Hello there,
Welcome to the next chapter of RWBY: Heroes.
Hope your going to enjoy the chapter and now, story time.
Jason found landing weightlessly on a stone plateau, the sun was blocked out by a something like a dark hurricane was raging around him.
"No... Not this..." he thought, the words in his mind echoing over the stone canyon.
It was then that a voice spoke up, "I see now what the Worlds want. What they need." It was a dark, cold and devoid of emotions voice, sounding as if the winds themselves were speaking, "It needs someone in charge. Who is willing to put the animals down."
A booming sound echoed through the surroundings as a a shadowy figure with its blazing red eyes glowing through the darkness as the winds approached him.
Jason woke up from his nightmare, finding himself resting in the bed of his room in the inn. Looking on the clock on the wall, he saw that it wouldn't be long before the sun would rise.
After a quick freshening up in the small bathroom, Jason had was dressed up as when he walked down the into the bar of the inn he, Ciaran, Cinder and Lesam had rented a room, before they would travel towards the Vault.
He had expected the bar to be empty, save for maybe a bartender but to his surprise, he saw Lesam sitting at a table near the window. A scepter resting against the table, it is an ornate brown staff with metal details and adorned with an emerald gem.
"Oh, good morning." Lesam said with a kind smile once she noticed him.
"Morning." he said, sitting down across from her, "Trouble sleeping?"
She gave a nod, "I'm excited. We are going to enter a Vault, this is a rare opportunity anyone in my field of work could only dream of." she said with a meek smile, "Though I am nervous."
"Why?" he said.
"I'm have received some training in the art of combat... And I have this scepter." she said gesturing to a long scepter resting against the table, "But I'm mainly an archaeologist and a scholar. I'm not very good at combat."
"And yet you want to go into a highly dangerous Vault of Power, where there is a good chance we won't be making it out of alive?" Jason said with a raised eyebrow, "Sounds like you want a short live."
"B-But I need to! The World might need to!" Lesam protested, "We need to have answers if Heaven's Dark Harbinger comes back. My life is worth it if it helps us uncover the truth."
"Who?" Jason said confused.
"Y-You don't know of Heaven's Dark Harbinger? Morgenstern, the Fallen Keyblade Master?" Lesam tried to explain, "The man who with a singel blast from his eyes wiped out the city of Arclight, killing over eight million people in one attack."
"I know a Morgenstern." Jason said with a dark grimace.
"The story goes that the man called Morgenstern, also know as Heaven's Dark Harbinger, or the Dark Messiah to those who followed him, was a great calamity from beyond our universe, who travels from World to World and enslaves all life on them. It was said that he was once a great hero, but something made him begin to hate humanity, and over time, he began to hate everything."
"Morgenstern hated everything so much, he wanted to destroy all life, and the people who tried to stop him. It was Morgenstern who led an army of monsters called the Corrupted into the invasion of the Keyblade Academy... The last Keyblade Knight standing against him was the Legendary Hero named Marc, who died defending the younglings."
"You mean... Marc died defending young children?" Jason said surprised, "That's... That's the first I ever heard of it."
"You know Marc?" Lesam said.
"Sort of..." he said, shaking his head before looking into her direction, "Hey, Lesam. When we get into that Vault and we get into a fight against whatever is guarding it, just stay behind me and let me take all the blows."
Lesam gave a thankful smile just when footsteps were heard on the stairs. And soon Cinder and a yawning Ciaran came downstairs.
"I hate waking up this early." the white haired man said.
"Then you shouldn't have stayed up all night." Cinder told him.
"Well sorry my nefarious lady, but it was you who kept me up all night!" Ciaran said accusingly, before noticing the other two, "Oh, this is surprising! Jason and Lesam!"
"Good morning." Jason said annoyed, "You two ready?"
"Ready as I will ever be facing a Vault of Power." Cinder said, gesturing to the young man next to her, "But Ciaran seems happy. A little too happy, I'm afraid."
"Yes, I motherflipping am!" Ciaran yelled loudly, fist pumping the air, "This is gonna be the best heckin road trip, ever!"
During the morning in the Beacon Academy Dorm kitchen, Ruby struggles to open a jar of pickles, "Open up, jar!" she groaned, "Release my tasty pickles!"
Jaune comes strolling over confidently, "Need some help?" he said.
"Fine." Ruby said, handing Jaune the jar, "But only because I'm starving."
"Let me show you how a real man handles this!" Jaune said, struggling for a few moments, but is unsuccessful in opening the jar, "...They sure make the lids tight on these plastic jars."
