This party's about to get crazy! Time to rock!
So I may have been playing a lot of Devil May Cry lately, and that may have had a small influence.
"This is so insane! We could be sleeping in our room right now, having the most relaxing day ever, but look where we're at now!"
Indeed, Summer did have to agree with Raven on that. There are very few things she'd rather be doing other than getting some sleep right now and being on the back of a Giant Nevermore a thousand feet in the air was not one of them. Still though…
"Quit bitching Raven!" Summer shouted at her partner over the wind. "You can either do that, or you can help kill this thing! Which one do you want?"
"Can I do both?"
"Just go stab its eyes! If it can't see it'll have to land and we can kill it easier! I'll take the right side and you get the left ok?" Raven gave a thumbs up and started climbing slowly toward the Nevermore's head while Summer climbed across its back. The Nevermore turned sharply to the right, shaking Summer around a little though she managed to maintain her grip on its feathers. She swallowed dryly when she looked down at the forest far below her before she spun around and focused on slowly climbing.
After a moment the Nevermore straightened out and Summer managed to make the last jump over to the Grimm's head and grabbed onto the bone crest on its face. She looked back to see Raven had only gotten to its neck and moved in front of the only eye left on its right side, which narrowed when it saw her.
'Ok, that actually is really creepy,' she thought as it narrowed further, her own image reflected in the black parts of the eye.. 'Just what is causing it?' That soon became the last worry on her mind when the Nevermore screeched and tucked its wings in to go into a spin. Summer gave a yelp as it spun fast enough for her to lose her footing and she found herself once again hanging over the forest with only her own grip keeping her from falling. Due to the spin once the Nevermore straightened itself and put its wings out again, Summer was lying against its beak back first. She lost her grip for just a moment right when the Grimm thrashed its head around sending her into the air.
Time slowed for her as she hung in the air and found herself staring down the gullet of the Nevermore, its beak coming closer to biting down on her, and she glanced at a wide eyed Raven right before she Blinked to her left. Time returned to normal as the Grimm bit down on nothing and Summer passed right over the wing she had been climbing on seconds earlier. She tried to grab for some feathers, but all of them slipped through her fingers and she found herself falling away.
"Summer!" Raven shouted as she reached futilely for Summer as she fell away screaming. She clenched a fist after a second and turned back to the Nevermore's head. "I'm going to hurt you for that!"
Far away from the drama in the air, yet not too far away at the same time, a pair of initiates found their way to the ruins they were told about and the one who had placed himself in the leadership role of the pair entered and looked around at the relics surrounding him.
"See, I told you it'd be easy!" said one Cardin Winchester, a rather muscular Huntsman adorned in ornate armor who wielded a mace, as he walked over to the black bishop and took it for himself. "Not even any of those monsters gave us trouble, like they ever could."
"When you're right, you're right," Dove Bronzewing, a slightly smaller boy in similar armor with a gun blade, nodded in reply as Cardin walked back over to him putting the bishop away in his armor. "So do we head back?"
"Uh, no duh! I don't want to stick around any longer than I have to!" Cardin said with no small amount of irritation. "If we do, some dumb crap will probably happen to drag us into something silly. No thank you."
"That makes sense. I don't really want to-" Dove stopped and looked around in confusion, "Do you hear that Cardin?"
"No, I don't hear anything."
"Really, it sounds like screaming." Dove finally looked up and nodded slowly pointed upwards, "Oh, that would be it." Cardin cocked an eyebrow at his partner before following the finger up.
'I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!' were the rather eloquent thoughts that were going through Summer's mind as she fell to the ground, thought he vocalizations was the much less eloquent "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" As the forest floor came up to meet her time once again slowed for her in what would probably be her final moments when something slammed into her side, sending her sideways and back first into a tree. Her Aura flared up to take the worst of the hit, though Summer was still fairly dazed as was to be expected.
"Ow… what hit me?" Summer muttered before shaking the crows and ravens out of her vision and pushed her hood down to find Jaune hanging upside down next to her.
"Hi Summer," he said waving at her before letting his arms hang again.
"…Hi Jaune. Was that you who just saved my life?"
"Sure, I'll take credit for that if you help me down." Summer laughed a little and stood up to grab Jaune's sweatshirt.
"That girl just fell out of the sky," Dove said pointing at the tree.
"Yeah, I have eyes dumbass," Cardin replied in annoyance, "And this is what I meant! Now something else will-"
An explosion rocked the nearby forest, leaving Cardin to groan as an Ursa came out of the tree line swinging before dropping dead with Nora rolling over its head and onto the forest floor. "Aw, I broke it," she said looking back at the Ursa and an exhausted Ren climbing off of it.
"Nora, let's not do this again," he said looking only to find Nora gone, which he could only sigh at and start walking to the Ruins.
"I'm Queen of the castle!" Cardin and Dove blinked and looked behind them to find Nora dancing happily one of the pedestals with one of the white Rooks on her head.
"Did she ride all the way here on an Ursa?" Cardin looked over at Summer, who had managed to get herself and Jaune down to the ground.
"Forget that, how did she get past me without me seeing her?!" was Cardin's question, which was quickly replaced by "Who's screaming now?" The assembled students looked behind them to find a blonde boy running for his life out of the trees.
"Summer!" he screamed when he saw the white clad girl and immediately changed course towards her.
"Tai?" Summer replied just as Taiyang dove for her and grabbed onto her right leg. 'Is he crying?!'
"Summer, save me! It's big and ugly and oh god I don't want to get bit by it!" Taiyang squeezed Summer's leg harder and kept repeating "Save me!" to her over and over.
"Tai, get off me!" Summer said trying to push her blonde teammate off of her.
"Nora, get off of him!" Ren said looking above Cardin, who looked up to see Nora looking down at him having somehow gotten on top of his shoulders.
"Get off of me!" Cardin shouted moving backwards, leaving Nora to front flip into Ren's arms, who caught her bridal style. "You people are crazy! I swear if one more crazy thing happens I'm just going to-" there was a crashing of trees and Cardin could only sigh as everyone turned to see Qrow and Pyrrha running out of the woods followed by a Giant Deathstalker right behind them.
"Oh god, it's here!" Taiyang shouted and hugged Summer's leg tighter, the girl giving a small sigh of understanding before continuing to push Taiyang off her leg again.
"…I'm leaving. Have fun with all of that," Cardin said before walking off into the woods away from the Deathstalker.
"Uh, but Cardin…?" Dove started.
"You know what, you should listen to your partner," Summer said calmly, "I can tell already that you two would just be a liability. Unless you want to be Deathstalker food, just go." At that moment the Deathstalker hit Qrow out of its path, launching him over to the group where he slid to a stop on his back, and continued chasing Pyrrha though the field. "So?"
