Pokemon RWBY fic Chapter 16

It was funny just how exhausting a long phone conversation could be. But this was the good kind of exhausting. Yang felt quite a weight off her shoulders knowing her team was safe, and even the less pleasant parts of the emotional roller coaster were amazingly cathartic. Did that make her..selfish though? Especially since a lot of other teams, people she 'knew', couldn't just get on their scroll with the missing to deal with their worries?

It was a little hard to dwell on that, though. Especially when Ruby had 'clearly' gone from fake-upbeat to actually-upbeat after a double-team cooing session with Weiss. "Okay! Since we can't actually walk around with you, I want daily pictures and texts! You don't get to hog 'any' cute or awesome sights! And if you happen see another of those tournaments? Record it!"

That got Yang giggling. "Really? Record everything for a tournament that lasts for 'days'? I'd run out of space 'way' before it was done!"

"Then stream it! You don't get to undersell something that sounds as great as what the Vytal Festival was 'supposed' to be! I feel cheated!"

And that prompted a fond, exaggerated eyeroll from Weiss. "And which part makes you feel cheated. Not winning the tournament we were part of? The fact that the Vytal Festival turned into an unmitigated disaster? Or not watching a bunch of weird monsters we've never heard of fight eachother?"

The reaper visibly weighed her options, not really able to choose one over the other. "..is yes an acceptable answer?"

Yang couldn't resist one more teasing jab since she saw an opening. "I don't know. Let's get the team judge to decide. So what's the verdict, partner?"

And that got Blake to sputter again. "Wha, team ju..when did 'I' become team judge?!"

The blond had two different thoughts on 'that', but she chose the less biting one. "About the moment you proved more judgemental than Weiss."

Which of course got the heiress smiling a bit for the chance to tease someone. "Part of me wants to argue I am 'not' judgmental. The other agrees that Blake 'is', so next time we're actually together, I'm getting Blake a gavel."

In response Blake gave an unimpressed look through her screen, clearly giving a stare that was supposed to be aimed at Weiss but ended up going to everyone on the call due to the way the video call worked. "Really? The girl who thinks anything less than a B plus on a paper must mean someone is either lazy or stupid is the 'less' judgmental one? Or how about the fact that you wanted to replace Ruby as leader after just 'one' day because it somehow felt 'obvious' to you?"

Weiss was pretty eager to return fire. "Why yes. The girl that thinks sleep is 'optional' and everyone else doesn't 'care' about -"

Easily able to see that 'could' have led to something going further than just playful, Ruby interrupted. "Whoa, okay! Stepping in before this goes from teasing to mean!"

The heiress flinched a little at that. "I..don't 'think' that was going to get mean. Though..how long have we been on this call?"

At least Yang wasn't the only one feeling tired, even if all they'd done was talk..and have some sporadic emotional breakdowns. "Well, by my clock, I started talking to everyone around..an hour and a half ago? Wow, didn't feel that long to me."

Blinking a little in surprise and possibly irritating her eyes a bit more with her own tear streaked eyeshadow, Blake mumbled, "..me neither. And while I 'wish' I could do this all day, I promised Coco I'd join her with the next patrol. Sure, we're a three person ad-hock team right now, but.."

That prompted Ruby to jolt in place. "That reminds me, I need to start packing! Jaune, Nora, and Ren have been..getting their bearings in Patch before starting off to Pyrrha's hometown. I..wanna join them when they head out. Not that they have some official time they're going to get moving, just.."

Groaning, Weiss tried to give a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "..well, it's official. I am honestly the only member of the team who doesn't really have anything to do."

Yang was planning on saying something about trading places if she could, but Blake beat her with a jab. "Oh, must torture. A workaholic without work is like a -"

If anything the heiress seemed to 'enjoy' verbal needling, and was just as eager to return fire. Definitely a nice change from how she was at the start of the year. "Bookworm without a book?"

Though that just made Yang have a strange..itch, for lack of a better way to put it, when Blake returned fire. "I was 'going' to say a singer without a song, but you just 'had' to get that last word in."

When did the two of them start teasing eachother like this? Yang figured it was at some point 'after' the worrying, explosive fight that revealed Blake was a former White Fang member, but she couldn't really pinpoint 'when' they went from polite tension to friendly insults.