"...I guess that means no pickles for me." she said disappointed, as she took the jar back.
"Why don't we ask Yang for help?" the blonde suggested.
"No!" A panicked Ruby shouted quickly, "You never ask Yang for help with jars!"
But just at that moment, Yang comes into the kitchen, "My big sister sense is tingling!" she said looking around, before spotting what her sister had in her hands, "What's that? A jar of pickles!?"
The younger sister quickly hides the jar behind her back, "Uh, No! Who said anything about pickles? I don't want any pickles."
"But you said you were starving!" Jaune blurted out much to the crimsonette's horror.
"I knew it!" Yang shouted angrily, grabbing the jar of pickles out of her sisters hands, "You dare to make my baby sister hungry!?"
Ruby dives out of the way and tackles Jaun clear of Yang just as Toshi came walking into the kitchen. "What's going on?" he said.
"This jar dares to make my baby sister hungry!" Yang shouted, holding the jar up, "You're going down, jar!"
But before she could strike the jar filled with pickles, Toshi took it out of her hand and with a simple twist, he removes the lit.
"Our savior!" Ruby said happily, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.
"Oh sure, when the blueberry stud muffin opens the jar, he is a savior." Yang growled, throwing an arm around Toshi, pressing him against her considerable breasts, "Seriously though, thanks for helping my starving baby sister. If there is anything I can do to reward you..."
"You could remove my arm from your very soft bosom." Toshi suggested.
About an hour later, Toshi was attending history class, taking notes as Professor Oobleck is in the middle of his hyperactive lecture. As he was listening intensely to the lecture, he noticed that Ruby was looking at his the general direction.
"Something wrong?" he whispered, leaning slightly to her.
"W-What? O-Oh..." she said a bit startled, "Is that the new strawberry flavored Maxx Energy?" she pointed at the bottle of energy drink he had taken to class with him.
"Yes, it is." he said, sliding the bottle over to her, "Want to try it?"
"W-what? B-But you already drank out of it..." Ruby whispered shyly, turning away from him to hide her blush, "It'd be like an i-indirect kiss."
"You really believe in that?" Toshi whispered amused, deciding to tease her a bit, "You're not suddenly going to get blue hair because you got my cooties."
"B-But I'll get pregnant!" Ruby yelled loudly with a blush as the entire classroom went dead silent and looked at Toshi.
He was currently staring at Ruby with the deadest face possible. "W-What!? That's what my dad said!" she protested as Professor Oobleck zoomed over to them.
"Mr. Sutakira and Miss. Rose, as interesting as your love life might be, would you be so kind to save it for after class and pay attention." the professor scolded the two, "As I was saying before being interrupted..."
Oobleck zooms up to the front of the class and the map covered in papers behind his desk, "This is prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War! Humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie.", points at the map of said-area with his stick, then zooms off to the side for a sip of his coffee before appearing in front of the desk.
"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"
He zooms around the classroom more, sipping his coffee again before continuing to zoom and talk, "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"
Some of the students raise their hands, and Velvet, after a moment, does the same.
"Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!", he takes another sip of his coffee, "I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?"
Weiss raises her hand, "The battle at Fort Castle!"
"Precisely, Miss. Schnee." Professor Oobleck said, "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"
Unseen by the professor, Cardin flicks a paper football at a sleeping Jaune's head, causing him to wake up. "Hey!", the blond said as Oobleck zooms over into Jaune's face.
"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"
"The answer... The advantage... of the Faunus had over that guy's stuff..." Jaune began, secretly looking past Oobleck's at Pyrrha, who coughs and motions to her lips as she gives him the answer. He sees Pyrrha cup her hands around her eyes and goes for the most obvious answer, "Binoculars!" Jaune use as his final answer.
While Jaune looks pleased with his answer, the class laughs and Oobleck zooms back to the front of the class as he sips his coffee. Pyrrha sighs and slaps a hand to her forehead as Cardin pounds his fist on his desk while chortling.
"Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"
"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin said smugly as Oobleck shakes his head.
"Do you have any redeeming qualities, Winchester!?" Toshi snapped, making Cardin glare at him, "The answer is night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."
Cardin growls as Oobleck confirmed this to be the correct answer, "Now Mr. Sutakira, can you elaborate on why General Lagune lost the battle?"
"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." Toshi explained before turning to Cardin, "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."
Cardin gets up from his seat, fist clenched, "You want to repeat that nerd?"
"Nerd? How very creative..." Toshi said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat." Oobleck said while Jaune laughs at his tormentor's embarrassment, "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." and the professor takes yet another sip of his coffee.