"…You don't have to tell me twice," Dove said and ran after Cardin, calling after him as he went.
"Well that's one less problem," Summer said once Dove was gone and looked over at Qrow getting up and brushing himself off. "Anyway, how are you doing Qrow? Still alive?"
"I just got slapped by a Deathstalker," he said simply with a shrug, "I could be better, but it could still be way worse."
"I know the feeling, I fell off a Nevermore. Can you help get your boyfriend off my leg?" Summer pointed down at a still terrified Taiyang and Qrow sighed as he walked over and started working Taiyang off of Summer.
"I thought you were over this scorpion thing Tai," he said once he managed to get Taiyang loosened enough for Summer to slip her leg out of.
"No Qrow, I'm not over it! And even if I was I'd still run from that giant bastard!"
Qrow looked over at the Giant Deathstalker, still chasing Pyrrha, and shrugged and said, "Yeah fair enough. I ran after all. Which reminds me, where's Raven?"
"Well, she was on the Nevermore with me, so she's-"
"That Nevermore?" Nora asked pointing up while miming a telescope with her other hand. Summer looked up and nodded when she saw the Nevermore that had been dogging her all day thrashing its head and flying erratically.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"You were on that thing?!" Jaune said worriedly.
"Yeah, and its been pissing me off all day long. I think we're close to getting it though."
"Help me!" Pyrrha shouted at the group after ducking a swipe from the Deathstalker.
"You're doing great Pyrrha, we almost got a plan worked out! Remember, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth!"
"And don't let it bite you!" Taiyang offered, "Deathstalker venom can kill in five seconds!"
"That's not even remotely true," Qrow said shaking his head, "And I would think the stinger itself would kill you faster than the venom."
"Shut up Qrow, you don't know anything!"
Suddenly the Nevermore screeched and thrashed around just as a portal opened next to the group and Raven came tumbling out of it and hit the ground roughly.
"You fucker!" she shouted sitting up and looked around before her gaze landed on Summer. "Oh, you're alive Summer."
"Yeah, thanks to Jaune," Summer said motioning at Jaune, who gave a bashful laugh and scratched his cheek.
"Wish I had known that a minute earlier," Raven pushed herself up to her feet and brushed herself off. "Well whatever. I took care of its eyes on the left side by the way, so it's almost totally blind by now."
"Finally some good news. After that we have to deal with that Deathstalker." Summer pointed out to the field where the Deathstalker was still chasing Pyrrha, at least until she was knocked through the air and landed on Jaune. "Which will be a problem. Welcome back Pyrrha, how did you do against that?"
"Poorly," Pyrrha replied getting up slowly while Jaune crawled out form under her.
"That's ok, as long as you learned from the experience."
"Yeah, too bad we're going to die here. They're both coming this way," Taiyang said pointing at the rapidly approaching Deathstalker while the Nevermore circled in the air.
"Oh for- fine, I'll buy some time," Summer sighed and started walking to the middle of the field. "Seriously, I have to do everything myself sometimes."
"H-hey, where are you going?!" Pyrrha said shaking some of the stars out of her eyes, "It's too da-"
"Now hold on, I want to see where she's going with this," Raven said crossing her arms behind her head and looked up at the Nevermore.
"Alright, this is starting to get irritating," Ruby muttered looking though the Nevermore's crippled eyesight. She had tried to get into the Deathstalker's mind, but the thing's core was so deteriorated and rotten that Ruby wasn't sure if it wouldn't attack her if it saw her. "Whatever, as long as it ends up doing what I want I don't care. And as for you," she turned her attention back to the Nevermore, "If you can't see the right Huntress, then just kill everyone you can see. I really don't care anymore, I'm sure you'll get her."
"Uh oh," Raven said once she saw the Nevermore rearing back to attack, "Uh, Summer…!"
"I see it," Summer shouted back and started running toward the Deathstalker. Not that that helped everyone else once the Nevermore fired its feathers down at them.
"Everyone get to cover!" Taiyang shouted shoving Jaune and Pyrrha into a sprint toward the ruins and they barely managed to get into them just as the first of the feathers crashed where they had been, sending the less sure footed members of the group flying (which was really just Jaune and Nora, though the latter at least seemed to enjoy the short flight.) The bombardment didn't last long as the feathers started to follow Summer as she and the Deathstalker charged at each other.
"Oh, don't tell me she's-" Qrow said peeking out from behind a feather.
"-Gonna die!" Jaune finished just as the Deathstalker reached Summer and reared a pincer back and threw it at Summer. She ducked under it and Blinked underneath the Deathstalker, which chittered a little and started to walk backwards to find its prey.
Or it would have if it hadn't gotten pinned by Nevermore feathers; one going through the left pincer, two going through a leg on either side, and several more embedding themselves around it.
"…Oops."
"Oh shit, Summer!" Taiyang shouted as the Deathstalker roared and struggled against the feathers impaled in it. "Is she ok?!"
"Is she- what about us?!" Jaune shouted outraged and banged a fist against the closest Nevermore feather, "we get attacked by a giant bird and we don't even get a passing concern?!"
"Are you dead?" Qrow asked.
"Well…" Jaune faltered and looked behind him at Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora picking themselves up off the ground, "…No."
"Then you're fine, stop bitching. Meanwhile Summer is-"
"Completely ok," Nora interrupted pointing over at the Deathstalker, more specifically the shape of white that emerged from behind it and kept a fair distance from its stinger. "What are the odds huh?"
"…Yeah." 'Why are we only lucky when we spit death in the face?' Qrow looked at Raven, who rolled her eyes with a shrug and snapped her fingers to open a portal, which Summer walked out of a second later.
"Thank you Rae," Summer said nodding to the brunette and tugged on the hem of her hood, "but we're still in some deep trouble. That Deathstalker isn't going to be pinned forever; a few minutes at best."
"Raven's right you know," Taiyang added keeping an eye on the Deathstalker, "You are insane. Why do you always charge things like that?!"
"Because I know I can get out of it, and it's not like you were coming up with a way to stop the fast armored Grimm Taiyang!" The screech of the Nevermore brought them out of the brewing argument and everyone looked up at the bird circling the clearing.
"That's coming around for another pass," Jaune said nervously, "H-how are we going to fight that?"
"I don't think any of us can," Pyrrha answered gripping her javelin tightly.
"Which is convenient because we're not going to," Summer said crossing her arms. "Nobody on my team can fight it and you all don't need to fight it at all. You just need to get a relic and leave the forest."
"So… you're suggesting we run and live?" Jaune asked hopefully and smiled when Summer nodded. "Yeah, I can live with that. So… did you get a relic?" Jaune asked looking at Pyrrha, who gave him the flattest look she could. "Right… I'll be right back."
