Alright, who's up for a triple whammy?
I'm sorry for my silence as of late. I was on holiday up in Cambridge, Northumberland, Lincoln and some other places for two weeks. It was sunny, rainy, I got to see a B-52 Stratofortress and a SR-71 Blackbird at the Imperial War Museum, and it was amazing. I even got to set foot on Concorde!
Not all of my absence was sunshine and rainbows though... while we were heading back towards home, at our last stop, we got word from my Aunt that my Uncle had passed away, thankfully with no pain. It wasn't the first funeral I had been to... but it's never easy, saying goodbye to those who you've seen for nearly every year of your life.
But, life must go on, and so must the life of this story, as well as my other tales!
Chapter 11: Grow a Spine!
Title Song: Park Avenue (Sonic Forces OST)
It's been a few weeks since Weiss' yelling episode with Ruby, and the two, and the rest of Team RWBY are all adapted to each other. They weren't the only ones that were used to their new friends and teammates either. The first years had started to get used to the classes and lifestyle of Beacon, but,
Koa walked through the corridors of Beacon, on his way to an area of the school that he had discovered a few days ago. Following him were Jasmine, who also had a reason to go there, and Ruby, who just wanted to tag along when she heard what they would be doing.
The three stopped when they saw a sign over a door. Alvor's Anvil. Koa pushed open the door, and was greeted with the feeling of heat and the sounds of hard work. It was here, that students could come and make any adjustments to their weapons, or even come up with new concepts to new weapon formats.
An elderly man was near the door, sharpening a blade on a whetstone. "Can I help you laddie?" He asked. His greying hair was a little singed, and he wore a grey shirt, black pants and boots. Over his clothes was a brown blacksmiths apron.
"We've been told this is the best forge in Vale, with enough resources to arm an army," Koa said. "Can we use the forge?"
"Sure, call me Alvor Anvil, I run this forge," The man nodded. "Before anything, here, a couple of work aprons and coveralls if you need them." He pointed to where such articles of clothing were hung.
"No need, we brought our own," Koa smiled, walking over to a grindstone. "All I need is this."
"Ah, don't worry," Alvor said, "Take all the time you need. And what about you two young lasses?"
"Jasmine wants to modify her lance," Ruby said. "I'm just here to help her."
"Then let me know if there's anything I can do to help," The master smith said, walking away.
The next day…
"Yes! Combat class!" Lilo grinned, Team KOLD having just finished a lesson with Professor Ooblek. "No offence to that guy, but he drinks way too much caffeine! Even more than Koa or Ozpin."
"Truth," Onyx nodded.
"He's still better than Port… ugh, his fictional stories are better at putting me to sleep than to hype me up," Koa shrugged.
Everyone got changed into their combat gear, and met in a training room. Team KOLD shared this class today with Teams RWBY and JNPR.
"Now then, today, you'll be doing one-on-one sparring matches," Goodwitch said, standing in the arena with her scroll out. "It is crucial that you get a feel for how other people fight in order to better prepare yourself for the outside world. This will also help you with your own training into improving your skills. Now, for the first match, we'll have…" She pressed a few commands on her scroll. "Jasmine Diali, versus…" A few more commands, "Weiss Schnee."
Both named students glanced at each other, then went to get their weapons from the locker room.
"Oh… I don't know who to cheer for!" Ruby pouted.
"I do, come on Jas!" Koa called down.
Both combatants entered the ring, and Koa noted the tiniest trace of a smirk on Jasmine's face, before it disappeared again. She wanted this so bad. Sorry Weiss.
"May the best huntress-in-training win," Weiss said.
Jasmine just gave a thumbs-up in response. This is for day one, after that, we're even!
"Ready? 3… 2… 1… Begin!" Goodwitch called.
Jasmine fired two heavy shots from the tip of Kitsune's Kickback, both explosive rounds shooting towards Weiss, who danced around them with grace. She then fired once behind her, shooting herself forward to try and slam the side of her lance into Weiss' side.
Weiss countered this with a gravity glyph, slowing down Jasmine's swing, and allowing her to dart aside and jab twice with her rapier, Myrtnaster.
Jasmine let the jabs hit, letting them reflect off her aura. She then blocked a horizontal swing from Weiss' rapier, and fired a shot that sent Weiss back, her aura withstanding the blast but still causing some damage.
"Hold on, I thought Jasmine's lance had to open up to fire?" Ren asked.
"She fixed that yesterday, the barrel used to only reach halfway up her lance. Now, it goes to just under the tip, and the weapon still folds perfectly," Ruby said.
Weiss frowned, and the revolving chamber in her rapier rotated around and glowed blue. Suddenly, she pirouetted, stabbing her rapier into the ground, and ice spikes rose out the ground.
Jasmine blinked, but quickly leapt up, before landing on a yellow square of hardlight energy.