Later that day, Toshi had returned to the Beacon Academy Kitchen creating some batter in a bowl for the cake he was intending to make when he suddenly gets interrupted.
"Whatsup, Toshi?"
He turns around to see Nora on the end of the kitchen island. He also noticed a coffee bean bag suddenly sitting between the two of them. "Oh. Hey, Nora." he said.
"Would you mind grabbing those coffee beans for me?" she requested and he did as she asked, "Thanks. Alright, why don't you pop those bad boys in the coffee maker?"
"Sure, why not?" Toshi said as he was asked once again.
"Looking good, pretty boy, looking good." Nora said nodding her head, "Now how about you use that key of yours and water those beans? They look awfully thirsty."
Getting a little suspicious, Toshi grabs the empty glass pot and gets water from the sink before he pours water into the maker and sets the pot back.
"Yeah." Nora said with a pleased smile, "I guess all that's left is to plug the sucker in and turn it on."
Toshi grudgingly turns the coffee maker on. It brews quickly and Nora fetches a pink mug.
"Mind pouring me a cup of that hot stuff, hot stuff?" Nora said with a teasing smile.
Suddenly Ren comes running in, "Wait!" he exclaimed in a panic.
"Ren, Nora's being weird." Toshi said turning around to face him as he realized what words had just came out of his mouth, "And I mean weirder than usual."
"Nora can't have caffeine!" Ren explained, "She has too much energy already. I told her she couldn't make coffee anymore, so instead she is having you do it."
"Sounds a lot like Pinkie, a friend of mine. But this one is on you Ren..." Toshi noted, gesturing over his shoulder, "Because Nora already drank all the coffee."
Ren gasps and indeed Nora is lying on the kitchen floor smiling and shaking from having her coffee, the empty coffee pot is on its side beside her arm.
"Nora, stay with us!" Ren pleaded.
In the mind of Nora, which his swiftly reaching through multiple parallel universes. First Toshi and Ren swap places, followed by Toshi and Ren in swapped outfits.
The next has Toshi swapped with Jason, followed by Jason and Blake, then Toshi and Ruby, the next three have genderbend versions Ruby and Toshi, then Roman Torchwick and Neo, the finally Jason and Lesam.
Back in the original universe, Nora sat up suddenly, spooking Toshi and Ren.
"Oh thank goodness. That was crazy." Nora said, "I think I just traveled through a bunch of parallel universes. It was so weird. Did you guys see any of that?"
"Nope. That does sound pretty crazy though." Toshi said, looking at the clock hanging from the wall and with a sigh he added, "We better get to class."
After the break, Toshi was now sitting in Combat class which was being taught to them by Glynda Goodwitch. Unfortunately the current match was between Cardin and Jaune.
Cardin laughs at his opponent's tiredness, and Jaune gathers his strength to charge forward and swing his blade at Cardin, only for him to jump out of the way.
Jaune looks back, surprised, as Cardin's mace sends Jaune's shield, and himself flying back. Now only armed with his sword, Jaune continued to try and attack, but is blocked by the mace's hilt. Their weapons locked, Cardin forces himself up, towering over a struggling Jaune.
"This is the part where you lose." Cardin taunted.
"Over my dead!..." Jaune said but was cut short as his opponent knees him in the gut, making Jaune drop his sword and fall to the ground in pain.
Cardin raises his mace and is about to slam it down on a worried Jaune just when the buzzer rings, the lights come back on.
"Cardin, that's enough!" Glynda said and he relents and walks away as she comes onto the stage, tapping her tablet.
"Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." she told the students, while Jaune still lays on the floor in defeat and Pyrrha looks sad.
Glynda turns her head to look at the losing warrior as he pulls out a smaller tablet with his low, blinking stats and that of his entire team, "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?"
"Speak for yourself..." Cardin muttered to himself.
Before Glynda called up his next opponent, "Toshiyuki Sutakira, your up."
Cardin smirked at this, finally having the chance of taking chance of humiliating the teacher's pet Toshi in front of the entire school.
"Don't look away Ruby." Toshi whispered, standing up, "I'm going to do something you will really like."
He approached the stage, Keyblade in hand and ready for combat. Taking their fighting stance, Glynda gave them a sign to begin.
Cardin began the duel by utilizing basic heavy attacks in an attempt to quickly overpower his opponent. Toshi was able to easily counter his attacks with his own weapon.
"Command Style Change, 'Red Like Roses'!" Toshi shouted, his clothes gaining a red and black color scheme, his weapon transformed into a navy blue and white scythe as an aura of red rose petals floated around him.
