Hello there,
Welcome to the next chapter of RWBY: Heroes. Hope your going to enjoy the chapter and now on to the review
girani4: Oh thank goodness! Your still alive! I would hug you but I can't... on the account that I can't reach through my computer screen. I enjoy complex stories, but I really had no idea how to give it a satisfying end. I thought that would be an interesting twist of Jason not being the lead, because it is difficult writing a compelling challange for him without falling back on Morgenstern or any other 'S' Tier character's.
Anyways, story time.
Overhead the Emerald Forest, Toshi soars through the sky coated in a cyan light, before taking a steep dive, landing on the ground in a perfect three-point landing. Just as he made a few step, his ears pick up crackling and rustling in the bushes around him.
Turning around, Toshi spotted multiple pairs of red eyes looming from the darkness stare at him from the bushes. His hears picked up a deep growl and a large, jagged Beowolf emerging from a bush approaching him.
He quickly rolls to the side as an Ursa charges out of the green bushes. "You have a face only a mother could love." Toshi said, getting up staring the monster down as a Ursa runs out behind him.
He leaps over it with a backflip, sending a fist made of hard blue light from his own hand, crushing the charging Ursa.
Toshi lands just as the other Ursa stands on its legs and swipes at him twice. He can just throw up a hard light wall to block the attack. He reached out, holding the Ursa in a grip, slamming it down into the ground, lifting it up and slamming it down with enough force to kill it.
A few minutes later, Toshi was making progress through the forest, until he heard another sound of moving leaves came from inside the bushes to his right side. Quickly taking a fighting stance to defend himself, but he was allowed to relax when he heard a female voice ask, "We're lost, aren't we?"
"No! We just..." Yang said as she and Blake stepped out of the bushes, "We just don't know where we are..." while rubbing the back of her neck.
"That is the definition of being lost." Toshi said making the two girls turn to him in a fighting pose, "Easy there. I'm not a Grimm! See, I'm not black... That sounded wrong." he added with a grin, as huge black Grimm serpent rises up from the grass behind him and quickly surrounds them with its large, hissing body.
His smile dropped at once as he let out a sigh, "There is one behind me..." he said as he, Blake and Yang all took their fighting stance as the snake coils together in front of them and attacks with its long fangs.
Yang and Blake leaps out of the way but Toshi stood his ground, the snake's mouth tried to sink it's teeth into him flesh but he created another barrier where it brook one of it's teeth.
Yang and Blake lands in a crouch and firing at the creature, as Toshi picked the broken off tooth up with the same cyan energy and jamming the teeth straight through its head, nailing it down to the ground.
He felt the snake's white head behind him as it launches itself at him, he dodges it with a backflip and landing just in time to see the head slither towards him.
Following his example, Yang grips the teeth and yanks it from the monster's mouth, causing it to flail away. It attempts to bite Yang but Blake blasted at it again, as Yang stabs a fang into its eye, rotating her arm to deliver a final blow that drives the makeshift weapon into its skull, which ripples, expands, and blows apart in a dark mess as its headless body falls over its fellow creature.
"Nice work you two." Yang said, holding up her hand, "Especially you, Mr. Green Lantern."
Toshi got the hint and accepted the high-five, "I'm not a Green Lantern." he pointed out, "For one, I don't use a ring. Another is that my light is blue or cyan if you want to be nitpicky."
A few minutes later, the trio walked out of the forest and into a clearing that reveals the circular stone temple, broken and decrepit but for the platforms around its inside, holding several black and gold objects.
"Think this is it?" Yang asked.
In response, Blake gives Yang an incredulous look and heads down the hill, her partners following. They walk across the floor and observe the items on each pedestal, which seemed to be...
"Chess pieces?" Blake asked as she looked confused at the black king.
"Some of them are missing." Toshi said, looking around the pedestals, "Looks like we weren't the first ones here."
Yang approaches one of the relics, as she studies the golden knight, then picks it up and shows it to Blake, "How about a cute little pony?" she said.
"It's called a knight." Toshi pointed out.
"Then why is it a horse?" Yang said, pointing to it, "Horses can't be knights! Chess is stupid."
Blake shook her head as Toshi walked up to a pedestal and picking up the white king.
"That wasn't too hard!" the buxom blonde said triumphantly raising the knight piece in the air.
"Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find.", Blake pointed out.
"Please don't jinx it." Toshi said, turning his head when a loud scream echoed from the distance, "You jinxed it... Sound like some girl is in trouble."
"Blake, did you hear that?" Yang asked her partner, but the black haired girl didn't answer only staring at something in the sky.