"What?" Yang asked. "Isn't that your semblance?" She asked Koa.
"Yep," Koa nodded.
Jasmine then leapt down, and surprised Weiss by sending a yellow pillar of hardlight at her. Weiss blocked it by rotating the chamber in her rapier, a red barrier forming in front of her.
She was not expecting the heavy downwards slam that came from behind her though, and she was shocked to see Jasmine behind her. She then noticed the shavings of yellow fluttering around the room, and she looked back at Jasmine, who looked at her with a face that just read 'Yield.'
"And that's the match!" Goodwitch called out. "Miss Diali has forced Miss Schnee into a position of defeat. As you can see, her aura has entered the red zone. This is official duel rules; when a combatant's aura enters the red, they are no longer fit for battle and must concede."
She turned to the two girls. "Miss Schnee, well done for adapting to fighting a heavier weapon, continue practicing against such foes to allow yourself to improve," She suggested.
"Of course, Professor," Weiss accepted the advice.
"Miss Diali, it seemed you were using not just Mr Maru's Hardlight Semblance, but Miss Rose's Speed Semblance as well, please, could you explain your semblance?"
"If I may Professor?" Koa raised his hand. "Can I speak for her? It's a rather long explanation."
"Of course," Goodwitch nodded.
"Jasmine has called her Semblance 'Copy/Paste'. Basically, she can 'copy' another huntsman or huntress' Semblance, putting them in a sort of… file in her mind. Then, she can 'paste', using the memory of that Semblance. She can only store two currently, and the memory grows stale after a week, meaning she must copy all over again."
"So that's how she copied my speed," Ruby blinked, plucking a gold shaving out of the air and examining it.
"What a fascinating Semblance," Ren nodded.
"Basically, she's a jack of all trades," Pyrrha observed.
"Miss Diali, my only suggestion might be to watch and examine other students' Semblances, and train to develop your skill in using those powers," Goodwitch said to the fox faunus.
Jasmine nodded, and folded up her weapon into it's compact form, and attaching it to a magnetic clamp on her back.
"We have time for another fight," Goodwitch said. "Let's have… Jaune Arc…" The blonde boy gulped at his name being called. "Versus… Koa Maru!"
Both young men went to fetch their weapons, and met in the ring a moment later. Koa was standing in a stance reminiscent to a cowboy in those old movies, ready to draw.
Jaune drew his sword, Crocea Mors, and his shield, settling with a defensive stance, shield up in front.
"Ready?" Both boys nodded. "3… 2… 1… Begin!"
Koa was quick off the count, both boomerangs flying straight towards Jaune, who blocked them with his shield barely. Koa kept up the assault, leaping up to kick a boomerang around left, while grabbing the other and blocking an incoming swing from Jaune's sword.
"Not bad Jauney boy, lets see how you can react to on-the-fly moments," Koa grinned.
"Huh?" Jaune asked, before a boomerang hit him in his shield arm. Koa was quick to grab the boomerang and throw it again, this time sparking with lightning.
Jaune noticed it this time, and swatted it aside with his sword, and then picked up his shield, bashing it into Koa's stomach.
Koa then unleashed his Hardlight Semblance, the blue energy forming under Jaune's foot, which he then manipulated upwards, tripping the blonde boy up onto his back. Now, the sparking boomerang came down. Jaune rolled aside, causing the weapon to ping off the ground and back to Koa's hand.
"Alright, you've surprised me with how long you've survived, but sorry about this," Koa said. He then tapped the sides of his two weapons, and the sparks vanished. Then, blades appeared on one tip of each.
Jaune steeled himself for what must be Koa's final push. The lucky boomerang user charged, slashing several times. Jaune tried to block all he could, but in the end, Koa got past his shield, knocked away his sword, pushed Jaune to his knees and held both blades poised to strike.
"Do you yield?" He asked.
"Y-yeah, yield," Jaune whimpered.
"And that's the match. Mr Arc, that was a good attempt. But defending can only get you so far," Goodwitch said.
"Yeah, sorry professor," Jaune rubbed his neck nervously.
"Mr Maru, I have to ask, how do your weapons always end up in the right angles? Do you ever make mistakes?" Their professor asked.
"Loads of times," Koa nodded. "I always have had good luck, it's not a Semblance, of course, that's obvious, but when I do miss, it's all about improvising, readjusting the angle, using my Semblance to deflect back at the target."
"Maybe find a way to balance your luck with training in hand-to-hand combat without your weapon, and with it," Goodwitch suggested. The bell then rang, "That's all that we have time for today, please understand that if you haven't had a chance to spar yet, you will have a higher chance of being selected next lesson, and you're always welcome to train and spar in free time." She pushed up her glasses. "Just don't kill each other."
A few days later.
