So still no fanart submissions, but I understand. I did give those of you with jobs, homework, etc. more work. It was unfair of me to do so. I apologize.
For that this chapter was my top priority as a way to say I'm sorry. Hope y'all are excited for the tournament.
[Ruby Rose]
Our crimson reaper stood alone on a hill that overlooked the sea. As the sun was rising next to her she had a difficult time speaking to the person in front of her. Her mother. Afterall, how can you face a loved one that isn't there at the moment. Because her mother was deceased.
"Hey Mom." Ruby began spoke to her mother, "Sorry I haven't come by in a while. Things have been... well, things have been pretty busy. Oh! Dad's here too! He's, uh you know... Dad. He's still teaching at Signal, but he told me he's going out on some missions soon! I think he misses adventuring with you... I miss you too. Haven't gotten kicked outta Beacon yet. So that's cool. I think being on a team with Yang helps. I keep her in line... That was a joke. She's actually a really great fighter! You can tell she's learned a lot from Dad. Well, so are Weiss and Blake. Oh! They're my teammates. Together we form Team RWBY! And, yes, before you ask... that does cause a lot of confusion. Anyways, uh, I made a bunch of new friends and I met some... uh, let's just say, 'odd' teachers. Oh! We've also stopped some bad guys too! I guess it's like they say, 'like mother like daughter'. I still wonder why Ozpin let me into the school early... but uh, I guess he'll tell me one day. You know how he is. It's funny, the more I get to know him, the more he starts sounding like Uncle Qrow."
Her conversation was interrupted by a bark from her indestructible dog, Zwei. Standing next to Zwei was Ruby's father, Taiyang Xiao Long.
"Oh! Looks like Dad's back. I gotta go. He's dropping me off at Beacon for the tournament match before he goes on his next mission. Wish me luck!" She finished as she put her hood over her head and began to jog off. Before she made it to her old man she turned back to her mother for a farewell, "It was good to talk."
[Amity Arena/The Vytal Festival: Team Matches]
High above the ground hovered the marvellous masterpiece of machinery and collaboration, the Amity Arena. The Arena was jam packed with viewers from all over the globe, from the deserts of Vacuo, the snowy land of Atlas, to Mistral's bountiful forests. The crowds cheered so loud that you could hear it all the way from the ground floor of the street. No wonder why; the fights were intense.
The commentators knew how to hype the fights as well, "O-HO! It seems we have another astonishing bout ahead of us. Wouldn't you agree, Gentlemen?" Port questioned to the three other men in the booth with him.
"Please call me Doctor at least." Dr. Oobleck had urged his colleague to identify properly, "And yes Peter, I think it's safe to say this match up is one of the closest battles we have seen in the four vs. four round of the tournament."
"For those of you joining as of right now..." The third commentator, a fighting analyser and physics expert; hailing from the land of ice and snow, Atlas. The incredibly smart, Wiz.
The last commentator: a weapons expert and connoisseur of drinks and other activities which should not be mention. From the wastelands of Vacuo, Boomstick, shouted into the mic, "...It's time for THE VYTAL FESTIVAL TOURNAMEEEEEEEEENT!!!"
"Brought to live from the Amity Colosseum." Port added, "If this is your first time watching allows us to break down the rules."
"This tournament is divided into 3 distinctive rounds: teams, doubles and solo battles. Age, school year, etc. are completely irrelevant. This is battle of your weapons, armor and skills to see who will win." Wiz informed the audience.
"Exactly." Port carried on where Wiz left off, "The winners of this fight will choose two of their teammates to go on to the doubles round. Then the winners of those two will choose one member to battle once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom."
"And to keep things fresh and interesting for you all watching, this year we added another variable in the matches. Unlike the terrain changing this new mysterious thing is what we call, a game changer. This can range from a snowstorm, to oil slicks and even restrictions for the fighters. This event is going to be greater than any event going on around the world. Better than the gladiator fights, the world series and even the Grifball Super Bowl! I don't think anyone is gonna wanna miss this..." Boomstick announced as everyone around the world were watching, whether at home, inside a restaurant or bar. Even on their scrolls.
"How right you are Boomstick, now let's get back to the match between Team RWBY of Beacon and Team ABRN of Haven." Port finalized as they spectated the fight.