While Jaune jogged to get a relic from the ruins Summer looked at the other pair of first years and asked, "What about you, did you get what you need?"
"You say something?" Nora asked back, having just finished balancing the Rook on Ren's head.
"We're alright," Ren replied.
"Ok, good to know," Summer nodded.
"Wait, are we taking them with us?" Qrow asked.
"As opposed to leaving them to the Grimm? I don't think so; it's our fault that the Nevermore found them in the first place, and we don't know if it'll go after them if it loses us. So we're going to get them out."
"Sure thing boss. At the very least they look like they can handle themselves."
"Got one!" Jaune shouted returning to the group putting something in his pouch.
"…Well, most of them at least."
"Need I remind you that you didn't look that impressive when we first met?" Summer asked and waved a hand as she turned to the first years, "Hell, you're still don't look all that impressive." Qrow could only roll his eyes at the ribbing. "So are you all ready to go?" Summer asked just as the Deathstalker roared and managed to wrench its pincer free with a sickening crunch.
"Yes, it's about time we left," Ren nodded.
"Right, my team will lead the way and you all follow behind. Got it?" Everyone nodded and Raven and Qrow started leading the way back at a run, with Taiyang taking the long way around to avoid the Deathstalker. Nora and Ren followed after them (Nora apparently decided Taiyang's way was the more fun of the two) leaving Summer with a fairly worried Jaune and Pyrrha. "Don't worry, everything will be alright."
"Yeah, but this is kind of a lot to take in," Jaune said, "It's just our first day after all."
"Heh, you think this is bad, you should have seen my first day. This is nothing."
"Um, are you sure you should be helping us?" Pyrrha asked, "The way you were talking earlier it sounded like-"
"I could get in trouble? Maybe, but it's too late to worry about that now and I don't care anyway." Summer grabbed her hood and lifted it over her head, just as a stray gust blew her cloak around behind her, "Just stick close to me and you'll make it through this. I promise. We better get going now." Summer nodded to the pair and started running to follow her friends. Jaune and Pyrrha watched her for a moment until Jaune chuckled.
"That was kind of cool," he said simply and started running. Pyrrha watched Summer for another moment, a tiny bell ringing in her head, and ran after him as well.
The mad dash through the forest to the cliffs was more or less uneventful, save for the occasional detour the point men of the group had to take to deal with some minor Grimm along the way. Raven couldn't help but smirk at how Lie Ren could handle himself both with and without his weapons. The two of them slowed down when they reached the last line of trees before the ravine at the bottom of Beacon Cliffs and the towering ruins of an old watch tower jutting out from it.
And then there was the Giant Nevermore perched on the tower.
"That's not good," Ren said staring at the Grimm from behind a tree.
"Especially since that's the closest way up," Raven added. 'At least not without me using that to get to the top.' Raven thought for a moment before shaking her head and looking at Ren to ask, "I don't suppose you have some magic bullet Semblance to get past that?"
"…I can mask my emotions from Grimm, making me invisible to them," Ren answered glancing at Raven and back at the Nevermore, "and I can extend that to another person, but…"
"Too many Grimm and not enough time for it to be a surefire way out for everyone?"
"Yes."
"Well, good to know at least. We'll have to find another way then." The sound of footsteps drew the pair's attention and they looked back at Qrow and the others ran up to them, the former only sighing when he saw the Nevermore.
"What's going on?" Summer asked stopping next to Qrow, "why are- oh. Goddammit."
"There's… no way past that, is there?" Jaune asked nervously.
"Normally yes, but Raven made sure it could only see out of one eye right now. We might be able to sneak past it if we-"
"Move along the pillars on either side?" Summer stopped short and turned to stare at Jaune along with most everyone else. "I mean, they are the only cover between us and the bridge. If we're careful and only move when that thing isn't looking at us, we… might…" Jaune paused when he noticed how everyone was staring at him and rubbed his arm. "…Dumb idea?"
"No actually, that's what I was going to say. Slow and steady wins the race in this case," Summer answered with a small smile before turning back to the clearing in front of them. Only Pyrrha noticed the small blush on Jaune's face after that. "My team will go right, you guys go left, and we'll move forward in pairs one pillar at a time. That sound good?" Everyone made their own noise of agreement save for Taiyang.
"And what about the Deathstalker?" he asked looking behind him, "We did just… kind of leave it there."
"If it shows up, we'll improvise Tai."
"I hate when she says that," Tai whispered.
"Come on, let's go." Summer waved everyone forward and ran out of the forest, with her team going right and the others going left. Just as discussed they slowly edged toward the bridge pillar by pillar until they were about halfway to the bridge. That's when they heard a distant rumbling coming from behind them.
"Oh god, please be an earthquake," Taiyang said quietly, getting a glare from Raven next to him. Still everyone turned to see the Giant Deathstalker crash out of the woods, missing the large half of its pincer as well as both legs that had been pinned earlier. It roared once it saw the group of students and charged as fast as its remaining legs could carry it. "Oh screw that!"
"What he said, run!" Everyone bolted from cover at Jaune's cry and made a mad sprint for the bridge, where the Nevermore spotted them and started shooting feathers down at them from on top of its perch.
"Nora!" Ren shouted jumping over a feather.
"On it!" the girl shouted back rolling under another feather and pulling her weapon off her waist, unfolding it into a grenade launcher and fired three shots at the Nevermore. One hit a feather in midair, which deflected it away from hitting Qrow, and the last two sailed right to the Grimm's head, detonating close enough to it that it was forced to take flight.
'Well that would have been nice to know beforehand!' Summer thought mentally as she jumped the steps down onto the bridge and drew Soleil, switching it to a handgun and aiming down at the Deathstalker just as Pyrrha stopped next to her and aimed her rifle. The two girls opened fire, only really annoying the armored Grimm but stalled it for at least a few seconds for the others to make it to the bridge before following.
"Yes, home free baby!" Taiyang shouted once they were halfway across the bridge, thankful that the Deathstalker wasn't following them, though that was quickly followed with "Aw fuck!" when he saw the Nevermore dive bomb the bridge and smash it half. The group was thrown in either direction from the attack; Qrow, Jaune, Raven, Taiyang, and Nora on the tower side while Pyrrha, Summer, and Ren were suddenly closer to the Deathstalker than they wanted.
"Oh no," Jaune said looking across the chasm as their separated friends started fighting with the Deathstalker in a flurry of gunshots and sword strikes. He looked back at Qrow and Nora firing at the retreating Nevermore while Taiyang and Raven watched carefully. "Uh guys, they need help," he said pointing to the other side.
"Good idea," Taiyang said narrowing his eyes at the Deathstalker, "why don't you take care of that! We'll… hold down the fort!"