Lilo and Onyx spotted Pyrrha fussing over Jaune, who had just gotten out of a particularly one-sided fight with leader of Team CRDL, Cardin Winchester. The brute used a large dust infused mace that sent out explosive blasts, and he tossed around Jaune like a ragdoll.
"You ok, Big Deal?" Lilo asked the boy. He had tried to flirt, but she casually shot him down. She called him Big Deal because of the cockiness he carried when flirting. "Cardin didn't break you too much did he?"
"No, just a little sore is all," Jaune sighed.
"I don't blame you, Cardin definitely did not have any restraint in that battle, in fact, if Professor Goodwitch hadn't called the match, you could have ended up much worse. But if you want a sparring partner, ask any of us, we can help you improve," Onyx said.
"I dunno, I'll have to think about that," Jaune said.
"Now, how about some lunch?" Lilo asked, causing Shadow and Snowfall to bark with glee.
"So, there we were, in the middle of the night," Nora was saying, her voice trying to be all ominous.
"It was day," Ren calmly corrected her.
"We were surrounded by Ursai," Nora continued as if Ren never spoke. Jasmine, Ruby, Yang and Lilo were interested in her tale.
"They were Beowolves," Ren corrected her again. He then took a sip of his coffee.
"Dozens of them!" Nora shouted, causing Yang and Lilo to jerk back.
"Two of them," Ren spoke up again.
Teams RWBY, JNPR and KOLD were all sat at one of the longer tables at the cafeteria, having their lunch. On the right side, starting from the end, was Onyx, doing some homework, Lilo, listening to Nora with a hot dog in front of her, Ruby with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, Weiss, who was filing her nails with a glass of water and an apple before her, Yang with a sandwich and a glass of water, and Blake, who was reading of course.
The other side had Koa, who was drinking coffee while reading the paper, Jasmine, listening to Nora while sneaking a hand over to Ruby's cookies, Jaune, who was barely touching his food with a fork, looking depressed, Pyrrha with a salad looking at Nora, Nora herself with a sandwich as she told her tale, and Ren with his coffee.
"But they were no match for us, and in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boat-load of Lien selling Ursa-skin rugs," Nora finished her tale with a smile, while Ruby and Pyrrha glanced at Jaune with worried looks.
"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now," Ren sighed.
"You know… that does not surprise me once," Lilo muttered dryly.
"Are you sure she's sane?" Koa glanced up to ask Ren.
"Jaune, are you ok?" Pyrrha asked. Everyone looked at the blonde with varying expressions.
"Huh? Oh, uh yeah, why?" Jaune asked, trying to look away from them.
"Jaune, listen man, you don't look ok," Koa said.
"Guys, I'm fine," Jaune said. "Seriously, look," He tried to convince them with a not-so convincing grin and a thumbs up.
"Not the best at lying are you Big Deal?" Lilo pointed out.
All twelve heard laughing, and turned to see Team CRDL at another table, surrounding another student. A girl wearing the uniform, with waist-length brown hair and a pair of long brown rabbit ears, showing her to be a Faunus. Cardin sits on her right while Russel on her left and Dove and Sky are in front. Jaune saw this and clenched his fist, while Koa, Jasmine and Lilo looked on with irritation.
"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since day one," Pyrrha said.
"Who, Cardin Winchester?" Jaune asked. "Nah, he just likes to mess around you know, practical jokes."
"He's a bully," Ruby spoke up, slapping away Jasmine's hand from her cookies.
"He's an ass," Koa and Lilo both said.
"Oh please, name ONE time he's 'bullied' me," Jaune said, air quoting bullied.
Flashback 1
Jaune was walking down the hall with a mountain of books in his hand, when Cardin walked by, slapping the books from his hand.
"Oh, come on!" Jaune yelled.
Flashback 2
Jaune was about to enter his next class when Cardin came out of said class. As they walked past each other, Cardin pressed the button on Jaune's sheath that makes it become it's shield, resulting in it getting stuck in the doorway. Jaune tried to get it out to no avail.
"Agh! Oh, come on!" Jaune grumbled.
Flashback 3
Goodwitch was showing some of the first years a tour, and was currently showing them the locker room. "Each of you will be assigned one rocket-propelled locker to store your weapons and extra armour. Additionally, your locker can be sent to a custom location based on a six digit code."
In the back, Jaune and Cardin were unfortunately next to each other, and Cardin just had a devious idea, and shoved Jaune in an open locker and closed it.
"What?! No, wait, wait! Get me out of here! Please, don't, don't, don't!" Jaune pleaded as Cardin pressed six random numbers and the RPL shot up and away from the school.
"Oh come ooooonnnn!" His voice wailed, Cardin watching the rocket locker as it flew away.
Flashback end
Lilo held up three fingers as the group reminded him of his run-ins with the brute.
