact that their Aura had to be perpetually active to reduce dehydration and avoid dying from heat stroke.

As they prepared to get going, Jaune looked up at the approaching Grimm creatures intently and appeared inspired by an idea. He walked up to his partner and whispered into his ear. After one or two of the mute spearman's sparse facial expressions, he seemed to agree with the idea and walked over to the team leader to suggest it.

Cardin didn't seem adverse to it and even smiled with some satisfaction.

Shouter watched his teammates in confusion as they loudly signalled to the aerial Black Creatures and thereby accelerated their descent.

"What's the plan exactly?" he asked as he saw Jaune strip himself of his armour and step onto Feather's Edge. With a touch from Cardin, he felt lighter and was suddenly launched by his partner into the air, colliding with the closest incoming Carthatian Eagle.

Shouter looked on in terror; the Carthatian Eagle was a desert Grimm about twice the size of a full grown man with comparatively weak defence, but a beak and talons that could tear through steel. Throwing a person up there with no armour was akin to a human sacrifice.

"Stop staring," Cardin instructed curtly, his eyes up at the flying Arc, "Aim at them and give him as much help as possible."

I'm an idiot, Jaune thought to himself as he collided with the Grimm's wing, destabilising it for a second before managing to swing and grab hold of its plumage, completing the first part of what was certainly the quickest and most parlous journey he had ever embarked on.

There was no time to celebrate though; he felt the wind split as another Eagle flew towards him, trying to pluck him from the back of the currently struggling one he was on. The blonde warrior ducked suddenly, avoiding the keen-edged and bony talons of the beast although he was unbalanced by the effort. This lack of balance would have ended up with his swift demise from another one who sought to succeed where its prior had failed if not for a well-timed arrow from Shouter below.

Jaune sighed in relief as he held on tighter to the beast that was now forced to fly upwards to avoid the barrage of rounds and arrows aimed at its compeers. Seeing this, Jaune smiled and looked out into the distance.

He looked at his scroll to see how high up he was. He needed to land before he got too high up to be assisted by his teammates, Sky even sent him a reminder at that very moment.

Still, he couldn't leave before spotting a possible water source. After several extended moments of elevation from the Carthatian Eagle, a shock of green caught the warrior's eye far into the distance from the northwest direction.

Bingo!

Jaune was very high up now, so high up that he couldn't hear his teammate shout: "Jaune look out!"

And so, the razor sharp claws of an Eagle dug shallow grooves into his back through his clothes, causing the fourth-generation warrior to fall downwards from the body of the Creature in shock. Unlike most raptorial Grimm, the Carthatian Eagle didn't grab their prey, instead they took chunks out of them with their powerful claws and beaks, like a toddler might out of a birthday cake with their fingers, leaving a mess of the defenceless victim.

This was the intention of the creatures as the blonde descended from the grand height he had been soaring at mere moments ago.

Jaune was vaguely conscious of his fall, although that was quickly remedied by another couple of slashes from the Creatures, turning the shallow grooves into bloody gashes following the shattering of his Aura.

Had he been conscious, the loud whistle of his descent would have occupied his ears up till the very last moment when he crashed into the desert floor.

BANG!

Meanwhile, the two teams were making a fairly uninterrupted journey through the tunnels, although their progression was still slow because they moved cautiously and with respect for the tunnel network's decrepit state.

They walked into a cave that was aglow with many Dust crystals, although of the poorest possible quality. So much was this the case that the Schnee heiress – used to quality Dust products as she was – couldn't help but cringe on looking at them.

"Let's gather samples then," Ren said to the company.

As the group spread out through the cave, Adam made a beeline to Pyrrha, smugly noticing that he had thwarted the Ice Queen and gotten to her first.

"Hey there," he said shyly, pulling out a red crystal from the wall and presenting her with it, "Still mad at me?"

The class rep initially ignored him, minding her own work and trying to get a presentable crystal, but as a result of his intense gaze, she turned and gave him a once over before sighing tiredly.

"I'm not mad at you," she whispered, once again facing her work.

"Then...?"

"It's..."

Later, when Adam would be asked how he knew something was coming, he wouldn't be able to answer for two reasons.

The first was that he couldn't explain it; intuition was too strong a word but still that would be what best covered it. He felt something deeply, persistently droning like a mosquito in his peripheral so unrelenting that it ended up taking his entire field of vision.

The last thing he heard before the explosion was a tiny quaver, like a string being snapped.

BANG!

Notes: Long time no see, writer's block and all that, but I had fun with this chapter, I hope you did too. Feedback is great as always, thanks a bunch!