"You baby!" Nora chastised and walked over to Jaune, "come on Vomit Boy, let's take care of this!"
"How did you-?! I mean, I can't jump that far!" Nora responded by smirking at him and pushing him down before spinning her weapon around to turn it into a hammer and running to the broken half of their bridge. "Oh crap," Jaune said once realized what Nora was planning just a she dropped the hammer.
"Goddamn armor!" Summer shouted swinging York at the Deathstalker's damaged pincer, only to get deflected and knocked back just as Ren charged. "Ugh, this is such a mismatched fight!"
"Any ideas?" Pyrrha asked firing a few rounds at the Grimm's eyes. Summer tapped York against her boot in thought for a moment before sighing.
"It's underside isn't armored, but there's too little room to effectively attack and forget actually getting there. Our best bet would be to get through its armor somehow, but I don't-" Summer was suddenly knocked forward by a screaming Jaune, though that was soon overshadowed when Nora zoomed overhead with a shout of 'Banzai!' and smashed the Deathstalker in the head with her hammer.
The sudden damage caused the Deathstalker to thrash around and one of its pincers crashed into Summer and knocked her backwards into the ravine. She screamed "You assholes!" just as she twisted in the air and Blinked toward the tower, placing her feet on the stone and Blinking upward again to build some momentum to run up the wall. After a short spring up she saw the bridge where her team was and jumped off, doing a front flip and landing in a roll next to Qrow.
"The damn thing's hide is too thick," Qrow reported and started to reload his weapon, "I landed a couple of shots and it didn't do anything."
"And it's moving too fast for melee, which might just be our only option right now," Summer concluded looking down at her handgun and over at the first years across the ravine, "And we can't exactly do that with them here."
"It's coming back!" Taiyang shouted pointing at the circling Nevermore that was angling its head at them.
"Oh for- Tai, Raven, get to cover! Qrow and I will do what we can out here!"
"So jack and shit?" Qrow said having finished reloading and aimed at the Nevermore, "Can do."
"Shut up and shoot." Qrow shrugged and did just that, opening fire with Summer while Taiyang and Raven ran to take shelter in the ruined watchtower. Most of the shots went wide, though a few managed to hit the Nevermore's head which caused it to screech and turn to its attackers. Qrow and Summer only managed to get a few more shots off before they dove to the ground when the Nevermore dove at them and crashed through the watchtower.
"Tai, Raven!" Summer called out just as the two ran out of the watchtower, with Taiyang managing to punch one of the smaller pieces of debris that was coming toward them. It cracked and shattered under the force and left Taiyang shaking his hand and the two shot Summer a small glare. "Ok, I didn't know it would do that, but you're more than welcome to a punch later."
"I'll deck you later," Raven said turning her glare to the Nevermore, "that prick is really starting to piss me off."
"You saw that right?" Qrow said picking himself up and pointed at the Grimm, "It turned and dove in the direction of an attack. Our bullets can't hurt it, but it can definitely feel them."
"Maybe it's compensating for its bad eye sight?" Taiyang wondered massaging his forearm.
"Think we can use that Sum?" Summer planted York in the ground point first and watched the Nevermore for a second before looking at what was left of the watchtower, or rather the bridge behind it and the large cliff beyond that.
"Probably," Summer answered with a nod, "I do have an idea, but that really depends on two things." She checked to see if her teammates were listening before she continued, "One: How much can Tai lift with his Semblance at full blast?"
"Hey, I managed to lift that Goliath tusk, didn't I?" Tai said annoyed until Summer gave him a look and his eyes widened. "But yeah," he continued looking at the Nevermore, "I can lift a lot. Or pull down a lot with the right angle."
"I'll give you one. And two: that spinning move you're so fond of Qrow, how well can you control it?"
"Not very well once I'm going," Qrow answered tapping the handle of Harbinger, "But like Tai said, the right angle can make all the difference."
"Then this will work. It'll require a bit of setup, but we can do this." Summer sheathed York and ejected the magazine in Soleil and replaced it with the right kind of Dust rounds before handing it over to Raven. "You'll know what to do Rae," she said once her partner had taken the gun from her and clapped her hands. "Alright, here's my plan. First, Qrow needs to get out of sight and-"
Jaune and company were having similar trouble with the Deathstalker, not at all helped by the continuously crumbling bridge and the fact the only exit was past the Deathstalker. Still, they weren't doing to bad all things considered. Jaune certainly didn't let it show, but he was really excited when he managed to block one of the Deathstalker's pincers without getting knocked on his ass.
At the moment he and Pyrrha were keeping the Grimm's pincers busy, a block her and a sword swipe there, while Ren had managed to run up and grab onto its stinger and empty an entire magazine to where it connected to the tail. Nora was doing an amazing job lobbing grenades at the Grimm's face, which may have broken through its armor eventually if it hadn't lashed out and knocked Jaune and Pyrrha back to guard its face. Pyrrha managed a perfect javelin throw into one of its eyes just as Ren got knocked off into a nearby pillar.
Jaune noticed how lose the glowing stinger was on the tail and felt a flash of inspiration. "Get though it's armor! Pyrrha!"
"Done!" she shouted and threw her shield at the stinger, hitting it dead on and knocking it point down into its body.
'Yes!' Jaune mentally cheered just as Pyrrha caught her shield and looked back at Nora and shouted, "Nail it!"
"Heads up!" Nora called and jumped on top of Pyrrha's ready shield and blasted herself up into the air. The next few second were admittedly a blur for him, though he did realize Nora did indeed 'nail it' and drove the stinger into the Deathstalker's head. Destroying the bridge and sending him and Pyrrha flying through the air was just a side effect that he would forgive her of once he had his senses back and realized he was face first on solid ground, alive, and relatively safe.
"That was fun," Nora said once Jaune pushed himself into a kneeling position and saw Pyrrha was the only one actually still standing.
'Man, she's tough.'
"Pyrrha!" Jaune perked up and looked at the direction of the shout, finding Summer on top of a ruined pillar waving her arms. "I need to borrow your rifle! Hurry!"
"O-ok, just a second!" Pyrrha shouted back and quickly turned Miló into a rifle to reload it. Once that was done she did the same spinning throw she did earlier to catch Jaune to throw Miló over to Summer, which embedded itself in the stone of the pillar just under her.
Summer knelt down and yanked Miló out of the stone and changed it into a rifle. 'Control your breathing,' she thought aiming the rifle up and followed the Nevermore as it circled, 'You'll only get one chance at this.' She waited until it was in the right position, breathed out, and squeezed the trigger. The crack of the rifle was rewarded with the cry of the Nevermore as it turned toward her. Summer kept firing at it, if only to keep it on the right path, and stood up and backed up a little. The closer it got, the further she went, until she was at the edge. Once it was close enough to fly over Jaune' group Summer leapt backward and fired one more hot before she fell.