Reese Chloris zoomed to Blake within her specialized skateboard pistols. Performing a 360* spin, she kicked the board at Blake who deflected the attack with a upward slash. Reese shot her board back with a punch. Blake kicked it to the side, curving the board back Reese's hands. With board in hand, Reese had begun to block the barrage of cuts from Blake's Gambol Shroud. Blake was knocked back with a board hit, giving Reese some room to get back on her board. Reese rode towards Blake who had a plan thought up. When Reese tried to ram into Blake she ended up smashing into her ice shadow. While in midair, Blake supposedly cut Reese's board in half, but Reese's two halves made two guns, as she fired down at Blake. Reese attempted to land on her feet, but due to the icy terrain, she slipped and landed flat on her rear.
Yang was having her fun, battling the strong and agile, Arslan Altan. A mocha skinned woman with a bright yellow head of hair and a sunny yellow with red accented outfit. Judging by her weapon or lack of weapon she was a melee fighter. Perfect for going up against her opponent.
Yang came leaping at her with an overhead flying hook. She had missed. While Arslan slid back, Yang seized the moment to give her a series of slugger styled punches. Arslan ducked an incoming third punch with a sweeping leg attack. Yang raised her foot to evade. Once again a moment was seized as Arslan used a type of martial arts move to deliver two very effective hits to her opponent. The two fighter's collided fists sending both skidding back from the impact.
They regained their stance, Yang first, then Arslan. Yang came rushing Arslan first but failed to realize that Arslan did have a weapon on hand. A small piece of what could only be assumed to be wire wrapped around Yang's left leg. Arslan gave a small tug and tripped Yang. A open shot allowed Arslan to deliver a mighty blow to Yang's midsection. Kicked onto the icy part of the Arena Yang is barely able to stand. Unable to compose herself in time for Arslan's final punch to her gut, sending Yang directly at the line sight of Nadir Shiko.
Nadir Shiko, a dark skinned young man with pink or lightish red hair on the top of his head. Nadir's weapon of choice was his bottom bladed assault rifle. He took aim at Yang who was about to rise off the ground when a gunshot and an icy explosion encased his feet in ice. Stuck, he put on a pouty face.
The shooter, Ruby Rose, waved to her sister, "Got your back."
"Who's got yours?" Bolin Hori had questioned as he readied his bow staff. Bolin was another mal with a hairstyle similar to Ren's, but his color scheme was a grey blue and yellow fighting outfit.
While he readied to strike at Ruby from behind, Ruby was still perfectly safe. One of Weiss' dark glyphs appeared behind the young Bolin. Weiss then kicked him straight through the said glyph, launching him far back. Ruby stood up to answer Bolin, "My BFF!"
"No." Weiss denied Ruby instantly.
Ruby turned to herself in secret to whisper, "Yes."
Bolin slowly rose up from his resting crouched position, but not fast enough. Weiss was already in his face. She dashed past him with a glyph boosted slice. Then turned back around to deliver a twirling slash to by him. Her glyph behind allowed for Ruby to jump over Weiss and strike Bolin's bo staff. The weapons collided, as Ruby let out a growl. A shot bounced her away from him so she could go for another attack.
Bolin had enough of being defensive. He rushed straight at the two young ladies in his path. Weiss summoned icicles to pierce him, but he ducked under them like nothing. As he came to Ruby he hopped over her cutting scythe to arrive where he wanted to go, leaving a confused Ruby behind.
As he got to his goal, he used his bo staff to snap a piece off of the fire crystal. With a throw, he sent the fire dust flying to his other teammate, Reese. She caught the piece and slammed it into her board. With a wink to Blake she glided her way over to the frozen stuck Nadir, who was excited to be out of ice, "Thanks, Reese."
With her friend freed from his icy trap she went back to fighting Blake. A jump on her board lept her right in front of Blake. With a thunderous shove she sent Blake flying backwards, shattering the ice crystal behind her. With Blake slipping up Reese was on the offensive again. A slam on her board sent back, a wide open position for Reese's spinning board assault. The flames kept Blake in the air until she used her shadow semblance to get out of that position.
With a her getaway, she disappeared behind a large hunk of ice that towered over a corner of the ring. Reese chased after her trail to find Blake, standing still. Grinning because of the easy win she saw, Reese charged directly for her target, only for her target to disappear behind large icicles that formed an almost cave region on the arena map.