To make matters a little worse, the blond had kind of considered herself the team jokester. The one who teased everyone and kept their spirits up. But here she was, somehow feeling like a third wheel when two of her friends were playfully bantering with one another? That..that just didn't make sense! It's not like she felt that way when Weiss and Ruby were cooing up a storm earlier.

If anyone noticed Yang kind of checked out for what little was left of the conversation they didn't mention it. Yang promised to send various texts to everyone whenever possible and to call her dad for more of a one on one conversation later in the day. Part of her wanted to feel guilty leaving him out of the main talk, but then he'd chosen to let Ruby and the others monopolize her for a while.

When the final goodbye was said and Phyllis gently put the scroll on the ground, Yang let out a breath as she just felt herself 'relax'. "Whew..oh boy. Kind of knew I 'needed' something like that, but didn't really think it'd feel so 'draining' to do it. Sorry for making you hold the scroll for so long there, Phyllis."

The little girl did the closest thing to a shrug a chubby lizard could pull off. Still, just because Phyllis thought it was no problem didn't mean Yang wouldn't appreciate it. Especially considering trying to do curls with a weight before proved too much for her. Giving the lizard a petting scratch near the ears for a bit, Yang shifted from sitting to kneeling.

It was a bit annoying to fold her scroll up one handed, but nowhere near as annoying as learning how to tear toilet paper one handed had been. And if anything the way Duncan landed on her right shoulder just as she got her bag back on her left wound up helping her balance a little, if if that wasn't the intention.

Once Yang got out of the private little room she'd spent so much time talking to her team in, she wasn't surprised to see the same guy in the same uniform just out the window of the house, or the store owner talking to him. She was half tempted to slap herself with her nonexistent hand again for 'still' not knowing the old man's name..then she noticed there were just over a dozen people in that conversation, all of them wearing the same uniform her unofficial guide had on. Then she noticed how the "conversation" was flowing.

She didn't even need to actually hear what they were saying to realize it was something serious. One guy looked furious, fists and jaw clenched, a girl had her hands over her mouth and wide eyes. The old store owner clearly was the "commander" briefing his "troops" what was going on and what to expect, occasionally looking at a specific person for a few moments to give them orders.

Something in Yang clicked into place. Ever since she'd woken up in Oak's lab she'd felt like a fish out of water, probably an accurate if oddly depressing feeling being a huntress without grimm. And it wasn't helped by her missing arm making her feel like even more of a freak in a strange land. But something similar to a town militia getting briefed just outside? It sparked some familiar feelings.

Antsiness over the chance to just start punching something. Eagerness to test herself against an unknown threat. Concern that someone might be in danger. Several other, smaller emotions all coming together in a cocktail that somehow made her feel more energetic than anything else she'd done since the Vytal Festival.

She barely noticed Phyllis suddenly having to essentially jog to keep pace, or Duncan twisting a bit in surprise as she went from a slow who-really-cares stroll to a purposeful stride to the door. Maybe she opened it was more force than it was meant for, especially if the amount of noise the wall made when the door slapped against it was any indication, but it got everyone's attention. And she most 'certainly' wanted attention as she asked, "What's the problem?"

A few members of the group jumped in surprise, either due to the noise or her just interjecting herself into the briefing. The old man didn't miss a beat though, as if he'd been counting on her bursting out like that while he'd been mid-word with someone else. "We've both identified and tracked the pokemon that's been so obscenely aggressive. A stray aron, likely abused by a rather poor trainer and then abandoned."

Duncan made a noise that was probably the closest thing to a growl his bird throat could pull off. Apparently just hearing about the thing was enough to piss him off. Without even thinking about it, Yang twisted her left arm and gently scratched under his beak. It was similar to what she'd do if Zwei ever seemed to be getting angry at something and she wanted to calm him down. While the motion and soft shush didn't have the same history with Duncan as Zwei, it at least got the bird to stop that growl and unconsciously lean into her nails even as he made an awkward not-quite squawk.