Right into one of Raven's portals which closed behind her.
"Ragh!" Taiyang shouted jumping up and landing an Aura enhanced uppercut right on the Nevermore's chin and grabbed a feather on its neck, knocking its head up and dragging Taiyang up with it. The glow on his arm grew brighter until it looked like it was on fire and, with one more shout, yanked the Nevermore's down and threw it down toward the bridge. The bird monster flipped forward and landed on the bridge on its back and continued forward just as Taiyang landed and held his other arm out to Raven.
The Brunette grabbed the hand and planted her feet on a pillar, her other hand ready on her sheath, and braced herself as Taiyang's arm glowed and he threw her toward the Nevermore with a shout. Raven moved her hand to her sword as she flew and, once the Nevermore had bounced up from its second landing, pulled the trigger and cut off the Grimm's left wing with one slice and flew past it.
She flipped in midair and pushed as much Aura as she could into her legs as she landed on the cliff wall, which formed a small crater in the wall, and pushed off it with a grunt back toward the Nevermore and sliced off its other wing. She sheathed her sword as she flew past the Nevermore and held a hand out to her side, which Taiyang caught and spun her in a circle a few times to slow her down until she was running alongside him.
"Go, GO!" Taiyang shouted and let Raven go, putting a hand on her back to give her a little push back toward the Nevermore that had crashed against the cliff face and turned to face her. It hopped onto the bridge as Raven pressed a switch on her switch as she ran and, after a number of clicks that she had long ago memorized, let it go and put got ready for another shot. Her eyes narrowed as the Nevermore screeched and lunged at her and she side stepped to the left and fired her sword. The blade, now colored blue from Ice Dust, shot out and hit the Nevermore's head and shattered into a cloud of Dust. Raven then drew Soleil and skidded to a stop under the Nevermore and fired an Ice round at the Nevermore's head, which caused a reaction in the cloud and forced it to solidify into a solid ice crystal trapping the Nevermore.
"Now for step 3," she whispered and opened a portal to Taiyang and leapt through it the moment she could.
"Why do we have to always be ambitious and over the top?" Qrow wondered as he watched from the cliff top what was going on down on the bridge. "Seriously, every single time."
"Ambitious works for us," Summer replied securing Miló to her belt, "It always has in the past at least."
"Hey, I'm not complaining. Just, you know, casual observation." The Nevermore's head got encased in ice and Qrow took a deep breath as the monster struggled to break free. "Guess that's our cue. You sure about this?"
"Yeah," Summer answered and held a hand out to Qrow as petals started lifting off of her cloak, "Trust me?" Qrow chuckled and grabbed the hand.
"Always." Summer returned the smile before they ran and jumped off the cliff. They blinked higher into the air and Qrow started firing behind him to get a spin going. Summer meanwhile focused on where the Nevermore was and charged her Blink one more time as they spun faster and faster. The petals that floated off of her were scattered all around them until Summer finally Blinked toward the Nevermore and threw Qrow toward it at the same time.
Once Qrow felt Summer let him go he hit the switch on Harbinger's handle turning the sword into a scythe and fired one more time to keep the spin going as he shot toward the Nevermore with a wake of petals behind him. He screamed loudly as he grasped the scythe handle and gave one last attempt at a swing as he passed over it, hooking the blade underneath the Grimm's neck and letting momentum carry the blade through the neck and decapitate it cleanly. In the split second Qrow could see that he succeeded he angled his body and fired another shot so his scythe blade slammed into the cliff, which left him screaming for a different reason as he stopped spinning and found himself sliding along the wall with the blade leaving a deep trench in the rock.
He couldn't have been more happy when the blade finally caught and he stopped, even if he nearly lost his grip on the handle. He took several deep breaths as he hung over the ravine and looked up to see how Summer got along.
Not too well as it turned out, since she was now in a free fall and exhausted from using her Semblance so much. She barely had enough in her for one more small Blink and she was sure that wouldn't be enough this time. Then she saw one of Raven's portals open up and Taiyang leap out in the same instance, managing to catch her with a small "Gotcha!" The small front flip didn't help with her orientation, but she was now slow enough to be able to make that Blink, so she grabbed onto Taiyang's shirt and Blinked down to the bridge where Taiyang managed to stick the landing carrying her bridal style.
They stood like that for a moment until Taiyang set her down on her feet gently and he took a deep breath. "You certainly know how to give us a workout Sum," he said shaking his arms out and looking back at the Nevermore as its body slowly tilted over and fell off the bridge, leaving its head right where it had been frozen.
"I suppose," Summer replied with a small laugh and walked over to the edge to look for Qrow. Once she found him standing on Harbinger on the cliff face she touched her fingertips over her head to form a circle, 'Are you ok?' being the gestured question. After a moment Qrow made the same gesture, 'I'm ok,' and pointed up to the cliff top. Summer dropped her arms for a second before repeating the circle gesture and watched as Qrow pulled Harbinger out of the cliff and start on the long climb up.
Once she saw he was on his way Summer let out a held breath and leaned over to put her hands on her knees. "Holy shit, I can't believe that worked!"
"Oh, now you tell us that!" Summer looked back at Raven holding Soleil out to her. Summer took it and holstered it and looked back to find Raven smirking at her and holding up both hands. "Put that in the books." Summer smiled and held her hands out palm up for Raven to slam her down on, repeating the reverse afterwards and finishing with a double fist slam.
"It's history now!" Summer finished along with a shout and jump of joy. "Oh right!" she said once she remembered the first years and jogged over to the watchtower. Once she got close enough to see the first years and called out to them, "Hey, are you guys ok?"
'Ok' would turn out to be an understatement for the four of them, as would 'utterly speechless'. Once they had managed to process what happened and realized Summer was calling to them, they finally managed to pick their jaws off the floor.
"Wow," was all Jaune could say to properly articulate his thoughts.
"You can say that again," Ren said calmly, though only Nora could tell there was any difference in his demeanor.
"Wow," Nora answered one finger away from dropping her weapon to the ground.
"…Thank you Nora."
"Wait… are they really…?" Pyrrha whispered and Jaune looked over to see her counting her fingers. "Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven and Qrow Branwen… how do you spell Qrow's name?"
"With a Q," Nora answered.
"Oh ok… wait, how do you know that? Did you ask him?" Pyrrha turned to Nora, only to see the shorter girl shrug.
"Well, they're Team STRQ, so that only makes sense for his name to have a Q. Right Ren?"
"Oh, that's what that is," Ren answered with a nod, "I was wondering why they seemed familiar. You're right Nora."
"Team St- the Team STRQ?! A-are you serious?!" Pyrrha tried to control her breathing and failed.