Reese followed Blake around the corner to find her standing still with her back completely open to any attacks. With a smile on her face, the hoverboarder charged at Blake and connected her board to Blake's head. Except Blake vanished on contact, as her shadow clone exploded Gambol Shroud flew across Reese's path. The sword and long strap caught Reese in a trap as Blake swung in from behind and sent the young Reese flying outside the arena.
As she raised her head, Reese heard the announcers, "With low aura levels and knockout Reese Chloris is eliminated." Boomstick declared.
Oobleck couldn't escape his duty as an educator, "Ooh she really should've worn a helmet."
Flying around a corner of ice came Arslan, she was quick and light on her feet. The ice was her greatest ally. Yang was hot on Arslan's trail as she blasted along the slippery ice.
Nadir flipped behind Yang and began pointing his rifle at his main focused target, Weiss. While his aim fixed into position the ice princess sent a glyph next to Nadir's partner, Bolin. The two boys collided with each other and collapsed to the floor. Where Weiss used another glyph underneath their feet, lifting them up in the air. Weightless, they squirmed in their fixed spots until Weiss smashed them together. The two slowly recovered but not in time as Weiss used her semblance to create a large icy hand from the ground and kept them crushed together. The frozen fist fell to the floor and began to roll off towards the edge of the ring. The two young men had no way to escape from their current situation.
Their teammate, Arslan had looked over at her friends in danger and with an eye roll raced to save them. After a dash in front of the rolling iceball she got into her stance to deliver a powerful punch breaking the ball in two pieces.
"Yang!" Weiss shouted, getting the blonde's attention. Creating a smooth curved ice wall, Weiss used her semblance to build, "Now!"
Blasting her way to the ice ramp, sliding on the floor's near frictionless surface. She needed more speed, luckily her team was there. Blake jumped down and tossed Yang part of Gamboul Shroud. Yang caught the weapon attached to the strong strap and held on tight. Blake ran with Yang to give her more speed, but she still needed more. Finally Ruby immediately got into her position and had Blake jump onto her back. Firing Crescent Rose, Ruby sent Blake ahead of Yang.
The three remaining members of team ABRN looked up just in time to see Blake coming to them at full speed. With a powerful yank Blake finally launched Yang like a slingshot at the enemy team, who were dumb enough to line up perfectly. With one punch Yang had sent the other team shooting like star into a firepit on the fireside of the arena.
A loud buzzer rang as Wiz pressed a button, which echoed a voice announcing, "KO!"
"Holy Sh*bleep* Yang coming in with a swing taking out the rest of Team ABRN." Boomstick boomed into the mic.
"The winners of this round is team RWBY." Oobleck announced.
Weiss stood confused for a moment, "We did it?"
After a confirming nod and a moment of silence Team RWBY acknowledged their victory.
Ruby, filled with joy, lept into the air, "WE DID IIIIII-"
[Later]
"Iiiiiiiis anyone else starving?" Ruby asked her team as they now stood away from the colleseum.
"I may have worked up an appetite?" Blake mildly stated, until her stomach roared, producing her true answer.
"Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus to get food around here." Weiss had hinted at while there were several places on campus at the moment, "Oh, wait."
"It's okay Weiss, I forget about the fairgrounds too." Ruby tried to comfort Weiss.
"I was being facetious."
"Wh- Well, if you're hungry, why didn't you say so?"
"C'mon I know just the place." Yang told them as she took the lead.
Before she followed Weiss's phone vibrated, the caller; her dad. She immediately ignored it and went back to her friends.
"Hey! Might be hard to eat without this." Emerald called out to Ruby as she held up Ruby's money holder. As Ruby frantically searched for why she dropped it, Emerald laughed at her quick panic, "Good to see you Ruby."
"Oh, thanks Emerald. Guess I dropped it, Guh girl pockets are the worst." Ruby started as she retrieved her wallet.
A loud ding was heard nearby, the group looked over to see their western shooter over by a shooting gallery. One by one the metal beowulf cutouts dropped like flies to the floor as Church calculated exactly where to strike each shot. As the bell rang signaling the game ended the man behind the game handled Church a big green octopus that was almost the size of Ruby.
"Well, didn't imagine you liked stuff like that." Emerald pointed out as she received the attention of Church.