Trying to strain her memory about this "aron" thing, it was familiar enough that she'd probably seen a few in the tournament but not familiar enough to form an image in her head. Not that she had all that many pokémon firm in her head at this point. "I know it's got several hundred in it but that doesn't feel like something the pokédex has in it."

That got the old man to give an amused snort. "No, I'm afraid not. From what I heard the professor put Kanto and Johto pokémon into the device due to how close the two regions are. Arons are from Hoen, and are dual typed. Steel and rock to be specific."

What little she knew about the convoluted way types worked against eachother firmed up what she already decided. Turning to try looking Duncan in the eyes, not easy when he was perched on her shoulder, there was no 'completely' uninsulting way to put it. So Yang would just have to be blunt. "Right. Sorry Duncan but you're going to have to sit this one out."

Despite how distracted the little neck scratching was he 'still' managed to give her an affronted look. "Hey, I get wanting payback for a loss. 'Really'. But this wasn't a friendly spar or some regulated match. You could have 'died', and it's not like we've really had enough time to get you stronger or more skilled. You diving right back at the guy now would just be 'asking' to cough more of your own blood if not 'worse'."

It was still kind of amazing how much she could read into his caws and facial expressions, especially since it's not like she'd ever had a pet bird before. But she could practically hear her own petulant voice after an ass kicking from Pyrrha. "{Oh come on, I gave as good as I got! This time I can -}"

"Nope! If there's gonna be a rematch it's going to be a 'long' ways off when you've got some new tricks to try. At best you're just going to watch and cheer as 'I' kick some ass for 'you' today."

Duncan's beak went slack at that, and it sounded like a number of the uniformed crowd had their share of "what"s and various bits of commentary over that. Phyllis seemed to get a chuckle just from the bird's reaction.

Again, the old man didn't seem in any way weirded out by her choice of words or attitude. If anything he used her words to continue to the people around him. "Agreed. It's one thing to test your limits and go against the odds when there are set rules. But this is a condensed metal berserker that is still furious after an extended period of time. Several pokémon have ended up in intensive care due to his unrelenting aggression, and one trainer had his arm broken. Thankfully the aron's alone, so we should have no trouble encircling and subduing him."

Someone else hurt, huh? Considering the things she'd seen even the cuter pokémon were capable of, it was a miracle nobody was killed. But then it wouldn't have surprised her if some wild pokémon got killed considering how wounded Duncan was when she found him, and it wouldn't take long for natural scavengers to leave little evidence of a cute little mouse body in the forest.

"To that end, Wind team will get the aron's attention. Taunt him, draw him towards you. Mountain and Volcano teams converge from the flanks, River will cut off his escape. Forest will stay in reserve, contributing support moves where needed and ready to outright jump in if need be. This troublemaker has already caused enough chaos."

A few of the uniformed people, especially a muscular guy in the six foot range, looked..uneasy. But not the kind of uneasy Yang typically associated with feeling they might be in over their heads. This looked more like Signal students who felt they didn't 'need' to take so many procautions against basic grimm. Still, they didn't voice their objections. Either they already 'had' before she'd stepped out or they were convinced saying anything was a waste of time.

Either way that store owner clearly had their respect, and they started splitting into their respective teams to get ready. Chuckling a little, Yang snarked, "So, store owner and militia commander? You certainly keep yourself busy."

The old man made a few amused huff noises, not really laughing but close to it. "Ah, this is more of a hobby that cropped up from an idea I had when I was a teenager. I just happen to have built some of the right connections over the decades to give it a try. This is the first actual test the group has had since they formed. I don't really count enhancing security at the tournament as anything other than an ice breaker."

It probably wasn't worth really counting either. Sure, one guy managed to find her and kind of gave her ninja butler vibes, but that didn't really tell her how they worked together. "Yeah, not a whole lot of trouble there. Not that a sore loser would have been 'able' to do much with so many people around for more humiliations. Nice but if you 'really' want to get a sense of how people work together you need to toss them in the deep end and see how they swim."

It was kind of funny how the shrug and smile combination on that mustached face made her think of her dad. That was the 'exact' way he'd agree about her assessment about some students that he didn't really know what to do with. "Indeed. Most things I would consider deep end though typically happen so far away by the time they'd arrive the local authorities, various trainers, and random circumstances solve the problems. And I'd say we're far too small to have multi-regional branches. If anything the combination of them being formed recently and this being the first serious matter they've come across possibly translated to me telling them to coordinate more than they could possibly be ready for so soon."