"Unless there's another Team STRQ here, which I'm pretty sure there isn't, yeah I am serious." There was a small crack and Jaune saw Pyrrha's javelin land point first about a foot in front of her. "Oh look, she gave you your weapon back!"
"We… we…" Pyrrha muttered looking back at Jaune, her pupils narrowed to a dangerous degree.
"Don't look at me, I don't know who they are," Jaune said holding his hands up. Pyrrha looked between Jaune's confused face, Nora's happy one, and where Summer was standing until the reality finally set in for her. She could only shout one thing in response.
"WE'RE GOING TO THE SAME SCHOOL AS TEAM STRQ?!"
Summer stared at the group as Pyrrha's shout echoed through the air and turned back to Raven and Taiyang. "I think they'll be alright," she said gesturing back to them.
"Yeah, I think so too," Taiyang agreed and watched Pyrrha either have a major geek out or a panic attack on the other side of the ravine. "So what are we going to do about them? Do you… want to bring them over?"
"Normally I would say yes, but they are still in the middle of their initiation. They have to get to the top of the cliffs by themselves and, as good upperclassmen to them, it would be improper for us to help them accomplish this important task. They need to learn how to do things for themselves."
"And the Nevermore?" Raven asked crossing her arms behind her head.
"That was our fault they got involved in that. It was up to us to get them out of that jam and now they're out of it," Summer said motioning back to where the Nevermore used to be. "We might already be in trouble for helping them this much, why make it worse?"
"That makes sense to me."
"And what's the real reason for this attitude?" Taiyang asked.
"I may still me ever so slightly salty about them knocking me off the cliff earlier," Summer admitted making a small pinch with her fingers.
"There it is," Taiyang sighed and shrugged, "Well whatever, I can't exactly argue with your other points." Suddenly a scroll beeped and Raven pulled hers out and opened it.
"Well that's good timing, Qrow just reached the top. Time to go then?" Summer nodded and Raven put her scroll away and snapped her fingers to open a portal and walked though it with Taiyang right behind her.
Summer walked over to the portal and turned around to shout "Sorry!" to Jaune's group before going through the portal.
"They just left us down here didn't they?" Jaune asked the obvious question looking flatly at where Summer used to be standing as the portal closed.
"Yep," Nora answered popping the p.
"Well, I can understand. We are still in the middle of initiation," Ren said pointing at the tops of the cliffs. "We'll only be done once we're at the top of those cliffs."
"So, we're somehow have to get across the broken bridge over a sheer drop and up a cliff that's easily a hundred feet at least, and they're not going to help us at all," Jaune summed up.
"Yep," Nora answered again.
"Huh, what are we doing?" Pyrrha asked having come out of 'geek out' mode.
"Trying to get up the cliffs."
"Oh… ok." The group was quiet for a moment until Jaune looked at Nora.
"Hey Nora, you seem pretty strong. How much can you lift?" he asked, to which Nora grinned widely.
Qrow had just sent the message to Raven and waited for the portal to open up, which it did after a couple of seconds and waved at his team as they stepped through. "Hey, are you guy's ok?" he asked before flinching back when Summer leapt at him and dragged him down a little with her arms around his neck.
"Qrow, you absolute badass! That was amazing!" Summer shouted and hugged Qrow tighter. "I won't bring up that sniper scythe thing again after that!"
"Yeah, great job man!" Taiyang said wrapping an arm around Qrow's shoulders. "You finally got some bragging rights of our own."
"Alright, that's enough of that," Qrow pushed Taiyang and Summer off of him, which left him open to a playful punch from Raven.
"I knew you had it in you," she said with a smirk.
"Ok, seriously, all the praise is going to go to my head." Qrow rubbed the back of his neck and looked around a little and asked, "You didn't bring the kids with you?"
"Summer's mad at them, so-"
"SHUT UP RAVEN!" Raven couldn't help but chuckle at Summer's shout and watched the smaller girl clear her throat and add, "What she means to say is they don't need our help. I think they managed to kill that Deathstalker on their own, so they can climb a cliff easy. I wouldn't worry about them."
"Ahem!" All four members of Team STRQ froze at the very familiar voice clearing her throat and turned to find an irate Glynda Goodwitch watching them with her arms crossed and Professor Ozpin standing behind her with his usual smile.
"Oh crap," Summer whispered and walked toward them, her team behind her. "I can explain."
"Don't," Glynda said, the four students flinching back at her tone, and she sighed before continuing. "Professor Ozpin explained why you four might be out here at this time. If it's true then… as much as I would hate to admit it, I would have done the same thing."
STRQ was quiet for a moment, taking the statement in, until Raven held a finger up and asked, "So… we're not in trouble?"
"Not in any way that would require further punishment," Ozpin said, his smile widening just a little when the students all sighed in relief, and gestured at Summer with his mug. "So what did you find?"
"Well, from what we could tell," Summer started crossing her arms, "that Grimm from last night left the forest just after I got away from it. And… you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Since this morning yes."
"And why you didn't tell us?" Raven asked throwing her hand up. "That would have saved us a lot of trouble!"
"Would you have not gone in there if I had told you?" Ozpin asked taking a quick sip of coffee.
"Well, no," Summer answered tugging on her hood, "I would have wanted to make sure for myself anyway."
"Quite. Though I will admit I didn't expect that Nevermore to cause you so much problems."
"It's behavior has been bothering me too. I've never seen giant Grimm get so close to the Defense Grid before and… it seemed focused on getting me specifically. I'm not sure about that though," Summer crossed her arms again and looked Ozpin right in the eye. "Does this have to do with what happened last night? Just what the hell's going on?"
"I told you I'd explain that later, and that hasn't changed." Ozpin was interrupted by a sudden scream and everyone was treated to the sight of Jaune being launched over the cliff edge and face planting on the ground, followed by Ren then Pyrrha landing in a crouch and lastly Nora, who gave a little 'ta-da' when she landed.
"But that's a discussion for later. Come to my office after team placements and we'll have that talk." STRQ nodded in response, which Ozpin returned, "Then you're dismissed. And this time, actually get some rest."
"You don't have to tell us twice, I'm beat." Raven said with a wave and led the way back to the academy.
Ozpin watched them for a moment before he turned his attention to the first years, Pyrrha picking Jaune up from the ground. "Well, congratulations to the four of you for making it back in one piece."
"Er, thank you sir," Jaune said nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
"Your relics, please?" Glynda said having taken her scroll out. Jaune jumped a little and dug around his pouch for the relic before pulling it out and showing it while Nora somehow kicked hers into the air and caught it spinning on her index finger. "Both White Rooks," Glynda muttered and noted them down in her scroll while both Jaune and Nora put the relics away, "interesting. In any case congratulations to all of you, you'll get your team placements at-"
"Um…" Pyrrha quietly interrupted rubbing her arms.