Toshi turned to look up to see what Blake was so interested by as he heard a faint but quickly growing louder scream of a falling and panicking Ruby Rose.
Coating himself in cyan light, shooting upwards towards the falling girl, managing to catch her in his arm. Ruby is a bit dazed as she was held in two strong arms.
"... What?" Ruby said as she shakes her head, she looks up to see Toshi flying them back to the ground.
"Hey." he said with a smile.
"Hey..." she said back softly as the two landed on the ground.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked the blonde.
"Who cares!" Yang said, gesturing to Toshi, "That guy just flew! With his Semblance! How awesome is that."
"It's very versatile but I won't call it flying exactly." Toshi said with a smile, "It's more like I'm throwing myself with my power." before several crashing noises came from the forest.
And an Ursa comes out claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground.
"Yehaw!" a girl shouted as she rolls off of the creature's back, then gets up and groans, "Aw... It's broken.", she dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass.
She had short orange hair and turquoise eyes. She wears a collared black vest that ends at her waist, a emblem of a hammer with a lightning bolt, can be seen on her back. Under the vest are two layers of clothing, colored red and light-blue respectively, she also wears a white sleeveless top that forms a tiny heart shape between her cleavage and collarbone, with a white detached sleeve on each arm. She wears matching fingerless gloves on each hand. She sports a pink skirt that starts at the waist and ends mid-thigh. Her shoes are a mix of pink and white with pink laces, displaying her emblem on their soles.
A human male walked up from behind her, he had long black hair tied into a ponytail that ends midway down his back. There is a magenta streak on the left side of his hair. His eyes match the streak in his hair, and he wears a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat that is red on the inside, with black and gold trimming and pink cuffs. The trimming goes down the right side of his torso and forms a black collar.
The young man leaned on the monster, "Nora! Please..." he panted, "Don't ever do that again.", he looks up again and notices his partner had run off again, and looks around frantically.
The girl now named Nora was in the Temple, staring at a golden rook relic, "Oh...", she suddenly grabs it, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked, looking at the downed monster.
"I guess she did." Toshi said, looking down as well, "Pretty cool, actually." before he was interrupted as a screech is heard from his right.
A quite tall and quite muscular red haired girl with waist-length ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet, and vivid green eyes. She also wears light-green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her eyes.
The red haired girl was followed by a scorpion creature who uproots entire trees in its chase after her. She narrowly dodges its giant claws and keeps on running.
"Jaune!" she said as Jaune called out to her, hanging from a tree.
The scorpion Grimm continues to follow the girl now named Pyrrha as she runs. "Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake asked looking in the direction of the Death Stalker.
"I guess she did." Toshi said looking in that direction as well, "Should we help her or..." as he was once again interrupted when Yang yelled out in anger and erupts in a small burst of fire, eyes flashing red.
"I can't take it anymore!" Yang shouted angrily, "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again!?"
It took all but two seconds for Yang to cool down, Ren running over to a dizzy Nora, and as Blake and Toshi just look up to the sky.
"What are we looking at?" Jaune said when he finally came down from the tree.
Up above, Weiss is hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to a gigantic Nevermore.
"How could you leave me!?" Weiss called down to Ruby.
"She's gonna fall." Blake said.
"She will be fine..." Ruby muttered.
"Stand back." Toshi ordered as coated himself in the cyan energy again, "Throwing myself." and flew upwards, quickly gaining altitude.
Catching Weiss in mid-air, giving her a smile as the heiress is speechless in his arms, holding onto his shirt as they descended down back to the ground.
The Death Stalker was still hunting Pyrrha, but she manages to land on her side at the feet of the heroes.
"Great! The gang's all here!" Yang said cheerfully, "Now we can die together!"
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby shouts as she rushes towards the Grimm, she fires Crescent Rose and charges at the oncoming Death Stalker.
When the two meet, the Grimm swipes Ruby away and she is knocked back. "D-Do-Don't worry!" the girl in the red cape said as she got up slowly, "Totally fine!"
She turns back to the monster and shoots it in the skull, running away from it and sheathing her scythe as the Death Stalker now goes after her. Ruby rushes towards Yang, but the Nevermore caws above them, flapping its wings and releasing lines of sharpened feathers with points that catch on her's cape and prevent Yang from reaching her.
"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang said as her sister struggles with her cloak.
The Death Stalker approaches, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby and heading down on the helpless girl. Yang reaches out in vain, but two swiped were swung at the stinger, cutting it clean off. Ruby opens her eyes and lowers her arms from their futile position over her head as she stares at her savior.