"Do you get the point? Or shall I go on?" She asked. "I highly suggest the latter, I have at least twenty-ish more incidents."
"I didn't land that far from the school," Jaune defended himself.
"You landed in the middle of the Emerald Forest, one of the second year teams had to go in and heave you out before you became lunch for the locals," Koa pointed out.
"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, just ask," Pyrrha said.
"Ooh! We'll break his legs!" Nora grinned evilly.
"Oh I'll break more than his legs," Lilo cracked her knuckles, Jasmine gave a nod of agreement.
"Down girls," Koa told the Faunus to keep their cool.
Jaune stood up with his tray, "Guys, really, it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone!" He said.
"Ow! That hurts!" All eyes are brought back to Cardin, who was yanking on one of the rabbit girl's ears, all while laughing at her. "Please stop."
"I told you they were real," Cardin said, clearly not caring.
"What a freak," Russel laughed with him, as did the other two.
Lilo stood up, as did Jasmine, "Right. That's it," She snarled.
"Guys, wait!" Yang called out, but to no avail as the two Faunus walked over to where their fellow Faunus was in distress.
Lilo reached out, her grip as strong as a vice as it grabbed hold of Cardin and Russel by their ears. Jasmine was doing the same to Dove and Sky. Such an action made Cardin release the girl's ear, and the full sized forms of Snowfall and Shadow stepped between her and the team of jerks.
Lilo pulled Cardin down onto his knees, and threw Russel over to her wolves, who looked just as furious as she did. "Cardin Winchester. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but then I'd need to tear my own tongue out." She said.
"What do you want freak?" Cardin asked, clearly in pain.
"See, that's exactly it. I don't see a freak, unless you are referring to yourself and your pack of omegas," Lilo said. When she was greeted by four looks of confusion, she sighed, "It means you are at the bottom of the ranks. You are superior to no one!" She snapped.
Cardin growled at her, but she just squeezed his ear harder. "Now, you apologise to this adorable young lady, or I start removing limbs." She commanded.
"And why should we listen to you?!" Dove bravely asked, as Jasmine held him down with surprising force. Her other charge was wrapped up in her tail, and Sky would have found it extremely pleasant, if it wasn't for the fact she was constricting him like a python.
Lilo nodded to Jasmine, who nodded, using Koa's semblance to start to push him into the ground. Cardin eventually folded, "Fine! Look, I'm sorry for pulling your ears!" He said to the girl. He scowled back at Lilo. "Are you happy now?"
"Not really, but it's her call," Lilo said, looking at the rabbit girl. "Did you find his apology to be satisfactory?"
"Um, yeah, just please don't do it again," The girl said timidly.
"Well, you heard it from her, and you had better not do this again, or all four of you will be lunch for the pups," Lilo said, pointing at Snowfall and Shadow, who barked, licking their chops.
Lilo bent down to Cardin, "Now, get out," She told him.
All four members of Team CRDL took that as their cue to run, and they legged it out of the cafeteria.
"You could learn a thing or two from Lilo," Koa said to Jaune. "She doesn't have patience for bullies."
"You ok?" Lilo sighed, then asked the girl.
"Uh… y-y-yes. T-thank you," The girl nodded shyly.
"What's your name?" Lilo asked, as Shadow and Snowfall returned to her side in their shrunk down forms.
"Velvet Scarlatina," She said.
"Hey, if those guys cause trouble again, come find me, Yang or Nora over there," Lilo smiled. "We'll break their legs for you."
"Um… ok, again, thank you," Velvet shyly smiled.
"No problem, we Faunus girls gotta stick together," Lilo pulled her into a one-armed hug and Jasmine into the other.
"I'll remember that, thanks again," The rabbit girl then walked off.
"That was amazing!" Ruby blinked as Lilo and Jasmine walked back over. "Remind me not to annoy you!"
"They've been needing a spanking since day one, I'm just glad I got to do it first," Lilo shrugged, sitting back at her seat at the table after taking a smattering of applause from the other students, a fair few who must have faced at least one of those four and their bullying ways.
"So, what were we talking about before Lilo gave us a beautiful show?" Nora asked.
"The same reason I gave you all a brilliant show," Lilo commented dryly, turning to Jaune.
Jaune sighed, "I'm not hungry, see you in class," The blonde said, before walking away.
Pyrrha watched him go, as did Ruby and the whole of Team KOLD.
One person who was rapidly becoming unimpressed by Jaune's attitude was Lilo. Either he grows a spine, or Cardin will break it… He has a team to help him now, as well as the rest of us. He needs to stop hiding and man up.
Lilo: You should have let me tear his ear off!
Koa: A bit graphic in front of Ruby don't you think?
Onyx: I'm more surprised about Jasmine's involvement in all that. She looked furious.
Jasmine: 'I don't want to talk about it'.
All: Next time: Bravado Leads to Blackmail!