"Yes?"
"Summer and the others… they're not in trouble for helping us, are they?"
"No they're not," Ozpin reassured, "and even if they were, you shouldn't worry yourselves too much over it."
"But if they are in trouble, it would have been our fault!"
"No, it wouldn't. It would have been their own fault," Glynda said with a sigh, "It wouldn't be the first time either. Team STRQ are persistent troublemakers, but even I can tell they usually have their hearts in the right place. Usually." Glynda shook her head and deliberately ignored how Pyrrha seemed to be shaking in favor of tapping her Scroll. "As I was saying, your team placements will take place at 7 o'clock tonight. You have the rest of the day free until then, so I would suggest you use that time to get to know your partner."
"Can do! Come on Ren!" Nora said and started skipping away while Ren walked behind her with a small smile.
"Ok, I can do that. Come on Pyrrha," Jaune tugged on Pyrrha's arm and started walking back to the academy, with the redhead giving a small 'What? Ok,' in response. Ozpin hummed to himself as the four walked away, taking a sip of his coffee and getting lost in thought as he and Glynda continued walking along the cliff face.
Ruby was furious beyond all belief, and worse is that she had nobody to blame but herself. She had grown frustrated with the White Huntress' refusal to simply die and pushed the Nevermore into making rash moves. She had thought it could pull it back after losing its wings, but getting caught in an Ice Dust cloud sealed that deal and she let the core go to leave the Grimm to its fate. She stewed in her anger for a few seconds until the core cracked and shattered when the Nevermore died, which was when Ruby let out her rage in a loud roar as she forced herself to return to her body.
That turned out to be quite the shock for everyone in the throne room; Salem was quietly waiting for Ruby to return from her excursion along with Blake while Weiss and Yang had gotten into an argument about wood or something that she couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. This relative silence was brought to a violent end when Ruby suddenly roared out loud and knocked the Seer's tendrils away from.
"THAT LITTLE WRETCH!" she roared standing up and bringing both of her fists down on the table, smashing a piece of the crystal clean off of it.
"Whoa!" Yang shouted jumping up along with Weiss and Blake as Ruby turned around and kicked the chair she was sitting in back into a wall, nearly crushing the Seer she had just been using. Then she found herself tackled to the ground and straddled by Yang, who was trying to get a hold of her arms. "Ruby, calm down! Chill!" Yang shouted just before she got punched in the face and knocked back enough for Ruby to get her legs under her and kick her away.
That advantage didn't last long once Ruby saw a red glyph appear around her legs and wrists which shrank forcing them together just as Blake leapt over the table and planted a wooden sandal on her neck. Ruby thrashed under the Faunus Grimm and glared at Weiss on the table as she held both of her hands forward.
"We'll let you go once you're calm, so calm down!" Weiss said, which only made Ruby fight all the harder. It was only when Salem calmly walked into view and looked down at her that she realized just what she had been doing and stopped to focus on breathing.
"It didn't go well, did it?" Salem asked, her usual calmness still very much intact despite the chaos.
"…No, it didn't," Ruby answered and took one more breath and looked at Weiss, "I'm calm now, I just lost myself for a moment." Weiss watched Ruby for a moment and quietly broke the glyphs when Ruby didn't make a move. She hopped off the table as Blake stepped off of Ruby, letting her sit up and rub the spot that she had stepped on.
"What happened?" Salem asked as Ruby pushed herself onto her feet.
"I… underestimated that Huntress," she said rubbing her left wrist.
"I thought you dropped her off a cliff!" Yang said rubbing her cheek, "You telling me she survived that?!"
"She's a clever one, her and her whole team. I sent a Giant Nevermore after them and a Giant Deathstalker managed to find them too. Not only did they survive, but they managed to cripple and kill the Nevermore despite the range disadvantage." Ruby sighed and turned Salem and added, "Vale just became slightly harder to crack."
"Oh Ruby," Salem said taking a step forward and pressing a hand on Ruby's cheek, rubbing a thumb down her face, "one particularly skilled Huntsman or team won't make a difference for our plans." Salem took her hand back and slowly walked back to her seat and sat down. "Still, it is intriguing. If they come up on our radar again, we may have to take action. But only if they do, understood."
"Yes Queen," the Generals said simultaneously, with Yang asking, "What do we do now?"
"Prepare. Weiss and Yang will continue with their old orders until further notice." The two nodded and Salem turned to Blake, "And Blake should focus getting a better foothold for the White Fang in Vale."
"It will be done," Blake said just as someone knocked on the door into the room.
"Enter," Salem ordered and the doors were pushed open so a trio, two women and a man, walked in. The woman in front, a black haired woman with yellow eyes in a short red dress, walked to the end of the table and gave a small bow to Salem.
"Leave it to you to show up at the end of the meeting Cinder," Ruby said turning to the new arrivals.
"By your pardon General," Cinder said giving Ruby the smallest of glares, "but I've been busy getting events in Vale moving." Cinder held her hand out and the man, a gray haired youth wearing a similarly colored ensemble, stepped forward to give her a small briefcase. "And, of course, getting what we need for my training." Cinder set the briefcase down, unlatched it, and opened it to take out a vial and a crystal of Fire Dust and held it up.
"Excellent," Salem nodded and stood up, "then you'll resume your training today. Ruby, I leave her in your hands."
"Of course Queen," Ruby said with a small bow.
"You're all dismissed." Salem turned and walked to one of the windows lining the room as everyone else started filing out; Weiss and Blake left silently with Yang behind them rolling the shoulder of her Grimm arm. When they were gone Ruby walked up to Cinder and took the crystal and vial from her hand and put them back in the briefcase.
"Come Cinder," Ruby said shutting the briefcase and picking it up, "we have a lot of work ahead of us. And if your pets can behave themselves," she glanced Cinder's companions, who glared back as much as they dared, "they can watch too." Ruby walked out of the room, not noticing the way Cinder clenched a fist before following after her.
"This will be an interesting year," Salem said once she was by herself.
The day passed all too quickly for the members of Team STRQ and, despite everyone's objections, Summer insisted on being there to see the first year's team placements. So, after a short nap and a quick dinner, they went to the assembly hall meeting up with Team CFVY on the balcony closest to the stage. Naturally they wanted to know what their 'rival' team had been up to all day, so Summer had been regaling them with the events of the day.
"After Raven had frozen it with Ice Dust I threw Qrow at it so he could cut its head off. He totally nailed it and climbed up the cliff afterward so we could get out. That was our misadventure of the day."
"Never a slow day for you guys huh?" Coco said edging her sunglasses down, "You guys really need to learn to take it easy someday."