Part of her wanted to just up and say it sounded too complicated if they were anything similar to the average first year Signal students. The sort of kids who knew just enough how to fight but were as coordinated as any random mob.

Still, it sounded like the kind of plan that would have worked pretty well with Beacon students. And given the fact he'd apparently been planning on making this militia for decades in a world that didn't seem to 'have' anything like that, she may as well give him some credit. "Well it sounded like a good plan to me, you did your part well. But then I'm usually the type to either go with the flow or go wander off on my own. It's not like I'd know how you could have done better."

He gave an understanding hum at that. "True, it's a solid encirclement. We have a vast edge in numbers. If this was a team of pokémon I had months to work with it would happen pretty smoothly. But each team has never worked together in a combat situation before. Fourteen trainers, team leader positions not fully solidified, and forty seven pokémon among them. It's all well and good for me to divide them in five but that's still a lot of moving parts. It's ripe for mistakes to happen. Someone not reacting fast enough, or arguing with someone else. Or any number of other factors."

Great, the moment he mentioned moving parts an image of Ruby making the seven different Crescent Rose prototypes that never worked right somehow or another flashed in her head. Then she remembered how many gauntlet designs she'd gone through before deciding on one. And that made her left wrist itch where that bracelet she left at Oak's lab should be and no scratching with a phantom hand would ever deal with 'that'.

And somehow her mind imagined herself as just another mechanical part..one that was damaged and needed replacing. Maybe Ruby having more fun making progress with all 'her' moving parts somehow got her the right mentality to be team leader at Beacon? Was there anyone who could just 'replace' her on team RWBY?

Grimacing at the odd idea of those punch/kick twins from junior's bar sleeping in her doom bunk, Yang hoped the random mental tangent wasn't obvious on her face somehow. "Do you think me and Phyllis getting involved in this mess would make things just a little 'too' chaotic?"

One of his hands seemed to wave at that. Not really dismissive, more like he'd seen that concern coming and he was physically deflecting the concern as he verbally did the same. "On the contrary, I believe you'll be able to see if things might be dangerously wrong before I could. You've got a good eye for the flow of battle, and possibly more experience with unconventional battle situations than anyone in any of the teams. You also have the advantage of being able to just walk into the midst of them without having to worry about making anyone either too nervous or extra eager to prove themselves. If 'I' step in then they might think I'm babying them."

'More experience', huh? That got Yang wondering just how much the store owner knew from Professor Oak. Not that she really gave a damn if the guy knew she wasn't from this world since it's not like he treated her like a freak or something.

Well she probably shouldn't go with the same attitude she generally had against grimm. If this 'aron' thing was anything like Phyllis and Duncan then going for the kill would essentially translate as murder. Sure, said aron had possibly killed some pokémon and might not care about killing people in return, but she'd dealt with enough street toughs that it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Hell, if the aron was as unskilled as Junior's average goons than she really 'could' beat him with only one hand..though not knowing what kind of body she'd be beating on was a bit awkward.

Just because she might be the "expert" didn't mean Yang was all that comfortable with the idea of telling others what to do in the heat of the moment. Especially if she was walking into a large group of untried fighters..though maybe that wasn't the right term for a bunch of trainers. "Sounds good. Which team's the smallest one then?"

"Forest team, the one that's the reserve and support. You can jump into the fray if it looks like the others seem to be having trouble. Richard Aiken is the leader, and I'm pretty sure you'll get along fine."

He was 'strong'. Stronger than that sorry excuse of a trainer ever gave him credit for. Stronger than he'd even thought of 'himself'. Sure, mostly normal, bug, poison, and bird types in the wild around here but he was practically 'king'. Nobody native was capable of taking him on.

And when that first trainer had the 'balls' to try capturing him after his previous trainer just tossed him aside like some pile of garbage? He pounded that trainer's mon 'good' and gave that pokéball throwing arm a good whack for good measure!