With a surprising burst of speed, Toshi disappeared in a flurry of rose petals. Reappearing behind Cardin, and he began hacking and slashing at Cardin's mace with a series of fast strikes. Cardin, overwhelmed and surprised by Toshi's strength and speed, was forced onto the defensive and driven back.
Toshi morphed his weapon again, this time into a transforming his scythe into a high-caliber sniper hitting Cardin into the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
The blunette morphed it back into a scythe and engaged him again, forcing him to keep enduring Toshi's relentless offense, while he easily blocked and shunting aside all of Cardin's counters, raining down fast, attacks against his opponent.
Cardin was barely able to lift his arms to defend against Toshi's fast strikes let alone fight back, and at one point was even hit by his own weapon being forced onto his shoulder.
The petals flared up as Toshi moved so fast he appeared as streaks of rose petals, finally breaking Cardin's defenses and sending him flying with an eruption of white energy and rose petals.
The buzzer rings, and the match was over. Toshi twirled the scythe around as the Command Style ended, giving him back his original color scheme and Keyblade.
Toshi send the school bully one last smirk before he walked back to his friends, as Glynda turned to the seated and standing students.
"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!"
The bell rings, and students start leaving while Pyrrha continues to frown sadly at Jaune who hangs his head in shame.
After classes were over for the day, Toshi was back in the dorm kitchen once again, putting a cake into the oven and brushes his hands in satisfaction.
"What are you doing?"
Toshi looks to his side to see Weiss leaning over him, "Just baking a cake." he said.
"Yourself? That's ridiculous." Weiss said crossing her arm, "Why don't you just have your cake butler bring you one?"
"I'm going to regret asking this." he began as he stood up, "But cake butler?..."
"That butler in charge of cakes? Of all the butlers, I like him the best." Weiss said with a smile, "You do have one, don't you? We had four back at Atlas."
"Of course..." Toshi said dryly as he walked out of the kitchen, "Can you just watch my cake for a minute? I'll be right back."
"I don't really do the whole cooking thing." Weiss said, tilting her head placing her hand on her chin, "Actually, I don't spend much time in the... 'food room'... At all."
"It's called a kitchen, Weiss!" Toshi shouted from somewhere outside the room, "Just watch the oven."
Weiss looks at Toshi's cake as it bakes, "Alright, oven. Don't start any trouble and there won't be any trouble." she said kneeling down, before looking up, "I wonder what all these buttons do."
It had been five minutes since Toshi left and when he walked back into the kitchen, he saw that the kitchen drapes were on fire and thick black smoke emanating from the oven.
"For the love of..." Toshi said annoyed as he saw Weiss run around helplessly in circles.
"Run away!" she shouted, "Run away from the fire!"
In a flash of light, his keyblade appeared in his hand. Spinning it around, he cast two quick blasts of water to put out all the fires.
"I was only gone for five minutes." Toshi said, his blue eyes wide in shock, "What happened!?"
"Since when are drapes flammable?" Weiss said.
"Always. Drapes have always been flammable." he said annoyed, walking over to the oven to see the burning remains what would have been his cake.
"I warned you, Toshi." the white haired girl said, "This really is your fault, if you think about it."
Toshi points his weapon at Weiss, then douses her with a spray of water from his weapon. "You clean up, I'll be in the training room." he shouted annoyed as he left the wet Weiss.
The full moon is shining over the snow covered tree tops, as a hidden facility was hidden deep in the woods. "Damn... there are a lot of White Fang members in there." Ciaran said, sitting in one of the trees, using it as a vintage point to scoop out the facility using the scope of his sniper.
Jason, Cinder and Lesam where standing near the roots of the tree. "What are the White Fang doing here?" Cinder said as Ciaran jumped down the tree and joining them as the snow crunched under their feet.
"Maybe... Maybe they are after the things inside the Vault." Lesam said, putting a hand on her chin, "Perhaps they think whatever is in it will help their cause?"
"It is a possibility, but it doesn't matter. They have no idea what they can unleash." Jason said as he stared at the facility. Deep within the bowls of the building, he could feel the dark cold and foreboding sensation he was now all too familiar with.
"How do you want to do it, boss man?" Ciaran said, turning to the black haired young man.
"I doubt talking things through will work." Jason as he began to stride forward, "We are going in with a bang."
"Now your speaking my langue." Ciaran said, gripping a hold on his large buster sword as the two women nodded and took their weapons out, "Now let's go Team JCCL and let's jump into that flighty temptress called adventure!"
And that was the chapter hope you enjoyed.
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.