"We always try and it never works," Raven said yawning slightly as she leaned against the railing with Summer. "God I want to crash later."
"Don't get too excited, we still have that bet to settle you know." The members of STRQ sagged a little at that and looked at Velvet, who was sitting next to Coco with her back to the railing working hard at a pad of papers on her lap.
"So how is that going Vel?" Taiyang asked leaning over from where he was standing to watch the rabbit Faunus.
"I'm almost done," she answered tilting her head and scratching out a few more numbers, "This is the fifth time I've had to crunch these out, and I think I've got them all right every time."
"Well that doesn't bode well for us," Raven said with a sigh, "And I take it you're not going to count the Nevermore for us?"
"No."
"Welp, had to try." Raven leaned forward and shook her head at the latest team formed, "And would you look at that, it's the cutout."
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of you collected the Black Bishop pieces. From now on the four of you will be known as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester."
"Hey Qrow, what was your bet from the other day?" Raven asked as the newly formed Team CRDL walked off the stage.
"500 Lien for six months," Qrow answered.
"Take that to 1000 and you got a bet," Summer said shaking her head, "they did not make good impression when I met them earlier."
"Deal."
"I'll get in on that," Raven added.
"And finally…" Ozpin said as the last team of first years walked on stage and lined up, which Summer perked up and leaned over the railing slightly to get a better view.
"Hey look, Jaune and the others! They got on the same team!"
"So it would seem," Qrow agreed.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you collected the White Rook pieces. From now on, the four of you will be known as Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."
"What?! L-led by?" Jaune asked looking slightly worried and gestured at himself.
"Congratulations," Ozpin said simply with a nod. Pyrrha didn't bother to hid her joy and gave Jaune a playful punch, forgetting how strong she actually is and accidentally knocked the blonde right off his feet to the scattered chuckles of the assembly hall. "Well, this will certainly be an interesting year. You'll all have gotten your dorm assignments sent to your scrolls by now. You'll find all your belongings there as well. You're all dismissed… and have a great day of classes tomorrow."
"I knew it," Summer said with a smile as Ozpin left the stage and the new teams started filtering out of the hall, her eyes locked on Jaune as he picked himself up and followed his team out.
"Don't tell me you had him pegged as leader material," Raven asked glancing at Summer, Coco doing the same on the other side of the cloaked girl.
"Gut feeling Rae. It's hardly ever wrong." Summer pushed off the railing and stretched her arms over her head just as Velvet hopped up and held up her paper pad.
"I'm done!" Velvet said triumphantly and deflating a little as she lowered the papers, her ears folding down a little. "And… it's the exact same outcome as every other time I've done it. So it has to be right."
"Well don't keep us in suspense, tell us!" a cheerful voice said behind them, causing CFVY and STRQ to jump in surprise and turn at Maribelle, cheerfully bouncing and smiling at Velvet.
"WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!" Raven shouted pointing at the sheep Faunus.
"I've got a sixth sense when it comes to bets between Beacon's Gold and Silver teams," Maribelle replied simply and held clenched her hands in front of her as she continued bouncing. "Come on, tell us who won! Will Team STRQ's conquest continue, or will Team CFVY hold firm and resolute! The gossip circles are going to love this!"
"Don't get too excited," Velvet said with a sigh and turned the pad around for everyone, "We tied." The assembled group was silent for an uncomfortable few seconds before they all exploded.
"A TIE?! WHAT?!" They scrambled forward to get a look at the pad, which contained the math, ramblings, and scribblings of a mad woman that, at the bottom, somehow did end in a dead tie. Coco then continued with, "How is that possible?! I demand a recount!"
"This is the fifth time I've done a recount and it's been the same every time!" Velvet defended and moved the papers behind her to scratch her cheek. "Though to be fair Coco, we would have won by a slim margin if it weren't for Summer's close call with a 'nasty Grimm' as she puts it. How bad was it anyway?"
"Huh? Oh, I had to throw myself off a cliff to get away from it," Summer answered, "And it was right on my tail smashing trees the whole time before that."
"…Yeah, that definitely deserves a large Grimm kill credit."
"A stalemate? Boo, nobody will want to hear about that," Maribelle complained from behind the group.
"Nobody asked you!"
"Oh this is such bullshit!" Raven said face palming, "what are we supposed to do with that?!"
"Well I'll take it as a moral victory," Summer said twirling a bit of hair around a finger, "a sign of improvement if you will."
"Huh?"
"Well, CFVY has always been better than us at straight up combat when you get down to it. This shows that the field is evening out. And for you," Summer pointed at Coco, "that can be incentive to keep that gap up, since you care about that."
"…I really hate how much sense that makes. So what are we going to do about the party?"
"We'll split it: you guys pay for yours and we pay for ours. After the last few days I've had I'm not giving up on pizza tonight."
"Ok, at least we all get something out of it. Are you cool with ordering Yatsuhashi?" Coco glanced back at her large teammate, who nodded.
"Aw, I wish I had known pizza was on the line," Maribelle commented scratching her cheek, "I would have wanted to be a part of that."
"We would have included you, but we wanted it to be fair," Raven said with a smirk, "Or would you have rather you guys pay for all of us?"
"Hey, my team did great last night. I think we would have had a fighting chance."
"Every time I saw you last night you were holding onto a Grimm for dear life, and you call that 'great'?" Raven asked to which Maribelle nodded. "Fine, then what was your kill count?"
"25 Beowolves, 15 Ursai, 7 Boarbatusk, and a Beringal. And that was all just me, the rest of my team probably did far better since… you know, they're competent fighters."
"…I'm sorry, a Beringal?"
"I know, I was surprised when I saw it too! Not as surprised as he was when I shoved my crook in his eye and scrambled his brains like an egg." Maribelle then gave a small chuckle of joy at the memory, which unnerved everyone else around her. "Well that aside, I got gossip to spread about you all. Have fun with your party."
"Thanks," Coco said before she stood up straight and said, "Hold on a second! Which one of us is the Silver team?!"
"Uh…" Maribelle stood petrified for a minute before wisely deciding to bolt as fast as she could, though Coco ran after her shouting "Get back here!"
"Well…" Qrow started just as his scroll beeped and he pulled it out to check it. "Oh crap, we still have that thing with Ozpin."
"Oh, right," Summer said with a sigh and turned to Velvet. "We have to get going. We'll text you our order and pay you guys back, ok Vel?"
"Uh… ok, but is something wrong?" Velvet asked tilting her head, "I thought you said you weren't in trouble earlier."
"I guess we'll find out for sure. Let's meet up in our room later, ok?" Velvet nodded and Summer turned to lead her team out. "Well, let's go see what Professor Ozpin has to say."