Church simply smiled and shook his head, "Nah this ain't for me..." he held out his arm out and out came a large persian blue blur that tackled the doll out of his hand and snuggled it tight, "... it's for him."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much Church." Caboose repeated several times, the large muscled bear squeezed the stuffed animal so hard that the head had almost came off. He opened his eyes to see the people around him, "Oh hey guys, what's up?"
"Just grabbing a bite to eat. Wanna join?" Yang offered.
"I would like to grab a bite. What about you Church?"
"I'm in. Emerald you and Merc joining us?"
At first Emerald would have instantly turned them down for Merc was currently sniffing a pair of new boots. But on the other hand she hasn't had too many friends offering that in the past, "Yo Merc you coming?"
"Yeah, whatever." Mercury sadly placed the boots down so he could follow them.
With the current group, Ruby couldn't help but notice that a few friends had been missing, "Hey where's the rest of your team, Em? Caboose?"
"The twins wanted to go spend time with Grif and Simmons, with Donut and Lopez of course." Emerald pointed out so that team RWBY didn't get any weird ideas.
Church answered for Caboose because the big guy didn't pay attention to what was said, "Doc had something to do, probably getting some meds he hasn't been looking too hot. Tucker's around here somewhere, just waiting to strike."
"What's do you mean strike?" Blake questioned.
Church whispered something to Yang in response, to which she repeated, "Wait? I'm soaking wet?"
"Who called?" Tucker asked popping up from behind Yang.
Everyone except Caboose and Church freaked out, "Where did you come from? How did you hear that?"
"I'm like Superman, I know when I'm needed." Tucker replied.
Tucker has joined the party, while Weiss shifted the conversation, "So Emerald I heard you guys are advancing to the next round. It's a shame we didn't see it."
"We did!" Caboose cheered.
Blake curiously wanted to know how it went, "How did they do?"
Caboose and Church had a shared flashback where they remembered the absolute brutality that Team EMMM had unleashed. Mercury putting a guy in a leg lock, while when a few team members tried to run away Emerald shouted at them to, "GET OVER HERE!" yanking them back to her position with her chains from her gun. While the twins double jumped one guy. A team full of assassin tactics is something to be scared of.
Caboose answered honestly as he could've without offending anyone, "They... fought... good..."
"Never have seen such brutality in my life. Frankly you guys have impressed and scared the shit out of me at the same time." Church answered correctly.
Emerald scratched the back of her head innocently as she spoke, "Well, guess that answers your questions." In all honesty Emerald couldn't stand being with most of team RWBY if not all, they were so happy all the time. It was too annoying. But somehow their combined annoying friendship was cancelled out by Caboose's innocent smile, warm embrace and huge muscles. That and Church was kinda of the salt that balanced out all the sweetness.
As they all sat together in their seats they weighed their options on what to eat. Some knew exactly what they wanted.
"I'll have a bowl of the regular please." Yang ordered and a very large bowl of noodles slid in front of her.
Her sister grew wide eyed, "Ooh, I'll have the same."
"Do you have anything with a low salt..." Weiss started to ask until she received a large bowl of the same thing.
Blake said nothing, she merely needed to share a nod with the owner and within in a flash he vanished back into the kitchen. He came in a second with a large bowl of noodles with a numerous amount of tuna piled on top, making Blake's mouth water.
"I'll have the special, extra stuff please. Oh, and the side special too." The man acknowledged Church's order and just like he did with Blake's meal. His disappearing reappearing act ended with Church receiving a bowl of katsudon.
Caboose looked at Church's order and smiled wide, "Oh can I have the same?" Another bowl appeared in front of Caboose.
"The same, please." Emerald asked getting the exact same as Caboose and Church, "Merc, what do you want?"
"Tea... hot..." Mercury said looking at his newly purchased boots.
"Same." Tucker ordered with him.
Weiss pulled out her credit card and gave it to the man to confirm their order. Yang smiled at Weiss, "Aw Weiss what's the occasion?"
"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round." Weiss announced as her card was throw like a ninja star back at the table. The reason being, her card had shown up as declined, "What? How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance."
"Don't worry, I got y'all covered." Church said pulling out an envelope and counted his money.
"Got any room for a few more?" Pyrrah questioned as she and the rest of JNPR had come in.
Church let out a heavy sigh, "You don't want me to cover you guys right?"
"No it's all good, we just wanted to join you guys. So any room for more?" Jaune asked.