Sure, some small corner of his mind felt guilty about hurting a defenseless human. That same corner of his mind wondered what the point was in doing so much damage to anyone he met just for the sake of proving he was strong. He was alone and nobody was praising him.

But it was easy to ignore that corner when it was so 'satisfying' being on top, of being so utterly 'dominant'. If anything when a group of three trainers released three birds and started trash talking him, he just cried "I'll take you all on at once!" and charged.

Of course with his tunnel vision he didn't notice when the three on one turned into a twelve on one, or really care when he started taking hits from multiple angles. If anything he laughed off when he was hit by an ember and even sounded demented to his own ears when he got hit by water. Granted, the water stung more than the fire but he was a small little 'tank'. Even if he was weak to water he could shrug off Water Shuriken like it was little better than a splash!

It was hard to tell in his flurry of tackles how many pokémon he brought down. It was also impossible for him to tell if some of the foes in the clearing were taking it easy on him or froze up in shock over him just eagerly diving against the superior numbers. All he knew for sure was one of the trainers had run out of pokémon to send into the mix..and he wanted to add injury to the insult of a team wipe.

Diving his way between a clefairy and poliwag, he dashed at the trainer just as he returned the last of his injured pokémon to a ball. A solid, leaping tackle to the chest should..

..huh, some fresh human somehow managed to get between him and that defenseless trainer. A girl..a girl who seemed taller than all the human girls the aron had ever seen, with the sort of excited grin he normally associated with a growlithe. She didn't seem to be trying to drag his targeted victim away.

By the time he noticed the uppercut that sent him skyward, he was close enough to see odd red patches on her otherwise purple eyes. He probably spun in the air eight or nine times before he dropped far enough for whatever the next hit was. He was too dizzy to 'tell' what it was, but whatever hit him on the way down sent him through a tree. Not against it, and he didn't get imbedded into it. He went 'through' it and when he hit the dirt beyond his metal body made an outright 'trench' three meters long.

Hell, if it wasn't for his body being metal he'd have probably been torn up instead of the ground. Frankly it was amazing he was conscious enough to 'stand'. He was barely conscious enough to tell the difference from tree splinters and dirt, they were both brown.

His last conscious sight was one more brown sight. A boot slamming down on his head.

Author's Note: Well, this one took longer than I was hoping but still at least the wait wasn't as long as the one between 14 and 15. Partly because part of me wanted the conversation between the whole team to last longer even when everything that 'needed' to be said was already said, partly because I'm still trying to come up with some ways for Yang to "train" her team, thinking and rethinking how future teammates (such as the aron) are going to join and contribute to Yang's party, and, well, I learned about a 'damn' good Pokemon RWBY crossover on Spacebattles. A fic called Boldores and Boomsticks. Got some good ideas from it, even if I'm not planning on taking my story in quite the same direction. Very much recommend reading it.

And for those who wanted something a bit more from the action scene here, don't worry. Planning on going through the battle against the overly aggressive aron from Yang's perspective starting in the next chapter. It just felt right to shift to the little guy feeling strong and not thinking much before Yang just took him down with ease.

I'm kind of going for each member of Yang's team being a reflection of various parts of Yang's personality. Bulbasaur/Phyllis is Yang's cleverness/problem solving. After all, she had to have come up with the whole boost thing with her gauntlets somehow, which shows she's not just a mindless brawler. Spearow/Duncan is her pride, which 'has' taken a bit of a beating after the events of volume 3 but still a central part of her character that will become more prominent as she gets more and more comfortable in the pokemon world. And the aron that will likely end up named Chrome represents Yang's abandonment issues, which I feel was not addressed quite right in the show properly. But then that's the beauty of fanfiction, we can address whatever we feel is worth exploring. We've also got one prankster/playful member of the team to look forward to as well. Though I suppose that means that for now the other two in my head are just there to fill in the slots..hm..should probably put more thought into them, but at the rate this story is going there's no hurry with that.

Hope this chapter was worth the wait, and that the next one comes out within a reasonable amount of time.

Edit: removed some notes, corrected information about aron (embarrassing since it's going to be on the team but in my defense, ground and rock are..kind of similar), filled in a paragraph that was just hanging there.