"Toshi?" she said as the male blunette stood with his weapon at his side.
It had the shape of a giant key, its guard is circular and somewhat jagged around its edges. The upper half of the guard is black, the center is grey, and the bottom of it is white.
The handle is a featureless, grey rod. The shaft is thin and navy blue in coloration, except for the tip, which is silver, the base of the shaft also sports two diamond-shaped bumps. It's teeth are comprised by a rectangular frame lined with four navy blue short, blunt spikes. The Keychain links and token resemble water drops.
"Holy truck!" Ruby said impressed with her silver eyes widening in shock when with another swipe of the weapon, her cloak was freed from the feather's, "A keyblade!"
Yang rushes up to Ruby and gives her a hug, which Ruby grunts at upon receiving. "So happy you're okay!" the older sister said.
"We have more pressing matter's than my sword." Toshi said turning to address everyone, "If we are intending to survive this entrance exam, we need to work together. So stop showing off and get along so we don't die."
"I'm not trying to show off." Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head.
"Wasn't calling out anyone specifically." he continued as he looked up at the Nevermore still flying overhead and roaring.
"That thing's circling back!" Jaune said, "What are we gonna do?"
"The mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." Toshi pointed out, "The objective isn't killing those monster's."
Jaune nodded at this, "Run and live..." he said, "That's an idea I can get behind!"
After everyone had their piece and Toshi led the way as the others followed after him.
"Nice job, Toshi." Yang complimented him, "Spoken like a true leader."
"Uhm... Thanks." he said surprised and a bit embarrassed by her compliment, "I had a great example on how to be a leader."
The group is heading out of the forest and into another abandoned series of structures as the Nevermore follows them from the air. They spread out when it passes above, concealing themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and caws.
"Well, that's great!" Yang said annoyed as behind them the Death Stalker burst onto the scene.
"Ah, man, run!" Jaune said as the group emerges from their hiding spots and causing the Nevermore to rise up into the air.
"Nora, distract it!" Ren said and Nora happily obliges.
Running out from her block and jumping through the feather projectiles before reaching behind her and launching several heart-topped shells from her grenade launcher, bursting into pink electricity when they hit the Nevermore, and causing it to retreat.
She is unaware of the Death Stalker rushing up behind her until Blake and Ren perform a cross-slash with their Gambol Shroud and Storm Flower against its shell.
Weiss lands next to Nora so she can create a jumping platform beneath them and leap to safety while Blake and Ren are now being chased.
"Go, go!" Pyrra said as she stops running beside Jaune and gets out her weapon named Milo, firing red shots along Ren's green blasts for a second until it reaches them and tries to swipe, prompting the group to run again.
The nine race over the ancient stone bridge, not noticing the Nevermore closing in on them until it uses its giant wings to shatter the path right in the middle, forcing Toshi, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Jaune closer to the central collection of columns and Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha on the other side with the Death Stalker.
Ruby fires at the retreating Nevermore while Blake is beaten back by the scorpion.
"Man, we gotta get over there!", Jaune coming to the edge of the break in the bridge, "They need help!"
"Then let's do this!", Nora said running up beside him.
"But I can't make that jump.", Jaune said as Nora smiles diabolically at him, laughing as she knocks him back, turns her weapon to its full-length hammer form, and jumps to the edge of the bridge. She slams the hammer into the bridge and throws Jaune to the other side.
Nora places one foot on the hammer and fires it off the collapsing section of bridge, launching her to slam its face right in the center of the Death Stalker's skull.
She fires it just as the stinger comes down to get her, and blasts back again to avoid its reach, accidentally knocking into Blake and making her fall from the edge.
"Command Style Change, 'Chronal Accelerator'!" Toshi said, giving his outfit a brown, orange and silver color scheme, before he charged forward in a light blue blur.
He reappeared several times on the falling debris, running along them and blinking closer to the falling Blake. When he came close enough, she threw her Gambol Shroud which he managed to catch, pulling her upwards with a strong pull.
Grabbing her free hand, he blurred them backwards through the blue stream but it was broken when the Giant Nevermore flew through it and the two crashed onto the aerial Grimm's back.
Toshi's clothes returned to their original color as Blake helped him up. Taking their weapons, the duo dashes all over its body, slashing the entire time, before jumping off and landing on the ruined platform at the top of the columns.
"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake noted.
"Then we hit it with everything we got!" Toshi said, holding out his Keyblade, "Command Style Change, 'Death Blossom'!" his clothes gains a black and dark grey color scheme and his weapon transformed into two shotgun like weapons.
Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yang and Toshi start to fire a barrage of blasts at the bird, which it either dodges or takes until it crashes through the columns and platform. The guy and girls leap from one section of falling stone to the next until they reach the higher bridge on top, just below the cliffs.
"None of this is working!" Weiss said.
Toshi watches Blake whip over to another section of the area and Yang firing round after flaming round at the Grimm.
"I have a plan!" Ruby said, "Cover me!"
"You got it!" Toshi said as he used the blue aura to fly upwards.
Yang is still burning through her ammo on the beast, landing a blow at its face and causing it to head right towards Toshi, who is promptly swallowed by the open maw.
"Toshi!" Yang yelled in horror.
Before the Nevermore roared in pain, revealing Toshi moving around as he empties his shotguns at breakneck speed, dealing massive damage to the monster. Toshi transformed his weapon back, looking behind him and jumps back from its mouth, as the creature crashes into the cliffs. Toshi envelopes his weapon into a bright light, before sending it towards the Nevermore, pinning it unto the cliff.
Blake fires the pistol portion of Gambol Shroud over to Yang, and the two tighten it between the columns so Ruby can jump on the center with Crescent Rose and bend it back into Weiss black sigil, right next to the caster.
"Of course you would come up with this idea." Weiss complained, but all Ruby had was a big smile on her face.
"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked.
"Can I?" Weiss replied confidently, "Of course I can!"
She turns the circle from black to red and releases Ruby at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracks, rose petals flying from her ascent.
Ruby catches the Nevermore's neck in its blade and causes her to fall to the cliff wall. Ruby dash up with the bird in her grasp until, as she reaches the top of the cliff, the monster's is split in half.
She lands beside the splittend severed head as the body of the giant Nevermore splits in two and falls lifeless to the ruins and crevice below while the girls, Toshi and, farther away, were the defeated Death Stalker laid, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren watch in amazement.
Ruby cape flowed with the wind, looks down to the friends as they peer up.
"Well..." Yang said, "That was a thing!"
A few hours later, they found them at the auditorium where loud clapping are heard, as Ozpin announced four names, "Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark."
The screen of the auditorium shows each of their profiles as the boys are lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continues, "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
The audience gives one more wave of applause, while four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen.
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." amid the clapping, Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug, "Led by... Jaune Arc!"
A grinning Pyrrha offers a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her leader is knocked over and falls to his butt in front of the laughing audience.
"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long.", he motions over the five as they stand before him, "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister, "I'm so proud of you!".
"And finally. Toshiyuki Sutakira." Ozpin spoke as the young man stepped on the stage, "You and you alone retrieved the white king. As unusual and extraordinary as it is, we have Beacon's first One Man Team."
"How can it be a one man team?" Toshi thought, amid the last round of cheers. He looks to the side to look at Ruby, who was giving him a round of applause, he send her a smile giving her a thumbs up and a wink, causing her to blush slightly.
That evening, Jason is making his way through the dance floor of a club, music blasting loudly around him as he walked to the bar.
"I'm looking for Junior." he shouted over the music to the bartender.
"You found him." the tall bartender said. He wears a black vest over a white dress shirt, a red tie, black gloves and black dress pants. He has short black hair, along with a matching beard and mustache.
"What do you want?"
"People say you know everything." Jason began, leaning on the bar, "I'm looking for a bandit tribe, more specifically their leader."
"And which clan would that be?" Junior said suspicious of the young man.
"The Branwen Tribe." he explained and for a moment, he saw Junior's eyes widen for a moment in fear.
"I've never heard about them before." Junior said, a bit too quickly.
"Your lying." Jason said as Junior's henchmen begin to gather around, "Now tell me what I want to know before..."
"Before what?" Junior said, "I suggest you leave, if you want to keep living."
"I would like nothing more..." Jason said letting out a deep sigh, turning around and with a single punch, he send them back flying backwards.
"The fuck!" Junior said moments before being lifted off the ground and slammed into the wall behind him when Jason gripped the front of his shirt, "What are you!?"
"Just a guy trying to do the right thing." Jason said annoyed, stepping up on the bar so he looked down on Junior, "Now tell me, where can I find the Branwen Tribe?"
"I don't know! I swear." he said fearfully, raising his hands, "B-But a regular trouble maker of my knows. He tracked them down once, boosted loudly about defeating them."
"Where do I find him?" Jason said, lifting Junior up by his color, "What's his name?"
I wonder who this regular trouble maker is...
Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story, you beauties.
If you enjoy my work, don't forget to leave a review and I hope to see you all next time.
Bye for now.