[1 big meal later]
Everyone had emptied their dishes into their guts, their plates and bowls had been cleaned of any evidence of food. Almost all of them with big smiles on their faces. The only people who weren't smiling were those who had overestimated their bowl or underestimated their stomaches. Weiss, Jaune and Ren.
"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren questioned as he held back his breathe.
"Of course, it will give us energy." Pyrrah recommended as Nora let out a large belch.
Jaune however felt very different about that, "If I barf, I'm blaming you."
"Ooh aim it at the enemy." Nora way too eagerly demanded.
"Nora that's disgusting, but if you do feel the urge." Ren added.
"Got it." Jaune thumbed up.
Pyrrah stood up from the table, "Well, we should be off."
"So you think you guys are ready?" Ruby quizzed.
Nora replied confidently, "Of course, we've got a world renowned fighter on our team, what's basically a ninja, I can bench 5 of me... Jaune. We've trained all year, our weapons are AWESOME, Glynda barely yells at us anymore... and uh... Jaune."
"Are you gonna take that?" Ren asked his leader.
raising his head, Jaune agreed with Nora, "She's not wrong."
"I'm kidding, he knows I'm kidding." Nora joked it off, "Don't be so nervous, the worst that can happen is we lose. Then it's just a few more years of walking around school. Our friends will slowly abandoned us to preserve their social status. We won't be able to show our faces to class. No one will want to sit with us in the cafeteria. And Ren and I have no parents so we have no home left to go to. We'll be officially renamed Team Loser-PR."
"So... yeah, we're feeling pretty good." Ren plainly added to Nora's breakdown.
Pyrrah once again became the calm voice to them all, "Don't fret. If anything we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not... well... murderers."
"Yeah, don't sweat it. We've all faced way worse before." Yang admitted.
Church began listing their past encounters, "Extremists groups, monsters, sociopaths, the occasional bar fight..."
"Don't forget school, that's a killer." Tucker continued, "If shit is this crazy, imagine when we graduate."
"Maybe Weiss could actually afford her own meal..." Mercury mocked.
Blake stared at him with a blank face, "Below the belt Merc."
"Would Team JNPR report to the battlegrounds immediately."
Professor Port's voice called through the speakers.
Another high pitch squeak followed with Wiz's voice, "Please Hurry, Broomstick went to get some snacks and he's been gone for a bit. Who knows where he's gone to."
"Well, it looks like this is it." Pyrrah announced, confident in her team's skills.
As they walked away Ruby called out to them one more time, "Go get 'em."
[Back at the battlegrounds]
An uproar from crowd filled the air with noise as everyone was on the edge of their seat waiting for the match to begin. The whole stadium had been expecting this moment, Beacon's best vs. Shade's best, a battle of wits, skill, and survival. No one knew how this would play out, except for a certain few.
"So who you all betting on?" Darius Pill asked to both his cronies.
Ivan had his eyes glued to the arena, "Sir, we know who will win."
"Oh come now, even if you know how a story ends...," Cinder had spoke while while taking a popcorn kernel from the bag, "That doesn't make it any less fun to watch." The kernel popped into a it's full popcorn state.
The match was about to start as Port made the final call, "Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade."
Like a slot machine the hologram banners on the edges of the ring spun to determine the layout of the battlefield they were on. As they came to sudden stops it was determined, the side behind JNPR would be a thunderous mountain area, the side behind team BRNZ would be a densely packed forest. The last variable was directly overhead as the middle hologram showed a multi-sided die. As the die spun and rattled in different direction the variable that showed was that of a rain cloud.
As the picture of a rain cloud had appeared a dark stormy cloud entered the arena from the middle. Atlas technology is truly superior. The artificial cloud poured over the two teams as the countdown had begun.
"Get ready..." Broomstick announced to the fighters, "...Aaaaand, FIGHT!!!"
Okay, so sorry. Work has officially worn me down. Also make sure you check why the benefits seem good before you decide to join a different job. Little advice that I learned the hard way. Now I screwed myself by working at a job that pays less for more work. Sorry, just informing you why this took too long.
Now before I leave y'all I will be adding more to my other stories including one that I'll regret later. What will I regret? ... Performing artists with quirks from My Hero Academia. Yep... I'm going there. Just had this idea and wanted to get this out there.
